Fire siblings doing fire things

[honorboner]

Who: Zuko and Azula
Where: Their house
When: Latter part of April
What: Firebanding training and some recovery of memories
Warnings: Violence, burns
[Closed]

Memory has been slow to return to Zuko, his life before the pines skulking around the edges of his mind as if it isn't entirely sure about whether to reclaim its former territory or simply disappear into the night as if it had never been. Sometimes when he ponders these misty recollections, he almost feels as if part of him doesn't want to know. As if silent guardians keep watch by the gates to his mind to keep whatever past is trying to creep back in away.

Maybe it would be better to just do what the official notices say, and try to think of it as little as possible.

One thing that has become very necessary, however, is training in the art of mastering this power he has to control fire. Azula has been teaching him, and every time she shows him a move, it feels more like remembering than learning. His body flows through the forms with a familiarity that feels strange and comforting all at the same time. He is not as good at it as her. That too, feels very familiar. She is a harsh teacher, unrelenting in her insistence that they do not stop until he gets it right. He can match her stamina, but never live up to her expectations.

This particular training session feels more like a fight than an opportunity to learn, and he wonders if she would even hold back from hurting him if she was given the opportunity. Something about that thought distracts him, and the next blast she sends his way almost breaks through his defences. He manages to block the flames, but the force of it still throws him across the yard, leaving him glaring up at her from a puddle of mud.

The recent flooding has not made training more pleasurable, especially because most of the time he ends up covered in filth while his sister still looks impeccable. His pride is the thing that truly comes out of these sessions bruised.

Comments

[firelords]

The half of her that is genuinely trying to teach him something would groan right now, except it's very much beaten by the half that is altogether too fascinated by a disjointed set of memories.

"Yet." Why this need to scare him? It's so at odds with the way she tossed an umbrella after him just the other day, so he'd stay at least a little dry. There's an odd bit of coexistence here, and it's up in the air which way the coin will land.

Besides, she wants to try it out for herself. She wants to know if it really works the way she remembers. She moves, and then, for a split second, goes perfectly still, only to fill the air with static a moment later. She's never seen lightning up this close before, and yet, she's seen it a hundred times, seen it strike, seen it kill –

She doesn't aim for him, not really. She aims above his head, he's unlikely to get hit unless he jumps straight up. There's very little room for interpretation, though: if she had struck him with this lighting of hers, it would have been doubtlessly fatal.

She wouldn't say she's shook, but there's the tiniest crack in her facade as she lets her flames die down.

[honorboner]

Zuko doesn't say anything for a long moment, partly because he is stunned by what she did, and partly because of the things he is suddenly very sure of.

He lifts the hem of his soiled shirt, revealing his abdomen and the vicious-looking scar there.

"That's how I got this."

The implication here is that that is how she gave it to him, but he isn't sure if she knows that. Did it come back to her too, along with the knowledge of how to command lightning?

[firelords]

It hasn't happened yet, at least not for her. But she can remember fighting him, on a ship, and it doesn't reek of training, not if she thinks about it a little longer than the official notices all about town would like her to. And she remembers the summoning, the aiming – that's how far she gets, in that memory.

Would she go further? Perhaps not in the Pines, not with what she remembers so far, on either side of the fence. Considering it's his murder these thoughts are about, "perhaps not" isn't the kind of answer anyone would want to hear.

"Who did it?"

She asks it casually, like she thinks the odds aren't at al in her favour.

[honorboner]

"You."

He recalls seeing madness in her eyes, and the certainty that her attack is one that can have no other purpouse but to kill.

He also recalls what he intended to do. Direct the energy through his arm, down into his belly and then back out again. At her. She was going to kill him, but he was no better. Not really.

It takes his breath away, and no longer able to support himself, he falls to his knees in the mud.

"It was you."

[firelords]

It makes sense, twisted and malicious as that sense may be. At least, the knowledge of the intent settles on her like something familiar, and while she can't recall acting on it with the degree of success now permanently mapped out on his skin – well, what if it's just a memory she's missing?

"I don't remember."

Nothing about her suggests that she considers it anything short of possible.

"You are ruining your clothes, Zuzu." In the Pines, the nickname always had a tinge of annoying little brat sister, but she can't hit that tone anymore. Maybe she notices, because she does go on: "Maybe you are getting all worked up over an accident."

But she remembers the boy, hovering above them, glowing, and then being struck by her lightning. She remembers craving her brother's birth right. She can't seem to summon any idea of remorse, and it's always been a foreign one to her, regardless of what place her memories are set in.

[honorboner]

"It was an agni kai."

There was nothing accidental about it. But he does get to his feet, and where once anger might have flared, all he can feel is sadness. Because he can remember looking after the sister in front of him as clear as day. Blowing her nose, making her a packed lunch for school because who else was going to do it, brushing her hair.

Maybe that never happened, but it still has en effect on how he perceives the memory of seeing her so... cracked.

[firelords]

"You challenged me and I rejected you. That's as close as we got."

She remembers that. She can't name the city, can't say with certainty why she didn't accept his challenge, but she remembers that.

And yet there's a scar on his stomach calling her a liar. Well, she's been called that before.

"It isn't that I don't remember fighting you."

But what? She's saying it all lightly, like this is the type of conversation you just have with your brother. The only 'but' she can offer is that she remembers caring for him just as clearly as she recalls her burning hatred, and now, neither cancels out.

[honorboner]

He gets back on his feet, shaking his head.

"No. You must be remembering a different time."

Which just adds another layer of horrified sadness to the situation because how bad must things have been between them for there to be multiple occasions of them facing off in an agni kai?

[firelords]

"I did not try to kill you."

She says it with some conviction, but she's still a good liar, so who can really tell the difference. She knows that there is at least one occasion on which she did kill – of course, she's oblivious to the fact that spirit water had undone her damage – and since Zuko here is quite alive, the idea that she never fully intended to murder him isn't too obscure.

But if not to inflict serious harm, why else would she have fought him more than once? Fire isn't exactly a harmless element.

[honorboner]

"You bent lightning at me."

What he means is, that he can't really picture a scenario where you deliberately cause lightning to strike someone and don't expect that person to die.

And he was about to do the same thing... he wants to think that he remembers being conflicted, reluctant, but is that just two versions of him bleeding together? Because right now, in this moment, the thought of channeling energy through himself to fling it back at Azula is beyond horrifying. He couldn't do it.