Fireproof

Kelani accepted Iroh’s offer to join him for tea, and to her surprise, Zuko is sitting with him when she enters the room. Iroh encourages Zuko to relax and enjoy a hot cup of tea. Then, the ship lurches and splashes Zuko’s tea up in his face. He groans, wiping his face and retreating to see what caused the rocking of the ship. 

Of course nature would find a way to embarrass him in front of Kelani. She giggles at his misfortune, but quickly follows him to the main deck of the ship. 

A woman on a large mole-like animal stands proudly on the deck. The large animal growls, sniffing around aggressively. 

“I’m here for a stowaway.” The girl atop the animal explains. Her mode of transportation rips at the metal floor, and pokes its head below deck, sniffing around. 

“There are no stowaways on my ship!” Zuko shouts, although his mind immediately goes to Kelani. Perhaps Zhao had sent this bounty hunter after her as a way to get closer to finding the Avatar. 

The animal pulls its head back, a whimpering man in its jaw. It tosses the crew member to the floor and slashes its tongue at the man, paralyzing him. Kelani watches from behind Zuko. 

“I’m impressed,” Iroh muses. 

Kelani breathlessly nods, watching the bounty hunter. She moved and spoke with alluring confidence. Kelani couldn’t help watching her mount her animal, which she discovered is a Shirshu, and take the paralyzed man over her shoulder with ease. The bounty hunter noticed Kelani staring and grinned before casting her whip against the shirshu and darting off. 

“She has to pay for damaging my ship!” Zuko shouts, turning to see but Kelani and his uncle staring after the bounty hunter with dreamy eyes. He groans. 

“So, we have to follow her?” Kelani asks eagerly, grinning and absentmindedly grooming herself. She smooths out her pale blue robes, and tries to resettle her hair. 

Zuko rolls his eyes, but orders the crew to follow the bounty hunter. Kelani giggles, blushing at the thought of seeing that terrifyingly strong woman again. Zuko catches this and huffs to himself. He feels stupid for letting himself even start to feel anything towards her, now knowing she’s clearly interested in women. That would also mean his Sokka theory is incorrect. Unless she’s interested in men and women. Either way, he feels stupid. If she’s interested in Sokka and the bounty hunter then it means she’s not interested in him . 

He stomps away, and Iroh shrugs at Kelani. 

The ship docks, and Zuko quickly dismounts. Kelani and Iroh follow, both giddy. There’s a large pub house and a rowdy combination of laughs, shouts, crashes, and curses can be heard from inside. They enter the bar and the rowdiness only intensifies. Zuko plows through the drunken crowds, insulting many of them on the way. Iroh bashfully apologizes for his nephew, and Kelani blindly follows behind them. 

They come upon the bounty hunter, locked in an arm wrestle with a man three to five times her size. Kelani gazes with wide eyes at the spectacle. The bounty hunter looks to be barely struggling against the giant man, and soon, she wins, slamming his knuckles against the table. The bar erupts in cheers, and copper pieces start raining down on her. 

“Woah…” Kelani beams. Her stomach feels fuzzy as she watches the bounty hunter collect her winnings. 

Kelani knew from a young age that she was without a doubt attracted to women. However, she’d never encountered a woman who could so easily destroy a burly man and his ego in one foul swoop. And the bounty hunter being gorgeous helped nothing, either. 

The bounty hunter, who is introduced as June, acknowledges the presence of Zuko, Iroh, and Kelani. Zuko demands that she pay for ship repairs, and she quips about not having the money to do so. Kelani snorts at this, and Zuko looks angrier. He makes her a proposition and the four of them gather outside where her shirshu sits, patiently. 

Zuko shows off Katara’s necklace that she lost, and that he still has for some reason. Kelani’s chest tightens thinking about her long lost friends, and Katara’s worry about her mother’s necklace. 

“That your girlfriend’s?” June asks, smirking at Zuko. Kelani snorts again, drawing attention to her. 

“Katara would never-” 

“It’s not the girl I’m looking for, it’s the bald monk she’s travelling with.” 

“Whatever,” June shrugs, taking the necklace and offering it to her shirshu. 

She quickly mounts the beast and orders that the others get on his back. Iroh eagerly hops up behind June, and Kelani gets on next, leaving Zuko to sit behind her. As the shirshu jolts, Zuko grabs Kelani’s waist to steady her, and to make himself feel more secure on the shirshu’s back. And, secretly, because it’s an excuse to touch Kelani, though he doesn’t let himself think about it. 

The shirshu takes them back to Gyanon, and her herbalist temple. She looks surprised to have more visitors, and Kelani waves at her, making noises to get the attention of Miyuki. The cat responds with a loud meow. 

“Miyuki, did you get in trouble with the Fire Nation again?” Gyanon teases her cat. Miyuki responds with another meow, and Zuko demands they keep going. 

He takes note of the way Kelani acts with animals. It makes him feel warm inside, remembering the way he used to be with the turtleducks back home as a kid. He shifts his weight on the shirshu’s back, trying to rid himself of the warmth in his stomach. He doesn’t want to seem weak around her, not that she would notice or care. As they keep going, he instinctively tightens his grip on her waist. The rough trekking of their steed makes it difficult to feel stable on its back. 

The Shirshu next takes them back to the village with Aunt Wu, where they got Kelani her robes. Zuko groans. It feels like they’re backtracking or retracing their steps. This means they were always close on the Avatar’s trail. 

The townspeople shriek and run as the shirshu tramples through town, and Kelani waves to Aunt Wu and Meng, who don’t even seem slightly bothered by the shirshu’s presence. 

“We’ve already been here! Let’s keep going!” Zuko demands. 

He hops off the back of the beast and waves the necklace in its face again. The shirshu responds by lashing its tongue at Zuko, who narrowly avoids being struck with paralysis. He scowls at the beast and hops back behind Kelani.June rolls her eyes and cracks her whip against the shirshu, making him jolt and continue on his quest. Zuko’s arms snake  back around Kelani’s wasit, and this time she leans into him for support. 

“Thanks for keeping me steady.” 

Zuko feels his face heat, but says nothing in return. 

They finally stop at an abbey, and the shirshu takes a long time settling here before bolting off towards the forest. Soon, he stops, scaring Sokka and Katara as they make their way back to the abbey. The shirshu lashes its tongue at them, and they’re struck by its paralyzing saliva. 

“K-Kelani?” Sokka groans. 

“Where is he?” Zuko demands. 

June stops to hoist the Water Tribe siblings onto the shirshu after he finds the Avatar’s scent. Zuko glares back at Sokka, who continues mumbling to Kelani. 

“H-how’d you end up with Zuko?” 

“It’s a long story,” Kelani calls back over her shoulder, practically yelling in Zuko’s face. 

“Not really,” Zuko protests. “Aang ran off without you and I found you and took you back to my ship.” 

Kelani takes note of the fact that he leaves out the details of the Blue Spirit and the dual swords, but doesn’t argue. 

They make their way back to the abbey just in time for Aang to swoop in on his air glider, attracting the attention of the shirshu. Appa follows Aang through the abbey, trying to defend him from the  shirshu. Everyone gets thrown off of the shirshu’s back. Sokka and Katara slump in a limp pile of flesh and bones. Kelani rubs the back of her head, looking around for a safe spot to stand by. She decides to go over to her Water Tribe friends. 

“Seriously, how’d you end up with Zuko, of all people?” Katara pushes. Kelani shrugs. 

“It was how he said, Aang and I got into a bit of a mess, and he escaped and forgot to make sure I was following.” Kelani shrugs. 

Sokka’s eyes narrow. 

“Has he hurt you? Where did you get that outfit? Why didn’t you come find us?” He bombards her with questions. She chuckles. 

“Relax, Sokka, I’m fine. They took me into a village with a really sweet fortune teller and I bought some new robes. Everything on their ship was mens’ clothes. And, I figured since he seemed hell-bent on finding Aang, I would run into you guys eventually. I was right.” 

Sokka tries to nod, but his autonomy over his muscles has barely returned. Zuko, distracted fighting the Avatar, looks over for a second to see Kelani helping Sokka stand, and he fumes. He has no right to be angry or jealous of her or anything she does, and yet here he is, his face hot and his breathing rigid with anger. It makes him fight Aang even harder. 

An explosion of their contrasting elements leaves them on separate rooftops. Aang looks to have the upper hand until the shirshu scales the building and starts after him. Kelani leans against the wall of a building, holding up Sokka and Katara. She watches in awe as Zuko and Aang fight with their bending. She’s never seen Zuko bend before. It’s captivating and simultaneously terrifying. 

Aang and Zuko dance around a water well, and Aang falls into it. Kelani prays to the Spirits that he can manage out of it safely. As she does this, Zuko sends a blast of fire down the well after Aang. Suddenly, A large gush of water erupts from the well, and Aang lands on his feet. The water sprinkles around him like rain. 

Sokka suggests they use the perfume to confuse the shirshu’s senses, and Katara starts bending the large quantities of perfume around the abbey. In a fit of confusion, the shirshu lashes around, its tongue smacking June and Zuko to the ground, paralyzed. 

Iroh cradles June, pretending he got hit. Compelled to help Zuko, Iroh, and June, Kelani kneels beside Zuko, carefully bending the water that Aang released from the well. As she starts to use it to heal Zuko, she watches her friends fly away on Appa. Her chest tightens and her heart sinks. She barely got to speak to them in all the commotion, and then they left her there. Zuko turns his head to watch Kelani and groans. 

“Wh- thank you.” He whispers, staring at her face as she concentrates on healing him and relieving his paralysis. She smiles slightly at his thanks. 

His face heats up as he watches her. He’s never been this close to her before, and the proximity makes him feel paralyzed all over again. Her hands hover over his chest as she works gently to heal him and restore his muscle movements. Slowly he sits up, resting on his elbows. The tenderness of her care makes him want to grab her and hold her there and kiss her. He doesn’t understand the urge, and uses his newfound self-control to retrain himself from doing something so foolish and stupid. 

The last girl he even kind of had feelings for was Mai, and it was hard to know what those feelings were. It was years ago, before his life got away from him and everything got out of hand. And at twelve, what was he meant to know about feelings of affection and love? He thought he felt that way about her, but whatever he felt was a faint, distant memory, and it was nothing like this. Everything about Kelani being around him makes him want to be softer, warmer, nicer. He doesn’t understand how one girl he barely knows can have such an affect on him, and it terrifies him. 

He groans, slowly regaining feeling and control of his legs. 

“How about helping a girl out?” June calls, making Kelani blush. 

She rushes over to help June, and Iroh reluctantly lets her go. She sits up. 

“Thanks, Unagi.” June grins. 

“I-it’s Kelani…” 

“I know,” June rolls her eyes. “I was trying to give you a cute nickname.” 

Kelani’s face brightens, the heat rising to her cheeks making her feel a sweat about to break. Zuko rolls his eyes. She’s got it all wrong, an Unagi is more of a predatory fighter, when clearly, Kelani’s a healer, and cares about those around her more than herself. Iroh eyes Zuko, noticing his sour reaction. 

“It’s the fiestiest water creature I know.” June grins, sitting up to caress Kelani’s face. “Thanks for all your help.” 

She leans up slightly and takes Kelani’s lips between her own for a sweet peck of gratitude. Kelani feels herself melt against the delicate touch of the strong bounty hunter. June pulls away and stands up, rushing off to find her shirshu. 

Kelani kneels, frozen in place. Her first kiss was with a badass bounty hunter. 

“We better get going.” Zuko urges, snapping Kelani out of June’s infatuating trance. 

He hated seeing someone else make the bold move he was afraid to make. He wishes he could fluster her like that, with smooth actions and stupid nicknames. It seems clear, Kelani barely noticed him as anything more than a travel companion, and maybe even that’s pushing it. 

Kelani nods, slowly standing to relieve the ache in her knees, and helps Iroh off the ground. They start to make their way back to the ship. Once there, it’s nightfall and they’ve missed dinner. Iroh mumbles about taking hot tea to bed, but Kelani feels her stomach grumble. 

“You hungry? I could, maybe, I don’t know-” 

“Sure.” Zuko nods, leading her to the kitchen. 

Everything is cleaned up and in order. Kelani feels bad for being the one to ruin it. Zuko explores the cabinets with her. Truthfully, he knows nothing more than her about the ship’s kitchen. 

Kelani stares at the spice cabinet, dumbfounded. During her time with Captain Aimo, she had her fair share of Fire Nation cuisine, but she didn’t know how to cook it. Regret creeps in as she realizes she might accidentally poison the Crown Prince. She looks to him frantically for a lifeline. He catches the look on her face and can’t hide the smile that grows. 

She gapes at him, feeling like he might be mocking her inability to cook. But, at the same time, takes note of how nice he looks when he smiles. She hasn’t seen him smile once since she’s been on this ship. It completely alters the composition of his face. His eyes light up, and his consistently furrowed brow loosens, the wrinkles of stress leaving his face. She mirrors his smile, unable to do anything else. 

“So, uh…” She starts. “I don’t know how to cook Fire Nation food…” 

Zuko stares at her, and can’t help laughing. Soon after the sound leaves his mouth, he feels scared and vulnerable. Kelani laughs with him, though. The sound of her laughter makes his chest bubble, and his face heat furiously. It sounds as beautiful as she is. He clears his throat to try regaining his composure. 

“Didn’t you sail with pirates?” He challenges. 

Kelani gapes at him, arching her eyebrow. 

“Well, yeah, unwillingly. It’s not like I took cooking classes. I do know how to make rice, at least.” She offers. 

“Rice is good.” 

He feels stupid for saying that as soon as he hears it. His embarrassment echoes against the walls of the kitchen and the pots that hang from the ceiling. Kelani doesn’t notice, and gets to work steaming the rice. Before she can get too far in the process, she turns to Zuko, feeling helpless. 

“Could you, uh…” She gestures as if to bend, implying she needs him to light the stove under the pot. 

Without even blinking, Zuko sends a minute flame over to the stove, and the bottom of the pot crackles. Kelani watches as the flame travels from his fingertips to the stovetop. Again, mesmerized, and slightly terrified. 

As the rice cooks, Kelani aimlessly explores the other cabinets. She finds a mysterious bottle. She pulls it out and sloshes it around. Alcohol. 

“What’s this?” She asks Zuko, cocking her eyebrow at him. 

His eyes widen as he takes the rice off of the heat and lets it cool slightly, fishing around for bowls. 

“Sorghum liquor, why are you-” before he can say more, Kelani decorks the liquor and takes a hefty swig. It burns going down her throat, but once it’s made its way down, she sighs. “Spirits…” He mutters. “You sure are a pirate.” 

Kelani glares at him. He offers her a bowl of rice, and she takes it, the bottle once again against her lips. He watches with wide eyes as she downs the liquor like water. 

“That is good .” She grins, offering him the bottle. 

He refuses, taking his own bowl of rice. She scoffs at him and returns the bottle to its rightful place. Zuko walks out of the kitchen and back up to the deck. The cold night air hits his face. Kelani follows behind him. They settle for the middle of the deck since no one else is around. They eat in silence for a few minutes, until Zuko musters up the courage to speak. 

“How do you manage to make friends wherever you go?” 

Kelani looks up at him, quirking her brow. She chews thoughtfully at his question. 

“Um… I mean, I don’t know. What do you mean?” He stumped her. 

He sighs. 

“Like, today, everywhere we went, you knew someone. That crazy old lady and her cat. And that other crazy old lady and that little girl recognized you. I didn’t recognize them. Even June-” He stops himself before he says something he doesn’t mean to say. 

His face heats up, remembering the way Kelani melted around June. Again, he wishes he was able to make her feel like that. He wants her to melt around him, and blush at the sight of him, and crumble at his touch. He hates the way she makes him feel weak, helpless, insecure. And yet, he loves the way she’s gotten him to soften up without trying. Though being around her makes him nervous, it relieves his usual stress of his mission. He likes watching her have tea with Uncle Iroh, and listening to her laugh at his lame jokes about Pai Sho, or even Zuko. 

Kelani blushes at the mention of June, remembering the quick kiss they shared in front of Iroh and Zuko. It was the last thing she expected to happen, and the tingle still played at her lips- or maybe that’s the Sorghum liquor. 

“You forgot to list you and Iroh,” Kelani adds, pushing away her blush, and digging back into her rice. 

Zuko’s eyebrows shoot up and his eyes widen. 

“W-we’re friends?” 

Kelani laughs. He looks at her confused, wondering if she’s teasing him about being friends because they could never be friends. 

“Of course we’re friends, Zuko.” 

His heart leaps. At least they’re friends. Maybe, he could work his way up to being something more to her. It would take a lot of effort, since he hates opening up to people, but he wants it bad enough that he’s willing to do what it takes. 

“You saved me from that creep ass General Zhao. If we’re not friends, then at the very least you’re my hero.” She admits, feeling awkward after saying so much. 

Zuko stares at her, stunned. 

Hero?  

His face heats, and he anxiously plays with the rice in his bowl. 

“Sorry if that was, um-” 

“No!” Zuko insists. “No, uh, thank you. I’ve never felt like a hero, or had anyone tell me something like that before. More than anything, I actually feel like the villain…” 

He didn’t even drink any liquor and he’s still spewing out truths he never thought he could admit to anyone. His vulnerability creeps in. 

“You’re far from a villain, Zuko.” Kelani offers, staring at him under the light of the moon. 

Again, he has an overwhelming urge to kiss her, but thinks better of it. It would feel distasteful to throw another unexpected kiss at her on the same day. Not that he would act on it even if June didn’t plant one on her this afternoon. 

He feels her reach for his hand, and hold it gently in her lap. He blushes, but pretends she can’t see it. It’s clear that this is one of the ways she shows affection and how she cares about people. He wants to pretend it has romantic connotations for his own benefit, but he can tell she would willingly hold the hand of a friend as an act of comfort. Even so, he doesn’t want her to let go. 

This makes him realize how starved he truly is for affection from others, and how nice it feels. He smiles at her, giving her hand a light squeeze, indulging in the physical contact.