"Do you ever get used to it?" Toph asked suddenly.
Harry opened his eyes, taking a small glance around. The group were currently flying in the air on the Appa Express, Aang was sitting on the head, holding onto Appa's reins with Katara and Sokka sleeping behind him at the front of the saddle. Meanwhile, Harry was sat in the back by the tail with Toph sitting right next to him.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked her, unable to stop himself from feeling sorry for her as he looked at the night sky. He couldn't help but wonder if she had ever seen the stars, the moon or even her parents. Apparently, she was born blind so he didn't think so.
"Do you ever get used to flying up in the air on a bison?" She asked, gesturing around herself.
"Not even the top ten weirdest things I've done," Harry shrugged. "Truth be told, I rather like it. The view up here is nice, though I don't think that means much to you."
"Not really," Toph shrugged. "Anyway, I prefer solid ground, that way I can see where I am," She added, wiggling her toes.
"Hmm, makes sense," Harry nodded, understandingingly. "Your vision works through vibrations and sounds, right?"
"Yeah, sounds, feelings and hearing, combine them all and that's how I see," Toph responded. "It's mostly my earthbending though, I don't think that I can do most of it without it. You know a bit of earthbending yourself, right?"
"Not a master by any means," Harry admitted. "But I can throw rocks pretty decently,"
"Still, what you might lack in earthbending, you more than make up for with fire," Toph responded. "Everyone and their mother knows about you."
"And their sisters as well," Harry snorted, fame was something that he was always cursed with, one way or the other. "What's your obsession with me?" He asked bluntly.
"What do you mean?" Toph asked, blushing slightly.
"You said you were a big fan of mine, why?" Harry asked.
"Because you're a badass!" Toph blurted out. "You're the best bender of your element! You're strong and brave and...well...you ran away." She added, looking down.
"What?" Harry blinked, staring at her with confusion. "What do you mean?"
"You left the Fire Nation,"
"I'm not the first person to do that,"
"First one I ever heard of," She replied with a small shrug. "I heard about you, the invincible Fire Nation warrior who left the Fire Nation. And...I realised that we have a lot in common. We're both great benders and we both had expectations put on us. For me, I think it was being Daddy's little princess, sitting quietly and still at home and then maybe when I'm older, some guy would take pity on me and marry me...or just marry me to take my money, either one. As for you, I'm going to guess that they expected you to be their loyal little weapon for the rest of your life. Am I right?"
"More or less," Harry said tightly, clenching his fists. If Toph noticed, she showed no sign of it.
"But you broke away," She continued. "Here I was, not even able to break away from my parents, and you broke away from an entire nation."
"That's different," Harry said, shaking his head. "Your parents love you, they might not go about it in the best way, but they love you. They just want to keep you safe."
"They love the idea of me," Toph argued. "Not who I am,"
"Perhaps," Harry replied, deciding that he wasn't going to argue that particular point. "But they still love you. The only people you knew loved you, most of the people I knew hated me or just wanted to use me."
"Most?"
"Some of them were good, nice," Harry sighed. "It's for them that I'm fighting, they don't deserve to live in a world at war. The Fire Nation won't stop until they've conquered all, at least not while under their current leadership." He added darkly.
"The Fire Lord," Toph said knowingly. "I've heard rumours that you duelled him, apparently he barely escaped with his life."
"I never duelled him," Harry told her honestly. "But we've clashed before,"
"Why not end him?" Toph couldn't help but ask. "That always bugged me, you're one of the strongest benders alive, why didn't you ever kill him?"
"Princess Azula, his daughter," Harry explained, looking up to the sky. "She's my best friend, it was decided that the best thing for both of us and the Fire Nation was for her and I to be engaged. Over time, I've come to care for her. She knew what I wanted to do to her father, but she asked me not to. She begged me not to. I made a promise to her."
"That makes sense," Toph frowned. "So you went for the next best option?" She asked, gesturing to Aang who was thankfully not paying attention to their conversation and appeared to be playing a game with Momo whilst talking with Appa.
"Not my first choice, but he's the best I got," Harry shrugged. "Besides, truth be told, he's a pretty good kid. He's been through a lot, but still, he's good. He's still got his heart with him."
"You don't?"
"I don't know," Harry admitted to her. "I don't know much these days kid. I'm just trying to stop a war. Anyway, enough about me, what's your plan once the war ends? Going to go back to your folks?"
"Maybe," Toph grimaced, thinking about how awkward that conversation would be. "I suppose that if I help you all win a war then they might finally stop treating me like a small piece of glass. Though they could just decide to lock me up in a maximum security vault for the rest of my life, so I'm fifty-fifty on that one. I suppose...that I'd like to travel for a little bit and explore the world. I'd never even left my own city before meeting you guys and even then I didn't really know that place that well, just knew how to get from home to the main parts of the city, and didn't have much time to explore since I had to get back before my parents noticed I was gone. Still, for the moment, I just want to be part of something, something important."
"I get that," Harry nodded understandingly. "If we don't make a difference then who will? Right?"
"Right," Toph nodded enthusiastically. "You get it. But what about you?"
"What about me?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow, not entirely sure if she could see it or not.
"What do you plan to do after the war?" Toph asked. "Going to try and be the next Fire Lord?"
"Never," Harry said emphatically. "I'm hoping Azula or her brother, Zuko, takes over. Under their rule, the Fire Nation might just recover from losing the war."
"What's your plan then?" Toph asked once more. She sat still, waiting patiently for Harry's response. For a short while, he didn't say anything. She could feel the tenseness in his body, could tell that the battle-hardened warrior next to her was not really all that stable right now, and while she didn't think that he would hurt her, it'd probably be best to not push over the edge.
"Family," Harry said eventually. "I have family, they're waiting for me. After I help win the war and after I have finally done enough good to make up for my mistakes, I am going to go and see my family."
"Your family?" Toph asked. "In the Fire Nation?"
"Hey guys," Aang called from his spot on Appa's head, oblivious to the conversation he just interrupted. "I found a good spot to settle down for the night," He said as Appa descended down to the ground.
"I'm going to go check the perimeter," Harry said, standing up as Appa began landing.
"I can do it," Toph offered once Appa was on the ground.
"It's fine, I like to do it," Harry said, jumping off of Appa and slowing down his landing with airbending, he had started walking not even a second later.
"What were you guys talking about?" Aang asked Toph once Harry was gone.
"Nothing much," Toph lied, hoping out of Appa and sensing that Harry was already a fair bit away. "Well," She whispered to herself. "Shouldn't really have expected the Emerald Dragon to be the most stable of guys."
"Remember your basics, Prince Zuko," Iroh instructed as he sat back in his chair, naturally sipping on some tea, watching as Zuko and Azula sparred with each other. Iroh knew that the young prince was a very talented firebender who had worked quite hard to become a good combatant, he was an above-average firebender and swordsman. Unfortunately, Azula had also trained very hard and was more naturally talented than Zuko. In a sword fight, Iroh would guess that Zuko would probably win. Hand-to-hand combat would likely be in Azula's favour, and firebending was definitely something that Azula was better at, as she was proving.
"Come on, Zu-Zu," Azula taunted, rolling under a fireblast and sending a burning blue wave at Zuko who was forced a few steps back as he blocked it. "You can do better than that, right?"
"Shut it!" Zuko snapped, sending a large, spiralling blast of fire at Azula.
"Aw, did I make you mad?" She asked innocently as she jumped to the side, she sent several quick-fire blasts at Zuko, watching as he defended against them decently enough. "You're really too easy to play around with, Zu-Zu."
"Stop calling me that!" Zuko growled, dodging a fire blast before thrusting both palms up into the air, sending two blasts of fire that shot high up towards the sky before combining into a large blanket of fire that arched down towards Azula. Iroh saw the young princess's eyes narrow, giving him the impression that he should probably finish his tea quickly and intervene. Azula performed a sharp downward diagonal slash with both arms, dissipating the attack.
"That's Harry's move," Azula noted, glaring at Zuko.
"Yeah,"
"He taught me that, how do you know it?"
"Because he taught me it as well," Zuko smirked, an idea forming in his head. "Why wouldn't he? I was his best friend,"
"Since when?!" She snarled, sending a trio of fire blasts at Zuko. Zuko blocked the first two and dodged the second before returning fire with his own.
"Since forever," Zuko grinned, seeing that he was getting under her skin. "Harry and I had fun all the time, you were just the clingy girl that he had to keep in check."
"Shut it!" Azula snapped as the two continued fighting, meanwhile, Iroh was trying to finish his tea at lightning speed.
"Harry always had to stay with you to make sure you didn't mess up," Zuko continued, batting away another attack. "To make sure you didn't do something stupid, you're crazy, I know it and he knew it, that's why he put up with you, because he was too nice to let you loose on everyone else. He was nothing more than your babysitter. Face it, Azula, he liked me more than you."
"Shut up!" Lightning appeared at Azula's fingertips, she started the lightning kata when a fireblast knocked her off her feet.
"Huh, guess I win," Zuko laughed loudly, he had never won against Azula before.
'Stupid brother!' Azula mentally growled as she got to her knees. 'He is not taking him from me!' She put both of her hands together, slowly pulling them apart, a small ball of blue fire appeared in between her palms, it began changing shape as she glared at her brother.
"Azula, the fight's over," Zuko said, taking a defensive stance.
"Harry taught me things as well! Let me introduce you to the fire spear!" She snarled before thrusting her palms towards Zuko. A sapphire-coloured spear of fire shot towards Zuko, the young Prince's eyes widened as he saw the spear shooting towards him. He waved his arms and created a firewall, Azula's attack shattered through it and knocked him off of his feet and onto his back. He had barely groaned when Azula had started performing the lightning kata, she had aimed her two fingers at him when suddenly she felt a large hand covering her own.
She looked up, gasping as she realised that Uncle Iroh had grabbed her lightning-covered fingers, he kicked her legs out from under her and sent her on her back before aiming his free hand into the air, she couldn't help but notice from her position on the floor that his free hand was aiming two fingers up into the air, exactly like she had been doing. She felt the lightning release from her fingertips and miraculously another bolt of lightning shot out from her uncle's free hand, piercing through the sky.
"W...what was that?!" She blurted out, staring up at him in shock.
"That, Princess Azula, was a little trick of mine, lightning redirection." Uncle Iroh revealed, helping her up to her feet. Showing no signs of having just redirected her most powerful attack with ease, nor did he look bothered by having to do so, his regular smile was still in place. "It's a little trick of mine, I created it as a younger man by learning from waterbenders in my travels across the world."
"Fascinating," Azula muttered just as Zuko limped over.
"Hey, are we still trying to kill each other or what?" He cut in, causing Azula to flush red.
"I wasn't trying to kill you," She said quickly.
"Sure, of course, you weren't," Zuko rolled his eyes. "What was that lightning supposed to do then? Tickle me?"
"Keep talking and I'll show you!" Azula hissed.
"Enough," Uncle Iroh cut in calmly. "You are both strong, talented individuals. Unfortunately, you're both still young and siblings, meaning you're likely to fight. Rivalry and bickering are fine, but we cannot be allowed to go too far."
"Blame her!" Zuko glared at Azula. "She tried to kill me!"
"I wasn't trying to kill you!" Azula snapped.
"Yeah, right, I was..."
"Provoking her," Iroh cut in.
"I...I was trying to get under her skin, make her sloppy," Zuko admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "It worked, I beat her!"
"That you did," Iroh nodded. "You were both provoking each other, and you were both acting with your emotions. Both of you let the other into your heads. We're fighting in a war, and to lose control could result in you losing your lives. I think it is far past time for you to learn how to get along."