This chapter contains some PTSD symptoms. As both of our main characters are soldiers, this is common. Please do your research into this mental disorder if you have any questions.

Purple Bruises

Now you're gone and I swear you won't be alone
My heartbeat tapping like it's made of stone.
I won't let you down, mute the sound but I can still hear.
And now I'm breaking, see I'm shaking but I know you're waiting.

A shout woke me in the middle of the night. My heart started beating a mile a minute as all of the worst scenarios possible ran through my head, each one getting worse and worse. Paparazzi? A robber? The Equalists are back? I mentally slapped myself for the last one as I picked up the nice lamp next to my bed and slowly crept out my bedroom door.

Wearing nothing but a jinbei set with the shorts instead of the pants, I was sure that I looked very menacing as I held my weapon up. Stupid. You can Firebend. I still kept the lamp, though.

The room was only partially lit by the moonlight that seeped in through the giant, floor-to-ceiling windows at the back of the room. I could see my hand illuminated in an eerie blue glow but I couldn't see Iroh's door.

The shout came again, this time from Iroh's room. I felt for heat signatures around me but found that the entire suite was empty save for Iroh's bedroom. I crept closer, worried, and heard him thrashing in his sleep. I didn't bother knocking.

I'd never been in his room. It was large, like mine, decorated in the traditional Fire Nation style—black, red, gold all over. He was lying in the biggest bed I'd ever seen, the blankets trapped around his kicking legs. He slept without a shirt and I could see that he was covered in sweat. His hair was matted to his head and his hands were clenched in the sheets next to him.

When he screamed again, I sat next to him on the bed and gasped his shoulders. I'd had dreams like that before where I'd woken up in a sweat or on the floor with burned sheets and singed nightclothes. The dreams were terrifying—either of the night that my village had been attacked or the few days we'd fought the Equalists. Except in the dreams, all I could focus on were the deaths of my friends and family and the bad guys won.

"Iroh," I said loudly but with a gentle tone. I gave his shoulders a gentle squeeze and shook him a little. "Iroh, it's just a dream. Wake up."

Suddenly I was on my stomach. Iroh's forearm was pressed tightly against the back of my neck, forcing my face into the soft down of the mattress. "No!"

Fear coursed through me. He's asleep. He isn't trying to hurt me...just whoever's in the dream. "I-Iroh," I gasped, unable to breathe with his weight on me. "Please, Iroh, wake up! It's me, Huo!" This is why we practice. I've never been able to win when he's pinned me! How do I...?

My arms were free, sprawled out to either side of me. I hiked my arm up and jammed my elbow back into the soft spot under his ribs, making him gasp. He fell to his side in his sleep-induced state and I rolled out from underneath him, somehow still on the bed as I rolled to the complete opposite side.

His bright hazel eyes were very awake then. "Huo!"

I was breathing deeply, glad to have air again. I couldn't speak to him and I felt myself shaking. He attacked me. No, he didn't, he attacked his dream. He hurt me. He'd grabbed my arm to throw me down before and it was aching from the force he'd used. My head was spinning from lack of oxygen and the back of my neck hurt like two-hundred-and-fifty pounds of man had been holding me down.

"Huo," he gasped again as he tried to come near, holding out a hand. I scrambled backward, touching my feet on the ground, ready to run. He pulled his hand back and looked at it like it wasn't part of his body. "Huo, I'm so sorry. How...what...?"

"I-I heard a shout," I said shakily, my knees not wanting to hold me up. My heart was going so fast that it was hard to breathe. "I came in to check on you. You were having a dream. I tried to w-wake you up..."

He flinched and clenched the hand that had grabbed me. He wouldn't look at me. "Never...come near me when I have one of those nightmares. Never. Let me work it out on my own."

I saw terror in his eyes. There wasn't much light but I could see that much. He was shaking and he looked broken. "No."

Iroh's head snapped up and he stared at me with wide eyes. He noticed that I was holding my arm and he tried to come closer again. "I hurt you, let me—"

I took a step back, this time off the bed completely. "No. Please, don't touch me." He looked stricken but I was still scared out of my mind. "I...I have them, too."

His eyes were wide as he stared at me but then he closed them and shook his head. "You should go back to bed." He can't go back to sleep. Too many demons haunting him. "I won't go back to sleep tonight but I shouldn't keep you up."

I slowly moved over to him, not sure who was the cornered animal or if we both were. I was still shaking and I couldn't quite make sense of my thoughts. "Can't, you mean. I'll go brew some tea and then you'll lay down and you'll let me help you. Please."

We were standing close now and he gently reached out to touch me. I didn't mean to but I flinched away. His golden eyes looked hurt and confused as he stepped back. "Okay."

The tea didn't take long to make. While it was brewing, though, I steadied my shaking hands on the counter and clenched my eyes shut, trying to remove the fear from my body. It's Iroh from Agni's sake. He wouldn't have hurt me on purpose.

Iroh was staring out his window when I came back in, one hand in his messy hair. He hadn't done a single thing since I'd been gone. Wordlessly I handed him a cup (laced with something a little stronger) and took one of my own. We sipped in silence before I motioned for him to get in bed. His eyes pleaded with me, begging me not to make him.

"The tea should give you dreamless sleep. I'll stay with you until you're breathing evens out," I said softly.

"I can't ask this of you," he said, all high and mighty, but I could see in his eyes that he didn't want to be alone.

"Iroh, please," I said softly. He didn't question me again. He laid down on his back and pulled his blankets up, folding his hands over his stomach. I sat down cross-legged on the vast expanse of bed next to him. A stray piece of hair lay haphazardly on his forehead, so I gently brushed it to the side. "I didn't lie when I said I had nightmares, too. Some people don't understand, but I do. I think of my mother when I get frightened and it goes away sometimes. Would it help if I sang the song that she sang me when I was plagued with night terrors as a child?"

He didn't say anything, but I knew he wasn't asleep, so I went ahead and started humming the melody fist. I couldn't stop gently running my fingers over the hair above his forehead. It soothed me, so I hoped it soothed him. "Hush now sweetheart, don't you cry,

Rest your wings before you fly.

Peace will come to you in time,

and I will sing this lullaby."

I could see his shoulders visibly relax. I laid down next to him, over the covers, and put my hand on his as I continued. "Know though I must leave my child,

That I would stay here by your side.

If you wake before I'm gone,

remember this sweet lullaby.

And all through darkness,

don't you ever stop believing.

With love alone,

with love you'll find your way, my love."

I felt myself start to drift off as Iroh's hand closed over mine. I smiled a little, hoping that he was feeling as relaxed as I was, and softly sang the last few words. The world has turned the day to dawn.

I leave this night with a heavy heart.

When I return to dry your eyes,

I will sing this lullaby.

Yes, I will sing this lullaby."

III

Iroh woke slowly from a dreamless sleep. He was lying on his side, a warmth in front of him. His hand was holding another. He opened his eyes to see that Huo was lying in front of him, her knees up to her chest and hand under her head to act as a pillow. The other was clasped in his. Her mouth was curled up in a small smile as she slept, nary a sound coming from her breathing. She hadn't moved at all throughout the night. She'd stayed with him.

He reached up and brushed a piece of hair out of her face. He'd never shared a bed with anyone –sexually or platonically—and he wasn't sure what he was feeling as he stared at her. There was a warmth blossoming in his chest but, at the same time, there was embarrassment. He couldn't believe that she'd seen him in his moment of weakness.

He'd had dozens of dreams similar to the one last night—dreams of battles, dreams where his friends and comrades had died. The one the night before had been a replay of a pirate ambush that had gone awry. Somehow they'd known his ship was coming and planned a counter attack.

Blood played over their hands as pirates streamed onboard. They fought, blood and fire and steel flying through the air. Screams as men died. Iroh got ran out from the helm, fires blazing, so sure that he could help. Through the flash of steal and gold, one man was coming at his general.

"No!" he shouted, jumping onto the man in front of him. Fire came out of his hands, burning the man where he stood. He started screaming, his face contorted in agony, as the young Prince continued to batter him with fire. His skin melted from his bones, the cries dying out, until nothing was left but charred muscle and bone.

More men surrounded him, killing his general, killing the men who were loyal to him, for what? What was the need for piracy, for death?

He'd woken up with the picture of his friends dying on the back of his eyes. The memories became ghosts that haunted him utterly and completely.

"I...I have them too." That's what she'd said the night before. He could only imagine what her nightmares were about.

Suddenly Huo rolled over, her long legs stretching out as she raised her arms over her head. Her pajama top lifted up, showing the pale skin of her navel. Her legs were smooth and bare from middle of the thigh down, soft but full of muscle from all of her training.

He left before she woke up.

Song: Lullaby by Josh Groban