[-(*)-]

Water.

Earth.

Fire.

Air.

Long ago, the 4 Nations lived together in Harmony.

Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, Master of all 4 elements, could stop them.

But when the world needed him most, he vanished.

100 years passed, and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an Airbender named Aang. And although his Airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone.

But I believe Aang can save the world.

[-(*)-]

Out of the fire came a Raven

…*…

Book One: Water

Chapter 7: Winter Solstice

The next couple days were a lot better than I thought they'd be.

Zuko was recovering from his illness. So, things began to go back to normal. Or least what we knew as normal. We heard that the Avatar was flying inland. So, we began to pack our things and prepare to travel on land. I was excited for the chance to travel throughout the Earth Kingdom.

The transition from boat to land travel was pretty drastic. I had to pack all my things into a couple duffle bags. I'm almost positive that that both Zuko and Iroh are packing twice as many things, but I know the value of packing light. You never know what might happen and when you might need to leave.

The area in which we were traveling was a part of the recently conquered Earth Kingdom. According to Iroh it is a new colony and there is a lot of unbalance and unrest there. This was apart of the normal conversation of health and safety before venturing off on a new departure. It is moments such as these that I am thankful for all the training I had to endure on Azarath. Because now I have full confidence in my abilities and I know my limitations when it comes to a variety of situations.

The beginning of our travel was a bit rocky. There were definitely some growing pains. Zuko wanted to keep a steady pace as we traversed through the landscape. But Iroh, who, of course, was older and was a very 'go-with-the flow' type of traveler. He kept insisting we stop and have tea and enjoy the scenery. After the fifth time he asked this, even I was getting annoyed with him.

"Zuko, we should just stop. It doesn't look like he's going to stop asking so we might as well rest for a little bit." I tell him quietly so that Iroh can't hear us.

But of course, he did.

"She's right Zuko, you might as well accept defeat." He says with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes.

Zuko shifts his attention to his uncle and retorts "You really think that I will derail our entire schedule just so you can have a cup of tea?"

Iroh smirks "No, but you will for a chance in a natural hot spring."

Now I'm confused "A what?"

"There are natural hot springs all over this region of the Earth Kingdom and I happen to know that there is one not far from that mountain." Iroh explains.

I just smile, knowing that we were going to give into his antics. I reply sarcastically "Of course there is, are you sure that it's that particular mountain?"

"Positive, I know this region of the Earth Kingdom very well."

Zuko groans and roughly rubs his hand over his face. "Fine, but we are making camp here and you go to your spring and we will leave in two hours."

"Thank you, Nephew. You should make the most of this time, relax." As he spoke the last sentence, he made the point to look from Zuko to myself several times, emphasizing that we should spend time together.

I see this and roll my eyes. I tell him "Your two hours start now, so you better get moving."

Iroh just laughs and grabs a bag that looked to be pre-packed with items you would need for enjoying a spring. Within a few minutes he was out of sight and soldiers left us to go unpack the animals.

"So, what do you want to do now?" I ask.

Zuko sighs, and I can see the tension slowly ease from his shoulders. He asks in a calmer tone "I don't know, are you hungry?"

"Sue, I can eat."

He smiles "What do you say to a picnic?"

I smile back at him "A picnic sounds lovely". He offers his arm to me and I feel like a love-sick teenager, and then something clicks in my head. I am a love-sick teenager, and this is what normal teenagers do. They have lunch with there…

I don't know what to call Zuko.

I obviously like him. But I don't know if he likes me back. How does one go figure that out?

I literally have no training with dealing with the opposite sex. I honestly believe that both my mother and Azarath believed that I would never live long enough to even have a possibility to be involved in a romantic relationship.

These thoughts consume me as we move to meadow of sorts. There was flowers and a gentle breeze. It was truly wonderful. Zuko quickly unpacked the blanket and I grabbed our snack. While we were traveling our snacks consisted of nuts seasoned with various spices. Thankfully I love this snack because before we left the ship the chef prepared five pounds worth of this nut mixture for us and the crew.

Both Zuko and I sat on the blanket and I opened the bag of nuts.

As Zuko began to eat I couldn't help but ask "Is this a date?"

Zuko coughs and then starts mildly choking. Knowing that I startled him I summoned my container of water and rolled my eyes as I handed it to him.

Zuko attempts to regain his composure.

He's failing miserably, and his voice is hoarse when he asks "Do you want this to be a date?"

"Yes." I say 'matter-of-fact'-ly. I feel as though I'm missing some social ques but I start to relax when he blushes and then intertwines our hands. I look down at our hands and smile. We then continue to gaze over the field. We probably looked ridiculous but I was glad that this was our first date. We just quietly enjoyed each other's company and held hands as we gazed over a field of flowers on a beautiful day.

…*…

Zuko's afternoon was going infinitely better than he would have ever hoped for. He thought he was in for a day that would be wasted with inconvenient breaks forced by Iroh and he would end up even farther from his goal of …

It was hard for him to truly feel okay with capturing a boy who appears younger than him and just allow his father to kill him. Because he knew that was what his father planned to do once he completed the capture. After he recovered from his fever, he began to realize there was a gaping hole in his life. How can get his honor back by helping his father kill a boy?

Now that he had begun to second-guess his goal for a number of years, he's finding it difficult to admit his change of mind. He was pretty sure that both Iroh and Raven would welcome the change, but the crew… he wasn't so sure of.

Zuko was stuck in his own thoughts as he made his way over to where his Uncle was.

It wasn't surprising to anyone that Iroh was not back at right time. What was surprising was that Zuko offered to go get him.

Zuko had relaxing afternoon and for some reason it made him uneasy. He offered to go get his Uncle as an excuse to clear his head.

He breaks through the dense section of the forest and calls out "Uncle, it's time to leave. Where are you? Uncle Iroh!"

Zuko notices that Iroh's clothes were on the ground.

Great.

"Over here."

His voice comes from through the trees. Zuko cautiously looks over and exclaims "Uncle? We need to move on. We're closing in on the Avatar's trail, and I don't want to lose him."

"You look tired, Prince Zuko. Why don't you join me in these hot springs and soak away your troubles?"

Zuko rolls his eyes and shifts his gaze away from his naked Uncle "Ha Ha, get out. We really do need to leave."

"Give me a minute. I will meet on the other side of the trees."

"Thank you."

Zuko quickly heads to the entrance of the dense section of forest and waits. He gazes up at the sky and notices that it is nearly sunset. The sun shining through the bamboo looks fascinating. Zuko could feel the tension begin to slowly ease from his shoulders as he admired the view. The sound of rumbling brought him out of his thoughts.

He looks around and can't see anyone coming and he rationalized that it must have been a nearby avalanche.

Zuko continues to wait, and wait. Once the sun set, Zuko was incredibly concerned. He turned back to where the hot spring was and called out "Uncle, where are you?"

There was no answer.

Iroh's clothes were still in the same spot that they were earlier. He looked for the particular pool that his uncle was inhabiting, it was empty. But something else was off, the pool was no longer filled with water. There are jagged rocks in the spot where he once saw his uncle.

Earthbenders.

Earthbenders came and took his uncle.

…*…

Zuko left to go get Iroh ages ago.

I'm wonder if they got lost. I was about to go out and start to look for them when Zuko came running back to camp.

This isn't good.

I have never seen Zuko run before. He always tries to keep a regal appearance.

"Raven, we need to find my Uncle. I think Earthbenders took him."

This through me for a loop "Are you serious, how could we have not noticed them? I'm going to see if I can find them from above."

I fly above the tree line and see a cloud of dust.

"Zuko! I see a cloud of dust going along the path to the North." As I float down, I could already see that Zuko was helping pack camp so that they could get ready to go after Iroh. Within a matter of moments, we were on the road and on the trail of Iroh's kidnappers.

Sunset turned to night.

When we found Iroh he was nearly naked and shackled to a boulder. A group of five earthbenders soldiers were surrounding him and one of them was levitating another boulder over Iroh's hands. As the soldier goes to drop the rock onto Iroh's hands I make a barrier surrounding Iroh. This gives Zuko time to take down the others.

During a pause in the fight I brought my shield down and Zuko breaks the chains with one swift kick. Iroh comments as he gets to his feet "Excellent form, Prince Zuko."

I could feel my cheeks heat as I mutter "And freakin' hot."

Apparently, I wasn't as quiet as I would have hoped and Zuko coughed and blushed. Damnit. Zuko attempts to respond to Iroh "You taught me well Uncle."

Right, there's fight going on.

The leader of the earthbenders called out "Surrender yourselves. It's 5 against 3. You are clearly outnumbered."

Iroh speaks for the group "Uh, that's true, but you are clearly outmatched."

No wonder Iroh was a General, he makes amazing speeches. The fight ended quickly after that. Thankfully no one on our side was hurt.

I was looking around at the aftermath of fight and I heard Zuko say "Now, would you please put on some clothes?"

That makes me burst out in laughter. The tension from the stress of this whole debacle seemed to drip away and I felt instantly relieved when I saw Zuko smile at me.

…*…

By the time we got back to the camp we were alerted that the Avatar was heading back over to the ocean.

Now came a big decision whether to follow the Avatar further or do something else.

As we prepared or things I asked "Zuko, what are we doing now?"

Zuko looked uncomfortable and glanced at Iroh who suggested "Why don't we go back to the ship and discuss this with the crew."

This will only delay the inevitable, but I could see that Iroh was allowing Zuko the time till we get back to the ship to figure out what to do next. And I don't' see how pushing the issue will make anything better, so I drop the subject.

We make it back to the ship swiftly and that is when Zuko asks for a group meeting. We all gathered on the top deck and Zuko began with "I know that we have been doing this for a while and would just like to reiterate that we are trying to capture the Avatar unharmed. So, the next time we encounter him, we will be using careful measure to try and entrap him. He is dangerous despite his age we should try to appear to be inquisitive instead of intimidating, because obviously that is not working. Everyone clear?"

There was a series of nods and vocal agreements. Zuko then dismissed them.

I waved Zuko next to me and whispered "Can we talk in my room?"

He blushed, then cleared his throat and then nodded. We quietly walk back to my room. Once he is in the room, I tell him "Close the door."

He does.

"What are we really doing?"

Zuko sighed and sat on my bed. "I want to have at the very least a conversation. I understand now how skewed my line of thinking was. I would like to understand what his plans are and if its something I should … I don't know but I at least have to try."

I smile sadly at him. I feel better about his decision to continue his pursuit of the Avatar, but it still feels wrong.

I sit on the bed next to him and look into his eyes "Okay, we'll do that. But don't stop thinking about these things, always be open to new things."

He nods and cups by cheek and brings his face to mine. Our noses brushed before his lips lightly pressed against mine.

I look into his eyes and then bring my arms around his neck and then our lips meet again. This kiss was longer and somehow, I ended up climbing onto his lap. We continued like this until a knock at the door. I jumped back and pulled up my hood.

I cleared my throat, glanced at Zuko who was fixing his hair, and then said "Come in!"

It was Iroh, of course, he came in and winked at Zuko before saying "The Avatar is heading towards the Fire Nation and just wanted to warn you that trouble may be ahead. We should be crossing over to Fire Nation territory tomorrow."

I speak up and say "Thank you Iroh." I stand up and move to close the door.

Iroh tells us before I manage to shut the door "Try not to have to much fun. Be careful. But then again I wouldn't mind a grand-nephew or grandniece-"

"Oh my Azarath, good night Iroh."

"You too my dear."

When I turned back to look at Zuko he had laid back on the bed and had an arm over his face. "Ugh…he's so embarrassing."

I sit next to him and grab his hand and kiss it "He only does this because he loves you."

Zuko peaks out from behind his arm and smiles at me "I know."

I lay down next to him. I still had his hand in mine. Zuko sits up and briefly kisses my forehead and says "I'll be right back."

I mumble "Okay."

Once he leaves, I get up and change into my night clothes and climb underneath the covers. It wasn't but a couple moments later that Zuko came back in his own night clothes and stands awkwardly by my bed.

I open the covers and say "I'm just sleeping, but your welcome to join me."

Zuko nods and quickly does that.

His feet are cold but his presence quickly allows sleep to take me.

I wake to noise of fire and metal clanking. A Fire Nation battle. I grab Zuko's arm and look at him. I could see him quickly waking up and before we could even get out of bed I hear "Brace for impact!"

I grab ahold of Zuko and surround us in a protective coating of magic but that wasn't enough. There was an explosion and world began to slip away.

But before I completely lost consciousness, I could recognize that this was a familiar feeling.

…*…

When I opened my eyes I saw the sun high in the sky. Rocks were digging into my back and I could feel the ocean lapping at my feet.

I move to block the sun out of my eyes but find that Zuko was in my arms.

I try to shake him awake but he groans and turns over.

Satisfied that he is 'okay' for now I sit up. I regret this immediately and feel a wave of nausea, but a few deep breaths clear that enough for me to slowly observe where I am.

I see buildings across the water. These are Fire Nation buildings. These are buildings like my mother described to me. They were hundreds of feet tall and covered in glass and metal.

I look behind me and gasp.

I'm sitting in front of a ginormous building.

It's shaped like the letter 'T'.

I just sit there and continue to gaze at this building. Out of the corner of my eye I see someone approach us.

"Who are you? What do you want from the Titans?"

A/N: And's that's it.

I'm sorry to end things like this but due to unforeseen circumstances I can longer continue this story.

Hopefully it wasn't too bad. I wanted to give you guys an open ending that would be filled with endless possibilities.

Thank you for reading this and for all the kind comments.

Stay safe and stay healthy.