Chapter 16

Lu Ten walked outside into the sunshine. As he walked, he tried thinking of ways to tell Rui he was going to war. I know Dad said he wouldn't let anything happen to me, but since obviously that is a promise that he so obviously cannot keep, what really will happen to Rui should I die? Should I just tell Rui upfront that I'm going to war… should I ask her, what should I do? How will she react? Will she break up with me? These were some of the questions and thoughts that were plaguing Lu Ten's mind. He knew that he had to tell her as soon as possible because the next war fleet was leaving in about a week's time. He had to tell her today, he realized.

Lu Ten had been walking aimlessly around in the nearby forest next to the palace while pondering these unsettling thoughts and questions. It's where his mother used to go to just spend time to think to herself, and it's where the General used to take him when he told Lu Ten stories about his mother. In a sense, it was almost like the forest was a shrine for his mother; her own personal shrine. Ever since the days his father used to tell him those stories, Lu Ten always came back to the forest to think. He always found he could find answers when he thought about things there. It was almost like his mother was guiding him in her own secret way – and that thought comforted Lu Ten.

Lu Ten walked out of the forest and began venturing towards Rui's home. He reached the pathway that lead up to her door and stopped. How am I supposed to begin the conversation? he asked himself. Hey baby, I just proposed to you an hour ago, but now I just came to tell you that I'm off to the war, Lu Ten thought sarcastically to himself.

Finally, Lu Ten summoned up all his courage and rapped on her door 3 times. He heard faint humming before the door swung open, revealing Rui in a food covered apron, a huge smile on her face. It broke Lu Ten's heart that he would have be the reason for its disappearance.

Lu Ten took an extra minute to fully take in Rui's face, trying to commit whatever he could to memory, for that was all that he would have on the battle field. He looked deeply into her inquisitive, amethyst coloured irises, with the red rings around her pupils; his eyes travelled down her slightly sharp nose to sweep over her cream coloured cheeks, hectic spots of red splattered all over them. He then moved down to take in her hourglass figure, committing the way her shirts hug her body, and the way her body seemed to have curves in all the right places. Finally, his eyes raked over her slim legs and moved back up to her long arms, and finally back to her face.

When Lu Ten's eyes caught Rui's again, he saw fear and concern there. When Lu Ten still didn't move to join her at her door, Rui took a few steps out so that she was standing exactly 2 inches away from Lu Ten. When he continued to remain devoid of a reaction, Rui placed both of her hands on his face and leaned up and kissed him. After a few seconds, Lu Ten kissed her back, only with more passion and ferocity than she had ever dreamed he was capable of. When the finally broke away from each other, they were both breathless, and the hectic, red splotches on Rui's face had gotten worse; they were now entirely covering her cheeks, and they had even reached her neck.

After they both caught their breaths, Rui reached for Lu Ten's hand and pulled him onto the couch. She wrapped both her arms around his waist and leaned against him.

"So, are you going to tell me what's wrong, or are you going to keep me in the dark, Lu Ten?" Rui asked him, disappointment evident in her voice. Lu Ten closed his eyes, confused out of his mind. He couldn't bear to hurt her now, not today. He decided he would put it off. He knew he couldn't put off telling her forever, but he couldn't hurt her today of all days. He turned his face to hers and kissed her on top of her head.

"I really missed you, love. I wanted to commit you to memory; you like this, unconcerned about what people think about you, what you look like – even though you DO look unbelievably gorgeous – about how you're addressing people… because that's all going to change once you're my wife, and you know it. You'll be royalty, and you'll end up acting like one." Lu Ten sighed. "I want to remember you like this, the way I met you, so I just took a minute to commit your face to memory. You know what I mean?" Lu Ten finally asked, discovering that everything he had just said he actually felt and believed.

Rui didn't reply right away. Finally Lu Ten watched a smile break out across her face.

"I understand, love. And I'm sorry that you're convinced I'll change, because I don't think you factored in the fact that I'm already well known in the community to be in close contact with the Royals, Your Highness. I'm a general, remember? That too the youngest and the best that the Fire Nation has ever had – not to show off or anything," Rui added, a sparkle in her eye. Lu Ten smiled.

"Even so, love." Rui's smile slowly melted off of her face.

"Sweetheart… I know that you're hiding something, and I know that you're only hiding it to protect me, but, honestly love, it's only hurting me worse. If…," Rui paused and looked down. Lu Ten placed a finger under her chin and guided her face up to look him in the eye and nodded to her to continue. "If… if you're having any doubts about the wedding, please don't be afraid to say so. I mean, we can wait! And if it's a matter of you not wanting to marry someone not of your calibre we can arrange that also! I mean – " but before she could finish Lu Ten crushed her lips with his own.

"Don't ever say that again. Do you understand me?" Lu Ten finally told her when they broke away from each other. Rui looked down at her lap for a moment before looking back into his eyes and nodding.

"Good," Lu Ten sighed.

"What is wrong though, Lu Ten? Please tell me. Are you going to keep things like this from me when we're married too?" Rui teased. Lu Ten looked sharply at her and the smile faded from her face. "That's what's bothering you, isn't it? The marriage? Lu Ten, we don't have to get married if someone's saying something to you. I promise I won't hold it against you – ever." Rui said this to Lu Ten with confidence that she didn't actually feel. Instead, she felt her heart shattering into millions of tiny pieces.

Lu Ten grabbed her face with both his hands and kissed her fiercely. When he broke the kiss, he leaned his forehead against hers, pain satiated in his face.

"I don't want to not get married, but I think you might not want to."

"What? Why, Lu Ten?" she asked him, curiosity burning in her eyes. Lu Ten closed his eyes in pain. He hadn't wanted to have this conversation today, he had wanted to put if off for a few days, not wanting to ruin the moment. "Lu Ten, if you're getting cold feet, just tell me!" she finally exclaimed, frustrated.

"Rui, for the last time, I am not getting cold feet!"

"Then what is the problem, Lu Ten?"

"I… I…"

"Just tell me!"

"I've been called upon to join my father in trying to conquer Ba Sing Se!"

Lu Ten squeezed his eyes tight and clenched his teeth. He felt Rui slowly break away from him and he heard her walk a few steps and the scraping of a chair.

"When," she finally said after a long silence. Lu Ten opened his eyes to see her sitting on a dining table chair, looking down at her feet, a hollow expression on her face. Lu Ten felt his heart break.

"Three weeks," he finally managed to choke out. Lu Ten felt his heart breaking. How was he doing this to her?

"Okay. Well then; get out of my house." Lu Ten froze. What had she said? No I must have misheard. Stupid me, he told himself. "What? What more do you want to take from me? GET OUT!" she finally yelled. Lu Ten saw the new fierce anger in her eyes, and under that he saw the hurt. At least, he realized what it was later. In the moment, however, he was just furious.

"What the hell is wrong with you Rui? Do you think I want to leave you? I'm the one who proposed to you, remember? GOD! Why are you so selfish? I'm the one who has a chance of dying out there – not you! You're acting as if I want to leave you and forget about our wedding and everything! Do you even know what you're saying? I pursued you remember? I loved you first! How dare you imply that I just want to leave you for no reason! You're insane, Rui! Sometimes I can't even believe that I love you."

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Lu Ten regretted them. He watched as the hurt formed on Rui's face, only to be replaced with a mask of anger and hatred.

"I never want to see you again, do you understand me?" Rui announced in a cool, collected tone of voice. "And here – take your piece of junk back." Rui took of the ring that Lu Ten had given her and threw at his face. She turned on her heel and slammed the door behind her. Lu Ten had caught the ring with his right hand, a deep sadness in his heart. Suddenly, all that sadness turned into anger and he aimed his fist at a nearby bush and fire-bended into it, setting it ablaze. Lu Ten stalked away into the forest near Rui's home, knowing that the bush would just burn to the ground for there had been no flammable items near it.

He was so angry! How dare she? How dare she kick him out of her house! Lu Ten kept walking into the forest, going deeper and deeper, not giving a care about where he was headed; he was too angry and hurt – despite the fact that he didn't want to admit it.

Finally, he ran out of energy, as he had burned off all of his anger, and he sank down onto a large rock. He placed his head in his hands and didn't move until he felt something wet fall into his hands. He was surprised; he hadn't even noticed he had begun crying.

"What am I going to do?" he finally asked aloud. Lu Ten continued sitting on the rock, lost in thoughts, until he heard sirens going off and lots of yelling coming from the direction in which he came from. He realized that something must be terribly wrong, so he wiped his tears, stood up, and began running in the direction from which the loud sounds were coming from.

As soon as he was in the outskirts of the forest, he knew that the sounds were coming from close-by, and so his heart then jumped to his throat. The house that was closest to the forest was Rui's… but it couldn't be coming from there… could it? Lu Ten pushed himself and ran even faster.

When he finally broke free of the forest, he almost dropped dead right there. Right there, in front of him, was Rui's house, and it was aflame. There were guards from the palace surrounding the house, throwing buckets on it, and they all looked stressed, panicked, worried…. Why would they be worried? It was just the house. The Firelord could always replace it later, since he was the one who gave it to her father in the first place. Therefore… there could only be one reason for this panic, which is why General Iroh was there as well… helping out… but Lu Ten couldn't stand to think of it. Suddenly he heard screaming; faint screaming. He looked around, but when he couldn't see anyone screaming, he caught his father's eye, questions raging in them, but instead of looking back, he simply looked to the ground.

"NO!" Lu Ten yelled. He looked at the house, and, without thinking, he ran straight for it. He ran to the door, shoulder first, so it broke down easily. He felt the flames licking his arms, leaving their marks upon his flesh, but he didn't care. All he cared about was the love of his life, who was amidst all of those flames. "RUI! RUI WHERE ARE YOU?" Lu Ten yelled. He didn't receive any answer, and he began panicking. He ran through her foyer and into her kitchen, but she wasn't there. Finally he heard whimpering coming from the direction of her bedroom, that was behind roaring flames. No wonder she hadn't tried to get out herself. "RUI! RUI, SWEETHEART, I'M COMING!"

Lu Ten hesitated for a second before running right through the flames and throwing open his fiancée's door. He saw her curled up on the bed, the painting of them in her hand, semi-conscious from all of the carbon monoxide. The fire must have been burning for a long time, Lu Ten thought to himself. Lu Ten moved towards Rui and lifted her into his arms. He turned around to face the door, but he saw that the flames had gotten even larger and more powerful. Using firebending to try and control the flames would be suicide since they were so powerful already. One wrong move and both he and Rui were dead. He wouldn't be able to run through them again however, the oxygen that had gotten to the flames through the open bedroom door had fuelled them to become much larger – that's when Lu Ten had an idea. The oxygen has to be coming from somewhere, which is obviously her window. It's our only shot. I love you, Rui.

Lu Ten kissed Rui's forehead before running to her window and jumping out of it.

I am. So. So. So X Infinity Sorry. I know I have been a REALLY bad author, so I'm not going to make any more promises of updating quickly. I'll update whenever I can and don't get distracted by Ghost Whisperer or House. :$ I love you all for staying with me so long. Thank you all so much. :) Love you all. 3

I KNOW I don't deserve it, but PLEASE - I'm begging - R&R :) It helps to motivate me. I know, I know, I don't deserve it. Sorry again. Really. 333

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