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        Along the way, they found themselves in a fairly small Earth Kingdom town where they stopped to hopefully gather some change. Iroh and Zuko went to one end of town and Rezalia took the other. Placing a small pouch on the ground, she begins to dance to a beat only she could hear. It wasn't long before she had gathered a crowd, her twisting moves and whipping hair drawing attention and her complicated footwork and elegant hands keeping it. At some point, she whips off her skirt and uses it the way one would a scarf.

At the end of her dance, Rezalia's pouch was overflowing. The crowd around her cheers as Rezalia sweeps low into a curtsey and stands up straight to blow the crowd kisses. Rezalia ties her skirt back around her waist and crouches down to adjust the coins in her pouch so that they fit better, holding the ones that wouldn't fit on her hands.

Zuko was complaining when Rezalia approached, glaring at a retreating man. Dropping the coins in her hand into Iroh's hat, cutting of Zuko's words. "How'd you make so much," Zuko asks, narrowing his eyes at her pouch.

"Dancing," she answers, taking a seat at her friend's side. Iroh gives his nephew an odd look that Rezalia chooses to ignore. The longer they sit there, the more people recognize Rezalia and drop coins into Iroh's hat with comments on her performance.

"You were great!" one of the Earth Kingdom boys says as he drops a few coins into the hat. Rezalia tilts her head up to look at him and grins.

"Thanks!"

Zuko scowls at the boy and abruptly throws his arm around Rezalia. The boy blinks in surprise as Rezalia rolls her eyes but settles into Zuko's side. "Oh...sorry, I didn't know," he says awkwardly.

"Neither did I," Rezalia replies. "Ignore him, he's being weird." Zuko glares at Rezalia and pulls her closer. "Ow! Z, that hurt, you ass!"

Zuko grunts and turns his head away, glaring at the boy from the corner of his eyes until he leaves. Rezalia sighs and adjusts so that she was lounged across Zuko's lap with one leg bent. Iroh gives the pair an amused look but says nothing to them, going back to asking passing people for spare change.

~*~

Eventually, the three of them find a cave to stay in for a while. There were plenty of trees and shade and food around, so Rezalia assumed that they would stay for a while. Zuko had developed a habit of running off without telling anyone or acknowledging that he was doing it. He just returned with bags of things and it was fairly obvious that he hadn't bought them. Rezalia didn't really see a problem with it, she was fairly sure the people the things belonged to were better off judging by the quality of the things.

Today was one of those days, only today he didn't stick around long, going to leave as soon as he'd tossed the bags into the cave. His uncle's voice stops him. "Where did you get these?"

Zuko doesn't turn around. "What does it matter where they came from?"

Rezalia fiddles with the strings on the bag. "Is there food in here?"

"Yeah," Zuko says, turning back slightly. "The one you're holding has dried meat and uncle's has pastries."

"Cool."

Zuko walks off again and Iroh lowers the jelly bun he had bitten into. "He's getting worse," the man says, watching his nephew. Rezalia rolls onto her stomach, a strip of dried meat in her fingers.

"Things have to get worse before they can get better," she murmurs. "But he's....he'll come around."

"I hope so."

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