Chapter Thirty-Five

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Mornings where Iroh goes out and gives Zuko and Kali time to be with one another. Mornings in which they spend in bed together. It's hard to find time otherwise. Zuko is usually exhausted after working in the afternoons and Iroh is around the rest of the time. So they take those couple of hours on a morning, when it is just the two of them, and Bing, but still. He's happy enough to curl up in his crate bed and sleep for the moment. Zuko watches as Kali moves around the apartment, she wrinkles her nose as she shakes the waterskin, checking to see how much water is left in it, before she heads to the plants. His eyes track her every move. She sets the waterskin on the side and concentrates, she motions with her hand and the water erupts from it. Zuko likes watching her bend. It's so unique, because of the way she was raised. She was raised to be subtle about her abilities, meaning that she learnt to bend using the bare minimum of movements. A flick of her wrist. A wiggle of her fingers. It's incredible. And very likely makes her a more powerful bender. If she ever expanded and used the broader bending moves, which would pull on more power because of the way her bending works, she could unleash a devastating amount of power. Nature is such a broad term. It covers everything. The symbol that Iroh drew in the dirt showed a tree with all of the elements branching from it. It means that Kali has to ability to tap into everything. Everything. Fire. Air. Water. Earth. Plants....his mind absolutely boggles over what she could do if she was motivated or angry enough. And people have put her down her entire life. Kept her weak. He understands why they did it. He does not agree. But he understands. They would want to keep her down, to keep her weak. If she fought back, even from a young age, she could have been dangerous, deadly even. She uses the water to water her plants. Letting it trickle over them. He's been trying to get her to come back to bed for some time now, but he knows that she's arguing for the sake of arguing. To wind him up.

"You do this every morning" He teases as he shifts in the bed. She smirks and shakes her head. Because she knows she does. She leaves him there for a time to tend to her plants and then refuses to come back until he is sufficiently annoyed.

"You just don't like being in there alone" She counters, he pulls a face and then nods. But they both know that her plants don't actually need watering when she can just grow them however she wants with a wave of her hand, she gets up out of bed and takes her time, just to torture him, he's sure of it.

"It's the only time we get to spend together...alone" He reminds her, she pulls her hair over her shoulder and sits on the bed next to him, pulling her leg under her as she peers down at him. It's quiet this morning. Not even a lot of noise coming from outside. He holds out his hand towards her and she smiles, leaning over him, letting him rest his hand on the small of her back, drawing his fingers over her skin softly. He reaches up with his free hand and touches the collar around her neck. "Why do you still wear this thing?" He asks her.

"I don't know" She whispers. He gives her a look. "Maybe...it's a reminder. Maybe because it's the last piece of that part of my history. Maybe I can't bring myself to take it off" She adds as he plays with her hair. Her eyes then drift to the window to stare out of it. "Maybe I still feel like I'm a slave in some ways" He frowns and nudges her so she looks at him.

"In what ways?" She gives him a look and motions around them. "Right" He whispers. He knows that she's sick of being stuck indoors. He knows how she feels. He knows she feels trapped still. "If I knew how to fix it" He starts and she looks back at him.

"I know" She does know. She can see it there in his eyes. He hates how she feels being here. It was so much easier on the road. Living in the trees. But here. She is too unique. If people find out about her and what she can do, they'll try and use her and her powers. He's trying to keep her safe, but it's making her unhappy. He can't seem to get it right.

.........

Later; Iroh is back and wandering around the little apartment as he waits on Zuko to get ready for work. He also wants to take this opportunity to talk to Kali about what he found. Something has to be going on with her. Because he is sure that it is not his blood on that cloth and he would think Zuko would be a bit more vocal about something happening. Kali is the one that will hide if something is wrong. Iroh glances over at where she sits on the bed, her knee pulled up as she fusses over Bing.

"Little Flower" He starts, she hums in acknowledgement before she looks at him. He holds out the bloodied cloth he found and Kali clenches her jaw, quickly looking away from it and down at Bing who pulls at her hand for her attention. She tried to hide it. She thought she hide it pretty well actually. She didn't think he would go rummaging around. "This is not mine and I don't believe they belong to my nephew," He tells her, she sighs touches Bing's ears.

"My powers have limits. If I push too hard, nature pushes back" She shrugs and goes back to paying Bing all of her attention. Iroh sits on the bed next to her.

"Pushes back how?" Iroh asks her, she sighs and turns to him.

"Headaches, nose bleeds....fainting spells" She explains. He stares at her trying to figure out why she is so nonchalant about things like that happening to her.

"Kali" He starts, she looks at him. He gives her a look and she shifts, turning to face him.

"I understand the limits of my own bending, I just pushed myself too hard"

"And what could you possibly have done to do so?" She shrugs and shakes her head. She knows that being stuck indoors all day she doesn't really have an excuse to be pushing her powers so hard. And she feels bad lying to Iroh. But she has no choice. He won't understand what she's doing.

"Just..practising" She offers and then stands, moving away. Iroh doesn't seem to buy the excuse though. He's watched her practice before and she's never had a nose bleed before.

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