Dai Li's Personal Spy

Chapter 15: "I'm never happy."

A fist flew past me, and I attempted to grab it, but a leg smacked into my ankle. I faltered but didn't fall. Zuko smirked in a smug manner, arms brought in front of him. I ducked under his arms and punched him in the stomach. He groaned and tried to grab my arm. I lifted my leg and kicked him back, breaking his stance. He stumbled back and lunged at me. I swiftly moved out of the way, hair swinging out of its ponytail, hanging by the thread of my ribbon.

He charged forward and dropped to his knees. He placed his palms on the floor as if he was about to do a pushup. I looked at him quizzically before he moved his legs from the front to the back through the gap in between his arms. He kicked my legs from underneath me, and I reeled forwards. The ground was rapidly coming closer to me, and I extended my arms out to put on the floor. I used the momentum of the fall to kick my legs up and over my head to land on my feet.

The flashy landing may have been cool, but Zuko had become more agile since our last session. He jabbed me in the back, and I arched in shock and pain. I stepped back, but my heel made contact with his ankle instead of the floor. I comically flailed my arms back as I fell flat on my ass.

I tried to get back up, but Zuko pushed me down by my left shoulder. I writhed around uselessly underneath his grip but stopped when I knew there was no use. I looked up at him, scowling. He never use to beat me in non-bending sparring, but this time he did. He had a ghost of a smile on his face, and I felt my cheeks begin to warm up.

"Ok, ok, you won! Happy?" He released his hold on me and got up, extending an arm to me. I looked away hastily but accepted the gesture. He helped me back onto my feet. I dusted myself off.

"I'm never happy." He said, confusing me on whether that was meant to be humorous.

"First thing you've said that I thought was 100% correct" He glared at me, and I smirked, trying to swat away my ever-growing feelings that I was choosing to ignore.

He looked to the shore, face worried.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Iroh hasn't come back yet, let's go get him from those stupid baths," Zuko said, already storming off the ship. I bolted after him, attempting to retie my hair with my ribbon.

We walked to the baths in a lot of awkward silence. We were almost there when I finally decided to address the elephant in the room.

"Zuko, I wanted to say thank you for the, uh, the other day," I said, fiddling with my bracelet awkwardly. He stared ahead, stone-faced.

"It's not a big deal, he was going to be fired sooner or later," Zuko said, shrugging.

"Oh, no, I meant in my quarters-"

Thankfully that awkward situation was cut short by us emerging out to the baths, where a naked Iroh sat soaking in the natural hot springs. I froze up, feeling as if I had invaded his privacy.

"Oh, hello Miss Laina, is my nephew perchance with you?" I couldn't respond before Zuko butted in and made his presence clear.

"Uncle, what are you doing? We need to move on. We're closing in on the Avatar's trail, and I don't want to lose him." It was true, I was finally getting good leads on him.

"You look tired, Prince Zuko. Why don't you join me in these hot springs and soak away your troubles?" Iroh suggested calmly, sinking into the hot water relaxedly.

"My troubles cannot be soaked away. It's time to go!" Zuko shouted out in frustration.

"You should take your teacher's advice and relax a little. The temperature's just right. I heated it myself." Iroh responded smoothly, breathing steam out of his nose and fogging up the air around him.