Eclipse (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Chapter 21: Feverish

Miyuki knocked on Iroh and Zuko's apartment door the next morning. She had information that they should know about before things went down, and honestly, the sooner they knew, the better. She was in the middle of thinking about how best to phrase things when the door flew open and Iroh ushered her in hastily. "Your timing couldn't be better," the general began, "It's my nephew."

Her thoughts began to race with her heart. Given that they had gone directly against the Dai Li the night before, there was no telling what might have happened after she left. "What's happened, and how can I help?"

The room that Iroh led her into was quaint and a little worn-down. It reminded her a little of the initial apartment that she had managed to secure when she first arrived in Ba Sing Se, and she could see why Zuko had insisted that he wasn't keen on starting a life here. He was a prince. Exiled or not, there was no way that he would be accustomed to living like this.

She glanced at him, laid out on the floor on the futon and coerced with a blanket. At least he hadn't disappeared without a trace. Still, even from a cursory glance, she could already see the sweat beading at his brow, and as she sat, she could hear how ragged his breathing was.

She thanked Iroh when he set some clean water out for her when she was situated on the floor. "He suddenly collapsed last night and has been running a fever ever since," the general explained. "I did what I could to keep it down, but it only seems to be getting worse."

"How long ago was this?" she asked as she bent the water that he had prepared for her. The water spiraled around him as she searched for what could be wrong.

"After we returned last night."

Some quick math led her to estimate that it had been roughly eight hours then. It was no wonder that the man sounded so grave. Running such a high fever for that long was dangerous.

Miyuki spread the water so that it hovered over Zuko in a sheet, gathering more from the air as needed until it hovered over him entirely. She frowned a little as she drew her conclusions. She set about healing the injuries he sustained from the night before. "This fever," she began slowly as she looked up to meet the man's gaze. "It's not natural, somehow." She glanced at the water as it began to glow. "I can't heal him because it's almost as though he's fighting himself. The most that I can do is heal his other injuries and help lower his fever by keeping him cool."

"So it's as I thought," the man murmured. "What he did yesterday was in direct opposition to how he sees himself."

"I'm not sure I understand, but I can help look after him." She bent some water over Zuko's forehead like a towel while Iroh produced a towel and began to soak it in water. She froze some of the water for him to quickly lower the temperature and he thanked her.

·:*¨༺ ★ ༻¨*:·.

When everything they could do was done, Miyuki sat in the corner while the general made tea nearby. He glanced at her from the stove. "You know, you mean quite a bit to my nephew. I'm glad that it's not one-sided."

"I-" She stopped herself and lowered her head when she realized that her first instinct was to deny it. She did have feelings for the prince, but at times, it felt almost conditional. It was hard to admit that she had those feelings for him when he snapped at her like he had the day before. Not to mention the fact that she didn't have time for something like this. Especially not a relationship that could never work in the long term.

The older man chuckled as though he knew her true response. Honestly, maybe he did. She wouldn't put it past him. He seemed to know so much more than he let on. "Emotions are such strange things, wouldn't you agree?" he asked gently, "They compel us to do things we would have never imagined that we could do."