The Fire Within Us (ATLA Fanfic)

Chapter 11- Anika

"Hey, Anika?" Anika looked up to find Zuko in the doorway. She was sitting on her bed, re-reading the Fire Nation copy of the peace and alliance scroll with the Northern Water Tribe. The two parties had drawn it up at the diplomatic meeting earlier today, and everything had gone off without a hitch. Anika had been too elated over the success of the trip to dwell on the kiss and sort through her feelings.

"Oh, um, hey. What's up?" Anika asked.

"I'm pretty tense from all the stress and expectations at the meeting today, and I thought I could get it out of my system with some sparring. Everyone else seemed too tired to ask, so I thought I'd stop by and see if you'd like to do a little firebending with me."

"Sure, I'm down. Just give me a sec," Anika said. She spoke casually even as her stomach flipped in nervous excitement.

"Cool, meet you down there." Zuko smiled and disappeared from the doorway.

Anika rolled up the scroll and slid it into its case, then secured it in the drawer beside her bed. She left her parka where it lay on the floor, deciding that the skin-tight, long-sleeved shirt she had been wearing under her usual blue and gold tunic recently would suffice against the cold evening air for a quick sparring match.

She headed to the courtyard, which was empty except for the lone figure of Zuko shooting bursts of fire into the frigid atmosphere. As she made her way down the stairs, Anika regretted not throwing on her parka. To be fair, she had grown up in the Southern pole. She was used to dealing with much more extreme cold than this, but not without a warm coat swaddling her in.

Anika focused on the air entering and leaving her lungs and heated it with firebending energy to keep her warm from the inside out. She reached the bottom of the steps and breathed out an uneven patch of bright red fire.

"Not bad." Zuko was waiting for her, arms crossed. "Once you have a little more control of it, though, it might look more like this." He exhaled a flickering swirl of golden flames from his own mouth.

"Showoff," Anika muttered.

Zuko smiled. "Well, I have been training with this stuff a lot longer than you. I'll be sure to go easy when we spar."

Anika nodded solemnly. "You better. I don't want any weird moves or tricks like this." She stooped down and swept one of her legs out, flames spewing from her foot. They fanned out close to the ground so that Zuko had to jump over them at the last second.

Zuko landed smoothly and raised his fists defensively. "So it's going to be like that, is it?" he called teasingly. He punched the air with each of his fists in quick succession, sending two fireballs flying toward her.

Anika dove beneath them and then leapt back to her feet. She lunged towards Zuko and lashed out with a high kick that he just barely managed to duck. Anika took advantage of his moment off balance and followed up with a small fire blast from her other foot directly to his chest.

The force of the fire sent Zuko onto his back, and Anika was over him in an instant. She held down his stomach with one knee and pinned his wrists to the ground on each side of his face with her hands. Anika grinned at his surprised face under hers. "I win."

"Do you?"

"Pretty sure, your majesty."

Zuko sighed. "Dang. I was so sure that-" there was a swift whirl of movement as Zuko wrenched his way out of her grip. Before Anika knew what was happening, she was a flat on her back and Zuko was pining her arms down. "...I'd win."

Anika squirmed for half a moment under his strong arms, searching for a weak spot to gain an advantage, but his grip was too firm. She relaxed and sighed, fighting back an amused smile. "Fine, you win this round. And I was so proud, too."