lucetilogs | "I'm still the same, pursuing pain./Is it worth all that I've gained?"

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"I'm still the same, pursuing pain./Is it worth all that I've gained?"

Who:

markofthebrave
What: Just a friendly match
When: Thursday, after dinner
Where: A friendly forest clearing by a friendly stream
Summary: It's the middle of a heat wave and tensions at home are rising. What better way to blow off steam?
Rating: PG for violence

Zuko helping Katara prepare dinner wasn't exactly uncommon, odd as it was for a prince to be getting his hands dirty in such a way. Zuko was, surprisingly enough, one of the better cooks in the house and she welcomed his help. His suggestion that they spar afterwards was equally welcome. Katara didn't like the heat, and the atmosphere in the house had become increasingly - awkward - in the evenings. She doesn't blame him for wanting to get out and she takes the fact that he actually asked for this as a positive step to renewing their friendship.

"This looks like a good spot."

It is a good spot, actually. They'd sparred here before, not that Zuko remembers. But it's far enough away from the trees that they won't accidentally get scorched, the grass is low and flat, and the stream bubbling to the left is a good source of water for her without being an overwhelming advantage.

"What do you think?"

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Zuko lets the fire disburse in order to confront the more immediate problem of the waterwhip coming for his leg. He hates being immobilized, but he has to admit that Katara did a good job of catching him. If he had time to concentrate on it, he might be able to break free, but no. Of course not. She kept sending things his way.

He sent a stream of fire out to meet Katara's whip and followed that up with two fireballs in quick succession toward her. If he could just gain a moment...

Hard to do, with her, though. She... was good.

She's too close to him to have much time to react and too stationary to automatically dodge - the stream of fire eats up some of the water as she stops and pulls it up in a shield to divert one of those fireballs - and she's moving, dodging to the side and closer.

Out of water in her waterskin and unwilling to let go of her hold on his arm, Katara has heartbeats to make up her mind as she continues to rush towards Zuko. The hand that's not keeping her bending in place - her left hand - draws the knife from her belt. If she makes it that one step closer, she'll be laying the flat of her blade against his chest.

Edited 2011-05-30 05:13 (UTC)

He isn't expecting the knife -- because, really, he was under the impression that this was a bending spar, but then again, the only rule had been to stop when someone one says stop. Zuko drops all pretense at bending and brings his free arm up to knock her hand aside. He'd like to disarm her and he hopes the blow to the wrist will do it, but that will be difficult with only one hand.

Yes, technically, it is a bending spar. But fighting Zuko is... kind of automatic. And consistently requires that Katara give it everything she has - and it's in this mode which had her reaching for her knife - but the weapon isn't something to play with, and he doesn't have one, and as soon as he blocks it she feels a sharp stab of regret - one that she probably wouldn't have felt if she succeeded in her attack, but as it is, leaving the knife in play...

She goes with the motion, lets him bring her hand down and actually springs back long enough to awkwardly sheath it. "Sorry."

...she doesn't stand there for long. If he has something to say he'd better say it quickly, because she'll be springing right back towards him if given half a chance.

Edited 2011-05-30 05:26 (UTC)

Well. At least she isn't really going to stab him. Long-standing tradition and habit is hard to change and his says that Katara does not like him. That's beginning to change, even if his first instinct amounts to "duck, cover, and run like hell."

"Knife's new," he commented, even as he drew back to push another wave of fire in her direction.

Firebenders are really annoying. Their constant source of ammo is just - agitating. Katara jumps out of the way, kicking up the water that had splashed onto the ground as she does and sending it towards him in a sharp arc - better watch out, that will slice if it cuts.

"Not really," she says as she lands, turning to face his next attack.

A sharp movement sends a whip of fire into the water she'd thrown at him and then he punches the air in front of him; the fire coalesces and roars toward her.

It's not all he has, though: as the fire comes closer, it splits in two and veers off to come at her from either side. It's tricky work, what with one hand, but Zuko's fairly sure he can manage it.

Enough of this.

The water whip slows down the initial assault just enough so that it's a 'manageable' amount of fire, and though the splitting thing is new and she's not sure how he's managing it with one hand, it's time to quit playing around. Once again, she runs right between those flames, dodging hard to the right and towards the river.

When she clears them she concentrates her bending, not on any other water, but on the hold she has on Zuko's arm. She moves her hands in a wide circular motion, and his arm should follow suit, throwing him off balance to the point where she's hoping to flip him onto his back. She doesn't want to dislocate his shoulder, but it's time for her to press her advantage.

And if that doesn't work, it will be time for plan B.

This spar isn't working out quite the way he'd wanted to. He knew that Luceti did put a sort of cap on powers and that wouldn't be operating at full potential, but he really hadn't given it much thought until now. Firebending had never come as naturally to him as it had to Azula; even at full strength, he may have been hard-pressed to keep up with Katara.

Apparently, she's been in Luceti long enough to pick up a few tricks, learning to deal with that sort of cap. Interesting and a little demoralizing, but it gives Zuko a little hope.

He does go down, not quite landing hard enough to knock his breath from his lungs, for which he's grateful. He rolls to the side, as much as he can, and punches a fireball in her direction. There's really no strategy there; it's more a statement of how displeased he is at this current turn of events than anything else.

He has some practicing to do.

Oh hey, that worked? Good. Pressing on with Plan A, then, Katara continues to hold his arm flat down onto the ground and uses her other arm to bend water from the surrounding area - the grass, the air, the spilled water on the ground - and aims for his free arm.

There's very little Zuko can do to dodge that water when he's flat on his back and using one arm anyway. It's with a great deal of irritated resignation that he realizes he can't dodge that before she gets his free arm under her control.

For a long moment, he's still.

"This water is really cold."

And Katara brings that other arm down, at an angle where even if he wrested control from her somehow he'd have to move his arms before he could push himself up.

She's got some sweat dripping down her face from the activity and the heat, and she blows an exasperated breath up at her forehead, unable to move to wipe it away.

"You should be thanking me for that. It's past dinner and it's still really hot outside."

This is the moment she gives him to yield before she has to end up asking him.

"Yes, well." Zuko pauses. He'd shrug helplessly here, but that's not happening. "Bend this back on yourself then."

Moment acknowledged. Moment not seized.

Katara lets out an exasperated breath. "Do you yield?"

The implied 'or not,' is in her tone. She doesn't really want to keep bending him to the ground all night.

"... Yeah, okay." Not that he wants to, but there's precious little he can do from this position. Next time, Katara. Next time she'll have a fight on her hands.

She already had a fight on her hands, Zuko. She streams the water on his arms into her waterskin.

"Good match."

...it's a little weird to go from fighting him to not fighting him, and she'll wait until he's on his feet again to do anything else.

He climbs to his feet, rolling his shoulders and nodding. "Yeah. Pretty good." Very informative.

... He's going to have to work on a few things here, looks like.

...is he going to be a grump about losing?

Why is she even asking this question?

Katara decides that she'll give him a minute to get himself together, and then if he's still a grump, she'll let him have it. She turns to head towards the stream.

He needs to practice more. Spars won't do it entirely, but they'll help. After a moment, he turns to follow her; he did manage to get some pretty impressive speed and control with one arm. There's a start. He could build on that.

"Good match."

...okay, that was a positive step towards good sportsmanship, even if he was repeating what shed' just said. Katara glances over her shoulder and grins at him for a moment. "You too."

And then she keeps heading towards the stream, where she crouches down and starts washing her face with cool water.

He takes a seat on the bank next to her, knees drawn up and arms casually slung over them. "So this place really does take it out of you, huh?"

She bends the water from her face and takes a seat, stretching her legs out. "Yeah. Everyone says it cuts you down to about half."

And she shrugs. "But the good thing about bending is that it's something you can get stronger at. By pushing myself to try to be able to hold as much water as I could before I was in the barrier, I've gotten a lot stronger outside it."

Zuko nods. "That's good to know." It's not that can't be overcome. He leans back on his hands, turning his face up to the sun and closing his eyes. Feels good to bask in it. When he speaks, his voice is a little wry. "I have some catching up to do."

Katara shrugs wryly. "If you're lucky, you won't be here long enough to catch up."

After all, he'd been here twice... part of her expects him and Toph to disappear any day now. It's not a part of her she likes paying any attention to, and small as it is it's easy to ignore - but it's there.

Zuko gives her a bit of a wry, incredulous look. "Katara, when have you known me to be lucky?"

He'll get started on that catching up first thing in the morning.

"I'm still the same, pursuing pain./Is it worth all that I've gained?"

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