(Untitled)

[princeinexile]

Something about being under the sun emboldens Zuko. Something about having two little girls to watch over-- or watch him-- keeps him moving. It's why he's on a rooftop, under the sun, stripped to the waist, running through kata with flames trailing from his fingertips

Comments

[notanoptimist]

He was earlier on that very same rooftop.

"MEL!"

There's a brother down on the ground, shouting while he starts to climb. It's possible he just didn't want to get all the way up to the roof just to have to climb back down again to show her the finished catapult.

[princeinexile]

Zuko stops, and then -- sticks his head over the side. "She's not back yet!" he calls down.

Sorry, just Zuko!

[notanoptimist]

Sokka hangs from the ladder, leaning back to peer at Zuko.

And frown.

"Damn it. She coming back soon?" He's still climbing, though, so at least he's going to talk to Zuko while he waits for her.

[princeinexile]

"You want to rush her from the pyre?" Zuko calls back. "She's a little busy right now."

And for once he's glad it's not him.

[grabber_fray]

Mel, in the meanwhile, has been talking to people, and moving dead bodies on to a pyre, and talking to people.

And now it's time for husband and baby time, please.

She swings herself up onto the side of the roof and just sits there for a second, watching him work; one eye on the blankets for her girls.

[princeinexile]

The girls like to watch too. Maybe too much. Fire's in their blood, after all; the blood he gave them.

"You're looking tired," he says as he closed down a kata and went back into a relaxed stance. Hands push through his hair (it's in need of a trim, getting into his face when he hasn't tied it back with something -- sometimes working loose and getting there anyway). "You alright?"

[grabber_fray]

She shrugs indifferently before hopping up to her feet and striding over to him - to them.

"Not much sleep," she says. After all, did anyone get enough? "Been hauling corpses around all morning. Not my favourite job."

[princeinexile]

"Yeah. Those things were pretty awful," he says. Makes him glad, for once, that he's deaf in one ear. Hands, dusty and dirty and hot, find her hips and he leans over, kisses her jaw; a small affection, a reassurance (we're still here) before he gestures for her to sit with him, with the girls.

They're sitting up now. Aren't they precious, hmm?