Liàn Ài was a bigger village than the one they came from, Haru noted as he walked in just behind his father.  After retaking their hometown from the Fire Nation, the freed prisoners had talked and decided to help others overthrow the Fire Nation.  In addition to their home, Tyro, Haru, and a variety of others had managed to free three other towns.  The rebels took care not to leave trails, or follow any sort of pattern that would lead to their being caught.

Tyro was especially pleased that a few people from each the newly-freed villages chose to aid them, leading to a slowly-growing force that could easily turn into a true threat, if not an actual army.  A retired soldier, Tyro knew there was much he could accomplish with enough people — it was entirely possible that they could retake Omashu one day.

Bit by bit, the ragtag group snuck into the village under the cover of night; Haru and Tyro were the only open arrivals, posing as tradesmen who were father and son.  As Tyro noted, even when plotting the downfall of one’s overlords, honestly could still be the best policy.  It was also an easy way to pass on information without the Fire Nation soldiers noticing.

They were poised to retake Liàn Ài when everything went suddenly wrong: a trio of Fire Nation noblewomen, all younger than Haru, arrived.  Tyro, through his son, was quick to get word out that the girls were not to be harmed.  The old soldier was no fool, and could see in the way they held themselves that they were more than capable of holding their own.  When the ringleader turned out to be the Firelord’s daughter, Haru was sent out a second time, reiterating that they were to be left alone — Tyro had heard tales of Azula’s firebending skills, and of her cruelty.

Haru was grateful enough to have the guise of running errands while delivering the messages, though he was worried that the second round would give him away.  He was also worried that he was nervous enough to forget his father’s no-bending order if he was surprised; a sure-fire way of inviting observation was an impromptu display of earthbending.

Unfortunately for Haru, one of the streets he needed to go down was taken up by a large group of small children, watching a girl in a pink shirt perform astounding acrobatic feats.  He promptly turned to head down another street, but stopped as she performed an amazing leap that landed her on one of the roofs before dropping back down.  That was something he’d never seen before, and despite himself, he was impressed.

The children were, as well, one girl who was maybe about five or six in particular. "Can you teach me how to do that?" she asked, in awe.

"Um...Well, why don't we try something a little simpler first, okay?" the teenaged girl said brightly. "Here, like this." And she flipped over and walked on her hands. "It's all about balance." The smaller girl tried it, and promptly fell over.

A small smile tugged at Haru’s lips as he watched how gentle the older girl was with the children, and he leaned against a tree.  It was… almost sweet, especially since the children had doubtlessly been wary of her at first.

He had, apparently, caught the teenaged acrobat's eye at some point. She kept sneaking glances at him between tricks.  When he realised this, he slipped off quickly.  He couldn’t afford for anyone to take interest in him — their situation was perilous enough as it was.  After a few minutes, however, it became apparent that the girl had disentangled herself from her knot of small children, and was following him.

Damn! he thought.  Okay — don’t panic.  Just head for somewhere crowded and lose her there.  Pretending he hadn’t seen her, he wandered through the village — and took a wrong turn, finding himself down an alley.  Damn it!

She caught up with him there. "Hi, there!" she said, smiling brightly.

“Uh… hi,” he said awkwardly.  If she attacked, he’d have no choice but to fight back, and that would ruin everything.

"My name's Ty Lee. What's yours?"

“Pán,” he replied warily.

Her smile widened. "It's nice to meet you, Pán!" Something was a little off here. It didn't look like she was looking for a fight.

Hesitantly, he smiled back.  Was she trying to throw him off guard, or…?

"So. Have you lived here long?" she asked, still smiling.

“I-I don’t actually live here,” he said quickly.  “My dad and I, we’re merchants.  We travel a lot.”

"That sounds like fun! Have you been to lots of places?"

“Not just yet,” he said, laughing a little bit.  “We only recently started travelling.”

"I've been to a lot of places. You should totally go to Omashu. They have these mail slides? So much fun." She eyed him, a little coyly. "Maybe we could go there together some time."

That was when Haru realised what was actually going on, and turned bright red.  He stammered a little, and hoped it had come out as something intelligent.  She giggled and moved a little closer.

“I-I-I should be getting back…,” Haru said, coming close to panic.  This was almost as bad as suspicious interest!

"Oh...yeah, I guess so..." She pouted a little.

“Maybe we could meet tonight?”  Haru froze.  Why had that come out in his voice?  He hadn’t said that!  He had not said that!

"I'd love to!" she said, eagerly. "How about right here, at sunset?"

“Sounds g-great,” he replied, hoping his panic didn’t show.  What was he doing?

"I'll see you then," she said, smiling, then got up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek, before running off.

Stunned, bright red, Haru stood there for a long time, then collected his thoughts and finished delivering the second message before getting back to the place where he and his father were staying.  Tyro was in the doorway, and looked relieved when he saw the young man.  “There you are, son,” he said, putting a hand on Haru’s shoulder.  “I was starting to get worried.”  He guided Haru inside and closed the door and lowered his voice.  “What kept you?”

Haru fidgeted.  “One of the princesses’ companions was following me.”

Tyro’s eyes narrowed.  “Does she know?”

“N-no!” the younger bender said quickly.  “She didn’t suspect at all…”  He could feel his cheeks turning red; then to his surprise, Tyro laughed.

“I see.”

Haru looked down.  “And… I kind of… asked her out.  I didn’t mean to, it just slipped out, I—”

Tyro shushed him.  “It’s all right, son,” he said.  “It’s probably best that at least one of them is distracted anyway.  Just take care.”

“I will,” promised the young bender.

*                       *                       *

That night, as promised, Ty Lee was waiting for him in the alley, perched on a carton of some sort.  Haru joined her at sundown, still a bit wary about all this.  "Hi there," she said, softly, jumping off of her crate.

“Hi,” he replied, offering a smile.

She grinned back. "So, what do you want to do?”

“W-well, we could go for a walk?” he offered.  Tyro had given him some money, encouraging his song to take her out for dinner — apparently he was serious about needing one of the girls distracted — but Haru was positive that dinner would consist of invisible sky-bisons of awkward.

"Walking is good," she said, still smiling. "Lead the way!"

He hesitated, then offered her his arm.  “Shall we, then?”

She accepted it. "Sure."

Haru let his feet lead them, since he certainly didn’t know where he was going.  Arm in arm, the two of them wandered around Liàn Ài for a few hours, talking about nothing.  Eventually, they came to a little hillside just outside the town. "Why don't we sit for a while?" Ty Lee suggested. "It's such a pretty night."

“Sure,” Haru said.  He’d be relieved to be in contact with the ground again — his father insisted they wear shoes while under cover, to help hide that they were earthbenders.  Neither of them wanted to risk being captured again.

Once they sat down, she casually snuggled up close and leaned her head on his shoulder. "This is one of the prettiest towns I've ever been in," she said, softly.

Haru blushed again, and hesitantly wrapped an arm around her shoulders.  Girls liked that, didn’t they?  “Yeah, me too.”

She grinned. "Want to know why?" she asked, a little deviously.

“Is it the moon?” he teased back.  It was too easy to forget she was an enemy.

"Well, of course," she said, with a face far too straight to be really serious. "What did you think I was talking about?"

“Well, there’s the stars, the clouds, the lights on the river…”

"And you."

Heat spread over his face, up his ears, and down his neck.  “There’s you too,” his pointed out while his brain was disengaged.

She grinned a little. "Thanks."

He grinned back and fell silent.

She curled a little tighter against him, and just sat there, quiet for a minute, then, "Hey, close your eyes. I have a surprise for you."

Haru hesitated, then did as she requested.  If it was a trick, he’d still be able to bend his way out of trouble.

She kissed him.

His eyes shot wide open in surprise, then drifted shut again.  Before she could pull away, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back.  And they stayed there like that for quite some time.

At some point, while the two of them were clearly not paying attention, a small team of what were presumably bandits had managed to surround them. The bandit leader cleared his throat conspicuously.

Instantly, Haru let go of Ty Lee and looked up, somewhat dazed but adrenaline was already coursing through his body.  “What—?”

"Just play along, children, and no one need get hurt," the bandit leader said.

Green eyes narrowed as Haru toed off one of his shoes.  “What do you want with us?”

Ty Lee, meanwhile, had shifted from sitting to crouching, ready to spring as soon as she felt it was necessary.

"To start with, all the money you're carrying."

Haru kicked off his other shoe.  “You’re kidding, right?  Terrorising a pair of teenagers for a few coppers?”

"Every copper counts, kid," one of the other bandits snapped.

Haru growled something unkind and reached into his tunic, pulling out the bag his father had given him.  He tossed it at one of the bandits.  “There you go.  Dinner for two.  Choose your partner wisely.”

One of the bandits scooped up the bag and tucked it into a pocket somewhere.

"And now we'd like everything else of value that you're carrying," the leader said.

“Tough,” Haru snapped.  “I don’t have anything else.  Take my shoes, if you like.”

"Bet she does," one of the other bandits muttered, gesturing at Ty Lee.

She smiled. "Not really, sorry!"

"The way you're dressed?" the bandit scoffed. "Come on, brat, I'm not stupid."

Haru got to his feet and stood between Ty Lee and the bandits.  “Leave her alone!”

"Not until we get what we came for," another bandit, one who hadn't spoken yet, hissed.

“You have your money,” the earthbender snapped back.

"You might have other valuables. Jewellery or something."

"Um, actually, I don't. Jewellery’s annoying, I only wear it when I'm performing," Ty Lee helpfully pointed out.

"Well then," the second bandit said, leering a little. "Maybe you'd like to give us a private performance."

“Over my dead body!” snapped Haru, one foot sliding out as he balanced himself.

"I wasn't asking you," the bandit snapped back. He and the others were closing in, making a tighter circle around the two teenagers.

“Last warning,” snarled the young man.  “Get out of here while you still can.”

"What're you going to do about it," he sneered, then attempted to dive around Haru to get at Ty Lee.  Like lightning, the boy stamped one foot against the ground, forcing a bolder out of it; he then spun on his heel and kicked, driving the rock straight into the bandit’s gut.  He dropped with a little "whuff" of surprised pain, around the same time two of the other bandits were taken down by Ty Lee hitting key pressure points and the remaining five sprang into action.

Rather than bend more large rocks, which consumed energy and took time, Haru used smaller stones, which he could use more of at a time and which were harder to avoid when they came in a cloud.  Two more of the bandits fell, bleeding from numerous gashes.  Ty Lee dropped another pair at the same time, then backflipped away from a third's clumsily-wielded sword.

Haru slipped in under the opening Ty Lee had left, raising another large stone from underneath her and firing it at the swordsman.  The swordsman tried to dodge--and nearly managed, the rock slamming into his side instead of directly into his stomach. He spun with the impact and landed sprawled on the ground with his companions.

The young earthbender straightened, not even breathing hard, and glanced at Ty Lee.  She was in the process of taking down the last two bandits, a task finished very quickly. "Are you okay?" she asked, landing next to him as the bandits hit the ground.

“Yeah, fine.  You?”

"Fine." She smiled at him.

He smiled back, then fell back into his earthbending stance and closed his eyes.  Carefully, he began to restore the hill to the way it had been before the fight.  She watched him, at one point idly hitting one of the bandits who was starting to move again.  Once he finished, the bender staggered and fell to one knee.  “Oops,” he said quietly.

"Are you okay?" she asked, worried, kneeling next to him.

“I think I overdid it,” he said, smiling at her sheepishly.  “I wanted to make sure it didn’t look like anyone had been bending—”  He cut himself off abruptly as he realised that he had been earthbending a lot in front of one of Princess Azula’s companions.

Oh, shit.

She nodded. "Okay. I won't tell." She smiled. "Thanks." Even if she could probably have handled those bandits by herself, it was very sweet the way he'd stepped in and defended her like that.

“Thanks,” he said, dragging himself to the leader and taking his money back.  “I’ve been trying to keep it secret.”

She nodded. "Yeah, I can understand that."

“So, uh…”  He hesitated, but knew he had to eat soon or pay the price for the fight later.  “How about that dinner for two?”

She grinned. "Sure!"

Straightening up, he offered her his arm again; together, the two of them headed back to the village.  "So, you've probably been here longer than me. Where's a good place to go?" she asked, after they walked in silence for a minute or two.

“Well, my dad told me about a place one of the customers recommended to him,” Haru said.  “Wanna give that a shot?”

"Sure!" she said, smiling brightly up at him.

He grinned back, relieved that she didn’t seem too upset by either the bandits or his bending.

She squeezed his hands slightly. "Lead on, then."

Haru flushed lightly and led the way.

The meal passed very pleasantly, and far too quickly, and then it was time to say goodnight.

"Thank you for everything," she said, smiling and holding his hand again as they walked out of the restaurant.

“You’re welcome,” Haru answered, smiling back.  He had enjoyed himself for the most part, except for that small interlude with the bandits.  She inched a little closer and rested her head on his shoulder again.  He wrapped his arm around her waist in turn – she was a tiny little thing, but holding her so close, he could feel the strength in her slight frame.

She grinned a little. "Maybe we could just...walk awhile. Not necessarily go back just yet?"

“Sure.  Sounds like fun.”

"Yay!" She grinned up at him, perched on tiptoe, and kissed his cheek.

Haru smiled back, and led her around the town again.

After nearly an hour of this, though, it really was time to split up and head back. "So...maybe I'll see you again sometime?" she asked, a little hopefully.

“…I don’t know,” he admitted.  “I…”

"It's okay," she said, still smiling. She rose up and kissed him again. "Tonight was a lot of fun, though. Goodnight." And then she turned and walked away, back to her friends.

Before he knew what he was doing, he took to steps, catching her around the waist and pulling her against him and kissing her.  A little startled, but delighted, she threw her arms around his shoulders and kissed back.  Haru lost all sense of time as he stood there with his enemy in his arms, aware of nothing but her mouth under his and her body pressed up against him.  For her part, Ty Lee was enjoying this so much that she almost forgot to come up for air.

After a long time, Haru let go of her, very reluctantly.  She smiled up at him. "Wow," she whispered. Then she leaned up to start again.  He gently put his fingers on her lips to stop her. 

“No,” he said softly.  “If we start again… I might not be able to stop.”

"I know," she said, enigmatically, then reached up and caught his hand.

“I can’t do that to you, Ty Lee,” he said softly, looking into her eyes.

"...Except I started this, so it's really more like I'm doing it to you," she pointed out.

He shook his head.  “It isn’t just that.  I mean… what if we never see each other again?”  Or worse — what if we meet on opposite ends of a battlefield?

"Then we can remember this. And it'll make us happy later."

“Or it will hurt us terribly,” he said, almost too soft for her to hear him.

"We have to hope that can't happen. See, the way I see it, whatever we do, either way, there's a good chance we'll regret it later. But I'd rather have something beautiful and fun to regret than not taking the chance." She smiled.

Haru reached out then and hugged her tightly.  “But it can happen, Ty Lee.”

"...Oops, I meant to say "won't" instead of "can't"..." she said, a little sheepishly. "...Kinda spoils the whole speech, doesn't it."

He gently kissed the top of her head.  “We don’t know what the future will hold, Ty Lee.  But the day might come that we meet as enemies, not as friends.”

"Here's hoping, then."

It’s more likely than you think, he thought sadly.

"But, on the other hand, that day might not come. And, even if it does..." She shrugged. "That'll be tomorrow. Sometimes, you should just let go and think about today."

“I used to think that way,” he told her.

"What changed your mind?"

He hesitated.  “The Fire Nation took my father away because he was an earthbender,” he replied at last.  “And then they came for me.  I helped an old man after the mine caved in on him, and he turned me over to the soldiers.”

She bowed her head. "...I'm sorry."

“It isn’t your fault.  But I learned from that, and I won’t let them take me again.”

She nodded.  Haru sighed quietly.  “Maybe if we meet again later…”

"Maybe," she agreed, smiling again.

He kissed her forehead gently and let go.

"Good night, then," she said, softly.

“Good night, Ty Lee.”

She slipped off into the shadows, back to her friends, and Haru went home and woke sweating from a nightmare where he found himself fighting her.