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Some time after talking with Steph, Zuko still has no idea how to go about approaching the many people who he should proably talk to.

Instead, he's focusing on something that puts it all off very nicely, and practicing firebending forms out in the training field. They really do make much more sense after visiting the Masters - without having to spend to much effort on brute force and anger to produce the flame, everything flows more, and that in turn is levelling out his thoughts.

So. Another version of him had children. And they're here. They also seem to think he's their father- at least, the version that they knew. He should talk to Mel first, then. He's not sure what she thinks, but he should ask, in any case. And Iroh should know.

Later. He finishes off a form, and moves onto the next.

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...Meep.

Or, ouch.

But Zuko's used to taking punishment on his face (insert angst here), and now he's rolling hard to one side to try and bear her down under him.

(He'll... be embarrassed about it later. For now? Fight!)

The armour stays on out of habit.

Which is good, because his swords are still on fire, and therefore so are her clothes.

She doesn't seem to mind.

Perhaps this is because she's busy with the fact that there is some dude on top of her, and he has swords.

Wait, so does she!

You can't call it a block. It's more of a flail. But it keeps sharp pointy things away from her armour, so it's good enough.

Her swords manage to block his as they come down, which is fairly impressive. He notes that, then slides the blades down so they catch at the handles, and he shoves them down hard just above her head, to take them out of the equation.

"Not bad," he says conversationally.

"Yeah?"

She's actually surprised at that one. Not enough to get rid of the armour, but enough that she just blinks at him for a moment as her swords dissolve out of her grip--

--and then she shoves hard at Zuko's chest.

Hey, might as well keep it up, right?

--Whoa, no more swords there.

Zuko exhales sharply - and his breath is a lot hotter than it should be - before he pushes up to get his own swords involved again, aiming the next cut at her throat, ready to stop if her armour fails.

Val's armour does not fail.

She gets her arm in the way of his swords out of habit, scrambles very awkwardly to her feet, and shakes her head to clear it.

Important lesson, Zuko: get her mentally off-balance, and she can't invade your personal space with hundreds of tentacles!

On the other hand, she looks to be (and is) perfectly capable of going up against his swords with her bare light-armoured hands and at least not hurting herself.

Said Important Lesson is noted.

He attacks fast this time, knocking away the hand in front of him, and going for the midsection.

Oof.

The armour stops the sword, but there's still an impact, and therefore an ouch.

And because she still hasn't gathered her thoughts well enough to do much else, she stumbles back a step and then tries to punch him in the face.

Zuko goes with it, turning his head to absorb most of the impact, then taking a different tack and going to drive a swordhilt into her stomach in an attempt to knock her down again.

Okay, that works.

Eventually the narration is certain Val will learn how to keep her feet, or at least fall gracefully.

Until then, she's flat on her back, shoving off the ground to... well, it doesn't deserve to be dignified with the name 'tackle', but it is at least a lunge at his knees.

This is where Zuko takes unfair advantage of firebender physiology.

Because a normal person would not be able to jump like that without leverage, over her head and onto his elbows before going into a roll and spin to bring his swords back around to her again.

...Goddamn, that's actually kind of cool.

And it's not like Val can complain about cheating.

Much like Zuko cannot complain about her giving up on regaining her feet entirely and instead grabbing his left sword in glowing white fingers and yanking really hard.

Aaand, that's strong.

Strong enough that he just hangs on with that hand, not trying to reclaim it, and slashes hard at the white... stuff with his other sword. it's as good a strategy as anything, right?

Predictably, it goes not!clang.

Which means Val is letting go and shaking out her fingers, but - hey! Zuko's closer now! She can punch him again!

Since, you know, it worked so well the last time.

Well, what the hell.

(Also, she's breathing hard under the mask by this point. Valerie Bell is not terribly in-shape, it must be said.)

Sword back!

Ooof. Any form of punch will at least give him pause, but Zuko ignores it as best he can, grabbing the arm that just hit him (around the Dao hilt in his hand - not ideal, but doable,) and pulling it further forward, to both get Val off balance, and prevent her hitting him with it again, while making it a difficult angle for her to use her other arm against him as well.

She makes snarlyface, which is singularly ineffective considering the mask.

And then she falls. Again.

But she's starting to get used to this, and the least she can do is fall directly onto Zuko, right? Right.

...Okay!

Zuko grits his teeth as he falls back, pulling in his arms just in time to get them under her, and pushes her up and away, both muscle and firepower fuelling the thrust.

Val oofs.

And falls. Again.

And doesn't get to her feet again, though she manages a sitting position.

Despite the lack of a visible face, her body language says I give up clear as day.

Zuko flips onto his feet, but doesn't attack again when he sees her not moving.

He stays in ready stance, though. The Fire Nation? Not full of entirely scrupulous people. Zhao.

She's leaning back on her hands and looking up at him. After a moment, her mask melts away, and she grins ruefully.

"All right, you kicked my ass. Now I know I need to learn from you."

...Okay, he'll take that as a sign of surrender.

He relaxes. "Your power is very useful," he says thoughtfully. "I think your problems are mostly stamina and balance. Does it take energy to maintain?"

"Not really. I just have to keep thinking about it."

Valerie lets the rest of the armour go.

"And the more I get used to something, the easier it is. The armour's easy by now."

Zuko nods.

"That's good, at least. Bending takes energy, you see. For the time being, maybe we should work on your strength and balance - technique will come with the right routines."

He pauses. "But once you've got the basics, I think you should learn some moves you can do without it. Back home-" Because the thread with Dinah has to be timed after this one, lalala, "One of my sister's friends practised a technique to block a Bender's qi. Most of them were completely helpless against her, even when they were still able to move. If someone worked out how to suppress yours..."

Well. No offense, Val, but you might get squished. A bit.

"Yeah. My twin hit me with a... thingy that blocks mutant abilities once." Cheerfully: "I chased him around the house with a frying pan for an hour until it wore off. But I get your point, yeah."

Zuko smiles slightly.

"Exactly. A serious attacker wouldn't be so easily put off. Let's see. Do you have any form of exercise regime already?"

If you don't, he will give you one, Val! If you do, he'll... um, give you more. Yeah.