For the first time in thirteen years, P’li felt light.

It had been a long, long while since she had moved around a space freely, a long while since she had been warm enough to wear less than four winter coats without freezing to death. For the first time in over a decade, she could cut her hair.

Undercuts could be a gift from the spirits with how freeing they felt.

“You look better.” Ming-Hua commented as P’li checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

“I am better.” The firebender responded as she caught a glance of the other woman. Ming-Hua was perched on top of the sink counter as she watched P’li tidy herself up, occasionally offering unsolicited advice.

“Are you going to re-pierce your ears?” The waterbender asked.

P’li turned her head so she could see her ears in the mirror. For whatever reason, the White Lotus had taken out her piercings when they captured her, just another small way they took away her freedoms. “Yeah, I think so. They were nice.”

“You want me to do it for you again?”

“I mean, I trust you to do it more than Ghazan.” Ming-Hua laughed. “So, yeah, if you don’t mind.”

“Fine by me. We can buy some jewelry in town and do it tonight.” Ming-Hua said. “Who knows, maybe Zaheer will want a nose piercing and we can make it a party.”

P’li smiled and laughed, doubting their friend’s willingness to get such a distinguishing piercing. She gathered up her remaining hair and started to braid it. “Speaking of Zaheer, he’s an airbender now.”

“Yep.”

“Don’t suppose you know how?”

“I would ask him, but I really don’t want to listen to a three hour lecture about air nomad philosophy, if you know what I mean.”

“I can understand that.” P’li commented as she finished her braid, tying it off with a crimson ribbon. “So, should we go meet up with the boys?”

Ming-Hua nodded and hopped down from her perch. Now on even ground, the waterbender stood almost two feet shorter than P’li. “I think they’re at the beach, let’s go.”

The room they had rented was pleasantly empty and dark, afternoon light filtering through opened windows. The scent of the sea came from outside, a pleasant reminder of where they were. The town they had stopped in was on the coast of one of the Fire Islands and was tourist-y enough that outsiders wouldn’t be noticed but small enough that they wouldn’t be looked for. It was their little piece of paradise, at least for now.

P’li noticed a note resting on the dresser. She picked it up, it was written in small, neat handwriting- distinctly Zaheer’s.

“What’s it say?” Ming-Hua asked as she approached her.

P’li cleared her throat. “It’s from Zaheer ‘Off to the market- buying food’.” She read. “Guess they aren’t at the beach.”

“Guess so.” Ming-Hua affirmed. “You wanna go into town and see if we can intercept them?”

P’li shook her head. “Nah, it’s probably for the best if we lay low. How about we go to the beach, just the two of us?”

P’li could’ve sworn she saw a blush across the waterbender’s face. “Sure. Sounds great. “

If the inside of the hotel room was paradise, P’li didn’t know how to describe the world outside. They had arrived at the town last night, it had been years since she had seen the sun.

She couldn’t help but sigh in relief. “It’s beautiful. I can’t believe I missed it so much.”

Ming-Hua laughed and gave her a gentle shove. “Don’t get all sappy about a flaming ball in the sky on me.” She paused to take in the scenery on her own. “It is beautiful, though. We picked a good town.”

P’li smiled, looking out onto the cerulean waves, the golden-white sand, the open sky. “We did.” Here, the sky was so vast and blue she could look into it and forget everything. “Come on, let’s sit down by the water.” She gestured to an area near the ocean.

Ming-hua followed her over to a spot where the sand met the sea, where if they sat down the water would wash over their bare feet. They sat side-by-side, looking out onto the ocean.

“Not a lot of people around.” The waterbender commented as she leaned forward.

“Small town.” P’li responded. “All the locals are probably used to the view.”

“Lucky them.” Ming-Hua replied. P’li agreed, she would kill to live this day forever. Alas, she had to settle for one brief moment.

“So, how was my hometown?” Ming-Hua joked.

P’li laughed, it felt good to laugh. “It was fucking terrible. I knew the North Pole was cold, but it really is shit. Nothing but ice as far as I could tell. Can’t blame you for never wanting to go back.”

“Yeah, that’s about how I remember it.” The waterbender shuddered in a make-believe chill. “Though I’m sure it was extra bad for you.”

P’li nodded. In addition to enduring the freezing conditions, she was a firebender, and thus more sensitive to the cold. Not to mention the extremities of her situation. “From what I hear, you didn’t have it much better.”

“Spirits, it was shit.” Ming-Hua let out an exasperated sigh. “The opposite of yours but still complete bullshit. Don’t tell Ghazan, but I never want to even smell lava ever again.”

P’li nodded. Even though she hadn’t seen Ming-Hua’s volcanic prison in person, she had heard enough about it to give her a good image of the place. The dehydration, the oppressive heat, while things she had experience with, were as bad as her near-freezing cell.

“Was it in the fire nation?” P’li asked, but for what reason she couldn’t name.

“Yeah, I think so. Everything was decked out in dragon motifs, so probably.”

“Don’t know if there’s too many volcanoes elsewhere, too.” P’li commented. It struck her that each of them had ended up in the other’s places of birth, in prisons that used their elements against one another. What terrible poetry that made the two of them, fire and water, the sun and the moon. Opposites in every way, the poles of a magnet unable to touch.

The sun was going down above the ocean sky. It was almost summer, the days were getting longer. P’li’s birthday was probably coming up- they knew she had been born in the summertime but she never had an exact date. It had been hard to keep track of the seasons in an icy prison cell, anyways.

“I’m sorry.” The firebender said, lost in the pink-orange sunset.

“What?” Ming-Hua exclaimed. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“I don’t know.” P’li sighed as she fell back onto the sandy ground, her eyes on the sky. “I feel so bad about everything.”

Ming-Hua followed and rested her head on the sand, next to P’li’s. “You don’t have to, it’s all behind us now. Remember what I told you the moment I first met you?”

P’li recalled the conversation. “Don’t look back.”

Ming-Hua nodded and repeated the phrase. “Don’t look back. It’s not worth it, it never is.”

P’li sighed, her gaze transfixed the gentle curves of Ming-Hua’s face. She looked more tired than she had before, P’li supposed they all did. Thirteen years had taken its toll on each of them.

“Are you scared?” The waterbender asked.

“I don’t know.” P’li responded, returning her gaze to the sky. “I was back there, for a while.”

“What were you scared of?” Ming-Hua asked. In any other situation, she would’ve made a sarcastic remark or an angry threat, but for once she sounded sincere.

“I was scared that I would never get out.” P’li gestured vaguely to the sky as she spoke. “I felt like I did when I was a child. Powerless, alone, hopeless. I was afraid that I’d never see you again.”

P’li waited for a scathing remark that never came. Whatever emotion P’li’s comment had caused in Ming-Hua, it was unfamiliar enough that she had to think.

“Me too.” The waterbender eventually settled on saying. “I was afraid of being alone.”

P’li sat up to look Ming-Hua in the face. She was beautiful in the golden evening sun, the radiant light warming her sharp features. It had been too long since P’li had seen her in the evening sun. She could almost kiss her.

“We’re not alone now. And we’re never looking back.” The firebender declared.

Ming-Hua smiled. “No looking back, only to the future.” She nodded in affirmation, keeping eye contact with P’li.

P’li smiled. If they kept their eyes on each other, the future was as bright as the sun above them.