♙ 𝟙 ♙

                                    

                                          
"Again."
Rai waits patiently for her opponent to come at her. She could easily feel the blindfold around her eyes begin to slip, having such a strong urge to fix it she goes to do so. Only to remember the point of this exercise her Uncle has her doing.  Bringing her hands back down, she waits.
Fast footsteps are heard coming from her right. Rai ducks, sweeping her leg under the opponent. Hearing the sound of someone falling she swiftly stands back up ready to strike again. The sound of frustration can be heard from one opposite of her, knowing her opponent well, Rai sides step. Feeling the heat of a flame, kiss the tip of her nose.
Grabbing her opponent's wrist, using their weight against them, she flips them onto their back. Hearing yet another cry of frustration, she couldn't help but roll her eyes at their childish behavior.
To avoid having her feet swept from under her, Rai jumps. Shooting weak blasts of fire out of her fists. When she lands she turns, bringing her leg up in the air, striking them in the face with her heel. 'That's going to leave a bruise.' 
Peeking under the blindfold she sees the banished Fire Nation prince on the ground gripping his scarred eye. Sighing, she reaches up behind her head
"You can't keep rushing into things Zuko. Keep doing that and you'll get yourself killed." Rai shakes her head as she removes her blindfold around her eyes. Although she may be younger she seems to be smarter than her brother.
"Because of your weak throws, the only one who is going to get killed is you." Rai flinches at the tone of his voice. Feeling her heart rate rise, the young princess clenches her fist to calm herself down. Closing her eyes, she steadies her breathing, when she opens them, she throws a glare back at Zuko.
"Last I checked, I won this match because I didn't think with my fists," Princess Rai spits back at Zuko, knowing it would aggravate him easily.
Zuko clenches his hand, swinging it towards Rai, fire beginning to form out of its fist. Rai flinches back, closing her eyes in a panic.
"Prince Zuko, leave Princess Rai alone! You yourself should know the consequences of fighting with your own family." Uncle Iroh yells, stopping Zuko from his attack. Rai opens her eyes seeing Zuko frowning towards her. A sharp pain filled with guilt enters her chest from encouraging anger in Zuko who was already lost as he is.
"She's not my sister." 
'Ouch.' The feeling of being stabbed in the heart rests itself onto Rai.
"Prince-" Iroh goes to interrupt the angry teen, but Rai raises her hand signaling him not to.
"I believe our training for today is done. So I will excuse myself now and clean up. I suggest you do the same Zuko because not only do you look like a hog monkey, you smell like one too." Rai interrupts Iroh looking Zuko in the eye, Rai turns before walking inside the ship to her quarters. Feeling the pain in her chest only grow and the tears begin to well up in her eyes.
~♙~
As she enters her chambers, right after she closes the door the tears fall. Moving over to the mirror Rai studies herself. The bags under her eyes, ever since her banishment with Zuko, have only grown. The nightmares have progressively gotten worse over the years. They started off as a simple pathetic unrealistic nightmare turned into complex hyper-realistic ones. 
Wiping away the few tears that have fallen, Rai rubs the side of her face letting out an exhausted sigh. 
Looking over towards her bed she debates going to sleep only to shake her head.