Chapter Text
"Hey, let's go penguin sledding."
Felix groggily glances at the entrance of his Water Tribe igloo, seeing the silhouette of his close friend through the hanging cloth that acted as his door. Wooyoung's already fully dressed, despite it being ass-o-clock in the morning, and he's tapping his foot expectantly.
"It's six in the morning, hyung," Felix mutters, and rolls back on the other side of his bed while dragging the sheets higher across his face.
"You promised," Wooyoung reminds him. "This is the best time to find the otter penguins. C'mon, don't make me run in there."
Felix sighs into his blanket. "I don't even have a shirt on yet."
He hears Wooyoung whistle. "Even better."
Felix throws his pillow at the doorway and relishes Wooyoung's subsequent pained noise. However, he does remember the promise he'd made a few days earlier, and reluctantly gets up to change clothes. He throws on the first fur coat he can find and some wool-lined pants before shoving himself outside into the blinding snow.
Wooyoung claps his hands together. "I knew you wouldn't let me down."
"When have I ever," Felix mumbles grumpily, but a smile laces his lips as they begin trekking down towards the isolated snow hills near the coast. The village is quiet as they walk, given it's the early morning, and Felix cherishes the tranquil silence as his boots fall into the soft snow path. It's a path they've both traveled a hundred times, since both Felix and Wooyoung love penguin sledding, but today, it's especially important.
"I'm gonna miss this," Wooyoung says, and it sounds like he's speaking to the wind as well as Felix. There's an uncharacteristic wistfulness to his tone. "They're not gonna have otter penguins or snow to sled on in Ba Sing Se."
"It'll have so much more than that," Felix reminds him. "Ba Sing Se is like paradise compared to this tiny iceberg. I'm sure you'll be able to find something similar. Like mudslides."
Wooyoung makes a face. "Those sound like they're made for pigs."
A childish grin appears on Felix's face. "Exactly."
"You motherfucker."
Wooyoung is leaving in six hours to move permanently to Ba Sing Se. The trip is funded by his good friend Choi San, who he's been pen pals with for years now. San and his friends have visited a few times, but Wooyoung's never left his Water Tribe homeland. In six hours, he'll leave the village for the first time.
And leave Felix behind.
-
"It's nothing against you, Lix. Promise," Felix remembers Wooyoung telling him. "I just have to get out of here. My life's got to be bigger than this speck of snow in the South Pole."
Felix nods his head in understanding. "I get it."
"You could always come with us, if you want," Wooyoung offers. "Hongjoong-hyung is one step away from adopting you and Yunho-hyung thinks you're fun."
"It's okay, really," Felix brushes him off, "I don't know if I'm ready to leave yet. I want to find a reason first. If I ever do leave, I'll definitely come visit you in the Earth Kingdom."
Wooyoung squeezes his shoulder with a smile.
"Plus," Felix begins, "I don't know if I'd fit the pirate vibes you have going on."
"We're NOT pirates-"
"Then why do you call Hongjoong 'captain?'??"
-
The duo approaches the top of one of the snowy hills, and, as Wooyoung had said, a whole herd of otter penguins were gathered at the base in contrast to the usual lone few. He grins, taking out a piece of fish from his coat pocket, and waves it enticingly. The penguins begin lifting their heads one by one, smelling the scent of the fish and waddling towards it.
"Come and get some," Wooyoung whistles, continuing to wave the fish around in the air.
Felix rubs his eyes and uncomfortably squirms away from Wooyoung. "Hyung, you're getting fish remains on me," he complains lightly.
"Guess you're penguin food."
"Hey-"
The otter penguins, as expected, do begin to flock Felix and the small bits of fish on his fur coat. Wooyoung has a bigger fanbase than him with the large chunk of fish in his gloved hands. He drops it, waits for the perfect moment as the animals start gobbling the remains up, and then snatches a penguin.
Felix shoves the penguins nibbling on his coat off and grabs a distracted one. Smiling to himself, he taps the penguin to get it to move and slides down a large slope. He's always been better at sledding than Wooyoung, despite the older's passion for it.
Currently, the man is struggling to stay on his respective penguin, nearly sliding off its slippery back entirely. He makes it another four seconds before ramming headfirst into another snow hill. Felix laughs at him immediately.
He hears a voice faintly from under the snow mound. "Yongbok-ah, free me."
Felix giggles. "Karma."
"Lix, please," he hears Wooyoung whine, "just do your little magic thing and get me out of it."
Felix sighs, slows his penguin, and frees his hands. Inhaling deeply, he focuses on the snow centered around Wooyoung's head and pushes it away, towards the open sea. The clumps of snow hit the water with small plops, which scare away the other otter penguins.
He hops off his penguin and treks towards a dazed Wooyoung. "Are you okay?"
"Spectacular." Wooyoung spits snow out of his mouth, then looks at it with interest. "Yo, could you bend my spit??"
"...Hyung, that's disgusting." "IT WAS A GENUINE QUESTION"
Wooyoung leaves his spit and flops onto another pile of snow despite just having been freed from one. "Wish I could waterbend."
Felix frowns. "The whole village thinks I'm cursed for it."
"Yeah, well." Wooyoung starts making a snow angel. "The whole village is stupid."
Felix chuckles. Ever since his parents had perished in a freak accident at sea when he was a child, he'd been the only remaining waterbender in his village. Somehow, the village elders blamed him for their disappearance, rambling things about being 'cursed' with bending and whatnot...nobody had ever been physically violent with him about it, but he'd been socially isolated for years; save for Wooyoung, a nonbender, who simply didn't care about the rumors.
"What am I gonna do here without you, hyung?" Felix asks. He too, aims the question at the wind, allowing its chilly breeze to sweep the genuine fear lying beneath the sentence away.
"Finally develop a brain?"
Felix half-heartedly throws a snowball at him. "I was being serious."
Wooyoung sits up and wipes the snow off his face. "I already said you could come with."
"I don't think I belong," Felix mumbles. "Your friends are great people, but..."
"But you're not comfortable enough with them to leave behind everything you've ever known," Wooyoung finishes for him. "I understand."
Felix nods. Wooyoung and him don't have a lot in common- Wooyoung has always been the more explosive and impulsive of the two, while Felix prefers to let others take the limelight and quietly appreciate the moment -but for more than a decade, they're all the other has had. They understand the others' thought process almost as well as they understand their own. Felix knows that they'll keep in touch, that Wooyoung will uphold his promise to send letters daily ("Every day, Lix, swear it!"), but it's not quite the same.
Felix is a bit sad to let his friend go.
He opens his mouth to tell Wooyoung not to be too much of a dumbass while he's gone, but stops himself when he breathes in the sharp scent of smoke instead of the South's characteristic brisk winds. Alarmed, he stands up, faintly hearing Wooyoung also rise from the snow. If he squints, Felix can make out an inky black cloud in the distance, coming from what appears to be a large, gray battleship. Felix turns to Wooyoung, confused terror in his eyes, and they both silently make the decision to book it towards the village.
As they hurriedly rush over the snow hills, Felix feels black snow fall on his cheeks.
-------
"What's wrong? Who's coming??" Felix asks the first person he sees as soon as he enters the village, even though the dread pooling at the pit of his stomach already supplies him with the answer. The person he questions is a little girl from his village- Felix remembers she just turned seven - and she all but whimpers when she sees him. With small hands, she points at the ship.
"The Fire Nation says they're looking for you."
He hears Wooyoung sharply inhale from his side. "What do they want with me?" Felix asks.
"I-I dunno," the little girl sniffles, rubbing her eyes with a blue mitten, "but they don't seem to like you very much."
As if on cue, a soldier in heavy crimson armor approaches the three of them, and without an ounce of hesitation, he points his spear at Felix's neck. He freezes on instinct, becoming hyperaware of everything around him. A lock of his blond hair falls into his face. He tries to focus on it instead of the warm metal barely grazing his throat. In the back of his mind, he registers the little girl in his peripheral as she lets out a small cry at the sight before fleeing into her igloo.
"Lee Felix, you are under arrest for the sinking of one of the Fire Nation's precious military cruisers," the soldier announces, "come quietly, and there will be no bloodshed."
"What?! He's innocent, he didn't do anything to your stupid ship!" Wooyoung protests, knocking the spear away. Felix, terrified for his friend's life, shoves Wooyoung out of the way- and in good time, too, because the soldier throws a knife at where Wooyoung's head would have been had he remained in place. The blade sinks into the igloo behind them and stills in the packed snow.
The soldier raises his voice. "Don't interfere, boy. You're harboring a world-class criminal; you should be grateful that we haven't arrested all of you, too."
"A world class criminal?" Felix hates how his voice trembles slightly. "What evidence do you have that...that says I'm a criminal? I've lived here all my life, what crimes could I possibly commit-"
"Silence!" The soldier aims another knife at his jugular. How many weapons does this dude have? "The cruiser sank because of a Waterbender, no doubt. It sank near your shores. You are the only Waterbender in the South, and therefore must be the criminal. You will be punished accordi-"
Wooyoung throws a snowball directly at the soldier's face, snatches Felix's wrist, and runs. They dart behind the closest igloo and squeeze between some crates of fish, ignoring the furious yells of the soldier. No doubt he's calling for reinforcements.
"You have to get out of here," Wooyoung tells Felix urgently, grabbing him by the shoulders as they crouch. "They could kill you."
"Where am I supposed to go?" Felix asks, "there's no way out. Swimming means certain death. And- and we don't have any boats that I could prepare in time, and I wouldn't have time to pack food, or clothes, or anything, so where am I supposed to-"
"I don't know either, okay? I-I don't know," Wooyoung blurts, the words falling out of his mouth in jittery sentences. "But you can't go with them."
It clicks.
"Hyung, I think I have to."
"No, Lix, do you know what they'd-"
"I don't have any other options," Felix realizes slowly, "either way, I lose. But if I go with them, they'll leave you alone....that's what they said. So I...so I should go with them."
Wooyoung shakes his head violently. "You can't- the Fire Nation never keep their promises, you can't-"
"I have to. There's no way they'll believe I'm not this criminal. They're dead set on it." Felix shakily inhales, resisting the urge to bury himself in his coat and hide forever, away from the black snow and away from the pungent smell of smoke. He gives Wooyoung a weak smile. "You still have to get to the Earth Kingdom."
"I don't want to go to the Earth Kingdom knowing you're in Fire Nation hands!"
Felix inhales before throwing himself at his pseudo-brother and gives him a tight hug. The older is trembling beneath him as he raises his arms to hug Felix tighter. They're both trembling. Metal clangs of armored Fire Nation boots hit the ground around them and Felix knows they don't have much time.
"We still gotta go mud sliding like pigs in Ba Sing Se," Wooyoung reminds him, voice softer and more vulnerable than Felix's ever heard it, despite the lightheartedness of his joke. "Don't let me down."
"When have I ever?" Felix smiles tearily, and then rips himself away from the warmth of his embrace with shaking hands. He raises his arms and walks out from behind the igloo, exposed fully to the crimson seals of the Fire Nation.
"I'll come without a fight," he announces, unconsciously bringing two fingers to his pulse out of anxiety, "just leave the rest of them alone."
"Deal," a soldier responds curtly, then promptly hits him on the head with the a sword hilt.
Felix allows himself to fall into darkness, hoping he didn't just take his final glimpse of the sun.
-------
When he comes to, the first thing Felix notices is the silence.
He figures he's not dead, because his head continues to throb in very painful, very human cycles. He registers the faint creaking of the ship and slowly takes in the rusted walls surrounding him; not to mention the iron bars keeping him from leaving. Felix attempts to lift a heavy hand to ease the weight on his skull, but freezes when the loud jingle of metal on metal chains echo through the small cell. Large steel handcuffs wrap around his small wrists and chain him to the floor, giving him very limited space to move his arms. They're incredibly old and rusted- Felix thinks an Earthbender could easily snap the chains if they added a little force.
Every movement within the handcuffs causes said chains to hit against each other with loud, withering echoes of sound; or maybe he's just got a concussion and every sound just hurts at the moment, especially in the empty silence.
The lighting is dim, at least. He's got a singular torch next to the metal door in front of him. Not that Felix could hope to reach it through his cell bars.
Two guards open the door, the rusted metal shrieking against the grates on the floor. Both are in the traditional Fire Nation armor that the soldiers had been wearing when they invaded. One has his helmet off while the other has his on. The former bears the traditional Fire Nation ponytail, while Felix can't see any hair from beneath the helmet-wearing guard.
No-Helmet also has a tray of what looks like a plate of stale bread on it. He opens a small hatch on Felix's cell doors before handing the tray to the Helmet guard.
Helmet guard places the tray in front of Felix while the other stands behind him, almost hovering. Like he's watching his fellow guard more than Felix.
Felix glances at the guards, then the tray, then his handcuffed hands, then back at the guards. "It's difficult to eat with limited motion in my hands."
"Hm. You'll figure it out," Helmet tells him. The voice is cold but firm, even from beneath the helmet- like it carries restrained, hidden power. Similar to frost crawling over the surface of a deep lake.
Felix frowns in distaste. "Why am I here?" He demands. He tries to add strength to his voice, but it still sounds wobbly. Much like his vision, which still has black spots dancing in it.
The helmet guard hesitates. "Because you're a criminal."
No-Helmet steps forward, apparently unsatisfied with that answer. "Because you're the Fire Nation's most wanted criminal. A real felon. We're lucky you were stupid enough to reveal you were a Waterbender by sinking that ship. A stupid move for the great CB97."
"I don't even know what a CB97 is," Felix protests, growing frustrated, "you have the wrong Waterbender."
"You're the only Waterbender in these parts," No-Helmet snarls, the torchlight glinting visibly in his Fire Nation headpiece, "quit trying to convince us of otherwise. Your execution is set in stone."
Ah.
So he is dying.
The helmetless guard leaves with those chilling words, adding a brisk: "if you're sticking around to beat him a little, rookie, go ahead. I'll tell the others he resisted when we came to bring food," as well before closing the metal door behind him.
Felix winces at the screeching sound before regaining his composure and leveling the second guard with a heavy glare. "Why bother? I'm going to die anyway."
"That's not a very fun attitude," the guard deadpans, seemingly not intent on pummeling Felix despite his senior suggesting it. He produces a small cup of water from a hidden pouch inside his belt and places it on the tray.
"Here. Use it."
Felix stares at him. "What?"
"I said what I said," the guard tells him, which explains absolutely nothing, then gets up and exits the room.
Felix frowns. The first guard is what he expected of his captors: intent on getting his head cut off as soon as he gets to the Fire Nation, willing to look away from unfair treatment, gruff, and harsh with his words. The second guard, however. Felix doesn't understand him. He doesn't seem soft at all, but he also doesn't seem intent on beating Felix's brains out, no; he seems...expectant. Like he wants something from Felix.
His head hurts. Felix thinks he may be overthinking the mystery of Helmet guard. It must be the concussion.
Idly, he looks at the cup of water through his dirty locks. It smells like it's from the sea. Did they seriously give him saltwater to drink?
Wait.
Saltwater.
Water.
With a growing feeling of hope, Felix realizes they've given him water. He could use it to repeatedly freeze the chains and weaken them so he can break out of them. If he preserves enough of it, he could fight the potential guards in the hallway. And if he makes it to the top deck, he's got the whole ocean at his disposal.
He's not trained by any means, and his concussion will be hindering, but Felix thinks adrenaline and the sheer will to survive will help him get him there. It's not like he has any other options of survival.
Felix glances back at the cup and frowns.
Why would the guard, knowing he's such an infamous Waterbender, give him a cup of water?
He can't use his hands much, but he can move his wrists enough to bend. Doesn't the guard know that? And why did he only bring the water out after the first guard had left?
"Here. Use it."
He'd said use, not drink.
Felix doesn't know what the guard's intention is.
But he's certainly going to follow his instructions.
With a bit of awkward wiggling and pained twisting, Felix manages to bend the water from the cup and freeze his chains. With a small tug, he snaps the metal and breaks free from the chains. Hurriedly, he stands up, desperate to escape the cell, but he almost immediately falls over the moment he does so. Fuck concussions, really. Felix is going to punch the person who invented them.
He uses a small bit of water to create a pick and unlock himself from his cell. Unfortunately for him, the cup is small, and that's the rest of his water gone- so Felix is just going to have to pummel his way to the outside. No matter. His only other option is to wait for his death. He can't stop now.
Felix yanks open the metal door and sprints into the hallway. Alarms immediately start blaring at the new movement, but Felix ignores it despite his head protesting against the agonizingly loud sound. He's got one single thought on his mind, eclipsing through the cacophony of pain:
Get out.
-------
From the guards room, which is emptying rapidly due to the alerts of their new prisoner escaping, a "rookie" guard smiles from beneath his helmet.
-------
His first obstacle is a guard patrolling the hallway. Upon seeing Felix, he immediately punches the air a good ten feet away from him.
Felix stares at him. The punch wasn't even close to hitting him. What was that supposed to-
Fire bursts out of the soldier's fist and Felix realizes that he may be an idiot. Of course Firebenders are on the Fire Nation ship. And of course they'd like nothing more than to burn him into a crisp.
He dodges the fire ball, feeling the heat fly past his cheek, and plants a well-aimed kick to the soldier's face. Without checking to see if the guard recovered, Felix bolts past him and continues searching for a staircase or exit of some sort. He has no idea where he's going, simply taking random turns and praying he'll get to the top deck eventually in true Wooyoung fashion. Felix doesn't even have a plan for when he gets to the top, but he'll figure that out when he does.
If he does.
He hears the heavy clamor of armor against the ship's tiles behind him and Felix knows he's being chased. With a swift glance over his shoulder, he spots two fireballs on either side of him aimed straight for his head. He ducks, which saves him from becoming a pile of ash, but immediately feels a pang in his head. His migraine is getting worse; and there's no doubt his flight is helping at all.
Stumbling to his feet, he continues running until he spots a ramp and a light at the top of it.
Sunlight.
A sharp burst of heat snags his shoulder, burning off the top of his ragged fur coat. Felix hears himself make a noise of pain as he feels the heavy flames lick his skin through his coat and decides he needs to get the fabric off of himself as soon as possible. He rips the coat away and chucks it as far back as he can behind him before darting up the ramp.
The scent of the ocean hits his nose immediately. Felix can't explain it, but he can feel it seeping into his bones. It strengthens him entirely, reinvigorating his sore muscles and straightening his back. The wind hits his back, and if Felix closed his eyes, he would be able to imagine he was at the top of the snow hills, sledding with Wooyoung.
"Capture him!"
He can't be nostalgic for long.
Felix turns around, ready to face his new opponents...
...and is met with nearly the entire crew staring back at him, weapons raised and ready.
Well, shit.
"Surrender peacefully, boy," the helmetless guard from earlier speaks up from the center of all the guards. "Even someone of your caliber cannot hold their own against every soldier here."
Someone of your caliber.
Just how crazy was this other Waterbender dude?
Half a dozen soldiers step to the front of the group. None of them are bearing weapons, but appear to be the most confident of the group, meaning only one thing: they're all benders.
Felix gets into his best battle stance and winces when he moves his shoulder. The blisters forming on his skin are not as aggravating as his migraine, but it's definitely going to sting later. Felix ignores it.
With a flick of his wrist, he summons as much water as he can from the ocean, and blasts as much of it as he can at the soldiers. The benders of the group easily dodge- they've clearly had more training than the others -while multiple nonbenders in the back are shoved against the ship walls. It's not enough, however, because there are still plenty of standing guards that begin rushing at top speed towards Felix.
He creates a wall of water, slowing those with swords, and ducks beneath an incoming fireball. He feels it singe the top of his hair.
Spears fly at his head. He freezes them before they reach his head and then nimbly hops onto his ice wall to avoid a swing of someone's sword. His body protests at his sudden, foreign movements, but his instinct to survive overrides the pain.
More ranged weapons are thrown at him. He swipes them away with a wave of water and distantly wonders why the soldiers have so many weapons. And they're mostly ranged, too. Even if Felix was well-versed in close combat, it would be difficult for him to get within punching distance of any guard.
A final spear is thrown at his ice wall, shattering it. Felix crashes to the ground and scrambles gracelessly to his feet to avoid a fireball blast. He splashes a soldier in the face with some water and hurriedly scurries to make distance between him and the mob of guards.
Everything is so loud. Bending is becoming increasingly harder as his focus is siphoned away by the tycoon that was his burning headache. Felix dodges another incoming fireball and physically yelps when a sword comes his way and narrowly misses impaling his other shoulder. He can't keep this up for much longer.
Hazily, he fights through the growing number of dancing spots in his eyes. A small part of him notices three fireballs coming directly towards him, but there's too many swords aimed at him, and knives, and spears, and-
A massive fireball burns clear all of the fireballs and weapons launched at him. Multiple guards are forced to hop backwards. Felix, though sluggish, is surprised enough to whip his head towards the caster.
It's just another soldier with a helmet covering his face. But when he speaks, a spark of recognition flickers through Felix's brain.
"What the hell, rookie?!" Another soldier barks.
"Sorry," a deadpan, cool voice answers from under his helmet, "I missed."
The guards grumble and glare at him. It offers Felix only seconds of reprieve before the soldiers resume their ruthless attacks. In a desperate attempt for protection, Felix finds himself gravitating towards the apparent rookie guard, but the soldier offers no backup whatsoever even as Felix continues to be cornered. He produces a fireball- a measly sized one compared to the one he'd just launched -at Felix's shoulder. It misses without Felix even moving.
The guards begin to circle around him in a tight link. Felix is too exhausted to bend more water, having never bended this much in his whole life, and there's no visible exits. Belatedly, Felix realizes that his prison break is going to be unsuccessful; and he would likely never get to correct it.
"Seize him," a gruff voice commands.
A guard tackles him to the ground. Felix fruitlessly attempts to squirm away. Some water from the ship's mad rocking pours onto the deck, but he's too fatigued to bend at all. Even so, he continues trying to worm out of the guard's grasp until he hears a familiar smooth voice in his ear.
"Don't struggle. We'll get you out."
Felix, confused, tired, and scared, has no other choice but to follow the voice's instructions and allow his vision to fade to black.