Chapter XI: Opening Up

A few hours after the fight, Nathan received the scroll Ozai had talked about in his room. However, there was one issue.

He couldn't read the language it was written in, which was Mandarin or some sort of variant of it. Babel Jack, his language perk, seemed to work somewhat, letting him know what certain characters or line of characters probably meant.

Nathan clicked his tongue. 'The perk did say the accelerated learning only worked through exposure or studying.'

With no other choice left, he asked a servant to guide him to Ursa. Thankfully, she was just sitting next to a pond in their huge garden, watching a couple of turtle ducks.

"Hey," Nathan called out to Ursa, sitting next to her on the flat stone surrounding the pond. "Ursa?"

She seemed to be deep in thought, and not wanting to disturb her, Nathan waited until she noticed his presence. It didn't take too long before she did.

"Nathan? When did you get here?"

Nathan shrugged his shoulders. "Just now. I was hoping you could help me with something." He handed her the scroll from Ozai. "I… can't read it."

"You can't read? Hmm. Your memory must be more damaged than I thought," she said as she unraveled the scroll. "Oh. This is your contract."

"Yup. Got it a few minutes ago. Also, I actually can read a few characters. Like this one," he said, pointing at the mandarin characters at the top. "This line here means 'Official Document of the Fire Nation' or something like that. Am I right?"

"You're… correct," she said, pleasantly surprised. "Let's see if you can remember some more. Here, I'll point out what they all mean one by one."

"Wait, can you tell me what additional condition Ozai set? The one he talked about in the training room."

"Let me see…" She traced a line of characters with her finger as she read. "Hmm. It says here that if you also agree to be Zuko and Azula's personal bodyguard during trips inside and outside the Fire Nation, he'll add an additional ten gold pieces to your original payment. In total, that would make your payment twenty-five gold pieces."

"Wait, what?" Nathan asked in confusion. "I mean, the payment sounds nice, but why does he want me to be their personal bodyguard?"

"I… don't know." Her brows furrowed in thought.

Nathan only knew Ozai as what the show depicted him to be. A power-hungry, manipulative, and cruel man. But this wasn't just a show anymore. It was real life. His gut was telling him that there was something more to this condition, but all he could do for now was guess.

"Well, it's definitely a strange condition to add," he said, scratching the back of his head. "But I don't really mind. How do I agree with the contract? Do I sign it in some way?"

"There's no need. When it comes to contracts like this, your verbal agreement is enough. I'll have a servant deliver this to Ozai, along with your agreement."

"Thanks," he said with a smile.

"It's no trouble. Do you still want my help with learning how to read this?"

"Yes, please."

With Ursa's help, Nathan quickly began to understand and figure the language out within a few minutes. It honestly baffled him how fast he learned and understood the previously unknown language.

"Woah… I understand it now." He exclaimed while holding the scroll up. "Man, I can't thank you enough, Ursa!"

Ursa chuckled at his enthusiasm. "No problem. I believe what you said before about being a fast learner now. Don't be afraid of coming to me if you need more help."

"I'll try, but I can't just keep doing that forever, y'know? It feels like I'm depending on you too much. Besides, I have a feeling that my memories might recover faster than we thought. Or at least, I think it will," he said, handing the scroll back to her.

"Oh? Why is that?" she tilted her head in curiosity.

Nathan carefully planned his next words. While he wasn't planning on revealing his true origins, he'll need to have something to fall back on in-case he'll need to do or say anything that relied on his key memories and experiences as an explanation. This would also be the first time he'll be opening up to someone about his past, and it took him a minute to gather up the courage to begin.

"…When I was fighting a while ago, my head suddenly got flooded with memories of my dad and mom. I don't really know why, but I guess the fight acted as some sort of trigger that unlocked them."

Ursa's eyes slowly widened in comprehension. "That's wonderful! What do you remember about them?"

"Quite a lot, actually. My dad… He didn't really treat me like his son. You see, his lifelong dream was to be the best fighter in the world, but he couldn't accomplish it. So what he did instead was he began training me when he found out I was pretty good at fighting. At that point, he started treating me less like his son, and more like his student and his second chance at his dream. That was when he and mom started fighting and shouting at each other."

Ursa silently nodded her head along as he narrated his story. And like a dam that had been opened, he found it easier to continue as he went on.

"Dad would train me from morning until dusk with only a few short breaks in-between. Mom didn't like that and after a few years of that situation constantly playing out, their relationship just completely deteriorated." Nathan showed a smile of melancholy. "I still remember it clearly. It got so bad they'd start throwing things around the house like it was a contest and would sometimes even hit each other. And one day, I guess mom just couldn't take it anymore… She left the house without a word, and no matter who I asked, no one knew where she went."

"Your mom left…? What about your father?"

Nathan scoffed. "The bastard didn't tell me anything. Whenever I brought up the topic, he'd completely shut up or just get pissed at me. I eventually got tired of asking and getting no answers, so I stopped. But not having my mom in the house… It made our home feel so… empty."

Ursa's brows furrowed. "What happened after? Did your father continue to train you?"

"Yeah…" He nodded. "Almost every day after that was just training and more training. I barely got time for my hobbies, but it wasn't all bad. I enjoyed learning how to fight and train my body. It was hard, but it was also fun. Then again, my dad and my other teachers were all some of the best in their fighting style, so I guess I should've expected it."

Nathan snorted with amusement. "There was that one time I managed to win against one of them in a spar. It took everything I had, and I got my ass kicked for most of the match, but I won after I got a really good hit in. I think the only reason why I managed to win back then was because my pain tolerance had reached a high enough threshold. It helped with taking hits. If it hadn't, I would've gone down in the first thirty seconds."

"Pain tolerance? Wait. Just to be sure… How old were you when this happened?" she asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"I think I was… Nine. Yeah. Nine and a half, to be exact."

"A-And…" Ursa's voice shook. "When did you start training? How old was this teacher of yours?"

"I started training when I turned seven and my capoeira teacher was pushing mid 40s, I think. Why do you ask?"

Ursa put her hands on his shoulders and clasped them, looking into his eyes with worry. "Nathan… Please tell me. Did your father force you to spar against master martial artists while you were still a child?"

Nathan began to feel a bit weirded out, putting on a stiff smile. He couldn't understand why she looked so bothered by what he said.

"I-I guess? Normally, kids would spar against others their age. But my dad said sparring against those who were some of the best of their respective styles was the best way for me to improve, and it worked really well. Also, whenever I fought them, they'd always pull their punches, so I wasn't in that much danger. I mean, I'd get a couple of bruises every now and then, but that was something I already expected." The more he said, the tighter her grip became. He gave her a puzzled look. "…Why are you getting more upset? Is it actually bad?"

Before he could react, Ursa quickly enveloped him in a tight hug. "Yes… Yes, it is, you poor, clueless child. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for you to have such a difficult childhood," she said as she soothingly caressed the back of his head. "Now I know why you're so skilled for your age. And with how much time you spent on training, you didn't really have friends, did you?"

"Uhhh…" Nathan's mind took a minute to reboot. "No, not really."

His hands awkwardly hovered above Ursa's back.

'She smells nice,' he idly thought. 'But… when was the last time I actually got a hug from someone?'

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember. All he knew was that it had been years and the last person who hugged him was his mother. Strangely enough, the way Ursa held him felt almost the exact same way his mother hugged him—with care and affection.

Unable to resist the comfort she provided, Nathan slowly returned the hug.

"It's okay. You don't have to work so hard anymore. Take a break," Ursa gently whispered. "You've done your best already." She chuckled lightly. "In fact, I think you're still too young to be spending all your years training how to fight. From now on, promise me you'll spend most of your time finding other hobbies or things to do aside from training. The world has so much more to offer than just fighting. And like I said before, if you need any help at all, don't be afraid to ask."

Hearing her words, Nathan's body shuddered. He didn't know why, but it felt like he'd been waiting to hear those words for the longest time, and before he knew it, he choked up.

Not wanting to show himself crying, he hugged her just a bit tighter after wiping away the wetness in his eyes.

"You… You won't believe how nice it feels to hear that," he said with held back tears. "Thank you, Ursa. Also, you're one hell of a hugger."

She chuckled softly. "You're welcome."

Too focused on the hug, they didn't notice the footsteps approaching them.

"Mom?"

Nathan and Ursa jumped in surprise, abruptly letting go of each other, before turning towards a confused Zuko behind them.

"Uh, hey Zuko." He cheerfully greeted with a strained smile. "Sorry about that. Your mom was just helping me with my memory issue. What's that you got there?" he asked, swiftly changing the subject.

"Oh, this?" Zuko raised his hand, holding something that was about the same size as an average bowl. "It's just some bread. We're going to feed it to the turtle ducks."

"That's nice," Nathan said, feeling a sense of déjà vu. "I'll, uh, I'll just go ahead and give you two some space."

"No. You can stay," Ursa said, stopping him as he stood. "You should join us. Feeding the turtle ducks can be quite…. soothing."

Having nothing better to do, Nathan obliged and sat back down as Zuko joined them. Ursa broke off a part of the bread and handed it to him.

"Go on. Try it." Ursa said, urging him with a smile. She put tiny pieces of bread in her hand and fed it to one of the baby turtle ducks.

Copying what she did, Nathan put bits of bread in his hand and slowly lowered it near the closest baby turtle duck. It stared at his hand for a moment, perhaps with curiosity, before getting closer and eating the pieces of bread.

"Heh," Nathan let out a soft chuckle. "It's adorable."

"Hey mom. Wanna see how Azula feeds turtle ducks?" Zuko asked, lobbing the bread at the baby turtle duck and hitting it. Quacking in pain, it sunk underneath the bread.

Nathan immediately turned towards Zuko with a frown. "Zuko!"

"Zuko!" Ursa gasped, appalled. "Why would you do that?"

Things clicked in Nathan's head. 'Wait a minute. Wasn't this what happened in one of Zuko's flashbacks?'

The baby turtle duck soon rose to the surface with no injuries, but the mother immediately swam towards Zuko, quacking angrily and biting his foot.

"Ow! Ow Ow! OW!"

Ursa quickly stood up and gently pulled the mother turtle duck away before putting it back in the pond. It swam to its children and left with them, but not before giving Zuko another angry quack.

"Stupid turtle duck…!" Zuko said in annoyance, glaring at the offender. "Why'd she do that?"

"Really? You're blaming the turtle duck?" Nathan raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "You were the one who threw bread at its kid. I'm more surprised it didn't go for your face."

Ursa crouched. "He's right, Zuko. That's what moms are like. If you mess with their babies…" She playfully chomped at Zuko and hugged him with her arm. "They're gonna bite you back."

Zuko laughed along with her, and Nathan would've joined in if he hadn't caught a familiar set of eyes peeking from a corner before disappearing.

'Was that Azula?'

"Is something wrong, Nathan?" Ursa asked.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Everything's fine. I, uh, I just need to go somewhere real quick." He ran towards where he last saw Azula while waving back. "Don't wait for me!"

'She can't have gone far.'

-=-

Author's Note: Quick side note. How do you guys think the turtle ducks came to be in ATLA? Did a male turtle did the sexy with a female duck, or do you think it's the opposite?