The Beach / January 5 / Tuesday, afternoon

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

Azula crossed her arms, its been a while since she was here and she found that she had grown… fond of this place, if only because she wasn't confined to four walls.

There was a basin filled to the brim with sand, Azula pushed the basin on to one of the boulders then placed a hand above the sand with little effort Azula heated up the sand. She nodded to herself, perfect.

(For the blond canary! But beach open!)

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was so up for the concentration of training this afternoon. Plus it had been too long since she'd had a chance to learn something new. "Hey, Azula. What's that for?" Dinah asked, dumping her water bottle and weapons nearby, then walking over to examine the basin.

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"What's it for? For training of course." Azula smirked.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I guessed we weren't going to be making sand castles," Dinah said, still bemused. "What, am I walking across it?"

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"You're going to punch the sand," she answered. Azula opened her palm and and fingers pointed downward, she struck the sand. Her palm slid into the course sand then just as quick she pulled her hand from the sand. "This serves to strengthen your fist and your fingers."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hunh. Okaaaay." Dinah formed her fingers as Azula had, and sliced at the sand, wincing a little at the sting of it. Not too much, but hey. Again. And again. Slice, slice, sliiiide out.

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"Oh and you'll find the sand a little... warm."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

That would be the wincing. Yes. Ow. Dinah sent Azula a good glare for that. "How does this help, again? By baking my fingers?"

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"That's nothing, we used to train with an open fire heating the sand," she waved her hand. "It makes the sand a little more compact and harder each time you punch through it and as I mentioned, it would make your hands tougher."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Right. Of course." Okay, if Azula had done this, then Dinah wasn't going to back down. Even if she wasn't following the logic completely. Owww. Punch! Punch! Stiiiing.

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"Fun, isn't it?" She asked, knowing full well how much it stings.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah clenched her jaw and said as sincerely as she could, "Delightful." Punch-owww.

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

Azula smirked. "I'm glad you find it that way, maybe you'd like to speed it up a little?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahah, Azula, you suuuuck, Dinah wanted to tell her, but no, she'd asked for this. Faster. Punch-punch. Punch-punch-sting. Punch-punch-punch-- "You're sure. This makes. My hands. Tougher?"

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure," she answered. "I can punch rocks maybe after this you'll learn to punch trees without flinching."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was wondering if that was because her hands were covered with scar tissue. Seriously. Okay, c'mon, build up the resistance to pain and ow ow ow hot hot ow ow sting more punch! "When did you start. Doing this?"

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"When I was six," she said so sweetly and yet managing to convey a tinge of disdain that Dinah was only starting now.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Someday Dinah would set up Azula and Arthur in a death match, just so she could sit back and eat popcorn while the two arrogant over-trained coaches had at it. Yeah.

In the meantime, there was more punching. Owwwww.

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"I'm so glad to see you so dedicated to the Art," she said conversationally. "I'm sure you can work around the blisters, after."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Note to self, invest in bandaids soon. "Thanks for your support, Azula." To distract herself, she took a breath-- punch-punch-slice owwww-- and asked, "So. Prince Zuzu. What's he up to, these days?"

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"I'd guess right about now, trying not to flail while ruling the nation," she said in a very casual voice. "Oh, and probably trying to work up the nerve to propose to his girlfriend. The doof."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah laughed, even though there was a little ache in it, and punched harder. "Who's his girlfriend?"

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"Mai," Azula replied. She studied Dinah's form, "Put a little snap into that left arm. Mai was a friend."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah shot her arm out faster, at a harder angle, and said, "Was?"

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"Was." Azula confirmed but didn't add anything else this was one of the things she still didn't like to talk about. "Now your right."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah kind of got that impression though, and wondered if Zuzu-- um, Zuko, had dated Mai to piss off his sister, or his sister had stopped being friends with Mai when she dated Azula's brother.

Slash, slash, slice, slice, and ow she wasn't going to be able to take too much more of this, her hands were stinging so badly....

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"You're hands are really red," Azula observed. "You can stop now."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Damn right she could. Ow. "...hope it's worth it." But if it was, then yay!