It was instinct, plain and simple, to lift her hands to prove she meant no harm—but his response was far greater, stumbling away, wincing, going down. He clearly didn’t get that unspoken memo, and for a moment, there was something about the way the tables were turned and he seemed so helpless that appealed to her. A small sliver of satisfaction, of vengeance, twisted in her gut and into the smug smirk she donned as she folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her chair.
“If I was going to turn you in, I’d have tied you up while you were asleep.” Wasn’t that taking a page from his own book? Or perhaps not, since his bloodbending ability had come to light. He no longer needed Equalist drones with ropes to shackle her and bring her to her knees in front of him in yield.
The point remained. She hadn’t bound him, and even now she made no move to restrain him—or help him. If he wanted back in the bed, he could get there himself. All while she told him, dryly, “I live here, genius,” with a tip of her shoulder toward the doorway that led to the blustery iceberg called home just outside. “Welcome to the South Pole.”
They truly were two carrotpeas in a pod. There he was, so sickeningly brazen even in his weakness, and she was sitting pretty on her throne of self-righteousness and self-confidence. He might have gotten the best of her in one fight, but she’d won the war; with the Avatar State another weapon in her arsenal, she could afford an even greater level of cockiness. Master Tenzin, or his mother!, would be dragging her out by the ear if they could see her now.
Good thing they couldn’t. Good thing no one was there, no one to recognize his face or question why her presence had sent an injured man stumbling from his sickbed. “I won’t tell them who you are.” Not because she owed him any favors, and not because she felt he was truly worth the generosity, but simply— “Because I know how to undo what you did to people.” He could assume what he willed of her own status; the final leverage was hung like a peg on the wall in the history of their antagonism when she stated, “And if I have to, I can really take away your bending—just like Aang took away your father’s.”
They were not friends, even though they may no longer have been enemies.