Fire & Rain: Book 1

Firewood

Zuko's POV
After hours on the road, we decided to call it a night and set up camp, uncle went to gather food, Y/N gathered water and I was to search for firewood.

Y/N hadn't spoken a word to me since we stopped at the stream where I told her that last night was a mistake. I must've really hurt her... when she came to the mountains to find me and when she told me that she loved me... that must've been so hard for her.

Y/N reminded me a lot of my sister sometimes, they both seem to be numb to the emotional pain that life brings, she's harsh but only because she cares, she's precise and strong, deadly and fierce...

I'd never seen her leave herself so emotionally vulnerable.

She sat in front of me, with her guard down and her heart open then told me that she loved me, then I kissed her and I kissed her again later on, but today, I took her trust and destroyed it- what an idiotic move.

I punched my flaming fists into the tree in front of me, again and again and again.

Why am I so stupid? Every good thing that comes my way I ruin. I get scared and I ruin it.

I yelled out as I destroyed the tree, trying to let the anger out of my system, but instead I just fell to the floor and cried.

I heard the hiss from my flames being put out, followed by a soothing voice,

"Are you okay, Prince Zuko?"

I turned around and met eyes with her. Y/N, my best friend who had stood by my side when my mother left, the girl who had me ecstatic when she first boarded my ship, the soldier who stood up against the avatar for my sake, the one who climbed up the fire sages' temple to ensure my safety, the fire nation citizen who spied on her own people underneath the sea to give me the upper hand, the water bender who challenged a trained master under the light of the full moon to protect me and almost died, the private who left her division the minute she realised that I was in trouble... Y/N, the girl that saved my uncle's life.

"I am so sorry..."

Her face was void of any emotion,

"You have no reason to apologise. I was the one who allowed my imagination to bring me to ridiculous conclusions based on meaningless events."

"Wait, Y/N, you don't understa-"

"It's fine, Zuko, I get it. You don't need to explain yourself."

She held her hand out and pulled me up from the ground before silently collecting the firewood herself and heading back to where we had decided on camping.

When we sat around the fire, wrapped in our blankets, Y/N yawned and asked me,

"So what's your next move?"

I sighed,

"I don't know... right now I'm more focused on surviving... I'll eventually capture the avatar and return home, but it isn't as simple as it was before now that I'm being hunted down by my sister."

Y/N raised her eyebrows and laid down under her blanket before blankly asking,

"How is Azula, anyway?"

I retorted,

"What kind of question is that!? She tried to kill uncle!"

But she muttered,

"You don't give her enough credit. If she wanted him dead, he'd be dead."

I ignored her remark as she drifted off to sleep before asking uncle,

"How are you feeling?"

"Better. Y/N is a talented healer, she checked up on my injury earlier when you went to collect firewood, I'm almost completely healed!"

"Is that so?"

My uncle nodded to be before bidding me goodnight and lying down too, reminding me to put out the fire before going to sleep.

I sat by the open fire, watching the flames flicker and dance, feeling the heat warm my face and looked over at Y/N, sleeping peacefully.

I didn't have my honour, I didn't have my father's love, I didn't have my throne, nor did I have my country... without them I am just an undeserving banished prince and Y/N deserves more than that. She deserves more than someone who loses their temper over the slightest thing, I called her useless, and I knew that she wasn't. I knew that she was doing everything that she could, I was looking for a reason to be mad, I was looking for someone to blame.

Y/N and uncle were the only people who loved and cared for me unconditionally, even after I was banished from the Fire Nation, uncle stayed by my side on my entire journey, Y/N ran away from the life she had worked so hard for to aid me- I knew I should've treated them both with more respect and love, but it scared me, because what if they left too?

What if they left me like mother did?

I let out a long exhale before resting my head on the ground, slowly falling asleep.

Y/N's POV
I woke up to the warmth of the sun kissing my skin, as I sat up and stretched, I looked to both Zuko and Iroh, they were both still sound asleep.

I began to pack away the camp, meaning that they'd have to do less work when they finally got up.

Hmph, "I rise with the sun" he says.

After packing away most of our camp, I decided to practice some water bending forms; I pulled the flask of stream water out of my bag and started shifting between my stances and forms, steadying my breathing and feeling the flow of water in my control.

At times when I was alone practicing, I thought a lot about my heritage. I often wondered where I got my water bending from, and which one of my parents had descended from the water tribe. They both had paler skin than I do and had amber eyes, but I didn't and I had darker skin, I easily looked like I was from the water tribe, but nobody had ever said anything about it to me... maybe one of my grand parents had come from the water tribe... I don't know.

I have the heart and soul of a Fire Nation citizen, I knew what was right and I knew that we held the superior element, the war wouldn't exist if the other nations didn't resist... we were trying to spread our greatness to the ends of the earth, we were trying to bring peace, but peace doesn't exist until someone fights for it.

My water bending was an impurity... a nuisance, it set me apart from my nation, it made me less than them, but by training in combat, I was doing my part to help peace prevail, by joining the army, by fighting on the front lines, that made up for my inability to fire bend, that made up for my water bending.

"Oh. You've already packed?"

I pulled the water back into my flask and turned to face Zuko,

"Yeah, whenever you're both ready we can set off again."

"I appreciate you coming back for me, you know?"

I shot him a faint smile before returning to the ostrich horse and replacing my flask in my bag.

When Irob woke up again, we got back onto the ostrich-horse, Iroh being sandwiched between us again and headed back onto the road.