I'm In Love With A Monster

He Had It Coming

Zuko wasn't a party person. Or a people person. He had never even officially agreed to go, so why he was even there to begin with was beyond him.

He looked around, seeing if he could spot Mai through the dark. His night vision had improved considerably after he turned, but Mai still appeared to be nowhere to be found. He was mostly surrounded by unfamiliar faces which made him anxious, but he decided it wasn't as bad as running into Jet or Sokka.

He then decided to focus his hearing, seeing if he could find Mai by her voice. It wasn't something he was particularly good at, all of the sounds blending together and overwhelming him at first. That was until he heard something he found alarming.

"Hey, I️ said leave me alone," a girl's voice said.

"Oh, c'mon, stop being such a tease. Let's get out of here," a guy's voice replied.

Without even thinking, Zuko immediately rushed to the source of the sound.

He ended up deeper in the woods away from the rest of the party. There he spotted a guy with long dark hair caging a girl against a tree with his arms.

"Leave her alone," Zuko said.

The guy turned around slowly to face Zuko. He looked at him with his sharp light blue eyes.

The girl looked at Zuko pleadingly with big blue eyes.

"Walk away, parasite," the guy said.

Zuko rolled his eyes at the cliché insult before taking a step forward.

"Leave her alone," he repeated.

The guy clicked his tongue and clenched his sharp, square jaw.

"Clearly, you don't know how things work around here, so I'll go easy on you. I'm giving you one last chance to walk away," he threatened, his voice low.

"No," Zuko replied.

He remembered Mai's words of warning. Figuring that this guy was probably one of the werewolves, he knew he should walk away. However, he wasn't scared of this guy, he wasn't about to let him hurt some girl, and he also decided that he was most definitely an asshole that deserved to have his ass kicked.

The guy shook his head, eyes turning from their normal blue color to a yellow hue.

"Wrong answer," he said before taking a swing at Zuko.

Zuko was quick enough to dodge him, which only seemed to make him angrier, fangs and claws now appearing in addition to the yellow eyes.

He managed to swipe across Zuko's cheek with his claws. It hurt, but the scratches healed almost immediately.

"Hahn, stop it!" the girl said, pulling on the guy's shoulder.

Hahn pushed her back hard, causing her to fall back onto the tree. He looked back for a brief moment, and when he turned back to Zuko he was met with his fist.

The two both managed to get more hits in, the upper hand switching between the two.

Zuko managed to jump and tackle Hahn to the ground.

Even after the girl was long gone, Zuko continued to beat Hahn, his anger getting the best of him. When he noticed the blood he'd drawn, however, he quickly jumped back, eyes going from the blood on his fist to the blood coming from Hahn's nose and mouth.

Hahn got up slowly and spit out blood before smirking smugly Zuko.

"Oh, c'mon! Why stop now?" he taunted, seeing how close the vampire was to the edge.

He wiped some of the blood off of his mouth with his fingers.

"Is this what you want, bloodsucker?" he taunted, showing the blood on his hand.

Zuko stared at him with a dark gaze, breaths growing shallow. He was almost certain he was going to kill this guy but didn't know how to stop himself.

Hahn just stood there and watched as Zuko's eyes changed color and the black veins began to emerge underneath. With fangs bared, he began to charge at the werewolf, only to be stopped by someone else materializing in front of him.

"Zuko, stop!" she shouted, holding him by his shoulders. It was Mai.

Zuko didn't listen, the smell of the blood and the sound of the werewolf's heartbeat drowning out the other vampire's words.

It didn't occur to Zuko until later that Mai wasn't protecting Hahn: she was protecting him.

While Mai was still attempting to get Zuko under control, two other werewolves showed up.

One was a short girl with messy brown hair. Her dark brown eyes quickly turned yellow as she approached the scene.

The other was Sokka.

"He's trying to attack me!" Hahn exclaimed pointing toward Zuko.

Zuko finally calmed down just enough to stop trying to fight past Mai, and Mai turned around to face the werewolves.

"Look, he's new, cut him some slack. I'm sure it's a misunderstanding," Mai said nonchalantly.

Much to Mai's chagrin, Zuko stepped forward and spoke.

"It was not a misunderstanding! You were harassing that girl," Zuko said, looking directly at Hahn.

At that, all eyes turned to Hahn.

"What girl? What happened?" Sokka asked.

Hahn was defiant and didn't answer.

"Answer me," Sokka commanded sternly.

Zuko couldn't help but watch Sokka in slight awe.

"Yue and I️ got in an argument. C'mon man, you know how much of a tease she can be and-" Hahn began before being cut off by Sokka's right hook.

Hahn put a hand to his face as Sokka turned back around to face the vampires.

He only acknowledged at Zuko briefly before making eye contact with Mai and acting like he wasn't there, which bothered Zuko.

"Get your friend here under control. If he slips up again you'll both regret it," he said. He then turned to the girl. "Smellerbee, get Hahn to his room."

The girl, presumably Smellerbee, nodded.

Sokka then walked away without another word.

Smellerbee draped Hahn's arm over her shoulders before walking with him.

Mai waited until it was just her and Zuko to speak again. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"So I️ guess stay away from the werewolves wasn't clear enough, huh?" she asked sarcastically.

Zuko folded his arms across his chest.

"He had it coming," he replied.

"Doesn't matter," she said. "Wolves run in packs. You piss off one, you don't just make one enemy. I️ just hope you're ready to deal with it."

Zuko said nothing and allowed Mai to walk away. He then began to head to his room, wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into.