Frozen Heart, Melted Ice

Chpt 30 - First Night

Y/n and Katara entered the room that the group had been sleeping it, it was utterly demolished by the explosions. Debris laid everywhere and whole walls were missing, allowing the cool summer breeze to enter and sweep all the dust into the air. Y/n felt the others come to a halt behind her, and from the corner of her eye she could see a red figure. Just his presence made her angry.

"We should probably find a different room to stay in," Y/n decided, earning murmuring agreements from the group.

Everyone began gathering up their belongings to move into a different section of the temple. Y/n could barely focus at what she was doing as she stacked up their small wooden bowls, the past two days were too much to take in. Just yesterday they were invading the Fire Nation, she thought the war would be over. Then they lost, and had to run away like the children they were. Then just after their horrible defeat, Zuko showed up, and now he was a part of their team. It felt as if she got whiplash from everything that happened. Just the thought of everything gave Y/n a headache. Y/n placed the small stack back on the ground and tore the thin purple ribbons out of her hair allowing it to flow freely instead of pulling at her already strained mind. She was tired. Mentally.

Y/n dropped her stack of bowls as she stood up. She closed her eyes and exhaled for a moment, sometimes dropping a few bowls is all it took for someone to boil over.

Y/n opened her eyes to see Zuko walking over, great, exactly what I need right now.

"Here," He said gently, bending down to pick up the bowls. Y/n just stared at him. Zuko stood up and held out the bowls in front of him as if he had the motor skills of a toddler. Y/n continued to glare at him as she silently snatched up the wooden bowls and turned away, leaving Zuko standing alone.

"Zuko, don't you have anything?" Aang asked, breaking the tension yet again.

"Oh- yeah, I'll go get it," Zuko mumbled before turning on his heel and running off.

Y/n relaxed slightly the moment he left the room.

^ ^ ^

Once Zuko had left, everyone spread out among the bedrooms in one of the residential hallways, the rooms were not much - just a bed, a small window and a thin porch - but having a real bed and a private room to herself was more than what Y/n was used to in the past few months, so it was nice enough for her.

Y/n stepped outside of her room at the sound of Sokka's voice. She looked down the hall to see him showing Zuko to his room and watched from a distance as Sokka tried to figure out how to talk to Zuko.

"Ok," Sokka decided as Y/n reached him and Aang, "This is really weird."

Aang simply shrugged, Y/n nodded before turning away to go make dinner, it was her night. Sokka and Aang followed, they claimed that they would help cook but Y/n knew full well that the both of them just wanted extra food. Y/n hated cooking, nor was she that great at it, but Sokka and Aang did pass the time faster.

"DINNERS READY!" Aang shouted the moment Y/n took the rice pot off the flame.

In an instant everyone came rushing out of their rooms and crowded around Y/n and Aang who were dividing the food among bowls, Sokka said he would help but the moment the food was done he snatched his bowl and ran off to eat.

Y/n scraped the remains of the food out of the pot and lobbed it into the final bowl before looking up to hand it at whoever was unlucky enough to get the last serving - in Y/n's opinion the last serving was always the worst. It was Zuko.

Zuko flashed her a nervous smile as he took the bowl from Y/n's hands, it was obvious to even him that she hated him, and he couldn't blame her for it. She was just a hurt, angry, and confused kid who had been sucked into a seemingly endless war, he had been that kid just a few days ago. A few days ago, Zuko was back in the palace, angry with everyone and everything around him, angry that his life revolved around war, angry at himself. Zuko wondered if Y/n was angry at herself for trusting him back in Ba Sing Se. As she glared up at him, came to the conclusion that she was only angry at him. Zuko wanted to hate her in return, to glare at her the same way she did him, but he couldn't bring himself to, she was just like him, and it was his fault.