The Tea Shop-(Zuko x Reader)

The Dance

It's like a song, a special song that only I know, one that I make up as I go. My feet drag across the jagged, rocky cell floor, making waves in the water below me. I remember the days of when I was a child, how wide my eyes grew as I woke up in the early morning, a habit I have never shaken. I would stomp my bundled feet to the nearest window to gaze out on the ice at the wonder unfolding right in front of my eyes.

I watched the snow dance against the fresh powder below it, it would snow all night, bringing the floor level all the way to my little window. I loved how it glistened against the morning light, the rays dancing on the little flakes, making it look like mounds of diamonds strewn across the vast open land.

"(y/n)? Are you up already?" my father whispered from across our modest tent, "I'm going fishing..would you like to join me, Ukipik?"

Ukipik is a nickname given to me by my father, it means "snowy owl", referring to my wide eyes and sense of wonder. He used to praise me for my love of everything, and how I could see the good in the littlest things.

We were alone with nothing around us for what seemed to be miles, just my father, mother, and I. What I didn't learn until later in life was that my father was from the southern water tribe, and my mother from the earth kingdom, both travelers who somehow met on their journeys, camped together, and fell in love.

I eagerly wiggled into my big coat as I waddled out the tent flap to meet my father. We would never carry gear with us, only a weaved basket to keep the fish that we caught in. We never needed gear because my father had a better way of catching fish.

I always watched close as he moved his body, how his fingers curved as his elbows bent and relaxed, how he would point his toes outward and shift his weight from one side to the other. It was a mesmerizing dance that I yearned to perform. It looked so effortless and perfect as he lifted fish from a hole in the icey planes into our basket, he only had to do this dance for a few minutes before our basket was full.

"(Y/n), why don't you join me, you need to learn at some point" My father one day smiled to me, like he expected me to already join.

I wouldn't hesitate to take the offer, I quickly sprung up and stood wide and low with my father, bending my elbows and flexing my fingers as he did, but it was no use. I listened to his direction, did everything I could, but the water would not move with me. That day I thought I was a failure, and that day my father left me and my mother with a ticket to Ba Sing Se.

The night before my father left, I laid awake in my bed, listening to everything my parents had to say.

"Kallik, you can't leave us now. You said that you wouldn't go back to your tribe, what happened to us being your tribe now?" My mother cried to my father, trying to get him to not leave.

"I'm not leaving you, Gen. My tribe needs me, but I promise I will meet you in Ba Sing Se when this is all over. We can be happy, and safe. I don't want to shelter (Y/n) from the world anymore, I want her to live...I want you to live!" My mother tried to think of anything to change his mind, but she knew he already made his choice. "I promise, I will meet you in Ba Sing Se, you will see me very soon."

Those were the last words he said before setting off back to the southern water tribe, those were the last words I ever heard him say. I don't know where he is now, but for years I waited for him to come.