not from around here | Zuko X OC

| chapter sixty three |

Zuko woke up to the smell of salt and sand. He blinked a few times to try and see clearly in front of him. Even though the sun was behind them, the bright blue sky was slightly blinding.

He looked down to see a head of messy hair resting on his chest. He smiled, raising his hand to run it through her tangled waves.

"Good morning beautiful." He whispered, as everything that had happened the night before flashed back into his mind.

"Morning." Her dishevelled and croaking voice answered back, taking him by surprise. Zuko had been sure she was asleep, however he didn't mind.

Saki sat up and turned to face him, some of her salty hair was plastered to her face and her eyes looked tired as she squinted at him.
"What time is it?" She asked, raising one hand to rub one of her eyes.

"Some time in the morning." Zuko chuckled and Saki noticed the sound of birds chirping and the ocean waves hitting the beach below them.

"Oh." Was all she said, before standing up (much to Zuko's dismay) and walking behind the rock where their clothes were. They were dry from the sun, however they were a strange, slightly crunchy texture.
"Now that I think about it, I should've just waterbended the water out." She sighed, pulling her cargo pants.

"That would've been smart, but I guess you weren't thinking straight." Zuko said as Saki threw his shirt at him. He pulled it on over his shoulders and cringed slightly at the texture on his skin.

"I never think straight." Saki said, pulling her tank top over her shoulders.
"I wish I had some more clothes, I've worn this and that red tank top for the past few weeks. It's starting to get very worn." She sighed, pulling at a lose thread.

"You can wear some of mine." Zuko said, standing up and putting an arm around her.
"I brought some with me when I came in the war balloon, what I'm not wearing, you can."

"Thanks Zuko." She kissed his cheek and he smiled. They could both still feel and smell the salt on their skin and knew that they needed to find a river to go wash in as soon as they could.

"I'll wash these later." Saki said, dusting off Zuko's clothes. He took his hands in hers and squeezed them, stopping her.

"It's fine, I'll wash them." Zuko told her, leaning down closer to her.

"Don't worry Zuko, I can do things myself. You don't have to make a big deal out of some laundry." She told him, pulling her hands out of his grip. "It was my idea anyway." She pointed out, shrugging.

"There you two are!"

Saki and Zuko both glanced up to see Suki running up to them. "Where have you been!? We woke up and you'd both disappeared." Suki said, marching over and hitting them both on the head.

Both Saki and Zuko winced and rubbed their heads in pain.
"We're fine Suki. We just slept outside today." Saki told her as Suki glanced between them.

Suki's anger instantly dissipated and she grinned at them.
"Just sleeping eh?" She winked, nudging Zuko in the side as he rolled his eyes.

"Yes, just sleeping." Saki said sternly, grabbing Suki by the arm and pulling her away from Zuko.

"Hey, get off me-why do you smell like the whole ocean crapped on you?" Suki frowned, taking a step away from Saki and pulling her arm out of her grip.

"Because I went swimming last night okay." She said as she gestured for Zuko to follow them on their wall back to the camp.

"Ohhh, doing it in the ocean, nice." Suki grinned, nodding at her.