The Fire Within - an atla fanfic (Zuko x OC)

Anyone Can See

"Yeah, so then I got Mai and Ty Lee out of prison, and I destroyed all the serum to take away my bending. That's what really made Azula mad." I finished as I explained to Zuko what happened while we were apart.

Zuko looked to the side at Gaku. We were all eating our mochi at the front steps to the palace. "What's gonna happen to him?"

I blinked as I watched Gaku happily eat. "I don't know. I'm his only family left, besides Liang." I replied. We had put Liang in the cell next to Azula only 30 minutes earlier, and heated him up so he wouldn't, like, die. I looked back at Zuko. "I'm gonna have to take care of him."

"Don't worry, I'll help you. We'll need practice anyway." Zuko said casually.

I scoffed, and then blushed afterwards, realizing what he was insinuating. "So, you never told me what you were up to."

"Oh, well, you really missed out on the play. It was great." Zuko said sarcastically. "You were in it." He added. "Although, the actress who played you didn't look anything like you."

"I guess I'm glad I got to miss out on that," I said with a tiny snicker.

"Yeah, and then yesterday, Aang just disappeared." Zuko mentioned.

"Oh, where was he?"

"I don't know. We never found him." Zuko answered.

I widened my eyes. "What? How do we know if he even is fighting Ozai?"

Zuko shrugged. "We don't. But I think he is fighting him right now." He placed his hand on mine. "If he isn't, I don't know what to think."

"Well, things have gone better than I expected, hey, maybe we'll even be able to find Uncle." I said optimistically.

"Oh yeah, I found Uncle. He was with the White Lotus."

I smiled happily. "He's coming back to the Fire Nation, right? And what did you say to him?"

"I said I was sorry." Zuko replied, sounding a bit relieved. "I asked him to come fight Ozai and become the new Fire Lord, but he had other plans. He went with the White Lotus to reclaim Ba Sing Se."

"So that must mean that you..."

Zuko nodded slightly, suddenly looking far more stressed.

My mouthed gaped. "Wow, that's insane." I looked over at Gaku in amazement. "Gaku, look it's the new Fire Lord."

Gaku looked at Zuko in confusion. "What about Fire Lord Ozai? Teacher Shang taught us he was a great person in school every day."

I glanced over at Zuko uneasily. "Those are all lies, Gaku. Complete brainwashing."

"Yeah, trust me, he isn't a great person." Zuko said dryly.

Gaku stayed silent after that comment; I forgot that the Royal Academy for Boys probably heavily participated in thought control.

I sighed and rested my head on Zuko's shoulder. We both looked into the sky. It was painted in warm tones as the comet reached the horizon. It was a shame that such a beautiful thing was used for destruction.

"It was so crazy. When I was fighting Azula, I mean. It was so much. I was so scared." Zuko admitted.

I looked up at him in thought. "It's over now. And you did it, I'm so proud of you."

"It isn't over until Aang comes back and my father has been defeated." Zuko replied, his jaw clenched.

"Speak of the devil." I said, peering in the sky.