not from around here | Zuko X OC

| chapter sixty seven |

"I can't believe Suki and Sokka beat us to the best room." Saki complained as she fell backwards into the bed in the room her and Zuko had chosen.

"That was where my dad slept, I'm glad we got a different one." Zuko admitted, looking around.

Saki glanced at him with a slightly worried look on her face. She was worried about how being in this house would make Zuko feel. She knew his worst fear was turning into his father and maybe such a strong presence of his family would put him off.

Saki got off the bed and walked towards her boyfriend. "Zuko, we don't have to stay here if you don't want to? I know it must be hard to live here again." She said, taking his hands in hers as she looked up at him. He refused to look down and meet her eyes as he continued looking around the room.

"No, it's fine. I'll be alright here." He said, as if he was partly convincing himself.

"Are you sure?" She asked him one last time, tinting her head at him.

"I'm sure." He promised, finally meeting her eyes, making Saki smile at him.

"Do you mind if I look around? I don't want to nose in your family's business but those chests over there look pretty interesting." Saki said, pointing to a few expensive looking chests that were in a corner of the room.

"Sure, let's check it out." Zuko said, walking over with Saki and kneeling down. Luckily for them, they weren't locked and opened pretty easily. Most of them contained clothes, specifically clothes that Zuko was sure belonged to his mother.

Saki spotted a chest that was not as big or as grand as the others. It caught her attention and she edged over to it, reaching out to slowly lift the lid. However, this one was locked. She pouted and felt around in her pockets for anything to unlock it. When she found nothing, she started to look around the room.

On one of the desk she found a hair grip. She grabbed it and sat back down on the floor, pulling the chest into her lap. She began to pick the lock and after a little bit of jiggling, managed to get the chest open.

Inside were mainly photographs and a few letters. There were also some brackets and a necklace or two. This one seemed to be more of a memory box than anything else. Filled with sentimental things. Saki felt bad digging through it and was about to put it away, when she noticed something that caught her eye.

Her eyes widened as she pulled out a picture of two women, one of which was very very familiar to Saki. She held it in shaking hands before turning to Zuko.

"Hey Zuko...Who's this?" She asked, not looking away from the picture in her hand.

He dragged his eyes away from what he was holding and glanced at the picture in her hand before speaking.

"That's my mother, don't you know what she looks like?" He asked, frowning.

"No, I do. There's pictures of you guys all over the place. I meant who's this lady?" Saki asked, pointing to the picture.

He crawled over behind her and looked over her shoulder, wanting a better look at who she was talking about. He saw that there were two women in the picture, standing next to each other and smiling wildly.

"I'm not sure, I've seen this picture before and asked my mother, but she just changed the subject." He said, about to turn back to what he was looking at. "Why?" He added.

"Oh, just because that other lady is my mom!" Saki said, pretending to have a calm voice at first then letting her voice turn a little hysterical as she waved the picture around.