Zuko x Reader: Love Burns (REVAMPED)

Chapter One : The Palace

(Y/N)'s current age : 10

(Y/N)'s POV

People would really expect me to be over the moon to move into the Fire Nation Royal Palace, right?

I mean, it's a palace! Much more extravagant than I was used to. It was a privilege not everyone got.

So, I should be excited, right?!

Wrong.

Let's get a few things straight.

One: for as long as I could remember, it was just me, my mom, and my dad. Both were only children, and orphans, meaning I had no extended family. None. But, not even a week ago my parents were killed. Literally murdered, leaving me an orphan, with no family, and I'm ashamed to admit it, but no friends either.

But, yay! Palace.

Two: Fire Lord Ozai was my father's best friend. He was always leaving to go hang out with the guy, and they had been friends since the two were kids. I know what everyone's thinking, "But, (Y/N), why is this a bad thing?" I'll tell you why. I don't know the guy! I've literally never met him, my dad barely talked about his outings with him, and, even though she tried to hide it, my mother clearly hated the guy. So, to sum it all up, I'm moving in with complete strangers, uprooting my entire life.

But, yay! Palace.

And finally, three: Fire Lord Ozai is scary. Literally terrifying. I can see the servants in this palace tremble when his name is mentioned. The things I've heard about this guy? I think I'd rather live alone in the eerie silence of the house my parents were killed in. But no. This guy insisted! He insisted to take me in. What was I supposed to say? No? You're not the boss of me? He's quite literally the Fire Lord. He's the boss of everybody.

But yay! Palace.

Anyway, so there I was standing in the main entrance of the palace, told to wait there for a servant to show me to my new chambers. There were dozens of servants running around with my things. I had already offered to help them, but they looked at me like I was crazy before refusing. I guess they weren't used to being offered help. In my hand, I clutched a small hairpiece, which had belonged to my mother. I was never a fan of hairpieces, but my mother wore this one every day. It was a normal fire nation hairpiece, but the bottom sported the symbol of the Water Tribe. Due to the placement, the symbol was hidden when it was in your hair, but I think it brought my mother peace knowing it was there.

I was getting bored waiting to be brought to my chambers so I decided to set off on my own. It wasn't the best idea, but I never claimed to be smart. I was roaming around for barely 10 minutes when I saw a panicked servant run up to another. I quickly hid behind a pillar.

"Have you seen (Y/N)?" Her voice was coated in distress.

"Who?"

"The girl who's moving in today! The Fire Lord wants to see her, and I lost her. I'm so dead."

"Calm down, I'll help you find her," her friend laughed, "She's just a kid, she can't be hard to find."

"Careful," the first girl said, "That kid might as well be a royal now."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go."

The first girl nodded and they both ran off.

It was at this moment that a tiny bit of fear bubbled inside me. I did not want to see the Fire Lord. I did mention that Ozai was terrifying, right? I started to slowly back away when I heard a voice in my ear, "What are you doing?"