a flame in his heart | zuko

chapter twelve

a/n: sorry for not updating soon. i had to go to a 9am-4pm basketball camp for a whole week and i have never been more sore and tired 😭 anyways here's a new chapter hehe

Azula had one mission, to arrest Zuko, Iroh, and Y/N, and take down the Avatar. Azula was strong, but she knew better that she couldn't take down the Avatar and his friends by herself. She needed a small elite team to help her. She needed to visit some old friends. And the first person she needed to see was someone that would help her greatly.

Azula walks onto the sand of Ember Island beach to see the familiar man. Tall, strong built, a hang braid from the side of his head with the rest of it curly.

"Out of all the things you could do, I never would've thought you liked fishing." Azula stated.

"Well, with the decreasing requests, it's been kind of boring around here." Zuma said as he turned his head to look at Azula. "What, you think fishing's corny?"

"I think it's odd for the greatest assassin in the world." Azula said. "I have a request for you."

"Oh? A request from the Princess? This should be interesting." Zuma said with a low voice while smirking.

"I don't need you to assassinate anyone. Well, not exactly. I need you to help me on a mission to arrest my brother and Uncle, and Y/N." Azula said. Zuma's eyes seemed to have a glint in them to the name.

"Oh? Is that right?" Zuma said in a teasing voice.

"Don't talk to me in a patronizing tone. I'm still royalty and you will talk to me in respect." Azula said glaring her eyes through Zuma's head.

"Okay, okay." Zuma said turning around then doing a lazy bow. "My apologies your highness."

"Anyways, as I was saying I need you to help me capture them. So what do you say? Help an old friend out?" Azula asked.

"Hm, what's in it for me?" Zuma asked.

"What? What do you mean what's in it for you? You get the glory of working alongside the Princess of the Fire Nation and honor of capturing the Avatar and jailing traitors of the Fire Nation." Azula said.

"Azula, you do realize that I am one of the greatest assassins in the world. You're going to have to give me a lot more if you want to show me benefits I get to help you. After all, the Cuapa family doesn't just help anyone. Not even the royal family. With our abilities, we could take down the Fire Lord if we wanted to. Give me something I can benefit from, Azula." Zuma said with darkened eyes and a malicious smirk.

"You're right. As the Royal family and the Cuapa's have formed a peace treaty to keep you guys in check, I guess I do have to give you something that you would benefit from. After all that third eye if yours could really hurt me." Azula said with a playful voice. "What if I gave you Y/N?"

Zuma's eyes seemed to widen a little bit. "Hm? Go on." Zuma said.

"Once we capture Y/N, things can go back to the way they were. She's your fiancé after all. You two can marry and live happily ever after." Azula proposed. Zuma went silent, thinking about the deal. "I know how much you love her. So I can-."

"Deal."

Azula look straight at Zuma's eyes as he held out a hand.

Azula smirks. "Well then, should we go to the circus to pick up Ty Lee?" Azula said.

-

Somewhere in an old and poor Earth Kingdom village, Iroh, Zuko, and Y/N sat on the street, begging for money. Zuko put his head down in embarrassment, Iroh say proudly with the money basket, and Y/N leaned on Ostrich-looking thing that Zuko stole from Song.

"Spare coins for weary travelers?" Iroh said which a man stoped to drop a few coins.

"This is humiliating. We're royalty. These people should be giving us whatever we want." Zuko whined.

"They will if you ask nicely." Iroh said. Then another pretty lady asked by. "zspate change for a hungry old man?" Iroh asked in a fake sick voice.

"Aw, here you go." she said dropping a singular coin.

"The coin is appreciated but not as much as your smile." Iroh flirted. The woman giggled a walked away.

Then another man came by. "How about some entertainment in exchange for a gold piece?" he said.

"We're not performers." Zuko glared.

"Not professional, anyways." Iroh said and began to sing. "It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se but the girls in the city are just so prettyyyyy~."

"Come on, we're talking a good piece here. Lets see some action." the man said and drew his sword and started swinging at Iroh's feet as Iroh dodged the swings.

"They kiss so sweet that you really have to meet the girls from Ba Sing Seeeeeeee~." Iroh sang.

Then the man bursted out laughing. "Nothing like a fat man dancing for his dinner." he then walked away without giving the gold piece.

Zuko got up and angerly walked up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder. "What do you think you're doing? What was the point of doing that. We're already begging for money, you could've just walked past us." Zuko said.

"Hm. I could give you ten gold pieces." the man said.

"Really?!" Iroh asked immediately.

"Really." the man said. "If you let me take the girl with me. I'll give you ten."

Y/N looks up to the scene in surprise.

"Sorry, but she's not worth ten gold pieces. And even if you had enough gold, you can't have her." Zuko said in a low and raspy voice. Y/N could tell he was pissed off.

"It's fine." Y/N taking Zuko's tense hand off the man's shoulder. "I'll be back."

"What?" Zuko asked. "What're you doing?"

Zuko watched as the man wrapped his arm around Y/N's shoulder as they walked off into some alley way. Zuko immediately started running after them. When he was about to turn into the corner they were going he almost ran into Y/N.

"I told you I'll be back." Y/N said as she dropped a pouch of gold coins in Zuko's hands and walks past him.

Zuko looks into the alley way to see the man terribly beaten up. That's when Zuko got an idea.