Torn Heart (Zuko x Reader)

Chapter 2

I woke up in a panic, "Aang! Toph!"
A woman I didn't recognize hurried to me and held down my arms as I flailed them, "Shh! Shh! You're safe! You're okay!"
I stilled, panting and peering around the room. I was in one cot in a long row of them, all filled with other people. "What happened?" I asked, "The town...?"
"Is okay. A little worse for wear, but everyone is okay, thanks to you and your friends," she was frowning though as she said it.
"Why do you seem sad? My friends...Are they...?"
"They're fine...but you were trapped under the rubble for two days...they—they think you died, my dear. They left a few days ago."
I felt something heavy drop into the pit of my stomach. My friends think I'm dead? They must be so devastated!
Shaking off the feeling, I started to rise, "Well, I'll just have to catch up with them and set them straight—"
"I'm sorry, but you can't leave. You were injured. You'll need to stay here at least a month,"
"A month?!" I echoed, "There's no way in hell, lady. Do you even know who I was traveling with?"
She rolled her eyes, "The Avatar. Yes, I know. But I'm afraid I must insist."

I soon learned I was in a small makeshift hospital a bit of a ways from the village. I did make several escape attempts which failed—my right leg had a sizable gash in it. That wasn't my only injury, but it naturally was what got in the way most times.
After almost two weeks here, I was almost resigned to stay my whole month long "sentence." That's when he showed up.
That is—made himself known to me.
It was evening, lights out, and I was trying to sleep, when a crash sounded a few cots down. I could hear a nurse crying, "Sir, you need to lay back down! Sir—Sir! You're not well yet!"
"I told you, I'm fine! I'm leaving!" the patient snapped back. I recognized the voice, deep and slightly raspy, I assumed a young man about my age, but all I knew was that he had been trouble since he got here.
Kind of like me.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," the nurse said.
The forms of two security guards blocked the light from the doorway. By the sounds of their pathetic yelps of pain, they weren't very successful. But two more guards had arrived behind them. Without thinking, I flung myself from my bed, letting myself land on the hard wood floor. "Help! Help!" I hollered.
"What the hell?" the nurse said as she, one guard, and another nurse left the young man and rushed to me.
As soon as they reached me, the other patient took off down the hall, followed by a "Hey! Stop!" from the remaining guard. The other guard and nurse pivoted, slipping slightly, to now pursue him.
"I'm really sorry," I said, quickly, kicking the remaining nurse out of the way with my good leg and rushing the other door.
I burst out into the courtyard, bracing cool night air filling my lungs, I could hear running feet sweeping the entire complex, chasing both me and the other escapee and laughed to myself. I ran towards the exit as fast as I could with my wounded leg, before the silhouette of another person burst from a doorway and we crashed headlong into each other.
It was the other patient!
He reeled back holding his nose which had collided with my forehead.
"It's you!—Ooh, I'm sorry—Hey!"
"Just shut up!" he snapped, seizing me and dragging me into the shadows, one hand pressed to my mouth. We both listened as running feet neared, before fading again, but I was more concerned with the heat that flooded my whole body. Being pressed up so tightly against a man I just met, him holding me against himself—
He evidently did not feel the same as he shoved me away the moment it was silent again. I wobbled on my one good leg, struggling to stay upright. Meanwhile the stranger stepped past me and into the courtyard, "You need to be more careful...Thanks for the distraction by the way."
"Don't mention it. Are you...leaving?"
"Duh,"
"Great, we'll go together. Wait up,"
"You're fucking with me," was his reply, the coarse language reminded me painfully of Toph.
"No, I'm not. We have a better chance of making it out of here together,"
"Your leg is wounded. You're just dead weight,"
Okay, rude.
"I can carry my own weight and I have good aim..."
"Forget it,"
"I'll start screaming,"
"Go ahead. I'll be long gone before anyone reaches here,"
I opened my mouth wide and look a deep breath. "Wait, wait, don't," he hissed, "You can come, just be quiet and be fast."
I smirked to myself, happy to have called his bluff and limped to catch up. We stopped to collect our things by the exit, when three guards spotted us. My companion drew the two swords he had retrieved, "Go on! Run!"
But I didn't. I watched him drop two guards, before diving at one and nicking the bow and quiver off him. Rising, I nocked and fired at the next two fast approaching, hitting them both (non fatally).
To my delight, the stranger next to me was stunned, "Alright then."
"Come on!" I said, snapping him out of it. We rushed the exit and raced down the path, back towards the village. We made it back to the village without too much more resistance, me being only a few paces behind my companion.
"I think we made it," he panted, hands on his knees. I collapse in the dirt next to him, gingerly rubbing my leg.
"You gonna live?" he asked, "I tried telling you—What?"
I realized then that I was staring up at him and burned red. This was the first time I could clearly see my partners face in the lamps that lined the streets. He was not what I expected at all.
Chiseled jawline, long, thin nose, and very short cut dark hair. I was captivated by the eyes—a dark amber. But the left was partially closed by a dark scar that stretched from his cheekbone to his hairline and back over his left ear.
When I didn't answer, he gestured to the scar, snorting derisively, "Oh."
I jumped, struggling to my feet, "No, no, it's not that! It's just—"
But he was already walking away, "Forget it. Have a nice life."
"Wait!" I cried out, without even knowing what I wanted him to wait for.
"What?" he snapped, pivoting and fixing me with a steely glare.
"Wh-Where are you headed?" I asked.
"North. I'm meeting up with my uncle,"
"Great, I'm looking to catch up with my friends," I slung the bow across my chest and limped over to him, "We should travel together."