By Your Side (Zuko x Reader) (Sequel to Torn Heart)

Chapter 15

My POV:
It was surprisingly easy to gain passage away from the capital. The captain of a fishing vessel let me ride along in exchange for a bit of work. No one tried to stop me.
The next couple weeks, I hopped from town to town, island to island throughout the Fire Nation. I had no idea how to find my friends—ahem, ex-friends, but Aang still had to learn fire-bending (allowing that he was alive), so they couldn't be too far. Here and there I did catch bits of gossip—something about a secret dance party, a Fire Nation factory being destroyed, seemingly by a ghost, a mysterious group of young adults saving a town from a meteorite—yeah, I'm on the right track.
Finally, one day, I was hurrying out of yet another town with my dinner, planning to eat it when I set up camp a safe distance away, when I crashed into a man. I fell on my ass and his fire flakes spilled next to me. as he crouched down to salvage them, he snapped, "Hey, watch where you're—Y/N?"
I looked up into his face, "Sokka!"
He straightened up and jumped back like I had stung him, his face showing a myriad of emotions, his mouth hanging open, but the only thing that came out was another, "Y/N?"
           I jumped up too, "Sokka, I can't believe I finally found you! I've been searching and..."
           "Sokka, hurry up," said a voice behind me, and I froze, "We gotta..."
           He trailed off as I turned to face him. There stood Aang, barely more than a foot away, alive and well—and with a head of hair. "Aang?" I breathed as my mouth hung open. The next moment I shook myself from the stupor to throw myself on him, laughing like a mad woman, "I can't believe you're alive! And you have hair!"
            But he did not share my enthusiasm. Aang shoved me away from him with surprising aggression, "Get off of me!"
            My face fell, "Aang, I—"
            "You have no right to even talk to us after what you did," he snapped.
            I thought I had prepared myself for this—after all, what was I expecting? But it still felt like being stabbed through with an ice-cold knife. Sokka had come to stand by Aang and to make matters worse, a third face appeared on his other side, "Hey, guys, what's taking so—You."
           Katara.
           "Yes, me," I said, sheepishly, "Listen, I know I messed up—"
           "Yeah, no shit," Katara put a hand on her boyfriends shoulder as if to turn him away and Aang refused to meet my eyes, "What are you doing here, Y/N? Zuko get tired of you and kick you out?"
           "Not exactly...But I was trying to find you guys!"
           "Why? Why would you think we would take you back?"
"I know I messed up and I don't deserve shit from you," I dropped to my knees, "I'm not asking for forgiveness, I'm not asking to be friends. I just want to be allies again."
I pressed my forehead to the earth, openly weeping, swallowing my pride. I said again, "We don't have to be friends. You can hate me forever, I don't care. I just want to help, to be allies again."
In the silence that followed, I heard Sokka's voice softly say, "It's your call, Aang."
After another long moment, Aang grumbled, "Get up. You know I don't like the whole bowing thing—it's just weird."
I scrambled to my feet, wiping my eyes. As soon as I was standing, Aang forced the supplies he was carrying into my arms, "Here, you can carry this. Now, come on."
"Okay!" I said, eagerly.
Without another word, Aang and Sokka turned and started walking. Before I could follow, Katara stepped into my path, "Don't make us regret this, Y/N."
I opened my mouth to reply, but she had already spun on her heel and followed the boys. I traipsed after them silently, taking care not to forget my place. I was relieved that they only let me come with them. I needed nothing else to be content, I told myself.
And yet, we were just reaching their camp, when the rocks under my feet slanted on me, tipping me backwards, landing me flat on my back, and spilling the food I was carrying all over me. From the ground I could hear a harsh voice, "What is she doing here?!"
"We ran into her in town. She's not with Zuko anymore and she wants to help," Aang said, simply, while Sokka complained.
"Toph, that was a bunch of food wasted!"
"Eh, it was worth it,"
"Okay, I deserved that," I muttered to myself. I sat up to see my ex-best friend standing a few paces away, arms crossed. "Nice to see you too, Toph," I said, sheepishly.
"Yeah, hi," she said, shortly, "So what? Living the life of royalty didn't agree with you?"
I pulled myself to my feet and collected what I could salvage of the food and my belongings, "Something like that."

My friends reluctantly explained their plan to me. It seemed we were still going to attack the Fire Nation capital during the eclipse—without Ba Sing Se's help, but instead, with help from our other allies around the world. The last thing I wanted to do was go back to that city, but I could never admit that if I wanted to rebuild our relationship.
"Y/N," Sokka said, seeming to fight his pride, "You've been in the capital city now. Is there anything we're missing?"
I took a long look at Wan Shi Tong's maps. The first things that caught my eye were the royal gardens and my favorite places to shop or eat, but I bit back those comments. Instead I turned my attention to the incorrect number of guard stations and corrected where streets were and a slight alteration in where Ozai's throne room was. I could feel my friends eyeing me warily, but where I was done Sokka just said, "Good to know, thanks," and marked them down.
It was true that they accepted me back as an ally, but it was very clear that we were not friends again—not right away. Aang and Toph of course were the first ones to warm back up to me. Then Sokka followed close behind. I never had the greatest relationship with Katara, so she was cold to me for a long time, but somewhere along the line we reached an unspoken understanding.
It started with Toph's voice reaching out to me in the dark one night, "Are you ever gonna tell me what really happened?"
"What?" was all I said, half-asleep and disarmed by the first time she had spoken to me without a bite in her tone.
Toph sighed, "I thought we were best friends. But if you don't want to talk about it, I guess that's fine too."
"I just thought you hated me like everyone else," I admitted.
"I wasn't exactly your biggest fan and I'm still not, but I don't hate you. And neither do the rest of them. Just give them time,"
"Thanks, Toph,"
"So...?"
"Oh, right. Well...I guess I just realized Zuko might be too damaged for me to fix. He was possessive and toxic and kept secrets from me. I still think I'll always love him, but I left for my own wellbeing, you know?"
After a long moment of contemplation, Toph said, "I don't think I understood a word of that, but I'm sorry you got hurt."
"Don't be. It was my own stupidity and I deserved it,"
"I won't argue with that, but that doesn't excuse Zuko for being an asshole. If we ever run into him, I'll give him a walloping for you,"
"Thanks, Toph," I said again.
"Don't mention it. It will be my genuine pleasure," she said, putting on a silly stuffy voice, before of course, jovially punching me in the arm.

Yay, we found our friends again! In other news, I will be taking a few weeks hiatus kinda to catch up, but I'll be back soon with what Zuko's been up too without us.
               ~Liz