nothing to lose | zuko x oc

15

vada was seated in the teashop while zuko was on his break. the two of them had grown a lot closer over that past days, and have spent almost every day together.

she saw how his hair grew longer and she loved the new look, and aeri seemed to fit in well with him and his uncle.

the white haired waterbender had come to visit him while aang and katara were out on the town, looking for a printer to make the lost appa posters.

he always listened to her yapping even if it was over meaningless things like if the moon was made of cheese and if there was an alternative universe where bending didn't exist and everything was powered by electricity that killed the world.

a clock chimed and Mr pao, the owner of the teashop walked up to vada and zuko with a scowl. "break's over, Lee. get back to work." he said strictly and then smiled at vada before walking away.

the scarred boy let out a grunt as he stood. vada also got to her feet, and hugged the boy. "I'll see you tommorrow, okay?" he said to her, a faint, small smile gracing his handsome features

she then kissed his cheek and he nodded, "yeah."

then she got on koa and flew home.

~

later, vada was seated in the living room, adding the finishing touches to koa's new saddle. aang had just walked in a few minutes ago after dropping all the flyers that he and katara had printed

a knock sounded on the door, causing everyone to look up. aang jumped and rushed over only to be met with joo dee.

"joo dee?" he questioned as the woman walked inside. "hello, aang and katara and sokka and vada and toph."

vada cringed, she really didn't like this woman.

everyone went to the door to stand around the strange woman, "why are you here?" the white haired girl questioned, looking strangely at joo dee.

"dropping flyers and putting up posters isn't permitted without proper clearance." she stated.

sokka folded his arms. "we can't wait around to get permission for everything." he stated.

joo dee's eyes widened, "you are absolutely forbidden to put up posters." she told the children.

aang's face had turned red in anger.

"we don't care about the rules and were nit asking permission! we're finding appa on our own and you should stay out of our way!"

vada was impressed, she didn't think he had it in him. "nicely done." she complemented, "I underestimated you."

the five children went out to the city to go put up posters.

vada was accompanied by koa as she happily pasted posters of appa on every other building's wall. she hummed a tune she had heard during her travels through the earth kingdom.

a sudden commotion nearby snapped vada from her tranquility and made her head whip around.

"what the heck is that?" she questioned to her eagle-wolf as he just perked his ears up in alertedness. "let's go see what it is."

the white haired waterbender then hopped onto her eagle wolf and they flew off into the direction of the commotion.

flying closer, koa began snarling upon the sight of katara scowling at a boy (who was pinned to the wall with icicles.)

vada jumped off of koa and bent up a ball of water defensively.

she didn't know who this boy was or what he wanted, but she would stand by her friends against any enemy.

just then, the others ran closer as well. "katara, what is it?" sokka questioned hastily.

katara kept her scowl as she relaxed her stance, vada. did the same. "jet's back." the dark haired waterbender stated.

vada put her water away as katara continued. "we can't trust him." she hissed, turning away.

"I'm here to help you find appa." jet stated showing them one of the appa flyers. aang seemed to relax at that. "katara, we have to give him a chance." the airbender said.

koa walked up to the boy and began sniffing him. jet seemed to inwardly panic. "I've changed!" he said hastily, "I don't even have the gang now!"

koa backed off of him and sat down, looking at the boy, who was nervously staring at the predator. "he smells fear." vada half-joked.

she loved having koa scare people.

"I've put all that behind me. the freedom fighters, everything." jet stated.

katara was seething. "you're lying, jet!"

toph pushed past her and placed her hand in the wall behind jet. "he's not." she said.

"how can you tell?" sokka quizzed and toph turned. "I can feel his breathing and heartbeat when people lie, there's a physical reaction. he's telling the truth."

"we have to hear him out." aang stated and katara sighed. "fine." then she scowled at jet, "but we're not letting him out of our sight!"

walking up to katara followed by koa, vada gave katara a smug look. "what?" the younger of the two grunted and vada merely smiled. "oh, nothing." she cooed.

jet lead them to an empty wearhouse, and katara got very suspicious of him.

"oh yes, I definitely see a ten ton flying bison with an arrow on its head. what a beaut." vada chimed sarcastically.

katara placed a hand in her waterpouch, "it this is a trap..."

jet turned with a sigh. "I told you, I work nearby." he hissed. "two guys were talking about some giant furry creature. I figured that it could be appa."

vada placed a hand on katara's shoulder to have her calm down.

"he was here." toph stated, holding out a clump of his fur. koa trotted closer and sniffed the hair. he sneezed and began wagging his tail, confirming the blind girl's statement.

aang took the clump into his hand, "we missed him."

an old man walked past, "the shipped that big thing out to whale tail island yesterday." he stated.

vada ripped a map out of sokka's bag and opened it up. sokka peered over her shoulder to look with her.

"where's whale tail island?" katara questioned.

"far, very far." sokka said somberly.

vada nodded and held her finger on the island, it was just northeast of the southern air temple, and very far away.

"aang, it'll take us weeks just to get to the tip of the earth kingdom." katara stated, and aang let out a discouraged huff.

"what if it didn't?" vada said absentmindedly, causing everyone to look up at her. "think about it. koa can fly just as fast, if not faster than appa. if one of us were to fly there on him, it will be faster."

"but what if that one of us needs backup?" aang questioned.

"koa is an eight foot tall carnivore with no natural predators. no one will mess with him."

"true, I almost peed my pants when he was sniffing me earlier." jet added, causing katara to scowl at him.

"let's go." aang said and everyone got up and began walking out of the wearhouse.

"I'll come too." jet stated, beginning to follow them. "no. we don't need your help." katara shut him down.

vada stopped and eyed her best friend strangely whilst toph had a growing smirk on her face.

"why won't you trust me?"

"gee. I wonder."

toph stepped closer, "was this guy your boyfriend?" she questioned and katara flushed. "of course not!"

vada mirrored toph smirk. "I don't need earthbending to see that you're lying." she teased.