A Beautiful Flame: ~Rules Are Rules~

Chapter 5 (Pt.1)

The day finally came when Zuko must present himself to the fire lord, though he wasn't quite prepared, he nervously tried, but like always, he ended up failing. Afterwards, he ran into the garden to be alone, Omi was there, polishing utensils.
"Hey, Zuko... uh..." She paused, noticing he had a frustrated expression on his face,
"What's wrong? what happened?" She asked worriedly, seeing him this way, she knew something did gone wrong.

"I suck," Zuko hung his head, clenching his fists. Omi placed a hand on his shoulder, wanting to reassure him.
"You don't, Zuko," She said calmly,
"I do!" Zuko shouted

"Today we had to present ourselves in front of the fire lord and I couldn't even bend one flame!" he kicked the ground in frustration and grabbed a pebble and threw it so high and hard out of sight.
It hit the roof of other side of the wall, a person notice it fell and wondered that it probably came from the other side, the place where she'd never go.

She crept up behind the wall, in the brush where it lead towards the garden, she stopped when she heard two voices.
"Don't worry, someday you'll be even better than Azula," She heard one girl say,
"You really think so?" A boy said.
"Of course you will! you're basically a prince! you will be powerful," The girl replied.
"You can be my servant,"
"I am your servant, remember?" Omi said giggling,
"Yeah but you'll live in the palace, in a room next to mine," Zuko said,
"That way, we can hang out everyday, and no Azula will be there to bother us,"
Omi blushed lightly,

"In fact, you can have her room," Zuko thought. Omi laughed whole-heartedly, The girl behind the wall stood wide-eyed and furious. She ran out of the garden without notice, the two children remained in the garden, while Omi polished, Zuko started to tell her more about his uncle, how he gave him a gift from the earth kingdom, and to Azula, a silly girl doll.
"She hated it so much!" Zuko laughed,
"I could totally imagine her-" Omi was cut off when they heard an explosion not so far away.

"What was that!" Zuko stood up, he grabbed Omi's wrist and ran out of the garden, making her drop the basket of utensils to the ground.
The children couldn't understand, when they reached the outside near the palace there was smoke, servants ran to and fro, almost knocking them children over.

There was a fire.

"Zuko, I think we should get away!" Omi said, quite scared.
"What happen?!" They heard a soldier shouted,
"The kitchen! The kitchen's on fire!" a servant yelled back. Omi's eyes grew with horror, her mother was working in the kitchen! she let go of Zuko's hand and ran.
"Omi wait!" Zuko called after her, she didn't stop at all and kept going,
"No, Omi! it's too dangerous!" Zuko ran after her.
Omi ran as hard as she could, to get to the kitchen, to get to her mother.

She skidded to a stop when she caught a horrifying sight of a building caught on fire. Everything was in flames, big and roaring. Servants brought watered from where ever they could get and began splashing it on the building, but it was no use, the fire hissed and it kept roaring and burning all that there was, and everyone in it. Omi couldn't do anything but cry, She felt the arms of Zuko wrapped around her.
"Omi we have to go! we could get burned!" Zuko yelled, dragging Omi away,
"Mom! NOO!" Omi cried, She saw her father finally running into the building, she yelled once more seeing him disappear into the flames.