You are Everything that I've Been Searching for ~ a Zukka Fanfic

Chapter Seven, Who Let the Dogs Out?

Chapter Seven, "Who Let the Dogs Out?"

Zuko was puttering around his room. He was attempting to tidy it by using the "Marie Kondo" method and he wasn't enjoying it. He had three piles: one pile was of things that sparked joy, another of things that did not spark joy, and the third one of things that he didn't know what to do with.

The problem was, that most of the stuff that didn't spark joy he couldn't get rid of. Stuff like textbooks, assigned books he had to read, pens and pencils, paper and loose-leaf books, notes and scraps of random numbers and websites he couldn't get rid of yet.

He stared at the piles angrily before saying "You know what?!" and sat down on the does not spark joy pile.

"I do not spark joy," Zuko grumbled to himself.

After sitting in the pile for a while he noticed his arm starting to tingle with painful pins and needles and he felt dizzy, his mark was changing again. He pulled up his sleeve, it was always interesting to watch. The words "AJR Bang bang bang music video" dissolved away like black food colouring dissolves and swirls away into the water. The new search was "What is quinoa?"

Zuko grinned.

It had been about nine days since he had fainted at the club and his mark had been crazy lately, sometimes the pain was blinding and he would almost pass out, sometimes the pain was dull and numb, sometimes it was in the middle. It was very much like a rollercoaster with how badly the changing of his mark would affect him.

He had gone to the mark reader a week ago. The mark reader had said that the reason why his mark's changing was still painful could be a many number of reasons. It could be how his soulmate was feeling, it could be that his mark was still new and maybe it was going to take a little bit longer to become less painful, or maybe it could mean his soulmate was close by.

Zuko didn't know what was causing it, but what he did know was it seemed like it was just going to be painful and there was nothing he could do about it. Luckily the mark reader sent Zuko to a nearby pharmacy with a written prescription for some pills to help stop the fainting as apparently Zuko had low blood iron and that's why he was fainting or something he wasn't really listening at that point.

But they couldn't really do anything about the pain. This was soulmate magic and the mark reader said it was better to leave unaffected, Zuko found himself wondering what happened to the people who did try to mess with it.

Despite the pain from his soulmate mark, Zuko felt generally happy because he had just blocked Jet's number the other day. And Jet didn't know where Zuko stayed now so it was unlikely for him to visit Zuko. Zuko had rather enjoyed the feeling of satisfaction when he finally blocked Jet's number, it had been like heroin... he was assuming.

On another happy note, his bruise from when he fell in the dorm bathrooms was pretty much gone. Back to good ol handsome Scarface.

Zuko's phone rang loudly disturbing the peace, making Zuko jump. He stepped over the large piles and grabbed his phone off his desk. It was Aang. Zuko picked up.

"Hello?" he said.

"Heya Zuko! What are you up to right now?" Aang's excited voice said.

"Uhm..." Zuko glanced around his room. He was evaluating his life choices.

"Nothing, why?" Zuko said.

"Okay sweet, get down here as fast as possible. I'll send you the address," Aang said and then hung up.