COLLISION - a zuko and yue centric tale

Chapter nineteen

It was hot and dry and Zuko should have been glad for it but he wasn't. It just reminded him of home. Or what used to be his home. Then "home" became his ship and his quarters there. Dull, gray metal walls. Then the cabin with Yue. The blue light illuminating the air at night. Dried seal jerky. Blueberry bannock. Zuko shifted in the ostrich-horse's saddle. Lee had declared his name was Feathers. Original. Feathers sighed periodically as he plodded along. Zuko swallowed. Dry.

He didn't want to stop in the next town but he had to. No other water source was anywhere near him on the map besides Tu Zin. With his luck it'd be abandoned, like him. Hah. Except I was the one who left Uncle behind. After Iroh had poisoned himself and Zuko had stolen the ostrich-horse from their saviours — Song and her family — Zuko couldn't look his uncle in the eye. He just couldn't.

The way that Lee looked at him after finding out he was the Fire Prince? Zuko would never forget that look.

It had never occured to Zuko that being the Fire Prince was a bad thing. Something to loathe and fear. It was as if a wall had separated Zuko and Lee as soon as he had revealed himself. Suddenly he wasn't Zuko anymore he was just the Fire Prince of the foreign nation invading Lee's home, taking his brother from him. Well, maybe that made more sense now. Nevermind. Zuko was banished and would probably end up being killed by Azula, the prodigal daughter. He was no threat to the Earth Kingdom anymore. Lee had had nothing to fear.

But Lee didn't know that.

Zuko's head hung low.

The ostrich-horse plodded along.

His name was Feathers, Lee had said.

///

Yue was being watched. She could feel it like a hot brand on the back of her neck.
"What is it, Hahn?" She glanced behind her.
"How — you should not ride astride."
"Why, for spirits sake, not?"
"It does not befit your station, or mine."
"I am just a simple traveller and this is how I sit."
"As your husband — "
"Fiancé." Yue corrected.
"Whatever. I do not allow this. It is indecent of a lady."
"Your opinion is noted. And I am not to give the appearance of a lady right now."
Hahn nearly growled, turning red. At the end of the day, he could not command the warriors to make Yue do anything. Yue outranked him at the moment and... the warriors just didn't like Hahn. Some had in the beginning, when they had just known of his ranking and parentage, but that had failed to uphold the sheer travesty of his personality.

She didn't know when she had become so openly critical of Hahn, and that scared her. She was changing so fast. She had rarely stood up for herself, only her people, before. Yue sighed. They were a couple weeks out from Ba Sing Se. Now that they were travelling on land and sleeping in tents, Yue was unable to connect with Tui through her usual method of meditation. Their relationship had turned more into something of a conversation at times. Tui being a thought in her mind, a presence not entirely separate from herself, but bigger.

///

Iroh wandered a day behind Zuko, keeping a respectful eye on the young man on his journey. He would respect Zuko's wish to be alone, as much as it grated against his instincts to protect the boy from everything that his father had not. That Ozai had thrown Zuko into. But he would not leave him entirely defenseless should something happen. He had heard rumours of a metal landship that smelt of ash coursing through the land on some kind of mission. Zuko would do well to not run into the Fire Nation, even if they weren't actively after him.

Iroh sighed. Time alone was often necessary for personal growth, with the urge to change from grief and anger a brutal catalyst. He had had personal experience with that sort of thing on his own spiritual journey.