Zuko x Reader

Lightning

"I can heal him, move." I held Zuko's hand as he continued staring at Iroh. Pulling out the water from my canister, I placed my hands over the wound, and calmed myself, focusing on healing his injury.

"Well?" Zuko asked.

"All done. It will still be slightly sore, and the scar will remain." I took the bandages and ointment from Zuko. "He'll be fine." I told Zuko who still seemed anxious.

Iroh was still asleep, but we needed food. "I'll go find something, stay with him in case he wakes up. There should be some fruits and jerky in my bag over there." I informed Zuko as I left the run down shack we found yesterday.

~~

When I returned, I had a rabbit and some fruit branches. Zuko was sitting against the wall, watching his uncle. "Do you wanna talk? Distract yourself?" I asked as I sat down with the rabbit and fruits.

"I didn't think you'd come back." Zuko spoke first.

"I always intended on coming back. I wanted to learn healing in the North. Going with the Avatar was the easiest." I shrugged. "When you asked me to go with you, I was tempted, but I still had much to learn from the Masters there.. and you-"

"You said we wanted different things." he told me.

"yeah." I smiled. "You wanted to go home, reclaim your place, your honor... but thats you. I don't want that. If I go back, I have to work again. Spying, killing, blackmail... I'm tired of it." I looked at Zuko. "I like being free." I smiled at him. He seemed to think and consider my words.

"I.. don't know much about your past." he began and I looked at him curiously.

"Why the interest now?" I asked him.

"I remembered, back when we were younger. At my cousins funeral. You and uncle seemed to have bonded over something." He looked at me.

"Ah, my brother." I nodded.

"You had siblings?" he asked me.

"Not blood related. He and someone else basically raised me and taught me what they knew. We just thought of each other as family." I smiled. "But yeah.. my brother protected Lu Ten during the battle. It was his job as a soldier and his guard. When my brother died, Lu Ten risked and lost his life trying to bring my brother back." I smiled. "Iroh said, it's because Lu Ten knew I was waiting for my brother to come home.. I was eleven..." I lowered my head, holding back my tears. "But yeah, that was it." I wiped my eyes with my sleeves.

"Sorry, I didn't know." He looked at me.

"My job, I work directly under the Fire Lord. I'm the only one left." I shrugged.

"Are you.. part of those Guardians?" He asked me. I didn't answer but just smiled at him. "I thought they were a myth, a legend!" He stared at me.

"I'll cook this outside." I picked up the rabbit, and went outside to start a fire.

Pulling out my dagger, I stared at it. My two brothers forged it for me. It apparently took a lot of failed attempts before they made something the blacksmiths deemed appropriate. The blade was forged through his firebending, the other used his earthbending to shape the blade, and the blacksmith helped choose the materials. The handle was just regular oak wood, with a water symbol carved at the bottom. They gifted it to me after my first successful job with them, I was almost 10.

I returned to the shack with the cooked rabbit, using a leaf as a makeshift plate, I handed the food to Zuko. "What about you?" he asked me.

"You look like you need food more than I do." I looked him over, to which he seemingly got embarrassed and ate the rabbit.

I reached into my bag, pulling out a map. Looking over the area of the Earth Kingdom, I tried to find where we were. "We started here, then went South... they will most likely go here." I looked at the terrain in the area, there were quite a few mountain ranges where they could go for training with very few of them also having a source of water nearby. "After that he needs to learn firebending, if I remember correctly he tried learning from Jeong Jeong's before.." I thought.

"He's awake." I looked up seeing Zuko by his Uncle's side. Putting away my map, I walked over, helping Iroh into a seated position.

"You were unconscious for about a day." I told Iroh.

"Azula did this to you, a surprise attack." Zuko told him.

"Somehow, not surprising." Iroh reached over to his bandaged injury.

"I did my best to heal what I could. The wound is closed but the scar will remain and you may feel sore for a bit." I informed him.

"I hope I made it the way you like it." I glanced at Zuko who handed Iroh a cup of tea.

"How are his skills?" I asked, smiling seeing how nervous Zuko was.

"Good." Iroh chugged down the cup. "It was very.. bracing." I couldn't help but laugh as Zuko poured out another cup for Iroh, me and himself.

"So uncle, I've been thinking.. its only a matter of time before I run into Azula again." I watched Iroh throw his tea out the window. "I'm going to need to learn more advanced firebending if I'm going to stand a chance against her. I know what you're gonna say, shes my sister and I should try get along with her." 

"No. She's crazy and she needs to go down." Iroh put down his empty cup. I helped Iroh to his feet. "It's time to resume your training." he looked at Zuko.

"I'll remake the tea while you train." I whispered for Iroh to hear and he nodded.

Taking Zuko's cup from him as they went outside, I opened the tea pot, emptying out the tea Zuko made. Using water from my canister, I rinsed it out. Using a separate bottle that had clean water, I set the pot over the fire to warm it up.

Looking at the teas we had available, we didn't have Iroh's favorite jasmine. "This should be fine." I thought reading the package. "Dried lemon peel, chamomile and I think I have ginger in my bag." I thought. Mixing the ingredients slowly into the pot. Using my bending to occasionally stir the water.

"Done with warm ups?" I asked as they came back, pouring out the new tea. They nodded and sat down for the start of their lesson.

I watched quietly as Zuko started his training. "I need to get more water, for bending and drinking." I grabbed my bottles and quietly left to not disturb them.

By the time I got back, Zuko was gone, but Iroh was still here. "Did something happen?" I asked, putting away my water.

Iroh sighed and explained the training and where Zuko probably went. "Do you want me to get him?" I looked at Iroh who shook his head. I nodded in understanding and we sat, continuing to drink tea.