Under the Cherry Blossom ↠ Zuko x OC ✔️

02 | Fugitives

It has been a few weeks since Azula tried to take Zuko as prisoner. Arlington and Zuko searched the forest for food, but come up empty handed. Zuko groans as he pushes his way through the bushes towards Iroh.

"I didn't find anything to eat. I can't live like this. I wasn't meant to be a fugitive. This is impossible!" Zuko kicks the ground. Arlington comes out of a bush near Zuko.
"I don't understand how the homeless and people in third world countries live like this! We're going to die!!" Arlington pulls on her two braids. "Ughhhhh!!!"
"What are third world countries?" Zuko asks.
"Never mind. Iroh...What are you doing?"

The tea loves crouches before a white flower. He smells it.
"You're looking at the rare white dragon bush. Its leaves make a tea so delicious it's heartbreaking! That, or it's the white jade bush, which is poisonous." Arlington facepalms. "How can you be thinking about tea?!" She's dumbfounded.
"We need food, not tea. I'm going fishing." Zuko exits; Arlington plans to go with him.
"Don't you dare eat that." She sternly tells Iroh. He strokes his chin
"Delectable tea? Or deadly poison?"

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Arlington is in the river; holding a sharp stick. Peanut it curled up at Zuko's feet while he stands on land with a stick; trying to spear fish.
"Do you know how to fish?" She asks Zuko.
"No. You?"
"Yeah, but I used real fishing supplies." Arlington tries stabbing a fish, but she misses.
"Did you ever catch anything?" Zuko asks. Arlington laughs. "No. I went fishing twice a year with my dad before he died. We have never caught a fish. My dad also went fishing with my grandpa and they never caught anything, either. I guess you could say my family isn't lucky with fishing." Arlington looks down in the water.

"How'd your dad die?" Zuko softly asks. Arlington takes in a deep breath. It's a hard story to tell. 
"He was walking home on Christmas. My dad just had bought Christmas oranges, as a special treat for my mom and I. Someone came out of the ally and jumped him. He was stabbed multiple times." A single tear falls from Arlington's cheek into the river.

"Why do you care so much about your parents if they wanted to abandon you when you were born?" Zuko softly asks; remembering the time he heard Arlington talking to Peanut during the storm. Arlington snaps her head up at Zuko.
"How do you know that?" She's bewildered. Zuko walks into the river to stand next to her.

"When the storm hit, I walked by your door and heard you talking to Peanut." Zuko rubs the back of his neck. Arlington soon recalls the day of the storm.
"They wanted to abandon me when I was born. My parents were young and not ready for a child. But they knew if they left me, the law would catch up to them, so my parents kept me and soon grew to unconditionally love me. Unfortunately, it hurts knowing you're a mistake and your parents even thought about abandoning you. My mom did abandon me, though, after my dad died." She looks back down.
"If I know one thing, it's knowing what it's like to be abandoned and not wanted." Zuko also looks down. Arlington takes his hand in hers. "Just another thing we have in common." She smiles at him.

The due continue their fishing.

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Arlington and Zuko walk to were they last saw Iroh. Arlington managed to catch a good sized fish; about seven pounds. Zuko, on the other hand, caught a small minnow.
"You tried." Arlington smiles and pats Zuko's back. He grumbles, clearly very salty.

"Zuko, remember that plant that I thought might be tea?" Iroh speaks, hunched over. The Prince drops his fish. "You didn't!"
"I did." Iroh turns around to reveal his red, swollen face which he is scratching.
"And it wasn't."
Arlington and Zuko scream. Peanut runs over to Iroh and starts smelling him.
"Good grief, Iroh!"
Iroh just calmly scratches his red patches. "When the rash spreads to my throat, I will stop breathing. "But look what I found! These are bacui berries, known to cure the poison of the white jade plant. That, or macahoni berries that cause blindness."