I run and run and run, tearing through the familiar streets without seeing them. What was I thinking? Why did I ever think I could return to my family?
I should have stayed in the mountains, it would have been better for everyone.
Most of all for me.
What is wrong with me? Zuko doesn't know whether I'm alive or dead, and now I've brought his daughter to his uncle's doorstep! If Zuko finds out that Lia's his... I don't even want to think about it. He's the Firelord now, he could do whatever he wanted to us and no one could say anything about it. He could take my daughter from me.
I freeze in my tracks at the thought, overcome by horror. I tell myself that Zuko isn't like that, that he wouldn't do that to me, to us. But he did betray me.
He is- well, was- the enemy.
He tried to hurt Aang, and the only reason he helped me was so he could use me to capture his precious Avatar. He is nothing to me, and I shouldn't care about him. I should hate him.
So why don't I?
I tell myself it's because I'm too softhearted. Because I honestly believed, albeit for a short time, that he loved me. And that I loved him.
But he never loved me, and I didn't know him. I didn't know myself!
But he did. He did, and he didn't tell me!
I swore after all that stuff with Hama that I wouldn't let Zuko get to me anymore. That I wouldn't let the memories hurt me anymore. But this one hurts, still. This wound has been reopened by the thought of my daughter, by the spirit's words, by what I see when I look into a mirror.
I hate him. I will always hate him, and I refuse to let him control my life. I will shout to the world who I am, I won't hide from him, and if he tries to take Lia from me, I will kill him.
I am the strongest waterbender in the world. I don't care that he's the firelord- no one is ever going to take my daughter from me.
No one.
Especially not that overbearing, lying, traitorous, destructive, hateful liar!
________
All right, so. This is it. THE END of Falling for the Enemy!
I want to thank all of you so, so much for all of your support! As I've said before, I NEVER expected this kind of awesome response when I first started writing this, and I am overwhelmed by all of y'all's amazingness! Thank you thank you thank you SO SO MUCH! Anyway, enough gushing.
READ ON for my official Author's Note, lol :)
-Tess
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Falling for the Enemy (Sun and Moon Book 1)
Fanfiction*A Zutara fanfic* Kara has been living in a little fishing village in the northern Earth Kingdom for as long as she can remember--literally. She woke up on its shores nearly six months ago, and she knows that if it hadn't been for Aki, she'd be dead...