atla one shots

8-blind/deaf

Has anyone else ever wondered how badly that scar damaged Zuko's eye and the ear on that same side? 

Zuko's POV

I groan and sit up, trying to settle myself, but honestly, my eye never adjusts and my hearing is mostly gone on one side, so I don't know why I try. My body makes up for it though, letting me feel the heat and chi flowing through other people. However, it also confuses and gives me headaches on some days, and today feels like one of those days. I block out the rising of the sun and close my bad eye, knowing this will help lighten the headache.

I rise and dress, keeping my eye closed and decide to cover it with a bandana, so I have less troubles 'seeing' if I do try to use it. I start to walk out, towards my meditation spot, but decide to find somewhere to sun bathe. I haven't had a chance to just absorb sun in a while and I wouldn't mind having the opportunity. I find a nice place, sunlight slowly seeping through the missing roof, into the empty room. I settle into the stream and groan as the sun continues to revitalize me. Today is going to be a bad day, with all the noise and other things, especially since I train Aang, then eat lunch, have a spar with Sokka, before doing anything to occupy me, before heading to bed with my meager dinner. I head down towards the main yard, enjoying the sun for as much as I can. It helps beat back the headache, at least when I have my eyes closed and am simply focused on absorbing the sunlight.

I immediately tense when I realize my vision is gone and now I can't see half of anything, but I will have to keep trying, because if they figure this out, they may kick me out for being useless. I have few purposes here and I am not giving them more reason to toss me out, after all, where would I go? My headache immediately starts pounding harder and faster with all the noise. I knew as much, but can't help my resigned sigh, as I walk closer, to at least cross the yard to get to our training grounds past them and a little further into the temple. 

The noise from the others as they enjoy breakfast is almost enough for me to passs out just by passing them. However, none of them invite me over to eat and no one notices me, too much going on for them to really notice anything. I relax as I get to the training ground, before setting down and focusing on my chi. I let my heat spread out and sigh when I can finally see everything, the heat being radiated or resting on things letting me see everything. I can see the gang, who have not moved,  except for Aang, who's heading towards me, probably ready to start training. I relax and open my eyes, groaning as my headache increases, before drawing the heat into my body and sighing as the pounding gets harder. I stand and turn to Aang and smile, before nodding, and he begins his warm up.

I watch and ignore my headache, ignoring how I can see and hear half the world, but can't, and so I focus all my attention on my pupil, who is starting to sweat. His form fails and slags a little and I sigh. 

"Stop."

He freezes and then looks at me, aware that I only stop him when his form is wrong. He slowly starts to tense a little, enough to not be completely relaxed, but enough to still have some force behind his punches. He starts again and maintains that, before I stop him again.

"We're going to try a new form today. I want you to get into a basic earthbending form. Wait, before that, how flexible are you?"

"Umm.... Ok? Why?"

"You have to be able to bend while moving and this move requires a backflip from a standing position. A demo first?"

He nods frantically and I smile, before heading for an open area, everything highlighted enough I don't have to worry about landing on something that's not there. I nod and stand straight, before jumping up and creating a nice arch in my back. When I reach the height of my jump, I shoot out both legs to the side and start to spin, creating a small fire tornado, before I begin firing off a few blasts, gently landing in a roll, that ends with a nice crouch. The fire had created a small bird like figure that had raced forward and crashed into a wall. I smile when I hear faint applause, before standing.