The Fire Within - an atla fanfic (Zuko x OC)

Mama, Life Had Just Begun

Iroh sat down at the head of the dinner table, looking back and forth between Zuko and I, who had already begun eating. "So, who is coming to music night? It begins promptly after dinner!"

Zuko and I both just kept eating. "No thanks, Iroh. I'm not into the whole 'go out and talk to people' thing." I responded after a few moments.

Zuko nodded in agreement. "Music night is stupid. I'm not going."

Iroh opened his mouth in shock. "How could you say such vile words? Music night is wonderful!"

I smiled, trying to be sincere. "I saw the last music night, Iroh, and to be honest, I'm not really into the music you play. But I'll definitely go to the next one."

Iroh smiled gratefully and took a large sip of his tea.

I glanced at Zuko, him and I both knowing I had no intention of going to the next music night. I had ranted to him for awhile about how bad it sounded the first (and last) time I attended music night.

"Well, Prince Zuko, you have no excuse not to come. I'm sure the crew would love to see you." Iroh pushed.

"Nope... I have business to attend to that's far more important than music night." Zuko lied, moving the food around with his chopsticks.

"What would that be?"

"Um... I have to help Ashley..."

I glanced over at Zuko, who was silently asking me for an excuse. "Clean my room. It's a mess." I answered for him.

Iroh looked at both of us and smirked. "Oh, I see."

I looked at Iroh and tilted my head, then shook it, not really trying to find out what he meant by that. I finished my food and waited for Iroh and Zuko to finish, my fingers crossed patiently. "What do you think Zhao has been up to the past few days?" I asked Iroh.

"I do not know. He is scheduled to be docking at this port soon, though. Hopefully he hasn't gained any new information on the avatar." Iroh responded.

I nodded in thanks and glanced back at Zuko, thinking back to how he had stolen Aang back from Zhao only a few days prior.

Zuko placed his chopsticks down and stood up. "Give my thanks to the chef." He started walking away with his usual heavy feet stomping as he went. I stood up and smiled at Iroh. "I'll see you later, Iroh," I said before I followed Zuko down the hallway, jogging slightly to catch up with him. "So what are you really going to do instead of going to music night?"

"I don't know, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, what are you gonna do?"

"I don't know, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, I asked you first." I replied quickly, pointing at him.

"Well, I don't know." Zuko responded. "Do you want to play pai sho?"

"No, I hate that game, I don't even understand it." I replied. I frowned as I heard the faint music from outside begin playing. "Let's listen to some real music." I replied, suddenly excited. "I was thinking earlier that if I just put the music on full volume, we'd probably be able to hear it without having to put on the headphones."

Zuko nodded in acceptance and I gratefully smiled, glad that he had seemed to like the idea. I ran to my room and grabbed the walkman and then came back out into the wallway. "What should we listen to?" I asked.

"I don't know. I don't know the names of any of these people except The Beatles." Zuko replied.

I smiled. "Alright, we can listen to a Beatles song then." I looked through my various cassette tapes and put the Beatles tape into the walkman. I clicked a button and turned the volume up, hearing the familiar sound of the song Yesterday. We both stood in silence for a few moments, taking in the lyrics to the song.