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

Too Late

And so, the days went on. I decided to leave out the minor details as to not bore you.

We first tried to go over a mountain, but that didn't work, so we went through a mysterious cave with some hippies instead. Their music was pretty good, not even gonna lie.

We then ended up in Omashu, and it turned out the Fire Nation had actually captured the whole city. While we were there this badass girl chased us. The funny thing was that she looked pretty familiar; I just couldn't place it. Either way, she and an emo girl and a flexible girl attacked us, and it was pretty spooky. We eventually got to Bumi and he told us that Aang needed to find someone else to teach him.

I threw a mini tantrum after this, because I thought it was pretty stupid we went out of the way just to go there for no reason. Now that I think of it, I threw a few tantrums, but in my defense, days were starting to become very impatient for me. I had nothing to look forward to. I basically gave up on ever seeing Zuko again. I barely hung onto the thought that I would still make it home.

Still, I kept randomly following them as we went. We made it to swamp, where we met some weird hillbillies that reminded me of people from Florida. While we were here, I threatened to burn down the whole swamp and then I saw a weird hallucination of my father. I realized that my nightmares of my father had become more frequent the more upset I was getting.

We solved a mystery involving who-knows-what, and then we found Toph, who surprising was the only good part of everything I just explained. She was fun to joke around with, and I didn't feel like she was constantly staring at me like Sokka was. Something told me he might've had a little crush a me. Didn't matter. Back to what I was saying, Toph kinda got me. We both called out Katara for being stupid and it was nice.

I'd say overall I had gotten pretty close with everyone. I was just getting tired. I was tired of being in the avatar world. Of all the things I did learn; however, it was that the Fire Nation really does suck, and that the Fire Lord definitely needed to be punted off a cliff.

Now I'm back to where I left off. I was sitting patiently, dying my hair back to black with more ink. I loved my faded-blonde hair but it drew too much attention. As I waited, I played with Momo. I would throw a rock into the air and he would have to catch it before it hit the ground.

I could hear Katara and Toph arguing in the back ground, per usual.

Katara came walking over, her feet heavier than usual. I looked at her. "Hey Katara can you use your waterbending to wash the ink out of my hair?"

Katara nodded. "Sure." She took one of the pots and bent a stream around my hair, she pushed and pulled at my hair, which felt quite relaxing.

"What were you arguing with Toph about?" I asked.

"We weren't arguing." Katara said. "I just got a little frustrated that Toph doesn't help us set up camp."

"Well, she does her own stuff." I explained.

"But she isn't helping all of us, just herself."

I thought for a moment. "Think about it this way. Toph grew up never doing anything without help. She just ran away and wants to finally have some independence. Just let her do what she wants, she isn't hurting anyone."

Katara smiled. "That actually makes sense. I have to go apologize." She let go of the water in my hair and it all splashed down my face.