BUTTERFLIES! ━ prince zuko

𝖎𝖛. Claim to Flame

𝖈𝖑𝖆𝖎𝖒 𝖙𝖔 𝖋𝖑𝖆𝖒𝖊
claim to flame
volume i, chapter iv

❄️🦋💦

          PRINCESS AKIARA FEELS LIKE SHIT WHEN SHE WAKES UP. Obviously. You would feel like shit too, if you'd just failed to save the Avatar while also getting your ass kicked by some jerk-bending kidnapper. Especially since said jerk-bending kidnapper is the boy Akiara keeps seeing in her dreams, the one who, y'know, keeps burning everything. Not to mention the fact that it starting to make this whole prophecy thing seem a little bit more legit and now Akiara's stuck trying to figure that out...

     Nothing makes sense, she thinks. Literally nothing. Maybe this is all like, a really fucking weird dream?

     She opens her eyes. She's still laying on the grassy grounds of the Spirit Oasis and when she tries to sit up, it hurts. Katara's kneeling near the pond — she must've woken up before Akiara — and she's speaking quietly with Yue and Sokka. Scorch marks litter the foliage. There's no Aang.

     So. It's wasn't a dream.

"I can't believe I lost him," Katara's saying and her voice is hollow. Empty.

"You did everything you could," Sokka tells her and he puts a comforting hand on Katara's shoulders. "And now we need to do everything we can to get him back."

      Akiara staggers to her feet; "Not without me."

     "Akiara!" Yue's tear stricken face breaks out into a watery smile as she rushes towards Akiara and yanks her into an embrace. The force of her hug nearly knocks Akiara over again. "Oh, thank the spirits you're awake! I thought for a moment that you — that you were... " she doesn't finish her sentence, instead holding Akiara tighter.

"I'm OK," says Akiara gently and she wriggles our of Yue's squeezing grasp because it's starting to hurt to breathe. "But I won't be if you keep hugging me so tightly!"

     "Sorry," says Yue sheepishly. "But I was worried."

     Before Akiara can respond, Kiko comes bounding over and leaps into Akiara's arms, pawing and licking her frantically. Akiara giggles, giving her friend an assuring "I'm here! I'm OK!"

     Katara walks over to her. "That was very brave of you to fight Zuko."

     "Who?"

     "Zuko?" Sokka asks. "Crown Prince of the Fire Nation? The ponytail dude with serious anger management issues? The one who beat you and Katara up?"

Katara glares at him.

Akiara's eyes widen. A prince? The final words from her nightmares come floating back to her, 'But in the end, the bender shall walk alone, Left to face the might of the throne.'

    NO! thinks Akiara and shakes her head, trying to shake the nightmare away.

     "Yeah, well, I didn't want him to take Aang," says Akiara, trying to push all her nightmares out of her dream because they're not real. "Not that I did much, anyway."

"Actually, you did great!" Sokka tells her. "You slowed him down. Zuko can't have gotten far." He turns to Katara, who sniffles and it's then that Akiara notices how her eyes are rimmed red and how her cheeks are tear stained. "We'll find him," Sokka assures his sister. "Aang's gonna be fine."