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

Mama

"Wake up, both of you!" Iroh's voice entered my head, followed by a groan from Zuko.

I fluttered open my eyes and looked at Uncle. "That wasn't necessary."

"You both need to get ready for work, or we'll be late." Iroh softly scolded. Zuko got out of bed grudgingly, meanwhile I stayed stubbornly.

"Today's my day off, I'm going back to sleep." I mumbled.

"Oh, yes, I forgot. By the way, I will not be home until later today. I have something important to do. Make dinner if you don't want to eat late." Iroh instructed.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "Something important?"

"An anniversary of sorts." Iroh said, sounding slightly sad.

"Oh, ok." I responded awkwardly.

Iroh left and was replaced by Zuko. "Ash, since Uncle isn't going to be home for a while, would you maybe want to go out for dinner tonight?" He asked.

I smiled sleepily. "Sure, Zuko, sounds nice."

Zuko gave me a short kiss on the cheek and left with Iroh to go to work. I blushed and went back under my covers. I was lucky.

I kept sleeping for about an hour until I woke up and realized how hungry I was. I went into the kitchen area and ate a piece of fruit. Feeling satisfied, I got ready and went outside. I wanted to go look around the middle ring, and maybe buy a new pair of shoes or a piece of jewelry.

After a little bit of going on the train, and crossing the wall, I got to the middle ring. It looked much nicer than the lower ring. And there didn't seem to be thugs everywhere. I walked around a while, looking at the various necklaces, and earrings. None of them really interested me, since they were all the same green jade color. I sighed and sat down at a bench. Turns out there wasn't much to do in the middle ring, besides browse over-priced green stones.

I watched the crowd of people, seeing a speck on blue through them. I narrowed my eyes and saw a little ponytail. I widened my eyes and pushed through a few people rudely, coming face to face with Sokka.

"Sokka!" I exclaimed, excited to see a friend again.

He blinked in confusion. "Ashley?"

"Sokka, why are you in Ba Sing Se?" I asked.

Sokka shook his head. "Let's go get a cup of tea." He grabbed my and and started dragging me to a little tea shop. We sat down. "Sorry, I just didn't want to be in public." He said, a tiny whisper.

A waiter came over. "I'll have a jasmine." I told them.

Sokka looked at me. "Yeah, me too."

The waiter nodded and walked off.

"What's going on?" I asked in a whisper.

"We had to come to Ba Sing Se in order to give information to the Earth King. We know a good day to invade the Fire Nation capital."

I widened my eyes. "Really? What day?"

Sokka eyed my suspiciously.

I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. "What, do you think I'll go tell Zuko?"

"Are you here with him?" Sokka asked with curiousity.

"Uh, yeah. And Iroh. But I wouldn't tell Zuko anything like that. Uncle thinks that Zuko can become good. He's just confused."

"Well, Prince Fire-Fingers didn't seem so confused the last time he tried to steal Aang." Sokka replied.

"I know, I know. But hes changed. He is different now. He's not as... cold-hearted I suppose."