Watch it Burn

Chapter 30

I stared at the fire, refusing to look at the boy sitting across from me. I could feel his gaze from where I sat. Zuko has been.... helpful I guess. He helped cook and start fires and always cleaned up after himself.

Maybe he had something to prove. Maybe he just wanted to help, but who knows? I stayed away from him which meant spending more and more time with Katara then I was used to. She didn't trust him either, but I think it was the whole 'fire nation killed my mommy' and less of a 'he fucked me and left me to die in a cave'. Not that it really mattered.

It's not that I hated the fire nation people. I just really hated Zuko, his psychopathic sister, and his genocidal father. Sometimes I wonder how Iroh turned out so... normal compared to them. Not that I truly knew anything about the man. He could have been manipulating me just like Zuko all along too.

Not that I cared.

It had been two weeks since Zuko had 'joined team Avatar' and the tension grew thicker every day. Every morning Zuko has Aang meditating. He said Aang had to learn to control himself before he controlled fire, whatever that means, while Sokka, Katara, Toph and I did whatever we could to entertain ourselves. We quickly grew bored though.

I suddenly looked up, catching the firebender's gaze. He quickly looked away while turning bright red, even under the glow of the fire.

"If you have something to say to me, say it," I snapped at him. The rest of the group looked on in unease.

"I didn't mean to-"

"You know what, whatever. I'm tired anyway, goodnight!" and pushed myself up from my seated position and stormed back into the air temple. I heard Sokka call after me, but I ignored him. Right now I needed some space.

I stalked up towards my room which was on the complete other side of the temple from the others. They wanted Zuko to be close in case he tried to sneak off or do anything shady, but I couldn't stand to be near him. I didn't really mind though, the quiet was nice sometimes.

The hallway outside my room was cold as I leaned against the stone wall, closing my eyes. I stayed like that for a few moments until I heard footsteps coming my way. They were too heavy to be anyone else's other than Sokka or....

"Amara," Zuko's voice echoed in the long hallway where I stood.

"You're the last person I want to see," I deadpanned, opening my eyes to glance at him. He stood in the middle of the hallway, looking unsure of what to do. Typical.

"I know that, but I don't want it to be like this every time we are together."

"Well you should have thought of that before you ran away to help your father on his genocidal conquest," I spat at him.

"That was a mistake," he said, "I've changed!"

"Yeah, you seem to make a lot of mistakes." I scoffed, "And you've already 'changed' before."

"I'm trying Amara, I really am. At least try to see that." He pleaded.

"Oh fuck off." I said, "you and the rest of your family are such manipulators."

"Don't bring my family into this, I am nothing like them." He spat.

"Yeah, you're NOTHING like your uncle." I shot back, "At least your sister admits to being a bitch! You just act like, 'oH I'm nOt BaD! mY mOm DiEd aNd My DaDdY bUrNeD mY fAcE aNd I nEeD tO find mY hOnOr EvEn ThOuGh I pRoBaBlY nEvEr HaD aNy To BeGiN wItH.'"

He physically flinched when I mentioned his mother. I immediately felt guilty, I shouldn't have brought her up but there was NO WAY I was gonna apologize after what he did.