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

Galileo Figaro

Zuko looked at me in what looked like both sadness and confusion. "What?"

I immediately put my hand over my mouth. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that."

"But you believe what you said, don't you?" Zuko asked sadly.

I looked at the ground, unsure. "I've begun to like it here." I started. "It's everything you told me it would be."

"So why are you so unsure?" Zuko questioned.

I played with a piece of my hair anxiously. "Because. I know it's not right. This place seems nice, but it isn't."

Zuko glared down at me. "So what are you saying? Are you against the fire nation? Your own people?"

I turned and looked into the mirror. "These aren't my people." I replied. "I don't even look like them."

"But you are a lot like them. You are a firebender. You belong here."

I closed my eyes. This argument wasn't about Zuko's destiny anymore. It was about mine. "I don't want to live in a place built on lies and anger, and you shouldn't either." I said, pointing a finger at him.

Zuko shook his head slowly. "You're wrong."

I turned back to Zuko and gave up trying to make a point. "Please speak to Uncle." I walked past him and started changing into my nightgown. When I was done, I looked behind me and saw Zuko staring at me. "I'm sorry if I made you upset, I should've have."

Zuko nodded in response.

I looked at the floor sadly and laid down in bed. I grabbed my father's journal and read another chapter from it. So far, I was about half way through and he was still just rambling on his 'thirst for greatness' and the terrible things he did to try to achieve it. Yet there was still no mention of how I could get home. I slamned the book shut and decided to get some sleep. It had been a long day.

Zuko got in bed next to me and put his arm around my waist.

I stared at the wall for a while until I fell asleep.

———

"I thought you would've been less annoying by now." He said as I held my stomach in pain.

"Can we please go home?" I whined.

"I miss mom." I looked up at my father in pain.

"Fine." He dug in a drawer and found a bottle. He opened it and gave me a few pills from inside it. "Take these."

"What is it?" I asked gently, holding them in my hands.

"Just take them so you'll stop complaining."

I nodded in agreement and swallowed the pills. He grabbed my hand so roughly I felt it was going to break. We went out of the hospital and drove home in his car. I looked out the window as we drove. The trees that were flashing by gave me a headache.

I clutched onto my head and my stomach.

"When we get home, take a bath. You look filthy."

We got home, and I filled up the bathtub. I stared at the water spiraling and thought for a moment what would happen if I went in the water and never came up for air. I was 11. I struggled to bathe off the died blood from my incision and winced in pain whenever I touched it.

I finished my bath and changed into my pajamas, then decided to watch some television. As I was watching, my head started to hurt again. I felt dizzy, and I started to faint.