Avatar: Shadows (Zuko x reader)

Chapter 13

(Re-cap: there was three days till the eclipse you spent one day floating instead of sailing then you spent that night in a cave. There is now two days until the eclipse. You spent the night with Zuko in a small carved out area of the cave away from the others.)

Zuko wakes up after having a nightmare about him failing his mission and everyone on his team dying. He looks around in the dark and then lights a small fire on the palm of his hand. When he spots you on the ground his heart stops racing and he allows himself to calm down. 'it was only a nightmare...' he flops back down into the dirt on the cave floor. 'man it was so vivid though.' He frowns as he wonders whether or not to wake you up.

"you alright?" You mumble half awake. You saw the light from his fire and it woke you up.

Zuko looks over at you. "just a nightmare." He mumbles. "you can go back to sleep."

You roll over to face Zuko. "you sure you're alright?" you yawn and open your eyes.

"yeah." Zuko chuckles a little and pushes your hair out of your eyes. "you don't have to wake up just because I did."

You smile a little and close your eyes again. "alright. We'll talk about it tomorrow." You lean over and Zuko puts his arm around you again. It's easy to fall asleep when your warm and Zuko is the warmest.

Zuko however isn't so easily rested. He stares at the ceiling of the cave with an emotionless expression. 'would I be able to except it if our plan went south? If somebody should get hurt or die would I be ok with that?' he looks at you and frowns a little. 'no... not if she got hurt... then I have to do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen.' after a little while he coaxes himself back to sleep.

-later-

Aang sneaks out of the cave and Katara and Sokka have no idea where he went.

"hey." Katara shakes your shoulder. "(y/n) have you seen Aang?"

"wa?" you grumble half asleep. "Avatar... no I haven't seen him."

"zuko?" Katara questions. "have you seen Aang?"

"no." Zuko yawns. "try Iroh."

"alright." Katara puts her hand on her chin and walks over to Iroh in the other part of the cave.

Sokka stand there with his arms crossed smirking. "I'm not sure she realized you two were sleeping together. It'll hit her in a little bit right now she's more worried about Aang."

"it's none of your business." Zuko grumbles.

You smirk a little still half asleep. "so what if I turned the fire nation prince into a blanket. He's pretty comfortable."

Zuko opens one eye too look at you then he chuckles and closes his eye again.

"you two are weird." Sokka frowns. "regardless you should probably wake up now. It's time to get the day started. We need to find a place to wait for the others."

"oh yeah." Zuko stretches and then sits up and looks at Sokka. "so where did you have in mind?"

"well the dock is too controlled by the navy right now... so we were going to look for places today but Aang has run off and disappeared."

"why would he do that?" Zuko raises his eyebrow.

"I have no idea." Sokka shrugs. "but he didn't tell us where he was going and he didn't leave a note either. We kind of need to find him."

"well he couldn't have gone far." Zuko says standing up.

"he can fly." Sokka frowns.

"oh... right..." Zuko frowns.

"guys." Aang calls into the cave. "I found a great spot to meet up with the others."

"looks like Aang is back." Sokka rolls his eyes and go to the main cave to meet with Aang. "where have you been?"

"you had us worried sick." Katara frowns.

Aang hands the two some fire bender clothing and smiles. "I went to get some outfits so we could walk around without getting noticed."

"good plan. I just wish you'd have told me first." Katara chuckles. She looks at the outfit and nods. "I'll put it on right away." She hurries to the back area to change.

"I'm not wearing this." Sokka frowns.

Zuko walks up behind him and smirks. "I hope you have a plan if you get caught then."

"hm?" Sokka looks at Zuko.

"well if you get caught... you can't bend anything." Zuko puts his hand on his chin. "you'd either be imprisoned or enslaved. You know new palace slaves are treated very poorly the first month or so since often they refuse orders. I guess you could say they get... broken in." he shrugs. "but I'm sure you have a plan right?"

Sokka frowns and looks at the clothing. "fine I'll go change." He grumbles on his way to the other entrance.

"your joking... about the palace staff right?" Aang questions seriously.

"afraid not actually." Zuko sighs. "my father is very strict when it comes to service. One thing out of place sets him off like a fire cracker. Staff members get fired and slaves get punished." After a moment he touches his burnt cheek and frowns. "this... as bad as it is... was mercy compared to the burns inflicted on slaves."

"that's horrible..." Aang frowns.

"ever since I was young I was always watching." Zuko frowns. "it was always confusing to me why on one hand I knew they were being punished for something they did... but on the other hand to me it seemed extreme. Then when I was about 16 I realized... I didn't approve of anything my father did. Maybe I was feeling rebellious or perhaps just confused but... I knew I didn't want anymore violence."

"that's when you first tried to reason with your dad." you say as you recall the day he was burned.

Zuko nods. "for speaking to my father the way I did... he said... if you think your strong enough to challenge my words then prove your strength in battle. If you win I will hear you... but if you lose you will be dead to me." he shrugs. "I lost. Then I was banished. Trying to find a way to either restore my lost honor or defeat my father once and for all. Either way I needed the avatar." He glances at Aang. "I didn't know you were already planning to come to the fire nation."

"well I need to learn firebending eventually." Aang shrugs.

"heck I can teach you that." Zuko shrugs. "easy enough. I mean you've already figured out how to use it to make camp fires so learning to fight with it shouldn't be too difficult."

"let's start right away!" Aang says excitedly.

"what about the plan to meet the others?" Katara says appearing now dressed in fire nation clothing.

"you guys can go without me." Aang says. "take (y/n) with you."