when fire meets air

Chapter 7: Zuko

Zuko woke up warm.
The sun was still just peaking over the horizon when he pried his eyes open and looked around the room. Everyone was up, except for him and Aang.

Where was Aang?

Zuko went to sit up, but felt a weight in his arms keeping him pressed to the floor.

How the fuck hadn't he noticed this earlier?

Aang was curled up in Zuko's arms, his back facing the fire prince. He was sleeping soundly, though Zuko's arm was soon going to start going numb...

"Look who's up!" Sokka said in a sassy tone. He was always sassy, so how could Zuko expect anything different. Both of the water tribe natives were standing above them with their hands on their hips and cocky, all knowing smirks on their faces.
"You shut..." He began.
"Shh, Aang is still sleeping, you don't want to wake him up!" Katara winked and walked over to Appa, who was arguing with Momo over who got the bigger slice of melon.
"Can you get him..." Zuko started once again, but was cut off by Aang rolling over to face him, his eyes opening groggily.
"Hey Zuko, I guess I'm still sleeping..." Then the avatar looked over at Sokka. Then back at Zuko's terrified expression.
"Holy shit." He muttered under his breath in a panic before air bending himself away from the fire prince.
Zuko could feel his heart sinking into his stomach.
Fuck he was in deep.
"I'm sorry Aang, I must have rolled over in my sleep and..." He started to ramble, using his hands to emphasize what he meant.
"No, uh, it's cool." The avatar smiled and scratched the back of his neck.
Was that a blush dusting his cheeks? No, Zuko must be mistaken.
He's probably embarrassed that he let that happen.
He probably would never even think of Zuko that way.
Never.
Zuko stood up and stretched, the bottom of his shirt riding up a little so that his toned stomach was out in the open.
When he looked over at Aang again, he could have sworn that he was staring at his midriff.

"So, breakfast is ready," Toph broke through the awkward silence that had quickly returned from its hiding place, slinking into the space between them like a fox into a henhouse.
"Yeah, breakfast!" Sokka exclaimed, clapping his hands and running to the fire.
They all ate around in a circle, like they usually did for most meals.

Their little group had grown from an earth bender, a water bender, a fire bender, the Avatar and a boomerang wielding maniac to one consisting of almost ten people, with benders and non benders alike. They all had different pasts and different tales to tell, but they were all fighting towards one common goal:
Defeating his father.

Though everyone kept Zuko at an arms length at first, but they soon warmed up to his presence. They now joke about his fruitless journey of catching the avatar, but this morning everyone seemed to be laughing about something that he couldn't quite grasp.

He assumed it was because of this morning.

Aang really isn't helping me now...

Woo! Chapter 7!!!! Almost at 10!!! Yay!!!

Don't forget to check out my art insta and to keep on shipping the lovely avatar with the asshole fire prince :)))

Toodles!!

~ Dylan