your love is my oxygen - Zuko x reader

Welcome Aboard

Y/N's POV
The boy with the scar scowled, "what? Why would I do that?"

I looked around, "well, you seem pretty stuck here, and I could get you out of this really quickly if I had the correct motivation. Air benders travel quickly, you'll lose him if you don't move soon."

He paused for a moment before hissing, "fine. Get us out of here and I'll bring you with me. But if you get in my way, even once-"

I fanned my hand at him, shushing him, "yeah, yeah, whatever", before jumping up and making my way to the edge of the ship, pulling my staff over my shoulder and bending as much air as I could with the most amount of force I could fathom to crash the snow into the mountain side and away from the ship.

I raised my eyebrows looking down at the snow I had moved, satisfied with myself, before strutting back over to the angry, scar-faced boy with the pony tail, "all done, but your ship is pretty damaged."

He growled- I had never seen a fire bender so hot headed that smoke came out of their airways.

I wasn't fazed by him and just shrugged, "anyway, do you have any food? I haven't eaten in a hundred years."

He looked at me and sighed, dropping his angry composure and pointing to the door. He followed me inside and led me to the galley before ordering the cook, "make the air bender girl something to eat."

The cook looked over at us, intimidated but also seemingly accustomed to it and asked, "how would some Komodo chicken be, Prince Zuko?"

So this was the new Fire Nation Prince?

He mumbled, "just make whatever. That's fine."

I interjected, "actually, sir, I'm a vegetarian. Do you have anything without the uh- meat?"

The cook was really lovely and warmly smiled at me, "of course, I could make some vegetable dumplings if that would suffice?"

I smiled and politely bowed to him, "that would be lovely, thank you kindly, sir."

He smiled and bowed back to me before the Prince grabbed onto my wrist, not violently, just very suddenly, and pulled me out to what seemed to be a dining room.

An elderly man was sat at the table drinking some sort of tea, he looked up to us and raised his eyebrow, "Prince Zuko, you should've let me know that we had a guest."

He sat down and folded his arms, before looking up at me and snapping, "well? What are you doing? Sit down then!"

I threw my hands in the air mockingly before sitting beside him and placing my staff in my lap.

The old man examined my tattoos before asking, "so, which air temple are you from then?"

I awkwardly cleared my throat and responded, "the uh- the Southern one."

"Interesting... I didn't know there were any air benders left... besides the avatar, of course. what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Y/N, and yourself?"

"My name is Iroh. And my nephew here is Prince Zuko. Would you care for a cup of tea?"

Iroh wasn't anything like his nephew, he was warm and soft- he was the kind of person that made people around him feel safe. I warmly smiled and accepted his offer, earning a groan from Prince Zuko who was sat with his chin in his palm.

As he poured me some jasmine tea, he asked, "So, tell me, Y/N, how is it that you're alive?"

I took the cup from him and gently blew at it and took a sip, "oh, I think that Aang- the avatar- must've trapped me in that iceberg with him, I only woke up today." I turned to Zuko, "it's nice to meet you, Prince Zuko, I was sort of acquainted with Prince Azulon for a while, he was kind of hot headed, a bit like you."

Iroh chuckled, "that sounds like my father, always quick to argue. Anyway, Y/N, I must ask you, what is the connection between you and the avatar?"

I hesitated to respond before beginning, "well, Aang is sort of-"

Before I could finish, the cook came through the door with my vegetable dumplings, and placed them in front of me, "your vegetable dumplings, Miss."

I smiled at him, "thank you so much."

At that, I began to stuff my face, avoiding the question about Aang. Iroh didn't question me any further, but I noticed the Prince staring at me curiously from the corner of my eye. 

—

Later on, I knocked at the prince's bedroom door, "um, Prince Zuko? Are you in there?"

I heard him groan before he swung the door open and looked at me bluntly, "what do you want?"

I ducked under his arm and let myself into his room, looking around curiously, "it's a nice space you have in here, the dual swords on your wall are cool, do you know how to use them?"

He huffed, "what are you doing in my room?"

I collapsed on the side of his bed, looking up at the ceiling and sighed, "well, as you know, I've been stuck in ice for a hundred years, so I've come to the conclusion that all of my friends are... you know, dead. You're one of the first people I've met my age in this new world- well, I assume we're similar ages- how old are you?"

He sighed, slightly dropping his tense composure, "I'm sixteen."

I sat up and grinned, "yeah? Me too! Well... technically I'm a hundred and sixteen but, you know... anyway, I was hoping that perhaps, we could be friends?"

He darted his eyes away from mine before responding, "Y/N, I don't know what it was like in the world you used to live in, but... I don't think being friends would be a good idea because-"

"Because your great-grandfather killed all of my people?" he turned back to me, awkwardly struggling to look me in the eye as I continued, "you didn't kill them, and if I'm honest with you... I'm sort of alone right now. I've kind of lost everything."

He paused, his eyes softened a bit before he mumbled, "okay, I get it... You can stay in here for a little while."