|•|W I T 卄 E R||•| Zuko X Reader ⚠SLOWBURN⚠

§imilarities

"It worked!" He cheered, running to your side. "Huh? Wh... What worked?" You yawned. "You don't have to train with Commander Zhao. You can train with me!" Zuko grinned. "Oh no, that's even worse..." You groaned. "Oh shuddup."

The moment your leg had healed, Zuko forced you to train with him. But as you two were training... Something strange happened. "Okay, I'll try to block your attack!"  Zuko exclaimed. You created a wave of void. You made sure that it wouldn't hurt him and sent it his way. As he prepared to block it... He converted your void into fire. "What the..." You approached him, shocked. He held a ball of fire in his hands and stared at it with a confused expression plastered on his face. "How did you do that!?" You quizzed. "I don't know! It kind of just... Happened!" He replied, just as puzzled as you were.

"Then... Should we try to do that again?" You asked, preparing an attack. He nodded, and you sent a whip of void towards him. He was about to block it, but ended up converting it into a whip of fire. Then it hit you. You glanced at your hands, then looked at his. "Were you... Copying my hand movements?" You questioned. "Uh, yeah... I was curious why you were making them, and I wanted to see if they gave you some weird advantage I didn't know about." Zuko said, "Is that... The reason I can convert space into fire?"

"I'm not sure, but that's probably it... I never even noticed the weird signs I made..." You muttered. "But... Didn't you have to learn them while you figured out how to bend space?" You almost cringed at the fact that you almost completely forgot about that lie. "Oh, my bending kind of just came naturally. I haven't mastered anything, so there's still some stuff I don't know about. Plus, no one could've taught me the stuff I know. There's no one else like me..." You sighed, crossing your arms. "I think we've trained enough for today." You were even more curious about your power now. If Zuko was able to use your power to his advantage just by copying a few weird hand gestures, how much more could be done?

You were about to head back inside, when a girl approached both of you. "Hey Zuzu-... Who's this?" The girl stared you up and down. "Her name is Y/N. You weren't told about the space bender?" He replied. "Oh, so she's the weak Water Tribe peasant in disguise. I've never seen anyone... Bend space before." She hummed, taking a step closer to you. "Azula, don't call her that! And leave her alone." Oh. So the girl who calls you a peasant is the girl you're supposed to get along with. Nice. "It's fine, Zuko. You said you've never seen space bending, correct? Would you like me to demonstrate?" You asked. "No, no... I would rather see how you'd use it in a fight." Azula smirked, creeping you out a little. "Azula, don't even think about hurting her." Zuko huffed. "You're right. I probably shouldn't break such a valuable resource... Well, see you later." She was about to leave, when she stopped in her tracks and stared at the bottom of your sleeves. Your gloves.

"Now why would you be wearing gloves in a place like this?" She asked, tilting her head innocently. "No reason, really. It just reminds me of home. I care about these gloves a lot, but they're a sensitive topic for me." You explained. You didn't trust her enough to show her your scars. "A sensitive topic?" She said. "Yes. As I said before, they remind me of home. And since it seems I won't be back there any time soon-" Azula snatched your glove off of your hand. Due to her quick yet rough movements, the fabric of the glove scratched against your wither burn. You held back a scream and wrapped your gloved hand around your burn and let out shaky breaths. "Y/N!" Zuko grabbed your glove back from Azula and gave it back to you. "What the hell, Azula!?"

"I thought I saw a spider-fly on her glove! I really didn't mean to hurt you, Y/N." She shrugged. "What an awful burn... I'm surprised you're not missing an arm."

You gave her a glare. But then you understood what she was trying to do. She wanted to see you in action. She wanted to know what your "bending" could do. So, you calmed yourself down and let out a sigh as you put your glove back on, annoyed. "Yeah, it hurt a lot when I got it. That's why these gloves mean so much to me. Even when I'm hurt, the warmth of this glove, and more importantly, the love of family... It always makes me feel better." You gave Azula a smile. "...Hm." She walked away, and you let out a sigh of joy and relief.

"You were so calm when you responded to her... Didn't you feel annoyed when she said... That about your burn?" Zuko inquired. "Well, yeah, I wanted to slap her." You admitted. "I... I'm more surprised that you didn't. Um, not that I want my little sister to get slapped, but... Why didn't you?" He asked. "Other people can't define my own scars. Sure, it's a bad burn, and it's unfortunate that it happened, but I don't care if other people want to insult me because of it. The way I interpret my scar is different. I got this by training on my own, trying to impress my family and show that I wasn't a failure." You mumbled. "But... You failed." Zuko whispered. "Yeah, I did. But that failure helped me realize that... No matter what, your true family will always love you." You hummed, staring at the sun as it began to set.

A red butter-fly landed on your nose, bringing a smile to your face.

You... Were smiling. Smiling with the prince of the nation that-...
No. Zuko might be from the Fire Nation, but it's not his fault that those things happened. He's proven time and time again that he's not who you thought he was. "Hey, um... Zuko?" You muttered. He let out a hum. "Can I... Trust you?" You questioned, looking him in the eyes. "Of course! What, do you think I'm some sort of creepy gremlin?" He laughed. You froze. "Hey, Wh... Why did you stop walking?" You didn't respond to his question and instead looked to the side with a smile on your face. "Y/N, you're a jerk." He sighed. "And you're a gremlin. Now come on! I'm drawing fifty different pictures of butter-flies!"

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P.S.
Butter-flies are butterflies combined with flies. The only difference is an extra pair of wings, on a higher part of their body.  They don't have to flap up and down, unlike actual butterflies. Weird.