Rising Sun

Pale

Zuko was lost in thoughts while he kept sharpening his pencil. He scraped the graphite precisely with a rusty old blade he had. He was almost done when he heard the classroom door fly open.

Then it snapped. The carefully shaped tip of the pencil broke.

"Shit." He whispered in frustration. He put his "leave me the fuck alone" expression on as he turned around to face his visitor.

It was him, the tattooed boy.

"Sorry. I didn't know you were busy." the boy spoke in a shy manner, half grinning. Zuko quickly came to realization and rubbed his hands on a cloth already dirtied with charcoal.

"It's alright." He responded with an awkward tone. "How is... you know, your hand?"

"Well, thanks to you it's fine now." Aang's smile had it's own brightness. It's his signature, perhaps. Zuko thought to himself. He certainly didn't miss the traces of weariness on the boy's face.

He stood up from from his chair next to the trash can and sat on a desk, gesturing the other to sit infront of him. The boy did so.

"What's wrong? You look a little worried."

Aang didn't want to bore him. He kept his feelings to himself once again, so that it wouldn't seem like he only ever came to see Zuko when he was in trouble.

"It's nothing, just a boring day. I figured I would look out for some adventure." Aang smiled sneakily. Zuko seemed relieved even by that hint of sincerity. Aang enjoyed that.

"You're out of luck then." Zuko chuckled lightly.

"Actually the opposite. Come on, this place is depressing. Mind joining me for a walk on the yard?" Aang looked at him with hopeful eyes. Zuko was supposed to finish drawing a portrait but he agreed anyway.

The younger boy's eyes were gorgeous pools of gray. He couldn't figure out how he decided to follow the unordinary freshman. He was quite literally compelled by his, well, everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aang seemed to forget those complicated thoughts that were violating his mind fifteen minutes ago. There were barely any students on the schoolyard because of the cold weather. The raven haired boy slowly smoked his cigarette. One hand holding his poison, the other resting on his knee. Aang thought he looked beyond beautiful. He was attractive for sure, but that wasn't all. His face was pale white, except for the burgundy colored scar covering his left eye. He had tied his short black hair up messily. His knuckles were red and bruised, and it adorned his perfectly shaped hands. Fuck, he looked like a statue. He felt his heart break when he realized the boy was purposely not facing him, concealing his scar.

"Can I see you drawings?" Aang asked breaking the silence.

Zuko hesitated for a moment. He never let anyone look at his sketches before. Not that he wasn't confident about them, because they were personal.

He blew out his last breath of smoke. "Will you be upset if I say no?" He looked at Aang with a hidden sorrow in his eyes.

Aang knew. There was a battle in Zuko's heart. He kept his emotions locked away, far from anyone to hurt him.

"I won't." he gently held the pale hand and brought it to his lips, softly kissing a fresh bruise. "But I will be, if you never let me." He smiled caringly and walked away, leaving Zuko in pure astonishment.