Avatar Zuko

Chapter 19

Zuko woke up with a pounding sensation behind his eyes and quiet mutterings all around him. He decided to open his eyes immediately, seeing no point in delaying what would hopefully be an informative explanation as to how he ended up in this mess.

“You're awake!” Both Aang and Sokka exclaimed relievedly when he made a small sound of consciousness and sat up a little.

The Prince was immediately surprised by his surroundings and half convinced he was back in the South Pole, since, though the room was made of ice, it was a messy structure and had nowhere near the elegance of Northern design. But he was definitely in the North thanks to the three waterbending guards at the door (more like flap) of his room. Katara was not present, which was probably a good thing since there were already an uncomfortable amount of people in the reasonably small room.

“Umm, what… Happened?” Zuko asked tentatively, afraid of what the response might be by the death glares he was receiving from the waterbenders.

“Well… What do you remember?” Questioned Sokka, glancing at Aang before speaking.

Zuko tried to recall the latest events and started working through them. He'd gone with Katara to the waterbending class… But she'd not been allowed to participate… Then he'd spent a few hours barely even managing to bend water, whilst those guys had been splashing him with annoying frequency… Then he'd gotten mad, he'd blasted fire at them and broken someone's nose, which Pakku got angry at him for… Pakku then said… And Zuko had been upset, he ran off to some garden where he realised… He was going into the avatar state… He held it off for a long while but then everyone else showed up and, it's a little blurry but, he… Destroyed the North Pole. Of course he did.

“This is probably just a dream I had, but did I wash most of the North Pole away to sea after completely wrecking it?” He asked, and Sokka nodded whilst the waterbenders’ glares intensified.

So he'd demolished one tiny city, that wasn't so bad? Well, the firebender knew it was terrible and on top of that he also sunk those Fire Nation ships, which meant he'd probably killed… Hundreds, maybe even thousands. Guilt was threatening to encompass him when Aang next spoke up, and he was beginning to feel like crying.

“But don't worry! Everyone got evacuated!” He assured the Prince, doing very little to ease him.

“Yeah! You only killed a few hundred Fire Nation soldiers and Zhao!” Sokka attempted to cheer him up and instead worsened Zuko’s misery to the point where he just layed back on his bed and covered his face with his sheets.

From under his blankets he heard what sounded like Aang pinching Sokka and a mutter or two from the guards, before everyone went silent and a rustle betrayed the fact that the door had just been opened.

“Is he up yet?” Asked his uncle tiredly, a heavy sadness on each of his words.

“Yeah.” Zuko replied for himself, pushing the covers off his face and sitting up, before seeing a smile light up Iroh’s usually cheery face.

The older man immediately rushed forward and hugged him, pushing past everyone else and probably expecting to be pulled away from moments later, per usual. Yet Zuko hadn't had a proper hug in months, and he'd missed his uncle sorely, more painfully than he'd willingly admit, so he wasn't about to push the older man off, instead he hugged him back and pressed his face into his shoulder, feeling thirteen again as his eyes actually began to well up.

“Um, would you excuse us?” His uncle clearly wasn't going to take no for an answer, and everybody left the room reluctantly, allowing Zuko to stop holding back and openly sob into his uncle’s comforting embrace.