Open Your Eyes | Book 2

10: The Tale of Zuko and Kida

"Oh, right," he muttered. "Uncle had some crazy idea that she had a crush on me."

I rolled my eyes. He really was dense. "She did, idiot."

"Huh?"

I frowned at him. "Do you really not notice when someone shows interest in you?"

He shrugged. "Normally they're only interested in killing me or using me in some way."

Although it was a depressing and sadly true notion, I couldn't help but laugh. "Join the club." I noticed the corner of his mouth twitch, causing my smile to widen. "Hey, why don't we do something tonight, just you and me? We can site see or something, pretend to be normal people for once."

His face scrunched up and I prepared for him to ridicule the idea. "That sounds..." he trailed off when he looked up at me. "Okay," he agreed abruptly, the aversion on his face falling off.

It felt like I had gotten whiplash from his sudden change of demeanor. "Really?" I asked, not masking my surprise at all. "I thought you would call it dumb or something."

Zuko shook his head. "No," his eyes fell back to the dirty dishwater, "if we're going to be stuck in this city, then we should find a way to enjoy it."

A grin stretched onto my mouth. I leaped down, throwing my arms around him. "Great!" I pulled away to look up at him once more. "It's a date."

I didn't wait for his response to these words, already starting back out towards the main room again.

"Wait, what?" he stumbled over his words, turning to me with his hands still dripping.

"Blame your uncle," I called before slipping out again.

***

I waited outside the tea shop where Iroh had instructed Zuko and me to meet. After I had asked Zuko out, Iroh didn't let me get much more work done. He had said something about girls taking a long time to get ready and sent me on my way. I hadn't completely planned out what we'd be doing on this date, so I wasn't sure how I was supposed to get ready.

I had taken my time getting back to the apartment, thinking of possible things we could do while wandering through the market. It was then that I had come across a dress shop with one of the prettiest dresses I had ever seen hanging out for display.

"That's a very beautiful dress," a woman had caught my attention.

I nodded, smiling at the soft, green material. "It is. I'm not normally a dress type of girl but I have a date tonight so..."

"A date!" a new voice spoke up. I turned and saw that two more women had rushed over to us with excited eyes and wide smiles.