The Crippling Affect

THE KING OF OMASHU

It was a couple of days after Kyoshi, and Zuko was getting more frustrated by the minute. His men couldn't find the avatar and he knew other fire nation generals looking for glory were closing in on him. He was stressed, and scared. Scared that he wouldn't capture the avatar and would have to live on this miserable little ship for the rest of his life, scared that even if he captured his father wouldn't welcome him, or even let him come home. Most of all though he was scared of his future with Kimjo. He couldn't help but wonder if she would leave him for a better opportunity, or someday come to her senses and blame him for the loss of her legs. Worst of all though he feared her leaving, not literally walking (or wheeling in her case) away, but leaving.

So there he sat in the corner of his room letting his fears and worries get the best of him. Iroh had tried to talk to him for a bit, but that didn't work out so well. Zuko felt the stress around him, suffocating him like a wet cloth. He was being eaten alive with no way out, constantly spiraling downward. Faintly he heard the door open, but he didn't acknowledge it, too wrapped up in his thoughts. The familiar sound of spinning wheels reached his ears, but it didn't mean anything to him at the moment, his ability to process the outside world was non-existent at the moment.

"Zuko?" a soft voice asked, tentatively.

There was no response.

"Ko?" she asked again, using the nickname that has existed for so many years.

He still didn't respond, it was almost as if he had shut down. She wheeled closer still talking to him. "Sweetheart, I heard you weren't having a good morning. You should have seen Iroh's face when he left here. The poor man was terrified," she chuckled, hoping to get maybe a small smirk or some type of reaction. There was still nothing.

Kimjo steeled herself for what she had to do next. She knew what was happening to Zuko, and it has happened more times than she would like to admit, especially when they were in the fire nation. Sometimes Zuko would just shut down from stress, mainly the stress of trying to impress his father and earn his affection. She knew the outcome of what she was about to do, but she knew she had to.

"Zuko?" she asked a final time as she reached out and touched his arm. Zuko jumped out of his skin and immediately went into attack mode. Kim braced herself for the punch that usually comes out of these situations. However this time Zuko took a different approach. He went to swipe his "attackers" legs out from underneath them, but seeing as said "attacker" was in a wheelchair that didn't work out for him very well.

Kimjo gasped as Zuko's foot hit the wheel of her chair, hard.

"GAAAAAAAH!" Zuko yelled out in pain.

"Oh my goodness! Zuko are you okay?" Kimjo managed to gasp out through her laughter.

"Sure, once I get past the excruciating pain in my foot," he said with a slight chuckle.

The mood however quickly changed as Kimjo turned on him. "So what were you thinking about?"

"Nothing," he swiftly replied.

"Oh come one Ko, I know you better than that. Give me some credit here. You only get that wrapped up in your head when you're under some serious stress," Kim lightly scolded him before continuing, "Now I know the avatar is stressful, but not quite full shut-down mode. Was it about your dad?" 

Seeing an opening to hide the fact he was mostly thinking about her, Zuko jumped on the opportunity she gave him.

"Yes," managed to mumble.

"What about your father?" Kimjo pushed.

"Honestly its nothing, I was ju–" he stopped after receiving a pointed look from his girlfriend. "Fine...it's just that I'm scared, terrified actually," he added a small scoff. "Prince of the fire nation terrified of his father. The future fearless leader too scared of his kin to even get out of his head.