Searching (Zuko x OC)

Chapter 16

"I shouldn't have used the kidnapping as an excuse and I should have considered how you felt. I'm sorry," he apologized.

I finally opened my eyes and looked at him. Even thought he was in a meditating position, he was already looking at me. I could see the sincerity in his eyes and I sighed.

"Apology accepted," I said, giving him a half smile.

He smiled back and then got up, lending me a hand to help me up as well.

"Now come on. We have a story night to attend," he said.

"Does that mean you're actually going to come?" I asked in shock.

"Only because it's important to you. I'm not participating though. Just listening," he said seriously.

"You're the best!" I exclaimed, jumping up and into his arms to give him a hug.

I didn't even give him enough time to respond before I grabbed his arm and dragged him down to the circle where Iroh had saved me a seat. Everybody looked shocked to see that Zuko was trailing behind me.

"Prince Zuko! I didn't expect you to join us!" Iroh said.

"Don't get used to it," he huffed.

Uncle had only saved one seat, so I insisted that Zuko and I could share. We were a bit squished together on the cushion but it was big enough to hold us both as long as we sat right up next to each other. The fire was roaring and the crew looked happy as the fire danced in front of them. There was food around the circle and drinks as well as many buckets for the sicker crew members. Luckily, since the ship was docked and most of the poisoning had past, I doubted they would be used.

"Let's firstly all give a big thank you to Sora for setting this up," Akemi said, holding out his cup.

"To Sora!" they all said, copying Akemi and holding out their drinks.

I smiled at them all as I held out my own cup and forced Zuko to do the same. We all took turns telling stories and laughing at each other's charades. It was an amazing night. Eventually, it was my turn to tell one and I thought for a minute before finally picking the one I wanted to tell.

"Alright, this one is gonna be a good one! I hope you're all ready," I said with a grin on my face.

The crew all looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to continue.

"This is gonna be a story from when I was little and it involves our brooding Prince over here," I said, nudging Zuko in the side.

"What?" he said in shock.

I grinned mischievously before looking away and continuing.

"I was about 12 years old and after I had finished my days work I decided that I wanted to go have fun. I found Zuko and eventually convinced him to play hide and seek with me. I was the seeker and Zuko hid. I looked for him everywhere and I almost gave up until I saw his ponytail sticking out from inside the kitchen pantry. I snuck up on him and scared him. It worked better than I thought it would apparently because when I popped out, he hit one of the shelves and sent three whole bags of cake mix over us. We were covered from head to toe," I said with a laugh.

The whole crew began to laugh with me except Zuko who had a visible blush across his face. He crossed his arms and glared at me.

"Oh that's not even the best part. We had to ask his mom to help us get the mix out, but when it mixed with water it became a paste. She insisted on fixing it instead of the staff, so she spent the next 2 hours brushing clumpy cake mix out of our hair. If you think Zuko is pissy now you should have seen him then. Oh it was hilarious," I finished, once again chuckling at the memory.