Find Me | Zuko x reader | Avatar the Last Airbender | Book 1

Chapter 16: The Mask

          He spotted a new engraving underneath his most recent message, and couldn't help but smile. "It's horrendous." She had written in response to his question about his hair. 

          Zuko closed the panel, sealing it shut and leaving the room to face Zhao.

                             —|〰️〰️〰️|—

                                Y/N's POV

          Y/N quietly strapped the two containers to her belt, a difficult task, given she couldn't see, and she could afford to accidentally bang one of them against the metal walls. 

          Once Zuko's footsteps faded into the shouting above, Y/N could only sit there and huddle in the darkness. From briefly looking and feeling around, she concluded that there were no vents or places for air or light to come in. It was also a tight fit for her, so Zuko probably knew he had to come back soon, so she wouldn't suffocate.

            It was somewhat soothing to know he couldn't take more than an hour, so she wouldn't have to wait in tense silence for as long as she had before, way back at the Fire Nation port the ship had been repaired at.

          She sat there for about 10 minutes, trying to make out the muffled voices from above, and she finally relaxed a bit, letting her feet slide forward a little to hit the opposite wall, but they hit something in the process, the object making a loud clattering sound against the metal.

          Y/N cringed, listening for anyone who might have heard before picking up the object. It was some sort of carved dense wood, with a strap on the back. How had she not noticed it before? She ran her fingers over the ridges, squinting through the darkness even though it wasn't possible to see anything.

          Zuko's mask. Y/N realized, turning it over in her hands. That means... 

          Y/N almost screamed in fright as the door to Zuko's quarters swung open with a sharp bang, and two pairs of footsteps entering the room.

          "Why is the Admiral having us check the entire ship again? All of us are here, accounted for, and ready to go, I don't see what we have to check for."

          "He said something about stowaways, I don't know. Just get it over with, get the report in, and we'll get out of here."

          Y/N didn't dare breathe as the two soldiers moved around the room, the only sounds were their footsteps, and the opening and closing of drawers, cabinets, and ripping the cloth from the tabletop. It seemed like they might be done when one stepped on the panel, the space making a more hollow sound than the rest of the floor.

          "Woah. That's weird." The voice was right over her. "It sounds hollow." Y/N swallowed nervously as there was little scraping sounds, probably the soldier looking for a hidden hatch or something.

          "This ship is an old model, there might be a few kinks not worked out, and probably hasn't seen proper inspection in years. C'mon, we should get our report in."

          "Should we include this in our report?" The soldier above Y/N knocked on the panel. "It's really the only suspicious thing we've seen."

          "Yeah, sure, whatever, just get your butt over here and let's go." Y/N waited until their footsteps faded down the hallway, then gasped, her breathing becoming quick with panic. They were reporting the sound, so someone may come back to check.

          She had heard of the Blue Spirit, and there was no information commonly known for gender, identity, abilities, or anything except for their weapons of choice, the duel dao swords. She didn't know why Zuko had decided to go out that night as this mystical spirit, or what the Blue Spirit had done, but he had made quite the first impression.