❃ Cactus Spikes ❃
The old stranger peaked his grey head through the window to make sure they hadn't been followed. Then, he closed the door behind him and turned his attention back towards his guests. Keya quickly realised that they were in a flower shop. Clay pots and vases littered the whole place. She walked over to one and sniffed it curiously. It didn't smell too great, so she scrunched her nose in disgust. Zuko noticed and rolled his eyes with his arms crossed. He was far too wary of the stranger to let his guard down, no matter if the guy got along with his uncle. Keya, on the other hand, was too trusting of strangers. It annoyed him to no end, even though he didn't know exactly why.
"It is an honour to welcome such a high-ranking member of the 'Order of the White Lotus'." The man bowed respectfully as he spoke to Iroh. The high-ranking member in question smiled at his compliment. The stranger continued. "Being a Grand Master, you must know so many secrets." He walked over to the door in the back of the shop.
"Now that you've played Pai Sho, are you going to do some flower arranging? Or is someone in this club going to offer some real help?" Zuko asked impatiently as he followed them. Keya ignored him, too busy inspecting a pretty cactus.
"You must forgive my nephew," Iroh apologised to his friend, "He is not an initiate and has little appreciation for the cryptic arts. The girl behind him shows some potential, but even she has not been introduced to life's many secrets yet." Keya looked up for a moment and wondered what he meant by that.
The White Lotus man knocked on the back door twice and waited. Soon thereafter, someone opened the latch and gazed through it. Another stranger eyed his visitors and spoke cryptically. "Who knocks at the garden gate?"
"One who has eaten the fruit and tasted its mysteries." Iroh answered without a moment of hesitation. This was some kind of password. Were all old people in secret clubs? Was this a thing she was unaware of? Keya wondered just how much she didn't know of the world.
The door opened and the two sagely men stepped forward into what appeared to be some kind of back room. Zuko tried to follow, but the door slammed into his face. The latch opened again. "I'm afraid it's members only. Wait out here." Iroh instructed the two of them.
Keya shrugged and continued to admire the pretty cactus. Its green leaves looked like large dinner plates. She was curious to know whether they were hollow or not. Small, pale spikes grew from the edges of the cactus to protect it from being eaten. On the top, a pink flower blossomed. The young airbender was not too keen on disrupting the unique plant, so she just rubbed her chin in thought. How could she figure out if the cactus was hollow without cutting it open?
"Aha." She mumbled to herself and grabbed the cactus's pot. She wobbled with its weight as she struggled to hold it up without dropping it. It was surprisingly heavy.
The impatient Prince huffed and looked at the girl when he heard her make a sound. "What in Sozin's name are you doing? You're going to break it."
"I won't, Zuko. I'm just trying to- ai!" Keya almost slipped beneath the weight. The sharp needle-like spikes almost pricked her in the process. Zuko instinctively jumped forward to help her, but held back when she regained her balance.
"I'm trying to shake it a bit to find out if there's water inside." She explained a second later. Zuko pinched his brow in frustration.
"Really, Keya? You could have just cut it open." His eyes remained focussed on her figure as he spoke, looking for any hint that her silly plan would go wrong.
"I don't want to do that- See? Do you hear that?" Keya enthusiastically wobbled the cactus in her arms.
Out of pure boredom, Zuko strained his ear to listen (his scarred ear was rather useless when it came to soft sounds). She was right! As the two held their breaths and surrounded the green cactus, they could hear the soft slushing of cactus juice coming from inside. Zuko was about to comment on it and tell her that, yes he could hear it, and now she should put it back, when Keya's strength failed her and she almost dropped the plant. She immediately held it tightly in response and managed to prevent the pot from crashing on the hard stone floor. However, in doing so the cactus grazed her face with its sharp spikes.
"Ouch!" Keya gasped and quickly -but carefully this time- put the pot back down. As soon as her tired arms were freed from their burden, the young girl held her hands up to her wounded face with a wince. A couple of thin spikes were embedded in her soft cheek. The skin around them quickly became red with irritation.
"See?" Zuko scolded. "This is what happens when you do stupid things. You should have just cut it open if you were so insistent on knowing. Now look at what happened."
But his angry words quickly faded into mild concern when he saw a small tear escape from the girl's eye. The pain in her face made her ignore the annoyed teen. Keya's hand reached up and tried to grab the spikes. Sadly, she couldn't see them properly from their position on her cheek. It also didn't help that her body was forcing her eyes to tear up in hopes of washing the cursed things off.
Her boney fingers were grasped into a large, warm hand when she tried to touch her cheek. Without thinking, the Fire Nation Prince came closer and stopped her from trying to pry the spikes out herself. "You'll only make it worse." He grumbled softly and pulled her to the floor to sit down. She sat down without complaint.
Keya looked up at him as he sat down in front of her. The almost-sixteen year old hoped that he couldn't see the blush that was surely spreading from her ears to her cheeks. Her dark skin usually hid it rather well, though. But the heat on her cheeks still felt so intense that she wasn't sure if her tan could hide it. She gulped and tried to calm her racing heart when his face came closer and his hand held her chin up firmly.
"Stay still." His raspy voice sounded like a breathless whisper. The young man was far too focused to notice their intimate position. With one hand under her chin, he gently pulled the first needle from her face. Keya hissed and protested, but it only made him hold her more firmly.
"Don't complain. You did this to yourself." He huffed. His golden eyes never left the other spikes as he carefully pulled them out one by one.
Their close proximity gave Keya the unique opportunity to really observe the Prince's face. No matter its size, the scar on the side of his face was not large enough to cover up his handsome features. His Fire Nation ethnicity came through clearly in his sharp eyes, nose and chin. The hair on his head was completely black, save for a few dark brown strands that peaked through here and there. It contrasted nicely with his pale skin -yes, now that she could see him better, his royal heritage became more apparent. And then there was the colour of his eyes. His eyes were bright gold, but there were tiny spots of ember dancing in his irises, like raging flames. They accurately matched his personality; a bold boy with a troublesome past. His fiery character was complimented well by his firebending talent, even if she didn't like it (although so far he had never used it against her -not even when he was angry with her. He had only used his power to protect himself and his two companions.).
Ironically, the girl had felt herself warm up to the hot head over the past few days. Ever since he had protected her from the rough rhinos, her exposure to his firebending had lessened her fear in some strange way. It was as if the soldiers who had instilled that fear in her were so drastically different from the two men that she had come to know, that her fear no longer applied to them. After all, it was never the fire that scared her. It was always the people who wielded it.
"There," Zuko's voice snapped her from her thoughts, "all done."
Keya's hand went up to her cheek to inspect the damage, but Zuko slapped it away from her face and stood up. After he pulled the final needle from her skin, the teenage boy had suddenly realised just how close he was to his female counterpart. "Don't touch it unless you want to make it worse."
Keya looked up at him and stood up as well. "Thanks, Zuko. You didn't have to do that." She smiled softly. The boy in question blushed and looked away from her.
"I just didn't want you to make it worse. Uncle would have had a fit if you got injured under my watch." He grumbled.
"Under your watch? Zuko, you're not a soldier -let alone my babysitter. I can take care of myself." She chastised him playfully. It was like he forgot that he was not much older than her.
Zuko looked down at the cactus spikes in his hand, then looked back up at her. "Are you sure about that?" He deadpanned.
To his surprise, a gentle laugh tumbled from her lips. Her hand went up to her face to graciously conceal her mouth as she did so. He had heard her laugh before, of course. But something about the way her eyes sparkled and her voice chimed happily made his heart skip an unpleasant beat. "You got me there, Zuko. But I can't help my natural curiosity sometimes. All of this is so new to me, each step I take is the farthest I've ever been from home."
Keya stilled her laugh when a sad thought occurred to her. "I may be a refugee, but... it's nice to learn new things along the way. It makes me feel like a normal teenager on a vacation trip, instead of a filthy wanderer with a bounty on her back..." She confessed.
The banished Prince frowned. They were both filthy wanderers at this point. He could somewhat relate to her feelings, even if he didn't go about them the same way she did. A question that had been burning in his mind suddenly made its way back to the forefront of his thoughts. "Why did you leave your home?"
The question was simple and innocent. In any other world, the girl could have given him a typical answer, like 'I wanted to see the world', 'I'm visiting family or 'I'm heading over to Ba Sing Se to study'. However, the truth was much darker. In order for her to answer him Keya needed to open up about something that she hadn't even processed for herself yet. She sat down and pondered what she should do. She already knew a little bit about his backstory because of his uncle. It was only fair that she opened up in return. She stayed silent as she chose her words very carefully.
"Did it have something to do with that 'wanted' poster we saw of you today?" Zuko prodded carefully. Keya nodded.
"My village was taken over by the Fire Nation a couple of years ago." She started. Zuko stayed quiet and listened as she continued. "They put a new taxing system in place, one that my family could never hope to keep up with, especially since the death of my father - but that's a story for another time. Anyway, my two older brothers already worked to support us and we were even considering sending my younger brother to work as well! Mind you, he's not even twelve yet. My mother is too sick to work, so I always stayed home to take care of her and grow our vegetables. We all tried our best. However, we still didn't have enough money to satisfy the many tax increases."
Keya stumbled over her words, realising that she could very likely offend her companion with her next words. But Zuko just stood and listened to her story, so she decided to tell him the truth - or at least most of it. "The Fire Nation soldiers that collected our taxes were brutes. They had already taken most of our possessions from us in previous years as payment, so we had nothing left to give them. They made a suggestion for an alternative, but... my mother wouldn't have it. They-" She choked as the worst part of her memory was brought back up.
"They used their firebending against her as a punishment, I- You don't know my mother, Zuko, but she's harmless!" A tear slipped down Keya's cheek. Her careful story turned into a traumatised ramble the more she told him.
"Somehow, I became so enraged that I- I attacked them. After that I couldn't stay home, of course. The last soldier promised that he would return and that I would be punished for my crimes. My family urged me to flee to Ba Sing Se. Once I'm there, they've promised to come and seek me out." She finished her story with a sad sniff. Her tan arms circled her legs protectively, as if shielding herself from the Fire Nation boy's judgement.
Zuko frowned. What did she mean with 'the last soldier'? How had she defeated them? He concluded that she was probably hiding some details from him, but for once, he practised his uncle's advice and didn't push her to tell him more.
"I..." He swallowed thickly at the revelation that his honourable countrymen had been treating their subjects so harshly. He even felt something akin to shame. The way she had reacted to firebenders made more sense to him now.
"I'm sorry."
It was all he could say as he walked over to her and sat down (it was the only way he could think of to comfort her - to sit beside her). Her story reminded him of the other Earth Kingdom refugee he'd met, a girl with a giant burn scar on her leg. Then there were the villagers in Lee's village. Their reaction to when he revealed his true identity made more sense now. Was this how the world viewed his people?
No, he concluded. This was how his people had been treating the world.
Zuko felt disgusted. There was something so wrong about the whole thing, something that made bile rise to his throat. Then again, he wasn't so sure how he himself would have acted if he was one of those soldiers. The teen wasn't exactly without his own history of violence. Zuko sighed and looked back down at the girl next to him.
While he had been lost in his thoughts, Keya had slowly drifted off to sleep. The girl was exhausted after days of travel and the emotional toll that fleeing and discussing her past had had on her. He startled for a moment when he felt her head rest on his shoulder, but he could not find it in himself to wake her up. She was out like a fire beetle.
Zuko crossed his arms and got comfortable. The scarred young man took it upon himself to watch over her as she slept. For one, because he was certain that as long as those bounty hunters were out looking for them, he wouldn't be able to close his eyes. But there was also a second reason for him to watch over her. In a way, he wanted to prove himself. To prove that there was still honour among the firebending populous, that he was honourable.
And so the young Fire Nation Prince kept watch over the small Earth Kingdom girl all throughout the night.
❃
A/N: Girl I was low-key blushing while writing this... Zuko is so naturally protective over Keya <3