A/N: This is an idea I'm testing out. . .let me know what you think! :)
It was a pitch-black room, bottles of empty liquor strewn across the dusty wooden floor. The pungent scent of alcohol intensified by the summer air was suffocating, as if it carried its own thick, black cloud. Spiders, weaving their eerie silver traps, danced aimlessly in the corners of the room. The rain poured outside the window, beating relentlessly against the glass. Lightning split the dark sky and left flashes of crooked witch fingers. When the wind blew, the old building groaned in pain, as if it were to cave in at any given moment. Dirty laundry was strewn everywhere; however, Zuko didn't care how much a mess it was. Nothing mattered anymore. His life had no meaning. There was just one thing left to do. . .
He sat in his old wooden chair, the stingy smell of tears mixed in the air. With a deep breath, he ran a shaking hand over his face, sighing heavily. Each piece of his shattered heart felt like a huge weight that had floated to the bottom of the sea. His fingers gently pressed against the typewriter keys. It seemed so foreign to him now, he almost had forgotten how the coolness, the tingling sensation that used to come to his fingertips, but no more. They had long since gone numb. As he listened to his broken heart, the words crept up his throat and through his lips, the pain flowing effortlessly as the agony flowed over his cheeks in rivers of tears.
I've learned a lot of lessons in my life, he started out, taking a deep sniff to stop the snot from running out of his nose. I've learned respect. I've learned how to live as a free man. I've learned jealousy. He paused, the pounding in his head constricting and holding him under its control, until the pain decently subsided. He grit his teeth and continued, his chest hiccuping as it became more and more difficult for his fingers to keep moving.
But the greatest thing you'll ever learn, he breathed, determination now settling in his heart, is just to love, and be loved, in return.
The tears resurfaced in full force, streaming down his cheeks silently. Zuko began to shake, with anger, hate, and sadness. Hate at his own life. It seemed that life, at every opportune moment, took everything away that had made him happy. Things that he had sacrificed and worked so hard for, pulled away like the rug underneath his feet. It stripped him of his inheritance and recognition as a Fire Nation prince, something he used to hold as number one importance. It took away his mother, his uncle. And now. . .
Fate was the biggest bitch he had ever met. And he had Azula for a sister.
He shook his head. I wanted to go out and make a difference. So I went out in search of my own destiny, and my own father disowned me shortly after. He didn't want anything to do with me, and was glad I left. Looking back now, so was I.
But what I found, was greater than any man could have dreamed.