A/N: This is Zuko's look at his two big interactions with Katara, the season finale of Book 2 and the meeting up with Team Avatar in episode 12. Just a short one-shot, but it was fun to write! I'm going on an Avatar craze lately.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
You watch the girl so close to you, her large blue eyes staring at your scar, scrutinizing it. It makes you feel uncomfortable, because everyone else you have ever met avoids the scar with their eyes, trying not to look at it, trying to pretend Prince Zuko has nothing wrong with him.
But there is something wrong with you, and this girl sees it. You flinch, your gaze flickering away, but she notices that too; a small frown puckers her lips.
She speaks, and you're not listening because you suddenly notice how beautiful her skin color is, something like chocolate, but then suddenly her fingers are on your face, touching your scar, and you freeze.
No one has ever touched it but you. No one has ever looked at it but you. No one has ever felt the numb skin, tracing the flame pattern to where it ignites beside your shrivelled ear. But she is, and you shiver under her touch and want to pull away, because suddenly you feel exposed and vulnerable.
But you don't.
You remember the girl in the Earth Kingdom whom you met just after escaping Azula, when your uncle nearly died of poisoning. You remember her reaching out for your scar, but you pushed her away. You don't push this girl away, though. There is a difference in her, not pity, but concern; she wants to actually help, not to lament with you like the other girl did. This girl, too, has lost a parent to the Fire Nation. Just like the other girl, you can't even remember her name. Why are you thinking of her now?
You want to mutter 'stop', 'don't touch me', 'you're just a peasant!', but you finally look in her eyes, and she really does look worried. For you. It's so different; you don't know what to do.
So you watch each other, and you see her reach for the water, her fingers still on the scar, and you wish you could feel it more, you want this caress so badly but the dead skin hardly allows you to feel it. It isn't fair.
And then you hear the rocks exploding, and you see your uncle and the Avatar, and in an instant her fingers retract, the water is hidden, and you know that this isn't fair either. Your face is suddenly cold again, and you see her rush to the Avatar, enveloping him in a hug, and now you know it isn't fair.
You just want to make peace, to be their teammate, to be accepted into their life, their goal. And you see her look of pure hatred, which is so different to that calm concern you remember so clearly. It is the feeling you get when you think of her, the Waterbender, Katara.
But now she is glaring at you, she hates you; she spits out water at you and you cough, freezing and wet, lying on the ground at her mercy. She is angry. Cold and cruel and you don't understand how she can be so kind one moment and so vicious the next.
You miss the touch of her hand on your face, and you were hoping that maybe she would do it again if you saw her. Apparently not.
You grow angry. They won't accept you, and Katara hates you. That hurts you the most. This kind girl hates you, and you know it's because you screwed up so badly you don't think she will ever forgive you.
You just want her touch again.
It isn't fair.