Here's my new ff! I hope you guys like this one! It is another Zuko and OC thing. It's just a bit different. I own nothing except for my oc's. :) And the beginning part is a little bit boring, but you know. The beginning's not really an interesting part. It'll get better!
Chapter 1: Meeting
Sixteen-year-old Naomi aimlessly strolled around the lower ring of Ba-sing-se. It was a perfectly normal day. There was no rain. The sky wasn't too clear nor too cloudy. It was just a normal blue sky with a few scattered puffs of clouds.
She had some money, but she didn't have a whole lot. Her parents have been dead for several years, and that was the Fire Nation's fault. Well, Azulon's to be more specific. Still, things were fine. After her parents died, she made a journey to Ba-sing-se all by herself. Not bad for a little seven-year-old, right? On the way to the large city, she taught herself how to fight. She wasn't a bender, but that didn't mean she was an incompetent fighter. She taught herself how to use swords, spears, bows and arrows, and her own body.
Naomi had some straight, long, brown hair. Her eyes were amber. Her skin was smooth and a little pale. Around her neck was a very beautiful choker necklace. The pendant was an amber stone that was a perfect and smooth sphere shape. Carved into that necklace was a small swirl. A black leather string kept it around her neck. This necklace meant everything to her. Her mother and father gave it to her. She still remembered their last words when they gave it to her. And that happened a very long time ago.
Naomi missed her parents so much, but she didn't want to keep crying about it for the rest of her life. It was a very tragic thing that happened to her, but she did her best to stay positive.
The young woman had no job. The money she had was just what she found on the ground. Nobody hired her. Life was hard, but it wasn't that bad. She had always thought that her place in the world was a very nugatory thing. She never thought her life actually mattered so much to the world.
Naomi had a sudden craving for some tea, and-- lucky for her-- she was right in front of a tea shop. Good thing she always carried some money with her. You never know when you're going to need it.
The door made a small creaking sound as she opened it and stepped inside. Naomi sat down on one of the wooden chairs at one of the wooden tables and waited for one of the waiters to come and take her order. After one short minute, a young man that was about her age came to take her order. Like her, he wasn't very talkative. His hair was black and was the regular, messy hair that was a little attractive. His left eye was scarred.
"I'll have some jasmine tea, please," Naomi sighed.
The young man wrote down the order and went to the back casually.
A few short minutes passed by and the young man came back with her order. Naomi gave him a quiet "thank you" and sipped her tea.
When she was finished, she put down the cup and went over to the counter, holding the money she needed to pay in her hand.
She put the money on the counter and walked back out. Yep. A normal, boring day. With days like this, Naomi wondered, When will things get more exciting?
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Night fell and Naomi still wasn't in her one-bedroom apartment. She was still strolling around the lower ring of Ba-sing-se. The streets were lit up by lamps, and there were other people walking around. Some people were in restaraunts, some were doing some night-shopping, and some just had nothing better to do, just like her.
As she was walking, Naomi felt a sharp pain in her left side. Where did that come from? she wondered curiously.
The pain began to throb. Naomi put a hand in the area to try to keep it from becoming worse. But it kept on getting worse. She tried to push her hand on it harder, but it still got worse. This was so irritating. Naomi looked down at her side and saw something. Something red? No, that can't be. Yes, it was. It was blood! Where in the world did that come from?! The blood was leaking through her clothes. Naomi tried to think back to where it may have come from.
That's it! she thought. Earlier today, I ran into that thug. He had two knives and one of them stabbed me! How come I forgot all about it?
Suddenly, the pain began to make her brain foggy and her vision cloudy. How much blood did she loose since she was stabbed? This was beginning to freak her out. She couldn't focus her mind or her eyes clearly.
Without anyone caring, she walked weakly, trying to find anyone that cared. Her vision became cloudier and cloudier every few seconds. She began panicing and limping faster.
It got so bad, she was in front of apartments and she didn't even know it. She went to a random door that was on one of the upper levels! What's up with that?
She knocked on the door, and-- as soon as it opened-- everything went black.
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It was the same young man from the tea shop. Okay, it was Zuko. When he heard the knock on the wooden door, he was the one that opened it. His uncle was just making tea.
As soon as he opened it, Naomi fainted and landed in his arms. Zuko's cheeks were tinted pink for a few seconds. He looked down and saw the blood.
"Uncle!" he called. "You have to take a look at this!"
Iroh walked in with curiousity written on his old and wrinkled face. As soon as he saw the girl, the look turned to concern and shock. Iroh rushed over to his nephew and helped him carry her to the couch. When she was on the couch, Iroh looked at his nephew seriously.
"Go get a wet towel and a dry towel," he commanded his nephew. He obeyed.
Zuko came back with a wet towel and a dry towel. Both of those were for stopping the bleeding.
"I'll go get a healer," Iroh told Zuko. "Stay here and try to stop the bleeding while I'm gone." Zuko did what he was told without any comments. His uncle left him alone with this girl he had only seen once.
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Iroh came back with an elderly woman. Good thing this wasn't a date. She was the healer. When she saw Naomi, she rushed over to her. Zuko and Iroh went into another room and stayed there until the healer was done with her work. Why does this stuff happen to me? Zuko asked himself in his head. It really did seem like a lot of stuff always happened to him.
"I'm finished," the healer announced.
Iroh and Zuko walked back in the room and saw Naomi. She was sleeping peacefully on the couch. There was no more blood. She was going to be fine.
"Good thing you stopped the bleeding, young man," the healer said, pointing at Zuko. "I'm glad I got here in time." The old healer walked to the door, opened it, and left without another word.
Naomi woke up several minutes after the healer left. Under her clothes, she could feel the area that was wounded was bandaged.
She rubbed her eyes and looked around the room she was in. It didn't look familiar. It looked like someone else's apartment. Well, that's because it was. Naomi scanned the room and then saw the scarred young man from the tea shop and the old man that she also remembered seeing at the tea shop.
"Oh my gosh!" she gasped. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to pass out or anything!" She was about to get up, but the sharp pain in her left side came again. She grimaced and grabbed at it with her hand.
"Don't move so much," Iroh said calmly. "And it's okay. We are perfectly fine with you here." It didn't really look like Zuko was perfectly fine with it, but you know Zuko. He's almost never happy.
"Well, I'm sorry either way," she said. She thought for a moment while looking up at the ceiling and then back at them. "I wonder why I didn't expect my injury to turn into something serious like that. I was actually going to take care of it by myself when I was done walking, but I guess I forgot about it." She laughed at herself nervously and smiled sweetly at them.
"Wouldn't your parents take care of that?" Zuko asked, getting annoyed.
Naomi winced at the word "parents" and looked at them with the smile that was still on her face. They didn't need the smiled to tell she was happy. They saw that her eyes were sad. Zuko felt a little sorry for mentioning it.
"Well," she began, looking down and then back to them. "When I was seven, the Fire Nation came and just destroyed my whole village. My parents were some of the people that died in the fires. The necklace I'm wearing is what they told me to wear. They told me,'Keep the necklace and we'll always be with you'. Those were their last words. After their death, I traveled to Ba-sing-se as a little seven-year-old girl, teaching myself how to fight along the way. Since I came here, I've been living an ordinary life without parents or foster parents."
Iroh wiped his watery eyes with his sleeve and smiled sweetly at the injured girl. "Well, would you like to stay with us?" he asked her.
"I don't know," she said.
"I incist," Iroh said.
"Fine," she finally answered.
"What is your name?" Iroh asked in a kind voice.
"Naomi," she answered.
Iroh introduced himself and his nephew. "I'm Mushi and this is my nephew, Lee."
"One moment," Zuko growled. He stormed out of the room, taking his uncle with him. They went into his room. Zuko shut the sliding door.
"What?" Iroh asked in a whispering tone.
"Are you kidding, Uncle?!" he whispered angrily. He was very indignant about this. "You can't do that! If you let her stay with us, she'll eventually find out who we really are."
"Did you notice anything about the girl?" Iroh asked.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Her eyes were amber, and her skin was pale," Iroh mentioned. "The brown hair is normal for every nation."
"What about it?"
"Those are characteristics we get from people who are from the Fire Nation. And that included the colonies."
"If that's true, then she's more dangerous than I thought," Zuko said.
"I don't really think that she's dangerous."
When they were done conversing in hushed tones to each other, they got out of Zuko's room. Iroh looked calm and normal. Zuko looked annoyed. His harms were crossed as he looked at Naomi, who was sitting up and looking a little bit confused. One of her eyebrows were raised to show the confusion.
"Hey, uh, Lee?" she said to him when Iroh went into the small kitchen. "Can you come over here for a moment?"
Zuko walked over to her with his arms still crossed. He was standing up and looking down at her with his own amber eyes.
"My name is Naomi and the Fire Nation did kill my parents and destroyed my home, but there's something about that." She paused for a second and then looked up at him nervously. She took a deep breath. "My village was a Fire Nation colonial village. My parents were Fire Nation. Then, for no reason at all, a group of Fire Nation soldiers came and burned it to the ground. So, I am Fire Nation. And I know who you are." Zuko winced. "You are Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. Your uncle is a retired general." Looking at the expression on his face, she added,"I heard you two. And don't worry. I would never tell anybody anything about it."
Zuko saw it in her eyes that she was telling the truth, no doubt about it.
Iroh came in, looking quite smug. Apperently, he had heard the entire conversation. "I told you she wasn't dangerous," Iroh told his nephew. He chuckled.
"Thanks for everything," Naomi said.
"Our pleasure," Iroh replied. He thought for a moment and said to her,"We have jobs at the teashop. Of course you know that. Would you like to work there with us?"
Naomi didn't like the fact that two people would be gone working and earning money while she was alone in the apartment being lazy instead of useful in anyway. After all, they helped her.
"Yes, sir," she answered.
"I suppose you'll start tomorrow morning," Iroh said.
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What did you guys think? I hope it was good! If not, it'll get better! I promise! :)