Disclaimer:

I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or its characters

Claimer:

I do own Xue

Summary:

The snow fell like petals from the sky as they slowly came down upon the two and as he slowly reached to touch her skin, he felt no warmth but an everlasting coldness even though she had fire in her blood. . . "I thought you cared about me?" He asked, "I can't." Zuko x OC

Remember what I state below:

Italics and ' ' Means thinking! The person is talking to themselves, sounds a bit weird, neh? Example: 'Oh brother.' Katara thought.

((Author Speaking))

Chapter One

Xue

The Fire Nation. Greedy, evil, and the nation that uses their element for destruction. They were power hungry and wanted to take over the world because their own land was not enough and they wanted to watch people suffer under their demand, they cared for no one but themselves and they continued to think that was for many years and probably more years to come if they were not stopped. At least, that's what some people came to think because their homes had been destroyed, taken over, and put under the rule of the Fire Nation and that is what a young girl believed until she had to live there. Why did she believe this? Because her home had been destroyed, taken over, and put under the rule of the Fire Nation and her father was the one who helped all because he was a firebender. This man was not ruthless or careless but it was his duty to follow orders but he slipped up, he fell in love with a waterbender. He fell in love with the opposite element, he fell in love with something he shouldn't have and the worst part was he never regretted that mistake because he continued to love her throughout the time he spent with her and even promised to return to her when he had the chance to. He kept his promise. He took her from her home and took her to the Fire Nation where they would raise their daughter, their daughter who was blessed with two gifts and a curse.

"She's not long for this world," said a doctor once he was able to deliver the baby during its birth. A woman with chocolate brown hair and blue eyes face was a look of sadness as she saw her daughter not make a noise and her eyes closed. . . The child was stillborn.

"How can this be?" cried the Fire Nation admiral as he went to touch his daughter, her skin was cold as snow.

It was the winter solstice and it was the day they had lost their first child that had wanted so much. "I am sorry but there is nothing we can do, Admiral Junjie."

The woman broke down and cried against her husband hysterically as Junjie held onto his wife trying to ease her pain. Their child did not get the chance to view the outside world and for some reason, Junjie found himself to blame even though it was not his fault.

When his wife fell asleep, Junjie went to the room where they kept his child who was wrapped securely in a blanket, he had heard that Arnook's daughter had been revived by the moon spirit and maybe his child could be blessed by a spirit as well. He had walked outside where the Fire Nation was covered in soft blankets of snow and the snow fell hard and the wind blew vicious because of the blizzard. He walked to a shrine and placed his daughter in the center where a square hole let the snow fall down and light was given. "Goddess of winter, Yuki-Onna, my daughter died from your cold season. . . I know that this was not intentional and I know that you have no animosity towards me at least I believe you did not, but I require a favor from you. May you revive my daughter and give her life."

"And what I shall get in returned?" whispered a female voice as her spirit floated above the deceased infant and her long black mane floating ethereally as her brown eyes looked down at the man. Her body was covered by wraps, her stomach and legs somewhat revealed as she held a staff in her hand with a blue ball glowing at the tip with wings surrounding it. The man bowed deeply.

"In return, I shall sacrifice my life." He said as the spirit closed her eyes.

"Your life holds not value to me, I shall revive your daughter for she is a gift to this broken world. She will be cursed. . . " The woman said as she placed a cold kiss on his daughter's forehead and he watched in amazement as his daughter's brown mane went to beautiful obsidian tresses but her blue eyes remained, her mouth opened to let out a cry. His daughter would never appreciate one of life's greatest moments. . .

. . . .

"Xue," cried a little girl as she tried to catch up with the young girl. Xue turned to look at the girl, "you walk really fast!"

"I'm sorry Ty Lee, I didn't want to be late for recess since I barely get the chance to make it during that time." Xue said as her blue eyes wandered from the short girl and towards the large school. They were nine-years-old and in elementary school

The spirit kissed girl was a rather unusual child, how? Well, she had and blue eyes, her skin was beyond a normal pale and compared to snow, her lips were a beautiful bright shade of pink and her form was curvy yet slender. Her footsteps could not be heard and she seemed to be like a normal child despite this. Nobody can see the resemblance in her of her parents and people even though she was some sort of spirit walking amongst them. "That's why we can never play with you until after school!" Ty Lee giggled as Xue smiled as the acrobat in training grabbed the girls arm as they walked toward recess.

"It is more fun after school anyway." Xue said as she saw Azula and Mai waiting for them at the gate, "You both look like your having the time of your young lives. " She said with a bright smile on her face with made Mai snicker and Azula shrug.

"I'm contemplating if I was to crush this girl or not, she is rather irritating." said the princess as she looked at her nails, picking at them if she spotted any sort of dirt in them.

Mai looked at their friend, "She's just getting a little to over her head and life without her would be great."

Xue's smile slowly went to a frown, "What did this girl do?"

"Yeah, what did she do that Azula has to question taking her down or not?" Ty Lee asked with worry.

"Let's just say someone has been talking about Xue," Azula said and looked at her friend who's eyes slowly went from the trio and towards the ground.

"I'm use to this. . ." said the female as she walked pass them and went into the school yard. Mai and Ty Lee exchanged looks as Azula watch the girl walked into the school yard.

"Your not a firebender!" shouted one girl as the winter child walked passed her, Xue ignored her until the girl grabbed the pale girl's wrist. "Did you hear me? You don't belong here and especially not Royal Fire Academy for Girls,"

"Let me go." Xue said calmly as she gave the girl a rather emotionless stare.

The young child refused to listen, "Not until you leave."

"Why do you hold such anger towards me?" asked the blue-eyed girl as she pulled her wrist away with one fellow swoop and which surprised the enemy.

The girl clenched her teeth, "Any girl that is close to Prince Zuko and is a foreigner is unacceptable!" She sent a large fireball towards Xue which moved her arms in a circular fashion and dissipated the attack.

"And what makes you think that Zuko would go for someone like you? Destructive and doesn't even know what's really going on." Xue saw the girl looked stunned. "Touch me again and you will never breathe again," Xue warned her which made the girl back away slowly before running off. Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee looked at her with a surprised look as well as the rest of the girls in the school yard. "Does anyone else have a problem? It can be easily solved!" It was obvious she was enraged.

"How did you two become friends anyway?" Mai asked Azula, "Meet at an evil convention?"

Azula smirked, "Well, let's just say it didn't start with a hello and didn't end with a goodbye."

Ty Lee and Mai looked at each other. "I'm not sure if I want to know." Ty Lee said with a somewhat scared expression.

"I agree." Mai said as they headed towards the school building, school officially started for the day.

. . . .

"What are you doing?" Ursa asked Zuko as he started reading a book, "Oh, you're reading about. . . Ghosts?" The Fire Lady looked at her strangely as Zuko closed the book and then looked up at his mother.

"I think Xue is a ghost. You see her skin? She looks dead." Zuko told his mother as Ursa shook her head, she patted Zuko's head.

With a sigh, Ursa spoke. "Xue is not dead but was born different than the rest of us, I think her skin is really pretty."

"What do you mean born different than the rest of us?" Zuko asked, curious as to what happened to the girl during the time of her birth.

"I'm not really sure, why don't you ask Xue herself? Her and Mai and Ty Lee are coming over to play and today will you play with your sister for me?" The woman smiled at the boy who rolled his eyes, but he did whatever his mother told him to do and nodded his head.

"I will," He said as he walked down the engawa and towards the garden area where he saw Xue sitting under a cherry blossom tree and looking at the lake. Zuko did like Xue, as a friend, and she was the only girl that didn't annoy him besides Mai, although Mai said few words to him anyway. Xue would talk to him and often play with him but she often left him alone as if she knew that he didn't want her around for a minute. It was strange but seeing her upset kind of got to him in an odd way. He sat next to her as she looked at him from the corner of her eyes.

"Yes, Prince Zuko?" Her voice was mellow, maybe she wasn't upset but then he thought it was a little TOO mellow.

"You don't seem like you had a good day," He pulled his right leg towards his chest and rested his elbow on it while his leg leg was outstretched in front of him.

The girl shrugged her shoulders. "Is any day a good day for me? Today some girl threatened me to leave school and said I wasn't a firebender."

The prince frowned, "What did you do when she told you that?"

"I threatened her I would take her life if she ever touched me again. I'm use to it but it still hurts each time." Her hand was outstretched in front of her as she looked at her white palms and then closed her opened hand to a fist. "I'm tired of it."

"There's no stopping it, people are gonna say how they feel regardless." The prince said which caused the girl to look at his direction, "My dad always puts me down and doesn't even care who is around or how I embarrassed I feel."

Xue watched as his eyes had a sad look in them and slowly raised her hand and touched his shoulder, "Thank you."

"Thank you?" He blinked a few times before letting his eyes set back on her, "What are you thanking me for?"

"For telling me about how your father treats you, it was personal and it helped me realize that I have to get over how other people feel about me. I know who I am and what I am capable of." Xue stood up and let her dark magenta kimono sleeves fall pass her hands. The sleeves were too long for her arms and the kimono was knee length, it had imprints of cherry blossoms at the end of the sleeves and all around the body area as her red ribbon-like obi kept the kimono tight and revealing how petite she was.

Zuko half smiled at her. "It was nothing and oh, before you leave I wanted to talk to you about something. . ."

Xue looked at him curiously before sitting back down, her blue eyes looked directly at him just to show how intent she was on paying attention to what he had to say. "Oh, what is it?"

"My mother said you weren't born like most people, you wouldn't mind telling me?" He asked and the girl looked at him curiously.

"My skin pigment is strange and my father said it was because it was a blizzard the night I was born and it was normal for firebenders to be born in the winter of some sort, I'm not not quite sure." She looked at the back of her palm before shrugging, "I should be going home anyway."

Zuko nodded, "Hangout after school tomorrow?"

The snow-skinned girl looked at him. "Sure but I really need to hurry home, see ya! Tell Azula sorry I couldn't stay a little longer." She said as she ran off home, she watched as many people looked at her, some curious and some at awe. She was never told her pale skin made her seem ugly but it just made her seem unique and ethereal really. Once she finally reached the royal Nobleman housing complex, she went straight for the large gate in which the guards opened the door and ran toward her large abode. Xue was never really care about money or wealth and she always wanted a small simpler home like the peasants did, but it wasn't too bad to have a little extra space. "Mom. . . I'm home." Xue said as she closed the door behind her in her lavish home, the house had a mixture of red, white and various shades of blue to unify water and fire. Her mother although had to lie about being a waterbender and all her custom items from her tribe of the North Pole had to be hidden before if any admiral should ever come to their house and see them, well, they would go suspicious. "Mom?" Xue called again to see her mother in the kitchen cooking dinner. "Where's the chef?"

"I let him stay at home," She said with a smile on her face, "it was her birthday and I wanted him to spend time with her. A little mom made food would be nice, wouldn't it?" Ai said as she wiped the counter. Xue smiled at her mother before running over and hugging her. "What's wrong, Xue?"

"Why am I so different? Why can't I give off warmth like you or anybody else? Why is my skin so white and my is my breath always cold like ice?" The girl asked as tears formed at the corner of her eyes, she was tired of people picking on her and she couldn't help but not question why she looked so different in her own home. She did know she was half water nation and her waterbending was a big "no no" and her mother had a caramel skin complexion like most waterbender and her dad was like a yellowish - tan complexion.

Ai sighed as she looked at her daughter, "You are just special is all, Xue."

"How many times are you going to tell me that? It doesn't make any sense, mom!" She shouted as she moved her mothers hand who had rested on her shoulders, "I just want to know what's wrong with me and you won't even tell me. Afraid I'll be upset or something?"

The woman looked at her daughter and then at the floor, "You won't understand, Xue. I'll tell you when you are of age to understand."

The child clenched her teeth as she felt scared and anxious all mixed into one. "Okay."

. . . .

"Xue?" Zuko said to the young girl as she had her nose in a book, "Why are you reading about Yuki - Onna?"

The girl's blue eyes peered front atop of the book and she blinked twice, "Well, I've been told that I bare resemblance to her and I wanted to find out how and I see a resemblance!" She turned the book towards his direction and showed him a picture of a woman floating on air with a white long kimono, a winter background around her as she wore a white kimono and her skin similar to the color of snow. Her hair was black and long as her beauty was more beautiful than any girl Zuko had ever seen, besides his mother of course, and as he looked at the picture he looked at Xue for a quick second.

"You do look like her," He said before arching a brow, "but its not like you can come in contact with her or anything." He said.

"Well, I was going to go to her shrine and see if she would answer my question but I am too smart to know that spirits don't just speak to anyone." the blue-eyed girl tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear before frowning.

The prince folded his arms. "What is she going to tell you anyway? I mean its not like she's the reason why you look like that, right?"

"I don't know. . . I'm so curious about myself that anything information will make me feel better." Xue said, half whining and halfway on the verge of crying.

The boy frowned, "Well, there's a play about her today maybe that would be better than reading that long book." He said which made the girl smile.

"Alright, we'll meet up and sit together."

Other information:

Junjie - Chinese name meaning handsome hero.

Ai - Chinese/Japanese name meaning love or loving.

Xue - Chinese name meaning snow.

Yuki - Onna - Japanese Goddess of Snow and Winter

Author's Note :

Yeah, yeah its short. . . but I promise the next chapter will be longer. :3 A beta reader would be nice too. :3