A/N: A 'what if' scenario set several years in the future. Takes place during Season Two but ignores Zuko's arc regarding the Blue Spirit.
Limelight
He asks her simplistic questions befitting any stranger that washes up on her beach one chilly spring morning. His ragged breath under the cover of his blue and white mask reminds her of the stormy ocean and all that she's lost to it.
"Water," he wheezes. "…please."
The black latex skin does much to conceal his thin frame. The bearer of a uniform herself, she understands without words what this foreigner must have gone through. She knows the story: another refugee from Ba Sing Se. A detained Earth Kingdom ship heading for the South Pole with an illegal cargo full of hopefuls only to become prisoners once more. So very few escape the clutches of Fire Lord Azula.
Suki's hands are bare and very pale against his textured fingers. She holds the wooden bowl of cold, life-giving water and lifts it up to square mouth of his demonic face. The lonely woman with light brown hair is not surprised when he pushes the chin of the mask halfway up his face and drinks from the cup. Ignorant of his slurping sounds, her visitor dribbles matching streaks of water droplets down his chin and it splashes upon the backs of her hands.
"Who are you?" He doesn't need to ask if he can stay.
"The girl left behind."