"That's it you're out of here!"
"I was just leaving!"
"Have fun by yourself, loserboy."
"Nice."
Zuko slammed the door behind him as he left Chan's house.
He sighed in frustration. He was sick of this, sick of Mai, sick of Azula, sick of Ty Lee, sick of …everything. He was so confused, he was angry but he didn't know why. And that made him even angrier. He ran his fingers through his hair and let out another frustrated sigh. That's when he caught sight of his family's old beach house and thought that would be a good place to loss some steam.
So he walked up the stairs to the front doors but as he did his mind was flooded with memories of childhood at the beach house. He remembered how happy he was, how his father treated him so kindly and most of all, he remembered his mother, he remembered her face so very clearly.
He finally reached the front doors pulling on the handles only to find it locked. He huffed and kick down the doors. Zuko walked through the front entrance noticing the dust and cobwebs all around the house; his eyes traveled around the room with more memories flowed through his mind.
He felt a headache coming on.
With another sigh he stepped in front of his old family portrait of his "old" family. Their mom and he smiling small smiles adorned their face while Azula and their father only stared somewhat happy looking, running his fingers over the portrait lightly he caught dust on them. Then something caught his eyes. A little piece of clay, that was already harden, with a hand print of child on it. He picked up. It was his hand; he knew it was because he remembered when he made with his mother which seemed so long ago. Placing his hand on the piece of clay he noticed how much he grew from then, how much he changed. He lowered his head and closed his eyes feeling as though he was coming close to his answer. He was angry at…
Creak!
He jerked his head up, hastily looking around he shouted, "Who's there?"
He heard someone gasp and feet running across the old floor.
"You might as well come out. I know you're there, whoever you are."
Slowly, the figure came out from hiding in the darkness.
"I'm sorry if I am intruding on your house but I thought no one live here," a soft melodic voice explained.
Zuko take in the appearance mysterious person; it was a girl he could tell by the voice, she had to be about his age but that was all he could tell because she hid herself in a cloak.
"I'll ask again, who are you," he asked in a deadly tone.
"U-uh, yes! How rude of me and in front of the fire prince. I'm so very-"
"Wait. How do you know who I am?"
"Well, u-um," she started to play with her fingers. "Maybe I should start from the beginning."
"What do you mean the 'beginning'?"
"Will you sit down so I can explain," she said as she stepped closer to him and when she was a few more footsteps away she sat down.
"What does that to-"
"Please," she looked up at him and Zuko saw her eyes.
Big and clear emerald eyes, staring at him, pleading with him to just comply with her request.
Zuko gritted his teeth in defeat, "Fine but it better be worth my time," he sat down waiting for her to explain. She gave a reassuring smile which made him inwardly blush.
"Well, first of all, my name is Sakura," she said as she took off her cloak, giving him a charming smile.
He took this moment to take in her appearance. Pale ivory skin, flawless and smooth, plump and alluring lips, a small, well-shaped, button nose, big, clear and beautiful emerald eyes, and unusual, long and silky pink hair. Her body was something Yue and Tui had to have hand craft themselves. A petite yet womanly body; petite shoulders, slender arms, delicate hands, dainty fingers seeming so fragile, an ample bust, a flat stomach, wide hips, slender leg leading down to small delicate feet. All concealed in a simple red robe like dress dress that was came a few inches below her knees.
"Please to meet you, Prince Zuko," she said snapping him out of analyzing glaze of her person. "And the reason I know your name is because I know everything about you."
His eyes widened.
"No-no no. I'm not a stalker if that's what you think. No, no, no, never, what I mean is that I have a special ability to know everything and anything about a person just by looking in their eyes," she calmly stated.
There was an awkward silence that filled the air then Zuko spoke.
"I…I don't believe you."
She sighed, "Well, I see how you wouldn't, it is really absurd but I am telling the truth."
"Prove it."
"You are Prince Zuko, son of Lord Ozai and your sister is Azula."
"Not good enough."
"You are emotionally frustrated because you don't know if you did the right thing in betraying your uncle and you don't believe the avatar is dead."
His eyes widened once again. How could she know such a things unless…?
"So you believe me now?"
He nodded, how could he not? She knew what was wrong with him even though he was still fuzzy on that. Then he said something that surprised even himself.
"Can you...can you help me," he had no idea where that came from but he knew if anyone could help him it was her.
"Do you mean with your situation," she asked as she crawled closer to him.
He was silent, looking at the floor, his face hidden from her view but she knew why. Zuko wasn't the type to call out for help unless he really needed it, he wouldn't ask someone useless he knew they had the answer.
"Well, I think you should talk," she said simply like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What," he asked totally confused.
"Speak. Without limitations, hesitations or care. Let it all out," she raised her hand to place on his chest over his heart. "Your heart tells me you want to be heard so speak."
She told him to speak from his heart, to tell her everything. But…he couldn't. No, he simple couldn't spill his gut out. One, he just met her and two, she was a girl. He knew if he talked it would lead to some tearful memories and he wouldn't be able to hold his emotions in. And he couldn't do that, especially in front of a girl.
"No," he said. "I can't! First of all, I don't even know and I can't show weakness! I am the Prince of the Fire nation, I have no-"
He stopped when he felt a small hand slip into his and give a reassuring squeeze. He looked up and noticed Sakura was sitting right beside him; hugging her knees to her chest, waiting patiently for him to talk from his heart. His eyes moved to their hands seeing that their fingers were entwined together, it had him blush a little.
He sighed and then he spoke from his heart for the first time.
He started with his childhood, and then he talked about his mother. He talked about how beautiful she was, how she was always so loving to him and as he continued to talk about her he felt tears threating to fall but he held them back.
Yet when he talk about her disappearance, his father giving him the burn on his face and banishing him he couldn't stop them from falling. Nor did he have time to wipe them away before he felt Sakura's arms wrapped around him. She was comforting him. He hadn't felt such an embrace in such very long time it was almost foreign to him. Slowly, he wrapped his own arm around her waist and buried his face in the where her shoulder and neck meet, sobbing silently. Sakura really didn't expect Zuko to accept her embrace let alone return it but she was glad that he trusted her enough with these conflicted feeling to respond to her act of comfort. She waited patiently for him to continue, not knowing if he actually would but she wouldn't force the truth out, that would make it worst.
As he continued he never let go of Sakura, her presents comforted him and her being in his arms made it easier for him to talk about his past. He continued with his search for the avatar, saying how he always felt uncomfortable when he was.
"I just thought it was because I want to catch the avatar as fast as I could and the waiting just was unbearable," he said.
Sakura nodded, listening to every word very carefully. Then he talked about how he saved the avatar when he got caught by the Fire Nation, he said it was because he didn't want anyone to catch the avatar unless it was him. Zuko said that the only time he actually felt happy is when they were undercover in Ba Sing Say, his uncle was a nice man who loved tea a lot and knew all the different types of tea. He spoke of his uncle as if he was his own father and he seemed to love him a lot.
"So what happen to him, your uncle? Where is he right now," Sakura asked.
Zuko instantly went stiff. He let out a deep and shaky breath and Sakura regretted asking a question on what seemed to be a touchy subject.
"You don't have to answer if it make you uncomfortable," she said.
He looked into her eyes and shook his head.
"No, it's fine. It's one of the things that has been bothering me the most," he said softly. "My uncle is in Fire Nation prison for treason. When we were undercover, I found the avatar and my sister. We took down the avatar, well she did, and my uncle was trying to help him. I feel like I betrayed him, he looked at me with such disappointment in his eyes. Did I do the right thing?"
He looked at her with such confused eyes. She gripped onto his shirt tightly not wanting him to feel this pain.
"Zuko, do you truly believe what your fathers doing is the right thing? Is it the way you want your life to be when you get older," she asked.
"No," he responded quietly like his father would hear him. "I don't want that life, a life of hatred and heartache."
"Perhaps you felt it to be unbearable hunting for the avatar because you didn't want to, you saved the avatar because you didn't want him to get caught and then kill, you didn't betray your uncle but betrayed your own feeling and your own judgment and that's possibly because you, Zuko, want to help the avatar."
He realized that she was right, he didn't want the world to be ruled in fire. He just wanted peace. He wanted a better tomorrow and he knew that wouldn't come if his father had anything to do with it. Zuko realized he found his new purpose and that made him fill whole.
He would help the avatar defeat his father. He liked the sound of that.
He looked at Sakura and gave her a small smile, "Thank you, Sakura. You've given me a new purpose in life and one I can be proud of."
He hugged her tightly. She smiled and returned his embrace.
"Well, I've told everything about myself," she instantly stiffened, already know what he was getting to. "I think it only fair I heard about who you are. I mean, I don't know anything about you except your name." He chuckled.
"Zuko," she muttered.
He looked at Sakura, seeing that her face was in utter confusion and sadness. She looked lost.
"I don't know much about myself. Actually, I don't know anything about my past ," she said with a slight chuckle that sound sadder than she had intended it to.
"What? Like you have amnesia," he asked, shocked at what he just heard.
"I guess. Truly I don't exactly know," she murmured, looking away. "A year ago, I woke up in a hospital bed somewhere in an earth tribe and all I knew was my name. As time went on, I traveled all over, inside and outside the Four Nation; discovering that I could know everything about a person just by looking at them, name and such like that as well as their mental and physical aspects. And I learned that…I could… bend all the elements plus the fifth."
Zuko's eyes widened at what he was hearing.
"No, really. Watch, I'll show you," she said. She put her hand up to give it attention and made fire appear on her finger tips, "Fire." It quickly disappeared as she made a small sphere of air appear in the palm of her hand, "Air." The air dispersed and she spun her index finger in the air, extracting the water from it and creating a small ring of water as she twirled her finger, "Water." And finally she took a rock off of the ground, bending it into the shape of a heart, "And earth."
He stared in utter amazement as he watched her bend all the element but then he remembered something she said.
"Impossible," he said, his hand covering his mouth in shock. "Wait, fifth element?"
"Oh well, the fifth is actually two things but together are one."
"Ying and yang," Zuko asked, remembering the ramblings of his grandfather.
"That's right. Or better known as darkness and light. Alone they are powerful but together they make one being along with the other elements," she explained.
"A being," Zuko asked.
"Mm hmm, humans, animals,...life, Zuko. You see we all are made from the elements," Sakura went on. "Our minds are like water; clear yet disturb, our arms are like air; soft yet harsh, our legs are earth because we must stand hard and firm."
"And fire," he inquired.
"Our heart," she whispered softly. "They should be warm and bold like fire."
Slowly, she placed her palm on his chest where his heart was. She felt it thump-thump-thump in a rhythm that she would love to fall asleep to.
'Bad thought, Sakura! Bad,' she mentally smacked herself for thinking such a thing.
When Sakura's hand touch Zuko's chest, he felt like her warmth was radiating off of her on to him. Sakura slowly lifted her head and stared up into his golden eyes. They gazed at each other, gold and emerald met in an intense stare.
"Zuko!"
They froze, both blushing furiously.
"Zuko, are you in there," someone called again. Zuko recognized it as his sister's and thought not to answer.
"Zuko?"
Sakura thought to answer and was about to open her mouth to say something but was stopped by a slender and long finger lying on her lips. That finger belonging to Zuko, who shook his head as if answer her unspoken question as she gazed at him with confuse eyes.
"Well, if you are here Chan says you can come back to the party if you promise to have a cool head," she said as footsteps faded.
Zuko let out a relieved sigh then he looked at Sakura.
"So are you going," she asked.
"I should but would you like to come with me," he asked.
"Is it okay? I mean I wasn't invited," she said.
"I don't think Chan will mind."