Disclaimer: I don't own it, plain and simple

Title: Scars Fade Too

Summary: You will always have scars, and many things will scar, but like images of the faces of those you have loved and lost, they will fade too.

Ship: zutara, I guess.

Rating: PG it's a little angsty, but not bad.

Other: just something that had been floating again

Scars Fade Too

Scars. By the definition of Merriam Webster it's: a mark left (as in the skin) by the healing of injured tissue; a lasting moral or emotional injury one of his men had been killed…in a manner that left a scar upon his mind — H. G. Wells ; or a mark.

Zuko's hand ran over the raised spot again and again. The flesh seemed to writhe beneath his touch. So many things in his life were represented by that mark. So many emotions fanned out in that flame shaped mark. It itself had sparked many emotions, and many events in his life. Most of them were bad. It was betrayal. It was insolence, and ignorance. It was te sadness and the over whelming doubt he faced everyday. It was supposed to be a lesson, and suffering his teacher. Or at least that's what his father had said. That was it's purpose how ever failed it had turned out to be. His teacher had taught him the wrong lesson. Which turned out to be the right lesson... Zuko was confusing himself. More recently though it had come to mean something more. He decided. Different things came out in the folds of dead skin, better things. While it was still the mark of a banished traitor, it was also the mark of redemption. Of Zuko's redemption. It was a mark from his father no more. Sure it will always have been given to him by his biological father, but really, it was a mark from the fire nation. From a tyrant who Zuko opposed. It hurt, to disown his family in such a way, but they had disowned him in one infinitely worse. Never would Zuko really be fully healed. It's a scar after all. It will never fully disappear. There will always be something there, no matter how much time passed and how many good things he did, no good deed would ever remove the mark of his past. It would always hurt when people stared and when people asked questions. But when those questions did come up, now he would be able to say that it didn't matter how he had gotten it. No what did actually matter was the fact that it represented the new him. The real him. True his dreams always would replay that agni kai. The searing pain caused by the one person who's affection he craved the most would return daily to remind him of his utter failure in his fathers eyes. Life would flash images of his family, or the fire nation royal family. Scenes of turtle ducks, and Azula burning dolls, of his fathers war room, and of other things from his childhood would filter past his eyes like an old film. Complete with the clicking of the projector.

He had once thought that maybe someone could heal it, that it might disappear. Maybe the pain in the middle of the night would finally subside. Maybe he could get some sleep. Maybe he could even find a place in the world. The teas shop was kind of nice... The spirit water was tempting. The new life it promised was what Zuko had always wanted. What he had always needed. Or that's what he had thought. The waterbender could heal him on the outside, and maybe even on the inside... Now though it was too late. His scar would probably remain forever. Along with the ones still developing. The ones from Mai, and Katara. The girls that had held promise, but he had been either too blind to see it, or too blind to really see her. As Zuko mulled this over he realized. You will always have scars, and many things will scar, but like images of the faces of those you have loved and lost, they will fade too. It would be slow and painful, and never quite complete, but it would happen. His hand still rested on the welt, but it no longer seemed so twisted and contorted. It seemed more like his own skin. More like somthing that was a part of his destiny, and not the one that he had always assumed, but instead the one created by him for himself. Maybe it had a place in his new persona after all. Maybe he was meant to have this scar. Not to remind him of his failure, but to remind him and those around him of what they were fighting for. The were fighting for that frightened little boy. They were fighting to stop the flow of ruby red blood that the fire nation inflicted on so many. To finally let peace have a chance. After all, you need both good and evil to balance the word, you need energy and calm. Or you could even say fire and water.

Ok so this was written on caffine, and i don't think it probably makes much sense. Reviews are appreciated, and i'll alugh if u just are like WHAT THE BEEEEEEP WAS THAT. cause thats sorta how i feel about it. if u like it , plz, i need encouragment for ideas to come, and i need criticism for it to get better, or i'll be stuck in this rut FOREVER .

THANK YOU

oops caps was on

3 Jas