Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender
It was just a month ago after the gang bade the fire nation goodbye to set off to their respective homes after the defeat of Firelord Ozai. And a new Firelord is left alone in his working room looking bored as ever.
In fact, the Firelord in question was starting to fear that after surviving the hundred-year war, he would die at the moment of tediousness. The ancient faces coming to and fro his room were not helping at all. It just made the ambiance all duller, if possible.
Zuko sighed deeply and decided that was a wrong move when he felt a tingling feeling about the middle of his stomach. Ah, his newly acquired scar. The reason he wouldn't be firebending for a few months, and who knows, maybe even years, and another factor adding to his grand boredom.
He touched the part where the pain emanated. He was starting to realize how upset he really was that his friends had to go right away and leave him to his duties alone while he obviously wasn't all well yet. And all the dullness of the day was making him miss them more than he ever thought he would.
He was suddenly so longing to hear Momo's constant chirruping, Aang's aggravating scooting and hovering above, Toph's trashing of the palace and fiery remarks and, dear Agni, he even misses Sokka's nonstop blabbering about food and just "how hot it is in this country!"
He also misses Katara's checking up on his wound every once in a while. Well, of course he would, since that means easing his pain. And at that moment, he found himself even missing all the disgusting Water Tribe remedies she had been urging him to drink and eat to "speed up" his recovery(privately, he thinks those were the exact reason he hasn't been completely healed yet, but he kept those thoughts to himself). And now, he found himself terribly craving for them. He was also missing the way Katara scolds him whenever she finds him doing something "more than he was supposed to" and ends up wrestling him back to bed. He also misses the way her hands hover just above his abdomen to feel the flow of the blood in there, and the way she touches him to feel the wound itself, and the way he shivers with excitement whenever she does, and the way he watches her gentle face, eyes narrowing, eyebrows furrowing every now and then while examining the damage, and the way his throat seems to have a mind of its own and gulp loudly whenever his stare settles at her lips shaping words of discipline, concern and worry and care and--.
His chin fell out of his hands. Blinking for a few times, he sighed once more, and this time, he didn't seem to notice the pain from his front…