title Reflections Over Shallow Waters
fandom; characters Avatar; Zuko, Katara, Iroh
rating 12A
prompt 036. melt
setting Season two, post The Earth King.
an Again with the uploading. :)
summary Zuko finds comfort in being Li. Unfortunately, Katara does not.
Sometimes he forgets who he is. It's not amnesia. It's nothing dangerous or frightening. It's liberating. It's him.
For those few minutes he actually believes that he's Li. That he's a completely normal person. These minutes, they're coming fewer and further between but when they come, there's a certain ecstasy. There's a complete happiness.
It's only when his uncle does something stupid that he remembers who he really is. It's only when he catches a glimpse of his reflection that realises what it is exactly he's trying not to be.
So when he sees the waterbender's furious blue eyes he knows that he's not Li, he's not fugitive Zuko.
He's dangerous, evil, vindictive, relentless, powerful, inhuman, dishonourable Prince Zuko.
He watches with tight eyes as she pulls off the lid of her waterskin and bends a thick stream of water out. "So you've followed us all the way here?! Do you think you can actually stop us? We're never going to let you capture Aang and destroy the world!" She carries on screaming at him and for some reason, he doesn't realise she's actually going to attack him. Her water becomes thick and fast and it almost hits him in the chest but he jumps to the side.
"You've got it all wrong!" he tells her pointlessly.
"Have I? So you haven't followed us to Ba Sing Se? So you haven't been following us every second and you haven't been hunting us like animals? You haven't been trying to destory us at every moment you can?!" She pushes the water towards him causing him to fall back into a corner, and creates a heavy whip, aiming for his head.
Knowing he can't use his firebending, he raises his arms over his head and feels the stinging force of the water smack him hard and he buckles to his knees. "No," he breathes out and raises his head to look at her.
"Liar!" She thrusts another whip of water towards him but he dived out of the way and crashed to the floor. On his side and pinned to the corner, she edges towards him. "I'm not going to let you take him! I'm not going to let you win!" she tells him menacingly and raises the water over his head.
"Please, I've changed..." he tells her because he doesn't want to have to hurt her, he doesn't want Li to leave.
Something in her eye flickers and her face becomes even more dangerous. With a sudden fury she uses her water and slaps him in the face and draws out blood from the corner of his mouth. "If I ever see you again, I'm not going to be as merciful, you got that?" she breathes hauntingly.
He glances at his hands for a second and when he looks up, she's gone. A flash of blue in the distance makes him furrow his eyes and then he doesn't want to look anymore. He puts a hand to his lips and sighs angrily as he brings back blood.
He trudge back into the apartment and his uncle greets him with a beam. "Uncle, I don't think this is going to work out..."
His uncle's face crumbles.
- khushiyan