A/N: Enjoy, and please rate and review! If you do I'll bake you virtual cookies, the best kind of cookies. And unfortunatley, Avatar: the last airbender is not mine, only Sarafina is, and parts of the plot. Nothing you recognise is mine baisically.

"Yay home!" I try to sound excited, but know it's half-hearted. We're going home, where in public, I'm expected to be the perfect young lady, the daughter of a Fire Nation general. In the Fire Nation, I'm the beautiful young daughter of General Kani, with exotic looks compared to the skinny fire nation girls, with their stick-straight black hair, and flat-curvless figures. "It's a shame none of his children are fire benders" the crowds would whisper during family outings. If only they knew my real element.

Mai, my half-sister, and my stepmother, Xie, know. So when we're really at home, our house, that to me technically isn't a home, I'm nothing more than the bastard child of a water-tribe slut. A mistake my father made while away at war, that he had to take responsibility for after they put my mother in prison for being a water-bender.

When I was a child, my father told me stories about my mother before I went to sleep. He said he planned to free her from prison, and run away with us, that we'd be a real family. That plan crashed before it could take off though, for my mother died when I was five from the prison conditions. I never met her.

Of course, as my father likes to say, I have more than enough of my mother in me to go around. Not only did I inherit her water-tribe teal blue eyes, body shape, and curly hair (the only thing I got from my father was his night-black hair), but also her water-bending abilities.

I learned early on that it wasn't something to advertise. When I was seven, my stepmother caught me trying to bend some water from a fountain in our back yard, and slapped me so hard I fainted. When I woke up, we were unable to cover the bruise with any amount of make-up, so I was forced to stay inside until it faded. I can still remember the fourth day straight spent in my room like it was yesterday.

"Hey Sarafina"

I hear a voice calling from above, and turn around confused, wondering if a spirit might be visiting. I look up and see Zuko at my window lightly tapping it. "Open the window"

I climb on to my bed and open the window up, helping him into the room. "What are you doing here Zuko?" I ask confused.

"Well you haven't come over for like five days, and when I came to see you, your mom wouldn't let me in. So I just came here!"

I flinch when her calls her my mom. Of course there are only four people in the world that know she isn't. "Why didn't she let me see you Sarafina?"Zuko asks curiously.

"I'm being out in a long time out. I did something bad, so Xi" I cut myself off before I call my stepmother by her first name, "I mean my mother, hit me, and she says to be punished for being bad, I have to stay in side until my bruise goes away. I'm not supposed to see any of my friends."

Zuko looks even more confused. "I thought moms were supposed to love you, not hit you."

"Me too" I reply sadly. "Oh but don't tell anyone though! I'll just get in more trouble! I don't want my mom to hit me again." I hold my hand against my bruised cheek, imagining being smacked all over again.

"Ok, I won't tell, as long as you promise to get better soon." He looks at me seriously.

"I promise"

Zuko turns to leave, but a look flashes across his face like he just thought of the most brilliant idea. "Hey Sarafina! I know how to help you get better!"

"How?"

"Well whenever I get hurt, my mom kisses it better. So all we have to do to make you better is this"

Zuko moves my hand away from my cheek, and lightly kisses the bruise. I silently hope that the purple of the bruise covers up the slowly spreading brush on my cheeks. "There, it'll get all better. See you soon Sarafina." Zuko waves and slides back out my window.

"Sarafina. Sarafina."

I pull out of my daydream to find present day Zuko calling my name, and waving his hand in front of me. "Oh sorry Zuko! I drifted off in my thoughts for a minute. Besides, now that we're done celebrating, we better steer the ship towards that beam of light. We've got an avatar to catch."

I smile on the outside, but inside, I feel a jab of pain in my heart at the thought of returning to the Fire Nation.