Ginny glared at her laptop. Sokka didn't know what he was talking about. ...Did he? She huffed and stood up, striding into the living room where Zuko was sitting with his laptop. "Sokka says you're mad at me," she said in a deliberately neutral voice, folding her arms.
"How observant of him," Zuko replied flatly, not even looking at her.
"And why is he the one telling me this and not you?" she asked.
"Not my fault he has a big mouth," he retorted, still not looking at her although there was a hint of hostility in his voice.
"That's not what I meant and you know it," she snapped. "If you have a problem you have to talk to me about it, Zuko."
He finally turned his head to shoot her a glare. "Oh right because obviously you've never kept anything from me."
Her mouth fell open and she stared at him for a moment. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"I'm lucky Hiromi is such a good friend..." his eyes still retained the icy glare which he kept fixated on her. "At least she's honest about what she does."
"...That's what this is about?" she asked incredulously. "Zuko, I was drunk off my arse, and it isn't as though the entire conversation wasn't there for anyone to see. I can show it to you right now." She gestured toward his computer. "I assumed you knew. Maybe that was a stupid thing to do but I didn't hide it. And it isn't as though you said anything, either."
"You still didn't tell me," he retorted. "I had to find out on my own, which only hurts more. If that's what you do when you're drunk I can only imagine what you do when you're in the right state of mind."
"Meaning what, exactly," she said, in no mood for him to dance around the subject.
"As if it isn't obvious," he stood up and gave her his back. "You've been going behind my back, haven't you...?"
"You could at least look at me if you're going to make accusations," she snapped.
"Alright then," he turned around quickly. With one hand he grabbed her wrists and held them tightly, pulling her in close so he could look directly into her eyes. "What else have you been doing? Based on what I saw that can't possibly be the only time."
She flinched when he grabbed her, but stopped herself from crying out -- she wasn't about to show him that he'd hurt her. "Fine," she said, her eyes narrowing. "When you broke your promise and ran off on me, Light took me to Costa del Sol to stay with him and Reno for a weekend. We fooled around. I slept with Reno." She sneered at him. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"So is that what you're doing to do every time something happens? Just run off and go sleep with somebody?" he asked through gritted teeth. "That's something I'd expect from some kind of whore. Not you."
She gave him a wide, sarcastic grin. "You told me to. Remember?"
"Just because you could doesn't mean you should, that's flat out disloyalty," he told her, glowering. "Just like I could kill you right now, doesn't mean I'm going to. I wouldn't want to anyway."
Her jaw dropped, and for a minute she didn't know what to say. The threat was clear in his voice and she suddenly realised she was scared. "So you expect me to believe you've never done anything?" she said finally, recovering enough to throw the words at him.
"Oh I've done something, but that was because I was frustrated and got some comfort from it," he admitted, his grip loosening slightly. "However, I still feel guilty about it while you apparently do not."
"What, and you think I wasn't hurting the entire time I was with Light and Reno?" She yanked her wrists out of his grip and started rubbing at them. "You think I don't feel guilty about it?"
"Sure don't act like it," he snapped, grabbing her by the hips and pulling her flush against him. Mostly because he was worried that if he kept his hands free for too long he would wind up eventually physically hurting her and he really did not want to do that.
She inhaled sharply. "Let go of me," she said, low and threatening.
"No," Zuko replied bitterly, narrowing his eyes at her. "Does it hurt? I'm sorry." Though he didn't sound apologetic at all he actually did mean it.
"Don't make me pull my wand on you," she snarled, blinking hard to hide the tears that had sprung to her eyes -- his grip on her did hurt. "I don't want to use magic on you but so help me I will."
"I'd turn that stick to ash," he whispered dangerously, his lips barely inches from her ear. "So I'd reconsider that threat if I were you."
"Let go of me," she repeated, voice shaking slightly and hating herself for it. Her mind raced for something to make him let her go. "You know, Light doesn't care if I fool around, and he loves me," she said venomously, seizing on the first thing that came into her head. Then, Shit. Shouldn't've said that.
Without even thinking he slapped her hard across the face and then backed away in shock once he realized what he had done. Voice shaking, he could feel the tears forming in his eyes. "I--I...."
Ginny's eyes went wide with shock and she stared at him for a moment, trying to process what had just happened. "How dare you," she said finally, and seized the first thing her hand fell on, which was a heavy old textbook -- ironically, probably left sitting out from the last time Light had been over going through her schoolbooks. "How dare you!" she shrieked again, and hurled it at him.
He managed to block it by bringing an arm up and it flew off to who knows where. "I--I'm sor--" cutting himself off, he shook his head and the apology along with it. No, it was about time he proved that she had no control over him and he was someone to be feared. "Like you have any right yourself!" Zuko snapped, blue sparks of potential fire flickering off his hands. He quickly regained his composure and stood in an offensive posture in front of her, his cold glare threatening. "I've done so much for you, already. I practically gave up everything because I love you. What have you done....?" His voice trailed off to a low whisper.
"So now you're going to blame me for being happy before I met you?" she yelled, grabbing a half-empty coffee mug on the table and throwing that at him too. Furious tears threatened to spill over. "You're going to blame me for the fact that I'm all you've got?"
The mug flew and he leaned to the side so it hit the wall and shattered behind him instead. "That still doesn't change the fact that you're a fucking hypocrite!" his voice rose along with his temper. "You can go around, do as you please, get knocked up by whoever, while I have to 'be good' for you like some kind of pet! I was willing to give up someone I care greatly about because I only wanted to be with you. I may not know much about it, or have a lot of experience, but I do know that a relationship has to have some form of commitment... Which I've yet to see any of from you at all!" He reached his arm out but rather than hitting her directly a small blast of lightning shot out and left a nice hole in the wall behind her. After doing so he felt bad but he figured she needed to get the point.
She shrieked as the lighting bolt flew past her, then turned back to face him, eyes flashing. "You think I'm not trying?" she demanded. "You think it isn't hard for me? Newsflash, Zuko. I was involved with Light and Reno long before I met you and I did drop them after we got together. I hardly even saw either of them for weeks. No, I'm not going to break off contact with them -- they're my best friends and yeah, they're important to me! You want to know why I slept with Reno?" The tears escaped and started to pour down her cheeks. "It was because you hurt me, Zuko, and I wanted you to hurt too!" She cast around for something else to throw at him and grabbed a little cut-glass candy dish she normally used for spare change but which was now empty. "I felt betrayed and I wanted you to too!" She threw the dish at his head, simultaneously wanting it to hit him and feeling bad about having such a desire in the first place.
The dish hit him square in the corner of his forehead and shattered. Bits of glass cut into his skin and blood dripped down over his already scarred eye. Zuko didn't care, however, and just wiped it away the best he could with the back of his hand although more just kept coming anyway. "Oh and I DIDN'T have a life before I met you either?" He snapped, about ready to actually hurt her. "I never asked you to sever ties! I just want to know that I can trust that you can at least be around the opposite sex without spreading your legs for them! But apparently you can't. For once my sister was right about something. You are a slut and I have terrible taste for being so in love with you! " More sparks flickered. "Aang knows better than to betray me and he's a fucking child! Despite how much this hurts him he still cares and has kept quiet all this time. And believe me, I'm more than grateful to him..... How would you feel if I flirted with every single cute girl that came my way?"
Any response she could have given him caught in her throat as her mind stuck on the fact that he'd called her a slut. She gave a choked sob. "Zuko, I--" she shook her head. "That's not-- you're not--" she couldn't seem to complete a sentence. "That's not true," she finally protested, sounding weak and knowing it.
"Deny it all you want... Try to find something to contradict the fact. You can't, can you?" his voice lowered but it did not waver in the slightest. "It's because you don't have any self control."
"I'm trying," she said, voice still shaking. "Damn it, Zuko--" she strode across the room and grabbed his forearm, yanking on it to make him look at her. "Try to understand," she said, her voice low and a bit stronger. "I've not been in any kind of exclusive relationship in years. It's not going to be easy for me. And--" something occurred to her. "Why the fuck're you listening to your sister, anyway? She's a lying whore and you and I both know it." She gave his arm a shake for emphasis. "She'd do anything to fuck you over."
"Because she's my family," he snapped, looking her dead in the eye. "And she's been right at times..." Zuko continued glaring at her, snarling for a moment. His voice had a dangerous chill to it. "It would be wise of you to unhand me."
I am not afraid of him, she reminded herself, before saying, "Obviously you don't understand." Her lips twisted in a sneer as another wave of anger hit her. "Light does."
"Then go fuck him over!" Zuko shouted, wrenching his arm from her grasp while the other hand shout out a nasty wall of fire at her. It wasn't the hottest it could've been but definitely enough to burn. When he was free from her grasp he stared at her, eyes narrowed, panting from using so much energy he just didn't have at the moment.
Ginny screamed and jerked sideways, though not fast enough to avoid a tendril of fire licking across her upper arm and burning her. Her other hand flew up to clap over the wound as she stared at him in complete shock, tears running down her face, hardly believing what had just happened.
When he saw that he had actually hurt her his face fell. Shaking, tears welled up and poured down his cheeks, mixing with the blood so it didn't look too pretty. "Ginny... I--I'm sorry.... You know I'd never-- I didn't mean to....." He reached out slowly to see if she would let him take her arm to inspect the wound.
Instead she jumped back, ducking away from him. "D--don't," she managed, her face white and scared.
"I'm sorry.." he choked back a sob. "Please... Let me help you..."
"No," she whispered, backing further away from him. "Stay away from me--" and she Disapparated with a resounding crack.
Clearly upset at her as well as himself he screamed in frustration and stomped towards the window. Zuko opened it without much difficulty and climbed out and up along the outer wall, a specific destination in mind.
