A/N: I was kinda listening to the Snow Patrol song Chasing Cars and got inspired to write a drabble. This drabble is far from what I had originally intended as the outcome, but I like it anyway.
Title: Protection
Author: Red Hawk K'sani
Word Count: 301
Warnings: Zuko angst, Aang nostalgia
Challenge: None
Characters/Pairings: Zuko, some Aang
"You're just a child."
Four words that rang true to the depths of the Avatar's soul, and still yet completely and utterly wrong—and he knew it, too, after just seeing the look in the child's eyes. But his regular self returned, and he underestimated the child without a second thought.
"Do you think we could've been friends…?"
The sound of silence hung thick in the air, so thick he thought he could choke and cry and plead for redemption all at once. And then his mind came back to him, and he began to think properly, responding with a jet of flame. Easily avoided flame, but flame nonetheless.
"We can't leave him. He'll die if we leave him."
He wasn't thinking. All he knew was that his body hurt and he could barely comprehend what was happening; all he knew was that the Avatar was just a force that was lifting up his battered soul… His reason came again, and he was fleeing the Avatar and chasing after Zhao to extract revenge, as if that was all he lived for.
"Zuko, I can help."
The absolute, genuine emotion swirling around within the pairs of eyes, all spectators of some monstrous game gone out of control, startled him, frightened him. To know that much sympathy and care…
But his thoughts pounded his heart with their savage battle cries, their labels of "Avatar!" and "Enemy!" And he told himself that life he had so vainly hoped for was just a lie, a drop of water drowning in a dark, never-ending ocean.
And so, naturally, thus sprung from his palm the fire, a wild shot that did no harm to his merciful spectators; thus, his natural impulse to trust in the fire, as if it would protect him, though it never really did.