Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, etc. of "Avatar: The Last Airbender." This story is for entertainment purposes only.
QUILLBENDING
Pairing: Zuko/Song
Word Count: 199
Rating: K
Warning: Angst
Silent Song
Her song is silence. He would not take her pity when she offered it, perhaps he would take this gift instead.
She could have spoken, and named the two lonely travelers who took such low advantage of their kindness, absconding with their only ostrich-horse in the dark of night. She could have had them tracked and followed, could have had them brought back and hung as the meanest beggars and thieves. But when the village men asked if she saw anything, she said nothing, and only turned away as she had at the shoji screen, her brown eyes aged far beyond her short years, and sad.
For she had lost hope that night. He had stolen it, just as he had stolen her heart and her horse. The years would go on, and she would grow old, and her silence would grow until her heart was lost in it, and her song lay like dead ashes in the coldest, burnt pit of utter betrayal.
But it was with perhaps bitter irony that she might have bought him his chance with her silence. For she had given him time, perhaps, to learn what she had lost, and find hope anew.