Title: Judgment Days
Prompt: #092 Surprised
Notes: What originally sparked off my idea for Thicker Than Blood. -shameless plug plug- Takes place during The Southern Raiders. Yep…
Judgment Days
She has a man on his knees before her, his body bent at a truly awkward angle with her bloodbending. And it's a sick, twisted technique and she knows it but she's too too too angry right now to give a fuck. And her eyes dart to Zuko but he isn't looking at her, he's looking at the man. And he's not judging, not fearing. And that feels so so so good.
She is in love with him before she can even properly comprehend what love is. Because right now she is angry, and sad, and hurt, and guilty, and a thousand other unidentified emotions; but more than that she's really only a fourteen year old girl underneath the exterior of fearless warrior and Avatar sifu. She has never been in love before, not really.
(There was Haru of the quiet smiles and the quiet voice and the quiet courage, whom she felt a faint affection towards. There was Jet of the brash actions and the brash words and the brash romanticism, whom she felt a girlish crush towards.)
That was okay before now, because when (if) they win this war, she'll have years and years and years to fall in love. To figure out what love was, and how it worked, and why it was felt. So before―or maybe Before―she was okay with not being in love. Now, she vaguely wonders how she ever got on without it.