Title: Face the Dark Without You
Prompt: #059 Listless
Notes: Takes place sometime early season three. I'd say probably around The Beach or very soon thereafter, but there's not a specific time.
Face the Dark Without You
The candle by his bedside flickers with his breaths. His eyes are locked on the flame, trying to hypnotize himself to sleep. Not that it's working. The air is warm and muggy as is typical of the Fire Nation in the summertime. His raw silk sheets are too hot for comfort. If he was smart, he thinks, he would blow out the candle. Too much heat, and it won't matter how hypnotized he is.
But he doesn't blow it out. If it goes out, he'll be left to the darkness. The darkness calls to mind things he'll do anything not to remember. Rather, things he can't afford to remember. One moment of weakness and he'll be right back where he started―her hand cupping his face, breath ghosting across his lips, blue eyes concerned and almost ethereal in the glowing crystal cavern, promising things that he could only dream of accepting.
The flame reaches so high it almost scorches the ceiling, responding to his volatile emotions. He hurriedly calms it down, breathing slowly and evenly in a vain attempt to soothe his emotions to their normal state. It isn't working, so he simple extinguishes the candle.
"Zuko…"
One night of weakness wouldn't hurt, right?