Zoe glared at the stage furiously, her arms crossed tightly across her chest, her fists clenched and a scowl permanently fixed to her face. She hadn't wanted to come back in after intermission, but Toph had forced her as she was desperate to find out what her actor would be like. And as it turned out, Toph's actor was in fact a man; a very buff, muscled man. Oh, and he could see not by earth bending, but by a sonic wave produced through his mouth… But, this just pleased Toph even more so that her annoying grin was as fixed to her face as permanently as Zoe's scowl.
Zoe's portrayal seemed to get worse and worse. In the scenes that she had made show in she had continuously been attached to Zuko in some way, shape or form partially seducing him. They made her out to be like some kind of…crazed fangirl! She was constantly fawning over Zuko.
But, right now her eyes were transfixed on the actors on stage for different reasons. Reasons that made her nails dig into her palms, angry blood rush to her head and her eyes narrow in furious jealousy. She saw Aang stiffen beside her too, obviously, as they were in the same boat here.
"I've had eyes for you since the day you first captured me." crooned actor Katara from the stage, her voice ringing in Zoe's ears and her fists clenched even more as actor Katara rubbed herself closer to actor Zuko provocatively.
Zuko suddenly shifted closer to Zoe, but Zoe barely noticed; her attention was solely to the stage, her eyes blinded with green-eyed jealousy, and…betrayal.
"Wait!" cried actor Zuko, jumping up, "I thought you the Avatar's girl!" A small, smug smile pulled at the corner of Zoe's mouth, but it was quickly to be wiped away with Katara's actor's next words.
"The Avatar? Why, he's like a little brother to me. I certainly don't think of him in a romantic way." Actress Katara laughed flirtatiously, then she gripped actor Zuko's arm, fluttering her eyelashes so sickeningly that Zoe could see them from here. "Besides… how could he ever find about this?"
On the word 'this' actor Katara and Zuko embraced and Aang stood up suddenly, moving to walk outside. Zoe went to follow suit, actual angry tears prickling her eyes. But, Zuko grabbed her wrist before she could get away and she fell back in her seat with a small 'thump'.
"That never happened." hissed Zuko, knowing her too well. His eyes glistened in the darkened theatre and Zoe felt her heart skip a beat.
Her scowl deepened, "Oh but, how could I ever find out about 'this'!" she mocked in a vehement whisper and Zuko's grip tightened, his fingers nearly burning her. "Let go." She hissed.
"Stop. Being. Stupid." He spat through his teeth, his face coming very close to hers so that no one else would hear them.
Zoe glared at him for a moment, "You're so angry because it's true isn't it?" snarled Zoe, the horrible thought suddenly dawning on her. Zuko's fingers flared and she had to bite back a hiss of pain. He dropped her wrist roughly and turned away from her angrily, crossing his arms across his chest, his fists clenched.
Zoe didn't hesitate; she jumped up and stormed out of the theatre, her wrist throbbing painfully.
The play was over. Finally, and thank the Spirits. But, it did not improve. In fact it got dramatically worse as the playwright decided to predict the future; that is to say the gangs eminent doom.
"That… wasn't a good play." said Zuko on their way back to the beach house.
"I'll say." muttered Aang vehemently.
"No kidding." snarled Katara
"Horrible." agreed Suki.
"You said it." griped Toph.
"But, the effects were decent." allowed Sokka, trying to add some light to the situation.
"We are never listening to your ideas of a fun night out again Sokka." muttered Zoe after a few moments of silence.
Zuko glanced at her, and then slowed his pace so that he could walk behind her. Everyone else continued on, allowing them to fall behind the group.
He picked up her hand suddenly, inspecting her wrist. Light red fingerprints were outlined on the skin just below her hand. "I'm sorry." said Zuko, but Zoe pulled her wrist from his grasp.
"I don't care about my wrist." She snapped. What she cared about was whether he and Katara really did…have something in that cavern. She was very angry with him for longer even than she, Zoe.
"I do." snarled Zuko, his eyes narrowing.
Zoe scoffed derisively, "Hah, right. Don't bother patronizing me. I know I'm just some toy to you-"
But, Zuko cut her off, grabbing her shoulder harshly and spinning her round to face him. "Don't say that." He hissed icily. "You're taking that stupid play way too seriously. Are you going to trust me or some random playwright who thinks you attach Huan to your back to fly around?"
"Some things were right." Defended Zoe childishly, feeling a little embarrassed.
Zuko looked at her admonishingly.
"Aang did get shot by lightening by Azula, so what happened in the crystal catacombs seemed pretty spot on…"
"I can't believe you."
"I was just thinking the same about you."
"Would you like to know what happened in those stupid catacombs?" snarled Zuko, throwing his arms in the air, "Katara offered to heal my scar, I was an idiot. Full stop, end of story."
"She offered to heal your scar?"
"You probably wish she had of, huh." Said Zuko regretfully, looking away.
Zoe raised a hand to touch the left side of his face gently, her thumb brushing across the base of his scar. "I love your scar." Said Zoe so softly Zuko almost thought she was talking to herself. Well, this was suddenly a strange change in the course of conversation. But, then Zoe's eyes snapped back to meet his. "But, when you say you were an idiot do you mean-"
Zuko growled angrily and pulled out of her hold, "Can't you just trust my word when I say nothing happened? Isn't that enough for you?"
Zoe flushed, slightly ashamed, but this caused her anger to stir. "Well why can't you just answer the question instead of avoiding it?" she snapped, struggling to keep her voice down.
"I have answered the question!" spat Zuko furiously, taking an angry step forward. Zoe did not budge.
She glared at him, as he did her, the play replaying like a slideshow in her mind. "I do not fawn over you." She snarled suddenly, and Zuko blinked in surprise. Then Zoe began to storm off back to the beach house; that was until Zuko's hand was restraining her on her shoulder.
"Can we just forget about that stupid play?" he asked quietly.
Zoe kicked her foot in the sand; torn between her anger and desire to keep questioning him, and her desire to not want to fight with him. She didn't want him to think her childish, she wanted him to think she was mature and upstanding, but the immature jealousy and anger within her was making that quite difficult.
Finally, she sighed angrily. "The Play, yes." she snarled. "You and Katara? No."
Zuko growled furiously as Zoe began to stomp onward. "Maybe I should have gotten with her in those catacombs!" He cried in reckless anger, making Zoe stop and turn to him. "She's a hell of a lot more level headed than you! I wouldn't have to have these stupid arguments with her!"
"Fine!" snarled Zoe furiously, "Why don't you make up for your mistakes now then?" she cried, "Go ahead! Go to your little waterbender and see if I care-"
"Fine!" spat Zuko, "but I won't bother to stop and see if you care! I don't care to know what you care about!"
"Good!" stormed Zoe, shouting after Zuko's retreating back as he stomped fuming past her, "That makes two of us!"
Breathing heavily and trying to ignore the horrible feeling of regret sitting in the pit of her stomach Zoe walked away, too furious to even be near the Prince right now.
By the time Zoe returned to the group that next day, Zuko was still in a foul mood and didn't even glance in her direction when she came to sit next to Katara on the stairs outside the house. In fact her presence seemed to flare his anger.
"More ferocious!" he snarled at Aang who was firebending, "Imagine striking through your opponent's heart!"
Aang sighed exasperated, "I'm trying!"
"Now let me hear you roar like a tiger-dillo!" continued Zuko relentlessly.
Aang tried feebly, and Zoe was not surprised when Zuko said, "That sounded pathetic!" He jumped forward menacingly, "I said roar!"
Zoe had to flinch back as the heat from Aang's next roar swarmed around them all. Zuko nodded approvingly.
"Who wants a nice, cool glass of watermelon juice?" called Katara, holding two said watermelon juices in her hands.
"Oh! Oh, me, me, me!" cried Aang dashing forward, but Zuko grabbed the back of his shirt before he had run a few paces.
"Hey!" he snarled, "your lesson's not over yet!" Then, with one flex of his muscles as if Aang weighed nothing at all he lifted him in the air by his collar effortlessly. "Get back here!"
"Come on, Zuko!" called Suki, "just take a break! What's the big deal?"
"Fine." Snapped Zuko, and Zoe flinched remembering their argument the night before. "If you want to lounge around like a bunch of snail-sloths all day then go ahead!" With those last words, he stormed off and Zoe stood up, watching him walk away.
"Maybe Zuko's right…" said Sokka thoughtfully, scking lazily on the star of his watermelon juice. "Sitting round the house has made s pretty lazy…but I know just the thing to change that!" Suddenly he stood up and whipped his clothes off impressively and Zoe thanked the heavens he had under garments on. "Beach party!" he cried joyfully, running at full speed toward the private beach.
Zoe watched them go, guilt nagging at her mind and she turned to go find Zuko.
He had not gone too far and was sitting, fuming, on a log out side of his house.
"Hey…" she said, walking up to him slowly. He glared at her.
"Why aren't you splashing around like the rest of your friends?" he snarled.
"They're your friends too."
"Idiots…" he muttered angrily and Zoe frowned disapprovingly.
"I'm sorry for last night." She said after a few moments of silence.
"It doesn't matter." Spat Zuko, "some stupid play and your…'insecurities' don't matter right now. What matters is that the comet is three days away!"
Zoe tried to ignore the sting his words caused, "Well, why don't you go tell them that?"
"While they're having their little 'beach party'?" sneered Zuko.
"You're being just as bad as them by sitting here and doing nothing!" spat Zoe, her temper sparking immediately, "If you're actually determined about this then go show them that!"
Zuko stood up furiously, "go show them?" he repeated, "Fine!" and he pushed past her, breaking into a jog toward the beach.
Zoe sat down on the now unoccupied log and placed her fingers to her temples. She had completely lost track of time; the comet was only in three days? That thought caused a riot of nervous butterflies to erupt in her stomach. She knew the gang had decided to wait until after the comet came, but she had a feeling the Fire Lord wasn't going to just sit back and do nothing when given the great power the comet would bring. Suddenly she heard the sound of searing flames erupt somewhere behind her and she turned around, her eyes widening.
Zuko was chasing Aang along the roof of his house, punching fists of fire and the fleeing boy. Zoe smacked her hand to her forehead, "not what I meant Zuko…" she mumbled, jumping up and running to the end of the house when the boys disappeared inside.
She looked up to the looming beach house above her, straining her ears for sounds within. Vaguely she thought she heard Aang cry something, but she couldn't distinguish it. But then, she heard a yell that definitely came from Zuko and suddenly the wall above her exploded and Zuko came flying out of it.
Zoe's eyes widened and it was all she could do to stare at the figure falling speedily toward her. "Oof!" she cried as Zuko toppled into her.
"Why are you always there?" moaned Zuko, clutching his head.
"Why are you always such an idiot?" retorted Zoe, rubbing the back of her own sore head.
Katara, and the others from the beach all ran up behind them. "What's wrong with you?" she demanded angrily, "you could have hurt Aang!"
"He hurt me…" Zoe mumbled and Zuko picked himself up, offering a hand to her once on his feet. She considered not taking it for a moment, but she was desperately trying to be mature, so she grasped his out held hand.
"What's wrong with me?" demanded Zuko, spinning around to all of them, "What's wrong with all of you? How can you sit around having beach parties when Sozin's Comet is only three days away!"
Everyone was staring at him and Zoe realised that none of them had actually mentioned to him that they were going to wait until after the comet came.
"Aang?" said Zoe when no one spoke.
"About Sozin's Comet…" he said bashfully, "I was actually going to wait until after in came."
"After?" cried Zuko, his eyes widening in shock.
"I'm not ready." Said Aang quickly, "I need more time to master firebending."
"And frankly," added Toph, "your earthbending could still use some work too."
"So…you all knew Aang was going to wait?" said Zuko slowly, turning to look at Zoe.
"I thought you knew too…" she muttered.
"Honestly…" said Sokka, "if Aang try's to fight the Fire Lord right now, he's gonna lose." he looked at Aang who was pouting, "No offense." He added.
"The whole point of defeating the Fire Lord before the comet was to stop the Fire Nation winning the war." said Katara moving forward, "but, they pretty much won the war when they took Ba Sing Se. Thing's can't get any worse."
"You're wrong." Hissed Zuko, his tone dangerous, he turned away. "It's about to get worse than you can even imagine."
He sat down on a rock by them, his face in his hands and Zoe sat beside him, horror consuming her as Zuko told them just how worse things were going to get. He told them of his Father's plan, a plan to wipe out the entire Earth Kingdom in a world of flame.
"My whole life I struggled to gain my Father's love and acceptance." Sighed Zuko regretfully and Zoe put a hand on his knee, "but, once I had it; I realised I'd lost myself getting there." He looked at Zoe, "I'd forgotten who I was."
"I can't believe this." moaned Katara, actually falling to her knees."
"I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy…but, his plan is just pure evil!" said Sokka and Zoe had never seen him so shocked.
"What am I going to do?" said Aang, the despair evident in his voice.
Zuko broke his intense gaze between he and Zoe and walked over to Aang, "I know you're scared, and I know you're not ready to save the world." He said wisely, "but if you don't defeat the Fire Lord before the comet comes; there won't be a world to save anymore."
Zoe stood up and walked over to them too, looking at Zuko. She wondered when he talked about defeating his father if he called him the 'Fire Lord' because it made it less personal…because it made it easier to talk about murdering his father. Zoe knew how horrible the man was, how much Zuko hated him, but he was still his family, his Dad, whom he had grown up following. It had to be hard.
"Why didn't you tell me about your Dad's crazy plan sooner!" demanded Aang furiously, turning to stomp away from the group.
"I didn't think I had to! I assumed you were still going to fight him before the comet." defended Zuko and Zoe understood; why tell them about such a horrible plan if it wasn't necessary? "No one told me you decided to wait!"
"This is bad…" moaned Aang, falling to the ground and everyone followed, "this is really, really bad."
"Aang." Said Katara consolingly, "you don't have to do this alone."
"Yeah!" agreed Toph, "if we all fight the Fire Lord together, we got a shot at taking him down!" Zoe walked over to Aang, placing a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.
"Alright!" cried Sokka excitedly, "team Avatar is back!"
"Air!" he cried thrusting a finger and Aang and Zoe, "water!" he went to Katara, "Earth, Fire! Fan and Sword!" he cried, going to Toph, Zuko and Suki and himself respectively.
"Fighting the Fire Lord is going to be the hardest thing we've ever done together. But I wouldn't want to do it any other way." Said Aang and everyone moved forward for a group hug. Everyone that is, except for Zuko.
"Being a part of the group also means being a part of group hugs." Said Katara and Zuko grimaced, moving over to them. He forced himself between Zoe and Toph and placed a hand on the small of their backs. Everyone smiled contented, but then looked hesitantly behind them when Appa gave a roar, jumping over to them and before they could utter a word he was on top of them! Apparently he wanted in on the hug too.
They picked themselves up off the ground and Zuko looked at Aang determinedly, "I have a move I want to show you, I'll meet you in the courtyard." He said and Aang nodded, heading off through the house with the others. Zoe hesitated, looking at Zuko nervously, before walking slowly toward the house.
He stopped her, grabbing her arm gently. She turned to face him, a light blush coating her cheeks. His brow was set in a hard, determined line. "I love you." He told her, his eyes smouldering and Zoe's heart skipped several beats. He leant down swiftly, placing his lips softly, yet firmly against hers, one hand coming to rest on her cheek.
He pulled away and Zoe's eyes fluttered open to meet his as his finger brushed along her cheek bone gently. He gave her a soft, tender smile and then walked away into the house.
A/N
Lol, I'm really glad you guys liked the last chapter! Thanks heaps for your reviews XD I love you ALLL! I meant to write on the last one that I am planning to do a sequel if you guys are interested XD
Readinfromphone LOL thank you SOOOOOO MUCH! I made sure I got this chapter out today because you said that you'd done Zoe and I was SOO HAPPY! I wanted to get it out sooner...but I have a lot of work atm... but omg, she sounds so awesome I can't wait to see her! THANK YOU Tthank you thank you thank you! XD XD XD
I have a feeling there was something else I wanted to write on here...O.o well anyway, would you guys be interested in a sequel?