#on the other hand i'm also (cry) laughing because iroh also loves holding up a mirror to zuko and forcing him to examine his own weaknesses

[ljesaw]

IS IT YOUR OWN DESTINY? OR IS IT A DESTINY SOMEONE ELSE HAS TRIED TO FORCE ON YOU?

[radishaur]

May I please request 87, 93 & 95 from dialogue prompts to make a reader swoon for Zuko? I'm in the mood for something angsty. Thank you!!

We love a good angst moment. I hope this lives up to your expectations! I might write an optional happy ending later on, but for now I’m going to leave this one open ended. I feel like that’s the ultimate angst. Just not knowing. Anyways, I hope you enjoy! For those who haven’t read the prompt list here they are. #87 is “Don’t tell me you love me unless you mean it”, #93 is “They told me that you’d break my heart but, holy shit, they never said it’d feel like this”, and #95 is “I just want you to be happy, even if your happiness doesn’t include me, I just want you happy”.

- Zoe

•••

All Just Lies (Zuko x Reader)

Warnings: None

Genre: Angst

Part: 1/3

Summary: See Request

•••

You hated Ba Sing Se. It all seemed too happy. Traveling with the Avatar had shown you that pretty much every town was touched by the war in some way. Even if it wasn’t physically touched, the stress and emotions that war brought along was undeniably present everywhere you went. Everywhere expect here. To you, Ba Sing Se seemed just too good to be true.

There wasn’t any mention of the war anywhere you went. Not a single conversation or passing comment. Not even the hint of one.

Granted, you had only been allowed to stay in the Upper ring of the city. It was easy for rich socialites to ignore the hardships of war. You wanted to explore the other rings, but Joo Dee had insisted that you stay with the group to be under her careful guidance. You weren’t buying it. She was hiding something for sure.

That’s why you decided to sneak into the lower rings on your own. You pretended to be sick and left the house when the group had gone with Joo Dee. And that’s how you found him. You were walking around the lower ring watching for anything out of the ordinary when you saw him.

He was serving tea to an old couple with a forced smile on his face. His hair was longer than it had been the last time you had seen him and you probably wouldn’t have recognized him if it wasn’t for the scar. It made him hard to miss.

You decided to watch him carefully to see what he was up to. You spent the entire day outside of the shop and he simply continued serving tea. You were about to leave when you saw him walk outside. You hid further in the alley way as he began looking around. He had his hair smoothed down the middle which made you laugh. He looked ridiculous. It was almost worse than the ponytail. Almost.

Your mouth hit the floor when you saw a girl come up to his side and ruffle his hair. You trailed after them as she brought him to a restaurant. You watched in disbelief as you began to realize what exactly you were watching. Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation was on a date.

You continued watching mostly to make sure he really wasn’t onto anything, but also out of curiosity. Unfortunately, you let your curiosity get the better of you. When you saw him kiss his date you accidentally knocked over a crate. You snapped your head to see Zuko staring at you, recognition crossing his face. You had been seen. You immediately ran off to avoid him finding you, but no such luck.

Just when you thought you were out of sight, you felt a warm hand grab your wrist and yank you into a dark alley way. Zuko stood in front of you with the familiar angry glimmer in his eyes.

“What are you doing here?” he growled, his hold on my wrist still firm.

“What are you doing here?” I shot back.

“I’m the one asking the questions. Answer me,” he ordered.

His grip was beginning to get warm as he struggled to contain his anger. I wanted to rip my arm away but I knew he was stronger than me.

“I was trying to figure out why this place gives me the creeps. I stumbled across your little tea shop as I was exploring,” I answered, desperately hoping that he would let go of my wrist.

“You’re lying,” he hissed, his palm now beginning to burn my skin.

I whimpered slightly and began to tug my wrist out of his grip. He held on tighter which caused me to let out a small cry of pain. At that, his eyes widened in shock and he cursed slightly under his breath as he let go. I cradled my wrist in my other hand and saw that it had burned slightly.

“Come with me,” he huffed, reaching out to grab my arm again.

I immediately back up against the wall and looked up at him in fear. I was stupid for believing that this would end any other way than badly. Why did I have to trail him on his stupid date.

His eyes softened at my response and he seemed almost upset as he realized I was terrified. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

“I’m not going to hurt you. My Uncle can fix your burn,” he said.

I hesitated, but decided to go with him. His Uncle was a kind man and the burn on my skin was really painful. Not to mention that it was dark out. I didn’t want to walk alone in this part of town injured. I sighed before nodding and following him as he lead me to their apartment.

When his Uncle opened the door and saw me, he sent his nephew a questioning look. I waved slightly and his eyes widened when he saw the burn on my wrist. He immediately pulled us inside.

“I see my nephew has still not learned to control his temper,” he scolded as he sat me down on the couch.

“She was following me!” he exclaimed, sitting himself down on the opposite end of the couch.

“So you burned me? That seems equal,” I snipped back in response, glaring at him.

“You know, I liked you better when you were terrified,” he snarled.

That earned him a smack against the back of his head from his Uncle. I had to hold a hand up to my mouth to muffle my laughter. Zuko was practically glaring daggers into me.

As his Uncle parched me up, I continued to explain what I was really doing in the lower ring and why I had been following Zuko. That lead to his Uncle explaining why they were there in the first place. To say I was shocked was an understatement. I promised not to tell the others they were here in exchange for them letting me check up on them. Just to make sure they kept true to their word.

The gaang had been super worried when I finally got home, but I gave them a story about how I had burned myself trying to cook while they were gone and had to go get myself patched up. They all seemed to buy it.

For the next few weeks, I continued to do surveillance checks on Zuko and his Uncle. At first they were just that: checks. I would slip in and out. But they soon became longer and longer. I got to know them both and I would even have called Zuko a friend. As my stays became longer and longer, Zuko and I became closer and closer. Eventually, we even started dating.

He seemed happy. He had given up on searching for Aang and seemed to be content living the rest of his life here with his Uncle. He made me laugh and he treated me well. It was everything I could have hoped for, until it wasn’t anymore.

When the time came to choose, he chose Azula. I managed to hold them off with Uncle as Katara escaped with Aang, but I was then taken as a prisoner. Zuko didn’t visit me the entire ship ride back to the Fire Nation. The first time I saw him after his betrayal was a week after his return.

“You have a visitor,” the guard informed me.

I was shocked to see who it was. There Zuko stood, a plate of food in hand and an unreadable expression on his face. I glared at him and stayed silent as he sat down on the floor outside my cell.

“I brought you some food. I figured you might be hungry,” he said, shoving the plate under the whole in the bars.

“I have no interest in speaking with you,” I growled, turning my head away from him and crossing my arms.

“I thought you might say that. So, all I ask is that you hear me out,” he pleaded.

He took my silence as his invitation.

“I know you don’t understand and that you’re upset. But you have to understand that I did what I had to do. This is where I belong and I wasn’t going to give it up. But I still.....that doesn’t mean I don’t miss you. That I don’t still have feelings for you,” he said, scooting closer to the bars in an attempt to get my attention.

I scoffed at that. If he thought I was stupid enough to believe that he had another thing coming. I expected him to get angry and yell at me for not responding. What I didn’t expect is what he actually did.

“Y/N, I’m in love with you,” he said quietly.

His words broke my heart into a million pieces. I clutched my fists at my side and turned to look at him.

“Don’t you dare say that. Don’t tell me you love me unless you mean it”, I spat venemously, “Which, by the way, I can assure you you don’t.”

“You can’t tell me what I feel!” he exclaimed, finally giving me the angry response I was expecting.

“Oh really?” I challenged, turning my body to face him, “If you loved me, would I be sitting in this cell right now?”

“That’s not-“ he began, but I cut him off.

“Everything you’re saying is a lie! It’s all a lie!” I screamed, pointing a finger at him in accusation, “I’m in this cell because you decided to sacrifice your Uncle and I for your own selfish need. You gave up the only two people who cared about you for a man who burned you and threw you away.”

“Shut your mouth,” he hissed, small flames igniting in his hands.

“And don’t think I haven’t heard about your new girlfriend. Mai, I believe her name was,” I said cooly, leaning back against the wall.

He was shocked into silence. The flames that were in his palms immediately disappeared.

“H-How....How did you even find out about that?” he asked in disbelief.

“Maybe you didn’t visit me on the ship ride home, but your sister sure did,” I said, wiping at a stray tear that had begun to fall.

“Oh,” was all he said.

His head hung in shame. I shook my head and laughed as I wiped yet another tear from my cheeks.

“Can you believe I was stupid enough to fall for you? I even told my friends about you,” I said, chuckling slightly about my own stupidity.

“You did?” he asked.

“Katara saw you and your Uncle in the upper ring when Iroh opened The Jasmine Dragon. I told her you had changed,” I let myself laugh at the last sentence, “I told everyone about us and how much I cared about you. And do you know what Katara said?”

He didn’t say anything.

“She told me that I was a fool. Who knew just how right she would be,” I sighed.

“Y/N, I didn’t do this to hurt you,” he argued, clearly grasping at straws for what to say.

“I should have listened to them. They all warned me. They told me that you’d break my heart but, holy shit, they never said it’d feel like this,” I admitted, now letting the tears fall shamelessly.

“You could have come home with me. The Fire Nation would have welcomed you as a hero,” he said.

“You’re delusional. I’m not from the Fire Nation. I’m your enemy. I’d be in this same spot wether I helped you or not,” I snapped back, my temper finally getting the better of me.

“I knew this was a bad idea! I take back everything I said. You can sit in this cell and rot away for all I care!” he exclaimed, standing up and throwing fire at the wall in frustration.

I watched him and I couldn’t help but feel so sad. Sad about what could have been if things had been different. If we had not been on opposite sides of a war we never asked for. I wanted to be angry at him, but I couldn’t. I looked at him and smiled.

“You know, even after everything, I don’t hate you. In fact, I know I’m in love with you. I just want you to be happy, even if your happiness doesn’t include me, I just want you happy,” I said sadly.

He stopped at my words. I could tell he was struggling with what to do next.

“I hope the sacrifice was worth it,” I said, turning my head to hide my tears.

“What kind of mind games are you trying to play?” he snarled.

“I’m not playing any game, Zuko. When you truly love someone, you want them to be happy no matter what,” I huffed, desperately wishing he would leave.

I just wanted to lay down and cry. I wanted to cry until my head hurt and my eyes were puffy and red. I wanted to cry until my voice gave out. I wanted to mourn what we had so I could forget about him.

Zuko didn’t say anything. He stood up and opened the door as if to leave. He paused to look over at me one last time.

“Goodbye, Prince Zuko,” I said, smiling sadly.

He slammed the cell door. The sound reverberated back and forth into nothing. And the silence was back. The horrible, head splitting silence that comes after such a moment.

The calm after a storm.