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Maybe she was going crazy, maybe the lack of spending time together had finally made her crack, maybe she was forcing herself subconsciously to like him, but Y/N believed she had developed feelings for her friend of over a decade.
Fire Lord Zuko. Amazing firebender, amazing leader and ruler, amazing personality, and amazing hair. But the story begins way back. All the way back to when he barely had hair.
It was over a decade ago, when the gang had all gotten together. Y/N had joined right before Toph, when she saved managed to save Aang from ambushers who sent by Zuko himself, in fact. That was another story for another time... but eventually Y/N also somehow managed to get kidnapped by the Fire Nation and used as bait for the Avatar. For some unknown reason, Zuko really wanted the Avatar.
Aang won, obviously. But the young and misguided teenage son of the Fire Lord at the time, Ozai, had stuck himself to Y/N's mind like a mold she would have to ignore. He had something to him. He was so confusing, something about him was… off, askew.
After much hardship, journeys, chases, betrayals, fights, and lastly, after even betraying his own father, Zuko finally somehow became a part of the gang. It was hard for them to let him in at first, especially for Katara, and Y/N understood why, but she also knew something was up with Zuko since the first day she laid eyes on him, that scar, that sad gaze that yearned for affection or acceptance from someone. His soul was misaligned, and he was trying to fix that. It was endearing to see.
After it all went down, after defeating Ozai, everything seemed to be going smoother than ever. The gang did a few things together as a united team, fought some people, made some smiles, fixed the world a little bit at a time. Zuko and Aang mostly even began creating Republic City, a beautiful place where everyone can be united, and it was all beautiful... to think such beauty could've been stripped away due to one misguided soul was a terrifying alternative.
The years passed... slowly yet quickly all at the same time. Sometimes they hung out, sometimes they celebrated birthdays, but most of the time, everyone was a little too busy for anything, and sometimes it all felt as warm and homey as it did a decade ago.
They sent each other letters a lot. And every time a letter from Zuko arrived to Y/N, she'd smile wide like no one else could make her do and she'd write back explaining her days and thoughts, fantasies, hopes, and ideas with such poetic enthusiasm, that it'd make the cabbage merchant jealous. Not even he was that enthusiastic or passionate about his cabbages.
-
After much work, and a long period of time without much group interaction, Toph's 24th birthday came around, and since it was a special day, the gang had somehow managed to clear their schedules to celebrate her.
They all hugged, caught up, and Sokka began demolishing the food that was available as the festivities began.
Laughter filled the room as Y/N was trying to cut some cake up in peace while the others yapped in the background. Aang and Katara were having a moment on the side while Sokka and Zuko were discussing something dramatically, and God, did Zuko look beautiful as he ran his large hand through his long, silky hair, face all pretty and twisted into delicious exasperation, cheeks red as he tried to prove Sokka a point, something about flying bicycles or something...
"OOH! Someone has a crushhhh." Toph suddenly whispered in an intentionally childish manner in Y/N's ear, crashing her train of thought and making her flinch, cake floating off the plate for a split second before coming back down.
"No, I do NOT! Shut up Toph, are you tryin' to ruin our friendship...?!" She frowned and glared, dropping the glare quickly when she remembered Toph couldn't see it anyway.
"You're really good at that, y'know, hiding it. But your heartbeat and the lie you just told me tells me all I need to know." She smirked. Damn it, she knew everything. Lying was stupidity.
"I do not have a crush on Zuko, Toph. Now please... drop this stupid topic." Y/N said, trying to be mature for once and trying to walk back to the group.
"Then I hope you won't mind if I tell Zuko about the non-crush you don't have-" Toph whispered, walking away but Y/N grabbed her wrist instantly.
"OKAY- Fine, I- I like Zuko! I LIKE HIM! Please don't tell anyone, Toph, I beg!" Y/N whisper-screamed extraordinarily fast. But Toph was laughing now because she just knew she was right.
“THAT’S so damn funny! Since WHEN?” Toph wondered while Y/N covered Toph's mouth halfway into that sentence, the rest coming out muffled.
"Since when what?" The sudden voice of Zuko popped in behind them. Y/N flinched hard and Toph smirked mischiviously, despite silently respecting Y/N's wishes of silence.
"Y/N just told me she hates polar bear dogs... and is more of a cat owl person." Toph said with a dramatic voice and a smile that said
"I can spill the tea any second if I want to." Y/N sighed as Zuko nodded, seemingly accepted this answer.
“Cool, me too." He said, eyes lingering on Y/N for a second before he grabbed a slice of cake and walked back to Sokka, who now began ranting about whether or not he looked better than Zuko, to which Zuko began fighting that he looked best, and would look even better without his scar.
"I think you should tell him." Toph broke the silence.
"No, why in the hell would I do that? It makes no sense. He's the perfect, talented, strong, smart, handsome Fire Lord and I'm... just... me."
-
After the party finally ended, Y/N stood on the edge of a balcony. Aang and Katara fell asleep cuddling adorably, and Sokka, Toph, and Zuko crashed in completely random places of the room like drunk messes.
Republic City was insanely beautiful at night. Y/N stood on that balcony, just admiring the moment. She always forgot to do that. It was like a task she found impossible to do because it didn't require work, you just... relax. Sometimes it seemed like a task in a strange way.
The wind blew strong and it felt and smelled as fresh as how life felt a decade ago, with the gang all together, doing things and kicking ass. Y/N missed that sometimes.
"What's on your mind?" Zuko said softly, scaring Y/N, making her jump and squeak.
"ZUKO, HEY-! Yes- I- WOW- You GOTTA stop doing that, dude..." Y/N began, face hot and a palm nervously on her chest. Zuko chuckled at her reaction. He always managed to scare her. The feeling was strangely nostalgic. Even his chuckle was super sexy, Y/N was going insane. How did she let it get this bad? WHEN did it get this bad?
He just tilted his head curiously, he still hadn't gotten and answer and he knew her for at least a decade, so he knew when something was up.
“Just thinkin’ about us… the gang, I mean! A-And the fun shit we’ve done…” She said awkwardly, and it wasn’t necessarily a lie, it was only half of the truth, however.
“Yeah I think about it too… remember the time when I accidentally set Sokka’s hair on fire?” Zuko began, smirk forming in the corner of his plump, pink lips. Y/N began laughing slowly.
“On his nineteenth birthday, right? Oh my God it was AWFUL! He was running around too fast for Katara to put it out so she just-“
“Threw a wave on him-” They both finished together, fading out laughing and leaning against each other.
"I miss those days sometimes." She began.
"Me too." He added.
-
That was the day Y/N had verbally admitted that she liked Zuko to someone other than herself in her mind. It was strange, but she was still very scared of saying something.
-
Then suddenly, he happened.
There was a man, a crazed man from the Fire Nation. One that still upheld old beliefs of murder and power. He'd killed innocent women, men, and children. The gang had to find him before he killed more people than he already had in his twisted plot.
Zuko and Y/N exchanged smiles and greeting with the others as they all quickly caught up while heading out to find the crazed lunatic with clues given by passersby and/or friends of the victims.
They found him after a few hours on Appa and/or on foot, and chaos finally ensued.
Sokka went first, and he got some great hits in for a guy without any bending. Katara would never be too cheesy about it, and she'd never say it aloud, but she was so proud of her older brother for being so intelligent and strong without bending. Sokka eventually landed on his ass far away as he got flung around by the man.
Next, Toph burst in and got a lot of hits in. With such raw muscle and pure earth bending chaos, who wouldn't get hit? She maneuvered the fire in such a way that it could make you forget she that was a blind woman. But the crazed firebender managed to knock her out from pain as he had badly burned one of her feet, her necessary weapon.
Katara got pissed off at that. After quickly putting out the fire on Toph's foot, she ran in and attacked the man, diminishing his fire with every hit and wave. Zuko and Y/N attacked him from behind and when he knew he was about to get beat, he did what any desperate attacker does, he eyes Y/N, who was open and in a split second... hit her with a fireball... to the stomach. Everything felt like slow motion. Zuko's eyes widened slowly as he watched his best friend roll around and fall to the ground with blood spilling out of the raw, burned flesh, face dirty and beat up.
Katara ran up to heal her, face twisted in worry. Zuko attacked the old firebender in a crazed way no one had seen in a while. Not killing him, no, but burning half of his face off was definitely not very Zuko-like.
He then ran over to pick Y/N up, Katara was still healing her with her waterbending. Y/N woke up weakly, whimpering and biting her lip to the point of bleeding. Katara ran back to the old man, who was somehow miraculously getting up, or trying to. He was weakened, she could handle it on her own now.
"Y/N. Please tell me how you feel?! ARE YOU OKAY?" Zuko began, arms flailing awkwardly as he was trying to comfort her but trying not to touch the painful wounds. He knew too much about burn wounds personally. Y/N whimpered weakly. She couldn't move. It hurt. Like the fire of hell itself resided in her stomach, it opened her eyes...
"I think I'm gonna be... okay- but- it hurts so bad..." She whined, coughing in between words, wincing when she tried to sit up properly. Zuko supported her with his strong hands. He looked so pretty all teary eyed and worried with his hair down from the battle.
"Don't worry, we're gonna fix you up, try not to move, I'll take care of you- I'll-"
"Zuko I love you." She said suddenly, looking down right after she said it. "I don't know when it happened, but I was very close to dying a few minutes ago, I could feel it, so I need to get it out of my chest... I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable." Y/N added suddenly, very quickly, eyes widening when she realized what came out of her lips. There was no going back now. She avoided eye contact and there was silence for about a minute. Well, as silent as it could get if you could ignore Katara demolishing the man in the background, Toph and Sokka rejoining quickly as well, turning him into a diminishing flame.
Zuko grabbed the side of her jaw, eyes half lidded as he looked at her lips... then he kissed her. It was a simple lip lock. Slow, soft, and careful. He was testing the waters, or feeding the flames to be more fitting to his image. He seemingly liked the taste, because he did it again, more passionately. Y/N reciprocated with a soft moan, half of the pain, half of the taste of his soft lips. It was a chaotically beautiful sight: fire, water, earth, and absolute chaos behind them as they locked lips.
"I... think I might love you... too... m-maybe- I don't know, I've never felt it before-" Zuko said, suddenly nervous? It was an adorable sight to see.
“Well- whatever- we’re gonna have to figure this out later.” He said, grabbing Y/N and carrying her bridal style to safety. She rested her head on his warm chest. Toph was smirking somewhere on the side; only she knew what had just went down. Then, Zuko personally made sure to break both the firebender's arms and legs. Zuko looked terrifying while doing so... but it was hot, she couldn’t deny.
-
When they got back to Republic City, Y/N got medical assistance and ended up with a few bandages and an order to rest. The party was great. Did the gang use any big fight as an excuse to get together and have a “totally adult and mature” party? Yes.
Zuko and Y/N locked eyes at the party and they both knew it. Something was definitely happening. Maybe it would last, maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe it was always there and they were only now noticing it.
But as they danced together, ate together, and chatted together, it was clear that the flame was lit and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Not even Katara.