Find Me | Zuko x reader | Avatar the Last Airbender | Book 1

Chapter 51: Our Firebender

          "You're still up?" Sokka held up his small lantern, gazing down at F/N with a concerned expression. "Are you going to be alright?" 

          F/N squinted from the light, having only had the glowing embers of a dying fire as light for the past few hours. Sokka had apparently gotten up to go to the bathroom, and on the way back to his room, found F/N staring blankly at the fire pit outside.

          "He just makes me nervous." She said simply, pulling her thin blanket closer around her shoulders, adjusting her mask farther up her nose. "The prospect of him being close doesn't sit well anymore. I have no control anymore, I just see him once, and I get scared. It's exhausting."

          "Well, that's understandable." Sokka grunted as he sat down next to her, against the half broken wall F/N leaned against. "Imagining seeing the person who killed you again, I would be scared too."

          "But I'm not Y/N anymore, I shouldn't be afraid of him. I could've killed him right then-"

          "That's the thing, F/N, Y/N could've ended his life in an instant." Sokka threw a few more sticks into the embers, causing small flames to rise up as he extinguished his lantern. He paused for a moment, thinking. He spoke after a short minute of silence. 

          "The thing is, F/N, you're losing yourself. Because as much as you'll try to escape her, my sister won't just lay down and die like that." He spoke softly, making sure to meet her eyes. "F/N is weaker, and she crumbles when Y/N sees a point where she needs to step in."

          "F/N is NOT weaker." F/N retorted. "She doesn't react to the tiny, insignificant things, she isn't all emotional-"

          "F/N is scared." Sokka interrupted firmly. "She's scared of Y/N, and what she can do. She's scared of being broken again." He tapped a stick to her forehead, nodding at her fractured eyes. "F/N isn't strong, she's hiding."

          "What are you suggesting??" F/N slapped away the stick angrily. "That Y/N comes back, snaps the Avatar in half, and gets herself killed?" 

          "I'm asking F/N and Y/N to push their love, fear, and brokenness aside, and answer me honestly, as my twin sister." Sokka threw the stick into the fire. "If Zuko ends up being our only hope, our only option for Aang, could you accept him into the group? I'm not saying just let him travel with us. Could he ever be part of the Gaang, you know?"

          "You've been staying up thinking, haven't you?" 

          "You didn't answer my question."

          "Fine, to put it simply, yes, I could." F/N studied him closely. "But I hope you'll understand this."

          "Yes?"

          "I can't be Y/N around him ever again." F/N spoke simply, and to the point. Sokka bit his lip, poking at the small fire with his foot.

          "And I hope you'll understand two things,.." he muttered quietly, waiting until F/N met his eyes again. 

          "I don't want you to be the old Y/N ever again, F/N. We change. I have, Katara has, Aang has, and if nothing changed, you wouldn't be my sister. The second thing you must know? You will be Y/N around him again. F/N can't stop her. You and I both know Y/N still loves him." 

          "No, you don't understand, he needs to move on-"

          "And it was clear from yesterday that that won't happen. Sure, he's gonna find more girls out there, but they'll never be enough. They can't fill the hole you left behind. I'm not happy about what he's done, to all of us, but I'm not blind, and I don't control the universe. No girl can replace my sister, got that?" Sokka took one of F/N's gloved hands, cupping it in both of his.