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

Chapter 52: Letting Go

                               Minor blood warning.

         For a terrifying moment, they swung, F/N praying the string and the rocks above would hold as she gripped Zuko's hand tightly, his feet dangling in the daunting mist below them. There was yelling down below, but F/N couldn't hear them. 

          She could do nothing but stare at him, concentrating on holding onto the string, and his hand. Her weapon wasn't meant for this. The string was way too thin, almost slippery, and it was beginning to cut into her hand. 

          Her palms were getting sweaty from the effort of keeping them both from falling, and she squeezed tighter on his hand, her breathing getting more labored.

          Another explosion rocked the platform above, making the string bounce, the chord cutting painfully through her glove and into her fingers. There was cheering, but concerned yelling below, and this time it was more audible.

          "I got him!" Sokka was yelling. "Hang on, Aang is stuck, but Appa will be there! We need to get him out of the cave! Hold. On."

          F/N didn't dare look in his direction. Zuko was slipping from her grasp. She cupped her hand up, trying to make it easier for him to hold on, but he was losing strength too. 

          "I'm going to yank you up." She decided breathlessly, her words almost too strained to understand. "As hard as I can afford, and you need to grab my leg. Can you do that? I can't pull too hard, or the blade could come loose with the movement."

          Zuko only nodded, struggling to grab her hand with his other without swinging them too much. F/N stared fixedly at him, unwilling to look at the terrifying fog below. She couldn't feel the hand holding the string anymore, it felt like she was hovering in the air, about to drop at any moment. He managed to grab her hand with both of his.

          "Ready?" He nodded. "One, two, three-" She pulled directly upward as hard as she could without moving too much, and Zuko pulled down, just barely grabbing her leg. They swung again, the chord groaning dangerously. 

          After a few terrifying moments of silence, F/N slowly brought her leg up to her chest with great effort, allowing Zuko to wrap his arms around her waist, and lessen the strain on his hands. The chord groaned again, and they hung there in awful, waiting silence. 

          "It's coming loose." F/N whispered in a horrified rasp. She could feel them very slowly descending as the shuriken slowly began to come loose. 

          "I need to let go." Zuko realized, beginning to loosen his own grip. 

          "Don't you dare." F/N spat, grabbing a fistful of the back of his shirt. "Hold on, I'm going to climb." Zuko looked up at her, sheer terror in his eyes.

          "You can't. I have to let go." He wasn't looking at her masked face. F/N looked up at her other hand, the one holding the string, only to see red running down her arm. The chord had cut in, deep, and a gruesome trickle was visible, soaking the black fabric of her clothes. 

          "Hold on." She said, her voice barely audible, and cracking with pain. "Don't let go." Zuko hesitated, his grip loosening even more. "Don't ever let go." F/N ordered sternly. After a few seconds, he tightened his arms around her waist. 

          "Ok." Was all he said, in the smallest voice she'd ever heard from him.

          F/N let go of his shirt, slowly reaching a tired arm up, and gripping the chord just above her bloody hand. She pulled, and screamed from the slice it left in her palm, but they went up a little. The chord groaned, and she waited until it stopped, then reached up again, higher, straining her muscles to pull both of them up.