your love is my oxygen - Zuko x reader

Jet

Y/N's POV
"Who would've thought after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace... as a tourist?"

I was hanging off the side of the ferry, trying anything to cure my boredom as I sighed, "oh, yeah, you've mentioned something about Ba Sing Se before."

Zuko huffed, "look around. We're not tourists, we're refugees," as he took another mouthful of his food, he spat it back out into the ocean, "agh! I'm sick of eating rotten food, sleeping in the dirt. I'm tired of living like this."

"Aren't we all? My name's Jet, and these are my freedom fighters: Smellerbee and Longshot."

The three of us glanced over at a guy around Zuko's height, with a piece of straw in his mouth and two people behind him. One of them nodded, and the other muttered, "hey,"

"Here's the deal, I hear the captain's eating like a king, while all us refugees have to feed off his scraps. Doesn't seem fair, does it?"

I climbed back onto the ship, leaning my elbow on Zuko's shoulder, though he wasn't even facing Jet as he spoke.

Iroh asked, "what sort of king is he eating like?"

"The fat, happy kind."

Iroh literally began to drool at that.

"You wanna help us liberate some food?"

He glanced between the food in his bowl, and me; Jet continued, "do you really want to keep living like this? For your grandpa and girlfriend to keep living on dirty left overs?"

I raised an eyebrow, "firstly, that's his uncle, not his grandfather- and don't use us as a bribery tool to steal food from the captain,"

Iroh interrupted, "actually, I do not mind being used as a bribery tool."

Jet shifted his focus back to Zuko, "well, are you in?"

Zuko took a few moments to contemplate before launching the remainders of his food into the ocean,"I'm in."

His lips pulled into a smirk, "great."

I took a long exhale before leaning back onto the side of the ship, "well, looks like I'll be coming, too."

—

When night fell, the five of us snuck up to the kitchen, leaving Smellerbee and Longshot on lookout duty as Zuko, Jet and I collected the food from inside the kitchen- escaping just as the guard arrived.

As we all sat down to eat, Jet glanced over at me, "I've gotta say, I wasn't expecting you to be so stealthy, Nora."

I shrugged, smiling, "gotta learn to expect the unexpected."

Iroh turned to the girl as Jet continued to hand out food, "so, Smellerbee, that's an unusual name for a young man."

"Maybe that's because I'm not a man, I'm a girl!"

She jumped up and stormed away as Iroh apologetically yelled after her, "oh, now I see! It's a beautiful name for a lovely girl!"

Longshot went after her as Jet sat back down, "from what I heard, people eat like this every night in Ba Sing Se. I can't wait to set my eyes on that giant wall."

"It is a magnificent sight."

"So you've been there before?"

Iroh glanced away, "once... when I was a different man."

"I've done some things in my past that I'm not proud of. But that's why I'm going to Ba Sing Se, for a new beginning, a second chance."

"That's very noble of you. I believe people can change their lives if they want to. I believe in second chances."