𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐒. [ON HOLD]

twenty one.

1 YEAR LATER...

NO PERSPECTIVE.

It's strange not having people you know so well around you. People that you are comfortable with. People that you grew up with.

It was like that for Helena. She was always surrounded with people she didn't know. Especially now that Zuko applied for her last year in school.

She didn't want to go until Zuko forced her. Just like he forced her to change her name, lifestyle and most importantly forced her to forget about her family. She didn't though.

They were always on her mind. She had a stack of letters, she promised she would send letters to show she was alive. Zuko was hesitant to send them so he never allowed her too.

She was so outraged. She felt like she could die of anger. She needed to send them off. He still denied it.

Why you may ask?

In Zuko's eyes, Helena was being ungrateful. He gave her a house, food, education, love and support but she would hardly talk to him. There were only a couple of occasions where they had a conversation full of laughs and jokes.

She always remembered her brothers and immediately stopped.

Zuko knew that she missed them but he didn't care. He didn't give a shit. He had gotten so mad at her when he caught her crying over a picture of her family. He went crazy.

He threw objects everywhere, smashing stuff and yelling about how she should appreciate him. He never laid a hand on her.

However, what's the difference? He put his hands on everything around her, breaking it to pieces. It didn't matter that he didn't touch her, he scared her to death.

Afterwards, he showered her with gifts and love. Helena accepted quickly, not wanting to make him mad. She was terrified of him. It wasn't the fear she held for Erica and Tobias. It was a new type of fear.

Nothing like that ever happened again.

Zuko liked that she listened to him and was more open. He thought of that little outburst and sorted her out for good.

He was very wrong. Every single day, Helena fell into a deeper hole. A hole of darkness in her mind, slowly sucking the life out of her. It didn't seem like it in her physical self but she hid so much. She bottled so much.

She was going to explode. Sooner rather than later.

Back in the Mariano household, they were still on the search worldwide. Nothing was the same without her.

Roman took over her role and helped Xavier and Ace raise his younger brothers. He knew what he had to do.

He kept her memory alive. So many frames of her laid around his room and corridors. The snaps he would take when she wasn't looking.

His favourite was the one where she was dancing and singing while in the kitchen cooking them dinner. The way she sang was angelic, he remembered when she used to sing him to bed after he had a nightmare. He captured the picture at the perfect moment. It was beautiful.

That one laid right next to the one when you first walk into the door. The one next to the door was her cheering for River's football match.

He had so many pictures of everyone, he started when Helena told him to go and achieve his dreams. He wanted to be a photographer but never believed in himself.

She pushed him and now he never leaves with his camera. He couldn't leave without it, she got it as a gift for his birthday.

Theo, on the other hand, didn't like photography. He liked music, the way he would learn how to play songs that Helena used to sing with him. The boy was now 11 and he knew how to play over 50 songs he heard Helena sing before on the piano.