𝐆𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 [ᴢᴜᴋᴏ]

Chapter 35

Episode 20, The Crossroads of Destiny

I took a deep breath and stood up wiping my tears away. There's no time for being sad now. I can be sad after we defeated everyone that's bad and with that I mean the Fire Lord and his psychotic daughter.

I took another deep breath to calm my nerves but the story Mai told me never got off my mind.

What seemed like forever but was probably about 20 minutes later I heard some noise. Then a hole in the ceiling was opened and someone fell into my cell.

I stared at the person with big eyes. "What are you doing here?! Are you okay?" I blurted out and quickly ran to his side. With a groan, Zuko stood up and rubbed his head.

He knitted his eyebrows, "I'm fine but what are you doing here?" He questioned back. I shrugged my shoulder, "Honestly, no idea." There was a quick pause.

"Your sister's a psycho," I blurted out out of nowhere. He almost chuckled at my sudden statement. "That's a really on point description," he said. I let out a small laugh.

His face turned serious and he eyed me, "Wait, are you hurt? Did she do something to you?" I quickly shook my head and his panicked expression disppeared.

"I'm fine," I told him, "No offence, but your family is kinda crazy," I said and he nodded deep in thoughts.

"That's true but my mother wasn't like them," he mumbled still deep in thought. He looked kind of nostalgic almost. I didn't want to ask anything, who knows, maybe something terrible happened in that matter as well.

"You know, we're not that different from each other after all," Zuko spoke up after a couple of moments and I looked at him with big eyes. What is he talking about? He had it way harder in his life than me.

"I don't think so ," I told him and he slightly shook his head.

"No, really, I had plenty of time to think about it," he said and he meant what he said. I knitted my eyebrows slightly. "We both know how it feels to have way better siblings," he added.

I felt a peng in my heart as my face softened. That's true. And even though Gran-Gran and the others treated us all the same, I still felt that Katara was definitely their favourite deep down. Maybe it was because of my looks or maybe she knew something I didn't. But I still felt kinda left alone.

"And we both lost our mothers at a young age to the Fire Nation," he added. The things Mai had told me came back to my mind. I absent mindedly nodded before sniffing.

Great. I took a deep breath before fanning my face with my hands to stop myself from crying. Zuko tensed before stepping closer to me, "I shouldn't have-" "No, it's okay," I interrupted him quickly and took another deep breath.

I swear, I won't be able to hold it back for any longer. "Did something happen?" He slowly asked and put both of his hands on my shoulders. When I looked at his face, I could see the worry in his eyes.

My lower lip trembled and my eyes welled up with tears. I tried to blink the tears away and looked on the ground. I slightly shook my head before whispering, "You won't believe what I found out."

A sob escaped my lips and Zuko pulled me in a hug and stroke my hair. We stayed like that for a few moments. My silent tears soaked his shirt. But I couldn't hold them back. It was just getting too much.

I sniffed and parted the hug. "Thanks, I kinda needed that," I mumbled awkwardly, not looking at him. I really need to get my awkwardness under control.

He also avoided eye contact. Oh Spirits, that was so awkward. "Do you, maybe, wanna talk about it? Uncle Iroh said it was good to let everything out," he said and I slightly smiled.