Lotus Flower: Book One|ZukoxOC(Avatar the Last Airbender Fanfic)

Tough crowd

3rd Person POV***

"Uncy Gui, where are all the other airbenders?" A five year old Liena asks on their stroll down to the beach.

He looks down at her, trying not to let his sadness show. "Well, that's complicated, you see." He scratches his light brown hair.

"What do you mean?" She asks. "Why would they leave me?" Liena's eyes went wide. Gui stopped in his tracks. He couldn't help but wonder how a child could think such a thing.. it wasn't right.

Crouching down at his niece's level, he sighed before taking her small hands in his calloused ones. "My dear Lotus Flower, nobody in their right mind could ever leave you. Don't ever think that way.. never forget your worth—remember that anyone would be lucky to have you."

"You won't ever leave me, will you? Not like daddy." She begs, tearfully.

"Baby, your mama and papa loved you very much. They will never leave right here, and neither will I." He promised as he pointed to her heart. She placed her own hand over it, feeling it pound in her little chest. Her big grey eyes with those dark, long eyelashes looked up to her uncle—to her whole world—and gave the toothiest grin anyone had ever seen.

Liena***

Snapping awake, the light of the dewy morning shone in my room and the loud voices of men echoed throughout the boat.

With bones aching, I stretched, only to wince in pain. "That doesn't feel good.." Peeling the bandages up, I look at my blistered torso.

The medic's herbs were working their magic, the burn wasn't nearly as severe as it had been. The swelling had gone down a little, the blisters covered my wound entirely—meaning my body was on the way to recovery. It would be awhile until I felt completely like myself, but apparently the burn I'd received are usually supposed to take months to heal, but I was lucky and my body seemed to be recuperating quickly. The doc didn't know why, but I didn't really care. It would take about a month for me to be fully functioning again.

It had been two days since I'd been saved by Iroh. Two days since I'd seen my best friends. And two days since I'd landed upon this scary ship.

Zuko hadn't said a word to me, but I knew today had to be the day that I made some progress towards my mission's goal.

"1...2....3!" I coax myself into sitting up, taking care not to hurt myself further. "Did it.." I grunt, slowly standing on my own two feet. I walk towards the closet in my room, that Iroh had placed a couple of things in for me.

I grabbed the pants I'd worn when I ended up on the boat, they were balloon grey pants; and a red undershirt that I was able to tie in the front. Lastly, I slipped on my black shoes before heading out the door.

This is only my second time out and about(not including when I landed here), so I wasn't surprised when I received curious glances thrown my way by the crew mates.

Walking over to a group of them, I nervously held my arm. "I was hoping you could point me in the direction of the prince."

They only looked at me and laughed. "I'm sorry.. I'm confused." I admit, not understanding what could be so funny; and that's coming from an air bender that picked up the same humor as her ancestors.

"You've no right to an audience with the Fire prince," one of them spits and the others nod in agreement.

"Why should we belittle ourselves by talking to this rat?" Another one hollers.

"There's only one thing women like her are good for!" One says, licking his lips.

At that, I begin to back away, "on second thought, I'll be heading to my room now." Just as I was about to make a run for it, I backed right into something hard. I twirl around quickly, and there was a 6 ft giant, with a big muscular body standing right in the way.

"Where are you going so quickly, wench?" He snarls and two other soldiers grab my arms.

He saunters over to me, grabs me by the chin to force me to look into his beady yellow eyes. "She's a pretty thing, ain't she fellas?" They howled in agreement.

"Please let me go, I've done you no harm. Can't we settle this over a game of Pai Sho?" I ask hopefully, to which they cackle.

"How naive can you be, girl?"

"Release her immediately." My savior's voice rings like a golden bell. The soldiers unhand me and I straightened my shirt. I throw a grateful look Iroh's way. "Right this way, Liena." He calls and I nod. Looking towards the angry men as I pass, I couldn't help but feel a little bad.
***
Iroh beckoned me as he opened one of the metal doors on the ship. I follow after him and end up in a room with a long table and a map on top of it. Crumpled up scrolls scattered the room and there were marks crossed on some places towards the bottom of the map. This must be the way they've tracked Aang.

"What's she doing here?" A voice growled making my skin crawl. There stood the banished prince, glaring down at me as if I was a cold-blooded murderer.

"I figured she could join us. She's been stuck in her room all this time, it's good for her to stretch her legs." Iroh says, beaming.

"She shouldn't be here. She needs to leave. What if she gives away classified information? She is the enemy." He scowled.

"Who would I even share that with? I'm stuck in the middle of the sea with nowhere to go. Plus, I'm still recovering from my burn." I point out, pulling up my shirt slightly to prove that I am still in fact, very much out of commission. I release the shirt, letting it fall back into place, but Zuko just continued to stare where the bandages were.

It was like he could still see them, clear as day. I began to squirm under his gaze. After what seemed like an eternity, the captain of the ship cleared his throat; seemingly snapping the prince from his thoughts. "I don't think it'll be a problem if she stayed in here for a bit. She's done nothing to harm anyone here."

"Since when do you make such bold decisions? Don't forget this is my ship." Zuko said and I could've sworn I saw smoke come out of his nostrils.
The captain stood nose to nose with the prince, I could see that he was quickly getting agitated as well.

The two breathed heavily, challenging each other for dominance. The fire danced in their eyes and the tension only continued to rise. Fire could've easily been dancing on their fists at any second.. their faces basically begged the other to step one step closer—to readily challenge the other so they could settle who was truly in charge here.

The captain began to open his mouth but—That's when I decided to step in. Getting in between the two, I look up at Zuko through my grey eyes. "Please don't fight. There's no need for it, I'll go back to my room. It's no big deal."

"Liena, you really don't need to." Iroh cuts in pleadingly.

"It's okay, really. I'm sure it's time to be examined once more anyways." I shrug before turning away from Zuko, who turned his glare my way.

"Get out of my sight."

With that, I took my exit. This isn't my ship, how could I blatantly disrespect the guy that's already been through so much?

Even better question: how in the world was I going to get the guy who's already been through so much, to let down his cold exterior wall?

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A/N: hi!!

I'm sorry my publishing schedule is so strange. I publish Wednesdays and then I usually publish once later in the week. It's honestly more than I thought I'd do and hopefully I'll continue this into my crazy spring semester.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Have a Happy New Year:)

Xoxo,
Mir