Zuko/Sokka x Reader - One shots - Requests CLOSED

Competition - Zuko x Reader

The news spread quickly around the fire nation. A few years after his break up with Mai, the 20 year old firelord was still single and now openly searching for a woman to be his queen. According to the news that had reached your village a couple days ago, any single woman aged 16 - 22 who thought she could handle the job of being a queen to the firenation and was interested in being the firelord's wife, could come to the capital for try outs.

When you had heard of the news you scoffed, thinking of it as a stupid competition and wondering to yourself what kind of idiotic stranger the new firelord had to be in order to need to go to such desperate measures of finding himself a wife.

However, your father had different intentions when he heard of the news. He knew how picky you were when it came to men and regardless of having been of marrying age for a few years, you had always turned down any man who asked for your hand. None of them were "special" enough according to yourself. So upon this opportunity he insisted you visited the capital and signed up for the stupid competition.

So there you were, standing somewhere near the palace in the capital of the fire nation. You were rather glad your father only went as far as to make sure you would arrive safely. It meant you actually wouldn't have to join the competition. Sure you felt slightly bad about having to return home and lie to your parents that you just simply weren't good enough to be the firelord's wife, but they should've understood before sending you away.

You spent the next couple of days just discovering the city, walking around, trying out new kinds of food and buying yourself a few accessories. You quickly grew tired of the place, seeing it was filled with many, many desperate girls and women trying out to be the next queen of the firelord. Almost anywhere you went you heard their whispers: 'have you seen the posters?!', 'the firelord looks so hot...', '...without the scar he would', 'I'm gonna be a queen, ...', 'I can't wait to wear all the fancy dresses and the beautiful jewelry he'll have to buy me!'

During one of your escape trips you had found an almost hidden park. The peace and quiet was refreshing after spending a few days in the city. Walking around you quickly found a pond in the middle of the greenery, with a few turtle ducks: a mother and her babies. They calmly swam around the pond, the mother briefly paying attention to you but after having made sure you meant no harm she continued guiding her babies around.

You smiled to yourself watching the family in the pond before you. Sitting down in the grass, you made a mental note to return later with some bread to feed them. You plucked a few grass halms and started playing with them in your hands, trying to turn it into a little braid but failing.

You were so busy with your new task, you had failed to notice another presence had sat down not too far away from you. It was only when a voice spoke up you were startled and threw the grass into their direction.

Looking up you noticed a male figure sitting a few feet away, wearing a large cloak. 'Strange' you thought to yourself, but didn't question it further. The male was busy laughing at your grass attack, holding his hands up in surrender.

'I'm sorry', he spoke once he noticed you weren't laughing along, 'I didn't mean to scare you.'

'It's okay', you replied, the man slightly glanced your way but turned before you could catch a good look at his face.

'What's a beautiful girl like you doing here?', he asked in an attempt to make a conversation.

You sighed deeply at his seemingly attempt of flirting, 'I guess you could say I'm hiding?'

'Hiding from what?'

'My father wanted me to try out for the stupid competition to be the firelords wife-'

'Did you?' He interrupted before you could complain further.

'No, of course not! I didn't want to. It's so stupid really. I mean why does he even need to hold that competition? Is he that much of an idiot that he can't find himself a wife? Also, have you heard the girls that are trying out? I bet at least 90 percent of them is power hungry and just wants the title.'

The stranger hummed in response. 'So you're not power hungry?'

You gaped at him, feeling slightly insulted by the remark, 'no, I just told you I didn't even try out. I wouldn't want to be someone's wife because of his reputation, I want to be someone's wife because I love them and being with them makes me happy.'

The man seemed to have wanted to ask you another question, but chose not to. Instead he lifted his arms and took off his cloak, revealing his face.

From the distance you tried to stare at him as discreetly as you possibly could. His dark, slightly long hair hung dangerously low in his eyes, one of them being covered with a large scar. You wondered what the story behind it was, it was obviously done by a firebender. Maybe during the war? Or maybe he had gotten hurt in a fight?

You averted your eyes back to the turtle ducks once you found the stranger looking curiously at you as well, trying to make it seem like you weren't checking him out. However when he spoke softly, your eyes found his face again.

'My mother and I used to feed the turtle ducks together when I was younger. I was once bitten by one when I pretended to feed them like my sister always did. Coming here reminds me of that time. Of my mother I mean.' He was smiling fondly at the memory, a slight sadness hidden in his smile making you wonder what could've happened to her. However you didn't want to pry and stayed quiet, nodding your head slightly indicating you were listening to him.

'Oh! I almost forgot. Would you like to feed the turtle ducks? I always bring some bread when I come here', the stranger broke a piece of bread in two and held out the largest chunk for you which you happily accepted. In silence the two of you broke off little pieces and fed them to the cheerful ducks in front of you.

When all of the bread was fed, the stranger got up, he held out his hand for you which you gladly accepted, allowing him to pull you up. For the first time you managed to get eye contact with him, your legs almost giving out under you. Their golden color filled with many different colored speckles, made his eyes absolutely magnificent. Subconsciously, your tongue traced your bottom lip, drawing the stranger's attention to them.

Upon realizing you two were leaning in, you quickly took a step back, coughing to mask the sudden awkwardness you were feeling.

'I should go', you mumbled, avoiding the piercing eyes of the man in front of you.

'Yeah me too', he lingered on for a moment, 'hey, there's a dinner being held tonight at the palace. I would like to see you there, eh...'

'Y/N', you filled in the blank.

'Y/N. I would like to see you there tonight. Here's an invitation', he pushed a piece of paper in your hands and walked away. Before you could call out to ask for his name, he was already at a fair distance with his cloak back up.

Back in the room you were staying in, you stared at the invite given to you by the stranger. You pondered about whether to go or not. You wanted to see him again, but at the same time didn't know him. The moment you spent with him had intrigued you, you knew you wanted to learn more about him, but could you?

Then you remembered one of the dresses you had bought in the capital. It would be perfect for the occasion. You could also add some of your newly bought jewels. Once you found yourself glancing over the place you had stored the items you knew you had made up your mind.

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I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. This was still saved on my computer. There's a part two coming to this, though I'm not happy with the version currently written. I'm also working on the current requests standing. Hopefully by the end of this week there's at least two more updates, however no promises. <3