Emptyness is inflammation (zuko/oc fic)

The Waterbending Scroll

Rie POV

I wake up in familiar surroundings. The dark red Fire nation insignia wall carpet smiles upon me from the feet of my bed. I frown.

As I sit upright I feel my head thump, but the pain seems to be alright. I remember yesterday a bit vaguely, but I'm still able to piece everything together.  I put on some clothes and some slippers as I leave my room to speak to Zuko. I know he's pissed at me, I feel it.

As I knock a few times on the door, Zuko answers. "Come in." 

I open the door quietly as I walk in. "Thanks for saving my ass yesterday," I start. "I think you're about to save your own ass right now, as you've got some stuff to explain to me," Zuko says angrily, as he pulls out a chair for me.

I sit down and look at Zuko, who's rubbing his face in frustration. "You're a traitor to the Firenation?!" "Well, that's not how I would call it." "Then how would you call it?" "I don't know... Self defence?" 

Zuko grumbles as he gets up. "What am I supposed to do with you? You're wanted!" He yells. "How about I tell you what happened, and then you give your opinion" I suggest.

Zuko sits down again and signals for me to start.

"Look, the first time I met Zhao on my journey it was all fine and dandy. I talked to him about my studies, and we shared some tea. Not a big deal, right?"

"Go on,"

"So we say goodbye, and two weeks later, we 'by chance' meet again as I docked close to Omashu. Yet again we share a short talk, and I leave again. This happens a few times, and slowly but surely I felt like these coincidences didn't make sense."

"Alright,"

"Sixth time he invites me for dinner, I was actually done with these casual talks, and he made me really uncomfortable. I mean, I'm sixteen, and he's like forty or something. So I keep my distance as we dine, and suddenly he gets up and gets on one knee saying. 'I think we could make a strong team together, together we could rule this world.' as he shows me a necklace. "

"He proposed you?!" Zuko says astonished. 

"I kindly declined and fled his ship, feeling frightened. But he still kept on following me. So I had to get rid of him."

"He's disgusting."

"I know. So I broke into his ship in the middle of the night and burned a hole in the bottom and the engines of his ship. Then I quickly travelled far away from him so he lost my trail.

I knew that after I finished my further studies, I couldn't return back to the palace. So that's when I went to find you." I finish.

Zuko looks at the floor as he's calculating what to say next. "I'm sorry about that," He finally says.

"So what are you going to do, drop me off somewhere now?" I ask him.

"Why do you think of me so negatively?" 

"I don't know, because you make me feel that way sometimes?"

"I won't get rid of you, but we need to be careful. And don't do anything stupid like that again." 

I nod as I get up, my respect for Zuko slightly restored as he had shown me empathy. "And quit slowing me down." He adds.

I frown. "How about you quit blaming me for everything that goes wrong?" I sneer, my new gained respect quickly fading away again. 

"Well, it's kind of obvious that you've gotten us into trouble, I don't want you escalating any situation again."

"You're the one with anger issues!"