Ash [Prince Zuko - Book Two]

❃Chapter Six❃

Zuko hadn't come back yet. Asake knew he wouldn't. She knew he had no idea what he was doing. However, she also knew he was confused. Confused about life. Confused about love. Her initial anger of him leaving had turned to sadness. She wanted to know if he was okay or if he was hurt somewhere. She assumed Iroh felt the same way when he fretted over her, telling her that she needed to eat more or that she could talk to him about anything, no matter what it was. He missed his nephew dearly and was really worried about him, so he used those emotions to take care of Asake.

"Iroh, we shouldn't wait here any longer," Asake said gently to him after the third day of waiting in the cave for Zuko. Iroh hadn't left the cave at all in those three days; Asake was the one who went out and traded the things Zuko fought for food. "I don't want us to get caught."

Iroh nodded solemnly. He gathered their stuff together and handed one bag to Asake, keeping the other for himself. She slung it over her shoulder silently before leading the two of them out of the cave. With a quick glance behind her, she saw Iroh clasping his hands together as he whispered something toward the blue sky.

"I know you're worried," Asake said softly to him when he joined her outside of the cave. "But you of all people should have hope."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, but it wasn't unkind.

"When I didn't have hope after what Zhao did to me, I turned to you," she confessed. The two of them began their trek toward another home, another life. "You gave me hope because you believed everything happens for a reason and everything will be okay in time. I'm still terrified of him, even though he's gone, but I don't think I would've made it out of that first week without you. I would've ended up killing myself because of the shame."

Iroh was silent for the longest time. Her words hung out in front of her, and suddenly, she wished she hadn't said any of those things to him. She started to regret saying that to him, opening up to him, when he finally said, "Do you really think that?"

"Yes," she breathed out. "You're the glue that is holding all of my broken pieces together right now."

"Oh, Asake," he said quietly. She barely heard him over the sound of her heart beating quickly in her chest. "You don't know how much it means hearing that."

"You don't know how much it means saying it." A small weight had lifted off of her chest after saying that. She could imagine the glass shards of her heart slowly sinking back together. "I owe you my life, Iroh. And so does Zuko."

"I just wish I knew how he was doing," Iroh said as they exited the forest. The bustling town that she had been in before was shut up since it was night. She didn't expect it to be that quiet, and that unsettled her. 

"Yeah, me too," she whispered, not wanting to break the silence surrounding them.

Her eyes scanned the small town, searching for anything out of place. Something was off; she could feel it in her bones. The moonlight provided enough light for her to see a glimpse of metal to her right. The sword that she took from the man stuck out of her bag, so she wrapped her palm around the grip and slipped it out of the bag.

"Something feels off," Iroh whispered, his mouth barely moving.

"Yeah."

Her eyes narrowed when she saw a flash of skin glint in the moonlight. Just before she could do anything, the man jumped out of the shadows, lunging at her. A scream made its way up her throat, but she held it inside her in fear of being beaten for making a noise. The feeling of him on top of her brought back memories that she had stuffed to the depths of her soul. She could feel herself slip back there, the place she loathed most.