Sunburn

21

"Have you ever thought about why you're the only person in your family- in the world with that color of hair?" Iroh said.

Tsai wished more than anything that she could see his face or be sitting next to him. She didn't know what hurt her more. Having had to hurt Iroh like that or her melodramatic break up with the prince.

She touched the tips of red auburn-red hair as she looked at the color pondering on the ominous meaning of his words. All along she thought she had inherited it from a distant relative from a faraway land. She always thought they there might be somebody else with the same hair tone but Iroh was right. They had practically gone around the world and had yet to encounter someone with similar hair.

"Tsai, your hair. It's that color because-" He was interrupted by a door being slammed.

"Prisoners are to be kept in isolation!" A guard intruded as she heard them barge into Iroh's cell.

"I feel that your journey will be difficult Tsai. Much more difficult than mine!" He shouted as they seized him.

"No! No!" She pounded on the walls. "Wait!"

"Be strong! Have faith and be brave! But most of all remember who you are! Look for the light! You are the light!" He shouted over his shoulder as he was escorted out of the prison cell dungeon.

"Please! Don't take him!" She pleaded her voice cracking. "Don't leave me alone," she let out a miserable whimper as the tears spilled from her eyes. 

"Please..." She managed to let out a squeak. She wrapped her arms around herself feeling more alone than ever. That night Tsai spent the night in the cell in isolation and her tears almost drowned the miserable prison...

xxx

Zuko frowned slightly as he leaned against the ship railing and stared out at the moonlit ocean in front of him. He was finally going home after three long years. It was something he should be happy about, but a part of him rebelled against the emotion.His stomach churned with anxiety at the thought of seeing his father again.

Why did he feel so... filthy?

Why did he feel as if there was a missing part of him? As if he had lost something?

He didn't understand the heartache that consumed most of his internal turmoil and blended emotions.

"Aren't you cold?" A voice suddenly interrupted hit thoughts

The scarred prince turned his head slightly to glance at his ex-girlfriend. Not Tsai. It was Mai his ex-ex-girlfriend. She looked the same as she had before his banished. Her chalk porcelain skin remained emotionless her midnight straight black hair flowing down in two strands like two-night cascades. She walked over to him, hands hidden inside her sleeves and stopped less than a foot away from him cool, calm and collected.

"I've got a lot on my mind," he responded his tone flat as he turned his attention back to the ocean.

"It's been so long, over three years since I was home. I wonder what's changed. I wonder how I've changed."

Mai suddenly yawned and she looked at Zuko with a bored expression, "I just asked if you were cold, I didn't ask for your whole life story."

Zuko pursed his lips and turned away from her, his brow furrowing slightly in annoyance. Thoughts of a certain auburn-haired girl from the Fire Nation colonies flooded his mind. Thoughts about his uncle also seized him. His-No- Their betrayal. Yes. That's how it had been. They betrayed him. He shook his head slightly in an attempt to rid himself of his thoughts and the pulsating headache that was about to become a migraine.