highschool [ zukaang ]

9 ; parole

hullo. school starts tomorrow, and i won't finish this chapter before then, so just know that somewhere in the middle of this chapter, school has started XD

have fun reading <3

♡

Zuko's breathing was erratic. It wasn't possible. There was no way. His mother couldn't be dead. She had to be alive.

She had just been talking to him the other day, about his C+ in art class. She was alive. She wasn't dead.

The blood seeping over his shaking hands wasn't his mother's. The warm, thick, red liquid that poured onto the floor in a steady flow did not belong to her.

He couldn't accept it. It was his own blood, it had to be. Or his fathers, he'd stabbed him after all. That was the answer. But his mom didn't move. Why wasn't she moving? Dad wasn't a threat, she didn't have to keep pretending.

"Zuko?"

Aang had ended up shaking him vigorously in the middle of class, instead of waiting until after class was finished. He figured Zuko would appreciate it.

"What..?" He rubbed his eyes, and then looked around the room.

Everyone was working on their clay projects, he even had a piece of clay sat in front of him. When had he fallen asleep?

"You sorta drifted off there," Aang said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah... I'm just tired," Zuko said. "What are we doing?"

"Oh, uhm, we have to make a human," Aang said. "I'm making my dog, Appa, if he was human."

Zuko stared at the block of clay. He only knew two people in school. They were the most important and influential people in his life besides his uncle.

He started scultping, and he looked so concentrated, that Aang decided not to bother him again.

"Alright, class, the bell is going to ring in 10 minutes, I suggest you start cleaning up," The teacher said.

"What did you make?" Aang asked.

Zuko shielded his scultpure defensively, but after receiving stranger glances than usual from Haru and Ty-Lee, he removed his hand.

"It's just.. a random woman," Zuko lied.

Aang looked up and down at the clay, barely recognizable as a human, but it got the point across.

"It's nice," He smiled.

After the whole Suki thing, she had shown kindness to Zuko like Toph did. She said hello in the hallways, she smiled at him in class, and she even vouched for him to the group. But she would not be seperated from them like Toph or Aang. Zuko was okay with that. He associated her with her mother. The mother that touched him without his permission.

Aang didn't know any details of what happened inside Suki's house. Zuko had only told him vague details, that she would stroke his arm or ruffle his hair, or roughly run her acrylic nails along his scar mutiple times.

Aang didn't want to know any more, so he didn't press.

As the days passed, Sokka started to smile in Zuko's direction if he saw him. He took this with stride, waving at Katara, Sokka, and Suki any chance he got. Katara never waved back. but the others did, and Aang thought it was progress.

On friday, when Aang was talking with Katara, Sokka strolled into the conversation. He started with a sigh, and then began giving his whole life story.

"And... Well, I'd just like to say, Zuko is alright," He finished. "That is all."

Aang held his excitement, wanting badly to leave so he could tell Zuko and Toph. It was a break through, because if Sokka liked something or someone, Katara would force herself to also like that.