Lotus Flower: Book One|ZukoxOC(Avatar the Last Airbender Fanfic)

Imprisoned

"They saw you doing what?" The kid's mom gasped.

He puts his hands up quickly, "they're crazy, mom. I mean, look at how these kids are dressed." He points out making Aang and the others squirm uncomfortably, but not me.

"I look great. I don't know what you're talking about," I say crossing my arms in my green robe. I didn't have on all of the Kyoshi uniform, but I did have on the base. The robe and the headpiece. The rest of my attire was in my bag that was on my back.

"Yeah, you do look...the most normal of your friends." He stutters, blushing.

"Hey! I think I look pretty good too.." Sokka defends, I walk over to him and place a comforting hand on his shoulder as I giggle.

"You know how dangerous that is, Haru! You know what would happen if they caught you earthbending!" His mother scolded.

"Open up!" Someone yelled, pounding their fist aggressively on the door.

Sokka looked through the blinds, "Fire Nation! Act natural!" He commands.

We all take our own positions: Haru holds his chin, staring at Katara, very cross-eyed. Sokka stares at an apple, weirdly. Katara leaned far forward with her eyes wide, and her mouth stuffed with some kind of berries. Aang has his hand on top of a barrel, with a big smile.  I stood next to Haru's mother, the look of concern clear on my face as I kicked the floor a bit below me and grabbed at my robe sleeve.

The soldier walked in, suspicious of my friends. They're bad at acting natural. I heard a splash and looked to see Aang's hand into the barrel of water, making him fall to the ground.

"What do you want? I've already paid you this week!" His mom states defensively.

"The tax just doubled." He pauses, "and we wouldn't want an accident, would we?" He juggles fire between his hands and everyone took a step back, except for me. I only raised an eyebrow. "Fire is sometimes so hard to control."

Haru's mother and the tax collector walks across the room, with me close on his heels. She opens a small chest before giving him a small handful of earth kingdom money.

"Sir," I begin, making him look towards me, begging me to challenge him. "I know you're just doing your job, but I want you to stop and ask yourself: is this what you want? What do you gain by invading others homes and taking their money? I get that you believe the Fire Nation deserves to rule all, but I disagree. What you're doing here, is putting the world out of balance." I explain.

"You know nothing, little girl." He shrugs me off and I step in front of him.

"Hear me out, these people have done nothing to you-" he cuts me off, "Get out of my way, peasant." He snarls, shoving me to the ground.

"Keep the copper pieces." He says, dropping them to the ground and walks out.

"Nice guy." Sokka says sarcastically when the door slams.

"What were you thinking, Liena?" Sokka asks, turning to me as Katara helps me up.

"I wanted him to open his eyes." I say simply.

"And how did that go for you?" He asks.

"Honestly, I think pretty well. Sure, he did take money, but he left some too.." I point out.

"You're going to get yourself in big trouble thinking like that." Haru's mother shook her head.

"How long have the Fire Nation been here?" Aang asks, after giving me a look of understanding.

"Five years. Fire Lord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships." His mom explains.

"They're thugs. They steal from us. And everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it." Haru says bitterly.