Dramatic Confession
By: SassyShoulderAngel319
Fandom/Character(s): Avatar: The Last Airbender/Zuko
Rating: Pg-11/T-
Original Idea: This Imagine
Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) @welovegroot asked if I’d write more Zuko/A:TLA so I did!
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Zuko scooted over to make some room for me on the front bench—which was longer than the back bench. It squished the four of us together, but Katara and Toph only protested a little bit. Toph more so than Katara. Who understood that since there were seven of us, we needed to crowd together to fit.
“Thanks,” I said, sitting next to him.
He and I were the Fire Nation runaways. Him the Crown Prince, me an ex-soldier, drafted at a young age due to natural Firebending prowess. Since deserting the military, my hair had grown past regulation-length. No one guessed I was a soldier anymore. With some of my hair in a top knot and the rest hanging down, I almost looked like a high-society citizen. I knew people knew that the Avatar had two Firebenders travelling with him. A lot of people probably knew one was Zuko. No one outside the military knew or cared about me. And I liked it that way.
“No problem,” he muttered.
The play started. All seven of us were in mild shock. It was so corny and blatantly false that I almost wanted to vomit from disgust. Seriously. What was with this writer? Zuko’s actor was over-the-top (but alarmingly accurate to his emotional outbursts)—Katara’s was too—Sokka’s just… wasn’t funny. Aang’s was just a bit bizarre. Toph’s was hilarious—
Then I got introduced.
“Oh my word,” I muttered under my breath, pulling the ribbon I wore as a headband down over my eyes.
“Oh! My dear Prince Zuko! It has been too long since I’ve seen you, my love!” the actress playing me exclaimed, hands collapsed over her heart dramatically. Blushing like mad, I slid down as far as I possibly could on the bench.
She was dressed in a way-too-revealing and entirely impractical version of a Fire Nation military uniform. Her hair was regulation-length—down to the scapulae being the longest hair allowed—with some of it tied up in a top knot. I reached up and pulled the pin out of mine, letting it fall so fewer people would recognize me.
I peered out from under the ribbon around my eyes in time to see Zuko’s actor grasp my actor into a tight embrace around the waist. “My darling!” he replied, equally as dramatic. “Oh how I’ve missed you!”
I felt Zuko tense up next to me, but neither of us could move since we were all squished together on the bench. No sliding away from each other.
Aang leaned forward on my left side to whisper in my ear, “Hey, I thought you and Zuko never met ‘til you joined us.”
“We hadn’t,” I replied. “But given everything else this play has been wrong about… are you surprised?”
Aang let out a little, “Hmm,” of thought before leaning back to watch the rest of the play.
I wished I could set the theater on fire to get out of this ridiculous situation. Oh my word I was going to cry from how terrible this play was.
After a long and disgustingly audible kiss between the actors playing me and Zuko, I covered my eyes with my ribbon again, folded my arms over my chest, and refused to relax from the cringe in my posture.
It mellowed out a little bit, not so much focusing on me and Zuko anymore—though there were moments that I could feel coming from a mile away where I covered my eyes—to the point where I could emerge from under my ribbon.
At intermission, I practically ran out of the theater and into the rest of the building, desperate to get away from Zuko and the events happening so inaccurately on the stage.
I could swear I heard Zuko calling my name, but I ignored him and found a place to hide.
A hallway with a corner at the end that led to nowhere.
There, I leaned against the wall and fixed my hair, smoothing out my ribbon headband and the odd waves from taking out a top knot. I was panting from my jog to get away from the theater. “Oh my word,” I muttered again, burying my face in my palms.
The floorboards creaked.
A callused hand wrapped around my wrists and gently pulled my hands away from my face. “Hey,” Zuko said quietly. “Are you alright?”
“No,” I retorted. “I'm embarrassed.”
“Well no one else knows that we’re here and we’re us,” he said. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed yet. If we are visibly embarrassed, it could give us away.”
I took a deep breath, trying to get a grip. “You’re right,” I said, shaking my head.
Zuko nodded once. “Take a minute. Get yourself together or whatever. See you back inside.”
“See you back inside,” I said.
When the intermission was over and I crammed myself back onto the bench, I did everything in my power not to look at Zuko.
It went well for all of five minutes before the forced love story between he and I got overdramatic and sappy again. We glanced at each other and made faces in apology of how ridiculous the whole situation was.
At the end of the play, when he went down with a cry of, “HOOONNNOOORRR!” the actress playing me wept profusely and promptly lit herself on fire, declaring that she wasn’t going to live without the love of her life. I sank down in my seat again, wishing I’d been born as a bush on the edge of the beach.
Thankfully, when it was all over, we went back to the Fire Lord’s summer home on Ember Island and no one even noticed or recognized us.
Everyone turned in for bed. Except me. I sat out in the yard where Aang, Zuko, and I did Firebending training together and looked up at the stars. It was a warm summer night and the comet was approaching. We didn’t have a lot of time…
“Hey,” a familiar voice said behind me.
I whirled.
Zuko was standing just under the covered porch, one hand awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. He was in his usual clothes, the dark cloak he’d worn to the play nowhere to be seen.
“Hi,” I replied, scooting over as a cue that he was welcome to sit by me.
He did so, plopping down next to me casually. He wrapped his arms around his bent knees and looked up at the stars. “Beautiful, aren’t they?”
“Yeah,” I agreed quietly, following his gaze.
After a moment, Zuko sighed and shoved his hand into his scruffy hair. “Listen. I'm sorry about today,” he said. “About the play making you uncomfortable. I knew it was going to be a disaster. I tried to talk the others out of it—”
“It’s not your fault, Zuko,” I said, wrapping my arms around my knees as well, copying his position.
“About, uh… about their portrayal of us…” he began.
“It was definitely over-the-top,” I said.
“That’s an understatement,” he grumbled. After a moment he seemed to steel himself for something, taking a deep breath. “They may have been dramatic but… well… they weren’t wrong how I feel about you.”
The world came to a screeching halt—my brain slammed to a stop and my heart skipped a beat.
“What did you say?” I whispered, looking away from the stars to focus on him.
“I, uh… I really like you. Maybe… even… ah man. Maybe even love you.”
I felt my jaw drop open. For several long moments I just stared, my feet sliding away from me, straightening out my knees as my hands fell to my lap.
“You’re going to punch me, aren’t you?” he asked apprehensively.
Impulsively, I reached out.
My hand slid around the back of his neck and pulled him to me.
I kissed him with complete reckless abandon. The others were all asleep by now, surely, and who else would see? Who else would have to know?
I felt his fingers find the back of my head and neck, threading into my hair. He kissed me back with the passion I was fairly certain was unique to Firebenders. The kind that willed tongues of flame into being.
I don’t know how long the kiss lasted. It wasn’t long enough. When we pulled away for air, our foreheads rested together. I could feel his hair against my skin.
“I… honestly thought you were going to punch me,” he whispered.
I couldn’t help but smile. “No. I wasn’t. It’s about time you admitted you like me, Your Highness,” I replied breathlessly.
“Don’t call me that,” he mumbled with no real malice or menace behind it, chin tilting forward. Our mouths searched each other out again, sealing together hungrily. I could taste the fire on his skin and I was certain he could taste it on mine.
“Hey Zuko have you seen—what the—?!” Sokka exclaimed, quiet but startled.
Zuko and I pulled away from each other with an audible suction noise. “Sokka!” I hissed.
“Never mind. G’night!” Sokka replied, turning on the ball of his foot and skittering away.
Zuko sighed. “I’m going to go talk to him,” he said, moving to get up.
I caught his wrist and pulled him back in for one more kiss. “For luck,” I whispered against his lips.
