17Blood runs cold
A/N: no idea how I'm going to write this but I like the idea so I'm winging it. Enjoy. Oh and for all of those who didn't know the song from the last chapter was from the movie Newsies. It ROCKS!
Shout Outs:
Smiling star13: How much sugar did you have? Cause you are seriously scaring me here. And thanks for rubbing it in. but ya know what? I don't care. Ha ha in your face. lol
KatandShadow: Yes you are right my friend it is newsies. Here is the Haru plushy you asked for. -gives doll to Kat- make sure you take care of him you hear. And watch the bending. I don't need your mom threatening me with another butt crack because he broke a lamp or something. lol
FlutteringButterfly: Dude that was really poetic. lol. i liked it. XD. anyway i hope you like how i ended this one.
D: Don't own avatar and blood runs cold is owned by Def Leppard.
Aang glanced over his shoulder at the boy behind him and sighed. They had been stuck in this god dam hole for three hours. And there was nothing to do. He sighed again.
"Will you stop that." An angry prince said from behind as he sifted his weight.
"Well there's nothing to do."
"Well that not my fault is it." A hint of frustration showing in his voice.
They sat there for a few more minutes.
"So do you want to play a game?" Aang asked
"What?"
Now they had been trapped in this hole, back to back, for a long time and Zuko had become accustomed to the avatar's random out burst but this one took the cake.
"Like a guessing game were if you win you get to ask the other person a question."
"A question?" now Zuko was thoroughly confused.
"Yeah a question about that person. And the other guy has to answer."
Zuko sighed and agreed, seeing as there was nothing else to do.
"Ok I'll go first."
Aang thought of something that the prince could guess.
"Ok I got it. How old do you think I am?"
Zuko's eyebrow rose.
"How old?"
"Yeah."
"Ok. 12."
"Nope. 112. I get to ask you a question."
There was silence as Aang thought of a question.
"Ok I got one. How old are you?"
This question surprised Zuko.
"16"
"Your only 16."
"How old did you think I was?"
"Some where in your 20's at least."
Zuko was somewhat shocked by this.
"Alright your turn."
"Ok. What's the most common form of execution in the fire nation?"
It was Aang's turn to be shocked.
'Well I doubt its burning. Seems too obvious an answer and I would think the Zuko's smarter then that.'
Quickly Aang thought of an answer.
"Ummm beheading?" he answered, unsure of his answer.
Zuko glanced out of the corner of his good eye to see what he could of the young boy, surprised he had gotten the answer right.
"Yeah, it is."
"Really wow. I was just guessing. Ok so I get to ask a question."
There was another moment of silence as Aang thought.
"Ok if you're only 16 then how come you are so bent on catching me?"
Somehow the prince had seen this question coming. And so he answered with the shortest answer he could.
"To regain my honor."
"Honor?"
'Figures he wouldn't let it go.'
"Yes I've been banished from home and now I have to capture you to regain my honor."
"But your only 16!"
"Your point?"
Aang just stayed silent.
I heard this line one time 'bout tryin' to save the world
But have you ever tried to save yourself
"Ok my turn. What is the king of Omashu obsessed with?"
"Lettuce."
"How did you know that?"
"Everyone does."
"Oh."
Zuko thought of a question. Only one came to mind.
"Have you ever thought about suicide?"
"Suicide?"
"Yes, suicide. You have the entire fire nation after you. Haven't you ever wanted to just end the madness?"
"Well yeah but not through suicide."
"So you've never thought about it?"
"No, never."
A wide-eyed suicide drive
Remains a fake
"Ok my turn. Do you know how many fleets the fire nation has?"
"Uh 14."
Zuko's eyebrow rose again.
"How did you know that?"
"Lucky guess. Ok my question. What made you ask me about suicide?"
Once again Zuko was shocked as the young avatar's question.
"Well it was on my mind."
"Why?"
"Because you wouldn't want to live my life if you were me."
Aang nodded his head as best he could.
As if you'd ever
Ever go and make the same mistake
"Ok it's my turn right?"
"yeah." Was the prince's reply.
"Ok so what type of tea is rumored to cure stress?"
Zuko snorted at this question.
"Tea? You want me to tell you about Tea?"
"Well yeah. What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing."
Zuko thought back to when his uncle was rambling on at some port or something about how he should drink tea.
"Well it all depends on what type of stress. If it is physical you are supposed to drink Jasmine but if it's mental then you are supposed to have Gin say. And if you have a high level of both then you are supposed to drink green but as it is very rare then you should drink lemon."
Aang laughed.
"What is so funny?"
"You the great fire nation prince can give me a paragraph on the types of tea you should drink for stress."
"Well my uncle is obsessed with tea."
"So I guess its only fitting?"
"Exactly."
Strung out as the night comes crawlin'
Your halo of thorns is fallin'
There was a moment of silence in which Zuko was debating with himself and Aang was just being Aang.
'He's the avatar. You need him to get back home.'
'But you have to admit that he saved your life.'
'Well he shouldn't have. I was fine on my own.'
'You were unconscious. If it wasn't for him then you would be dead.'
'My father wouldn't kill me.'
'Then what is the mark on your face? A sign of affection? He wants you dead but thinks it's better to keep you alive, searching for the avatar.'
Zuko stopped listening then.
"So is it my turn?"
"Yep."
"Ok can you tell me who was the 5th fire lord to rule while the war was going on?"
"I've been missing since before the war started. Do you honestly think I'm going to know that?"
"Well then I win by default so I get to ask a question. Why were you missing and how have you been missing for a hundred years?"
"I was frozen in an iceberg."
"Why."
"Basically I ran away from home in a thunder storm and I don't really know what happened after Appa and I went under water."
"Appa?"
"My bison."
"Oh."
"Ok my turn." Aang said as he mulled over what he should ask.
"Why don't you want to live your life?"
"I never said I didn't."
"Yes you did you said 'Because you wouldn't want to live my life if you were me.' Basically that's saying you don't want to live your life."
Blood runs cold
I feel it in my bones
Zuko thought about how to answer this question.
"Well as I said I'm banished with no hope of returning and who wants to live a life like that."
"No you said that you could go home if you caught me."
Silence followed the avatar's comment.
But you don't know your time is up
Blood runs cold
'It's like he knows that I'm going to win. Like I'm going to capture him. And why shouldn't I? He's only 12.'
'Because you know that any 12 year old that thinks like he does and yet can still goof around will take down the fire nation. Destroy your father and all that you know.'
'That's not true.'
Zuko stopped listening to himself because somewhere in the back of his head he new that the other voice was right.
"Ok well it's my turn right?" Zuko said to break the awkward silence.
"Yep."
Zuko thought. And he thought of when he was a kid, studying late into the night just to please his father. How sometimes it was history or some useless garbage like that or fire bending scrolls. He thought of when he was actually learning the fire bending moves and how it felt to control such a powerful element, to have it move through and around you effortlessly.
"What's it like to air bend?"
"What's it like?"
"Yeah. What's it like to control the element, to have it move with you?"
Aang was shocked by this question.
'Why does he want to know about air bending? What does he care?'
It took a minute before the young boy answered.
"I really never thought about it. But I guess you could say that it feel like you haven't a care in the world and you're floating in the air. Yet at the same time you know that you have the power to focus all the power of the winds into one central point and make it as powerful as the user wants it to be or can make it. That you have the power to destroy buildings in a single blast of air."
Zuko nodded his head.
"Well what's it like to fire bend."
"It's an amazing feeling to have such a powerful element at your disposal. You can move the fire around you and through you with almost no effort and not have to worry about getting burned. It's not like an extension of the body because the flame lives inside of you."
"So it's more like being able to move and attack with this powerful weapon living inside of you."
"Basically."
They sat there for a few minutes, each contemplating the other's thoughts.
'If you don't have to worry about getting burned how come he has that scar on his face? It doesn't make any sense.' Aang thought to himself.
After trying to figure the question out he just asked.
"Zuko how come you said that you don't have to worry about being burned if you have a scar on your face."
"I meant that you don't have to worry about burning your self."
The reality of the words hit the young avatar like a bag of bricks. His mind couldn't get past the fact that people of the same nation could hurt each other like that. And he also couldn't believe that he had heard a slight note of sorrow in the prince's voice.
Somebody somewhere is screamin' out the words
But do they ever really ease the pain
By now the two had completely forgotten the whole guessing part of the game and were just asking questions.
"Well what was it like to live with monks?"
"It was great. I loved hanging out with my friends and playing pi-cho with Kyotso. But I kinda missed not knowing my parents."
"Trust me they aren't as great as they sound."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm just saying that everyone says that parents are wonderful and they really aren't."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because parents cause you nothing but heartache."
I guess what I'm trying to say
Is whose life is it anyway because livin'
"Well then suicide isn't the way out."
Zuko's eyebrow rose.
"What do you mean?"
"Well if you hate your family then they must hate you so stay alive. It would drive them insane."
'There's that wisdom again.'
Living is the best revenge
You can play
A noise from above alerted the two. Looking up as best they could they saw that the sun, that had been shining moments before, was blocked out as a shadow passed over it.
"Hey Katara I found him." Sokka cried.
Katara came over and kneeled next to her brother.
"Aang how did you get down there?"
"It's a long story but basically we both tripped and fell in and well now we're stuck. Could you help?"
Nodding Sokka's head disappeared only to come back moments later with some rope.
"Ok grab on and Katara and I will put you up." the teen said as he dropped the rope into the hole.
Aang looked at Zuko.
"Do you want to go first?" he asked.
Zuko rolled his eyes.
"They obviously sent the rope down for you so why would I go?"
Aang shrugged in the little room there was grabbed the rope, giving it a slight tug to show he was ready. In a matter of seconds he was being lifted into the air and was soon out of the hole. The young Prince could hear them talking.
"Thank god you're alright Aang. You had us worried." The girl was saying.
"Alright lets get back to Appa before the rest of the fire nation shows up."
'Figures' Zuko thought. 'Of course he wouldn't stick around to help me.' His thoughts we interrupted by a rope hitting his head.
Looking up he found the avatar staring down at him.
"Well are you just going to stare all day are you going to grab on so I can pull you out?"
A little bit shocked, Zuko grabbed the end of the rope and felt the avatar try and pull him up.
"Come on guys I need your help."
"He's fire nation. Why should we help him?"
"Because he's not all that bad."
Had Aang just said he wasn't that bad?
"Sokka it wouldn't hurt to help him. After all if we leave him here then we can consider ourselves just as bad." Katara was saying.
Suddenly the rope was brought back to life as both Katara and Aang pulled him up and out of the hole. As soon as he was out the tension on the rope let go and he looked over to see both collapse from the effort it had taken. As he stood up he saw that the water tribe boy was helping his sister to her feet and trying to get her away as quickly as possible.
"Come on Aang we can't stay here."
But Aang just stayed were he was, locked in a staring contest with the prince.
Finally the older boy looked away. Turning on his heel he started to walk away.
"This isn't over avatar." He threw over his shoulder before walking into the forest.
But Aang had seen it on his face. And he knew he had made a powerful friend.
This fall from grace
I see your face
It's over
'Later'
"Prince Zuko there you are. I have had men searching for you all day. Where have you been?" A frantic Iroh said as he rushed to his nephew as Zuko walked in to his ship.
"I've been out in the woods uncle."
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go meditate."
Zuko brushed passed his uncle and walked to his room, lighting the candles on the meditation table as soon as he got in. Sitting down he cleared his mind of everything but the flames before him. Or at least he tried. No matter how hard he concentrated he couldn't get the picture of the avatar's face out of his head.
Blood runs cold
I feel it in my bones
But you don't know your time is up
Blood runs cold
Aang stared at the ocean as they flew over it, lost in his thoughts of what had happened. So far he had come to one conclusion. That the Prince of the fire nation was no a cold evil jerk but actually did care and he had proved it by not only letting Aang, Katara and Sokka escape but by the note of sorrow he had let slip into his voce when they were talking.
From you love was kind
Resolved left scarred and blind
Wasted and naked in the wings
As the fire nation ship sailed and the giant bison flew they were unaware that they were right 'next' to each other. Zuko, who was to busy trying to meditate, didn't have time to consult the sky. And even if he did he was unsure of what he would do if he did happen to see Aang's bison. With all that had happened in the past 6 or 8 hours Zuko wasn't sure where his loyalties lied.
Denying twist of fate
Demanding Heaven's gate
Lying in wait above the wind
Aang sighed and turned so that he was facing the sky. They were above the clouds now and it got boring to watch them after a while. He tried to clear his mind of all thoughts of Zuko so that he could concentrate on the tasks that lay ahead. But for some reason he couldn't. And he knew, deep down, that soon he wouldn't have to worry about it.
Blood runs cold
I feel it in my bones
But you don't know your time is up
Blood runs cold
And if you look in the history notes you will see that the milestone for changing the world was when Avatar Aang had defeated Fire Lord Ozi. But in truth it was one day of boredom and hole's that changed the fate of the world and how the two most important people in the world saw each other.
Blood runs cold
Well that ending was a little different, don't you think? How about you tell me in a review.
Peace out
Rey