The Scar

Zuko was in danger. Every time he went out on the street, someone saw him and recognized him. Someone who just happened to hate the firelord. In truth, he was shocked at how many people hated him. He wasn’t looking forward to having to hide under a straw hat again. He was talking to Katara about it in the courtyard when it happened. Toph had been sitting nearby.

“It’s because of your scar.” Katara told him.

“You have a scar?” Toph’s eyebrows shot up on her forehead.

“You didn’t know?” Katara asked, making Zuko’s face flame.

“Ugh! Of course not! Why does no one tell me anything?”

“Oh… I forgot you can’t see.” Zuko only realized how horrible that sounded once it was out of his mouth. “Uh, sorry.”

Luckily, Toph seemed distracted. “Can I…?” She reached out her hand.

“Oh.” Zuko said when he realized what she meant. Her face was almost as red as Zuko’s. “Uh, I guess.”
She ran her fingers along his face. He grimaced when she touched the rough skin, gauging her reaction. Toph’s eyes grew wide.

“It’s big.”

Zuko winced.

“Nice one, Toph.” Katara grumbled in the corner.

Toph blushed. “Sorry.” She took her hand off his face. “How’d you-“
“I’ll tell you later.” Zuko said quickly. He wasn’t about to start that, not with Katara around. Katara suddenly looked at him, and he realized he had actually told her either. No one had ever asked him about it before. They were probably just being nice.

“Training accident.” He said, hating himself for lying.

Toph looked at him. She can tell when I’m lying. He thought, his stomach clenching. Katara’s going to be so mad.

But Toph just said, “Sensitive subject, huh sparky?” And walked away.

Katara stood there for a minute, looking at him hard. Then she shrugged and followed Toph. Zuko was left alone in the courtyard.

You’re going to have to tell them sometime. He thought.

The next day, Katara was busy helping Suki and Sokka around the house, and Toph had an appointment for her teeth… Zuko had wished good luck to the dentist, and Aang decided it was time to have fun. He dragged Zuko and Mai all over the city. Aang’s idea of fun, unfortunately, was dancing, playing the sungi horn, and eating… a lot. Marshmellow pears, fruit smoothies, and mochi. Mai groaned and whined throughout the entire day. Zuko was full after six marshmallow pears and a fruit smoothie. Neither of them wanted to dance. Or play the sungi horn. Or really… do anything. Despite this, Zuko was happy he came along. That was because at the end of the day, the went to his uncle’s tea shop and sat drinking a cup of jasmine with his uncle. Unfortunately, that was were things went wrong. Aang was bouncing around the tea shop like he usually did. And causing turtle, which was also a scarily common occurrence. He slammed directly into an already angry middle age man, who pulled a knife on him. Aang yelped and jumped away.

“Sorry!” He said repeatedly. The man just slashed at him.

“Hey!” Mai shouted. She had seemed to develop an uncanny liking for Aang after the fire festival that year. “Leave him alone. Can’t you see he’s with the fire lord?”

The man turned to them, a slightly drunk and insane glint in his eye. “You’re with the fire lord? That guy?” He pointed to Zuko. Before Mai could answer, he lunged at Zuko with a knife. The knife slashed against Zuko’s head before he could protect himself. He saw Mai fling a knife at the man before he blacked out.

The room swam before his eyes when he opened them. When the room came into focus, he could see Katara above him. He had known Katara long enough to know when she was angry. Like right now.

“Katara?” She didn’t answer him. He tried again. “Are you… mad at me?”

She gave a curt nod.

“Really? Why?”

Her face suddenly welled with tears. “Mai told me, Zuko! I-I wished you had told me earlier! I wish I could have known! Why didn’t you tell me? I thought we-we were friends.”
“We are! What are you taking about?”

“Your scar! Mai told me what happened. Oh Zuko!” She burst into tears and hugged him. That was a good thing about Katara. She never could stay angry long. He was still guilty though.

“I’m sorry. I was just embarrassed.”

“I don’t blame you. Toph’s not always the most sensitive about those things. But she was being really sweet last night. You should have gone for it.”

“I need to go tell her now. I don’t want to hide it any longer. People deserve to know what a horrible person Ozai was.”
Katara had a scary look on her face. “He’s lucky he’s dead. You wouldn’t want to know what I’d do if he was still sitting up in that prison cell with a crime like that on his shoulders.”

Zuko gave her a watery smile. “Thanks Katara.”

She was silent. She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something else, but then closed it.

“What is it?” Zuko asked . She blushed.

“Zuko…remember that day in Ba Sing Se? When Azula threw us in that prison together? Right before…”

“Heh heh.” Zuko said. “Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, I’m a lot more powerful than I was then and…” She held up her hand. “I’m not saying it would be easy, and it might hurt. But I might be able to heal it. Or a least shrink it little.”

Zuko was silent. He didn’t know how to answer that. His scar, gone. The last traces of his father, gone. Along with most of his problems. But…
“Thank you, Katara, but I’d rather keep it. I know it sounds weird, but my scar marks me for who I am. I can’t just forget my past. Then I would forget I’ve learned from it.”

He smiled at her again, and this time it wasn’t weak.

When he told Toph, she didn’t destroy her room, like he thought she would. Instead she just sat there in silence, her milky blue eyes wide.

“I’m sorry I lied yesterday.” He told her. She just continued to sit still. Then she started to shake.

“Are you okay?!” He asked her.

“No!” She shouted. “I will never be okay! That creepy jerk is dead!”

“Isn’t… isn’t that a good thing?”
Toph turned towards him, her eyes now narrowed to slits. “He will never face justice. He got an easy death.” She stopped shaking and looked up at Zuko. Then she did something she had never done before and would most likely never do again. She hugged him. At first it was stiff and awkward like it was something she hadn’t done in a long time. Then she started to relax.

“I’m sorry. I should have never bothered you about it.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have told you.”

“No. I’m glad you did. I’m glad-“ She suddenly giggled. Zuko forced himself not to push away. She sounded downright evil. “I punched him in the face with a chunk of rock and broke his nose when you and me went down to see him.”
“Uhh…”
“I punched him in the face with rock and broke his nose!”

“Yeah, I guess so…”
“I PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE WITH ROCK AND BROKE HIS NOSE!!!!”

“Agni, Toph, bring down the whole palace while your at it, will you?”
“Sure!”
“I was kidding!”
She sobered up. “I’m so sorry Zuko. Remember that time forever ago when we took our first field trip?”

“Uhh… yeah?” He still felt embarrassed about that.

“I can’t believe I spent that whole time complaining to about how terrible my parents were.”

“Don’t say that. I wish I could have been nicer on that trip. I was just embarrassed because I didn’t know you.”

“Well, maybe if you had talked more.” Toph laughed and sniffed. Zuko realized she might have been on the verge of crying. But his thoughts were interrupted by a hearty punch on the arm.

“Ow! Toph!”

Toph just grinned.