@wcvecrested sent: β you don't have to go through this alone. i'm here for you. β
Zuko stared forward blankly as Katara spoke. He could hear her, but it was hard to register the words she was saying. Everything around him sounded like muffled noise in the background of his own screaming thoughts. Bags hung under his good eye almost permanently and the whites of his eyes were bloodshot.
It had only been four days since Zuko had been brought back to the palace. The fire lord had been missing for a little over three months, taken by a rebel group from the colonies. Their mission was to get Zuko to abdicate. They no longer wanted a fire lord on the throne and simply killing him would not accomplish this.
Many of them had personal vendettas as well, children lost in the war on both sides and families torn apart. It had been months of nonstop torture trying to get Zuko to succumb, and also matters enacted in spite and revenge. Things he did not dare to speak of, things he hadn't even begun to process.
Zuko was a shell of his former self, skin and bones with his usual toned muscles wasted away. Even managing to stay awake or concentrate still proved difficult, and his body was sore from lying on the floor for weeks and from the bruises that littered it.
"You should go home, Katara."
