Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Nothing But Your Servant ❯ Avoiding Her Warm Smile ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Avatar characters. I only own Zenaida who I created myself.

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~Zenaida~

Entering the Prince's room, I found him looking out of his window once again, his hands folded neatly over eachother behind his back. Hearing my entry, he turned around to look at me.

" Prepare my clothes. " he demanded coldly and I quickly did. It was wierd because when I was younger I obeyed no one and was as free and reckless as the wind. But here I was, preparing clothes for a lazy prince who can't even reach into his own chest and retireve his won clothes for that little bitchy girlfriend of his. I tried not to stare at his torso's masculinity as I eased off his top garments and helped him slip on the new long sleeved shirt, and yes, once again red. I turned away while he slipped on his own trousers and replace those pointed little shoes that looked like it could kill someone.

" If anyone asks for me, tell them that me and Mai went for a walk." he said as I buttoned the front of his shirt up and tried to keep my eyes off of the ripples of muscle that had been exposed. Once I was finished, I stepped back and allowed myself to grin at his handsome appearance that caused the butterflies in my stomache to start fluttering. After a moment of silence, he cleared his throat and I quickly turned away, hoping that my face was not burning from staring at Prince Zuko.

" Yes, Prince Zuko." I did a half bow and was ready to walk out when I felt him grab my injured wrist gently. I was glad that the burns did not sting when he did this because he grabbed me hard. No, not hard, but strong, firm. I turned around to see why he had grabbed me and found his eyes burning through mine.

" Y-Your burns will heal in a week or so. They're not that bad, really." he seemed to stammer his statement a bit and I could feel the butterflies fluttering even harder. I smiled at him and tried to keep it not so large even though the sides of my warm smile was itching to extend wider. I bit my lip to stop the giggle that came when his eyes got soft and looked down to the floor. He looks cute when he's nervous. Wait-what am I thinking? A good servant does not think of her master in an intimate way. Right.

" Thank you, Prince Zuko." I said and bowed, my warm smile still plastered on my face. Turning around, I made my way to the door, but stopped and turned around to face him, my cheeks already blushing hard. " For Everything." and I walked out, not really knowing why I had said that last part. It just kinda suited the moment.

~Zuko~

" Ugh, your such a fool, Zuko! Why would you speak that way to a servant!? Why would you act like the way you acted!?" I reprimanded myself the moment the door shut and felt ridiculous for showing that type of emotion to a servant girl. I mean after all she is is a servant. Yeah, just a sevant......

I made my way to the garden but was soon stopped by Azula and Ty Lee in the courtyard. Azula had grabbed my arm as I tried to ignore her and Ty Lee still had no smile on her face.

" Zuzu, did you see your little pet?" Azula said with a half smile as Ty Lee watched from behind her back. I had a very strong feeling that Azula caused Father to act the way he did, but I kept my mouth shut and snatched my arm out of her grip. I kept walking and tried to keep the image of Zenaida's marks out of my head. Mai was sitting lazily on a bench staring at a flower that she twirled betweeen her fingers. She did not acknowledge me until I sat next to her and wrapped my arms around her shoulder.

" I already know what your going to ask Zuko, so just save your breathe because I don't have the answer you want to hear." she said blandly like always and tossed the flower to the side. She looked away and sighed into my own figure, her head leaning on my shoulder. Moments like these made all of my troubles go away. I somehow felt excited, yet calm at the same time. It was a wierd sensation really.

" Then what was I going to ask?" I asked her in a teasing voice but she sighed and looked away into the small pond. It was hard to sense what Mai was feeling because she was so.....blah.

" You were going to ask what happened to that servant girl of yours." she said and I was suprised that she actually hit the nail right on the head. Mai looked up at me with her blank eyes waiting for my response.

" No, I was going to ask you how your day was." I said my back-up question since I came prepared for her to say something like this. She rolled her eyes and set her chin in her palms that were propped up by her elbows on her legs.

" Right...." she said sarcastically and looked away from my eyes again. I didn't exactly know what was up with her acting like this, and I found that silence usually solved our problems so that's exactly what I did. A few minutes passed before Mai stood up and sighed. " Is this all you wanted me for?"

" Let's go take a walk, Mai." I said and walked down the path knowing that she would follow, which she did. Our fingers interwined unconciously and we looked ahead at the sun setting.

" This isn't productive at all, Zuko." Mai sighed and leaned her head on my shoulder. Placing a firm hand on my chest, she tilted her head up and kissed me, her warm mouth more inviting than her cold lips.

~Zenaida~

-One Month Later-

Today would mark the first month anniversary for working at this palace as a servant to the angry prince. I don't think he noticed this because he was working me harder today than any day. He was ordering me to scrub everything down until they shined by the time he was done with his bath. As the days have gone by, it seemed like his bathing time was getting shorter and shorter, which meant I had little to me to scrub down his large room. I began scrubbing the moment he walked in the bathroom and I could sense him watching me from the doorway for a moment before closing the door. I scrubbed hard and fast not wanting to angrivate my Master before he throws a little tantrum, like last week when I had not finished washing his laundry by the time he was done practicing. I can still remember it perfectly.

" Servant, I have given you long enough to wash my clothes. Why are they not done yet!?" he yelled as he approached me from the middle of the courtyard causing stares from other servants and lingering guards and Azula and her little evil posse. I had held my breathe in fear in amazement. Fear because it looked like he was going to kill me. Amazement from the way his muscles and 6-pack flexed while he strode over to me. It was hard to keep my jaw dropping from the piece of artwork walking toward me that day, his masculine torso gleaming from the sweat that shone in the mercy-less sun. Hm, maybe that was what had gotten him mad. The heat.

" I'm sorry, Master......" was all I had been able to murmur since I was still staring at his abs in arms. He looked at me in confusion for a moment before grabbing my chin roughly and pulling me up to his eyelevel with a strength that had almost dislocated my jaw.

" Focus on your work, servant, or else I will throw you into a pit of lava." the threat had sent shivers down my spine and put the fear of god in me as he pushed me back to the ground and I ended up tumbling in the large tub of water that I was washing his clothes in. I had sat in there soaking wet while everyone else but Prince Zuko laughed. I had looked up at him fearfully, and he had looked down at me angrily. "This is your last warning servant." he had said coldly before walking away and extending his practice session. I had pulled myself out of the tub in shame and rapidly began washing his clothes.

But, back to reality. I was now halfway done with his room when he called for me from inside of the bathroom. I sighed and dropped my rag back inside the pail and walked inside the baathroom and found myself suffocating at the sight before me. He sat there calmly, his arms laying peacefully on the ledge of the tub with his waist and below hidden in the steam that rose from the water he sat in. His hair was wet and little droplets fell from the tips of the thick hair that had bunched up. He looked at me curiously before the scowl came on.

" Where are my damn clothes?" he demanded and pointed to the empty table. Shit, I forgot his clothes and towel. This is just great! Now I'm surely going to get burned again.

" I-I'm sorry, Master. Please forgive me. Please forgive me." I did a half bow, trying to hide the tears that were beginning to form from the fear of getting killed so soon. I kept my back bent and my head facing the floor when I heard some water splashing.

" Keep your head down." he said in a low, but irritated tone that creeped me out and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I could see his bare feet pass me and suddenly the bathroom door shut. He locked me in! What the hell do I do now!? Do I call for him or do I just wait for the punishment to be over!? Will it ever be over!? Is this the room where I die from starvation and neglect!?

I looked around the still steamy bathroom, still trying to find out what to do or say. Maybe if I just sat down and waited.....

~Zuko~

Even after I changed, I decided to keep her in there for a little while longer to teach her a lesson. I sat on my bed and stared at the bucket of water and rag that she had left behind and suddenly felt an ounce of guilt that I quickly pushed away. Why should I feel guilty for punishing a slow and forgetful servant? I shouldn't feel guilty at all.

I heard a knock at my door and quickly answered it since I needed something to amuse since the servant girl was locked in my bathroom. My uncle's face greeted my own with a smile large enough to make his eyes shut.

" Goodmorning, my nephew." he said and took a seat behind my table and almost knocked down the pail full of water that Zenaida was using. Seeing this, he looked up at me curiously. " Where is the young lady, Zuko. She's always somewhere around you." my uncle said as he scanned the room that obviously only held me and him.

" She had been working slow these past couple of weeks and forgot my towel and clothes this morning for my bath so I locked her in the bathroom to teach her a lesson." my uncle looked at me with a cocked eyebrow before turning away with a small grin.

" How long do you plan to keep her in there?" he asked, his aged and wise eyes looking back up at me with a smile in them. I knew my uncle was trying to hint at something, but I couldn't exactly pick up what.

" I don't know. How ever long it takes her to learn that she needs to work better." I said as I looked back out the window. I found peace in the calm scenery of the courtyard and part of the garden with the busy town laying not too far ahead of this picture.

" Zuko, is something wrong?" my uncle asked and I turned back around to search his eyes for the answer that he wanted me to say.

" No, Uncle. Everything is fine." I replied and he smiled to himself while placing his hands on the table and examining them as if they were extrememly interesting.

" Something must be wrong, my nephew. You've been very anxious and angry these past couple of months......" he began to trail off, giving me room to fill the answer to his worries. I took me a moment to answer, hesitating before I spoke to him.

" It's really nothing, Uncle. Things have been just great....." I exagerrated the word "great" a little more than I meant to and winced when I did because I had been trying to hide my emotions from my uncle who always seems to find them out anyways. So I sighed and gave in to my uncle's curious look. " It's just some personal problems, Uncle. Really nothing to worry about...." but he didn't seem to buy it because he smirked and looked away.

" I have sensed the tension creating between you and Mai. I think everyone has. You walk through the halls and seem to drag death with you. " I watched as my uncle winced at his harsh comment, but he quickly shook it off and took a deep breathe. " Explain to me your problems, my nephew."

" I don't know, Uncle. I don't know where it all started, but things just aren't flowing as easy and calmly as in the beginning. We can't be together for 5 minutes without arguing at little things." I explained and sighed, frusturated that things were going rocky with the woman that I cared for most in my life. Things were so good in the beginning and my heart always swelled with love for her. Now, I felt nothing and that she was just a little more than another face in the crowd. Everytime I ask to meet with her, it's because I believe that I had summed up the guts to break things off with her. But when I see her, she always does or says something before I can even announce it. It's like she can sense it coming and tries to save the relationship right before I attempt to end it again. But I didn't want to tell my uncle this because saying things outloud makes it true, and I don't want those things to become a fact.

Nodding in understanding, he decided to keep quiet and we both let my statement hang in the air for a moment. We heard the bell that rung for breakfast, and my uncle and I got up to go to breakfast.

" Nephew, the girl." he said before I opened my room door and he nudged his head over to the bathroom door. But I shook my head and continued down the hallway. I still believed that she needed to learn her lesson. I also thought of this as a challenge. A challenge to see whether she would use whatever power or strength she had when she had offered to spar with me. Making my out way to the dining hall, we sat in our regular seats and found that our food had already been served.

" Ah, Zuko, How is that servant girl of yours?" My father asked coldly without taking his eyes off his bowl of rice. I could hear Ty Lee gulp and I looked up to find her smile dropping. No ne else seemed fazed by his question, so I kept my own eyes on my food and answered.

" Fine." I said sharply and got a short glance from everyone at the table except my father who only smirked.

" That's not what I've been hearing from the gossiping servants, Zuko. I heard that you are scolding her at least once everyday. Is there a problem?" his cold eyes slowly moved up to meet mine with that smirk on his mouth. The memories of how beat and burned she looked before had me swallowing the thick ball that had created in my throat. I considered my different choices that I could choose to answer and smirked to myself.

" No. She's still quite new so I have to make sure she understand what and what not to do. Scolding does just that quite well.....Father." I took my chance to glance up at him, trying to match the same coldness he had in his eyes. But I only recieved a chuckle from him before he stood up.

" Make sure she looks decent for dinner tonight. Zenaida will be our special guest." he walked out and I felt that ache in my stomache again, causing me to push away my bowl of rice and swallow the warm sput that was building up in my mouth. What could my father want with her? Were the burns and shameful marks not enough humiliation? Or is he going to murder her in front of us? Hold on. What am I thinking? Why am I on this servant's side? Why do I care about what happenes to a servant?

~Zenaida~

It had been approximately about 7 hours before Zuko had opened the door to the bathroom. I was asleep on the floor because I woke up to him nudging me with his foot.

" Wake up, Zenaida." he said, and once my eyes were open, he turned around and walked away. Slowly getting to my feet, I walked quickly out of the stuffy bathroom and we both heard my stomache grumble noisily. He looked down at my stomache before turning away and sitting at his desk. " Have you learned your lesson?" he turned around in the seat and asked me this, only to recieve a quick nod and bow from me.

" I am greatful that I have a master that is so kind to not leave me in that stuffy bathroom to rot and die." I was challenging him, the anger and irritation in me from being in that room starving to death. I could hear him push his chair to the ground in anger and wrap his hand around my neck. Slamming my thin and frail body up agianst the wall, he stared at me furiously with those piercing golden eyes.

" Watch your tone servant!" I could feel his hand heating up and I was ready for reiceving another burn mark when he threw me to the side of the room, the edge of my head hitting his chest. The pain from the throw shocked my whole body and I suddenly felt something cold running down my neck. My eyes widened when I brought my hand back there and felt cool blood running down from my head. rince Zuko stared at the blood on my fingertips that I was examining myself. I stayed down in my position on the floor, not really sure what to do next.

" I'm sorry....Master....." I mumbled as I still stared in astonishment at my own blood. It somehow amazed me as it ran down my hand and dripped on my robe. I glanced up at Prine Zuko, suprised that I wasn't crying yet. He sighed and turned around to look out of his window. I wonder what he felt because the only look he ever kept on his face was uh....anger.

" Wash yoursef up." he said lowly before closing his eyes and taking a deep breathe. " My Father has told me to bring you to dinner tonight. As a special guest. So we have to find you some new robes."

I could feel my breathe getting caught in my throat. I didn't want to see him again! He was the one who.......

~Zuko~

Her eyes widenend and I could feel her fear. I knew she didn't want to go, but she didn't have a choice. This was the Firelord. If she didn't come he'd kill her. Believe me, I didn't want her to go, either. For slightly different reasons, though. This last month I've been doing all I could to remove or avoid that warm smile she always had on her face. I had been working her hard. Working her fast. I had also been extrememly strict and mean with her, especially in front of Mai, so she didn't have a reason to smile and and she could hate me. I couldn't have her happy around me. I couldn't. She's doing something to me. When I'm around her, which is pretty much always, I can't help but feel feelings that I should be feeling when I see Mai.

I had her finish up my room and clean my bathroom as I went to several meetings that weren't very productive. Everytime I offered a suggestion, Azula quickly knocked it down and made me feel like a nuisance when it came to things like this. The day had dragged on to endless preperations for the next ships to go out to sea in search of the Avatar.

" Prince Zuko." a servant bowed to me and held out a letter. I sighed and took it, already knowing that it was another love letter from Mai. She has been writing them more frequently and I haven't replied to any. It's not that I don't want to......well, fine. It's because I don't want to. Why write it when you can say it so much easier? Honestly, I think it's a waste of energy since we see eachother at least twice a day and she can tell me then instead of wasting this parchment and ink. I slowly walked back to my room while I read the love letter over. It declared the same thing. Her strong and deep love for me wiill never end. It warmed me in the corridors, but walking into the room to see Zenaida hauling a bucket of water out of the bathroom, I burned it in my hand, the ashes falling on the floor.

~Zenaida~

That's just great. I just cleaned that damn floor.

~Zuko~

She stopped to look at the ashes on the floor and furrowed her eyebrows for a moment before looking back up to me with a smile.

" How did the meetings go, Master?" she asked as she placed the bucket of water outside of the door for a servant to pick up later. I guess she had just recently found out that she could do that. Wiping her hands on her slightly damp robe, she kneeled in the corner with a smile, still waiting for my answer.

" Unproductive as always....." I murmured as I layed on my bed, exhausted from the lazy day. I glanced down at Zenaida who was playing with her thumbs on her lap, her mouth slightly ajar. I could tell she was trying to say something, so I gave her the time to.

" I-I......" she began, but then stopped and it sounded like she didn't have a voice anymore. What was she trying to say?

" I-what, Zenaida?" I pressed, but she just looked up at me and shook her head before looking back down.

" I just wanted to apologize for the lack of my skills in serving such an important person. I completely understand if my punishment is harsh and you throw me into lava." she said quietly, he face still down and curtained off by her hair. I looked down at her curiously and felt that warmth in my chest again. I can't feel this way for a servat. She's a servant, Zuko. A servant. A servant. A servant. A servant.

~Zenaida~

I was prepared for him to make some rude remark, but was shocked when he sighed and turned over.

" Have the rest of the day off." he said in a low tone and I stood up, not really knowing what to think or do. I felt bad that he layed there, looking dead. Should I metion that I found rad one of Mai's love letters to him? Do I mention that I read his crappy love letter? Well, I was always known as a risk taker.

" Prince Zuko...." I began, ready to confess that I had read those letters. " I didn't mean to, but while I was cleaning your room like you had told me to, I stumbled across one of Mai's letters."

He shot me a look that crossed between horrified and pissed off. I preferably liked it when he had the pissed off expression because it just suited him better. But in this situation, I preferred the horrified one.

" Why are you snooping!?" he said, jumping up the bed and pushing me against the wall again. I was scared. Hell yeah, I was scared. But something was beginning to take over me and I didn't quite know what yet.

" I didn't mean to, Master. I just found it and couldn't help reading hers.......and yours." My mouth seemed to move without my consent and I could feel a smirk coming on. Suddenly, I felt him grab my arm and throw me hardly against the wall. " Ah!" I groaned as I slid down to the floor, every bone in my body ready to break. Whaat was going on with me? I'm not the one talking here.

He approached me and grabbed me by my hair. " Oh! I was just trying to offer that I help you write your letter back to her!" When I thought that my hairs were going to rip off of my scalp, he dropped me and looked away. Gosh, I'm gonna die in this palace.

" Go and get changed for the dinner....." he said lowly and walked out of his room, leaving me with temporary emotional wounds.