[Threads] He had a bad habit of not thinking things through.

[banishment]

Characters: Prince Zuko (OU) and OPEN to all (no one younger than 13, please)
Where: outside, near the apartments / commons
When: after the smoke plot and this
Summary: Zuko is affected by the lust potion and wandering about.
Warnings: Lust potion. Adult Content. FTB-ness. 'Nuff said.

Comments

[banishment]

Zuko...was confused. Very angry--which was evident from the steam he hissed out from between his teeth as she told him to leave Keiji alone--but also very confused. Why someone would defend or even date Keiji Saga was beyond his level of understanding, out of his mind or not. He doubted his brain under normal circumstances would be able to comprehend it well, either. Keiji had taken advantage of the fact that he'd been rendered motionless by the cuff and was fully indulging his teenage male hormones due to that potion. Of course the prince wanted to make him pay!

He sneered at Gaz, wanting to shout how dare you at her but unable to make his lips move. The combination of sexual frustration and rage was never good. Especially for a firebender. He swallowed hard, take a step towards her and raising a fist with flames already bent around it, hovering mere inches above his pale skin. He wouldn't bend at her, not after what happened with her blasted boyfriend, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to indulge in his talent. It was a normal thing for him to do, after all.

"He--" Started to come out, but his voice faltered. He struggled to say something, suddenly filled with the urge to make her understand just why he felt he had the Agni-given right to burn a hole through Keiji Saga's torso. He'd been wronged, taken advantage of, tricked, used, manipulated. And by the great sages long gone, he'd manipulated far too many times in his life for his comfort. And Keiji, he...

"That," he said in a voice that was suddenly quiet and small, "was my first time."

[gaz4prez]

Gaz sighed, and turned away here. Memories came flooding back to her: that night, when the man came at her, when he intended to DO that, and when she killed him. Then she remembered Daisuke, the boy Keiji violated, and Gaz who had administrated his punishment as he asked. The rage in Zuko's eyes was not strange to Gaz, rather, it was a reflection of her own. She wondered if Zuko had ever killed before. It wasn't something she'd wish on anyone: it was why Dib and her were still at odds.

"He is under the potion," Gaz said, "And is indulging as you have. He has already felt up a person I consider my sister, and now that she knows he's my boyfriend, she has stopped talking to me. That won't be the last person Keiji has angered and done it to. His personality is erratic, he is perverted, and he rubs people the wrong way. A lot of time, having to apologize for him pisses me off."

Gaz sighed. "But he is also kind, and smart, and wants to help. He is a person capable of love, and he will become normal soon. When that happens, he will hate himself more than anyone ever could, and when that happens, I'll need to be there to get him out of that hole, and make him himself again. The price he'll pay for what he's done will be steep: I don't have any doubt about that. What he did to you was wrong, and he will have to answer for a lot. But I'm here, and I will answer the price for this, to spare him a burden. I don't use the word freely, but it is the only way to now: I love him."

Gaz looked at him. "Name your price."

[banishment]

...hate himself more than anyone ever could...

As much as Zuko hated to admit it (and never would), he found himself comparing himself to Keiji, though not in the same retrospect. Keiji was a pervert and a stalker and a whole lot of other negative things that Zuko could probably go on and on about. Zuko wasn't any of that, but he had been, not too long ago, a horrible person. Selfish, cruel, arrogant, rude, ruthless...he'd hunted another human being to restore something as foolish as his honor. He was loosing his honor by trying to catch Aang. Katara hated him for all he'd done to Aang in the past, but he knew that the waterbender, with her threats and glares, would never hate him...as much as he hated himself.

His features evened out and he quit bending. Squaring his shoulders, he looked away.

"Just...leave me alone."

[gaz4prez]

Gaz could tell that Zuko, despite being furious with Keiji, had his own demons to face. It was recognizable on his face, and Gaz tended to be rather sensitive to people with a painful past. For all she knew, it may have been what helped her with Keiji in the first place. But he wanted to be left alone, and it wasn't like Gaz was going to push to be staying around to piss him off more anyway.

She started to leave, then stopped. She walked back, straight to Zuko. She wasn't scared of him: Gaz, after all, was hardly scared of anyone. She took her hand and gently touched Zuko's scar. She stared at him: not defiant, not disgusted, not anything.

"That wasn't right, what caused this to happen," Gaz finally said. "This scar...its malignant. Undeserved."

[banishment]

Whatever Zuko had been expecting Gaz to do, it wasn't this. No one, outside of Mai and Katara, had ever dared to touch his scar after he got it. If he'd been his old self, the one who wanted to drag the Avatar back to his father to prove his worth, would have said that it defined him. That he deserved it for speaking out of turn and disgracing his father by refusing to fight him in an Agni Kai. He wondered if she knew the truth about how he'd gotten it, if Azula had told her. Did she even know his sister? He wasn't sure. She was right, though. What happened to him...it was wrong. And he couldn't help but recall what he'd shouted at his father on Day of Black Sun.

You, my father, who banished me, just for talking out of turn! My father, who challenged me, a thirteen-year-old boy to an Agni Kai. How can you possibly justify a duel with a child? It was cruel! And it was wrong.

The effect the lust potion was having on him went momentarily forgotten as he stared at her, his good eye wide.

"He..." Zuko started, trailing off--beginning to speak of his father, not Keiji, but stopping himself. "How do you know how I got this?"

[gaz4prez]

Gaz sighed. "Not everybody in Econtra is lacking gifts. With me, I can 'feel' if something like that is wrong. I don't know the circumstances or any of the details, but its like there's a dark cloud over your aura. I know full well it isn't the potion, because that just makes auras look a very bright orange. In any case, from someone who scars aren't on the surface but still has them, we tend to recognize it in others."

Gaz slowly put her hand down. "Sorry if that made you uncomfortable or something."

[banishment]

Zuko swallowed hard, gathering his will power and forcing the lustful urges away as best her could to give him some time to talk rationally before he started hitting on everything female again. Talking about his scar didn't necessarily make him feel uncomfortable. It was just something no one asked about, almost as if they were afraid to. People were scared of him because of it, and he knew that from certain angles when his face was twisted up with anger, it made him look rather monstrous.

"Four years ago," he said after a moment. "It was a lesson. For speaking out of turn."

[gaz4prez]

Gaz watched him. Zuko would have noticed that Gaz wasn't one to be deterred by anyone's face or even their malicious intent. Certainly Gaz could see that this wasn't a fun subject for Zuko, and even she felt a little tender towards the boy. She didn't show it, and of course wasn't bothering to care about the potion thing. Horniness potions, after all, was NOT a thing Gaz forgot.

"That's fucked up," Gaz said, looking on the floor. "A few years ago, when I was young, I saw something I shouldn't have seen, and should have reported. I didn't. The person that caused came at me. Think of the potion thing, and now put it in the hands of a rapist. He came at me. I killed him. My sensei says that the burden of killing someone is oppressive, like a weight on your soul. You always have it, and sometimes it visits your dreams, no matter how much someone deserved to die. I have a brother here...and now he wants to kill someone. Like I said, people who have heavy pasts tend to see it in each other. I don't have any physical scars Zuko. Just emotional ones."

[banishment]

Zuko had emotional scars as well, but he had never killed someone. For all the sick and twisted things he did in the last year, killing was not one of them. He was too much his mother's son to ever kill anyone. Or, at least that's what he thought before his father revealed that his mother had killed Fire Lord Azulon. He still hadn't come to terms with that knowledge and really wasn't ready to. The fact that his mother had killed someone, even if it was to prevent Ozai from killing him, was unfathomable. His mother was kind and gentle and...she wasn't a killer.

"My sister is here, but we...don't exactly have the best of relationships."

[gaz4prez]

Gaz snickered. "Yeah, I know your sister. She's the one that's all buddy buddy with Mercy. She was a pretty interesting character too: first girl I ever saw pretty much admit she was only interested in women, unlike most of the straighties and gay guys. She had a huge ego, but you probably know that attracts girls in the first place...well, certain ones anyway. After awhile though, she stopped flirting. I think it was around the time her girlfriend disappeared. She got really quiet. Last time I saw her though, she was helping Mercury and me fight the damn aliens. She got pretty cut up too. Your sister's a bitch, but she can kick some ass."

Gaz looked back at him. "You know, you're a good looking guy. My boyfriend's insane, but I've never known him to pick anyone lackluster."