Tattoos- Zukaang Week 2012

Prompt 4: Tattoos

Zuko's head pounded with such ferocity, that he feared that it was shaking the whole bed. He squeezed his eyes closed, willing the pounding to cease, after a few moments the severe pounding reduced to a dull ache. Reluctantly, he pushed himself up into a sitting position, the red sheets pooling at his side.

With a deep breath, he slowly opened his eyes, the room began to spin and black ate at his vision. For a second he thought he was going to faint, so he put his head between his knees and reclosed his eyes. Zuko struggled for memory, trying to recollect thoughts that may bring answers to why he was in such a terrible condition.

His body gradually began to stiffen and ache, with that he decided maybe it was best to stay in bed for the day. Zuko lie back down, staring up at the white ceiling above him. In instinct he looked over to the alarm clock lying next to his bed, 10:05 a.m. How had he slept in so late? Zuko was usually one to rise with the sun, none of this made any sense.

He tried to think back to events of the night before, but his mind drew a blank. The last thing he could faintly remember before it blurred was going to the club downtown with his friends Sokka, Toph, and Katara. It seemed as if walking through the doors wiped his memory clean.

A loud ring echoed off the walls, startling him and making his nerves clench, bringing more pain. He leaned towards the desk next to his bed and saw that it was just his phone going off. Zuko picked it up and read the screen, Toph's number flashed on the screen. He clicked enter and read the message: Did you have fun last night? Sure does look like you did(: P.S. If you're wondering Katara helped me type this.

Zuko looked at the bottom of the screen and noticed a link, so he clicked on it. The screen flashed and a picture appeared, the photo was absolutely shocking. It was a picture of him kissing a boy with arrow tattoos. "What the hell," he murmured quietly.

After staring at the picture for what seemed like forever, he quickly jumped out of bed and hurried to get dressed. He immediately regretted this for his head pounded the whole time. Zuko burst through his door and rushed down the stairs of his apartment building. The sunlight did nothing to help with his headache, but he did his best disregard it, hurrying to get to his car.

By now the pain was a motivation, pushing him to continue down the road and not stop until he reached his destination. Zuko pulled into the driveway, parked his car, and jumped out. He promptly walked up to the door of the big estate, doing his best not just to pound the door clear in, he knocked on the door. He irritably stood at the door, waiting for an answer. The door swung open in a clean motion revealing the innocent looking girl behind it. "Yes Zuko," Toph asked sweetly, a smug smile tugging at her lips.

"What happened last night," he demanded angrily. She took a small step back, motioning with her hand for him to come inside. Rolling his eyes, he stepped inside and followed her to the living room, where they both took a seat across from each other.

"So, Zuko, what did you want to know," she spoke, her voice sweet but her expression taunting.

"I'm serious, Toph, I need to know," he pleaded. She no longer tried to remain innocent, a Cheshire grin spreading across her lips in a triumphant smile. "Doesn't the picture explain it all?"

"No, that just explains that I kissed a stranger not-,"he stopped himself when he noticed Katara walk in from the kitchen. She froze in her steps and tried to smile sweetly through the cup of tea she was drinking. "Uh, hey Zuko what're you doing here?"

"He's here to find out why he was making out with a stranger," she said before he could answer. An 'Oh' expression crossed Katara's face. As she took a seat on the couch next to Toph, Zuko heard her whisper something that sounded like, "Do you think he's found it yet."

Toph smile and shook her head no, Katara started to giggle. This just keeps getting weirder and weirder, he thought. He watched the two girls questioningly, before asking: "So are you going to tell me or not?"

"Oh yeah, so last night we went out to the club, and while there you met a boy, the one you were kissing, and his name was Aang. And I'm assuming the reason you don't remember any of this is because you and Sokka had an drinking contest and both of you ended up passing out drunk," Toph explained, face serious.

"And you should probably check out the inside of your arm," Katara piped in cheerfully. Toph instantly punched her in the arm, and started to yell at her. Zuko had stopped listening because he was caught up in what seemed like a tattoo of a heart on his arm, right under his wrist.

The tattoo was a bright red and it had the initials Z + A, written in it. Zuko could only guess what that meant. He looked up from his arm to see the girls had stopped fighting. "I probably shoulda mentioned that there was a tattoo artist there and you thought it would be a good idea for you and Aang to get matching hearts, so Aang has one just like that. You were really drunk," Toph said rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

Great not only did he apparently have a boyfriend who was a total stranger him, he also had a tattoo. Things could not get any worse. Before he could answer the doorbell rang, and Toph went to go answer it. The living room remained quiet as he and Katara listened in on who was at the door. "Ah, Aang what a nice surprise we were just talking about you," Toph spoke her voice echoing throughout the giant home.

Zuko felt his heart clench; he stands corrected, now things couldn't get any worse. How in the world was he supposed to talk to a person he was supposed to know but absolutely no idea whom he was. Zuko turned his attention the other way when the two entered the room. "Katara will you come help me with something in the kitchen," he heard Toph say.

Great, now they were going to leave him alone with him. Sighing, he forced himself to look up, he watched as Aang took a seat in the couch across from him. He found himself intrigued, Aang certainly was handsome, he looked about his age, tall, and he had muscle but not enough to be bulgy. "So Toph told me that you don't remember anything about last night, sorry about that," Aang apologized.

"There's no need to apologize, from what I know this is my fault for drinking way too much," Zuko responded. He felt bad that Aang felt the need to apologize for his own faults.

"I should be the one apologizing, I made you get this tattoo," Zuko quickly added, showing Aang the red heart on his wrist. Aang gave a small smirk. "Well I can't say I mind having it, it's something to remind me of you."

Zuko felt his cheeks flush. Aang smile brightly at him, and Zuko continued to be lost for words, Aang certainly did know how to make an impression. Before he could respond, Aang had gotten up and was now sitting next to him.

His cheeks flushed more. Zuko looked up into his bright grey eyes and smiled. Abruptly he felt Aang's lips on his own. It felt like fire, sparks seemed burst in his veins, if only he'd remembered this from last night. His lips felt soft against his own. Aang's hand gripped his wrist where the tattoo was, and he smirked against his lips. Okay, so maybe having a secret boyfriend and a heart tattoo wasn't that bad.