Anger Rages in a Scarlet Color

I am liking this story. It is different than my other stories.

Sparkly love from sparkleeyes20.

I hate the evening sky

Zuko awoke as he normally would, by his uncle coming into his room on the ship and shaking him lightly. Nothing different happened today. Except he remembered that they decided to bring her along.

"Why did you wake me today uncle?" Zuko asked Iroh, clearly annoyed.

"It is not polite to leave a new female crew member alone. I thought maybe you would like to accompany her and me today," Iroh answered calmly.

"I wanted to sleep in for a reason today and that reason was that girl," Zuko told him before asking, "By the way, where is she anyway?"

"I'm not very sure. I was actually hoping you would help me look for her," Iroh confessed.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE SHE IS?" Zuko yelled.

Iroh shook his head lightly. Zuko jumped out of his bed and dressed quickly. He then raced out of his room and through the ship's cabins. He then ran up to the deck and called her name. There was no response. He raced back down and to the lowest depths of the ship's hull. He called again.

"There's no need to shout. I can hear you," she called back softly.

He followed her voice to one of the ship's prison cells. He saw her sitting crossed legged face away from him.

"What are… you doing… down here?" he panted.

"Meditating. Don't worry, I'm not going to run away," she said.

He straightened up at her words and replied awkwardly, "Oh… Okay. Well… my Uncle was looking for you… he's up on the main deck… if you want to go see what he wants."

"Delightful. I shall do so immediately," she piped.

Scarlet stood and walked over to the door of the cell. She stopped, however, at a mirror hanging above the sink. She made a face that was a mix of disgust and anger. With a light growl, she drew back her fist and punched the mirror, shattering it into a million pieces. Zuko looked shocked then looked down at the hand that punched the mirror. Bright scarlet blood leaked down her hand and dripped quietly onto the floor.

"Why did you do that?" he asked her quietly.

"I could see it. The horrid color which tainted my life and cursed me for all eternity to be different than everyone else. Scarlet. I hate it," she said through clenched teeth.

With those last not so simple sentences, she walked off towards the deck of the ship. Zuko watched her retreating form with confusion.

"It has been a color that she has seen more than once in her short life. It must have been horrible memories for her," Iroh said coming up next to his nephew.

"How long have you been here and how much did you hear?" Zuko asked him, his face back to its expressionless form.

"I heard enough to understand why she broke the mirror and why she didn't look at her hand even though she knew it was bleeding," he explained.

Zuko blinked in confusion but quickly changed to the question of, "shouldn't you go and meet her on the deck?"

"Yes," Iroh said and walked off.

Zuko still stood in the middle of the hallway, looking at the shattered remains of the mirror and the scarlet pool of her blood that she left, still trying to figure out why she did it.

At about midday, Iroh announced he was going to the market once they reached land, which wouldn't be long. Scarlet came up to him after his announcement.

"Iroh, could you please get something for me at the market? I would come myself but…" she trailed off.

"Of course! What do you need?" he asked cheerfully.

"I need a new hood. Not like my old one. Preferably in a color like black or blue, green if they don't have either," she explained.

"Why would you need that Scarlet?" he asked her, quite confused.

"Well, I would like to stretch my legs on land sometimes but I can't do that unless I have a hood to cover my face and hair," she told him while looking down.

Zuko was standing nearby, listening intently on everything she said. He was trying to use these as clues to figure out why she broke the mirror.

"Yes, of course I'll get you one," He replied.

She smiled lightly and reached behind her. She untied a sack which hung on her belt by a rope with a tight knot. She held it out to Iroh.

"Here. I know it's not much but hopefully it will pay for the hood," she said.

"I couldn't possibly…" he began.

"No, no. It is only fair if I pay for my own things. You were already kind enough to allow me to come with you so it is the least I can do," she reminded him.

He took the sack and opened it, counting the copper coins quickly. He counted fifty two copper pieces total. Iroh then decided that if it was not enough, he would pay for the rest of it.

"I shall return later. Zuko, don't destroy the ship or bother Scarlet too much!" Iroh called walking down the gangplank.

Zuko fumed while Scarlet began to chuckle. Zuko stopped fuming when he heard her chuckle. It was light and feathery… much like a feather floating in the wind.

"Whatever," he finally said while turning away from the gangplank and the very confusing girl.

He went back to his rooms and sulked for a while before deciding to meditate.

Several hours later, Zuko came out of his room and walked up onto the deck. As soon as he was at the top of the stairs he saw her. Scarlet was sitting on the guard rail, lost in a thought. Zuko thought that she was thinking about something bad or horrible by the way her thin eyebrows were knitted together. He quietly walked up to her and leaned in so his mouth was near her ear.

"What are you thinking about?" he suddenly asked.

She cried out with surprise and fell off the guard rail… towards the water. Zuko chuckled quietly as he heard a familiar splash of someone hitting the water. However, he heard her splash up from out of the water and splash around a lot more than a normal person would. He looked over the guard rail to see her flailing in the water. He realized she was drowning. He quickly jumped over the guard rail as her head disappeared under the water again. He swam hard through the water near her now limp form. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to the surface. He gasped lightly as fresh air filled his lungs but quickly looked back at her once he felt her head land on his shoulder. He saw she was very far from conscious and began swim towards the shore. He then carefully lifted her and carried her back over the gangplank and back onto the ship. Zuko set her down on the deck lying on her stomach, lifted her lightly, and began to pound on her back. A moment later, she began to cough up, what seemed like, gallons of water. Blood also came out of her mouth and landed on the deck, mixing with the water. She took a few moments to regain her breath before sitting up and crossing her legs.

"Well that failed… again," she muttered.

"Wait… WHAT?" he yelled.

Scarlet sighed and turned away before answering, "You wouldn't understand. Even if I told you."

"You tried to drown yourself? You even faked your surprise thinking it would make it look like an accident didn't you?" he asked her.

"Well, it's good to see you're not stupid. And it's not the first time I've tried. I just don't understand why people keep saving me. Not like anyone would miss me," she mumbled.

"I now know you faked surprise. So how did you know I was coming?" he asked irritably.

"I could feel a heat higher than the heat around me come close to my ear," she explained.

"How?" he pressed.

"I guess I'm just very observant like that," she said with a small shrug.

"Crazy girl," he muttered.

"I can still hear you, you know," she said calmly.

Zuko 'hmph'ed and walked away from her. He then stopped in his tracks and realized that she hadn't looked at the blood mixed with the water on the ship's deck. He then began to piece a few pieces of the puzzle together.

"I could see it. The horrid color which tainted my life and cursed me for all eternity to be different than everyone else. Scarlet. I hate it," her words from the morning came back to him.

Scarlet colored blood. Scarlet hair. Scarlet colored eyes. Scarlet colored lips. He began to understand why.

"It has been a color that she has seen more than once in her short life. It must have been horrible memories for her," his uncle's words came next.

Zuko didn't know what he did next. Although, he did know he was next to her hunched over form for the second time that day. She was, again, deep in thought. He began to clear his throat but Scarlet held up her hand.

"I could sense you were there again. Now what do you want?" she spat coldly.

He slightly flinched before composing himself.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked her.

She nodded and said quietly, "Unfortunately."

"Killing yourself isn't the answer you know," he told her.

"Who says it's not?" she asked him quietly while looking away.

"Because you're human and you also have a life to live," he answered.

"A LIFE TO LIVE? WHAT LIFE DO I HAVE LEFT? MY PARENTS WERE KILLED A LONG TIME AGO. I HAVE NO FRIENDS IN THE WORLD. AND THANKS TO THIS STUPID COLOR I'M FORCED TO BE DIFFERENT THAN EVERYONE ELSE. I BELIEVE MY PURPOSE IN LIFE IS TO GIVE PEOPLE SOMEONE TO MAKE FUN OF." She shouted.

She stood up quickly but because of her little drowning incident only moments before, she fell to the ground in pain. Zuko watched her do it but didn't know what to do to comfort her. He never really was good at that kind of thing but he was still very shocked at her outburst. She had been so quiet when he first met her yesterday. Scarlet lay on the ground for a few moments trying to comprehend what was up and down or which was left from right, taking deep breaths all the while.

"I'm back!" they both heard Iroh shout.

Zuko watched as Scarlet quickly, but shakily, stood up and limped over to Iroh. Wait… limped? Was he seeing this right? Sure enough if you watched her walk closely enough there was a limp in her step.

"That's strange," he thought.

He quickly stood up and followed her to his uncle. Iroh handed Scarlet a black hood and she thanked him for it. Iroh just smiled in return and told her it was not a problem. She then looked to the sky and saw the sun was on the horizon. However, the sky was red to warn sailors that good weather was to come tomorrow. Her scarlet eyes flamed at the sight and she quickly looked down, her bangs covering her eyes.

"I hate the red evening sky," she mumbled before limping below deck.

Zuko and Iroh both heard her however. Iroh rested a hand on Zuko's shoulder.

"Give her time, Prince Zuko. Give her time," he said.