#another day successfully succumbing to the hell capitalism is

[mysweetadversary]

i got myself red eyeliner today :DD I don't need it but we're all going to die someday so, whatever

[gloves94]

Sunburn [Prince Zuko] 23

Warnings: None   Rating: PG-13   Pairings: Zuko/OC   Summary:  “You have everything you’ve ever wanted.” “No.” He said softly. “Not everything…”  His golden eyes looked at her with a melting intensity she had never witnessed before. “I guess not.” She responded with glassy eyes as tears welled up threatening to break the dam of her eyes.

My fanfiction: M A S T E R L I S T

AN: I'll be the first to admit it. The last few chapters have been rough. So I wrote this with the intent of lighting things up.

xxx

The veil of the night covered the Fire Nation.

It was so late that the only living things awake at this time should've been the hooting night owls and other creatures of the nights. Creatures such as the auburn haired spy who had successfully infiltrated the Fire Nation's palace.

Tsai looked around swiftly before putting a hood over her head. She stepped out tucking a scroll with viable information in the back of her pants before slipping away. Like every other night she had to make way to the hawkery to communicate a message for her evening mission. She snuck around the corner of the hallway and almost had a heart attack when she came face to face with someone.

Zuko stood before her leaning against the hallway’s wall. His arms were crossed over his chest and his sharp eyes were fixed on hers. He didn’t seem groggy or sleepy in the least.

“Going somewhere?” He asked cooly.

She placed a hand over her racing heart and took in a deep breath. Stopping herself from screaming from the shock.

It took her a moment to regain her composure and she glowered at him. "I told you to stay away from me!" She repeated angrily. "Were you watching me?"

"You still haven't answered my question," he pressed not answering hers.

"I don't have to," She muttered as she walked past him. "Or what? Are you going to order me to?" She narrowed her light brown eyes at him. She hated it when he ordered her around to do stuff. He couldn't believe he had the audacity to do so after his betrayal, after everything he had done to her.

Zuko was convinced that Tsai was never going to forgive him. Never going to look at him and think of a decent human being again.

He tried. The spirits know he tried to make things right. He would try to speak to her. To purposely run into her around the palace when she was running errands for his sister. Sometimes he would even ask her to do pointless stuff for him. Just to keep her near. It was never anything painful or humiliating. Most of the times they were petty, ridiculous favors so that she could catch a break from his sister.

"Try this roast duck and fire-berry tart," he had demanded one afternoon. "I have to see if it's poisoned. The ice cream too."

Sometimes he would even leave bowls of fruits or sweets outside of her room in hope that they might make her day a bit more bearable.

He could still remember the angry look in her face as she glared daggers at him yet ate the full roast duck meal. She would never let it show let alone vocalize it but she was more than grateful for these small favors. Still, it wouldn't change the way she felt about him. She was still seething in anger every time she saw him, even more when he was with his perfect new girlfriend.

Zuko kept a close eye making sure that Azula wouldn't make her do anything too brash. Regardless every day the girl looked more and more exhausted. He knew it was because she wasn't sleeping at night. Dark circles carved under her eyes from exhaustion as she went on in her day by day without complaining. After seeing her that night he guessed she had been doing this every night, but to do what? Her mysterious motives for remaining restless were still a mystery to him. Was she sneaking out to visit his uncle?

"What? I can't explore the mainland?" She said referring to the Fire Nation Capital over her shoulder lying with ease.

“Liar,” he called her out flatly seeing right past her façade. “I’ve been watching you for some time now. Sneaking out at late hours. Almost passing out during the day. Where do you go? Who do you go see?” He inquired.

“That’s none of your business,” she snapped. It really wasn’t. He made a hum in the back of his throat.

“You need rest,” he advised sound like his uncle.

“Don’t you have a girlfriend or something to keep you busy? A hobby? Princely duties to attend?” She said mockingly before turning away from him.

“Have you seen Uncle?” he chased after her. She wasn’t really sure where she was going. All she knew was that she didn’t want to be around him. “You have!” He pressed on.

She would neither accept or deny that claim.

“Did he see you? Did he say anything to you?” He questioned as he tailed behind her.

She scoffed cruelly and looked over her shoulder. “He’s not talking to you?”

“No…” he answered quietly.

“Figures. Why would he want to talk to his betraying nephew?”

“But you betrayed him too!” He called out.

She stood silent for a moment. She slightly flinched as if she was going to say something but turned away silently instead.

“What are you not telling me?” He stood dead in his tracks when he realized she would not answer to him. Letting her go vanishing into the night.

Xxx

The other day Azula had demanded that she fetch a rare lily pond from a nearby pond infamous for being pooled with leeches. The poor girl returned to the palace soaked and muddy covered with leeches from head to toe. She would withdraw to her small windowless prison room completely drained where she could have a cold dinner of either stale bread, rice and sometimes dry chicken.

Another day she had been walking to the Royal bathroom chambers carrying two heavy buckets over her shoulders filled with rose petals. Petals which would be used for the princess's weekly rose water bath. She stumbled upon the hallways sleepily almost collapsing from the exhaustion. When she turned a hallway and encountered the one person she did not want to see.

He said her name in a worried tone and she ignored him continuing forward in her trek.

“Let me help you,” he said reaching for one of the wooden buckets she carried over her shoulders. “I can manage just fine, Prince.” She responded in an annoyed tone.

She looked ill. He could see the strain in her as she struggled to carry the heavy wooden buckets over her shoulders. Her body was even slightly wobbling from side to side to side from exhaustion. He snapped his fingers and before she knew it two servants that seemed to appear from out of the nowhere took the buckets off her shoulders and would finish the task from her.

She leaned over resting her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. She pushed her hair out of her face and looked at him with a hard expression on his face. It was always like this with him. She didn't need his help and certainly had no need for his sympathy. If she was fully well rested she would've most definitely been able to deliver to Azula. However her sleepless nights really weren't helping...

“I don’t want anything from you!” She angrily snapped at him. Before standing up and dusting her clothes off.

He, of course, was already used to this and had found a way around her bickering, push aways and protesting.

“Actually,” he said in a matter of fact tone. “Seeing as you are also my servant. I have something I need you to do for me.”

She gritted her teeth in fury, wondering just what stupid task he had in mind for her.

Moments later she found herself in his bedroom chambers. She tried her best not to appear interested by the artifacts and materials that were in the room.

“This is by far the stupidest task I’ve been forced to do,” she complained beyond irritated from his bed. She looked at the prince who was sitting on a wooden chair besides his bed looking down at her with his arms crossed over his chest an annoyed look in his face.

“General curiosity,” he shrugged with a rare, small smirk playing at his features.

“This..” she fought of an exhausting yawn. “Is so pointless...”

“You will not leave this room until you count every single thread on this blanket.” He ordered in a tone that was forcibly unsympathetic.

“This is so dumb. You’re so dumb…” she said weakly pointing a finger in his direction. But the bed... It was so comfortable. Her body sunk into it. Sleeping tempting her, calling her.

She currently lay on his bed, her nose buried against the heavy blanket as she counted every microscopic thread and stitch on the comforter. Sleep was taunting her, it was so seductive. Just a little cat nap wouldn't help...  He looked so smug. She had reached somewhere in the hundreds when she finally succumbed into its hands.

How could she not? Wrapped in warmth? Sleeping on a cloud, specially when the bed was wrapped in such a familiar comforting scent. What was that again eucalyptus?

It took him some time to realize it smelled like him...

Zuko let out a sigh he had been holding when he realized the exhausted girl had finally passed out from the exhaustion. He hated just how hardheaded she could be sometimes. He shook his head and pulled a thin blanket over her sleeping form before exiting his room.

xxxxx

AN: Stop reading here if you want a nice fluffy chapter. Do not read the following 3 sentences unless you want it all to go to hell again.

xxxxx

That same day Tsai was caught sleeping and as a punishment the soles of her feet were repeatedly whipped with a wooden cane in torture.

She swore not speak to the prince again.

She didn't tell him why.

xxx

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CHAPTER MASTERLIST

[keweenaw-biologist]

More of my quiet project

Chapter 2:

August 2nd, 2139. 02:00 Hours : Military Standard time

Somewhere near Aurora Prime. 16 lightyears from the Red Line

“Get me All Hands.” said the captain as he took his chair.

“Aye Sir.” responded the operations officer ahead of him, making a few moves on her station's screen  “At your console, sir.” 

A sound pinged through the ship's intercom as the captain began to speak “Attention all hands. This is Captain Baummer. An Alliance fleet has crossed the Red Line and attacked Aurora Prime. Central command has activated the Protocols. We will be spearheading the counter attack. This will be a combat drop out. Once we're out of FTL I want PDCs ready and rails charged. We trained for this day, keep your posts, do your jobs.” The captain takes a long breath and continues “Lives depend on us. GodSpeed, and good luck. Baummer out.” Several minutes pass before the captain sends out another ping through the intercom “Brace for combat drop” The ship shutters as it comes out of FTL. The screen at the very front of the deck comes to life showing the battlefield before them. 

“Multiple hostile contacts. Drop signatures detected at Lagrange 1 and 2” Called out one officer.

“Local Defenses are already engaged over Opportunity.” Announced another. 

“Helm, hold course, keep drives low, let the orbit take us. Tactical, start marking targets. Hold for the rest of the spear to drop in.” Baummer calmly ordered. His head darted around taking in all that was before him. He was the first ship to enter. Something caught his eye in the distance on the screen.  “Ops, Zoom in on L1” he ordered. The view changed, zooming across open space onto a point in space above the planet's small grey moon. A massive Alliance ship held a position at the lagrange point, surrounded by others in a defensive position. Alliance vessels had a distinctive basic design. Long, wide and thin. The dorsal and ventral surfaces come down from the center beam at low angles and meet sharply on the outer edges. The smooth surfaces are only broken by turret domes dotted across the surfaces. Their ships ranged in size, armements and other small changes to this basic design, but all had this structure. Whatever this ship at the lagrange point was, it was different. It was the size of the Dreadnaught class ships seen at many battles. The smooth surfaces of this one were covered in evenly spaced out tall towers. Baummer was a battle seasoned captain but he had never seen anything like it. “Tactical, what the fuck am I looking at?” The captain barked, looking to an officer to his right.

“I.. I… Don't know, sir. Marking as Unknown class” he managed to stammer out. 

Another officer interrupted “Friendly FTL windows opening to aft” The captain shook himself off from the surprise of this new class before him. Whatever this thing was it couldn't be good for them. “Alright, Helm join course with the battle group. Coms track down Admiral Lane. She’s going to want to hear about this” The ship's view returned to a closer view as the ship began turning over and everyone was pushed down into their chair by the inertia of drive engines engaging. The ship continued to turn over as it entered an intercept orbit with the rest of the group. Another burn of the drive engines to overtake some of the rear group. Passing a carrier in the midst of deploying its fighter wings. A pair of destroyers took positions to either side of the Xhosa. The deck crew scrambled to be ready for contact with the enemy. Firing solutions and ship analysis were called between officers. The battlegroup was rapidly approaching the enemy positions. 

“Captain, forward rails have locked a firing solution”

“Turrets?” the captain turned to his head tactical officer.

“Forward guns have solutions on multiples. Target priority?” 

“Prioritise largest capitals, drop the hammer on those Delta Class Cruisers as soon as we're in range. Let the destroyers handle the little guys.” The captain did not take his eye off the targeting view before him now. “Coms, make sure the rest of the group is getting our target calls” 

“Aye sir. I have Admiral Lane on subspace, awaiting you.” The Captain Baummer swung his seat to face a console to his left. 

“Cara, I'm sending you what little data I have on a new class, I need to know what its capable of. Got any ideas?” There's a pause that seems to last forever before a voice responds on the other end. Maybe she was thinking long and hard about it or maybe there was a communications delay. 

“No… it’s clearly an Alpha class dreadnought, but I’ve never seen anything like those towers before. It's missing almost all of its turret domes. Probably why so many defense ships are posted around it. Get any information you can on it. Though, I recommend not finding out what those towers do. My teams can always pick through the wreckage later.” The voice of Admiral Lane on the other side responded. 

“Thanks Cara, that's exactly what I was afraid you'd say…”

“Make it back, Okay?” Her voice had a more somber, worried tone. 

“I’ll see what I can do,” Captain Baummer said with a smirk, trying to not produce the same worried tone. 

“Captain, we're entering firing range in 5 seconds” The captain swung his chair back to the forward position, braced himself against the arms. Looking at the screen in front, several alliance ships had changed orbit and were turning over to meet them. The larger cruisers had not made their position changes completely yet and still had their large ventral and dorsal sides facing the big guns of the towering Xhosa. An easy target. 

“Drop the hammer.” With every shot of the massive forward railguns the whole ship lurched. And every shot from the turrets sent a vibration through the deck. Within seconds, those ferrous slugs made the long journey across open space to their targets. The first Delta took several hits across its wide surface. A good hit took out a fusion plant, the resulting explosion practically tore the ship in half as super heated plasma ripped its way out of the hull. The deck crew cheered. Their first kill, and they hadn't even been shot at yet. “Keep it tight!” Yelled the Captain. “Get more shots out before the cruisers turn to face, they're not so easy to hit head on!.” In the viewer, the destroyers had grouped up and were gunning their drives to make a run into the fray flanked by a dozen fighters each. That’s when the hostile shots started coming in. The tracers from Point Defense Cannons could be seen streaming across the nose of the ship in the viewer. Slower moving missiles had made their way to the battle group. PDCs were handling them. The Xhosa was as well defended as it was offensively capable. 

A missile made a direct hit on a drive engine of one of the forward destroyers. The hit forced the engine to flame out and the ship's now asymmetric thrust caused it to flip over completely  and lose velocity. “Helm! Watch that destroyer! Full thrust! Raise our orbit!” yelled the captain, practically standing on his chair. He was thrown back into his chair as the helm did as ordered and made evasive maneuvers. The ship leveled out and the viewer again showed the enemy fleet before them. New firing solutions were called out, and the guns began to shake the deck again. Closer and closer they came to meeting the enemy up close. The viewer showed the burning wreck of a Alliance cruiser succumbing to gravity and making its way into the planet's atmosphere. 

The battle group had successfully turned back the initial attack. The captain ordered his ship to join others to protect the capital city below. Most of the initial targets had been destroyed or retreated. But any seasoned sailor in this conflict knew this was not the end. That unknown was still out there at the Lagrange Point. It had not moved. Its protectors had not abandoned it to move in on the Republic battle group that had so quickly destroyed the initial attack force. 

“Sir, multiple targets coming from around the moon.” 

“On screen” The viewer zoomed in on a new group of ships coming around from behind the moon. As they came around, they reoriented to regrouped at the first Lagrange point. 5 targets, 10 targets, 30 targets, 50 targets, 70 targets, More and more ships streamed out from behind the planet's small moon. “Fucking hell” Braummer whispered under his breath. “Coms, get Central Command. I need to know when relief is coming.” 

“Sir, there's a massive energy reading coming from that unknown. It’s emitting something. Possibly exotic particles. Analysis computer is coming up with nothing.” Said an officer to the back of the deck, speaking up for the first time since the Xhosa entered the theater. 

“Uh sir…” The communication officer sheepishly said, turning from his station to look at Captain Baummer. “I can't get a lock outside the system.” Captain Baummer hadn’t taken his eyes off the unknown ship. “Other ships are reporting the same problem. Everyone's trying to determine if this is damage or … some kind of interference. One of the frigates is going to jump away and make contact.” A single frigate moved in front of the battle group. Its engine glowed bright and a series of panels from around the hull lifted up to project the FTL bubble. It picked up speed as it attempted to open an FTL window. But nothing happened, no window opened, the ship seemed to push and push. It should have jumped away within seconds but minutes had passed and nothing happened. Finally, the little frigate burned out her core and fell dark. It drifted for a few moments, its inertia carrying it. A single rail slug blasted through her hull. The whole command deck could only watch as the ship broke up. “Fucking hell.”