Chapter Text
Zuko looked out the window of the healer's hut. He'd gotten used to the view, learned to appreciate the sight of the boats coming into harbor. There were kids chasing each other through the street just outside and he smiled to himself. It was 3 years ago that his little boat had drifted onto the town's shore and a group of kids playing on the beach had found him, half dead from lack of water and infection. They'd brought him to the healer, Jing, and it hadn't taken her long to figure out what he was. Fortunatly for him that didn't mean she wouldn't help. When he was no longer delirious and was able to think without getting a headache she'd demanded to know who he was and where he came from. He'd never known healers could be so intimidating.
He didn't tell her everything, just that his father had burned his face and cast him out. She pressed for details but he wouldn't give any curling in on himself and shuting down. He wasn't in a good place at the time and she knew that. He still wonders if she let him stay out of pity or out of obligation as a healer, either way he was gratful. she'd let him prove himself, let him help out as he healed just to give him something to do. At first his bending scared her but after he proved it's usefullness in making stronger medicines she let him use it out of sight of her other paitents.
His burn was bad, bad enough that he still has to put a salve on it daily to keep the scar tissue from hardening and permently closing his left eye. In a small town it didn't take long for everyone to know about him. Many stoped by with old clothes for him, maybe a toy or some food, older women would stay for a bit and zuko could hear them giving Jing advice on how to take care of him.
He'd thought that he'd be pushed away when his burn became manageable, he even started working on a plan for how to survive on his own, but at some point he stopped sleeping on a cot by the fire and was moved into a small guest room upstairs. When asked about it Jing had only said that he was a long term paitent and she needed the space for the short term ones. He'd asked her when he would have to leave and she'd hesitated over the answer before finally saying that he'd have to leave when he no longer needed care.
He hadn't been happy with the vauge answer but he hadn't pushed. Now, 3 years later, he'll occasionally ask her with a joking tone "So when are you planning on kicking me out?" and she always replies with a sarcastic "When you don't need a mother" before telling him to help her with something or go bother his friends.
She'd given him a home dispite her hatred for his flames. It'd taken him awhile before he found out that his people had taken her husband and new born son, leaving her with emotional scars far deeper then anything he could imagine. They'd taken a long time to warm up to each other and it had taken even longer for the people of their town to calm down when his secrets got out, but he was happy here. He was happy in his new life as Lee, a 16 year old firebender, helping his adopted mother in a healing hut in a harbor town mostly left alone by his former father's war.