She looked at him and then darted her eyes away. She could not afford to have him catch her glancing at him like that. It was something that she had not prepared herself to do, and not to the person who she had seen as her enemy for the longest time ever. However, to her, he seemed to have come to her from a distant memory, a thought long absent from the depths of her mind and her soul. Somehow, he filled the void in her heart, carved out by the conflict and pain she had been through. It was his entire Nation's fault, his father's, his grandfather's, and his great-grandfather's, yes, it was all common knowledge. But was he to be blamed for all that evil? No, the little voice in her head told her bluntly. The only thing he was to be blamed for, was the fall of Ba Sing Se, and that, was partly due to a highly ingenious coup d'état that his sister had orchestrated. He just facilitated her victory. And now, he humbled himself before her, her brother, Toph and the Avatar, asking only to be accepted as Aang's Fire-Bending teacher…
She looked at him, and then darted her eyes away, knowing that actually admitting to herself that she had not really blamed him for everything that went wrong after his crazed sister shot Aang with lightning. In her heart, she wanted to forgive him, to let her feelings run true, but she knew that they all had a responsibility to the world. After all, was loving a person not more painful than hating a person? She'd rather live with the pain of hating him than do the former and maybe, just maybe, when all of the dark days had ended, she would have the chance to see differently.