Every day his eyes turned colder, every day his eyes lost some of their golden shade.
No one seemed to notice, no one cared, no one dared to ask. A man can do amazing things in his life, but in the end he's just that.
A man.
Without friends, without dreams, without a family to call his own.
Sure, he used to have a family. Not too long ago actually. But you're not allowed to call your sister, who's forever locked away in a physic ward, and your dad, who's facing the capital punishment your family once you're the Fire Lord.
You're above them. You're perfect, perhaps even holy. You helped the mighty avatar defeat your tyrant of a father, you figured out what's right and wrong all by yourself. Well not really, but people easily forgot about that.
They say you bear the scars to prove it.
Oh how wrong they are, the scars they can see are only a small fragment of the scars you bear.
And then there's your uncle, the only real family member you have left. According to the court that is. But lately, his name has been banned from the court too. He's too normal, happily living a simple life instead of a luxurious one back home.
Can't give the youngsters the idea that working hard and being happy with what you have is good right? The people in his father's government used to think this way and sadly enough, Zuko experienced that old traditions die ever so slowly.
His friends leave, going all over the globe, promoting peace everywhere they go, leaving him to pick up the pieces of a once proud nation all by himself.
Can't they see that it's picking him apart?
Every piece he puts in the restoration of his nation is a piece that came from his own, ripped out with his bare hands. Inside, there's hardly enough to left to live. To feel.
So he just watches as the blood drips over his arms, staining his already red cloths.
They didn't care, they didn't notice, they were afraid to ask.
They refused to see his weakness and left him to rot all by himself.