Chapter One
Author's Note: I have never written for this fandom yet but don't worry, I am a huge fan of this whole TV series and I love it a lot so this will hopefully not disappoint! Alright, well, here we go! Also, I don't own any of these characters, so standard disclaimers, even though I wish I did….
Zuko looked out from the balcony, watching the nearing rain clouds. There was thunder and lightning where the rain was; he knew it. And with that was most likely trouble. Ever since he had become Firelord, he had struggled with the people of the land who were always trying to cause trouble with the government if one tiny thing was wrong. Not everyone was a complainer, though, and he appreciated those that enjoyed the new and renounced life of the Fire Nation, those ones never yelled at him or any other government officials. Mai was the only person who could usually calm him down if he got into a bad mood when the people yelled and argued. Everyone else tried to avoid him around those times, even his uncle, who, when he was younger, had been the one to keep him calm.
Those times had been difficult for the both of them, and Zuko could remember everything his uncle had said to try and convince him that chasing down the Avatar was a horrible idea and that he should just accept life as it was. Not that the old man had been straight forward with all this, but Zuko now knew that this is exactly what he had been trying to do. Those storm clouds looked worse as they drew closer.
"Firelord Zuko, Avatar Aang is here to see you." said a guard that had just appeared in the doorway. Zuko motioned for him to let Aang in and the younger boy walked in, looking apprehensive even though he knew Zuko wasn't going to snap on him. His clothing was the same as Zuko knew it to be, always, aside from the blue travelling cloak thrown over his shoulders.
"What brings you here?" Zuko asked him, though he had a feeling he knew exactly why Aang was here. They had been friends for quite a while now, as it was almost three or four years ago now that the hundred year war had ended and Aang always treated him with diligent respect, and now that he was holding back slightly, Zuko was trying to let him know that nothing was wrong.
"I just wanted to talk about those stubborn people that bombard the gates every morning." said Aang. "I heard about it from some of the people on the roads by the Air Temple and wondered if you were keeping everything under control."
"Yeah," Zuko sighed, "I am. But it isn't easy. They demand to be heard and everything all of the time."
"Well, I'd say that you have to block yourself from trouble like that sometimes, but now, isn't it time you let them say a few things?" asked Aang, now completely relaxed and standing with his arms against the balcony railing as Zuko was.
"They have. But they do it in rallies. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the government in everyone else's opinions, but then there's that group…" Zuko drifted off, trying to think of other things to say. "I don't know how to push them off."
"I could help. It's going to take a lot but it's possible." Aang said, his 15 year old face lighting up at the idea. "You can deal with them pretty easily."
"They aren't the only problem." said Zuko, looking at the floor. He wondered how on earth he was going to deal with the people and the other thing, the other problem that he refused to talk about with anyone. "But that's beside the point."
"I don't think it is."
"I'm not telling you, Aang. I can't." he said, facing Aang.
"I don't care if you can't, I know that at some point, you will. You'll tell someone. Whatever it is, a fear, an actual being, then everyone, someone's going to find out. I know how it is. I know you can keep secrets but I also know that some of them are spilled quickly. I mean, you tend to be obvious at times." Aang replied, making a mischievous grin, then letting it dissolve as he sighed, also looking down at the floor. "But don't mind me, I'm just here to help you with those people first."
"Yeah, I know you are. I care about those people, though, not in a strange way, but in a way that I owe them something, yet I can't give it to them. I'm in charge of all of them, and I have to take their worries into consideration. Yet I don't want to change the way things are going. Every other nation seems to have it easy, no one else is stressing and having people nearly knocking down the gates. I don't see Ba Sing Se being bombarded with rallies." was Zuko's reply, and Aang watched him as he lifted his head and stared back out into space.
"You don't look so good yourself, for one that has to control an entire village from knocking down his gates every day. You don't get much sleep, do you?" asked Aang. Zuko almost snorted at this; of course Aang would ask something like this, being a monk and all, one that had to care for everything and everyone.
"I don't, but that's only because I'm constantly worried about the whole situation."
"What is their argument, anyway?" asked Aang.
He realized he hadn't told Aang this, and for a moment, went over it all in his mind. The people who were holding these rallies and crowding the gates had formed a society, known as the "Government is wrong, we are Right" society or something like that. It hadn't grown terribly, and their problem with everything was that the Fire Nation wasn't being controlled correctly. There were either too many laws or too few; he never could figure them out, they always changed their viewpoint, almost every day. There were also large problems with homelessness and while he had been fixing it, the group had come in and broken it all. Zuko knew this type of people; they wanted to get what they wanted and they wouldn't let anyone else get anything until they got what they wanted. It was terribly confusing at times and his loss of sleep over it all wasn't helping. As he explained this to Aang, who listened quite closely, he was thinking about the other problem as well but was attempting not to show that his mind was on a different topic. When he was done the explaining, Aang was silent for a few moments.
"That's all wrong. You've dealt with things like this before, haven't you?" he asked. Zuko nodded, thinking about the other problems he'd had to deal with that were a group of people that believed something and got what they wanted. This had been extremely popular after his father had been defeated, because Zuko had ended up with a country in shambles after everything that had happened during Ozai's time.
"I don't want to be against help, but I don't see how you're going to make them believe that what you say is right and what I say is right as well." he said, looking at Aang, who smiled.
"But that's just it. You're not alone, and neither am I." he said.
"Just remember, I'm not doing this for my health." said another male voice from the doorway. Zuko turned to see Sokka and Katara standing there; both smiled back at him.
"You aren't alone, ever, are you?" he asked Aang, who cracked a larger grin than before, and shook his head.
The other two approached him, greeting him in the way that they always had. Sokka was playing around with his boomerang and Katara stared at Zuko as he explained everything that had happened for the second time around. When he was done, there was silence for a few minutes.
"Well, this should be a piece of cake!" said Sokka. "We just sneak up on them, and BAM! Society gone!"
"It's not going to be that easy." he replied, just glad that Sokka had been listening to him at all. "They are tougher than you think they are, no matter their size."
"Well, I'm not too frightened or worried about them." said Katara, looking around.
"Right now, I'd say the same thing." Aang agreed. Zuko figured they weren't really concerned about the whole thing right then and there, and he wished he could be the same way.
"I can't say the same thing, but right now, the only thing really making me worried are those storm clouds over there." he said, and the others nodded, because no one knows what a storm will do until it comes.
Author's Note: Well, that's chapter one, I hope you enjoyed it, and yes, it's from Zuko's point of view, in case you were confused, for some reason….anyway, I hope to update soon, and yes, this happens three years after the war and all, just to clarify that! Thank you for reading and please, review, review, review!
