So, this is my first time in this ship! I thought I'd give Suki/Zuko a try (what is that, Suko? Zuki? Suzuki?) since I think this ship deserves at least some thought, especially with The Promise trilogy. Anyway, the comic had a Suki/Zuko type of a moment in there and well…here goes nothing.

I'll fill in what information is needed—you should read the comics if you have the chance (yes, you can find them online for free!), but for this story, I'm not going to be making any references that someone that hasn't read them isn't going to get.

Again, this piece is going to be purely experimental and I'm making this story realistically sound as possible—so I hope you enjoy or at least tell me what you think!

All mistakes are mine or the dog's—he just loves to inconsiderately step all over my keyboard in search of attention.

Well, without further ado:

Chapter One:

behind a cracked smile lies the future of a falling empire

It had been a while since anything larger than island disputes called on the Kyoshi Warriors, and with the lack of much excitement, the female fighters were ecstatic when a red-tailed hawk delivered their next mission in a scroll written by an anxious hand.

She was as brief and direct with her words as ever:

Hi Tylee,

I hope you and the other Kyoshi warriors are doing well. I have a favor to ask—if you guys can come over to the Fire Nation and help guard Zuko.

Just the other night, someone had broken into the palace, the sixth of these types of attempts on his life. He hasn't been able to sleep well and his guards are incompetent.

You guys are the only ones I trust to keep him safe; please come if you can. I'll ensure that you have accommodations once you're here.

Mai

After Ty Lee read this aloud, the rest of the Warriors surrounding her clapped at the prospect of actually being recognized in a foreign country, murmuring that they should totally take up the opportunity to increase the previous earth-native Avatar's legacy.

Their leader couldn't have agreed more—

"He's a good friend of the Avatar," Suki reasoned, nodding her head.

And she didn't mention it, but the Fire Lord's death would probably mean another war, and having fought so closely with the people that had spent their pre-adolescent years to finally establish some sense of world peace, she wasn't willing to let their efforts to go waste in another hell bent race for who was to be the next Fire Lord.

She had personal reasons to go as well. While she didn't know the firebender that well, Zuko was a good friend of her boyfriend and there was definitely a higher chance of being able to see Sokka if she hung around the palace where so many official decisions would have to be made. At a time like this, she reasoned, would no doubt involve the Avatar, which would consequently involve his girlfriend, which would with her brother being dragged along in the whole mess.

"We're probably only going to take a few of us to the Fire Nation," Suki declared. "We have to at least leave some of us here to take care of the island."

"Oh Suki! I have togo! You have to let me go!" Ty Lee exclaimed, calling dibs.

No one was going to argue with the Fire Nation-native not going back to her homeland, so Suki was quick to put herself on the list. "Okay," she said. "Ty Lee and I will be going—we can probably bring along three other girls."

"Yes, five of us over there should be more than enough," Kira affirmed, her calm and melodic voice in approval. "I'll stay here," she volunteered.

Su Lin, Riza, and Jena offered to go along with Suki and Ty Lee, and the five of them made arrangements to leave as soon as possible.

"Hey Kira," Suki called, once the other warriors had been dismissed.

Said girl turned, facing her leader with her ever stoic face. "What's up?"

"Thanks for stepping forward to stay here; otherwise everyone would have wanted to come along with us to the Fire Nation, you know?" The auburn-haired leader smiled at her comrade.

Kira shrugged off the compliment. "It's not a big deal—I'm not that much of a traveler anyway."

"And especially since I really trust you to do a good job taking care of Kyoshi Island and the Erath Kingdom while I'm gone," Suki added, placing her hand on the shorter girl's shoulder.

Kira might not have been the oldest, at age 14, but Suki knew that she was mature well beyond her years, holding a nonchalant air—"a dark blue aura," Ty Lee had observed once. The girl, who wore her wavy waist-length raven-black hair in a high ponytail, was composed and sharp-minded, not to mention that she was a deadly swordsmaster, practically unstoppable with her katana. She was a prodigy, barely needing to be taught any techniques and often coming up with her own graceful fighting styles.

Suki wouldn't have been surprised if Kira ended up being her successor, and if the future of the Warriors were in that girl's small yet capable hands, Suki would be satisfied.

"Whatever happens here while I'm gone, you should decide for yourself what to do—I'm sure I can rely on you to do what's best for the Warriors."

Kira nodded. "So...how long are you guys going to expect to be out there?"

"We'll be back once everything is settled down," Suki reassured her. "It won't be too long."

But at her heart, she knew that was closer to lie than truth.

There was going to be a hell of a lot more issues than just some simple body-guarding.

Zuko's life was on the line.

And with it, so was peace.

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"Six attempts on his life?" the gymnast surmised, worriedly, while doing her morning stretches. With her feet on the ground, she bent completely backwards, placing her hands on the ship's wooden deck before flipping her body into a perfect handstand. "I didn't think things back at home were so bad."

Suki had come out to take in some fresh saltwater air, unable to sleep in anticipation of what the five of them would be expected to do-keeping the Fire Lord's life was a lot of pressure and she still wasn't sure what the situation was like in the Fire Nation. "Was it always this way even during Ozai's reign?"

Ty Lee performed a few vertical push-ups before hopping back onto her feet again and placing her hands on her hips. "Fire Lord Ozai was different," she explained without hesitation. "He ruled over a population that had been loyal to the royal family for years. Zuko is ruling over people that have realized that the monarchy had been wrong to oppress the other nations after all this time. After the Avatar, there's not much trust left in Fire Nation for their leader."

"Hm," the Kyoshi Warrior leader breathed, quieting a deep sigh.

"You know," Ty Lee continued. "I never really thought about how much the country has changed. I guess...I was just happy for the Fire Nation because I trust Zuko to run it well. But I never thought about how much trouble he could have after the war was over."

Suki turned her hazel eyes towards her flexible companion. "Do you miss the Fire Nation?"

"Of course," she replied while in a mid-air cartwheel. "I mean, I love my new home on Kyoshi Island—you guys are like my family now and I've really been able to find myself while with hanging out with you guys, but I left a whole childhood in the Fire Nation."

But then the usually chipper girl grew quiet for a moment before continuing, wistfully. "I guess if anything I don't really miss the Fire Nation right now—I just miss the good old times. And it sounds strange, but my good old times were the wartime, when my closest friends and I were still together." While practicing a few no-handed cartwheels, she added, "I got to see my friends all the time, and it was always fun. We barely even acknowledged that the war was going on. And I got to see Zuko practically every day."

Suki didn't answer, but she couldn't deny the irony of having a nostalgic childhood during a time of great fighting. She herself had made some of the best friends before the war ended, and a lot of the things that she did in the past couple of years completely turned her life around.

"I guess wartime is easier than peace," Ty Lee suddenly proposed, out of the blue. "At least in war you don't have to worry about what everyone else thinks—you just have to win. After the war, you have sacrifice and negotiate and make deals with people. Fighting is just one-sided, straightforward, direct, and not as complicated as keeping peace."

Suki wasn't sure if that was the way to think about it, but things did seem a lot more complicated now these days. Everything had seemed to be over, but really, things were just beginning to erupt.

"Poor Zuko...everything is just crashing down on him after all he'd been through! And Azula—"

"His sister?" Suki suddenly remarked. The wicked blue lightning blades of their last encounter still haunted the Kyoshi Warrior. That female firebender had completely knocked the wind out of her—Suki was still a bit disgruntled at what an easy win she had made herself for the fire princess.

"Yeah," replied the other girl, not lingering on the fact that she had once fought alongside the Fire Lord's infamous sister.

"What about her?"

"Apparently, she ended up in a mental asylum...I haven't heard from her since, and I never dared to ask." Ty Lee suddenly sat down onto the ground, normal and looking contemplative. "I think I really just ran away from all the problems by joining you guys."

Suki didn't remind Ty Lee that they were on their way to heading right back into them.

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They didn't realize just how serious the problem was until they saw the heavy bags under his eyes.

"Zuko! You look so tired!" Ty Lee exclaimed, forgetting the formal greeting upon seeing her old friend and swallowing him up in her arms. "Have you been getting any sleep at all?! How are you doing?!"

The Fire Lord had changed a lot over the past month. Suki had last seen him only a few weeks ago, but the amount that his appearance had changed only struck her at that moment.

His clean-shaven face had completely shed its pre-pubescence, his jaw chiseled into a stern frown and his cheeks had begun to hollow out into the skeleton of a more mature man. His chin-length dark brown hair, adorning an elegant golden flame crown, was now properly cut, no longer needing to be brushed away with an annoyed hand. His eyes were still honey-amber, but they were now denser, weary, glistening no longer with childhood naivety but instead, jadedness. A wrinkle had seemed to permanently build itself onto his concerned forehead.

What distressed her most however, was that even through all the thick and heavy layers that he was required to wear as the Fire Nation's leader, she could still tell that his figure had grown considerably more lanky. Zuko had been extremely healthy and fit, and it was easy to see that he was slowly turning into a shell of the athletic youth he had used to be.

Zuko wasn't able to sidestep Ty Lee's embrace because she had pounced on him too quickly, but he reluctantly gave up the monarch impression he was supposed to preserve and dropped his arms around her as well.

A small smile cracked over his thin lips, a movement that Suki knew he hadn't done in the longest time.

"I'm doing fine, Ty Lee," he asserted, "and I hope you're doing even better than I am." He pulled himself away from her. "We'll save the reunion for another time though," he promised as his old friend stepped back with the rest of her Warrior comrades. His face reset into a stoic default that Suki figured he could have only developed after long nights of staring at legal documents.

The Fire Lord brought a fist up to an open palm, making a flame salute with his hands.

The Kyoshi Warriors uniformly replicated this, going down onto their knees in respect for his position.

"Kyoshi Warriors," he stated. "I'm sorry about the trouble, and I appreciate your willingness to come out here and help the Fire nation even though it is not your primary duty."

His adolescent years were little more than a year ago, but his voice had dramatically deepened, resonating with a restrained control and sounding like he had grown ten years when he was barely twice that amount in age.

"Ty Lee, Suki, Kyoshi Warriors," he continued. "I'm sorry I can't stay for long and personally inform you of everything. But I do want to tell you that my palace is completely open to you. While on duty here, you are considered close friends of royalty and will be treated as such. I have rooms set aside for your stay, however long that may be, and as honored guests, you should feel free to ask for any other accommodations that you might need."

"It is our honor to serve you, Fire Lord Zuko," Suki said, looking up at his golden eyes.

"I should hope so," he replied.

And though this was probably meant to be said with a wry smile, she didn't even see him make half an effort to curl his lip.

I've introduced a few OC characters so far—they're not going to take over the entire story but they are going to be recurring so they were given names. :)

And yeah…the story started sorta slow, but I promise action in the next chapter so stick with me!

(And drop your thoughts!)