Chapter 01: Zuko's Longest Day
Rating: K
This chapter is the first of 4 or 5, not sure how it goes yet. This one is the setup for Zuko's first embarrassing apology, with the girl from Ba Sing Se, Jin. I started liking it more as I got to the end of it, so I am really excited to get to the next chapter. Hope you enjoy the slight buildup, even though I'm not as comfortable with this one as I was witht the origin story, so let me know how it came out. Enjoy.
"So, are you ready, Zuko?" Katara asked sweetly, hand in hand with her boyfriend as they re-entered the comfortable teashop. Everyone looked at her with the utmost curiosity, brows raised at the quirky grins adorning her and Aang's faces.
"Ready for what?" he asked, having a sinking feeling that he knew what she was talking about. Ever since he had opened up to Sokka about his fears and troubles so many weeks ago, he had been dreading the day that they would all stick their noses in, and force the matter.
"Come on, you can't tell me you forgot," she snapped back, hands resting on her hips, the green fabric of her fine silken dress swaying gently as she leaned forward towards the young Fire Lord.
"Forgot what, Zuko?" Mai asked, a distinct tone of suspicion on her voice as she glared daggers at the young man. Turning his golden gaze to the black haired young woman, he winced a bit in fear, fixed in place by the cold, icy stare.
"I-it's nothing, Mai. I have no idea what she is talking about," Zuko responded, placing his hands up defensively as he tried to speak, his tone making him seem even more guilty in the girl's eyes. A deafening silence filled the room, each person trying to figure out what was going on between Zuko and Katara, and why Aang didn't seem upset about it.
"Oh, that's right!" Sokka shouted after a few moments of thought, shooting up from his position behind the large table. The others tensed up in surprise, listening as the exuberant young man's drawing instruments clacked on the marble floor of the teashop.
"What is it, Sokka?" Suki asked, leaning up against a wall near where she had been playing Mai at pai-sho, hand pressed to her chest as she tried to calm down following Sokka's sudden outburst.
"Remember a few weeks ago, after Zuko and Katara ran off together?" he asked vaguely, earning Zuko another death glare from his girlfriend, to which he simply shook his head, offering the explanation at a later time.
"Kinda. What does that have to do with this?" Suki admitted, closing her eyes as she tried to think about what could be going on. Iroh, for his part, looked teasingly at his nephew, nudging the younger boy in the side with a playful elbow.
"When we were talking later that night…" Sokka continued to explain, his lips curling into a mischievous grin, one that caused Zuko's blood to chill a few degrees as it flowed through his veins.
"Ah, you mean when he was spilling his guts about all his miserable luck with girls in the Earth Kingdom?" Toph teased, smiling wide as she felt the tension emanating from the Fire Lord, his forehead being smacked by his right palm as he tried to will himself out of his predicament.
"What the heck are they talking about, Zuko?" Mai asked, the same suspicion and anger mixed with a faint glimmer of hurt and sadness. Zuko glanced to the raven haired girl, smiling at the silent show of emotions in the girl's eyes.
"It's nothing like that Mai, I promise," he said honestly, roughly pushing his uncle's elbow from its position on his side. Mai's lips fixed into a weak smile as she watched the honest glow in the boy's eyes.
"So then what are they talking about, Zuko?" she asked hesitantly, yet directly. The boy took a deep breath before continuing his explanation to his girlfriend.
"A while ago, I had a little trouble sleeping, after being reminded of the person I used to be. It wasn't pleasant at all, and it brought back all the bad memories from my time in the Earth Kingdom," he began, casting a regretful look sideways to his uncle. The jolly old man's face showed his solemn understanding of Zuko's situation, if not of all the details that might be involved.
"Zuko…" Mai whispered, placing her hand on his scarred cheek, rubbing it reassuringly with a smile on her lips. "It's all in the past, Zuko. Whatever you did, I think you've more than made up for it, what with stopping the war and all," she reasoned, earning a sad sort of smile from the young man.
"It's nothing like that, Mai. It's… there's people I hurt all on my own, and I have to make things right with them before I can finally put it behind me, once and for all," he said, gazing into the light skinned girl's eyes as he did, hoping she wouldn't get too upset at his first destination.
"So, what, you're going to go on some kind of boring, embarrassing apology tour of the Earth Kingdom?" the girl said, half jokingly.
"Well, I wouldn't have put it like that but, yeah, something like that," he sighed, running his fingers through the messy black locks of his hair.
"Where are you heading first? And, are these guys all going with you?" Mai said sarcastically, mixed feelings rolling in her mind about the prospect of Zuko disappearing on some emotional quest for self fulfillment.
"Actually, it's someone in the city…" Zuko began, shooting warning glances to the teens of the Avatar's group as they imagined the older boy's "teary apology" to the little Earth Kingdom girl.
"You're kidding me. It better not be…" Mai began, feeling her dark, gloomy aura return in full force at the memory of the bubbly brunette she had encountered with Zuko after the fall of Ba Sing Se.
"Yeah. Jin," he answered weakly, his eyes subconsciously closing as he prepared for some yelling, and maybe something to be thrown in his direction. Instead, his ears perked at the rough grating of chair legs against marble.
"Just don't be out too late," Mai said as she slipped out of the comfortable shop, leaving the teens of Team Avatar and Iroh to look from the opened door to the young Fire Lord, looks of near apology and pain on their faces.
"That could have gone better…" Zuko muttered, clutching at his hair with both hands, silently cursing how stupid he had been for opening up to Sokka so many weeks ago, and having it come back to bite him now of all times.
"Do not worry, nephew. I will keep Lady Mai company until you return. Give Miss Jin my regards," Iroh said jovially, smiling wide as he slipped into the back room to prepare some tea for his trip to Mai's temporary residence.
"Thanks, Uncle," Zuko said in thanks, smiling as he watched the old man mill about in the back, soon followed by the soft scent of tea. After a while, the jolly old man ambled out of the shop, leaving the teen heroes alone in the fancy shop.
"That's nice of your uncle," Aang said, smiling as he felt the more calm atmosphere in the room.
"Sounds just like Iroh," Toph said, feeling a smile tug at her own lips with the way that the old Fire Nation general had lifted the mood of his overly emotional nephew with such a simple gesture.
"Yeah. He's a great guy. So, we ready to see Zuko's horrific mistake?" Sokka teased, joining the others in smiling as they looked to the teen in question.
"Ugh. I'm going to kill you one of these days," Zuko gruffed, his teeth grinding together in his frustration with the situation.
"I'd be careful, Sokka. I think he just might do it," Katara joked, her brother giving her a fearful look, as though asking silently for her protection.
"Can we just get this over with?" Zuko said roughly, moving towards the front of the establishment, silently hoping the others would not accompany him on this particular errand.
"So, any ideas on how to find this girl? Ba Sing Se isn't exactly the smallest city in the world, you know," Toph pointed out, Zuko's shoulders drooping as that bit of information planted itself in his mind.
"Oh yeah. I forgot about that," he said in exasperation, not enjoying the prospect of doing this over the course of multiple days. He leaned against the inside of the doorframe for a moment, thinking of ways to find the young girl.
"We could just put a message out, or drop flyers asking Jin to come to the Jasmine Dragon," Sokka suggested, Zuko's cold stare indicating that such a plan was not an option even as a last resort.
"Do you know where she lives?" Katara asked, wanting to offer some help to Zuko, even if in some small degree, for all the help he had given her in his brief stint in their group.
"All I know is that she always came to the teashop where we worked, in the Lower Ring," Zuko said somewhat sadly, recalling again the way he had left on their date so long ago, how hurt she must have been afterwards.
"The Lower Ring!?" Sokka groaned, a fresh frustration obvious in his voice as he nearly collapsed against the broad table he had taken to resting against. His dark green robe cascaded over the surface, fanning out around his still slender arms as they cushioned his head from banging on the hard surface.
"What's his problem?" Zuko asked, wondering what was so surprising about the Lower Ring.
"Well, he's probably just shocked that you had a thing for a commoner of such low birth, plus, the Lower Ring is where most of the refugees live, so it's really crowded," Katara responded, her lips knit together in a concerned, focused expression.
"Now that you mention it, that place was pretty dirty and crowded," the scarred teen said, remembering his first reaction to seeing the dirty masses of people, seemingly all packed one atop another.
"You better think of something easier, because we are not just walking around there all day," Toph said sternly, her green trimmed yellow dress falling lightly around her ankles as she stood, pointing directly at the older boy.
"You guys don't even have to come!" Zuko snapped back, feeling the heat burning in his cheeks. The brown material of his kimono rustled as he turned towards the occasionally annoying earth bender. He was not keen on the idea of it himself, but if it meant getting it over with that much sooner, he would spend the whole day wandering around the Lower Ring.
"Come on, Zuko, you must have some better idea of how we can find her," Aang said, motioning for peace as he stood between the fire and earth benders, silently fearing the need for playing peacemaker between the combustible teens. Zuko returned to his position near the doorframe, golden eyes closed as he tried to think.
"Wait, you said she would always come into the teashop where you worked, right?" Suki said, Zuko's eyes flashing open in realization.
"Yeah. I bet she still goes there, so that's the best bet to check," Zuko admitted, a surprisingly warm smile crossing his lips at the thought of the young girl.
"So then what are we waiting for? I want to see this girl for myself," Sokka said, revealing his true intentions for tagging along.
"What do you mean by that?" Zuko asked the younger boy, stopping him dead in his tracks, one foot out the door before his body froze.
"Well, uh, I was just, um, wondering what kind of girls they might be, is all," the dark skinned boy stuttered a bit, pulling the other foot out the door before turning stiffly towards the gloomy Fire Lord.
"Ugh, I knew this was a bad idea," Zuko said roughly, making his way through the door, past the shivering Water Tribesman. The others followed suit, each passing right by the boy before Suki dragged him along.
"Idiot…" she mumbled, her light green sleeve swaying as she moved, the silky fabric brushing against her slender frame.
"Hey, I can walk on my own, and you're gonna mess up this fine robe," Sokka complained, earning a warning look from his auburn haired girlfriend. The girl let her grip loosen, the boy's head banging harshly against the stone of the ground. After rubbing it for a moment, Sokka rushed to catch up, not wanting to miss the sight of Zuko apologizing to what he assumed would be a horribly disfigured young lady.
As they made their way deeper into the city, the group came closer together, watching as the bright, cheery atmosphere of the Upper Ring gave way to the dimmer, more depressing air around the Lower Ring. Fancy gowns of silk and linens gave way to rags, tattered clothing patched with whatever scraps could be gathered.
"Oh my god, you actually lived here?" Katara asked, wincing as she briefly met eye with a shady individual. She was thankful at least that the entire group was with her, glad that such a group would dissuade any would be pick pockets.
"Yeah, we did. It wasn't much, but when you're on the run from your own sister, any place can be like a piece of heaven," he said sadly, his anger mixing with a brotherly concern for the misguided soul who had served as his tormentor for so long in his youth.
"I'm sorry, Zuko," the brunette water bender said, clutching at Aang's hand for comfort, not knowing just what conditions Zuko had been through in his time among the Earth Kingdom commoners.
"This place is pretty rough, but I think you're the only one who could handle it," Sokka said, stroking his chin as he praised the older boy, figuring that there would be probably one other person in the group at home among these elements.
"Are you kidding? This place seems like heaven compared to the Upper Ring," Toph said, adding her two cents to the conversation. Sokka rolled his eyes, figuring that if there was one place in the city that might appeal to the girl, it would have been the seedier aspects, given that she was not one to back down from a fight.
"But everything's so… dirty," Katara said, her lips falling into a frown at the sight of all the poor people around. The group looked around as they walked, each wanting to do something for the people of the city.
"That's why I hated it here. It made me really miss home that much more," Zuko said grimly, stopping as he pulled up to a small, cozy looking teashop. The others gathered around, looking up at the sign.
"Pao's Family Teashop?" Sokka said, looking around the front of the edifice, wondering if there was maybe more to the shop than its small size indicated. As Zuko reached for the single door, he felt a moment's hesitation.
"What's wrong, Princess? Scared?" Toph teased, not wanting to be too harsh on the young man, knowing how difficult face to face apologies could be. At least, for anyone but Sokka.
"No…" he lied, his hand twitching just a bit against the doorknob. He was so nervous, more nervous than he figured he should be for something so simple. He was the Fire Lord, he was used to meeting foreign dignitaries and dealing with all sorts of people. Yet, here in Ba Sing Se, he found himself oddly terrified to face the young girl who had shown so much kindness to a poor refugee.
"It's okay Zuko. Sokka promises he won't tease you or anything, right Sokka?" Katara said, turning an icy stare on her older brother with a hand resting on Zuko's right shoulder.
"I p-promise," Sokka mumbled, anxious to see the girl already, so he could tease Zuko about it once Katara was gone. After another moment's hesitation, Zuko slipped open the door, his eyes squinting as he looked over the small group of patrons in the small shop, inwardly sighing in relief at not finding the girl.
"So, is she in there?" Aang asked, peeking his head inside, followed soon after by those of the others. A few curious gazes were directed their way before the owner excitedly made his way to the young Fire Lord.
"Oh, well, if it isn't Lee. It has been forever since I saw you. Don't tell me, your uncle is considering coming back to work for us here?" the old man asked excitedly, hands rubbing together beneath his chin as he thought of the possibility.
"No, sorry," Zuko responded, watching the man's excited smile fade, dropping into one of depression.
"Oh. So, what can I do for you today?" he asked, using his best sales voice as he smiled at the group of teenagers.
"Actually, I'm looking for someone," Zuko admitted, leading the others into the small shop. The owner guided them to a single large table, bowing politely as they sat down at their respective seats.
"Oh. That is quite a coincidence. A young lady has been here asking about you off and on for the last few weeks. She seems quite taken with you, and was sad to hear that you had moved on," Pao said, his heart going out to the young girl.
"When was the last time she came in here?" Sokka asked, leaning against his elbow as he raised an inquisitive brow towards the older man.
"Well, she comes in every day, I think hoping to catch a glimpse of Lee here," the old man said, stroking his thin moustache as a smile crossed his lips. Sokka leered at the Fire Lord, who had his head resting against the surface of the table.
"Ugh, this is bad," Zuko muttered, his hands clasping together on the back of his head, again trying to somehow affect the universe so that this ordeal would be concluded.
"Now, I'm sure she's over you by now, so no need to worry," Sokka tried calming the older boy.
"Lee!?" the gang's attention was shifted to the front door as it swung open, a torrent of sunlight pouring in around a shaded figure. Zuko's golden eyes shot open as he turned his head towards the girl, her voice bringing back all the memories. All the feelings of confusion and anger and frustration.
The girl quickly made her way into the teashop, he green robes swishing gently as she walked. Small yet sure footsteps rang in Toph's "vision", giving her as good a look at the girl as she could manage.
"Well, Sokka, I guess you were wrong," Toph teased, noticing the surprised feeling throughout the warrior's body.
"Damn…" the boy muttered, his blue eyes locking on the brunette as she approached the group, coming to a stop just behind Zuko. A pair of brown braids hung over either shoulder, soft strands hanging loosely around her face.
"Uh, Jin, um, hi, how are you, uh doing?" Zuko asked, cursing himself for tripping over his words so horribly in front of everyone. The girl smiled as he stood up, nearly tripping over the bench as he did. Jin reached forward, bracing the boy's chest to keep him upright, a warm smile on her face that seemed to melt his very soul.
"I'm good. So, who are your friends? More circus performers?" a loud smack of a palm against forehead joined with the laughter of his group of friends, and he wished he had come up with a better lie. Azula was always so much better at it.
"Circus performer, huh?" Katara teased between giggles, amused at the thought of Zuko performing any kind of act in front of a crowd. Replacing the palm with a pair of fingers, the young Fire Lord tried to calm himself down, rubbing at his temples firmly.
This was going to be a long day.
Next time we get the sweet Jinko moment, even though it won't become the pairing for this one. Mai will definitely tag along with the next round of apologies, to keep Zuko in check, but for now, it will just be the cute Jinko. I am really really liking that pairing the last couple of days, and I am currently planning a Jinko fic based on the comic 'Going Home'. The whole Maiko relationship feels a little forced to me (tell me if I am wrong, but they seem to just have all of a sudden decided that Zuko liked Mai when they were kids), so it will never gel for me. Anyway, look forward to the second part of this hopefully tomorrow (hopefully). Plans as of right now are for 2 parts with Jin then 2 parts with Song and maybe one with Lee (or have it wrap into the Song part). Comments welcome as always. Until next time.
Also, a side note. I did a random search for my penname at Google, and I apparently have an article at FanHistory. Not sure if that is a big deal or not, but it kind of freaked me out a bit ^_^;;