The moment he woke up, Zuko knew that something was terribly wrong. Because no matter how hard he tried, or how wide he opened his eyes, the world around him remained completely pitch black. At first he thought it might have been a solar eclipse of sorts, or perhaps they had decided to camp in a cave and he'd simply forgotten, but no. That couldn't be it. This darkness was too unnatural, too blinding.

Zuko tried his hardest not to panic. Panicking wouldn't do his situation any good, just the same as it didn't help his firebending. If the others were still around, he didn't want to accidentally injure them simply because he couldn't control himself. Breathe in, breathe out. The soothing actions reminded him of his uncle- the man he had betrayed, right when the man needed him most-

No. Focus, Zuko. There was no time to get upset. He was on the good side now, he was going to prove his worth, and win back his honour! But first things first. He had to find out if he hadn't wandered off somehow. Not that he was a sleep walker- that would be ridiculous. He'd know if he were one of those! No, not him. He was far too on edge to let his guard down like that.

Crawling forward on hands and knees, he found what had to be the fabric of his tent. Good, at least he was still in their camp. Now he needed to go find the others and tell them what had happened… And then what? They would cure his blindness?

"Dammit," he cursed softly under his breath, pushing through his shame and going to look for the opening in the canvas, finding it by a hint of cool air tousling his hair. It still amazed him at times how long his hair had grown, but he had to admit, he kinda liked it. If only because it erased the constant reminder of his father's acts, if only for small moments at the time.

Zuko opened up the tent and stumbled outside, trying to remember where the tents of the others were located. He could hear and smell the salty rustling of the ocean, and the content snoring noses of the Avatar's bison. And-

"Whoa!"

"Ow! Watch it!"

Zuko fell over with a loud "oof!", the air squeezed out of his lungs for just a second. Then he quickly pushed himself up, holding out his hands. "Who's there?" he shouted, ready to start attacking at a moment's notice.

"It's me, you jerk!" came a familiar voice- Toph. Of course. She always slept outside. Apparently he had tripped over her legs, or something of the kind.

Zuko sighed, lowering his arms, but remaining in a crouching position. "You shouldn't sleep in the middle of camp, people might step on you when they leave their tent in the middle of the night."

"I'm not sleeping in the middle of camp at all, Zuko! What are you talking about?" came her disgruntled reply.

"Then stop sleeping out in the open!" Zuko replied in the general direction of her voice. "What if it rains and you catch a cold and-"

"Aaaw, are you worried about me?" Toph chuckled, suddenly coming from behind. Zuko lurched forward, falling onto his back in his haste to turn around and face her. He was so caught by surprise that he instinctively punched a blast of fire at her, and he could hear her gasp, and for a moment he felt his blood turn to ice as he thought he had hit her, but then he heard the distinctive noises of earth being turned into a protective wall.

He sighed, lying on his back. All this stress was not good for him, this late in the summer. Couldn't they arrive at the beach house already?

The earth went down again, and he could feel her stomping angrily on the ground. "What's the big idea?! It's me, you idiot! Who did you expect me to be?"

"I'm sorry, it was just a reflex!" Zuko protested, hoping he hadn't ruined their relationship, again. He'd already accidentally burnt her once, and he did not want to cast even more unnecessary suspicion onto himself.

"Wait."

Zuko frowned as a moment of silence set his nerves on edge. "Toph?" he called out, sitting up, muscles tense.

"Don't attack me again!" she warned, coming from a spot somewhere to his right.

He nodded, waiting patiently. And waited.

"Okay Toph, what are you planning?" he finally asked, growing impatient.

"Zuko," came her voice again, much closer this time, making him snap his head to the side in confusion. How could she move so easily without alerting him? Well, there was the constant background noise of the ocean that could potentially draw out small movements, but still, Toph was hardly an elegant girl, nor did she move as "breezily" as the Avatar. He should've heard her.

"Zuko, can you see me?"

He grew agitated, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Of course I can see you," he snapped, "why wouldn't I be able to see you?"

"But I've been making stupid faces at you all the freakin' time, and zero reaction! I can't even feel your body turn towards me when I move, so-"

Ah, dammit. There was no hiding it, was there?

"Zuko, can you see anything at all?"

~o~

"What do you mean, Zuko is blind?!" Sokka exclaimed incredulously. They were all sitting in a circle after Toph had nicely asked them to gather to discuss Zuko's sudden ailment (read: she had rudely kicked them out of bed saying it was tons more urgent than their beauty sleep).

"How could this happen? Zuko, did you eat something poisonous?" Katara asked, frowning deeply. Blindness couldn't just… happen. Right?

"No, I did not!" Zuko grumbled. Only Uncle would do something as stupid as that. (God, he hoped Iroh was safe, wherever he was.) "Look, I don't know how or why this happened, but I want it to go away! I can't be blind when we only have so little time left until the comet arrives!"

"Uh… Zuko? We're sitting over here." He heard a slap as Sokka was reprimanded for making fun of him as the prince huffed and turned around.

"I cannot properly teach the Avatar to firebend while I'm like this," he "patiently" explained, when really, his reasoning to be cured was far more selfish.

"Katara, do you think you can heal him?" he heard the Avatar ask his waterbending friend. Zuko tried to listen intently as she rose and came closer, still surprising him when she crouched down next to him.

"Close your eyes," she commanded, used to dealing with one blind person, but not with another who previously had not been blind in the least.

Zuko did as told, not seeing any difference between open and close. He jumped only a little as cool hands were placed upon his eyelids, and felt the water make its way across his skin. However, when she retracted her hands, nothing had changed. Absolutely nothing!

"It's not working!" he growled, trying not to let anxious distress colour his voice.

"Don't blame me!" Katara yelled right back. "This can only mean that your blindness isn't a physical wound!"

A moment of silence, indicating they were all sending each other meaningful looks, and for some reason Zuko could perfectly imagine dramatic music in the background.

"So… It's mental?" Sokka asked.

"Or spiritual," Aang (The Avatar- it was weird calling the boy by his first name after so many months of ignoring that human factor of himself) said in a definite tone. "Okay, here's the plan. Zuko's blindness can't be healed apparently, so we have to find another way. I'll try going into the spirit world to find a solution there, and you guys stay with him and make sure nothing happens."

Zuko frowned. He wasn't a child, nor a prisoner!

"Or you could try to help him get used to it."

He didn't say the words, but Zuko heard them nonetheless.

In case his sight might never return.

~o~

Zuko was still sitting in the middle of the camp, waiting stoically for the Avatar to return from his trip to the spirit world. The others were busy setting up camp, making preparations to leave as soon as "all this" was over and done with. Since Zuko could no longer see, he also couldn't help. He hadn't learnt how to "see through earthbending", or whatever it was Toph did in order not to bump into everything.

"How long do these trips to the spirit world usually take?" he asked aloud, hoping somebody was close enough to hear him.

"I don't know," he could hear Sokka saying from somewhere in front of him. "Couple of hours maybe?"

Ugh. Great. "Well he'd better hurry up," the prince grumbled, very disgruntled about having one of his senses blocked off. It was different from the few training sessions he'd had with a blindfold on- at least then there had been the warm glow of light seeping through his eyelids, but now? Nothing.

"You know…" Katara said in a pensive voice, "Aang did ask us to help you get used to being blind…"

He didn't exactly want to hear what she would say next.

"Maybe we should do some training?"

"Won't be necessary," Zuko huffed, "the Avatar will come back soon enough with a cure, and then we can go on our way again. No need for training."

"You put an awful lot of trust into Aang," Sokka snickered, but Zuko blatantly ignored his jab.

"Still, you can't just sit there for hours upon hours, doing nothing! Besides, learning to rely more on your other senses may be useful in battle!" Katara added.

"Oh yes, because I'm going to have to fight blindfolded," Zuko said with a sarcastic roll of the eye.

Toph joined in as well. "No, but what if there's smoke, or something else taking away your sight? Won't be a problem for me, but I can't fight for all of you if something happens to make you guys blind!"

Zuko wanted to keep protesting, but he could feel the pressure rising. They did have a point, after all, and a valid one. Plus, it would be no good just wasting an entire day because his eyes had decided to take a break for a while.

"Fine," he finally sighed, shoulders sagging in defeat.

Which is why a couple of moments later, he found himself standing in the middle of what Toph described as an arena carved out of the rocks beneath them, leaving no pebble for him to trip over or cut his feet on. He'd been asked to take his shoes off as well, because this was a "Very Special Training".

"What are we doing again?" Zuko called out to the much smaller girl, hoping he was facing the right direction.

"I told you!" she yelled back, giving him the time to re-adjust his position. "I'm just gonna hurl rocks at you from all possible directions, and you'll have to feel the vibrations with your feet to know where they are coming from and then destroy them with your firebending!"

Zuko went to adjust his blindfold, then remembered he wasn't wearing one, and let his arms dangle. "If you think that's a good idea…"

Before he even had the time to get into the correct fighting stance, he could suddenly feel a dangerous rumble approaching. Gasping, he kicked in front of him, only to feel a rock barely scraping passed his ankles. Startled, Zuko jumped forward a few steps, heart beginning to pump adrenaline through his veins.

"If you think I'm going to warn you every time I attack, you're thinking wrong fire boy!" Toph shouted in a challenging tone. It really was do or die with her, wasn't it?

Another vibration, another boulder. The tricky part was finding out where they were coming from. Most of the time he could dodge just barely out of the way, but other times he found himself falling flat on his face or making painful collisions involving his butt. He always was quick to rise however, even though he didn't feel like this was learning him anything at all.

"Come on, fire boy! Is that all you got?!"

Zuko gritted his teeth and kicked forward, his fire painfully sizzling out in the empty spaces in front of him.

"Missed me," Toph's voice came, once more from behind, and down he went again.

As he pushed himself up on all fours, he could feel the growing friction from his quickly warming breath.

Just stay calm… You can do this, you just need to focus a little harder…

But how could he focus when all he could think about was the lack of colour everywhere he looked, the disquieting emptiness all around him?

And when he was knocked down once again before he even had the time to get up, he let out a frustrated scream.

"Uuuuugh! Forget it, this isn't working!" After which he stormed off, leaving a trail of ember-filled smoke behind him.

~o~

Zuko sat on the edge of a rock, hearing the salty water slosh against the rocks beneath him. He breathed deeply in and out, feeling steam come out of his nostrils, trying to get his agitation under control.

"Little warning, it's Toph, don't attack me," came Toph's voice, and small sparks escaped his palms before he balled his pale hands to fists.

"You don't have to keep me company," Zuko said with gritted teeth, shuffling to the side a little bit to make room when he could feel the girl's presence beside him.

"Mah, I don't have anything better to do," Toph answered, almost audibly shrugging. She remained silent for a little while, possibly listening to the ocean just as he did, before nudging punching his arm.

"Ow!" Zuko protested, rubbing at the sore spot.

"Come on, out with it. Just tell me about all the bad feelings, I'll listen."

"There are only bad feelings inside of me," Zuko grumbled, never admitting that he was pouting as he said that.

Toph let out a sigh that told him she found him very annoying, but then all of a sudden, she began talking instead. "I know it's not easy to have something taken from you. Believe me, I've had to adapt for a long time before I could take care of myself."

He didn't react, but slightly turned his head towards the source of her voice to indicate that he was paying attention- not that she could see the little gesture, but it was the idea that counted, right?

"I don't want people looking at me and thinking, 'she'd blind, there's no way she can get by without help, she's fragile and small'. Sometimes I'm happy I'm blind, because I can imagine myself being any way I want to be."

Zuko nodded, wishing he knew what he expected back from him. Maybe…

"…For years, I've had to fight against my shame," he begrudgingly began, almost feeling her ooze approval. "Every time I looked in the mirror, I could remember the exact moment when I dishonoured myself. It was like getting punched in the stomach, feeling that fire burn my flesh all over again…

"It's funny," Toph interrupted him. "Everyone keeps talking about your scar, but I've never seen it."

"Of course you haven't, your bli-" Zuko practically froze as he suddenly felt a hand on his cheek, boldly touching the scarred skin, letting her calloused fingers ghost along the mark. He forgot how to breathe, wanted to push her off, but just as fast as it had begun, it stopped again.

"Ouch," she said. "Feels painful."

And that was it. No held-back shudders or exclamations of disgust, no sneers or jabs or biting snorts. Toph almost couldn't care less about his scar. She had felt the evidence of his betrayal, the source of his shame, and all she had to say was "ouch". What an oddly liberating thought.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," Zuko said quietly, rubbing absentmindedly at the scorched cheek. "I guess… Now it's just a part of me."

"Exactly," Toph answered, and Zuko knew for certain that there was a smile in her voice.

Their moment of peace and quiet was roughly disrupted when the Avatar's bison began making noise, stamping around on all six feet.

"What's wrong?" Zuko shouted, immediately leaping up into a fighting stance, despite him still being unable to see where danger could possibly be coming from.

"It's the fire nation!" Katara yelled back. "Quick, we have to protect Aang's body! We can't leave here as long as he's in the spirit world!"

Great. Simply terrific. Of course they had to choose today of all days to track them down and attack. When the Avatar wasn't here to help, and Zuko was incapacitated. He jerked when he felt a hand on his arm.

"Time to put my teachings into practice," Toph told him, sounding both smug and excited to get started. If there was one thing she didn't lack, it had to be a great big deal of moxie.

Zuko began running, away from the sound of the ocean, towards the voices of Katara, Sokka and Suki. There were others there as well, their rough grunts mingled with the unmistakable hissing of hot flames. His people… but not right now.

He could feel vibrations to his left, different from the ones Toph's boulders had caused. A sound like something shooting forward was enough to inform him. He kicked his leg up in the air, creating a wall of fire that blocked any attack coming from his left. Then he began punching forward, blasts of orange flames shooting out of his fists until he heard a pained cry that indicated he had managed to hit his target. On to the next one it was.

"Zuko, watch out!" Katara yelled.

He spun on his heels, raising his hands, but knew he was too late to block this attack- until he felt something big and massive spawn right in front of him. He lightly jumped back, never breaking away from his tense position.

"Watch your back," Toph laughed behind him, which managed to make him smirk.

"Thanks," he said softly, before running off towards the source of the most ruckus. Katara's water could be heard whipping through the air, but then she suddenly let out a yelp of surprise. Zuko turned towards her, hesitated, and then simply threw his own body forward- he didn't want to accidentally burn her, even though she could simply "heal it off". He managed to leap onto her attack's back, and with a few short jabs grabbed his attention and drove him off of the waterbender.

"You're all going down!" the man spat, allowing Zuko to locate his mouth. In a movement faster than the eye could see he drew his dual swords and thrust them forward, bringing both side around the man's neck. A shocked gasp left him, which was all he could do in the little time it took for Zuko to prepare his next attack.

He groaned in effort as he kicked forward, using the other's weight to push him down. A swift slap to the head with the blunt part of his sword was enough to knock him out. And all that without being able to see a single thing.

And then he was hit on the back of the head as well.

~o~

"Zuko… Zuuuuuuuukoooooo… Zuko, wake up!"

A shock rippled through his body as he was startled awake. Groaning, he pushed himself up, one hand holding his head, a painful throbbing present in the back of his skull.

"Wha- what happened?"

"Someone knocked you down. Can't become a master of the blind arts in a single day huh? But don't worry, I kicked his ass," Toph proudly informed him.

He could feel a cool hand ghosting over his closed eyes, and automatically opened them. Katara quickly retracted her hand, smiling at him. "Welcome back."

"Welcome-" Then it dawned on him. "Wait, I can see again!" Oh, it had never felt so good to embrace the light of the evening sun…

"Yeah, I used the juice of these plants to cover your eyes, and it worked!" Aang said, apparently having returned from his journey.

Zuko blinked fervently, rubbing lightly at his eyes. "So wait, did you find out why I was blind?"

And then suddenly, for whatever reason, everyone looked away with a sheepish smile.

"…What?" Zuko asked, instantly suspicious.

"Well uh… Remember those berries we used to make soup yesterday?" Sokka said with a laugh. "Yeah… They're bad for firebenders. Something to do with your constitution."

Zuko could feel small sparks flickering from his fists. "So, what you are telling me, is that I was blind for one day, and would have been for a lot longer… Because of some stupid berries?!"

One good thing about traveling in a group is that you soon learnt the other's characters and behaviouristics. Which is why everyone decided to give Zuko some space at that moment- which means they all fled away screaming as Zuko went berserk for about an hour or so.

At least one good experience had come forth from this whole ordeal- and Toph wasn't going to let Zuko forget it.