-One year after the comet
A groan came from the huddled figure when he felt someone shaking his shoulder. All he wanted was a few more minutes to rest his eyes. The shaker, however, was very persistent and eventually the figure had no choice but to straighten up and open his eyes. The pile of papers he had fallen asleep on shifted as he righted himself. The morning light stung his eyes as he tried to open them.
"You know, you could at least come to bed at night."
The deadpan voice helped shake the groggy Fire Lord from his stupor.
"Mai?"
"Well done, Zuko. I'm glad you still remember your girlfriend."
Something was not quite right and the moment the cobwebs cleared from his head he would figure it out. He knew it had something to do with the young woman who was currently glaring at him, her usually carefully guarded expression clearly annoyed. Mai clearly portraying any emotion was something that deserved notice and in this case possibly concern on the Fire Lord's part. Zuko decided to proceed with caution.
"Of course I remember you Mai. What's wrong?"
"What's wrong? What's wrong is that I spend an entire night worrying about you and then I find that you've fallen asleep at your desk again."
"I'm sorry, Mai. I was just trying to finish off these reports. For some reason every quill pusher in my government feels the need to bring every little problem all the way to me."
"Well why don't you tell them to take care of some of this themselves?" Mai asked one eyebrow well on its way towards her hairline.
"Because I've seen some of the suggestions included in the reports." Zuko made a grimace to show whaat he thought of some of the suggestions made by local governors, mayors and bureaucrats in general.
The second eyebrow joined the first. "Then replace them, Zuko. You are the Fire Lord, you know. You can do that."
Zuko gave a tired sigh. "Actually Mai, I can't. Not without further weakening the stability we've built up over the past year. And they're not all incompetent just some of them." He hated this discussion. It came up every so often. Mai felt that the newest batch of local government officials were not up to scratch since Zuko had let the people choose from amongst themselves to fill certain positions in an attempt to draw the population into the rebuilding process and quash any warlike sentiments in his people. The problem was that you didn't always get reliable bureaucrats that way. Mai attributed it to bad breeding, Zuko attributed it to bad luck and nepotism. Either way he didn't feel like a full on fight with his girlfriend before breakfast.
"Mai, I think I'll go freshen up. See you at breakfast?"
Mai gave him a look that he couldn't quite read and nodded. As she left his study Zuko made his way to the bathroom deciding that if sleeping on your desk was murder on your back then a hot bath would be the cure.
"WOOOHOOOO!!!!"
Katara groaned. She knew that sound. Aang was riding the elephant Koi again. They were visiting Kyoshi Island with Toph and Sokka. To put it more exactly, Sokka was visiting Suki and Aang was goofing off while the girls hung around waiting for the gang to pick up and go again. Toph had been mildly interested in visiting the home of one of the most powerful earthbenders in history but since there was no Kyoshi to throw rocks at the novelty had worn of quickly. As for Katara, she would have liked to spend some time with Suki and the other warriors but everyone always seemed to be too busy for her. As a result both of them were ready to head back out into the world.
In the room next to Katara's there was the sound of angry feet stomping around and moments later a giant hole appeared in the wall.
"Sugar Queen! Does he have to do that?" Katara looked at the diminutive earthbender in front of her. Toph was not a morning person and Aang had insisted on riding the elephant koi (or the unagi) every morning. The girls had woken up to the vocal evidence of the boy's enjoyment more than once.
"I'm serious. He's your boyfriend, so I'm holding you responsible."
"C'mon, Toph. You know how much he wanted to ride the elephant koi."
"Yeah well, I really want to throw a boulder at his head every time he does that and I'm not down at the beach. Yet."
"Well, either way we're up now so let's get dressed and have some breakfast."
By way of answer Toph slammed the hole in her bedroom wall shut. Katara made a mental note to tell Aang to beware of the ground suddenly opening up underneath his feet and got up to get started on another day on the little island.
After a breakfast that had seen Zuko and Mai agree not to fight about the little things anymore, Zuko rushed of to his first meeting. When he got to his study the Chamberlain was already there looking through the day's schedule. The man's love of maps, schedules and meat invariably reminded Zuko of a certain Southern Water Tribe Warrior. For some time he had been playing with the idea of introducing his chamberlain to Sokka and putting a large platter of meat in front of them. He was honestly curious which one would eat more though he didn't doubt that they would both have stomach aches in the morning. A dry cough brought the young Fire Lord out of his reverie. The chamberlain was starting to fidget and could clearly not contain himself any longer.
"My lord, we must go through the schedule. If we wait any longer we will be so behind we might as well throw it out." Two platters of meat Zuko decided before getting down to the business of ruling his beloved nation.
After having cut the chamberlains schedule down to a more manageable size, which is to say Zuko was free to plan in his own toilet breaks as the need arose, Zuko was running late to his meeting with the minister of agriculture.
"Will that be all Rin? We can't keep minister Lu Zhi waiting too long."
"Actually, my lord, there is one more thing. We are two weeks away from the celebration to mark the end of the Hundred Year War one year ago. Has your Majesty thought about organizing a little something to mark the occasion?"
"A year already?" Zuko hadn't realized that he had been Fire Lord for a year already. If he was honest with himself he knew roughly when the anniversary of his peace decleration was. He also knew that he was expected to throw a ball at the very least and probably a festival if Rin got his way. The chaimberlain was insufferably fond of formal events. Looking over at the man in quiestion Zuko could see the hope shining in his eyes. He supposed he owed Rin the favour of a party since the man singlehandedly kept the Fire Lord governing the Fire Nation.
"Very well, Rin. You may put something together if you wish. Something small, I don't want a repeat of the coronation ball." Zuko had to repress a shudder as he remembered the monstrous affair that Rin had put together to celebrate the new Fire Lord and the end of the war. The number of dignitaries had almost made Zuko run to Ba Sing Se to drag his Uncle Iroh back and put him on the throne. It was then that he had learnt to keep a careful eye on Rin's planning when it came to potentially large events. The man had no self-restraint.
"Probably because he doesn't have to wear the damn robes." Zuko muttered as he stalked off to his meeting.
Katara was just finishing her breakfast when her brother came in with his arm wrapped around Suki's waist. The two of them were discussing something in hushed tones. As they were sitting down Katara caught Sokka looking at her strangely.
"What? Do I have something on my face?"
"No. No. Suki and I were just wondering what Aang did to tick you ladies off."
"Excuse me?" Katara knew that Sokka had a tendency to draw conclusions out of the blue but Suki was usually more level headed.
"Well, if you and Toph aren't mad at him why is he buried in the ground and drenched in water?" Sokka looked like he didn't know whether to be smug at having caught his sister out or be very cautious to avoid ending up in a hole next to Aang with water dripping from his nose. He decided to play it safe and put on what he hoped was a neutral expression.
"O no! Toph must have gotten to him before I could warn him. She hates it when he wakes her up because he's surfing elephant koi."
Before her brother could utter and understanding "Oh" Katara was out the door yelling for Toph to let her boyfriend out of the ground. Sokka settled for shrugging his shoulders and digging into the well laid breakfast table in front of him. When caught Suki looking at him with a slightly worrying cast to her eyes he felt the need to reassure her.
"Fey'll ee fy."
"I know that Sokka, but didn't you just have breakfast at my place?" Swallowing his mouthful Sokka grinned at her.
"A warrior never leaves a good meal lying around. You never know when you're gonna need your strength."
A/N: Yes it's slow. Yes it's short. Yes it's just this side of predictable. It's the prologue, what do you want? I hope to have the next chapter up sometime soon but my lack of a timetable might frustrate that particular aim. I'm not really sure where this is going though I have some general ideas. Feel free to leave me some hints as to what you would like to see in this story.
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.