Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar the last Airbender

It was a nice and ordinary day, the kind of day where you thought nothing other than the daily events would happen. Unfortunately, life didn't always go the way one would expect and it could change drastically in just mere seconds. That was exactly what happened to Zuko on that particular, supposed-to-be-normal day. Up until that point, his life was already full of twists, most of which were painful ones, but he had believed that after all he had been through, he deserved a break. Clearly, he was so very, very wrong.

It started at one of his rare free times spent at his uncle's teashop. Being the Firelord, he hardly ever managed to get away from his duty, especially with all the post-war arrangements he had to see to. Making up for a hundred year of raging war was no easy job-Zuko had never expected it to be-and the task kept him working to the ground most of the time. Meetings, mountains of paperwork and numerous other stuffs always kept him occupied. He didn't have any issue with the amount of work he had to deal with and he was coping with everything he had. But just for today, he made an allowance and excused himself from the leader role. Everything had started to fall into place and he was beginning to have less trouble keeping track of them, that's why he thought he could at least have some time to himself. However, the actual reason he so desired to visit Jasmine Dragon on this specific day was because it was the place and date the whole Avatar Team-which meant Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph and of course, Zuko- agreed to rendezvous. He already missed out on many of those gatherings as it was, he didn't want to be left out again on this one. Besides, it was only among these people that he can really be himself, just plain Zuko and not the Firelord. So he decided to leave his work for tomorrow, despite knowing full well that there would be hell to pay later. For now, he would just enjoy himself.

Zuko was the first person to reach the teashop. He was making tea with his uncle when Sokka arrived with Suki, the former holding the latter around the waist. The Watertribe young man greeted him with one of his trademark jokes, which for the life of him Zuko could never understand-he didn't know if the problem was his sense of humor or Sokka's-but he smiled nevertheless. Toph was next. She was still the same as ever, wearing that cheeky grin of her and addressed him-the Firelord-Sparky. Zuko had come to regard her as a little sister in the normal sense in contrast to his real and sadistic one. In late morning, when the final members, Aang and Katara arrived, there was an unfortunate incident that involved Zuko, though it wasn't really his fault to be fair. He had been talking to Toph with his back to the front door when Katara came in and suddenly decided to sneak up on him. Toph, ever the prankster, didn't alarm him of the waterbender's presence. Zuko, despite being the seasoned warrior that he was, didn't sense her at all. That was why, when he felt a sharp tap on his back, he overreacted a bit and somehow had burned of one of Katara's hair loopies. She was scandalized. Amazing a healer though Katara was, her healing power didn't apply to hair. Even though he had apologized profusely and he wasn't responsible in the first place, Katara kept sending him chilling glares and crossed her arms whenever she laid her eyes on him. Eyeing her brother and her boyfriend, Zuko silently pleaded for advices but all he got in return were shrugs. Well, so much for helping each other when in need. Zuko sighed. He'd better try giving her some gifts later to appease her anger or risk watching out for anything with water for the rest of his life.

In spite of that little accident, it was overall an enjoyable visit. Everyone he knew and trusted were all here, in this cozy place, and for once, Zuko let his guard down. And it was exactly at that rare moment that something big happened.

Since his coronation, Zuko had been met with several assassination attempts, though he never mentioned them to anyone and dealt with them himself. No matter how hard he tried, there would always be someone who was dissatisfied with his way of ruling. The differences was that he was always ready for the previous ones, whereas he was nowhere near prepared for the knife that narrowly missed his head the moment he stepped outside the tea shop. Everything would have still been okay, though, had Katara not decided to went out after him at that very moment and the knife met another mark, which was her shoulder.

Hearing Katara's cry of surprise and pain, Aang rushed to the scene. The knife hadn't hit anything vital, that Zuko was sure of, but seeing Katara kneeling on the ground, clutching her shoulder from which blood began to soak through her sleeve was a devastating sight. Usually, the airbender had a pretty firm grip on the Avatar state, but one look at Katara and he was immediately sent over the edge. Looking back on this moment, Zuko figured he should have known better and stepped out of Aang's attacking range. At the moment, though, he stood rooted to the spot as Aang's tattoo glowed and the assassin dropped with a thud on the ground then, regaining his composure, sped towards Aang when the Avatar showed no sign of stopping. He should have just left it to Katara-her and her alone was able to deal with Aang when he went out of control. The last thing he registered before his world going black was someone calling his name as he was blasted by all four of the elements.

Pain. His body hurt all over. He groggily opened his eyes. It took a few moment for him to recall what happened. He was still alive? Sitting up and rubbing his sore head, Zuko looked around and was startled by his surroundings. He wasn't in the Earth kingdom anymore. Before he could even started to make a guess as to where he was, he heard Appa's growl somewhere nearby. Running towards the noise, he soon saw the huge body of the bison coming into sight and along with it were the figures of Aang, Sokka and Katara. They quickly turned as he came near and the look on their faces could only be described as pure shock. Zuko gave Katara a worried glance, but he couldn't spot any sign of her injury. Frowning at this, he took a few steps closer, but before he could open his mouth to ask what happened, a water blast hit him in the face and his world went black for the second time, and it hadn't even been five minutes since he woke up from the first.

Sorry if this isn't good. You can blame the plot bunny that made me write this :)

And please forgive me if my grammar isn't very accurate. I'm not English.