Zuko is supposed to choose one of these candidates to be his wife before he turns at the age 17, which means he is now 16 years old. They were all the girls from upper class nobles and even princesses too. They are supposed to arrive at noon that day.

He was feeding the turtleducks in the in the garden when his uncle came to him. His uncle was behind him but Zuko still had his back turned to Iroh.

" How do you feel about this Zuko?" Zuko now turned around to look at his uncle who had a worried look on his face. He thought about the question for a moment until he answered,

" Truthfully uncle, I don't even know how I feel about this besides anger." Iroh moved towards Zuko and put a hand on his shoulder.

" I know that this was not your decision my nephew, but it is not before long that you will be the one to take the throne when your father retires being the Fire lord. He is aging now and he wants to spend more time with your mother too, and I wouldn't blame him for wanting to. Every husband wants to always stay with their wife." He finished the last sentence with a peaceful smile on his face remembering the good times he had with his own family. Zuko narrowed his eyes and stared at his uncle.

" Uncle, don't you miss your family?" Iroh was brought back into reality when he heard Zuko's question. He looked back at Zuko a frown creeping onto his face before it turned back into a very sad and sincere smile that made Zuko frown.

" Yes, I do, but I have to learn how to move on nephew." They held their stares on each other for a couple of seconds before Zuko broke it by another question of his.

" When you say 'move on', do you mean by marrying again?" Iroh chuckled at this leaving Zuko even more confused than he had before.

" Why are you laughing uncle, this isn't even funny." Zuko now had a pout on his face. When Iroh noticed that he stopped chuckling and looked at Zuko.

" You did not understand what I meant by 'moving on' nephew. what I meant was that I can't just keep mourning of their deaths. I have to keep on living for them and smiling for them too." Iroh motioned for the servant to bring over the tea that he asked for when he went out to look for zuko. The servant went toward him and gave him the tea set.

" Is there anything else that you would like sir?" The servant looked at Iroh and waited for him to reply only to have a hand gesture that told him to leave. He took that as his cue and left, bowing at them before leaving.

" Have some tea, nephew." Zuko gave Iroh a sceptical look.

" Uncle, this is not the time we should be drinking tea." Iroh frowned at that reply then poured himself a cup of tea, including Zuko.

" Yes nephew. but this will help calm you a little." He handed Zuko his cup. Zuko took a sip of the tea and made a face.

" Uncle, this tea tastes nothing like yours. I know that I am not a tea person but even I know that yours tastes better." Iroh just simply smile at this.

" Zuko, it is not nice to criticize someone else's tea, although I do have to agree that this taste nothing like my tea." Although Zuko did not think that it was as good as his uncle's he still drank it. As they drank their tea in a content silence it was broken when another servant came running and panting to them.

" Prince Zuko, Iroh, they are here." When Zuko heard that he choked on his tea. He calmed himself down after he choked and put his tea back down on the tray and looked at the man standing before them.

" What!? They're here already!?" Zuko was panicking now. He didn't expect them all to arrive so early; it was barely noon and they were there already. Iroh noticed that Zuko was not ready to go out there yet so he told the servant to give them time to get ready. The servant nodded then bow to them and left.

" Zuko, you have to meet them. They came from so far away and traveled all around the world just for you. You can't do this to them." Iroh gave Zuko a sincere look. Zuko turned back to the pond.

" I know uncle, but I didn't ask for them to come here. They just did by themselves. No one asked them to come." Zuko was now frowning.

" Zuko, look at me," he turned Zuko to face him again, " You are right no one asked them to come; they didn't have to come if they didn't want to, it was only the ones that were either not married yet or at the right age of marriage but their parents Zuko. Their parents want this for them and so do your parents. Now, please, go and meet them." Zuko looked at his uncle one more time and stood to go meet them.

" Thank you, nephew." Zuko heard that but didn't respond. He was still nervous about meeting them and all but he had to, for the sake of his nation and the world.

He walked out of the garden and headed towards the palace doors where they were waiting patiently for him. When he got there he could see girls from all over the world, waiting for him to marry, except for Airbenders of course; they were extinct. He took a deep breath and walked out of the palace to greet them.