Akane knew that she was different than the rest of her family; she was the only blonde in the whole of Fire Nation. But it wasn't like the 13-yearold minded; she was all too fine with being a special one.

Today was a warm day and Akane was staring at the other children playing with each other and laugh loudly. At times like this she felt lonely and she hugged her light-brown toy-bunny tightly against her chest.

As she was watching the children she didn't hear the steps coming from behind her, only then did she notice that someone when a voice told, "So you're the only blonde in the Fire Nation."

Akane spun around, only to meet the golden eyes of the Fire Nation Prince. The young man's hair was in a ponytail and the rest of his head had been shaved clean, his left side of the face was covered with a rather big, red scar.

Prince Zuko glared at the blonde, who was seemingly trying to figure out what to say and how to approach the other. With a sigh the prince bowed slightly, "I'm Prince Zuko and you?"

"Akane," the girl replied, her lips quirking into a small smile of sorts, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Prince Zuko."

"The pleasure's all mine. But how about we go on a walk?" the young man grinned a small grin and Akane found herself nodding.

When they stood side by side, walking, Akane noticed that she wasn't really that short. The top of her head reached Zuko's shoulder, though that was to be expected – the prince was rather tall after all.

"I heard our parents knew each other," Zuko told, once they had made it away from the children by a handful of foots.

Akane shrugged, "Figures. Strange we haven't met before."

"Mhm…" the prince hummed softly and looked up at the clear, blue sky. While at the same time Akane adjusted her toy-rabbit against her chest.

The two reached a bench and Zuko sat down, he eyed the young girl with curiosity, the only blonde in the Fire Nation and daughter of one of the few Generals his father still fully trusted.

"Don't you want to sit?" Zuko asked as the other didn't sit.

Akane shook her head, "No, I'd rather stand, I've sat long enough."

A long silence ensued; it was broken by the girl, who asked, "I heard you were goin after the Avatar…"

"Yes…" it had surprized the prince that Akane even knew about it but what she was going to say would surprize Zuko even more.

"I want to come with you."

The Prince of Fire Nation stared at the petite, blonde girl in front of himself. She was holding a toy-rabbit and she looked like a complete child. Though she wanted to go with him to hunt the Avatar.

The brunette raised an eyebrow, "You want to come with me to catch the Avatar?"

"Yes," Akane nodded and offered the young man a small smile, hoping that Zuko would agree to take her with him.

"What would your parents think?" the prince asked, hoping that her parents would oppose, taken he really didn't want to drag this girl into the midst of fighting and dying.

Akane smiled bitterly and decided to finally sit down onto the rock bench, "They don't care nor mind. If it was theirs to do I would have died a long time ago."

Those words came out of Akane's mouth with ease and Zuko found himself understanding the girl's reasoning – she wanted to get away from home and he seemed like an easy way for it.

"Can you bend?" Zuko found himself curious about whether or not Akane was able to bend fire and if she was then how good was she.

The girl nodded, "I can. Pretty well too."

"How well?" was the prince's next question.

"Well enough to fight," Akane told with a small smile on her rosy lips, assuring the other that she could survive whatever came her way.

"I guess… you can come…"

As those words had left the prince's lips Akane beamed and thanked Zuko, "Thank you, thank you, thank you! You don't know how much this means to me!"

Even though the Prince of the Fire Nation wanted to say that he knew and understood exactly what it meant for her, he still kept quiet and grinned lightly.

Just as the girl was going to ask something a third person had made it to the bench, this time it was the grey-haired General Iroh – Zuko's Uncle and father figure.

"Do you two youngsters want any tea?" the old man asked with a pleasant smile on his lips.

Akane nodded, but the prince himself just shook his head and sighed softly. The real reason that Iroh had probably come there was that he wanted to know more about the only blonde in the Fire Nation.

In a few moments Iroh came back with two cups of tea, one for himself and the other for Akane.

"What sort of tea is this?" the girl asked curiously, taking in the tea's scent. The old general handed her a cup and continued smiling his pleasant smile.

"Jasmine Tea, my own personal favourite."

The blonde firebender settled her toy-rabbit down between herself and Zuko (who to Iroh's great surprize didn't mind) and sighed contently, "It's my favourite as well."

"Do you drink tea frequently?" Iroh intrigued, it seemed that he was more interested on finding out about Akane's views on tea rather than finding out her views on anything else.

"No, not really," Akane smiled bitterly. "My parents refuse to buy any… They refuse to waste any money on me to be truthful."

The grey-haired and grey-bearded man frowned and took a sip of his tea. "But you're staying here for a while now, aren't you?"

"I… um…" the girl looked at the prince, who gestured for her to continue, and then added, "I'm coming with you to capture the Avatar."

Zuko decided that it was a good time to stand up and offer his seat to his uncle, taken he didn't want to bump into Azula before bed on that day. And if he wanted to go to bed without an encounter with his sister he was going to have to make it to his room before dinner ended.

Iroh gladly took the seat offered to him and watched in silence as Zuko bid goodnight to him and the girl, after that his nephew left towards the palace.

"Why would you want to come with us?" the old general asked from Akane.

"I want to go somewhere and you're going wherever the Avatar is." Was the girl's explanation.

Iroh nodded as the other sipped her tea. After a short silence the old firebender asked another question: "Do you know how to deal with anger-issues?"

"A tad bit," Akane told, though she already knew who he was talking about – Zuko.

"That's good enough."

There was a soft, peaceful silence between the two of them as they both watched the sky turn a soft shade of red and Akane realized that she and Iroh were the only two there – all the children had gone inside at some point.

It was also getting a bit chilly outdoors, if they were anywhere else one of the two firebenders would have made a fire, but since they were just a few feet away from the palace they weren't going to do that.

Just as the tea had been finished and Iroh and Akane had started to make their way back towards the palace the old general had realized that he hadn't heard the girl's name.

"Excuse me, but I don't think I heard your name," the tea-fanatic told with a pleasant smile.

"Akane," was the other's reply and after that she scurried away quickly, waving her hand at Iroh.

Iroh wasn't certain whether he had ever seen someone so different than the rest of people than the little blonde girl with her toy-rabbit. But there was one thing Iroh was certain about and that was the fact that this girl – Akane – would prove most important at one point.