Zuko draped his arms over the side of the small boat, his fingers laced through the spirals of water below and he finally felt alone, for the first time since the end of his travels with the Avatar.

But he was never alone, not really.

In the distance he could just about make out the dark bulk of one of his countless guard ships that Iroh had insisted he needed for his protection.

"You have responsibilities now, Lord Zuko, you are no longer the carefree teenager that I will allow to run around the Earth Kingdom with his friends." Iroh's voice rang in his head like a bell tolling his quite frankly menial future. He took every opportunity to come out here, on the ocean or in the middle of the forest, isolated from "high society" and the people and the pressures.

It was coming up to the 1st anniversary of the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai, or as it had come to been known Spirit Day (Sokka had wanted to call it The-Day-Of-The-Valiant-Boomerang, but The Council had been much objected.)

The World had changed so much in a year, The refugees had slowly returned to their homelands in their hundreds of thousands. There was now a council who effectively governed the shaky new world. The Fire Nation itself had been divided into Provinces, therefore limiting any one element of power, namely the Fire Lord, from becoming too strong and though Zuko was still in control of the Nation as a whole, he was simply a figurehead, he passed all the laws and represented the Fire Nations interests at Council meetings, he was smothered, pampered and bored.

He longed for his old adventures.

"Zuko, rub some more oil in, I think I'm tanning weird, Am I tanning strangely?"

"No. You're bronzing."

The one thorn he could not escape, Mai. She insisted that she come with him on these trips. He sat up and rubbed more palm oil into her shoulders, she had recently discovered the latest fashion to come out of the Earth Kingdom, tans. She would spend hours upon hours lying on the ground, servants fanning her whilst she groaned and complained and moaned and bitched and drove Zuko crazy. Though he did like her darkened skin.

Love?

Sure he'd loved her, he'd loved her with all his soul and she loved the prince and the prince loved her, but Zuko wasn't sure he even wanted to be Fire Lord any more, he wanted the life of an ordinary 17 year old boy, worrying about girls and spots and his hair and who's fucking who. Not whether or not to place the Governor of the Far East Region on the same table as General Giing, or how exactly to pay for the war-debts his father had incurred, or for that matter how he was going to try to round up the old warlords and trail them fairly by the Council.

And so there he sat, the teenager in charge of the most ruthless men in the World, and contemplated throwing his girlfriend into the swirling surf.

* * * *

"Zuko!!" It was Ty-Lee, his one lasting connection to his previous life, she ran at him and threw her arms around his neck, wrapping her legs around his waist, driving him backwards and sent him crashing to the floor, he didn't mind. Mai gave the two friends a sideways glance but she didn't care, she never cared any more, her legs had bad sunburn and she was being carted off to her room to have Vera plant rubbed into them for the rest of the day.

Ty-Lee was probably his closest friend, now. She never really had much to do at Kyoshi Island and Zuko was happy that she took time out to visit him. After she untangled herself from him they lay on the grass and she spoke about Suki and Sokka and Katara and Aang, Zuko's stomach tightened at the mention of his friends names.

She lay on her stomach, her Kyoshi uniform discarded, she wore a white tunic and shorts though she still wore the make-up and headdress."They're all very excited to be returning to the Fire Palace after this long year, especially Katara, I can't believe you two haven't talked since Spirit Day."

Zuko thought for a second, he hadn't really thought about it before, he'd kept contact with Aang and Sokka, everyone in fact, he even wrote Azula letters every once in a while. He'd sat down numerous times to write to Katara but he never knew what to write. Everything he put down seemed wrong and then after a while he just gave up. Though he never gave up thinking about her, in fact she was always running though his mind, though her face was blurred by the effects of time, he still remembered her eyes, and her smile and -

"Your Highness, you're blushing." Zuko's hand rushed to his cheek, he did feel a bit hot.

"It's hot out here."

She laughed, "Whatever you say, don't worry, I wont tell Mai, I doubt she'd be able to peel herself off the fruit tarts long enough to listen anyway." Zuko laughed and felt slightly guilty for laughing at Mai.

She laughed again. "Maybe we should try, she's getting fatter by the day." Zuko laughed again, though this time he definitely felt guilty.

"Well, I wouldn't call her fat..."

"You've got to be kidding, she looks like someone took old Mai and rolled her in a large brown mat with holes for her arms and legs, though her boobs have definitely gotten bigger."

Zuko laughed again as Ty-Lee did her best impression of fat Mai, stomping around like a wrestler and he wondered what had come between the two friends. But none of that mattered any more, he felt ordinary around Ty-Lee and that was all he wanted.

Later that night, as Mai slept in the bed beside him he lay awake, too nervous about the guests arriving tomorrow to sleep, but that wasn't all, recently he'd been having dreams, not nightmares, not any thing really, he would just wake up in the middle of the night, his hands smoking, burning holes in the sheets and he would imagine that someone was in his room, a small girl, with silver hair and fiery eyes, every now and again he'd blink and she would appear, just out of sight, but he knew she was there.

And, on a sail boat steadily approaching the Fire Nation, a 15 year old girl sat up in bed, dripping in water, stirred from her slumber and peered into the darkness, looking for the little child with the silvery hair who had begun to haunt her nights.