Make your choice
A Zutara Story
Chapter 1
It was a wonderful morning. Zuko stood at the balcony of the palace and enjoyed how the warm rays of sunshine stroked his face. He could feel a light breeze and watched the sun rising on the horizon, bathing the little fire nation houses in the distance in golden light. After a few moments standing like this, he took a deep breath and turned around slowly, trying to memorize this indescribable beautiful view. He returned into the real world. A busy world called life. Especially since he became the leader of a whole nation, living had become even more stressful and confusing than before. Sometimes he even wished back the time, when he only had got a warship, a little crew and navigated over the whole world. It had often been very depressing, but on the other side he had had got a lot of time. Time for himself, time for thinking about things and time to relish life. Today he was angry with himself, because he didn't make use of it. Hunting the Avatar had been his only purpose. Zuko didn't want to dwell into such thoughts any longer. So he finally left his room to walk to another council's meeting. It was the third in just five days.
He sighed, when he entered the consultation room. Immediately he noticed the familiar smell of torches, heavy cotton banners and old wood. It was pretty dark here, because the few windows in the room were covered with thick curtains. Zuko had decided to change the condition of the premises a longer time ago, but momentarily there were more important things to think about. He wanted to change the world. Besides, he had to. Before he had left Aang and the others a week ago, Zuko had to promise them that he would put himself out for a better world and justice. Of course he did. It was exactly what he wanted, too. He just wasn't somebody who liked to be caught in a house for days. He yearned for freedom. Maybe it was, because he had lived over three years in 'the wild'. He didn't like the royal life and being surrounded by so many servants anymore. It was annoying to him.
The councils were already waiting, so Zuko opened the meeting. An old man reported on the actual state of affairs. The young fire lord tried to listen carefully, even though the voice of the talking council member was very sleep-soothing. Nothing big had happened. After the man had ended his report, Zuko stood up and told the men to keep up their work. Especially sending subsidiary troops and goods to the earth kingdom was very important. The water tribes were almost completely rebuilt and the air temples should follow later. Besides, Aang was thinking of retain them like they were in memory of his people and everyone would accept his decision, since he was the last airbender and the Avatar. There were no more things left to talk about and so Zuko closed the sitting, relieved that he could finally leave this room.
He stepped out to the corridor and almost ran into Mai, who had waited there for him. Now she smiled at her boyfriend lightly.
'Good morning, my lord.' He smirked. 'Good morning, my lady. Hope you did sleep well.'
'Yes, I did. How was the meeting?'
'As boring as always.'
Together they walked towards the dining hall to have their breakfast.
Servants had already set the table. There was a large choice of fancy and delicious food. So the two of them sat down and began with their meal in the large dining hall with three huge windows, which were wide open. 'It's a beautiful day, isn't it?' Zuko tried to start a conversation. 'Mhh…maybe….' Zuko rolled his eyes. 'What do you want to do today?'
'I don't know. Maybe we could ride to the city or we could just relax here a bit.'
'What are you thinking about a trip?'
Mai looked at him sceptical. 'Zuko, we finally have some repose and privacy and now you want to go away? You're really peculiar sometimes.' She slightly shook her head at his ideas.
He sighed in annoyance. Of course she didn't want to do anything. Mai had never got enthusiastic about experiencing something exciting. She just wanted to live a peaceful life. A perfect life. Even if she had often said that she wanted anything to happen, Zuko knew her better. He also knew that this day would be exactly like many before. They stood up, when they finished breakfast and walked out of the palace to the garden. There they would spent a few hours and after some time, Mai would say that it was boring there and then she would call for a servant to serve them tea. Zuko hung his head to follow his girlfriend through the long corridors of the palace. What would he do to be somewhere else now.