"Stay away from my child!" The woman shouted at Zuko, hiding Lee behind her back. He grimaced in pain; the woman had inflicted an emotional scar onto his soul like none he'd ever had. He opened his eyes and searched the woman's face pleadingly.
"You think that I've never felt pain?" He asked impulsively. She looked away without answering, her face set in anger. The teen switched his focus to Lee. "You asked me how I got my scar? My father was angry once. I had talked out of turn. I was only thirteen-years-old." He touched the warped piece of flesh around his eye. Tears of anger, and of a lost childhood, collected in Zuko's eyes and he blinked them away quickly. He would not appear weak. Through the moisture, he could see Lee's angry face fall. Now he watched the older boy not with the kind wondering he once did, or the disgusted fury he just showed. But with a sad pitying look as he glimpsed a darker moment of Zuko's past. Zuko turned, with his head bowed and walked away from the child and his mother.
"Thank you for the hospitality, and the warm meal. It was more appreciated than I could ever explain." He looked over his shoulder and gave them a shaky smile. The rest of the town, who'd gathered to watch the fight, hadn't heard what conspired between the Prince and the child, and as he left the village they sneered at him and shouted unfriendly things.
"How dare you come here?! Your nation has ruined us!"
"You've killed our loved ones and YOU have the nerve to look us in the eye?"
He didn't of course, his face never left the ground.
"My husband is gone and I've three small children to look after, by myself!"
"My son is dead because of you!"
Oh well. He'd heard worse. It didn't matter. What they thought of him didn't matter to him. He is—was—the crown prince of the magnificent Fire Nation. That meant that these—peasants—were inferior to him, right? They meant nothing to him! Right? He winced as the people around him attacked him with their pain. He deserved this. Every last bit. It was his fault, his honor was gone, and he didn't know who could return it to him.