One Year:

Zuko loves his son more than all the gold in the world, but sometimes he feels like banging his head on a wall. It seemed as if the prince does this just to mess with him.

They had been in the middle of a meeting with several lords from the different nations when it happened. This meeting was of the upmost importance and could make or break quite a few trade agreements and was to be undisturbed.

Know before you start to wonder why a toddler was in the meeting in the first place, just remember, the young Prince was still very young and the Fire Lord was known for being overprotective. The rumor was that the first wet nurse had really been an assassin that was hired by a noble fire nation family with a grudge. But you should never believe the words that are whispered between maids, even if the may hold an element of truth.

But that's beside the point; all that mattered was that Prince Sokka was in fact present at this important meeting.

And he was hungry.

The problem with this was that his Papa (because the man in his dreams, the one always covered in fur, was Dad) was too busy talking to a bunch of old farts and he wasn't paying him a second thought. So now he had to find a way to get to his bottle, the very same one that was sitting on the long table in front of his Papa.

The life of a toddler was tuff.

It was only after several minutes of thinking that he came to a crossroad. He could try crying at the top of his lungs, but the last time he did that Papa only stuck his binky in his mouth and went back to his snooze fest. So it came down to taxing choice of getting it himself. The only real problem with that was that the table was much too tall for his arms to reach if he crawled, and so it came down to one option.

He'll just have to walk.

It was a lot easier then he thought it would be.

He quickly found that standing on top of his pillow would take more skill then he processed, so he crawled off the red fabric with a small amount of difficulty and onto the cold tile floor. The chill, smooth tile was not even close to the comfort of his play pillow, but people adapt harsh conditions if they're going to achieve their goals.

And so he was finally ready to start part one of his brilliant plan, and that included actually standing. He had to push himself up and put his arms out to keep his balance or he would surly meet his early demise from falling from such heights. The first step almost sent him falling on his face and the second wasn't much better. It was only on his third step that he finally got some sort of rhythm going and he aimed in the direction of his target with the focused of a true solder. He was so focused on the task on hand that he didn't even hear the gasp that came from one of the new chairman – an elderly women dressed in fine clothing and a calm smile – and the fact that Papa's voice had trailed off.

Sokka takes a few more steps and it's only then, when the room goes completely silent that the one year old notices something is not right.

He stops his movements and looks up to see why all noise had ceased to be when he saw the awe stricken look on Papa's face. Zoku's face quickly turns to panic when the toddler stops his movement wondering if maybe all the attention would cause him to stop all together. But as would soon become the norm, Sokka proves him wrong.

The young prince's eyes move from his father and to his target and he takes another step in that direction. Sokka's pillow had not been that far from the table in the first place and even with his small and wobbly steps it only took a moment to get to the table. When he gets close enough he brings his arms up and leans on the wooden surface a feeling of relief. No wonder he never tried that before, it's exhausting.

But finally all his hard work has paid off and his prize was within his reach.

That was till the Fire Lord picked him up and into his arms and away from his much needed food.

OK, time for plan B.

The scream that tore from his throat had more than a few of the council members and visitors to cover their ears. The Fire Lord tries to sooth him by rubbing his back and humming to him but it did little to silence him. He reached out desperately for his bottle with tears in his eyes and hoped that his Papa would finally get a clue. It seemed that Zoku finally connected the dots and leaned down and picked up his milk. The fire bender straitened with a small smile and a sigh and brought the bottle to his son's mouth in hopes that it would settle him down. Unsurprisingly, it worked wonders.

And with another sigh he turned to his audience and was internally relieved that only a few of them looked offended by the abrupt disturbance.

"If you'll excuse me," He nodded to his assistant and made his way out of the room with every attention to put his son away for a nap. "I'll only be a moment."

The door shut with a loud echoed thud behind him.