A/N: Short. Rushed. Lame.
Zuko changed slowly in his room after his conference with the Earth Kingdom Ambassador. The meeting hadn't gone well. Zuko had expected that he wouldn't run into trouble, and when he did, he had been alone. Iroh was generally able to direct him to the right path, and Zuko had floundered without his guidance.
He took off his formal dress and changed into what he had worn earlier, to visit the tea shop. Naturally, his thoughts turned to the young assistant.
She is beautiful, he thought as he headed for the commons area, eager to forget his second bungled meeting of the day.
The others were waiting for him, as he had hoped. He lounged on a chair, placing his hands behind his head. He took deep breaths to try and ease away the stress of the last few hours.
"Oh, there you are Zuko!" Katara said excitedly, waving a paper in the air.
"What's that?" Zuko grunted, cracking open one eye.
"An invitation to Master Pakku and Gran-Gran's wedding!" she replied, allowing Zuko to inspect the invitation.
"You think you'll be able to make it?" Sokka asked.
Zuko thought carefully about the dates. There was nothing that couldn't be conveniently rescheduled. He smiled, already looking forward to the new experience. "I'll be there," he promised.
Katara whooped excitedly. "That's everyone! But –" Katara looked to Aang. "Appa won't be able fly all of us that far."
Aang shook his head. "Not if we want the trip to be short. If we all flew, we'd only be able to make a few hours at a time before he got too tired. And he certainly couldn't make it across the ocean without stopping."
Sokka nodded, already planning. "Right. Aang, do you think Appa could handle flying us in two groups?"
Aang considered it. "I think he would be all right," he said confidently.
"Great. Me, Katara, Suki, and Aang will go first – as soon as possible. Katara and I are needed for the wedding preparation. That leaves Toph, Zuko, and Aang for Appa's second trip. Okay?" Sokka asked, glancing around. Everyone nodded excitedly. "Perfect. I'll start getting my things together. Katara, Suki, Aang, you too. We'll leave tomorrow morning. Agreed?" the girls nodded excitedly, already chattering away about the wedding and how to best compress their supplies so they could bring everything they wanted.
Toph, Aang, and Zuko were left. Zuko looked at the floor, preoccupied with his day. His meeting with Aiden pressed to the front of his mind.
He still felt very foolish. He hadn't wanted to seem rude, but her behavior had startled him. He only wanted to be different from his father, and he hadn't yet come up with a plan to make the people see. Aiden's responses were from his father's regime, not his. His people still did not see him as their benevolent leader – they saw Ozai's son, bloodthirsty, ambitious, and cruel.
Part of what bothered him about Aiden's reactions was the girl herself. Perhaps if she didn't look so different, she wouldn't have irked him as much. However, her freckled complexion, coupled with her dark hair, and emerald eyes made her heritage and origin puzzling. He supposed she might be a Fire Nation native, but her eyes were puzzling. Beautiful, but out of place. He had never met anyone with such startling green eyes, and he couldn't help but wonder where in her gene pool they had come from.
"Something on your mind, Zuko?"
Zuko started, having become quite unaware of his surroundings. He saw Aang looking at him curiously. He glanced around the room. Toph had made her exit silently, or at least unobtrusively enough that Zuko had not been disturbed. He and Aang were alone.
Zuko sighed heavily, not sure if he should be honest with the young Avatar. How would he react if Zuko said that he had been thinking of a girl he had only just met?
"Is it Aiden?" Aang said, moving slowly to sit beside Zuko.
Zuko, startled, look at Aang with raised eyebrows. "What makes you say that?"
Aang only shrugged. "I overheard Suki and Katara talking. Am I right?"
Zuko smiled fondly. Suki and Katara… "As a matter of fact, yes."
Aang looked just as surmised as Zuko. "Really?…What about her?
"That she is, unfortunately, a child from my father's kingdom," he answered, already uncomfortable. His short comings as Fire Lord were not things he wished to discuss.
"How so?" Aang's carefree attitude relaxed Zuko. He knew that he could say just what he felt and not be judged.
"It's the same as I said earlier," he admitted. "I cannot allow my people to cower in fear of me. I want to make a different impression, but I fear that I'm slowly loosing my…my novelty. Some were glad to see me become Fire Lord because I am so young – maybe I would be able to change things."
"But Zuko, you have changed things," Aang said reassuringly.
"Yes, but not enough!" Zuko insisted, slicing his hand through the air. "At my Coronation, I saw a hope in people's eyes that has long been absent from my country. They are getting restless, Aang." Zuko turned to face the Avatar, speaking directly to him. "I promised that I would bring this shattered world together again. So far I have done little."
Aang sighed, considering the matter briefly. "Zuko, you want to be a great ruler, but you keep forgetting that you haven't had time to learn all the things you need to be great. You've only had a little while to try and…recover the lost parts of yourself. Let Iroh handle everything that needs handling for now. You need to worry about making yourself happy. You can't fix other people's problems while you're still struggling with your own." Aang's speech had not been prepared, but the more he talked, the more Aang realized that he should have told Zuko these things a long time ago. Already the normally clenched muscles of the Fire Lord were loosening.
Zuko smiled. "Thank you, Aang."
Aang, though wise, was still a child, and replied with a huge grin. "Don't mention it, Zuko."
A/N: Comment just a little maybe please?