That night, the palace was noisy with laughter and music. A big secret of the royal family was revealed but it seemed that the old maids and servants weren't very surprising. Maybe because they all knew the truth. It had been a long time since the last time that the royal palace was alive like that.

Today, fire lord Zuko had found his real father, general Iroh. A big party was organized to celebrate that. A lot of top quality ginseng were prepared by the servants for this party because ginseng tea is general Iroh's favorite. The maids was decorating the main hall and singing in harmony.

There were two person stood on the stair and looked at the scene. They wore the uniform of The jasmine dragon tea shop. The old man started to talk.

"This sure brings a lot of memories. The grand opening of my tea shop. And you decided to share that special day with me."

"Yeah, and now I think I know how much did it mean to you in that day, father" Zuko closed his eyes. "But I also made such a worst mistake in the next day." Zuko scratched his head.

"You made it up to me right after that." Iroh looked up at Zuko.

"Huh? But I didn't do anything but trouble you at the jail." Zuko blinked.

"Not the jail, it was on the deck of Ba Sing Se city..." Iroh stopped a little before going back to saying "You didn't want to return to Fire Nation at first, but when Azula threatened she might do bad things to me on the trip home. You decided to return immediately. That was enough to make it up."

"Father... But... how can you know that?" Zuko blushed.

"Don't underestimate The order of the white lotus. We are everywhere." Iroh laughed at his son's gesture. "But in fact, I think I was in debt to you more than that you were to me."

"Don't say that, father."

"There is a chance that all the bad things you had to bear was because of me, because of that Ozai knew the truth."

"It's not your fault, father. Before I went into that meeting, you warned me but I still spoke." Zuko looked at the floor sadly.

"But I was so proud of you." Iroh cheered his son on. "Even you was living with Azula and Ozai, you still remained as a righteous boy."

"It's properly because he spent much more time with you, uncle." A voice startled the two firebenders.

"Mai, what are you doing!? Don't startle us like that!" Zuko turned back and said angrily with his lover.

"The party's preparation was finished but you two was still standing here and blabbing about your faults." Mai smiled. "You two want everyone to wait until you finish at midnight?"

"Yeah, you are right... Ok! Let's get this party started!" Zuko yelled happily.

In the party, everyone was so happy that no one care about the grade anymore. They talked and dance like a big family. No one can tell this is the fire nation was so deadly just a month before. On a table...

"So... do you know where mother is?" Zuko put his tea cup on the table.

"Of course. I can tell that she is more closer than you can imagine." Iroh laughed.

"Really? Where is she?" Zuko blinked.

"In our department in Ba Sing Se."

"What? She is living with you? I... I can't believe it. Why couldn't I see her when I came there?"

"She avoided you, of course. We didn't want you to know the truth, remember?" Iroh smiled.

"Sometimes you are a pretty cruel dad, you know that, right?" Zuko sighed and smiled.

"I do." Iroh laughed harder and then, he raised his hand to the maid "More tea, please!"

"I will go get it for you." Zuko stood up.

"Thank you, son." Iroh picked a pie and ate it. "Mm... This is tasty."

Zuko came to the maid who made tea. Seeing him, the maid immediately prepared a cup of tea. But Zuko stopped her.

"No. Please give me some cactus juice."

"Cactus juice? But, my lord...."

"Don't ask, just go get it."

"Yes. Please wait a moment."

A minutes later, Zuko brought a big tea cup to his father. But the juice in that cup was cactus juice, not ginseng tea.

"Here, dad. Sorry for making you wait." Zuko gave the tea cup to his father.

"Thanks" Iroh grabbed the cup and sipped his "tea" cup.

"You are welcome." Zuko said and then, he turned back and mumbled with an evil smirk. "Got you, dad."

"Zuko?"

"Yes...?"

Zuko turned to face his father. The next thing he registered was that his mouth was full of cactus juice because of that he was forced to drink his father's "tea" cup. After a moment of silence, those two firebenders laughed so loudly as everyone looked at them with surprised looks.

Later, the fire lord and the old general stood on the food table and sang as loudly as they could.

"It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se~~~~"

A/N: Maybe you guys already knew but I still wanted to note. Zuko really didn't want to return to Fire Nation with Azula at first. But in the very end, he decied to returned because Azula threatened "Poor, poor uncle. I wonder if he'll even survive the trip home.". It really happened in the prequel comic 3 XD.