"Fire Lord Zuko, your Uncle is in the courtyard."
For the first time in days Zuko felt like smiling. Nodding his understanding he finished fixing the headpiece into his black hair, half wishing for the days when it was too short to do such a thing. He walked from his rooms, his steps a little quicker than usual but no-one was foolish enough to comment on that. He may have been young when he took the throne but time had changed that. Time had changed everything. The tortured young man who had desperately wished his father could give him his honor back was long gone, replaced with a Fire Lord who was trying his hardest to undo years of hatred and war.
Trying was the key word. He knew there would be resentment from the other three Nations but even he could not have predicted how ostracized the Fire Nation would truly be. The sad thing was that it was not just the Fire Nation. It seemed that most of the Nations had withdrawn into themselves in the wake of the war, preferring to close themselves off from the rest of the world and build their defenses rather than to risk another uprising of a single Nation. From his own experience he knew that the only way to make peace was to know and to help others. If not for getting to know the Avatar he imagined he would have turned out like his Father.
The Fire Nation itself had problems as well. While the majority of them were happy to be finally at peace, the truth was that a small but significant minority were not happy at being equals. They loved the time when the Fire Nation ruled the world, when they had more power than anyone else.
Mai's family had been one of those.
It was only Zuko's love for her that kept him from killing them all. Zuko did love Mai, the problem was that he had long ago stopped being in love with her. He would have married her, of course. Their families had practically been planning their wedding since the two had fallen into the fountain together after Azula's little game. He knew Mai was also not in love with him, not anymore. At the time they stopped their courtship he knew she was so disgusted with her ambitious parents and so fed up with the expectations others had for her that he doubted she would have married him anyway. She told him flat out that she was sick and tired of being some kind of political pawn, she wanted more and not in the way being the Fire Lady would grant her. She was sick of others defining her. So he had done the thing that made sense and offered her a job as an advisor. She had been playing (successfully) the political game a lot longer than he had and he knew she would make a good advisor. She accepted his offer and moved into the Palace. She had gone from being his girlfriend to being his closest friend and most trusted advisor.
Zuko stopped as he took in the sight of Iroh standing with that bounty hunter June and the massive Shurish Nyla behind them.
"Uncle," he said, relief filling him. Iroh grinned and looked at him.
"You seem to get taller every time I see you," he said with a grin as he embraced Zuko, "you remember June and Nyla?"
"Fire Lord," she said bowing in greeting, though it was far shallower than manners demanded. Nyla raised her head before going back to sniffing the guards who looked like they were having a lot of trouble staying still.
"Have the others arrived yet?" Iroh questioned.
"Not yet, you two are the first," he said.
"Mai," Iroh greeted the young woman and was rewarded with one of her rare smiles, "you are looking as lovely as ever."
"Thank you," Mai said, "the border guards admitted a flying bison carrying the Avatar and Lady Bei Fong, they should be here--" she looked up as a shadow fell over the courtyard, "right now."
Appa landed. Aang grinned and petted his head. He still wore the robes of a monk, if anything they had simply become longer with his age and status. Despite being an adult Aang had made no move to grow facial hair. If anything he looked young for his age, like a man in his late teens rather than his twenties. Unless one looked at his eyes, his eyes spoke of the kind of burden that most could never imagine baring, not in a million lifetimes, let alone one. Zuko watched him drop off Appa. Both Mai and Iroh had looks of shock on their faces before Mai hurried off. But it was not for Aang. Then Zuko's eyes landed on his companion.
When the hell had Toph become a girl?
He knew that she had always been a girl but she had always been such a dirty little Earth Bending tomb boy he had never noticed. The Toph he remembered never wore silk kimono's embroidered in green and gold, never had her hair pulled away from her features and held with jeweled ornaments, never wore shoes and she certainly never was quiet. But suddenly Toph was all those things. Still it didn't stop her from sliding off Appa before Aang could come around to see if she needed help. Toph stepped around Appa, her milky green eyes as unseeing as ever.
Zuko couldn't help but wonder when they had all become so guarded. He knew that she could no more see into him than he could her or Aang or any of the others when they arrived. Still he walked over to the two of them. For a moment no-one was sure what to do.
It was a good thing Iroh arrived first.
"Avatar, Lady Bei Fong, you honor us with your presence," he bowed to them before greeting Appa, "and such an entrance you make, I'm sure the Guards will be talking about this for a long time."
Aang grinned and nodded before he turned to Zuko.
"Its good to see you again," he said, "any way we can help, we're here for you."
"I appreciate it," he said, "lets go inside. I'm not sure when the others will be arriving."
He led them into the Fire Nation palace. He had already decided to bypass one of the formal greeting rooms in favor of a smaller, more personal one. Even if the group had grown apart he doubted that they would appreciate meeting again in some massive room designed to (effectively) intimidate guests. Mai stayed behind for the moment to help the guards escort Nyla and Appa to their accommodations. Though he doubted that Sokka, Ty Lee and Katara were going to be arriving in such a manner he had long ago learned that underestimating one, let alone all three, was a very bad idea.
Tea was waiting for them when they got there, or the necessary things to make tea. Zuko knew that though the kitchens could make good tea, if he let someone else make tea when Iroh was around the only thing he was going to get served was his Uncle's infamous Fire Breath. And that was not something Zuko wanted to experience.
"This place seems much homier than I remember it," Aang commented looking around.
"Yeah," Zuko said, "the whole 'Flaming Throne' thing got a little old."
"But it was impressive," Iroh said wistfully.
The door opened as Mai slipped in, a box between her hands.
"I brought the items you requested from the Princess's room," she said placing the box on another table, "Avatar, Lady Bei Fong, June," she greeted in quick succession. They responded with similar greetings.
The unspoken questions hung heavy in the air. Mai was next to Zuko but she was his advisor and his friend. Zuko was clearly the Fire Lord, under any normal circumstance he would have been an amazing one. But war was hard, so hard that many forgot how hard the aftermath was as well. Toph was a girl and acting like one as well. Aang was clearly the Avatar, not the gawky little boy that had the mantle of duty thrust on his shoulders far too soon in life. The tension was enough to make June feel like a teenager on her first date.
She shifted to her feet and walked over to the box, inspecting its contents.
"These are just things from Azula's room," Mai said quietly.
"What's this?" June asked holding up a vial.
"That's a Bending Suppressant, to make sure Azula doesn't hurt herself or anyone else," she said, "it won't do any lasting damage to her ability to Bend."
"Hmm," she broke the seal on the vial and uncorked it, sniffing it faintly. She sneezed twice in rapid succession and coughed as she stuffed the cork into the vial.
"What's wrong?" she looked at June and then at the vial.
"That's not just a bending suppressant, that's a powerful sedative," she pointed at the vial, "a few drops of that and I could skin one of you without anyone feeling a damn thing."