A week had passed of constant insults and jabs at her from the tutors. She hated them, whenever she tried to ask a question she was immediately reprimanded and called a stupid savage. It only made learning harder, and she was trying, she really was. But maybe they were right, maybe she wasn't capable of learning and only good for "fulfilling the duties of a woman; cleaning and having babies." Crude jokes had been made after that and she felt mortified and ashamed that they would speak of her like that. After she was finished with her "lessons" -which consisted more of insults than actual education- she would go back to bed and sleep. She was sleeping more and more throughout the day, taking shorter baths and eating more. She wasn't sure what it was but eating warm food made her feel just a little bit better. She was sad and she was lonely. She would glance out the courtyard window but never sat and gazed like she used to. She wasn't allowed to go outside Zuko's quarters and being cooped up for over a week threw her into more panic attacks.

She was miserable.

Zuko was beyond busy. His father had set him to work, reviewing financial requests and suggestions. It was really all very boring, but it was his Princely duties and he took them in stride. He trained when he could and grabbed meals in the short moments of free time he had. Then he would go back to his wing of the palace and face the gnawing guilt inside him. He couldn't help but notice that Mingan no longer sat at the window in the evenings but he now he always found her asleep in her bed, all the covers kicked off and her in the middle of the cool sheets. He felt bad for her, felt terrible for what he had done to her. He couldn't do anything about it though, it was for her own safety that she remained as his slave.

Two more weeks passed and his work load was slowly starting to lift. He even found time to meditate in the morning and eat breakfast in the royal dining hall. He also found himself thinking of his sister a lot. He wasn't sure why, he had hardly known her but he wondered what she would have been like. She was assassinated when she was three, her death ordered by a small groups of rebels in the northern most corner of the Earth Kingdom. His mother had been very sad for a long time and his father was very angry. He never really became... un-angry after that. And then his mother had vanished a couple of years later.

He got up from his early breakfast and headed back to his quarters. Perhaps he would peek in on Mingan's lessons, see what she was learning. When he arrived he stayed quiet so as to not interrupt and stayed tucked behind a curtain in the doorway between the sitting room and anteroom. He did not like we found. Mingan's back was to him and two men across the desk from her, the other two standing nearby. "No! Wrong! Stupid girl, pay attention next time!" One of them (Jing Ra, Zuko thought) shouted. Zuko tucked himself entirely behind the gathered curtain and listened. "This character," he paused, "stands for running. This one means yard, insolent savage. Are you truly so incapable of simple knowledge?" He snapped.

"I tried to tell you, a feral woman couldn't be taught. Her brain is not as developed as ours, she won't understand, she only understands what she knows. And what she knows is barbaric, savage tendencies to eat, sleep and reproduce."

That was too far. Zuko drew himself up to his full intimidating height and made his presence known. "I am no longer in need of your services," he ground out. He shot each one of them a hard look. "I will deal with your insolence later. Get out." The men scrambled to get out of the Princes quarters, already dreading what their punishment would be.

Zuko looked down at Mingan. She had not moved, just sat there with her shoulders hunched forward. Zuko let out a breath and went to sit down across from her. "Let's see what you have here," he said softly, pulling the scroll and book across to him. It was the basic alphabet, a few simple words towards the bottom and the book, he recognized as one of his childhood favorites. He smiled a little remembering sitting in his mother's lap listening to her read to him, and then when he was older, he would read to her. He was jarred from his memory when Mingan gave a little sniff and snuck her hand up to wipe away a tear. "Hey," he comforted pushing aside the materials and leaning forward on his elbows. "Don't listen to what they said."

"Am I really stupid?" She asked suddenly looking up at him, her eyes misty. Zuko had to force himself not to recoil in shock. She looked so tired, and so worn down. He hadn't properly looked at her for a long time now and he regretted he hadn't taken the time to do so. He should have seen this sooner; she was wilting. He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

"No, Mingan, you are not stupid." He paused. "Are they always like that?" She nodded. "I am truly sorry. No one deserves to be treated like that, much less a young lady. I will be teaching you from now on. Have you had breakfast?" She shook her head. "Alright, that will give me time to clear my schedule anyway," he sighed standing up and leaving. He told his secretary to clear his schedule and order a servant to go down to the kitchen and send up Mingan's breakfast. Not long after the two sat at a low table, Mingan eating and Zuko sipping at tea as he went over the lessons he had demanded the tutors send up immediately. Mingan was bright, he could tell, and he suspected that with a little bit of encouragement, she would learn rather quickly.


Zuko learned a lot about Mingan in the next three hours, simply by watching her. He had always been an observer, a people watcher. He noticed all of her little habits, and the way her face would reflect what she was thinking, it was nice to see her so unguarded for once. She held her bottom lip between her teeth when she was concentrating and tucked her hair behind her ear when she finally understood something. When she made a mistake she always looked away from him. He frowned the first time he noticed her doing this. From her bold moves at the South Pole he knew she would have never backed away from a challenge. And three weeks in the Fire Nation had already made her start questioning herself. Three weeks under a constant barrage of insults had done her no good. Zuko started with a little bit of geography, showing her where the South Pole was, and where the Fire Nation was located. He pointed out where they were now, in the capital. The he showed her how to use the scale in the bottom corner to determine distance. She picked up on that quickly, but struggled a little bit with the addition when they would use the allotted length of the scale multiple times.

He told her about important cities in the Fire Nation like Ming Ra and Kuza. She seemed curious enough about his nation's history, asking questions about their cultural differences. Then, she asked a question in such a quiet, small voice he was a little taken aback. "Where's the Earth Kingdom?"


Zuko had taught her about geography and some history and then let her have the rest of the day off. He had to go to a meeting and luckily it only lasted for about an hour. When he came back he saw Mingan was again staring out the window to the courtyard. "Would you like to go outside?" He asked softly. She jumped at his voice, unaware he had came back and then she looked up at him with big innocent doe eyes, filled with something akin to the unadultered hope of a small child.

"You really mean it?"

"Come on," he said unlocking the door and holding it open for her. Mingan was quivering with excitement. She would be stepping outside these rooms for the first time in weeks, and better yet, she was going outside. The fresh, clean air seemed to carress her skin as she took her first, barefoot steps out of the palace. The air was hot, but the breeze was cool. Her ears filled with the sound of birds and the wind rustling the leaves of the blooming sakura tree. A grin exploded onto her lips and she was laughing.

Zuko felt his heart clench at seeing her so happy. He had been the reason she had been so constricted and mournful to begin with. He almost had to look away when she flung her arms out like a child and started laughing. She bounded over to Sakura tree and stared up into the limbs. He supposed she'd never seen a tree like this in the South Pole. She reached up on her tiptoes and plucked a flower from the lowest branch. She inhaled its sent deeply and then kept it in her hand, marveling at the colors. A bird chirped, and then hopped from one branch to the other, making the pink petals shower down on Mingan. Some got stuck in her hair and she laughed. "What are those birds called?" She asked.

"Dragon Sparrows." Zuko walked towards the end of the garden, Mingan tagging along behind him. Zuko sat down at the edge of the pond with a fountain in the middle and pulled out a piece of stale bread. Suddenly Mingan heard that strange tiger-seal noise again. She sat down next to Zuko and tilted her head towards the sound.

"What is that?" She asked. But Zuko didn't have time to answer when a mother turtleduck and her babies came waddling out of the bushes. Her hands shot to her mouth and she gasped. They were so cute! "Those are turtleducks right?" She asked quietly, worried she might scare them off.

"Yes, they are," Zuko answered, tearing off a few pieces of bread and throwing them to the ducks which were now crowding around him.

"Do you do this a lot?" Mingan asked.

"Yes, usually late at night when I can't sleep. They remind me of my mother."

"Oh." It was quiet for a moment as the turtle ducks started to nibble at Mingan's toes, making her giggle like a little girl. Zuko handed her a piece of bread. She took it hesitantly, surprised at the gesture. No one had been this kind to her in weeks. She tore a little piece off held her palm out. The mother duck waddled over and gave her hand a long look, as if trying to figure out if she were safe to accept food from. She snatched a piece and then her babies, seeing their mother do it, came over and grabbed their own pieces. Two of them started stealing a single of bread from eachother, and began chasing each other around. Zuko grabbed the trailing one gently and gave it a piece of food. "What happened to your mother?" Mingan asked.

Zuko sighed and threw bread into the nearby water, the turtleducks following the crumbs. "I don't really know. She just disappeared... I hope I can find her one day."

"I'm sorry," Mingan said quietly.

"No, I'm sorry. I've done the same thing to you. I never intended for this to happen, Mingan."

"I suppose no one ever intends for these things to happen," she sighed, half angry half sad. She stood up and walked away from Zuko. She heard the Prince sigh heavily, his robes rustling.


The next morning, Mingan was woken up by a servant. She was quiet, not even saying a word as she help Mingan get dressed. When she was finished being dressed up like a doll, she found Zuko in the sitting room at the low table, sipping his tea and reading a parchment. "Good morning," he greeted without looking up at Mingan.

"Morning," she yawned, sitting down across from him on a fluffy pillow.

"Your breakfast will be up soon and I thought it best to get you up so you can begin to learn how to read."

"I can't," she said softly, studying her hands clasped in her lap.

"Of course you can," he said as thought she were a child saying that boars couldn't fly.

"But-"

"No. I told you not to listen to what those old coots told you. You're bright, Mingan. You can learn to read," he said looking over the rim of his teacup and pinning her with his eyes.

He showed her the scroll with the basic alphabet on it and explained how to make each character with the ink brush. He got up and came to sit beside her so he could more easily help her. He wrote the alphabet out along the top of the paper and had her copy the characters underneath. She did quite well, but her strokes were clumsy. He demonstrated how to better steady her hand and then told her to copy the letters again. It really surprised him how quickly she picked up the new skill and while she still had a long way to go, she was off to a good start.