Asahi quickly adjusted to their palace life again. She did miss the freedom of travelling, but here, she had the comfort of a rooftop.

She and Suki developed a habit of meeting for lunch and chatting. Zuko trained with her every morning but was ever so busy with his duties, so her time with him was limited. Despite from their Dragon Form dance routine, they practised some more forms and figures from the old Firebenders. She never joined him at night again to tell more stories, but her heart still jumped whenever she was close to him. The fact that she had picked a partner dance close to her routine with Han didn't help.

She felt lonely but all she could do was wait and sit it out until Pyro and Zuko were finally able to communicate. Their slow development together worried her, but then again, she had never witnessed a Dragon's growth process in person before. She decided to just give them more time.

…

An entire month had passed since their return and Zuko hadn't had a word in private with Asahi once. Every time he tried talking to her alone, she made up some lame excuse and left hurriedly. His patience was reaching it's limits when, exactly a month after their arrival, he ordered her into his thrown room. All his servants and Suki were excused and Asahi looked majorly uncomfortable as he studied her closely.

"Wh-what?" She asked and averted his eyes. "Why order me here?" Her voice sounded annoyed.

"Because every time I just ask you to stay and talk, you run away." He explained.

"I don't." She mumbled, but didn't sound very convincing.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked, an angry ring to his voice that he wasn't able to eliminate. There was something to Asahi that made him unable to control himself.

"Doing what?" She asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"You're avoiding me and treating me coldly. Why?" He looked at her, but couldn't make sense of her expression.

"Why is that a problem?" She asked him back. He stared at her, baffled.

"You told me yourself that we have to get along, for Pyro's sake!" He told her exasperated.

"We are getting along." She said and he raised one eyebrow. "We're not fighting, are we?" She added when Zuko kept casting her a doubtful look.

"We barely talk." He shook his head slightly. This woman was puzzling him.

"Look, Zuko, I'm your teacher, your trainer, your mentor, at most." She wandered around the enormous room while she spoke. "We don't have to be friends. All I want is for Pyro to grow up healthy." She had now turned away from him completely. Her nonchalant tone made Zuko's anger fire up.

"Why are you acting this way!?" He shouted and regretted his tone immediately as she flinched. "Asahi, I'm sorry." He approached her slowly and carefully put a hand on her shoulder. To his surprise, she didn't remove it.

…

Asahi bit her lip to will her tears from falling from her eyes. Her entire chest hurt and she dug her fingers into her crossed arms. Suddenly ordering her to come to see him, she didn't have a chance to refuse. Now she was standing her, her heart breaking as she tried to convince him that he was nothing more than a student to her. When he put his hand on her shoulder she didn't have the power to move. She thought she was going to break down, when suddenly someone knocked on the throne room's doors. A servant entered and stared at the two of them for a second, then quickly averted his eyes. Asahi shot away from Zuko.

"What?!" The Firelord demanded. "What is it?"

"Um, Firelord Zuko, Sir, you… you have a guest." The servant stuttered.

"A guest?! Why now of all times?!" His voice was full of anger.

"Is that the way you greet your ex-girlfriend?" A woman's voice echoed through the room. Asahi turned towards the door, wide eyed, as a beautiful woman entered. She had jet black hair, don up skilfully and a somewhat sober expression in her face, though she smiled.

"May." Zuko said, looking stunned. Asahi had heard of May, Zuko's ex-girlfriend from the others, but never really thought about her. Suki had told her that she had left him in a fight. Asahi had never expected that May would come visit Zuko again. And, seemingly, he was thinking the same thing.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, focusing on May entirely. Asahi felt a hint of jealousy in her chest.

"What? Can't I visit you? I came to make peace." She added when he still cast her a confused look.

"Peace?" He asked. Asahi wondered whether he had lost his ability to speak and cursed herself for her ugly thoughts.

"Yes, but shouldn't we talk about this more in… private." Now, May finally gave note of having recognised Asahi's presence.

"Hello." Asahi approached her, swallowing her aversion of the other girl. "My name is Asahi."

"Oh, I have heard of you." May said. "I am May. And if you don't mind, I would like to have a word with my ex-boyfriend in private." She said in a cold voice.

"Of course." Asahi smiled just as coldly. "I'll just leave the two of you alone. If you'll excuse me, Firelord." She turned to Zuko, still keeping up her fake smile.

"No, Asahi, you don't-" Zuko started, but Asahi was already heading towards the door. In the frame, she turned around once more.

"Take your time." She said in an icy voice.

As the grand doors closed behind her, she suddenly felt very sick. She started sprinting out of the palace, into the woods behind it. Her lungs hurt as she raced through the hallway and then along the forest path, but her goal was clear and she had to reach it as quickly as possible. She stopped and dropped to her knees when she finally arrived at Pyro's cave. Anger, sadness, jealousy and hurt wallowed up inside her and she silently pressed her face against Pyro's cool scales when the dragon came out to see who caused the commotion around his home. Somehow understanding that she wanted simply his company, but not his advice, he didn't ask her about anything and just silently stayed beside her as hot tears streamed down her face.