Previously, on Avatar: After The Headband, we had Private Fire (sorry to say, not as kinky as it sounds – Sokka enlists as a Fire Nation soldier), Night Animals (also not as kinky as it sounds – this one's about Appa and Momo hearing things), Boys' Day Out, The Painted Lady, and Sokka's Master (thankfully, not at all as kinky as it sounds :P ). Time to catch up with our favorite Fire Nation teens!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. This episode originally written by Katie Mattila.

Book 3: Fire; Chapter 8: The Beach

Zuko laid the stone hand print on the steps and followed Azula down to the beach where the other girls sat around a blackened fire pit. Mai and Zuko gave each other a sideways glance as he passed her.

"Hey," she said quietly.

"Where's your new boyfriend?" Zuko said in a simmering tone. Mai crossed her arms and looked away, pulling her wrap tighter around herself. Zuko sat down on the large rock across the fire pit from Mai, as far as he could get from her. Azula settled next to him, with Ty Lee on the stone to their left.

Ty Lee shivered. "I'm freezing," she said.

"I'll make a fire," Zuko said with a polite smile at her. "There's plenty of stuff to burn in there." He looked toward their old beach house.

Zuko returned from the house with some scrap wood from broken furniture and the family portrait from his childhood. He threw the wood in the fire pit for kindling and threw some flames on it. Then he unceremoniously dropped the portrait on top of the pile and watched it go up in flames.

"What are you doing?" Ty Lee asked in alarm.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Zuko stared at her with arms crossed, eyes cold, and voice angry.

"But, it's a painting of your family," she said more gently.

"You think I care?" Zuko challenged.

"I think you do," Ty Lee pressed.

"You don't know me, so why don't you just mind your own business?" Zuko started to walk away.

Ty Lee scoffed. She had known Zuko for most of his life. "I know you," she said.

"No, you don't," Zuko spat out, turning back to her. "You're stuck in your little Ty Lee world where everything's great all the time."

"Zuko, leave her alone," Mai interjected.

Mai's interference only egged Zuko on more. He walked away, sarcastically imitating Ty Lee. "I'm so pretty. Look at me! I can walk on my hands, whoo!" He flipped up into a hand stand as he said this, and then let himself down on his back in the sand. "Circus Freak."

Azula giggled at Zuko's insult. Ty Lee felt tears welling up in her eyes.

"Yes, I'm a circus freak," she leveled back. "Go ahead and laugh all you want. You want to know why I joined the circus?"

"Here we go," Azula sighed.

Ty Lee went on. "Do you have any idea what my home life was like? Growing up with six sisters who look exactly like me? It was like I didn't even have my own name. I joined the circus because I was scared of spending the rest of my life as part of a matched set. At least I'm different now. 'Circus Freak' is a compliment!"

"I guess that explains why you need ten boyfriends, too," Mai said coolly.

Ty Lee turned to Mai with her hands on her hips. "I'm sorry, what?"

Mai remained unruffled. "Attention issues? You couldn't get enough attention when you were a kid, so you're trying to make up for it now."

"Well, what's your excuse, Mai? You were an only child for fifteen years, but even with all that attention, your aura is this dingy, pasty, gray—"

"I don't believe in auras," Mai cut her off flatly.

"Yeah," Zuko chimed in, "you don't believe in anything."

"Oh well, I'm sorry I can't be as high-strung and crazy as the rest of you," Mai answered sarcastically.

"I'm sorry too," Zuko said as he walked back to the campfire. "I wish you would be high-strung and crazy for once instead of keeping all your feelings bottled up inside. She just called your aura dingy. Are you gonna take that?"

"What do you want from me?" Mai said as she laid back on the rock. "You want a teary confession about how hard my childhood was? Well, it wasn't. I was a rich only child who got anything I wanted ... as long as I behaved, and sat still, and didn't speak unless spoken to. My mother said I had to keep out of trouble. We had my dad's political career to think about."

"Well, that's it then," Azula said from across the fire. "You have a controlling mother who had certain expectations, and if you strayed from them you were shut down. That's why you're afraid to care about anything, and why you can't express yourself."

"You want me to express myself?" Mai snapped, rising to her feet. "Leave me alone!" And in that moment, Zuko knew he would not be getting back together with Mai. He had always thought there was so much going on beneath the surface of her veneer. He thought he could draw it out of her by being her safe place. But his expressions of affection toward her were almost always rejected. And when he tried to confide in her, she never really listened – she minimized, distracted, or dismissed his feelings every time. He thought she was just emulating the way she had been shut down by her mother, but now he realized that her emotions really just didn't run that deep. The few times she smiled or openly showed anger that read as mild irritation – that was actually the extent of her experience. She may keep her feelings buried, but there really wasn't much to bury in the first place. And Zuko knew he could not build a sustainable relationship with this girl. She would be a trustworthy companion, and would always know the right thing to say or do in public life, but in private … intimacy – in all its forms – would be impossible with someone so dull and insensitive.

"Calm down, you guys," Ty Lee was saying. "This much negative energy is bad for your skin. You'll totally break out."

"Bad skin?" Zuko turned to her. "Normal teenagers worry about bad skin. I don't have that luxury. My father decided to teach me a permanent lesson – on my face!" Zuko exclaimed, pointing to his scar.

Ty Lee immediately regretted her mistake. "Sorry, Zuko, I –"

Zuko blew right past her apology. "For so long I thought that if my dad accepted me, I'd be happy. I'm back home now, my dad talks to me." Zuko laughed bitterly. "He even thinks I'm a hero. Everything should be perfect, right? I should be happy now, but I'm not. I'm angrier than ever and I don't know why!"

"There's a simple question you need to answer, then," said Azula, always the collected one. "Who are you angry at?"

"No one," Zuko replied. "I'm just angry."

"Yeah, who are you angry at, Zuko?" Mai chimed in.

"Everyone," Zuko replied. "I don't know." He brought his hands to his head in frustration and confusion.

"Is it Dad?" Azula asked.

"No, no."

"Your uncle?" Ty Lee ventured.

"Me?" Azula tried again.

"No, no, n-no, no!" Zuko stammered.

"Then who? Who are you angry at?" Mai pressed.

Azula's voice grew stern as she lost patience. "Answer the question, Zuko."

"Talk to us," Ty Lee implored.

"Come on, answer the question." Mai and Azula said at the same time.

"I'm angry at myself!" Zuko blurted out, throwing his fists downward with a pair of flames that caused the campfire to blaze upward into a pillar of fire. Zuko turned away from the girls and back toward the ocean as the flames died down.

"Why?" Azula asked.

"Because I'm confused," Zuko said over his shoulder. "Because I'm not sure I know the difference between right and wrong anymore."

Azula leaned back on her hands. "You're pathetic," she said.

The group fell silent. Mai stood and approached Zuko, placing a hand on his back.

"I know one thing I care about," she said. "I care about you." Zuko gave her a small smile. It'll never be enough, he thought. He knew that she wanted him to kiss her, that she was ready to make up and forget their fight. But he couldn't do it. As confused as he was about right and wrong, he still knew it would be wrong to lead her on when he had no intention of taking her back. Zuko broke eye contact to look down at his hands. He took her free hand in his and gave it a light squeeze. He hoped they could still be friends on some level. At the sound of Azula slow-clapping, Zuko dropped Mai's hand and turned to face his sister.

"Well, those were wonderful performances, everyone," she said with dripping sarcasm.

"I guess you wouldn't understand, would you, Azula?" Zuko glared at her. "Because you're just so perfect."

"Well, yes, I guess you're right," Azula replied casually. "I don't have sob stories like all of you. I could sit here and complain how our mom liked Zuko more than me, but I don't really care. My own mother thought I was a monster." She paused a moment, staring into the fire. Then she shrugged and said matter-of-factly, "She was right, of course, but it still hurt."

"What Lo and Li said came true," Ty Lee realized. "The beach did help us learn about ourselves." She picked up an ocean-tumbled stone and ran her hand across its smooth surface. "I feel all smoothed. I'll always remember this."