Previously:
"Why did you tell Father that I was the one who killed the Avatar?" Zuko asked.
"Can't this wait until the morning?" she said.
"It. Can't."
Azula sighed and opened her eyes.
"Fine. You seemed so worried about how Father would treat you because you hadn't captured the Avatar. I figured if I gave you the credit, you'd have nothing to worry about," she said.
"But why?" Zuko asked.
Azula got out of bed.
"Call it a generous gesture," she said. "I wanted to thank you for your help and I was happy to share the glory."
"You're lying," Zuko said.
"If you say so," Azula said, walking past him.
"You have another motive for doing this, I just haven't figured out what it is," Zuko said.
"Please, Zuko, what ulterior motive could I have?" she said. "What could I possibly gain by letting you get all the glory for defeating the Avatar?" She approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Unless, somehow, the Avatar was actually alive. All that glory would suddenly turn to shame and foolishness. But you said it yourself, that was impossible."
Zuko started to leave.
"Sleep well, Zuzu."
Chapter 11: House Arrest
Inside the Royal Palace, Zuko was tossing and turning in his bed, unable to sleep. He kept having nightmares of Shun and Iroh in prison, among other things. He opened his eyes and got up, putting on a cloak. He left the palace and made his way to the Capital City Prison. He stopped and looked up. There was a guard walking around on a balcony above him.
The guard spotted him and said, "Who's there!?"
Without saying a word, Zuko turned around and walked away.
Seeing Zuko leave, the guard resumed his patrol.
The next morning, Shun was woken up by a maid, who presented her with Fire Nation clothing. Her Earth Kingdom clothing that she had left folded on the stool by the vanity table appeared to have already been confiscated, because it was gone. So Shun had no choice but to take the new outfit. But she would not let the maid dress her. Shun assured her that she was perfectly capable of putting on her own clothing and kicked her out politely, since she knew she was just doing her job. They had given her a light red dress that was basically pink with a long skirt and long sleeves; an overdress in dark grey with deep red trim and accents; red arm bracers that the sleeves of the dress tucked into; red pointed shoes with grey soles. Shun pulled her hair up into a half bun and secured the style with her jade dragon hair stick. They had also left out jewelry for her. A Carnelian beaded necklace with a horse zodiac pendant and a pair of simple matching earrings. Shun liked them, so she put them on.
Shun was escorted to the dining table by two guards. Her father and older brother were already there.
"Oh good, you liked them," Hanzou said when he saw Shun wearing the jewelry. "I wasn't sure what to get you. I know it's late, but I thought perhaps the jewelry could be a birthday present."
Shun had forgotten that she had turned fourteen. Her birthday had been the same day Iroh was invited to serve tea to the Earth King, so she had kept it to herself so she wouldn't steal his spotlight, but then everything else had happened and she had plenty of other things to think about.
"Uh, yeah… thanks," Shun said a little awkwardly, sitting down to eat. There was a lot of meat on the table.
Isamu was watching her like a hawk. He clearly didn't trust her an inch. Hanzou was also watching her with sharp eyes. Shun supposed they had good cause, since she was likely to escape any day now, once she had a feel for the security there.
"Um… I was hoping maybe you could tell me more about my mother today..." Shun said cautiously, helping herself to the food.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Hanzou said, and he really looked it. "I have to step out today. But maybe Isamu can tell you, since he'll be here watching you."
"What?" Isamu said, appalled. "But I was going to visit Mai!"
"One of us has to be with her," Hanzou said firmly. "It's part of the conditions set for her house arrest."
Isamu glared at Shun as if it were all her fault.
"Why don't you just invite this Mai over here?" Shun said.
"There. There's a sensible suggestion," Hanzou said. "You have your mother's practicality."
Shun just thought it was common sense, but decided to keep that to herself because her father was beaming proudly at her, while her brother was glaring daggers at her.
But whatever he might think of Shun, Isamu did send a messenger to Mai's house to invite her over. The messenger left at the same time as Hanzou.
Isamu and Shun said goodbye to their dad and watched him leave.
"Okay, back inside the house," Isamu said, motioning for Shun to go back in.
"Can't I sit out in the garden?" Shun asked.
"No way. You probably want to search the wall for weak spots or something like that," Isamu said grumpily.
"Oh, so there are weak spots?" Shun said.
"No, but that wouldn't stop you from looking for them, would it?" Isamu said shortly. "Why don't you read or something?"
"I do like atlases," Shun said. "Got any?"
"So you can memorize the layout of the city? I don't think so," Isamu said sternly.
Shun frowned. It seemed he was taking his job to guard her seriously.
"Is there anything you will let me do?" Shun asked.
"Like I said, you can read. Or eat. Or spill your secrets about that new weapon you had," Isamu said.
"Ah, I was wondering when you'd get to that," Shun said. "I'll take the reading and eating, but you can forget about the weapon."
"What happened to it anyway?" Isamu asked.
"I destroyed it," Shun said, plopping down on the couch.
Isamu froze.
"You what?" he asked incredulously.
"I had it melted down," Shun said easily. "I thought it was too dangerous. And you won't find any plans for its design hidden in my bag that you all confiscated either."
"So there's no trace of it?" Isamu asked, looking shocked.
"Nope," Shun said. Of course, the plans for making the weapon were stored away in her head, but she didn't think it would be wise to mention that.
Isamu deflated, leaning against the arm of the couch.
"And here I thought I could pry it out of you and surprise Father..." Isamu said.
"Tough luck," Shun said.
The messenger that went to Mai's house returned.
Shun thought her house must be really close by.
"I have her reply," the messenger said and handed Isamu a small scroll.
Isamu quickly unrolled it and read the message with an eager expression that soon turned to disappointment.
"Hey, Shun. What does it mean when a girl says she 'doesn't feel like it'?" Isamu asked.
"It usually means she doesn't want to," Shun said, and Isamu looked devastated. "You're having a rough day, huh?"
"I don't need your pity!" Isamu snapped. He rolled up the scroll and handed it to a servant. "Put this in my room."
"You're saving it?" Shun asked.
"Of course," Isamu said. "Mai wrote it with her own hand."
"Are you obsessed with this girl?" Shun asked.
"Uh… It's possible..." Isamu admitted.
"You ought to be careful about that," Shun said. "Obsessions can get get ugly."
"And what do you know about it?" Isamu snapped. He picked himself up and sat down in the same chair he had occupied the previous day.
"I know that one of the boys in our tribe got obsessed with one of the girls, and it creeped her out," Shun said. "He followed her everywhere, wouldn't let anyone else get close to her, and collected pretty much everything she'd ever touched, even her trash. It got to the point where she became afraid of him and hid from him. The elders had to sit him down and explain that he couldn't go near her anymore, and if he did, they would find him an apprenticeship in the next town and leave him there. We would've come back to check on him, of course, but he wouldn't have been allowed to travel with the rest of the tribe."
"Yeah, but I'm not like that," Isamu said. "I don't follow her everywhere, I don't stop other people from getting close to her, and I don't collect her trash."
"Good for you," Shun said. "Just be careful to stay at your current level. I hear it's a slippery slope."
Isamu stood up, walked out of the room, and returned with a book. He tossed it at Shun, and she caught it.
"Just shut up and read," he told her.
Shun looked at the book. It was supposedly a collection of the Fire Nation's best poems.
"It's poetry. Girls like that sort of thing, right?" Isamu said.
"Some girls," Shun said, deciding to give it a go, even though it wasn't really her thing. She wondered how many of them she would recognize. The Aditi picked up poems and songs and stories from all over, so they had a few of them from the Fire nation as well as all the other nations. The pieces of the Air Nomads' culture they knew were especially passed down to everyone in the tribe in an effort to prevent it from disappearing from the world when they thought they had all been wiped out.
Isamu sat there across from her, also reading, but always keeping one eye on her.
Shun thought it was a bit annoying but knew he wouldn't stop even if she said something, so she did her best to ignore him.
Lunchtime came, and there was more meat, but Shun didn't want to overdo it.
"What? Why aren't you taking more meat?" Isamu asked. "You're not one of those girls who starves themselves because they think it'll make them look good, are you?"
"No. I'm just not used to eating so much meat," Shun said. "The Aditi have a lot of vegetarian dishes, and I couldn't always afford meat when I was on the run."
"What about in Ba Sing Se?" Isamu asked.
"We really only had it when we moved to the Upper Ring," Shun said.
"'We', huh? That reminds me, why were you with Prince Zuko and General Iroh?" Isamu asked.
"We were all wanted by the Fire Nation, and I was tired of traveling alone," Shun said. "I didn't expect Zuko to betray us."
"He did the only thing he could do in that situation," Isamu said. "Besides, he may be a lot of things, but he's no traitor. Helping the Avatar would have been treason. The only reason you weren't charged with it is because Father managed to convince the Fire Lord that you were technically not a Fire Nation citizen, since you were born surrounded by the Aditi tribe, and no child born into their tribe is considered a citizen of any one country. He also thought that we might be able to get you to talk about your new weapon, but it seems that isn't going to happen..."
Shun kept quiet and continued to eat. Her father had taken a big risk, arguing with the Fire Lord for her. She wondered what would happen to him if she did escape. She didn't like to think about it, but she couldn't stay there. It would be only a matter of time before they stopped the carrot and started with the stick, and she couldn't tell them about her gun. She couldn't.
"You know, several attempts have already been made to copy your weapon… based on the information we gave from watching you use it," Isamu said.
Shun was startled to hear that.
"But none of them worked," Isamu said. "One of them even blew up. They're saying you must be a genius."
"I don't know about that, but I was one of my master's best students," Shun said.
"I heard you were using your blacksmithing hammers as weapons at Ba Sing Se," Isamu said. "Did he teach you that, too?"
"Yes," Shun said. "He did."
"How does that work?" Isamu asked curiously.
"I could show you if I had my bag and my tools back," Shun said.
"Nice try, but you won't be getting that back until everyone is satisfied there's nothing of interest in there, and even if they return it to us, Father won't let you have it, because he knows you can use your tools as weapons too," Isamu said.
Shun frowned. Why did they have to be so smart?
"Master Isamu! The royal procession is headed this way!" a servant said, rushing into the room.
"What? Is it Zuko?"
"No," Azula said as she entered the room, flanked by Mai and Ty Lee. "It isn't."
"Princess Azula!" Isamu said, surprised and a little startled to see her there. "And Mai. And Ty Lee." He stared at them. "What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"
"Now where are your manners, Isamu?" Azula said, smirking slightly. "Aren't you going to ask us to sit down?"
"Oh, yes," Isamu said, remembering his place. "Please, sit down. Is there anything I can get you?"
"No," Azula said, sitting down at the head of the table. "I was bored, so I decided to come by and see how your sister was doing. Mai mentioned you invited her."
"Uh, yes," Isamu said, smiling at Mai. "Is there anything I can get you?"
"You already asked that question," Mai said, slumping in a chair on Azula's right.
"Ooh, this looks good!" Ty Lee said, siting on Azula's left, looking at the meal that was still on the table.
"Help yourself," Shun said, pushing the meat toward her.
"Wow, you're so nice!" Ty Lee said, impressed that she would offer her the most expensive thing on the table so easily. "I heard you were a dangerous saboteur, so I thought you might be scary, but you aren't at all."
Shun didn't know what to say to that.
"You seem like you're making yourself right at home," Azula said. "You certainly look the part of a Fire Nation citizen — oh, wait, I forgot — you're not a citizen. You're part of that ridiculous tribe." She smirked. "I'd be careful if I were you. You don't have any rights here to protect you if you get into trouble."
"Noted," Shun said.
Azula laughed a little and said, "You're not afraid of me at all, are you?"
"I am, in fact, very wary of you," Shun said.
"That's good. You do have a sense of self-preservation, then," Azula said. "Oh, that's right. Mai, isn't there something you wanted to say to Shun?"
"I heard you were living with Zuko," Mai said, playing with one of her knives.
"And Uncle Iroh," Shun said, wondering where she was going with this.
"Did you just say 'uncle'?" Azula asked.
"He said I could call him that," Shun said.
"I see. Go on, Mai," Azula said, waving her hand carelessly.
"How close were you?" Mai asked Shun.
"We're friends," Shun said. "We told everyone in Ba Sing Se I was his cousin."
"Friends?" Mai asked. "Still?"
"It takes a lot for me to burn a bridge once I've gone through the trouble of building it," Shun said.
"So you're saying there's nothing between you?" Mai asked.
Now Shun saw what the deal was. Mai was jealous of her.
"Only friendship," Shun said. "Although, if you're looking for people he might have had a romantic connection with, he did date that other girl..."
"What other girl?" Mai asked, narrowing her eyes.
"This girl who used to come into the tea shop we worked at," Shun said carelessly. "Let's see… what was her name? Well, never mind. It's not important." She knew she was probably getting Zuko in trouble, but she couldn't resist getting a little revenge on him. The smile froze on Shun's face when the knife in Mai's hand embedded itself in the back of her wooden chair, only just missing her neck.
Isamu looked nervous, like he wasn't sure what to do.
"Still think it's funny?" Mai asked.
"Yes, don't you?" Shun said calmly.
Azula started laughing.
Everyone stared at her.
"I think I may like you," Azula said to Shun. She stood up. "Come on, girls. Let's go."
Mai and Ty Lee stood up too.
"Oh. You're going already?" Isamu asked.
"Unless Shun wants to tell us about that weapon of hers everyone keeps talking about," Azula said, pausing to look at Shun.
"No, I don't," Shun said.
"Hmm, too bad," Azula said, and she left with Mai and Ty Lee.
Isamu looked like he wanted to follow them but wasn't sure he should.
Shun yanked Mai's knife from the chair and held it out to him.
"Don't you want to give her this?" Shun asked.
"Right," Isamu said, and he took the knife and chased after them.
Shun took a deep breath and relaxed. Her heart was still pounding from when Mai had almost sliced her neck open. She looked at the guards who were still in the room, watching her. She didn't want to show too much weakness in front of them.
Isamu came back into the room with a huge smile on his face.
"I touched her hand," he said dreamily, blushing.
"O… kay," Shun said. She thought her brother seriously needed to dial it back a notch or two.
"Oh," Isamu said, looking in her direction. He looked worried. "Oh no..."
"It's okay. I'm all right," Shun said, surprised by his concern.
"I'm not worried about you, it's the chair!" Isamu said, starting to panic. "That thing is mahogany, and it's been in the family for generations. I don't know what Father's going to say..."
"Tell him Azula did it," Shun said. "It's close enough to the truth, and he can't do anything to punish her, right?"
"I like the way you think, but I as I value my life, I will not be blaming the princess," Isamu said seriously. "I guess I'll just have to take my chances… Although, technically, it's your fault for provoking her. Yeah, I'll just say that."
"Gee, thanks," Shun said sarcastically. "Do you have a Pai Sho board? I never thought I'd say this, but I'm tired of reading."
"Of course we do," Isamu said.
He got the board out and they played in the sitting room until Hanzou returned. Shun beat Isamu four times and he beat her twice.
"Oh, no — not again!" Isamu said when Shun beat him again. She grinned.
"Glad to see you two getting along," Hanzou said.
"We are not getting along," Isamu groaned.
They ate dinner together, and Hanzou artfully dodged Shun's questions about his day. Instead he asked about how their day was.
So they told him about Azula's visit, and he became very serious.
"You need to be careful, Shun," Hanzou said. "Very careful."
"Actually, I think Azula liked her," Isamu said, "at least, she said she did."
"She said she might like me," Shun said, and she still wasn't sure how she felt about that. Having a powerful friend could be a good thing for her, but Shun didn't think she wanted it to be Azula. There was something unsettling about her. Even though Mai was the one who had thrown a knife at her, Azula was the one who made her nervous.
"It would be good if she did," Hanzou said. "Whatever you do, don't get on her bad side. You won't survive it."
"All right. I understand," Shun said grimly.
Later that night, Zuko was walking through the halls of the Capital City Prison, wearing cloak to disguise himself.
A guard became alerted to his presence.
"You again? Stop where you are!" the guard said, pointing his spear at Zuko.
Zuko raised his head and looked at the guard. "Prince Zuko..."
Zuko grabbed the guard by his collar and slammed him against the wall.
"I'm going in for a visit. You're going to stand guard here, and no one is going to know about this," Zuko said threateningly. He released the guard, and approached Iroh's cell. "Uncle, it's me."
Iroh, sitting on the floor, turned away from Zuko with a scowl on his face.
Zuko got upset.
"You brought this on yourself you know," Zuko said. "We could have returned together. You could have been a hero!"
Iroh shifted but didn't look at him.
"You have no right to judge me, Uncle. I did what I had to do in Ba Sing Se, and you're a fool for not joining me."
Iroh continued to ignore him.
"You're not going to say anything?"
Zuko kicked up a small stool outside Iroh's cell and destroyed it with firebending.
"You're a crazy old man!" he yelled. "You're crazy! And if you weren't in jail, you'd be sleeping in a gutter!"
Zuko left, slamming the door behind him as Iroh bowed his head slightly and closed his eyes. Zuko's thoughts turned to Shun. Would she reject him too if he went to visit her?
—∞—
The next day, Shun was surprised to see Ty Lee came to visit again without the others. She had brought snacks to thank her for feeding her before, so Shun and Ty Lee munched on them while they talked. Ty Lee was interested in hearing about Shun's travels with the Aiditi tribe, and Shun was interested in hearing about life in the circus.
"And then, she had them set the net on fire and release every animal they had under me," Ty Lee said, reaching the end of her tale about how Azula got her to leave the circus. "I left with her right after the performance finished."
With friends like that, who needs enemies? Shun thought. "You must be very skilled to have survived that," she said.
"You think so?" Ty Lee said, looking pleased. "Ooh, I can show you some moves if you want. I don't think I should teach you chi blocking, but I can teach you other stuff. Do you know how to do a back bend?"
"Yes," Shun said. "I can do flips and cartwheels, too."
"Oh, fun!" Ty Lee said. "Let's see who can do a handstand the longest. You can do a handstand, right?"
"Sure," Shun said.
They both stood on their hands, and Shun was glad she had pants on underneath her dress, because her skirt fell down.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Isamu asked when he came into the room. He had thought it would be safe to take a break with Ty Lee watching Shun.
"Handstands!" Ty Lee said. "Want to try?"
"No thanks," Isamu said. "I'll just leave you to it, then." He left again.
Shun and Ty Lee stood on their hands for over a minute, and then Shun wobbled and had to quit before she fell sideways and broke something.
"Yay, I win!" Ty Lee said, smiling.
"Do you ever lose?" Shun asked. She didn't feel too bad about it, considering Ty Lee did stuff like that for a living.
"Hmm..." Ty Lee said, lowering herself into a sort of half a flip. "Now that you mention it, I don't think I do. Not at this."
"I've been wondering… where are the other two today?" Shun asked.
"Oh, Azula is busying doing some princess stuff, and Mai is getting ready for her date with Zuko," Ty Lee said.
"She and Zuko are dating?" Shun asked, with an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. She didn't like the sound of that.
Zuko and Mai met up by the pond that the turtle ducks lived in. Zuko smiled when he saw her but received a nasty surprise when she pushed him into the water.
"What was that for!?" Zuko asked indignantly, standing up in the water to face her.
"I know about the girl from the Earth Kingdom," Mai said with her arms crossed. "Now we're even."
"Shun?" Zuko asked, confused and annoyed.
"No, the one you went on a date with," Mai said. "Don't play dumb."
"Oh, that girl," Zuko said. "I forgot all about that."
"Did you really?" Mai asked as her hard expression softened a little. It seemed that Earth Kingdom girl wasn't important to him.
"Yeah," Zuko said.
Mai regarded him for a moment then decided he was telling her the truth.
"Come on," Mai said, offering him her hand. "Let's get you out of there."
She helped Zuko out of the pond, who briefly considered pulling her in with him but decided against it, and he went to get changed into dry clothes. Then they went on a picnic together, even though it was already pretty late in the day.
They sat on a cliffside together, watching the sunset.
"Orange is such an awful color," Mai said.
Zuko remembered that it was Shun's favorite and forced himself to laugh.
"You're so beautiful when you hate the world," he said, trying not to think of Shun's smile.
"I don't hate you," Mai said.
"I don't hate you too," Zuko said. It was true. He wanted to be with Mai. He wanted to be happy.
They kissed, but were interrupted by Azula's arrival.
"Ahem," she said.
They looked at her, clearly annoyed.
"Zuko, could I have a word with you?" Azula said.
"Can't you see we're busy?" Zuko said, and they kissed again.
"Oh, Mai, Ty Lee needs your help untangling her braid," Azula said.
Mai stood up, smiling, and said, "Sounds pretty serious." As she left, she threw an angry glance at Azula behind her back.
"So, I've heard you've been to visit your uncle fatso in the prison tower," Azula said.
Zuko shot to his feet and angrily said, "That guard told you."
"No. You did. Just now."
Zuko sat back down.
"Okay, you caught me," he said. "What is it that you want, Azula?"
"Actually, nothing," Azula said. "Believe it or not, I'm looking out for you. If people find out you've been to see Uncle, they'll think you're plotting with him. Just be careful, Dum-Dum."
Zuko looked away from her.
"Oh, yes," Azula said. "I almost forgot. I saw your friend the other day."
"Friend?" Zuko asked, furrowing his brow.
"Shun. Well, she seems to think you're still friends, despite everything that's happened," Azula said.
"She does?" Zuko asked, surprised. He thought she would hate his guts. "How is she?"
"Why don't you go see her if you're so concerned?" Azula said. "You can always say you went there to try to get information about the weapon she invented. Who knows, maybe you'll succeed. It would be in her best interest if you did. Who knows how long Father will continue to be lenient with her if he doesn't get what he wants."
Zuko frowned. He knew Azula was right. It was only a matter of time before their father lost his patience. But he hesitated. Would Shun even listen to what he had to say?
Zuko decided he had to try. So he had his palanquin bearers carry him to Hanzou's house.
"I'm here to see Shun," Zuko told the guards at the gate.
"Shall we announce you, sir?" one of the guards asked.
"That won't be necessary," Zuko said.
They opened the gate for him, and he walked in. He went straight to the front door of the house and knocked.
Isamu answered.
"What do you want?" Isamu asked a little rudely. "I heard from Ty Lee you were supposed to be on a date with Mai."
"When did you see Ty Lee?" Zuko asked.
"She only just left," Isamu said. "She came over to see my sister."
"To see Shun?" Zuko said, surprised. It sounded like what Azula had told Mai about Ty Lee's hair to get her to leave them alone had been a complete lie, if she only just left.
"Yeah, I guess she took a liking to her when she came to visit with your sister," Isamu said. He frowned at Zuko. "I guess you want to come inside, huh?"
"Yes," Zuko said, wondering what the attitude was about as Isamu stood aside to let him in the house. He and Isamu were sort of almost friends before he was banished.
"Hey, Isamu!" Shun called. "Ready to get your butt kicked at Pai Sho again?" she asked as she entered the room, holding the Pai Sho board.
Her smiled fell a bit when she saw Zuko, and he was a little disappointed to see this, even though he had been expecting it.
"Hello, Zuko," Shun said coolly. "Finally worked up the courage to come see me? How's your uncle? Have you seen him yet?"
"No, I haven't seen him," Zuko lied. He didn't want to say that he had been to see him in front of Isamu or admit to Shun that Iroh had ignored him. "Azula said you still considered us friends… Is that true?" Zuko asked.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to give you hard time," Shun said.
"Well, as a friend, I'm here to tell you that you have to give up the secret of your gun," Zuko said.
"I won't do that," Shun said, frowning at him.
"Zuko, she can't," Isamu said. "She destroyed all her plans for the weapon, and she melted it down. It doesn't exist anymore."
"Oh, it exists," Zuko said, still looking at Shun. "All those stories and songs you memorized from your tribe, I bet you memorized the gun's construction, too. It's all right there in your head."
Isamu looked at Shun, clearly wondering if this was true.
"Even if that was true, I still wouldn't tell you," Shun said. "But if I was killed, the gun really would cease to exist."
"You think they'll keep letting you live here if you don't cooperate?" Zuko said. "I know my father. As soon as he gets tired of hearing you say 'no', you'll be back in prison."
"I still can't do it," Shun said, crossing her arms.
"Are you even listening to me?" Zuko asked, getting frustrated.
"You already know how I feel about this," Shun said. "I told you before, it's too dangerous to let out into the world. I'm just being responsible."
"You'll be held responsible for your crimes if you disappoint my father," Zuko said.
"That's a risk I'll have to take," Shun said.
"So you won't do it? No matter what?" Zuko said.
"No," Shun said.
Zuko made a noise of frustration as he brought his heel down on a nearby footstool and broke it in half.
"Hey! That was my grandmother's!" Isamu said, but Zuko ignored him and left in a huff.
"These Fire Nation rich kids have no respect for furniture," Shun said after a moment.
"It's because you provoked them!" Isamu snapped, picking up the pieces of the stool. "Geez. You've only been here for a few days, and you've already had more guests than I have," he muttered.
"Well, you didn't seem very friendly towards him either," Shun said. "I saw the jealous look you were giving him. It's because of Mai, right?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Isamu said, plopping down on the couch. "He is right, you know," he said to change the subject.
"I know," Shun said. "But this is the fate of the world we're talking about. I can't doom everyone else just to save my own skin."
"You're so dramatic," Isamu said. "It's just one weapon."
"If that's true, then why are they so persistent about getting me to give it to them?" Shun said. "If it was a minor as you think, they would've just left me in prison to rot and forgotten about me."
"Father wouldn't have left you there," Isamu said.
Shun sat down on the couch next to him, still holding the Pai Sho board.
"I know," she said. She could tell that about Hanzou from the few interactions she'd had with him. He seemed to feel a deep responsibility to his family.
Later that night, Zuko visited Iroh again. He slid a container of food into Iroh's cell.
"I brought you some Komodo chicken," Zuko said. "I know you don't care for it, but I figure it beats prison food. I saw Shun today. She asked about you. They're treating her well. She's under house arrest in General Hino's home, but I don't know for how long. She's refusing to cooperate and tell us how to make her gun."
Iroh said nothing.
"I admit it, I have everything I always wanted, but it's not at all how I thought it would be," Zuko said. "The truth is, I need your advice." He gripped the bars. "I think the Avatar is still alive, I know he's out there. I'm losing my mind."
Iroh did not respond.
"Please, Uncle," Zuko said desperately, "I'm so confused! I need your help."
Iroh still had nothing to say to him.
"Forget it," Zuko said angrily, shooting to his feet. "I'll solve it myself! Waste away in here for all I care!" He glanced back before leaving.
A tear slid down Iroh's face.
Zuko left the prison and made his way to a dark alley in an industrial area for a prearranged meeting. He lowered his hood as a huge muscular man with a metal leg approached him. The man had a strange third eye tattooed on his forehead.
"You're sure you weren't followed?" Zuko asked. "I've heard about you. They say you're good at what you do, and even better at keeping secrets. The Avatar is alive. I want you to find him, and end him."