Author's Notes: I opened up a thread on the Distant Horizon forums accepting requests for drabbles/ficlets and figured I'd collect them all in one place.

For storybookgirl, who requested Zuko running from...well, you'll see.

It's Hard Out Here

Zuko's breath came in strangled gasps as he darted through the forest. He could still hear his pursuers behind him and he wondered idly if this was how the Avatar felt all those months Zuko had chased him. Had the young monk sweated with a implacable enemy on his tail?

No, Zuko realized. It could not have been like this, for as much as he hated to admit it, his power, his wrath paled in comparison to the horrors that were pursuing him. He put on more speed and suddenly changed his course, turning away from the path and diving off into the bushes hoping to find a safe hiding place.

He was crouched behind a tree when a hand came down on his shoulder and he bit back a yelp as he turned.

"Uncle Iroh!" he exclaimed as he registered who had sneaked up on him.

"Zuko, it's good to see you relaxing for once," Iroh said cheerfully.

"Do I look relaxed to you!" Zuko yelled, before realizing that it might give away his position and taking on a lower tone. "I'm being chased, Uncle. Crowds and crowds of girls. I've never seen anything like it. All yelling crazy things about how much they love me!"

"Ohhh," Iroh said knowingly. "I was quite popular with the ladies myself in my youth. It's in the blood you know. A good thing too, Zuko, because you never take time to have much of a social-"

"Uncle! I don't need a social life that consists of being mauled by an army of crazy women!" Zuko protested standing to glare at his uncle before remembering himself and crouching down again.

"Well, don't knock it until you've tried it, Zuko, you'll find that-"

"If you're not going to help, Uncle, then please. Stop. Talking."

Iroh nodded serenely. "Have it your way then. I think I'll go and find some dinner. I'm starving," he said and stepped into the road before Zuko could stop him.

"Oh," said Iroh before his voice was drowned out by the screams.

"There's his uncle!"

"He must be nearby!"

"They seem like lovely girls, Zuko," Iroh said, turning to face Zuko's hiding place. "I don't know why you're so afraid."

Zuko did not dignify that with a response as he took off, flinching as one of the girls exclaimed as she spotted him. One of them yelled something about rubbing Zuko's "fuzzy head," and he reached deep inside himself found more speed than he'd previously known he was capable of. As he headed towards the horizon, however, he could swear he heard Iroh's laughter.