Zuko was definitely not hiding from his sister.
Yes, it was warm outside. And yes, he wanted to feed the turtleducks. But it had just happened that he had decided it was a better idea to spend some quality time in the library. Just for a while. It had nothing to do with the fact a certain someone and her friends wouldn't stop haunting the Gardens.
It had been an abnormal few days around the Palace. It appeared to Zuko that all of the adults seemed to know something that he didn't and they had been in a weird mood since at least the morning before. Zuko couldn't help but think that something bad had happened but his mother had said that there was nothing to worry about. Apparently father and Lu Ten were fine, grandfather was not sick and the Fire Nation hadn't lost any ground in the war. There was nothing to worry about. And yet, his mother wouldn't tell him why everyone was being secretive and she seemed to be purposively oblivious to the fact that he was clearly referring to her as well.
His sister had nevertheless been exhaustive in her teasing yesterday, suggesting that she knew what was going on while he didn't. Azula had followed him around for a good hour in the afternoon, ending with her plonking herself on his mattress when he retreated to his room, while she tried to make him guess what she knew. Zuko wasn't convinced that she knew anything at all, but he couldn't tell. She was hard to read, a skill she appeared to be rapidly improving at.
Zuko's relationship with his sister had slightly deteriorated in the last few years. They used to exhaustively play with each other, dashing around the Gardens, playing pranks on the guards and hiding Iroh's favourite teapot.
But that had all gone.
If he could pinpoint a moment that it had all changed, it would have been when the first flame burst out from Azula's small fist during a tense argument with their mother. She was determined to not wear a dress that their Uncle Iroh had brought her back from the Fire Nation colonies after one of his missions. Azula was furious because it was pink and at that stage, she had openly hated everything to do with pink. Mother had insisted that she would wear the dress to an event and that it would be very rude and disrespectful to her uncle not to. A cry of frustration had erupted from Azula and the smell of singed fabric had filled the room. Needless to say, she had been unable to wear the offending dress.
Before this outburst, any sign of firebending from his younger sister had been though small innocuous events, a sneeze as a toddler or a burp as a baby. But this blatant show of her element was where everything changed.
Zuko had known he was already starting to disappoint his father. His bending had not been very strong, he was clearly not a prodigy and he battled with control and clearing his mind. His tutors had told his father that he tried hard but clearly got frustrated. Father was not interested in a son that tried though. Being told that his son was trying indicated that his son was not succeeding in his lessons.
Azula was a second chance. And she had delivered. An instant prodigy. She drew the highest praise from Zuko's tutors, their grandfather and then one day, from their father himself. And that was that. From that day, no matter what Zuko did or how hard he worked made no difference. She had surpassed him within two years and continued to improve past his capability. Their history tutor said she had a keen strategic mind, their cultural tutor said her memory was unmatched and their bending tutor would lavish praise upon her every accomplishment. It was impossible to match her.
It didn't matter though. Zuko would continue to train harder and study longer. There would be a day where his father would look at him again with pride and he couldn't give up just because Azula was apparently naturally gifted with everything. Frustrated tearful nights had passed and become more infrequent as Zuko had stuck his head down and worked harder. His father was away in a mission in the colonies at the moment and Zuko was determined to impress him when he got home in a few months. He just wanted his father to be proud of him. He knew he was improving and he was sure his father would see something worthwhile in his achievements.
See something of worth in him.
Zuko's mother had tried to convince him that there was nothing to worry about, that his father was just being strict and did love him as much as his sister. Despite the evidence to the contrary, Zuko did appreciate her efforts to make him feel better. That didn't mean he wasn't annoyed with his mother now. He was still discouraged that even she would not tell him what had happened at the Palace in the last two days though. Why would no one just tell him what was going on?
He could have sworn that everything had been as normal two mornings ago. The Palace had seemed busy, yet calm. Zuko had wandered around in the morning, sneaking out to the Gardens. However, when he had reached the serenity of the Gardens, he had observed his uncle standing alone by the lake looking wistfully into the lake. After a moment watching him, Zuko had decided to leave his uncle alone.
Uncle Iroh had only been back a few weeks which, apart from Zuko's aversion to tea, had been a welcomed experience. Uncle had even tried to teach Zuko Pai Sho, saying that Zuko was old enough to begin to learn its strategies. Zuko didn't really like the game, he wasn't good at it, he was almost certain his uncle was cheating and it always came with the same stories and copious amounts of tea. But he had missed his uncle and still enjoyed being able to spend him with him, even if it involved a game he continued to lose abysmally at.
Uncle had appeared to be a little forlorn to have returned without his son though. Lu Ten remained in the colonies on one of the missions dealing with uprising factions in the Earth Kingdom. Zuko's own father was off leading one of these missions, in a different area to the one that Uncle and Lu Ten had been deployed on. Zuko had only heard hushed conversations about the rebellions in hallways of the Palace and once, when his sister had dragged him to hide behind a curtain at the back of a meeting. But what he had heard was enough for Zuko to be nervous for his family. Uncle hadn't spoken about the mission other than saying they had been making progress in the area he had been stationed in. Leaving his son had taken a toll though and the look on his face the previous morning had been enough to signal that Zuko should leave him to his peace.
Zuko had therefore returned this morning to explore the Gardens, only to be confronted by the teasing drawl of his sister and the laughter of her two friends. He had heard the bubbly laughter of one of Azula's friends following his sister's voice and it was enough for Zuko to decide he was not in the mood to deal with whatever games they had planned for the day, games that would inevitably be changed to involve Zuko. The previous week had brought a game that ended with a red faced, squawking Zuko sporting singed cuffs and he was not eager to repeat the process.
Therefore, Zuko had undergone a strategic retreat to the library. He only planned on staying there till lunch. Zuko was sure his uncle would tell him what was different about the Palace and why everyone was acting strangely if he just asked him. But unfortunately he hadn't seen Uncle Iroh since the morning he saw him in the Gardens. Maybe he could go and visit him after lunch, suffer through another Pai Sho lesson and casually slip in a question about what had everyone on edge.
Zuko had been in luck. The library had been empty when he arrived; most of the Palace occupants were either busy or choosing to remain in their rooms. It was easy enough to find a corner and lose himself surrounded by the familiarity of the slightly musty scent and knowledge of the ancient texts lining the walls. Books and scrolls scaled the walls, heading up towards a brilliantly painted mural that covered the ceiling, the mural detailing key moments in the history of the Fire Nation.
The newest addition to the mural had been painted over fifty years prior and depicted the last arrival of Sozin's Comet, named for Zuko's grandfather, a celestial event which brought the Fire Nation heightened firebending power. His grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin, had used this small window of enhanced power to initiate a battle against the uprising from the Air Nation Army and start the war. Fire Lord Sozin's goal had been to spread the Fire Nation's state of wealth, opportunity and advancements in technology to the rest of the world. However, from what Zuko had overheard from the adults and gathered from the length of the conflict, the rest of the world had not been very welcoming of the Fire Nation's mission.
Zuko had successfully fought off boredom for a few hours by reading through one of the scrolls detailing a myth from the age of the dragons. It was easy to get lost in the stories about the valour of firebenders and their natural companions and these were often Zuko's favourite stories. Zuko longed for the opportunity to have experienced that connection and the pride from having his own dragon. However, the last dragon had been killed before Zuko was born and this wish of his had been consigned to day dreaming and stories.
Grumbling from his stomach brought Zuko back from being absorbed in a particularly gripping story of a battle between sibling dragons, one of which was flown by a corrupted firebender. He had reached the part depicting the moment of betrayal between the siblings where the dragon had chosen to align with its rider and the ideology they represented against his own flesh and blood.
Sighing, Zuko checked the time and saw it was getting close enough to lunch to bother with moving. He snuck the scroll back into its hiding place, in a corner Zuko had kept for his favourite scrolls where they couldn't be lost or stolen.
As he left the library, he could hear two ministers browsing next to each other in a parallel aisle. Hovering to see if he could inadvertently catch some clue to what had been going on in the Palace, he was disappointed to find the discussion was regarding a hiccup in the manufacture of some required weaponry. One of the ministers appeared to be particularly concerned about who was to being held to blame over the failure to deliver the shipment on time. That seemed standard enough and not at all the level of gossip Zuko was convinced he was chasing. Disappointed, he huffed and moved out into the hallway, scuffing his feet against the ground for a few steps before remembering himself and walking in a fashion more becoming of a prince and not a sulking boy.
Wandering down the hallway, Zuko started considering whether there would be any use in checking if the Garden had been vacated or whether it was worth asking the cook for something to feed the turtleducks with after lunch. He could go and visit Uncle after –
What was that?
There was very little warning. The sound of quick footsteps reached his ears mere seconds before Zuko was bowled over. The motion threw him to the ground in a pile of tangled limbs, bruises and complete shock. The projectile jumped to their feet a moment later and he was stunned to be staring up at a small girl. A second of confusion flashed over his thoughts before outrage flooded his mind.
What was this strange girl doing running around without looking where she was going?!