Yeah, this sort of fic has been done a million and a half times but I love them and here's my take on it. Hope you enjoy!

It was almost midnight when Zuko found me sulking on the beach. The rest of the team were sleeping in the beach house but neither of us would be able to rest easily tonight, not after the day we had.

"Hey Katara," he said, awkwardly standing beside her.

I glanced upward at him. "Hey." I patted the sand next to me. "Sit."

Zuko sat down and stared at the ocean. "Are you still questioning whether or not you should've killed him?"

I nodded, painful memories of my mother's final moments resurfacing. "I know he's a weak, pathetic man. Letting him live was probably a worse punishment. But… doesn't my mother deserve justice?"

Zuko turned to look at me. "I don't think your mother would want you to be a killer."

I sighed. "I guess you're right."

"Don't think about your mom dying. Instead, think of all the happy times you had together when she was alive."

I stared at Zuko. I definitely wasn't expecting such wisdom from him, but I've never truly listened to him before today, have I? "That's right, you lost your mom too."

Zuko silently nodded.

"For a long time I thought you were lying in Ba Sing Se— just manipulating me with false sympathy… but I know that's not true now."

Zuko looked down. "I'm sorry…"

"No, you've apologized enough," I said with a warm smile. "Tell me about her."

A moment passed before Zuko spoke again.

"She was nice," he said with a smile. "My family sometimes felt like an actual family when she was around."

I noticed the clear use of the word 'sometimes' but I didn't say anything about it. Not yet.

Zuko continued. "She tended to the palace gardens and we would sit there by the turtleduck pond, just enjoying nature. And she loved theater. She would read her favorite plays to me and Azula and take us to performances whenever she could." His smile dropped with the mention of Azula. "I was always Mom's favorite child. We had a bond that she didn't have with Azula. She thinks Mom didn't love her, but she did. I just think Mom didn't know how to show it, not after my father corrupted her into what she is now. She claims otherwise, but I know Azula wanted to be close with Mom. I used to think it didn't matter, since she always got our father's praise while he hated me, but I know better now."

I sat there intently listening. I had several questions but I dared not ask them. To my knowledge, Zuko had never been this open about his past before. It might harm him to stop him from making progress like this.

"My father isn't capable of love. If you obey his every command, then he'll value you. That's as far as it goes. It was so tough living under him, but at least I had Mom's unconditional love. Azula never knew she had it too. "

Oh, I wasn't expecting that. I mean, I knew the Fire Lord was ruthless and cruel, but I never considered that his cruelty extended to his own family. Sokka and I were lucky to have such loving parents, but that thought didn't bring me any happiness, not at that moment.

Some tears fell from Zuko's good eye. "And then five years ago Mom just disappeared."

"Disappeared?" I asked. "So she might be alive?"

Zuko stared at the ocean again. "I don't know. For a while I thought she was dead but I found some stuff out recently… and now I'm not sure." His frown deepened. "At least when I thought she was dead there was finality to it. Now I might spend the rest of my life wondering what happened to her. And even if I do find her, I bet she won't accept me after everything I've done."

"Don't say that," I protested. "You're going to find her, and she's going to love you. And I'll help you get that second chance with your mom… the one I'll never get with mine." Dammit, now I was crying. I discreetly waterbended the tears away before Zuko noticed.

He turned to look at me again. "Thank you, Katara."

I smiled. "You're welcome." Neither of us said anything for a moment before I spoke again. "Do you know anything about your mom's disappearance?"

Zuko nodded. "Yes. But beware, there's a lot of politics involved."

"I can handle it," I said with a light chuckle.

"Okay. Have you ever wondered why my father is Fire Lord even though he's younger than my uncle?"

"I can't say I have." Thinking back, it was a really good question. All the depictions I've seen of Fire Lord Ozai showed a man in his prime, a far cry from his uncle who seemed to be in his fifties at least. I'm no expert on royalty, but I know royalty generally operates under primogeniture. "But I assume it's related to your mother."

"It is," he said with another nod. "Uncle was the crown prince ever since he was born. He was the top general beloved by the whole nation, while my father was nothing but a spoiled second-born prince who rarely even left the capital. He craved power more than anything, and that meant trying to usurp the throne for himself. And he saw the perfect opportunity when my cousin died."

"You had a cousin?" I was shocked. Then again, I probably shouldn't have been. We hardly got any world news at the South Pole so why should I know about a member of the royal family who's apparently been dead for years?

"Yeah, Lu Ten. He was 11 years older than me and he was nice and fun, like my uncle. But he died at the Siege of Ba Sing Se and uncle fled the battle in grief. I'm sure that losing his son is what made Uncle stop being in support of the war, but he didn't officially turn traitor until he fought Zhao at the North Pole."

I hummed. "He never did seem to care much about the fight when you were chasing us around the world."

Zuko smiled. "Yeah, he was trying to guide me on the right path, but I was too obsessed with honor to listen back then." His smile disappeared. "Anyway, as soon as the news made it to the palace, my father requested an audience with my grandfather Azulon and he took me and Azula and Mom with him. At first he was just trying to show off, quizzing us on history, making Azula do a firebending demonstration, stuff like that. Eventually Azulon just told my father to get to the point and made the rest of us leave, but Azula stuck around to eavesdrop and brought me with her."

I had a fairly good idea as to where Zuko was going with this? "So Ozai asked to be the next Fire Lord."

"Yeah, he said Uncle was a coward for abandoning the siege and he clearly wasn't returning to the Fire Nation any time soon. But my father was loyal and present at the palace and had living children so he's a better candidate for the throne."

"That's not fair," I protested. "Your uncle lost his son. Of course he would take time to grieve." Grief never fully goes away. My mother died six years ago and what happened earlier today proves I haven't come close to moving on.

"Well, my grandfather agreed," said Zuko. "He got angry, angrier than I've ever seen him— all the flames in the throne room got bigger and hotter. He said that Uncle had been punished enough but my father's punishment had scarcely begun. At that point I got scared and ran away, but Azula stayed." He took a deep breath. "Later that night Azula came into my room and said that Father was going to kill me. That was his punishment— he would be forced to know what Iroh felt by losing one of his children. I told her that wasn't true, that she was just lying like she always does, but I was just trying to convince myself. I knew she was telling the truth."

I gasped in horror. "How… how did you know your father would really kill you? Did he try to kill you before!?"

"I told you he always hated me," said Zuko with an air of resigned acceptance. "I don't think he ever directly tried before that, but I know he considered it. He wanted to cast me out of the palace right after I was born because he thought I was a nonbender. I don't know how literally he meant that, but knowing him he probably would've climbed to the highest floor of the palace and just chucked me out the window."

What? Surely I heard that wrong.

Right…?

But Zuko has proven multiple times that he's a bad liar.

"Clearly, Grandfather didn't understand how much my father hated me. Having to kill me wouldn't be a punishment for him at all." He even chuckled a bit at that. What!?

"How can you laugh at that!?"

"I don't know," he said. "I think my uncle uses humor a lot to hide his sadness. Maybe I'm just doing the same…"

And with that, the dam broke. My tears started flowing and never stopped as I wrapped Zuko in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry! I'm sorry I said so many cruel things to you! If I knew how harsh your life was I never would've threatened to kill you!"

After that, he abruptly pushed me off of him. "Save all your comfort for the end, the story's only half over."

"Oh, okay…" Tui and La, this story's only gonna get worse, isn't it?

"Here's where my mom gets involved. She overheard part of the conversation and dragged Azula away to demand answers. After that I decided to get some sleep. Well,in the middle of the night Mom came back. She said she did everything she did to protect me and to never forget who I am." More tears came from Zuko's eye. "And then she left…"

"For good? Without an explanation!?" That's not fair! He deserves to at least know why!

Zuko shook his head. "I doubt I was awake enough to understand if she did explain. But yeah, the next day she was gone, Grandfather was dead, and Father was crowned Fire Lord. Supposedly that was Azulon's dying wish." The confusion on my face must've been visible, because I was very confused. "I know it doesn't make sense, but… I think I know what happened. Well, maybe not all the details but I know enough."

"Did your mother kill Azulon?" I put my hands over my mouth as soon as I said that. That was my first thought, but what if I was wrong. I could've just offended Zuko even more by calling his mother a murderer.

However, my fears died down when I noticed he didn't seem to be angry. I couldn't quite place the emotion on his face, but it looked like he didn't want to consider the thought.

"Maybe," he finally said after a moment of silence. "At the very least she had something to do with his death. My father altered Azulon's will, that much is obvious at least." He paused for a moment before continuing. "I confronted my father during the eclipse. I figured I would be safe, since he never bothered to learn how to fight without firebending. I let it all out— that the war is wrong, that he was wrong to insult me and burn me and banish me, that I was going to join Aang, that I would find Uncle and beg for forgiveness. He's always been like a true father to me…" He wiped away some more tears. "And then I turned to leave. Father started yelling, saying I was a coward and if I had any courage I'd wait until the eclipse was over, but I didn't care. Then he said 'Don't you want to know what happened to your mother?'"

"Oh, Zuko…"

"He was just stalling for time but the bait worked. He said he would have gladly killed me, but Mom vowed to protect me. She came up with a plan that would save my life and give him the throne. Whatever it was, it worked, and she was banished for her treason.

"Banished?" That's not good, but it's better than being dead.

"Yeah, she could be anywhere. I mean there are few places where she definitely isn't, so I guess not anywhere." He paused. "I know my father isn't a trustworthy source, but everything he said lines up with what I know is true, so I assume it was accurate enough. And by the time he was finished the eclipse just ended and he shot lightning at me."

What.

WHAT!?

"Stop saying stuff like that so casually!" I smacked him on the arm (probably harder than I should've but I didn't care). "That's not right! How are you even alive!?"

"Uncle taught me how to redirect lightning," he said. "I never actually did it before the eclipse but it worked. I just sent it back in Father's direction and then ran. I wasn't actually aiming at him, but maybe I should've been…"

"No." I said with surprising firmness. "Getting out of there alive was your top priority. What matters is you did the right thing."

Zuko made eye contact with me for the first time in a while. "I guess you're right."

"When you said he burned you…" I let go and pointed at the large scar on his face. "You meant that, right?

He touched the scar as he often did. "I don't really want to talk about that right now… but yeah, it was him. I kind of assumed everyone in the world knew. Some random guy in an Earth Kingdom ghost town did."

"We didn't get a lot of news in the south," I said. "100 years of war really cut us off."

"Sorry."

"Stop being sorry! I'm sorry." I gave him another tight hug. "I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. No child deserves to be treated like that, let alone by their own father."

"I know that now."

I started crying again. "I can barely even imagine what that's like. Three years ago my dad and the other men of the tribe left to fight in the war. For a while I was mad, mad that Sokka and I were left behind without parents. But he was doing a noble thing." I frowned. "That's the closest experience I can think of. Fuck, that's nothing compared to what you've been through!"

"Your dad's a strong man," said Zuko with conviction. "You'll see him again when this is all over."

"I hope you're right."

The conversation kind of died there. We let go of the hug and just sat there watching the nighttime ocean waves. It was about ten minutes before Zuko said something else.

"I'm pretty sure Sokka and Suki had sex the other night."

And the mood is ruined. "Why would you say that? We were having a perfectly good time and you ruined it."