Zuko woke up with a pounding in his head and a throbbing in his jaw, the light filtering in from his room's window intensifying his headache.

Ugh, how much did I have to drink last night?

He was having a hard time even remembering how he'd gotten home. His room was in a disarray, one of his Uncle's decorative pots lying in shards on the floor. He winced as he sat up, feeling a sharp pain in his side as he did so. Turning his head, he noted a large purple bruise forming on his ribcage.

Staggering to his feet, he stumbled to his bedroom door, shuffling out to an empty kitchen.

A note sat on the table, his Uncle Iroh's neat lettering scrawled across the paper.

Zuko, went to Tea Shop to restock my personal supplies. There is leftover breakfast in the fridge and some medicine for your headache on the table. Help yourself to a healing cup of Jasmine tea, the kettle is above the stove.

Love Your Uncle Iroh

Zuko groaned and grabbed the bottle of pills sitting next to the note, popping some in his mouth and crossing over to the sink to drink from the faucet.

"What happened last night?" he muttered aloud. "The last thing I remember is… what is the last thing I remember?"

He remembered getting to the bar and meeting up with Song and the others.

And Katara. He remembered Katara, dancing with her, and Song crying and…

Jet.

At the thought of his name, his jaw and ribs gave another throb and he winced.

Did I get into a bar fight last night?

He hated drinking. He was an abysmal lightweight, a trait his sister loved to remind him of. She could drink circles around him, and she was half his size. It really wasn't fair how much better at everything Azula had to be.

Finding the kettle, he filled it with water and set it on the stove, lighting it with a quick burst of his bending. He went and plopped down at the kitchen table and pulled his phone from his sweatpants, groaning and pinching his nose.

10 missed calls and 25 unopened text messages from Mai.

Better get this over with now.

He opened his voicemail and set it to the speaker, flinching and turning the volume down as soon as his ex-girlfriend's furious voice blared over the phone.

"SERIOUSLY ZUKO?! You think the answer to our relationship troubles is to send me a selfie of you and some water tribe whore at a club? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

*BEEP* "Message deleted, next message"

"Ohhhh you're just not going to answer me now? Really Zuko? You're so pathetic, it's no wonder I left you for Ruaon-Jian, you slimy little -"

*BEEP* "Message deleted, next message"

"Zuko Sozin you ANSWER THIS PHONE RIGHT NOW OR I'M CALLING YOUR SISTER AND -"

*BEEP* "Message deleted, next mess-"

He hit end call and rubbed his temples with his fingers, the meds slowly relieving the intensity of his head ache.

Taking a deep breath, he scrolled through the miles of insulting texts from Mai before he found the offending message.

He'd sent a Mai a picture, a high angle selfie of Zuko and Katara looking incredibly inebriated on the dance floor. He found himself lingering a little too long on the brown skinned woman's shining blue eyes and mesmerizing smile. They both looked like they were having the time of their lives, and Zuko only wished he could remember it more clearly.

He opened his camera roll to delete the photo, as much as he didn't want to. He didn't feel right keeping it now that he was sober and didn't have her permission to do so.

Not that her opinion mattered to him, of course. He was Zuko Sozin, heir to the Fire Nation throne and one of their nation's largest industries, he didn't need some lowly water tribe peasant's permission for anything.

Don't call her that, he chided himself, regretting thinking of her as such. If she was a vet student, that meant she was smart, and they were living in too modern of times to think of people as peasants or nobles. His finger hit the delete button, and he was surprised to see another picture pop up immediately after that, his eyes widening as he stared in disbelief at his phone, thanking Agni that he'd sent Mai a photo of them dancing and not this one.

He certainly didn't remember this part of the evening at all.

The water tribe woman had her lips pressed firmly against his, and they both had blissful smiles playing at the corners of their mouths, eyes closed and bodies smooshed tightly together, her fingers wrapped in his shirt collar, tugging him in.

In the background, he made out an angry looking Jet who looked to be walking in their direction. He touched a hand to the right side of jaw, wincing slightly. That would account for that.

The sound of the door opening almost made him throw his phone into the air as he jumped, scrambling to shut his screen off and turning towards the door.

"Ah, nephew! You are awake, and you left the water on too long!" Iroh exclaimed as he slid inside, setting down his paper bags of groceries and removing the kettle from the stove, extinguishing the flame.

"Sorry Uncle, got caught up checking voicemails," Zuko told him, holding his phone up. It wasn't a complete lie.

"I see," Iroh answered, turning to give him a sly grin. "So, you had an interesting night out on the town then." A statement, not a question.

Zuko groaned, putting his face in his palm. "Don't remind me," he grumbled. "How bad was I?"

Iroh chuckled, resting a hand on his belly as he did so. "No worse than your father and I in our school days. Though I must say you fared much better than your opponent. A bruised jaw is always preferable to a black eye."

"I don't even remember fighting," Zuko moaned, head still hung.

"No, I don't suppose you would," Iroh chuckled again, setting a steaming cup of tea down in front of him. "You're lucky I arrived when I did, your new lady friend almost got the two of you in quite a bit of trouble."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zuko asked, peeking up to look at his uncle, squinting his good eye in the sunlight.

"Well, Zuko, you should really watch how much you consume. Poor balance is not good for winning fights."

Zuko snapped his head up the rest of the way. "You mean I was losing?!" He couldn't believe it, that little earth nation prick was beating him?

"Ehh, you certainly were not winning. But your friend, she is quite the impressive bender," Iroh told him, smiling fondly in remembrance and laughing. "She froze that other boy solid to the wall, almost got the both of you arrested by Dai Li agents until I showed up and took the three of you home."

Zuko furrowed his brow in confusion. "The three of us?" he asked.

Iroh nodded, sipping a cup of his own tea. "Yes, you, the water tribe student, and poor Song. She was quite distraught for some reason when we left. I think that other boy was her boyfriend."

A rush of guilt hit Zuko as he remembered something from the night before. Song had told him she liked him, and had asked Zuko to go out some other time, just the two of them. He'd declined and then… oh, you ass.

He'd turned right around and asked Katara to dance with him.