Shouto wasn't sure what exactly was going on. One second he was in his dorm, responding to a message Zuko had sent and now he was here… somehow. Although, Shouto ignored his confusion for just a moment to admire the scenery. They didn't really have anything like this in Tokyo, so he had to conclude he wasn't in his hometown anymore.

Now Shouto allowed himself to be confused. From what he could see, he was outside, someplace warm, there was a pool of water to the left of him and he had to admit it really did reflect the dawn perfectly…

Beyond that he counted three other people besides himself. A boy that seemed to be sleeping, a girl, that he had to admit, was very pretty, even in the dim light, but she didn't look like any of the other girls he had met before. She had darker skin and hair.

With this in mind he finally came to a possibility. Could this place he'd never seen before be in… America? Shouto had to admit, America did have strange clothing, but he heard the food was delicious and the unhealthiest thing you'd ever get the pleasure of eating.

"Excuse me, is this America?" Shouto asked.

The girl just gave him a strange look, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What?" he heard a voice behind him.

Shouto glanced behind himself. He had honestly forgotten about the last person as he'd been too busy staring at kids with arrows on their heads and pretty girls like he'd never seen before. But examining the other, he instantly observed three points of interest. One, the boy had a ponytail (nothing wrong with that, he'd just never seen it before). Two, he was soaking wet, god knows why. Three, he had a large scar over the left side of his face, perhaps even bigger than Shouto's.

He also spoke English, just like in America… so Shouto switched from Japanese. He knew a few other languages too such as French, Italian, German, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, and Sign Language. His father thought it was important for a Hero to be able to speak fluently in multiple languages so he could speak to multiple victims even if they didn't speak Japanese. And unfortunately, Shouto agreed on that point, so he'd taken the time to learn.

"I asked, is this America?" he said, in English this time.

"I don't know where that is, but this isn't it. Now who are you, and how did you find this place." The girl demanded.

"I'm Shouto."

They both heard a thud and glanced over to the scar-faced boy who had presumably dropped the younger boy he had been carrying because he was positioned in an awkward heap.

The kid slept even harder than Shouto did though, because he didn't wake up. "Aang!" the girl shouted and Shouto watched as she gathered water up in her hands and flung them as iced spikes toward the scarred boy.

Only now, did Shouto wonder if he had interrupted something very intense. Because now it became clear that the people here didn't really seem to be friends. He couldn't explain it, but before it had been more of an intense feeling he felt, but now it was confirmed. As far as he knew, Shouto was the only one who might throw ice spikes at his friends.

And that was only in sparring, so it was a perfectly valid reason. The only one Shouto could think of who might throw an attack at his friends for no reason at all would be Bakugou and by now Shouto had recognized he was a very special case.

Shouto watched as they fought and he didn't know who to help. Who was the good guy here? So he just stood there and did nothing. He'd never seen himself as an indecisive person, but this was even more important than deciding what he should use Izuku's notebook for. He didn't want to help the villain of this situation, but neither of them seemed particularly evil, so Shouto wasn't sure why they were fighting exactly…

A lot of things occurred in the time Shouto observed what was happening. More people rode in on a giant, fluffy… dog, thing. They really did have extraordinary things in America.

The others that arrived didn't seem to like scar-boy either but just because there was more of one side didn't really mean anything. For all he knew, the villain's backup could've arrived. Though, the pretty girl and Aang, didn't seem like they were villains.

"WAIT!" Shouto shouted loudly as he could. Because obviously he was good at shouting to get people's attention since 'shout' was even in his name.

"Why are you fighting?"

Different answers from everyone on the pretty girl's team but from what he could make out, the common theme was that scar-boy was trying to kidnap their friend.

That was villain behavior… so he listened for scar-boy's answer.

"None of your business."

Shouto squinted at the boy. Now where had he heard that before… "That boy… he wouldn't happen to be the avatar, would he?" Shouto asked pointing at Aang. The others looked at each other and then hesitantly nodded. Fire powers, trying to kidnap the avatar, says 'none of your business'. "Zuko?"

"Prince Zuko." Zuko corrected, glaring at him.

Well, he wasn't what Shouto had been expecting. There were no rings (unfortunately) and he didn't have red hair though he supposed Zuko did have amber eyes…which was close to orange, so he'd take it. But the thing he hadn't been expecting, was that Zuko was shorter than him.

Like… kind of a lot shorter. Shouto couldn't exactly see from here, but if he had to make a guess, he'd say Zuko might come up to his shoulder. "Um… it's me, Shouto. So, you live in America. And as for how I'm here, my parents were uh…" Zuko thought he lived under a rock and never looked out his bedroom window. "I ran away." He said after a pause.

"But why did you appear in a flash of light?" the pretty girl asked.

"What can I say, I'm a bit of a showoff."

Zuko rolled his eyes, "Well you can leave now, since you've already screwed up everything enough."

Shouto wanted to say something while trying sarcasm, something like, 'well sorry I prevented you from kidnapping a human being,' but he didn't and instead just silently stared at Zuko.

"So, you're actually a prince?" strange, he thought America was a democratic republic…

"Yes," he snapped.

So that meant no mental hospital. The vision of Zuko running away from figures in white coats disappeared. Thank god that was one nightmare that wasn't coming true.

But that still left the question of who he should help. He thought asking them why they were fighting would help, but it only made things harder. Anyone with half a brain could see who the 'good guys' were. But Zuko was his friend and he didn't want to fight him.

It was against his principles to fight against his friends outside a sparring match, but he couldn't very well help Zuko, but he didn't want to just stand and watch either.

Even more strange, was that he had made friends with a person who would probably be considered a villain in his country, maybe America was different, but the fact remained Shouto didn't think he would be able to make friends with Zuko if he was really evil.

Shouto stared at his shoes and just walked, deep in thought. As he was doing this, another presence had entered the vicinity and Aang had also woken up and looked almost as lost as Shouto felt… and well, Shouto supposed he looked too.

As for the other presence, Shouto finally took notice of a man, almost as tall as himself, but still a little short. Considering this man looked like an adult, Shouto quickly assumed that he was tall compared to most people in America.

But why was he wading into the pool of water in the center of the clearing? Shouto didn't know why, but he didn't think that guy was supposed to be in there, and he gave Shouto bad vibes unlike anyone else had before, save the villains he had encountered while at UA. Shouto didn't really want to talk to him. So instead he created ice in his hands and froze the man solid where he stood.

Maybe that was the wrong thing to do, and maybe he was actually a good guy, but better safe than sorry he supposed. Shouto turned back and expected a fight still, but no, the group was just talking amongst themselves and Zuko appeared to be defeated. Shouto almost called him a dumbass but instead focused on how the other group was oblivious to what he had just accomplished. "Um… excuse me."

Aang seemed to notice him and turned with a smile. "Oh, hi, who're you?"

"I'm Shouto." He responded. "Of the Fire Nation."

Aang instantly seemed more cautious after he said that. Shouto almost wanted to take it back but he recognized it was already too late. "But I'm not interested in fighting, or capturing, or whatever it is they want to do to you and everyone else." Shouto added quickly.

"Wait, did you say Fire Nation." The pretty girl asked.

"No…" Aang raised an eyebrow at him. "I mean yes."

Shouto tried to explain but they already seemed prepared to fight him. Seriously, two words, Fire Nation, and it set everyone off. "It makes sense, that's how you know Zuko." She added, glaring at him. "And why you showed up when you did. You did it to help him."

Shouto opened his mouth to object and then closed it because… well, it was sort true. He had wished to help Zuko, but that was when he thought he was getting chased by people in white lab coats, not kidnapping kids.

He also thought about back-peddling and telling them he wasn't from America but as time went on he started suspecting this wasn't America, or more specifically, not even his world.

Or he was on a very remote island where everyone was weird.

To be honest, the second option was much more plausible in his opinion.

"Listen, I don't want to fight you, see, I even caught that guy." Shouto pointed behind him, but as he turned he saw nothing. Apparently the ice had melted. "Fu—" he glanced at Aang, "—dge."

"Well, he was there, but there was a guy and he went into the pond but I fro-fired him. And um, he was still alive though."

"You're really not here to hurt us?" Aang asked.

"No, I'm not."

"Okay, if you say so. I'm Aang, and these are my friends, Katara, Sokka, Momo, Appa, and Princess Yue."

"Should I bow?"

"You don't have to do that." Yue said with a small, cautious, but kind smile.

"What I don't understand, is that, if you're here that must mean you came from the Fire Nation troops attacking the city, but you have no interest in fighting." Katara said

Shouto shrugged. "I guess I just don't have much of a temper compared to everyone else in the Fire Nation."

"That makes sense." Aang said.

"Actually, It really doesn't." Sokka crossed his arms. Was it wrong for Shouto to have only known his name for a minute and only heard him clearly speak one sentence but he already reminded Shouto slightly of Kaminari…

Maybe it was, but he just had a feeling.

"I'm not exactly like the rest of the Fire Nation, I honestly don't know much about anything, my own nation included. My parents kept me very… sheltered from the war and everything else."

"Well I didn't know about the war until like, a month ago, so it's okay." Aang said.

"Yeah, but you were incased in ice, that's a little different." Katara frowned.

They were right to be suspicious, considering what the Fire Nation had supposedly done, but he was also confused at how they seemed to lump everyone from the Fire Nation together in a group of evil.

Something he couldn't say he appreciated. That's why when he saw Zuko sneak off wherever it was he was going, Shouto didn't say anything and just snuck off in the same direction.

Those kids were really oblivious and unobservant he had noticed. They didn't seem to see he was gone until he was slipping through the exit Zuko had gone through.

"Hey, where'd they go…"

"Zuko," Shouto called when he got close enough. The other whirled around and sent a blast of fire his way. Shouto barely dodged.

"What do you want!" he snapped, glaring.

"Oh, uh… I don't know. It just seemed to be getting really awkward in there so I chose to borrow your idea to exit."

Zuko still scowled. "Nice ponytail, by the way."

"Don't mock me!"

"Okay."

Zuko was silent for a while before finally saying, "You're hair isn't exactly great either. Seriously, choose a color and stick with it."

"My nickname's half'n'half. Sometimes people call me icy-hot too because half red half white." When he said 'people' he really meant Bakugou, but it wasn't like Zuko would know the difference. "Don't you have a nickname?"

"No. Now get out of my sight, peasant. I have nothing to say to you. You ruined everything."

"Well sorry, but I'm not sorry for stopping you from kidnapping a kid."

"Die alone in a ditch."

"You're very specific."

"You're welcome."

Shouto frowned and kept walking with him anyway. "Well, ever since I've run away I haven't known where to go. It's pure luck I ran into you here, I guess."

"Lucky me." Zuko said sarcastically.

"I know. Something tells me you don't have a lot of friends to talk to."

"I have plenty of friends!"

"Like who?"

Zuko was silent for an entire minute before he growled in frustration and turned his sharp eyes on Shouto, but ever since Shouto found out Zuko was two head shorter than himself, he had somehow become less intimidating than he was writing his threats with lots of exclamation marks.

"I have more friends than a shut-in reject like you has!"

"Somehow I doubt it. I have more than five friends, and that's not even including my siblings."

Zuko made a hand gesture Shouto didn't recognize but he was fairly sure it was the equivalent of the middle finger. And why did he find it funny Zuko had just flipped him off? Maybe it was because Zuko was older than him and shorter or maybe it was just because he looked so angry it was hilarious.

"I hate you."

"I would say your words hurt, but they don't."

"Keep running your mouth and maybe my words don't hurt so I'll have to test my fists next."

"With your tiny hands, I doubt it."

"My hands are NOT tiny, yours are just freakishly large!"

"It makes my hits five times more effective than yours though."

"Remind me, why you're here again! Do you have another purpose or were you born just to make my life harder!"

"Don't think so highly of yourself. And I'm not making your life any harder because you already do a perfect job of that yourself."

"What happened to the 'die alone in a ditch' plan."

"It got scrapped for plan B. I've always wondered if someone can get so angry steam comes out of their ears."

"Well unfortunately, you'll never get to test that!"

"Why?"

Zuko stopped walking for a total of five seconds before he pivoted on the balls of his feet and punched Shouto as hard as he could.

Shouto had to admit, he did have a mean left hook, but it wasn't anything he hadn't felt before. Shouto rose back up to his full height and rubbed his jaw, "Alright, I deserved that I guess. Sorry if I hurt your feelings."

"You didn't, you were just being a little shit, so I punched you!"

Shouto stared and then laughed slightly. "Yes, yes, you're right. But I've been wondering, where exactly are we going?"

"Way to change the subject." Zuko grumbled and sighed. "Fine, if you must know, we're leaving. No point getting caught up in this now. I lost my chance to capture the avatar and my last chance to regain my honor. It's like… no matter how hard I try everything else is conspiring against me, so no matter what I do there's always something to stop me, something to take me down. The first time it was the mountain, then a giant fish, then a storm, and Zhao, and now you. Maybe it's time to stop chasing something so intangible and just give up."

"You can't give up! If you really want something, you have to get it! What do you really want, Zuko?"

"My honor." But what Zuko was really saying was, 'my father's love.'

"There are more ways to get honor than just one. That's not something anyone can give you but yourself. Unless… it's something else you really want." Zuko was silent and looked away, staring at everything except Shouto.

"I want my father to accept me, I don't want him to think I'm a failure anymore."

Shouto wasn't sure how that felt. If anything, Shouto had always wanted his father to stop paying so much attention to him. He supposed, Zuko felt like his siblings must have, when father didn't want them because he deemed them 'failures' just because they weren't perfect.

That is to say, despite Shouto not knowing exactly what that felt like, he did have an answer, though he didn't think it was an answer Zuko would want to hear. "Maybe, you should stop thinking about how to get your father to love you, and just love yourself. I know, it's not what you want to hear, but you shouldn't have to change or prove yourself to him, he should just love you for who you are, not who you could be."

"But I want to return to the Fire Nation with the avatar in hand, and I want my family to love and accept me, I want my people to accept me, I want to win the war for my father!"

Shouto was tempted to say, 'is that what you want, or is that what you want because your father wants it'. But he didn't say it, "And that's what you really want?" Shouto asked.

Zuko nodded.

They both fell silent for several minutes before Shouto spoke, "Then, if that's what you really want, then let me help you get it."

A/N Zuko is short and you can't change my mind. I never even realized I liked the idea until I did research and found people estimating his height to be from 5'1-5'3 which I found interesting, so it's going to be about that height. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it and I hope you enjoyed more reveal of how this story is going to go. Reviews are love, see you next week!

p.s. I just finished Avatar again.

p.s.s. I want to cry.