Zuko stood in front of his University-issue dresser, staring gravely at the green polo shirt in his hands and desperately wishing he didn't have to put it on. He had nothing against the University of Ba Sing Se logo emblazoned on the chest, but the white script stitched beneath which read "Housing & ResLife" made his palms sweat. Outside the door, he could already hear loud families piling up the stairs and flooding out of the elevators, laden with plastic housewares, and expecting to be greeted by the poor sophomore that had been sentenced to babysit their out of control eighteen year olds. This isn't about you, he reminded himself firmly, closing his eyes to steel himself. You're doing this for Uncle. He pulled the shirt over, and as his head popped through the neck hole, he opened his eyes to the fluorescent lighting of his single room and tried to tell himself he was a new person.

As soon as he waded into the throng with his affiliation declared in green and gold, he was swarmed by parents. Apparently nobody could find their child's nametag on a door, and several people had the wrong floor entirely. The one kid who had managed to successfully swipe himself into the right room had run inside to drop his things only to race back into the hallway and yell, "Hey Dad, I'm in!" The door slammed closed right behind him, trapping his student ID inside. Zuko sighed, and trudged over to swipe his own card over the door and enter the RA's entry code. He himself had only moved out of his Uncle's apartment and into a dorm for the first time a week ago for the ResLife orientation, but he had thought the directive to always keep your ID on your person had been relatively clear compared to the rest of it. "Thanks, man," his resident said, abashed.

"Just doing my job," he droned.

Zuko was about to move on when the guy said, "I'm Sokka."

"Zuko." And then because he remembered that he actually needed this job, he offered his hand to shake and told him, "My room is down the hall if you need me. 477."

"Sweet, I'll see you around." The man his resident had shouted at earlier arrived at the door with a box in his arms and a bemused expression, so Zuko tried to smile at him a little and ducked out of the way, off to the next non-emergency.

That first night, Zuko had the unfortunate luck of getting put on duty in the RA office. The second and third year RA's told him that was just what happened to the new kids. "You have to pay your dues. Let a couple freshmen tell you about their nightmares, make them some instant cocoa - no big."

"Yeah, a couple weeks from now is when night shift is really gonna start sucking. Once the babies discover parties it's all over."

So he took his place in the office after quiet hours started and got comfortable with a book. There was another RA in the office with him, Jin, and she smiled at him but pulled on headphones and a few small balls and started practicing juggling, humming under her breath. That suited Zuko just fine. Making friends had never been one of his strong suits - in high school he had pretty much kept to himself besides his sister and the friends she'd had with her all the time. That's how he and Mai had ended up together anyway, both of them so miserable in their teen years, each hoping that their relationship might soothe whatever else pained them.

It made him cringe a little to think how naive he had been. Even as a senior, so close to adulthood he could taste it, he'd still harbored some insane notion that he and Mai could love each other to make up for how cold and hateful his own home was. She hadn't been much better, always putting it on him to be the one thing to feel real in a life that she always complained felt like being asleep. The whole thing was so high school - not that he'd learned much better since coming to college except to eschew dating entirely. He hadn't missed it though - not their relationship and not the nebulous idea of someone.

Moving into his Uncle's apartment in Ba Sing Se was the best decision he had ever made for himself, hard though it had been. It had meant letting go of more than just the comforts of the spacious house he'd grown up in. It meant leaving behind all his dreams of earning his father's approval or convincing his sister to break free of him too. The place above Uncle's tea shop was small for two grown men, but Iroh's presence made it feel more cozy than cramped. His freshman year, he had spent his days attending class, working in the shop nights and weekends, and the rest of his time studying. It hadn't left much time to experience the kind of college life he'd seen in movies, but after so many years living under the crushing weight of his father's disappointment, feeling the aching void of his mother's absence, he'd just been grateful to feel like he had a life worth living at all.

All night, packs of freshmen passed in front of the RA office, and a few of them peeked inside to see what was happening. Some of them eyed Jin's juggling with interest, but Zuko looking up from his book usually sent them scurrying away. After the second time, he turned his chair so they wouldn't see his scar. He settled in easily to the routine of the night. Three people came down asking to get let back into their rooms: one guy whose roommate had left for a party while he was fighting the vending machine, a very red-faced girl in a towel that got a comforting pat from Jin and a packet of fruit snacks from the top drawer of the desk Zuko had commandeered, and an even more red-faced guy with a strategically placed shower caddy.

Nothing particularly interesting or unexpected happened until about three in the morning. By then, Zuko and Jin hadn't quite gotten to an in-depth conversation, but they were sitting at the desk together and sipping on weak coffee from the machine in the RA office and watching Culture & Restoration on her laptop.

"The Dai Li can't possibly be this weird in real life," Jin declared, popping another fruit snack in her mouth. Zuko shook his head.

"No way. Although, my cousin spent a summer clerking for the arts minister back home, and the forms bullshit is accurate." Jin made an amused hum, and swallowed the last of her coffee. Zuko yawned. "Is it really necessary for someone to be on call all the time? I don't think we've even heard anyone in an hour." Jin shrugged.

"Welcome week. Chaos never rests."

Almost as though her ominous proclamation had summoned it, the front door of the dormitory slammed closed, and both RA's jumped in their seats. Zuko was already getting to his feet to check the source of the noise when the resident from that morning - Sokka, he remembered - rounded the corner and passed the office, his arms laden down with bags. They were all from the 24-hour copper piece store and from what Zuko could tell they weren't filled entirely with snacks as most purchases he'd seen that day. One bag seemed to be overflowing with sparkly party supplies and holiday decorations, and another bulged with indistinct but irregular shapes. A pair of swim fins was protruding from yet another bag. Zuko and Jin exchanged baffled glances, but she just shrugged and wandered back towards the coffee maker.

Immediately suspicious and feeling less inclined to ignore instinct, Zuko cleared his throat, drawing Sokka up short. The resident tried to poorly conceal his purchases behind his back. Very suspicious.

"Hey, Sokka, right?" Zuko asked, his voice casual, but his crossed arms and furrowed brow clearly conveying I'm on to you.

"Yeah," he said, fidgeting nervously. "Hey, Zuko. Uh, thanks again for the save earlier - pre-tty dumb, huh?" Sokka forced a laugh and Zuko fought the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. This guy was nowhere near Azula's calibur of deception. "Classic freshman. My dad's never gonna let me live that one down." Yeah. Dads are like that. Zuko nodded

Sokka relaxed a little, like he thought he was actually distracting him from all the bags of weird shit. So he kept talking.

"And really, there's just no shame like a Dad Burn, ya know?" Zuko went cold all over. His scowl melted off. His arms dropped to his side. His face itched. Calm down, he tried to tell himself. Nobody here knows. It could just be a weird birthmark. Calm down. Nobody thinks people's parents really do shit like that - Calm. Down. When the static in his ears receded, Sokka was still rambling on about "...the Dad Jokes of burns. Like you're embarrassed for you, but also of him."

"That's rough, buddy." He sounded like an automaton, but Sokka didn't question it, still backing towards the stairwell. Zuko didn't move to follow him or retreat to the desk, just stood frozen as Sokka disappeared back to his room. After a minute, Jin pressed a fresh cup of coffee into his chest, and when he wrapped his fingers around the mug, the heat helped him breathe steadier again.

"Two more hours," she reminded him. "And then they're someone else's problem." Zuko shook his head. That wasn't how his life worked.