Zuko and Aang had barely caught their breaths before walking into the peace meeting, but they quickly composed themselves. All of the gaang was there (obviously) along with other war generals and nobles from all four nations.

Even though Zuko was the fire lord, he felt the need to bow for all these brave, kind-hearted people. He caught his uncle's eye as he began to reposition himself to a standing position. That look from his uncle gave him the confidence he needed to get this meeting started.

"Good afternoon everybody," Zuko started. "I wanted to start out by thanking you all for coming out here today. I'm sure you all probably want to be doing other things than this right now, and I hope that it won't take too long.

He and Aang then took their places around the table. "First things first, is everyone here?" Zuko asked.

Katara raised her hand and said, "Uh, fire lord Zuko, Sokka's not here yet," she said sheepishly.

"Katara, there's no need for the titles—I'm still Zuko. I've never really been into the titles anyway," Zuko said. There were a couple of people who laughed. "Do you know where Sokka is Katara? Is Suki with him?" he asked noticing that she wasn't here either.

"I think they were under the impression that the meeting wasn't until tonight," Katara said with a slight blush on her cheeks.

'Well, that can't be good,' Zuko thought to himself. "It's okay though. If everybody doesn't mind waiting a little longer, I can easily send Sokka a note," Zuko said. "Does anyone have a problem with that?" Zuko asked forcefully while silently hoping that no one would object. No one spoke up, so Zuko excused himself to go and send a note to Sokka.

"Dear Sokka,

Sorry if you didn't know this, but there's sort of a peace meeting going on right now, so everyone would appreciate it if you would come as quickly as possible. Sorry if I didn't let you know before, but I'm telling you now! Thanks again Sokka.

From, Zuko"

Zuko sent the messenger hawk off as quickly as possible and then rushed back to the peace meeting. He found everyone chatting amongst themselves. Zuko smiled to himself. 'So it is possible to have peace,' he thought happily.

Zuko sat back down next to Aang. Zuko absentmindedly slipped back into his stiff, hard, emotionless mask.

Aang nudged him. "What?" Zuko asked

"Zuko, you have to learn to loosen up! You look totally freaky right now," Aang said with a hint of fear in his voice.

"Sorry," Zuko started out, "It's a bad habit I sort of picked up since before I can remember. However, I have also been told that I freak out about everything," Zuko said thoughtfully.

"Well, that is sort of true," Aang said, "You sort of overreact about a lot of things."

"Well, it's nice to know that," Zuko said sardonically. "How I can change that, I have no idea!"

Aang looked thoughtful. "Zuko, you are who you are. Although you may be sort of cold sometimes, deep down I think that you do care about things. I also think that you should try and find the one other person that loved you other than your uncle—your mom," Aang said with a hint of care in his voice.

Zuko thought about this intensely. "I would love to see my mom again," Zuko said slowly, "but what if I can't find her?" Zuko asked.

"It's still worth a try. I know that I would love to see air benders again, and I'm going to go look for them after I go to your uncle's celebration party," Aang said.

"I think you're right Aang—thanks," Zuko said.

Aang was about to say something but Sokka rushed into the room panting at that particular moment, so Aang shut his mouth. Suki was standing close behind him with a smile on her face.

The entire room fell silent and looked at Sokka and Suki. Sokka stood there dumbly, a deep red color covering his face while Suki let a giggle slip through her red lips.

"Sorry we're late Sparky!" Sokka said—he was obviously trying to draw attention away from himself. Whatever his motives, it worked. Zuko slapped his forehead at the silly nickname, and everyone started laughing.

'At least it wasn't Zuzu,' Zuko thought happily. He had always hated that nickname.

"Okay everybody," Zuko started, "now that you all know my nickname, lets get down to some real business."

"I don't know Sparky," Toph said playfully, "I think that everyone figuring out your nickname was pretty important!"

"Really Toph?" Zuko asked.

"Sorry Sparky! You'll have to be quicker next time!" Toph said with a smile on her face.

"Anyway," Zuko said irately, "I called this meeting to firstly apologize for Ozai and the fire nation's evil behavior over the past 100 years or so. We acted terribly, and I hope that former prejudices won't get in the way of our new era of peace."

Everyone clapped at this, and Zuko let a small smile come to his lips.

"I want to rebuild the world with all of you, and if you need anything, please just let me know. If you presently have any questions or concerns, speak up now," Zuko paused seeing if anyone had a complaint.

Sokka raised his hand. "Yes Sokka?" Zuko asked, regretting calling on him the moment Sokka began to speak.

"So, I've noticed that there are too many singing nomads who travel the world. Also, there is this cabbage merchant who—"Zuko cut Sokka off.

"Sokka, what do you expect me to do about that?" Zuko asked.

Everyone broke into laughter again.

"Are there any other concerns from anyone besides Sokka?" Zuko asked while trying to ignore Sokka's crazy hand and weird noises.

No one else raised their hand, so Zuko continued, "Okay then. I'll be traveling to everywhere I can over the next few months to help rebuild everyone's cities. I hope that this will be done soon, but it may take a while. I hope to see you all soon, and I hope I haven't interrupted anything too important for any of you. Enjoy the rest of your day, and I hope that you all will come to the festival tonight," Zuko said.

Zuko stood and bowed to everyone in the room and Aang followed in suit. Everyone bowed back, and then the room filled with light, happy conversations.

Zuko exited the room as quickly as he could without seeming to be rude, and then ran down the hallway as he looked for the fastest way to get to the Boiling Rock. He was going to talk to Ozai and hopefully find his mother.