A/N: This chapter is subject to change at any time since the person I asked to go over it is a busy lady. Anywho, I hope you enjoy this installment, and please let me know what you think about this story. You don't have to review, but maybe shoot me a message or an e-mail just so I can get some input.

I value your opinions, Readers!
n.n

Quitters

"I thought you were supposed to be helping me," Ozai said with a smirk, watching his brother stare at the abacus with a blank look on his face, pushing beads up and down the wires.

"I didn't realize you'd be cracking codes; I forgot how to use one of these ages ago," Iroh said, turning the device around in his hands before grinning and tossing it back to his brother.

Ozai lunged to catch the fragile, beaded abacus, and the smirk disappeared instantly. "This isn't even mine. Mrs Lao gave them to everyone in class and we're supposed to take care of them," he told Iroh forcefully, poking all of the wires to be sure they were still attached. He wasn't sure if the elder woman who taught math at the Royal Fire Academy for Boys would even do anything to him, considering he was Azulon's son, but for some reason the idea of having to go up to her with a broken abacus, explain what happened and then apologize just made Ozai cringe.

"Mrs. Lao still teaches there?" Iroh asked, amazed. "Wow, she was even old when I graduated. She was Dad's teacher too, I asked him," the crown prince was twirling an ink brush around his finger, looking out of the corner of his eye to see if he could coax a smile out of his perpetually serious younger brother. "What do you think are the odds that she taught Grandfather too?"

Even though he was doing his best to ignore Iroh, intently staring at his abacus and trying to remember how to use it to multiply, Ozai couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head; when Fire Lord Sozin died he was over 100 years old, and Mrs. Lao must have been getting close to that. When she taught her whole body would shake, the students had to yell to be heard, and she would get right up in a boy's face before she could tell who he was. It was pretty surprising that she hadn't fallen apart, or maybe just been forced into retirement.

"There you two are!" came the voice of Iroh's wife, Lan Ying, as she slid open one of the delicately painted paper doors and stepped into the garden where the princes were sitting. Lan Ying was petite with features that seemed too dainty and too soft. She had more meat on her bones than most Fire Nation women and yet somehow, that made her even more beautiful in Iroh's eyes; it was added to the fact that she was nearly eight months pregnant and looked like she was about to pop. "I've been looking all over," she smiled and kissed her husband's cheek. Ozai made a disgusted face; he had yet to meet a girl who he could ever imagine wanting to kiss. "Hi Ozai," she said with a bright smile and a little wave to her brother in law. He returned the wave half-heartedly.

"Well you found us," Iroh said with his usual jovial smile.

"Mhm, the Fire Lord wanted me to come get you so that you to go over some things for the war meeting later," Lan Ying explained.

Ozai sighed quietly, pushing the beads around on his abacus and pretending that he was working. He couldn't wait until he was old enough to go to the meetings too; history was his best subject in school, and what interested him about it most was the war strategies used by his forefathers. He had built up a small database in his mind of what made them successful and what led to failures but he knew that he could learn so much more if he could just sit in on Azulon's meetings with his generals. Unfortunately another thing he knew was that he couldn't go until he was formally invited and that wouldn't happen until he finished at the Academy.

"I guess I'd better not keep him waiting, I'm hindering Ozai's math more than helping anyway," Iroh laughed heartily, standing up. He kissed his Lan Ying's cheek this time, nodded to Ozai and left the way his wife had come in, but at a saunter and whistling a cheery tune.

"How's the studying coming?" his sister in law asked, peeking over his shoulder.

That annoyed Ozai. He hated the feeling of someone reading over his shoulder; it made his skin prickle and the hairs on his neck stand. He froze, waiting for her to move away instead of snapping at her; she was pregnant after all. "It's okay," Ozai said curtly.

He breathed a miniscule sigh of relief when the woman waddled over to the bench Iroh had vacated and slowly eased herself into a sitting position. The prince idly slid beads around on his abacus while Lan Ying glanced around the garden awkwardly. Ozai was introverted before, but since the death of his mother that part of his personality had amplified ten-fold. Not that he minded; he hated struggling for things to talk about, like the always polite and proper Lan Ying was currently. The only good thing that had come from the loss of Ilah was that now no one expected him to live up to the same expectations as before, save his father. The Fire Lord's words from that day were still raw in Ozai's mind and he took great care to be a strong, perfect prince like Iroh, even if it meant following all of the boring, restricting rules of society.

"Uhm," the princess said, "Are you ready start learning firebending?"

With those simple words Ozai's heart leapt out of the dark hole where it had been hiding. That was one thing that he was legitimately happy for. This was the week that his new firebending teacher would be returning to Capital City. Years ago Azulon had sent special word that a man named Jeong Jeong come back from the war front to take his youngest son under his wing, but then there was an important turn in the latest onslaught against Omashu; the elder king died. They could not abandon the push towards the city in its weakened state, and they could not spare the powerful bender, so Ozai's lessons were postponed.

When he heard that news Ozai's six year old heart had broken but he forced himself to understand that Azulon wanted the best teacher for him and would settle for nothing less. So, even though the naturally gifted Iroh offered to teach him instead, he waited, like his father wanted.

Until now. Now the push towards the center of the Earth Kingdom had slowed, and after setting up several colonies on the way, the onslaught towards Omashu was temporarily halted. Soon, Ozai would have his firebending teacher and now he smiled a genuine smile at Lan Ying, whose uncomfortable expression relaxed. "Yes, I'm very excited," he told her, and although his voice didn't sound it, he was.

"I bet you'll be even better than Iroh, but don't tell him I said that," she smiled kindly and winked.

Ozai chuckled. "Thanks," he said and looked down at his school work. He had seen his brother bend, and he was secretly anxious that he may not be able to match Iroh's skill. I could be even better, Ozai reassured himself, pushing the nerves back down and focusing on his teacher's upcoming arrival and his impending lessons. He knew that he was much better than Iroh at math and science but that wasn't nearly so important as raw power in the eyes of Azulon.

His heart was in his throat. Ozai stood in the middle of a small stone courtyard, wearing a simple black training uniform and off to the side of three other boys who were talking to each other jovially, obviously friends; they were all waiting in the training ground for Jeong Jeong. Other boys, the prince thought with eyes widened in panic. The way everyone had talked he'd just assumed that he would be receiving private lessons, like Iroh had. He didn't expect that he would be in a class with the other boys.

Ozai had friends at the Academy, but these were not the type of boys he usually associated with. While the prince stood feet apart, back straight and hands clasped behind him, exactly the way he'd been taught his entire life, these boys' movements were more fluid than stiff, and they were currently slouching in a small circle looking at something in the hands of the shortest boy. When he leaned to the side, Ozai could see the flicker of small flames that the boy was holding; showing off his firebending.

Then, that boy looked up to meet the prince's curious eyes and raised eyebrow. He smiled when Ozai quickly looked down at his shoes, pretending he hadn't been staring and before the prince knew it the boy was standing in front of him grinning. He looked to be a few years younger than Ozai and he had recently lost one of his teeth, leaving a large gap.

He performed a short traditional bow, but it wasn't long enough or deep enough to be appropriate for a meeting between a prince and someone who apparently held no rank. Ozai realized that these boys must not know who he was. "Hey," the boy said, "Is this your first class too? It's ours." Each of his t's whistled through the gap in his teeth, something that Ozai found somewhat ridiculous.

"Yes?" he asked, glancing to the other two boys, both of which sported haphazard topknots that were not tied by servants.

The boy looked over his shoulder at his friends then back to the prince in front of him. "We're from the Hsieh Home for Boys," he explained with another smile and some more irritating whistling. "Jeong Jeong came by looking for firebenders who weren't being trained."

"Oh," Ozai said with a blank nod, trying to decide if he wanted to tell the boy who he was just so he could order him to stop talking.

"Yep, I've been teaching myself some so I can join the army but this is so much better," the boy beamed his smile again and despite his annoyance Ozai found himself somewhat interested; at least he could talk battles with this boy without anyone (Iroh) teasing him or saying how cute it was that he wanted to be a warrior. "You wanna see?" The boys behind him had become bored of watching the new, stiff boy and were now talking amongst themselves.

"Alright," Ozai said with a shrug. He had tried fire bending once several years ago, but had set the curtains on fire in his room when he lost control. Ilah was the first one to arrive when her son poked his head out of his room and yelled for help, and with one wave of her hand the fire was extinguished. His practice had earned him a scolding from his mother and a week in his room from his father. After that, the prince had avoided breaking the 'no fire bending' rule.

The boy stepped back into an unremarkable stance that even Ozai could recognize as weak after watching Iroh's training, but what gave the prince pause was the boy's face. The goofy smile was gone to be replaced by a hard glare that made the prince wonder if maybe he wouldn't make a good soldier one day. With a determined punch and a step forward the boy shot one lukewarm fireball off towards the dummies used for training.

After his small display of fire the boy stepped out of the awkward stance, the wide grin returned, clearly displaying the gap where his tooth would go. "Cool, huh?" he asked.

"Kind of," Ozai admitted, finally returning the boy's smile.

"What is the meaning of this?" asked the stern, commanding voice of the man who had stepped into the courtyard unnoticed by the boys; for some reason Ozai had been expecting an old, wizened man like Iroh's teacher, but Jeong Jeong looked to be even younger than the crown prince. The master gestured to the burned dummy. "There is no firebending allowed unless it is under my supervision. Who did this?"

The new teacher's glare was a match for Azulon and Ozai felt a shiver run down his spine. He almost felt sorry for the irritating boy with the missing tooth. That is, until the boy spoke. "It was him," he said, his eyes wide and innocent.

In shock, Ozai turned to look at his annoying new semi friend, only to see one of the boy's treacherous fingers pointed directly at him. "I didn't!" he started, but Jeong Jeong's face was hard and unforgiving.

"I cannot teach you if you're not willing to learn first," the man said. Ozai's jaw dropped and his heart filled up with that wide, empty, hollow feeling of failure. The boy without the tooth sidestepped to stand with the other boys who were whispering behind their hands. Ozai was too preoccupied to care. Would he be kicked out on the first day for something he didn't even do? What would the Fire Lord say? It wouldn't be pretty; the prince knew that much.

So then, his mind clouded with panic, Ozai said one of the two words that his father had told him never to say. "Please," he said quietly. The words: Only the weak beg; the strong don't need to ask, echoed in his head, but his imagination was already filled up with images of himself kneeling in front of Azulon's fiery throne while his father blazed with rage. Would he light him on fire? Would he banish him? Would he make him do something else that was equally humiliating?

Jeong Jeong sighed, seeming to sense the boy's desperation. "Are you willing to learn, and to follow my rules until you have?" Ozai nodded and even bowed humbly, his heart still trying to beat out of his chest.

The firebending master looked down at him expectantly and with a jolt of annoyance that very nearly outweighed the terror, Ozai realized what he wanted. So, the prince said the other word that he was never supposed to say. "I'm sorry?" Again, the eerie voice of his father echoed in his memories: Never apologize for anything; the strong have no regrets.

The man nodded once. "So then, Prince Ozai. You'll be running laps for today. Tomorrow you can begin training."

Ozai felt a very strange mix of emotions and it took him several seconds to decide which one to focus on. Should he be happy that he wasn't going to get kicked out? Should he be smug at the terrified look on the toothless boy's face? Should he be annoyed that all he was allowed to do was run laps? Should he be ashamed for breaking Azulon's rules about apologies and begging? In the end, Ozai settled for smug and thankful. He ran laps around the courtyard until his legs were burning and he knew that if he stopped for even one second he would collapse.

So, he didn't stop. He ran until Jeong Jeong dismissed the other boys, ignored the toothless boy's guilty glances, and then ran for several more minutes while his master watched.

Finally, with a wave of his hand, Jeong Jeong signaled him to stop. The prince fell forward on his knees his chest heaving. "Good news," he said, but before Ozai could wheeze out a reply, he continued, "You passed your test."

"Test?" the prince gasped, partially because he was shocked but mostly because he hadn't caught his breath.

"You didn't give up," the man said with a small smirk. "There is no room for quitters in my class," he informed the prince before turning to and exiting the training ground, leaving the prince wheezing on the ground.