Jay's POV

I've locked everyone out of the one room in this damp apartment. Iroh stopped knocking a while ago, but Zuko keeps vigilant. I'm spread out in the middle of the room staring at the ceiling.

"Jay.. c'mon open up dammit. You don't understand."

I ignore him. It's funny it hasn't gotten that hard to shut him out anymore. I mean he's hardly noticed me before. I sit up so I can look at my feet and see that the bandages are getting soiled. Well I never did actually buy those when I was out. This could be my chance to start again, to start my work again, but I want that pendant back. Zuko's knocking is relentless. I finally get up and unlock the door and Zuko comes falling in.

"Ow"

"Shut up. Where's my pendant?"

"What?"

"Don't be stupid I know you have it. Now where is it?"

He stands up brushing himself off and hold up the pendant for me to see. I reach for it, but he pulls it away.

"First let me explain."

"Zuko I don't care anymore. I want it back."

"Why didn't you tell me it was your birthday?"

I sigh. "Answer me honestly. Would you have noticed anyways? You're so caught up in 'trying' to blend in that you practically ignored me."

That shuts him up, and I grab the pendant while he's distracted.

"Hey"

"It's mine Zuko. It's a gift for me. A gift that you and your family could never attempt to repay to me."

I walk out of the room and spot Iroh sleeping on the ground. I pull up a blanket over his body.

"What are you doing?"

"Unlike you and your family, I could never push Iroh out of my life. He's the closest thing I had to a father since yours decided to burn mine to ashes. I'm going to miss him."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving. I'm going to right the wrongs your family created. Don't plan on following me. It'll be futile.

I grab my knapsack and wrap the pendant around the neck of the doll Iroh got me many years ago. I throw in my fighting clothes and close it.

"You don't plan on coming back do you?"

"No I don't, but I hope I'll meet up with Iroh again along the way." I open the door but turn around to look at him. "Ya know when you kissed me about a month ago? I thought you were ready to let go of your damn pride. Guess I was wrong about you... Again." My bright red eyes become hidden behind my black curls. I turn and close the door shutting the gate of my fantasies and opening the gate of reality. I run down the street to a closed shop. It was too late for any to be left open, so I leave the last of my money on the counter. I sit on the edge of a nearby fountain and begin dressing my wounds.

I peel off the soiled bandages off my feet and look at the darkened scars I received 8 years ago. You'd think that I wouldn't be so self-conscious about these anymore. The hand print on my right ankle visibly newer than the scars surrounding it. I have yet to figure out why that happened. Why can I bend two elements? I'm not the avatar. Could it be because my dad? *sighs*

"well I'm not going to find out anything like this."
I finish wrapping my feet and slowly undo the bandages around my chest.

"Great Koh does that sting." It's been a month since Azula struck me. Why isn't it healing better? I finish wrapping my chest and decide to meander around Ba Sing Se. I notice a bunch of fliers everywhere with a sky bison on them. Didn't the great one have a sky bison in his possession? It says he's missing, but that means...

"The avatar is in Ba Sing Se."