Chapter 3

Zuko walked down the windy streets with nothing but a dress shirt and pants on. His shoes weren't even tied, but he didn't care. He had two possibilities of where to go. Either to his girlfriend's house, or his uncle's place.

Iroh lived in a small apartment on the other side of the city. He used to be a highly-respected naval officer until that war was over and it was time for him to leave. He couldn't hold down a steady job and mooched off his brother constantly. Mai, however, lived only a few blocks away in a huge estate. She didn't need a job yet; her parents paid for everything.

"Mai it is," he said aloud as he turned a corner onto a well lit street. Ozai might be a famous and well-paid psychiatrist, but Mai's father was the Mayor of the city! There must be some law against shutting someone's own son out of the house.

But Zuko could not tell Mai what happened. It would make Azula look bad. Zuko's sister and his girlfriend were best friends, not something you would want to get in between…like he often did….No, Zuko would just say that he needed a place to crash for the night. Mai never asked too many questions.

He walked up to the gate, locked for the night, and rang the buzzer.

"Who is it?" came the voice of the doorman.

Zuko pressed the talk button and said into the microphone, "It's Zuko. You know, Mai's boyfriend…."

The man on the other side of the gate replied reluctantly, "Oh…well, come on in then." The gates swung open slowly and Zuko hurried through them, through the front yard, which was huge and green, and up to the front door, which was locked. He rang the bell several times before someone answered the door.

Mai took in what she saw in a glance. Her long-term bf was standing out in the cold end-of-winter night in nothing but a shirt and slacks, shivering from the cold, his scar still disgusting to look at. So she turned her head away from his face.

"Come on in," she said and let Zuko in. She led him upstairs into her extravagant bedroom and tossed him one of her down comforters. She had just come back from dance class and was tired; Mai was not in the mood for drama.

Zuko sat on the bed with the comforter around his shoulders. Instead of complaining, like he often did, he asked, "How was dance? I bet you're a master at the tango now! Mind if I help you practice a bit?" He stood up and placed his arms out, ready for Mai to join him.

She just sighed. "Not now, Zuko. I'm tired. And you're avoiding the obvious question. Why are you here? Wait, I don't wanna know. And seriously, I don't like you coming here when my parents are home. What if they saw you? You know they don't know about your little problem…."

His arms slid to his sides and he slumped onto the bed again. "Mai, how can we stay together if you are ashamed to even look at my face? You try to help me, but you know I can't stop. Mai, please—"

Zuko was interrupted by Mai's lips against his. She hated the subject and this was the only way to shut him up. Yes, she was ashamed that her boyfriend was a pyro; yes, she was ashamed for her parents to see that scar that marred his used-to-be gorgeous face; yes she was ashamed that she still dated him. Appearance—to her and her family—was everything. But she couldn't leave him.

After several minutes of kissing, Mai pulled away from her not-so-appropriate position on Zuko. "I can't live without you, Zuko," she whispered into his ear.

Just then the two on the bed heard the clunking footsteps on the stairs.

"Father's coming!" Mai cried. "Hide! I don't want him to—oh…please, just…I'm sorry." She had just insulted Zuko terribly, actually saying that she doesn't want her dad to ever see her boyfriend.

Zuko was about to insult her right back when the bedroom door opened and Mai's father, the mayor, walked in. He was about to ask for his only daughter to come back down for dinner when he noticed her sitting on top of a boy with a scarred face. On further inspection, he realized the boy was Zuko.

"MAI! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH ZUKO?! AND WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIS FACE?!" he yelled, red coloring his face. He did not like his little girl growing up, especially in his own house.

"Father, I was just…Zuko…and…" she babbled. She took a deep breath to restore her usual calm and tried again. "Zuko was just about to tell me why he had come here in the middle of dinner when I interrupted him with a kiss. You see, we haven't seen each other for a few days, and I thought it was only appropriate. And his face, well, he can answer that too. Zuko?"

Zuko shook his head in confusion. He didn't understand why Mai would rat him out. She knew something was wrong, though. He sighed and decided to state some of the truth. "Well, the scar…it's difficult to explain. All I can say is: Don't play with fire." He laughed half-heartedly. Neither of the two he was talking to even cracked a smile. "I ran away, alright? I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and left, not thinking. I thought Mai, of all people, would understand and let me stay the night."

Mai just stared at him in disbelief. She knew it was something else; he hadn't run away. Mai's father glared at him—it seemed as if Zuko was getting that a lot today.

He continued to glare as he said, "Mai, tell your friend we do not run a shelter for the homeless. If he truly ran away, then he should've had a backup plan. I am sorry Zuko, but you must leave. And don't come back until you can look suitable for my daughter."

Zuko, dripping in disappointment, trudged out of the room and down the long flight of stairs. The doorman didn't bother to open the door, so Zuko pulled it open himself.

As he walked down the long sidewalk and onto the streets, he realized what Mai's father had said was true. He was homeless. He had nowhere to go, except for Uncle Iroh, and he couldn't get there before midnight.

Not paying attention to where his numb feet were taking him, Zuko found himself half a block away from the bank. He sighed, not just physically numb, but mentally as well.

When he was about to turn into the alley where he knew Katara, Sokka, and the pale boy, Aang, were staying, he heard loud voices.

"I can't believe you let him know where we are staying!" came the voice of Aang.

"He was just trying to help, dude!" Sokka retorted.

"But now he can rat us out! What if he tells the police? Then where will we go? We have no transportation and there are police stations all over the city!" Aang yelled angrily.

"Aang calm down. He didn't seem like he would tell on us. I think we can trust him."

What a blow that was. Zuko had told his father. But he didn't think Ozai would send the police out. Would he? Taking a deep breath, he braced himself for his entrance.

There was nobody around the corner. They still must be behind the dumpster. It gave him one more chance to prepare himself for what he was about to do. It would be simple to just ask Aang to come with him, right? Zuko could take the kid to his dad and he would be allowed back into the house.

But he didn't want to hurt these three kids. They didn't have any parents—that he knew of—and they were living off the street. If Aang was truly the only who knew this city, wouldn't the other two be hopelessly lost?

Well, Zuko didn't have a home to go back to. For the time being, he was just like these kids. Once again, he took a deep breath.

As soon as he stepped around the corner of the dumpster, he realized that he wasn't fully illuminated. He was just a strange, tall silhouette. And that's why there was a high pitched scream the instant he came into view.

"KATARA! IT'S ME, ZUKO!" he shouted over her screaming.

"Sorry, dude. We thought you could be the police…." Sokka apologized. "What're you doin' here?" He stood up as he said this and walked over to Zuko, who was standing awkwardly away from them.

Zuko took in a huge breath and sighed. He didn't want to explain the real reason. Well, one of the real reasons. So he simply said, "It's a long story. Can I just stay here with you guys tonight?"

They all looked at him with strange eyes, curious as to why he needed to stay with street kids when he apparently had a nice home where he could change into nice clothes. But they didn't argue, seeing as it was getting late and they needed to get up early the next morning.

Sokka nodded enthusiastically, Katara just stared, but Aang looked away, still protective of his friends. Zuko was fine with it. Even if he wasn't fully welcome, at least he didn't have to find his own secluded alley, or try to get to his uncle's place.

He was given one blanket without any to put underneath himself, for that was their only blanket left. Moving it away from the rest, who seemed to huddle for warmth, Katara in the middle, he lied flat on the ground with a garbage bag underneath his head. Things wouldn't be too bad if he could just stay with them a couple of more days to figure things out.

He easily fell asleep, even with his extremely uncomfortable position and head swimming in thoughts.

Zuko was woken up the next morning by a hand shaking him roughly. "Wake up, you bastard!" someone yelled in his ear.

"I'M UP, I'M UP!!" he responded, using the same words as he used to with his mother when he was little. His eyes opened immediately to the early morning sun. He squinted around until he found the person who was still shaking him, though he was almost in a sitting position. Man, his back was sore! How could they sleep like this every night?!

Aang stared at him through furious eyes. "You forgot to mention you had your cell phone on you last night. Someone called a few minutes ago. They wanted to know if you had tried getting 'the boy' to come with you. They realized you were an incompetent little brat and needed to learn a lesson. They said, 'Remember to bring me that street rat: Aang'."

With that, Katara threw a shoe at Zuko's head. It hit him in the shoulder—still pretty good aim seeing as the weight was off; it was a tap shoe.

Author's note:

i gave u a clue as to what is taking the place of the elements in this story if this is modern day and there is no magic. u already know that there is no firebending cause zuko is a pyromaniac and gave himself that scar (so sad, i know). actually, this chapter holds 2 clues. find them and review!! i might give u some hints as to what the other 2 elements are. oops, that was another clue. teehee. just remember, there are no nations, but i think u have a glimpse of what is taking the place of that. u will find out in time...prob when i introduce toph. no story is ever complete w/o toph!!

just to clarify: the ages in the actual series are a little off compared to this story. yes, this is really just the series brought into the modern world...w/o any magic that u can see yet. in the real series, the ages i know of are as follows: zuko: 16. sokka: 15. katara: 14. aang: 12. toph:12. idk the rest. all i know is that azula is supposed to be zuko's younger sis most likely. idk anything else. in my series, the ages u know so far: zuko: 16. sokka: 16. katara: almost 15. azula: older than zuko. the ages are this way to 1) be closer in age and 2) because i want them to be older. just a preference.

and yes, the events in the actual series are as follows: zuko banished. 3 years later aang is found by katara and sokka. in this story, the events u know: aang wakes up from coma. katara and sokka find him (in some sorta way that u dont know yet). zuko finds them. then he is banished and has to kidnapp aang. complicated and a little out of order. but this is zuko's story, not aang's!!

and also to clarify some things: this is a zutara (zuko/katara) fic. there hopefully will be some taang (toph/aang). i was thinking a little sokka/azula would be funny, but aint gonna happen. too weird. but yes, there is some katang (katara/aang), as u have witnessed already. and there is some maiko (mai/zuko), like u've seen. duh. its all part of the big picture. i hope you've liked reading this. and remember: zuko is supposed to be the bad guy.