Ba Sing Se was overpopulated to the extreme. People were pouring out of too small homes into the street, each of them clawing at the walls as a means of respite. Opportunities did not come aplenty. Many generations of people were born in the lower ring, and they stayed there.

Zuko knew this could not be his fate. It was not that he thought himself above the poor citizens of the lower ring per se, but he knew his worth. He would be miserable down here. Besides, the city was a safe haven so anonymity was a non-issue. His past could not follow him here. In other words, he was finally free of the shackles his family bestowed upon him.

However, he was not meant for poverty. Not that he could complain as long as his plate was full, but without a secure income, there was no way to ensure he could afford to live in the city.

It was a horrible realization. Outside Ba Sing Se, he simply stole and then sold whatever he took. It never made much money, but it was enough to live on. Thievery was far too risky to try in the city. If Zuko was caught, and then thrown out of the one place he could live in peace, he was as good as dead.

While Prince Zuko was officially dead on paper, Zuko had no desire to be dead in actuality. Not only would that greatly suck, it would make all of his progress from the past few years effectively useless, and Zuko did not enjoy that idea. He did not dress up in a poor copy of the Blue Dragon mask only to die at the ripe old age of sixteen. He expected to make it to at least twenty-seven, thirty if he was lucky. Which he never was.

Without a way to legally make money, Zuko was left to suffer on the unforgiving streets of Ba Sing Se.

Zuko wandered the lower ring for a few hours, taking note of the rough streets and dark alleyways. His bag weighed down his body, and each step was more exhausting than the last. At this rate, he was bound to collapse from exhaustion. He wanted to find a poster for a job, but he could barely read the chicken scratch on the sporadic posters.

At this rate, he would never find a job. Sure, this was only his first week in the city, but he could not keep living on the street. Without a home, temporary or not, he was fair game to the thugs that populated the city.

When Zuko was a child, he would hear tales of the prosperity of Ba Sing Se, and the amazing quality of life for its citizens.

("The Earth Kingdom is far less advanced than the Fire Nation," Zuko's latest tutor said. Recently, all of Zuko's tutors had been replaced as Azula wanted each and every one, and demanded they tutor her instead. She never wanted something to be wholly Zuko's. This latest tutor was a man in his late thirties, but the gray speckled in his hair painted the picture of an older man. It was said he was a veteran back from the front lines, but Zuko doubted that. Why would a brave warrior wish to teach him? Did they not know he was useless and a waste of time? He never learned anything. Definitely not as well as Azula did.

"That's why we need to conquer them." Zuko responded, the words almost stapled into his brain. "Because they can't be trusted by themselves. We're helping them."

"Exactly." The tutor paused. "Do you know what this city is?"

The man pointed to a small pictogram of an encircled space. Zuko had no idea what it was supposed to be.

"No." Zuko said. "I'm sorry."

"A Prince should never apologize." The man reprimanded, before continuing. "Ba Sing Se is the cultural center of the Earth Kingdom," The man stated, as his fingers caressed the world map on top of the desk. "This is where all the important happenings occur."

"Why is there a wall?" Zuko asked, his tiny nose scrunched up in confusion. "If everything important happens there? A wall means no one can go in."

"There's a wall because the Earth King is a coward," his tutor replied simply. "But do not fret, my Prince. Prince Iroh shall dismantle this sham of a city soon, and the Fire Nation will claim the Earth Kingdom in its entirety.")

The reality was something almost disappointing. Even while traveling the Earth Kingdom, he would hear idealized versions of the city, with most citizens painting a picture of the perfect utopia. Zuko could not say he was surprised by the sheer lack of anything utopian, but he was disappointed.

However, it hardly mattered as this was Zuko's forever home from now on. When he looked towards the sky, and saw the walls blocking the clouds, he did not feel trapped. He was safe.

It was only a matter of time before someone mugged him, however. He could not keep sleeping in random crooks and crannies throughout the city. One of these days, someone was bound to get the wrong idea. Zuko still carried his swords with him, and eventually, some Earth Kingdom idiot was bound to get the idea to take them. It would not end well for that fool, but Zuko did not want to draw attention to himself.

He sighed, but continued to wander the lower ring. As he turned another corner, he saw a poster with slightly legible handwriting. He inched closer to the poster, and yanked it off the dingy wall it was attached to. His eyes scanned the stained paper, and could just barely make out the words "tea", "job", "Pao Family's Tea House", and "waiter".

While working in a tea shop was not Zuko's idea of an ideal job, it could not hurt to get a proper job. He never understood the hype behind the hot leaf juice everyone fawned over, but he could get over his distaste in order to make a living. Long enough to move up to the middle ring, for sure. From his rather basic understanding of the brutish Earth Kingdom language, the Tea House was not far from where he currently was. The listed address was probably less than a twenty minute walk. He crumped the paper in his hand, and set out to the tea house. If luck was finally with him, perhaps he could secure a job there.

"What do you think you're doing there, boy?" A booming voice jolted Zuko out of his previous concentration. Zuko slowly turned his head in the direction of the disturbance, only to be met with the sight of a burly man with quite a few missing teeth.

Zuko sighed, "I'm reading. Something you probably can't do."

The man's face grew seven shades darker, and Zuko only slightly regretted provoking him.

"I can read," The man said, rather petulantly. "But you won't be able to when I'm done with ya! I was gonna read that poster you ripped off the wall."

Zuko frowned, and did not move his body an inch, only his eyes followed the man. "For some reason I don't believe you."

The man stomped closer to Zuko's position, until he was nearly breathing on him. A wad of spit flew out of the brute's mouth, and splatted on Zuko's face. With distaste, Zuko wiped it off his face.

"I hate how you immigrants think you're better than us lower ring folk! Go back to your backwater town," The man yelled, as a vein bulged out of his head. "We don't want you here!"

"It's a bit ironic you think I'm backwater," Zuko replied. Normally, he would never dare provoking a fight, but he was tired of the skittish nature of Ba Sing Se. The city was dangerous, but so was Zuko. He did not enjoy pretending to be weak, and while that worked wonders out in the Earth Kingdom, he only did that to survive. He was safe here.

Besides, if he backed down now, and he allowed himself to stomped over, he would only sabotage himself further.

("A Prince must never apologize or beg," The replacement tutor said. Her hands wrapped around his pencil, as she wrote some basic arithmetic problems on Zuko's paper. "Once you allow someone to assert authority over you, that is the status quo. It will stay that way. As a Prince, you are above them. Do not allow them to put themselves above you."

"But what if I was wrong?" Zuko asked.

He was usually wrong.

"As a Prince, you are never wrong." She replied, and then looked over his answers. "Except for your arithmetic answers, it seems."

"Sorry-" Zuko started. "I mean. Uh. Not sorry. I am the Prince so I am very much not sorry."

The tutor did not laugh, and did not smile, but her expression was almost the same thing. "That's a start, I suppose.")
"What's that supposed to mean, boy?" The man roared. "Are ya calling me dumb?"

Zuko's frown remained etched into his face. "No, but I'm not saying you're a genius, either."

"Let me be clear," The man grabbed Zuko's already ripped tunic, and yanked him closer. From the corner of Zuko's eye, he could see groups of people slowly inching closer to the two of them. He did not want spectators, but if people were going to watch, Zuko was not going to lose. If he allowed this man to beat him up, he was practically welcoming every idiot to do the same. "I don't appreciate the attitude."

"Luckily, I don't think that matters." Zuko wriggled out of his grasp fairly easily, and reached into his bag for his swords. If a fight is what the man wanted, a fight is what Zuko would deliver.

He drew both of them out of his bag, and placed them in front of his body. Sword fighting came as naturally as breathing. His weapons were extensions of himself, not only in body, but in soul as well.

Not even Firebending brought him such comfort back when he was still able to do it. If he tried bending now, he did not know what would happen. He did not know if there were any sparks left.

The man stumbled backwards from the sheer shock at the appearance of Zuko's swords, clearly not expecting the lowly immigrant to possess a weapon.

The brute glanced around, and took stock of the small crowd watching the two of them. He cleared his throat, and stood straighter. "I could use shiny toothpicks like those."

Zuko scoffed, "You wouldn't even be able to balance with them."

While the man's fists clenched at Zuko's clear disregard for de-escalating the fight, someone in the small crowd laughed at Zuko's remark. Zuko spared a side glance to the culprit, and caught sight of a boy around his age surrounded by two younger kids. The boy looked extremely stupid with a small piece of wheat hanging out his mouth. He winked at Zuko, and it probably had the opposite effect of the intended consequence. Zuko was not charmed, rather creeped out.

The man charged towards Zuko, and rather than waste too much energy, Zuko simply butted the blunt ends of his swords into the man's stomach with just enough force to cause the man to double over in pain. For good measure, Zuko rammed the handle into the other man's head, cleanly knocking him out. The man collapsed, and Zuko turned on his heel. Zuko gripped his dual swords before placing them back into his bag. He had no reason to stick around, even if the crowd seemed to follow his every move.

Zuko stormed off, hoping no one was idiotic enough to follow him. He refused to roll over when someone pushed, but that did not mean he wanted to fight the entire population of the lower ring.

He definitely would not get the tea house job if he did that.

He turned into an alleyway, when a solid block of a man stopped him. The man was dressed in dark green and black, with a hat obscuring most of his face.

"Don't do that again," The man warned.

"What?" Zuko replied, intelligently. "Huh?"

"Don't do that again," The man repeated. "I'm letting you off this time because you didn't start the fight. If you start something like that again, you will be removed from the city."

Zuko blanched. He could not be removed, this was the only place he was safe. He choked out a barely audible promise. "I won't."

"If you know what's good for you," The dark figure stated, his voice low and dangerous. "You won't."

Zuko's eyes burned, unshed tears threatening to make themselves known. He could not be kicked out of the city, he had suffered too much. He did not want to die.

"Who are you anyways?" Zuko asked the nothingness that remained in the alleyway. He turned his head, and scanned the area, but there was no trace left of the man. He had vanished without a trace.

Chills ran down Zuko's spine. He closed his eyes, and attempted to regulate his breathing the way his Uncle rammed into his head when he was younger.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

He refocused his eyes, and turned out of the alleyway. He trudged along the rough path, his swords clanking in his bag. The weight of his bag might as well have been the weight of the world in the way it pulled Zuko's shoulders down. His back hunched as he slowly made his way in what he was sure was the direction of the tea house.

"HEY!" Loud footsteps echoed behind Zuko, in a way that clearly indicated running. Zuko sighed, he did not want to deal with another idiot. "Wait! I need to talk to you!"

Zuko paused, a little intrigued. He turned his body slightly, to get a better view of the person.

What Zuko immediately noticed was the dumb twig in the boy's mouth, and Zuko instantly recognized him as one of the spectators from earlier. Zuko reached for his swords, his hands barely touching his bag before the boy threw his hands up in an almost placating gesture.

"Wait!" The boy huffed, clearly out of breath. "I'm not here to fight."

"What do you want?" Zuko asked, not even bothering to put up a front.

"I saw you fight earlier," The boy explained, the twig twirling in his mouth. "I'm impressed. It's not everyday you see something like that."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zuko replied, the conversation with the mysterious man replaying in his mind.

Don't do it again.

"I just saw you knock that guy out." The boy continued, oblivious to Zuko's internal struggle. "You've got some serious skill."

"What do you want?" Zuko repeated.

"I'll be upfront," The other boy said, "It's something dangerous and patriotic."

"Not interested." Zuko turned his shoulder, but boy grabbed it and threw Zuko back towards him.

"I could use a fighter like you." The boy stated, his dark, trussled hair falling around his eyes. "Interested in taking down the Fire Nation?"

"No." Zuko stepped past the boy, already done with the conversation. There was no way he would ever fight the Fire Nation, that was akin to asking for death with a side of treason. The war was no longer his issue; there was no war in Ba Sing Se.

"I wasn't exactly asking," The boy said, as his teeth snapped the twig in half. "The Freedom Fighters could use you."

"The Freedom Fighters?" Zuko sniped back, "Is that like your band?"

"We're an elite organization dedicated to eradicating all Firebenders and Fire Nation scum." The boy hissed, as his arm reached out for Zuko's. "And all I'm saying is that having a swordsman like you would be helpful."

"I already said I'm not interested," Zuko frowned. "Besides, there is no war in Ba Sing Se."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all," the other boy sighed. "But if you decide to stand up for your country, the name's Jet."

"Charmed." Zuko pushed past Jet, and walked as fast as he could. Jet's footsteps flooded his senses soon thereafter.

"This is the part where you tell me your name," Jet panted, clearly out of breath. Zuko didn't know how he expected to fight off Firebenders if some cardio threw him so off balance.

"Li." Zuko grimaced. He wanted out of this conversation, and he didn't understand why Jet kept chasing after him. He was never going to fight the Fire Nation. He had no reason to. That's what the Avatar is there for.

"As added incentive," Jet added, clearly not picking up on the anti social atmosphere. "I've worked with the Avatar before. I even had a tragic romance with his Waterbending Master."

Katara?

Was this idiot talking about Katara?

Jet and Katara.

Huh.

He didn't see it.

Nevermind the whole Avatar thing, Jet claimed to have a thing with Katara? She would crush him in a second flat. Zuko shivered, and even felt some sympathy towards Jet; when Katara found out about these clearly false rumours he started, she was going to murder him in cold blood. Zuko wondered if she would let him watch. This fool grated on his nerves. How he expected to fight the Fire Nation and win, Zuko could not understand. There was a reason the war lasted for a century, and could probably go for a century more.

"Great," Zuko said. "Did this one have a blue or orange tattoo?"

"Blue, obviously," Jet replied. "Why would it be orange? I know Ba Sing Se is sheltered but you guys can't seriously believe the airbenders had orange tattoos."

"I'm not joining your band." Zuko stated, firm in his answer. He did not deal with crazies. Not anymore.

"The Earth Kingdom needs you, Li." Jet countered, assuming Zuko cared about that in the slightest. "Does the suffering of our people mean nothing to you?"

"What suffering?" Zuko scoffed. "There is no war in Ba Sing Se."

"Your scar tells a different story, Li." Jet raised his eyebrow. Zuko froze, a hand unconsciously shooting up to the scar marring half his face. "The Fire Nation is full of monsters. How old were you when they did that to you?"

Zuko said nothing.

Jet took his silence as the answer. "What would make you agree to help the cause?"

Zuko still said nothing.

"Money?" Jet pried. "We'll get all the money we need after we defeat those ashmakers. Love? The girls will be falling over the hero who saved their home. What do you want, Li?"

"I want you to leave me alone." Zuko huffed. He wanted nothing more with this conversation. "I have places to be."

"Like where?" Jet replied, clearly unwilling to let Zuko leave. Why did Zuko have to attract the crazy ones? "I saw you looking at that poster earlier. Are you on your way to a tea house? Looking for a job?"

"None of your business," Zuko spat back.

Jet smirked, and Zuko decided he did not like that look in the slightest. "Well, I happen to know people here prefer hiring people with fixed addresses."

Zuko's eyes narrowed. "What are you getting at?"

"You're homeless," Jet smiled, a cruel and wicked thing. "And you need this job."

"I said it was none of your business." Zuko snarled.

"I could help you out, you know." Jet said. "I have a place you can live, and you can help me defeat the Fire Nation."

"I am not interested, idiot." Zuko replied, although Jet's words rang through his head. Jet was not wrong, Zuko did not have a place to live. Would he be hired if he was so clearly homeless? He did not know how the lower ring people thought about potential employees. He had not thought about the implications this would bring.

Without money, he would starve. He could not be caught stealing, he did not want to know what that mystery man would do to him.

"Fine." Jet threw his hands up. "If you don't want a job, don't work for me. Go ahead."

Zuko snarled. "You know what? Fine. I'll help you. But I'm not doing anything I don't want to."

"Wait really?" Jet's eyes widened. "You want to join the freedom fighters?"

"Ugh. Fine." Zuko rolled his eyes. "But on my terms. I'm not doing anything crazy in the city."

"That's totally cool, the war is outside the city anyways." Jet nodded, almost too eagerly. "Once we recuperate, we will take down the Fire Nation!"

Zuko rubbed the sides of his face, he could already feel the headache coming on. "Who's we?"

"Me, Longshot and Smellerbee." Jet stated, quite matter-of-factly as if those names didn't sound completely made up.

Zuko sighed. So much for his life away from the war. Really, Zuko did not need to stick with Jet that long, just long enough to get his own place to live. It could be worse, he supposed. "Lead the way. Might as well get this over with."

"Great. Just so you know, Smellerbee and Longshot are a little strange to live with. Like nothing too crazy of course, but I just thought I'd give you a warning…"

Zuko could already tell this was a mistake.


After a few days of living with Jet, Zuko knew it was time to try to get hired by the tea house. He could not stand living here any longer. Smellerbee and Longshot were fine, normal people but Jet was something else entirely. He was obsessive to the degree Zuko had never seen. He followed Zuko around all day, asking about his plans to destroy the Fire Nation. If Zuko had to endure this for longer than a week, he knew he would snap and kill someone. Probably Jet, maybe himself.

Every once in a while, Jet would leave to "patrol" the city, and it would just be Smellerbee, Longshot and Zuko left in the dingy, rathole of an apartment they called home. Zuko needed to leave today, and hopefully never come back.

Once Jet left for his patrol, Zuko searched the apartment for the cleanest shirt available.

"What are you looking for?" Smellerbee creeped up behind him.

"Uh," Zuko blanked. "My…underwear?"

Smellerbee blinked in return. "In Jet's room?"

"Uh," Zuko blanked again. "Yes?"

Smellerbee sighed in response. "Li, if you're looking for a clean shirt or something, it wouldn't be in here. Try Longshot's bed, he usually has cleaner clothes."

"Thanks." Zuko replied. "I need to get out of here."

Smellerbee sighed. "We all do. Good luck with whatever you're doing."

"Thanks." Zuko repeated. "I'll need it."

"Yeah," Smellerbee's nose scrunched when she smelled the shirt Zuko was currently wearing. "You will."


Zuko wandered the streets until he arrived at the Pao Family's Tea House. It was time. He pushed the doors in, and headed towards the counter. The place was moderately busy, which Zuko was surprised to see. Lower ring restaurants tended to be destitute, with no business. This place was bustling in comparison.

Zuko shook his head. He needed to remain confident, he could not continue living with Jet. That alone was enough motivation to stride up to counter.

Without looking behind the til, Zuko said, "I'm here for the job opening. I saw it a while back and figured I'm fairly qualified."

There was no answer. Nervous, Zuko continued. "I'm a decently hard worker. Kind of. I can definitely work my way around hot leaf juice-I mean tea. I love tea. I'm perfect for a tea house."

Still no response. All Zuko could hear was the roar of the customers in the background. He cleared his throat. "I can provide references upon request, even. Please. You have to give me a chance."

The words caught in Zuko's throat.

A Prince does not beg.

He continued. "Please."

All he got in return was a deep hearty laugh.

Zuko's heart dropped beneath his feet. He could hear the blood rushing past his head. His eyes grew wide, hot tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

He recognized that voice, even though he had not heard it in years. It had been an entire lifetime, but Zuko still remembered exactly how it sounded.

("My dear nephew, will you miss me when I'm gone?" His Uncle laughed, as he watched Zuko play with the turtleducks. "Or will you replace me with a turtleduck?"

Zuko gasped. "I would never replace you Uncle! You're the best."

"Am I?" Iroh laughed again, a deep hearty sound. "I hope to live up to your expectations, Prince Zuko. I'll conquer Ba Sing Se just for you, my dear nephew.")

"I'll see what I can do, my friend." From behind the counter, Prince Iroh of the Fire Nation appeared, and Zuko could already see his execution date.

The war had found him in Ba Sing Se.