A. N. : Everyone needs a Hakodad. No this isn't a typo.

Hakoda waits inside his tent.

Bato asked him to talk with the Prince – which he was going to do anyway, if only to get some idea of his abilities and then include them in his plans. But Bato obviously had something else in mind.

He seems to care for the Prince, in a way Hakoda has never seen him care for anyone outside the Tribe.

Looks like the Prince got himself an ally of choice.

And when the curtain opens, Hakoda sees exactly why Bato was worried. The Prince looks miserable.

Hakoda has seen that look before – in his mirror.

It was maybe a few weeks after he left home, left his children behind to fight. They got caught – ambushed on their own field, what a bad joke that was – and they would have died, all of them, for nothing, if Hakoda hadn't decided –

He abandoned a ship. He left behind his men to save the lives of more of them. It was the best decision, the only decision possible given the situation, but La did it hurt – and it still does at times like these.

But that is a guilt only a Chief can feel – the burden of the lives you sacrificed in order to save others, the weight of the responsibility you have towards all of them, the guilt gnawing at your mind at every moment of doubt –

How would a Prince know that ?

Or maybe that is something one is supposed to know ?

Hakoda greets the Prince – he is kneeling in total submission, has been since he entered the tent, and it feels wrong – and tells him to raise his head. They are going to talk as equals, from one tribesman to another. Hakoda's status as Chief only comes into play when there are decisions to be taken.

The Prince ticks at tribesman. So he doesn't see himself as one of them, then. And yet he fought with them, for them.

If he doesn't believe himself to be a part of their Tribe, where does he think he belongs ? The Fire Nation ? He just killed a considerable number of them.

But there is really no other possibility, is there ? Even if he is wearing Earth Kingdom green.

Before, Hakoda thought the Prince had betrayed his Nation to protect the baby. But it would appear he is ready to renounce neither of them.

There is more to him than just a father, or the child Bato seems to see.

Which brings Hakoda back to the feeling of seeing himself in a mirror.

What is a Prince, exactly ? Hakoda assumed, despite the Earth King's warnings, that equating the term with Chief's son was correct.

But it isn't, obviously. Not when the Prince makes decisions that are so different from Sokka's and so close to Hakoda's own. When his reactions are so much like a Chief and so little like a Chief's son.

The King said – what did he say already – the other countries don't choose their leaders. Or maybe they did, a long time ago – it doesn't matter. A country's leader is the son – or, in the Fire Nation, the child – of the previous leader.

Children are raised to lead. To have the weight of their people on their shoulders.

The Prince was taught to protect not only his relatives and the people he loves, but all of his Tribe – Nation. Including the soldiers he just killed.

Did Bato understand that too ? Is that why he asked Hakoda to have a word with the Prince ?

When Hakoda had to sacrifice the lives of his men, Bato was there to remind him of why he fought. Why he still fights.

Why does the Prince fight ?

Hakoda asks and the Prince takes a moment to think. The first answer – to protect Lin – was predictable. And Hakoda would be satisfied with just that – he understands a father's selfishness, the way the world sometimes seems to shrink until it is only you and your children – but then –

The Prince talks about his days in the Earth Kingdom. About the people he met there. About a girl whose legs were burned so badly she couldn't walk without limping. About a boy who lost his brother and whose eyes filled with so much hatred the second he realized the stranger he trusted was Fire Nation. About people who lost everything and who fought just to live. About children who know nothing but hate.

He speaks of the shame he felt, being of the blood who burned and killed all these people. Of the guilt he bears – he did these things while chasing the Avatar and he felt it was his right, his coming home was more important than all those ruined lives.

He says his Nation is great – he was taught it was, but this War is nothing but pain and destruction and his Nation is the one doing it and that's not how it's supposed to be, the Fire Nation is supposed to be great, he wants it to be great –

Nothing will ever be great so long as the War goes on.

He stops. He looks terrified, as if he said too much and Hakoda was going to strike him. The Prince is looking intently at the ground, biting his lips, like a child who was caught messing with his father's fishing net.

Hakoda said he would listen, and he did, and now he sees the Prince is as Fire Nation as can possibly be, but that doesn't mean he is the enemy.

On the contrary – he obviously loves his country, and wants others to see it the way he does. And that means putting an end to the War.

Hakoda smiles. The Fire Nation should be proud of its Prince.

And why does he looks so surprised when the way he acts shows how good of a leader he would be ? Why is it that the Prince talks and acts like a Chief, but reacts like a child ?

It is perplexing, but perhaps it has to do with the way he was raised. Maybe Fire Nation children – royal children – are taught how to lead while remaining children, unlike in the Water Tribe where children learn to grow up before anything else. Maybe.

If that is the case, the Prince will need to be treated the same as Sokka – a child growing into a man – while also being taught the ways of a Chief – he seems to know some of them, but he needs to gain confidence and experience.

Hakoda sighs. There aren't many people who can teach a young Chief aside from him, is there ?

Well, time to give it a try.