Zuko
"Aang!" I yell as I finally find him. I've been looking for like a half hour. "Aang, Come on. We need to talk about this."
"Just go away!" He finally shouts back. I follow the sound and find him sitting behind a coloumn.
"No." I say and sit in front of him. "I'm sorry that's how you found out." I tell him, trying to tell myself that no matter what happens I'm not going to get angry with him. He's hurting, and needs grace if he's ever going to come around. As the Fire Lord I can't lose my relationship with the Avatar. But as just myself I don't want to lose my friendship with Aang. "We need to talk this out." I tell him. His face is a mix of hurt and anger. He's going to lash out, the question is how and when.
"I can't believe you stole Katara from me!" He yells, standing up. I get to my feet too.
"No, I didn't, Aang."
"Oh, so she was just practicing how to kiss and using you in my place? I know what I walked in on, Zuko!"
"Yeah, but I can't steal something that was given to me and never belonged to you. Katara loves you, Aang. But not in the way you want." I try to explain, but I'm not sure I could have chosen a way to say it that would feel more like a sucker punch. Or less like one. It just kind of is what it is. And when the words leave my mouth, Aang raises his staff and hits me with another powerful air blast, and as I fall backwards the Earth rises up and hits my back. I fall forward and hit my face in the dirt, and I see blood below me where my lip busted. I spit into the ground and get up.
"First shot's free." I say. "Next one won't be."
"No!...No. There-There won't be a next one." He says. Sighing and sits down. I wipe my mouth and go sit next to him. "I'm sorry I busted your lip."
"I'm sorry you got hurt. Katara's not the only one who loves you. We both do. And I really don't want this to come in between us."
"How could it not?
"I don't know."
"Thing is, Zuko, this hurts worse than dying. I'd know. I died when Azula shot me in Ba Sing Se. But the truth is...I've somewhere inside myself known that I've been fighting a losing battle. She kissed me once, you know? When we were traveling in the secret tunnels around Omashu. That's why I ever thought I had a chance. And I held onto that. But even then I knew she wasn't really into it. And Anytime we ever were around another guy, like Jet or Haru, She didn't give me a second thought. And I decided to let her go when we were in Ba Sing Se. After that, it was never the same, even for me. I guess I was just hoping if I kept hanging on, eventually it would be like it used to be for me. I even kissed her at the Invasion. I thought eventually that she would come around. But that was never going to happen, was it?" He sighs. I grimace, remembering what it was like when I thought I'd have to watch Katara fall in love with someone else. With Aang. And that hurt like Hell. But saying that things could've worked out differently wouldn't be true or Helpful.
"No, Aang. I'm sorry." I say as gently as I can.
"I'll get over it eventually." He sighs. "If you two love each other, then one day I'll be happy for you. Even if it really sucks right now."
"So we're good then?" I ask hopefully.
"It'll take some time, Zuko. But yeah, We're good as we can be for now." He gets up. "I'll see you at the Peace Summit tomorrow." He says, then opens his glider and flies off.
...