Zuko was at his lowest, and he didn’t even seem to try to hide it at this point. The exile was one thing, then losing the avatar multiple times, but the lowest blow was when his sister turned against him, once again. She had contacted him, saying their father wanted him back in the nation to reclaim his place on the throne. Zuko was thrilled, he gladly accepted. He was being naive. It all went wrong after one of the crew members accidentally called them prisoners, and he knew it was a setup.

After the fight, him and his uncle Iroh just barely escaped. They evacuated to a nearby forest, and sadly for them the only place near was an earth tribe village. They knew they would be captured by Azula’s crew if they went back to the fire nation, so they made the reluctant choice to cower over to the village. Once they made it to the village, a sweet family took them in after they hid their identities, knowing earth people wouldn’t accept former fire nationers. Zuko went by the name “Lee” and his uncle went by something silly.

Zuko wasn’t interested in making small talk with the family, so after they ate the dinner provided he walked out of the small house and over to the porch. He sat on the wooden porch, hunching over as he drowsily stared at the grass, the slight breeze ruffling his black hair. That was until he heard a creek, to which he glanced over at the noise. You walked out of the house and gently shut the door behind you, before sitting next to him on the porch; he stayed silent.

“Did they hurt you?” You asked after a moment, referring to the fire nation as you glanced over to the large burn mark on his eye. He simply glanced down, not in the mood to talk about his flaw. You sighed, then spoke. “It’s okay, they hurt me too.” You said softly, before pulling up the sleeve of your pants, which revealed various amounts of permanent, healed burn marks. Zuko’s eyes widened as he saw them, he felt guilt. He felt guilt for knowing his people did that, and that he wasn’t a victim, in his mind at least.