This was despicable — Zuko despised the tea shop he had to work at with his Uncle. No matter how ‘peaceful’ the wooden shop was, it never felt right.

Zuko’s main goal was to regain his honour, and finally go back to his father — No matter how much his uncle tells him to think deeper about what he really wants…

But for now, what he needed to focus on was living, and, preferably, undiscovered as a fire nation royal.

He was paranoid. Maybe a little too paranoid.

A new issue popped up in his head — a random citizen of Ba Sing Se has been showing up too often in the shop: every single day. With swift yet subtle movements, he pulled his Uncle Iroh into a secluded corner of the shop,

“I’ve seen that person so many times..!” Zuko hissed a whisper, nonchalantly pointing towards the person; face rock solid with seriousness, “They know that we’re from the Fire Nation.”

With only a simple look over his shoulder, uncle Iroh let out a gentle laugh and turned back, “Oh, you’re right.. I’ve seen them quite a lot as well — I think they might have a little crush on you.”

…

“What?!”

Zuko exclaimed, before sharply turning around, only to see the ‘mystery’ person by the counter, seemingly ready to pay for their piping hot tea.

Zuko was able to act normal, after so many years of being able hide how he felt and keep everything locked up; as well as that, he didn’t exactly believe his uncle that the person would be at the shop for anything other than tea…