Time Heals Most Wounds

Chapter 1

 "Akiyo, when is my meeting with the ambassadors?" I asked, not looking up from the paperwork he was currently hunched over. "Next week." A notably masculine very much not my assistant's voice answers. My head shot up as my gaze meets Sokkas. Sokka smiles as I shoot up from his spot at his desk and embrace him in a tight hug, but I don't feel the warm embrace of a friend. No, all I feel is the sharp searing pain of my father's flames on my face.

I shot up from bed, sweat dripping down my face. Katara said the nightmares would leave with time but it's been almost ten years since I was cast out. I'm safe. I know that, mostly. There would always be threats, I'm the Fire Lord it comes with the position. But the nightmares never stopped. It's like they get worse every time I look in the mirror and all I can see is father staring back at me, every time I make a choice in the war room not knowing if it could destroy everything Aang and I worked so hard to achieve, every time I sit alone in my dark room attempting to sleep.

"Time heals all wounds" is bullshit.

Regardless of the hard night that made me somehow feel even more exhausted, I have a job to do.

I had so many meetings "breakfast" was at dusk. Iroh says I need to prioritize my health but how can I when there are so many issues in the nation to solve? I haven't even gone to Ba Sing Se to visit uncle in six months and haven't answered a letter in six weeks. I can't even remember the last time I saw my friends. Katara and Aang are busy with baby Bumi (who I haven't even had a chance to see since he was born a few months back) Toph was in Republic city working on the police department, and Agni it had been so long since I even wrote Sokka that I have no idea where he is.

I'm lonely. There's no denying it. The only company I have is my guards, not the most sociable people, and Akiyo who's a lovely girl and great at her job but isn't very chatty. Sometimes my voice would go hoarse from not talking for hours, and other times it was hoarse from talking too much. Yelling in the war room just so anyone will listen to me, commanding guards, screaming waking up from nightmares.

I really do love being the Fire Lord but that's all I am. I have no friends, no family, and no life outside of the palace. I'm not cut out for it.

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Its been a while lol