Hard Love

Whatever the circumstances

Zuko rubbed his temples as he felt the headache not far from coming to torture him. He sighed while he was sitting and listening the conversation, or rather the yelling that was going on between his advisors.

"We can't let it go like-" 

"... You mean that we should hunted down the person-"

"We can't risk the Fire Lord's life-"

"-I suggest we leave the matter and wait for a few days-"

"That goes as nowhere-"

"...We must listen what Fire Lord Zuko has to say-"

"- We can't sit and do nothing when there is someone out there that wants to kill-"

"Can't we solve the matter with an other way than sitting here and-"

"Enough!" Zuko roared from his throne, the pillar of fire flaring up in the ceiling, effected from his emotions and the room fell into a dead silence.

"To find a logical solution to this... problem, we must sit and discuss it, calmly. It is not a light matter. Your lives are in danger. My life is in danger. We will sit and go through this." He looked each one of them through the wall of fire "Do you understand me?" his voice low and dangerous,was leaving no room for arguments or disagreements and they all gave a nodded to their young ruler.

"Now" he started "Who found advisor Takami?"

One of the men rose from his seat and bowed to him "It was one of the servants, my lord. A young girl named lin." He answered him "She was on duty when see found him."

"I want her to be questioned again" Zuko said "And also I want reports about every guard, every servant in the palace that was on duty that hour. What they were doing, if they saw anything, with whom they were. I want the reports in my office" he said "Am i clear?"

There were a few murmurs of agreements among them and Zuko rose from his throne.

"Then, the meeting is over" he announced and they all gathered their things and started emptying the room, one by one.

He didn't want to stay here another moment. He was here since his arrival and he needed to go lie in his bed. He was so tired. He parted the wall of fire as he stepped down and then put out the burning flames. He left the room in a hurry, heading for his chambers. It was already past midnight. They were in the meeting for at least two hours. He was the Fire Lord but he also was a human with his needs. And right now he needed to sleep. Very badly.

He sighed as he finally arrived outside his chambers. In there was waiting his bed. Soft, huge ... Lonely. A frown appeared on his face as his thoughts traveled to the waterbender. He didn't want to leave so soon. To leave her so soon after ... well, all this development between them. And now she would think he was a coward for leaving like that. Without saying goodbye face to face. But, they indeed, had to leave immediately, after he had received that letter. There was someone, perhaps more than one, he wasn't quite sure yet, that wanted him to step down from his throne or they would kill him. Not that they wouldn't try to finish him off, being or not the Fire Lord . And they had started by killing off his council. When they had discover advisor Takami's body- or what was left of him- they had found a note next to him saying that they requested his immediate dethronement. Now, whom they served was unknown to him. He was pretty sure that behind all of this was his dearest father. But he hadn't any proof. For all he knew, they could be just a random group that wanted him dead. And there were a lot of people out there that wanted him dead.

He opened his door and was surprised when he found it lighten up. Had the servants come and had prepared his bed? He hopped so.

"Finally" came a calm voice from somewhere in his huge bedroom "I thought you were gonna stay in that meeting forever."