Kingdom of the Sun

8

"Mother..." Tsai paced around the guest room where her mother would be staying. It was past midnight and the shocking news of Fire Lord Ozai's passing had been a hard hit. "What are you doing here?" She pinched the bridge of her nose already feeling overwhelmed.
"It's not safe. Why did you come? Who's taking care of things back home?"

Sanju removed her glasses and placed them next to the bedside table, a bored expression on her sharp eyes.

"Your friends are terrible liars. Specially that bald boy."

"You mean the Avatar?"

Leave it to her mother to have absolute and complete disregard for whom she was entertaining. Just a couple of years back she would've bent over backwards just to entertain him. Now she had reduced Aang from an almighty Avatar to an honest bald boy. How typical of her to be so unconcerned with matters that did not regarded her.

"I've come to take you home. Your brother and I need help running the paper," she said placing her hands on her lap, sitting with her back completely erect, lips drawn into an intimidating thin line.

"I didn't mean to come to the Fire Nation, or to stay here for so long... Wait- if you and Mecha are here? Who's in charge? Also- where did my brother go?" Tsai asked, still a thousand questions running through her head.

"That boy with the ponytail, he's quite brilliant," Sanju nodded closing her eyes for a moment.

'Sokka? Really?' The young lady couldn't help but be slightly horrified at the thoughts of Sokka running a newspaper. "Your brother is off with some girl," she added flatly. 'Mai, of course.'

"Mom," Tsai looked at her nervously twirling the fabric of her dress skirt in her hands. "What if... What if I want to stay here, in the Fire Nation?" She admitted looking at her with hopeful eyes.

"Stay? And do what?" Her mother arched a judgement eyebrow. "What are you going to do here? Lounge around?" Again, three years ago she would've been ecstatic at the news. Hell - she would've packed her up and kicked her out of Yu Dao with a bidding away party. Now, however, she seemed unenthusiastic at the idea.

"No," she drawled out feeling small under her mom's intimidating green gaze. "I'm going to stay and I'm going to help people here. There's much reconstruction to do, just like back home."

Sanju made a disapproving sound, yet her posture did not shift. "That terribly rude man has brought nothing but turmoil and more troubles since he came into our lives and still he can't manage to say a single word of acknowledgement to me." She uttered bitter at the lack of appreciation.

"Mom," Tsai reasoned with her. "He's in shock, his dad just died."

"Oh?" She poked. "His father? The disgraced war criminal whom he allowed to rot in jail?" She huffed with a glare. "It's no surprise the coward chose the easy way out. Suicide..." She clicked her tongue.

Tsai's shoulders slumped forward in defeat. Clearly it would be impossible to get through to her mother and even worse when she was in a mood.

"You're impossible," she muttered shaking her head and walking towards the door.

"Don't you walk away from me!" Her mother called out sternly. Her daughter didn't respond and exited the room. "This conversation isn't over Tsai!" She called.

Troubled, upset and beyond irritated Tsai worriedly made way to Zuko's room. She wondered if he was still awake this late in the night.

She slid the door open slowly. The maroon room was dark, and she saw him. Zuko was on his bed, laying down on his side over the bed covers. A single candle kept the room dimly lit. She looked at him with concern and walked around sitting on the edge of the mattress. She could see that he was awake. His gold eyes fixed on a particular spot on the wall. He hadn't said a single word since they had both been informed of Ozai's demise. Tsai assumed this must've been terribly hard for him.