First burn

Not to pity

"Everything okay Princess?" Katara asked as they were more alone.

"You can call me Yue," she giggled.

"Zukos one of my closest friends and greatest allie, he's like a brother when he's with me," Yue walked next to her with a calm look in her eyes.

"I know he's capable of loving you, I can see he at least wants to be on good terms with you," She headed towards the bridge as it snowed gently around the girls. The tribe was quiet when the moon was high.

"Yue... it's different, I only had a week before I knew I was being forced to be someone else's wife, a stranger, of the same nation that's killed my mother and terrorized the other nations," Katara stopped in the middle of the bridge as Yue looked back at her.

"He knows that," she smiled sadly.

"Really? He knows that his own people have made the world suffered? Taken those kids parents and loved ones? Made everyone live in fear their home may be taken from them? That I'm not even a person in the palace, just his accessory and entertainment?" Katara snapped a little with a glare. She couldn't help but feel angry at the fire nation for what they've done to the innocent.

"Yea, there was a couple months Zuko wasn't a prince, he wasn't even Zuko, he was a refugee with his uncle and the avatar before coming here years ago, he was a kid too but never got to be one," Yue nodded softly.

"He knows his father is a horrible person, he wants the fire nation to be better when he's the fire lord, a future with peace," she sighed softly closing her eyes.

"Katara, I've seen him cry, I've seen him scream and break down, but his uncle told me when I heard him laugh for the first time that that was the first time he's laughed since he was banished," she felt her chest swell up with tears burning her eyes.

She remembered when they were sixteen and Aang threw a snow ball at her face and knocked her down, that Zuko broke into a loud laugh that made him fall to his knees as she was planning her revenge against the other kid. It brought tears to irons eyes when he saw his nephew holding his stomach as he laughed on his knees.

"I hate that he has to go back to his home," she inhaled deeply.

"Why did he cry?" Katara asked after a moment of silence.

"Because he was forced to go back to the fire nation, alone," Yue looked at the water below.

"I thought he wanted to go home?" Katara asked confused.

"Katara you don't understand, yes Zuko is okay with being known as the monster now that captured the avatar, but that was also the only way he'd be accepted home without being a prisoner himself, the fire nation thinks he came to the northern tribe as a spy to capture his uncle as a traitor with the avatar," Yue turned to her with a dark look in her icy blue eyes.

"I'm not abandoning you!" Zuko screamed as he kicked a table into the wall as Yue covered her face with a squeak as Aang hid behind her.

"Prince Zuko please understand you will be sent to the boiling rock if you do not take this opportunity to take the responsibility you will never be a prince again!" Iroh barked back at him.

"I don't care! You'll be imprisoned a-and aang will-will..." Zuko gripping his hair as iroh sighed shaking his head, he was sad they'd have to leave this home behind, a happy life in the pole.

"Zuko..." Aang spoke up.

"It's okay, it's better than having the northern water tribe being destroyed, all these families being hurt, I'll be captured by you and it'll work out," he smiled brightly but everyone gasped when Zuko fell to his knees covering his mouth.

"I can't-I can't go back to him-I can't leave you," Zuko hyperventilated and Yue immediately was by his side and touched his shoulder. He flinched away from her kind touch as he was on the verge of tears as he panicked.

"Do it for me then? For my people?" Yue asked and tears fell down his face with a terrified face. Yue pulled him close as he tried to hold back his cries against her shoulder, she looked at Aang with tears in her eyes and he joined the other teenagers as Yue wrapped her other arm around him as Aang hugged her tightly.

"When the fire nation came he turned into a cold man, he didn't show emotion or sympathy for the avatar in chains in front of him, we all said our goodbyes that morning but Zuko put up a wall," Yue explained as Katara stayed calm.

"I'm sure you can understand that?" She said almost hopeful at the water bender.

"And he understands you more than you'd know, he was banished as a child and finally found people that cared for him and was taken from that too," Yue smiled and Katara nodded a little.

"And this isn't for your pity for him, its different when he tries to justify himself rather than hearing it from someone else, someone that isn't fire nation,"

"All I really wanted to say was to just give him a chance," Yue nodded as Katara looked at her for a moment to see if there was any hesitation. But she was a genuine beautiful person on the inside and out.

"I'll try, thank you Yue," Katara gave in with a small groan and crossed her arms.

As the girls walked back to the fire they heard children laughing and screaming as they all chased after Zuko who ran at full speed and jumped over a table and hid behind pakku.

"Cheater! He's a cheater!" The kids whined as Zuko whistled innocently behind the master bender as pakku gave him a look.

"I can see Aang is still apart of him," Yue giggled and Katara watched Zuko slip away from pakku and was tackled by two children who ran into him and they fell in the snow.

This was definitely still not the same man she met in the fire nation palace.