Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. I just love it.

A/N: I'm sure it's too late to tell everyone this, but don't go see the movie. Just...don't. I did, and since I didn't have access to the internet afterward, I had to write fanfic to take the taste out of my mouth. This isn't very long-it's probably about three chapters' worth. This is mostly a Maiko story-I like Zutara as well, but I was trying to go for canon-ish with this story. There's a wee bit of Kataang in there as well. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Chapter One

Zuko groaned and rolled over. There was sun in his eyes. "Ugh," he mumbled. "Mai, did you leave the curtains open again?"

There was no answer. He pulled the sheets up over his head, but somehow he managed to jerk them off his feet. He shivered and pulled his feet up to his chest.

"Zuko, time to get up! The sun is high in the sky!" His uncle's voice didn't give him warning enough to dodge as Iroh's hand grabbed his shoulder and tipped him out of bed. He tumbled to the ground and landed in a tangled heap, with his sheet wrapped around one leg. He was suddenly very cold, and he was suddenly very aware he wasn't wearing anything.

"Uncle!" he yelped, grabbing for the sheet and pulling it up around himself. "What are you doing?"

Iroh was standing at the window looking out. The iron-gray hair hanging about his head shifted slightly in the breeze. Zuko rolled his eyes. He was being overdramatic again.

"Zuko, my boy, isn't it a beautiful day?"

"Uncle…" groaned Zuko. "I was sleeping."

"Sleep is for the weak! Besides, you have guests, remember."

"What guests? What?" Zuko tried to get to his feet and found that in his haste to cover himself, he had inextricably entangled himself in his sheet. He hopped on one foot, trying to catch his balance, failed, and flopped backward onto the bed. Where was Mai? He supposed he should be grateful she hadn't still been here when Iroh appeared. Not that his uncle would have batted an eyelid, but…Zuko flushed to think about the previous night. Well, they were engaged, after all.

"Were you too busy last night to notice the arrival of our guests?"

"Busy? Me? Of course not!"

Iroh looked over at him with twinkling eyes. "Then I fail to see how you managed to miss the arrival of the Avatar and his friends."

"Aang's here?" Zuko hadn't seen Aang in a year. After his crowning, the Avatar had left to travel around the four nations, restoring balance. He had also promised the new Firelord that he would search for Zuko's mother. Ozai-

"Where is my mother?" demanded Zuko, grasping the front of his father's shirt and dragging him upright. The fallen Phoenix King smirked at him.

"I really think it will be more amusing if I don't tell you, son."

"Tell me, or-"

"Or what?"

Anger and pain burst inside Zuko's chest, and flames sprang into being around his hand. "Tell me, or I swear-"

Coughing, the former Firelord turned his face away from the heat. "You'll burn me, boy? Is that it? You want us to be a matched set?"

Horrified, Zuko flung his father backward across the cell. "I'll never be you."

"Won't you?"

He hadn't been back since then, but the scene haunted his dreams. Several times, he'd woken in the night, bathed in sweat, and been unable to fall back asleep. Last night, the same thing had happened, but Mai had woken too and sleepily told him to 'get to sleep, you're keeping me awake.' It had helped. Where was Mai?

"Yes, Nephew, Aang is here. He's been waiting for you since breakfast-don't you think you had better wear something a little more formal?"

Zuko had started for the door, still wrapped in the bed-sheet. He turned red to his ears. "I was just-going to the wardrobe, Uncle."

Iroh fixed him with an amused look. "Of course. The avatar and I will wait for you downstairs."

It took a bewildered and frustrated Zuko at least twice as long as it should have to find his clothes, half of which were scattered on the floor of his chamber. He was belting his sword when someone knocked on the door. "Uh…come in." He ran hasty hands through his hair.

"Hey, Zuko, way to go, man." Sokka was leaning against the lintel.

Zuko stared at him. "…thank you?" he essayed uncertainly, then followed Sokka's gaze to the bed, where an embroidered stocking had somehow gotten itself flung over the backboard. "That-that's-" he snatched it up and looked for somewhere to put it.

Sokka grinned. "This place reeks of s-"

Zuko stiffened. "That'sverynicewhydon'tyouwaitformedownstairs?"

The water-tribe man tossed his boomerang casually into the air. "So where's the lucky lady?"

Zuko's face was so hot that it felt heavy. "Um, I don't know," he mumbled. "She was gone when I woke up."

His friend whistled. "Tough luck, man. And here I thought-"

Zuko kneaded his forehead. He was getting a headache. "Come on, Sokka, I want to see Aang. Also, for your information, Mai and I are getting married. I was going to wait for the formal announcement, but you seemed so interested…" He allowed himself a small smile as he walked past Sokka's gaping open mouth. He couldn't resist stopping to pat his friend on the arm and murmuring quietly, "So when are you popping the question to Suki?"

As Sokka spluttered, Zuko swept regally down the stairs, straightening his robes. Score one for the fire nation.

"Zuko!" He was almost knocked over by the pretty water-bender's embrace. He held her in his arms for a moment, then set her gently on her feet. Katara was a beautiful, wonderful girl whom he cared for deeply. If it hadn't been for Mai, then maybe-but thinking of Mai made him think of her hidden smile when he did something foolish, which led to her professed love of fruit tarts, which led to-

"Zuko, I'm glad to see you." Aang smiled. He was several inches taller than he had been when Zuko had last seen him, and he held himself a little more surely, but he was still the same gawky boy. Katara swept back over to Aang. She had clearly been indulging some of the free credit the shops reserved for friends of the Firelord and the Avatar; she was wearing an embroidered blue robe and a comb in her hair that looked as if it was made of sea-shell, which reflected the light in little iridescent sparkles.

"I'm glad to see you too."

"Hey, you know why Zuko wasn't here to greet us last night?" Sokka piped up from the stairs, and the smile froze on Zuko's face.

"Affairs of state," he cut in quickly.

"That isn't what your uncle said," winked Katara. "He said-"

"Did you find out anything about my mother?" cut in Zuko quickly. Uncle, I am going to disembowel you slowly.

Katara shifted from foot to foot, smiling broadly. She nudged Aang, who was smiling almost as broadly.

"We found her!" the young air-bender blurted.

"You did?"

Aang nodded excitedly. "It was really hard to track her down after she left the Fire Nation. At first we thought she must have died, but then we realized she was traveling as an Earth Nation woman!"

"So guess who really found her?"

Zuko turned. There were two figures standing in the doorway, both clad entirely in green. The plump girl who had spoken blinked milky eyes in his general direction, then cocked her head proudly to the side. Zuko swallowed.

She was shorter than he remembered. Of course she was. She had left before he was full-grown. She wore the simple robes of an earth nation countrywoman, not the richly embroidered robes he had last seen her in, and her face bore lines that it hadn't those years ago.

"M-mother," he stammered. It felt as if he'd taken a sucker-punch to the stomach, this fearful eagerness, this sudden irrational terror that he wasn't good enough, that she wasn't really still-

She crossed the room in three steps and had her arms about him. "Zuko," she whispered. "Zuko, my son."

He felt her move to encircle him more completely in her embrace, and a sob caught in his throat. No. He couldn't cry in public like this, he couldn't-frantically, he tried to pull himself together.

"Hey, what's she do-" he heard Sokka say. His mother's arm moved quickly behind his back, and something thudded into his side.

It took a moment before the pain registered. It took a moment before Katara's water-whip had flung his mother back across the room and pinned her to a chair. It took a moment for Zuko to blink stupidly and reach back to feel the dagger protruding from his side. Touching it sent a wave of agony through him, and he gasped and dropped to his knees.

His mother was fighting against the bonds as his friends raced to his side. "What happened?" he tried to ask, but he was on the floor, and there was red descending on his vision, and the last thing he heard was Katara's voice, echoing oddly loud in his ears. "It'll be okay, Zuko, just don't move!"