"So…let me get this straight," the Earth Kingdom soldier huffed. He held up a finger and recited the first fact his mind was trying to desperately to accept, "The war ended a few weeks ago."

"29 days," the man across from him said instantly, "I've been counting."

"Right." He held up another finger, "The Fire Nation surrendered and started releasing Earth Kingdom prisoners."

A nod.

"You came to the colonies to make sure that got done."

"Yes."

"And," he held up a fourth finger and took a deep breath, "you're the Firelord."

The Firelord nodded as if that wasn't a monumental fact.

Sensu was not a man easily overwhelmed. He'd marched off to war the moment his parents let him, he'd fought sword point to fireball against enemy soldiers, and he'd endure months as a prisoner of war. However, lounging on a sofa in the Firelord's sitting room, Sensu was tense as a bowstring.

He should've been more at ease after everything he'd been through. There was only a single guard in the room, and even they looked more like an advisor than a guard, but he knew that the guard wasn't the one he should be worried the Firelord was younger than him, he was dangerous in that lithe, snake-like way, and while Sensu had heard good things about this Firelord, he wasn't sure how much he believed. He doubted he was here out of pleasant circumstances.

"Explain to me again why the Firelord came down to this prison, singled me out, and invited me for tea?"

The Firelord took a sip from his cup. "I met your family."

Sensu gripped his armrest, "...That doesn't sound potentially threatening at all."

"No! No, I was just a refugee back then. I didn't do much more than starve in front of them."

"Right. What exactly did my family do to make this situation a reality?"

Setting down his cup, the Firelord turned thoughtful, focused on a moment away from now.

"Your family showed me kindness during a dark time. It ended up changing me. A lot. It might've changed the outcome of this entire war." The Firelord set his eyes on him again. "I just wanted to make sure you got home. Lee really missed you."

"You met my brother?" Sensu blurted. "Go figure. If anyone was going to inadvertently stop a war, it'd be that kid." He laughed, remembering his little brother and the antics they'd get into back on the farm. He remembered Lee propped up on their dad's shoulders, waving him goodbye for the final time. "Spirits, it's been awhile."

"You can see them all soon. I have ostrich-horses ready to take you back."

"And I thought I'd have to walk back home," Sensu mused. The Firelord had stood up, ready to show him the way down. "So you really came down here just to send me back to my family? You had no other reason to stop here."

"It's a good thing I did. You all should have been freed weeks ago," the firebender huffed.

"Do you want to see them?"

"What?"

"My family. You have time to visit don't you?"

The Firelord blinked surprise out of his eyes and pondered. "Well, I guess if everything goes smoothly here… I have a few days before I have to make it to Ba Sing Se." Doubt returned to his voice. "Are you sure?"

"Honestly, I never expected to invite the Firelord to my house, but my parents raised me to be hospitable."

"I know," he smiled. "But I didn't exactly leave on the best terms."

"All the better. My parents also taught me that if there's a chance to make amends with someone, take it."

The man seemed genuinely pleased at the idea of visiting his family, and unless Sensu's eyes deceived him, a little bit nervous. He wasn't at all the ruthless, firebending tyrant he'd thought a Firelord would be, especially one that had beaten back his own family to ascend the throne. Maybe those stories about the Firelord he'd heard the prison guards whisper had more truth to them than he thought.

"One more thing," the Firelord said, "You haven't seen your father around, have you?"

"My dad? Why would I see him here?"

"Gansu left to try and find you after he heard you'd been captured. I guess we should be thankful he didn't make it this far."

Sensu's eyes widened. "He left Ma and Lee… for me?"

"You have a good family. Not that I'm one to judge." The Firelord looked over his shoulder to the guard in the room, "I need you to find another soldier for me."

"Go home, Gansu. The war's over," the Earth Kingdom officer said in a tired voice. Outside the war tent, other soldiers marched about, readying to head home, but Gansu was not about to join them.

"I'm not going home until I find my son. This war's not over till he comes home."

"We can't go out and bang on the Fire Nation's door for him, alright? This peace is strained enough as it is," the officer sighed. "Besides, it's been months since he's last been seen. Maybe it's time to pack it up and go home, take care of the family you have left."

The implications of what the officer just said was not lost on Gansu. If he hadn't been so tired after the weeks he'd spent in his search, he would have roared at the man for even suggesting Sensu was dead. As it was, Gansu raged silently. "I'll find him on my own then."

He stormed out of the tent and marched straight into the barren desert, but the rage quickly died and a droop returned to his shoulders.

It had been nearly a month since the war ended. It'd been about four since he'd left home. Despite the white hot anger in his chest, the officer's words rang deep to the core; he was searching with no leads for a son he didn't even know was alive. In his heart of hearts, he believed Sensu was alive, but his eyes saw no truth in that, and his mind knew no way to reach him.

Lee and Sela, he could still care for. It would be cruel to leave them for any longer.

He stood there, pondering whether walking forward or walking back would be more loyal to his family, for so long that mirages began to form on the horizon. Two spots on the horizon, kicking up dust. No matter how much he blinked, they wouldn't leave his sight, only grew larger and larger. Perhaps his months staring out into the blazing desert were finally catching up to him. When the mirages took the shape of two ostrich-horses with riders on their back, Gansu was sure of it.

It must be a mirage. The rider on the ostrich-horse's back couldn't have been...

"Sensu."

Gansu didn't know how he'd find his son again. He expected a fight, a lot of travel, and an angry yelling match with a prison guard at the very least. He did not expect his son to come him, strutting up on an ostrich-horse with a foolish grin on his face.

"Sensu!" Gansu yelled, running up to meet his son, pulling him off his steed and crushing him in a hug. His son was here, really here, safe and sound and in his arms again. His voice was strained with tears. "You have no idea how worried we've all been."

"I told you not to worry about me so much."

"And I told you not to get into trouble."

"I guess neither of us are great at listening," he laughed into his shoulder. "I missed you, dad."

"I've missed you too, son."

It was only after his eyes had cleared and he'd scolded his son ten times over for scaring them half to death that he noticed the rider of the other ostrich-horse. Gansu recognized the face immediately. He remembered recognizing that face on the posters that had been cycling through the Earth Kingdom once the war had ended, the posters that called that face Firelord. He remembered telling himself that it couldn't be who he thought it was.

"You…"

The man brought his hands together in a Fire Nation bow. "Firelord Zuko. It's an honor to see you again."

"You're the stranger who came to my farm. You fixed my roof," Gansu said, dazed, "The Firelord fixed my roof." He turned back to his son, who was grinning at them both. "Sensu, how… where have you been?"

"Oh, you know, sitting in a colony prisoner waiting for my papers to get cleared. The Firelord kinda fast-tracked everything for me," Sensu answered.

That did little to clear his daze. A firebender had brought back his son. The Firelord himself, ruler of the nation that he'd fought in the front and who had taken his son in the first place. He should have loathed the red robed man's presence. Right now though, his enmity against the Firelord was buried. Right now, all that mattered was that this man had brought his son here.

"You brought my son back," was all he could mutter in his daze.

"I'm just returning the favor you gave me," the Firelord said.

"Bringing back my son is mighty repayment. I just gave you dinner and let you sleep in my barn."

"...It meant a lot to me."

Gansu laughed heartily.

Treat every stranger with kindness, he'd always been told. You never known who that stranger could be. It might even be a spirit in disguise. The Firelord was no spirit, though with the reverence he was held in he might as well be. Either way, kindness came back around, though the ripples Gansu had made four months ago had come back as a tidal wave.

"You have to tell me everything that's happened since you've left." He told them both. "But right now, let's go home."

Zuko was nervous. The last time he'd been here, he'd been run out of town.

The plains village was just as he'd remembered it. Decrepit wooden houses stood covered in dust, their walls holed with termite bites. The blazing hot sun kept the village's inhabitants holed up in their houses or sweltering on their porches. It was hot, dusty and everything for miles was colored a dull, yellowish beige, but a home was home, he supposed.

Sensu and Gansu stopped a few times, shook hands with old friends, but Zuko stayed back and tried to keep aloof. Even as they walked up the final path to the family's farm, Zuko's ostrich-horse was always a few strides behind. When the two others started running up the final stretch, Zuko ground to a halt.

From a distance, he watched the two men reach two smaller silhouettes, crashing together in an embrace and filling the air with the sound of tears and laughter and words he couldn't make out. A smile grew on his lips. Their reunion was a far cry from the welcome Zuko had gotten when he'd come home after three years of banishment, and he was happy for that.

They didn't come apart for a long while, and Zuko had no intention to interrupt. Only when Sensu waved him over, grin still wide on the man's face, did Zuko dismount the ostrich-horse and make the rest of the way on foot.

When the mother and son recognized who was walking up the path, Sela gasped from her place in Gansu's arms and Lee half hid himself behind his brother.

"You remember our visitor, don't you?" Gansu said.

"How could I forget?" Sela whispered.

Zuko's nervous heartbeat hammered in his chest. He remembered the hate and distrust that had been in Sela's eyes the last time he'd seen her, how she'd stood between him and her son, trying to keep him away. She made no such attempt this time, only stared at him, stunned. Introductions seemed unnecessary, so Zuko merely bowed, trying to remember the words he'd prepared on the way. "I'm sorry that the Fire Nation has kept your family apart for so long. I wanted to set things right."

It wasn't enough, he knew. They'd made their loathing of the Fire Nation painfully clear to him, and returning a son that shouldn't have been taken from them in the first place could not undo years of hardship. Zuko couldn't undo their hate of the Fire Nation, but he could see through that this family would not be separated by his nation ever again.

He was surprised to turn back and see tears in the Sela's eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said, voice so faint he almost didn't hear it, "I've wished so much grief on you just because of where you came from, when you've only ever helped us."

"I thought the Earth Kingdom was my enemy for a long time, too" Zuko said gently, "You helped me change that."

Gansu held her tighter in his embrace. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Sela. You only ever did what you thought would keep our family safe."

Zuko nodded. He hadn't exactly made himself unthreatening, what with the blazing swords and all, and she'd only been protecting her child, just as a mother did. Sela must have seen it differently though, because she stepped towards him, forehead creased with distraught.

"I treated you unfairly back then," she said, taking his hand, "You saved my son, and I turned you away after everything you did. I should have known better. After seeing those soldiers, I should have known that what nation you came from said nothing about who you are." She smiled, squeezing his hand tenderly. "And now you brought back my family. I couldn't repay you back then, and I still can't repay you now; but thank you."

He wanted to say that they had nothing to repay him for, but the words stuck in his throat. Sela, who'd almost lost a son and a husband to the war, who'd been left to care for a child and a farm alone, who'd seen what the Fire Nation was capable of at its worse, found it in herself to see him for more than a firebender. He could ask for nothing more.

"Let's get dinner ready," Gansu said, taking his wife's hand, "It's been a long journey."

The two walked off towards the house, leaving Sensu and Lee in his company. Sensu gave his brother a hard pat on the back, bringing him forward.

"I heard you gave this guy trouble when he stopped by," he said, amused.

"No, I didn't!" Lee argued just for the sake of arguing.

"Yeah? Heard you kept annoying him with questions. Stole his swords. Messed with the soldier and had to have him bail you out. Twice."

"Okay. Maybe I did," the boy said sheepishly.

"I'll give you a chance to make amends. I'll see you both at dinner." Sensu ruffled his brother's hair once more before disappearing into the farmhouse, leaving him and Lee in silence.

It was a little awkward to say the least. Lee had always done most of the talking while Zuko stayed silent or gave monosyllabic answers, not to mention that the last conversation he'd had with the kid had ended in 'I hate you!'

"...You've grown since I last saw you," he said, which was probably the most mundane thing he could have said.

"Someone had to help mom around." Lee glanced up at him before staring down at the ground again. "You're different, too."

"I'd say." Zuko thought back to how he'd shown up there before: tired, penniless and starved. "I've come a long way from the last time you saw me. Except, if you didn't help me back then, my journey might have ended with me starving in the desert."

"It's a good thing we did then," he murmured, kicking the dirt path.

Zuko couldn't help the warm feeling spreading in his chest. He'd spent too long convincing himself that Lee would never forgive him for being a firebender that hearing his words felt nothing short of miracle.

He was about to suggest they join the family for dinner, but Lee still had something left on his mind.

"Thanks. For bringing them back. And saving me back then." Lee's voice was quiet. Reluctant almost, like a child who didn't like being proven wrong. That was enough for Zuko though, because when Zuko smiled down at him, Lee gave him a toothy grin back.

"It's the least I can do, Lee. You have a good family."

AN: I wanted to start this year off happy :D If you enjoyed any of that, thank Zentauria for putting the idea in my head! Here's to a lovely 2018 everyone!