Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. If you are unfamilar with the animated series, I suggest you watch the show first. With that in mind, you should know the feelings towards the series in question will not be accurately. With that in mind, the creator of the story has no intention of offending the co-creators of Avatar, its franchise, the series itself, or the people who like it and the Legend of Korra. Without further ado, enjoy.

This is my second love story between Prince Zuko and Ty Lee. This takes place shortly before Zuko's mother Ursa was banished.

In the year 94 AG, everything had seemed peaceful within the Fire Nation. Everyone lived a normal life in the Fire Nation.

Zuko was eleven years old, since he was ten years old at the time. He lived a normal life as a Fire Nation prince. Ursa, whom give Azula as much attention that a mother could. Azula, the younger sister who constantly tease and picks on her older brother. Prince Ozai, who constantly ignores and berates his firstborn.

Zuko was found in the peaceful garden where Ursa feeds the turtle-ducks. He lied under a tree with his arms behind his head. The large bush of leaves in the tree blocked the sunlight, causing shade. He enjoyed life a lot. He closed his eyes and thought about what he wanted to do within the future.

"Hey, Zuko!"

Zuko shot his eyes open to see a young and energetic eight-year-old pink-loving acrobat, Ty Lee was see standing next to him as he lied on a tree. She smiled as always when she is around Zuko.

Zuko annoyingly sighed. "What do you want, Ty Lee?"

"Nothing, really. I just wanted to see what you were doing, Tee-hee." Ty Lee giggled.

"I'm lying under a tree resting, now could you go away?" Zuko turned away.

"Can I join you?" Ty Lee asked.

"Why would you want to join me? Unless…" An idea had just popped in Zuko's head. Why would Ty Lee come alone without Azula. He then assumed that a prank was coming. "Is this Azula's idea?" Zuko jumped up.

"What is?" Ty Lee asked, feeling confused.

"You're hear by yourself, so you must be a decoy! Is this another one of Azula's pranks?" Zuko's senses was alert. He was ready for Azula to come out of hiding. "Where is she? Azula has to be somewhere!" he looked around to see his sister not in sight.

"What? N-no! It's nothing like that." Ty Lee waved her hands, trying to reason. "Azula is being tutored by Princess Ursa."

"Are you sure?" Zuko asked and Ty Lee replied with a nod. He sat back down. "Fine. You can sit. But only if you don't bug me." He allowed her sit next to him.

"Yay!" Ty Lee cheerfully sat down on Zuko's left. She sat for a couple of seconds, but suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. So, she scooted her hips and her side closer to Zuko's.

Zuko could feel her being too close. "You're too close to me, Ty Lee." he scooted a few inches away from her.

"Ah, come on. You said I could join you." Ty Lee scooted a little closer.

Zuko scooted away again. "Yeah, but you don't have to be so close, though. We're not—"

"Not what?" Ty Lee cut him off.

"We're not…" Zuko paused as he saw her cute face and blushed. He tried to speak, but noticed that she was too cute. Zuko got up off his but. "You know what, never mind. I'm gonna find something manly to do!" Zuko stormed off, leaving Zuko under a tree.

"Aw…" Ty Lee pouted.

Zuko was met by his mother Ursa. "What's the matter, Zuko?" she asked.

"Girls are weird." Zuko replied as he stormed off.

Zuko has only seen Ty Lee as Azula's friend. She would tag along with Azula and prank both Zuko and Mai. Zuko really wants nothing to do with them both, anyway. One time, Azula used her bended fire to light the apple on top of Mai's head. Zuko ran towards Mai, but tripped when he made contact and the two kids fell into the fountain.

A few days had passed. Zuko and Azula will be demonstrating the skills to impress current Fire Lord Azulon within three days. Zuko heard about the event and wanted to do his best and please his grandfather.

Every morning around eleven-thirty, Zuko would practice his Firebending in front of the turtle-duck lake. After a few punches and kicks, he tried to do a jump kick, but fell on his butt.

"Urg!" he groaned as he got back up. 'I don't get it. Every time Azula does that move, she make it perfect. What is it that I am doing wrong?' he wondered, as he continued his training. Zuko knew that struggle was the key to hard work.

Azula and Ty Lee watched Zuko train from behind a few pillars, watching Zuko train day after day.

"It looks like Zuko is training really hard, huh." Ty Lee said as she and Azula tucked their heads behind a pillar.

"Yes. Zuzu is trying real hard in order to impress grandfather. He's been at it for days." Azula said, then thought of an idea. "I have an idea." She looked at Ty Lee.

"What is it, Azula?" she asked.

"Another prank."

"But, are you sure it's safe to prank Zuko while he's training?" Ty Lee asked in concern.

"I wanna see what Zu Zu is really capable of. Heh." Azula chuckled as she created a small ball of fire in her hands.

Ty Lee had gotten more concerned of what Azula was doing. "Are you sure that's… safe?"

"Come on, Ty Lee. It's just a small flame. You're not afraid of a little fire, are you?" Azula questioned her friend.

Ty Lee hesitated to answer the question a bit. "Um… no." Deep down, Ty Lee didn't like where Azula was going.

"Good. Here's what we're gonna do…"

As Zuko was practicing his combination of firebending and martial arts, he saw a ball of fire thrown at him. Zuko ducked and the fireball had evaporated within thin air. He knew who threw it. Azula had walked towards him.

"Why did you do that?" Zuko questioned.

"Come on, lighten up, Zuzu. It's just a prank." Azula said with little care.

"I'm not in the mood for any of your pranks today, Azula!" Zuko yelled as he attempted to continue his training.

"What? Your little sister can't help you train?"

"What are you talking about?" Zuko asked.

"I'm only testing your how fast you are and agile you are." Azula said then threw another ball of flame at him.

Zuko dodged the flame by moving out the way. "Stop it! I don't need your help! Just go away!" he turned away from his sister, giving her the could shoulder.

"I'm your little sister, aren't I, Zuzu?

"Sometimes, I wish you weren't." Zuko said in a mean way.

"Don't treat me like I'm a pest!"

"Well, you're acting like one. Now leave me alone." Zuko demanded.

That struck a nerve for Azula. She wanted to get at him for calling her a pest, but then she couldn't forget about what he wanted to do. "You really think you could impress grandfather with sloppy techniques like that?" she taunted.

"They're not sloppy. You don't know what you're talking about!"

"I do. Father praises me for my talent. I once heard father say, I was born lucky." Azula mentioned.

"So?"

"He also said that you were lucky to be born." Azula said bluntly.

Zuko turned to his sister frustrated. "I'm his firstborn! What does that have to do with anything?" he yelled.

"It means that I'm one step ahead of you of becoming Fire Lord."

"Who cares? I don't even want to be Fire Lord anyway! I wanna be just like uncle Iroh."

"So, you wanna be a coward and crybaby, just like him?" Azula mocked Iroh.

"He's not a crybaby or a coward, you know. He just lost his only kid!" Zuko defended Iroh.

As Ty Lee watched Azula taunt her brother, she started to feel a little bad. She thought that it would be a harmless prank as always, but Ty Lee felt like it was getting too personal. Despite Azula not giving the signal, Ty Lee decided to come out of hiding and started walking towards the prince and princess.

"Just go away, Azula! Or I'll-"

"What are you gonna do, tell mom? Because I haven't done anything wrong." Azula questioned.

"You're getting on my nerves!" Zuko tried to restrain himself.

Azula took a step forward. "Why do you care? You never do anything about it. What? Are you gonna hit my with your firebending?"

"Stop it."

"You can't do it, can you?"

"Leave me alone or I'm telling mom!" Zuko lashed out.

"Pfft," Azula rolled her eyes. "I don't understand what mother even see in you. You're too soft. You're too weak. Just like her." Azula taunted about their mother.

"Don't talk about mom like that. She has nothing to do with this!"

"Oh, but she does. The worst mistake she ever made… was raising a failure, just… like… you." Azula said with no regard of his feelings.

Ty Lee had caught up behind Azula, a few inches from behind the princess. She tried to reach her hand out to Azula to make her stop taunting Zuko. "Azul—"

Zuko suddenly felt something surge pass through inside of his body. An electrical shock that surged into his brain all the way down to his tailbone, which caused him to snap. His eyes had widened in anger, he ignited fire in his hands. "Quit it!" Zuko roared as he turned around and thrusted his hand, unleashing powerful Firebending towards Azula.

Azula gasped as saw the fire coming and noted that it was too strong for her to repel or redirect. Her eyes widened in shock and amazement. She jumped out of the way, hitting the grass and her hands over her head to take cover.

What the two Fire Nation royals did not know was that Ty Lee was there at the scene. Ty Lee was too close behind Azula. When Zuko saw Ty Lee, his eyes were in shock, learning that she was too close. He had no idea or knowledge of Ty Lee's presence. He tried to stop his bending, but it was too late. Ty gasped as she saw the flames to close. She tried to block with her hands, but she was not a firebender. Her hands had got caught with the flames. And then...

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" Ty Lee screamed in agony. She fell on her ground, sobbing in pain. Her hands were burned and tears streamed down her face.

Zuko had just burned her by mistake. His mind was filled with horror. He never managed to burn anyone with his Firebending before, but this was the first time he had burned a person. He took a step back in grief.

"Ty Lee!" Azula cried as she rushed to her friend. It was almost like Azula had a change of heart, with a sad and worried look on her face.

Zuko tried to reach out to her. "Ty Lee, I'm so—"

She then glanced at Zuko and knocked his hand away. "Look what you did, dumdum!"

"You think I knew she was there!?" Zuko argued. "If you hadn't messed with me agian, I wouldn't had—"

"What's going on here? I heard a scream!" Both Zuko and Azula looked to see a worried Ursa and Mai running towards them. "What happened?" Zuko and Azula stepped back to give their mother space to check on Ty Lee. "Ty Lee…" she walked over towards Ty Lee and saw that her hands were badly burned. She gasped in shock. "Oh no…" she muttered.

"Miss Ursa… Mai." Ty Lee sniffled as she wouldn't stop crying.

"Ty Lee!" Mai cried as she ran towards her.

Ursa did not know who did it. She looked at her kids and started to question herself. The first person that came to her mind was her daughter, Azula. She had been mischief in the past. She glanced at her with frustration. "Azula, what did you do?" she questioned, but would not respond. "Azula!" she yelled.

"It was Zuko! He burned her!" Azula pointed at her brother. For once Azula had told the truth.

Ursa had looked at Zuko with disbelief. "Is it true?"

"I-I didn't mean to hurt her! Azula made me do it. She was taunting me, and I got mad at her and—ugh!" Zuko was cut off by an angry Mai, who pushed her into the turtle-duck pond. Zuko stuck his head out of the pond and was shocked to see that Mai pushed him.

Ursa was shocked when Zuko had admitted. Then became less shocking when Mai pushed Zuko. "Mai!"

Zuko was confused. "Mai? Why did ya-"

Mai glared at Zuko, whom is in the pond. "Stay away from Ty Lee!" she then turned and helped Ty Lee up along with Azula, who had now taken her to an infirmary inside the palace.

"There, there. It's going to be okay." Azula said as the three girls walked into the Fire Nation palace. She secretly cracked a smile.

Zuko got out of the pond, all wet and saw his mother Ursa, who then looked at him with sorrow and little disappointment.

"Mom, I—" Zuko begun to say.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Zuko." Her eyes watered.

Tears streamed down Zuko's face after hearing her mother's words. "It was… an accident."

Ursa sighed. "Come along." She helped Zuko walk into the Fire Nation palace.