AN: This was originally a oneshot, but I decided to split it so it's a little easier to read.

Have fun.

"Just because you're bringing back Wang Fire, does not mean I have to act like your wife again."

She took a few steps away from her brother, who had just beset her with an interrogatory of my, how fine the weather is today, dear Sapphire and isn't our little boy looking simply dashing and what do you think of my beard today, sweetheart?

"In fact, if anyone asks, we are not related."

"But what if someone from the school is here!" He crouched into a whisper. The husky beard and the obstructive crutch didn't suit the secretive stance. "If we're recognized, we'd jeopardize the mission."

"Not many people to recognize us, anyway." Toph added, still miffed from being nagged into taking a bath that morning.

Aang takes a break from happily pointing at buildings to realize the truth in her words. "Yeah… the city's so empty. Reminds me of the invasion…"

"Yeah, well, everyone probably saw, you know, their palace going up in flames." Sokka waved his free arm around, attempting to emphasize flames. "And maybe they heard about how their Loserlord got beaten up. I wouldn't want to go out much after knowing that."

"But shouldn't they be happy? From what we've seen, Ozai's not really a great ruler."

"Maybe not, but he was feared. Besides, they might still expect the Earth Kingdom to be crashing through their doors pretty soon."

Katara raised an eyebrow. For all his quirks, Sokka could spin to new perspectives pretty easily.

"Well, if we don't find anyone soon, we might really have to go crashing through doors."

"Right! The mission: find the banished palace elves and tell them they're rehired."

"I'm pretty sure Sparky just told us that to get us out of the palace."

"What makes you think that?" Aang asks glumly. He had waved at a lone passerby who just ducked his head and briskly entered a building. There was a clink of the door being locked.

"He could just find some new servants later. There's really no reason to find them now. I think he just didn't want a repeat of Snoozles being a walking disaster yesterday. I mean, he actual went out of his meeting and told you to keep it down."

"I'm pretty sure you were the reason for all that, Toph!"

"So yeah, he wants us from messing him up."

"He's gonna mess himself up if he doesn't get some sleep soon." Katara had a sneaking suspicion that he spent the night rolling through old scrolls and practicing speeches. She always found him mumbling things like edict and by way of Proclamation 322 sanctioned by Firelord Sozin, while curled up in a heap of parchment as he slept.

"There's a lot of pacing going on in his room at night." Toph affirmed. Zuko was in for some serious nagging later.

Aang pointed upwards. "Hey, what's that?"

"What's what?"

The sun glared. "Are- are those birds?"

"It's like, a thousand Hawkys, guys!"

"Why are there so many?" There was a roar as they flew overhead, like the sound of a thousand boots stomping repeatedly. "Do you think they escaped? Should I fly up there and stop them!"

They watched the birds edge farther away, distracted by the sheer number, the sight of so much movement.

"Guys?"

"No, no. It'll blow your cover. And I think I saw messages on their backs anyway." Sokka turned back to the direction they had come from. "But just… why so many?"

Toph was unmoved. "Soooo, let's go ask Sparky. I want another shot at the royal hot tub. It's the only body of water I enjoy sinking in."

"But we haven't found any of the servants yet." Aang argued, waving up at the few hawks that lagged behind.

"It was a waste of time, anyway."

"I'm with, Toph." Sokka raised a hand. "And, I'm hungry."

Katara was up for going home, but Aang still seemed uneasy about going back empty-handed. And what would they tell Zuko; hey, we decided to not look for anyone cuz we thought you just sent us on a wild turkey-goose chase to get rid of us. It didn't shine a good light on any of them.

"I say we look a bit more. Just think; we could get some actual chefs in the kitchen. And if we find the spa workers, then we can all get the royal treatment."

"That sounds appealing. I can finally get something done about this hair. So dry, so lifeless. Oh, wait, food, I'm excited about food."

Toph huffed. "Fine. But we're doing this quick."

The next hour, Toph leads them on, more or less, a raid of the city. Punch at the door until it opens, ask some questions, punctuated at intervals by Toph shouting at desolate, echoing, crossroads: anyone that was banished by Princess Batshit-Crazy can come back to the palace now! They found most of their quarry at hotels and inns, but few seemed noticeably happy about going back.

"There's been a change in management." Sokka would announce. Most just looked more noticeably afraid. They would usually answer in quiet tones something along the lines of thanks for letting me know, now go away before shutting the door and closing the curtains. A few though, happily shook their hands and said they'd be right over.

None of them were chefs or spa attendants, though, so the team went back a bit glum.

"Well, at least there's a little more life in the palace." Katara spun optimistically, as they passed a few people milling around in the palace hallway. "I wonder if anyone could help with dinner."

"I'm sure there is. I'll help too if you want."

"Thanks, Aang." She gives a glance at behind her. "How about you two?"

Sokka puts a hand to his chest in a how could you say that, gesture. "I am handicapped, dear sister. And didn't you ban me from cooking after last time?"

"And I'm blind."

Katara just rolls her eyes.

"Heads up; I spy Sparky coming down the hall. He's holding something… moving."

They turn their heads at the direction Toph points but are only met by a flash of red robes. They tail Zuko outside, where they see the palace's gold embellishments glow in the sunset. The golden crest on the tube he holds, glints.

"Hey Zuko! What's with the hawk?" Aang strides up to say hi to the russet bird, who pays little attention to the monk.

"Sending a message. Here - hold him so I can get this damned scroll on." Zuko dumped the bird in Aang's arms, who squawked as it fell from grace. Zuko quietly hisses a curse when the harness tangles.

"Wow, someone's edgy." Sokka prods, as he leans on the railing.

Katara chides him.

"What? I'm not lying, am I?" He defends.

The crimson tube clips onto the bird's harness and Zuko breathes out a mix between a sigh and a groan. "I'm sorry. It's just that I've had to deal with way too many of these birds today."

"Does this have to do with all the hawks we saw this morning?" Aang asks, calmly stroking the messenger hawk's head.

"Yeah, what was that? These guys kept on staring." Toph adds.

"Something I hope I never have to do again." He rubs his hands over weary eyes. There are wispy feathers weaved into his hair. "I've had the messages written for days, I was just waiting until I had the stamp to send them; but the birds were just so… uncooperative."

"Are you telling me you harnessed up all those birds today?" Toph raises her brows.

"Why didn't you ask us to help?" Katara asked.

"Uh…well I already sent you out to do… that… thing." He waves a hand dismissingly.

"I told you he just wanted to get rid of us."

"I wasn't… I - I just thought you wanted something to do." He takes the bird off Aang. "I wish I hadn't though, I really needed the help today. Ba Sing Se, to uncle - I mean General Iroh." Zuko threw the hawk into the air and watched as it ascended. "And that's the last of them."

"What we're those letters even for?" Sokka asked.

"They were for the army officials. 'Stand down. Do not engage. Await further orders.' It's enough to make them stop for a while."

"But that last one was to Iroh, wasn't it?"

Zuko smiles a bit, the sheer thought of his uncle seemingly enough to lift his mood. "On the brighter side, uncle and I aren't considered traitors anymore. But we're at a standstill since the law ends up being that uncle's entitled to the crown."

"And?"

"And I just need him to send back a statement saying he's handed the position over to me. Then… I'm Firelord."

Maybe it was because of the day they spent, together, wandering, so reminiscent of past times; but Katara felt ridiculously happy. The feeling carried, even after Toph punched him on the arm.

"Ow! What was that for!" He says it indignantly, but the edges of his mouth betrayed him.

"It took you long enough!" Toph's voice doesn't expose any other emotion other than annoyance, but they'd known each other long enough to realize she meant no venom.

"Yeah," he rubs his arm thoughtlessly, "Way too long."

From the way he says it, they could tell he wasn't just reflecting on the last few days.

"Hey! I guess that means I can call you Firelord Hotman now!"

Zuko clouted the back of Aang's head. "I become supreme sovereign of a country and that's what you think about."

They laugh it off and Sokka goes off on a spiel of what he would do if he became supreme ruler of a country and they are all a little more assured that they would never want to go anywhere Sokka was in charge of, as if they needed more convincing. She wonders if anyone else notices Zuko's hands shaking.

Of the five days it had taken him to become Firelord, Zuko sleeps only two of the nights.

You couldn't blame him, even when he tried, the fear kept him up.

The night after the disaster of a negotiation he had pillaged the palace library for anything that could help his case. He'd found plenty, but nothing that still held any meaning after the convoluted reign of his recent ancestors.

They get little done the second day as well, but Zuko believes they moved miles on a different levels. It was a day of discreet repentance. No one outright apologized to each other but there were a lot of downward glances and a few uh, respectable figures should never resort to violence, that would be immature, and riling up the other party is, ahem, a low and backwards strategy, we have discovered.

By the end of it, he and High Sage Kan could look each other eye to eye. He closes the discussion by inviting them to dine together and with a piece of shrewd advice he had come across.

"Our first duty is not to the crown, but to the nation and its people."

They renounce his betrayal the next day. They base it by declaring Ozai an unjustifiable usurper that had been allowed on the throne due to deceit and coercion. Sage Ruhon later tells him that there had never been any doubt Azulon's will had been tampered. "That lie has been carried six years too long." He says with a shameful shake of his head.

He signs Azula into an institution that night, when the others think he's asleep.

And that night, as he pressed his insignia into the scroll, he's hit by reality. He was a 16 year old kid, about to be handed an entire country to lead. And not just any country; this was a country defiled for 100 years, on the losing side of a war, steeped in economic and moral atrocities. He had no idea how to handle that. He was already missing sleep with the workload right now.

An entire nation would collapse into itself, and he'd be the one to blame.

Every hawk on the horizon makes his heart leap, terrified that it was uncle, proudly exclaiming him as Firelord of the nation, the great and honorable. His mental image of himself did not connote these words.

The first letters aren't from uncle, but they panic him anyway.

The 12th division will never take orders from a traitor. Stand down and release honorable Firelord Azula and the glorious Phoenix King Ozai!

Says one. Another writes,

Do not try to fool us, traitor! We know of the battle at the capitol! Release Princess Azula and the Fire Sages, treacherous swine!

A few are a little confused.

Aid needed at Ba Sing Se. Troops have been pushed out of city by a team of aged men? Wearing blue and white, seemingly from all nations. There have been accounts of General Iroh himself at the battle. Divisions have been scattered. Urgently awaiting orders.

He has a stack of letters cursing his name and if that's any indication of how the nation would react to his rule, Zuko might as well give up now. For spirits sake, he hadn't even signed his name on the letters to make sure this didn't happen.

The hawk perches on the railing besides him early the next morning. It almost feels unreal, and he had slightly hoped it was, with the gentle candlelight and ringing silence, as he unrolls the papers from the holder. There are two of them. One is of the richest parchment, veiled with formal terms and appraising lines, stamped and sealed by a hand he would never had recognized as his uncle's, if not for the name signed on the bottom.

The other is meant for his eyes, personally. And uncle knows just what to say.

Alone, it's not enough to break away the dread but his friends are. They'll never know of his troubles, and they'd never know how much they had helped him pull through.

And before he knows it, Zuko's shaking hands with High Sage Kan and setting the date for his coronation.

They get down to business.

"We're inviting dad, right? And the others? Wait, they're still in jail! I need to write that out first!" Sokka scraps the previous scroll over his shoulder and spreads out a new one.

"Stop wasting paper!" Katara chides.

"Yeah, it's expensive," Zuko didn't really care though. There was enough gold in the treasury to spin a dozen closets worth of robes out of it. "And send one to the Boiling Rock, while you're at it. For Mai and Ty Lee."

"Oh yeah, Azula's creepy friends. I guess I'll squeeze them in."

"They saved our lives, Sokka!"

Aang burst into the room happily, two hawks perched on his arms. "They're sent! Have any more yet."

Katara tosses him a scroll. "To Iroh in Ba Sing Se. Where's Toph?"

Aang sets one of the birds on the table, as he works on the other. "Well, I felt some stomping outside and then a bunch of people ran inside the palace so I think she's doing pretty well. Don't know exactly where she is though."

Sokka drapes a letter in front of Zuko, proudly. "Here. Sign it."

"I'm a bit busy here."

"How long does it take to sign something?"

Aang set the bird to rest on the chair, which cooed a very unhawkly sound. "What're you working on now?"

"A speech."

"A speech? Wait, do I have to write one?!"

Zuko rolled his eyes. "No, you just have to stand there and look pretty."

"I hope you're not being sarcastic."

"Siiiign it! My arm's getting tired." Sokka waved his scroll around.

"Your penmanship is horrible. I'm not signing that."

"What's it matter as long as they can read it?"

"No one'll take it seriously."

"Oh, come on."

"Rewrite it. And fix the grammar."

Sokka huffed. "Fine, Firelord Perfectionist."

"Here, I'll help." Katara offered.

"And I'm going to send this little bird off." The birds followed him out the door, as if Aang were some sort of fairytale princess. He worked unsurprisingly well with animals.

Zuko cringed when the door slammed shut. Aang poked his head back in. "Sorry…"

Zuko just hummed in acknowledgment.

"Are you feeling okay, Zuko?" Huh. He guess he'd made it a bit more obvious than he thought, what with the endless pacing and staring into nothingness. "Are the bandages wrapped too tightly again?"

He waited a bit before shaking his head. "Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing." He didn't have to look at Katara's face to know that was the wrong answer. He added quickly, "It's just…" I don't think I can handle being Firelord, my people hate, the other nations hate me, I don't know what to do, what if I start another war, what if I end up like Ozai, help me, "…I don't know what to write for my speech."

She's quiet, likely weighing whether to accept his word or not. "…I don't know much about speeches."

"How about that time you got those earthbending prisoners to escape?" Sokka rebutted.

"They didn't even do anything after my speech, remember. And I was just talking off the top of my head."

"I don't think that'd work well in my case."

"Right!" Sokka tapped his writing brush on his chin, "Speeches, speeches…What do we know about speeches? Oh! Remember what dad said before the invasion?"

"Not really, actually. I remember you messed up yours and dad had to stand up for you. You started talking about how we met Aang, right?"

"Okay, I'm not the best at speeches either. But I remember that dad just seemed really in-control. Knew what he was doing. I guess you gotta make people trust you."

That made him reel his brush back even more. "It's going to take more than one speech to get people to trust me." He barely trusted himself to do the right thing.

Then a tremor and a crash rolled through the room. They all stood in unison. The boys fell back into their seats in unison, Zuko curling into himself, Sokka verbally cursing as he clutched his bad leg.

"Idiots." Katara momentarily forgots about the sound.

Light spills into the scene as Aang enters the room, birdless. "I found Toph." He says sheepishly, then confused. "What happened here?"

The boys continue with their pained breathing. "Okay, I'm good, I'm good."

"Speak for yourself." Zuko hissed.

"Don't touch it, straighten out. You're agitating it more." He listens to Katara, as one always should, and surely the pain subsides into a manageable sting.

"What's up, losers. I convinced all the staff to hurry back here." Toph spreads herself on one of the gold laced couches, kicking dust up onto the cushions. "And by convinced I mean beat into submission. What're you up to." She asked a question but didn't seem particularly interested in the answer.

"What was with the crash?" Katara asked.

"Some of them weren't very cooperative. Toph kinda…gave them a show of strength." Aang explains. "Made Ko fly off, though."

"Ko?"

"He's a hawk. I don't know where he went."

Toph added innocently, "I didn't see 'em."

Zuko gives a roll of his eyes, one of many he gave that day. "He'll fly back to the message center eventually."

"Oh, good. I was worried he'd fly away." Aang hopped up beside them. "How's letter writing going?"

"Still on the speech."

Aang looks over his shoulder. "You don't have anything down yet."

"I know."

"Well… just say the truth. Talk about how you want to help the world."

"Ooh, maybe you can add some anecdotes in there? Like when we first met you and I hit you with my boomerang!"

"Or when you burned my feet and had to piggy-back me until they healed."

"I still remember when you showed up at the air temple and all you said was 'hello, Zuko here'. If I hadn't hated you so much back then I would have laughed so hard."

"Are you just going to keep making fun of me?" Zuko reddened, but he did agree that he hadn't exactly present himself that well, back then.

"You gave us a speech back then, too! Oh, no wonder you said making a speech off the top of your head wouldn't work."

Zuko wasn't about to tell them how he'd actually practiced that speech in front of a badger-frog more than a couple of times.

The group starts to walk down memory lane, sharing old stories, like the day he'd plowed through the Southern Water Tribe, to little known tales he'd never heard about. And slowly, words start to form on his page.

"Did you know I was a master of haiku?"

"You told me you got thrown out."

"And that play. You better shut them down once you have the chance, right Zuko?"

"Hmm…"

"Hey, I think they made me look pretty good."

The arguments followed. Zuko detached himself from the bickering and watches them. In a few hours he would be Firelord. He had to be.

And he had no need to worry; they'd fought too hard to get to this point and give up. And now, he wasn't doing this alone.

"And it's gonna be even more different. We'll rebuild it together." They hug warmly, and the nervousness in Zuko's stomach quenches a little. They walk through the red curtains, side by side.

"Hey," Zuko whispers, "you've got your speech down, right Aang?"

The gongs start tolling, but the question shakes Aang more. "What?!" He hisses, trying his best not to look alarmed.

"Are you kidding me."

"You said I just had to stand here!" Aang had to say that 'smiling because people are watching but eyes screaming murder' Zuko, was the scariest Zuko. His eyes flash once more before he layers a face of complete ease and determination.

He starts his address with "Please. The real hero is the Avatar."

Katara and Sokka just watch the intense whispering from the crowd. They look at each other, shrug, and join the audience in applause.

"All hail Firelord Zuko!"