Sokka was staring at the cliff across the Temple. It was afternoon. Zuko and his dad were nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe I should go find them?" he thought. Maybe his dad had not managed to handle the situation. What if something bad happened between them?

Sokka was starting to get anxious. He told the others that Zuko had a kind of a breakdown and fled away. His team showed worry, well, except for Katara. She didn't care. No surprise there. Aang wanted to go find them but he said that his father had it under control. Toph seemed very worried too. He wondered if she could sense them from where they were.

"Hey Toph…we are all kinda worried about Zuko…" he gave a glimpse at Katara. "…maybe not all of us but I trust my dad. He and Zuko will come back here and act like everything is alright." Sokka said. Toph didn't seem optimistic though.

"I heard him in his sleep the other night…" she whispered.

"What?" Haru asked.

"I heard him. Well, I also sensed him. He was being tortured by those nightmares he was having. His heartbeat was so loud that I couldn't just ignore it. He was crying…he was whimpering…" her eyes formed tears. "I couldn't stand it…." She said.

"…That…doesn't sound like Zuko at all." Aang said. "I mean…I never thought he could be so sensitive."

Katara was trying not to scoff. This whole situation was ridiculous to her. Zuko? Sensitive soul? Yeah right.

"I tried to talk to him about it the other day. He acted like normal Sparkles, lying and avoiding." Toph said.

Sokka wanted to rush and help Zuko. But he couldn't risk the possibility to overwhelm him.

"Come on dad…what are you doing?..."

After some more minutes, Hakoda appeared. Sokka looked for Zuko.

"Wait dad, where is Zuko?" Sokka asked. "Don't tell me you didn't find him…or…" he couldn't complete his miserable thought of Zuko jumping off the cliff when Hakoda spoke.

"I spoke to him. It is alright now. He said that he wanted to go to his room to rest. He said he hadn't had any sleep for two days now." Hakoda said. All nodded understanding.

"What happened exactly?" Aang asked. "Toph said us that the other night Zuko had some pretty bad nightmares."

"We kinda got to the bottom of it." Hakoda said. "Not completely since he has to get his time to talk about it, but I am sure that his mentality has changed a little." "Towards me at least." He thought.

"So we shouldn't be worried?" Sokka asked. "Is there anything we can do to help him?"

Hakoda couldn't help but smile at the fact that his son cared so much about his friend, even if the other was from the Fire Nation.

"You should ask him for that. Just don't pressure him. If you procced with small steps, he will open up. That's how it went for me." Hakoda asked. "Now I don't want to tell you what exactly happened. I am not in position to expose his secrets. As I said, you should be the ones who will have to act." He said.

Sokka nodded. The last thing he wanted was to make Zuko uncomfortable.

Zuko was lying on his bed. His arm was covering his eyes. He sighed. So long…so long he thought that Ozai was doing fatherhood the right way. He was raised in such way, that it was normal for him for fathers to hit their children. But now…

After having that small talk with Hakoda, who showed his pai sho pieces to him, it appeared that Zuko's whole life was a lie.

Hakoda was a nice, normal father.

Ozai was not.

Simple as that. Anyone would see it, except for him, who struggled. At first he didn't want to believe it. He thought that Hakoda's kindness was a trick. A facade.

But Hakoda cared for him. Like Uncle. Like Mom.

Was he really that broken?...

Anyways he knew that the others would have several questions. Zuko didn't want to deal with that. He hated being the center of attention. He hated being the one who needed pity or protection.

He could handle himself.

But at the same time he didn't want Aang and the others to worry so much that they couldn't leave him alone…

Zuko sighed again.

If he was going to do it, then he would do it quickly, answer few questions and that's it.

And everything would be back to normal. Zuko smiled at that thought. Like anything in his life was considered normal.

He got up and exited the room. It was time for a talk.

He found some of the group at the usual spot.

"Zuko! I am glad you are here." Sokka said. "What happened back there?" Sokka asked.

"I will tell you in a minute." Zuko said dryly. "Where are the others?" Zuko asked.

"Hmm… Aang and Toph went to practice earthbending…Dad and Suki went for patrol…Teo and Duke went for Temple exploration." Sokka said with his hand on his chin.

"I'll wait for all of them to gather here." Zuko said. "I will explain then."

"Why so? You didn't like groups or bonding between friends, right?" Sokka asked with his smug smirk.

"I just want this time ok!" Zuko said annoyed.

"Ok relax Flameo…" Sokka said lifting his hands. "But can you explain to me why you are so tense with my dad? He isn't that bad." Sokka said. Zuko looked at him apologetically.

"Your dad is…nice. Very nice actually. He helped me a lot back there. True, I felt a…discomfort at first. But now I am fine." Zuko said ashamed. "You…are lucky. Katara too."

Sokka was taken aback by this. Zuko was being a sweetheart to him? How strange.

"Thanks man…I wish I could tell you the same about your father…" he said trying to uplift the conversation with humor. Zuko gave him a sad smile.

"Yeah…he sucks." Zuko said.

"Big time." Sokka said to Zuko while grabbing his shoulder. "We will beat him. Don't worry."

Zuko smiled. "Thanks Sokka."

They stayed for a minute in silence.

"So…all this…you know…thing between you and my dad, you wanting to tell us all something…is it about your dad in a way?" Sokka asked concerned. Zuko averted his look.

"Yeah." He said dryly.

"Hey if you are not feeling like doing it, I understand. The others will too." Sokka said.

"No. If we are a team…friends…" Zuko was blushing. "I think that you have to know some things about me. About my past."

Sokka wondered what he meant. But whatever it was, Zuko was struggling a lot with it in order to have nightmares, and a panic attack.

"Understood." Sokka said, trying to give Zuko some space. "…Can I ask what you and my dad talked about?..." he asked giving a glimpse at the ex Prince. Zuko sighed.

"He just calmed me down with a story." He said. Sokka smiled.

"The same thing he did for me when we lost mom…" Sokka said.

Zuko looked at him. He remembered Katara mentioning their mother in Ba Sing Se. He thought of his own mother.

He missed her so much…

After some hour, the others came for dinner. They all greeted Zuko and asked if he was feeling better. Zuko just nodded and talked little as usual. When there was time for tea, which Zuko served of course, he decided it was time.

He took a deep breath. Let's get done with it.

"Can I have your attention please?..." Zuko said looking at the ground. It was better for him to talk without looking at their faces.

All of them stopped talking and looked at him. Silence. Zuko sighed again.

"I…want to share a story with you…I figured out that it will explain some things about me. Also why I acted so strangely these days." He said.

Katara frowned. "Explain why you are such an asshole? That will be relieving." She said. Zuko took that hit in the back as the rest of her remarks. Everyone else glared at her with a disappointed face.

"Ok Sparkles. You have our attention." Toph said.

Zuko took another deep breath. Boy, this was going to be hard.

"When I was thirteen, my father held this war meeting. All the generals were going to be present. I wanted so bad to attend. Not because I actually knew about these kinds of stuff, but for my father to acknowledge my will to…become like him." Zuko said the last words with disgust. He looked up to see their faces. They seemed that they were waiting for him to continue. So he did.

"One old general had this cruel plan where he would sacrifice a whole unit of new recruits unarmed to the Earth Kingdom troops. It was a guaranteed suicide plan. The goal was for the other units to flank the enemy troop. The plan was going to succeed by some way. But with the cost of so many lives, who were just civilians that the Fire Nation picked up just the previous day." He looked again at them. They were disgusted and full of fear. Chit Sang only knew the whole story, well except Hakoda too. Chit Sang nodded at him. Zuko knew what he meant by that alone. I respect you.

"That…is just cruel. How can anyone do that?" Suki said.

"What happened after that?" Aang asked.

"I spoke against the plan." He said.

"Way to go Sparkles!" Toph said with joy.

"I was kinda scared for a second there Zuko, I thought that you would approve it in order to please your father." Sokka said.

"It wouldn't surprise me." Katara said sipping at her tea.

Zuko continued. Suddenly it was too hot in here.

"I spoke against the plan, and most importantly I spoke out of turn, in the Fire Lord's meeting, in front of his most powerful generals. It was a huge disrespectful move against him." Zuko said.

"Against who? The general or Ozai?" Teo asked.

"Both." Zuko said looking at him. "At first I thought I disrespected only the general…so he challenged me into an Agni Kai. A firebending duel."

"Did you accept?" Haru was the one to ask.

"Yes."

"Did you win?" Aang asked with anticipation.

Zuko looked at his tea.

"No." he said.

"That's then how you got your scar? By the Agni Kai between you and the general?" Suki said.

Zuko was starting to get so nervous that the wood fire in the middle of their circle started to grow stronger. Everyone noticed.

"I accepted the challenge because I was ready to defend our people from getting slaughtered. I was ready to fight the general…except he wasn't the one I was supposed to fight." Zuko said. His arms were starting to tremble.

Finally, he decided to pull the bandage off. "It was my father."

Silence.

Zuko could feel their darting looks on him. It was difficult for him to talk about this. He hoped that the result wouldn't be another panic attack.

Nobody dared to speak. If only they knew what Zuko was going to tell them next.

"I…I d-didn't want to fight him. I…tried to say I am sorry. I pleaded him. I-I even begged him. He said…he would teach me some r-respect…." Zuko said. The woodfire was starting to grow again, mightier this time.

"I..c-cried…I remember that moment still…he g-g-g-rabbed m-me…"Zuko said with his voice and hands trembling. It was so hard to breathe. The others didn't dare to talk.

"H-h-h-he p-p-put h-his h-h-hand on my left e-eeye…and…h-he…" Zuko started crying. He couldn't finish the sentence. The woodfire was so high that it almost touched the ceiling.

The Gaang didn't know what to say. In front of them now was not Zuko, the exiled Prince of the Fire Nation but a young traumatized boy, whose father decided to give him a permanent lesson on his face.

Aang was speechless. He knew that his destiny was to fight the Fire Lord. But now to him he seemed more of a monster than a man. His closest father figure was monk Gyatso. He couldn't even think how much Zuko suffered.

Katara was speechless. She expected something silly so her whole team can pity him and befriend him even more. So then he can have their trust and then backstab them again. When Zuko talked about the Agni Kai in the beginning, she thought that his scar was an accident or at the very best the sign that he lost, and for that reason he was banished. She didn't imagine…his own father…

Toph was shocked to say. She was trying to control her tears. Not only she could listen to Zuko talking, but she could sense his emotions too. His heart beating so loud that she wanted to stop touching the ground. She always thought her parents were something else but…now she considered herself lucky to have some overprotective parents.

Sokka was also shocked. His whole life had a father that he could look up to. A father he could love, trust, and those feeling would be returned to him by his dad. They had a strong father-son bond. Sokka didn't want to imagine what was having Ozai as a father for 17 years was like.

Hakoda already knew about this. He heard those rumors himself. He also saw Zuko's scar. He really hoped that this would remain a simple rumor. A story by the Earth Kingdom to make fun of the Fire Nation. When Zuko confirmed these rumors in the morning…he could only put on a calm voice, a sympathetic face. Tell Zuko that he was deeply sorry. But his heart was aching. He wanted to kill Ozai on the spot if he ever saw him.

Hakoda knew the risk of triggering Zuko this moment. But he couldn't stand it anymore. His heart couldn't bear to think for another moment that that boy's idea of fatherhood was an abuse. He got up from his spot, walked towards Zuko with a somewhat quick pace and sat down in front of him. Zuko flinched. But didn't overreact like the other time. Hakoda knew that the kid trusted him now. So he did the only thing he wanted to do all this day.

Hakoda hugged Zuko like a true father. Zuko was taken aback by the sudden movement but embraced the hug. He dug his face to the Chief's shoulder. The older man could hear his whimpers. He could feel his whole fragile body shaking in his hug.

The others quickly joined too. First was Toph. She started crying like a small child. The irony was that she indeed was one. With her it was Sokka. Sokka had tears in his eyes too, but he refused to let his sister see them. Then Aang, Teo, the Duke, then Katara who finally broke her ice shell, and in the end Chit Sang (who surprisingly despite his huge muscles gave great hugs).

They stayed like that for some hour. After the group, wait no, family hug finished, and everybody said words of love and encouragement to Zuko they went to sleep.

Zuko went to his room and lied down on his bed. This day was very exhausting to him mentally. But he didn't regret it. It felt nice to have some nice people around you. Especially when his Uncle wasn't here with him right now.

Zuko heard some footsteps coming towards his room. He got up and waited for the mysterious person to come. He went to grab his dao, but stopped when Hakoda came to view. Zuko was surprised. What did the Chief want this time in the night?

"Chief Hakoda." Zuko said. "How can I…"

Zuko was cut off by Hakoda hugging him again. Zuko noticed that Hakoda was crying this time, in comparison with the hug he gave him not a little while ago.

"I know I said it before, but I look at you and I can't stop thinking of Katara and Sokka. You are at the same age, but you experienced something I wouldn't ever wish for them to go through. You may did some bad things in your past…but I am not lying when I am saying that I consider you a child of my own…. I love you son." He said. Zuko couldn't help but feel his tears falling on his face too.

"Me too dad…" Zuko said as he enjoyed the comfort of Hakoda's hug.