"I... I will." He assured quietly, feeling quite foolish. He was older than her, and still she was the one being mature and logical. He swallowed down a sigh as he nodded, still avoiding her eyes as he listened. "It was nothing you did, it was me, entirely. I lost myself." He turned his eyes to hers timidly a moment, trying to show that he was being entirely honest.
Her words brought a low ache in his chest, he pushed a hand through his short hair as he tried to choose his words. "It... it may not matter to you, or anyone else, but it matters to me. Deeply." It was an attempt at explaining something he had never been able to express to anyone else over all these years. He could not face his father with it, he did not want to burden his sisters with it, and Master Sato would rather strike him than listen to his whining. "I feel like I've... like I've had my destiny taken from me, and I do not know how to handle myself without it, much less anyone else."
A hint of a bitter smile touched one corner of his lips, he sighing as his eyes lowered. "I do not have an Avatar to chase." It was a mention of the history he so loved. he had quite the obsession with Firelord Zuko, as Xiu would know from so many years ago, and in recent years had come to compare himself to the great lord in some ways. It gave him a distant hope that maybe he could do something, make something of himself despite his setbacks.