“Stupid tea house. Stupid Pao. Stupid teacups.” Zuko dug his hands in his pockets, his fingers sifting through the coins hidden away in one. He counted them out, again, and cursed his rotten luck. It was enough to get at least three new sets of cups to replace the sets he’d broken that morning. Mostly accidentally. A demanding customer got on his last nerve, and maybe he dropped a tray loaded with breakable cups into the sink with more force than necessary.
And maybe he shouldn’t have told his boss that it wasn’t his fault the cups were so weak, because the next thing he knew, he was being shoved out the door with a handful of coins to buy new cups. “Stronger” cups.
Except now he was in the marketplace and had no idea where to look for cups. He stopped in the middle of the street and looked around, hoping to zero in on a storefront or stall that had something to do with dishes. He saw merchants selling junk, and scarves, and more junk, and some food, and more junk, and… that girl looked awfully familiar…
It was just a coincidence. He started to turn away, but everything felt wrong. He already knew it was her, but he needed confirmation. So he moved a little closer to where she was – the next stall over - to get a better look at her face and… Yeah. But there was no way! How could she have gotten into the city? The same way you did, through the front door with a fake passport? It wasn’t that hard.
Was she alone? Or was she with… He looked around quickly, but hers was the only face he recognized. But that didn’t mean she came alone, or that Azula wasn’t lurking around somewhere. He could slip away now, pretend he never saw her. It was big city. It was easy to lose people here, to see a face once and never see it again.
But that’s not what he did. He couldn’t just walk away without some kind of explanation. Back straight, shoulders back, hands in loose fists, and frowning in a way that looked more troubled than angry, he marched right up to her and demanded, “What are you doing here?”