The honest hurt tone in her voice made his anger melt away, a pang of guilt surging through him at yelling at her and he could almost feel the pain in his head from where his uncle surely would have hit him for being so insensitive.
Patience, Prince Zuko, he could hear Iroh say. She's not used to this side of you. Take things slowly. She's in pain and out of her element. You're going to have to be honest with her, even if it's about things you don't want to discuss, if you're going to get anywhere.
He sighed, dropping his chin to his chest, remaining silent for a good while.
"Alright," he finally said, looking up at her, "I'll leave you alone--after you hear me out. You owe me that much. I perhaps should've explained myself better before. I'm...bad at that. Growing up royalty doesn't exactly teach someone things like that, for you grow used to your word being law. I apologize for that. And in Ba Sing Se? I made a grave mistake."
He uncrossed his arms, letting his hands relax at his sides as he tried desperately to reach that calming 'zen' sort of place that his uncle often told him to go to when he felt his anger increasing.
"I thought by helping Azula, that I'd be able to gain her trust and get her talk father into letting me come home. I had no intension of hurting the Av--Aang, but things got out of control. Fire is a wild element and when fueled by a passion as bright as determination, it goes it's own path and sometimes bends the bender instead of the other way around. I'm sorry he got hurt. And though that did get me home, once I was there, I realized that it wasn't what I wanted. Especially after I attended the war meeting..."
Zuko trailed off for a moment, realizing where he was heading with this. He was...hesitant to speak of that, and pain from an old emotional wound that was steal searing despite him coming to terms with the reality of it, shown in his golden eyes.
"That was the second time I'd been to one. The first one I attended when I was thirteen. Uncle invited me, thought I was would be interested in hearing how things were run, being that I would've one day been Fire Lord and needed to start leaning more in-depth things about how the government was run. But, the things I heard...disturbed me. One of the generals wanted to send in a legion for the soul purpose of slaughter to spark some of the Earth Kingdom cities to war. Our own men. He wanted to kill our own soldiers. I spoke up and ended up getting myself challenged to an Agni Kai. I was clumsy in my bending, didn't really want to be a bender, didn't really care... I ended up fighting my father instead of the general and lost horribly. At the time I thought he was being merciful by simply scarring me--"
His hand went to his cheek, running the tips of his fingers along his scarred flesh.
"--and banishing me in place of killing me, but being home made me realize that he wanted me to hurt. That killing me would've been too simple. He confirmed as much when I spoke with him down in the caves before he attacked me. I'm a threat to him and have always been."
He hadn't noticed the tears that had welled up in his good eye, or the fact that they had spilled over until now. He could only cry with the one eye, for his other was too damaged and he was lucky to even be able to see out of it. He didn't bother to wipe them away.
"Before you pass judgement on me, ask yourself this: if your sister has been trying to kill you since you were children, if your father injured you to humiliate you, if you were told to hunt another human being in order to come home, if your mother was killed for protecting you, and you grew up being taught to hate everyone who wasn't of your homeland...wouldn't you be a little messed up?"