"You don't know me. I'm not the same person anymore."
"That's okay. I'll get to know you again."
Now this is an interesting prompt!
A difficult one too lol but let me roll up my sleeves and, as the kids say, "Lock tf in".
Zuko didn't like to be reminded where he came from. He didn't like to be reminded why he was here either. That was the whole point of moving over here to begin with as it provided shelter against such pouring memories.
The Earth Kingdom was always busy and full of commotion so that one merely got lost in the sounds and the motions forgetting themselves to the city, even Ba Sing Se. Zuko liked that. He liked that a lot. He liked the access he got to everything the Earth Kingdom wanted and the fact his eyes could go blind from all the neon lights the downtown.
He worked at his uncle's company, Jasmine Dragon Tea, right next to the man himself. Iroh also moved here to escape the mess back home and he was glad to take Zuko in for the same reason. One could say the two bonded over such a thing, but it wasn't true. In fact, they bonded more over the fact they had to make a new life than forgetting the old one.
That was one of Zuko's main gripes with his Uncle. While Zuko wanted to completely forget it, Iroh wished to use it as an opportunity to "heal" and move forward. "To dwell and overcome such things", said he, was "to grow". Zuko was not convinced. He was of the opinion that one could forget things completely to the point of abandonment and become a new man better than those forgotten things.
This, however, wasn't yet tested.
Until it was.
One night while Zuko was working late at home he was hit with a peculiar email sitting in his company inbox. He was close to missing it entirely due to being lulled to sleep by the steady hum of his CRT monitor had his secretary who forwarded it not put it in blaring ALL CAPS.
MEETING REQUEST - FROM MS. AZ...
It cut off before the preview subject title could fit it but Zuko paused for a few moments and leaned back on his seat to take it in. At one he sat up and made his way towards his bedroom wherein a fair form lay within his satin sheets upon his large bed.
"Jin."
The woman woke up from her nap, the blankets sticking closely to her bare form as she clung on to it to keep it from revealing further.
"You sent me an email of a meeting request earlier."
"I send you many so you have to remind me-"
"Ah- Yeah I thought that one was weird so I didn't reject it. She said she knew you... Mr. Lee."
Jin gave a wink at that fictitious name. She had known Zuko's real name for a while now ever since she began to share his bed and caress his long hair while telling him lots of pleasantries that were sure to romanticize and arouse.
It did. Greatly. Yet Zuko told Jin to accept it for some unknown reason even to him. Perhaps he had a change of heart after many years of his uncle's brow beating. Perhaps he just wanted to close this last chapter of his previous life and finally be free to live as Mr. Lee, second in command of Jasmine Dragon Tea. The typical company executive. Rich. Youthful. Charming. Sleeps with his secretary. Nothing out of the ordinary. Something to be swallowed into the scenery of Ba Sing Se.
"I am impressed."
Said Azula. She sat in his fancy office and ran her finger tip above his fancy placard with his fancy position and fancy new name. Well, it was an ordinary name, but nothing too bad as seen by Azula's reaction.
"It seems after you left you really proved father wrong."
Zuko shrugged his shoulders and leaned back on his office chair. Another Zuko would have immediately outburst into a tirade about how their old man was always wrong about him and that he was better than he could even imagine but this Zuko was ambivalent at best and apathetic at worst. Mostly apathetic.
"How have you been doing, brot-"
"Cut the crap and tell me why you are here of all places."
Azula smiled.
"He wants you back."
"Yes, he says you have really outgrown what he thought you were and sees that you are far greater than he anticipated. He says we would provide far more than what uncle does. Far, far more."
"And if I don't want more?"
That response surprised Azula. Her whole worldview was always to want more. More power. More authority. More leverage. More prestige. That was all their father taught them and to see someone not want that was to her foolishness bordering on nonsense.
"You heard me. I don't want more and I don't want to go back. In fact, let me make this as clear as day. I will never go back. I am not the same man I was to go back and I will never be that same Zuko ever again."
Azula paused, then sighed, then stood up from the fancy chair and spun on her black heels. Without so much as a second thought she turned and said:
"You really think you've changed?"
She wasn't hostile when she asked that. It was more curious... perhaps even, vulnerable. Zuko could see the softening in her sharp brow as she asked that question as if she too wanted to see such change.
No.
Not Azula. Not ruthless Azula, their father's right hand enforcer.
Azula could never change.
Though in that softening of brow and curiosity of voice Zuko wondered if she could.
And perhaps he would like to get to know that Azula.
"Azula.... Wait, before you go."