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There had only been two good things about being pulled from his home and put into the royal guard.
That he hadn't been drafted into the army, forced to kill anyone who didn't agree with no mercy, regardless of age or gender.
And that his family, regardless of how cruel their Fire Lord truly was, received enough of a pension through him so his sisters, who were fourteen and twelve, didn't have to follow their mother into an unforgiving work force and could stay in school.
It made working for the Fire Lord bearable, protecting him when he would much rather be protecting the so-called "enemy" if there had been a choice in the matter.
But no matter his opinions, he didn't breathe a word of them; the last thing he wanted was to be tried and executed for conspiring against the royal family, even if it was just so his family remained safe and mildly above the poverty line.
And then, a series of events.
Sozin's comet on the verge, Ozai crowning the princess Fire Lord and himself the Phoenix King, Azula dismissing the majority of the royal staff for fear of treason, the Fire Nation's air fleet heading towards the Earth Kingdom.
But just before her formal coronation, just as it looked like the world would be steeped in cruel, Fire Nation rule, it was like a switch was flipped.
Out of the Avatar's flying bison's saddle hopped down two figures; a water bender that had been described by everyone who had crossed her path as incredibly powerful, and the banished prince who boldly proclaimed that his sister would not be crowned Fire Lord, but that he would.
Tao fled the scene as soon as the words "Agni Kai" were uttered; fights between siblings were messy, fights between royal, firebending siblings were guaranteed to end in bloodshed if not death.
So he did what any brother would do and started running to his childhood home to protect his family.
He could be executed for his cowardice later.
…
Tao returned to the palace three days later, his hands uncontrollably shaking; he had been brought onto the royal guard the day after the solar eclipse, the day after Prince Zuko betrayed the Fire Lord and ripples of his treason echoed in every corner of the Fire Nation.
And now, the Fire Sages were getting ready to crown him the Fire Lord.
On one hand, Tao was relieved that the Avatar had emerged victorious, that Ozai and Azula were now behind bars. On the other hand, he had no idea what to make of Prince Zuko, who had been banished as a child, briefly allowed to return with open arms, and betrayed his family again.
Even if Tao didn't personally agree with Ozai and Azula, a double crosser didn't seem like good news for the Fire Nation.
But, he had been summoned back to the palace with a letter delivered by messenger hawk, the letter signed by the Avatar himself, and who was he to disobey the most powerful person in the four nations?
His mother fretted over his top knot, his youngest sister, Liliana, eagerly shined his armor, and he looked as bright and shiny as he had on his first day working under Ozai.
Three Kyoshi Warriors met him at the palace gate, tired eyes evident under their make-up but still on high alert.
"I need to see your letter." The one in the middle insisted, holding out her hand.
He complied, handing it to her, watching as her eyes scanned it slowly before handing it back to him.
"Reina will take you inside."
"Follow me." The one on the left, presumably Reina, insisted before beginning to walk and giving Tao no choice.
They stopped in the war room, the map removed from the table and not a speck of fire anywhere to be seen; instead, there were four chairs, three on one side and one on the other, and a table separating them.
"Sit," Reina spoke again, gesturing to the lone chair, which Tao complied with, "the others will be in shortly."
And with that, she exited, leaving Tao alone with his thoughts, thoughts that were his brain just repeating 'I'm a dead man' before the door opened again and three figures walked in.
The Dragon of the West, the Avatar, and the daughter of Lao and Poppy Beifong.
He was a dead man.
…
Surprisingly to himself, Tao lived through his interrogation.
Not just lived, but promoted, by the Dragon of the West who was serving as the interim Fire Lord, as the personal guard for the incoming Fire Lord.
"Are you sure, your majesty?" Tao asked, looking down at the man to look into his eyes.
"You joined the guard because you had to in order to protect your family and at the first sign of danger, that's exactly what you did. I believe that once you become well-acquainted with my nephew, that you will see him as family too."
And that was that; Tao had a shiny new title, shiny new responsibilities, and a shiny new Fire Lord to protect.
While he still hadn't met the formally banished prince, being endorsed by the Avatar said a lot about character in his mind.
"Your majesty? When will I meet the incoming Fire Lord?"
There was a look that crossed over the man's face, but it wasn't the one he was used to seeing; not the look that meant someone was about to be berated or injured by Ozai, but one of sadness and hurt.
"I will speak to Master Katara and find out. You should go home and collect the remainder of your things so Reina can show you to your room."
Katara, that was the name of the water bender who had jumped out of the saddle of the flying bison behind Zuko.
"Your majesty? Forgive my insistent questioning, but your nephew did win the Agni Kai, yes?"
The man paused again, for a much shorter moment, "yes, but it didn't come without suffering."
If Tao knew for a fact that the man would laugh at his comment from reflecting on the thought that came into his mind as he had fled the palace, he would have simply said the two words that came to mind.
'Called it.'
…
When he returned to the palace a couple of hours later, Tao had enough time to deposit his bag in the room that he had stayed in for the last year before Reina guided him up the stairs.
He expected to be taken to the Fire Lord's quarters, or even the small office full of building piles of documents.
He did not expect the young Kyoshi warrior to lead him to the palace infirmary, walking right past injured sages and guards before coming over to the drawn closed curtain.
"Master Katara?" Reina called out, resulting in the water bender he had seen at the scene of the Agni Kai coming around the corner of the curtain, her undereyes dark and her hair frizzy and looking far too young to be involved in all of this.
"The Crown Prince is sleeping." She insisted, clearly a rehearsed response, with crossed arms across her chest.
"This is Tao," Reina brushed past the comment, "he has been named Prince Zuko's personal guard by the interim Fire Lord."
He watched as bright blue eyes studied him closely for an extended period of time before, finally, the teenager let out a sigh and motioned for him to follow her lead behind the curtain.
That was when he came face to face with his brand new boss.
A sixteen year old, with a fresh burn wound marring his chest and an old burn scar marring his face, who still tried to sit up and greet him.
"Oh no, you don't," Katara hissed through her teeth, pushing him back down onto the pillows before saying, "Zuko, Tao. Tao, Zuko," and adding as she turned to Tao, "you're going to have your hands full with him."
Tao bit back a sigh as he settled in next to the wall; when he had been told he would be a member of the royal guard, he didn't think that would include babysitting someone just a couple years older than his own sisters.
…
The teenager remained hazy throughout the next few days.
Although, given the extensive wound covering his chest, Tao was more surprised that he had even lived long enough to gain a personal guard.
Given how everyone was acting, he knew that it had to be because of Katara; for only being fourteen, she was clearly a prodigy of a water bender and that's what had saved the most hope for the Fire Nation that people had held in a long time.
Zuko didn't speak much, more than likely due to the tinctures he was forced to swallow for an array of symptoms and the water bent across his chest every few hours forcing him to spend more time sleeping than anything else.
Selfishly, Tao was thankful for it; the last thing he wanted was for the sixteen year old to find out that he didn't consider a babysitting gig to be a promotion.
"If you don't mind my asking, Master Katara," he spoke from where he stood just in front of the curtain so he wasn't pressed against it, "how exactly does that work?"
"Waterbending?"
"Water healing."
"Oh," she breathed, her hands stilling over the center of the burn, "I guess the easiest way to explain it is redirecting energy in the body, to accelerate the healing process."
Tao nodded, watching in wonder as the girl, the same age as his sister, Iris, worked miracles on the incoming Fire Lord like it was every day life.
"Are you a bender, Tao?"
"No. I was brought on as a guard after the eclipse when they sent all our benders to the front lines."
Katara nodded, her gaze fixing back onto her work, her blue eyes shiny from the reflection of water in her hands.
"My family is all non-benders," she spoke after a moment while finally pulling her hands away, "it's not a bad club to be in."
"We all have our parts to play." Tao agreed, but he was no longer looking at the blue eyes belonging to Katara.
Instead, he fully fixed his gaze onto his sleeping ward.
…
As soon as the teenager was lucid, everyone was met with an onslaught of protesting with the exception of the servants who were just operating off of General Iroh's orders or Tao, who spent his time standing against the wall in silence.
It wasn't his place to argue with the prince on staying in bed, after all.
"Zuko, you are on bed rest until your breathing gets more even," Katara practically hissed through her teeth as she pushed down on his bare shoulder, "end of discussion."
"I need to start repairing the Fire Nation, I can't do that from my be-" his words were cut off with a sharp hiss through his teeth that had Tao's hand jumping to his sword until he saw that it was the girl's hand splayed over the bandaged-covered lightning wound.
"Stay in bed," she reiterated, pulling her hand away, "I have notes to take to your physician so we can work with your uncle on a coronation date, but you can't get more injured."
"Katara-"
"No buts," she cut him off, getting up to leave before stopping in the doorway, "get to know Tao."
And with that, the fourteen year old who had stood in front of any conversation with his new boss was gone, leaving him face to face with an injured sixteen year old determined to lie about his health.
"How old are you?"
"Twenty."
"Sixteen."
"So I've heard."
"Right," Zuko breathed, his hand nervously going to his arm as his gaze drifted down to his blanket-covered knees for a few moments, "do you have any family?"
"My mother, and two younger sisters. Fourteen and twelve."
Zuko's gaze didn't leave the blanket as he muttered, softly, "my sister's fourteen too."
Tao understood how young the incoming Fire Lord was, having been assigned to him for nearly a week at this point, but that look in his eyes as he mentioned his sister, the disgraced Fire Princess, really put into perspective how much this war had taken from him.
"Do you see your family enough?"
A valid question, one that the previous Fire Lord would have never asked, or anyone would have ever asked.
"My sisters and mother understand the honor of being a member of the royal guard."
"But do you see them enough?"
Tao paused; sure, Iris was going into the royal academy on scholarship in the next couple of weeks, and Liliana was going to turn thirteen before the end of the month. Not to mention his mother, who was supporting two girls on one salary and his pension.
"I would like to see them more, but between my mother's work as a seamstress and my sisters studies, none of us have the time."
He watched something flicker in Zuko's golden gaze, thoughts forming and gears turning, until he finally sat up a little, surely an action that would disappoint Katara if she found out.
"Why don't you go spend time with them until the coronation? You'll still be paid, and we can come up with a more permanent arrangement when you return."
"Are you sure, Prince Zuko?"
"I'm the most heavily guarded that I plan to be within my reign, and between you and me, it's a little suffocating. Go spend time with your family and be back for the coronation. I'll have Sokka's hawk send the message."
Tao stilled; in his twenty years of life, no one had ever been considerate or even asked about his feelings.
Everyone in war has a sob story, a father who was killed on the frontlines, a brother locked away in prison, a sister forced to abandon her studies and join the work force, a mother who died from the stress on her heart after poverty struck.
And yet, here was the sixteen year old prince, who had every right to be cold and distant, not only asking questions, but trying to find the right answer with immediate action.
'Maybe this kid will be a good Fire Lord.'
"Thank you, Prince Zuko," Tao pressed his fist to his hand and bowed to the bedridden teenager before standing back up, "I will take my leave as soon as Katara has someone ready to make sure you don't become an escape risk."
He could tell by the look that crossed the boy's face that he was hoping Tao's departure would allow for his escape from the infirmary, but he knew better than to fall for a sixteen year old's tricks.
That was why he was Zuko's guard, after all.
…
The coronation was a small affair.
It's not like the Fire Nation was rolling in money, since the previous Fire Lord had tied their economy almost entirely into their now inactive military, and while the sixteen year old was able to hold himself up for a speech alongside the Avatar and through his crowning ceremony, the entire palace staff knew that there was no way he would be able to do the same through an hours long celebration.
So, the teenager was crowned, the palace staff drank to a new ruler in the kitchen, and that was that.
Or so they thought, until the Fire Lord came down to greet them.
They were on their feet in seconds, desperately trying to hide the bottles of gin behind their backs with the tension palpable in the room.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude," Zuko insisted, more than likely due to the fearful expressions he was met with, "I'm heading to Ba Sing Se tomorrow, to meet with the king."
"Do you have orders for us while you're gone, your majesty?" The cook, Kei, piped up from behind Tao's head as the teenager sank into a chair against the wall.
"Yes. Celebrate all you want," he insisted, tacking on a sentence that would have had Tao laughing in his face if it had been any other sixteen year old, "and pour me a glass too."
There was a look passed between Tao and Kei, a look of wondering if it was illegal to supply the underaged Fire Lord with alcohol and if they would be yelled at by the court physician if she found out they gave an injured, underaged, Fire Lord alcohol.
But Kei relented, muttering something that sounded like, "this isn't happening again," before passing the Fire Lord a glass of gin.
As soon as the drink was down the boy's throat, the tension eased and Tao found himself falling into the ease of palace life.
Maybe this wasn't the worst place he could have found himself after all.
…
There were two things that had thrown Tao off guard that night after he had escorted the mildly incapacitated Fire Lord, who had been given more than one drink thanks to Kei, to his quarters for the night.
One, that when he opened the door he would be met with the face of the water tribe boy, Sokka, practically waving him away while gripping onto Zuko's shoulders as he pulled him to his bed that had three other lumps already in it.
Lumps that Tao could only assume belonged to the Avatar, Katara and the Beifong child, Toph.
Two, that just a few hours into standing guard outside of the bedroom door, the peaceful silence would be shattered by a sudden noise Tao could only describe as a howl.
His hand was pulling his blade out in an instant, ready to ward off the attacker who had chosen the night after the coronation to attempt an assassination at any cost.
But when he and Kaito slammed through the door, they found immediately that there was no attacker; at least, not a physical one.
Instead, the teenager they were sworn to protect was sitting straight up, back rigid, chest spasming and sweat building on his forehead, with tears in his eyes as Sokka clung to his shoulders while Katara pressed water to his sides of his temples and Toph held a gentle grip on his leg, her unseeing gaze fixed solely on his face.
Leaving the Avatar, who looked much more like the twelve year old child that he was rather than the most powerful person in the world, to approach the guards with a solemn whisper.
"We've got this handled, you can return to your posts."
Kaito nodded and made his way toward the door, but Tao found himself stalling as he pushed his sword back into its sheath.
"Is this…common?" He finally found himself asking as he watched the water tribe siblings lower the Fire Lord back down onto the pillows by his shoulders.
He couldn't help but hope that maybe, just maybe, the night terrors that plagued the soldiers he had met in the last few weeks as they returned home, hadn't also affected this group of children-
The Avatar nodded, adding in another whisper, "he's had them since he joined our group."
Tao swallowed the acidic taste in his mouth and took one more glance at the tear-stained face of the Fire Lord before forcing himself to give the Avatar a nod and return to his post.
As soon as the door was pulled shut, he had to pull in a shuddering breath to keep any possible tears in his eyes.
He was Zuko's guard, he had to keep the strong exterior even when the teenager was unable to do the same in order to keep their broken nation from crumbling around them.
But at the same time, hearing that cry reminded him all too much of Iris and Liliana coming into his room in the weeks after his father was killed in the attempted seizure of Ba Sing Se with fat tears on their faces and rapid breathing pounding at their chests.
From that moment onward, he became the man of the house, shouldering the responsibilities that should have been his father's.
Even now, as his sisters were getting on without him, he still held all of the responsibility possible on himself.
It no longer was the responsibility of his family, however, it was now the responsibility of the nation itself.
And that thought only left him with one word repeating over and over again in his head.
'Fuck.'
…
He accompanied the teenager to the gardens that next morning to see his group of friends off.
From what he had gathered, they were going to the South Pole after dropping Toph off in the Earth Kingdom to make sure that their communities were still standing.
After that, he could only assume that he would be seeing more of the Avatar, if not the others.
"You keep making smart decisions," Sokka had spoken first, pulling the Fire Lord into a tight hug, "if you don't, we'll come after you, okay?"
Tao knew that he should speak out over the sixteen year old threatening the newly crowned Fire Lord's life, but he chuckled in response, so he forced himself to be okay with it.
Katara was next, her hug much more gentle than her brother's, much more mindful of the wound adorning his chest.
"I'm expecting updates from your physician about that wound, so you take care of it," she pulled away, her hand drifting to his shoulder as her blue eyes met his golden ones, "take care of yourself too, okay? You still look way too tired."
"You don't need to worry about me," Zuko insisted, gently pulling her hand from his shoulder, "you did an amazing job."
"Maintain it, please." Her beg sounded genuine, like she didn't trust him to put himself before his rule.
Tao wasn't sure that he trusted him to do that either, his mind flashing back to that first day when he tried to sit up and greet him with a wound that might as well still had lightning sparking through it.
But with that, Katara was climbing up into the saddle beside her brother, and the Beifong girl was punching the Fire Lord in the arm hard enough to nearly knock him off his feet.
If Zuko hadn't held up a hand that proved he was fine, Tao's blade would have been in front of a twelve year old blind girl in a instant, and he still probably would have lost to her.
"Don't scare your guards too bad, Sparky," she told him, like she hadn't just made Tao's heart jump into his throat, "they can't handle it."
"I take it you'll be back in a couple of weeks?" Zuko prodded gently, still rubbing his arm where her knuckles had made contact.
"Yep, just gotta make sure the rumble ring is still standing," she insisted before pulling him into a hug that could only be described from the sidelines as bone-crushing, "don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."
"Same goes to you." Zuko retorted, giving Toph a chance to clamber her way up the side of the Sky Bison's fur, leaving just the Avatar, Aang, to say his goodbyes.
"You're going to do a great job, Fire Lord Hotman."
"You're really not going to let that go, huh?"
"Your uncle said it was accurate slang, and to keep using it," Aang's grin was infectious to the point that the outdated slang almost had Tao grinning, "I'll see you in about a month, for the Earth Kingdom summett?"
"Yeah," Zuko nodded before initiating the hug between him and the Avatar, "You be safe. I want a letter on my desk when you get to the South Pole."
"You got it, Fire Lord Hotman." Aang teased, sticking his tongue out before airbending himself on the top of the sky bison, flicking the reins after offering the Fire Lord one last wave.
Tao waited until they were out of earshot to voice his opinion, "your friends are kind of mean to you, sir."
"That's how they show their love," Zuko shrugged like it was just another day before turning back toward the door, "are you coming?"
"Yes," Tao nodded, waiting until he could no longer see the bison to turn around, "I'm by your side."
"Good, because we have a lot of work to do."
Tao couldn't help but smile at the thought of being just a small, small part of fixing his home for the better.
…
To the outside, Zuko looked like the picturesque ruler in his first few months on the throne.
Despite the banishment of his youth, he carried himself like he had never left. He seemingly knew the ins and outs of every situation that arose and ruled with a firm but kind hand that always guided toward peace.
He held himself high, but was never unwilling to meet a member of staff on their level even to the scandal of nobility who preferred to pile their impossible demands on the teenager.
And to the outside, he took it all in stride; correcting mistakes as they came and standing his ground when he was in the right, never raising his voice in the process.
It seemed too good to be true, for a sixteen year old to be an incredibly stable ruler to a nation just coming out of a war that had benefited very few and had destroyed everything else.
And being by the Fire Lord's side at all times, Tao was one of the few people who knew that it was indeed an act.
Not his kindness and his policies, those were very real and very important to the teenager, the basis in which he operated on throughout his day to day life.
But just how put together he seemed, how confident he seemed in his choices, that part was a ruse.
No one but Tao knew that just an hour before he was posing for his official portrait, he had been having such a violent panic attack that he had nearly fainted, the nightmares nearly a nightly occurrence as the days went on without his friends there.
No one but Tao knew that he could barely stomach food anymore, vomiting most of what Kei had made shortly after trying to eat and surviving off of the little bit that had stayed down mixed in with what could only be described as stubbornness.
No one but Tao knew that the teenager could barely look at himself in the mirror after the royal stylists got him ready, fearing the fact that he would see his father's face staring back at him.
And when the assassins did come, and Tao and Kaito fought off a group of five masked individuals breaking into the Fire Lord's bedroom, it ended with theee dead on the floor, two in custody, and Zuko with bruising around his throat as broad swords smeared with blood shook in his hands.
"Come on," Tao ordered, taking the blades out of the boy's grip before tossing them aside so he could safely loop an arm around his, wincing at just much bone he could feel, "let's head to the physician."
"B-but the assassin's-" Zuko stuttered over his tongue, clearly in a state of shock that had Tao reacting much more gently than he was used to doing.
"Kaito will take care of it," Tao said, pausing to nod at his fellow guard, "but you need to get checked out and secured."
He didn't give the teenager a choice, but even if he had, any protest had seemingly died with the men on the floor, and he was able to maneuver the shaking, far too skinny, Fire Lord to the infirmary.
He was guiding Zuko to sit on the edge of the bed behind the red and gold curtain when he came face to face with Hana, the palace physician who could probably put fear right into the heart of Ozai if she had wanted to.
"What happened?" She demanded, a hand reaching under the teenager's chin to tilt the bruising into the light.
But she wasn't looking at Zuko for answers, she was looking to Tao; he couldn't even blame her, he was Zuko's guard after all.
"Assassination attempt. Three dead, two in custody. Zuko, Kaito and I fought them off."
She clicked her tongue in a form of disapproval, making him realize that the teenager's title had completely slipped from his vocabulary and how thankful he was that Zuko was on the throne so he wouldn't be executed for his misspeaking.
"Fire Lord, can you swallow?" She questioned, her usual bite in tone fading with every moment that did nothing to calm Tao's violently beating heart.
Zuko tried, but he winced at the tail end of it, squeezing his eyes shut in a way that had Hana clicking her tongue again; she did let go of the boy's chin though, choosing to prod her fingers against the base of his throat instead.
"Should we send for your uncle, Fire Lord?"
He looked up at her, fresh tears in his eyes, and Tao winced at just how young he looked, how young he looked for the first time in weeks.
"Yes," he muttered, his voice raspier than usual, "please send for him."
"We will," she told him, her frown deepening as she pressed her hand against the boy's forehead, "I'm going to bring you a towel to clean up this blood. When I get back, I want your robe off and your feet up."
"Ma'am?" The boy asked, confusion lacing his throat as the rasp only sounded worse with every word.
"I need to check the status of your lightning wound and you're in shock," she told him before reiterating, "feet up, robe off."
And with that, she was gone, leaving Tao to turn back to the teenaged patriarch, who was using shaking, still bloodied hands to undo the ties of his robe.
"Come on, lay down," he insisted, gently nudging at his shoulder before kneeling down to grab the pillow on the floor, shoving it under the boy's feet, "we're going to get past this, your majesty."
The boy barely managed a nod, sliding the robe off his shoulders before laying down fully, his golden gaze fixing on the ceiling and his fingers crossing over the white bandages before intertwining together.
Hana returned with two wet towels on her arm, handing one to Tao and gesturing for him to wipe the blood away.
He did his job carefully, waiting for Zuko to place his hand in his before gently but throughly scrubbing the blood from his skin and trying to stay on task.
His gaze, however, fixated on Hana, who used the second towel to carefully wipe at the lightning wound after removing the bandages.
"Fire Lord, have you been taking care of this with the instructions that Master Katara and I provided for you three months ago?"
The boy stayed silent, his gaze still fixed on the ceiling, which had Hana letting out a long, exasperated sigh.
"This is infected, did you know that? You're running a fever, your wound is infected and if I had a guess, it's why you're struggling to eat. Do I want to know how long it would have taken for you to come to me, Fire Lord?"
"Hana, give him a second," Tao found himself speaking before thinking, getting a sharp glare in response, "he's had a really rough night."
"He's lucky he hasn't developed septicemia," she hissed back, her age lines barely softening as she looked back at the teenager, "I'm going to need to clean this out, and you're more than likely going to need be on bedrest until this heals."
That got Zuko to talk, sitting up as he pulled his wrist from Tao's grip and using it to shield his chest.
"My people need me, Hana."
"And you're of no use to them if you are dead, Fire Lord Zuko."
Her glare got the boy to back down, to lay back on the pillows and give his wrist back to Tao, who busied himself with scrubbing the last of the death from his skin.
Like everyone already knew, she probably could have put fear into Ozai with her sharp looks and tone.
"I'll be back with my supplies." She insisted before walking back in front of the curtain again.
Tao finished his work, no sign of blood on the teenager, and resigned to standing with his back on the wall.
Back on duty, back to being disconnected, like he was supposed to be. This is what was expected of him.
"Y-you can go," Zuko's stutter snapped him back to the situation they were in, his eyes still widened in shock,"Hana won't let anything bad happen to me."
He had almost failed tonight, the Fire Lord wasn't supposed to be living in fear, the Fire Lord shouldn't have to ward off their own attacker.
He had been failing him for months, letting him suffer and never stepping in to stop his foolishness.
So Tao did something he never imagined doing after he was conscripted to the royal guard; he defied an order.
"With all due respect, Fire Lord, I'm ignoring that. You need someone here."
"Hana is-"
"Hana is ready to yell at you because of this lightning wound, and it's rightfully deserved," Tao cut him off before lowering himself back into the chair next to the boy's bedside, offering his hand out, "do you trust me, Zuko?"
Zuko's eyes flicked from his face to his hand several times, before a shaky breath wracked his body and his hand reached out to grip Tao's.
"Yes. I trust you."