He liked to run away after she left. He liked to leave behind every tie he had to reality and put on his old traveling clothes. It was so easy to grab his swords -they're her favorite weapon- and a bag of food and slip away from the Fire Nation. He could run faster than most after having trained himself so hard. It wasn't a long trip to go see her, though, and soon he dropped his things and faced the cold gray stone that lay at the base of the tree. Carved into the smooth surface were only a few simple characters; just her name, that's all she had really wanted.

With that thought, he started speaking. "Life so crazy these days, 'Tara." Her stone didn't reply. He didn't expect it to. "Being Fire Lord is harder than I thought it would be. Sometimes I wish I would have agreed to leave with you when you left. Maybe then both of us would be laughing and teasing and fighting and living-" A lump formed in his throat as he tried to speak again. Behind him, dawn was breaking. The shadows were deep under his eyes, his back bathed in the light of a new day. "Without you, I've got nothing."

Unseen by the brooding Prince, she walked up behind him. Light shined through her form, as if she were merely a mirage. Her hands wrapped around chest as tears rolled down her cheeks. A damp spot formed on his shoulder that he didn't notice, too numb to feel the unworldly arms that encompassed him. "You've got me." She whispered the words so fiercely even in death. "You've got me."