[A:TLA] Perfection (Zuko, G)

[wallwalker]

Title: Perfection
Author: wallwalker
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters: Zuko
Warnings: Spoilers for the end of the series
Summary: Zuko has searched for perfection for most of his life.
Notes: Written originally for fic_promptly.

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Zuko had spent so many years searching for perfection, spurred on by his sister and how easy everything had seemed to her. He had spent most of his life feeling not good enough, wanting to be as powerful as she was.

He'd been a fool, and it had taken him years to realize it, even when it had been staring him in the face for years. Striving for perfection was good, to a point, but after a while it had become impossible. He could not have been any better than he was; he was only exhausting himself, instead of working to improve what he already did well. Not perfectly, no, but well.

Every morning, when he woke, he would let Mai sleep and go to the courtyard, and practice his katas. He tried to keep his form as perfect as he could, but he would forgive himself small mistakes while still striving to improve them. It was better than the years before, when he hated himself for the smallest mistakes - the hatred would lead to self-doubt, and he would be unable to focus and make even more mistakes.

It was ironic, he thought. In giving up the search for absolute perfection, he was closer to achieving it than he had ever been before.