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Chapter Text

Katara woke up to a loud crash at dawn. She rolled away in case an attack was aimed at her and got to her feet, uncapping her waterskin. All of the ambushes and wild animals that kept trying to eat them had taught her a lesson, and she kept it around her waist at all times now.

Aang jogged over. "What was that?"

Katara looked at the skies. They were in real trouble if it was Azula who had caught up to them, but her airship was nowhere in sight.

"I'm not sure, Aang."

"Take your glider and see if you can find anything," Suki shouted over the beach. "Look for Toph and Zuko, too."

Aang's eyes widened and he opened his glider, soaring into the air only seconds later. Katara spotted the two empty makeshift beds with a small gasp that was more surprise than real worry. There was no sign of a struggle in the sand, solely two trails of footprints coming from the two blankets in the sand.

The idea of sleeping on the beach had seemed like a good idea yesterday night. The skies had been wonderful, and the soft sound of waves rushing about had lulled them all to sleep. Why Katara hadn't insisted otherwise, she didn't know.

Someone would have to clean all of their stuff, and from much experience, Katara could say that it for sure wasn't going to be Sokka.

Sokka was still curled up next to the remains of last night's campfire. His blanket wasn't only full of sand like his hair, no. Stains of black replaced the once red colour. It looked like he'd rolled through the whole fireplace while sleeping.

"Sokka!" Katara cried out.

"Oh, don't worry."

So he was already awake. Katara added that to her pile of reasons to be annoyed by him and gave him an irritated grunt. His off-handed comment confused her as well. What did he mean, 'don't worry'? Was it about the blanket?

"They're not gone."

It was about Zuko and Toph.

"Ah."

Katara narrowed her eyes and waited for Sokka to continue. He picked up his boomerang and brushed dust off its edges and she put her hands to her hips.

"Well, where are they, then?"

"Yelling about their lives."

Sokka inspected the few scratches the blue paint on each side of his weapon had attained. A part of Katara wondered how any paint at all had even survived their countless adventures, but she wished it hadn't, given how Sokka focused on that instead of the topic at hand.

"What an insightful explanation," Katara said, holding back snarky comments. She let her tone imply them enough for Sokka to understand.

"Oh, what do I know? They just needed some bonding time."

That checked out. Toph had long been complaining about that field trip, especially after that stupid play they had watched the other day.

Katara looked at the cloud of dust forming in the distance as another crash echoed to them, accompanied by a yell. She raised an eyebrow as the pieces puzzled themselves together, leaving one question. "And that's...?"

"Oh. Apparently, they're destroying Ozai's house." What the- Apparently, Sokka hadn't gotten the idea to mention that earlier. Katara huffed and jogged toward the noise.

Behind herself, she heard a sound that awfully resembled Suki dragging Sokka over the ground. She grinned at the image.

What she found was exactly what she had expected. Zuko and Toph were standing in front of a pile made of wood and stone, where some pillars were still hanging on the sorry frame of what had once been a majestic entrance. The debris and dust were still coming off the destroyed house in clouds, sneaking an uncomfortable and dry taste into Katara's mouth.

She resisted the urge to spit it away as she caught the last half of Zuko's sentence. "-haven't been in here for quite a few years."

His swords had lost their usual gleam in the sun to wisps of smoke. They had a red, heated tinge to them, like he'd used the swords to firebend. The idea wasn't too far-fetched. Katara had seen stranger things.

"See?" Aang added to the apparent discussion they were having. "We can take a look! I mean... the house isn't too far gone."

Suki and Sokka appeared next to Katara and eyed the balcony that creaked over Zuko's head.

Suki grinned at him. "I think you should get away from there."

Zuko looked up at the thing as it tilted, and casually side-stepped it moments before it came crashing down. Aang blew away the few pieces of wood that came flying towards him like projectiles and perked up to look behind the added pile.

"What I said. Not too far gone!"

Katara uncapped her water skin to extinguish a small flame at Toph's shoulder and raised an amused eyebrow. "What's all this even about?"

Toph huffed, and her hand rubbed over the spot that had been burning just a second ago. "Mister No-fun interrupted our perfectly fine and healthy bonding time." She jabbed a finger at Aang. "And now he won't let us continue."

"You're destroying a house."

Toph would always be a wonder to Katara.

"Your perfectly fine and healthy bonding time with Zuko was killing a man. How's this any worse?"

And she always had the right comeback to sour Katara's mood. Katara crossed her arms and stared at Toph with narrowed eyes.

"I never-" "Anyways!" Aang jovially interrupted her. "We wanted to go in and explore. Who knows what crazy war plans the Fire Lord could have hidden around here?"

'I never called it bonding or healthy,' Katara grimly finished the sentence in her head. There was no use in letting Toph rile her up now even if she wouldn't mind a match. A match where she had an excuse to go all out, where her opponent wouldn't hold back either. The idea of it appealed to her. She had needed something like that for a while now and felt the desire claw at her back, but she pushed it away.

There were better things to focus on now.

"Crazy war plans?" Suki wondered bemusedly as Toph raised her finger and said, "We never wanted anything."

Aang continued whining pleas at her with those polar-puppy eyes of his and Katara was impressed by Toph's ability to ignore them until she realised why she was so good at it. Toph couldn't see them.

"Didn't you have this entire week to 'explore'?"

Sokka's sceptical side seemed to have won over his intrigued side. His curiosity was clear in the glint of his eyes, while Katara could only agree with his statement. If Aang had wanted so badly to indulge in that awful and claustrophobic atmosphere of this house, he had been free to do so.

Aang nodded. "I know. But Zuko didn't tell us this was Ozai's part! He hasn't been in here in a literal decade."

Sokka's face lit up. "Really?"

"Mhm."

"Hm. What if there's some hidden, thought-to-be-dead war prisoner?"

That was completely unrealistic. What would be a reason for Ozai to hide someone in his vacation house? He had plenty of prisons to hide plenty of people, much more secure ones at that.

Katara mulled over Sokka's idea a few times. Actually, she wouldn't be surprised if that was what they found.

"Well," she reasoned. "If the Fire Lord isn't letting his own son enter..."

"He's hiding something!" "That's nothing new," Sokka and Zuko ended her sentence simultaneously.

"It's worth a look, isn't it?"

Toph didn't seem any more convinced than before, but she shifted backwards and her eyebrows creased in consideration.

Aang and Sokka entered anyways.

Katara followed, just to make sure they didn't bury themselves under some pillar by accident. 

-

Katara wasn't the only one to go with that train of thoughts, it seemed, as the other three also joined. Zuko didn't look ecstatic about the prospect of walking through these halls (which, by the way, were much too big for a simple vacation house) and he eyed each of the rooms with disdain.

Seriously, though. There was nobody who needed that many rooms for themselves.

Until now, it had been revealed that Ozai had absolutely no taste in interior decoration. Literally. A majority of the rooms was filled with nothing, a shelf at best. And the rest looked awful.

They hadn't found the slightest hint of anything interesting. This was truly the most boring exploration of all times, and morals were sinking; Toph had long given up. Her constant huffing was driving Katara up the wall and it was all of their luck that she had had much practice ignoring her by now.

Katara was busy shutting out another annoyed groan of Toph's when Zuko perked up. "Wait."

They waited.

"There's something... somewhere in this house, there should be some kind of secret passage somewhere."

Wow, what a good thing to know.

"And you didn't think of telling us earlier?" Toph complained.

"Well, I just remembered. I don't even know where exactly it is anymore."

"Wow. That's just great." Toph made an aborted motion of crossing her arms before she realised that without holding Sokka's hand, she'd be entirely blind. She gave them all a frustrated noise.

"What are you all waiting for? Go search that stupid door."

-

They actually found 'that stupid door' in less than ten minutes. It had been under a carpet, completely hidden from sight until Toph had tripped over a bump in it and kicked the edge away in frustration.

The ladder was old. It was rusty and the tunnel was stinky and full of dirt, but Katara didn't as much as raise an agreeing eyebrow at Sokka's disgusted yelp and climbed down. Aang was the lucky one here, gifted with the ability to simply float down. Zuko, being his usual reckless self, didn't bother with the ladder either. He simply jumped.

"Finally, something to see," Toph exclaimed, "Oh, I've missed this." 

Oh, yes, so much to see. It was like the halls swallowed all light.

"Oh, great Toph. Mind telling us about the view?"

Not even Zuko and Aang's little flames were enough to dissipate the darkness in wherever they were. Katara could barely make out Toph as she kneeled down and placed her palms onto the ground and whistled.

"Seems like it was worth it in the end, Sparky," she said, "You really should've come down here when you had the chance."

"I planned to," Zuko snapped. The long search had made them all a little raw. "Ozai backhanded me across the floor."

Aang winced. That answer certainly cleared up his earlier, responseless inquiry as to why Zuko hadn't explored some more.

Sokka cut in. "Just tell us what's down here already. We can't see a thing, and the jerkbending isn't helping either."

Oh no, Katara recalled, what a nightmare! She smiled, not that anyone could see her, and shifted her weight, bumping her elbow into some wall and hitting that stupid spot that sent uncomfortable tingles through her entire arm. She shook it out.

"Rooms," Toph explained, "Many rooms. Probably some weird and very innovated torture devices, for some reason-"

The way she cut off was alarming to Katara. It wasn't like Toph not to say something, what made it even more concerning was the fact that she'd cut off mid joke. Changing her mind also wasn't one of her strengths.

"Shut up, you guys," Toph chided at Aang and Sokka, both of whom had been bickering, "I need to concentrate."

They fell silent and Toph rammed her hands onto the ground.

"No fucking way. I swear-" she paused to concentrate once more. "I kid you not there's a fucking person in here."

Oh.

Oh, shit.

"You're kidding," Zuko deadpanned, and Toph huffed.

"No. I just said I kid you not."

"Well-" Katara knew the risks and whatnot, but she didn't care. "If it's true, we've got to help them."

Sokka audibly shook his head. "Katara, we have no idea who that actually is! For all we know, Ozai could be hiding here!"

Suki was the only one relaxed enough to chuckle at him.

"Have no faith in the 'thought-to-be-dead prisoner anymore, huh?"

"That was a joke!"

"Hey, guys, guys," Aang said and put his arms out in a placating gesture, almost hitting Sokka's shoulder with the flame cupped in his hand, "Don't argue. If we just... check it out, it'll be fine, no? I mean, I highly doubt it is Ozai, but if it is, I've got to beat him anyway. It won't change anything."

"Didn't we agree on you beating Ozai after the comet?" Katara asked and placed her hands onto her hips. "You know, you needing to master all of the elements and all of that?"

"You what?" Zuko exclaimed.

Before any of them could continue yelling at each other, Toph stomped her foot loud enough to wake the dead and declared, "I'm going to take a look. If you don't want to, fine, but either come with me now or don't. If Ozai really is stupid enough to hide down here, I bury him and the problem is solved. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am," Sokka hurried.

"Good. Now let's go."

Tui, she was good at making announcements like that. Katara had come to see that as really useful, especially those times Aang and Sokka just wouldn't stop goofing around and ignored Katara.

Though, over time, Sokka had become more serious and Aang more obedient- Katara could only guess why- which had also helped.

Toph punched a hole into the wall Katara had bumped into and the whole ceiling formed cracks, dirt and tiny pebbles trickling down from above. With each time that Toph extended the tunnel, those cracks deepened.

"Maybe you-" Aang lifted an unsure hand as Toph ignored him and continued going. "Maybe you shouldn't-"

The ceiling gave in. If it hadn't been for Aang hastily bending a protecting wall and everyone jumping away, they would have all been mush by now. Sokka's outraged cry at Toph was seconded by Katara, though Toph was left unfazed.

"Stop being such lily-livers and actually follow me."

"Not like we have a choice, now," Sokka told her.

"Exactly," Toph responded, "So, come on."

-

They were getting closer. Katara could feel an amount of water not too far away, two actually; the first a clear and plain bucket, and the second some unclear blob that took on the form of a human more and more the closer they came.

Katara prayed that it wasn't. First of all, whoever had been trapped down here was skinny- unhealthily so- and second of all, no. No, thank you. Katara didn't need another reminder that she could bloodbend. She didn't need another reminder of that power, which, while not powerful enough to do anything without the moon, was so full of possibilities.

Possibilities that included taking over another person's body. Invading them, taking all of their control, making them do whatever you wanted them to.

Again, no thank you.

As soon as Toph blasted away the last bit that separated them from the room, or rather, cell, Katara's last tiny scraps of hope evaporated. The first thing that hit her was the light, the second the smell.

It was disgusting, human waste mixed with puke mixed with rot. She gagged as Sokka's face blanched and Aang made a wide motion with his arms to chase that awful air away. Right before the bile actually rose up Katara's throat.

Only then did Katara see what she had felt as the human-shaped water. 

It seemed her prayers hadn't been heard. The thing lying on the dirty ground was an actual person.

The man was just as gangly as he had seemed. He was wearing clothes that looked like nothing but lumps of dirty cloth and didn't do anything to cover the amounts of scars and bruises and wounds partially covered by half-assed attempts of bandaging. His hair was weirdly tidy to an extent that Katara would call it healthy, barely greasy, and he wasn't nearly as starved as he could have been under these circumstances.

Katara opened her waterskin and went to his side, near enough to place the water to his temples. She had no idea if she was doing anything let alone what she was doing, but the fact that she felt something made her keep trying. There were too many physical wounds to heal those now.

The man's eyes fluttered open.

"Guys," Toph began, "I think Zuko's gonna-"

She had been too slow, and behind Katara, something fell.

"Zuko!"

Zuko was completely out. His eyes had rolled up to only show the whites and Katara immediately put the water away and left the stranger to check Zuko's pulse at his wrist, relieved when she found out he hadn't died on them.

She directed Suki to lift Zuko's legs up to get some blood flowing to his head and returned to the other problem at hand. Aang hovered over her and the prisoner, his hesitant frown staying on the man's features. It made Katara look at him closer as well, especially now that he was slowly waking up.

She kept the water to his head and continued her act like she knew what she was doing.

It took the man some time to fully come to his senses and make his gaze focus. First, he focused on Aang, whose frame was behind Katara but right in his field of view, and then on Katara. His golden eyes were tired, hollow; speaking of months, even years of torture clearer than the marks on his body.

His eyes flickered to each side and to Katara's wrists, already more aware, and he scrambled against the wall. The scream that tore from his lungs froze Katara's blood and she recoiled, almost falling backwards. The man's arms knocked hers away, made the water splash onto him, and caused him to fall into even more of a panic.

Katara looked at the others for help, but they didn't seem any wiser than her. Suki and Toph were still occupied with Zuko, who was awakening again, and Sokka had darted to Katara's side in his shock. That scream had surprised them all. It had been so raw and unexpected, loud despite the fact it should have been louder.

The guy's voice was more than scratchy. As he yelled, an unnatural rasp threaded through it, making it more hoarse with each second.

The only one that seemed to have any idea about what was going on was Zuko, who was slowly standing up, supporting himself on Toph's shoulder. His expression had a mix of confusion and disbelief written all over it, pale enough to make someone believe he'd seen an actual ghost. His eyes were so fixated on the stranger it could make someone believe the stranger was the ghost.

"...oh my god," he mumbled, and for a moment, he swayed against Toph. Suki caught him by the shoulders before he could fall again.

Toph pushed him up and muttered, "What's up with you?"

Whether or not she had expected an answer didn't matter because Zuko stayed silent.

A pained whimper drew Katara's attention back to the prisoner, who was pressing himself against the wall with all his strength and tried to get as far away as he physically could. Katara gave him some more space by taking a crouched step away.

He wouldn't even blink. For the whole time since waking, his eyes had been fully opened and glaring at Katara like that would make her disappear.

Katara monitored her movements the best she could and only stood up when she was next to Suki. Aang followed her soon after and the confusion on the man's face grew, but he didn't seem any less afraid. In fact, his crazed mantras resumed, too quiet to be understood.

Whatever was going on with Zuko did not clear up when he shrugged Suki's hands off of his shoulders and stepped towards him.

The man snapped. "Stay away!"

Zuko somehow seemed surprised by that reaction and halted in his approach. At his hesitation, a small grin twitched at the man's lips, but he was celebrating too soon. Zuko went nearer. His reaction to the man's outburst was a little much- of course, this was straining, but first fainting and now almost crying wasn't very Zuko-esque.

The stranger's eyes lost their victorious glint immediately. He tried to push himself up the wall, his legs giving out halfway through, and the frustration forced tears to his eyes. They all should have seen the attack coming. Toph caught the fist going for Zuko's face with a few rocks and pinned it against the wall, and the man cried out in surprise. 

"No. No," he pleaded, voice becoming louder with each word. He yanked at his arm with his whole body trembling and shook his head. "No. It's enough. You can't- Enough, I-"

His voice wasn't more than a painful rasp and sobs wracked through his body, causing him to shrink in on himself.

"Look at me," Zuko told him with an unstable voice. The man stopped crying and his eyes unfocused like a switch had turned at the words, leaving him zoned out. "Hey. Look at me. Who am I?"

What in both worlds. How was that supposed to help?

They waited for the response nonetheless. A grin split the man's face. He chuckled, louder and louder, until he was full-on laughing, unhinged and staring at a spot in front of Zuko.

Like Zuko hadn't even said anything, the man resumed to try and free his arm, throwing his whole body back, and the laughter ebbed into frustrated huffs. 

"No- stop it!" Zuko said and pulled at his hair with a frustrated groan. The man was using enough force to dislocate his wrist. "Get a grip on yourself! No- Prince Lu Ten- Prince Lu Ten of the Fire Nation, get a fucking grip on yourself!" 

Chapter Text

Lu Ten stopped everything he was doing to stare right through Zuko. Again, he grinned, and again, it didn't come near to meeting his eyes. Those eyes that hadn't blinked once this whole time, a gold that didn't resemble the sun like Zuko's did but had the faint glaze of an old, used coin.

"I don't know him," he told himself and giggled. "I don't know him."

The way Zuko's shoulders deflated told everything Katara needed to know. 

"Yes, you do," Zuko insisted. "Look at me and tell me you don't know me."

Katara wasn't sure the crude language was helping. Maybe it would be easier for her to judge if she had any clue who in all worlds this was, but she had never even heard of the guy. Prince Lu Ten.  

She exchanged a look with Sokka in case he knew something, only to see him just as confused. Was that man some long-lost brother, or what?

Lu Ten was still grinning into Zuko's face, and Zuko turned to Toph.

"He's lying," he said. The way he said it made it sound more like a request.

He reached out for Lu Ten's shoulders. 

"Stay away!"

Zuko kept his hands hovering between them, not retreating but also not touching him, and Katara thanked the spirits for that. Lu Ten was already back to pressing himself against the wall like a cornered animal and glared Zuko's hands down, muttering to himself in never-ending mantras.

"He's lying, I-" 

Toph cast her eyes to the ground. "No, he's not."

Zuko ignored her. "I- Zuko, I'm Zuko. Your cousin?" 

That was Zuko's cousin? 

Zuko had a cousin?

"You're son of Iroh, you're a prince, remember?"

"Remember?" Lu Ten repeated, testing the word in his mouth. He chuckled at it. "Remember."

And back he was to his mantras. Katara didn't understand more than a few words, puzzling it to a meaning of more or less 'they're back, they're back, they'd said they'd leave me for a week, they're back again', cue some laughter here, 'they'd said they'd wait,' cue some frightened staring here with some significant mood swings in between.

"Zuko," Katara said as Zuko pressed his hands against his head and made frustrated sound. "We should get him out of here. I don't think staying is helping him any."

"I know, I-" Zuko took a breath to center himself and shook his head. "Right. Sorry. This just- it's all- whatever."

He stood and put one arm under Lu Ten's chest. The man flinched and thrashed around, forcing Zuko to tighten his grip. The yells pierced through Katara like icicles and his words turned into desperate sobs and pleas. They were badly ignored by Zuko, and with Sokka's help, he picked Lu Ten up.

The struggles stopped as abruptly as they had begun.

They went through the tunnel, the dim light from the cell casting long shadows across the floor. Aang soon had to lead the way, a fire in his palms.

Zuko didn't seem to notice any of it, glassy eyes staring into nothing. When Toph shoved the rubble back, he shook his head and looked at the opening above him with squinting eyes.

Aang was the last to go up, closing the trapdoor behind himself.

Zuko stepped outside, manoeuvring Lu Ten's limp body out of the door. With the very first sunray that hit his skin, Lu Ten snapped awake, He bit Zuko's arm and Zuko yelped, losing his grip on Lu Ten, and Lu Ten kicked Sokka's hands away. Dust swirled up as he scrambled away, a heavy limp in his left leg, and he swayed onto the destroyed remains of the entrance. 

Katara had her flask already opened, but Lu Ten seemed seconds from fainting. 

He didn't.

Lu Ten fell to his knees. He lifted his arms, and his heaving chest shook in either sobs or laughter, probably a mix of both. Toph encased his ankles in earth.

In this light, his cleanliness stood out again. He wasn't clean by any means, not even close, but the amount of dirt he was coated in was minimal for the amount of time he had been trapped. Aside from the scars it didn't seem like he'd been down there for more than a week, even his hair was tied in a more or less neat top knot. Only a few strands of hair fell into his face when he turned to Zuko.

Zuko was the one with the least distance put between himself and Lu Ten. One hand was hovering over the bite, already forgotten, the blood trickling down his arm. 

A bit of hope bloomed across Zuko's face at the long and considering stare he got from Lu Ten, quickly smothered by the following words.

"You're one of them, aren't you," Lu Ten whispered, or at least, tried to whisper. He raised his voice with his next sentences. "You are, I know it. I can see it in your face."

Frantic laughter mixed into his words, and his head spun to the other side, talking with exactly nobody. "His ugly face. Just like theirs, no? What are they going to do now? Kill me?"

Those words, though he had said them in mockery, softened something in his crazed expression. 

"Lu Ten, we should-" "I'm not Lu Ten," Lu Ten shrieked.

He had spun faster than a humming sailbird just to glare at Katara. The restraints on his ankles made him sway, and he rested his hand on the ground.

"They kept calling me that. They did. Didn't they?" The question was directed at another spot of empty air. "They kept calling me Lu Ten. See? They were the ones to call me that."

"Uhm, Lu Ten?" "I'm. Not. Lu Ten."

Suki winced and rephrased, "Right. I'm sorry. But... who are 'they'?

The gloating edge left Lu Ten's expression, and after more seconds with no response, Katara figured that he had forgotten about what Suki had just said. That, or he was ignoring it.

He was still staring at that spot between him and Aang. His expression shifted and he made a motion to stand up, confusion rippling over his face when his legs stayed locked in place. 

"Let him go," Zuko urged, "Let him go."

Toph did as told. Lu Ten lifted himself to his feet again but ended up falling against the pile of rubble. He sent another piercing glare over his shoulder to check for the hallucination, dragging his left leg to himself with his hand.

The hallucination had to have disappeared. His eyes fell to the ground before they lifted to the skies, looking directly at the sun in a way that couldn't be healthy. 

There was blood on his leg. Fresh blood, seeping into Lu Ten's dirty pants and onto the ground. His hands, still rested on his calf, lifted to his eyes.

"Oh," he said, and collapsed.

-

Katara hadn't wanted anyone to see more than they already had. It was her job and hers only to heal Lu Ten. She could do that perfectly fine while being alone, but Zuko just was so stubborn that she had given in.

And also, the fact that this was his literal cousin. Katara hadn't asked any questions this soon, not with how disbelieving Zuko still seemed about the fact that the man was alive, but she planned to. This now included them all, and they deserved some context. Not yet. In a few days, maybe after the comet. For now, they had to focus on keeping Lu Ten alive.

Zuko had helped Katara lift Lu Ten into one of the many fountains. It was quicker and easier for Katara to heal him that way, and he would be cleaned simultaneously.

The wound that had so suddenly appeared on Lu Ten's calf had turned out to be an old scar, layered in a way that suggested it had been opened time and time again by either actively doing so or by over-exercising it the way Lu Ten had done before. It wasn't the only scar, no. His body was littered in those. But it was by far the most prominent one.

He had barely any muscles. He had barely anything over his bones at all. Multiple bones had been broken without giving them a chance to properly heal, which stood out in Lu Ten's nose and hands. His nose was a crooked line, and the fingers of his right hand were swollen, standing out at odd angles. Lu Ten was missing fingernails and toenails, partially grown back in some places.

The entire time that she healed the opened scar on his leg, Katara couldn't fully focus. It was still bothering her how and why he was still so clean after being down there, rolling in the dirt and, judging by that smell, also rolling in his own waste and former meals. Even his teeth, while some were missing, didn't have more than a yellowish tinge to them. Even if the image of it was disgusting, Katara had seen what really improper care did to teeth.

It was when they finally stripped Lu Ten of his outer clothes that she got an idea. A terrible, horrifying idea, only supported by the bitemarks on his thighs.

Katara swallowed and moved on.

It was a blessing that Lu Ten stayed unconcious through the entire process. Katara healed him, Zuko helped her wash him up. They dressed him in something clean and put him into a tent that Sokka had put up while Toph and Aang had trained and prepared something to eat. Though Toph had kept herself out of that last part, understandably.

Katara was drained. More than that. Zuko was, too. He didn't stay with them for more than five minutes at dinner. He stood up, bowl in his hands, and told Aang, "You're fighting Ozai on the comet. If you don't, the world will burn."

He left with no further explanation, ignoring their confusion. Katara was too tired to protest. She accepted her new reality and kept shovelling the rice into herself. It was good that Zuko went to Lu Ten. Even if Lu Ten hadn't recognised him today, it was better than having him wake up with nobody around to keep an eye on him.

-

For once, Zuko's insomnia was useful. It was easy to keep himself awake for hours on end with the endless thoughts and questions swirling around his mind, uninterrupted. Even easier with today's shit.

It was like he was dreaming. Though, hallucinating would be more fitting of a word, as his face wasn't burning up. He wouldn't have been surprised. With all of the sleep he'd been missing these last few years, it had been about time.

Yet, here he was, sitting in front of Lu Ten. The dead prince. If this even was him. Zuko had, again, drawn some conclusion by the first hint without thinking about it for one second. And he was only realising now. 

He tilted his face up to send a silent prayer to Agni or whatever great spirit was up in the skies.

Agni, what if this wasn't Lu Ten? Sure, he had seemed familiar. Sure, something in his eyes had tipped Zuko off. But he was so mistreated, raped and beaten and tortured in so many ways and it had been so long that it was difficult for Zuko 1. not to cry, and 2. tell whether it really was Lu Ten. Faces weren't easy for him.

Zuko just had to believe that this was him, but in the end, Uncle would know. There was no questioning that. If Lu Ten didn't regain any memories and nobody else was sure about it, Uncle would know.

Zuko steered his thoughts away from Uncle. The thoughts turned and went right back to him, so Zuko slammed a wall into their non-existent faces.

He didn't know why he was having such a crisis worrying who this was while the man, whoever the fuck, seemed to be close to dying in the way he slept. A cold sweat drenched the fresh clothes he was dressed in and he didn't move an inch. He slept like a rock, not like Toph, but stiff. Not the slightest twitch disturbed his sleep. His chest moved so little that Zuko caught himself checking for any signs of life more than once. 

Even if this was Lu Ten, Zuko wondered how much of him he'd recognise, save the appearance. People didn't just come out of shit like this without changing.

He wondered how much of Zuko Lu Ten would recognise.

The flap opened with a breeze. That breeze was Aang. He didn't say anything as he sat down, and Zuko let the silence stay, and everything was wonderful.

Until Aang spoke up, knees pulled up to his chest. "I didn't know you had a cousin."

'Me neither,' Zuko almost said. He stopped himself in the last second. Think, he hammered into himself, first.

"Now you do."

That wasn't much better. But, to his defence, what was he supposed to say? That's rough, buddy? Absolutely not.

The waves washing onto the shore were the only thing interrupting the silence. Katara entered for a few seconds and gave them a bowl of rice and vegetables for Lu Ten whenever he woke up, telling them that she was going to sleep. 

Aang stayed with Zuko. 

"What did you mean by..." he began, eyeing Lu Ten, "fighting Ozai or 'the world will burn'?"

Zuko sighed. Here goes.

-

It was before sun up that Lu Ten woke. Zuko had been busy trying to get more comfortable under the weight of Aang perched against his side without waking him up before he noticed Lu Ten's chest moving in clear up and downs. It was the only hint because otherwise, Lu Ten stayed completely still.

"I know that you're awake," Zuko told him. Lu Ten's face paled, breath stuttering, and now, it was even clearer. Zuko didn't prod, for pushing Lu Ten into yet another panic attack wasn't going to serve him in any way.

He didn't have to wait long for Lu Ten to open his eyes and send a distrusting gaze Zuko's way. Zuko challenged that look with a neutral expression of his, recognising he was the object of Lu Ten's full attention now. It would have been helpful to have some friendly faces like Aang or Katara's to give him a reassuring smile. Zuko couldn't fake a smile to save his life, he already had problems with a genuine one, but it seemed that Aang wasn't going to wake up any time soon. Lu Ten would have to deal with his pokerface. Although in this dim light, it was possible that he couldn't even see it.

Lu Ten pushed himself up, tense in anticipation of pain. Some of the tension left his shoulders when he put more weight onto his arms and found it much less intense than he would have expected, and he hesitated, lips parted in confusion. He lifted his head to resume the suspicious staring at Zuko.

More specifically, Zuko's lap.

Zuko looked down and, in his hands, saw the bowl that Katara had given him.

"Oh." He was so stupid. "That's... it's for you. If you want it, that is."

Lu Ten's lack of a response had Zuko faltering. Aang was still half on top of him, making it difficult to hand the food to Lu Ten, and the silence was getting louder by the second. Aang really couldn't have chosen anyone else as his nightly mattress, could he.

Zuko grumbled and leaned forward to get the bowl into Lu Ten's reach, where he put it down. Doing that, Aang's head slid away from his shoulder to somewhere behind his back, and with a thump and a yelp, he flinched awake.

He rubbed his temple with a pained groan. 

"Ow," he complained, eyes squinted through the darkness, "What happened?"

Lu Ten had his hands hovering over the ground, ready to bolt if needed, his attention torn between the confused Aang and the bowl that was only an arm-length away from him.

"Oh," Aang realised and put that smile of his onto his face, "Uh... Good morning."

"What do you want from me?"

Just listening to that rasp of what someone else would call a voice hurt. Yesterday, it may have still counted as something, but today was even worse. Without taking the effort of reading his lips, Zuko wouldn't have understood a word. Judging from the confused glance Aang sent Zuko, he hadn't.

"Help you," he answered. "Eat up."

Lu Ten's stomach growled, and after a hesitating pause, he grabbed the bowl away in one fast jab. The spoon was ignored as he narrowed his eyes at Zuko in a threatening glare and scooped the rice with his bare hand. 

His hunger showed in the way he ate. Tilting the bowl like he was drinking and pushing the food into himself like someone was threatening to take it from him, but he wasn't halfway done when he paused. Without any reason, his head tilted to the side. He seemed to listen to something. To someone.

His hands lowered the bowl, and he turned toward Zuko.

"Who are you?" He asked. 

Zuko forced his hopes to stay at a reasonable level. Lu Ten was ignoring what was probably his first real meal in half a decade, which meant something. Whether that something was good or bad was the question.

"I-" "And don't. Lie to me."

"I won't. I'm Prince Zuko, son of Ursa and Firelord Ozai-" the bowl flew at him with unimaginable speed. Zuko brought his arms up to protect himself and it hit his wrist and clattered to the ground, sending a pang of pain through his arm.

"You, I knew it, you liar," he yelled, as if he'd been pierced by a spear.

The shock had Zuko speechless. He should have foreseen that speaking of Ozai in front of Lu Ten could have been a trigger of some kind, but that it was this bad he just hadn't expected. 

He really should have.

Zuko dropped his arms to see Lu Ten's fist flying towards him, aiming square for his jaw. He doubted he would have been fast enough to stop it hadn't it been for the few pieces of earth that caught it and threw it back, dragging Lu Ten to the ground. Aang locked the wrist there. Lu Ten tore at it, spitting dirt at Zuko and hurling insults at him worse than Azula had ever come up with.

It was humbling. The knowledge that he still was as naive and gullible as a child really set something off, and Zuko tightened his jaw to not yell back.

Aang had other ideas in that aspect. "Hey!" He cut in in what Zuko presumed to be his 'I'm the Avatar stop fucking with me' kind of voice. "Don't talk about my friend like that!"

Surprisingly, or rather unsurprisingly, it worked. Lu Ten stopped his ongoing rant just one second short of Zuko exploding back at him. His weird, unblinking eyes watched Aang fix him to the spot with a challenging frown, and he twisted his trapped arm to fully turn towards him.

It really seemed like he had acquired an affinity of making people uncomfortable with simple stares. Zuko, who wasn't even the target at the moment, had to suppress the need to lash out again.

For no reason at all, Lu Ten started laughing. His eyes remained the empty shells they had been this whole time, but the rest of him was laughing, shaking his thin frame with something that sounded like asthma. 

"So you're with them, too? What did they do? Tell me, how did he convince you to join them?" His tone shifted as he spoke, becoming bitter and hateful. "Right. Murdered your family and all of your friends, picking each one out like-" "Enough!"

Katara pushed the flap aside and assessed the situation, rubbing her eyes with an exasperated sigh. Zuko didn't care. He was sick of this show, sick of this twisted version of Lu Ten, sick of the games he was playing. Lu Ten could at least show some gratitude for their help, especially for the fact that he didn't remember them. From what the man knew, they were doing this all out of kindness. Zuko scowled at Lu Ten, and- 

"What's happening?" Katara asked. "Zuko, why is there rice all over you?"

Katara professionally tuned out Lu Ten, who started telling her all about how Zuko was one of them and how he was untrustworthy and a retarded ashmaker. 

"Because of him," Zuko told her through pressed teeth and brushed the rice off himself, keeping his thoughts to himself. Lu Ten was making a giant target of himself with the shit he was saying, and Agni did it make Zuko wish he hadn't become a better person just to have an excuse to punch him across the face. To get him to regain the slightest sliver of decency, maybe some memories in the process.

Katara nodded at him. Lu Ten went on and on, and she raised her hand in a gesture of stop.

"First of all," she cut in when Lu Ten just wouldn't stop, "We have no idea who you're talking about. Who is... who are 'they'?"

"Why don't you ask him," Lu Ten shot back. "Son of- son of-"

His voice failed him. Something draped over his face like a shadow, eyebrows furrowed in fear, and his scrutinising gaze landed on the tent's wall. 

Lu Ten backed up with a strangled noise and tore at his arm. He was falling into a panic, trying to get away from whatever he was seeing, but he couldn't. Running from his own mind, a losing battle.

Zuko had had his own fair share of panic attacks. He was familiar with the overwhelming feeling of fear taking you over, pushing the air out of your lungs. He was familiar with curling up into a ball until all of your energy was gone or Uncle put a hand on your chest and told you to breathe, slow, in and out, always ensuring some sense of privacy and safety. Not this. Not having an audience watch you as you slowly lost it and wailed for everything to stop.

But what could Zuko do? Put a hand to Lu Ten's chest and tell him to breathe, in and out? As a stranger that could as well be the person that had put him through hell, tell him to just calm down and expect not to get his arm broken? All he could do was watch. He could to shake Aang and tell him to do something, yell at Katara to already help, but Zuko pressed his mouth shut. They couldn't do anything either without running the risk of making everything worse.

But Katara averted her eyes.

As much as it chilled him, as much as Uncle had helped him and supported him, there was one thing Zuko would never do the way he had. 

He would never look away at anyone's lowest.

Chapter Text

After making sure that Lu Ten was alright, they went on with their day. It was way earlier than most of them were used to, save Zuko, who was always the first one awake, but it was too late for anyone to fall asleep again. Save Lu Ten, who had all the time and lack of energy that one needed.

In between training sessions with Aang, Zuko made sure to check on him. He slept through a great part of the day. Zuko had just finished training Aang on some katas, teaching him the redirection of lightning, when he found Lu Ten sitting outside of his tent. Legs crossed and eyes closed, he seemed to be meditating, but he was talking to someone. Whether it was to himself or some hallucination was hard to judge from the distance.

Zuko left him alone. Had Lu Ten had any intention to run away, he would have done so by now. If that wasn't the case and he was waiting for another opportunity, Toph would prevent it. They were a group of master benders against an insane man.

Zuko made sure to keep an eye on him.

It wasn't more than a glance that Zuko took at his dual swords, and Lu Ten was staring at him. Again. Zuko frowned and gave him a once-over before continuing to sharpen his swords. 

He felt Lu Ten's eyes burning into him as he moved around their little camp and went through some katas on his own until Sokka joined him, insisting on some more 'swordbending', and so they sparred a few matches. 

Sokka won an insulting amount of times.

"Hah! Sokka: one, crown prince: zero," Sokka gloated, pointing his sword at Zuko's face.

"What do you mean, zero?" Zuko pushed it away. "I won at least five times."

"Not if you start counting now," Sokka corrected. He held out a hand and pulled Zuko up by it. Twirling his sword around the air, almost stabbing Zuko's only good eye out about three times, he let his gaze float around. "Tui. Why's that guy staring at us like that?"

Zuko had completely forgotten about 'that guy'.

"I wish I knew," he said, "He hasn't looked away from me for hours."

Sokka narrowed his eyes in an expression that perfectly encapsulated the weirdness of it all. "So he's just been staring at you? And you didn't say anything?"

"Yes."

Sokka lifted his arm over his head, behind his back, stretching. "What does he want from you?"

"I don't know." Zuko put his swords down and copied what Sokka was doing. "If he did, he could tell me."

Sokka repeated the stretch with his other arm and shot Zuko a side-eye. "And you really think he would do that?"

"No," Zuko answered, forcing his eyes away from the flexing bicep.

"Exactly. Please, just go and ask before he starts plotting against us."

"He's probably already doing that."

Sokka rocked his head to the side.

"Then do it before he acts out his master plan. The comet is in, like, three days, and I'm not planning on becoming roast arctic-chicken anytime before that."

"I'm not planning on getting my arm bit off anytime before that," Zuko shot back. 

"So, what's the big deal? You can still fight with one arm. I'm not very useful as a pile of ash."

Zuko rolled his eyes.

The coldness in Lu Ten's stare somehow hardened as he approached, and Zuko sat down as near as Lu Ten would let him. The distance wasn't enough to put him at ease, but it wasn't like anything would do that.

Zuko waited. 

"Well?" He demanded, "Do you have something to tell me?"

Lu Ten scowled at him. Apparently, he was too good to speak to Zuko.

"Just stop stalking me already," Zuko said and got up. One look at Sokka, who shook his head and gave him a meaningful glance that was enough to make him sit back down. 

Lu Ten's jaw twitched, and Zuko narrowed his eyes. He wanted to put up with Lu Ten's attitude just as little as Lu Ten wanted to put up with his.

Despite the begrudging vicinity, it was easier to withhold the unease that came with being watched every second of the day when the other didn't have much of a choice but watch you. It also seemed like Lu Ten's urge to watch Zuko every second of the day was much less present when Zuko was this close to him, and his eyes drifted to the sun. Just like the other day, he looked right into the blinding sun.

This time, at least they didn't stay, and Zuko didn't have to worry about Lu Ten going blind. Except, Lu Ten's left pupil wasn't adjusting at all.

"Get used to bread and mold, Prince Lu Ten," Lu Ten rasped, testing Zuko. "Remember what the sun feels like, Prince Lu Ten."

There was a long pause.

"That's what they told me."

Zuko let the words float between them before they sank in. 

Whoever they were, he was going to find them.

"You look like them. What are you planning?"

Zuko scrunched his nose. "I don't even know who you're talking about, and I'm not planning anything."

If he was the standard of 'them', Zuko wondered what Lu Ten thought of himself.

"Have you looked into a mirror?"

That was a step too far. Lu Ten's hand lifted, and Zuko prepared for another blow, but instead, it hovered. Lu Ten scowled and pulled it away from his face with a decisive gesture.

Zuko stopped looking into Lu Ten's eyes. "Sorry."

Lu Ten snorted. Sokka gave Zuko a thumbs up from afar, and Zuko glared at him, deciding against multiple rude gestures that came to his mind.

"Then what are you doing working with the Avatar?" 

There was less hate in Lu Ten's voice talking about the Avatar than there was talking about Zuko. "Who are you really?"

"I'm your cousin."

"I don't believe you."

Zuko felt his jaws clench and exhaled through his nose. 

"Then don't. That doesn't change anything about it."

For a moment, Lu Ten's expression shifted.

After that short burst of hope that maybe they had made some progress during this, Zuko's patience was running thinner than ever.

"Hey," another voice interrupted, and Zuko snapped around as Lu Ten flinched. Katara smiled at Lu Ten, her hands folded in front of her where everyone could see them. "I just wanted to check on you. Do you need anything?"

Lu Ten stared at Katara with a fragile mask of contempt. His shoulders were a rigid line that he turned away, and he said, "No."

Katara gave him a warm smile. "I'm going to prepare dinner in some time. I wanted to take the time to heal you some more, if that's okay?"

Zuko nodded as she looked at him and pushed himself up. Lu Ten stared at the ground. 

"Come on," Zuko told Lu Ten.

"Will it make me remember?"

"I don't think so," Katara admitted, "But-" "Then I don't want it."

"Lu Ten-" "Don't call me that," Lu Ten told her. Zuko made a frustrated sound. 

"Will you stop interrupting her?!" 

Katara shook her head at Zuko before explaining. "We have to make sure nothing happens. If we don't treat your wounds, they could get infected. You might die."

Lu Ten's shoulders loosened.

"So, what?" Lu Ten muttered, a nonchalance to him that had Zuko's blood running cold. 

"Are you serious right now?" 

Zuko felt his hands ball into fists.

"Are you actually serious right now?! Pulling through all of that shit to give up now?!" "Zuko-" "Are you telling me, that after everything, the first tiny glimpse of hope shows up, and you screw it all?! Now that there's actually hope for you and everybody that ever cared about you, and you'll just throw it all away! Because if that's so, maybe it would've been better if you'd stayed dead!" "Zuko!"

Zuko reeled back. Lu Ten's wide eyes narrowed at the corners and he bore his teeth, but before he could yell back, Katara reprimanded Zuko with a cold voice.

"You're scaring my patient, Zuko. I need you to leave."

It was too late to take back now. With a bitter taste in his mouth, he added, "That's just what they want you to do."

It was a real pity that there was no door he could slam into their faces.

-

Noise from Lu Ten's tent cut the idle conversation short. 

"Guys!"

Zuko got up and hurried toward Katara, who had just emerged from the tent with shocked tears in her eyes.

"What did he do?" 

"No, he didn't do anything, I just- I got the water out, and he- he just panicked, I don't know what I did-" "Hey," Aang cut in from the side, "You need to calm down."

Katara took a deep breath. "Right." Her shoulders loosened a little. "Sorry."

Zuko left the two behind and entered the tent. "What's happening here?"

The answer was nothing. Lu Ten was asleep, half of his body sprawled over the ground while the other half was still on the mattress. The left leg of his pants was rolled up to reveal the gaping wound and reddened skin around it.

"I wanted to heal him with the water, you know. As usual. He just, he completely freaked out," Katara told them while gesturing to Lu Ten, "It got so bad that he knocked himself out." 

She turned him onto his side and put the water to the back of his head, where fresh blood sticked to his hair. Her brows knitted together and a glow immersed her hands. "I don't know if it was me or something else. Maybe," she blinked a few times. "Maybe a flashback?"

"Maybe," Aang suggested, "It was just a general fear of you?"

Zuko picked up the cup they had left him and shook his head. "He wasn't afraid like that of Katara before. Also, he isn't drinking anything."

"A general fear of us poisoning him?" Aang tried, his posture a little slouched.

"He's eating fine," Katara pointed out.

"Flashback," Zuko agreed. Aang let his arms fall to his sides, and Zuko lifted Lu Ten up to push him onto the mattress. 

"Are you going to heal him now?" Aang asked Katara.

"I guess I don't really have a choice. It would be too complicated once he's awake."

It was clear that Katara would have much rather have Aang leave with Zuko to prepare something to eat, but he wouldn't budge. It would have been a better idea than to leave everyone else to it, as Suki was still in town with Toph, but something was better than nothing. 

Out of the two, Sokka was the only one that really could cook up anything edible, as long as it was meat; unfortunately, they had used all of that up for lunch.

After almost accomplishing to overcook the already overcooked rice and somehow not making something lethal out of the remaining carrots they had, which they had only achieved through Suki returning and rushing in to save it, they waited for Katara and Aang.

Aang took a bowl and distanced himself from everyone else, leaning against a pillar that put him out of sight but not out of earshot.

-

Katara opened her waterskin again and rolled Lu Ten onto his side. She hadn't yet finished healing his head in favor of all the other wounds.

Lu Ten hadn't knocked himself out by accident. That much would have been clear even without seeing his panic.

She willed water onto her hands, placing them onto the red wound on the back of Lu Ten's head. His hair was in the way of seeing anything but blood, and yet again, Katara was grateful for the ways of her healing. 

Lu Ten's chi paths were a weird mix of firebender and nonbender, centered at the base of his lungs like Zuko's but splitting and fraying out in unnatural ways, ending like Sokka's. It made healing him more difficult, more taxing, but Katara had figured it out after some trial and error. 

She searched for the interruptions and let her chi reach through the water and work its way around and through them. With the chi, the cells regenerated, and Katara pushed herself for the last bit.

She opened her eyes. The wound was closed, and Lu Ten was still out, but something was off. Deep in Lu Ten's head, hidden, Katara felt something.

Collecting the last of her energy, she reached down. Healing injuries on the head, in the brain, was like fighting against a current that pushed against her chi. It made it impossible to work with the flow and made everything fuzzy, and only with a fair amount of effort could Katara feel through it. What she felt was something akin to a barricade. Nothing physical, just parts where the chi didn't flow.

One by one, the blockades gave in, and Lu Ten stirred. 

Katara pulled back. She wasn't risking to wake him up or make this worse than it was before, and as she had no idea what she was doing, this was enough for now. 

Something wet on her leg made her realise that drops of water were disconnecting from her heavy hands. She put the water back into the pouch, keeping it together, but despite her efforts half of it was sent splashing down and soaked into Lu Ten's shoulder.

She pulled it away and got out.

The dishes were already washed and stacked, and Katara almost sagged in relief. Suki sent her a knowing smile, and Katara gave her a thankful look in return.

Sokka lifted his head. "How's the patient?"

"... better." She said for lack of any better words. "He was more in control than yesterday."

Sokka's sceptic eyebrow made Katara reevaluate.

"Mostly," she added, sitting down. Sokka put an arm around her shoulders, and she let the exhaustion take over, sinking into him.

The silence was a real gift.

-

The crickets were chirping outside. Zuko let the sun fuel his energy, the energy that he lacked by not sleeping in two days, and waited. 

Lu Ten should have been awake for some time now. At least an hour had passed since the sun had risen, and Zuko wanted to leave. He had to train Aang, had to make sure he was as prepared as he could be, but for now, this was way more important.

The others were already awake. Zuko could hear them bustling and goofing around, Katara trying to enforce some sense of order while pretty much nobody listened to her.

A small sound made Zuko sit up. Lu Ten shifted and yawned, stretching his arms above his head. With a pained groan, he pressed his hands to his temples.

Zuko bowed his head. "I apologise for yelling at you yesterday," he began in the most neutral tone he could muster. "It was immature, and I overreacted. I hope you can forgive me."

Lu Ten massaged his forehead and dragged his hands across his face. His eyebrows were pulled together in agony, and he looked at Zuko through squinted eyes, trying to regain a sense of where he was. 

Zuko bit his tongue and swallowed the impatient remarks.

"What..." Lu Ten pushed himself up, "What was your name again?"

Wow. Thank you for ignoring me, Zuko complained into himself, and prepared for another attack by lifting his hands onto his knees. "Zuko."

Instead of lashing out, Lu Ten flinched and curled up. He pressed his hands against his head, and he held his breath like he was about to scream.

His legs relaxed, and dragging his hands to the sides of his face, his shining eyes were revealed. He curled up again and his body tightened up, his arms covering his head.

Zuko's arms lifted in defence, but he didn't push Lu Ten away when he came near; it was stupid, but Lu Ten wasn't moving fast enough for this to be an attack.

Lu Ten... hugged him. Zuko halted. For whatever reason, his body was shaking with sobs. Zuko's confusion was the only thing keeping him from doing something stupid like leaving, and he hugged Lu Ten back.

Katara or Aang would be doing a much better job at this.

Well. They weren't here, and Zuko could only sit and try to bear how awkward this was, unless-

How could he be so stupid.

Chapter Text

Unless.

Zuko eyed the bit of Lu Ten's face he could see. He didn't want to get his hopes up again, he couldn't afford to, but this had to be a good thing. It had to be.

"Lu Ten?" 

The answer was a squeeze and a chin nodding against Zuko's shoulder.

Zuko leaned into the hug. His throat tightened and his eyes brimmed with tears, spilling over as suppressed memory after suppressed memory unravelled.

"We- everyone thought you were dead," he explained, his voice straining under the effort to form words, "They didn't- there was a funeral and everything, I was there. Uncle-"

Lu Ten pulled out of the hug, and Zuko shook his head. "You're alive."

What an irony that this was the very expression Zuko had last seen on Lu Ten.

However long the silence went on, Zuko embraced it. He felt at peace, his thoughts quiet for once. Lu Ten was alive.

Despite the tears, a grin formed on Lu Ten's face.

"I'm alive," he chuckled, and Zuko felt a smile pulling at his own lips. He wiped his tears off with his sleeve. "Your voice is so deep."

"Says you," Zuko responded. 

Lu Ten's lips pressed together.

"How old are you even?" He asked, his eyes tight around the corners like he was afraid of the answer.

"Seventeen."

Lu Ten pressed his fingers onto his eyes, his chin tucking against his shoulder. 

"You're kidding?"

Zuko wished he was. The longer this settled, the more he wished he'd just lied.

"... No."

Lu Ten sighed, a shaky exhale ending in a choked sob. "Fuck."

"Sparky!" Toph called, "Hurry your lazy ass up, Aang needs training!"

Lu Ten's posture straightened, gladly taking the distraction. He sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of his palm.

"Those are... are they your friends?"

"Yes."

"The Avatar? That kid with the arrow, he's an airbender, right? Does that mean he's the Avatar?"

"Yes." Zuko didn't want to turn Lu Ten away yet. He wasn't ready to be rejected this soon, but this had to be clear. "I'm not just his friend, I'm training him in firebending. And I will help him defeat Fire Lord Ozai."

Zuko had had difficulty changing his beliefs after all of the brainwashing propaganda, and having been raised as the Crown Prince for his whole life, Lu Ten just might have it even more difficult. Lu Ten knew what kind of a person Ozai really was better than anyone, but if he saw this as an attack against the whole nation, Zuko was screwed.

"Nevermind!" Toph shouted.

Lu Ten stood up, nothing in his expression to betray his intentions. He didn't seem angered, not openly, but Zuko had experience with that. He felt his muscles tense in uncertainty, but he supported Lu Ten's left side and helped him get to the little campsite they had set up without opening that scar again.

Not much was up with the others. Toph had a curious grin on her face, hands braced against the ground. 

"Aang, did you get the sewing kit like I told you to?"

"Oh," Aang said, giving Katara a nervous chuckle. Where did you leave it again?"

"How often do I have to tell you? I left it somewhere around the arena."

Aang jumped up. "Sorry!"

He made a leap toward the house. A sharp whistle right next to Zuko's ear cut through the air, and Aang made a sharp turn, his arms flailing into a stance ready to attack.

"Ow," Zuko complained under his breath.

Lu Ten's lip twitched up, and he whispered, "Sorry." He furrowed his brows, and said, "That's the Avatar?"

Zuko chuckled. "My exact thoughts."

Lu Ten gave Zuko a pat on the shoulder, assuring that he was alright to walk on his own. It was debatable whether he actually was. Everytime his left foot hit the floor, he recoiled like someone had offered him smoked seaslug.

His expression didn't change, staying in the perfect mask Zuko could only ever dream of achieving.

-

The boy with the blue eyes, Water Tribe eyes, put his map aside and uncrossed his legs, his hand reaching for the sword that lay beside him. Lu Ten was facing away from him, having to observe him out of the corner of his eye, but that didn't fool him.

He halted a respectable distance away from the Avatar. Risking an attack in his state was far too stupid, from Zuko's supposed friends even more so. He folded his hands behind his back to signal he wasn't out to provoke, gripping on his right wrist. It was difficult to push down his fear and he felt his breath shorten just by that, but he supposed it made any quick motions more difficult on his side.

"Avatar?"

The kid was quick to a smile and a bow "Aang."

"Avatar... Aang. If I may speak to you."

"Sure!"

"Hey," One of the girls said. She had the longest hair out of them all and the exact same eyes of the boy, probably his sister. It was clouded, but Lu Ten was sure he recalled her as the girl that had taken care of him these last days. "What are you doing?"

"We're going to talk."

"They'll make sure to stay where we can see them," Zuko stated. He wasn't requesting, and it was clear that he didn't fully trust this either. Understandable. Lu Ten didn't, either.

Lu Ten nodded.

The Avatar pointed at the other side of this yard. "We can go there," he suggested, his demeanor lighthearted and unbothered.

Every step ached, his leg stiff, but the pain was old. It was pushed into the background automatically, his leg going numb every other step. 

He felt tears spring into his eyes with a sudden, stabbing pain that surged through it, and he tensed up not to yell. The Avatar offered him his staff.

"Thank you," Lu Ten declined. 

They were far enough anyway.

"Listen," Lu Ten said, searching for anyone that could have followed them. He shifted his weight to keep it off his injury, leaning forward to get into the Avatar's personal space and make sure the message was received. "I don't care that I'm the Prince, and I don't care that you're the Avatar. But I care that Zuko is here." He had to push the words out of himself to keep them audible, but at least the deep rasp made him more threatening. "You do one thing that makes me think his precious talk about you all being friends might be false, and you are dead. To me and the world."

The itch at the back of his throat increased word by word, and he had to fight a coughing fit that was building up. 

"Am I being clear?"

The Avatar nodded, wearing an expression that was far too fierce for the child's age. 

Lu Ten rasped his throat and waited for the kid to return to his friends.

He turned away and coughed into the crook of his elbow, swallowing as little as he could. Every little movement made it worse, and it was like his lungs convulsed.

He had just threatened the Avatar, his mind noticed, and he ignored it.

Clenching his jaw, he took deep breaths through his nose and wiped the blood off his forearm before following the Avatar. The lack of air was disconcertingly familiar, although he couldn't explain why. He couldn't lose control. Not here, not now, not again.

"Do you need some water?" The Avatar asked. Lu Ten appreciated it, regarding their previous talk, but shook his head no. As long as he didn't speak for a while, he should be fine.

The strain the lack of air had put onto him made his limp worse. Or was it the feeling of hot metal rods being stabbed into his calf? Whatever. Again, the Avatar offered him his staff. Again, Lu Ten declined.

For now, his suspicion leading him to this was outweighed by what he owed these people. There were no words to express his gratitude. He had survived that hellscape for whatever reason, had let himself survive - though he wasn't so sure about that one - had been saved after years of leaning over the edge to death. 

Something about signs of the spirits popped up in his mind, but it was a wonder to him where that had come from.

Lu Ten got onto his knees with much care for his leg and leaned into a deep bow.

It wasn't enough. It would never be enough. 

"Get up," Zuko said. Lu Ten ignored the part that wanted to curl up and weep right then and there and sat up, making no move to dry his face. Seeing him cry was nothing compared to what they had seen already, and they had seen plenty.

They had seen his scars. Zuko had seen his scars.

No, he hadn't. Zuko couldn't have. The blue-eyed girl, yes. She had had to; after all, Lu Ten hadn't dressed himself with these clothes, but Zuko hadn't seen. They wouldn't have let him.

"Lu Ten," the girl that had just come back from getting her sewing kit said, "You shouldn't be sitting on your leg like that."

Her tone was cautious like she was speaking to a wild animal instead of a human, and Lu Ten waited for his ego to calm down before following her advice. 

A stiff ache had settled all around his shin. The grey stone had turned a bright red, and his pants were stained. Lu Ten rolled them up.

"I can heal that," the girl said. The long, white line, surrounded by clusters of scar tissue and what once were messy stitches, had opened.

Lu Ten raised his eyebrows at the girl. Full offense, she could fuck off with her water.

Swallowing still felt like pouring scorching hot water down his throat, so Lu Ten pointed at the needle and yarn she was holding. 

"You want me to stitch your wound?" 

Yes. 

The girl just stood there.

"I don't know how to stitch wounds," she admitted.

Lu Ten jabbed a thumb at himself. The brunette that sat next to the watertribe boy perked up. "I can try. It's been a while since I've stitched a wound, but every Kyoshi warrior learned how to do it."

Zuko helped Lu Ten get to the benches after instructing the Avatar to do some sets of hot squats and flaming lunges. As they walked, Lu Ten noticed something.

He tsked and feigned annoyance. "How dare you," he began, shaking his head. His voice was back to a raw rasp. 

Zuko's confusion was hilarious. 

"How dare you be taller than me."

 Lu Ten grinned, and Zuko gave him a grin.

Suki, as Lu Ten found out was the girl's name, did a pretty decent job. It was certainly better than what Lu Ten would have done with his singular hand and one eye.

He wondered how long it would take to get used to Zuko. Personality and appearance. While it was to be expected that he didn't act like a child anymore, the scar on his face wasn't. 

It was massive. A burn that had eaten into his skin, spanning from his eye to his ear like a burning hand had been held right to his face. For a long time.

Zuko looked up and met Lu Ten's eye, but Lu Ten supposed it was fair. They had both been staring.

"Now don't strain your leg too much, or it'll just open again, and worse," Suki said, cutting off the ends of the yarn. 

"I know," Lu Ten responded. "Have you got any crutches by any chance? I mean, Avatar Aang offered me his staff, but I don't think that's what it's for. And dear Zuko here has carried me around enough for the day."

Zuko shrugged with one shoulder like he wouldn't have minded carrying him for a few more days. "I'll ask Toph."

"Get some bandages, too," Suki told him.

Zuko went towards the smallest girl, the one with the dark hair and cloudy eyes.

Suki was tense. She avoided looking at Lu Ten like it would kill her and hummed something short, her eyebrows raised.

"Warrior Suki, right?" Lu Ten asked her.

"Hm? Oh, yup. Just Suki is alright."

"Just Suki, then. Lu Ten."

Of course, it would have been Prince Lu Ten under different circumstances. Considering that they had saved his life and he was officially dead, it didn't seem so appropriate.

Suki turned to look at Zuko, who was still occupied with getting Lu Ten a crutch.

"And you're one of the Avatar's teachers, too?"

He had heard about waterbenders on Kyoshi Island, and it was possible for the Avatar to have multiple teachers in bending one element. Unusual, but possible.

"No. That would be Toph, Katara, and, well. Zuko."

Lu Ten raised his chin and hummed. "And I'm assuming Katara is the older girl?"

"Yup."

She didn't seem like she was loosening up in the slightest, so Lu Ten dropped the conversation. It was draining him, and the taste of iron was back on his tongue.

Zuko kneeled down next to Suki and got to bandaging the wound.

"This was our last bit," he explained. "Why don't we have any more of this stuff?"

"I guess we just rely on Katara's healing for that," Suki shrugged.

"That's stupid."

Lu Ten agreed.

"What if she got hurt?" Zuko complained while wrapping Lu Ten's leg up, much to Lu Ten"s amusement. "What are we supposed to do then, fly all the way to the North Pole for some healers?"

With Zuko's help, Lu Ten stood up and took one of the crutches he'd brought. 

"Where did you get these from?" He asked. This wasn't just some random branch like he'd expected and would've been completely fine with, these were actual crutches. "Do you just have these lying around?"

"No." Zuko said, and added, as if it was obvious, "Toph made them."

"Made them?"

"She's a metalbender."

Lu Ten turned his head to Zuko, slowly. "I'm not sure I just heard that right. She's a what now?"

"I said," Zuko told him, "that she's a metalbender. As in, she bends metal."

Really. Lu Ten would have never figured. 

Zuko seemed to realise how that had sounded to Lu Ten and his eyebrow shot up.

"Oh," he said, "Uh, she made it up. The metalbending."

"Mhm, right. How old is she again?"

Zuko halted, and he blinked before crossing his arms. "I don't know. Twelve? Thirteen?" He paused and thought about it some more. "Well- something like that."

Lu Ten kept his eyebrows raised in an unconvinced expression and hummed. 

Something big and white and moving caught his attention, and he asked, "What is that?"

"Appa."

-

He had not met the giant, flying bison yet. He had never thought he'd ever meet one. 

Lu Ten had known they were big. He had never realised the sheer size.

Making friends with him wasn't as challenging as Lu Ten had initially thought. It didn't seem like they had some built in radar to detect potential fire people and eat them in one bite, which was kind of neat, considering that Lu Ten was the Crown Prince of said people. Correction; that he was the Prince of those people.

They had made sure he knew about the disgrace of his father, about the new Fire Lord. The Fire Lord 'this nation had needed'.

Lu Ten sat down next to Zuko at dinner. Zuko's friends were a decent group of people, all with their own special traits. 

In this one day of close observance, Lu Ten had found the siblings to be pretty sensitive and easily irritated. The sister was clearly the caretaker not only of Lu Ten, but also everyone else. 

Her brother Sokka seemed to have some kind of history with Suki, and while it wasn't clear what sort, it was amusing to see her unwavering confidence in contrast to his discomfort and awkwardness. 

The Avatar really was a child. Not in a bad way, but in a way that made him difficult to judge. Always upbeat, a little silly, perhaps, not like the centuries old force of nature Lu Ten had learned about.

Toph was like the stereotypical earthbender minus the size and muscle and sight. Zuko had tried to explain how she navigated the world, something to do with her feet and earthbending, but Lu Ten hadn't fully understood. It had sounded impressive nonetheless.

And Zuko. 

Zuko had long stopped being the ten-year-old child Lu Ten remembered, that was clear. If nothing else, the scar was a big sign. He had lost the innocence that had once accompanied him, the energy. He was tired, as simple as that.

Lu Ten took the bowl of soup that was handed to him by Katara and thanked her.

What was curious about Zuko was his fixation on Sokka. It was discreet, but even now, he was looking at the guy over the campfire, head tilted to one side and listening to the on-going conversation with only half an ear. He had went on and on about the guy when Lu Ten had asked him about him, telling him what a good friend Sokka was and how talented and smart and athletic, without even noticing how much he was rambling.

Yes. Surely a wonderful 'friend' that he had there.

The bit of chatting around the fire came to an end soon enough, and Lu Ten let the bird's distant chirping fill his thoughts. Although he was comfortable, save the fire that burned just a few feet in front of him, most of the others seemed set off by something. By his presence, perhaps.

"So," Avatar Aang began. His tone was light, fitting for a little smalltalk. "You're Iroh's son, right?"

Lu Ten wrecked his brain for any information. There was none, but maybe something else would encourage his memory.

"Who?" He asked, with a smile. 

"What do you mean, 'who'?" Zuko said, completely flabberghasted. "You know Iroh, he's my uncle," he made clear. "Your father."

His father. 

All day Lu Ten had ignored the gaping hole that was his memory, and now, it was slammed right into his face.

"Sorry that I don't remember," he said. It wasn't his fault that a day ago he hadn't known what he was called. "All I know is that you're my cousin."

Zuko's lips parted and he looked at Lu Ten like he was trying to find some hidden joke.

"You remember nothing?" Toph asked.

"I remember my tutors. The palace. I was in war for some time, but. That's about it."

He wasn't being entirely honest. All that he had said was the truth, but it wasn't like there was nothing else. It wasn't that his head started hurting so much that his vision whitened out whenever he tried to recall anything of his past, whenever he tried to recall his name. This was different.

There were unimportant things like the name of port West Bo Lu where their ship had been stuck for a week that were clearer to him than ever. There was Zuko, who he had remembered only after seeing and asking his name. There were some faces without names and some names without faces, like Kyujo and her brother, but then, there were just feelings. A lingering betrayal, a mix of feelings he wasn't ready to look at, a confusion that spoke volumes on one hand. On the other, a whole lot of warm-fuzzy feels that Lu Ten assumed to be of a parental figure.

If that was Iroh, the only thing he knew was that he missed him so much it hurt.

Lu Ten stuffed his face with more noodles to distract from the tears in his eyes. The campfire was hot on his face, and next to it, someone stood.

"You can't trust them."

That wasn't anyone of the Avatar's gang. The Avatar's GAang, haha.

"Oh, fuck off," Lu Ten told him.

"What?"

Irritable siblings, he noted, and stared at the man he was talking to with all of his disdain. Lingering betrayal, indeed.

"You know you can't," the man continued, his voice as smooth as ever. His face was surrounded by a fog, covering any recognisable features. "You can trust me. You trusted me, and I was always there for you."

"Fuck, off," Lu Ten repeated, more slowly, but he had a feeling the man's skull was too thick to get the hint.

"Uhm," Sokka said, "Who are you talking to?"

"There is nobody," Zuko told him. 

Lu Ten rolled his eyes. "Oh, really? No shit."

"I only did what I had to. You know that it's your fault, that you should've done better! You can thank me th-t I- -and-, that -! I c-uld've k-" 

Lu Ten pressed his palms onto his ears. Whenever it seemed what the man said got the slightest bit important, his voice distorted, mixing with screeches and noise, becoming loud enough to deafen someone.

"It's your fault." The man's voice was calm and clear through Lu Ten's hands, and with that, the muffled yelling stopped. Lu Ten opened his eyes; the man was gone.

Everyone was still, staring at him. He felt like an exhibition, a performance in a circus.

He downed the rest of his tea in a way that made him feel like he should be appalled. It was easier to drink the warm water opposed to the freezing stuff they had given him before, and Lu Ten could only wonder why.

"Thank you for the meal," he said, grabbed his crutch, and left. 

He wouldn't let himself fall asleep yet, not until he could be sure nobody would poison Zuko in his sleep, but he couldn't bear the six pairs of eyes watching him.

-

"Are you going to eat that?"

Katara bit back an annoyed sigh at Sokka's inquiry. Aang hadn't eaten a bite of his dinner, and the full bowl was cast aside. He had pulled his knees to his chest, his chin buried between his knees, and he shrugged.

Sokka took that as a 'no'. 

"Why..." Aang raised his head to not muffle his words with the fabric of his pants. "Yesterday, when you tried to heal him. Why was he so afraid of the water?"

Katara felt a crease form between her eyebrows and set her bowl to her lips. The soup tasted like nothing.

"Waterboarding," Zuko answered.

"What's waterboarding?"

Katara almost choked on a noodle and shot Zuko a reprimanding look, but he was already busy explaining.

"It's like drowning someone. You put a cloth over their face and pour water over it."

"Zuko," Katara said.

Zuko huffed. "Don't baby him."

"I'm not babying anyone," Katara shot back.

"You are," Zuko argued. "If Aang is going to fight my father, he needs to know just how far Ozai will go. If he doesn't win, my father will find ways to find us, in case we're still alive. All of us. And he won't hold back."

Just like he hadn't held back with his nephew.

Katara glared at Zuko over the campfire.

"Katara," Aang's face was earnest, "He's right. I want to know, too. Not that I... not that I like hearing about it, but it's real, and it's happening, and if I want to kill the Fire Lord, I need to know just how inhumane he is."

If everyone would just stop making so much sense around here.

"Okay," Katara said, "I'm sorry."

Aang nodded.

"Wait," Suki said with a frown, "You're really going to kill the Fire Lord?"

She was right, and Katara shared a glance with Sokka. Aang's devotion to the airbender's teachings, while he could be naive and ignorant about it, was no joke. Despite the casualties that nobody cared about pointing out to him, he had never killed anyone in cold blood. 

Aang shot Suki an annoyed frown and stood up, "Well, don't make me think about it!" He groaned into his hands, pacing around. "I need to kill Ozai. I've seen what he did to Lu Ten, and I know he's a monster. That doesn't make it any easier!"

Sokka raised his finger like he'd gotten another one of his excellent ideas.

"Or, I know! You could take a giant pot of glue and then stick his arms and legs together with gluebending!"

Aang glared at him, and Toph laughed.

"I don't think that's how it works, Sokka," Suki said as Zuko grinned, "Also, wouldn't he just be able to breathe Aang full of fire?"

"Hm," Sokka put a hand to his chin, "You're right, but there's an easy solution to that, too. Glue his mouth shut!"

Toph hummed in mock agreement. "That would suffocate him, but, keep trying. I'm sure you'll have it figured out in two days."

Two days. Tui and La, she was right. It was only two days until the comet.

"Stop talking about this like it's a fucking joke!" Aang snapped. "If you two figure out an actual way to defeat the Fire Lord without killing him, you know, I'd love to hear it!"

Katara stood to follow him, but Zuko stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Let him go. He needs to sort this out by himself."

She lingered, but her indecision decided for her. Aang was long gone. 

Two days until the comet. 

Two days until the world burned.

Chapter Text

Lu Ten slept through it all. The skies above the ocean were a deep orange, a few clouds spreading out here and there. Katara and Zuko were the only ones left on Appa, both turned away in silence. 

Zuko explained the comet that tore through the sky, he told him about Ba Sing Se, that they had met up with Agni-fucking-Iroh and not cared about waking him up.

The world bathed in red, but not only because of the comet. Zuko could count himself lucky Lu Ten didn't throw him off the bison, that his and Karata's anticipating and stiff postures combined with the comet gave them an excuse. The issue at hand seemed pressing, so he wrapped his arm around one of the holes in Appa's saddle.

Lu Ten would have all the time in the world after this was over. He would meet Iroh, and he would remember him, and everything would be fine. Everything would be completely fine. 

He pressed his arm against the saddle's edges until it felt like one of them would break.

Thuds of the bison's feet meeting the ground and a stop that jerked Lu Ten forward told him that they had landed. Zuko held his arm out, palm facing toward Lu Ten, and Lu Ten stayed down while Katara and Zuko stood up.

"Sorry, but you're not going to become Fire Lord today." Zuko jumped off Appa. "I am."

"You're hilarious," another voice answered, but Lu Ten couldn't pinpoint whether it belonged to a teenager or a twenty-year-old.

Katara climbed down Appa. "And you're going down."

Oh, wow. Dramatic. Lu Ten unlooped his arm from the saddle and shuffled to the other side to try and see if he recognised the woman, but Appa took off and almost threw him off. His elbows on the saddle hadn't given him enough of a grip to stop himself from losing balance and thumping against the saddle's edge, the impact making his chest flare up in pain. Despite Katara's healing, it seemed some bruises had remained.

Perhaps she hadn't healed him at all. Maybe it had all been a cover for something else. 

No, that was irrational. He remembered her healing him, and what was there to cover up? Zuko was with them. He could trust him.

Right?

Lu Ten pressed himself against the saddle, his heart pounding in his chest. The fire in the distance mesmerised him, the mix of blue and yellow in a dance that made him forget what kind of a fight it was. He had never seen anyone bend blue fire before, from what his memory told him. It looked wonderful. 

Despite the cold sweat that covered him and drenched his shirt, he felt the heat around him. A long branch of lightning shot into the skies. Everything flared up in blue for what felt like forever, the electricity zapping across the horizon. After that, the only fire remaining was blue.

Lu Ten pressed his eyes shut. Nothing had happened to Zuko. He hadn't been hurt. If he had been, Katara would heal him, and if she didn't, Lu Ten would twist her neck.

Appa made a long, suppressed sound that Lu Ten categorised into worry. It took one leap off the ground, throwing Lu Ten backwards again. He let profanities slip off his lips that would've gotten him his mouth washed with soap anywhere else and prayed this thing would take him back to the arena.

It did. Zuko was standing, thank Agni, but something was wrong. Katara supported him, her arm clutched around his back to steady him.

Lu Ten slid off the bison and hastened to them. "Are you okay?"

Something was massively wrong. A hole bigger than Lu Ten's fist gaped in Zuko's stomach.

"What did you do?"

Zuko gave a slight nod toward Lu Ten with a pale face, and Lu Ten turned. The girl that had been struggling and wailing behind him like her whole world was crumbling was calming down, ever so slowly. Her dark hair flew around her face in tune with her struggles, trying to break out of the chains that bound her wrists to the grid beneath her.

Lu Ten's left hand reached for his wrist. He knew the burns that came from skin scraping against rusted metal, they'd been acquainted for years.

This girl also had almost killed Zuko, and Lu Ten needed to get it together.

"That's Azula," Zuko said. "My sister."

That explained his conflicted expression, but everything else made less sense. 

Zuko and Azula had never gotten along well. Ever since Azula had been old enough to talk, they had another, how to put it; misunderstanding every month. That had become every week, and that had become every day. Azula had been Ozai's daughter more than Zuko had been his son, and he had had new burns from playing with her every time the old ones had healed. But this? 

She had almost killed him.

The stabbing pain in Lu Ten's temples eased with time, and Lu Ten could concentrate on Avatar Aang. Wherever he had appeared from. The loud humming of engines drowned the others' conversation out, but Lu Ten wasn't supposed to be involved. It was just them checking on the people that weren't yet here, and they were all alright.

The giant machine with the loud engines that was flying in the air lowered itself as far as it could without the buildings getting in the way. 

"Wait," Aang stopped Katara and Zuko. "Before you run off, there's something I need to tell you." He glanced over his shoulder where Toph, Suki, and Sokka exited the flying ship, dragging behind them a limp body. "I defeated Ozai. I didn't kill him."

"What?"

"I know! I know. But there was this giant lion-turtle that showed me how to take away someone's bending, and that's what I did, for now. Ozai won't be able to hurt anyone with fire anymore." His expression shifted into something more assured and his hands lowered from the defensive position they had taken. "I figured that you should decide what happens with him. If you want me to kill him anyway, that's what I'll do."

Lu Ten folded his hands behind his back and held his wrist hard. He needed to get the tension out of himself before itself made him get it out, as in, beating someone up, and he forced his lungs to work in a slow rythm. Breathing didn't feel normal, because he wanted to scream instead. 

Avatar Aang's decision was to be respected, not only because he was the Avatar, but because it respected Lu Ten, too. Perhaps the emotion he felt that made him want to rip someone's throat open wasn't directed at Avatar Aang. 

Yes. That was it.

Zuko's mouth curved down. Not in a frown, but holding back a smile. The rest of their group reached them and dumped Ozai's limp body onto the dirt, accompanied by a cheerful, "I present to you; Ozai-Shmozai, the Loser-Lord," from Sokka. 

Memories joined the knowledge that Ozai had been the one to put Lu Ten through that hell, and Lu Ten made conscious efforts not to lash out. The rage inside him was so blistering and hot he wouldn't be surprised if it revived his bending.

The Avatar hadn't lied. Ozai's inner flame had shrunken into the size of a candle, barely big enough to keep him alive. It was smaller than the nonbenders' inner flames here.

Zuko didn't participate in their exchanged greetings. Lost in thought, his smile loosened, and tightness replaced it. He kneeled and gave Ozai a rough shove, rolling him onto his back, and tilted his head like he was looking at a toddler.

A pathetic groan escaped Ozai and his eyes blinked open, welcomed by the amazing sight of Zuko scowling into his face.

"Good morning, sunshine."

Zuko's tone was drenched in hatred and bitterness and disgust.

Lu Ten looked away and leaned onto his hurting leg, using the pain of that and his pounding skull as a way to distract himself. It made it easier to ignore his boiling blood. 

A gasp had Lu Ten flinch and snap back to attention. Ozai's expression was laughable; his whole face was contorted into a glaring scowl, but all his efforts failed. Zuko's hand covered Ozai's left eye, pressing down, and the eye that wasn't hidden was blown wide in fear. He was trembling.

"Do it," Ozai snarled. Zuko yanked Ozai's head back with the hand that gripped his hair, and in return, Ozai wrapped his hand around Zuko's wrist to push it away.

Ozai's fingers held Zuko's wrist tighter, and after some moments of nothing happening, he pushed it against his face like a challenge. Zuko was taking too long, and Lu Ten wished it was out of spite, but it was hesitance. "Do it."

He wasn't going to. Not even a whisp of smoke rose from Zuko's hand.

Zuko pulled his hand out of Ozai's, and standing up, he stepped back. 

"You aren't worth the effort."

The pieces clicked into place. Lu Ten had been too occupied anticipating the agonised screams to fill this place to think about anything else, but now that that was over, his vision whitened out.

"No," Ozai spat at Zuko, "You're just too weak."

Before he knew it, Lu Ten's knees dug into Ozai's shoulders, and his knuckles connected with Ozai's shitface. Again. And again. 

Ozai was completely worth the effort.

With a gruesome crack, his nose gave in. But the satisfaction Lu Ten got from the blood splattering all over the place wasn't enough. He wanted to see Ozai's skull cave in.

Arms grabbed at Lu Ten's shoulders, pulling him away. Lu Ten couldn't fight them, so in a moment of ingenuity, he reached into Ozai's mouth and let himself be yanked back. He stumbled to find a footing and accidentally, completely and totally unwanted, kicked Ozai's head.

Lu Ten spat onto Ozai and threw the lump of flesh onto his lifeless body. Blood flowed out of Ozai's mouth at a steady pace, matched by flowers of bruises that sprouted on his whole face.

What a wonderful sight.

After shrugging Zuko's hands off, he wiped his left hand on his pants. "You know he's gonna bleed out."

If he wasn't dead already. 

"I vote you let him."

-

Unfortunately, he wasn't dead yet. The waterbender Katara made a rough job of healing Ozai, although it didn't seem like she had much fun doing it, which Lu Ten smiled at. It was always great to be of assistance. 

She saved her energy for her brother's broken leg, who now claimed to be Lu Ten's shitty-leg-buddy, and Zuko's burn.

They made sure that the fire sages acknowledged and accepted Zuko's victory against Azula. Doing that, Lu Ten found out what had happened, how Zuko had taken a bunch of lightning and survived, and that there was now redirection of lightning. For a second, he was worried it was another gap in his memory, but no. That one was new.

Zuko ordered for Ozai to be put into the prison tower, deep down into one of the lowest cells, where he could rot like he had wanted Lu Ten to do.

Lu Ten let himself be escorted into the mental hospital. By the logic used to put Azula there, Lu Ten could be put down on the spot. That man hadn't stopped following him around, and although he kept quiet, other voices were constantly yapping at him. Half of it, he couldn't understand. Every second, he felt like this weird dream would stop, and he would wake up in his cell with no memory whatsoever. He was balancing on a fine line between reality and imagination, and to be honest, he wasn't sure which was which.

The night took an eternity to end, time dragging on and on. He could hear Azula on and off on the other side of the wall, sometimes barely a mutter, other times loud yells and struggles, and there was no way Lu Ten was sleeping. The problem wasn't her. 

Zuko got him the next morning for a tour around the palace, like Lu Ten needed one. He did need one. Badly. 

Good that he wasn't the only one, because Zuko used the opportunity to show everyone around. With Sokka, Lu Ten wasn't the only one to slow everyone down, and Katara made sure they got enough pauses. She stared at him, Zuko, and her brother with calculating stares, forcing everyone to stop each time one of them seemed to have fatigue. Sokka complained each time while Lu Ten, who felt his eyelids becoming heavier with every step, savored every single one.

What Lu Ten quickly noticed, well, what he quickly relearned, was that this place was gigantic. His cell had been a little more reserved in that aspect. 

With all this space, one would expect many people. But they wandered around the wide halls without even being interrupted by a servant, and not one guard stood in the corners to silently judge their new Fire Lord by how young he was. 

Zuko wouldn't like hearing it, but Lu Ten felt sorry for him. With his age, none of the important folk would take him seriously. He needed to be fast establishing his worth; otherwise, not more than one or two of the people he was going to have to work with were going to listen. And being the Fire Lord after a hundred years of war, he needed everyone to do that. 

Lu Ten would do the job, just to let Zuko be his age for a while, if it weren't for his problems.

They walked down a hall filled with portraits of the previous Fire Lords when Zuko came to a stop. A giant, even uglier than normal Ozai looked at them with a judging stare.

"I was thinking of leaving their portraits here," Zuko said, disrupting the prayers Lu Ten sent up to Agni in a wish for that fucker to die a miserable death in his sorry new home. "I'd add an inscription about the war, so everyone would know what they did, but I don't think it's a good idea to take them out of history."

"No, it isn't," Lu Ten agreed, continuing with his prayers.

"It would make me just as bad as them."

Katara put her hands onto her hips, shifting her weight into a doubtful posture. "I don't think you're about to eliminate an entire culture, Zuko."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Suki said. "He did burn down my village."

Zuko covered his face with his hands in embarrassment and groaned like this physically hurt him. "I thought we were over this."

The smug grin on Suki's face told another story.

"You burned down a village?" Lu Ten raised an eyebrow, surprised, but he let his grin show. What kind of a cousin was he if he wasn't just a little bit proud of that?

Zuko dragged his hands down his face, showing his teeth in cringe. "It was a desperate attempt. I already apologised for it, anyway."

At the last sentence, a crease formed between Suki's eyebrows. "I was just teasing."

Zuko's shoulders shrank a little. "Right. Just teasing."

Lu Ten leaned onto his cane and gracefully ignored the history that he assumed behind this comment. It was confusing to what little Lu Ten knew, but for now, Zuko's discomfort outweighed Lu Ten's curiosity.

"Let's just do it to see how they like it," he said, putting the focus back on shitface.

"Do what?"

"Take them out of history. I mean, it would spare Ozai the embarrassment of being known as the Fire Lord that got his ass kicked by a twelve-year-old."

That got Zuko to smile again. "By the Avatar," he corrected.

"I don't think that'll make a difference. A twelve-year-old is still just a twelve-year-old when you don't know them."

Zuko shrugged with one shoulder. "I guess you're right."

Lu Ten made half a step into the next corridor, ready to continue, but nobody else moved. He put all his weight onto his good leg, waiting, and raised his eyebrows.

"Did you really bring us here just to tell us that?" Sokka asked after some time. "I mean, it's great and all, but shouldn't we be moving on?"

Zuko opened his mouth to shoot something back, but his retort stopped after a short, "I-"

Lu Ten made sure not to pressure in any way, but he implied that he had an idea of what was going on with a raised eyebrow. Zuko stared holes into the ground with a thoughtful frown before his gaze lifted, again regarding the portrait.

"I don't know if I want a portrait like that."

Katara let one arm fall to her side. "Why?"

"Who doesn't want a giant, fancier version of themselves?" Sokka added to her question.

"Isn't it obvious? Just look at my face."

Katara put her arms around her middle, hugging herself. "The scar."

It went without saying, but Zuko gave her a resigned shrug.

Toph punched Zuko's shoulder, who took it without another word. "I think it looks badass."

It did look badass. While that was true, Lu Ten got why Zuko would be insecure about it. The scar he had wasn't just a minor inconvenience, it was a deformation. Zuko's eye couldn't have survived, just as his mangled ear. The skin was rough and uneven, and while the colour should have faded out by now in any other burn, it was still a bright red. Just another testament to the intent. 

Toph was blind, Lu Ten realised after a little time.

"Aren't soldiers supposed to wear their scars with pride?" He said, leaving Toph's statement as it was, "Not everyone simply survives a burn like that one."

"That's right," Avatar Aang agreed. He seemed more sure in his words than someone who was just agreeing to cheer the other up, but it was reasonable for the Avatar to know such things.

"Not when they weren't even fighting in the duel. Also, I'm not a soldier."

"Sorry," Lu Ten said at Zuko's tone. There had been no need to become so defensive when Lu Ten had just tried to help. "I thought- Wait, what?"

"It's nothing," Zuko deflected.

"What duel? That doesn't sound like nothing to me."

"Don't act stupid," Zuko snapped at him, "You already know what happened."

Lu Ten shook his head back and narrowed his eyes. Where did Zuko get that idea?

"We don't know what happened," Toph said, crossing her arms, "Sparky, we're a sheltered noble, two sheltered southerners, a tortured prisoner and an icicle. My parents locked me in my room for two weeks if I had a scratch on my knee. If anyone knows anything, it's Suki."

Zuko's lips parted and he looked at Sokka and Suki for help. Sokka raised his hands and showed his palms to show he had nothing, but Suki bit her lip.

She brought her shoulder to her chin. "I've heard some things, but, you know. There are many versions." 

"Well, we already figured that Ozai did it," Sokka said, "Now it's just the rest. But you don't have to tell us anything."

"If I don't, somebody else will."

"Okay," Sokka said, although he didn't seem to understand. "You don't have to tell us all at once."

Zuko turned and walked into a hallway leading directly away from Ozai's portrait. Even from all the way on the other end, the intricate stitches formed a scrutinising expression. Like they were being watched on the whole way.

Still keeping his head low, Zuko pushed the entrance open to reveal a room with a long table placed in its middle, a throne right behind it on an elevated platform. 

Two rows of pillars, one on the throne's left side, one on its right, stretched through the room. The air that Lu Ten was used to being heated to an oppressive temperature by a fire flaming in front of the throne made goosebumps crawl over him.

"It was my first war meeting."

His cane was sticking to his skin, and Lu Ten put it up against the pillar to get some relief. The metal had left a reddened mark where it had dug into his skin. This one had been fine for these few days, but Toph wasn't a professional at this, and it showed.

"I spoke out against a proposed plan and had to fight an Agni Kai."

Oh, that was what this was about. Lu Ten stopped analysing his arm, drying the sweat off of it.

"I didn't fight, and Ozai banished me. After burning my face for being such a disgrace." Zuko explained, his tone stale and bitter. "End of story."

"What was your quest?"

Zuko lifted his head to glare Lu Ten down.

"Quest?" Toph asked.

"If a royal is banished, they have to be given a chance to return. What chance did Ozai give you?"

Lu Ten wasn't sure what he wanted to get out of this. His curiosity being outweighed by Zuko's discomfort was no more, all he wanted now was information. He needed it. Everything Zuko could say as a response would make everything worse and give Lu Ten more reason to leave for a short trip to the prison tower.

Zuko's frown fixed on Aang for a few seconds. 

He huffed and turned away. "That doesn't matter."

Sokka let himself fall against one of the pillars. "Was it capturing Aang?"

"It was, wasn't it," Katara answered for Zuko and held her hand to her forehead in realisation. "Tui, Zuko, now everything makes sense! Why didn't you tell us?"

Zuko jutted his chin out. "I just did, didn't I?"

"Katara, leave him alone."

Lu Ten kept the shake out of his voice and shifted more weight onto his abused leg. "And you went and joined him?"

It didn't make any sense. Zuko's desire to please his father had been rather prominent in his younger years, and frankly, Lu Ten couldn't have seen him defy him until now. 

"Well, yes," Zuko said, his tone impatient like Lu Ten should know what all of this was about. "After trying to get him for three years."

Zuko didn't even seem to get what a bomb he had just dropped on all of them, and Lu Ten gaped at him to make sure he got it through his thick skull. Sokka's yelp echoed through the entire throne room.

"Three years?"

"Three- Zuko, three years?"

"Gee," Toph added. Hunched shoulders replaced her usual cocky posture. "And I thought my parents were bad."

Suki held her hand to her mouth, her fingers tapping her lips.

Zuko's hands froze mid-air, and he balled them into fists, lowering them. "Stop making such a big deal about this! I didn't even want you to know."

"Then why did you tell us?"

"I don't know," Zuko yelled. "Okay, I don't know." He lost his aggressiveness and deflated, his lips still in a tight line. "All I know is that everyone else here knows about it, too."

"How do they know?"

Lu Ten wracked his mind for any idea he could come up with. A duel. With a duel, Zuko probably meant an Agni Kai. Those were fought in the arena, which was surrounded by seats for an audience of- 

"There was an audience."

Laughter, eyes watching him.

Lu Ten felt a lop-sided smile pulling at his lips. "There was a fucking audience."

Humiliation that made him want to disappear, to take the knife and slit his own throat, but he couldn't; they wouldn't let him.

Zuko's silence more than confirmed Lu Ten's assumption. Lu Ten laughed out and grabbed his cane from the pillar he had put it against.

Agni, no more prayers. He was going to do it himself.

"Where are you going?"

Lu Ten wanted to stab his leg until it either fell off or became useful again. The speed he had with this thing was painful to witness.

Still, he was going faster than he'd thought. Anger was good fuel for that. 

"I'm going to fucking kill that man."

Chapter Text

The air chilled Lu Ten to the bones. He tucked the crutch under his arm and took the lantern out of his mouth, the metal leaving a taste of iron in his mouth. 

He really, really wanted to get a saw and saw through his right wrist sometimes. That hand was useless.

Without the warm light from the lantern, the hall would have been pitch-black. There was no source of light down here except for a few more unlit lanterns, which Lu Ten had no intention of using.

This place wasn't as lonesome as the palace. The guards stood next to the entrances, and Lu Ten was glad only the first few of them had asked him who he was. He didn't know how many of the incredulous stares and mumbles he could take, but more so, he didn't know how many of them would believe him without Zuko backing him up. He estimated the amount to be at about nobody.

Eventually, Lu Ten arrived at the deepest corridor. He didn't have the slightest idea of where Ozai actually was, but he had remembered that little, ridiculous fire inside him.

Lu Ten pressed his forehead against the cold stone. On the other side of the wall, Ozai's inner flame flickered like a candle, one Lu Ten could have snuffed out with one well-placed exhale. A real pity that control over inner flames wasn't something someone just did, no matter how powerful their bending. 

And Lu Ten's bending prowess was at such an all-time low he wondered about how the fuck he even knew about inner fires anymore, let alone how he sensed them. He couldn't feel the lantern's dancing flame if he tried. 

The rough stone sent a burning coolness through his already numbing skin and kept him level-headed despite Ozai's burning presence in the next room. Last night had been good to lose it, but he'd had his fun. He needed to stay somewhat calm, keep his cool, so to say. 

He clenched the lantern's handle between his teeth again, grimacing at the metallic taste that spread on his tongue and unclutched his crutch. 

What a sorry sight the man provided. The dim glow the lantern emitted didn't show much, and still, Ozai managed to look like a pig. Like a sulking toddler, he lay on the ground instead of the mattress provided to him. The stringy hair fell over his face, and his eyes raised barely enough to meet Lu Ten's. A low grumble caught in his throat, his expression saying it all. 

'What are you doing here?'

Lu Ten walked up to the bars, and Ozai scrunched his nose in hatred. 

Lu Ten held the lantern up. "Boo."

Either, it was just the movement of the candle, or Ozai really flinched at that.

Lu Ten kneeled and sat, crossing his legs. Seeing Ozai like this was more satisfactory than he had expected, and watching him this miserable and wretched was a reward he hadn't known he'd been waiting for. He knew what it was like, and for once, it felt good to know.

The 'fucking kill that man' part of his plan could wait.

Words were unnecessary. He had many things to say, for sure, but Ozai wasn't an idiot. An asshole, yes, but not stupid. There was no need to tell him what he already knew. 

Lu Ten wasn't going to waste his throat's wellbeing for that ass.

Lu Ten picked up a pebble and flicked it at Ozai, and Ozai froze with a scowl directed at Lu Ten.

Amusing. Lu Ten did it again. With each little stone he threw, whether it hit Ozai or the bar or nothing, Ozai's scowl deepened and his posture tightened.

Ozai threw himself towards Lu Ten, grabbing the bars and making an aggravated noise. A pity that he couldn't talk with no tongue to embarrass himself further. 

Ozai thought he was scary, that because he had been the one to orchestrate everything, Lu Ten had been afraid of him. Of him. Of that animal, that monster, trapped in a cage. Too bad that Lu Ten hadn't been afraid of monsters under his bed since he'd been six.

Lu Ten stood up and dusted his hand off on his shirt. The door behind him clicked and creaked open, and the reflection of the lantern on a guard's helmet showed itself.

"Who are you?"

Their inner flame was one of a nonbender. Lu Ten didn't care about that, but Ozai did, and if he knew, he'd kill himself before Lu Ten would. 

"Lu Ten."

"Good try," the guard said, and they put something down. It scratched across the floor, and Lu Ten recognised a tray of food. "Try again."

"Ask Zuko." Lu Ten took a step back, looped his fingers into the lantern's handle and raised it to his face, keeping his panic down. The flicker of the small flame was much too wild and far too close to his face for his preference. The only thing keeping it bearable was the glass between it and him. "Look closely."

The guard's fist, which was the only recognisable thing in the faint light, loosened. Lu Ten inwardly sighed in relief that this had worked, because after some time, people tended to forget what others looked like. No matter how important.

"Now get out," Lu Ten ordered. "And leave that here."

The guard did as told after more hesitation. 

Lu Ten opened the door as quietly as he could and kept himself against it, cautious about any movement, and held out the lantern to get a better view. His left eye would have been of use for this. All signs of the guard were gone.

The rumbling of the shutting door qdded to the following, roaring silence. Lu Ten couldn't see Ozai's expression anymore, but that made it easier to focus on the pathetic, fearful flicker of his inner flame.

Lu Ten leaned onto his cane and hopped over the tray. His left foot still hit the bowl, and Lu Ten grit his teeth. The rice spread over the dirty ground.

He spit through the bars and hit Ozai's forehead. Half of the saliva stuck to his skin, the other half covering his eyebrow. A few strings hung from there over his shut eye. Ozai made another hissing sound in the back of his throat while his hand raised to wipe it off, and Lu Ten played with the hilarity of his previous outburst. 

On his way out, he made a few extra steps around and over the food. He wasn't even sure how Ozai planned to eat, because sure, people without tongues could still swallow, but it was a great excuse to starve. 

And if that wasn't a wonderful way for Ozai to bite the dust.

Lu Ten's left leg burned when he started going up the stairs, felt like it was about to fall off when he got out of the prison tower, but it was worth it. 

He hadn't killed Ozai yet.

So worth it.

The sound Avatar Aang's glider made arrived at Lu Ten before Aang did.

"Hey, Lu Ten," he greeted, his smile as big and beaming as ever. "They're searching for you."

"Who's they?"

A nauseous feeling settled in Lu Ten's guts.

"Oh, no, no, not they they. Those people that are taking care of you."

The people that had almost locked him in the way they had locked Azula in. Yeah, that was what Lu Ten called some great taking care.

He followed Aang back to the psychiatry, letting him chatter around all the way. 

The psychiatry came into sight, and Lu Ten zoned back in. A man, who Lu Ten estimated to be in his forties, brought Lu Ten inside. Lu Ten hadn't seen him very often in his younger years but remembered him like it, with his glasses and the dark yet greying hair forming a simple braid.

The door to Azula closed, and Lu Ten leaned back to see. Before the door clicked shut, Lu Ten caught a glimpse of her, a white straightjacket keeping her on a wheelchair.

He felt a pair of knuckles shoving into his back and turned on his heel, almost too late to stop his flying fist and clamp his jaw shut.

"Why are you holding back?"

The man raised his eyebrows at him, and Lu Ten felt his eyes flicker to the side. That voice like honey belonged to his unnamed companion.

Lu Ten folded his hands behind his back and didn't do anything about him, like ignoring the guy would make him leave. Maybe it would. Not long ago, Lu Ten had still taken his bait.

"Don't touch me," he told the man.

"You always hold back," unnamed companion said, "You always hold back, and that's your problem."

He was Lu Ten's problem. Nothing more and nothing less.

Lu Ten wasn't fooled by the inviting decorations and soft hues of the room they arrived at. It all was an act, all to make him lower his guard.

Lu Ten almost scoffed at that.

The man picked up a piece of coal and a rather small scroll and wrote something down. He sat and gestured for Lu Ten to join him. 

"Misu," he called.

A scrawny, dishevelled looking boy stumbled into the room. A bunch of scrolls in different sizes filled his arms, and he emptied them over the table, scrambling over to catch one that fell.

"Sir," he responded with the voice of a pubescent teenager. The man handed him the scroll and the teenager started scribbling.

"It's been a while since we've seen each other, Prince Lu Ten."

A squeal-like yelp escaped the teeanger, and he clamped a hand over his mouth. "Sorry." He got back to scribbling.

"I'm Gu Wen, in case you don't remember," Gu Wen went on, unfazed. "That is Misu, my new apprentice."

Lu Ten crossed his arms. "I'm Lu Ten," he answered, for the pleasantries. Gu Wen gave him a sideways nod, but the boy behind him was so busy ogling at Lu Ten that he walked into the table and almost let everything fall again. 

Gu Wen reached for a scroll, opening it like they had all the time in the world. Lu Ten pushed his lower jaw forward and let his eyes flutter shut, annoyed, but put on a neutral mask when Gu Wen adjusted his glasses and put the scroll onto his lap.

"I see you have problems with your leg," he began, making almost nonchalant glances at the bloodied leg of Lu Ten pants and the cane. "But it doesn't seem to bother you much."

It burned. A second ago, it hadn't.

Lu Ten leaned back in his armchair. "Good point."

"We'll look into that later." Gu Wen waved it off. He also leaned back. "I didn't expect you here this soon."

As if anyone had expected him here at all. Lu Ten raised his eyebrows. 

"Me neither."

Gu Wen chuckled. "That makes sense." His expression lost some of its amusement. "I'll say it as it is. Your hand looks like it will have to be amputated. It may seem like it has healed relatively fine, and I haven't been able to take a closer look, but the complications that can be caused shouldn't be underestimated."

Lu Ten felt his mouth open in a confused, then appalled expression. What an interesting choice of words. Instead of 'relatively fine', Gu Wen could've just said 'shit'. Forget about sawing through his wrist, no way were they taking his hand as long as he had a say about it. 

"So, what? You're saying this is worse than my leg?"

"Maybe your leg, too," Gu Wen added, "But as I said, all has its time."

Lu Ten wished them some good luck trying to convince him. 

"You can't tell me what to do," he muttered.

"You're right. But am I doing that?"

Technically, no, but also yes. Lu Ten lowered his head to throw Gu Wen a deadpan, and Gu Wen opened the scroll to scan over it once again.

"I am," he answered his own question, "There will be daily checkups. You will have your wounds examinated to check for anything alerting, and we will take all measures necessary."

Like tying him into a straightjacket and feeding him sedatives.

Lu Ten wanted to put his hands behind his back, but sitting, he was forced to keep his arms crossed. He forced his shoulders to relax. "And what if I decide I want to leave?"

"You decided to come here. I don't think anyone, except the Fire Lord, can force you to stay."

Fair.

"Where is your father?" Gu Wen asked, and Lu Ten closed his eyes and pressed his lips together. In and out, inhale, exhale. "I haven't heard of him in a while."

"Thanks," Lu Ten snapped, smiling, "Me neither."

"So, you don't know?" 

Inhale, exhale. This was all a simple attempt at small talk, with no malicious intent.

"What do you know?"

Lu Ten felt his smile pull into a grimace, and he turned to the side. His scowl fell onto Misu for a split second, and Misu fumbled for something to do.

"Why don't you tell me why you're here?" Gu Wen pulled Lu Ten out of his thoughts, and he furrowed his eyebrows. Crying was alright, but to this extent, it bordered on pathetic. At least he was quick enough to mask it. "The Fire Lord told me it was your choice."

The answer to that question couldn't be more obvious. "Because I'm crazy." 

Gu Wen poked his tongue into his cheek and rested his hands on the scroll. 

"Care to elaborate?"

Lu Ten was aware of his own barriers lowering, searching the man's eyes for signs of anything. Contempt, lies, any amount of sympathy. But the expression was as blank as the stack of empty papers on the desk.

He went back to glaring a hole into the wall behind Gu Wen. "No."

"If you aren't going to tell me anything, I can't help you."

"I know."

Lu Ten didn't need help. He didn't want it, didn't deserve it, when everything was his fault.

"I don't remember you being this stubborn."

Lu Ten was this near to falling for that, to lashing out and yelling about why he wasn't the way he had been. 'Holding back,' unnamed companion's voice rang at the back of his head.

"I don't remember you being this obnoxious," he mocked, and the man raised an eyebrow at him. 

He shouldn't be letting his emotions get the best of him. He shouldn't be letting him get the best of him like this. Lu Ten forced his scowl into an easy-going smile to raise a less (?) provoking but still as challenging stare at Gu Wen.

With a sigh, the man dismissed him, and Misu brought Lu Ten back to his room with a short detour to fix his leg up. They also got him another, proper cane.

The second the door closed, someone knocked. Lu Ten dragged out a quiet groan and let himself fall onto his bed.

"What?"

Quiet. Lu Ten felt the apprentice hurrying away from his room, but apart from that, the halls were empty of any other living being.

Zuko barged in, tears streaming down his face. "Lu Ten, I need help."

Lu Ten's hands hovered over his mattress, still in the air from the flinch that had gone through him. Zuko's voice strained on sobs. 

"Lu Ten, it hurts, please." His hands shook and gestured around his face, where the scar was. "Help me."

"What hurts, I-" Why had that other guy ignored him? Where was his inner flame?

Lu Ten dropped his face into his hand and dragged it over his face. 

"Why didn't you help me?"

"Zuko, go to the medic, what do you want me to do?" He held his arm out, hitting Zuko's arm with his hand, but there was no impact. It fazed through. 

"You weren't even there," Zuko yelled.

Lu Ten met his eyes and recoiled, near slamming himself against the next wall. He felt his face screw up against it, hot tears in his eyes. 

Not real. 

"You should've helped me," Zuko continued. "You should've helped me, but you didn't, you weren't there, because you're always such an idiot."

This wasn't real.

Lu Ten's mouth was too busy spouting out curse after curse to answer, calming the taste of bile at the back of his throat and trying to get that image out of his head.

"You know, you should've stayed dead," Zuko spat, his voice rising to a yell, "Dead, you would've at least had a real excuse."

The sickening sweet stench of burnt human flesh reached Lu Ten. His stomach convulsed, and he pressed his lips together, swallowing hard to force the bile down.

He shut his eyes. His head felt like it was about to burst, every little sound loud and piercing through his ears.

The harder he tried to forget the skin peeling away from Zuko's face, blackened pieces of flesh dropping to the ground, the more detailed it became. Bright, almost yellow blisters surrounding his eye, the skin twisting and pulling together where it didn't hang off Zuko's bone, a liquid oozing out and running down his face. The edges red and swollen, the middle bloodied and black, his eye covered in stuff Lu Ten didn't want to know the name of.

That sickening, burning, sweet smell, filling Lu Ten's nose, and the agonised cries.

Another knock at the door, and everything was gone.

Except for the inner fire floating behind the walls.

"Lu Ten, can I come in?"

Lu Ten put his elbows to the wall and covered his head with his hands, forearms over his ears. The smell was gone, but his sniffles still twisted his stomach.

A touch at the shoulder made him recoil and turn before he could think, and Zuko looked at him with a cautious expression, his eye creased at the edge. No steam rising from his face, no questionable pus oozing out of pink flesh.

Only leathered skin.

"What are you staring at?"

Lu Ten's head shook, blinking once, twice, and he tried pushing some words out of himself. He clenched his jaw, feeling a faint smile on his face like he was at an important meeting and excusing himself, and he swallowed.

"I think," he didn't think, he knew, hands trembling, "I'm about to panic."

Zuko's eyes caught on something on Lu Ten's face, probably the tear tracks, and his head made searching motions to the sides. "I'll be right back."

The red robes fluttered behind him as he left. Lu Ten couldn't tell him no. His shaking hand white-knuckled the new, wooden cane, and his guts churned, and he felt himself sway. He wondered if he would have caught himself or not, had he fallen. 

Some part of him wanted him to sit on his bed, take his cane as support, run somewhere and puke, do something, but he couldn't form a coherent thought about moving. He was only part of the audience, observing from outside.

He was back there.

Oh. 

Oh, well. It had only been a matter of time.

A shock snapped him out, and Lu Ten gasped at the freezing water on his hands. Before that could send him into another fit of frenzy, Zuko threw a towel at him, grounding Lu Ten once again. 

Lu Ten rubbed his skin abrased and red and sat on the bed.

"Leave." He pressed his fingers onto his temples.

"I just arrived."

"Leave, please. Thank you."

"No."

Lu Ten raised his eyes to stare at Zuko, but that guy either didn't care at all, or he had taken a few hits to the head too many. Probably a mix of both, considering the upbringing. 

Lu Ten let Zuko wallow in the discomfort of his own decision, standing in the middle of the room, nothing to do but stare back.

He kicked a crevice in the carpet. 

"Wanna play some Pai Sho?"

-

The board Zuko got seemed way too impractical and big for a simple board game. It came with a number of tiles, to which Zuko unsuccessfully tried explaining the rules to Lu Ten. 

That unsettling sense of familiarity made Lu Ten stop him. "I'll get it while playing."

Zuko went through a number of expressions, surprise and irritation and offense all part of them, and he sighed in resignation. "Yeah. You wanna start?"

Lu Ten scanned the number of tiles he had to his disposal and grabbed the one he liked most. 

"Tell me if I screw up."

All of the tiles had a similar colouring, but the motive was another on each. Most showed flowers or other plants, while others depicted small boats and other symbols. The one Lu Ten held was one of the flowers, every petal outlined and arranged around a circle in the center.

"What's this one called?"

Zuko took it out of his hand, and a small smile tugged on his face. "This is the White Lotus. It's Uncle's favourite."

White Lotus. That could explain its appeal to Lu Ten. 

"Where can I place it?"

"Anywhere."

Lu Ten turned it in his fingers. The board was circular, with a rectangular set of darker squares in its middle, and while Lu Ten wouldn't have minded some more understandable preparation, he assumed that starting in the very middle would give him the most advantages. It should give him the most possibilities to move, and also, it felt right.

Zuko straightened, lips parted as he looked down, but he placed one of his tiles without comment. He placed it somewhere at random, nowhere near its supposed position. 

And wasn't he supposed to say something? 

"What's so funny?"

The White Lotus.

Lu Ten took his next tile, grinning. This game was already decided.

Chapter Text

The next day, Zuko visited again with the Pai Sho board. He had tried seeing Azula as well, but that was a little more complicated in her current state.

Zuko had much to tell Lu Ten. Whenever he wasn't busy frowning and thinking about his next move, he talked about the war, about the Fire Nation under Ozai's rule, about all of the drama that had happened in this family, basically anything that came to his mind.

And oh, boy. Oh, boy. There was no end.

Zuko tried to tell his stories in a way that was easy to follow. To Lu Ten, it seemed like he himself couldn't follow them. He kept interrupting himself, kept picking up at a whole other point to revisit details he had missed the first time, or was interrupted by the Pai Sho game.

Until Lu Ten won.

Zuko stared at the game, dumbfounded. 

"That's not fair," he accused Lu Ten.

"Practice."

With every game they played, it became easier and easier for Lu Ten to win. It had taken him some more effort to remember the strategies after first recalling the basic rules, but he was getting back into it.

"I'm sure you'll get me if we go again," he said for a third time and waved it off.

"Right."

Despite the sarcasm dripping from Zuko's tone, he rearranged his tiles, and they went again. 

"You were saying?" Lu Ten asked. He'd rather not have to speak at all, but Zuko's messy way of telling forced him to. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk. But he wanted to sleep.

"She's not dead. Just gone. I think."

'I think' was a pretty measly phrase to hold onto. Still, dead or not. Zuko's mother had disappeared because of some power-hungry plan of Ozai's, because Ozai had been such a dick about having the throne that he had sacrificed his own wife and abused his brother's grief to usurp it.

"It's so confusing," Zuko continued and explained how she could be alive but probably wasn't but actually Ozai had banished her and anything could've happened to her by now but nobody had talked of her since so it seemed like she had never existed in the first place.

Lu Ten moved a piece. He was winning again.

"I'm sorry."

Zuko gave him a resigned hum. "Me too."

"What happened to Azula?"

Zuko seemed clueless about his looming defeat and moved just what Lu Ten had wanted him to.

"Father happened."

Again?

"I'm lucky I had Uncle by my side. I don't think she had anyone except for Father in the time I was gone."

"Your uncle," Lu Ten said, acting like he had to consider his next turn, "He went with you to capture the Avatar?"

"Went with me, yeah. Don't know about catching the Avatar, though."

"That was your task, no?"

"My task. Not Uncle's. He was just there."

It felt weird to call that person Zuko's uncle. Lu Ten had no memories of him, but at its core, it felt wrong.

"And he's alive?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't he be?"

Lu Ten shrugged. 

All of the drama Zuko hadn't told him about yet shifted into the background, and Zuko stared at his game with a frown.

Lu Ten felt his want to play shrink but forced the next move out of himself. There had been no reason for him to ask that, while it did feel weird. But all the evidence Lu Ten needed about Zuko's uncle being alive was there. He wouldn't have been able to stay with Zuko these last few years dead.

"Where is he?"

Zuko played right into Lu Ten's bluff for the thousandth time.

"Ba Sing Se."

- two days later, Ba Sing Se -

"There's people saying the Prince is alive, you know," the woman said, a laugh in her words. "Crazy, I tell you."

Iroh sorted away the cash she had given him for the tea. 

"The Prince of the Fire Nation?" He asked, and the woman gave him an upward nod. "Why would Prince Zuko be dead?"

Would have been quite the unpleasant surprise if he was.

"No, no. I'm talking about the Prince. Prince Lu Ten."

Iroh felt his blood run cold. For a moment, he considered asking her to repeat herself, but that had only been the shock of hearing the name.

"Ah, I see."

The woman seemed to be utterly floored in exasperated disbelief.

"The disrespect. I can't believe anyone would say something like that," she exclaimed. "I've heard many things, but this tops them all. Even the time they said that that admiral blew up the other prince's ship. What was his name again?"

"Prince Zuko?"

"No, no. I knew that. The admiral? Doesn't matter, I'm sure he wasn't that important."

She waved it off.

Her expression told Iroh she was about to spill what she judged as the very best or worst part. For being in a position like her, she was rather talkative. Not that chatting wasn't fun, not at all, but handling the letters of everyone in this city was something Iroh would have assigned to someone else. But that wasn't his job.

"They're saying he's back, with only half his limbs. Blind on the left eye." She counted on her fingers and shook her head in disbelief.

"And the General. What a disrespect," she said. She seemed to be very interested in the Fire Nation royal family, judging by the rant that followed. Iroh listened to her talking on and on about the Prince, the General, and more about the Prince. He couldn't wait to find out what more stories she could tell about him. 

Seeing that she wasn't coming to an end soon, Iroh interrupted her.

"Yes," he agreed, "The General." 

He must feel so disrespected. 

"I'm sure this will figure itself out," Iroh said, ending the conversation.

He wasn't one to avoid a little bit of talking, but this was a topic that either lifted his spirits in a melancholic way or ruined his whole day. He wasn't very keen on finding out which it would be today, considering he still hadn't decided on it.

It was quite amusing to have a few people recognise him as who he was while others stayed oblivious, and the ones who asked about it only ended up confused. It was almost like the old times, when Iroh went to bars and feasts and twisted and turned words for everyone in the room to interpret to their own liking. Never lying, because that was something he was about as good as as Zuko, but telling undetailed versions of the truth.

A pity that, in this instance, it seemed to work in Iroh's disadvantage. Nobody got the oh so brilliant idea to talk about Prince Lu Ten with the General, but the people liked to gossip. 

Well, it was good to hear that the Prince Lu Ten hadn't lost much of his reputation in these last few years.

The woman rummaged in her bag. Seeming to have found what she had searched, she stopped and took a confused look around the tea shop. She muttered, "Am I at the right... ?"

A red insignia peeked out under the bag's flap.

"I'm sure you're correct," Iroh assured.

The woman put not one, not two, but three letters onto the counter. "Here you go."

Iroh thanked her and ended attending to the last customers of the day. All of them were exhausted from helping with the aftermath of the comet, either cleaning up the streets or organising or helping the injured, glad to have some place to rest and get food they didn't have to prepare.

Iroh was only glad he could help. After 'reconquering' his tea shop, with the luck that it hadn't taken any damage, he used the mornings to help the White Lotus with their tasks and the evenings to work here.

The tea shop closed. The people went home or whatever was left of it, if it wasn't their turn to work now.

Iroh only had to go up the stairs to reach his apartment. There, it was quiet. Not much quieter than it had been a few months prior, but the absence of Zuko's constant huffing and groaning made a difference Iroh had underestimated.

He didn't agree with the lady that had handed him the letters. It wasn't disrespect he was feeling at the news of this rumor. Surprise was more like it. Much like her, he couldn't think of one reason that would explain the thoughts of someone spreading this rumor except to spark a short-lived confusion that would cease when that rumor was proven wrong, at the very least when the rumor wasn't proven to be true in a few weeks time.

That rumor had survived a long way to travel all the way to Ba Sing Se. Many had to believe part of it or believe it important enough to keep it going, which either meant there were enough sources or the people were gullible enough to believe such a thing. Or it was true.

Iroh focused on the moment. He took the letter that wasn't glaringly from the Fire Nation capital and opened it. 

At the Fire Nation royal palace. Meet me as soon as possible.

I'm back.

Completed with a signature Iroh had never seen.

What an ominous few sentences coming from a member of the White Lotus. There was no flowery language, no metaphors, no attempt to conceal the message. Straight to the point. 

It would have helped if he had recognised the signature. He should at least be able to discern the rank from it, but it was something he had never seen before. 

Iroh could ask anyone of the White Lotus in Ba Sing Se. Most of the higher ranking members had been part of the White Lotus for a much longer time than Iroh and had a greater chance of knowing about this. 

Perhaps Piandao would know more about a 'White Dragon'.

The other two letters belonged together.

Dear Uncle Iroh,

I hope that everything is okay in Ba Sing Se. We are all good. Sokka broke a leg, but he's healing well. Aang imprisoned Father. Get this- he took away his bending. The preparations are running smoothly, too.

I hope to see you soon.

Wishing you the best, 

your Zuko

and

I need you to come here as soon as possible. - here a part that was violently crossed out - There is someone you need to see.

The last sentence put a dreading sense of fear into Iroh's chest, which he quickly calmed. It clearly put a turn to the first letter.

Whoever Iroh needed to see was most likely the same mysterious correspondent of today's very first letter. One letter would have sufficed in this, although Zuko's urgent request was much more efficient at getting Iroh to leave quickly. 

He supposed that the people of Ba Sing Se would have to go some time without his tea.

- two days prior, Fire Nation capital -

Master Katara soon came by to force Zuko to rest. Lu Ten had noticed the tightness in his face and had come to the conclusion that it was about the lightning strike he had taken, but he had let him be. He needed to know his own limits.

The medics took some more exams of Lu Ten and tried to convince him again to get his hand chopped off, and the day came to an end, leaving Lu Ten staring at the ceiling while trying to sleep.

Azula yelled and screamed at him like there was no tomorrow. Something about her mother sending him to do whatever with her. Lu Ten had had to endure about ten minutes of it, unable to move a muscle, until someone had come to get him.

Lu Ten asked to go to the harbour city, and after some debating and staring the other down, Zuko dismissed Lu Ten and let him go. Avatar Aang and Master Toph with their flying lemur volunteered to accompany Lu Ten on his trip to the harbour city rather enthusiastically.

Lu Ten wasn't sure if he would find what he needed. He wanted to return to the silence of his room, to a place where his... companion was in clear sight at all times. Where he only had to check over his shoulder for the intruder that wouldn't come.

Probably, this whole trip was all a waste of time.

With two instances that bordered on panic attacks because he was about to die, he had to do something, those people were out to kill him, they went through town. Lu Ten hadn't covered his ears to the screams in order to avoid sticking out of the busy people more than he already was. Looking at how calm Avatar Aang and Master Toph had seemed had been the only thing keeping him from falling to the ground and curling into a whimpering pile.

People seemed curious about Lu Ten. While the flying bison they had used to not strain Lu Ten's leg too much hadn't helped with the nosyness, one stare from underneath the cape and the two master benders at his side kept the muttering people away from him. 

Wherever they went, memories kept flashing in front of Lu Ten's eyes. 

He told Avatar Aang and Master Toph to wait outside and joined the man sitting at the Pai Sho board.

"The guest has the first move."

Lu Ten took the White Lotus tile and placed it in the middle, watchful of the other man. This would decide whether he was simply looking for a friendly game or waiting for something else. Nonetheless, it was a welcome pause for his leg.

"Not many still play in the ancient ways," the man observed. Lu Ten gave him an acknowledging nod, satisfied, and they continued.

"The White Lotus opens wide to those who know her secrets."

The room they entered was disguised as a flower shop. All kinds of plants and flowers in different shapes, sizes, and forms occupied most of the space. 

"Is there something you wish to do?"

"If you would be so kind as to write a letter for me."

The exams the medics had taken had resulted in the big surprise that Lu Ten's left eye had lost any and every vision except the ability to make out a few shadows, which Lu Ten had figured, and that it wasn't restorable, which Lu Ten had also figured. They had also resulted in the finding that Lu Ten couldn't read or write. At all. Which Lu Ten had also figured.

He would have to relearn every single character from scratch.

Lu Ten had wanted to curl up in a corner and die, but that wasn't new either.

"Of course, sir. Who is this addressed to?"

"Whoever is in charge now."

"That would be General Iroh. Is that right?"

Iroh. That was what Zuko had called his uncle.

"Yes. Yes, that's right."

Lu Ten told him what to write. Two short sentences, nothing more than that. He wasn't comfortable getting too comfortable or personal, as he didn't remember anything yet, but Zuko had been so defensive when Lu Ten had told him to get that man here that Lu Ten had to use this.

He would remember when he saw him. A picture hadn't been enough to cause more than a skull-splitting migraine, but he would remember when he saw him. It had to work.

It might as well not. 

"Like he cares."

Lu Ten flinched. Ignore, he told himself. He had known the flickers in his sight had been more than just that. It had been the idiot lingering around. He could imagine the smug, idiotic grin on the face underneath the mist.

"Zuko's right, you know that. This'll ruin his life."

Ignore.

Lu Ten tilted his head, failing at trying to decode what the member of the White Lotus wrote. The strokes of the coal formed letters, certainly. That was all he recognised.

The reading and writing was much more restorable than the sight of his eye, but it wouldn't be at the snap of a finger and by looking at a few letters the way he looked at people and remembered. 

"Who is this from, if I may ask?"

"Just a humble White Dragon."

The man glanced to the side, searching for something. "Sir, the White Lotus hasn't had any..."

He tore the glasses off of his eyes and put the coal aside. "So it's true?"

Here goes. Lu Ten kept the lethargic sigh bottled.

"So what's true?"

The man bowed as deep as one could, kneeling on the floor, and Lu Ten closed his eyes to stay patient.

"Please, don't," he began, painfully noticing that he had no idea how to properly address that man. Was this everything he had needed to recognise him? A few rumors and a White Lotus rank? There were others with the same rank as him.

Although, probably not in the Fire Nation. Not to mention the Fire Nation capital, where no member of the White Lotus could be expected to stay.

That guard in the prison tower had also not needed much to recognise Lu Ten. It was admirable how these people recognised him after everything, but at the same time, it was a curse.

The man continued kissing the floor, and Lu Ten stood up, taking another look at the letter. There was no headache to warn him about remembering the whole alphabet, and Lu Ten resented that. A little bit of a migraine was much more favourable over months and years of learning a whole language.

"It's a pleasure to have you back, Your Highness," the man said, keeping his gaze to the floor as he rose.

"Thank you. It's a pleasure to be back." 

More or less. Better than- better than there.

The letters stayed nonsensical to him, and Lu Ten wished he would simply remember. He couldn't know if the man had actually followed his request.

"There have been rumors going around, but I wasn't sure if I should believe them."

Lu Ten's hand seemed to really awake the man's interest. Just like the cane. But both had been something to attract anyone's attention, and Lu Ten started to admire Zuko's strength not to burn everyone alive. 

He had reconsidered the option of getting his hand sawn off. But there was no way. They weren't winning over him another time.

Before signing the letter for Lu Ten, the man said, "Sir, if I may. I'm not sure he would recognise this signature."

"That doesn't matter. Send it like that."

"As you wish."

Lu Ten observed the man rolling the letter up and securing it to a messenger hawk. If that piece of paper didn't say what Lu Ten had told the man to write, there were going to be consequences.

He could return to the palace now. Lu Ten had done what he had sought to do, with an even better outcome than what he had planned.

Unnamed companion leaned against Appa. 

" 'Better'?"

Chapter Text

Zuko looked at Lu Ten, and his anger got replaced by something more helpless. "Iroh is here."

Lu Ten felt his heart drop. Zuko had come here with a face like he was about to damn the spirits while Lu Ten had tried to get some sleep. It was the middle of the day, but the nights left him even more restless, and it was all he could really do in here whenever he was alone.

Mere days had passed since he had written his letter to the Grand Lotus. Messenger hawks were fast creatures, but this amount of time was the bare minimum for the arrival of the letter and a travel from Ba Sing Se to Caldera. Lu Ten had expected to have at least another few days' time.

"I didn't know he was going to be here this early, okay," Zuko defended himself, "I thought I would have more time to think about what to tell him when I wrote the letter, and he took the fucking eelhound. Of course he did. How could I be so stupid?" 

"You wrote a letter?" 

"Yes. Is that not a good thing?"

Lu Ten felt bitterness marring his features. He hadn't known something had convinced Zuko of writing a letter to Iroh, and he had been lucky enough that the Grand Lotus Lu Ten had contacted had turned out to be that exact general.

Zuko had lied about not writing a letter to Iroh.

"I wasn't saying it's a bad thing," Lu Ten said, "Is it not a good thing he's here?"

"It is."

The lingering worries that had kept him awake for days stirred up, and Lu Ten felt his shoulders sink under their weight. "But?"

"But, there have been rumors."

"Is that a bad thing? Did you not tell him in the letter that I'm alive?"

"What do you want me to say? You don't even remember him," Zuko snapped. 

"I didn't remember you. Anything." Lu Ten pointed out, "I don't see the difference here."

"You are his son."

"Exactly. I am his son," Lu Ten interrupted before Zuko could go on, "Why are we arguing? He's going to find out either way. Please."

Zuko groaned in frustration, but he listened and left.

He wasn't wrong to worry.

-

See you after we win the war, was what Lu Ten's letter had said all those years ago. Like they couldn't have seen each other by walking to the other's tent. Like they had been miles away from each other, separated like so many other families. 

It had been a petty letter written in a petty gesture with a petty portrait attached to it, and Iroh had held onto it in desperate hope. To wait until the war was won. 

The war was over. The war was won.

Zuko's head raised when he spotted Iroh. It was like a mutual understanding between the two that even though they hadn't exchanged a word yet, it was only an alerted expression on each of their faces that greeted the other. 

Sokka, who had been with Zuko before the prince had spontaneously sprinted off, had first reacted with a giant grin at seeing Iroh. It had been disproportionate to how well they knew each other. Any other day, Iroh wouldn't have thought anything of it, but today wasn't any other day.

"Any news from Ba Sing Se?" Sokka had asked, trying to break the silence. 

Iroh had kept the answer simple. "Yes."

He wished he had the energy to put up a friendlier act, but his heart was too heavy, and he didn't hide it on his face.

Sokka's joyful demeanor had wavered, and worry had replaced it. He knew about what was going on and Iroh even considered asking him in his impatience, but he wanted to get the news from someone he knew better. That someone was just now returning, staring at the ground with a frown.

It had been eternities since there had been this much talk about Prince Lu Ten. After his death, it had all been quiet whispers behind Iroh's back. People had sent him pityful glances everywhere he had gone, and Iroh had hated it. He had hated it because Lu Ten hadn't died, he had disappeared, it hadn't been his body under the dirt, it had been someone else's, and everyone was just too stupid to understand that.

Iroh had searched for years until he had finally given in and stopped being delusional.

Someone had started these rumors, someone that had thought it to be funny. Someone that needed some pastime. Someone that didn't know what it was like.

All of the talking had gotten to Iroh, but it hadn't convinced him. He knew what was true. He knew what he had seen and it was only bad news that could be delivered to him now. 

Lu Ten had been supposed to outlive Iroh for years and years and had ended up dead before reaching twenty. 

Lu Ten was alive?

"You heard?" Zuko asked.

If everyone around him started doubting the reality of Lu Ten's death like Iroh had done and had been doing, he would start believing his own theories over what he had seen again, and he would tear the world down. 

The body had been rotting for days when they had found it, and he was still searching.

Iroh knew how this was going to go. Irrational hope that Lu Ten was alive, anger at everyone that had told him he was, ruminating over everything that could have been, trying and failing to accept reality as it was. The cycle never ended.

So, as Zuko waited for him to answer, even though Iroh knew what was coming, he clenched his jaw, silently and naively praying that Zuko would tell him what wasn't true.

Zuko took his silence as a 'yes'.

"What did you hear?"

"That there's someone I'm going to meet."

Lu Ten wasn't a someone, a person not worth mentioning their name. He had a name and a title and a history. He was Iroh's son, and Zuko would have acknowledged that in the letter if it had been Lu Ten that was waiting for him.

"I meant about Lu Ten." 

Apparently, he hadn't acknowledged it. 

"You seem to know already."

"Lu Ten is alive, and I didn't write it in the letter because-" Zuko said, "well, I had reasons. We found him on Ember Island."

Iroh waited for Sokka to jump in and declare this all a bad joke. "You're lying."

"I'm not."

"Of course," Iroh exclaimed, "I thought I had seen him die, and now you're telling me he's alive? On Ember Island? What, did he take a seven year long vacation?"

"He wasn't there by choice," Zuko said, matching Iroh's temper, "You haven't seen him. It's disgusting, but he's alive, and he's here."

They're saying he's back, with only half his limbs. Blind on the left eye.

Iroh could still smell the rancid stench of rotting flesh, felt the ashes of the funeral burning in his eyes.

"You're lying."

The tight crease Zuko's eyebrow formed relaxed, and he repeated, "I'm not."

The hair that hadn't quite been dark enough, the jaw that had come off with teeth that weren't the same as Lu Ten's smile. Everything he'd had to blame on the rocks crushing the bones and ripping through ligaments.

The name plate that had been lying just a few feet away, sane enough to be legible. Lu Ten.

Iroh took Zuko by the shoulders, maybe a bit too harshly, and his eyes filled with tears. Lu Ten was alive, Lu Ten wasn't alive, it was like playing she loves me, she loves me not with a flower, only much worse. And there was no flower.

"You're lying. He's alive?"

"Yes," Zuko insisted, "It's hard to believe, but it's true."

There was no trace of insincerity in Zuko's eyes. When Zuko lied, it was clear. He was bad at hiding his nervosity. It showed in his glances and his hesitation, not in a blatantly and pathetically obvious way, but obvious enough for anyone that paid attention to notice.

Part of Iroh believed it. He was naive enough to. But he had to see for himself. 

Sokka didn't jump in to declare it all a bad joke, but what he said made it feel like one. "Ozai's a fucking asshole."

Ozai wouldn't do such a thing. That was Iroh's first instinct- defending Ozai, defending him from what seemed to be just a rumor. Ozai was a bad person, but he had his limits, that was Iroh's first thought. How many times Iroh had said that. How many times he'd thought it. Only to prove Iroh wrong, Ozai would do anything.

Nauseating dread trickled into Iroh's stomach.

Sokka's statement made Iroh stop wanting to break down for just a second and instead break Ozai's bones. In that split second, he checked Zuko's expression for any new nervosity. There wasn't. Zuko's frown tightened in anger and Iroh didn't have to ask if Sokka had lied.

Ozai, after trying again and again, had reached Iroh's breaking point. 

"Where's Lu Ten?" Iroh asked like it was a threat. Ozai was secondary now. "Where's my son?"

-

Two people approached Lu Ten behind the walls.

Lu Ten didn't let himself come to conclusions yet. He couldn't even recognise the second inner flame. Zuko could be bringing someone else to test Lu Ten, maybe to play some game; an unreasonable thought, but Lu Ten couldn't shake it.

It hadn't happened before that he had recognised an inner flame or that one had felt familiar the first time feeling it, and it was possible that he had only figured out how to feel inner flames while under Ember Island, but he had to have known how to feel them before. It didn't feel like it was something one learned to do while half-starved and on the edge of dying. The memories he had of Azula and Zuko and the blurry, unimportant stuff left out big chunks of his life. 

It was too late to take back his decision by the time the door opened again. 

The two entered. Zuko went first, behind him, a gray-haired man in his sixties. The same face that he had seen on the portrait.

Lu Ten shot into a stand. Zuko's expression left no room for interpretation. If Lu Ten fucked this up, he was dead.

As expected, Lu Ten had no idea who he was looking at.

It was different for the general. The man caught sight of Lu Ten and took two steps back, his hands covering his mouth with a gasp.

Already, Lu Ten's heart pounded like it was about to break out of his chest. Lu Ten had made a point of not completely collapsing when Zuko had been reintroduced to him, and it had been fairly easy, but now, he doubted his ability to keep it together.

Iroh leaned against the opened door and his hands folded together in front of his face, sobs wrecking through his body.

"Lu Ten," Zuko introduced, "Uncle Iroh. Your father."

Lu Ten waited for the migraine to set in and prepared himself for memories. 

Nothing. 

Instead of an agonising headache, Lu Ten felt a spike of anger at Zuko, which turned into a cold block of guilt chilling his core. Zuko had done his part. Lu Ten had been the one to insist on seeing his father again, had disregarded Zuko's worries. The man wasn't a fake. He looked exactly like the portrait. Lu Ten didn't know what it was that kept him doubting when the man was looking into the skies, to the spirits, trying to understand how.

"Dragon of the West?" Zuko tried again, "General Iroh?"

Lu Ten shook his head.

Iroh pushed Zuko aside, his eyes landing on Lu Ten again. He looked him up and down, hope in his eyes, and Lu Ten looked at Zuko for help. Zuko scowled at him and turned to Iroh, sympathetic tears forming in his eyes.

"Lu Ten? Lu Ten, it's me."

"Uncle, he's not recognising you. It's no use."

Lu Ten was making him relive everything and didn't have anything to offer in return except for guilty and pityful tears.

"Lu Ten."

"Uncle."

Iroh pushed Zuko's hand away, bolted forward and pulled Lu Ten in. Lu Ten's arms went rigid at his sides, and his skin crawled under the touch. It always did. It didn't matter who it was that touched him and how gentle. It felt like there were insects covering him, crawling and making him want to violently tear out or attack the culprit. It had felt that same way when Zuko had hugged him, and it felt the same way now. He waited for pain, for something to hurt. He couldn't differentiate between their and others' touch.

Lu Ten used the time he froze to remind his brain not to lash out. Lu Ten would let him this. Iroh wasn't quite a stranger to Lu Ten and Lu Ten was everything but a stranger to him, there was no denying that. Lu Ten still felt the burning familiarity and sense of belonging even though he only formally knew who this was, and at the back of his mind, he searched for more knowledge; and he forced himself to somewhat relax.

The hug wasn't the same as burning metal. It wasn't someone raping him, but the more Lu Ten thought about it, the more it did. The longer he waited, the harder he had to fight his instincts.

The hug was still warm.

Lu Ten flinched, but the pained yell stayed stuck in his throat. The migraine shot through his temples and his eyes to the bridge of his nose.

He was back at Ba Sing Se. He was back in camp, looking over the training soldiers with Dad. He wrote a petty letter to his father. He was in Caldera, officially bringing his training to an end and leaving for war. He was in the Earth Kingdom, in the Fire Nation, argued and joked, learned and taught. Lived.

"I'm sorry," Dad said and pushed Lu Ten away. "You don't remember me, do you?"

Lu Ten was in his cell, begging for mercy, help, Dad, help me, Dad, where are you, anything to save him.

He was in a mental hospital and remembered.

Dad looked at Lu Ten and his eyebrows furrowed.

"Lu Ten?" He tried again.

Lu Ten threw himself into Dad's arms and collapsed. 

All the time he'd waited. All the time he'd spent suffering, dying, yearning for one more hug. If only he had died in battle. If only he'd been found and brought into the field hospital, Dad would have been there. Lu Ten wouldn't have died alone.

"I'm sorry," Lu Ten said, sputtering apology after apology in between raw sobs.

He was so lucky that Dad still accepted him. There were more than enough people that discarded family after such things happened to them, who didn't see any hope anymore, who couldn't recognise their relatives in those mistreated bodies. He was lucky that they hadn't mutilated him that badly.

"What are you sorry about?" Dad asked, and pushed Lu Ten away to look at him. He shook his head, half in reassurance and half in disbelief, and put his hands to Lu Ten's cheek. The insects crawled along with each touch, but he let Dad caress his face.

This wasn't about comfort.

"What are you sorry about?"

Lu Ten couldn't muster an answer, hyperventilating and paralysed in fear.

Zuko seemed to have left them alone. Dad pulled Lu Ten in tight, and laughter of relief mixed into his bawling. Lu Ten could only replicate that joy for a few seconds before breaking down again, and Dad pressed a kiss to his temple.

-

No more apologies filled the room and Lu Ten's body shook in the hug. 

"Stop whining," the voice of Lu Ten's unnamed companion said.

Lu Ten's head whipped to the side. The mysterious hallucination disappeared as soon as he looked at it.

Dad looked to the side as well.

"What is it?" He asked, gave Lu Ten a curious look, and grinned uncontrollably.

Lu Ten shook his head and felt his face splitting into a smile despite the taxing hiccups that kept shaking him. The both of them cracked up with giddy laughter and Lu Ten looked at Dad through watering eyes.

"You're alive," Dad said and put Lu Ten's face into his hands again. "I can't believe this."

He had gotten older. Nothing that should surprise Lu Ten, but just as it had been with Zuko and Azula, it made him want to cry even more. Seven years had been wasted in that nightmarish hole, seven years he'd never gain back. The General Iroh he remembered had dark brown hair. The Iroh he remembered hadn't balded, and the Iroh he remembered wasn't as old. 

The discomfort prickling on his skin got too much to bear and Lu Ten let himself fall onto the bed. He found enough energy to laugh along with Dad's disbelief.

"How are you alive?"

Lu Ten shrugged. Good question, he would have said if his condition had allowed him to. New tears welled up in his eyes and he shrugged again. 

Lu Ten's thoughts strayed to the newly found memories. He compared all of that with what Zuko had told him and took a closer look at Dad.

Lies. Zuko must have lied about Iroh to make Lu Ten feel better about this. Lu Ten's entire throat tasted like blood and breathing put his throat on fire, which was why he didn't ask, but his face made Dad burst out laughing and Lu Ten was in stitches seconds later.

The rain poured down the window in streams of water.

Dad was too agitated to settle and he looked at Lu Ten like he had seen a dead person. It fit the circumstances.

"How?" He mumbled and brushed his hand over his beard. "I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming!"

Dad laughed and took Lu Ten by his shoulder, squeezing it, and pulled him into another tight embrace. Lu Ten endured it, but it seemed something tipped Dad off Lu Ten wasn't quite as comfortable with the hug as he had been before and he begrudgingly let him go. 

"Let me look at you," Dad said. Lu Ten let him, and Dad looked at him. The heartbroken tilt of his mouth became bigger with each glance. "You're not a spirit."

"I don't think so," Lu Ten forced out of his damaged lungs. Dad chuckled, but his smile was saddened by the sound of Lu Ten's voice and the implications.

Dad's eyebrows knitted together. "There's something different about you."

"No shit?"

Dad bellowed a laugh and said, "That's not what I meant, I can't explain it. I thought..."

"That I was dead? I get that a lot." Lu Ten brushed his hand over his wet face, and his shoulders hunched. That difference Dad meant was either the absence of firebending or, possibly, something else and even more subtle. It would surprise Lu Ten if it was. After seven years, Dad could just have forgotten something.

"This doesn't feel real," Dad concluded, summing Lu Ten's last week up in one swift sentence. "I can't believe this. Where were you? What happened?"

Warmth spread behind Lu Ten's eyes and he put his arm over his face.

"Did Zuko find you?"

Lu Ten nodded. He sniffled and pointed at a drawer behind Dad, and Dad got them some tissues out of it. 

"On Ember Island," Dad muttered and chuckled bitterly. He blew his nose and wiped his tears, but he looked like he was about to start crying again. "How long has he known?"

"Not long," Lu Ten muttered and dried his face as well. "Can we please talk about something else?"

"Of course," Dad assured. He only needed a few seconds to collect his thoughts, and his overjoyed smile was back. "How much has Zuko told you? So much has happened."

Lu Ten huffed. "Almost everything, if I'm not wrong. I'm stuck in here a lot, he's visited me to talk. We play Pai Sho."

"He willingly plays Pai Sho with you?"

"Is that not normal for him?"

Dad snorted, and Lu Ten leaned forward onto his legs grinning. It wasn't only the looks and what Zuko had told him that had changed about Dad, it was something more. He couldn't explain it either.

Zuko had told him so much about how Iroh had changed, but Lu Ten couldn't figure out how it all connected to the General Iroh he remembered.

"What are you doing with the Avatar? What are you doing in the White Lotus? I don't understand, what happened?" Lu Ten asked.

"Do you want the short version?" Dad asked, and Lu Ten nodded. "I figured you were right."

Lu Ten sniffled. "I told you, didn't I?"

Dad's eyes squinted in mirth, and Lu Ten started cackling. Crying his soul out to Dad had helped allieviate some of the pain, and Lu Ten felt his heart was a little lighter. His high spirit was contagious to Dad, and they both began wheezing like it was the best punchline to a non-existent joke they had ever heard.

After a lot more laughing over the stupidest things and crying and admissions of sorrow and regret, all forgiven and forgotten, peace settled in Lu Ten. The sound of the pouring rain calmed Lu Ten's mind, and for the first time in days, he felt his eyelids become heavy.

A knock startled Lu Ten out of his dazed state and catched away his peace. Great. Lu Ten already felt the paranoia returning to him, and he searched for an inner flame behind the door. His shoulders untensed when he found it.

"It's Zuko."

Dad looked at him in surprise. "How do you know that?"

Lu Ten blew his nose and gave him a tired shrug. Lu Ten had known how to feel inner flames before, Dad had just forgotten.

Not one memory confirmed that assumption. Lu Ten lost himself in memories, trying to find proof that sensing inner flames was normal for Lu Ten. There was none.

Maybe it was something one figured out half-starved and dying. Add hatred and bitterness strong enough to kill five men, maybe, it was possible.

Dad opened the door and greeted Zuko with a hug. Zuko's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and Lu Ten gave Zuko's alerted face a smile. Zuko returned it and returned the hug. 

Dad poured his heart out to Zuko about his gratitude and how he couldn't believe this, and pelted him with questions that Zuko answered for the most part. Some, he didn't, and Lu Ten made sure of that with a glare.

Lu Ten had yet to express all of the gratitude he held towards Zuko and his friends in a proper manner. 

"We need to make some plans for the coronation," Zuko said after Dad was done, "We should make an announcement after I hold my speech."

"An announcement about me?" Lu Ten asked, trying to clarify.

"What else?" 

Lu Ten closed his eyes and put a hand to his aching temple. Over time, the pain of remembering everything had lessened, and all that was left was the ache one got after crying ten rivers. His whole face hurt. "With or without me?"

"With you."

"We're not going to force you," Dad made clear, "If you're not ready, we can wait. We have all the time in the world."

"You aren't the ones that have to deal with all the nosy people," Zuko snapped, "We're doing it with you. Nobody will believe us without seeing you."

Dad took a sip of his tea and shook his head. Lu Ten was amazed by the patience. "There are more than enough people that believe the rumors already. If anything, they will believe me."

Where had he gotten that tea from?

Lu Ten banished the question from his mind. Dad always found a way to drink tea, it was no use asking. "I don't think I'd like going in front of a crowd yet."

"Then we can wait."

Zuko huffed and scowled. 

"You can still confirm the rumors without me being present," Lu Ten reminded him, "I'm not an exhibition."

"I never said you were."

Dad ignored their argument and asked Zuko, "Who else is coming to the coronation?"

Zuko sighed and looked into the air to recall and listed a few Fire Nation officials, explaining that Avatar Aang and the Water Tribe siblings were taking care of the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes.

"What about the White Lotus?" He asked.

"There haven't been any plans yet," Dad said, "But I'm sure a little detour will be no problem. Now that you've mentioned it, I was actually supposed to meet up with another member here."

"Another member of the White Lotus? Who?"

"I don't know. I just got a very mysterious letter."

He took another sip of his tea. Perhaps, the tea was just Lu Ten's imagination. Tea didn't have an inner flame he could check for, and Lu Ten wasn't going to ask and risk the tea not being real, so he would have to keep guessing. The smell was just what he remembered, and that was enough for him.

"You've met him already," Lu Ten assured. Zuko's face scrunched up, and Lu Ten saw him forming an idea of what Lu Ten meant. He mouthed a 'you???' that was as discreet as shouting it. Dad missed it, Zuko facepalmed.

"What do you mean, I've met him?"

He really didn't know.

"It makes sense," Zuko said, "Why does it make sense?"

The cheeky grin that Lu Ten shot him gave Dad all the hints he needed.

"You are a member of the White Lotus?"

"You are a Grand Lotus?" Lu Ten countered. He had much more reason to be confused, since a war general of the Fire Nation had no business even thinking about protecting the Avatar, much less one of General Iroh's degree and much less one whose whole excuse of changing sides was 'my bad, you were right.' "Since when?"

Lu Ten couldn't wait for the whole story. He couldn't wait for realising how lucky he was that he still had a chance to hear the whole story. 

"It's been years, I joined months after you died. I thought you knew about the White Lotus because Zuko told you about it." Dad's face was so full of renewed joy mixed with confusion that Lu Ten felt another grin break out on his face. "I've never seen that signature before."

"You should have."

Lu Ten hadn't been the only White Dragon. He had decided to keep himself a little lower to not overwork himself with his duties as a future Fire Lord and duties in the White Lotus. The other White Dragons couldn't have been kept a secret from Dad, either; a Grand Lotus needed to know about every existing rank, but if that rank hadn't existed anymore for whatever reason, there was no reason to tell Dad about them.

The member Lu Ten had talked to had mentioned that White Dragons hadn't existed for years.

But why not tell a grieving father such information about his deceased son?

"How come you didn't know?" Lu Ten asked, and Dad shrugged.

"I was just about to ask that."

Chapter Text

Did he even want this to be true?

What an awful thought to have. But the whole night now, all the time that Iroh had stayed with Lu Ten as he'd lain down in exhaustion and fallen asleep, Iroh hadn't been able to get it out of his head.

Did he? 

No kind of a father should ever even dream a thought like that, but he couldn't make it stop. No matter what reasoning he tried to give himself to battle that thought, it only got more ingrained into his mind. 

He needed some tea. He needed to take his mind off all of this for just a second, needed to let it all sit for a while.

He took his cup and went to the kitchen. 

"General Iroh."

Retired, Iroh thought the response, and turned. At this time of night, a servant standing in front of him. What was he doing here? Iroh had stayed in the room until the moon had lit up the silhouettes of the furniture, so unless Iroh had forgotten something about servant-life, at such a time, this man should be sleeping.

That he'd forgotten something was more than possible, with the amount of time Iroh had spent elsewhere. But at least, there was a single soul in this palace other than the Avatar and his friends.

The filled cup of tea wasn't even in his hand, as he'd put it onto the table to take a second to process all of what had happened, and now- the sun was out and the steam had vanished. 'Taking a second' to process. Right. Had he really needed the whole night?

Still, Iroh's hand felt like jelly, but at least now, the servant had every reason to be up no matter what Iroh had forgotten. 

The servant stood still, his eyebrows furrowing, and Iroh frowned back at his confused expression, but he had to admit it was warranted. Iroh probably looked a bit out-of-sorts.

"Sorry, is there something I can help you with?"

The servant bowed. "You shouldn't have had to make your own tea. I could have helped you." 

What politeness. The servant seemed genuinely worried. Iroh hadn't remembered this side of the palace when he'd arrived here, but it was wonderful to be reminded of it.

Although, it could be that he feared less for Iroh's well-being and more for his life.

"No, thank you," Iroh said, "I'm quite happy making my own tea. There's no need to worry." 

It was meditative, the repetitive process. Filling the pot. Putting in the leaves. Heating the pot. Waiting. 

And meditative was something Iroh had needed, and it had worked so well he wasn't even sure anymore what the cause of his state had been.

"Sir? Did something happen?"

That was a great question. Iroh couldn't remember. Yesterday was blurry, but he he knew that he'd arrived at the palace, and Zuko had been there, and Sokka too, but Iroh wasn't sure about that, either, and then he'd had another one of those weird dreams-

"Sir?"

Iroh could only give him a confused hum.

What? 

Dream, right?

Meditative had been something he'd needed, but now, the effect was gone again. 

Only now, Iroh noticed the worry on the servant's face and his own alarm, his own wide eyes and furrowed brows.

"Sorry, I mean-" Iroh couldn't find the words, and instead, stared at his tea. That hadn't been a dream, right? The tea in his hands was cold, the tea that he'd made just this night, after- hold on. Just one second.

Dream? 

Iroh apologised to the servant and went to retrace his steps. To the psychiatry he went, the place that crazy people were put in. He hadn't been in here in a long time, but these walls were familiar, and they only were because he had been in here. Last night. Supposedly.

His legs knew the route better than he did, carrying him along, bringing him to one specific room. Iroh pushed the door open. Someone was lying in the bed, facing the wall, and Iroh pulled back, ready to apologise to the sleeping man and leave, but his confusion made him halt just long enough to rethink it. He shouldn't have known the way so well if he hadn't been right here yesterday, and he'd been here for a reason.

He reentered and took a closer look. Who was this?

Why was he sleeping like that? Was he even sleeping at all? Was Iroh just imagining this? What kind of a fever-dream- Iroh couldn't remember having done anything out of character lately, anything to warrant spirit-induced fever, so that wasn't an explanation, either.

Maybe, it wasn't Lu Ten who had been put into this facility, maybe it was Iroh, who had been hallucinating his dead son.

Maybe, Iroh just needed to take a deep breath to clear some of it up. 

He took a deep breath. 

The man was still there. The questions as well.

Iroh didn't even dare coming closer. He should, because he shouldn't let himself keep any delusions, and just taking a few more steps would shatter any illusions, but he couldn't. His legs dared, on the other hand, and his curiosity let them. 

The face. The eyes, even though they were closed right now, Iroh remembered too well. Just last night, he'd looked right into them, although they could only have been out of a dream, out of an illusion that should have been shattered by how close he was by now.

No. No, no, no. 

Yes?

He sat at Maybe-Lu-Ten's side with care, not ready to wake him up. Lu Ten, or whoever this was, needed the rest, judging by his face and what Zuko had told Iroh yesterday. 

If it hadn't been imagination. 

There was no movement anywhere in his body. Without the vibrating in his chest as he took in breaths, Iroh would've been convinced he was sitting next to a dead body, but apparently he wasn't- there was a reason for why he saw him this way. He was still too shaken up, still certain that Lu Ten should be dead.

Or Iroh was just imagining all of this. 

But the face. Yes, it looked like a corpse's. Still. 

But was he the guy to judge this? Last time he'd said the remains of the corpse weren't Lu Ten's, he'd been proven wrong- No, wait. 

He'd been right?

Iroh should've made himself more tea. He should've brought the fire and the pot and the leaves and the water and continued making it. This man looked worse than the day he'd died, but still- he was here. And Iroh had talked to him last night, unless, of course, it had been some dream, unless Iroh had reached the end of the war and finally collapsed under the grief.

See you after we win the war, Lu Ten had said, and now Iroh hadn't been able to logic around Lu Ten's death any longer in hopes of seeing him again at the end of the war, and hadn't been able to face reality.

Gone mad in heartbreak. 

Which would be why he was hallucinating this, maybe. Possibly. Maybe he'd just put the wrong leaves into his tea, an experiment that he'd forgotten about, but if he had went crazy, in whichever way, would he be having this train of thoughts? Would he really be this conscious about how deranged he was?

The lack of sleep was not helping Iroh's abilities to judge, even though despite it, Iroh felt more awake than ever.

Lu Ten, or- well, whatever, Iroh would give into the grief and call him Lu Ten from now on- wasn't sleeping. The way the face had gone slacken, Iroh had seen it a hundred times, but not in sleep. 

But Lu Ten was breathing, still, so why was this? 

Full stop. 

Iroh could not let himself go into all of what could-be and should-be again. About Lu Ten, he didn't know enough to make any assumptions. He didn't know about what had happened except for the rough outline, the things the rumors, Zuko, and Lu Ten had told him, which wasn't a lot. The rest, he could only guess, and that was a dangerous game. There was no need to play it right now.

Iroh let out another deep sigh and closed his eyes for a moment. No matter how often he blinked, Lu Ten wasn't vanishing into thin air, and so, maybe-

Iroh put his hand to the shoulder. His hand almost flinched away with shock that it touched something, but before he could grasp it literally or metaphorically, Lu Ten flinched and slammed himself against the wall.

Iroh winced. That must've hurt.

"Sorry," Iroh said, reflexively, "I didn't mean to wake you up. I'm sorry."

There was nothing he could think of saying without the reflexive answer, Iroh noticed, throat closing up and smile losing its power to disbelief.

Lu Ten's chest heaved and he stared at Iroh with his very real eyes, recognition flashing into them again only after a terrifying second, and he glanced around the room, panicked and with shallow breath. To be fair, though, Iroh couldn't make himself take a full breath, either.

"Lu Ten?"

Iroh almost hadn't heard himself. He had barely whispered, but Lu Ten's glare dissolved and his shoulders relaxed, just a bit, and his eyes finally landed on Iroh, their full distrust on him.

Iroh ignored the hand. Ignoring the thoughts was a bit harder, and Iroh despised how the images of the broken and twisted fingers forced themselves into his mind, unable to face that all in this moment. He would have to someday, but right now, he neither had the time nor the energy, and so, he focused on Lu Ten's face instead. 

It... honestly wasn't much better.

But it was.

"Never do that again," Lu Ten said, in an annoyed and shaking voice that made Iroh's heart stutter. His wide eyes went around the room again, a bit less stressed, and landed on Iroh again, who couldn't even think of beginning to form a response. The exhaustion in Lu Ten's face turned into a frown of confused worry and Iroh noticed how his own worry, and confusion, and sadness, and despair- in short, everything- had stayed unmasked.

"You okay?"

And it clicked. Just like last night. 

"Me? Are you kidding?"

Lu Ten's eyebrows furrowed tighter. His lips were being pulled down by exhaustion and his sunken cheeks were like trenches in his face, his eyebags stretching from his eyes to his jaw.

This was Lu Ten.

How old was he? Twenty-six? Twenty-seven? Iroh should know with certainty, he'd been counting along in agony, but now that Lu Ten was here again to answer every question Iroh might have, Iroh became unsure.

He'd been nineteen when Iroh had last seen him. Right? It had been seven years now, right?

Lu Ten slid onto his knees, looking at Iroh with uncertainty, that line between his eyebrows appearing again, but his eyes were wide in a way that looked more like he was trying to take everything in, trying to confirm that it was real. Just like last night. 

Iroh was close to doing the very same thing.

"Are you real?" Lu Ten mumbled again, like last night.

There you go.

"Of course I am," Iroh answered with a quiet chuckle. Last night's events were slowly unfolding before him, still in no particular order, in confusing chaos, but real. It had all happened.

"That's what unreal people would say."

Iroh laughed. Lu Ten, after another moment of unsure hesitance, leaned forward, a shaking hand hovering over Iroh's shoulder, but before putting it down, he furrowed his eyebrows at Iroh again. 

Iroh waited. He was busy using all his efforts on keeping his renewed tears at bay, but Lu Ten seemed to have frozen. It could have been some fear of Iroh, but it could also have been anything else, and Iroh couldn't get a good read on Lu Ten, and so Iroh took his best guess. Careful not to scare him, he put a gentle hand to Lu Ten's hand and nudged it to his own shoulder. 

Lu Ten's eyes widened in horror, his whole arm tensing. The way he was staring at Iroh's face made Iroh's uncertainty about the whole ordeal shoot to the sky, but the way Lu Ten flung himself forward a moment later and clamped his whole body around Iroh made the matter clear.

Lu Ten really hadn't believed any of it, and Iroh couldn't blame him for it.

Like father, like son?

Iroh put his arms to Lu Ten's back. He felt like he was being squashed by an avalanche of rocks much like Lu Te- like he had thought Lu Ten had been, and it was all he would've ever asked for.

If Lu Ten was real, this was, too.

Iroh could feel the scars through the thin fabric of the shirt. That fear at the back of his mind, it wasn't that he was still worried about this being some delusion anymore. No, Iroh was realising that this was real, a slow, creeping realisation that was being confirmed now, it was real at least to a certain degree, and he had the evidence in his arms, suffocating him in the most relieving and comforting way.

He still was confused, but not worried anymore. At least, not about the being alive part.

Iroh tightened the hug and put one hand into Lu Ten's hair, pressing his head closer, too.

Did he want this to be true?

Not that again.

But Lu Ten's stiff, trembling muscles didn't help the case. Lu Ten wasn't grappling onto him for comfort. It was like he was just trying to confirm this reality, hold onto it, if anything, and Iroh traced circles over his back, trying to relax him. None of the tension left his shoulders, so Iroh muttered some reassurances instead, but he himself wasn't sure who he really was trying to comfort with them.

Lu Ten was skinny and fragile. He was cold, without the warmth one would expect to radiate off of a fire-bender, not even that of a non-bender reaching Iroh's hand as he let it hover over Lu Ten.

Did he want it?

But he was here. And Iroh was hugging him.

With a relieving, soft and quiet sigh, Iroh opened his eyes. Even though he was holding Lu Ten close and could feel his chest rising and falling against his own, seeing Lu Ten's shoulder against his own still surprised him. 

The heavy guilt still hadn't left Iroh. "I'm so, so sorry-" "Shut up. You've told me." 

Iroh chuckled. "Okay."

It really wasn't okay, but Iroh would give Lu Ten the peace of not talking about anything for now. Iroh wasn't even sure what he wanted to know, let alone how much he could handle, but on second thought, that didn't matter a bit. Lu Ten hadn't chosen what to handle, either, and Iroh felt disgusted by his own thought.

All that could've been prevented- but, right. Iroh had told him about all of it last night. Why he couldn't say it again, though, he had no idea.

But whatever. For now, Iroh would begin by dealing with the fact he even got to be amused by Lu Ten's frustration again. 

Lu Ten muttered, "I'm fine."

Right, of course. What could possibly have disturbed Lu Ten's endless peace? Whatever could his trembling, fragile frame mean?

Lu Ten pushed Iroh back and Iroh, with much pain of having to separate himself from the hug as well, let him out of it. 

Looking at his face again was worth it. He took one look at Lu Ten's incredibly tired face, his exhausted but very much blinking eyes, and felt an ache in his chest. 

The closer view made it all feel more real, more tangible. Lu Ten's face, only arm-length away. Lu Ten's eyes, even though they had lost any spark and were dull and tired, pointing right at Iroh. Lu Ten's hair was still long, longer than Iroh remembered, but as a whole, Iroh noticed that he did look surprisingly good considering the conditions he'd been in. The conditions he'd maybe, probably been in.

Iroh didn't even attempt to hold back his beaming smile. Of course, he wanted this to be true. 

Not all of it. But most.

Lu Ten averted his eyes to the ground with a saddening frown, and muttered, "Sorry." 

Oh, now he was apologising again, but Iroh couldn't, or what? How fair.

Iroh shook his head with laughter. "What about?"

Lu Ten's voice had become raw and scratching like gravel, and even though Iroh knew what that had to have been caused by, he couldn't believe there was a voice left. It was so similar to Zuko as well, there was something adorable in it. 

"Don't be sorry," Iroh told him, "It's not your fault."

There was an ache in Iroh's knuckles, and Iroh looked down, looking right at Lu Ten squeezing it so tight his own knuckles were white. Poor Lu Ten, was all Iroh could think. My son.

But- My son.

Distracted by his own tears that he had to wipe away, Iroh squeezed back. Not as hard, but enough to feel Lu Ten's grip calming a little, and still, Lu Ten's strength was impressive. It wasn't close to what Iroh would've expected from a weakened man like him. Maybe, recovery wouldn't be too difficult.

Someone, a boy, entered. A boy Iroh was sure he'd never seen before, but maybe last night had just shaken him up a bit too much to remember. Who knew?

The issue solved itself. He saw the two of them and scrambled back, his arm whacking against the door before he got past it to grab the handle. "I'm so sorry. I'll leave right now, I'm so sorry."

Muttering more apologies, he left. Iroh hadn't even gotten the chance to smile, let alone greet him.

"What was that?" Iroh asked. 

Lu Ten hadn't even noticed, it seemed, still squeezing Iroh's blood from his hand and staring at the ground, not one muscle moving. 

Iroh squeezed back, and waited. Lu Ten didn't answer the few times he tried to get his attention, and so, Iroh kept waiting, using the time to really memorise every little wrinkle in his face, memorising his features more thouroughly than last night, when it all had overwhelmed him too much. Iroh still was overwhelmed, of course, but Agni, did it feel good now. 

The hand-squeezing also was a great replacement for another hug. 

Lu Ten's eyes were distant, but they were still blinking, and Iroh waited more. He couldn't really do anything else anyways, with his hand trapped like this, but he wouldn't complain.

Grip loosening, finally, Lu Ten's eyelids fluttered and his head twitched from side to side. He loosened his grip on Iroh's hand, pulling it out in shock, and said, "Sorry, you just said something? Sorry." 

'Just' was an understatement. It had been at least half an hour.

"Who was that young man who just entered? The awkward one." 

Lu Ten frowned, in confusion, as if he was trying to remember anything that had happened. "Zuko?" 

Iroh laughed. "No. He seemed to work here?"

"Oh, that guy. He's an apprentice. I..." Lu Ten glanced into nothing for a few seconds and gave the nothing a lamenting frown. "I forgot his name." 

Lu Ten leaned against the wall with a shaky sigh and shook his head, wiping over his face again. It wasn't important, anyways. Iroh reached out to hold his face and wipe his tears, but Lu Ten's elbow knocked Iroh's hand away and Iroh's hand pulled back in surprise. 

"Don't," Lu Ten hissed, the tears shining in his glaring eyes.

Hadn't he just thrown himself into Iroh's arms a few seconds ago? Made his hand feel like it was about to break?

Well. Iroh raised his hands as he retreated them, palms to Lu Ten, showing him he wasn't going to try anything else. Maybe Lu Ten simply didn't like others reaching out to him, maybe, he wasn't as desperate for the touch as before. Iroh had to sadly deal with the disappointment, but it was manageable. Feeling that yearning to comfort Lu Ten and hold his face, but in such a calm manner, knowing it was possible, was more than enough. 

Also, it was a relief seeing Lu Ten crying this openly. It was sad and heartbeaking and a bit confusing, as it always was when others were bawling in front of you, but it was, and Iroh had thought it would never be again. Also, Lu Ten probably needed it, and also, it couldn't hurt their trust. 

As Iroh sat with Lu Ten, the energetic and teary smile fought itself back onto his face.

"I can't believe you're alive," he muttered. He'd mutter it again, as often as Lu Ten needed to hear it. He gave Lu Ten a soft chuckle and, to joke and to be sure, he added, "Are you real?" 

Lu Ten, after a breathy chuckle that sounded like he was about to sob, raised his shoulders to his jaw in a shrug. He let his shoulders fall down again and sniffled. 

"I can't know that."

No, Iroh thought, realising in pain, his voice.

Lu Ten's tired eyes sank to his lap, where his fingers were playing with the hem of his shirt in agitation, and he chuckled. "But I wouldn't think so."

Well.

But his voice.

-

Lu Ten and Iroh spent the whole rest of the day together, much like Lu Ten had with Zuko a few times now. 

Oh, Zuko. How Iroh ached to see him again, too, to give him another hug. He wouldn't know what to tell him, but he was so glad - not only for getting Iroh his son back, of course, but that was the cherry on top of it all.

Lu Ten and Zuko had always been a bit more like brothers than cousins, the way Iroh had seen it, and in comparison to their relationships with Azula- especially Zuko's relationship with Azula- these two had soared. It wasn't that much of a challenge, getting along better with people other than Azula, but Iroh still couldn't wait seeing the two together again.

"Goodnight. I love you." 

Soldier boy.

Iroh smiled at Lu Ten's surprised frown.

"Goodnight," Lu Ten rasped. 

Iroh stayed in the door, hand on the handle. He was waiting for Lu Ten to add something, maybe something like an "I love you too," but also, he couldn't decide. Stay, or go, stay, or go- he'd see Lu Ten tomorrow again, but he didn't need to leave yet. Lu Ten had told him he'd go to sleep now and asked him to leave, and the day had been exhausting and it was still all weird, but. But. 

"Sleep tight." 

Maybe, an "I love you too" had been a bit much to expect for one day of having known each other without the desperation from before.

But he'd take the words to heart. Iroh was going to sleep tighter than ever knowing that Lu Ten was safe. After that whole night without any rest, he could feel the weight of this day make him drowsy. That was another reason for why he needed to leave- he needed to put his stuff into his room, needed to get ready for bed, and sleep.

But it wasn't that important, was it?

Iroh stood in the frame for a few more moments to ponder, using that time to look at Lu Ten, and finally closed the door quietly. It had been Lu Ten's request, and Iroh needed some time alone to process- this time, hopefully, not the whole night- but as he left, the doubts resurfaced. What if Lu Ten magically disappeared in that time? What if this was another dream, just an unusually long and realistic one, and he was going to wake up with nothing left? What if, what if, what if?

Because he wanted this to be true. 

He needed it to be.

Chapter Text

What had he done to deserve this?

Lu Ten was sitting in front of Ozai again, staring him into oblivion. The silence between them was deliberate, peaceful with a threat, and the memories of his last visit flashed before Lu Ten's eyes again and again. He hadn't done anything to Ozai then. Ozai hadn't been worth his time. And of course, that was still true- a disgusting thing like this shouldn't grab Lu Ten's attention for more than a second, and then, only in a passing thought, but Lu Ten had for some reason let himself come down here despite it.

A confused heap of thoughts had been compiling in Lu Ten's mind. Images of Ozai, receiving the same treatment as Lu Ten had, whimpering and trembling in pain as Lu Ten watched in silence just like now. Watching in silence, keeping his own hands off Ozai, letting him know that he was only watching. An eye for an eye. 

Other than those images which Lu Ten was losing power over, there were questions. Not few of them. Questions that made Lu Ten reconsider not giving Ozai that treatment, that made him consider the option of giving Ozai a piece of paper and a pen to make him answer. Questions that made him consider using that treatment to gain answers. Answers, even if they were lies woven up in despair, presented on a silver plate, just answers.

But there was one question that he, for now, just wanted to think about.

"Why?"

He wasn't sure why his mind had made him say it, but it made no difference. Ozai couldn't talk to him. He could shuffle and scoff, but he could give Lu Ten no final answer.

Another familiar voice, faint and seeming distant, but still clear and cutting like shards of glass, answered anyways. "You know that already."

There was a revolt in Lu Ten's body at that voice, one that made him go blind with anger for a terrifying second. It was the unnamed companion's voice, the stalker. But, this stalker, he was part of Lu Ten's mind, so Lu Ten couldn't dismiss him entirely. 

Lu Ten would find out on his own. With this, he wouldn't trust Ozai. There was one simple thing he had to do that he had been doing for all of his time back here- regaining his memories, regaining his past. Finding out what he'd done to deserve any of it, because somewhere deep down, he knew already.

"I'm going to the coronation," Lu Ten told Ozai, snapping back into the present at the sound of his own voice.

There was a wonderful disgust that crept onto Ozai's face.

"Your son's coronation."

Ozai's mouth curled, annoyed, probably offended by Lu Ten calling Zuko his son. Lu Ten hadn't thought about that statement enough, he felt, as his stomach revolted with all of the things that could happen there, but he couldn't back down now. He wouldn't- just to rub it into Ozai's face.

Lu Ten went to the bars of the cell, towering over Ozai's measly frame. 

Oh, Ozai's face showed no reaction in the dim light, but his pitiful inner flame did. It had been so easy to take his tongue out and it would be so easy to do more than just that- skin was such a fragile thing, and Lu Ten knew all its, well, soft spots now. After one taste, Lu Ten's control was slipping.

Shouldn't he show his teacher how he'd learned? 

"Be prepared."

-

"You play like Gyatso, my old teacher," Aang said, "You have an old man playing style."

"I am old," Iroh said.

"But you're good." Aang narrowed his eyes at the board.

Iroh chuckled. "That's experience."

A nice breeze drifted through Iroh's beard, the turtleduck pond glimmering in the sun. Katara and Sokka were feeding the turtleducks, and Toph had one in her lap, petting its head. Suki was watching Iroh and Aang play, but Zuko, sadly, was nowhere to be seen. He probably had stuff to do.

Usually there were servants and assistants doing the preparations for the coronation so the Fire Lord, even if not official yet, could focus on the more important things, but right now, well. Nobody was here to do it. While the servants had mostly returned by now, as most of them hadn't gotten far in the short time they had been banished, some brave ones staying in the city for the few hours or nights they had had left to prepare, paperwork-stuff wasn't one of their many jobs. That was something that, if ever, the Fire Lord's assistants did. 

The problem? Well. While servants had mostly been bystanders trying to feed their families, with little to no influence on the Fire Lord's decisions, assistants were a lot more important. Azulon and Ozai had always liked to surround themselves with bootlickers and so-called friends, and so, Iroh and Zuko had been forced to keep assistants out of current business completely, waiting until they were sure about each of their backgrounds. 

That didn't mean that all assistants were evil and all servants pure good, but keeping the servants had been a needed decision to keep life at the palace going. They hadn't had the time to investigate every single person for any suspicious or even dangerous backgrounds as they were doing with the assistants and kick them out, as they would have needed time and people to regroup. What kept everything together and going now was mostly hope that nobody here had the brilliant idea to poison anyone's food, knowing those people had no power here and were easily punished, thus easily scared off.

It had seemed that Lu Ten had begged to differ while talking, but ultimately, he had had to oblige. Of course, the fear of punishment wouldn't deter everybody, but most. Hopefully, it would be sufficient. In the worst case, Iroh would give them some tea and talk them into a new life.

Iroh was ashamed to admit that he'd only put half his faith into Lu Ten's statements, but Lu Ten hadn't been here in years and he'd been hurt by people more than anyone else around here. His views were completely justified, but they were distorted, and the palace would be fine like this, too. Iroh was just hoping that his anger would sizzle out by the time of the coronation.

Zuko's friends didn't have enough knowledge to help Zuko either. Zuko could direct them through the work, but Iroh imagined that his patience was a bit short and his stubbornness rooted in him too deep for that, and now, it was almost done anyways. Only a few hours were left. Iroh had offered his help and tea as well, but he'd received a typical, sharp "no" and a slam of a door into his face as an answer.

It was calming to have some familiarity in all of this chaos.

"Where's Lu Ten?" Aang asked.

"He's still in his room," Iroh told him, remembering that Lu Ten now knew about the Avatar, "I think he's still unsure about the returning servants."

"Still?" Katara asked, "It seems to be a big deal for him."

Iroh nodded and gave her a shrug. 

Taking the words out of Iroh's mouth, Sokka said, "Understandable. All these servants served Ozai once. They'll try to kill us."

That last part was the one Iroh wasn't so sure about, given that servants had always been the ones feeding information to outsiders and making life for royals just a little uncomfortable as well, but the rest he could agree with. 

Of course it was understandable. But Lu Ten would soon notice that there was nothing to worry about, because even if the servants were not trustworthy, nobody here would let any harm come to him. Not Zuko, and not Iroh. Never again.

Thinking of Zuko. Iroh's suspicions about his whereabouts weren't far-fetched, but he couldn't be sure, either.

"Where's-" your friend- "Zuko?" Iroh asked Sokka, as he was the most likely to know. 

Lu Ten, just once, had made a remark about Sokka and Zuko, one that hadn't even been clear, but Iroh couldn't unsee it anymore. He had noticed a few hints in Zuko before, but they only surfaced in his memory now. He'd brushed them aside before without even realizing, always thinking that Zuko was interested in girls only because he'd been with Mai, and Iroh hadn't paid that much attention to Zuko's love-life. Always just enough to keep annoying him about it the way he had in Ba Sing Se.

Still, deep down, he'd known there was more. Lu Ten's remark had made him ponder it more, but it hadn't surprised him.

He wasn't sure who'd care, but it would be interesting. Fire Lord and Water Tribe ambassador, had that ever happened before? If Sokka even became the ambassador- but Iroh could see it. And the interest seemed shared, with Sokka's rushed answer and tight shoulders.

Iroh looked at the board again, his eyes glancing at Katara only in passing, but it was clear. She knew something, and seemed put off seeing Iroh know something as well, glaring at Iroh, daring him to say something stupid.

"I can go look?" Sokka said.

Iroh's eyebrows raised, and he gave him a big smile. "Yes, of course."

Sokka left, and Toph made a sound that usually, Iroh would've discredited and brushed off. But the annoyed disgust in that small 'ugh' was too fitting, knowing what Iroh knew. She could feel people's heartbeats, and she was young and therefore disgusted by feelings, and so, it was pretty clear.

Still, Iroh was uncertain. He didn't want to say anything false now by asking, but his curiosity was too big. 

"Is it-" "Yes," Toph answered with another 'ugh', taking Iroh the pain of finishing that question.

Well, Toph's boldness was something to always rely on. Iroh hadn't had many conversations with her, but that point was clear. Now, he only needed to find out whether Zuko really had interest, and play their wingman.

Katara's frightened glare hardened. "So?"

"Nothing, so," Iroh answered, smiling at her despite his confusion. "Everything's fine."

-

"You're here," Aang said. The child- Lu Ten really couldn't grasp the concept of a child Avatar yet- he gave Lu Ten a jovial smile as he limped forward.

"Choices have been made," Lu Ten muttered in response.

The ache in Lu Ten's leg had flared up again with a searing burn a few times in the past few days, and so, Lu Ten would really have profited from a second cane to completely stop putting weight on it. Too bad he hadn't been able to use another one with only one hand available.

Also, the pain wasn't debilitating. It would need much more to make Lu Ten's reaction be more difficult than nausea, and then, he doubted even literally blinding pain would be able to make him halt anymore, but Dad had noticed something and Lu Ten had let Katara take a look just in case. No water-healing, of course, but the doctors had seen enough for now, and Katara had been the only other option. Katara, also, had already seen it all. There was not that much of a point in hiding.

The conclusion? Lu Ten was weak and should rest and there was nothing to do about his leg except cut the leg off. Another reason for why Lu Ten had stayed away from those doctors. Dad had talked to them, though, and that was what he had been told.

Those fuckers really didn't understand that insistence, for Lu Ten, was reciprocal. They insisted, so he insisted. Nobody was going to take Lu Ten's leg, not Iroh and no doctor.

Zuko's smile wasn't as big as the Avatar's, but that would be quite the accomplishment. His smile seemed to be just as happy and was even more adorable, and Lu Ten felt a lump in his throat.

His hand reached out almost automatically, taking the hem of the elegant robes and fixed them.

Lu Ten muttered, with a chuckle, "Look at you."

His voice didn't let him speak very loudly, but it was more than enough. Zuko answered with a small and soft grin and Lu Ten felt his heart being ripped apart, knowing what was coming now.

It was Lu Ten who had been supposed to take this on, this big task. Not little cousin Zuko. He would do a great job, of course he would, but it wasn't right. It wasn't. It had never been supposed to go like this, but now, it was going just like this, and Lu Ten couldn't help but feel nauseous again. Nauseous, and something else, something tight around his chest and his arms. It was becoming a permanent issue for Lu Ten, the nausea, only getting worse every other day. Maybe, in a few weeks, he'd be accustomed to it.

Lu Ten's eyes wandered to the top of Zuko's head, where the crown would soon be sitting. Just a few minutes. 

Zuko was all big now. 

His eyes were torn away as Zuko stepped forward and trapped Lu Ten in a hug, one that Lu Ten froze in. But it was quick and painless and Zuko let him go after just a few seconds. 

"I can't believe you're here," Zuko said, eyes glinting, "I always wondered what you'd have... thought."

Lu Ten couldn't believe it either.

The mass of inner flames on the outside wasn't helping Lu Ten's state, like a grip on him, one that he was holding onto and that he couldn't let go of, and that as well was, who would've guessed, nauseating. The mass of inner flames was so big that it all blurred together, all into one big blob of chi and energy or whatever it really was that Lu Ten felt there, a mass of hallucinations, and Lu Ten's heart was pumping and fighting in his chest. 

"I think everyone's waiting," Lu Ten said, and Aang and Zuko turned to go.

They were all strangers, and the thought of that made Lu Ten's muscles go tight and and limp at the same time. It had been a stupid decision to come here, he'd known, and his racing heart confirmed this. But there wasn't any backing out now. Lu Ten limped forward, the pain an anchor to reality as he stepped forward and stopped right at the curtains. 

That was where his body shut down and stopped him. But, from here, he could see everything fine, and so despite the nagging guilt he shook his head at Zuko, who had turned around to look for him.

For Ozai. He'd make this memory just to tell Ozai all about it, smear it into his face what could've been. Oh, that disgusting pile of shit- Lu Ten's attention shouldn't be on him right now, but Lu Ten couldn't help it.

Looking over the place through the gap between the curtains, the few faces he saw too far to recognise, he wondered how one normal voice- for example, the voice of the guy now declaring Zuko Fire Lord- could reach over such a long distance so that everyone could still understand the meaning of the words. Lu Ten's voice had done it before, but it would never reach that far again. Another reason for why he couldn't be Fire Lord.

While Zuko held his speech, Lu Ten concentrated on the sun to distract from the inner flames, but he couldn't tear himself away and he couldn't make himself step into the light. He remembered what it was like, and he knew he wouldn't be able to make it feel good in any way. Prickling and burning the outer layers on his skin, Lu Ten would want to go back hiding in his room, but on the inside, he was just so cold. He felt it in this very moment, the unbearable freezing ache stabbing into his stomach, but there was nothing he could do about it except to act like standing in the sun would help. And that only worked while he wasn't in the sun, leaving the comfort to his imagination instead of the disappointment.

He simply had to keep enduring, and if the inner flames wouldn't let him go, Lu Ten had to dive deeper into them. 

-

It knocked Iroh's breath away. The amount of people in this place, all in different colours. People that had never been to these kinds of events, homeless rogues, all the way to the wealthy who had this as routine. Sword-fighters like Piandao, waterbenders like Pakku, earthbenders like Bumi, and firebenders like Iroh. All in one place, declaring and embracing peace after all of these decades fighting the other.

The fact that Iroh had the chance to witness and live this. The fact that Lu Ten was getting the chance to witness this, if not this coronation, everything that followed.

It was magical.

Iroh's smile at that thought was one he reflexively thought to suppress in front of Piandao, but after another second, he realised that he had more than enough reason to smile. Piandao did not know about Lu Ten yet and Iroh didn't want him to find out, not yet- Piandao had asked about it before, but Iroh had been able to keep him and the rest of the White Lotus in the dark without any lies. Talking about Ozai when they asked about "the rumors" and about Azula when they said they'd heard someone had gone crazy. It wasn't nice, but it was funny, and they just made it so easy.

But Piandao knew about Zuko standing right in front of them, the golden flame adorning his head, and that was more than enough to make Iroh the happiest man on earth and gave him enough reason to bawl with joy.

He was so proud. So unbelievably proud in a way that made his heart swell, and yet, never ashamed. This was a different kind of pride.

Zuko finished his speech and blaring applause rose, accompanied by whistling and excited yelling. Piandao used that pause to ask Iroh something.

"What happened to the guards? Did you run out of faceplates?"

Iroh laughed. "No. We just thought it best to keep them away. Seems much less intimidating like this, doesn't it?"

The bleak, stone-faced man stared right through Iroh. Taking off a piece of metal didn't undo the years of training to become a wet blanket, but that was part of what made it so funny. "We" of course meant Lu Ten, because he had been the one to have the idea, and Iroh wasn't entirely sure what the reasoning was, but he didn't really care to find out every detail. 

It worked. Iroh had seen multiple curious observers with the same question as Piandao, some spectators brave enogh to strike up a mostly one-sided but still friendly and joking conversation, and it was easier identifying the people behind the masks. Just to see if somebody seemed too suspicious. And, as long as it gave Lu Ten some calm, who was Iroh to complain?

The applause dwindled, and Iroh brought his attention back to Zuko, who had lifted his hand to quiet the crowd instead of making them leave to the celebrations. Iroh had already been ready to get himself some roast duck, but he could wait for Zuko.

"Before the celebrations continue, there are two other things I need to clear up," he said, and his eyes went to Iroh for a part of an unmistakable second. It wasn't enough to mean anything to anybody else, but if Iroh was interpreting the right things into this...

"You know, I can't believe..." Iroh said, drifting off for just the right amount of saddened suspense. Piandao's eyebrows furrowed.

"It's true," Zuko began, "Ozai is still alive."

How disappointing. Couldn't he have started with the good news?

The bad news that Zuko had just now declared sparked an outroar in the crowd, one that Zuko silenced again with a quick gesture. 

"That wasn't my choice," Zuko said, a stern frown on his face, "And it shouldn't be. There are only two people that should be allowed to decide about that."

It had to be Lu Ten, but without revealing who it was, Zuko abruptly turned around, leaving the crowd to mutter into itself, left without answer.

Iroh was wasting time waiting.

"I can't believe that," Iroh muttered to Piandao, about Ozai still being alive, keeping the tension sweet and tangible, "But also, about Lu Ten..."

He let his voice drift off with a dramatic and sad tone and face, like he had been tangled up in thoughts, unable to form the rest of a sentence. It was scarily easy to put on that facade. There was a lot to still think about, stuff that Iroh hadn't fully grasped as real yet, and it was intimidating to know what would get to him one day. He still, or more fittingly, because of his denial, had to work to suppress the smile. Zuko starting by talking about Ozai had been unexpected, but thanks to it, Iroh now had more time to torment Piandao. 

Piandao's frown at the ground reminded Iroh of all the time Lu Ten had spent with him as well, and the twinge of guilt grew into something much bigger.

"How the rumors started?"

"No, I know that."

Iroh gave him a sigh as Zuko turned around with a smile. The way he was beaming, the way he looked behind himself to check... it had to be. 

"It's just that, you know, when I heard them, I thought that they-" The effort he was putting into this, the confusion and the pain, it was so worth it. "I thought that they weren't true."

Lu Ten stepped up, in flesh and blood. Like a switch had been flipped, all mutters died down, attention shifting to Lu Ten. And Iroh couldn't keep his own grin down anymore. 

Piandao still hadn't looked.

"Sorry," he said, and looked at Iroh, "I thought you just said-"

His face fell, seeing Iroh's face, and his head shot up to find Lu Ten standing there. 

The painfully quiet second was stretching on.

"Iroh?" He mumbled.

The silence deafened Iroh as he shot Piandao the most innocent smile he could muster through his energetic and jittery face. "Piandao?"

It felt like people all the way in the last, farthest corner would be able to hear his voice. 

Piandao closed his gaping mouth like he was annoyed. "Iroh."

"Piandao."

"You're kidding."

Poor Piandao sounded like he was about to faint, so Iroh prepared himself to catch him.

"What about?"

Piandao's eyes landed on Iroh's nervous and excited smile that was so big it hurt his face, one that he wouldn't be able to wipe off if he tried to, and Iroh put his hand to his mouth in mutual disbelief as Piandao turned back to Lu Ten, hands raising to his hair. 

The painfully quiet second had now turned into a minute even though Iroh felt the mood shifting, like they were waiting for a final confirmation, permission to believe this, even though Zuko and Iroh's big and beaming and smug smiles that were plastered all over their faces should tell them all they had to know.

"There are two people that should get to decide about Ozai's fate," Zuko resumed, "And those are Avatar Aang and Prince Lu Ten."

Chapter Text

Iroh's ears still beeped after the booming applause that had erupted in the crowd, mainly, the one dressed in red. Unsurprisingly, Iroh had received many congratulations and hugs, but even more questions, and now it was time to answer them all. To try and answer them all. These guys had some complicated questions.

"What happened?"

Iroh shrugged. It was the thousandth time someone had asked him this by now, and he could only give one repeated answer, but it seemed nobody listened to the answers of each other's questions here. In this excitement and chaos, understandable, but still exhausting.

"Believe me, I'd love to find out just as much as you," Iroh told them, again, "But not even Lu Ten knows that."

Mentioning his name hadn't been a good idea while trying to keep the people calm. At least, saying it had made everyone listen up, but now everyone was begging for attention again, and slowly, it grated on Iroh's nerves. The attention had been very nice in the first few minutes, but it was getting a bit overwhelming. The whole topic was still overwhelming. The mere thought of Lu Ten was. But, to Iroh's detriment, Lu Ten was all anyone wondered about now. It was understandable that these people were curious, but Iroh was just as curious as them, and they didn't seem to want to get that part. 

Most questions Iroh couldn't understand, everyone talking over each other, and he turned to Piandao for a bit of help. Well, too bad that Piandao was staring at the askers with such an intense frown it seemed he wanted to read the answers off of the people's faces, maybe asking himself the very same questions, finding comfort in hearing others ask them.

In the end, he did turn to Iroh. "Can't we go see him?"

Piandao had asked the same question in ten different ways by now. Where is he, where did he go, what's he doing now, when are we seeing him? When is he coming here? Asking Piandao for help wasn't going to bring Iroh far, but for Piandao's badgering questions, Iroh had far more empathy.

His desperation was adorable. It was adorable enough that Iroh found it hilarious.

"I don't know where he is," Iroh repeated, "If I knew, we'd be gone by now. But I can only guess."

It was no lie. Piandao put his elbows onto the table, one after the other, hands to his head, and let out a suffering groan. "Stop laughing at my misery."

Iroh, with a laugh at the glare Piandao sent up to him, reached out like comforting a little child.

"I'm sorry, Piandao. I didn't even know he'd show up at the ceremony. He's tired, maybe he's already gone to sleep." 

It was suspicious that Iroh hadn't seen Zuko yet, either. Maybe, Iroh had only lost him in all of the chaos, but it was also possible that Zuko was still with Lu Ten. Maybe, trying to convince him to come here, maybe, trying to avoid all of the people. But if they were together, it didn't matter.

Also, Iroh had exaggerated a little. Not everyone was curious about Lu Ten. At least, not everyone was curious only about Lu Ten- people wanted to get to know their future Fire Lord or ally a bit better, either to build rapport or to guilt him into any kind of deal. Iroh had warned him about that, but luckily, Zuko had huffed at him in offense and told him that "I know. I'm not stupid."

"What happened? Why's Lu Ten- how's he-"

Iroh, too, wished he knew. "You're better off asking him those questions."

Piandao's thoughtful, partially disturbed frown caught Iroh's attention again and Iroh told him, "If he doesn't show up tonight, we'll go see him tomorrow morning. I know where he sleeps."

Piandao sent him another glare and Iroh gave him his sweetest smile. "You could've written it in the letter. Why didn't you write about it in the letter? It would've been so much easier... to..."

Iroh felt his own smile lose the joy, but he kept it on his face, raising his eyebrows in to make him rethink it. Piandao drew back in surprise.

"Why didn't I?" Iroh said, telling Piandao all he needed to know. It wasn't enough to make him understand, but Piandao frowned as if trying to figure out what exactly he'd done wrong.

Guess, Iroh wanted to tell him, salty, but he wanted to talk to Piandao about it with Lu Ten. All that time keeping Lu Ten's alliance with the White Lotus from Iroh. He could take the few minutes of not seeing him.

Piandao had known what it would've meant to Iroh, knowing even the tiniest detail about Lu Ten. Piandao had known that Iroh had needed to know that what he was doing in all of the time of questioning himself was the right thing. And Iroh didn't even like holding grudges, he felt some guilt nagging at him this very moment, but when it came to Lu Ten, when it came to this, he couldn't help it. He didn't want to help it.

Piandao frowned. "What-" "Piandao," Sokka exclaimed, throwing himself into Piandao's arms and interrupting him at just the right moment. This way, Piandao would have to endure less petty Iroh.

Piandao only gave him a hum in response. "Sorry. Have you seen Lu Ten?"

Iroh guffawed a laugh and Sokka's face fell into a disgruntled scowl. "Oh, so I'm just irrelevant now?"

"You didn't die," Katara told Sokka, rolling her eyes, "No. We haven't seen him, but maybe he's-"

Katara caught Iroh shaking his head in reassuring fashion, telling her not to worry, and folded her hands as she stopped and smiled. "Well, I'm sure he'll come by when he's ready."

"I'm sure he will," Iroh told Piandao, who sent Iroh another simmering, tired, and hilarious stare, but it had lost some of its previous power.

Another man stood next to the siblings, Iroh noticed, and he was glancing around the place. A tall man, with a scar pulling over his arm like a sleeve, a scar that Iroh had to tear his eyes off of before the man would spot him staring. He was used to seeing scars of fire, the red patterns licking over skin in recognisable pattern, so it shouldn't be anything special, but it was just that... Lu Ten. Had lots of scars now. More than was usual, even after a war.

It just had been something on Iroh's mind.

"Hello," Iroh said and smiled at him, and the slim eyes turned to him. Iroh felt a weird pull inside him, unable to breathe for a moment, but it was gone quickly enough to pay no more attention to it. It seemed familiar, but he couldn't pinpoint it.

That seeming familiar was not a good thing. Was Iroh getting this old?

"Hello," the man said, and bowed, "Sorry. Bato. Katara and Sokka's honorary uncle."

"Iroh. Fire Lord Zuko's uncle."

Honorary father, maybe. He'd have to clear that up with Zuko later.

Piandao, pulling himself together, said, "Piandao. No one's... uncle."

Bato's eyes widened. "The swordmaster?"

Piandao nodded. 

"I've heard about you," Bato said, "Only good things. You fought off an army all by yourself?"

Piandao only nodded, as if it wasn't a great accomplishment, with a distraught expression and put his face into his hand while apologising for his lack of return of small talk, and Iroh chuckled.

"Piandao," Iroh told Piandao, "You'll see him. Not right now, but, well."

Sokka luckily took over the explaining for Bato, telling him the entire story of how they'd found Lu Ten in his own way. Iroh only listened in, but there were twists in it he'd never known about before. Maybe, Zuko's getting to the point way of talking had simply left out the details he'd deemed unimportant. Sokka would compliment him perfectly.

With another groan, Piandao told Iroh, "I understand that now." 

He furrowed his brows and huffed strained breaths, Iroh's previous concern rising to his attention again. Maybe, it was an illness going around. 

Piandao, like nothing had happened, gave Iroh another lingering stare. "You're evil. You're no better than Ozai."

"Oh, come on," Iroh said, exaggerating his tone, "It's not that big of a deal."

Piandao finally laughed. "Says you? I wish I'd seen your face."

Well, that would've been something Piandao would have never let go. Not in three lifetimes. Iroh would never have minded, not in four and not in five lifetimes, but he also didn't mind the little banter. He hadn't had a good talk with Piandao in such a long time, the nerves in the White Lotus camp dampening any conversation, it was about time they chatted a bit again.

"Oh, no, don't worry." Iroh winced, the memories flashing into his mind and leaving threatening tears, "Like I said, not that big of a deal."

Not even a little bit, he thought to himself even though he again felt a light-headedness forming. Just that much of a deal.

A shadow behind Piandao. A looming figure Iroh felt a reflex to warn about, but he was too late.

"Boo."

Piandao flinched into himself but had not a second to recover, as the limping figure took one limping step to get in front of him and tackle him half off the chair. Hands hovering in the air in frozen surprise as he regained some balance, Piandao frowned down at the man lying on his chest, then at Iroh, whose surprise and smile of realisation seemed to tell him everything, and with a quiet gasp and widening eyes put his arms around Lu Ten so tightly he was about to suffocate him. Iroh wanted to tell him to tone it down a bit, to not kill my son now of all times, please, but it was too adorable to look at to disturb. Lu Ten wasn't letting Piandao have an easy time either.

Piandao buried his face in Lu Ten's shoulder just the way Lu Ten had in his, and after more seconds of lovingly killing each other, they relaxed in the same breath. The room had noticed and a collective "awww" went through it, joined by a bout of endeared clapping. 

Piandao loosened his arms to let Lu Ten leave the hug, but Lu Ten snuggled in tighter and there was a shake in Piandao's chest that looked an awful lot like a suppressed sob. Piandao glanced up and around, like checking if anybody saw, and caught Iroh watching- Iroh, with a big and smug smile, piercing through his eyes, letting him know that he hadn't missed it. Piandao's eyebrows furrowed into a jokingly offended scowl before trembling into a frown of concentration, trying to keep more tears at bay.

"Agni," Piandao huffed, and realising what was happening, went back to strangling Lu Ten with his embrace.

Lu Ten made less attempts of hiding his shaking self as he sat down on the free edge of Piandao's chair that he'd pushed him off to with the force of his hug. Either that or he simply had it more difficult. Maybe both, but it didn't change anything about the endeared tears in Iroh's own eyes. With a smile, Bato and the siblings were watching as well.

Finally, Lu Ten pulled back, keeping his arm wedged between Piandao's arm and side, and looked at Piandao with a face pulled into a crying grimace. The grimace loosened and Lu Ten sniffled, and laughed at Piandao.

"What?" Piandao said, and Lu Ten put his forehead onto Piandao's shoulder, "What's so funny?"

"I've never seen you cry before."

"I don't cry," Piandao told him, tears also streaming down his face now with furrowing eyebrows as a blinding smile split his face, "Shut up."

Lu Ten continued laughing, breathless. "And you flinched so bad."

Piandao had always been one of Lu Ten's greatest supporters, teacher, mentor, even a father maybe more than Iroh sometimes, and somehow, he was keeping himself together during all of this better than Iroh had. Iroh hadn't managed. Iroh also had had lots of privacy and hadn't been stared at by a few hundred people, so he couldn't tell what that would've changed, but. Probably he'd just have acted the very same way without caring. It had been undescribable, a bit scary but also so relieving, that desperation that had taken him over. It was doubtable that anything could have changed it. 

But Piandao was different and Iroh couldn't know and it wasn't all that important. 

"Happy now?" Iroh asked to tease Piandao, and Piandao huffed, looking away with an annoyed glare but nodding, and Lu Ten kept sniffling and staring at Piandao with curiosity.

Zuko still wasn't here. Why wasn't Zuko here yet? Was he being held back by questions, too? Still working?

Piandao glared at him. "Your father, you don't even know, he wouldn't even let me see you."

"That's not true," Iroh said, "I just didn't know where you where."

It was good to have this relaxed exchange, but Iroh didn't want to risk Lu Ten thinking of Iroh in that kind of light. He wasn't the type to joke with as much anymore, now with the new ability to see everything and everyone as a threat. 

A coughing Sokka made Iroh turn around. There Zuko was, talking but interrupting himself in overwhelm by Sokka's reaction, and Iroh watched him closely. He couldn't find much, though, before Zuko noticed him and glared and went to Lu Ten to give him his cane and greet Piandao. So, he'd been the one to tell Lu Ten Piandao's name.

Piandao's teary eyes looked at Lu Ten with breathless admiration as Lu Ten stood, leaning onto the cane.

There was a woosh of air of an arriving airbender.

"What's this gathering about?" Aang asked and joined the little circle, receiving chuckles and shrugs as an answer. He, with a smile, spotted Lu Ten, and said, "Oh. I see."

Piandao got up to pull Lu Ten in yet again.

After a few more moments of everybody basking in the warmth of this, Lu Ten nudged Piandao's side to make him turn around and just stared back at Aang. Iroh had been waiting to see Lu Ten around Aang some more. He was curios and he needed to show him what he thought of it all now. He'd already imagined how this introduction could've gone, all different ways, bad and good, the what-ifs doubling down on the utter, soul-crushing agony of his grief. 

But this wasn't one of the outcomes he'd have expected. Silent staring as he made Piandao step back.

But of course, being speechless around the Avatar was nothing to worry about, Iroh had reacted the very same way. On the other hand, there were possible reasons for this lack of words that were even more soul-crushing than Iroh's long-endured grief. Iroh ignored those now, uninterested in bursting into hysterical tears here, but being saved by this kid would be one of those reasons, the soul-crushing thing about that being that the saving had been needed.

Sadly, the fears were affirmed. Lu Ten crashed onto his knees, passed out in flashbacks and overwhelm- no, good grief, he was just bowing.

Good grief. What a choice of thoughts. 

Whatever, Lu Ten had prostrated himself on the ground in front of Aang in ways he'd probably done many times in tears and beaten- no, stop it, Iroh, Iroh thought to himself, not again. Shut up. Prostrating himself in a way that was unprecedented, he corrected himself, a prince of the Fire Nation with such humility in front of the Avatar. No wonder everyone had started clapping, even Bato, even Fire Nation.

Aang didn't smile in victory and didn't tower over him in power, his gaze lowering to the ground instead.

"You don't need to do that."

Lu Ten got to his knees with a trembling everything, a nod of insistence, and a quiet snort of whatthefuckareyousaying, but the moment he had fully sat up there was a jolt of orange and Lu Ten's arm were full of airbender. Immediately, reflexively, his attention jumped to Iroh with a sharp glare. As quickly as it had, though, it softened and moved to the surroundings, and his arms lowered to Aang's back as his head kept turning, taking in all the people that were watching him. 

Behind Aang, the siblings were standing now, and to the side, Zuko with Suki and a short, blind earthbender. And almost right next to them, Iroh and puffy-eyed Piandao. Around them, everyone else, and Lu Ten right in the middle. 

Aang let Lu Ten go and immediately started rambling about everything he had to come and see, the music, and the dancers, and have you ever danced, I can show you a few steps, but also you need to try the fruit pies because they're the airbenders' version and I helped make them.

Lu Ten's confusion showed in that line between his eyebrows but he nodded along. Lifting one leg into a one-legged kneel, he tried to stand, but his knee gave away. So, while he took time to recollect himself, Iroh went to his side to help, kneeling and grabbing the cane from where it laid at his side to give it to Lu Ten. Lu Ten laid his hand onto it with a weak grip. Most of his attention had been turned to Iroh now, and Iroh reached for his wrists to to pull him up, but Lu Ten had another idea. Instead, he yanked Iroh down, or himself up, or in whatever way one might see it, and crashed into Iroh. 

Just like Piandao, Iroh froze in surprise, and just like Piandao, he didn't hesitate much longer to hug Lu Ten tight because Lu Ten had become picky about the hugs he gave, and just like Piandao, it sparked a bout of cheering in the crowd, and just like Piandao, Iroh felt like crying. They weren't that different, except for one thing. If this had been Iroh's first day seeing Lu Ten again, he would have crumbled, no questions asked.

- 

Somehow, Iroh was able to convince Lu Ten to stay. Lu Ten had wanted to leave, tired, and Iroh would have told him to take rest on any other day, but this was such a special occasion. There were so many things to show him and so many people to meet.

The meeting people part had been the thing to convince Lu Ten with ease. The meeting known people part. There was pride that Iroh felt in that, because after all of what had happened, there were other things one would expect. Like, him hiding in a room all day, the way he had been doing the past few days. 

But, he was out and about here and everything was going well.

Iroh and Bato had gotten into some conversation, Katara joining in with them while Sokka followed Zuko around. Piandao had went somewhere with Lu Ten and Aang and had vanished into the mass of people.

Music filled the place and dancers glided around the floor, eyed by groups of curious firebenders. 

The palace hadn't seen such life in years. And Lu Ten was here to see it all. 

A repeated tocking guided Iroh's eyes to a person dragging one leg behind, and his eyes lifted to meet Lu Ten's. Behind him, a woman appeared, calling his name. Lu Ten ignored her and went to stand next to Iroh, putting Iroh between himself and the woman, and Iroh noticed his face. Frowning, eyes flickering, and zoned out. 

The woman approached. "Prince Lu Ten, won't you answer?"

Iroh sat up and met the woman with a smile. "Hello. What won't he answer?"

Lu Ten's arm trembled.

"Everybody wants to know what his plans with Ozai are," the woman said, and oh, no wonder Lu Ten's reaction, "Also, why he's the one allowed to decide about him. He hasn't been here in years, how is it his right?"

Before Iroh could answer, Katara saved the night. 

"How about you mind your own business?" She asked, voice pitching up in anger. "Leave."

"But."

Iroh stared at her sternly enough that she interrupted herself. 

"Answers will come," he told her, "But not yet. Leave. Please."

"But how can we know to trust his decision when-" "Leave."

Iroh didn't often find his patience running short, but this was one of those moments. Who was she to question any of this? Who was she to question her prince? She could be glad that Lu Ten had even let her speak to him without killing her. It was a low bar of expectations for royals, but that woman should know better after that tyrant's reign.

No wonder Lu Ten was this overwhelmed.

At last, she left. Iroh and Katara exchanged a glance, and Iroh turned to Lu Ten, all anger leaving him the instant his eyes found him.

"Where did you leave Aang and Piandao?" Iroh whispered. More like where did they leave you, with the state Lu Ten was in now. 

Lu Ten shrugged and threw his head into the direction he'd come from.

"The airbender pies were good," he said. 

Iroh nodded, making him glare.

"They were," Iroh answered with a smile and stood to give him a seat, which Lu Ten took after a long, hesitant and considering glance. 

Watching out for anyone needing it and finding nobody, Iroh pulled a chair from a neighbouring table to himself.

"Find any old friends?" Iroh asked, and Lu Ten gave him a nod as tears shot into his eyes, and Iroh froze. 

"Did something happen?"

"No," Lu Ten answered, and Iroh considered insisting.

Lu Ten closed his eyes and put the cane against the table, leaning onto his knees and exhaling in a sigh, and Iroh waited for him to say anything about it. 

"Thanks," he muttered instead, and Iroh decided to let it be for now. The exhaustion radiated from his entire body, there was no reason to agitate him more with more questions. Maybe, Iroh should've let him off the hook without any coercion to stay here from the very beginning, but it seemed that this had refreshened him in a way, too. His eyes had regained some resemblance of a light. Iroh would just have to make sure he'd get enough sleep later, and that, he would do very mindfully.

"What is that?" Lu Ten asked Iroh, turning one of the dumplings brought by Katara in his hand. Iroh only shrugged. They had told him what the dumplings were made of, but he had forgotten already.

"I don't think you'll like it," Katara said, "It's an acquired taste."

Well, that was a generous way of saying it.

"Is it yours?" 

"You can have some," Katara answered, "Don't worry. I brought it for the table."

"We're here to share cultures, right?" Bato said, and Lu Ten looked at him with an uncertain eye. He nodded.

"But it's not poisoned?"

It sure had tasted like it. They looked just like normal dumplings, but whatever was in them, no. 

"No, I've tried it," Iroh said, and saw a smile appear on the water tribe's faces. 

"And I'm not-" Lu Ten turned to Iroh. "Am I allergic to anything?"

Iroh smiled, amused by the innocence of the question. "Not that I know of."

There was a chance that Lu Ten had developed an allergy in the years of being around nothing but dust, metal and blood. More than a chance. The thought was discouraging, but they couldn't know until something happened, and so, they just had to go on living for now.

Lu Ten took a bite and frowned at the taste, but his eyebrows raised quickly. 

He hummed. "I've had worse."

Iroh's jaw fell as he watched Lu Ten eat that thing and heard chuckles next to him. He needed a moment to realise what 'having worse' could mean now, but some mold or clothes to eat- if anything- for years on end were sure to broaden your view on other food choices. Iroh had made experience with that.

Katara was beaming at him with joy Iroh hadn't yet seen on their faces. It really seemed that not many could appreciate water tribe food, so Iroh was happy that they were happy to have found someone.

Lu Ten saw Iroh drinking from a glass of wine, asked if he could have it, and Iroh gladly gave it to him. He preferred tea anyways. 

The continuing conversation, filled with laughter now as Sokka had joined and him and Bato had been left in their own conversation, grabbed Iroh's attention again.

In the meanwhile, an out of breath Aang found them and gave them slices of the airbender pies he'd saved up for them. Now those were more like Iroh's taste.

As Bato told and told, his eyes had caught onto Lu Ten and he frowned a bit, Lu Ten stiffening up next to Iroh.

Bato said, "You are Prince Lu Ten, right?"

If Iroh wasn't mistaken, he saw Lu Ten's eyes flickering over Bato's scar, while at the same time, Bato's gaze almost unnoticeably went over Lu Ten's many. It still was like fog to Iroh, the things he should be feeling about it, but somehow, he only knew about the fact for now. 

He couldn't wait to realise the misery of it.

Lu Ten nodded. "Prince Lu Ten, Sir."

It was a relief to hear him this respectful. Iroh had never known what to expect if he had ever seen Lu Ten talk to non-Fire Nation, especially now, but it seemed that those poisonous teachings of the Fire Nation had left him. Maybe, out of spite to Ozai. Or they'd been beaten out of him.

Couldn't Iroh have one moment of not thinking about the worst?

"Right." Bato paused. "Bato. Heard about you."

He offered his hand and Lu Ten had to show his mangled fingers, instead offering his left. Bato sitting right next to Katara and Sokka couldn't hurt Lu Ten's view of him, but that was only fitting.

Bato chuckled and accepted in traditional water tribe fashion, except, of course, for the hand being the wrong one.

And that was it. No more relentless questioning like that of the woman, no more endless admiration, just a respectful acknowledgement that made it feel almost normal. Not even a comment about his hand. Refreshing it was, but also calming in a way. Lu Ten being alive was so, so special, but also, it just was. It was the new normal. That was what made it so amazing.

Bato shook his head to focus. "I was saying..."

Bato had been in war, too, the scar showed it. He'd probably seen similar, if not worse things than Lu Ten's hand. So, because of that, his collected state about this. If only everyone was able to deal with it like this- even Iroh found himself a bit jealous, because he knew what would happen to him. Hadn't it been the same with Zuko?

Lu Ten let go of a relieved breath that Iroh had only noticed because he was so focused on him, and Lu Ten took some sips of his wine. Iroh leaned over to him, deciding against a hand on the shoulder as Lu Ten already flinched away. 

"You're not forced to stay. You can go to sleep now, if you want to."

Lu Ten, tired gaze on his own lap, shrugged. "I'm not going to be able to sleep, anyways."

"You can still take some rest without sleeping."

The tiredness in Lu Ten's sceptical stare showed Iroh that that was not what Lu Ten believed.

Hm. Understandable. Well, Iroh right now felt quite the opposite way after this chaotic night. Lu Ten's presence made him sleepy because there was no more wondering what he would have told the Avatar or what he would have thought about the water tribe's dumplings, but who was he if he wasn't going to keep Lu Ten some company, listening to the water tribe's stories?

There was lots of time to make up with the small moments. With doing nothing, but together. And there was no better time to start making up than now.