Chapter 5

Part 1

In..

Out.

In..

Out.

So on...

And so forth.

Iroza breathed, his eyes half-closed, sitting in a relaxed position.

With each breath in, he called upon his chi and the flame in his chest swelled.

With every exhale, it shrank back down.

Over and over.

It wasn't much of an exercise.

Not very efficient in stoking his fires.

Not particularly destructive.

It may be increasing his resistance ever so slightly, but not enough to be worth the time.

Throttling the spouts of flame in his arms was far more effective.

But it was relaxing.

Meditative.

Meditation was an odd pastime for a fire-bender.

A foolish waste of time, according to his sister.

She was wrong, but he wasnt so defensive that he ever felt he had to argue the point or defend his masculinity.

But she was super wrong.

How dare she make fun of his holdover hobbies?

It was one of those old things that had stayed with him.

Over a decade since he had come to this world, and his new life.

He had made many new memories, both good and bad, and lost many old ones.

But habits remained.

Meditation was healthy.

Good for the mind.

Good for the soul, even.

Or.

The spirit.

That thing.

If nothing else, the pretense of having to meditate gave him time to be with his own thoughts and think.

Things he otherwise needed an excuse or alibi for.

Blank-faced?

He was meditating.

Not listening?

Meditating.

Not training?

Meditating.

Not available to go and waste time sitting and eating snacks with General Rama, while trying not to tear his own hair out in frustration, because Rama was so bafflingly inept at his own job that it was a miracle the city still existed at all?

Meditating.

A handy catch-all excuse for whenever Iroza needed a few minutes.

Like now.

The fire grew and shrank within him.

A week had passed, and his new responsibilities as Supreme Royal Adjutant were as mindless and easy as he had first suspected.

"Paperwork? Nonsense! You are royalty, your grace. Supreme Royal Adjutant. Quite a ring to it, eh? Your role will be in overseeing parts of my work, and occasionally completing minor tasks that I assign you with. Nothing too base, of course. The Fire Lord would never forgive me for such."

Of course, his only real option was to smile and nod.

"Thank you, General Rama. This is such an exciting honor. I'll be sure to do my best and bring honor to my father and the Fire Nation!"

Made him want to puke.

He had to keep playing that role.

For two reasons.

Because General Rama expected it.

Unveiling his true personality as a mild-mannered joyless asshole would be a... Poor move.

He would only go there if it became absolutely necessary.

And it might soon be necessary, because of the second reason.

Someone was watching him.

He did not look around with narrowed eyes.

What was he, an amateur?

Well-kind of, but that was beside the point.

His eyes stayed closed.

Someone was watching him.

Maybe not right then.

Maybe it was only every so often.

But he was convinced.

More than his father shuffling him away to a backwater province.

More than General Rama trying to dazzle an impressionable Prince with a lavish city-wide festival, and a feast held in his honor.

Someone had fitted him with a... A joke title.

More than that, even.

Someone had convinced General Rama, a seemingly well-meaning simpleton, that it was actually a wonderful title.

That a safe, out of the way position was exactly what the Prince would want.

But who cared?

Who cared enough to go through this trouble?

The obvious answer was some disgruntled noble or worse, a rebellious one.

Someone who did not like the Fire Lord and his family.

This was occupied Earth Kingdom, so there was a very large list of potential candidates.

They wanted to shame the Fire Lord's son, while also depriving him of any real authority in the local military.

That was the big part.

Iroza's role was not a combat one.

It wasn't even a leadership one.

Iroza's role was to watch Rama stumble his way through administration, and keep a straight face while it happened.

At one point, Ji had given him an understanding look.

"Rama is not the man he once was," the man had said, shaking his head sadly. "The years have taken something from him, and he sometimes relies too much on a numbing tonic for that leg of his."

Needless to say, Ji went up several spots on Iroza's laundry list of suspicious people who might be trying to ruin his life.

Though he was maybe a bit too obvious.

Still, he went right near the top.

Next to a ridiculous number of minor nobles with forgettable names, Fire Lord Ozai, Azula- as some kind of stupid prank she hadn't yet admitted to, and this one servant girl who occasionally looked at him funny when she thought he wasn't paying attention.

So yeah, it was a really long list.

This city sucked.

"Supreme Royal Adjutant Iroza."

That voice sounded far too amused for such a monotone person.

He couldn't accept it.

Iroza cracked an eye open slightly, just so he could narrow it.

"That's your royal highness, Supreme Royal Adjutant Prince Iroza, to you," he said, doing his best to sound as haughty and arrogant as she probably remembered him being. "If you're going to grovel, you might as well use all of my titles. Kneel before me, peasant."

She huffed, crossing her arms.

"You wanted to talk to me?"

Opening both of his eyes, Iroza exhaled loudly.

Goodbye, peaceful alone-time.

It was nice while it lasted.

"Oh, but it is good to see you, Mai," he said, his voice climbing up in pitch as he went on. He leaped to his feet and beamed at her.

"It's been an age and a half since we've had a half-decent conversation. Come, let's have some tea, and you can tell me all about what life has been like. How's Ty Lee? Have you seen her at all recently? I can only hope Azula has kept her correspondence with you both."

Hey Mai, you mean jerk.

How's life been with your family.

They still looking to snipe some big title?

Did Azula bully Ty Lee into coming here as well, or were you the only one?

Mai glared at him.

It was a familiar look on her.

"No one's around, so you can ditch the convoluted code-speak."

Iroza rolled his eyes. "Fine. Ruin my fun."

"Your paranoia isn't fun."

"Well," he said with a huff, sticking up his chin at her. "Lucky for you, it isn't just paranoia this time."

"Only reason I'm here, talking to you."

They stood there for a short moment, glaring at one another.

One glare more joking than the other.

Finally, he relented.

"Thanks for coming," he said.

"Yeah."

Iroza sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Would you have even shown up at all if Azula hadn't asked you to?"

"You mean would I have shown up on my own, for no reason? No."

Ugh. Way to dance around the question, asshole.

"I mean would you have come if, say... I had asked you."

This time there was a short pause.

She shrugged. "Maybe. But you didn't, and you wouldn't have."

True enough.

"Are you done asking hypotheticals? Azula asked me here to make sure you don't get yourself killed, and I said yes. My family is here, because there was no real reason for them not to come along. But now I'm here, and it looks like you might really be in trouble. So tell me what has you panicked this time. Because I actually care, sort of."

"That was a lot of words for you to say all at once, smiley."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Your sister asked Ty Lee to help out too, you know."

His surprise must have shown on his face, because she went on.

"She said no. Busy doing flips and handstands for commoners in the circus. Just couldn't find the time to help you out. You know how she is."

Well.

Well, it would have been nice to see her.

But whatever.

A second later, he remembered to actually say something and tried not to look bothered by it. "She's got her life, that's fine. Would have been neat to see her, but yeah. Yeah. Whatever. You two keep in touch?"

This time it was Mai's turn to look awkward, while still being all stoic and cool and stuff.

"Not so much, I take it?"

Mai sighed, leaning back against one of the stone pillars.

"Azula's letter asking... Well, more demanding my help. That was the first I've heard from her in a while."

"Sounds about right," Iroza muttered.

Another silence.

Not as hostile as the last one.

Just awkward.

"Your kid brother is pretty adorable," he offered, just to break the ice. "What is he, almost two? Your mother was pretty far along, from what I remember."

She didn't smile, but the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

"Two in a few months, yeah," she said, glaring half-heartedly at him because his attempts at changing the subject were not subtle. "His name is Tom-Tom. He's a... A kid. Baby. He's fine, I think. Laughs a lot. Walks around way too much."

He grinned. "Not having much fun babysitting your kid brother?"

"I learned from the best," she said dryly.

Ha, that was-

Wait.

He glared, also half-heartedly. "If anything, I was the responsible one."

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes.

"Being slightly less brooding than Zu- than Zuko, doesn't mean you were the responsible one. Nobody who really knew you was fooled by that mild-mannered act you put on. Plus, you got in trouble way more often."

There it was.

And here Iroza was worried he'd be the one to accidentally bring it up.

He would be smug if it weren't all so awkward.

Mai looked away.

"Anything?"

Kind of a vague question, but he knew what she was asking about.

Puffing up his cheeks and blowing some air out, he walked over and sat on one of the weirdly ornate benches.

He spoke in his own monotone, out of habit more than anything. "Port cities. Minor villages. A fire temple, one of the old air temples... Again. Turning back south soon, last I heard. Stopping at different places on the way. Same old."

She gave a clipped nod, glaring at a wall and not at him this time.

"Iroh says he's doing well. Got taller, because he wasn't tall enough already,"

Iroza said, shaking his head ruefully.

Mai snorted but said nothing.

He went on.

"Better at bending all the time. Bit of a chip on his shoulder, apparently. Misses home. Doesn't want to write to anyone until he has something."

Another short pause.

"Yeah, that..." She paused to clear her throat. "That sounds like him."

Followed by yet another brief pause.

What a bunch of sad saps they were.

Iroza snorted. "On second thought, it's probably for the best that Ty Lee isn't here right now. We'd never get any brooding done at all. She'd panic and nag us about how murky tendrils of black were coloring our wonderful vibrant energies."

"And then she would do a backflip."

"And then she would do a backflip," he repeated with a nod, tapping his nose and looking at Mai knowingly. "Exactly. Maybe even two. Distract us until we stopped being all sad and stuff. The peer-reviewed and Azula approved Ty Lee method."

"Best not disappoint her, then," she said, pushing herself off the wall and nodding at Iroza. "You ready to tell me what's got you worked up? Or do I have to wait until Azula bullies you into telling?"

"Very funny," he said, making sure not to laugh. "No one's around, right? You checked?"

She glared at him.

Yeah, fair enough.

"Just being cautious, yeesh." He held up hisn hands placatingly. "You probably know already, but my stupid title isn't actually a real title, which makes it even more stupid."

"Fitting."

Rolling his eyes, he went on.