I'll Be Your Family

Uncle Iroh pt. 2

Iroh had imagined many scenarios when thinking of his long-awaited reunion with his nephew.

Half of them involved his nephew stewing in anger and grief, hoping to catch the avatar.

A little less than half had him concluding that they would never go back, after all, even his stubborn nephew had to give up at some point.

A very small handful of them had his nephew introducing his pretty girlfriend to him and telling him he wished to settle down. These were his favorite and most wished-for.

He never expected to see his nephew would be being taken care of by a young Earthbender, who seemed to love and care for him.

He would also admit he didn't expect to see him going through a spiritual change, one that Iroh had hoped he would go through for years.

If he's going through a spiritual metamorphosis then it means he has done something contradictory to his previous image of himself. He had to have done something drastic. Simply giving up on returning home would not have been enough. He would have had to do something that directly goes against the ideals of the Fire Nation. The ideals of his father. The ideals that he has spent his entire life trying to live up to.

He took another look at the young Earthbender that was sitting protectively in front of his nephew. After he had seen his nephew's condition he immediately began to undress him and start working to lower his fever. He had almost fainted when he saw the bruises lining his body, but refrained from asking the young girl about them in favor of dressing all his wounds.

When the young girl asked him if there was anything she could do, he directed her to change the wet towel on his forehead every hour or so. She had not missed a single change since and had not left his nephew's side.

He had been focused on making sure his nephew's condition was stable so he hadn't had the time to talk to her yet.

But now that his nephew was stable he wished to know more about her, after all, if what she said was true then she was his new niece and he wanted to make a good impression.

"I believe I should reintroduce myself. I am Iroh, Zuko is my nephew and I have been looking for him for a long time. I can not thank you enough for looking out for him, he usually likes to believe he must do everything for himself, so knowing he had your company has relieved me immensely."

Toph looked at Sparky's uncle. She didn't know what to feel about him. She knew Sparky loved him, and from what she had felt as he cleaned Sparky, his Uncle loved him too.

She didn't want to admit that she was a little nervous about how he would react. From what she knew about his life, this was the one other person besides her that loved Sparky. She wouldn't say she was looking for his approval or anything, because she was Sparky's sister regardless of what he said, but she would be lying if she said she didn't want it.

She looked over to Sparky and thought about what he would tell her to do.

He would tell me to be myself. He loves the real me. That's enough. If his Uncle doesn't like it then that's his problem, not mine.

"Don't worry about it Gramps, I wanted to look out for him. It's the least I can do for all he's done for me."

Iroh was slightly surprised by the nickname, after all, he wasn't a grandpa yet, although he wished for it one day. He was more surprised by the fact that the young Earthbender had been taken care of by his nephew. His nephew who had left him in a cloud of rage and despair had looked after the little girl in front of him, and it seems like she did the same for him as well.