(Zutara) Hold it Gently; My Heart Burns For You

Exposed

She needs to learn the rules first, and spends an hour getting the basics down with Iroh's gentle instruction.

"Do you know why I prefer the lotus manoeuvre, Katara?" Iroh asks after setting down his first piece in their newest game.

She can barely grip the basic stratagems. If he's used the lotus before, she doesn't recognise it. "No."

"It requires patience. It emboldens gentle movements, a light touch, for lotus petals are extremely delicate. Not things opponents expect from a Firebender," he says as if he knows that's exactly what she'd been thinking. "My nephews touch is not yet so gentle. He has not yet grasped why I insist on brewing my tea with tools instead of my hands, so you can imagine I haven't showed him this method of play. Yet, he tries. He continues to play, and he drinks my tea."

Katara watches the old man smile, fond and sincere as he considers his next move. It's for her benefit. It never takes him long to beat her.

"So, when he tries, he finds he causes more damage than he intends. I always try to impress upon him the importance of his basic training. Walking before he runs. Taking a moment to breathe. Destination, unfortunately, is his only aim. He forgets what he might step on along the journey."

"So, by shrouding his behaviour in metaphors of flowers and tea, you think that excuses it?"

"No, my dear. But he has spent these last weeks learning so much about you, I thought you might like to gain an understanding of him in return."

She bristles at his implication Zuko returning a history stolen from her was out of the goodness of his heart. "What I want to understand is why he deems it acceptable to chuck scrolls of cultural appropriation at me, but won't answer my questions when his distractions prove unsuccessful. Why does being a waterbender from the southern watertribe put me in danger?"

Forthcoming Iroh hesitates. It isn't until that pause between his inhale and his answer that real fear sinks into Katara's heart. It starts as a trickle but, true to her nature, the flood consumes her the longer Iroh takes to answer.

"Zuko would prefer history be forgotten. He thinks it the best way to move forwards. It is an unfortunate trait of youth. Vanity and worth get too mixed up." Perhaps unconsciously, Iroh rubs his hand down the left side of his face. "But I ask you, Katara, if history were so brushed aside, how could we learn from our mistakes?"

She hears how he seems to seek her permission, but for what she can't tell. To reveal Zuko's truth? To forgive him for it?

"We can't." she consents.

"It was before Zuko's time," he starts, desperate to preserve his nephew in some light to her. "Before Ozai and myself. Azulon, my father, was learning under Sozin. As you know, the air nomads were being wiped from the face of the world. The temples were only accessible via Sky Bison, until my father launched his first campaign in my Grandfather's name. He used his dragon hunters to tame the beasts before their ultimate culling. They brought soldiers dressed in air nomad yellows to the base of the cliffs, where they scaled to reach the temples. I won't bore you with the details.

"But my father did not stop with the air nomads. His subjugation of the smaller Earth Kingdoms was a bold first step, cementing his first foothold into the mainland. There he birthed the colonies, colonies we still fight to establish to this day under my younger brother. But Earth is not the only element we fight."

"The Watertribes."

He nods, moves a piece on the board. Katara didn't realise they were still playing, while a weight presses Iroh down. He can't seem to lift his eyes from the piece he finishes moving. "And that in itself was the problem for my father. Multiple tribes, too many to comfortably keep on top of. The North was the older, and, more important to my father, deeper entrenched in its traditions. They keep one half of their population from learning how to martial their waterbending." For some reason he pauses, waiting to see if she has any comment. "A people half of warriors and healers is easier to control than a people of equal merit."