Y/N's POV
We had been tracking Zuko for a while, occasionally stopping on the road to drink tea.
We had stopped on a forest path one day, when I decided to ask, "Iroh, what do you think makes somebody a bad person?"
"I think that is subject to opinion and personal morals. Why do you ask?"
Because I want reassurance that I'm not a terrible person.
Because I want somebody to tell me that the air nomads were wrong.
Because I'm not a monster.
"Just food for thought."
I felt somebody behind us, and quickly jumped up, "IROH, LOOK OUT!"
As I jumped up, somebody bent the Earth beneath us, knocking Iroh over. I quickly landed and held up my staff, ready to fight whoever it was.
Iroh was rubbing his back and groaned, "agh... that really hurt my tailbone."
To my surprise, it was a small, tired-looking girl from the Earth Kingdom who couldn't have been much older than Aang.
Instead of fighting, Iroh insisted she joined us for tea.
"Here is your tea. You seem a little too young to be travelling alone."
She took her cup from Iroh and quickly replied, "you seem a little too old to be travelling at all."
Iroh let out a low belly laugh, "perhaps I am."
I sat with my legs crossed and staff in my lap and listened as they spoke.
"I know what you're thinking, I look like I can't handle being by myself."
"I wasn't thinking that."
"You wouldn't even let me pour my own cup of tea."
Perhaps because she's blind.
Well, I thought she was.
"I poured your tea because I wanted to, and for no other reason."
"People see me and think I'm weak, they wanna take care of me, but I can take care of myself by myself."
"You sound like my nephew, always thinking you need to do things on your own, without anyone's support. There's nothing wrong with letting people who love you help you. Not that I love you- I just met you."
I missed Zuko a lot.
It was so nice to have someone my age who didn't run a mile when they saw me.
The young girl started laughing, "so, where is your nephew?"
"We've been tracking him, actually."
"Is he lost?"
"Yes, a little bit. His life has recently changed and he's going through very difficult times. He's trying to figure out who he is and he went away."
"So, now you're following him?"
"I know he doesn't want me around right now, but if he needs me, I'll be there."
"Your nephew is very lucky. Even if he doesn't know it, thank you."
"My pleasure, sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life's true delights."
"No, thank you for what you said- it helped me."
"I'm glad."
"Oh, and about your nephew, maybe you should tell him that you need him, too."
As she got up to leave, I sighed and jumped up, "do you want a lift to wherever you're heading?"
She didn't turn around, but she stopped in her tracks, "oh, are you an air bender?"
How did she-
"Yeah, if you want I can give you a lift on my glider."
"No, thanks. I hate flying."
I shrugged and sat back down, "okay, safe travels."
—
As Iroh and I approached the abandoned town that Zuko had gone into, we noticed orange and blue flames dancing through the air, paired with the sounds of crashing and yelling.
Aang and his friends were fighting with who I believed was Zuko's little sister.
"Hey, Iroh, isn't that Princess Azula?"
He nodded, "we need to hurry, this can't be good."
As we rushed into the town, we found Zuko lying on the ground and rushed over to him. Iroh held out his hand to him, "uncle?"
"Get up."
As Iroh pulled his nephew to his feet, he looked over at me, "Y/N? What are you doing here?"
"There's no time for that. Who are we after?"
"My sister, and then the avatar."
I nodded before using my bending to rush as fast as I could towards the action.
Iroh, Zuko, Aang, Katara, Sokka, the girl we had met earlier and I had Princess Azula cornered.
She looked amongst us, "well, look at this. Enemies and traitors all working together. I'm done, I know when I'm beaten. A princess surrenders with honour."
She held up her hands in surrender, but something felt... off.
"IROH!"
It had happened so fast I barely saw it, but Princess Azula had struck lightning at Iroh.
We all blasted at her simultaneously, but it caused an explosion, in which she disappeared.
As soon as we had fired, Zuko and I rushed to Iroh's side. Zuko looked terrified, but Iroh was still alive.
As Aang and his friends approached, Zuko turned and yelled, "GET AWAY FROM US!"
Katara stepped forwards and pleaded, "Zuko, I can help!"
But he sent flames at them as he screamed out, "LEAVE!"
After they left, I exhaled, "let's get him inside; we brought supplies with us. I'm no nurse but I'll see what I can do."
Zuko took a deep breath before wordlessly following my instructions.
Once I had done what I could with the supplies we had, I bandaged him up and set him down to rest.
After a while of sitting in silence, waiting for Iroh to wake up, Zuko finally spoke, "I thought you was going leave to the Air Temples when I left."
I sighed, "I thought about it... I probably would've gone eventually. But there's no one there for me to go back to, if I had left Iroh, who knows how long I'd be alone for?"
He didn't respond, just stared into the empty space in front of him, waiting for his uncle to wake up.