A seed planted...
Dec. 14th, 2006 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
princeinexile"Uncle" -- was getting to be a very popular to start a sentance.
"Uncle, don't you have friends who don't want to kill us?"
"Uncle, we don't have time for pai sho!"
"Uncle, I thought you said he'd help us!"
"Uncle, what's all this about?"
Iroh was in control, Zuko had realized inside a pot on the way to the Great Walled City of Ba Sing Se. Iroh was in control of their shared destiny. This planted a seed of worry inside Zuko; he did not know what the old man expected to accomplish within the safety of the walls of Ba Sing Se, where of course, no Fire Nation mercenary or hunter could expect to find them...
But neither did he want to be there. Not when the old man flirted his way across, or bought things for their apartment and hinted that maybe Zuko ought to consider dating on this side of the world.
Jet -- the troublesome boy who had tried to get Zuko to join some freedom fighter cause was forgotten -- they'd made a little trouble, and Zuko had enjoyed that. He'd taken control, briefly -- but only to follow another's example. But that was Jet's destiny, not his. Iroh was starting to map his destiny in Ba Sing Se.
Zuko wanted to ask: uncle, what about my destiny? But the words died on his tongue when he looked at the shabby, Lower Ring apartment, the threadbare blankets, the cracket pottery-- cast offs and charity donations from the middle and upper ring, the used and discard and the no longer fine. They ate slop and he hungered for something better. They slept on straw and he remembered feather beds.
The seed of worry planted before they stepped into the city found fertile soil in his spirit, and began to germinate. A thorny thing that would choke reason, would poison sense...
"Uncle, don't you have friends who don't want to kill us?"
"Uncle, we don't have time for pai sho!"
"Uncle, I thought you said he'd help us!"
"Uncle, what's all this about?"
Iroh was in control, Zuko had realized inside a pot on the way to the Great Walled City of Ba Sing Se. Iroh was in control of their shared destiny. This planted a seed of worry inside Zuko; he did not know what the old man expected to accomplish within the safety of the walls of Ba Sing Se, where of course, no Fire Nation mercenary or hunter could expect to find them...
But neither did he want to be there. Not when the old man flirted his way across, or bought things for their apartment and hinted that maybe Zuko ought to consider dating on this side of the world.
Jet -- the troublesome boy who had tried to get Zuko to join some freedom fighter cause was forgotten -- they'd made a little trouble, and Zuko had enjoyed that. He'd taken control, briefly -- but only to follow another's example. But that was Jet's destiny, not his. Iroh was starting to map his destiny in Ba Sing Se.
Zuko wanted to ask: uncle, what about my destiny? But the words died on his tongue when he looked at the shabby, Lower Ring apartment, the threadbare blankets, the cracket pottery-- cast offs and charity donations from the middle and upper ring, the used and discard and the no longer fine. They ate slop and he hungered for something better. They slept on straw and he remembered feather beds.
The seed of worry planted before they stepped into the city found fertile soil in his spirit, and began to germinate. A thorny thing that would choke reason, would poison sense...
