[Zuko's Suite - milliways_bar]

[princeinexile]

The boy hasn't felt like this in ages. Taken care of, tired despite that. It's like-- home.

He doesn't find that comforting, sadly.

So he sits before the window, looking out, wrapped up in a blanket and looking surly, his eyes half-lidded as he thought about other things. He fingered the edge of the blanket, quiet. He can hear the old man putter about, and thinks of it; he hasn't seen him in some time, but he doesn't know... what to say, what to think. It feels so strange to see him, to wnoder... wonder what to do with him, what to say to him...

"Ne, uncle..." He pauses quietly. "...Do you want to see Wells' world, someday?"

It's a start. Probably not what they really need to talk about, but... a start.

Comments

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"Mmm, how is the food there?" Iroh asked. He was tidying up a bit, trying to make Zuko's room more comfortable.

[princeinexile]

"Lots of variety. I think you'll like Indian. I did," Zuko says thoughtfully.

Nice. Mild. Neutral conversation.

Why does he feel stupid making it?

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

Because he thinks too much?

Or maybe because there are more important issues being left untouched, important things being left unsaid...

"I think I would like to pay a visit then," he said. "There are few places back home I have not seen."

[princeinexile]

The prince rubs the back of his neck.

"I think when I get better, I'll ask Wells what we're going to do. When-- he wants to--"

Go back, wrap things up.

He tilts his head quietly, and then looks away from the window. "After that I'm going back through the door, if it'll let me." And see where life takes him.

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"Where were you last?" Iroh asked. "Wells told me that this place spirits people away at different times, that you may not have been taken from the same time as me."

Iroh was avoiding Zuko's eyes, making himself some tea.

[princeinexile]

"We'd just left the inn, started our running." He smooths his hand over his hair. "We'd seen Azula not weeks before... I'd..." he glances aside, "Just liberated a ostrich-horse... I stumbled through the woods one day, went to get water, and found myself here."

Is that a good enough timeframe for you, Iroh?

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"Hmmmm," Iroh rumbled thoughtfully.

[princeinexile]

"...what?" Zuko glances over, frowning.

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"I am from some time later in our travels," explained Iroh.

[princeinexile]

"But you're not going to tell me anything, are you?" he asks. "You're-- going to make me wonder? Suppose that's fair."

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"Now now, I did not say that," Iroh said. "If I do tell you, you must do things exactly as I saw you do. I dare not even consider what would happen otherwise. But first, before I tell you anything, I need to know, what do you plan to do when you go back?"

[princeinexile]

"... I don't know," Zuko says quietly. He doesn't know what to do. That was the problem!

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"May I make a suggestion?" Iroh asked. "Keeping in mind that this is what you may very well do?"

[princeinexile]

Zuko nods quietly, tiling his head. "Alright, uncle."

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"Find your own way."

Iroh sipped his tea, still not looking at his nephew.

"You cannot spend the rest of your life in a cave, Zuko. I am an old man, and I have lived my life. I can. It is something I understand now, the path you chose in my time."

[princeinexile]

Zuko glances away, and sighs. "I don't know what-- to say," Zuko says slowly. "I just- don't know what I'm going to do."

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"'Go not where the path may lead--strike out to make a new path and leave a trail,'" Iroh said. "You will either find the path you are meant to follow or make a new one for yourself--you are strong enough."

[princeinexile]

Which is why he's been hiding from his own world in another one.

Strong. Hah!

"And if I go... to Wells world, and I do not return?"

He's thought about it.

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"Then I will miss you greatly," Iroh said. He finally looked up to meet Zuko's eyes, "And I know that you doubt yourself, I know that you think I am an old fool for beleiving it...but I think our world will want for lacking Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation."

[princeinexile]

The boy would not meet his gaze.

"I don't think it will miss anything at all," he says quietly. "I am not a prince any longer."

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"You say that as if it is just a title."

[princeinexile]

"Isn't it?"

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"Have you fought and struggled these last three years for just a title, Zuko?" Iroh asked him. "Or something more?"

[princeinexile]

"For something unattainable."

A father's respect, a home to return to.

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"You have been fighting for your honor."

Which, as far as Iroh was concerned, he had never lost. But he would have to keep fighting for it to realize that.

"Is that something you can regain in Wells' world?"

If he ran, he'd never know.

"There are other ways to regain your honor than gaining my brother's respect."

[princeinexile]

"Have I? Or was it pride?"

He doesn't know anymore. He tilts his head quietly, and then says, "He stripped it. How can I get it when he is the one who took it? Thus-- he has the power to restore it to me," isn't that a simple way to seeing it? Logical, really.

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"There is more than one way to burn down a city, Zuko," Iroh said. "Perhaps you will find another way to regain your honor." Or realize he had never lost it. "You are right that it was partly pride--and that is the problem. Can you walk away, never knowing what could have happened, and not regret it later?"

Quietly, "You are trying to run away from your problems, from your hopelessness, and perhaps a new life would be easier, but I have never known you to be one who runs away."

And that there was the clincher.

[princeinexile]

Zuko hangs his head quietly, before he gets up, and casts his blankets aside.

"...I'm going down into the bar." He picks up his clothing, and then looks at his old greens -- they don't quite fit right anymore, so he wears his modern clothing.

He is slien for a time, before he says, "I promise I won't go anywhere from there. Not through the Door."

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"You need not make any promises to me," Iroh said sincerely. "The only promise I would ever wish to hear you make is a promise not to stop fighting."

Whether in Wells' world, fighting for a better life, or in their own world fighting for...for his honor, a purpose, some unnattainable something...

[princeinexile]

At the moment? That's too much to ask of the boy, and the defeat is plain on his face.

"Do you want anything brought up later?" he asks, instead.

[ginsengdragon.livejournal.com]

"No thank you. I am fine for now." He sipped his tea.

[princeinexile]

"Alright," he says.

And he left the room, and went down into the bar.