Prompt: Legacy

His legacy was one that was passed from generation to generation, taught in classrooms and turned into songs. There can be people that disagree with him, and claim that his 'honorable' deeds were anything but, however... They can't deny the fact that the man did have one rather impressive legacy.

Before he even left the human world, he had statutes and plaques and people who saw him as a hero. From people who could now live without the fear of being captured for bending anything but fire, from people that didn't fear raising their children in wartime, from people who realized that even if their past was dark, they can still have a grand future.

The boy that risked himself for his country, the teenager that turned his back to the evil of his family and helped win the war, the young man that built a city for all nations to coexist, the old man that kept the new avatar safe once she arrived.

It also didn't hurt that he was the youngest fire lord to have ever been. Tales of how he stumbled sometimes, not knowing how to run this country without fear or intimidation. Of how he'd yell and scream at times, panic when there needed to be calm. Yet, no one can forget when he'd always come back to his senses and apologize. How he'd fix whatever mess he'd made, as well as whatever caused his freak out.

Those were lessons spoken by the Fire Nation itself, mostly. The other countries new him by how he was willing to help them rebuild what his forefathers had taken away, and he was willing to be with them to do it himself. They told their children of how the man with the scar showed them that he did care for their people as well as his own, having been near them and seeing the hurt caused to them. About how he never let them think that he was mightier than they because he weld a different element then the natives of the land. The man had showed, not only told, that he did care and wanted to make amends. And they respected him for that.

Yes, those were reasons why he stood out politically. Those were the stories passed down in history class and during office meetings. But, his legacy was bigger than what a classroom can hold. The stories of how he knew the poorest people better than some of the nobles that he had dinner with. When he wouldn't have been afraid to speak with the poor or help those in need, or when he didn't care of his robes dirtied as children of low income families would try pulling him in all different directions. The warmth of people's eyes as they told tales of how for the first time in over a hundred years, the Fire Nation had a leader that loved them, not power. He called his workers by their names, he walked about the market square, he sat and spoke with people much lower than he, yet he still spoke to them as if they were all equal. He'd speak with his people as if they were all the same in his eyes, from the shiniest noble to the dirtiest poor. He loved them all the same.

He also had a dragon. There were many tales of how he had gotten it, from his uncle saving it for him after he slew it's parents to the young man stumbling upon it in a sacred temple. Many different stories of how he tamed it, how he raised it, where he kept it. Yet, they all had a thing in common: he never used his animal companion to hurt another in cold blood or scare someone for some fun. Those stories were rather exaggerated at times, claiming the man used his red beast to cease a tsunami from happening when it was only Druk stopping a drink from spilling after his human had knocked it over. Nonetheless, the stories went on and were told over and over.

It didn't hurt him any that his best friend was the avatar, either. How he came from a family of men greedy for power and used to blood shed but turned his back to them, all he knew, for the greater good. For two water tribe siblings, a blind earthbender, a teenage fan warrior, and an endangered airbender. The stories of their mismatched gang of all the nations thrown together, but all still the best of friends nonetheless. They'd all come quite far from the beginning, but there was no way they could ever imagine what life would be like without the people by their sides.

From defeating the Phoenix King, to building Republic City, even to just owning a dragon, he left a legacy in this world.

That was the public legacy he left. The one of honor and courage, friendships and lost loved ones. Stories told in classrooms, on stages, and at dinning tables. Ones everyone knew and everyone loved.

When he's old and white-headed, hearing all this spoke to him as he goes from city to city and town to town, he realizes this is the legacy he left to them. And he's proud of that. He wouldn't never change it if given the chance, nor would be every regret it. His legacy inspires others, and he truly couldn't have lived a happier life.

And when people ask him what legacy inspires him as his inspires them, he gives them a tale of his own of a woman with sharp eyes and a soul of steel, the one that was with him since before he ever showed any signs of being great and stood with him through his ups and downs. The woman that saved his life and forgave him more times than he'd ever be able to apologize for.

He told them the story of Mai, and the legacy she left to him.