AN: for the comment-fic prompt: Avatar, Iroh + Toph, Even for Iroh, teaching Toph the proper tea ceremony was a challenge. Not because she was blind, but because of her temper. This took inspiration for Japanese and Chinese tea ceremonies.
Iroh ladled water into the tea bowl before setting the ladle back on the pot with a practiced motion. "First one must cleanse the bowl and utensils," he said, carefully whisking water around the bowl before pouring it off into a waste water container. "Purifying the utensils is part of purifying the spirit." He wiped the bowl with the cloth, no motion wasted. "Each motion is measured for no excess movement. Above all, it shows your mastery, restraint and control."
"Uh huh." His pupil slouched, sitting cross legged with her formal wear hiked halfway up her thighs. Iroh frowned, but details could come later. Toph needed to understand the basics and the ceremony's center first.
He had chosen bare earth to demonstrate on so that Toph could 'see' each movement in all their subtleties.
"Next," Iroh said, "We add tea powder to the bowl. Notice how I move my arms only as much as is necessary." He scooped two scoops of powder into the bowl, tapping the scoop on the bowl's rim to remove excess tea. He set the scoop and container back in their proper place with the slow, smooth movements that the task required. "Next comes water." He dipped the ladle in, filling it almost to the brim. Only half went into the tea bowl; the rest he poured back into the pot before resting the ladle across its top. The whole process was silent, a testament to years of perfecting the motions.
"The goal," Iroh said, "is for the guest and host to obtain inner peace. The tea ceremony is an exercise of discipline much like meditation and takes years to master. In a real ceremony, there would be silence. The better for the participants to reflect on the experience."
"You know, when you said you were going to show me something cool, I thought you meant a neat bending trick or something that would embarrass Zuko." Toph crossed her arms, fingers tapping along her biceps.
"Patience, my friend. Rushing such a process lessens its value much like a man rushing through life is sure to not notice the beauty it holds." He lifted the whisk and brought it to the bowl. With quick, precise flicks of his wrist, the liquid in the bowl turned green and frothy. He set aside the whisk and took up the bowl. He turned it three times, knowing that the effect of showing the bowl's patterns would be lost on Toph, but discipline demanding he follow the steps exactly. "And now, the tea is made."
"Finally, Old man." Toph groaned.
"Here." Iroh offered the bowl.
Toph took it and sniffed it. She wrinkled her nose, took a sip and almost immediately spit it back out. "Ugh, what is that? Did you grind up leaves and make a paste from them or what? It's like bitter grass juice!"
Iroh chuckled. "It is a special kind of tea. Green tea leaves are ground into a fine powder."
"It's gross. Why are you teaching me how to make gross tea? You usually make good tea."
"I had hoped," Iroh sighed, "To teach it to Zuko, but he has no appreciation for tea. You on the other hand can appreciate the finer things in life."
"Not when they contaminate my tongue. Blech!"
"This tea is normally served with sweets to counteract the bitterness."
"I could use some sweet now," Toph complained, but she hadn't left yet and she didn't look like she would be leaving for all that she was complaining. "Your Fire Nation tea ceremony makes no sense. There's not even a tea pot involved. You don't appreciate the smell of it or have leaves to steep or anything. It's just a vat of water, a bowl, and a whisk!"
"It is a great deal more than that," Iroh protested. "I take it you are familiar with Earth Nation tea ceremonies?"
"Yeah, and they're just as boring. Although spilling the first brewing of tea all over the pot is fun." She smiled a bit at the thought of making a mess. Iroh could picture the terror she could have been pretending she had no idea how to do the ceremony and spilling tea everywhere but where it was supposed to be poured.
Iroh took the tea from her and drained the bowl in two mouthfuls before rinsing it and setting up the tools again. "Here. Try it. There is something satisfying about getting little details right."
Toph straightened her clothing and sat properly. Iroh noted how once she was seated she looked every bit the upper class young lady she was born as. "How did you do the thing with the ladle again?" she asked.
Iroh demonstrated the movement.
Toph, Iroh reflected, retained a lot more than Iroh thought she would having only followed the ceremony once. Her movements were clumsy, the ladle clacking on the edge of the pot as she misjudged the distance, and some of the waste water from the cleansing hitting next to the waste water pot rather than in it, but she moved silent and serious.
Toph frowned as she scooped tea into the bowl before adding the water-too much water Iroh could tell; it would spill when she went to whisk it, especially as she did not have the wrist technique to keep the tea contained to the center of the bowl. Predictably, she whisked too hard, using too much shoulder and arm and not enough wrist. Tea sloshed over the edge, splashing onto the trailing end of her sleeve. Her frown turned into a glower.
"Here, old man. Tea."
"Thank you, Lady Toph," Iroh said, taking the bowl from her. "That was an admirable first attempt.
Toph snorted. "No it wasn't. I got tea all over and moved way too much."
Iroh sipped the tea, too watery and not as well mixed as it should be. He drank it down anyway. "That's what practice is for."
Toph growled in the back of her throat. "What the heck do you think I'm ever going to need to know this for? I didn't even need to know Gongfu Cha, let alone your weird Fire Nation thing. Who even goes to these ceremonies? Just the nobility?" She waved at her clothes. "I'd rather drink piss poor tea from a chipped clay mug than sit still for hours for a few swallows of ground up leaf soup."
She still didn't storm off though. Iroh took a deep breath and felt for the inner calm the ceremony brought him. "Think of this then, as a way of bonding."
"Ugh. No wonder Sparky calls you a tea freak."
Iroh smiled. "Run through the ceremony again? If you master the basics, perhaps you would be willing to teach me the principles of the Earth Nation ceremony?"
Toph sighed. "Fine. But you owe me sweets for having to drink this bitter crap."
Iroh felt warm fondness suffuse him. It felt like he had drank the best cup of tea in the world. "Thank you, Lady Toph, for your time." More slyly he added, "You know, in the Fire Nation there are a lot of sweets that use that powdered tea as their base."
"Are they actually sweet or do they taste like grass juice?"
"Let us work on the ceremony again, then I will make some for you."
Toph smiled. "Deal. But they'd better be some good sweets or I'm metal bending your kettle into a sieve."