Thicker than Water

By Arie Annette

Summary: Still feeling guilty and desperate to be absolved, Fire Lord Zuko invites his uncle Iroh on what is meant to be a sort of spiritual retreat. When Sokka and Katara offer to escort them to the South Pole, everyone learns the difference between forgiving and forgetting, and between loyalty and love. Multiple pairings, but focuses on family.

Prologue : Desperado

Aang knew before he even opened his eyes that he wasn't alone. Someone had silently opened the door to his guest room in the palace of the Fire Lord, and was now looming over his bed, no doubt waiting to make sure that the coast was clear before he or she struck. Swallowing a surge of terror, Aang braced himself, screwed up his courage, and opened his eyes, ready to spring from the bed, uproot the intruder, and make a break for the hall.

Fire Lord Zuko, dressed in blood-red, embroidered pajamas which were too large for him, waved at Aang. "Uh, hi. Sorry to wake you. I needed to ask-!"

"Ugh." Aang relaxed against the bed with an exasperated grunt. "You nearly scared the air out of me. You should say something when you come in like that, maybe something like "Hi, I'm not here to kill you, so don't throw me across the room."

Zuko blinked at him. "You were gonna throw me across the room?"

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, Aang sat up to give the Fire Lord his full attention. "Uh…yeah. Probably."

"Okay. Well, I'll remember that next time." Zuko took a deep breath. "Let's start over. Hi, it's me, Fire Lord Zuko.I'm not here to kill you, so please don't throw me across the room. How'd you sleep?"

"Great," replied Aang, "I-!"

"Glad to hear it," interrupted Zuko. "So, can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Can we go to Ba Sing Se?"

Aang took a look out the window. It was still very dark out, and was probably still only a couple of hours after midnight. "Now?" he asked.

"Yeah." Zuko was trying not to look apologetic.

Aang looked at him for a couple of minutes before asking, "is there some kind of emergency? Someone in trouble?"

Shaking his head, Zuko muttered, "no…I just want to see my uncle."

Aang sat and waited for him to go on, but Zuko said nothing. Finally, Aang asked "you wanna talk about it?"

"No," grumbled Zuko.

"Okay," continued Aang, "but if you want me to get out of this nice soft bed and take you flying all the way to the Earth Kingdom at this hour, you probably oughta tell me just what's going on. That'd be the polite thing to do."

Zuko raised an eyebrow.

"And if you don't, I probably won't want to take you," Aang finished.

Zuko sighed.

"I guess I want to surprise him," he began, reaching behind him to close the open door of the guest room. "If I wait until morning, and everyone knows that I'm leaving, I'll have to take three of the palace guard, and probably a couple of the royal firebenders, and maybe even Mai. You know how she hates it when I go off by myself. I just…want to see him by myself for a little while, without all the fanfare."

Aang shrugged. "Sounds good to me," he said. "But, how come you look so down about it? Whenever you mention your uncle, your mouth gets all tight, and you look like you're trying to just get it over with. I thought you really liked General Iroh. So what's so awful about going to see him?"

Zuko didn't say anything, but instead spent a few moments staring out the window and avoiding Aang's eyes.

"Well…okay." Aang shrugged, and let it go. "I'll take you, but before we go, you should leave a message for Mai. I do know how she hates it when you go off by yourself."

Zuko nodded, and went off in search of a piece of paper.