Prompt: Forgiveness.

Summary: Iroh won't let the sun settle on an argument, no matter how many times Asami closes her door on him.

The Night is Yours Alone

Iroh has never been the romantic type. He's always been too busy worrying about the Forces; he hardly has the time to think about such sentimentality as feelings of affection or love, even. His thoughts usually consist of the men, the ships, the voyages, and the sea. But at 2:07am, General Iroh finds himself thinking of only one person, standing at the doorstep of her massive estate.

He's not sure exactly how he had gotten there in the first place, all he knows is that one minute he was tossing and turning in his bed, telling himself to forget everything, then the next he was halfway across Republic City because he couldn't.

It was only one careless comment he had thrown out about her father or something stupid like that, meant as a joke. But Asami had taken it personally, and now she's not speaking to him. She has every right to be furious, but he won't sleep until he has her forgiveness.

So he stands under the window of a large bedroom on the second floor, whispering her name as loudly as he can without waking the other members of the estate. Of course she doesn't hear him.

He picks up a rock from the garden and praying to the gods it doesn't smash through the glass and kill her, he tosses it directly at her window. It bounces off with a ker-thunk, but it hasn't stirred a soul. Unnerved, the General picks up another, larger this time, and tosses it up again. It hits louder, and he sees the curtains rustle.

He waits, still, expecting his love to appear on the balcony, moved by his devotion to her. Then he'll apologize, declare his everlasting love for her and they'll run off into the sunset together holding hands and live happily ever after.

But all that appears is a paper airplane, flying out through the crack in the window she's opened. It immediately shuts again. Iroh unfolds it.

I'm not talking to you. Go home, Iroh.

Does she think he'll give up so easily? He's always been such a stubborn determined person, and he's not changing today. He throws another rock, and another, and another. They all hit the glass louder than the last. Then finally, he sees a light turn on in her room.

It turns off just as quickly.

So he selects a very large rock from the garden, about the size of his fist, and throws it as hard as he can, not at the window, but at the fancy potter plant sitting on the balcony.

Bullseye – it shatters loudly into pieces.

He hears a soft shriek from inside, and as he expects, the balcony doors swing open and she leans over the rail, wearing an expression of utter irritation.

"Took you long enough," Iroh says. The girl is not amused, at all.

"You're crazy. You have to go home right now. I'm not talking to you."

"You know what? I don't care. What I said was stupid and thoughtless and I shouldn't have said it. You deserve an apology. I'm not leaving until you hear me out."

"No."

"Fine. Then I'll stay out her the whole night, until tomorrow morning."

"You wouldn't."

"Watch me."

For a second, Asami's expression is one of disbelief, but it quickly changes back to frustration and nonchalance. Iroh has the urge to smirk. She's underestimating him – she thinks he'll give up, go home, sleep and come back tomorrow, where they'll do it all over again. But little does she know.

He really means it. He's not going to leave, he's going to make her listen. Once he does that, he'll tell her how stupid and sorry he is, and beg for her forgiveness. He'll then make it up to her. They'll go out to a nice fancy dinner, and talk for hours well after the sun goes down. And they won't care because they'll be the only two people in the world at that time and place. Then everything will go back to the way it was.

He's willing to do it, absolutely. Because he loves Asami Sato more than anything in the world, whatever he has to do to get her to forgive him, he'll do it without hesitation. If she wants him to climb Mount Makapu, he will. If she wants him to run stark naked through the marketplace, he will. If she wants him to go away, he will, but he'll return the next day, and the next, and the next.

It doesn't matter – she needs to know how much he's willing to do for her. She needs to know how much he loves her.

And she realizes, the next morning, when she opens her balcony doors and sees him sleeping on the grass outside in the exact same place he was last night, that he was telling the truth.