Title: The Game
Characters: Iroh, Ozai
Summary: Ozai catches Iroh with smuggled tea.
Disclaimer: I do not own avatar.
His brother had been a nuisance as of late. He was following Iroh around, like a stalker. Iroh found his brother's behavior to be beyond just annoying. He had even asked their father to make Ozai stop, but Azulon laughed it off. The old Fire Lord just told his son that Ozai's behavior was a form of flattering.
The truth was Ozai didn't admire Iroh. The younger prince was just being a brat, looking for a way to get his big brother in trouble. Just by the time he was deciding that Iroh was the most boring Fire Nation prince in all of history he discovered something interesting. Iroh was acting suspicious every time he returned from the Earth Kingdom. The elder Fire Nation prince would always take a bag into his private quarters immediately. Ozai never got a good opportunity to find out exactly what was in the bag, until one time. Iroh just set the bags down and quickly left his room, perhaps for an emergency war meeting. Ozai snuck into the room and began going through his brother's things.
"Brother, what are you doing?!" Iroh demanded upon his return. He had just left to use the bathroom.
"I was just looking for you," Ozai said innocently. "I was wondering if you had brought back a present for me."
"Why would I bring you back a present after you've been nothing but a pest for the last few months?" Iroh asked.
Ozai grinned like the cat-owl that ate the canary-rat. His brother was right, it was an unbelievable excuse. Iroh had never bought him a gift in his entire life.
Out of the corner of his eye Ozai caught a glance at something that didn't belong. There was some green material by Iroh's tea set.
"What's that?" Ozai asked, unable to contain his giddiness at the idea of having caught Iroh with something he shouldn't have.
"Oh, that!" replied Iroh. "It's nothing. It's just tea."
Ozai examined it more closely. To his disappointment, his brother was right. It was just tea. But something wasn't right, it was a type of tea that was only produced in the Earth Kingdom. Sadly, that information was not particularly useful. Nobody would care if the crowned prince had forbidden tea. Their father was certainly not going to care, he had no shortage of luxuries from the Earth Kingdom shipped in on a regular basis. But perhaps he could at least have some fun with Iroh over it.
"See?" Iroh laughed at his brother. "It's just tea."
"You're pathetic," Ozai said. "You smuggle in tea, contraband tea, for your own pleasure. It seems sad that would you betray your own nation for tea."
"You've got it all wrong," Iroh corrected. "I need that tea, its important. It's not like I gave up any national secrets for it."
"I doubt it," Ozai sneered. "You probably just get a kick from drinking illegal tea."
"I guess I should explain," Iroh began. "You see Earth Kingdom tea is an acquired taste. It is more bitter than our tea. I need to be accustomed to drinking it to get vital information for the war."
Ozai rolled his eyes, "Tea all tastes the same."
"Only to inexperienced tea drinkers," Iroh stated sagely. "It's a whole another story to experts."
"Nonetheless, you still have done something illegal," Ozai said before he stormed off. He couldn't stand listening to his brother's tea talk anymore.