Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender belongs to Bryke and Nickelodeon, not me.
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He had been quiet for some time now.
Half his face was lost in bandages. His visible eye was closed tightly and ringed with bruising; his thin lips were pale and tight. He clutched at the blankets in his sleep, like a frightened child.
"He'll recover," the healer said, answering his unvoiced question. She seemed too young for her profession- but then again, everyone seemed young to him now. "The skin is beginning to heal."
"Will he be able to travel soon?" he asked quietly.
The healer paused, then touched the jars on the nighttable. "I heard about the fire lord's edict," she said. She glanced down at the boy in the bed. "Yes, he can travel. He'll need to rest often, though, in order to stave off infection."
She bent over the unconscious boy and tugged at the bandages. He stood by silently as she unwound the strips of white cloth, revealing his ravaged face. Underneath the skin was raw and red. The burn crawled from the bridge of his nose to the nape of his neck.
Without thinking he sighed. He had been such a handsome child. He looked like his mother- the same oval face and determined chin, the same round ears, the same straight nose. Now he was lost behind his injuries.
The young healer picked up a ceramic jar and twisted off the lid. The room filled with the sharp, spicy scent of rosemary. She dabbed the cream on her finger and smoothed it over the red angry slash across his face.
"It looks bad now, but he truly is healing," she said. "It's been two months now. Time is helping."
He watched the young woman gently spread the salve over the burns. She was gentle, almost caressing the damaged skin. It was probably the closest to a mother's touch he had experienced in several years.
"What about his sight?" he asked quietly.
She was silent for a moment. "He will be blind in that eye by the time he's thirty," she said quietly.
"And his hearing?"
"The same."
He studied the boy. The young healer put the lid back on the jar with a definite click. She wiped her hands on the white pinafore that covered her red dress. "I know I shouldn't say this," she said quietly. "But Fire Lord Ozai is a monster to do this to his child."
He could only nod. The healer walked towards the door, but caught his arm as she brushed by. "He is awake," she whispered, and she left the room.
The boy slept, his eyes closed and his thin chest rising and falling. His dark hair, left untied, brushed against his forehead. He was pale, save the burn.
"You were only a child when I left for Ba Sing Se," he said. His voice seemed uncommonly loud in the small, silent room. "You were playing in the garden with your mother and sister. Azula had fallen asleep in the sunshine, but you leaped to your feet to bid us goodbye."
He sat down carefully on the edge of the bed. "Us," he repeated. "Me, and your cousin Lu Ten." He smiled. "You idolized your cousin. Not a day went by that you did not follow at his heels, begging him to show you some new trick. And he always obliged."
The boy still seemed to sleep. But his breathing seemed to be quicker now.
"Lu Ten was a kind soul, a gentle soul," he continued. "Taking him into battle was…it was the greatest mistake I ever made. But I did it anyway." He stared out the window at the dry brittle trees, shriveled and brown in the summer draught. "I left my son at the mercy of my enemies, and he paid with his life. All because I left him."
He reached over and gripped the boy's hand. He was thirteen now- a young man. But his hands were still slight and his fingers were still thin, without the calluses and firmness that betrayed experience and age. He was still a child, after all.
"I will not leave you, Zuko," he said. "I will not allow you to be left behind."
He sat by his bed, lost in the silence. The boy still seemed to sleep, his eyes closed. But slowly his thin fingers closed over his uncle's strong hand, and he gripped it like a man drowning.
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Author's Notes:
No one has written anything about the time period between the agni kai and the banishment- at least, not from Iroh's view. So since I couldn't find it, I wrote it.
This is also ties with another oneshot I wrote, called "Solace."
Hope you liked it! Leave a review if you did! (or didn't, either way…)