#72 - Noon - Iroh
isn't indifferent towards the color red...
Title:
Seeing Red
Author: Boomeraang
Word Count:
290
Warnings: None.
Challenge: #72 - Noon
Notes:
What is Iroh's greatest fear?
The sky was always red this time of day. Either a tinge or an all-out splash of crimson, like the flowing blood of the goat (mixed into a stew, his specialty) they would eat that evening when the sun was well and truly gone from the sky.
It was the contrast of the sun going down over mountains and mingling with the hazy fog that went over the city, masking the evils that were done there.
There was something satisfying about the color red, something passionate; something that made him surge with the power from his youth and try to ignore the feelings of destruction that came when his eyes met the crimson color he was once so loyal to.
He wasn't that man anymore.
He had been hard. He had been strong. He had ignored so many cries for help at the conquest of his nation.
The Dragon of the West.
Oh, how he once enjoyed hearing that name. To know the fear it inspired in others.
The bright overlay of the red reflection swept over him, the fire within him surging as if an accelerant had just been added to the mix.
He waited until the embers burned down, before he went back inside.
There was tea to serve. A nephew to love. A reformed man to be.
Sometimes Iroh wondered if (when it came down to it) he could be that man again. Seeing the bright tinge of red in the afternoon sun, he knew the answer.
Deeper still, he knew that it was what he was running from and why he intended to live out the rest of his years in the Earth Kingdom, where he could have peace and (more importantly) be safe... from himself.