Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own Nickleodeon's "Avatar: The Last Airbender" or its associated characters. No profit is gained from the writing and publishing of this story but should the creators, legal owners, their solicitors or the site administration of deem this post offensive and request it's removal, it shall of course be taken down without hesitation.
The prompts that inspired all pieces of this collection belong to Rashaka and her community 64damn-prompts (written with an underscore instead of a dash) at livejournal. There they have been posted under the name 'kirschreich', which is the name of my writing journal.
Author's Note: Most of these pieces are set some time after the conclusion of the series. It is definitely a Zutara A/U. Although it does not seem like it, the individual snippets are in fact connected.
Ratings vary – corresponding warnings are included in every chapter.
Please note that this story features the regular community prompts, revisited prompts (meaning prompts that have been picked up a second time) and versus prompts (meaning drabbles containing/relating to two or more prompts).
02 Balance
Theme: #12 – children
Characters: Iroh
Warnings: none
Rating: G
All things need balance, for without it eventually existence will cease to be and everything will turn into nothing. Balance means that there is a certain order to things. The creation of Life, which is infinite, is opposed by Death, which shall remain so as well until Life is no longer created.
Both, Life and Death need each other.
Balance is essential: life and death, love and hate, creation and destruction, hope and despair, dark and light - without the balance of it's counterpart, either loses its purpose and therewith its basis for existence.
Balance means that there is a certain order to things and during the course of his life, Iroh has learned how important balance and order are.
More often than not, his lessons were painful ones, even traumatic. But the retired general always knew to acknowledge the worth of a lesson learned and it is this what he tries to impart on Prince Zuko, the banished heir to the Fire Nation's throne, although his achievements so far are disputable. For this, Iroh can fault neither the boy nor himself; it is not Zuko's fault that he was raised to dominate nor that he is too young (and too desperate) to sheath the blindness that comes with youth's vigor and just as well, it is not Iroh's fault that old age has robbed him of the strength necessary to tame the prince.
But what he does fault himself for is not speaking often and insistent enough and he resents Zuko's refusal to listen to and think about what he says. With a frown, the wizened firebender realizes that the young earthbender traveling with the Avatar might not be able to see, but unlike his nephew she is neither blind nor deaf. Because little Toph, Iroh could tell what to see, but young Zuko has to see and discover the truth with his own eyes, must not be influenced by others so that he can acknowledge and accept the nature of things in his own time. His own time - Iroh fears that the prince does not have much time left. (And neither has he, but Zuko mustn't know that just yet.)
The mask, of course, was not a surprise. Neither the first nor the second time he discovered it in Zuko's possession. It only proofs what he knows is true: that even through his father's teachings (which could well be described as wicked, just as the teachings of their father could be), a part of Zuko inherently knows what is right and wrong. May Agni smile upon and bless you, my dear Ursa, wherever your are... It is this part, that has assumed the persona of the Blue Spirit, this part that has set out to discover the truths the world has to offer and that is willing to compare and evaluate them.
It is this part, that will eventually lead the prince's steps towards love, towards the person that will balance out all the hate bottled up behind those hawk-like eyes and the flame shaped scar that, for the last couple of years, has loomed over the boy as a larger-than-life memento of shame or honor, of courage or cowardice - Iroh doesn't dare to speak it out loud.
Iroh believes that the children are the future for adults have already ruined the past and all things need balance.
