"What is the point of pining after a lost love, when you have the chance to move on?"

There was a heavy silence in the office.

"I'm sorry, sir. General Iroh is on leave."

"Who is second in command?"

"Commander Bumi of the Second Division is, sir." Quo said. "But he had handed in his resignation last week and his retirement was finalized yesterday."

He groaned. "Who is his replacement?"

"Uhhh… They are still looking through the candidates, sir."

Why did it seem like Republic City's most incompetent people were sent to handle the Military? Spirits, it wasn't even the army itself; it was just the bloody government connections.

"Get Hiro here, this instant."

Having ditched the boys, Asami and Korra were lounging in Asami's indoor pool which conveniently had a Jacuzzi installed beside it. They had gotten together again for their vacation planning. Korra was just going into detail about some of the activities they could do during the festival when they were interrupted by one of Asami's butlers.

"Miss Sato." He greeted while handing her the phone.

Asami had talked to someone over the line and Korra safely assumed that it was business related as Asami had mentioned something about stocks and a meeting at some point. Korra dunked her head and stayed under the water enjoying being submerged. By the time she resurfaced, Asami was already done with her call and had just been handing the phone back the butler careful to not get it wet.

"Oh, I forgot to ask you something." Asami said turning to her. She had a stern look on her face as she looked at Korra. "Explain how you get General Iroh to take us to the South Pole."

"He offered." Korra defended. Asami gave her a curious look.

"He's a handsome man." Asami said.

"Yeah. Yeah." Korra said offhandedly.

"Come on, Korra." She pouted. "Do you think he's handsome?" Korra didn't want to admit it but Iroh was a handsome man.

"But he's older than us."

"He can't be that older than us." Asami thought out loud.

"Maybe." Korra replied.

"He seems really likes the avatar a lot." Asami said looking at Korra with an expression that Korra really did not like. But, the avatar was not going to lose this one and attempted to redirect the fire back to Asami.

"What about you?" Korra said. "You're prettier than me. You'd get an absolute shot."

"But, I like someone else." Asami argued. "You don't like someone else, do you?"

"No, I had a bad experience. I'll step away for a while." Korra looked away. They hadn't really talked about it before. In fact, they had been avoiding it. Korra was wondering what Asami was thinking about. Korra felt incredibly guilty about what had happened despite having already apologized for it.

There was a silence.

"Are you mad?"

Asami sighed loudly before replying. "I was. But more at Mako than you."

Their time together had really ended there because Asami was whisked away again by work and Korra had noticed the time. She was going to be late for training and quickly moved to get back to Air Temple Island. Both Asami and Korra were grateful that they had gotten out of having to discussing the issue.

The ring of the door bell echoed throughout the house. Meelo and Ikki were on air scooters racing to the door before Korra stopped them.

"I'll get the door." She said finally. They pouted before zooming off each other across the halls each trying to move faster than the other.

Korra opened the door. She really didn't know who or what to expect but thought it would be someone for Tenzin. But it was the general instead.

"General Iroh." Korra said shocked. "What are you doing here?"

Iroh smiled. "You seem to ask me that particular question a lot, Avatar Korra."

"Well, you seem to be everywhere I am." Korra said.

"Or you happen to be in the area I was supposed to be." Iroh responded. "For example, tonight I was invited by Tenzin to have supper at Air Temple Island, which is why I'm here, and you live here. I was supposed to be here and you're now here as well."

Korra chuckled. The general did actually have a sense of humour, what did you know. Korra was about to reply but Pema had found them at the front door.

"General Iroh, what a pleasure it is to have you join us for dinner." Pema gushed. "Come on in, you must be cold."

Korra finally stepped aside and let Iroh inside. The general was lead away by Pema towards the dining room. Korra just stared after them before shutting the door and the freezing air with it.

The rest of Team Avatar was sitting around in the lounge waiting. Asami, Bolin and Mako arrived at Air Temple Island late in the afternoon entertaining themselves by sparring in the grounds. Asami had opted out due to being a non bender but had challenged Bolin into an old traditional hand to hand brawl. Mako laughed as Asami went to charge Bolin and ended up making Bolin trip over a stone. Eventually, Pema had called them inside because it was getting dark and supper was about to start. Korra had gone to get the door and Jinora and Ikki were sitting with them while Meelo was on an air scooter running around.

Pema came back with General Iroh walking beside her with Korra following behind them.

"Look who's here, Tenzin." Pema said happily.

Mako, Asami and Bolin weren't told that they would have the general with them tonight. Tenzin went out of the next room carrying Rohan and greeted Iroh.

"It is an absolute delight for you to accept our invitation, General Iroh."

"Thank you for having me, Master Tenzin."

Pema took the infant boy from her husband and called them all to the dining room saying dinner was ready. Mako and Bolin immediately followed her and the air bender children were close behind them. Asami waited for Korra and they walked alongside each other talking quietly no doubt about the general's presence at dinner tonight. Tenzin and their guest were the last to get to the room exchanging pleasantries on their way.

Tenzin took his place at the head of the table with Pema carrying Rohan beside him. Jinora and Ikki were seated beside each other to their mother's left. Mako and Bolin were at the end of the table with Asami seated to Ikki's left. Korra and Meelo were stuck together at the bench on Tenzin's left. However, Pema directed General Iroh to Tenzin's right where Korra was usually seated. So, Korra was shifted to the middle of the bench and was in between the general and Meelo.

Tenzin had declared that they could begin to eat and the feast began. Conversations shortly began as they were eating and Bolin and Ikki were already in the middle of an argument. Iroh hadn't had supper with a proper family in years, realized only with his comrades at the United Forces. It was a bit revitalizing to be in such a calmer environment. Iroh meant his words earlier when he said he was honoured to be here. Master Tenzin had always been kind to him and his family was very interesting to be around. He had never really spent time with them except when he was young and was visiting with family on official business. Iroh was brought out of his thoughts when Pema said something.

"I'm sorry you must hear this a lot, but you look so much like your grandfather."

Jinora perked up and remembered her history books, "Fire Lord Zuko was the one who helped create United Republic together with Avatar Aang, right?"

"Yes, Jinora." Her father replied.

"Isn't he the man with the statue in front of Central Station?" Ikki said.

"Yes." Iroh said quietly.

"Fire lord Zuko is your grandfather?" Ikki asked. "Wouldn't that make you royalty or something?"

Iroh nodded. "It would."

"Daddy, we have royalty in our house." She said excitedly. "He's very important."

"You also had the avatar living with you for the past couple of months." Tenzin pointed out.

"Well, she's just Korra." Ikki said. "But, he's a prince." Korra mock pouted at this statement but did understand what Ikki meant.

"Iroh is going to be the fire lord one day and he's general of the united forces." Pema wasn't really helping him and Iroh's cheeks began to redden.

"That makes him twice as important." Jinora added.

"Yes, well, that isn't going to be for a long while and until then I'll just be in Republic City." Iroh said hurriedly. He honestly wanted this topic to die down quickly.

Unfortunately for him, the children's curiosity was at its peak tonight; the questions kept coming. At some point, Tenzin had tried to tell them to cease asking questions chiding that it was rude. Iroh, however, told Tenzin it was alright and he didn't mind. He didn't think there would be difficult questions asked of him though.

"Do you have to marry some princess one day?" Bolin asked.

Iroh began to choke on his food. Tenzin who was beside him helped him. After he recovered, he answered.

"Not necessarily." Iroh was so not talking about this. He had enough conversations such as this when he came across fire nation citizens whom were interested in the future of the royal family. "Besides, there aren't many princesses around anymore."

Korra flinched thinking about one particular princess, her cousin Eska. Ikki had somehow ready her mind because the next thing that came out of her mouth was, unfortunately, a fact.

"Korra had a cousin who's a princess and there's a prince too." Ikki said.

"Shut up, Ikki." No one exactly knew about her relationship to the Northern water tribes and she'd honestly wanted to keep in that way. She was the avatar, not some royal kid.

"Northern Water tribe?" Iroh asked curious. He had only met them once at a meeting his grandfather brought him along to.

"Yeah."

"I had an… interesting conversation with the prince once." Iroh said.

"Desna and Eska aren't much different, trust me." Korra assured. "But Desna's a lot better than Eska."

Eventually the conversation had steered away from him as Tenzin began to ask questions about their vacation.

"Well, I was going home for the festival." Korra said. "Then I asked Asami if she wanted to come with me and well, eventually everyone would be going."

"South Pole?" Bolin asked. "Who's going to the South Pole?"

"I thought you told me you guys already asked Bolin?" Mako flicked his gaze at both of them alternately.

Asami didn't answer and looked away suddenly finding the walls interesting. Korra, true to form, ignored him and responded only to his brother's question.

Korra having shaken off her initial shock rolled her eyes at him. Of course, they forgot to ask Bolin. "All of us are. We're going to see the Glacier Spirits Festival."

"I can't go with you guys." Bolin said. They all stared at him. Even Iroh whom wasn't as familiar with the teenager as everyone else was stunned. Iroh got the impression that the boy was someone who was carefree and up for adventure, certainly contrasting to his brother. "Just kidding, everyone." He chuckled.

"When are we leaving?"

Mako replied that they were leaving in the morning. Bolin muttered something about packing his things tonight and Mako quickly agreed.

"Dad, can't we go to the festival?" Ikki whined.

"Not this year, sweetheart. We're going to the Air Temples with your Uncle Bumi and Aunt Kya, remember?"

"There are going to be plenty of lemurs." Meelo exclaimed. The adults quietly chuckled at his excitement.

Everyone had turned into conversations about the activities they were going to do once they begin their respective vacations.

"General Iroh, I was wondering, how old are you?"

Iroh blinked at the sudden question. "I just turned twenty three."

Bolin groaned and Korra silently cursed. They actually had a debate about General Iroh's age a few nights ago. Bolin reckoned that he was about twenty one, sticking to his story saying he was supposed to be the youngest general ever. When Asami asked him how old the previous youngest general was, Bolin just shrugged and insisted that he had to be twenty one years old. Korra said that the general was at least more than five years older than her. But she was off by a year. Asami however bet that he was less than 24 but more than what Bolin suggested.

Asami was right.

"That'll be twenty yuans each." Asami said.

"Twenty? I bet ten." Bolin exclaimed. Asami merely smirked as they both handed her the cash. Mako frowned at his friends unimpressed.

Iroh was confused and amused as to why they would bet about his age but decided not to question it.

"No betting on the dining table." Tenzin scolded. He had often had to tell them off for gambling but even his own children did it often.

Hours had passed and eventually, they moved on to the desert where they tasted the chef's apple pies. It was a delicious batch of pies as Bolin had been repeating for the past ten minutes. Not that Mako had noticed. He was too deep in his own thoughts that he hadn't really noticed the conversation pass by around him.

Korra was sitting close to General Iroh so when he tried to reach for one of the dishes lay on the table, his arm bumped into hers. This caused the cup she was holding to topple over and Korra's drink to spill all over her. He apologized profoundly but Korra simply laughed it off and dried her shirt with her bending.

"Well, that's useful." Iroh said.

"It's even more useful to use it alongside fire bending." She said cheekily.

No one had noticed the exchange except for Mako. The air nomad children were keeping themselves occupied by their own pies. Tenzin and Pema seemed to be in their own worlds as they were busy fussing about their infant child. Unable to move on, Bolin and Asami who were on his each side were still at disagreement over the bet.

Mako knew that most of his friend's had no idea why has cold towards General Iroh. Admittedly, he himself was a bit unsure at the beginning as well. His break up with Korra a few weeks ago had caused this massive rift in their friendship and truth be told, he wasn't entirely over her. With General Iroh in close quarters, he felt somehow threatened despite the general doing nothing to suggest such a thing. Mako thought that it was probably nothing to be worried about but Iroh's recurring appearance since the end of his and Korra's relationship had him worried. He didn't like the fact that his friends liked him as well. Bolin and Asami were politely curious about the general therefore, he was afraid that the general would become a constant in their life especially with his close proximity during their vacation. Mako was unfortunately someone who wasn't welcoming about change.

One would question how he even began a relationship in the first place with someone like Korra who is the embodiment of change and adventure always wanting to explore and meet new people.

Asami pinched him.

"What?"

"General Iroh asked you a question."

"Oh… Sorry."

"Are you any good at hand to hand combat?"

"Yeah, sure." Was he being challenged? Mako was unsure what the conversation was about.

"You should have seen him on the pro bending arena." Bolin said launching on some story about the 'good old days'.

"I've never been to a pro bending match in my life." Most of them gawked at him.

"How could you have lived in the United Republic for… uh… How many years have you been here?"

"I left the fire nation at 16. It's my seventh this year." He stated.

"Ohh… well seven years then and never had been to see pro bending?" Bolin said continuing his statement where he left off.

"I never really had the time for it." Iroh shrugged. "Anyway, I was wondering if any of you were interested in either duels or fighting. We have a tradition of competition on board the fire nation ship, fire bending and hand to hand combat only.

"No earth bending?" Bolin asked.

"Well, I don't think so. We never really had anything else except fire benders and non benders on the ship."

"Oh well."

"Do you compete, general?"

"Yes." Iroh said. "Oh and using any other element except fire is considered cheating." He said looking directly at Korra knowing she would be interested in the play.

"I really don't care." Korra said. She was confident in her fire bending. "I challenge you to a duel."

"Korra, you can't go around challenging people to a duel." Tenzin reprimanded.

"It's alright Tenzin." Iroh assured. "I'm sure the avatar can handle herself." He had a glint in his eyes that Korra took as an acceptance to her challenge. She was looking forward to their duel whenever it may be.

A/N: Hello. So, what do you think? Please put it in the review box thing that is in the lower right of this page (I think). Thank you.