Disclaimed
Team Avatar is doomed to fall apart, because the Krew, as Bolin dubbed them, are children.
Or perhaps it was because they aren't exactly children.
Aang and his friends, just years younger than Korra and her friends, had that innocence that meant that friendships were more than just friendships. To children, friendships were bonds to depend on, to maintain carefully.
To half-grown, almost adults, like Korra, Mako, Bolin and Asami, friendships crumbled easily under their own need for independence, and determination, their own willingness to never be wrong.
Petty things could ruin them.
Korra can see the cracks, in the spaces between the tense words spoken, as the war blossoms around them.
Amon escapes, spreading equalist propaganda through the Earth Kingdom.
Korra chases him, but not with team Avatar; not with a motley crew of teenagers. She goes with the General, because he asks her, trusts, admires her, but does not humble himself before her. He doesn't act like she has all the answers, he doesn't coddle her, or hold her back.
He watches her soar, falling, crashing and fighting, and always has another plan at the ready.
Soon the years pass and the war ends.
Team Avatar reunites as adults, but Korra stays with Iroh, who has become both her anchor and her launch point.
They don't understand, but he does.
He's a firebender but he understands her needs, so he ebbs and flows just like the water, always there but never trying to over power her; always ready to be pushed away, and always willing to return.
Korra thinks she loves him more than the moon herself and Iroh can be happy with that.
