~Chapter 6~

~Hot Water~

Iroh looked at Toph queerly. "Pardon?"

"#What are you doing in my swamp kid?#" Toph tapped her foot. "#Well? Need all day for a reason?#"

"I-I'm just trying to-to clear my head." Iroh kept his eyes looked on to Toph's face. "You're Toph, you were a friend of my grandfathers."

Toph nodded. "#So, you're the young Prince Iroh, huh?#" She turned but Iroh could tell she was still taking.

"Huh?"

The woman turned back. "#I said: Why would a prince need to clear his head? Did your girlfriend dump you?#"

"No, something more painful then that, my mother took away my right to the thrown and treated me like an invalid. I couldn't handle it anymore and needed some fresh air."

Toph sighed. "#You're definitely Zuko's grandkid, and Sokka's. Come back with me, we'll make some tea and you can tell the whole story.#"

"That's awfully nice of you."

Toph turned away and shrugged. Iroh fallowed without question.

.o.

Toph set her cup down. "Aw kid that's rough. I can relate my parents treated me like I was fragile because I was blind."

She heard a cup being set down. "Yeah, well because I am now deaf my mother thinks I'm incompetent; not sure about my father." There was sadness in Iroh's voice.

"They'll come around. Quick question if you are deaf how come you can carry on this conversation with me?"

She heard Iroh chuckle. "I can read your lips when you face me."

"Ah, that's impressive."

"Thanks, but I dare say it's not as useful as most would hope. You would be surprised how often people don't face you when you're taking to them. I want to learn how to read body language but it's not easy or full proof."

"Especially all the way out here where there's no one to watch and learn from. You should be in the city for that."

"I tried, but it's overwhelming, too much going on to take in. I found myself getting way too angry and frustrated. I wasn't me anymore."

Toph frowned. "Well you can stay here for a bit; collect yourself."

"Thanks."

"Just don't get used to it; and don't start wallowing in self pity. I hate self pity."

Iroh chuckled. "Who does? Even my girlfriend hates it and she's practically the master of it. That wasn't nice to say; she's gone through a lot too. I can't judge."

"No, you can't but you can be honest. Is she deaf too?"

"No, but she does know sign language."

Toph frowned. "Well I guess that makes things easier for you two. Where'd you meet her?"

She could hear Iroh lean back. "I never took you for the girl talk type." She could hear levity in Iroh's voice.

"Well it's not girl talk. I was a detective, I like to know about the people who are near me and if you're staying I want to know more about you, than you're related to Sparky and Snoozles."

"Huh? I couldn't quite read your lips there, I'm related to 'sparking' and 'noodles'?"

Toph laughed. "Sokka and Zuko, those were kind of their nick names back in the day."

"Oh….I'm not even going to ask how grandpa Sokka got 'noodles' as a nick name."

"It's quite the story."Toph bit her lip deciding it was probably best if she didn't correct him. She tapped her foot on the ground suddenly pausing; there was something not quite right and her systemic sense was picking it up. "Hey, tell me again how you lost your hearing?"

"Uh, mercury poisoning, at least that's what we think. It was the metal looking stuff. Why do you ask? Your face; is something wrong Toph?"

Toph shook her head. "No, nothing. So does your girl have a name?"

"Oh, her name's Korra."

.o.

Izumi walked into her chambers to find her husband sitting on the sofa nursing a drink in his hand. He took a sip. "Quiet night, no?"

Izumi narrowed her eyes. "Don't be like that Karrem; I don't need your passive aggressive comments tonight!" She snapped.

He took another sip. "I'm not being passive aggressive; just making an observation. Today was a very quiet day."

Izumi poured herself a drink. "If only that's what you meant by that."

Karrem raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what did I mean by that?"

"The palace is empty of our children and you blame me for driving them all away! Especially your precious son!"

Suddenly Karrem was to his feet. "You didn't have to do that to him! You didn't! He would have made a good Fire Lord and you know it!"

Izumi slammed her glass down. "No I do not know it! Our son is damaged! He can't hear! There isn't a single ruler in history that couldn't hear! I did what was best for my country!"

Karrem's nostrils flared. "Oh yeah? We'll last time I checked there was never a scared Fire Lord before Zuko and he did pretty well!"

"Don't you dare bring my father into this!"

"Well then who shall I bring?! Oh yeah! Toph was blind but was still trusted as police chief of a city! And my father was dyslexic and you know what? He was still able to run a city and later a whole country! So I'm sorry if I can't see why our son can do the same!"

Izumi's fists shook. "But they could both hear! How can Iroh be effective if he can't even hear important dignitaries speak to him?!"

Karrem rolled his eyes. "Why is that a handicap? You might be able to hear them but Yue knows you don't listen to them!"

"What do you mean by that?!"

"What do I mean by that? You have never listened to another human soul in your entire life! You never listen! Not even to me!" Karrem's face soften just a little "Look, I love your independence but you're just so stubborn and it gets you into trouble! And now you've run off our children!"

"I never listen? I listen to you! And your rambling about me being some monster to our children!" There were tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. "I have responsibilities to the Fire Nation! The people would've questioned Iroh's abilities! It would be an up hill battle!"

"That's why he would need his mother's support; not you cutting him off at the knees!"

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Zuko walked into the room. The former Fire Lord sighed. "I see you two are fighting again." He walked over and took the glasses out of each of their hands. "I'll take those, hot heads don't need help from alcohol. Now what has got you two are each other's throats again?"

"The same reason as always!" Karrem stormed out of the room. "I'm out of here! I won't stand her and have you take her side again! If anyone needs me I'll be in my office, doing something."

Izumi sadly watched her husband storm off. She looked down at the rug and felt herself repressing a sob. "Daddy I fucked up and I don't know how I'm going to clean up this mess. Daddy what do I do?"

Zuko sighed. "What can you do?"

.o.

Toph crept into Iroh's room before mentally berating herself that she could bring a whole parade through and he wouldn't notice…probably. She could tell by his breathing he was in deep sleep and wouldn't be woken up by a small vibration. She sent one seismic sense through the room and Iroh and felt her eyes widen. There was still mercury in his system, still slowly poisoning him. Toph bit her lip, she would have to tell him and offer to take it out; since he wasn't an earth bender he couldn't possibly take it out himself.

Taking a deep breath she tapped him on the shoulder.

.o.

Lafey walked into the living room of her apartment in Republic city holding a coffee cup. She looked over at reason she was awake so early. Zula was blaring the radio as she did her morning stretches. Lafey turned the radio off much to her little sister's dismay.

"Hey! I was listening to that!" Zula pouted. "I wanted to find out if Prince Wu would be coming to the gala tonight."

"Well you can find out at a decent volume." Lafey raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you care about Prince Wu? I thought he was a bore."

"He is, but his body guard is super cute. I'm hoping if Wu comes so will his yummy body guard and I can talk to him." Zula stretched back. "Oh, don't give me that look, I'm an adult. Also you don't see me judging you when you do the walk of shame after a "meeting" with that industrialist chick."

Lafey's face turned dark red. "We-we just have to work late on things. It's hard to come up with plans for the Fire Nation's infrastructure."

"Especially when you're on top of it." Zula muttered before standing up. "Welp, I've got to get to the theater and do ingénue stuff. Do try to come to the show if you can tare yourself away from your girlfriend."

Zula left with a cheeky grin and Lafey took a sip of her coffee. The crown princess checked the clock and ran into her room to get dressed. "Shoot! I'll be late for my pre-meeting meeting with Asami! Can't have that!"

.o.

"I'm still poisoned?" Iroh looked at Toph trying to make sense of what Toph was saying.

"Yup." Toph nodded. "That stuff is still in your system. Just a little bit but it's not doing you any favors."

"Then what can I do? Is there an antitoxin or something? I'm I going to die? Like really really soon? Oh spirits! I'm going to die in a swamp with a blind woman and bad blood between me and my family!"

Toph flicked him on the four head. "Calm down chuckles; you're not going to die anytime soon. Unless you keep freaking out then I might put you out of my misery. You might not be able to hear your own voice but it's annoying when you whine."

"I didn't realize I was whining. So is there anything that can be done?"

Toph smiled. "You're in luck kid, that poison is metal based and I'm the greatest metal bender in the world. Heck I invented the art! I'll just bend that junk out of you."

Iroh sighed. "Somehow that's not comforting at all."

Toph rolled her eyes. "Man up butter cup. Just close your eyes, relax and lay back. I'll have you fixed up in no time."

Iroh blinked. "But if I close my eyes I won't know what's going on. How will I know to open my eyes or that you're done?"

"Uhg, I'll tap you on the shoulder once I've got the poison out of you." She pushed him down. "Now relax and think happy thoughts."

Iroh pouted. "Fine but if I feel hands were they shouldn't be I'm not above setting a blind woman on fire." Iroh closed his eyes before he could see her reply but the smack he got to the side of his head told him enough. He took a deep breath and tried to think of a happy memory.

His mind wondered back to a time when he could hear and he was lying with Korra. Iroh's head was on her chest; he could hear her heart beating and the melody she was humming. It was a beautiful piece of music and Iroh tried his best to remember the whole thing. Her was torn from his thoughts by a blinding pain but instead of he bit his lip and didn't stop until he tasted blood.

Almost as soon as the pain started it went away, leaving Iroh sore and weak feeling. He opened his eyes to see Toph put a liquid like metal in a container. She patted Iroh's shoulder.

"You still alive kid?"

Iroh nodded. "I think so." He licked his lips. "I think I bit my lip though."

Toph put her hand on his mouth and he felf the sting. "You certainly did. Wait here and I'll get something to clean it off. Don't try to stay up or walk; just relax and sleep kid there was more of that stuff then I thought. You've earned a good night's sleep and a pleasant dream."

Iroh nodded. "Yeah, that would be nice."

.o.

Korra looked at herself in the reflecting pool right before she cut her hair and let the locks fall to the ground. She hung her head. "I just can't be me right now." She looked at her reflection with the shorter hair. "Spirits I feel so alone." She pulled her knees close and wrapped her arms around them. "So isolated."

A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for reading! Also if you didn't notice lip reading is now indicated by Italics mainly because the symbol I was using doesn't show up on this sight. I'm hoping to have more Korra in the next chapter and let Iroh be in the back ground more. Please comment if you feel so compelled and I'll see you all later!~ :)