A/N: This was written for theavatar100 challenge #53: Line. The drabble presented there was a perfect 100 words, but I wanted to extend it a bit for It could be stronger at the sacrifice of the structure, and that's a choice I wanted to make.
Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender. Don't own it, can't claim it, and am exempt thereby from litigation.
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Heir
Zuko eyed the Water Tribe delicacy with some trepidation. Squid eyes seemed to look back, so he closed his own and swallowed quickly, hardly chewing. It was, surprisingly, quite good. He looked for another.
"Ah. You are beginning to understand what you have to gain from the other nations."
"Thank you, Uncle. You have taught me much," Zuko bowed, allowing a small grin to cross his features, an expression seen more frequently of late. Yes, it had started with learning the bending forms of other people, but Iroh hadn't stopped there. And yes, the connections were starting to make sense.
He vaguely wondered when his uncle's good opinion had come to mean more than his own father's.
Iroh's blood-line was ended and would never take the throne. But there were other lines of inheritance.
The old man smiled.
