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Advice

"Dad, how did you convince Mom to go out with you?"

Zuko grimaced at his eldest son's choice of words. Little Iroh could've said 'Dad, how did you ask out Mom when you were younger?' or 'Dad, when did you and Mom start dating?', but no. He had to word it that way.

"Well, son," Zuko replied as he looked up from his papers, "your mother and I met a long ways back. We didn't like each other much, at first, but then your mother and I realized that we were meant to be. We dated for two years, and then I proposed. And, about a year after that, you came into our lives."

"Dad, I'm not asking for a history lesson. I just want to know how to ask this girl I like to go out with me."

"Does this young lady have a name?"

Little Iroh gave his dad the 'Duh, of course she does, you're weird' look.

"Her name is 'Akemi'; she's one of the Air Acolytes in Republic City. She's coming over in a week as part of that diplomatic conference, meeting…thing, that's going on. We've been writing back and forth as pen pals since you and Mom left me to babysit at Air Temple Island a few months ago, and I've been wanting to ask her on a date."

"Well, don't worry, son. You're a Fire Nation prince and girls can't keep their hands off of us." Zuko gave a haughty grin that made his son roll his eyes in a very Katara-like way.

"Forget it, Dad. I'll just ask Aang and Uncle Sokka."

Zuko's expression changed to resemble that of a man who had been hit in the face with a shovel.

"…So, I want to ask her out, but I'm kinda nervous. Do either of you have any advice?"

The two men rubbed their chins thoughtfully. Suddenly, Sokka grinned and threw a friendly arm around his nephew's shoulders.

"Kid, girls go for the aloof and uninterested types. You've got her attention, but the most important thing is to not mess it up. You're a nice kid, but that's the problem. There's nice, and then there's too nice." Aang slapped himself on the forehead and fought to suppress his laughter. "And, if all else fails, you have one, sure-fire backup plan."

"Which is?"

"Grow a beard." Sokka gestured to his own facial hair and Aang couldn't hold the laughter in anymore. "Oh, like you can give better dating advice, Air-boy?"

Aang eventually stopped laughing, sort of, and turned to the young Firebender.

"He gave me the exact same advice when I was twelve and had a crush on your mom, and look how that turned out." Little Iroh winced at the thought that his mother had once been the focus of Avatar Aang's affections, the concept was so ludicrous and disturbing that it even began to make him feel kinda queasy.

"Okay, never mention that you had a crush on my mom ever again." Little Iroh all but demanded.

"Calm down. Things turned out the way they were supposed to in the end, didn't they?"

Little Iroh let out a sigh and shrugged.

"In my defense, Aang," Sokka interjected, "I didn't know it was my sister you were interested in. I thought it was that weird girl at that village with the crazy fortuneteller."

"Oh my spirits." Little Iroh exclaimed. "Please stop."

The two men continued as if they hadn't heard him.

"If you had known it was Katara that I had been interested in, you would have either skinned me alive or yelled and screamed like a lunatic."

"Of course I would. I mean seriously. Total oogies."

"If you hate the idea of your sister dating someone, then why did you let Zuko marry her?"

"It's different." Sokka whined. "I hate Zuko."

Little Iroh felt as though if he stayed he would have lost every one of his brain cells. He knew that he could probably get good dating advice from his great-uncle Iroh, but he was in Ba Sing Se at the moment. In a situation such as this, there is only one other person who could possibly be of any help.

"Okay, Sparky Jr., what's your problem?"

"Well, Chief, it's like this…" The young prince then recounted the whole unfortunate situation he was in to the blind police chief.

"I knew Snoozles and Twinkletoes would do something stupid when it came to dating advice. Okay, listen up, kid. It's like this. Ya just need to be yourself. Playing up the whole 'prince' thing is just shallow and annoying and will make all sensible girls turn away in disgust. The only type of girls who are attracted to guys because of money and power are floozies. If you want a real relationship with someone, be your own person and don't let your prince status dictate who you are. I'm not saying you should completely reject that part of yourself; just don't rely on it to get you a girl who actually likes you for you."

"Thanks, Chief."

"No problem, Sparks." She playfully punched his arm. "No problem at all."

Sorry it's been so long since my last update, but I was running out of ideas. I'm planning on doing some spin-offs of this, like making Taang and Sokkla oneshots/drabbles as well as making a Little Iroh adventure story. Right now, I'm pretty swamped. But I'll get back to you all real soon if I can. Luv and hugs to my Zutara-Taang-Sokkla brothers and sisters.