He slowly dragged himself away from the railing and looked around. He was half startled to see that he was aboard a Naval vessel… cold, hard iron… a ship made for hunting down enemies and capturing them! It all felt so ruthless and unfeeling. Unfeeling… like his brother!
The letter had arrived early in the morning, the letter from Pyra requesting that he return home. She had some bad news for him. His father had passed away. Ozai was Fire Lord now.
He was shocked! His father was gone? It didn't seem possible! His thoughts quickly turned to her request. What should he do? Should he return to the Fire Nation? He was happy here in the little village he'd come to think of as home, but then wasn't he a loyal citizen of the Fire Nation, a prince? Was it really right for a prince to stay hidden away in some little village instead of living amongst his own people? Didn't he have an obligation to them, to his family, to come home? It didn't matter. He would make the decision later. What was important was to return home for his father's funeral!
When he stepped through those immense oaken doors of the audience chamber a week later and looked up at the new Fire Lord, he felt a strange feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. He never should have come! That look in his brother's eyes was all too familiar. He had never personally been the target of it before but he had seen it often enough to recognize it for what it was… disgust, disdain, a look of utter contempt was etched into every feature of Ozai's face!
Iroh knelt in front of his brother and waited for him to speak. " So you have finally chosen to return. I must say I didn't expect to see you again. We took you for dead when you failed to return from Bah Tsing Tsay," he said, his voice silky. "Then the next news we had of you, they said you'd married a peasant and we're living in some tiny hovel healing the locals," he laughed loudly and elbowed his brother. "Of course we didn't believe a word of it! I knew you better than that! You'd never stoop to such depths," he said. As Iroh watched his brother's face turned stony again. "But then it was confirmed by several other sources. You really had sunk that low, not to mention your defeat at Bah Tsing Tsay cost us that entire Earth kingdom! Without control of that city we didn't have a chance! All our other plans were foiled!"
Then Ozai bent down next to his brother's ear. "You're lucky I don't have you thrown in the dungeon as a traitor! If you failed your mission, you were supposed to report back here; instead you remained in the Earth Kingdom. You could have been doing anything during that time. How do we know you didn't turn against us and join the Earth Nation? You've been gone an awfully long time after all…people might get suspicious," he said, though it was obvious he knew Iroh had done nothing of the sort. "Yet, as my brother, I'll spare you… this time," he sneered. Then he straightened up and walked briskly from the room, leaving Iroh confused and angry.
From then on things were always different between the two of them. Ozai treated him fairly enough but Iroh could always sense an undercurrent of disdain behind his brother's words. He had lost his brother's respect and no matter what he tried he couldn't seem to win it back.
"Iroh, why don't you just leave? You don't have to stay here and allow your brother to treat you this way," Leela had said to him one night as they lay in bed talking. He frowned and was silent for a time. "I cannot leave," he said at last. "This is my home. These are my people. I am a prince after all," he said quietly. "It wouldn't be right to abandon them. I may not be the Fire Lord but I still have a responsibility to them. Besides, I can't leave my family and friends. Everyone I care for is here."
"Pyra?"
"Wh…what? No… I mean yes…err… it's not like that anymore," he said flushing a deep scarlet. "I care for her, yes, but not the way that I used to. She's like a sister to me," he said looking over at his wife. "You ought to know that my heart belongs only to you and Jin!"