A/N: I have been stupid. I have this recurring problem where objects disappear from the scenes I imagine in my head. I thought I could handle that, but then I realized last week that the entire supply of Chekov's knicknacks had disappeared from my attention. I don't even know how. The previous chapter has been edited to include Zuko hiding the stuff in his pockets before taking his clothes off.

It really is not a good idea to have too many pieces on the board at once in a game of Pai Sho. There are 6 kinds of basic tiles, making 3 pairs of Clashing tiles. When tiles Clash, it means that either of them can capture the other. It also means that they cannot be on the same line, with an open and straight path from one to the other. it is illegal to move a tile in such a way that this will happen. Clashing can occur between any tiles regardless of who they belong to, so having too many tiles on the board could severely complicate movement. Not to mention, the game ends if anyone plays their last basic tile, which would be very un-fun.

.

Everyone had had their fill of bathing by the mid afternoon. Even the Avatar was ready to leave, for he had seen no sign of the water spirit in all the hours he spent trying to entice it to play. He looked nearly as disheartened as he had before Zuko talked to him. But not, Iroh noticed, not entirely.

The Avatar and his friends decided to end the day in a nearby village. It was close enough to walk, so they did. The walk was very pleasant, and Iroh enjoyed the afternoon sun very much.

"The weather is wonderful, Prince Zuko. You should be glad we stopped to enjoy it," he told his nephew.

Zuko kicked a rock out of the way. "The weather's good for traveling. It would be better if we'd spent the day doing that instead of hanging around a lake."

"But then our clothes wouldn't be clean," Iroh pointed out.

"We could have made a shorter stop to get clean clothes."

Sokka slowed his pace until he was with them. "Didn't you promise to stop complaining so much?"

Zuko shut his mouth and looked down.

"Why do you gripe about everything, anyway?" Sokka continued. "It's like you think we're not allowed to be happy until the world is a perfect paradise. That's never going to happen."

"He's right, Nephew," Iroh agreed. "Be grateful for what you have."

Zuko continued to walk, saying nothing.

Sokka moved forward again to ask Aang for a breeze. Iroh was alone again with his nephew. That was good; he had some questions he wanted to ask.

"Zuko," he whispered. "Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Zuko turned his head very slightly. "Why are you asking that?"

"I know there's something you're keeping secret." Iroh spoke in his quietest whisper. "Something to do with the water spirit, perhaps?"

What Iroh saw then would stay in his mind almost perfectly preserved for the rest of his life. Zuko was often guarded and secretive. Iroh knew very well what it meant when he got snappy and refused to talk. That was how Zuko was, how all teenage boys were in Iroh's experience. That was the way of things.

So the sight of all emotion, all tension, draining from Zuko's face and being replaced by an eerie blankness scared him in ways he didn't have the words to describe. "No," Zuko said, and it had to be a lie. Since when was he any good at lying?

"Nephew-"

Zuko sped up, walking forward as if he had not heard.

Iroh wondered what he should think of this. His first instinct was to worry. However, worrying would not help. If Zuko wanted to shut himself off, he would do so. Iroh really had no choice but to put up with it.

So he thought about what they might find in the village instead. Perhaps there would be massages! He could really use one of those.

.

Aang raced ahead as soon as the village came within sight. He zipped from shop to shop, finally finding what he had been looking for. He returned just in time to meet the rest of the party as they entered. "There's an inn that way," he pointed, before grabbing Zuko by the arm and pulling him down the road.

Zuko yanked his arm back as soon as he stopped stumbling. "Where are you taking me?"

"I found a place that's selling a Pai Sho set."

Aang smiled innocently as he said that, but he really paid close attention to how Zuko responded. Zuko looked down and kept walking. Aang's smile widened. He wasn't going to let Zuko have all the glory, even if the idea was his.

They reached the shop in a somewhat tense but not distinctly unpleasant silence. Zuko talked with the shopkeep and checked over the set when it was placed before him. There was nothing wrong with it, except for a small scratch on the White Lotus tile. Zuko accepted that with no hesitation. "I'm not a White Lotus kind of person anyway," he said as he paid for the set.

Aang and the shopkeep both looked at him. "Whaddya mean by 'at?" the shopkeep asked.

Zuko blinked. "Someone said that to me before." He took the set, muttered his thanks, and left.

"You' friend there's a mighty strange un," the shopkeep told Aang.

"I know," Aang replied. "Thanks for the game set." He bowed in gratitude, then followed Zuko.

Once again, they walked together in a way that was not distinctly unpleasant. Aang meant to keep it that way. He recalled Iroh's advice to stick to safe areas. Pai Sho seemed safe. "Did someone really tell you that? Who?" he asked.

"Some old guy," Zuko replied.

"What does it mean? I didn't know there were White Lotus types of people."

"The tile is best at forming Harmonies," Zuko said. "So he was probably talking about people who are good at that. People like Uncle."

Aang hoped what he was about to say next was safe. "Zuko? I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything, but… Where's the rest of your family?"

Zuko stopped walking. He looked at Aang very sternly. It reminded Aang of being chastised by his airbending teachers. "My mother is dead, and my sister is a monster." Zuko looked up and resumed walking.

Aang shivered and caught up a few seconds later. That stern look… He understood better why Zuko expected to be in a position of command. "Sorry about your mom."

"Don't be. She gave her life willingly."

Aang looked up, his eyes wide. But they had already reached the inn. Zuko paused to look up at the building. "I guess tonight's the first night." He gripped the Pai Sho set tighter, and was that a hint of nervousness in his voice?

"I can't wait to show Katara and Sokka how to play," Aang said. Zuko had helped him feel better. It was only right to return the favor.

Zuko relaxed. "Well, at least I won't be the only beginner." And they walked in.

.

Sokka was skeptical. He didn't say so, because he didn't want to hurt Aang's feelings, but how on earth was a board game supposed to create peace? He was more than happy to let Zuko try it, but he had no idea what was going through the firebender's head when he came up with the idea. It would not be a good idea to say that though.

So instead, Sokka listened attentively as Aang explained the rules of the game. It sounded simple, but got more complicated the more he thought about it. Maybe it could be fun.

When Aang was done, Katara raised her hand. "I'd like to play first. Against Zuko."

She and Zuko took their places on opposite sides of the board. Sokka felt a slight tugging on his sleeve. Iroh took a sip of his tea, sighed appreciatively, then patted the ground next to himself. "You'll have a better view of the game from here."

"Why would I want to watch other people play a board game?" Sokka asked as he moved.

"Pai Sho is more than just a game." Iroh's face grew deadly serious. "Pai Sho is the ultimate game of strategy, of wisdom, of spirit. When you watch another play, you see on the board their entire selves."

Everybody in the room blinked at that. What on earth was Iroh talking about? "Sure, Uncle. Whatever you say," Zuko said while choosing his tiles.

"Strategy," Sokka repeated. "I could learn strategy from this. Okay, I'll give it a shot." He and Aang sat down next to each other, ready to watch.

The game began. The first thing Sokka noticed was that both Katara and Zuko moved very, very slowly. Once they moved their first tiles, which were required by the rules to be the same, they struggled to decide which tile to use next. The simplest decisions took extra time.

Zuko made his decisions slightly quicker and put together a Harmony before Katara did. He clearly had slightly more experience than she did. Sokka tried to guess how much. Zuko only used his Harmony bonus to plant another tile; a simplistic move. "He's only played this once or twice," Sokka guessed.

Iroh nodded. "Once. See, you are already learning to see him in how he plays."

Was that what Iroh meant? Sokka looked back at the game with greater interest. What else could he see?

Katara eventually did form a Harmony of her own. It was a long one, between 2 tiles that were far apart and in different sections. Sokka recognized that as the beginnings of a Harmony Ring. If she made a complete ring around the center, she would win.

Zuko made shorter Harmonies, seemingly just for the bonus. He used his bonuses to plant as many new tiles as he could. It was not clear what he intended to do with them.

Katara, meanwhile, planted the exact tiles she needed in the gates closest to where she needed them.

Once Zuko realized that, he planted tiles in 3 of the gates without moving them out. Planted tiles were indestructible, so until he decided to move them into play those gates were blocked. Only the one near where Katara already had her first Harmony was open.

She tried to move the tiles she already had into position. One of her moves was illegal and had to be reversed; it was too quickly made. Another move, also made too quickly, placed one of her tiles within range of one of Zuko's tiles, and they were Clashing.

Sokka watched Zuko smirk as he captured her tile. Even if he hadn't been able to see their faces, he would have known from the mistakes that Katara was getting worried and Zuko was cool as a clamfish. That must be another part of what Iroh meant.

With the loss of that tile, Katara had no choice but to plant another. She didn't have a large amount of tiles on the board yet. While she was trying to get that one into position, Zuko rearranged the tiles he already had. Rearranging took substantially less time than trying to move tiles into place amid a field of obstacles. Like a chain, he formed a series of short Harmonies that nearly encircled the center.

Katara used one of her Special tiles to deprive part of his chain of the ability to form Harmonies. He rerouted the chain to go around that area. She pushed forward with her ring, but it was too late. He formed his before she did.

Zuko smiled in triumph. Katara sighed. And Sokka learned something valuable about resource management: the minimalist approach is not the way to go.

"You're right," Sokka whispered to Iroh. "I can learn stuff from this."

Iroh smiled.

.

Zuko kept the smile on his face, but inwardly he was nervous. The game was over. Now it was time to implement Step 2 of his plan. That was the step where he could talk about Pai Sho instead of talking about anything that would make people leap down his throat. Truthfully, his problem was that he didn't know any topics to talk about other than his immediate and long term goals. How was he supposed to talk about relaxed non-goal-oriented things when he couldn't think of any? Now that he had Pai Sho, he didn't need to think of any.

"You probably shouldn't have tried to make a ring so soon," he said after they both had put away their tiles.

"I was trying to win," Katara said defensively. "And it would have worked if I'd been quicker about it."

"You barely had any tiles to work with," Zuko pointed out.

"So what should I have done? Put out more and more tiles like you did? Most of them didn't even get used."

"That's fine." Zuko crossed his arms. "It is fine that I won before most of them had a chance to be used."

"You had no idea what you were doing," Katara pointed out.

"Until I did," Zuko snapped back. "And then it worked."

Katara couldn't argue with that logic. "Maybe I should have used the White Lotus," she said. "It's nearly uncapturable."

"It's also good for both of us," Zuko said. "I could have used it."

"Not if I used it first."

"All your tiles were at different angles than mine were. I could've made it work."

Katara fell silent. It would have taken some effort on his part, and would have put a kink in his chain, but it wasn't like he didn't have the tiles to spare. "I should use more next time," she admitted.

Zuko looked down at the board. Blocking the gates was a good idea too. I have to remember that one.

The Avatar cleared his throat. "Not too many," he advised. "When I tried to fill the board with my tiles, Monk Gyatso did the same thing, and the board got so crowded that we could hardly do anything."

Zuko imagined the amount of tiles he had put out, doubled. The Avatar's right. The only reason I could put together my ring so easily is because Katara didn't have any obstacles in my way. What am I supposed to do if she uses more? The obvious answer was to use less and have a better idea of what he was doing. He would consider doing that later when it did not sting his pride.

Iroh was nodding along, eyes sparkling. Zuko's pride was stung anyway. It had been a long time since he saw Uncle enjoy anything that much. Traveling with a bunch of people who couldn't get along couldn't have been pleasant. And he also knew that his own nephew was keeping secrets from him. No I'm not. I'm not keeping secrets. There really is nothing worth saying about the water spirit. What does it matter if I used to think it was my friend? So what if it sees through my eyes and knows what I think? That doesn't change what I have to do.

But Iroh didn't know that. For all he knew, Zuko could be hiding something that was important but that he didn't trust Iroh with, or any of a thousand worse reasons. And Zuko was the one who had dragged him out of comfortable retirement on the sea and stuck them both on a bison in the Earth Kingdom where none of their birthrights counted for squat. It was his fault that Iroh's eyes hadn't sparkled like that in a long time.

Zuko resolved to make it up to him. Uncle was a White Lotus sort of person. He needed there to be harmony. Now that he had the game, Zuko would do his best to provide.