Day 3
"Hello again, young man."
Iroh, a candle in each hand. Aang thought him the strangest firebender, no, the strangest person, he'd ever met. Well—mad people like Bumi aside.
"As you can see," Iroh chuckled, "I have brought two candles. One for me to meditate, and one for you."
"Does Zuko know you come to meditate with me in my cell?" Aang could have kicked himself; sometimes his curiosity spoke before he had time to think it over.
"My nephew," the old man replied with a twinkle in his eye, "pays far less attention to me than you seem to think. However, I don't imagine he'd care if he did know."
Aang could already guess, but felt like punishing himself by asking why.
Iroh's twinkle dimmed, but his gaze still glowed with something deeper than ordinary perception. "Because he knows your chains are kept safe with me. Though I take little pleasure in the imprisonment of children, I would strike you down long before ever letting you step out of this cell. Do not... linger on hope that I'll be your way to freedom."
The Avatar slumped, and tried to keep the shaking out of his shoulders. Another hope pointlessly dashed. He'd only been in a cell three days and already it was sucking something out of him. Sucking everything it could out of him, and without even a window to give back.
"Then... why are you here, Iroh?"
"Because," Iroh set the candles before them, one for Aang as promised. Fire rose from each like a sleepy butterfly. "You are the Avatar."