A/N: Okay, yeah, no Zuko or Katara in this one, but sometimes shit happens when they're not present. Silly narrative.

As a point of note, with regards to Aang - when working on this (and conceptualizing the rest of the SK!universe), I usually draw on how he took the loss of Appa in S2. Somehow, I don't think he'd react much better to the loss of his forever girl.

This takes place more or less concurrently with Sparrowkeet.

The Teachings of Tea

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
-Buddha

The First

It was altogether unsurprising that Chief Arnook was less than enthusiastic about the idea of the Dragon of the West teaching firebending within the city of the Water Tribe. He had in fact been prepared to boot the lot of them from the North Pole for even suggesting such a thing. But eventually Arnook had at least been persuaded to the importance of the recently-recovered Avatar learning all forms of bending if the war was to end, and so reluctantly consented to the training lessons... five miles out into the tundra.

The Avatar had bent a large, clear circle into the snow; though they are surrounded by ten foot walls of ice on every side, their feet only sink a half inch into light powder. The ice keeps out the wind and there is nothing that can burn. All in all, it is not a terrible place to practice.

But it is cold.

"After this, Aang, I believe you and I should have a cup of tea," says Iroh, knocking icicles from his beard. "You will like oolong, I think."

"Yes, Sifu," the Airbender mutters.

"Excellent. Now, tell me: How much did Master Jeong Jeong teach you?"

The boy sighs, then squares his feet and bends his knees. He takes several deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth... and stands straight again. "That was about it," he says crossly.

This is going to take a lot of work. "Good form," says Iroh, "but widen your stance."

The Last Great Hope for the World rolls his eyes and groans, but he spreads his feet further apart and crouches lower.

"Good. Did you do any actual bending?"

"Yes."

"Can you show me?"

Aang looks away. "I don't see why I have to learn this," he says instead of answering. "I mean, on the Day of Black Sun there won't even be any firebending! I know how to airbend, and Toph taught me earthbending, and Ka- Katara..."

The boy's large eyes swim, and he gulps several times, clearly unable to continue.

"The dragonhawk who can only fly will starve," says Iroh, "and the dragonhawk who can only bite will be captured. You must combine all your skills instead of separating them. They are greater than the sum of their parts." Then he adds gently, "I am sure it is what Katara would wish."

That is the wrong thing to say. "What do you know about it?" Multiple voices overlay Aang's words, and there is no doubt who and what the boy is. "You didn't save her!"

Iroh sees the little Waterbender flying through the air beneath Ba Sing Se. He sees her hit the glowing crystal stones and crumple to the floor. He sees her - and she blurs and fades and becomes a young woman with shining hair, pale and weak...

He shakes his head. "Feel your breath," he says. "The source of the flames is in your lungs."

"I don't want to firebend!" Sharp cracks sound as the ice shakes beneath their feet. "Firebending only hurts people!"

"You must be rooted at all times," Iroh continues, unperturbed. He has been shouted at by angry children before. "In that sense firebending is not so different from earthbending. You must feel the structure of your surroundings."

"You should have rescued Katara!"

"But at all times, you must have control." Iroh feels sorrow but no guilt. He would have escaped with both if he could have, but the little girl was too far away and the Avatar was injured. It was the right decision. "Without control, fires burn freely. I am sure Jeong Jeong told you this."

"Fire destroys everything!"

The Avatar is rooted, in the correct stance, and full of fury.

The spout of flame that accompanies Aang's shout melts a large hole in the ice wall. The water refreezes in the blink of an eye.

He claps his hands over his mouth.

"It's chilly out here, don't you think?" Iroh says jovially. "Let's put off our session until tomorrow and go get that cup of tea. I have a lovely blend called Iron Goddess, and I think it will suit you nicely."

On the ship (the Dragon of the West is not permitted to sleep within the city's walls, which suits said Dragon just fine, it's much warmer here), Aang watches as Iroh pours a full pot of tea out into the table. The Airbender's brow furrows. "Why did you do that?" he asks, speaking for the first time since they left the ice.

"Because," says Iroh, refilling the pot, "the first brew is only to wet the twisted leaves and cleanse them of loose particles. It is the later infusions that make the true, delicious tea."

Three cups later, Aang apologizes for his rudeness, and promises to try harder next time. Iroh offers him a cookie.

The Fourth

The Avatar catches on quick, quicker than Iroh anticipates. Perhaps it was from years of training Zuko, who'd needed to substitute determination and drive for raw talent, but Iroh had not prepared for a student who could race through the initial steps in less than a week.

In a way, it reminds Iroh of the one and only time he trained Princess Azula, who even at eight had possessed all the power of an erupting volcano. Azula smiled coldly as the roof burned, and in Iroh's memory the smile belonged on the face of a someone who towered over him and spoke with a twisted voice-

"Ack! Sifu!"

Aang has set his robes on fire again.

Iroh smothers the flames with a wave of his hand. "Next time that happens," he says to the boy, "waterbend. Otherwise you'll have no clothes left and you will get very cold."

"I'm trying," the Avatar says, patting at his singed hems, "but I can't just... shift that fast."

"Do not think of it shifting. The elements are connected, Aang. They are all part of the same whole."

"That doesn't make any sense. Fire's the opposite of water."

"Think of Sozin's Comet," says Iroh. "When it will arrives, what will happen?"

The boy twists his fingers and toes at the ice, kicking a broken shard. "I'll fight the Fire Lord," he whispers, "if we haven't beaten him already."

"No. Well, yes, but no. What is the comet made of?"

"Fire."

"But it is much more than fire." Iroh gestures to the steel sky, as though the heavens are already in flames. "It is an enormous piece of earth, flying through the air as does your bison, and it pulls the oceans like a second moon."

"Really?"

"Yes. Sozin's Comet combines all elements, just as the Avatar does."

Aang's eyes are like saucers. "So... does that mean Earthbenders and Waterbenders will be stronger, too?"

Iroh shrugs. "I have absolutely no idea. It is not important."

There is a beat.

"Of course it's important!" The Avatar literally vibrates with frustration, throwing his arms up in the air and stomping his feet. "If everyone is stronger, then the Fire Nation doesn't have an advantage! I'll be able to use all the elements with extra power! This is huge!"

"Not that huge," says Iroh, "if you cannot firebend."

"But I am firebending!" Flames erupt from Aang's hands, wild and uncontrolled; water splashes everywhere.

Iroh finds himself chuckling. "That is only fire creation, not fire bending. Not without discipline."

The flames die down. "Everyone always says that," Aang mumbles, his eyes filling with defeated tears.

It is in moments like this Iroh remembers why an Avatar is meant to be told of his or her destiny in adulthood, and then receives ten years to master the elements. This twelve-year-old has been given ten months. It is too much to ask of a boy.

"You are not the only student to have difficulty with discipline," Iroh says comfortingly. "When Zuko first tried to meditate-"

The Avatar sends a pillar of flames a hundred feet high.

Smoke mixes with the snow and flutters back to earth in ashy grey clumps.

"That reminds me," says Iroh after a moment, "I was going to ask the cook if he could make komodo chicken roast for dinner. I hope it's not too late."

Aang apologizes again at tea.

The Eighth

"I think I'm just not meant to firebend," the boy says morosely, pushing his cup away.

"You are the Avatar." Iroh sips his tea, a green blend from the south with a silky, fresh, slightly grassy taste. Before this terrible war, it was possible to import Earth Kingdom leaves into the Fire Nation. Perhaps it will one day be so again. "Of course you are meant to firebend."

"Then why do I keep getting it wrong?" Aang's clothes are full of soot and his glider is covered in scorch marks. If he had any hair it would have burned from his head. "None of the other elements went this badly. Maybe my chakras are all plugged up again."

Iroh raises an eyebrow.

"It's a long story," says the Airbender.

"Don't worry too much about your chakras. These things simply take time."

"But I don't have time!"

It's true, which is the worrisome part; the Day of Black Sun is creeping ever closer. But hitting the nail which is stuck is an excellent way to break the tile. "Drink your tea, Aang, it has a most relaxing flavor."

"Yes, Sifu." The boy slurps the way Iroh taught him to do with oolong, not realizing that green is meant to be sipped cleanly. After a moment, his shoulders slump. "I'm sorry, Master Iroh. I know you're right. I'm the Avatar, and that makes me a Firebender. I should have mastered it by now. I know I'm letting you down."

The fates of many rest on children. "You are letting yourself down, and that is a much more difficult obstacle to overcome. You must accept that you will make mistakes. You must learn to forgive yourself with the same kindness you show to others."

With one notable exception.

Aang is quiet and pensive; Iroh concludes it is perhaps a good time to approach the other subject blocking the Avatar's development. "When my nephew began training-"

"Don't." The cup boils in the Avatar's hands. "Don't talk about him to me."

"You will understand yourself better if you work to understand Zuko."

"No."

Normally this is the point at which Iroh drops the subject. He does not do so this time. "It is a very difficult thing, for a man to change his view of the world. You are seeing life in terms of good and bad, right and wrong, success and failure. That is a rigid stance that will only lead you to defeat again and again."

"But there is such a thing as good and bad!" Most of the tea has turned to steam in the air. "The Fire Lord is bad! Azula is bad! Zuko is bad! He chose evil and that's... that's why..."

"Actions may be bad, Avatar Aang, but you will find that people most often are not." Iroh smiles wanly. "Prince Zuko chose his family, and while such choices may lead to terrible things, they are not evil."

Of the mistakes Iroh made in Ba Sing Se, the one he regrets most is that he expected too much from his nephew too soon. Zuko had started down a better path, but he had not traveled far enough to withstand the temptation of his father's acceptance. Older and wiser men than he would also have been swayed by Azula's pretty lies.

"It is evil." Aang sets down the tea cup, which immediately burns a circle into the table, and rubs his eyes with his wrist. "He hurt Katara. He took her away. And now she's gone, she's been captured, she might even be-"

"But she might not," says Iroh. He sincerely hopes the little Waterbender is alive for many reasons, not the least of which is if she is dead then Zuko's choices led her murder. It is a stain which can never be cleansed. "And holding so much anger inside - at my nephew, at yourself, at anyone who has wronged you - creates a whirlwind that will blow you away. You must ground yourself, or you will never be able to find the discipline to master the elements. Least of all firebending."

"But Ozai is angry," the Avatar insists, "and he's mastered firebending."

Iroh refills his tea cup. "No, Aang, my brother is not angry. He is full of hate. Hate is disciplined, but it is not the sort of discipline you should seek."

The Avatar shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Sifu, but I can't. I can't not hate Zuko. Not ever."

There is a quiet moment, and then Iroh sighs deeply. "Perhaps this isn't the right blend of tea for you," he says. "Next time we will try a Puerh."

The Twelveth

The ring of orange flame blazes cleanly through the morning air, and Iroh nods approvingly. "Good."

Aang stretches and cracks his knuckles with a cheerful grin. "I can't wait to show Katara," he says.

The Avatar had not been told of the rescue attempt, for multiple reasons: first, that it would distract him from training; second, that he might insist upon going; third, that it would raise his hopes too high. There was no gurantee, after all.. but if the little Waterbender was still alive, she would surely be at the Boiling Rock.

They had managed to keep the plan secret until Hakoda, Sokka, and Toph departed. But such things get out - they always do - and now, with the party's return expected at any moment, Aang could barely stand still.

"I'm sure Katara will be very impressed," says Iroh, "particularly if you do not burn off her braid."

Aang looks down, then belly-flops into the snow to put out his flaming robe. "I thought I had it that time," he moans, face down.

"You are doing an excellent job of paying attention to your surroundings, but you are forgetting to pay attention to yourself. The fire comes from within, and you must separate it from yourself as it emerges."

"I thought the whole point was that fire is a part of me."

"It is, but it is a part you must create and then sever. The fire is fueled by emotion; only by releasing yourself from that emotion can you effectively release the flames. Otherwise they will only remain attached to you in body and mind, and you will be burned again and again."

"But I thought I wasn't supposed to have emotions! You said they make a whirlwind!"

"Whirlwinds will always exist. A sparrowkeet will travel far by riding air currents, Avatar Aang, but it must travel with the whirlwind, not within it."

Flakes melt against the blue tattoo on the boy's head. "This is worse than the onion and banana juice," he grumbles, standing back up.

Iroh's eyes widen. "Why would anyone drink onion and banana juice?" It is an appalling concept.

"Guru Pathik said it was good for my balance."

"Guru Pathik has obviously never tasted the delights of pearl jasmine tea. Now go through the fifth and sixth positions, and this time-"

A broad, oval shadow passes overhead.

"It's Appa! They're back!" The Avatar stamps a foot, and columns of ice rocket teacher and student out of the deep training circle. Before Iroh even gets to his feet, Aang creates a smooth snow sled beneath them and then they are racing the outline of the bison across the frozen wasteland.

Ten minutes later, they make it to the walls of the city.

Fifteen minutes later, the Avatar nearly brings the walls down.

Thirty minutes later, Iroh sits at Aang's bedside, gently rubbing the child's back as he sobs into a mound of seal furs. "I am sorry," Iroh says. "I am sorry for your loss."

"She wasn't lost! She was taken!" The boy shouts a stream of half-strangled threats and promises born of grief, and Iroh does not stop him. The boy in front of him is marked by a blue arrow on his forehead, then by a white bandage across his face, then by scarlet blood seeping from his neck-

Aang is trying to get to his feet, his eyes red and raw. "I'm going to the Oasis," he declares. "I'm the great bridge between our world and the Spirit World. I can get Katara back. I will get Katara back."

The black creature, worm and insect alike, hovers overhead. "What pitiful creatures you mortals are," it hisses through a lemur's sharp teeth, "forever beating shovels against rocks, trying to disturb what should be left in peace."

"Tell me where to find Lu Ten. You must tell me where to find my son."

"Must I?" The lemur's face splits into a hissing laugh, which emerges from the pink mouth of a pretty girl. "Do you think you are the first to come to my lair, begging for a child, a parent, a spouse? They call you the Dragon of the West, do they not? But you are no dragon, for dragons live long and know of birth and death."

"It is my siege, my war that took his life. Sons should not have to pay for their fathers' sins."

"And yet they do. They have since the sun rose and they will until the moon sets. Your sins will not be expunged here."

"Please, I beg you. Help me. He is my son. He is my boy..."

"So he was. Now go home, and live your long dragon life as the foolish old man that you are."

Iroh smiles sadly at Aang. "Even the Avatar cannot reverse death."

And the Avatar collapses again into tears.

The Sixteenth

It is the last tea they will have before they set forth for the invasion. "All right," Iroh says, pouring out two cups, "this is called Silver Needles. If it is not the most delicious drink you have ever sipped, I will eat my own beard."

The boy shakes his head. "I'm sure it's great, but I'm not thirsty."

"Tea is not for quenching one's thirst. You should know that by now."

"I know. I just... I only understand the basic techniques. Everything keeps going wrong... I'm not sure I'm ready, Sifu."

"No one is ever ready," says Iroh. "But we must drink anyway. You would not want to face the Fire Lord without a belly full of warm tea."

Aang's expression turns dark. "It isn't the Fire Lord I want to face," he says coldly.

Iroh does not tell the child that he will not have the chance to confront his perceived enemy. Iroh ought not to travel with them. Iroh ought to be summoning the White Lotus members together and preparing for their own, concurrent invasion. But Iroh will go with Chief Hakoda's force, because he must be there, because he will step between the Avatar and the Fire Prince if they meet. Because it is not right that a son should pay for his father's sins.

"Drink your tea," says the Dragon of the West.

A/N: I will, sooner or later, get to what exactly went down at the invasion. It's just sort of difficult to figure out whose story it should be.