A/N: Ok so I know this is a modified version of the one shot, Anniversary which this story is based on. There are some minor changes but if you've read that one you'll know the basic gist of this one. Thanks~ C.C.

~Chapter 7~

Anniversary

Iroh leaned back against the cold wall, his body exhausted and the likelihood of successfully escaping, like the royal gardens, currently dying spectacularly with beautiful colors. He couldn't help but think about Korra as he sat in his cell, this was their anniversary and here he was being eyed by one of Amon's men. Iroh sat back. He could just see Councilmen Tarlok trying to comfort Korra, his hands on her shoulders using his snake like voice to delay her as long as he could. Iroh felt his blood begin to boil just thinking about it. He looked over at the Equalist guard smiling at him smugly and now seeing as he was the prisoner of a terrorist movement; the likely hood of his life getting much better was unlikely.

"Sucks to have your bending taken away, doesn't it General? You're just like everyone else now." The guard said, smirking.

"I sadly will never be 'like everyone else' as you put it, I'm still a prince after all." Iroh looked at the clock behind the man as it struck three in the morning and shrugged. "But it does seem par for the course that today's my anniversary too. Actually, this is an improvement from years past."

The man raised an eyebrow. "How bad have your previous anniversaries been to make this situation an improvement? Also what is this the anniversary of? Please don't say like the death of a cherished family member, I'll feel bad if is."

"No, not a death in the family, my marriage to the avatar."

"She's married?! But she's so young." The man paused. "Not that you're old, I mean it's just….she's so young!"

"It was arranged, we were both young when it happened."

"Why?"

"To stop a war."

"What war?"

"Exactly"

The guard scratched his chin. "How old were you two?"

"She was 14, I was 16." Iroh looked at the man's shocked face. "Don't go there, we played Uno and guess who on our wedding night before passing out on the Oriental rug."

"Well I still don't see how this situation is better. That one sucks but right now you're powerless, imprisoned, and have no hope of ever leaving this cell. "

"But I'm not mortified, soaking wet, or being yelled at. I'm here, yes, but Korra's not in my place, so that's good enough for me." Iroh sighed. "But if you really want to know why this is an improvement, let me weave my tail of disastrous attempts to win my lady's heart. Though I'll warn you, even our first meeting starts off bad."

"What happened?"

"My mother took me to the South Pole to meet my intended and I brought her a box of special Fire Nation chocolate and some flowers."

"That sounds nice how could you mess that up?"

"She was allergic to the flowers and the chocolates burnt her mouth. She didn't speak to me for the rest of the visit, not that she could with her face swollen like that."

The guard cringed, "Oh spirits, this does not get better does it?"

Iroh shook his head. "No…. Second visit I'm determined to make things right. So I go to the one person I know, who has the most expectance with love and when I saw that my grandfather was busy, I went to talk to my Great Aunt Azula…

.o.

"Great Aunt Azula, can I ask you for help?"

The elderly woman looked up at the sixteen year old prince. "What can I help you with?"

" I need help with love. Korra is coming to visit soon and I really want her to like me and forget I set her mouth on fire with chocolate and made her face swell up."

Azula raised an eyebrow but didn't ask. "Well you came to the right person." She patted the space next to her on the bench, which he obediently sat down on. "Now, listen very carefully and memorize this word for word, because when you tell her this, she'll be head over heals for you ok?"

Iroh smiled and nodded. "Ok."

.o.

"aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Fire Lord Zuko, who was talking with Tonraq over the final points of the treaty, looked up to see his only grandson screaming, on fire, and jumping into the fountain with Korra chasing him. She had bent fire around her fists.

"YOU AREN'T GOING TO TAKE OVER ANYTHING WHILE I'M AVATAR PRINCE-Y!"

Iroh peaked his head up over the fountain wall. "…ok.. Don't set me on fire again."

.o.

The guard was clutching his sides laughing. Iroh just frowned. "I'm glad my pain amuses you."

"S-Sorry, please continue. What happened on the next anniversary?"

"Well the next year I took her to a theme park because I figured she'd like that. She seems like the rollercoaster type."

"What happened?"

"The tunnel of love was creepy, roller coasters aren't her thing apparently and the Ferris wheel broke and we were stuck at the top for three hours."

"Well that could be romantic."

"She drank a whole bottle of water before we went on it. Her mind was on other things."

The guard stifled a snort. "Oh? The next year?"

"Took her to the big Aquarium in the Fire Nation. You know, the one with that shark tunnel?"

"Didn't that thing collapse while people were walking through it?"

"Yup. It's a good thing those sharks were well feed before hand. We both got pneumonia after that disaster."

"Oh… what was the next year like?"

"Not as bad, we went to dinner, I might have pulled the chair out to far and reconfirmed her dislike of spicy foods but you know that was a good year. Last year was pretty good too, yeah it took a few weeks to find all the animals that escaped from the zoo but no one got mauled."

The guard frowned. "So do you ever see her out side of on your anniversary? Or a well publicized disaster?"

Iroh nodded. "Yeah, I actually seen her more this year because while I've been in this city for years, seeing to my duty as a soldier, Korra ran away from the South Pole to here to learn airbending from Master Tenzin."

"Oh did she tell you she was in town?"

Iroh shook his head. "No, I was listening to a probending match and the commentator announced her as the new member of the Fire Ferrets."

"What did you do?" The guard grabbed the bars. "Were you angry that she didn't even tell you she was in town?"

Iroh shook his head. "No, I wanted to support her, she's a great bender I desired to see how she did in the ring. So I got tickets for her next match, bought a bouquet of flowers, not fire lilies, and went to watch the match."

"That wasn't the one we crashed was it?" The guard looked genuinely concerned that his organization had attributed to the General's troubles. Apparently he forgot about the current situation.

"You crashed a probending match?"

"Nooooo, um so what happened?"

"Well during the final round I kind of got so caught up in excitement of the game that I shook the bouquet a little too much, and all she got was the mangled remains of were once carnations. I couldn't even give them to her in person because I got a call to go back to my ship so I had to leave them in her locker room without an explanation. I forgot about the note I had attached, other than that her name was on the envelope."

"Dare I ask what it said?"

"My feelings for you are just like these flowers." Iroh buried his head in his hands. "Her team mates thought it was a death threat."

"Buwahahahaha!" He wiped a tear from his eye. "So did you see her again?"

"A few times, none of them very special except for the last time were in an attempt to save one of her friends. Things didn't go all that well," he gestured to the room, "I bet you can guess how that ended."

The man shook his head slowly. "No…I can't."

Iroh blinked as he stood up to give the guard a look. "Um…I'm imprisoned by your boss… can't bend… and spending my wedding anniversary talking to you…not my wife."

The guard looked around the room. "Oh yeah."

Iroh leaned against the prison bars near the guard. "You know it's kind of funny."

"What is?"

"When ever I talk about my love life, people…"

The guard leaned close. "People what?"

Before the guard could react Iroh grabbed his collar and pulled, slamming the man's head against the iron bars knocking the man out cold. "Tend to think I'm an incompetent klutz." Iroh took the keys off the man's belt and unlocked his cell. He rubbed his temple. "Mmmm, so Amon's magic touch of 'non-bending' gives people headache, who knew?"

Casually, he walked through the halls, looking for a way out. Iroh knew it was late but still, shouldn't there be a few equalist wondering around here? He walked through three completely empty halls.

"Amon should really think about hiring some new security." He paused, hearing a thud in the distance. Iroh smirked and walked towards the ever-increasing sounds of a fight. He walked out to see Councilman Tarrlok's task force taking on a small band of equalists. Korra was with them. She smiled when she spotted Iroh and after subduing her opponent and ran over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Iroh, thank the spirits you're alive." She stepped back. "And free, here I thought I was coming to rescue you."

Iroh smirked. "I can handle myself." He tilted his head to the side. "Don't you trust me to take care of my self anymore Avatar?"

Korra smirked. "I have never not trusted you, but I'd feel horrible leaving you out to dry." She looked over at the fight that was now winding down in the good guys favor. "Looks like they've got a handle on this. Hungry? I hear the Golden Swan Hotel has 24 hour room service."

Iroh put an arm around her shoulders. "Are you suggesting we check into a fancy hotel, just to get room service at three in the morning?"

"I could if I didn't already have the room booked." She smiled up at him. "I figured this year I'd try to plan the events, might end better."

"End better? What could be better then after the Zoo incident, where we spent hours trying to coax that lemur out of the tree, or when we both had pneumonia and spent days curled up together listening to radio crime dramas and actually learning we had a lot in common and actually started liking each other? Some of my best memories with you are the fall out of our less then romantic anniversaries."

Korra smiled snuggling into Iroh's side as a chilly autumn breeze swept by them.
"I guess those were good times looking back. So you in, fancy hotel and room service, no one knowing where we slipped off to?"

Iroh nodded. "Yeah I'm hungry. Let's go see how their 3 A.M. room service is. I mean, what could go wrong?"

.o.

Iroh sat down next to Korra as a fish swam passed him in the hotel lobby, which was currently flooded with a foot of water. "You know, I'm not even curious how this happened."

Korra shook her head. "We weren't even here for five minutes and this place is flooded."

Iroh nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to chalk this up to someone else's bad luck. We aren't that cursed."

"Speaking of bad luck." Korra leaned against him. "Do you think Amon realized he tried to take bending away from a non-bender?"

Iroh shrugged. "I don't think so, but man does that give a person a headache, didn't know energy bending did that to a person."

Korra's eyes narrowed. "It doesn't but maybe that's a clue as to how Amon does take people's bending away but that's a topic for another day." Her eyes landed on a bowl of fortune cookies. She picked two up and handed one to Iroh. "Here, looks like this is the only food we're going to get until the restaurants open up."

Iroh broke his cookie and read the fortune. "Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you." He smiled. "A good sentiment given our past." He kissed her on the cheek. "So what does yours say?"

"Help! I'm trapped in a fortune cookie factory."

"Really?"

"No, it says someone who loves you is close." She kissed him. "But I don't need a cookie to tell me that."

A/N: thanks for reading sorry it's a bit of a rehash but I hope you enjoyed it and as always comment if you feel so compelled. ~ C.C.