"The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself." –Gilbert Keith Chesterton
#01 – Comfort
After an evening in the company of his brother, Iroh is bone-achingly eager to welcome the company of his blue-eyed ward.
#02 - Kiss
Katara never holds his hand, not even when it's allowed and every scared line of her body wants to; but when close, trapped in a crowd, she brushes small fingertips over his and Iroh understands.
#03 - Soft
Katara's punishment for sneaking into the library consists of a lecture about organization and a footstool to help her reach the higher shelves.
#04 - Pain
"What unusual eyes," remarks the noblewoman and Katara looks away.
#05 - Potatoes
She buries them in the garden while Iroh smiles, but it's too soon to tell if it's a planting or a funeral.
#06 - Rain
It's the only time the dark, wet spots on her sleeve don't sadden him.
#07 - Chocolate
"But ginseng is still my favorite," she assures him.
#08 - Happiness
The first time he hears Katara laugh, Iroh looses his last doubt about having refused mercy to a child dying in the snow.
#09 - Telephone
The Dragon of the West's strange ward; the general's blue-eyed wonder; Iroh's foreign curio; the old man's latest oddity.
#10 - Ears
Shadows in the hallways don't worry Katara; the mouths of their owners do.
#11 - Name
The character for dragon is less complicated that she expects; the word and man don't have that much in common, apparently.
#12 - Sensual
The curve of her jaw warns Iroh to brace himself for the future.
#13 - Death
The helmet is an awkward weight in her hands; suddenly, Katara is glad it's an antique.
#14 - Sex
Iroh's shock at her discovery is matched only by Katara's confusion at having the book ripped out of her hands.
#15 - Touch
The hand on Katara's shoulder is warm, reassuring, but she doesn't relax until her feet back across the doorstep.
#16 - Weakness
"Tell me about your nephew," she asks again.
#17 - Tears
"Thank you," she mutters, reaching for the teacup with one hand and wiping her eyes with the other.
#18 - Speed
Time is distance; the girl standing in his garden is a thousand miles beyond the mute on the deck's edge.
#19 - Wind
"I don't know," Iroh says, "but the previous one was called Roku."
#20 - Freedom
Because she may ask for anything and allowed to do the same, Katara chooses to sit in the garden and flip pebbles into the pond.
#21 - Life
It's not so strange, Katara thinks, to wish for snow during a summer afternoon.
#22 - Jealousy
Describing the prince's practice session, Iroh wonders at the look on Katara's face but is distracted from asking upon discovering the tea in his cup is inexplicably cold.
#23 - Hands
Katara learns to play Pai Sho by listening to Iroh describe the tiles; she learns to win by studying the hand that moves them.
#24 - Taste
The pepper flakes make her sneeze till water gathers at the corners of her eyes; Katara finishes the whole bag anyway.
#25 - Devotion
Katara traces the black thread against the red cloth, silent; Iroh watches the Water girl outlined against the Fire insignia, and is torn.
#26 - Forever
"A parent never forgets his child," Iroh reassures her, and the pain in his eyes convinces Katara to accept the words.
#27 - Blood
"He doesn't really look like you," Katara says during their ride home, "but I think it'd be better if he did."
#28 - Sickness
At the peak of fever, Katara calls out for her mother, crying; Iroh, hero of a nation, sits helplessly by her side.
#29 - Melody
It took the discovery of three snapped flutes under the bed, a shamisen in the garden pond, and a horn in an orange tree, before Iroh acknowledged that Katara would not be taught what she didn't want to learn.
#30 - Star
"They'll damage something," she says as another firework erupts above and the crowd cheers.
#31 - Home
Silk instead of fur, iron instead of ice, silver instead of clay: the makings of her surroundings are a change easier to accept than forgive.
#32 - Confusion
He reaches for her and Katara falls back, half asleep and unable to distinguish the man in the room from the soldier in her nightmares.
#33 - Fear
She claims she can't remember their faces but Iroh notices Katara doesn't look up, at him, when she says it.
#34 - Lightning/Thunder
The moment between the flash and the echo isn't long, but then neither is the walk to Iroh's room.
#35 - Bonds
They share no blood, no common land, no recognizable similarity: but they are not strangers to each other, despite seeming so strange to others.
#36 - Market
Catching each other's eye, they giggle, a girl and a general with pear juice running down their chins.
#37 - Technology
Katara spreads new maps next to the old and waits for Iroh to explain how the Fire Nation has redesigned the world.
#38 - Gift
Katara likes Iroh but no amount of affection is enough to warrant yet another stone three headed goat-monkey-frog-something in her room.
#39 - Smile
She learns to smile without showing her teeth, and to speak without saying what she means.
#40 - Innocence
Iroh does not think of her as a daughter because if he had a daughter he would never let her learn what Katara knows.
#41 - Completion
History is not her favorite subject, but it's the one Katara's most attentive to; Iroh cements the interest by explaining that one cannot fathom an ending of an event without understanding the conditions of its start.
#42 - Clouds
Katara knows Iroh is different from others, adults and otherwise, because it takes a special sort of person to find a winged frog in the sky.
#43 - Sky
Katara watches the color of her sky reflect in the pond; Iroh watches the power of his hope reflect in the child.
#44 - Heaven
"She was a very good person," Katara explains to Iroh while he hands her a stick of incense to light at the altar.
#45 - Hell
Iroh doesn't question Katara's right to hate; instead, he marvels at her refusal to obey it.
#46 - Sun
Come dawn, Katara's too exhausted to worry and falls asleep under the comforting weight of Iroh's hand on her hair.
#47 - Moon
Katara talks to the moon with her eyes, silently, explaining what she doesn't want her guardian to hear.
#48 - Waves
The screen is beautiful, an undeniable work of art, but its painted ocean is dry to the touch and thus useless.
#49 - Hair
When she tries doing it from memory, hands shaky, strands slip out and tangle until finally Katara gives up and lets the maid bind her braids in the proper Fire Nation style.
#50 – Supernova
"I forgive you, Iroh."
AN: Written according to the "alpha" set of 1sentence themes over on LJ, but never posted to the community because nobody would get it.