A/N: Woo! Only one to two more chapters before the stories over! Will it be missed? I doubt it! Will I have fun writing it anyways? You bet! I hope you all have fun reading this too!

-Iroh-

"You're almost the same age as him, Sokka." Iroh mused as he sat down across from the Water Tribe boy, legs folding neatly beneath him and a small smile crossing his face.

Sokka made a small humming noise in the back of his throat but didn't look up from the map that he was studying. It had to be memorized, every road and every trail, every cliff and splotch of forest, before they went out in the morning. The older man's nonsensical ramblings didn't need his whole attention, anyways.

The answer suited Iroh just fine though and he let out a sigh, one hand resting on his knee and the other trailing in the sand he was sitting in. "Now, I know that you don't want to hear this but it's true."

Another grunt, a fleeting glance, but no other answer.

"You are a lot like my nephew." Iroh explained. The hand that had been doodling absent shapes in the sand waved through the air in front of him.

This time, Sokka looked up. There was an almost irritated look on his tanned face and, in the light of the dying fire, Iroh saw a face far older than the boy actually was. "No. I'm not. I'm nothing like him!" It wasn't meant to be an insult, Sokka knew, but he couldn't help but take it that way. With everything that Zuko and his people had done to Sokka...it was hard to take it any other way.

"Do not get so offended, Sokka. I am merely stating a fact." Iroh smiled slightly, eyes drifting from Sokka down into the fire. "He is a very over-protective boy. Always trying to make sure that I don't get hurt. It was why he was caught actually..."

The smile slipped from Iroh's face as Sokka carefully folded up his map and sat it down beside him. It was late, late enough that everyone else had gone to sleep, and he wouldn't be able to make out the lines on the parchment if he didn't put some more wood on the fire soon. As soon as Iroh was done talking, that was what he would do. "Did you need something, Iroh? Because, no offense or anything, I'm sure that Aang loves hearing your stories but I've got work to do before I can get some sleep."

"Actually," the old warrior pursed his lips together, eyes hardening as he leaned foreward. "there is. I have a favor to ask of you. I know that you don't want to hear it but, I'm afraid, you are the only one I can trust with it."

Sokka knew that listening to an old man talk would ruin his night. He knew that he should just go get that fire-wood and finish planning so he could get some sleep, he didn't owe the retired general anything after all, but there was something familar about the tone that his voice had taken that made him stay put. He was too soft and he knew it, but he couldn't just leave the man alone when he seemed so upset. So broken.

"What do you want from me?" Sokka asked, voice almost resigned sounding.

"They've had my nephew for almost a week now. He is a strong boy but he's not that strong. I know what they do to prisoners when they want information from them and it's not something I want to hear Zuko had to go through. It seems that I failed at that, though." Iroh's voice dropped a couple of octaves and his eyes clouded over, caught in a memory but not quite seperate from the present.

A sigh welled up in Sokka's chest, one that he just barely held in, as he met Iroh's eyes; their gazes almost twin, both showing the heavy-hearts that the two hid. "And you want what from me? Aang already told you we were going to get him back."

Deep inside, Sokka would admit that he already knew.

"Help him heal." Iroh stated, voice suggesting that he was only asking Sokka for a cup of water. "He was broken before but, when the Avatar brings him back, he will be shattered. Even if he doesn't show it. And, while I like your companions just fine, they will not all accept him as easily as the Avatar does."

Again, he wanted to say 'no'. To tell Iroh to heal Zuko himself, that he wanted nothing to do with the branded prince of the Fire Nation. But, again, he couldn't. And, as the fire inbetween the flickered down to embers and Sokka stood up to finally fetch the wood to replenish it, he nodded.

"I'll try. I can't say that it will work but I promise you, I will try."

Sokka forced all the conviction he could into those few words so, even though Iroh couldn't see his face anymore, he would know that it was the truth. Once Sokka made a promise, he didn't go back on it. Not even when it was a promise he was loathe to make and even more loathe to complete.