A/N: Second in the B-day list to AStormIsBrewing! Happy Birthday and Congrats on school being over!
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar or So Small by Carrie Underwood
He had watched the prince grow from a baby to a young boy. And then he had left and returned to find a confused young man who had lost the only source of love he had. As the boy's uncle, he had taken the troubled youth under his wing and tried to teach the boy.
What
you got if you aint got love?
The kind that you just wanna give
away
It's okay to open up
Go ahead and let the light shine
through
I know it's hard on a rainy day
You wanna shut the
world out
And just be left alone
Don't run out on your faith
The boy grew to a teen and soaked up his teachings and tried to emulate both his father and his uncle. But when the teen had spoken truly, but out of turn, his own father had scarred and banished him. He had followed the boy, to continue his teaching and to show his only loving relative that there was hope. There was a chance for a real life, not the one his tyrannical brother had impressed on the boy. Now the teen was searching for the impossible, to gain a father's love that was never there, and missing the uncle who loved him like a son.
Sometimes
that mountain you've been climbing
Is just a grain of sand
What
you've been out there searching for forever,
Is in your hands
When
you figure out love is all that matters, after all
It sure makes
everything else
Seem so small
He had been devastated when the teen had turned against all he had taught him in the depths of the great earth city. The city of walls had given him much grief, and now came the final blow. It had almost killed him when he had lost his own son to the city of walls, but now his second son, the adopted son of his heart had turned against him and gone against all that he had taught him. And against the teens' own heart as well by the look in the youths' eyes.
It's
so easy to get lost inside
A problem that seems so big, at the
time
It's like a river that's so wide
It swallows you
whole
While you're sittin round thinking about what you can't
change
And worryin' about all the wrong things
Time's flying
by, moving so fast
You better make it count, cause you can't get
it back
When they had returned home, he to defeat and imprisonment and his nephew to everything the teen had wanted, the troubled youth was still not satisfied. As he knew the teen would be. The youth was angry and did not understand it. And still the boy sought him out, even though it could cost them both their lives. Slowly he had worked on the troubled teen, bringing the boy to search inside himself and revealing his heritage to him. The boy was coming around, but too slowly. He had to make his move soon, and if his adopted son was with him, all the better. If not, then all his years of teaching had been in vain. And he had truly lost his sons to the war, both of them.
Sometimes
that mountain you've been climbing
Is just a grain of sand
What
you've been out there searching for forever
Is in your hands
Oh,
When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure
makes everything else
Seem so small
It had been a few weeks since the eclipse and his escape, and he had been sad to leave his beloved nephew behind. But he was now proud as he watched his nephew bond with some new friends. The troubled youth had finally listened to his teachings and put them to use. He had left the mongrel that was his father and was now teaching the Avatar the art of firebending and making up for past sins. The sins of his father, grandfather and great grandfather by following the teachings if his uncle and adopted father. He watched as the prince laughed and attempted to joke with his newfound friends. He knew he would have to reveal himself to the teens soon, but not yet. He enjoyed watching his nephew become a man with a loving heart. The man he knew Zuko could always be, and Iroh couldn't love his nephew any more.
Sometimes
that mountain you've been climbing
Is just a grain of sand
What
you've been out there searchin for forever
Is in your hands
Oh,
When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure
makes everything else
Oh it sure makes everything else
Seem so
small