Still don't own LOK...

Iroh walked calmly around Republic City as Anastasia rested inside her rooms. He had warned one of his few female soldiers – this one an earthbender – that she would need to take Anastasia her lunch in complete secrecy. And now, at long last, he had finally come up with the final idea for the music boxes that he wanted he and Anastasia to share.

He passed a pet shop, and stopped before doing a double take. There, in the window, was a wide array of pets from all nationalities, from all of the elemental nations, and with varying sizes. Another idea came into his mind, and he stepped in and began looking around.

"Oh, hey, Iroh!" he heard, and looked to find Asami browsing through one of the aisles. "What brings you here?"

"Family ties," he said vaguely. "Yourself?"

"I'm actually kind of lonely now that this whole war has blown over," she said sadly, and he looked at her worn and sorrowful features. "I was trying to figure out which pet would help me get over Mako the best… Fire Ferrets aren't helping any, of course."

Iroh nodded before walking calmly over to the fire ferrets. Most of them were running around or doing something stupid, but one in particular caught his eye. It was calm, wrestling with a stuffed toy, and it looked up at him upside down before the others ran it over in haste. They were about to run over it again when it rolled over and attempted to get away, but its tail was still trodden on.

"Little cretins," Iroh said shaking his head. "They're too hyper for their own good."

And with that Iroh walked away from the Fire ferrets, not seeing the sad look on the face of the one whose tail had been trodden on. He and Asami browsed through most of the other animals that began to try to get out of their cages.

"This one looks cute," Asami said smiling softly as she knelt in front of a small beige cat.

"Whatever suits your fancy," Iroh said walking off to take another look at the fire ferrets.

Yet again, the smallest one was getting run over by its peers, and crying out indignantly. Of course, the others ignored it as they continued to roughhouse. The shopkeepers weren't even paying the slightest attention until Iroh finally went over to one of them and question their housing methods.

"Oh, fire ferrets? They'll usually only pick on one of the others if they sense hostility," the assistant shrugged.

"Could the ferret be hostile because it's being picked on per se?" Iroh countered, and the assistant's jaw dropped.

"It's possible," he conceded as he put the turtle duck back in its small makeshift pond. "But whenever we're around none of them are getting picked on."

Iroh simply led the man over to the fire ferrets, which were now calming down significantly as one of their caretakers was coming near them.

"It seems as though they sense whenever they are going to be in danger because of bad behavior," Iroh said with a scowl before looking at the nearly trampled one that had curled up.

The fire ferret in question perked its head up at the sound of his voice and went over to the edge of the container and began squealing to be let out, as if to beg for a release from its prison. In an instant, one of the others was at her tail and fighting her. Iroh went off into an aisle to fake looking at another group of pets while eavesdropping.

"Hey, hey, knock it off," the assistant said reaching his hand in to pull the two ferrets apart. "Ty Lung! The ferrets are fighting again!"

"Good grief," a man said walking out from behind the counter where Asami had just bought the cat that she'd been looking at. "Which one is it now?"

"The same one as last time, sir," the assistant said holding the attacking ferrets up. "It looks as though the male got mad that the female kept refusing him again."

"That little rat is nothing but trouble," Ty Lung spat, "Throw her out, she's the only one that he keeps attacking."

"S-sir? J-just throw her out into the streets?" the assistant stammered.

"Yes, the streets! I have no use for a ferret like her!" Ty Lung snapped back angrily, his voice barely audible from Iroh's location halfway down the aisle, "Strangle it, run it over, I don't care what you do, just get rid of it so it doesn't keep coming back!"

The assistant shot the female fire ferret a sorrowful look as he put the male back in the bin and then closed the lid. He then walked past Iroh, and went out the back door. Ty Lung huffed, and Iroh snuck out of the pet shop behind the owner's back. He wanted nothing to do with this cruel shop and walked calmly past the rest of the shops to the edge of the street and then turned right and made another right to be able to get behind the building.

"I'm sorry, little one," he heard the assistant say sorrowfully. "But when the boss wants an animal gone, he wants them gone for good."

Iroh's eyes widened before he calmly went up to the small injured ferret as she tried to limp back to the pet shop a few yards away. Luckily for her the street was abandoned for the time being since it was closed off to everyone but pedestrians, and Iroh crouched down.

"Hush, little one," he said picking her up. "I won't hurt you."

The fire ferret squealed and squirmed all the way to the nearest veterinary office, where Iroh calmly walked in with her in the crook of his arm. The owner recognized what happened immediately, and nodded as she led the General towards the back of the clinic. Iroh set the fire ferret down on the examination table where she looked up at him unhappily and tried to escape.

"This isn't the first time that someone has walked in with a beaten pet," the medic said gravely. "I have been getting a number of customers who tell me that they found their pets abandoned and beaten on the streets, oftentimes run over by a vehicle. As often as I've gone to get that no good Ty Lung arrested, people refuse to listen to me, saying there was no witnesses to their acts of cruelty."

"You've got one now," Iroh said darkly. "He won't stay in business long if I have anything to say or do with it. The Military is still in charge over the reconstruction areas, and he's in one. Therefore, I have jurisdiction over what he can and can't do."

"Oh! You must be General Iroh, then," he said nodding with a new found light in his eyes. "I'm glad that someone finally noticed the sufferings of these poor animals. You probably saw what he did firsthand."

"And heard," Iroh said nodding before the small fire ferret looked up at him. "What are you looking at, you ungrateful weasel?"

The ferret struggled to get up and then went limp on the table, and then looked up at him with a slight noise from her throat.

"I think she likes you," the medic chuckled. "Well, I have to register her to someone to keep her here overnight… would you mind?"

"In all honesty, no. I'm sure my sister would enjoy having another female around the house," he said smirking as he put his finger near the ferret and poked it. "Although I'm fairly sure she won't be happy that the new female will be a bit lazy in the beginning."

"Thank you for helping me, you have no idea how busy my clinic is enough as it is, I don't need Ty Lung's castaways any more than I have to," he said shaking his head. "I look forward to the day that he gets taken over by someone else who actually has a heart!"

"I can think of one person who would fit the bill," Iroh said grinning evilly, and the medic swallowed in fear.

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