"I'm going to tell you a little bit about fire bending theory and the first fire bending masters."

"Why do I have to listen to that?" Ton Yu asked. "I just wanna punch people with fire."

"We'll get to that," said Lu Ten, trying not to groan. "But first we have to learn the basics. There's a lot more to fire bending than punching people. See, the original fire bending masters were the dragons. Unfortunately fire lord Sozin had them all killed, so we can't learn from them anymore. But we can still learn from history and old stories. See, fire bending is tied to breath. The dragons breathed fire and the ancient sun warriors learned from them. If you pay attention to your breathing, you'll be able to control flames. Try it."

Ton Yu crossed his legs and began to breathe in and out. The lamp on the wall began to flicker in time to his breathing, the flames gently rising falling.

"Good, good." Said Lu Ten. "That's a great start. The best fire benders can practice that enough to breathe literal fire. That's how the dragon of the west got his nickname."

"That's the guy who attacked Ba Sing Se."

"Yes."

"Can I learn to punch people with fire now?"

"Fine. I didn't want to start with violence, but given that you got mugged a few days ago it might be pretty useful for you."

"Yay!" Ton Yu squealed. "Next time someone tries to mug me, I just burn them!"

"Thrust your fist forward, and blast fire from it." Lu Ten demonstrated the move. "It's not too hard."

Ton Yu eagerly raised his fists and shot a few blasts of fire. "That's fun! Have you ever used that move in a fight?"

"Yes, I have. I used to be a soldier for the Fire Nation."

Ton Yu's face twisted in disgust. "My father was a Fire Nation soldier."

"What did he do?"

"Nothing." Ton Yu turned away.

"I'm not trying to pry out of selfish interest, I'm asking because you have a lot of anger tied to your family. I'm not gonna force you to talk about it, but I do think you need to come to terms with it eventually."

Ton Yu threw a few angry fire punches at the wall. They were lucky it was so damp down in the basement. "How about instead of forcing me to tell my tragic backstory, you tell yours? It's weird to see fire benders in Ba Sing Se."

"Ok. I can do that, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else. I'm kind of . . . kind of well known in the Fire Nation. They think I'm dead there, and it cannot get out that I'm actually alive."

"Are you a criminal?" Ton Yu's eyes were gleaming. "What did you do?"

"It's more what I didn't do. Have you ever heard of a Fire Nation prince named Lu Ten?"

"Ton Yu shook his head. "I told you, I was born in the Earth Kingdom."

"Well, that prince is me."

"You're a prince? Couldn't you just, like, tell your dad to stop the war?"

"Well, my dad's actually not the fire lord, my uncle is. And if I tried to tell him that, he'd probably banish me for disrespecting his ideas."

"You banished yourself, then," said Ton Yu as he rolled a ball of flames across his hands. The kid was surprisingly perceptive.

"Yeah, pretty much. I was presumed dead during the siege of Ba Sing Se, and my dad was so upset he called off the whole thing. It was peaceful after the siege, and I liked it, so I decided to stay. It was a hard choice, but so far it's wound up protecting the people here."

"Whoa." Ton Yu flopped over on the dusty ground. "But why? Didn't you have everything you wanted at the palace?"

"Technically yes. And everything I didn't want, like war and troop movements and naval blockades and 100 years' worth of family expectations. I just wanted a life of peace and happiness. And freedom."

"I do have freedom." Ton Yu muttered. "It's about the only thing I have though. My own mother didn't even like me. She wanted me to be an earth bender. She was Earth Kingdom, you know. I get the fire from my dad."

"So you've told me." Said Lu Ten softly. "What was he like?"

"Dunno. He and my mom were only together for a little bit of time. He didn't even stick around long enough for me to be born. My mother was so mad the day I started bending fire, because I was a reminder of my garbage father."

Lu Ten was quiet for a moment. "I've had experience with dysfunctional family—believe me, you don't want to meet my uncle—but I was always lucky to have a supportive father. I'm gonna try to help you process things and work through your emotions together."

"You didn't mention your mom."

"Yeah . . . well, she died a long time ago. I don't even remember her."

"I never met my dad, remember? We can be dead parent fire bending buddies!"

"Uh . . . ok?"

"This is great!" Ton Yu prattled on. "You need to teach me more fire bending moves! Then we can go find my friends and show them!"

"What friends?" Lu Ten gaped. "Don't get carried away here!"

"My little gang, Sticky Fingers and Squealer! They call me Flameo. Sticky Fingers is an earth bender and Squealer can't bend but he does throw rocks at people!"

"Ok, ok, we can go meet your friends later." Lu Ten tried not to laugh as Ton Yu ran around blasting fire. In just a few months he'd gone from soldier to tea maker to now, apparently, mentor to troubled youth. He had a brief mental image of Ton Yu, Sticky Fingers, and Squealer following him around like he was a mama turtle duck, like Zuko and Azula used to do. "Oh Dad," he laughed to himself, "if only you could see me now!"