those amber eyes (slow updates)

Shu Jing

Iroh's POV
I bid goodbye to Nadena, thanking her and her healers for doing such a good job, before we departed for Shu Jing.

I found Y/N where she usually was, leaning over the railings, "Hello, Y/N." She didn't respond, "Uh- Y/N?"

She snapped her head around, almost as if she was in a daze, "Oh, hi, Iroh. Sorry, did you say something?"

I shook my head and stood beside her with my spine straight, looking out to the sea with my hands behind my back, "how are you feeling? Are you nervous?"

She raised an eyebrow at me, "about what? Returning to Shu Jing?" I nodded and she sighed, "no... I'm used to them doing this, I'd just like to hurry up and get to Republic City- if Tojan isn't dead and he's just disappeared, I just want to hurry up and put a stop to all this madness..."

I nodded before assuring her, "don't worry, we will."

We stood there for a while, in comfortable silence before I decided to ask, "how's your wound feeling?"

She looked over at me, "oh, it's fine. Almost completely better."

"That's good. Perhaps when it is, you can train with me a bit, I know you're skilled in combat but I've never seen you in action."

"I suppose that'd be beneficial to the both of us, I've never trained with a soldier before."

Although I sometimes didn't know what to say to her, things never felt awkward or uncomfortable, we were able to stand in comfortable silence and it was okay.

—

When we arrived at Shu Jing, it was in complete ruins.

To my surprise, none of the people returning to their homes looked fazed by it at all, like they had become so accustomed to their homes being destroyed that it was almost routine for them.

People ran over to the dead bodies that were left on the ground, Y/N being the first to start searching amongst them.

It was a horrifying sight, the fallen being rushed to by devastated family and friends, hearing cries and screams fill the air once again.

I waited on the ship and was met by Y/N a little while later, "I'm done. My brother isn't here."

I checked in with one of the commanders and asked him to wait on Shu Jing with the majority of our soldiers whilst I left to Republic City with Y/N to meet with Lin.

Her face was completely void of any emotion as she sat with her legs dangling from the side of the ship; I wasn't sure if I was supposed to ask her what was on her mind or not, so I just awkwardly stood beside her before sitting myself down and dangling my feet over the edge, too.

If she wanted to talk about it, then surely she would've started the conversation herself.

But she didn't, and we just sat there watching the ocean.

After a little while, I decided to ask, "are you feeling alright?"

She glanced over at me before laying back onto the deck and exhaling, "I'm fine."

I nodded.

For once, the silence between us was actually kind of awkward and I had no idea what to say, so I kept my mouth shut and looked out at the skyline, hoping that time would fly by and we'd arrive soon.

Y/N's POV
The chance that my brother was dead had increased drastically, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I felt sort of numb, but also disappointed in the way where I knew deep down that this was the case, but I suppressed it and denied it until it was finally made absolutely clear to me that it was true.

All that was playing through my mind was that if they had taken Tojan from me, too... I'd have to kill them.

I didn't even just want them to die at my hands, I wanted them to suffer. I wanted them to feel every ounce of pain that they had caused, every heart that broke when they tore families apart; I wanted them to feel as helpless as the children they left orphaned.

Perhaps that made me a bad person, but even if it did, I didn't care- it's called justice.

"Iroh, when we catch them... what's going to happen to them?"

He turned around to look down at me, as I laid my head on the deck.

"Well... they're criminals and they'll be treated as such. We'll bring them back to the Fire Lord, and she'll decide."

I felt myself let out a huff as he said that.

The Fire Lord won't punish them the way they deserve... they'll probably serve a prison sentence for a few years before being let back out to the world to destroy more lives.

"Y/N... I, uh- just so you know, if you want to talk about whatever's on your mind, I'm here. This whole situation must be pretty hard for you."

I looked back over at the general and he looked just as stiff and awkward as he always did when he'd try to hold a conversation.

I took a deep breath, trying to clear my head before sitting back up and smiling at Iroh, "thanks. It's fine, though, there's nothing that either of us could do right now to change the situation we're in, so I'd rather just focus on the positive things."

He paused for a moment, seemingly deep in thought before asking, "what positive things are you thinking about?"

"Oh, well... the fact that we're gonna catch them and everything will finally go back to how it was before... oh, and there was this guy I met when we were in the capital," I felt my heart flutter thinking of the short time we spent together, "when this is all over, I think I want to visit him in the South Pole."

"One of the healers, then?"

I nodded, "mhm. We went out to get food last night, but I couldn't find him this morning."

He stayed silent, so I leaned back onto the ground and closed my eyes, mumbling, "I'm gonna have a nap, wake me up when we get there."