So I started writing this fic back during the Polar Vortex of 2013. You guys remember that one? Disney's Frozen had just come out in theatres, then we got slammed with snow, and I'm still not convinced that was a coincidence.

I was still living up north with my parents at the time, and since our family has always been strict about saving energy and very much of the "just put on another sweater" mentality, the house was cold. Very cold. And I run colder than most people to begin with, so I was *freezing.*

I wrote this fic to deal, because misery loves fictional company, and what better way to cope with dead-fish-cold hands than by dragging a bunch of Firebenders through a blizzard?

Also if memory serves correctly, I started writing this when I first got my teapot - not the kettle that you boil the water in, the ceramic pot that you brew the tea in - and it was the first time I'd ever had that much tea at my disposal all at once. So of course I drank two pots' worth of tea in just a few hours, got super caffeinated, and proceeded to giggle in horror at how jittery I was.

I try to stick to just one pot at a time now.

Anyway, this fic is set about...8 years before Sozin's Comet. Lu Ten is still alive and well (and not brainwashed, if you're reading this in a GG-context), Iroh is still a formidable and loyal prince, and the siege has been on for a few months at this point. Also we get to see Jouin, who hasn't been crushed by rocks yet, and we finally get to meet Kenta, my OC who is Lu Ten's bff and Ty Lee's older cousin. Enjoy!

When the first few flakes fell, the Fire Nation encampment collectively stopped what they were doing to gape at the sky.

"Wow," said Prince Lu Ten. "It's like...fluffy rain."

Beside him, his best friend, Kenta, reached out to catch a few snowflakes on his hand. "Huh," he said. "It turns to water once it touches you."

Lu Ten was scrutinizing the flakes that had landed on his sleeves, and made a remarkable discovery. "It comes in shapes!"

Few people in the Fire Nation had ever seen snow. The stuff only existed on the highest peaks of the tallest mountains, and who wanted to climb up there when there was a perfectly good beach nearby? The only Fire folk who'd seen snow were those who lived on very tall islands and were crazy enough to go mountain-climbing and the veterans who'd been involved in the Fire Army's northern campaigns.

Lu Ten and Kenta fit into neither category, and thus they watched the snow flurry down upon the camp with open-mouthed awe.

Some of the soldiers had already taken to playing in it; they were running through the flurries and zapping falling flakes out of the air with well-aimed fire darts. Lu Ten saw one man attempting to catch flakes on his tongue and hurried toward him. "Jouin! Enjoying the snow?"

"To an extent, sir," Jouin said, leaping after a particularly large flake and landing flat on his face. "Ugh."

Lu Ten chuckled and helped his trusty lieutenant back up. "Watch yourself, Jouin. I'd hate to have to replace you."

"I would never dream of putting you through such an inconvenience, sir."

Kenta was still catching flakes in his hands, admiring the translucent shapes before they melted on his skin. "It is pretty, I'll admit."

"Yes, sir," Jouin agreed with a quick nod, looking out over the camp. The snow gently drifted down through the still air, giving an odd illusion of the world in slow motion. "Almost makes the cold worth it."

"This is not worth it," Lu Ten grumbled some time later, scowling from where he stood at the tent flap.

"What, the siege?" Iroh asked as he pored over a map. "You had better be joking. I do not want to tell your grandfather you are getting cold feet. Ha!" He laughed at his own joke.

Lu Ten rolled his eyes. "No, Dad, the snow. It's pretty, but that doesn't stop it from being cold!"

"Oh, quit your complaining," General Kilohana snorted from where she was looking over a report. "This is nothing."

Lu Ten blinked at the older woman. "It's been snowing for an hour." He gestured out the tent flap, where the snowflakes were still fluttering gracefully to the ground. A thin white layer was dusted over the frozen mud.

General Kilohana gave him an unamused look. "Try invading the North Pole sometime. Then tell me how cold it is."

"She has a point!" Iroh said. "It was very cold up there! And it snowed for much more than an hour. It would snow for days on end!"

"We kept having to sweep snow off the deck," General Kilohana said. "And the sea kept freezing around us and the Waterbenders didn't even bother fighting us and you" - she looked at Iroh - "kept forcing tea down everyone's throats."

Lu Ten blinked. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Indeed," said Iroh, pointing at General Kilohana. "That tea saved our lives and you know it."

General Kilohana rolled her eyes. "You are so much like your mother it is terrifying."

Iroh chuckled. "I shall take that as a compliment! Anyway, we are lucky. Ba Sing Se is much farther south than the North Pole. Hopefully we will not get too much snow!"

"This is too much snow," Kenta declared, looking at the ground. "There's, like, an inch. An inch! And it just keeps coming! Oh my Agni, when is this stuff going to stop?" he asked, staring at the sky in mild horror. A snowflake hit him in the eye, and he whimpered and hunched over on the log he sat on, yanking the hood of his cloak down over his face.

"I don't know," Lu Ten grumbled from his seat next to Kenta, and he kicked at the snow covering the ground. "Hopefully soon." He hoped it would be soon, but a niggling feeling at the back of his mind - his innate foresight, intuitive leadership skills, and spirits-granted Agni-ordained instinctual understanding of the entire universe, no doubt - told him that the snow wouldn't be stopping in the near future. Lu Ten didn't say as much out loud, though - again, thanks to his innate foresight, intuitive leadership skills, and spirits-granted Agni-ordained instinctual understanding of the entire universe. He was a leader, thank you, and leaders had to keep up their subordinates' morale! Telling people that the snow would last a while yet would definitely not raise morale. Showing solidarity by sitting with his subordinates out in the cold around a campfire rather than retreating to his private tent, however, would.

Lu Ten was determined to show his soldiers that he was there for them in this trying time, no matter how miserable it made him, personally. And Kenta was helping, since Lu Ten had forced him to come out and be miserable as well. Together they would do good, leaderly things to raise the troops' spirits, right on up until they couldn't take the snow anymore and retreated back to Lu Ten's tent. Until then, they would talk with the soldiers, and complain about the snow with the soldiers, and listen to the soldiers, and also keep the fire going so as to make sure the soldiers stayed nice and warm.

Speaking of, it looked like the fire could use a little more fuel - the flames were dangerously low. Lu Ten reached for the pile of firewood and grabbed a hefty log from the stack - something this size would keep his soldiers warm for a while, he was sure. He threw it on the campfire, aiming for the heart of the blaze where the embers burned hottest. The log struck true, and the impact dislodged the carefully-arranged sticks that were stacked around the flames. The whole wood pile collapsed on itself, immediately smothering the fire and sending up a defeated little plume of smoke.

The soldiers huddled around the campfire shot their prince annoyed looks. Lu Ten blinked. "Oops. Sorry?"

Jouin sighed and got up from his seat to fix the damage. "With all due respect, sir, you are terrible at campfires."

"I said sorry! Just hurry up and relight it before we all freeze!"

Corporal Yukiko began laughing. "Oh my spirits," she said, "you guys need to chill."

Lu Ten glared at her. "No. No snow puns allowed. In fact, no snow allowed. Snow should be illegal. Once we take over Ba Sing Se, I am outlawing snow."

"Can you do that?" Kenta asked hopefully, poking his face out of his cloak.

"I'm the future Fire Lord and a direct descendant of Agni; I can do whatever I want! And I want to outlaw snow. Anyone found guilty of snow will be arrested immediately."

"You can't arrest the sky, sir," Corporal Yukiko said.

"She has a point, sir," Jouin said, trying to achieve the proper balance of sticks.

Lu Ten pointed an accusing finger at Corporal Yukiko. "I don't trust you. Your name means snow child for flame's sake! You're under arrest! And Jouin, you're under arrest for conspiring with a pro-snow traitor."

"Fine, sir," Jouin sighed, sitting back from the fire pit. "Then I guess I can't fix this fire."

One of the soldiers next to Lu Ten burst into tears. "I don't wanna freeze to death!"

"What?" Lu Ten said. "No, no, I take it back - Jouin, you aren't under arrest, fix the fire! Private Lee, stop crying, please stop crying."

Private Lee did not stop crying.

Corporal Yukiko raised her hand. "Am I still under arrest?"

Lu Ten glared at her. "I ought to charge you with terrorizing a fellow soldier!" he said, pointing at the whimpering form of Private Lee. "You see what you did?"

"Ah...sorry, sir," Corporal Yukiko said. "I promise I won't do it again?"

Lu Ten huffed. "See that you don't!"

"...Am I still under arrest?"

Lu Ten thought it over. "Since I am in a magnanimous mood, no. But don't go causing anymore trouble! I've got my eye on you, snow-lover."

"Yes, sir. But I'm just saying," she shrugged. "Everyone needs to calm down. It's not that bad!"

Beside Corporal Yukiko, Corporal Sango shot an incredulous look at her friend.

"Oh my spirits, don't look at me like that!" Corporal Yukiko said.

"You are crazy," Corporal Sango said, and she huddled a little closer to the flame she held in her hands.

Corporal Yukiko rolled her eyes. "I mean, yeah, it's cold, but it isn't unbearable! You people should try going north if you think this is bad - "

"Corporal Yukiko," Lu Ten said, "I've gotten enough flak from my father and General Kilohana about how cold the North Pole is, and - Wait a second! You aren't even old enough to have been at the North Pole!" His eyes narrowed, and for the second time he pointed an accusing finger. "I knew it! You love snow for snow's sake! You traitor!"

"Actually, I was stationed in Caj-Bolor by the Northern Air Temple before I got transferred here," Corporal Yukiko said.

"Hm," Lu Ten said. "And I'm sure you just loved it up there, didn't you?"

"Well, no," she said, "there weren't any boarcupines."

Jouin shuddered at the thought of a land without boarcupine pork. "How awful. Even Ba Sing Se has boarcupines!"

"Not sure if that's still true," Corporal Sango grumbled. "We've eaten a lot of them."

"But anyway," Corporal Yukiko said. "Even if you don't want to bring the northern climate into it, I've climbed mountains back home that were colder than this! Snow was deeper there, too. And I'm a nonbender, so for Firebenders like yourselves this should be easy!"

Corporal Sango snorted. "Sure, but back home you could also walk back down the mountain and be warm again."

"I'm starting to think Firebenders are wimps," Corporal Yukiko said, eyeing Corporal Sango dubiously.

Lu Ten continued glaring at her. Private Lee continued crying. Lu Ten sighed. He felt for the kid, he really did. "Private Lee, please, it's okay. Corporal Yukiko just told us she's a crazy mountain-climber and if the snow hasn't done her in yet I'm sure you stand a chance! Just please stop crying, you aren't going to freeze to death, just...here." He wrapped an arm around the boy.

Private Lee blinked at the sudden touch and gaped at his prince. "You're hot."

"Why thank you," Lu Ten said. "I am a Firebender. Speaking of, Jouin, fire?"

"Nearly there, sir," Jouin said, adjusting one last twig, and then he shot flames into the fire pit. The flames crackled merrily among the sticks.

"There we go," Lu Ten said. "There, see? It's going to be okay. Everything will be okay."

"Do you think so, sir?" Private Lee asked.

Lu Ten gave him an encouraging grin. "Well, it has to stop at some point!"

"Are you sure it's gonna stop at some point?" Kenta asked, staring out through the tent flap. There were two inches of snow on the ground and even more still falling. "I'm supposed to go back to the southern encampment the day after tomorrow - how am I even going to get there with all this stuff in the way?"

"Would you shut the door?" Lu Ten demanded from behind an armful of pillows. "You're letting all the warm air out! Get over here and help me."

Together the two Firebenders amassed every last one of the prince's blankets and pillows into a fluffy fort, into which they then retreated. They brought along a set of tea things and a pot of hot water to help defend their warm fortifications.

Lu Ten grumbled as he fiddled with the tea leaves. "It is so flaming cold out there. This is ridiculous."

Kenta nodded and breathed a bit of flame between his hands.

"If you catch my blankets on fire I'm kicking you out."

"Aw, c'mon Lu, you wouldn't do that to your best friend," Kenta said.

"Ha. Watch me. It's everyone for themselves in this sort of situation. You can go build an igloo or something like some Water Tribe barbarian. No wonder their civilization is so uncivilized, if they have to deal with snow all the time. Here, have some tea."

Kenta accepted the teacup and eyed the liquid mournfully. "You're sure you don't have any coffee?"

"Kenta," Lu Ten said, "you know I don't drink coffee."

"You drink coffee when you come visit my family."

"Only because you and Min think it's hilarious to hide all your tea leaves so you can watch me force that swill down my throat and laugh at my pain. Drink your tea."

Kenta did so grudgingly.

Private Bing sipped her tea giddily. "Now what's happening?" she asked, staring over the wall. Down below, the sea of red tents was dotted with little campfires surrounded by tiny soldiers, but she couldn't make out many details without the telescope.

Corporal Roshi hummed, peering through the lens. "They're all huddling around the fires," he said, scanning the camp. "Speaking of, it is definitely windy down there. I can see the flames getting pushed around in the fire pits. Not as windy as it is up here, of course," he added as a particularly strong gust whipped against the assembled soldiers' faces, "but it's coming from the northwest, so they can't go using our wall as a windbreak."

"Fantastic," Corporal Changpu grinned, and the other soldiers gathered around the wall's edge radiated smug agreement.

"Snow's still falling steadily, and everyone's still huddled around their fires like cricket-moths to a candle flame."

Private Bing giggled. "Yeah, they've been like that for hours." Technically, she was supposed to have the telescope. She was the one on lookout duty, after all. But Corporal Roshi had proven to be a better narrator, so she'd been happy to hand the telescope over to him. Maybe she was being a little lax in her duties, but hey, she hadn't abandoned her position, and they were still keeping a lookout.

A very detailed lookout.

And given the small audience Corporal Roshi's running commentary had attracted, there were quite a few people helping with the lookout.

Also, Corporal Changpu had bribed her for the telescope with hot tea, and Private Bing had been half-frozen and unable to resist. She didn't regret it in the slightest.

She cupped her hands firmly around her cup, absorbing as much warmth into her palms as she could, and had another sip. The drink was steaming hot, and she was determined to finish it while it still was that way. Up here at the top of the Outer Wall, the chilly winds could leach the warmth away from you in minutes.

"Oh boy," Corporal Roshi grinned suddenly, "looks like some poor Fire soldier has discovered ice skating. Minus the skates. Dude took two steps and just started sliding - oh no buddy, don't let your legs spread out, you're gonna - down he goes! Facedown straight into the snow! Beautiful!"

Corporal Changpu snickered. "I hope he broke his nose."

"I can't tell," Corporal Roshi said. "He's not getting up, though."

"Maybe he died?" someone else from the audience asked.

"That would be an impressively embarrassing death," Corporal Roshi said. "Nah, I think he's just laying there. Either he's seriously injured or he's just given up on life. Oh, look, he has a friend."

"Firebenders are capable of having friends?" someone muttered.

"Well, at least people who will come over and try to pry you out of the snow," Corporal Roshi shrugged. "Wow, dude really doesn't wanna get up. He just keeps flopping back down every time the other one tries. Arm pull, flop. Two-arm pull, flop. Attempted pick-up, flop."

"Sounds like some babies I know," Private Bing commented.

"And now his friend is calling for reinforcements. Two people trying to get this guy up now, one at each arm. They're pulling him up, and...flop. Wow. I haven't seen anyone this committed to staying horizontal since I gave Changpu a wakeup call this morning."

"Hey," Corporal Changpu muttered. The other soldiers snickered.

"Just think," Private Bing said. "If they can't handle the snow after a few hours, what's it gonna be like when they wake up tomorrow?"

Corporal Roshi glanced up at the sky and shot her a grin. "It is coming down pretty steadily, isn't it?"

Corporal Changpu snickered and pulled his cloak around him tighter. "Oh," he said, "it's going to be interesting when they wake up in the morning."

Lu Ten and Kenta woke up the next morning to hear a muttering voice and squeaky crunching noises coming from outside the tent. A moment later, someone stumbled in through the tent flap.

"Sir," Jouin's voice started, and abruptly paused. "Um, sir? Prince Lu Ten?"

"We're in the pillow fort, Jouin," Lu Ten said. He shoved a pillow away from his head and peered at his lieutenant. Jouin was blinking owlishly at the pillow fort. Lu Ten sat up, ignoring Kenta's grumblings about how all the heat was escaping the blankets. "Morning."

"Morning, sir," Jouin said meekly.

"Please tell me the snow stopped," Lu Ten said.

Jouin made a despair-filled mewling noise in the back of his throat. "Well," he managed, "it stopped…"

Kenta groaned from under the blankets. "I don't like the sound of that. Why don't I like the sound of that?"

"Yeah," Lu Ten frowned. "The snow stopping should be a good thing, Jouin. Why do you look like someone just told you boarcupines went extinct?"

Jouin looked utterly despondent. "Just...you have to see it for yourself, sir…"

Lu Ten got up and stalked to the tent flap to peek outside. "MOTHER OF AGNI, IT'S EVERYWHERE!"

Jouin just whimpered.

All told, a full six inches had fallen.

Lu Ten tentatively took a step outside. He stared when the snow went well above his ankle. "Oh my spirits, this is terrible. This is just...terrible."

Kenta joined him at the tent flap and blinked out at all the white. A thick layer of fluffy wet torture was spread over the entire camp. "I'm going to be stuck here for a while," he said, "aren't I?"

There was a low bellowing noise, and they turned their gazes a few tents down to see a Komodo rhino struggling to pull a wagon through the frozen mess. The wheels were stuck in an icy rut, and the rhino's feet kept slipping. The poor animal and its handlers looked equally miserable and confused.

"Yeah, I don't think you're getting back to the southern encampment anytime soon," Lu Ten said.

"Great," said Kenta. "I need to send a letter."

"I'll fetch a messenger hawk, sir," said Jouin.

"Bring it to my father's tent," Lu Ten said. "Kenta and I are joining him for breakfast."

Kenta immediately brightened. "Great! I could really use some coffee!"

Lu Ten blinked. "My dad doesn't have coffee."

Kenta ignored him. "Come on, Lu, let's...go…" He trailed off as he realized that the way to Iroh's tent was completely snowed over. "Great. How are we doing this?"

Lu Ten surveyed the few inches of snow and the thin sheet of ice covering the path. "Okay," he said. "Okay, it's not so bad. I can handle this." He took a step out of his tent and immediately slipped, fell, and slid several feet.

"Spectacularly well-handled, sir," Jouin said.

"Jouin, I swear to Agni, if you don't shut up right now I will never make you tea again, ever."

Jouin shut up and hurried forward with Kenta to help the prince to his feet.

"Okay," Lu Ten said when he was once again upright, carefully keeping his balance. "Okay, it's slippery, so we've got to be careful."

"Ugh," said Kenta, slipping a little himself, but not falling over. "This is ridiculous. There's absolutely no way to get a grip on the ground. We're going to end up like that poor rhino." He gestured back at the beast, which had apparently given up on life and had collapsed into an annoyed huffing heap. Its handlers looked like they rather wanted to do the same. "How are we supposed to walk?"

"Okay," Lu Ten said, rubbing his temples. "Okay, okay, how about we just...oh!" He burst out laughing. Then he shot fire at the ground. The ice evaporated instantly, going up in little hissing plumes of steam.

Kenta and Jouin blinked a few times before also raising their hands and blasting fire at their frozen surroundings. Before long they'd managed to clear a perfectly walkable pathway away from the tent.

"Alright!" Lu Ten grinned, striding forward with nary a slip to take aim at another patch of ice. It melted immediately, leaving a puddle in its wake. "Haha, of course this works! We're Firebenders! Ice doesn't stand a chance against us!"

"Tell that to the poor soldiers who got frozen by Waterbenders during the northern campaigns."

"I am trying to keep an upbeat attitude here, Kenta!"

Iroh looked up from the letter he was writing when his son and his son's best friend stomped into his tent. "Ah, good morning!" he beamed. "...Why are you soaked?"

"We just melted all the snow and ice between my tent and yours," Lu Ten said. "It was awesome. There was so much of it, though."

Iroh chuckled. "It's not that bad. A mere half-foot."

"The ground was covered!" Lu Ten protested, taking a seat at the table that had been set up for breakfast. Kenta followed suit.

"Ha!" said Iroh. "Don't let General Kilohana hear you complaining!"

"Don't worry, I won't," Lu Ten said, grabbing for the teapot.

Kenta shivered a little as he helped himself to breakfast. "General Iroh, sir, could I please borrow some of your paper? I need to write a letter to the southern camp."

"Certainly!" Iroh said.

"Thank you, sir." Kenta took a moment to survey the breakfast table. "Would you happen to have any coffee?"

Iroh blinked. "Why would I have coffee?"

Lu Ten smirked into his teacup. Kenta groaned.

Next week: The troops get their hands on a boarcupine. Iroh and General Kilohana reminisce about the Northern Water Tribe siege. Kenta still wants coffee.

Here, have some name notes:

FN Army
Kilohana - Hawaiian - excellent, best, superior
Sango - Japanese - coral
Yukiko - Japanese - snow child

EK Army
Bing - "bing" is pinyin for a lot of things in Mandarin, but given the theme of this fic, let's say her name is written 冰, which means "ice"
Changpu - supposedly "flourishing simplicity" in Chinese, probably Mandarin, so I guess it's written 昌樸?
Roshi - Actually the meaning of this name isn't important at all, and honestly it's not even proper pinyin - there is no "ro", there's "ruo" and "rou" but no "ro", but look, that's not the point here, the point is if you flip the syllables around and think about an as-yet-unborn canon character who is ALSO very good at running commentary, congratulations, you know who Corporal Roshi's grandson is.

Caj-Bolor is the name Stingrae and I made up for the Earth Kingdom province where the Northern Air Temple is located. It's kinda hard to find a good Mongolian-English translation program, but "caj-" should mean "white" and "bolor" should mean "crystal", and we were definitely thinking of snow on the mountains when we named the place.