Shu Jing

Piando had been asleep when a loud banging on his door woke him up.

"FAT! Can you see who's making that racket and what does he want?"

The old man put a pillow over his head. He was tired from reading all night and he had no intention of getting out of bed now.

"Yes Master!"

Fat left the kitchen and went to answer the door. When he got there, he was surprised to see …

"Princess Azula, what are you doing here?" She was there with her two children.

"I need to speak with Master Piando. It's rather important."

"It's a bit early. I think he's still asleep," please go away and come back later … or never.

"Oh I have just the thing!" She turned to her two girls. "You know how we have to wake up Mommy when she oversleeps."

Kya and Lilo nodded.

"Well I want you to wake up your Uncle Piando the same way."

Lilo grinned.

They ran past Fat up to his bedroom.

"What are they doing?" He questioned as he watched them disappear around the corner.

"Oh, they'll get Piando out of bed; trust me."

They ran into the master bedroom and Lilo threw a fireball into the air, causing Piando to snap his eyes open. "What in Agni's name?"

Kya froze the flame and then threw an icicle at him.

"Stop that!"

The girls ran around the room, burning and freezing anything they could reach. Piando had to jump out of bed to chase them and they ran back to their mother.

He didn't realize it was a set up until … "Oh Master Piando, how nice of you to join us!"

I've been had! He angrily looked to Fat who simply shrugged.

"What brings you here, Princess?"

In the living room, Azula explained how they needed to get Iroh out of the palace.

"He's so depressed; he's making us depressed. He needs something to live for, something to excite him again. I think he used opiates to cope for so long that he doesn't know how to look at the world with a sober brain anymore. He just sleeps the day away."

That's too bad. "How can I help?"

"We think he needs to see how great the world can be, travel, meet people, force himself out of this cocoon he built for himself."

"What do you want me to do?"

"We want you to go with him."

"ME?" Why me?

"Well, don't take this the wrong way but at his age, a lot of his friends are dead. You're one of the old dudes who's still kicking."

Fat tried not to guffaw. She was so crass.

He wanted to say no just because she was so rude, but he was afraid she'd keep coming back until he said yes.

"If I help you, do you promise to never, ever, ever bring yourself of your children here again?"

"Absolutely!" Azula's end of the bargain was done. It was Zuko's job to plan the trip.

Katara found herself alone in the palace. Her wife took the girls, why Katara didn't know, and Mai was busy with Izumi.

She used to wish for quiet mornings so she could sleep, especially when Lilo was teething; as a baby, she could cry the whole palace down, but now, she didn't know how to sleep without Azula keeping her warm or one of the girls climbing into their bed at night because she had a bad dream.

It was too lonely in her room, so she left the bedroom and headed out to the garden. Even though it had been over twelve years since she had first been here, she still couldn't believe how beautiful of a garden they had. As a child, she imagined the Fire Lord living in some menacing metal death trap of a castle or something; how does someone have such beauty in his backyard only to rage war on the rest of the world. She wondered if they had ever bothered to come outside the war room; did they ever do anything so simple as to smell the roses.

The flowers were reminiscent of the sun, red, orange, and yellow. For a long time, Katara hated the color red; it only reminded her of the day her mother died. It was hard to hate red and be married to Azula. She loved red lipstick, red clothes; she even had shoes with red bottoms.

Lilo was exactly the same way. If they weren't careful, Lilo would get into Azula's make up and put red all over her face.

After about an hour outside, Katara decided that she had enough of the heat and started to go back to her chambers; she was just about to take her shoes off when she heard …

"Mama, Mama!"

Lilo and Kya ran to her. Both girls were covered in dirt. They must have been playing in Piando's backyard.

"How was Shu Jing?"

"It was fun!"

Kya started talking about all of the things that Piando had in his house.

Lilo was more enthralled with, "they had bacon! Lots of bacon!"

"I smuggled some back," Azula had hid hers in her purse, to escape the health purge of the palace.

Katara rolled her eyes. "It's cold."

Azula warmed it with a flame. "Now it's sizzling hot … like me!"

Lilo reached for it.

"Wait your turn." Azula ate the first one.

Katara had to admit she enjoyed the smell of sizzling bacon.

After their protein snack, it was time for the kids to have a bath.

Kya was learning to make her baths very efficient with her waterbending.

Lilo liked making her bath as hot as a sauna.

"It's scalding," Katara told her as she tried to lower the temperature.

"I like it. It's like lava!"

"What is it with firebenders and heat?"

"What is it with waterbenders and freezing their toes off for fun?" Azula retorted.

Katara shook her head. "Hardly anyone freezes off his toes anymore … unless you leave on wet socks and they freeze or …"

Azula had been speaking rhetorically. "That's possible? Gross!"

Katara distracted her with a kiss.

"OOGIES!" Lilo complained.

Azula covered Lilo's eyes, so she couldn't see.

Zuko was appalled when Azula told him how she got Piando to agree.

"You sent Lilo and Kya to attack him!"

Azula wasn't fazed. "You say attack, I say play."

He rolled his eyes. "Why couldn't you ask nicely?"

"I did," Azula insisted, "after I gave him good reason to say yes."

"That is so …"

"Genius, wily, charming?"

"You."

"Is that a complement or an insult?" She actually didn't know.

"It's a compliment," he told her.

She smiled, and then she bopped him on the head.

"Ouch! What's that for?" he growled.

"For lying. If you're going to insult me, at least be honest about it."

He groaned. He could not win with her.

Two weeks later, Zuko had finished the trip's preparations. Now, he only had to tell Iroh that he was going.

He thought about telling him at dinner, but if Iroh made a fuss, he didn't want it to be in front of everyone. Instead, he invited his uncle to afternoon tea.

"Zuko, how nice of you to invite an old man like me to tea. Whatever do I owe the pleasure?"

Zuko started to feel bad. He's not going to like this. "I wanted to talk to you about your recovery. How are you doing?"

Iroh thought it was going okay. He hadn't done any opiates. He made it to most of his physical exercise sessions. He was inexplicably tired however.

"I'm doing alright. How are you?"

They made small talk for about a good twenty minutes before Zuko asked, "What do you think about doing some travelling?"

Iroh raised a brow. "Are we going on a family vacation, where to?"

Zuko frowned in confusion. For a moment, he pondered having all eight of them on a vacation and it sounded terrible.

"Not a vacation … well it could be a vacation but not a family vacation."

"You're not making any sense! What are you talking about?"

"We think you need a break from the palace."

"We?"

"You've been miserable Iroh. You sleep the day away and snap at anyone who causes you to wake up even though it's the middle of the afternoon …"

"I do not SNAP!"

Zuko didn't know how else to describe it. "You used to be so full of life and now … I don't know what to say. It's like you have nothing that makes you happy anymore."

Iroh tried to argue, but he couldn't come up with any words.