A Lesson Burned

With the Prince, there was a big assembly, a little parade to the school by Komodo Rhino, and worshipful bows and glances.

With General Iroh, there was a giant tea-hosting.

Katara could hear the teachers fluttering around, worrying about how to treat General Iroh, fallen from grace because of the unsuccessful 600-Day Siege of Ba Sing Se. He was still technically royalty, but the missives about him implied him dishonorable, failure, and even a traitor.

They finally decided to do a "tea party," of sorts—everyone knew of the general's love for that particular beverage. Everything was set up in the main hall, with a long table filled with appetizing treats and various teapots and cups. The tea, however, was not in the teapots—that was for the ceremony, and everyone had to practice making it. Katara began to hate the smell of tea, her hands partially stained by the leaves. Her partner, Suki, also muttered in disgruntlement. The students were all given a crash course on tea ceremonies in the Fire Nation, and all Katara could think of by the end of the day were rinsing, heating, and tapping.

General Iroh finally came without a moment to spare, delighted at the spread. The students all began to brew the tea, each one a different blend—jasmine, green, lychee, oolong, white, chrysanthemum, yellow, black—and more. Katara highly suspected that it was because they didn't know Iroh's prefered choice, so the decision fell to chance, by brewing every single kind of tea under the humid, unholy sun.

One new student, a slight twelve-year-old boy, exclaimed that there were more types of tea, like chai, and where he came from, tea ceremonies were less formal and more about eating pastries and drinking the tea. He was immediately scolded by Ms. Kwan and sent away to not fill up "the young students' empty heads with drivel." Suki had watched him go with slight anxiety in her gray eyes, and her hands kept flitting to her belt.

Katara and Suki were standing near the Prince, who was seated at his uncle's right side. Suki seemed a bit nervous as she told Katara that the tea was almost ready, and Katara was steadily forming beads of sweat by having to stand with her back to Zuko. They then threw out the first batch of their jasmine tea, which seemed wasteful to Katara, into a small silver tray and refilled the tea-pot with hot water.

While the tes was brewing (again), most of the students took the opportunity to chat, but Headmaster Zhao had warned anyone who was standing near the general was not allowed to "disgrace the school by chattering about trivial things." Katara wasn't even sure how she'd ended up by General Iroh, but she and Suki waited in silence and fidgeted their hands and skirts while the two chatted about the goings on in the capital, espeically of the Princess' present: a warship and a small army. They weren't too pleased about this gift (and neither was Katara), but they talked in hushed tones that Katara couldn't hear over the clattering of bowls, the hissing of the water, and the constant babble of the other students. Prince Zuko seemed agitated about something, as his uncle was continuing to try to explain something, and Katara only caught a few words like letters, destiny, right, wrong, Fire Nation.

Suddenly, Zuko slammed his fist in into the table, and everyone nearby jumped. He hissed, quite loudy over the now-silent hall, "I have picked my path, Uncle. Do not sway me from it with your words!" The water in the teapots began to steam.

Katara backed away from him.

Prince Zuko noticed and a softer look traveled along his face. "Katara, you must sit for a while."

She shook her head mutely while Suki raised her eyebrows at her in astonishment. The general looked surprised, too.

The Prince pulled out an empty chair, where the students would sit after the tea ceremony. Katara stood, horrified, as Zuko forced her down, practically pushing her into the hard, wooden seat. His hand was firmly on her back until Katara subtly pushed it away.

Everyone was staring, and one teacher went over to ask the royals of this discrepancy, but Zuko waved him off.

Suki didn't lose her head; she was the first to successfully finish brewing and quickly pour it into the cups. Katara stupidly received it with both hands and numbly began to sip. Suki raised her eyebrows again, and Katara hurriedly tapped her first two fingers on the table, almost causing the tea to spill out in the process.

By then, the students could sit down and officially talk.

"So," Suki smiled nervously. "Uh, how was your journey, General Iroh?"

"Very uncomfortable," Iroh replied, but in a cheerful tone that did not suit the line. "It rained for days, and my carriage roof leaked, dripping water all over my head. But there was an amusing thing that happened during when the mud was especially slippery. One of the guards was carrying—"

Katara and Suki chuckled in spite of themselves at the funny anecdote, so the general took that opportunity to tell them more.

After a while, Katara realized that she hadn't poured his empty cup and quickly hastened to do so.

Unfortunately, Suki noticed too, and as they both quickly reached for the cup with blue etchings, it fell, shattering into pieces on the newly scrubbed, wooden floor.

Katara kneeled down to pick the shards up with her napkin while trying to ignore the stares and mutters of "clumsy barbarian," while Suki mopped up the tea. The porcelain shards cut her fingers, and she cursed, looking at to assess the damage.

"Here, let's get you to the infirmiry. You, entertain Uncle Iroh for us." Zuko commanded Suki, while gently picking up Katara by her forearm while gently wrapping a clean cloth napkin around her fingers.

As they walked out the door, Katara thought she heard him mutter, "I was wrong. She can't be hurt."