You & I

His Mind

Iroh's POV
I don't know why I was so irritated with Y/N, she hadn't actually done anything wrong. Herself and Tenzin executed their task perfectly, but what on earth were they doing?

I heard a loud crash when I was walking to the room that they were in and when I walked in they were on the floor... Maybe it was my worry for her well being, but I do completely trust Tenzin. I was just uncertain about their interactions when I was away; the feeling was hard to describe.

As we made our way to the ships to join the blockade, I broke the awkward silence between us with an even more awkward sounding question:

"So, Y/N, what did you and Tenzin talk about whilst you were working? Anything interesting?"

"Umm, I don't know, stuff you already know, I assume you know each other pretty well, being descendants of team Avatar and all..."

I just nodded and continued walking, Y/N walked beside me, deep in thought,

"Well, he did invite me to the South Pole"

I stopped in my tracks,

"He did what?"

"Well, you know, his mother is the greatest water bender ever known, he said he could get me to train with her and-"

"Are you going to go with him?"

"Well, yeah, it's an amazing opportunity so-"

My heart sunk to my stomach, so I left her with Tenzin for half an hour, I come back and now she's going to run off to the South Pole with him?

"When were you going to hand in your notice, cadet"

Why did I just call her cadet, now she'll know that I'm upset about it. For goodness sake, Iroh, pull yourself together, she's your best friend, you should be happy for her, this is an amazing opportunity and you should be supporting her. You shouldn't even care about this, Tenzin is a great guy, even if they were to end up as more than friends, who cares?

I do. But why? I'm just so confused.

"Oh, uh- I dunno, I just... nothing's official, I mean... I was just thinking about it."

She was stumbling over her words, did I make her that uncomfortable?

I nodded and continued walking,

"Right..."

I took turns keeping watch with Y/N, every soldier was on a rota, so whilst one sleeps and cares for them-self, the other is on guard duty. Conveniently, considering the uncomfortable dynamics between Y/N and I that I created, the rota allowed her and I to think, alone.

It was her brilliant idea for me to guard during the day and her to guard during the night, because my fire bending is strongest under the sun and her water bending is strongest under the moon, giving us a stronger defence.

She wouldn't even be happy if she ended up as an air acolyte living with Tenzin on air temple island, or would she? Air is the element of freedom, all Y/N wants to be is free.

The plans that she made with Tenzin were flawless, she had every water bender stationed on the naval ships accompanied by half of the fire benders, because water benders work best when the terrain includes water, and every earth bender was stationed around the entrances and exits to the city, also due to terrain, they were accompanied by Chief Toph Beifong's metal bending police force and the non benders from the United forces were scattered across the perimeter of the city, and in the naval ships as they didn't have to worry about terrain.

It was perfect, her plans were amazing, she was amazing.

The thing that hurt the most is that I knew her, I knew what she wanted in life, and I knew that she didn't want to be a wife, she didn't want to follow around in some man's shadow; but I left her alone for thirty minutes with Tenzin and now she's considering running off to the South Pole with him? I just don't trust the dynamic between them, and I know I shouldn't care about whatever they have going on between them, but I do. I do care, and I hate that I care.

Why him? Why Tenzin? Isn't he a bit old for her? She's nineteen, he's thirty-three; though, to be fair, he does look like he's in his mid twenties. They might not even be like that, but I don't like the way he looks at her, and I know I'm being pathetic but I just... I just don't want to see her with someone else, I don't want her to leave me and fly across the globe with air boy, is this love? Am I in love with my best friend? Or maybe- maybe I'm just protective over the first person who finally understands me, who finally listened, who finally stayed. Maybe, I just don't want to see her leave.