Just Might Transcend These Lifetimes

1: Attatchment

Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Korra.

Please leave suggestions on what scenes you would like to see in the friendship of the "Krew!" I will only continue this if I receive enough positive feedback.

"Attachment"

Yue Bay was ablaze with the fiery light of the setting sun. On the banks of Air Temple Island, five figures lay still in the sand. Three weeks after Amon's downfall, it was the first time they were able to get some much-needed relaxation.

Iroh wasn't used to staying in one place for very long. After spending most of his life travelling across the Fire Nation, then spending most of his teenage years preparing to enter the United Forces, he had no real sense of attachment to one specific place. To him, there was the palace, which was "home," and the various ships he sailed. It wasn't that he didn't want to get attached to places, it was just that his lifestyle insisted he could not.

But he was beginning to defy what is lifestyle said he could and couldn't do. Against his will, he was becoming attached to this place. This Republic City. This urban gem against a thousand stones. But it wasn't just the place he was getting attached to...

Bolin- the young, kind-hearted earthbender- yawned beside him. "This is the life. No equalists, no probending matches, just... This."

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Bo," Asami smiled when she talked. She was hurting somewhere inside her, Iroh knew, but she still smiled. It was such a mighty act of strength, so easily overlooked.

Iroh's eyebrows drew together until they formed a single line. A wave of... sadness... swept over him. He didn't want to leave this place. He didn't want to leave these people. Sighing softly, he closed his eyes. He barely knew them. Why would he wish to stay?

"Iroh?" And there was Korra. He had met her once before these recent events... From a distance, that is. Once during a political meeting in the southern water tribe. He hadn't thought much of it, being so young. But he could still remember the glimpse he had gotten of her.

"That's the avatar, Prince Iroh," his Grandfather Zuko had said to him. It was just a year after he stepped down from the throne to allow Fire Lady Honora- his mother- take over. Iroh could remember seeing a small, rather plump young girl with deep blue eyes and a confident smile. He hadn't been impressed at that point in history. Not like he was now, at least.

Iroh shifted in the sand so he could look her in the eye. "Yes, Korra?" She hadn't changed much, really. Her eyes still carried oceans. Her dark brown hair, though now longer, was still pinned up in the same fashion. Her smile was still an outlet for the pinnacle of power she held within her being.

Korra's smile fell, making him quickly shift back, afraid he had offended her. "I-I am-"

"No," Korra interrupted. Not many could get away with interrupting a prince-slash-general. But she could. "There's something wrong, isn't there?" She used her calm, almost understanding voice. It was a different side of her. One most didn't even know existed. A branch of her personality that was, like Asami's smile, so easily overlooked.

Iroh realized for the first time he had been scowling. Scowling at... What, exactly? He was serious by nature, but he didn't scowl exceedingly often. "I was just... Thinking," he answered her truthfully. He softened his features.

"What about?" A new voice spoke. Mako. The firebender. The one who had been... pained... Somewhere along the road. At least, that was what Mako's eyes revealed. What had happened to him, Iroh wondered internally. Would he ever find out?

"About Republic City," Iroh's mouth answered for him. "I... like it here."

There was grunt as someone got to their knees. Bolin was looking down on him, youthful green eyes looking him over. His lower lip was stuck out. What was he thinking? Mako sat up from behind Korra to join his brother.

Asami spoke again, this time uncertainly. "You... Must get attached to a lot of places. It must be hard to leave them." There was that word again. Attached. Attachment. He was attached. There was a rope that tied him to this Republic City. Which was ridiculous, because like this group of people, he had only just encountered this place.

"As strange as it may seem," Iroh sat up so that only the two girls were laying down. "I don't feel a connection to most places. Or most people I meet there. It comes with the life, you see. As General I cannot..." he trailed off. Korra and Asami had propped themselves up on their elbows. Bolin had placed a hand on his shoulder.

Korra spoke again in her calm, collected voice. He looked again into her eyes. "Do you... Want to stay here?"

Yes.

"I... Can't," and he smiled. "But I will visit. I wish to see Republic City again someday."

And he did come back. And again, and again, and again. And once he left, not as the general of the United Forces, but as a member of the new Team Avatar. That, he reasoned, was where he was destined to be.