Avatar: The Red Dragon

Chapter 8: The Punishment

Iroh was sitting in the library, flipping through the pages of the book he was reading. He was already done with his classes for the day, so he stopped by to borrow a book before heading back to the Royal Palace. He was so immersed in his reading that he didn't notice the time pass and ended up staying longer than he had planned. Iroh finally closed the book and left the library, heading towards the inner yard to drop some stuff in his classroom.

At this hour, the inner yard was deserted and everyone else was in class. Iroh walked towards the Red Dragon pavilion, where his classroom was located and spotted someone sitting alone on a bench.

The student was wearing the girls' uniform, her hair tied up in a traditional Fire Nation topknot. She was curled up on the bench, her legs folded against her and her forehead on her knees. Iroh could hear her sobs from where he was, and the girl would occasionally lift her head to wipe her face with her arm, meaning she was probably crying, but he couldn't see her face. He walked over to her, thinking he had found who it was.

"Nanami?" He asked softly, fearing his guess was right.

She looked up at the person who was speaking to her. A little boy, with impeccably styled hair, was standing in front of her.

"Iroh," she whispered, then inelegantly sniffed before quickly wiping her eyes, still wet from crying earlier. "Why are you here?"

"I'm done with classes for today. Were you crying? What happened?" He asked in a gentle and comforting voice, sitting next to her.

"I'm okay," she started to say. "It's just... I've been suspended from school for a week and I was feeling a little depressed."

"Oh, no... Was it because of the fight during lunch?"

She looked at him, a little shocked and worried that he saw her going crazy in the middle of the courtyard. Nanami stared at her feet, legs now unfolded and resting on the concrete.

"You saw me..." she mumbled, so quietly that Iroh barely heard her.

Iroh looked at her and could feel her worry about that, she was keeping her head down, not even looking at him. The cheerful face he had seen a few days prior was now completely gone, replaced by a gloomy expression that made him sorry for her. The young Fire Prince didn't know how to comfort her, thinking that hugging her right now, like he would have done with his little sister, would be a little too much and the thought of it made him slightly blush.

"Do you think I'm a monster?" Nanami finally said, after a long silence.

She had remembered all the mockery that the other students had thrown at her at the end of the fight. She looked at him, her usually bright golden eyes now dim. Her eyes were watery, with tears ready to fall down at any moment.

"What are you talking about? Of course you're not a monster! You're just amazing! You can do things that others cannot!" He answered, looking straight into her eyes.

Iroh tried to put a lot of emotion in his voice to make the little girl's reassured by his words, wanting her to smile.

"You're incredible, Nanami!" He added, smiling warmly at her. He raised his hand, wiping the tears off her face with a caress. "Please smile like you always do. A crying face doesn't suit you."