Photographs (Original link)

Author: Kirschreich
Rating: K+
Characters: Zuko, Iroh
Genre: Angst

Song is a nice girl, Iroh thinks. She is kind and gentle and just the kind of girl Zuko needs to help himself heal.

She makes him eat her homebaked cookies and smile (a forced, but polite smile) on occassion. But she doesn't manage to draw him out of his bedroom for more than a handful of hours.

The rest of the time, Zuko spends staring at photographs of his old neighbourhood and the children that lived there. Nothing Iroh or Song can do or say helps him let go of his grief and his homesickness, however. Even twinkies failed.

The sight of Zuko's sinister bedroom (dark red walls because Zuko wanted dark red) plastered with those pictures makes Iroh's heart break a little bit more every time he steps into it. It's a life this boy no longer lives, a life that is over, a life that no longer wants him.

The scar is a painful reminder of that, too.

But months later, when Zuko finally puts those pictures away (safe for the framed picture of a blue-eyed, darkskinned girl sticking out her tongue carefully hidden inside of his pillow case), Iroh realizes for the first time how much more lively his nephew was when he could still hold on to them.