Fanfiction: No Returns, No Exchanges (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

[nebroadwe]

Title: Drabble: No Returns, No Exchanges
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Character(s): Iroh and Zuko
Pairing(s): None.
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Warnings: Set post-series.
A/N: What with all the holiday shopping I've been doing lately, this drabble was absurdly easy to title -- the Muses' Christmas gift to me, perhaps? Concrit welcomed with a cup of the tastiest tea ever. Crossposted from nebroadwe to avatar_fans and avatarfic).

---

      The best tea in Ba Sing Se is brewed, now as ever, by a man named Mushi. "I don't understand why you're still calling yourself that," his visiting nephew protests.

      "Reputation in business is very important," the old man replies, pouring just enough water over the jasmine-scented leaves in the warm pot. "Everyone knows Mushi the tea-maker. Besides, it is bad luck to refuse a gift."

      "'Gift?' What gift?"

      "It was you who gave me the name Mushi, my nephew," Iroh reminds him gently.

      Zuko bows his head over the serving tray. His cup is empty, but his heart is full.

---

[Acknowledgments: Avatar: The Last Airbender was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko; copyright for this property is held by Viacom International, Inc. All rights reserved.]

Comments

[arielen.livejournal.com]

That is really a very sweet drabble and I like how much it says in this few words. Iroh really honors his nephew with this gift in return and it shows the bond between them.

I like it very much.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Dankeschoen! Ich erwachte heute morgen mit diesem Drabble im Kopf (gestern habe ich die Zusammenfassung einer Geschichte über Toph und Katara geschrieben, so war ich ein wenig ueberrascht. So viele Plotbunnies, so wenig Zeit.)

[arielen.livejournal.com]

Wem sagst du das! Meine neue Geschichte tauchte auch einfach in meinem Kopf auf und wollte nicht wieder weg gehen, so dass ich bis tief in die Nacht hinein an ihr geschrieben habe.

Aber genau die Geschichten, die einem nicht aus dem Sinn gehen sind die Besten!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Wem sagst du das! Meine neue Geschichte tauchte auch einfach in meinem Kopf auf und wollte nicht wieder weg gehen, so dass ich bis tief in die Nacht hinein an ihr geschrieben habe.

Great minds think (write?) alike. :-) Manchmal erinnere ich mich daran, Papier und Stift am Nachttisch zu setzen, aber sie sind immer die Nächte, die ich so nicht getan habe, als mein Kopf voller Ideen ist.

Aber genau die Geschichten, die einem nicht aus dem Sinn gehen sind die Besten!

So hoffe ich! Ich habe jetzt ein Paar drinnen, die keine Miete zahlen und nicht verlassen werden ... :-)

[mulzrule.livejournal.com]

I love that last line, especially since we mostly see Zuko as a glass-half-empty type of guy. I love when he gets it.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Yep -- I like to give him a happy moment now and then. Mind you, Iroh leaves off the other pragmatic reason for keeping his nom-de-chai, which is that even in the Avatar's new era, the Dragon of the West probably isn't a name to conjure with in the Earth Kingdom.

[mulzrule.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really is smart business sense to keep the name Mushi, rather then use a name the Earth Kingdom alone would associate with hate.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

And it keeps the whole Fire Nation succession debate from ever coming up again, as people cope with the idea that Zuko has succeeded his father, despite all the kerfuffle involved. (Just how is brother-against-brother worse than brother-against-sister, there, Iroh? But post-ambitious wise old [wo]men are one of my favorite character archetypes, so I'll give that one a pass ... except to have the stability of Zuko's regime be a plot point in the post-series Zuko-and-Aang novel that's eating my brain ...)

[mulzrule.livejournal.com]

Good point, didn't think of that. Now you're just making me drool in anticipation. ;D

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I think my brain is trying to back me into a corner so that I have to write this one (Sokka spent the morning explaining postwar Southern Water Tribe political issues to me -- nothing that needs to come out in the front story, but useful backstory stuff. In the front story, he and Zuko get to commiserate briefly over a bottle on the effects of unstable regimes on their love lives, before Aang finds them and drags them back for the dancing. :-)

[mulzrule.livejournal.com]

HEEE! Sokka probably talked war until he was blue in the face. Drunk! Sokka and Zuko will be most amusing. I'm already picturing Aang taking advantage of that. *giggles madly*

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Well, actually ...

No, dagnabit, I may just have to write this one, instead of just bending everyone's ears with random bits of plot summary. It's an intimidating thought, though. I've never gotten a novel finished yet.

[mulzrule.livejournal.com]

One of these days. I hope that plot bunny works its way in somehow. :D

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I'm keeping notes, at least. [makes more notes]

[orchida.livejournal.com]

That was wonderful-ness in so few words! Completely keeping them both in character, so much so that I just grinned at Iroh's response. And the last sentence is a perfect ending. Thanks for sharing!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Completely keeping them both in character, so much so that I just grinned at Iroh's response.

Thanks! Dialogue-based drabbles usually scare me -- people talking takes up more verbiage than you'd think -- but I could hear the character voices so clearly in this one that I didn't have much trouble getting it down at all. I think I cut one extra sentence from Zuko's first utterance and dropped some tea-making detail, and that was it.

And the last sentence is a perfect ending.

Mmm, well, I'm not quite satisfied with it, myself. The sentiment is what I wanted, but the more I read the "heart is full" bit, the more annoyed I get that I couldn't find a more original way to put it. On the other hand, common phrases are the hammers and flat-head screwdrivers in the toolbox of rhetoric, as somebody better at this than me once said, so maybe in another day or so it'll look like the obvious solution to me again. :-)

[full-metal-ox.livejournal.com]

"It was you who gave me the name Mushi, my nephew."

I had no difficulty whatsoever imagining the line delivered in Mako's voice.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Good. I heard both Mako and Dante Basco clearly on this one, which is a little unusual. Dialogue's one of my strengths, but normally I'll only get one character's voice with absolute certainty. Two together is a gift.

[oenone-borealis.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing this. It's sweet, splendid, and flawlessly in character.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Iroh's one of my favorite characters in the show; he's written so well, especially in season 2. I'm always pleased when he shows up to tell me a story.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

D'awwwww!

That's really sweet.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

It's the jasmine tea -- irresistible. :-)

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

*waves* Look, see, I'm alive, I saw it!

I love - especially considering the translation - Iroh not only keeping Mushi, but considering it a gift. I don't think I could handle the responsibility of being that wise, myself.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

*waves* Look, see, I'm alive, I saw it!

Phew! Sorry you've been swamped -- hope the waters are receding.

I love - especially considering the translation - Iroh not only keeping Mushi, but considering it a gift. I don't think I could handle the responsibility of being that wise, myself.

That's the toughest thing about writing Iroh: he's far wiser than I can ever hope to be, so getting into his POV is an imaginative leap of Great Divide proportions. Fortunately, this one was more about the simpler forms of wisdom: business sense and steadfast love. Those I can just about manage. :-)

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

That's the toughest thing about writing Iroh: he's far wiser than I can ever hope to be,

I actually have the same problem with Aang sometimes. It's easy to catch that fun 12 year old kid side of him, but then sometimes he tosses out these things that no kid should ever logically get to. I kinda end up doing a little double take in my own brain.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I actually have the same problem with Aang sometimes. It's easy to catch that fun 12 year old kid side of him, but then sometimes he tosses out these things that no kid should ever logically get to.

Oh, boy, yes. So of course I have him and Ursa sitting down together for a heart-to-heart [facepalm], followed by him and Zuko, ditto [refacepalm]. I'm a complete masochist.