A slight heads up, I might have made some changes to the history/backstory of the four nations. If you wanna go straight to the chapter, scroll till you reach the start of the unbolded text.

Just wanted to make a quick clarification that I indeed posted this fic on two other platforms. I'm making this clarification bcs of an apparent misunderstanding that I 'copied [my own] fic from another website' (don't ask, my brain hurts just trying to comprehend it from my own pov). Still thankful for those watching out for dunderheads trying to steal other people's fics.

And to everyone who responded to this fic: THANK YOU SO MUCH! Your feedback is always an encouragement for me to continue writing. And no, Percy isn't referring to ATLA. He's talking about another show (anime, actually). Since he did mention Sally saying something along the lines of 'Estelle being too young to watch that show with Walls', and ATLA is actually a kids show, he wasn't talking about ATLA *sneaky smirk* if you know, you know

And with that, let's move on to chapter 12 of Flames of Destiny.

PS: I don't own ATLA or PJO, just the idea and 'plot' to Flames of Destiny.

"Uncle," Percy heard Zuko's whisper, noticing the urgency in his voice. "We have a problem."

Green eyes snapped wide open in alarm as the demigod re-entered the shop from the back. He just finished washing the ceramic pots and cups used to serve tea to customers – Iroh had joked being the 'son of a Sea God' would make washing much easier, and duly assigned the job to the jet black haired man after he almost pissed off Zuko with his usual 'talk without thinking' (Zuko's words) habit. The old man wasn't wrong, Percy had made short work of his cleaning duty, which he was certain will lead to more glares from the Prince of Brooding-Land for not 'taking his job seriously'.

Iroh stepped down from the ladder he was standing on, watching Percy grab a piece of damp rag and make his way towards a table to be wiped clean as his nephew walked up closer to explain this 'problem'.

"One of the customers is onto us," puzzled at the prospect of another Jet and friends incident, the old man turned to look at Zuko and noticed his nephew's slightly hunched back while looking over his shoulder. Iroh decided not to comment on it.

Zuko took his uncle's silence as a signal to continue. Sparing a glance towards the grey-bearded man standing next to him, he returned his gaze towards a far corner of the shop, "Don't look now, but there is a girl over there at the corner table. She knows we're Fire Nation."

Iroh's head turned around as Zuko placed the tray of cups onto the counter, and caught a glimpse of a girl sitting at the corner table as his nephew as stated. His movement did not go unnoticed by the teen, who hurriedly grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Didn't I say don't look?" Zuko seethed, amber eyes glaring in frustration at his uncle's smug face.

Iroh promptly ignored Zuko's demand, and dramatically turned around, prompting an eye roll from the young firebender. As the former Dragon of the West studied the girl, he noticed this particular customer had her hair tied in two braids. He allowed his lips to tug upwards, much to his nephew's bewilderment.

"You're right, Zuko," his agreement confused the teen further, but Iroh paid no heed to that. "I've seen that girl in here quite a lot."

And seen her in the shop quite often, he did. Every time she visits, she would sit at the same corner and order the same tea. In fact, Iroh was certain he had caught her trying to steal glances in a particular person's direction whenever she thought no one was looking.

He gestured for his nephew to lean in closer, who obliged without question. Zuko's face concocts into confusion again at the sight of his uncle's smug smile.

"Seems to me that she has quite a little crush on you." Aged amber eyes could practically see the gears in Zuko's mind turning.

One...

Two...

Three...

Fo –

"What?!" The former general's smile widened as he watched Zuko's face muscles display a mix of confusion, surprise, shock and fear at that revelation. Iroh almost laughed when he heard the teen's voice going up several octaves despite keeping his voice hush (Zuko would deny that whenever Iroh made a joke about that particular detail).

"Thank you for the tea," both firebenders whirled around see the girl standing in front of the counter, her dreamy eyes only looking at Zuko the entire time.

Zuko noticed the weird look she had, averting his eyes which darted towards the girl's outstretched hand and saw the coins in her grip. Quickly, he took the payment and spun around in an instance, unsure how to proceed without feeling awkward.

"What's your name?" that question made Zuko flinch unconsciously, and seeing his uncle smiling knowingly at the corner of his eyes did not help matters.

Don't panic. You can talk to Mai, you can talk to anyone. Just stay calm

He turned his head around, hoping that his eyes did not show any sign of panic. "Uh..." Good job, Zuko. Stuttering just shows how calm you are. He ignored the mocking voice at the back of his head that sounded annoyingly like their resident talkative demigod. "My name's Li." He steeled his nerves. "My uncle and I just moved here."

You forgot to mention Percy. Quiet.

"Hi, Li. My name's Jin," the girl introduced herself, unaware of the argument happening at the back of the boy's mind. Jin's eyes never left Zuko's, and the Prince felt that it would be rude if he broke eye contact. "Thank you, and..." she tilted her head to the side, looking as though she was contemplating something in her mind, "well, I was wondering if you would like to go out sometime."

Zuko couldn't blink. He couldn't nod. His mouth couldn't even form any semblance of a word. Instead, he found himself staring dumbly at the girl.

Did she just ask me out?

It was probably a few seconds, but it felt like he was frozen on the spot for a long time.

Before he could overcome his stunned state, he felt an arm side hugging him.

"He'd loved to!"

"Great," Hearing his uncle's response on his behalf placed a smile on Jin's face. Zuko wouldn't deny that her smile looked... nice. "I'll meet you in front of the shop at sundown."

By the time Zuko unfroze, Jin was gone. He glared at his uncle, who only returned the look with a wide, smug smirk of his own at successfully playing 'matchmaker'.

oOo

"You're kidding me. He stuttered?" Green eyes widened in disbelief, before darting to look at the teen sitting down. "If only there was a hidden camera somewhere around here. The footage would do great for blackmail."

Amber eyes snapped around to glare at the jet-black haired man for suggesting 'blackmail'. Percy was unfazed by the glare, as usual. Instead, his lips had turned into a lopsided grin, matching the cheeky glint in his eyes. Every time Zuko saw that look, he was immediately on guard, amber eyes darting around to see if Percy had sprung up any sort of trouble to be dealt with.

And as usual, there weren't any trouble to be handled.

Uncle Iroh had explained that the man was naturally born with a troublemaker smile.

"Sit still, Prince Zuko!" He heard his uncle chide him. For the past ten minutes, the grey-bearded man had been trying to comb the teen's hair into a neat look.

"You want to make a good impression on your first date."

And for that ten minutes, he had to sit through Percy holding back his laughter at the sight of whatever hairstyle his uncle came up with. The young firebender had to bite back an insult about the man's wild hair every time he heard sniggering in the corner.

"I gotta hand it to you," Zuko wanted to grab a cloth and just shove it into Percy's mouth to shut him up as he watched the man lean back into his seat in the corner of his good eye. "The girl's been coming here. Every day. For two weeks. And she only takes orders from you. Even told me that she hasn't figured out her order every time I ask. Then she orders from you. And yet you still think she knows you're Fire Nation."

The information caught the teen off guard, and he would have snapped his neck around to look at Percy for any sign of jokes being made if his hair was not being done by Uncle Iroh.

"Prince Zuko," came Iroh's warning. Okay, maybe Zuko did move a muscle. Slightly. But he didn't realize he was doing it until he heard his uncle's low tone.

"I mean, are all teenage boys this blur? I know I was." Percy remarked was an unreadable tone in his voice, and if he was looking at Percy intently, Zuko would have noticed the man wearing an equally unreadable expression too.

Iroh noticed it, however, having caught a glimpse of the sudden fond, but pained smile on Percy's face. He did not remark on it.

"Gotta say, though." Zuko heard the annoying non-bender-waterbender snort. "Teenagers. Always so bold."

A peaceful, yet awkward silence loomed over the trio in the closed tea shop which the former Prince took in appreciatively.

Five seconds later, a groan broke the silence. "Hades, I sound like Aphrodite and her kids."

Ignoring the other man's remarks which Zuko will never understand, the teen decided to take the time to mentally process the words that he did understand.

He saw the girl in the tea shop every day, just like Uncle Iroh and Percy said. And when he thought hard, he did remember taking her order every time she visited. Jasmine tea was her order. He didn't know that she never ordered from either his uncle or Percy.

He never paid attention to details like that.

A sudden unfamiliar feeling rose within his chest, making the teen uncomfortable. At first, he waved it off as 'cold feet', but he was never nervous.

Except every time you spent time around her...

That intrusive thought jolted Zuko, and he felt blood rushing to his cheeks. That sudden movement led to Iroh complaining about teenagers being unable to sit still, and Percy's sniggering remark that the young firebender might actually be nervous for one. He ignored all that – couldn't pay attention to any of it. Suddenly he was tempted to walk away from hanging out with Jin. Somehow, he felt... guilty.

But you broke up. Your banishment ensured that.

It was never called off, though. And she did write...

But banishment. And the letters were only for a few months ...

Did you reply? I –

The exiled Prince wasn't able to dwell on the treacherous thoughts as Iroh patted him on the shoulder, signalling that he was done. As Zuko stood up, the thought left him as fast as it appeared.

"Look at you," Percy remarked as his green eyes scanned Zuko from head to toe, wearing a smile that the young firebender could not recognize. But Zuko didn't have the time to figure out the unfamiliar look when two hands started pushing him towards the door.

"It's not good to keep a lady waiting, Prince Zuko," Iroh added rather chirpily. "Have a great time."

"Yeah," He heard Percy add. The man seemed to have dropped the unfamiliar expression and had his lopsided grin back on his face. Zuko didn't notice that Percy's lips never reached his eyes though. "And don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Zuko was almost tempted to roll his eyes at the remark. Almost. But there was a girl waiting outside the tea shop, and as his uncle said: it would be rude of him to keep a girl waiting.

oOo

Iroh drank in the view of the stars in the night sky as he continued pruning the small plant in front of him. There was something that made watching the stars twinkle in the dark in Ba Sing Se more beautiful compared to his birthplace, the Fire Nation. Perhaps it's the absence of pollution from the lack of industrialization in the Lower Ring of the Earth Kingdom capital.

After all, three out of the four nations in the world had prioritized culture over development.

Of course, the Northern Water Tribe was quite the sight to behold, but still, they had placed their customs as the most important aspect above all else.

The Fire Nation had once adopted that philosophy: traditions over industrialization. And look where that took them. To the brink of collapse. If it weren't for the efforts of Avatar Szeto generations ago, the Fire Nation wouldn't be at the pinnacle of their power as they are now.

The former general found himself gritting his teeth slightly. Ever since his grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin had taken the throne, the Fire Nation had known nothing but conquest and destruction. They invaded the Earth Kingdom, setting up colonies in the lands they annexed, pushed the Southern Water Tribe to the point they had been split into small villages and having their last waterbender in the form of a barely fourteen-year-old girl.

Worst of all, they were responsible for wiping out the Air Nomads in the famed 'Air Nomad Genocide', just to kill a young Avatar before he/she could reach their fullest potential. That particular course of action, born out of desperation and fear, has led to the imbalance of the world for nearly a hundred years.

Sure, Iroh isn't completely without blame – he was the feared 'Dragon of the West', after all. After his return from his travels around the world, the man immediately joined the military in hopes of living up to his father and grandfather's legacy. Fuelled by his undying patriotism and desire to prove himself, the then-younger Iroh found himself leading the infamous military campaign against the city he's currently residing in.

'The Siege of Ba Sing Se'.

It was a military gamble, the assault to capture the capital of the Earth Kingdom, given its legendary impenetrable walls that were enforced by skilled earthbending soldiers. But Iroh knew that the city's fall would lead to the surrender of the largest nation in the world and seal Fire Nation victory. Iroh knew it was his fate to capture the 'Impenetrable City'. He had seen this in a vision.

So, for six hundred days he led the campaign, His forces fighting not just trying to breach the Outer Wall while fending off the hard-headed Earth Kingdom military, but also toiling under the blistering desert heat when summer loomed over. Many of his soldiers found themselves unprepared and unaccustomed to the harsh weather, and perished not long after. Yet, this did not dwindle their morale. The soldiers, after all, were led by Iroh, Crown Prince of the Fire Nation.

Their perseverance paid off eventually, when a group of scouts were able to identify a weak spot in the Wall. Seizing that opportunity, a final push was launched and Iroh found himself victorious. The Fire Nation had breached Ba Sing Se's 'Impenetrable Outer Wall'. The general guarding the Wall had surrendered. Everyone was at peak morale, ready to set up another string of assaults onto the Lower Ring. Iroh felt victory was close, the fate he knew – he saw – was upon him.

Then he learnt his son died in the last push.

Old, amber eyes glanced over his shoulder, eyeing the door that was left ajar as Iroh found himself thinking of the tall man with jet black hair and unnaturally green eyes who was currently living with him. He placed the small pair of red scissors down, and before he realized it, he found himself walking towards the door.

Lu Ten would have been around Percy's age had he survived the final assault.

The former general found his mind darting back towards the 'demigod' residing with him and his nephew. In the three weeks they had known each other, Iroh realized that the young man always had a knack for saying things at the wrong time, and getting into trouble just with a grin. Oftentimes the man with jet-black hair would make some snarky remark about Zuko's 'brooding habits' and the old man would find himself trying his best to placate his nephew so no one gets roasted. Literally. Iroh wouldn't deny that at times, he too was tempted to kick Percy where the light doesn't shine, though. He also hasn't figured out why Percy was – and still is – adamant on trying to either make or find 'blue tea'.

Despite the man's attitude with his mouth and his seemingly weird obsession with anything blue, he does have some redeeming qualities. One that Iroh could name would be his features, considering there were some ladies who visited the tea shop just to have a look at the 'tall and mysterious waiter with a handsome foreign look'. Either Percy wasn't aware of the attention he garnered as they flirted with him, or he was ignoring it out of habit (Iroh was willing to bet his favourite ceramic teapot that it was the former).

Then there was his snarky sense of humour. Sure, about every four out of the five things that came out of Percy's unfiltered mouth either pisses off Zuko or gives Iroh migraine, but there was something about the man's company that makes the days in Ba Sing Se less unbearable and at times they aren't reminded that they're refugees. Perhaps it was his obvious lack of understanding towards the world, or the way he holds the world to his own standards (Zuko once said that only confirms Percy to be an idiot.).

Maybe it was the small things. The way he acts, despite being the son of a 'Sea God' (Iroh is still surprised at how well he took the news himself), he was perhaps more human than anyone Iroh had met. The way he fumbles every time he tries to make tea on his own, and somehow leave more of a mess for clean-up. Iroh still hasn't figured out how one could consistently make tea that's more burnt than Zuko's first try. That's exactly why Percy was assigned with cleaning duties. Not that he ever complained.

And then there's the way he cares about the customers, how he's always able to make idle chat with them and easing them into the atmosphere in the tea shop despite their initial discomfort at seeing his face. What was the term Percy called it? Right, a 'resting bitch face'.

Which is why Iroh couldn't for the life of him understand what seems to be off about Percy since they opened the shop for business. His smile seemed to not be as wide. He appeared less in a joking mood, making fewer obnoxious remarks that seem to fly over Iroh's head. Even his eyes lacked the unnatural glow they used to possess. They were, for a lack of a better word, dim.

Then there was the time he tried making jabs at Zuko getting a date, yet he appeared to be not in the mood. He didn't look like he was fighting back a snigger like he usually would when he saw Zuko's final neat hair. The moment he mentioned that he was as blur when he was a teenager, his smile became fond, yet Iroh noticed something else laced between his lips. Wistfulness. Like he was deep in his thoughts.

The old man knocked on the door. No response. He stood there for quite a while, silence being the only answer he received. Internally he debated with himself, unsure if he should enter the room and check on the occupant or leave him be. Curiosity got the better of Iroh in the end, and he pushed the door open, allowing himself in.

The very moment he set foot into the room, the former general noticed that the air seemed heavier, a contrast to the relaxing atmosphere in the living room. Everything seemed to be as he once saw when he entered the room in the past. A mess. But he never really pushed the occupant to pack up, given that he appeared to be able to find his stuff every time.

An organized mess, they called it.

Sitting on his own futon, was Percy. Or a side of Percy that Iroh was unable to recognize. Despite only being able to see his back, the former 'Dragon of the West' could tell that the demigod's broad shoulders weren't as straight, his back hunched. And he sat hugging his knees.

Iroh knocked again, just to let the room's occupant know of his presence. Realizing that once again only getting silence is the only response he'd receive, the former general sighed, and walked towards the man sitting in the centre of the small room.

The closer he got, he noticed that Percy was looking at the small black leather case he always carried around – his wallet. More specifically, he was staring at one of its contents, slipped behind a transparent protective layer. Amber eyes took a look at the object, seeing a tiny portrait of two people in it. Iroh felt a small smile grace his lips.

"That is a very beautiful painting." He watched as Percy jumped, as he always did when something seemed to catch him off guard, and reached his free hand for his pocket – again, another habit Iroh noticed whenever the man was surprised by something. Green eyes widened then relaxed when they recognized amber yellow, then were filled with confusion as Percy's mind evidently processed Iroh's words. "A surprise that one could be created at such a size."

"Wha – huh –" the grey-bearded man saw Percy's eyes darting towards the small painting in his wallet before they had a look of realization. "Oh," was his soft response. The demigod started rubbing the back of his neck. "It's not a painting."

Iroh blinked at the statement. "But it is a picture. A small portrait, is it not?"

"Yeah," Percy answered absentmindedly, his eyes returning to the portrait. "It's called a photo, actually."

Photo, Iroh tried the word, feeling it rolled out his tongue. It felt... foreign.

Percy must have taken Iroh's silence as a message to continue, as he tried to explain. "We take them using cameras. I don't really understand the physics behind it, but it's something about capturing light with a lens and then we print it out."

Cameras, Iroh had a sense of familiarity at the mention of the word. He remembered rumours of a Fire Nation scientist working on an invention with a similar name, but that was about it. There wasn't much interest in the scientist's work, however, given that it contributed nothing to the war efforts.

As Iroh studied the 'photo', he noticed that they were in fact different from the paintings that he knew off. Most of the portraits he saw were painted using black ink, yet the photo in Percy's wallet had varying colours in it. As if someone had frozen time, and copied the view straight onto a canvas.

Just another proof that Percy was indeed, not from this world.

He continued scanning the picture, realizing that one of the two people in it was someone he recognized.

Wild, jet-black hair with his chiselled foreign features, Percy was wearing a face splitting grin, his eyes closed as his smile alone conveyed that he was happier than Iroh ever saw him to be. He wore baggy clothes, different from but as weird looking as the set Iroh had found him unconscious in. His smile was directed at the other person whom he had wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

The first thing Iroh noticed was the girl's hair. It was in a colour akin to gold that Iroh had never seen before, and had curls definitely never found in either four nations that were tied into a ponytail. She had a tan similar yet different from Percy's. But Iroh couldn't help but find himself pulled towards her eyes. Shades of grey that was different from an airbender's, the two orbs appeared stormy, and even through the small image the former general could see that they were radiating with wisdom and knowledge that surpasses many twice her age. She wore an identical smile to that of Percy's, filled with joy and without care of the happenings around them.

"Is that your lady-friend?" Iroh found himself asking before he could stop himself. The way Percy's face lit up at the question was all the answer the former general needed, and he suddenly felt grateful for speaking faster than his mind.

"Yeah," the black-haired man even sounded delighted, as if he was on cloud nine. "Annabeth." Iroh recognized that tone when Percy said her name: he was in love.

Making himself comfortable as he sat next to the young man on the futon, Iroh ignored the quizzical look on Percy's face with a warm smile of his own. "Want to tell me about her?"

Green eyes lit up more than ever thought possible, and Iroh watched the man's shoulders relax and he returned to his bright self again. Brighter, even.

"We're actually planning our next step in life after college. She's got an internship in that big tech company in..."

As Iroh listened to the demigod in front of him describe and tell stories about his girlfriend – no, the love of his life would be more accurate – the old man realized just how much he didn't know about the strange man whom his nephew had found in the desert weeks ago. He listened as Percy described how intelligent ("Smartest person I've ever met. Heck, she's definitely the smartest being in the whole world, Athena be dammed") and beautiful ("Aphrodite can smite me all she wants, but no one's as beautiful as Wise Girl'') she was. The stout man realized how much the air in the room seemed to lift up as the young man next to him explained how much his girlfriend was into architecture and how she definitely will be the 'most successful and renowned architect in the world' when they 'graduate college'.

However, the general in him noticed the way Percy's body tightened so slightly at several points in his story ("We went through everything together. Even Hell."), the way his eyes glinted with fierce protectiveness at times ("I'd take a knife for her."). He thought back to the girl – Annabeth's eyes, and recalled seeing a similar look in the stormy grey orbs from the small portrait that he's seen in Percy's green.

She'd do the same for him. These two didn't just go through everything together, they are fighters. Inseparable at the hip.

Then, even as the green-eyed companion in the room trailed off from the topic of his girlfriend and suddenly switched to talking about his family, Iroh paid his fullest attention.

Sally – Percy's mother – was a 'goddess' by description, and Iroh was certain she was if he had the chance to meet her. It seems some 'immortals' in Percy's world agreed ('Dad called her a queen among mortals. I still think that's his way of saying she's more god material than the other gods. Without starting a war with the others, anyway'). Iroh could tell that it was from this lady that the young man had gotten the better side of his nature. And as he continued to be regaled the tales of how Sally loved and cared for Percy ('she made blue cookies a thing when people said it was impossible'; 'Always had a knack of making sure I was happy, not matter how schist my day had went'), and how much of a 'badass' she was ('she turned an asshole into solid stone, and made some money out of it.'; 'she turned down an offer for a palace to be built for her'), Iroh found a part of his thoughts realizing that Percy's mother had a lot of similarities to Ursa, his sister-in-law and Zuko's mother who had vanished years ago – the former Crown-Prince always had suspicions that Ozai had a hand in that mystery – and wondered what would had become of Zuko if Ursa had been around for much longer.

Given how events had panned out and his brother's own ruthlessness, he quickly squashed that thought.

Percy's sister ('half-sister, but who cares about technicalities?!') Estelle was an angel as the man had put it. It was obvious that Percy adores the little girl. His eyes would glint in the dimly lit room with a clear mix of love and pride as he spoke of her (mis)adventures as a child. Iroh learnt many things about the sibling to this man 'from another world': the first word she uttered ('dead'. Accordingly it's the fault of a cousin by the name of 'Nico'); her favourite 'movie' called 'Finding Nemo' (Iroh tried to picture a play about a fish finding his child, but had quite a hard time doing so); her favourite colour (blue, which wasn't surprising to the old man given Percy's own preference for the colour); her favourite food ('blue chocolate chip cookies', a liking which was, again, unsurprisingly shared by the older sibling), and many more details that he believed he was privy to.

Then there's Paul, Percy's step-father, whom the young man had come to see as a father-figure despite the older man entering his life during his mid-teen years. As with Annabeth, Sally and Estelle, Percy spoke highly of the man, saying that he made Sally happy and going as far as describing him as patient and caring despite the few times the young man gave his step-father a scare when he returned home in less ideal conditions (Iroh didn't push for details about that, instead leaving it as it is) while having a 'swashbuckling daring streak' that 'could rival a demigod' (again, the former general didn't pry). There were also several 'dad jokes' that Percy groaned about when he repeated them to Iroh – who found himself appreciating the sense of humour despite not thoroughly understanding the meaning behind most of them.

As Percy continued to make sporadic jumps between stories of his family and his girlfriend, Iroh noticed that Percy's stature had taken a relaxing one, as if the invisible weights on the demigod's shoulders had been removed.

Which explained the wistful look and dimmed attitude he had the whole day. Iroh realized just how much Percy misses home. Misses his life, and his girlfriend and his family. Hearing Zuko going on a normal date reminded the man how out of depth he truly feels in a world that he was completely unfamiliar with.

How far away from home he was at the moment, with no way back.

So, Iroh decided not to ask much about the 'gods' when the young man made several passing (and less pleasant) comments about them in his life, deciding that seeing the light in green eyes that glowed like the sea was more rewarding than the knowledge of another world.

"No matter what," Percy's sudden serious tone brought Iroh back to the present. "I'd do anything to go back, even if it means I go through Hell again."

Iroh didn't miss the 'again' when Percy glossed over the term 'Hell' once more, and searched the young man's green eyes to find conviction that matched his tone.

"I swear it on the Styx."

Another term that the old man didn't understand, yet when he thought he heard a soft rumble of thunder (he was certain the night sky was clear of clouds), the grey-bearded man found himself not questioning the lengths that the man in front of him would go just to return home.

And as he exited the room to return to pruning his plant, right before Zuko returned from his date, Iroh silently promised himself that he would do everything in his power to get Percy back home. Back to the man's family, into the arms of the blonde girl in his photo that he spoke with a smile that could light up anyone's day.

I'll be thoroughly honest about this: I considered combining all the parts for 'Tales of a Demigod in Ba Sing Se' into one chapter. Then when I looked at the combined piece, it felt really, really cramped. Way too packed, in fact, like trying to fit too many clothes and stuff into a luggage that was only meant for a few clothes.

TMI? Sorry. Kinda trailed off for a sec...

Another thing that I gotta admit – not really well-versed in the whole ATLA-world Lore. More specifically: what happened in the world before the ATLA tv series. I did try brushing up on the whole lore (following Kyoshi's story for example), but they somehow always flew over my head no matter how much I tried reading them.

The point is: I'm really sorry if this chapter came off looking like I butchered the lore – particularly the Fire Nation part – because it wasn't my intention to do so. I just decided to take some (so-called) 'creative liberty' in forming a version of the lore by using whatever information I can remember/understand about it while filling in the gaps with some ideas that I felt would make sense in 'indirectly' leading to the events as we all know it.

Also, there was this idea of having Percy appear in 'Tales of Iroh', but the longer the idea was left to stew the more it felt like I was intruding in Iroh's moment. That whole short was just so beautiful from start to finish, and placing Percy (who only has a brief history with Iroh, and zero interactions with Lu Ten) into that part definitely feels like I'm not doing 'Tales of Iroh' justice.

'Leaves from the Vine' is such a beautiful song, and I couldn't bring myself to pen it down because that's Mako's song.

On another note, there is a particular backstory that was slightly switched up for our ATLA-characters. That was done on purpose. If you know who I'm talking about, that's who I'm talking about.

*rubs back of neck* Again, really sorry if i really did offend any of those who feel like I should have 'stuck 100% to the ATLA-world-lore' since I did create some 'headcanons' (idk whats the proper term) about the ATLA-verse on my own.

And also sorry to those who hoped to have a glimpse at Tales of Iroh. I couldn't bring myself to make changes to a short that even words can't describe how much of a beauty it is.

*bows down frantically*

*non-stop*