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Who: Iroh & OPEN
Where: Dreamland; a nondescript location in the Fire Nation
What: Iroh dreams are generally pretty chillax.
Notes: Despite the above, if anyone wants any other scenarios from Iroh's life - his time in the military, visit to the Spirit World, time in prison etc. etc. - just say so here or IM me and I can set up a thread. ♥ I live to serve.

This never happened.

In reality, Iroh's wife died hours after a complicated childbirth, leaving behind her husband and baby son. She never lived to see this - Lu Ten a self-assured seven-year-old boy and Iroh in his forties, chasing each other around in the early evening sunshine.

Lu Ten mimes a firebender's strike and Iroh staggers at the 'hit', clutching at his chest and pirouetting dramatically before collapsing into the soft long grass.

"I got you, Dad!" He giggles at his victory and jumps on top of his father, who makes a noise of feigned horror and gestures exaggeratedly for the amusement of the younger woman under the shade of a tree.

"Do you see this? Not a shred of respect for his fallen opponent." But he's laughing, and she comes from the shade to give him a restorative kiss on the forehead. Lu Ten makes a noise like he can't imagine anything more terrible than affection between two grown-ups; his mother wrestles him off Iroh into a hug, and Iroh sits up, watching his wife and son with an affectionate smile for a moment before reaching for the basket of food they've brought along.

A family simply having a picnic on a summer's day. This is what any visitor to Iroh's dream world will come across.

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Disorientation fills John's head as he tries to remember how he wound up here, but nothing seems to make sense. The world around him is faded and somewhere in the back of his head, John is being told he's dreaming. But was this his dream?

He doesn't remember walking to the particular spot where a family of three has sat down to enjoy the moment with food and lazy summer days, but he's he's here and he's watching.

And the bonding the family appears to be displaying slowly sinks in deep to John and causes sadness. No, now he's just jealous.

Iroh notices the young man a little way away in only a few moments - he's been keeping an eye out, they're not so far from the palace that a messenger couldn't come and interrupt. For a moment he braces himself to tell his family he'll have to go, but then he realises the man isn't dressed as one of his soldiers would be. He relaxes and waves.

"Good evening!"

Instead of waving back and smiling, John only nods in acknowledgment; a stern expression on his face, but underneath that look is confusion. "Where am I?"

His question is less curiosity and more demand.

Iroh's brow furrows in concern, but the smile remains. "Almost an hour from the capital, my young friend. Are you lost?"

"The capital?" His face grows even more confused.

The scenery around him continues to glow in an almost faded color; as if someone had began to drain the life out of it. Something isn't right, John continues to sense he's dreaming -though not fully aware- but addresses the old man.

"Very lost."

"There's no need to be concerned. I can promise you're quite safe here."

"Are we?" He asks questionably, not believing a word the man has said, "how am I supposed to believe that?"

Slater almost smiles, but he's confused. This is completely alien to him. He doesn't experience this and it's unreal like a movie.

Lu Ten spots him first and, with the fearlessness of a boy raised with nothing to be afraid of, simply smiles; Iroh catches the look and follows his gaze to where Slater's standing. The fluidity of the dream makes it easy not to wonder; he simply waves the man over.

"Hello there! Come, join us."

Slater is stiff and hunched as he begrudgingly comes closer, like he's afraid something's going to come out and bite him.

Iroh just smiles and waves at a spot of grass, inviting him to sit.

"This is my wife, Lian," she smiles cautiously and raises a hand in greeting, "and my youngest son, Lu Ten."

"Your only son," Lian corrects without censure, and Iroh offers Slater the helpless shrug and half-smile of a man who's given up this argument years ago. He could have happily been father to half a dozen children but he accepts the hard work isn't his to do.

"My only son," he concedes. "And what can we call you, my friend?"

Slater awkwardly sits, it's not something he does, so he nearly falls over. He nods his hellos. "Slater," he says, cautiously.

"Slater," Iroh echoes, and if that's an unusual name in this environment he doesn't seem troubled by it. "What brings you here?"

Slater pauses. "I don't know."

"Well, the journey is often more important, I find. Will you stay and have tea with us?" He retrieves a pot from their picnic supplies and - although he doesn't need to and could warm it with a simple touch - creates a flame underneath the base to heat it. It's for Lu Ten's benefit and he watches intently.

Slater snorts in response to that. "Yeah, all right, then, tea solves everyfing, don't it?" It's a little joke to break the tension, even though it's only him that's tense.

"Not in the slightest, but I find it helps to smooth over the rough edges." Lian provides him him an earthenware cup and he pours, offering the drink to Slater.

Slater makes a non-committal hmph in response, only about half as tense as he was, but that's still very tense. "Thanks," he says quietly.

Arkady's up a tree watching, swinging her bare feet in midair as she sits on a broad limb. She smiles and waves cheerily when she's noticed.

Iroh smiles back, and experiences a moment outside himself, as if he's come across this dream while he's having it. He's aware of a sense of calm and clarity, a complete knowledge that this is not all as it seems, but he cherishes it nonetheless.

"Arkady."

Lu Ten sees her for the first time and his eyes widen in impressed surprise. It's much, much further up the tree than he could ever get.

"Hulloooo-oooo!" Arkady waves enthusiastically, and then jumps down, disappearing in midair and reappearing on the ground a few strides away. "What a beautiful land. The air is so clean!"

"Less here than elsewhere," he reports with a sad smile. The Fire Nation's industrial development is still in its infancy at this point, and the war machines his brother would use in advancing the war effort are still a way off, but there's already the odd smokestack darkening the sky above the not-so-distant capital.

Lian looks cautious. Lu Ten, however, is utterly arrested and it completely overrides any concerns about randomly manifesting strangers.

"You disappeared!"

"Oh, I'm used to bloody London. It took two years after the cataclysm for the air to start to clear."

Arkady waves to the boy and blinkles cheerfully. "Yes, I did! Would you like to see me do it again?"

"Yes! Please."

Iroh smiles indulgently and ruffles his hair. "Come now, Lu Ten. This woman is our guest. Be courteous."

"Sorry," he says, and offers Arkady the same repentant expression. "Would you like to sit with us?" he says carefully.

Arkady shrugs and nods, then disappears again, appearing cross-legged in an empty spot. "Don't mind if I do!" She is curious about the food but determines to eat little--they likely didn't really bring enough for guests.

On the contrary, the Fire Nation's royalty aren't encouraged to take half measures in any area of life and there's more than enough for the four of them. There's even a spare bowl - their son is not clumsy but he can be overenthusiastic and Lian's taken to preparing for all contingencies. Lu Ten serves the new arrival with all the selfconscious pride of a boy still learning etiquette but convinced he's doing a good job.

"Lu Ten, my son," Iroh murmurs to Arkady by way of introduction. "And Lian, my wife."

"It's lovely to meet you both. I'm afraid my family's elsewhere, though I think they'd find you as lovely as I do." She blinks enthusiastically at the unfamiliar food.

"This is a good day." She wiggles her bare toes in the grass.

Zuko wasn't really sure how he got here, but it seemed almost familiar. It wasn't anywhere specifically familiar, but there's a distinct sense that he's home, not on some other Earth and that's comforting.

And there are other people here. People he recognizes - his uncle, and the woman he recognizes only from portraits, and the older cousin he'd idolized until he'd been killed in battle - and he almost calls out to them, but at the last second bites back what he was going to say. There's a distinct feeling that he shouldn't be here, and suddenly he feels awkward, like maybe he should wander off, see what else this dreamscape has in store for him. But at the same time, he's almost rooted where he's standing, and he just watches from a distance.

"It's Zuko!" Lu Ten jumps to his feet and waves as if there's the slightest possibility he hasn't been noticed. "Zuko, what are you doing all the way over there?"

Lu Ten shouldn't know his cousin's name, of course; at his age Zuko's entire existence is still theoretical. But Lian shouldn't be here either, and Iroh's dreaming mind is calm and generous enough not to let the people he loves encounter one another as strangers.

"I-" His voice catches in his throat a little, still unsure. But he tries again, shrugging a little haplessly. "I don't know."

It's kind of a lame way to explain, but it's honest enough, and he approaches them carefully, almost like this is going to shatter as soon as he gets closer, or maybe he just can't, like trying to chase a mirage in the desert and never actually getting closer to it. "What are you guys doing?"

"We thought it was a beautiful day to be wasting inside," Lian says, making space for the nephew she's never met. "Even though someone ought to be with his history tutor right now."

Iroh and Lu Ten exchange glances.

"Idunno who you're talking about," Lu Ten says.

"I remember it all when it first happened," Iroh adds, and smiles at Zuko. "Will you stay a while?"

Zuko almost laughs, and it's really just the continued awkwardness of this is a woman he never met, his aunt, acting like this is totally normal and natural. They're supposed to be here, happy and together and he really wishes this wasn't just a dream. While his childhood wasn't entirely unhappy, he definitely knows it could have been better, and could have done with more moments like this.

So he tries to smile a little, and sort of cautiously sits down with them, still a little worried this was all going to collapse around them if nudged the wrong way.

"Sure."

Lu Ten sits next to him with only a trace amount of respect for his personal space and watches his mother serve out food.

"Are you well, Zuko?" Lian asks. "You seem troubled."

Zuko doesn't mind, glancing down at his cousin and once again just hit by how young he is, before looking over at his aunt again and once again trying to smile. "I'm fine. Thank you."

He searches for something to say that can potentially throw them off the trail of wow this is really weird. "It's nice out, today."

Iroh smiles faintly. His memory has preserved this particular year, a summer that was neither punishingly hot nor beset by storms, and his dreams return to it again and again.

"It's been a beautiful summer," Lian says. "The Fire Lily Festival is going to be very special this year."

Lu Ten pulls a face like he can't imagine anyone talking about anything as boring as flowers, and tugs on Zuko's sleeve. "And Dad's taking us to Ember Island! Have you ever been? I bet you haven't."

He hasn't met Iroh properly, and in a dream-state, he doesn't recognize that he's seen the man around the Barge. All he knows is he's dreaming, and it's nice -- Not at all like that horrendous dream about Ivy.

In fact, the Once-ler even finds that he, himself, is laughing as he sits nearby, just watching, although he hopes to be seen...

It seems nice.

Iroh's engaged with convincing his son to let his food at least encounter his bowl before it goes in his mouth, but his wife - taller than him and perhaps ten years younger, a pretty girl who's grown into a good-looking woman - notices the oddly dressed young man sitting a small way away. She offers a friendly smile and a little wave.

Oh, well, hello pretty lady. That is not a species he has dealt with often, so there's definitely some awkwardness to the smile and wave he returns.

Iroh finally notices what's going on and turns, seeing the young man there. There's that sense of removal again, the knowledge that all of this is a fiction and his wife and son are well beyond his reach in reality - but by comparison their visitor seems much more solid. And he knows him from the Barge - from his place in the kitchen there isn't a face he doesn't know by now. And the name, he knows as well, something unusual, like a title -

"Once-ler." He smiles and beckons. "Have a seat."

"Oh, um..."

He gets up and walks over, sitting a few inches away from the others; starting to feel oddly intrusive.

"Hello. I, uh... I kind of can't remember your name. Sorry."

He smiles and gives an easygoing shrug. "Quite alright. It's Iroh. This is - "

"I'm Lu Ten!" Well, he is.

"My name is Lian." She offers him tea in a cup Lu Ten's not likely to be using because Iroh has yet to inculcate that particular habit in him. "It's a pleasure to meet you." If she's unsure of the strange boy, then - a woman of noble birth and well trained in small courtesies - she doesn't show it.

"Oh, well, uh..." He takes the tea cup, but doesn't drink from it. He just holds it, swirling the tea about, spilling droplets here and there. "Nice to meet you all."

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