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Iroh has been around the farm (really!). Mostly drinking tea and getting used to this world and, when no one's watching, keeping in shape. Today he sits out on the front porch with a steaming cup of tea simply watching and thinking. He's been nursing the same cup for an awful long time, but somehow it's still just the right temperature.

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Mel picks up on that, and tilts her head, curious.

"What happened?"

Why weren't they together?

"We had a... disagreement. He decided that he wanted something foolish, and I found I could not support him."

Mel snorts. It's a curious noise from a stranger. In a hypothetical world where she would know his nephew, it might be interpreted as frustration with a loved one.

"Teenagers," she says in explanation.

"I still hope he'll find himself before things are too late," Iroh says quietly allowing Hana to feed his finger to Dino.

Mel's focused on Loo, briefly, quietly agreeing.

"He will."

She hopes, anyway.

"I don't suppose I'll ever end up finding out," Iroh sighs tiredly.

There's a lot Mel could say to this, but nothing really forms into words.

"I'm sorry."

It's the first time, on this world, she's actually expressed regret that someone couldn't make their way back.

"Some things can not be changed," Iroh says simply. "And at least the tea here is good."

Mel laughs out loud for a second. Because Iroh and his tea amuses her - in Apocalyptica his constant quest for good tea was always funny.

"And there's green," she says. "And wildlife."

"Another thing I was missing at home," he smiles.

Now the reason Mel didn't have any at home was because she lived in a city. Iroh, though...

She glances at him surreptiously.

"Didn't..." she starts, but that's the wrong question for now.

"City man?"

"Sometimes more than others," Iroh agrees. "Most recently I was spending time in prison, and there is not much to see there."

Mel blinks.

Opens her mouth.

Shuts it.

Eventually, "whose prison?"

Fire Nation, Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom?

"Oh, my brother's," Iroh answers off-handedly. "We've never really gotten along all that well."

"Then your brother's clearly a jerk," Mel says, with a small smirk.

"Oh, no. He is merely... misguided. He has allowed himself to be caught up in ambition, and that never ends well."

"No," Mel says firmly, "he's a jerk.

"My sister usedta keep trying to cell me, but I was a thief, so yuo'd expect it."

"Did that make her a jerk?" Iroh asks calmly.

"Only a little," Mel says.

"You're a lot nicer than me, I can tell."

"Ah." Iroh smiles, "I have mellowed in my old age."

Mel grins at him, and at Hana, who holds out a hand and toddles back Mom-wards.

"Not that old," she remarks.

"I keep telling people the same thing," Iroh laughs abruptly as he watches Hana walk away.

"Say it enough, they'll catch on."

Hana falls over half way, and looks to Mel for prompting. Mel cheers and claps Loo's hands together, prompting two sets of baby smiles.

Hana decides to crawl the rest of the way.

"Or just kick their asses. Show 'em who's old."

"I'm afraid I'm not in the shape I used to be," Iroh smiles broadly at the baby antics. "I don't doubt that most people could defeat me in a fight."

Well... that was a lie.

"Well, I could," Mel allows.

She really couldn't, but she likes to think she knows a lot of his moves.

"But most? Really?"

Hana finally reaches Mom and demands up with arms and "Mamamama!" Loo in turn demands down, so Mel swaps.