I do not own Iroh, Ozai, Ursa, Zuko, or any of the other wonderful Avatar characters or their world. But I wish I did. T_T

Young Man I

"Prince Iroh!" Siku yelled but no one answered. He knocked on the door again, louder than before. "Prince Iroh! Your father has requested your presence in the royal courtyard!" Still, no answer. The firebender knocked once more.

Only silence came from behind the prince's door. Siku slowly entered, afraid to wake the prince if he was asleep.

"Prince I…" Iroh's bed was empty. His sheets were tied together and hung out of his window. "Not again!" Siku slapped his forehead.

"Now go. And be quick about it!" Siku said as he and his vassals left the castle, quietly, and spread out among the town. They split into groups and were ordered to find to young prince as fast as possible

But Siku didn't need to look for long. He only searched for ten minutes before hearing a very familiar sound.

In the park in the center of town, he heard the chipper melody of young girls giggling. Siku sighed and ran towards their childish voices.

By the fountain sat the young prince, handsome and strong. On both of his sides sat a very pretty girl, each in his arms. The girls were dressed in coarse robes and wore no make-up. They were both covering their mouths to hide the smiles Iroh had given them.

"Oh, but what would happen if my father found you?" One of the maidens asked, leaning on the prince's shoulder.

"My little nightingale…" Iroh wooed her without worry. "…should anyone keep us apart, I would find a way to be with you." He tickled her chin.

"But what about me?" The other girl asked and tugged on his arm, copping a feel of his biceps.

"Well, I guess we'd need to have a secret love affair. Unless you girls don't mind…sharing." Iroh smiled. The girls squealed.

"Oh, you're so naughty."

"A-HEM!" Siku got Iroh's attention.

"Oh. Hello master." Iroh waved. The young girls spotted the royal emblem on Siku's robe and became silent. "This is Jinko and…Shina was it?" Iroh introduced the girls to his fire bending master, but the girls didn't say a word.

"Young man, your father demanded to speak with you and your brother over an hour ago. The whole castle is in an uproar over your negligence…again!"

"Calm down Siku. I was only having a little fun."

Siku grabbed Iroh's wrist and pulled him away from the fountain. "Well, I think you've had enough fun for a while. And you are only to address me as master! Now back to the castle with you."

As Siku dragged Iroh away from his young loves, he waved to them and yelled "Goodbye my beautiful flowers. I will dream of you tonight."

The girls blushed one more time before Iroh disappeared.

Iroh sat in his room with his door locked from the outside. Fire Lord Azulon was not happy with his son's escapade. Naturally the guards were blamed, but Iroh was still punished. The royal family couldn't afford to have the heir to the throne running off with some peasant girls.

So Iroh sat in his room, with the door locked, trapped. He looked up at his ceiling, thinking of the two girls and how different they were form anyone in the palace. He wanted to see it, the rest of the world. Not just outside the castle, but all of it! He wanted to climb mountains in the earth kingdom. He dreamed of skating on the ice of the water tribes.

And the ocean…"yes", he thought, the ocean called to him louder than any other temptation…except maybe women and tea.

"Some day…" He said out loud. He finished the sentence in his head. "…I will see the world…I will be a hero…some day…some day I will be more than just a prince to my nation." Iroh slipped into a dream as he recited those precious words to himself. That night, he dreamed of the wide ocean. And adventure. And tea.