Kazou had his father's smile. Not his birth-father's, since he lost his father during the final days of the War when the Earth Kingdom retook contested territory. His birth-mother had died long before then, and the boy was left to fend for himself.

Until his father and his papa came along. They were men of stone, brown-eyed and barefoot. His father smiled in a way that terrified everyone except Papa and him, and his papa spoke in chalked words on a slate.

Kazou didn't have a problem with this. He didn't have a problem with the next ten years of living with them in the Fire Nation, either, or what they taught him. Papa taught him his characters and how to be in a place without being noticed. Father taught him how to smile to frighten the bravest of men and how to observe in a way that actually sensed everything there was to be observed.

They paid for him to learn firebending from the best masters, and Papa taught him knives to go with it. Father taught him nothing of combat, for his father was a master earthbender.

As a boy, Kazou had been pure Fire, impulsive and rash and burning bright. When his parents were finished with him, his fire was banked in stone.

He smiled and thanked them.