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Zuko groans when the call is dropped a second time. What's he doing in there?!

Yet another incoming video call... this time accompanied by three loud pounds on the door with his fist, Zuko still leaning against the wall next to it in the hall outside.

"Uncle! Green! Circle!" he shouts through the door in time with his pounding.

He's not going to make this easy for Iroh... Iroh isn't making it easy for him.

Oh good. He opened the door, hearing the pounding. "How do you make a cirrcle of Green fire?" he asked Zuko now that the door was open. Yes, he had gotten distracted that badly.

"Fire?! What fire?! Uncle, just press the green button! Look!"

Zuko's all but groaning pleadingly, turning to the man with a seriously worried, incredulous look. He's apprehensive to peek inside the apartment again, but relieved to see... no fire. Phew. The call drops and Zuko hits it again, Iroh's phone ringing once more, and he holds his hand out expectantly for the old man to show him the screen, where a circular, green 'accept call' button is shown, thoroughly unpushed, beside a circular red 'deny call' button beside it.

How did fire get into this...?!

"That is not a button, Zuko..." How had Zuko forgotten what a button is? "That is flat."

"I know it's flat and not a real button, Uncle! That's just what they call it! Just press it!" he shouts through the door.

He had thought he was being so clever and smooth getting up and walking away to demonstrate a call like this.

Boy, was he wrong.

"It feels like glass, If I press it, I will break it!"

"Don't press it hard, just put your thumb on it— damn it!"

The call times out and drops again before Iroh gets the chance. And Zuko calls again, grumbling to himself as he does. Before his call comes through again, Iroh will see a notification about his multiple missed calls pop up on his screen... Zuko's not coming in until they demonstrate this the way he wants to. His vision is fixed. He will continue to yell through this door like the bratty child he is — or at least, can often be... He means so well, though, he really does, just work with him here, Iroh!!!

"It went awa... oh, it is back! It is back,. Zuko!"

"ANS!WER! IT!"

He practically groans every syllable, weakly pounding against the door with a limp fist between each sound for dramatic emphasis.

"IT!" he called back, as if in an answer. "Did that work?"

"Stop goofing around and press the green circle to pick up the call, Uncle!"

Oh, the poor prince...

Okay so he had to press the glass as if it was a button. But he'd touched it several times and it hadn't depressed at all. So maybe he needed more force? Or... oh! Perhaps it required Fire Bending and that was why this had not worked so far. Zuko could have said as much, but his nephew was still new to teaching. So maybe he just presumed that Iroh would have realized that he needed fire to activate it.

He took a deep breath, focused, and then pressed down with strength, pressure, and flame on his finger.

Well, his finger went down. He opened the door. "I don't think that worked, Zuko," he said holding up the melting phone.

"Wha- Uncle, what did you do...?!" Zuko's voice almost cracks as he yells, so much in shock to see this... catastrophe. He left the room for, what, five minutes?! How did Iroh manage this?!

"I attempted to press the screen to do what you asked me to do."

"H-How did you do that...?!" Zuko's incredulous, blanched, gawking at the broken phone in Iroh's hands.

"Since the glass did not depress I pressed harder," he said, completely failing to mention the Fire Bending. If Zuko could not figure that out for himself, they clearly had more work to do than Iroh realized.

Zuko just... smacks himself in the forehead with his free hand. He can read between the lines. It doesn't help much.

"Uncle, c'mon, let's go... We'll go buy you a new phone... Damn it..."

Zuko checks his bank app with a withering look; he has enough to cover it. But he's gonna have to borrow money from Azula later if he finds any other surprise big expenses. He hates borrowing money from Azula... But this is worth it. He won't tell her what happened exactly, though. He'll spare Iroh's honor.

"Do I really need one, prince Zuko?" he asked, doubtfully.

"Yes! All your money was in there!"

Exasperated. Zuko's grasped a still rather clouded understanding of how digital currency works, and while he understands it's not actual money physically inside the phone, he doesn't exactly get that it's attached to the account, rather than the particular phone. If he lost all his money by accidentally burning it back home, the money is gone, right; that's his logic. So while he knows it's immaterial, he still can't take that final leap of logic. He's protected his phone from two dragons in the many months he's been here, and Iroh burned his to a crisp on his second day. He doesn't have hopes that the cell phone store workers can give Iroh back all the money he just burned, in Zuko's mind, but he at least needs a new phone to start earning more again... He pulls up directions to the nearest cell phone store on his own phone and turns on his heel to leave, waiting for Iroh only after a few paces down the hall if the man doesn't follow him immediately.

Iroh, meanwhile, was looking inside the melted remains of his phone, trying to find the money.

That part at least was for comedy's sake. Mostly. Since Zuko had showed him how to show the device to pay for food the day before. But still. The money was in there? He hadn't thought much about it at the time. He was thinking now.

"Come on, Uncle! Let's go buy you a new phone...!" Zuko calls from the hall with a huffy tone. Maybe the guys at the store can set these two straight.

He followed him. "I do not see where the money was, prince Zuko." He was holding it carefully flat now so the money wouldn't fall out.

"It's magic money. They're not coins. But it's kept inside your phone somehow. You need to use the phone to pay for everything. Like how I did last night at the inn."

At least his tone of voice is growing softer...

"Magic... money...?" he was so perplexed as he followed.

"It's all invisible — tiny parts inside the phone or something. I don't know how it works. Hikaru's boyfriend tried to explain it to me once, but— I didn't follow, honestly... Maybe the shopkeepers at the cell phone store will know how to explain."

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