A month after Minami’s kidnapping, a particularly annoyed Kouji extracted himself from yet another group of aides displeased with his scheduling and continued on the errand he’d been sent on in the first place.  “Do they think I can just snap my fingers and make a copy of him?” the boy muttered.

He was answered by sounds of scuffling and shouting from downstairs somewhere.

“What the…?  Perhaps foolishly, the boy headed that way to see what was going on.

What was going on was a full-blown riot in the making. Spirits only knew what had touched it off.

Kouji’s eyes went wide, and he turned to run back upstairs.

The riot caught up with him there — it was still growing.  Probably whatever had caused it had completely slipped the minds of the rioters — there was nothing going on anymore but striking.  Frantic, Kouji tried to get out of the way, knowing full well that if he was drawn into the midst of it, he could get badly injured.  The mass of rioters apparently had other ideas — the boy was swept up whether he liked it or not.

“Get off!” he shouted, shoving one man aside and barely keeping from being knocked over.  The time for bending was past, he couldn’t get a strong enough connection to the ground in order to protect himself.

No one heard him over the shouting.

An elbow clipped his left eye and he stumbled back, feeling his back slam into a wall.  Quickly, he pressed his hands against that wall and prepared to bend himself out of trouble.  A hand attached to someone faceless dragged him away from the wall before he could do anything constructive.

“No!  Get off me!”  He wriggled loose and tried to get back, to find some safe port before he got trampled.  The mob swept him away before he could gain purchase — it was moving faster than he could keep up with.  Now it was all the child could do to keep to his feet, and before long he’d been knocked aside and hit the ground.

And the mob kept going.

When it passed, Kouji lay unconscious on the floor.

After about fifteen minutes, a little girl — maybe six years old — who worked with her mother in the kitchen found him there.

The boy was in bad shape – a splendid bruise was blossoming over his left eye, another on his cheek; his lips were split, as was an eyebrow, his clothes bore some shoe prints, and his right arm was bent ever-so-slightly where it should not have been bending.

Her eyes widened, and she reached out to touch the arm, curious and confused.

Kouji moaned, but did not stir; the arm itself felt… odd at the bend.  Like the bone didn’t align right.

She ran to get her mother.

 

 

Private Li Shang, unlike Kouji, did not get caught up in the mob.  He heard it coming and wisely got out of the way, where he stopped to think for a moment, then bolted for the Firelord’s room.

Judging from the crashing sounds and the faint smell of smoke, something was wrong up there, too.  He swore and put on another burst of speed, gripping his trident tightly. 

Azula.

She was in there, duelling her brother again. He was having more luck here than in the warehouse, not forcing himself to divide his attention.

Shang promptly flattened himself against the wall so as not to draw attention, waiting to make a move if he had to.  I knew it was staged.

Azula saw him. There was a split-second’s pause in the fight, and she was out the window.

Zuko swore and went after her.

Shang swore and went after them both.  “Why is he such an idiot?” he snarled as he leapt out the window.

Azula was fleeing across the grounds, with Zuko in pursuit. The Firelord was slowing, though, and Azula knew the ground as well as he did. Clearly, she had some objective in mind.

But what?  Other than assassinating him. 

Shang was catching up quickly to the siblings.

After a few more seconds, she spun around and rapid-fired two bursts of lightning at her brother. He caught the first, and was deflecting it back at her, but the second…

…was intercepted by Shang, moving faster than anyone might have believed possible.

His scream split the night air.

Zuko yelled in fury, and resumed his pursuit.

He and his sister had scarcely gone out of view again when Katara caught up and found Shang. She let out a cry of dismay and knelt next to him, water from her flasks glowing slightly.

Haru, his hair flying loose and wearing only a pair of pants, was hot on her heels; while Katara stopped to heal the soldier, he kept going, using bending to track the siblings.

Azula was winning. Obviously so.

He snarled, and on his next step came down extra-heavy.  Bending without being able to see what he was doing wasn’t easy, but thanks to Toph, he could do it.  Power raced through the earth and came up under Azula’s feet, forming a pillar that sent her flying into the air.

When she landed, she lay still for a moment, dazed.

It was long enough for Haru to catch up; he didn’t waste a moment in bending the earth around her and pinning her down.

Zuko, gasping for air, dropped to his knees nearby. “Shang?” he choked out.

“Katara’s with him.  Are you all right?”

“Fine.”

The older man plainly was not buying that.  Leaving the princess trapped, he strode to Zuko and put a hand over the Firelord’s heart.

It was racing, unevenly, like a lame ostrich-horse.

“Is she alive?” he asked, quietly, glancing over at his sister.

“Yeah,” Haru replied.  “She won’t be getting out of that anytime soon, though.”

“Oh.” He wasn’t sure what he felt about that. He rubbed at his chest absently, willing it to stop aching. This means I have to do it cold.

“Let’s get back to the palace,” said Haru, not unkindly.  He wanted to make sure Ty Lee was all right.

“Right,” he said, tearing his eyes away from his sister and pushing himself to his feet.

Guards came running; in a manner he had to have learned from his father, Haru ordered them to take the princess into custody and make sure she couldn’t escape.

They did so. Carefully. Zuko watched them leave.

“Come on, Sparky,” said Haru quietly.

“I’m coming.”

The two benders made their way back to the palace, and Haru all but dragged Zuko to the infirmary.

Kouji was there.

Zuko’s eyes widened. “Kouji!” He stumbled to the younger boy’s bed.

One eye opened; the left one had swollen shut.  “Z-zuko…?”

“You’re hurt…”

“Riot,” the boy reported, groaning in pain.  “Got caught up and knocked down.”

Haru whistled.  “It’s amazing you’re alive, kid.”

Zuko bit his lip, his eyes carefully guarded. He shouldn’t be here. He doesn’t belong here. This is my world, my hell, and I should never have let him stay.

Kouji managed a small smile – anything bigger and he’d open the cuts on his lips again.  “I know.”

“…How long has it been since you’ve been home?” Zuko asked, suddenly.

The boy blinked.  “Home?  Not since I met you guys.”

“Maybe you should go back for a few weeks.” His eyes flicked to the cast on Kouji’s arm. “At least until your arm heals.” When he sees how much better it is for him there, he’ll want to stay. He won’t want to come back here. Which is a good thing. Definitely a good thing. Yes.

Grey eyes widened in dismay.  “Home?  I don’t want to go home.  Who’ll take care of your schedule?”

Zuko managed a faint smile. “I’ll manage somehow. Hey, I’m told I look kind of scary, maybe if I glare at the aides enough, they’ll stop triple-booking me.”

“But…”

“Just until your arm’s better,” he said. “It’ll be good for you to get away from all this for a while. Be a normal kid again.”

“Have to go back to the earth kingdom for that,” Kouji muttered, closing his good eye.

“Well, I’m sure your parents must be worried about you,” he said, trying a different tack. “And it’d be good to see them again, right?”

“…I guess…”

A little of the tension eased between the young monarch’s shoulders. “If I really need you, I’ll write for you,” he said.

Kouji sighed.  “I guess.”  He hadn’t opened his eye.  “I just… I liked being useful.”

“You still are,” Zuko assured him. “You just have a duty to your family, too, not just here.” That’s the argument that would sway me. Maybe I’ve rubbed off on him enough — oh, damn, I hope I haven’t rubbed off on him that much…

Kouji mumbled something and pulled the sheet over his head.  Haru’s eyes went wide.

“What? Kouji? What’s wrong?”

Haru put a hand on Zuko’s shoulder and said quietly in his ear, “He said that you were his family, too.”

“You don’t want my family,” he said, softly, before he could stop himself.

There was no reply from the boy on the bed and Haru sighed.  “Want some puppies to kick before the sun comes up?  I’m gonna go find Ty Lee.”

“Are you planning to marry her, when she comes of age?” Zuko asked, grateful for the chance to change the subject.

“We haven’t discussed it,” Haru replied, “and this is not the place.”

“…no, it isn’t. But we’ll talk about this later.”

The earthbender walked away without responding.

Zuko curled up in a chair next to Kouji’s bed, silently, watching the younger boy.

After several moments, the blanket came down, but only because he’d rolled over; Kouji had fallen asleep.  Zuko still stayed there, until it was time for him to go back to work.

 

 

General Iroh, in addition to being on perpetual standby to take over as regent should any disaster like the one two months ago happen again, had taken charge of palace security. A head for battle was not the same as a head for peaceful leadership, and he knew that full well, and so did his best to keep level best to keep himself out of regency.

He worked out of a cluttered office not far from his nephew’s rooms, and could almost always be found there.

Kouji headed for that office now, feeling clumsy with his good arm held up in a sling and wondering if he even had the right to ask the old general for advice.  As luck would have it, the old general was, in fact, in his office.

“General Iroh?” he asked quietly, peeking into the room.

“Kouji!” the old man said, looking up and smiling. “How are you feeling?”

The boy managed a smile.  “Battered, but better.”

“Good, good. Please, sit down. What’s on your mind?”

Kouji took the offered seat and fidgeted a moment, then said, “Lord Zuko wants me to go home.”

“I’m not surprised,” Iroh said, after thinking about it a moment. “You have something he never did waiting for you there.”

“…but I’m happy here.”

“I know. And, deep down, Zuko knows that as well. But… he doesn’t want to damage you, the way he was damaged. He wants you to have a chance to be a normal boy.” Iroh smiled a little. “And he wants to live vicariously through your normality.”

“He’s not damaging me,” Kouji said, the fingers of his good hand drifting to the spectacular bruise on his eye

“He’s afraid he is,” the old man replied, quietly, his eyes following Kouji’s fingers.

The boy dropped his hand and sighed.  “I just… I don’t know what to do.”

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t, but…”

“But what?” Iroh asked, studying him.

“…he’s right, I do have a duty to my family.”  The boy sighed.  “But I have a duty to him, too.”

“And so you have a choice to make. But remember that if you go, you can come back. And, if you stay, you can go later.”

Kouji nodded, still looking torn.

“No one can make this choice for you, Kouji,” Iroh said gently.

“Yeah, I know…”

“I am sure you will choose well.”

Kouji smiled weakly.  “I’m not making a good track record with those lately.”

“What do you mean?” Iroh asked.

“Sneaking out at night to practice bending.  Investigating the fighting I heard.  Telling Zuko—”  He stopped, and blushed slightly.

“Telling him how much you cared about him? That wasn’t a bad choice. He needed to hear it.”

“I told him… that he was my family.”  Kouji dropped his gaze.  “He said I didn’t want his family.”

Iroh gave him a very piercing look. “I cared about him. His mother did. That’s it.”

The boy squirmed under his look.  “What do you…?”

“His father. His sister. And the part of him that’s like them. That’s what he meant.”

“…oh.”

“…You thought he meant he didn’t care about you the same way.”

Kouji wouldn’t look up at Iroh.

“…I should have spent less time teaching him firebending, and more teaching him communication,” Iroh said decisively.

Confusion crossed the earthbender’s face, and he peeked up at Iroh through bangs in need of a good trim.  He waved a hand dismissively. “Never mind.”

“Yes, sir.”

He smiled at the boy. “Trust that this will work out, somehow.”

Another small smile.  “I’ll try.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me…” He had to go remind Zuko that a decision had to be made about Azula, still in prison. Just because she was cooperating for now — doing nothing untoward save occasionally asking to see Lady Minami — didn’t mean she’d continue to behave.

“Yes, sir.”  Kouji got up and vacated the room.  Before he vanished down the hall, he said, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” the General said, then went to meet with his nephew.

Kouji went outside to beat up rocks one-handed.