Soldier's Boy
Eleven

The rest of their visit to the glacier passed thus, with Lee quiet and unhappy and Kouji trying to keep him from sliding into depression and trying to get him to eat.

They finally left, a little less than two weeks later, when the healers cleared Lee for travel.  The five of them boarded a wooden boat, along with Master Pakku and several other waterbenders headed to the South Pole to help rebuild the tribe there. The plan was for Master Pakku and the others to sail south with the children until they were out of the icecaps, and within a day's flight of the seaside base they planned to visit on their way to Omashu. Aang's old friend, Bumi, was king there, and the Avatar was determined to have him as a teacher.

Kouji seemed pretty excited about this as well; given his lack of formal training, he really wasn't that far ahead of Aang in earthbending.  Unfortunately for everyone, the youngest of them turned out to have horrible seasickness.  For two days he could only keep down water.  Fortunately, his misery ended on the fourth day.

Master Pakku had them all gather on the deck for a final farewell and gifts. To Katara, he gave a vial of what seemed to be magic water; he claimed it had special properties. To Aang, he gave a set of waterbending scrolls, but warned him that they alone weren't enough, and to be sure to pay attention to Katara. Lee was given a pair of new shirts. He somewhat wryly promised the master to try and make them last at least a month without tears or bloodstains. Kouji was given a bag of tea leaves. "This will help with your seasickness," the old man said gravely.

He flushed bright red.  "Thanks," he said, kicking at the wooden deck before climbing up into the bison's saddle.

"Sokka?" the old man was saying. The teenager stepped forward hopefully, but Pakku just patted him on the shoulder. "Take care, son."

"Ouch," commented Kouji to Lee in an undertone as he curled up in a corner of the saddle.

Lee nodded, not grinning behind his hand the way he would have before coming to the North Pole. "Sucks to be him."

"Fly straight to the Earth Kingdom base to the east of here," Master Pakku called up to them. "General Fong will provide you with an escort to Omashu. There, you'll be safe, and can begin your earthbending training with King Bumi."

"Finally," Kouji whispered, his eyes lighting up.  He was tired of exhausting himself every time he tried to fight.

Sokka was the first to spot the base, staring over the side sulkily. "There it is!" he called excitedly, as they flew around a crag and the circular outpost came into view. Appa landed without difficulty — apparently, they were expected.

"Welcome, Avatar Aang!" a tall, large man with long hair called out, smiling. "I am General Fong." He and the line of men behind him all bowed in unison. "And welcome to all of you, great heroes! Appa, Momo, Brave Sokka, the Mighty Katara—"

"Mighty Katara?" she murmured. "I like that."

General Fong continued, "—Unyielding Lee, Steadfast Kouji." Fireworks shot up into the air from the walls of the base.

"Not bad, not bad!" Sokka said, grinning. Lee looked a little uncomfortable, and was avoiding meeting anyone's eyes.  Kouji, too, seemed a bit uncertain about the fanfare, and retreated back slightly, slipping his hand into Lee's.  He flinched every time one of the fireworks went off.

Fortunately, this didn't last long, and the children and the General retreated into the base for a less ceremonial conversation.

"Avatar Aang," Fong began, "We were all amazed at the stories of how you single-handedly wiped out an entire Fire Navy fleet at the North Pole. I can't imagine what it feels like to wield such devastating power. It is an awesome responsibility."

As the man went on, Lee looked less and less happy. Clearly, he did not like where this was going.

"I try not to think about it too much," Aang said.

"Avatar," the General said, leaning forward slightly with excitement, "you're ready to face the Firelord now."

"What?!" Kouji burst out in unison with the Avatar, staring at the much bigger man.

Lee froze, staring at the General with a you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me look that would have been amusing in any other situation.

"No, I'm not!" Aang yelped.

"Aang still needs to master all four elements," Katara pointed out.

"Why?" Fong asked, in tones of perfect reasonableness. "With the power he possesses, power enough to destroy hundreds of battleships in a matter of minutes, he could defeat the Firelord now!"

"…did the official reports leave out that he'd merged with a seriously pissed off ocean god?" Kouji wondered.

"There's that, and besides, sir, the thing is, Aang can only do those things when he's in the Avatar State," Sokka added.

"See, it's this special state where—" Aang started, but General Fong cut him off.

"I'm well aware. Your eyes and tattoos glow, and you're able to summon unbelievable power. Without you, we'd be slaughtered before we even reached their shores. But with you leading the way, as the ultimate weapon, we can cut a swath right through to the heart of the Fire Nation."

Lee flinched a little, and broke off staring at the General to stare at the floor instead.  Without even looking at his brother, Kouji reached for and found Lee's hand.  "This is a seriously bad idea," he said.

"And even though what you say is kind of true," Aang said, hard on Kouji's heels, "I don't know how to get in or out of the Avatar State, much less what to do once I'm there."

"So it's decided then," the general said, turning back from his map to face the group. "I'll help you figure out how to get into the Avatar State, and then you'll face your destiny."

"You have got to be joking!" Kouji yelped.  "Were you listening to anything he just said?"

Lee broke off staring at the floor to go back to staring at the general. "Every time I've seen or heard of Aang going into the Avatar State, it's been because he's seriously pissed off. And if you're the one triggering it, General, you're going to get hurt. Forget all the other problems with this insanely stupid idea, do you have no sense of self-preservation whatsoever?" To people who knew Lee and his penchant for heedless recklessness, this probably sounded hypocritical a bit. General Fong, however, was not aware of this reputation, and none of the rest of them were particularly inclined to call the teenager on it.

"Besides," Katara added angrily, "we already have a plan.  Aang is going to be facing his destiny his way."

"Well," the man said, a note of contempt now entering his voice, "while you take your time learning the elements, the war goes on." He paused a moment, then, "May I show you something?"

Kouji flinched, knowing what was coming.  General Fong was determined to have his way, and he would do whatever it took to ensure victory.  This particular tactic, the "see-our-injured-soldiers-aren't-you-ashamed-of-yourself" tactic, was a favourite of his father's.  The man had constantly used it on his sons who had no interest in the war.

Lee, too, judging by the way his face lost a few shades of colour, knew what was coming.

The general did, in fact, lead Aang and the others — though Lee flat-out refused to approach — to a window, and quietly pointed out the infirmary. "Those soldiers are the lucky ones. They came back. Every day, the Fire Nation takes lives. People are dying, Aang. You could end it, now! Think about it." He turned and walked away.

"Fire Nation isn't the only one taking lives," Kouji snarled, his voice soft enough that only his friends could hear him.  He was shaking in rage.  "No matter who starts it, wars take two sides."

Aang looked troubled, but he didn't disagree.

"We don't have to take this," Kouji urged.  "We can just go.  We don't need their escort."

"But he's right. And so are you. The sooner I end this, the sooner people can stop dying," Aang said, frowning.

"Aang…," Kouji began, looking uncertain.

"And if you try it this way," Lee pointed out quietly, "you're much more likely to get bystanders caught in the crossfire."

"You can't control yourself in the Avatar state," Sokka added.  "This really isn't that good of an idea."

Aang was silent for a very long moment, looking at all of his friends. "…yeah, I guess you guys are right. Let's just leave."

"I wouldn't tell General Idiot in person," Lee said. "He'll probably attack you or something to try and trigger you. Leave a note."

Kouji nodded his agreement, one hand drifting to his chest.  "Men like that will do whatever it takes to get what they want."

After a moment's thought, Aang nodded. They found paper and a brush in Katara's pack, the Avatar scribbled out a note and pinned it to a door, and the five of them fled the base late that night.

Kouji visibly relaxed when they were safely in the air, but he couldn't help but stare down at the base as they flew away.  Shuddering, he turned into Lee and hid his face in the older boy's shirt.

Lee hugged him gently, saying nothing.

One morning a few days after this was devoted to Aang and Katara practising waterbending while Kouji worked on his earthbending.  The younger boy was completely red, given Katara's practise clothes, but he kept looking over to see what they were doing with water — and then trying to apply it to the ground.

Lee sat on the edge of the water, watching Kouji but not really seeming to see him, his thoughts far away.  After imitating Katara's ice-throwing, Kouji tried to imitate the octopus stance and failed quite thoroughly.  "Guess some things do work best in their original form," he commented.

"Don't worry," Aang said. "We're going to Omashu as soon as we're done practicing here, and Bumi'll teach us both all we need to know about earthbending."

Kouji laughed.  "Yeah.  Man, it'll be great to have a teacher.  Ichiro tried, but all he could get me was control."

"Control's the most important step, though," Lee said, quietly. "And the hardest."

The younger boy nodded.  "I know.  Ichiro had to teach it to himself, 'cause of the laws about firebenders."

"What laws?" Aang asked, curious.

"Firebenders born in the colonies have to go back to the homeland for training. I think it's mostly 'cause it's hard to convince teaching masters to leave," Lee said absently, tossing breadcrumbs at a water fowl of some kind that had wandered over to their group.

Kouji nodded.  "He told me his best friend was found out to be a bender and had to leave, not long after Yui and I were born, so he hid his own bending because he didn't want to go to a place he didn't even remember."

"That makes sense," Sokka said, lazily trailing a hand through the water.

"Yeah.  But he didn't want to be untrained, either.  So he started teaching himself," Kouji explained.  "He says it's a miracle he didn't touch off a forest fire."

"That would've blown his secret," the near-naked teenager agreed sagely, patting Momo.

"And possibly destroyed the colony," the younger boy pointed out.

"That, too."

Kouji sighed, flopping onto his back.  "But he was able to teach me control, and to help me hide what I was."

Before any of the others could reply to that, music drifted over to them, followed closely by a group of five people in very bizarre clothing.

"Don't fall in love with a travelling girl

She'll leave you broken, broken-hearted—" sang the man in the lead, only to cut himself off when he noticed the group, aided by Sokka falling off his leaf-raft.  "Hey, river people!"

"We're not river people," Katara said, a little puzzled. Lee largely ignored the new arrivals, playing with one of the baby waterfowl.

"You're not?" the man asked, sounding incredulous.  "Then what kinda people are ya?"

"Just… people," Aang said, shrugging.

"Aren't we all, brother?" was the man's reply to this.

"Hey, who are you?" Sokka asked, wading over indignantly.

"I'm Chong," the man introduced himself.  "And this is my wife Lily.  We're nomads.  Happy to go wherever the wind takes us!"  He then proceeded to wail on his pipa briefly.

"You guys are nomads?" Aang said, eagerly. "That's great! I'm a nomad!"

"Hey, me too!" Chong said, prompting Kouji to stare at him.  Lee even looked up from the baby animal in his lap.

"…I know," Aang said, his grin slipping a little. "You just said that."

"…oh."

Kouji leaned over to Lee as Chong complimented Sokka's underwear.  "I think he needs to lay off the opium," the boy murmured as Sokka sidled out of sight.

"I'm not sure they have a name or number for what he's been smoking," the teenager agreed.  While the nomads made themselves comfortable, Kouji turned his attention to his brother.  "Playing with a rabbit-swan?"

Lee coloured faintly, and set the bunny-cygnet back on the water.  Kouji grinned at him.  "Nothing wrong with it."

"I just like them. They're soft."

"Really?  New Sozin was too close to the ocean for them," Kouji said.

Lee was thoughtful for a moment, then slowly, gently reached out and picked up the bunny-cygnet again. "Here, hold out your hands. No, like this." When he was satisfied Kouji would hold the baby animal right, he laid it in his brother's hands.

The boy's grey eyes went wide, and he smiled.  "Wow… it is soft…"  He cradled the animal gently against his chest, his grin growing even bigger.  Lee watched him for a few minutes, then abruptly his face fell and he stood up and walked away.

"Lee?"  Kouji put the bunny-cygnet down and went after him.  "Lee, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Kouji didn't believe him.  "Lee…"

Lee sighed. "I don't want to talk about it, okay? Not right now."

"All right," the boy agreed softly.

The teenager relaxed a little, then stared at the ground.

"We should probably get back," Kouji said after a few minutes.  "Before Chong decides to introduce Aang to hashish or something."

"Right. Okay."

The two boys returned seconds after Sokka, catching the tail end of the new conversation.  One of the nomads had just made comment on a never-ending rainbow.

"Look, I hate to be the wet blanket here, but since Katara is busy—" one of the female nomads was braiding flowers into her hair "—I guess it's up to me. We need to get to Omashu. No sidetracks, no worms, and definitely no rainbows," Sokka said.

"Whoa," drawled Chong.  "Sounds like someone's got a case of Destination Fever."  He chuckled.  "You worry too much about where you're going."

"You gotta focus less on the where," added Lily, "and more on the going."  She spread her arms wide, pulling Katara's hair — and head — with her.

"O. Ma. Shu," Sokka said, slowly and decisively.

"Sokka's right," Katara said. "We need to find King Bumi so Aang and Kouji can learn earthbending somewhere safe."

"Well," said Chong, sitting up a little, "sounds like you're heading to Omashu."

In perfect unison, Sokka and Lee's hands met their respective foreheads.

"There's an old story about a secret pass," Chong said then, interrupting Kouji's thoughts on what other drugs the man might possibly be on.  "Right through the mountains."

"Is this real, or a legend?" Katara asked, sceptically.

"Oh, it's a real legend."  Kouji groaned.  "And it's as old as earthbending itself," Chong went on, ignoring the boy.  He then started strumming on his pipa.  Lee rolled his eyes and went back to the rabbit-swans; Kouji, on the other hand, hummed along quietly, then choked when Chong interrupted himself to admit he'd forgotten the next couple of lines.

"But then it goes:

Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! 

Through the mountains, secret

Secret, secret, secret tunnel!

 Yeah."

While the others applauded, Sokka sighed and said, "I think we'll just stick with flying. We've dealt with the Fire Nation before. We'll be fine."

"Yeah," Aang agreed. "Thanks for the help, but Appa hates going underground. And we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable."

Less than ten minutes later all of them were back, covered in soot and, in Kouji's case, curled up and shaking in Lee's arms.

"Secret love cave, let's go," Sokka said.

The nomads followed, and soon Kouji recovered enough to walk on his own, though he stuck very close to Lee.  Lee didn't object to this, and had even snuck one of the bunny-cygnets along so Kouji could have something to cuddle if he needed to.

The fact that he, himself, seemed to draw a shadow of comfort from the fuzzy waterbird meant absolutely nothing.