Kouji's days in the palace began to fall into a kind of routine.  At eight-thirty, he would drag himself out of bed in order to present himself to his tutor by nine.  After a lunch break around noon, he would be released from his schooling at three, where he was free to do as he pleased so long as he remained in certain parts of the palace, broke no rules, was aware of his place, and didn't break anything.  Usually this time was spent with Zuko, since Lady Mai claimed Zuko's evenings.  On occasion, she would take the prince for an entire day, and let Kouji have the following or previous day.  When left on his own, Kouji had a tendency to remain by the turtleduck pond, or anywhere the Fire Princess wasn't.  Zuko insisted he go to bed between ten and eleven, so he would do so — and then be collected at eleven-thirty by Hyo for a half-hour meditation and then secret earthbending training until two.

Fortunately, Kouji had discovered a coffee stash, and despite his dislike of the substance, he used it to cover how tired he was during the day.  So far, it seemed to be working.  Zuko caught on to this quickly — apparently, the coffee was his, as Kouji found out when they both went for it at the same time one morning. "So you're the person I've been sharing with," the prince said, slightly wry.

Kouji had the grace to flush slightly.  "Sorry," he said softly, curling his hands around the cup to put off the waking sip for as long as humanly possible.

"S'fine, I just didn't know who was doing it." Zuko got his own cup with the ease of more practice than a sixteen-year-old should really have with such things.

Not that Kouji was one to really point fingers.  Sighing, he sipped at his share and grimaced at the taste, doing so when Zuko's back was turned.  His fingers lashed out and caught hold of a breakfast pastry, so by the time Zuko turned to him, he was contently eating that rather than making faces at the beverage he disliked so strongly.

Zuko carefully made sure no one was close enough to listen in, but lowered his voice anyway. "What were you up to last night? You weren't in your room, I stopped by on my way… out."

The boy flinched and stared into the mud-coloured liquid.  "I was… practising," he said carefully.

The teenager nodded. "Figured it was something like that. Be careful, okay? The Dai Li—" his tension went up a few inexplicable notches "—can probably feel out what you're doing."

"…yeah," Kouji said, after a moment.

Zuko just nodded, and rubbed at the back of his neck.

Kouji looked at the clock, winced, and finished his coffee.  "I have to go to lessons."  He sighed heavily.

"How're they going?" Zuko asked, finishing his own quickly.

The boy gagged.  "We are unlearning everything I learned in Ba Sing Se pertaining to history and culture," he said sulkily.

"Of course," the prince said, and sighed, rubbing the back of his neck again. He grabbed a second cup of coffee. "I'll walk you there?"

"Sure!"  Kouji  grinned at him.

Zuko managed a tight little smile back, and held the door open for the younger boy.  Kouji slipped through, stuffing the last of his pastry in his mouth and brushing himself free of the crumbs.  He looked like any nobleman's son, wearing the silks and fashions of the Fire Court, but there was still something independent about him despite that.

Zuko followed close behind him, keeping his cup of coffee and drinking it much more slowly than he had the first. Either he liked the taste, or he'd been drinking so much of it over the years, he'd desensitized.

Kouji, with all the bias of an eleven-year-old, rather thought it was the latter. Who could actually like that bilge?

…well, okay, so the sailors did, but everyone in the four nations knew that the world would collapse if soldiers, sailors, and government aids had no coffee.

Zuko made random small talk, and stiffened noticeably whenever they passed any Dai Li agents.  One of the agents they passed snarled openly at Kouji, who made a rude gesture in response.  "What was that about?" Zuko asked, his tension not dissipating in the slightest.

Kouji waved one hand dismissively.  "That was just Kim.  He's a jerk."

"Right." Zuko fiddled almost nervously with the end of one sleeve.

"Oh, he'll leave you alone," Kouji told his prince.  "It's just me he doesn't like."

"Of course," Zuko said, watching the agent leave.

The boy mumbled something under his breath and continued on.  Zuko followed close, and shortly thereafter they reached the room that served as Kouji's classroom.  "See you later?" the prince said, finally finishing his second cup of coffee.

"Yeah," agreed Kouji with a grin up at him.

Zuko gave a tight smile in return, then turned to go do whatever it was he did all day while Kouji was at lessons.

The tutoring bothered Kouji more than he would ever admit to Zuko — he was terrified that if he showed just how much he knew, he'd be cut down or used, however irrational that fear was.

Then again, he did now live under the same roof as Princess Azula.

When he was dismissed, he couldn't get outside fast enough.  It took him longer than usual to find Zuko — the prince was in a part of the grounds the young colonist had never been before.  Cutting the soles out of his shoes had definitely been a good move.  "Zuko?" he asked as he arrived.

Zuko slipped down, hanging from a treebranch by his knees. He'd taken down his topknot. Gravity made his hair look longer. "Hey. How were lessons?"

Kouji made a face.  "Everything was boring except the math."

Zuko pulled a face of his own. "So glad I'm sixteen and they aren't making me sit through that anymore. You coming up, or staying down there?"

In answer, Kouji crouched low, then sprang up, grabbing hold of a different branch with both hands.  He paused only briefly to make sure his hold was secure, then swung himself forward and around, twisting his body so that he was able to grab hold of the next branch up with his knees before letting go of the first one.  A pause, then he swung himself up again so that he was sitting happily on the branch.

Zuko didn't look happy at his climbing method, but didn't comment. He snagged a fruit from one of the branches and tossed it at Kouji. "These don't grow in the Earth Kingdom."

Kouji blinked at it, turning it over in his hands.  "What is it?"

"Pomegranate," Zuko said, taking another for himself.

"Really?"  The boy sounded intrigued.  "I've never had one."

"'Course not. They only grow here. Cut it open, you eat the seeds." He followed his own instructions.

Kouji tugged his belt knife from its sheathe and did as he was told, trying some of the seeds.  "Wow, these are good!"  He grinned broadly — a smile of a size Zuko hadn't seen since Ba Sing Se.

"I know," Zuko said, with an odd, tiny little smile of his own. "I missed these..."

"And I thought applerines were good," Kouji commented, eating some more.

An hour or so before sunset, Zuko finally climbed down. "I'm meeting Mai. See you in the morning?"

"Yeah," Kouji said, letting himself fall backwards off the branch.  His body turned lazily as he fell, and he landed in a crouch.  "In the morning."

"Make sure you go to bed by eleven, if I'm not back in time to tell you so, okay?"

"I will," promised Kouji.  After all, he did go to bed before he met Hyo.

"'Kay. See you." The prince wandered off to find his girlfriend, and Kouji made his way to the turtleduck pond.  He took his boots off and carefully slipped his legs into the water, kicking them lazily back and forth and watching the birds float along the surface.  He sighed heavily.  It wasn't that he begrudged Mai her time with Zuko — much — but that Zuko was really the only person he knew here.  He had tried befriending a few of the children he'd seen around the palace, but they either considered him colony trash or some special sort of noble, and shunned or fled from him as they considered appropriate.

This remained the case that evening, unfortunately.

Finally, around ten, Kouji realised he'd fallen asleep by the pond and missed dinner.  Swearing under his breath, he shoved his wet feet into his boots and slopped his way to his room to catch some more sleep before Hyo came to get him for his training.

When he passed by Zuko's room, it was quite clear that the prince hadn't yet gone to bed. He was probably still with Mai.

Or so Kouji thought, until he saw the prince sneaking back over the wall alone, wearing a hooded cloak, five minutes after Hyo dismissed him

How does that hood stay up? the boy wondered vaguely as he snuck back to his own room.

No answer came to him and as he let sleep overtake him again, he mumbled, "S'prolly magical hair powers…"

 

The next day proved much the same as previous ones, with the pleasant new addition of spending some time with Zuko before his tutoring session as well.  Zuko, however, seemed even more distracted than usual, the way he always did when he'd made a decision he wasn't sure he internally approved of.

"…Zu?  What's up?" Kouji asked him.

"Nothing," the prince lied, after a hesitant silence. "Just haven't been able to sleep the last few nights."

Kouji nodded, setting his cup down,  then moved close to the prince and hugged him.  Zuko hugged back, tight.  "It'll all come out okay," said the earthbender softly.

"I don't know," the prince said, bleakly. "I hope you're right."

It isn't like things can get— no, they can get worse, Ozai could find out what I am.  And I still don't know what he meant by 'you'll do'.  Kouji pressed his face into Zuko's robes.  Zuko, too, tightened his hold, as if Kouji was the only thing tethering him to sanity.

Things will get better.  They have to. 

Eventually, reluctantly, Kouji disengaged.  "I'm late…"

"Okay. Let's go."

Kouji took Zuko's hand, and headed off for his lessons.  The prince followed mutely, agitated enough already that his heightened tension whenever they passed a Dai Li agent was barely noticeable.  There was no snarling-gesture incident today, for which Kouji was grateful, and he hugged Zuko one last time before heading into the room.

When he found the prince afterwards, it was only to realize that the teenager's two or three sleepless nights had finally caught up with him. He was asleep in the pomegranate grove, a half-eaten fruit in one hand.

Kouji tilted his head to one side, regarding Zuko in the branches, then he looked around, pressing his bare soles against the ground.  Once he was certain nobody was around, he carefully raised up a portion of the ground to Zuko's height and started to tug the prince out of the branches.

The teenager twitched and whimpered, almost falling off his branch in the other direction.  Kouji tightened his grip and heaved, pulling Zuko over to his side.  As soon as the prince was on the platform, the colonist lowered them to ground level and erased every sign of his bending.

Scarcely had he finished when Zuko jerked awake, panting.

"Hi," Kouji said, crouching beside him.

"Hi," he replied, slightly shakily.

"Bad dream?"

Zuko nodded.

"I'm sorry," said the boy quietly, reaching out to grip Zuko's shoulder.

The teenager didn't pull away, but he did shake his head. "Not your fault."

"Someone has to be."

Zuko sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and changed the subject. "How was school?"

"Same as yesterday," Kouji replied with a frown.  "I miss being tutored like I was on the boat."

"Sorry."

Shaking his head, the boy bit back his complaints.  It would only make Zuko feel worse.

The prince sighed, and rubbed at his temples. "I need more coffee."

"Then go get some," Kouji suggested.  He hesitated, then added, "And talk to Mai, too."  It hurt to say it, but he felt she might be able to comfort Zuko better than he could.

Zuko shook his head. "She's with Ty Lee and my sister right now."

"Oh."  So much for that idea.

"I'll be right back." He stood up and headed off into the palace. He was back about twenty minutes later with his coffee.  By then, Kouji had amassed a small number of pomegranates, for him and for Zuko.  He gave his prince an impish smile.

The older boy managed a very tight little smile in return, and snagged one of the fruits.

I wish we could go back, Kouji thought sadly.  Back to the ship, when Zuko still had hope…

Clearly, though, that was impossible — after all, there wasn't even a ship to go back to anymore.  Not to mention even the Avatar couldn't timebend.  And the fact that the hopelessness was only a part of what was wrong with Zuko now — there was a faint edge of fear, genuine fear, that Kouji had never seen before.

We need to get out of here.  Before something bad happens.  Kouji barely concealed a shudder.

But if they left, where would they go? Running would be misinterpreted, everyone would start hunting for them, and they'd never get past the blockade to relative safety. And Zuko was impossible to disguise.  It was enough to give a boy a headache.  I want to go home.

Kouji looked over at the prince helplessly.

Zuko was determinedly pulling seeds out of his pomegranate, focusing solely on that.

"…can I see Un— er, the general?" Kouji asked quietly.

Zuko shook his head. "No one's supposed to go into his prison. Plus, it would look bad. They'd probably think you were plotting something with him."

"I'm eleven," Kouji pointed out softly, drawing his knees to his chest.  He missed the old man terribly.

"All the more reason for them to think he'll turn you into an agent," Zuko said, a little bitterly. "People don't really notice kids your age."

"Yes," said Kouji, none too light on the bitterness himself.  "I know."

Zuko sighed again, and stared at the red juice staining his hands.  The boy was silent a moment, then reached over and grabbed Zuko's hands, cleaning them off.  Zuko jumped a little. "…Thanks," he finally said.

"Let's go play with the turtleducks," said Kouji firmly, getting up and trying to pull Zuko up as well.

"Okay." The prince let himself be pulled, downed the last of his coffee, and followed the younger boy.  Once they were there, Kouji was quite deliberately cheerful and zany, trying to distract the firebender, to the point of letting himself overbalance into the pond.  Zuko waded in after him — while the boy had been taught how to swim the previous winter, just in case, he wasn't very good at it.

Kouji, despite the fact that the water where he'd fallen in came to his chin, let the prince pull him out regardless.  "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"It's fine."

Kouji reigned in his antics and briefly wished he had the Avatar's pet lemur.  Surely that little thing would have been able to cheer Zuko up, even a little?  Moot point. The lemur, even if it had gotten out of Ba Sing Se, was far away.

With a sigh, he curled up next to the prince.

Zuko sighed as well, staring at the turtleducklings.

At least he's got me, Kouji thought at last.  Even if everything here goes to hell, I'm never going to leave him.

Zuko fiddled with his sleeve some more. "Are you getting lessons from one of the agents?" he whispered. "I know you've never had a formal teacher before..."

"…why do you ask?" Kouji wanted to know.

"Just…" He trailed of, and was silent for a few seconds, then sighed. "Just curious."

The boy was silent for a long moment, then nodded.  "Yes.  I am."

"Can you—" Zuko started, then cut himself off, shaking his head. "Nevermind. I don't really want to know."

Kouji blinked several times.  "What?"

" I just… I think I know what might've happened those hours I can't remember." Zuko hugged his knees to his chest and stared bleakly at the turtleducks.

"What?" the boy asked again, a different tone on the word this time.

The prince's answer was barely audible. 'The Dai Li brainwash people."

Kouji froze.

"I overheard two of them talking about it. If that's where I was those hours I can't account for…" Zuko trailed off. "I don't know what's me and what's not anymore."

"…oh gods…"

"It's the kind of thing my sister would ask them to do to me. Cover all her bases. I was gonna ask you to ask your teacher, but...he probably wouldn't tell the truth on this. So forget it."

Trembling, Kouji curled up even closer to Zuko, closing his eyes.  Hyo… what game are you playing? he thought.  Why are you really teaching me?