The journey home was unremarkable. Zuko was still insistent on setting a faster pace than he could really handle — now that Kouji was safely recovered, he seemed to remember all of the many pressing responsibilities he'd left behind, and seemed determined to get back and fulfill them as soon as possible.  However, Kouji seemed to need to travel at a slower pace than what Zuko wanted — or at least that's what Haru said, and the younger boy was backing him up.  And so Zuko impatiently stuck to the pace they set.

The same thing would happen at night — Zuko would want to keep going until Kouji confessed to being tired, and then the Firelord would gracelessly cave in,

Almost every night, Zuko jerked awake after a while, coming out of his habitual nightmares.  One of those nights, Kouji was trembling against Qiang, utterly silent.  Zuko, frowning, dragged himself over to the younger boy and rested his hand on his shoulder.  Kouji made a mewling whimper, but then quieted, his troubled face smoothing out into calmness.  The Firelord breathed a sigh of relief, then sagged against a nearby tree to keep watch and make sure Kouji didn't have another nightmare.

"They had him picked out from the start, you know."  It was Haru.

"Didn't know that," he said, wearily. "Thanks for telling."

"The General has the paperwork involved."  Haru paused.

"Mmhmm. Good."

"Good and bad.  The good is that it completely absolves the poor kid."

"Yep."

"The bad is that it implicates his parents."

"Great," muttered Zuko after a pause.

Haru ran a hand through his hair.  "His father essentially sold him to the Dai Li."

Zuko made a very angry noise and started to launch to his feet; the earthbender caught him.  "Down, Zuko.  The general already knows.  He's taking care of it.  Ichiro'll probably be given custody of Yui, since Kouji's already your ward."

Zuko grudgingly sank to the ground. "Right."

"Ichiro knows about this," the earthbender went on.  "Kouji and Yui do not."

"I won't tell them until one of them asks."

Haru nodded, and sighed.  "There's just one thing we don't know."

"What?" Zuko asked.

"Who's backing it."

"Or any of these Dai Li messes that've cropped up in the last year or so." Zuko ran his hand through his hair. Well, I thought I was going to die during the war. Guess I didn't gain that much time by surviving after all.

"And nobody's seen their director since Ba Sing Se," Haru added with an annoyed snort.

"…And my sister is never going to confirm whether or not she killed him. Dammit," swore the Firelord.

"Of course not.  That would make it easy," said Haru.

"'Zactly."

The earthbender sighed, then paused.  "At least there's one thing saving that kid."

"Oh?" Zuko asked curiously.

Haru glanced at him.  "Do you think the Dai Li would have just had him lead you to a trap if they'd known he was an earthbender?"

Zuko was silent for a very long moment. "Oh."

The older man blinked.  "You didn't know?"

"Not 'til he used it defending me. And… it didn't really… I wasn't… man, I need to pay more attention."

"You were a little pre-occupied trying not to die," Haru pointed out kindly, though his face and voice clearly stated, yeah, you really do need to pay more attention.

And that's another problem, it shouldn't've taken so much of my attention, I should be better than that. "Mm."

Kouji rolled over and nestled closer to his dragon.  "Yui…"

Zuko watched him some more, but the twelve-year-old made no more outburst.

"Also," said Haru quietly, "the only people who know Kouji was compromised are those of us here, Yui, and the General."

"No need for anyone else to know it, then," mused the Firelord.

Haru nodded, and Zuko fell silent, watching the boy sleep.  At dawn, Haru woke Ichiro; by unspoken agreement, the three young men let Kouji sleep himself out.

 

The four of them managed to reach the capital relatively intact — or, at least, sustaining no further injuries.  Once there, Ichiro went to talk to his sister, Zuko fled to his study to catch up, and Haru took Kouji (and Qiang) to see the General.

"Welcome back, Kouji," was all Iroh said.

Just to hear those words, honestly spoken and truly meant, without any hint of censure at all, was enough to get Kouji in tears again — even if his only memories of the old man were scattered and hard to keep hold of.

"Kouji's having some memory issues," explained Haru.  "He hit his head."

Iroh nodded, and offered the boy a hug.  After a moment's hesitation, he moved into the offered embrace, and the tears spilled over.  The old man murmured soothing noises, stroking his hair.  In short order, Kouji had cried himself out and retreated a few steps, wiping his eyes.  "Th…thank you," he whispered.

"You're welcome."

Haru gave Iroh a questioning look over Kouji's head: His memory is spotty.  How are you going to debrief him?

Iroh shrugged one shoulder. One step at a time.

The older earthbender nodded.  I'll get him to his room, then.

Iroh nodded and released the boy.

"C'mon, kid," said Haru kindly.  "You remember where you room is?  No?  I'll take you there."

 

*          *          *

 

Zuko didn't manage to find his way outside to meet up with Song until the next afternoon — he'd worked at his desk until he passed out that first night, and woken up late and had to scramble to catch up as a result.

He had a feeling she wasn't going to be very happy with him.

Unsurprisingly, she was out by the turtleduck pond, kneeling in front of it and feeding some of the half-grown ones.

"Hello," he said, softly, coming up behind her.

"Hello," was the cool response.  She didn't turn, didn't look up, gave no indication other than by speaking that she was even aware of his presence.

Yep. She's mad at me.

"I'm back," he said, after an awkward silence.

"Are you?"

Very mad.

"Yeah. With Kouji." He wobbled a little. Dammit, should be more recovered than that.

Now some emotion entered her voice.  "How is he?"

"Really upset. And still has a lot of holes in his memory."

"His memory?"  Now she looked up at him, her concern for the boy overriding her anger at Zuko.  "Sit down.  What happened to his memory?"

He sat. "He fell and hit his head."

Song's eyes went wide.  "Oh, spirits…"

"He's recovering it in bits and pieces, though," Zuko assured her.

She nodded.  "That sounds normal.  Knocks on the head can be dangerously unpredictable."

"Right," he murmured.

Song very carefully avoided telling Zuko that the trauma could well have killed the boy. "I'm glad you found him," she said instead.

"Me, too," he said, fervently.

Song managed to keep Zuko there for a little over an hour, asking him about Kouji and the details of the trip.  Anger with her unofficial fiancé aside, he needed the rest and this was the best way to do it.

Zuko readily answered all her questions, completely unaware of her ulterior motive, and at the end of that hour, she reluctantly let him return back to work.  She would read him the riot act later.  He was a little nervous that it hadn't happened yet — the delay just made him dread it more.  When it finally arrived after dinner that night — and she had made certain he ate — the lecture was loud, long, and basically boiled down that, before he hared off after his brother-of-heart, he needed to get healed and tell somebody where he was going.

He had very little to say in his own defence, so he just listened and took his punishment.  When Song finally fell silent, she was glaring at him angrily and had tears in her eyes.

"Song…"  He hesitantly reached out for her.  She didn't respond, but she didn't knock his hand away, either.  "You're crying."

"That's because I was worried about you, you idiot!" she exclaimed, the tears spilling over now.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, brushing away her tears.

"I thought I'd lost you," was the quiet response.

He awkwardly hugged her, and she leaned into his embrace, openly weeping now.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again.

"Don't do it again," she ordered him roughly, her voice muffled because she'd buried her face in his shoulder.

"I won't run off without telling you," he promised.

"Good."

He wished he could promise that he wouldn't scare her like that again, but…

Too many people wanted him dead.

 

*          *          *

 

Most people in the palace seemed to have completely forgotten that Yì Suì lived there — something that suited him quite nicely. He spent most of his time hiding in his room, but would occasionally curl up in an unused corner of the library.

Now literate, he'd started dabbling in writing poetry — something he kept very, very secret, not even showing Song or Ursa his efforts.

Today he was in the library.

He'd been in there for three hours or so, and then Kouji wandered in, with Qiang trailing after him.  He didn't notice, having drifted off to sleep about twenty minutes before. 

 

Kouji stopped, staring hard at the boy in the chair.  I… know him, the younger boy thought.  But where from?  How?  What's his name?  These gaps in his memory were seriously annoying him.

As Kouji came close, the smaller boy twitched a little, whimpering faintly.

That was even more familiar.  The younger boy was positive he knew the white-clad boy now.

Scarcely had he come to this conclusion when, with a faint gasp, the other one jerked awake.

There!  A name!  Kouji tried to say it before it fled into the darkness of his hidden memories.  "Yì… Yì Suì?"

The smaller boy looked up. "K-kouji, y-you're back…"

"Yeah."  Kouji smiled at him, even though he couldn't remember when last he'd seen Yì Suì — or maybe the last meeting he remembered had been the last time?  He still couldn't remember how he'd got from the palace to the Sun Warriors.

"I'm g-glad…" Yì Suì's eyes then fell on the dragonling following him, and his eyes lit up.

Kouji noticed and grinned.  "Yì Suì, this is Qiang.  Qiang, c'mere and meet Yì Suì."

The dragon crooned and wandered over to nuzzle the smaller boy. Yì Suì actually smiled when he hesitantly reached out to pat her. Kouji laughed and settled down to watch boy and dragon interacting — Qiang seemed more than happy to play with the smaller human, and was uncommonly gentle with him.

"Oh, Yì Suì?" said Kouji after a few minutes.

"Y-yeah?" the smaller boy asked, looking up from the dragon.

"I just wanted to warn you… while I was away, I kinda hit my head."  He winced.  "For awhile, I didn't remember anything, and I'm still recovering.  So I might not… remember everything we've ever done."

An idea occurred to Kouji, and he rose to his feet.  "I have to go take care of something.  Would you mind if I left Qiang here?"

"N-no," Yì Suì replied, rather quickly. Qiang made a rather amused crooning noise, then a more thoughtful one.

"You're right,"  Kouji told her, and then left to find the General.  Hopefully the old man would only be amused by his request.

The General greeted him with a smile once Kouji was in his office. "Good afternoon."

"Afternoon," Kouji replied.  "Um.  You know those watchers you've got on me?"

"Yes, what about them?" Iroh, upon assigning the guards, had taken care to tell Kouji that they were there as much to protect him from being kidnapped and used against Zuko as they were there to prevent his being triggered again.

The boy blushed red; apparently the memory loss hadn't affected that part of him, anyway.  "I was wondering if I could…. get girls instead?"

The old man arched an eyebrow. "I assumed you'd prefer men."

"I do.  I mean, I did.  But…"

The General suddenly understood. "You want to spend time with Yì Suì, and are afraid your guards will upset him."

Kouji nodded vigorously.

"I'll make the arrangements," Iroh promised.

"Thank you, general," the boy said, bowing.

"You're welcome," he replied warmly.

Kouji grinned, then flitted back off to the library.  Yì Suì was right where he'd left him, scratching Qiang in the itchy place right behind her left ear.  "Hey," the twelve-year-old greeted them both.

"H-hello," Yì Suì replied, surprisingly cheerfully.

The younger boy considered this startling cheeriness, and got another idea.  "Hey, Yì Suì, could you do me a big favour?"

"Wh-what is it?" the smaller boy asked.

"I'm gonna have to start working again tomorrow," Kouji explained, "and I won't be able to give Qiang the kind of attention she needs.  Could you do it for me?"

"S-sure!"

"Thanks," said the younger, mentally dancing.  "I really appreciate it."

"W-welcome," Yì Suì said, with a bigger-than-usual shaky smile.

Sitting down again, Kouji began telling Yì Suì how to take care of the little dragon.  Yì Suì snatched one of his rejected verses and scribbled down the instructions on the back of the page.  "If you want," Kouji suggested afterwards, "I can leave you two to get further acquainted and come get her later."

"O-ok," Yì Suì said. "Wh-whatever y-you like…"

"Well, you do seem to get along."  And Kouji grinned at him.

Yì Suì smiled back, and Qiang crooned.

"There isn't a lot I can do about it," Kouji pointed out to her.  She sighed and flicked her tail at him, and he scratched her and slipped away.