Soldier's Boy
Six

After nearly a week, the group came across a poster board in the middle of the forest, proving a village was nearby.

"This should give us a good idea of what's around here," Katara said, examining it.

"See if you can find a menu," Sokka said. "I'm starving."

"I bet we'll find something to eat here!" Aang said, excitedly, jabbing his finger into a brightly-coloured poster. "The Fire Days Festival." He read from the poster. "Fire Nation cultural exhibits, jugglers, benders, magicians... This'll be a great place for me to study some real firebenders!"

"You might want to rethink that," Sokka said from the other side. "Look at this." A wanted poster, for Aang.

Jiro was the first person there.  His eyes scanned the posters, then he gasped and quickly ripped one off, hiding it behind his back.  Lee was the only one who noticed, the other three were too pre-occupied with Aang's poster. He didn't ask, though. Not yet.

"Hey, a poster of me!" Aang said brightly, clearly not quite grasping the concept.

"A wanted poster," Sokka reminded him. "This is bad."

"Very bad," Jiro said nervously.  His hands worked behind his back, crumpling the poster he'd taken into a tiny ball.

Katara nodded. "I think we'd better keep moving."

"I have to learn firebending at some point," Aang reminded them, "and this could be my only chance to watch masters up close."

"I guess we could go check it out," Katara said, reluctantly.

"What?" Lee and Sokka said at the same time. The Water Tribe warrior went on. "You want to walk into a Fire Nation town where they're all fired up with all their, y'know, fire?"

Lee's forehead met the poster board.

"We'll wear disguises," Katara decided. "And if it looks like trouble, we'll leave."

"I'm not going," Jiro said stubbornly.

"Me, neither," Lee said, rubbing his forehead. "You guys have fun."

The others tried to convince the two of them, to no avail. "Okay, fine," Aang finally said. "You two wait here with Appa. If we're not back by like four hours after sundown, we probably need rescue."

"I'll keep that in mind," Lee promised.

"When do you not need rescue?" Jiro wanted to know.

"Hey, our last two little adventures, none of us needed rescuing," Sokka pointed out.

"My point stands," said the younger boy, crossing his arms.  "Enjoy your side trip.  And watch out for fire flakes.  They're spicy."

"We will." The three of them headed off for the town.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Lee sighed. "I'm going to get shot again. Aren't I."

"No.  You're not."  Jiro sounded distracted.

"Jiro? What's wrong?" Lee asked, turning to him.

The ten-year-old was holding one of the wanted posters — clearly the one he'd ripped down — and examining it carefully.

Lee watched him silently for a moment. "Someone you know?" he finally asked.

The boy hesitated, then turned it around so Lee could see it.

Jiro's face looked out at him.

It took him a minute to note the differences. The face was older, and the eyes were golden. "...Ichiro?" he asked, quietly.

Jiro nodded.  "Has to be.  Both of us may look like our father, but Dad wears a goatee."

Lee studied it for another long moment. "We could look for him. It's probably not a good idea for you to wander around alone, but I could help you find him, then go back and wait for Aang and the others. If you want."

Jiro shook his head.  "No.  It's just a wanted poster.  They put these everywhere when a crime happens."  He sounded a little bitter.  "He probably isn't anywhere nearby."   Carefully folding the poster, he tucked it in his tunic and climbed up on Appa.

"All right, if you're sure." Lee sat cross-legged on the ground next to Appa and stared off at nothing.

Time passed, and then Appa suddenly rose to a standing position, nearly throwing Jiro flat on his face.  "Lee!" he called urgently, reaching down.  The bison was about to take off.  Lee grabbed his brother's hand and, with his help, scrambled up into the saddle just as the bison left the ground.

Appa flew unerringly to the colony town, homing in on an alley blocked off by a cart of fireworks.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, and an unfamiliar man were in front of the cart.

"Down here!" Aang shouted, and the bison moaned and dive-bombed the soldiers, scattering them. He hit the ground just long enough for the four of them to mount, then shot off into the air again before the soldiers could recover. The man pulled a small, round object from inside his cloak, pulled something out of it with his teeth, and tossed it into the firework cart. There was a small explosion, then a much, much larger one.

Predictably, Jiro clung to Lee and pushed his face into the older boy's chest, though he thankfully did not scream.

"Nice touch, setting off the fireworks," Aang said, when they were far enough away to be heard.

"You seem to really know your explosives," Sokka added.

Jiro knew why that had to be, and he clung tighter to Lee.

"I'm... familiar," he said, finally turning to face the others.

"You're a Fire Nation soldier!" Sokka said, though spirits only knew how he'd figured that out.

"Was," the man corrected. "My name's Chey."

"Um... hi...?"

Jiro refused to take his face from Lee's tunic, even when Appa landed and the others disembarked.  Lee didn't move, either, not wanting to disturb his brother.  They could hear Chey below, talking to Aang, Sokka, and Katara about Jeong-Jeong the Deserter; Lee couldn't help but notice that every time firebending was mentioned, Jiro flinched.

"It's okay," he whispered. "I won't let anyone hurt you. I promise."

Jiro nodded, then flinched again as Aang tried to convince Sokka that they needed to meet Jeong-Jeong.

When Katara took Aang's side, Lee sighed. "I think they're going to his camp. D'you wanna find someplace nearby to wait for them, have them pick us up on their way out?"

"Y-yeah," Jiro replied quietly.  "Might be for the best..."

Before the brothers could leave, however, the entire group was surrounded by men wielding spears.  Lee hissed and shifted so that Jiro was between him and the saddle, and drew his swords.

Jiro, however, looked up at last, his eyes wide — and then he froze, staring at one of the men.  No, not a man — a teenage boy.  A teenage boy with Jiro's face.  "Ichiro?"

The teenager looked up, and then his face broke into a grin.  "Kouji!"

Lee froze for a minute, then quietly stepped aside.

"What—?" Sokka started, only to be interrupted by the ten-year-old throwing himself off Appa and into the teenager's arms.

"Ichiro, you're all right!"

Ichiro grinned down at the younger boy.  "'Course I am.  And Yui is too."

The other armed men conferred for a bit, then hustled the rest of them down to their camp, the leader lecturing Chey — apparently, he'd been specifically told not to look for the Avatar.

Ichiro followed with Jiro — or was his name really Kouji? — one arm slung around the younger boy's shoulders.  Lee brought up the rear, trying to squelch his jealousy — particularly since he couldn't figure out whether he was jealous of Ichiro or Jiro.

Their path led them to a secluded lagoon. Chey went down to the hut on a small island just offshore, to talk to Jeong-Jeong.

While they waited, Ichiro whistled, and a girl dropped from the treeline.  Her eyes were amber, her face rounder, but she was still very clearly related to both Ichiro and Jiro.  "Kouji!" she cried gleefully, hugging the boy.  "It's great to see you again!"

Jiro laughed and pulled gently on her braid.  "You too, Yui.  You too."

Ichiro turned to the others.  "Thank you for looking after my brother," he said, bowing to them.

"Wait... but I thought Lee was his brother..." Aang said, confused.

"I'm not," the older boy said, curtly, just as Chey came back.

"What happened?" Aang asked. "Can I see Jeong-Jeong now?"

"He won't see you," the ex-soldier replied, slumping down to the ground in defeat. "He's very angry that I brought you here. He wants you to leave immediately."

"Already?"  Jiro looked dismayed, and who could blame him?  He was tied up with his real siblings.

Sokka, on the other hand, was only too happy to leave, but Aang wouldn't give it up.

"Why won't he see me?" he asked.

"He says you're not ready," Chey replied. "Says you haven't mastered waterbending and earthbending yet."

"Wait... how does he know that?" Aang asked.

"He saw the way you walked into camp," the man replied, some of his practically worshipful passion returning. "He can tell."

Aang's eyes narrowed. "I'm going in anyway," he declared, and stalked down to the hut to do so.

Lee, while everyone else was distracted, slipped off into the woods — though still within earshot — so he could be alone and sort out his thoughts before he had to interact with anyone again.

"It won't go well," Ichiro predicted.  "Master Jeong-Jeong is... stubborn."  He winced slightly and flexed his right hand, which was shrouded in a leather glove.

Katara was watching him and Jiro. She didn't respond to his comment — Aang would either work it out or not, though she had a sneaking suspicion he would — but instead asked, "How come you told us Lee was your brother, Jiro?"

"I never told you that," Jiro replied, looking over at her.  "Smellerbee was the first person to comment on it.  We just didn't correct her."

"Why not? How did you guys meet, then?"

Jiro's face closed off.  "...it's a long story."

"And one you probably ought to hear," Ichiro said, nodding to Yui.  The girl sat down next to Jiro and slipped her hand into his as the older teenager explained, "The first thing you have to understand is that all of us — me, Yui, and Kouji here — we're Fire Nation colonists."  To prove his point, he opened his left hand, and a small flame danced in his palm.

"Wait, what?" Sokka yelped. Katara just stared.

Ichiro blew on the flame, and it went out.  Then he explained further.

 

*           *           *

 

Ichiro alone of his siblings had been born in the Fire Nation, safely in the middle of the summer.  He'd been only three when they moved however, lured to the colonies by the promise of bonuses and potential propulsion up the social ladder.  He was five when his brother and sister had been born — quite fortunately for him, or his firebending might have been discovered.  It had only been an accident, quickly put out, but his parents had been fussing over the twins and missed the small flame.  Though he was a child, the young colonist had decided to keep his bending secret — one of his friends had turned out to be a firebender as well, and now Zeno was gone, taken back to the Fire Nation.  He did not want to leave.

He'd been eleven when he stumbled across his little brother playing with rocks — holding them above his hand and orbiting them.  After accidentally frightening Kouji, he convinced his little brother not to do it where he could be seen.  Ichiro was by then old enough to understand his parents' xenophobic attitudes and knew that their finding out that their youngest son would be bad in a variety of ways.

Even he, however, had not quite realised how deep the prejudice went.

Five years later, when he was sixteen, he led his sister Yui out to help her perfect a dance move in secret. She suddenly screamed in fright and pain, crossing her hands over her chest.  He didn't known what was wrong, not until she gasped out Kouji's name, at which point he ran for where his little brother normally practised his earthbending in secret.

Even Yui's reaction didn't prepare him for what he saw.

Kouji was curled on the ground, his clothes scorched, screaming and pleading for their father to stop.  Their father, on the other hand, was letting off blast after blast of fire at his youngest son, who was managing to barely roll out of the way.  "Dad, stop!" Kouji yelled, rolling to his feet.  "Please!"

"Earthbending scum!" the older man snapped, letting off another blast. This one Kouji was unable to avoid; hit stuck him hard in the chest.  His clothes lit on fire again, and he screamed.  It was too much for Ichiro.

"Kouji!"  He exploded from his cover, blocking the next blast of fire, and shoved his little brother into the river with all his might before turning to face their father.  The fight between father and son was long and brutal, and in the process Kouji was swept downstream.  Try as Ichiro might, he was unable to find his little brother — and then his arrest for assault cut his search short.

*           *           *

When Kouji woke up, he was in a rough, clearly quickly-constructed lean-to. His chest had been cleaned and bandaged, and he was lying in a nest of blankets, in slightly-too-large clothes. A boy about Ichiro's age was sitting cross-legged at the entrance to the lean-to, a pair of broadswords naked and crossed on his lap. It seemed he was asleep; his eyes were closed and his breathing even.

Startled, the wounded boy struggled to sit up and fell back against the blankets with a soft cry of pain.

The other boy's eyes opened a little too quickly for him to have been all the way asleep. "Stay down," he advised him quietly. "Are you hungry?"

Kouji watched him warily, but nodded.  Who was he?  Had he been the one to clean him up after—  It all came back to him in a rush.  The bending, his father's sudden appearance, the unexpected attack, Ichiro's intervention.  Tears began rolling down his face unbidden.

He paused in collecting the food. "Hey..." he said, and cautiously went over and put a hand on the child's shoulder. "Look, whoever hurt you, I won't let them get to you again, I promise. I hid this place really well, and I have my swords. It might not be okay, but at least you'll be safe. I promise."

Kouji didn't answer, but he nodded.  Why is he helping me? he wondered.

The older boy waited until Kouji had stopped crying before getting the food and helping him sit up to eat it. When he was done, he cleaned up. "I'll need to change the bandages soon. It'll probably hurt, I just want to warn you."

The boy nodded again.  His chest hurt anyway, though it was kind of a dull throb right now.

Sure enough, when the teenager changed the bandages, gentle as he tried to be, it did hurt. He spread something sweet-smelling that stung on the burns first, then wrapped them again. "I'll have to do the same every few hours for a while," he warned.

A third nod; Kouji had made no sound other than cries of pain since waking up.

The older boy didn't push him, didn't say much either. By the looks of things, he was running from something himself — he was rather ragged around the edges. He spent most of his time guarding the entrance to the lean-to, only leaving for a few hours each day to gather food.

Around the third day, Kouji unexpectedly spoke after his new caretaker finished changing his bandages.  "My name is Jiro."  He couldn't use his real name, it was better to use the fake one he used when he and Ichiro and Yui snuck out into the nearby Earth Kingdom villages.

"I'm called Lee," the older boy replied, with a slight, faintly bitter smile.

"...thanks for pulling me out," he said quietly.

"You'd already washed up on shore," Lee replied. "I just brought you here and cleaned you up."

"Still.  Thank you."  Kouji looked down at his hands.

"No problem."

*           *           *

"I've been with Lee ever since," Jiro — Kouji — finished explaining.

Sokka and Katara were speechless, just staring at the three siblings. Then Aang came pelting back. "He changed his mind! He's going to teach me! We're going to start tomorrow morning!"

Ichiro stared at Aang.  "How the hell did you do it?  I had to beg him for a week!"

"He did, too," Yui giggled.  "Hands and knees."

"I don't know, first he was yelling at me and calling me undisciplined and weak, and then he just abruptly said he'd teach me!"

Ichiro and Yui exchanged a glance.  "That doesn't sound like him," Ichiro commented.  "Guess I better go find out what my homework is while he's working with you."  He climbed to his feet, stretched like a cat-owl, and headed down to Jeong-Jeong's dwelling himself.

 

The next morning, the Avatar's group — minus Lee, he'd left before any of the others woke up that morning, telling them he was finding an empty clearing to practice with his swords in — gathered by the lagoon, so Aang could have his first lesson and Katara could practice. Sokka decided to fish, instead.

Ichiro had wandered off on his own to do his own practice — well away from Jiro/Kouji that the younger boy wouldn't see.  The twins sat near Sokka, the male half of the pair somewhat apprehensive until Yui assured him that there was no possible chance Jeong-Jeong would allow Aang to so much as look at fire this early in the game.

Sure enough, much to Aang's obvious disappointment — he wouldn't stop complaining about it and begging for more — Yui was right.  The twins spent a lot of time catching up, and after a while Ichiro returned to plop down next to Sokka.

"Anything biting?" he drawled.

"No," he said, somewhat morosely.

"They get like that sometimes.  S'why I don't fish anymore.  Pisses me off."

Sokka shrugged. "Eh, it's something to do. Plus, we should stock up on supplies before we leave, no idea when we'll be able to stop and make some money."

"The life of the traveller."  Ichiro commented.  "Is Kouji eating all your money?"

"That, and we keep having to get Lee new shirts.  Most of his're so badly torn up Katara can't even fix them."

Ichiro laughed.  "Yeah, Kouji did say he had a tendency to get hurt."

"We've only had one mini-sidequest-adventure thing so far since meeting him where he hasn't," Sokka said, laughing a little, too.

"Must drive you lot crazy, huh?"

"Mostly Katara. She thinks he's too reckless."

"She's probably right."  Ichiro looked completely serious.  "It can run in the blood."

"I dunno," Sokka said, thoughtfully. "I mean, he only got hurt 'cause he was too reckless once. Okay, twice. Well, I guess the second time he got shot counts, too. Three times. The rest weren't 'cause he was reckless, he just got very unlucky. Repeatedly."

"It happens."  Ichiro fell silent for a moment, then lowered his voice.  "How is he?  Kouji, I mean."

"As far as I know, he's doing okay," the young teenager replied, lowering his voice accordingly. "Lee or Aang might know better, he's spent more time with them than with me."

Ichiro shuddered.  "Far be it from me to interrupt when Master Jeong-Jeong has a new student to torture."

"Well, you could ask Lee. Where is he, anyway?"

"Snuck off with his swords," Yui volunteered without warning, looking up at them.  "I followed, but he sent me back.  Said he wanted to be alone."

"Oh. Okay, then. Maybe later tonight, when he comes back, you could try talking to him?"

"Sounds like a plan," Ichiro, rolling off the boulder and landing on his feet.

Sokka sighed, and went back to fishing.

---

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