Soldier's Boy
Seven

After awhile, Kouji — he'd stopped going by the false name within an hour of his awakening that morning, now that everything had been explained — slipped away from the camp, looking for Lee.  The older boy was not readily found — it seemed he'd meant it when he told Yui he wanted to be alone, and moved to a different clearing, a little farther away.

Kouji kept going, however.  He needed to talk to him.  It took him nearly a half-hour, but he finally found the older boy in a clearing far from the lagoon, practically swirling with his swords.

The younger boy sat down and watched the teenager he'd acted for months as a younger brother to, unwilling to speak and disrupt Lee's concentration.  After a minute, Lee paused. "What's up?"

"I thought maybe we should talk," Kouji replied quietly.

The older boy shrugged. "If you like."

"Did you... hear... anything last night?  I saw you slip away..."

"I heard Sokka and Katara talking about it later. I know the story."

Kouji nodded.  "I felt you, of all people, ought to know."

He shrugged again, and said nothing.

"Also, Ichi-ni, Yui, and I had a talk."

Lee said nothing, but he didn't turn further away and he didn't pick up his swords again, so he was still listening.

"Ichi-ni needs to stay with Master Jeong-Jeong.  But me staying would be a bad idea in every respect."

Again, silence. Lee's knuckles went white on his swords, he was gripping them so tightly.  Kouji noticed.  "Lee...?" he asked, his voice somewhat apprehensive.

"Whatever choice you make is fine with me," the older boy said, a little roughly.

"Then you don't mind if I stay with you?"

He shook his head.  Kouji grinned.  "Great!"

Lee visibly relaxed. "If you're going to leave with us, you should go back and spend more time with your brother and sister."

Kouji nodded, then ran to the older boy and hugged him before darting off into the undergrowth.  He was sprinting along the beach when everything went suddenly, horribly wrong — fire flared, hitting the ground just in front of his feet.

Kouji screamed.

And then, for some reason, Lee was between him and the fire, and pushing it away. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

"Well, well, well," said a cold voice.  "Who would have thought I would run into the two of you out here."  It was Admiral Zhao.

Lee snarled, and drew his swords, staying between the Admiral and Kouji, forcing what he'd just done — oh shit someone might've seen — way into the back of his mind, he could deal with that later, for now he just needed to keep that man away from his surrogate brother, but he couldn't attack him and leave Kouji unprotected — I can't control this, I'm going to lose it all again no no no no no.

"You two cost me the Avatar," Zhao went on, his brown eyes narrowing as Kouji whimpered on the ground behind Lee.  "Now I'm going to exact his worth from your hides."

Lee didn't say anything, just backed a little closer to Kouji, trying not to panic. There is a very good chance I'll die here, on this riverbank. It wasn't the thought of dying, or even dying now, that hurt. It was dying here...

With a yell, Zhao punched forward, sending a blast of fire at the swordsman.

He took most of it, trying and failing to shove it back at the admiral. About a third of it got reversed.  Zhao's eyes narrowed, but he easily deflected the blast.  "So,  a traitor as well?  You ought to be ashamed of yourself, boy."

Lee didn't waste breath responding, it was hard enough to control the pain and keep from screaming. He just stayed in front of Kouji, ready for whatever Zhao threw at him next. If I have to die here, at least let me last long enough for someone to get Kouji out.

Zhao threw another blast of fire, the strongest yet — and blue fire cut across it, shielding both Lee and Kouji.

Lee turned diagonal, not yet sure whether or not the blue fire came from someone who simply disliked Zhao too much to take anyone out, or an actual ally.

It was Ichiro.

"Get him out of here!" he yelled at Lee, his eyes staying on the Admiral.  "And warn the master!"

Lee nodded, stumbled back to Kouji, shoving his swords away. He picked the boy up and ran for Appa, shouting a garbled warning to the first man in Jeong-Jeong's colours he saw. He put Kouji in the saddle, paused for a few seconds to catch his breath, then turned to walk away.

"...Lee...?"

He paused, but didn't turn back. "It's okay. Aang and the others will keep you safe."

"Lee...," Kouji repeated, uncurling slowly and watching him.

He swayed a little, shook his head to clear it, and, very quietly, repeated, "You'll be safe with them. And they won't want me anymore. Good luck." He waved a little, then stumbled a little further away.

Something exploded against his back — Kouji.  Clinging tightly to him.

He flinched a little. "No — Jiro — you need to stay with them."

"Don't leave me...?"  The request was plaintive and heartbreaking.

Lee flinched again, for an entirely different reason this time. "It's safest for you if I do."

The boy shook his head.

Lee turned, to try and explain better, make him understand. "I can't stay. And you can't come with me, Jiro. You need to stay with them. And I need to go."

"Why?" Kouji whispered, looking up into his eyes.

"Because you won't be safe with just me to protect you," the teenager admitted, a little bitterly. "And they won't want me here anymore."

"How do you know?"

Lee hesitated. He wasn't sure how much Kouji had seen, while he'd been defending him from Zhao. And if he hadn't seen it, and he admitted it now, it might scare him.

"Is it... because of the f-fire?"  And while Kouji stammered the word, he didn't so much as loosen his grip.

He nodded, after a moment. "And I'm not very good at it, or they'd keep me around to teach Aang."

"Jeong-Jeong and Ichi-ni are firebenders," Kouji pointed out.

"And they know enough to be useful," Lee shot back. "I don't.  And you know Sokka, he'll flip out and say I'm a spy, and then it'll just get messy if Aang or Katara decides to defend me even though I spent the last couple months lying to them about something like this. And I don't want to have to fight them. Or have them fight because of me. So I have to leave."

"If you're a spy, then I'm a spy too," Kouji said stubbornly.  "Or did you forget I'm Fire Nation too?"  But there were tears in his eyes.

"Yeah, but you're an earthbender."

"Doesn't matter," Kouji replied.  "Still Fire Nation."  A hint of pain flashed across his face.  "Even if they don't think so.  Even if I don't want to be."

He flinched again. "Matters to Sokka and the others."

"Won't," the boy argued.  "They like Ichi-ni and Jeong-Jeong."

"Because they're useful, they know enough to teach Aang," Lee insisted, a little desperate. "Go back to Appa."

"Not without you.  It's both of us or neither."

"I—"

Before Lee could finish his latest argument, Aang, Sokka, and Katara got back. "Oh, good, you're here already," Katara said. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Kouji gave the older teen a see-I-told-you look.

Lee just looked down, but he followed the others up onto the bison.

"What about Ichi-ni and the rest of Jeong-Jeong's men?" Kouji asked.

"They all disappeared," Aang reported. "Probably finding a new place to hide, since Zhao found this one."

Kouji sighed in relief and curled against Lee's leg.  "Good..."

The Avatar nodded. "And I tricked Zhao into destroying all his ships, so he'll be stuck there for a while. Or at least really slowed down."

"Even better," Kouji spat.  "Zhao is— is— is—" He tried to find a suitable epithet.

No one supplied one, but they all knew what he meant.

Katara frowned at Aang's arm. "You're burned," she said.

He looked down at it with some surprise, and she went on. "Let me help you." She drew water from the pouch at her waist, wrapped it around her hand, took a deep, slow breath, and pressed it to Aang's arm. When the water dripped away, the burn was completely gone.

"Wow. That's good water," Aang said, grinning.

"How did you do that?" Kouji asked, wide-eyed.

"Yeah, when'd you learn how to do that?" Sokka asked, hard on his heels.

She shrugged, and answered their questions in order. "I'm not sure. But I guess I always knew."

Predictably, Sokka got all in a snit about this. "Oh, well, then thanks for all the first aid over the years. Like, when I fell into the greasebriar bramble. And that time I had two fish hooks in my in my thumb!"

"Shut up, Sokka," Kouji suggested.  "Katara?  Could you look at Lee?"

"No. Thank you," Lee said, before she could answer. "I don't want healing right now."

Kouji turned to him, dismayed.  "But Lee, Zhao burned you!"

"I know. I was there."

"But—"

"I did something wrong," he said, quietly. "I have to face the consequences."

Kouji's face clearly radiated his confusion.

"So no healing," Lee said, firmly. "Maybe in a couple days. If I still need it."

"Lee..."

"I mean it," he said. And he wouldn't be dissuaded.  Sighing, Kouji gave up and turned to the gang.  "Um.  You can go ahead and call me Kouji now," he suggested.  "Since that really is my name..."

"All right, Kouji," Katara said, still gazing in slightly-annoyed bewilderment at Lee. "If that's what you want."

The boy nodded, drawing his knees to his chest.  "I... I'm sorry I lied to you.  About my name, and by omission..."

"Don't worry about it," Sokka said. "I mean, it's not like you didn't have good reasons for that."

"I still should have told you I was Fire Nation.  Weird as it is..."

"We probably wouldn't've believed you," Katara said quietly. "We saw you earthbend right away, remember?"

The boy nodded after a moment.

The rest of the group fell silent as well, Katara internally debating the wisdom of waiting until Lee fell asleep and then healing him whether he wanted it or not, Aang focusing on steering, and Sokka sharpening his boomerang.

"...so where are we going now?" Kouji asked at last.

"North Pole. Like we have been for the last few months," Aang said, grinning. "Not sure how direct it'll be."

"What is this concept you speak of, 'direct'?  I'm not sure I’m familiar with it," was the retort.

Aang laughed. "I guess we do take a lot of side trips...but what's the point of travelling the world if you don't actually get to see it?"

The younger boy laughed too.  "Yeah, guess you're right."

"But, yeah. North Pole, and whatever's worth stopping for along the way."

"Sounds like a plan."

 

And so, they kept heading north. After three days, Lee finally let Katara heal him, much to Kouji's relief.  Even though the others by now knew the two weren't brothers, Kouji seemed perfectly content to continue to act as one.  Lee seemed willing to continue in that role, as well. He consistently evaded the others' renewed attempts to figure out where he'd been before finding Kouji on that riverbank, and Kouji was more than willing to help deflect the questions.  He also never told the others that Lee had used firebending to keep Zhao from hurting him, knowing the older teenager wanted it to be kept secret.

It was nearly a week before the others finally decided to stop asking. They were perhaps aided in this by a distraction that came from Aang's decision (supported so vehemently by Katara that no one dared voice a serious objection) to share another group of travellers' fire. One of those travellers told a story of flying people.

It was hard to say who listened more intently: Aang, or the rechristened Kouji.  For all Kouji was an earthbender, he loved to fly.  When Aang found out that these flying men had been seen only a week ago, a stop by the Northern Air Temple was no longer up for debate.

Not that anyone really wanted to argue.

When the temple came into view, sure enough, there were dots that were unmistakeably flying people.

Or so they thought.

Aang's initial excitement crashed very quickly as they got closer. "They're gliding, maybe, but not flying. You can tell by the way they move. They're not airbending. Those people have no spirit."

On cue, one of the people in the gliders buzzed* Appa, flying close enough overhead to make everyone in the saddle duck.  His laughter drifted back to them.

"No spirit, hmm?" Lee said, dryly.

"Yeah, Aang," Katara said, smiling. "That kid seemed pretty spirited."

For answer, Aang just smirked a little, spun out his glider, and shot off to race with the other kid.  While they soared off ahead, others drew near to look at the bison.  One got a little too close, startling the bison.  His reaction threw Katara back into Sokka and nearly pitched Kouji over the saddle's edge.

Lee quickly caught his "brother," and Sokka suggested they find solid ground before it found them.

"Sounds like a plan," the shaken Kouji agreed, clinging to Lee.  Sokka steered them down to a wide open space, and they watched the rest of the contest from the ground.

"Go Teo!" yelled one of the kids.

"Show that bald kid how it's done!" agreed another.

"If only they knew," Kouji murmured, but 'Teo' seemed to be holding his own.  The boy blinked, then looked from Teo's glider to the others.  Wait a minute...

Lee seemed to notice the difference, too, though he didn't make any comment. Eventually, Aang broke out more serious airbending, performing stunts that were literally impossible for the other boy.

"Think he's trying to make a point?" Kouji asked Lee.

"Probably," the older boy said, watching as 'Teo' retaliated by sketching out a very sullen-looking Aang in the sky with some kind of smoke.

Kouji joined the other kids in cheering and laughing.  It was a good move, one the boy could definitely appreciate.  Not long after, the two fliers came in for a landing.  Aang landed lightly, but his counterpart hit the ground rolling and then screeched to a halt.  Now they could truly see the modifications made to his glider — or rather, made to the chair he sat in.  The glider portion of it was detachable.

Once he was clear of it, the boy pushed up a pair of goggles and wheeled his chair over to them.  "Hey," he said when he got close, "You're a real airbender!  You must be the Avatar!"  His already-broad grin grew even more, threatening to split his face in two.  "That's amazing!  I-I've heard stories about you!"

"Thanks," Aang said, looking flattered.

"Wow!" Sokka said, nearly as excited as this boy was. "This glider chair is incredible!"

"You think this is good," Teo replied, a laugh in his voice, "wait until you see the other stuff my dad designed."  He led the way into the temple.  The five travellers followed, Lee bringing up the rear. Sokka was highly impressed with all of the modifications made to the temple.

Aang... was not.

Oblivious to Aang's reaction — or maybe the boy simply hadn't noticed in his enthusiasm, he certainly had more than enough to go around — Teo explained how they used hot air to make everything work.

"This place is unbelievable," the Avatar said, staring around.

"Yeah," Teo said.  "It's great, isn't it?"

"No," he replied. "Just unbelievable."

"Aang used to come here a long time ago," Katara explained, as the Avatar wandered off to get a little closer look. "I think he's a little shocked it's so... different."

"So better," Sokka added.

Kouji kicked him.

Sokka glared at him, as Aang continued to find the changes to the temple more and more disturbing — pipes poking through a mural that was supposed to represent the history of his people, a fountain's water turned green and nearly opaque, black smoke pouring out of a statue's mouth, and more and more.

Teo continued the tour, but even his enthusiasm seemed to be waning in the face of Aang's sheer shock.  Katara suggested that they find a part of the temple that hadn't been "improved," to help Aang reorient himself a little better.

The chair-bound boy agreed readily, and led them on.

Aang was clearly relieved to find a small building that had been untouched. "It's nice to see at least one part of the temple that isn't ruined."

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