While the Avatar's friends regrouped and made new plans, Kouji remained on the outer edges of the Water Tribe camp, as far from the main group as the adults would allow him to go. He'd tried only this morning to head out on his own and go… well, he'd have thought of somewhere, but the warrior in charge, a man named Hakoda, had caught him and brought him back, lecturing him about the increased danger the whole way.

Mercifully, it seemed that the Avatar's friends had kept his colonist origins quiet — or maybe they thought he'd turned on Zuko. Kouji flinched and curled up tighter, staring out at the water. Trying to avoid thoughts of what he'd witnessed, he deliberately wondered if Ichiro had enlisted yet. His elder brother was more farmer than soldier, but a damn good fighter nonetheless. And what would Yui do once both her brothers were gone? How far away would she run?

Abruptly the boy stood, grabbing a rock and hurling it across the water. He kept his grey eyes and his focus locked on it, bouncing his hand up every time the stone touched liquid. He managed thirty-four skips before the rock went out of range.

"I think that's considered cheating."

Startled, Kouji whirled and craned his head up to stare at the tallest man in the Water Tribe group. Grinning at him, the man added, "Come on, dinner's ready."

"I'm not hungry," the boy said sullenly; on cue, his stomach growled.

The man laughed. "Of course you're not. Your stomach seems to be, however. Let's go feed it. You can go back to being shy and antisocial later."

Kouji scowled, but he followed the giant man to the fires.

Katara, thankfully, had already eaten and gone back to Aang, so he didn't have to deal with her just then. Toph gave him a very stern look that clearly said if he didn't eat enough to satisfy her, she would force-feed him.

The boy quailed at that look; once the food was given to him, he ate it all without complaint — though the men did laugh at the expression on his face. "Not used to Water Tribe tastes, lad?" teased one of them.

Kouji flushed and looked about for a place to clean his dishes.

"I'll show you," Sokka said. Unlike his sister, once the initial rush of antagonism had passed, he accepted the fact that Toph had adopted Kouji and they were stuck with him.

"Thank you," the boy murmured, glancing up at him.

…was it just him, or were those blue eyes closer to his own than they had been when wrestling over the Avatar's staff last winter?

"Whatever." Sokka led him across the campsite to the cleanup station.

Kouji flinched, but washed his bowl and set it to dry with the rest before wandering as far from the camp as he was permitted. He didn't like being near the Water Tribesmen or the Avatar's friends; it reminded him too much of what he'd lost last night.

What will they do with me? he wondered. Toph had fought with both Sokka and Katara over him until Chief Hakoda had put his foot down and declared that Kouji was a child and would remain with them.

His thoughts were broken off by Toph wandering over, grabbing his hand, and dragged him a little further from camp. "Show me what you can do."

"Wh-what?" Kouji stammered, his face going bright red.

Toph hit him. "Show me what you can do, or I'll start throwing things."

"Ow!" He rubbed his arm. "I-is that o-okay? I m-mean…" Nervously, he glanced back at the camp.

"Hakoda said I could. But what does it matter? I'd be doing this anyway."

"I'm Fire Nation," Kouji said simply. She had to know it by now.

"So?" She arched an eyebrow and folded her arms at him. "You're a half-trained earthbender and I dragged you out here."

Kouji decided that he had better do as directed, before she hit him again. Heart pounding in his chest, he started to go through the katas Ichiro had taught him years ago, preparing to go into the ones he'd developed on his own since then.

She hit him again. "Wrong," she snapped.

"Ow! Wh-what'd I do?"

"You're standing all wrong. Stupid."

Kouji blinked and looked at his feet, then looked at her, confused and a little wounded by the insult.

She heaved an irritated sigh, and shoved his feet into a different position. "Like that."

"It feels weird," Kouji complained. "How am I supposed to dodge from this position?"

She hit him a third time. "You don't dodge. You block. Duh."

"Ow!" Blocking? Ichiro had never taught him anything like that — nor had Iroh ever covered it with Z—

Kouji cut off that thought before he spiralled down into a dark place he didn't want to revisit.

She hit him yet again. "Stop thinking. You think too much, Sunshine. You block. You don't dodge. You have to think like an earthbender, not whatever the hell it is you were standing like before."

"A firebender," he said softly. "I was standing like a firebender."

"Whatever. It's wrong. And now you're moving back to it stop." She hit him again.

"Ow!" He tried to keep his feet in the stance she'd pushed him into.

This continued for several hours, with Toph hitting or throwing rocks at his feet every time he shifted back into a firebender stance. Finally, frustrated, she sent him off to sleep. "We'll pick this up tomorrow. And keep going every day until we have to stop for whatever reason."

Exhausted, the boy stumbled off for the softest patch of earth he could find, but instead came across the Earth King's bear. With a shrug, he curled up next to it and was asleep in seconds.

* * *

When he woke the next morning, the bear was gone, a blanket had been draped over him, and two men were talking in low voices.

Hakoda and the giant Bato.

"We can't exactly drop him off at the nearest village," Bato was saying quietly. "Even if somehow he's not a renegade, you heard what Sokka said. He's close to the Fire Prince."

Kouji's blood ran cold. Was this why they'd kept him?

"We're not using him for bait." Hakoda's voice was weary; it sounded as though he'd already had this conversation. "And I refuse to believe a child that young can be a renegade. He can't be more than ten."

"How do you explain him, then?" Bato wanted to know. There was no hostility to his voice; Kouji could almost think he was merely providing a voice for Hakoda's inner thoughts. He'd already observed that the two men were extremely close, almost like him and…

He put that thought away. He didn't want to think about it.

"It isn't inconceivable," Hakoda replied. "Perhaps his family was killed when he was young and a soldier took him in."

"Because the Fire Nation is so kind and understanding," was the dry remark.

"Stranger things have happened. The Fire Nation army is comprised of people, when you get right down to it."

Kouji let out a small sigh. "Actually," he said softly, opening his eyes to see the two men giving him startled looks, "it's a bit simpler than that. I'm Fire Nation." If they didn't already know, surely one of the Avatar's friends would have done so sooner or later. It never occurred to Kouji that they had had no reason to believe he wasn't a renegade bender.

Before Hakoda or Bato could respond, loud, indistinct shouting erupted from the other side of the camp.

Hakoda sighed, and Bato chuckled. "Katara's awake," the tall man told his friend, then glanced at Kouji. "Come with me, boy. It's time you earned your keep." With a quiet nod, Kouji got up and paced after Bato. They passed by the shouting — Toph was the other side — and Bato casually moved so that his lanky form hid the small colonist.

The shouting continued for about ten more minutes, then abruptly ended.

By then, Bato had already convinced Kouji to bathe by pushing him into the water, and was now showing the boy how to fish with nets. While they worked, he questioned the boy; Kouji was remarkably free of speech in some areas but fairly quiet in others; annoyingly, it was things they already knew with which he was free. When asked about his family, the boy simply shook his head and refused to talk. Finally, Bato gave up, and when they'd caught enough fish for breakfast, he returned with Kouji to show him how to clean his catch — and was surprised when the boy proved to be already familiar with it.

"You'd be amazed at what you learn on the run from everybody," was Kouji's wry remark.

Toph chose then to grab his collar and drag him away for her time with him.

They both ended that session frustrated; no matter what she did, Kouji's feet crept back to the firebender positioning — though he was getting better at standing his ground and blocking incoming attacks.

"We'll try again tomorrow. Do I have to force you, or are you going to behave and eat?"

"If you don't force me, I think Bato will," Kouji replied. "I'll behave."

"Good," she said, then stalked off, still clearly upset that he just wasn't getting it.

Kouji watched her go, and privately resolved to work on his stance even more. Without her, he'd still be in Ba Sing Se, in Azula's hands… or dead.

He shuddered, and joined the camp at Bato's call. During dinner, he retreated to the shadows to avoid Katara resolutely ignoring him and Hakoda watching him with unreadable blue eyes.

The next day fell into the same pattern, without the overheard and half-overheard conversations. He was grateful for that much, at least; some regulation in his life might be the only thing keeping him from falling apart.

But he still couldn't get the proper stances.

No matter how much Toph hit him. And she did hit him. So many bruises.

"People will think I was abused when the chief figures out what to do with me," Kouji complained to Bato, who merely gave him a strange look and said nothing.

Toph, having heard about this complaint, gave him an equally strange look and told him it was the best way for him to learn.

Then she hit him twice as hard.

"Ow! I'm not an ostrich-horse!"

"No, you're a mistaught earthbender," she corrected calmly. "You're standing wrong again."

Rage spiked in Kouji at the word mistaught, but he bit it back. He owed the older girl his life, and she was teaching him despite everything she knew about him. He didn't want to lose this.

And he was technically mistaught — for his specific discipline. If he was a firebender, his teaching would have been fabulous. But as an earthbender…

Ichiro did the best he could. But he couldn't exactly go over to the next village and get me a teacher. Who would teach a Fire Nation brat earthbending? So he had to do it for me… Kouji closed his eyes, and shifted back to the right stance.

Therefore he did not see a bola entrap a seemingly innocuous sparrowkeet — but one he would have recognised had he seen it.

A half-hour later, Toph called it quits and sent him off for food, with her usual threat of force-feeding if he didn't eat enough to satisfy her on his own.

As he approached, Bato and Hakoda cut off their conversation to look at him, but this was something he was used to — if rapidly tiring of. Kouji took his share of dinner and wandered away so the two men could finish their conversation.

As usual, no one bothered him there. Toph was pretty much the only person who talked to him — though Sokka might, if he was in a good mood and had nothing better to do, at least exchange a greeting. The greetings encouraged Kouji, and he would readily return them — though a harsh glance or word from anyone often sent him scampering.

"It's a curious thing," he overheard one of the men remark once when they thought he was sleeping. "He hasn't tried to leave since that first night, and hasn't acted particularly homesick. How long did the prince have him?"

"He won't say," was Bato's remark. "He won't speak of it, and I for one don't want to press him." As Kouji drifted off, he thought he heard an additional remark about his being fragile, which was patently ridiculous. Earthbenders weren't fragile…

Certainly Toph seemed to think he was practically indestructible, and his arm bore the marks to prove that.

The next morning, Bato took him fishing again, while Hakoda had a quiet conversation with Toph.

When she found him that afternoon, after the usual beatdown, she asked him how he'd met Zuko. "I mean, I only actually saw him once, in that ghost town ages ago, and that was only for like a minute. So I don't really get what all the fuss is about."

Kouji hesitated, then sighed. "His ship made port in our colony to resupply," he told her. "He never actually left the ship — it was Un— the general that I met first. Yui, Ichiro, and I, we'd all snuck down to see the ship. Ichi-ni got bored and went back to practise, but Yui and I kept watching the loading. I told her I could do better, and… the general overheard."

"So it was an accident. Huh. Funny how life works like that sometimes. Wonder what would've happened to me if they hadn't wandered into Gaoling," Toph mused, then shook her head. "Anyway, we're done. Go eat. Do I have to force you?"

"Have you had to yet?" was the retort.

She folded her arms and arched an eyebrow.

Kouji fled.

He noticed the next day that some of the men were giving him strange looks. He didn't think anything of it, until Hakoda took him aside and asked about his education. Confused, Kouji replied, "I've been in school since I was four, like everyone. On the ship, the men taught me in the evenings, and I went to school in Ba Sing Se as well…"

With a slight frown, Hakoda asked one of the men to test him. By the time the tests were done, the frown was even deeper, and Kouji was worried. But Hakoda simply dismissed him to eat and then go to Toph.

Toph couldn't — or wouldn't — provide any answers as to why this information worried Hakoda so, so Kouji didn't ask. He did seem to be finally making some progress with regards to his stance, which cheered him considerably. After she dismissed him for food, he didn't object when Bato casually asked him to take a look at their supplies and calculate how much more they could carry.

He noticed Sokka seemed to be hanging around in the same area, but the older boy didn't bother him or say anything, so it was probably just coincidence. It didn't take long for this to lose him, just like the same problem had lost him months before, and without thinking he asked for paper and a brush. There was a shine in his eyes Sokka had never seen before, a delighted expression that was a far cry from the shy smiles and wary glances Kouji wore so often these days.

Sokka pointed him to where such supplies were kept, without saying anything.

Clearly he wouldn't be able to use Sokka's back as a tablet. No matter, that was what he had legs for. Kouji darted about the hold, figuring out what the Water Tribesmen normally carried and in what volumes, then did the necessary calculations. Then, just because he could, he also calculated how much more they would be able to carry if certain things were stowed this way and others that way, and liked the result. He brought it to the older boy.

Sokka looked through it, twice. "This… actually makes a lot of sense."

"Of course it does," Kouji said, his tone somewhat exasperated. "It's math. Math always makes sense."

"Uh-huh," Sokka said, after giving him a strange look.

"…what?" Kouji asked, confused.

"Nothing. You done here?"

"Yeah," the boy replied.

"All right, then. Toph's probably looking for you," the teenager said.

A look of mingled fear and respect crossed Kouji's face, and he ran out of the ship too look for his teacher.

As usual, she greeted him by hitting.

The usual complaint, and they started working on his bending once more.

Kouji had been with the Water Tribe for nearly a week. Amazingly, he had had no contact with Katara at all, which relieved the boy. For all he'd shamelessly stolen her preferred technique, she terrified him almost as much as Princess Azula did.

After that week, the camp mysteriously emptied for most of a day, all of the boats heading out. Toph was left behind to babysit Kouji.

Confused, he asked her what was going on. "The others went off to play pirate," she answered absently. "You're doing it again." She kicked him. Sighing, he returned to the katas she was teaching him, hoping he would get a chance to work on his sand whip a little when she was done.

Late that evening, the others returned, along with a captured warship.

Kouji's eyes went wide when he saw it, and he would have fled for cover if he hadn’t spotted Hakoda at the prow of the metal beast. "Sozin's balls," he whispered, using his brother's favourite epithet.

"Like I said," Toph told him. "Playing pirate. We're leaving in the morning. You're coming. You don't have a choice, so don't even try to argue."

Kouji paled. "Um. This isn't arguing. But. Um. I don't handle sea travel well…"

"You get seasick? Well, you'll stop throwing up after a couple days. And if you don't, Sweetness can make sure you stay hydrated." She seemed remarkably unconcerned by this. "If I have to force her to," she concluded, under her breath.

The rest of the colour drained from his face. "Th-th-that won't b-b-be necessary…"

Toph folded her arms and arched her eyebrow. "If it is, I'll handle it, Sunshine. Like I will forcefeed you if you don't start eating again when your stomach settles. And I'll know whether or not you're stalling."

That comment distracted him. "How?" he asked. "You always seem to know stuff. How do you do it?"

"Same way I see," she said. "Vibrations. It'll be harder on that floating metal box, but I'll still be able to do it."

That made sense. "I've… kinda learned to see like you do," he offered, a little shyly. "I'm not as good as you are, but nobody can sneak up on me now."

"Good. And if you stood right, you'd be even better. Go eat and sleep. Do I have to force you?"

He shook his head and slipped off. At dinner, Hakoda quietly confirmed what Toph had told Kouji before — the boy would be coming with them. The next morning, the boat was quickly loaded — implementing a few of Kouji's suggestions from the exercise Bato had had him do — and they set off.

Like so many months before, Kouji was sick for three days, but by the fourth day he was keeping food down again and by the sixth it was as though he'd never been ill — save for when the seas got too rough.

But this brought back too many memories, and when he was in the hold checking on the supplies, all the emotions he'd been suppressing since Ba Sing Se came over him in a rush. Unbidden, tears began to pour down his face, and a strangled sob burst from his throat. Quickly, he found a corner to squeeze into, behind some barrels, and curled up to sob for what he'd lost.

Strong arms slipped underneath him, lifting him from his hiding spot and bringing him close to a hard, warm chest. Bato's voice spoke, saying soothing things that Kouji couldn't quite grasp. It was the tone and the grip he responded to, clinging to the Water Tribesman like a child and crying his heart out.

Slowly, Kouji calmed, and drifted off to sleep in Bato's arms. The big warrior looked down on him pityingly, then carried him to one of the rooms and settled him down. The boy was a strange mix of man and child, and Bato wondered just how that had happened.

Current Location: my bed
Current Mood: cold
Tags: sf gaangline, small flame

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