Kouji was having more and more trouble sleeping the closer they got to the Fire Nation.  He did his best to conceal this from Zuko, as the prince had enough on his plate to deal with already.  He didn't need to worry about the colonist's fears on top of everything else.  In addition to this, Mai wanted to spend more time with Zuko; rather than show his jealousy of this, the boy simply backed off to give the noblewoman space — and then would go sulk in the hold.

Given the fact that he and the prince were still sharing a room, and Zuko, as always, had even poorer sleeping habits, this was something of a lost cause.  However, rather than share his worries with the prince, Kouji just took to shrugging it off and blamed the boat.  It was hard to tell how much of this Zuko believed. He was almost as withdrawn as he had been the last few days in Ba Sing Se, save for a few isolated moments.

Finally, the night before they were due in, Kouji broke into the infirmary and dosed himself with kava; he slept nearly ten hours straight as a result.  Zuko didn't call him on drugging himself, if he knew.

The next morning, still groggy, Kouji dragged himself to the deck with Zuko to watch the docking.  "…Zu, what if they don't let me in the capital?" he asked.  "Peasants aren't allowed…"

"That law's barely enforced," Zuko said, absently. "Too many non-noble guards want their families close.  Besides, the city spread way beyond its technical legal limits. There's artisan class-run shops and theatres and stuff if you go a certain distance from the palace, and you can't even tell you're technically out of the city."

Kouji nodded, then spotted Mai heading their way and promptly moved away from the prince.  Less than an hour later, they arrived, and Kouji was stashed somewhere out of sight while Azula's creepy old-lady guardians made a speech, announcing the party line for what had gone on that night in Ba Sing Se.

The ultimate truth of this, of course, was at the very least embellished. 

Kouji listened and held his tongue, surrounded by Azula's Dai Li agents.  This, at least, kept him even more out of sight; who would notice a child hidden among men?  He didn't notice one of them watching him closely.

Zuko didn't seem particularly happy when he was presented to the cheering crowd. His face — what Kouji could see of it from his angle — was oddly blank.  Zuko…, thought the boy, biting his bottom lip in worry as he fiddled with his bags of dirt.

The creepy women's speech was at last over, and they — Zuko, Azula, Kouji, Mai, and Ty Lee — were hustled off to the palace. One of the women told Kouji he would be meeting Ozai, of course, probably later that day, possibly not until tomorrow.  "Yes, ma'am," Kouji acknowledged her statement, barely managing to keep the tremble from his voice as he bowed to her in the proper Fire Nation style.

The woman smiled a little, ruffled his hair, and wandered back to her twin.

Only the strictest self-control kept him from flinching under her hand; once she was safely away he fixed his hair — then sighed and took it all out entirely, realising that a braid would likely not be well-accepted here.  A quick finger-combing, and then Kouji got it up off his neck and in a high tail atop his head.  He tried to put it into the fanlike topknot favoured by the citizens of the Fire Nation and failed spectacularly; sighing, he left it as a phoenix tail.

Zuko had somehow managed, despite having much shorter hair than Kouji, to fix his topknot himself. Even Azula couldn't do hers alone. "Now we wait," he said, quietly. "For him to call."

The boy swallowed hard.  "R-right," he whispered.

Zuko took a deep breath and grabbed Kouji's hand. "C'mon. While they're not looking." He led the younger boy into the gardens. 

Grateful for the hold, he followed the prince.  "Zuko, where—?"

"First to get some bread, then to the turtleduck pond."

"Turtleducks?"  Kouji perked slightly and picked up his pace a little, happily seizing onto the distraction.

Zuko nodded. "It's quiet there. Pretty."

"Sounds nice," the boy replied.

"It is." It only took them a few minutes to grab a loaf of bread and make their way to a pretty, secluded part of the grounds.  Once there, Kouji gratefully sank onto the ground in front of the pond, much of the tension draining from his body.

Zuko just stared into the water for a while. "I used to sit here with my mom. Before she died."

Halfway through wrestling off his new shoes, Kouji froze, then dropped his foot and carefully leaned into Zuko.  Zuko just sighed, then tore the bread and tossed it into the pond. A mother turtleduck and two babies swam up to grab it.

The boy finished removing his boots, then reached to take some of the bread himself so he could feed them.  "They're so little," he said of the babies.

"Yeah," Zuko agreed.

A shadow fell on the pond, and the turtleducks squawked and fled.  Surprised, Kouji turned, then barely managed to suppress a yelp and nearly fell backwards into the pond.

Azula.

Zuko grabbed his collar to pull him back. Azula ignored him.

"You seem so downcast," she said sweetly, watching her brother. "Has Mai gotten to you already?  Though actually, Mai has been in a strangely good mood lately..." She gave Zuko a speculating look.

Kouji wrenched free of Zuko's hold, but retreated no further.  He did, however, bow silently so as to give Azula no reason to snipe at him.

"I haven't seen Dad yet," Zuko said. "I haven't seen him in three years. Since I was banished." Everyone present, of course, already knew this, so it was anyone's guess why he was reminding them, particularly since it meant showing Azula a definite weak spot.

Then again, it was probably one she knew about.  And one that wasn't the boy at Zuko's side.

"So what?" Azula asked, slightly impatient.

"So, I didn't capture the Avatar," he reminded her.

Kouji flinched, remembering Zuko's behaviour after he'd released him from the metal cells in Ba Sing Se.  "Who cares?" Azula said, still impatient. "The Avatar's dead."

Zuko looked away, down at the ground.

Ozai might care, thought the boy.  After all, now that the Avatar is dead — and this was not a comfortable thought for Kouji; the Avatar had only a year older than he was — he'll just be reborn into the Water Tribe.

Unless," Azula said, thoughtfully, watching her brother, "you think he somehow, miraculously, survived."

Zuko was silent for a long moment.  Too long, to Kouji's mind.

"No," he said at last. "There's no way he could've survived." He and his sister stared at each other in malignant silence for a few seconds.

"Well," she finally said, not breaking eye contact, "then I'm sure you have nothing to worry about." She walked away.

Kouji waited until she was out of sight before he began to shake.

Zuko was just as upset. He looked around, made sure no one was in earshot, then whispered, "I lied. The waterbender — Katara — she had special water. It might've been able to bring him back."

Kouji's eyes went wide.  "She had what?  How?  How do you know?"

"She showed me," Zuko whispered. "When Azula had us locked up together. She…," He frowned. "Something doesn't add up… How long was it, d'you think, between when we got captured and when I found you?"

"I have no idea," Kouji admitted.  "I lost a lot of time, down there in that cell.  And I think I might have knocked myself unconscious after Toph, Sokka, and the Earth King escaped.  I don't know, though.  The pain kind of blasted everything else out."

Zuko nodded, looking somewhat scared. "I don't think it adds up. I think… I don't know, but… that doesn't make sense…"

"What doesn't?"

"…Nothing. I'm probably just imagining things." He flicked a few more crumbs into the water.

Kouji sighed and settled down again, waiting for his turn to see the Firelord.

About twenty minutes later, a guard came to fetch Zuko for his turn.

"Good luck," whispered Kouji.  He elected to stay by the pond, feeding the turtleducks.  After a moment's debate, he put his hated shoes back on.  The less time he wasted when it was his turn, the better for everyone.

It came, a half hour later. The same guard retrieved him, and guided him to the imposing throne room.  Kouji barely managed to control his trembling and his sudden need to vomit, and went in as urged.  Fortunately, his mother's etiquette lessons kicked in, and at the proscribed distance from the throne, Kouji went on his hands and knees, touching his forehead to the floor in the greatest bow of submission, a young peasant to his Lord.

Ozai was silent for a very long moment, watching him. Finally, he said, "You'll do," and dismissed him.

Kouji fled as quickly as politeness would allow, certain that the Firelord had seen his fright. Zuko also seemed almost frightened by his own meeting with the Firelord. He refused to tell Kouji what had happened, but he was up all night, pacing in his room after running one quick errand.

The boy watched him pace, hugging his knees to his chest and wondering what the Firelord had meant by those two words.  "You'll do."  Do for what?  Had Azula told him…?

At midnight, Zuko suggested Kouji go to bed, and stalked out of the room, only to return fifteen minutes later looking even more shaken and agitated than before.  Seeing this, Kouji went over to hug him tightly, and didn't ask.

Zuko, trembling, hugged back. "I have to fix this," he whispered. "And if I'm right that I'm missing time… what does it all mean?"

"I don't know, Zuko," Kouji said.  "But I'll help you find out."

He shook his head. 'It's probably nothing, I'm probably just paranoid. Maybe that vial thingy broke while we were fighting…"

"Maybe," the boy agreed.  But his eyes were dark.

Zuko clearly didn't believe what he was saying, either. "I have to fix it. A-and I'm sure there's two or three hours I don't remember, what happened?"

Kouji just hugged him tighter, closing his eyes.  "I don't know, Zuko.  I don't know."

"Sorry. I shouldn't be unloading all this on you," Zuko said, abruptly pulling away. "You should get some sleep."

"I'll try to," Kouji promised, looking up at the prince.

He nodded, once, jerkily, and resumed pacing.

The colonist watched Zuko for a minute or two, then slipped off to his own room to try and sleep.

*           *           *

Shortly after three, Kouji came awake.  He lay still in his bed for a few minutes, then got up and changed into one of the garments Iroh had bought for him during the winter.  After tying his hair back in a low tail, he snuck out of the room, deliberately leaving his shoes behind.

Kouji had learned more from Zuko than anybody realised.  He was little more than a shadow as he slipped through the palace on bare, silent feet, easily navigating the labyrinthine building and exiting to the gardens.

It took him nearly an hour to find a secluded spot not easily seen from anywhere in the palace — the last thing he wanted was for Firelord Ozai to discover he was an earthbender.  Bad enough the princess knew; it gave her even more material to use him against Zuko.  If Ozai found out, Kouji was dead, or imprisoned.

All this indicated that it was probably best if Kouji didn't bend at all, but this was absolutely unacceptable to the boy.  He needed to get better, for Zuko's sake.  And he had been inspired by that blind girl, Toph.  She was so far beyond him that she'd discovered the secret of metalbending.  Maybe he'd never get that far, but by the spirits, he would try.

After an hour or so of actual earthbending, Kouji suddenly realised he had company.  Turning around, he saw two men wearing dark green and watching him.  The younger of the two looked faintly contemptuous and amused; the elder simply looked thoughtful.

Dai Li.

Kouji immediately fell back a step, grey eyes narrowing as his hands dropped to the bags he wore on either hip.  At this, the younger Dai Li agent began to laugh.  "Put it away, boy," he sneered.  "You'd not last two seconds."

"Bet you a copper?" Kouji snapped back.

Now the thoughtful Dai Li agent smiled.   "It isn't wise to underestimate the young, Kim.  Or have you already forgotten Lady Bei Fong?"

"Prodigies don't count, Uncle!" Kim snapped.

Kouji stared at them, for a moment reminded of Zuko and Iroh.

"Don't they?" was the older man's mild answer.  He glanced over at Kouji.  "Have you fought Dai Li before?"

Mute and defiant, the young boy nodded, glaring over at Kim, who snorted.

"Lies."

Kouji's temper flared.  "How's this for a lie!?" he snapped, drawing sand from one pouch and lashing it towards the younger Dai Li's eyes.  Kim backpedalled to avoid the strike, but Kouji deliberately surrendered control of the tiny grains, and their forward motion continued, flying into the agent's face.

Kim howled and sent a boulder flying to where Kouji had been, but the boy was already moving, silent and swift, and so Kim missed.  Almost lazily, the older of the two Dai Li kept it from impacting the palace.

Kim got the sand out of his eyes and whirled to see the boulder Kouji had managed to launch at him.  Rather than dodge, as the boy had done, he stood his ground, fists raised.  A millisecond before impact, he punched out, shattering the boulder.  A move like that would have broken Kouji.

In the space created by the splintered rock, two stone hands came flying through; Kouji ducked, breathing heavily.  It wasn't fair!  Kim was fresh, whereas he was tired from his earlier practise.

Kim smirked — 'You're mine,' the look on his face said — and jerked his hands back.  The ground under Kouji's feet bounced, throwing the boy off-balance.  While Kouji recovered from that, Kim threw a boulder the same size as the boy.

Desperately, Kouji tried to stop it, but his stance was all wrong, he couldn't put up enough resistance —

A blur of dark green, and the ground shook as the nameless Dai Li agent diverted the boulder into the soil.

"Uncle!" protested Kim, sounding angry.  "I was winning!"

"Of course you were," said the older man.  "And I'm sure you would have gotten free drinks for the rest of your life in exchange for the tale of your glorious defeat of a barely-trained boy half your age."  Kim scowled as his uncle went on, "Put this place to rights.  You, boy," he pointed to Kouji, "come with me.  We need to talk."

Breathing heavily, Kouji obeyed.

The older man lead him several feet from his nephew, then he turned and raised an eyebrow.  "So tell me.  How does a Fire Nation boy come to be an earthbender?"

"I think he has to be born in the spring in the Earth Kingdom," Kouji replied with a shrug.  "At least, that's the only thing I can think of."

A thoughtful nod.  "Bending run in your family?"

"My father is a firebender," was the boy's careful answer.  Ichiro might have joined the Fire Nation military, but the odds were good that his brother was still hiding his bending.

Another nod, then, "And are you certain you are your father's son?"

Kouji's face went red as he stammered out an explanation about his parents' xenophobia, and the Dai Li man laughed.  "So, yes?"  He then gave Kouji a piercing look.  "A firebender started your training, most likely to teach you control.  Aside from that, and a bit from the sandbenders, you're self-taught."

The boy's jaw dropped open, and the man grinned.  "It's all over your fighting style, boy.  My name is Hyo.  I'm taking over your training."