Kouji stared out at the cloud covering that Katara and the Avatar had whipped up to disguise Appa's approach to another island.  He was bored out of his mind and didn't want to risk attracting Katara's wrath by asking for some paper of something, so he had to find some other way of entertaining himself.

"Zero, one, one, two, three, five, eight, thirteen, twenty-one, thirty-four…"

"I think I see a cave below!" the Avatar cut him off, before Toph could ask what the hell he was doing.

"Shh!" Sokka hissed. "Keep quiet!"

"…fifty-five, eig— what?"  Kouji looked back over his shoulder, then flinched as a burst of air scattered the cloud surrounding them.  Drawing his braid over his shoulder, he frowned at the beads of moisture coating it and tried to wring them out.

"Great job with the cloud camo, but next time? Let's disguise ourselves as the kind of cloud that knows how to keep its mouth shut."

…how did he get down there so fast? wondered Kouji, looking down to see Sokka crouched low in front of a rock.  He carefully climbed over the saddle, then slid down Appa's tail before circling around to stand behind the other three.

"Yeah, wouldn't want a bird to hear us chatting up there  and turn us in," Toph said, sarcastically.

"Hey!" Sokka snapped. "We're in enemy territory. Those are enemy birds." His absurd seriousness was highlighted when one of said birds landed on his head and squawked.

"And right behind you is an enemy rock," Kouji said, rolling his eyes.  "They're just Toucan-Puffins.  They're too lazy for anyone to even want to train."

The others just giggled, and started to head into the cave — only to be cut off by a still-paranoid Sokka jumping in front of them. He went into the cave first, darting around hilariously, then turned to face them. "Well, this is it. This is how we'll be living until the invasion begins. Hiding in cave after cave… after cave… after cave…"

"Sokka, we don't need to become cave people," Katara told her dejected brother. What we need is some new clothes."

"Yeah," the Avatar agreed. "Blending in is better than hiding out. If we get Fire Nation disguises, we'll be just as safe as we would be hiding in a cave."

"Plus?" Toph added. "They'll have real food out there. Does anyone want to sit in the dirt and eat cave hoppers?"

Momo was the only one who gave any sign of assent.

Kouji would have preferred sitting in the dirt and eating toucan-puffins when it came down to it, but he had no say and he knew it very well, so he said nothing.

"Looks like we're outvoted, sport," Sokka sighed, then, much perkier, turned to the Avatar and Katara. "Let's get some new clothes."

It didn't take much exploring for them to find a large collection of clothes hanging on lines to dry, with a single, sleeping attendant.

"I don't know about this," the Avatar said doubtfully. "These clothes belong to somebody—"

"I call the silk robe!" Katara cut him off, darting out from behind their rock.

Sourly the colonist wondered if she would have been so ready to steal had they been in the Earth Kingdom.  Then again, in the earth kingdom, clothes had been stolen as well, as Aang was just now justifying, because it was "essential for survival."

"I call the suit!" the Avatar finished, vaulting over the rock and following his not-so-secret crush.  Toph followed a few seconds behind. Sokka snuck over to the last of the lines and deliberated.  Kouji was the last to go, and he deliberated nearly as long as Sokka — not because he was as picky as the older boy, but because he wanted something that fit.  Even so, he still found something and made off with it before Sokka did.

They changed quickly, the Avatar tying a band around his forehead to hide the exposed part of his tattoo. Toph, not wanting to sacrifice her ability to see, kicked the soles of her shoes into Sokka's face, leaving the rest of them intact enough to preserve the illusion.

Kouji regretfully undid his braid and bent over almost double, gathering his hair up on the top of his head and then tying it off in a phoenix tail.  The outfit he'd stolen turned out to be identical to the Avatar's, though he tied the band around his waist where it was supposed to go.  Last of all he tugged on his own shoes, glaring down at them as though they were a personal insult.

"You can rip out your soles, too, if you want," Toph informed him.

"How do I look?" Katara finally came out from where she'd been changing.

Kouji started to tell Toph that he would consider it, then he caught sight of the waterbender and his tongue tied into a knot.  No matter how afraid of her he was, she was still a beautiful girl, and his voice refused to co-operate with his brain.

The Avatar quickly covered his own tongue-tied worship. "Uh… your mom's necklace…"

Katara's face fell. "Oh. Oh, yeah. Guess it's pretty obviously Water Tribe, isn't it." She reached behind her neck and untied it.

Kouji craned his head to see the necklace.  Hard to believe that such a small thing could hold such value to the girl; he remembered Zuko planning on using it to try to… persuade her to give him the Avatar.  It hadn't worked, and now Kouji rubbed his shoulder where the pirate's arrow had struck him months ago.

There was a town nearby, and the five of them, without much consultation, decided to head that way to get food and replacement, Fire Nation-appropriate pretties. Katara bought herself a new necklace, Toph a hairpiece. Even Sokka couldn't resist the lure of Shiny, though the Avatar was content with Momo, whom he stuffed under his shirt.  Kouji purchased a new sheath for his knife and a new bag for his sand — the dirt was long gone, left in Ba Sing Se.

"I used to visit my friend Kuzon here a hundred years ago," the Avatar told the others excitedly. "So everyone, just follow my lead, and stay cool. Or, as they say in the Fire Nation, stay flamin'."

"His out-of-date slang is going to get us all killed, isn't it," Toph muttered to Kouji.

"You'd think he'd let the actual citizen take the lead.  I am an untapped resource," Kouji muttered back, then followed behind the Avatar with the others.  "I'll keep an eye on him."

Luckily, while the Avatar's bizarre word choices did attract some very odd looks when he approached strangers and greeted them, no one seemed to decide it meant they clearly Did Not Belong.  Kouji rubbed his temples anyway.  He wasn't anticipating Avatar-sitting at all.  The older boy seemed to think he still knew everything about this country, and Kouji had no idea how to tell him just how much had changed in a century.

"…Oh. We're going to a meat place?" the Avatar said, when they approached a food stand, his excitement visibly deflating.

"Come on, Aang," Sokka said. "Everyone here eats meat. even the meat!" He gestured to a hippo-cow in the courtyard.

The Avatar made a face. "You guys go ahead. I'll just get some lettuce out of the garbage."

"I'll go with you," said Kouji quickly.  They seriously wouldn't have let the Avatar wander off on his own in enemy territory, right?

None of the others had objected to his plan, and they waved at the younger boys and wandered into the shop.  The Avatar proceeded to nod and greet all passers-by with his severely outdated slang.

"Stop that, seriously," Kouji hissed at him.  "Nobody says that anymore."

Before the older boy could respond, three guards came up to them. "It's over. We've caught you."

"Who, me?" Aang said, nervously.

"It couldn't be more obvious that you don't belong here," the leader said, sternly.

Kouji kept his face perfectly still, eyeing the guards and wondering how quickly he could trip them up without making the bending obvious.  The Avatar could obviously run fast, most likely even faster than Kouji could, so he'd get away—

"Next time you play hooky, you might want to take off your school uniforms."

…or that.  Argh, matching outfits, obviously they were uniforms, why the hell hadn't that occurred to him?

The Avatar giggled nervously, then the two boys were each grabbed by one of the male guards and forgmarched off to school.

Clearly Sokka is rubbing off on me, he thought as both of them were pushed inside a a co-ed classroom with a stern, pinched-looking woman at the head.

"Oh," she said, studying the two boys. "Is this a new pair of minds ready for moulding?"

"That's right!" the Avatar said, cheerfully, knocking on his head. "Let the moulding begin!"

Kouji quickly bowed to the teacher.  "P-please excuse m-my brother's m-manners," he stammered.  "He h-hit his head earlier a-and is still a little l-loopy."

The teacher seemed prepared to accept this explanation, and then her eyes narrowed.  "Wait a minute."  Kouji felt the retreating guards stop and turn back; the muscles in his back tensed.  "You're not from the Fire Nation!"

Ah.  That.  Kouji relaxed as she approached them both, though he could feel Aang starting to panic beside him.

"Clearly you are from the colonies," she went on; Kouji managed not to wince as he heard the underscore of scorn to her voice.  The Avatar turned and began to open his mouth; quickly Kouji turned and bowed again, managing to stumble into the older boy and cutting him off.

"Th-that's right, m-ma'am," he said.  "N-New Sozin, near where th-the Nan Sh-shan River empties into th-the ocean."  At his words, the guards left for real.

"Your etiquette is terrible," she said, as the Avatar's shoulders slumped slightly in relief. "In the homeland, we bow to our elders. Like so." She demonstrated.

"Sorry, ma'am," the Avatar said sheepishly, and imperfectly copied her hand position. She rapped his knuckles with her pointer. A girl in the front row showed him again, and he grinned and did it properly.

Ichi-ni would go bonkers here, Kouji thought, squashing a pang of homesickness as the teacher chastised the Avatar now for wearing a head covering indoors.  Hiding the bending was definitely a good move.

The Avatar quickly explained his headband as being worn to conceal an embarrassing scar. The teacher accepted this, and made no further attempt to make him take it off.

"What are your names, or should we just call you Mannerless Colony Slobs One and Two?"

The Avatar giggled. "Just Slob One is fine. Or, uh, Kuzon," he said, catching glares from both the teacher and Kouji. He turned to face the class, grinning.

I have manners! the younger boy thought, highly offended now.  He knew better than to argue.  "My name is Jiro," he added, turning to face the class as well.  A large portrait of Firelord Ozai stared back at him across the room, and he barely managed not to shudder.

The teacher directed them to their seats and went back to the interrupted lesson —fortunately, it was a math lesson, which was fairly universal and the Avatar couldn't screw it up… though Kouji was beginning to have his doubts.

Spirits only knew how disastrous the eventual history lesson would be.

Kouji concealed another shudder and, as his mind danced easily through the numbers, he wondered how to give his companion a crash course in history as taught to Fire Nation students before the Avatar got them both caught.  He was very relieved when the bell rang to signal the end of the day.

The students spilled out of the school, discarding the orderly lines in which they had been sent out almost immediately, and headed off to their homes. The Avatar unbuttoned part of his shirt to let Momo breathe. "Well, we made it through the day," he said, grinning down at his pet. "And it was pretty fun!"

"Don't let the headmaster see you with that monkey," the girl from the front row of their class cut in before Kouji could reply.

The Avatar spun around to face her. "What monkey?!"

"Don't worry," she said, smiling. "I'm not a tattletale. My name's On Ji. I like your headband, by the way."

Kouji flushed pink and took a few steps away.  Damn his fear of girls!  Damn it to hell and back!  On his fourth step, he collided partly with something strong and solid, which then pushed past him and gave the Avatar the same treatment.

"On Ji," the large boy said, putting a very proprietary arm around the girl, "you don't have to babysit the new kids."

"Wow," the Avatar said, bowing correctly. "You must be one of those popular kids I've been hearing about!"

Kouji did not bow, instead looking the other boy up and down.  Middle teens, probably Sokka's age, maybe fourteen.  Thinks the world revolves around him.  Probably planning to be a soldier and perform Great Heroics in the Glorious War.  A small smile tugged at his lips.  Even Yui would make mincemeat out of him, and she's a scrapper.  Ichi-ni would have a field day.

"That's right," he was saying, focusing so entirely on the Avatar that he missed Kouji's smirk. "Now listen, friend, I know you're from the colonies, so I'll say this slowly. On Ji. Is. My. Girlfriend. Don't forget it."

From an authority figure, Kouji would let slurs on the colonies slide.

He did not accept the authority of the older boy.

Stepping forward, he grabbed the other's wrist and pulled him away from the Avatar.  "You watch your mouth about the colonies," he snapped.

The boy glared at him, sniffed, and said, "I'll say whatever the hell I want." He made a gesture to the Avatar, indicating that he'd be keeping an eye on him, then manhandled On Ji away.

"Bastard," snarled Kouji.  "So safe and secure in the homeland; he's got no idea what it's like back there!"

"Well, it's always nice to meet new people," the Avatar said, waving goodbye to On Ji and her boyfriend.

"Nice?  Nice? He—"

Another boy ran up behind them. "I don't believe it. He didn't beat you up. Not even a little!"

"I guess we were just lucky," the Avatar said, grinning.  Kouji folded his arms and scowled back in the direction the bully had wandered off in.

"We were on our way to play Hide and Explode," the boy said, as some of his friends came up to join them. "You want to come?"

"I'd love to!" the Avatar said, grinning. "K—Jiro, c'mon!" He grabbed Kouji's wrist and the two of them ran after the local kids.

"No, Kuzon, I suck at this," Kouji protested as he was dragged along.  Fortunately for the younger boy's dignity, a dark hand came down and gently detached the two boys.

"Don't pull his arm off," advised the person the hand belonged to, a smiling boy the same age as On Ji's boyfriend.

"Okay. Um. I'll meet you back here at sunset, so we can go home and Ka— Mom and Dad won't be upset and think one of us lost the other?" the Avatar said, bouncing on his toes, eager to follow the others.

Note to self.  Teach him how to lie.  "Right.  Have fun," Kouji agreed.  "Don't do anything stupid."

"I won't! Bye!" the Avatar darted off.

 

He was late coming back, covered with dust and exhilarated.

Kouji, on the other hand, was alone now, curled up on a rock with his knees held to his chest and staring east.

"…Are you okay?" the Avatar asked, his grin slipping slightly.

The younger boy turned to look at him.  "Would you be okay?" he asked quietly.

"I dunno," the Avatar  said reasonably. "I have no idea what you did all afternoon."

Kouji's laugh was bitter.  "I didn't mean this afternoon, but no, Huān didn't really help much."

"Oh." He paused for a few seconds. "Want to talk about it, or just head back?"

"I don't know," Kouji said eventually.

"Okay." The Avatar settled down, waiting for him to make up his mind.

After a moment, the earthbender spoke.  " Huān… was my brother's best friend."

"I didn't know you had a brother," was the Avatar's reply.

"No reason you should.  I haven't seen Ichi-ni or my twin sister since Un— since General Iroh brought me aboard Z-Zuko's ship."

The Avatar nodded. "That makes sense."

"Huān knew who I was."

"Is he going to say anything?" he asked, after a long silence.

Kouji shook his head.  "No, he isn't like that.  We talked for awhile; he's… he's a lot like Ichiro is.  Frighteningly so, sometimes.  And he's willing to keep quiet because he does remember how dangerous it got in New Sozin, and he can't blame me for wanting to take a new name for awhile."  A sigh.  "Or that's what he said.  I think he's just projecting Ichi-ni onto me."

The Avatar just shrugged, and waited for Kouji to either go on or suggest they head back.

There was another pregnant pause, which then gave birth, before Kouji said at last, "Let's just go back."  There was an odd reluctance to his tone.

"Okay," the Avatar said. He stood up and offered Kouji his hand.

The younger boy looked up at him in surprise, then hesitantly accepted.

The Avatar pulled him up, then led the way back to the cave.

They were pounced on immediately. "Where have you been?" Katara yelped. "We were worried sick!"

"We got invited to play with some kids after school!" the Avatar said, cheerily, taking off his headband.

Sokka shot up. "After what?!"

"We enrolled in a Fire Nation school!" he explained, grinning. "And we're going back tomorrow."

"Enrolled in what?!" Sokka fell backwards.

"…does he do that a lot?" Kouji asked Toph, then tugged on his shirt.  Without waiting for her answer, he clarified, "The A— A-aang and I both picked up uniforms for the local school.  Some guards caught us and thought we were playing hooky."

"Get overdramatic and silly? Yeah," Toph answered in an undertone. "And I get why you went in the first place, but… why are you going back?"

"Yeah," Sokka agreed with Toph. "I'm trying to be mature and not immediately shoot down your idea, but it sounds really terrible."

"Every minute we're in that classroom,' the Avatar replied, "we're learning new things about the Fire Nation. I already have a picture of Firelord Ozai! And here's one that I made out of noodles!"

"…what the hell do you mean, learning new things?" Kouji asked him, utterly astounded.  "I'm a colonist!  I know this stuff already!  Both sides!"

"Right, sorry."

"Exactly! It's too dangerous for you guys to go to school, anyway," Sokka chimed in.

"I guess we'll never find out about the secret river then," the Avatar said, sounding disappointed. He was probably fooling Sokka, but was most likely much more interested in playing with his new friends some more than actually sitting in the classroom.

Kouji's hand came up and slammed into his forehead.  "I'm going over there," he pointed to a corner of the cave, "and playing with numbers.  Call me when things start making as much sense."

Using the 'secret river' as bait, the Avatar managed to persuade Sokka to let them stay a few more days, then shot off another brilliant specimen of outdated slang and danced off to clean up.

Kouji's head met the wall of the cave and cracked it.  "Stupid schools… stupid individuality-crushing institutions of propaganda…"

Toph pulled him away and hit him. "You're going to break your head."

"Oh, good, then maybe I can opt out tomorrow."  Kouji sighed.  "Before I get in trouble for fighting."

"Yeah, stay back here while Aang goes to school. He'll tell the teacher you're sick or something, and I can give you another lesson."

"I can't," Kouji said.  He lowered his voice.  "I have to be there to cover for him."

"He's going to screw up and get in trouble whether you're there with him or not," she said, philosophically. "You might as well get something useful done."  There was a tone to her voice that indicated he had better not argue.  "I'll go tell Sokka and Aang."

Sighing, Kouji caved.

 

The Avatar flitted off to school the next morning, and Toph dragged Kouji into another part of the cave, carefully getting rid of the ceiling so nothing would cave in on them, and started putting him through his paces.

All.

Day.

Long.

By the time she was done with him, Kouji could barely move for exhaustion.  He dragged himself to the fire and curled up in front of it, letting the heat bathe sore muscles.  Toph shoved food at him and glared over him until he finished eating it, then left him alone.  Kouji was half-asleep by the time the Avatar returned.

"Sokka,Katara,youneedtopretendtbemyparentsandcomebackwithmenow," he said, all in a rush, dragging them out.

Kouji looked up groggily.  "What the hell did you do?"

"Hide tried to beat me up and he couldn't hit me, then he fell, and the headmaster said I beat him up and had to bring my parents in for a conference, Sokka, Katara, hurry, he'll be even madder if we're late!" And then he and the Water Tribe siblings were gone.

"…Huān warned me about him," Kouji muttered, curling up again.

"Well, what's done is done. Sweetness'll bail him out. Hopefully Sokka won't screw things up too bad," Toph said. "Sleep now."

Kouji nodded and drifted off, only to be rather rudely awakened some time later by Sokka yelling at the Avatar to go to his room.

"Now what?" the irritated colonist demanded.

"Twinkletoes wants to throw a secret dance party," Toph informed him.

Kouji blinked.  "That's… actually a pretty good idea."

"Not really," she said. "Where're we gonna get a band? And how're we gonna explain setting up the cave, when we can't out me or you as earthbenders? Plus, there's Appa. And what if Aang's headband comes off?"

"I know seamen's knots, Appa can be hidden, we don't need to explain the cave at all, and as for the band, I can probably talk some of the students into providing the music," said Kouji thoughtfully, warming to the idea.

"Except this is happening tonight, and you're s'posed to be sick," she reminded him.

"That's easy, I played hooky because otherwise I would have beat the hell out of Hide for slurring on the colonies," Kouji replied.

"Okay, then." The last of Toph's objections having been taken care of, she started setting up the cave.

By an hour or so after sundown, they were completely set up, Appa had been successfully hidden, the Avatar's headband had been über-secured, the cave had been decorated with a vast number of candles, Kouji had arranged the band, and people were starting to trickle in.  Sokka was still wearing his fake beard.

"Seriously, take it off," Kouji begged him.

"I like it," he said, stroking it defensively as the band set up and started playing.

Nobody started dancing.

"Now what do we do?" one of the kids asked.

"We start dancing!" the Avatar informed him, grinning.

"I don't think my parents want me dancing in a cave," another boy said, sinking into his tunic.

"Yeah! What if someone finds out?" a third boy asked, nervously.

"…then why are you even here?" asked Huān, his voice heavy with scorn.

"Oh, boy," the Avatar said, rubbing the back of his neck. After a few more seconds of conversation, he started demonstrating some classic dances. For once, his out-of-date cultural knowledge was a good thing.

Huān nudged Kouji.  "'Ro, how does he know things they knew a hundred years ago?"

"We found some scrolls," the earthbender replied; this question was one he'd anticipated.

After a few minutes, the Avatar drew On Ji onto the floor, and other kids started trickling out to join them. They only stopped to watch when the Avatar and Katara took over the middle of the floor and demonstrated a truly spectacular combination of dance steps and bending manoeuvres.

"That's cheating," observed Huān cheerfully, who had just finished doing the same thing.  He wandered over to get a drink and settled in next to Sokka.  "How's it hanging, handsome?"

Before Sokka could do more than splutter, the headmaster came to the entrance of the cave.

"He's the one we want! The boy with the headband!"

"…'Scuse me," Sokka managed to get out, then dove into the crowd to round up the others and help facilitate the Avatar's escape.

"Hide told," Kouji said as he sped by the older firebender, who grinned maliciously. 

"How… fun," he heard Huān murmur as he caught up with Toph.

Luckily, the rest of the partygoers helped cover their escape, all putting on headbands.

"We're safe, Sokka. You can take off the moustache now," Katara said, once they were airborne.

"Oh, no, I can't," Sokka said, stroking the beard. "It's permanently glued to my skin."

"Lies," laughed Kouji.

Toph commandeered the conversation to compliment the Avatar on his party.

"I dunno," he said, flushing. "It was just a dance party, that's all."

"Well, that was some dance party, Aang," Katara said, then crawled over to kiss his cheek. The Avatar went bright red.

"Yeah," agreed Kouji, thinking of Huān and of Ichiro.  "It really was." 

The others all settled in for their flight to the next island, reliving specific moments in conversation.  Kouji retreated again to the back of the saddle to stare east once more.

This time, he was smiling.