"Lee!" Kouji shouted as the supplies lifted off of him.

Lee reached out and grabbed his hand with his uninjured one — the arm attached to the blood-slick hand was curled around the saddle.

"What's going on?" Toph shouted.

"Appa fell asleep!" Aang shouted back.

"But he's the one flying!" Kouji cried, drawing himself closer to Lee and wrapping his arms around the older boy's waist.

Aang had crawled over Appa's head, and was trying to wake him up. Seconds before they crashed into the trees, the bison jerked back to consciousness, and was able to bring them in for a controlled — if bumpy — crash-landing. 

"I think flying is out," said Kouji softly, eyeing the now-sleeping animal.

"Appa's exhausted," Aang agreed.

Lee was quickly and surreptitiously wrapping his hand before Katara could see it and offer to waste any more precious energy healing it, as Sokka informed them that the plan was now to get some sleep. 

"Good."  Kouji promptly fell over and curled up, not even bothering with any sort of cover.

Before he could fall asleep, Toph and Katara started arguing.

Again.

"Sozin's balls!" the boy exploded, sitting upright.  "Can't you two stop arguing for one Agni-blessed hour?"

Lee flinched, and, having his swords out again, cut his other hand open.  Kouji didn't notice; his eyes were narrowed into silver slits as he watched Katara and Toph.

"I wanna hear what Katara has to say," Toph snapped. "You think I have issues?"

"I'm just saying, maybe if you helped us out earlier, we could've set up our camp faster, and gotten some sleep. And then MAYBE WE WOULDN'T BE IN THIS SITUATION!"

"You're blaming me for this?!" Toph demanded.

"No! No, she's not blaming you!" Aang said, getting between them.

"No, I'm blaming her!" snapped Katara.

Kouji wanted to scream.  Lee reached out and squeezed his shoulder with his bandaged hand — he hadn't wrapped the new cut yet. "They're not used to going without sleep.  If they get a chance to fix that, they won't yell so loud, at least."

Kouji scowled and crossed his arms over his chest.  He was obviously as tired as they were, or he wouldn't have been using epithets and profanities that were so obviously Fire Nation.  How lucky none of the others were really awake enough to catch it.

Finally, Toph crossed a line even Aang couldn't tolerate, when she blamed shedding Appa for their problems. When he finished yelling at her for that, there was a moment of very tense silence.

"I'm out of here," Toph snapped, picking up her bag and stalking off.

Kouji blinked.  "Wait—"

Sokka tried to block her retreat physically, but she just bent him out of the way and kept walking.

"That… was not a good thing…," Kouji said quietly.

"What did I just do?" Aang wailed. "I can't believe I yelled at my earthbending teacher!  Now she's gone…"

Kouji bit his lip and sat down, running through the options.  Lee wrapped his other hand, carefully, watching Aang and Katara blame themselves and Sokka do absolutely nothing to reassure them.  "We need to find her," Kouji said quietly, looking at the others.

"Yeah, but what are we going to do about the tank full of dangerous ladies?" Sokka pointed out.

Lee, almost too quietly to be heard, offered to stay behind and distract them long enough for the others to get away — the closest he'd ever come to openly admitting why he might be valuable enough to them for that to work.

"No way," Kouji objected immediately.  "Not alone."

"We could spin it convincingly," Lee said, when his throat unstuck and the others all turned to them, questioning. "You all know what Zhao thought I was. Maybe these girls think the same thing, a-and that you finally figured it out and ditched me here."

"No," snapped Kouji.  "If you stay behind, I'm staying too."

"You promised me—"

"That was before I thought you were going to do something stupid and suicidal!"

"We're not leaving anyone behind," Aang said, cutting off further argument. "Even if it might work. Besides, I have a better plan. Toph was right about Appa shedding probably being what they were tracking. So we need to scrub off all the loose fur. I'll take that and leave a fake trail, and you guys take Appa and look for Toph."

"And no one objects when he offers to play live bait," Lee muttered, stretching to try and work out the kinks still in his back from the night before.

Sokka, having overheard, was for once the voice of reason. "No one objects 'cause they probably won't kill him, since that would mean having to look for him all over again."

"Or more genocide," said Kouji softly.  He looked up at the sky.  "Look, I'm going to go after Toph now.  She won't get too far ahead that way, and that'll take me away from the fighting."  He gave his brother a significant glance.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Lee said. "You know how to cover your tracks?"

The boy nodded hesitantly.  "Ichi-ni and I worked that out when I was seven, to help keep my practising secret…"

Lee nodded. "Good. 'Cause if they spot a second trail, they might split up and follow it, too."

It didn't look like Lee would be going with him.  Of all the times for him to cut the apron strings loose…  "I'll be careful," he promised, then ran off in the direction Toph had trotted off in.

He found her, stalking angrily away, about twenty minutes later, which meant she knew he was there.  "Toph," he said quietly, speeding up to catch her.

"What?" she snapped.

"A-Aang didn't mean any of that," he said, flushing as his usual stutter kicked in.  "Neither d-did Katara."

"Yeah, right," she muttered.

"Th-they really d-didn't," he insisted.  "W-we're all j-just tired and c-cranky — and s-scared."  He, at least, could admit it.

"So? I carry my own weight."

"N-nobody's saying y-you don't," Kouji pointed out.  "Wh-what Katara w-was t-trying to tell y-you w-was that w-we all work t-together and carry e-everyone's weight.  Th-that way n-nobody's l-left behind."

Before she could answer, they heard and saw unmistakeable sounds of combat from a nearby ghost town.

Kouji paled.  "Lee…"  He turned to Toph.  "Please, Toph.  C-Come back with m-me.  Aang n-needs a teacher, a-and so d-do I."

She was silent for a long moment, considering, then, "Fine. Fine, let's go back."

He grinned and bowed, then ran for the ghost town, positive that she was right behind him.  Just before they arrived, she yanked him back. "You promised your brother you wouldn't get involved," she reminded him. "And I don't need you distracting me." Then she shot off towards the town.

Somewhat forlorn, Kouji stopped and waited.  Why had he made Lee that stupid promise, anyway? 

There was another, larger explosion, and a column of thick, black smoke lazily twisted up out of the town. Then everything was silent, but for the crackling and crumbling of the burning buildings.  "LEE!" screamed Kouji.  His promise instantly forgotten, he ran into the town, nearly crashing into the others as they were running out. Katara was half-carrying Lee, whose shirt had a large hole burned into it.

"She got away," Toph said, gloomily. Sokka, too, looked remarkably unhappy.

"Is he okay?" Kouji asked, looking past them to his brother.

Katara nodded. "He blacked out — pain, mostly, plus his hands were leaking blood and he never mentioned it — but I fixed all of it."

Kouji flinched.  "I… I think the cuts are my fault…"

"Don't worry about it now, he's fine," Katara said firmly. "We're going to go back to Appa and find somewhere to sleep. Those girls won't be following us anymore, at least for now."  Kouji nodded, and helped her support Lee.

He came to an hour or so later, just as the others were finally falling asleep.  The boy, however, was still awake, sitting upright with his brother's head in his lap and staring off into space.

"Should get some sleep," Lee mumbled by way of greeting, sitting up.

"Couldn't," said Kouji quietly, looking at him.

"Try now?" he suggested. "I'll keep watch."

"What happened in there?" Kouji asked instead.

Lee was quiet for a minute. "They know. She told them."

"…So are you Zuko now?" Kouji wanted to know, lowering his voice.  "Or are you still Lee?"

"I don't know if I'm still here, once we get some distance between us and her."

"Of course you are," Kouji assured him.  "You haven't changed just because they know the truth now."

"I dunno," Lee said, quilety. "Sokka said some things, when she first outed me…"

"Sokka's an idiot," Kouji said.  "And he already suspected anyway."

"He wanted to leave me there right then."

"He didn't mean it," Kouji replied.  "He didn't want to leave you in the North Pole."

"Yeah, but that was just Zhao, who I'd never met, outing me," Lee pointed out quietly. "This is different."

"…if they make you leave, I'm going with you," Kouji told him.

"No, you need to stay. You need a teacher, and Toph's the best."

"Either they keep us both, or neither of us," Kouji snapped.  "I won't stay with anyone who would kick you out for your parentage.  It makes them no better than my father."  He spat that last word.

"Because of my parentage, I put them at risk," Lee pointed out, dully. "Because I'm probably the only person here they'd shoot to kill. And killshots sometimes go wide. So it's not just prejudice that'd be a reason to kick me out."

"I don't care," snapped Kouji.  "If you go, I go.  End of scroll."

"The same goes for you," Lee shot back, a little sharper than he intended. "If you're with me, you could get killed when I'm caught. If they kick me out, I'm leaving alone. And you need to stay here and learn from Toph."

"I'm not leaving you!"

"It's safest for you if you do!"

"If I gave a damn about my safety," Kouji said softly, "I would have left home long before my father attacked me."

"Yeah, well, I give a damn about your safety," Lee said, just as quietly. "And I promised I'd protect you, and the best way to do that is to leave you behind if they make me go."

"If you leave me behind, I'll just follow you."

"You can't, it's too dangerous."

"And staying with the Avatar isn't?"

"They won't be trying to kill him," Lee pointed out.

"He's not the one who's a traitor," Kouji snapped.  "Which is what I am."

"You're also a kid young enough to reindoctrinate, with enough propaganda," Lee snapped back. "I'm also a traitor, and someone who could real easy be a figurehead for a revolution. They'll want me dead before word gets out I'm still alive."

"I'm an earthbender, Zuko," Kouji said darkly.  "They'll just kill me and be done with it.  I've already learned that."

"No, they won't. They'll put you in one of the work camps. Believe me. The Firelord doesn't kill people unless he has a damn good reason, and you being an earthbender isn't good enough for him, not when you can be useful alive."

Kouji crossed his arms over his chest.  "That won't stop anyone else.  I have the scar to prove that."

"The wardens at the work camps won't let it happen," Lee said quietly. "They'll use you up 'til you're nothing more than a dried-up husk of what you were, but they won't hit you unless you get out of line and they won't hit you so hard you can't work. That would sorta defeat the purpose of having you there."

"You're assuming I even get there, Zuko."

"You would," he insisted. "What happened with your father was probably 'cause he was too close to it to see what an earthbender with inbred loyalty to the Fire Nation could be worth."  Kouji's hand drifted to his chest.  Clearly, he didn't believe his brother.  "Plus, protocol with captured earthbenders is to bring them to one of the work camps," Lee said quietly. "No matter what nation they were born to."

Kouji looked away from him, down at the saddle.  Why didn't Lee understand that there was no point in his staying with the Avatar if they sent his brother away?

Lee fell silent, too, having exhausted all his arguments to keep his brother safe somewhere he could learn what he needed to know to survive.

Finally, Kouji said, "They won't send you away, so none of this matters," then rolled over and closed his eyes.  Lee didn't respond, just curled up against Appa to keep watch.

Current Location: my bed
Current Mood: accomplished
Tags: au, avatar, fanfic, soldier's boy

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