Soldier's Boy

Twenty

When Kouji woke up, some indeterminate time later, Aang had gone, and the others were trudging through the desert. Lee was carrying him.  The boy groaned and tried to squirm free; it was way too hot to be so close.  Lee tightened his hold, one of his ribs digging uncomfortably into Kouji's side.  "Lee, s'too hot," Kouji moaned.

"And you passed out," the older boy pointed out.

"Just overdid it a bit, holdin' up th' library an' fightin' sandbenders…"

"Exactly," Lee said, shifting his hold a bit, but not letting go.

"I can walk," the boy protested.

The teenager didn't reply. Clearly, as far as he was concerned, the subject was closed.  Still tired, and starving, Kouji looked over at the rest of the group and for the first time registered that the Avatar was missing.  "Where's Aang?"

"He went looking for Appa," Katara said, quietly.

Kouji flinched.  "Oh…"

Behind them, Toph walked into Sokka. "Can't you watch where you're—" he snapped, then trailed off.

"No."

"Right. Sorry."

"Come on, guys, we've got to stick together," Katara said wearily.

"If I sweat anymore, I don't think sticking together's going to be a problem," Sokka said. Toph shoved him.

Kouji groaned again.  Did Sokka never stop whinging?  And when was Lee going to let him walk?  Clearly, not any time soon. But at least since Lee had yet to reclaim his shirt, they weren't sticking together quite as badly as Toph and Sokka had been.

"Katara, can I have some water?" Toph asked.

"Okay, but we've got to try and conserve it." The waterbender opened her pouch, and sent a mouthful at each of her four friends, and Momo.  Kouji swallowed his share without fuss, as did Lee.  Sokka, of course, couldn't be quite as obliging.

"We're drinking your bending water?" Sokka asked, first sounding concerned — after all, this was his sister's weapon, and if the sandbenders came back and they'd drunk all the water, she'd be more-or-less defenceless — then disgusted. "You used this on the swamp guys!"

Lee flinched, and nearly dropped his brother. He didn't like it when their trip to the swamp was mentioned.

"Sokka, could you shut up for thirty seconds?" Kouji wanted to know, his hunger making him irritable.  "Even fifteen!"

"It does taste swampy," Toph admitted, though she seemed more resigned than irritated.

"I'm sorry," Katara said. "It's all we have."

"Not anymore," Sokka was saying, darting over to a cactus a few yards ahead. He cut off the top and drank the fluid inside.

"Sokka, wait!" Katara cried, too late. "You shouldn't be eating strange plants!"

"She's right," Lee said, wearily. "If it's poison and you start throwing up, you'll be even more dehydrated."

"There's water trapped inside these!" Sokka said, unnecessarily, holding out another piece to his sister.

"It's probably fermented," Kouji muttered.

"I don't know," Katara told her brother, pulling back and eyeing the cactus suspiciously.

"Suit yourself," her brother said. "It's very thirst-quenching, though." Then he paused, shut his eyes, and opened them. He shook his head. "Drink cactus juice. It'll quench ya." He started rolling around on the ground. "Nothing's quenchier. It's the quenchiest!" He held out the piece of cactus to his sister again.

"…he hung out with the hippies too long," Kouji informed his brother.

Lee was just staring at Sokka. Seeming to think that, in his altered state, the Water Tribe warrior might be a threat, he backed up a few paces, wishing he could juggle his swords and his brother. Just in case.

"Okay… I think you've had enough," Katara said, taking the piece of cactus and dumping out the liquid.

"Who lit Toph on fire?"

"Polar bears," Kouji told Sokka as Momo divebombed the sand.

"Wow…"

"Don't encourage him," Lee hissed.

"Can I get some of that cactus?" Toph asked.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Katara said. "Come on, we need to find Aang."

"Can I walk now?" Kouji wanted to know.

"No."

"How did we get out here in the middle of the ocean?" Sokka asked, wonderingly.

"We swam," Kouji grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

Katara just sighed. They kept trudging on, time losing meaning in the heat and endless sand.

*                       *                       *

Some time later, a giant dust cloud sprang up on the horizon.

"What is that?" Katara asked.

"What? What is what?" Toph asked, looking from side to side, her back to the cloud.

"It's a giant… mushroom," Sokka said. "MAYBE IT'S FRIENDLY!"

"Let's just keep moving," Katara said, taking Toph's hand. "I hope Aang's okay…"

"Friendly mushroom! Mushy giant friend!"

"Hey, Sokka!" called Kouji.  "If you come with us, the friendly mushroom will tell you the way to Candy Mountain!"

"Candy mountain yay!" The fifteen-year-old ran to catch up.

*                       *                       *

Some time after that, Lee stumbled and almost fell.  Kouji yelped in surprise and clung to his brother until Lee regained his footing, then demanded, "Can I walk now?"

"No," the teenager said, shortly. "You totally overdid it back there, and you haven't had any food or real rest. Stop squirming!"

"I'm not helpless!" the younger boy argued.  "Toph's okay to walk!"

"Toph didn't pass out."

"Sokka's high and he can walk!"

"He didn't pass out, either."

"Zuko…," Kouji whinged.

"That's 's a funny name…" Sokka said dreamily.

The younger boy twisted to glare at the Water Tribesman; Lee just stiffened, tightened his hold a fraction, then trudged on.

*                       *                       *

Eventually evening fell, and the heat started to die down a little bit.  Around then, Aang returned, landing in a cloud of sand.

Katara cautiously approached him. "I'm sorry, Aang. I know it's hard for you right now. But we need to focus on getting out of here?"

"What's the difference?" Aang asked, helplessly. "We won't survive without Appa. We all know it."

"Come on, Aang," Katara tried. "We can do this if we work together. Right, Toph?"

"As far as I can feel, we're trapped in a giant bowl of sand pudding," she said, unhelpfully. "I got nothing."

"Sokka? Any ideas on how to find Ba Sing Se?" Katara asked.

"Why don't we ask the circle birds?" he replied, dreamily, pointing up at the sky.

Kouji looked up, and shrieked before burying his face in Lee's chest.  Stupid stupid vulture-wasps!

Lee tightened his hold. "Shh… I won't let them get you," he whispered, wearily.

Katara looked around desperately for a solution. Then she growled something under her breath. "We're getting out of this desert, and we're gonna do it together. Aang, get up. Everybody, hold hands. We can do this. We have to."

Katara started the line, heading straight  out, one hand behind her on Aang's staff.  Aang followed, holding onto Toph, who had a hold on Kouji's ankle, as Lee's arms were full.  Kouji had put Sokka on a lead, tying one end to the Water Tribesman's arm and the other to Lee's belt; Sokka kept hold of Momo's tail.  They kept trudging on a couple more hours. The temperature was slowly falling, and Lee had started to shiver.

Kouji, sleepy once more, took his brother's shirt off his own head and tried to pull it over the firebender.  Since Lee refused to let go of him, this proved rather difficult.

"I think we should stop for the night," Katara finally said.

Aang, Sokka, and Toph collapsed simultaneously; Kouji looked up at his brother.  "Pumme down," he said.  Rather than obliging, Lee sank to the ground himself, lying down without releasing the boy.

"Is there any more water?" Toph asked.

"This is the last of it," Katara said. "Everyone can have a little drink." She pulled the water out of her pouch, but before she could divide it up, Momo dove through the airborne puddle.

"Momo, no!" Sokka yelled. "You've killed us all!"

"Sokka should go for the theatre," Kouji mumbled.  "He's always overacting."

Lee, already mostly asleep, didn't reply.

"No, he hasn't," Katara assured her brother. She pulled the spilled water up out of the sand.

"Oh, right," Sokka said. "Bending."

Kouji sighed and wiggled until he was no longer on top of Lee, but curled up next to him, rousing only when Toph smacked him on the arm to get him to take a sip from the water-flask.  He didn't even raise his head when Sokka loudly accused Momo of ratting out his theft of the library to Katara.  Lee had had to be shaken awake to take his drink, then had dropped right back to sleep, ignoring Katara developing a plan to navigate their way out of the desert by the constellations.

Neither brother roused until Katara shook them all awake; Kouji, having overextended with no real way to replenish himself, was the hardest to awaken; Lee, therefore, was telling Katara not to bother and picking him up again as he finally drifted awake.

"S'going on?" Kouji slurred, opening his eyes with some difficulty.

"Go back t'sleep," Lee whispered. "I got you."

"'Kay, 'Chiro," the boy mumbled, snuggling closer and drifting off to sleep again.

When he woke up again, he heard Toph yelling, "…buried a boat in the middle of the desert?"

Kouji's eyes fluttered open.  "Are we going sailing?"

Lee, focused solely on keeping on his feet and not dropping the younger boy, hadn't stopped walking.

"A boat?" Katara asked, quizzically.

"Believe me, I kicked it hard enough to feel plenty of vibrations," the younger girl sulked.

Kouji blinked, then jolted himself out of Zuko's hold, landing on his rump as he cried out, "Wait!  The sand people get around on boats!"

"Huh?" Lee said, blinking and finally coming back to reality. He bent down to pick Kouji up again.

Aang angrily unburied the boat.

"It is one of those sandbender gliders!" Katara said, excitedly. "And look! It's got some kind of a compass on it! I bet it can point us out of here!"

Kouji rolled to avoid his brother's grasp and climbed unsteadily to his feet, stumbling to the wooden thing.  "We're saved," he said quietly, and promptly began trying to find any sort of supplies in the hopes that someone had abandoned food.  He found what looked like sandy bread under the tattered sail; pleased, he brushed it off, sniffed it carefully to make sure it wasn't bad — miraculously, it wasn't — and shovelled it into his mouth.

It took Lee a few seconds to figure out where he'd rolled to. "Kouji…"

"Come, on, Lee!" the boy cried gleefully, already feeling more energised.  He reached for his brother's hand and pulled the older boy aboard.

The teenager stumbled forward, tripped over the edge of the boat-thing, and sprawled at his brother's feet. "…Ow…"

Kouji frowned.  "Your turn to rest," he informed Lee.

"M'fine," he insisted, as Aang made a wind to push the craft along the desert.

"Just lay down," the boy urged, sitting down near Toph.  The older boy shook his head, sitting next to his brother and watching the desert behind him fade away.

Less than five minutes later, he was slumped over, head on Kouji's shoulder, fast asleep.

The boy just shook his head and waited for the ride to be over.

"This compass doesn't seem to be pointing north, according to my charts," Katara said, a little while later.

"Take it easy, little lady," Sokka replied. "I'm sure the sand folks who built this baby know how to get around here."

"How can a compass not point north?" Kouji asked.  "There's no magnets around big enough to—"

"That's what the compass is pointing to!" Katara suddenly shouted. "That giant rock! It must be the magnetic centre of the desert."

"A rock?!" Toph yelped. "Yes! Let's go!"

"Maybe we can find some water there," Katara added.

"Or maybe we can find some sandbenders," Aang said, uncharacteristically vicious.

They had reached the rock and just finished climbing to the top when the sun began to rise.  Lee was still groggy, but he'd woken up when they stopped.

"Finally, solid ground!" Toph said, dropping flat and cutting an angel into the rock.  Kouji watched her, grinning like an idiot.

"Come on, let's explore inside, see if we can't find some water," Katara said.

"Sounds like a plan," the younger boy said, turning to follow the waterbender into the oddly organic tunnels.

Sokka took a deep breath at the entrance. "I think my head is starting to clear out the cactus juice. And look!" He swiped a handful of yellow ooze from the wall and stuck it into his mouth.

"What are you, two?" Lee snapped.

"Tastes like rotten penguin meat!" the other boy said, ignoring him.

"Sokka!" cried Kouji, smacking him on the arm, as he couldn't quite reach the back of the Water Tribesman's head.

"Oh, I feel woozy…"

"You've been hallucinating on cactus juice all day, and then you just lick something you find stuck to the wall of a cave?" Katara yelled at her brother.

"I have a natural curiosity."

"More like a natural stupidity," Kouji snapped, ignoring the quiet hum that had begun under his feet.

"I don't think this is a normal cave," Toph said. "This was carved by something."

"Yeah," Aang said, sounding a little nervous. "Look at the shape."

"There's something… buzzing in here," Toph went on.  "Something that's coming for us."

Lee finally got a good look at the cave. "Out, this is a buzzard-wasp nest!" He picked up his brother again and ran for the entrance.

"Lee, I can run on my own!" Kouji cried — then shrieked as buzzard-wasps followed them right out of the hive.  One dived for him and his brother; without thinking Kouji drew dirt from his bag and lashed it into the creature's compound eyes, utterly destroying one.  The buzzard-wasp cried out and flew off.

Lee put Kouji down. "Stay here!" he said, even though h knew there was precisely zero chance of his brother obeying, then drew his sword to help drive off the buzzard-wasps.

"What are you doing?" Sokka shouted in the background. "That rock almost crushed me!"

"Sorry! I can't tell where they are in the air!" Toph shouted back.

Kouji, however, could.  He launched himself at Toph's rock with a flying kick, dislodging the top half of the rock and taking out another one.  Sokka was slashing at the air, Katara had run out of water, and then one of the wasps grabbed Momo.

"I'm not losing anyone else out here!" Aang shouted, then took off after it.

"Come on, we're going down," Katara yelled, then led the way down the rock, helping Toph aim.  The Fire brothers took the rear, with Lee handling any vulture-wasps Kouji wasn't able to take down on his own. They were at the bottom of the rock, surrounded by giant carrion bugs, when the ground spewed up in a larger semicircle outside the vulture-wasps'. The bugs fled back to their hive. The dust cleared, revealing four of the sand-boats, and several sandbenders.

Aang, looking murderous and accompanied by Momo, landed between the sandbenders and his human friends.  Kouji dropped all the way down to the sand, landing in a bending crouch.  Toph could handle the rock; he'd take the sand.

A man at the fore, with his face unwrapped, was the spokesman.  "What are you doing in our land with a sandbender sailer?" he demanded.  "From the looks of it, you stole it from the Hami tribe."

"We found the sailer buried in the desert," Katara explained. We're travelling with the Avatar. Our bison was stolen, and we have to get to Ba Sing Se."

The younger man standing next to the spokesman took offence to this statement.  "You dare accuse our people of theft while you ride in on a stolen sand sailer?"

"Quiet, Ghashiun!" snapped the spokesman.  "No one accused our people of anything!  If what they say is true, we must give them hospitality!"

"It's true, all right," snarled Kouji.  "I saw sandbenders take our bison!"

Ghashiun glared at the smaller boy and hissed a threat under his breath.  Lee took a step forward, swords still out and shimmering faintly with vulture-wasp innards, a silent challenge.  Ghashiun countered, clearly intending to fight back, but the spokesman again snapped his name, and the teen stood down.  "Sorry, father."

Toph's eyes widened. "I recognize the son's voice," she said. "He's the one that stole Appa."

"Are you sure?" Katara asked, hushed.

"I never forget a voice."

The wind picked up. "You stole Appa," Aang snapped, pushing through his friends. "Where is he? What did you do with him?"

"They're lying!" Ghashuin insisted.  "They're the thieves!"

"Bisonshit!" Kouji snarled in return.

Before anyone else could add to the verbal confrontation, Aang destroyed one of the other sand sailers. "Where is my bison?"

Wide-eyed, Kouji darted back, away from Aang's left side, back to his brother; Lee shifted position, ready to scoop Kouji up and run when Aang snapped further. It was bound to happen soon.

"You tell me where he is now!" Aang snapped, destroying another sand-sailer.

"What did you do?" the spokesman demanded of his son, sounding coldly angry.

"I-it wasn't me!" Ghashuin protested.

"You said to put a muzzle on him!" Toph snapped.

"You muzzled Appa?" Aang started glowing.

Lee threw Kouji over his shoulders and bolted, trying to circle around the rock and get it between him and Aang. It was likely to be at least slightly safer.  "Lee!" Kouji cried as the last sand-sailer was destroyed and Ghashuin tried, far too late, to apologise and explain himself.  Lee just kept running, until the wind died down. He stumbled to a halt, gasping for air.

Kouji wiggled loose, landing on the sand with a soft thump and looking up at his brother worriedly.  "Are you all right?"

"Fine… M'fine…," the older boy said, panting. "Katara's… probably calmed him… by now…"

Kouji nodded, pushing himself to his feet and shaking the sand out of his hair.  "Should we go back, then?"

Lee cocked his head, trying to listen over his own heavy breathing to see if there was any more Aang-related violence going on.  Instead, they could hear Katara calling for them.  "Guess so," Kouji answered his own question.  He reached for Lee's hand.

Lee nodded, his breathing slowly returning to normal. He took his brother's hand. "Let's see if they found us a way out."

Next Chapter

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

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