Soldier's Boy

Twenty-One

Eager to make amends for his son's wrongdoing, the leader of the sandbenders, a man named Sha-Mo, willingly re-supplied the Avatar and his friends and escorted them safely out of the desert.  He also offered to show Kouji and Toph how to sandbend more effectively; both youngsters leapt at the chance.  To nobody's surprise, Kouji left the desert with another bag, this one full of sand instead of dirt.  Another sandbender quietly worked with Lee, showing him a few nasty tricks one could use with dual swords.

A day or two's travel out of the desert, they arrived at a pretty lagoon, where they decided to stop for a couple hours, so Aang and Katara could practice and Sokka could plan their route more effectively. While no one was paying attention, Lee slipped off out of sight — he hadn't yet convinced himself the others weren't going to leave him behind at the earliest opportunity, particularly after Kouji had reminded them of the reasons by using his real name in the desert, and he wanted to make that as easy as possible, when the time came.

Kouji was off to the side with his sand, moving his hands like he'd seen Aang do and trying to create a vortex with the tiny earth particles, with varied results.  "Shit!" he swore after losing control and exploding sand into his face.

Katara was too busy rescuing Sokka's maps from the splash she'd made to reprove him for cursing.  As Sokka carried the maps down to dry land, Kouji gathered his sand and stowed it, then joined the rest of the group.  Lee was still conspicuously absent, but Sokka went ahead anyway.

"So, did you figure out what route we're gonna take?" Aang asked.

"Okay. We just got out of the desert, so we're probably around here. And we need to go to Ba Sing Se, which is here. It looks like the only pass connecting the south to the north is this sliver of land called the Serpent's Pass."

"You're sure that's the best way to go?" Toph asked.

"It's the only way," Sokka reminded her. "I mean, it's not like we have Appa to fly us there."

Kouji flinched.  "I'll go get Lee," he said quickly, as Katara reproved her brother with a hiss.

Lee took a while to find. He'd set himself up on top of the cliff, almost a half-mile back from the pool. He'd set up a noise-trap just out of sight, so he could know if someone was coming.  Kouji spotted it, and deliberately triggered it.  He didn't want to sneak up on his brother.  "Lee?" he called, immediately after.

"Coming," the older boy called back. "Wait there." About five minutes later, he came through the treeline. "What's up?"

"We're getting ready to head out.  Come on," the boy replied, smiling.

"'Kay," Lee said, and followed his brother back to the pool.

"I found him!" Kouji called to the others as soon as they were in earshot, waving one arm over his head.  The others had been found, too, by a man and two women, one of whom was heavily pregnant.

"They're heading for Ba Sing Se, too," Toph updated the brothers. "There's a ferry, we're gonna take that instead. Apparently the Serpent's Pass is a deadly route."

"I guess the library maps are out of date too?" Kouji asked, grinning.

"They are centuries old," Lee pointed out quietly.

The younger boy nodded and laughed.  "Guess we should get moving then, huh?"

Sokka sighed, muttered something rude under his breath, and carefully put his precious maps back in his bag.

The group reached the entrance to Full Moon bay without incident, and went through a tunnel opened by a pair of earthbenders through the cliffs.

They finally got through into the loading area, and Katara stared around. "I can't believe how many people's lives have been uprooted by the Fire Nation…"

Lee flinched and bowed his head, careful not to meet anyone's eyes — his story about his mixed parentage might not fly here.  Kouji moved even closer to Zuko as Than, the male addition of the newcomers, explained, "They're all looking for a better life, safe, within the walls of Ba Sing Se.

"We have to get in line for tickets," Katara said. "Come on, that one looks shortest."

Sighing, Kouji followed behind the others, still clinging to his brother's hand.  His heart was pounding in his chest, and it wasn't Toph's proximity that was causing it.

When they got up to the ticket window, the ugly woman there was yelling at a hapless cabbage merchant. She yelled for the next person, and demanded a passport of Aang.

Kouji's eyes widened, and he tried to remember passport law.  In the Fire Nation, at least, children under twelve didn't need passports… was it the same in the Earth Kingdom?

Apparently, it was. Lee bent down and whispered something to Toph, who nodded, and the two of them came up to interrupt Sokka, in the process of saying something stupid.

"My little brother's ten, I'm sixteen, and he's with me," Lee said, showing the ticket lady his passport. She eyed it, then him, then Kouji, and nodded, handing them two tickets.

Then it was Toph's turn. "My name is Toph Bei Fong and I'll need four tickets."

The woman's eyes widened in an almost hungry fashion. "The golden seal of the Flying Boar! It is my pleasure to help anyone from the Bei Fong family."

"It is your pleasure," Toph said, sounding almost bored. "As you can see, I'm blind, and these three imbeciles are my valets."

"But…the animal…?"

"Is my seeing-eye lemur."

"Well, normally, it's only one ticket per passport, unless you're underage, but… this document is so official…"

Lee, in the background, rolled his eyes.

"I guess it's worth four tickets," the woman concluded.

Kouji looked confused.  "What just happened?" he asked Lee in a whisper.

"Toph fast-talked a bureaucrat," Lee whispered back. "We all got tickets, though. Here, don't lose this." He handed Kouji the smaller of the two he was carrying.  Carefully, the boy tucked his ticket inside his tunic, securing the ties keeping his earth-bags to hold it close to his chest — and his scar.  He flinched a little on feeling it, as usual.

"All right, we scammed that lady good!" Sokka crowed, and then was grabbed from behind by a security guard.

"Tickets and passports, please," she said, holding out a hand.

"Karma doesn't seem to like Sokka very much," Kouji observed, ducking behind Lee to hide from the girl.

"Is there a problem?" Sokka was asking her, nervously.

"Yeah. I got a problem with you." She went on to describe Sokka eerily accurately.

"…I think they've met," Lee whispered.

"I think you're right," Kouji whispered back.

The security guard kissed Sokka on the cheek.

"Suki!" he shouted, grinning like an idiot and throwing his arms around her.

"Definitely knows her," Kouji added, nodding sagely.

Lee shook his head, smiling faintly.

"New friends?" the girl said, finally dragging her attention away from Sokka to note Lee, Toph, and Kouji.

"Yeah. Those are Lee and Kouji, and this is Toph."

"Nice to meet you all," Suki said, bowing. "It'll be a while before you can get on a ferry, here, why don't we find somewhere less crowded to catch up?"

"Sounds good to m-me," Kouji said, cursing his stutter.  He'd thought he was getting better, damn it!

Suki led them to a pagoda on the wall.

"You look so different without your makeup," Katara commented. "And the new outfit…"

"That crabby lady makes all the security guards wear them," Suki said, shrugging. "And look at you, sleeveless guy. Been working out?"

"Eh, I'll grab a treebranch and do a few chin-touches now and then. Nothing major." Sokka was still wearing that idiotic grin.

"So, where d-did you m-meet before?" Kouji asked, having seated himself next to his brother.

"Last winter, Aang brought us to Kyoshi Island so he could ride giant koifish," Katara explained. Sokka and Suki were too wrapped up in making googly eyes at each other to reply. "Suki's the head of the Kyoshi Warriors. They ambushed us and tied us to a pole, thinking we were spies."

Kouji's grey eyes widened appreciatively.  "The Kyoshi Warriors?  I've heard of them."  Granted, they had largely been tied into rants of his father's, but Ichiro had heard a tale or two from travellers.  Late at night, when their parents wouldn't overhear, he would recount those stories for his younger siblings.

Katara nodded, while Suki explained how she and the other warriors had come to Full Moon Bay.

And then came the inevitable question about Appa.

Kouji flinched and leaned into Lee; losing Appa still hurt, even though he and Toph had done everything they could.  Lee squeezed his hand reassuringly while Katara gave an abbreviated explanation of what had happened and Suki tried to ask if he was ok.

"Avatar Aang!" someone called from below.  It was Ying, Than's wife.

Someone had stolen their belongings.

Aang went to talk to the ticket lady — with no luck. She refused to grant the little family new tickets.

"Don't worry," he told them, after being spat on and shoved away. "You'll get to the city safely. I'll lead you through the Serpent's Pass."

Kouji rubbed his temples.  "Strikes me as somewhat counterproductive, this," he commented to Lee.

"I'd be staying with her even if Aang hadn't offered," Lee said quietly. "I know in theory how to deliver a baby, and if she goes into labor with no one to help and there's any complications…"

"I didn't mean going with them," the boy quickly clarified.  "I meant the red tape.  How many folks do you think get stranded here weekly because their stuff was stolen?  There's plenty of bandits out there who love refugees."

"Ba Sing Se is an infamous bureaucracy. Our town didn't have an inn, so my mom would sometimes host travellers. They'd tell stories about where they came from, sometimes. I didn't hear much good about Ba Sing Se."

Kouji sighed.  "Everything I know is about the walls."

"Those got good reports," Lee admitted. "Only penetrated once."

"Only the outer wall, and it took the Dragon of the West to do that," Kouji agreed.  "I never did find out why he gave up after that."

"His son died."

Kouji looked up at Lee, and then he remembered who the Dragon of the West was — General Iroh, formerly the crown prince of the Fire Nation and Lee's — no, Zuko's — uncle.  "Oh."

"So he kind of melted down, and broke off the siege." Lee stared at his hands.

Kouji leaned into his brother.  "Sorry," he whispered.

Lee just shrugged.  Kouji turned his attention to the madhouse, and mentally started listing ways to overall improve the design, wait times, and procedures for stolen goods.  The group gathered up with Than, Ying, and the other woman, and started heading out for the pass.

"I can't believe we gave up our tickets and now we're going through the Serpent's Pass," Sokka whined, having conveniently forgotten the pass had been his original idea, before they'd found out about the ferry.

"I can't believe you're still complaining about it," Toph shot back.

"I can," Lee muttered.

"Just suck it up," Kouji snapped at Sokka.  He'd grown cranky knowing that he could improved everything here, but that nobody would listen to a child his age.

"I'm coming, too!" Suki ran up to them, now wearing what must be her Kyoshi Warrior uniform. Lee privately forgave Sokka for not recognizing her, she looked like a completely different person with the makeup and the looser headdress.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sokka asked, worriedly.

"Sokka, I thought you'd want me to come," Suki replied, slightly puzzled.

"I do, it's just…"

"Just what?"

"…Nothing. I'm glad you're coming."

Kouji's eyes widened.  Yue…, he thought.

Lee frowned, watching Sokka and clearly coming to a similar conclusion.

After a half-hour of walking, they came to the entrance to the pass. Predictably, Sokka found something wrong with it: "This is the Serpent's Pass? I thought it would be more windy. You know, like a serpent. I guess they misnamed it."

"Stop whinging, Sokka!" Kouji snapped at him.  "For the love of the spirits!"

"Look at this writing," interrupted Ying.  "How awful!"

"What does it say?" Toph asked.

Katara went up to see. "It says 'Abandon hope.'"

"How could we abandon hope?" asked the heavily pregnant woman.  "It's all we have!"  She turned to sob into Than's shoulder.

It's probably graffiti, thought Kouji, running his fingers over the carved characters.  "Ow!"  He put his index finger into his mouth and sucked, trying to get the splinter out.

"Here, let me," Lee said, quietly, pulling Kouji's hand out of his mouth.

"Okay," the boy replied.  Luckily, the splinter was large and not in too deep, and thusly took only a minute or so to pick out.

Aang, in the background, was going on about how the monks had taught him that hope was a distraction, and that maybe it was better to do as the graffiti said. Katara objected to this bleak philosophy, and he shot her down with cold practicality.

"It was probably just some smartass who was pissed he couldn't get across," Kouji said, regarding the message.  "There's nothing wrong with hope, as long as you don't expect that to be the only thing that gets you across."

"Arguing about it certainly isn't going to get us across," Lee pointed out, when Aang looked ready to prolong the debate. "Let's just get moving."

"I'm for that," agreed the younger boy.  With that said, they all started across.

Aside from when Than nearly fell and the resulting small rockslide attracted the attention of a patrol ship, the first day through the path was precarious, but uneventful. Suki was almost crushed when a stone launched from a catapult hit the cliff above their head. After Sokka moved out of the way, Toph neatly deflected the debris from his head. Rather than thanking her, the teenager frantically tried to make sure Suki was unhurt.

"Thanks for saving my life, Toph. Hey, no problem Sokka," Toph muttered sulkily.

"Don't mind him," Kouji told her quietly.  "He's being stupidly overprotective."

"Why? The Kyoshi Warriors are badass enough that I've heard of them. And Suki's their head!"

Kouji checked to be sure Sokka was out of hearing range before telling Toph about Princess Yue.  Toph sighed, and dropped the subject, slightly less sulky.

Finally, as the sun began to set, they made camp.  Kouji moved away from the crowd so he could work on his sandbending some more without accidentally hurting anyone.  Sokka again demonstrated his overprotectiveness when Suki started setting up her bed. Lee settled himself on a ledge to keep watch.  As the night grew later, Kouji succeeded in the amazingly useless bending move of orbiting two separate rings of sand around his body in opposite directions.  Lee called for him to go get some sleep.

Kouji went five minutes more, then put the sand away and joined his brother.  Less than a minute later he was fast asleep, his back pressed against Lee's leg.  When he woke up the next morning, Lee hadn't moved, and, by the looks of things, hadn't slept — not an unusual occurrence when his mother was brought up for whatever reason.

Nobody save for the trio of refugees were really in a good mood that morning — Aang was cranky, Suki and Sokka were stiff and awkward, Lee hadn't slept, and Kouji wasn't a morning person by any means.  They got moving quickly and sullenly, making little conversation as they passed around food supplies that didn't need cooking — a fire might give away their position again.

Once all were fed, they headed out.  Sometime around mid-morning, they came to the end of the path — but not the pass.    There was an opening in the middle, wide enough to make swimming across a bad idea.  Kouji groaned.  Katara stared down at the water, then called back. "Everyone, single-file." She waded into the water, beginning to form a bubble so they could have air as they walked across the bottom of the water.

Kouji didn't even protest when Lee pushed him into the middle of the group, behind Ying.  The sooner they were on the other side, the better.  Their trek under the water was eerie, but almost beautiful, given them a window into a world few got the chance to see. Lee was particularly uncomfortable walking on a level with a school of fish, and resisted the urge to bolt for the surface.

Momo, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind, and dove from Toph's shoulder into the water to chase after the fish.  Lee flinched a little, and moved to the centre of the bubble, for once not insisting on scouting or playing rearguard.

Then the bubble went dark, as something very large swam first past them, and then into the bubble, bursting it. Toph quickly raised them above the survace so the wouldn't drown, leaving them in almost as bad a position — they were now isolated, on a tiny island of rock, with the thing circling them ominously.  With a yelp, Kouji threw himself at Lee, holding tight to his brother.

Lee, too relieved to be out of the water for rational thought or attempts to attack the creature, clung right back.

The creature burst up out of the water, long, sinuous, and green, probably the source of the name for the pass. Sokka totally lost his head and tried to offer it Momo to appease it. Aang slapped its head out of the way with a burst of air. "I'll distract it. Katara, get everyone across." He shot off to fly around the creature's head while Katara made an ice bridge across the rest of the flooded portion of the pass.

Kouji stepped onto the ice, then yelped and darted back.  "Cold!"

Lee pulled off his shoes and tossed them at Kouji. "Put these on. I'll go last, in case Aang and Katara need help." The waterbender had shot off to help fight the serpent as soon as the bridge was made.

Kouji nodded and started shuffling across — Lee's shoes were too large for him.  Halfway there, he stopped and turned.  "Toph, come on!"

"I'm gonna stay on my little island where I can see," she said, nervously, then yelped when the serpent landed on the back of the island with a crash, missing Lee by millimetres. "Okay, I'm coming!" she yelped again.

"I'll be right behind you," Lee promised, following her onto the bridge.

Kouji swore, but pressed on carefully.  Swimming was not one of his strong suits.  When Kouji was barely two feet away from the other side, the serpent crashed down again, between him and Toph and Lee, plunging the latter two in water over their heads, and Kouji in nearly to his neck.  Than was quick to fish Kouji out before the small boy could panic; farther away, they could hear Toph screaming that she couldn't swim.

"It's okay, I can, I've got you," Lee shouted. "Stop strugg — ow!" Flailing Toph had blacked his eye. He finally managed to get a good grip on her, and swam the rest of the way across to join the others.

Kouji helped Toph and Lee out of the water while Katara and Aang finished taking care of the sea serpent.  "Well, that was fun.  Let's never do that again," he said, then sneezed.

"You okay?" Lee asked, worried.

"I'm cold and wet," Kouji replied sulkily.

"Here, I can help," Katara said, rejoining them and pulling the water out of Kouji, Lee, and Toph's clothes. 

"Thanks," the boy said, then threw himself at his brother.  Toph, not yet released by Lee, found herself also involved in Kouji's enthusiastic embrace. 

Lee hugged back as best he can, then gently pushed his brother away. "Need to move on," he panted, setting Toph down. No one argued, and, a couple minutes later, when Lee got his breath back, they pressed on. By early afternoon, Sokka spotted the wall — they'd made it through the pass successfully.

"Now it's nothing but smooth sailing to Ba Sing Se!" Sokka said, excitedly.

On cue, Ying doubled over as much as she could, crying out, "Oh, no!"

"What's wrong?" Sokka asked, almost resignedly. Lee eyed the heavily pregnant woman, and started digging in his bag to see if any of the supplies he was still carrying were dry enough to be useful.

"The baby's coming."

Than and his sister helped Ying to lie down while Sokka predictably began to freak out.  Kouji smacked him.  "Calm down," Katara agreed. "I helped Gran-Gran deliver lots of babies back home. Lee, do you know…?"

"I only helped once," the teenager said, having given up the supplies in his bag as a lost cause until they could dry out.

"Then we can handle it," Katara said, ignoring her brother's further hysterical protests. "Aang, gets some rags. Sokka, water. Toph, I need you and Kouji to make an earth tent. A big one."

Together the two youngsters did as they were asked, and then were banished from the tent while Suki, Katara, and Lee went inside to help with the delivery.  Sokka finally brought the water long enough later that Katara was starting to get irritated. He walked into the earth tent with it…and promptly fainted.

Rolling his eyes, Kouji used earthbending to drag him out.  "Sozin's balls," he muttered.  Fortunately, Lee didn't overhear.

After that, it wasn't long before Ying had her daughter. Katara cleaned her off, and Sokka came to after a couple minutes.

"So, you wanna go see the baby, or are you going to faint like an old lady again?" Toph asked him.

"No, no. I'm good this time." He stood up and followed her into the tent.

Kouji stayed outside with Aang, staring up at the sky, and Katara poked her head out. "Aang, Kouji, you have to come see this."

Ying was holding the infant, who was tiny and adorable, as such things tend to be.

"She sounds healthy," Toph said.

"She's beautiful," Katara agreed.

"It's so… squishy looking," Sokka said, staring at the baby.

"What should we name her?" Than asked his wife.

"I want our daughter's name to be unique," she replied. "I want it to mean something."

"I've been going through a really hard time lately," Aang said, coming further into the tent. "But you made me…hopeful again."

Ying looked at Aang for a minute, then at her husband, before looking down at the baby.  "I know what I want to name our baby now," she said quietly.  "Hope."

"That's a perfect name," Than agreed.  "Hope."

Current Location: ARC Cafeteria
Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Beauty and the Beast
Tags: au, avatar, fanfic, soldier's boy