Twenty

Kouji was a fairly light sleeper, so it really wasn't much of a surprise that he woke up while Zuko was pulling on his cloak.  "Zu…?" he asked sleepily, rubbing one eye. 

"Go back to sleep," the prince said, curtly. "Something I need to look up."

"'ll go w'th you," Kouji said, starting to sit up.

"No."

The boy stopped and blinked muzzily at him.

"Go back to sleep. I'll be back in a couple hours."

"…kay…"  The young earthbender laid back down and was out in minutes.

Zuko didn't get back until nearly dawn. He slipped in, hung his cloak up, and started pacing, holding something sparkly.

"Wuzzat?"  Kouji was awake again.

"Nothing. Go back to sleep."

"'S'almost mornin'," the boy pointed out now.

"Then don't go back to sleep."

"What's wrong?"  Kouji swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up.

"Nothing." Zuko hadn't stopped pacing.

Kouji watched him, then tried to see what he had in his hands.  It was some kind of glittery hairpiece.  "That's pretty," he commented.

"Yeah. Sure."

Worried, Kouji looked up at him.  His face was oddly blank, closed-off.  Something was very wrong.  "Zuko, what happened?"

"Nothing happened. I read a book."

"Where'd you get the hair piece?"

He didn't answer, and Kouji sighed.  "Can I see it?"

Zuko hesitated a minute, clinging almost protectively to the pretty, then handed it over.  Kouji turned it over in his hands, quietly admiring the workmanship.  It looked antique; no wonder Zuko hadn't wanted to give it up.  When he was done, he quietly returned it to his brother-prince.  Zuko slid it into a pocket and resumed pacing.

Kouji watched him for awhile, then decided a distraction was in order.  "Can I go into the Outer City today?"

"Not alone."

"Will you come with me?"

"Fine, whatever. Wait, what were you asking?"

Patiently Kouji repeated his request to go into the Outer City.  The capital of the Fire Nation was divided into two portions: the Inner City, into which no commoners were permitted to pass without permission from the Firelord, and the Outer City, where first the families of servants and guards had settled, and then merchants.  Today was the first time Kouji had expressed an interest in even leaving palace grounds.

"You can't go alone," Zuko repeated, but he was now paying attention.

"I know," Kouji said.  "You told me.  I want you to come too."

"…Fine. Okay," the prince said, after a moment's thought.

Kouji grinned and hugged Zuko tight.  "I'll go wash and change," he said, and darted off to his own room.

"You can't go 'til after lessons," Zuko called after him.

"Yeah, yeah!" the boy's voice drifted back.

Zuko sighed, touched the pretty in his pocket, then went to get his coffee.

Sure enough, first thing after his lessons, Kouji sought Zuko out, eager to visit the City.  Zuko was out in the pomegranate grove, once again examining the hairpiece.  Kouji climbed up to join him and snagged one of the fruits for himself.  "Hey, Zu," he greeted.

"Hi," he said, absently.

Using his belt knife, Kouji cut into the fruit and happily helped himself to the seeds.  "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, sure."

Kouji beamed and finished his pomegranate quickly, then let himself fall out of the tree.  He landed on his feet and waited for Zuko to come down.  The prince climbed down again a minute later, still obviously distracted.  Wow, thought the boy.  He didn't even scold me for falling.  Undaunted, however, Kouji grabbed Zuko by the hand and started hauling him to the entrance to palace grounds.

"No, wait," he said, pulling Kouji back to the palace. "I want to get something first."

The boy looked up at him and sighed, but nodded.  "Okay."

Zuko pulled him back to his room, where he collected his cloak and some money.  The boy smiled and followed Zuko out.  Zuko pulled the hood over his face and left the palace with the younger boy.  As soon as they hit the Outer City, Kouji pulled Zuko towards the merchants' stalls.

Sighing inwardly and fingering the hairpiece he still had in his pocket, Zuko followed.

"What kind of things does Ty Lee like?" Kouji asked Zuko quietly by one stall, looking through the things that were generally pink and girly.

"Pretty things?" Zuko suggested. "I don't think she's obsessed with shoes. Some girls are obsessed with shoes."

After a few moments, Kouji discovered a pretty arm brace, made of brass and with rose quartz stones set in it.  "Something like this?"

Zuko studied it a couple seconds, then nodded. "Yeah, I think she'd like that."

The boy beamed and turned to the merchant.  "How much is this?"

The merchant quoted him a price, and Kouji looked at Zuko, realising he wasn't sure how this went in the Fire Nation.  In the Earth Kingdom, he bargained a lot of the time, but here…

Zuko quietly took over, and paid for the brace.

Please, Kouji accepted the package and then hugged Zuko.  "Thanks, niisan," he said cheerfully.

"No problem," Zuko said, absently, hand once again in his pocket with the pretty he'd gotten last night.

Now that one thing was out of the way, Kouji seemed content to explore, hauling Zuko about the market and eventually stopping by a pretty girl selling sweet pastries from a basket.  He bought one for him and one for the prince, blushing the whole time, then returned to Zuko with his prizes.

"Thanks," the older boy said absently, accepting the pastry. He was still as distracted as he'd been that morning.

Argh, the earthbender thought.  After another hour or so, he gave up and dragged Zuko back to the palace.

"Sorry," Zuko said, after getting them past the guards between the Inner and Outer Cities.

"Huh?" Kouji asked, looking up at him.

"I haven't been much fun today. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," the boy answered.

"I guess..."

"Besides," Kouji added, smiling, "I got what I needed."  He looked into the bag holding the brace and grinned.

"Why're you buying Ty Lee a present?" he asked.

Kouji flushed lightly.  "Um… well, we talked a little bit at the party, and she was nice, and then she offered to teach me chi-blocking…"

"Oh. Okay, then."

Kouji tilted his head at Zuko.  "Do you think that I l^ike h—"  His voice cracked on the word 'like' and one hand flew to his throat.

Zuko eyed him. "Do you? I thought you were too young to like girls yet..."

Kouji shook his head, flushing darker.  "No!  Not like you and Mai.  Just, y'know, like a friend."

"Okay then." Zuko was silent for a minute. "Y'know, if you do like her--"

"I d_on't," Kouji insisted.  "Not that way.  I'm e^leven.  Girls have cooties."

"Your voice is cracking," Zuko pointed out, smirking a little.

"No ^{it is}n't," and, because the spirits of irony demanded it, Kouji's voice cracked again in the middle of his sentence.

"Is so," Zuko said, smirk widening. "You're growing up!"

"Am not!" Kouji insisted.  "I'm going to be young forever, like Xiāo Bǐ Dé."

"If only," Zuko said, ruffling his hair. "Are you gonna give her that now or wait 'til later?"

Kouji scowled at him and ducked away, though inwardly he was relieved that his brother-prince was finally distracted from whatever he'd been brooding about that day.  "I dunno.  Maybe now, if she's here.  Maybe later."

"Up to you."

Kouji flushed and held the package tight against him.  "I'm going to go wrap this."

"Have fun," Zuko said, ruffling his hair again.

"What're you gonna do?" Kouji asked him, this time not ducking away.

"Drill for a while, then… I dunno. Mai's aunt's in town, and she has to be with her tonight."

Kouji nodded.  "Right."  He reached up and undid his ponytail, letting his hair tumble down to just above his shoulder blades; Zuko's tousling had made his hair messier than Kouji liked.

"You need a haircut," Zuko said, absently, fiddling with the antique hairpiece some more.

"So do you," Kouji countered; Zuko's hair had grown enough that his bangs fell almost to his chin.

"I'm trying to grow it out," he said, pushing the bangs out of his face.

The boy sighed.  "We'll see."

"Okay. Well, if you can't find Ty Lee, you know which practice room I like using," the teenager said.

Kouji flushed.  "Yeah, I know."

"See you later." Zuko ruffled his hair one more time and then headed down to his practice room.

The boy scowled again and moved to his room, smoothing his hair down as he went.

*          *          *

Some hours later he re-emerged, much neater and with a package tucked under his arm.  Carefully he tried to get a feel for where Ty Lee might be, but failed — he'd never really felt her presence on solid ground before, only on sand and on wood.  He would have to look the hard way.  That decided, he slipped outside.

Ty Lee was out by the turtleduck pond, practicing hands-free flips.  Awed, Kouji watched her, feeling it every time she struck the ground and using those brief sensations to teach himself who she was to his bending.  She noticed him pretty quickly. "Hi, Kou-kou!"

The boy flushed at the nickname.  Great.  Half a world from my sister and still I get saddled with that nickname.  "H-Hi, Ty L-Lee," he greeted her.

"What's up?" she asked, bouncing over and balancing on one hand.

"I… uh, I w-wanted to g-give you something," was the reply.

"Oh! Presents! I love presents!" She bounced gleefully to her feet again, and Kouji flushed even darker. 

Shyly, he offered her the package.  "I j-just wanted to thank you for offering t-to teach me…"

"Oh! No problem!" She grinned at him and tore into the package. "Pretty! Thanks, Kou-kou!" She hugged him.

It took him a few tries, but he finally managed to stammer out, "Y-y-y-_y-you're w-w-^welcome…"  He didn't even notice that the sentence came out in three different octaves.

Ty Lee giggled, then checked the sun. "Well, I'm supposed to go diffuse the Awkward between Mai and her mean old auntie, but I can start teaching you tomorrow, if you want?"

"S-sure!" Kouji said eagerly.  "I'd l-like that."

Ty Lee grinned, hugged him again, slipped the jewellery on, then bounced off on her hands.

More than slightly stunned, Kouji wandered off in search of Zuko's practise room.

He found the prince kneeling in the slightly-smoky practice room, shirtless and panting.

"Hi, n-n-niisan," Kouji greeted him, his face still a bit pink.

"It broke..." he whispered.

"What did?"

"It broke," he repeated, helplessly.

Kouji frowned and knelt by Zuko.  "What broke?  What are you talking about?"

He was holding the antique hairpiece, now in pieces. "It broke, I-I don't know what happened, I was drilling, it was in my shirt pocket, I w-wasn't even wearing my shirt, I...it broke..."

The boy blinked a few times.  "….wait, what?  Zu, where'd you even get it?"

"It broke," he said.

"Yes, I know," Kouji said patiently.

"What does this mean?"

"…that it was old and it broke?  Old things break, Zu…"

"But this..."

The boy waited.

"This was important, and I broke it and I don't even know how." Zuko was close to panicking.

"What was it?" Kouji asked again, now a bit impatient.

"I broke it..." the prince repeated, helplessly. "All I had to do was...and then...I broke it..."

"Zuko!  You're not making sense!"

"None of this makes sense! Why didn't he tell me when--" He froze. "...Forget it. Just forget it. It's just a stupid hairpiece. It doesn't matter."

Kouji stared at him.  "…Zuko?"

"What?"

"What happened last night?"

"Nothing. I found out some things that...I just wish I'd been told earlier. But it doesn't matter. It's just a stupid hairpiece." He glared at the pieces.

"…okay?"

"Did you find Ty Lee?" Zuko asked, deliberately changing the subject. Despite what he'd said about the hairpiece not mattering, he slipped the pieces into his pocket.

Kouji's crimson blush was answer enough.

"Good." He stood up and stretched. "I'm gonna drill some more now."

"'Kay."  Kouji retreated to a place out of the way.  Zuko started by running through forms, but it didn't take long for his stress to get the better of him and he broke free of those and just moved.  Utterly mesmerised by the flames, Kouji kept watching him until he was lulled asleep.

Current Location: ARC Cafeteria
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Welcome to the Jungle - Guns 'n Roses
Tags: au, avatar, fanfic, sf zukoline, small flame

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