Zuko didn't say much while they were flying to the Western Air temple and setting up their camp. It wasn't until those tasks were taken care of that he took a deep breath and turned to Kouji. "Wait here. If I'm not back by sunrise, quietly get your things together and leave."

Kouji blinked.  "I want to go with you," he objected.

The older boy just shook his head. "It might get messy."

"And then you'll need back-up," Kouji pointed out.

He shook his head again. "No. I don't want a fight."

"Why would my being there make it a fight?"

"Just wait here. If I'm not back by sunrise, leave." Zuko started off.

Kouji growled.  If Zuko wasn't back by sunrise, he would go get him himself.

Be mindful of your ego, boy, Hyo's voice rang in his head.  Yes, you have the power and you're getting the skill, but never assume you'll be stronger than your opponents.

Remember, nothing is more helpful to you than the element of surprise.  It was apparently Ichiro's turn now.  Get in, overwhelm 'em, get out before they recover.

The boy sighed.  Please be back by sunrise…

He didn't have to worry. Zuko was back long before sunset.

Kouji looked up, then ran to him.  "Niisan?"

"Hi," Zuko replied, sounding rather dejected.

"…what happened?" Kouji asked, frowning.

"They told me to leave."

"…oh."

The prince sighed, and was silent for a long moment, then said, "I'm going for a walk."

"Can I come this time?"

"I guess."

Kouji brightened a little and walked a pace or so behind Zuko.  The older boy just wandered aimlessly, absently picking up twigs and incinerating them.  Kouji cleared up the ashes in Zuko's wake, burying them in earth.  As the sun set, Zuko headed back to their camp and put dinner together while Kouji practised some of the things he'd learned from Hyo.  He was getting very good at the rock gloves.

"You should get some sleep," Zuko said, after they were done eating.

"So early?" Kouji countered.

Zuko didn't really have a response for that. He fell silent, staring at the fire.  The boy sighed, then got up to go through his sandbending katas, then caved in and went to bed.  Zuko didn't join him in the tent for two or three hours after that; when he did, Kouji opened his eyes and turned sleepily to him.  "Mm?"

Go back to sleep," he said, quietly, curling up to do the same.

"'Kay."  Kouji closed his eyes and drifted away again; he wasn't sure how long he was out before he felt someone approach.  His eyes snapped open, then he smiled.  Not a grown person.  Maybe one of the Avatar's friends had had a change of heart?  He reached out to wake his brother-prince.

Zuko jerked awake before he touched him. "Who's there?" he called out, sounding almost scared.

"It's okay, Zu," Kouji said quickly.  "I think it's one of the Avatar's friends."

Zuko froze in the middle of lashing out, rubbed at his eyes, and just made the campfire bigger.

It was Toph.

Kouji's eyes widened, and he flushed.  "Um.  H-hi," he said.

"Hi. I came to talk to you," she said, turning to Zuko.

"We'll leave tomorrow," he said, quickly. "You guys made yourselves clear earlier."

"Yeah, they're all idiots," Toph said, shrugging and plopping down onto the ground.

"Well, our encounters with them haven't exactly been the best," Kouji pointed out.  He refused to think of what had happened in the crystal catacombs of Ba Sing Se.

"Yeah, I know. Still." She tilted her head. "Why'd you send the assassin?"

Kouji blinked.  Assassin?  "Wait, what?"

Zuko flushed. "I… kind of panicked."

"Niisan!"

The older boy flushed even darker. "When we got back, my sister told Dad that I'd killed the Avatar. I… I thought that m-maybe there was a chance he wasn't dead, and if Dad found out he'd flip out and think I was a spy and then I'd be questioned and what would happen to Kouji and ow!" He rubbed at his shoulder, which Toph had just hit with a rock.

"Stop babbling. It's really annoying."

"That doesn't mean you have to throw rocks at him," Kouji pointed out.  His heart was racing, though, at the new knowledge.  But he didn't have a choice… he had me to look after.  His heart tried to take him through a guilt trip, but he ruthlessly stopped it.  Azula would have killed you if you hadn't gone.  It is in no way your fault.

"How else was I supposed to get him to shut up?" Toph asked, in tones of perfect reasonableness, then turned back to Zuko. "Don't leave tomorrow. Come back, I'll sink all of you if I have to to get you to just sit down and talk. It might not be enough for Katara, but Sokka will follow Aang's lead, and I think Aang'll cave if you tell him what you just told me. Okay?"

"It makes sense," Kouji replied, looking up at his brother.  "Niisan?"

Zuko hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Okay. Okay, I'll come back tomorrow."

The smaller boy smiled brightly, then frowned again.  He didn't want to have to stay behind and wait while Zuko did all the negotiating.

"All right. Until then." Toph stood up and wandered off again. Zuko returned to staring at the fire.

Still flushing, Kouji watched her go.  Zuko said nothing, just watching the fire.

"She's beautiful," Kouji said at last, then curled up to go back to sleep.

When he woke the next morning, Zuko was already gone, headed off for the temple and his second attempt at talking his way into the Avatar's inner circle.  This did not please Kouji, and he announced his displeasure to a nearby toad, using such words as 'idiot', 'hot-headed', 'ninja', and 'unthinking'.

The toad croaked unconcernedly.

And then something off in the distance exploded.

Kouji whirled, his eyes going wide.  That came from the temple!  "NIISAN!"  He pelted for the temple as fast as his short legs could carry him, hearing several more explosions on the way.  When he got there, the dust was clearing, and Zuko was nowhere to be seen.

"Niisan!  Niisan!"  Kouji tried to find Zuko with his earthbending.

Nothing.

"NIISAAAAAAAAAAN!" the boy screamed, the rocks around his feet starting to vibrate.  Where was he!?

Finally, finally, after a few more endless, nightmarish seconds, Zuko appeared over the edge of a broken temple walkway and pulled himself up onto it.  So palpable was Kouji's relief that he sat down hard,  his legs no longer capable of holding him up.  "NIISAN!" he yelled across the way to his brother.

Zuko looked over, a little shaky himself. "Hey, Kouji," he called back. "Just a minute." He turned back to the Avatar and his friends.

Kouji sighed and tried to convince his legs to work.  "I hate being left out," he sulked.

A few minutes later, Zuko, with the Avatar, came over on the sky bison. The younger boy dropped Zuko off. "See you in a bit, then," he said, a little awkwardly, before heading back to his friends.

Kouji launched himself at Zuko, clinging tightly.  "What happened?"

Zuko hugged him back, briefly and a little awkward. "The assassin showed up. I fell off the temple."

The boy shot his brother a horrified glance.  "You fell off?"

"Only a little," Zuko said hastily.

"…that makes no sense at all."

"I caught myself on a vine right away," he amended.

Kouji sighed and clung even tighter.

"We should go get our stuff," Zuko said, after a minute.

"Yeah, okay," Kouji agreed, releasing Zuko.

Together, they headed back to their campsite and collected their things before returning to the temple. Sokka was waiting for them.  "Um.  Hi?" Kouji said.

"Hey," he said, then shifted awkwardly. "So. Um. I can show you your rooms."

"Room," Kouji corrected him.

"…okay, then." Wrapped in an awkward silence, he led them to their room, finally speaking again when they got there. "So. Here you go. Home sweet home, I guess, you know, for now. Unpack, lunch soon, uh… welcome aboard?"

"Thanks," Kouji said, rubbing his brow.

Zuko just nodded and even managed a faint, slightly nervous smile.

"…yeah" Sokka slipped out.

"This is going to be incredibly awkward, isn't it?" Kouji asked Zuko.

"Hopefully, that'll go away in a while…" Zuko said, though he didn't sound convinced.

And then Katara came into the room. She grabbed Zuko's wrist and dragged him out of the room, obviously wanting to say whatever was on her mind without Kouji overhearing.

"…thanks for asking?" Kouji said to the empty air.  He shook his head and tested the floor.  Hrm.  He hadn't worked this kind of stone before…  Changing his stance, he slammed his hands out to either side; stone obediently peeled from the walls to cover the backs of his hands and then, as he turned his wrists, the fronts.    "Ooh, I like it!"  He admired his new rock gloves.

Zuko returned less than a minute later, very tense.

What's that pulse? Kouji wondered.  "Niisan?  What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong," Zuko lied, then ran a hand through his hair and muttered something under his breath.

Hesitantly, Kouji gave him a hug.  "You're sure?"

"Yeah. Sure."

*           *           *

The next morning, when Zuko and Aang went off to start working on firebending, Toph snatched Kouji and dragged him quite a ways off. "Show me what you got," she said.

Kouji shrugged.  "Okay."  He drew his sand from his bag and went through his sandbending kata, since they were what he was most used to — never mind he'd stolen the idea from waterbending originally. 

"Can you work with stuff besides sand?" she cut him off after about five minutes of this.

"Sure.  It's what I'm most used to, is all."  He drew his sand in again smoothly, then started to go through the kata he'd been taught by Hyo.

"…Those are Dai Li tricks," she said after about ten seconds.

Kouji paused.  "You picked that one up fast."

"I've fought enough Dai Li to know how they work," she replied.

He nodded.  "Makes sense.  One of them trained me in secret in the Fire Nation."

She tilted her head. "Why?"

Kouji opened his mouth, then frowned.  "I… 'm not entirely sure," he said at last.  "Hyo and his nephew caught me sneaking out to bend.  Kim and I had a fight, but Hyo stopped it before I could get hurt.  We talked, and he told me he'd take over my training."

Toph considered this for a long moment, then sighed. "I guess they're just like any group, though probably with a higher amount of psychos than most. What with the whole secret police mindbending thingy they did."

Kouji shuddered.  "Niisan told me about that.  Hyo… well, we talked about it, after.  I got the feeling he didn't really like it — but that he was in the minority."

"How'd Sparky find out?" Toph asked.

"Overheard Kim."  Not the full truth, but Kouji really didn't want to go there.

She nodded. "Right."

Kouji eyed her.  "Is… the whole Dai Li thing a problem?"

"Not for me," she assured him. "But I'd stick to less creepy bending around the others, at least for now. Aside from maybe issues, it's always good to have a secret weapon." She grinned at him.

Kouji flushed dark red.  "Y-y-yeah.  I p-prefer m-m-my sandbending a-anyway…"

"Good. …Although sandbenders did kidnap Appa a while back…  Oh, well. I'll show you some other stuff."

"I guess A-Appa and I have something in common."

"Oh?"

Kouji laughed a little sheepishly.  "We had to cross the desert, too, to get to Ba Sing Se.  We'd just barely crossed it when I got kidnapped by sandbenders."

"Ouch. How'd you get away?"

"I didn't," he admitted.  "Their leader and I came to an agreement: I'd let them train me for a day, and then they'd bring me back.  I think they only took me 'cause he saw me get in a fight with some jerk named Xīn Fù.  He — the sandbender, I mean — could tell I wasn't trained."  Kouji flushed.  "And that I was Fire."

"Well, you don't need to worry about Xīn Fù anymore," Toph informed him smugly. "I took care of him. So they just took you out of the desert after the day was over?"

"Pretty much.  With a detour when I saw Zuko."  Kouji shook his head.  "The idiot went in after me with no supplies."

Toph giggled a little. "Yeah, Sparky does seem to be the stupidly impulsive type."

"It drives Uncle mad," Kouji sighed.  "He never thinks, he just— dives in."

"Well, sometimes that's useful."

"Mostly it's almost gotten him killed," Kouji replied softly.  "Especially since I've known him."  He shook his head.  "But that's done.  He's finally starting to use the brain he was born with.  If it hasn't atrophied from disuse, he'll be okay.  What did you want to show me?"

Toph grinned and settled in to pound her lessons into him.

Current Location: my dad's chair
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Tags: au, avatar, fanfic, sf zukoline, small flame

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