Yui very much hated the Boiling Rock.  It was hot all the time, she couldn't cool off in the water — or even touch it — her clothes were always drenched in sweat, and she only ever got to see 'Chiro when it was late at night and he snuck her food.  This wasn't going to last, she knew.  All it would take would be one observant guard on the gondola…

Even the night was sweltering.

The eleven-year-old let out a vexed sigh.  Too hot and too humid to sleep.  Why did I leave with 'Chiro again? she wondered.

And then she heard a splash, followed by a number of thuds.

What the—?

She crouched low to the ground and crept towards the sound, where she could make out the sound of muffled voices.

"…might be a one-way ticket," one of the voices was saying.  She peeked over a rock to see two young men, one in red and gold, the other in blue and white.  She had no idea who the dusky one in blue was, but the one in red she knew very well.

Prince Zuko!

"You knew this would happen, and you wanted to come anyway?" the other boy asked, more resigned than exasperated.

While the pair of them argued, Yui crept quietly closer, annoyed at the lack of trees.  She felt much better watching from above than from behind. 

"Aak!" the unfamiliar boy said, interrupting himself mid-sentence as he turned around, scooping up some of the balloon's canvas.

"What is it?" the prince asked, turning around himself, then went very still and quiet. "…oh."

Harder to be caught if you're above, too.  Yui sighed and stood up.  "Hi," she said, giving the one in blue a wave and bowing deeply to the prince, who flinched a little and turned away.

"…she looks like Kouji!" the one in blue said, after staring for a minute.

"That would be because he's my twin," she informed him.  "I'm Yui."

"Nice to meet you," he replied, grinning, then turned back to Zuko. "Anyway, like I was saying, my plans never work. So this time I'm playing it by ear. So there."

The older boy had lost interest in the argument, though. "Yeah, okay." He went over to help push the wrecked balloon into the lake.

Yui tilted her head, watching this.  "So… why are you out here, anyway?"

"To rescue my dad," the boy in blue explained.  "I'm Sokka, by the way."

"Oh."  This made perfect sense to her.  She sat down on one of the rocks and tilted her head up to regard the two of them.  "Given that it's only two of you… I guess you'll be wanting guard uniforms?"

"That'd help, yeah. Um. Do these uniforms come with faceplates?" Sokka asked, eyeing Zuko.

"Face-covering helmets."  She eyed the both of them, then shook her head.  "Too bad you're both so short."

"What do you mean?" the younger boy asked.

"My big brother is a guard here," she explained.  "But he's tall.  His uniforms wouldn't fit you."

Zuko closed his eyes and continued to say nothing.

"Well, then, we'll just have to steal some from storage," Sokka said. "Where's storage?"

"In the fortress.  Ichi-ni should be by soon, though."

"Oh. Okay. then, we can wait," Sokka said.

Yui smiled.  "Come on.  I'll show you where I meet him."

"All right." Sokka smiled back, and the two boys followed her.

Nimbly the girl scrambled along the craggy coast until they reached an alcove deep enough that a small person could hide inside even in broad daylight.  A pillow and blanket were stowed within, as well as a change of clothing and a number of long, thin strips of metal that rather looked like lock picks.

Fortunately, it was night, for, while Zuko and Sokka were shorter than her brother, they weren't small enough to fit inside.  They didn't have very long to wait; it wasn't seven minutes before they heard a crunch of gravel.

Zuko quietly retreated into the shadows, but Sokka stepped forward.

There was a pause.  "Yui?"

Yui stepped up by Sokka.  "It's okay, Ichi-ni," she said quietly.  "They're friends with Kouji."

A pause, then a small flame lit, illuminating what Kouji would look like in about five or six years.  The only difference was the golden eyes.  The newcomer had half a head on Zuko, and he had a small bundle in his free hand.  One sable brow was lifted in a questioning look.

Zuko retreated deeper into the shadows, and Sokka took another step forward. "Hi," he said. "I'm Sokka. Zuko thinks my dad's probably here, I'm here to rescue him, and he's here 'cause he invited himself along and I couldn't fly the balloon by myself and it would have been a little bit stupid to take Appa."

"I followed maybe half of that, but I've got the gist," said Yui's brother.  "I'm Ichiro."

"So, Ichi-ni, can you help them?" the girl asked.

He laughed and ruffled her hair.  "You don't need to ask, sis."

"Great! That's great!" Sokka said, grinning.

The fire in Ichiro's hand increased slightly, and he walked around Sokka.  "Okay.  I definitely know we've got your size."  He glanced over to Zuko.  "Prince?"

"Not anymore," the other boy said quietly.

"Zuko, then.  C'mere.  I can't estimate your size when you're sitting."

He quietly stood up and walked over.  Ichiro repeated his earlier performance, then snuffed the flame.  "Okay, I can get both of you taken care of.  Just one thing when you're in?"

"Yeah?" Sokka asked.

"Don't go to mentioning the bending.  Nobody knows I can do it."

Zuko just nodded.

"Thanks.  There's just so much more I could get busted for."  The taller teen sounded positively gleeful when he said this.

Yui rolled her eyes.  "Biggest flame, Ichi-ni."

"It'd take a tsunami."

Sokka laughed. "Okay. So, what's the best way to sneak in?"

"I'll show you when I go get the uniforms.  Come with me."

"Right," he said. Zuko just nodded again.

"Yui, you too.  They changed the locks."

The girl nodded and gathered the bits of metal, tucking them into the armlet she wore.  This done, Ichiro led the three of them to the route he used to sneak in and out of the prison.  Once inside, he brought them to a storeroom, where Yui examined the lock, then selected one of her metal bits and got to work.

Zuko, rather than hovering, the way Sokka was, slipped over to the end of the hallway to keep an eye out.  A few agonising minutes, then the lock clicked and the door opened without a fuss.  Ichiro passed the uniforms to Sokka and Zuko, then said a few quiet words in his sister's ear.  She pouted at him, then slipped off.

The two boys changed quickly, just barely in time — a crowd of guards ran past the door. "You three, come on! Scuffle in the prison yard!" one of them shouted as he ran by.

"Oh gods, not again," muttered Ichiro.  He jerked his head and led the way down back outside, where a crowd of men and women in prison uniforms had formed a circle around something. 

The taller boy pushed his way through easily, Sokka and Zuko in his wake, and they and the other guards formed another ring around the combatants — a prison guard, and one of the prisoners.  That prisoner, a big man taller than even Ichiro, said, "I didn't do anything!  I'm going back to my cell."

The involved guard lashed out at the prisoner with a whip of fire. "Stop right there, Chit Sang."

Zuko stepped forward, clearly intending to get involved, but both Ichiro and Sokka grabbed one of the former prince's arms, halting him.  "We can't blow our cover," Sokka hissed at him.

Reluctantly, Zuko stepped back as the guard went on. "I've had it with your unruly behaviour."

"Well, maybe if you'd stop baiting the poor bastard…," Ichiro muttered under his breath.

"What did I do?" Chit Sang demanded.

"He wants to know what he did," the guard said, rolling his eyes and turning to the three boys. "Isn't that cute?"

"Absolutely, sir," Ichiro replied quickly, nudging Zuko.

"Uh… very cute, sir," Zuko said, not looking at him.

"Super cute," Sokka added.

Satisfied, the man went back to Chit Sang. "You didn't bow down when I walked by, Chit Sang."

"What?" the big prisoner demanded.  "That's not a prison rule."

"I swear to Agni that bastard gets off on pushing him around," muttered Ichiro.

Zuko just glared at them, fists clenched at his sides.

"Do it," the guard growled, glaring up at Chit Sang.

"Make me," he replied, eyes narrowing.

"Shouldn't've done that, you big lug."  Ichiro seemed to have a habit of commenting on things.

The guard smirked and walked away. Once he'd gotten a suitable distance, he spun around lashing out with the fire-whip again.

The other boys had to restrain Zuko again as Chit Sang spun, grabbing hold of the fire and shooting it back at the guard.  "Idiot!" Ichiro breathed.

The guard dispelled it easily, shaking his head and clicking his tongue. "Firebending is prohibited. You're going in the cooler." He then turned to Sokka. "You! Help me bring him in."

Next to Zuko, Ichiro shuddered.  The erstwhile prince watched them go, fists still clenched.

"Meet back here in an hour," Sokka hissed, then sped off after the other guard and the prisoner.

"Follow me," the colonist said quietly to Zuko, intending to lead him out of the way, to somewhere the prince could vent if need be.

He shook his head. "I'm going to go ask around about his dad."

Ichiro sighed.  "Right.  See you in an hour, then."

Zuko nodded and slipped off.

The colonist watched him go, then went off to practise his non-bending fighting until it was time to meet again.  When the time came, he moved back outside, joining the two infiltrators.  Sokka had gotten there first, with Zuko only a minute or two behind. The older of the two was saying something about clouds and silver sandwiches that made very little sense.

"…did I come at a bad time?"

"Maybe we haven't failed after all!" Sokka cut off Zuko's answer, jumping up and running to the railing.

"That's the spirit," Zuko said. "…I can't believe that worked. I didn't even know what I was saying."

"No, what you said made no sense at all," Sokka said tactlessly. "But, look! It's Suki!"

Ichiro's attention was caught.  "Wait, you know the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors?"

"Prisoners, back to your cells!" someone shouted in the background, and the yard emptied.

"Yeah!" Sokka answered delightedly, staring after her before shooting off.

"Sokka, wait!" Zuko hissed, then tore off after him.

Ichiro watched them go.  "Why is Zuko the sane one?" he asked the empty air, then sighed.  It was his turn for perimeter duty.  He'd catch up with the pair of them later.

*           *           *

"You did what!?"

"It wasn't my fault!" Sokka protested. "It just sort of… happened!"

Ichiro rubbed his temples.  "Sokka, if you'd told me she was your girlfriend, I could have snuck you in to see her at a time when no guards would be coming by!"

"I didn't want to wait," Sokka admitted, sheepishly. "Besides, maybe the people here haven't figured out he defected yet. And even if they have, it'll take time for them to send a message back. He should be okay."

"Sokka?  I know he defected.  Everyone else here does too.  All we've got going for us is that he's not going to talk."  The taller boy ran a hand through his spiky black hair.  "Getting him and your girlfriend out won't be easy."

"…maybe, maybe not," Sokka said after a minute. "I think I've got an idea."

"Oh, good."  Ichiro drew his legs up to his bed — he'd hidden Sokka in his room to help hide that the other boy had no assigned place.  "How will we work this?"

Sokka quickly summarized his plan to steal a cooler and use it as a boat. "And, since if they know who he is, they know he's a firebender, we can get him into one with no problems!"

"Only if he uses his firebending," Ichiro pointed out.  "And I'm not getting myself tossed into one to get him into one."

Sokka thought for a long minute, then sighed. "I'll go talk to him and Suki, see if we can't figure it out. He's better at this whole half-baked idea thing than I am, anyway."

"Not alone you're not."  Ichiro gave Sokka a Look.  "I'm in on this too, if only to get Yui somewhere safe."

"Yeah, but it's gonna be hard enough for me to talk quietly to two prisoners in a corner without looking suspicious," Sokka pointed out. "If there's two guards involved..."

The taller boy's eyes narrowed.  The Water Tribesman was right, damn him.  He poked Sokka in the chest.  "You keep me up to date."

"No problem," he said, then slipped off.

He returned an hour or so later. "It got a little complicated."

"Complicated how?"

"Chit Sang's in." He explained the whole thing.

Ichiro nodded.  "Well, that solved one problem, anyway.  So that's you three, Chit Sang, and Yui on the way out.  Me too, if I can fit."

"Yeah."

"What time are we doing this?"

"After dark. I'll get Zuko from the cooler after I get Suki and Chit Sang out of their cells. We all meet in the blind spot and go."

"And I'll get Yui."  Ichiro wiped his forehead and grinned.  "It'll be nice to be a civilian again."

Sokka grinned back. "See? No problem. Everything will work out just fine."

*                       *                       *

There were already two problems even before Sokka and Zuko made it to the rendezvous point. Chit Sang had brought friends.

"I am definitely not going to fit now," was Ichiro's only comment before he saw the look on Sokka's face.  Yui was standing near Chit Sang's friends, looking distinctly unhappy.

"No reason why you can't," Chit Sang's girlfriend said. "Look at the size, we can all fit if we squeeze a little.

"Not worth the risk.  I'm the only one who can afford to stay."  He shrugged.

"I'm not going to—" Yui started, only to be cut off.

"Yes, you are, Yui.  You'll be safe with Zuko."

Zuko flinched a little, then turned to Sokka, who was retrieving their civilian clothes. "Are you sure you want to go?" he said. "You're the one who said you wanted to redeem yourself, redeem your honour. Rescuing your dad is your chance."

"…I thought he wasn't here?"

"Your dad?" Suki looked puzzled, too.

Rather than explaining, Sokka answered Zuko. "If I had just cut my losses at the invasion, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe sometimes it's just better to call it quits before you fail."

"No, it's not," Zuko said, sharply. "Look, Sokka, you're going to fail a lot before things work out."

"…that's supposed to make me feel better?"

"Even though you'll probably fail over and over and over again--" Zuko pressed on.

"Seriously. Not helping."

"You have to try every time. You can't quit because you're afraid you might fail," Zuko finished, putting a hand on Sokka's shoulder.

"Hey," cut in Chit Sang, "if you two are done cuddling, can we get a move on?"

Sokka was silent for a brief minute, then bowed his head. "No. I'm staying. You guys go." He turned to Suki. "You've been here long enough."

"I'm not leaving without you," she said, smiling.

"I'm staying, too," Zuko chimed in.

"I have to," Ichiro added.  "If a guard turns up missing at the same time as three prisoners…"  He turned to his sister.

"Don't even think about it."

Sokka sighed, watching the cooler float away. "We gave up our only chance of escape. I hope we haven't just made a huge mistake..."

"Yui—"

"I know, I know," the girl answered.  "Back to the hiding spot.  Let me know when we're ready for round two."  She flitted off.

"Time to sneak back in," Ichiro sighed.

"Yeah," Sokka sighed. "I'll get Zuko back to his cell. It's what I'm supposed to be doing, anyway."

They were almost back in when a yell rang out over the lake.  "Sozin's balls," Ichiro hissed as bells started ringing.

Sokka swore as well. "You go cover for me, I'm gonna finish with them." He grabbed Zuko and Suki's wrists and pelted off for their cells.

"This is madness," Ichiro growled, bolting in the other direction and joining in on the lockdown procedures.

Current Location: my bed
Current Mood: distressed
Tags: au, avatar, fanfic, sf zukoline, small flame

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