"Niisan!" cried Kouji, struggling with his jacket.  "I'm stuck!"

They'd finally come to their first stop in the Fire Nation itself, and had all stolen clothing in order to blend in better.  Aang and Kouji, being the smallest of the group, had actually wound up with identical outfits; Kouji had had to be talked out of going back for something else.  Which was why he'd still been getting dressed when Katara had returned in her new garments.

It was still unclear just how the boy had managed to get his right arm in the left sleeve and the right sleeve up his left leg, but he was hopelessly entangled now.

Sokka burst out laughing, while Aang pointed out that Katara's necklace didn't really fit in with the rest of her clothes.

Lee just shook his head and went over to gently extract his brother. He still hadn't regained all the weight he'd lost the previous spring, so the only clothes he'd found that were long enough were loose enough that he'd had to improvise a belt with a scarf.

The young colonist flushed dark red.  "Thanks…"

"Come on, let's get shinies to complete the outfits," Sokka said, hoping mostly that this would distract the Avatar from staring at his sister.

"Yeah," Kouji agreed.  He looked down at his respective bags of dirt and sand.  "My bags don't match my belt."  Sokka glared at him and aimed to thwap his head, but Kouji ducked the swat and then darted behind his brother.

Lee just rolled his eyes and started for the town.

Once there, all made their purchases — a new necklace for Katara, a headdress for Toph, a hairpiece for Sokka, two new 'money' bags for Kouji, and Lee got a new belt.  "Let's get food," Sokka predictably said as soon as they were done.

"I'm for that!" proclaimed the eternally hungry colonist with a grin.

Aang nodded. "Okay. Now, I used to visit my friend Kuzon here a hundred years ago. So, follow my lead and—"

Lee grabbed his collar. "I used to live here seven years ago. And Kouji lived in the colonies less than one ago. I think we should be leading."

Kouji nodded.  "Right.   The story here is going to be that all of us are colonists.  If the way we talk is slightly dated or a bit more military than the civilians are used to, well, New Sozin is a port colony.  I already gave you a crash course on what the area's like and who the important people were up until we left, in case someone tries to catch us out."

"And Aang? Don't use any slang your friend Kuzon taught you," Lee added. "Mine will be seven years out of date, Kouji's a bit less than that, but that's expected. A hundred years might out you."

"And, Sokka?  Don't use my blasphemies," Kouji told the warrior.  "It's a soldier's curse through and through, I don't know how civilians would take it."

Sokka nodded. "Right."

Aang just sighed, but he didn't look as disappointed as he might have. Those warnings were the first time Lee had spoken directly to him since he'd woken up.

"Let's go."  Kouji grabbed Toph's hand and walked out of the shadows, towards a meat stand.

The others followed, until Aang paused. "Oh. We're going to a meat place?"

"Come on, Aang," Sokka reassured him. "Everyone eats meat here. Even the meat!" He pointed at a hippo-cow.

"You guys go ahead," Aang said, looking faintly nauseous. "I'll just get some lettuce out of the garbage."

"That's decidedly unsanitary," Kouji told him, raising an eyebrow.

"Better than meat." He shrugged, and wandered off. None of the others made to follow him.

Why is it that those three seem to be so stupid about him sometimes? Kouji wondered.  "I'll go with him," he said quickly to Lee, and hastened to catch up with the wayward Avatar.

Lee followed him, while the others all went into the meat stand. They'd only gone a few steps — certainly not long enough for Kouji or Aang to protest being followed — when a trio of guards came up to them.

"It's over. We've caught you."

"Who, me?" Aang asked, a little panicked.

Oh balls, thought Kouji, his eyes widening a bit.  How fast would he be able to take them out if he had to?

Lee put a hand on his shoulder, quietly restraining him.

"It couldn't be more obvious that you don't belong here," the head guard continued. "Next time you play hookey, you might want to school uniform. And you, where's yours?" he asked, now eyeing Lee.

The teenager jumped a little. "I-it fit even worse than these." Hopefully, the guards would attribute his bad lying to being nervous about being cornered.

…did I really lose track of the days? Kouji marvelled, and bowed.  "We're very sorry.  We're newly arrived, and we got lost on the way."

Aang just laughed nervously, and the guards grabbed the three boys and frogmarched them to the local school, where Lee was separated from the younger ones to get a loaner uniform and sit in the more advanced class for kids his age.

Kouji very nearly considered revealing his intellect and trying to get in with his brother, but decided against it.  Aang would need him here.  The two younger boys were shoved into a classroom full of kids their own age — unfortunately for Kouji's girl-shyness, it was co-ed and the teacher was a woman.

He could already feel the hotness spreading across his face as the teacher raised an eyebrow.  "Oh.  Are these some new minds ready for moulding?"

"That's right," Aang said, knocking on his head. "Let the moulding begin!"

Kouji considered stepping on Aang's foot, then discarded the idea.  Too obvious.

"Wait a minute!" said the teacher suddenly.  The earthbender felt the two soldiers turn back.  "You're not from the Fire Nation!"

The guards, who had been leaving, stopped and watched the two boys.

Aang tensed up and Kouji stepped in smoothly.  "Yes, ma'am.  We're from New Sozin."  He bowed again, hoping the Avatar would get the hint.

"R-right! Yes." Aang bowed as well, his hands positioned slightly wrong.

"Your etiquette is terrible," the teacher said now, chiding Aang.  "In the homeland, we bow to our elders like so."  She demonstrated the bow, placing a hand in a straight fashion with the other placed underneath it vertically.

"Sorry, ma'am," he said, trying again and still not getting it quite right, keeping his fist against his palm rather than below it. A girl in the front row made a small noise and corrected him. He grinned at her and got it right the third time.

Babysitting the Avatar is going to make me old, Kouji thought.

"And we don't wear head coverings indoors!" she went on, and now the earthbender stepped in again.

"He hit his head this morning," Kouji lied smoothly.  "This was all we could unpack to cover the wound."

"Very well," she sighed.  "What are you names?  Or shall we just call you Mannerless Colony Slobs One and Two?"

Kouji had to swallow a growl.  Dammit, he was doing everything right!

Aang giggled. "Just Slob One is fine." Catching the look on her face, he hastily corrected. "Or… uh… Kuzon!"

"And I am Jiro," added Kouji, amused that his old name was coming into play once more.  With Aang, he turned to face the class, and almost went white at seeing the picture of Firelord Ozai on the back wall.  Then he relaxed.  The portrait was stylised and bore little actual resemblance to Lee.  They would be safe for the time being.

Luckily, the lesson that afternoon was mathematics — something that even Aang couldn't screw up with misplaced culture, and the day went smoothly.

 

Lee was waiting for them out in the yard, now wearing a baggy loaner uniform. "How'd it go?" he asked them, quietly. 

Kouji ran to his brother and hugged him.  While they were close, he whispered, "Babysitting him is a pain."  Separating, he added louder.  "After so long off, I'd forgotten how boring school is.  Math was a struggle, because I had to pretend to be on their level."

"At least you didn't have history," he replied, shrugging. "Imagine how bad he would've screwed that up."

"…we should probably warn him about that," Kouji said after a moment, frowning.  "The last thing we need is for him to slip up — and the way the gods have been laughing at us lately, we're probably right at the part where the Fire Nation attacked the Air Nomads."

"Yeah," Lee said, with a sigh, looking over at Aang. "…And now he's picking fights over the school bully's girlfriend. Idiot."

"Unblooded, protected, spoiled little innocent," Kouji growled. 

"Don't," Lee said, gripping his shoulder tighter. "He's not worth it."

The boy looked up at him.  "Niisan…"

"He's not worth it," Lee repeated, as the bully walked away with one arm possessively around the girl.

Kouji scowled.  "Where does he get off looking down on us, who are in danger from Earth Kingdom attack and pirates without warning?" he grumbled as he and Lee moved over to join Aang again.

"Just 'cause the pressures on kids here are different from the pressures on kids in the colonies doesn't mean they don't matter," Lee pointed out.

"He's the one with the problem," the earthbender insisted.  "The girl was nice to Kuzon before.  Some of the other kids have been too.  It's the teacher and the likes of him that slander the colonies."

"I'm just trying to point out that the condescension goes both ways," Lee replied quietly. "There are just as many people in the colonies who look down on people from the homeland as there are people in the homeland who look down on people from the colonies."'

At this, Kouji stopped and looked up at his brother again.  He considered this, and then sighed.  "All right.  I won't do it again.  But I won't accept him looking down on me either."

"I'm not saying you should," Lee said, with a small smile. "It's okay to hit back. It's just not okay to forget that he's not the only one who could've started it."

The boy nodded.  "All right."

"Hey! I just got invited to play hide and explode. You two want to come?" Aang said, excitedly, when they finally caught up to him.

Kouji coughed.  "I kind of suck at that game.  You go ahead."

"Lee?" Aang asked, looking up at the older boy hopefully.

He just shook his head.

"You know where to find us," Kouji told him.

"Yeah, okay," Aang said, slightly disappointed in Lee's direction, then ran off with the other kids.

"I like earthball better, anyway," Kouji admitted quietly to his brother.

"Okay," Lee said, quietly sitting down to wait for the other boy.

The earthbender sat down next to his brother and leaned against him.  Shortly after that, he was asleep.

*           *           *

 

Aang got back to the school from Hide and Explode around sunset, to find Lee picking at his bandages while Kouji napped on his shoulder. The twelve-year-old sighed and fidgeted a little before approaching. This was a good opportunity to figure out what was going on between them, but maybe Lee wasn't ready to talk about it, and what if Kouji woke up in the middle? If they didn't resolve it in the first conversation, it would just go on and on and on…

But if I don't try now, it'll drag on and on and on anyway. He sighed, and skidded over to Lee. "Hey."

Lee didn't say anything, but stopped picking at his bandage and shifted to pick Kouji up.

"Wait…," Aang said. "Can we talk first?"

The older boy looked up, then shrugged his free shoulder and went back to picking at the bandage.

The Avatar fidgeted for a minute, then said, all in a rush. "Why have you been avoiding me?"

Lee looked up again. "I haven't."

"Yes, you have. This morning was the first time you talked to me since I woke up."

The teenager's hands stilled while he thought this over. Then he flushed a little and looked down at his hands, resuming picking at the bandage. "Oh."

"You probably shouldn't do that," Aang said, worried.

Lee stiffened a little and said nothing, but his hands stilled again.

"What's wrong? Why don't you talk to me anymore?" He probably sounded a little whiny, but he didn't particularly care.

"I…" Lee trailed off, staring at his bandaged hand.

Something clicked. "You blame me?" Aang asked, in a very small voice.

"Of course not," Lee said, a little too quickly. "I just…"

"What, then?"

The older boy was silent for a long moment, then finally said, quietly, "If she hadn't used all of her special water on you, she could've fixed my hand. Which now I can't use anymore." Aang started to say something, but Lee was now just venting and wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise. "And I know you were hurt worse so of course you get fixed first, I get that, and I know it's not your fault my hand's fucked up, it's my own stupid fault for not being fast enough, but that doesn't change what happened or the fact that if she had been able to save just a couple drops, I would still have my hand. Or at least it wouldn't be this bad. So maybe I do blame you, but I don't mean to, I know it's not your fault, especially because it was my sister who made all this happen…" He trailed off, running out of words. "I'm sorry. I just… give me some time, okay? I'll work through it. Somehow. Just… give me some time?"

Aang just stared at him for a minute, a little blindsided by the flow of bitterness and guilt. "Yeah, okay," he finally managed to stammer out.

The two of them sat in silence for a long moment, then Aang spoke again. "We should probably head back. The others'll be worried."

Lee just nodded, and scooped up his brother.

---

Continued here.

Aang led the way back.