Dark Puck

Fic: Terracotta Dawn (Chapter Six)

2011-01-23T04:06:33Z

Yui returned to the shelter as the sun was setting with three new sets of clothing. She also looked rather nervous.

Kouji frowned. "Yui?" He hadn't gone out to meet her like he usually would have. The Phoenix King was far too observant for Kouji's liking; the less he knew about them, the better.

"I got the clothing," she said. "At a discount, too."

"Let me see," said Kouji, stepping closer. As he took the top set from her, he lowered his voice and added, "He knows about the earthbending. I said Mom was the earthbender. He also knows about the archaeology."

"Right," she said, barely moving her lips.

Kouji turned his gaze to the clothing in his hands. "…I guess this is for you?" he asked, eyeing the light red fabric and the veil sitting atop it.

"Not… really, no," Yui answered.

The earthbender froze. "No."

"It isn't like we have a choice!" his sister hissed. "He's too distinctive, especially here!"

"He is going to murder us and they will never find our bodies."

"No, just me," she retorted.

"I'd be a witness. Seriously, how do you expect to get him into that?" Kouji demanded.

"I'm going to ask him."

"…ask him," repeated Kouji.

"Politely," Yui clarified.

Kouji groaned. They were dead, both of them.

"You can clear the blast zone if you like," Yui snapped at him. "But he's coming with us whether we like it or not, and I would prefer to get to Ba Sing Se and stop those bastards before we get arrested."

The offer was a tempting one, he had to admit. But either of them being alone with the Phoenix King was manifestly a bad idea. He saw too much. And if he saw Kouji's little side-project…

"No, I'll go with you," he said. He might be able to earthbend fast enough to save them.

Maybe.

He turned back to the shelter and saw Ozai standing outside it, watching them. Probably making sure they weren't going to cross him, Kouji thought. He put the garment back in his sister's arms, and together the two of them made their way to the Phoenix King.

They stopped five feet from him and bowed as one; when they straightened, Kouji noticed that Ozai was doing that creepy smile thing again.

Yui swallowed. "My King," she began, voice stronger than she likely felt. "I selected our disguises with care, as there is a search for you."

Ozai raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" he drawled.

"I took the time to watch the docks," she explained. "They searched the men far more carefully than they did the women, and single travellers more so than groups."

"Lax of them," the Phoenix King commented.

"Using that knowledge," Yui continued, not really wanting to comment on how thoroughly they were searching for Ozai, "I thought up a cover story that would encourage them not to look too closely at us."

He gestured for her to continue, a faint expression of amusement on his face.

"There's any number of merchant families establishing branches in the Earth Kingdom," Yui went on. "When I went to buy the clothing, I insinuated I was one of a pair of guards for the wife of a merchant who had already gone to the Earth Kingdom, and was now ready for his lady to join him."

Ozai blinked twice.

Apparently he hadn't been expecting that particular cover story.

The silence stretched on, broken only by a sea breeze gusting along.

Finally, Kouji said, "Or we could find something else."

Ozai stepped forward and took the top layer of clothing from Yui's arms. "I am not shaving for this," he informed her.

The twins froze for a moment, then Yui rallied. "Of course not, my King — there's a veil included."

Ozai smiled. "Good."

It was an unusual trio of people that made their way to the docks. In the lead was a tall woman with her dark brown hair done up in a simple marriage-topknot. She wore an opaque veil to hide her face, as was the current fashion among the more pretentious merchants. Her robes, while not quite daring to be Imperial red, came fairly close; fine linen masquerading as silk. Both clothing and veil were trimmed in pale gold thread, lending her an air of authority.

In contrast, the young man and young woman to either side of her were dressed quite severely, in clothing of so dark a red they bordered on black. The only trace of true colour to their matching outfits — one might, in fact, call them uniforms — was an embroidered sigil, a magpie-crow cutting through a flame.

The observant would notice the same sigil worked subtly into the pattern of the lady's dress.

The two handsome young people were almost identical in appearance, with the same coal-black hair pulled back into the same waist-length braid. The only real differences between them were those that indicated gender, and the colour of their eyes.

Identical twins were in vogue now, though hard to find properly trained; presumably the gender difference meant these two had been something of a cheaper buy. Easy to believe of a penny-pinching merchant.

It was the young woman who split away, moving to the ticket booth. "Three tickets to Taku," she instructed, her face bodyguard-blank.

Port Taku had been conquered and abandoned during the early years of Sozin's War, but a number of Earth Kingdom merchants and some former soldiers had, in recent years, returned to the port-city to restore it, if not to its former glory, then at least to a source of income and trade that would help two badly-battered nations recover from the post-war economic slump.

The ticketmaster raised a brow at her. "Taku? That's quite a ways."

The young woman, it seemed, was not inclined to banter. "It is our destination."

The ticketmaster sighed. What a waste, to train such an attractive young girl to bodyguardhood rather than a more… fitting profession. "Very well," he said. "That will be ten gold pieces."

She put the requested amount on his desk, and waited until he had the tickets in hand. When he turned them over, she nodded in response to his, "Good Day," and returned to her group.

"And now for the difficult part," murmured the young man.

"We'll be fine," replied his sister.

The lady said nothing.

Now they headed toward the ship they would take to the Earth Kingdom, with their lady once more leading the way. However, when they were halted by one of the Homeland Defence Force, it was the young man who stepped forward. "Three to Port Taku," he said, utterly calm as he presented his tickets to the guardswoman.

She glanced them over, then said, "That seems to be in order. Your passports?"

The young man didn't even blink. "That's a new requirement."

The woman shrugged. "New regulation just came into effect."

"That could be a problem," mused the young man. "We weren't warned of such a regulation when we left Crescent Island."

"And you wouldn't have been," she replied, with some annoyance now. "It just happened as of this morning."

The young man's eyebrows lifted. "That must be inconveniencing quite a few passers-through."

"It's only for international travel, though," said the guardswoman. "It might be easier for your lady to route through Three Volcanoes Bay." She returned the tickets to him, adding, "You can go back to the ticket-master and exchanges these to suit your new travel plans. Tell him that Li Akiko sent you and reminds him of what happened in the Year of the Horse."

Now the young man smiled slightly. "Thank you for your help, guardswoman," he said, and bowed. She bowed in return, palming the silver pieces he had slipped her during the second exchange.

"It was my pleasure, young sir," she said.

He returned to his sister and his lady. "Back we go," was his soft comment.

"That's not inconvenient at all, is it?" the young woman asked, looking mildly vexed.

"Regs are regs," her brother answered with a dispassionate shrug. "Let's go reroute."

Evening saw them aboard the Bright Sun, settled into a comfortable cabin. Only there, with the door locked and Yui leaning casually against it, did Ozai remove his veil. Kouji had unpacked the materials necessary for tea-making and was doing so, quickly enough that it was clear he wanted his tea before the ship set sail.

Ozai watched the almost-frantic movements Kouji made with mild amusement. "It won't run away," he murmured.

"It's peppermint tea," said Yui, ignoring the glare her twin shot at her.

"Ah," said the Phoenix King. "I suppose it makes sense."

To be fair, Yui hadn't heard of many earthbenders who got quite so seasick as her brother did, though perhaps it was a combination of the Fire in his blood and the Earth to his bending? Or maybe Kouji was just weird. Either way, taking the tea meant that he wouldn't be useless for three days straight, and that she wouldn't have to deal with the side effects of it.

She stretched as high as she could, smiling slightly when her fingers brushed the ceiling. "It should be about two days before we reach Three Volcanoes Bay," she said, dropping her arms. "From there, we'll try Taku again."

"What will you do if they require passports as well?" Ozai inquired.

"Well, at that point we're pretty much screwed," Kouji said. "Probably steal some."

Both of Ozai's eyebrows went up at that.

"Buying them would be less noticeable, Kouji," Yui censured him.

He eyed her. "We will run out of money."

Her eyes narrowed in turn. "I am aware of the risk."

"Do you remember what that money is for?" Kouji demanded.

Yui froze, then her hands clenched into fists. "You," she said, "had better not be implying what I think you're implying."

"What is he implying?" Ozai asked mildly.

The twins paused, then glanced over at him as if only just remembering he was there. Silence stretched, and then Kouji finally said, "Nothing."

"Liar," said the Phoenix King.

"Nothing important, sir," Yui clarified. The look she shot at her brother was venomous, however. "I need some fresh air," she added. "With your permission…?"

"Of course," said Ozai graciously.

Yui bowed low, then slipped out of their cabin. She made her way through the ship until she emerged on the deck, then moved as far astern as she could. Only there, with her face turned away from everyone else on deck, did she allow the tears to fall.

How dare he.

How dare he!

Did Kouji really think she didn't remember what they were trying to do? She missed Ichiro and wanted their older brother free as much as he did, but stopping another war unfortunately had to take priority over buying him out of prison. It wasn't fair!

Tears burned in her eyes.

It wasn't fair.

She remembered more of their desperate flight than Kouji, largely because Kouji had been delirious with fever at the time. She remembered that horrifying moment when she'd realised Ichiro wouldn't be joining them, and more than one moment when she'd thought her twin wouldn't live through the night.

But Kouji had not only survived, he'd recovered as well. Almost too well, she sometimes thought, but at the time she hadn't cared, so relieved had she been that he was alive. But she wondered, sometimes, how much he remembered.

Even now, six years later, she still woke up screaming from memories of that horrible night. If Kouji ever had nightmares about it, he'd hidden them well.

They had been so close.

And then that bastard Mi-Ren had had to come up with that stupid plan to rekindle the war, or at least start a new one. And then that stupid plan had had the gall to actually work. A plan so fantastic that nobody would believe anyone who reported it, and it had been a pair of displaced Fire Nation teenagers to discover it.

And now they had Ozai to deal with.

Yui rubbed her temples, trying to dispel the gathering headache.

If the Phoenix King would make the end result easier to deal with, he was still making the road there much more expensive and difficult than they had anticipated. And, she had to admit, his presence was making tensions between her and Kouji run high. No wonder they'd come so close to fighting — though that didn't excuse Kouji's accusation at all.

They would get through this.

They had to.

And then they would get Ichiro out of prison.

Hell, maybe they should just go get him when this was all over. Gods knew if she could break into the prison that held the Phoenix King, she could break into wherever Ichiro was being held and get him out.

She took a deep breath, then let it all go in one short burst.

Yui remained at the stern of the ship until all evidence of her crying had vanished, then returned to the cabin.

Kouji's tea was by now gone, and he was studying a scroll again. His back was to the wall, presumably so Ozai could not read over his shoulder. The Phoenix King himself was seated on the sole bed in the room, a slim novel in his hands. Judging by the cover, it was Omashu Li and the Legend of the Hidden Temple. She didn't think they owned any other books with silver serpents and blue piranhacudas on the cover, anyway.

Of course, why Ozai was reading it was anybody's guess. Maybe he was bored.

"You're back," he said, looking up from the book. Kouji hadn't looked up at all, but she hadn't expected him to.

"I wanted to watch the departure," she replied. She peered at the book again. "I didn't know you liked Omashu Li, sir."

A small smile crossed his face. "My father considered the series inappropriate for young princes to read. My brother used to sneak them to me when I was a child."

Kouji looked up from his scroll, an incredulous expression on his face. "Inappropriate?"

No mention to be made of the argument or her departure, then. Good.

"I was twelve when the first book came out," Ozai informed them. His face twisted. "The Last Airbender."

Yui drew back a step, wide-eyed. Did the Phoenix King realise how frightening he was?

His expression smoothed out into a sardonic smile. "Al Vachir being presented in a sympathetic light, even if he was not an Air Nomad, was not something my father felt I should be reading."

"…oh," said Kouji after a moment.

Silence fell, then Yui moved over to her pack and dug out Omashu Li and the Gems of Taku. She bowed once more to Ozai, then settled in to read.

Ozai's eyes snapped open.

The gasp had been small, barely noticeable, but it had awakened him all the same. Now he could hear one of his twins, taking in deep, shuddering breaths and then releasing them quickly. He lay still, trying to ascertain which twin it was, then heard a muffled sob.

Yui-chan?

He debated speaking to her, but decided to hold his peace — his twins were proud, and Yui-chan was doing the best she could to hide her obvious distress. Her earlier aborted fight with Kouji-kun had obviously struck her hard.

He'd respect her desire for privacy for now. Eventually, however, he would discover just what it was his twins were hiding.

← Chapter Five

Fic: Terracotta Dawn (Chapter Five)

2010-12-20T02:21:38Z

The twins made good time away from the capital and by dawn they had reached the end of Capital Island. Kouji furnished a shelter for them where solid earth merged with sand, and they settled in to rest.

Kouji fell asleep almost immediately — though he'd been practising his earthbending more, he had done quite a bit already this night, and he'd had to do it as stealthily as possible.

Yui, however, remained awake, considering the information the Phoenix King had bestowed upon her. She was still wondering how she would get enough blood without killing herself when she, too, fell asleep.

It was early afternoon when she rose to nature's call. She moved with care to the mouth of their shelter so as not to disturb her brother, shielding her eyes as she peered outside to see if her exit would be noticed. There were no people around, so she emerged fully from the dug-in shelter and waited for her eyes to adjust.

Once she had taken care of her bodily needs, she took off her shoes and moved towards the water, keeping one eye out for mussel burrows. They could do with some variation in their diet, especially since it looked like most of their money was going to go to getting the materials needed to counteract Mi Ren's plan.

Taking care to remain in sight of the shelter, Yui began walking along the beach, letting the waves lap at her feet. The beach was shallow and the tide was high, so there was little damage of a rip current dragging her from the shore. She moved further into the water, rolling up her pants legs to keep them from getting too wet.

She sighed in pleasure at the feel of the water gently moving around her calves, silken-soft and cool. It was simply too much for the young woman to bear.

In an instant she stripped off her clothes and tossed them onto the sand. Her undergarments followed, and she strode further out into the sea until it came to her waist. With a shiver of delight, she leaned forward and began to swim, letting the water clean away yesterday's sweat and grime.

Closing her eyes, she ducked completely beneath the water and rolled with sheer joy — she almost never got a chance to swim like this. Even the last time, when she had accidentally triggered the temple-trap, she hadn't really been able to enjoy the water.

She came up and laughed, throwing her arms in the air to send water droplets flying everywhere. Let Kouji remain landlocked for the rest of his life. When all this was done and they'd bought Ichiro out of prison, she was going to move to the seaside and swim every day.

Unless, of course, she managed to get into opera. That would be even better.

Yui opened her mouth to sing, but quickly stopped herself — sound carried on water, and while there was nobody in sight—

There was a man on the beach.

Where had he come from?

There was something naggingly familiar about him, too, but Yui couldn't tell why from this distance. With a sigh, she made her way back to where she had left her clothes, and realised that the man was sitting right beside them.

Well.

Yui paused, considering. She was to her shoulders in the water, so modesty was preserved — while normally she wouldn't have cared, she disliked men who played tricks to see a naked woman. Sitting by her clothes was certainly a trick.

But she couldn't very well stay out here and wait for Kouji to wake up.

Very well, then. She would retrieve her clothing and play the cold, haughty empress. This usually worked much better for her than fire-anger.

She held her head high and began to wade in, prepared to pointedly ignore the—

Phoenix King.

Her eyes went wide, and she automatically began to bow, but hesitated when she remembered she was still waist-deep in the water.

"Bowing is not necessary," said Ozai.

Oh, good. "I thank you, my King," Yui said. She bowed at the waist anyway; politeness was always key when dealing with that man. Ruthlessly she shoved aside her surprise and fright at his sudden appearance — why was he even there?

Ozai smiled. "I will meet you over there," he said, indicating the hill Kouji had dug their shelter into. That said, he turned and strode off.

Yui waited until he was out of sight, then hurried to the shore. She shook the sand out of her clothing, then dressed quickly, mind racing. What was he doing there? How had he gotten out of prison? Why had he found her? How had he found her? Should she wake Kouji before going to him.

She lifted her braid and wrapped it around her head to buy some more time, pinning it into place with some of her lockpicks. No, she shouldn't wake her brother. If Ozai were to construe it as a trap of some kind…

She shuddered, and made her way to the Phoenix King. Some fifteen feet from him, she bowed a second time, this time the proper bow before royalty. It was absolutely imperative that she treat him with all due deference, especially now that there were no bars between them.

"You may approach me, Yui-chan," he said.

Heart pounding in her chest — (he was so much more terrible in the open) — Yui rose to her feet and came to him, stopping five feet from him this time. She did not want to get within arm's reach of him.

He smiled at her, and she shivered. "You will need a trained priest on your endeavour, Yui-chan," he almost purred. "The rite to seal the statues is a dangerous one for a layperson."

"Oh," she said after a moment. Did he intend to join them? "I— y-you're coming with us, my King?"

"I am," he agreed genially.

Oh gods, they were going to go to prison forever.

Yui swallowed. "Thank you, my King."

"Yui?" she heard her brother calling. Oh, Agni, she was going to have to explain this to him, wasn't she?

She bowed again to Ozai. "Please excuse me, my King," she said. "I must reassure my brother." And warn him. Oh gods, this was going to get ugly.

"Do as you must," replied the Phoenix King, dismissing her.

Another bow, this one of departure, and Yui darted off to intercept Kouji before he spotted Ozai.

Kouji blinked when he saw her, grey eyes darting to her pinned-up, wet hair and the spots where her clothes still clung to her. "Yui? Is something wrong?"

"Not… really, no," Yui said.

He canted his head to one side. "Not really?"

She coughed. "We have a… companion on our quest now."

Kouji arched an eyebrow at his twin. "A companion?"

"Yeah." Yui shifted her weight. How was she going to explain this one?

"Who?"

"The Phoenix King."

Bluntly, apparently.

"Are you insane?" Kouji hissed. "We can't take him with us! Do you know how many laws—"

Yui covered his mouth with her hand. "I really don't think we have a choice, Kouji."

He paused, then pulled her hand down. "What do you mean by that?"

She shifted again. "He's kind of already here."

His eyes went wide as her words sank in. "Already… Yui, did you—?"

"No!" she snapped at him. "Do I look like I'm crazy? He got out on his own!"

Kouji let go of her hand and rubbed his temples. "Great. And he wants to come with us?"

"I think he's pretty much going to," Yui answered. "Unless you can think of a way to stop him?"

Her twin went pale at the thought. "So… how are we getting to Ba Sing Se with him?"

"I'm working on it." Yui sighed. "And I'm going to need to introduce you to him."

"…do you have to?"

Yui gave him a Look. "Kouji, we have to be polite. We should be okay as long as he's amused with us."

Kouji sighed. "That's really not reassuring, Yui."

"He's the Phoenix King," Yui said softly. "That's the best I can offer."

"Yeah…" Kouji shook his head. "We're going to go to jail forever."

"I know." Yui sighed. "Let's just get out of the Fire Nation first. Then we can worry about Ba Sing Se."

"Yeah," Kouji said. "Let me drop the shelter—"

Yui shook her head rapidly, her eyes wide. "Kouji, no! You know what would happen if you were found out…"

He looked at her in sudden fear. "Yui… how are we going to hide this?"

"Please tell me you brought shoes."

Kouji's silence was telling.

Yui put her face in her hands. "Okay. Okay. We'll just have to take this one step at a time. And the first step is introductions. Come on." She grabbed her brother's hand and towed him after her, back to where Ozai waited. As they rounded the dune, Kouji tugged free and matched his stride to hers. When they were fifteen feet from him, they both kowtowed — in unison, Yui noted. How did they keep doing that?

She could hear amusement — no, that wasn't amusement; that sounded like pleasure in his voice as he bade them rise. As she and Kouji both got up, she noticed that Ozai was smiling, and not in a scary way.

For some reason, that scared her more.

Yui took a deep breath. "Phoenix King Ozai, this is my brother. Kouji."

Fortunately, Kouji had very pretty manners, even if he did tend to take after Ichi-ni more these days and not use them like he should. He bowed deeply and murmured, "My King."

"Kouji," Ozai acknowledged, granting him leave to straighten up. He regarded the twins a moment, still smiling that not-scary-but-still-scary smile, then said, "Tell me your plan."

Yui exchanged a look with her brother, then turned once more to the former Firelord. Keeping her eyes downcast, she said, "We mean to return to Ba Sing Se as quickly as we can, purchasing the components for the spe— for the ritual that you spoke of, my King." Calling it a spell sounded far too fantastic for Yui's taste.

"Some of the components are expensive," Ozai pointed out. "What will you do if you run out of money?"

Yui shrugged and sighed quite deliberately. "There are ways of making more."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kouji flush dark red.

The Phoenix King looked briefly taken aback, and Yui added smoothly, "Helping out in a restaurant, for example."

Kouji made a sort of strangled squeaking sound, but Ozai had already recovered. "And will those… other ways make enough money to purchase the amount of blood you'll need?"

Yui blanched. She really didn't want to think about that part of the ritual.

"We'll get to that," Kouji said, his voice pitched slightly higher than usual. He slipped his hand into hers and squeezed. She squeezed back, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to compose herself. Ozai's question had rattled her.

Yui opened her eyes again. "The first step is returning to Ba Sing Se. Which… forgive me, my King, but it has become difficult."

Ozai acknowledged his part in this with a nod, but offered no solution. Yui half-lidded her eyes as she mentally sorted through the resources she and Kouji had. Money, a few scrolls, their nice clothes—

Her eyes opened, and she smiled. "I have an idea."

Ozai wasn't certain he'd ever met anyone quite like Yui-chan, though Ty Lee came close.

Yui hadn't really explained her idea beyond, "We'll need new clothes." He supposed that she didn't trust him enough to share more than that. Her brother certainly didn't trust him, though he at least attempted to hide his suspicious glances.

He couldn't help but wonder what had brought two such unusual, intelligent young Fire children to Ba Sing Se. The boy was obviously a scholar of some kind, though his physique suggested he was more than that; Yui-chan had some very unusual skills for a young peasant girl.

The twins were an enigma, a delightful mystery to unravel. Ozai was going to enjoy this trip.

"Okay," he heard Yui-chan say; a split-second later, Kouji groaned.

Ozai turned, and his gold eyes widened fractionally.

The girl had changed from rough travel gear to a lighter, more festive dress. This dress, Ozai decided, had to have been specially tailored for Yui-chan. It was Fire Nation red, with golden coloured piping that matched the golden jewellery she wore . The cut of it drew the eye not to her bosom, but to the flash of gold around her right ankle. From there, his eyes were drawn up the line where crimson slipped away from Fire-pale skin, up her shapely calf and thigh to the bottom of her hip.

Gold glittered around her wrists, demanding their own share of attention, which led his eyes up her arms and finally to her torso. Her dress did not encourage one's gaze to linger, but rather to continue the journey up, first by the flash of throat exposed by the Mandarin collar, and then by the curve of her neck. Ozai realised that she had taken her hair from the childish braid and pulled it up into a topknot.

Yui-chan, it seemed, was not a girl after all.

"No," said Kouji abruptly.

Yui-chan blinked, and Ozai's eyes flicked over to him. "No?"

"No," the boy repeated. "You are not sleeping with—"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm not. I'd be going out in the evening if I was."

"Then why are you wearing that?"

The young woman smiled. "First, it makes me look older. Second, it is an excellent dress and shows that I'm not liable to be taken in. Third, it implies wealth — or at least wealthy patrons — which might be the edge I need for a discount on an order."

Kouji sputtered, and Yui-chan hugged him. "Relax, Kouji. I know exactly what I'm doing." The boy was not mollified until she murmured something in his ear that Ozai couldn't catch.

Ozai didn't like his twins keeping secrets. He would be sure to stick close to the boy while Yui-chan was away. They had demonstrated enough intelligence that he knew they would not cross him, but there was no point in taking risks.

"I'll be back," said Yui-chan, stepping away from her brother.

"When?" Kouji asked.

She considered for a moment. "Give me a few hours before you start to worry." She tapped the band around her right wrist and smiled again. "I'll be fine." She turned to Ozai and offered a bow of respectful departure. Once he had acknowledged her, she set off.

The boy sighed and glanced at the Phoenix King. "My King," he said, "may I show you to our shelter?"

Ozai nodded assent. The sun was no longer rising, but it was fairly humid. Shade would be nice.

With a bow, Kouji led his King around the hill to a somewhat concealed entrance to a hollow within the hill. On entering, Ozai discovered that it was fairly wide — too wide to be natural. It was almost too low inside as well; the top of his head was an inch from the ceiling. The shelter was also entirely too smooth and too rounded to be a natural formation.

Ozai's eyes narrowed. This had likely been formed by an earthbender.

His twins had been lucky to stumble upon it.

Kouji was rifling through a bag, turned so that his profile was to Ozai. As he removed a scroll from his bag, Ozai realised that it was brighter in the cave than it should have been. The light was fairly steady, with a green cast to it; a fire would have tinted the cave red and moved the shadows more.

The source of the light was a rock by Kouji's knee. Despite apparently having a flattened bottom and being approximately the size of two fists, the formation of it appeared to be natural. Intrigued, Ozai examined it. He had heard of the light-crystals of Ba Sing Se, but had never seen a specimen of that size.

"This must have cost a fortune," he commented.

"Mm?" Kouji looked up from his scroll, and Ozai stole a glance at it. Like the scroll Yui-chan had presented to him, it was written in Old Earth. "Oh, the crystal? It was a gift from one of my professors."

"A pricey gift," Ozai observed.

Kouji shrugged and did not elaborate, apparently more fascinated by his scroll than by his King.

His twins were definitely hiding things.

"You and your sister are very unusual," he commented.

Kouji glanced up again. "It's been mentioned before." He shifted position, and Ozai noticed that his feet were bare.

Bare feet, a shelter that just fit the boy's height, from New Sozin but living in Ba Sing Se, an expensive bit of light-crystal that he was far too blasé about…

Well.

"I'm curious, Kouji — was it your father or your mother that was the earthbender?"

Kouji jerked, his head snapping up to stare at him with wide grey eyes. Ozai smiled, and the boy looked somewhat irritated. "How did you figure it out?"

Ozai gestured to his bare feet. "Even if you were as poor as you appear, your sister wears shoes. And this shelter is a little too unnatural, and too tailored to your height."

"Slag," the boy muttered, and Ozai raised an eyebrow. How long had his twins been in Ba Sing Se? "It was our mother," Kouji then answered the original question.

"Mm. How is it you two were able to afford such thoughtful gifts for me?"

Kouji hesitated, then said, "We're amateur archaeologists."

"Ah." Ozai smiled. "Treasure hunters."

Inexplicably, the boy put his head in his hands and groaned.

Though now that Ozai thought about it, it made sense — and it certainly explained how Yui-chan had managed to get in to see him, and gave some hints as to how they had stumbled upon the plot in the first place.

But why hide that?

Ozai considered how rough the twins appeared to dress with the money they were likely making as treasure hunters. The gifts they had presented him with indicated that they were fairly successful, so what were they doing with the money?

He supposed they might be war-orphans as well as war-children, but he doubted young people as attractive as his twins would have lasted very long on the streets in that case. No, not orphans… but, perhaps, one of their parents had been arrested? They did live in Ba Sing Se.

And desperate enough, with the emergence of this new plot, to seek help from him.

One could almost pity them.

Ozai, however, had difficulty with pity, and his twins seemed to be doing quite well as it was. They were survivors; if there was a problem, they went out and took care of it. He liked that kind of person; they were less likely to demand favours.

(He suspected they would be happier if he wasn't along at all, but he wasn't interested in making them happy.)

"Why?" Kouji asked suddenly.

The Phoenix King blinked. "Why what?"

"Why are you helping us? Sir," he added, almost an afterthought.

Ozai smiled slowly. "How are you planning on getting the blood, Kouji-kun?"

The question didn't faze the boy nearly as much as it had his sister. "I doubt Mi-Ren is working alone," he said calmly. "I'm also sure they'll be prepared to fight."

Ozai arched an eyebrow. "Have you ever killed a man?"

"No," Kouji replied quietly, "but if it comes down to my life against his…"

"There is a difference between killing someone and thinking you can kill someone," he pointed out.

"I know," was the quiet reply. For just the briefest instant, the boy looked younger, more vulnerable, almost wounded. Then he shook his head and returned his attention to his scroll. "I suppose we'll find out."

And he wondered why Ozai was along.

← Chapter Four | Chapter Six →

[Fic]: Midnight Washing

2010-12-19T18:56:50Z

Title: Midnight Washing
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters: Katara, Haru
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: At the Western Air Temple, Katara wakes up to see Haru sneaking away from the group. Curious, she follows.

As the moon grew fuller, Katara became more and more aware of the water in the bodies around her. It was getting to the point where it was hard to sleep at night, with people getting up and wandering off to find a convenient bush.

But with Sokka and Zuko off on their fishing trip (what in the world had possessed Sokka to trust the Fire bastard?), she tried to pay closer attention to what was happening.

Which was why she noticed Haru sneaking off.

She watched him go, then tried to go back to sleep.

She didn't feel him come back.

Katara frowned. That wasn't like Haru -- and Teo was still there, so the younger boy hadn't talked him into some kind of midnight rendezvous, at least. Worried, she carefully snuck away from the group. If he'd got into some kind of trouble...

Water bubbled over in the back of her mind; Haru was by the fountain they used to wash their clothes. What in the world...?

"Haru?" she said.

The earthbender jerked and nearly fell in; the cloth he'd been scrubbing fell from his hand.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Haru snatched up the cloth before she could get closer. "K-Katara!" he said, green eyes wide. "I thought you were asleep!"

"I was," she admitted. "I..." can sense people's blood was not a good thing to say to someone she liked. It was creepy. "I, uh, wasn't sleeping well."

"Oh." Was he hiding the cloth?

"Why are you doing laundry so late?" she asked.

It was hard to tell, as they were sitting so close to the fountain, but Katara could have sworn his heart sped up.

Damn Hama, anyway.

"Habit," he said after a moment. "When Dad and I started going around to the other villages, it was a lot safer to wash stuff at night."

She nodded. That did make sense. But not why he was hiding it from her.

Something flickered across his face, and Haru flinched.

"Are you all right?" Katara asked, worried.

"I'm fine," he said, standing up. "I just gotta--"

There was cloth in his hand, stained red.

"You're hurt!" she exclaimed, reaching for his hand.

"No! No I'm not!" Haru stepped away from her, putting the hand with the cloth behind his back again.

"But you--" she began, then paused.

Bloody cloth.

Occupied village.

Pretty face.

Katara's eyes went wide.

"Haru..."

...no, that was ridiculous. He had a moustache. A beard. And looked quite handsome in them, too.

"Never mind," she said, letting him go.

He sketched her a quick bow, and fled.

Katara watched him go.

[Fic]: Terracotta Dawn (Chapter Four)

2010-11-03T17:32:52Z

A faint whisper of sound disturbed Phoenix King Ozai from his thoughts, and he opened his eyes to see if one of his guards had changed routine.

No, the sound had come from above. An attempt at assassination?

He could do with some sport.

Ozai looked up to the high window and saw a very female silhouette perch on the window and pause, as if gauging the distance. After a moment, she slid inside, fingers clutching the sill. She dangled, then let go, using the wall as a means of friction to slow or control her descent.

Her landing was light, almost noiseless, and she rolled as she hit the ground. If she was as competent as her entry suggested, he'd need to hit her hard and fast, restraining himself just enough that he'd be able to question her. That way he could decide whether to kill her himself or hand her over to his idiot son to be executed.

The woman came up in a crouch, and their eyes met.

A look of startled apprehension crossed her face.

Intelligent as well as skilled, to fear him despite his current state. He took her moment of hesitation to look her over. Fine black hair pulled back in a child's braid; dressed in dark greens and browns, Earth Kingdom clothing that warred with how very obviously Fire Nation her features were. A war-child, most likely. Here to seek revenge for her mother?

And then she bowed before him, a full bow of supplication with her forehead pressed to the floor.

Well.

That was interesting.

She was very polite for an assassin. Or, perhaps, she wasn't an assassin at all. There were other possibilities for her presence — punishment for losing a bet, or a dare. Young adults were prone to stupidity, and he could see she was very young.

He would remain on his guard, however, because he wasn't stupid.

"You may rise," he told her, shifting his weight subtly.

The girl did not strike, but settled back so that she was sitting on her knees. "Phoenix King Ozai," she began, immediately catching his attention. "I am Yui, formerly of the New Sozin colony."

This was getting more and more interesting.

"And you've come to pay your respects?" he drawled, watching her face.

"My King, I could visit during the daylight hours for that," she replied evenly.

"Then what brings you to me at this hour?" Ozai asked.

Yui of New Sozin took a deep breath; he wasn't sure if it was unconscious or if she'd done it to draw his attention to her breasts. "I wish to ask you for advice," she said.

His late-night guest, it seemed, was full of surprises. He didn't allow that surprise to show. "And why would you think to ask me, Yui of New Sozin?"

Another breath; that had to be deliberate. "To be honest, my King, yours was the first name that came to mind."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Was it, now?"

She kept her head high. "It was."

"Why?"

"I met a man in the Earth Kingdom last year," Yui of New Sozin explained, "who grew up in the Fire Palace. He told me you were trained by the Fire Sages."

"I imagine you two conversed often," Ozai said, watching her.

A corner of her mouth turned up. "Only once. But it was rather… invigorating."

He abandoned that line of questioning. She wasn't rising to the bait. "What, then, would drive you to seek me out when there are sages all over this country?"

Now she hesitated, as if she needed that moment to marshal her thoughts. "My question is… somewhat odd, my King," she admitted at last.

"Too odd for a trained sage?" he asked her almost sweetly, and had the pleasure of seeing her flush slightly.

"I wasn't certain if they would believe me," she admitted.

Ozai smiled. "And you think that I will?"

She wet her lips. "I don't know if you will, my King," she said carefully. "I can only hope that you would grant me a hearing."

Yui of New Sozin was certainly polite, taking care to use his proper title when she spoke to him. She was also dangerous, breaking into a high-security prison at little older than sixteen.

Ozai favoured her with another sharp smile. "Why should I grant hearing to one who comes like an assassin in the night," she flushed again, "to share a tale she considers unbelievable?"

"I have brought three gifts for the favour of your audience," the girl replied, the colour in her face dying down. Slowly she reached into the bag she'd brought with her, making no sudden movements.

She first withdrew a small sack of cloth, tied and sealed with gold-coloured wax. This she slid closer to Ozai's cell, taking care to keep herself out of reach. He examined the bag and found that the wax was both unbroken and held the imprint of Daimyo Osamu's seal. "A pound of the finest coffee beans from Buyou no Long Shima," Yui explained, reaching into a bag a second time.

This time she took out an armband, and moved to where moonlight filtered through the window so he could get a better look at it. It gleamed copper-orange, the colour of old gold; red gemstones studded it on either end. "An artefact my brother and I discovered in the Earth Kingdom, near the old Kingdom of Huang-Dei. The gems are garnets. We suspect this was looted from the Fire Nation a long time ago." She set the armband on some cloth and pushed it closer to him as she had the coffee, then drew out the third article.

It was a scroll, likely of papyrus, and seemed to be as old as the armband she had offered him. "A scroll my brother and I retrieved from a buried temple in the former Earth Kingdom of Han-Guk. It's written in the most common dialect of Old Earth." This too was laid on cloth and slid closer to him, with the girl taking care to keep out of arm's reach.

Very interesting gifts she had brought him, and absolutely at odds with her rougher, much-worn clothing. He drew the scroll closer and opened it, eyeing the calligraphy inside. He could make out some of it — Old Fire and Old Earth shared a common writing system, but the forms had not been combined until Chen Dao Ming had conquered the world millennia in the past. Ozai carefully closed the scroll and took a look at the armband.

It wasn't easy to see in his cell, but he could and did run his fingers over the metal. Intricate patterns had been worked into the gold and around the gems; the armband itself felt almost warm. Yui-chan's suspicion of it having been looted was quite likely correct.

Last he picked up the bag, slowly running his hands over it. Nothing sharp, wax seal still intact, and the beans themselves smelled rich and bitter, almost but not entirely unlike chocolate. All expensive gifts — or perhaps, in the case of the artefacts, gifts that could have been sold for a lot of money.

However unbelievable she felt her question was, she was taking it very seriously.

"Very well," he said, laying the coffee aside. "Ask your question."

"Yes, my King," she said, then took a deep breath and let it out before speaking. "My brother and I stumbled upon a plot by Earth Kingdom radicals. They planned to kindle another war, only rather than using human soldiers, they planned to use terracotta statues they found deep beneath Ba Sing Se."

No wonder she hadn't gone to any Fire Sages.

"Terracotta statues," he repeated flatly.

She nodded. "I couldn't believe it either, at first. But we saw the statues move when one of the radicals spoke an incantation. I think it was originally penned by the first Earth King, so the statues could defend the city."

Ozai looked Yui-chan over carefully, but found no signs of a habitual drug user. Too, she had even stated how unbelievable her tale was; from what he understood, the majority of conspiracy theorists and the insane seemed convinced everyone would believe them if only they knew the truth.

And she had come to him — not to free him, not to demand that he help, but to ask for advice.

Ozai was fascinated.

"I will need more information before I can advise you," he said.

She tried to hide her relief. "Thank you, my King."

The tale she spun him now contained several references to things her brother or one of the radicals had said; apparently, while Yui-chan herself didn't understand Old Earth, the brother did and had provided the translations. She did a good job of editing her story, though Ozai could still tell she was leaving things out.

She also avoided naming her brother.

Very interesting.

When she was done, Ozai considered what she had told him. A pity the tablet with the incantation had been destroyed, though Yui-chan was smart to assume that her radicals had made a copy.

He considered this problem for a long moment.

"The statues are creations of the First Earth King to defend Ba Sing Se," he said. "Since the tablet has been clearly ruled out as a source of spiritual power for them, the source is likely the First Earth King and the city itself." He smiled. "I doubt levelling the Impenetrable City is within your capabilities, Yui-chan."

From the startled expression on her face, levelling Ba Sing Se wasn't something she wanted to do regardless.

"This leaves the First Earth King," he continued. "You would need to cut off his ability to access and empower the statues."

Yui-chan nodded slowly. "Please, my King, would you instruct me in this?" she requested.

Still so very polite. "Salt," he said. "First and foremost, salt. Pour it in circles around either the complex or each statue; both for preference. Salt is a purifier and a neutraliser both."

The girl nodded, intent on his words.

"If you can, you should mix cinnamon and gold dust with some of your blood and add that to the circle," Ozai continued, his smile sliding into a smirk. There were other materials he could have suggested, of course, materials aligned with the elements that were not Fire.

But Ozai had his own points to make.

Yui-chan bit her lip. "Would it be acceptable without the gold dust, my King?"

He tilted his head at her. Everything about her said she was poor, and yet she had given such extravagant gifts… "The gold dust represents the sun. You might use amber or sunstone instead."

Another nod. "Thank you, my King."

"Shavings of rowan would also strengthen your circles," Ozai continued. "And, if you want to be certain, bring along some lava-stone to place at the compass-points."

The girl gnawed on her lip, deep in thought. Finally, she ventured, "The blood, my King… would animal blood be acceptable? Or does it have to be my blood?"

Given the magnitude of the task, he supposed he couldn't blame her for asking that. "It must be human blood," Ozai clarified. "You will be appeasing powerful spirits. You want them to be well-fed."

Yui-chan gulped, but nodded. "Yes, my King."

The fool of a girl was going to get herself killed. He would have to accompany her and her brother to make sure they did the damn thing right.

Kouji hadn't turned up for his classes.

Qu Hua paced his office, sweating heavily.

He had nearly had a heart attack when Rong had described Kouji and his twin sister as the pair who had overheard their conversation. He'd identified them, of course — how could he not? A mixed child attending the university on a scholarship was noticeable, and he'd warned Rong of that lest the brute think to take the twins out of the equation.

People would notice— the Dai Li would notice. Specifically, one former Dai Li would notice.

Qu Hua shuddered. "Professor" Thanh had likely used Dai Li influence to get his job at the university — the man was a vulgar thug.

Perhaps it would be for the best if Rong took the siblings out of the picture — after all, they were half-Fire, and Kouji took Thanh's classes every semester. Worse, he lived in the lower ring. If not stopped, the boy would clearly grow up to become the head of a criminal syndicate or worse.

Well, it would be easy enough to find out where the boy lived.

All he needed to do was have a word with the registrar, and then go handle the problem himself.

← Chapter Three | Chapter Five →

[Fic]: Braid

2010-10-30T03:38:14Z

Title: Braid
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Characters: Team Avatar, Long Feng, Hyo (OC)
Rating: G/K
Word Count: 999
Summary: While travelling with Team Avatar, Long Feng helps Hyo with his hair.
Notes: Because even the Cultural Minister can be domestic sometimes. Id-fic, WAFF.

Katara blinked when she emerged from her tent.

By now she'd grown used to the Dai Li's Inspector-General working out shirtless every morning, and could certainly appreciate it. For all he was her father's age, Hyo kept himself in very good shape.

However, Long Feng brushing Hyo's hair was certainly new.

The scene was oddly domestic, and brought to mind one or five of the doujinshi she owned. The fact that Hyo was still shirtless wasn't helping. Long Feng, of course, was fully clothed, but it was easy to mentally remove his shirt and... oh my.

She flushed.

"Good morning, Katara," said Hyo without turning his head.

Long Feng said nothing, continuing to run the brush through his subordinate's hair.

"Good morning," she replied. Looking closer at the pair, she realised that Hyo's shoulders were tense, the muscles in his back taut. Was he in pain?

She moved to the campfire, poking it back up so she could get breakfast ready. She kept one eye on the two men as she did, but neither took much more notice of her.

The scent of cooking food roused the others, and one by one they joined her at the fire. "What happened to your arm?" Sokka asked suddenly, eyeing Hyo.

At first the man didn't answer, and Katara wondered if he would ignore the question. But as Long Feng divided Hyo's hair into sections, the Inspector-General said, "I fought a master firebender during the last days of the Siege."

"The Dai Li fought during the Siege?" Toph asked sceptically.

"No," Long Feng answered.

"Not intentionally," clarified Hyo.

"You accidentally fought a master firebender?" Sokka's tone was as disbelieving as Katara felt.

"I accidentally stumbled on a squad of soldiers that contained a master, yes," Hyo said. "Let me start at the beginning." Katara started dishing up breakfast as he continued, "Myself and a few other off-duty Dai Li were... concerned following the Dragon of the West's breaching of the Great Outer Wall. We elected to head out there and see if we could discover any weaknesses in his strategy."

He paused for a moment, but nobody seemed to have comments, so he went on. "I don't know about the others -- we split up soon after entering the Agrarian Zone -- but I had the misfortune to run into one of General Iroh's patrols."

"But you're an earthbender," Aang protested.

"Not everyone's as good at earth-sight as me, Twinkle-toes," Toph informed him.

"Precisely," Hyo agreed. "And it wasn't a skill I had been trained in." He sighed, and rubbed his scarred left arm. "The ensuing fight was... ugly, to say the least. I was sorely outnumbered. Fortunately, they were as startled to see me as I was to see them, and I was able to get in the first attack."

Long Feng tied off the braid, then accepted a bowl of food from Katara. He passed it to Hyo, who paused in his tale to take a sip from it. She frowned on seeing that; the Dai Li hadn't moved his left arm at all this morning.

"My memory of the fight is somewhat unclear," Hyo admitted after a second sip of breakfast. "Between the darkness, the fire, and the confusion, it was difficult to discern what was happening at the time, let alone after I regained consciousness."

"You were knocked out?" Sokka asked, and a mirthless smile crossed Hyo's face.

"I passed out," he corrected the younger man. "The master firebender's final blow was simultaneous with my own. These scars are the souvenir of that." He shrugged his right shoulder. "The arm troubles me from time to time, but it's a small price to pay for surviving that encounter."

"How did you make it out?" Katara asked, horrified. To be unconscious in the middle of contested territory, with firebenders all around? He might have been discovered and killed!

"I found him," Long Feng put in calmly.

Silence greeted this statement. Katara considered what she knew of Long Feng, and eventually decided that it did make a strange sort of sense that he would go after his second-in-command.

(It made even more sense if she considered the Jade series. She couldn't help but wonder if the Shadowgirls knew about this.)

"You found him," Sokka said after a moment.

"Yes," Long Feng said in a tone that brooked no further discussion of the matter.

Sokka ignored that. "Why?"

The Cultural Minister raised an eyebrow at him and said nothing; it was Hyo who finally answered. "Surely loyalty to one's subordinates isn't a new concept to you."

"...well, no, but..." Sokka trailed off in the face of the looks both Long Feng and Hyo turned on him.

"But?" Hyo asked mildly.

Sokka mumbled something, and Katara said brightly, "Who wants seconds?"

"Please," Hyo answered, offering his bowl to her with a slight smile. Thank goodness neither man seemed inclined to press Sokka further on his thoughtless comment. Katara refilled his bowl and returned it, then supplied the others. Once that was done, she moved to sit next to him.

He gave her a questioning look, and she said quietly, "Your arm hurts now, doesn't it?"

"It isn't too bad," he said, but this close, she could see the tightness around his eyes.

"I think I can help," Katara said, and laid a hand on her waterskin. "That is... with your permission?"

"All right," Hyo said after a moment.

She nodded and drew the water from its container. She warmed it, then moved it to coat his left arm from shoulders to finger. She could feel Long Feng's gaze on her, but she ignored him. After a few minutes, the tension in Hyo's shoulders eased, and the tightness vanished from his face.

To her disappointment, she couldn't heal his arm -- the scarring was simply too old. Still, she had helped, and as she returned her bending water to its container, she glanced up and noted the smallest of smiles on Long Feng's face.

[Fic]: Terracotta Dawn (Chapter Three)

2010-10-26T03:19:49Z

She nearly cracked her head against the ground, but fortunately whoever had caught her was tall.

"Let her go!" Kouji yelled.

"No."

Yui went cold.

That voice — Rong!

How had they missed that he had remained in the room? Mentally Yui went over their conversation and stifled a groan — neither she nor her brother had bothered to keep quiet, assuming all three men had left. They knew better than that!

"Give me that paper, boy," Rong ordered.

"No," Kouji snapped.

Rong squeezed Yui's ankle, grinding bones together. She gritted her teeth against the pain as the man commented, "With your sister in this position? Do as I say."

Yui hissed. She was nobody's leverage against her brother! She twisted in Rong's grip, trying to wriggle loose, but the other man was having nothing of it. How could she— ah!

Her wonderful, thoughtful twin had earthbent some stones around them. Without hesitation, she snatched one up off the ground and smashed Rong in the knee with it. The man yelped, his grip loosening just slightly — but not enough.

It was enough distraction for Kouji to act, however — she saw her brother's feet leave the ground, then strike, and the earth shook. Yui flailed with her free foot, and managed to strike her captor in the face and head. Finally he dropped her.

Yui scrambled away from him, getting to her feet behind Kouji and getting her first good look at the man who apparently was an enemy.

Rong was very tall, a full head taller than her twin, and broad-shouldered. He wore his brown hair cropped close to his skull, but his eyes glittered gold. He wasn't really handsome, but, vain as she was, Yui had never been one for looks in her partners.

Down, girl, she checked herself.

For a moment, none of them moved.

Then Kouji grabbed his sister by the shoulder and dragged her behind him, then pushed. "Run!" he ordered her.

She started to, but stone jutted up in front of her, cutting off her escape route.

"I don't think so," said Rong.

Shit.

If Rong was an earthbender too…

"Kouji, don't!" she cried, too late.

He surged into an earthbending form, driving a chunk of stone at Rong. Rong slapped it aside, and it shattered against one of the terracotta statues. "Cute," he commented, then raised up a multitude of stones.

Yui's eyes went wide as Rong fired them off.

Kouji, however, had quick reflexes. Seconds before they would have hit him, part of the corridor wall slid in front of him, serving as an impromptu shield—

That shattered when the first stone hit it.

He barely had enough time to protect his head before the rest of the rocks slammed into his lanky frame.

She yelled with him and stumbled back, feeling every hit as he did, and Rong hesitated, glancing from Yui to where Kouji lay motionless.

That was all Yui needed. She threw herself at the big man, swinging just underneath his strike at her and getting behind him. He turned to face her and she punched him. Her fist thudded harmlessly into his palm, then his hand slid over hers and grabbed her by the wrist.

She pulled back against Rong's hold with all her might, to no avail — the man was firmly rooted.

"Why are you doing this?" she demanded of him.

Rong smiled slightly. "Because Mi Ren asked."

"This is insane!" Yui exclaimed. "The war is over!"

"The war will never be over," the big man told her quietly, pulling her closer to him. He hooked the fingers of his free hand under her chin and tilted her face up to him. "You ought to understand that as well as I, gold-eyes."

There were a thousand things Yui could have said to that. The one that started to emerge was "We're not war-children."

To prevent that from coming out of her mouth, Yui grabbed his shirt and kissed him thoroughly.

He didn't let go of her wrist, to her dismay.

But he did kiss her back.

Stone shattered, and Rong whipped towards the fallen Kouji, half-dragging Yui with him. Kouji had dragged himself upright and destroyed the tablet. "You—" Rong began, his grip on Yui tightening painfully, but Kouji was already in motion.

His hands dropped to the bag hanging from his belt, then flowed into something not unlike a waterbending stance. Sand streamed from the bag, following the movements of his hands, and then Kouji lashed out with it like a whip.

Rong threw a hand up to protect his face, but the sand whip curved around his arm and struck him in the eyes. He released Yui to claw at his face, trying to rub the sand out, and Kouji followed through with a more traditional earthbending move, sending the shattered remains of the tablet at the other earthbender.

Still blinded by Kouji's sand whip, Rong couldn't avoid or block this attack, and he went down heavily.

"Yui, come on!" he yelled needlessly; she had already leapt to the shoulders of the nearest warrior and used it as a boost to make it to the corridor wall. He followed suit, pelting with her for the doors to the room.

No attack came from behind, no yell of fury or indication that Rong was pursuing them. This didn't slow either twin, however — it was likely that he was counting on the doors to stop them.

"Boost me!" Yui instructed as she reached the end of the wall. Kouji stepped heavily, and the rock there thrust out under her feet, furthering her jump to the platform. She landed lightly just in front of the locked door, picks in hand. She knelt and got to work, trusting her brother to buy her the time she needed.

Yui never did her best when she had to do a rush job, but the threat behind them brought an odd sort of clarity as she worked on the lock. She could hear the crashing of earth and desperately hoped Kouji wasn't fighting Rong — neither of them were a match for the older man.

The lock clicked, and Yui shouted, "I've got it!"

The noise near her stopped, and Kouji joined her on the platform as she swung open the door. He didn't even pause to earthbend the bolt on the metal door, just as Yui didn't bother to lock the door again. The odds were high that Rong either had a key or was a lockpick as well, and locking the doors would just waste time for them.

Kouji and Yui fled the Crystal Catacombs, mindful of the danger right behind them and praying they wouldn't run into Mi Ren or the professor on their way out.

The didn't stop running until Kouji collapsed, unable to go any further.

Yui spun on her heel and returned to her twin. "Kouji!" She checked him frantically and realised that he was exhausted. When had he last done that much major bending?

"'m'fine," Kouji mumbled. "Jus' tired…"

"Well, we're too exposed here," Yui said, carefully lifting her brother off the ground. She looped his arms around her neck and pulled him to his feet. "Just a little further, then we can rest." Her eyes were on the train station she knew was a half-mile ahead.

"Can't go home," Kouji whispered, and Yui paused.

"What?"

"Can't go home," he repeated. "Professor Qu Hua — took his class." He paused to take a few breaths. "He'll rec'nize me."

"Ashes," Yui breathed. She started walking regardless. They could go home. Remaining there wasn't an option, but there would be just enough time for them to pack.

For her to pack, she amended, glancing at her brother. Kouji was going to need a nap.

Well, she could handle that, and she could get them at least temporarily safe until they decided what to do about the madness they'd discovered. Fortunately, she and Kouji lived in the Lower Ring, so getting to the Agrarian Zone wouldn't take too long once she'd packed.

She masked her fear and her worry and got Kouji to the train station, where she smiled at one of the earthbenders working there. "My brother overextended during a test," she lied cheerfully, "and I need to get him home."

The earthbender rolled his eyes. "When will those storefront 'masters' ever learn they're not teachers?" he asked the air, and stepped forward to scoop Kouji up in his arms.

Yui pouted at him. "It's all we can afford," she explained, "and it's better than an untrained earthbender."

"Unfortunately true," he admitted, and sighed. "But too many of these 'masters' run their students into the ground. You tell your brother to be careful."

Yui beamed at him. "I will."

The earthbender smiled back, and Yui allowed herself a moment of regret that they would be outside the city by nightfall. Ah, well. Perhaps another time.

The earthbender made sure she and Kouji were settled, then slipped back out to work.

Yui rummaged in their bag and took out the last of the cheese. She shook Kouji awake and made him eat it, then found some of the tú miàn bāo and nibbled on it to flush the taste of Rong from her mouth.

Stupid attractive crazy man.

Getting back home was interesting, but Yui was strong enough to manage her heavier brother. Kouji was putting on muscle, an irritating side effect of his training with Alak. Still, she made it inside, though she immediately dumped her exhausted twin on the floor.

He didn't so much as twitch.

"You," she informed him, "are going to start earthbending more."

That said, she moved into their shared bedroom and started packing immediately. Most of her clothing was sensible, made for day-to-day living and her temple excursions with Kouji. She did, however, pack her one nice dress; depending on which sage they saw, it might be best to tart herself up a bit.

Yui paused.

Sage.

Yes, it would be best to see one of the Fire Sages, wouldn't it? But how would she ensure that one would listen to laypersons? Especially the younger siblings of a convicted murderer?

Would they even be able to enter one of the temples in the Fire Nation? All the sages were in temples…

Sages, yes, she thought. But not all sage-trained men.

It would be far easier to break into a high-security prison than to see a trained sage.

But how would she get that man to listen to her?

Yui bit her lip, considering.

("That scroll had better be worth it.")

("Alak didn't want the damned scroll.")

Sages appreciated knowledge, didn't they? What better knowledge than a religious text from a temple he might never be able to visit?

Yui moved to Kouji's side of the room and started packing for him as well. Everyday rough-and-tumble clothes, as well as the nice outfit she'd made him buy. It was a little short in the wrist and ankle, but there wasn't much she could do about that now. When that was done, she tucked the scroll they'd retrieved inside the bag. They would need more to convince, him, of course, but this was a good start.

She put the bags by the door and scoured their apartment for anything they needed, and paused when she came across the stash of money that she and Kouji had built up since they'd started tomb raiding.

Their trip was going to require money.

She and Kouji weren't as poor as they made themselves out to be — couldn't be, what with their hobby. However, the majority of the money they made from their discoveries and their sales was set aside for the day they could buy their brother out of prison.

But to stop another war…

Taking a deep breath, Yui dug out the money and divided it between her bag and Kouji's, then checked the stash of artefacts that Kouji's Dai Li contact hadn't wanted to buy. Among the articles there, she found a handsome armband made of gold and studded with garnets. If it wasn't much too fine for her (and too large), she would have kept it for herself.

It had the look of a religious ornament, however, and not necessarily Earth Kingdom, at that. Perhaps that man would like it.

She slipped it into her own bag, then went to dig into their larder. She packed the rest of the tú miàn bāo, then dug up some leftover meat and went to force her twin awake again.

"Go 'way," Kouji whinged at her.

"Shut up and eat," she instructed him, pushing the meat into his hand.

He whinged some more, but did as she told him.

"C'mon," she said when the food was gone. "We're getting out of here."

"'kay."

With Yui's helpful bullying, she got Kouji's bag on his back and then got him out the door. It was a long walk back to the train station, but this time she made him move on his own, with promises that he could sleep on the train. For his part, he did try to keep his cranky down to a minimum, and kept quiet rather than snap at his sister.

"I am never letting you earthbend that much again," Yui muttered once she had him settled on the train.

Kouji mumbled something in return, but she couldn't make it out. It probably wasn't important anyway — or at least would lead to another fight, which they really couldn't afford right now.

Yui sighed, and turned her thoughts back to figuring out what else to bring the not-sage.

Why was she dancing around the identity of who she needed to talk to?

Because the idea of talking to him was frightening, she realised. He had no reason to even want to listen to a peasant colony girl.

Which is why I'm bringing him bribes, she reminded herself. So he'll at least know I respect him even in his current state. She was too young, far too young to have ever been directly affected by his policies — except she had been, and Kouji too, and Ichiro was in jail because of it.

Yui buried her face in her hands. "I don't want to do this," she whispered.

"Absolutely not!"

Yui calmly ran a brush through her long hair and marshalled her thoughts together. Kouji'd slept quite some time once she had finally let him, through sunset and until the moon was at its height. She, on the other hand, was quite tired by now, but she'd get no rest until this thing was settled. "I told you, Kouji," she said patiently, "he's the only one we have any hope of getting help from."

"Have you lost your mind?" Kouji hissed. "He's psychotic! He was going to destroy the entire Earth Kingdom!"

"Like his grandfather destroyed the Air Nomads?" Yui asked softly. Kouji paused, and she continued, "We won't be asking him to do this for his enemies. We'd be asking him to do this for his country — or, at least, for a decent bribe."

"How will we even get to him?" Kouji wanted to know.

Yui laid her brush aside and divided her hair into thirds. "We're tomb raiders—"

"Archaeologists."

"—tomb raiders, with two years' experience of breaking into all sorts of guarded and booby-trapped temples and ruins," she continued, twining her hair into a braid.

Kouji raised an eyebrow at her. "That isn't going to make this a cakewalk."

Yui gave him a look. "Of course it isn't. He's going to be in a high-security prison with a lot of guards. It won't be easy, but it isn't beyond our capabilities."

Kouji sighed. "And assuming we can even get there, how do you expect to get anything out of him other than a 'piss off'?"

"Bribes," she explained. "Three of them."

"How, exactly, do you intend to bribe Ozai?"

Yui tied off her braid and held up one finger. "One, that scroll we found that Alak didn't want. He's sage-trained, he'd be interested in that kind of thing." She held up a second finger and said, "Two, that gold armband with the garnets. It's in Fire colours and it could be a religious artefact. Again, interest."

"And the third?" Kouji asked.

"…I don't know," she admitted. "I'm trying to think of one."

He grunted. "And you think this will work?"

"I think that if he doesn't know how to stop this, he'll know someone who does," Yui said. "If we're polite and bring him gifts to show that we respect him still, he'll probably be more inclined to listen."

"You do realise that nobody is going to believe this?" he asked.

"That had occurred to me, Kouji," Yui said, annoyed. "But what choice do we have?"

"Coffee."

Yui blinked. "What?"

Her brother sighed. "Your third bribe. Get him coffee. Real coffee, from Buyou no Long Shima."

Yui arched an eyebrow. "Coffee?"

"You're not the only one who's heard things about him," Kouji informed his twin. "He likes coffee."

Yui smiled. "Thanks, Kouji," she said with a smile.

His smile back was small. "Get some sleep. I'll keep watch."

← Chapter Two | Chapter Four →

[Fic]: Terracotta Dawn (Chapter Two)

2010-10-19T05:43:39Z

Kouji and Yui stood on a platform overlooking a huge room easily a quarter the size of university grounds. It had been divided into eight corridors, each holding hundreds of statues standing at the ready. The twins stared out over the army in awe.

On a second glance, they could see supports, but the roof they had held was long gone — collapsed or taken away, neither of the twins could say. "Wow," Yui said softly. "This is— this is just— wow."

Kouji nodded dumbly, and silence fell between them.

"You'd think after three years of doing this, it would get old," Yui added after a moment, not liking the quiet.

"Who could get tired of finds like this?" he asked her, sweeping his arm out.

"People with no imagination," she grinned. "Come on, let's go check it out." She started to pull him after her, but he dug his heels into the ground.

"Hang on." He turned back to the doors they had passed through speculatively. After a moment, he padded back to the trick door and pushed it shut, dragging the bolt home.

"Kouji, what—?"

"Just in case whoever found this before us gets territorial," he explained. "Can you get the other door?"

"Yeah, sure." She waited for Kouji to vacate the hallway, then closed the other door and took out her lockpicks again.

While she worked on that, Kouji padded down the stairs leading from the platform to the floor where the stone soldiers stood. As he drew closer, he realised that they weren't just stone — they were terracotta. He peered into the face of the nearest soldier, frowned, and took a few steps back before examining it again.

By the time Yui had the door locked, Kouji had given up on close examination and was moving through the rows, glancing at each face before moving on. "Yui!" he called when he heard/felt her set foot on the stairs. "Come take a look at this."

Yui scampered down the stairs and joined her twin. "What is it?"

"Look at this row of statues," he instructed. "Notice anything?"

She blinked, then passed between some of the statues. "…they're kinda handsome."

"Yui!"

She grinned at her brother, then looked again. "—they all have different faces."

Kouji nodded. "We may have found the tomb of the First Earth King."

"…that should have echoed."

"Yui…," he growled.

"What?" she asked. "A discovery like this, there should be some drama!"

"I'm sure it will echo when they write a play about the real finders of this tomb," Kouji informed her, taking her wrist. "Come on, let's see what else is in here."

The twins moved on down the rows, glancing at the faces of each statue they passed in order to find any that were the same. "This must have taken ages," Yui whispered when they were halfway down the current corridor.

"Mm," Kouji agreed, grey eyes shining.

Yui wasn't as thrilled as her brother about their discovery — after all, someone else had been here before them. The finder's fee wouldn't be going to them. And the handsome statues were quite boring after looking at several hundred of them.

She pulled free of her brother and moved ahead, hoping to find scrolls, or anything at all saleable. She reached the end of the row long before he did, and stopped. "Kouji!"

Bare feet slapped against stone, and seconds later he'd caught up. "What is…" His voice trailed off as he took in the tablet that had caught his sister's attention.

It was taller than both of them and decorated along the sides with badgermoles and mountains; at the very top was a warrior in armour that resembled a fierce badgermole.

"The First King," Kouji whispered.

"Didn't we establish that already?" Yui asked.

Kouji slapped her lightly on the arm. "Shush." His eyes drifted from the warrior to the characters etched into the tablet. "This is Old Earth!" He grinned, and Yui sighed. This was going to take a while.

On the other hand, watching her brother's weird little dance as he tried to read the tablet was hilarious. He bounced from foot to foot, moving closer and further from the stone. Aborted words emerged from his mouth on occasion, half-sounds similar to ordinary language but very different at the same time.

After several minutes, he said, "I think I've got it. 'Here lies the sleeping army of Ying Zhen, first Emperor of the Impenetrable City and Conqueror of the Earth Kingdoms.'"

"For three generations, anyway," Yui muttered.

"Shush. 'In a time of desperation, when the Impenetrable City is in peril, call upon the sleeping army, and they will wake to your command.'"

Yui blinked. "Wait. Wait wait wait. Is that thing saying that these statues will wake up if Ba Sing Se is attacked?"

"No, it's saying that you have to wake them up yourself," Kouji explained.

She thought about this, then declared, "The ancients spent too much time in opium dens."

Kouji gave his sister a dire look. "I'm just translating. Though usually this kind of thing is a warning — do not steal the Great Stone of Whatever, or the soldiers will wake up and kill you. But this…"

"Is like an Omashu Li novel," Yui finished for him.

"Pretty much." Kouji sighed, tracing his fingers over the characters. "I wish I'd paid more attention in class. 'Call on the sleeping army', blah blah blah, instructions on how they go, and— huh."

Yui looked over at him. "Huh?"

"I… I think this has the words you need to wake them."

"…it's gotta be a trap," Yui said. "It's never that easy. There's always something guarding the treasure."

Kouji shrugged. "Maybe the people who got here first took care of that."

Wind gusted down the corridor, tugging lightly at their clothes before dissipating.

The twins looked at each other, then both turned to the door to the room. They couldn't see it from there, so Kouji knelt and Yui climbed up onto his shoulders. "Door's still shut," she reported.

"What was that you were saying about drama?" he asked as she climbed down.

Yui didn't answer.

The twins waited several minutes, but nothing else unusual happened. Kouji turned back to the slab. "Okay. Words to wake them—"

"Don't you dare say them!"

"What would we even do with an army of living stone?" Kouji asked.

"Knowing you? You'd sell it to Alak," she replied.

Kouji rolled his eyes. "I'm only going to translate, Yui. The language has shifted since the First King's time. They won't react to modern language."

"How do you know?"

The earthbender paused. "Good point. I'll break up the incantation while I translate, how's that?"

Yui nodded. "Should work."

She didn't really believe that the statues would come to life, but there was no point in taking unnecessary risk.

"'Awaken, warriors of stone,'" Kouji read. "I think that's standard for any spell, really. 'Your emperor's people need you.' Or they're short on players for an earthball game."

Yui giggled, and Kouji continued, "'Come help the city.' I guess Princess Azula's lucky nobody had found these guys when she took Ba Sing Se. 'Hear my words and obey.' Again, standard." He frowned at the tablet. "That line repeats, then the middle two stanzas mix it up, then the first line repeats. Huh."

"Anything else?" Yui wanted to know.

"For the spell? Nope. On the tablet? Also no." Kouji sighed. "I should probably tell Alak about—"

"I knew you were going to sell this to him."

Kouji gave her the Eye. "This is history, Yui. It belongs to the city."

"And you're going to negotiate with Alak for a finder's fee?" she asked.

He sighed. "Yes, Yui. Neither of us is in this for the history."

"I'm just not sure this is the kind of thing we should be turning over to Dai—"

Earth screamed against metal, and the twins froze.

"Was that the—?" Yui began, and Kouji nodded. Someone had unlocked the outer door.

Wordlessly, she adjusted the strap on her bag until it held snugly against her, then wrapped her arms around Kouji's neck and closed her eyes. She couldn't see what it was he did, but she felt his arms and body move, felt the earth pulse beneath them, and then they were no longer on the ground but flying through the air, dropping—

Stopped, as Kouji dug his hands and feet into the wall. He grunted as the sudden stop forced his sister against him, straining at his hold, but he hung on grimly, then began climbing. She opened her eyes when he stopped moving, in time to peer over his shoulder and see the inner door swing open.

Three men entered the chamber, too far away for Yui to make out the details of their faces. One seemed older than the other two, however, and more gaudily-dressed; of the remaining men, one looked to be the size of a professional earthbender, while the other one was quite a bit smaller. "Is this the place?" the older one asked, his reedy voice drifting across the chamber.

Kouji bit back a gasp, and Yui glanced sidelong at him. Did he know the older man?

"Yes, professor," said the smallest man. His voice was rich and carried well. He gestured out at the terracotta army. "As you can see."

"Any earthbender could have made these," the professor scoffed, and the big man rumbled disapprovingly.

"I think you'll find, professor," said the rich-voiced man, "how mistaken you are. Please come this way."

The three men walked down the stairs, the small man in the lead and the big man at the rear, and made their way right down the corridor Kouji and Yui had been in. The professor peered at the statues, and marvelled when he realised that not one of the soldiers shared a face. Yui winced; she had no idea how long Kouji would be able to hold them both up.

"Astounding," said the professor. "This must have taken a lifetime to put together."

"I suspect so," agreed the short man. "Come along, professor, I think you'll like what we have for you…"

Gently he chivvied the old man towards the tablet.

Yui held her breath when they reached it; if she or Kouji had left noticeable traces of their presence…

"My word!" the old man exclaimed. "This is Old Earth, from the reign of King Ying Zhen!" Seeming to forget the other two men were there, he went on to translate the slab much faster than Kouji had.

Kouji hissed softly in annoyance as the professor retranslated the awakening spell:

Awaken, o thou warriors of stone.
Thine emperor's people have need of thee.
Come to the aid of the city.
Heed my words and obey my commands.

Heed my words and obey my commands.
Come to the aid of thy emperor's people.
Thy city has need of thee.
Awaken, o thou warriors of stone.

Fortunately, however, the stone statues didn't move, and Yui let out the breath she hadn't realised she was holding.

The professor turned to the other two men. "Is that all you wanted, Mi Ren?" he asked.

The shorter man — Yui could see now that he was quite pretty — smiled. "Of course not, professor. We would hardly be paying you such an exorbitant sum if a translation was all I was after."

"Then what do you want?"

Mi Ren's smile grew larger. "My dear professor, I have a plan. The Fire Nation has gone without punishment for long enough, wouldn't you agree?"

The professor considered this, resting his hands on his not-inconsiderable stomach. "They say the new Firelord is dedicated to peace," he hedged.

The big man snorted rudely, and Mi Ren reached up to pat him on the shoulder. "Down, Rong," he said consolingly before returning his gaze to the professor. "The Avatar is friends with Firelord Zuko. It is his influence that prevents the Fire Nation from receiving their just desserts for their actions during the war."

Mi Ren spoke with such passion, Yui felt her emotions responding and strongly checked herself. This pretty man was dangerous.

And it was working on the professor. "And how will my contribution assist you?"

Mi Ren smiled, and he tapped the tablet. "I've done some research into the First King and his army. Please — read just the first line of the incantation? In the original language."

Yui's eyes widened. This man couldn't possibly think the terracotta statues would respond, did he?

"'Excito, calx proeliator*,'" read the professor.

A beat of silence, after which both twins relaxed.

Then stone cracked along the room as each and every warrior turned its head towards the professor.

Kouji lost his grip on the wall in his surprise, and the twins tumbled to the floor, rocks clattering in their wake. Yui barely bit back a cry when they landed, Kouji on top of her, but she couldn't keep the air from flying out of her lungs.

"What was that?" she dimly heard the professor ask, voice high-pitched.

"Rockfall," rumbled a new voice, who could only be the large Rong. "Coincidence."

"Are you certain?"

"Of course," Mi Ren intercut soothingly. "Rong is a much stronger earthbender than I am."

"As you say," said the professor dubiously, before seeming to dismiss the issue for the much larger one at hand. "How did they—?"

"This army is as old as the city," Mi Ren explained. "The First King appealed to the spirits of Earth, and they laid power on these statues so they would wake when the spell is used."

"And you— you're going to send them against the Fire Nation."

"Yes," was the simple reply.

Kouji and Yui stared at each other in horror.

"Now?"

"Of course not," Mi Ren said. "Nothing is ever that simple. For example, if these warriors leave the city, they will cease to move. The power will leave."

Kouji frowned, and Yui wondered what wheels were turning in his head.

"Of course," said the professor. "They were meant to guard this city. So how—"

"Need to know, my dear professor," purred Mi Ren. Yui could hear the professor's huff of irritation. "Don't worry; I took this into account. I have a plan to deal with it. Your role will only be in translation. There will be no danger to your person."

"Very well," was the mollified reply. "And the payment…"

"Will of course be factored in with what requires your services. Now, I believe that this is not the best place to discuss business, yes? We should speak of such matters aboveground." The man's tone changed to one of command. "Rong."

This was acknowledged with a grunt, and then footsteps indicated the departure of the three men.

The twins lay motionless, still tangled up with each other, until metal-and-earth screamed once more. "Okay," Kouji breathed, and gingerly they separated and checked one another for injury. On ascertaining that only bruises had been amassed, Kouji got to his feet and peered at the nearest warrior.

"They're— sleeping, I guess. They're not awake, anyway," he reported.

"What the hell," whispered Yui, wide-eyed. "How is — why would — this can't — when did our lives become an Omashu Li novel?"

"Shhh!" Kouji urged. Yui noted his hands were shaking. "I need to think." He began pacing back and forth. "We need to stop them."

"How?" Yui demanded. "This is the craziest plan I've ever heard of!"

"I'm working on it," Kouji replied.

Yui sighed and checked to be sure nothing in their bag had been damaged in the tumble. Her questing fingers encountered some more cheese, which she removed. "Kouji," she said. When he turned to her, she tossed it to him. "Eat. You were holding us up for awhile."

He nodded and continued his pacing. "Okay. First we need to get to that tablet." He sprang to the shoulders of one of the terracotta warriors, took a moment to get his balance, then leapt from the statue to the top of the corridor wall. Yui was just behind him.

From that vantage point, they scanned the room to be sure they were alone, then trudged along the wall until they got back to the corridor that held the tablet again. They dropped to the floor, and Kouji took the bag from his sister. "What are you doing?" she asked as he removed some rice paper and an ink-stick.

"I'm making a rubbing of this." He nodded to the tablet. "We may need the incantation," oh, gods, now he was talking like a scholar, "in order to work out a way of stopping this." His eyes flashed. "And then I'm going to destroy the tablet."

Yui stared at him. "Are you serious?"

He nodded. "I don't want a war any more than you do, Yui. This probably won't stop them — if they're smart, they've already made a rubbing themselves — but it will hopefully delay them."

Yui gestured to the statues. "Maybe you could try destroying them?"

Kouji hesitated. "Maybe. If I have to."

"Try one," Yui suggested, and Kouji flinched.

"All right. I'll try." He handed the rice paper back to his sister, then approached one statue and settled into a ready stance with the majority of his weight on the back foot. He drew both hands back to his hip, then shifted suddenly to a front stance, thrusting his hands before him with a "Ha!"

The terracotta cracked, and dust billowed from it, but the soldier remained intact.

"…well, then," said Yui.

"I'm destroying this tablet," Kouji said, taking the paper back and approaching the tablet. He held the paper up over what had to be the wake-spell, took some graphite from his pocket, and settled in to work.

Yui sighed and took up her brother's pacing. The statues were powered by spiritual power, which she and Kouji likely would be unable to affect. They had to stop the outside force looking to wake the soldiers, then, but Mi Ren was already gone, and with him whatever method he would use to get the warriors beyond the city.

…maybe she was looking at this the wrong way. Maybe what she and Kouji needed was someone who could handle things like this, someone trained to deal with spiritual power and to bargain with spirits.

But where would they find a sage who wouldn't laugh them out of the temple?

"Okay," said Kouji, turning around. "I need you to— YUI!"

Instantly she dove aside, but Kouji's warning had come too late.

A strong hand wrapped around her ankle and yanked her up off the ground.

*I chose to represent Old Earth with Latin, as there is no free resource available on the internet that will translate accurately into any of the Ancient Chinese languages to my knowledge. If anyone wants to help with that, please do so!

← Chapter One | Chapter Three →

[Fic]: Terracotta Dawn (Chapter One)

2010-10-12T00:10:53Z

"He didn't have to rake me over the coals that hard," Kouji grumbled to Yui as they left Alak's apartment.

Yui giggled at his sullen expression. "But he's right," she said. "Especially about you needing more training. And the cheese. You like it better than tú miàn bāo in any case."

"I like anything better than tú miàn bāo."

Yui shook her head. "Well, we've been paid, even if Alak didn't want that damned scroll. So let's get you fed and start making plans for the weekend."

"Not long plans," Kouji reminded her. "My next semester starts after the rest day."

"We don't have to go very far," Yui said. "Didn't you say there were more tunnels under the Crystal Catacombs?"

"I said I thought there were," he answered. A grin crossed his face anyway. He loved the Crystal Catacombs, even if he couldn't bend the light-crystals. He poked his sister in the ribs. "But before we go looking, you need to reread some Omashu Li."

Yui swatted at his hand. "I do not. I told you, I thought you'd already cleared all the traps. And you need to learn to swim."

"I'm fine," he replied, glaring at her. "Come on, there's a place that does good Fire food in the Middle Ring." And he grabbed her wrist and dragged her after him.

Yui stopped him. "Can we afford that?"

Kouji nodded. "Alak didn't buy the scroll, but he did want some of the statuettes."

"Okay," said Yui. "Works for me. And we'll go down tomorrow?"

The earthbender grinned at her. "Yes. All that history-in-the-making…"

"Soldiers to dodge, preservationists to avoid…," Yui continued, mischief sparking in her eyes.

"Discoveries to make, and things to sell!" Kouji finished, laughing.

"Let's go!" And the twins raced off through the city.

Dawn found Yui and Kouji just outside the tunnel to the Crystal Catacombs. They carried only one pack between them this time; this foray was strictly exploratory.

Technically speaking, the Crystal Catacombs were off-limits to casual visitors. The chamber in which the Avatar and the Hope of the South had battled the combined forces of Princess Azula and the Dai Li was unstable and, according to those working to shore it up, could come tumbling down at any minute.

In practise, however, Kouji was a student at Ba Sing Se University, and Yui an accomplished flirt. Entry was obtained with ease, and the two set off across the chamber, carefully moving around the rubble. "I can't believe you," Kouji muttered to his sister.

"What?" Yui asked, grinning broadly.

"You are not bringing him back to the apartment!"

"Of course I'm not," she said, reaching up to ruffle her twin's hair. "We'll probably go back to his place."

"Gah! That is not need-to-know!"

Yui laughed. "You're such a prude, Kou-kou."

He glared at her. "I'm not a prude. I just really don't need to know when you're having sex."

"You should really have some, you know."

"Yui!"

"I'm just saying—"

"Yui!"

"All right, all right…"

Kouji stalked off ahead of Yui, annoyed now. His twin followed at a more sedate pace, keeping an eye out to be sure nobody had noticed that they were headed for one of the entrances to a deeper part of the cavern.

By the time she caught up, Kouji was already down a tunnel that hadn't been used in decades and heading further in. Swearing softly, she lit one of their torches and chased after him. She probably shouldn't have teased him so badly, especially after his reaction to her rendezvous tonight.

"Kouji?" she asked quietly.

"Shh," he replied. She almost took umbrage — she wanted to apologise! — but then realised that he was intently focused on the wall. "Something's not right about this."

That was a switch, but one she was grateful for. She and Kouji couldn't afford fights right now. "How do you mean?"

Kouji didn't answer. He put his ear to the wall and rapped it softly with his knuckles, eyes closed. After a moment, he took the torch from her. "This way."

She nodded and followed as Kouji led her deeper into the catacombs. After several minutes, they came to the end of the tunnel — it had been blocked off by a cave-in. Kouji frowned as he examined the fall. "This was deliberate," he said quietly.

"It was?"

Kouji nodded. "The whole thing is unstable. If you move even the smallest stone, the whole thing will come down on you." He shook his head. "Whoever did this was either a master earthbender, or they had way too much time on their hands."

His sister snorted. "I really hope it was the former. So, trap?"

"Probably," Kouji agreed. "Or at least an alert system. Give me a sec." He passed the torch back to her and laid both hands on the ground, closing his eyes. "And don't move," he added, drumming his fingers lightly against stone. The drumming changed quickly to tapping, until finally the earthbender stood. "There's another tunnel beneath us," he said. "The one we're in now may not lead to it, but we won't be triggering an obvious trap this way."

Yui nodded. "Works for me."

"Back against the wall," Kouji instructed. "I need to be careful with this one — don't want to alert the guards back in the Catacombs."

She backed up quickly, leaving her twin more room to work with the stone. At the same time, she dug in their bag for some of the cheese she'd insisted they get this morning. Earthbending was not a subtle art, so forcing it to subtlety often left Kouji exhausted. Normally, a task like this one involved a stomp-and-drag motion — okay, it was more than that, or so Kouji insisted, but to Yui it looked like one — but that was too noticeable for their current situation.

After several moments of pondering and running his hands over the ground, Kouji finally dug his fingers into the ground and pulled — and the stone moved with him. Slowly he peeled away the floor, leaving a hole just barely wide enough for the pair of them to wiggle through. "That should do it," he said, taking his hands out of the ground.

Yui slipped over and passed him the Rushan cheese. "Eat," she urged.

"I think you're supposed to grill this," Kouji muttered, but he took a bite anyway.

While he ate, she lay flat on her stomach and peered into the hole Kouji had made. Carefully, she let the torch drop to the floor below, then wriggled forward some until she was half-in the hole. "Looks like a bit of a drop. You'll need to angle it some so we can drop safely," she reported, dragging herself back up.

Kouji nodded and stood, the bit of cheese gone. "I'll probably need to widen it a little, too." He eyed his body ruefully in the dim glow coming from beneath them. "Working with Alak is changing my build."

Yui almost asked if anyone of the female persuasion had noticed the muscle her scholarly brother was starting to put on, but that would only lead to another fight. Instead, she took the pack and carefully edged away from Kouji — with their light on the floor below, caution was all the more imperative.

She could no longer really see what he was doing, but she could hear whispered curses and slowly grinding stone. Finally, it stopped, and Kouji said, "Okay, let's do this."

Yui returned, passing him the bag and pressing some more Rushan into his hand before moving to the short new tunnel her brother had created. More carefully than the last time, she edged forward, testing her weight against the stone before sliding in legs-first. Kouji, his cheese gone again, took her hand in his to provide additional support in case he'd miscalculated.

He never did, but their past-time was risky enough without taking unnecessary ones.

The floor was fairly thick, but Yui's head was still above the floor when her feet came out the other side. "I'm through," she told him; Kouji nodded and lowered her further. Inch by inch, Yui slipped through the tunnel until her waist was through. She turned onto her stomach and smiled when she saw handholds. Nothing if not thorough, her twin.

She took one with her free hand and eased her grip on Kouji; the handhold remained firm. "Okay," she said, and he released her so she could support herself. Now she moved backwards through the tunnel, feeling more and more of herself hanging in the air, until she was through completely, with only her hold on the lip of the tunnel keeping her suspended.

She gauged the drop and then let go, rolling as she hit the ground to distribute the impact evenly. Something seemed off, she noted, but looking around provided no immediate answers. "I'm through!" she called to Kouji.

Silence for a moment, then their pack rolled out of the tunnel. Yui caught it neatly and slung it on, scooping up the torch at the same time. She didn't have to wait long before her brother's feet appeared, followed by legs and rear end. He hung suspended like that for longer than Yui liked, but since the stone was grinding again, she figured he was covering up their way through in case anyone else investigated the first tunnel. The earthbending stopped, and then Kouji dropped the rest of the way through, landing in a crouch.

Yui rolled her eyes. Earthbenders.

He gestured for the bag, which she passed to him. After a feat like the current one, it was for the best for both of them if they took some time for Kouji to rest.

"The irony is that if I'd been able to earthbend normally, I wouldn't be as tired," her twin mumbled around a mouthful of tú miàn bāo.

"That's the price a tomb raider must pay," Yui chirped, sitting across from him.

Kouji gave her the evil eye. "We're archaeologists."

She just grinned at him.

The earthbender finished his tú miàn bāo and made a face, then leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. "Give me ten minutes," he instructed.

"Right."

While Kouji rested, Yui explored a little bit, never straying beyond sight of her brother. Something was bothering her about this place, but she couldn't put her finger on it. When she got him up, she asked, "Does something strike you as… off?"

He blinked, then frowned. "Actually, now that you mention it…"

He grabbed a second torch and lit it to brighten the tunnel briefly, and both of them looked around.

"Dust," Yui said at last.

"Huh?"

"Look." She knelt and swept her fingers against the ground, then held them up for her brother to see. "There's no dust."

Kouji's eyes narrowed. "Someone's been here before us."

"Do you think they triggered that rockfall?" Yui asked.

"I don't know," he said. "But we'll need to be careful. Douse the light — we're in deep enough that there'll be light-crystals scattered about."

She nodded, and they put out their lights together.

Darkness engulfed them, but that was nothing they worried about. Yui groped for her brother's hand, and then Kouji led the way down the tunnel, moving with the slow shuffle he used when he didn't want his feet leaving the ground.

After about ten minutes in the darkness, Yui realised she could vaguely see her brother's outline, as well as a fairly dim, greenish glow. She relaxed — he'd been right about the light-crystals.

"Huh," Kouji said, examining the wall. "There are enough of these— this was a passageway somewhere. And someone sunk the lights back there."

"Why?" Yui wondered, and Kouji snorted.

"Why else? To keep people out. C'mon."

The twins moved forward once more, keeping in a single file line to disturb as little as possible. If this tunnel was still in use, neither of them wanted to anger whoever used it. Several minutes of wandering and a whispered argument later, they came to a halt in front of a metal door.

"Well," Kouji said at last. "That's not at all suspicious, is it?"

"How does it open?" Yui asked, frowning. There was no handle on it, nor hinges, nor even a lock she could reach.

"That's the thousand-koban question," Kouji agreed. "Take the pack."

Yui shouldered it without complaint, and Kouji pressed his entire body against the door. Yui refrained from comment, though it took a lot of willpower. Like he had with the floor, Kouji began striking the door with precise blows, eyes closed as he listened with his ears and his earthbending.

At last he said, "It's a trick — there's a whole room past there, but it's lined with metal to keep earthbenders from waltzing in whenever they feel like. But there has to be a way to get in — it's too big to be a tomb." He paused. "I think."

"So, how do we get in?" Yui asked, trying not to sulk. She hated rooms like this one.

"I'm trying to think," he told her. "Hush."

Yui rolled her eyes and tried not to fidget as Kouji started hitting the door again. This style of earthbending was so blasted finicky, especially since Kouji was so new at it.

"Got it," Kouji said. "It's got an earth-bolt lock in the metal. There might be a handle on the other side of the door, but if you're on this side…"

He slid into an earthbending stance, and Yui took several steps away from him. He glared over his shoulder at her. "Very funny."

He turned back to the door and moved without warning, kicking his leg out to one side until all his weight rested on it. Simultaneously he turned his torso towards that leg and thrust his arms out as if shoving an opponent backwards.

Metal screamed as stone slid back against it, and the door swung forward to reveal another hallway. Kouji blinked. "Of course," he said at last. "We can't do anything the easy way, can we?"

Yui giggled. "Look at it this way — whatever's back there, they didn't want anyone getting to it. Treasure!"

"Or the angry corpse of a dead Earth King," Kouji said mournfully.

"We read all nine of those Omashu Li books, Kouji. I think we can handle it."

"Three of them were Firelords," Kouji pointed out. "And one was a sage."

Yui shrugged. "Either way, we'll be fine even if the impossible should happen. Give me a torch; that hall isn't lit."

Together, the twins moved into the hallway, only to be halted by another door. "It's never easy," Kouji groaned, but Yui spied what he'd missed.

"Hold this," she grinned, kneeling by the door and reaching into the gold armband she always wore. No lock made was a match for her.

Yui got to work, and her focus narrowed to the lock before her. It was a good lock, likely state-of-the-art when this room had been built. It wasn't, however, the most difficult lock she'd had to deal with, and after a few minutes she had it open.

"Let's go," she said, replacing her lock picks in the armband and rising to her feet.

Together, the twins walked through the doorway into a room filled with rows upon rows of stone soldiers.

"…whoa," said Kouji.

← Prologue | Chapter 2 →

Fic: Earth

2010-09-29T02:24:58Z

Title: Earth
Fandom: Sailor Moon (anime)
Characters: Demando, Saffir, Esmeraude, Rubeus
Rating: G/K
Summary: Demando reflects on his future plans with his future Court.
Notes: Written for Bex, because I love her.

~*~

"Oniisama, what's that light?"

Prince Demando glanced over at his little brother, six years old and nestled against their cousin Rubeus. He then looked up to where the dark clouds that blanketed the sky had briefly parted, revealing a bright star. Demando had never seen it before, but he knew immediately what it was. "That's Earth," the young prince answered.

Saffir tilted his head to one side. "That's where we came from?"

Demando smiled when Esmeraude corrected him. "That's where we belong."

"Yes," he added. "And we're going to go back there some day."

Saffir lit up. "What's Earth like?"

Rubeus shifted Saffir off his lap and stood. At sixteen, he was the oldest of the strange group they had formed. He had also done the most studying on the subject at the moment -- for a certain definition of studying, anyway. Rubeus preferred perfecting his combat techniques and cultivating the two older Ayakashi sisters.

"Earth is a bright place," he said. "They don't need clocks to tell the difference between night and day, and there's all kinds of plantlife growing everywhere, especially since the White Queen turned her power on the planet."

Saffir's eyes sparked in interest as Rubeus described Earth to him, with Esmeraude chiming in from time to time. Demando held his peace, letting his cousins enchant his little brother while he planned. Tonight, when Esmeraude and Rubeus had gone about their business, he would weave more stories for Saffir, ensuring that he would want the return to earth as much as he did, as much as Rubeus and Esmeraude did, as much as their parents didn't.

Still, he had time enough to ascend to the Pellucid throne, and to place his trusted lieutenants -- his brother and his cousins -- in strategic positions in his future Court.

Too, he had a resource nobody else knew about -- not even Rubeus, who had been his first recruit just two years ago. With the wiseman's advice, Demando knew that the White Queen would accept the changes of Nemesis' people, and welcome them back to Earth.

Smiling, he reached out and hugged Saffir close.

It was only what they deserved.

[Fic]: Terracotta Dawn (Prologue)

2010-09-19T18:40:23Z

Alak paused on his way to the private areas of the Dai Li Museum. He could hear Professor Thanh yelling from here, which meant that his assistant, a former Joo Dee, had screwed something up.

"…was an accident," he heard the Joo Dee — Ai Fulin, that was her name — say.

"My dear girl, when King Hung destroyed Gaoling, that was an accident," Thanh retorted. "You… are a catastrophe!"

Alak smiled. Ai Fulin would be looking for a way out about now. Obliging her need, he poked his head inside the room. "Professor?"

Thanh glanced at him. "Alak," he said as Ai Fulin made her escape, slipping sideways with her back to a wall until she reached the door behind the young man. "What do you need?"

The Dai Li agent grinned at the professor, picking up Ai Fulin's fleeing footsteps through the stone floor, and held up his bag. A few scrolls poked out of the top. "More items to be translated, sir."

The professor gestured, and Alak turned the bag over to him. He stood at ease as Thanh sorted through it and selected one of the scrolls, and felt another smile cross his face when his teacher's eyebrow rose. "From Han-Guk again, I see. Where are you getting these?"

Alak coughed. "I know a guy."

Thanh pierced him with a look that made the agent feel like he was a trainee again. "Really."

"I don't want to scare him off," Alak explained, fighting the urge to squirm. "He could be useful."

This earned him an eyeroll. "Not your job to recruit, boy."

"I'm not recruiting." Alak grinned. "But he's got skills Hyo-sir could use."

"Hn." Thanh spread his scroll on a table and looked at the characters. "Scrolls, statuettes, idols, rubbings of wall-carvings… you best not be trucking with a temple-robber, boy."

"Careful with that scroll!" Kouji hissed to his twin sister. He reached down as far as he could to pass the delicate object to her without dislodging himself from his hazardous position on the underground temple's ceiling.

"I know, I know," Yui replied, rolling her eyes and stretching out to take the scroll from her no-less-precarious spot hanging off of a wall carving. "We've been tomb-raiding long enough."

"We're archaeologists, Yui," the young man told her, carefully making his way back toward the adjacent wall.

She arched an eyebrow, watching him slide down to the ground, his earthbending keeping his fall controlled. "Uh-huh. And who sells the things we get?" she asked, tucking the scroll gently into a pouch that would protect it further.

"Alak gives me good prices!" Kouji protested, walking under her and opening his hands.

She dropped the pouch into them. "We're tomb raiders." When Kouji made a strangled noise, she smiled, and then looked around for a safe way down. It had been a long time since she and Kouji had run through the forests, and she wasn't sure if she still remembered how to properly fall. There! That statue looked strong enough to hold her, and it helpfully had an arm outstretched for her to catch herself on.

Beneath her, Kouji followed her line of sight. "—Wait, Yui, I don't think—" he began, but it was too late; she'd already flung herself across the space. He was entirely unsurprised when, after she caught herself, her weight dragged the statue's arm downward, accompanied by the sound of grinding stone.

"…oops," Yui said, clinging to the arm-lever.

Before her brother could retort, something else ground against stone, followed by the sound of rushing water. "Slag!" yelped Kouji. He stamped his foot down, creating a thin pillar that launched him from the floor to the top of the statue Yui still hung onto. "Why did it have to be lakes?" he wondered as the first wave splashed hard across where he had stood a minute before.

Had she not been hanging on for dear life, Yui would have smacked him. "Help me up!"

Kouji tucked their find into his bag, then crouched down. He dug his left hand into the statue and offered her his other hand. She grabbed hold and together, they got her to relative safety.

"This won't keep us for long," Yui said, watching the rising water.

"You should have known better than to jump before I'd checked it," Kouji replied.

She glared at him. "You said you'd got rid of all the traps!"

"The ones on the floor and in the walls!" he retorted. "I didn't think you'd go statue-jumping!"

Yui snorted in disgust. "And here you're supposed to be the smart one."

"Shut up," the earthbender said, eyeing an alcove directly across from him. It looked like it had been a rest area for the earthbenders who made this temple. Unlike his twin sister, he couldn't swim, so he'd have to jump across before the water got too high. Where was it coming from, anyway?

Well, he couldn't figure that out from here, and the water was rising— was it rising faster? "Slag," he said.

Yui hit him. "You've been in the Earth Kingdom too long," she informed him. "Stop swearing and fix it!"

He glared at her, but gauged the distance from statue to wall. It was all math, and easy math at that. "Okay. I think I got it. Give me the rope."

His twin stared at him.

"…What?"

"The rope's in my bag," she said

Kouji blinked. "And… your bag is…?"

Yui pointed to the water.

It was the earthbender's turn to stare.

"It's not like I had time to get it!" Yui said defensively.

"If I flub this and drown, it's your fault," Kouji informed her.

"Like you flub anything."

Kouji shook his head and checked the distance again. "Right. Here goes nothing." He backed up as far as he could, then dashed three steps across the head of the statue. He used just enough earthbending to propel him to the alcove.

He didn't need the rope. He did need to stoop so he wouldn’t crack his skull against the ceiling. Apparently the earthbenders who had built the temple hadn't had his height. Shaking his head, Kouji returned his thoughts to the present — unless he stopped this, both of them would drown.

"Hurry!" Yui called over to him; Kouji ignored her, though the water half-filled the room by now. Earth-tracking wasn't an easy thing for him, even if Alak had been helping him improve. Taking a deep breath, he knelt and settled his hand against the ground. He nudged his earthbending through it, trying to figure out where the water was pouring in from.

This would be so much easier if he'd been trained by the Fighting Lady.

Finally, he located the stone trapdoor, and shifted focus from feeling to holding. Slowly he dragged that door back down, cutting off the flow of water into the room. When he opened his eyes again, Yui was in the much-calmer water, swimming towards him with strong strokes.

He blinked; the water was scant inches from his feet. He really needed to work on his earth-tracking.

When she reached him, Kouji helped her out of the water. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

Yui just glared at him, then leaned out of the shelter to wring out her long braid. "Don't be sorry," was her tart reply. "Get us out of here."

"Yes, ma'am." Still kneeling, he placed both of his hands flat on the ground, seeking the best way out of their current situation. Several minutes passed, during which he was dimly aware of his twin rifling through his bag, and then finally he opened his eyes. "Okay," he said, rising to a crouch. "I've got it. Move to the side."

Yui obeyed him a little more than he liked. She slipped into the water and turned onto her back. "I can do this without dropping the ceiling on you, Yui," he pointed out.

"I like floating," was her rejoinder.

Show-off.

Kouji drew back and began earthbending. First he strengthened the little roof to be sure it wouldn't collapse on him, then he raised it so he could stand upright. He needed space in order to do this safely and without destroying too much. From there, he forced some of the wall inward, making the start of a tunnel to the outside.

Yui didn't come out of the water until he'd got several feet in and had to stop to rest. "Don't overdo it," she cautioned him. "This isn't really your forte."

"Do I tell you how to sing?" he shot back at her. "Pass me the tú miàn bāo."

Yui gave him two of the pressed cakes, trying not to giggle at the faces he made while eating them. Kouji hated sickly sweet things, and the energy-restoring cakes were nothing but sweet.

"Why can't that inventor up North make some sort of portable icebox?" Kouji asked

"It wouldn't be convenient for us to carry anyway," Yui said. "And it'd probably cost everything we've saved up so far."

Kouji sighed. "You're right. We need that money." He finished the last of the tú miàn bāo, licked the residual sweet off his fingers, and then got back to his feet. Yui promptly retreated, and the process began anew.

It took several hours for them to reach the surface, and by the time they emerged into open air they were out of food. "That scroll," Kouji panted, "had better be worth it."

Chapter One →

[Fic]: Terracotta Dawn

2010-09-19T18:23:37Z

Author: Dark Puck
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters: Kouji and Yui (OCs), Phoenix King Ozai, scattered Dai Li
Rating: PG-13/T
Genre: Action/adventure, supernatural
Summary: In Ba Sing Se, a pair of ~~tomb raiders~~ archeologists accidentally stumble across a plot to awaken terracotta warriors and use them to destroy the Fire Nation. Not wanting to see another war tear the world apart, they seek help from the only source they can think of -- the former Phoenix King.
Warning: Focuses mainly on OCs and on Ozai. Chapter ratings may vary. Hidden and not-so hidden pop-culture references.
Notes: I pretty much have the crack. :D Originally conceived in Summer 2009, I spent a few months poking at the general idea of the fic, but never really got anything concrete from it. Then, shortly after Christmas, I decided to taunt everyone and created a Coming Soon post. Then, early in February, Avocado Love created the Avatar Big Bang, and I decided that I would use Terracotta Dawn as my fic. So... here it is. :D

Prologue
Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five
Chapter Six

Story: Scarf

2010-09-19T15:26:23Z

Title: Scarf
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Rating: PG/K+
Characters: Duyi (OC), Ichiko (OC), Liu (OC)
Word Count:
Summary: The Dai Li track Ichiko down after a fight and have her come down to the station. There, she meets a Dai Li captain named Liu...
Notes: Genderbending is fun. Duyi and Liu belong to Bex; she was kind enough to allow me to use them.

"I've got it!" called Yuu when someone knocked on the door. He started that way, and squawked when Ichiko caught him by the collar and hauled him back.

"You stay with your sister," she told him sternly, and gave him a gentle push to where Koto had ducked behind their rolled-up futons. Once the twins were both down, Ichiko answered the door.

On the other side was an Earth man wearing a dark green uniform trimmed in both black and gold. He was around her height, with a full beard and dark green eyes.

Ichiko blinked. "Can I help you?"

The man offered her a half-bow. "Miss," he greeted her. "I am Agent Duyi."

She bowed in turn, the Earth-style bow as natural to her as Fire-style. Agent. That was bad. Shit, had they found out she and the twins hadn't entered Ba Sing Se legally?

No, wait. This had to be about that fight.

"Is there a problem?" she asked. She knew how to play innocent convincingly.

"Only a minor one," Agent Duyi said reassuringly. "It's standard procedure to check paperwork after a fight. However, yours appears to have been misplaced."

He was lying. She knew he was lying, and he had to know she knew. But apparently she wasn't in trouble for it, if he was pretending the paperwork had gone missing somehow.

"That sounds problematic," Ichiko replied. "Is there anything I can do?"

Agent Duyi nodded. "I just need you to come with me to fill out new forms."

Ichiko considered this. "Do the twins need to come with me?" Surely the Dai Li wouldn't want to wrangle a pair of ten-year-olds for gods only knew how long paperwork would take.

"No," said Duyi. "They will be fine here with whatever sitter you require."

"All right," she said. "Just a moment?" When he nodded, she went to the twins. "Koto," she said quietly. "You're in charge. Don't fight me on this, Yuu. Stay inside, both of you."

The twins looked at her, then they both nodded. "Okay," Yuu said.

She smiled and hugged them both, then returned to the Dai Li on her doorstep. "All right," she said. "I'm ready."

He gave her that half-bow. "Please follow me," he said.

With a soft sigh, Ichiko obeyed. She'd really hoped to avoid a paper trail. At least the policy of hiding from the war would work in her favour -- there was nobody in Ba Sing Se who would connect Ichiko the war-child with Ichiko of New Sozin or Lord Torao's adopted daughter.

It was a long walk to where Ichiko would fill out the paperwork, but then, she'd picked her apartment with that idea in mind. The farther away she lived from Officials, the happier she was.

The building Agent Duyi led her to was simple, like most of the buildings in the Lower Ring. However, it stood alone, with no neighbours pressed against it, and it only had one floor.

Ichiko's eyes narrowed. That building had to have multiple basements, or she'd eat her hat.

The first thing she noticed when Duyi led her in the budiling was the Dai Li agent with a green scarf wrapped around his face and throat. She forced her gaze to move beyond him, but her mind lingered. Why the scarf? she wondered.

(There is no war in Ba Sing Se.)

Ichiko could feel eyes on her, but she was used to that -- after all, she dressed like a man, in a farmer's pants and short tunic, and wore her hair cropped close to her skull. If her stupid tits weren't so big, she could probably pass for a man. The look certainly made her memorable, though.

To her surprise, Duyi led her to the scarved Dai Li.

His eyes were green.

That shouldn't have struck her as much as it did; a lot of people in the Earth Kingdom had green eyes. But his were soft, like grass, and completely belied his occupation.

He was dangerous, she realised.

And hot.

Okay, not thinking about that. Thinking like that was bad. Also her lord father would have a fit.

Was she blushing?

Ichiko bowed to cover for it, in case she was. Icy mountain streams.

When she straightened up, the Dai Li agent looked mildly confused.

"Miss, this is Agent Liu," said Duyi. "He'll handle the paperwork. Agent Liu, this is the young lady I spoke to you about."

He nodded, and offered Ichiko a sort of half-bow. Curious.

"Thank you, Agent Duyi," she said, smiling at the older man.

Duyi bowed in farewell -- again with the half-bows -- and drifted off, leaving Ichiko with Liu.

The scarved agent gestured for her to go with him, and she followed him to a table where paperwork had clearly been prepared. It seemed fairly standard, wanting her name, age, place of origin, occupation, and so on. After filling in the first two, she paused, as if considering, then looked up at Liu. "When they say 'origin', do they mean where I was born, or the last village I lived in?"

Liu raised an eyebrow at her, and she shrugged. "We left our home village when I was thirteen and wandered for awhile."

He nodded, and chalked something on a bit of slate he'd been holding. 'Both.'

"Okay," said Ichiko, and inked in the name of a village some fifteen miles from New Sozin, as well as Sen Lin Village, then worked on the rest of the form. She was very careful with her writing -- letting some of the ink drip, nearly running her sleeve through something she'd written, and using children's characters more than once.

She glanced up at Liu while she was waiting for the ink to dry. Better not to comment on her amaturish mistakes, unless he had something to say.

He was watching her.

She flushed and dropped her gaze. Stupid sexy earthbender.

Ichiko heard chalk against slate again, and looked up just as he finished writing. 'I will walk you home, miss.'

Yes.

"Thank you, Agent Liu," she said, smiling.

He half-bowed to her, then offered his arm.

Well then. Ichiko awkwardly put her hand on his arm -- though her Lord Father's ettiquette instructors had walked her through this kind of thing, she had never gotten used to it.

Liu led her outside, and she directed him back to the apartment. It was unusual, to be walked home by a government agent -- in fact, it was the kind of thing Ichiko usually strove to avoid. She'd have to be very careful from now on. Especially if the Dai Li kept watching her.

Also, it was weird walking home in silence. But Ichiko definitely liked it. Better than having some idiot boy chattering at her about things he thought she'd like. But after several minutes, they were at the door of her apartment. She turned to look up at Liu.

He reached past her to touch the wall; she glanced behind her to see that characters had formed there. 'Take care in the future, Miss Ichiko.'

She gave him an impertinent wink. "Of course."

Liu turned to go, and Ichiko was struck by a sudden inspiration. "Would you have dinner with me some night?" she blurted.

The agent stopped and turned back to her, as if he didn't believe what he had heard. She grinned in response to the expression in his eyes. "Or do girls not ask boys out in this city?"

'It isn't unheard of,' appeared on the ground before her.

"So," she said, looking at him again. "Dinner?"

The characters on the ground vanished, but for a moment there was nothing. Then a new character appeared: "Yes."

Ichiko grinned.

Story: Overstepping

2010-09-16T22:33:04Z

Title: Overstepping
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Characters: Kouji, Torako (OCs)
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: When one of the criminal element's district lords goes too far, it falls to Kouji to discipline the man and save the girl.
Notes: I blame tigerkat24 for this. She put the idea in my head, and then enabled me. Vengeance is hers.

Both Ichiro and Kouji looked up as their sister came running into the room, wide-eyed. "There's a problem," she said.

It wasn't her words that drew the men's attention -- they were all part of a fairly large business collective, after all. Problems came up often in their line of work. No, it was her fear they noticed.

"What is it?" Kouji asked, laying down his brush.

"It's Keitaro," she said. "He's taken one of Daimyo General Torao's daughters."

"....please tell me you mean they eloped," Ichiro said, paling.

Yui shook her head, braid flying. "To pressure him."

"Gods all damn it, he was told no!"

Kouji raised an eyebrow at his brother. "I told you Keitaro was overstepping," he said.

Ichiro sighed. "Which means it'll fall to us to discipline him."

"Nobody else will," Yui pointed out. "He's too powerful -- even the other district lords tread carefully around him."

"Good thing I've never much cared for politics," said Ichiro. "We're going to get her back where she belongs."

"And by 'we' you mean 'me,'" Kouji muttered.

Ichiro grinned. "You're nicer than I am."

"And by 'nicer' you mean 'crueller'?" asked Yui.

"More practical," Kouji objected.

"More polite," Ichiro clarified. "I don't get on well with nobles. You two at least can pretend, and I need Yui with me."

Kouji sighed. "Fine. I'll use the business account to pay for the airship ticket."

"Good," Ichiro said. He leaned back in his seat and put his feet up on the desk. "And, Kouji? Make sure this won't happen again."

The young man hesitated. "Limits?"

Golden eyes glittered. "None."

Her cell was cold.

Torako had been colder, however.

If that bastard thought being slightly uncomfortable would weaken her spirit, he was badly mistaken.

There were voices outside her cell.

Reflexively, she tried to move closer to hear, but she had been chained to the wall in order to keep her from waterbending. Still, if she strained her ears, she could make out two different voices, both male.

One of them was angry.

"...no right... lead to trouble... General will..."

Torako's eyes narrowed. She knew they had taken her to use against Father, but this... This sounded bad.

"What are--?" The voice cried out, and suddenly stopped.

Very bad.

Silence fell, then a key turned in the lock.

Torako readied herself to fight.

The door opened partway, but nobody entered. Instead, a voice -- the one that had previously been so angry -- said, "Miss?"

She did not relax, no matter how uncertain that voice sounded now. Uncertain or not, Torako was fairly sure he had killed the other man. She said nothing.

"Miss -- My name is Kouji. I'm here to rescue you."

That was far too easy to be true.

The door opened further, and a face appeared around it.

Torako blinked.

He looked young, younger than her, even, for all he was very tall and wore glasses. His black hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, though short whisps of hair had fallen free to frame his face. His expression was surprisingly uncertain for a man -- a boy? -- who had likely just killed someone.

"Like I said-- I've come to rescue you."

He entered the room, and she could see that he was leanly built at first glance. A second look, however, showed the compact muscles in his arms, thanks to the summer-style Fire Nation garb he wore.

Whatever this Kouji was, he wasn't as harmless as he tried to appear.

"I got the key off the guard. Can-- may I unchain you?"

He was also kind of weird. "Yes," she said.

He made his way over and produced the key, unlocking her with care not to touch her. "Can you walk?" he asked as he freed her ankle, looking up at her with an oddly worried expression. Torako was reminded of a hedgepuppy.

She nodded, and he smiled. "Good." He got to his feet and stepped out of arm's reach -- his arms. "Follow me, miss."

Well, at least he would take the first hits. And wasn't behind her.

He lead her out into the hallway, but there was no sign of the other man, not even blood.

Torako nearly bolted then, but common sense took hold of her. Kouji was obviously a very dangerous young man, who had decided for some reason to rescue her. She wasn't sure if she believed his excuse, but he'd made no attempt to hurt her yet -- in fact, he was keeping his distance from her.

If he was telling the truth, he would probably escort her home.

If he was lying, running away would only anger him.

Well, she could always rip out his blood if he tried anything.

If her kidnapper had any real sense of drama he would have stashed her in a labyrinth or a palace of some kind, or at the very least, a warehouse. As it was, she had been stored in a small house, so it took less than a minute for Kouji to lead her to the door.

He was reaching for the handle when he stopped. Confused, Torako stopped as well, taking a step to the side when he turned, a frown on his face.

"Stay behind me," he said quietly, his grey eyes narrowing.

"Don't bother," crowed her captor, appearing suddenly in another doorway. "It's far too soon to hurt the hostage." He glared at Kouji. "And you are becoming--"

The earth buckled beneath his feet, and he fell into a hole that hadn't been there a second before. Kouji shook his head. "Idiot."

Torako stared at him. Of all the potential rescuers she'd considered, an earthbender hadn't been high on the list. Who was he?

As she watched, Kouji approached the hole. "This is how it's going to work," he said. "I am going to pull you out of there, and you are going to behave."

"Why not just kill me and get it done with?" taunted the older man.

"I'm not going to kill you, Keitaro," said Kouji, sounding surprised. "That would be nice. I'm going to give you to the Daimyo General."

Torako gave him a startled glance. That was... actually pretty smart of him. Daddy was unlikely to be happy with anyone criminal right now -- or any male in her company, really. In bringing Daddy the bastard behind her kidnapping, Kouji was ensuring that he probably wouldn't be killed.

"You wouldn't dare!" snarled Keitaro. "The syndicate--"

"Has washed its hands of you," Kouji said cheerfully. "You went too far. The boss doesn't want us fiddling in politics, remember?"

"Are you mad?" the older man demanded. "Do you have any idea what the measure he's supporting will do to us!?"

"And you've given him even more reason to support it," Kouji replied. "Good going on that, by the way."

Fire streamed out of the hole, but Kouji sidestepped to avoid it. "Idiot," he said again, and moved into an unfamiliar bending stance. He moved through a series of stances that reminded Torako vaguely of waterbending, then stamped his foot.

Keitaro was thrown from the hole, this time bound in rock, with a strip of it wrapped around his mouth.

Torako smiled. She could almost like this Kouji.

The young man leaned down and hauled Keitaro to his feet. "Time for walkies," he said, then glanced at Torako. "As you might have gathered, I'm taking you home."

"I'd noticed," she said, and smiled at him.

The young man blushed a deep red. "W-well then," he stammered. "L-let's get m-moving."

It was a long journey to Daimyo General Torao's home in Three Volcanoes Bay. Or rather, it was expensive. Kouji had no intention of sharing his seasickness with Keitaro or Lady Torako. Fortunately, Ichi-ni had already agreed to help him foot the bill, so getting to Three Volcanoes Bay wasn't an issue.

Getting to the Daimyo General with an unwilling prisoner was however.

Keitaro was a wriggler, and Kouji found himself having to focus most of his attention on the bastard. Still, tying a bow around the gag had been particularly inspired, he thought. At least Torako was co-operative. He doubted she trusted him as far as she could throw him, but it was nice to not need to wrangle her.

His brain supplied a helpful image of "wrangling" the lady, and he groaned. Now he remembered why he usually stayed behind with his numbers.

He was not surprised when, on crossing onto the lands owned by the Daimyo General, a guard appeared to stop them. He was also not surprised when that guard tried to arrest him.

Lady Torako, however, drew herself up to her full height and gave the guard a chilling glare. "Stop that," she ordered.

To his surprise, the guard did stop, bowing deeply before her. "Apologies, my lady," he said. "Your father left instructions..."

"I'm sure he did," she replied. "However, my rescuer and I have a gift for my Lord Father."

The guard blinked. "Your... rescuer?"

Kouji bowed politely.

"Yes," the lady said, then ordered, "Escort us to the house."

"At once, my lady." The guard led the way to the manor, allowing Kouji to devote his full attention on the desperate Keitaro. The three of them were deposited in a room, with the guard taking a station by the door. Kouji thought he spied a servant dart off, presumably to inform the Daimyo General of their arrival.

This would be fun.

Kouji took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then cuffed Keitaro when he felt heat gathering around the other man. "Stop that."

The older man glared daggers at him.

Kouji was suddenly aware that someone else had entered -- and it wasn't via earthbending. He turned to the door and saw, for the first time, Daimyo General Torao.

Suddenly he understood why Keitaro had tried to control the man -- and why that move would probably be considered suicide by the local authorities.

Before he could do more than blink, Lady Torako approached her father and hugged him tightly. The man hugged her back just as tight, Kouji noticed in the instant before averting his gaze. Keitaro was trying to wiggle loose. How he thought he could, given the tightness of his earthen bonds, Kouji couldn't begin to guess.

"Are you all right?" he heard the Daimyo General ask his daughter.

"Yes, I am," she replied. "I wasn't hurt, and Kouji never laid a hand on me without my permission."

Kouji bowed very deeply -- not quite a kowtow, but exactly as deep convention required from a peasant towards a man of high military and civilian rank -- and said nothing. Politeness and formality was how to get out of this intact. That and the present he'd brought Daimyo General Torao.

"How polite," the daimyo said drily.

Kouji flushed, but remained silent.

Being under the man's gaze was extremely disconcerting. "You are...?" Torao asked.

"Kouji, Daimyo General," the young man replied with another bow.

The daimyo's gaze shifted from Kouji to the gagged Keitaro. The corner of his mouth quirked in amusement, then he looked at Kouji again. "And why shouldn't I have you arrested to face the Firelord's justice, Kouji?"

"I have committed no crime, Daimyo General," Kouji replied.

He smiled. "I'm sure I can find one."

"Daddy!" protested Lady Torako.

Kouji allowed himself a small smile. "My lord, wouldn't it be better to have the man responsible face justice?" He gestured carefully towards Keitaro, not allowing his hand to drift by the bag of sand at his waist.

Keitaro mumbled something, likely curses, around his gag.

"Having the man responsible would be pleasing," admitted Torao.

Kouji bowed. "Keitaro and his people are the only ones responsible for what happened," he said quietly. "His actions were not sanctioned -- he was, in fact, strictly forbidden to do so."

"Is that so?" Torao drawled.

"Yes, my lord," was Kouji's soft answer. "Our... business has no interest in meddling with politics or national policy. Especially not with several bored soldiers still on the Firelord's payroll."

"How wise," commented the Daimyo-General.

Kouji said nothing. The man was clearly trying to bait him.

The silence stretched until Torako said cheerfully, "Perhaps you should put your gift somewhere nice, Father."

"Perhaps," he said. He turned to the guards. "Escort the young man out," he ordered.

"Yes, sir!" said one of them. "This way," he then said to Kouji.

Kouji offered one last deep bow to the Daimyo-General and Lady Torako, then followed the guards out. Well, he'd got out alive, at least. That was the best he could hope for.

He had a sneaking suspicion that Torao would not be so kind if they met again. Especially professionally.

Once he was outside the manor, he headed for the gate, only to be stopped by one of the guards putting a hand on his shoulder. "You seem like a nice young man," he said conversationally. "I suggest you get out of that business before you get killed."

Kouji smiled. The guard, it appeared, had misunderstood politeness for niceness. "I'll take that under consideration."

With a bow of farewell, he made his way towards the gates of the property. He wanted to get home to his siblings and his numbers, and away from pretty girls.

...okay, so Yui was more than pretty, but she was his twin.

He had just stepped beyond the gates when water came splashing down from nowhere, drenching him.

"The hell?" he sputtered, whirling to try and figure out where it had come from.

His earthbending revealed he was alone, which was imposs--

He looked up.

Lady Torako gave him an impish smile from where she sat on top of the gate.

"How did you get here before me?" he demanded.

She giggled and swung down, landing lightly in front of him. "I think I like you better this way," she said.

"Wh-what?" he stammered. Gods, he was probably bright red now.

"Wet," she clarified, her eyes gleaming wickedly.

Um.

Chained Stone Index

2010-09-14T01:12:36Z

This is an index of all the stories in the Chained Stone universe, formerly known as the slave'verse.

Basic Summary: Captain Liu of the Dai Li is captured in Guoyin and sold to farmers in New Sozin as a slave. There, he meets the children of his new owner.
Notes: Liu is the creation of Becky H. and is used with her permission.
Warnings: Slavery, May/December

Summer Daze: Ichiro notices Liu for the first time. Written by Becky H.
Tremors: Liu discovers something unusual about his owner's youngest son.
Green Tea: Yui brings Liu a cup of tea.
Firebender: Liu notices things about Ichiro that don't add up.
Hair: Mi-Cha combs Kouji's hair.

Story: Present

2010-09-11T04:45:03Z

Title: Present
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Universe: Wild Hunt
Characters: Sokka, Hahn, Krisuk (OC), Song, Mai
Rating: PG-13/T for language
Summary: Hahn and Krisuk try to woo a pretty half-breed girl. With Sokka.

Sokka really, really hated Wild Fae.

He'd been trying to hunt when he'd suddenly been grabbed out of nowhere and heard two familiar, incredibly annoying voices.

"Abduction," the one who called himself Hahn had said.

"Complete!" the one who called himself Krisuk had finished.

With no further warning, he'd been dragged off.

Now he was travelling through the forest at an inhumanly high speed, being passed off between the damn Fae. Katara was going to kill him.

He had no idea how much time had passed before they reached a small house just outside the forest. The two Fae didn't even bother to knock, just blew into the house and dropped him on the floor.

"Hi, Song!" carolled Krisuk.

Grinning, Hahn added, "We got you a present!"

Sokka blinked up at a very pale young woman with electric green eyes. She had evidently just finished washing her hands -- they were held still over a basin, water dripping from them. Beyond her was an old man lying on a bed, and next to him--

Something light and dark blurred and then Hahn yelped. "HEY!"

The blur was a young woman, pale skinned and dark-haired and so very, very Fire Nation. Her expression was oddly blank given that she had just stabbed Hahn.

"Oh, yes," said the green-eyed girl calmly. "I have guests."

"She stabbed me!" Hahn cried. "What'd she stab me for?"

Sokka could think of several reasons, personally.

"She doesn't like the Fae," Song answered.

"Then what's she doing in your cottage?"

"Miss Song is a doctor, remember?" Krisuk told his friend, pulling him away from the Fire girl and spinning water from the basin.

Hahn looked around, and his eyes landed on the old man on the bed. Sokka tensed, but the Water fae only said, "Oh, right. Grandda's hurt." As Krisuk finished healing him, he turned his eyes back to the doctor. "Anyways. We brought you a present!"

Song eyed them both. "I see."

Hahn nodded and pushed Sokka at the Fire girl -- probably in an attempt to avoid being stabbed again -- then turned to his friend. "Hey, Krisuk, you wanna go play with the Avatar-blood prince?"

Krisuk grinned. "When do I not?"

And with that, the two Water Fae blew out of the house as suddenly as they'd snatched Sokka up.

Knives chased the two fae out before Sokka even realised the Fire girl had shoved him aside. He didn't hit the floor, at least -- Song caught and steadied him. "I'm sorry about them," she said.

".....What the hell?" he demanded.

"They like me," Song said quietly, letting go.

"Who are you?" Sokka asked. He didn't think those two morons could like anybody.

"My name is Song," she introduced herself. "I'm a doctor."

A Wild Fae doctor who didn't act like any Wild Fae Sokka had ever met. "Riiiiiiiiiight." He turned his gaze to the Fire girl, who was calmly retrieving her knives.

"You can leave whenever you want," Song added, checking on the unconscious old man, "though I'd recommend waiting until the boys are out of the area."

"Uh," said Sokka. "While we're on the topic, do you maybe miraculously know how to get them to leave you the fuck alone?"

She gave him a small smile. "If I knew that, they wouldn't keep trying to woo me with 'presents'."

He put his head in his hands and groaned dramatically, and she swatted him. "Quietly. Master Jeong-Jeong is resting."

Master, was it?

He softened his groan.

"How is he?" asked the Fire girl. Her voice had softened very slightly, but her eyes when she looked at Song were cold.

All the kindness drained away from the doctor when she turned to the other girl. "He's alive and will remain so," she said. "Unless you want me to call Krisuk back, however, it'll be a long time before he can be moved. He's the only waterbender in the area."

"Wait, what does waterbending have to do with it?" Sokka wanted to know.

"Waterbenders heal," Song explained gently.

"...so... that wasn't some freaky fae thing he did, then?"

The Fire girl gave him an incredulous look, but Song said, "No, it was a waterbending thing. You're from the South Pole?"

"Yeah," Sokka replied. "My sister's the only waterbender lAGH!"

The Fire girl had grabbed him by the ear and was dragging him to the door. "Go get her," she instructed him.

"It's too late for that," Song objected, and the girl turned to pierce her with a stare that would have frozen lava.

"What?"

"In the day," she clarified.

The Fire girl released Sokka, and he backed away, rubbing his ear. "Ow," he commented, but the ladies ignored him.

"What's wrong with him coming back in the night?" the Fire girl asked.

Song sighed. "I live outside the wild woods, Lady Mai. When night falls, the Light Fae sing."

That gave her pause, and Song added, "You are welcome to bring in your other knives when the sun sets. The Light Fae can be... persuasive."

"She has more?" Sokka put in, wide-eyed. Damn, but Mai was getting more attractive.

She smiled, and he realised the Fire lady was quite beautiful. "Special knives. Iron forged in the flames of Agni and tempered in blessed water."

He whistled. Blades like that had to be expensive. "Who made them?"

"Master Piandao of the Fire Nation," Song said softly, ignoring the filthy look Mai turned on her. "He makes weapons that are... potent against the fae."

"You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?" Mai said.

The look that crossed Song's face made Sokka step back. It wasn't rage, or hate -- it was pain. "Yes," she said. "I would."

"Okay!" Sokka said cheerfully. "Lady Mai, why don't you tell me more about your knives?" He gave Song an apologetic look as he guided Mai outside the house.

Sokka was half-asleep across the doorway of Song's bedroom, letting the rain lull him to rest. He figured Mai wouldn't slit the Fae girl's throat during the night, but... he just felt better being there.

A loud "SHH!" brought him immediately to full awareness, and he had his bone knife in his hand before his mind caught up with him. He rolled over as if asleep and cracked one eye open to see Hahn half in the window to Song's bedroom.

What the hell.

"Shh yourself!" Hahn hissed back, presumably to Krisuk. He was soaked from head to toe and dripping on the floorboards. How in the world could Song sleep through that mess?

As soon as he moved out of the way, Krisuk -- who was much drier than his friend -- vaulted in and closed off the window. He then did one of those weird dancey waterbending moves and dried Hahn off, carefully settling the extra in a nearby basin.

A similar move took care of what water had dripped on the floor, then Krisuk yawned and murmured something to Hahn, who nodded. The two Fae headed for Song's bed.

Sokka was on his feet and between them and the doctor before his brain fully caught up with him. "What are you doing?" he hissed.

The two Water Fae looked confused. "Nesting," Krisuk said after a moment.

"What?" Sokka asked.

Hahn said a word Sokka couldn't even start to pronounce, so the Water Tribesman stared at him instead.

"It doesn't translate," Krisuk informed him. "Move."

"No," Sokka replied.

Hahn started for him, but Krisuk stopped him. "We promised Miss Song," he said.

The taller Fae sighed, then looked at Sokka again. "It is cold and wet and full of Light Fae out there," he said shortly. "Miss Song has," and he said that word again. "So move."

"No," Sokka repeated. "That's her bed."

"That's the point," Krisuk replied.

Fae were crazy, Sokka decided.

"It's all right," a sleepy voice interjected. All three turned to Song, who had a smile on her face. "I've granted them permission, Sokka," she added.

Oh.

Hahn and Krisuk looked at each other, then each of them grabbed him by the arm. "Hey!" he protested as they dumped him onto the bed.

"It is cold," Hahn said.

"And wet," Krisuk agreed.

Song reached out and pulled Hahn down beside her, then pulled Krisuk down on the other side. "It's all right," she told them both, and gave Sokka an apologetic look.

Carefully, Sokka wriggled off the bed. "I'll just watch the door," he said.

"Your loss," Hahn muttered.

Sokka didn't dignify that with an answer.

The next time he looked over, the two Water Fae had curled up as tight against Song as they possibly could, each with his arms wrapped around her. Krisuk even had his face hidden in her hair.

He could hear faint singing in the distance, and Song whimpered in her sleep.

Sokka scowled and carefully joined the trio on the bed.

Stupid Water Fae.

Story: Irregularity

2010-09-08T04:35:49Z

Title: Irregularity
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Rating: PG/K+
Characters: Ichiko (OC), Liu (OC)
Word Count: 1500+
Summary: Ichiko discovers she has a bun in the oven.
Notes: Sometimes, you have to genderbend one of your OCs. Sometimes, you have to deal with the natural consequences of a relationship. And sometimes, you just have the crack.

Ichiko swore.

She kept a very close track on her monthly bleeding, because debilitating cramps ran in her family and she preferred to know when she would be out of commission. She was rarely late, but it had been nearly six weeks since the last time she'd bled. And only one thing had changed in those six weeks.

Ichiko knew better than to ask herself how this could have happened. Even though they'd used protection, something must have gone wrong.

She would have to tell Liu before she figured out what to do about it.

Of course, having all her options ready would probably help that conversation.

She sat down at the table to think.

~*~

Ichiko waited until the twins had gone to bed, then took up her writing kit and headed out to Liu's apartment. She still hadn't figured out how to bring this up. Well, she'd get through this lesson first, then she'd tell him.

Somehow.

Finally, she said, "Liu?" as he made his way to the counter top.

The older man glanced curiously at her, reaching for the tea pot.

Ichiko took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant."

Liu froze.

After a stunned moment, he earthbent up a seat and all but collapsed into it. The young woman watched him worriedly.

He put his hand on the counter and words appeared on the wall.

'What do we do about it?'

Ichiko couldn't help but smile. Not her, but we. "Well, we've got a few options," she said. Might as well put out the least palatable first. "One is absolving you of fatherhood. If that's what you want."

Liu's question vanished, to be replaced by a large, bold, 'No.'

Ichiko smiled. She should've known he'd object to that option. "All right, clearly not that. There's... I could also... terminate the pregnancy." She didn't like this option any more than absolving Liu of fatherhood, truth be told, but it was still on the table.

Liu's 'No' remained where it was, and the possibility of abortion was thusly removed from the table. "Okay," she said, and sighed. "Which means that the next few months will be interesting." The gods only knew what effects the comet might have on her pregnancy, but she couldn't tell him about that danger.

Too, twins ran in her family.

This would be an interesting nine months.

"The most viable option," Ichiko said, "is to continue as we are now. I'd update you on how the pregnancy is going, you could help me out as necessary..."

The wall went blank for a moment, then words appeared again. 'I should marry you.'

Ichiko's heart sank. That was exactly what she had been hoping to avoid. She took a deep breath and glanced at his eyes, and nearly flinched at the expression there. "No, Liu," she said quietly. "I don't... not right now. It's a bad idea." For more reasons than she could explain to him.

Stone flowed like water with a mere flex of Liu's hand, and more characters appeared. 'I disagree. I'm more than capable of providing for you, and we're both going to be involved in the child's life anyway. Marriage will legitimise you in a way that being a young pregnant war-child never will.'

Damn him and his logic. And replying that there was No War In Ba Sing Se probably wouldn't do anything for the war-child argument.

"Liu," she said quietly. "I like you. I like you a lot. But I'm sixteen. What if that changes? I don't want to shackle you to me when two, five, ten years from now I might not feel the same way."

'Marriage does not require love,' Liu pointed out. 'And you will need a stable home.'

This was not going the way Ichiko wanted it to. But Liu was probably Dai Li. She couldn't exactly tell him that she was a Fire Nation noble trying to keep her little brother from capturing the Avatar. That would raise more questions than she wanted to answer, and would definitely shatter their relationship.

Or worse -- she, Kouji, and Yui would vanish.

She took a deep breath. "Liu, I... I can't make a decision like that so fast. I... need time. So I can think about it."

Liu considered this. 'That is a good idea,' he agreed.

Ichiko nodded. "Yeah. I mean... what if you married me, but then I miscarried?" Oh Agni, the comet. "It isn't uncommon for girls my age..."

Liu drew her into his arms then, stroking her hair softly. She clung to him tightly, fighting the fear that thinking about the comet had aroused in her. Silk slid against her face; Liu had bent slightly to rub his cheek against hers.

Ichiko turned and kissed him through the scarf, not once loosening her hold. He kissed her back, still gently running his fingers through her hair.

She didn't deserve him.

~*~

Damn that bitch!

Ichiko would have been perfectly content to hide out in the Lower Ring while Ba Sing Se was occupied.

But no. Princess Azula had just had to spy her. And then decided to leave her in charge of the Dai Li remaining behind.

And to make matters worse, she had quite cheerfully "introduced" Ichiko to Liu.

Keeping her expression neutral had been one of the hardest things Ichiko had ever done, but she had managed it. She had no idea how Liu had done the same. But she had fled as soon as possible, not wanting to face him like this. Not after the princess had exposed her for a noble, for Lord Torao's third daughter.

Words appeared on the floor in front of her. 'We need to talk.'

Damned earthbenders. It was impossible to hide from them.

Ichiko glanced up at Liu, who stood in the doorway of the room she'd tried to hide in with his arms folded. Wincing, she shifted her gaze to the wall. There was no safety there, either. 'We have new options.'

"Yes," she said softly, looking at him again.

His eyes were hard, and for the first time Ichiko was glad she could see no more than that. 'Will you tell the princess?'

"Never," she spat vehemently. And give Azula that kind of power over her? She'd die first!

Liu nodded, and the characters changed. 'Your father?'

Ichiko hesitated. "...probably. But this isn't something I'd leave to a letter. And since her princessness has decided to keep me here so she'll know where I am..." It was going to be awhile before Lord Torao found out.

'This is why you wished to avoid marriage,' Liu said.

She nodded. "I knew I had my Lord Father to fall back on. I had help. And... I couldn't bind you to me. Not when you didn't know who I was."

The characters melted and reformed, but these new ones were soft and indistinct. 'You didn't know who I was either.'

"I-- suspected," Ichiko admitted. "But I didn't know for certain."

Liu could only smile with his eyes -- and that smile was sad. 'You still don't.'

"Probably not," she agreed. She likely never would.

'Again,' Liu said, getting them back on track. 'What are we going to do? The princess must not know, of course. But there is the matter of your family.'

Ichiko considered this. "I think that... any decision we make will be affected by the outcome of the war. Comet's coming." Liu nodded, and she went on, "I... don't think my Lord Father wll be pleased. Not at first." She rolled her eyes. "He sadly buys into that bunk they feed us about the Fire Nation being superior. So there'll be a lot of flailing."

Liu nodded again.

"But after that... well, he likes kids, and legally I'm considered an adult. I doubt he'll disinherit me over it." Ichiko thought a moment. "He might want to give you -- the child's father -- a Come To Agni talk, though."

'That will be mildly entertaining,' Liu commented.

"And possibly room-destroying." Ichiko sighed. "But whatever his feelings about you, whatever they are of the Earth Kingdom... I know he would love his grandchildren and treat them well."

Liu nodded, and smiled with his eyes. 'The rest of the Dai Li will treat the child well. I will keep Xin Wan away.'

Ichiko shuddered.

~*~

Azula had gone, and the relationship between Liu and Ichiko was now an open secret amongst the Dai Li. Ichiko was never affectionate with Liu when they were in the public eye -- or where any Dai Li could see them, for that matter.

Liu, for his part, was equally as restrained with his younger lover.

However, their duties often required that the two of them work together.

They were sitting in Liu's office, discussing how to deal with a food shortage in the Lower Ring when one of the three trainees -- was it Alak? -- wandered in with some reports. He turned them over to Liu with nary a glance at Ichiko, and was halfway out the door when he stopped and turned back.

Ichiko raised an eyebrow at him, and the younger boy flushed. "Um... d-did you know you're having twins?" he stammered.

Liu fell out of his chair.

Story: Good Manners

2010-09-06T00:03:47Z

Title: Good Manners
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Rating: PG/K+
Characters: Zuko, Song, Iroh, Mazao (OC)
Word Count: 1800+
Summary: Prince Zuko and his uncle are invited to dine with the local governor and discover an unusual acquisition of his.
Notes: Written for Rin for her birthday. :D Also an AU of an AU. I have the crack, okay?

Being banished from the Fire Nation hadn't freed Prince Zuko from all the duties of being Firelord Ozai's firstborn. When an invitation came in from Governer Mazao, Zuko couldn't get out sharing dinner with him. He had tried -- the last thing he wanted to do was to delay his hunt for the Avatar -- but Uncle Iroh had overridden him.

"This is a waste of time, Uncle," he muttered as they approached the front door.

"We must pay the governor our respects, Prince Zuko," Iroh told him.

"Why?" Zuko demanded. "I've been banished."

"Because it is good manners," the one-time General said. "Not extending the invitation to dinner could be construed as an insult to the Firelord's family."

"Then why accept?"

"Because it is good manners," Iroh repeated.

Zuko snarled in response.

When they reached the front door of the manor (and what a contrast it was to some of the hovels they had passed on the way in), it was Uncle who knocked on the door, rather than Zuko.

The man who answered the door had swarthy skin and dark green eyes -- Earth Kingdom, most likely. Zuko stepped back, his eyes wide. In the seven months that he had been exiled, he had never seen any man as dead as this one while still breathing.

The dead-eyed man showed them to a dining hall, then bowed himself out.

Zuko stared after him.

"Governer Mazao has done much to pacify this region," Uncle said mildly.

Zuko jumped, then looked over at the one-time general. His expression was just as mild as his voice, but he too was looking after the dead-eyed man. If he didn't know better, Zuko might think Uncle disapproved of the governor. "What do you mean?" he asked.

The old man didn't answer.

"Uncle?" Zuko pressed, but then the door opened and a man who could only be Governor Mazao entered.

He was a man in his middle years, maybe a few years older than Father, with his black hair held back in a military topknot. Zuko's good eye narrowed as he noted that the governor's clothes were also cut in a military fashion, though the man at least wore nothing that might be mistaken for ranking. His body was fit, but it lacked the hardness Zuko had come to associate with soldiers -- even Uncle, three years retired and gone to fat, always had a sense of readiness about him.

No wonder Uncle hadn't asked the men to come along.

Then Zuko saw the girl behind Mazao and stopped breathing.

Though her eyes were downcast and she wore simply-cut servants' robes, she stood out like a gilla cat among ratpigeons. It was her hair that drew the eye, two colours all swirled together like cream in coffee, and pulled back from her face in Fire Nation style that displayed the patterns. Around her neck was a red choker with a gold ornament hanging from it that reminded Zuko of Water Tribe betrothal necklaces.

Beside him, Uncle sucked in a breath.

Then Governor Mazao was bowing and Zuko had to drag his eyes away from the not-quite-a-servant. "Prince Iroh; Prince Zuko," the man said cheerfully on straightening. "Welcome to my home. I'm sure it's not anything like you're used to, but we do our best in these barbarian lands."

Zuko was not sure he liked the governor.

He barely managed not to shudder at the thought of the not-servant betrothed to a pompous jackass like Mazao. Fortunately, neither the Fire Nation nor the Earth Kingdom followed barbaric customs like that.

(Then why put her in something so similar to a collar?)

"I see your nephew has taken an interest in my pet," Mazao said to Uncle, and Zuko's hackles rose instantly. Pet? His head snapped up.

"She is very... unusual, Governor," Uncle said before Zuko could comment. "Where did you find such a treasure?"

Mazao waved a negligant hand. "Some of the locals had her. Earth barbarians don't deserve a prize like her, so I took her for the glory of the Fire Nation." He stroked her hair, ignoring how she had stiffened at his words and his touch.

For the glory of Mazao was more like it, Zuko thought. It took all his strength not to snarl at the man and snatch the poor girl away from him.

"I see," said Uncle, and put a hand on Zuko's shoulder.

"Now come, sit," said Mazao cheerfully, "and enjoy your meal."

It was difficult to enjoy his meal when Mazao had so thoughtfully seated him across from the kidnapped girl. She wouldn't look at Zuko, or even at the food put in front of him -- which was weird, because she hadn't been served. Was she there merely to sit still and be decorative?

"Don't you feed her?" Zuko blurted, interrupting the conversation between Mazao and Uncle.

The governer sighed. "I have tried, Prince Zuko," he said mournfully. "Alas, she will not eat like civilised people; she only eats things like mousevoles and ratpigeons, and then only when she can catch them." He shook his head. "If only I'd gotten to her before she was so ruined."

Zuko nearly snapped at him, but was silenced by the glare she sent at Mazao, so full of poison he was surprised that the governer wasn't struck down.

Well.

He tried to turn his attention to the meal, but had no appetite. He ate a little, to be polite, and found that his food turned to ash in his mouth. Stupid Mazao.

He wanted to talk to the girl, wanted to tell her that it would be all right, but how could it be all right for her ever again? A jackass like Mazao wouldn't turn her over to a banished prince, and Uncle would never order him to do so.

He couldn't ask for her anyway -- she was a person, not that that jackass would ever view her as such.

Then don't ask.

The thought arrived in his mind, and Zuko latched onto it so it wouldn't escape.

You can get her out, was the next thought.

Zuko smiled.

Midnight found Zuko sneaking off the ship and back to the governor's manor. This time, however, he was wearing dark clothes and a mask to hide his scar. He was not paying Mazao an official visit.

He wished he'd had an opportunity to scout out the manor before this rescue attempt, but by his own orders they would be leaving at dawn. He had about six hours to pull this off.

Entering the manor was easier than he'd anticipated -- the side door, likely a servants' entrance, had been left slightly ajar. Suspicious, but not something Zuko was willing to question. He slipped inside, taking care not to trip on or run into anything.

He was greeted by a soft, inquisitive miao. Startled, he looked down to see a large black catsquirrel sitting by his feet and peering up at him, moonlight making its eyes shine. He glowered at the beast for making him jump, but didn't try to shoo it away. The last thing he needed was an offended animal rousing the house.

It tilted its head and regarded him for a moment, then got to its feet and bounded down the hallway, vanishing into the darkness. Zuko waited until he could no longer hear it, then continued on his way.

He'd wandered for nearly an hour when he ran into the very girl he was searching for. They stared at each other, wide-eyed, then she opened her mouth. Quickly Zuko covered it with his hand, afraid she'd scream, and was rewarded with a flash of pain across his arm. He snatched his hand back to see that she was holding the black catsquirrel.

When she spoke, it was in a fierce whisper. "You can't stop me from leaving!"

Zuko's good eye widened, and he took a step back from her. He didn't want to stop her, he wanted to help her. How could he tell her that?

...well, he could just tell her.

"I'm here to help," he said, whispering like she had.

She blinked, looking confused.

"You won't get far on your own," he went on. "I've got a ship-- I could hide you until you're far away from here, or maybe take you home, or--"

Her eyes suddenly filled with tears.

Oh Agni, she was crying. What should he do?

The catsquirrel turned a dire look on him, then climbed carefully onto the girl's shoulders to purr in her ear and rub its cheek against hers. How she didn't fall over under the thing's weight, he didn't know.

"I can help you," Zuko said again, soft-voiced but not whispering this time.

She didn't look at him, but the catsquirrel purred louder. "Okay," she said, rubbing her eyes. "Okay."

He led her out of the manor, always watching his step and listening for an alert, then back to the ship.

Getting aboard with a girl and a catsquirrel was harder than he liked -- Jee was on watch, and Zuko had never successfully been able to sneak past the lieutenant. This would take some doing.

The black catsquirrel leapt down from the girl's shoulders and trotted up to Jee, then twined around his ankles, bold as brass. The lieutenant looked down and, too Zuko's surprise, smiled. "Hello there," he said, kneeling down to scratch the animal behind the ears. "Out to find some lady cats?"

Oh gods, was Jee actually talking to it?

On the other hand, the normally alert lieutenant was distracted.

"Come on," Zuko whispered to the girl. Taking care to stay in the shadows, he led her across the deck and inside the ship. Hopefully it was late enough that none of the men would be wandering the hall.

They reached his room without incident, and Zuko sighed in relief as he showed her in. "You can hide in here for now," he told her, stripping off his mask now that they were safe inside.

She nodded and turned to him, then gasped.

He flinched, guessing what she was thinking. "It's okay," he said quickly. "I really do want to help you. My name is Zuko." He paused. "Which... you already knew."

She nodded, then quietly said, "My name is Song."

Zuko bowed to her, Earth Kingdom-style, and was relieved when she bowed back. "It's nice to meet you?" he offered.

A small smile crossed her face. "And you."

Zuko smiled back.

"I see you have made a friend," said Prince Iroh.

Lieutenant Jee bowed respectfully to the former general, then went back to stroking the black catsquirrel. "He came aboard late last night with your nephew and a girl."

The prince raised an eyebrow. "A girl?"

"Yes, sir," Jee answered. "He thought I was too occupied with this handsome fellow to notice them sneaking aboard."

Iroh shook his head. "We had best set sail, then. I suspect Governor Mazao will be rather unhappy when he wakes."

Story: Storm-Tossed

2010-09-05T23:46:59Z

Title: Storm-Tossed
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Characters: Hahn, Krisuk (OC)
Rating: PG/K+
Word Count: 978
Summary: After a storm, a Fire Nation boy washes up at the North Pole.
Notes: Written for the Free For All challenge at ATLA Land.

~*~

Krisuk ignored the hallucination at first, focusing all his effort into pushing himself back up from where he'd fallen. The first clue he had that it wasn't a hallucination this time was the butt end of a spear poking him.

He surged forward, trying to set the spear on fire. Though he missed by a long shot, the man holding it stumbled backward with a yelp. "Hey!"

In a fluid moment Krisuk wasn't certain he could duplicate when not freezing to death on a glacier, the man flipped his spear around. "What the hell was that for?" the spear-wielder demanded, resuming poking.

Krisuk grabbed at the spear, trying to make the poking stop, and missed the first time. Whoa. Probably shouldn't have firebent. On the second grab, he had it by the shaft, and tried to focus on the man holding it. Why was he fuzzy around the edges? "Hell'd you jab me with that for?" he asked in return.

"To see if you were even alive," the spear-carried replied, scowling. He didn't pull the spear free, however.

Krisuk pushed it aside and tried to get to his knees. The world around him spun and he tilted to one side. "Whoa."

The other man -- Water Tribe, Krisuk realised groggily -- switched how he was holding his spear again, this time planting the butt of it on the ice. The look he gave Krisuk now seemed to be more curious than hostile. "What am I going to do with you, firebender?"

"Feed me?" Krisuk suggested. That would certainly take care of the hollow gnawing in his belly. Maybe the glacier would stop spinning then, too. He'd really like that.

"Sure," said the Water Tribesman. He took a silver fish from his belt and offered it to Krisuk. Eagerly, he tried to take it, but it flopped left, then right, then left again. Finally the other man grabbed him by the wrist and shoved the fish into his hand. "Fairy sips," he cautioned.

Why would he sip a fish? Krisuk wondered, then realised he was grasping metal.

Oh.

Krisuk put the flask, for that was what it actually was, to his lips, took a mouthful and spat it out. That was blood in there! "Are you a vampire?"

The other man blinked. "Have you seen the windago?"

He carefully lifted the flask as though it might bite him. "Blood."

"Lots of crazy," agreed the Water Tribesman.

Krisuk just stared at him until the world wheeled to the left and he hit the ice again. The other man sighed and grasped him by the wrist, pulling him to his feet. "It's good for you," he said.

"It's blood," Krisuk repeated, in case he hadn't been heard the first time.

"It's seal blood," corrected the Water Tribesman.

Oh.

Krisuk eyed the flask with some trepidition, then sipped again.

Within short order, he had drained the flask completely, and the Water Tribesman was now offering him something wrapped in seaweed. "Here," he said.

Krisuk eyed it suspciously even as he reached for it. He certainly hadn't forgotten the blood. "What is it?"

"Food," replied the other man in an I-Can't-Believe-You-Don't-Already-Know-This voice. "Good food."

Krisuk was not entirely certain he believed the other about the 'good' part. Beggers, however, could not be choosers; he accepted the seaweed-wrapped whatever and carefully ate it.

The Water Tribesman swung his spear up to rest it on his shoulders before hunkering down to watch Krisuk trying very hard not to bolt down the whatever-it-was. Krisuk waited until the whole thing was gone before asking, "So... I guess I landed at the North Pole?"

"More or less," the other man said, eyeing him. "You planning to freeze to death today?"

"Not really, no. Could I borrow a jacket?" He'd only lasted this long because he'd been using his firebending to keep warm. He should have stopped a long time ago, especially when the world had gone weird, but freezing to death was not something he wanted to do.

"Yeah, sure," said the Water Tribesman. He stood, stabbed his spear into the ice, the shucked off his parka and passed it over to Krisuk. Underneath the heavy coat, he wore quite a lot of weapons.

"Thanks," Krisuk mumbled, pulling the parka on over his head. He tried putting his head through the arm hole twice before he got it on properly. Once that was done, he carefully started letting his bending drop off. He had a vague notion that stopping all at once was bad, but he couldn't remember why.

"Hey. Hey."

Krisuk looked up, and realised the Water Tribesman had been trying to get his attention. "Huh?" Argh, he was cold now.

"We're heading back," the other man said.

"Oh. Okay." He hoped he meant his village or city or whatever it was the Water Tribe lived in, not where Krisuk had washed up. ...where had he washed up, anyway?

It was cold.

Oh, the other guy was moving.

Krisuk followed him, weaving a little bit so the ground wouldn't yank him off his feet again. This was harder than it seemed -- rather than jerking, the ground had decided to spin slowly one way, and then the other. More than once, he stumbled, until he ran into the Water Tribesman.

"Do not make me carry you," the other man said.

Krisuk opened his mouth to retort, but the sky suddenly changed places with the ground and he followed suit, shivering uncontrollable now. He was vaguely aware of the Water Tribesman cursing, then the ground spat him up and across something.

Whatever it was wasn't a comfortable ride, and Krisuk wondered if he was back on the boat. No, it wasn't storming anymore.

The next thing that he was aware of was being in something warm and of the Water Tribesman yelling something, then everything went dark. That was okay, though.

He was safe.

Story: Shadow of the Moon

2010-09-05T23:41:53Z

Title: Shadow of the Moon
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Pairing: Jin/Yue
Rating: PG/K+
Word Count: 468
Summary: Jin receives unexpected help when fleeing Ba Sing Se
Notes: Written for the AtLA Land femmeslash challenge; did not place

driven by a world gone mad
she took flight

Jin didn't stop running unto she had nearly reached the Great Outer Wall. Exhausted, she fell to her hands and knees, breathing hard.

How could this have happened? Ba Sing Se was safe.

Jin had tried to tough it out, but her gold eyes had marked her as surely as firebending might. Pao hadn't cared, still didn't care (she had been a steady customer at his tea house since she was ten), but others in the Lower Ring were taking notice. On top of that, more than a few Fire Nation soldiers were expressing interest in her.

She decided to leave rather than take the chance something bad might happen.

When she caught her breath again, she started to get up — and spied lights in the distance. She pressed herself flat against the ground, eyes wide. If she was caught out here after curfew…

The night around her grew even darker; a cloud had covered the moon. From the corner of her eye, Jin saw something shine green. Carefully, she slithered towards the glow, and realised it was coming from a crack in the ground — a manmade one.

The cloud over the moon passed by, and the green light vanished with the full moon's glow. Jin's eyes went wide, and she ran her fingers over the crack. Could it be? She traced the line around a sharp corner, then her fingers slipped into an indent, and she felt wood.

A trap door!

Still moving carefully, lest she be spied, she moved to kneel before the door to try and get it open. With any luck, the light within wouldn't give her away….

Another dark cloud passed over the moon, and this time it dumped rain on the Agrarian Zone. Jin could hear muffled yelps and cursing; a glance over her shoulder saw the lights flare bigger, fighting the sudden downpour. The eyes of the Fire soldiers would be dazzled, and Jin heaved the door open and slipped inside the shelter as quickly as she could.

She was completely drenched, but, she soon saw, she was completely alone.

This shelter seemed to have been dug out as a place of rest for workers in the Agrarian Zone; light-crystals were sunk into the walls and a few pallets lay in the corner of the room.

Grateful for the shelter, Jin stripped out of her sodden overclothes and took her hair out of its braids, wringing the water out of them and spreading them carefully out on the floor to dry.

That done, she curled up on one of the pallets and allowed herself to get some sleep.

In her dreams, a dusky-skinned, white-haired woman embraced her and stroked her hair.

"I will keep you safe, Sun-daughter," the woman whispered.

Story: Foundling

2010-09-05T23:33:45Z

Title: Foundling
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters: Kenzo (OC), Aika (OC), Nanashi (OC; aka Scribe)
Rating: G
Summary: A Fire Nation farmer finds a baby on his lands.
Notes: Written for the Shades of Grey challenge at ATLAland; third-place winner. Go Earth Kingdom!

~*~

It had been a long, hot day, but Kenzo was used to those. Compared to summers in the Fire Nation, the current spring weather was quite acceptable. It didn't make toiling in the sun any more pleasant, but Kenzo had known what he was doing when he retired from the Army to work as a farmer instead. He had done his duty to his country as a young man; now in his late forties, he was doing his duty to his daimyo by working the land.

When the sun set, Kenzo sent his assistants home, then went on one last walk around the property leased to him. He was on the furthest side from his home when a soft wailing met his ears. Curious, the man walked that way; he didn't remember any babies being due recently. The cries grew louder as he drew closer, until he spied a small bundle tucked in the shade of a rock.

Carefully, he picked up the small bundle and turned it until he could see the baby's face. He noted immediately that the child was darker-skinned than was common for those of the Fire Nation — not that that indicated parentage. It could have come from the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, or even those descended from the Sun Warriors.

The wailing continued, and Kenzo sighed. Clearly the child needed to be fed and changed. A pity that none of the women in the area were currently nursing. Perhaps they would know what he could feed the baby. Carefully, as if he held an ancient vase, he tucked the baby close to his chest and trudged towards Aika's home — Aika was not one of his assistants, but she was the local midwife.

When Aika answered his knock, she turned a startled look on the babe. "I just found it on the outskirts of the land," Kenzo explained.

Without asking, she took the child from his arms. "He wants food and a change," she said. "There's a bottle of koala-sheep milk in the icebox. Heat some of it up for him. It needs to be warm, not hot. The flint is in the second drawer from the right."

Kenzo bowed his thanks and acknowledgement and went to do as instructed. While he was heating the milk, he heard the wailing stop for a blessed moment, then pick up again with a different tone. Aika must have changed the babe.

He tested the milk by letting a drop fall on the inside of his wrist, where the flesh was more tender. Determining it was warm enough, he moved the pot off the flame and looked for some cheesecloth.

"Is the milk ready, Kenzo?"

"Yes," he replied. "Where's the cheesecloth?"

"Cheesecl— idiot," she said, no hint of reproach to her tone. "Come here with that."

Kenzo joined her, and she took the pot from him. "Wash your hands, and be quick," Aika ordered him. Bemused, he did as he was told. While he was away, the wailing abruptly stopped. When he returned, he blinked to see the baby sucking happily on one of Aika's fingers.

"Dip your finger in the milk and let him suck it off," Aika explained. "We can discuss weaning once he's fed. He is a boy, by the way."

Somewhat nervously, Kenzo did as he was told, and was surprised when the child didn't protest. "When will he be able to be weaned?" he asked, dipping a finger in the milk again.

"You could start him right away," Aika replied. "To my best guess, he's about six months old. You'll be keeping him?"

"I found him," he replied, looking down at the suckling child. "He's my responsibility." He noticed something and looked closer, missing Aika's smile. "His eyes are green," Kenzo said.

"Poor mite." It was all Aika needed to say. Both of them understood the world enough to see why the child had been abandoned. "Will you name him?"

Kenzo thought about it. "I'll call him Nanashi."

Aika sighed. "Men."

~*~

"Fire," Nanashi said happily.

Kenzo glanced from his papers to his four-year-old son with a small smile. "Indeed," he replied.

It was a fairly harsh winter day, so Kenzo had built the fire up higher than usual, and pulled Nanashi's pen further from it as a result. His son was growing quite sturdy, and thanks to Aika's efforts, quite intelligent as well. Kenzo was looking forward to teaching the boy to read and write, and to do sums.

"It's pretty," Nanashi continued, gazing intently at it.

"Well, sometimes," Kenzo said. He'd seen the destructive side of fire too often to consider all fire pretty.

"It's pretty, dad!" Nanashi insisted. He extended a hand through the bars of his pen and beckoned, and some of the fire flew to him.

Kenzo didn't even remember moving.

He was across the room with his son in his arms and the hand that had held the flame pressed against his shirt. While Nanashi cried out in protest, Kenzo frantically checked him for burns, and relaxed when he found none. Then he realised what his son had done, and his heart sank. Despite his best efforts, no firebenders had yet chosen to reside in the village forming by the farmlands, and young firebenders had to be taught.

"Dad?" said Nanashi, worry in his tone.

Kenzo smiled for his son. "You should be careful with fire, Nanashi," he said, placing the boy back in his pen. "No more calling it, all right?"

"Daaaaaad," he protested, which Kenzo knew was an agreement.

He didn't allow himself to think about the firebending until after he'd put Nanashi to bed that night.

There were only two options available to young firebenders: unless they were being trained as a sage, they had to do a tour of duty in the military. But what would be the best for Nanashi? As much as Kenzo wanted to keep his son, he knew he could not — there was nobody to train him, and an untrained bender of any element was a danger to himself and those around him.

Nanashi's eyes were green.

Kenzo closed his eyes. No, Nanashi would not do well in the Army at all. He would have to take the boy to the sages.

No matter how much he didn't want to.

ATLA Land Response

2010-07-23T19:47:52Z

So a challenge was recently finished and voted on, wherein we were all told to write up to three drabbles based on Avatar titles.

These are mine. :D

Title: The Great Divide
Characters: Haru, Dai Li OC
Rating: PG/K+
Word Count: 233

Haru eyed the hatless Dai Li agent warily. After everything Katara had said about them, he wasn't about to trust the other young man -- even if he'd helped him get out of that mob.

After a moment, he said, "Thank you."

The hatless agent bowed. "No problem," he replied. "You're Haru, aren't you?"

Haru did not like this person knowing who he was. "I might be," he said, and the agent suddenly grinned.

"Great! Minister Long Feng wants to talk to you."

Haru liked that information even less. "No," he said flatly.

"You don't have to go alone," the agent said. "I know you don't trust me."

"It's the Dai Li I don't trust," Haru growled.

"Fair enough," he said agreeably. "But like I said -- you can bring someone you trust with you. The Dai Li aren't interested in making enemies with the Avatar or his friends."

Haru raised an eyebrow. "Betraying Ba Sing Se to the Fire Nation aside."

Anger suddenly flashed across his face, and the pebbles at their feet started to rattle. Haru calmly held the agent's hazel gaze. The other young man closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and lifted first one foot, then the other, to break his root.

The pebbles fell still.

"You," he said softly, "have no idea what you're talking about. Learn all the sides of the story before you accuse us of betrayal."

Title: The Tales of Ba Sing Se
Characters: OCs
Rating: PG/K+
Word Count: 218

Thuy, all the kids in Ba Sing Se, had been told to stay away from the Fire soldiers, by both her father and her disinherited brother. It was, however, hard to obey — the Fire soldiers seemed to be everywhere, and quite a few of them took interest in the games they all played. There were two of them now, watching Thuy and some other girls playing earthball. They chose to ignore the soldiers, as obeying would mean forfeiting the game.

The ball shot for Thuy, and she leapt into the air, bouncing the ball off her hip and over to Harumi. Harumi fielded it with her knee, let it drop to the ground, then kicked it to Jorani. A pillar shot up beneath the ball, snapping it high into the air. "Hey!" cried Thuy, turning to find the earthbender who had interrupted the game.

She vaguely recognised the man as someone who frequently bought cloth from her father. "You girls should go home," he said, glowering. "No telling what they might do."

One of the Fire soldiers started forward, only to be stopped by his friend. "We were only watching the game," said the one who had stopped the other. "No need to be a dick about it."

The earthbender turned red, and Thuy and her friends scattered.

Title: The Blue Spirit
Characters: Song, the Blue Spirit
Rating: PG/K+
Word Count: 204

She chases someone who has wronged her, though she knows not who it is. Through fields, forest, and desert she chases him (she knows somehow he is male), until at last she catches him at the foot of a volcano.

But it is a trap; lava bursts from the ground around her, shooting so high into the air it never returns, caging her.

Her quarry laughs, his face shrouded in shadow, and she screams her fury and her pain until steel flashes through the lava, cutting it down and setting her free.

She doesn't hesitate, throwing herself at her target and striking him until he evaporates into nothing and she is beating the ground. Gloved hands catch hers — it's all right; he's finished — and she looks up into the masked face of the swordsman who freed her.

"Who are you?" she asks.

i am the blue spirit

He doesn't speak, but the words arrive in her head.

one you seek has gone to ba sing se ‡ the other is dead by the hand of la

"Why are you telling me this?" she asks.

He draws her hand to the lips of his blue noh mask.

go to ba sing se

Song wakes up.

Fic: War-Children

2010-06-25T05:15:13Z

Title: War-Children
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters: Ichiro (OC); Daimyo General Torao (OC)
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: A Fire Nation daimyo receives information that the Avatar may be near New Sozin and investigates.
Notes: Takes place about three years before the show begins. Torao belongs to beckyh2112 and is used with her permission. Many thanks to Avocado Love and TigerKat for beta'ing this for me!

Written this Fifteenth Day of the First Month
of the Superior Military Snake Year

General Torao,

There is evidence that the Avatar may have appeared in the forests around the island colony of New Sozin. Traces of firebending and earthbending have been found a mile northeast of the end of colony lands. There is no indication of battle there. Inquiries were made at the colony; any child who has shown firebending ability has long since been returned to the Fire Nation in accordance with the Firebending Law. The local commander believes these traces come from the war-born but refuses to take action.

It is to my dishonour that I do not have more information to provide you, but I only recently discovered these traces and my ship has already left the colony. The situation requires discretion that Commander Li Tojo is incapable of providing.

Your loyal vassal,
Midshipman Boke

Daimyo General Torao placed the letter on the table and considered.

The Avatar? Very unlikely, but Midshipman Boke could hardly be blamed for getting excited. His alternate excuse was far more likely — and problematic.

The Fire Nation had no official policy for dealing with those children born from illegitimate unions of Earth and Fire people, willing or otherwise. However, two or more war-children so close to a port didn't make Torao happy. If they had been raised by Earth Kingdom barbarians, they might be turned against the Fire Nation. A firebender and an earthbender working together could cause… damage.

If the children were on their own, however…

Li Tojo was a fool.

Torao needed to inspect New Sozin anyway. If he just happened to stumble across any war-children, so much the better. He put aside the letter to issue suitable orders.

* * *

"Just where were you?" Daitaro demanded of his oldest son.

Thirteen-year-old Ichiro eyed his father, unrepentant. "Took the twins out for a walk," he said. "We got our chores done."

Daitaro drummed his fingers against the table. "You told no one where you were going."

"We've never had to before," Ichiro said. "It isn't like Earthfolk live here anymore, Dad."

"That is not the point!" the older man thundered.

Ichiro's eyes narrowed. "Then what is?" he growled.

"Daimyo General Torao is here to inspect New Sozin," he snapped at his son.

Kouji tripped on his way to the kitchen. Ichiro reached back and steadied his younger brother, masking a flash of panic. The Daimyo, here? "I'm not seeing how this is my problem. Kouji, go wash up."

With a grateful look, the seven-year-old retreated.

"It is your problem because you weren't here when the Daimyo was," Daitaro said. "You should have been here to honour his visit."

"So? Unless he specifically asked after us—"

Daitaro slammed his hand against the table. "I have just about had it with your attitude, young man. Go to your room, and don't you dare leave it before school tomorrow!"

Ichiro stared at him. "Are you seriously sending me to bed without dinner?"

His father's eyes narrowed. "You're not too old for me to tan your hide, boy, which is the next step if you defy me."

Ichiro went to his room. There were more important matters to deal with than his rebellion against his father.

Like Daimyo General Torao.

The boy sat on his bed, racking his brain to remember anything about the man. He thought he'd heard something about the Daimyo being sent out to the Earth Kingdom some months back, but the memory was vague.

Daimyo General. Now that was weird, Ichiro thought. Daimyo generally didn't act as soldiers, if only because going off to fight and then getting killed could lead to civil war.

This was bad.

He paced in his room, considering his options. He'd probably be grounded for the rest of the week. There would be no going out to their usual practise spot, and since he was grounded nobody would find it suspicious. The twins were only seven, so nobody would question them not going.

That left today to explain.

Ichiro chastised himself for not paying closer attention to the rumour mill. If he'd realised Daimyo Torao was in the area, he would have taken the twins for a walk. No change in routine to alert the observant, save for the unknown destination. Too late now.

Hopefully, the Daimyo would be like Commander Tojo and not venture beyond the colony proper.

* * *

Torao observed the small clearing with interest.

Midshipman Boke's observation had been correct: the earth was freshly churned, and some of the trees showed minor scorching. A firebender and an earthbender — or possibly more than one apiece — had been here. And they hadn't been fighting; Torao had been a soldier for several years and knew the signs of a battle, even one on one. The evidence here seemed to point to them using this area as a training ground.

And three of the colony children had been unaccounted for when he had been visiting his dependents.

Torao found that very intriguing.

It was a possibility to keep in mind, anyway. The question now was the earthbender.

He would only stay another day in New Sozin; that would more than cover his inspection of the colony as well as give him time to review the current test for firebenders. A pity these vague burn marks gave no indication of power.

Torao pointed to two of his guards. "Remain here. If the benders return, observe them and report to me."

The pair he'd indicated bowed and slipped away to conceal themselves in the forest surrounding the clearing. Torao and the remainder of his retinue returned to New Sozin. The inspection would continue tomorrow.

* * *

The Daimyo General was leaving.

Rumours had been flying everywhere at school today, and more than one student had taunted Ichiro about his and his siblings' absence when the Daimyo General came to call. He put a stop to that with his fists before it could filter down to the twins.

It was probably for the best that they'd missed Daimyo Torao, anyway. Here in New Sozin, it was easy to hide what nobody expected to see, but the Daimyo had fought in the war. Ichiro was afraid he might catch what the bender testers had missed.

The people of New Sozin were glad enough to follow his father's wilful ignorance and dislike of setting foot outside the colony grounds; Ichiro had used that to his advantage since he'd discovered his bending. The sailors were not, however, and as New Sozin supplied more and more of the Fire Navy, Ichiro was discovering that many of the men and women preferred to get a feel for the island they had been stationed on.

If one of them stumbled on the place he and Kouji used as a training ground…

There was no help for it, Ichiro realised. They would have to run away before Kouji's earthbending was discovered. Not immediately, of course — if they fled so soon after the Daimyo's visit, it would be suspicious. But before the month was out for certain.

He wouldn't let the Fire Nation murder his little brother.

——

Once school let out, he waited for Kouji and Yui to join him, then led the twins home, listening to Yui's excited chatter about everything that had happened. Kouji was quieter than normal, and Ichiro put a soft hand on his brother's shoulder.

Kouji turned a worried look on him, and Ichiro forced a smile for him. "Hey," he said softly. "Don't worry about the Daimyo. I'll protect you."

He got a sad little smile in return.

Yui slipped her hand into Kouji's and squeezed, then led him back home slightly ahead of Ichiro, leaving the older boy to plot their flight.

When they reached the house, Ichiro sent the twins to do their homework and headed to his room — not to obey his father, but instead to consider what he would pack. They would have to travel light, with clothes suitable for summer and winter. Food wouldn't be much of a problem — if the hunting was bad, Ichiro could hire himself out to farmers for a day or two.

What worried him was how far the twins could walk, and for how long. Kouji and Yui had no problem with the near-daily walk between New Sozin and their practise ground a mile away, but they took it at a leisurely pace. If they ran away, they would have to move quickly, and Ichiro had never tested the twins on their speed. Why should he have? They were only seven and he'd never thought it might come up. He cursed his naïveté; he should have started preparing the twins the night their father had told them what would become of children like Kouji.

Maybe they could take an animal? No, it would be missed. Besides which, all the animals in New Sozin were too slow for their needs and they couldn't very well steal a komodo rhino from the naval base. Leaving on foot was the best option. If they needed to they could climb the trees, though Ichiro wasn't too thrilled with the notion. He could traverse the branches in the forest with little difficulty, but he was still teaching Kouji and Yui to do it.

And then there was the problem of getting off the island, and Kouji's recently-discovered seasickness.

With a groan, he toppled onto his bed. He'd get them out of there and to safety somehow.

* * *

Torao scowled as he again reviewed the current Firebending Test. Linking one's breathing to a candle flame was a normal exercise, he conceded, but it was generally overseen by one of the Fire Sages. Using that test out here, with only barely-trained firebenders to oversee the children, was utterly foolish. A determined or clever child could throw the test with ease.

When he had pointed this out to the firebender currently in charge of testing, the man had looked shocked. "Who would want to throw the test?" he had asked.

That was the question, wasn't it?

Firebending was a free ticket out of the colonies, a chance for families to return back to the Fire Nation with the wealth they had acquired in the Earth Kingdom.

Back to minimal lands and crowded cities, as opposed to the acres of land even peasants could keep here. There were boarding schools in the Fire Nation for those children whose families didn't want to accompany them back home.

Some of his men had asked around, and of the eleven families who had firebending children, only one had elected to return to the Fire Nation with their child. The rest had remained in New Sozin.

Who would want to throw the test?

This was a problem; one Torao imagined was widespread across the colonies. It was no longer feasible to uproot the young firebenders and transport them to a land they didn't know. The Firebending Law needed to be updated to reflect the growing number of colonies.

But not right now.

At least one of the children here was a firebender. His first task was to find that child and question him or her. After that, he could look into changing the Law.

* * *

Ichiro had joined the crowd watching the Daimyo General's ship leave port. He likely wasn't the only one feeling relief at the Daimyo's departure, but nobody else had lives hanging in the balance. With a sigh, he turned from the departing ship and headed back to the school, fishing the twins out of the crowd as he went.

"'Chiro!" protested Yui, squirming in his grip, but he gave her a look and she quieted. Kouji, he noted, looked faintly ill. Worried, Ichiro directed the twins between two of the houses and released them both.

"Are you all right?" he asked his brother.

Kouji nodded, not looking at him.

Frowning, Ichiro slipped his fingers under his little brother's chin, tilting his head so he could see his face. He was alarmed to see tears brimming in Kouji's eyes. "You're not all right," he answered his own question. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry," the boy whispered.

"For what?" Yui asked, taking his hand and squeezing it.

"For being like this," Kouji replied. "If I wasn't a freak, he wouldn't have—"

Ichiro crushed his brother against him in the hardest hug he could. "You're not a freak," he said roughly, "and this isn't your fault."

"But—" Kouji began.

"But nothing," Ichiro cut him off. "The Daimyo only came in on inspection. It happens." He smiled for his brother's sake. "Next time he comes out here, we'll be long gone."

Kouji stared up at him, shocked.

"Wait," Yui said. "You mean we're running away?"

"That is exactly what I mean," Ichiro assured her. "There's too many people prowling the island now. We'll wait a few weeks, maybe a month, then leave. Maybe we can even find you a real master, Kouji."

Finally, his little brother gave him a small smile. "Maybe."

"That's great!" Yui grinned, hugging both of her brothers. "We can travel, and see the world, and learn new music, and—"

Ichiro put a finger against her lips. "Exactly so. But first, we have to get through school today."

Both of the twins made faces.

"Ah," he chastised them. "Remember, it's only for a few more weeks. And after today, we'll head out to the practise spot to clean it up a bit, just in case."

Kouji and Yui nodded, and Ichiro was relieved to see a new determination in his brother's grey eyes.

* * *

Lying in wait for the renegade firebender and enigmatic earthbender was extremely boring, but Torao had patience to spare. He supposed that he could have left this stakeout to his men — likely would, if this took longer than a few weeks — but he had the feeling he should be here.

The hours dragged by, leaving him plenty of time for his thoughts. The majority of these thoughts seemed to centre around raking Li Tojo over the coals for his arrogant stupidity. A few tried to focus on the possibility that his rogue benders were, in fact, one Avatar, but Torao dismissed those as foolish.

The rest, however, dealt with what he would do when he caught his rogue benders. After all, there was a possibility that neither would be friendly. Alternately, they both might be willing to talk. Or one would and not the other. Best to be prepared for all of the possibilities.

Morning stretched into afternoon, but Torao was not discouraged. The odds were high that his rogues were children, so it was probable that they had been in school while he and his men waited here.

As it turned out, his stakeout paid off much sooner than he had anticipated. A few hours after noon, three children dropped out of the trees surrounding the clearing. Three familiar children.

Though Torao had not acquainted himself with them, all three had the look of their father, the farmer Daitaro. And all three of them had been missing when Torao had paid their father a visit as well.

However, a coincidence was not evidence. Torao remained where he was, as did his men, though he noted that it was lucky the children hadn't spied them. He hadn't anticipated them coming from above. An oversight he would have to remedy in the future.

For the time being, he watched the three children. The taller one was clearly the elder son, Ichiro, which made the younger pair Kouji and Yui, respectively. If they were the firebending culprits, which at least one of them likely was, Ichiro had probably been the spearhead in throwing the firebending tests. But to what purpose? From what Torao had gathered from the local gossip, the boy was none too fond of his father and routinely rebelled against him.

Perhaps it wasn't parental devotion, but brotherly, he observed, watching the boy interact with his siblings.

The girl, Yui, drifted away from her brothers, towards Torao. He scarcely moved, and was relieved when she paused by a tree with blackened bark. "Ichi-ni," she called, and Torao blinked. Had that been a pun in Old Fire?

Ichiro joined her and winced when he saw the bark. "That'll be fun to cover up," he muttered. "And stripping the bark is way too obvious."

"Maybe some rags to rub off the burns?" Yui suggested.

"I don't think it works that way," Ichiro said ruefully, "but it's worth a shot."

He turned back to his brother. "Kouji," he said, "can you take care of t— what's up?"

The younger boy was kneeling, both hands pressed to the ground. "I dunno," Kouji said slowly. "Something's just… weird."

"How do you mean?" Yui asked curiously.

Kouji shook his head. "I don't know. It's… different from normal."

Ichiro sighed. "Well, we'll worry about this later. Can you take care of that?" And he gestured to the churned-up earth.

A pause, and the younger boy nodded. "Okay." He stood up and— earthbent.

* * *

Ichiro watched as his little brother carefully smoothed out the ground. When Kouji was about half done, he stopped him. "That's enough for now," he told the boy. "Rest for a little bit, okay? I don't want you to overdo it."

Kouji nodded and moved aside to sit down. Ichiro frowned as he looked over at the scorched trees. "I think that's pretty much a lost cause."

"Why does it matter?" Yui asked. "Aren't we leaving?"

"Not immediately," he replied. "We need to pack some supplies before we go for good. Besides, if we left now, people would be suspicious — they'd probably think the Daimyo's visit had something to do with it."

"…but it did, didn't it?" Kouji asked.

Ichiro sighed. "I meant they'd think he was directly involved."

"Oh."

"Where are we going to go, anyway?" Yui asked.

The firebender shrugged. "I don't know. Well, the Earth Kingdom, generally speaking. I overheard some of the sailors mentioning that a few towns had been abandoned. We could hide in one of those for a little bit, long enough for any searches to die down. After that, we can find you a teacher, Kouji."

"You need a teacher, too," Kouji told him.

Ichiro shook his head. "I'm doing okay, and a teacher for me would pretty much be a bad idea all around."

"If you're sure…," said his brother doubtfully.

He wasn't, not really, but if he found a teacher, they'd take him to the Fire Nation — or worse, they'd find out about Kouji. If that happened…

Ichiro ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Let's finish up here and head home. We can plan a route there. Kouji, you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kouji said, climbing to his feet. He turned to the remainder of the work he needed to do and froze.

"'Chiro!" he yelled, voice high with fear — and then suddenly they were surrounded, Fire Nation soldiers seeming to appear from the forest around the clearing.

Ichiro reached out and grabbed the twins, yanking them behind him and backing up until there was a tree at their backs. He slid into a fighting stance, fire igniting around his hands. He was certainly no match for trained soldiers, especially not this many, but he was not letting them take Kouji without a fight!

And then Daimyo General Torao strolled forward.

Ichiro's mouth went dry.

His fire, however, brightened and became hotter, shading towards blue.

"None of that," said the Daimyo, his amber eyes serious as they met Ichiro's.

A chill ran down his spine. If he so much as considered attacking this man, Daimyo General Torao would take him down in seconds. How could he defend Kouji and Yui like that?

(How could he defend them at all in this situation?)

He inhaled slowly, then released the breath; the fire around his hands died.

The Daimyo smiled. "Good," he said.

"What now?" Ichiro asked, mentally cursing when his voice shook.

"Now," said Daimyo General Torao, "you and your siblings join me for tea."

* * *

Ideally, tea would have been served on a more neutral spot than on Torao's ship. However, he had not thought to keep the supplies needed for a proper tea with him, and questions would be asked if he appeared in New Sozin again with Daitaro's children.

To lessen the appearance of a power-play, Torao had tea served on deck fairly close to the rails of the ship. To Ichiro's suspicious eyes, it would appear to be an unthought-of escape route.

As the tea was served to the children, Torao took note of each one. The older boy, Ichiro, was wary and on guard, while the younger child looked faintly ill. That might have been a result of the journey upriver to the ship, however; the earthbender apparently suffered from seasickness. The girl alone seemed to be fascinated, both by him and by the ship. She also seemed to be paying attention to etiquette; Kouji's words could barely be heard, and Ichiro was understandably hostile.

Torao took a sip of his tea, as he suspected that they would not do so until he had. It was both etiquette and common sense — Ichiro might suspect drugs. Once all had sipped, Torao placed his cup on the table. "You should know that none of you are in any trouble," he said.

All three children jumped. Kouji looked startled and somewhat hopeful, whereas Ichiro just stared at him. It was Yui who asked, "What do you mean, Daimyo-General?"

He smiled at her. "For hiding your bending," he answered. His eyes slid to Ichiro. "Wanting to remain with your family isn't a shameful thing," he continued before turning to Kouji, "and there is no policy in place for someone in your… situation."

"What?!" blurted Ichiro. Heat radiated from him, but was quickly reined in — quicker than Commander Li Zhao might have done in a similar state of anger.

Torao regarded the boy mildly. It was easier to do than to look at the way hope had shifted to disbelief in Kouji. "You were told something else?" he inquired.

Yui put her arm around Kouji's shoulders and held him close to her as Ichiro slowly nodded. "We were told that Fire-born earthbenders would be killed." A bitter tone seeped into his voice as a small flame licked out from between his teeth. "As is only right."

Suddenly and altogether too well, Torao understood the fear the children had — not of potential imprisonment, but for Kouji's very life.

"No," Torao assured them. "A Fire-born earthbender is a gift, from the spirits themselves. To destroy something so precious would be a pointless waste."

"A gift?" Ichiro demanded.

"Yes," he answered. "Why else would the spirits allow such a thing?"

The boy had no answer for that, and Torao let his gaze drift to where Kouji had buried his face in his sister's shoulder. "Who told you that he would be killed?" he asked.

Silence stretched until finally Yui said, "Our father."

Torao's eyes narrowed at that confession. How much damage had Daitaro done? He needed more time to observe the children, and hopefully undo it. "Your father should be flogged."

Ichiro jerked, a startled expression replacing the building rage. "What?"

The daimyo took a moment to consider his words. This could be turned to his advantage. "What, exactly, were you told?"

Ichiro took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before slowly releasing it. A calming exercise? After a second breath, he said, "About a month ago, I asked what would happen if a Fire child was born an earthbender — after all, nobody knows what causes bending, and maybe the spirits don't consider the colonies Fire Nation yet."

The boy did have a point. However, Torao suspected that the spirits approved of the colonies — why else gift them with Kouji? "A hypothetical that should have been asked much earlier than now," he murmured. "Go on."

Ichiro looked over at his little brother, who had practically burrowed into Yui's side. "He said that such an abomination would be destroyed, as was only proper." He practically spat the word 'abomination', fire licking out of his mouth yet again.

Clearly the boy was angry — and Torao couldn't blame him. But he had done very well, not only in protecting a precious gift like Kouji, but also in training him, despite his own lack of experience. The boys had to have some training, or else New Sozin might not be standing. Ichiro also had unprecedented control of his firebending: if Zhao, for example, were as angry as this boy was now, something would be on fire.

Truly, the spirits smiled on him. Midshipman Boke was due in for a promotion for managing to spot these three. If he hadn't noticed, or if he had dismissed the situation as others clearly had, Ichiro would have run away with his siblings to what he imagined would be a safe haven.

Torao imagined these three children falling into the hands of the Earth Kingdom barbarians or Water Tribe savages, and nearly shuddered. They would have been used and abused, and perhaps welcomed it after their father's insanity.

"Your father," Torao said softly, keeping his own anger from his tone, "was very mistaken. A child like Kouji is not an abomination; he is a gift from the spirits to show their approval."

Kouji took his head from Yui's shoulder, turning a tear-filled gaze on Torao. "Really?" he whispered.

The daimyo smiled at him. "Of course," he assured the boy. He paused, as if considering something, then suggested, "Perhaps it would be best for you to leave New Sozin. Such an environment is no place for you. For any of you," he added, glancing at Yui and Ichiro in turn.

Ichiro looked somewhat suspicious. "Where would you suggest we go?"

"With me," Torao replied honestly. "You have done well for yourself and Kouji, Ichiro, but with me you will have access to proper teachers." He smiled at Yui. "My wife and I have three daughters as well, Yui. I believe you would benefit from their tutors."

The girl brightened considerably at that.

It was Ichiro who asked, "What about Daitaro?"

Torao glanced at him, noting the absence of "father" when he spoke of the man. "He will be informed of your new status as my children," he replied. Shock spread over all of their faces, and Torao smiled. "I will show you to your quarters on the ship," he said.

* * *

Written this Twenty-Third Day of the Fourth Month
of the Superior Military Snake Year

Firelord Ozai,

I have taken into my household three children from the colony of New Sozin, two brothers and a sister. It is my intent to adopt them as my own and treat them as my blood.

I beg for you indulgence in allowing the records to be corrected to reflect their new status.

As a tribute to your generosity, I offer the following: Four pounds of fine coffee harvested in Muluku, four pounds of Guoyin chocolate, a marvellous ebony chest liberated from the former port of Taku, and a pair of firebirds carved from boulder opal in the style of the Gaoling gembenders.

Your loyal retainer,
Daimyo General Torao

Fic: Mirror

2010-06-14T03:18:28Z

Title: Mirror
Fandom: Chrono Trigger
Character: Magus
Rating: PG
Summary: Magus has a lot of time to think while in Antiquity.

Irony, Magus decided, was cruel.

It had been that beast called Lavos that had first sent him 12,576 years into the future — and then, when he had finally acquired the power to destroy that beast, the frog-boy and his meddling friends had interfered, and he had been transported through time again, back to the era of his birth.

And nobody here recognised him.

He supposed he couldn't blame them — after all, when he had been sent to the future, he had only been a boy. Twenty-four years had passed for him, while here... he had been sent to a time before the fool of a queen had decided to summon Lavos.

He had realised instantly that he could turn this to his advantage, and perhaps even prevent the fall of Zeal — not for the sake of the kingdom, but for the sake of his beloved Schala.

Magus closed his eyes.

The hardest part of this charade was not, as he'd anticipated, hiding his scorn for the woman who had once been his mother, the Queen of Zeal. No, the hardest part was dealing with Schala. It had been so long since he'd seen her, and now he was older than her.

It was so hard to see the sadness in her eyes, so hard not to extend an arm to comfort her, to assure her that it would be all right, that he would take care of everything.

He might have given in to the tempation once or twice, had it not been for the suspicious eyes of his younger self watching every move he made. His younger self — Janus, Magus reminded himself; he personally had ceased to be Janus years ago — managed to be at hand almost all the time, with Alfador close behind.

It was only now, with half a lifetime behind him, that Magus realised how lonely and miserable a child he had been, with only his sister and a cat for a friend.

But even that realisation was overcome by his disgust and pity for the so-called Enlightened Ones. Truly they were some of the most despicable creatures he had ever seen. So smug, so lazy, so confident in their own superiority, treating the Earthbound Ones worse than animals for the crime of possessing no magic.

Only now could he see as Schala had.

Schala...

More and more his thoughts returned to her. She would be the undoing of him, he was certain. Perhaps he should be grateful for Janus and his possessive love, rather than annoyed by it.

(But to hold her in his arms might be worth it.)

Magus turned away from the window, and blinked at the small form in front of him.

Alfador sat there, tail curled around his hind legs as he looked up at him. "Shouldn't you be with your master?" Magus asked, amused.

Alfador mewled, then stood and padded over to twine around Magus' boots.

The Fiendlord felt a small smile come to his lips. Kneeling, he gathered his cat into his arms. "I suppose you are."

Fic: At the First Line

2010-06-06T07:08:20Z

Title: At the First Line
Fandom: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
Characters: Inner Senshi, Saffir
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Sailor Nemesis confronts the Solar Senshi as they make their way to the Palace of Nemesis.
Notes: This is an AU, obviously. The Solar Senshi are gender-swapped versions of our beloved Senshi; Sailor Nemesis is a genderswapped version of Saffir. Also, the Senshi are being misled by the Wiseman, leaving Sailor Nemesis the only thing standing in their way.

"Venus Love-Me Chain!"

Sailor Nemesis yelped as linked golden hearts wrapped around her body, pinning her arms to her sides and then binding her hands as well. She struggled against the metal, and yelped again as it grew hot, almost unbearably so.

"Shouldn't have let your guard down," purred Prince Venus, tugging on the other end of the chain to tighten the loops.

Nemesis growled at him, lips peeling back from her teeth; he only grinned in response and yanked, pulling her off balance and forcing her to her knees.

"Don't break her," ordered Prince Moon, giving his second-in-command an annoyed look. "We need her whole when we talk to Demando."

Nemesis' blue eyes flew wide -- oniisama still didn't know!

"I'm not going to break her," Venus protested, almost pouting. "I'm just going to play with her a little."

"You don't need to do that at all," snapped Prince Jupiter. "Capturing her should be enough."

"And if you'd caught her, you could decide what to do with her," Venus answered. He yanked on the chain again, pulling Nemesis to him and wrapping an arm around her waist. "But she's mine, aren't you, darling?"

Nemesis tried to bite him.

Venus moved his arm just in time. "Feisty," he commented with a grin, then struck like lightning, grabbing her head and biting her on the neck. Nemesis screamed, but kicked backward, arcing her leg up over her head so that her boot struck him in the head.

Dazed, Venus' grip on Nemesis loosened, and she jerked free of him, then slammed her foreheard against his temple in an effort to stun him further.

She leapt away, shedding the Love-Me Chain, and circled her arms as she called on the power of her planet. "Dark Gal--"

She felt more than heard Prince Mars' invocation as a long, thin sheet of paper was pressed against her forehead. "Akuryuou taisan!"

Cords shot out from the paper, more tangible than visible, dragging Nemesis to the ground and holding her in place.

Snarling, Venus started for her, only to be restrained by Jupiter and Prince Mercury. "That's enough, Maru-kun!" she dimly heard Jupiter say.

"But--" Venus began, only to be cut off by Moon.

"We have more important things to handle," the leader of the Solar Senshi snapped. "Don't forget that we need to handle the Court still."

Nemesis tried to move her head, to cry out, something, but Mars' power bound her fast.

"She isn't going anywhere," said Mercury, his voice calm as it always was. "You can deal with her after we handle the Court, Venus-san."

Venus sighed and pulled free. "After, then, Nemesis-chan," he said, that sardonic smile coming once again to his lips as he blew her a kiss. Had she not been paralysed, she would have shuddered.

The five Solar Senshi strode towards the Palace, and were soon swallowed by the planet's darkness.

Furiously, Sailor Nemesis struggled against the priest-powers holding her down, bringing her not-informidable will to bear against that of Prince Mars.

It was no use. Nemesis was exceptionally strong-willed -- she was a senshi, after all -- but Mars was also a senshi, and one vastly more experienced. Against his priest-power, she was no match.

Tiny little cat feet pressed against her arms, and Artemis' white-furred body passed in front of her eyes. The mooncat took the ofuda in his jaws and tore it away from Nemesis, releasing her.

Sailor Nemesis fell to all fours with a gasp, shuddering against the return of movement and fear. "We don't have a lot of time," Artemis told her, worried. "Luna's following them."

Nemesis nodded. Luna's fur was black, so she could follow the Solar Senshi much easier than Artemis could in the neverending darkness of Nemesis. "We have to warn oniisama," she said quietly. She reached up and touched the brooch on her chest, focusing on her true self.

Darkness engulfed her, taking her fuku with it and leaving her clad in her normal clothing.

Princess Sapphire of the Black Moon Clan scooped Artemis up into her arms and turned her thoughts to the Palace.

A moment later, she vanished.

Ficlet: Trample

2010-05-08T23:00:06Z

Title: Trample
Fandom: Pokémon (Game-based with manga elements)
Character: James "Jim" Maguire (OC)
Rating: PG
Summary: Jim attacks a Team Aqua grunt for abusing his Pokémon
Notes: A prequel to an untitled Pokémon fic. Consider it backstory for Jim.

Jim Maguire paused as he heard an animal yelp off to one side of Route 110. Was something hurt? Concerned, he headed toward the noise, and then realised he could hear a voice, too.

"Worthless mutt!" a man was snarling. Another yelp punctuated his statement. "Disobey me? I'll show you respect for your trainer!" This time Jim heard a dull thud right before the next yelp.

He peered through the bushes to see a burly man twice his age. The man was dressed in black pants, with a striped shirt and a bandanna that made him look like a pirate. At his feet was Poochyena; he was raising one foot to kick the small Pokémon.

Jim had never punched anyone outside of practise before, but the "oof" the pirate goon made as the air rushed out of his lungs was possibly the most satisfying sound he'd ever heard. "You call yourself a trainer?" Jim snapped as the pirate dropped.

The older man opened his mouth, and Jim kicked him in the stomach.

"Worthless piece of trash," Jim growled, kicking him a second time. A third kick went into the pirate's ribs, then Jim walked over to the small Poochyena trying to get to its feet.

"Hey, there," he said softly, offering his hand to the puppy.

He was barely fast enough to avoid getting bit.

"Ha!" the pirate scoffed at him. "You think you can control it just like that? It's mean, brat."

"Darcy, if you would?" Jim asked, glancing at his arm. For an instant, nothing happened; then a dark blue creature rose out of his sleeve, darking the form of a disembodied head. The Misdreavus shook herself, then floated over to the pirate and wrapped herself around his mouth.

"Thanks." Jim returned his attention to the Poochyena. The pup growled at him, but didn't try to bite. "It's okay," he said soothingly. "I won't hurt you. And I won't let that jackoff hurt you either." He could feel the young creature's pain and fear and wished he could do more than just talk it down.

One step at a time. Earn the Poochyena's trust, then get it to a Pokémon Center. They weren't very far from Slateport City; with Ember to help, they could get there in ten minutes. But how to-- ah!

Slowly, so the pup wouldn't think he was attacking, Jim unshouldered his bag and dug around inside it until he found his Pokéblock dispenser. "Here," he said, softly lobbing a square candy at the Poochyena.

The small Pokémon leaped back, snarling, but sniffed at the block curiously. The growl died down, and it slowly approached, finally licking the candy.

Jim grinned as the Poochyena devoured the candy, and tossed another one. "Like that, huh? You're a brave one, all right. Come on." Slowly, he lured the puppy to him, then offered his hand once more. This time, the Poochyena sniffed his hand, then licked it.

"There you are," Jim said, smiling. "Let's get you to a Pokémon Center, hey?" Carefully, mindful of where the pirate had been kicking the little thing, Jim scooped it up in his arms. "Darcy!" he called, and the Misdreavus detached from the pirate and floated back over to him, wrapping herself around his jacket sleeve once more.

"Don't think you'll get away with this!" shouted the pirate as Jim started to walk away. "Carvanha, go! Ice Fang!"

Jim leapt aside, turning in the air and shifting his hold on the Poochyena so he could hold it one-armed. With the other, he took a Pokéball from his belt and flung it out. "Ember!"

When his Ponyta sprang from the Pokéball, the pirate laughed at him. "You idiot! Sending a Fire type against a Water type? You're doomed to lose!"

"Carvanha," said Jim calmly, "don't learn Water attacks until the thirty-first level. Ember, Stomp!"

Ember neighed and reared up on her hind legs, then slammed her forelegs down on the Carvanha. While ordinarily the sandpaper-like scales of a Carvanha would harm a Pokémon, Ponyta hooves were as hard as diamond. Ember sustained no damage, while the Carvanha was knocked unconscious. Before the pirate could call forth another Pokémon, Jim ordered, "Trample!"

"That isn't even a Pokémon move!" the pirate protested.

"I know," Jim said in the instant before Ember ran the pirate down. "That was a command." He whistled for Ember to return before she killed the man, then mounted her. "To the city!"

Ember broke into a full gallop towards Slateport, Oddish and Zigzagoon scattering before her hooves. Jim lay low on her back, shielding the Poochyena from the wind with his body. "Goggles," he muttered, feeling his hair flying behind him. "I need goggles." Ember couldn't go as fast as her evolved form, but the last time Jim had checked, her top speed was seventy miles per hour. The last thing he needed was for something to fly into his eye and potentially blind him.

Within minutes, they had arrived at Slateport's Pokémon Center. Jim dismounted and dashed inside. "Please - he needs help!" he gasped at the nurse on duty.

She stared at him. "What happened?" she asked, taking the Poochyena from him and gently examining it.

"I don't know," Jim lied. "He was hurt when I found him. I think maybe his ribs are broken."

"Not to worry," the nurse assured him. "We'll be able to fix him up in no time."

Jim smiled in relief. "Good."

"What's his name?" she asked.

Jim didn't hesitate. "Kiba," he said.