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Tales of Republic City: Part Two

Summary:

A collection of one-shot stories set in my post-series and post-canon Wuko universe.

No rhyme or reason to them; sometimes they just come to me, sometimes people request them, sometimes they are scenes that don't make it through cuts. I'll just post them as I write them!

These one-shots will be kept in chronological order. Part Two starts directly after A Song Of Spring And Autumn ends and continues forward in time.

Notes:

(Some of these drabbles were already posted in my Bits and Pieces; Dribs and Drabs collection and have been moved here for ease of reading.)

Chapter 1: An Afternoon's Expenditure: Shopping At The Mall

Summary:

This takes place immediately after the end of A Song of Spring and Autumn.

This is for all of the retail workers out there on Black Friday; musicboxbunny, especially.

Chapter Text

"Are you sure you don't carry this in yellow?" The woman waved a tunic at Kyra, nearly hitting her in the face with it.

"I'm very sure, madame. It only comes in green and blue." Kyra took a step back. The woman had clearly had fish for her lunch; her breath was overwhelming.

"Maybe you should check in the back." The woman stepped right back into Kyra's space.

"Madame, I can assure you, we don't carry it in any other color but green and blue."

"I've seen it in yellow. I know I have."

"Not in our shop you haven't," Kyra said, putting on her best fake smile and thinking, not for the first time, that there had to be better work than this. She caught a sympathetic look from one of her fellow shop girls who was busy picking up discarded articles of clothing from the wrong shelves. It was the biggest sale of the season at the Little Ba Sing Se Mall, and of course two of the other shop girls had called in sick. Sick my ass, Kyra thought, jerking her head back as the woman waved the tunic in her face again. She'd only been at work for two hours and she'd already been yelled at, threatened, and had a sticky hand print on the backside of her own tunic where a nasty little boy had shoved at her. She loathed sale days. Loathed them. There was what promised to be a corker of a headache gathering at the base of her skull.

"I demand to speak to the owner!" The woman brandished the tunic like a weapon. "I know you have this tunic in yellow! I've seen it!"

"Ma! I want it in yellow," shrieked the girl standing next to her, stamping her foot. "I hate blue! I want yellow!"

"Well, it's not as if yellow would suit you anyhow," said a man from behind her. "And do let off with that howling. At your age! The very idea!" Kyra turned to look at him. Rich, was her immediate thought. Too rich to be shopping here. He looked like he belonged in the upper ring shops, at the very least, where all of the designer clothes were located.  Although the suit he was wearing was probably bespoke; it was in greens and yellows, what looked to be a summer-weight wool with silk accents. It was gorgeous. She didn't even want to guess how much his shoes had cost. A small fortune, she was sure.

"I beg your pardon!" the woman exclaimed frostily, drawing herself upwards in indignation. Her daughter gaped at him.

"Only if you do it on yer knees," muttered the boy standing next to the rich man. He was dressed in some sort of uniform and Kyra could barely hear him. His voice was soft and hoarse, as if he had a cold or something. Kyra hoped not; all she needed was to pick up more germs than what people were already bringing in.

"My dear madame," said the rich man with a little half smile on his face, "You may beg if you really wish to, but it would cause such a scene. In any case, this lovely young lady here was already assisting me." He waved the woman and her daughter away with a little motion of his hands. "Whoosh whoosh!"  He turned to Kyra and unleashed a full smile, his mouth curving up and his very green eyes sparkling behind a pair of gold wire spectacles. "Now then! Excellent!" He peered at her name tag. "Ah! Miss Kyra then, is it? Lovely, just lovely. I am in need of some clothing for a twelve year old boy. I have it on the best authority that your shop caters to children, yes?" 

Kyra nodded, fairly speechless. The man beamed at her. "Just the news I was hoping for!" He reached over and tucked her hand into his arm, escorting her as if she was a well-born lady at some sort of gala event. Kyra found herself standing just a little taller without even meaning to. "I have a twelve year old boy staying with me for three weeks who only has enough clothes for a weekend on his person. I did manage to get his basic measurements. I was going to go to the upper ring, naturally, but my husband informs me that I am overdoing it as usual. Not to mention they really don't do off the rack up there. So here I am. Now." He stopped suddenly and looked at the boy with him. "Are you laughing at me?" He put on an offended face, but even Kyra could see it was for show; he ruined it by smiling again.

"Did you just pull a Nuo on that lady?" the uniformed boy said in that odd voice with a grin and waved his hands in an imitation of what the rich man had done. He stood very close to the rich man, nearly elbow to elbow. "Did you really just say whoosh whoosh to her?"  On second thought, Kyra thought, looking more closely at him, he was too old to be a boy. A woman dressed in male clothing? A very young-looking man? Kyra wasn't sure. 

"It always seems to work for Nuo," said the rich man, and he laughed. The uniformed boy just shook his head at back at him. 

"Reckon you need to look like you're gonna bite someone when you say it." 

"True. I don't have nearly the same vehemence in my tone." He turned his attention back to Kyra. "Now then! Forgive our ramblings. I have his measurements here." He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a piece of very expensive parchment paper and handed it to her.  The calligraphy was beautiful; she'd only seen the like in books, never from someone's own hand. She read it through and quickly calculated the boy's size.

"It's no problem, we have plenty in his size," she said.

"Oh, splendid!" The rich man radiated good humor. He looked around the shop. "Tell me, Miss Kyra, is it always so very busy in here? The din is really rather cacophonous."

"They're havin' a sale," said the uniformed boy. "Didn't you see all the signs when we were walkin' in?"

"I did not pay all that much attention," the rich man confessed. 

The owner of the shop approached them, with a slight frown on her face. "Kyra, we need you," she said, giving the rich man an assessing look.

"Ah! I am afraid I am taking up all of Miss Kyra's time. I assume you are her employer?"

The shop owner nodded, giving the rich man a bit of a skeptical look. 

"Ah good. Well. I do intend to keep Miss Kyra busy, but I promise you, I will be spending a great quantity of yuan today. I assume that means I may have her all to myself, then?"

"Uh..." said the shop owner, and the rich man gave her that sunny smile.

"Lovely! Excellent! We'll just carry on, then. Miss Kyra? If you would be so kind as to show me what you have in that size?" He had not let go of her arm during the entire conversation. Kyra would normally hate to have a customer touch her like that, but she found she didn't mind it when this one did it. She took him over and pointed out what they had available. The man picked out several things, holding them up and pursing his lips. "Oh, we can't possibly go with this shade of green, it would never suit."

"He don't care. He's twelve years old, it ain't like his Granny will keep 'em anyway once he goes home." The uniformed boy gave Kyra a look. "You got anythin' he can train in? He's a firebender, he'll be doin' some trainin', I'm sure."

"Oh of course, I had forgotten that. Good thing I brought you along!"  

Kyra led them over to where they kept the training uniforms.

The rich man kept picking things up and then putting them down; the uniformed boy just sighed and took things out of his hands and handed them politely to Kyra. "We'll take this one, Miss." Eventually they had settled on several knickerbockers, shirts, sweaters, pajamas, two pairs of shoes, socks and underwear and two training outfits. Not to mention two complete suits. 

"Well, it's not much, but I suppose it will do," the rich man said. "Oh. Do I have an account at this store?"

The uniformed boy shook his head. "No. Don't fret, he gave me yuan. I'll pay for it."

"Let me just wrap these up for you," said Kyra. She quickly pulled out some boxes and began to fold the clothes into them neatly. The rich man wandered a bit, looking at the clothes.

"Miss Kyra, does this establishment sell coats? And sturdy boots? Well, not now, of course, who would want them in the summer? But later, I mean, when the weather turns."

"Of course, sir."

He nodded idly, and then picked up a baby romper, smiling gently at it and smoothing it down. Kyra calculated the total on her abacus and gave it to the uniformed boy, who pulled out a wallet and paid her without even blinking. Even on sale the total amount was more than she had ever sold in one go.

"Okay, we're done. You ready to scoot?" The uniformed boy went to scoop up the boxes.

"Oh yes, just one moment. Miss Kyra? Do you think I could trouble you to fetch the shop owner?"

Kyra looked at him and her heart sank. She'd done her best; was he somehow unhappy with her? Just what she needed, another customer complaint. She waved the owner over and nodded towards the rich man. The owner looked at the number of boxes next to the uniformed boy and her mood instantly improved.

"May I help you, sir?"

The rich man smiled politely. "Yes, two things. For one, I would like to commend Miss Kyra here. Excellent service with a smile and I am very grateful indeed. For another, I would like to arrange a time to meet with you to discuss the purchase of winter clothing for children. Not today obviously," he gestured around the shop, "but at another time. Let me give you my card." He pulled a gold card case out of his breast pocket and took a card out of it and handed it to her. "You can get in touch with me through my secretarial firm, the number is there. I have a charity, you see, and I'd like to make sure the children get properly clothed this winter. We've been relying upon hand-me-downs but there never seem to be enough. I would be looking for approximately one hundred and fifty to two hundred children of varying sizes, warm things, you know, coats and hats and mittens and boots and such. Do you think your shop could accommodate?"

The shop owner nearly fell over herself when she saw his card, assuring him that the shop would be more than capable of handling his request. He smiled politely and thanked her; with a nod from him the uniformed boy picked up all of the boxes, balancing them a bit in order to see over the top of them.

"Too many boxes," he complained, but he didn't really look angry.

The rich man took Kyra's hand and bent over it in a very courtly manner. "Miss Kyra, it was a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for all of your time and attention." Kyra felt herself blushing just slightly. The uniformed boy demanded the rich man take one of the boxes; he did so and the two of them left the store. 

"Do you know who that was?" The shop owner was staring down at the card in her hand. "That was Prince Wu. You know, of the Earth Kingdom? Well, the former Earth Kingdom."

"You're kidding," said Kyra. She stared at the owner. "You're aren't kidding!" The owner handed the card over and sure enough, it had "His Royal Highness Prince Wu Hou-Ting" engraved on it with a phone number. "Wow," she said. 

"Wow is right," said the shop owner, and then another customer asked Kyra a question about hair ribbons and she was drawn back into the chaos of the sale.

She ended up working two shifts that day to make up for the shop girls who had called in sick. By the end of the day she was exhausted, her feet hurt, and she hadn't even managed to get any lunch, no less a cup of tea. They had just closed the door and were starting on getting the shop back into order when there was a knock at the door.

"Oh, now what?" said one of the other shop girls, and with a groan she went to go and see who it was. A few moments later she returned with an outrageously large vase full of flowers. Roses, peonies, lilies; a profusion of brightly colored blooms spilled out of it. It smelled even better than it looked. "It's for Kyra," she said with giggle, and handed Kyra the card.

Thank you again for all of your assistance, Miss Kyra it read in that beautiful calligraphy. It was signed Wu Hou-Ting with a great flourish. Kyra stared at the flowers and started to laugh. "How on earth am I going to get that home on the tram?" she asked, and she put her nose to the vase and took a deep sniff.