Chapter 1: 187: Rohan and Goba
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
“Can we go someplace high so I can jump off it?”
Chapter Text
Rohan smiled down at the boy who was holding his hand. Goba was six now, and could talk up a storm. Ikki had told him that when he first came to the Temple he was barely speaking at all, so used to the grunting silences in the tent he was born in that he hadn’t picked up much in the way of language.
He was staring down at the ocean, looking at it like he could bend it to his will if he could just figure out how. Ikki had hardly been able to get him to go inside to sleep at night; it wasn’t his first visit to Republic City but it was the first time he’d gotten the chance to actually swim in the ocean and he was just fascinated with it, braving the cold waves while laughing and splashing around. He climbed around like the little goat dog they had at the temple, too, up and down the sea cliffs, fearless and sure-footed.
Rohan still couldn’t get over how many airbenders there were on the Island. When his father had put forth the call throughout the various nations to invite any untrained airbenders to come and learn more about the Air Nation, they’d expected some new benders, sure, but not the frankly staggering amount of people who had shown up on their shores, on private boats or coming across on the ferry. They’d even had a man arrive from the Northern Water Tribe, his three year old daughter in tow, demonstrating how she was already able to direct the air around her. His mother, always capable, had allowed herself a few minutes of quiet hysteria before pulling herself together and directing the Air Acolytes to put extra bedding down in the temple itself.
Ikki and Meelo had come from the Northern and Southern Air Temples, offering to take some of the overflow. Ikki had brought along Yung and Goba as well as the handful of other airbenders who had made their way to her over the past two years; Meelo did the same. She’d spent the afternoon talking to the Northern Water Tribe man, assuring him that he would be welcome at the Temple as well as his daughter, telling him that they already had a waterbender and her daughter living there. Yung’s oldest daughter was an airbender as well, but was too young to travel, staying at home with her mother, who was pregnant again.
“Uncle Rohan?” He looked down to smile at the boy, who was looking up at him with a serious expression, his eyebrows furrowed together, a little frown on his face. He’d only met Baatar a few times, but he recognized the look nevertheless.
“Yes?”
“Can we go someplace high so I can jump off it?”
Rohan laughed. “I’m afraid we don’t have anywhere here as high as you are used to from home.”
Goba grinned. “I want to practice with my glider.” He had a wingsuit, of course, but Ikki had been teaching him how to use a glider as well, saying that she didn’t want the knowledge lost.
Rohan nodded. “I could use some practice too. There’s only one good place for it on this Island, though.” At the boy’s quizzical look he pointed at the slender Temple tower, rising far higher than any of the other buildings. Goba laughed in delight.
“I’ll race you there!” He took off running, and Rohan let him get a good head start before chasing after him, grinning as well.
Chapter 2: 188: Wu and Meili
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"A kiss... as encouragement"
Chapter Text
“Now then. You look very smart indeed.” Wu stood behind his daughter, looking at her in the mirror. Her school uniform was starched perfection; her socks pulled up, her long, soft curls neatly held back with a plain headband. He’d wanted nothing more than to put a bow in her hair but she’d gently refused him.
Even at seven Meili knew exactly what she wanted.
She was hard to read, this little princess of his. She was tall for her age; no great surprise there, Yumi was a tall woman and her biological father, as he understood it, was a tall man as well. She’d taken to her deportment lessons like a turtleduck to water, standing up straight and without fidgeting. She rarely shouted, even more rarely lost her temper. Even her play was decorous, tea parties and paper dolls and strolls in the park with all of her beloved babies that she cared for so enthusiastically. She studied her bending diligently and while he could not say that she was thrilled with the idea of a new baby, she hadn’t thrown any tantrums over it, either.
She was, in every way, perfectly behaved.
He worried about her so very, very much.
“My darling…there is no need to be nervous. Qi will take you there with Naoki and bring you home as well. And of course Naoki and San will be there at school if you need anything.”
“I’m not nervous, Papa.”
Everyone else would believe her, he knew, would mistake that calm exterior for confidence instead of a shield for all of her insecurities. He knew better, however. He went down on his knees in front of her and cupped her chin in his hand. “My love, would you like me to come with you in the car today?”
Her eyes quickly flickered towards his before returning to her reflection, and she shrugged, one-shouldered like Qi. “It’s okay, Papa. I know you’re busy.”
“Meili. Do you think that I am ever too busy for you?” He gently turned her to face him. “If you think that then it is because I have somehow led you to believe it, and that is certainly my fault.” He took her little hand into his own. “I am never, ever too busy for you, my love. Never. Ever.”
Her lower lip trembled just slightly, and he pulled her into his arms, holding her close and gently rocking her back and forth. “Oh, Meili. We’ve all been so occupied with the aftermath of everything that has happened these past months that it is no wonder you’ve felt neglected. I am so very sorry.”
Her arms were around him then, holding on to him as tightly as she could. “You won’t send me away again, Papa?” Her little voice was so plaintive, so sad, that it took everything in him not to burst into tears.
“No. Never again, my love. Even if something like…well, like what happened were to happen again we would all be together as a family, I promise.” He pulled back to look her in the eyes. “I missed you so very much, darling. I cried for you every single night.”
She nodded, those lovely dark blue eyes of hers filling up. “Me too, Papa.”
He pulled out his handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. “Oh my goodness, look at the two of us, there go the waterworks.” He dabbed at his own eyes, which had filled up as well, despite his efforts. “Gracious, you can’t take me anywhere.”
“Silly Papa.” Ah, that got a little smile out of her.
“I am the silliest Papa anyone has ever had, it must be said.” He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “However, I am a silly Papa that will come with you to school on your very first day. Yes?”
She nodded, the smile starting to light up her face. Oh, she was a beauty, no mistake. A tender-hearted beauty, despite what most people thought. One day he hoped there would be someone in her life who would appreciate and cherish that secretive heart as much as he did.
“Good. Now, let’s the both of us make sure we are presentable, and then we shall go before your sister or Qi comes here to shout at us for being late, yes?”
“Hmph,” she said, her little nose in the air at the very thought, and he loved her so much he thought he might burst with it.
Chapter 3: 189: Meelo
Chapter Text
He sat on the ledge, alone, the wind flowing over his bare skull. His left forefinger traced the intricate whorls of the arrow tattooed onto his right hand. He watched his father walk slowly up the winding path to the temple.
Chapter 4: 189: Rohan and Sozui
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"Could you be any louder?"
Chapter Text
“This is a dumb idea,” Rohan said, and then grunted as Sozui dug a knee into his shoulder. “And you weigh a lot.”
“This is a great idea,” Sozui grinned. “Think of how surprised she’ll be. She thinks I’m coming next week.” He reached up and felt with his fingers until he found a small chink in the stone wall, slowly pulling himself up. “Are you boosting me or what?”
“What do you want me to do, boost you with an air blast? Not going to happen.”
“You’re the one who is supposed to be as tall as a house.” Sozui’s foot slipped and he clipped Rohan’s ear.
“OW!”
“Shhhh! Could you be any louder? Do you want to wake up Mako or something?”
“They’re over on the other side of the house,” Rohan said, grunting. “Look, are you getting off my shoulders or aren’t you?”
“It’s not my fault she’s on the second floor. Hey, her window is open!”
Suddenly Sozui let out with a high-pitched scream, tumbling backwards as he was slammed into by a deluge of water, Rohan toppling over with him to land in one of Wu’s decorative bushes, both of them soaking wet.
“It’s my window, you birdbrains,” Meili’s voice floated down towards them. “That’s what you get.” There was a bang as she slammed her window shut.
The boys stared at each other, and Sozui shrugged sheepishly, water dripping down the sides of his face. “Oops.”
Chapter 5: 189: Naoki and Sozui
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt.
Chapter Text
Sozui’s eyes flew open, straining to see in the darkness. There it was again, the barely perceptible noise of a bare foot dragging across the floor. “Hello?” He fumbled for the light on the table next to the bed. “Is someone there?”
“Shhh, do you want to wake everyone up?” The bed dipped and sagged.
“Naoki!” He hissed. “What are you doing?”
She snickered. “Nothing.”
“What…why are you here?” He reached for the light switch but her hand slapped at his, surprising him into a strangled yelp.
“Quiet!” An unidentifiable body part brushed against his thigh and he skittered backwards, nearly dumping himself off the side. “Come on, don’t be a baby. I only came in to cuddle.”
“You come into my room and wake me up at 4 am, to cuddle?” His voice rose and cracked incredulously on the last word and then her hand was across his mouth.
“Seriously, shut up. Do you want to wake everyone up? My father would yell at us for hours.” The rustle of bedclothes as she slid under the covers.
“Your father is the least of my worries. Qi would kill me and dump my body where no one would ever find it again.”
“Good thing Qi is upstairs tonight, then.”
“How do you know?” She was tugging at his pajama top, trying to ease him back into the bed.
“I checked, dummy. I’m not that stupid.”
“You sure about that?”
“QI!” Naoki squeaked, flying off the bed, landing on the floor with a thud.
“Please don’t kill me! I swear I was just sleeping!” The overhead light switched on and he squinted, trying to get past the dots swarming through his vision. Qi was standing in the doorway, arms crossed, face a terrifying blank. Qi’s gaze landed on Naoki.
“You. Bed. Your own bed. And stay there.” Naoki scrambled up and hotfooted it out of the room, avoiding Qi as much as possible.
“I swear, Qi, I wasn’t trying…” He swallowed. “I wouldn’t…I…I’m a guest in your home and I would never. I’m sorry.”
Qi flicked up an eyebrow. “Keep your pants on, I know you didn’t do anything. We’ll just consider this between us, yeah? No harm, no foul, no need to mention it again.” The light flicked off. “Go on back to sleep, now.”
As if he could! He lay there, eyes wide open in the dark, only to hear what sounded suspiciously like a chuckle. “Horny damn teenagers,” he was almost positive he heard Qi mutter.
He let out a breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding and lay there, marveling that he was still alive and thinking of Naoki in his bed. No more sleep for him.
Chapter 6: 189: Lin and Bora
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
“Shut up, I am a delight!”
Chapter Text
“How many of these are you planning on doing?” Lin gazed down at her niece’s rounded belly, one eyebrow raised dubiously.
“This one’s number four, so at least four of them. Maybe more. Couldn’t tell you,” Bora said with a wink. “He likes making them and I like having them. What can I say?” She pointed a finger at a child streaking past, leaving a trail of dirt behind him. “Zihao! You keep out of those flowerbeds, you hear me?” She shook her head. “He just managed to wobble his first big rock last week, we’re lucky he hasn’t gone straight over the side of the mountain. Not for lack of trying, believe me.”
“So you’re really planning on staying up there? For good?”
Bora shrugged. “Well, where else would I go? Back here to the village?” She surveyed the orchard of fruit trees past her parents’ garden. “I love my family and I do miss them, but the thing is with a tiny village like this is that once you get a reputation, it sticks with you forever, no matter what. I’ll always be Bora, the old maid with no ambition here. Wouldn’t matter if I moved back with all of the kids or not. It’s just how they see me.” She laughed. “Not that the Temple doesn’t have its own small village mentality, because it does. But there they see me as Bora, head of the air acolytes, and that’s an entirely different story.”
“Are you really an air acolyte, though?” Lin’s look was skeptical. “You’re pretty foul-mouthed and blunt and downright earthy for an acolyte. Not to mention-” here she pointed vaguely downwards “-fecund.”
Bora laughed uproariously at this. “Shut up! I am a delight!” She nudged her aunt with her elbow and got a smirk out of her. “Ah, it’s a different kind of temple. With different kinds of acolytes, for sure. I’m a crap example of what it means to be a proper acolyte but I don’t care one way or the other, you know? I sure as shit am not going to shave my head and put on robes and embrace my inner stillness or whatever it is those people do at the other temples. For one thing, I like sex far too much for any of that celibacy nonsense that so many of them do.”
Lin snorted at this. “Wouldn’t have suited me, either.” She glanced over at Yung, who was standing and chatting with his father-in-law, who stood more than a head and a half taller than him. “Yung, though? He was always so quiet, hardly even noticeable. He just doesn’t seem your type.”
Bora chuckled. “Good things come in little packages, or haven’t you heard?” She leaned closer to her aunt. “Hung like a tigerdillo and the man has stamina like you would not believe. He's an earthquake in bed.” She shot a look over at LoLo, sitting on a bench, amusing some of the little ones by pretending to pull fire out of their ears. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
Lin laughed this time, and genially whacked her niece on the back. “Can’t really argue with that one!”
Chapter 7: 190: Wei and Lin Beifong
Chapter Text
He shucked off his practice equipment and took a long shower, trying to ease the pain in his shoulder. He’d taken a pretty nasty hit from a disc there and it was already starting to purple up. He wrapped a towel around his waist and flagged down a passing gym rat and asked her to let the healer know he needed him. Hopping up on the massage table he winced. “Damn.”
“That’s nasty looking.”
He jumped a little. “Aunt Lin! What are you doing here?” She came into the massage room, picking up a pot of liniment and sniffing at it. She wrinkled up her nose.
“Now, there’s a stink.” She dropped it back down. “Your firebender girl sent me back. I’ve come to take you for dinner.”
He blinked at her. “You what, now?”
She raised those arched eyebrows. “I have come. To. Take you. To dinner. Pretty simple concept, Wei. Do you need me to spell it out?”
He furrowed his brow at her. “Wait. Why do you want to take me to dinner?”
She shrugged. “Well, I could give some song and dance about being generous or something, but the truth of the matter is your mother has been nagging me to give her a report on you.” She rolled her eyes. “For a woman that used to run fast and loose with a circus, she can really be pretty damn pushy when she wants something.”
“Mom asked you to report on me?” He scowled. “What, so she can’t ask me herself?”
“Oh you know your mother, she thinks she’s covert. Whatever. Come and have dinner with me at Chin’s, I’ll tell her all about it, it will make her happy and she’ll quit sending me letters about it.”
“I need to get this shoulder worked on a bit.”
“I’ll say you do. That looks like it hurts like a motherfucker.”
“Yeah, it really kind of does.”
She leaned up against another one of the tables and jerked her chin at him. “How you feeling about your chances against the Moose Lions next week?”
He sighed. “I don’t know who lit a fire under their waterbender’s ass, but he’s kicked it up a notch this season. Got all kind of new moves. So I guess that’s a wait and see.”
The healer entered the room and nodded to Wei. “Well, that shoulder looks bad. Let’s do something about it.”
“Am I in your way?”
“That’s my Aunt Lin Beifong, by the way. Aunt Lin, this is Koska.”
The healer nodded at her as he drew water from the pouch at his belt. “I’m aware of who Madame Beifong is.”
“Well, look at that, Aunt Lin. You’re famous! Ow!”
She snorted at him and crossed her arms, waiting for the healer to do his work.
Chapter 8: 190: Mako and His Children
Chapter Text
Zhi frowned. “Qi doesn’t really wear a lot of jewelry around their hands, though. I don’t think they really like it.”
“Not that they don’t like it, it’s just it could get in the way of the knives,” Naoki said knowingly.
“Oh,” said Zhi. He thought about this for a moment. “But what about earrings? Would earrings get in the way of knives?”
“If Qi wants jewelry then they'll pick it out themself,” Mako said, shifting Sayuri on his hip and straightening up her light jacket. “Let’s look for something else. What about a book? Qi likes books.”
“Books are boring,” Naoki said, with an expressive roll of her eyes.
“No, they aren’t!” Zhi’s mouth dropped open in outrage. “You know, some of us appreciate a well-rounded education!”
Naoki blew a deliberate, slow raspberry at him. “Booooooooring.”
“All right, enough of that. Meili, what about you? What do you think Qi would like?”
“I think maybe Mama would like to go somewhere nice with you and Papa.”
They all stared at her, and then Mako smiled down at her, running a hand gently over her curls. “You know, I think you’ve got it. That’s a good idea, honey.”
“All hail to the wisdom of the nine year old,” Naoki cried and dropped down on the floor of the Little Ba Sing Se Fashion mall to kowtow at her sister. Meili just looked down her nose at her with an expression that she had most certainly learned from her Papa.
“Also a nice tie. Mama said that they didn’t like one they bought for their new pink suit. I heard them telling Papa.” Meili deliberately turned her back on her sister.
“Get up off the floor,” Mako said. “Well, we can pick out a nice tie for Qi, sure. I think they'd like that.”
“Oh, maybe a checkered one!” Zhi pointed at a tie that was patterned in a subtle pink and grey check, with a line of silver running through it
Meili stared at Zhi. “That’s the wrong shade of pink. No.”
“Well, I think it’s nice.” Zhi frowned and took it into his hands. "I'm getting them this one."
“New rule,” Naoki bounced up off the floor. “If Zhi likes a tie then it’s an automatic no.”
“Get bent, Naoki!” Zhi cried, glaring at her.
“Knock it off, you two. Right now.” Mako had the tone in his voice that promised dire retribution.
Sayuri wriggled on his hip and Mako put her down. She toodled her way over to the selection of ties and then gestured imperiously at Zhi. “Up.”
Zhi immediately picked her up and put her close to the spinning rack where the ties were displayed. She leaned over and carefully grasped a tie that was striped in purple and yellow, with a pattern of green foil squiggles stamped randomly across it. “Nice for my QiQi,” she said, and thrust it out for her father.
“That is a nice one,” he said, ignoring Meili's incredulous look, smiling at the baby as he took it. “Good choice, honey.”
“So how does it feel to know that a two year old has better fashion sense than you do, Zhi?” Naoki was laughing. Even Meili giggled at that one.
Sayuri put a baby hand to his face. “My Zhi,” she said, and dropped her head to his collarbone.
Chapter 9: 190: Mako, Wu and Qi
Chapter Text
“The red or the blue?” Frowning, Qi held up two shirts, staring into the mirror.
“My darling, you know I have no preference. Both are equally as stunning.” Wu patted a stray hair into place.
“Not helpful.” Qi’s head shook. “I’m not sold on either. I don’t know.”
“It’s just a shirt. Pick one and don’t take all night about it, I’m hungry,” Mako called from down the hall, and with an expressive eye roll Qi hung up the red and slid the blue shirt on.
Chapter 10: 190: Asami
Chapter Text
She dabbed a bit of perfume behind her ears, and then tested to make sure her hair was going to stay up in its pins. She took her necklace out of its case and opened the clasp; before she could bring it up to her neck Korra had reached around her to take it up to fasten it.
“Thanks.” She closed her eyes as Korra started to slowly kiss down her spine. “Korra,” she breathed, and the sound of her zipper being pulled down made her nipples hard. “We’ll be late,” she said, but Korra didn’t stop. She didn’t want her to, anyhow.
Chapter 11: 190: Lin and LoLo
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"At a popular band concert"
Chapter Text
“They aren’t going to shoot off cannons or anything, are they?”
LoLo just raised a highly skeptical eyebrow at that. “Why on earth would you think that?”
She waved her hand. “You know, these military kinds of things.”
Now he was laughing at her. “Military kinds of things, is it?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Do I, though?” That damn sassy dimple was flashing at her.
“Hmph.” She glanced around at the gathering, grateful for the fan Qi had given her before she left. She normally never used them; pretentious damn things, reserved for silly young flirts or pompous elders. That being said, it was ridiculously hot in the Fire Nation during the summer. She felt like a boiled crab. She probably looked like one, too. She’d been more than a little disappointed that the fan Qi had given her hadn’t been a war fan; they’d just laughed at her, though, and told her to wait and open it until she got to the concert. She’d done so and nearly choked; the outside of it was a properly traditional design, a forest motif with a Beifong flying boar, just exactly what a pompous noble matron would carry. The inner side, however, the one only she could see, had a phrase painted on it that she’d seen graffitied in some of Republic City’s worst neighborhoods. She’d been so surprised she’d nearly dropped it; LoLo had taken one look at it and nearly folded over in his seat, laughing uproariously. It made her smile as she slowly wafted air across her overheated face.
She thought, as she had many times before, how much her mother would have liked Qi.
“Ah, looks like this shindig’s finally going to start.” LoLo nodded to where Izumi was approaching the dias, followed by Iroh, his entire chest nearly covered with medals and ribbons. She gave a mercifully brief speech detailing how her father, Avatar Aang, and Earth King Kuei had started the United Forces seventy-five years prior, determined to bring about peace and justice without borders and how the Fire Nation Royal family had a tradition of service. She continued to fan herself. Fuck, but it was hot.
LoLo was uncharacteristically silent beside her, sitting straight and proud in his dress uniform. He’d been honorably discharged when he was forty-seven; he was going to be celebrating his fifty-eighth birthday in a month and he still fit into the uniform without a problem. Oh, his hair was a little more salt than pepper now, the laugh lines around his eyes more pronounced, his body a little softer in the belly, something she didn’t mind at all. Still as handsome as ever, though, still full of that expansive, good humor, always ready to laugh, his teasing gentle rather than sharp. Those strong hands of his could chop an onion, change a diaper, wipe away a tear and provide a hug with ease. They could still hold her through the night, too, and touch her in ways no one else had ever managed before.
Ah shit, now she was getting maudlin. That’s what she got for throwing her lot in with the man for the past decade. Even living with him, like she did, was something she’d never done before he came along. All those years, from the time she’d moved out of her mother’s house when Su had been sent away, she’d lived alone. Sure, she’d spent more than a few nights over on the Island; Tenzin had spent nights at her flat as well. But they’d never lived together, and the few other relationships she’d had over the years had been brief and uninspired. Her lovers had always been guests.
Now that Izumi had finished speaking the musicians were tuning up; Iroh had sat down with a tsungi horn and was preparing to play. His grandfather had played, she remembered; he’d been acknowledged as being pretty good at it, not that she’d ever paid that much attention. She’d always been more impressed with how he’d handled those swords of his. She did remember being out on the Island once, about Naoki’s age, Su dancing along to the sound of his horn and Aang’s pipes, Sokka thwacking away on a drum, not keeping time as well as he probably thought he was. It was one of the rare times her mother had been there as well - probably in honor of Zuko’s visit - and she’d been laughing, calling out taunts to Sokka, who’d responded by drumming even harder, a broad grin on his face. She remembered sitting there, watching the two of them together, and wondering, for the first time, if perhaps they might be lovers. Not that she’d thought about it that way, of course - she hadn’t been all that knowledgeable about what people were doing in the bedroom, not at that age. But she’d seen something past the joking the two of them were doing, something in the way Sokka looked at her mother, something in the way her mother was always tracking where he was in the room.
She remembered Suki, but not well, of course. She’d died about a year before Su had been born. She’d been a kind woman, quiet, always a little sad, or at least that’s how she’d always seemed to her. She’d shown off her war fans for her once, the metal spines as deadly and graceful as Qi’s, and she’d thought they were the most beautiful things she’d ever seen. All of the adults had been heartbroken when she’d died, whispering behind closed doors, Sokka silent and haunted with her loss. It hadn’t been long after her funeral when Sokka had come to their house one night, late, and she’d snuck down the stairs to listen. Her mother always knew if she was out of bed; there was no such thing as a covert action around Toph Beifong. But she’d been distracted with Sokka that night, and hadn’t sensed her. He’d been weeping, that much she recalled, and when she’d peeked into the room she’d seen him with his head in her mother’s lap, sobbing, while her mother had held him, speaking to him in a soft, gentle way that she’d never heard her mother use before.
She knew people had speculated that he was Su’s father. Hard to tell. Su looked so much like their mother, albeit more than a few shades darker. It was Huan that had made her wonder, more than once; certain ways he held his mouth, his high cheekbones, the flashing grin, so rarely seen. Maybe so. No way to know, not now.
Sokka and her mother had fought, before he’d left Republic City to go back to the South Pole, that much she knew. She wasn’t sure anyone else did; Su had been over on the Island that day, but at the last minute she’d stayed home, wanting some time alone, figuring her mother would come home late, if at all. She’d been surprised to hear her come in, and was going to call out when she realized that Sokka was there as well. She’d stayed on her bed - Mom wouldn’t sense her that way - and listened to the two of them go at it, both of them furious, voices raised.
What do you want, Toph? Do you want me to stay? Sokka had finally said, and there’d been a pause in the conversation.
Do whatever you want, her mother had replied, her voice tight and sharp. The silence had stretched out until she’d heard the front door slam. Breathless, trying to make herself as small and quiet as possible, she’d waited, wondering what to do, when there’d been an explosion as her mother, shouting incoherently, had started bending throughout the house, the sound of wood wrenching apart frightening her. Her mother was many things, but a woman who lost control was never one of them. Finally her mother had stopped; in the heavy stillness of the aftermath she’d heard her sob twice, a sound she’d never heard before or since. Her mother had been the one to slam out of the door then and she’d sat on her bed for a good half hour, still afraid to move, until her desperate need to use the toilet drove her off the safety of the mattress. She’d gone out of her room then, gasping in shock at the destruction. She’d grabbed up her school satchel and ran out the front door, running until she came to the tram that ran through the other side of the park, hopping on it, clutching her bag to her. She said nothing as she got herself to the ferry; once she arrived on the Island she told Katara that she’d changed her mind, that she wanted to stay over anyhow. Katara had hugged her and told her she’d put some dinner aside for her just in case as Su came running over, demanding that she watch her do some dance move she’d finally figured out. Business as usual.
She’d never said a word to her mother. By the time she and Su had gotten home the next day the house had been cleaned up, the only sign that anything had happened a missing table from the entry hall, the one her mother had smashed into smithereens.
Had her mother wanted Sokka to go? She thought not. She thought, in fact, with over fifty years of hindsight, that her mother had been devastated when he left. She’d never said, however, never addressed it again, simply carried on as if Sokka had never existed. How would their lives had changed if her mother had swallowed her pride and asked him to stay?
And what had she done but once again followed in her mother’s footsteps when it came to Tenzin, shutting him out until he finally moved on, and then tearing apart the Island in her hurt and fury, something she was still ashamed of all these years later. Fuck, but she could gladly kick her past self in the ass.
“Come on, the tsungi horn isn’t that bad.” LoLo had leaned over to murmur in her ear, and she swatted him lightly with the fan, grateful that he’d broken her mood. He always did seem to know when she’d get mired in the past. “Say, did you stop to think that maybe that was meant to be instructions on the back of your fan there?”
She swiveled her head to look at him over that one and he waggled his eyebrows at her and she couldn’t help herself, she let out with a bark of laughter. “You really think you’re that flexible anymore?”
“No risk, no reward,” he said, grinning at her and his eyes lit up as she leaned over to give a quick kiss on his mouth.
“Quiet, old man, I’m listening to people make music. Or at least that’s what I think they’re doing.”
He just continued to grin at her while he took her hand in his, kissing her knuckles, keeping her hand easily in his.
Chapter 12: 190: Kai and Jinora
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
“Never mind, the moment’s gone.”
Chapter Text
“I guess I’m just not like my sister,” Jinora said, standing up and refusing to look at him as she shrugged her robe on.
“Jinora…I wasn’t trying…come on, don’t be like that. It was just a suggestion. I’m sorry, I won’t suggest it again.”
She turned around and gave him that look he hated, that wounded look that made her look like he’d stabbed her in the heart. He’d never been able to do anything to combat that look. He reached a hand out to her. “Come on, please come back to bed.”
“Never mind, the moment’s gone,” she said. “I may as well go and meditate.” She walked into their bathroom as he turned to face the wall, wishing, as he wished so often, that he had just kept his mouth shut.
Chapter 13: 190: Kai and Bolin
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
“That was a perfect example of how not to do things.”
Chapter Text
“So. Yeah. That was a perfect example of how not to do things,” Kai said, attempting a laugh. Bolin wasn’t fooled. He sat back, twiddling his chopsticks a little. They were sitting in his kitchen, eating take-out from Chin’s. Once a week they did this; a way to stay connected, and a way for Kai to sneak in a few meat dishes on the sly.
“You and Jinora…is everything okay?”
Kai shrugged a little. “Ah, you know, the usual marriage stuff.”
Bolin frowned. “Well, sure. I mean, I get that. Sometimes Opal and me…hey, you know how it goes. But uh…” his cheeks pinked, just a little, “…we’re usually pretty happy in the old marriage bed department, if you know what I mean.” Kai just stared out the window, silent. “I don’t mean that we haven’t had our little slip ups here and there, but you know Opal, if she’s not happy with something she’ll just tell me directly. I never have to guess.” Bolin grinned. “This is a good thing, seeing as guessing is not really my best game.”
Kai swung back towards him, his hands going up into the air. “That’s the thing, though. Jinora won’t say! She just says that everything is fine, even when it isn’t. She won’t talk about it. Ever. How can I fix something when I don’t know what’s wrong? I’m not a mind reader! I ask her but she just…changes the subject or goes to meditate or whatever.” He let his hands come to rest on the table. “Sorry, don’t mean to get all worked up.”
Bolin was silent for a time, dragging one chopstick down the table slowly. “You know…it was hard, really hard for us when Bu was little. He was so sick, it was touch and go for a couple of years there. We thought we might lose him.”
Kai reached across the table for one of his hands and squeezed it. “I know, Bo. I’m so sorry.”
Bolin’s smile was tremulous. “Well, he’s a lot better now. He's doing great. And San and Pearlie are both healthy and fine, so that’s good too.” He took a deep breath. “But you know, being scared like that, all the getting up in the middle of the night when he’d stop breathing, all the healers, all that stuff…it changed us. As people people but as married people, too.” He met Kai’s eyes. “Let’s just say that Pearl was such a big surprise because we weren’t really doing much that way, you know? It’s just…we were so tired and so scared and sometimes we’d fight over really stupid things when what we were really fighting about was being scared for Bu but it was like, if we said it, maybe it would make it come true? And so we just couldn’t say it, we’d fight over dumb things like me forgetting to buy hoisin sauce or Opal leaving balls of yarn all over the house.” His eyes filled up. “It was a bad time. A really hard time. Sometimes I thought maybe we weren’t going to make it. But we did.”
“I didn’t know it was that bad for the two of you. I don’t think I was being very supportive.” Kai’s face had dropped.
“No, hey, it’s okay. It’s hard to talk about. And Mako, he was always listening and you know they used to take San all the time, he’d get so scared whenever Bu’s breathing went bad, he’d start crying and stuff and it was hard to give him the attention he needed. So I wasn’t alone or anything.” He patted Kai’s hand reassuringly. “I just brought it up because…well, you know, you and Jinora haven’t caught pregnant yet and maybe I’m wrong, but I’m thinking maybe that might be part of it?” He laughed, scratching at the back of his head. “Or not, you know my brains aren’t the best.”
Kai stared at him for a long moment. “I think maybe you might be right,” he said slowly.
“Hey! A first for everything!” Bolin grinned.
“No. I think you are. I haven’t really been thinking about it that way. But I think you’re right.” It was his turn for his eyes to fill up. “Thanks, Bo.”
Bolin shoved the takeout box at him. “Hey, any time. What’s a big sort of brother for, huh?” He patted Kai’s hand until Kai gave him a smile in return.
Chapter 14: 190: Mako and Sozui
Summary:
Republic City University, here we come!
Chapter Text
"Do you have an invitation?"
Mako blinked, staring at the very starched and officious looking woman behind the desk. Her topknot was practically taking air. "Say what now?"
The look she gave him could have curdled milk. "From Prince Hou-Ting."
"What are you talking about?"
She took a deep breath. Obviously he was the stupidest person on earth. "The official invitation from Prince Hou-Ting, inviting the Crown Prince to visit."
"The fuck?" He scowled. "I came to pick him up, he knows he's coming."
She pulled herself up even straighter, which he wouldn't have thought was physically possible. "His Royal Highness does not just go places." Her tone was informing the world that he was, quite possibly, the stupidest person alive. He kept his temper with an effort.
"Look, just give him a shout, tell him I'm here."
Her lip curled. "And your name is..."
"Mako."
She blinked. "Mako?"
Now he was starting to get pissed off. "Did I stutter?"
"The Prince Consort of Prince Hou-Ting?"
"Last time I checked, yeah. You need to see my ring?" He held up his gloved hand and waggled it at her.
Her mouth thinned but before she could open it back up Sozui came into the room, his face lighting up. "Mako!" Two large and intimidating firebenders, dressed in full samurai regalia, flanked him. He quickly assessed them; one of them was neutral, staring straight ahead, in a watchful but relaxed pose, but the other fairly exuded menace. Right. Asshole Number Two was going to give him trouble, he could tell already. He mentally sighed, but smiled at the boy, however.
"There you are. You ready to go?"
"I am!"
"LoLo's been cooking all day for you. I've got my car outside."
"Did Naoki come along?" Sozui was going for casual but wasn't fooling anyone.
"Not this time. You're stuck with just me." He took pity on him. "She's at home with the rest, I swung by on my way home from my office."
The boy's cheeks flushed. Spirits, you couldn't pay him to be eighteen again. "Right, of course." He straightened up. "After you." As they started to walk out the official stood up.
"And what time will the Crown Prince be returning?"
Sozui took in a breath. "I will be returning before midnight."
The woman frowned. "I think it would be best if Your Highness allowed one of the Embassy drivers to take you to and from Prince Hou-Ting's home."
Sozui's eyes sparked. "I have my bodyguards, thank you, Consul Iraka. That will be sufficient."
"Your Highness does-"
"That will be all, Consul." Sozui's tone was a warning and the woman backed off, but with clear reluctance.
"Enjoy your evening, Your Highness. We will see you before midnight, then."
He nodded at her before storming out the door. There was a scuffle at the car; Asshole Number Two was insisting that Sozui sit in the back with him while Sozui wanted to sit in the front. He stayed out of it; merely waiting until it was situated before opening his own door. Asshole Number Two didn't take Sozui sitting in the front seat well at all, and he gritted his teeth. This guy was going to be an issue.
It wasn't far from the Fire Nation Embassy to their own home; Embassy Row was just on their side of the bridge, in a private and well-patrolled area. According to Wu there'd been no question of Sozui staying at the University's dormitories, especially since his grandmother had retired six months ago and he was now officially the Crown Prince. Instead he had been installed a few days prior in the Embassy's compound itself, complete with bodyguards and official busybodies, apparently. He felt for the kid. Not that Wu hadn't had a bodyguard at the same age, but that bodyguard had been him. Wu sure as hell didn't have officials crammed up his ass twenty-four seven either. Although Wu being Wu, he would have just sailed past them a smile, fluttering and chattering at them, doing whatever he wanted while they were all chasing after him helplessly. He couldn't help but smile at the memory. Sozui was Fire Nation, however. All of those royals were about as relaxed as a heart attack.
He parked the car in the garage and led them out, in through the side door into the kitchen, Sozui grinning and greeting both LoLo and Cork before walking through to the family room. They hadn't seen him since his sister's coronation and the first thing he did as they entered was crouch down to peer at Button, who toddled towards him, arms out. He doubted she remembered him but Sayuri loved people, she'd hug anyone, really. Delighted, Sozui scooped her up into his arms, missing the way Asshole Number Two stiffened.
Qi didn't miss it, of course. Their gaze locked onto Asshole Number Two and the temperature immediately rose in the room. Shit.
"Button, do you know who that is?" Zhi was grinning.
"Zui," Button chirped, and planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek. "Hi hi hi, Zui!"
"She remembers me!" Sozui said, his dimples carving into his face as he kissed her back before tickling at her belly, Button squealing in joy.
"We show her your photos, of course." Naoki hadn't moved from the sofa, lounging like she could care less that he was here and hadn't been talking about it nonstop for the past two months.
"We sure do," Zhi said, and went for a hug of his own. Asshole Number Two moved forward to intercept him and Qi was there, in his face, lip moving up in a silent snarl. Shit, shit, shit. Asshole Number One put a firm hand to Asshole Number Two's arm and Wu spoke up.
"My gracious, darling, but it is lovely to see you! And with your crown prince's hairpin and all, very official." Wu bustled over, all smiles, before turning his head just slightly to address the bodyguards. "The footman will escort the two of you to the inner courtyard." He put a hand to Qi's arm as well. Asshole Number One, correctly guessing who the man speaking to them was, bowed properly and stepped back as the footman stepped forward, but Asshole Number Two didn't move.
"Our orders are to protect the Crown Prince at all costs."
Wu blinked, his face schooled into an expression of mild surprise. "I beg your pardon?" He didn't look at Asshole Number Two, however. He had his King on.
"Where he goes, we go." The man puffed himself up and Qi's hands disappeared into their pockets. This was going to go south in about two seconds and the kids were here. Shit. He shot Naoki a look and then let his eyes drift towards Meili, who was still sitting next to her. She unobtrusively moved closer to her sister, still watching Asshole Number Two. He moved very slowly towards Zhi, still standing next to Sozui, eyes wide, trying to figure out what was going on.
Sozui turned furious eyes to the man. "Sir Sotan. This is Prince Hou-Ting's home. Please follow his footman as he requested." The man didn't move, staring belligerently at the wall. "That is an order." Sozui's breathing was starting to quicken and Sayuri, picking up on the tension, started to whimper. The bodyguard took a step towards Sozui and before he could so much as move to intervene Sir Sotan grunted as he was slammed down to the floor on his back, Qi's war fan pressed into the flesh at his throat, which was already bleeding.
"Qi," Zhi bleated, and he reached forward and pulled him back, gently but firmly pushing him towards his sister, who in one fluid motion stood up, grabbed him and sat him back down next to her on the sofa. He quickly assessed the room: the other bodyguard was alert but still, meeting his eyes. Moving slowly, Asshole Number One bowed low.
"My deepest and humblest apologies, Prince Consort, Royal Consort, Your Highness. We will of course go where His Highness Hou-Ting prefers us to be."
"Not this one." Qi said, their old accent creeping through. "This one gets the fuck out of my house."
"Qi, dearest, please get off the bodyguard." Wu put a hand to Sozui and deftly took Sayuri from him, to all outward appearances perfectly calm. "Let's get you to your brother, hmm?" Wu met his eyes as he handed her over; he took her straight to Zhi, who automatically took her, eyes still wide. "Qi. Let the bodyguard up now. Everything is fine."
"You come into my house," Qi growled, fan digging in just a bit more. "Come into my house, threaten my babies, my husband."
Sozui took a deep breath and bowed an apology. "My apologies, Qi. I'm the one to blame, I am responsible for my own staff."
Qi flicked him a glance, but didn't move. Wu crouched down, however, his voice gentle. "My love, you are frightening the children. Please let him up. I shall discuss this with the ambassador in person, I give you my word. I won't let it stand. Please. For me, darling." As always, that's all it took; Qi flowed up and back, eyes never leaving the man, fans held at the ready.
"Sir Sotan." Sozui's voice was hard. "You have dishonored the royal family as well as the Fire Nation this evening. Stand and present yourself." The man took his feet, staring straight ahead. Sozui stared at him and then, expressionless, reached out and tore the royal crest off the man's armor. "I will see to it that you are transported back to the Embassy, where you may explain to Ambassador Tora your behavior." He turned to the other warrior. "Sir Takeo, please see to it that Sir Sotan is escorted properly off of Prince Hou-Ting's property at once." The man immediately bowed.
"As Your Highness wishes. May this humble servant ask how his Highness will be returning to the Embassy?"
"I'll take responsibility for him." He met the man's eyes and they nodded at each other.
"I thank you, Prince Consort." He turned to Sozui and bowed again. "Your Highness."
"I'll ask Cork to call the Embassy, tell them to send a car." Wu's mouth was taut, furious. Really furious this time, not irritated or pissy, the way he could so often get. He turned and walked out of the room, the only other sign of his emotional state the stiff set of his shoulders.
Qi turned. "Naoki, baby, you come with me, help me take this trash out." She stood up immediately and walked to stand next to Qi. "You know who this be, yeah? The Fire Butterfly. I don't care how good a firebender you are, she'll take you out."
"Yes. I will." Naoki was still, holding herself ready.
"That will not be necessary, Royal Consort, Princess. We'll leave immediately." Sir Takeo bowed again, but Qi wasn't having it, pointing at the door towards the inner courtyard and gesturing them out. Naoki followed behind. Sozui let out an explosive breath, his eyes filling up with angry tears. He put a hand to his shoulder.
"You okay?"
Sozui nodded, trying to get himself under control. "I'm sorry, Mako."
He clapped his shoulder. "Last time I checked you weren't responsible for other people being assholes. No need to apologize."
"Daddy, do you think Qi and Naoki will be okay?" Zhi was holding Sayuri a little too tightly and she was struggling to get down.
"Probably disappointed if they can't kick his ass," Meili said, still sitting on the sofa, composure intact.
"Don't let your father hear you say that," he warned, and then walked over to pick up Sayuri, who reached for Sozui again. He went ahead and let her go, let Sozui fuss with the baby while trying to save a little face. "Qi and Naoki will be fine, don't worry." He cupped the back of Zhi's head and leaned down to kiss his forehead. "Everything's okay, Zhi. I promise."
Lin strolled in. "Well, there you are," she said to Sozui, even beginning to crack a smile, but then stopped. "There's a fuckload of tension in this room. What in Vaatu's festering ass carbuncles happened in here?" She glared around the room.
Ass carbuncles, he caught Meili mouthing at Zhi, who clapped a hand to his mouth to try and stifle his giggle. There, he'd be okay. He turned to Lin.
"Just a little thing with Sozui's bodyguards, Qi and Naoki are seeing them out."
Lin scowled. "Damn it, I missed out on all the fun." She walked over to Sozui. "Well, I suppose I should hug you or something." She perked up a little. "Unless you're too old for all of that happy huggy shit."
"Never," he declared, and promptly hugged her, including the baby, who took advantage of her position to plant a wet kiss on Lin's collarbone.
"Yeah, yeah, don't get all maudlin on me, aren't you supposed to be the backup Firelord these days?" Lin groused, but Sozui kissed her cheek anyhow. She awkwardly patted him on the back. "So when do your classes start anyways?"
"Monday," he replied, smiling as Sayuri reached for his crown. "This first term I have philosophy, ancient history, astronomy and literature. I'm really looking forward to it."
Zhi came towards him, eager. "I keep trying to talk Papa into letting me take astronomy at the university but he says I'm too young."
"You're twelve, my darling. Save a little knowledge for later, hmm?" Wu beamed at Zhi as he came back in. "I promise, my love, that it will all be waiting for you when you're ready." They'd talked about Zhi attending university courses with his tutor, Mathuram, a former professor herself. She'd acknowledged that Zhi had the brains for it, but had argued very convincingly that he didn't yet have the maturity. The very idea of Zhi, already taller than Wu, being mistaken for an adult was not something either he or Wu were willing to risk. Zhi was such an innocent, he'd be a prime target for anyone that wanted to take advantage of him.
"Did you get ahold of the Embassy?" Sozui had gone back to frowning, although he was having a hard time keeping it up as Sayuri lovingly blew raspberries on his cheek.
"All taken care of, darling. The car should be arriving for them any minute, and then we can all go in for dinner." Wu sat down on one of the sofas and patted it. "Now come, take a seat, let me have you to myself for a moment." He waited until Sozui had sat down, Sayuri breaking free to run for Lin, who immediately picked her up.
"GrandLin! GrandLin!"
"Hmph." Lin picked her up and rubbed noses with her as Sayuri chortled. He'd tried to tease her once about her obvious attachment to the baby but she'd torn him a new asshole that was still smarting.
"I know, of course, that there's bound to be upheaval with a new Firelord. Things were the same whenever a new Earth Queen or King was crowned, of course. Factions reforming and resettling, power grabs, rebellions." Wu took Sozui's hands into his. "My sources have kept me appraised for the most part but I take it these bodyguards are all part and parcel of that?"
Sozui sighed. "They were a concession from Juziya. There was a lot of resistance to her letting me come here, people saying I should have been content to attend university at Ba Sing Se or enter the military. Sir Sotan's family is one of the really noisy ones." He swallowed. "I tried to tell her that it didn't matter, that I could go to Ba Sing Se just as well, but she wouldn't hear of it."
Wu smiled. "Your sister loves you," he said softly. "Of course she wants you to have your heart's desire. When she can." He patted Sozui's hands between his. "But darling, you've been planning this for over a year now. If she backed down now because of the squawking of courtiers, she'd never be able to come back from it, they'd seize that as a weakness and run with it."
"I just...they are so ruthless to her and it's my fault!" Sozui's face was anguished. "If I stayed there..."
"No darling, it won't do. She cannot back down. They must learn that she's every bit as powerful as your grandmother and great-grandfather were. It's how it's done. She must keep control of her court." Wu shook his hands a bit. "Sozui, your sister is very strong. Trust that she will handle things on her end and apply yourself to your studies and comport yourself with honor here. That's how you can best help her."
Sozui nodded, still miserable. "That's what Uncle Iroh said."
"Well, there you have it. Your uncle is a very wise man." Wu sat back, letting go of Sozui's hands. "I take it living at the Embassy was another concession on your sister's part?" At Sozui's nod he pursed his lips. "This Sir Takeo, his family are supporters of your sister?"
Sozui nodded. "His uncle served under Uncle Iroh for years, and he's now second in command under Uncle. They have always been very loyal."
"Good, good." Wu was still thinking. "I assume you are not enjoying the hospitality of the Embassy?"
Sozui's face said it all. "I am not. But what can I do?" He took in a deep breath. "Are you really going to talk to the Ambassador?"
Wu nodded, arching an eyebrow. "I most certainly am. She is coming to tea tomorrow."
Sozui blinked. "She's coming here?"
Wu's smile was slow in coming. "I am a prince. I do not attend ambassadors. They attend me. Something which you should also keep in mind. Yes?" Wu held his gaze and Sozui swallowed. "You are the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, Sozui. There is not a single person in this city - with the exception, perhaps, of myself, but even then only in certain circumstances - who outranks you. And that includes Ambassador Tora. You must keep this in mind, and at all times. You are young, and there are those who would try and take advantage of that. But you are and must always be the Crown Prince." Wu put a gentle hand to his cheek. "In this house, however, in private, you will always be our little Sozui." Sozui threw his arms around Wu, who hugged him in return. "I know it's hard, darling. Buck up. If you ever need me, all you ever need to is call. Do you understand?" Sozui nodded into his shoulder. "Day or night, it doesn't matter."
"That goes for me as well," he said, putting a hand to Sozui's shoulder, and the boy looked up, eyes wet. "And I know I speak for Qi as well. You need us, we're here."
"Thank you," Sozui murmured, and Wu handed him a handkerchief. "Sorry everyone."
"Sorry you're crying or sorry your bodyguard almost got murdered by Mama?" Meili asked, batting her eyelashes innocently. Innocent his firebending ass.
"Meili Hou-Ting!" Wu shot her a look.
"Oh, that reminds me, I got a letter from Uncle today, he's coming next week for a visit," Sozui said, wiping at his eyes. "I think he wants to make sure I'm settled."
"Naturally he does," Wu said, briskly patting Sozui's knee. "We'll have the two of you for dinner, of course."
"Speaking of dinner, where's mine?" Lin asked, and at that moment, Qi and Naoki returned, Qi still radiating with fury, and they went into the dining room, where Wu worked his magic and had everyone laughing and relaxing, forgetting about what happened earlier. (Well, except for Qi, but the best thing to do to get Qi out of a mood was let them have a few smokes and then fuck them to sleep and he could take care of that later.)
It was later, after he'd taken Sozui back to the Embassy - Sir Takeo was waiting for him and apologized again for the dust up, seemed like a decent guy as far as he could tell - and after he'd left Qi limp and sprawling upstairs, he came back downstairs, peeked in on his three eldest before going to his own bedroom, gently moving Sayuri over towards Wu, hoping the both of them were asleep. He should have known better; as soon as he'd settled in, pulling the baby close, Wu had whispered.
"All is well?"
"Yeah, it's okay." Sayuri snuffled something incomprehensible before burying her head into him. There was no point in putting her into her own little bed; she couldn't (or wouldn't) sleep on her own, she'd just sob until someone came and got her.
"He can't stay there, Mako."
He knew who he meant. "Nope. Iroh's coming next week, right? I'll talk to him."
Wu shifted. "I can talk to him."
"Naw, I'll handle it. You've got that charity auction thing next month, you've got enough on your plate. Let me take care of it, okay?"
"Are you sure?"
"Yep." He reached over and squeezed the first thing his fingers found, which turned out to be Wu's hip. "Go to sleep."
"Love you," Wu murmured, turning to his side, not even bothering to stifle his yawn.
"Back atcha," he murmured in return, wrapping a careful arm around his daughter, letting his eyes close. Hell of a damn day.
Chapter 15: 190: Mako and Iroh
Summary:
Taking care of a prince.
Chapter Text
Mako opened his gold case and took a cigarette: by habit he offered the case to Iroh and was a little surprised when he took one, lighting both with his finger. Iroh was in his mid-fifties now, still handsome as fuck. His hair looked good with the silver threaded through it and he was still in fighting trim. Iroh was a damn good firebender, always had been.
He'd always been more than a little jealous of Iroh.
"I just wanted to thank you for backing Sozui up with Sir Sotan," Iroh said, blowing a smoke ring into the sky as they started to walk again. A ring within a ring, no less. Fuck the man anyhow. "It's not his fault the Fire Nation court's the way it is."
"He's a good kid."
Iroh smiled at that. "He really is. He reminds me a lot of my sister." The smile faded. "Before everything...well. Before."
"Sorry." He was, too. He couldn't imagine how he'd feel if Bolin had to live the way Princess Mizuko did, kept carefully and lovingly on an estate in the middle of nowhere, never to leave.
"I as well," Iroh said, and bit his lip. Great. Now the asshole was going to make him feel bad for him. "Well, in any case."
Iroh clearly wanted to change the subject, and so did he. "So, about your nephew..."
"Yes?" Another ring in a ring. While walking. Damn it.
"I get why he can't live at the University, but that Embassy's like a nest of buzzard wasps. No offense."
"Oh, none taken. A nest of buzzard wasps is a good way to put it." He sighed. "I'm not sure what else I can do for him. He's got to have the bodyguards."
"He does. He's a kidnap risk from the Triads, if nothing else."
Iroh shot him a look at that one. "How big a risk?"
He thought for a moment. "Most of them? They'd want ransom, and if they got it, they'd let him go. I mean, if you get a rep for killing your kidnap victims once the money was paid then people wouldn't bother paying any longer. You pay up, it'd be fine."
Iroh stopped, dropping his cigarette and grinding it out. "Fine?" His jaw tightened.
"The Agni Kai, on the other hand...they'd take him for political sway. They'd be the ones you'd need to worry about. They'd want favors owed, try to drag the Fire Nation into Republic City affairs. The good news about Agni Kai, though, is that they're flashy. They wouldn't just grab him and go, they'd make a fucking show out of it. If his bodyguards are any good, they'd be able to see it coming, protect him."
Iroh ran a hand through his hair. "This is not really encouraging."
"Look, Lin's called in favors from the police already. They've got two plainclothes men following him as well. It would not look good for Republic City to let the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation get snatched by a Triad. The president is on-board, Lin already talked to her as well." He grimaced. "Don't get me wrong, the president's a politician through and through, but Lin speaks Politician. She knew what to say." He started walking again. "We've not said anything to Sozui but you needed to know, of course. I did take Sir Takeo aside and let him know, although he'd already spotted them." He glanced at Iroh. "He's good."
"He is good." Iroh sighed. "I know Juziya's got her hands full trying to placate various families, but I told her I was going to choose his bodyguards going forward. Those bastards at court can come for me for awhile if they want to." He shook his head with a wry smile. "That damn court is why I went into the military in the first place. I never could stand it, I was always too quick to lose my temper." A laugh. "I'd make a terrible Firelord."
He didn't know what to say to that, so he just kept walking, taking Iroh up to a tall building, ten stories high, looking out over the bluffs to the sea beyond. They entered the lobby and he walked up to the doorman behind the desk, who nodded at him.
"Good afternoon, sir." He handed over a ring with a key on it.
"Thanks, Gombak." Walking across the lobby, he greeted the elevator operator and told her they needed the tenth floor, and stood next to Iroh as the elevator made its way up. "So this is a private building. They've got doormen working in shifts as well as elevator operators. It wouldn't be the first time they'd had bodyguards in the lobby, either. There are stairs, but they'd be easy to cover. In terms of other access there's a balcony for each flat and the windows of course. Benders could get in, but then again they'd be able to do that anywhere."
"Hmm," Iroh replied, and they stepped out onto the tenth floor.
"So up here there are four flats. One of them is the empty one I'm taking you to. Wei Beifong owns one. One of the others houses the mistress of the owner of the power plant company, and she's pretty quiet, Wei says. Mostly she just entertains her sugar daddy, apparently he's the jealous type. The other is owned by a noble Earth Kingdom family, they use it when they are in town for business. Again, quiet, they aren't here all that frequently and when they are they bring their own security as well." He put the key into the lock and let them into the bare flat. "Wei's to his other side, here. This is a larger flat than Wei's, there's three bedrooms, one of which is clearly for staff. He's got a valet, right?"
Iroh nodded, walking through the flat with a slight frown.
"Look, I'd let him stay with us but I can't."
Iroh glanced at him. "Your daughter?"
"Yeah. Not that Sozui is the issue, because he's not. Naoki, on the other hand." He snorted. "Well, I guess I don't need to tell you."
Iroh grinned at that one. "They're at that age."
"Not to mention, he's eighteen. He deserves at least some privacy. He doesn't need us sniffing at him any more than he needs the ambassador and her staff doing it."
Iroh nodded. "I'm with you on that one."
He gestured around the flat. "This is a good neighborhood. He'd be close to us and Wei and Sitiak - his partner, I think you met him?"
Iroh raised his hand above his head. "Large Water Tribe fellow? Came to visit the Fire Sages with Kya and my sister a few years back?"
"Yeah, that's the one. The healer. Anyhow, they'd be next door. Wei's been living here for over ten years. He vouches for the building being a quiet and safe one." He led Iroh into the master bedroom. "Everything's modern, the plumbing, that kind of thing. The building's very well kept up. He'd need furniture but that'd be easy enough to arrange." He pointed out the window. "The bridge to the university is a straight shot from here, a driver could get him to his classes in twenty minutes or so, just like from the Embassy." He shrugged. "Sometimes the spirits pull some shit with the roads but that's just part and parcel of living here. Even if he was at the Embassy he'd have to deal with that."
"Do you think the spirits would be an issue?" Iroh peered out the window.
"For him personally? They don't seem to care one way or the other about any titles beyond the Avatar's. For the most part they leave people alone. Most of what they get up to is mischief, little petty crap. Some of them attach themselves to certain families or households, but not all of them." He shrugged. "I don't think they'd bother with him just because he's a prince."
"Your family has a spirit." Iroh glanced at him. "I've briefly met him. Bob?"
"Yeah, Bob." He scoffed. "It has a kind of a love-hate thing going with Wu but the rest of us get along pretty well. It's been with us for years now. You had some words with it about Sozui a few years back, right?"
"I did," Iroh said, his mouth quirking up a bit at the corners. He put his hands to his waist. "This isn't a bad idea. His valet could stay with him, but he'd need some sort of housekeeper." He laughed. "We're not exactly taught to cook or clean at the Palace."
"Yeah, Wu manages tea and that's about it. And even that took him awhile." He watched as Iroh opened the doors to the balcony and stepped out, following him. The air was sharp with brine here and they could hear the roar of the surf. "I'm taking it you could find someone for that?"
Iroh nodded. "I could." He sighed, looking down at the sea. "Beautiful here, isn't it? My grandfather loved it here. I think he was always more than a little envious that the rest were living here while he was stuck at court."
"I can't imagine living anywhere else." He wanted another cigarette but didn't want to watch the man show him up with smoke rings again. "If you want to take it, Wu's got a guy that does decorating, he'd jump at the chance to help out, I can guarantee it." He must have had some sort of telling expression on his face because Iroh laughed and clasped his shoulder.
"Good thing, because decor is something I know exactly zero about." He cocked his head. "Although your home is a nice one."
"Yeah, I just live there. That's all on Wu, trust me."
"So who do I need to contact about purchasing this place?"
He waved his hand. "Yeah, I know the guy who owns it, I can give him a call. I don't think it would be an issue, it isn't officially on the market."
Iroh stared at him, a smile hovering around his mouth. Fuck, the man was good looking. "You know a guy?" His upper class Fire Nation accent sharpened the words, so different to Wu's slow burr. He remembered his mother speaking, her accent similar. His father had had the same Lower Ring accent that Uncle Chow and the rest had; broader and flatter than Wu's, not to be mistaken for each other. But his mother had sounded fairly close to how LoLo did. He'd often wondered if she had come from Capital City.
"I know lots of guys."
Iroh's dimples showed, much like his nephew's. "I'll bet you do."
And what the fuck was that supposed to mean? He shook off his irritation as well as the hand still on his shoulder. Fucking Iroh. "Anyhow, if you want it, I can make the arrangements."
Iroh nodded. "Thank you. I appreciate it. Sozui..." he took in a breath. "He won't get much in the way of freedom in his life. At least he can get a few years to himself before they marry him off and put him into service for the court." His mouth twisted. "My mother, she was too permissive with us. Mizuko married for love and I went into the military and Ursa went to the Fire Sages. What she should have done was strategically marry all three of us off, rebuilt the royal family that way." His right hand closed into a fist. "She should have made me marry and become the Firelord when it became clear Mizuko couldn't do it. But she didn't. And now everything's resting on Sozui's shoulders, because the spirits know Juziya will most likely never marry or have children." He sighed. "Sometimes I think your husband had the right of it. Just dismantle the whole thing, walk away." He met Mako's eyes. "But the Fire Nation, it wouldn't survive it. The nobility would destroy the nation trying to take power for itself. That's just how we are."
He nodded. He didn't know what to say.
"Sozui's an idealist, a dreamer. He wants to make things better. He cares too much. Juziya, she's got the iron fist that the Fire Nation requires. And that's what worries me." Iroh frowned. "I love my nephew. I love him as if he were my own. And I don't want to watch him get crushed down under his sister's sense of duty. Because she loves her brother, but she'll do what needs doing, regardless of his happiness." Iroh met his eyes. "Just...can you watch over him for me here? I know I don't have the right to ask you to do it."
He stared back at the man. "Me?"
Iroh leaned against the balcony's wall. "Sozui hero-worships you. Don't get me wrong, he admires Wu and I think he's terrified of Qi-"
"Most people are terrified of Qi."
Iroh laughed at that. "Even I'm a little terrified of Qi. But he really looks up to you, talks about you all the time. He's even read up on everything that happened when Kuvira attacked the city. I can't tell you how many times he's told me about when you took down that Colossus. Oh, and don't get me started about your pro-bending days."
He had no idea what to say to this, either. Spirits, he was an asshole.
Iroh gazed at him for a long moment. "How old were you when I first met you? Back during that whole Equalist business? Twenty-one, twenty-two?"
"Nineteen, actually."
"Nineteen!" Iroh shook his head in amusement. "There you were, some boy off the street, proud as a prince yourself despite your old clothes, with that look in your eye that was ready to burn anyone. Korra mentioned you and your brother were orphans and you were self-taught and I thought, well, it's not like he's going to be any kind of bender, not without proper training. As royalty I started bending training when I was barely walking, I was trained by the best there was. And I'll tell you, I was thinking to myself, this unschooled firebender is going to get in my way, I'm going to end up having to focus on keeping him alive instead of doing what I needed to do." His grin was slow. "But the stones on you! The only other person I've seen throw lightning around the way you do is my Great-Aunt Azula, and that's saying something because that woman is the best firebender I've ever seen."
"Better than my daughter?" He said it before thinking it through.
"Oh, your daughter will give Auntie a run for her money. That girl is astonishing." Iroh kept looking at him. "You don't care, do you? I mean, you don't care that she's going to pass you by."
He shook his head. "I just want her to be the best she can be. I've known she was going to pass me by for years now. Although she's got a ways to go for the lightning. It's not her strength." He snorted. "Which isn't really saying much when it comes to her, I guess."
"You had a Fire Nation parent, correct?" Iroh frowned. "I think Sozui said it was your mother?"
He nodded. "My mother, yeah. I don't know anything about her at all. My Dad was from an earthbending family from Ba Sing Se, they immigrated here after the Red Lotus attacked, they all live nearby, my brother and I see a lot of them."
"Yes, that's right, they had your Naoki for a time."
"Yeah, that's them. But my mother? She was a firebender, she taught me some bending before they died. Her accent sounded fairly like LoLo's, I think, although it's been thirty years so I don't know how much I'm remembering or just filling in."
"And that's all you remember?"
He shrugged. "We named Naoki for her. I look a lot like her, Bolin mostly takes after our Dad's side in looks. She was smart, that much I know. She could read and write, she taught my Dad as well as me. She used to write letters for some of our neighbors while they'd dictate to her, I remember that. She'd read letters to them as well. And she liked to sing a lot. But other than that...I just don't know. She never talked about her family or where she was from, or at least not where Bo and I could hear."
"Your Naoki...she's got to be nobility."
He shot Iroh a dark look. "Why, just because she's good?"
Iroh shook his head. "No, or at least not entirely. I mean her looks, mostly." He gestured around his face. "The shape of her face, those yellow eyes. Yellow eyes the color of hers are pretty rare, you know, and you don't see them outside of just a few noble families. I think my mother has her suspicions, but my mother tends to be pretty closed-mouthed about things like that. Not that it matters, I suppose. She's yours now."
"Yes. She is."
Iroh was still leaning against the wall. He had his uniform on, although he had a trick of looking easy in it even though it was spotless and without a wrinkle. "Sozui, he's changed. As a boy and as a bender. I know a lot of that's due to your family's influence, and I wanted to thank you." He motioned around the balcony. "And for this, too. You didn't need to put yourself out for him like this."
He scoffed. "He's a good kid. And it's not like it's a big deal. Trust me when I tell you, if you let Wu take over decorating this place it will be like a birthday gift for him. He genuinely loves that kind of shit."
"I didn't mean Wu, although I believe you about the decorating thing, I've seen your place on Ember Island, too. No, I was talking about you putting yourself out for him. I know you've trained with him, listened to him, given him support. I just wanted to thank you for it. He's always been a pretty lonely boy. Partly because he's a prince and that's just how it goes but also because he's not very good at making friends." Iroh gave a sigh. "I think, after he graduates from here, I'll take him aboard for a couple of years, let him have some time in the Navy. It'd be good for him, and people back home would think well of him if he did. And he'll need their good opinion, being the Crown Prince. Because I love his sister and I think she's going to be a damn good Firelord but I don't think she's necessarily going to be a popular one." He threw his hands out. "Politics. The Fire Nation lives and breathes them."
"Yeah."
"You know he's head over heels for your daughter, right?" Iroh's gaze practically skewered him.
"Yeah, I know it. We all know it."
"Sozui being who he is, I don't think it's a passing thing for him. He's pretty devoted."
"They're just kids."
"They are, yes. But my grandfather married at nineteen and so did my mother." He held up a hand. "I know you are not going to marry her off at seventeen. These are modern times we live in, and she may be Fire Nation by blood but she's Republic City by birth and a Hou-Ting by law. But I think it's fair to warn you that my mother already thinks of it as a done deal, and I think my niece does as well. And Wu, he's a Hou-Ting, he knows the drill."
"What are you trying to say to me?"
Iroh reached into his own breast pocket and pulled out a cigarette case of his own, a battered silver that had clearly seen years of use, offering one to him, lighting them again as he took it. "I'm saying," and here he blew out a series of four rings, was there anything the fucking man could not do without looking like he was born to it? "that there's likely to be some matchmaking going on. I don't think Sozui will care - he's got a thing for your daughter, for one, and for another, it's what he expects as a prince - but your daughter does not strike me as the kind of girl to just docilely go along with what other people have planned for her life."
"If you're thinking it could backfire on them then you're making a good call. It would." He didn't bother blowing any smoke rings of his own, he'd only look like an ass. That fucking Iroh.
"For what it's worth, she'd be considered acceptable for him. True, no one knows her bloodlines, but she's legally Wu's and that's at least acceptable for the Crown Prince if not ideal and frankly she's the best firebender of her generation. The best firebender since my great-aunt, probably. In the Fire Nation, that would do a lot to make up for the fact that no one could trace back her lineage."
"I don't give a shit about her lineage." His temper was starting to simmer.
Iroh met his eyes. "You don't have to." He ran his free hand across his hair again, disheveling it in a way that was sexy, not ridiculous. Fuck the man sideways. "This is exactly why I'm in the military and not a diplomat. Sorry, Mako. Someone else would have done this better." He shook his head, mouth twisting. "I respect you, and I think you're a good father. It's clear to anyone with eyes how much you love your children. I just wanted to give you a heads up. I apologize if I've overstepped my bounds."
They smoked for a few minutes in silence, watching the waves crash up against the bluffs, as he wrestled his temper back into control. He might not particularly like the man, but even he had to admit that Iroh was trying to do him a solid. It would be childish of him to ignore the advice just because he wasn't fond of the source. He pitched his butt over the edge of the balcony. "Thanks, Iroh. For the information. I appreciate it."
Iroh pitched over his own butt and gave him a funny look. "You know, I think that's first time in nearly twenty years I've ever heard you refer to me by my name?"
He shrugged at that, uncomfortable. This fucking guy! Who brought that kind of thing up!
"Do you want to find out about your mother?" At his look Iroh held up a hand. "Don't get me wrong, you're the detective, not me. But Fire Nation bureaucracy being what it is, you might have some trouble getting through all of the red tape over there. Like you, I know a few guys myself. If you were interested, I could ask them to look around."
He sucked on his teeth, debating. Fuck it, then. "I think she was related to the former leader of the Triple Threat Triad." Iroh's eyebrows shot up. "Yeah. I don't know for sure, of course. I might be pulling it out of my ass."
"Oh, I'd love to hear about this theory." Iroh was smiling, his dimples creasing his cheeks.
He waved a hand. "So...long story short, when our parents were killed Bolin and I were sent to an orphanage. Pretty standard over here. I busted us out a few months later, they were going to adopt Bolin out to some farming family, separate us. That's how we ended up on the street."
"I'm sorry," Iroh said softly, but he waved that off as well.
"It was a long time ago. Anyhow, a couple of years later we got recruited by the Triple Threat Triad. They do that, the Triads, especially when it comes to bending street kids. Since the Triple Threats was a mixed bending Triad, the two of us being different benders was considered an asset. We ran errands, carried messages, that kind of thing. They figured out pretty quick that I could read and write and that I was pretty good at numbers, so I got promoted to numbers running. Accounting. Youngest one they had. Because of that, I got to meet Lightning Bolt Zolt, the leader of the Triad."
"Lightning Bolt Zolt?"
"Best fucking lightning bender I've ever seen. Unbelievable the things the man could do with lightning, just incredible. He took me under his wing, started teaching me to bend lightning. Which...was not something he did. I mean, at all. I didn't know it at the time, of course, I was just a cocky dumb kid. But rumors started to fly about it, people thought I was his kid." He glanced over at Iroh. "We had the same eyes, see." He gestured. "Same color, same shape, same eyebrows."
"Those eyebrows of yours are distinctive, yes."
He frowned. What the fuck was the man doing looking at his eyebrows? "Yeah well. He wasn't my father, though. I got my eyes from my mother, I know that much. Like I said, I looked a lot like her, and even when I was little people commented on how much I looked like her, how I had her eyes. And otherwise I didn't look anything like the man, and Bolin looked nothing like him, although like I said, he takes after my Dad's side. He and our cousin Tu could be brothers, actually, they look far more alike than Bo and I do."
"So you think he and your mother were related somehow?" Iroh was sharp, he had to give him that.
"I've wondered. He wasn't old enough to be my grandfather or anything, he was about Lin's age, I think, so I'm guessing about ten years older than my mother, give or take. A brother, maybe? A cousin? An uncle? I don't know, though. Amon took his bending during the whole Equalist thing and he was imprisoned. Korra never gave it back to him, although she didn't like it. She wanted to give everyone their bending back, regardless of who they were. It never sat right with her, the fact that President Raiko wouldn't let her. But the guy who took over the Triple Threats, Viper, he had no love for me or Bolin. On the contrary. We left the Triad to start pro-bending and the Triads do not sit well with that. At all. You join a Triad, you join it for life. Even if that means your life ends when you leave."
"The Fire Nation has its share of criminal gangs. It's much the same."
"Thing is, though, is that we left and there were no consequences at all. And even after Zolt was imprisoned Viper left us alone. Even after I became a cop. Even after both Bo and I got married, had kids. And we married rich, the ransoms alone? But nothing. Even today, nothing. Not from the Triple Threats, not from any of the other Triads, either."
"You think that this Zolt was protecting you?"
He nodded. "He had to have been. And he had to have something on the Viper to keep him off of our backs, even after Viper took over. I have no idea what it could be. I went to see him in prison after I married Wu, I was hoping to get some information from him. He wouldn't say anything, though. Just kept talking about the Colossus, about my bending, about me saving the city." He scoffed. "The man was a crook but he did love this city." He sighed. "He's the reason I can use lightning the way I do. He taught me everything I know. Fuck, he's the reason I survived that Colossus if I'm going to be honest with myself."
"Is he still alive?"
He shook his head. "No, he died two years ago. And that's the thing. I found out because the prison shipped me his few personal belongings. Nothing much, just a watch and a few other pieces of jewelry, this cigarette case he had, it was covered with jade, I remembered it from when I was a kid. He was a pretty flash guy. But he'd put me down as the one who should be notified and given his things." He shot Iroh a glance. "I haven't told anyone. I just...what would I say? Yeah, one of Republic City's criminal overlords might have been my uncle or something?"
"My great-grandfather was a war-mongering mass murderer who forced his wife to kill his own father, half-blinded his own son and did spirits know what to his own daughter to make her lose her mind, not to mention tried to kill the Avatar. What can you do?" Iroh started to laugh and he had to join him.
"Yeah, if you're going to put it that way."
"Family," Iroh said, shrugging with that dimpled grin, reaching over to clap him on the shoulder again. His fingers lingered, though, and the air started to crackle with heat as they met each other's eyes and Iroh moved closer to him. They stood there for an agonizing moment, the two of them of a height, the fire in his blood roaring, before Iroh peeled his fingers away and stepped back several steps. "Ah," he said, and this time the smile was regretful. "But we're honorable men, the both of us."
He merely stood there, his brain short-circuiting. Was this...wait, what was this? He didn't even like Iroh, pretty much despised the guy. Iroh was an asshole. A good looking asshole, for sure, but assholes came in all shapes and sizes. And Iroh was definitely an asshole, a real arrogant bastard. Yep. An asshole. That he didn't like. That he'd never liked.
Right?
That fucking Iroh.
Iroh turned away to look at the sea again. "So. In any case, I'd want to buy this privately, with my own funds. If I bought it as a representative of the court or the royal family, even, then it would just be the excuse my niece or the ambassador would need to get their hooks into it. I want full control of the property. Would that be a problem?"
"Uh..." his mind was still trying to play catch up. "No." He was cool, he was cool, everything was cool. Peachy keen, as Wu liked to say. Yeah. "It's not an issue."
"And if you really think Wu wouldn't mind the whole decorating part, I'd be glad to turn that over to him."
"No, no, he wouldn't mind, I guarantee it." Did Iroh...had he been flirting with him? What the fuck was going on?
"I'll take charge of providing staff for him, that way I can get people I trust." Another smile flicked across his mouth as Iroh turned back to him. "Unless you have any suggestions. I do trust you."
"Yeah, that's really LoLo's area." How had they gone from the man practically on top of him to discussing a fucking housekeeper? He'd gotten lost somewhere and couldn't seem to catch up.
"Of course! I should have thought of Lozan. I'll speak to him when we get back." Iroh watched him for another moment, the smile lingering around his eyes. "Which we should be doing, I suppose." He walked back into the flat, waiting for him to shut and lock the glass doors behind him. "I'll give you the name of my private contact at the bank here, if you get him in touch with your seller he can do the rest. If that's all right?"
"Uh. Sure. Yeah, it's fine." He dragged his mind back into the subject at hand. "We can make the arrangements here, get him some furniture, that kind of thing. I'm not sure how long that will take, Wu would know better than me. We can ask him."
"Meanwhile I'll make the arrangements for bodyguards. If Lozan can help out with the domestic staff then I think that should cover it. I'd like to get him in here as soon as possible. And again, my thanks. For all of this."
"Right, sure." They closed the door behind them and made their way to the elevator, silent as it descended and Mako handed the key back to the doorman. They walked along the broad sidewalk that led them away from the bluffs, eventually opening into the large park that took up several blocks and bisected the neighborhood.
"This really is a beautiful place you're living in." Iroh was a brisk walker, his arms crossed behind his back. Military thing, probably. "A long way from where you were when I first met you."
He bit down an irritable comment. "Yeah."
"Nineteen," Iroh said, with a chuckle. "Trained by a criminal mastermind. And here the rest of us thought Wu was some sort of pampered idiot."
"He's not an idiot," he said, and didn't try to hide his annoyance.
"Oh, that's very clear," Iroh said with a smirk, as the house appeared through the trees. "Very clear indeed."
Chapter 16: 191: Naoki and Sozui
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"A kiss... as a lie"
Chapter Text
“Uh…are you lost?” Kaito was staring past her shoulder, frowning. She turned her head to see Sozui looking down at the two of them, sprawled across one of the benches in the koi pavilion.
“Zhi and I were sent out on a quest to find your sister’s shoes,” he replied, pointing over at Zhi across the pond. He’d taken up Republic City fashion since he’d started attending University last autumn; his hair, however, remained long and pulled into a neat topknot, kept in place with a gold and ruby clasp in the shape of a flickering flame. His right to wear as the crown prince, of course, but it pissed her off for reasons she couldn’t quite put her finger on and wasn’t about to figure out, either. “Ah, there they are. Carry on.” He plucked them up from where Sayuri had shucked them off earlier, turning to go back to the house. “Oh, and Cork said to tell you if I saw you that dinner would be on in about a half hour.”
“Aren’t you going to introduce us?” Kaito was glaring now, prickly at being interrupted. He always got his shorts in a twist whenever he thought someone else was somehow stealing his thunder. His great-great-grandfather was a third cousin twenty times removed from the royal family of Omashu or something and he liked to lord it over whomever he thought would be impressed by it. Which was just about everyone, unfortunately.
She sighed inwardly. This was going to over like a overloaded battleship in a storm. “Sure. Kaito Chong, Prince Sozui of the Fire Nation. Consider yourselves introduced.”
Sozui nodded politely. “My honor,” he said.
Kaito’s nose wrinkled up like he smelled something unspeakable. “The Crown Prince.”
“That would be me,” Sozui said. He turned back to her. “Your father seemed to think there were socks involved but I’ve seen no signs of them.”
“Did you try under the yellow plum tree closest to the house?”
“Why are you here?” Kaito sat up, chin thrust out. Oh for the love of Raava.
Sozui merely blinked at this rudeness. He looked, in that moment, nearly exactly like his grandmother. “Here in this pavilion? Looking for a pair of shoes and informing Naoki about dinner.” He gestured with his hand. “Here in the Hou-Ting garden? I am a friend of the family and have dinner here a few times a week.” Another wave, even more expansive. “Here in Republic City? I’m studying history and philosophy at the University.” A bit of a grin, then. “As far as actually being here in general, you’d have to ask my parents.” She snickered at this, which was a mistake. Kaito got even more puffed up, and clutched at her hand, pulling her close to him. Oh, please. As if.
“Well, Naoki and I are busy here.”
Sozui glanced down at their books and papers, strewn about. She and Kaito were doing a report together on the history of the Southern Air Temple. Technically speaking, they were supposed to be doing it with Nadari as well, but she’d come down with a cold. Or that’s what she claimed, anyhow. “Of course,” he replied. “My apologies for interrupting your schoolwork.”
So that was it? That’s all he had to say? Sorry for interrupting their schoolwork? Ever since he’d started at University he’d been treating her like a child, like at eighteen he was ever so much more mature than her own sixteen. There he’d sit at dinner, in his stupid suit, with his stupid hair, discussing history with Papa and Lin and philosophy with Rohan, talking about current events with Daddy and Qi, living in his new flat next to Uncle Wei with his valet and bodyguards nearby, like he was a mover star or something just as ridiculous. She’d tried to tease him about the bodyguards but Papa had practically shouted at her about it, told her to consider herself lucky that she’d never needed any.
Also, his brand new fuzzy little excuse for a mustache was stupid.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“It’s not schoolwork,” she said, without even thinking about what she was saying, and put her arm around Kaito. Sozui didn’t answer, just looked for an excruciatingly long moment at the book emblazoned with An Illustrated History of the Air Nomads on the front before flicking up one of his snooty damn eyebrows. “Oh, fuck off!”
“Anything you say,” he replied, giving her a showy bow and she wanted to send a fireball right into his smug, stupid, philosophy-spouting, fuzzy-mustached face. Instead, she grabbed Kaito and kissed him; a little off-center and there was some nose-bonking involved and obviously it was Kaito, so eew, and he opened his mouth into the kiss so double and triple eew, but she’d show Sozui that she was no one to be condescended to.
It did not help matters any that when she pulled away from Kaito’s sloppy mouth it was to see Sozui’s back, halfway around the pond already, waving the shoes at Zhi, who was trotting over to meet him.
“Oh, Naoki, I’ve always known-”
“Shut the fuck up,” she said, and shoved Kaito away. “Just leave me alone.”
Chapter 17: 192: The Wuko Kids
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"At a dance"
Chapter Text
“I cannot believe Papa made us go to this thing.” Naoki glared at a polished aristocratic boy coming her direction and he stumbled, swerving the other way. “Fucking Ba Sing Se.”
“What if a girl asks me to dance?” Zhi swallowed, eyes wide behind their lenses. “My hands get all sweaty. What if she wants to talk to me?”
“Just dance with boys, then,” Naoki said, catching the eye of another potential dance partner, slashing her finger quickly across her throat, scoffing as he paled and looked away.
“That’s worse!” Zhi hissed, clawing at his cravat. “What, did he think we were all Meili?” Both of them turned to watch their sister, charming in formal robes of blue, a sapphire and platinum floral tiara entwined in her softly curling hair, long-lashed eyes glowing above her fan, standing in a circle of admirers. “How come they get fans? I could use a fan.”
Naoki reached out and snagged a fan from a passing teenager, handing it over to him, ignoring the girl’s outraged gasp. “There. Now you have a fan.”
“Naoki!” He snapped the fan open and hid his laughter behind it.
“What, I’m a princess, I outrank everyone here, what are they going to do, kick me out?” She perked up a little. “I wonder if I could manage to get kicked out?”
“Papa would kill you. Slowly. Painfully. Over months. Possibly years.”
She sighed. “Yeah.” Suddenly she looked around. “Oh shit, where’s Button?”
Zhi straightened up from his despondent slouch. “Wait, she was right here.” He gazed over the heads of all of the rest of the crowd, scanning for her. It was the annual Flowering Blossom Ball, a tradition as old as Ba Sing Se itself. Once a year the young, unmarried aristocrats of the Upper Ring as well as throughout the rest of the Earth Kingdom met at the Palace to dance and mingle. Nothing more than a marriage mart, Papa had once remarked scornfully, remembering his years of attending as a boy. The tradition had moved from the Palace to private homes after the Red Lotus had attacked; this year, the year he was fourteen, the Palace had hosted the ball once again. In honor of the Ball’s return to the Palace Papa had insisted they all go, including Naoki, who had fought viciously against it, and Sayuri, who at four was not exactly formal dance material. Qi had laughed in his face when he’d said they were to take her with them; Daddy had tried to talk him out of it but Papa got all stubborn and resolute the way he did when he’d made up his mind about something, pointing out that he was four as well the first time he’d attended. You at four and Sayuri at four are not the same thing, and you damn well know it. Don’t come crying to me when she tears the place apart, Qi had said, and Papa had refused to speak to them for the rest of the day. What he had done, however, was told Naoki that she was responsible for Button’s behavior, something that had involved plenty of shouting and one of Papa’s favorite rhododendron bushes getting more than a little singed.
Naoki was here, of course. As was Button. Papa, as always, got his way in the end.
“Vaatu’s clogged up shithole, where could she have gone? She was right here!” Ignoring the comically open mouths of the three teenage aristocrats who overheard her more colorful phrasing, Naoki started to move. “Zhi, do you see her?”
He promptly stood up on the chair he’d been trying to hide behind. “Give me a sec, give me a sec…” he scanned the room for a curly head, topped with very small tiara of jade and gold “…ah! She’s at the buffet table…oh Button! No! No! Put down the knife!”
Naoki was off like a flash, shoving past the offended teens, sprinting across the formal ballroom, skidding just a little on polished marble floor, muttering curses that would have done Lin proud. He stayed up on his chair, frozen with horror, watching Button pick up a very large cake knife and going for the towering cake that was the centerpiece of the table. “Shit,” he breathed out. Naoki was fast, but not that fast. He watched as she knocked a particularly snooty looking boy aside, not stopping even as he pinwheeled his arms and landed right on his entitled ass, clapping a hand over his mouth to cover up the laughter that was threatening to bubble right out of him.
Meili, graceful as always, had excused herself from her crowd and was making her way across the floor after Naoki, the gentle flow of her walk disguising how quickly she was moving. She might only be eleven, but she had more self-possession than the rest of them put together. She always had. She had that smile on her face, the one she’d gotten from Papa, that smile that looked friendly but really wasn’t. Oh spirits, now Button was trying to actually climb up on the table, knife still in one hand, determined to get to that cake. “Hurry up, Naoki,” he whispered. It wasn’t that he was worried for Button. She knew how to handle a knife. Daddy had protested against Qi showing her how to hold their knives but Qi had pointed out that she’d just get to them no matter how they tried to keep them from her and wasn’t it better that she learned how to handle them properly? No, Button would keep her fingers. It was the cake he was worried about. And possibly the crystal punch bowl, which she was currently grasping, rocking dangerously as Button put all of her weight, slight as it was, on it, trying to hoist herself up. “Oh Button, no, no no no…”
Too late. With a resounding thud the bowl tipped to its side, red punch gushing out all over the table and right over Button, drenching her in scarlet stickiness as she lost her footing and slid off the table with a thump to the marble floor. “Balls,” she uttered clearly, and there she sat, her curls and yellow silk dress saturated with crimson, knife still firmly clasped in one hand, tiara knocked slightly askew. She looked like a demented baby murderer and he couldn’t help himself; into the shocked silence that was filling the ballroom he started to laugh.
Naoki got to her and stared down at her, hands on her hips. “Oh Button, what did you do?”
“I wanted some cake,” she explained, and beamed up at her. “I missed.”
Naoki covered her mouth but it didn’t make any difference, everyone knew she was laughing, including Button, who started to laugh as well. Meili arrived, took in the scene, put her hands on her waist and sighed, closing her eyes briefly, a move that was so Daddy it made him laugh even harder. Next thing you knew she’d be pinching the bridge of her nose. Poor Meili. All she’d ever wanted to be was a respectable princess but she’d gotten stuck with the rest of them.
The head chaperone, a woman that had told them more than once that she was a fourth cousin thrice removed from Papa, came bustling up, hand to her jade beads. “Princess Sayuri! Explain yourself!”
“Oh, I wanted some cake,” Button said, not sorry in the least. She never was.
The woman didn’t like that explanation. Not that he blamed her. Sayuri’s explanations were usually pretty vague. “I am shocked! Utterly shocked! That you, a Hou-Ting Princess, would engage in this sort of behavior is unconscionable. Unexcusable!”
It was the way she’d put the emphasis on Hou-Ting that made Naoki’s eyes narrow and his own chin go up. He wasn’t stupid; he was well aware what most of these people thought of the so-called mongrels that Papa had taken off the street. Some of them were even brave enough to mutter it behind their backs, always just slightly loud enough for them to overhear. Sayuri was too young to understand why these people considered her different than the rest of them, but Meili certainly wasn’t. She turned her icy gaze to the woman.
“You presume to scold the Princess Royal, Lady Feiyan?” Her voice was entirely Papa’s; cold and disdainful, a stinging whip of condescension. Trust Meili to know what her name was, too. The lady in question took an actual step back.
“No, of course not, I…” she trailed off as Meili deliberately turned her back on her, dismissing her. The woman’s face turned nearly as red as the punch and she took another step back, clearly chagrined. Meili looked down at Sayuri and frowned.
“You know better,” was all she said, and Sayuri’s face dropped, eyes filling up with tears. The entire world could yell at Button and she wouldn’t care; one harsh word from Meili could crush her, however. She idolized Meili so much.
“Sorry,” she whispered, and now her mouth was trembling.
“Fishy,” Naoki said, reaching out her hand, but Meili’s hands were moving, the punch swirling up from Button and the floor, hovering in the air. Naoki stepped forward and righted the bowl, the punch settling into it so gently it hardly made a ripple. Meili knew her stuff. She turned to one of the servers. “We’ll need some new punch.”
“Of course, Your Highness. Right away.” He bowed, and motioned to two of the other servers, who scurried to take it away.
Meili reached a hand down and pulled Button up, taking the knife from her and carefully handing it to Naoki. “No knives at parties.” Button looked like she was going to start wailing at any second, but Meili hugged her. “Never mind.” She righted the crooked tiara and made an attempt to smooth down Button’s hair and dress, which was pointless, of course. Poor Button always looked like she’d just rolled out of bed, no matter how hard Papa tried to make her look presentable. At least she wasn’t covered in punch any more. She turned to the server still hovering behind the table, looking down her beautiful little nose the way that only Meili could. “My sister would like some cake, please.”
“I…uh…of course! Of course, Your Highness!” The man took the knife from Naoki’s hand and with one last cowed look at Meili started to cut.
“A piece with one of the flowers, please.” One of Meili’s eyebrows went up and she glanced pointedly at a large pink frosting flower on the top tier of the cake. The server complied, of course. When it came to Meili, everyone always did.
“I like the flowers,” Button said, grabbing at Meili’s hand and holding it.
“Yes, I know.” She stood there, holding Button’s hand, until the server gave Naoki a plate with a very large piece of cake, topped with the enormous frosting flower.
“Your Highness,” he said, bowing at Button, who grinned at him and nodded back.
“Thank you,” she chirped, bouncing along on her toes. “Is that whole piece for me?”
“Yes,” Meili answered. “Come on, we can go and sit at a table next to Zhi.” She led Sayuri back through the room like she was walking to her own coronation, chin high, expecting everyone to get out of her way and they did, too. They always did. Naoki trailed behind her, grinning like it was the best day of her life, the piece of cake in her hand nearly half the size of Button’s head.
“What the hell are you all looking at?” she said, letting a little flame crackle around her head, clearly enjoying the way people were nearly falling over themselves in their haste to get away from her.
“Is it really necessary to stand on the chair?” Meili was standing below him, put upon as ever. He winked at her before hopping off. “Could you all please try not to embarrass me like that?”
“I make no promises,” Naoki said, and with her finger put a glob of frosting into Button’s delighted mouth.
Chapter 18: 192: Wuko and Bopal Kids
Chapter Text
“Wait, who has Sayuri?”
“I’ve got her right here.”
“Shhhh, not so loud! If we wake up Auntie Opal it’s all over. Hurry up, get in the car.”
“Zhi, get your elbow out of my neck!”
“Sorry, it’s not like I fit in here with the surfboards and everything!”
“Okay, do we have everyone? I’m starting it now.” Naoki started the engine of the car and pulled slowly away down her uncle’s street, not turning on the headlamps until they were safely around the corner. “Next stop, the beach!”
“Whoo!” Bu cheered from the back seat, and she grinned. She guided the car through the pre-dawn light, down south and across the first of the bridges.
“Oh come on! Who’s farting? Meili, roll down the window.”
“Left cheek sneak!”
“Pearl!”
Naoki looked through the rear view mirror. “Pearl, if you’re going to do that I’m going to tie you to the roof and leave you there.”
“Daddy says farts are just another way to express yourself.”
“Yeah? Well Daddy told me that if I ate seeds I’d grow fruit in my stomach and that wasn’t true either. Hey, speaking of, did you bring food?”
“Yeah, Naoki and I packed some before we came to get you.”
“PEARL!”
They arrived at the beach just as the sun was heaving itself above the horizon, the sky streaked with yellow and orange. Naoki parked the car and grinned. “Happy first day of summer, you lot,” she said, and with shouts and giggles they unloaded themselves out of the car.
She made sure Sayuri stripped down to her bathing suit and tied her hair back; she dragged the heavy picnic basket out of the back of the car while keeping a close eye on her. Meili already had her surfboard out on the water with Bu sitting on the front of it and Pearl had plunked herself down in the sand, using her hands to build it into a tower of sorts. Zhi scooped up Sayuri and then waved at her; she nodded and turned back to the car to finish unloading.
“No more school for you,” San said, taking the pile of towels out of her hands.
“I know. I can hardly believe it.”
“So what’s your plan, then? Over the summer, I mean.”
She shrugged. “The Firelord invited all four of us to come and stay next month. I don’t know about after that, although my father can’t seem to talk about anything else but my future.” She rolled her eyes. “What about you? Zaofu?”
He nodded. “Yeah. But I’ve been thinking of asking if I could go up and visit my uncles for awhile.”
Naoki cocked her head. “To the temple, you mean?”
“Yeah. I was thinking of asking my Uncle Huan to teach me how he manages to bend sand into glass.”
“Huh. How did he learn how to bend sand anyhow?”
San threw up a hand. “Don’t ask me. From my great-grandmother, maybe? I don’t think anybody really knows what he can or can’t bend. It’s not like he’s the easiest guy to read or anything.”
“I like your uncle, though.”
“Me too. Spirits, I’m starving. You got anything good in that basket?”
“Have at it,” she said, and smiled to see Zhi romping down the beach with a laughing Sayuri on his shoulders.
Chapter 19: 192: Lin and Naoki
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
Now, just hold on a diddly darn minute
Chapter Text
“Now, just hold on a diddly darn minute,” Lin said, looking up from her book and yanking her reading glasses up off her nose. “He what the what now?”
Naoki was laughing, however. “Diddly darn minute?”
Lin sighed. “Sayuri may have let a thing or two fly recently. Your father told me I was a bad influence on you kids. I’m trying to rein it in a little.”
“It’s a lost cause by now,” Naoki said, sitting down on the arm of Lin’s chair and hugging her, still chuckling. “I’m as foul-mouthed as they come.”
“Yeah well, don’t tell your father,” Lin snorted, and rolled her eyes.
Chapter 20: 192: Jinora
Chapter Text
“Jinora?” Her mother stepped into the room. “Honey, are you crying? What happened?” She came over and put her arms around her.
Jinora blotted at her eyes. “I got my period.”
Pema sighed. “Oh, Jinora. Oh, honey.” She hugged her and rocked her back and forth. “There’s still time.”
A sob escaped her. “But we’ve been trying for so long. And nothing.”
“It will happen when it’s the right time.”
“What if it’s never the right time? I just want it so much.”
“Oh, my poor girl. Oh, Jinora. You want so little, it’s not fair, I know.” Her mother kissed her gently on her cheek. “I’m not giving up hope.”
“It was so easy for Ikki. And I…” she choked down another sob.
Her mother sighed. “Well, Ikki is Ikki. Besides,” and here her ladylike mother gave a most unladylike snort, “it’s not like she didn’t have twice the deposits that you do, so to speak.”
That got a giggle out of Jinora, even through her tears. “Mom!”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “Well, I can tell you it’s a Beifong,” she said, mimicking her younger daughter perfectly. “Oh, your sister.” She put both her hands on Jinora’s face. “I believe, Jinora. I do. When the time is right.”
“I love you, Mom.”
Chapter 21: 193: Naoki and Sayuri
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"A kiss... as comfort"
Chapter Text
She’d been trying to follow the sound of the hiccupy little sobs for a few minutes before she finally located her hidden in a nest inside of one of Papa’s rhododendron bushes, a natural bare patch that Sayuri, squirmy eel hound that she was, must have wriggled her way into. She peered through the leaves. “Hey in there.”
The sobs hitched up and there was a watery sort of silence.
“Button, I know you’re in there.”
Only sniffles, and she had to fight off her laughter. “I can see your dirty little toes poking out.” The toes tried to pull back in, making the entire bush quiver. “Come on, come on out.”
“Mama's angry.” The words were sobbed out, difficult to understand.
“Yeah, I know, they told me what happened. You were playing with my katana. Button, you know that’s not allowed. It’s a weapon, not a toy. Swords are dangerous. Even I wasn’t allowed to play with them when I was your age.”
“You weren’t?”
“Of course not. I never played with them, only trained with them under Yumi’s supervision. If you want to play with a katana, then you can play with a wooden practice one and pretend it’s a real one.” She shook the bush. “Come on, come out. I can’t get in there with you, I’m too big.”
The bush trembled as Sayuri inched her way out backwards. She’d lost her shoes again and her face was covered with streaks of dirt and tears. A twig had made its home in her hair, which was holding on to its ribbon by sheer willpower alone at that point. She couldn’t help herself; she smiled and held out her arms. Sayuri leaped into them and wrapped her arms and legs around her torso and she carried her like that over to the koi pavilion, keeping her in her lap as she sat down.
“Mama shouted at me.” The sobs started back up again, her face buried into her shoulder.
“So look. There’s this thing about being a grownup, okay? And this thing is that oftentimes, when grownups get angry, what they really are is scared.”
Button pulled back and furrowed her brow. “Is that true?”
She nodded solemnly. “Absolutely true.”
“All grownups?”
“Well, pretty much, I think.”
“Even you?”
“Even me.” She grinned. “Although I’m barely a grownup, trust me.”
Button thought on this for a moment while she gently teased the twig out of her hair. “So my QiQi was scared and that’s why they got angry and shouted?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s what happened, yeah.”
Button was still turning it over. “But QiQi almost never shouts.”
“I don’t think Qi gets scared very often.”
“Oh.” A little frown. “But Papa shouted at me last week when I couldn’t find my shoes. Was he scared of that?”
She laughed and hugged her tightly. “Sometimes grownups shout because they are irritated. But irritated isn’t the same thing as angry. Or afraid.”
Button sighed, a theatrical sound that was a perfect copy of Daddy’s. “That’s very confusing, Naoki.”
“Hey, I don’t make the rules.” She tugged at a curl. “But in this case I can pretty much guarantee that Qi’s anger at finding you with the katana came out of fear. You could really hurt yourself with it, Button, even take off some fingers. Or worse. And no one, not even Sitiak, could heal that if you did.”
"But I know how to hold QiQi's knives..." Button started, but she cut her off.
"Knives and katanas are not the same thing at all. Different size, different weight, different balance. You are still too small to properly wield a katana. Your hands, your body. Everything."
“Yeah.” Her voice was the barest whisper.
“And furthermore, I know you know better. When you were just a baby Qi and I locked our weapons away, but we thought you were old enough to follow the rules. We can lock them up again, of course, but you’re old enough and damn well smart enough to get to them anyhow if you really want to. ” Button squirmed. “You owe both Qi and me an apology and Button, you need to promise never to touch any of our weapons again without adult permission and you need to mean it. No takebacksies, no fingers crossed, no trying to find a loophole.”
“But I just wanted to…” she trailed off at Naoki’s frown.
“Sayuri, you can’t just do whatever comes into your head.” She tapped at it gently. “Sometimes you need to stop and think first.”
“Sometimes my head just does it before thinking.”
“Well, your head needs to knock it off.”
“My head doesn’t listen to me!”
“Yeah, mine either.” She kissed her baby sister on the tip of her long nose. “Listen. You go in, you tell Qi how sorry you are. Are you sorry?” Button nodded vigorously. “Good girl. You tell Qi so, and you tell them why you understand why weapons are not toys. And then Hemadri and I'll take you flying.”
Button’s face lit up. “You will! Just us? Nobody else?”
“Just us and nobody else.”
Button squirmed down off of her lap. “Hurrah!” She dashed out of the pavilion, running full bent towards the house, only to peel away and run back. “Naoki?”
“Yes?”
She bowed. “I’m sorry I played with your katana.”
“I hope you are, Sayuri. I really hope you are.”
She nodded, green eyes wide. “I really am. No takebacksies.”
“And do I need to lock up my weapons? Or am I able to trust you?”
Button held out her hands to show her fingers weren’t crossed. “I promise. Crossmyhearthopetodiestickaneedleinmyeye.”
“All right, then. I hope so. Go on, now.”
Button leapt out of the pavilion but came back again. “Do I need to put on my shoes?”
“Nope. Shoes not required. Now scoot, and go and apologize like a princess should. You know what I mean.”
“Okay! I’m going!” She ran off down the path but then wheeled back again to throw herself back into Naoki’s arms, her kiss fervent and more than a little muddy. “I love you! Now I’m going!” She leapt down and ran back towards the house as Naoki shook her head.
“That girl,” she murmured, and then stood up herself to follow.
Chapter 22: 193: Mako and Sayuri
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt.
Chapter Text
He was reading the paper that morning when he heard a throat clear. A very small throat. He lowered the paper to see his youngest daughter, standing in front of him, holding out a small piece of paper.
“My card, Daddy.”
He took it. In her very best five year old handwriting, inked in a lurid orange, it read:
Sayuri Hou-Ting
Princess
Her Bedroom
Second Floor
There was a careful drawing in green of what he was fairly sure was a badgermole underneath it.
“I would like to make an appointment,” she said. She was still in her pajamas, her hair attempting to take flight, her feet, as always, missing their slippers.
“I see.”
“With you, Daddy.”
“Gotcha.”
“At your earliest convenience. I am quite free today and tomorrow.” He wanted to smile, so badly, at how she was mimicking Wu but he knew better.
“Well, I can meet with you tonight.”
“Are you sure, Daddy? You won’t miss it?”
He put his paper down on the table. “Button, I will do my very best. But sometimes my work takes over. I can’t help that.”
“It is very bad form to be late for a meeting, Daddy. It is unconsiderate.”
“Inconsiderate, you mean.” Meili rolled her eyes across the table. Wu shot her a look.
Sayuri sighed. “Please ignore that girl, she’s very rude. And also unconsiderate.”
“Whatever.”
“If you can’t make it, Daddy, you can call my secretary and let her know.”
“Like you have a secretary!” Meili openly scoffed.
“I beg your pardon, rude girl. I do so have a secretary.” Sayuri turned to glare at her.
“Oh yeah? Who?”
“GrandLin is my secretary.”
“That’s me,” Lin said, taking another swallow of her tea, raising her hand in a laconic wave.
“If you can’t make it, Daddy, please call my secretary and reschedule. It is the professional thing to do.”
He couldn’t stop himself from smiling, although he would never dare make fun. “I promise if I’m going to be late I’ll call your secretary.”
“Thank you.” She stared at the card with a meaningful look, and then back at him. “Daddy,” she whispered, “You’re supposed to write down the time.”
“Right, sorry.” He took his pen out of his pocket and wrote 5 pm on the card.
“Now put it in your pocket. And be on time, Daddy. Or else I’ll have to see about getting someone else to replace you.”
“I wouldn’t want that.”
“No, you would not,” she agreed, and then wandered out of the kitchen, pausing to throw back. “I would be very put out indeed.”
“And there she goes without her breakfast again,” LoLo said, shaking his head, taking up his cane as he went after her.
“So what’s this about?” he asked, glancing over at Lin.
“Don’t ask me, I’m just the secretary.”
He made sure he finished up just a little early that afternoon; on his way home he stopped off to pick up some fruit tarts, remembering to ask the bakery to add rainbow sprinkles onto Sayuri’s. He had time enough when he got home to jump in for a quick shower, running a comb through his damp hair. On impulse he put on just a smidge of the cologne Wu had had made for him. Never hurt.
Right on time as he walked down the hall to her bedroom, box of tarts in hand. Lin was standing in front of the door. He raised an eyebrow, giving her an up and down. She raised one back and snorted.
“At least I didn’t put on any perfume.” She rapped on the door. “Your five o’clock is here.”
“Thank you, GrandLin.” The door opened, and Sayuri handed her a handful of paper, carefully cut out and colored to look like yuan notes. “A tip for you. Thank you for your excellent service.”
“Did she just…” he stared down at Lin’s hand. She started snickering.
“Her father’s daughter, for sure. Have a ball.” She sauntered off down the hallway, fanning herself with the fake money.
“Please come in, Daddy.” She gestured him inside. “Are those fruit tarts?”
“Yep.”
She frowned. “Do they have fruit tarts at meetings?”
“At the best ones, yeah. Sure they do.”
“Oh!” She thought about this for a moment. “Well, that is very thoughtful. I will add it to your tip.”
A tip, was it? Oh, he and Wu were going to have a lengthy chat about this later. He took a deep breath, let it go, and then smiled. “Where would you like me to sit?”
“We can sit on my bed, Daddy.” She climbed up and re-arranged her pillows, sitting with her back against the headboard. He joined her, his feet nearly dangling off the edge of her bed. “You should get some purple stockings.”
“I should? How come?”
“Well, they’re nice.” She leaned over to whisper to him. “Do we eat the tarts now or later?”
He leaned close and whispered in return. “I say we eat them now.” At her nod he pulled out his pocketknife and cut the string, opening up the box and showing her the tarts inside.
“Is mine the one with the sprinkles?”
“Of course.”
They took bites of their tarts, Sayuri wiggling her toes in delight. “You’re getting crumbs all over my bed, Daddy.”
“Sorry about that. I’ll shake out your covers before I leave, how’s that?”
“Okay.” He resisted the urge to scoop her up into his arms, this smallest girl of his, so unexpected but so very loved. She was eating her tart by nibbling at it in a circle, turning it in her hands so that each side was equal, humming with pleasure. “Do you know why I asked you to come?”
“Nope.” He leaned forward and rescued a bit of mango that was threatening to drop onto her lap.
“Well, I have a problem. Before he left I asked Zhi who was best to talk to when I had a problem when he wasn’t home and he told me it was you.”
“He did?” He smiled at that. Zhi and San had been spending most of the summer up at the Northern Air Temple, San learning sandbending from his uncle and Zhi hunting down some unusual specimens.
“Uh huh. I miss Zhi. I wish he’d come home.” Her entire body drooped at that.
“I miss him too, Button, but he’s learning a lot and having a good time. He’ll be home soon.” He handed her over one of the napkins he’d brought with him. “Wipe your hands off. Mouth, too.” He made sure she did and then took the napkin back. “So, what’s the problem?”
She sat for a time, a little frown on her face. She was gathering her thoughts, he knew, so he let her be. “So Daddy, you know Madame Zong? Our next door neighbor?”
He nodded, as gravely as possible under the circumstances. “I do know her, yes.”
“She doesn’t like me very much.”
“Hmmm. I don’t think it’s about you, Button. I think it’s about her. I don’t think she likes most people.”
“GrandLin says she’s an irascible old wolfbat and if she’s mean to me I can tell her and she’ll go and give her a piece of her mind.” She smiled at that. “Then GrandLin called her a really rude name and Papa put his hands over my ears but it was too late.”
He coughed to cover a laugh. “Yeah.”
“So the other day when I was in the park with QiQi I saw some bigger boys be mean to her.” She looked up at him. “They called her mean names and she started to shout at them and one of them said he would come back later and kill her monkeypoodle.” She frowned. “That’s really mean, Daddy. Lady Sweetums barks too much and always tries to chase birds and I don’t like her but I wouldn’t kill her.” She squirmed a little, picking at her brightly colored coverlet. “And then the boys ran away and Madame Zong started to cry.”
He frowned. “What boys were this?”
“I don’t know, Daddy. I didn’t know them.”
“Were they dressed like us or like the kids that come for LoLo’s dinner?”
“Like those kids.”
“Where was Qi?”
“Talking to the deliveryman who comes to the kitchen sometimes to see GrandLo.”
Zip. “So Qi didn’t see?”
“No, but I told QiQi and they said if I saw them again to come and tell them or GrandLo right away.”
“Okay.” He held his arms out and she crawled up into his lap, resting her head against his chest.
“I can hear your heart, Daddy.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Was that the problem?”
She shook her head. “No, because I told QiQi and they fixed that problem. The boy problem, I mean. I was talking about the Madame Zong problem.”
“Ah.” He rubbed her back in slow circles. “So even though you don’t like Madame Zong you still felt bad that she was crying?”
She sat back, her eyes wide. “Daddy, how did you know?”
“Sometimes I’m a wise old Daddy.” He kissed her nose. “What did your heart tell you that you should do?”
“Well, I couldn’t tell. My heart felt sad but also it doesn’t like her. At all.”
“Fair enough.” He sighed. “Sometimes it’s really hard to know what to do when you don’t like someone. Even for grownups.”
“Even for grownups?” She was a little skeptical.
“Sure. Sometimes being a grownup is a tough job.” He tilted her chin up. “What do you think you should do?”
“If I go and say something to her she’ll probably shout at me.”
He smiled. “That’s probably true.” He tucked a stray curl back. “Maybe you could draw her a picture and take it to her.”
“Do you think she would like it?”
“I don’t know. But sometimes it’s about what you do and not about what the other person does in return. Does that make sense?”
“No.”
He laughed. “Well, maybe give that one a few years. But I tell you what. If you decide you want to draw her a picture then I’ll go with you to give it to her. Okay?”
“You’ll come with me?”
“Yes. I promise.”
“Okay, Daddy.” She sat in his lap for a time. “Can we stop having our meeting now?”
“Sure.”
“Because now I’m going to draw the picture.”
“Right. Hop off the bed and I’ll shake off the crumbs.” She slithered down and went to her table, covered with its usual clutter; books, pens, a scrapbook that had all of the newspaper articles about the family, some mostly wilted flowers, a bottle with a ship half-built inside that he knew she was working on with LoLo, an old radio he’d picked up at a pawn shop downtown that she’d been taking apart and trying to make better, whatever that was supposed to mean. “When I’m done with that is it okay with you if I go downstairs?”
“Uh huh,” she said absently, debating between a yellow and pink pen. In the end she put them both in her left hand, jammed in between her fingers, and started to draw. He kissed her on the top of her head and left her to it.
Chapter 23: 193: Opal and San
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"A kiss... where it hurts"
Chapter Text
Opal paused for a moment, fist hovering, before gently knocking on the door. “San? Sweetie? Is…is everything okay?”
“I’m fine.” She could hear the tears in his voice and hesitated. Fifteen year old boys were tricky, in her experience, and she didn’t want to push.
“Well, if you need me for anything, I’m here, okay? I’ll leave you alone for a bit, then.”
She’d just started back down the hall when his door opened. He’d clearly been crying; his eyes were red, his face flushed. He’d never been much for any kind of public displays of emotion, not even when he was small. More like Mako that way, or at least she’d always thought so. “I…um…” His fingers were clutching the door frame.
“Do you want me to come in?” Her mother had always barged in to every single vulnerable moment any of them had ever had, eager to prove how much she cared. She knew why she’d done it; she’d never gotten much of it from her own mother, and she wanted to do better for them. But it had felt suffocating, sometimes. San nodded, however, and stepped back into his room, retreating back to his bed. She shut the door and sat down next to him. “Rough day?”
“Yeah.” He was staring down at his hands.
“Do you want to talk about it? Or do you just need some quiet company?”
He shrugged, and she waited him out. It’d always been like this, too; San took his own time to speak. Or he would if you let him. “There’s this girl…”
Her heart sank, but she managed to keep her voice level. “Uh huh.”
“At school. And uh…I um…I like her, you know. I mean, like like her.” He shot her a quick glance and she nodded.
“Right, I understand.”
“And I thought she liked me. She hung around and…we talked a lot and stuff.”
“Sure.”
“But um…yeah. Well, it turns out that the one she really liked was Aati and so uh…well. They um…started going out today.” A tear splashed down.
“Oh San, I am so sorry. I know it really hurts when that happens.”
“I just feel so stupid!” He crossed his arms across his chest. “I should have known it wasn’t me, Aati’s a million times better looking and a firebender and everything.”
She thought his friend Aati was actually kind of a smarmy little elbow leech but now was not the time to bring it up. “I once had the same thing happen with a guy I liked. When I was your age. I felt pretty stupid, too. It sucks.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah. He used to come over to our house to do homework and I stupidly thought we had a thing going but when I tried to kiss him I found out he’d been coming over the whole time in order to hang out with his crush. Also known as your Uncle Baatar.”
That got her a little scoffed smile. “Really?”
“It was one of the most humiliating experiences of my entire life.”
“That must have really sucked.”
“Totally.” She risked an arm around his shoulders and he leaned into her. “I wish I had a way to bend away all the hurt but even airbenders can’t manage it. But sweetie, it doesn’t make you stupid. The heart wants what it wants, as the saying goes. There’s nothing you can do about it. All we can do is control our own actions.”
“The good news is that I didn’t punch Aati in the nose.”
“That is good news.” She hugged him closer and kissed his temple. “Listen, I don’t know if this will help, but you and I could take a drive into town and go to the ice cream parlor.”
“Ice cream?”
She threw her hands into the air. “Single best thing for heartache that I know. It won’t get rid of it, but it will at least help in the moment.” She smoothed away his errant forelock, the one that was just like his father’s. “We don’t have to, though, if you’d rather be home right now.”
He thought for a moment. “I guess ice cream wouldn’t hurt.”
“Does ice cream ever really hurt, though?”
That got her a little smile. “Yeah. Okay. I guess we could.”
She patted him on the back and stood up. “Well then. Your ice cream awaits, sir.”
“Can I have whatever I want?” He grinned.
“Of course. Goes without saying. Heartbreak needs the biggest concoction in the place.”
“Thanks, Mom.” He threw his arms around her waist and hugged her and she did her best not to cry as well. The ice cream wasn’t just for him, after all.
Chapter 24: 194: Sayuri and Zip
Summary:
Qi's baby.
Notes:
My very much beloved long-time reader Marezelle mentioned something about Sayuri and Zip some time ago and it's never left my head. So you can thank them for this particular chapter.
Chapter Text
"You're not a real deliveryman, are you?"
He glanced over and saw her standing, mostly hidden behind a stack of empty boxes that were waiting to be picked up. She had Qi's silent way about her; he'd never heard her coming and he heard most coming. Folks probably looked at her and thought she resembled her father, what with the skin and hair and the green eyes. But she had Qi's severe cheekbones and surprisingly lush mouth. Difference being that this baby was a princess. She'd never known the want and fear Qi had already mastered that young and it made her softer, more childlike in a way Qi had never been. He considered lying to her but she had the smarts of both of her parents and figured she'd know it for what it was.
"Naw."
The sharp, assessing look she was giving him was all her mother's, though. Too damn clever for her own good, just the way Qi had always been.
"Did you come to see my QiQi?"
Now how did she figure that out? He fought back a smile. Qi would have their hands full with this one. Already had their hands full, he knew.
Truth was, he'd always kept an eye on the kids in this house. The oldest, who could have killed him in a blisteringly hot heartbeat, could take care of herself, although she for the most part kept to the straight and narrow. Too busy learning how to kill to be a target for anyone else. The other princess, the one that was just like Yer Highness, did exactly what was expected of her, although he often found himself wondering what was going on inside that pretty head of hers. The boy was the one Qi worried about the most: one of those kinds that trusted everyone and everything, expected the world to be kind even though the world was a pile of shit. He pretty much went everywhere with his cousin, though, and that boy was a powerhouse who would just as soon bury someone alive then let them touch a hair on his cousin's head. Fiercely loyal, that boy. Much like his Daddy if he understood right. The other ones, the cousins, he kept an eye on as well. The middle boy was a sickly one still, didn't stray much from his Ma's side. The baby girl was a hellraiser, though. He thought she was trouble in the making, that one. Took after her Ma's side. She might still be young but she bore watching.
But this one. This one. Qi's baby. This one he'd lay his life down for.
"Yeah."
She nodded at that, eyes narrowing in thought the way Qi's always had. No one, looking at her in the moment, would have mistaken her for a princess: her wild hair was uncombed and her feet were bare and she was wearing what he thought might be a castoff tunic of her tall brother, reaching nearly to her ankles and sagging loosely on her. How two people who did nothing but bring in yuan for their tailors had managed this little ragamuffin that couldn't give a badgermole's shit for what she wore he had no idea, but it amused him. She amused him. Just last week she'd built some sort of rigmarole in their back garden that, when released, sent a wooden ball careening about a structure she'd built out of whatever she'd been able to scavenge (including a vase that practically reeked of age and money) eventually triggering a waterfall of water that the spirit, Bob, used like a shower, cheering her on and pretending to scrub itself. He found himself laughing aloud, perched on the back fence, nearly giving himself away. Funny little thing.
"How do you know my QiQi?" Curiosity killed the owlcat was the saying, and this baby had probably died a thousand times already. Qi had been curious too, once upon a time, but it had made way for survival. Lots of things had made way for survival for the both of them. That's just how it was where they came from.
"Grew up with 'em." He watched her as she turned that information about in her mind. Shit but she reminded him of Qi.
"QiQi never talks about where they grew up with me. Papa does and Daddy a little bit but QiQi just says it's a story for when I'm older." The scowl was all her father's though, a baby queen thwarted of her least little desire.
"Reckon that's up to them."
She sighed deeply, something that she'd gotten from Mako. "Yes, yes, that's the expected grownup thing to say." Her eyes pierced into his. "Are you the kind of grownup who follows the grownup rules or the other kind?"
He thought on this for a moment. "Reckon I'm the other kind."
She nodded slowly. "Yes, that's what I thought. Most grownups don't wear pretend uniforms and sneak in and out of our kitchen with an empty box that they are pretending has things in it."
He stared at her. "How'd you reckon it were empty?"
She tsked at him, hand waving in an eerie imitation of her grandmother. "You hold it like it's empty. A heavy box would pull your arms down, like this." She demonstrated with an imaginary box, letting her arms and body sag with weight. "That's easy to figure out, you don't even have to be Chinda to figure that out."
He had no idea who Chinda was, but this baby was a smart one, that much he knew. "Huh."
"And one day, after you came and went, I heard GrandLo tell my QiQi that Zip had come. Are you Zip?" At his nod she continued. "Why is that your name? Is that your real name?"
"Real enough." Truth be told, he didn't know what name his Ma had given him. She'd died before he knew her enough to remember her and his father, never sober, had merely called him Boy before dying of exposure in an alley, so doped up on poppy he'd never even felt the cold. Zip had been the name Qi had given him when they were both wee little sprats and it was as good a name as any.
"Where do you live?"
"Not here." He wasn't going to get into it. Qi tolerated a lot, but not when it came to this baby and he wasn't about to risk their wrath. People generally didn't survive Qi's wrath unscathed and he wasn't about to count their years of friendship as a free pass. That's not how Qi operated. They were friends but this baby came first. He'd known that since he'd brought Qi home from Ba Sing Se, pregnant and sick as a goat dog, the last Grand Secretariat's death on their hands. He was loyal to Qi and they were loyal to him in a way that nobody but Mako, probably, would understand. But the baby came first.
She sighed again. "Yes, I know that, you speak with a different accent." Here her voice slid into an uncanny copy of his. "How'd you reckon it were empty?" Again she watched him carefully. "Did my QiQi speak like that? Once upon a time? Sometimes their voice slips a little and I can hear it."
She could hear it. Fuck him sideways, but this girl was too sharp. Six year olds weren't supposed to be thinking about that kind of thing. Especially not ones that grew up in a house like this. He knew she wouldn't be put off, either. Not Qi's baby. She'd hold on to a thing until she'd gotten exactly what she wanted from it. "Yer Ma won't want me talkin' bout it. And I ain't goin' against yer Ma, Little Bit. They'd come for me over it. Can you understand that?"
She considered this. "Well, I don't particularly like it but I can understand it. Although I have to say that I am exceedingly disgruntled and I would like to tell QiQi so but then they would know I had talked to you about it and I don't think QiQi wants me to do that."
"Reckon not." Too fucking right not.
"Well this puts us in a true quandary, Mister Zip. Because I would like very much to know how to do certain things which I think you might be able to teach me, but if we are both too afraid of what QiQi will say about it then where does it leave us?"
"Learn what things?" He knew he shouldn't even ask but he couldn't help himself. What did the baby want to know?
She brightened at that, holding up her hand to count off on her fingers. "I want to learn how to use knives and fight dirty and learn to speak like you and be sneaky and be able to fool people into thinking I am someone different."
He couldn't help himself, he had to grin. "That's a big list, Little Bit."
Her eyebrow sailed up and she fisted her hands on her waist. "It is an ambitious list, Mister Zip. I don't expect to learn it all at once."
He crouched down so he could look her in the eyes. "Told ya already, Little Bit, yer Ma would come for me if I showed you those things."
She nodded, as serious as he was. "I understand, Mister Zip. And I would not like Mama to be angry with me either. But Mister Zip, there are people who might try to hurt me because I am Sayuri Hou-Ting. And I can't bend like Naoki or Meili and I don't have a San like Zhi does. I just have my very own self."
He reached out to cup her soft little cheek before he realized he was going to do it, her delicate skin enclosed in his hard, calloused hand. "Baby, why you think that? Somebody been sayin' somethin' to you?" He'd kill them, whoever they were. Easiest and quickest way to deal with it. He might be rough, he might be crude, he might never fit in with this society the way Qi did. But he'd kill or die for this girl, and that was that.
"I listen," she whispered. "I listen and I know things can happen. I know what happened to Zhi even though nobody will tell me, not even Zhi. And Mister Zip, I know Mama and Daddy will take care of me. But I think a little girl should know how to take care of herself, too. Don't you think so?"
He did fucking think so, was the thing. Ah fuck him sideways, fuck fuck fuck. He took a breath. "Little Bit, if I show you these things, you can't be tellin' nobody. Not a soul. Yer Ma found out and it'd be all over." Her Daddy wouldn't be happy either, but he could disappear under Mako's radar for a time if necessary. He had hidey-holes that even Qi didn't know about but he wouldn't trust them not to hunt him down anyhow.
She nodded gravely. "I understand, Mister Zip. We'd have to make a pact." She drew herself up. "I am a Hou-Ting, Mister Zip. My honor as a princess demands I keep my word." He ought to laugh at the baby playing at princess but he couldn't. She might not look like what most people thought of as a princess, but she was her father's daughter. Regal in her very bones. Even at six she understood what she was saying. He thought it might have been the first lesson Yer Highness had taught her. Maybe all of them kids, but this one especially.
"I teach you what I can safely teach you and in return you don't tell a soul." He spat in his hand and held it out for her. She spat in her own and clasped her hand to his, those green eyes burning into his, so fierce.
"I swear I will not tell a soul, Mister Zip. It will remain between the two of us."
He nodded as they pulled their hands apart. "You got somewheres to stow a weapon?"
She nodded. "Yes. There's a hollow in the big magnolia tree in Madame Zong's garden, just next to the fence by the back." At his questioning look she flashed a smile. "I can get over the fence on our side if I climb atop the family shrine. And then I can climb up the magnolia to get back to our side." She leaned closer to whisper into his ear. "Madame Zong never knows if I am there and neither does QiQi. We can practice there."
He thought she might have sneaky down pat without his help. Doing it in the old woman's yard was smart as anything, so long as the poodle monkey kept quiet. She must have read his mind, because she winked at him, sassy as her Grandpa.
"Don't worry, I always bring a soup bone for Lady Sweetums. She won't make a sound."
He grinned at her, he couldn't help himself. "Little Bit, I think you got all the best parts of yer Ma and Pa in you."
Her smile in return was wide, her eyes lighting up in a way that was all her own. "Thank you, Mister Zip. I will take that as a compliment."
He stood then. It was past time he was gone; Qi would notice if he stuck around much longer. "I'll leave you a knife in yer spot then. We'll start there. But no playin' with it when I ain't there. It ain't a toy. I got yer word on it, Little Bit? You can look at it, but no messin' with it until I'm there. And no comin' to talk to me otherwise if I'm here with yer Ma or yer Grandpa."
Her nod was solemn. "My word as a Hou-Ting, Mister Zip." She gazed up at him. "But when should I meet you?"
"You get there when you get there. I'll either be there or no. If I am, we can train but if not then you get yerself back home and wait until the next time it be clear. Yeah?"
"Yeah." She iguana parroted his accent back to him. So quick. Before he could move away she threw her arms around his waist and hugged him, hard, squeezing him for all he was worth. "Thank you, Mister Zip." Her little face was staring up at his and he had swallow back a sharp ache in his throat. So like Qi.
He gently detangled her. "I see you when I see you. Bye until then, Little Bit." He moved away then, sticking close to the pre-dawn shadows, soundless as he melted his way down the drive, making his way down to where he'd stashed the delivery motorbike he'd boosted a few years back, helping to keep him unnoticed and unseen as he made his way about these rich folk.
"Bye, Mister Zip," she whispered after him and then she was gone as well, back into that house, that life that her mother had chosen.
Chapter 25: 194: Izumi
Chapter Text
Izumi walked through the silence of her father’s home on Ember Island. She hadn’t been out here in years; not since her father’s death. Everything reminded her of him; the carved walking stick still leaning against his favorite chair, the exquisitely painted dragons on the tea set. She walked into his bedroom and put a hand to her throat. He’d gone in his sleep, in this very bed. It had been peaceful, and for that she was glad.
It was when she picked up the framed photograph from his bedside table and saw herself, eight years old, smiling a rare smile into the camera, that she broke down, sitting down on the bed, pressing it to her heart. “Oh Father,” she sobbed, “I miss you so much.”
Chapter 26: 194: Bumi and Meelo
Chapter Text
Meelo kept his hand on his uncle’s arm, steadying him. Bumi’s breath was labored, and his steps shaky. Meelo suspected that this was the last time they were going to make this climb together. Finally they made it to the top of the tower. Bumi caught his breath for a few minutes, and Meelo waited patiently.
“Never thought I was going to end my days like this,” he said, gazing out the windows to the mountains beyond. “I wanted all of my life to be an airbender. It ate away at me for years, you know. Not just that I wasn’t a bender but that your father was an airbender and Dad so clearly favored him.” He grimaced. “Not that I blame him. Not now, anyhow. I can understand that he must have been desperate to try and pass down everything to Tenzin.” He glanced at Meelo. “Kya always understood, but it was years before I realized that the pressure of all of that shoved your father down from the time he was just a little boy.” He put his hand to Meelo’s shoulder. “Your father loves you, son. It’s just he’s never understood the concept of living your own life. How could he? He was never once allowed to. Not even now.” He sighed and murmured to himself, “Oh, Tenzin.”
They stood for a time together. “I had them radio him,” he said. “Your aunt as well. Although I’d be surprised if she didn’t already know. She was always the most spiritual of the three of us. Something my father never gave her much credit for, either. I’m guessing they’ll be here in the next couple of days.”
Tears started to track down Meelo’s cheeks. “I’m not ready,” he choked out.
Bumi’s fingers tightened on his shoulder. “I know. And I’m sorry for it. But I am.” He turned to Meelo. “Your father will want to give me a sky burial, seeing as it’s the old airbender tradition. But it’s not what I want. I want to go back to the sea. She was my first love, after all. Will you see to it?”
Meelo nodded.
“You’re a good man, Meelo. I couldn’t be any prouder of you than if you were mine.” He shot him a look. “Course, it’s a good thing you aren’t, because those kinds of good looks should be illegal.”
Meelo laughed a little through his tears and his uncle smiled at him.
Chapter 27: 195: Ikki
Chapter Text
Ikki’s eyes fluttered open and she winced as the baby slammed another appendage into her ribs. “You’re killing me here, kiddo,” she said, and pushed herself slowly and clumsily into a seated position. “Take it easy on your mother, would you?” She eased herself up and waddled across the room towards the bathroom, hand to her aching back. “And while you’re at it, you could leave my bladder alone. You’re an earthbender, I just know it.”
Chapter 28: 195: Goba
Chapter Text
“Don’t look so glum,” Bora Auntie said. “Your mother is an old pro at having babies. Pretty soon you’ll have a new brother or sister.” She put a mochi in front of him and then sat down. “You were a lot less worried when Katara was born.”
He gave her a scornful look. “I was just a little kid then.”
Bora Auntie nodded, eyes dancing. “You’re an old man of fourteen now, silly me.” She winked at him. “Go on, eat your mochi. Babies happen in their own time. Ask me how I know.” She patted her own rounded belly.
He grinned at her. “Ba says we should call this Fertility Mountain.”
She laughed. “He’s not wrong.” She pointed towards the doors. “Hey, look at what I see?”
He turned to look. Da was standing there, a bundle in his arms, smiling.
“Well? You want to come and say hi to your new brother?”
Goba scrambled up and ran across the room, skidding to a stop. “Is Ma okay?” Da put the baby carefully into his arms and then put an arm around his shoulders.
“She’s just fine. Your grandmother is taking care of her. Come on, I think we can wake your sister up for this. Then we can take him back to your mother.”
“Congratulations, Baatar,” Bora Auntie called out, and she took a bite out of Goba’s abandoned mochi.
Chapter 29: 195: Nuo's Garden
Chapter Text
Iris pulled her cap off and Poppy gasped. “Mommy’s going to kill you for cutting all your hair off!”
“Don’t listen to her. I love it.” Orchid, always loyal, ran her fingers through it, fluffing it up. Short like this, it curled like their father’s. “It’s really cute.” Iris gave her a grateful smile.
“I don’t think Mommy will really kill Iris,” Rose said, glancing up from her book. “What did you do with the old hair that you cut off?”
“Stuck it in a bag and saved it,” Iris said. She peered at herself in the mirror, turning her head this way and that. She’d had a hard time convincing the hairdresser that she really wanted it that short, but he’d finally complied. “I didn’t know what else to do with it.”
“Birds could use it to make nests,” Rose said, and went back to her book.
“I’m not going to cut my hair off,” Poppy said, and Iris rolled her eyes.
“Well, who asked you?”
Chapter 30: 195: Sayuri Hou-Ting
Summary:
Sayuri gets a dance lesson.
Chapter Text
Madame Tan rapped her cane sharply on the floor. "Princess! You spin left on the third beat!" She glanced at Bingwen, her long-time accompanist on the yangqin, and he paused.
"Yeeeeeeeeeeeees," replied the princess, scuffing her foot along the floor, the sash of her practice robe half-untied and trailing behind her. She spun in a circle, humming under her breath, her fingers twitching along.
Tan sighed. For over fifteen years she had come to the Hou-Ting mansion three times a week to serve as the dancing master for all four of the Hou-Ting children and the youngest was the most challenging yet. The eldest, Princess Naoki, had not particularly enjoyed her lessons, but she was disciplined, at least. Her dancing had been technically perfect albeit uninspired and unenthusiastic; she had always been obedient and focused, however, which Tan appreciated. Prince Yaozhi had had a tendency to chatter which she had needed to nip in the bud; he'd also gone through quite a gangly stage where he was all arms and legs which had been a trifle difficult to work around. Nevertheless he'd always had a good attitude; eventually he had surprised her by settling into his height and becoming a good dancer. Certainly not at a professional level, of course, but he was a credit to her instruction as well as his parents. Princess Meili was a lovely and graceful dancer, still under her tutelage. She was a beautiful girl, certainly, gracious and willing, open to critique and her waterbending training was a benefit, to be sure. Princess Meili was a joy to teach.
She had no idea to do with the youngest princess. It was not that she was a clumsy child; she was not. She was naturally slender, with a commanding bone structure that she would grow into one day. Princess Sayuri Hou-Ting was never going to be pretty; she would be striking, however, the kind of woman that would look fifty when she was ninety. She had delicate feet with high arches and her hands were shapely and tapered, and that neck! Long and simply stunning. She always showed up to the Hou-Ting ballroom exactly on time for her lessons, assiduously escorted by the Royal Consort. She was rarely in a bad mood; on the contrary, in fact. The Princess was usually smiling and seldom gave in to either sulks or pouts. She was never willfully disobedient. She was simply in her own world. Said world included a dragon, engines, the fish in her royal father's koi pond, an orange and rather froggy spirit who had been residing in His Highness's garden for nearly twenty years now, and an imaginary friend named BaaBaa who apparently was both human as well as a koala sheep insofar as Tan understood it. She had once tried to point out that a seven year old was far too old for an imaginary friend but the Princess had scowled at her. Shame on you, you hurt his feelings quite dreadfully, Madame, the Princess had said, and point blank refused do anything but sit on the floor, comforting said imaginary friend. She had hoped that Lady Beifong, the Princess's venerable grandmother, would dispel such nonsense when she came to retrieve the child that day but she had merely patted the Princess on the back and told her that she was sure that some sticky dumplings would soothe over any distress BaaBaa was feeling.
The entire family doted on the child. The Prince - himself an exquisite dancer, he had been tutored by Sir Xing himself, the greatest dancer of his generation - often came to her practices to dance with her. The Prince Consort was rarely home during the day but the Royal Consort often stayed to watch her. Lady Beifong's younger sister, Lady Suyin - a noted dancer herself - had even come to her lessons when she was in town. All of them not only allowed the imaginary friend but encouraged it; the Princess had mentioned that they even had a place setting at the table for it. In her day, such indulgences would have never been allowed! She had never met the Queen, of course - she had danced for her a few times in her youth but would have never expected to have been introduced! - but she could hardly imagine that Hou-Ting would have allowed such permissiveness of a child's whims in the Palace. She was, frankly, more than a little surprised that His Highness allowed the child to behave as she did. Just last week she had left instructions that the Princess would need a practice fan and she had showed up today with a war fan! A war fan, of all things! Of course she had immediately taken it away from the child. What else was she to do?
Bingwen cleared his throat just slightly, his hammers poised above his yangqin, and she nodded. "Again, Princess, if you please. From the second movement."
The Princess gave a last swirl, her sash fluttering away to land, unnoticed, on the floor. "Did you ever wonder why they called it a movement? And not an action, or maybe an operation?" She suddenly stood ramrod straight, hands mimicking a stick being tapped on the floor. "From the first operation!" She cocked her head to the side, thinking. "No, movement sounds better. Unless you wanted to call it a mango. Because why don't we call it a mango and a mango a movement?" She turned that green-eyed gaze to Tan. "Someone had to think of it. Someone had to find a green fruit and think, my gracious, why don't I call that a mango, there's a brand new and sumptuficent word that fits this delicious, delicious fruit."
Bingwen gave a discreet cough which she knew was to cover a laugh. Much to her dismay Bingwen had always found the Princess's nonsense as charming as her family did. Tan frowned. "Sumptuficent is not a word, Princess."
"Why not? It means sumptuous and magnificent all at the same time. Someday, a thousand years from now, someone will say, what a sumptuficent mango! and they will have no idea that a little girl thought of it in the middle of her dance class, just like I have no idea who came up with the word mango. Or the word movement. Or even the word exultant, which I just read this morning and Papa says means very happy indeed. Madame, may I have my fan to practice with?"
Tan blinked as she tried to catch up. "I...of course not, Princess! It is a war fan! Princesses do not dance with war fans!"
"Well, that is not true, Madame. Hou-Ting XXVII was very fond of war fans and had one that was painted to look like it had just decapitated someone, Zhi read about it in one of Papa's history books and told me all about it. And she was a princess before she was a queen, of course." The Princess danced a few steps, picking up the discarded sash and letting it flow behind her. "I would like to have a fan like that. I tried to paint one of Meili's regular fans to look like it with red paint but I forgot and I closed it when it was still wet and it stuck together and I had to hide it so I threw it over the fence into Madame Zong's backyard and her poodle monkey ate it and then threw it up, so now Meili will never know, she just thinks she lost it somewhere."
Bingwen's coughing sounded like he was choking. Tan slammed her stick into the marble floor. "Princess Sayuri! There will be no practicing with war fans! Next session you will bring in a regular fan, if you please."
The Princess's face lit up. "May I bring one in painted like I decapitated someone? I'll know to leave it open when it dries, this time."
"Certainly not! The very idea!"
"It's a good idea, isn't it?" The Princess fanned out her fingers and dashed across the floor, swiping her fingers in such a way that might have emulated a decapitation. "Off with your head!" she cried, kicking high into the air, her dancing slipper flying over her head. "And off with my shoe!"
"That's not a dance I know," said His Highness, standing just inside the door, his eyes sparkling. "Especially not the shoe part."
"Oh, Papa! I am decapitating someone!" The Princess ran for her father and he scooped her up to sit on his hip.
"Very gruesome of you, I'm sure." He tweaked her nose. "Button, I am entirely certain that Madame Tan was not instructing you on the finer points of decapitation today."
"No, she was teaching me the Dance of the Butterfly Fans, but I got carried away."
"I see." The Prince seemed to be holding back his own laughter.
Tan bowed at him. "I apologize, Your Highness."
The Prince let the laugh spill out. "No need, Madame. I know what she's like." He nodded towards Bingwen and smiled before returning his gaze to his daughter, putting her down and schooling his features into a very solemn mien. "Now, Sayuri, I need to ask you a question. Did you practice today with the fan I gave you?"
The Princess squirmed a little. "Well, no, Papa. I seem to have misplaced it."
"You seem to have misplaced it? Interesting."
"I borrowed one of QiQi's instead. But Madame wouldn't let me use it."
The Prince did not look happy. "Sayuri, did you bring one of Qi's war fans?" She squirmed again and looked out the window, saying nothing. "Sayuri, look at me. Madame was quite right to take it away from you. Those fans are off limits and you know why. They are not toys and they are not safe to use without training, which you do not have. You have been told this several times. I am extremely disappointed in you." The Princess drooped and stared at her feet. After a moment her father sighed. "We'll discuss it later. Madame Tan, thank you for removing the fan."
She bowed again. "But of course, Your Highness," she murmured. A maid came into the ballroom, leaving a tray which had tea as well as a selection of finger foods. Since the time she had started she had always had a half hour break between the children; she and Bingwen had always been provided tea during the breaks. His Highness was a very attentive employer; far more attentive than any of the other noble and wealthy families she had worked for.
"Princess Meili will be along presently," he told her, and spying the fan on the tea table, gathered it carefully up and put it into his breast pocket. "I will see to it that Sayuri has a proper fan next week." She inclined her head.
The Princess glanced up at her father, her face such a study in woe that Tan herself felt an immediate need to reassure her. "I really couldn't find my fan and I didn't mean to be naughty, Papa. I really didn't. I promise I didn't."
The Prince went down on one knee before her and took her hands in his. "My darling, I know you didn't. I know that sometimes your heart" and here he tapped her heart gently "goes and does things before your head" a soft tap to her forehead "catches up and tells you not to. But we have to find a better way than simply telling you no when it comes to these fans because I very much would not like your lovely, impetuous fingers to be sliced off by accident. Can you understand that?"
She nodded, her chin trembling. "Yes, Papa."
"What do you say to Madame Tan?"
The Princess turned and bowed, her hands pressed properly together. "I apologize for bringing a war fan, Madame Tan. I shall not do it again. And I thank you for today's lesson." She turned and bowed at Bingwen. "Thank you for playing the yangqin so sumptuficently, Bingwen."
Bingwen stood and bowed in return, smiling. "The honor is all mine, Princess."
"Alright, then. Come along, Cork has our lunch waiting for us. If I am not mistaken, he made sure yours has extra ginger." The Prince put his hand out and she took it.
"Three cheers for Cork!" The Princess swung her father's hand with excitement as they began to walk out of the ballroom.
"And what was this I heard about Meili's fan and Madame Zong's poodle monkey?"
"Did you hear that, Papa! Were you spying?"
The Prince raised an eyebrow, mouth curving upwards. "It's not spying if it is your own ballroom."
"Is that a rule for everyone or just grownups?"
"Grownups, naturally."
"What about BaaBaa?"
"I think BaaBaa has an unfair advantage, don't you? Being invisible and all."
"Yes, but think of all the times people have sat on him, Papa! That's not nice at all!" She skipped as they made their way through the ornate double doors.
"She's sumptuficent, that one," Bingwen said quietly before sitting down at the table and pouring the tea. Tan lowered herself carefully down. Her rheumatism ached just slightly in damp weather.
"Sumptuficent! What goes on in the child's head I will never know. Her siblings were so much easier than she is!" Tan took the proffered cup and sipped at it. Excellent, as always.
"Sumptuficent," repeated Bingwen, and he chuckled.
Chapter 31: 195: Qi and the Kids
Chapter Text
“QiQi, when you were little did you want to grow up and be a dancer?” Sayuri spun in a slow circle.
“No. When I was little I wanted to drive race cars.” Qi frowned down. “Baby, where are your shoes?”
“I don’t know.” Sayuri stopped her spinning to stare down at her feet. “I have my stockings on.”
“Did you leave them in the garden again?” Meili arranged a curl to her liking.
“I don’t like wearing shoes in the garden. When I do, no one can see my toes.”
“And they want to see your toes because….?” Meili looked down her nose and shot up an eyebrow.
“Because they are juicy toes, perfect for eating!” Naoki grabbed her littlest sister up into her arms and chomped at her feet. “Cannibalism, yum yum!” Sayuri giggled.
“Okay, I’m ready!” Zhi clattered down the stairs, trying to get his tie straight. With a roll of her eyes Meili batted his hands away and tied it for him.
“Baby, if you can’t find your shoes you can put on your rainboots again. Let’s move it out, you know how your father gets if we’re late.” Qi produced the car keys out of a pocket and pointed towards the door.
Chapter 32: 195: Meili
Summary:
For all of the Meili-stans. I know you are legion.
Chapter Text
She could never explain those feelings that came out of nowhere, not to her own satisfaction. She'd asked Mama about it once - Mama who was so practical, who didn't have an ounce of nonsense in their entire body, who wasn't given to spiky flares of anger like Daddy or overwhelmed with emotion like Papa - and Mama's eyes had gone soft when they told her that not every question had an answer. "Not even by you," Mama had said, and wrapped their arms around her. "Much as I know you hate that."
She'd asked Korra as well, one afternoon after they'd trained hard and Korra had sat on the floor next to her, arm casually slung around her shoulders as they took a break to drink some water. Sitiak was in charge of her healing training, but Korra worked with her on her basic and more advanced waterbending forms whenever she was in town. "Feelings, hmmm? Yeah. Waterbender thing. Gut thing. Just because you're being raised by a firebender doesn't mean you don't have it. We've all got it." Korra had pulled her head down onto her shoulder; she was fourteen now, but she was taller than Korra, taller than Naoki, taller than Mama, soon to pass up Papa. "Kiddo, you've got a lot of your parents in you. Mako's not known for being cool under fire for nothing, he was always like that, even when we were kids and he struggled more with his temper than he does now. Wu can't stand it if things aren't in his control, although he's a lot better about it than the old Hou-Ting ever was, trust me on that one. And Qi has zero imagination." Korra had chuckled at that. "Lots of ambition, lots of smarts, very little fear, but zero imagination." Korra had pressed a kiss onto her forehead.
"You're a waterbender, Squirt. We're made different. We feel things. Sometimes those things don't always make sense on paper. Sometimes we can't understand them or explain them. But you've got to learn to trust those feelings. If I'm honest with you, it's something that's going to hold you back as a waterbender, and a healer as well." Korra had taken her chin in her rough, scarred hand and had gently turned her face. Korra's eyes, which were usually bright and mischievous, had gone serious for once. "Meili, you come from a long line of damn good waterbenders. Both of your waterbending aunts have more than decent chops - Iskani's one of the best healers in the world and Tanka is pretty well known on the seas, and her mother was as well. Your grandmother, I mean. And Yumi might not be a bender, but she knows to trust her gut. It's what saved your father's life, back in Ba Sing Se when somebody tried to assassinate him."
She'd nodded. She knew the story.
"I've watched you struggle with it since you were tiny. You're always trying to keep it inside, keep it practical, be the perfect little princess. And that might be the way to go for a perfect little Earth Kingdom nonbending Hou-Ting princess, sure. But you're a waterbender, kid. You're trying to fit an ocean into a palace. It won't work. Eventually, you're going to flood yourself out and then where will you be?" Korra had kissed her again. "Look. Yumi gave you to Wu because..." Korra had trailed off for a moment, frowning. "Well. You know she and your father are not in love with each other, right?" At her nod, Korra had nodded in return. "But Yumi saved his life and your father built her that dojo when she knew she wasn't going to be able to stay with the Kyoshis any longer. There were a lot of reasons around that, but that's for Yumi to tell you if she wants to, okay? But her giving you to Wu to raise wasn't some whim on her part. She and your father are close, Meili. Closer than most people realize. I know everybody thinks of that time when he was in Ba Sing Se and they think of Nuo and Huan as being your father's best friends and they were. Are still. But he and Yumi." Korra had been quiet for a moment. "It's their own thing. And I think he's a good father, a damn good father. And it goes without saying Mako's a good father, I always knew he would be, he raised your uncle, after all, and he was just a kid himself when he did. And Qi loves you to death, there's nothing they wouldn't do for you. But it's hard, you being without a waterbender at home. Not for the training, you can't go wrong with Sitiak for healing and I'm always happy to work with you and I mean that. Asami and I never had kids, aren't going to have kids, so you and your siblings and cousins are my honorary kids. Or at least that's how I think of you, like my nieces and nephews. And you especially, because I'm training you."
She'd smiled at that, and Korra had winked at her.
"And I'm guessing eventually you'll go down south and train with Iskani, and like I said, she's one of the best healers in the world. If not the best. And the thing is, I don't think it's a bad thing the way your father and your uncle trained themselves. They're both unbelievable benders, and that's down to the two of them learning together despite having different bending and the both of them picking up moves from the Triple Threats, which included waterbenders. And both of them were there when I started to learn airbending and paid attention and learned as well. I've already seen both Mako and Lin's influence in your training, and as far as I'm concerned, it makes you a better bender." Korra had snorted. "Not that everybody agrees with that, but I'm the Avatar and I say so. That's one of the perks of the job." She'd winked again and Meili found herself laughing a little in return. "But not having a waterbender in the house to help raise you, to help you deal with all of the complex emotions we have, that's been hard. Qi's done their best, they came to me when you were just tiny, asked how they could help you, really listened and took what I said to heart. It's why they always kept you so close when the moon was full, for example."
"Really?" She'd felt her eyebrows arch.
"Oh yeah. Qi's been looking out for you since you were born. And I'm not dismissing what they've done, not at all. But it would have been easier with a waterbender around."
She'd nodded slowly, thinking it over.
"Waterbenders embrace change, Meili. We flow. We move like the tides with the moon. We feel things, and we let ourselves feel them and when the feeling is strong enough, we let it guide us. And there's nobody in your house like that. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, okay? But it's something that you need to be aware of. And when your natural instincts pop up, I want you to listen to them. Listen and act. Because at that moment you need to be a waterbender, and not a princess. Do you get what I'm saying to you?"
She'd nodded, and Korra had kissed her forehead again and then had demanded she pull her up, pretending to complain about being old and achy, and they'd started training again. The conversation hadn't been forgotten, but she'd needed to let it sit there for while as she thought about it.
She spent a lot of time thinking about things, more time than most people knew. She often found her thoughts getting away from her in school, even. She excelled in school, was in the top percentage of all her classes, and she was diligent about her work. She would never let Papa down about that. She knew how things had been for both Daddy and Mama, how they'd never gotten to go to school, and she was aware that she was privileged that way. Especially going to Plumwood Academy, which was considered the best school in all of Republic City. She had friends there, although nobody like Naoki's best friend Uthai. Uthai and Naoki were still the best of friends, even though Naoki was busy trying to build up her own bending academy and Uthai had gone to university and was getting married next spring. She'd hoped, once she got to school, that she'd find a friend like that. She hadn't. She had friends, of course. Girls who ate lunch with her, who sometimes came to visit after school, girls with whom she could chat pleasantly. She was aware, however, that they were only friends with her because she was the beautiful, popular Hou-Ting princess, not because she was Meili.
She didn't know how to reach out to them. She wasn't interested in talking about wealth or dating or fashion or status the way the rest of them were. It was different with Uthai, who had so frequently stayed over and had even come with them to Ember Island for a few school holidays. Uthai was comfortable with her entire family, and even now Mama was helping her design her wedding dress. The few girls she'd invited over had either been frightened of Mama, had gone on endlessly about how handsome Daddy was (what, was she supposed to make small talk about her own father's sex appeal?) and had, quite frankly, tried to suck up to Papa. One of the girls had even tried to sneak into Daddy and Papa's bedroom to look around and when Mama had caught her and called her parents to come and pick her up it was her that was mortified, not the girl who had spent the next day at school talking about what she'd seen.
She was very weary of being lonely.
She was sitting in class one afternoon after lunch, outwardly paying attention and taking notes, but really she was doodling in her notebook, hoping the lesson would go by faster. The mathematical theory the teacher was explaining was one that she'd already learned from Zhi, who often went over her textbooks with her, teaching her what she needed to know before she'd have the actual lesson in school.
Sometimes she thought that it would be wonderful to study like Zhi had done, at home and on his own schedule. She knew it was important for Papa that she remain at school, however. So there she sat, drawing from memory Uncle Wei's shoulder, which had sustained some tendon damage before she was born, an old injury that frequently lead to stiffness and inflammation. Sitiak had asked Uncle Wei if she could practice on him and Uncle Wei had immediately agreed while beaming at her, telling her she was really helping him. She'd accused him of just trying to be nice to her but her laughing, joking Uncle Wei had taken her face into his big hands and had told her he knew her healing was as important to her as his pro-bending was to him and he'd never be anything but honest with her, because otherwise she'd never learn.
She was sketching in the tendons around the socket when a sudden feeling of wrongness took her over, stealing her breath and making her break out into a clammy sweat. She dropped her pencil and gasped.
Mr. Chung stopped mid-sentence to blink at her. "Is everything all right, Princess?"
"I -" she started and then winced as her hand flared with pain. "I don't -" She took in a deep breath. "I apologize. May I please be excused for a moment?"
Mr. Chung blinked again and then nodded. "Yes, of course. Perhaps the nurse?" he asked, peering at her with some confusion.
She nodded, thanking him as she stood, ignoring the stares and muttered comments of her classmates, as she walked as quickly as she could to the door, opening it and closing it quietly behind her.
WRONG
Her heart started to slam in her chest and she immediately tried to determine if she had some sort of injury. Her hand had hurt, had she done something to it earlier? No, that couldn't possibly be it, she hadn't
WRONG
Korra had told her she had to let the feelings come and trust that they'd steer her where she needed to be. She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and let the wrong take over.
Before she made a conscious choice her feet were already moving her down the hall, towards the wing where the younger students had their classrooms. She was nearly running now, her heart beating in time with the wrongness, urging her forward. Her body, her instincts knew where she was going, before her mind had fully grasped it.
It was as she was approaching the door to her sister's classroom that she heard the vicious swish of something moving quickly through the air, followed by the unmistakable sound of flesh being smacked. It was the sound of Sayuri's anguished cry, however, that meant she flung open the door instead of knocking politely, launching herself through the doorway. There stood her sister, hand stretched on the desk in the front of the classroom, the ruler that was being wielded by the teacher arcing up and then down again.
The ruler never finished its arc. She didn't know how she moved herself that quickly, but the next thing she knew she had the two broken pieces of the ruler in her hands. The teacher's eyes bulged as she hissed her outrage, but Meili no longer gave a damn about her. Instead, she dropped the ruler and gathered her sister into her arms, pulling her close.
Sayuri was trembling so hard that her body was quaking with it. Sayuri, who had never been struck even once in her life. Sayuri, whose eyes were filled with bewildered pain, tears seeping down her face. Her little hand, with its long, elegant Hou-Ting bones, was covered with several angry red welts.
Meili was so furious that she felt nearly dizzy with it.
"You can't just-" the teacher sputtered out, her face darkening, but she stopped when Meili turned her gaze to her. She didn't want to hear what else the woman had to say, so she took Sayuri with her as she surged out of the classroom, moving the two of them down the corridor, heading for the main doors leading outside. Sayuri started to sob in her arms and she paused long enough to hoist her up, Sayuri's legs automatically wrapping around her waist as she bawled into the collar of her school uniform. Out the doors they went, into the well-appointed front courtyard with the plum trees the school had been named for, and she kept going.
She wasn't sure when or how she had made the decision, but across the street from the school, in this, the best neighborhood in the city, was the Southern Water Tribe Consulate, and she marched her way over there, still holding onto her sister. There was a buzzer and an intercom at the gate and she rang it, and when the voice inquired after her business she told them she was Princess Meili Hou-Ting and she did not have an appointment, but she hoped the ambassador's staff could assist her.
The gate opened immediately, and by the time she had made it to the front door Ambassador Asiavik herself came out to greet her, her eyes widening at the sight of Sayuri still sobbing in her arms.
Asiavik had only arrived in Republic City a few months prior, replacing the former ambassador who had finally retired after thirty years of service. She was in her sixties, a stocky woman, her silver hair done in elaborate loops of braids, her fashionable dress a nod to Republic City's more modern ways. She'd been wearing traditional dress when she had come for dinner last month, Papa sitting her next to Korra. The two of them had not known each other when Korra was a child but the ambassador had served as a member of Wolf Cove's city council and knew Korra's parents very well, apparently. The ambassador had also taken time that evening to speak to her pleasantly, asking after her studies, both academic and waterbending. Meili had liked her immediately.
"Princess Meili," the ambassador said, putting a hand to her back and guiding her in, shutting the door behind her. "Please let me know how I can help you."
"Would it be possible for me to make a call home?" She took in a deep breath. "I apologize for the inconvenience."
"Not at all." The ambassador turned to her secretary, who had stood up next to his desk. "Tootega, can you help the princess make a call? And perhaps we can bring tea for..." The ambassador trailed off, smiling at Sayuri. Sayuri hadn't been present for the dinner. Papa knew better than to bring Button to anything formal like that.
"Sayuri," Button sobbed out, and the ambassador nodded.
"Ah yes, bring tea for Princess Sayuri."
"Right away," the secretary said, already taking up the phone.
"Button, this is Ambassador Asiavik. Can you go with her while I call Mama?" She gently unwound Sayuri's legs. "I'll only be a minute."
"Tell me, Princess, do you like kelp cookies?" The ambassador's eyes crinkled up at the corners. They were pale blue, nearly white against the darkness of her skin. Sayuri nodded, still crying. "Oh, that's wonderful, because do you know what?" Sayuri shook her head. "I made some kelp cookies just yesterday. Would you like to try one?" Sayuri nodded more enthusiastically and the ambassador guided her into her office, chatting agreeably about which were better, crispy or chewy cookies.
She gave the secretary the number and password for the house and once connected, he handed over the phone silently and then left, most likely to provide the tea. Cork answered and she told him she needed to speak to Mama; he told her that Mama was just leaving with Papa and sent one of his assistants dashing out to the garage to stop them. She asked Cork to tell Mama that she needed them to come to the consulate right away and Cork promised to pass on the message as she hung up.
Button was sitting on a sofa in the ambassador's office, still crying, but there was a cookie in her hand and the ambassador was urging her to take some tea. "Mama is coming," she told her sister, and Sayuri wailed.
"I wasn't trying to be naughty." Sayuri dropped the cookie in her distress. "I was only asking because I didn't understand. Will Mama be angry?"
She went down on her knees in front of her sister, carefully taking her left hand into hers. The welts had already deepened in color; they were clearly going to bruise. "Mama won't be angry. Not at you. I promise. Nor Papa, nor Daddy. Nor anyone else, okay? Nobody is angry with you."
The ambassador pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and applied it expertly to Sayuri's face. "Was this a teacher?" she murmured, and Meili nodded. The ambassador's mouth tightened. Meili knew that corporal punishment of any kind was taboo in the Water Tribes, unlike in the former Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. "I know from what the Avatar has told me that you are studying healing already. I can provide you with water if you would like to help your sister." She gestured at Sayuri's hand.
"I'm not meant to do it without my teacher's supervision." She smoothed back Sayuri's unruly curls, already more than halfway escaped from the bow Papa had tied them into that morning. "Besides, I think my parents should see this. But thank you." At the ambassador's nod, she took another cookie and cuddled Sayuri close. "If you don't eat this cookie then I'm going to."
"But it's my cookie!" Sayuri stuffed it into her mouth and then reached for her teacup, wincing a little. "Fishy, it hurts so much."
"I know, but Mama will be here soon and then they'll take you to Sitiak, and he'll help you. Okay?"
Fresh tears cascaded down Sayuri's cheeks. "I didn't mean to be naughty. I didn't mean it. Miss Daiyu said that I was and she said that I was a disgrace to the Hou-Ting name." Sayuri sobbed even harder. "I don't want to be a disgrace for Papa. I don't mean to be."
"Sayuri Hou-Ting! You are never a disgrace." And there was Papa, standing in the door, Mama behind him. "Who on earth has put such things in your head!" He inclined his head politely at the ambassador. "Ambassador Asiavik."
The ambassador bowed in return. "Your Highness. Royal Consort."
"Who did that to your hand?" Mama was staring at Sayuri's hand, frozen in place. A muscle ticked in their jaw.
Button started to sob even harder, and Papa's hand crept to his throat. "Sayuri! Who did that to you!"
She met Papa's eyes. "It was Miss Daiyu. I caught her doing it."
"Is that so," Papa said. He was still smiling his polite company smile, but the edges of his nostrils had gone white. "Well. We shall see about that." He crouched down in front of Sayuri and pulled out his own handkerchief. "Now then. Let's just mop up those tears, shall we? I see the ambassador has given you some kelp cookies and some tea."
"She made them and they are quite delectable," Sayuri wailed.
"I tell you what, Princess Sayuri. Why don't I make up a little package of them for you to have at home?" The ambassador smiled.
"Thank you," Sayuri managed, and then Papa gently raised her up from the sofa.
"Now, I think the best thing to do is for you to go with your mother," Papa said briskly. "They can take you to see Sitiak and that hand will be as good as new."
"You aren't angry, Papa?" Sayuri's chin was quivering.
"Certainly not."
"But Mama is angry?" Sayuri stared at Mama and her face fell. "Mama, I wasn't trying to be naughty, I'm sorry!"
Mama came forward and pulled Sayuri into their arms, whispering into her ear and then kissing her cheek before turning back to Papa. They didn't get a word out before Papa put his hand on their arm, however, meeting their eyes.
"This is for me, my love. Let me handle this one while you take the baby home. Yes? This one is my world. You let me take care of it." Papa continued to meet Mama's eyes until they briefly closed their own and then nodded.
"I can only take the baby, though. We've got the wrong car."
"I'm sure we can call the car service from here. You take her to Sitiak, Meili and I will make our own way home."
Mama nodded again, and put their arms around Sayuri. "Come on Baby, you come with me."
Sayuri turned first and bowed to the ambassador, still snuffling. "Thank you for having me, Ambassador. I'm sorry I cried in your office."
The ambassador merely smiled at that. "You are welcome any time, Princess. I'm glad you came."
"And you won't forget my cookies?" Sayuri wiped her nose on her sleeve and Mama grimaced, shoving a hankie into her hand.
"I will give them to your father. You have my word on it." The Ambassador gave her a little wave and Mama escorted her out.
Papa stood there for a moment before turning to the Ambassador. "May I prevail upon your secretary to call the Lucky Coin cab company? We have an account under Hou-Ting, they will send a car for us."
"Please, let my driver take the two of you home when you are ready. I assume you wish to go to the school first?" At Papa's nod the ambassador continued. "Then I will wrap the cookies for the princess and when you return my driver will be waiting."
"Thank you, Ambassador," Papa said. "I am in your debt. I'll return shortly, if you do not mind Meili waiting for me here."
"I need to get my things," she said. "And Sayuri's as well."
Papa looked as if he might argue but then simply nodded in the end. "What happened?"
She frowned. "I don't know. I had a feeling that something was wrong -" Papa gave her a bit of a look at that but remained silent "-and I went to Sayuri's classroom and saw Miss Daiyu hitting her with the ruler." Papa took in a rather explosive breath at that. "I broke the ruler."
"Good," said Papa, and he reached over and squeezed her hand. "We'll be right back," he said to the Ambassador who bowed at the both of them as Papa escorted her out the door. They walked across the street together, through the courtyard and down the mostly silent halls, the doors closed and the rest of the students still inside. Papa led them straight through to the Headmistress's office. As soon as her secretary saw them she leapt up anxiously, and knocked on Madame Ume's door. "His Highness is here," the woman said, and Madame Ume herself came out.
"Your Highness! Please, come into my office." As she and Papa followed Madame Ume in, she bowed deeply. "Your Highness, I have been made aware of what happened. As you know, we do not allow corporal punishment of any sort at this Academy. The teacher in question has been relieved of her post as of today. She will receive no references from us. I can only offer you my deepest apologies and assurances that it will never happen again."
Papa nodded. "I am very glad to hear that. I chose Plumwood Academy for my children for its sterling reputation, and I would not like to see my faith in the school put to the test."
"Miss Daiyu was a new hire this year. She was aware of the school's rules, but chose to break them. That is unacceptable to us. We will need to hire a replacement for her, but I assure you, Your Highness, that despite it never happening before all of our teachers will be reminded of our policies, especially with regards to the children themselves."
Papa only nodded again. "I appreciate your prompt attention to the matter, Madame."
Madame Ume turned to her. "I collected your things as well as your sister's things, Princess. My secretary has them."
"Thank you," she said, and Madame Ume gave her a little bow.
"Would it be possible for me to speak to Miss Daiyu?" Papa had put on his polite company smile again. "If she is still here, that is."
"Oh! If you would like." Madame's brows furrowed. "She is still here, there is some paperwork. You may use my office, if that's acceptable."
"I would be grateful," Papa said, and sat himself down on Madame's chair, behind her desk. Papa didn't ask her to leave, so she moved herself discreetly to the far side of the room, mostly hidden by a large bookshelf. In a few moments the Headmistress returned, Miss Daiyu in tow.
"I'll give you some privacy," Madame said to Papa, and bowed. She closed the door behind her.
There was a silence. Miss Daiyu broke it. "I suppose you think that your daughter is allowed -"
"We have not given you leave to speak," Papa said, and his voice was cold and precise, wholly different from how he usually sounded. Papa was warm and effusive, often long-winded and frequently distracted, but never like this. She held her breath and listened.
"This isn't Ba Sing Se. You aren't a king here." Miss Daiyu's mouth flattened. Papa didn't answer but merely sat in his chair, watching her. "This is Republic City. I have rights."
"Ah, but you are from Ba Sing Se, of course. I recognize the accent. I assume, therefore, that you aware of what the penalty is for harming a Hou-Ting." Papa hadn't even blinked he was staring at her so intensely.
"This isn't Ba-"
Papa's voice cracked across the room like a whip. "Death. The penalty is death." Papa raised a languid hand. "Or imprisonment, if the Hou-Ting in question was feeling generous or found it more politically expedient. I am not, in this moment, feeling particularly generous."
Miss Daiyu thrust her chin forward. "Are you trying to threaten me?"
"Royalty does not threaten. We simply do." Papa tilted his head, never taking his eyes off of Miss Daiyu. "I assume you know what diplomatic immunity is, yes?" A haughty sniff. "You must have been educated or else you wouldn't have been hired. In any case, I have it. Per a treaty between my great-grandfather Hou-Ting, Firelord Zuko, the then chieftains of both Water Tribe Nations and the original founder of the United Republic of Nations, in fact. Said diplomatic immunity means there are no laws outside of those of the Air Nation Temples that concern me." Papa's mouth curved up cruelly. "None at all."
Her mind raced. She had never heard about this. She would think that Papa was making it up to scare Miss Daiyu but Papa was no liar. And she had never heard him threaten anyone before.
"Do you know that my daughter has never been struck in her life? Barbaric custom, that of striking children. It makes me angry, you understand." Papa's hands slowly spread themselves across the desk. "Angry enough, in fact, that if we were in Ba Sing Se, I would gather together your entire family to watch as I would have the skin flayed from your back in front of them. One strike for every strike you gave my child." Papa smiled. It was a horrible smile, a thin and unamused slash across his face. "Indeed, I am angry enough that I might not stop at your back. I might not even stop with you, in fact." He leaned forward slightly. "Do we understand each other?"
Miss Daiyu was staring at Papa, her mouth sagging open, sweat beading across her forehead. "Your Highness," she managed, and at that Papa surged to his feet, Miss Daiyu stumbling back with a cry at the fury in his face.
"Yes. I am your highness. And my daughter is also your highness. You have permanently damaged her, you have taken a piece of her innocence and a good deal of her trust and smashed it today, and she will never get it back. Never! Your arrogance, your thoughtlessness, your presumption! She is a child! If the only way you can keep control in your classroom is to beat the children into submission then you should never be allowed around children again!" Papa was so angry that his eyes were blazing, his hands clenched into fists.
"Your daughter is obstinate and -"
"You will stop now," Papa said, his voice gone soft with menace. "If you value anything about your life, professional or otherwise, you will stop now." He and Miss Daiyu stared at each other until the teacher looked away. She was shaking. "For the sake of all four of my children we will give you until sunrise tomorrow to leave this city."
Miss Daiyu swallowed heavily. She wouldn't meet Papa's eyes "You might get me fired but you can't make me leave. Even with diplomatic immunity." She was trying to sound brave, but shrillness of her voice gave her away.
Papa laughed then, and she shuddered. It was vicious, that laughter. He moved until he was nearly nose to nose with Miss Daiyu. "You are absolutely correct. However, I should make you aware that all members of the House of Hou-Ting have diplomatic immunity as well, and that includes the Royal Consort." Miss Daiyu sucked in a breath. "Ah yes, I see you have heard of them. I will hold them back until sunrise. If you are still in the city after that then you will not live to see the sunset, I guarantee you." Papa shrugged as he stepped back. "It is up to you, of course. But if you value your life, you will leave. I do not suggest you ever return, or at least while the Royal Consort still lives." Papa turned away at that point. "They do not forgive. And I? I will not forget. I will remember you. I think you will find, in time, that you will wish I did not."
Miss Daiyu's breathing had picked up, and Meili could see tears in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around her torso. "Your Highness -" she started again, but Papa, without turning around, merely held up a hand.
"We have nothing more to say. You may leave our presence. Be gone before sunrise." Papa stood there, his back to her, unmoving as Miss Daiyu stumbled over her feet, flinging the door open and practically running out.
Papa took several deep breaths, his back still towards her, before turning around. He looked like her Papa again, although she could tell he was still angry. "I don't believe I can stay here another minute, Meili. Let's get your things and go home."
Papa held out his arm and she took it, taking her book bag as well as Sayuri's as they left. Papa ignored Madame Ume as she tried to speak to them, which was a little more like him. As they reached the courtyard, Papa finally spoke. "And yes, before you ask, it is absolutely true about diplomatic immunity. That includes you and your brother and sisters, and both Mako and Qi. You're all registered as ranking members of the House of Hou-Ting. That is not to say that there would not be repercussions for breaking the law, of course. But they would not be legal repercussions."
"Does anyone else know?" She stopped then, and watched Papa.
"Lin knows. She was the chief of police, it was firmly in her purview. Your father knows, it was part of his duty as my bodyguard, back in the day. Your mother..." here Papa took in another one of those deep breaths "...your mother knows. And has used it. And that's all I will say about that." Papa held up a hand forestalling her question. "That is for Qi to discuss with you if they choose." Papa's tone said he didn't think Mama would choose. "I have not mentioned it to your sister or your brother, because they have no reason whatsoever to do anything that would require diplomatic immunity. The same goes for you, I hope goes without saying. And Sayuri." Papa met her eyes. "I don't wish to discuss this with them. Not now, at least. I hope I can rely on your discretion."
She knew her Papa well enough to know that the more formal he got, the more upset he was. "I understand, Papa. I won't say anything."
Papa took her into his arms and held her tightly. "I'm sorry, Meili. I am afraid I rather lost control of myself in there. It wasn't something you should have seen. I already regret it."
"Regret me seeing it, or regret actually doing it?" she asked, and Papa breathed a laugh nearly into her ear.
"Oh, Meili. Only you would ask me that." Papa pulled back enough to kiss her forward. "And I believe that of all of my children, you know the answer as well."
"I wouldn't regret doing it to her either, Papa."
"Yes, I know you wouldn't." Papa cupped her cheek in his hand. "But let's keep this between us, yes? I will have to deal with your mother tonight and the last thing I need is your father knowing I threatened someone. It makes him upset. I'll tell him later, I promise. After your mother calms down."
"And after you calm down."
Papa snorted. "Yes, that as well." He was quiet for a moment, and then sighed. "It's not her hand. She did worse to both of her knees last month when she took that tumble off the roof of the pavilion. Sitiak will tend to it, and it won't scar. It's the damage to her mind that upsets me. Sayuri is so trusting, so innocent. She can't imagine a world where people wish to hurt her. And I had hoped..." here Papa took in a deep breath, and his eyes filled up with tears, "...that she could remain that way for a little longer. I worried so about sending her to school because of it. We went back and forth about sending her away to school, but we all hoped she'd socialize there, make some friends. Much like you and Naoki." Papa took out one of his hankies and blotted at his eyes.
"I don't really have any friends there, Papa. Not like Uthai or anything." She frowned. "I don't think Sayuri will either. Those girls there..." she thought about how to say it in the best way, but Papa took her hand in his to encourage her. "They're shallow, mean people. Not all of them, I'm sure. But the older they get, the more they learn to only care about their own wealth and importance. Uthai wasn't like that, I know. But most of them are."
"Uthai is the only child of a concubine who died when she was still very small," Papa said, and his mouth pursed up. "Her father was in his sixties when she was born, and her mother was very young. Far too young. It would reflect poorly on him if Uthai was not seen to be cared for, so he sent her to school and made sure she was dressed in the latest fashions, that sort of thing. That's been the extent of what he's ever done for her, however." At her look Papa scoffed. "Her father was third tier nobility back under the old Hou-Ting, he only relocated here after I abdicated. He has two wives and several other concubines, and the in-fighting in his home is brutal, and I believe he encourages it. None of them have ever been particularly kind to Uthai. Quite the contrary." Papa shook his head. "She's a lovely girl, Uthai. Smart, well-mannered, kind. Her soon-to-be in-laws are Fire Nation and they weren't keen on her at first but I wrote to Juziya and at least that's been taken care of. For her wedding I plan on gifting her a home and some property as well as a modest trust, in her name. The in-laws and the husband won't be able to touch it, never mind her own family. Her husband seems to be a nice boy, at least. Third son and not a bender, so they won't squawk too much if he and Uthai live here in Republic City. Which would be better for the both of them."
"Just using your money to fix everything for everyone, hmm?" She raised an eyebrow at Papa and was glad when he squeezed her hand.
"Over the years I've come to understand that my money has its limitations, true. I can't fix Uthai's home life, or make any of her various relations love or care for her. But I can make sure that regardless of what happens in her future, she will always be financially stable. And that's no small thing. I've learned at least that much from your father and mother."
"Is that what you did for Yumi?" She surprised herself by saying it. Papa merely raised his eyebrows at her. "Korra said that you gave her the dojo."
"Korra has a remarkable aversion to keeping her mouth shut and minding her own business," Papa said, and his eyes narrowed. "And always has."
"You really don't like each other, you and Korra."
"Korra and I tolerate each other, for the sake of your father, mostly. I don't dislike her, necessarily. But I don't think we'd associate if not for your father. We're very, very different people."
"And neither of you like to share Daddy."
Papa stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. His smile, when it came, was wry. "I do forget, sometimes, how very observant you are. Fourteen going on forty." Papa laughed a little before bringing her hand up and kissing her knuckles. "But yes, to answer your question. I did give Yumi her dojo. It's not really a secret, any more than it is a secret that she's your birth mother. I love Yumi, and I hoped very much that she would stay near me. There were other reasons for it, but that was the most pressing one, anyhow."
"And she gave you me."
"She did, yes."
"I read in a book I got from the library about the Southern Water Tribe that you giving her the dojo and her giving you me would be considered a marriage down there." She watched her Papa, but his expression didn't change. He was making sure of it, she thought.
"Did you now," said Papa, and he tucked her arm into his. "Interesting. Well. In any case, we should not leave the Ambassador's driver waiting."
She knew that was all she was going to get out of Papa at the moment. Waterbenders might not be the most patient people in the world, but she'd learned how to bide her time until she knew exactly how to approach a difficult situation from Lin. She wouldn't forget the question. But she would wait until the time was right before following up on it.
The Ambassador was waiting for them in the lobby of the consulate, a wrapped package in her hands. Papa nodded at her.
"Ambassador, I must thank you again. I hope you will allow me to invite you to dinner with the family this week to fully express my gratitude."
"I would be glad to accept, Your Highness." She smiled in return. "However, before you go, I wonder if I might speak to Princess Meili?"
Papa gestured towards her. "Of course."
"The Avatar has told me about your training. I know that she works with you whenever she is here in Republic City, and Waterhealer Sitiak has charge of your waterhealing. I myself have very little skill with healing, and I can't compare to the Avatar when it comes to bending, of course." The Ambassador chuckled. "Not that any of us could. However, I believe I could help to fill in a few holes in your training." She glanced at Papa. "Forgive my presumption, Your Highness, but I don't believe that Princess Meili has much in the way of exposure to Southern Water Tribe culture?"
Papa shook his head. "It is no presumption, Ambassador. She does not. Korra does what she can, but most of their time together focuses on her training."
"I know I don't know very much," she said, and the Ambassador reached out to put a gentle hand on her arm.
"I am wondering if you would like to perhaps spend a day a week after school with me, Princess. I would be very glad to guide you into a deeper knowledge of our mutual culture as well as some cultural practices that might assist you with your bending. With your parents' permission, of course."
She caught her breath and then looked at Papa. He smiled at her, the first real smile she'd seen from him since he'd arrived. "May I, Papa?"
"Of course you may. I know your father and mother will agree." Papa took her hand in his. "Ambassador, this is very generous."
"Korra speaks so highly of you, Princess. She says you are extraordinarily gifted, especially in the healing arts."
She could feel her cheeks heat up. "She does?"
The Ambassador chuckled again. "She most certainly does. I haven't yet met Waterhealer Sitiak, but I am aware that he was Waterhealer Kya's student and Korra assures me he's an excellent teacher."
She nodded. "He is."
"I had no idea you hadn't met Sitiak, Ambassador!" Papa clasped his hands together, her hand still between them. "I'll invite him to dinner with you, then. His husband is family, of course, and we've been glad to have him become part of the family as well as Meili's teacher."
"Thank you, Your Highness."
"No, Ambassador. Thank you. For your assistance today and for the offer to work with Meili. I know there is a gap in her education and I am truly grateful, as I know her father and mother will be as well. We can discuss it more when you come to dinner, perhaps?"
"Certainly," the Ambassador said. "Now please don't forget the cookies, I did promise Princess Sayuri I would send them along." She handed the package to Papa.
"Oh, I wouldn't hear the end of it if I forgot them, believe me."
They were quiet in the short ride home, the embassy's driver opening the door for both of them and politely handing her out. He bowed at Papa, who discreetly tucked a few bills into his hand. The driver bowed again, even deeper. She had no idea how the Southern Water Tribe felt about bribes (a normal part of living and doing business, like Papa or something to be wholly avoided like Daddy or even a means to an end, like Mama) but she supposed she could ask the ambassador about it. It would be useful to learn these kinds of things. Especially if she did eventually go to school down there.
Lin was waiting by the front door, pacing and furious, her sharp, heavy footfalls making the marble of the entryway shudder just slightly. Lin often put up a grouchy front, but when she was actually angry she was more than a little intimidating. She watched the two of them as they entered, her arms crossed. "They're in the kitchen," was all she said, but she uncrossed her arms to put her hand on Papa's shoulder, fingers closing in slightly. "Well?"
Papa closed his eyes briefly. "It's been taken care of. Qi?"
Lin took in a deep breath before letting it out explosively. "Garden. I told Hemadri to keep an eye on them, to not let them leave. That's the last thing we need. Come on."
Lin led them through the house and into the usual cheerful noise of the kitchen. Daddy was standing in the corner, arms crossed just like Lin's had been, frowning. He immediately met Papa's eyes as they entered, but Papa gave his head the barest of shakes. She could see Daddy wasn't happy about it, but he left it alone. She assumed Papa would fill him in later.
Sayuri was sitting on LoLo's lap, her left hand held gently in Sitiak's big hand as he slowly bent glowing water over it. Naoki was grinning and tossing what looked like roasted peanuts through the air, exhorting Sayuri to get them and Sayuri was trying - and mostly failing - to catch them in her mouth, giggling. Uncle Wei snagged one out of the air with his hand and popped it into her mouth with a comical expression, which only made Sayuri giggle all the harder. It was just like Naoki to distract her by making her laugh. Naoki could always get anybody to laugh. It wasn't a talent she possessed.
She often wished she did, however.
She quietly made her way to the door to the back garden, slipping on her garden shoes, opening and closing the door behind her silently. She knew that if Sitiak saw her he'd have her come over so he could supervise her while she healed her sister, but she wasn't sure if she'd be able to do it. She was still too angry. A healer had to put aside all of their personal feelings when healing, and normally she could. But when she thought about that noise Sayuri had made, full of pain and betrayal, her breath started to heave and she swore she could feel her blood moving about her veins, surging up into her throat, her eyes stinging.
She made her way through the trees and past the pond and pavilion, seeing the gleam of Hemadri's hide as she lounged in her own pavilion on the other side of the pond, the one that Papa had had built for her. Hemadri didn't need to be close to Mama to know where they were. Although she wasn't sure if they couldn't get by Hemadri if they really had a mind to. If Mama was in the garden, that meant Mama wanted to be in the garden.
She thought she might know where they were, and the faint scent of smoke confirmed it. They were on the roof of the old building that the gardeners sometimes used to store equipment that needed repair, all the way in the back of the property, very close to the fence that separated their garden from Madame Zong's next door. There was a rickety old spiral staircase that led up to a trapdoor to the roof. She wasn't sure why. She had asked Lin about it once and Lin had confirmed that the building had been there when she was a girl, but that she and Granny Su and their mother had never used it at all. Sometimes Mama sat up there, smoking. When they wanted to be alone, she thought.
She opened the door and went inside, stepping around the dilapidated tools and gardening detritus, making her way up the wobbly stairs. Mama was sitting on a stool that had seen better days, staring at the house, cigarette in hand, a metal can with dirt in it next to them. It had several butts in it already. Mama didn't look around but spoke, instead.
"Reckon I shouldn't be surprised that you, out of all of those kids, knew about this place."
"Do you want me to leave?" She meant it. She understood that sometimes people just needed to be alone. She often felt like that herself, after all.
"I ain't goin' nowhere," Mama said, their old accent creeping through. That only happened when Mama was upset. They gestured towards Hemadri's pavilion. "Got my guard over there."
"Papa told the teacher that she had until sunrise tomorrow to leave Republic City. He told her that after that you had diplomatic immunity and she wouldn't live to see sunset."
Mama's shoulders stiffened and they slowly turned to look at her. "Wu threatened her?"
She nodded. "Very effectively. He told her that if they were in Ba Sing Se he would have had her flayed in front of her family."
Mama took in another drag of her cigarette and scoffed. "He don't mean it."
"He meant it," she replied, crossing her arms. "I do know my own father, you know." Mama scoffed again but didn't answer. She didn't need them to. She knew Papa had meant it, every single word. "You think I'm not angry, too? I'm angry, Mama. I wanted to hurt that woman. And I could have." A sob forced its way out of her chest. "I could have. I could. You didn't see Button's face, you didn't hear the sound she made, you didn't. You didn't." She swallowed the next sob back down, refusing to give into it, blinking hard at the tears that were threatening to spill.
Mama stood in one fluid motion, dropping their cigarette, crossing to her and taking her into their arms. "It's okay, baby. It's okay." Mama's hand rested on her back, strong and sure. She was taller than Mama but she still felt so safe in their arms, the way she always had. "I know how that anger feels. Believe me, I know."
"It's fine," she said, straightening up, hating how tight and shrill her voice sounded. "I'm fine."
"Baby. Baby." Mama took her face into their hands. "No, look at me. Look at me, Meili." She stared into Mama's eyes, a dark mix of green and brown, eyes that Mama always called muddy. She thought they were beautiful. She always had. "Listen to me. You're only human, baby. Even you get to be mad sometimes. Fuck's sake, you're a waterbender. It's in your blood. It's okay to cry if you want to."
She shook her head. "I'm fine." Another sob tried to escape her and she dug her fingernails into her palms. "I don't need to cry."
"We'll see about that," Mama said, and practically dragged her through the trapdoor, down the stairs and through the garden. Mama could move so quickly when they wanted to that even she, with her long legs, had trouble keeping up. "I'm taking Meili out," Mama said, and it took her a moment to realize Mama wasn't speaking to her. "I don't give a sweet fuck what she said." Another short pause. "You go right ahead and tell her. But don't you get in my way, Hemadri. Not today. You hear me, girlie? Not today."
She wasn't sure what Hemadri said in return, but even though she could see the light bouncing off her golden scales as she shifted, the dragon kept to her pavilion.
Mama put her in their car and drove, a little too fast as usual, through their neighborhood and over to the bluffs that overlooked the open sea. There were two beaches that had been created by teams of waterbenders and sandbenders that were meant for swimming, always full of their wealthy neighbors, tidied every evening by sandbenders, swept and pruned and perfected into blandness. They'd been created to civilize the tide and breakers for beachgoers, which meant you couldn't even surf there. The water felt trapped, and it made her uncomfortable to swim there.
Mama didn't take her to one of those beaches. They took her to one of the beaches that was still wild and untouched, dirt and gravel mixed into the rocky sand. They pulled the car over and took her hand into theirs, half dragging her through the dunes, choked in wild grass and the remains of shells, until they stood at the edge of the water. She was crying now, unable to stop herself, the tears on her cheeks hot and unwelcome.
"Why are we here?" she managed, and Mama took her chin in their hand.
"Get it out, baby. All out. I don't want you leaving that shit to fester." Mama kissed her cheek and then stepped back, perching themself on a outcrop of rock, watching out to sea.
She didn't know what Mama wanted her to do. She stood there, the water tumbling over itself to reach her toes, still encased in her garden shoes and she kicked them off, abandoning them as she waded into the water, sobbing now, the waves tugging hungrily at the hem of her school uniform. She gasped for breath as the tears were wrenched out of her, thinking of Button's eyes wide with shock and bewilderment, the horrible bruises on her hand (that woman, that piece of shit, she hit Sayuri's left hand, the hand Button wrote with) and the way Button had clung to her, baby sister the elbow-leech, trusting that her big sister would take her somewhere safe. Sayuri trusted that she'd keep her safe but how safe had she kept her? That woman had already hit her before she'd even gotten there. She'd hurt her little Button, her own baby sister, so innocent, so trusting.
With a scream she flung her arms out and the waves responded, the water flying in huge, swooping arcs about her. She fought the tide, shoving it back and dragging it forward, thrusting it towards the sky in icy spikes that she shattered mid-air, sending frozen discs spinning into the distance, howling like an animal the entire time. She willed the sea into obedience, and she didn't stop until she finally dropped to her knees, exhausted, the water scrolling over her head. She opened her eyes into salt that stung and without thinking, drew the salt away from her. She knelt there, encased in the water, until her need for air drove her up into a waterspout that deposited her, none too gracefully, on the loose scree of the beach, where she crouched, panting, until Mama's arms came around her.
"It's over now," Mama said, their voice barely heard over the surf. She could feel them, though, and she clung to them as they sat down and pulled her into the safety of their arms. "It's over now. Deep breaths, baby. It's over now."
"I'm sorry I didn't take better care of her," she said into Mama's ear, still crying a little. "I'm sorry."
Mama pulled back and held her face in their arms, staring into her eyes. "Meili Hou-Ting. You are fourteen years old. You aren't responsible for how the world acts. You hear me? People are going to do shitty things, because people are shitty sometimes. There's no way you can stop it. Besides, that's not what you're made for. You're made for healing, not fighting. You hear me, baby? You hear me?"
"I hear you, Mama," she said, her wet hair plastered to her face.
"You're made to help folks with the aftermath, like Naoki is there to protect and fight. It's just this time, the two of you go your roles switched. You did good today. You protected your sister, you took her out of a bad situation and kept her safe. That's not a failure, baby. Not in anybody's book."
"But that teacher. She could do it again." Her hands clutched at Mama. "She could hurt another child. What I did today won't stop her."
Mama's mouth curved up in a bleak, thin smile. "Oh baby. I can promise you, she'll never teach or work with children again. Your Papa will see to it. I know how he works, and he's got people all over the world, looking out for Hou-Ting interests. It won't be enough for Wu to run her out of town. Trust me on that if you won't trust me on anything else."
She sniffled. "I thought you said that Papa didn't mean it when he threatened her." She managed an eyebrow flick, which Mama returned with one of their own.
Mama placed their index finger onto where her third eye would be, pressing down a little. "Yeah well. Sometimes I forget you aren't like your siblings. It'd be important to them to think that Wu wouldn't be capable of that."
"Even Naoki?" A little doubt crept into her tone.
"Especially Naoki. Your sister has her own way of looking at the world, and that does not include thinking of her father as someone who's a Hou-Ting, born and bred to the bone. But you." Mama's mouth softened into something that resembled an actual smile. "Baby, you're different than your siblings. I've always put it down to Yumi, myself, with a good dose of Lin Beifong on the side. You're an honest person, Meili, and that means you see people for who they really are, flaws and all. And you've never been scared of that, not even when you were tiny. It's what is going to make you one of the best healers in the world someday. Not to mention the matriarch of this family."
She blinked at Mama. "But Naoki-"
Mama surprised her by kissing at her third eye. "Baby, I love your sister, but she's no matriarch. She's got other fish to fry. Zhi's too kind to lead this family, and Sayuri. Well. You and I both know it won't be Sayuri. But you." Mama kissed her again. "My best girl. You just promise me, no holding it inside. You come on out to the water every once in awhile, get it out of your system. You're strong, but nobody's infallible. Not even me, and I've spent my whole life trying to be. Okay?"
She nodded. "Okay, Mama."
"That's my girl. Now, let's go. Dry yourself first though, before you catch cold, you're soaking wet and freezing with it."
She bent all of the water away from herself and Mama, although her uniform was a mess and she wasn't sure if Mama's suit trousers were going to survive it. She started to feel guilty about it but Mama must have guessed; they told her to stop fussing, that they had plenty of trousers and could always buy more. Which did make her smile, finally.
By the time they got home and she'd gone for a shower and a change of clothes dinner was over and she ate in the kitchen with Mama and Cork, Mama giving Cork a hard time about his current lady friend and Cork giving back as good as he got, the both of them laughing and grinning at each other. She rarely thought about the fact Mama and Cork had known each other when they were both kids, living on the streets. Mama had married Papa and been adopted by Lin and was considered royalty now and while Cork had become a professional chef they wouldn't usually come in contact with each other, not outside of the house, not in the real world. But this world that her parents had created - Papa after leaving his kingdom behind, and Daddy by pulling himself off the street and making a life for himself and Mama by setting the wheels in motion to get what they wanted - this house, this warm, comfortable, safe and loving home of hers, her parents had made it together for the four of their children.
She would do the same. She swore it. She'd make a world where everyone was safe and accepted for who they were, not for who the world forced them to be. She wasn't ready for it now, but she'd finish her schooling and learn from the Ambassador and go south to train as a healer and then, when she was older, when she knew more, she'd make it happen. She had a plan. She could do this.
She waited, after she'd crawled into bed, for her door to open, and it did. Nearly as silent as Mama, Sayuri crept into her arms, snuggling her face into her chest as she made sure the covers were pulled all the way up.
"You came for me. I was so scared and it hurt so much and I wanted you and you came for me. You came for me. You always come for me." Sayuri's voice was trembling, and she kissed the top of her sister's curly head.
"Don't be silly. Of course I did. And I always will."
"Always?" Sayuri whispered, grabbing at her nightgown.
"Always. Now go to sleep," she ordered, and for once, Sayuri did as she was told.
Chapter 33: 195: Mako and Zhi
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt.
Chapter Text
He'd been there when the officers had made the arrest before dawn that morning, turning over all of his case files, the culmination of several months’ worth of work. He and Chiyo had gone out for breakfast afterward and talked about old times, catching up and showing off the latest photographs of all their various kids before she needed to head back into the station. He’d stopped off for some celebratory fruit tarts and had gone home to find the house empty; Qi and Wu off to some meeting, Meili in school, Sayuri at parts unknown with Lin and LoLo. Even the maids were in the other wing, doing their weekly cleaning. He took a long and very hot shower and came out, the bed calling him. He laid down with a sigh, closing his aching eyes. A nap before everyone returned and the house exploded with noise again.
It was only then that he heard the muffled sobbing.
He hauled himself off the bed, making his way down the hall, trying to track the sound, stopping in front of Zhi’s door. It was definitely coming from there. He hesitated a moment before knocking softly. “Zhi? Is that you?”
A bit of a scramble and then the door was opened. Zhi’s eyes were red and puffy, his glasses nowhere to be seen. “Daddy! When did you get home?” He tried to put on a smile but he’d never, even when he was a little boy, been any good at hiding his emotions.
“You want to talk about it?”
“About what?” Again with the innocent act. Spirits knew he loved this boy, but of all his children he was the one who couldn’t lie worth a damn.
“About why you’re crying?”
Zhi’s chin quavered. “Aren’t you supposed to tell me not to cry? That you can’t stand to see me cry?” Another attempt at a smile.
He sighed and put his arm around him. “I didn’t say that. And I wouldn’t say that, either. You know me better than that.” Zhi snuffled. “What happened? You get in a fight with San or something?”
Zhi shook his head. “You know we never fight.”
“Well?”
Zhi wavered and then drew him into his room. Neat, as always; Zhi had always disliked a mess. Now that he was at University Wu had redone his room, putting in a larger desk as well as a file cabinet for his papers, that sort of thing. He took a folder off the desk and handed it over.
“What’s this?”
Zhi swallowed. “My paper on the diversity and distribution of cave-dwelling arachnids in the Omashu mountain range.”
He flipped it open, gazing down. The paper had been criss-crossed with angry red lines, notes scribbled into the margins. A ridiculous and preposterous assertion was one phrase that jumped out at him as he paged through, underlined three times, the pen strokes so deep they’d nearly torn the paper. At the end he saw that the professor had failed the paper.
His first thought, of course, was that he was going to look up this professor and fry him alive. Not the most rational of thoughts, no, but one he was feeling in the moment. He glanced up at Zhi, who was, at seventeen, nearly a head taller than him.
“I see the professor didn’t like your paper.”
“He hated it, Daddy. He shouted at me in front of the class.” Zhi’s eyes started to overflow again.
He mentally counted to ten. Must not fry the professor. Must not fry the professor. Must not fry the fucking shit for brains professor. “Did he give a specific reason or was it just general shouting?”
“He told me that I was merely a boy and had no business disputing the work of my academic betters.” Zhi fumbled for his glasses on the desk and shoved them back on.
“Is that true?”
“Is what true?”
“Do you think that you have no business disputing the work of anyone else in your field?”
Zhi’s chin went up. “He was talking about the work of Professor Prasert. He wrote a book about the invertebrates of the Omashu mountains fifty years ago.”
“And?”
“And he was a good researcher for his time but he got some things dead wrong!” Zhi stabbed at the paper. “For one thing, he speculated that there were hairy-legged spider centipedes in those caves but that’s all it was, speculation! But he included it in his book without ever even seeing a single specimen!” Zhi whirled and slapped his hand on the detailed map that took up half his bedroom wall, a gift on his thirteenth birthday from Su and Baatar. “And he wouldn’t see one, anyhow, because it’s too wet in those caves! Those are desert dwellers, and the climate is completely wrong there!”
He nodded. He didn’t know a spider centipede from a hole in the ground, but he knew his son did. Zhi grabbed what he assumed was the offensive text in question and shook it before tossing it back down on the desk.
“It’s not that speculation is wrong. It has its time and place. But to include it in a definitive guide? In a textbook?” He threw his hands into the air. “That’s sloppy science. Bad science! I may only be a boy, but even I know that!”
He gazed at him for a moment, this brilliant boy on the cusp of manhood, passionate and fragile, throwing himself into everything with his heart on his sleeve. He loved him so much; he’d come to understand, over the years, why his own father had always bragged about his schoolwork, telling the neighbors or anyone else that would listen how smart his Mako was. He felt the exact same way about his Zhi. “Sounds to me like you disagree that a boy has no business disputing the work of anyone else.”
Zhi took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose, fingers resting lightly on the frames of his glasses. “I do disagree, Daddy. It’s not about age. It’s about the work.” He dropped his hand. “I have the right to my theories, especially when they’re backed by rigorous fact. I won’t let him tell me otherwise.”
“Good. That’s what I want to hear.” He put his arm around him and pushed him gently towards the door. “Come on, I have something for you. Keep talking, I want to hear about this.”
Zhi told him, as they descended the stairs, how the professor had attempted to humiliate him in front of the class, reading passages of his paper aloud, ranting until one of the students, a young woman from the Southern Water Tribe had stood up in disgust, told the professor she was there for an education, not the spiteful ramblings of an old man, and had left. The professor had been so incensed at this that he’d forgotten about him until the end of class, throwing his paper at him as the students filed out.
“I don’t think I’d be brave enough to do that!”
“Well, Southern Water Tribe women are pretty feisty, take it from me.” He smiled, and nodded Zhi towards the table, taking the tarts out of the icebox and putting them on a plate. He’d bought enough for everyone, but this was an emergency situation. “Here.”
“Thanks!” Zhi took a large bite as he sat down next to him, taking one for himself. Three bites and it was gone and he was looking hopefully at the plate. Mako shoved it across to him and Zhi took a second.
“So what are you going to do about it?” He took a bite of his own.
“Do you mean the class?”
“Yep.”
Zhi chewed thoughtfully. “I don’t know.” His grin lit up his face. “If Papa knew he’d call the chancellor and demand she fire him.”
He had to chuckle at that. “You’re probably right. Your father usually goes straight for revenge.”
“I guess that’s a Hou-Ting thing.”
“Trust me.” He finished off the rest of his tart. Zhi was on his third. “You know I only got a year of school before Grandma and Grandpa died, yeah?”
“That wasn’t your fault, though.”
“No, it wasn’t, but it is what it is. I never got any firebending training, either. Well, not the official kind, I mean. The way LoLo learned, or Korra.”
“How could you, on the streets?” Zhi looked down at the plate. “Don’t you want another one?”
He smiled. “I’m good. Help yourself.” He watched him take his fourth tart, slowing down a bit. “The point I’m trying to make is that pretty much everything I’ve learned in my life I’ve learned on my own. I’m not a scholar like you or Wu, but I can read and write, I do okay. And my firebending’s more than okay. I learned from who I could when I could and taught myself the rest.” He leaned forward, elbows on the table. “I’ve heard a lot, over the years, about how my firebending’s wrong. It’s not traditional, no. But it isn’t wrong. It does what I need it to, and I do it better than most.” A scoff. “Your sister being an exception.”
“But she’s learned from you too.”
“Also true. The thing is…I’m forty-three years old, Zhi. And there are still people telling me that I’m doing it the wrong way. All of it. I don’t fit into the nice boxes folks want to put me in. I’m a former triad member turned cop turned private investigator. I’m a nobody off the street that married a prince. I’m a firebending master without a master. My life pisses some people off.”
“What do you do about it?”
“I don’t do anything about it. There’s nothing to be done. I am who I am. Whether or not people approve of it or even like me is not really something I can do much about.” He leaned back in his chair to snatch at a pile of freshly pressed napkins and handed one over. “Thing is, Zhi, that not everyone you meet is going to like you. They’ll think you’re snotty because you studied at home and have a prince for a father. Or they’ll feel threatened by your smarts. Or hell, I don’t know, maybe they have something against people who are as tall as trees.” That got him a little smile. “Long and the short of it, you’d best just get used to it. Most of those people, they won’t be interested in the real you, they’ll have already made up their minds and that’s it. It’s not right and it’s not fair but it’s how the world works. I wish it wasn’t, but it is.”
Zhi thought this over, fingers absently folding and re-folding the napkin. “So what you’re saying is that I should stay in the class?”
“Does that professor have something you want to learn?”
“Well, I thought he did.”
“Then learn what you can from him and discard the rest.”
“But what if he fails me?” The napkin was getting quite a workout.
“Then he fails you. And your life will go on. And one day, sooner rather than later, knowing you, you’ll pass him up and he can choke on your dust.”
Again with that smile. “Maybe Papa’s not the only one that likes revenge.”
“Well, at least I wouldn’t stab the man in a dark alley somewhere.”
“Do you really think Qi would?” Zhi’s eyes widened.
“Son, I ask Qi no questions and Qi tells me no lies. That’s why we get along as well as we do.” One of the reasons, anyhow. He reached his hand across the table to cup Zhi’s cheek. “You think about it, okay? But whatever you decide - stay in his class or don’t - just know that I’ll support you. Either way.”
“Thanks, Daddy.” Zhi’s eyes filled up again. He stood and brought up his other hand, cradling his face and kissing his forehead, just like he had when he was little.
“You’re welcome. Now that you ate most of my tarts I’m going to go upstairs and get an hour or two of sleep before everyone comes home and starts making noise. I’ve been up for nearly twenty-four hours now, I’m about to drop. Just do me a favor and take the rest of them upstairs with you, though, because if your sisters find out you got tarts and they didn’t that’s all we’ll hear for the rest of the night.”
Zhi popped one whole in his mouth. “Only two more to go.” Crumbs sprayed. Mako just shook his head, smiling, stifling a yawn.
“Don’t let your father catch you.” Zhi caught up with him, and balancing the plate with the remaining two tarts in his hand, slung his arm around his shoulders as they walked back up the stairs.
Chapter 34: 196: Madame Zong and Sayuri
Chapter Text
She glanced at the clock on her mantle again, accidentally shifting her ankle and grimacing at the pain. She'd sprained the wretched thing a few days prior; she'd been on her usual walk with Lady Sweetums and the child when she'd stepped badly and had fallen heavily, crying out as she toppled. The child had thrust the poodlemonkey into her arms and told her not to move and had run with astonishing speed back towards her own house as she had tried not to weep with the shame of it all. The Royal Consort had immediately come to her aid, gently helping her to rise, finally swinging her into their arms when she wasn't able to put any weight on it. They'd carried her home and had helped her remove her shoe, informing her that the handsome waterbender healer was on his way.
It was a ridiculous thing. There she sat, her ankle elevated, unable to do anything but sip tea and stare at the walls. At least the waterbender was coming to see her on a daily basis; yesterday he'd brought the Beifong boy, who had brought her a staggering bouquet of hothouse flowers and flirted with her in that way that only men who had no interest in women could. She was under strict instructions to stay off of it and rest.
She was tremendously bored and not a little cantankerous with it all.
"Princess Sayuri, Madame." Her majordomo appeared at the door and bowed in his rather stiff way before removing himself to let the princess enter her informal sitting room, Lady Sweetums following along behind her. A breach of protocol, that; the child might only be eight, but as a princess she still outranked her. By all accounts she should have hosted her in her formal sitting room, despite the ankle.
She loathed her formal sitting room. She'd had it added when the house was built, of course; it was what one did. Hers had been duly decorated in the latest style of the day and there it had sat, perfectly empty ever since. She had never been particularly outgoing, even as a girl at the Fire Nation court, but she'd found herself overwhelmed by this new, brash city and its even brasher citizens. She'd been quiet, those first few years, worried that she might be recognized and that someone would inform Hou-Ting. What Gun had said, all those years ago, was true, however. She could not be extradited back to the Earth Kingdom unless she had committed a crime there and Ji had written to her - discreetly - letting her know that after her initial temper tantrum (which had involved, unsurprisingly, destroying everything she'd left behind at the palace) Hou-Ting had chosen to ignore her. But even after she knew it was safe enough she'd found it harder and harder to leave the secure familiarity of her home.
She hadn't brought much from the palace when she fled. Zaichun's Satomobile (which she had never learned to drive), the portrait of her precious daughter, her most treasured jewelry, all of her love letters, the photograph of the five of them taken only a few months before it had all ended, Zaichun and his four consorts, his wife's absence from the sitting par for the course. The clockwork bird that Zaichun had made and given to her when he proposed, which still, all these years later, flapped its jeweled wings and sang. He had always loved to tinker with things. The year after she had left Ba Sing Se Gun had secretly shipped her the entirety of her late father-in-law's library, fearing that Hou-Ting or Zaichun's dreadful son might do spirits knew what with it. The collection had been sitting in her own, mostly unused library, genteelly collecting dust until she had thought to offer the use of the scientific collection to the Crown Prince, who had overcome his timidity in order to get his hands on it. She'd been pleased to see that he had treated the books with proper reverence.
Her younger brother had died not long after Zaichun had; the drunken idiot had called for an Agni Kai over some imagined insult and had been killed, leaving behind nothing but bad memories, as far as she was concerned. Her younger sister had properly married and had spawned plenty of little firebenders, keeping the bloodline alive, which must have been gratifying to her parents, at least. Tomoko had been furious when Mother had left her the fire opal tiara, however, claiming that she should have it to pass down to her daughters. She had even gone so far as to have her Fire Nation lawyer write a letter demanding that it be returned; she ignored it. She thought that one day, when she was dead, she'd leave it to the oldest princess next door, the firebending one. The Fire Butterfly, they called her. It would suit her. Tomoko's daughters would be enraged but she could care less. She was still the oldest child and there were things that were hers by right and tradition. She had no desire to leave what was hers to a bunch of brats she'd never met and who had never given a damn that she'd even existed. She was a nonbender from the ancient house of Ogasawara. Insofar as most of her relatives were concerned, her parents should have quietly done away with her at birth. She would be damned if she'd give them a single thing.
She glanced up as the princess pranced into the room. The child never actually walked anywhere; she galloped, she scampered, she tiptoed, she danced. She was dressed in a what might have once been a charming yellow frock; it now had an unspeakable stain across the wrinkled front and the sash in the back was undone, tangling about her knees. She had at least put on a pair of rubber boots that morning, although her hair seemed to be unbrushed. The Prince must have one of his headaches, then. There was no other way he would let the child out of the house in this state. Spirits knew why her mother allowed it; she'd never seen a nattier dresser than the Royal Consort. The mind boggled, it really did.
"I suppose your father is unwell this morning."
The princess blinked. "How did you know, Madame Zong?" Her face lit up. "Are you a spy?" She clasped her hands together. "Oh, you would make a truly excellent spy. Who would suspect you? You're so very old!"
She sniffed. "In my day it was considered very rude for children to say such things about their elders."
"Well my gracious, Madame Zong, I am a quite sure they had spies one hundred years ago. Papa says that the Dai Li all used to be spies back in the day of his great-grandfather."
The child was not wrong on that one. Her father-in-law had never had an easy relationship with the Dai Li, even after he'd taken his throne back. "I am not quite as old as all that."
The child raised an eyebrow in a way that no Hou-Ting should have ever done. That's what came of having a Beifong in the house. "If you say so."
"Cheeky." She waved the child towards her. "Why is your sash undone?" The child peered behind her, wholly unconcerned. One of her fingers was swathed in a clean bandage.
"Oh. I meant to ask Meili to tie it but I forgot." She turned and presented her back and she carefully tied her sash, her fingers no longer as nimble as they once were, making sure to keep her foot still. "Papa didn't come down today. QiQi called for Sitiak to come and told us we had to be quiet."
Her mother-in-law had suffered from the same sort of sick headaches. She'd dismissed them at the time as the woman simply wanting to be excused from court; not that she blamed her. But she thought, now, that perhaps her great-grandson's headaches were the same thing. "I am sure he will be fine."
"Oh, that's such a fancy bow! Thank you, Madame Zong." The child beamed at her and for a moment looked so much like her great-grandmother that her heart stuttered in her chest. Part of it was the hair; her father's short hair curled, but not as extravagantly as his daughter's, which cavorted about her head in untamed spirals. Yu's hair, in all its rebarbative glory. It was also that unmistakable chin, stubborn and rounded, one that the child also shared with her wholly unmissed paternal grandfather.
Those green eyes were all Zaichun's, however. Eyes just like her own precious little daughter had had as well.
"And what, may I ask, is that stain on your chest?"
The child glanced down, brows furrowed. "I'm not sure. It was there when I found it on the floor this morning." She dropped herself onto the settee. "I wish I were more like Chinda."
"And who, do tell, is Chinda? A friend of yours?" The moment she said it she regretted it. The child was noticeably solitary, usually playing by herself or with the noxious spirit in the garden next door. She didn't seem bothered by the reference, however.
"Oh, no! Chinda is a girl detective. In the Chinda, the Girl Detective books?"
"Girl detective books?"
The child nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yes! There are eleven of them! And she solves crimes!" She tapped at her temple. "She's excruciatingly clever, Madame Zong. She can figure things out all on her own. Even when the grownups can't deduce it Chinda always can."
She fought back a smile. "I see. So you fancy yourself a Chinda, do you?"
When she furrowed her brow the child bore no small resemblance to her father. "Well. Chinda is very organized, Madame Zong, and I suppose she keeps her room clean."
"And probably wears proper footgear." She sent a pointed look at the rubber boots, which were green with pink stripes.
The child sighed gustily. "I could only find my right shoe this morning. Perhaps the left one has simply vanished."
"Perhaps you should detect it, then."
The child gasped, her eyes widening. "Oh, Madame Zong! I could, couldn't I?" She pulled her dress as far from her chest as she could, peering down at it. "Chinda has a laboratory all of her own." Her sigh this time was wistful. "I wish I could have one, too. I asked Papa and he said that if I blew up the backyard then the property rates for the entire neighborhood would go down." A scowl. "I wouldn't blow anything up. Zhi told me that he blew up things a few times but he's not a chemist, so I suppose that's why."
"And you are a chemist?"
The child's gaze was solemn. "I hope to be."
She allowed herself to lean back just a fraction, her spine as straight as ever. "And so how would you propose to use chemistry to determine the stain?" The child's face lit up as she rambled on about this Chinda, flasks and chemicals, hands waving in her enthusiasm. She had no idea whether or not any of it was remotely correct, although she thought it might be. Zaichun, under his proper court manners and unfailing courtesy was brilliant, a tremendous reader, an inveterate explorer of science. Her father-in-law had amassed the library for his son, after all. Certainly not for his eldest daughter, who wouldn't have known a flask from a drinking glass.
"...and of course she has her great nemesis, the evil Doctor Wang!" The child leaned closer, holding up one finger for emphasis. "They are great foes. Doctor Wang tries to thwart Chinda at every turn! But don't worry, Madame Zong, Chinda always gets the best of her."
She nodded. "I see. I suppose you cannot be a girl detective without a nemesis."
"Certainly not." The child frowned a little. "Did you have a nemesis?"
She sniffed. "I daresay my late sister-in-law was my nemesis."
The child nodded knowingly. "Was she hideously atrocious?"
"She was indeed."
"That's quite excellent." The child pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I don't have a nemesis. I mean, unless you count Meili." Her shoulders drooped. "But I bet if I asked her she would say no. She's a party pooper. She never wants to do anything fun."
"Perhaps sisters don't make very good nemeses." Not that she was counting out her own sister, who, based on her last letter, might certainly do for one.
"Oh, is it nemeses? Not nemesii?"
"Nemeses."
"Thank you, Madame Zong, that's very helpful." She knocked at her own head, her hair cushioning the blow. "I must remember that." She gasped and bounced in her seat. "Oh Madame Zong! Oh Madame Zong!"
"For goodness sake, what is it? And don't bounce about, do you want to jostle my ankle?"
The child immediately went still. "I beg your pardon, I didn't mean to. But don't you sometimes just need to bounce and bounce and get all of the giddy, swirly feelings out?"
"I do not."
"Well I do, Madame Zong, but I can wait and do it when I leave. But listen, I have the most brillicious idea!"
"Brillicious?"
"Oh yes, brilliant and delicious, all in one word. Isn't it a nice one? " Her entire face was shining. "Madame Zong, you can be my nemesis!"
"I can, can I?"
The child clapped and laughed, squirming with delight. "Oh Madame Zong, it's just perfect! Please say you'll be my nemesis! Please say it!"
"And what makes you think I want to play silly little games with children?"
The child's smile was knowing this time. "That's exactly the kind of splendid thing a nemesis would say, Madame Zong. You're very good."
She had a way about her, the child, that reminded her more than a little of Zaichun. He'd always been able to get exactly what he wanted without ever resorting to tantrums or orders the way his older sister had. He hadn't been able to spend as much time with their daughter as he'd wanted; the times were different then, and it was unheard of for the nobility to raise their children the way Prince Wu raised his. Their daughter had had a cadre of nannies, had spent all of her time in the nursery, only brought to her parents once or twice a week for visits. She had wanted to see more of her but had been pressured into following palace protocol, spending her days longing to feel her tiny hands in hers, listening to her sweet laugh and feeling her soft cheek against hers. Zaichun had doted on her, making her funny little toys to amuse her, listening to all of her baby exploits with pleasure. He had been devastated when she had died, shutting himself away in his rooms for weeks, refusing to come out even when his sister had ordered him, finally emerging pale and defeated. She had wept as well, Yu holding her in her arms, her heart shattered, suffocated with grief and regret.
They had not even known how sick she was until it was too late; her nannies had not wished to worry them and so had kept it secret. She had not even been able to say goodbye. She had never recovered from it, not really.
Despite her remorse that she had not spent as much time with her daughter as she could have she had been beyond scandalized when the Prince had first brought the oldest Princess home. The girl had not a single nanny; the Prince himself was changing diapers and putting her hair into pigtails! Like some sort of commoner!
Like his grandmother would have done if her son had not been stolen from her. Oh Yu!
She stirred herself to focus back on the child, who was still looking at her expectantly. "I suppose you know all about it, do you?"
The child thought for a moment, tapping on her bottom lip. "Well," she said slowly, "I'm not a writer, not like Papa is. I have tried to write books but I don't like it, not like he does."
Her eyebrows rose of their own accord. "Your royal father writes books?" Her voice rose incredulously on the last word but the child didn't seem to notice.
"Yes, but they are the kinds that have kissing in them. I'm not supposed to read them on account of my age but of course I do." The child was very matter of fact. "I don't see the point of kissing in books. It's not very interesting. I like the action parts much better." She blinked and then shrugged. "But lots of people read them and Papa even won an award. Or maybe two awards. He has another name, though, because no one is supposed to know they're him. It's a secret." She seemed unaware that she herself had divulged said secret.
"He has a nom de plume?" She reached for her fan and put it to use. Of all things! She could hardly believe her ears!
"Yes, The Pool of Golden Blooms, which is just silly. I would want something more gallant. Like Dagger of Despair! Or perhaps Thief of Shoes!"
The door opened and her majordomo entered, bowing. "I beg your pardon, Madame, but we have received a telephone call." His expression clearly telegraphed his disapproval. "The Princess's mother wishes her to return to the house for her breakfast." He cleared his throat slightly. "Forthwith."
"Oh, I did forget my breakfast!" The child shot up out of her seat. "I was looking for my other shoe and since it wasn't in the kitchen I didn't stay." She sprinted towards the door. "I'll be back at three to take Lady Sweetums out again! Goodbye, Nemesis!" She dashed past her majordomo, who looked pained; whether it was because the child always refused to wait for a proper escort to the front door or the fact that she had just referred to her as Nemesis she wasn't sure. With a sigh, he began to back out of the room.
"One moment, Benkai."
"Madame?"
"I would like someone to fetch me some books from the bookstore this morning."
"Naturally, whatever Madame wishes. Was there something specific?"
"Yes. I do not know the author, but I would like the Chinda, Girl Detective series. I believe there are eleven of them, but the bookseller will know, I imagine."
"Chinda, Girl Detective?" Her majordomo remained expressionless.
"Yes. All of them, please. And also, I will need the collected works from the writer The Pool of Golden Blooms."
Her majordomo's eyebrows tremored slightly. "The Pool of Golden Blooms, Madame?"
"Yes. I have no idea of the titles or how many there are, but I need the entirety of what has been published."
"Of course, Madame. I will see to it immediately. Is there anything else?"
"That will be all."
He nodded again and backed out of the room as she laughed to herself. Nemesis, was she? She rather relished that. Nemesis she was, then.
Chapter 35: 196: The Hou-Tings and Beifongs
Summary:
This is for scarlettfire, with all my love. It is 100% crack. But also canon for my AU. Because why the hell not, I say.
(For reference, see my collection Tales of Republic City: Part One, and specifically the chapter A Mortal Profession: Qi Meets Their New Master.)
Chapter Text
"Sayuri, put the book down and eat your dinner." Mako dished her up some noodles.
"I am at a very thrilling part, Daddy! Chinda might possibly be eviscerated!" Sayuri ignored the noodles and he reached over and tapped at the book until she made eye contact, raising his eyebrows and pointing at her merely picked at food.
"My gracious! I will thank you not to speak of evisceration at the dinner table!" Wu pursed up his mouth. "Evisceration, I never."
"Tell that to the picken we're eating," said Naoki, and Wu shot her a glare before turning his head to transfer his ire towards a snickering Pearl.
"That is quite enough from the both of you," Wu said, taking up the pot to pour Bu more tea. "Honestly. I thought those Chinda books were for children."
"Oh, I didn't learn evisceration from the Chinda books, Papa! I learned it from one of the books in your library!"
Wu paused and stared at his youngest daughter suspiciously. "And which book was that?"
Sayuri beamed. "An Annotated History of the Hou-Ting Dynasty, by He Who Keeps the Records. It says that Hou-Ting XXI eviscerated her cousin, Hou-Ting XX, during a coup at the palace. That's how she became the queen." Sayuri turned her gaze towards Meili, who scoffed. "She had him tied to a horse and-"
"Yes, thank you, we do not need the details!" Wu quickly cut her off. "I really don't think a book like that is appropriate at your age, Sayuri!"
Sayuri merely shrugged. "Don't you always say that one is never too young to be educated, Papa?"
"Told you that'd come back to bite you on the ass," Qi said, looking highly amused.
Wu opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by Zhi coming into the dining room, San at his side.
"Here we are, sorry we're late," Zhi said. "The spirits had the bridge all tied up." Zhi leaned down and kissed the top of Wu's head. "Don't be grouchy, Papa, we did our best."
"We had to take a long detour on the Silk Road Bridge and then the North Bridge, along with everyone else," San said, and grinned as he kissed the top of Wu's head as well. Wu laughed despite himself and shooed the both of them away. San ruffled Pearl's hair as he passed her.
"You boys sit down and have your dinner, it's still warm." Opal smiled.
"We're discussing evisceration," Sayuri chirped, and ignored the irritated noise from Wu.
"Not all of us," Meili said, and rolled her eyes.
"Speaking of evisceration, did you hear about Ginger?" Zhi squeezed in between Naoki and Pearl. "You know, Uncle Bo's Ginger."
Bolin sent Opal a quick look. "Uh, not my Ginger."
"What about her?" Lin took a swallow of her wine.
"It was on the radio, we heard it in the car when we were trying to get home." San served himself up some of the spicy picken from the turntable. "Uncle Wu, pass over the tea, please?"
"Oh, you're not going to believe this." Zhi put his chopsticks down. "She was arrested today!"
Bolin blinked, frowning. "Ginger?"
"Good," Opal said, stabbing at her meal with a little more force than necessary.
"Arrested for what?" Lin raised an eyebrow. "You. Put that book down like your father told you and eat some of that dinner." Sayuri opened her mouth but then shut it when Lin gave her a perfectly executed Beifong Evil Eye.
"Get this! She was arrested for murder!" Zhi looked around the round table expectantly.
Bolin's mouth dropped. "Ginger? I don't believe it. Not Ginger."
"Huh." Lin leaned back. "Crime of passion kind of thing?" She shrugged. "Happens to the best of us."
"I'll keep that in mind," LoLo said, and winked at her. Lin snorted at him but then got up and walked out of the room.
"It wasn't in the paper this morning," Mako said, pushing Sayuri's book across the table towards Qi, who took it and put it to the side.
"Sounded like it just happened this afternoon," San said. "There was a press conference, that's what we heard."
"From what they were saying, it was more than one," Zhi said, and started to eat.
"Wait. More than one murder?" Opal put her chopsticks down and exchanged a look with Bolin.
"I can't believe it," Bolin said slowly, shaking his head. "I know you never liked her, Easy Breezy, but a murderer?"
Zhi nodded as he swallowed. "That's what they said during the press conference. I don't know the rest of the details, they didn't really get into it."
"Give Lin a minute. If I know the woman she's on the phone with the station right now." LoLo chuckled. "Button, Cork made those sesame noodles especially for you. Eat up, now."
Sayuri leaned forward. "Did she eviscerate them? Her victims?"
"Sayuri Hou-Ting! What did I say! Not at the table!" Wu's fan made its appearance. "I believe a change of subject is in order."
Zhi shrugged. "Don't know. They didn't say."
"Sorry to disappoint you, bloodthirsty pirate queen," San said, and made a face at her as Sayuri giggled.
Bolin was visibly upset. "I just talked to her last week, she's in contract negotiations for my next film. We had lunch together." Opal grimaced at that, but kept her peace. "I just can't believe it. She's not a violent person. A little mean, sometimes, maybe, but not violent. We're all a little mean sometimes, right?" He looked around the table.
"You aren't," Mako said, and tapped the side of Sayuri's plate, motioning towards the noodles.
"Bu's not," said Pearl. "Even if he does eat all of the leftover dumplings."
"You snooze you lose." Bu grinned. "I'm a growing boy. I need my dumplings."
"A growing flying boar, maybe."
"I am a Beifong, after all." Bu waggled his eyebrows and Meili laughed.
Lin returned and took her seat, her face curiously still. She took up her wineglass and finished what was in it in several long gulps, motioning at LoLo to refill her glass.
"What did they say?" Mako asked.
"Turns out they suspect her of quite a few unsolved murders." Lin looked over and met Qi's eyes. "They think she was doing it for pay." The corner of Qi's mouth curled up and Lin lifted an eyebrow at them. "For quite a few years, apparently. Back before she started working for the movers, even."
"Did she eviscerate any of them?" Sayuri asked hopefully.
"Sayuri Hou-Ting!"
"Eat your dinner and stop talking about evisceration, right now," Qi said, breaking their gaze away from Lin to turn it to their daughter, speaking rather sharply. Sayuri picked up her chopsticks, eyes wide, and started to eat.
"I can't...I don't..." Bolin put his chopsticks down and his eyes filled with tears. "It must be some kind of mistake. Not Ginger. You mean she was some kind of assassin, right? Doing it for pay? I don't believe it. I just don't. She's one of the top mover stars! She doesn't need the money! It has to be some kind of mistake."
Lin reached over to put her hand on his shoulder, and for once, her voice was kind. "She's been arrested and she's a suspect, but she'll have to go to a court and lawyers will have to prove it. Just being arrested isn't enough to prove anything, you know that. But if she did do it, well." Lin sighed. "People who do that kind of thing, they're very good at fooling others, Bolin. That's part of the profession. It's not on you."
"I knew I hated that woman," Opal said, finishing off her own wine. "For the record. I never liked her. Never."
"No kidding," Naoki muttered, but quietly enough so Opal wouldn't hear her.
Chapter 36: 197: Wu
Summary:
A memory of a proposal.
Notes:
A Valentine 2019 prompt from Queeniedear!
Chapter Text
Wu idly turned the page of his magazine, which was displaying for him, in the most titillating way possible, next season's up and coming footwear. Far too gaudy for his taste; he was sure Naoki would fancy a pair of the gold ones with the slender ankle strap that buckled on the side, however. She had lovely, delicate ankles and was never shy of showing them off. Most benders forewent wearing heels but Nuo had taken her in hand when she was still a teen and Naoki could even manage backflips in them nowadays. Astonishing, really. He earmarked the page to remind himself to have a custom pair made for her later and glanced up through his smoked lenses to the ocean beyond their private cove, returning Sayuri's enthusiastic wave. Meili had her on the surfboard in front of her, perched with a madcap grin on her face as Meili sent the board swiftly sheering through the waves. Sayuri had been begging her since they'd arrived on Ember Island yesterday morning to take her out and she'd finally agreed, although knowing Meili she hadn't done it without some sort of concession on her sister's part. Not that he really thought Sayuri would follow through. She'd wriggle out of it somehow, as she always did. True Hou-Tings, both of his girls. He smiled.
Suddenly, Sayuri pointed towards the shore, bouncing up and down, shouting something he couldn't hear over the surf and before Meili could do more than reach for her, plunged headfirst off the board and into the sea. "Sayuri," he shrieked, leaping up from his sun lounger, dropping his drink, hand to his heart. Meili, on the other hand, simply sighed, rolled her eyes, and pushed her hands away from each other, clearing the waves to two different sides, leaving a clear channel between them where her baby sister was enthusiastically attempting to run across the wet sand to the shore.
"She's fine, Papa, Meili's got her." Naoki wrapped an arm around his waist. "I swear, for such a smart kid she hasn't got an ounce of common sense." She kissed his cheek.
"My gracious, Naoki! Where did you come from?" He peered past her and gasped. "Sayuri Hou-Ting! You get out of that ocean this very instant!"
"Surprise," she said, laughing. "What is she..." Her laughter intensified and she put her hands around her mouth to shout. "Button! Leave the crab alone and come up here, Fishy can't hold the water all day, you know!" Sayuri, a large crab clacking away furiously in her hands, grinned and attempted to wave the crab at her.
"Naoki! Naoki! Naoki!"
"What a dingdong." Still laughing, Naoki jogged down into the channel and hauled her up, bringing her back towards their father. "I've got her, Fishy," she called, and with another roll of her eyes Meili let the waves surge back into the channel, gracefully steering her board back to the shore as well.
"Sayuri Hou-Ting! What on earth could you possibly have been thinking! You could have very easily drowned!" His heart was still galloping away with him.
"Oh Papa, look at my crab! Can I keep her?"
"May I keep her, and no you most certainly may not! Return her immediately!"
"Next time I'll let you drown," Meili said, standing her surfboard into the sand and very carefully bending the water out of her hair. She had the trick of doing it so as not to disturb the soft curls at all. He suspected she had practiced extensively out of the shower.
"No you won't," Sayuri replied cheerfully, not even bothering to look at her. "Naoki, Naoki! You came!"
"I promised, didn't I, you little poodlemonkey! And you kept the secret, didn't you? That's my little secret keeper!" Naoki twirled her in a circle, the poor maligned crab's clacking getting more indignant by the second.
"Here, give it to me," Meili said, taking the crab out of Sayuri's hands. "My apologies, on behalf of my weird family." She made her way back to the water where she put it down and it scuttled away with as much dignity as it could.
"But what about your students?" Wu asked, reaching over to remove a strand of seaweed from Sayuri's shoulder.
"Oh, I gave my students a week off for the winter holiday, just like any other school." Naoki replied. "It's been planned for ages." She lay her head against her father's shoulder. "I just wanted to surprise you. Where are Daddy and Qi? They weren't at the house."
"No, they took the fishing yacht out before sunrise this morning. I venture to say we won't see them until sunset." He put his arm around her. "Oh, I am happy to see you, my darling. And it was certainly a surprise!"
"I'm an extraordinarily accomplished surprise keeper!" Sayuri beamed.
"Oh yeah? Well not as good as I am, because who is that I see right over there?" Naoki pointed towards the path that led to the house.
"ZHI! SAN!" Sayuri screamed, and launched herself down from her sister's arms to run to her brother, who dropped his half of a large picnic basket and grabbed her, throwing her up into the air.
Naoki laughed. "Hemadri and I went and got them, it's the winter break for them as well. They were planning on staying out in the field but I thought they could use a little holiday."
"Oh darling, that is a surprise, and a lovely one. Thank you." He frowned. "Although I am sure Opal and Bolin will be disappointed not to see San."
Naoki kissed his cheek again. "Ah, no worries, Papa. They'll be arriving tomorrow with Bu and Pearl. I invited them."
"You...my gracious, Naoki! We aren't prepared for guests!"
She tweaked his nose very gently. "I wrote Miwa about it weeks ago. She already knows. Here, San, let me help with that." She moved forward to grab at the basket's abandoned handle.
"Well. I never! What point is there in arranging things at my own holiday cottage when my children are arranging them for me?"
"No point at all, Papa," Meili said, with all the sass of a newly turned sixteen year old and left him to go and hug her brother and cousin.
After he'd bestowed hugs and kisses on the boys they lay out a blanket from the basket, filled to the brim with a lunch Miwa had sent with them, Sayuri happily chattering and bouncing from one to the other, only still when San, laughing, had bent the sand around her feet, keeping her in one place.
"And stay there," he said, ruffling her curls and dangling a rice ball over her head as she tried to snatch at it.
"I am very rarely surprised, you know," he said, handing a napkin to Zhi. "I do congratulate you on it, darlings."
Sayuri kept trying to grab the rice ball as San dipped it towards her head. "Naoki said I'd never keep it quiet but I did!"
"Only because I had to squash you from telling about a thousand times, big mouth," Meili said, loftily ignoring her sister's outstretched tongue.
"Princesses do not stick out their tongues, young lady." A quelling look towards her sister as well. "Nor do they refer to others as a big mouth."
"When else were you surprised, Papa?" Sayuri scowled as the sand kept her firmly tethered. "San!"
"You going to be still?" He grinned at her before releasing her. "Come here, sit between Zhi and me." He handed her the coveted rice ball as she settled down.
"Oh gracious. Let's see. I was surprised the day your father brought you home, Zhi, I can tell you that much!" He smiled at his boy. "My very favorite surprise of all time, I must say."
"Mine too," Zhi said, and ducked the chopstick Naoki sent soaring his way.
"When else, Papa?" Sayuri happily burrowed her bare toes back into the sand.
"Hmmm." He took another sip of his tea - the cook here had a way of brewing it cold that was quite delicious in the heat, even LoLo had to acknowledge how excellent it was - and thought. "You know, I was quite surprised when your father proposed to me."
"Wait, didn't you propose to him?" Naoki shot up an eyebrow. "I thought it was the other way around."
"You proposed to QiQi, didn't you, Papa? They told me."
He smiled at Sayuri. "Yes, I did. However your father was the one who proposed to me." He laughed suddenly. "And the funny thing of it was that I caught him buying the ring! I was shopping and there he was, in the jewelry store." He shook his head, remembering. "Oh, he told me some transparent story about being on a case, of course. Goodness. Your poor father. He's never been any good at prevarication on the spot like that."
"Unlike you?" Meili batted those blue eyes with faux-innocence.
"Hmph. Cheeky."
"But did you buy the whole working on a case story, Uncle Wu?"
"Oh, I did. Mako was so very nervous and awkward, telling me he was undercover, despite the fact that he was wearing a uniform." He chuckled, remembering. "But you know, I really did think it had to be something work-related that he couldn't tell me about and was afraid I'd blow his cover or the like." He put his hand to his cheek. "Gracious. He was so handsome in that uniform, too. My, my, my."
"Please, there are children present!" Zhi pointed towards Meili, who gave him a very dirty look.
"It never occurred to me that it would be anything else. Your father has many fine qualities, but subterfuge is not one of them."
"What about QiQi, Papa?"
"If it had been your mother I would have never seen them in the jewelry store in the first place. One only sees Qi when Qi wishes it."
"Trust me," said Naoki, with a great deal of feeling. Many of her teenage exploits had been nipped in the bud by Qi appearing out of nowhere. "So how did Daddy propose, then?"
Wu smiled. "It's a lovely story. He took me to the spirit portal one evening, on one of his days off, as I recall. You went as well, Naoki, although naturally you were too young to really remember. There was some sort of celebration happening in the Spirit World and it had overflowed into Republic City. Oh, it was marvelous, all vines and trees and spirit lanterns and such, in all colors of the rainbow, sparkling and vibrant, with so many spirits about. We weren't the only ones there, people were coming from all over the world to see it. It really was quite amazing." He held out his arms and Sayuri crawled into them. "There was this sort of natural fountain that had manifested quite close to the center, the water was this rosy pink color, it looked just like champagne, effervescent, really. It was surrounded by flowers, just the most romantic spot possible, all lit up by glow of the portal itself, of course. And there we were, me completely enraptured and your father trying to keep you from crawling into it, Naoki, when who should show up but Korra."
"Just like that, huh?" Naoki popped a slice of jackfruit into her mouth.
"In retrospect I suppose I should have been suspicious, but I wasn't. She stood and chatted with us for a bit and then offered to give you a ride atop her shoulders, which you immediately agreed to."
Naoki grinned. "She never cared if I wanted to use her hair as ostrich horse reins."
"Yes, well, she always has adored all of you children. So in any case, off the two of you galloped, and I was quite pleased to get your father to myself for a few moments. We were standing there, holding hands-"
"Oh Papa, so romantic," breathed Zhi, a dreamy look on his face.
"-and then suddenly the vines started gently swirling about us, and flowers blossomed out of them, just like that, petals unfurling everywhere. They smelled so lovely, and I was so entranced, I can't even begin to tell you. And then your father-" he fished a handkerchief out of his beach bag and dabbed it at his eyes, "-went down on one knee and told me that he loved me very much and he hoped that I would do him the honor of marrying him. And then he produced a box from his pocket and opened it, and there was my exquisite ring." He gazed down at his ring, turning his hand slightly to and fro, smiling.
"Papa, did he really?" Zhi's hand crept to his mouth.
"Wait. Daddy? Our Daddy? Mr. Practical? You must be joking." Naoki snorted.
"I most certainly am not. You may ask your father to corroborate it if you don't believe me. I found out later that he had planned the entire thing and enlisted Korra and Jinora's assistance with the spirits." He dabbed at his eyes again. "Korra took you home, Naoki, and your father took me for a drive until we went to our favorite little spot along the bluffs and he sat me down on a blanket and fed me from a basket LoLo had packed and we shared a bottle of champagne while he read a poem to me aloud."
"Get the fuck out."
"Language! Naoki! Please!"
"Oh, it's okay, Papa, I know all about the word-"
"Yes well, you do not need to repeat it, Sayuri! Princesses do not curse!"
"But Naoki and Meili-"
"In ANY case, it was a very lovely evening. Very romantic. Your father quite outdid himself, I must say." He sighed. "He really did want to make it perfect for me. And he did."
"Are you sure Korra didn't plan it for him?" Naoki raised an eyebrow.
"There are many things in this world I may be uncertain of, Naoki, but Korra having the wherewithal to plan a romantic proposal for me in particular is not one of them." He sniffed. "Your father put a great deal of time and effort into it. The credit is all his."
Zhi was smiling. "That's how I would want to get proposed to."
"My darling, I do hope that one day it happens just as you wish." He reached forward and patted Zhi's leg.
"He read you a poem." Naoki's disbelief was unabated. "Did he write said alleged poem?"
"He did not. It was a very old poem he had copied and left for me the first time he visited me at the palace when I was abdicating, as it happens."
"Were you that romantic when you proposed to Mama?" Meili leaned forward.
"Ah. Well. Yes." Wu waved a hand. "Different situation." He held up a single finger. "Although there was one downside to the evening."
"What was that, Papa?" Sayuri flopped down on her back to look up at him. "Did Daddy take it back?"
"Did he...my gracious, Sayuri! Of course he didn't! You know perfectly well that we are married." He refolded his handkerchief and tucked it back into his bag. "You see, Bob was there that night at the portal and for some reason which I have never been able to ascertain, never mind desire, it decided to come home with us."
"Wait, right then?" Zhi chuckled.
"Yes. It," and here Wu made a little moue of distaste, "hitched a ride in the back of your father's car. We did not see it, however. I only know because it informed LoLo at some point."
"Bob's the best," San said.
"That is up for debate," Wu muttered. "If one must have a spirit take up permanent residence in one's back garden one could hope it might be a little less vulgar." He sniffed.
"I like Bob, Papa. He can burp so loud even Madame Zong can hear him!" Sayuri's face lit up but then fell. "I can never get loud enough."
"Not for lack of trying," Meili sniffed in a perfect imitation of her father.
"Sayuri. You are royalty. Please refrain from eructation in the garden." Wu's expression was pained. "Please. I already hear enough from Madame Zong."
"Eructation," she murmured, committing the word to memory. "Eructation."
"Sayuri!"
"Come on, let's pack up the basket and go get our boards," San said. "Naoki, are you going to surf?"
"Of course. Tell you what, if you grab my board as well I'll deal with the basket." San and Zhi scrambled up at that and jogged back up the path towards the house as Naoki started to pick up bowls from the blanket.
"Will someone take me, please? Please?" Sayuri sat up. "Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?"
"I'll take you, Button, but you have to promise me to stay on the board. Deal?" Naoki smiled down at her and poked her in the belly.
"Deal! I promise!" She rolled over and grabbed a plum just before Naoki picked it up.
"You going to help me with this, Fishy, or just sit there looking beautiful?"
"Very funny." Meili rolled her eyes and snatched the plum out of Sayuri's hand.
"Hey! Papa! She stole my plum!"
"Just packing the basket as requested."
He cleared his throat and Meili handed it back. "Girls, please."
"Go on, Papa, go back and lay in your chair, we've got it covered." Naoki winked at him.
"Well! I like that! I'm superfluous, am I?" He smiled though, as he settled back onto his lounger, not even heeding the petty squabble over the proper way to fold up the beach blanket.
Chapter 37: 198: Sayuri Hou-Ting
Chapter Text
Dear Diary,
My name is Sayuri Hou-Ting and I am ten years old today. My Papa gave me this diary for a present and told me that I should start organizing my thoughts together. Daddy gave me a pair of work gloves and a set of tools that he had them make specially in my size (they are so nice!!!!!) and QiQi gave me a box that you can only open when you figure out the puzzle. QiQi says that there is a surprise inside, but when I asked what it was QiQi just looked at me with one of those looks and said, “I know you know what surprise means so quit asking.” Daddy says I can’t stay up all night trying to open it but Daddy always says that. GrandLin and GrandLo gave me a book about engines (it has illis ilus pictures!) and Asami and Korra gave me a very small perfect model of an airship! You can open it up and look at the engine! Naoki gave me a practice katana and promised we would start training with it (Daddy almost had a heart attack but I saw her and QiQi giving each other a look so I know QiQi already knew about it). I get to go to her school and everything! Meili gave me a new book in the series about Chinda the girl detective and when I said I don’t read those kinds of books anymore she put her face right into mine and said, “How come you are always reading all of my old ones then?” and she’s such a know-it-all, sometimes I wish she’d just go fall into Papa’s koi pond. And stay there. Uncle Bo and Auntie Opal gave me a new coverall that I can work in that is bright yellow with pink polka dots, Papa looked like he might faint because it is so ugly but Uncle Bo laughed really hard and I did too, I put it on for the rest of my party. I love it. Bu and Pearl gave me new pens and Uncle Wei gave me 20 bottles of ink that are all different colors of the rainbow (that’s why I have written this in pink and blue and green and purple and now it is switching to scarlet). Granny and Grampy and Uncle Wing and Auntie Nuo and the Zaofu cousins didn’t send me anything because they are coming in two weeks to visit and will give it to me then but Uncle Huan and Uncle Baatar and Auntie Ikki and the Temple cousins sent me a new Pai Sho set. Uncle Baatar designed it and Uncle Huan made it, all of the pieces are made up of engine parts, and it is so amazing that I couldn’t even say anything, I just kept picking up the pieces and staring at them.
But the best part of the whole party was when the door opened and San and Zhi came in. They have been gone for months to do a trip for their university studies but they came back just for my birthday. I was so happy that I ran for Zhi and grabbed him and cried like a big baby, but he didn’t care, he just picked me up and hugged me so tight and said, “I missed you too,” into my ear. San gave me a big chunk of raw emerald that he found and polished for me and Zhi gave me the skeleton of canyon crawler that he cleaned and wired together but they could have brought nothing and I wouldn’t have cared. Nobody knew they were coming, not even Papa, and so everyone was surprised and happy.
But I was the happiest. It was the best birthday ever.
Love,
Sayuri (now ten years old)
Chapter 38: 198: The Hou-Ting Family
Chapter Text
Sayuri ran up the stairs, her bare feet slapping as she dashed across the landing and flung open the door to QiQi's room. No QiQi; back down the stairs she went before bursting into Papa and Daddy's room, waving the key she'd found in the hidden compartment of the box.
"QiQi! I did it! I did it!"
Daddy sat up in the middle of the bed. "What? WHAT?"
Papa fumbled for the clock on his nightstand, bringing it very close to his face. "Darling, it's 4:30 in the morning. Couldn't it have waited?" He put his hand on Daddy's chest. "It's just Sayuri, Mako, calm down."
QiQi swung their feet out of bed on Daddy's other side. "Pretty good time, Button." QiQi's hair was all mashed up, sticking in different directions. "Mako, go back to sleep." QiQi padded over to her. "I guess you aren't going to go back to bed though, hmm?"
As if Sayuri could. "Where does the key go? What's it for?" She was so excited she couldn't stop hopping from foot to foot. Papa gave Daddy a little shove and he lay back down, making a grunting noise and rolling over, stealing all of QiQi's covers. QiQi kissed her on her forehead.
"Guess you're going to have to figure it out, aren't you?"
"You aren't going to tell me?"
Another kiss. "Nope."
Papa laughed a little. "Do remember that the rest of us are sleeping, my love. Do your sleuthing quietly, all right?"
"Okay, Papa! I promise! I'll be extraordinarily quiet!"
QiQi patted her gently on her behind. "That's my girl. Now scoot." Sayuri ran back out of the bedroom, but not before hearing QiQi say, "Damn it, Mako, give me back some blankets!"
She spent the next couple of hours testing every lock she could find in the house; up in the storage room on the third floor, downstairs in Daddy's training room, even in the ballroom, although she didn't think that QiQi would leave anything for her in that part of the house. She tried the kitchen and GrandLo came out, dressed in his caftan, and made her drink a cup of tea and eat a rice ball before he would let her leave.
Eventually she made her way to the back garden, hunting her way through it, looking for anything that might have a lock on it. She heard banging; looking up, she saw Naoki grinning at her from Zhi's old bedroom window, Zhi's head popping up next to her, waving. She waved back with both arms, jumping up and down. Naoki yanked the window open.
"Do you know where I'm supposed to look?" She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted up at them. Naoki leaned out of the window and laughed, her voice easily carrying across to her.
"Nice try, Button! You have to find it yourself!"
Undeterred, she kept exploring.
It was towards the back of the garden, past the koi pond, in the old building where the gardeners used to keep their equipment, that she saw a bright, shiny new lock on the door. She was so thrilled she dropped the key and had to pick it up again. Trembling a little with excitement, she stuck the key in and gasped as it turned and the lock made a clicking sound. She pushed the door open and stepped inside, squinting into the gloom. She looked near the door for a light switch and found one, pressing on it while holding her breath.
She shrieked her joy and jumped up and down to see an engine sitting there in the middle of the floor, wrapped in a huge red bow.
"Happy Birthday, Button." She spun around to see QiQi smiling at her, standing in the doorway. Behind QiQi was Papa and Daddy and GrandLo and GrandLin...and everyone, including Uncle Bo and Auntie Opal and the cousins. Her mouth dropped open.
"Did everybody know?"
They all crowded inside, making admiring noises at the neat shelves and surfaces, at the equipment, and Pearl turned on the water to the sink that had been installed, sticking her head underneath the flow of water to take a drink before Auntie Opal gave her a look and she turned it right back off again. Papa smoothed her hair back. "It was Qi's idea, and Qi did all the work, so that is who you should thank. But yes, we all knew."
"It's been a job keeping it from you, too." Naoki winked at her. She had the yellow and pink coverall in her hands, and she hung it up on the hook next to the door. Daddy was carefully placing her new tools into the spaces meant for them as well.
"It's scaled down for size but it's exactly the same as the ones that are coming off the line now," said Asami, gesturing towards the engine, smiling.
Meili reached down from behind her and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. "Do you like it, girl detective?" Sayuri nodded, her eyes filling up with tears. Meili kissed her on her temple. "I'm so lucky to have such a smart baby sister." Sayuri turned into her and gave her a fierce hug back.
"Well now, you've got all day to play around in here, but now it's time for some lunch," GrandLo said, and Sayuri's tummy made a huge rumbling noise in agreement, and everybody laughed and made their way back out the door, chatting at each other.
She slid her hand into QiQi's and squeezed. "I love it, thank you," she said, and QiQi dropped down to QiQi's knees to hug her.
"What would I do for you?" QiQi asked.
"Pull the moon and stars down from the sky and give them all to me," she replied, repeating back what QiQi had always told her.
"That's my girl," QiQi said, and stood up, wrapping QiQi's arm around her waist, and they walked back to the house that way.
Chapter 39: 198: Sayuri
Summary:
Some new help in the kitchen.
Notes:
I dreamed this one! And promptly wrote it down.
Chapter Text
"Let's get you chopping up those vegetables for lunch," Cork said, already pulling spices down from the large rack that took up a good half of the wall. "The family arrived late last night, so I'm not sure when to expect them. They can have jook for breakfast if they do come down, although Prince Wu always has dumplings."
"Yessir," said Elang, taking up the cleaver. "They all be home now?" He'd been working in the kitchen of the Hou-Ting mansion for a week but none of them had been home except for the oldest princess, Naoki. He'd only seen her once, however; according to Cork she spent most of her time at her school over at what was the old Sato Estate.
"No. Lin and LoLo are staying in Zaofu for a spell. Prince Zhi is back out in the field, I'm not sure when we'll see him next. Mako's out with the Avatar, he should be home any day, though. That leaves Qi and Prince Wu and the two younger princesses and like I said, they got in late last night, so I'm not sure when they'll be down." Cork glanced at him. "Don't clutch that handle so hard, it doesn't need it. Hold it like so, see?" He took Elang's hand in his and demonstrated. "If you don't relax that hand it'll cramp up on you."
"Yessir." He wanted to do everything right. He'd been lucky to get the position; a lot of the street rats tried to get into LoLo's kitchen. He treated his apprentices right, never beat them or worked them too long or shirked them on their pay. Look at Cork! He'd apprenticed under LoLo and went on to work at Kwong's and now he was second-in-charge for Prince Wu, taking over more and more as LoLo went real easy into retirement. He'd taken on hiring him without LoLo even being home! And there was a new girl coming, today or tomorrow, to help as well now that the family was all getting home.
"Morning, Cork." A beautiful girl about his own age was standing in the doorway. He damn near dropped the cleaver right on his toes. She was taller than him, taller than Cork, with cool bronze skin and dark blue eyes, her softly curling hair in a loose braid down her back, tied off with a blue ribbon. She was wearing a dressing gown with a nightgown underneath and he slid his eyes away from her right quick, his cheeks warming up.
"Well now, morning, Princess." Cork grinned. "I wasn't expecting you up this early."
The beautiful princess laughed. "I wasn't expecting me up this early either, but there are two delivery vans below my bedroom window and a lot of shouting happening." She yawned, politely covering her mouth.
Cork scowled. "Well, I'll go and handle that right now. Sorry about it."
"It's not your fault." She smiled. "And don't take this the wrong way, but I'm going right back to bed."
"You do that, come on back down when you're ready." Cork motioned him over as the princess yawned again and left. "Keep an eye on this sauce for me. I'll be right back."
"Which princess was that, sir?" He took the proffered spoon.
"That was Princess Meili. I'll be back in a jiff. Keep stirring that!" He hustled out the side door and Elang dutifully began to stir. Spirits! Word about was that Princess Meili was the pretty one and she sure was, even just rolling out of bed like that. He bet she wore those fancy dresses, like the mover stars wore, her hair all done up. How'd she get to be so tall? Maybe because she was Water Tribe? He knew she was a waterbender, Cork had said. Cork didn't go around gossiping about the family or nothing, but he'd told him the basics. Did princesses wear jewels and such all the time? Those little headband thingies, what were they called? Not crowns, no it was something else, something - "Gah!"
A little girl, about ten or so, was standing there, staring at him. She was wearing some sort of odd, ugly coverall - with polka dots, even! - and her frizzy brown hair was standing up around her head. She was a skinny little thing, with big green eyes and a nose that was trying to take over her face. Must be the new help, then, although he was surprised Cork would hire someone so young. He'd said he didn't take nobody under fifteen.
"You there! You're late! Come over here, stir this sauce!"
The girl's eyes popped wide open and she grinned before practically skipping across the kitchen to thrust her hands under the spigot, washing them with soap and drying them on the clean towel hanging there. At least she knew that much about kitchens, then.
"Didn't Cork tell you you had to be on time? This ain't no lower class joint."
"Uh huh," she said, taking the spoon from him and putting it to good use.
"What's your name then?"
"Button," she replied, grin getting even bigger. He didn't know what was so funny about it. She'd get the sack right quick if she didn't show up on time. Cork made that real clear too.
"Well, I'm Elang. I'm new here too." He took up the cleaver. "I been here a week." He pointed it at her before taking up an onion. "So I know my way around, you follow?"
"Oh, I follow." She cocked her head at him. "Yer holdin' it wrong. Chop off them fingers if you ain't careful."
Like he needed any lip from a little slip of a thing straight from the Flower District! He knew that accent, sure enough. "You just mind your business and let me mind mine." Flower District girl, thinking she knew more than him! He was a Bridge Avenue boy, he was!
"It be my business if folks got to eat them big ugly chunks of onion." She was laughing at him!
"Yeah? Well then, Little Miss Flower District, you think you know so much, you come and do it then!" He folded his arms over his chest, scoffing. Show her to try and one up him! She just held the spoon out, though.
"Best stir or else Cork will have your whoopsy fuck spit-shined nuts in a squeeze."
His mouth dropped open. Great Lionturtles! "You kiss your Mama with that mouth?"
"Not only my Mama but my Grandma, too." She took the cleaver off the table. "You want we could make this a little more interestin'?"
"You think you're going to bet me, girl? How old are you?"
"I be ten," she said, and hand to his heart, did some twirly thing with her fingers and the cleaver flew around her hand in two fast circles.
"Girl! You'll cut yourself!" That wasn't funny. She was younger than him, for all he knew Cork would hold him responsible. "Put it down! It's not a toy."
"No, it ain't," she said, and tossed it in the air, ignoring his fearful shout, catching it and then starting in on the onion. To his shock, her cuts were straight and true, the onion holding together until the last second before falling into perfectly sectioned bits.
"How...how'd you do that?"
Her grin was friendly, her eyes crinkling up at the corners. "My Mama taught me."
"Your Mama...what's she do with knives?"
"Sticks people with them, mostly." She pointed. "That sauce be close to burning. Best stir now."
He stirred as she started on another onion. Well, he'd show her who belonged here and who did not. "I met the princess this morning. One of them, anyhow. The beautiful one."
The girl's face soured. "Princess Snootypants." Chop, chop, chop.
"Hey! You can't be calling her that! She's a princess!"
"Don't she know it," the girl muttered.
"Met one of the other ones, too. Princess Naoki, the one they call the Fire Butterfly."
She smiled at that. "She's a good 'un, that girl."
He scoffed. "Listen to you go! Like you ever met any of those princesses!"
She sniffed, starting on a green pepper. "Met all of 'em."
"You never did!"
"Shows all you know," she said, and looked down her nose at him. "Met lots of people."
"Oh yeah? Like who?" He crossed his arms before remembering the sauce, quickly putting the spoon back in there.
She shrugged. "Avatar Korra, all them folks over on the Island, even the Firelord."
He laughed right out at that. "Oh sure, and me? I'm Prince Sozui himself!"
She looked him up and down. "Naw. He's better looking." She took up a red pepper this time.
"You're full of shit!"
"Maybe so," she said, and smiled. "Yer forgettin' the sauce again."
"Well, that won't happen again, sending delivery vans to the front drive!" Cork's look was grim as he walked back in but brightened when he saw the little girl. "Good morning! Did the vans shake you up out of bed as well?"
She shook her head. "No, I didn't hear any vans. I was in my workshop but then I realized I was perishingly hungry."
Elang blinked. Wait. Where was her accent?
Cork laughed and shook his head. "Do your parents know where you were?"
She put a finger to her lips. "Shhhhh...." Her smile was sunny as anything. "I was just helping Elang, here."
"Well now, how about you sit down and I'll fetch you some tea and some breakfast."
"That's what I was hoping for, Cork!"
"We live to serve, Princess." Cork winked at her before turning back to him. "For future reference, the princess takes both milk and sugar in her tea."
"Like Daddy," she said, sitting down at the big table. "I like it black the best but I don't want Daddy to feel lonely."
"Princess," he whispered, his stomach doing flip-flops. Oh, Spirits beyond, she was the baby princess! How was he to know? Look what she was dressed in! And that accent! And those swears! How did princesses learn to swear like that? "I uh...I'm sorry. I..." Cork shot him a sharp look, but the princess just laughed.
"You should be sorry when you let a ten year old chop onions better than you!"
Cork patted his shoulder. "Don't take it to heart, Princess Sayuri here was handling knives when she was barely able to walk. Not to mention she's not a bad little cook herself."
"Thank you, Cork! I figure that the more I know how to cook the better I'll be at getting my chemical mixtures just right."
"Just keep them out of the kitchen, is all I ask. Now then, you want jook or dumplings this morning?"
"If I take dumplings will there be enough for Papa?"
"Of course."
He turned his head towards her, in a kind of horrified trance, and she winked at him, sassy as you please. "We're going to be good friends, Elang," she said, and then he did drop the spoon.
Chapter 40: 198: Wei, Wing, Orchid and Iris Beifong
Chapter Text
Orchid looked around the small flat. “Well, it’s nice enough, I guess.” She smiled. “We can decorate it, too. Maybe some nice throw pillows. Oh, and some new curtains. That’s going to happen as soon as possible.”
Iris snorted. “I don’t give a damn what it looks like. So long as it has electricity, I’m good to go.”
Orchid put her arm around her waist. “You do your schoolwork. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Iris shook her head. “Orchid, are you sure? I can stay in the dormitories, you know. You don’t need to do this. You have your own life.”
Orchid drew back and put her fists on her hips. “Iris Beifong. Are you trying to talk me out of this?”
Iris gave a wry chuckle. “I know better than to try to talk you out of anything. No one’s ever been able to do it.”
Orchid dimpled at her. “That’s exactly right. And besides, you think you’re the only one who wants to see the world a little bit? Get out of Zaofu? I may not be going to University, but that doesn’t mean I want to sit around in Zaofu all day passing time for whatever. This is my adventure too, you know.” She gestured around the flat. “Can we paint here? Because these jook-colored walls are not going to do it for me. I need to look over the lease again.”
Iris was looking out the window. “Daddy and Uncle Wei alert. They’re coming up. Get ready, because I know Uncle Wei is going to try to talk us out of this again.”
Orchid sniffed and flicked her hand. “You let me handle Uncle Wei. I already handled Daddy and Mommy.”
“Mommy didn’t even argue with us.”
“That’s because you know she thinks it’s a good idea.” She shot her sister a look. “If I wasn’t here you’d never eat. Or sleep. Or do anything else but study and debate politics.”
Iris grinned at her. “The stuff of life.” There was a knock at the door. “Come on in,” she called, and then smiled as her father and his twin came in.
Wing went to hug his girls while Wei walked around the living room and open kitchen. “This place is a dump. Iris, why can’t you come and stay with me?”
“Give me a few weeks, and you won’t even recognize the place,” Orchid said.
“You can come and stay with me as well, Orchid. I’ve only got the one spare room but you girls could share. Or what about staying with Bolin and Opal? Or stay with Wu and Mako and Qi, they’ve got so much room no one would even notice you were there. You know Wu made the offer.”
“We’re staying right here, Uncle Wei,” Orchid said, with a sweet smile. “Now, I’ve already unpacked the teapot and things, so who would like some tea?”
“Orchid…” Wei started but Wing just laughed.
“It’s like arguing with her mother,” he said, and leaned down to kiss Orchid on her forehead. “You’ll never get anywhere, so there’s really no point.”
Orchid walked over to take Wei’s hands in hers. “Uncle Wei, Iris and I want to do this. She’s going to attend the University and I am going to keep house for her. I expect we’re going to make a few missteps at first, but we both know that we can call you or Auntie Opal or Uncle Mako if we need any help. And we will, that I promise.” She looked into his eyes. “I’m a Beifong. I keep my word.”
Wei looked at his brother. “Wing…”
Wing just laughed, though. “That’s parenthood, Wei. You spend their entire childhood raising them to leave you. It’s how it goes. The girls are sensible. Or at least Orchid is.” He winked at Iris, who stuck her tongue out at him. “I trust them to handle themselves.” His smile turned wistful. “I am going to miss the both of you, though. So much. My poor Daddy heart is feeling kind of broken about it.”
“Oh Daddy, don’t cry,” Iris said, but it was too late.
Chapter 41: 198: Zhi, San and Bu
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
Are you drunk?
Chapter Text
Zhi staggered into the side of the house before taking an unsteady step back, blinking cat owlishly at it through his spectacles. “Therssa wall there,” he announced, swaying on his feet. “Wow.”
Bu’s eyes widened. “Are you…are you drunk?” He exchanged a glance with his brother.
“I had-” here Zhi peered at his fingers, trying to decide how many to hold up -”two glasses of whiskey. Or maybe three. Not sure.”
“What were you thinking?” San asked, before grabbing at him as he started to list dangerously to one side. “You never drink.”
“He doesn’t love me,” Zhi sobbed, clutching at San’s shirt. “I think I wanna die.”
San sighed. “That guy’s not worth it,” he said, but he knew it was a lost cause. “Come on, let’s get you inside to my mother.”
Chapter 42: 198: Wing and Nuo Beifong
Chapter Text
“And Poppy, please do not forget to feed those goldfish! Mom, you’ll make sure she remembers, won’t you?” Nuo stood at the bottom of the gangplank of the Beifong airship.
“Okay, now we’re leaving. Goodbye, girls! We’ll see you in two weeks! Be good for Granny and Grampy!” Wing waved to his two youngest daughters and then pulled his wife up the gangplank, bending it closed behind them. “Stop fretting. You think my mother won’t have everything in hand? She managed Zaofu just fine before you showed up, you know.”
“I know, I know.” Nuo sighed. “It’s just that-”
“No. We agreed. No talk of Zaofu, no talk of the girls or my parents or anything else even remotely related.” Wing put his arms around his wife. “I haven’t had you all to myself for years, and I am going to enjoy every single second of it.”
She dimpled at him. “Oh? And what are we supposed to talk about, then?” She wrapped her arms around him in return.
“Mmmmm. For one thing, we can talk about how we are going to spend two weeks on Kyoshi Island doing nothing but whatever we want.”
“I approve of that conversation.”
“I thought you might. We can also talk about how after we get our massages when we get there I am going to take you to bed and do you until you can’t walk straight.”
Nuo giggled. “Wing Beifong!” She dropped her arm and grabbed a handful of still firm buttock.
He flashed her that devastating grin that still, all these years later, made her breathless. “In fact I might not get out of bed the entire week.”
“Oh, you think so, hmmm?” Those dark eyes were dancing.
“I also think this is as good a time as any to point out that it’s about a two hour flight to Kyoshi.”
“Is it now?” She was pressed up against him, as soft and pliant as she ever was, her hair sliding out of its pins. He bent down and hauled her up, pushing her legs around his waist, her long tunic rucking itself up. “Wing!”
“Oh, so you want me to put you down?”
“I want you to do me against the wall right now,” said the sassy, sexy girl he’d fallen in love with all those years ago; as always, her slightest wish was his command.
Chapter 43: 199: Goba and Ikki
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"How can you not be afraid to fall in love?"
Chapter Text
Ikki smiled as she watched Goba on his knees, holding Bhuti’s tiny hands, gently encouraging her to walk towards him. Bhuti wobbled; her green eyes wide, little face screwed up with concentration.
“Don’t be scared, I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall.” Goba was grinning at her, patient as always. Sometimes she couldn’t get over how patient he was, how steady and reliable. Weren’t teenagers supposed to be rebellious and impatient for the rest of their life to start? She certainly had been. Sometimes she worried that they had burdened him with too much responsibility, had somehow squashed down his spirit, but Baatar just waved that off. You were never the oldest, for one thing, he’d said. It makes a difference. But he is who he is. It’s just his nature. He’s an amazing kid, Ikki, with his own spirit in his own way. Stop fussing at him to be someone he’s not.
“You’ll be a great Da someday,” she said, and Goba glanced up at her before swinging his gaze back down to his baby sister.
“Maybe,” he said. “I don’t know, I don’t even know any girls my age, not really. Different ones than the ones up here, I mean."
“There is a world outside of this mountain, you know. And besides, you’ll meet all kinds of people when you go down to Air Temple Island next month.” He nodded, but didn’t say anything, continuing to keep his focus on his sister, trying to figure out how to balance with one foot raised in the air. She frowned a little. “Goba…don’t you want to go?”
“I do and I don’t,” he replied. “I want to learn whatever it is that Grandpa and everyone else can teach me.” She got a glance at that one, and a smile. “I really look forward to that part.” His glance went back down and he steadied the baby a little. “But I’ll miss so much here. Bhuti will learn to walk and Tseten will improve his bending and everything else that will happen. And what about Katara? What if she misses me? She’s already crying about it and I haven’t even left yet.”
Ikki moved and sat down next to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. They were so broad now; for a time there he seemed like he was doing nothing more than growing every night. “Well, that’s all part of growing up, I guess. Leaving the nest and all of that. I know it’s harder for some people than others.”
“Not too hard for you though, was it?”
She laughed. “Don’t use me as an example! I was fearless and reckless! Just ask your Ba about it!” She kissed him on his cheek. “Listen, remember what I told you. If it’s too difficult and you want to come home early, then that's what you'll do, okay? But give it a chance. You’ll get to spend time in Republic City, too. And your aunt and uncle are really looking forward to seeing you.”
He steadied Bhuti before she could fall. “I know, Pearl keeps writing to me about it.” He watched her sway back and forth for a few moments. “Ma? Can I ask you a question?”
“Always.”
Those dark brown eyes turned to her. "How can you not be afraid to fall in love?“ His mouth twisted a little. “Not that I have anybody specific in mind. But I’ve been thinking about it.”
Ikki sat back for a moment, thinking. “I wasn’t afraid to fall in love with your Ba. I sort of grew into that one over the years until I was old enough to understand what it really meant and what my feelings really were. But your Da? I guess I was a little afraid of that, yeah.” She cupped his cheek into her hand. “All I can tell you is to try and let yourself feel your feelings, whatever they are. Just be present with them, as mindful as you can be. That goes for love, yes, but any other feelings you might have about your life. Don’t be afraid to just be with your feelings.”
“Now you sound like a guru,” he said, and grinned.
Ikki made a face at him. “Thanks for nothing, kid,” and she bopped him lightly on the nose.
Chapter 44: 199: Mako and Zhi
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"A kiss... for luck"
Chapter Text
Zhi took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself, but it wasn’t helping. He had everything he needed; his thesis, his notes, his carefully mounted examples, the photographs on slides and the state-of-the-art slide machine that Asami had given him. He knew his material backwards and forwards and Lin as well as his old tutor, Mathuram, had spent hours giving him practice questions. Papa had bought him a new suit and put him together that morning, making sure he looked his best, Naoki cracking jokes and making him laugh despite himself. LoLo had made him eat a light breakfast, even though he’d been so nervous that he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to swallow a single mouthful. Qi had driven him over, Button in the back seat, chattering at him, taking his mind off of what was to come for a few moments, at least.
His hands were trembling, ever so slightly, and he clenched them shut.
“Looks like you’re ready to go.” He jerked his head to the side to see Daddy standing in the doorway to the lecture hall, hands in his pockets.
“Daddy?” He swallowed. “I…when did you get back? Is Korra back?”
Daddy huffed and rocked back on his heels. “She’s still at it. I skipped out a little early.” He glanced back into the hallway. “Your professors will be showing up soon, I won’t stick around. I just…” he trailed off, frowning a little. “You know you’ll do fine, right? You’ve put in the work. Lin told me you answered every question she and Mathuram came up with.” He shifted a little. “Someone brought you over here, right? You have a ride home?”
He nodded. “Qi brought me, they’re waiting for me.” A slight pause. “With Button.”
Daddy snorted at that. “We’ll hope the place is still standing at the end of the day, then.” They exchanged a little smile, and then Daddy shrugged. “Anyhow.”
“I’m glad you came.” His eyes started to water and he blinked hard. That was all he needed, to get tear smears on his lenses.
“I’ll always come for you, you know that,” Daddy said softly, and strode into the room, wrapping his arms around him. His father was a tall man, taller than most, but he’d passed him up when he was in his early teens and it still felt odd to have to lean down to embrace him. He felt his father’s lips press firmly into his cheek.
“For luck,” Daddy said into his ear, his voice a little ragged around the edges, and then he stepped back, fishing out a hankie and handing it over. “Just like your father,” he said, and he knew they were both supposed to ignore the fact that Daddy’s eyes had gotten a little watery as well. “I am so proud of you. So proud. I love you, Zhi. You knock ‘em dead.”
He swallowed, yanking his glasses off to swipe at his eyes. “I will, Daddy.”
“Yeah, I know you will.” Daddy clapped him on the shoulder. “I should go, they’ll be coming in and fuck knows what your sister’s gotten into.” He smiled, then, the wide, dazzling smile that he rarely gave. “I’ll be waiting when you’re done.” Another clap, and he walked back to the door.
“Thank you, Daddy.”
Daddy turned back. “Anytime, Zhi.” He gave a little wave and left. He took another deep breath, put his glasses back on, and when the professors came into the room a few minutes later, he was ready for them.
Chapter 45: 199: Rohan, Qi and Sayuri
Summary:
From a Tumblr prompt:
“I don’t owe you an explanation.”
Chapter Text
They had started a day behind schedule, not that it really mattered. Airbenders were more about the idea of time rather than the actual adherence to it; it was hard to keep an itinerary with an air bison despite even his father's very best efforts. He hated that anxious feeling that deadlines gave him and avoided them as much as possible.
He'd gone a week prior to dinner at Mako's place, letting them know that Jinora was sending him to the South Pole and asking if they had anything they wanted him to take to Meili. She'd been gone nearly nine months at that point, deep into her studies at the Healing Academy. Wu had immediately started discussing a care package and Mako was busy shooting him down (just as well, he was fairly sure Meili would be able to find clothes down there and didn't need the latest Republic City fashions, despite her father's insistence to the contrary) when Qi had turned to him and quietly asked if he wouldn't mind some company on the trip.
He didn't mind, actually. He'd always liked Qi and knew they could take care of themselves without a fuss. Qi didn't say anything to the rest during dinner, which was just as well. He knew the family enough to know there'd be a ruckus and frankly, if he wanted a ruckus he could just go back home to his own family.
He and Exit had shown up at dawn on the appointed day and Qi was waiting, carrying a large pack filled with what he assumed were their things as well as a very large parcel, which he assumed had things for Meili. Wu was just starting to get a little teary (he'd shown up to say goodbye fully dressed, as usual) when Button marched up to them, wearing what looked to be a too-small snowsuit and a pair of rain boots, her little face determined, a lumpy old rice sack hoisted over her shoulder. Qi had looked down at her with one eyebrow raised, waiting for an explanation.
"I'm coming too," she said, and they nodded, looking thoughtful.
"Is that so?"
"My gracious, Sayuri Hou-Ting, you most certainly are not! I never! It is one thing if your mother wishes to romp about the wilderness on an air bison but you are quite a different story. Now go and put those things away."
"I need to see Meili." Button's chin trembled. "And I want to go with QiQi."
"You should have said something earlier," Mako said, frowning. He was still in his dressing gown, with a teacup in his hand, unshaven, his hair uncombed. "You can go next time."
"I need to see Meili," Button repeated, and then she started wailing. Button was like that; if she had a feeling, she really went to town with it right then and there. Seeing as she was eleven now it was more than a little shocking unless you were used to her. Qi crouched down to look her in the eyes.
"Baby, did you make plans?"
"What plans?" Button sobbed, snot cascading down her lip. Qi fished out a hankie and mopped at her face.
"When people go on trips they have to make plans. For example, who is going to take out Lady Sweetums with Madame Zong when you're gone? And what about Mathuram? Who will she be teaching if you're away?"
"I don't know any of those things." Button's sobs were getting louder.
"Well, you can't come with me if those things aren't taken care of. It's not right to just up and leave without thinking about other people."
"But Mama, I need to go." Button threw her arms around Qi's neck.
"Yeah, I know you do. But what are we going to do about things here?"
Button pulled away, her eyes and nose already red and swollen. "If I find solutions can I go?"
"That's up to Rohan. He's the one who's in charge of this trip. He might not be able to wait, Baby, and if so you have to accept that."
She ran to him and threw her arms around his waist. "Rohan, Rohan, I have to find some solutions, can we wait? Can we wait to go?"
As if he could ever tell her no. He crouched down and put his arms around her. "We can wait." She'd let out with a shriek of joy and climbed up to wrap herself around him like a tiny, frizzy-haired elbow leech and he couldn't stop himself from laughing, catching Qi's look as they gazed at their daughter, their usual impassivity softened by the fond smile that had stolen across their face.
They'd left the next morning at dawn instead; Button was dressed properly and he was sure that the brand new leather bag she carried had been packed by her mother this time. Her hair had been braided back as well, sectioned and twisted flat to her head, secured tightly for the ride. Qi knew their business, after all. Button blew delighted goodbye kisses to her fathers and her grandparents as Wu predictably wept all over Mako. She'd sat, her mother close at hand, peering over the side of the saddle as Exit gained altitude over the city, waving down at the few people moving about that early.
He was the youngest in his family, something that he and Sayuri had in common. Jinora had gotten her arrows when he was only a few months old and had always seemed an adult to him, even though he knew it technically wasn't the case. Ikki had always been his favorite of his siblings; he'd adored her, following her everywhere until she'd taken flight, never to return. Which left him with Meelo, who had never much bothered with him unless he was ordering him around. Meelo wasn't cruel or anything, he just had a lot of things going on and a little brother underfoot wasn't one of them.
There'd been the other airbenders of course, showing up when he was just a baby, including other children as time went on. He was too young for the adults and too old for the children and had spent much of his time wandering alone within the closed confines of the Island, an airbending prodigy who had to fight for every scrap of his father's attention, unlike his siblings. He'd been very lonely.
It had helped once Mako had talked to his parents and invited him to come over to their place more often. Mako had spent a lot of time with him, teaching him to surf, taking him for noodles, really listening to him as he talked. Wu had always welcomed him with a smile and Qi had taught him how to drive, something which he enjoyed, even if it wasn't a necessary skill for an airbender. As Sozui had gotten older the two of them had struck up a frequent correspondence, something he kept up with and still treasured. Naoki had hit adulthood with both feet flying, like she did everything else, and he saw a great deal of her, for which he was glad. They were like the brother and sister he'd always wished for growing up.
He loved his parents, but they were always so busy. His father was still nominally leading the new Air Nation and his mother still ran the Island with her own brand of benevolent firmness. There wasn't much left for him. It wasn't so much that he was resentful; more resigned, really. He loved them but he no longer tried to to take front and center. Meelo had Uncle Bumi and then his wife and Jinora had Auntie Kya and then Kai and Ikki had her temple and her Beifongs and there he was, twenty-eight years old and what was he doing with his life? Running errands for his sister and still living at home in the same room he'd had as a boy.
Okay, maybe he was a little resentful.
They'd made good time that day, finally landing in a clearing with a stream that Qi's sharp eyes had spotted from the saddle. He'd taken care of Exit while Qi quickly put together a campfire and laid out their bedrolls, Button dashing off to explore. He was amused, at first, to see that Qi had given her a whistle on a cord around her neck. Qi had produced their own and had blasted it shrilly and another blast was immediately returned from a clump of trees to the south. Qi had explained that since they couldn't shout it allowed them to keep track of their daughter. The bonus, he supposed, was that Button would easily scare off any sort of predators that dared get near Exit with that noise.
He hadn't been wrong; Qi was a good companion. They were efficient and organized, not needing to be directed. By the time he was finished with Exit the fire was already going, a kettle was steaming for tea and they were in the process of distributing dinner, blowing three sharp trills on their whistle to call Button back. Button rarely minded anyone but she knew better than to disobey her mother, which he'd always found interesting. He'd never once seen Qi angry at her, never even heard them speak sharply to her. It was just the way they carried themselves, he supposed. Qi expected to be obeyed and people, in turn, did so, and that included both Wu and Mako. He wished, more than a little, that he had the trick of it himself. He was about as authoritative as a decorative pillow.
Button had chattered her way throughout dinner, excited to be getting to see her sister as well as the South Pole, thrilled to be journeying via air bison, producing a notebook from her pack and writing in it with improbably chartreuse ink, which she informed them was the best color for a travel journal. She helped Qi clean up but kept yawning, drooping until they tucked her into her bedroll, quietly singing her a little lullaby about lilies in the spring before she dropped off. Qi kissed her forehead tenderly and then sat themselves a ways away to light up a cigarette.
"It's good of you to let her come along," they said. "She's missing her sister terribly."
"I'm glad of the company," he replied, handing Qi a tin cup with what remained of their tea, sipping at his own as he sat next to them on a log he'd half-dragged/half-bent over earlier. "I don't really enjoy traveling alone."
They just nodded at that, finishing their cigarette and tucking the stump back into their case before taking a swallow of tea. "Is that why you've never done that whole airbending odyssey thing?" At his glance they shrugged a single shoulder. "I always wondered."
He cleared his throat. "No. Well, in some part I guess. But airbenders don't necessarily do that alone. Some of them travel together." He picked at some imaginary dust on his wingsuit.
"Not your thing?"
He scoffed. "Now you sound like my brother." At Qi's questioning look he grimaced. "Sorry. He's always after me about it, always demanding to know why I won't go. I keep telling him, I don't owe you an explanation, but he never lets up. It's like he thinks he's my father or something."
Qi met his eyes. They were hard to read, but he didn't think they were offended. "Just making conversation. You don't owe me a thing."
"No, I know, I just..." he cut himself off and ran a hand over the beginnings of stubble on his head. He should have shaved it again before he left. "Sorry."
"Sometimes you get poked enough in the same place it starts to hurt. I get you." Qi leaned back on the log, looking deceptively casual. Deceptively being the keyword there. He'd always thought Qi didn't know the meaning of the word casual.
"My Dad's going to be eighty in a few months." He wasn't sure if that was enough of an explanation, but Qi nodded again.
"Yeah. Lin's only a year younger. Hard to leave them when you know they might leave you at any time."
Tears pooled in his eyes. "My grandmother lived to be a hundred and five, I know there's no reason why my father won't do the same, he's in excellent health for his age."
Qi put a hand to his shoulder. "I fret about Lin sometimes. LoLo, too. I get it."
"It's not that I want to just sit around waiting for Jinora to find me something to do."
"What do you want, then?" Qi had that eyebrow up again, the one that his father always referred to as the Beifong Eyebrow. He always looked slightly pained when he said it.
"That's the thing," he said, slouching forward, his hands on his knees. "I don't know."
Qi was quiet for a time, watching their daughter as she moved restlessly and mumbled something in her sleep that sounded like turnips waltzing before settling back down again. "There's two ways in life that things happen. Either they happen to you or you make them happen." They were still in that uncanny way they'd had about them as long as he could remember. Qi wasn't a fidgeter. He envied them that. "When I was nine, my mother died and I ended up on the streets." A wry twist of their mouth, and then, "Well, there was a little more to it than that, but that's the end result, anyhow. It wasn't anything I had control over. It happened to me, you follow?" At his nod, they continued. "But when I was just shy of fourteen Mako hauled me into the station for joyriding and that's where I met Wu. And to this day I don't know why, but he asked me if I wanted to drive his car around for him. Thing was, though, that I didn't know how to drive. Mako caught me because I'd slammed the car I'd stolen into a streetlamp." They laughed their oddly wheezing laughter. "Talk about a delinquent! But the point I'm getting at was that Wu made me that offer and I lied through my damn teeth, told him I could drive."
"You couldn't drive?" He was astonished. They all knew how well Qi drove. Cars and Qi were just a thing.
"Nope. I sat there, gobbling down Mako's lunch, bullshitting Wu upside and sideways about it. And when we got back to his house and he gave me the keys to the big old Satomobile he had I lied again, told him I thought there was something running a little rough with it, that I had better look at it for him. Told him I knew how to fix cars. Which I did not, in case you were wondering." They were laughing again, and he had to laugh as well. "That damn car was so big and heavy I was sure I couldn't manage it."
"Wait, does Wu know this?"
They shook their head. "The only one who saw right through my ass was Lin. Made me drive her through town, back and forth to work, even had me drive her own car as well as a police car too, made up some story about giving me a license. She'd sit there next to me, staring out the window, sort of talking to herself about my crappy driving but really giving me advice, both of us pretending like I knew what the fuck I was doing." They winked at him. "Do not tell her I told you that. She hates nothing more than people thinking she's got a soft heart under all of that."
"So you just learned to drive right then and there?"
"Yep. Taught myself how to actually figure out the engine as well, in time. Learned a lot from watching Asami, looking at pictures in books, that kind of thing. Turns out I do actually have a bit of a knack for it but I didn't know anything about it when I first got there." They met his eyes, then, expression sobering. "Thing is, I was starving at that point. I don't mean that I was just hungry. I mean, my teeth were loose in my jaw and I was weak and dizzy all the time. My very bones ached. I didn't understand then exactly how bad along I was, but I knew it wasn't good. LoLo took one look at me that first day and hauled my scrawny ass to a healer, over my protests, let me add. For months I was drinking I don't even know what that he gave me, some sort of tonic, and he had to start me out on jook all the time, that lunch I ate that first day made me sick."
He stared at Qi, stunned. They'd all known the basics of their background but he'd had no idea that things had been that bad. "I didn't know."
"You were just a kid. Nobody knew, outside of Lin and LoLo, that is. I've never gotten into it with Wu, it would just upset him, he gets all worked up about that kind of thing. And what Mako doesn't know won't hurt him." Qi tipped a wink their way. "Trust me on this one."
"Oh, I trust you."
Qi smirked before meeting his gaze. "The point I'm making by going down memory lane here is that when it came to moving into that house, I took my life into my own hands. I made the choice to do whatever it was I needed to do to change my life. Save my life. If I had waited around for something to happen to me I'd have been just another dead body on the streets. You seem to me to be waiting for something to happen to you, Rohan. And sure, your situation isn't like mine was. But that's the thing though. I was desperate. You aren't. People can go for a long time, sometimes even forever, when they're unhappy but not desperate. You're going to be twenty-nine here soon, yeah?"
He swallowed past the ache in his throat. "In the fall."
"And you aren't happy, are you?"
He shook his head, unable to speak.
"So what are you going to do about it? Because nobody's going to save you over there. You aren't in any danger. Your sister will find things for you to do or your parents will and the years will just sort of pass by and soon enough you'll get old while your life's just sitting there. Is that what you want?"
"No." He put his hand up to massage at his forehead. "I don't."
"So what do you want? It doesn't have to be a grand plan. Me, I just wanted something to eat and to get out of the cold and wet. I did not go into that house with the idea that I'd marry that fancy man with the yellow Satomobile or have the life I have now, trust me. That kind of thing never even occurred to me. Everybody's got to start somewhere. So tell me. What do you want different in your life? No matter how small."
He sipped at the rest of his lukewarm tea, thinking. What did he want? Not to lead the airbenders, that he knew for sure. Meelo was always going on about how Jinora had been pressured into it by their father but he'd lived with Jinora longer than Meelo ever had at this point and he knew it wasn't true. Nobody had pressured Jinora into anything. Jinora had her own ideas about how things should be done and the older their father had gotten, the more he'd stepped back and let his eldest child take over. He certainly didn't want to rebuild a temple from scratch, the way Ikki had spent the last fifteen years doing. Meelo had, for all intents and purposes, taken over the Southern Air Temple, he and his wife starting up a school for the deaf there as well as taking in some new airbenders from the area. What was he going to do, choose between the Eastern and Western Air Temples and establish some sort of colony there? He had no interest in that at all. For one thing, the Eastern Temple was the most remote and spiritual of all the temples, the one his father and Jinora had set aside as a kind of sacred retreat for any airbender who needed it. He wasn't particularly remote or spiritual; living a life there did not appeal to him in the slightest. The Western Temple had only a handful of acolytes there keeping it up since there weren't enough airbenders yet to populate it. As it was they didn't really have the numbers to justify Meelo with his own temple, never mind giving him one to play with. No, he wasn't going to lead anyone. It wasn't who he was or who he wanted to be.
"I don't want to keep living in the same bedroom I had as a boy," he blurted out before he realized he was thinking it. "That's one thing I can tell you."
Qi cocked their head to the side. "Well, there you go. So what are you going to do to change that?"
"I don't know. I don't feel like I have a lot of options."
Qi leveled their gaze on him, mouth thinning. "Really."
"No. Sorry. That was pretty whiny of me." Qi didn't argue, just kept staring at him, and he swallowed the bitter dregs of his tea. "I don't know where to go."
There went that single shoulder shrug again. "We're going to the South Pole. You're part Southern Water Tribe yourself. It's not like your beastie there can't manage the cold, right?"
"No, air bison are pretty much immune to the cold."
"There you have it, then. Doesn't your aunt have a place there?"
"Aunt Kya? She's in Republic City right now, but there's the old family home that belonged to my grandmother in Wolf Cove. She left it to my aunt when she died. It's where Aunt Kya stays when she's there."
"Reckon she wouldn't mind if you stayed there for a bit, would she?"
"No. In fact she offered to let me stay there this trip but Tonraq and Senna promised to host me instead. I could radio her and ask if I could stay there longer but I can't think why she would mind. She has a housekeeper or something that keeps things up when she's not there, she doesn't rent it out or anything, or at least I don't think she does."
Qi shrugged. "Sounds pretty simple to me."
He sat back for a moment. "There's a barn there, too. Gran-Gran had it built for Oogi after she moved back down there when my grandfather died and later on the Firelord's dragon stayed there when he came to visit."
"The Firelord visited your Granny?" Qi grinned at that.
He grinned in return. "My father doesn't like to talk about it."
"Heh. Good for your Granny, then."
"Oh, never mind, though. I couldn't stay. How would you and Button get home?"
Qi snorted. "I think I can manage to get us home. There are ships in and out of that harbor this time of year and my money's just as good there as it is anywhere else. Worst case scenario, Mako could send the airship for us. You let me worry about that part." They smiled down at their daughter again. "She'd be beside herself if we took a ship home, though. She just finished one of her girl detective books that took place on a ship. I've been hearing nothing but boats for the past two weeks." Qi clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't use us as an excuse."
"If you're sure..." he let the words trail off as Qi's eyes started to narrow a bit.
"I don't say a thing unless I'm sure of it," Qi replied, and he knew that now was the time to let it be.
"I don't know what I would do there, though. In Wolf Cove."
"What do airbenders usually do, then?" At his look Qi smirked. "I'm not an expert on airbenders."
"Nobody's an expert on airbenders at this point. We're all just flying by the seat of our pants."
Qi rolled their eyes in amusement. "Yeah, I see what you did there. So fine, you don't know what you want to do. Then just live in your auntie's place and see how it goes for awhile. At least nobody will be bossing you around."
"I could do with a little less of that."
"I'll just bet you could." Qi kept watching him, with that direct gaze they had. He'd often wondered what had happened in Qi's life to make them as utterly fearless as they always seemed to be; he didn't know them well enough to ask and wasn't really sure he wanted to know, anyhow. He'd always thought of them like kintsugi, the way they had in the Fire Nation of fixing damaged pottery by putting it back together with gold. Qi used the beautiful clothes, fast cars and cleaned up accent to disguise the broken parts.
He'd never been damaged that way, not like his sisters and his brother had been. Oh, there'd been the whole Royalist thing but he'd come out of it fairly unscathed. He'd been seventeen then, already in the process of getting his tattoos, his mastery complete. Not to say that he hadn't been scared - he'd been scared, absolutely - but he hadn't been helpless. He and Ikki had talked a few years back about Meelo, and the kind of damage all of the things that had happened when he was young had done to him. He still wasn't sure that Meelo had put himself back together, although his wife and his little boys had done a lot to smooth off the rough and angry edges. Sometimes he thought Meelo's anger was the only thing keeping him from shattering completely. Jinora disguised her trauma behind responsibility and control; Ikki had taken flight and hadn't really stopped running until she'd hooked up with Baatar, who was quite possibly more broken than she was. He thought the two of them shored each other up, with Huan, in his odd way, keeping them tethered. He knew his parents still weren't all that happy with what was going on up there, but Ikki's happiness was genuine, he thought. She'd managed to actually put it behind her and was moving forward with purpose now instead of escaping.
He knew Qi had a point. It wasn't fear that kept him back. His parents were good, kind and accepting people. He wasn't wanting for anything. He wasn't, like Qi said, desperate. It was just inertia that had bogged him down, a sort of dull acceptance that had slowly sunk its claws into him until he was just going through the motions every day.
"I used to think about being a healer," he said, actually verbalizing it for the first time in forever.
"I was there all those years ago when you helped Bu," Qi replied, still watching him.
He nodded. "I think if we still had airbender healers I'd do it. Study for it, I mean. But we lost all of that, of course. There's really not much left, pretty much all the archives were destroyed along with the Air Nomads."
Qi flicked that eyebrow again. He knew they were no blood relation to any of the Beifongs but it was uncanny how much they looked like a Beifong when they did it. "Somebody always has to be first." They scoffed. "Come on, Rohan, it's not like some airbender a thousand years ago woke up and instantly knew what to do. Somebody had to start learning without any books about it, without any mentors. I don't care who you are or what you do, someone had to be first." They held up a hand. "I know that healing's not working on a car engine. I get you can't just jump in there without any sort of training."
"It'd be dangerous for me to try."
"Yeah, for sure. But what's stopping you from learning about healing from others first? What about that school Meili's attending?"
"But they're waterbenders. I can't do what they can."
"Granted. But they could teach you about the human body, yeah? Anatomy, that kind of thing. That's not a waterbending thing. Nonbending healers can't do what waterbenders do. What's to stop you learning from them, either?"
"Nothing, I suppose," he replied slowly. "I don't know if they'd let me attend the Healing Academy, though. They only take waterbenders."
Qi snorted and rolled their eyes. "Your Granny started that school and your Auntie was the headmistress for a lot of years before she retired. Not to mention that Yumi's sister is the headmistress there now. Little nepotism never hurt anybody."
He had to laugh at that. "Now you sound like Wu."
"Yeah, well. Wu's not afraid to get what he wants. Thinks it's owed to him as royalty, and I say that with love, much as I want to kick his ass over it sometimes. You could stand to channel a little Wu every once in awhile." They leaned towards him just a little. "Nobody's going to offer it to you. You need to ask for what you want. If you want it enough then you'll find a way to make it happen. But you have to want it."
He nodded glumly. "You must think I'm an asshole."
Qi surprised him by slinging an arm around his shoulder. "I don't think you're an asshole. I think you're somebody stuck in a rut who needs to get out of it." Their fingers tightened on his shoulder. "Don't know if you remember or not, but right before I married Wu I spent a few months alone, living at Lin's place."
"Sure, I remember that." He smiled. "Naoki was unhappy about it."
"Oh trust me, she made sure we all knew she was unhappy about it." Qi's mouth quirked up fondly. "That's our Butterfly. But that time I spent there, alone, was important to me. I needed to focus on myself, get my head on straight without anyone else trying to push me one way or the other. I could be wrong, but I think you might find that a few months alone at your Auntie's place might help you do the same."
"Maybe," he replied, and was quiet for a moment. Qi let him be. Could he do it? Logistically speaking he could, of course. He truly didn't think his aunt would mind; in fact, knowing his Aunt Kya she'd most likely enthusiastically approve. He was an airbender, so the climate wouldn't prove an issue for him. He had somewhere to shelter Exit, although he'd need to make arrangements to feed him as well as himself. That was the kind of thing that Opal usually took care of for the airbenders that were traveling and needed funds, so she'd be the one to contact about it. He glanced over at Qi. "I'm to meet with a few people to discuss things with them on behalf of my sister but my father and my aunt asked me to bring back some things for them as well."
Qi waved that off. "Whatever it is, I can get it to your folks when Sayuri and I go home. It's no trouble." The look they gave them was pointed. "You making more excuses?"
He shook his head. "No, just trying to be thorough. I don't want to leave anyone in the lurch."
"Sure. Well, we're booked at that big hotel downtown for the duration. If something needs to get back to Republic City, just let me know." Qi snagged the empty cup out of his hand and stood up. "I'll go rinse these in the stream if you need to see to your beastie and bank the fire for the night so we can make ourselves some tea in the morning." They shot him a look out of the corner of their eye. "Taught myself how to make a fire, too. And I'm not even a firebender."
He had to laugh at that and Qi winked at him. "Point taken."
"Good," Qi said as they walked away and he buried his face into Exit's muzzle.
"Maybe we could stay for a bit, hmmm boy? Maybe see what we really want to do with our lives?" He smiled as Exit softly whuffed his agreement.
Chapter 46: 199: Varrick and Zhu Li
Chapter Text
“…and if I give it the old heave-ho it will pop up and…”
Zhu Li tuned him out as she looked over his notes. As usual the calculations were a joke; the idea was brilliant, as always, but he never did know how to make any of those things he thought up actually work. She took up her pen and started to re-work the numbers, making sure to add the occasional Mmm-hmmm and Yes, Iqnik so that he would think she was paying close attention. It didn’t matter; he always repeated himself, so whatever she missed would come around again.
“Zhu Li, are you listening to me?”
“Hmmm?” She looked up. “Sorry, I got caught up in your notes. What is it?”
He stood there for a moment, watching her. “I said I love you.”
“Ah,” she said. She bent her head back down to the paper. “I love you too.”
“Well, of course you do! What’s not to love? I’m telling you, Zhu Li…”
She smiled a little to herself and continued to write.
Chapter 47: 200: Kya
Chapter Text
She settled the shawl a little more closely around her shoulders. She was resigned to getting old, for the most part, but in the last few years she’d found herself getting unexpectedly colder, and that she didn’t enjoy.
“Aunt Kya.”
She glanced up and smiled. Ah, Jinora. She patted the seat next to her and Jinora sat down, handing her a cup of tea. The warmth of it seeped into her fingers and she waited to take a sip. “What’s on your mind?”
Jinora shook her head slightly. “I just saw you out here and wanted to come and sit with you for awhile.” She stared out over the bay to the statue of her grandfather. She had the first few flecks of gray in her dark hair; Kya herself had started going gray in her twenties, a gift from her mother, who had done the same. She had always seen some of her own mother’s strength and dignity in Jinora and she for one hadn’t been surprised at all when Tenzin had left Lin and married Pema. Pema had always reminded her in some ways of her mother. Still waters run deep, the saying went, and so it had always been with Pema and now Jinora as well. Kya reached out one hand and stroked along her hair, wound into a low knot at the base of her skull.
“Forty isn’t too old,” she said softly. “I’ve known plenty of women who were older.”
Jinora turned to look at her, her eyes full of tears. “Has it never bothered you?”
Kya thought for a moment. “Well, I would have lived a completely different life if I had had a child.” She wrapped her hand around the comfort of the tea cup again. “I’m not saying it would have been a bad life, mind. But a different life. I don’t have any regrets, if that’s what you are asking. I’ve lived a good life, Jinora. When it’s my time I’ll go without looking back.”
“I don’t understand why time is going so fast now.”
Kya smiled. “The curse of getting older. If I could go back in time I’d tell my twenty year old self to be more appreciative of my perky ass though, because I surely did not appreciate what I had at the time.”
That got a laugh out of Jinora, just like she had hoped it would.
Chapter 48: 200: Kai
Chapter Text
“Master Kai!” The air acolyte scurried over as he bent himself down from Lefty’s neck. “We were not expecting you home so soon!”
Kai lifted his arms above his head to stretch. “I wasn’t either, so don’t worry about it. Listen, is my wife…” his voice trailed off as Jinora came down the path towards him, waving. With a grin he strode towards her and swung her off her feet and in a circle, kissing her soundly.
“Oh, Kai,” she said, her eyes darting towards the air acolyte. She was smiling, though.
“I missed you,” he said, and put her gently to the ground before kissing her again. “I don’t care who knows it.”
Chapter 49: 200: Su and Opal Beifong
Chapter Text
“Opal, sweetie, could I borrow a pair of earrings tonight? I swear I thought I had packed my jewelry case but obviously I left it at home.”
Opal pulled the curling tongs out of her hair and patted down the curl. “Of course. Take whatever you want.”
Her mother walked into the dressing room, already in her green silk gown. She held up two earrings next to her ears. “The emerald or the jet?”
“Mmmmm. Do the emeralds, they have a really nice swing to them.”
Her mother walked back out again. “Is Bolin giving a speech?”
Opal snorted. “Well, he has one written out, but he’ll never read it. He never does. He always just wings it.” She wrapped another piece of hair around the tongs.
Her mother walked back in, fastening the second emerald earring. “You’re right, these do have a nice swing to them. Where did you get them?”
Opal smiled. “Fortieth birthday present from Mako and company.”
“Ah, so Wu picked them out. That explains everything.” Her mother sat down on the bench next to her and picked up the powder puff, patting delicately at her nose. “Thank you for having me, sweetie. I could have stayed at the Four Elements, but it would have been lonely without your father.”
“You sure he’s okay?”
Su snorted. “Please. He’s fine. He just hates these kinds of things, he always has. It’s just that now he’s old enough to fake an illness and get away with it.”
Opal laughed. “Ah, if I could only do the same. Every single damn time I do one of these things the paparazzi always manages to get Bolin’s best side and I always have my eyes half shut or my finger scratching my nose or something.” She smiled. “Not that I’d ever say anything. He still gets so excited about these kinds of things. He loves getting awards.”
“Almost thirty years,” her mother said, and smiled at her in the mirror. “Your father and I had our doubts about him at first, I won’t lie. But he’s a good man. He’s always been so good to you, and the children as well.”
“He is good,” Opal said. “And even after all these years he still makes me laugh.”
Her mother patted her hand. “That’s what makes the best marriages, I swear. If they can make you laugh I think you can weather anything life throws your way.” She thought for a moment. “Not that it hurts if they are good looking, of course.” She laughed, and Opal laughed with her.
“Of course!”
Chapter 50: 200: Lin and Su Beifong
Chapter Text
Su slowly swirled the wine in her glass. “Opal’s three, Wing’s four, and four of them between Baatar and Huan.” She sighed. “I feel accomplished.”
Lin snorted. “It’s not like you did anything.” She gulped at her own wine. “Stop taking credit for it.”
“Although you have four, which is pretty good for a woman who never had any children.” Su raised an eyebrow at her sister and grinned with just the slightest tinge of malice.
“They aren’t mine,” her sister said tartly.
“Then why does Sayuri call you Grand-Lin?” Su giggled. She drank the rest of her wine. “And Grand-Lo. He doesn’t seem to mind it.”
“Of course he doesn’t mind it. He eats it up, the damn fool. And it’s not like I haven’t told her not to do it. You try telling her what to do. She’s never defiant, she looks at you and smiles and says, Okay, Grand-Lin in that dreamy way of hers and wanders off somewhere.” Lin shook her head. “Always manages to get her own way. Just like her father,” she muttered darkly.
“You love it,” Su said, and kicked her in the ankle.
Lin grunted. “Quit smiling like that, you look like you have gas. Pour me some more wine.”
Chapter 51: 200: Lin and Su Beifong
Chapter Text
“Shhhhh,” Su said, waving her wine glass. “You’re bein’ too loud.” She stumbled over the coffee table. “Whoopsie!” Putting her hand over her mouth she started to giggle.
“Fuck you and fuck your noise,” her sister said, gulping down the rest of her wine. She looked about her. “I’ve lost my man again.” She straightened up. “LoLo! Where are you? Damn the man. Lozan!”
Su snickered. “Is he under here?” She tried to look under the coffee table but nearly toppled over. “Whooo! Down I go!” More giggling ensued.
“Can’t even hold your liquor,” muttered her sister, none too steady on her own feet.
Su pointed at her. “You know what? I always hated you. An’ you know why?”
“I don’t care why.”
“Boobies.” Su gestured in front of herself. “You allays had big ones.”
Lin looked down at her chest and gave herself a squeeze. “Firm and supple, back in the day. Yeah.” She peered at Su. “You had better hair, you bitch.”
“You’reabitch.”
“You wouldna know a bitch if it came up and bit you in your skinny ass.”
“Say that to my face!”
Lin leaned over and stumbled forward. “Just did.” She reached out a slow finger and then jabbed her sister in the breast. “Tiny Titty Susi.”
“That’s it,” Su screamed, and she threw her wine glass down and launched herself at her sister with a shout. Lin stuck out a hand and shoved at her forehead, holding her sister at arm’s length while Su pinwheeled her arms at her.
“Ladies,” came a stern voice, and the sisters sprang apart. Nuo stood there, her dressing gown tied around her waist, curlers in her hair, her hands on her hips, looking severe. “For shame. For shame!”
“Now you did it,” Su whispered, very loudly. “You pissed off Nuo. Now you’ll be sorry.”
“Wing is putting Dad to bed,” she said to her mother-in-law. “Next time please don’t leave him in the garden. He’ll catch a cold.”
Su stuck her bottom lip out in a pout before brightening up a little. “Nuo,” Su said, in a singsongy voice, “Lin lost LoLo again.”
“Tattletale,” Lin hissed. “Tattle tattle tattle!”
“Bed,” Nuo said, pointing. “Right now. On the double. Whoosh whoosh! Wing will find LoLo and bring him in. Ah-ah-ah! Don’t you even look at each other! I do not want to hear a single peep out of either of you, do I make myself entirely clear!”
“Sorry,” Su said, and wobbled out of the room. Lin stared at her for a moment.
“You don’t scare me.”
Nuo raised one eyebrow and Lin hustled it out of the room, hissing behind her, “Not scared!”
Nuo reached down and rescued the miraculously unbroken wine glass from the floor. Covering her mouth, she started to giggle.
Chapter 52: 200: Lin and the Wuko Kids
Chapter Text
“Grand-Lin, do you ever think about clouds?” Sayuri was staring up into the autumn sky, a fat plum dangling from her fingers.
“Not on a regular basis, no.” Lin gently poked her on the shoulder. “Are you eating that plum or putting it in the basket?”
Sayuri looked down at her hand in some surprise. “Oh.” She stared at the plum for a moment before handing it to Meili, who rolled her eyes and tucked it into a basket. Sayuri looked back up. “Because that cloud looks like a turtleduck.”
Lin shaded her eyes with her hand, looking up into tree above her. “Are those branches thick enough to support your weight?”
Zhi’s face peered down from high up the plum tree. “It’s fine.” He produced a yellow plum and gently tossed it to Naoki, who swiped it in midair. “I think they’re pretty ripe.”
Naoki took a bite. “Mmmm, perfect. Duck with plum sauce tomorrow!” She grinned and wiped away the juice that was running down her chin. “How are you going to get them down here, though?”
“Well, that’s the question,” Zhi said, his face disappearing back into the tree.
“Are you going to help or are you just going to sit there?” Naoki looked down at her sister, sitting on a bench. Meili raised up her hand.
“I just got a manicure yesterday,” she said, as if that explained it. Both Naoki and Lin snorted.
“If you tie a rope to the basket Zhi could hang it over a branch and then lower the plums that way,” Sayuri said, still gazing up. “Oh, that one looks like half a shirt.”
“Hey, smart thinking, Button.” Naoki wrapped her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Do we have any rope?”
“Cork has some in the utility closet,” Lin said.
“I’ll go and get it,” Meili said, standing up and brushing off her tunic before walking towards the house.
“Oh Grand-Lin! Look, that one looks like a goat gorilla!”
Lin smoothed down Sayuri’s tumbled mess of curls. “Does it now? What else do you see?” She smiled at Naoki over Sayuri’s head.
Chapter 53: 200: Lin Beifong
Chapter Text
Mako gently grasped her elbow as she slipped a little in the loose scree on the path.
“Oh, so now I’m an old woman that needs to be coddled, am I? May as well put me in a corner somewhere and forget about me.”
Mako said nothing; just tucked her arm into his and slowed his pace. Eventually, she sighed and stopped trying to pull away.
Chapter 54: 200: Ikki and Baatar
Chapter Text
“Look. I thought the deal was that I had total autonomy over their bending training.” Ikki picked up a small rag doll off the floor and sniffed at it suspiciously. “Wait, does this smell like puke to you?” She held it out and Baatar sniffed it.
“Yeah, it does.” He took it out of her hand and sent it sailing across the room, landing directly in the basket full of dirty laundry. “When have I ever gotten in the middle of your training the kids?”
“Never. And that’s my point. You haven’t. So why are you trying to do it with Huan and Tseten then?” She gathered up a metal train and put it on the table.
“Because Huan’s not training him.”
She put one hand on her hip. “And you know this because why, exactly?”
He bent down to pick up a pen off the floor, waving it. “How many times have I told Katara that she’s not to use my good pens! I have to send away to Ba Sing Se for these!” He jammed it into his pocket angrily. “You know, just because I’m not a bender doesn’t mean I wasn’t surrounded by it. I watched my mother train Kuvira and the twins. I know what it looks like. All Huan does is fuck around with that piece of meteorite.”
“Well, maybe that’s how he was trained.”
“Huan was trained the way he was because when he was Tseten’s age he couldn’t even speak, Ikki, no less even attempt to bend. You don’t know. You weren’t there.” He picked up a tunic strewn across a chair.
“Regardless of how he was trained he’s an amazing bender. Or are you going to argue that with me as well?” She yanked the tunic out of his hand and stomped across the room to slam it in the basket.
“Don’t put words in my mouth. I never said he wasn’t an amazing bender. I am saying that the way he learned bending may not be the best way to teach Tseten.”
“Oh, and I guess you know how to teach him bending then?” Ikki regretted the words the moment they left her mouth. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“Sure you did,” he answered, and he turned away to put a plush tigerdillo onto the bed. He took several deep breaths before turning back to her. “I was thinking we could send him down to my mother for a while. Or maybe ask her to come up here.”
“And you think Huan would be okay with that? Did you stop to think how he might feel about that?” She was staring at him incredulously.
“Don’t be an ass. When have you ever known me to not to take his feelings into consideration?” His jaw was tight.
Ikki blew out an explosive breath that sent a a series of drawings skittering across the floor. “Well, have you at least spoken to him?”
“No, I haven’t. I thought I could speak to you about it first, get your thoughts. Although I suppose I shouldn’t get an opinion because I’m not a bender though, right?” He pointed a finger at her, furious. “You are always shooting me down, Ikki. You think that it isn’t important to me that my bending children are well-trained?” He threw his hands into the air. “Because according to you, I’m not entitled to an opinion of that. And it’s bullshit. After all, you get to have an opinion about their book schooling and you and I both know you’ve never cracked open a book except under protest.”
“That’s totally different,” she said.
“The fuck it is,” he spat out, and he stormed out of the bedroom.
Chapter 55: 200: Rohan
Chapter Text
“Did you go there with Grandpa, then?” Rohan smiled at his father as he handed him a cup of tea.
“About a year before he died. I wasn’t much older than you are now.” His father’s eyes were sad, and Rohan leaned over to put his arm around him, swallowing past the sudden ache in his throat.
“Stick around for awhile, okay, Dad?”
“I’ll do my best, son.”
Chapter 56: 200: Huan
Chapter Text
Huan sat cross-legged on the floor. His hand flew up and caught the carved air bison that rocketed through the air. “No throwing things, Bhuti.”
His daughter frowned down at the wooden goat gorilla in front of her. With a grunt she shoved and it took air, hovering for a moment before falling back to the floor. “Fall down.”
“You are supposed to be taking a nap.”
“No.”
“You’re lucky Da isn’t here. He doesn’t like no.”
“Ba no?”
“I don’t mind so much. But if you don’t take a nap then you will be tired and grumpy.”
“No tired.” She yawned hugely.
“Hmmm.” Huan stood up and then lay down on the bed. “Okay, I’m taking a nap now. But only me. No babies allowed.” He waited, and then smiled a little as a she pulled herself up onto the bed.
“Ba night night?”
“Yes, I’m really tired. But that’s okay, you can just keep playing.” She settled down in the crook of his arm and yawned again. “Well, so long as you don’t go to sleep.”
With a little whuffling noise she closed her eyes. A few moments later she started to snore. Huan closed his own eyes and smiled.
Chapter 57: 200: Baatar Jr. and Huan
Chapter Text
Baatar’s head jerked again. “Shit,” he mumbled. “I really need to get this finished.” He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.
“Go to bed,” Huan said. He curled a piece of metal around something that Baatar assumed was a seedpod. Or at least that’s what he thought it was. Hard to tell.
“I should have had this done a week ago.”
“The only one that cares is you.”
Baatar shot him a look. “Thanks. A lot. That’s sarcasm, by the way.”
“Oh. No I just meant that no one minds if it is late, just you.”
Baatar grunted.
“Da?” Tseten was standing in the door. “Da, I can’t sleep.”
Baatar crooked a finger and he came and sat on his lap, looking up at him with his mother’s gray eyes and adorable snub nose. “How come?”
Tseten shrugged. “I have a troubled mind.”
Huan turned at that one and raised his eyebrows.
“Mmmmhmmm. And would that troubled mind have anything to do what happened today in the west corridor?”
Tseten’s eyes went huge. “Da! How did you know!”
Baatar smiled. “I know everything.”
“That’s the idea, anyhow,” Huan muttered, and turned back to his sculpture.
“Can I sit here with you and Ba for awhile?”
Baatar opened his mouth to deny him, but Huan waved him over. “Come and help me move this petal here.” He met Baatar’s eyes and gave a little shrug. Baatar just sighed and sat back, watching as Huan guided his hands and the metal wobbled under them.
Chapter 58: 200: Wei
Chapter Text
“Shit!” He kicked up and barely caught the disc in time. Korra hooted.
“Gotta move that ass a little a faster, boy!”
“You sure you aren’t using a little airbending to help that thing along?”
Korra pressed a hand to her chest. “The Avatar would never stoop so low.”
His Aunt Lin snorted from her seat on the bleachers. “You believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.”
“San. Are you really going to let your uncle get his ass beat by the Avatar?”
San grinned at him from his seat next to his great-aunt. “The Beifong family honor is in your hands, Uncle Wei.”
“Now you’re fucked,” Qi said, smiling behind a pair of sunglasses.
“I’m going to remember that, Hou-Ting,” he laughed, shaking his head, while Qi blew him a kiss.
Chapter 59: 200: Wei Beifong
Chapter Text
Wei peered through the crowd of people getting off the train for a few minutes before he saw her, standing with a suitcase in her hand, looking the wrong direction. “Rose! Nine o’clock!”
She turned and spotted him and waved, making her way through the crowd to him. “Uncle Wei!”
He hugged her and then stepped back. “You look like a million yuan. Love the trousers.”
Rose grimaced a little self-consciously. “Poppy says I look like a boy.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to look like a boy?”
“Not particularly.”
“Then fuck Poppy. She’s fourteen years old. What the fuck does she know?”
Rose laughed a little at that and tucked her arm into his. He took her suitcase out of her hand and led her across the platform. “Thanks for having me.”
“It’s my pleasure. And I mean that, kiddo. Stay as long as you want.”
“Well, I guess I should look for a place in the dormitories.”
“Don’t be in a rush. I’ve got room and you are welcome as long as you want to stay. Okay?”
“Uncle Wei?”
“Yeah?”
She grinned at him. Damn, but he hadn’t seen her smile like that in years. She looked like a Beifong when she grinned like that. “I’m going to Republic City University. Me. Rose Beifong. Pinch me, please.”
He laughed and kissed her on the cheek instead. “Of course you are. You’ve got your mother’s brains, thank the universe. I’m proud of you, kiddo. Come on, I’m taking you for celebratory noodles. My car’s right over here.”
Chapter 60: 200: San, Bu and Pearl Beifong
Chapter Text
“So, have you stuck your tongue in her mouth yet?” Pearl grinned at her older brother.
“Nice. Really nice.” San bent a clod of dirt at her head which she easily deflected with a quick shot of air, causing it to burst, spattering Ginger.
“C’mon, Pearl! I’m trying to get him clean! Help or don’t, but don’t get him dirty again!” Bu flicked a wad of soapsuds her way before turning back to his brother. “I like her. I remember her. From before, I mean. Not very well, or anything, but anyhow. You going to ask her out?”
“Been thinking about it.” San rubbed some grease into Ginger’s saddle.
“I don’t remember her at all.”
“That’s because you were a mere tiny stinky baby when we met her.” Bu tsked at her. “Ugh. So stinky. Juicy had nothing on your baby ass.”
“I’ll give you stinky!”
“If either one of you gets me wet you will live to regret it,” San said, just as a wet sponge hit him upside the head.
Chapter 61: 201: Iris and Rose
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"I think I made a mistake."
Chapter Text
Iris leaned back in her seat, before putting her tea cup back down on the table with a sharp clink. Rose winced. “Sorry, Rosie. Why don’t you start over?”
“I said that I think I made a mistake.”
Iris smiled at her. “I got that part.” She leaned forward, steepling her fingers together. “But why do you think this is a mistake? Are you homesick, is that it? Do you not want to live with Uncle Wei?”
Rose shook her head. “I love living with Uncle Wei. And I’m not homesick.”
“Then why? I mean, it’s your choice and you know I’ll stand by you. But the parentals are going to freak.”
Rose traced the floral pattern on her cloth napkin with her finger. “This isn’t the kind of learning I want to be doing. It’s all books and theory.”
“Well, university usually is, yes. Is that not what you want?” Iris cocked her head. “It’s not for everyone, that’s for damn sure.”
Rose looked up. “I don’t want to study geology, not like San does. I just want my gems. I want to make things beautiful, not…” she frowned before pulling a small box out of her pocket, sliding it across the table towards her sister. “That’s what I want to do.”
Iris opened the box and let out with a low whistle as she pulled out an earring, made of silver and citrine, fashioned into the shape of an iris. “Flippin’ shit, Rose. Did you make these? These are…gorgeous. Like Uncle Huan level gorgeous. More than Uncle Huan level, really.”
“I want to make jewelry,” Rose blurted out. “I want to make the gems into something beautiful, into something that will last and last. I want them to adorn the people who wear them. And maybe it’s dumb and it’s not useful like what San does but it’s what I want to do. And there’s this jeweler here in Republic City, she’s considered one of the best in the world, and I took her some of my work and she said she’d be willing to take me on as an apprentice.” She took a deep breath and went silent, finger back on the napkin. “She never takes apprentices,” she mumbled, her face flushing.
Iris smiled as she slid the silver wires into the holes in her ears. “Of course she’d take you. You’re brilliant. She’d be lucky to have you.” At Rose’s look she shook her head slightly, the earrings swinging about her jaw. “So. Let’s figure out the best way to tell Mommy and Daddy, okay?”
“Thanks, Iris,” Rose said, her eyes filling up with tears.
Iris reached over to gently chuck her under the chin. “That’s what big sisters are for.”
Chapter 62: 201: Naoki
Summary:
Written for a different POV Prompt, for Marezelle.
"A student from Naoki's Academy."
Notes:
As my Beta reader has said, Naoki rolled a natural 20 in Charisma. It's a delight to show her in her element.
Chapter Text
He held tightly to his mother’s hand the entire cab ride from the main railway station in Republic City, all the way up to the estate where the Bending Academy was located.
He’d never been to the city before. His mother had been once, the year before she married his father, but never after that. His father had died when he wasn’t even two; he didn’t remember him at all. Ma had remarried a year later and then his younger brothers had been born and Ma was going to have another baby in a few more months.
It was his stepfather who had suggested the Academy for him. Nobody else in the family was a bender at all, and while he had gotten some firebending lessons from Rei who lived a few farms down, she was an old woman and was mostly self-taught.
“He deserves better, Min,” Da had said, one night when he was supposed to be asleep, but was crouched in the shadows of the bedroom he shared with his brothers, listening through the cracked-open door. “He’s so bright, and Rei says his bending is already better at nine than hers ever was. I’ll miss him too, you know I will. But he deserves better than what we can give him here. He deserves a future.”
His real father hadn’t been a bender either, but one of his great-great-grandmothers on that side had been a soldier from the Fire Nation that had been stationed in the colonies when the war ended and she’d just stayed. Sometimes bending could skip generations, or at least that’s what his teacher at school said. Outside of Rei, there weren’t any other firebenders in their little farming community, although there were some earthbenders, of course. Sometimes, the other kids chased after him, taunting him and even throwing rocks at him, trying to make him angry enough that he’d lose control and firebend at them. Then he’d be in trouble, and either Ma or Da had to go to the school. He tried his best, he really did, but sometimes he just couldn’t seem to make the fire stop. That’s why he had to go to the Academy for it.
He still wasn’t sure if he wanted to leave his family behind. But maybe it was too late to change his mind.
“Here we are,” said the cab driver, pointing out the window at a huge house, surrounded by lots of trees. He drove them through an open gate, up a long driveway. Ma fished some money out of her purse as they got out and he took his bag. He and Ma stared up at the huge front doors as the cab drove away, both of them shocked a little speechless at how grand and imposing it was. There were statues on either side of the doors and big marble staircases that led up to the next story, and everything was so white and glittering. He knew his mouth was hanging open, but he couldn’t manage to shut it.
“Is this the school, Ma?” he whispered, and she clutched his arm, pulling him close.
“Are we supposed to knock?” Ma’s voice was a little shaky. “I’m not sure.”
“I didn’t know they could make houses this big,” he said, and then flinched as the doors opened slowly.
A man, dressed in a very nice suit with a badge on his chest, came out and waved at them, smiling, before gesturing them forward. “Welcome to Bending Academy,” he said. “Are you Takeo?”
Ma nudged him and they both walked towards the man. She nudged him again and he gulped, more than a little shy, before bowing. “Yes, sir.”
“I’m Chief Lu Wen, the head of the dormitories. Please come in, I’ll take you to the administrator’s office first, and then we can see about getting you settled.”
They followed the dorm chief through the large entrance hall, which was so high that he had to crane his neck back just to see the ceiling. The dorm chief showed them where they could take off their coats and shoes and get some house slippers. The dorm chief then took his bag, telling him he’d make sure it got to his new room, and when they were ready, led them through the entrance hall and into a large office. A woman sat behind a desk and she stood and opened up a door into another, much larger office, where another woman sat at yet another desk, writing something down, before looking up and nodding. “This must be Takeo?” At his bow she gestured to the chairs in front of her desk and he and Ma sat down, the dorm chief leaving the room and the first woman coming back in, leaving a tea tray on the desk before closing the door behind her. “Hello Takeo. I’m Madame Uthai, the head administrator of the Academy. It’s very nice to meet you, and your mother as well.”
“I’m Min, head administrator,” Ma said, bowing from her seat.
Madame Uthai gestured at some papers. “So it says here that you’re from Daiyang Village, yes? And that your family doesn’t have any other benders.” She reached for the teapot and poured out three cups, raising her eyebrows at the sugar and milk. He took milk and Ma took sugar, but Madame Uthai took it black.
“Takeo’s father, my first husband, he wasn’t a bender, and neither are his parents. But Takeo’s great-great-grandmother on that side was a Fire Nation soldier who stayed after the war ended.” Ma sipped at her tea. He knew he should drink some, to be polite, but he was so nervous he didn’t think he could manage even a swallow. He sat there, cup clutched in his hands, silent.
Madame Uthai chuckled a little. “That would do it. You’d be surprised how often this happens.” She gestured around her. “Which is why the Academy was founded, of course. Especially in Republic City and the former colonies, we’ve got different benders popping up in families that have no idea how to train them.” She steepled her hands together. “Let me explain a little how the Academy works. We take in fire-, earth- and waterbenders here. Airbenders go to Air Temple Island for training, although we do have a part-time airbending instructor who teaches certain airbending techniques to our students. We have a mix of day students as well as boarding students, which is of course what you’ll be, Takeo.” She smiled at him. “Our students range from the ages of seven to twenty, depending on skill and need. Mornings are reserved for training and afternoons for the younger students are spent in school, learning all the basics. Reading, writing, mathematics, history, that sort of thing. All students receive a hot lunch, but of course our boarders are given breakfast and dinner as well. After dinner the boarding students have time for their own activities. We offer music classes, art classes and there’s a Pai Sho club, that sort of thing. We’ll go over that later with you, Takeo, you have no need to decide any of that today. Some students prefer a time of quiet contemplation, which is also acceptable. You’ll have two days off every week and holidays as well. Boarding students are allowed to go home; however, the dormitories always stay open as some students are unable to go home, for whatever reason. Are you with me so far?”
Both he and Ma nodded.
“Excellent. Please feel free to ask any questions, that is why I’m here, after all.” Madame Uthai smiled again. “All students are provided with complete uniforms, including shoes, and any tools or instruments they may need. Uniforms include bending gi, school uniforms, pajamas, and leisure time clothes. We find here at the Academy that having the same clothing puts all students on an equal footing. Students are allowed a simple pin for their hair; however, any other jewelry must first be approved by me. Students are allowed photographs of family and a few personal possessions, which should have been detailed in the acceptance letter you were sent.” Ma nodded at this, and Madame Uthai nodded back. “But Chief Lu Wen will go over all of that with Takeo later. Students are allowed to write and receive letters, of course, and we will of course contact parents in case of an emergency. We have waterhealers on site for any injuries or illnesses. Takeo, do you have any allergies?”
“I get sick when the willow trees bloom, Madame.”
“Ah, that’s not uncommon. I’ll make a note of it, the healers can help. Any other illnesses or injuries?”
“He broke his left wrist when he was four,” Ma said, and Madame Uthai wrote something on her paper. “And sometimes he complains of headaches.”
Madame Uthai gazed at him, tilting her head a bit to the side. “Does he need spectacles? If so, we can get that taken care of.”
Ma shook her head. “No, his Da - his stepfather, I mean - he wears them and Takeo doesn’t seem to have a problem seeing things far away like he does.”
“Hmmm,” Madame Uthai said. “Well, I’ll have one of the healers meet with him tomorrow, they can examine that old break to make sure it’s healed properly and also see about the headaches.” She met his eyes. “You’ll need to be truthful with the healers, Takeo. You won’t be asked to leave the school, but if adjustments need to be made to your training then we need to make sure that happens, and that includes if you get ill any time during your stay here. We take very good care of our students here. Do you understand?”
He nodded.
“Good. Tomorrow you’ll meet with the headmistress of the academic school and she’ll run you through a few tests to see where you are in your learning.” Madame Uthai raised a hand. “No need to be nervous, it’s just to give us an idea of what you’ve learned so far, there’s no right or wrong. We put students into classes based on knowledge and capability, not on age, and that goes for bending training as well. And we -” Madame Uthai cut herself off. “Mrs. Min, are you quite alright?”
“Sorry,” Ma said, and tried to smile. “I’m feeling a little faint.” She put her tea cup back on the tray and he saw that her forehead was beaded with sweat.
Madame Uthai stood up. “Let me call for one of the healers.” She pressed a button on a box on her desk. “Ahn, can you tell Iqaluk we need her in my office immediately?” She came around and knelt down before Ma, taking her hand in hers. “It must have been a long trip on the train. We’ll let the healer take a look and you can rest for a bit.”
“Ma?” he said, and Ma managed a little smile for him, gently patting his cheek.
“So, is this…” the door opened and a woman dressed in a red gi walked in, her voice trailing off as she took in Ma, drooping forward in her chair, with Madame Uthai putting her arm around her.
“I’ve called for Iqaluk,” Madame Uthai told the woman, who crouched down on Ma’s other side, next to him.
“Sorry,” Ma said again. “It’s happened with all my pregnancies, I get a little faint.”
The woman frowned. “Have you eaten anything?”
“What seems to be the problem?” A tall woman, with dark brown skin and her hair done in braids that had beads in them, came into the room and Madame Uthai moved out of her way. “Ah, I see. How far along?”
“Seven months,” Ma answered, and the tall woman nodded.
“Well, let’s get you into my office, then. Uthai, can you give me a hand?” She and Madame Uthai helped Ma up. “Is this your son?” At Ma’s nod the healer smiled down at him. “Don’t worry, I’m sure your mother’s fine. I’ll just check her over and let her rest for a bit. Okay?” At his nod she and Madame Uthai put their arms around his mother and took her out the door, leaving him sitting there with his cup in his hands.
The other woman put a hand to his shoulder. “Well, that was more exciting than any of us hoped for, hmm?” She had strange yellow eyes but she was grinning and they crinkled up at the corners in a friendly way. She winked at him. “You’re Takeo, right?” He nodded. “Well, you’re mine, then. I’m the head firebending master, Naoki. You can call me Master, okay?” He nodded and she perched herself on the desk in front of him. “You’re nine?”
He blinked. He knew that she was a princess, a real one, and the founder of the school. She was the Fire Butterfly! “Yes, Madame. Uh. Master.”
“We had a letter about you, from the firebender in your village.”
“From Rei?” he said, surprised, and she nodded.
“She says you’re a little special.” She watched him for a moment. “And nobody else has trained you?”
“No Mada-Master. We don’t have any other firebenders in the village.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean anything much when it comes to natural talent. As my father would know.” She laughed a little and the gestured him up. “Come on, you can show me some of your stuff.” He glanced out the door and the Master put her hand to his shoulder again. “Waterhealer Iqaluk will take care of your mother, I promise. Was it a long train ride down?”
He nodded. “It took us overnight, Master.”
She grimaced slightly. “And I’m assuming you didn’t have a sleeping car? Hmmm. I can call my father and borrow the airship to get her back home, I’m not putting a woman that pregnant back on the train.” She clapped his shoulder. “Never you mind, I promise she’ll be fine and we’ll get her home safe and sound, okay? Come on, we can just go back out to the front courtyard, there’s nothing there but stone.” She laughed, a joyful sound that made him feel like he wanted to laugh as well. “If the stone gets a little scorched we can just send out the waterbenders to clean it up for practice, hmm?” She winked again and he grinned back at her despite himself. “Ah, there’s a smile! I was hoping I’d see it!”
They walked out together back out the front door, only stopping to switch out his shoes. She led him through some forms, stopping to adjust his body a few times, walking around him, nodding to herself. He wasn’t sure if he was doing well or not; he had no basis of comparison. Finally she had him face opposite of the doors and told him to shoot his flame as far as he possibly could and after taking a deep breath he did so, giving it what he had.
“I’m sorry, Master. I can bend better when I’m angry.”
She merely smiled. “That’s normal for someone without training. Don’t worry, Takeo. You’re here to learn how to bend without having to use anger as a crutch. Nobody expects you to know it today. If you did, you wouldn’t need to be here, right?” She tousled the top of his head gently and then turned him to see Madame Uthai, standing behind him.
“Is my Ma okay?”
Madame Uthai smiled. “She’s fine, Takeo. Just tired, and she needed something to eat and more to drink. She’s resting now, but you don’t need to worry. The healer says both she and the baby are okay.”
He took in a deep breath of relief. His headache had come back and he’d been trying not to rub at it. It often happened when he was upset about things.
“I’ll call Papa, ask him if we can borrow the airship. I can send her back that way.” The Master made a snorty noise at Madame Uthai. “I’m not sending her back on the train.”
Madame Uthai raised her hand and flicked it to the side. “No, of course not. Let me call your father, though. You’ve got other things to do at the moment.” She peered at him. “Takeo, is your head bothering you?”
The master turned and frowned. “Takeo, are you in pain?”
“He says he gets headaches sometimes. His mother said she didn’t think he needed spectacles, however. I was going to make sure I mentioned it to Iqaluk, that and an old break in the left wrist.” Madame Uthai came up to him. “Is he too tense when he’s bending?”
The master shook her head. “On the contrary, he’s surprisingly loose. Although he’s got a bit of hesitation in that left wrist, I caught it right away. Iqaluk can work with him.” She put her hand back to his shoulder. “Where does it hurt, Takeo? Is it like a band around your head?” The master moved her hands in a circle around her own head. “Like there?”
He shook his head, wincing. “No, Master.” He looked up at her. “Is my bending okay? Am I good enough to go to school here? Even though I’m so old?”
The master smiled at him. “Yes, Takeo. You are absolutely good enough to be here. More than good enough. This is the right place for you. And nobody is ever too old to learn. Not even firebending masters, believe me.”
“Okay, Master.” He blinked his eyes, trying to keep the tears back that were threatening to spill down his cheeks.
The master went down on her knees in front of him, taking his face into her hands gently. “Takeo, can you tell me where it hurts?”
“Should I get Iqaluk?”
The master suddenly went still. “Takeo,” she said, and her voice sounded funny, almost breathless. “Does it hurt here?” Gently, so gently, she placed her index finger on the spot between his eyes and he cried out. “Oh, yes. I see. Spirits.” The master put her arms around him. “Okay, I want you to breathe with me. Inhale through your nose, can you do that? Through your nose, one, two, three. Now hold that breath, there you go. Now exhale through your mouth, one, two, three, four, five, six. That’s very good. Now let’s do it again. Breathe in.”
The master kept her arms around him as he struggled to breathe with her, the pain in his head slowly receding, a few tears escaping him. She produced a handkerchief and wiped at his cheeks. She finally glanced up at Madame Uthai, who hadn’t moved. “Well then.”
“Is he…” Madame Uthai put a hand to her mouth. “But he’s only nine. I thought it came with puberty? You were fourteen!”
“Normally it comes with puberty. But there’s no law, after all.” The master sighed. “He’s still got some time, it’s not ready yet. I can sense it, although please don’t ask me how. He’s only the second one I’ve ever met, after all. I just need to work with him to relax, regulate himself. I think with me it was down to all of my breath work with Yumi helping to keep the headaches at bay until it was ready to erupt. He hasn’t had any of that training, I’ll need to start with him tomorrow.”
“Did I do something wrong, Master?” His breath started to quicken. “I’m sorry!”
“No, no. No, Takeo, you did nothing wrong.” The master hugged him again. “Nothing at all. But I’m going to have to start doing some unique training with you. Just you alone.” She smoothed his hair back. “You have something very special, very rare. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, I’m the only other person in the world who has it. I’m going to need to train you for it.”
“I’m special?” He was confused. First the master said he was more than good enough, and then she said he was special? He was a firebender, which was special where he came from, but in the Fire Nation almost everybody was a firebender. It wasn’t so special everywhere.
The master stood. “Do you know what combustionbending is?” When he shook his head slowly she smiled a little. “Well, it’s going to be a few years before it comes, but we need to be ready for it, you and I.” She turned and faced away from the doors. “Watch my forehead, Takeo. And don’t move, okay? Stay right there.”
“Naoki! Don’t you dare!” Madame Uthai flapped her arms at the master. “Not in the courtyard!”
“Aw, the earthbenders can fix it, it’ll be good practice for them.” The master grinned and then closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and suddenly a bright light, so bright that he winced and threw his hands up, burst out of her forehead, right in the same place where she had touched him. The stone of the courtyard exploded, sending shards of marble flying forward. The light stopped almost as soon as it started, and the master opened her eyes. “That’s combustionbending, Takeo. It’s very, very rare, and only firebenders can do it. And sooner rather than later, you’re going to be doing it as well.”
His mouth hung open. “I am? Me?”
The master laughed, and then made a funny face at Madame Uthai, who just rolled her eyes and started to walk back towards the doors. “Oh yes, you. And we’ll talk about it even more tomorrow. But for today, let’s go and see your mother, and then we’ll find your room, and then we’ll get us both something to eat. Combustionbending, you’ll find, will make you hungry enough to eat an entire komodo rhino in one sitting.”
“Master Naoki, did you just tear up that courtyard?” A short man in a green gi stood at the top of the tall marble stairs, hands to his hips, with several older teenagers in matching green gi standing behind him, talking and pointing at the destruction. He had very large eyebrows and a very bushy beard and was probably the widest person Takeo had ever seen in his life.
“I did!” She called back, laughing. “You and your students can put it back to rights for me, will you?”
“Is there a reason why you were combustionbending in the courtyard?” The man was scowling as he walked down the stairs, the students following after.
“Master Do-yun, I would like to introduce you to our newest firebending student, Takeo.” The master waited for him to bow before continuing. “Takeo is going to be working mostly with me for now.” Master Do-yun raised his eyebrows. “He’s a combustionbender, Do-yun,” the master said, putting her arm around his shoulders. “It’s a ways from manifesting quite yet. But he’s a combustionbender.”
Master Do-yun stopped on the steps and let out with a low whistle. “Does the Firelord know?” The students broke into noisy chatter, pointing at him and leaning into each other. “Students!” he barked, without bothering to look back at them. “I expect better!” The students immediately quieted down. They still stared at him, however.
“I just found out literally three minutes ago,” the master said. “I’ll let my father know and I’ll call the Firelord today, of course. The Fire Sages will have to be told as well.” She glanced down at him and then back at the other master. "This is probably the most strategic place for him right now. I'm not sending him over there."
Master Do-yun breathed out a large gust of air. “Raava’s light.” He nodded his head at Takeo. “My honor, young combustionbender. Welcome to the Academy.” He snapped his fingers twice in the air. “You lot! Get this courtyard back to rights. I don’t want to see a single stone out of place, do I make myself clear? Otherwise you’ll be running laps until dinner. Now move it!” The teenagers scurried past him, most of them giving him curious looks as they passed.
<<Naoki says you are a combustionbender?>> A sort of deep, rumbly voice spoke up, and he looked around himself. The master was speaking to the other master and the earthbending students were busy fixing the courtyard. Who had spoken to him?
“Hello?” he said, still looking around.
<<Look up, hatchling.>> The deep, rumbly voice sounded like it was laughing. He looked up and let out with a shout of surprise as something very large and very gold plummeted to the courtyard.
“Hemadri! Don’t scare him!” The master glared at the very enormous gold dragon that was sitting in front of them, peering at him. “And move your rump, those kids are cleaning up the courtyard and you’re in the way.” The gold dragon huffed out a hot, smoky breath, but moved away. “This is Takeo. Takeo, this is Hemadri.”
<<Are you frightened of me, little hatchling?>> The dragon leaned into his face, sniffing. He noticed that her mouth wasn’t moving. He wasn’t sure how he was hearing her, but he didn’t think anybody else was.
“No,” he answered, shaking his head. He didn’t think the master would let her dragon eat him. Or at least not on the first day. Although the dragon was very, very big. He’d only ever seen drawings of them in books but the books didn’t compare, not really.
The master snorted at this and smacked her hand on the dragon’s snout. “Jerk.” She didn’t look angry, however.
<<Yes, you are a combustionbender, little hatchling Takeo. Naoki will train you. And so will I. I was there for her training, after all. And I am very clever.>> The dragon shook her head a little, her long whiskers quivering.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, a little breathless, and the dragon stretched out her wings very slowly, puffing out her chest.
“And not at all vain,” the master said, laughing. She put her arm around his shoulders again. “Alright, this boy spent the night on the train and spirits know when he’s last eaten. I need to get him inside before he drops. Do-yun, can I borrow Duc for a bit?”
Master Do-yun nodded and gestured. “You heard Master Naoki, Duc.” One of the boys trotted over and bowed at the masters.
“Can you hunt down Chief Lu Wen for me and tell him he can find me at the infirmary? I need to speak to him. Thanks, Duc.” Duc nodded and took off at a sprint. “Come on, Takeo, we’ll go in and see your mother.” She kept her arm around him as they walked towards the doors. “You can see him in the morning, he’s exhausted and overwhelmed.” The master snorted. “Yes, yes, after breakfast. He isn’t going anywhere. And no sticking your big gold snout into his window, either. Let him sleep.”
The next few hours were a whir for him. They went to the infirmary where his mother was sitting up, sipping some more tea and chatting with the healer, clearly feeling much better. Madame Uthai came to tell them that the airship was on its way, and Chief Lu Wen was informed that Takeo would need to be placed in one of the dormitory rooms closer to where Master Naoki’s rooms were. The healer was told why he was getting headaches (his mother was so surprised she dropped her tea cup right on the floor) and she promised to look at his wrist the next day. And then a tall man with orange eyes came, and with him came another brown-skinned man with beads and braids, this one even taller. He was told that the orange-eyed man was Master Naoki’s father, Mako, and that the other man was Sitiak, who was another healer. They were going to take his mother home in an airship, staying with her to make sure she was okay. Master Naoki’s father spoke kindly to him for a little time about his firebending while everyone was running about, helping Ma get on the airship. She hugged him very hard, sniffling (Master Naoki’s father gave her a handkerchief as they walked up the gangplank together) and then the airship, which was hovering above the courtyard, took off.
Chief Lu Wen took him to a big room that had shelves and shelves full of clothes and shoes and such, and Mrs. Jinjing, a cheerful lady that was in charge of giving supplies to the students took one look at him and gave him clothes that fit perfectly! He had a red gi like Master Naoki (Chief Lu Wen explained that it was because he was a firebender, and that the waterbenders had blue gi) and a school uniform (everyone that was still going to school had the same one) and pajamas and clothes to wear when he had time off. He had training shoes and house slippers and shoes to wear outside. He got a jacket and a hat and gloves for when it was colder. He even got underwear! It was a lot of clothes, and that didn’t even include the package that had things like a comb, a toothbrush, and towels.
He was taken down some hallways and up to a room that had two beds and two desks in it. His bag was sitting on one of the beds; Chief Lu Wen showed him which dresser was his and he put his new clothes away. He could see that there was already someone else living in the room and he wondered who they were. Before he had time to ask they left, however, and Chief Lu Wen took him to a big dining room, where students were sitting at long tables and the masters were sitting at a big table at the end of the room. Master Naoki was there, and she caught his eye and winked. Chief Lu Wen introduced him to a boy around his age and told him that Ongko was his new roommate.
“Are you an earthbender?” he asked, and Ongko ladled up some soup from a tureen and put it in front of him. He couldn’t tell, all the school uniforms were the same, unlike the gi.
“Here, take this. Everybody serves themselves, we can eat as much as we want. Naw, I’m a waterbender, but most people don’t guess so on account of me not having dark skin or blue eyes.” Ongko shrugged. “But I can’t help what I look like.” Ongko had light-brown skin and green eyes with black hair. He didn’t look anything like the healers or the waterbending master sitting at the table with Master Naoki. But that didn’t mean much, since he himself didn’t look like Master Naoki at all. He had black hair but his eyes were brown and his skin was a sandy color.
“I’m a firebender,” he said. Ongko’s eyes widened.
“Are you the one? Are you really a combustionbender? Duc told everybody you were, but you know how those earthbenders are.”
He wasn’t sure how the earthbenders were, so he didn’t comment on that. “Master Naoki said I was. But I didn’t know before today. I can’t do it yet though.”
“Aw,” Ongko said. He looked disappointed, but then brightened. “But you will someday, right? And then I’ll be the roommate to the combustionbender!” He pumped his fist up and down. “Awesome!” He grinned. “Where you from? I’m a Republic City boy, myself. I used to be a day student but I got eight brothers and sisters and I was always late or missing days since my Mom and Dad was always trying to make me take care of them or help Dad with work, so finally Master Qimniq put her foot down and said I needed to stay here.” He shrugged. “None of the rest of my family are benders and Master said she didn’t want the Triads snatching me up. So here I am.”
“I’m from a village up north. Right on the border. There aren’t any benders in my family, and only one other firebender in our village.” He ate some of his soup. “Are there lots of Republic City kids here?”
Ongko crammed an entire dumpling into his mouth, talking around it. “Yeah, but most of them are day students. Not me, and Hong and Faraj and Iluuna are orphans so they got to stay here, of course. But lots of them, sure. But not any rich ones. Master Naoki says the rich ones can have their own masters that their families can pay for. The Academy’s for kids who don’t have no other way to get trained. Some of us only stay for a couple of years, and some for longer, depends on how fast we learn or how good we are. And some of us go on to other schools. Like waterbenders that want to be healers can go on to schools at the poles for that, they don’t really teach us much healing here. Master Naoki’s little sister, she’s a waterbender and she’s studying down south for that right now.”
“Do you want to be a healer?” He took some more food. He really was hungry.
Ongko shook his head. “Nah. Me, I want to be in the Navy. Master Qimniq says when I’m old enough I can apply to the United Forces Naval Academy, she says I’ll learn lots that way and then I’ll be an officer, not just a sailor. But I got to study real hard as well as work on my bending, because the Naval Academy doesn’t take on nobody who isn’t good at their books, too. What about you?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know yet.”
“Yeah, but reckon you’ll be a combustionbender, and that’s not like anybody else!”
“I guess so.”
“Alright students, listen up!” Master Naoki stood up and waited for everyone to quiet down. “Moke, that means you, too.” An older boy, who was still talking, slapped a hand across his mouth and the rest of the students giggled. “Thank you. The announcement will be made tomorrow in classes for the benefit of the day students, but in order to get ahead of the gossip train, I am confirming that yes, our new student Takeo learned today that he is a combustionbender.” At this the noise surged up again as students looked around the hall, presumably for him. Ongko nudged him in the side, grinning. “Pipe down!” The students quieted. “Takeo cannot combustionbend yet, he’s too young. So there is absolutely no point in asking him or otherwise trying to get him to do it.” The master’s face hardened. “If I hear anything about any of you bothering, bullying or even attempting to get him to show you - and you know I’ll hear about it, thanks to Hemadri - then there will be consequences.” The master looked around the hall, which was completely quiet. “Severe consequences, which will include being told to leave the school. Combustionbending is not a joke and it’s not for fun. I won’t tolerate any of you behaving in ways that are against Academy rules. Am I clear?” A few students murmured a response but the master raised her voice. “I said, am I clear?” A resounding Yes, Master rang out through the hall. “Good. And on a lighter note, I have been told that we are going to be having mango pudding for dessert tonight. What do we say to Cook about that?”
There were enthusiastic cheers throughout the hall and he understood why when the pudding was served. It was delicious. He had two servings, and wasn’t even sorry.
After dinner all of the students were responsible for bussing their own dishes and setting the tables to order. Ongko left for a music class but Chief Lu Wen came and showed him where the bathroom was, and where he would need to shower every day after his bending training. Chief Lu Wen told him he could explore the school if he liked, but he was so tired that he merely brushed his teeth, took out the framed picture of Ma and Da and his little brothers that Da had given him before he left, and put it on his desk. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but he was woken by Ongko coming back to the room, and he put on his pajamas and they talked until lights out was called. Ongko was funny, and didn’t seem to care at all that they were different kinds of benders. He wasn’t used to it, but he liked it.
He tried not to cry once Ongko had fallen asleep. But he had never spent a single night away from home and he was lonely, and scared, and it was all so much. Too much. He buried his face into his pillow and tried to be as quiet as he could.
<<Hatchling. You are crying? Has someone hurt you?>> The dragon’s deep and rumbly voice was in his head.
“No,” he whispered, not sure if she could hear him. “I just miss my family, that’s all. I miss them so much.”
<<Ah. You are still very small, after all. Come to your window, open it up.>>
He snuck over and opened it, careful not to wake Ongko. The dragon was there, and she gently pushed her nose into him and he put his hands on her. She was so warm, warmer than he imagined. “Master Naoki said you weren’t supposed to come here,” he whispered.
<<Naoki is not the queen of me.>> The dragon sounded like she thought this was funny. <<Go back to your bed and close the window so you and the boy do not get cold, Little Flame. I will keep you safe.>> He did what she told him to do, snuggling into the covers. <<Hushabye, hushabye, you're a good little boy, close your eyes now,>> she began to sing, into his head, and he was still marveling that a dragon knew how to sing when he fell asleep.
Chapter 63: 202: Wu and Qi
Chapter Text
Qi straightened their tie and blotted at their lipstick. A discreetly folded bill was given to the bathroom attendant, who bowed politely, clearly trying not to stare. They walked out of the restroom and back down the hallway to the restaurant proper, aware of all the eyes. Spirits. They had never liked Ba Sing Se. Too conservative, too old, too damn up on its high ostrich horse.
Wu was sitting at the table, a politely bland expression on his face. Bored, then. Qi envied Mako back home. They had never relished the idea of a regular on the clock job, but it meant that Mako was rarely the one who had to accompany Wu to his occasional jaunts to this city.
“Ah, there you are,” Wu’s voice was just on this side of petulant. Spirits, but Qi hated Ba Sing Se. It did not bring out Wu’s best side. “I wasn’t aware it took fifteen minutes to relieve oneself.”
“I was gone four minutes,” they replied, sitting down. “Did you order?”
“I did not. How was I supposed to know what you wanted?”
Qi mentally counted to ten. “Fine, we can order now.”
Wu flicked his fingers disdainfully. “I suppose. Nothing on the menu appeals.”
Now he was just being petty. This was only going to get worse as the evening progressed, they knew. With that in mind, they stood up and put their napkin on the table. Saying nothing, they turned and started to walk out of the restaurant. Out through the double doors, past the startled look of the haughty maître d’ and out into the street where they flagged down a passing cab and motioned to the driver to wait.
They didn’t wait long.
Wu came storming out of the restaurant, bright spots of color on his cheeks. “You cannot just walk out on me that way,” he hissed, and Qi took hold of the lapels of his suit.
“Get in the cab, Wu.” With that they unceremoniously shoved the former monarch of the Earth Kingdom into the car, sliding in behind him. “The Imperial Jade Hotel,” they told the driver, and sat back.
Wu was glaring daggers. “What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
“Taking you back to the hotel. You’re going to take a bath and I’m going to order room service and feed it to you in the bath. If you’re a good boy I’ll get in with you and wash your hair. And then we’ll lay on the bed and eat dessert and you can crack open the book you brought with you.”
Wu stared for a long moment before reaching to take Qi’s hand in his, raising it to his mouth and kissing it. “Thank you,” he whispered, and they booped him on his great lovely nose.
Chapter 64: 203: Mako and Bolin
Chapter Text
“…so I told him, hey now, buddy, I’m not actually a private eye, you know. I can’t help you find your missing dog. But he…” Bolin’s voice trailed off and he leaned forward and peered through the steam. “Hey. Mako. You still with me?”
Mako startled a little. “Sorry. I’m a million miles away.”
“So what’s up? You can tell me. Your favorite brother. Beloved by thousands, but all yours this afternoon.” Bolin thought a moment. “Well, all yours always, really.”
Mako gave him a little nod before sighing. “Just thinking about Zhi getting ready to head off to the desert. It’s not like he has a lot of common sense.”
Bolin put a hand to his shoulder. “San’s going with him. San’s…well, you know. He’s like the kid you and Opal would have had if you had had a kid.” He wrinkled up his nose and blinked twice. “Huh. Well, okay, that came out pretty weird.” He waved it off. “But you know what I mean. He’s smart, Mako. A million times smarter than me. And he always knows what he’s doing. He won’t let Zhi come to harm. Like you with me, remember?”
“It’s just…you know he’d get lost on the way to the bathroom. And he won’t remember to wear protective clothing or check for scorpions in his boots or any of those things.” Mako ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not about San. I know how capable San is. But he’s got Amak now and eventually he’s going to want to settle down and start a family and I can’t blame him for that. And then what?”
“I don’t know,” Bolin said slowly. “I guess we have to see when we see. Mako, we don’t know what’s going to happen. In the future, I mean. Life’s full of surprises, you know that.” He grinned. “You married some prince. Talk about a surprise!”
Mako scoffed at that and then smiled at his brother. “I know you’re right. I just worry.”
“If you weren’t worried I’d figure you were dead.”
“Thanks for that.”
“Oh sure, any time.”
“Since when did you get so wise?”
Bolin spread his hands out benevolently. “I’m the guru of the Northside. Ask anyone.”
Mako had to laugh at that.
Chapter 65: 203: Meili and Tupilek
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt.
Chapter Text
Tupilek watched out the window of the cab as the neighborhood gradually changed. He’d been told that the clinic wasn’t in the worst of the city’s neighborhoods; it wasn’t exactly nice, either. He could see the entrance to the bridge looming in the near distance, the one that was just called First Bridge, apparently. He still hadn’t gotten all of them straight yet, and there was another one being built to the south of the city, this one to accommodate the gradual overspill from what used to be the downtown area before the spirit portal had arrived and had wiped most of it out.
The city was very big. Bigger than he’d expected, and he’d expected pretty big.
He’d only arrived the night before, traveling north on Master Iskani’s eldest sister’s ship, The Tiger Seal. Captain Tanka had met up with her other sister Yumi when they docked and she’d taken him with her, telling him he could stay in the back room of her dojo until he found a place of his own. He knew she was the middle Hou-Ting princess’s biological mother; Master Iskani had told him it wasn’t a secret, that the princess and her family acknowledged it. Yumi was a bluff, friendly woman, no-nonsense in a way he’d recognized from Master Iskani as well as Captain Tanka. He’d liked her immediately.
He’d meant to contact Natsiq to tell her that he’d arrived, but no one had answered the phone at the clinic. He figured it might be just as easy to show up in person. He’d brought with him a fair amount of supplies from down south, including the dried seaweed Natsiq had specifically requested. He’d left most of it back at the dojo, though, figuring they’d know better than he how to transport all of it.
“The Bridge Clinic, right? This is it here.” The cabbie jerked his thumb as he pulled over. He fumbled with the unfamiliar money before handing it over, picking up the box he’d brought and getting out. He took in the rather battered looking door, the single small window to the side dirty and cracked. He frowned. Quite a few people were milling outside, most of them poorly dressed; one of them, a young girl, was coughing so hard her entire body was shaking with it. He went to push the door open and a man grabbed at his arm.
“You ain’t takin’ no cuts in line, I been here since it opened!”
“I’m an employee,” he said.
“You a healer?” The man peered suspiciously at him; his traditional clothes in blues and browns, boots to the knee, his dark hair with its severe widow’s peak caught back at his nape before being clubbed into a thick tail that fell to the middle of his back, wrapped with the beaded leather clasp his grandmother had given him for his tenth birthday.
“Not a very good one, I’m afraid.” He smiled. “I’m not really here for that. Excuse me.” He moved past him and pushed open the door, feeling resistance as it shoved into someone who promptly cursed at him. The small lobby beyond was crammed full of people; coughing, bleeding, complaining or silent with suffering, sitting on the floor or standing, unwashed for the most part. He lifted the box above his head and started to wade through to the door at the other end of the lobby, doing his best not to step on anyone. He managed to get through and tried the doorknob; it was locked.
“Where do you think you’re going?” This voice had a completely different accent; he turned to see a tall woman frowning at him. He nearly dropped the box, her resemblance to Master Iskani so marked that for a brief moment he’d thought she’d somehow appeared here. On second look it wasn’t her, of course; this woman was considerably younger, for one thing, and her eyes were the dark blue of gentians instead of the master’s much lighter turquoise. She was dressed in a simple tunic and trousers, covered with some sort of a thick pinafore, her curling hair pinned neatly back, bare of jewelry or any other ornamentation. There was no mistaking her for a patient, however.
“You’re Princess Meili? I’m Tupilek, from the Southern Water Tribe. Natsiq hired me?” He shifted the box as a grimy hand reached for it. “Ah, please don’t touch, these are medical supplies.” He smiled down at the boy who owned the hand. “No food, I’m sorry.” The boy lost interest at that and wandered off.
The princess’s frown cleared. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. We’re swamped,” she gestured around her, “as you can see. Natsiq is with a patient and so is Rohan, you can meet him later. I don’t mean to be rude, but…” She gestured again.
He nodded politely. “Of course. At least let me take this box back for you. It’s got some supplies Natsiq asked for.”
“Thanks. Give me a moment, we have to keep it locked or else they’ll take anything that isn’t nailed down.” She turned from him then, going back to a woman who was holding a sodden cloth to her bleeding arm, speaking to her quietly before motioning her along.
After she let him in he dropped the box off and found Natsiq; a quick hello and a promise she’d talk to him later, and he was waved at by a man about her age, tattooed arrows gleaming a bright blue on his shaved head, hands and forearms. Healer Rohan the airbender, of course. The back room had been transformed into several smaller rooms, separated by tall screens, neat and clean. The storeroom, however, was a disaster, and he blew out a long breath when he contemplated what it would take to get it into good working order.
Natsiq hadn’t been kidding when she said they needed someone to run the clinic for them. He borrowed her key and went back into the lobby just in time to stop a fight between two women, each accusing the other of trying to get in first. Meanwhile, there was an old man he hadn’t seen on the floor, his eyes closed, his breathing irregular, overlooked in all the chaos.
He took a deep breath and got his pen ready, centering a clipboard he’d found in the back in his hands. “Ladies and gentlemen! If I could have your attention, please.” A few people looked at him, but not many. No help for it, then. “OY! Quiet down now,” he bellowed, using the voice his own Dad would use to call all of them in from across the tundra. It worked; the room quieted down. He smiled. “Thanks, folks. Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to come up to me, one at a time, tell me your name and what’s wrong. That way I can tell which healer you need to see and in what order you need to see them. Emergencies need to go first, and so do children.”
“That ain’t fair! I got here first!” One of the women whose fight he’d just broken up shoved her way belligerently to the front.
“Madam, do you know what the fee is for this clinic?” He met her eyes.
“What you sayin’? There ain’t no fee!”
“That is correct. That means that when any of you come here, you are being treated by healers who are doing what they are doing for little or no money. No one is making a profit here. Because of this, the clinic is understaffed. The healers are doing their very best to treat you. In order to do that, they need to know what your complaint is so that they can try to help as many people as possible in the quickest time possible. To facilitate that they need to see patients in order of importance, not in order of who arrived when.”
The woman sniffed at this. “You want to say that in plain words for me to understand?”
“This clinic, going forward, will take patients based on how badly they need treatment instead of first come first served. It will make the queues go faster and make sure everyone gets the best care possible.” He smiled at her. “I know everyone wants that.”
She grunted at this. “Well, put me first on your list there, then.”
“What’s your name and why are you here today?”
“The name’s Ming and I got me a fierce itch in my lady parts.”
“Yer lucky yer lady parts ain’t fallen off yet!” hollered some wit from near the door, and after Ming sent him a rude sign with her fingers there were widespread snickers from around the room. He caught himself from smiling just in time, writing down her name and complaint before looking up.
“Next, please.”
He got their names and their ailments: a cough that was bringing up blood (that one was next for Master Rohan), a child who’d been feverish for over a week now (Natsiq was good with fevers, he knew), a heavily pregnant woman who, with fear in her eyes, told him that she hadn’t felt the baby move once that day. She he escorted back immediately, taking her straight to the princess, who had her lay down, water already in her hands.
Once he’d gotten all of their names he started in with the things he knew he could handle himself. He cleaned the infection out of a nasty graze and packed it with salve and gauze, telling the man to return in two days to be checked. Next was a toddler, harassed mother in tow, who had a marble up her nose, gently eased out with some water into her delighted brother’s hands. The sudden sound of a baby crying from behind the door hushed the waiting room before people nudged each other and nodded, smiling and even clapping a little. He closed his eyes briefly and let out a relieved breath. “A blessing on the baby and mother,” he murmured, and the old woman sitting next to him nodded her head with approval.
The princess came out about a half hour later, looking slightly weary. She opened her mouth and then closed it, gazing about the room in surprise. People were sitting, for the most part, thanks to a few of the relatively healthy patients whom he’d asked to help fetch some empty crates he’d been informed were sitting abandoned in the back alley. “The baby and mother?” he asked, getting her attention, and she nodded. “Fine. Thankfully. She needs to rest and recover, but I can see someone else in the interim.”
He glanced down at his clipboard. “Wang.” Three people looked up expectantly from around the room. “Ah, I mean Wang with the broken foot.” The Wang in question stood with help from his son, balancing on one leg. “Let me give you a hand.” He turned a stern glance back towards the room. “I’ll be right back. There won’t be any problems, correct?”
“You go on, then.” Ming With The Itch stood up and smacked a fist into her hand. “I’ll keep order out here.”
“Thank you, Ming.”
“You got it, Boss.”
He put his arm around Wang, helping the man to hop back to an empty table. “This is Wang, he fell off a ladder yesterday. I did a quick check; the foot appears to be broken. I did what I could for the swelling but I left the setting of it into your far more capable hands.”
The princess blinked. “Oh. Thank you.” She stared at him for a moment before shaking herself slightly and reaching for the large pitcher of water. He walked around to where the new mother lay, baby in her arms.
“Hello,” he said softly. “Can I bring you anything? Some water?”
“Some water would be good,” she said, not taking her eyes away from her child. He fetched her a glass, helping her to steady it as she drank. “Thank you, sir.”
“You rest,” he replied. “Is there anyone we can fetch for you?”
She met his eyes then. “My husband, he’s working on the bridge. He don’t know where I am.”
“What’s his name?”
“Big Li.”
“Well, I’ve got a bridge worker out there who’s got a knock to the head that needs seeing. I’ll see if he knows your husband. If he does we can ask him to take him a message, how’s that?”
“Thank you sir, thank you.”
He patted her gently on the shoulder. “We’ll figure it out, don’t worry. Your job is to rest now.”
He went back out to the lobby to speak to the bridge worker, who did know Big Li and promised to pass along the message. Taking a deep breath he turned to smile at a man who had just walked in the door, his jaw swollen and discolored. “Well, that looks painful. Can you manage to tell me your name and what happened?”
Towards the end of the day he started to turn away those that could wait until tomorrow; none of them were particularly happy about it but he was firm. “Emergencies only, the clinic is getting ready to close, please return tomorrow,” he repeated, Ming With The Itch standing behind him, turning a baleful glare at those who started to argue. “Ming, are you still here?”
“Figured you might need some help. You ain’t all that big.”
He laughed at that. “Well thanks, Ming. You got everything taken care of?”
“Yeah, that airbender gave me somethin’ to spread around down there, smells like somethin’ died but he says it works.” She shrugged. “Dunno yet, I’ll letcha know.”
“You do that, then.” He nodded, looking around the lobby. “Well, I think we’re done for today. Thanks for your assistance, Ming.” She clapped him on the back, nearly sending him sprawling.
“Take care, Boss. See ya tomorrow, mebbe.” She sucked on her teeth for a minute. “I ain’t got no work at the present, it might be that I could come down and do some cleanin’ here. Make this waitin’ room a little nicer to sit in.” She shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt. Alright, I’m outta here.” Out the door she went, and he locked it behind her, going into the back. Big Li had arrived a few minutes earlier; the princess was giving him some yuan.
“I can’t take it, I just can’t,” he said, holding the baby in his arms.
“She can’t walk home,” the princess said. “She needs to take a cab. I’ve called one. Please take it and put her right to bed. If there is any extra you can keep it.”
“I’ll pay you back,” he said, and the princess opened her mouth to argue, but Tupilek cut her off.
“Big Li, yes?” At the man’s nod he smiled. “It’s not necessary to repay the yuan. What you could do, however, would be to help me in the lobby. I’d like to add some simple benches for people to sit on, something a little sturdier than the crates, maybe add a desk for me to sit at. Is that something you think you could do? When you have time, that is.”
“I could do that,” the man replied eagerly. “You can count on me, sir.” He stuck his hand out and Tupilek shook it.
“It’s settled, then. If you would take your wife, I can take your son here. I believe the cab is waiting.”
The man carefully scooped his wife up and followed him out the door, putting her gently inside the cab before taking the baby from his arms. “Thank you, sir. Thank you.”
He nodded and waved them off before walking back into the door, straight into a hug from Natsiq, who laughed as she thumped his back.
“What did I tell you, Meili? I told you he’d be perfect!”
“It’s very good to meet you,” Rohan said, bowing. “Spirits, but today was quite a day. I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to really say hello earlier.”
“It was a little chaotic here,” he agreed, bowing in return. “I do hope you’ll tell me how I can best help you.”
The princess snorted, an unexpected sound. “I think you’re already off to a good start.”
“Where are you staying?” Natsiq slung an arm around his shoulder.
“Well, Master Iskani’s sister Yumi is letting me stay at her dojo until I find a place.” He laughed. “Which makes it sound like I know where to find a flat. I don’t.”
Rohan put his hands on his hips, looking around the lobby. “You ought to come with me to the Island.” At Tupilek’s puzzled look he clarified. “The Air Nation temple, I mean. We’ve room and plenty. I take my air bison to and from work every day, you could ride with me, save you from a commute. I wouldn’t recommend anywhere in this neighborhood to live in.”
Natsiq shook her head. “No, safe enough for the residents, but you’re not one of them. They’d know you for an outsider and treat you like one.”
“You keep your air bison here?” He tried desperately to figure out where an air bison would be lurking. He understood they were very large.
Rohan grinned. “No, there’s no room. I call him with a special whistle, he can hear it from miles away, he stays on the Island while I’m here. So what do you say?”
He ran a hand across his mouth. “I...well. I’ll admit I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping on a cot in the middle of a storeroom. It’s doable though. You’re sure taking me home wouldn’t be an imposition?”
“It wouldn’t, trust me. My parents have an open door policy, and in any case I’m sure my Dad would love to hear all about the goings on down south. We can swing by Yumi’s, pick up your things, drop off Natsiq and then drop off Meili before heading over.”
“I actually have quite a few boxes at the dojo, supplies and such.”
“We can take those as well, it’s fine. Exit - my air bison - can manage them without a problem.”
“You’re quiet tonight,” Natsiq said, putting a hand to the princess’s shoulder. “You okay?”
“You were a very big help,” the princess said, looking at him. “Thank you. I don’t think I quite realized how much we needed someone like you.”
“I hope I can be of use,” he replied. “It’s why I came.” He smiled at her and she returned it, finally. She had a beautiful smile.
There was a resounding bellow from above the roof; Rohan gestured theatrically. “Our ride is here. Shall we?”
They walked out and he locked the door behind them, doing his best not to cringe in surprise at the enormous beast calmly disrupting traffic as it landed in the middle of the street. He’d need to get another set of keys made and take inventory of the storeroom, find someone to do regular cleaning as well. Maybe Ming would be up for it? What was the budget for that, anyhow? As he hauled himself up to the air bison’s saddle with the leather straps Rohan considerately threw down, he grinned at the marble-wielding brother and his friends who were daring each other to dash forward and pet Exit. “Keep those marbles away from your sister, now,” he called down, and waved.
Chapter 66: 203: The Hou-Tings and Tupilek
Summary:
Because all of you asked so nicely.
Chapter Text
Tupilek gave a tug at his best tunic as he gazed at the Hou-Ting home. Rohan was in the habit of bending away any residual air bison fur once everyone had disembarked and got a little enthusiastic with it at times. He wasn't a vain man - his looks were just average, he knew, although he was tall and thankfully his hair wasn't showing any signs of thinning, unlike his younger brother - but he was a neat one. He certainly wanted to look his best this evening; the entire staff of the Bridge Clinic had been invited to dinner at the home of Meili's parents, including her father, the former king of the former Earth Kingdom.
He wasn't exactly sure how formal he needed to be. Things were different in the South Pole, less ceremonious. The Chieftain was there to serve their people and while they were certainly deserving of respect they didn't hold themselves above anyone else. Anyone could speak to the Chieftain, invite them into their home, ask them to lend a hand clearing snow or serving a meal. He remembered Chief Tonraq once coming to their home to speak to his father about something and ending up on the floor with the lot of them, rolling about the floor like puppies as he play-wrestled them into submission, doing his best impression of a polarbear dog.
From everything he'd heard he somehow doubted Meili's father would roll about the floor for any reason whatsoever.
"Who did the beading?" Natsiq smiled up at him. She was wearing a very pretty sky blue dress, Republic City style. He hoped a suit wasn't a requirement; he didn't have one and all of his spare money was going towards renovating the sloop he'd bought a few weeks ago. She was a mess; there'd been a fire aboard her after years of neglect but the damage was cosmetic for the most part. Her bones, under the soot and faded, blistering pain, were lovely. Rohan had helped him dry dock her and he was making good progress scraping and patching her hull.
He'd been working on her two nights prior when a middle-aged Water Tribe woman had come from the temple itself, wandering down the path to the shore to peer at his work. They'd chatted about the advantages of canvas versus hemp for sails as the woman picked up a tar brush to assist him without being asked; it wasn't until she stoked up the fire keeping the tar liquid with her bending that he realized who she had to be. She was Water Tribe, however, so he offered her some of the beer he'd been keeping cold in a convenient tide pool and shared his dinner with her as they sat together on the sand. That's how things were down south; you shared what you had when you had it. His paternal great-grandparents had been some of the scant handful of children left on the tundra when Avatar Aang had come out of the iceberg to save their world and despite the influx of northerners over the years their culture had managed to survive. You helped where you could when you could.
In Republic City, people only helped themselves.
"My grandmother," he replied, returning her smile. Natsiq had been born up here but she'd spent twenty years down south, relocating to train under Master Healer Iskani at the Academy. He'd gotten an administrative job at the hospital in Wolf Cove when she was working there and they'd struck up a friendship before she moved back to Republic City to work at the newly founded clinic. A few months later she'd written to him asking him to come up and help them and he'd thought it over for weeks before deciding to come. He wasn't fond of the city itself but the work at the clinic was very fulfilling. He liked knowing he could be of use.
He'd always liked being of use. There was nothing outstanding about him, really; he'd been a good student if not a brilliant one, the third child of five siblings, right in the middle. His waterbending was perfectly adequate and while he managed the basics of healing that every Southern Water Tribe bending child received that was as far as it took him. He loved sailing but had no great desire to take it up as a profession. He had a nice singing voice and had played the drum during school but had already forgotten half of what he learned. He'd been a happy child and had escaped adolescence relatively unscathed. He'd had a few monogamous girlfriends, nothing too serious, no unintended children and even his breakups had been cordial. He liked to use his hands and he had, from the time he was a boy, enjoyed putting things to rights. Paperwork, storerooms, disreputable boats; if something was off kilter he took true pleasure in making it run smoothly. It satisfied him to know things were in their own places, doing what they were supposed to do.
"Huh. So this is where Meili lives?" Ming was scowling, sucking on her teeth. She raised up her arms and sniffed at her pits. "Well, reckon I don't smell too bad. Guess they'll let me in."
"That's the spirit," Rohan said, giving her a little nudge forward. "Onwards and upwards."
"Sheeee-yit. I mean, I knew she was a princess but I didn't think she'd be living in a joint like this one." Ming shook her head incredulously. "Bettin' they put out a good spread, huh?" She cracked her knuckles as they approached the front door. "I ain't eaten a thing since breakfast, wanted to leave plenty of empty space."
Rohan started to answer but the door opened to reveal Meili, smiling at them, wearing a dress the same dark purplish-blue color as her eyes. He nearly tripped over the step; he'd never seen her in a dress before. Her hair was up in a softer, looser style than how she wore it at the clinic with a few curling tendrils around her face, set on either side with matching silver and pearl combs. She was so beautiful his heart picked up pace and he gave himself a mental kick. It's not like he hadn't seen beautiful women before, Meili's aunt included. What was he, fourteen again?
"Welcome," she said, her smile finally reaching her eyes, as a teenage girl poked her head around her. The younger sister, he assumed.
"Hey, Rohan!" the teenager said, pushing around Meili, which got her a bit of a look. "Hi, Natsiq!"
"Hey there, Button," Rohan replied, pulling her into a one-armed hug.
"Tupilek, Ming, this is my younger sister, Sayuri."
Sayuri narrowed her eyes and grinned, pointing at Ming. "Ming with the itch, right?"
"Sayuri! Please!" Meili's mouth pulled tight, but Ming bellowed out a laugh.
"Too right, Little Bit. If you get yerself an itch in yer ladyparts, our Rohan here will fix it right on up."
"Oh boy," Natsiq breathed out behind him, and he tried very hard not to laugh.
Sayuri leaned close to him, gazing at his tunic. "This is really beautiful." She glanced up. "They use cuttlefish ink as a dye, right?"
He nodded. "Yes, that's right. It's traditional."
She reached out to touch one of the beads on his chest, fascinated. "And it dyes bone as well?"
"Only if you carve it first."
"How do you set it, though?"
"Baby, let the man come in the door first before you start giving him the third degree." He glanced up to see a person standing in the doorway, arms crossed. He thought for a moment it might be Meili's father but then realized it must be her rather infamous mother, the one who was both yin and yang. They were dressed in a gorgeous sort of blue brocade and velvet tunic suit that was like nothing he'd ever seen before. He was envious; he'd always rather wished he knew how to wear attractive clothing but had never managed anything quite past acceptably nice.
"Tupilek and Ming, this is my mother, Qi," Meili said, and her mother motioned at them.
"My honor to meet you. Come on in." They bowed and he returned it, glad that Rohan had filled him in on Meili's family situation. He might have been confused, otherwise. Not that his parents had raised him to be anything but gracious to a host, of course.
Ming whistled as she clomped up the stairs and walked into the foyer. "Rumor about town is you come from the Flower District. What's a girl gotta do to find herself a rich fella to buy her a place like this?"
"Drive him round, keep him out of trouble," Meili's sister said in an accent that was even thicker than Ming's, waggling her eyebrows up and down until Ming laughed again.
"Sayuri!" Meili frowned and shot a look at her mother.
"That's enough, Sayuri. Go tell everyone our guests are here." They put a hand to the back of her shoulders and gave her a gentle push inside before staring at Ming long enough to make her uncomfortable.
"Damn woman, don't need to come for me, just askin'," Ming muttered, before taking off her shoes at the entrance. He was gratified to note she was actually wearing socks. He'd meant to mention something earlier but had forgotten. It was odd for him to take his shoes off here when he entered a residence; the South Pole was simply too cold. There was a selection of nicely embroidered house slippers, however, and following Rohan and Natsiq's lead he found a pair that looked like they'd fit and slid his feet into them. Ming, on the other hand, ignored them to keep walking inside. "Now this is what I fuckin' well call a house!"
"Ah, and here you all are! Welcome!" A slender man, dressed in green, came bustling into the inner courtyard, smiling.
"Papa, this is Tupilek and Ming. This is my father, Wu."
He bowed politely, hands over his heart, Republic City style. "My honor, sir."
"The honor is all mine, my gracious," the man replied, before greeting both Rohan and Natsiq, who threw her arms around him for a hug. "There's my girl! Now tell me, darling, how the flat search is going?" The Prince tucked Natsiq's arm in his and he remembered that it had been him that had arranged to send her down south all those years ago. "Now, I know I am sticking my nose into it, but I happened to mention your predicament, as it were, to my agent..." he beamed at Natsiq as he continued to discuss her search for a new flat with her, guiding her along through the courtyard.
It was breathtaking, the inner courtyard; he craned his head up to see a partially glassed in roof three stories above, the light from it filtering everywhere. Typically Earth Kingdom in design, the inner courtyard was filled with tastefully arranged furniture and plants, including a charming tea table that he assumed was used for guests that wouldn't be taken deeper into the home.
"The house was built nearly ninety years ago for Toph Beifong by her parents," Meili said, suddenly at his elbow. "My father bought it and had it renovated when he abdicated, we've lived in it ever since." She glanced up at the domed skylight. "Papa had that added, he didn't like how dark the courtyard was. I assume it didn't matter to Toph, since she was blind."
"It's beautiful," he said simply, and she nodded.
"It is. After dinner we can go and take a look at the garden."
"The garden is something else," Rohan said, coming up to them. "The stories the koi could tell!"
Meili smiled. "We're probably lucky they can't."
"My sister told me about a time when you were small when you smacked your cousin Iris in the face with one of those poor fish."
She laughed at that, a very rare sound indeed from her. "It was Orchid, but yes. I certainly did. It was right before Papa and Mama's wedding, in fact." They all glanced over at Qi, who was watching Ming as she sat down on one of the plush velvet settees, spreading her legs wide open. "Oh dear. I do hope she doesn't try to bait Mama too much."
"It won't end well for her if she does," Rohan said, and then shrugged. "Well, she's a grown woman. She'll figure it out."
"Hello the house," a woman about his age called from a door which appeared to lead into the back garden. "I'm not late for dinner, am I?"
"No, just in time," Meili answered, and Rohan went to hug this woman as well. She was dressed in a simple red ghi, with cropped hair. "You've got time to change if you hurry."
"Sorry, I got held up." She made for the stairs. "Give me half a second, I'll be back and I can meet your co-workers properly." Despite her relatively small stature she took the stairs two at a time.
"My older sister, Naoki." Meili watched as her sister dashed along the open corridor on the second floor before disappearing out of sight.
"The Fire Butterfly?" He'd heard about her, of course. Who hadn't?
"The very one," Rohan answered for her. "Speaking of, when do you expect Zhi home?"
"Probably not until next month or so."
An older gentleman came into the inner courtyard to invite them into the dining room and was introduced; the retired majordomo who had served as the unofficial grandfather for all of the Hou-Ting children. A former sailor, Meili had mentioned once, and he found himself seated next to him as he was also introduced to Meili's other father as well as her unofficial grandmother, one of the infamous Beifongs. As they were all getting seated the eldest princess came rushing into the room, dressed in a pair of dashingly slim trousers, kissing the prince on the cheek with a resounding smack when he tried to scold her for being late.
The current majordomo was young for the position; he was also an old friend of Natsiq's, apparently, and they exchanged fond words as the dinner was served, the prince chatting pleasantly, unobtrusively directing the conversation. It was a neat trick; subtle but very effective. The prince politely ignored Ming's social gaffes, addressing her no differently than any of the other guests. He'd seen Meili do the same every day at the clinic; no matter how poor, how crude, every single person she treated was given the same grave, respectful courtesy. It was one of the things that had struck him, even on that first day, frazzled as she was. Everyone was an equal for Meili.
"So Meili mentioned that your mother works at the harbor down there?" The old man grinned as he pressed another serving of mud carp on him.
"She's the harbormaster, actually."
"Is she now! Well, what do you know. Never thought about going into sailing yourself?"
"I love sailing too much to make a profession of it," he replied, and the old man laughed and patted him on the back.
"Truer words never spoken. It does take you like that sometimes, doesn't it? Good that you know the difference. Me, I was always more interested in the whole seeing the world part than I was the actual sailing part when I joined the Navy." Meili's father, Mako, scoffed at that, but the old man didn't take offense, merely laughed more. "Can't say I ever had any regrets there, although I'm not sorry to have settled down with this lot." He gazed at Meili's grandmother, sitting at the other end of the table. Catching his gaze, she scowled. "Now, you never mind that woman's frowns, Tupilek. Her bark is worse than her bite."
"You sure about that?" Mako said, with a half-smile of his own before turning to him. "You fish?"
"Whenever I get the chance." He returned the smile.
"Ocean fishing?"
He nodded. "I've never been freshwater fishing, in fact." He shrugged. "It's not really possible down south."
"Right." Mako seemed to think for a moment. "We've got a boat at our holiday home on Ember Island but around here I mostly stick to lake fishing." He poured himself another cup of tea. "There's a good spot not that far from here, about an hour by car. If you're interested I could take you up there, show you the ropes." Meili's grandfather looked surprised by this announcement but didn't say anything.
"I'd enjoy that," he replied, and he meant it. "I'm doing some work on a sloop I bought a few weeks ago, she had a fire aboard about a year or so back and the owner's son wanted to get rid of her as quickly as he could. I jumped at the chance. I've got her dry-docked on the Island, her hull's still in pretty decent condition but the rest of her needs some elbow grease."
Mako nodded. "Korra mentioned she helped you out a bit."
"She was a help, I'll tell you that much. It's not everyone who will get downwind of hot tar." He laughed. "Including Rohan."
Rohan laughed as well. "Sorry. The smell's a little much for me." He pointed at his face. "Airbender nose, what can I say?"
"Well, you've got better use for those hands of yours anyhow."
LoLo stroked at his beard. "I'm no expert or anything, but I know my way around a boat. If you wouldn't mind an old man hanging about I might be able to give you a bit of a hand."
"I'd be grateful for the help and even more grateful for the company," he replied. "I can pay you back in cold beer and some of those amazing samosas the air acolytes make."
LoLo stuck out his hand. "You've got yourself a deal." He shook it as the old man grinned. "What say you, Mako? Think you might want to try your hand?"
"I don't know much about boats but I guess another set of hands wouldn't hurt." Mako frowned. "As long as you're willing to show me what you need from me."
"Can't think of any better way to learn than that," he replied, glancing up as the prince leaned forward slightly to peer down the table at them.
"Do my ears deceive me or are you talking about boats?"
"Tupilek here has a boat he's putting back into shape, Mako and I thought we could give him a bit of a hand with it." LoLo said.
The prince beamed. "Is this another excuse to drink spirits and tell old navy stories?"
LoLo laughed, clapping him on the back again. "It just might be, at that."
"Just make sure you don't drown yourself, old man," Meili's grandmother said, mouth pulled up sourly.
"And miss out on your company? Not a chance." LoLo winked at her, before jerking his thumb towards him. "Our Tupilek here's a waterbender, don't forget."
"Hmph."
"Tupilek wouldn't let anyone come to harm," Meili said, pouring her younger sister some more tea; her older sister raised an eyebrow before glancing down at him, looking away with a little smile.
The dinner really was excellent; Meili's family was friendly and not at all ceremonious. He still didn't believe her royal father would wrestle children on the floor but he'd lay odds that her other father and mother would. He quite enjoyed her grandfather and looked forward to having his company with the boat. Her father was a quiet man, true; however, he didn't seem unfriendly with it, much the same as his younger brother was back home. Kanaaq had always been the quietest of all of them, someone who preferred his own company to others. He'd socialize, but it always seemed to take something out of him. He, on the other hand, had always enjoyed being social; he genuinely liked people. While he'd never been much of a partier or a drinker he did like a beer or two at a comfortable, local pub, appreciating the casual camaraderie. His father used to say he could make a friend anywhere and it was, for the most part, true.
He'd watched Meili at the clinic and had thought, more than once, that she was more like Kanaaq that way, someone who preferred to be alone. Meili spent her days surrounded by people but by the end of the day the strain of it was apparent to anyone who knew her at all. That being said, she was hard to get to know; she had walls so high and so firm he wondered if anyone had ever really gotten past them. She did seem more relaxed, here in her own home, surrounded by her family. She smiled more often, for one thing, and he'd actually heard her laugh more than once. That she was easily irritated by her younger sister was plain to see, but even at that it was clear she loved her. He'd thought at first that her younger sister was trying to be provocative in the way of teenagers everywhere but soon came to realize that she wasn't; she was simply without filters, almost childlike in her interests and speech. Rohan had said that Sayuri was brilliant and often distracted and he could see that. He could also see how her family closed ranks about her and that spoke well of them in his book.
After dinner was over Meili, true to her word, invited them back into the garden. Natsiq declined; the prince wanted to take her to the house he was trying to convince her to take and Meili's father had agreed to drive them. Rohan, who had practically grown up in the house, was walking with Naoki on the other side of the koi pond, conversing with her great, golden dragon, Hemadri, who was resting on a pavilion that had apparently been built just for her. He wasn't sure where Ming was but sincerely hoped she was not antagonizing Meili's mother. (He knew who he'd lay yuan on if there was going to be a fight there and it certainly wasn't Ming, bruiser though she was.) Sayuri tagged along with them, chattering so that the two of them couldn't get a word in edgewise, asking him more questions about his beadwork until Naoki called to her, her voice easily carrying across the garden. She was a bending instructor; he imagined she had a frequent need to be heard over a gaggle of excited children. His father, a schoolteacher, had much the same kind of lung power and could be heard across the tundra.
"Button! Button, come over here."
Sayuri blinked. "But I'm talking to Tupilek," she shouted.
"Come on. I need you." Naoki gestured.
"I don't want to!"
"Right now, Button." Naoki put her hands to her hips and Sayuri reluctantly dragged herself away, muttering rebelliously. Naoki ignored it, telling her to hurry up.
"Sorry, she's a little much sometimes." Meili watched as her sister circled the pond, barefoot. "She doesn't mean any harm."
"It's fine, truly. She wasn't bothering me."
She glanced over at him. With her heels on she was nearly the same height as he was; he wasn't used to a woman being able meet his gaze head on like that. "It's kind of you to say so."
"I wasn't being kind. I meant it, Meili. She's fine." He gestured around them. "I can hardly believe that this was just rubble 30 years ago. It's amazing."
Her smile lit up the night and his heart reminded him with a painful lurch that he was more than half in love with her already. "My father took photographs before they started work out here. The plum trees near the house were already there but everything else was built from the bottom up. It's been a labor of love on his part." She carefully crouched down near the pond, making sure she kept her heels and dress out of the mud. She waggled her fingers in the water and waited, still smiling, until the koi came swimming. "No food, sorry, Akarui," she said to a particularly sparkly golden fish that had latched onto her, nibbling.
"Do they all have names?" He squatted down next to her.
"Of course. There, Dancer will come to you, if you let her." She inclined her head at a slim fish with red and blue fins, a crosshatched pattern of blue scales covering her back. "She's very curious about strangers." He put his hand into the water and let out an involuntary gasp as the fish butted her head into his palm. Meili's laughter was soft.
"She's hoping for a snack as well, of course. I should have brought some oranges with me, she loves those. Ah, here comes Onji. He likes to lord it over the rest of them. Papa calls him the king of the pond." A very large koi with a red splotch on his head, his body splattered with black, swam up, circling around them. "He's actually from Ba Sing Se, from the Conservatory at the Palace. Papa loved him so much he stole him." Another laugh that sounded suspiciously like a giggle, and he was enchanted. "Not that he would call it stolen, of course. He'd probably say that he was a royal acquisition." She gently thumped the koi's red splotch with her finger. "Like Papa he thinks he can get away with anything. And just like Papa he can, really." She trailed her fingers through the water, reaching out to touch the trembling knot of fish that had approached, undulating in and around each other, the smile never leaving her face. "When I was a little girl I always wanted to be a koi. I used to think that if I went into the pond I'd just turn into one of them, fins and all, and I'd be able to swim with them. I can't tell you how many times they had to pull me out of the water, soaking wet. It's why my older siblings call me Fishy, actually." She peeked at him. "Silly, I suppose, but I thought it would be so wonderful, you know, just to swim there in all the quiet, feeling the weeds swish against my belly, weightless, safe, no cares in the world." She was quiet then, staring into the pond. "I've never told anyone that," she finally said. "Not even Naoki." Another quick glance. "You're very easy to talk to."
"I try," he replied, and then he was quiet as well.
"Stay very still," she murmured, her attention caught by something in the pond. "Kireina is coming. If you move you'll startle her." As instructed he was motionless, waiting, until a fish the color of night eased out of the weeds near the shore, her scales a glimmering shadow, her fins long frills that gracefully propelled her along. "She's my favorite, a butterfly koi." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "But she spooks very easily, and she won't come to anyone else but me. Isn't she amazing? She was born in this pond and she's so shy that no one else saw her for the longest time, I think they thought I was making her up, a pure black fish is so rare, after all. But here she is, in all her beauty."
His younger self would have tried some sort of move on her, but his older and hopefully wiser self understood that it wasn't the time. Now was the time to let whatever this might be settle itself. If he could keep his fingers still in the cool water, waiting for the koi to approach him on their own then he could wait for this woman to make up her own mind. He'd watched her, over these first few months; always thoughtful, always deliberate, always considered. She was not an impulsive woman and he respected that. It's what made her such an outstanding healer, after all. He merely hoped that, in time, she would consider him.
The black fish shimmered next to his hand, barely nosing him as she passed, doing the same to Meili before disappearing back into the weeds. "I've never seen her do that before," Meili breathed, eyes widened. "She never approaches anyone else but me that way."
"Maybe it's a waterbender thing," he said, grinning in delight as a rather rotund orange and black fish lipped at his fingers. "Sorry, just fingers, not food."
"That's Pudge, she'll eat just about anything she can. She once tried to take a chomp out of a turtleduck." Meili's laughter rang out. "That turtleduck was so offended it chased her about the pond for a good twenty minutes until Bob - that's the spirit I've mentioned before who lives here with us - came to her rescue. Last time she tried to make a meal out of one, though."
"Which is the one you smacked your cousin with?"
"Oh, Bao-Bao. He never forgave me, so I can't point him out to you. He's living elsewhere now."
He stood and held a hand out for her, steadying her so she wouldn't dirty her dress. "How many are in the pond?"
"Twenty-nine. They will spawn, of course, so Papa and I have to go through the pond regularly and sort them out. We don't have to worry about predators, Bob keeps a sharp eye out for that."
"What do you do with the babies?" She still had his hand and he led her back up to the path.
"Give them away, mostly. Sometimes Papa trades them, it never hurts to get some fresh blood. My father's family lives south of Republic City and they have a pond as well. Papa and our cousin Chow Junior like nothing more than to drink wine and discuss koi bloodlines." She rolled her eyes fondly. "Excessively." He offered his arm and she took it unconsciously. "He also got my Uncle Wing interested in them as well, so some of them have gone on to Zaofu. Bob sometimes finds the eggs and we do away with them before they hatch. It's not good if the pond gets overpopulated." She stopped then, and turned to him. "I'm sorry, the last thing you wanted to hear about was koi breeding."
"Now see, there's where you're mistaken. Tell me, do you actually breed them or do you just let nature take its course?" He started to stroll again and she followed, arm still in his.
"We have a breeding tank we use if we are looking to get a particular combination. Although there's rarely a guarantee. We've tried to breed Kireina but it hasn't worked so far." She smiled. "I guess she's not the breeding type."
"Or she hasn't met the right fish yet."
"Perhaps."
He asked her several questions and listened to her answers as they slowly meandered about the pond. He'd never seen her quite so animated before; it was clear she loved the fish, loved caring for them. He would have talked koi for hours, just to see her smile like that. Not to mention he started to get caught up in it, even found himself thinking of ways that some sort of breeding program could be set up to maximize the bloodlines and the desired coloration. He had to laugh at himself; there he went, trying to be of use, even when no one asked. So he kept it to himself and enjoyed her conversation instead.
As they came around the pond, walking towards the house, her elder sister was waiting, sitting on a little bench. "Ah, there you are. Rohan's trying to mitigate the damage but I think Qi nearly committed an act of murder in there."
He blanched. "What happened?"
Naoki wrinkled up her nose. "What didn't happen, more like." She waved a hand. "Don't worry, Qi went for a drive, they'll shake it off. But I think it'd be better for everyone if Ming was gone by the time they got back."
"I'll handle this," he said, gently disengaging Meili and hurrying inside, but not before hearing her sister speak.
"He's nice, isn't he?"
He didn't hear Meili's reply, but he was still smiling when he entered the inner courtyard.
Chapter 67: 204: Naoki and Her Mentors
Chapter Text
LoLo held his champagne glass up high. “I have been raising this girl since she was a bright-eyed two year old, trying to throw fire at my head. At least she throws it at other people now.” There was general laughter. He smiled down at her. “Naoki, my own, you are my joy and my delight. This old sailor would have never thought he’d spend the rest of his days this way, but I have no regrets. Worth tearing this knee up just to have you in my life, Butterfly. Happy birthday, my little girl.” Naoki jumped up and threw her arms around him.
It was Lin’s turn next. “Well. I never cared much for children, but you were all right as far as that all went. So. Well. Anyhow, happy birthday.” She abruptly sat back down. Naoki reached over and squeezed her hand, and Lin squeezed hers tightly in return.
“Wow. So tell us how you really feel, huh, Lin?” Korra was grinning, and the grin turned to laughter as Lin flashed her a rude sign with her fingers. “So. Thirty, huh? Damn, I’m old. Listen, Naoki, you are the most amazing firebender I’ve ever set eyes on, and I know I’m not insulting your father when I say that.”
“You aren’t,” said Mako, and he nodded at his daughter.
“But even more than that, you’re an inspiration. The work you do at your school, with those kids? You’re patient, you’re kind, you’re firm, and they learn from you. You never break their spirit. I admire you, I really do.”
Naoki smiled. “I had good teachers that showed me the way.”
Korra laughed. “Well, I don’t know if I was a good teacher or not, but you are. No. You’re not a good teacher. You’re a great teacher. I’m honored to know you.” Korra bowed low to her. Naoki, her cheeks slightly flushed, bowed her head back.
“Sit down, Korra, have some more champagne.” Yumi stood and tipped her champagne glass Naoki’s way. “Butterfly, you were always an ideal student. Dedicated, disciplined, eager to learn. But that’s nothing compared to what an amazing woman you’ve become. You’re a gift to us all. I look forward to seeing what the rest of your life will bring, and I’m damn glad to be a part of it. Happy birthday, kiddo.”
“Thank you, Yumi,” Naoki said, smiling.
Tenzin stood and cleared his throat. “Naoki, you have always exemplified the cooperation between benders of all disciplines that I’ve always hoped to see. A school where all benders train together?” He smiled. “It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before, and even your naysayers have had to take their words back. This is a great thing you have done, and I am glad to have been a small part of it.” He shook his head in bemusement. “I still can’t believe that little girl who bent fire at the Firelord herself is all grown up. Where has the time gone? A very happy birthday, Naoki.”
“I’ve forgiven her, no worries,” Izumi said, and everyone laughed.
“Thank you, Tenzin.” Naoki smiled and looked around the table, at all of her friends and family. She raised her own champagne glass. “Thank you all, for making this birthday so special for me. I’m the luckiest woman alive.” With a laugh she took the handkerchief Qi handed to her and passed it over to her sobbing Papa.
Chapter 68: 204: Zhi and Ping
Summary:
Archive of a Tumblr Prompt:
“I believe you dropped this.”
Chapter Text
Zhi fumbled with one of the ropes that was holding his equipment in the back of the jeep. It had twisted somehow; he was afraid he was going to need to cut it. “Damn thing,” he muttered, reaching down into his boot sheath for his knife. The knife wasn’t there.
“I believe you dropped this.” The voice was a rich baritone, accented in that lilting way of the desert. Zhi glanced over; it was one of the two sandbender guides they’d hired to work with them on the expedition. He was the taller of the two; he’d been helping San transfer their things to the sand-sailer they were providing. He was almost completely swathed in what appeared to be yards of cloth, turbaned and veiled the way the desert dwellers usually were, his dark eyes only visible because his goggles were shoved up on his forehead. He also had Zhi’s knife in his hand.
“Now how did that happen?” he asked, not really expecting an answer. “Thank you. I’d be sunk without it.” He smiled at the man, who said nothing in return. A little unsettling, what with his face covered and all. How on earth were you supposed to know how anyone was feeling with their face covered? “I’m Zhi,” he said, giving a little bow before putting his hand out for the knife.
“Ah. The prince,” the man replied, handing him the knife before raising his hands into a graceful obeisance, bowing from the waist. “I am Ping.”
Zhi felt his eyebrows go up. “Ping,” he replied.
“Named for my grandfather,” the man answered, his tone telling Zhi that he’d heard all of the jokes already. Zhi grinned.
“Well, at least your four year old sister didn’t name you for a legendary folk hero,” he said, and then laughed. “I’ve never really lived up to the name, sorry to say,”
The man’s eyes settled into what looked like friendly laugh lines, twinkling a little. “Perhaps, Yaozhi Hou-Ting,” he replied, his voice warming. “Perhaps. We shall see.” He reached past Zhi to do something with the rope, twisting and tugging until the end of it came away into his hand. “No knife needed,” he said, his eyes meeting Zhi’s, and Zhi’s breath caught just slightly.
Chapter 69: 204: Zhi and Ping
Summary:
Archived from the OC Kiss Week 2018 prompt from Tumblr. First kiss: Zhi and Ping
Chapter Text
“I haven’t…” Yaozhi swallowed, his spectacles flashing as he turned his head away, catching the moonlight. He was shivering; from the chill of the desert night or emotion, Ping wasn’t entirely sure.
“You haven’t…?”
That little self-deprecating laugh, followed by the forced smile that invariably appeared when he was nervous. “Ah well. You know. I’m not quite…well. I never attended school, you know. I always had a tutor. Outside of my sisters and cousins I didn’t really have any playmates my own age.” A quick glance his way. “I met others when I went to university but most of them were older than me and I didn’t…” He trailed off again and shrugged. “I suppose it just never came up.” Another flash off the lenses as he met his gaze briefly. “Most people don’t like me, you know. I talk far too much and people tend to think I’m mocking them.” The smile wavered as he plucked at a stray thread of a button. “I should sew this back on before I lose it. Not that my sewing skills are worth mentioning.”
“Are you saying that you’ve never kissed anyone?” He tugged his gloves off, tucking them into the belt of his tunic.
Yaozhi continued to fiddle with the button. “I turned twenty-six last month. It’s more than a little embarrassing.”
“So…no one?” Sands below but this man was beautiful. Brilliant, funny, vulnerable, tender. How was it even possible that no one had ever tried to kiss him?
“Well, I assume you mean romantically.” He attempted a carefree chuckle that fell flat. “No, nothing like that. Gracious, it does get cold here at night, doesn’t it? I knew there was a reason why I hid in my tent!”
“Yaozhi.”
Another shrug. “Silly, really. I suppose I should just get it over with but I was always waiting for…well. Never mind. It makes me sound ridiculous.”
“Tell me.” He moved just slightly closer, unhooking his veil, letting it droop to the side of his face.
“Ah. Well, you know. I just wanted to be swept off my feet by someone who really loved me, you know?” The thread, strained past the point of endurance, snapped, the button tumbling unheeded to the sand. “You see? Silly. Foolish. Like me.”
“Yaozhi.” This time he only breathed it out, his bare fingers reaching out to stroke gently across that sweet mouth. Yaozhi startled; his eyes behind the lenses widening as his mouth opened. Slowly, slowly, he told himself, slow down. “You are not foolish.”
“I’m not?” he whispered, and Ping leaned in to press his mouth softly against his. Yaozhi quivered and it took every last scrap of his self control to keep himself still, their lips barely touching. He kissed this man the way he’d touch a desert bloom: gently, reverently, respectful of its rarity, honored by its beauty. He pulled slowly back, wanting to give him time to understand what had just happened, needing to give himself a moment to calm down. Yaozhi’s eyes, a mixed shade of gray-green that was unheard of in the desert, were full of wonder.
“But…why did you kiss me?” he asked, bewildered, and it took everything in him not to take the man into his arms and never let him go. Later.
“Because you are precious, and I desire you.”
“Not because you feel sorry for me?” The question was serious, a frown line appearing between his brows.
“Yaozhi. I have never kissed a man because of pity. I would not start now.” He smiled. “Besides, your cousin has threatened me with certain death if I do anything to hurt you. We know the name Beifong in this desert. I would not care to have him angry with me.”
Yaozhi blinked. “San? My San? Oh, San wouldn’t hurt a sand gnat!”
“Ah. I think for you, he would tear the world apart with his bare hands. I believe he could do it, as well.” There was nothing more terrifying than the anger of a calm man, and he had seen San Beifong turn sand into molten fire. He took his words regarding his cousin’s welfare very seriously indeed. A man would be a fool not to, and he had never been a fool - although this man could easily make him one. He reached out his hand, leaving it to hover next to his cheek. “Would you like me to kiss you again?”
Yaozhi blinked. “Would you like to?” He caught his lower lip up in his teeth and Ping forced himself to sit still. Gently. He stroked his cheek with the barest touch of his fingers.
“Yes, my treasure. I would very much like to. But I will wait for you to invite me.”
“Oh. I see.” He swallowed. “I…should I take off my spectacles?” He put both of his trembling hands to his temples. “I think it’s the thing to do. When someone kisses you and you have spectacles, I mean. Otherwise, you know, they can get quite smudged and it’s always so difficult to clean them here, the sand and all. Gracious, not that you don’t know about the sand, of course.”
“Perhaps it is a good idea, yes.” He eased the spectacles off of his face and carefully closed them before unhooking his veil entirely, wrapping them in it before putting them aside. Yaozhi’s breathing began to quicken. “Quiet now, my treasure, my rain, my sweet. I won’t hurt you. I could never hurt you.” He took his face into his hands, this son of a king, his beauty, his passion, his heart. What heart? He had been stealing it from him the moment he’d seen him.
“Promise?” Yaozhi whispered, and his eyes were so soft in the moonlight.
“Your cherished heart is safe in my hands,” he swore, and brought his mouth back to his.
Chapter 70: 204: Meili and Tupilek
Summary:
Archived from the OC Kiss Week 2018 prompt from Tumblr. First kiss: Meili and Tupilek
Chapter Text
“It’s just that we ain’t been able to help her, Healer. And she’s hurtin’ so much.” The young woman wrung her hands. Her clothes were worn and patched, but clean, as were her great-grandmother’s. The old woman’s eyes were closed, her fingers so crabbed and swollen she couldn’t manage anything more than claws. Meili crouched down to gently probe at her knees.
“Does this hurt, Auntie?”
“Like the blazes,” the woman said, her face creased with pain. “Can’t hardly move these old bones no more.” A tear escaped. “Best to just die and be done with it, most days.”
The young woman’s eyes filled up as well. “Can you help?”
She stood up, putting a hand out to steady herself as vertigo threatened to topple her over. It was flu season and Natsiq had succumbed two days before; she and Rohan were trying to fill in the gaps with the onslaught of patients. She’d been on duty non-stop and she wasn’t even sure when she had last eaten, never mind what time it was. “I think I can, yes. I have an ointment I’ll give you to take home, and I’ll want you to bring her in every day for a week or so so that I can treat her. Is there someone who can do that? How far away do you live?” She knew better by now than to assume it was easy for patients to get here; most of them came from this neighborhood but others traveled from the outskirts of the city and beyond, even.
“Someone can get her here, but we…” the woman swallowed and tilted up her chin. “We don’t have much to pay with.”
She put a hand to her arm and dredged up a smile through her exhaustion. “This is a free clinic. There will be no charge.”
“Not for none of it?” The woman was suspicious, not that she could blame her. Free rarely meant without a cost in this part of town.
“For none of it,” she replied firmly. “There has never been and will never be a fee for this clinic. Not for treatment, not for medicine, not for any of it.” She reached for the water that was kept in containers in the examining rooms. “If you could help her undress? I’ll need to be able to touch her skin directly if I am to help.”
The woman nodded and helped her great-grandmother slide her clothes off, the woman grimacing, tears tracking down her cheeks. Her joints were badly inflamed; one of the worst cases she’d ever seen. She’d most likely never been treated and had been suffering for years. Not that she was judging them; this was the entire reason for the clinic, after all. Too many people couldn’t afford healers of their own.
“Alright, Auntie. I am going to use the water directly on your skin. It shouldn’t hurt you. If it does, it’s very important that you please tell me immediately.” The old woman managed a nod and she began, the water glowing as she eased it over her body, closing her eyes in order to use her bending to sense which spots were worse off. It was so bad she was shocked the woman had been able to even make it to the clinic. Slowly and gently she went, letting her bending lead her hands, feeling the inflammation ease, the joints softening.
When she finished she opened her eyes and pulled the water back into the container. The old woman was staring at her hands in disbelief, her fingers moving stiffly.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you this session. But I’ll give you an ointment that will heat and soothe the joints. You’ll need to put that on twice a day. Be generous with it, there’s more when you need it. And as I said, if you can come in daily for a week or two I can promise you even more improvement.” She smiled. “I’m afraid I can’t cure you, but I can at least make you more comfortable.”
“Oh Lady,” the old woman murmured, still moving her hands. “Lady. I ain’t been able to use my hands in so very long.” She looked up at her great-granddaughter. “Do you see, Rin?”
The young woman nodded, tears in her eyes. “I see, Gran.”
“Why, they hardly hurt a bit.” She smiled up at Meili. “I thank you, Healer. Bless you. Bless you and your family as well.”
The young woman threw her arms around her, and she was startled into returning the hug. “Oh Healer! Thank you! Thank you!”
She chuckled, patting her back. “You are so very welcome. Now, you’ll bring her in tomorrow?”
The woman stepped back, nodding vigorously. “Oh yes, Healer. We will, give my word.”
“Good. If you’ll help her dress I’ll fetch the ointment for you. Remember, twice a day, a very thick layer. There is plenty more, and it is free, so don’t skimp, okay?”
“Yes, Healer.” She helped her great-grandmother to sit, picking up her tunic. As she walked past her the old woman raised a gnarled hand and gently patted her face.
“Bless you, Lady, for your kindness to an old woman. I don’t forget it.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Auntie.” She walked around the partition and back to where the storeroom was, using the key around her neck to unlock it. Tupilek had sorted all of it; everything in alphabetical order, the shelves and drawers stocked neatly, a chart on a table where they could write down what they’d taken so he could resupply when necessary. He even had a stepladder with locking wheels so that Natsiq, shorter than the rest of them, could reach everything. She reached up to fetch the ointment and was hit with another wave of vertigo, gasping as she grasped the table to stop herself from falling.
“Ah, I checked in with the elderly lady with the rheumatism, I can fetch- Meili!” Tupilek’s tone sharpened as he lunged across the room, grabbing her and steadying her. “Here, sit down before you fall down.” He held on to her elbow as he guided her to the cot he’d put there for them to use as needed, a blanket folded neatly on the pillow. “Sit.”
“I’m fine, I just got a bit dizzy.” She tried to push him off. He ignored her to crouch down, testing her forehead and cheeks.
“You don’t feel warm. Do you feel feverish? Is your throat sore?”
She shook her head and winced. When had her head started aching? “No, I don’t have the flu, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
He frowned. “When’s the last time you’ve eaten?”
“Uh…”
“That’s what I thought.” His mouth firmed. She liked his mouth. It smiled more easily than it frowned; it was a very expressive mouth, very nice. He had just the very slightest of clefts in his chin, hardly noticeable unless you were very close. Nice eyes, too, a brighter blue than her own, more like the color of the ocean around Ember Island. He was only in his late twenties but he already had faint laugh lines around his eyes and mouth. Not surprising, really. He did smile a lot. His smile was always so kind, all of the children who came into the clinic adored him. Most adults, too. He was so very nice. Lovely and nice.
“…lay down…Meili? Did you hear me?” He had her hands in his. Oh, that was nice, too. He had hands like Mama’s; strong hands, dexterous fingers, not pampered. Working hands, but clean and cared for.
“You have nice hands,” she blurted out. Oh. Had she said that aloud? She hadn’t meant to say that aloud. Perhaps she was more tired than she realized.
“I…um. Well. Thank you.” Was he laughing at her? “Meili, why don’t you lay back for a few minutes? I’ll bring you some tea and a rice ball or two. I think you need to eat and rest a bit.”
“Oh no, I can’t. I have patients.” He had nice eyelashes, too. Long ones. Had she ever really noticed how long they were before?
“Mmmm. Well, I think you’re not quite yourself. A healer needs to be on top of her game.” He patted her hands. “Some food first, and then let’s see how you’re feeling.”
“Wait, I was supposed to get some ointment-”
“Yes, for the woman with rheumatism, I know. It’s fine, I’ll take it to her. You just take a little rest.”
“No, it’s fine, I’m fine.” She tried to stand up but wobbled, sprawling ungracefully over him.
“Meili.” His tone was firm. “That’s quite enough.” He sat her back down. “Do you think it’s responsible of you to treat patients when you can hardly stand?”
She felt her cheeks warm. “No. No, you’re right. I…I‘m sorry. It’s just there are so many of them…”
He patted her hands again. “Healer, heal yourself.” Another of those compassionate smiles. His smile made her feel so safe, so cared for. Not that he felt any special way for her, of course. He smiled like that at everyone, so kind, so sympathetic. Everyone liked Tupilek. But she did like his smile, so very much.
No one could have been more surprised than she was to find her lips on his, on that exquisite mouth of his, firming up under hers. Was he kissing her back? She thought he was. She should probably stop doing that, they were at work, after all, and anyhow, she wasn’t interested in him that way. Was she? Oh. Maybe she was. His mouth opened just a bit and she opened hers as well, feeling his hands tightening on hers. Second thought, maybe she’d been wanting to do this for awhile. Oh, she had, hadn’t she? She had.
“Meili,” he murmured into her mouth and she pulled away, trying to get herself back under control. What was she thinking?
“I…I’m sorry, I…” She pulled her hands out of his and put them to her hot cheeks. He gazed at her for what seemed like forever before reaching past her and taking the blanket and shaking it out.
“Lie down now,” he said, in that no-nonsense way he used on the most intractable patients. She obediently lay her head on the pillow, not protesting when he swung her legs up to the cot, settling the blanket on top of her. “You need to rest or else you won’t be any good to anyone.” He stood up. “I mean it. I want you to close your eyes and stay put.” He reached for the ointment and took it down, turning back to her. “I’ll let Rohan know you’re in here.”
“The ointment,” she murmured, eyelids heavy, and he waved it at her.
“I’m taking care of it.”
“You take care of everything, don’t you?” She smiled and he returned it, smoothing the blanket down over her shoulders.
“I try,” he replied softly, and she let her eyes close, knowing he would.
Chapter 71: 204: Meili and Tupilek
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
“I didn’t intend to kiss you.”
Chapter Text
Meili frowned and rubbed at her eyes. Natsiq had succumbed to the winter flu that was circulating and had gone home before she infected the rest of them; she’d been working twenty hours straight to cover for her, however. She’d propped herself up with strong tea and sheer will alone but she’d fumbled with her last patient and she knew if she didn’t get at least a few hours of sleep she’d end up doing more harm than good. She lay herself down on one of the cots they had in the storeroom and sighed. Daddy had already been by three times, fussing at her and demanding she come home to rest. She’d put him off, but next time he’d probably send Mama and they wouldn’t be put off for love or money. Mama’d be reasonable if she could say she’d gotten a few hours of rest, though. She rolled her neck and grimaced at the thick crunching noise it made.
“You need to go home.”
She peered up at Tupilek and sighed again. He could cover for the basics in a pinch, of course, but he was the first to admit he wasn’t much of a healer. “I’ll just catch a few hours here and I’ll be fine,” she said, but he shook his head.
“I already called Sitiak and he’s on his way over. He said he’d be happy to help Rohan until you are ready to come back on shift. I called your grandmother as well. She and your mother are coming to get you.”
She scowled. “What right do-”
“I’m the administrator, that’s what right I have,” he replied calmly. “It’s what you hired me for.” He sat down on an unopened crate of bandages to purse his lips at her. “The reality of the situation is that there’s too much work for the three of you here. If one of you goes down, the other two can’t possibly keep up. What you need are some students. You can train them and they can take up some of the easier cases, at the very least.” He smiled at her, that quiet tilting up of his generous and mobile mouth that had attracted her from the very start. “A student can soothe a cough or deal with a minor infection. Your talents are needed elsewhere.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” she said, and yawned before covering her mouth. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry,” he replied. “I shouldn’t have brought it up when you were practically falling over. Go home. Get some rest. Let your parents take care of you. Eat something while you’re at it, okay?” He stood up. “Well, I’d better get back out there before things get out of hand. I’ll send your grandmother back when she arrives.” He started to walk out the door.
“Tupilek?” she called softly, and he turned around. “I didn’t intend to kiss you.” She threw out a hand. “This afternoon, I mean. I was just so elated at finally figuring out how to ease her arthritis and that combined with being so tired…well. It was unprofessional of me. I apologize. It won’t happen again.”
He gazed at her for a moment before smiling at her. “That’s too bad. Because I was really hoping it would happen again. In fact, I was counting on it.” He continued to smile as he closed the door behind him.
Meili lay back down on the cot, laughing softly. “Well, then,” she murmured. “Alright, then.”
Chapter 72: 204: Mako and Opal
Summary:
Mako buys a house.
Chapter Text
She peered out the window of the cab as it pulled up to the address that Mako had given her on the phone that morning. He'd called her at work on the Island, asking if she could meet him there discreetly, requesting that she take a cab and not say anything to Bolin. She'd been both surprised and intrigued: it was unlike Mako to be secretive like that. She'd agreed, of course. Her brother-in-law was never a frivolous man, so whatever he needed from her had to be important somehow.
But here? It was close enough to his own house that she could understand why he wouldn't want her to take either Juicy or their car if she didn't want to be recognized. It was quite literally across the park and two doors down, a stately home that was not as large as his own but looked to be a good fifty years or so newer. Distracted, she handed the driver some yuan and made her way to the front door, glancing over her shoulder. You never did know where Qi might pop out of, after all.
It was just Mako that opened the door at her knock, however, and his smile was genuine.
"Thanks so much for coming, Opal. Sorry I had to cut it off this morning, Button came in and she's worse than Wu when it comes to blabbing." He waved her in and she stepped into the foyer, her eyes widening as he shut the door behind her.
"So is there someone...uh...huh. Huh." The two of them stood there for a moment, taking in the chartreuse, magenta and silver blobs of flocked velvet hideousness that was papered across all of the walls of the inner courtyard and, insofar as she could see, along the hall leading towards the inner house. "This is...uh..."
Mako's thumb was digging its way into the bridge of his nose. "It's fucking disgusting is what it is." He snorted. "Wait until you see the bedrooms."
She took a slow circle, taking it all in, including the black marbled floors and the overdone gold and crystal light fixtures. There was a distinct lack of furniture, which might have been a blessing, all things considered. "And the owners?"
He sucked on his teeth for a moment. "Yeah. Uh. See, I'm the owner." She stared at him, rendered speechless for a moment, and he shrugged, more than a little sheepish as he walked them into the inner courtyard. "Probably not what you were expecting."
"You think?" She grimaced. "What the fuck is that?" She gestured at a crudely rendered statue of a viper bat that seemed to be molded out of the floor. "If Huan saw that his eyes would bleed."
"Oh, that's nothing. Come on." He took her up the stairs to the next landing. "So the thing is, Tupilek spoke to me last weekend when we were out fishing. He wants to marry Meili."
She stopped on the steps. "Oh, Mako."
His smile lit up his face in a way that was rare for him. He didn't often show his feelings like that. "Yeah, I guess it's Water Tribe tradition to approach the family first, make sure they know that you are financially solvent and not an axe murderer, all that kind of thing." He chuckled. "Not that we don't know who has the money. But it's his tradition, and he wanted to do right by her. I'm not sure when he's going to ask her but I haven't said anything to anyone else." He shot her a quick glance. "Especially not to Wu."
"Say no more, you know I get it. These lips are completely sealed." She started walking again. "You're happy?"
"Well, it wouldn't matter, so long as Meili was." He glanced down at her, his smile still lingering. "But I like him. He's a good man, he loves her and he'll take good care of her, I know. So yeah. I'm pretty damn happy."
"I like him too," she said, before grimacing at the hall runner, which happened to be in the same chartreuse and magenta color theme. "What the fuck did these people have with these colors?"
"I wish I knew."
"Someone needs to throw their decorator down a mineshaft."
"No kidding. So the thing is...oh wait, I need you to see the master bedroom. Hang on." He flung open a door and toggled on the lights and her jaw dropped as they both stood there, staring.
"Wow."
"I just...I mean, we didn't know these people all that well but enough to say hello to, maybe invite them for tea once or twice. There was an incident with the pond in the park and some turtleducks when Naoki was tiny and they'd hardly speak to us after that. I would not have thought they were the type, though." He gestured helplessly. "I mean, they had poodlemonkeys."
"Please, my brother has a poodlemonkey."
"Well, he doesn't have this."
While the room was also sans furniture, there was enough decor left to give it plenty of...something. The floor itself was covered in some sort of hairy, plush white matting, tipped with gold. The walls were a tufted, padded white leather, studded with white crystals, reaching about a meter high. The rest of the walls as well as the ceiling were completely covered by mirrors, reflecting their images back at them over and over again. The real highlight of the room, however, were the gilded moldings on the ceiling, which had been shaped into various combinations of people doing things she hadn't even considered before and wait, where did that man have his...oh. She put a hand to her mouth and shook her head as numerous Opals followed her.
"Opal, these people were old!"
She didn't know what was funnier; the disgust on his face or the fact that Mako was fifty-two and couldn't really be considered young any longer but she started to giggle and couldn't stop; much to her surprise he started to laugh as well, eyes nearly disappearing with mirth. She pointed at the many laughing Makos and Opals and they both started to laugh even harder. "Oh spirits, Mako, this is the worst thing I've ever seen."
"I just can't. Did they watch themselves? All of themselves?"
She pointed. "Did they take cues from those?"
"No wonder the husband had a heart attack last year!" he sputtered and that was it, it set the two of them off more as she gave it up and slowly slid down the slick and then padded wall until she hit the weirdly textured floor, tears streaming as he sat down next to her, automatically handing her a hankie. "I couldn't even look the agent in the eye when she was showing me the house."
"It's just revolting. The whole house. Although, to be fair, I haven't seen all of it yet."
"It's all the same, trust me. It does not get better."
She leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder. He was taller than his brother and not nearly as bulky but Mako had always been a tower of support. She hadn't been sure of him when she first met him - he was so stoic, seemingly aloof, really off-putting - but she'd gotten to know him over all these years and understood why it was Bolin loved him so deeply. "You bought this house for the two of them, didn't you?"
"Yeah." He slung an arm around her shoulder, gazing at her through the mirrors. "Don't get me wrong, it's not like we don't have the room. Naoki's still at home for the most part, and Zhi when he's not traveling, and I'm not guessing Qi will ever let Button leave. But Meili's..." he thought for a moment, and she let him. Both he and his brother needed time to get their thoughts out; it's just that Mako was marginally better at masking it. "She's more of a private person," he finally said, slowly, still thinking. "She works all day at that clinic and then comes home and who the fuck knows who's shown up for dinner or Wu's having some sort of party and he wants her to make an appearance and you know Meili, she'll never say no. She doesn't want to disappoint anyone. But she needs her peace and her quiet." He was quiet himself as he smoothed out a wrinkle in his trousers. "I'd hate it if any of them went far away. It kills me that Zhi's gone so often. This house went up for sale a couple of weeks ago but hadn't sold yet and I thought, it's perfect. She can have her own place with Tupilek, her own peace and quiet, but still be just across the park from us. So Monday I came and took a look and paid what the owner was asking and now it's mine." He scoffed. "Never bought a house before."
"You really outdid yourself with this one, Mako."
He grinned a little at that. "Right?" He squeezed her shoulder, as gentle as his brother always was. "The thing is, I know she should be able to decorate her own home, her and Tupilek. If she says yes, that is."
"You think she'll say no?"
He shook his head. "No, but I guess you never know."
"True. But I don't think she will." She smiled at him. "She's got more sense than any of them."
"Eh, I don't know, San's got enough sense for Zhi, and that's saying something."
"Well, San." They exchanged a knowing look. "I do respect your wanting to let her decorate on her own but you can't give it to them like this. You really just can't."
"Yeah, exactly." He took a deep breath. "Look, I can't ask Wu to help. You know."
"Oh, I know."
"And I'd ask Qi but home decor is not really their thing and they'd be the first one to admit it. They rebuilt that lodge of theirs but this house doesn't need rebuilding, just a lot of redecorating. But I know you've got a nice eye for it, so I thought, if you have some time and wouldn't mind, you could help me out? I've got to keep it on the downlow, if Wu or Button or my brother finds out then I can forget the surprise."
"Do we have a timeline?"
"Well, not yet. I'd want to give it to them as a wedding present but until I know more..."
"Gotcha." She sat back. "Well, you'd want to hire a firm, for sure. A good one, not one that will just stick to blues and browns and slap otter penguin pelts everywhere." She rolled her eyes but then sat up. "Actually, I think I know someone."
"Not Wu's guy though, right?" He scowled. "I hate that guy."
"No, no. I'm talking about Katsura's decorator." At his blank look she flicked an eyebrow. "You know, her and Set's place? They had it redone a few months back? We all went there for dinner when it was done, admired it?"
"Uh..."
"Mako! Her mother was there! Surely you remember!"
"Uh...well sure, I remember going to dinner but I can't say as I really noticed the decor."
She rolled her eyes again. "Sometimes you and your brother are so much alike that it staggers the mind, it really does." He just shrugged at her the exact same way that Bolin would. "In any case, I actually asked her at the time who her decorator was, I've been thinking we might give Emerald's bedroom, at least, an upgrade. Maybe mine and Bolin's while we're at it. I liked the woman's work. I could give her a call?"
"That'd be great, Opal, it really would."
"Well, who knows what her waiting list will be like, so don't get too excited."
He shook his head. "I'll pay her. Whatever it takes. Money's not the object here."
She turned her head to look him in his actual eyes. "Wait. You, Mako, my brother-in-law for all these years, are actually saying the words money's no object?"
"Money's not the object but yeah, I'm saying it." He returned her look. "It's Meili," he told her, his voice thickening a bit. "She...she deserves the best." His eyes started to fill up. "I get it, they grow up, they partner up, make new lives. It's a good thing. But Meili...she always feels like my baby to me. It's not that I don't know she's grown, she always was two going on two hundred anyhow. I don't know."
"Oh, I know. Bu's like that for me." Her smile got a little watery as well. "He's grown and happy and he takes care of his breathing problems now and has for years. But I see him and I still see that baby in my arms, turning blue."
"I'm a real asshole then, because they all feel like that to me. Although the Butterfly would rip my head off for saying it."
She laughed and hugged him. "Are you kidding me? Her Daddy? Mako, that girl would do anything for you, I don't care how old she is."
"Thirty," he whispered, and then an actual tear rolled down his cheek. "Shit, Opal. How the fuck did this all happen?" He spread his hands out to plead with the universe. "Sometimes I still feel like that nineteen year old kid, trying to make a go with a pro-bending team. Now I've got a thirty year old daughter and one that's probably going to get married in the near future and who knows, maybe some grandchildren? I'm not old enough for grandchildren!"
She laughed at that one. "I'd like to point out that I became a grandmother at forty-seven, so consider yourself lucky." He returned her hug. They hadn't been expecting Emerald - and they surely hadn't been expecting to have to raise an infant when they were both going on fifty and thought they were done with child-rearing - but she and Bolin loved the baby and there was no question of her going to anyone else. It was what it was. As her mother always said, you either rolled with the boulders or let them roll you down.
"You know if you redecorate then Wu's going to redecorate."
"That is so your problem and not mine."
He grunted at that, and then pulled himself up, not quite as nimble as he once was, true, but still nimble enough. He pulled her up as well. "Well, I may as well give you the rest of the tour."
"Am I ready for that?"
"No, you really aren't." He turned off the lights as they left. "It's got six bedrooms, and of course the servants' quarters in the back. The garden's nice, although nothing compared to Wu's." He scoffed. "Although whose is? But I want to add a koi pond, at least. Meili loves the koi as much as he does, I want to make sure she can have them here."
"So you'll need landscapers as well."
"Uh...yeah. I guess."
She patted his arm as they strolled along the hallway, which, from the look of the cleaner patches on the wallpaper, had had quite a few things hanging on it at one point. She idly wondered how many of them had been mirrors. "Well, no worries, the decorator probably has a landscaper she prefers. What about the plumbing?"
"Apparently it was all redone eight years ago, so it's probably fine. Roofs, too." He sighed. "The fixtures, though."
"Oh no. Do I dare ask?"
He closed his eyes for a moment. "The guest one downstairs? Gold cranefish. With fake rubies stuck all over them. Pink marble." He waved vaguely over his head. "The ceilings are all lined with fake roses or some shit. Like, not wallpaper. But actual fake roses."
"No!" She looked at him with horror. "Mako! No!"
He grimaced. "It all has to go." He pointed down. "I'd like the floor replaced as well, black marble's pretty grim."
"I'd say."
He turned to her. "I didn't buy it under my name. You know how Wu is, I'm sure he picked up the phone the minute it was sold to find out who bought it, he can't stand it when he doesn't know everything." She laughed and he smiled in return and threw a hand in the air in a perfect imitation of her Aunt Lin. "What can you do?"
"Did you give them a fake name or something?" She was astonished, quite frankly. It just was so...not Mako.
"Uh...well. No. I just uh..." He actually squirmed, and her eyebrows shot up. "Well. See. I have this company, you know. I own it but I don't run it, I've got people who do that. It uh...well uh, it buys out slums, fixes them up, brings them up to code, and then rents them out at rates people who live there can actually afford, keeps up maintenance, that kind of thing." A small shrug. "It doesn't make a profit but that's not really the point." He grinned then. "Pisses the Triads the fuck off, though. Really pisses them off."
She'd sailed way past astonished at this point. "Mako. Who knows about this? Anyone? Qi? My aunt? Your brother?"
He just gave her a look at that. "If Bolin knew then the entire city would know."
"Fair point. So no one knows?"
He shook his head. "You're the first one I've told. I've been doing it since Zhi was born. Just...the neighborhood he came from, it was full of those places, rotting away, people living like fucking animals." His scowl was thunderous. "His mother, fuck knows what happened to her, poor woman. But that neighborhood? People live like that, then it can't come as a surprise that they'd toss a baby into the trash. Out of desperation or just because they thought of him as trash, who knows. But the fuckers who own those places, they live it up while people are freezing to death in the winter or dying of fuck knows what diseases." He grabbed at his nose. "I can't take it. But Opal, you've got to promise me you won't say anything. I don't want it to be a big deal. People find out about it, it will be a big deal."
She took his free hand in hers and met his eyes, completely serious. "I will not say anything to anyone. I give you my word. As a Beifong."
He nodded. "Thanks, Opal." A deep breath. "Anyhow, I don't usually buy anything this side of town but I made an exception. I'll just tell Wu I bought it from the corporation, he'll never make the connection. He's got tunnel vision sometimes about that kind of thing."
"Qi doesn't, though."
"Yeah well, I'll cross that bridge if and when I come to it." He sighed. "But the contractors we work with for the slums aren't decorators or anything, which is why I needed your help."
"You've got it. So do you want to show me that bathroom?"
"You'll never unsee it. Don't say you won't warned." He reached out and pulled her into another hug, which was probably a record for him. She couldn't help but be touched nearly to tears over it. "Thanks, Opal. Again. For all of this. It means a lot to me, it really does."
"Hey, what are sister-in-laws for?"
"You are, without any doubt, the best sister-in-law a man could ask for. Always thought so."
"Did you now?" She smiled as he took her arm, taking her back down the stairs.
"I did."
"See, I always knew you were smart."
He chuckled and then bowed before opening the door into pink and gold grotesqueness.
Chapter 73: 204: Meili and Naoki
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
“You’re supposed to talk me out of this.”
Chapter Text
Meili crept up the stairs quietly. She wanted Papa to get his sleep; she’d actually had an entire day and night off from the clinic for the first time in ages and had stayed out later than she probably should have, especially considering she had another shift starting in the morning. She gracefully hopped over the squeaky step and tiptoed down the hall.
“Meili?” Her father’s voice called softly from the bedroom. She smiled.
“It’s me, Papa,” she whispered, moving closer to the crack of his door. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s fine, darling. Did you and Tupilek have a nice evening?”
“We did.”
“Good. I’ll see you in the morning, then.”
“Night, Papa.”
“Goodnight, my love.”
She quietly closed his door before nudging open her sister’s and sliding in, closing it behind her. “Naoki! Wake up!” She knew better than to step into the room without making sure Naoki was wide awake and knew it was her. She could lose a limb, otherwise.
“Mmmgah?” Naoki sat up blearily. “Whazzat?” She peered through the darkness. “Fishy?”
“Can I turn on the light?”
“Is everything okay?” Naoki switched on her bedside light, frowning. “Did something go wrong on your date? Are you….” her voice trailed off as she stared at her sister’s throat. “No? Yes!” She grinned and threw herself at Meili. “I knew it! I knew it!”
Meili covered Naoki’s mouth with her hand. “Shhhh! You’ll have Papa in here!” She couldn’t stop smiling.
“Oh, Fishy!” Naoki wrapped her arms around her.
Meili laughed. “So happy? Aren’t you supposed to talk me out of this?”
Naoki pulled back to look at the delicate choker around Meili’s neck; a band of supple leather, stained blue, with a round bone medallion beautifully carved with a koi swimming through the entwined beam of the spirit portal. “It’s gorgeous. It’s so you. Did he do it himself?” At Meili’s nod she hugged her again. “I am so damn happy for you. He’s such a good man.”
Meili blinked back tears. “He makes me so very happy,” she said softly, and her face was luminous.
Chapter 74: 204: Ping and Zhi
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"A kiss... out of envy or jealousy"
Chapter Text
It was when he was still a boy, the winter before his eleventh birthday, that his mother’s brother had killed the woman he loved. He’d taken her neck into his hands and squeezed the life out of her, unable to bear the thought that she loved another.
The law of the desert was absolute. Life was precious here; taking the life of another was taboo. If you did so, you would be exiled; cast out from all the tribes, across the sands, forever. The tribe gathered together - all of them, young and old, including a baby at the breast and the oldest of great-grandmothers, hardly able to walk - to witness his uncle’s casting out. His father, as the tribal chieftain, said the ceremonial words, gave his uncle two waterskins, and then the tribe turned its back as he walked out of their lives, forever.
His mother had not cried, no. Tears were also precious, in the desert. But she had set him down, later, and told him that love always needed to outweigh anger, and that his uncle had been weak to let his anger surpass his love.
She was his mother. She had known, of course, how often he struggled with his feelings, how passionately he believed in things. He took after her side of the family, after all. City ways, people always said knowingly, referring to his grandfather from Ba Sing Se. It was never a compliment. Too odd, too strange, his legacy apparent in the rounded shape of his eyes and the lingering fullness of his mouth, new blood.
You cannot be weak, my Ping. You must always master your temper. Gentleness is never weakness, remember this. Mercy and justice do not always need to be on opposite sides.
He remembered those words now, his fists clenched into the rough fabric of his robe, breath snarling in his chest, as the man leaned too close to his Yaozhi, greedy eyes taking stock of him, his sly chuckle, his knowing smirk.
No. No. Mine.
He kept himself still, quiet, waiting until the man left, letting Yaozhi came to him. He wanted to take him then, claim him with a territorial kiss, capture him in his arms, put his hands all over him, brand him as his for all the world to see.
He did not. He sat, and he waited as his Yaozhi sat next to him, smiling, wrapping an arm around him. “I should have been paying more attention to what he was saying, but all I could think of was the extraordinarily long and shockingly hot shower I am going to take with you as soon as we get into Ba Sing Se tomorrow.” Yaozhi laughed then and kissed him, a tender press of his lips on his own and he was able, then, to gently put his arms around his love.
Chapter 75: 204: Zhi, Ping and Sayuri
Chapter Text
Ping had attempted to tidy himself up as best as possible in the toilet on the train, but he knew he still looked a mess. He could bend the sand and dirt off the both of them but they'd been in the desert for six months and there was only so much you could do.
Yaozhi was wholly unconcerned with his appearance but what difference would it make? His height alone made him stand out, never mind the fact that his hair needing cutting and those spectacles of his were noticeably scratched by sand and sliding down his nose. Still the most beautiful man in the world, though. Always that.
The train hissed its way to a stop and hoisting up his bag, Yaozhi stepped confidently off to the platform, Ping following. It was only his third time to Ba Sing Se, and he'd never come even close to this part of the city. They darted their way around the richly-dressed people waiting there, their noses turned up at the two of them, mothers pulling away their well-fed children so as not to be tainted. Don't come any closer, I bite! Something in his face must have given him away because people were stepping back away from them in some alarm. Good. Let them back away, then. His fingers raised up of their own accord to make sure the veil was securely fastened across his face.
Yaozhi flagged down a cab and tossed their bags into the back. "The Imperial Jade Hotel, please," he said, unfailingly polite, and proceeded to ignore the driver's dubious look. It was only a few minutes to get there and why bother when they could have easily walked? This wasn't his city, however, so Ping kept silent. Yaozhi handed the driver enough money to get a surprised thanks and he walked past the doorman and into the hotel itself, looking, despite his dust and the tattered state of his jacket, as if he owned the place.
The man behind the counter stared at them as they approached, not even trying to hide his sneer as he took in his turban and veil. "May I help you?" he sniffed, in a tone that said he was fairly sure he could not.
"Yes. We'll need a room. I'm not sure how long we'll be here, but a week or two at least." Yaozhi was smiling, his tone gracious. The man looked him up and down.
"Are you sure this is the hotel you want?"
Yaozhi's smile remained pleasant. Almost too pleasant. "It's always been the one I've stayed in before."
The man started to reply but was cut off by a woman rushing across the lobby to them. "Your Highness," she cried, and bowed low. "You should have told us you were coming!"
"No telephones in the desert, I'm afraid. How are you, Changying? And your husband? A touch of gout, as I recall. I hope he's feeling better."
The woman practically burst apart with beaming. "How kind of Your Highness to remember. He's feeling well, thank you for asking. And your parents? And sisters?"
Yaozhi's smile was real this time. "All well, as far as I know. Speaking of which, I should call them and let them know I'm here. Would it be too much trouble to get a long distance call arranged? Sometime this evening or tomorrow morning?"
"Consider it done, Your Highness. You will of course be staying in the Royal Suite? We will have your things cleaned and pressed, but what else can we do for you?"
"I think tonight we'll just have dinner sent up, we're exhausted and don't have anything suitable for the dining room. This is my companion Ping, by the way."
The woman's bow was flawless. "Welcome to the Imperial Jade Hotel, sir. I am the head concierge, Changying. Anything you may require, please let me know."
"Your...Highness?" The man behind the desk was staring at Yaozhi in a sort of genteel horror.
"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Yaozhi Hou-Ting," the concierge said, and there was something in her look that told Ping the man's job just might be in jeopardy. A small and mean part of him was very glad.
"Oh, and would it be possible to call the House of Wong to see about sending someone over? I haven't a thing to wear that doesn't look like it's been dragged through the Si Wong desert, not really." He thought for a moment. "You know, it might not be a bad idea to store a suit or two here just for this kind of thing."
"An excellent idea, and we would be happy to accommodate you, as always." The woman's smile, as far as Ping could tell, was genuine. "Oh Your Highness, it truly is a pleasure to have you here with us again."
"Thank you, Changying. Ah, and before I forget, my cousin and his wife will be along in a few days, they had a few things to finish up. Would it be possible to put them up in the Crown Suite?"
"Naturally, Your Highness." The woman put her hand to her heart and bowed again. "It is not every day we here at the Imperial Jade are graced with both a Hou-Ting as well as a Beifong! It is entirely our honor. Now, let us get you to your room."
They were taken in an elevator to the top floor of the hotel and ushered into what Yaozhi told him was called a suite. It had four bedrooms and an equal number of baths; a living room, a bar, a dining room and an expansive balcony that had a stunning view of the Palace. It was the largest room he had ever seen. Yaozhi took him and showed him how the shower worked and the two of them stood under the blissfully hot water for what seemed like hours. He tried not to think of the families all of that wasted water could have sustained back in the desert. After they had made love and washed again, they wrapped themselves in the softest robes he had ever felt in his life and were served a meal in their private dining room that was the finest meal he'd ever eaten, finer than he had ever known was possible.
After dinner the telephone rang; he expected Yaozhi to get it but he was using the toilet at the time. "It's probably my father," he called from the bathroom. "Just answer it and tell him I'll be right out."
Ping picked it up carefully and held it up to his ear. "Uh...yes?"
There was a silence on the other end, interspersed with crackling. "Who is this?" came a voice. "Ah, wait, is this Ping?"
"Yes?"
"How lovely! Oh, Zhi has written so much about you, my gracious! I'm his father, Wu. It's very nice to meet you, well, so to speak. Mako! Qi! I have Ping on the line!"
It was with a jolt that he realized he was actually speaking to the former king of the Earth Kingdom. "Uh...Yaozhi will be right here."
"Now tell me, did he find that nasty looking bug with the stinging thing? Oh wait, Qi says it's called a hornet mantis? Oh, that sounds entirely nasty. That can't possibly be worth finding, can it?"
Ping was smiling, despite himself. Easy to see where Yaozhi had gotten his way of speaking. "We did find it, yes."
"Oh, they found it! My goodness, please tell me that it didn't pierce anyone."
"No one was pierced." He was laughing, just a little, as Yaozhi overheard the last and rolled his eyes, taking up the phone.
"Papa, is that you? What? No, Ping just told you that no one was stung!" He watched as his face animated, his eyes dancing, as he spoke utter laughing nonsense to his father over the phone. Then he had to speak to his other parents, as well as his grandparents and his youngest sister. Ping was more than a little jealous. His own father, while a good man, was a stern one, rarely given to laughter and even more rarely given to expressions of love.
It was hard, surrounded in all of that opulence, to sleep. It was completely silent within the room itself; everything was so new, so clean, so perfect. He had known Yaozhi was a prince, of course. He himself was a son of the chief of the largest tribe in the desert; he was considered royalty where he came from. But this world was so unlike his, and Yaozhi was not a prince in the way that he was a prince. The tailors that dropped everything to show up the next morning to fit them both for suits and shoes; the hotel staff that treated him with such deference, the buzz of excitement they caused when they went for dinner their second night there. Through it all Yaozhi remained just as gracious, just as polite, just as kind as he always was. He'd heard the stories about the last Queen, old Hou-Ting herself; his grandfather, also Ping, was from Ba Sing Se and had told tales about her cruelties, her iron fist, the way she had no interest in anyone but the top echelon of her nobles. It was difficult to believe that his own Yaozhi's father had been raised amongst that.
It was their second morning at the hotel when there was a knock on the door. Yaozhi was still sleeping; he assumed it was one of the staff bringing their breakfast on a wheeled cart, just as they had done the morning before. He put on a robe and went to answer the door. It wasn't a member of the staff, however; it was a teenage girl, slim and green-eyed, her brown mop of curls spilling out from a knit cap. She was wearing a pair of trousers tucked into knee-high boots and a jacket far too big for her, rolled up at the sleeves. She had a lumpy bag slung over her shoulder and was holding a tea cup in her hand and when he opened the door she grinned up at him.
"Wow, you really are good-looking. Good for Zhi! That is, if you're Ping. You are Ping, right? Otherwise that'd be really embarrassing. I didn't actually stop at the front desk to ask, I just assumed he was here, it's where we usually stay when we come to Ba Sing Se. If you aren't Ping, then either I have the wrong door, which, you know, sorry about that, or Zhi has someone else in here but never mind, that can't possibly be it, Zhi's not like that, after all." She stared at him expectantly. He had no idea what to say. "You are Ping, right?"
"Yes?"
"Hooray! I guessed right! And you are still good looking!" She waved her tea cup. "I stole this off someone else's cart. I should probably say sorry but maybe they won't notice. Have you had your breakfast served yet? I'm starving." She leaned closer to him and he automatically leaned down. "Train food isn't very good, you know," she said, near his ear. "But I wouldn't want to say it while I'm on the train. You never know who might be listening."
He just nodded. He had absolutely no idea what to say to her. This did not seem to deter her, however. "Where's Zhi?" He just pointed inside, towards the bedroom they were sleeping in, and she handed him her cup as she galloped on past the front door. "ZHI!" she cried, and she ran into the bedroom. The next thing he heard was a thump, a cry of what might have been pain or surprise or both from Yaozhi, and then his lover's voice shouting, "BUTTON!" and when he peered into the room the girl was being nearly smothered in Yaozhi's embrace. He was smiling as he met his eyes.
"Ping, this is my baby sister, Sayuri. Button, you met Ping?"
"Yes, and he very kindly took my cup so I wouldn't spill on you. Surprise! Are you surprised? You look surprised. Ping was certainly surprised, weren't you, Ping?"
"I think I'm still surprised," he said dryly, and the girl laughed.
"Button!" Yaozhi pushed her back and frowned at her. "Wait just a minute. How did you get here?"
"Oh, on the train," she said, leaning over to take the tea cup back. "Thank you, Ping."
"On the...Button." The frown deepened. "There is no way they would have let you get on a train on your own. Did you get permission to come?"
She shrugged. "Well, I told them I was going to stay over at the Island before I took a cab to the train station, if that's what you mean."
"That is not what I meant." Yaozhi started to laugh. "Daddy's probably called the United Forces by now to go and look for you. We'd better call and let them know you got here."
"Oh, I would have done that," she said, waving the cup with the tea, spilling it on the bed. Neither of them seemed to notice. "But It's really early in the morning over there and you know how cantankerous Daddy is when he's woken up too early." She stared into the now empty tea cup, puzzled. "Ping, did you drink my tea?" She sighed and sat up straight. "I will call home and let Daddy yell at me for an hour on the phone to make up for it but I have to eat something first. One must always be fortified when one is expecting Daddy to let it fly." She leaned closer to Ping. "And if he hears me chewing on the phone when he is lecturing he'll get even madder. Just a little hint from me to you." She nodded and gave him a wink. "And with that, I'm off to use the facilities. I'm not all that fond of train bathrooms, either. Suppose the toilet should fall out from the bottom of the train when you sit down? Then where would you be? Ass down in the middle of the train tracks, all alone. If you weren't annihilated by the train running over you, that is. May I have the blue bedroom?" At Yaozhi's nod she hopped off the bed. "Call for some breakfast, okay?" She handed Ping the tea cup, blew them both a kiss, and traipsed out of the room.
Ping stared at Yaozhi, who started to laugh. "I did tell you my family was a little exceptional," he said, and held out his arms for him.
Chapter 76: 204: The Hou-Tings and Ping
Summary:
This one is for my friend Marezelle, who wanted the Hou-Ting sisters to call their brother Jade Blossom.
Chapter Text
He watched, entertained, as Yaozhi and his youngest sister traded delighted quips as she demolished most of their breakfast tray, her dark brown curls, released from their cap, running riot about her head. Yaozhi had once told him that it was his next younger sister, Meili, who embodied the traditional Hou-Ting princess; his elder sister was far too much the bender to fulfill the role. This youngest sister, sitting cross-legged in her chair, head thrown back with cheerful, snorting giggles, wasn't very regal at all.
He found himself liking her very much.
She and Yaozhi had dissolved into a fresh gust of laughter when he overheard a knock on the door. Assuming it was yet another member of the hotel's staff bringing them something, he walked into the entryway to open it, his smile dropping as he came face-to-face with the person on the other side, his body instinctively responding to a threat, his hands raising up into an earthbender form that San had taught him.
"I take it you're Ping?" The voice was quiet, slightly husky. He looked more closely and found the resemblance in the stark cheekbones and sensitively formed mouth as well as the well-worn leather jacket, shoved up a pair of strong forearms.
"Yes." He dropped his hands into a bow, hoping they hadn't noticed his reaction. "Royal Consort?"
A little huff of amusement. They'd noticed, then. "Qi is fine." A slight cock of their head as they listened. "How long has she been here?"
"Perhaps an hour."
They sighed. "That girl." He stepped back and they came into the suite, neatly removing their shoes and putting down the bag they were carrying as he closed the door behind them. They didn't put on the slippers provided, he noticed, choosing instead to walk soundlessly in their stocking feet. San had mentioned that his untie could move with an uncanny silence and he could see that it wasn't an exaggeration. Their mouth twisted into something that he thought might be a smile. "As soon as her father told me she'd gone to visit at the Island I knew what was up." A familiar snort. "Island my ass. I borrowed a plane, I was hoping I'd beat her here but close enough. She took the train, I'm guessing?"
He nodded at that, mind scrambling to keep up. Borrowed a plane? An aeroplane? He'd only once seen one and only then from a distance. "You know how to fly an aeroplane?"
They shrugged with one shoulder. "It's not all that much different from driving a car. Not that I can get Wu up in one, he's not convinced that they'll actually stay in the air. He and Mako are coming on the airship, they'll get here tomorrow, probably." The smile was unmistakable this time, taking their face from subtly terrifying to something far more warm and likable. "Don't worry, we'll get another room." They watched him for a moment, the smile fading as if it had never been there at all. "San says you take good care of our Zhi."
He met their eyes, his spine lengthening as he stood even straighter. "I will treasure him and protect him with my life. You have my word as a son of the desert." He knew no better oath than that and he bowed again, hoping that it would be enough for them. They were not of his culture; he didn't know the correct words to convince them of his intentions.
They reached out and put a hand on his shoulder as he came out of the bow. A dangerous hand; Yaozhi had told him stories, tales that San had corroborated. His stepmother was a lethal shadow, death come and gone in the night, all for the love of their family. Their fierce gaze pierced into him. "He's special, our Zhi. You follow?"
"Yes. I understand," he replied, not as the lovesick fool his Yaozhi made him, but as one warrior to another, proud and sure. "He is the light of my life, the breath of my body, the blood in my veins." He met their eyes, unwavering. Their hand tightened on his shoulder briefly and they nodded sharply.
"Good. We couldn't let him go otherwise."
"He will never come to harm with me."
The smile this time was fierce. "I'll hold you to that."
"With my life," he repeated, and kept himself from flinching as that hand cupped his cheek, patting it with a gentleness that he was not expecting.
"Alright then," they said, and it took everything in him not to sag with relief when they took their hand away. He had thought that perhaps Yaozhi and San had seen the Royal Consort through the fond and slightly fogged lenses of family but there was no exaggeration there. He knew, with utter certainty, if he ever purposely hurt his beloved Yaozhi - the sands preserve him! - that his life would be forfeit. He could only respect them for it, however. Family was everything in the desert. Did not his own mother feel the same about him?
The Royal Consort pulled away, quickly checking their appearance in the mirror next to the door, smoothing their hair a bit. "Here we go," they murmured, before striding down the hall to the dining room, standing in the doorway, waiting, arms crossed. It was Yaozhi who saw them first, his eyes widening behind his lenses.
"Qi!"
Sayuri dropped her spoon, jumping up. "QiQi! My gracious, here you are! Do you want some breakfast?" She foraged through the remains of the tray, picking up a dumpling. "Dumpling? They're crab, which is delicious, you know, although you know I prefer picken. Next time I'll ask, but this morning I thought it just best to go along with it, especially since I was rather desperately famished and in any case, I've never actually called for room service before, although I can't think it would be too terribly difficult, would it? You'd just pick up the phone and say," and here her voice slurred into the same accent he'd heard around the hotel, "My good sir or madame, I'd be ever so pleased to delight in some of those delectable picken dumplings your exquisite chef prepares, thank you kindly." She frowned. "Do I have to tell them to put it on my tab? Or I suppose they already know to do that. And how do you tip hotel staff? I've never done it before."
"Button," Yaozhi said, his eyes on his stepmother, who stood there, expressionless, listening. "That's enough now."
Sayuri's chin trembled, but she kept going. "There's some tea left as well, and it's quite good but I venture to say it's not brewed by a firebender although I suppose you don't have to be a firebender to make good tea, do you, Cork makes quite excellent tea and he can't bend at all." Her fingers were twisting into themselves at this point and her mother had not moved at all. "I keep thinking I ought to really learn how to make a proper pot of tea but you know, I always lose track of the time and there it sits, all grown cold, leaves in a great clump at the bottom which doesn't taste good no matter how much milk and sugar you put into it, not that I am accusing the tea here of tasting like that it, certainly not, I would never impugn the reputation of the Imperial Jade Hotel that way, my goodness, not that I suppose anyone would care much what I had to say or quite possibly they would, after all, I may only be sixteen but for whatever impenetrable reason people seem to think the opinions of princesses matter despite their age, which is rather foolish, don't you think, QiQi?" Her voice faltered. "QiQi?" Her eyes filled up with tears. "Mama," she whispered. "Please don't be angry."
"Do you have any idea how much you frightened your father with this little stunt?" Her mother's mouth was a thin line. "Of all people, Sayuri. To have you just disappear like that?"
"I left a note..." The tears overflowed onto her cheeks. "Mama, I left a note."
"You know better."
"I'm sorry, Mama." Sayuri hitched in a sob and Yaozhi shifted in his seat, giving his stepmother an imploring look.
"Qi, you know she didn't mean it."
"She never does." The Royal Consort's eyes closed briefly, opening as Sayuri sobbed again, her emotions on display for anyone to see. Much like his Yaozhi, this girl was unable to hide how she felt, and he felt himself drawn to her, taking a step forward before pulling himself back as the Royal Consort shot him a quick look out of the corner of their eye. "You owe both of your fathers an apology as well." Sayuri nodded her head over and over again, her weeping growing steadily stronger. Yaozhi pulled out one of his ever-present handkerchiefs and, leaning across the table, tried to mop up her face. The Royal Consort sighed. "Alright now, you'll cry yourself right into a state like your father."
"Sorry, Mama! I promise I'll be better!" She launched herself out of her chair and ran for her mother, burying her face into their chest as their arms went around her.
"Sayuri, you aren't a baby any longer. This isn't about being naughty. Your father was so fucking scared when he got that note it triggered one of his headaches. You know what this kind of thing does to him." Another sigh. "We shouldn't have to put you under lock and key. You can't just follow every impulse you get."
"I didn't want Papa to have one of his headaches! I just wanted to meet Ping!"
The Royal Consort pulled the girl away, holding her face in their hands. "Button, we all want to meet Ping. Did you ever stop to think that we would have? Your father was planning on calling ahead to the hotel, making reservations, all that kind of thing. Even your sister was going to get Sitiak to cover for her at the clinic."
Sayuri looked surprised. "She was?"
"She was. Naoki was going to come as well. Your Papa has some business here anyhow." A glance at Yaozhi and they snorted. "Not that you wanted all of us showing up."
Yaozhi merely laughed at that. "Like I didn't know Papa would show up eventually."
"Button, just because something isn't going at the speed you want it to go at doesn't mean it isn't going. You need to stop and think before you act. If you had used your brain," and here the Royal Consort gravely tapped at her head, "you would have figured out we were all going to come."
"Oh." Sayuri bit her bottom lip and her mother tugged on a curl, seeming to soften a bit.
"Did you save any breakfast for Ping, here?"
"Uh..." Sayuri immediately looked guilty.
"That's what I thought. Go on now, go and order another one. I haven't had any breakfast either, and I've been flying all night. I need to eat and get some sleep."
"Thank you, QiQi!" Sayuri bounded over to the phone. "Oh Ping, do you like picken or crab better?"
He cleared his throat. "I have not tried either, Princess."
"We'll order both then!" She grabbed the phone, clearly thrilled.
"I'll just crash in one of your bedrooms, if that's okay with you," the Royal Consort said to Yaozhi.
"Of course." Yaozhi frowned. "Is Papa okay?"
"I didn't stick around, but Cork sent Elang to go and get your sister. She'll take care of him." They yawned. "Shit, I'm wiped. They should already be in the air by this time, do you think you can get the hotel to radio the airship, let Mako know I'm here and she's okay?"
"Yes, I'll go down to the front desk right now." Yaozhi stood, looming over them, before pulling them into a tight hug. "I'm glad to see you, anyhow."
The Royal Consort grinned. "You look good, kiddo." They reached up to tweak his nose affectionately, followed with a tug at his chin to bring his cheek down so they could kiss it. "New suit?"
"House of Wong, on extraordinarily short notice."
"You ought to have a few made and leave them here at the hotel."
Yaozhi grinned in return. "I suggested the very same thing!"
The Royal Consort winked. "That's my boy. Have them send someone up to deal with the clothes I brought?"
"Naturally. I'll be right back," Yaozhi replied, as he headed towards the door, barely pausing in order brush a kiss across his mouth. The Royal Consort just smirked at that, stretching their head from side-to-side before raising their arms above their head.
"Gets a little cramped in the cockpit," they explained, wincing slightly at the loud popping of their neck. "I landed her at the palace grounds. Damn near scared one of the gardeners half to death." A snort. "He practically took my head off with a hoe. There'd be an end for the history books. Royal Consort done in by a fucking gardening tool." They raised an eyebrow. "Not the strangest way for someone to die in that palace, though." Another yawn, quickly smothered.
"Is it difficult, learning to fly an aeroplane?" He hadn't meant to say anything, but curiosity won out.
"Why, you want to learn? I'm guessing you don't know how to drive a car, right? Out in the desert and all." He shook his head and they pursed their lips before shrugging. "Well, no reason why I can't teach you as long as I'm here." A grin. "If you can figure it out you and Zhi can keep the plane, use it instead of the train to get around. I can just buy it off of Asami, she's got an entire hanger full of them." With that they sauntered over to the couch and sat down, motioning the princess over, putting their arms around her as she half-crawled into their lap.
True to their word, Yaozhi's stepmother ate, took a shower, and went to sleep in the room the princess had claimed, not emerging for a good ten hours, dressed in a suit of dark blue and black brocaded chrysanthemums, insisting that Sayuri change into a dress they'd brought with them before they all went down for dinner. "Please tell me you didn't let her go out dressed like that," they said to Yaozhi, grimacing when he had no answer for them. He'd taken over the princess's hair; his own hair didn't do much more than wave but both his brother and sister had curls like their mother and he had always been adroit at braiding his own long hair. He did hers in a coronet intertwined with several ribbons, much to the Royal Consort's clear approval. They took them to a restaurant which unnerved him with its sheer opulence; once the party was recognized as part of the royal family the service became nearly unbearable with all the fawning going on. Yaozhi and his sister seemed not to notice, however, even if the Royal Consort caught his eyes across the table and rolled their own. They walked back to the hotel afterward, while Sayuri taught him how to sing a sea shanty she'd learned from her sailor of a grandfather, Yaozhi cheerfully singing along to the chorus. He'd never seen the sea; Yaozhi had told him it was like the desert, only with water instead of sand. He still couldn't imagine it, but he sang along with the princess, laughing as she grabbed his hands and danced him along the sidewalks, her mother smiling as they followed along.
"So now you've met Button and Qi," Yaozhi murmured in his arms that night as they lay in the huge bed together, sheets soft and cool.
"I have, my heart."
"And?"
"I think you are indeed fortunate in your family, my treasure." Yaozhi answered that with a kiss.
The rest of his lover's family arrived the next evening, borne in with an astonishing pile of bags. Yaozhi's fathers; the former king, slender, neat and impeccably dressed and his other father, another warrior, whose orange eyes narrowed in suspicion whenever they met his. His grandparents were there as well; the former sailor, his face pleasantly creased with frequent laughter and his grandmother, the head of the Beifong house, as suspicious as Yaozhi's father, going straight for Sayuri and turning her about in her hands, as if to reassure herself that she was fine before starting to scold her. Yaozhi's sisters were not what he had expected, based on how they'd been described; the eldest, the fearsome Fire Butterfly, was the smallest of the siblings, her hair cropped short, dressed in fashionable trousers and heels. He'd been told that Yaozhi's other sister, the waterbending healer, was a beautiful woman but he was still astonished by her sheer loveliness as well as her noticeable height as she stood next to her intended, a Southern Water Tribe man with kind eyes and a gentle smile. Sayuri was scolded by all of them but the intended and her grandfather, the old man bestowing her with fond kisses, his eyes twinkling, as the Royal Consort pragmatically fussed at the Prince, much the same as they had fussed at their daughter.
He was bemused to note that Sayuri did not seem to mind the scolding from the rest of her family with the exception of Meili, the waterbender. He knew the type of relationship well; his father's two sisters were quarrelsome with each other, their contrasting personalities snarling and tangling together and apart. They loved each other deeply, however, and he suspected that the two youngest Hou-Ting princesses were much the same.
The next hour was a flurry of discussion and movement; the Royal Consort, clearly anticipating that the entire family would arrive, had already made arrangements that he and Yaozhi would move to their own smaller suite on the same floor, as would Princess Meili and her intended. The Prince attempted to argue propriety and was ignored as the hotel staff took over, his husband physically moving him across the room to sit on a sofa, remarking that he should stay out of the way, a comment which was clearly not pleasing to the Prince.
"Does this happen often?" he found himself saying to the intended, whose name he had not caught.
The man smiled, watching his future mother-in-law putting their arms around the Prince, saying something into his ear as the Prince snapped open a fan in irritation and put it to work. "This family comes as an entire package." He glanced over. "I'm Tupilek, by the way. In case you missed my name in the chaos."
He bowed. "My honor to meet you." The man returned his bow with his hands clasped over his heart, Republic City style.
"With any luck we'll be getting a visit from the Zaofu Beifongs in the next few days as well." His face must have betrayed his feelings because the man laughed. "They're part and parcel of the family package, I'm afraid. You're taking some of the pressure off of me, though, so thanks for that." Tupilek clasped his shoulder reassuringly before calmly making his way through the room to the phone, picking it up and speaking into it for a few moments before turning around, attempting to get everyone's attention before letting out with a deep bellow which startled the entire room into silence. "The hotel restaurant is expecting us in a half hour for a late dinner."
The Prince immediately put his hand to his head. "My gracious, Tupilek! I can't possibly put myself together in that time!"
"Not if you just sit here talking about it you won't," the Royal Consort said, pulling him up from the sofa before turning him about and propelling him towards the bedrooms. "Someone make sure Sayuri's dressed, please?"
"Now's our chance," Yaozhi said, taking his hand, laughing. "Run!"
They did not make it to the dining room in a half hour; however, the restaurant staff did not seem to mind, welcoming the entire family when they finally arrived with smiles and bows, one waiter nearly scraping the floor. Grandfather was the one who ordered for the entire table, a seemingly normal occurrence. The family chattered over and around each other, animated and noisy. His own family was usually silent during their meals, conversation limited to whatever was necessary. The Prince Consort and Tupilek were discussing fishing with Grandfather; Grandmother was sitting next to Sayuri, admonishing the Prince to eat, while he and Princess Meili were telling his Yaozhi all of the latest happenings in Republic City, Princess Naoki and the Royal Consort jumping into both conversations while also debating the merits of having the House of Wong seeing to Sayuri's wardrobe. He kept mostly silent, marveling at the entire spectacle.
The meal had mostly been consumed when Princess Naoki turned her head towards her brother. "Pass me the soy sauce, would you, Jade Blossom?"
The entire table went silent for a moment before the Prince hissed, "Naoki Hou-Ting!" It was too late, however; Sayuri started to giggle and Princess Meili stared off into the distance, struggling for composure, her lips twitching.
"Really?" Yaozhi's eyebrow flew up in a manner that he'd noticed most of the family members used. "Seriously?"
Princess Naoki fluttered her eyelashes. "I don't know, you've kind of got the whole Jade Blossom thing going on. Delicate, trembling noble maiden with a pale brow? I can see it. Didn't she swoon a lot?"
The Royal Consort was struck with a very suspicious coughing fit and Grandmother was seen to jab Grandfather very hard in the ribs with her elbow.
"If it's about the swooning then you'll have to ask Papa," Sayuri said, and was sent a vicious glare by her father. She ignored this to put her hand to her head, fanning herself weakly with her other hand. The Prince Consort began to stare into the distance as well, biting down on his lips. "Isn't that right, Jade Blossom?"
"Sayuri Hou-Ting! Naoki! The both of you will cease and desist immediately! Ping is our guest and it is very impolite indeed to make...well. To make unasked for comments with regards to literary affiliations over which he has no control and I am certain no desire to embrace." The Prince's eyes were flashing behind his lenses. "Shame on the both of you!" Princess Meili put a graceful hand to her mouth and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath through her nose. "Don't think I don't see you over there, Meili! I expect your sisters to engage in such inappropriate and indeed mortifying behavior but I had thought better of you, I really had!" The Prince's fan was out in full force now, snapping itself into place.
"Of course, Papa. I beg your pardon, Ping." The beautiful princess inclined her head courteously towards him before turning to her brother. "I beg your pardon as well, Jade Blossom." That set Grandfather off, despite the second jab to his ribs by Grandmother.
"Meili Hou-Ting! I am appalled!"
"You know what? The three of you are just asses, that's all." Yaozhi was scowling. "And for the record, I am nothing like Jade Blossom. I don't faint and I'm not delicate!"
"Whatever you say, noble lady." Princess Naoki was grinning broadly, kissing at him before leaning over to snatch the fan out of her father's hand, tossing it to Yaozhi across the table. "Your face is getting red over there, you might want to cool off a little."
"NAOKI!"
Yaozhi caught the fan midair. "You know, Ping and I were having a perfectly nice time until you all showed up." The fan slipped in his fingers, opening a fraction. Sayuri pointed at it.
"No no, you need to let it snap if you're going to make sure we all know you're good and angry." She demonstrated with her own fingers, mimicking a fan. "Put in some effort, Jade Blossom, please."
They were all laughing now, with the exception of the Prince, who was clearly outraged, and Grandmother, who merely looked weary. She met his eyes over the table and rolled her own with a little shrug. He stood up, letting his hands flow into a bow towards his Yaozhi as the family stared up at him, sputtering into silence, unsure if they had actually offended him. He extended his hand for Yaozhi, who took it automatically.
"My love for you will mount as the heat upon the desert sands, my beloved Jade Blossom." It was the infamous quote from the back cover of the first novel. He'd been tormented with it many times as a boy; he'd learned how to fight to win due to those damnable books. He'd always hated them, and his name as well. Until he met Yaozhi, that was. His own precious love, who had never once mocked him for anything. He raised Yaozhi's hand to his lips and kissed it tenderly; at Yaozhi's inevitable and endearing blush his family erupted in laughter that he understood was fond and loving, not mocking.
"Three cheers for Ping," Sayuri cried, and over Yaozhi's shoulder the Royal Consort winked at him.
"I do love you," Yaozhi said over the noise of his family and his heart bloomed.
Chapter 77: 205: Lin, LoLo and the Hou-Ting Children
Chapter Text
Naoki watched as LoLo carefully handed Lin down on one of the park benches before sitting stiffly down beside her. “Is his knee bothering him?”
Meili nodded and sighed. “I work on it as often as I can, but he’s old, Naoki. He’s got terrible arthritis as it is. He’s seventy-seven. Don’t get me wrong, they are both in excellent health. You know I take care of them.”
Naoki gave her arm a placating squeeze. “I know you do. I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to be accusatory.”
“I know you weren’t. Sorry. I feel so helpless, sometimes. I wish I could do more. I keep suggesting that they retire to Ember Island, but you know Lin won’t go.”
“She doesn’t want to leave Daddy,” Sayuri added. “And Grand-Lo says he can’t possibly go anywhere while I am still half-baked.”
Naoki laughed at that. “You’re always half-baked, Button.” She wrapped her arm around her youngest sister. “You’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached to your neck.”
“Probably,” she replied. The three of them stood together, watching Lin bat away LoLo’s hand as he grinned at her. He persisted, and raised her hand to kiss it. Lin pretended to be offended, and LoLo laughed. “Do you suppose they’ll ever get married?”
Naoki snorted. “Marriage is overrated.” She glanced at Meili. “No offense.”
Meili waved her off. “It’s not for everyone. It’s for me, though.”
“That’s because you have a gem of a fiance. If I had someone as good as Tupilek then I’d get married too.”
Meili looked down her nose at her sister. “You do. You have, for years. It’s you that’s throwing it away.”
Naoki broke away and scowled. “Don’t start up with me, Fishy.”
“Don’t fight,” Sayuri murmured. She waved at Lin, who gestured for them to join them.
Chapter 78: 205: Lin and Tenzin
Chapter Text
Lin made her slow way out of the temple. She wasn’t a very spiritual woman herself, but a new airbender getting their tattoos was always a reason for celebration. This time it was Ikki’s oldest daughter, Katara. Only seventeen, so quite young to achieve mastery, but she couldn’t imagine anyone was too surprised. She was Aang’s great-granddaughter, after all.
She put her hand on Tenzin’s arm. “Congratulations,” she said. “The first of your grandchildren to get them. If you don’t count Goba, that is.”
He smiled. “I do count him. He's a welcome member of the family.”
“Shit, we’re old,” she said, and he laughed.
“We are. Not too many regrets, I hope?”
She shook her head. “Can’t say as I do. I let all of that go a long time ago. Seemed pointless to hang on to it.” She turned her head to gaze at Mako, who was bent over, listening very intently to something that Bhuti, Ikki’s youngest, was saying to him. “I may not have shown it, but I always was a little afraid that I’d die alone. Like my mother did.”
He tucked her arm into his. “Well. Things turned out for the best, but you would have always been welcome here, old friend. I hope you know that.”
She patted his arm. “I know.”
It was a companionable silence as they stood together, watching the children running about, trying to catch the spirit dragonflies that were circling around the courtyard.
Chapter 79: 205: Tenzin, Pema, Lin, LoLo, Su and Bataar
Chapter Text
“Wait, whose is that?” Lin scowled at the child zipping past her on an air scooter. Her sister thumped her.
“That’s Bhuti, Ikki’s youngest. Get it together, Lin.”
Lin waved her hand in the air. “Whatever. We need name tags or something.”
“Why not just write up family trees and stick them on their backs?” LoLo flashed his dimple at her and poured her another glass of wine as she shot him a look. Baatar started to chuckle and held his glass out for LoLo to top up as well.
“I’m glad to see so many children here.” Pema smiled. “Our four were so lonely out here when they were small.” She waved at a small boy who was desperately trying to create his own air scooter. He failed and kicked at the dirt in frustration. A young man with airbender tattoos crouched down and smiled at him, and held his hands in front of him, helping him to build another one. Pema nodded towards him before catching Su’s eye. “Goba will take over that temple some day, mark my words.”
Su returned her smile. “It would not surprise me in the slightest.”
“So many airbenders,” said Tenzin quietly. His eyes filled up with tears. “I wish my father could have seen it.”
Lin leaned over and clasped his hand in hers. “He does, Tenzin. I’m sure he does. He’d be so proud of what you’ve built, old friend. So proud.”
Tenzin squeezed her hand and sighed.
Chapter 80: 205: Meili and Yumi
Chapter Text
“Hey there, Squirt.” Meili looked up to see Yumi and smiled.
“Squirt yourself.” She stood to greet her. She was as tall as Yumi herself, now, taller than both of her sisters and her Papa and Qi, besides.
“Your father called and yelled at me, told me he hadn’t seen enough of me lately, insisted I come for dinner.” She put an arm around Meili and gave her a squeeze. “So how was the South Pole?”
“Cold, as usual. Iskani sends her love. And a letter, which I have upstairs. Do you want me to go and get it?” She slid her arm around Yumi’s waist and walked with her towards the dining room.
“Nah, it can wait until after dinner. So tell me all about it. Did you manage to nail those water whips?”
Chapter 81: 205: Korra and Asami
Chapter Text
Korra squinted down through the glasses perched on her nose. “I thought these things were supposed to help me. I can’t see a thing out of them.”
Asami reached over and plucked them off her face. “Those are mine. You need to go and see the oculist and get your own.” She placed them on her own nose.
Korra grunted, holding the paper away from her face and slowly bringing it closer. “Stupid thing to do. I can just use a magnifying glass.”
“Oh, because looking through a magnifying glass doesn’t make you look old or anything.” Asami took the paper out of her hands. “Here, I’ll read it to you. Go make me some tea.”
“One Avatar Tea Special, coming right up.” Korra walked across the kitchen. “I just think it will look stupid. The Avatar and her reading glasses.”
Asami laughed. “Last time I checked, there wasn’t a bending move that could restore youth.”
“Well, there should be!”
Asami just smiled.
Chapter 82: 205: Zhi and Ping
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
...in a cave full of crystals.
Chapter Text
“I’m not sure I can get past the smell, my jewel.” Ping sniffled, blinking his furiously watering eyes.
“Wolfbat guano, I know. Give me a moment, I want to mark it down on the map.” Yaozhi’s voice was muffled behind his veil.
“Do you want to come back here?”
“No, but my Uncle Wing will. He uses it in his garden, for fertilizer. Not that I can guarantee it will still be accessible for him, but if he can get up here in the next day or two the badgermoles shouldn’t have changed anything too much.” Yaozhi hastily scribbled on their map before rolling it back up and stowing it in his pack. “Okay, now we can move on. Away from this rather indescribable and tragically potent olfactory sensation.” He laughed and grabbed Ping’s hand, pulling him along. “Not to mention that it’s fairly fresh and I’d rather not get up close and personal with a pack of annoyed wolfbats today. Or any day, really.”
They traveled a little farther into the cave, the luminescence of the crystals lit in the soft glow from the lantern guiding their way. Yaozhi had lowered his veil and was smiling, pointing out the tracks of a spider snake that led into the wall, more evidence of the cave’s dynamic nature.
He’d been nervous, coming to Zaofu; it was like a city out of legend for the desert folk, founded by the daughter of Toph Beifong, a city made of metal, scintillating in the harsh summer sun. The matriarch herself, older but still full of energy, had greeted them personally along with her husband as they got off the train, hugging Yaozhi and then, to his eternal surprise, hugging him as well. He’d met them all; the matriarch’s youngest son and his wife, a very intimidating politician, as well as Yaozhi's four cousins, the infamous Flower Garden, the youngest one, Poppy, flirting with him so outrageously that he’d had to finally laugh about it. All of his lover’s famous relatives, people he’d never dreamed of meeting.
“You know, the stories have it that the only way out of this cave is for lovers to kiss.” Yaozhi was peering at a pale pink crystal, biting his lower lip in concentration. “Ah, yes, I can see the remains of some eggs here. It’s a pity we weren’t here a month earlier, we might have seen some hatching.” He smiled back. “It’s a good thing to fall back on in case my map fails me. The kissing thing, I mean.” Even in the unreliable light from their lantern he could see the telltale blush across his beloved’s cheeks. He was still shy about intimacy, hesitant to speak his feelings, as if afraid of being rejected. He wasn’t sure why. He’d met his parents and they were very affectionate people, even his warrior of a stepparent, the formidable Royal Consort, and certainly his next youngest sister, Meili, had a very loving relationship with her intended. It wasn’t that the man was a coward, either. He was fearless, sometimes even terrifyingly so. How many people dared venture into the ruins of the Cave of Two Lovers, after all? But that was his Yaozhi, he supposed. A man of opposites, a unique treasure. Nothing to be done but to kiss him, as often as he could.
He reached over and tugged the map case out of his pack, dropping it to the ground. “A tragedy has occurred today. We seem to have lost our map.”
Yaozhi blinked, staring down. “Ah…I…it’s right there?” His gaze, as he swung it upwards, was a bit baffled, and he unhooked his own veil, nodding at him, fighting back a smile.
“Yes. Our map is gone. I am not sure how we are to find our way out of this maze.”
“Oh, it wouldn’t be that difficult, you know, if we really had, we haven’t really traveled all that far in, all things considered, despite the badgermoles constantly changing things around, and besides, you have your bending…” he trailed off, and then his cheeks took on an even greater color. “Oh.”
“Yes, you see? Here we are, lost and without a map in the infamous Cave of Two Lovers, surrounded by wild beasts at every turn.” He reached forward to drag his thumb across his beloved’s mouth.
“Oh. I suppose we’d need to kiss our way out?” Yaozhi’s gaze had traveled downwards again, but his own bright smile was lurking in the corners of his mouth. Ah, he loved this gentle, shy, beautiful, dauntless man.
“I think it is the only way.”
Yaozhi chuckled and leaned forward, taking his face in his big, sensitive fingers, putting his mouth to his and he sighed into the kiss, breathless as desire simmered through him. He kissed him back, savoring in the taste of him, the feel of him, how this man made him experience life like no other had ever made him feel before.
“Ping,” Yaozhi gasped, and looked up, breaking away from the kiss. He turned his head and instinctively grabbed his hand as the two of them stood in wonder, watching the crystals slowly, one by one, illuminate themselves.
Chapter 83: 205: Mako and Lin
Chapter Text
“Well, if all else fails, I suppose I could always go and live in the swamp. Family tradition and all.” Lin put her hands on her hips and looked around her bare flat.
“You sure you want to do this? There’s no need.” Mako hovered close to her.
She sighed. “I go months at a time without even coming over here. I’ve got nothing personal left anyhow. It’s a good piece of real estate. Better to let someone who would actually live here take it. I should have done it years ago.”
“You’ll always have a home with us,” he said. Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her, gently. Too gently. She returned the hug fiercely, squeezing him for all she was worth. She grinned a little at his breathless grunt.
“All right, that’s enough touchy feely for today.” She pulled away from him and pretended she didn’t see how his eyes had gone moist. “Shit, don’t go all soft on me in your old age, Mako.”
“Never,” he said, and offered his arm.
Chapter 84: 205: Lin and LoLo
Chapter Text
She turned her head as LoLo made his way down the path towards her. He flashed that sassy dimple at her and she snorted. He only got more handsome the older he got, and it irked her. The least he could do would be to get some liver spots. “Stop trying to charm me, old man,” she said, and he laughed and took her face into his hands to kiss her.
Chapter 85: 206: Meili And Her Family
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"At home with parents"
Chapter Text
The footmen brought in the fruit tarts she’d picked up for dessert and Daddy smiled, meeting her eyes.
“Oh, your father’s favorite fruit tarts, how lovely.” Papa beamed at her before nodding at the footman pouring his tea. “Thank you.” He turned his focus back to her. “Now darling, tell me, have you found some new beauty cream? Because you are positively glowing tonight.” He leaned forward. “Spill. You know I’m always willing to try something new.”
Mama snorted and shook their head before passing Daddy the sugar.
“What? I can’t try a new cream?” Papa frowned.
“I don’t think you’re going to be able to get the same glow in your cheeks,” Mama said, winking at her. Tupilek chuckled, and she shook her finger at them. She should have known Mama would have figured it out. Not that they would have ruined the surprise; they’d bide their time until she was ready to announce it herself.
“Well I don’t see why not! Honestly, Qi!”
Daddy was putting sugar into his tea. “Sayuri, do you want a tart?” Sayuri, her nose in her book, didn’t answer. Papa wouldn’t allow her to read at the table if they had guests, but he’d finally given up trying to get her to stop doing it if there was only family present. It kept her quiet, at least. Daddy waited for a moment, looking at her, before giving a sigh and giving her one anyhow. “Tupilek, are we still on for fishing this weekend?”
Tupilek nodded. “I was thinking of trying a new spot one of the clinic patients was telling me about. We’d have a bit of a longer sail, but it sounds pretty promising.”
“Sounds good to me.” Daddy took a sip of his tea. “I’ll get Cork to pack us a little extra food, then.”
She took a deep breath. “So, Tupilek and I have an announcement to make.” She looked around the table. Daddy was digging into his tart, Papa was raising his eyebrows expectantly and Mama was smiling at her, clearly knowing what she was going to say. Button was still reading; some book about chemistry, she thought. She’d tell her later, then.
Tupilek reached over and took her hand into his, his solid, hard working hand, gentle, always supportive. He squeezed her hand and then patted it.
“I’m pregnant.” She probably could have led into it with a little more finesse, but there it was, anyhow.
Daddy dropped his tart.
Papa blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
Mama leaned across the table and took her other hand into theirs. “Congratulations, Baby.” Their smile was unwavering.
She sniffled back the sudden tears. “Oh Mama. How long did you know? Or guess?”
“About a week, now, give or take.”
“And you didn’t say?”
Mama stroked a hand across her cheek. “It wasn’t for me to say. It’s your moment, yours and Tupilek’s.” Mama nodded at him, still smiling. “And congratulations to you as well.”
Papa had his hands to his chest, mouth open as he gasped in air. “Oh, Meili! Meili!”
It was Daddy, however, that shocked them all by giving out a very loud sob before clapping his hand to his mouth. Tears started to pour out of his eyes.
“Daddy!” She automatically reached for him, unsure of what to do. Daddy never cried! “Daddy?”
“A baby?” He whispered, his voice shaking. “A baby?”
“Yes, Daddy. You’re going to be a grandfather.” She exchanged a look with Tupilek, who was staring, eyes wide, at her father. “Is it…are you alright?” His only response was to abruptly push himself away from the table and come to her, pulling her out of her seat to wrap her in a tight hug.
“A baby,” he said into her ear, and then he kissed her cheek. “Oh, Meili.”
“My gracious, Mako,” Papa said. He had his handkerchief to his eyes. “My gracious.”
Daddy reached out and gathered Tupilek into the hug as well, not saying anything else, just holding on to the both of them.
“My first grandchild,” Papa said, getting all worked up. “The next generation of Hou-Tings.” He waved his sodden handkerchief. “How long do I have to plan things?”
“Oh Papa,” she said, laughing through her own tears. “Plan what, exactly?” She smiled down at him, her dear, lovely father, a king to the end, regardless of title.
Papa tsked at her. “Well my goodness, Meili! A new Hou-Ting? The first of their generation?” He threw his hands into air. “This is an event!”
“We estimate she’s about nine weeks now,” Tupilek answered. “The baby’s due in the winter.”
“A waterbender, of course, of course,” Papa said absently, his mind already racing along. “A winter celebration would be lovely, of course.”
“Wu,” warned Mama, giving him a look and Papa’s cheeks took on a bit of color before he smiled up at her.
“Oh my darling, never mind me. I hope you know your foolish father is very happy indeed.”
“I do know, Papa.” They were all happy for her, she knew that. Tupilek had waited until yesterday to send a letter to his parents in the South Pole; they both knew that women could lose babies this early in pregnancy and didn’t want to announce something that they’d have to take back. She couldn’t keep it to herself any longer, however.
Mama stood up and handed Daddy a handkerchief, exiting quietly as Papa enthused on about a party and Daddy sat down, eyes red and still a little teary. Mama returned with Cork, bearing a bottle of champagne and glasses for all of them.
“Ah, that’s just what we need!” Papa clapped his hands. “Oh, but not you, my darling.”
She laughed. “Yes, I know.” She took up a glass of water, instead. Papa lifted his own glass, preparing to make a toast, before frowning.
“Oh, someone take that book away from her!”
Mama reached over and snatched the book away. Sayuri blinked and then raised her head, scowling.
“I was reading that!”
“Your sister’s just told us she’s pregnant,” Mama said. “You think you might want to congratulate her?”
Sayuri glanced around the table, bewildered. “What?”
“You’re going to be an auntie,” Meili replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
“Oh.” Sayuri processed this. “Who’s the father?”
“Sayuri Hou-Ting!” cried Papa sharply. “I never! Behave yourself!”
“I’m the father, I’m pretty sure,” chuckled Tupilek. He was used to Sayuri by this time.
“Oh.” She grinned. “That’s excellent news!”
“Honestly, Sayuri,” Papa said, before taking a deep breath and holding his glass up again. “I would like to-”
“Oh, fruit tarts!”
“SAYURI!”
“Keep your trousers on, Papa, it was just an observation.”
“Sayuri,” said Mama firmly, mouth drawn into a thin line and Sayuri hushed up, thankfully, taking the champagne flute that Daddy handed her.
“If I may…” Papa gave Sayuri a glance, but she was mercifully quiet. He cleared his throat. “I’d like to propose a toast to Meili and Tupilek.” He sniffled. “And to the baby, of course. The newest member of the family.”
“Hear, hear,” said Mama, raising their glass, and the rest did as well before drinking.
“Wait until GrandLin and GrandLo get back from Zaofu,” Sayuri said. “GrandLo was just complaining the other day that it’d been too long since he had a baby to spoil.”
“I was actually thinking I could use your phone to call them, Papa.”
“Of course, darling.” Papa couldn’t stop smiling. “This kind of good news needs to be shared with the rest of the family as soon as possible.” He looked very pleased with himself. “Nuo has lorded over grandparenting for far too long.”
“She’s only been a grandmother for two months,” said Mama dryly and Papa snorted at them.
“Two months is quite enough for Nuo, believe me.” He gasped. “Oh Meili, my love, do you think we could have a little party next week? Family only, of course, but I’d want to invite over your Uncle and Aunt and your cousins, and the Zaofu family, and your sister - oh, have you told Naoki yet?”
Tupilek chuckled. “This afternoon. She nearly shouted the phone down.”
“And we can send a message tonight for your brother, he and Ping are…somewhere, where are they, Mako?”
She sat back in her chair and watched them; Papa enthusiastically planning his party - which would end up being a full blown bash, Papa didn’t know the meaning of a little party - Daddy’s eyes still a bit wet as he kept smiling at her across the table, Mama’s bemused smirk as they kept Daddy’s planning in check, Button’s green eyes shining as she looked at her. She raised an eyebrow at her and Button made a heart with her hands. I love you, Button mouthed, and then it was her turn to pull out a handkerchief.
Chapter 86: 206: Lin and LoLo
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"At home with parents"
Chapter Text
LoLo was weaving his hair into its usual loose sleeping braid, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Well? Aren’t you happy?”
She grunted. “There’s a lot that can go wrong with a pregnancy.”
His smile was gentle. “True. Also true that Meili’s young and healthy and a healer, to boot. Not to mention she’ll have Kya watching over her.”
She waved this off. “Even still.”
He watched her for a few moments as she paced the floor, tying off the end of his braid before holding his arms open. “Come here, old girl.” He waited for her to give it up, curling an arm around her when she finally settled next to him. “It’s happy news, Lin. She and Tupilek will make good parents. And I’m sure they planned this, you know how she is.”
A snort. “I can’t imagine that girl getting accidently knocked up.”
“Not very likely.” He traced a chunk of her hair back over her ear. “So you want to tell me what you’re really worked up about?”
“Hmph. Worrying about her and the baby isn’t enough?”
“Well, it’d be enough for most people, but you’ve never been most people.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
He just kissed her cheek, ignoring her bluster as usual. “Come on now. Spill.”
“You’re a pushy man, anyone ever tell you that?” He merely smiled at her. That’s how he’d been for the past twenty-nine years; he just let her be, let her have her moods, had his arms ready for her when she’d worn herself out, never judging her, just offering his support. She thought, not for the first time, how both of the temperamental Beifong sisters had found men that were deep, strong anchors. Oh, on the surface Baatar and LoLo couldn’t be more different; her brother-in-law was a quiet man, his grave introspection a marked change from LoLo’s teasing gregariousness. But when it came down to it they both were ports in a storm, safe harbor for the explosive feelings she and Su were prone to having. “Spirits, but I fucking love you,” she blurted out, and his eyes widened for a moment before his smile slowly bloomed into sentiment.
“Well, I love you too, old girl.” His hand cupped her cheek tenderly. It was an old hand by now, traced with veins and a smattering of age spots; then again, the cheek it was grazing had sagged into soft jowls, her scars faded into just another wrinkle across its seamed surface.
“I am old, aren’t I?”
“Is that what this is about?” Those copper-colored eyes were still undimmed; still full of mischief, always full of love for her. “We’re both old, honey. That’s how it goes.”
“I’ve always wished I could be as nonchalant as you about this kind of thing,” she said, but as usual, he took no offense, merely chuckling a bit before he followed it with a kiss.
“Come to bed, Great-Grandmother, and let me show you how chalant I can be.”
“That’s not a word,” she grumbled, knowing he would laugh at her, and he did. “I am happy,” she told him as he held open the bedclothes for her, and he nodded.
“I know you are. And so does Meili.”
“Does she?” She frowned, and he tugged at her until she lay down.
“Lin. Of course she knows. She knows you. Loves you, too.”
“I should have said so,” she said, her eyes unexpectedly filling up. "Over the phone." He struggled a bit to prop himself up on the pillows.
“We'll be home in a few days. We’ll take a walk over there, you can tell her in person.” She nodded, and he held a hand out. “Now, stop fussing. Everything is fine.” He gently thumbed away the tear that was threatening to fall, and smiled at her, making everything bearable, as he always did.
Chapter 87: 206: Sayuri
Summary:
This is for my betareader, who knows all about how difficult it is to grieve difficult family.
Chapter Text
"Is this her, Papa?" She peered at the inscription on the tombstone. "Princess Xiaozheyi."
Papa sighed as he tucked her hand into his arm. "Yes, that's her. My father is two stones over, and your grandmother is next to him." He reached out a hand to trace along the stone. "From what I understand my grandfather had no desire to be buried with her but Hou-Ting tradition was what it was. She was his first wife." He pointed. "His other wives are buried there, or at least the three that have already died. Lady Wen and Lady Ji and your real great-grandmother, Yu."
"The kitchen maid," she said, and smiled. "Apparently having inappropriate spouses is fashionable for Hou-Tings."
"Hmph. Cheeky," Papa said, and rapped her knuckles lightly with his hand. "No one seems to know what happened to the Lady Narumi, Zaichun's second wife. Rumor has it that she went back to the Fire Nation after your great-grandfather died but she simply disappeared, insofar as I know. I suppose she must be buried there."
"But you asked Lady Ji if she wanted to be buried here, right?" She grabbed at a curl that had escaped her combs and tried to shove it back where it was meant to go. Meili had packed her an outfit and had threatened her under pain of drowning if she didn't wear it to the Imperial Tombs. She usually paid Meili no mind when it came to clothes but she knew it meant a lot to Papa to visit his ancestors here in Ba Sing Se, so she dutifully put on the traditional white mourning robe and did her best to do something appropriate with her hair. She'd known it was the right thing to do when she'd finished and met Papa in the living room of the suite and his eyes had filled with tears as he saw her.
"I did, yes," Papa murmured. He took out a handkerchief and dabbed at his eyes. "I wanted it to be her choice."
"You don't talk about her much. Princess Xiaozheyi, I mean." She leaned her head against his shoulder.
"Well, I didn't know her, you understand. Apparently I was presented to her as an infant but never saw her again after that. She lived over on the far side of Lake Laogai, in one of the Imperial homes there. It was originally a summer palace, it was cooler there on the lake. But she was banished there after Zaichun died and that was that. I don't believe she and my great-aunt were fond of each other."
"I don't think your great-aunt was really fond of anyone, was she?"
Papa laughed a little at that. "She was not, no."
"And she raised Grandfather. Princess Xiaozheyi."
Papa sighed. "Well, nannies and tutors raised him, but she became his mother under the law and was responsible for him. As I understood it from Gun - the Grand Secretariat, you remember?" At her nod, he continued. "According to Gun she had no desire to actually have a child, she was merely doing what she could to hurt his real mother because she hated Yu."
"Because Great-Grandfather was in love with her."
"Indeed. She let your grandfather run completely wild, do as he pleased. From what I've been told she encouraged his bad behavior as well."
"It was bad, wasn't it?" She tightened her hand in his arm. Papa rarely spoke about this part of his history; she'd asked her mother and even her father about it but they'd both demurred for their own reasons. Her siblings didn't know much more than she did but then again she didn't think it impacted them as much as it did her.
Papa was quiet for a few moments. "It was." He turned his head to glance at her. "I haven't really spoken of it to you, it isn't something appropriate to tell a child. But I suppose you aren't a child any longer, are you?" His smile was rather wistful.
"I am quite ancient and very wise," she intoned, placing her free hand to her heart. "I may purchase my own fruit tarts and eat as many as I please."
"Sayuri," Papa warned, but smiled when she quickly kissed his cheek.
It was rare that she got to spend time alone with him like this; it was the first time the two of them had come to Ba Sing Se without anyone else. Meili was seven months pregnant and couldn't make it, Daddy was off somewhere with Korra and Mama had gotten food poisoning after going out with Uncle Wei (who was apparently just as vomitus, gracious) and had tried to come anyhow but Meili had told Papa it was a bad idea and there'd been quite a fuss over it between the three of them until GrandLin stomped up the stairs and had told Mama to get their ass back into bed and Mama had, much to her surprise, gotten their ass immediately back into bed. Not before insisting that Papa take along one of his old Dai Li agents and telling her to pack her knives, however. (Although they mentioned the knife part where Papa couldn't hear them. When it came to her training with Mama's knives they had always told her that what Papa didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Which, insofar as she was concerned, was a good rule for most things in her life, not just Papa.)
They'd come the day before on the airship, just the two of them, checking into their usual suite at the Imperial Jade Hotel, Papa taking her out to dinner and amusing her with stories about when he was dismantling the monarchy. It was hard to believe that he was only a year older than her when he started; she felt like she hadn't accomplished anything at all, not really. She'd said as much to him and he'd reached across the table, taking her hand into his. It was my greatest hope that none of my children would need to prove themselves accomplished the way I had to, he said. I wanted you and your brother and sisters to have the happy, carefree childhood I was never allowed.
He'd taken her straight to the Imperial Tombs today, explaining that he'd give her the tour of the palace tomorrow if she wanted. She normally didn't enjoy that sort of thing but that was mostly because it wasn't Papa giving the tour. Her father was a marvelous storyteller, full of all sorts of interesting tidbits, always animated and knowledgeable. She was only sorry her Auntie Nuo wasn't along. The two of them, once they got started, were absolutely hilarious together, interrupting each other and finishing each other's sentences and smacking at each other with their fans. It was even better when they'd had a few glasses of champagne, because that's when all of the really scandalous gossip started flowing. Oh, her beloved, wonderful, sumptuficent Papa.
"He wasn't allowed near you, was he? Your father, I mean."
Papa shook his head. "No, not at all. We were in completely different wings of the palace and I was kept out of his way. Not that he really left his rooms much, he was a heavy opium user and was rarely all that coherent, especially in his last year or two. I do remember him telling me once that I was small and ugly, but I was quite young then and I couldn't really tell you what the circumstances of that meeting were. He died when I was five."
"Poisoned, right?"
"Well. Officially they gave out some banal reason, saying he'd choked or something of the sort. Princess Xiaozheyi died when I was twelve of an opium overdose although I can't vouch for the veracity of that, either." He tsked. "Plenty of so-called accidental deaths in the Hou-Ting family, you may well believe me." His sigh was rather mournful. "I'm afraid it's not much of a legacy to pass down to you." He walked with her to her grandmother's grave and a tear ran down his cheek before he managed to catch it. "He was very cruel to your grandmother," he said. "I read the letters she sent your Granny Chun. Normally she would have never been able to get those letters out past the palace censors but Gun made sure they were delivered for her. He did his best for her, I know."
"Do you still have them? Does Granny Chun?"
Papa was staring down at his mother's name. "She gave them to me. She told me once she couldn't bear reading them any longer. I have them, put away." He caught her eyes, his face serious. "If you would like to read them you have my permission but I do need to warn you, Sayuri. He was a terrible person and took true pleasure in hurting her. Thankfully he was not allowed to physically harm her - even my great-aunt would not have stood for that - but he was cruel to her nonetheless. She was pregnant within a month and a half of the wedding and after that they kept her away from him, I don't believe she saw him at all after that unless it was some sort of royal function they both had to publicly attend."
"I didn't realize it was so awful for her." Her own eyes began to fill up.
"She was forced to stay in the marriage bed with him until she was pregnant and there were constant attendants there to ensure that your grandfather was actually doing the deed, as it were." Papa's voice hardened. "She was two months shy of her eighteenth birthday when they were married. She was your age when I was born."
"I can't imagine," she said, staring down at her grandfather's tombstone. Papa normally changed the subject as soon as his father was brought up. This was the first time he'd actually spoken to her about him.
"He was apparently unable to do his marital duties the usual way so he brought in his concubines to the marriage bed, forced her to watch as he did rather unspeakable things to them until he was able to finish with her." Papa's cheeks were taking on color; in anger, she thought, rather than embarrassment. "He beat them in front of her to demonstrate the kind of unrestrained power he had. Gun tried to put a stop to it but Hou-Ting was bound and determined to get an heir so she ordered him to let my father do whatever he wanted short of hurting her if it meant he'd be able to impregnate his wife." She was right; Papa was furious, she could hear it in the way he spat out his words, see it in the way his hands were clenched into fists. "Spirits know we wouldn't want to damage the broodmare."
"Oh Papa."
He turned to her then and caught both of her hands in his. "Sayuri, it's right that you know the things that went on in this palace. You are its heir and it's important that you know and understand why I ended the Hou-Ting reign. I know that you have learned the political reasons, the official reasons, as part of your regular schooling. Believe me when I tell you, however, that this palace was a rotted, stinking wolfbat den. After so many centuries the Hou-Tings were inbred and I'm certain we were always on the brink of moral corruption, if not right over the edge. I believe my one saving grace was your great-grandmother."
"Because she wasn't nobility?"
Papa nodded. "Exactly so. Fresh blood. New blood. New thoughts and ideas, new priorities. Earth Kingdom nobility, or what's left of it, is all stuck in the past. It's all the same families, just marrying each other over and over again. It's my hope, as the years go on, that all of that will be diluted, not just in terms of blood but also this incessant need for power and wealth."
"There are people in Republic City who are like that too, and they aren't nobility."
He grimaced. "Yes, I know. I don't suppose there's anything I can do about that, however."
"Except have a baby with someone completely unsuitable?"
He laughed a little at that and gathered her in, pressing a kiss to her temple. "On the contrary. Your mother was more than suitable. They were perfect, and you, my darling, are perfect as well."
She sniffled at that. "I wouldn't say that."
"Ah." He kissed her again. "But I would." They stood there together for moment, looking down at her grandmother's tombstone. "I wish I had known her. I wish she had known you." His sigh was long. "I wish I had more in the way of family for you."
"There's Daddy's family and all the Beifongs." She lay her head into his collarbone and smiled as he rested his head on hers.
"Very true. I do wish, however, there was anyone from my side. There isn't, however, so we must be content with that."
"Are you lonely, Papa?" It came out of her mouth before she could stop it, the way words so often did for her.
"Sometimes," he whispered into her hair. "But then I remember I have your father and mother, and the four of you, and my heart is very full."
"Will you be buried here when you die?"
He was quiet again, and she thought that he wasn't going to answer her, but eventually he did. "I should be. I was the last Hou-Ting king, and this is my family, my dynasty. But I can't imagine your mother or father would want to be buried here and I don't know if I could bear to be apart from them, even after we were all gone."
"I don't want to even think of you dying," she said, and started to cry in earnest.
"Oh my love, my Sayuri, my little lily, I don't plan on dying for quite some time." He pulled her into his arms and rocked her to and fro. "Don't fret now."
"You will someday. You and Daddy and Mama. You'll leave me all alone." She took the handkerchief he put into her hand and tried to mop at her eyes. He took her chin into his hand and tilted it up until she was gazing into his green eyes, a mirror for her own.
"I will never leave you. Not now and not even after I have died. I will always be with you, my darling, just like my own mother has been for me. Always." He held her close, rubbing her back, until her tears finally dwindled away.
Chapter 88: 207: San and Amak
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"A kiss... in a rush of adrenaline"
Chapter Text
“I think the gauge is well and truly fucked at this point, we’re going to need to…” San trailed off as he emerged from the tent holding all of their equipment. It was Amak, yes, but it was Amak with her arms wrenched behind her back, held still by a man in ragged robes, three similar men standing near him, arms raised in a sandbending pose. He met her eyes; she blinked three times, slowly and deliberately, above her veil. That meant there were three more men she knew of, out of sight.
She was a hell of a bender, his Amak, but not a fool. She knew there wasn’t much she could do with a single waterskin in the middle of the desert, surrounded by seven men.
“Who else is here?” the man holding her demanded through his own veil.
“Just us,” he replied, making sure the man could see his hands. Not true, of course, but Zhi and Ping wouldn’t be back for hours, most likely.
“A foreign woman and a single man? Alone in our desert?” The man scoffed. “You must think I’m stupid. There are three tents here.”
“One tent for our work,” he said, gesturing with his head. “The others are for us and our two companions. They are not on site, however.”
“There are many metal things here,” another man said, coming out of Zhi and Ping’s tent, holding Zhi’s microscope. Fuck. Now he’d have to make sure that didn’t break.
“What is that?”
“Equipment for our work,” said Amak, and the man shook her roughly. Now see, that was uncalled for. He was going to regret that shit in no short time.
“This your woman?” he demanded, shaking her again. “Maybe I cut her a little, then you tell me what I want to know.”
Amak chose that moment to make a little theatrical gasping noise - she would have done Uncle Wu proud with that one - and promptly closed her eyes and sagged down in the man’s arms, just like a delicate maiden in a novel. The man cursed, turning his attention down to her, and that was his cue. His foot slid across the sand as he stretched behind him, making sure he used a tent pole to wrap gently around the microscope before snatching it out of the man’s hands because Zhi would be devastated if he lost it, it’d been a present from his parents and he cherished it. He used his feet to bring up the sand, trying to draw out the benders there, retracting the soles of his boots - fuck the fucking sand was hot, he was going to get blisters, most likely - to sense them. Eight of them, then - Amak must have missed one - and the three nearest him were bending, throwing sand at him. Two of them were no good at all, nothing to worry about, but the other one was halfway decent, so he’d need to watch him. Most sandbenders were mediocre earthbenders at best and couldn’t bend metal at all and he’d never met another lavabender outside of his father, so he pulled the rest of the tent poles from Zhi and Ping’s tent and went for the decent bender first, wrapping a cable around his neck and then around the rest of his body, not killing him, no, but making sure he was pretty fucking uncomfortable. Next up were the other two benders - one knocked out with a hard smack to the head and the other grabbed by a cable and thrown across the camp, the man screaming as he flew through the air. Three down and five to go. He dug deep, down into the earth and brought up two sharp juts of rock, slamming into two of them, taking them out of the fight. Three more, two of them standing next to each other half in-half out of their tent and a single cable wrapped around the two of them did for them. He turned his attention back to the man who’d been holding Amak to find him turning blue, gasping and sputtering for air, his lungs filling with the water from her waterskin, eyes bulging in terror.
“Don’t kill him, honey, you know it upsets Ping.”
She sighed. “Oh, fine.” The water shot out of his mouth and nose as he retched into the sand and collapsed. “Waste of perfectly good water.”
“Check Zhi’s microscope, would you?”
He quickly assessed the situation, using the poles to drag the men along until they were in a heap outside of the campsite, securing them. He didn’t feel inclined to help out the injured or provide them with shelter. They were in the desert and he’d follow the law here: No killing. Didn’t mean you had to coddle anybody who tried to rob you, however. On the contrary. Thieves were punished fairly harshly here.
“It’s fine,” she told him, cradling it in her arms. “Not a scratch as far as I can see.” She walked back into their tent and put it carefully back down on a table, laughing. “Damn, you’re good.” She came back out to look at the men that were conscious, unhooking her veil so they could see her smile. “This is what happens when you fuck with a Beifong, boys.”
One of the men started to whine and gibber, apologizing, pleading with him not to kill them. He ignored him, however, unhooking his own veil before grabbing his wife and pulling her close. “That was a neat trick with the fainting, there.”
She laughed again. “I saw it in one of your father’s movers, actually.”
He grinned before kissing her, deep and long, knowing she’d feel how hard he was getting, knowing she’d be pleased about it. He pulled back. “Join me in our tent, beautiful foreign woman?”
She cocked an eyebrow, a move that was pure Beifong. “What about our visitors?”
He knew what she meant. He turned and brought his arms up and above his head, running a few steps for momentum before slamming them down to the ground, pulling from his qi the way his father had taught him, tearing up the rock from deep under the sand, heating it as it came, surrounding the men with a moat of roiling lava. There were shouts and screams and one man legitimately passed out, which got a satisfied little grunt from his wife.
“That should hold for a good hour in this heat, so long as I give it a little push as it starts to cool,” he told her, and she grabbed his hands.
“Better get down to business, then,” she said, and tugged him after her back into the tent.
Chapter 89: 208: Naoki and Sozui
Chapter Text
“What are you trying to say to me?” The wind tugged her hair away from her face.
“I’m thirty-six years old. My sister’s clearly never going to have a child. I have an obligation, Naoki. If she can’t provide an heir, then I have to.” He crossed his arms over his chest, bowing his head. “I’m saying that I can’t wait around for you to figure out what you want any longer.” He looked up at her. “I’ve got a short list of single women of acceptable noble families. I need to choose one.”
She stared at him. “So you’re going to marry someone you don’t even care about just so she can pop out a few handy heirs for you. I can’t believe you. I can’t fucking believe you are choosing to do this!”
“I don’t have a choice,” he said. “I’m a prince. My choices are limited. That’s the way it is.”
“Of course you have a choice! My father chose!”
“Your father never gave a damn for his kingdom. I do. That’s the difference.”
Chapter 90: 208: Naoki and Sozui
Summary:
How to bust up a wedding, Hou-Ting style.
Chapter Text
“I can’t do this.” Naoki’s hands were shaking. “I’m not...I can’t.” She was wearing a formal gown of Hou-Ting yellow, a tiara of gold and emeralds perched on top of her cropped hair. She looked towards her father. “I can’t.”
Wu’s mouth thinned. “You can and you will. You’re not here as Naoki. You’re here as the eldest princess of the House of Hou-Ting and you will do your duty. Your personal feelings are immaterial.” He sighed and reached a hand towards her. “Darling, I know it’s difficult…”
“Daddy?” She turned to her other father, dressed in his full samurai regalia. Still handsome and tall as ever, the threads of iron at his temples and the lines scratching around his eyes making him look distinguished in his uniform. He met her gaze squarely, arms crossed.
“You’ve been dicking that boy around for a good twenty years now. He’s been holding out for you for at least ten years and you still wouldn’t make a choice. This isn’t on him. You made your bed. Now you have to lie in it.”
“He knows what his duty is, Naoki. He needs to marry and provide the Fire Nation with an heir. I know you understand why he’s doing this.” Papa closed his eyes and let out a long breath. “I am not going to be late this evening.” His eyes opened. “Compose yourself and fix your makeup, put a smile on your face and deal with it. We’re royalty. That’s what we do.” He did put a hand to her arm then. “Give yourself a few minutes and then join us there.”
She tried to keep the bitterness out of her tone. She failed. “Enter alone after the family? Think of the protocol.” Papa’s eyes flared; a rare show of temper. She didn’t care.
“Wu, you take the rest of them in. I’ll make sure she’s presentable.” Qi stepped forward as Papa took in a breath, well on his way to shouting, she could tell. Sayuri was hovering nervously behind them, looking put together in her Hou-Ting yellow for once. Meili had taken over dressing her that evening. Qi and Papa locked eyes for a moment; then Papa nodded, mouth still tight.
“Fine.” He turned on his heel. “Sayuri, if you please.” He walked through the open door to the sitting room where Meili and Tupilek were waiting. “Zhi! Ping! We’re going in now.” The two of them came in from the terrace, Zhi meeting her eyes sympathetically. “Mako, if you could go and fetch Lin and LoLo?” Daddy nodded and walked out. “Come along now, Sayuri.”
Button squeezed her hand tightly and glanced at Qi.
“Go on, Baby, your father is already in a mood. Let’s not make it worse. I’ll take care of Naoki.” Qi gestured her out and then closed the door to the dressing room behind her.
“Qi, I can’t,” she whispered, dropping her face into her hands. “I can’t. I can’t.”
“Not like that you can’t.” Qi walked towards the closet, disappearing into it before reemerging with a black cloth dress bag. “We don’t have much time. Get that damn dress off.”
She stared at them. “Get the dress…” She looked down at her gown. “I don’t understand.”
“Do as I say. Get that dress off. Get it all off.” Qi met her eyes. “Go on, Butterfly. Your father will only wait so long before he comes storming back in here.”
“I…” at Qi’s look she shut her mouth and unfastened the dress.
“Don’t bother hanging it up, I’ll send in a maid.” Qi unzipped the bag and pulled out an armful of red silk, shimmering with gold thread. “I had to make some alterations, you’ve got more in the breast and hip than I do. I’m a bit taller than you are but I wore flat boots with it. You can wear those gold heels, it should be fine.” Qi gently shook it out.
Naoki took in a quick breath. “Qi? Is that…”
“Yes it is. Now hurry up. And take off that tiara while you’re at it. It won’t match.”
She quickly wriggled out of the gown, discarding it to the floor, stripping off her gloves and the tiara, nearly ripping her slip in her hurry to get it off. Qi handed her the silk and she drew it on, doing up the buttons with hands that were shaking more than ever. Qi was rummaging about in a box, grunting as they pulled out a pair of gold arm cuffs, twisted into the shape of dragons, rubies for eyes. Qi smiled down at them. “Huan made these, you know.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah. I told him what I wanted, he did it for me when he was visiting us. I gave him the gold but to this day I don’t know where he got the rubies. He never would say, either.” A small grin. “Well, that’s your uncle for you.” They gestured at her and she held out her bare arms as they fastened both dragons on, moving them into place. “There. Perfect.” Qi pointed to the dressing table. “Sit.” They picked up a stick of kohl. “Look up.”
Qi quickly repaired her face, smudging in the kohl, dusting her with powder, painting on a rich scarlet lipstick that perfectly complimented the silk. Last thing was a pair of earrings, long teardrops of gold, set with rubies. “I didn’t have my ears pierced then, I had these made last week.” Qi smiled at her in the mirror. “Consider them and the cuffs an early wedding gift from me.”
“Qi…” She put a tentative finger to an earring. Qi took her chin gently in their hand, just like they had always done when she was a child, and turned her face up to meet their eyes.
“You’re not a quitter, Butterfly. You’re a damn warrior.” Qi’s soft voice was fierce. “Are you going to let some dimshit noble girl wave her pampered hand and steal your happiness from you?” Her eyes started to fill up but Qi shook her, hard. “Enough of that! That’s not the Naoki I raised!”
She swallowed. “But Daddy’s right. This is my fault.”
Qi’s nod was firm. “Yes. It is. So it’s up to you to fix it.” Qi shook their head. “Do you want that for him? Married to some girl he doesn’t love, all for the sake of duty? Hell, do you want it for her? Married to a man who she knows will never love her, who’s going to spend the rest of his life pining for the woman he’s loved since he was about twelve years old?”
“I don’t give a fuck about her,” she flashed back, her temper rising.
“Now, that’s what I was waiting for.” Qi grinned. “That’s my Butterfly.” Qi took their hand away, and gazed at her, motioning her to stand up, making a circle around her. “You look like a disaster waiting to happen.” Qi winked. “So make it happen. Go in there and take what’s yours. Take it, Naoki.” Qi stepped back. “You are a fucking dragon, not some weeping fragile flower. So act like it.”
She couldn’t help it; she grinned at them. “They’ll talk about the scandal for years.”
“If you don’t make some old Fire Nation aristocrat faint dead away then you’re not doing your job, Baby.” Qi pointed a finger at her. “You show those people who you are. You are a Hou-Ting princess, the Fire Butterfly, the Dragon, the finest firebender alive. Nobody fucks with you. Nobody. Not some trumped up twenty year old Fire Nation girl and sure as fuck not the Firelord herself. Juziya does not get to determine your life for you. You hear me? Stop letting her.”
“Okay, Qi. Okay.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them up, tilting her chin up on her own.
Qi reached into the pocket of their gold and green formal robes, both the Hou-Ting and Beifong badges prominent on their chest. “You’ll need these.” Qi handed over two war fans, gold lace flowing between the deadly spikes.
“But what about you?”
Qi snorted and winked. “Not my only pair.” Qi stepped back. “I’m going to go in now, tell your father you’re on your way. You give me a few minutes and then make your entrance.” Qi raised one eyebrow. “And by entrance, I mean entrance. You follow?”
She nodded. “I follow.”
Qi nodded, and walked towards the door, turning back at the last minute. “I love you, Butterfly. Take what you know is yours. Set them on all fire. Do me proud.” A last fiendish grin and Qi shut the door behind themselves.
She took in another deep breath and looked at herself in the full length mirror of the dressing room. The sleeveless poppy red silk curved sleekly down her torso, breaking apart into wide and flowing legs that rippled as she moved. The golden dragon that Qi had embroidered all those years ago wound around her back, sliding back in at her breast and hip. The Hou-Ting badge was in its place of honor above her heart. The new earrings matched the cuffs perfectly, enhancing the length of her neck as the cuffs did the honed muscle of her biceps, all of the gold bringing out the unusual matching color of her eyes.
She looked deadly.
“He’s mine,” she breathed at her reflection. “Mine, damn it.”
She passed the maid coming in to clean up as she walked out the doors, the woman’s intake of surprise making her smile. Down the corridors, through the courtyard with the blue fire fountain, her hips swaying dangerously, head held high. Two samurai stood at the entrance to the Imperial Ballroom. “Her Highness Princess Naoki Hou-Ting,” she said without looking at the starched up official, who nodded for the doors to open, preceding her to the top of the stairs, calling her name and title in a voice that carried. She kept herself still, chin up, waiting until everyone had seen her. She looked past Papa’s gasp of outrage, past Daddy’s glare at Qi, past LoLo’s triumphant smile and looks of approval from all three of her siblings. She ignored the Firelord’s fury, her face immediately schooled back into royal impassivity. The little hiss that escaped the noble girl standing next to Sozui, ring glittering on her finger, was nothing to her.
Sozui was who she watched as she made her way down the stairs, one hand on the railing. Those high cheekbones; his unruly black hair pulled severely back, set with the Crown Prince’s ornament. His eyes were on her; they never wavered. The crowd stepped away as she made her way across the ballroom, her path direct, a single war fan held at the ready in her hand. She only stopped when she was before him, standing up on the royal dias, flames writhing around him. She snapped the fan shut, stowing it into pocket made for it.
“Princess Naoki,” Juziya’s tone was ice cold, a warning. She ignored it, eyes never leaving him.
“Prince Sozui,” the fiance said, attempting to keep her shreds of dignity about her. She supposed she should feel a little sorry for her, standing a step below Sozui, but she didn’t. She’d battled, in her own way, for Sozui; the girl had formidable weapons in her delicate beauty as well as centuries-old Fire Nation tradition. She was making an enemy of this girl as well as her very well-placed family; there would be a day of reckoning, eventually. She’d pay that price when it came due, however. She’d do anything for him. Anything.
“I’m here,” she said.
“For how long?” he asked, and the hurt behind the question tore into her. It was her own fault, she knew. She’d never meant for it to go this far, never meant to torment him the way she had. It was her stupid pride, fighting against what everyone had always just assumed would happen, that the two of them would be a match, that she’d take her place in the Fire Nation court. It was never about love; she’d always loved him. She just hadn’t realized how much until he’d told her that he was marrying someone else.
“Forever,” she replied, and knew that wasn’t enough. “As long as you’ll have me,” she added softly, softly enough that she wasn’t sure if he had heard her over the orchestra and the growing noise of the crowd behind her. He’d heard her, though. “I’m here. I love you.”
He stared at her for a long moment and her pulse quickened. Was she too late? Oh please, please don’t let her be too late. “I’m sorry,” he said, and her heart surged up through her mouth, her knees starting to buckle before she realized it wasn’t addressed to her. He stepped down towards her and Juziya reached for him.
“Sozui, don’t you dare,” she said, forgetting for a moment the ballroom full of spectators, but he gently removed her hand, looking at her for a brief moment.
“I’m sorry, Juziya. I know all of this is what you want. But I can’t. I just can’t.” He tore his gaze away from his sister to meet hers again. The fiance was left on the dias, forgotten.
“Forever?” He asked. Begged.
“Forever. I’ll do it. I’ll marry you.” She stretched out a hand that surprised her with its trembling. “I know what it means, all of it. For you, I’ll do it.”
“You won’t hate me?” His hand was trembling as well.
“I love you. I could never hate you.” He clasped her hand, then, and gave her a little tug, walking quickly with her towards the stairs, people scattering, the noise level rising exponentially. She caught a glance of her family as they flew past them; Lin laughing and Sayuri blowing her a kiss, Qi looking satisfied, ignoring whatever it was Papa was furiously saying into their ear. Up the stairs they went, the samurai opening the doors without being asked, faces showing no curiosity, out into the corridor, startling a rather dignified - and late - Lord into a little shriek.
“Your Highness!” he gasped, and then he gasped even louder as he saw Naoki, sagging weakly into the arms of his much younger consort. “Is that the Hou-Ting princess? What in the name of the comet is she wearing?”
Sozui yanked her behind a colonnade of black marble topped with flame and then his mouth was on hers, his arms wrapping around her, fingers digging into her possessively. “I remember this outfit,” he finally said, coming up for air, her lipstick smeared across his mouth. “You wear it better than Qi.”
She laughed. “I’m not telling Qi that.” They stared at each other, her own fingers clutching his hips. He was so hard against her and she wanted nothing more than for him to take her right there, never mind who might come along. “What do we do now? Face the music?”
“You ruined my wedding,” he said, and grinned. He had lipstick on his teeth. Fascinating. She pressed into him and licked it off and he groaned. “My sister is going to come for us. We should go.”
“The mature thing to do would be to go back in there and deal with the aftermath.” She really wanted to get his damn ceremonial armor off, yanking at it impatiently.
“You have lipstick all over your face,” he said, starting to undo his armor for her.
“So do you. Oh fuck, we can’t do this here.” She found a hook and undid it.
“I don’t think we should go back in there. Someone might challenge you to an Agni Kai and it would be bad form for you to kill someone after breaking up my marriage.”
“Your wedding isn’t finished for three more days.” She managed to get her hand in there and grabbed at him, grinning as he moaned. "Technically you're not married yet."
“Seriously, we can’t do this here, Naoki, we have to live here after this all blows over.”
“I know, I know, I said that.” She forced herself to pull away, putting a restraining hand on his chest when he tried to follow her with his mouth. “What do we do? Frankly I’m surprised my father hasn’t come after us yet. He’s going to kill me.”
He tilted his head back towards the ceiling and shook his head, trying to pull himself together. He looked back at her. “Ember Island. We leave right now, it will only take Hemadri an hour to get there. We can call from there, figure it out.” He looked at her, frowning. “Naoki, seriously. I know we should deal with this mess but someone is going to demand an Agni Kai right here and now if we don’t get out of this palace.”
“No, you’re right. You are. Let’s go. We can go to my parents’ place, they won’t be expecting us but Miwa can handle it. We can go from there.”
“Should we pack something?”
She shook her head. “We can deal when we get there. Let’s go. Now.” Taking his hand, she ran with him down the hall, out towards their future.
Chapter 91: 208: Naoki and Lin
Summary:
Archived (and expanded on) from a Tumblr prompt:
“It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself.“
Chapter Text
“I do love him. I do! I just…I don’t know if I want to marry him.” Naoki smoothed down the red outer robe of her wedding garment. Qi had done the embroidery. It was breathtaking.
“It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself,” Lin replied. She was staring at Naoki through the mirror. “It’s not too late to back out, you know.”
“The wedding is starting in ten minutes. It’s a little late.” She put her hand up to fuss with the chrysanthemum crown. “It’s not him, you know. I love him. I’ve loved him forever. It’s just the whole marrying into the royal family and everything that is going to mean to us. To me.”
“He’s not your father,” Lin said, walking up to put her hands on Naoki’s shoulders. “He’s never going to give it all up, not even for you. You need to accept that if you are actually going to do this.”
“I know,” Naoki said. She took a deep breath. “I do know. I'm just..."
Lin shook her, none too gently, nearly dislodging the crown. "You need to stop focusing on what everyone else is saying about this marriage. You scandalized the fuck out of this country, fine. You shook shit up. That's what you do, Naoki." She scoffed and shook her head, amused. "It's who you are. One more scandal isn't going to kill anyone if you back out of this right now." She put her forefinger to Naoki's forehead and pressed down. "But if you do, you know it's over with him, right? Because he can't keep doing this with you. And you can't ask him to." She grimaced. "Take it from someone who's been there." She reached up and resettled the crown, making sure it was straight, pushing in an errant pin. "Take a moment and get yourself together but then make up your mind. And be quick about it. It's too hot in this fucking country to sit around in all these damn formal robes any longer than necessary."
Naoki closed her eyes, taking in another few breaths, letting her shoulders relax. When she opened them, her gaze was resolute. "I guess I better get my ass on out there before they try and marry him off to someone else again." One last look in the mirror and she strode towards the door, chin thrust out, flinging it open and nearly oversetting the Fire Nation court official who had clearly been sent to get her. She turned back to Lin. "See you on the other side, then." With a mock salute, she was gone.
Lin let out an explosive sigh and rolled her eyes. "And they say Beifongs are overdramatic. Fuck's sake." A last pat to her own hair in the mirror and she headed out as well.
Chapter 92: 208: Iroh II
Chapter Text
It was on the second day after they had arrived at their vacation home on Ember Island that Iroh came to visit.
Wu had just ordered tea when the housekeeper came to announce that His Royal Highness Prince Iroh had arrived. Wu signaled to her to add another cup and stood to greet Iroh.
Qi nearly broke down when Iroh walked into the conservatory. The man was dressed in a voluminous neon yellow caftan with a pattern of large pink and green blooms scattered across it as well as open-toed sandals on his feet. Wu’s eyes widened for just the briefest of moments - which was the Wu equivalent of a full out scream from anyone else - before he went towards Iroh with a smile, his usual effusive greetings in place.
Qi slipped out the side door and went to find Mako. As usual, he was in the backyard, sneaking a cigarette and reading a day old copy of the Republic City Times that could be purchased from the island’s only bookshop.
“Iroh just showed up for a visit,” Qi said.
Mako grunted savagely. “I hate that guy.”
“Oh, wait until you see what he’s wearing. Even Wu reacted to it.”
Mako raised an eyebrow. “Really.”
“You have to see it. They’re in the conservatory.” Qi led him around the side of the house to where they could peer into the glass walls. Iroh and Wu were seated, chatting, as the housekeeper brought in the tea service. Wu was wearing a summer suit of jade green linen. Iroh had spread his caftan across the wicker sofa he was perched on. A glimpse of surprisingly hairy ankles could be seen above the sandals.
“The fuck is that man wearing?” Mako’s cigarette dangled forgotten from his lip.
Qi started to laugh helplessly. “I don’t know. Oh shit, you should have seen Wu’s face.”
“LoLo wears those to bed but never out in public!” Mako snatched the cigarette out of midair as it fell from his lip.
Qi couldn’t stop laughing. “I guess when you’re a prince you can wear anything. Who’s going to say anything to him?”
Mako just shook his head in disgust. “That fucking Iroh.”
“Why do you hate him so much? What’d he ever do to you?”
Mako grunted again. “I don’t know. I just don’t like the guy. Never have since the first time I met him. Fucking show off.”
Qi grinned. “It’s the dimples, isn’t it?”
Mako sighed. “Mako’s Big Book of Resentments.” He looked down at Qi. “I could get over myself, I guess, but I can’t be bothered now.” A glance back at the conservatory. “He’s going to send someone out for us, I just know it. I don’t want to have tea with that guy.”
“Come on. We’re going into town.” Qi hooked an arm into Mako’s and started to lead him around the house.
“We are? Why?”
“We need to go and buy ourselves a pair of the ugliest caftans we can find to wear to breakfast tomorrow.”
Mako started to chuckle. “You’ve got a devious mind, Qi Hou-Ting.”
Qi winked. “That’s why you love me. I get dibs on a pink one if we can find it.”
Chapter 93: 208: Wu, Mako and Qi
Chapter Text
Wu seated himself and nodded to the majordomo, who placed the teapot onto the table. "Thank you, Miwa. Has the Prince Consort's newspaper arrived?"
She bowed. "Not yet, Your Highness. However, we are expecting it at any moment."
He smiled. "Thank you." She bowed again, and then left the room. He looked about him with some irritation. "Am I the only one at breakfast this morning?"
"Don't get your shorts in a twist, here we are." Mako came into the room. Wu's hand froze on the handle of the teapot.
"What on earth..." he glared at Mako incredulously. He was attired in a bright orange caftan, decorated with a pattern of green iguana seals. He sat down at the table, completely unruffled.
"My paper arrive yet?"
"You...I don't even know what you..." Wu trailed off as Qi entered the room. Qi's caftan was shockingly pink, covered with a rainbow of printed flytraps. "I...where..."
"Morning," Qi said, and took a seat, taking up a napkin. "Are you going to just sit there or are you going to pour the tea?"
Mako wiggled about a bit in his seat. "You know, there's something to be said about the extra airflow up here."
Qi nodded thoughtfully. "I could see how it might get a bit drafty in the winter but at these temperatures it's downright pleasant."
Mako tugged his up to reveal his ankles, his toes sticking out of a pair of sandals. "I don't know, should I go a little shorter?"
Qi tilted Qi's head to the side. "You do have a nice looking set of ankles. Narrow. Well-shaped. I've always admired them." Qi took the teapot away from Wu's grasping fingers. "Tea?"
Wu pointed towards the door. "The two of you march right back out of here and change out of those...things."
Mako ignored him. "I mean, you really wouldn't even need to wear underwear, would you?"
Qi poured out tea for all three of them. "And block all of that excellent ventilation? I say we take it off as soon as breakfast is over."
"Oh, you think you are being funny, do you?" Wu's eyes were snapping. "Well! I am not amused! Not amused at all!"
Miwa entered with the newspaper and handed it to Mako, bowing. "Your paper, Prince Consort."
"Thank you, Miwa."
"If it is not too bold of me, sir, may I compliment you and the Royal Consort on your colorful attire this morning?" The woman's usually impassive face had just the barest hint of a smile.
"Thank you, Miwa," Qi said, and nodded their head. The housekeeper left the room. "So, what's the plan today?"
"My surfboard's in need of some maintenance, I thought I'd take it to the shop downtown, let them do it. What about yours?"
"Couldn't hurt. Besides, I'd like to give this thing a test run. It's not supposed to be windy today, is it? Might cause a problem if we're sans underwear."
Wu slammed his fist on the table. "Absolutely not. You are not to leave this house with those on. I forbid it!"
Mako looked at him and shrugged. "I don't know why you're all worked up. After all, I'd think you'd be happy that I wanted to emulate Iroh."
"Haven't you always said that Iroh is a perfect example of everything royalty should be?" Qi passed Wu's teacup to him.
Wu's mouth pinched up. "Very funny. Ha ha and ha again. You have had your little joke at my expense. Now go and..."
"Morning," said Lin. Her caftan was neon green and decorated in bright round orange and yellow suns. LoLo was beside her, his usual sleeping caftan exchanged for a red one with gray ash bananas and yellow chili peppers. "Looks like it's going to be a scorcher today. Good thing I've got this on." She smiled at Wu and leaned forward to whisper, "No underwear, either."
Wu's mouth dropped open.
LoLo attempted to keep a straight face but, as usual, failed. He put his hand on a chair to support himself and roared with laughter. "Oh Wu, my boy. Your face!"
Wu threw his napkin down on the table and stood up, his chair scraping along the floor. "All of you may just...well, you may just go and fuck yourselves," he hissed, and then flounced out the door in a fit of temper. It did not help his injured feelings in the least to hear them all laughing as he slammed the bedroom door behind himself.
Chapter 94: 209: Naoki and Meili
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt.
Chapter Text
“Auntie Naoki! Auntie Naoki!” Linyi ran straight for her, curls bobbing, jumping into her arms. Naoki tossed her in the air before pretending to chew on her.
“Mmmmm, my favorite snack, little girls! So tasty!” Linyi giggled, kicking her legs as Naoki gently gnawed at them as well. Tupilek leaned down and kissed her cheek, his smile warm.
“Naoki, it’s so good to see you. Is Sozui with you?”
“No, he’s meeting with the president this afternoon. He’ll join us for dinner. Politics, such fun!” She rolled her eyes at him and then turned her gaze back to her niece. “How are you this big? I just saw you a month ago!”
“I’m extra big,” Linyi told her, her blue eyes shining. “I’m this big.” She moved her hands apart.
“All the more to eat!” Naoki dove back in to nibble on her tummy as Meili returned with the tea.
“Mama! Auntie Naoki eated me all up!” Linyi shrieked with joy as Naoki turned her upside down and bounced her.
“What’s in those pockets, hmm? I better shake them out!”
Meili just shook her head, amused, as she put the tray down on the table, smiling as Tupilek gave her a kiss. “Dinner with your parents at six tonight. I was told to pass the message along to Naoki as well.”
“We saw Gumpa and Gumma at the park!” Linyi opened her mouth to say something more and Naoki popped a cookie into it, grinning at her as she chewed furiously to clear her mouth.
“Alright, koalaotter. Let’s let Mama and Auntie Naoki have their tea in peace. Time for you to take a nap anyhow.” Tupilek held his arms out for her as Naoki turned her right-side up.
“No! No nap! I stay with Auntie Naoki!”
“Listen funny face, you go and take a nap and then when we go to dinner you can ride up on my shoulders, okay?” Naoki put on her best smile.
“NO!” Linyi kicked out her feet and Tupilek, clearly trying his best not to laugh, plucked her out of Naoki’s arms. “No, Daddy! No! No! No! Don’t need a naaaaaaaaaaaaaap!” She continued to shout as her father carried her out.
“That girl has a nice set of lungs on her.” Naoki sat down and took a cookie.
“She gets it from her aunt,” replied Meili, taking a seat on the sofa next to her, reaching for the teapot.
“Rude! Sayuri isn’t even here to defend herself.” At Meili’s laugh she put her arm around her and squeezed, resting her head against hers. “How are you feeling, by the way?” A nod down to Meili’s prominent belly.
“Fine, actually. Tupilek’s been after me to cut down at my hours at the clinic a bit, though.” She poured the tea, plinking in a sugar cube for Naoki.
“Your husband is the wisest of men and you should listen to him. I’m surprised Daddy hasn’t been fussing about it.”
“Oh, he has, believe me.” Meili sipped from her own tea, watching Naoki as she slumped down against the couch, yawning. “Late night?”
“Eh, not really. I don’t know, I’ve been tired the past couple of weeks. I can’t really put my finger on it. Just run down, I guess. I should probably go and see a healer but I just never get around to it.” Naoki yawned again, quickly putting her hand to her mouth. “Sorry. I swear it’s not the company.”
Meili frowned. “Maybe I should check you over.” At Naoki’s grimace and dismissive hand she raised an eyebrow. “Don’t give me that look. You don’t want me to check you over then go and see a healer on your own next time.” She stood and left the room, coming back in a few moments later with a pitcher of water. Naoki’s head was resting against the couch, her eyes closed, dozing.
“Hmmm,” Meili said, pulling the water into her hands, sending it in slowly glowing arcs over her sister. Her eyes widened and she smiled, easily sending the water back into the pitcher. She took up her tea and nibbled at her own cookie, waiting for Naoki to open her eyes. It took a few minutes.
“What…did I fall asleep? Fishy, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Naoki rumpled her short hair while stifling another yawn.
“Well, the good news is that you’re fine.” Meili handed her another cookie and Naoki took it automatically, taking a large bite. “Although I hate to be the one to tell you that you are probably going to be tired for awhile longer.” At Naoki’s confused look she laughed. “And you’re going to put some weight on.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Meili took her hands into hers. “Noodles for brains! That’s normal too, sorry to say. It feels like thinking through a fog, I swear.”
“I…what?” She looked so completely befuddled that Meili took pity on her.
“You’re pregnant, silly.”
“I’m what the what now?” Naoki grabbed at her belly. “Wait, what?”
Meili’s shoulders were shaking. “Your face! Oh, Naoki. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh.” She kept right on doing it, however. “Repeat after me: I am pregnant.”
“I am pregnant…Vaatu’s crooked dick!” Naoki leapt up out of her seat, cookie crumbs tumbling to the floor. “Am I? Am I really?” Her eyes filled up with tears. “No take-backsies?”
Meili stood herself, enfolding her sister into her embrace. “Not a single take-backsie. You really and truly are.” She kissed her. “It’s just like you not to figure it out. I’ll do a more comprehensive exam, but I’d guess you were about two months along. Hasn't Hemadri noticed?”
“Well hell, I don’t know!” Naoki groaned. "She's mentioned a hatchling a few times but I just assumed she was talking about one of my court ladies who's pregnant."
Meili hugged her even tighter. “Typical. Just make sure that when you tell them at dinner tonight that no one has anything breakable in their hands.”
Naoki pulled back, grinning mischievously. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun. Who’s going to cry first? I say Papa.”
“No, I’m going with Sozui.” They laughed at each other, tea temporarily forgotten.
Chapter 95: 209: Naoki and Sozui
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt.
Chapter Text
“By the way, I have an announcement.” Naoki put down her chopsticks and waited. Meili was watching her, that secretive little smile of hers on her face. The rest of the table was taking no notice, however; Sozui was discussing a pro-bending firebender that had been red-fanned right out of the rest of the season with Uncle Wei, Uncle Bolin, Sitiak and Daddy, Lin was saying something or the other to Yumi, Papa was simultaneously gently redirecting Emerald into eating her vegetables and listening to Auntie Opal, Linyi on her lap, tell him about some delivery that hadn’t shown up at the Island, Tupilek, Bu and Sayuri were laughing over something Madame Zong from next door had said and LoLo was waving over one of the servants to bring out the next course.
“What is it, Butterfly?” Well, Qi was paying attention at least. They looked around the table, frowned slightly, and stuck their fingers into their mouth, blasting out a shrill whistle. The entire table quieted down. Except for Papa, of course.
“Qi! I will thank you not to whistle at the table! My gracious! Are we a gathering of farmers in a barn?”
“Do farmers whistle at dinner tables in barns? Extraordinary. How do you know, Papa?”
“Sayuri!” Papa gave her his fiercest glare, which, as usual, had no impact on her whatsoever.
“Naoki has something to say, pipe down, everyone. That means you, Wu, and you, Sayuri.” Qi shot a look around the table. “Go on, Butterfly.”
She cleared her throat. Now that they were all looking at her she was feeling kind of nervous. It’s not like it was ever quiet in this house. It was more than a little unnerving. “Uh. Well, anyhow. Yeah. Meili checked me out this afternoon and it turns out I’m pregnant.” She threw her hands into an expressive shrug. “Who would have thought it, right?”
Dead silence as everyone stared at her, right down to little Linyi. She scoffed.
“Well. Yell, scream, say something. Anything. Someone. Don’t just stare at me like that.”
“Oh, Naoki,” Papa said, and promptly burst into tears. She had enough time to shoot Meili a triumphant look before Sozui grabbed her out of her seat, into his arms, the entire table bursting into noise, clamoring their congratulations.
“Surprise,” she said into his ear, and felt his tears on her cheeks.
Chapter 96: 210: Wei Beifong
Chapter Text
“Whoa whoa whoa,” Wei said, jogging over and prying the two firebenders apart. “That’s enough of that. Walk it off, you two. Walk it off. If it happens again I’m going to bench the two of you for the next week, do I make myself clear? Good.” He glanced up and over and saw Apirlaat standing in the doorway of the gymnasium. “Okay everyone, take twenty. Get a drink, use the head, whatever, but no smoking in here and no bending until we’re all back inside. Get to it!” He walked over to her, dodging a stray stream of water. “Kappak! What did I just say about bending!”
“Hey,” she said, smiling at him. “These kids are looking good.”
He laughed. “They’re all right. Keeps them off the street and away from the Triads, at least.” He hugged her. “So what are you doing on this side of town?”
“It’s about your kids here, actually. Or kid, I should say.” They both turned to look at Hizoko, standing alone, stretching. “She’s going to be eighteen soon, right?”
“Next month, yeah. You scouting her for the Zorillas, coach?”
“Maybe so, maybe so.” She slung an arm around Wei’s shoulders. “She’s good.”
“Better than good,” Wei said, and he waved to get the girl’s attention.
Chapter 97: 210: Wing and Nuo Beifong
Chapter Text
“The hardest working woman in Zaofu, right there.”
Nuo looked up from the permit application she was reading and smiled. Wing stood in the door of her office, holding a vase full of freshly cut flowers.
“The handsomest man in Zaofu, in my office. Mercy.” She fanned herself with her hand, and he grinned at her. “Oh, Wing.”
He settled the vase on her desk and held out his hand. “Walk with me?”
“I shouldn’t. I’ve got to get these read.”
“Even the hardest working woman in Zaofu gets to take twenty minutes to walk in her husband’s garden.” He took her hand and raised her up before tucking a dark pink rose blossom behind her ear. “There. Perfect.”
Chapter 98: 210: Nuo's Garden
Chapter Text
“No, sweetie, that’s not for eating.” Orchid guided her toddler son’s fingers away from a geode sitting on the table. “That’s Auntie Rose’s rock, not yours.” She shook her head at Iris. “He puts everything in his mouth. Last week he managed to swallow one of my rings. We had to wait for it to come out the other end.”
Iris stared at her. “I am never having children.”
Orchid just laughed. “High ho the glamorous life, right?” She kissed her boy and then shifted a bit, putting a hand to her burgeoning belly. “Oh Iris, I’m so glad you could make it. Rose will be so surprised.”
“Is she okay?”
“You mean in general?” Orchid sighed. “You know Rose. At least her work keeps her busy. She hardly leaves the house, though.”
“I tried dragging her out for a mover last week and all she did was cry at me.” Poppy came in and held her arms out for her nephew, who toddled over to her for a hug.
"That bad, hmm?" Iris frowned. "She wasn't exactly social in Republic City but at least she was going to and from the shop every day."
“I don't know.” Orchid leaned forward to smooth out her son's tunic. “She never used to be this timid.”
“At this rate she'll be a shut in by next year,” Poppy declared. At her sisters’ looks she shrugged. “What? We were all thinking it.”
“Yes, but not all of us feel the need to say it,” Orchid said, pursing up her mouth.
“Good thing you’ve got me around then, huh?” Poppy kissed Orchid’s cheek with a huge smacking noise and then skipped away, grinning, when Orchid swatted at her.
“Cook said you had her make a cake? I said I didn't need one for my birthday this year,” Rose said, walking into room. She did a double take and her face softened into a smile. “Oh, Iris. You came.”
Iris smiled at her most beloved little sister. “Of course I did.” She raised an eyebrow; at Rose’s nod she put her arms around her sister for a hug and whispered into her ear. “I’m so glad to see you. Later. Just you and me, okay?” At Rose’s nod she tightened the hug and then let her go. “Do the parentals know I'm here?”
Orchid grinned. “Nope. No one knew but Poppy and me.”
“Well then, with any luck we can get Daddy to cry at least twice before dinner.” Iris put her hand out to help her twin up as Poppy hoisted up her nephew. “You sure Mommy doesn’t know?”
“Please, Iris has been here nearly an hour,” Poppy said. “If she didn’t know before then she knows by now.” The sisters exchanged knowing looks as they went to find their parents.
Chapter 99: 210: The Airbender Kids
Chapter Text
“This is a good place,” Ikki said, and she smiled through her tears. “He can see the Island from here.”
Rohan gazed from the ledge towards the city. “He did love this city,” he said. His eyes were red. He had his arms around Jinora, who had been weeping steadily.
“It’s silly of me,” she sobbed. “I’m just afraid he’ll be lonely up here. I know he’s gone. I know it’s just his body left. But just to leave him here? Alone?”
“It’s what he wanted,” Ikki said, and kissed her sister’s cheek. “He wanted to be left in the same place he left Grandpa.” She entwined her arms around her sister as well.
“I know.”
“He’s free now,” Ikki said. “Look at what he’s left behind. All the airbenders. All five temples. It was all him.” She looked over at her brother, standing alone on the far edge, his back towards them. “Meelo.”
Meelo turned, weeping. “I was such a disappointment for him.”
“Oh no. No, you weren’t. Never,” Jinora said, and she broke free of Ikki and Rohan to go to him. “How can you say that? He loved you.”
“The two of you were so much alike,” Rohan said. He sighed and walked over as well. “I know you butted heads, but he loved you. He was proud of you.”
Meelo nodded a few times, trying to get himself back under control. “We should go.” He took a deep breath and looked back. “Safe journeys, Dad.” He ran and leaped off the ledge, his arms opening to let the wings of his suit catch the downdraft.
“Goodbye, Dad. I love you.” Rohan followed behind him.
Jinora rested her hand on the necklace that denoted her as the leader of the airbenders and adjusted her robes. “Goodbye, Daddy,” she whispered, and stepped off the ledge.
Ikki smiled and bent down, tucking a sprig of wildflowers into her father’s hands. “I’ll see you in my dreams,” she said, and then she took flight.
Chapter 100: 210: Sozui, Naoki and Rohan
Chapter Text
“Please excuse the interruption, Your Highness.” Sozui glanced up from his paperwork to a page standing outside his office.
“Yes?”
“There is an airbender envoy to see you, Your Grace. A Master Rohan.”
Sozui smiled. “Please send him in immediately. And tea would be nice, thank you.” The page bowed and walked away, returning just a few minutes later with a grinning Rohan.
“What are you doing here?” Sozui came from around his desk to hug him.
“Jinora sent me to the Western Air Temple and I thought I’d stop by on my way back home.”
“You don’t do much traveling nowadays, what with the clinic and all.”
Rohan shrugged, and Sozui motioned him to the sofa, nodding his thanks to the page who had laid out the tea service. “No. Normally Kai would go, but he got knocked off his feet with a pretty nasty bout of the flu and Jinora didn’t want to wait. So I volunteered. Meili and Natsiq will manage just fine without me for a few days.”
Sozui poured out the tea. “How’s your mother, by the way?”
Rohan sighed. “As well as can be expected, I suppose. Jinora and I have been trying to convince her to go and stay with Ikki for a bit. Just to give her a change of pace. She’s pretty reluctant, though, and I don’t want to push her.”
“It just takes time. Or at least that’s how it was for my father when my mother passed.”
“So there’s a party and I wasn’t invited?” Naoki stood in the doorway, her eyebrows raised.
“There you are,” Rohan exclaimed, and he stood up to take her into his arms. “Oh, it’s good to see you. I have a care package for you from your parents, by the way.”
She laughed. “I’m sure you do.” Rohan guided her to the sofa and Sozui handed her a cup of tea. “I’m sorry to miss Daddy’s birthday coming up but the midwife says I’m too close to my time to travel.” Rohan hovered a hand above her belly with a questioning look and she smiled and nodded. He felt gently about her, and closed his eyes.
“Has the baby moved into position?”
“The midwife says that everything looks fine.” Sozui’s voice was soft.
“I think your sister is planning on coming, you know.” Rohan opened his eyes and smiled.
Naoki surprised him by sniffling. “I wish she would. I don’t want to ask, I know she’s busy, the clinic and her own kids. But I’d…I’d feel better if she were here.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “Sorry, I get like this sometimes.”
Rohan took her hands in his. “Naoki. Radio her. Natsiq and I can handle things at the clinic and Tupilek can come with her and the children. If you called today she could be on your father’s airship by tomorrow morning.”
“There, see? I told you.” Sozui put his arm around her shoulder. “Just call her.”
Naoki sobbed. “If she comes you know that Papa and Daddy and Qi will come as well.”
Sozui smoothed her hair behind her ear and handed her a napkin. “I told you, it doesn’t matter. They can come as long as they want.”
“You say that now, but you have no idea how unbearable Daddy was when Meili had her babies, you know how worked up he gets about this kind of thing.”
Sozui caught Rohan’s eye over her head and gave him a wry smile. “Naoki, I can handle your parents. Just contact your sister. Right, Rohan?”
“Right.” Rohan patted her hand. “Everyone will feel better if you do. Trust me. I’m an airbender. We’re wise that way.”
She snorted through her tears and he laughed.
Chapter 101: 210: Lin and Naoki
Chapter Text
“So, Lozan, hmm?” Lin stared down into the baby’s bassinet.
“I thought it was fitting.” Naoki put a hand on the baby.
“It’s not really a royal name. I bet all of those damn nobles around here shit their pants when it was announced.” Lin looked satisfied.
“They can shit away. He’ll be the Firelord someday. They can suck it, as far as I’m concerned.”
Lin reached down a gnarled finger and tapped the sleeping baby’s belly. “You aren’t happy here, are you?” She said it so evenly that it took Naoki a moment to process her words. She shrugged.
“Does it matter?”
Lin took her chin into her hand. “Of course it matters. It matters to me. You think I want you unhappy?”
“I love Sozui.”
Lin sighed and gave her chin a squeeze before letting go of it. “It took the two of you long enough to figure it all out. But loving him isn’t enough.”
Naoki’s eyes filled up. “I wanted it to be,” she whispered. “I thought it would all work itself out. But I miss home. I miss all of you. Spirits, I miss my school. These people here, they respect my bending, but they would have much rather that he’d married a nice noble Fire Nation girl and given them an heir that way.” She looked away. “Sometimes I think they were right.”
“It’s not like you to give up without a fight.” Lin’s mouth was grim.
“I’m so tired of always fighting,” Naoki said, and as she took her son into her arms she began to weep.
Chapter 102: 210: Sozui and the Hou-Ting Family
Chapter Text
The front door slammed open. “Where is she?” Sozui stood in the entryway for a moment before striding into the house proper. “Naoki!”
“Did you knock?” asked Sayuri, standing in the middle of the stairs, a book in her hand. She looked mildly surprised. Sozui pointed a finger at her.
“Where is your sister?”
“I have two of them. Which one are you clamoring for today?”
“Don’t get cute with me!” he shouted.
Sayuri’s eyebrows slowly elevated. “Was I being cute? Hmmm.” She turned her back on him and continued to ascend the stairs.
A hand clamped down on his arm. “So here is how it is going to go. You are going to walk back to that front door, and you are going to shut it. Then you are going to take off your shoes like a civilized person. At that point, I will be glad to escort you inside my home.” Qi’s voice was soft, as ever, but those hazel eyes were not. “And if you yell at my daughter like that again your ass will be halfway back to the Fire Nation before your head’s even realized where it’s gone.” Qi moved very close to Sozui’s ear. “Do we understand each other?”
“Qi-”
“Door.”
Sozui took a deep breath and walked back to the door. He shut it, softly. He removed his shoes. He walked back into the entryway. Qi was waiting, arms crossed.
“Qi-”
“I’ve taken men out for less,” Qi said. “And you’d best not forget it. I don’t give a damn whose son you are.”
There was a pause; then, “Could I please speak to Naoki?”
“Not at the moment, no. She’s sleeping. What you can do, however, is come in and sit down. And then you can explain to her father why she showed up this morning with Hemadri and the baby, crying her eyes out. Because I’m going to tell you, you are not his favorite person in the world right now.”
Qi walked out of the entryway, not looking to see if Sozui was following. They walked down the hall and into the family’s informal living room. Wu was sitting on the sofa, his grandson in his arms, making silly faces at him as the baby chortled in return.
“Now then, Your Highness, let your Gumpa take a look at that gloriously imperial tooth you are growing! Ah, there it is! Excellent job, I must say!” He glanced up at Sozui. “Ah. And here is your father, just as expected.”
LoLo was sitting on the sofa next to him. “Son, pull yourself together.” He sighed and shook his head at Sozui. Lin stood up stiffly and walked towards them.
Mako came through the entryway that came from the kitchen. Without any kind of pause he surged across the room and grabbed Sozui by his collar, pushing him back up against the wall.
“Mako, let me explain-”
“What. Did. You. Do.” Mako punctuated each word by banging Sozui’s head against the wall.
Lin put a restraining hand on his arm. “That’s enough, Mako. Let him go, now. Come on. We’re all too old for all of this.”
“Not in front of the baby, dearest.”
Mako let him go and walked halfway across the room before turning, his hands on his hips, his mouth a furious red line. Lin reached out and slapped Sozui one upside the head.
“Ow! Lin!”
“Your grandmother would be ashamed of you,” she said, and pointed a finger in his face. “Utterly ashamed.”
“Sit,” Qi said, pointing to a chair. Sozui sat down and put his head in his hands. Qi put a hand under Lin’s elbow and escorted her back to her favorite chair before going up and putting a hand to Mako’s back. “You sit too.”
“Oh look, we’re all here,” said Sayuri in the doorway. “No one is dead? Burnt to a crisp? Squashed under a rock? Stuck through with daggers?” She beamed. “Excellent. I’ll ring for tea, shall I?”
“Lovely idea, my darling,” said Wu, and beamed right back at her.
Chapter 103: 210: Naoki and Sozui
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"If you really loved me there wouldn't be a choice."
Chapter Text
“It’s not going to happen,” he said, pacing back and forth across the floor of her childhood bedroom. “He’s the crown prince! He’ll be the Firelord one day! He can’t just live wherever!”
She shifted on the bed, carefully adjusting the baby at her breast. “Oh, because he’s going to notice where he’s living at this point.” Her hand curled protectively around the back of her son’s head, his black hair standing up with a will of its own.
“You know it’s not about that. He has an obligation-”
“His obligations at this point are to eat, sleep and shit! Stop talking about him like he’s about to be crowned! He’s an infant.”
“Damn it, Naoki!”
“Sozui, please. Please.” Her face crumpled. “Can’t you see what he’d have here? My parents, my sisters, even his cousins across the park. Lin and LoLo as well. He has a family here, a family that will dote on him, that will care for him. He’ll grow up surrounded with love and affection.” A tear escaped down her cheek. “Your sister can barely stand to look at him, and I’m asked on a daily basis why I haven’t engaged a proper nanny for him. A nanny!” She took a deep breath. “I wasn’t raised by a nanny, and I can tell you that my son won’t be either.”
He went down on his knees in front of her. “I promised you, no nanny. I know you’re probably getting some pressure-” he ignored her scoff at that -”but it isn’t coming from me.” He stroked gently along the baby’s cheek, his suckling slowing as his eyes started to close into sleep. “I know what kind of a life he’d have here,” he said softly. “You have no idea how many times I’d lay awake at night back home, wishing I could come and live with all of you. If I could choose, I would choose to let him stay. I would, Naoki. I would. But I can’t.”
“If you really loved me there wouldn’t be a choice,” she said, and his eyes filled up with tears.
“I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone. You know it. Don’t say that to me. Be angry with me, be disappointed in me, whatever. But don’t ever accuse me of not loving you, because you are everything to me. You and Lozan both.”
She was sobbing now. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” he said, and he wrapped his arms around the two of them. “I just don’t know.”
Chapter 104: 210: Naoki and Meili
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"Your smile is not as bright as it used to be."
Chapter Text
Meili held her nephew in her practiced arms, smiling down at him as he waved his chubby hands at her. “Are you trying to bop your Auntie in her nose, young man?” Lozan gurgled a response and she laughed. “Just like your mother.”
“Did I ever bop you in the nose?” Naoki was sitting up in the bed, her unwashed hair disheveled. There were dark circles under her eyes and her hands, usually so full of life, were laying limply on the coverlet.
“Not me, I suppose. I remember you letting a few other people have it, though.” Meili lay the baby down in the bassinet that had been passed down from Zhi and he stared up at the brightly colored animals that dangled above his head, cooing his interest. Meili sat down on the bed next to her sister and took those quiet hands in hers. “Your smile is not as bright as it used to be,” she said, and kissed her sister on her cheek.
Naoki shrugged and refused to meet her eyes. “I guess.”
Meili sighed. “This can’t continue, Naoki. I’m not saying this as your sister, but as your healer. I know things are unresolved with Sozui and I’m not dismissing that. I understand the strain you are under.”
“Do you?” Naoki met her eyes then, her chin thrust out stubbornly.
Meili arched a single perfect eyebrow. “Do you think you are the only person who has ever had a problem in her marriage?”
Naoki snorted. “Please. Tupilek has never argued with you over anything.”
Meili laughed at this. “Don’t mistake his calmness for complacency. Believe me, we’ve had our share of disagreements. It’s just we’re usually able to discuss it. We’re not hotheads the way you and Sozui are.” She smiled to take the sting out. “We’re both emotional, though. In our own way.” She gazed at her sister for a few moments. “So. This is what we are going to do today. You are going to get out of this bed and take a long shower, and let the maids come in and change the sheets and air out the room. Sayuri found you something clean to wear and Papa is going to watch the baby while you and I go out and pick you up a few things and Qi does the same with Sozui. Then we are going to come home and you are going to actually sit at the table with the rest of us and both you and Sozui are going to eat the dinner that LoLo is busy making for you, with all of your favorites. After dinner, you are going to go out and visit with your dragon, who is very unhappy at the moment and making sure that we're all hearing about it. But there’s not going to be any more of this laying in bed all day staring at the walls, alright?” She thumbed away the tears sliding down her sister’s cheeks. “I know it’s all you want to do, sweetling, but it’s no good for you or Sozui or the baby, either. Tomorrow morning you can go downstairs and spar a little, maybe pay a visit to the school. What do you say, hmm?” She leaned a little closer. “Not that I’m actually giving you a choice, mind.”
“Always so damn pushy. Do you always have to get your way?” Naoki’s glare of annoyance was a good sign, Meili knew.
“I do, yes.”
Naoki snorted and pushed the covers down. “You always have been so fucking bossy.” She stopped, suddenly, and took on an almost comical look of dismay. “Wait, Button found me something to wear?”
Meili started to laugh. “Next time don’t run away from home without some clothes, then. Not that your husband was any better. Firebenders.” She rolled her eyes in mock disgust.
“Please tell me she didn’t take it out of her own closet.”
Meili just shrugged. “More reason for you to come with me to pick out your own clothes, then.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind the next time.” She swung her legs out of the bed and stood up, wrapping her arms around her sister. “I love you, Fishy.”
“I know,” her sister replied. “I love you too, but you smell. Shower, please.”
Naoki laughed as she sauntered into the bathroom. Meili smiled to herself as she leaned down to tickle her nephew’s belly. “Trust your Auntie Meili, baby. It will be okay. Hou-Tings never let anyone get them down for long.”
Chapter 105: 210: Jinora and Ikki
Chapter Text
“No running in the halls, children!” The group of small airbenders slowed down until they turned the corner; then the sound of them racing off again made Jinora laugh. “Did we ever have that much energy?”
Ikki smiled at her, tucking her arm in tighter. “Not only did we have that much energy, we also made that much noise.”
“I think it was you making most of the noise.”
“I won’t deny it.”
Jinora sighed a little with happiness. “I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve missed you so. How long can you stay?”
Ikki shrugged. “Huan’s got that award thing next week, but other than that, we’re open. Goba’s got everything handled at home. We’ll stop by Zaofu on the way back, whenever that is. Baatar hates going there, but I don’t think we can pass up any opportunities to see his folks at this point. Speaking of, how is Mom doing? Really doing, I mean.”
“It’s been hard. But you know how she is. She still spends a good part of her day at the school, and that keeps her busy.”
Ikki sighed. “I wish she would come up to stay with us for a bit. The change of scenery and all.”
“I know.” They were quiet for a time, walking along the path that lead along the bluffs of the Island.
Chapter 106: 211: Juziya
Summary:
This completes this particular story arc! The prior stories are located in this collection as well as in the 2019 Advent Ficlet Challenge: The Next Generation collection.
Chapter Text
The sleek black car pulled up to the Hou-Ting's driveway and the engine cut out; the driver opened the back door, politely giving the woman inside a hand before closing the door behind her and resuming his own seat, presumably waiting until she returned.
She was a tall woman in her late forties, her face finely-boned and stark in the way of Fire Nation nobility, holding herself correctly. She was dressed, however, in the latest Republic City fashion, a long skirt and fitted jacket of cherry red and charcoal, a delicate silk scarf patterned with cherry blossoms wound about her throat, a fashionable hat perched upon her unfashionably long hair, twisted into an intricate knot at the base of her skull. She approached the door and paused for a moment, clasping her gloved hands together before taking in a deep breath and reaching over to ring the bell set to the side of the door. She waited, her chin held high, until the door opened, revealing a person her own age standing in the doorway.
"And to what do we owe the honor?"
The woman's hands clenched slightly, the only mark of her nervousness. Not that she thought she would be able to camouflage it from Qi. She knew better. "I've come to talk to my brother."
"Have you now?" Qi wasn't smiling.
"I come as a sister, Qi."
"A sister."
"And an aunt." She swallowed. "Not the Firelord."
Qi watched her a moment. "That's just as well. I don't believe I'd let the Firelord in." They stared at each other in silence before Qi took a step back inside and motioned her towards the inner courtyard, closing the door behind. They stood there together in the entrance hall, continuing to watch each other.
"Qi-" the woman's hand raised of its own accord before she dropped it, her breath quickening. "I have always valued your friendship. I did not..." she trailed off at Qi's look.
"You can't ask me to take sides against my daughter, Juziya. Not now, not ever. If you knew anything about me you'd know that'd be the end of it."
"I do know it," Juziya replied, and she dropped her gaze before bringing it back again. "The balance between Juziya and the Firelord isn't always an easy one. I don't always get to follow my heart. Your husband would understand that."
"This isn't about my husband. For once." Qi let out a breath and stepped back. "You'd better come in, then."
She removed her gloves and her shoes, sliding on a pair of house slippers, keeping her bag with her. After a quick glance at Qi she risked taking off her hat. Someone who was only a guest wouldn't get past the inner courtyard, she knew, and here in Republic City it meant they'd keep their hat on. She was hoping she could make it past that, into the family's salon. Qi was silent, but as she had hoped, took her through the inner courtyard and into the Cranefish Salon. Still a salon for guests, yes, but at least it was a step in the right direction. They both seated themselves as Qi rang for tea.
"I'm taking it Sozui doesn't know you're here."
"No one knows I'm here except for my uncle. He's told everyone I'm unwell and recovering. I flew in this morning with Uma. I'll spend the night at his flat and then go back tomorrow." She smiled slightly. "Uncle practically threw me onto the airship."
"So why now?" Qi glanced over and nodded at the maid, waiting until she left the tray on the table before taking the pot and pouring. "It's been months. Lozan's got four teeth now. He's trying to talk and stand. Or is that something you don't care about?"
She froze in the midst of taking the cup. "I do care." She met Qi's eyes. "As an aunt."
"But also as a Firelord."
"I can't stop being the Firelord. My life isn't just mine. It belongs to my people."
"And you think Lozan's should be the same."
"Yes. He'll be the Firelord someday."
"He might be the next Firelord but he's my grandson as well."
"No one is trying to take your grandson away from you, Qi. Especially not me. I understand the importance of family." She put her cup down. "If you think that my intention is to keep him away from you, away from his grandfathers, his cousins and aunts and uncles, then you are very much mistaken."
"Naoki seems to think so."
Juziya's mouth thinned. "Naoki doesn't listen when you aren't telling her what she wants to hear." Her look was challenging and Qi flicked an eyebrow in return. They couldn't argue with her over that one. She crossed her legs at the ankles. "Contrary to popular belief, I do love my brother and his happiness is very important to me."
"I never thought it wasn't."
She couldn't stop the scoff, much as she tried. "Yes, well. Not according to your daughter." She closed her eyes briefly. "I apologize. That was unnecessary. I didn't come here to fight about whether or not I love my brother, however. Or my nephew. I came here to try and resolve this mess."
"I think it's your mess."
She could feel her temper start to rise and her chin rose with it. "Is that so? Because it was my understanding that you were the one who encouraged her to break up that wedding. Or did you think I wouldn't recognize that jumpsuit?"
"I knew you would."
"Did you stop to think about the repercussions of that?" She slapped her hand down on the cushion of the settee, the fire within her awakening. "He's a prince, Qi. The crown prince. You don't just break up a crown prince's marriage on a whim. There were ways that it could have been done with honor, that would have been respectful to our culture, to our laws. To our traditions. What she did trampled over all of that, and you had a part of it as well." She leaned forward. "Or do you think you're better than thousands of years of tradition?"
Qi's eyes narrowed. "Watch yourself."
"Or what? You'll come in the middle of the night, sneak past my guards, and smother me with a pillow in my sleep?" At Qi's involuntary hiss she smiled bitterly. "The Fire Nation is not the Earth Kingdom. Those sneaky, backhanded ways are not our ways. Assassins, poisons, knives in the night? That's the Earth Kingdom way. The Fire Nation faces each other in the light, with honor. We duel with honor. And if we die, we die looking our enemy in the eye, with honor." She reached into her bag and pulled out a dagger, handing it hilt first to Qi over the tea table. "If I choose to threaten you I will do it to your face. I will state my intent and I will come prepared to die for my honor. That is the Fire Nation way. That is my way." They stared at each other, eyes locked. "Do not threaten me again unless you will do it to my face, Qi," she said, tone measured to hide her anguish. "Do not send your daughter to do it for you."
The silence lasted long enough that she wondered if she would need to fight, after all, before Qi reached out and took their dagger, making it disappear somewhere into their clothes. They nodded. "Understood."
She nearly sagged with relief but managed to keep her composure. Willing her hand not to tremble, she took up her cup again and sipped the tea.
"What did you say to Naoki to make her leave like that?" Qi hadn't bothered with their tea. "She won't tell any of us, not even Sozui."
She put her cup back down and laced her fingers together. "I told her that she needed to behave with honor and challenge the son of the Mononobe family to an Agni Kai."
"Mako already fought him."
"Only because Naoki ran and refused to do her duty. And Mako refused to kill him."
"Far as I understood it, that was legal." A muscle ticked in Qi's jaw. "Mako's not a killer, damn it."
"Legal. But not honorable." Juziya's eyes snapped. "People see it as a sign of weakness in him. Worse, they see it as a sign of cowardice in her."
"Since when did she have anything to prove as a firebender? Those people all know she's the best."
"That's not the point. The point is that she was challenged to an Agni Kai. A duel of honor. And she ran off with my brother and left a mess so big behind her that I'm still trying to clean it up. The court doesn't respect her, Qi. They don't respect my brother for marrying her, although him they at least love."
"You could have mitigated that, if you had tried." Qi continued to hold her gaze. "You could have actually given them a wedding instead of just showing up."
She took that hit. "Yes. I could have. I should have." She took in a deep breath and let it out again, summoning back her temper. "Let me make this clear. If she had come to us in the beginning of the marriage negotiations I could have salvaged the situation. The Mononobes would have been unhappy, but I can and do withstand unhappiness from my court. But the first day of the ceremony itself? There was no possible way that it wasn't going to end in an Agni Kai. The Fire Nation isn't Republic City." Her smile was bitter. "If she had stayed and fought that Agni Kai on her own at least she would have had people's respect. That's how things are in the Fire Nation."
"She would have killed him if she had fought him, Juziya. You and I both know this."
"Yes. She would have. And it would have been a stupid, useless death. Most Agni Kai deaths are. But it would have been an acceptable death. Honor would have been satisfied. The family could have grieved their loss properly and the girl could have regained face and, in time, could have been contracted into another marriage. You may not understand our culture, you may not approve of it, but it is what it is." Juziya's hands rose and she clenched her fists before forcing them back into her lap. "Because she refused to meet his challenge, because her father, in her stead, did not do it properly, that boy has made trouble."
"Trouble like how?"
"For one thing, saying that Lozan isn't Sozui's son."
Qi's eyes flashed. "That's not true."
She dismissed it with an angry gesture. "Of course it isn't true. But again, that's not the point. The point is that he is angry and dishonored and he's stirring up all kinds of trouble. The thing about Lozan's parentage, yes, but also accusing Sozui of being weak, of having the same issues that..." she faltered for just the briefest of moments, "our mother had. He's called into question my qualifications as Firelord as well, although he's not the first and won't be last to do that. I can handle that myself. But the thing with Lozan is dangerous. Even you must see that."
Qi nodded at that. "Yes."
"And no, you cannot go and slit his throat in the night, Qi. That would make things a thousand times worse. Can you understand this?"
Qi let a long breath loose. "Yes."
"Naoki needs to challenge him. She needs to duel him and she needs to win. She needs to kill him in front of the entire court. As far as the Fire Nation as a whole would be concerned, the issue would be resolved with honor. And that is what I told her and her response was to take her son and run, once again." She shook her head. "She has to stop running from this. I know she doesn't want to do it."
"It goes against everything she was taught as a girl."
"I do understand this. I know she wasn't raised to be Fire Nation. But she married that nation's crown prince and is the mother of the future Firelord and she cannot just pick and choose what that means to her. This isn't about what she wants. This is about what the nation needs from their princess and the mother of the heir."
"And if she doesn't?"
"I will tell Sozui, as his Firelord, that he must divorce her and renounce Lozan before marrying again and providing the Fire Nation with an heir that will not be questioned." She refused to drop Qi's gaze. "As his sister, it would kill me to do it. I know how much he loves her. I know how much he's always loved her. Not to mention his son. I know he would never forgive me for it. But as a Firelord I will do what is needed. I understand that to do that would be to sacrifice your friendship as well, and I would regret that to my dying day." Her smile was tremulous. "I do not have enough friends that I can afford to lose a single one. But if I cannot do what is necessary for my nation then I am not worth the crown my grandmother left me."
"And that's that?" Qi's face was schooled into the expressionless mask they kept up to everyone but those they were closest with.
"That is what I have come to say to both her and my brother."
"You think Sozui will obey you?"
"He will. Which Naoki knows as well. It's why she ran." She finally dropped her gaze. "I can't give her what she wants. If she comes and duels I will stand behind her." She glanced up. "I'll give them their own wing of the palace, with their own servants, and let them have complete autonomy over it. I will allow her to make her decisions about raising her son, so long as she agrees he will get a certain amount of training necessary for a future Firelord. I will give her my blessing to bring her son here, to his family, for visits. She can have her school, although we'll have to talk about its location. Those things, I can be flexible about, as long as she agrees to actually negotiate with me." She scoffed. "A real negotiation, not her saying she's going to negotiate and then demanding her own way completely."
Qi actually smiled at that one. "She gets that from Wu."
"I am aware," she said dryly. "But if she won't fight that Agni Kai then my hands, as a Firelord, are tied. And that is the end of it." It was the end of it. She could not back down from that. Qi would either understand or not; she had made her case and the rest was up to them.
Qi stood and walked about the room, something that surprised her. In her experience, Qi was never restless. Or if they were, they didn't show it. "Mako will be against it. He'll try and talk her out of it. Probably offer to go and fight the boy again for her sake. The baby's sake." Before she could speak Qi shook their head. "No, I followed what you were saying to me, I get that it won't work." They glanced at her. "Wu won't be happy and we'll all hear about it, but he at least would understand the necessity."
"He's a king." She smoothed down her skirt. "Once a king always a king."
"I can talk to Naoki. I leave Sozui to you."
"You'll speak to her?" Her breath fluttered in her chest. "She'll listen to you where she won't listen to me."
"I can't promise anything. But I will speak to her." Qi inclined their head at her. "I owe you that for the jumpsuit."
"I don't-" she started, but was interrupted by the sound of childish laughter, followed by a small girl tumbling into the room, her curls coming out of their braids, her bright blue eyes alight in her lovely face.
"Gumma! Gumma! Guess what?" She stopped and blinked at Juziya. "Oh. You have company."
"You remember Linyi?" Qi took a braid and fussed it back over the girl's shoulder.
"Meili's eldest, of course." She nodded at the girl and smiled. "You don't remember me, I don't think."
"Linyi, please say hello to the Firelord. She is Uncle Zui's sister."
The girl bowed properly, which didn't surprise her. Wu had always been a stickler for manners and even Naoki was faultlessly correct at court. "My honor, Firelord."
She smiled again. "I think Auntie Juziya is fine at home." She glanced up at Qi, who flicked an eyebrow at her but kept quiet.
"Did you come to see Lozan? He keeps trying to walk but he keeps falling right back down on his bum."
She nodded gravely. "His father used to do the very same. Does he get angry and shout when he falls?"
Linyi giggled. "He does!"
"Yes, just like his father."
"Linyi, where did you go?" Her brother's voice came from the inner courtyard and her heart sped up.
"We're in here, Uncle Zui!"
"Aren't you hungry? Cork has..." her brother came into the room, a child on each hip. Her eyes went right past the chubby girl with the dark blue eyes to the dimpled baby with his mother's gold eyes, clutching at his father's shirt. She could see Sozui in the baby's sharp chin, the same chin that they'd both inherited from their mother, from her mother and her father in turn. No one, looking at this boy, would mistake him for anything but Sozui's child. But, as she had said to Qi, that wasn't the point. "Ziya," he said, his private childhood nickname for her slipping out. Without a word Qi went and took their granddaughter out of his arm - Tarra, if she remembered correctly, she hadn't officially met her but Qi had written about her when she was born - and stepped back, putting their hand to Linyi's back.
"Linyi, baby, let's go and get a snack from Cork."
"But what about Uncle Zui and Lozan? And Auntie Juziya?"
"They'll come along in a bit. Come on now." Qi walked out with their granddaughters, leaving her alone with her brother and her nephew.
"He's grown," she said, and cursed herself for the inanity of the comment. Of course he had. It had been five months since she'd seen him. He was staring at her but turned to rub his face against his father's shirt.
"He needs a nap," Sozui replied, and grimaced. "Juziya..."
"Yes, I know." She sighed. "I'm not here to fight."
His eyes flicked over her head, bare of her crown. "Naoki's out with a friend."
"Just as well. She'd fight with me whether I wanted to or not."
"That's not fair."
"None of this is fair, Sozui. None of it. What would you have me do?" Her eyes started to sting. "Of all people," she whispered, catching a tear before it slid down her cheek. "You of all people know how hard it is for me to keep the balance. If even you won't try to understand me then who else is there?"
"Don't cry," he said, and came to her, wrapping his arms around her, kissing her several times on the temple. "Please don't cry."
"I'm not trying to make you take sides, I swear I'm not. I know this is hard for you as well."
"I love you both," he choked out, leaning his forehead against her. "Can't the both of you try harder?"
She opened her mouth to reply but a small, grubby hand pressed against it. She met her nephew's golden gaze and gave his chubby fingers a little nibble. "Mmmm, Republic City dirt."
"Guhbuhnuh. Uhba. Buh buh buh. Dada!" Lozan dimpled at her, the promised four teeth making an appearance. "Gaaaaba!"
"I quite agree," she said, and risked a stroke of her fingers down his soft baby cheek. "Are you trying to bend at me, Your Highness?" The baby was waving his fist at her, his mouth quirked up in a smile that so resembled his father's that she thought her heart might break.
"He's already set his pram on fire." The pride in Sozui's voice was obvious.
"Well done, then," she said, and chucked her nephew under the chin. "Your father didn't manage his pram until he was twice your age."
"Unfortunately Linyi then proceeded to dump half the nearby pond on him and scared him to death."
"Well, waterbenders," she replied with a little sniff and was rewarded with a little chuckle.
"He hasn't really bent since then. I'm a little surprised he's trying to do it at you."
"We'll see about that," she said, and held out her arms for him, smiling as he reached out and let her take him.
She'd been nine when Sozui had been born. Her mother was often distant and uncontrollably emotional but had still had good days before then, days where she would read to her daughter, playing games and singing old songs with her, forgetting to remind her to take off the dresses she preferred to put on the clothing she loathed. After Sozui was born that had all changed, however. Mother would lay all day in her bed, refusing to open the curtains, sobbing or sleeping, not even looking at her when she'd try to talk to her. Mother had refused to do anything with Sozui and her grandmother had made arrangements for a wet nurse to feed him. It had been her, however, who would hold him for hours, her thin child's arms aching, carrying him with her, talking to him, kissing him between his eyes to make him laugh, holding his hands when he tried to take his first steps, sharing her food with him, playing with him, carrying him on her back like she was an ostrich horse when he was old enough to hang on. She didn't understand then why her mother wouldn't come out of her room; she still didn't understand why her father had chosen to stay with his wife rather than his children. She'd been ten and Sozui a year old when Grandmama had come, not for another visit, but to take them back to court with her, her beloved great-grandfather in tow. She'd sat in the old fashioned carriage, Sozui asleep in Great-Grandfather's arms, while he had tried to cheer her up with funny stories and Grandmama had held her hand, not saying a word. I'm not a boy, she'd blurted out to her family and then held her breath, waiting for their reaction. Grandmama had just looked at her and then nodded slowly, seemingly unsurprised. I'm a girl, she said, emboldened by the fact Grandmama was still holding on to her hand. She'd snuck a glance at her great-grandfather to find him smiling at her and he winked his good eye at her, the one that could see. I've always been partial to little girls, he said, and Grandmama squeezed her hand. Is it okay, Grandmama? she asked, terrified of her response. Do you still love me? Her grandmother gazed at her for a long moment before putting out her arms and pulling her into her lap. There is nothing you could ever do that would make me stop loving you, granddaughter. Nothing at all. Not ever.
She balanced her nephew on her hip and thought the same. There was nothing he or his father could ever do to make her stop loving them. "Here, like this." She raised her own fist in front of the baby and let a tiny amount of flame blossom from it. "I'm certain you can do it, Lozan."
"Gubbabaaaaah." He reached out with his hand to capture her flame and she drew her fist back, smiling a little at his shriek of indignation.
"Just like your father. Bellowing if you don't get what you want."
"Hey!" Sozui protested, but she and the baby ignored him.
"Show Auntie Ziya that we don't let waterbenders push us around. Even if they are our cousins."
His brow furrowed and he grunted in concentration, eyes narrowed down. Now he looked like his mother. "Ubbaguh."
"I'm still waiting."
"Guh!"
"Focus," she whispered, and slowly took her fist back and forth, his eyes never leaving the fire. "I know you want this."
He thrust his fist forward and with another shriek, waved it in the air. A small flame flickered from his fist and his excited scream nearly took her eardrum with it.
"Lozan!" Sozui's own dimples creased his cheeks as he kissed his son. "You did it!"
"Of course he did it. He is the future Firelord." She nodded at the baby. "Very good, nephew. Go on as you mean to."
"Guh," he replied and snuggled his head into her chest.
"I quite agree. You should let your father put you down for a nap. He and I have things to discuss."
Sozui put his arm around her. "I think Auntie Ziya should put you down for that nap, what do you say, Lozan?" The baby yawned in response. "Naoki wouldn't tell me what you said," he said quietly, tenderly stroking his son's head. "The night she left. But it had to do with Hiro Mononobe, didn't it?"
"She needs to demand an Agni Kai." Her voice was just as quiet and she sighed. "It's gone past honor now. He's spreading rumors that Lozan isn't yours. Other rumors as well. But."
"But," he repeated softly. The baby's eyes were drooping shut. "But." He understood what she meant, as she knew he would.
"Yes."
"She'll kill him, you know."
"I know, Zui."
"She'll hate it."
"As much as I hate having my brother and nephew taken from me?"
He sucked in a breath and the baby's eyes fluttered. "That's not fair."
"None of this is fair. She's not a child. If she can't own up to her own part in all of this she'll never be a part of that court. She's thirty-six years old. How long does she expect her parents to fix everything for her?"
"Ziya."
"You know it's true. I like her, I do. Despite all of this. I am not wrong, however."
His sigh was a perfect match for hers. "I know."
"I'm not asking you to choose sides. I'm not that foolish. But she won't listen to me. Qi told me they'd talk to her as well. But you're not an innocent party here either."
"I know. I'm sorry." He leaned forward to press a kiss on his son's skull.
"Please help me resolve this. I cannot break but I am willing to bend. As much as I can."
He pulled her closer. They'd been of a height since he was fifteen and had suddenly shot up, a gangly boy, all arms and legs and newfound clumsiness. She loved him so very much. "I understand."
She took in a shaky breath. "Well then, let's go put this baby to bed before your wife comes home and the fireworks really start."
"You have to talk to her, Ziya. Really talk to her. With her. You can't just treat her like one of your subjects and assume she'll obey you. Maya Mononobe would have expected that from you, but Naoki isn't a Fire Nation noblewoman. You have to tell her what you're thinking and why. Explain things to her, let her have her say." He bumped her gently with his hip. "You know how she was raised."
"Hmm," she replied, and shifted the now sleeping baby to her shoulder.
"Listen, Meili nearly eviscerated me over it. Do you want her to let you have it as well?" He whispered into her ear. "She's mean."
She chuckled at that. "What have I always said about waterbenders?" She caught his eye. "I'll try. In private, I will try. But in public she has to treat me like the Firelord. She's undermining my authority. I can't have it, Zui."
He nodded. "How long are you staying?"
"I have to go back tomorrow morning. Uncle's at court, he's told everyone I'm unwell. My ladies are covering for me. Uma came with me, she's back at Uncle's flat."
"You left Uncle in charge?" He grimaced. "How many people will he offend in three days?"
"I'm trying not to think about it." The baby started to softly snore. "We should put him to bed."
He took her hand in his. "I've missed you. I'm sorry for all of this."
"Big sister will fix it all, like she always has." She'd meant to make him smile but only succeeded in making him start to cry. "Don't. We'll fix it. With luck, nothing will go up in flames."
"Don't be too sure of that," he sniffled, and she cupped his cheek in her free hand and kissed him between his eyes.
Chapter 107: 211: Sozui
Summary:
Well, the last chapter was supposed to end this particular story arc but then my long-term reader Marezelle commented about the Agni Kai and it popped into my head and wouldn't give me any peace until I wrote it. So they are the one to thank for this one!
Chapter Text
Naoki’s Agni Kai, unlike her Demi Kai all those years ago, was to be held in the ancient dueling hall. It lay deep in the heart of the palace, a long corridor with galleries on either side. There was no place for judges or coaches; this was not a practice round. This was a duel for adults, a duel to either satisfaction or death. Two firebenders would enter and unless honor was achieved otherwise, only one would leave.
Sometimes neither would leave and he understood that as well. He knew his wife, however. He didn’t need to be a fortuneteller to predict the ending to this particular duel.
They’d arrived back at the palace the day prior, immediately presenting themselves and the baby to Juziya in the throne room, surrounded by her court. Juziya had, in the three weeks before they’d joined her, started renovations on the long-quiet west wing of the palace, just as she’d promised. The last person to live there had been his great-grandmother; while she and his great-grandfather remained cordial and respectful of each other until her death it was well known in the family that it had been a political marriage, despite their connection in their youth. He’d been touched but not necessarily surprised to find that Juziya had sent the royal decorator to Republic City to consult with Wu and his own decorator. That kind of considerate attention to detail had his sister written all over it.
He refused to be anything but hopeful that she and Naoki could actually get to know each other as sisters, instead of rivals for his and Lozan’s hearts.
Naoki had been flawless in her courtesies, proper in her bows and her address, leaving no room for gossip, or at least not about that. He knew she’d asked her father to take her through it to make sure she wouldn’t make any mistakes. He’d made his courtesies as well and had presented his son as protocol demanded. Baby Lozan, of course, had seen the Auntie who had spent nearly every moment with him possible before she had to return home and had giggled at her, waving and shooting off a small flicker of flame from his left fist, much to the smiling approval of the court. He knew there’d be disapproval of their refusal to leave him to nannies to raise but Juziya had made it crystal clear that she sanctioned their choice, so that was all there was to be said about that particular piece of business. Or at least officially. They’d have a nanny to care for the baby when they were both involved in court business but he would live with and be raised by them.
After they had satisfied the demands of the court Naoki had flicked a single eyebrow at Juziya, who had given her a minute nod in return. She’d turned to face Hiro Mononobe, sitting in his family’s place in the first tier, and had bowed before him and asked him, in a voice that carried, if he wished to retract his comments with regards to Lozan’s parentage. This was Mononobe’s chance to back down, of course; if he did, honor would be satisfied. Instead he stood, scoffing, and started into a recitation of all of Naoki’s various faults, including her lack of filial respect, respect for the crown, and respect for her marriage. She merely stood still and watched him, face completely blank, until Mononobe had finished. She then bowed again and told Mononobe she would see him in the dueling hall at dawn before turning and striding out of the throne room, leaving him to follow her with the baby. He knew she was angry; she could channel Qi all she wanted but she’d never fool him. She’d walked down the hall a ways before stopping and letting him catch up, admitting to him that she had no idea where to go. Thankfully the palace Majordomo appeared, directing them to the family’s private section of the palace, informing them that they would stay there in their old rooms until their own wing was ready. His valet was already there, as well as the lady-in-waiting that Juziya had provided for Naoki when they’d first gotten married. Naoki hadn’t wanted her; she hadn’t been rude, precisely, but she hadn’t been particularly friendly, either. He knew Wu had talked to her about it, however, had told her that the right lady-in-waiting could be of great assistance to her at court and not just with regards to her appearance. Naoki had inclined her head and apologized to her for leaving her behind when she left for Republic City, something that clearly shocked poor Lady Hina, who had actually blushed as she protested an apology was not needed. Naoki had grinned at her and Lady Hina, like just about anyone faced with all of Naoki’s charm, had thawed.
He knew his sister well enough to know that while Lady Hina was certainly loyal to the Firelord she would do everything in her power to assist the foreign princess now in her charge. Juziya would have it no other way. The lady had been up before dawn, assisting Naoki’s handmaids with her Agni Kai regalia, making sure she had tea and a light meal. She’d also handed over a small package, telling them it was a gift from the Firelord. Inside was a set of tiny royal robes for the baby, black, red and gold. There were two small insignias embroidered onto the chest; the traditional flame of the royal family as well as the fire butterfly that Naoki had on her own robes. He fed and dressed his sleepy son, putting him to his shoulder as they left for the hall. Lozan was too young to understand what was happening, of course, but the court would take note that he was there to witness his mother defending his honor.
Naoki left him to go to the duelists’ entrance and he took his place next to Juziya and his uncle, already waiting in the royal box. Juziya murmured a quiet greeting and then, to his surprise, held her arms out for the baby. She’d come to their rooms the night before to welcome them back and play with Lozan a bit before putting him to bed herself, stroking his hair back until he fell into sleep, clearly doting on him. That wasn’t why she was holding him now, of course. She was sending a message to her court, Juziya-style, letting them know exactly what she thought about Mononobe’s claim that Lozan wasn’t his. His son sat happily in his Auntie’s lap, amusing himself with a silver rattle that he’d stolen from his cousin Tarra.
The crowd hushed as Naoki and Hiro Mononobe entered from opposite ends of the hall. The Mononobes were in the center box across from them as the family of one of the duelists. Maya Mononobe was there as well, although he couldn’t bring himself to meet her eyes. He knew he’d behaved badly towards her. He hadn’t known her enough to like her and there was no question of loving her, of course. Naoki had had his heart since he was twelve. That wasn’t the point, however. She might not have been personally hurt by his rejection but he’d made her lose face. He’d also shut her out of being the mother of the future Firelord and that, he suspected, was the thing she would never forgive either him or Naoki for. There was the small consolation that regardless of how the duel turned out she’d be able to marry again, if she chose. He wasn’t deluding himself it would suffice. Not for the Mononobes.
Juziya stood, instinctively settling Lozan on her hip. Oh, the hall was abuzz with that, he knew it would be on everyone’s tongues, the Firelord showing such open affection to her heir, and especially the heir whose parentage was the subject of this Agni Kai. She gazed about the hall and the crowd silenced. “We are here this morning to satisfy a matter of honor. As the challenger, Princess Naoki, you will be the one to determine satisfaction.”
Naoki met her eyes and nodded. She was calm and still as she always was before bending, the direct opposite of Hiro Mononobe, who was making a show of preparing himself by flinging his arms and legs about, smirking at some of his friends in the hall, ignoring Juziya. He could feel his own anger rising and fought to keep his expression neutral. He was the Crown Prince and he needed to provide an example. Still didn’t stop him from wanting to wipe the sneer right off of Mononobe’s face, though.
“At my signal you will begin.” Mononobe took his place at that, finally focusing in on Naoki. He curled his lip up at her but she ignored it, merely keeping her disciplined stance, waiting for Juziya. His sister raised her arm and shot a single long blast of fire across the hall, stopping it just a breath short of the Mononobes. She was not happy with them, either. He glanced at his wife to see her shift and his gasp was involuntary as he realized what she was going to do. Her eyes closed as she breathed in and as Mononobe began to kick his leg into a fighting stance she let loose with a single killing attack, the intense heat from her third eye sent with unerring accuracy straight into his heart, blasting a hole through him to the other side, slamming into the wall behind him, sending up a spray of shattered stone as a few onlookers screamed and scrambled out of the way.
The man hadn’t even had a chance to change expression before he toppled backwards, already dead before he hit the ground, the reek of charred flesh making him gulp and instinctively grab his sister’s hand. She hadn’t even had a chance to sit down yet.
“Fuck,” Juziya breathed next to him, her only concession to the shock she must have been feeling. She clung to his hand, Iroh grasping painfully at his shoulder as Mononobe’s mother let out with a single devastated wail and his father stumbled to his feet, his mouth drooping open in a rictus of horror. Naoki, following protocol, turned and bowed respectfully to the man’s family before turning in a full circle to address the hall, her voice, honed by her years of teaching, clear and ringing.
“I call upon Nori of House Oyama, Uchi and Sazao of House Umewaka, Arizuke of House Murakami and Kazana of House Shigemi. All of you have also declared that my son’s father is not the Crown Prince. I give you this chance to recant your statement. If not, I will see you at dawn tomorrow to resolve this matter of my honor and of the honor of my husband, son and the throne. Answer me now.”
“You told her what to say, didn’t you?” he murmured to his uncle, and Iroh squeezed his shoulder again before letting it go, the both of them watching as Juziya stepped forward to glance about the hall, expression stony.
A woman stood and met Naoki’s eyes, her chin held high. “My grandson Nori is only fifteen years old and per Fire Nation law may not duel you in an Agni Kai. Will it satisfy your honor, Princess, if I recant in his place as his grandmother and the head of our house?”
Naoki inclined her head. “It will, Lady Oyama.”
Lady Oyama returned her nod with a bow and sat back down next to a boy who was wide-eyed and trembling with fear. That was Nori, who was, he guessed, in very deep trouble. A young woman stood up across the hall, lips drawn tight with suppressed emotion.
“I am Kazana Shigemi, cousin of Hiro and Maya Mononobe.”
Naoki flicked up a single eyebrow, waiting. Hiro Mononobe was still smoking a bit, although he tried not to look at him. Kazana’s hands were clenched tightly, her eyes bright with unshed tears.
“I recant the accusation,” she gritted out, waiting for Naoki to acknowledge it. Naoki made her wait as she stared at her for what seemed like forever before nodding at her, turning her back as if to show that the Shigemi family meant nothing to her. He hoped Juziya was watching. He hoped they all were watching. He knew what the court thought of her, that she was an uncultured piece of street trash, the Hou-Ting name unearned. They couldn’t be more wrong. That she had learned her bending from Mako was uncontested, of course, and Qi’s influence was there in the undercurrent of menace lurking beneath her discipline. Most people never saw past her usual charming irreverence to fully comprehend that she was Wu’s oldest child, however. She had been raised by the last Earth King. Her father had taught her how to handle the Fire Nation court; in fact, knowing Wu, he’d probably done it purposefully, expecting the two of them to make a match out of it even when they were children, the same as his own grandmother. Naoki might not enjoy embracing her identity as a Princess but she could do it if she put her mind to it. He’d known it for years. Now everyone else would know it as well.
The other three quickly recanted, Arizuke Murakami sobbing, staring down at the body of his dead friend. After she had acknowledged his words Naoki turned back to Juziya and bowed.
“My honor is satisfied, Firelord, as is the honor of my husband, son, and your throne. I also speak for the exalted and royal house of my father, Hou-Ting, to acknowledge that this matter is resolved for our family.”
Juziya inclined her head. “Then the crown and the court also consider it resolved with honor.” Her voice held a warning, and one that he hoped her court would take seriously. His sister would not be forgiving if it wasn’t.
Another bow and then Naoki strode out of the hall, looking straight ahead, not bothering to acknowledge the rest of the court. She’d done what Juziya had asked of her; honor was, insofar as the Fire Nation was concerned, satisfied. Oh, the court would talk about it, of that he had no doubt. Killing your opponent with a single strike was not against the rules, of course. It was, however, unusual. Mostly because historically speaking there were very few firebenders who could have managed it. This was one that would go down in the record books, he knew. At Juziya’s quick glance he stood, standing next to her for a moment before they left first, as was their right and privilege as royalty, walking through their private entrance and away as noise from the hall burgeoned. His uncle stayed behind, presumably to ensure that the hall cleared out without any further issue.
“That certainly did the trick,” Juziya said, absently snatching at Lozan’s rattle as it accidentally tumbled out of his fingers, handing it back to him. “I didn’t expect her to do it like that, however.” She took in a deep breath. "She so rarely combustionbends."
“Any other way would have just been her toying with him and she wouldn’t do that. She never shows off her bending, you know that.”
Juziya put a conciliatory hand to his arm. “I do know it.”
“Do you think the Mononobes will continue to be a problem?”
Juziya was silent for a moment as her guards opened the double doors that led into the family’s rooms, bowing at her before closing them behind them. “I don’t think so. They aren’t happy, but on the other hand they let Hiro have his head and never once tried to pull him back. That’s on them. They should have known better. Especially when it came to Naoki. Regardless of how people might feel about her they all know what she’s capable of as a bender.” She pressed a kiss onto Lozan’s head. “Perhaps they were thinking she’d show him mercy, like her father did.”
“If anything, they should have taken that mercy and been satisfied with it.” They walked through the reception room towards the small suite she’d temporarily allocated for them.
“Yes.” She stopped at the open door to the suite and turned to him. “Hiro Mononobe was a spoiled boy whose family indulged him at every turn and ignored the signs that he was becoming a bully even as a child. He was undisciplined as a firebender and borderline disrespectful at court. They had many, many chances to rein him in and took none of them. His sister’s annulled marriage was nothing more than an opportunity for him to behave even more badly than before.” Without turning her head she sighed. “Keep it in mind, Naoki.”
Naoki came out of the shadows, eyes red-rimmed. “I hate this. I don’t care how rotten he was. He didn’t deserve to die that way.”
Juziya held her gaze for a moment before handing the baby to him; he wasn’t sure which of them was more startled when she bent down slightly to wrap her arms around Naoki’s shorter form. “You should hate it. If you enjoyed it then I’d be worried.” She pulled Naoki close. “As a sister, I very much regret what happened today and regret the necessity that you had to take part in it. I know it goes against everything you were ever taught as a child and I’m sorry I had to ask you to do it.”
Naoki returned her embrace and his heart gave a joyful thump. “It didn’t really go against what Qi taught me. They were the one who told me to do it the way I did. They said killing should never be a show.”
Juziya managed a low chuckle. “Oh, that does not surprise me in the least.”
“I think your court wanted that, though. A show.” Naoki snuffled and wiped at her eyes.
“Some of them, probably. Yes. But not all of them. Many of them were just as appalled as I am that the Mononobes let it get this far. And in any case, it wasn’t their Agni Kai. It was yours, and you did it perfectly.” Juziya pulled back. “And the Oyamas won’t forget how gracious you were with regards to Nori, either. I think you’ve gotten yourself an ally there.”
“He’s just a kid.”
“That’s what we all said about Hiro Mononobe once upon a time.” He sighed and shifted Lozan, who was reaching for his crown. “I think his grandmother will pull him into line, though.”
“Oh, I’ve known Sun Oyama since I first came to court as a girl. She’ll probably stash him away in their country home for a good year or two in disgrace.” Juziya let Naoki go and stepped back. “I think that issue will resolve itself without our intervention.”
Naoki ran her hand through her cropped hair. “Is it required that I attend court today? If I need to I will but I can tell you I’d rather not.”
Juziya shook her head. “I won’t be convening court today. The white flags denoting a death in the nobility were raised as soon as he was gone. Court will observe three days of mourning before reconvening. And no, before you ask, neither you nor Sozui are expected at the funeral. I’ll go, of course, but frankly I don’t think the Mononobes would want you there.”
“Safe bet,” he said, and lowered Lozan to the ground where he clung to his leg and took a wobbling step, grunting in frustration when he couldn’t reach his mother with his outstretched hand.
“Gaaah!” Lozan glared and grunted when his mother didn’t immediately respond. “Mamamama! Uhbah!”
“Here I am, baby,” she said, and scooped him up, kissing him several times as he chortled. “He makes everything better. Don’t you, baby? Do you make everything better for Mama?”
“Mama!” Lozan dimpled at her and attempted to stick his finger up her nose.
“Is that what you’re teaching my great-nephew? How to pick people’s noses?” Iroh smiled as he entered, and then bowed towards Naoki. “Very well done, Princess. On all counts.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cookie, rather worse for the wear, handing it over to a curious Lozan, who immediately took a bite, eyes widening as he tried to stuff the rest of it into his mouth.
“Don’t give him a cookie, Uncle! You’ll ruin his appetite!” Juziya frowned at him.
“Psssssh. A little cookie never hurt anybody, did it?” Iroh made a face at his niece. “I fed you plenty of cookies and you turned out all right.”
“Did…” Naoki took a deep breath. “Did the court…” Her mouth tugged down. Iroh understood, however, and put an arm around her.
“There was a lot of talk, of course. I’m not sure how many actually thought Mononobe could win the thing. They weren’t expecting you to do that, though. If you ask me, it’s all to the good. It never hurts to remind the court that the royal family can bend the pants off of them.” His face gentled as he took in her distress. “Naoki, I know you were reluctant to do this. But you did your duty to the crown, the throne and your own family. In the Fire Nation, that’s what honor is. You earned the court’s respect today. None of us should be happy that you had to do it through that boy’s death. But it was done as well as can be expected.” He rubbed her shoulder. “I took the liberty of radioing the United Forces base in Republic City, by the way. I told them to deliver a message to your parents so they’d know how everything turned out.”
“Thank you,” Naoki replied, a small smile finally appearing.
“Well, maybe before I die they’ll finally be able to run phone lines between here and the mainland.” Iroh rolled his eyes. “Waterbenders. If the Fire Nation were in charge, it would have been done already.” He clapped her arm. “Well, anyhow. I also told them to bring some more breakfast. I don’t know about all of you, but I was too full of nerves to eat earlier.”
“I’m not sure if I can eat even now,” Naoki said. “But thank you, Uncle. You’re very kind.”
“Yes well, I promised both your fathers I’d keep an eye on you. Can’t have you feeling so sad all the time, hmm?” His uncle’s smile was a little wistful. “Speaking of which, I know the court is in mourning, but I told them to serve us breakfast out in the garden. It’s shaping up into a beautiful day and I think our little Lozan here could use some fresh air.” He leaned towards the baby. “As could I, Your Highness.” Before any of them could say a word he whipped out another cookie and stuffed it into the delighted baby’s hand before taking him into his arms. “Eat fast, my boy, before they catch you!” Lozan immediately stuffed most of the cookie into his mouth.
“Uncle!”
“I’m old, Juziya. I’m retired. You can’t yell at me, even if you’re the Firelord.”
“On the contrary,” his sister replied, and Uncle took her arm and steered her towards the terrace that led to the family garden, meeting his eyes for a quick second. His uncle may have never married or had children himself, but he understood what warriors needed. What Naoki needed. She waited until they were out of earshot before turning back to him, her voice shaking.
“It’s done.” A tear spilled down her cheek. “It’s done.”
He took her into his arms, pulling her close, his lips to the crown of her head. “Yes. It’s done.” He held her then, as she began to weep.
Chapter 108: 212: Sayuri and Zu
Chapter Text
It had been one of her old classmates who had told her she really ought to go and listen to one of Professor Chongzhi's lectures. I can't even follow half of what he's saying about the stars singing but you'd probably love it, he'd said, toasting her return with a celebratory glass of sake and she figured she may as well. He was new to the University; he'd studied in Ba Sing Se and had been hired to teach in the astronomy department during her sabbatical up at the Northern Air Temple, working on her analytical engine. The Chongzhi family was from the north, if she recalled; long-term governors of the region that still bore their name. In fact, if she wasn't mistaken, there was a Chongzhi serving as prime minister there now. She'd ask Papa when she got home; he'd know of course, could probably even recite her the man's lineage back for twenty generations if she wanted. Oh, Papa. She'd loved her year at the Temple and working with Uncle Baatar had been a pleasure but she was so glad to be home. They'd all been waiting for her at the train station the previous morning when she'd finally arrived; Papa waving his already wet handkerchief frantically and Daddy smiling, GrandLin and GrandLo holding hands and QiQi, arms crossed, waiting until everyone else had hugged her and said hello before taking her close and whispering into her ear, Never again, and she hugged her QiQi just as tightly back and said, No, never, and she meant it, too. She would never leave them again.
The crowd in the auditorium was a mixed one; the expected students in their academic robes but also a surprising amount of civilians, including a starched up middle-aged gentleman who looked outraged before the talk had even begun. She had a sudden urge to send a kick his way, but refrained. You never did know, some people looked catawampus from how they actually were. Take Daddy, for instance. He often looked extremely grouchy about things but that's just how his face was. Daddy was a big old softie, much more so than Papa, who almost always looked perfectly amiable even when he was saying something so scathing underneath all of his charmingly polite words that most people didn't know he'd insulted them until hours after the fact. Although QiQi didn't count. QiQi always looked lethal, no matter what, even when QiQi was relaxed and smiling, teasing Papa or sneaking out with Daddy for a smoke.
The clock struck the hour. No professor. People started to get restless, murmuring to each other and glancing about the room, as if by doing so the missing professor would somehow magically appear from under the seats or something? Silly of them, really. If you really wanted to impress people with an entrance you could do better than appearing from under the seats. Swinging in on a cable, for example. Or flying in on a dragon. Or a badgermole, perhaps? Tunneling from up under the ground? There now, if you appeared from under the seats atop a badgermole, that'd be impressive. Might distract from the lecture at hand but people would talk about it for years, that's for sure.
Ten past. Still no professor. A few people got up in a huff and left. She could never understand this. What difference did it make? You were already in a place at a certain time and were going to be in the same place at that same exact time if the person was there so who cared if they weren't? Besides, she had her book to read.
Seventeen minutes past and a rather shambling, pudgy young man came running full-tilt through the door, his professor's robes unbuttoned and flying behind him, his tunic askew, his untidy black hair sticking up everywhere. He was fairly short; a bit shorter than she was, certainly, with brown eyes magnified behind thick lenses currently sliding down his nose. He had his arms full of papers and was trying desperately to hang on to them all.
She put her book down. She smiled.
"Er, yes," he said, shoving his glasses up his nose and gazing about the room. "So sorry about that. I lost track of time. There's a bird's nest outside my office window, you see, and the eggs are just about to..." he trailed off and cleared his throat. "Er. Yes. In any case. Thank you all for coming. I am Professor Zu Chongzhi and I'm here to introduce you to the theory of..." he caught the eye of the starched up middle-aged gentleman and faltered for just a quick moment before continuing, "...using sound to determine the distance between the stars." He sorted through the papers on the lectern, frowning. "Now, where did I put that pointer?"
"This is the guy?" asked a boy sitting to the right of her, eyebrows raised as he watched the professor find his pointer with a pleased A-ha!
"Just trust me, okay? He's brilliant," said the girl sitting next to him.
The professor launched into his lecture. He had a cultured and melodiously beautiful voice; educated within an inch of his noble life, obviously, and his passion for the topic at hand was clear by his excitement. He rocked back and forth on his heels; waved the pointer like a weapon, scribbled figures on the blackboard and ran his hands through his hair, easily explaining its disarray. His glasses refused to stay where they belonged and one of his spats came unbuttoned at the top and drooped down his calf, something which either escaped his notice or was not meaningful enough to interrupt his explanation of his theory.
She was completely entranced.
About a half-hour in the starched up middle-aged man had had enough. He started to heckle the professor; scoffing and attempting to argue with him, loudly insisting that his theory was superstitious nonsense. The professor tried to ignore him but that only served to make the man angrier. And louder, naturally.
She sighed. There was nothing for it. Reaching into her bag she produced a thin reed straw. She'd experimented with several different materials; metal, clay and even wood, but nothing beat a reed straw for both distance and speed. She chewed up a bit of paper (a corner torn from a furious note sent to her this morning by Madame Zong, their next door neighbor, who was apparently not at all glad to find that she was back home after a year and banging about in her workshop late at night) and quickly brought the reed to her mouth and shot the spitball, aiming for his neck right below his ear. It was a sure hit; Meelo had shown her how to do it when she was a child and she'd practiced exhaustively until she got it right. His hand flew up to investigate as he sputtered and quickly looked around; nothing to see but a group of innocent people, looking at the professor. He scowled but was silent after that.
It didn't last. Five minutes later he was at it again, stabbing his finger into the air, proclaiming the professor a fraud. Splat went the second spitball, this one straight onto his cheek, followed by a furious squawk. She had dropped the straw into her lap and had looked back at the professor quick as lightning but not quite quick enough; the professor's eyes widened just slightly as the man shouted, meeting hers across the room. She winked at him and his mouth twitched before he continued smoothly on.
Third time was the charm, as her GrandLo always said; the man started up again. Tiresome, really. She landed the third one directly into his ear and the man screamed, red-faced, in a most satisfactory way. This time he was escorted out, still bellowing, by two rather burly undergrads, leaving the professor to finish his lecture in peace.
She waited, after he'd finished, for the crowd to disperse. It took awhile; the listeners were clearly intrigued and barraging him with questions, which he was eager to answer, his hair taking flight with the abuse he was giving it. Finally he threw his hands up, telling them that he'd long overstayed his reserved time in the hall and inviting those who still had questions to come to his next class where he'd be happy to take further queries. She sat there, her legs crossed under her, watching him gather up his things, shuffling his papers together, trying to keep any of them from escaping.
"So it's you I have to thank for getting my biggest detractor out of the hall for me, then?" He looked up at her and smiled. Her heart felt like someone had squeezed it, knocking the breath right out of her. Oh, so this is what it feels like. She returned his smile.
"I came here to hear you, not him. Although I have to say that I need to put the phrase I will see to it that you are denounced from this University into my back pocket. It was very romantic villain of him, wasn't it? One almost expected him to twirl his mustache. If he had one, that is. Perhaps he should grow one. Might give him a little more of an astringent flair."
"Well, it certainly couldn't make him look any worse." He jammed a pen into his breast pocket. An ink spot blossomed. "I haven't seen you at one of my lectures before, have I? You aren't one of my students." He shoved his glasses up again and promptly dropped half of his papers. "Oh damn," he said, resigned, as he stared down at them, sighing. She laughed and hopped out of her seat, picking them up and taking the rest out of his hands before yanking the tie that was keeping her curls back out of her hair and wrapping it around them. "Ah, that was nicely done! You've saved me again, Miss...?"
"Sayuri."
"Miss Sayuri. I don't believe I've ever seen anyone spit with such accuracy before." His eyes were sparkling behind his glasses. He took the bundle from her. "And I'm afraid I've upset your hair."
She flicked her hand into the air. "My hair is always upset about something or the other. Pay it no mind. I certainly never do." She grinned. "If you want to thank me you can let me take you for tea so I can pick your brain all on my lonesome."
"Well, I suppose it's the least I can do." He smiled back and her heart thumped at her again. "Do you have somewhere in mind?"
"I do. My favorite tea shop is across town, they make the best fruit tarts in the city. I have a car, even. I promise I'll take you home when we're done. What do you say?"
"I say I'm never one to refuse the best fruit tarts in the city, that's what I say." He blinked in surprise as she tucked her arm in his, leading him to where she had parked. He stared at the car. "This is your car? You drive this?"
She laughed. "It belongs to one of my parents. I borrow it when I need it." She opened up the passenger door with a flourish, bowing him in. "No worries, I'm a good driver. Well. I suppose I could just be saying that in order to get you into the car without a fuss, but I really am, I promise."
"It's like a race car," he murmured as he sat down, letting out with a yelp as she pulled away from the curb with a screech of the tires. He was laughing, however, and she put on some extra speed as it flew around the corners, grinning at him.
She led him into the shop, the bell above the door ringing merrily. An older woman came from around the corner, smoothing down her apron. She took one look at her and beamed. "Why, Princess! You've returned! Your father was in here just a few days ago, he was tickled pink you were finally coming back to us. Have you come to pick him up some tarts?"
She leaned with her elbows on the counter. "I will take him some tarts, Aiko, but first my friend and I will have some tea and tarts here." She smiled. "I was telling him that you have the best fruit tarts in the city." She turned to find him staring at her, bemused. "No really, they do!"
"Well, take a seat then, I'll be right back out with the tea."
She sat down at a table and gestured to the professor to join her. "It's the princess thing, isn't it? Ignore it. I always do."
He disheveled his hair even further, and she gazed at it, fascinated. It was practically defying gravity at this point. "I humbly beg your pardon, Your Highness. I had no idea who you were." He bowed.
She flicked her hand. "Oh, please sit down. Never mind all of that. My father abdicated years before either you or I were born. I'm sure your family cares more about the trappings of nobility than mine does."
"I rather doubt that," he said, but he sat down anyway before jerking up in his seat. "Wait, you've been away working on your...oh wait, what is it called? Er..."
She grinned. "My analytical engine. And yes, I have. I just returned yesterday morning. On the train. Which I do not love, but I didn't want them to bother with the airship. Besides, it's always worth a train ride to have people waiting for you when you disembark, isn't it? It's a lovely feeling."
"But Princess, surely you have more important things to do than come to one of my lectures!"
She leaned forward. "Yes. I have. In fact I gave up an extremely important session of going next door and apologizing to our neighbor for waking her up last night by banging about in my workshop." She gestured at the display case. "My father will shout about it, despite the fact that I am an adult now and should really be above scolding. Thus the tarts." She continued to lean forward across the table until they were nearly nose to nose. "They are a royal bribe," she whispered, and was delighted when he laughed.
He ate four of the tarts, spilling tea down his front without noticing. He used their spoons to show her how gravity pulled and forced stars apart; she borrowed his pen and sketched out her machine for him on a spare scrap of paper she scavenged from her bag. He told her that his family was horrified that he had gone into academia - which they considered a lower class profession - and had practically disinherited him over it; she told him that all three of her parents despaired of her wardrobe. It was only when Aiko came to their table with a large white box tied with string and told her that the shop was closing that she realized how late it was.
"Oh, GrandLo will have my head if I am late for dinner." She threw herself into the car, quickly tying her hair into the scarf she kept in the glove box. "Listen, come with me, why don't you? I'm not sure what's for dinner but it's always good."
"But Princess-"
"Sayuri."
"Ah. Er. Sayuri. I haven't been invited."
She laughed. "I just invited you." She pulled away and put her foot down on the gas. "And anyway, you don't need an invitation. You'll see. Trust me. We're not a normal family."
"I'm not really dressed for dinner!" He gestured down at himself, noticing for the first time both the tea and ink stains. "Oh blast it, anyhow. This was a new tunic."
"I'm never dressed for dinner. But at least I don't show up with specimens in my pocket." She skimmed the car around the corner, feeling two of the tires take air.
"Specimens?" He was holding on tight but otherwise showed no fear. "Oh that's right, your brother the Crown Prince is an entomologist, isn't he?" He leaned towards her. "Are you sure? That it's okay for me to come?"
She hit the bridge heading north full tilt, her heart slamming in her chest. She wanted to laugh, to dance, to spin in circles and fly. "Come, stay. Both. You can do both." She grinned into the wind as she took him home.
Chapter 109: 212: Sayuri and Zu
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt.
Chapter Text
Zu had lived in Republic City for nearly a year but had never made it to this part of the city before, the neighborhood on the other side of the North Bridge. It was upper-class; the streets quiet and clean and lined with trees, the residences nearly palatial. Sayuri had pointed at one stately house as they flew past it in that amazing black race car, telling him it was her older sister’s home.
Her own home was just around the other side of the lovely park that took up three city blocks. It was three stories high, the front landscaped to perfection, marble badgermoles guarding the front door. There were quite a few cars parked in the curving drive.
“Vaatu’s arse-badgermole!” she swore, pulling the car up to a garage, her face dismayed. “Oh, that’s not good.”
“What’s not good?” He was trying not to stare at her. She had the most glorious nose he’d ever seen.
“I might have forgotten that my entire extended family was showing up for a welcome home dinner tonight.”
His mouth opened. His brain attempted to find something to say. It failed. “Er…yes…?”
She turned to him, her grin sheepish. “I have a large family. And I think some of them came from Zaofu. For this dinner, I mean. Which, I did know about, but I got caught up in your stars and I sort of…forgot.”
“Oh. I er…well. I can take a cab back to the university, Princess. I wouldn’t like to intrude.” The breeze was pulling one of those springy curls of hers across her mouth and he had to put his hands under his armpits in order to keep himself from touching it.
“Sayuri Hou-Ting, there you are.” A very small and very plump matron was descending upon them. She had long hair, beginning to silver at the temples and piled on her head with ornate combs. She shook her head with an expression he’d guess was exasperated fondness. “I’ve laid a dress out for you on your bed, along with shoes and jewelry. Quick now, get changed and then meet me in Lin’s bathroom, I’ll fix your hair.”
“Auntie Nuo!” Sayuri jumped out of the car and hugged her.
“No time for that, do it later. Go on with you, I’ve got Orchid giving your father champagne to keep him quiet and if this takes too long he’s going to get sloppy. Whoosh whoosh!” She waved Sayuri towards the house.
“What about Zu?” Sayuri hovered. The woman turned to stare at him, eyes narrowed.
“Leave that to me. Go on through the kitchen, avoid your father at all costs. He thinks you've been getting dressed this entire time.”
“Despite what you think, I am completely capable of taking care of myself,” Sayuri said, putting her hands to her hips. The woman only snorted her opinion of this.
“Yes, dearest, of course you are. Whoosh whoosh now!” Sayuri looked at him, eyes laughing, shrugged and ran for the house. The woman returned her gaze to him. “Now. Who are you, then?”
“Er…I am Zu Chongzhi, Madame.”
She lost focus for a moment, murmuring to herself. “Chongzhi…Chongzhi…ah!” She raised a triumphant finger. “Of course. You’re one of Chunhua’s boys, aren’t you?” Her look was speculative.
“Yes, Madame.” He wondered how on earth she knew his mother.
She shook that finger at him. “Yes, now I remember. The one that is interested in the stars, yes?”
“Yes, Madame.”
“And how do you know Sayuri?”
“I…er…well. I just met her today. At my lecture.” The woman was waiting, eyebrows raised. “On the stars, you see. The lecture, I mean. And she spit a spitball at my biggest detractor and got him to leave and then took me to tea in her race car.” He realized, as he was saying it, how foolish he sounded. “She brought me home for dinner. I’m not dressed for a family dinner! I should have refused but…I don’t know. I just…we were there. And now we’re here.”
The woman smiled, suddenly, two very friendly dimples appearing below her mouth. “Zu, my dear, the only person on this earth that has ever been able to tell Sayuri no is her parent Qi, and even Qi doesn’t do it very often.” She gave him an appraising look. “Well, we’ll give you a once over, it will have to do.”
“I…er…?” He looked about him helplessly. This was not how his family did things. In fact, he thought that if she were in the same situation his mother might actually need smelling salts.
“Come along now. I’m Sayuri’s aunt, Nuo Beifong, by the way.” She started to walk back to the house at a rapid enough pace that he had to jog a bit to keep up. It took him a moment to process who she was; when he had, he stopped short, aghast.
“Madame President!”
“This isn’t a state dinner, dear. This is family. Auntie Nuo is fine.” She waved at him. “Whoosh whoosh, Zu!”
He whooshed. He had no idea what else to do. She took him into what was clearly a private room off the kitchen, into the bathroom, and then, to his consternation, made him wash his face and hands, combed his hair, discarded his academic robe to the side and tidied up his suit, clucking at the stains. She told him to clean his glasses and stay put, left him alone and then returned with a Water Tribe woman, introduced as the wife of one of Sayuri’s many cousins, who bent the tea and ink right out of his tunic. “Thank you, Amak dearest,” she said, and the woman winked at him before greeting Sayuri, who was coming in as she was leaving.
Sayuri was dressed in a long cheongsam of yellow silk, embroidered with white lilies, imperial jade in her ears and on her wrist. “Finally! Sit.” Her aunt produced hairpins and twisted the mass of her dark brown curls into an elegant and simple knot along the back of her head, pinning it firmly, ignoring Sayuri’s impassioned yelp as a pin went in too deep. She took up a pot of rouge and blended a little into her cheeks and onto her lips. She looked at the both of them and nodded. “Well, there. Acceptable. Give me a few moments to sneak myself back into the ballroom and then come along. Don’t you dare do anything to that hair. Either one of you.” Out she went, her heels tapping along the floor.
He stared at himself in the mirror. His hair had been brushed back; his suit was clean and tidy, his spats firmly buttoned. She’d even managed, somehow, to make his shoes look polished. He thought even his venerable grandmother might have approved of him.
“You didn’t mention that your aunt was the president of Zaofu.” He started to laugh. It was ridiculous. This morning he’d gotten up alone in his rooms at the university and had gone over his notes before going to his office to make sure he had everything. It had been an utterly normal beginning to his day. And now, suddenly, mere hours later, he was standing in a bathroom with the youngest Hou-Ting princess, after having his hair combed by the President of Zaofu, about to meet the former King of the Earth Kingdom. Uninvited, no less.
His mother would die.
She grabbed his hand and tucked her arm into his. “Yes, my extended family. Which includes the President of Zaofu, the Representative of Zaofu at the Gathering of Nations, two fellow professors at the University, the former King of the Earth Kingdom, the founder of the Bridge Clinic, the Leader of the Air Nation, half of the Fire Nation royal family, a mover star, oh, and I’m pretty sure the Avatar is here as well.” She giggled, putting a hand to her mouth. “Good thing I gave you some tarts first.”
“Were they really enough tarts, though?” He wanted to kiss her but was afraid that if he did he’d smudge the lipstick and bring her hair down, and then what would her fearsome aunt the President do? Oh, but she was beautiful. She was like the very stars themselves. He wondered, if he touched her in the dark, if they collided, would she sing?
“Most likely not. I guess I owe you a few more. Put them on account?”
“It’s going to be a large account.” He couldn’t stop smiling. Neither could she.
“I can do that.”
They gazed at each other in the mirror. She was taller than him, he realized, just a bit, slender where he’d always been pudgy, her skin several shades darker than his, her hair like nothing he’d seen before. She was so intelligent; she’d followed along as he shared his theories with her, asking questions, yes, but he’d never once lost her in his explanations. Her analytical engine, too. What kind of a mind could even imagine such a thing? He needed to know her mind, needed to fall into the depths of it, see how the world looked to someone like her.
“We’d better go before they come hunting for us.”
He nodded at her, and she leaned forward to whisper into his ear. “When this is all over and no one cares about my lipstick I’m going to kiss you, Zu Chongzhi.”
He turned his head to whisper into hers. “Not if I kiss you first, Sayuri Hou-Ting.” She laughed at that, delighted, and tugged him after her as she practically ran out of the room.
Chapter 110: 212: Sayuri and Zu
Summary:
Archived from the OC Kiss Week 2018 prompt from Tumblr. First kiss: Sayuri and Zu
Chapter Text
It was one of Sayuri’s cousins - one of the President of Zaofu’s daughters, the youngest one, he believed, called Poppy? There were several of them, all named for flowers - who had casually walked past them and had said, under her breath, “I’ll distract them, you go,” and a few moments later had dropped a champagne flute on the floor, making a fuss as Prince Hou-Ting reassured her and called for a maid to come and clean it. Sayuri had grabbed his hand and yanked him behind a pillar, stifling a laugh, dashing through a door to the back garden that was held discreetly open by the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, of all people.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, Button,” he said with a grin, and closed the door behind them.
She pulled him along behind her, stopping next to a stone bench under a plum tree to kick off her shoes, a stray curl sliding down her cheek as she laughed. “Come with me, I want to show you something,” she said, and drew him further in, taking him on a footbridge over a lovely pond and through an elegant pavilion, around a wealth of peonies and roses and red elm trees, the garden quiet in the moonlight but for the chirping of a few grasshopper crickets.
“How big is this?” he asked, marveling. He could smell jasmine mingled with cedar. “It must take up an entire block.”
“Yes, it’s pretty big for a city house. It belonged to my GrandLin’s mother, back in the day.” Another curl burst out, spiraling down the back of her neck. She had a long, tapering neck, graceful like her expressive hands. “It’s my favorite place in the world.” She stopped and pointed up. “You can see the spirit portal from here as well.”
“And the stars,” he said softly.
“Yes. That’s what I want to show you, come on.” Another tug and he followed her, laughing. “My father hated the palace in Ba Sing Se, for the most part, but he loved the gardens. When he first bought the house, oh, I don’t know, it’s been, what, thirty-five, thirty-six years now…” she stopped suddenly in the path and he collided with her. She didn’t seem to mind, just regained her footing and tucked her arm in his. “My gracious, I suppose it has been that long.” She shook her head and then pulled him along again. “Anyhow, he and the gardeners have been working on it all these years. Not that he does any of the actual work himself, my father is opposed to dirt.” Another laugh. “And then he got me, poor old dear. Ah! Here we are.” She gestured to a building set very close to the back wall of the garden itself.
“What’s this?” He watched, fascinated, as another curl slithered its way out.
“This, my sumptuficent Zu, is my workshop. It was my birthday present when I was ten years old.” She lifted up a rather squat ornamental frog squirrel set next to the door and plucked up a key. “Daddy put that there, I was always misplacing my key.” She unlocked the door and put the key back in place before bowing extravagantly. “Please come in.”
The room was awash with equipment of one kind or another; what he thought might be engines, tools hung up for the most part on the walls, bits of metal scattered across worktables, sketches of mechanical things - rendered precisely, unlike the chaos of the room itself - pinned to the walls, a stove and a quantity of glass jars and beakers, and, incongruously, a large pot of brightly colored sunflowers.
“Er…it’s…er…” he waved helplessly.
“Yes, I know. The maids aren’t allowed in here. They put things away where they don’t belong and then I spend hours finding things, using language that shocks my Papa and makes Daddy glare at GrandLin, who of course is never even remotely sorry.” She tilted her head, thinking. “My QiQi doesn’t mind so much, but that’s QiQi for you.”
“The maids aren’t allowed in my office either,” he said, picking up a long tube and staring at the gelatinous brown substance that had hardened inside. “For that very same reason.”
“Oh, don’t break that, Zu, it’s poisonous to inhale.” She shoved at an escaped curl and several more drooped down, a hairpin hitting the floor with a faint tinkle.
“Oh, quite,” he said, and put it down carefully. Her fists were on her hips as she surveyed the room.
“Well, it was clean when I got home but I was up all last night working on something.” Another pin dislodged. “Or was it the night before?” She shrugged. “Well anyhow. What I wanted to show you is up on the roof.”
“On the roof?”
“Yes, come on.” She gestured and ducked behind a black velvet curtain. “I set up a dark room back here, sometimes I take photographs.”
“Oh! There is a professor at the University who says he thinks it possible to make a camera that could photograph the stars. I’ve been working on the math for it.”
She flung the curtain back. “Really? It would just be a matter of magnification and curvature, yes?” At his nod she gestured again. “And a very large camera, of course. Lens, really, the camera itself shouldn’t be all that difficult to build once you had all of that worked out. I wonder…my Uncle Huan can bend sand into glass…” she trailed off for a moment before shaking her head, hairpins flying. “Anyhow! Hold that thought for later!” She grinned. “Up the stairs!”
He followed her up a circular metal staircase, a bit wobbly, watching as she unhooked a trap door, grunting a bit as she shoved it up. It led to a flat roof, disguised behind the usual friezes and ornamentation, complete with two folding camping chairs and a telescope. With a cry he immediately headed towards the telescope, running his fingers over it carefully. “Why, this is a Zhanjing telescope, Sayuri!” It was in beautiful condition, no less, clearly cared for. “What do you do with it when the weather is poor?”
“One of the gardeners is in charge of it, he brings it outside on nights when it’s clear, otherwise it stays inside, safe and sound.” Her smile lit up her face. “In return he can look through it as much as he likes. He’s very fond of the stars.” She came and stood next to him. “I thought you could show me some of the ones you were speaking of today.”
“Really?” He couldn’t stop himself from returning her smile. “Do you know, I think you’ve lost most of your hairpins.”
“Damn my hairpins,” she replied, and plunged her hands into the mass of her hair, shaking at it, laughing as it sprung free. “They stab my scalp and I loathe them.”
“You missed one,” he said, and reached for it, sliding it out carefully and putting it into his pocket. Her hair was surprisingly soft; he’d expected it to be coarse but it wasn’t, not at all.
“I think they procreate,” she said with a wry roll of her eyes, and he realized that without her shoes on they were very nearly of a height. “Oh, Zu, I want to kiss you.”
“Ditto, ditto, ditto, but wait just a moment,” he replied, and took his glasses off. “They get in the way.”
“Can you see without them?”
“Not a blessed thing,” he said, and shoved them into his pocket. “I just grope around helplessly without them.”
“Oh, grope away, then,” she laughed, taking his hand and putting it on her breast before moving closer to him. “Nothing I enjoy more than a good groping. Well, except dumplings. I do appreciate a good dumpling.”
“And who doesn’t? I might give up a good grope for another one of those fruit tarts.” He buried his face into that soft, springy hair. “Hmmm. Maybe not right this very second, though.”
“After all, we did have a very good dinner.” Her hands slid around his waist.
“We did. Although who knew that the former Earth King could glare like that?” He kissed along her jaw.
“Oh, I could have told you that.” And then her mouth was on his and he kissed for all he was worth, pressed against her, hands deep into that glorious hair. Their noses collided a bit but he was wholly unconcerned, as he assumed she was as well. “Oh Zu, I hope you aren’t expecting me to give up my maidenhead up here on the roof because for one thing, I expect it would be more than a little cold and for another my maidenhead deserted me some time ago.”
“Far too cold, and maidenheads are overrated, my own was lost to a rather vigorous girl who lived next door to my great-auntie.”
“Oh, was it a tragic story?” She laughed as she pushed a hand up into his tunic.
“Not in the slightest, although Auntie came hunting for me when I didn’t show up for breakfast and I had to run off with my trousers around my knees in order to escape her.” He kissed her some more. “That part was more than a little humiliating.” She was shaking with laughter in his arms, head thrown back, and he marveled at the sound of it; nothing like the polite tittering of the noble girls he’d grown up with but a riotous chortle, complete with several utterly entrancing snorts.
“I have just the one great-auntie here tonight but she’d likely cheer us on, Beifongs being who they are.” She brought her head back down to randomly punctuate her words with kisses.
“So long as you promise me I wouldn’t have to run through your garden with my trousers around my knees, I’m really not all that proficient at running even when they’re up.”
“Heavens no, no need to run through the garden when we could just hop over the wall into Madame Zong’s yard. She’d be scandalized but she’s far too old to run after us. Although her poodle monkey might chase us.”
“But think of the stories we could tell our future progeny!”
“Granny and Gramps met on a lovely autumn day, Granny listened to his brilliant lecture and took Gramps for tarts -”
“- and spitballed out his biggest detractor!”
“Oh, how could I forget that! And then Granny took him home to meet all of her family -”
“-a great deal of unexpected family!”
“-and then took him onto the roof to look at the stars but it was all a ruse, all she really wanted to do was kiss him and possibly get his trousers down around his ankles-
“-oh, lower than my knees, that’s ambitious-”
“-and then they had to outrun her family, over the fence, away from Cuddles-”
“-Madame Zong’s name is Cuddles?”
“-of course not, Zu, that’s the poodle monkey-”
“-that makes far more sense-”
“-and they ran away that very night and got married!”
They both took a breath. He stared at her - well, at the rather blurry smear that was her face - and even as nearsighted as he was he could tell she was smiling. “Should we?”
“Hmmm. I think my poor father might actually expire if we did. And I really do mean it, as far as I know his heart is fine but as he would tell me,” and here her voice changed, “Sayuri Hou-Ting! Princesses do not elope!”
“There’s also my mother. Worse, my grandmother.” He shuddered involuntarily. “They’d…you know, I’m not actually sure what they’d do. Something dire. My grandmother is…well. You’ll meet her. Her mother was one of your father’s advisors, you know, back when he was abdicating.”
“I suppose we had best do it the traditional way, then.” Her arms were around him, holding him tightly.
“I’ll write to my parents tomorrow.” He couldn’t stop smiling. He didn’t want to stop smiling.
“Excellent.” She pulled him even closer. “So now that we’ve worked that out do you want to do some more kissing? Trousers mandatory, at least on the roof.”
“Oh yes, I really do. I absolutely do.” And so he did.
Chapter Text
It was the sun, streaming in through the open curtains, that woke him.
He was disoriented, for just a moment, laying there, sprawled on his back. The bed was softer than the one that had come with his furnished rooms at the University; without his glasses on he couldn’t see much, but it was enough to recognize that this room was full of light, unlike the closed-in dark wood of his bedroom there. He blinked once; twice: with a gasp he sat straight up. “Oh, bones of my ancestors!”
He wasn’t in his bed. He was in Sayuri’s bed. Sayuri, as in The Princess Royal, Sayuri Beifong Hou-Ting. There he was, naked as anything and more than a little rumpled in a bed that was on the second floor of the dignified Hou-Ting mansion. The very same mansion that he’d first stepped foot in the night before.
“My mother will kill me,” he whispered, horrified, before sitting up and scrabbling for his glasses. He found them on the nightstand, covered with a note, which he read as soon as he’d jammed them onto his face.
My dearest darling loveliest of Zus,
Good morning! Or perhaps it’s already afternoon, I don’t know, we didn’t have that much to drink, did we? Or perhaps we did. In any case, if you go downstairs to the kitchen you can get tea from Cork or possibly GrandLo. After that, come and find me in my workshop. Be a hero and bring me some more tea, would you?
Yours, just as passionately as I was last night (and this morning, I believe, we did go on, didn’t we?),
Sayuri
p.s. Avoid Daddy. He’s very grouchy in the mornings and not used to having strangers who have fraternized with his daughter at breakfast. Not that he would set you on fire or anything but my gracious, he can glare.
p.p.s. You’re lovely. I think I’ll keep you. Or you can keep me. I’m fine with either, really.
p.p.p.s. Don’t forget the tea, I take it black.
“Oh,” he murmured, faintly. He was smiling. Still horrified, but smiling. He wasn’t exactly sure how he could feel like this, like everything was perfect while disaster was hovering, but he was. How had it all happened? He still wasn’t sure. “I’m a normal person,” he announced to what he was fairly certain was an actual live purple pentapus in a small tank on a large desk covered with papers, pens, books and spirits knew what else. The purple pentapus showed no interest, not even bothering to watch him as he shoved through the cheerful chaos of her bedroom, trying to find the clothes he’d gleefully discarded the night before, after they’d snuck up the deserted servants’ stairs like teenagers, smothering their giggles, creeping through the dark of the house until they came to her room.
He managed to find everything but one of his socks, hurriedly buttoning up his spat over his bare leg. He quickly tried to smooth down his hair in her bathroom mirror, but gave it up. Hopeless, as usual.
He had no idea how he was going to get home. He was certainly not going to go to the kitchens; he didn’t have that kind of courage. Not to mention he wasn’t sure if Sayuri was right that her father wouldn’t set him on fire. Maybe he could manage to sneak out and he could just…walk? Until he found a tram? He could take a cab but he had no way to call for one. Distracted with his plans for escape, he eased open her bedroom door, walking as quietly he could out onto the landing.
“Going somewhere?” The soft voice came from nearly over his shoulder and he made a strangled squeak of terror. Oh, spirits help him, it was Sayuri’s mother. She - no, they, Sayuri had told him, her mother preferred they - was standing there, arms crossed, a single eyebrow raised.
“Er…ah…” He sincerely hoped that there would be enough of him left to send to his mother to bury. “I…er…” He gestured helplessly. Oh, he was dead. So dead. He knew about them, of course, who didn’t? All of that Royalist business before Sayuri had been born, for one thing.
Sayuri’s mother nodded. “Spent the night? Yeah, I knew that.”
He tried to say something but only managed a croak.
“Did she leave you to face the music on your own?” Her mother sighed, shaking their head. “That girl. Out in her workshop, then?”
He nodded and swallowed.
A snort. “Typical. Well, come on then, you could probably use some breakfast.”
“I…aren’t you going to kill me?” He blurted it out and then felt his face burn.
Sayuri’s mother actually laughed at that. “I try not to kill anyone before breakfast.” They reached across and gently clapped them on the shoulder. “Sayuri’s a grown woman, she knows her own mind. The last thing she needs is me or anyone else trying to defend her honor or whatever you aristocrats call it.” They cocked their head. “She’s like this, you know. She’s single-minded. Whatever it is she’s working on out there, she’ll lose herself in it. She won’t eat or drink if she isn’t reminded to, won’t sleep until she drops on the floor.” They watched him for a long moment. “Doesn’t mean she doesn’t care about you. It’s just how she is. You follow?”
He nodded. “I….I do, actually. I do.”
“Well, as long as you do.” Her mother smiled again. They didn’t look quite as terrifying when they smiled. “Well, come on then, it’s safe. Meili invited everyone over for brunch, I’m the only one around. I wanted to make sure you’d find a way home.” They gave him a gentle little push. “Go on, then. I’d better head over there before Wu starts to fuss about it or Mako gets suspicious.” They started to walk towards the stairs, but not before throwing over their shoulder, “Take her some tea, she likes it black.”
He stumbled around for a bit before he found the kitchen; there was a plate already made up for him, and the teapot had leaves in it, sitting next to the full kettle, waiting to be boiled. Was it her mother? Or the cook? He had no idea, but he ate the breakfast in several grateful gulps as the tea brewed. Carefully wrapping up the pot - and taking it along with the two cups sitting next to it on a tray, was this house always like this, anticipating every strange need? - he made his way into the garden, walking past the koi pond, trying to find the workshop, making a few wrong turns but finally locating it, back along the far edge of the property. He pushed on the door with the tray until it opened, and he walked in, his nose wrinkling up a bit at the acrid scent of burnt copper. She was sitting at one of the tables, dressed in a bright orange and blue striped coverall, her hair wrapped up in a pink silk scarf.
“Er…” he said, not wanting to alarm her, but she immediately glanced up and that sparkling smile burst forth.
“Zu! My very best, resplendent, adored Zu!” She laughed. “Have you brought me tea? If you have, I swear I will love you for life.”
“I have, as it happens.” He was smiling in return. He couldn’t stop himself. He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened to him in the past twenty-four hours, but he knew he never wanted it to end.
“Did you avoid the Daddy dragon?” She slid off her stool and came to sniff at the teapot. “Oh, ginseng, my favorite.”
“Apparently your sister has invited them all for brunch. No one was home.” He took up the pot and began to pour. “No one but your mother, that is.”
She laughed, taking the cup off the tray, blowing on it. “Oh, did QiQi sneak up on you? They do that. A lot, actually. Like a ghost. Very stealthy. Papa has sworn for years he’s going to make them wear a bell.”
“I thought I was a dead man.” He made a face at her, but she only laughed harder.
“Oh no, QiQi would never.” He wasn’t so sure about that, but he let it drop for the time being.
“I should probably think about going home.” She merely waved a hand at that, however.
“Oh, I can take you later. Say though, when you say no one was home, did you mean no one as in no one or no one as in perhaps a few people skulking around suspiciously?”
“I didn’t see anyone but your mother and they said they were going to your sister’s.” He blinked and peered at her table at a long, knitted gray tube that had been placed over a beacon of something that was bubbling suspiciously. “Er…Sayuri. Is that my sock?”
She glanced over. “Oh, is it yours? That would explain why it didn’t look like one of mine. I’m afraid I’ve used it as a filter. Huh.” They both stared at it for a moment. “I suppose I owe you a new sock. Or two socks, really. They do like to come in pairs, don’t they? Which is quite unfair, after all, some of us have three parents instead of two.”
“And think of how useful it would be to have socks come in three.”
“Oh quite! Just in case one got lost.”
“Or a princess stole it to use it as a filter.”
She laughed at that, and threw her arms around him, nuzzling at him before reaching over to take a tea cup, taking a swallow. “Oh, you feel exactly perfect in my arms. You’re so deliciously soft in all the right places.” She squeezed again, sloshing a bit of tea on his ear. He didn’t care.
“My grandmother says I’m too chubby.”
She snorted. “Nonsense. I quite like all the squishy parts of you. In fact, I think I’ll need to get you some more tarts. For optimal squishiness, you know.” He buried his nose into her cheek and kissed her. “Zu?”
“Sayuri?” He loved the way she said his name, her accent a strangely appealing intermingling of the very poshiest of Ba Sing Se’s slow, resonant burr and Republic City’s long vowels and clipped consonants.
“It seems we’re home alone. Do you think we should take advantage of that?” She laughed rather wickedly in his ear and he took the cup out of her hand and put it back on the table before kissing her for all he was worth.
Chapter 112: 212: Lin
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt.
Chapter Text
Lin sat back in her chair, her eyebrows raising. “Run that past me one more time?”
“We’re getting married.” Sayuri smiled across the table before dishing herself up some rice.
“I beg your pardon?” Wu’s chopsticks were frozen in midair. “I seem to have misheard you.”
“Well, unless you heard me tell you that someone is getting buried, then no, you didn’t, Papa.” Sayuri tucked a curl firmly behind her ear, her expression mild. “Pass the pickled eel, please.”
“You just met this boy three weeks ago! You are not getting married!” Mako’s expression did not bode well. Lin met LoLo’s eyes and sighed.
“Mako…” she started, but it was too late.
“You can’t just walk in here and drop this on us! Where the hell is he, anyhow?” Mako threw his napkin down, glaring around the dining room as if Zu would suddenly appear out of the woodwork.
“Oh, I told him not to come tonight, that there would be plenty of shouting. No need for him to hear this particular argument, he’ll hear enough family squabbles in the future, I’m sure.” Sayuri rolled her eyes expressively. “Oh yes, and no worries, he’s already written to his family. Someone will be along eventually to ask you properly, they’re very traditional that way, his family.” Wei handed over the eel, and she favored him with a smile. “Thanks, Uncle Wei.”
“You got it, Button.” Wei was grinning, digging into his fish with relish.
“You going to move out?” Qi was quiet, sitting next to her. Sayuri reached over and took their hand in hers.
“No, Mama. Never. We’ll live here with you.” She kissed Qi’s hand and Qi smiled at her, tucking back the same curl that had broken free.
“Okay, Baby.” Qi kissed her hand in return and let it go, going back to their dinner.
“Okay? This isn’t okay! You just…this is not how it works!” Mako’s hands slammed down to the table. “You don’t just…I don’t even know that boy!”
“Papa knows the family,” she said, picking through the eel until she found the piece she wanted.
“Sayuri, that is hardly the point. I for one would appreciate it if you would explain yourself.” Wu’s mouth was drawn into a thin line. “This is not how a princess behaves.”
“Well, considering that Naoki went and busted up Sozui’s wedding in front of the entire Fire Nation court I’d say my behavior was at least a little more royal.” Her smile sharpened, just a bit. “After all, neither of us is engaged to anyone else.” A bite of eel; she chewed as Mako fumed and Wu huffed indignantly. “We considered eloping but decided that might be pushing it.”
Wu gasped, affronted, his hand flying to his chest. “An elopement! Sayuri Hou-Ting, don’t you dare even speak that word to me!” He put his other hand to his throat. “An elopement! I never! I can hardly even bring myself to say the word! You aren’t some middle-class merchant’s daughter, I would thank you to remember!”
Mako shook his finger at her, speechless for the moment, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head. The silence wouldn’t last for long, however. “I’m too sober for this,” Lin muttered, and reached for the wine.
Chapter 113: 213: The Hou-Ting Son-in-Laws
Summary:
A Tumblr prompt:
“It’s 3 in the morning.”
Chapter Text
It was the second night after he and Sayuri returned from their honeymoon that Zu was awoken by a shape at his side of the bed. Alarmed, he sat up and scrabbled for his glasses; however, he relaxed when he heard Tupilek's whisper, with its tonal prosody that was the hallmark of the Southern Water Tribe.
"Quiet so you don't wake up Button."
He managed to find his glasses in their case on his nightstand and put them on. Sayuri mumbled something in her sleep that sounded vaguely threatening and he leaned towards his brother-in-law, whispering as well.
"Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing like that. Come with me."
"It's three in the morning!"
"Closer to midnight, actually. Come on."
He wasn't sure what was going on, but Tupilek seemed a very decent fellow, so he fumbled his way out of bed while trying to avoid whatever was on the floor (his wife - his wife! - shed clothes like a two-headed rat viper shed its skin, which was to say whenever and wherever she dropped them) and managed to locate his dressing gown and slippers, mostly by feel. Closing the door as quietly as he could behind him, he shuffled towards his brother-in-law. "Er, is everything quite on the up and up?"
"This way. Mind the squeaky step."
He'd already learned about it the hard way; he'd gone down the night before for something to eat and had landed on it, wincing as it groaned. Just as he had opened up the icebox in the kitchen his mother-in-law had appeared in the room with him. Sayuri had told him that her mother had an uncanny way of ghosting about; he'd let out with a little shriek and dropped the milk bottle, which they'd snatched right out of midair before grinning at him and serving the both of them a little snack, sitting across the table from him, asking him about the honeymoon trip.
They seemed to like him. The entirety of her family seemed to like him, in fact. His maternal family - barring his brother Chao - did not seem to like Sayuri very much, which was hurtful, although not unexpected. It wasn't that they could argue with him marrying a Hou-Ting; even his dreaded grandmother had to approve that part of it. It was because they could not fathom why a Hou-Ting would want to marry him.
After he and Sayuri had announced their intention to marry his family had been invited to the Hou-Ting residence to meet Sayuri's family per proper, albeit slightly rushed, protocol. Her royal father seemed resigned to how quickly things were moving; her mother kept putting their hand on her father's arm, murmuring, "Mako," in a warning tone whenever her father started to express his reservations. He gathered this had not been the first time that they had played out this drama when it came to their unpredictable, capricious youngest daughter. His grandmother had arrived with his mother, father and next oldest brother Ning in tow; she had accepted a cup of tea and then proceeded to give her opinion with regards to Sayuri being able to do better than him, pointing out his weight, poor eyesight, academic leanings and lack of organizational skills as well as various other shortcomings. She'd ended her recitation of his general uselessness by offering Ning as a far more suitable husband instead. He'd sat there, breathless with humiliation, unable to dredge up even the simplest of retorts. He'd glanced over and had seen that Sayuri's royal father had gone quite white about the nostrils while her father's lip had curled up in a silent snarl. Her mother, on the other hand, had gone terrifyingly blank-faced, their hand tracing along a fan that seemed all at once deadly as well as beautiful.
It was his Sayuri, however, who had shocked him by leaping out of her seat, eyes flashing, letting loose with such a torrent of expletives in his defense that his grandmother had actually come over faint and had to be revived by one of her handmaids.
No one had ever come to his defense like that before.
Her royal father had not said a word, simply sitting there drinking his tea as Sayuri wound down, trembling in her fury, her father finally taking her arm and announcing that the two of them were going for a walk, leading her out of the room as his grandmother's handmaid carefully fanned her and waved salts under her nose while his mother sputtered, his own father merely staring at the floor, silent as usual in the wake of his wife and mother-in-law. Ning's mouth had hung open to reveal part of a tea cake in it and he felt a wild urge to start laughing but recognized that it probably would have been more than a little hysterical at that point. Her royal father had stretched his lips into something that barely passed as a smile and had looked his newly revived grandmother in the eye, saying, We will remind you, madame, that you are in our home. Zu is soon to be a Hou-Ting and we will not allow any insult of his person. Good day. He then turned to him and said, Come along, Zu, leaving Sayuri's mother to escort his family to the car that was waiting for them outside.
He had started to apologize but her royal father had shocked him by enfolding him into his embrace. My gracious, he had said. My gracious. Well now, I think you and I could use some tea after that, couldn't we? And perhaps a few fruit tarts as well. Sayuri tells me that you are very fond of them and so is her father, you know. Leading him along, her royal father had taken him to the kitchen where he ate several fruit tarts and listened to the former king tell him a funny story about a very small Sayuri taking every single pair of her shoes and sending them into the koi pond as an experiment to see which would sink the fastest.
It had been very kind. It had been even kinder when, after he had suddenly dissolved into hiccuping tears, her royal father had handed him a handkerchief and had come to sit next to him, putting his arm around him and making a sort of clucking noise that was oddly comforting. That evening Sayuri had held him close, kissing him everywhere, telling him that he was perfect, perfect, perfect, silencing his demurrals with her mouth against his.
It was then that he'd truly understood that she loved him as much as he already loved her.
His family had come for the wedding, of course. His grandmother, he was sure, would rather be caught dead than not make a showing at her youngest grandson's extremely propitious nuptials. He assumed she was happy, after all, even if she hadn't managed to marry off that wanker, Ning. A grandchild marrying into the Hou-Ting family! It was probably the only thing he'd ever done to satisfy her.
He followed Tupilek through the darkened peace of the inner courtyard, out the doors that led into the beautiful treasure box of a garden that was, he knew, his royal father-in-law's pride and joy. He paused for a moment - it was quite dark - but suddenly flame blossomed into being, held in the hand of his other brother-in-law, the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, grinning at him through its roiling light.
"Where's Ping?" Tupilek asked, and a shape in the dark resolved itself into Zhi's husband, long hair loose about his face, clad in a simple robe, his feet bare.
"I am here," Ping replied, his accent a lilting song. He'd never heard a Sandbender accent before meeting Ping. For that matter, he'd never met a Sandbender, either. They didn't exactly travel outside the desert, most of the time. Ping was easily the handsomest among the four of them, with a smoldering kind of beauty that was fairly intimidating. He should have probably been more intimidated by his royal brother-in-law, but the man had known Sayuri since she was born, had even been the one to give her the nickname that all of her family used. He clearly adored Sayuri as a little sister and the feeling was just as clearly mutual. Tupilek, on the other hand, was as workaday as possible, a plain man in both looks and background, but one of the finest men he'd ever met. He felt rather like a tag-along little brother next to the three of them. A rather short tag-along little brother at that.
"Er...is this a thing?" he asked, pushing up his glasses. "Do we often meet in the middle of the night?"
The Crown Prince laughed. "Not usually." He threw an arm around his shoulder. "Come on. I've got the whiskey. Ping, you've got the glasses?"
Ping nodded as the Crown Prince drew him deeper into the garden, still lighting their way. They wound around the koi pond, heading towards the lovely little pavilion on the other side. The Crown Prince lit several of the lanterns that were kept there and took a seat, waiting for Ping to produce, from somewhere on his person, four clay cups, passing them around once they'd been filled. The Crown Prince raised his own cup. "A toast to Zu, who has joined the august company of Hou-Ting son-in-laws. Welcome!"
"August, are we?" Tupilek chuckled as he held up his own cup. "To Zu."
"To Zu," Ping said, placing his free hand over his heart and bowing his head. "Welcome to the brotherhood."
He clutched his own cup, unable to stop the happy grin that was taking over his face. "Oh! Er...well, thank you. Thank you." He raised his cup and his brother-in-laws clinked theirs against his before drinking it down. He took a large swallow and coughed, his throat on fire as tears squirted out of his eyes.
"Breathe!" Tupilek put a hand to his shoulder, laughing, but not in a mocking way. "A little strong for you, hmm?"
He gasped in a few breaths. "I've never had whiskey before." Ping reached over and took the cup out of his hands.
"Worse, this is fire whiskey. Sorry Zu, it's my fault, I should have gone for something a little less potent." The Crown Prince grasped at his other shoulder. "You okay?" He nodded and put both thumbs up, still snuffling through the burn. "Good man," the Crown Prince said, and gave him a one-armed hug.
"I believe our mother-in-law has noted our meeting," Ping said, gesturing towards a window on the third floor. A silhouette was barely lit from within. Tupilek waved; after a moment the silhouette waved as well and disappeared, a curtain swinging back into place.
"Oh, will they mind?" He peered up a little anxiously.
"No, of course not, once they realized it was us," the Crown Prince replied before glancing back at him. "You do know Qi likes you, right?"
"Wu and Mako as well," Tupilek added.
"I do...well, I do hope so," he replied. "It was all, you know, very quick."
Tupilek's smile was just as broad and friendly as he was. "You did marry Sayuri after all, not Meili. I don't think the family actually expected her to do the normal thing and wait."
The Crown Prince snorted. "Don't talk to me about waiting."
"Our mother-in-law is the one whose opinion matters the most anyhow. Their husbands always come into line with them." Ping took another swallow of his whiskey.
"True enough. Not that it was always that way though, right Sozui?" Tupilek gestured with his cup. "You knew them all back when."
The Crown Prince looked thoughtful. "Hmmm. True, I met Qi when they were still the driver. But I'd argue they were still wielding a lot of influence, even then." A laugh. "Even if Wu and Mako didn't realize it."
"Oh?" Tupilek silently refilled all of the cups but his. The Crown Prince gazed into his own for a moment, thinking.
"The first time I came to stay with them, I was twelve. It was right after Bolin and Opal got married. And Qi..." he took a quick swallow, "...was in charge. A day or so after I arrived Wu decided to take us all to the zoo, Naoki and Zhi wanted to show me the badgermoles, and it wasn't just that Qi was driving. They were in charge. All of the kids did what they told them to and Wu did as well." He laughed. "I was shocked, not to mention confused. I'd grown up with servants, of course, and none of them acted like that! I said something about it to Naoki and she punched me."
Tupilek laughed. "That sounds about right."
"The entire time I was here, I couldn't get over it. Just thinking about what my grandmother would have done if her driver had even spoken to her, never mind ordered her around! LoLo was pretty familiar with the family as well and he confused me, but at least he was the person in charge of the household, half chef, half majordomo. My grandmother would speak to the head chef sometimes and always to the palace majordomo, of course, so that at least made some sense to me. I don't think I really registered that trip that he and Lin were a couple, but then again, I was twelve. But Qi!" The Crown Prince scoffed. "They were already acting like a parent, like a consort. But like I said, I don't think either Wu or Mako were really seeing it that way."
"Couldn't see the desert for the sand," Ping said, and the Crown Prince nodded at him.
"Exactly."
"Sayuri and I met when we were children," he blurted out, and then blushed when all three of them turned to look at him. "It was at the annual Flowering Blossom Ball in Ba Sing Se, this sort of party they had for the first few tiers of Earth Kingdom noble children. Er...well, obviously by the time I came along there was no Earth Kingdom left but all the old families trotted out their children once a year for it anyhow."
"Fascinating," murmured Ping.
"Well, mostly boring, really. Those sorts of things are never much fun. The year I was nine and she was ten she approached me out of nowhere, told me she was doing a science experiment, ate half of my piece of cake, and we caused a scandal by spreading a rumor that there was a secret party happening in the dungeons." He blinked as all three of his brother-in-laws started to laugh and he couldn't help laughing a little himself. "But my oldest brother found me lurking behind some potted plants and hauled me off and by the time I made it back to the ballroom she was gone."
"Classic Button," the Crown Prince chortled. "And you went along with it?"
"Er...well." He scratched at the back of his sleep-tousled hair. "I might have been the one to come up with the rumor in the first place." Their laughter intensified and he blushed, nearly plunging out of his seat when Tupilek thumped him on the back.
"So you recognized each other? As adults, I mean." The Crown Prince was grinning at him. It was more than a little unsettling. His mother's family had been first tier back in the day but sharing a friendly drink with the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation was so far outside of what he'd ever thought might happen to him that he was still having a difficult time wrapping his head around it.
"No. Well, she recognized me from the first moment she saw me at my lecture. I didn't recognize her, however." He gestured around his head. "Her royal father had put her hair into combs for the party, had pomaded it straight and it looked quite dark, I had no idea what it really looked like. I looked for her the next year but she never returned." His smile was a little bashful this time. "Er. But she told me who she was the night after we met." He couldn't stop his smile. "I still had her notebook, the one she was writing her experimental data in. She'd handed it to me at the party when Meili came to see what she was up to and I never got the chance to return it. I'd always kept it, I had it it with me here at the university, even."
Ping's smile gentled. "That is a very romantic story."
"Er. Yes. I suppose." He shoved his glasses back up. "I don't think I've ever thought of myself as being particularly romantic before."
"Those Hou-Tings will bring it out in you every time," the Crown Prince said, and raised his cup. "To the Hou-Tings!"
He didn't even mind the burn so much the second time down.
Chapter 114: 213: Mako and Qi
Chapter Text
Qi got out of the pool and grabbed a towel, scrubbing down at arms and legs. Mako had already wrapped himself in a towel and was staring glumly down at his stomach.
“Am I getting fat?”
Qi snorted. “No.”
“I am, aren’t I? I’m getting old, Qi.”
Qi slapped a hand across his ass as Qi walked past. “You could always go and join the grandpas who sit around playing Pai Sho all day. Grow a beard. Drink tea. Talk about the good old days long gone.”
“Fuck you. I hate Pai Sho.”
“Good thing you’ve still got a great ass to fall back on.” Qi smirked as Mako grunted in annoyance.
Chapter 115: 213: Sayuri
Summary:
Happy Birthday to Marezelle of the tender, passionate heart.
Chapter Text
"You can't wear that."
Sayuri turned and grinned to see Naoki standing in the doorway of her dressing room. "What? It has sparklies on it, that's appropriate, right?"
Naoki merely snorted at her. "Those are sequins, not sparklies."
She glanced down at the bodice of the long tunic she was wearing, covered in shimmering vertical ribbons of vivid greens, purples and pinks. "It's meant to be the Northern Lights."
"The Northern Lights?" Naoki stepped inside. She was wearing an utterly smashing asymmetrical dress of dark red and black, trimmed in gold. All very Fire Nation of her. She would lay yuan that Sozui and little Lozan were dressed to match.
"Uncle Huan sent it to me."
Naoki's eyes practically rolled right out of her head. "That explains everything. Look, Button, if you wear that to dinner Papa will have the vapors and we'll never hear the end of it. Wear the dress Fishy bought for you."
She blinked. "How do you know she bought me a dress?"
"I am old and wise in the ways of younger sisters," Naoki intoned, clasping her hands together and making a very solemn face. "I am the wise guru Naoki, I live on a rock in the middle of nowhere, thinking great fashionable thoughts."
"Eating nothing but raw beetle worms and scratching her ass for inspiration," said Zhi, filling her entire doorway. He often had to duck when coming into rooms but Papa had had all of the doorways remodeled and the doors replaced in their own house when Zhi was still a teenager to avoid that very problem. Very thoughtful of Papa, of course. Poor Zhi spent half his life with a red mark on his forehead as it was from all the bonking.
"I never trim my nails and my beard is to my waist," Naoki said, bowing at him gravely.
"All the better to store the beetle worms in," Zhi bowed in return, just as gravely. "Oh, grant us your adamantine wisdom, formidable fashion guru."
Naoki closed her eyes and made a deep humming sound, "I speak with the voices of a thousand generations when I tell the young dumbass here-"
"Hey!"
"-to take off that monstrosity and put on the dress that the sacred fashionista Meili has so carefully curated for her."
Zhi dropped into a kowtow. "Oh, mighty guru Naoki! We bow to your inexorable wisdom!"
Naoki waved her hands about in a lofty way. "Yes, yes, of course."
"Dinner is being served in less than an hour. Take that off immediately and change into the dress I bought you." Meili was suddenly there, frowning down at her. She looked beautiful as always, especially for a woman who was about to give birth at any minute, or at least in the next month or so. It was completely unfair. And uncalled for, on top of that. "The two of you stop encouraging her."
"Excuse you, I was trying to encourage her to take it off!" Naoki hip checked Meili, albeit very, very gently. "Go sit down or something before your blood pressure rises. I'll take care of it."
"My blood pressure is just fine," Meili snapped, her hands going to her hips. "Who told you my blood pressure wasn't fine?" Zhi winced and signaled with his fingers chopping across his throat for Naoki to shut up. "You know, there is a mirror right here, I can see you, Zhi."
"Oh boy," Zhi murmured as he stood up, getting suddenly very interested in looking at her new skunk squirrel fur coat. Well, new to her, anyhow. She had bought it the other week. It had the head, tail and all four little paws of a skunk squirrel dangling off of the collar, like some sort of delightfully macabre commemoration. She thought this was hysterical. Papa, on the other hand, had actually had hysterics when she walked in with Zu to meet the parentals at Kwong's for lunch right after buying it and QiQi had had to take him home, but not after shooting her such a dirty look she still felt unnerved from it. She guessed she'd have to save that particular coat for the times when her parents weren't around. Pity, though. It was black and white! That was fashionable, right? Zhi held it up in front of his face. "What the actual fuck is this?"
"Oh! My new coat! Do you like it?"
Meili closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "We are not going to discuss that...thing."
"Hey, the valet sent it to be cleaned, it doesn't have any bugs on it any more. I mean, I don't think it had any on it originally and I told the valet that but he told me that Papa would fire him if he didn't, so."
Zhi was nearly bent over laughing. "This is the ugliest thing I've ever seen." He waved it at Naoki, who took one incredulous look at it and started laughing as well. "Where did you get it it?"
"She bought it off some woman on the street." Meili barely managed to get the words out.
"Zu says he thinks I should add some red ribbons to it, just for a little more pizzazz." She beamed at the coat. "I just got it back from being cleaned a few days ago, I haven't had a chance to get to it yet."
This apparently was even funnier, because Zhi was whooping and Naoki was actually wiping tears out of her eyes. Meili looked like she would murder them all, but gritted her teeth, took in a deep breath, and turned to her. "Sayuri. Please put on the dress I bought for you."
She blew a raspberry. "I don't like that dress. And it's my birthday, after all."
"Sayuri!" Meili shouted, pointing her finger at her and Zhi appeared at her side, taking her elbow and kissing the top of her head. He and Daddy were the only ones who could manage it, Meili was as tall as she was beautiful. Which was to say, very.
"Okay, Fishy. Come on, I'm going to take you out and sit you somewhere comfortable and Naoki is going to dress Button, right?"
"Right." Naoki stood on her tiptoes to air kiss Meili's cheek, keeping her lipstick to herself. "I've got it handled. I'll make sure she's presentable."
"I am right here, hello!"
"And do something with her hair?" Meili was practically begging Naoki. "And make sure she has on stockings and shoes, she can't just go out in her bare feet like she did when Queen Gayatri came for dinner the last time."
"Of course," Naoki was smiling at Meili.
"I laid out her jewelry on her dressing table. And there's a little pot of rouge if you think you can-"
"Shhh," Naoki said, air kissing Meili again. "I dress every day for the Fire Nation court, you know. I really do think I can manage."
Meili's eyes filled up. "I'm sorry, I know you can. It's just Papa has spent so much time and wants everything to be perfect."
"You let me handle Papa, too. Go on now. Zhi will sit you down and go and find Tupilek, hmm?"
"I'm on it," Zhi said, and wrapped his arm around Meili, pulling a hankie out of his breast pocket. "Come on, Fishy." He gently propelled her out of the room, but not before giving Naoki a look over his shoulder.
Naoki waited until they were out of earshot before turning back to her and pointing. "Take it off. Let's move, we don't have a lot of time for you to dick around."
"Naoki!"
"Button, just do it, come on. I'll fix your hair and we can put on your jewelry and head on down."
She grunted in exasperation and yanked off the tunic. "I never wanted this stupid party anyhow. I hate parties! Papa knows fucking well that I do!"
Naoki's hug was firm and she leaned into it for just a moment before Naoki let go of her and pointed towards her trousers. "I know. It's just...get those off too, come on, get everything off now, we don't have all night."
"I am!"
"You're twenty-five today-"
"I do know how old I am, thanks ever so." She wadded up the trousers and flung them to the floor, scowling.
"And-" Naoki raised her eyebrow at the trousers "-you're the baby. Papa's feeling sentimental about it. So is Daddy, and Qi too. No, don't look at me, put on your slip."
She obediently wriggled into her slip. "Is Mama really feeling sentimental? They never feel sentimental about anything!"
Naoki just snorted at that, tugging at her slip to get it into place. "Even Qi gets sentimental sometimes. Not often, but sometimes. Stockings next. Come on, get them on."
"I can never mange the garter snaps in the back, though. Zu usually does it for me."
"I'll snap you in." Naoki motioned at her and she obediently started to yank her silk stockings on, slowing down as her sister clucked her tongue in exasperation. "Don't snag them, Button!"
Her lower lip started to tremble. "I'll just look stupid in this like I always look when I try to dress up."
"Hey. Hey. No, don't cry, look at me, Button." She snuffled and met her oldest sister's gaze. Naoki reached out and smoothed a curl out of her eyes. "You don't look stupid, baby. I know you don't like dressing up, but sometimes this whole princess gig is just a bitch, that's all. You just have to grin and bear it for a few hours. Be glad you're a princess here and not in the Fire Nation. I do things I don't like on a daily basis, trust me."
"I think they'd kick me out of the Fire Nation."
"Yeah, probably." Naoki winked at her. "Besides, I don't think red and black are your colors."
Naoki got her ready in a few short minutes, helping her with her stockings and shoes and getting her dress settled on her and buttoned up, pulling and pinning her hair into a braided coronet high up on her head, making sure all of her jewelry was on, putting just a little rouge on her cheeks and lips, even giving her a little spritz of the expensive scent she hardly ever wore. Despite her pierced ears she rarely wore jewels; just the simple jade band that was her wedding ring and the silver lily pendant with the emeralds Uncle Huan had given her when she was a little girl. Meili had pulled out all the stops, however; she had on the Earth Kingdom earrings that had been Mama's wedding present from Madame Zong next door as well as an amulet and several combs from the the ornate and enameled gold and jade wedding parure that had belonged to her paternal great-grandmother Yu. Somehow the last Grand Secretariat had managed to find the entire set after the palace had been looted when Papa was still a boy, spirits knew how. Gun had only met her once; he'd come for her official naming and presentation as a princess when she was one hundred days old to give it to her and had peacefully died in his sleep in their guest room that very night. According to Daddy Papa had been completely heartbroken and had cried for weeks and had observed all of the mourning rituals for an honored elder, including wearing white for the next hundred days. There was a shrine for Gun in the garden, right next to Grandmother Meili's but he'd been buried next to Grandmother Meili in the official royal cemetery at the old palace. Apparently that was not quite proper since Gun technically wasn't royalty but who was going to argue with Papa over it? He was the only real Hou-Ting left.
Well. Except for her.
"Do you think I'm a disappointment?" she blurted out as Naoki was peering at her hair critically, adding in a few more pins next to the combs for safety's sake. Naoki made a face at her.
"Don't be an ass, Button."
"As a Hou-Ting, I mean." Her lower lip started to tremble again. "I think I am. Papa should have had a real princess for a daughter, more like you. Or Meili. Well. Not that you aren't real princesses. But you know what I mean." She met Naoki's gaze in the mirror. "I'm the last Hou-Ting and look at me. I can't even pretend to be the part." A tear splashed down. "I know Mama didn't even want to have a baby and at the very least they could have gotten something better for all that effort."
"First of all, you are not a -" Naoki drew her head back. "Wait, how do you know Qi didn't want to have a baby?"
"I broke into Papa's safe and read his diaries," she sobbed. Naoki's expression was unreadable for a moment before she covered her face with her hands and took in a breath.
"Button. Button."
"Well, I was only eight at the time," she said in a tiny voice. "I wouldn't do it now."
Naoki put her hands down to shoot her a skeptical look at that, a real GrandLin special. "Does Papa know about this?"
"Obviously not."
"Fuck me sideways," Naoki muttered before shaking her head and scrounging around her dressing table until she found a hankie, handing it to her. "Blow your nose and wipe your eyes. And for the record, you are not a disappointment. Not for any of us, but especially not for Papa."
"I think he'd disagree."
Naoki grabbed her chin, scowling. Her sister looked very, very Fire Nation Aristocracy when she did that kind of thing. "No, he wouldn't. He loves you and he is very proud of you. Hideous coats notwithstanding."
"I like that coat!"
"Of course you do." Naoki knocked on her head. "Sayuri, you are who you are. You're brilliant and funny and kind and caring. We all love you, you know that. None of us want you to change, and that includes Papa."
"I'm not sure it includes Papa."
"It includes Papa. Don't argue with me, I'm your older sister and I know best." Naoki winked at her and then smiled. "Papa loves you just as you are, Button. He's very, very proud of you. He may not understand your analytical engine but he understands what kind of an accomplishment it is and you should hear him brag about you to everyone that will listen." Naoki laughed. "Even to the ones that don't want to listen."
"It's just..." she trailed off, not sure how to finish, but Naoki was too sharp to let it go the way Zhi or Meili would have.
"Cough it up. Go on. Something's up, so tell me about it. You know I can be discreet, when it comes down to it."
"I think I'm pregnant," she whispered, the first time she'd dared to put it into words. Naoki nodded and then smiled, her gold eyes sparkling.
"You think so, hmmm? You talked to Fishy?"
She shook her head. "I haven't talked to anyone yet. Everyone was busy with the party and I wasn't really sure and I didn't want there to be a fuss for nothing. But I went to Meili's house and read through some of her books about it a few days ago and I haven't had my period and I have some of the early signs."
"Sore breasts? Feeling tired? Maybe a little sick sometimes?" Naoki hadn't stopped smiling. She nodded. "Well. That sounds promising."
"Not the sick part, though. I haven't felt sick at all."
Naoki shrugged. "I never got sick either, although Meili was during the first part of all three of her pregnancies and so was Qi, I remember. Qi was sick off and on the whole time they were pregnant with you."
"They were?"
"Oh yeah. Qi had a rough go of it. I always wondered if they wouldn't have maybe had another baby but Daddy would have put his foot down, both he and Papa were worried but Daddy was a wreck."
"I didn't know."
"Yeah well, how would you? But everyone's different when they're pregnant, so there's no telling until it happens."
"I just...I don't want Papa to be disappointed if the baby turns out like me." There it was. Her greatest fear. Naoki just put her arms around her from behind and held her closely, however.
"That's never going to happen. Papa is going to be out of his mind with joy at the very idea of another grandchild, trust me on that one. Especially if that little Hou-Ting baby is anything at all like you. Especially that."
She stared at her sister in the mirror. "Promise?"
Naoki rested her head against hers. "I promise, Sayuri. And you know I wouldn't bullshit you. Papa loves you, so much, and you have never been a disappointment to him. Not as a daughter and never as a Hou-Ting. And I know he would tell you exactly the same thing."
"Okay," she said, rather tremulously, and wiped at her eyes with the hankie.
Naoki grinned again. "Not to mention, there's Zu involved, too. Talk about a weirdo baby."
"Hey!"
"Truth hurts," Naoki said, but she rocked her back and forth and laughed, that wonderful chuckle that always included everyone in the joke. She loved her oldest sister, very much. "We'll just keep this to ourselves tonight but tomorrow you go on over and let Fishy take a look, okay?"
She grimaced. "She'll be so bossy, though."
"Oh baby, she's been the boss of you since you were born. That's just how it is. But! Dab at your eyes one last time and put on your best royal smile and let's go before she comes for the both of us."
"That would not be a very happy birthday, would it?"
"Ha." Naoki pulled her up and walked around her, giving her a quick once over. "Okay, you'll do. Let's head downstairs." She took her hand in hers. "Where is Zu, by the way?"
"Oh, Auntie Nuo showed up early and took him away to the guest bedroom to dress him."
Naoki whistled. "Well, it was nice knowing him, anyhow."
"Poor Zu. I think he's terrified of Auntie Nuo."
"We're all a little terrified of Auntie Nuo." They started down the stairs together, Naoki still holding her hand.
"Not Papa, though."
"Oh, especially Papa."
"I'm telling him you said that!"
"Just shut up and eat your birthday cake, what a pain in the ass you are!"
She laughed and squeezed her sister's hand in hers, so happy to have her to herself, as always.
Chapter 116: 214: Sozui and Naoki
Summary:
Archive of a Tumblr prompt.
Sozui does politics.
Chapter Text
Sozui yanked at the fastenings of his jacket’s collar, his boots striking the marble floor hard enough to echo through the halls. Damn Lord Shigemi anyhow; why bother to come to court if he wasn’t willing to at least consider a compromise? He knew the man was still angry about the slight he'd given his granddaughter when he broke off their engagement but this was state business, not a personal reckoning. Ten long hours they’d gone back and forth today and he’d foolishly thought they’d actually made some progress and then the man stood up, that sour expression on his face, and had announced that he couldn’t possibly agree to any of the terms laid down and then he’d up and left. He’d seriously considered hurrying him along with a fireball up his pompous ass.
He cut through the garden, waving off one of the gardeners impatiently as she scrambled up to bow, striding past her to slam open the gate into his own part of the palace. Lozan and Naoki were at her parents’ house on Ember Island; he was meant to join them as soon as he could get this so-called minor territorial dispute settled but it’d been two weeks already and they were no closer to a resolution now than when they had started. “Damn it,” he muttered, and threw his jacket down on a bench in their training dojo, tugging his formal shirt off as well. He raised his hands and kicked his leg into the air, sending flame shooting across the room, his breath gusting out of him in a furious burst, throwing himself into his forms as he let the fire burn his anger out, panting with exertion.
“You’re so fucking hot when you’re mad.” He spun around to see Naoki leaning against the wall, her arms crossed over her chest. Her grin widened. “A productive day, I see.”
“What are you doing here? Where’s Zan?” He wiped the sweat away from his eyes with his bare arm, wincing as a trickle of it escaped him.
“He’s still with my parents. Hemadri insisted we come back to see what the holdup was. I take it Shigemi’s the holdup?”
“I can’t…every single damn time I try to reach a compromise he just ups and…” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m the wrong person for this. I told Juziya she needed to have someone else do it, but you know how she is when she decides something…” he trailed off as Naoki approached him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“You take tomorrow off. I’ll deal with Shigemi.” Her hand wandered up his bare back. “Mmmm, so hot.”
“I don’t…can you do that? I mean, legally?” He was distracted by her breasts pushing against his chest.
“I’m the mother of the heir. According to Fire Nation law, I can represent him in all legal matters that concern the state.” She nipped at his throat.
He pulled back a little. “How do you even know that?”
A wicked chuckle. “My father told me. How else?”
“Your father? How does…” He sucked in a breath as she bit his neck.
“How does he know Fire Nation law? This is my father we’re talking about.” Another bite. “But now we’re not going to talk about him or anyone else. You’re going to take me into our bed and fuck me stupid and tomorrow I’m going to fix your little problem so you can get the fuck off this rock and join your wife and son on vacation.” She squeezed at his crotch, making him hiss.
“I love you,” he said into her hair as he walked her slowly backwards, fingers fumbling at her tunic.
“Bet your sweet ass you do,” she replied, and laughed.
Chapter 117: 214: Meili
Summary:
Taking advantage of a very cold winter evening.
Chapter Text
“All hail the Queen of Ice,” Sayuri sang out as she skated backwards past her and Meili shot her a look. She was dressed in some sort of odd looking woolen trousers; if she wasn’t mistaken they were an old pair of Daddy’s, far too big for her and ten years out of fashion. Not that Button had ever given even the slightest damn for fashion. She was holding on to Ping’s hands as he teetered and wobbled on the ice, his usual poise frozen right out of him. Tupilek was gliding rapidly around the circumference of the pond and as she watched, sprang into the air and rotated twice before landing smoothly. She smiled at him. He’d loved skating as a boy; it was seldom cold enough in Republic City for the ponds in the parks to freeze solid so it was a rare treat for him now.
“Look at that man of yours go!” Naoki tucked her arm into hers. “How long do we give Sozui before he loses patience and either blasts a hole in it or stomps back to the house?” She glanced over at him, scowling down furiously at his feet as they refused to obey him.
“He’s going to land right on his ass if he doesn’t straighten those ankles,” she said, and Naoki snorted.
“Yeah, you tell him that.”
“No thank you.” She tilted her head down to press down on Naoki’s. “We weren’t expecting you.”
“I know. It was a last minute thing. But Zan’s been going on and on about seeing his grandparents so I gave my students a week off and here we are.”
“And Sozui?”
Naoki rolled her eyes. “He just showed up and asked me why we were leaving without him.” A burst of laughter from across the pond; Zu had gotten tangled into his skates and had pulled Zhi, trying to help, down with him.
She stroked her arm gently, not fooled for a second. “Lin really is doing fine. I promised you I’d let you know if she had another one of her spells and she hasn’t.”
“I know. It’s just…” Naoki’s nose turned pink at the tip, a sure sign she was trying not to cry.
“I know.”
“Are you two skating or gossiping?” Zhi called, still laughing as he guided Zu to his feet.
“Skating,” Naoki shouted back, and took off at a run, zipping past Sozui and grabbing Zhi by the arm, spinning him into a circle. She darted across herself, catching Zu’s elbow before he fell again. His eyes were dancing behind those thick glasses of his, his knitted hat, slightly too big, threatening to slide off. She righted it on his head with a smile.
“My hero,” he said, chuckling. “I’m afraid I’m not very good at this. Not like you lot are.”
“It’s only because I used to freeze over Papa’s koi pond when he wasn’t home so we could practice.”
“I can hardly imagine that was looked upon fondly. By your father or the fish.” He grinned up at her.
“Oh, it wasn’t.” She laughed and tucked her arm into his. “Keep your ankles straight and don’t step forward. Push away with your knees. Like this.” She demonstrated, very slowly, and he followed along.
“DAMN IT!” Ah, there was Sozui, down for the count.
“You know it’s easier if you skate standing up,” Naoki threw at him as she and Zhi did a showy spiral turn together. Sozui sent her a filthy look, sprawled on the ice, struggling to get to his feet.
“Maybe I should ask Tupilek for lessons,” Zu said, his eyes following him as he did another jump.
“You really should, he’d probably love it. Whoops!” She grabbed at him as his feet went out from under him. Typical Zu, though; he merely laughed, shoving the wayward hat back before adjusting his glasses.
“Maybe I should ask him for several!” He rubbed at an elbow, rueful. “I think I’ll tie pillows to my tender parts, first.” He watched Sayuri as she continued to go backwards, coaxing Ping along. “She’s safe to do this, right?”
She smiled. “She’s very safe. If she were trying any flashy moves I’d give her a shout but she’s going slowly and she’s always been sure on her feet.”
Zu scratched at his head, the hat in danger of sliding off. “You probably think I’m being a fusspot.”
She leaned down to kiss his cheek. He was not a particularly tall man, and she was a particularly tall woman. “No, I think you’re a first time father. Even Tupilek was nervous when I was pregnant with Linyi and he certainly knows better.”
He chuckled, grabbing at the hat again. “Well, I can’t be any worse than I assume Sozui was, right?”
“Sozui was a real pain in the ass,” she said, shaking her head as he crashed down again, his curses floating across the park. Naoki skated over at him and nudged him with her foot; he swiped at her ankle and she darted away again to grab at Tupilek’s hand as he twirled her. Zhi skated over to Sozui and offered his arm, bracing himself so that he’d keep upright. “There were a few moments there when we all thought Naoki was going to drop him headfirst down a live volcano.”
“She’s just…” He frowned a little. “She’s very slim, you know? Not much in the way of hips.” He glanced up at her before looking back at Sayuri. “I know I’m no expert, but I’m not a complete ignoramus on how childbirth is supposed to work.”
“I’ll be right there with her. I won’t lie to you, it usually makes it easier on the woman if she’s got a set of hips on her. But not always. And Zu, I am a very good midwife and she is my baby sister.” They watched as she flashed that smile at Ping, the one that lit up her entire face with its sparkle of wit. “She’s as precious to me as she is to you. I won’t let her or the baby come to any harm.” She wrapped an arm around him, her favorite of all of her brother-in-laws. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the others - she’d known Sozui since she was small, of course, and Ping, with his grave and rather formal manners was nevertheless kind and considerate and very good to Zhi. But she’d liked Zu from the first moment she’d met him, holding Sayuri’s hand as she’d proudly introduced him around their extended family only hours after meeting him. He and Sayuri were a pair; both of them brilliant and scatterbrained and full of humor, generous to a fault, curious and distracted all at once. She’d shuddered to think of the two of them setting up house together but they’d happily settled into the family home, where, in all honesty, Daddy would have preferred to have all of his children living. Papa had been thrilled as well to have Zu move in and had immediately dove into remodeling, throwing the entire house into an uproar, Lin threatening more than once to move out and never return.
And Mama? Mama had suffered so when Sayuri had been away for that year up at the Northern Air Temple, quiet and moody, losing weight that they could ill afford to lose. Daddy had finally come to her and begged her to do something but as far as she knew there was no cure for heartache. Mama had faked smiles as Button had left and had made sure their letters were cheery but the separation had been so hard on them. Even now she wasn’t sure that Button really knew the extent of how hard it had been on them.
She’d been jealous, as a child, of how much everyone doted on Sayuri. After all, she’d been the baby of the family for seven years! And then along came Button, with her terrible clothes, always forgetting to wear her shoes and leaving books and teacups abandoned around the house, her head firmly planted in the clouds. She’d always tried to be so good, such a perfect princess but what was the use? Button had charmed them all without even trying.
It hadn’t been fair. Daddy had always been close to Naoki, the both of them firebenders, spending hours together training. Papa and Zhi were thick as thieves with their books and studies. It was Mama she’d spent hours with, Mama reading to her, always willing to let her try her budding healing skills on them, holding her hand as they went on long walks together. And then along came Sayuri, and where Mama was Sayuri followed, the two of them inseparable. Even her place in Mama’s bed was taken over by the infant that, to her seven year old mind, did nothing but cry, inconsolable.
She’d resented her baby sister. Hated her, even.
All she wanted was to win back her Mama’s favor; desperate to show up her tiny, helpless foe. Therefore, in her determination to be noticed she decided to do the one thing she was the best at: Being a good girl. She took her duties as a princess seriously. She took care of her clothes, kept up her schoolwork, minded her manners, excelled at her waterbending studies. Other parents pointed her out as an example of perfect behavior to their own misbehaving children. She knew she was beautiful - she had a mirror, for one thing, and she heard what people said about her for another - and she made sure that she cared for her appearance as well. She was determined to be the very best Hou-Ting in the world.
Sayuri was none of those things. Her hair was a fright. She lasted three months at school before Papa threw his hands up and called Zhi’s old tutor. She frequently forgot her manners and had a tendency to wander off and was terribly sassy and always irresponsible. Even still, everyone loved her. Naoki adored her; Zhi was her steadfast champion and best friend. Lin doted on her, LoLo delighted in her, Daddy let her get away with murder and Papa, despite his reproving remarks, clearly thought the sun rose and set on her.
And Mama? She was their darling, precious baby.
She’d been twelve to Sayuri’s five when Button had come to her, eager to show her a clockwork man she’d made; drawing forth all the poison festering in her envious heart she’d rolled her eyes and told her it was stupid, something only a baby would make. Sayuri burst into tears, dropping the doll and running out of the room. She’d felt pleased with herself until she saw Mama standing there, arms crossed, looking at her with such disappointment that she couldn’t stop her own tears from coming.
That girl looks up to you, Mama had told her. She admires you. You’re the person she wants to be, not that she’ll ever manage it. Your approval means the world to her. Mama had sighed then, and put their arms out for her and she’d fallen into them, snuffling. Baby, you know your sister is special, right? She’s not… They struggled for a moment. She’s brilliant, yeah, but she has no common sense at all. She has no idea how to take care of herself or protect herself. She probably never will, not the way she needs to. And you know how to do those things. You’re smart, Meili, but more than that, you’re canny. They stroked her hair. I know you’re going to be just fine, whatever it is you do in your life. I have total faith in you. But Sayuri? She’s not like you. She needs you to watch out for her. Naoki’s out on her own now and Zhi’s starting university this year and who knows how long he’ll be around. She needs you, do you understand? The world is going to eat her up and I won’t be around forever. Mama kissed her cheek and whispered into her ear. I’m depending on you.
She glanced over at Zu again. He was watching Sayuri as she managed to coax a laugh out of Ping, who was wearing so many clothes she was surprised he could move at all. Poor man. He wasn’t very fond of winter. They’d been lucky to get him out tonight, he tended to stay inside as much as possible when it went below freezing like this. Button looked over and spared the both of them a joyful wave, cheeks ruddy in the cold, before saying something to Ping that made him laugh even harder.
“I just want her and the baby to be fine. I love her so much,” he said, his voice wavering just a bit.
“So do I,” she replied, squeezing his shoulder affectionately, watching her baby sister’s smile light up the night. “You can depend on me.”
Chapter 118: 214: Sayuri and Zu
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"At a bad mover"
Chapter Text
“Two for An Earthbender’s Revenge, please,” he said, shoving his glasses up his nose, patting at his various pockets, searching for his wallet.
“Or maybe we should get two and a half.” Sayuri fondled her noticeable baby bump. “Although to be fair little Dumpling here would only be able to hear it, not see it.”
The woman selling the tickets snapped her gum apathetically. “How many did you want?”
“Er, just two are fine.” Hmmm. He was running out of pockets. “Didn’t I bring my wallet?”
“Oh, I picked your pocket when we were getting out of the car.” She produced it from one of her own pockets. “You know what QiQi says, practice makes perfect.” She beamed at him.
“I never felt it!” He beamed back. “You are getting better!”
“Is someone going to pay for the tickets?” The ticket seller frowned.
“Right, right, of course.” He fished out some yuan and handed it over, taking the tickets in return, holding his arm out for Sayuri. She was normally graceful and light on her feet but had begun to totter a bit this far into her pregnancy, her balance just slightly off. She’d stumbled on the way into dinner a few nights prior and his father-in-law had immediately put forth his opinion that she should henceforth stay off of her feet, an opinion which Sayuri most vociferously did not agree with. She was already disgruntled about being forbidden any of her noxious chemicals in her workshop, but it was Meili who had put down her elegant foot over that one. Sayuri, he’d come to learn very early on, simply didn’t hear whatever it was she didn’t want to hear; taking after her royal father that way. But even she backed down when Meili made a decision. People might think that it was his eldest sister-in-law that was the most intimidating; she was, after all, a warrior, one of the greatest firebenders alive, the wife of the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, not the beautiful and serene waterbender healer Meili.
They’d be wrong on that one. So very, very wrong.
He queued up at the snack bar while she first went to use the toilet and then inside to get them seats, remembering her bubble tea, going back and forth between sizzle crisps and miniature mochis before purchasing both. It wasn’t hard to find her once inside; she was very particular about where she sat, needing it to be exactly the proper distance away from the screen and not too close to any of the walls or else she’d spend the entire mover fretting and squirming. Not to mention her hair was out in force, barely held back by a waterbender clasp that he believed she had somehow gotten from Sitiak. Spirits knew how; she could have stolen it or simply asked for it, anything was possible, really, when it came to his wife.
He loved her so very much that sometimes he’d lay in their bed, in the entire suite her royal father had renovated for them on the third floor, marveling at how lucky he was. It was like someone had reached into his head and found the perfect woman and had brought her out, idea made flesh, into his amazing Sayuri.
“My bubble tea!” She reached out her hands, delighted, and immediately popped the straw into her mouth.
“I got us both sizzle crisps and mochis.” He removed her book from his seat, tucking it into the satchel he’d brought with him, before sitting down. “And Cork provided me with some snacks from home, as well.”
“Yes, very good,” she said. Meili had taken them all aside at the beginning of the pregnancy and told them to feed Sayuri whatever she’d eat, whenever possible. She was naturally thin as it was and, when she’d get caught up into something, prone to forgetting to eat if not forcibly reminded. They’d all gotten into it; Grandfather LoLo and Cork whipping up dishes they knew she liked in the kitchen, Grandmother Lin imperiously ordering her back into the house for meals, both his father-in-law and his royal father-in-law in turns cajoling and commanding her to eat. His mother-in-law would take her hands into theirs, kiss Sayuri’s knuckles, and in that quiet way of theirs say, Baby, the baby needs to eat now.
The somewhat unfortunate result of all of the extra food was that he’d also put on a little weight as well, his trousers getting tighter and tighter until he’d finally admitted to himself that he’d better update his wardrobe. He’d tried on his new clothes for her and asked her, joking, if she wouldn’t be happier with someone who looked more like her devastatingly handsome sandbender brother-in-law. She had watched him for what seemed an incalculably long time before reaching out to put her fingers across his mouth. My Zu, she had whispered, and then, to his shock, tears had began to drip down her cheeks. His Sayuri, who always laughed rather than cried! How could you even say it? she’d whispered, wrapping herself tightly around him, her belly pressing into his, the baby giving a kick hard enough for him to feel. My Zu. My own precious, perfect, perfect, perfect, portly Zu.
The lights started to dim down and he leaned over. “What is the mover about anyhow?” He’d never been very good with keeping up with whatever was current. She turned and kissed him, the thick straw from her drink scraping at his cheek.
“I haven’t the foggiest, but Pearl saw it and told me we couldn’t miss it.”
He adjusted his glasses as he settled back into the seat, absently taking a bite from one of the mochis before handing it to her. The mover scrolled across the screen, the setting a typical Earth Kingdom farm, or at least he thought so. He’d never actually been to an Earth Kingdom farm. There was the virile earthbending farmer, swaggering about the barn and his beautiful young wife, dressed in an improbably stylish dress and heels.
“Nice dress for a farmer’s wife,” Sayuri murmured at him. “Does she go out in the fields in those shoes?”
“Not unless she wanted to break her ankles,” he muttered in return.
“Shhh!” admonished someone from behind them. Sayuri, as per usual, ignored them.
“Maybe she has servants,” Sayuri snickered. “Maybe he just bends her along so she doesn’t have to walk anywhere.”
“Do you mind?” The man was leaning forward, glaring.
“Oh, not at all,” she replied, with a sunny smile and he bit his cheek to hold back his laughter. “Mochi? They aren’t as good as the ones from home, of course, but they aren’t that bad.” She held one out.
“I don’t…just be quiet!” The man’s eyes were starting to bulge out.
“Very rude, my gracious,” Sayuri said with a sad little shake of her head, turning back to the screen. “I vote the wife will be dead in five minutes, at the very most.”
The wife was dead in two minutes; killed by some very ruthless Dai Li agents, employing some very odd looking things that looked like large foam fists, poorly painted, that they quite literally threw at people.
“Honestly,” Sayuri tsked. “That’s not at all what rock gloves look like. And they’d most likely use their rock shoes to get up those walls, after all.”
“SHHH!”
“I once asked one of the Dai Li to capture me with one of his rock gloves to see what it felt like but Daddy found out and put the kibosh on it.”
“That sounds like your father.” He handed her a dumpling from the box in his bag, which she popped into her mouth.
“Well, no worries, QiQi let him, just not where Daddy could see. It wasn’t like he was going to actually squish me, he was very gentle. But my gracious, Papa found out and shouted at QiQi for hours, the impropriety of a Hou-Ting getting grabbed by a rock glove, you know how he is.”
“Really! And they put up with that?”
“Oh goodness no, QiQi just sucked on their teeth and then went for a very long drive. But Papa kept going on and on about it until GrandLin told him to zip it before she zipped him.” She took a deep suck of her bubble tea. “It was an excellent fourteenth birthday, all things considered.”
“Will you shut up!”
“Speaking of someone who could use a glove fist…oh Zu, do we have any more dumplings?”
“Of course.” He handed her another one. They watched for a time in silence as the grief-stricken earthbender swore his revenge on the King, fighting off dastardly Dai Li at every turn.
“He’s killed twenty-seven Dai Li so far,” he told her, finishing off the last of the mochis. “And he’s not even a Beifong.”
“Imagine how many he could have killed if he had been a Beifong!”
“Scads!”
“Hordes!”
“SHUT UP!”
It was a completely ridiculous mover; at one point the earthbender, waving his arms and randomly stomping his feet, swirled a single small rock in excruciatingly slow motion above his head as the Dai Li stood about, waiting for his attack, which improbably killed all six of them when it finally hit them, knocking them all down despite the fact that it only hit one of them. Several people booed enthusiastically and a man a few rows below them got up with a snort and left, shaking his head. “Couldn’t even hire an actual earthbender,” he grumbled as he left.
“It’s worse than watching Uncle Bo trying to be a waterbender,” Sayuri said ecstatically.
“Oh! There goes what’s left of his shirt!” He scrutinized the actor. “Not as good looking as Ping, though.”
“No one’s as good looking as Ping.” She grabbed at his hand. “I swear I saw Meili discreetly checking him out the other day, you know, when he and Tupilek were sparring in the backyard?”
“You never did!”
“I did! I swear I did!”
“Naoki, I’d believe, but Meili?”
“Oh, Naoki, she’d just up and whistle at him with his shirt off, you know she has no manners.”
“You know who else has no manners? YOU!”
Sayuri turned around slowly in her seat, hand pressed to her chest. “My gracious,” she said, in her very best I am terribly put out by your shocking behavior tone and he clapped his hand to his mouth to stifle his laughter.
The scene cut away to what looked suspiciously like the throne room at the Little Ba Sing Se Fashion Mall, stuffed to the gills with what most likely was meant to look like opulent pieces but looked rather like a fairly seedy secondhand shop instead. A short man, darker of skin with spectacles, extraordinarily puffy hair that was clearly a wig and long, heavy robes, sat upon the rather small, albeit ornate throne. A Dai Li agent ran into the scene. Your Imperial Majesty, Hou-Ting, he cried, before kow-towing, and Sayuri let out a shriek of joy.
“Oh! It’s Papa!”
He couldn’t help himself, he started to laugh. “This is the best thing I’ve ever seen!”
I am the wise and venerable Hou-Ting, ruthless leader of the Earth Kingdom, the King on-screen proclaimed, throwing out a hand. Rise and report, minion.
“MINION!” Sayuri choked out, nearly doubled over with laughter. “MINION!”
“But why the wig?” he asked, wiping tears out of his eyes.
“It’s the humidity,” she explained, pointing to her own hair, setting the both of them off again.
Several scantily dressed men and women entered, clustering about the throne. My royal concubines, the King announced, and Sayuri dropped what was left of her bubble tea on the floor.
“Your father finally got some concubines,” he managed to wheeze out as they clutched each other, trying to breathe.
“I am going to get the manager!” the man behind them roared, but they were well beyond that, simply trying to breathe. It didn’t help that next up was a bear, lumbering into the throne room and that was it, Sayuri nearly slid to the floor.
“I can’t, I can’t,” she gasped, wiping at her face. “Oh Zu!”
His ribs were aching with laughter, but he couldn’t stop; not when the King stood up from his throne, waving his hands about as the concubines tittered, the bear hunched over miserably in the corner of the screen, and certainly not when the King, in a fury, kicked at the hapless Dai Li agent. The very idea of his respectable and sophisticated royal father-in-law shouting death sentences, stamping his feet and gesticulating to the sky while surrounded by a great deal of unclothed flesh - not to mention a chained bear halfheartedly swiping its paws nearby - was simply too much for him.
The Queen! announced a royal servant, and a woman dressed in extremely revealing clothes, complete with terrifyingly high heels and a shocking amount of paste jewels, entered and promptly threw a knife into the wall above the King. Poor Sayuri bellowed, waving her hands about, utterly speechless, pointing at the screen. More specifically, pointing at the extremely improbable mustache on the Queen’s face.
“Oh, oh, oh,” he gasped, trying to hold himself together between whoops of mirth. “But why a mustache?”
“Sex appeal,” Sayuri managed, and then they were screaming with laughter, angry mover goers turning around and shouting at them, the man behind them jumping out of his seat and announcing he was getting the manager. He didn’t care and he knew she didn’t either; they were too busy laughing to care about anything but the Queen on the screen before them, telling all and sundry that she’d kill anyone who threatened the King. Finally, Sayuri put her head on his shoulder. “Oh Zu, I hate to say it, but I think I might need a toilet. In fact, I might have needed one a few minutes ago.”
He immediately gathered together their things, standing up and guiding her up as well. “Let’s get you to one, then.” They awkwardly shuffled past the rest of the people in their row, provoking angry hisses and a shout of Down in front! He got her to the aisle, however, and made sure she was steady on her feet before helping her towards the door and out into the lobby. “Can you manage on your own?”
“Them! Those are the ones!” The man from behind them was pointing at them, infuriated, the manager standing next to him. “Arrest them!”
The manager sighed. “I can’t arrest them, I’m not the police.”
“In any case, we’re leaving,” Sayuri announced. “Although not before I make use of what are very clean facilities, might I add,” she said, bestowing her very best smile at the manager, who looked pleased. “I must commend your staff and your most excellent management.”
“Thank you,” he preened. “Our customers’ comfort is always our first priority.”
“What? Seriously?” The man was outraged. “What about my fucking comfort?”
“Well my goodness, you needn’t curse like that, honestly, the lack of proper deportment in public is just scandalous, really.” She tsked at him before smiling brightly. “Now, you’ve missed some of the film. Would you like us to fill you in before you go back in? No? Suit yourself, then.” With that she sailed off to the toilets, throwing back, “We’ll tell the parentals they need to see it tomorrow night, of course. Shall we come with them?”
“Naturally,” he said, and ate the last of the sizzle crisps while going out to fetch the car.
Chapter 119: 214: The Parentals, With Sayuri and Zu
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"At a bad mover"
Chapter Text
“Now what, exactly, is this mover about?” Papa frowned down. “Oh. Gracious. Is my seat dirty?”
“It’s fine.” Daddy said. “Just sit down.” He was balancing all of his own treats as well as Papa’s in his hands.
“There’s a sort of stain there.” Papa was pointing, making a face. “I couldn’t possibly.” QiQi didn’t say a word, just reached over to pull out a flat pillow from Zu’s bag, settling it down over the seat. “Oh! How thoughtful!”
Daddy gave QiQi one of his long-suffering looks; QiQi just shrugged up one shoulder the way they did. Meanwhile, Papa settled himself down on the cushion.
“Do you want to sit in the middle?” Zu asked, just as Papa beamed up at her.
“Sayuri, my love, come and sit near me!”
“I can,” she said, trying to maneuver through the narrow space, “but I might need to leave in the middle for the toilet.”
“You can crawl over me then, Baby,” QiQi said, offering her a helping hand, making sure she got herself situated before settling themselves down on the other side of her. Zu was to QiQi’s other side and Daddy was sitting next to Papa. “You got everything you need?” Sayuri nodded, and then they murmured into her ear, “You want to tell me why you’re so keen for us to come and see this? I know you know this kind of mover isn’t your father’s cup of tea.”
She burrowed herself into them. “It’s a surprise.”
“Mmmmm,” QiQi replied, skeptical. It was always hard to get anything past QiQi. Naoki had told stories about trying to sneak out at night as a teenager only to always find them waiting for her, smoking a cigarette and just pointing back at the house, never saying a word. They turned that eagle hawk gaze onto Zu; thankfully the lights started to go down at that point, because poor Zu could never hold out on them for very long. He didn’t have a single sneaky bone in his entire body. It was one of the reasons she loved him the way she did.
“Ah, here we are,” said Papa, and he patted her knee. “Oh Mako, do you have my fireflakes?”
“Shhhh,” said Daddy. She felt the urge to laugh but swallowed it down.
“Don’t shush me, Mako!”
“Shhhh!” Daddy repeated, following it up with a glare that she could see in the dim light coming from the screen as the mover started.
“Well! Honestly, Mako! I’m not a child, you needn’t speak to me that way.”
QiQi leaned around her and said nothing, but Papa simmered down. Mostly.
“Am I at least allowed my fireflakes?”
“Quiet,” someone called from behind them. A very familiar someone. She put her hand to her mouth and didn’t dare look at Zu.
“I beg your pardon!” Papa was getting indignant. Daddy thrust his drink into his hands, and Papa put the straw in his mouth with a sniff. “Hmph.” Silence for a few moments as the mover started, then: “Well, I hardly think that’s what a rural farmer’s wife would wear.”
“Shhhh,” came that familiar voice from behind. Zu made a slightly choked noise and her shoulders started shaking.
Papa took in a deep breath to respond but Daddy very firmly grabbed his arm and glared. Papa subsided, but with a sulk. Daddy would hear all about it later, she knew. The theater was quiet for a few more moments.
“Oh, naturally, blame it all on the Dai Li.” Papa was frowning at the screen. “They were based in Ba Sing Se, as everyone knows. They most certainly were not off traipsing about in the countryside, never mind offing farmer’s wives whose only crime was inappropriate footwear!”
“Would you shut up!”
Papa gasped, wholly affronted. “The lack of manners here is simply appalling!” Zu made a sort of odd huffing noise to QiQi’s other side and she crossed her legs, giggles starting to escape.
“Button,” QiQi warned.
Daddy was whispering something into Papa’s ear and he crossed his arms, scowling, refusing to look at him. Daddy tried to offer him some fireflakes but Papa slapped them away, indignant. Daddy sighed, very loudly.
She managed to get ahold of herself as the mover scrolled on, following the revenge-seeking earthbender through his swath of destruction. Daddy was watching the screen with a completely disgusted look on his face. Papa made several very succinct noises, but otherwise kept his comments to himself. Until the scene in the palace, that was.
“Oh surely they don’t expect anyone to believe that is actually the throne room!” Papa’s mouth was open in outrage. “That’s clearly the Little Ba Sing Se Fashion Mall!”
“Shhhh!”
Daddy’s face had gone completely still as he watched the screen. Oh dear. He wasn’t finding this funny.
“And just who is that little man supposed to be?” asked Papa, and she could not have loved him more. “My great-grandfather? Concubines! Concubines do not dress like that, my gracious! My gracious!” He put his hand to his chest. “My word!”
QiQi started to laugh silently next to her. “Button,” they said, and she buried her face into their neck.
“Just wait,” she managed, between giggles. Zu was laughing now as well, shaking in his seat.
“Is that supposed to be Bosco? That actor doesn’t look anything like my great-grandfather! For goodness sake!”
“You there! Be quiet!”
“I will thank you not to harangue me! Or I shall have the management remove you from the premises!”
The queen sailed on to the screen, throwing her knife before turning, exposing her impressive mustache. QiQi let out with a snort and only laughed harder. “Oh, Button.”
“It’s what you’ve been missing all these years, a mustache,” she chortled, and QiQi hugged her before turning to Zu.
“You too, hmmm?” Poor Zu had his glasses in his hands, trying to wipe at the tears that were starting to well up.
“Well, that is most certainly not my great-grandmother! She did not use knives and if she had a mustache it was discreetly removed, I’m sure!”
“It’s supposed to be Qi, damn it,” Daddy seethed out. Oh, he was not amused, not at all.
“I….what?” Papa blinked up at the screen. “Wait, who?”
“QiQi!” She crossed her legs even harder. “Oh Papa, can’t you tell?”
“I…but…” Papa was still trying to catch up. “But…is that supposed to be me?” QiQi reached around her and patted him on the shoulder. “I most certainly do not have concubines! Or a bear!” He gesticulated wildly. “And where is your father in all of this nonsense, I ask you?”
“Papa, it’s not supposed to be real, didn’t you see the earthbending earlier?” She kissed his cheek. “Come on, it’s a terrible mover. I brought you as a joke.”
“Well. Hmph.” Papa’s mouth was pursed up. “Honestly, Sayuri.” He gestured towards the screen, where the evil king was ordering the Dai Li to find the earthbender and bring him back dead or alive. “Who paid to produce this? The cinematography, for one thing! Dreadful! And did no one research the costume design?”
The man from behind them leaned over. “Listen here, little asshole, you either shut up or -” he was cut off by a strangled sound as QiQi had their hand around his throat.
“Qi,” Daddy warned, and with a shove that sent the man back into his seat they let him go. The man saw her face and pointed at her, making a noise that sounded like nothing more than a sputtering engine.
“Hello again,” she said, and gave a little wave. Poor Zu was laughing so hard the tears were simply pouring down his cheeks.
“Oh, a friend of yours?” Papa asked, peering at him. “What a noise he’s making.” He tsked at the man. “If you don’t breathe you’ll pass out, you know.”
Daddy stood up. “We’re leaving.” He took a deep breath. “Zu?” Zu scrambled out of his seat and gathered up his satchel, starting to lead the way out of the aisle, still laughing but at least trying to contain it. Papa took up the cushion with one hand and her elbow in his other and they all shuffled out, through the doors into the lobby. Daddy was pinching the bridge of his nose for dear life, clearly having abandoned the snacks.
“Now, Mako.” Papa had his hand on Daddy’s arm as they all blinked in the in unaccustomed light. “Come now, it was just a poorly done mover. Nothing to get upset about.” Daddy didn’t answer, just closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.
QiQi shook a finger at her. “You shouldn’t have brought your father.”
“No, it’s fine. I hope I’ve got a bit thicker skin than that.” Papa tsked at her, not realizing that QiQi meant Daddy, not him. “You might have warned us, however.”
She grinned. “And spoiled the fun?”
“Hmph,” Papa said, and turned to Zu. “I suppose you thought it was funny as well.”
Zu was grinning. “I’m afraid I did, Father-In-Law.”
Papa was trying to fight back a smile. “Those concubines, my gracious. That throne room can get fairly drafty, believe me. I hardly think they’d be comfortable, dressed like that.”
“So what you’re saying is that you wouldn’t like QiQi to dress like that?” She started to giggle. Papa gave QiQi a little once over.
“I didn’t say that,” he replied, and smirked. QiQi just laughed. Papa smiled to himself before looking around and walking up to the boy at the concession stand, saying something to him.
“Toilet,” she said, and QiQi gave her a gentle little push.
“Go ahead, we’ll get the car.”
By the time she got back out Daddy had disappeared and Papa was speaking to the manager. “Naturally I will compensate the other mover-goers for the disturbance. I’d like to pay for a complimentary ticket for everyone in the theater with us, would that be possible?”
“Of course, of course,” the manager bowed, and QiQi stepped forward and drew out their wallet. She tucked her arm in Zu’s.
“Your father went to go and get the car.” He wrapped his arm around her. “I think he was really angry.”
She nodded. “He was.” She frowned a little. “It’s probably because of all the things that happened with the Royalists, before I was born.” She glanced over towards the double doors that led out to the street. “I would have never brought him if I thought he’d get so angry.”
Zu blanched. “Do you think he’s angry at me?”
She patted his arm absently. “Goodness no, everyone always blames me for everything, that’s just how it is.” She kissed his cheek. “Never mind. QiQi and Papa thought it was funny. They’ll get Daddy to come around. Probably.”
“Now, do you suppose we can get a copy to watch at the house? I could have a little private viewing for it.” Papa had his arm in QiQi’s and they steered him out of the lobby. “I’m sure Nuo hasn’t seen it, if she had I would have heard about it. I must invite her, the whole family, really. Perhaps we could all dress appropriately! Make it a costume party!”
“Your father truly can make a party out of everything,” Zu said, shaking his head in admiration. “How much you want to bet he’ll find a bear for rent?”
“I will not take that bet, because I’d lose,” she said, laughing again as they followed her parents outside.
Chapter 120: 215: Meili and Yumi
Chapter Text
Yumi watched Meili enter the restaurant, removing her lace gloves finger by finger. She always had looked like she had stepped out of the pages of a fashion magazine, even when she was small and Wu was dressing her. In her heels she was taller than half the men around her; her curls swept up underneath a flirtatious little scrap of a hat, her dark blue dress what Wu had always liked to refer to as couture. It fit her perfectly and was flattering in every way. She had Iskani’s generous mouth, arched eyebrows and long delicate nose; the cobalt of her eyes belonged to her sailor of a father, gone some years back of a sickness that had wasted him away to nothing before he died. She’d been sorry to hear it. She’d never loved him, but he’d given them all Meili, and for that she’d always carried an appreciation for him.
Wu had once told her that entrances were everything; Meili had learned that lesson better than the rest of his children. Every single eye in the place was on her as she gracefully turned that swan’s neck of hers to search the room. Spotting Yumi she practically floated across the floor, all languid poise and confidence. The only thing that saved her from being stuck up was her genuinely good and kind heart. Yumi guessed some folks might scoff at the idea of a bonafide princess working as a waterhealer in some of the seedier neighborhoods in town, but Meili never looked down on Republic City’s indigent population. She was as gracious to them as she was to everyone else. Not that she didn’t have a devious side, though. Oh, she was Wu’s, right enough.
She was one hell of a waterbender, too. Well. She had the genes for it, despite her own lack of bending. Passed it right on down to those kids of hers, too.
“Hey there, Squirt,” she said grinning, as Meili reached her table. Meili shot her back the exact same dazzling smile before sitting down.
“Squirt yourself.”
Chapter 121: 215: Sayuri and Her Family
Summary:
A last will and testament.
Chapter Text
They all gathered together in what she assumed was Madame Zong’s formal sitting room. She’d never actually seen it; Madame Zong had been their neighbor since Papa had first bought the house but she’d never entertained, or at least not to the best of Sayuri’s knowledge. It was well kept up and expensively furnished, however, albeit more than a bit outdated. One of the lawyers from the same firm Papa had always used was sitting behind a desk that had clearly been brought into the room for this, the reading of Madame Zong’s last will and testament. She had a sudden urge to ask the lawyer if she’d brought the desk along with her as well as her briefcase but Papa must have read her mind, because he was looking directly at her, scowling a warning. She blew him a little kiss and he closed his eyes, sighing. Poor Papa. Maybe someday she’d leave off teasing him but she was sure he’d miss it if she did. Well. She’d miss it, anyhow.
Madame Zong’s poodlemonkey, Cuddles, was sitting in the corner, disconsolate, probably wondering where her mistress was and why she had been left all alone. She called to her softly and she immediately came to her, jumping into her lap. She stroked at her ears. “Good girl,” she whispered. “It’ll be okay.” She had no idea what was to happen to her, but she’d talk to the lawyer about it before she left. She couldn’t bear to think she’d be discarded somewhere. Surely the executor of the estate would let her keep her.
The lawyer cleared her throat, a very lawyerly noise if she had ever heard one. “Yes, so we are all assembled?”
“Everyone but my son Yaozhi. Unfortunately he is out in the field and isn’t reachable at the moment.” Papa looked like he wanted to make a throat-clearing noise himself. The lawyer wrote something on a pad of paper and then nodded before looking up, making eye contact with the lot of them. They were all here: QiQi and Daddy flanking Papa, GrandLo and GrandLin sharing a settee (GrandLin, as per usual, looking like she wanted to drop a rock on something; she and Papa had shouted it out earlier - GrandLin not at all wanting to be here - and it was only Zu, whom for some inexplicable reason GrandLin fatuously adored, who had convinced her to come), Naoki to her other side, trying, as bored as she knew she must be, to look attentive, and of course Meili, wearing a smart blue dress she’d never seen before, ankles crossed serenely, looking perfect as always.
She was twenty-seven years old and she still felt the frequent urge to stick her tongue out at Meili. Ah well.
“In the event of a family member not being able to attend the will specifies that you, Prince Hou-Ting, will distribute the assets properly.” Papa merely nodded once to that. The lawyer shuffled her papers importantly and then began to read.
I, Madame Zong, being of sound mind and body, do bequeath the following:
With the exception of the house and its subsequent property, I leave all of my other holdings and assets to be held in trust for the benefit of His Royal Highness Prince Wu Hou-Ting’s children’s charity.
The lawyer looked at Papa, who had his hand to his mouth. “Since the charity is regulated through our firm we will be taking care of all of the details. I do have a separate document for this and I assume we can review it later?”
“Of course, of course,” Papa murmured, and he pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at his eyes. “She never said a word to me of any of this. I am simply astonished.”
“It was good of her,” QiQi said, and put an arm around Papa, who had gone from dabbing to snuffling.
The lawyer nodded. “I’ll continue with the personal bequests for the family, then.”
To the Lady Lin Beifong I leave my best wishes for her continued health and happiness. That should be enough to satisfy her.
GrandLin muttered something extremely filthy and she and Naoki grinned at each other. The lawyer’s eyes flew open in shock before she composed herself, rattling the paper indignantly at this lurid interruption. “Lin,” hissed out Papa, shooting her his finest glare. QiQi coughed to cover up a laugh and refused to make eye contact with anyone.
To my good neighbor Lozan, I bequeath my set of fine steel Fire Nation knives, which he had several times admired. I hope that he will, in turn, bequeath them to someone deserving.
“Well, now. I wasn’t expecting anything from the old girl. I’m glad to get them, though, they’re a damn good set of knives,” GrandLo smiled.
“Why do you get knives and I get nothing?” GrandLin grumped.
“I’m better looking,” said GrandLo, and he winked at her. The lawyer ignored this exchange.
To his Royal Highness, Prince Wu Hou-Ting, I bequeath the silver writing desk set that belonged to my mother, as an especial thanks for all of the novels he has written. I especially enjoyed The Flame of Silence. It reminded me quite fondly of a brief dalliance in my youth.
“Madame Zong, you naughty old thing!” said Naoki, and the two of them tried to stifle their giggles.
“Well, I had no idea she knew I had written anything!” Papa looked surprised. “I’m sure I never told her! How on earth did she know?” He looked around suspiciously, but the rest of them shrugged. The lawyer gestured towards the writing desk, which had been placed on the coffee table. Papa seemed mollified by this. “It is a truly lovely thing. How considerate of her to think of me.” He snuffled again and Daddy, without a word, produced a clean hankie.
To the Prince Consort, Mako Hou-Ting, I leave my particular thanks for all of his many courtesies over the years. I also leave him my father’s ceremonial Fire Nation armor. It was made for him in his youth, when he was given the honor of wearing it by Firelord Zuko himself.”
Daddy looked over at the armor, hanging from its own stand. He smiled to himself.
“Was her father a samurai! I had no idea!” Papa was staring at it as well. “Did you know, Mako?”
“I knew,” Daddy said.
“Extraordinary,” Papa murmured, and then turned his attention back to the lawyer.
To the Royal Consort, the Honorable Qi Beifong Hou-Ting, I leave my long departed husband’s vintage Satomobile. As you once told me, it was one of the very first off the line by Hiroshi Sato himself. I know you will love and cherish it as much as he ever did. May you drive it in excellent health.
QiQi didn’t say anything, just smiled, pleased.
To Her Highness Princess Naoki Hou-Ting, I bequeath my mother’s gold and fire opal tiara. It was a gift to her on her marriage to my father from Firelord Zuko and his wife, made by the Imperial goldsmith Kazalon. Despite your unfortunate hairstyle I think it will suit you quite admirably.
The lawyer took a red velvet box from the desk and with a bow, handed it to Naoki. She opened it, revealing the tiara, wrought to look like flames, studded with scintillating fire opals. Naoki gasped, just a little. “This is beautiful,” she said, and Sayuri was surprised to see tears in her eyes. “Oh Papa, look at it.” She handed it carefully over and Papa took it in both his hands, turning it so the fire opals blazed in the light.
“This is a treasure, Butterfly. Kazalon’s work is both rare and exquisite. What a magnificent gift.” He replaced it into its box and gave it back. Naoki kept staring at it.
“I can’t even say thank you,” she murmured, running her fingers along it.
To his Highness Prince Yaozhi Hou-Ting, I leave the contents of my late father-in-law’s extensive collection of books used for his own scientific studies. May he enjoy the books for years to come. When he is not off tramping about the countryside after insects, that is.
“Now that will make him happy,” GrandLo said, grinning. “He borrowed quite a few of those books back in the day, if I recall.”
“I have already made arrangements for the books in question to be fully catalogued and packed, Your Highness,” the lawyer said, looking at Papa. “When it is convenient we can discuss where you would like them delivered.” She handed him several sheets of paper. “As you can see, the list is quite extensive.”
“Oh, those rooms over the garage he and Ping are using will never do for all of these,” Papa murmured, paging through it quickly. “I’ll need to do some remodeling.” He perked right up at that, although Daddy and QiQi exchanged a look. The last time Papa had remodeled - when she had married Zu - Daddy and QiQi had escaped to QiQi’s country lodge as often as possible. Papa nodded at the lawyer. “Thank you, I will of course make the arrangements with your office.”
To her Highness Princess Meili Hou-Ting I leave a hand-beaded koalaotter pelt wall hanging from the Southern Water Tribe that was a gift to my great-great grandmother from her husband, a general with the Fire Nation. He took ownership of it, I believe, as a spoil of war. If I know you at all I believe you might decide to donate it to the Southern Water Tribe museum; in that case, I would not like you to be without anything from me. Therefore I also leave you my wedding ring, which, after the death of my very dearest husband, I could never bear to remove. I have no children to leave it to; perhaps you might leave it to yours as an heirloom and remember me fondly.
The lawyer glanced at Meili. “The hanging itself is quite old and fragile and has been in cool storage to protect it and I thought it best to leave it there until you decide what to do with it.”
Meili nodded. “Thank you, that’s appropriate.”
The lawyer then handed her over a small black velvet box. “I do have the ring, however.”
“Yes, I know it,” said Meili, and she opened the box to reveal the delicate jade and seed pearl ring that had always been on Madame Zong’s finger. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes filled up a bit as she slid it onto her own finger. It looked beautiful. Of course.
And last but not least, I have three gifts for the youngest Princess, Her Royal Highness Sayuri Hou-Ting. Who once, when she was eight years old, declared herself my nemesis.
“Oh dear,” she said, and tried not to laugh. “I had forgotten I did that.”
“Honestly, Sayuri!” Papa said, huffing his dismay. “Nemesis! I never!”
First, I return to her something she gave me when she was five. It has sat on my bedside table ever since, a gift from a very tender heart, hidden under that ridiculous hair, the terrible state of her clothing and her regrettable habit of saying whatever it is she is thinking.
She laughed. “Well, leave it to Madame Zong to take a swipe at my poor hair from the great beyond.” The lawyer handed her a drawing, enclosed in an ornate silver frame. It showed herself and Madame Zong, holding hands, her long since deceased poodlemonkey, Lady Sweetums, sitting next to them. They were in the park. “I had no idea she still had this.” Oh dear. She could feel the tears coming.
“Good thing you didn’t take up art as a profession,” Naoki said, peering down at. She squeezed her arm, however, letting her know she was only teasing.
Secondly, I leave her my poodlemonkey, Cuddles, to care for. I know you will care for her, Princess; after all, you have walked all of my poodlemonkeys with me since that day that you were five, telling me that you would make sure that no mean boys would ever make me cry again. Cuddles and I missed you very much when you were gone from us up north; I imagine we were nearly as happy as your own family to hear you banging away in your workshop after such a long silence.
She couldn’t help it, she was crying now. Cuddles stirred in her arms, nestling into her chin, sensing her distress. “You hear that, Cuddles? You can come home with me. And Zu.” Zu had already been worrying about what would happen to her as well.
Papa’s mouth dropped open. “Wait just a moment! Our home? I am entirely certain I did not-”
“Hush now, Wu. Not the time.” QiQi put a hand to his shoulder and gave him a little shake, frowning.
“You know how I feel about... pets,” Papa snitted, needing to get the final word in, but Daddy turned to look at him and Papa shut right up. Daddy only very rarely went against Papa, but when he did Papa invariably backed down.
“Go on,” Daddy said to the lawyer, in that voice that had always meant the end of everyone’s arguments.
The lawyer cleared her throat again and went back to her reading.
And finally I leave to her this house, the grounds, and all of my belongings, save what I have detailed for the rest of her family, above. Do with them as you see fit, Princess. Sell them, move yourself into them, gut the entire thing into a workshop, it is of no consequence to me now. However, if you would occasionally make a good deal of noise in the middle of the night and disturb the Hashimotos next door in my memory I would be appreciative. I never liked them.
She couldn’t help it, she started laughing through her tears. “That’s the spirit, Madame Zong!”
I thank you, Princess, for your friendship, as unorthodox as it was. You gave an old woman reason to wake in the morning and look forward to the day. I was never lucky enough to have children after my dear, departed husband had to leave me, but I like to think if I had raised a daughter, she would have been something like you. Although I certainly would not have let her run around the garden barefoot.
“Hmph,” said Papa. “And what would she have done about it, I ask you? It isn’t as if we didn’t try, after all.”
“Well, what do you know? Now you own a house.” Naoki nudged at her with her elbow. “Like you were a responsible adult or something.”
“Or something,” Meili said, and despite her new status as a homeowner she did stick her tongue out at her. Meili smiled, reaching forward and taking her hand, squeezing it before stroking Cuddles.
“Is that all?” QiQi asked, and the lawyer nodded.
“The rest details what Princess Sayuri has inherited. We will need to go over that as well, Princess; however, it doesn't need to be today and your family need not be present.”
She smiled. “I understand. I’d like to bring my husband and my father with me when I do, if possible.”
“But of course,” the lawyer said, setting the papers straight. “I am at your convenience.”
“Why on earth do you want me there?” Papa asked, and QiQi snorted.
“She means Mako, Wu.”
“She...oh.” Papa pursed his lips up. “Hmph.”
“Well, that was a waste of my time.” GrandLin stood up carefully, Daddy gently taking her by her elbow, making sure she was steady before giving a hand to LoLo.
“Thank you, my boy.” GrandLo winked at her. “I suppose we can leave Button here in her own house, eh?”
“I’ve never even seen half of it, I don’t think.” She looked about the sitting room with growing excitement.
“Well, it is yours now, Princess.” The lawyer smiled for the first time. “I have a few things to tidy up before I leave, but before I do, here.” She handed over a large ring of keys. “These are yours.”
She took the ring, momentarily surprised at how heavy it was. “What are all of these for?”
“This one is for the front door,” the lawyer replied, pointing at the largest key. “However, I have no idea what the rest of them open, and Madame Zong did not leave any instructions.” She started to gather up her things. “I suppose you’ll have to find out for yourself.”
“Just what you love, Girl Detective.” Meili was smirking at her. She held her arms out, the ring looking beautiful against her dark skin. “Give me Cuddles, I’ll take her next door with me. Do you want me to send Zu over?”
“Would you?” She gave the poodlemonkey to Meili, who scratched behind her ears.
“Only if you promise to let me come over and wander about later.”
“Deal.”
Meili kissed her cheek and they all started to walk out of the room, Naoki supporting GrandLin and QiQi taking GrandLo. Daddy was saying something or the other to the lawyer, but she ignored it. She had a house to explore.
Her house.
Chapter 122: 215: Bolin and Opal
Chapter Text
“Opal?” Bolin whispered loudly in the dark. “Opal? Are you awake?”
“No.”
Bolin snuggled up behind her. “Yes, you are.”
She nudged backwards with her behind. “What do you want?”
He ran a hand along her hip. “I think you know.”
She jabbed back at him with her heel. “At three in the morning?”
“You wore that yellow dress tonight. I like that dress. It makes me think impure thoughts.” There was a slight pause; and then a whispered, “I mean sexy thoughts by that.”
Opal giggled. “I know what you meant.”
“So what do you say, Easy-Breezy?”
“Are you going to get up in the morning and make me breakfast?”
“Goes without saying.”
She flipped around on the mattress until she was facing him. “Bolin?”
“Uh huh?”
“Why are we whispering? We’re the only ones here.”
“I don’t know. Because I like whispering impure thoughts to my wife at three in the morning?”
She pressed herself against him. “If I had known you were going to be having impure thoughts I would have worn a cuter nightgown.”
“Opal, we can solve that problem right now if you take it off.”
“That’s my boy. Always with the smart ideas.”
Chapter 123: 215: Ikki, Huan and Baatar, Jr
Chapter Text
“Just a little bit to the left and then close it up. Thanks. These damned things are rusting too quickly. There’s got to be a better metal composite we can try.” Baatar raised himself up stiffly with a bit of a grunt, gratefully taking the hand that his brother offered.
“Does it matter? They’re easy to fix.” Huan was staring at the rusted piece of metal in his hand. “Can I keep this?”
“It’s the principal of the thing. You can keep it if you want, I don’t have any use for it.” He looked past Huan and spied her standing in the entrance of the greenhouse. “Did you come here looking for us?” Huan turned his head as well and raised up the ring of metal, looking at her through it.
“I actually came for some cucumbers, but you’re almost as good.” She grinned at them.
“Hear that? We’re almost as good as cucumbers.” Baatar flicked his eyebrow at her and she laughed, walking towards them.
“I’m as least as good as a tomato,” Huan said, and he waved a ripe one at her to prove it.
Chapter 124: 215: Korra
Chapter Text
“And furthermore, Avatar, it’s a well known fact that all of the villagers are thieves and…”
Korra stared out the window, tuning him out. She wondered what Asami was doing. Working late again, probably. Suddenly, more than anything, Korra wished she were home. With a sharp exhalation, she stood up, the village chieftain stumbling back in surprise.
“I’ll give my judgement tomorrow,” she said, and walked through the inn towards her room.
Chapter 125: 215: Sozui
Chapter Text
Sozui crossed one leg over the other as he leaned back in his seat. “It almost sounds as if you are suggesting that I should replace my sister on the throne.” His smile did not reach his eyes. “I’m sure I’ve misheard, since that would be considered treason, and as the father of the young heir to the throne I’d be obliged to challenge you to an Agni Kai. Which, might I add, my wife might feel compelled to do in my place. Tea?”
Chapter 126: 215: Meili
Chapter Text
She swung her daughter down from her hip. “There’s Gumpa,” she said, pointing, smiling as her father crouched down and held his arms out for her, his mouth curving up in delight. “There’s my darling,” he said, and scooped her up.
Chapter 127: 217: Zhi
Summary:
A family visits the Republic City Zoo's newly-opened Hou-Ting Invertebrate Center.
Written for the Different POV Challenge on Tumblr. Requested by Anon!
Chapter Text
Noriaki peered into the glass enclosure. There was supposedly a dragonfly living in there, but for the life of him he couldn't find it. He glanced again at the drawing on the card naming its genus and describing its habitat; the problem was that the dragonfly itself closely resembled the habitat in which it was normally found. They'd obviously done a very good job at simulating the sea cliffs along the west coast because it it was nowhere to be seen. A trick dragonfly, then.
"If you look very closely at the little outcropping that looks like an armadillo tiger's paw, you'll see it hiding. It's at about three o'clock." He glanced over and then up. A very tall, bespectacled man about his age was peering in as well. He pointed. "You see? It will flit its wings every few seconds while at rest."
Noriaki looked again and this time he caught it, the slight tremor of its iridescent wings. "Ah! Yes! There it is."
"It's quite rare now, you know. That's why they've started a breeding program for it here. It resides pretty exclusively in this area and Republic City's grown so much in these past few decades." The man sounded wistful. He smiled down at Noriaki. "Are you interested in bugs?"
He returned the smile. "Not really, if I'm honest. But my daughter over there -" he nodded at a teenage girl a few yards away who was scribbling into a notebook "- really loves butterflies."
The man's smile brightened. "A lepidopterist! Wonderful!"
"She's been after us to bring her here since it opened. She's pretty serious about it, too. Takes notes, all of that kind of thing. My wife and I gave her a camera for her birthday so she could take photos, even." He ran a hand through his hair and chuckled. "Apparently a week or so ago she saw some rare butterfly that isn't supposed to be in this area. Since then we can hardly get her to go to school, she would live there if we let her, I think."
The man's head tilted slightly. "Do you know, by chance, what it was?"
"Uh...no. Sorry. No. But we can ask her, if you'd like." At the man's avid look he called quietly over to her. "Yumisa? Can I borrow you for a moment?"
She frowned a little. "Just a second, Daddy, I'm trying to write this down..." She glanced up and over to the man next to him. Her eyes nearly popped out of her face. "Uh..."
The man gave a little wave. "Hello. Your father here tells me you spotted a butterfly where it shouldn't be? Would you mind sharing your notes?" He took a step forward and bowed. "I'm Zhi, by the way."
"I know who you are." Yumisa swallowed, eyes still huge. "I don't...you want to see my notes? Mine?"
"If you'd be willing to share, of course." That friendly smile again. His wife, standing to the side of Yumisa, caught his eye. She discreetly pointed at the man.
That's him, she mouthed.
He raised an eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders. A glare; and then she pointed to the sign over the entrance that said HOU-TING INVERTEBRATE CENTER. Him, she mouthed and then raised an eyebrow in return, waiting. He stared at the sign. He glanced back at the man who had approached Yumisa, who was holding out her notebook, her face slightly pink. He felt his own eyes widen. Wait, him? That's him? Kame rolled her eyes at him in response.
So that was Yaozhi Hou-Ting was it? The man who was now sitting on a bench next to his daughter, listening to her patiently as she flipped through her notes, her words tumbling out all over themselves as she tried to find the page where she'd written the information about the butterfly. He nodded intently and then pointed at something, asking her about habitat.
"Well, after I cataloged it I started looking around the meadow and I discovered a big patch of frilly slippers growing there. They haven't been seen around here much lately, have they? Not after that disease that wiped out all the bees southwest of the city before I was born. But I remembered reading that the sooty copper fritillary preferred that flower, well, next to copper deposits that is. And then I went to the library and found that there was some copper found in the area, although not enough to mine, apparently." She took a deep breath. "I mean...I'm not really a real lepidopterist or anything. But I thought it could be related."
The man's smile was gentle. "On the contrary. On the contrary, indeed. I think, in fact, that you are quite an extraordinary lepidopterist." She flushed to the roots of her hair. "In fact, if it would be acceptable to your parents, I'd very much like to introduce you to my colleague at the university, Professor Huang. I am certain she'd be very interested in your notes."
Yumisa looked like she'd been hit by a train. "But...but she's the world's leading expert on butterfly habitat and breeding. I couldn't possibly...I'm..." She held her notebook out to him, her eyes full of tears. "I'm just an amateur."
He nodded gravely at her. "You know, Yumisa, that at one time or another we were all amateurs. Once upon a time I was just a little boy with jars full of bugs." That bright smile again. "In fact, on one memorable occasion I accidentally let a spider wasp loose in our living room and my older sister torched half the furniture trying to kill it while my poor father had hysterics." He chuckled. "He was not one for bugs, as it were. He still doesn't like them, although I think he's proud of the work I do."
"Uh, do you mean the prince?" Yumisa's smile was tentative.
"I do indeed." He leaned closer to her. "I'm sorry to have to report that the man still screams if he sees a spider wasp, my gracious." Yumisa giggled and the man returned it with a grin. Kame was beaming and suddenly moved forward to introduce herself as the man jumped up and bowed deeply, smiling all the while.
He couldn't take his eyes off of him. Something in his memory was niggling at him; something about the beach, and a cliff, and a long-legged boy who was looking for dragonflies. It had been so many years ago; he'd been around ten or so, playing kuai ball on the sand with his sisters and some of their cousins. The house where he grew up was only a three minute walk to that beach; his father and his uncles had all been fishermen by trade and as kids they'd practically lived there. What was it his auntie had said that day? Something about...
"I know you," he blurted out, and the three of them turned to regard him. "I mean...I think we met before. I think we did. It's been so many years though, I was just a kid. You were just a kid too, if it was you." At their three separate puzzled looks he laughed a little, scratching at the back of his head. "It was at Outlook Beach, south of the city. I grew up there. We were always at that beach. And there was this one day, there was this kid there, he was climbing up the cliff side, looking for a dragonfly, and I invited him to play kuai ball with us. My cousin Rena was sick that day so we had uneven teams."
"Noriaki, what on earth are you going on about?" Kame was looking at him like he was spouting nonsense. Maybe he was, at that.
"Well, nothing, I suppose. Just that I remember my auntie saying that it was Prince Wu on the beach that day, my Ma was furious she'd missed it and furious that Auntie didn't ask for an autograph." He could feel his face heating up a bit.
The man started to laugh. "Wait a minute! I remember that day! I do!" He shook his index finger at him. "I even remember you saying that your cousin was sick. It was the first time I'd ever played kuai ball, too. We won both games, too, I remember. My sister-"
"The firebender girl! The one who had been surfing. Yeah, she came and played for awhile, too. She played kuai ball like she was born to it, I really remember that part." He took a step back. "Wait, is that the one that married the Prince of the Fire Nation?"
"Naoki, yes, that was her." The prince shook his head in wonder. "I haven't thought about that day in forever." His hands crept up to settle on his hips. "Huh. What do you know. It's a tiny little world, isn't it?"
The two of them gazed at each other. Noriaki cleared his throat. "Say listen, I don't know if you still like to play or not, but a group of us get together on Friday nights, kick the ball around for awhile, go and get some noodles and a beer afterwards. Nothing formal or anything, people come and go as they can."
There was that smile again. "Does the invite include my husband? He's a sandbender, he swears he doesn't bend when we're playing but I think he's got a home court advantage going on. He's ruthless as a sand shark when he plays."
"Sure, so long as he's on our team." He found himself grinning back.
"Excuse me, professor, but you told me to come and get you five minutes before your talk was starting." A young man in academic robes approached the group.
"Ah yes, of course of course. Thank you, Tian." He dug around in his pockets, frowning, until he found a business card, handing it over to Yumisa. "I was quite serious when I said that Huang would be interested in your notes." He turned to the student. "Tian, could you please arrange a time for Miss Yumisa here to come to my office and meet with Professor Huang and myself?" He beamed at her. "She's spotted a sooty copper fritillary nearby."
"You're...are you serious? Seriously?" The young man looked like he was going to explode. "A sooty copper fritillary? Here?"
Yumisa nodded enthusiastically. "I know! I could hardly believe it myself but I even managed a photograph of it!" He looked around her as if to find it. "I don't have it here with me but I could bring it when I come to visit?" A tentative look towards the prince.
"Oh yes, please do. And any other photographs you have would be wonderful. And your notebooks! Bring your notes, please. Bring everything, really." He bowed. "Please forgive me, I'm giving a talk to some of the Zoo's biggest donors today and I really must run." He started to walk off, his long legs moving him rapidly towards the exit. He turned before he walked out the door. "This Friday night, then? Outlook Beach?"
"We usually get there around six. We'll look forward to it," Noriaki called after him, giving and getting a wave in return as the prince dashed away. He turned to see Kume with her hand to her cheek, shaking her head at him. "What?"
"Inviting a prince to come and play kuai ball with you like he was a fellow you met in a pub! Honestly, Nori!"
"Why not! He was pretty good when he was a kid, after all." He winked at her and she flapped a hand at him before tucking it into his arm. The young man was sitting with Yumisa, exclaiming eagerly over her notebook, peppering her with enthusiastic questions. Yumisa's face was shining as she ran a finger down the pages. "Well, would you look at that," he murmured to Kame, kissing her on the cheek. "I'm glad we came today."
"So am I," she replied, and they smiled to see their daughter glow.
Chapter 128: 219: Baatar, Jr. and Huan
Chapter Text
“Huan?” Baatar walked into their bedroom. “Katara said there was a call…” his voice trailed off as he saw his brother sitting on the bed, weeping.
Huan looked up. “It’s Dad,” he said, his hands fluttering. “It’s…”
“No.” Baatar said, frozen in the middle of the floor. “Oh please no.” He stood there for a moment, listening to his brother’s soft sobs before sitting heavily down next to him. “Oh, Huan. He…he lived a good life, you know. He was ninety-seven, that’s a good…” He clapped a hand to his mouth as a sob escaped him.
Huan pushed his head into his chest and he wrapped his arms around him, the tears running down his cheeks.
Chapter 129: 220: Naoki and Sozui
Chapter Text
He ran his fingers along the nape of her neck. “Sometimes I miss your long hair.” He followed his fingers with his lips.
“All that long hair was a pain in my ass. I’ve never been sorry I got rid of it. The only reason I hadn’t cut it before was that I was afraid I was going to break my father’s heart.”
“I was sad when you cut it off.”
“My twelve year old self did not care whether you were sad or not.”
He laughed a little at that. “Good to know some things never change.”
“You know, when I was eleven I asked you if you thought I was pretty.”
He drew back for a moment. “Did you? I don’t remember that.”
“Oh, I remember it. You told me I was the best firebender you had ever seen.”
“Just as true then as it is now. You are still the best firebender I’ve ever seen.”
Her laugh was wry. “Oh, you broke my poor little heart to bits.”
The sheets rustled as he sat up. “Wait, what do you mean?”
She flipped herself onto her back to poke a finger into his bare chest. “Even an eleven year old girl knows that when a boy compliments her on her bending he doesn’t think she’s pretty.” She flicked at his nipple. “Ah, don’t worry about it. I got over it a long time ago.”
He stared down at her, the moonlight through the window bringing out the sharp angles in his face. “Is that what you think? That I think you aren’t pretty?”
She snorted. “Look, when you have a sister like Meili you learn fairly early on what pretty is and isn’t. There was no way Sayuri and I could ever compete, and we both knew it.” She smiled. “Seriously, it’s fine. I told you, I got over it years ago. I’ve got other qualities. I know my own worth.”
He reached out a hand and, with a delicacy of touch that surprised her, ran his fingers gently across her face. “Of course your sister is beautiful. I’m not going to say she isn’t, because we’d both know I’d be lying. But spirits, Naoki. I’ve been in love with you since I was twelve years old and watched you take down those three Zaofu boys that punched your brother.” He took her face into both of his hands. “I’ve never loved anybody else, and you damn well know it. Whose face do you think I see when I close my eyes? Not your sister’s, I can promise you. I see your face every single day when I look at our son. Every day. I can’t…I can’t even see any other woman but you and you want to know if I think you are pretty? Pretty doesn’t even apply. It doesn’t even count. It’s not relevant. This,” and here leaned down to kiss along her jaw, “is the most beautiful face in the world to me. It always has been. It’s just that thirteen year old me didn’t have the words to tell you so.”
“Well now you did it. You made me cry.” Her arms came up around him and she drew her short nails slowly down his back. “Make me cry some more,” she whispered, and then he put his mouth on hers, just like she knew he would.
Chapter 130: 220: Zhi
Chapter Text
“Come to bed, Yaozhi.” Ping’s voice, with its lilting accent, broke through his thoughts.
“Just a moment more,” he said absently, fiddling with the knob of his microscope. It probably had sand in it. Again.
“Your beetle will wait for the morning. However, I, my husband, will not.”
Zhi brought his eyes up as Ping, with a slow smile, removed his veil.
Chapter 131: 220: Bopal Kids
Chapter Text
Bu gestured at his air bison with the currying brush. “Come on, get your head down here, I can’t reach that high. Do you want me to brush you or not?” Ginger wasn’t paying attention, however; he was staring off into the sky to the west. “What is it, goof?” He shaded his eyes with his hand and watched as the speck in the distance resolved itself into an air bison with a woman perched on his neck, waving with both hands enthusiastically.
“Whoooooooo!” the woman shouted and Bu laughed and waved back at his sister.
“San! She’s here,” he called back, and he walked forward to greet her.
Chapter 132: 220: Naoki
Chapter Text
“You’re throwing your fire away,” she said, taking his hand in hers and opening it wide. “Any firebender can shoot fire. The key is to make yourself one with the fire.”
The boy frowned at her reflection in the mirror. “I don’t understand, Master.”
She winked at him. “You will.” She turned back to the other children, standing in position, waiting. “Now. Class. Who can tell Jiang here why it’s important to always bend from here,” she placed her hand on her abdomen, “instead of the hands or feet?”
Chapter 133: 220: Wu, Mako and Qi
Chapter Text
Wu took the last swallow of his tea. “I have no idea. She keeps trying to explain it to me but you know I can’t make head nor tails of it. Mako, my darling, would you be so kind as to pass the tea?”
Mako picked up the teapot and moved it closer, never taking his eyes off of his newspaper.
“Thank you. She says it has to do with algernons.”
“Algorithms,” Mako said, and turned the page.
“If you say so.” He poured tea into his own cup and then into Qi’s. “You’ve fiddled it with it, though. How difficult is it?”
Qi shrugged a little. “I haven’t been able to keep up with her since she was about ten or so. That being said, I’m starting to get the hang of it. A little, anyhow.” Qi dished up some pickled beets.
“You keep interrupting her every time she tries to explain it to you, Wu. You’re lucky she hasn’t thrown her shoe at you.”
“Oh, go back to your newspaper.”
Chapter 134: 220: Wuko Kids
Chapter Text
“Well, what do you suggest then?” Meili said, taking her hair out of its pins. “She’s turning one hundred. We have to do something for it.”
Naoki snorted. “And steal Papa’s thunder? He’d never forgive us.” She nudged her sister with her foot. “Shove over.”
Sayuri moved over. “QiQi said she threatened to emasculate Papa if he threw her a surprise party.” She put out a hand for Meili’s pins. “Not that it would stop him.”
“Never has before,” said Zhi, ducking into the doorway, waving a bottle of wine and bearing glasses. “I brought reinforcements.”
Chapter 135: 220: Team Avatar
Chapter Text
“…and I can still kick his ass,” Korra punctuated this sentence by knocking her fist against the table.
Asami exchanged a smile with Mako. “Well, hopefully it won’t come down to that.” She put her hand over his, across the table. “Have you heard from Zhi?”
Mako nodded. “We got a letter yesterday. It was dated two months ago, though, you know there’s no real mail service in the desert. Probably had some traders deliver it to the Oasis. At last report he and Ping were in a series of canyons there.”
Korra frowned. “How close to southeastern border are they? The fighting’s getting bad again along there.”
Mako thought for a moment. “Not too close, I don’t think. Besides, Ping knows how to keep him safe. I don’t worry too much about it so long as he is there.”
“Always did kind of wish I’d learned sandbending,” Bolin said, stroking at his mustache. “Be pretty flashy, right?” He sat up straight and slowly spread his hands out. “Bolin. Earthbender. Lavabender. Actor. And now? Sandbender. It’s got a ring to it, right?”
Asami smiled at him. “I don’t know, I think you’re pretty flashy as it is.”
He sighed gustily. “San’s a better bender than I am. Earth, metal, lava and sand.”
“Naoki’s been a better bender than me since she was about ten,” Mako said. “Even little Lozan’s going to be better than me some day, I can tell. What can you do?”
“Be the Avatar. Then you’re the best.” Korra grinned, and waved over the waiter for another round of drinks.
Chapter 136: 220: Wei Beifong
Chapter Text
“Wei Beifong! The Wei Beifong?” The kid’s eyes were huge. “Could I…get your autograph?”
He looked down at her in amusement. “Sure. What do you want me to sign?”
Her face dropped. “Oh. I don’t have anything. Never mind, I guess.”
He put a hand on her shoulder. “Well, I tell you what…what’s your name?”
“Lu!”
“Well, Lu, I was just heading into the cafe there for some lunch. How about you join me and I can sign a napkin? My treat.” He nodded down at her hands. “Those are earthbending hands if I ever saw them. You metalbend, too?”
“Yes sir!”
He pushed her gently towards the cafe door. “So why don’t you tell me where you learned?”
Chapter 137: 221: Lin and LoLo
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"A kiss... out of love"
Chapter Text
She was sitting in her chair out on the open terrace, looking out to the sea. Sozui had had the chairs made for them; they were soft and comfortable but not too low, thankfully. They still had to haul their decrepit carcasses out of them, after all, and LoLo might be ninety-three to her one hundred and one but his knee wouldn’t take much at all.
They were only in Republic City during the warmer months at this point; even Wu and Mako spent the heart of winter on Ember Island with them, although Qi was, as always, reluctant to leave Sayuri and her children. She grunted to herself. That girl was in her thirties now, twice a mother herself, but that’d never mattered to either one of them. Well, Zu had never minded, which was just as well. She wasn’t sure, if it came down to it, which of them Sayuri would choose.
She sighed and closed her eyes for a bit, letting the warmth soak in.
Naoki had called earlier in the day, said she was coming with Lozan for a few days. LoLo’d be pleased; the two of them were thick as thieves, he and his little namesake.
Fuck, but she was old. Naoki’s Lozan and Meili’s three and Sayuri’s two (including the baby, Star, that Wu was head over heels with) not to mention all of her sister’s great-grandchildren, half of whom she couldn’t bother to keep straight. They were all coming for the New Year next month, and the whole thing was giving her a damn headache. She was looking forward to seeing her sister, however. She’d lost Baatar two years prior and she knew, from what Nuo told Wu, that she’d lost a lot of her spark. She worried about her.
“You sleeping or what?” LoLo shuffled out through the open doors, leaning heavily on his cane.
“I’m old, not dead.”
He grinned at her, that damn dimple still showing through the seams of his cheeks. “You’re too ornery to die.”
She snorted. “Most likely.” She sighed. “I was thinking of asking my sister to stay for a bit. When they all come next month, I mean.” She peered at him. “What do you think?”
“I think you should. She’d be good company. And I’d lay odds she could probably use ours.”
“You sure you don’t mind?”
He smiled, leaning down, gripping the side of her chair and kissed her when she turned her head up to meet him. “Never have, old girl. I don’t plan on it now.” He gave another kiss to the top of her head and settled himself into his chair before reaching over to take her hand in his.
Chapter 138: 225: Ikki
Chapter Text
She stood in the corridor, staring out one of the tall glass windows at the storm whirling the snow against the panes. It’d been snowing for three days straight now; it was beautiful, but she wasn’t looking forward to the whole digging them out part.
“Ma?” She glanced over and smiled at Goba, coming down the corridor.
“Did you need me?”
He put an arm around her. “No. I’m on my way to check on the windmills. Da says he wants to make sure they’re clear. He was going to go himself but I put him off.”
Ikki put an arm around his waist and sighed. “I wish he’d slow down a little.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Me too. I’m not going to tell him that, though. You do it.”
“Fat chance,” she said, and leaned her head against her boy’s cheek.
Chapter 139: 230: Wu
Chapter Text
“Gumpa!”
Wu smiled and waved as his eldest grandchild walked across Kwong’s to his table. He rose and kissed both of her cheeks. “Linyi, my darling, you look perfectly radiant. Is that a new dress? Yes? Breathtaking. You are a vision in blue, you always have been.” She sat down and he sat as well, still smiling at her. “I took the liberty of ordering lunch for us already.”
“Octopus fritters?”
“My darling, what else?”
She took both of his hands in hers. “Gumpa, I have the most salacious tidbit for you. It concerns a certain someone who will go unnamed but who has been trying for years to join us on the Spring Festival Committee.”
Wu’s eyes sparkled. “You must tell me immediately!” He leaned close.
Chapter 140: 234: The Hou-Ting Children and their Spouses/Partners
Chapter Text
The photographer busied herself with her equipment, nodding at her assistant who approached the Hou-Tings to make a few minor adjustments to their hair and accessories and such.
She was still debating how she’d arrange them all. If it were just the siblings it would be one thing, but they’d requested the spouses as well for this shoot and that was going to make it more challenging. For one thing, Yaozhi Hou-Ting was considerably taller than the rest and that always made things difficult.
His husband was still a looker, though. A sandbender, born and raised in the Si Wong Desert and even dressed in the latest Republic City style he looked somehow different than the rest. The suit did not suit him; not with his long hair braided up on his head and the way he stood, hips open, legs apart, hands clasped loosely behind his back. It should have looked casual but he looked pent in, instead, all his energy constrained behind summer weight wool and a cravat. He caught her looking and held her stare, expressionless, until she glanced away, feeling her cheeks heat up a bit. Unprofessional of her, damn it. Still, you couldn’t mistake how he always had an awareness of his husband, no matter where he was in the room.
Meili Hou-Ting’s waterbender husband was a different story. He wasn’t particularly handsome; however, he had one of the kindest smiles she’d ever seen. The journalist doing the story had mentioned to her that he’d come up from the South Pole to work as an administrator when the Bridge Clinic was first opened and the princess had met him there. He was laughing at something her assistant was saying; it was a warm and friendly chuckle and he included his wife in on the joke. He’d stayed home with their children when they were growing up, she’d been told, and it didn’t surprise her in the least. She was a little intimidated by Meili Hou-Ting, truth be told. Stunningly beautiful, even in her fifties, elegant and graceful. There was real affection in the way she put her hand on her husband’s arm and smiled at him, though. And she’d been nothing but gracious the entire afternoon, despite having to stand around and wait for the shot to be set up. Her mother had told her that everyone had expected the Bridge Clinic to be nothing more than a rich girl’s folly, given up after a year or so. It’d been up and running for over thirty years, however, and the princess was there nearly every day, working alongside the other healers. She was the real deal, obviously.
Everyone knew about the rocky relationship between Princess Naoki and Prince Sozui. Firebenders, her grandmother would have said with a knowing look. They’d gone back and forth for years, with Prince Sozui even cancelling his wedding to a Fire Nation noble just days before the event was supposed to take place. When Crown Prince Lozan had only been a few months old Princess Naoki had taken him in the middle of the night and returned to Republic City, Prince Sozui close on her heels. She’d only been a girl when it had happened but she remembered the scandal. They’d finally ended up on a compromise where the family lived half the year in Republic City and half the year in the Imperial City and Princess Naoki moved her school between both locations. She’d never seen the princess duel but the journalist had and had told her it had been like nothing he’d ever seen before or since. Legendary, was the word he’d used. The prince reached out his hand and trailed the backs of his fingers down his wife’s bare arm; the princess gave him a look so scorching that she hoped they’d make it through the shoot. She’d never seen her own parents look at each other like that, that’s for sure. Firebenders, indeed. If it were up to her she’d far rather have a relationship like Princess Meili and her husband seemed to have, though. All of that passionate drama back and forth must be exhausting.
The youngest was Princess Sayuri. She and her husband were both professors at Republic City University. They were a study in opposites; the princess was rail-thin with curls that were barely kept in check and her husband an inch or two shorter than she was with a round belly and thick glasses and a receding hairline. He was an astronomer who speculated on the distances between the stars, of all things. Princess Sayuri had invented the Analytical Engine and an entirely new department had been created at the University to further her work. Both of them brilliant, by all accounts, if not necessarily fashionable. They were not often seen among Republic City’s movers and shakers, choosing to focus on their work as well as their two children. They lived at the Hou-Ting mansion in the wealthy part of town with the princess’s parents, that much she did know. The professor was explaining something to Prince Yaozhi with great enthusiasm, his hands waving in the air and his tie knocked askew. She caught her assistant’s eye and discreetly motioned his direction; with a nod her assistant let her know that he’d caught it. Prince Yaozhi wrapped a long arm around his sister’s waist and said something to her; she and her husband both laughed and Prince Yaozhi looked over their heads to catch his husband’s eye with a guileless, sweet smile. His husband’s face gentled for just a moment; his eyes softened and his lips curved up just slightly. He strode over to the group and Princess Sayuri pushed a curl out of her face before saying something to him. His smile in return was dazzling white against his brown skin; he really was astonishingly good-looking, and her pulse stuttered and jumped a bit. He bowed deeply at the princess and she laughed, poking at his shoulder. When he came up out of his bow he looked more relaxed and the photographer blessed her for it. It would make the shoot easier.
“We’re just about ready,” she said. “Thank you all so much for your patience.”
Chapter 141: 241: Wu and Huan
Summary:
Archived from a Tumblr prompt:
"At the art museum"
Chapter Text
Aruna found herself smiling as the dapper old gentleman came into the the museum’s special exhibit hall. He’d been here nearly every day since the current exhibition had opened; each time he came he’d wander the rooms, leaning on his cane, his thinning white hair brushed neatly back and his suit tailored perfection. He’d asked for her name the very first visit and he always made sure to say hello to her, smiling pleasantly, asking about her day. He was lovely.
He wasn’t alone today. She’d seen him a few times with a young woman who’d referred to him as Gumpa; obviously his granddaughter. Today, however, he was with a gentleman as old as he was, his own iron-gray hair caught into a long queue that traveled the length of his back, dressed in colorful, eclectic clothing. “There now, you see?” her gentleman said, nodding towards one of the paintings. “Go and read it for yourself.”
“I don’t remember where I put my glasses,” the other man said, his voice deeper and more resonant.
“Well, I suppose I’ll have to read it to you, then.” He saw her, and his face lit up. “Ah! My dear Aruna!” He turned to the other man. “She’s one of the docents for the exhibition.” He put his hand to his chest. “And what a breathtaking shade of purple you’re wearing today, my gracious. So very flattering! You should wear it every day.”
She laughed, and her face warmed a little. “Thank you, grandfather.” She gestured towards the painting. “I could read the information card for you, if you like.”
He beamed at her. “That would be delightful of you, my dear, very thoughtful. These old eyes aren’t what they used to be.”
“They never were very good, were they?” asked the other man, and her old gentleman tsked at him.
“Oh you hush.” He carefully lowered himself to one of the benches, clutching onto his cane. “Come and sit next to me. Although I warn you, you might have to help me back up again.”
“I might need you to help me back up again, too,” the other man said, but he sat down without any stiffness, leaning his shoulder against her old gentleman.
“Hmph,” said her old gentleman, before nodding at her. “There now, we’re all settled. Read away, my dear.”
She obediently began to read from the card. “This is a portrait of Grandmaster Airbender Ikki, the head of the Northern Air Temple, circa 221. The Grandmaster is depicted in shades of blue, seeming to float in midair. The depth of the color evokes a feeling of despair, of the loneliness of the remote mountain habitat where she made her home. The patterns across her face and clothing, done with delicate brushstrokes, lend themselves to the general miasma of longing-” The other gentleman interrupted her by making a noise which sounded very suspiciously like a snort, and she blinked, voice trailing off.
“There now. What do you have to say to that?” Her old gentleman’s eyes were twinkling.
“Did you write it?” The other man was frowning.
“Of course not.”
“I’m not sure where they got that idea. I painted it in blue because the Little Bird was standing in the blue light of the stained glass, and she looked like she was swimming. I wasn’t feeling sad when I painted it.” He frowned at her. “Did you write it?”
She caught herself staring at him, slack-jawed. “Uh…no, no, I’m just a docent, all of the information about the pieces was written by the head curator of the museum.” She took in a deep breath. “Did you say you painted this? Sir?”
Her old gentleman laughed. “He’s guilty as charged.” He patted the other gentleman’s knee. “Don’t glower at her, Huan, she’s got nothing to do with it.” He pointed over at a portrait of the Hou-Ting children, one of the highlights of the exhibition. “They wanted to reframe that one, but I wouldn’t have it. I love the frame your brother made for it. They can swap out the frame when I’m dead.”
Her mind was spinning. Her old gentleman? If he owned that portrait, then that would make him Prince Wu. “Grandfather…” she trailed off as the young woman she’d seen before came in, a toddler on her hip.
“Ah, there you two are. Gumma sent me to come and find you.” She leaned down to kiss the dapper old gentleman but paused at the scowl on the other gentleman’s face. “Oh dear. What’s wrong, Uncle Huan?”
Oh mercy. He was Huan Beifong, the actual artist himself. Her mouth dried up and she felt a strong urge to sit down before she fell down. Huan Beifong was known as more than a bit of a recluse; he never attended any of his own exhibitions. She could hardly believe it was him, in the flesh, right in front of her.
“He’s displeased at what they wrote about his portrait of Ikki.” Her dapper old gentleman held out his arms out for the toddler, who was leaning out from her mother’s hip, trying to get into into his lap. “There’s my darling girl. Come to Gumpa, Zetian.” His granddaughter carefully placed the girl there, giving her grandfather another kiss. The little girl cuddled right into the old gentleman, resting her head against his chest. “Star, my love, this is Aruna. She’s one of the excellent docents here at the museum.” He smiled at her. “This is my granddaughter, Star Hou-Ting.”
“If people are going to write what I was thinking when I was painting then they could at least ask me.” Huan Beifong was still frowning.
“Well, perhaps you could answer them when they ask you for some of your thoughts about your work, hmm?”
“I don’t like it,” he muttered, glaring at the floor.
“Yes, I know.” Her old gentleman gazed lovingly at him for a moment. “Well, in any case, perhaps Aruna might be persuaded to go and fetch the museum director and you could tell him your thoughts now.” His long fingers, beginning to knot at the joints, tenderly stroked the child’s head. He met her eyes and his smile was nothing short of mischievous.
“That was his entire plan, bringing Uncle Huan here,” his granddaughter murmured at her, clearly trying not to laugh. “Old reprobate.” She took Aruna’s arm in hers. “Let my grandfather calm him down a bit, you don’t want his Beifong temper getting the best of him, believe me.” She glanced over at her daughter, reaching a finger towards one of the tattoos exposed on Huan Beifong’s arm. “He’s fond of children, we’ll let my daughter work her magic.” She drew her over to the family portrait, nodding at it. “There’s my mother, she wasn’t all that much older than Zetian there when Uncle Huan painted it.” Four year old Sayuri Hou-Ting stared at them intensely from out of the portrait. She called over. “However did you get her to sit still, Uncle Huan?”
He glanced over at her, his hands shaping a piece of metal into shapes, fascinating the child. “I didn’t. Most of her was from memory. At one point your uncle chased her around the room, trying to grab her. And your Auntie Naoki bribed her with tarts. She got mango down the front of her dress. I painted it that way but Wu made me paint over it.”
“I should say so,” the prince replied archly. “I’d hardly want her covered with mango in a formal portrait.”
She laughed. “That sounds about right.” She shot Aruna an amused glance. “She’s still not one to sit still, or at least not for a portrait.”
“That’s why I like portraits that aren’t formal better. They look like people, not paintings.” Huan Beifong pointed back at the portrait of Grandmaster Ikki. His wife, of course. Or his partner, she wasn’t all that sure of his marital status. “The patterns across her face was because it was a sunny day and the light was bouncing off all the snow outside, filtered through the blue glass.” He gazed at the portrait for a long moment, and a single tear rolled down his cheek. “Little Bird,” he whispered, and the prince took his hand.
She winced. “Has the Grandmaster passed on?” she asked the princess, lowering her voice.
She shook her head. “No, Ikki is alive and well, and here in Republic City for a visit, even. Uncle Huan just gets like that sometimes.” She smiled. “Give him a handkerchief, Gumpa.”
“We’re old men, we can cry when we like,” the Prince said, handing over the hankie. “We can also have tea when we like. Star, my treasure, perhaps we could retire to the museum tea shop? After we’ve refreshed ourselves Huan can speak to the director.” He smiled. “You and Zetian don’t need to stay, Huan and I can take another cab home.”
“Gumma would have my head. They were already irritated the two of you snuck out without saying anything.”
“Snuck out! My word, Star! I will remind you that royalty doesn’t sneak anywhere!”
She shook her head and snorted, the exact same noise that Huan Beifong had made earlier. “Let’s ask Gumpy his opinion on that.”
He waved it off. “Well, he’s biased.” He held his hand out for her, and she quickly walked across the room, taking her daughter up and then carefully helping him to stand. “Ah, thank you, my love.”
“Gumpa,” the little girl said, and reached out again for him.
“No, let Gumpa walk on his own, sweetheart, you’re too heavy to carry.” Her mother tucked back an errant curl.
He reached over and took her chubby cheeks in his hands, kissing her gently. “Let your mother carry you, my sweetest and very best of girls, and then you may sit on Gumpa’s lap when we have tea.” He glanced around theatrically and put a finger to his mouth. “She’s my favorite, you know, never tell.” His granddaughter just laughed at that as he turned back to his friend. “Are you coming, Huan?”
“Do I get to tell them that I wasn’t sad when I painted that?” He shot Aruna a look as he stood and she nodded.
“Of course, sir. I’ll let the director know you want to speak to him. Right away.”
“Well, do pause a bit and let us have some tea, if you don’t mind.” Her old gentleman smiled at her.
“Yes, grandf…uh, sorry. Your Highness, I mean.”
His smile widened. “I rather like Grandfather, you know. I think Grandfather is fine.” He began to walk in the direction of the tea shop, leaning on his cane again. “Come along now, everyone.”
Thank you, the princess mouthed at her with another one of those cheerful smiles, and followed the two old gentleman out.
Chapter 142: 252: Wu
Summary:
13th February 2020.
Written for the five year anniversary of my posting my first Wuko fanfic, Please Excuse My Penmanship.
This takes it full circle. Thank you all for five years of reading, commenting, and connecting. This has changed my life.
Chapter Text
Republic City
Mid Summer, Dragon Month, 21st Day, 252 AG
My dearest Mako,
Do you remember, after all these years, my first letter to you? The one I sent from Ba Sing Se? There I was, eighteen years old, heartsick, terrified of being back there, staying in that house in the Upper Ring. The bedroom smelled of fish oil! It’s been nearly eighty years and I can still recall that with undesired clarity.
Oh, were we ever that young? My gracious, I remember that day you walked into my dreary meeting, so very handsome in your uniform, after an endless year apart. I was dreadfully afraid that you weren’t going to come despite telling me that you would. I thought you’d change your mind, realize that I was just a silly boy who was certainly not worth your time, never mind your affection.
I have never, in all my many days, been so glad to have been proved wrong.
Isn’t it funny how memory works? I cannot for the life of me remember what I had for my breakfast today, but I remember how the scars on your arm felt when you had undressed me and lay me back on my bed, pulling me close. I was desperate with want yet unable to stop my anxious trembling. You knew it, of course. You were so patient with me, so gentle, so very good.
How strong you always were. You were the first person in my life that made me feel safe, never mind cared for. Is it any surprise I fell so helplessly in love?
You know very well how foolish I always was over you.
But enough of all that now. Let me tell you our latest happy news instead. Our little Emerald is to be a grandmother! Can you believe it? Her daughter Ruby and her husband are expecting. It doesn’t seem at all possible, does it? Opal will be a great-great grandmother. My gracious! Before you ask, no, we cannot yet say the same. I am perfectly content to be a great-grandfather, after all.
Which brings me to our little Zetian. Oh but I do love her so very much, Mako. I have been putting all of my papers and letters and journals and such together with Qi and Star’s help. I am going to leave them all to her. That should satisfy all of her constant questions about how things were when we were young, I suppose! I do hope there is nothing too scandalous or salacious in them. Well, it is of no matter. She turned fifteen last month; I suppose she’s old enough to know her own mind and to not be too terribly shocked by the exploits of her ancestors. She takes after Qi, you know, she’s a very practical girl, in many ways. She is a marvel, so bright, so eager to embrace the world, and smart! Oh, so very intelligent. You would think she would tire of her old Gumpa’s ramblings but she does not. She takes me on slow strolls around the garden every afternoon after school, giving me her arm, content to sit in the pavilion with me as I nap a little, chatting softly with Bob until I awaken, fetching me tea before we make our way back to the house. It is her dearest ambition to become a writer someday, and I think she will make a good one, what with all of that imagination of hers!
We had a lovely, long letter from Lozan a few days ago. I think he is finally settling into his reign now. Poor Juziya kept thinking Sozui would change his mind and take the crown from her but he never wanted it. It was clear to all of us but her that he was preparing Lozan to be her heir. Oh Mako, he told us in the letter that next month they will break ground for the new University that he has been so hoping to build. He asked me if I thought you would be proud and I know I did not write out of turn when I told him that you would be. Naoki and Sozui raised him to appreciate both culture and education and he has such dreams, Mako! Oh, what a fine man he has turned out to be. From Firelord Zuko to Izumi to Juziya and now to him. I like to think I had at least some hand in preparing him as well. I did my best, at least. He has invited the entire family to the opening of his brand new royal opera house next month but I have had to decline. Qi will go; Star will be singing, of course, and I do hate to miss it. But just the idea of the long ride on the airship and all of that time change nonsense is too much for me. I do hope he will not mind too much. My traveling days are behind me now.
Zu has lately been after Sayuri to retire from teaching; she has refused to retire completely but is now only teaching one class. Gracious, you know she never did like to sit about and so now with all of her so-called extra time (called by her, naturally) she is writing a book about her analytical engine which, she claims, will be comprehensible to the layman. One can only hope. I have been listening to her talk about that thing for fifty years now and still cannot make heads nor tails of it. Radiant is helping her with it, bless the boy. Oh! And there is some news! Radiant has been promoted to Head of the Mathematics Department at the University! Can you believe it? He is only thirty-eight, after all. I’m sure we were all expecting it to happen at some point but perhaps not this soon. He announced it at dinner the other night and Zu and I had a happy little weep together. Qi was so proud, I wish you could have seen their face! Oh, he has always been such a lovely, smart boy, our Radiant. Think of how many academics we produced, Mako. I am prouder of that than I ever was of propagating the royal line of Hou-Ting.
What else can I tell you about the grandchildren? Linyi is well as are both of her darling boys; she is still running the Children’s charity and has taken over the Bridge Clinic Foundation as well and comes to see me nearly every day. Tarra of course is hard at work there and it looks like her little Iluliaq is sure to follow in her mother and grandmother’s footsteps. Meili is only at the clinic part-time now; Tupilek put his foot down. I’m glad he did. You know that girl has always had a tendency to run herself ragged. Thank goodness Tarra has inherited her father’s good common sense and calm temperament. Which makes up for Aglakti, that wild boy. Gracious, his music all sounds like crashing and clanging to me, but he seems to love it and apparently so do his fans. At least he has the career I always wanted for myself! How Meili managed to produce a child so musically gifted I will never know. He’s at court with Lozan now, doing who knows what. I know that Lozan’s Empress puts up with their shenanigans seemingly without rancor and Lozan, at least, has the sense to be discreet about it, although in my experience kings by any name aren’t really allowed the luxury of discretion. The best you can hope for is that people will turn a blind eye. But it isn’t in Aglakti’s nature to be discreet about anything and it’s not like he doesn’t know he’s always the handsomest man in any room. Lozan is lucky that he is as popular a Firelord as he is, or else I am afraid his subjects would be rather savage about the entire thing. They are cousins, after all! Well, I shall say no more about it. It isn’t as if I didn’t parade my policeman around the palace in Ba Sing Se, after all, never mind Qi. I suppose when it comes down to it I don’t have a (increasingly shaky) moral leg to stand on!
Ping is doing well after that scare with his heart. Tarra stepped right in and took over; it is all gentle exercise and a change of diet and such. Poor Zhi was frantic but Tarra assures us all that Ping is recovering very nicely. Sayuri insisted that they make a permanent move into the half of Madame Zong’s home that Radiant and his wife and the baby are not living in (yes, I know it has been Sayuri’s home for all these years but I will never stop thinking of it as Zong’s, never mind that she tore the fence down and directed the gardeners to combine both gardens together ages ago) and just last night while Zetian was taking me for my early evening stroll we could hear Zhi, Meili and Sayuri bickering about who knows what through the back window. Some things never do change, do they! I cannot say I am sorry to have all of my children so close to me. Well, excepting Naoki, of course. But I think we always knew that we could not hold onto that little butterfly of ours. She was made to fly. I am grateful that she makes sure to fly home to see me as often as she does.
Now that I have caught you up on all of the good news I suppose I should come to the not so very good.
It was three months ago now that I was sitting with Sayuri, having some tea, when Meili came in with Iris and Poppy. I knew as soon as they entered the room what they had come to tell me; I started to weep and both of them came to me immediately. Bless them, they told me they could not bear to give me the news over the telephone and therefore had come in person to let me know. Oh, my Nuo, my Nuo, my beloved Nuo. Forgive me, my love, for the smears I am making with the ink. I feel as if I cannot bear it, Mako. The girls told me it was peaceful; she was there with her entire family when she breathed her last. They are all devastated, of course, but poor Rose has been quite overset. Enough so that Meili insisted on going back with Iris and Poppy to care for her for a little while.
It is too much, my love. First Bolin and then we lost Wei and Wing within the same week and Sitiak has been gone these twenty years, of course. Korra is still hale - normal for the Avatar, I am to understand - but much diminished when she lost Asami. Her heart does not seem to be in it any longer. Baatar left us last year and Ikki is still with Huan but in his last letter he told me that she thinks it is soon her time to go and when she does he will leave the mountain for the swamps that his grandmother loved. That only leaves Opal and Qi and myself, the three of us rattling about Republic City, simply waiting for our time.
I’m tired, Mako. My joints ache so; Meili cares for them as does our little Tarra, but look at how the words tremble and lurch across the parchment. I cannot even hold my pen properly any longer, and I can hardly see despite the strongest lenses they give me. Zetian has taken it upon herself to read to me now.
I am old. There is simply no way of getting around it.
I miss you so very dreadfully. I naively thought it would get better with time but it has not. Oh Mako, if I had only known that was to be your last night with me! I would have said something to you that would have encompassed our life and love together. So many years, so much joy and pain, all to end with you simply saying, “Turn off the light,” to me. How was I to know you would never awaken? How was I to know it was all ending so soon?
I could have spent a thousand years with you and it would not have been enough. I am selfish but then again I always was, wasn’t I? I know it was your time. But you left me here to navigate this world without you and I never wanted that, not ever. How could you leave me first? How could you leave me behind?
Ten years, Mako. Ten years without you. Ten years and who now reads the paper at the breakfast table? Who will answer all of the questions you posed in your notebooks, forever unanswered? Who lets loose with those gusty sighs that you always let express your emotion for you?
I left our bedroom, you know, moved into what had once been LoLo and Lin’s room. Easier on my joints, of course. But Qi knew it was because I could no longer bear to be in that bedroom without you.
I asked them, last night, if they would manage without me as well. They just smiled at me and kissed the tip of my nose as they always have. “Maybe I’ll go and live with Huan in the swamp, then. He’s still on my Exception List, you know.” We had a laugh together and then they put their arms around me. “If you are looking for my permission then you have it. Don’t hang on for my sake. I’ll see Zetian to adulthood and I can’t leave Sayuri just yet. But you go on and go if you feel you’re ready.”
I am ready.
Have you waited for me, my love? I have always hoped we could be born again together. Perhaps the next time I could be a pretty little girl. One with a lovely singing voice, if I am allowed to make any requests. Oh, it wouldn’t matter, so long as I could know, somewhere deep inside, that I would find you again.
Do you watch over me? Do you know when I am at your shrine? I try very hard to smile when I am there, to only send you good thoughts, but I fear I have always cried far too easily. I do not mean to disturb your rest, my love.
I will join you soon. I hate to leave all the children and especially our Qi but I am so very tired. I know Qi will miss me as much as they have missed you but Qi has always been so much more self-reliant than I.
Today is your birthday. You would be one hundred years old if you were still with me. What a party we would have had! A party you would have hated, I’m sure. You never did like parties very much. I should wait another four years for my own centennial but I don’t want to. That should tell you, my love, how ready I am to go. I do not even care about a once in a lifetime party!
I do not care about such things any longer. All I long for now is warmth and good tea and knowing my family is nearby. And your arms, my love. I still long for your arms.
I will take this to your shrine along with some of your favorite fruit tarts and burn it for you so that you can read it. Will you wait for me? Please wait for me. I am coming soon.
All my love,
Your Wu
Notes:
Everyone dies.
Chapter 143: 280: Sayuri
Summary:
Sayuri remembers...
Chapter Text
I’ve been asked for my earliest memory, but my life was never like that, moments that were sharply defined from each other, each its own separate creation. My first memories are feelings, flashes of my senses that I carry with me today. The smell of my grandfather’s kitchen, spices mingling with fried onion, the polished walnut of his voice, singing and humming along to the radio, the flash of his teeth when he smiled, giving me a spoon to lick. My grandmother’s dry and practical hands, like her voice, the flick of her eyebrows, the strength in her arms when she picked me up from a tumble, brushing me off with secret tenderness. The rustle and acrid stench of the cheap ink of my father’s newspaper as I burrowed under it to sit in his lap, the sips of his tea, sweet and milky, the stubble on his chin, the rasp of the scars on his hand as he stroked my hair back from my face. The scratch of my other father’s pen as he drove it across parchment with bold, sure strikes, the laughter that always lurked in the edges of his voice, the glint off his spectacles as his body moved when he spoke, always animated, his fingers gently guiding mine as I tried to clumsily pick up my own pen. My oldest sister’s grin, how she’d toss me high into the air, swinging me about by my ankles, her pure physicality delighting me to no end, taking me for endless romps around the house on her back. My brother’s warm, kind voice as he read to me, his unending patience, the lure of the iridescent carapaces that I was allowed to view and ask questions about but never, ever touch. My other sister, the beauty, always just a little unreachable through the jealous tangle of our love but who would always come if I called her, my greatest foe and yet my champion whenever I needed her. The feel of the earth of our garden under my bare feet, the way my grandmother showed me, cool and slightly moist, the bright profusion of my father’s koi as I ran around the pond, the plums that taunted me, fat with juice, where I could not reach. But what I mostly remember is the soft, buttery light of my mother’s room, the place that I adored more than any other, as I lay nestled in the vanilla and sandalwood scent of their irrevocable embrace, fighting to keep my eyes open as they murmured with their soft voice into my ear for me to sleep, that the world would still be there for me in the morning, ready for me to explore. And I knew they would be there too, my own precious QiQi, the one I loved more than anyone else in the world, the one who would always love me, always keep me safe.
Chapter 144: 269: Bo
Summary:
This was for a Tumblr prompt series that never got off the ground.
A preview for Chapter 19 of the 31 Day Prompt List: A Beifong Family Affair.
Chapter Text
The first time that Bo Beifong really understood he was the next Avatar was the day a woman's voice spoke to him in his head.
Everybody knew he was the Avatar now that he was ten, of course. The White Lotus had gone around when Avatar Korra had died, looking for earthbending children who had been born on the same day that she had passed, traveling the world over. They'd skipped Republic City, though. When he was two, as the story went, he got upset when his mother tried to hand him an apple that had been cut up and sent the slices across the room with a shriek and a gust of wind. His parents had been startled and more than a little worried since they'd thought he was an earthbender, like Mama (although it wasn't like their family didn't split pretty evenly into earth, air and waterbending as well as a cousin that had popped out a firebender) but they'd called his great-grandfather San who had come over, played with him for a bit and had shrugged. He's still an earthbender. Seems to me like you have the next Avatar here, he'd said, giving Bo a cookie and a kiss and hauling himself up off the floor. Guess I'll give the White Lotus a call. According to his mother his father had actually fainted dead away and Great-Grandpa had poured a glass of water on his face. Which sounded like his family, for sure.
The White Lotus had suggested that they take him away for training after that but his parents had protested and Great-Grandpa had put his foot down. Great-Grandpa had pointed out that he was still a little boy and needed his family, his friends, regular school, that sort of thing. He'd also reminded them that prior to Avatar Korra the avatars had always grown up normally, not being told who they were until they were in their late teens and only training in their native element until they were adults. The White Lotus had not been happy about that at all. There had been lots of arguments (and even some name-calling, according to Mama) but obviously the White Lotus was wrong. His great-grandfather was a Beifong! He could bend metal and sand and lavabend! He was the best earthbender in the world! They had better listen to him.
The end result of all the fighting was that they agreed that when he turned ten the White Lotus would provide bending masters to train him, but he'd still live at home and stay in school as well.
He loved his great-grandparents, a lot. They told good stories about the olden times, times when his great-great grandfather Bolin, the one they named him after, was a pro-bender and he and his brother helped Avatar Korra. (He even got to see really old movers with his great-great grandfather, although he didn't understand why he was pretending to waterbend.) He loved those old stories, loved nothing more than to sit on Great-Grandpa's lap, eating one of the kelp cookies that Great-Grandma Amak made while listening to them. None of those people were still alive any longer, they were just photographs in the big album that he was allowed to look through, turning the pages carefully the way he'd been taught. One of his favorite photos was of great-great-grandfather Bolin and great-great-grandmother Opal on their wedding day, surrounded by all of their family, including great-great-great-grandmother Suyin and her sister Lin, the famous Beifong sisters, the ones who were the daughters of Toph Beifong. Great-Grandpa remembered them! He could tell stories about them!
Avatar Korra was in those pictures as well. She had a nice looking face: she looked like she smiled and laughed a lot. She was Watertribe, with a Northern father and a Southern mother, he knew all about her, of course. He had Watertribe in him as well, thanks to Great-Grandma Amak and his Dad. Fire Nation, too, because of Great-Great-Great Grandmother Naoki on Mama's side and Great-Grandma Ao on Dad's side. He didn't think he had any of the old Air Nomad in him but as his Mama said, no one really knew who did or didn't. He asked her what she meant and she just laughed and hugged him and said they were called Nomads for a reason and who knew if they were leaving babies about before the Fire Nation destroyed their temples? Mama said he was a Republic City mixup, that he had all different kinds of bloodlines in him. When he was really little he'd look at himself in the mirror and try to see if he could see all of those bloodlines under his skin but all he ever saw was Bo Beifong, a boy with blueish-green eyes and brown skin and black hair that stuck up all over his head and a body that was already trying to be big and strong.
He had gone to Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma's house that day, sneaking out the back door of his school and crouching on the bumper of a tram to steal a ride, the way he'd learned from watching some of the street kids. He knew the White Lotus would be coming to look for him; they always came to pick him up after school for his training and he hated it. Right now they had a earthbending master working with him who never laughed at any of his jokes, and sure, maybe some of his jokes weren't very good but other people thought they were funny, so there! Great-Grandpa had taught him earthbending when he was small but even then there were always White Lotus hanging around, trying to argue with Great-Grandpa that he should teach this way or that way. (He'd asked Mama about it once and she said it was because Great-Grandpa had learned from his father, who had never had any formal training. He thought that was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard; Great-Great-Grandfather Bolin had been a mighty earthbender! He could bend lava! But Mama told him it was politics and he could worry about that kind of thing later.) Great-Grandma spotted him when he climbed over the back fence to their house and winked at him and gave him some tea and cookies and pulled out the old photo album for him to look at while he ate his snack. He knew his younger brother and his cousins thought he was weird for looking at it all the time but he couldn’t explain it to them. It just felt right to look at it, like he knew all those people and places and things that happened.
He turned the pages until he came to one picture he really loved. In it his lots of times great-uncle Mako was sitting on a sofa with Avatar Korra and they were laughing; great-great-grandfather was there in front of them with his fire ferret Pabu on his wrist, doing tricks. (Great-Grandpa remembered Pabu from when he was a little boy and told stories about him, he lived to be very old.) There was a poster behind them in the photo that was for the Fire Ferrets pro-bending team. He liked that poster. He wasn’t sure whose house they were in, though. Maybe on Air Temple Island? He knew they had all lived over there for awhile, Great-Grandpa had told him that, too.
It was Mako's place.
He dropped his cookie, looking around the room. “Great-Grandma?” He waited for her to answer but she didn't; her hearing wasn’t so good any more and you had to get her attention first so she could really listen to you. “Hello?”
Bolin lived there for awhile but he moved out. Mako lived there until the Colossus destroyed it. Or at least I think he did. By the time I got back to Republic City he was staying with Wu in the hotel most of the time.
He froze in place, mouth hanging open. “Hello?” he whispered again. “Is someone there?”
That sofa had a rip in the corner, Bolin was always yanking at it and Mako was always yelling at him about it. The voice sounded like it wanted to laugh.
“Um. Are you talking to me?” He really wished Great-Grandma would come in to the room so he could see that it was just her being funny and not something in his head.
Pretty sure you're the only one who can hear me. Oh, are those kelp cookies? Good stuff.
“Who are you?” He caught his breath, waiting for the answer. “Are you real?”
That sounds like something Bolin would say. Am I real? Yes? No? I'm you.
He frowned. “I'm not a lady!”
The woman laughed and he relaxed a little. Her laugh was big and booming and friendly, not like the evil mwahahaha that a bad guy would give. I'm you. I'm me. We're us. Although I'm the only one in here any longer. Besides Raava, I mean. Sorry about that, kid. You should have had a few thousand years worth of Avatars to rely on but that got stolen from us. You're stuck with me instead.
He could feel his eyes getting bigger. Are you Avatar Korra? It wasn’t until he’d already said it that he realized he’d said it in his head, not with his mouth.
Sure am. And we're Avatar Bolin.
Just Bo, only my Mama calls me Bolin, and that's when I'm trouble.
She laughed again. Sounds about right. Avatar Bo, then. Good to meet you.
How come you haven't talked to me before? He wondered if he could eat his cookie while talking to his past self or if that would be rude.
Hey, eat the cookie. I love a good kelp cookie myself. And to answer, you weren’t really old enough before.
But I’m old enough now? He frowned around the extra large piece of cookie in his mouth. How come?
He felt the mental shrug rather than saw it. Couldn’t tell you. It just felt right so I went with it.
His eyebrow crept up. It felt right? But what if it hadn’t been right?
Gut thing. Waterbender thing. Your great-grandmother here could tell you about it.
He thought about this for a moment, methodically chewing the rest of his cookie. Are you going to talk to me all the time?
Probably not. When I could still access my past lives we only talked when I needed them and asked for them. The Avatar State was usually involved. Or at least a lot of meditating.
Oh. He felt a little disappointed by this. That’s too bad.
Well, you’ve got to live your own life, kiddo. That’s all part of the whole Avatar gig. I’m here to help you if you need me, but you’ve got to make your own choices. That’s why Avatars are the only ones who can really remember or connect with their past lives, people have to be themselves, not memories. Think of me as an adviser. I just wanted to check in, let you know I was here.
Can’t I think of you as a friend?
She was quiet for a time. Sure you can. Why not? We’re making it up as we go. It’s not like there’s anyone who can tell us we’re doing it wrong any longer.
He drank some tea, still thinking. Thinking his thinks, as Great-Grandma always said. He always needed time for that. He didn’t like to just jump into things. I don’t like my earthbending master. He felt better getting that off his chest. I wish I had someone different but nobody listens to you when you’re ten, even if you’re the Avatar.
Yeah, that guy wouldn’t know a joke if it bit him in the ass.
He giggled a little at that. They don’t like me to train with Great-Grandpa, either.
Yeah, I know. Which is more than a little short-sighted, if you ask me. Your great-grandfather is a damn good bender. He even figured out metalbending, which is more than Bolin managed.
Were you and great-great-grandfather Bolin good friends?
The best. He could feel waves of happiness and love from her. The best of friends.
I wish I had a best friend. The other kids don’t really play with me because I’m the Avatar and all.
Give it time, kiddo. You’ll get friends, I promise. A group of them, it’s an Avatar thing. And fairly soon here I’d be guessing you’d be getting your animal guide as well.
Like you had Naga?
Now she felt sad. Yeah, like I had Naga.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel sad.
He sensed her smiling again. Sadness is just a feeling. It happens to the best of us. Even if you’re the Avatar.
Yeah, he agreed.
He sensed another wave of love from her. Well kiddo, I best be on my way. If you need me I’m here for you, though. Okay?
But how do I talk to you? I can’t get to the Avatar State yet. And I don’t know how to meditate.
If you really need me, then just think about me, I guess. But only if you really need me, okay? I really meant it when I said you have a life to live.
But you’ll be there? He closed his eyes and thought about her and then he saw her; older than the laughing girl on the sofa, maybe the same age as his Mama or a little older. She was dressed in Southern Watertribe clothes, her tribal tattoos on her arm, the front part of her chin length hair done up in beaded braids. She winked at him and gave him a funny little salute before fading away.
I’ll be here, her voice came from very far away, and he opened his eyes, smiling.
“Nice to meet you,” he whispered to the photograph of himself with his old friends, and took another cookie.
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