Soldier's Boy

Twenty-Eight

Surprisingly, given their parting from Jet and his Freedom Fighters, Kouji and the boy known only as the Duke got along very well.  This could have been partly due to the younger boy finding out about Kouji's seasickness and turning up with a tea known to help quell uneasy stomachs.  Thanks to him, the earthbender was only nauseous for the first few days at sea.

This relieved Lee very much, particularly since he was still avoiding almost everyone else, not trusting them to let the matter of his hand drop.

Aang was still unconscious, but Hakoda had made the decision to move out anyway, as their position at Chameleon Bay was rapidly becoming more dangerous.  He was working out a plan with his son to invade the capital of the Fire Nation on the day of the eclipse, some two months hence.  Lee hovered on the edges of it, listening but not contributing. Not yet.

As the sun began to set, the little meeting broke up, with Hakoda joining Bato to discuss something and Sokka off to do whatever it was he did.  Kouji tapped on Lee's shoulder.  "What is it?" he asked, quietly, picking at the bandage on his left hand. This had become something of a nervous habit since Ba Sing Se.

Kouji stilled his brother's hand.  "Dinner," he said quietly.

"Oh. Okay."

The boy took Lee by the good hand and led him down to the galley.  Once they had their food Kouji had to release the older boy, and they both carried the bowls back on deck.  Lee followed quietly, and settled with his brother near one of the railings.

"When do you think he'll wake up?" Kouji asked after a long while.

"Don't know," he replied.

The boy sighed and slid down the rail until he was seated.  "It's already been two weeks…"

"I know," Lee said, losing interest in his dinner and picking at the bandage again.

"Niisan, you need to stop doing that," Kouji told him, reaching up to hold onto Lee's good hand.

"Sorry…"

The boy sighed and turned to watch Hakoda kneel to give Momo some of the attention the lemur craved.

On cue, Aang crashed in from below. Literally.

Kouji leapt to his feet, startled, as Momo jumped from the deck to Aang's shoulders, where he happily licked the Avatar.  "Twinkletoes, that's gotta be you!" Toph called from where she was hanging out near the railing with Katara. The two girls ran over.

"Aang, you're awake!" Katara said, grinning.

"Are you sure?" the Avatar asked, a little groggily. "I feel like I'm dreaming…"

Katara flung her arms around him. "You're not dreaming. You're finally awake."

Kouji ran over to join the Duke.  "Aang!"

Lee stayed where he was, picking at his bandage again.

And then Sokka, still in his stolen armour — and helmet — went over to hug Aang. "Aang, good to see you back with the living, buddy!"

"Dammit, Sokka, take that thing off!" Kouji snapped at him.

"Sokka…?" Aang mumbled, then swayed.

"Oh, no, somebody catch him, he's gonna—" Toph started. Aang fainted. "—faint," she finished, uselessly.

Kouji winced as he knelt by the Avatar, checking his pulse.  "His heart's going fast.  Must've panicked."  He tugged sheepishly at his braid.  "Maybe we shouldn't've left him alone in his room."

"Probably not," Katara agreed, a little ashamed. "I should've thought of that…"

"Too late now."  Kouji slipped out of the way, backing up to join Lee.  "So… we wait for him to wake up again…?"

"Guess so," the older boy replied, not looking up from his fiddling. He'd worked about an inch of the end of the bandaging free.

"Niisan!"  Kouji batted his good hand aside and tucked the loose bandaging back in.

"Hey!"

"Stop fiddling with it!"

"Why should I?"

"Because then it will come undone."

"So?" Lee asked sullenly, not looking at him.

"So, then you'll have to go to the medic and get it bandaged again."

Lee flinched a little and pulled the hand away, curling it against his chest again.

Kouji sighed and wrapped his arms around his brother's waist, completely ignoring the part of the ship where Aang had awakened a second time.  Lee tensed a little, his good hand drifting to pick at the bandaging again. He stared determinedly out at the ocean.

"It'll be okay, niisan," Kouji whispered.  "Everything will be okay…"

"Of course." Katara led Aang back inside, and Lee relaxed slightly.

"I… guess this means we're going to the Fire Nation soon?" the boy asked.

"Maybe not. The invasion isn't for a while. Not sure what we're doing 'til then," the older boy replied, quietly, picking at his bandages. He left the ones still holding his ribs in place alone.

Frustrated, Kouji grabbed Lee's good hand and refused to let go of it.

"Kouji…" he started.

The younger boy looked up at him defiantly.  "What?"

"…Never mind," Lee finally said, going back to staring at the ocean.

Kouji sighed and stayed with him.

A couple hours later, Lee quietly suggested that Kouji head for bed.

Just as quietly, his brother replied, "Not unless you do."

"Whatever." Lee detached himself from the rail.

Kouji led the older boy downstairs to their room, where he curled up on the bed while keeping his hand in Lee's.  Lee sat down next to him, quietly.

"We'll be okay, niisan," whispered Kouji, looking up at him.  "I promise."

"Yeah," Lee said, quietly. "Of course."

The earthbender drifted off to sleep soon after.

*           *           *

When he woke the next morning, Lee hadn't moved. He looked like he was starting to not sleep again.

"…niisan?"  Kouji rubbed at his eyes with his free hand.

"Morning. Sleep well?"

The boy nodded, and yawned.

"Good."

"You?"

"Didn't sleep."

Kouji gave Lee an exasperated look.  "You need to sleep."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Lee muttered.

"What?  Why?"

"Forget it," Lee sighed. "They might have breakfast ready, if you want it."

Kouji gave Lee a suspicious look, but dragged him back to the galley for breakfast, then to the deck just in time to hear Sokka tell Aang that the whole world thought he was dead.  Lee stiffened again, and went back to his spot on the railing from the night before, staring out at the ocean.

"The world thinks I'm dead?!" Aang yelled, incredulously. "How is that good news? That's terrible!"

"He couldn't've broken it gentler?" Kouji muttered, watching the mess.

Lee didn't answer, glaring out at the ocean, while Sokka tried to explain why this was marvellous to the freaked-out Avatar.

And then another, larger ship appeared on the horizon.

"I'll handle this," Aang said. "The Avatar is back." He spun open his glider, and then wobbled a little.

"Aang, wait," Katara said. "Remember, they don't know we're not Fire Nation." Sullenly, he put his glider away.

"Everyone, just stay calm," Hakoda advised as he and Bato pulled helmets.  "Bato and I will take care of this."

Quickly, the children got Appa hidden and then all went under cover.

Lee followed his brother, keeping his hand curled against his chest and doing his best to ignore the others.

The fast-talking of the other ship seemed to be going well, until one of the soldiers pointed out a hole in their story to his commander. "They know!" Toph shouted, leaping out of their hole, and crumpling the deck to make the bridge between the ships fall into the ocean, dumping the three enemy soldiers.

"Oh, no!"  Kouji followed Toph and Katara out of their hiding place.

Lee followed, too, trying to draw his swords and dropping one with a muffled yelp.

Katara seemed to have things under control, though, pushing the other ship aside enough to give them a good head start — at least until the other ship started loosing fire rocks at them.  "Those are mine!" Kouji yelled, planting himself firmly on the metal deck.  As soon as one rock got within range, he would push it to one side so the ship would not be struck.

Lee quietly stepped up next to his brother and pulled the flames off the projectiles into the ocean. His range was a little wider than his brother's, so by the time Kouji dealt with them, the rocks were already starting to cool.

Toph started responding, with Pipsqueak's help throwing rocks back at them.

A chain fired from the pursuing ship to theirs, sinking a metal missile deep into their hull and then retracting it.  Kouji stumbled into Lee as the ship started to rock.  Between his brother slamming into him and the rocking of the ship, Lee totally lost his balance and hit the deck, landing on his ruined hand. He yelped in pain, seeing stars.

Katara quickly took care of the hole, and the ship stabilized. She then called up a thick mist, hoping it would cover them enough to get them out of range.

"Niisan!" cried Kouji, getting off the older boy — then he looked up.  "Look out!"  Another burning rock had penetrated Katara's fog and was heading straight for the deck.  He managed to divert it, but not enough — the rock clipped the rail.

And then Aang decided to try to join in.

"Aang, no!" Sokka cried, catching up to him and holding him back. "You're still hurt. And you have to stay secret. Just let us handle this."

"Fine." Annoyed, the Avatar went back into hiding—and not a moment too soon. They and their pursuer burst through the fogbank seconds later.

By this time, Lee had regained his feet, the pain from his hand reducing itself to a dull throbbing, and went back to stopping the fire-rocks with his brother.

"How're we doing?" Toph called.

"Things couldn't get much worse," Sokka said.

On cue, the creature from the Serpent's Pass burst up from the water behind him.

"You did that!" screamed Kouji, scrambling backwards and staring up at the leviathan.  "Look what you did!"

"The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it," Sokka yelled.

"You make it too easy!" Toph shot back.

Lee, ignoring them, started to put out another fire-rock, then realized that the sea monster was between it and them. He lowered his hands and watched it hit, and the creature, enraged, turn on the ship that had fired it.

All heads turned to watch the serpent trap the enemy ship in its coils as they sailed away.  Kouji let out a relieved sigh.  Lee echoed it, while Sokka thanked the universe.

"That was close," said Hakoda unnecessarily.  He moved to the rail and looked at where ice was serving as a makeshift plug for the hole in their hull.  "We'll have to make port for supplies and repairs."

"Fine," Katara muttered, then went off to check on Aang.

Lee just nodded, absently picking at his bandages again.

Kouji smacked his good hand.  "Stop that."

*           *           *

The sun was setting when Kouji tracked his brother down.  "Hey, niisan.  We're going to be heading into town to get some food.  You wanna come?"

"Who's going?" he asked, fiddling with the inch or two of bandaging he'd worked free.

Kouji moved Lee's hand away and replaced the bandages again.  "Me, Toph, Sokka, Katara, the Duke, and maybe Pipsqueak and Aang.  Dunno about Aang."

The teenager hesitated, then nodded. "Fine."

Kouji beamed at him and took his hand, leading him to where the Duke was waiting.  They were joined shortly by Toph and Sokka.  "Where're Katara and Aang?" Kouji asked.

"Aang doesn't want to disguise himself. Katara's trying to talk him down," Sokka explained.

Kouji looked up at his brother, but nodded.  "Right.  So, are we waiting?"

"Yeah."

A few minutes later, Katara joined them, without Aang. "We'll bring him something back," she said.

"Right."  Kouji yanked on the end of his braid.  "Then let's go."

The six of them wandered into the town and found a food stand without much trouble.  They ordered and ate, then returned to the ship, Kouji joking around with the Duke and finally acting like the eleven years old he claimed.

Lee drifted away from them, returning to the railing. Katara went back to give Aang the food she'd brought for him.  The two youngest boys were wrestling (the Duke was winning) when they heard Katara's voice drift down from the helm.

"…that can't be good," Kouji said.

Lee wandered over to them. "Aang went missing and Katara's arguing with her father for some reason." He'd pulled an inch of bandaging free again.

Kouji scowled and pushed the Duke off of him.  "We'll finish this later," he said to the younger boy, then went to settle by his brother again.  One hand drifted to brush against his chest.  Lee stopped fiddling with his bandages to take his brother's hand.

Toph came up to join him. "We're going to try and find Aang as soon as Katara's calmed down. Are you two coming?"

"I…"  Kouji looked up at Zuko.

Lee was silent for a long minute, staring down at his hand. "Up to you, Kouji," he finally said, after a moment.

Sokka ran up to break the tension. "Come on, guys, we need to move."

Kouji made up his mind in a split second.  "Right.  C'mon, Lee."  It was high time he visited the homeland he'd never seen.

Lee nodded, and went to help the others pack. Katara joined them a few minutes later and they shot off.  Kouji huddled against his brother, keeping an eye out for Aang.  It didn't take long for them to fly directly into a storm. At once Kouji shifted position, trying to protect Lee's bandages.  The teenager seemed to have the opposite objective in mind. He curled around his brother, trying to keep him dry.  Finally, a wordless compromise was reached — Zuko would protect Kouji from the rain, but his bad arm would be under Kouji, keeping those bandages dry.

Much to Lee's relief, Kouji seemed to have forgotten the bandages on his ribs in favour of the more visible injury.  At some point, the younger boy fell asleep, not waking until the storm had passed and the sun was up.  Not long after, Kouji spotted an island — and a familiar figure.  "There he is!"

"Thank goodness," Katara said, and Sokka, who was driving, brought them in for a landing.

Momo scrambled over to Aang and licked him awake. The others followed him, Lee hanging to the rear and fiddling with his hand-bandages again.

"You're okay!" Katara said, relieved, and hugged the Avatar.

Kouji smiled and hung back with his brother, taking Lee's good hand again to prevent the fiddling.

Sokka, Toph, and Appa joined in on the hugging quickly.

"I have so much to do," Aang said.

"I know," Katara replied. "But you'll have our help."

"You didn't think you could get out of training just by coming to the Fire Nation, did you?" Toph asked.

Aang smiled a little, then his face fell. "What about the invasion?"

"We'll join up with my dad and the invasion force on the day of the eclipse," Sokka assured him.

"By then, everything should be ready," Kouji chimed in.

Aang nodded.

"Hey, what's — oh," Toph said, picking up the object that had been butting against her. "It's your glider…" She handed Aang the wrecked staff.

"It's okay," Aang said, accepting it. "If someone saw it, it would give away my identity. It's better for now that no one knows I'm alive."

The volcano above them rumbled, and Aang plunged the staff into one of the rivulets of water. After a few seconds, it caught fire, the flames around what was left of it eerily resembling the Fire Nation's crest.

Kouji shuddered.  "Let's go."

"Yeah," Aang agreed.

Lee hung back a few minutes, staring at the burning glider, then followed the others back onto the bison, staying on the opposite end of the saddle from Aang, who blinked at him. "Lee? You okay?"

"Fine."

Current Location: my dad's chair
Current Mood: full
Current Music: commercials on the radio
Tags: au, avatar, fanfic, soldier's boy

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