After leaving the capital, they'd flown for a while, but there were nine of them now, plus all of the armour, so Aang had them walk as soon as they were a safe distance away.

"This is humiliating," Katara muttered, after a few hours of this.

"Do you mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation, or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?" Sokka asked her.

"Both," she replied, glumly.

"Try walking across the Earth Kingdom sometime," Kouji muttered under his breath.  "This is nothing."  The heat, however, was killing him.  He didn't know how Haru and Katara could leave their hair down and against their necks like that.

"Sorry, guys," Aang said. "But Appa gets tired carrying all these people."

Silence fell again, and then Teo spoke up.  "I wonder how the rest of the troops are."

"They're probably on their way to a prison," Haru answered him.  "It seems like my dad just got out… and now he's going back in."

"…I miss Pipsqueak," the Duke said.

"I miss not having blisters on my feet," Sokka added.

Then Toph stopped. "Hey, we're here! I can feel it!"

"…we are?"  Kouji stopped walking and knelt, trying to pick up what Toph had.  …that can't be right.

"I think your feet need their eyes checked," Katara said dubiously, looking out over the canyon they'd stopped at.

"No, she's right," Aang said. "We are here!"

"Wow… It's amazing!" Toph said.

"It's under the cliff," Aang explained, in response to the others' dubious looks. "Sokka, where'd you put the ropes?"

"How in the world was this place even built?" Kouji wondered aloud.  He ran with Sokka to fetch the ropes.

Aang shrugged. "I'll take you on a tour once we get all the armour and stuff dumped somewhere!"

Teo raised a hand.  "I guess I'm taking Appa down?"

Haru nodded.  "You, Kouji, Duke, and maybe Toph probably all should."

"It's the Duke," the youngest of them snapped.

"Yeah, sorry."

"Come on, then," Kouji replied.  He and Teo moved over to Appa, and Kouji raised them both up to the saddle level, where he wrestled the older boy's wheelchair aboard.

"I'm taking the rope," the Duke said, still bristling from Haru getting his name wrong on top of his best friend being not there. "I lived in tree houses since I was six, after all."

Haru raised his hands.  "Fine, whatever."

Kouji ignored all this.  "Hey, can I drive?"

"Sure," Toph said, bouncing herself up, too.

Gleefully Kouji scrambled over to Appa's head and took the reigns.  "C'mon, big guy — yip yip!"

They got down to the temple without incident, to find that the entire thing had been upside down, hanging from the cliff.  "Seriously.  How did they build it?" Kouji wanted to know.  He landed Appa, not expecting an answer, and he and Toph helped Teo down.

Once the group had reassembled, Teo said, "It's so different from the Northern Air Temple.  I wonder if there are any secret rooms!"

Haru grinned.  "Let's go check it out!"  He led Teo and the Duke off.

Aang started to follow, but Katara cut him off. "You guys go. I think we need to talk about some things."

"Why can't I go?" Aang complained.

"We need to decide what we're going to do now, and, since you're the Avatar, maybe you should be a part of this," she pointed out.

Kouji, who had been about to run after Haru, Teo, and the Duke, turned instead to Aang.  Maybe he didn't belong there, but by the gods, he would not be left out of the loop!

"Fair enough," Aang said, a little annoyed, sitting down on a ridge. "So, what's the new plan?"

"Well, if you ask me," Sokka said, "the new plan is the old plan. You just need to master all four elements and confront the Firelord before the comet comes!"

"In four weeks," muttered Kouji.

"Okay, no problem, I'll just do that!" Aang said, a little sarcastically.

"Aang, no one said it's going to be easy…" Katara said.

Aang cut her off. "Well, it's not! It's not even going to be possible! Where am I supposed to get a firebending teacher?"

"…um, actually…," said Kouji hesitantly.  "My older brother's a firebender…"

"Do you know how to find him, or convince him to come here?" Toph asked.

"He already said he'd find me," Kouji replied.  "And he's got Yui.  Yui and I can always find each other."

"I think we should find someone with a little more experience," Katara said. "We could try to find Jeong-Jeong."

"Yeah, right. Like we'll ever run into Jeong-Jeong again."

"Who's—" Toph started, then interrupted herself. "Oh, never mind. If it's important, I'm sure I'll find out."

"Well, looks like we can't think of anyone," Aang said, bouncing up. "Let's just take a nice tour around the temple." He snapped open his glider and shot off.

"Lack of experience hasn't bothered Az-zula," muttered Kouji, sulking.

"Azula's not a teacher," Toph pointed out.

"There's got to be someone who can teach him firebending..." Sokka mused. "Someone with experience. Or at the very least a history with more than one of us. Sorry, Kouji, but the fewer people coming and going from the temple, the better. If this is going to be our base, we should bring in someone at least two of us know. And someone close by. And only one person. If they find us on their own, that's great, but they might not find us in time for your brother to teach Aang much."

Kouji sighed and subsided. Might as well not mention that Ichiro had taught him.  "So I guess we go after him?  Aang, I mean.  Not 'Chiro."

"Yeah, probably a good idea," Toph said. The four of them climbed up onto Appa, with Sokka taking the reins, and took off after Aang. 

Kouji sighed while Katara tried to talk Aang down and Aang ignored her.  "I still can't get over the temple," he said quietly to Toph.

"What about it?" she asked.

"The whole thing is upside-down!"

"Maybe they had earthbender friends. An earthbender like me could do this easy," she pointed out, as Aang finally led them in for a landing.

"You're going to love the all-day echo chamber!" he said, gleefully.

Kouji sighed.  "Why is he avoiding this?  He's going to need firebending come cometday."

"The first time he tried kind of had bad results," Sokka said thoughtfully, as the Avatar led the way deeper into the temple. "He might still be freaked about that."

The boy shook his head.  "I'm gonna wait with Appa.  Echoes drive me nuts."

"All right," the teenager said, then sped off after the others.

Toph considered, then followed. "It's probably like what mirror funhouses are for people who can see," she told Kouji thoughtfully.

"Hated those too."  He waved her on.  "Have fun."

"You, too."

While they were gone, Kouji drew his wakizashi and started to drift through his katas, letting his mind wander while he went through the movements.  Ichi-ni and Yui will find me, right enough.  I just hope they're fast enough to do it.  And when they come, what will the gang say?  What will Katara do?  He paused mid-slash.   …I really hope Ichi-ni is smart enough to ditch the uniform.

When he tired of that, he went about setting up camp for the evening.

The others wandered in around sunset. Katara started making dinner while the rest set up their personal sleeping areas.

"You look tired," Haru commented to Kouji, who groaned.

"Never practise swordplay for two hours.  Your arms will hate you for it."

Haru laughed and ruffled Kouji's hair, then went over to help Katara.

The group all settled in for what proved to be a quiet night.

The next morning, after being fed, Haru, the Duke, and Teo headed off to explore again.  Kouji sighed, but remained near Toph.  Plenty of time to explore after the firebending problem was solved.  Worse comes to worse, I'll offer to show Aang at least the basics of what Ichi-ni taught me, he decided.

Aang was still in some deep level of denial, trying to get them to go off exploring again.

"Aang, you can't keep putting it off like this!" Kouji told him, frustrated.

"But there's still so much I haven't shown you!" he protested.

"And we don't have the time to look," the younger boy said.  "The comet is coming in less than a month."

This won't take long, come on!" He started to lead them off down one of the open pathways leading away from the square they'd set themselves up in, one that ended in an abrupt drop, but had several pathways branching off of it.

And then the little swordswoman from the gambling town dropped down in front of him, blocking his path.

Before anyone else could react, a thin, ragged, filthy figure jumped at her from behind, catching her sword with his own, forcing her to face him instead.

"Aang!"  Kouji snatched at the back of the Avatar's robes, pulling the slightly taller boy behind him and pulling out his own blade.  The swordswoman's opponent seemed familiar somehow, but Kouji couldn't figure out why.

He didn't have long to try and figure it out. There was a tearing noise, and the right-hand sword in the stranger's pair fell off the cliff. Before he could compensate, she stabbed his now-unprotected side. He stumbled back and fell off the temple.

And in that moment, Kouji saw the stranger's face, and his heart stopped.

"ZUKO!"

Current Location: my dad's chair
Current Mood: full
Current Music: If I can't have you - the radio
Tags: au, avatar, fanfic, sf gaangline, small flame

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