Sun Child: Tales of Ba Sing Se- Part 2

[weirdlet]

The AU:  Sun Child, in which Princess Zura was pregnant when she was banished from the Fire Nation.  Now she roams the world with a child in tow, seeking the Avatar as the key to redemption- for her, and her daughter...

The Prompt/Summary:  Life in Ba Sing Se- tea shops, toddlers and talks long overdue- part two.

The Fic-

The streets of Ba Sing Se’s lower ring bustled madly- it was like every tiny village market and town square she’d combed through in the last three years all pushed together and grown to enormous size, spanning an endless stretch of walking-distances and battered cobbles.  Laundry flapped like pennants between noodle shops and hawkers’ stalls, and the wares were many and varied, though none of great quality that she could see.  Certainly it was nothing like the palanquin-bound ventures Zura remembered taking with her mother in the Fire Nation capital- for one thing, she wouldn’t have been alternating leading and carrying a hefty toddler, much less doing so while open to and mingling with every stranger and peddler from here to City Hall. 

A gaudy spray of flowers suddenly filled her vision from the side, and Lan Min exclaimed happily as Uncle plucked her out a bloom of her own to wave.  Zura just eyed the arrangement and gave its bearer a narrow look that begged why.

“I just want our new place to look nice- in case someone wants to receive a gentleman caller…?” he trailed off teasingly.  The girl stopped right in the middle of the street to stare at him.

“Are you serious?  After- after everything?” she said incredulously, with a fleeting glance to where her daughter rode along in her arms, still merrily hanging on to her flower.  Lan Min looked up questioningly, and Zura shook it off and continued forward, not wanting to have to explain. 

The city was enough of a prison without adding complicated attachments or foolish mooning around like- like some peasant-girl in a tale, or girls who didn’t have the discipline Agni gave a turtleduck.  She’d already seen the sharper side of that blade, and she didn’t intend to fall on it a second time.

“Responsibilities are not a reason to close off all possibility of life’s pleasures,” Iroh replied firmly.  “Adversity is everywhere- if we spent all our time scowling at it, nothing would ever get done.  Now come on- I found us some new jobs and we start this afternoon.”

The young woman could only shake her head in incredulity and follow.

…

The apartment was small.  The job was long and more irritating than hard.  Uncle, in his infinite wisdom and not insubstantial sense of selective practicality, had found a babysitter for Lan Min in the same tenement their apartment was in, since leaving a toddler alone in a steaming kitchen all day was Not a Good Idea. 

The girl was cheerful and clean and offered them good advice as newcomers to the city, and Zura was reminded a little of Ty Lee, only with some sense of reality beyond ‘what will keep my best friend the Prince from finding me amusing?’ 

She didn’t want to like her. 

So far it had been easy to duck invitations- they were new here, she was busy, thanks for all your help let’s just keep this professional shall we?  But Jin loved Lan Min, and was willing to let her rates slide a little for a newcomer still figuring out city life, and at least she wasn’t teaching her daughter any words like she’d be picking up from the sailors about now.  Sometimes before or after work began at the teashop, Uncle would send her out to fetch something and Jin would accompany her through the markets, pointing out this and that- good things for Earth Kingdom girls to know.

“You should try some of these clips when your hair grows out a little more,” she’d suggested, biting back a giggle at the look on Zura (Li)’s face after the third time someone had mistaken them for a young married couple.  “Or- well, some brighter colors wouldn’t hurt you.  You don’t really need to use a lot of facepaint-“

“You mean there’s no point to it,” Li grumped.

“No, I mean you don’t need a lot of it- but you could signal ‘girl’ if you wanted to.  At least enough to keep people from calling you ‘sir’ when I’m backpacking Lin here,” Jin smirked.  ‘Lin’, as she had been nicknamed, was busy staring at all the bright pretty things around with a childish avarice that did not distinguish between candies or cloth, not yet tired of her sling-supported piggyback ride.

Li reached over and thumbed away a smudge from her daughter’s face, and stepped back to inspect the picture she and her babysitter made.

“I could probably wear brighter colors and try and look like a proper girl- but who would look?” she said, and Jin could only set her hands on her hips and bid goodbye as she started off for work.

…

He’d been waiting outside of that dinky teashop- it seemed like hours now, although it probably hadn’t been that long since he’d switched to the mouth of the alley across the way.  There had been a couple different flocks of uniforms going through, as various shifts on different hours got out of wherever they worked.  Over the last few days, he’d managed to pick up a little of how this place fit together, as well as Li’s habits within it, and it was all very weird. 

Or maybe he’d just never seen anything like it before- and that experience was becoming scarily common within these walls.

“Jet!” 

“What?!” he started, almost biting his straw clean in half before turning around to see the others.  That was a relief, and he grinned as his heart slowed down from its jump. 

“We need to talk.”

“Oh great, it’s you guys- how’s the job-hunting going?” he said, too casual.  Smellerbee looked at Longshot, and at the shop across the way, and then back at him.  Her expression did not bode well.

“We’ve been talking.”

Jet looked up at that, brows arching into the start of a frown.  “Oh?”

“We think you’re getting obsessed with this.  It’s not healthy- you haven’t talked about anything but this girl since we met her, and you’re stalking her like a deer.  It’s creepy- and it’s not how you get people to join the gang.”

“Oh really?  You both think this?”  Longshot swung his arm around Smellerbee’s shoulders in assent.

“We came here to make a fresh start- but you won’t let this go!  Why does she even need to join the Freedom Fighters- why can’t you just- I dunno, ask her out?  Or if you’ve got to start inviting more people to join up, why don’t we go find some of the people who aren’t just trying to blend in?”

“You remember why we need to start over?  How the Fire Nation left us homeless, how they wiped out all the people we loved?  Li knows this stuff, only too well- she’s one of us already, I can see it.  And there’s no contentment just sitting back after something like that.”

Smellerbee was looking down at the ground, wincing.  Her short, shaggy hair fell over her bandana and she pushed it back, looking like she was trying to wrestle a boarqupine in more ways than one.  She spoke again, her voice almost pleading.

“Jet- if you’re going to try and convince this girl, at least do it openly.  The whole point’s spending time with someone you like, right?  Try it, at least- if she doesn’t like you, she’ll let you know.”

He took that easy stance, and she could see him going into the mode where he smiled and agreed until you realized that somehow you’d lost the argument.  “So you’re telling me that you’re trying to give me advice on how to run my love-life-“ 

She cut that off sharp and hard.

“No, I’m telling you that that’s the way you’re going to do it.  Jet, we’re trying to start over in a big, big place that has weird rules and a lot less friendly attitude toward just taking what we want.  We’re not trying to find food, we’re trying to find jobs.  If you want to waste time trying to court a girl who’s already got one, you can at least do it face to face so she can cut you off and you can go do something helpful.  What good’s inviting her into a gang that’s got nothing to offer?”

He winced then, and glowered- and then finally nodded. 

They were right, and he knew it.

“Face to face.  I think I can do that.”  And with every confidence firmly in place, Jet strode out of the alley and across the evening-lit street.

…

Iroh smiled diffidently to the off-duty guardsman that had just complimented his brewing. 

“The secret ingredient- is love.”  Zura tried to restrain a roll of her eyes and went about her business, clearing the table of abandoned cups and heading back to the kitchen to refill her orders.

A sudden thump of the teashop door opening had her raise her head to see-

no

Of course.

The wild-haired boy stepped in with a smile, and sat down at a table like any other customer- albeit one who looked like he was about to make trouble just by breathing.  Uncle was busy- Pao had a strict policy of people being at least acknowledged as soon as they stepped in, and waited on swiftly thereafter.

It fell to her. 

Crap.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed, after making her way over with a tray of orders, passing them to various customers on the way.

“Having a nice cup of tea, like everyone else,” Jet replied easily, still smiling like this was a perfectly nice evening and he was a perfectly nice guy.  He looked up at her from his seat, elbows planted, and grinned.  “Got any recommendations?”

There were near a dozen off-duty guardsmen taking their breaks inside the teashop.  Pao was probably watching from the kitchen.  She needed money to pay the babysitter and to not make a visible, memorable scene.

“I’ll see what our resident expert has to say,” she said flatly, and stalked off to the back.

…

The boy was still sitting there.

Three rounds she’d brought to him, shying away from his gaze, his lightly conversational requests.  The guards who were only on break had gone back to their patrols and their station-house, while those who were off completely still lingered, enjoying the improved atmosphere of Pao’s shop.

He didn’t ask any rude questions.  He didn’t touch.  But that boy could make perusing a menu- or asking for her translation, since he didn’t know many of the characters- into something coolly rebellious or lascivious or some obscene combination of both that would have had her ancient cousins Lo and Li boxing his ears for sheer innuendo.

It made her wonder just how many other girls had gotten that same set of lines out of him.

It went on, him sipping and watching until finally Pao was starting to count the cash-box and Uncle was winding down the last few pots and setting things on to soak.  She was sent out to give final bills and clear tables as the late customers left.

“Closing time,” Zura ground out.  “Pay up.”  The bastard looked up with a smug twinkle in his eye, reaching for where he kept his coin.

She watched him pat around for it.

Watched increasing desperation stretch across his face as he realized just what a night’s drinking even in a cheap tea-shop cost in Ba Sing Se.

Zura glanced sideways at the remaining uniformed guards about the place, and smiled.

…

Longshot tapped Smellerbee’s shoulder just in time for her to see Jet- their fearless leader- being propelled at great speed out of the small teashop’s door.  He landed in a heap and was followed shortly thereafter by what looked like half a pot’s worth of cold tea.

“-bill-dodger!  And don’t come back here again unless you’re serious!”

The door shut hard, and they scurried over as Jet began untangling himself with a groan.

“I told you that wasn’t a good idea!” Smellerbee said.

“-she outmaneuvered me this time, but I’ll get her yet-!” Jet was exclaiming, trying to shake them off gently and mop off tea at the same time.

“Get her how?  Jet, the woman just tossed you out on your ear!” she cried in despair.  It was no use.  He had the bit between his teeth and a bug in his ear and there would be no reasoning with him until he’d run his course or gotten his head kicked in.

Longshot offered a reasonably clean handkerchief to both of them and didn’t even bother to roll his eyes.

 

Comments

[floranna.livejournal.com]

Hah, finally the computer!

*cackles* Zura, you handled that WELL... And I really liked Jin in this. Mostly she is kinda meh, to me in general. I mean, I don't hate her but don't generally love her either, but she felt really IC in this.

*more cackling*

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

^^ I'm glad you liked.

I like Jin for her potential and her just- being there, she seems like a nice gal. It can be a pain trying to come up with creative hooks for her, though. She doesn't wear any traumas on her sleeve or have any visible connections to secret organizations.

[baruchan.livejournal.com]

Heh, Jet being tossed out of a tea shop is a thing of beauty to behold, I think. I also like the way Zura can't help but like Jin, and the way people mistakenly believing them to be a couple. :D

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

Thanks^^

Jet: "...shouldn't someone be charging admission for this?"

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Oh, Jet, you just don't get it. That's not the way to get a girl to go out with you, that's the way to get her to kick your ass, call the cops, and pretend Jin's her lesbian lover just to get rid of you.

I love Jin's mystification at Zura's lack of girlishness and lack of self esteem. I like Jin. She's very underused.

*Dies laughing at Jet being kicked out* oh he deserved that!

I have the sudden hilarious image of Li and Lo synchronized Jet ear boxing, one two three, go!

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes he did^^ And they so would. Little whippersnapper sniffing around their family, he's lucky they don't release the hounds...

Jin's a sweety^^