Dango
Ladies and gentlemen, and all in between, Hell has just frozen over.
I've written a one shot fic that has no sex in it. Not only does it not have sex in it, but it doesn't have slash in it. Not only does it not have slash in it, it isn't a romantically geared fic at all. Look, even Nephrite is in disbelief!
Still read it, though! It's good...
Zuko, taking a vacation from being the Fire Lord, has run into a couple of unscrupulous characters who, for some reason, want to murder our beloved anti-hero. Enjoy~
Rating: PG-13 (for violence)
Zuko relaxed into the little wooden chair, stretching his limbs to get all the kinks out. Travelling long distances was tiring, though the journey had been worth it. It always was when he went to visit his uncle in Ba Sing Se.
Before long a peppy looking waitress bounced over. She was wearing a short blue-and-white checked kimono with a frilly little apron tied at an angle around her thin waist. She smiled at him, her dark eyes shining. She couldn't have been over fifteen. Such a cute child.
Wait... When had he started thinking of fifteen as a child?
"What can I get for you, sir?" the girl asked.
Zuko glanced at the menu again. He hadn't paid much attention to where he was going when he first entered the restaurant. His only thought at the time was to find a place in which he could ditch his royal guard. He'd gotten so tired of being followed all the damned time that he had opted for a day of peace, whether they wanted to allow it to him or not.
Turns out it was a sweet shop.
"Some dumplings, I guess," he said. "And some jasmine tea."
"Coming right up!" she bubbled, then turned lightly on her heel and pranced off to deliver the order to the kitchen.
Ah, it was nice to be somewhere where everyone didn't know who he was. Of course, he had opted to not wear anything that might set someone wondering. His crown was back at the hotel his entourage had stayed at the previous night. His hair was down, looking a bit shaggy as it tended to do. He had even opted for more Earth Kingdom style clothing, keen to the fact that, even though he and Aang and the rest had done so much to end the war, people were still a bit wary when they saw anything hailing from the Fire Nation.
It had only been a couple of years since the war ended, after all. One hundred years of ill sentiment wasn't going to go away over night.
Granted, it also helped that the little shop was practically deserted. He could hear his chipper waitress behind the curtain of the kitchen, gossiping with the cook. There was also a mother with her toddler, trying desperately to get the child to eat the sweet noodles she had ordered for them. The kid didn't seem to be interested in the slightest, but at least he wasn't making a fuss. His silent refusal seemed to distress his mother even further.
All in all it was quiet and cozy. This seemed like a wonderful place to take a break from being Fire Lord Zuko. He would have to leave a nice tip to thank them for giving him such a vacation, even if they didn't realize it.
He was mid-stretch again, however, when he caught the sound of voices from just outside the shop.
"You're sure it's him, Kobun?"
The first voice was a gruff sounding male, perhaps in his forties, if Zuko had to guess. The voice sounded vaguely like Zhao, which set him instantly on edge.
"Saw it with my own eye, Uragi."
The second voice had a higher pitch. Zuko couldn't make out whether the speaker was male or female. One thing that was noticeable was the person sounded a bit on the slow side, as the words were drawled out and slightly slurred.
So much time being hunted by his maniac little sister had heightened his survival skills, and somehow he knew that the two outside were talking about him. He also had a hunch that they weren't just dropping in to say hello.
He stood up from his table as nonchalantly as possible. Just then, however, his waitress was bringing his order out of the kitchen. She stopped when she saw him stand and smiled sweetly.
"Can I do something for you, Mr. Customer?" she asked cheerfully, then held up the tray with his dumplings and tea a little higher for him to notice. "Your dumplings are ready."
Zuko didn't want to alarm her, so he asked the first thing that came to mind.
"Oh, uhm... Where's the toilet?" he asked somewhat lamely, scratching the side of his neck in a gesture of feigned embarrassment for emphasis.
If the toilet had a window he could dodge out through it. If not, perhaps he could just hide until the pair decided to leave. If they entered the shop and didn't see him, perhaps the first would assume the second had just seen things...
"Ah! It's down the hallway, on the--"
The knife appeared out of nowhere. One second it was nonexistent, the next its wicked looking blade was jutting out of the girl's shoulder. Her eyes went wide from shock, and the smile she had been beaming at Zuko faded as her jaw went slack. Blood poured down the sleeve of her kimono, and she dropped the tray of sweets to the floor.
Several things all happened at once then. The woman with her child screamed and clutched the babe to her body protectively. The crash of dishes to the floor brought a curious cook out from behind the kitchen curtain. He stopped, his face drained of all colour, when he saw his waitress bleeding. Zuko, for his part, grabbed the girl and wheeled her as carefully as possible to sit in the chair he was just occupying.
"Hey!" he called to the cook. "Bring a towel and some water. But don't take the knife out. She could bleed out."
The cook jumped at being addressed, but nodded and went to retrieve the things Zuko had asked for.
"Oh, how nice!" the gruff voice sounded from inside the shop this time. "Such a compassionate man, showing concern for that girl."
In one fluid movement, Zuko had straightened, drawn his duel blades from their sheath, and turned to face the pair. His amber eyes were full of fury as he sized the assailants up.
The one who had just spoken, who had been addressed as Uragi, was tall and wiry, with bushy hair that frizzed all the way to his shoulders, though the top of his head was lacking it a bit. His beard was contrastingly sparse and patchy; the fine hair of it draped off his chin by at least three inches. He looked utterly oily and unpleasant, and his dung coloured eyes burned with dull flame as he glared at Zuko.
The other was male, as well. He was shorter than his companion, though just as thin. He looked, actually, as if he hadn't had a decent meal in several years. His head was completely devoid of hair, including lacking eyebrows. He also had only one eye, the other socket left open and empty without anything covering it. It looked positively creepy, especially considering that he was lightly sucking on the tip of another knife.
"Why did you attack her?" Zuko demanded.
"Missed," the other, Kobun, replied casually. His words slurred around the blade in his mouth. "Won't happen again."
Zuko sensed, rather than saw, the cook scuttle in behind him. Uragi and Kobun noticed as well, he could tell, but their eyes never left him, nor did they seem interested in stopping the old man from treating the girl's wound.
"What do you want?" he asked through gritted teeth.
Uragi ran a hand through his bush of hair. "Oh, you know. Money. Women. The honor of killing the Fire Nation's most wanted traitor."
Kobun gave a slight guffaw chuckle.
"I'm not a traitor!" Zuko shouted, perhaps a bit louder than he meant to.
"Of course you are!" Uragi spat. "How could you be anything but, you who usurped the rightful heir to the throne on the eve of the Fire Nation's greatest victory! How could you be anything but, when it is your fault we lost the war?"
"It was a foolish and pointless war that did nothing but cause strife for countless people over an entire century. It shouldn't have happened in the first place, but since it did, I made sure to end it the way it should be done. With balance being restored," Zuko countered.
"Enough! I'm not some stupid pig-sheep that will roll over complacently to the tune of your slander and propaganda. You're a traitor and you will die for it!" Uragi's face started to turn red as he shouted. "Get him, Kobun! Kill him, and we'll go home heroes!"
The knife shot out from Kobun's hand almost too fast to see. Zuko threw his sword up to deflect it, but when it ricocheted off his blade it stuck with a thud into the table where the woman sat sobbing over her child.
Not good. Uragi and Kobun stood between Zuko and the door, but he had to get them out of the shop before another bystander got hurt. He afforded a glance to the girl behind him. She was staring at the two men with utter terror contorting her tear painted face.
"Sorry," he said under his breath.
He gave a slight nod to the cook, then bolted to his left. There was a window just a few feet away, and he flung himself into it, crashing through the glass and wood into the alley behind the shop.
He heard Uragi shout angrily, then the sounds of running feet as they came after him. Perfect. He would lead them away from any place where people could get caught in the crossfire, then beat the living shit out of them for what they'd done. Then he'd haul them to jail. A good plan.
He was almost to the end of the alley when a burst of fire seared across his path. He almost fell over from the force of stopping himself before getting burnt to a crisp. When the flames died down, Uragi stepped out in front of him.
"Where are you going, little prince?" he asked, emphasizing the last word.
"Yeah, we didn't say you could run away," came Kobun's voice from behind him.
"You're so intent on killing me that you don't care who else gets hurt?" Zuko asked, positioning himself defensively between the two of them.
"Just Earth Kingdom trash. No one will care if one or two dies as long as you're off with them," Uragi replied coldly.
Zuko glanced from him to Kobun, his eyes going wide at what he saw. He had two knives with him, one in his mouth and one he was twirling in his hand. The one he was sucking on was slick with the deep red of blood. He had apparently pulled it out of the waitress's shoulder. That meant her wound was bleeding openly. Without immediate help from a doctor or a waterbending healer, she could very well bleed out and die.
Anger flared inside Zuko's entire body. He launched himself at Kobun, his twin blades aimed at the short man's chest. He was forced to miss his mark, however, by a jet of flame coming from behind. Uragi was closing the distance between them, sending flaming punches with every step. Twice Zuko dodged and the blasts hit Kobun instead.
Zuko fought much like a berserker, his blades dancing through the air almost as if they had a mind of their own. He matched fire with fire, steel with steel. Several times the duo outmatched him and he ended up with a few deep injuries, including a gash across his cheek that bled profusely.
He couldn't stop to care, though. His mind kept cycling the same thoughts over and over. These people didn't think non-Fire Nation people's lives were worth anything. These people had severely injured an innocent child in their attempt to kill him. People like them were why the Fire Nation was still watched by the world with an angry and wary eye. These people were the worst, and he would make sure they paid for their crimes.
Before long the alley was all but destroyed due to the fight. Zuko's blades had sliced walls and gouged the earth; Kobun's had left gaping holes anywhere they had landed, a result of him yanking them unceremoniously free. Several fires burned in various places, including what was left of a cabbage cart. Blood painted the buildings and ground, the shining wet of it glistening in the sunlight.
Finally Zuko had managed to knock Uragi unconcious. He lay crumpled against some crates, both his forearms hanging limply at odd angles. Blood streamed down his face and arms, and he had a serious burn that had eaten away at one of his hips.
Kobun, on the other hand, was trapped beneath Zuko, held down in place by one of the firebender's feet. He was covered in cuts and burns as well, and blood covered his hairless head and pooled in his empty eye socket. His knives were long gone, lost to one of the fires, or perhaps down a storm drain. He didn't struggle, but instead glared up at his captor with pure hatred distorting his mutilated features.
"Go ahead!" he challenged Zuko's poised blades. "Finish me off. But there will be others. Justice will be done, traitor!"
Zuko's anger surged, and he raised his duel swords high above his head, then swung them back down as hard as he could. The man beneath him screamed, but instead of impaling him, the blades cut deep into the earth on either side of the man's bald head. Zuko kicked him instead, knocking him unconscious.
"You're not worth it," he sighed, spitting blood out of his mouth.
Suddenly something alighted on Zuko's shoulder, startling him so much that he fell backward, his back hitting a wall. The thing on his shoulder stared at him with huge eyes, chittering at him in what almost sounded like a worried sort of voice.
"Momo?" Zuko asked in disbelief. The lemur only chitted at him again as a response.
"Zuko!" came a familiar voice from down the alley.
Zuko turned from Momo to see Aang and several members of his royal guard running towards him. For some reason it took his brain a moment to process that they were there, however. Why was the Avatar here?
"Lord Zuko!" Jie, the captain of his guard, and a burly man in his late thirties, looked as if he were going to burst into tears at seeing the state Zuko was in.
Zuko ignored him, instead turning his attention to his friend. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
"You were in trouble. I came to help," he said, then glanced at the two men passed out on the ground. "Guess I was a little late, though, huh..."
Zuko stared at him. "How did you...?"
Aang gave him a mischievous grin. "I'm the Avatar! It's my job to know." He caught sight of Zuko's soldiers, two of whom were putting shackles on Kobun. "Well, that, and Jie saw me passing through and asked me to help find you."
Ah. He never was one for outright lying...
"Lord Zuko, please..." Jie piped up, his voice dripping with worry over Zuko's wounds.
Zuko sighed and spit blood from his mouth again. "Captain Jie, take care of these men. They are to be escorted back to the Fire Nation where they will be held on trial for attempted murder and treason... Among other things."
He pushed himself away from the wall, intent on heading back into the sweet shop, but his strength left him and he started to fall. Aang caught him under his arm, however, and lent support as they walked forward.
"Katara is in the shop, tending to the girl who got stabbed," the Avatar informed him. "Her injury was bad, made worse when the knife was pulled back out, but Katara said she could heal it and that she'd be fine."
"I'm glad," Zuko said, feeling very drained. How much blood had he lost?
Aang gave him a sideways glance. "She'll fix you up, too, of course. How you managed to keep fighting those guys while bleeding like that, I don't know. You're rather scary, you know?"
Zuko laughed at that.
They reentered the shop then. The waitress was nowhere to be seen, nor was Katara. The mother, too, had taken her toddler and left. Aside from the sounds of movement coming from behind the kitchen's curtain divider, Zuko would have thought the place entirely empty.
He let Aang help him into a chair. "Where's Katara?" he asked.
"I'm right here," Katara said, appearing from the hallway. "What in the world happened to you?"
When her eyes fell on the state Zuko was in she immediately uncapped her water pouch and pulled a thick stream out to wrap her hands. She then began ministering to his wounds, and as she did, he recounted everything that had happened with Uragi and Kobun. Both Katara and Aang listened attentively, her with a look of cold disgust, him looking both angry and sad.
Before he was finished talking, however, the cook appeared at their table and set a plate heaped with dumplings and several other types of sweets, as well as a small earthenware teapot and three cups. Zuko stopped mid-sentence to survey the food, then looked up at the shop owner with a look of confusion.
"As a thank you," the man said to Zuko's unanswered question.
"But why? Your waitress was hurt because of me..." the firebender asked quietly.
The old man clapped him on the shoulder. "Lin didn't get hurt because of you, son. She got hurt because that man with only one eye can't aim. But you... you tried to help her, and you tried to make sure no one else got hurt, either. And because your friends here showed up, my granddaughter is going to be fine. So it's a thank you, and I won't take no for an answer."
He gave a polite nod to the group, then turned and retreated back behind the curtain of the kitchen.
Zuko eyed the dumplings. There were three per skewer, one pink, one white, one a pale green. As Katara had mended his cheek already, he picked up one and popped the green one in his mouth, chewing on the side that hadn't been injured since his face was still tender.
"Wow," he said. "This is really good."
Just then a sound came echoing in from the alley that had all three of them exchanging looks.
"My cabbages!"
I've written a one shot fic that has no sex in it. Not only does it not have sex in it, but it doesn't have slash in it. Not only does it not have slash in it, it isn't a romantically geared fic at all. Look, even Nephrite is in disbelief!
Still read it, though! It's good...
Zuko, taking a vacation from being the Fire Lord, has run into a couple of unscrupulous characters who, for some reason, want to murder our beloved anti-hero. Enjoy~
Rating: PG-13 (for violence)
Zuko relaxed into the little wooden chair, stretching his limbs to get all the kinks out. Travelling long distances was tiring, though the journey had been worth it. It always was when he went to visit his uncle in Ba Sing Se.
Before long a peppy looking waitress bounced over. She was wearing a short blue-and-white checked kimono with a frilly little apron tied at an angle around her thin waist. She smiled at him, her dark eyes shining. She couldn't have been over fifteen. Such a cute child.
Wait... When had he started thinking of fifteen as a child?
"What can I get for you, sir?" the girl asked.
Zuko glanced at the menu again. He hadn't paid much attention to where he was going when he first entered the restaurant. His only thought at the time was to find a place in which he could ditch his royal guard. He'd gotten so tired of being followed all the damned time that he had opted for a day of peace, whether they wanted to allow it to him or not.
Turns out it was a sweet shop.
"Some dumplings, I guess," he said. "And some jasmine tea."
"Coming right up!" she bubbled, then turned lightly on her heel and pranced off to deliver the order to the kitchen.
Ah, it was nice to be somewhere where everyone didn't know who he was. Of course, he had opted to not wear anything that might set someone wondering. His crown was back at the hotel his entourage had stayed at the previous night. His hair was down, looking a bit shaggy as it tended to do. He had even opted for more Earth Kingdom style clothing, keen to the fact that, even though he and Aang and the rest had done so much to end the war, people were still a bit wary when they saw anything hailing from the Fire Nation.
It had only been a couple of years since the war ended, after all. One hundred years of ill sentiment wasn't going to go away over night.
Granted, it also helped that the little shop was practically deserted. He could hear his chipper waitress behind the curtain of the kitchen, gossiping with the cook. There was also a mother with her toddler, trying desperately to get the child to eat the sweet noodles she had ordered for them. The kid didn't seem to be interested in the slightest, but at least he wasn't making a fuss. His silent refusal seemed to distress his mother even further.
All in all it was quiet and cozy. This seemed like a wonderful place to take a break from being Fire Lord Zuko. He would have to leave a nice tip to thank them for giving him such a vacation, even if they didn't realize it.
He was mid-stretch again, however, when he caught the sound of voices from just outside the shop.
"You're sure it's him, Kobun?"
The first voice was a gruff sounding male, perhaps in his forties, if Zuko had to guess. The voice sounded vaguely like Zhao, which set him instantly on edge.
"Saw it with my own eye, Uragi."
The second voice had a higher pitch. Zuko couldn't make out whether the speaker was male or female. One thing that was noticeable was the person sounded a bit on the slow side, as the words were drawled out and slightly slurred.
So much time being hunted by his maniac little sister had heightened his survival skills, and somehow he knew that the two outside were talking about him. He also had a hunch that they weren't just dropping in to say hello.
He stood up from his table as nonchalantly as possible. Just then, however, his waitress was bringing his order out of the kitchen. She stopped when she saw him stand and smiled sweetly.
"Can I do something for you, Mr. Customer?" she asked cheerfully, then held up the tray with his dumplings and tea a little higher for him to notice. "Your dumplings are ready."
Zuko didn't want to alarm her, so he asked the first thing that came to mind.
"Oh, uhm... Where's the toilet?" he asked somewhat lamely, scratching the side of his neck in a gesture of feigned embarrassment for emphasis.
If the toilet had a window he could dodge out through it. If not, perhaps he could just hide until the pair decided to leave. If they entered the shop and didn't see him, perhaps the first would assume the second had just seen things...
"Ah! It's down the hallway, on the--"
The knife appeared out of nowhere. One second it was nonexistent, the next its wicked looking blade was jutting out of the girl's shoulder. Her eyes went wide from shock, and the smile she had been beaming at Zuko faded as her jaw went slack. Blood poured down the sleeve of her kimono, and she dropped the tray of sweets to the floor.
Several things all happened at once then. The woman with her child screamed and clutched the babe to her body protectively. The crash of dishes to the floor brought a curious cook out from behind the kitchen curtain. He stopped, his face drained of all colour, when he saw his waitress bleeding. Zuko, for his part, grabbed the girl and wheeled her as carefully as possible to sit in the chair he was just occupying.
"Hey!" he called to the cook. "Bring a towel and some water. But don't take the knife out. She could bleed out."
The cook jumped at being addressed, but nodded and went to retrieve the things Zuko had asked for.
"Oh, how nice!" the gruff voice sounded from inside the shop this time. "Such a compassionate man, showing concern for that girl."
In one fluid movement, Zuko had straightened, drawn his duel blades from their sheath, and turned to face the pair. His amber eyes were full of fury as he sized the assailants up.
The one who had just spoken, who had been addressed as Uragi, was tall and wiry, with bushy hair that frizzed all the way to his shoulders, though the top of his head was lacking it a bit. His beard was contrastingly sparse and patchy; the fine hair of it draped off his chin by at least three inches. He looked utterly oily and unpleasant, and his dung coloured eyes burned with dull flame as he glared at Zuko.
The other was male, as well. He was shorter than his companion, though just as thin. He looked, actually, as if he hadn't had a decent meal in several years. His head was completely devoid of hair, including lacking eyebrows. He also had only one eye, the other socket left open and empty without anything covering it. It looked positively creepy, especially considering that he was lightly sucking on the tip of another knife.
"Why did you attack her?" Zuko demanded.
"Missed," the other, Kobun, replied casually. His words slurred around the blade in his mouth. "Won't happen again."
Zuko sensed, rather than saw, the cook scuttle in behind him. Uragi and Kobun noticed as well, he could tell, but their eyes never left him, nor did they seem interested in stopping the old man from treating the girl's wound.
"What do you want?" he asked through gritted teeth.
Uragi ran a hand through his bush of hair. "Oh, you know. Money. Women. The honor of killing the Fire Nation's most wanted traitor."
Kobun gave a slight guffaw chuckle.
"I'm not a traitor!" Zuko shouted, perhaps a bit louder than he meant to.
"Of course you are!" Uragi spat. "How could you be anything but, you who usurped the rightful heir to the throne on the eve of the Fire Nation's greatest victory! How could you be anything but, when it is your fault we lost the war?"
"It was a foolish and pointless war that did nothing but cause strife for countless people over an entire century. It shouldn't have happened in the first place, but since it did, I made sure to end it the way it should be done. With balance being restored," Zuko countered.
"Enough! I'm not some stupid pig-sheep that will roll over complacently to the tune of your slander and propaganda. You're a traitor and you will die for it!" Uragi's face started to turn red as he shouted. "Get him, Kobun! Kill him, and we'll go home heroes!"
The knife shot out from Kobun's hand almost too fast to see. Zuko threw his sword up to deflect it, but when it ricocheted off his blade it stuck with a thud into the table where the woman sat sobbing over her child.
Not good. Uragi and Kobun stood between Zuko and the door, but he had to get them out of the shop before another bystander got hurt. He afforded a glance to the girl behind him. She was staring at the two men with utter terror contorting her tear painted face.
"Sorry," he said under his breath.
He gave a slight nod to the cook, then bolted to his left. There was a window just a few feet away, and he flung himself into it, crashing through the glass and wood into the alley behind the shop.
He heard Uragi shout angrily, then the sounds of running feet as they came after him. Perfect. He would lead them away from any place where people could get caught in the crossfire, then beat the living shit out of them for what they'd done. Then he'd haul them to jail. A good plan.
He was almost to the end of the alley when a burst of fire seared across his path. He almost fell over from the force of stopping himself before getting burnt to a crisp. When the flames died down, Uragi stepped out in front of him.
"Where are you going, little prince?" he asked, emphasizing the last word.
"Yeah, we didn't say you could run away," came Kobun's voice from behind him.
"You're so intent on killing me that you don't care who else gets hurt?" Zuko asked, positioning himself defensively between the two of them.
"Just Earth Kingdom trash. No one will care if one or two dies as long as you're off with them," Uragi replied coldly.
Zuko glanced from him to Kobun, his eyes going wide at what he saw. He had two knives with him, one in his mouth and one he was twirling in his hand. The one he was sucking on was slick with the deep red of blood. He had apparently pulled it out of the waitress's shoulder. That meant her wound was bleeding openly. Without immediate help from a doctor or a waterbending healer, she could very well bleed out and die.
Anger flared inside Zuko's entire body. He launched himself at Kobun, his twin blades aimed at the short man's chest. He was forced to miss his mark, however, by a jet of flame coming from behind. Uragi was closing the distance between them, sending flaming punches with every step. Twice Zuko dodged and the blasts hit Kobun instead.
Zuko fought much like a berserker, his blades dancing through the air almost as if they had a mind of their own. He matched fire with fire, steel with steel. Several times the duo outmatched him and he ended up with a few deep injuries, including a gash across his cheek that bled profusely.
He couldn't stop to care, though. His mind kept cycling the same thoughts over and over. These people didn't think non-Fire Nation people's lives were worth anything. These people had severely injured an innocent child in their attempt to kill him. People like them were why the Fire Nation was still watched by the world with an angry and wary eye. These people were the worst, and he would make sure they paid for their crimes.
Before long the alley was all but destroyed due to the fight. Zuko's blades had sliced walls and gouged the earth; Kobun's had left gaping holes anywhere they had landed, a result of him yanking them unceremoniously free. Several fires burned in various places, including what was left of a cabbage cart. Blood painted the buildings and ground, the shining wet of it glistening in the sunlight.
Finally Zuko had managed to knock Uragi unconcious. He lay crumpled against some crates, both his forearms hanging limply at odd angles. Blood streamed down his face and arms, and he had a serious burn that had eaten away at one of his hips.
Kobun, on the other hand, was trapped beneath Zuko, held down in place by one of the firebender's feet. He was covered in cuts and burns as well, and blood covered his hairless head and pooled in his empty eye socket. His knives were long gone, lost to one of the fires, or perhaps down a storm drain. He didn't struggle, but instead glared up at his captor with pure hatred distorting his mutilated features.
"Go ahead!" he challenged Zuko's poised blades. "Finish me off. But there will be others. Justice will be done, traitor!"
Zuko's anger surged, and he raised his duel swords high above his head, then swung them back down as hard as he could. The man beneath him screamed, but instead of impaling him, the blades cut deep into the earth on either side of the man's bald head. Zuko kicked him instead, knocking him unconscious.
"You're not worth it," he sighed, spitting blood out of his mouth.
Suddenly something alighted on Zuko's shoulder, startling him so much that he fell backward, his back hitting a wall. The thing on his shoulder stared at him with huge eyes, chittering at him in what almost sounded like a worried sort of voice.
"Momo?" Zuko asked in disbelief. The lemur only chitted at him again as a response.
"Zuko!" came a familiar voice from down the alley.
Zuko turned from Momo to see Aang and several members of his royal guard running towards him. For some reason it took his brain a moment to process that they were there, however. Why was the Avatar here?
"Lord Zuko!" Jie, the captain of his guard, and a burly man in his late thirties, looked as if he were going to burst into tears at seeing the state Zuko was in.
Zuko ignored him, instead turning his attention to his friend. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
"You were in trouble. I came to help," he said, then glanced at the two men passed out on the ground. "Guess I was a little late, though, huh..."
Zuko stared at him. "How did you...?"
Aang gave him a mischievous grin. "I'm the Avatar! It's my job to know." He caught sight of Zuko's soldiers, two of whom were putting shackles on Kobun. "Well, that, and Jie saw me passing through and asked me to help find you."
Ah. He never was one for outright lying...
"Lord Zuko, please..." Jie piped up, his voice dripping with worry over Zuko's wounds.
Zuko sighed and spit blood from his mouth again. "Captain Jie, take care of these men. They are to be escorted back to the Fire Nation where they will be held on trial for attempted murder and treason... Among other things."
He pushed himself away from the wall, intent on heading back into the sweet shop, but his strength left him and he started to fall. Aang caught him under his arm, however, and lent support as they walked forward.
"Katara is in the shop, tending to the girl who got stabbed," the Avatar informed him. "Her injury was bad, made worse when the knife was pulled back out, but Katara said she could heal it and that she'd be fine."
"I'm glad," Zuko said, feeling very drained. How much blood had he lost?
Aang gave him a sideways glance. "She'll fix you up, too, of course. How you managed to keep fighting those guys while bleeding like that, I don't know. You're rather scary, you know?"
Zuko laughed at that.
They reentered the shop then. The waitress was nowhere to be seen, nor was Katara. The mother, too, had taken her toddler and left. Aside from the sounds of movement coming from behind the kitchen's curtain divider, Zuko would have thought the place entirely empty.
He let Aang help him into a chair. "Where's Katara?" he asked.
"I'm right here," Katara said, appearing from the hallway. "What in the world happened to you?"
When her eyes fell on the state Zuko was in she immediately uncapped her water pouch and pulled a thick stream out to wrap her hands. She then began ministering to his wounds, and as she did, he recounted everything that had happened with Uragi and Kobun. Both Katara and Aang listened attentively, her with a look of cold disgust, him looking both angry and sad.
Before he was finished talking, however, the cook appeared at their table and set a plate heaped with dumplings and several other types of sweets, as well as a small earthenware teapot and three cups. Zuko stopped mid-sentence to survey the food, then looked up at the shop owner with a look of confusion.
"As a thank you," the man said to Zuko's unanswered question.
"But why? Your waitress was hurt because of me..." the firebender asked quietly.
The old man clapped him on the shoulder. "Lin didn't get hurt because of you, son. She got hurt because that man with only one eye can't aim. But you... you tried to help her, and you tried to make sure no one else got hurt, either. And because your friends here showed up, my granddaughter is going to be fine. So it's a thank you, and I won't take no for an answer."
He gave a polite nod to the group, then turned and retreated back behind the curtain of the kitchen.
Zuko eyed the dumplings. There were three per skewer, one pink, one white, one a pale green. As Katara had mended his cheek already, he picked up one and popped the green one in his mouth, chewing on the side that hadn't been injured since his face was still tender.
"Wow," he said. "This is really good."
Just then a sound came echoing in from the alley that had all three of them exchanging looks.
"My cabbages!"