Dollmaker
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The clock began to play.
The music brought Xin Wan slowly up from sleep. He lay in bed, listening until the end. Opening his eyes felt like too much work. His joints ached. His bedlinens were comfortable, and the bed was soft. The only two reasons to actually get up were the sun shining straight into his bedroom, and the brunch he had arranged with one of his Joo Dees.
Xin Wan considered telling her it was off when she arrived at the house. No. She would listen if he did.
He got up. He washed his hands and face in the washbasin, used the water to feed the bonsai trees, and went to find his clothes. He ignored the wardrobes of handsome robes and jackets for the trunk at the foot of his bed. That was filled with simple tunic and pants, clothing with no buttons and minimal ties. Peasant clothing, except for the materials and cut being all wrong.
It was easy to put on and didn't require much thought. That was why he wore it so often.
He still had an hour before the Joo Dee would arrive. He thought about going back to bed, but he was already up and moving around. He might as well keep going.
Xin Wan checked the box on his roof, but there were no messages from the other Dai Li. Nothing to look forward to for the next few days then, except for the various meals and events he'd arranged with his Joo Dees.
He had music boxes in his workshop he could work on. But none of them really interested him right now. Nor did any of the books or scrolls in his collection, not even the new ones from the authors in the Middle Ring that Liu had brought him.
He went and began picking up clothes and folding them to be sent to the laundresses. It needed to be done. He'd run out of his easy, comfortable clothes if he didn't do this today.
The Joo Dee arrived precisely on time and knocked on his door. Xin Wan took a moment to breathe deeply, put a smile on his face, and went out to meet her.
He let the Joo Dee pick the restaurant. His dolls had free run of the entire city, and they could take care of themselves well enough. They knew the eating and entertainment places, the sights and histories, everything a proper hostess ought to know. She took him to a restaurant at the edge of the Ring-Wall, chattering about the menu and the news of the city. Xin Wan asked appropriate questions and made appropriate sounds to keep her happy.
He let her order and picked at the congee and fried breaksticks when they were brought to him. The Joo Dee ate her breakfast with enthusiasm, he was pleased to see. Good. Joo Dees enjoyed almost all good forms of food, and not eating was a sign of sickness in his dolls.
The two of them lingered over their food, Xin Wan enjoying the conversation with her and her obvious pleasure at being with him. She had work later, though; Xin Wan added the meal to his own tab rather than letting the Joo Dee pay for it.
After brunch, she took him back to his little house and agreed to deliver his clothes to the palace laundresses. He also gave her a message to deliver to one of the Dai Li trainees, who would pass it on to Liu. He wanted to go down to the shops in the Middle Ring later this week, and Hyo-sir liked Liu better.
The rest of the day stretched out before Xin Wan. He went to stare at his music boxes. They did not prove interesting. Nothing in the little house was interesting. Nothing in all the Upper Ring was of interest - twenty-five years of living in the Ring left Xin Wan knowing every alley and cobblestone garden path.
Very far from the first time and certainly not for the last time, he wondered if he could bend a spike through his skull before he lost the ability to earthbend.
He walked across his house and changed into his Dai Li robes instead.
Kiet would be attending to General How. There was no other proper place for an aide to be at this time of day. Xin Wan would just keep an eye on him, check on the Joo Dees up at the palace, and smile at the soldiers. That always led to such amusement.
Maybe he'd go and find Xiang's twin and pretend he couldn't tell them apart again. The thought made his smile widen.
Xin Wan spent the afternoon amusing himself at the expense of everyone else he came across. Except the Joo Dees, who just smiled and greeted him fondly. Far more fondly than some people were apparently comfortable with him receiving, which just pleased Xin Wan more.
At the end of the day, Xin Wan dropped down slightly in front of Kiet as the deaf man walked away from the Hall of Military Glory. His friend smiled to see him, and Xin Wan delivered an abbreviated bow of greeting, which Kiet returned. The two of them walked in silence out of the Earth King's Palace, and Xin Wan gripped Kiet's elbow to guide him to the restaurant they would eat at tonight.
Kiet passed a slate with chalked characters to Xin Wan. 'How was your day?'
"Good," he answered, pushing the slate back to his friend. "Joo Dee and I had brunch together today."
'Which one?'
Xin Wan blinked and tilted his head slightly. "The doll from outside Omashu with the bright green eyes and the touch of spirit-sight. She's very useful."
He did not miss the slight shudder that ran down Kiet. It always seemed to disturb the deaf man when he called the Joo Dees dolls.
The server arrived, and Xin Wan ordered for the both of them. Dragon dumplings and preserved eggs to start the meal. Vegetable-lamb cut thin and served with a hot gingery broth, the single creature providing the meat and vegetables for the main meal. Panfried water chestnut cake and tea to finish off the meal.
Kiet raised his eyebrows at Xin Wan, who gave his friend an innocent look. That did not seem to mollify Kiet at all, but at least it didn't upset him more like Xin Wan's innocent looks usually did.
The meal was more expensive than their usual dinners, but Xin Wan had the money to spend. He really didn't have much else to spend on besides eating out and his few shopping trips to the Middle Ring. He had no children, no women to pay court to, nor would he ever be allowed to take friends down to a tavern again. Long Feng-sir did not like him drinking.
And he did not have any friends but Kiet, Liu, and the Joo Dees.
Kiet scrawled characters on his slate, his handwriting very loose from familiarity with Xin Wan. 'Tell me about the play we are going to see.'
Xin Wan was more than happy to tell him about the plot of it and write most of the major speeches out. He'd picked the shadow play for the stylization making it mostly understandable to the deaf man, but Kiet would still miss much if he didn't already know what was going on.
The server arrived with their food during the discussion, and they ate. Xin Wan focused more on Kiet than on the fine food, though he took care to savor the vegetable-lamb. It was hard to get in Ba Sing Se, though some of his novels from before the War treated it as an uncommon food rather than a rarity.
After dinner, Xin Wan laid his fingers against Kiet's elbow. It was the most he could touch the other man in public without unpleasant talk about their proclivities. Xin Wan did not particularly care what people said about him - he well knew he was a twisted bastard. He was entirely uncertain if finding both women and men attractive made him more or less of a creature of perversity than Jae, but then his other interests...
However, Kiet both could not afford such talk about himself and was not actually perverted.
It felt nice to touch and be touched, however.
The shadow play was enjoyable, even if the other play-goers did not appreciate his Dai Li robes in among them. He took his hat off to avoid upsetting the performers and getting a bad performance.
After the play, Xin Wan escorted Kiet to the gate in the Ring-Wall nearest to Kiet's apartment. It was too dark to read slates, so Xin Wan held out his hands for their usual parting ritual. Kiet traced characters on his palm - 'good night'.
"Good night," Xin Wan echoed, though he knew it was too dark for Kiet to read his lips. He gave an abbreviated bow of departure, then pulled rock down from under his sleeves to glove his hands.
Kiet left the Upper Ring, leaving Xin Wan alone.
-End-
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Author's Notes: Kiet is an OC belonging to Dark Puck, and she let me borrow him. Xin Wan is my own OC. You can see more of him from other people's points-of-view in Dark Puck's "Push" and "Head Games".