D: I only own my oc...
AN: REVISED! Added a bunch of stuff to this chapter that I had written but I lost it...But I found it! Chapter 2 coming along soon.
Bars were always a good place to start. Right? Everyone talked about everything. After they had enough alcohol. Practically perfect for someone trying to go undercover who was trying to begin her new work. Right? Well Lily thought so.
That's why Lily was lugging her duffle bag filled with clothes around Republic City. She had 'just arrived from a long journey from Ba Sing Se.
"You don't look like you're from around here." The female bartender commented while drying off a glass while Lily dumped her bag on the hardwood floor as she slid onto a barstool.
"Let me guess, Ba Sing Se?" Nope. But the bartender didn't need to know that.
"You guessed right." Lily's green Earth Kingdom getup was a dead giveaway. She had bought it two days ago.
"We're getting more and more citizens of the earth kingdom here in the city every day."
"Not surprising, the queen is a greedy bitch, the city is falling apart."
"That's what I hear. Can I get you a drink? First ones on the house." She smiled kindly.
"Sure! I'm not picky. Surprise me."
"So did you come alone? Have any family here?" The female bartender questioned cheerfully as she made Lily's drink.
"I came with a group of earth kingdom citizens, but I didn't know any of them, and no, I don't have any family here. New page. Fresh start. What about you?" Lies.
"Oh, I was born here. Mom was from the fire nation, dad from the earth kingdom. They own this place." She answered, sliding a strange red concoction to Lily. "Thanks." She said gratefully smelling it before taking a sip. It was sweet, very sweet, but good.
"This is pretty good. What do you call it?"
"It doesn't have a name yet, I kind of just made it up a week or two ago." After a long sip through the straw, Lily started "So tell me about the city. Is it all that's it's hyped up to be?"
"Not at all. It's like any other city. You have your wealthy snobs who want to keep their money to themselves, you have your working middle class and then you have the homeless and hungry. Many non-benders come to this city hoping that it'll be different. But it's not. Most of the lower class are nonbenders and its becoming a problem."
"What do you mean?"
"Some of the nonbenders have rallied together and formed a rebellion. They've begun calling themselves equalists."
Equalists. That's what Lily was here for.
"So, what did you do over in Ba Sing Se?" The bartender while shaking and pouring a drink for a customer.
"I was in the circus." This was true.
"Really!? What did you do?"
"Gymnastics." Also true.
"Like what? Hand stands?"
"Yup, among other things."
"What happened?"
"Business was terrible. They went under." Lies.
"A gymnast you say? Must be pretty flexible." Some drunk asshole who was listening to the two women chat waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
"Among other things." She repeated dully, not even bothering to look at the slimeball.
"Why don't you show me?"
Lily punched him in the face. And accidently broke his nose.
"Fuck!" The drunk swore, glaring at Lily while holding his nose.
"Do you serve any food here? I'm famished." Lily smiled.
"I can't believe you just did that!" Lily shrugged her shoulders.
"Spirits I could use another bartender like you. Someone with some backbone. Do you know anything about mixing drinks?"
"Not alcoholic. I used to work at a tea shop though." The bartender raised an eyebrow, "Is there anything you haven't done?" She asked jokingly.
"I get bored very easily." Probably the truest thing she had said all day.
"I'm Yubi."
"Lily." She shook the bartenders' outstretched hand. Then grabbed a menu and handed it to Lily.
"There's a popular tea shop a few blocks from here. Right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city. I hear the employees make a decent living.
After Lily had ordered and received her food, and they had gotten to know each other a bit more, Yubi had an idea.
"I'm guessing you don't have a place to stay yet, right?"
"Not yet, I was going to find a hotel or something while I look for a more permanent place to live." Lily paused, "You don't happen to know of any around here would you?"
"Surprisingly, I've had an empty room for a couple of months now."
"You're kidding." This had to be too good to be true.
"I had a middle aged woman sharing the rent with me but she married and moved out. I've been putting off looking for a new one because I don't really need help with the rent but… I think we'd make a good match."
"Don't want some creep living with you? How do you know that I'm not that creep? I could be a wanted criminal for all you know."
"You don't come off as the criminal type." Well, she's not wrong.
"How about this, I'll give you a two week trial period, if it doesn't work out for some reason, I can kick you out." The bartender proposed.
"You have yourself a deal." Then Lily took a huge bite out of her sandwich.
"My shift is over in an hour, if you want to wait, I can show you the place? And we can work out some details?"
"Sure." Lily didn't feel like hauling her duffel bags all over the city. This was perfect.
Plus that meant she had time for at least one more drink before her work really started.
Lily was in the middle of chewing her last bite of food when Yubi asked, "Are you a bender? If you are you should look into Probending."
"Probending?" Lily feigned ignorance.
"It's a sport. Three players on each team one bender from each element, except air. And they try to knock each other off the ring."
"Too bad I'm not a bender." Lie. "Do I look like one?"
"It wouldn't surprise me if you were." Lily didn't know what she meant by that.
For the next hour Yubi finished her shift, while Lily sipped on another drink and just listened to the conversation around her.
A group of middle-aged men were talking about the upcoming probending match that was on later in the evening.
The stool where the man who now had a broken nose sat, was now occupied by two elderly men who were muttering amongst themselves.
At one of the booths the bar had, a group of women were packed like sardines into, possibly celebrating a birthday. They were sipping on colorful drinks and laughing happily.
Lastly there were the handful of loners who most likely frequented the bar on a daily basis scattered around the bar and the high tables. It was quiet, apart from the sporadic outbursts of laughter from the all-female table. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was only 4 o'clock in the afternoon though.
"Hey, what do you know about those Equalists you were talking about earlier?"
Beifong had made herself very clear, she wanted to know locations, names, and anything that might help the police force brings down the rebels before they did anything too crazy. And if anyone somehow found out that she was undercover and needed proof…they wouldn't find any. No one would recognize her picture either. Lily had been in the station once, and that was seven years ago. The only person she had ever been in contact with was the police chief herself.
"The Equalists? Why? You want to join?" She asked, jokingly. That was exactly what she wanted to do.
"I don't even know what they are." She lied. "I didn't have a radio or anything in Ba Sing Sei. I couldn't afford one."
"Gimme five minutes, my shift is almost over."
Six minutes later, Yubi was having a drink with Lily and she told her about the revolution. She mentioned the massive imbalance between benders and nonbenders, how there were little jobs available for the nonbenders, how benders constantly bullied the nonbenders and how the nonbenders were sick of it. She told how Amon, the man in the mask, wanted to change that. How he wants equality for all.
"Yea but how does he plan on doing that?" Lily asked at the end of Yubi's explanation.
"I have no idea. C'mon, let's get out of here, I want to show you my place."
Lily grabbed her bags, "Lead the way."
Yubi's home was only a few blocks away from her work. As soon as she unlocked the door a blurred object came running towards her, barking excitedly. "You have a wolfbear? Lily had never seen one of them before. The furry creature growled at Lily suspiciously once she saw her behind her owner.
"Yup. You're not allergic are you? She doesn't like strangers much."
"Not allergic." She bent slightly and offered her hand to the strange beast to sniff. He hesitantly inched forward and nosed her hand. Then sat in front of Lily and wagged her tail, signaling it was ok for her to scratch his head. "Give her food and you'll have a new best friend. "
"Give me food, and you'll be my new best friend." Yubi laughed loudly.
"Well, this is it." Yubi led her through her home, showing her the extra bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and the living room. It was nicer then she expected.
"What's the rent?"
She was sure Yubi was cutting her a deal. The number she gave was way too little. It was almost too good to be true.
"If you're interested in a job at the bar, just let me know. It would be a blast to have you working with me."
"Thanks, but no thanks." She would not be able to handle dealing with drunken losers without hurting them.
Her new bedroom was a decent size. Already furnished with a single mattress bed, dresser, nightstand and a desk and chair. The closet was big, which was pretty nice, could never have enough closet space. The bathroom was right across the hall, the window in her bedroom faced a small park. Lily would basically have this bathroom to herself, Yubi had her own in the master bedroom. Overall it was nicer then Lily expected to have for this job, and she took the offer right away.
She unfurled a roll of cash and paid for three months upfront before lugging her bags that were in the front hall to her new room to unpack.
Her new roommate knocked on her open door, "You hungry?"
"A bit?"
"Well I can't cook, do you want to go out?"
"I can cook, what do you have lying around?"
Lily's grandmother made sure her granddaughter knew how to cook. Even though Lily had a hectic schedule, grandma always made sure she could relax and cook. She loved cooking, baking, whatever ot was just about the only time she could honestly relax. .
"Spirits, this is good." Yubi moaned after her third bite of the vegetable soup Lily threw together.
"Thanks, I wasn't sure if you like spicy food or not so I didn't add much pepper."
"I actually hate spicy food, this is perfect though." Lily loved spicy food…
"I'll clean up since you made dinner."
"Alright, I'm going to hit the shower and go to bed, job hunting tomorrow."
'Night."
As soon as her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep.
Lily walked past a lot of shabby looking tea shops, if they didn't have money to take care of their shop, they didn't pay well.
She did find the place Yubi spoke of. The interior was traditional, but beautiful. And the establishment was filled with people, but it was quiet. A low hum of customers chatting quietly and the clinking of tea cups hitting the tables filled the building. It was perfect, but were they hiring?
A male host led her to a small table for two, moments later a server approached. Lily ordered her favorite, Jasmine tea. A few minutes later, her beverage arrived. It was delicious.
"Can I speak to the manager please?" lily asked her waitress as she passed by
"Sure, let me grab him real quick." About a half a minute passed before the manager stepped over to her table.
"Hello. May I help you with something?"
"Oh there's no problem, I just wanted you to know that I have had the best jasmine tea in the world, and yours rivals with it."
The manager seemed surprised and stuttered out a thank you.
"The owner of this tea shop used to live in Ba Sing Sei, and went to the Jasmine Dragon on the daily basis. That's where his passion for tea began."
"Really? I actually worked there for a while. You wouldn't be hiring by any chance would you?"
The shop wasn't actually hiring, but the manager wouldn't pass up the chance to hire a former employee of the best tea shop in the world.
She walked out of the tea shop with a job, she started the next day.
"Any news?" The masked man asked his Lieutenant.
"Nothing interesting happened today sir."
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