AHAHA SO. Look, I've finally written another fic in the GG'verse! Unfortunately, this isn't the long-planned GG 2 that I've been slamming my head against for the past five years, this is more like...GG 1.5, and it snuck up on me sometime last autumn, sank its teeth into me this past January, and didn't let go until I'd written over 30k words for it. So CONGRATULATIONS, instead of getting a story about brainwashed!Dai Li!Lu Ten dealing with PAPERWORK and BUREAUCRACY, you get five chapters of my beloved OC family being adorkable.

I'd apologize, except I'm not sorry at all because actually I really love how this story turned out, and I hope you love it too. The members of the Dai-Sai-Trung family are some of my many, many OC babies, and it was nice getting to exercise these characters.

WARNINGS FOR
-Mentions of brainwashing
-Allusions to Ba Sing Se being kinda messed up
-Mentions of past war crimes and genocide
-Mentions of past rape
-A character born out of rape
-A character who sees suicide as a viable option should everything go horribly wrong

Many thanks to Stingrae for betaing this and being there with me every step of the way while I developed the story and characters and cried because the words didn't wanna cooperate, and to Silver, who's been a fantastic fan of GG (she made a TV Tropes page! that I can't link to because this site won't let me! but you can find the link on the AO3 version of this fic!) and who was a huge help with my cultural questions.


It was well into the night by the time the train reached the Upper Ring. Quy disembarked with an exhausted grace and headed out of the station, the few people milling about either politely or nervously stepping out of his way when they saw his uniform. He paid them no mind. He was tired - mentally and emotionally - and he wanted to go home. Home, where his family was, and where he could relax and rest after this headache-inducing day, and where, most importantly, there were no brainwashed Firebenders to worry about.

There'd been enough time on the train ride for Quy to think in circles about what had possessed him to save Shirong's pet project. He'd had his reasons to offer Shirong his help. Quy liked Shirong, for one thing, although at the moment his feelings towards the man could be summed up as aggravated. And as much as Quy appreciated Yong's brutally efficient leadership as a Dai Li director and understood the necessity of some of the man's less savory methods, he was still leery of the idea of just giving him someone to be disposed of in whatever creative ways Yong could think up. Quy was the Dai Li's Director of Administration and no stranger to interrogation methods. Torture was useful - a lot of information would never have made it into Administration's files without it, hell, a lot of agents would be dead without it - but on an already-brainwashed prisoner of war who had no information to give, it was just sadistic. Quy was no sadist, and he couldn't bring himself to condemn any prisoner to a painful, messy death.

Even if that prisoner was a Firebender.

Even if Quy knew for a fact that the Fire Nation would have no qualms being so merciless towards an Earthbender in their custody.

That was the other thing. As easy as it was to tell himself that he'd just wanted to help Shirong, that he didn't want to encourage Yong's sadistic streak, Quy still had plenty of reasons to not want to help the Firebender.

And all of those reasons were waiting for him back at his house.

Quy paused outside on the train station's steps and looked down at the carriages parked on the street, waiting for passengers. He usually took one home, but sometimes he preferred the walk - it was only half a mile, and it gave him time to unwind, time to think.

It was a beautiful spring night, and there was a brainwashed Firebender under Lake Laogai. Quy could use the walk.

He could also use the rest. He was tired.

His mind was made up for him as he descended the steps toward the street, and one of the cabbies suddenly waved at him. Quy recognized the man as Ly Nanyue, one of his favorite drivers, and he waved back, heading toward the carriage. He was tired. He wanted to go home. And he'd feel mildly guilty if he didn't give Ly some work.

"Where to, sir?" Ly asked, hopping down from his seat as Quy approached. He opened the carriage's door and watched Quy stumble in and flop down on the seat. "Straight home?" he surmised.

"Yes, please," Quy sighed.

Ly gave a sharp nod. "No problem, sir," he said, shutting the door. "Dusty and I'll have you there in just a bit." He clambered back into the driver's seat, and Quy heard him snap orders to his ostrich-horse. A second later the carriage was moving. Quy leaned back and watched the city pass by the window.

The Upper Ring was beautiful, all lit up at night. Lanterns twinkled their way down the streets, beaming down on lovely houses tucked into manicured gardens, their windows all alight. The air was pleasantly cool, with only the slightest breeze that carried the faint scent of flowers, and the sky above was clear and spattered with stars.

The streets, however, were empty, save for a few people out for a quiet stroll. Normally there was more activity, even at this late hour - it was the weekend, after all. But this weekend happened to be the start of Qingming, and tomorrow was Tomb Sweeping Day. Ba Sing Se's citizens were all at home with their families, preparing for the morning's tasks of dutifully tending to graves and remembering the dead. All was calm and peaceful as the carriage made its way down the street; here in the Upper Ring, there truly was no war in Ba Sing Se.

A shadow on a rooftop caught Quy's attention, and glancing up as they passed he just barely saw the silhouette of a Dai Li agent watching the streets below. Quy silently wished the man a quiet night. It probably would be. The Upper Ring was well-known for being the nice, boring patrol area.

The carriage finally reached Quy's house, and he heard Ly talking to his ostrich-horse as he pulled to a stop. "Whoa, Dusty, whoa, there's a good girl." Then he was opening the door. "Here we are, sir."

"Thank you, Ly," Quy said, pressing some money into the man's hand as he disembarked - the usual fare, plus some extra. Ly was a refugee from Nanyue, the same province Quy's mother had come from. The Nanyuese looked out for their own - Quy's mother especially. Ly didn't call him sir because of Quy's position in the Dai Li.

"Thank you, sir," Ly said, pocketing the coin. He paused, then added quietly, "And a good Thanh Minh to you and yours."

Quy paused as well, looking at his front gate. Qingming was what the Earth Kingdom in general called it, but the provinces often had their own names for such things. In Nanyue Qingming had been called Thanh Minh, and the Nanyuese had kept the name long after they'd lost their homeland.

For the rest of the Earth Kingdom, the holiday was a mix of sadness and celebration. Yes, there was loss - loved ones were mourned, graves were tended, and prayers were sent to ancestors. But there was also life - families gathered together, kites were flown, the weather finally turned nice, and this was the time of year that young couples often began properly courting each other. For the people of Nanyue, however, Qingming and the Thanh Minh Festival only marked the beginning of a much more painful time period.

It was less than a month to the anniversary of the massacre.

"A good Thanh Minh to you as well, Ly," Quy said softly. He tried to remember if Ly had ever told him who he'd lost. He didn't think so, but Ly had lost someone. Everyone who'd survived the massacre had.

Ly nodded. "Have a good night, sir." He hopped back onto his carriage and clicked the reins.

"Good night," Quy said. He listened to Ly's carriage rattle off into the night before he headed through the ornate gate that led into the Dai residence.

Quy had been born and raised here, in the house his father's family had called home since Avatar Kyoshi's time. The Dais were an old Dai Li family that could trace their heritage back to the organization's roots - their oldest ancestors had been trained by Kyoshi herself, handpicked by the Avatar to preserve Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage. They'd taken part of the organization's name as their own, they'd steadfastly served as its agents for generations, and in many cases their family history and the history of the Dai Li was one and the same.

The house itself was old and elegant, filled with artwork and pieces of cultural interest that the Dai family had collected over the centuries. By Upper Ring standards, it was rather large in size - not as large as some nobles' sprawling estates, of course, but there were three courtyards and plenty of hallways and rooms for the family to live in. This was a good thing, because the family was as large as the house was.

When Quy stumbled inside, however, only his wife was sitting in the receiving room, nose in a book. Roulan glanced up from her reading, and she looked both relieved and disappointed when she saw him. "Ah," she said, setting the book aside and standing. "It's you."

"It's me," Quy agreed. "I take it you're waiting up for Kun?"

"Who else keeps odd hours?" she sighed, coming toward him. "I asked him when he'd be home, and he was all 'Mooooom, you know I can't tell you anything, it's classified and the plan changes half the time anyway.' So annoying."

"The life of an Investigations agent is rough and lacking in sleep," Quy said sagely. "I'm sure he's fine, wherever he is. And he knows he needs to show up tomorrow for tomb sweeping, or else my mother will give him an earful."

"That she will," Roulan hummed, wrapping Quy in an embrace. She was already in her nightclothes, and her long hair was unbound and fell straight down her back. "You look awful. And you're back late. Rough day?"

"You have no idea," he sighed. "We had stacks of farmer files to update this morning, then the meeting ran long...then I had to run back to the lake to take care of something…" That something had been a brainwashed Firebender, and Quy really, really did not want to think about that right now.

Fortunately, Roulan was good at providing distraction. "That sounds awful," she said, and she kissed him.

After a long moment, Quy pulled back and touched his forehead to hers, careful to rest the brim of his hat on the crown of her head so he didn't hit her with it. "Not so awful now," he said quietly.

Roulan smiled. "Good." She plucked his hat from his head and stroked his hair. "Come on. The rest of us ate already, but there's still plenty of food. Did you eat at all? Are you hungry?"

"Yes," Quy realized. He was. They strolled toward the kitchen, arm in arm, and Quy glanced up and down the hallways as they passed through. He was hungry, yes, but...food didn't seem so important at the moment.

There was a brainwashed Firebender back at the Lake who didn't realize how much he should miss his family, and there was a man somewhere in the Fire Nation mourning a son he didn't realize wasn't dead but really might as well be.

Quy didn't want to think about the Firebender, but his family...he could think about his family.

"Where are the kids?"

Roulan gave him an amused look. "It's late, Quy. Most of us do keep regular work schedules, you know. Sunan and Wenli went to bed a while ago. Zan might still be up making preparations for tomorrow, though I think she was almost finished. Kun, no idea, of course."

Quy gave her a reassuring smile. "He's alright."

"I know," she said, with all the assurance of a woman who'd personally taught her son how to down someone with a single pebble. They reached the kitchen. "Come on then, we've still got plenty of Klahan's roast duck. And your mother and Tien made a lot of rice balls to get a head start on tomorrow. I'm sure they won't mind if we nick a few. I'll get some tea going."

They wound up sitting on the porch outside of the kitchen, a pot of hot oolong and a plate of cold duck and rice balls between them. They picked at the food as they watched the moths dance around the lanterns in the courtyard and chatted about their day.

"Delun's talking about doing an exhibit on Avatar Kyoshi," Roulan said. "As in, an actual, proper exhibit, with artifacts and information. Not a shrine."

Quy frowned. "That...might not go over well." Kyoshi was important, and revered, and certainly deserved a museum exhibit, but...to devote so much attention to one Avatar might only cause people to question where the last one had disappeared to. Which in turn might lead to whispers of the war. "I don't think Long Feng would like that idea."

"I know that," Roulan said. "Delun knows that. That's not going to stop him from proposing it, though."

"Of course not," Quy sighed, already not looking forward to next week's directors' meeting.

Roulan smiled and sipped her tea. "There's a reason I chose him as my successor as Head of Preservation. Anyway, even if he does manage to get it approved, I just know he'll go about it the wrong way. He never does give Atuqtuaq enough credit."

"No one ever gives Atuqtuaq enough credit," Quy said. "Most people can't even pronounce 'Atuqtuaq'." Kyoshi's husband had been Water Tribe, and the Earth Kingdom historical community tended to agree that this fact was an interesting tidbit showcasing Kyoshi's relations with the other nations before refocusing on her relationship with her Earth Kingdom wife.

"No matter," Roulan said. "I already have a response prepared for when Delun inevitably publishes another paper where he discusses Kyoshi and Midori's relationship at length and reduces Atuqtuaq to a footnote. Would you like to hear it?"

"Do I?" Quy sighed.

"Don't worry, I'm keeping it short. It reads: It has come to my attention that an esteemed colleague has managed to entirely ignore Avatar Kyoshi's relationship to Northern Water Tribesman Atuqtuaq while focusing exclusively on her relationship to Warrior Midori, thus also ignoring the triadic nature of their marriage. While I do agree with this revered scholar on the importance of Warrior Midori in history and the impact she had on Avatar Kyoshi, I must point out that Atuqtuaq was equally important - and in ways beyond the fact of his fathering of Avatar Kyoshi's daughter Koko - "

"You know he'll just respond with a tangent about how Koko could just as well be Midori's daughter."

"No, he'll likely retort with something along the lines of My esteemed colleague is only so invested in the nature of Avatar Kyoshi's triadic marriage because of her own three-way relationship, and then I'll respond with an insinuation that I have led a much more fulfilling sex life than he could ever hope to achieve."

"Roulan!" Quy snapped, but he was laughing.

"You know Solada would get a kick out of it," she grinned. "Also I just want to see Delun's reaction to that."

"Why did you make him Head of Preservation?" Quy grinned.

"Because he's brilliant and devoted," Roulan said. "And because I was sick and tired of dealing with Long Feng." She picked at her rice ball. "So, how was your day?"

Quy's smile dropped. "Boring," he said. "Very boring." Well, not exactly - a highly classified brainwashed Firebender could hardly be called boring - but that seemed like the safest response. There were a lot of things that happened at work that Quy couldn't tell his wife about, but he'd tell her that he couldn't tell her, so that she at least knew something was up. Classified, he'd say, or It's above your clearance level, or I can't talk about it but it was awful and can you please just hold me for a while. With the Firebender, however...Quy didn't want Roulan to know anything was amiss in this case. "Today was long and tedious and utterly boring."

Roulan smiled. "That's good, then," she said, leaning against his shoulder. "You could use some boring days. Remember when every day in the Dai Li was boring?"

Quy snorted as he picked at the last of the duck. "While I agree that Long Feng's administration has been nothing short of a runaway train ride, I would not call Minister Zian's administration boring."

"It was in comparison," Roulan said, watching him finish off the food.

The plate was empty, but neither of them made a move to get up. The night was silent, save for a few cricket-mice chirps and frog-shrew croaks and the occasional splash from the koi pond. Moths fluttered in the lantern-light that lit up the courtyard gardens, and a few stray fireflies - the first Quy'd seen yet this season - floated over the irises. Overhead, the full moon sailed in the sky, giving off a gentle glow.

"We should get to bed," Roulan murmured eventually. "Important day tomorrow."

"Yes," Quy said quietly.

They dropped the plate and teapot off in the kitchen before heading toward their bedroom. Roulan held Quy's hat in one hand and his hand in the other, and together they walked down hallways lined with paintings and statues and other bits of cultural heritage the Dai family had collected over the years. When they came to the door to Zan's room, Quy paused. Roulan stopped a step later and looked at him. "Quy?"

He didn't let go of her hand as he gently pushed the door open, and together they poked their heads inside. Zan's room was tidy as ever, save for the uniform she'd left thrown over a chair and the pile of books and scrolls that'd been placed on the floor - leaving plenty of room for the bouquets of jade flowers strewn over her desk. The moonlight illuminated their daughter where she lay on her side in her bed, fast asleep, a strand of hair fallen over her mouth and floating back and forth as she breathed. Roulan giggled quietly, and Quy smiled as he stepped into the room and pushed the errant lock from her face, tucking it back behind her ear. They stood there a few moments more, watching Zan sleep, her breaths even and her face peaceful.

She was, Quy reflected, about the same age as the Firebender back at the lake.

Then Roulan was gently tugging him out of the room and closing the door behind them. She shot a smile at Quy, though she looked a little bemused as to what that had been about. Their children were full grown - Zan was their youngest - and they certainly didn't need to be checked on or tucked in.

Quy didn't care. There was a brainwashed Firebender under Lake Laogai. He wanted to see his children.

He went for the next door.

"Quy!" Roulan hissed as he opened it. "Quy, what are you doing, they are married , we should know better than to go into a married couple's room - !"

Quy smirked. "If we see anything we shouldn't, we can consider it payback for that time you and I and Solada scarred my father for life."

Roulan snorted, and then Quy was stepping into Sunan and Wenli's room.

There was, thankfully, nothing embarrassing or private going on. Quy's firstborn son and daughter-in-law were sound asleep, fully clothed and tucked under the blankets. Sunan was curled on his side, and Wenli was spooned around him. Their hair was unbound and starting to intermingle, and Quy smiled at the sight.

Roulan came in just behind Quy, and also grinned when she saw them. "That's going to be a pain to untangle in the morning."

Quy chuckled in agreement, and they exchanged a knowing look. They had personal experience with that problem. Roulan had practically cursed him and Solada out one morning, when she'd been running late to a meeting because their hair was hopelessly knotted together, and Solada hadn't been able to stop laughing and Quy had broken a comb trying to get the worst of the tangles out and Roulan had griped and grumbled and so help me Quy I will defy Avatar Kyoshi's dress code and chop the whole mess off, see if I don't!

She hadn't. They'd all started wearing braids to bed, though. Sunan and Wenli hadn't quite reached that point yet. Quy privately suspected they liked having an excuse to be stuck together in the mornings.

Roulan stepped forward and rearranged the blankets so that Sunan's nose and mouth were free to breathe fresher air. Then she stroked his hair a few times, and Quy's heart clenched a bit at the sight. Sunan was Solada's son by birth, but Roulan was also his mother in every other way that counted.

They watched their son and daughter-in-law breathe a few more times, and then Roulan was pulling Quy from this room, too. "C'mon," she murmured, "bed ."

They closed the door and continued down the hallway. Quy was fully prepared to pass by Kun's room - it would be empty, and who knew when Kun would get home - but just as they walked by it there was a sudden clatter from inside, followed by a brief, soft exclamation of "What the - aw, schist." There was more, quieter clattering.

Quy and Roulan stopped mid-step and exchanged looks, and then Roulan knocked on the door. "Kun?" she called quietly. "Kun, is that you?"

A moment of sudden silence, and then " Yes !" came the answer. "Yes, it's me, don't come in, just a sec - "

"What is he doing?" Roulan grumbled as their son made even more suspicious noises. "Hiding a body?"

"No, that's what the lake is for," Quy said mildly. Roulan gave him an unamused look. "My question is, how did he get in without us seeing him?"

"Oh my spirits, the windows!" Roulan gasped, and she wrenched the door open.

"Mom, no - " Kun started, and then it was too late. Quy and Roulan stared at their middle child, halfway through a busted paper window, and Kun blinked back at them from his precarious position. The top half of his body had made it all the way through the window frame before getting stuck mid-torso. Quy wondered how his son had even managed that. He'd come down from the roof, surely, but to get his head and arms in like that he must've been using his feet as an anchor to swing in from the eaves.

There was an awkward moment of silence, and then Kun straightened, drew up as much dignity as he could in his position, and put on his best I-know-all-and-I'm-above-this Investigations agent air. "Good evening," he said, peering at them from under his Dai Li hat. "Would you mind explaining why my window was closed?"

Roulan crossed her arms. "Young man," she said sternly, "I just replaced that window! Today!"

"Ah," said Kun, looking at the ruined window around him. "I see. Yes. Sorry about that. Would that have anything to do with why it was closed?"

"Because I closed it," Roulan said.

Kun groaned. "Mom, you know I like to keep my windows open. So that things like this don't happen." He thrashed a bit, trying to free himself from the wood and paper.

"Kun, it's spring," Roulan said. "There are bugs. The windows should stay closed." She sighed at the ripped paper. "Of course, it's a moot point now…"

"Yes, well," Kun said, "this wouldn't have happened had the window been left open, as I'd expected it to be. Because I left it like that. Because I occasionally swing down from the roof straight into my room through the window, which I never keep closed."

"Why are you coming in through the window, anyway?" Roulan sighed. "Can't you use the front door like a normal person?"

"I didn't want to wake anyone up!" Kun said. He attempted to pull himself farther into the room, but his uniform appeared to be stuck on the wooden splinters.

"Do you need help?" Quy asked, trying not to laugh.

Kun attempted one last heave before giving up. Sighing, he held out his hands, the stone gloving them sliding back up his arms under his sleeves. "Yes, please?"

Quy chuckled. He and Roulan each grabbed one of his hands, and together they pulled their son the rest of the way into his room, taking care to unhook his robes whenever the cloth snagged on the broken wood. Kun slid the last few inches in, and with a yelp he and his parents wound up together on the floor.

"Well," Roulan sighed, looking up at the broken window. "I'll just have to replace that again."

"Sorry, Mom," Kun grunted from where he was practically lying in Quy's lap. He started to get up, and paused when he realized his father's arms were wrapped around him in a firm hug. "Uh, Dad?"

"It's good to see you," Quy said quietly.

Kun paused before hugging back. "It's good to see you too," he said. Quy smiled and let go, and Kun turned to Roulan. "Mom!" he beamed. "I love you!"

She smirked. "Which is why you'll be helping me replace that window."

Kun sighed. "Of course."

She reached over and took his hat off. "Now go to sleep," she ordered, placing a kiss on his forehead. "We need to wake up bright and early tomorrow."

"More like dark and early," Kun huffed. "I might as well just stay up. Normally I'm going to bed when I'm gonna be waking up, though my sleeping schedule's kinda shot at the moment - "

"How long have you been awake?" Roulan asked, frowning.

Kun gave her a sheepish look. "Uh...classified?"

"We don't classify agents' sleep schedules," Quy hummed.

Kun shot his father a betrayed look. "It hasn't been more than twenty hours, promise."

"Sleep," Roulan ordered, pointing imperiously at her son's bed.

"On it," Kun sighed, getting up. Quy and Roulan followed suit, Roulan placing Kun's hat on his dresser and picking Quy's up from where she'd dropped it on the floor. "Good night," he added as he started to peel off the first layer of his uniform.

"Good night," Quy said, and he and Roulan left the room.

"Well," Roulan said once the door was closed. "Everyone's officially home. Can we go to sleep now?"

Quy smiled at her. "Yes."

They finally retreated to the master suite at the back of the house. Quy was disrobing even before they'd made it through the antechamber to their bedroom, more than ready to change into his sleepwear and go to bed. He didn't even bother undoing the top layer all the way - he just yanked it over his head as he walked through the bedroom door, and emerged to find his wife heading toward the candles they kept on the nightstand.

"No," he said quickly. "Don't."

"Are you sure?" she asked, hand hovering over the spark rocks. The entire room was lit up with crystals, but fire gave off better light.

He didn't want to see fire right now. "We're going to be in bed in five minutes," he said, tossing his shed clothes in the laundry bin and starting on the second layer. "Don't bother."

Roulan nodded and left the candles, instead carrying his hat to the vanity. She took a moment to examine it, bent a few bits off dirt off the rim, and then placed it to rest on the hat stand, right beside her own. Then she sat down and began brushing her hair, and Quy watched her as he changed into his nightclothes. Roulan's hair was so long it fell past her seat, and she carefully brushed each lock from root to tip, careful not to snag her comb on her dressing gown. It was a comfy old thing, spring green and embroidered with badgermoles and geometric patterns in painstaking detail - a decades-old birthday present from Solada.

The crystal-light illuminated Roulan with a soft glow, and everything about her in this moment was soft and gentle. Quy wished Solada was there to see it with him.

When he was dressed, he came up behind her, plucked the brush from her fingers and started combing her hair himself. Roulan's hair was as long as his - they'd grown up and grown their hair out together. Hers, however, was far less gray. It was genetic, but Quy liked to joke it was because she hadn't spent fourteen years dealing with mountains of paperwork.

It was just a joke. She had spent fourteen years dealing with Long Feng's reimagining of the Dai Li. Quy was fairly certain that was far more stressful.

He braided a long queue down her back before kissing the crown of her head and leaning over her, tucking her head beneath his chin and embracing her from behind. Roulan smiled at him in the mirror, and then she frowned at something. "Quy," she said, looking down at the arms encircling her, "you forgot to take your gloves off."

Quy blinked and looked down at his arms. Sure enough, they were still encased in stone. "...It's been a long day," he said tiredly.

Roulan giggled and placed her hands over his arms, running them from his elbows to his wrists before lifting up and bending the rocks away from his skin. She spun them in an elegant circle before laying them to rest by his hat stand. "Come on," she said, standing up. She picked up the hairbrush and used it to point at the seat. "Let me take care of you, and then we can go to bed."

He sat down, and she quickly undid his braid, untangling it with the ease that came with decades of practice. They'd been Dai Li partners long before they'd been husband and wife. Hair care was something they'd been doing for each other for most of their lives. She ran the brush through Quy's gray locks, brushing the wisps and tangles into submission.

"We're going to your parents' tomorrow, right?" Quy asked, watching her work in the mirror. She helped him honor his ancestors, and he helped her honor hers.

"For lunch," Roulan confirmed, separating his hair into three sections and re-braiding it. "And we need to stop by the temple for Solada's family. Ratana and Klahan will join us for that, and I think your mother and cousins are going to the Lower Ring to see their people. But we're all coming back here for dinner. The whole family, all together - me, you, the kids, your mother, Ratana and Klahan and Niran, Tien and Hoang…"

"That'll be nice," Quy said.

"Kun's not allowed to leave," Roulan warned. "I don't care if Yong himself shows up with a secret mission; it's Qingming. He needs to be home."

Quy chuckled. "We'll tie him to his seat if we have to."

Roulan chuckled. "Sometimes I'm half-tempted to ask Shirong to recondition him to not go gallivanting off on a moment's notice."

"Not going to happen," Quy snorted. "Long Feng wouldn't want to compromise any of our agents' minds with reconditioning." Then he realized what he'd just said and reflected on the irony. There was a brainwashed Firebender in a Dai Li uniform under Lake Laogai. If that wasn't compromisation, he didn't know what was.

They lapsed into silence as Roulan finished with the braid, and Quy ruminated on the Firebender. It was the weekend, and he had two whole days before he had to actually deal with the man, and he wasn't sure if he was relieved or worried about that. On the one hand, he had two days of freedom from Shirong's unnerving little project. On the other hand, he had two days of an unsupervised Firebender under the lake.

Well, not entirely unsupervised. Lake duty fell to Shirong this weekend, so he'd be there at least.

If a rebound was going to happen, Quy hoped it'd happen in the next forty-eight hours. Then he wouldn't need to deal with it at all, and Shirong could clean up his own mess.

At least he probably wouldn't return to work to find the lake going up in flames on Yang-Earthday. It was a stone cave system under a ton of water. Kind of hard to burn that down.

And Shirong was keeping an eye on him. If there were any issues, Shirong would be able to handle it. Though of course, that begged the question as to what Shirong was doing tomorrow. It was Qingming, and Quy knew Shirong had graves to sweep. There was no one else who would.

Well, if Shirong was willing to sacrifice filial piety for the sake of a Firebender, that was on him.

Roulan tied off the end of Quy's braid. "Alright," she said. "Bed." It was a large bed - large enough to comfortably fit three people, though for years now it'd only been the two of them. Quy laid down on his back, and Roulan curled on her side beside him and pulled the covers up around them. "Sleep well," she said. "Busy day tomorrow."

"Mm-hm." Did the Firebender know it was Qingming, anyway? What about his family? Did Quy need to worry about this whole experimental reconditioning mess upsetting a load of Fire Nation ancestors? Could angry Fire Nation ghosts even reach Ba Sing Se? Was that a valid concern, or was he just thinking crazy now? What about the Firebender's father, did he even know his son was (as good as) dead yet? Was he going to honor the young man tomorrow?

Did the Fire Nation even care about Qingming?

"Do they celebrate Qingming in the Fire Nation?" Quy asked quietly.

Roulan was silent for a moment, quietly going through all her mental files on anthropology. Quy was probably making her think back all the way to their university days. "Yes," she said at length. "They do. Think they have a few different traditions, though; I can't remember. Something involving skulls."

"That sounds barbaric," Quy said.

"Might've been a Sun Warrior thing," Roulan murmured against his shoulder. "Not modern. Why do you ask?"

Quy shrugged. "Just curious."

"Mm," Roulan hummed. "Go to sleep, love. We have a busy morning. There's a lot of ancestors who we need to make sure get tile roofs in the afterlife tomorrow." She raised a hand, and with a flick of her fingers and a twist of her wrist, all the crystals were suddenly covered with stone from the walls. The room was plunged into darkness, save for the moonbeams shining through the window. "Goodnight, Quy," she said, already drifting to sleep.

"Goodnight," Quy said quietly, staring up at the dark ceiling.


Thank you for reading! If you liked it, please please leave a review! It's super appreciated. :)

I'm also on Tumblr at caelum-in-the-avatarverse and Gilded Green has a Tumblr at gilded-green if you're interested. Feel free to chat at me!

I have four more chapters of this to go, and they'll be posted weekly. So keep an eye out next...Tuesday? Maybe Wednesday. Probably Wednesday. I actually have off then. Let's aim for Wednesday.