The Legend of Korra was created by Michael Dante Di Martino, Bryan Konietzko, and is owned by Viacom Inc. No infringement on their property is implied, nor should be inferred.

Hey, Arnold! was created by Craig Bartlett and owned by Viacom Inc. No infringement on their property is implied, nor should be inferred. Don't worry, you'll have to have a slavish devotion to the show to get the references.

The title of this story, Aquarium, and chapter titles Pianists, Fossils, and Finale were composed by Camille Saint Saëns as part of the Carnival of Animals Suite. Though the compositions are public domain, no infringement on his beautiful work is implied, nor should be inferred.

Rated T

Para Acosta, gracias por su amabilidad a través de los años.

Aquarium

Chapter One: Pianists

Meant to symbolize the renewed unity of all the nations after the one hundred year war and the United Republic, the last rays of the setting sun filtered through the stained glass dome above the main hall of the museum, coloring the grained marble floor beneath with muted shades of fiery red, joyful yellow, flowing blue and earthy green.

With some shielding their eyes from the brightness overhead, others in wide-eyed wonder, children stared in awe at the long, full-sized articulated dragon skeleton from the fire nation that hung menacingly from steel wire tethering it to the ceiling. Ambient red hues from the dimming sunset fell over the valleys and ridges of its bleached, cracked horned skull; and bathed by the last burning rays of the day, it appeared as though the long dead creature had sprung to life, breathing hot flames through its long, serrated teeth once more.

Intermittently shadowed by the bones above, a revolving mobile constructed of airbender gliders slowly circled, powered by the rising heat of human bodies and currants generated by large fans on the ceiling. On the floor beneath, a secure glass case displayed a collection of air nation artifacts bequeathed by Avatar Aang from his personal collection, including traditional air nomad clothing, recipes for fruit pies and cakes baked by his friend and mentor, monk Gyatso, wind driven razors for head shaving, and a well-worn air bison whistle. Behind the display for those, in the middle of the gallery and guarded by signs admonishing do not touch, sat a thoroughly unconvincing full-scale model of Avatar Aang's lifelong animal companion, Appa, its long, cracked wooden horns made crooked by gravity, the white shaggy faux fur covering its lumpy frame, yellowed by dust and matted by age.

Across the gallery, to the side in a diorama, reposed a taxidermy display of animals from the frigid water nations, both north and south poles. Their dull pelts damaged by benign neglect and artificial illumination from decades of exhibition, the snarling polar bear dog, silently howling arctic wolves, roaring tiger seals, and lowing arctic pandas still looked ferocious alongside their much smaller prey items of choice, ambling otter penguins, slippery mackerel trout, and nimble snow raccoons.

On display along with the animals, were mannequins dressed in the outdated garb of the northern and southern water tribes, their hard, unfeeling hands gripping the long wooden spears, bows, and sharp metal boomerangs the proud peoples of those lands still used to hunt with. Featured along those, were hunting canoes bedecked with nets, long oars dipping into imaginary arctic waters and paintings of larger ships accompanied by vivid descriptions of the ancient rite of passage for southern water tribe adolescents called ice dodging.

The entire six-month long display of treasures from each nation was in honor of the new, still undiscovered Avatar of the cycle who hailed from one of the poles of those frosty, distant lands, the first water bending Avatar since tragic Kuruk, well over four centuries ago. The last day of viewing, patrons and friends of Four Nations Natural History and Art Museum thought it fitting to see the exhibit away with a public gala, offering a myriad of refreshments donated by a generous up and coming local company.

While the temptation of a table generously laid with complimentary sweets along with liquefied, brightly dyed sugar in the form of punch beckoned most of the children in attendance, one small visitor didn't give so much as a passing glance to any of those diversions at all.

Thoroughly engrossed in her favorite portion of the Avatar exhibit in the corner, mostly overlooked by the majority of museum patrons, she focused on the one representing the lands of the Earth Kingdom, and Kyoshi, the last great Avatar in its cycle.

Committing the curios to memory, she'd already seen them more times than she could count, but took the familiar sights in once more, because her mommy said it would be a long time before they would have the exhibit there again, if ever.

In an illuminated frame on the wall facing her, a large, over four hundred-year-old painting on loan from Avatar Kyoshi Shrine titled, Birth of Kyoshi, hung in a large recess. According to the exhibit, it celebrated Avatar Kyoshi's simultaneous defeat of the evil despot, Chin the Conqueror, and the separation of her home, the seaside village of Koi, from the mainland of earth kingdom creating an island, later re-named in her honor.

Beside it, there was another diorama depicting a central earth kingdom bamboo forest featuring its native fauna, including a stuffed fire ferret, a fearsome tigerdillo missing half an upper canine crouched alongside a majestic, four point cat deer buck with a small pheasant hawk hanging limply from its mouth. To its side, mounted in a frame was a map depicting the migration routes of badger moles tunneling through their natural habitat, the high mountain ranges of northern earth kingdom, located on the outskirts of Omashu.

Prominently located in the center of the earth exhibit was a tall, illuminated vertical display containing the remaining articles of the last avatar's personal belongings on loan from the shrine dedicated to her memory, located on Kyoshi Island. Securely supported by a rounded wooden rod running transversely through the cabinet, the Avatar's dark green, gold trimmed jaspé kimono hung securely by its shoulders and sleeves, the vibrant vestment a testament to Kyoshi's exquisite taste in raiment.

The little girl standing in front of it wished she could touch the fine textured cloth or just bury her face in it, because in her imagination; it was just as soft as it was pretty to look at, faintly scented with jasmine.

Below the fine silk kimono sat two large, sturdy, custom crafted brown leather boots, and though they didn't have a size system for attire when she lived, by modern footwear charts, Kyoshi had the largest feet of any known Avatar to date, wearing a size fourteen and a half in a men's shoe. In the same display, above the boots and to the side of her kimono resting on a glass shelf, sat a carved wooden head that supported Avatar Kyoshi's mirror polished golden headdress, and to either side framing that, two small carved blocks of curly maple-oak wood which held her metal fans opened and upright.

One of the blades of the gilded fans was broken off from the body of the rest, lying directly below in front of it in two pieces, the faded green cording that once attached it, frayed and dangling downwards. In addition to the harm done to the one fan, the right side of Kyoshi's decorative fanned headdress was also slightly bent.

An information plaque sitting amongst the items explained the harm done to the artifacts as occurring during Avatar Aang's battle with the fire nation's Special Forces detachment, Colonel Mongke and the Rough Rhinos in Chin Village during Avatar Day while serving out the sentence of community service determined by a rabiroo court for crimes neither he, nor his predecessors committed.

A perfectionist by nature, the novice engineer regarded the bent metal of the headdress and damaged fan with outright disgust.

If they gave her a half a chance, she could fix the headdress easily with a sandbag and a rubber mallet in just a few minutes, the bends in the metal weren't even that bad, and when repaired, you wouldn't even be able to tell it had been damaged. Though the fan would take a little more time and be more difficult to repair, she knew she could do it, but her daddy wouldn't allow her to weld or even solder on her own yet because he said she was too little and it was dangerous.

It didn't matter anyway; the plaque said that the clerics in charge of preserving the late Avatar's belongings forbade the repair of the items. As Kyoshi was one of Avatar Aang's previous incarnations, by law, her belongings were determined to be his to use or destroy at his discretion, and that the damage preserved the provenance of each piece.

Personally, she thought it was dumb to allow anything broken to remain so, especially things that were so well-made and beautiful. Every time she saw the bent and broken curios, it perturbed the skilled girl greatly because she knew that Avatar Kyoshi or at least whoever made the fans and headdress would want them repaired, she knew she would, and one time she even went as far as to ask her father if they could volunteer to fix them for free. In response, her father ruffled her hair, and though he agreed with her, he advised to let it go because even a couple of super geniuses like them couldn't fight city hall. When he said that, her mommy told him to stop boasting, but then she gave them that funny sideways look with a smile that always made them laugh.

Always saving the best for last, moving away from the well lit glass case; she sidestepped three times to her most favorite part of the exhibit, staring upwards in rapt wonder.

No matter how many times she saw the encased object, she never tired of looking at it, and seeking to get as close to it as physically possible, she plastered her hands onto the once clean surface, marring the clear glass with her fingerprints and a long smear from her nose for good measure.

Studying the display case above, and its security system, she'd been reading a book about locksmithing for the past few weeks. Though the mechanisms on the case looked different today than they did on her last visit, she still bet she could have the sword out of that case in one-minute tops, that is, if she still had the screwdriver her mommy found down the back of her dress before they left the house that afternoon.

Of course, she would never actually take the object encased in front of her because that would be stealing, and stealing was a bad thing to do. There were too many people around the place watching for her to do anything if she wanted to anyway, so with a wistful sigh, the little girl settled for only looking as she flattened her palms against the smooth glass and attempted to pull herself upwards once more.

Being later in the day, the crowd inside dwindled from the numbers it had when they arrived, so the couple had an opportunity to sit on one of the benches in a side gallery, enjoying a panorama depicting the growth of Republic City from its founding to modern day.

Truly, the city of dreams and opportunity, being a dirty ragamuffin with a lot of ambition, the metropolis gave him a chance to prosper where he might not have had the ability elsewhere, and now that he was wealthy, he was going to return what he was given as he did today. The museum directors actually sought him out for financial help, and he and his wife were happy to oblige.

Taking a nip out of one of the cookies their company paid for, the generous donor admired the complicated piece. "Just look at the way the artist captured the minute details of the steam engine. All that raw power, it looks so real, as though it could leap out of the painting and crash right through the wall and to the street!" His companion gave him a strange look as he pronounced in wonder, "I wish I could construct something as magnificent as that."

The beautiful woman beside him looked around the gallery, they were the only couple in the wing, and the few other people around found their attention diverted elsewhere. "You have; in fact, you've built things more magnificent." Taking a cookie from the small paper plate sitting between them, she lowered a cup of punch from her lips, then glancing around at the paintings and sculptures of well-endowed ladies, she wondered with humor as she whispered, "Why can't you just gawk at the nudes like all the other men?"

"There's no need," He chuckled, whispering back naughtily as his eyebrows rose suggestively, "I have already seen the perfect nude."

"Hiro Sato!" Yasuko hissed through her teeth. He still shamelessly grinning, she tried to be serious and punish her misbehaving husband accordingly, but ultimately wound up stifling laughter, a blush tinting her cheeks while lightly chastising him. "I can't take you anywhere can I?" The mischievous man wondered if he indeed had gone a bit far in their rather open milieu until he heard, "Flatterer."

Looking around and to his sides, and kind of glad that she actually wasn't there, he questioned, "Didn't we bring a kid with us?"

Finding more humor in it than worry, the impressed mother informed, "Oh, she managed to slip away a few minutes ago, but the escape artist is just fine." Motioning over towards the main gallery with her head, she added, "I've been keeping an eye on her while you've been misbehaving and waxing poetic about your favorite choo choo again."

Hiroshi chuckled, "I count ourselves fortunate she stood still long enough this afternoon for the family portrait to be taken and didn't offer to take the camera apart to see how it works." He then said with guarded tone, "You like trains too, Mrs. Inventor, spirits know you spent enough of our childhood ripping off rides on them every chance you got." An eyebrow cocked upwards. "Trolleys too."

Yasuko astutely argued, "The conductor knew all along that we kids were filching rides on the back steps of the city trolleys and didn't toss us off, so technically, it wasn't stealing, but a generous gift."

She nodded when her husband added with grateful sadness, "He was a sweet old man." With a sigh, Hiroshi pulled a watch out of his pocket by its gold chain and opened it, finding the time nearing six o'clock. "Since we're already out, what do you say we make a great end of a perfect day and go out for dinner?" Knowing the answer before he even asked, "How does Kwong's sound?"

Looking at the clock on the wall, Yasuko eyes lit at the prospect of dining at her favorite establishment, but then they fell, "Kwong's sounds good, but we don't have a reservation, it's much too late to call for one, the place is bound to be filling up by now, and by the time we got there, we probably wouldn't even be able to get a foot in the door much less a table."

"Now of that, I wouldn't be so sure." Hiroshi suggested with a smile, "I slipped into the study and called before we left home; I figured it would take awhile to pry Asami off that display case today, so our reservation is open until seven." Rather pleased with his efforts, he stated, "I even got us your favorite table along the back wall." Optimistically he ended, "We might even get to see some of those pro-benders that you and Asami love so much tonight."

"You got Yakone's booth?" Yasuko eyed her husband, highly impressed with him. "There's a waiting list as long as your arm to sit there, how in the world did you swing that?"

Hiroshi chuckled as he reached into his right hand coat pocket and produced a small box neatly wrapped with wrinkled newspaper and presented it to his wife on the flat of his palm. "All I had to do was mention it is your birthday today and the manager couldn't pencil us in fast enough." Shrugging he theorized, "Just between you and me, I think he's kind of sweet on you."

"No, it's that you're a good tipper, and you're spoiling me rotten too, Hiro, you've already given me too much today." Sighing with a shake of her head, Yasuko added, "The car alone."

"To be fair, Asami and I did go halfsies on that." Yasuko smiled sideways, and grinning, Hiroshi moved to put the present back into his pocket with a singsong voice. "Okay, since you think I'm being too frivolous, I suppose I can just take this one last gift back since you don't want it." A custom piece paid for months in advance, he couldn't return the item even if he wanted, but still, the threat sounded good enough to prompt swift action from his wife.

Mrs. Sato deftly slid the small box from between Hiroshi's fingers and smiled equally, pointing at him playfully. "Let's not go nuts here; I didn't say I didn't want it." A brief kiss planted on his rosy cheek, Hiroshi's loud laughter pierced the silent decorum of the gallery, a security guard peered inside to see where the jubilant racket emanated from, but satisfied it wasn't another robbery attempt, he went back to his post.

Hiroshi sat in anticipation as Yasuko opened his last gift to her for the day. He couldn't wrap the Satomobile speedster sedan he and their daughter custom built for her, but all of the other gifts he'd given her that day had been draped in satiny colored paper hidden in multiple boxes with huge ribbons tied to them to open as puzzles.

This last gift in particular was the most meaningful one to him though, because he spent a lot of time planning its execution.

When they were courting, and later, as newlyweds, in between toiling for the bare necessities of life and getting his idea of an automobile for the everyman off the ground, though she insisted he didn't, he was able to scrape together enough money to buy small presents for Yasuko's birthdays. With funds nearly non-existent and being rather creative when it came to solutions for problems, Hiroshi wrapped presents for Yasuko with clean newspapers he found discarded in garbage cans in lieu of expensive wrapping papers that came form a store.

When his invention became a success and they had more money than they knew to do with, Hiroshi continued wrapping gifts for his wife in newspaper on anniversaries and birthdays for the sake of nostalgia. Though his gifting tended to be much more extravagant now, it was a reminder of the hard times they triumphed over together, and how grateful he was that Yasuko endured poverty, hardship, and forwent better prospects, all for the love given by a boy with nothing to his name but a few tarnished coins in his threadbare pockets and big dreams.

Divested of its humble covering, Hiroshi was delighted when Yasuko opened the ornate green and black grained clamshell box in her hand and pulled her fingers across the bright silver bracelet with a look of awe on her face. With a tentative smile, Hiroshi wondered as she gazed in silence upon the unique piece of jewelry, "Do you like it?" Moving the plate of cookies between them aside, he scooted closer to Yasuko, pointing downwards. "A while back I searched all the shops in town looking for something special, but I didn't like the selections, so I designed this and sent the sketch to an earth kingdom jeweler to replicate." Rather proud of the fact that he kept the surprise hidden so well from his wife until that day, he crowed, "Actually, you brought it in with the rest of the mail the day it arrived; it was in the box you asked me about and I told you it was a part for a special project."

Yasuko shook her head grinning. "Oh, I remember that, you ran so fast towards the basement, I thought perhaps it was another car or an engine for your model railroad setup and you didn't want me to know."

Hiroshi chuckled, "Nope, it wasn't a choo choo this time."

Yasuko laughed, "You always were good at hiding things." Drawing the bracelet out of its decorative box, she allowed the cool links to flow through her fingers, tiny rods of platinum intricately meshed together to form a strong, flexible, but achingly delicate chain. Admiring the fine design and notable craftsmanship of the highly polished piece, Yasuko could only gush, "Oh, goodness, Hiro, it, it's beautiful." Then she said guiltily, "I did mean it when I said that you really shouldn't have spent so much money on me though." The conscientious woman wondered, "Do you realize how many more people we could help with what you probably spent on this?"

Hiroshi dismissed her concern. "We feed half of Dragon Flats already, and donate plenty of money to other charities too, besides, who else other than Asami am I going to spend on but you?" The industrialist took her hand as he appreciatively continued, "You defended me when people were calling me a fool, and stuck by me when things were just about as bad as they could get, you were always helping or encouraging me; you still do. You're the real reason why I'm the successful man I am today, sweetheart, so if anyone deserves to be lavished upon, it's you."

A blush adorning her cheeks, Yasuko humbly answered, "You know I didn't do all those things for the promise of a payoff, but because I believed in you." She gazed lovingly into his striking eyes. "Still do." Knowing better than to argue against the gift because it would hurt his pride, the grateful wife gently stroked her husband's cheek. "Thank you, Hiro, I love it," She drew his face downwards until their foreheads and eyes met, "But most of all because you designed it." Smiling, Yasuko held up the glinting chain and produced her wrist. "Put it on?"

Hiroshi's eyebrow arched, and with a sideways smile he took the bracelet in one hand, Yasuko's in the other and clasped it on, bringing her knuckles to his lips, brushing them with his mustache and the hint of a kiss while gazing into her brilliant green eyes when done.

Wrapping an arm around the other's shoulder, they sat in silence enjoying the moment, and then peering through the large entryway to where his daughter was located, Hiroshi observed, "There's an awful lot of people in that gallery now, I don't know if it's such a good idea to allow Asami to wander around without one of us with her for so long. Perhaps we should…"

Leaning forward to look herself, Yasuko dismissed his concerns. "Aw, she's having fun, let her be." Yasuko waved her hand dismissively, "My parents used to let me roam around the entire city for hours by myself when I was her age all the time and I was okay."

"Oh, of that I am well aware." Deciding to pick a benign fight because riling her was so easy and fun, Hiroshi wondered, "How much of your homemade spy equipment did you go through way back when?"

Her head wobbled defiantly as her playfully teasing voice was painted with nothing but love, "You makin' fun of me again, shoeshine boy?" Yasuko pointed at her mischievous mate with half a cookie and smirked. "I do believe that I saved your rear end with one of my better inventions that day and you should be a little more grateful."

Incredulously, Hiroshi offered, "A flyswatter?"

Yasuko corrected with a raised index finger, "An electric flyswatter, hotman." With a grin that could be described as nothing less than mischievous pride, she added, "It worked even better than I thought!" With unparalleled joy, she ended, "I still can't believe it burned a smoky hole clean through his pants."

The industrialist rolled his eyes. Being eight years old, and not really a fighter, he was terrified at the time, first by the older bully that had him hoisted up by his shirt against a wall, and then tenfold by the protective actions of his unexpected savior. He now remembered the encounter fondly though, because it was the first time he met the feisty, funny little girl who would become the love of his life. "I could have taken him." Hiroshi answered with a bit of doubt.

She knew she saved his shoe shining money and the trouble of a getting a black eye that day, but she humored him. "Of course you could, I just got to him first. " Hiroshi cut her a look, but Yasuko smiled and got back to the original topic. "Anyway, it will do Asami good to be left alone for a little bit, we can't allow her to run loose in the factory, so it will make her feel like she's a big girl without mom and dad watching her every move each second." She waved a dismissive hand. "Besides, our little genius is too wrapped up in looking at that sword again to get into too much trouble." She hated the look of disappointment on Asami's face before they left, but it was for the best as the doting mother's eyebrow rose. "She wanted to bring it with her, but I made your chief mechanic leave that new toolbox you bought for her at home."

"I wondered why she looked so disappointed." Hiroshi noted with humor that his wife obviously did not appreciate.

"It's pretty bad I have to frisk Asami like a cop every time we go somewhere now, and it's a good thing I did today too." With more than a bit of suspicion, Yasuko's eyes squinted. "Actually, I think she knew I was going to make her keep the toolbox at home, because after I took that away from her, I found a flat-head screwdriver tucked down the back of her dress."

"Spirits, woman! " Hiroshi chortled at the outrageous imagery. "You ought to be proud of her for being so smart in distracting you, it was a gambit."

Yasuko harshly whispered, "Laugh it up, funny guy, but just the other day I caught her using one of my bras as a tool belt, now it's so stretched out I can't even wear it anymore." Incredulously she ended, "She put a hammer and a wrench through the straps, and then put greasy rags in one cup, and a sweet bun for a snack into the other and tied it around her waist!"

Hiroshi grinned, full of pride in their clever child. "Asami is a brilliant, sneaking genius, exactly as her stunningly beautiful mother."

"Yeah, yeah," Yasuko cut her eyes at him with a sideways smile. "Quit suckin' up." Hiroshi laughed, and with a smirk, she added, "That girl is too smart for her own good, and don't you dare delight in it!" She crossed her arms. "Have you even tried to answer a telephone or so much as make a piece of toast at the house lately?" He was going to answer, but thought better of it, and tightly closing his lips with a smile, his wife rolled her eyes. Expressing relief, because just as her husband, their daughter was capable of anything Yasuko stated, "Well, at least I know she doesn't have any contraband on her now, so unless she finds something lying around this place, she can't Sato that display case open or disassemble anything here, thank the spirits."

Hiroshi questioned incredulously, "Our last name is a verb now?" His wife nodded as he scoffed, "Asami has more sense than to do something crazy like that anyway."

She wasn't so sure, and slowly turning her head towards her husband, eyebrow cocked upwards, Yasuko's response was a silent, disbelieving look that said it all.

All her husband had to proffer was a laughing question, "What?"

Recalling one of the many instances of Asami's resourcefulness married with her dexterous hands and absconding skills that culminated in events just short of utter destruction, she refreshed Hiroshi's rather biased, selective memory. "Have you forgotten the four nations festival parade? That antique cabbage cart?" Hiroshi placed his hand over his eyes as she dryly ended, "I remember the cabbage cart."

Hiroshi stood in defense of their beloved child. "Asami was little and didn't know any better!" He whispered harshly, "That rotten old fart blew the whole thing out of proportion anyway!"

Yasuko covered her mouth after a loud, uncontrolled laugh issued forth, wholly failing in the attempt to be serious. "Hiroshi!"

"Well, it's the truth, Gan Lan Senior only made the huge deal out of it because of who we are, not what Asami did!" He huffed with indignation, holding his hand out as a measurement of height. "Wanting an innocent little kid to go to jail for trying to be helpful and repair his precious little pushcart?"

Yasuko looked to her side and down. "I hate to say it, but define innocent, because it all kinda' was started by 'Sami."

"How was Asami supposed to know the stinking thing would crumple like a house of cards when she tightened the loose bolt? If they were so concerned about the safety of it, they would have kept a better eye on it and never parked it on that steep of a hill to begin with. Anybody could have come along and tried to sit on it, or brushed up against it and it would have fallen anyway. It just happened that Asami found it before anyone else did, so that was poor planning on their part." Hiroshi held up a hand demonstratively. "Besides, the rickety old pile of junk looked like it had already been smashed to bits and cobbled back together several times decades before Asami ever laid a finger on it."

Yasuko pursed her lips while remembering the event because it was unforgettable.

They turned their heads for only a moment to look at the float Future Industries sponsored, but evidentially that was all the time Asami needed to slip away so fast they hadn't a clue.

Yasuko didn't even want to know where their girl got her hands on a wrench that big.

Despite the passing of two years, the memory of the top heavy cart performing a drunken looking waltz down the steep cobblestone street on the main drag still remained fresh in her mind.

When a rear support eventually broke off the cart, it veered towards a low curb and shattered when it crashed into a hydrant. The damage was bad enough already, but the real mayhem began when the front of the cart shattered and then collapsed onto its side in splinters, unleashing several dozen large cabbages to bounce down the parade route, resembling decapitated heads as they rolled downhill. All along the street, the tumbling vegetables tripped several helpless members of the benevolent order of saber tooth moose-lions, and made the entire police department marching band topple atop each other in a chain reaction, bending tsungi horns and denting gongs in their wake.

Several floats had to veer off course to avoid the piles of lodge member and policemen helplessly rolling around in the street, but how the fire prevention float that police chief Toph Beifong rode atop lit on fire and set off the entire fireworks display reserved for later that evening, no one had a clue.

Being barely three years old, and not understanding the discord she'd sewn with her innocent actions, it didn't help that Asami was absolutely delighted with the chaos she created, laughing loudly and clapping her hands while jumping in place and cheering for more. When the source of the trouble was located, everyone was rightfully angry with her, Hiroshi, and upset with their daughter.

Though they were ticketed and had to pay restitution for the destruction which was fair, thank the spirits that the chief of police and her daughter was there to settle everyone down and talk some sense into the crowd, because Yasuko wasn't so sure they would have gotten out of there in one piece without their interference and protection.

Yasuko cast Hiroshi a wary eye. "Granted, yes, mister Gan Lan senior did overreact, but 'Sami just turned five, you've been teaching her how to do more complicated things, and who only knows what she's capable of now."

Hiroshi laughed, "You make her sound like a product of evil, she's just a little kid."

Yasuko lifted her hands while looking upwards, "Quite frankly, I wouldn't put it past her to be able to construct a time bomb out of an alarm clock, a couple of batteries, and a pack of sausages!"

Hiroshi shook his head. "She can only take clocks apart now; Asami hasn't learned how to put them back together yet." He cocked an eyebrow. "Sausages?" When his wife gave him a look, Hiroshi stooped down a little and began shaking his fist, imitating a toothless, well-dressed elderly man they had the pleasure of meeting through Asami's adept cleverness, and a moment of benign inattention on their part. "My cabbages!"

Laughing would only spur him on, so Yasuko sighed, wrapping her arm around her husband's back, affectionately placing her head on his strong shoulder. Making a slicing motion through the air to the side with her other hand, she observed, "Well, one thing's for certain, Hiroshi Sato, you and Asami are cut from the same cloth." She eyed him. "You couldn't deny that kid is yours if even if you wanted to."

Hiroshi smiled and pressed his lips to his wife's temple assuring, "I never would, but don't think for a moment she's not inherited some of your gift for mischief too." He exhaled a breath, looking at Asami in the main gallery again. "I suppose now that the Avatar exhibit is closing I'll have to make Asami a little sword of her own now that one is leaving."

"You better not make a replica of that thing for her!" Yasuko released her embrace and pointed her finger towards him, utilizing the most classic excuse a mother ever used in the history of man to prevent their offspring from having any fun whatsoever. "She'll put her eye out!" She shivered. "Hard telling how many heads and other appendages that blade has sliced off while the Avatar's woman held the other end of it." Yasuko scoffed, "The name of it alone is enough to give you the creeps!"

"But Deathsong is such a sweet, non-threatening name." Having no intention of making their child an edged weapon in the first place, Hiroshi innocently asked, "What harm could it do?"

"You know that if Asami loses an eye, her depth perception will be completely shot which will hinder her mechanical skills." Knowing he was baiting her, Yasuko covered one eye with her hand and playfully snarled as she produced a hooked finger with the other. "So ye have a decision t'make, matey, do ye want to train an engineer or raise a buccaneer?"

"Okay," He conceded, "No sword," He ended wistfully as he looked upwards, "Even though it would be flamin' to have another pirate in the family." Yasuko shot her husband a dirty look he conveniently didn't see, and after checking his pocket watch once more, Hiroshi nodded towards his daughter, who was on tiptoes and gripping the wooden side frames of the glass display case holding the fabled weapon. "We have a little time to spare, so let's give her a couple more minutes before we leave." Yasuko nodded agreement, and then Hiroshi made a grandiose gesture with a sweep of his hand towards the painting, cutting his eyes towards her to catch her reaction. "Oh yeah, look at the headlight on that!"

The long suffering woman framed her forehead with her hand, shaking her head while fighting a smile, settling enough to announce, "You are a filthy minded animal, Hiroshi Sato, and not the least bit entertaining."

Proud of finally getting her cat goat, Hiroshi chortled, "Hah, now you know that's not true." He crossed his arms. "I'm hilarious!"

"Oh, you're something alright." Giving him a last chiding look, finally sighing because he was incorrigible, Yasuko picked up her cup of punch to take a sip, but inspected it instead. She had already enjoyed several cups of the over-sweetened beverage over the duration of their visit, but it wasn't until then that she noticed the brightly colored liquid in her cup was as vibrant as any work of art located in the museum. "Now there's a color found in nature." Her husband gave her a quizzical look, she uncomfortably shifted and whispered, "It was good, but boy, that cheap red stuff runs right through you doesn't it?" Rising with purpose, Yasuko requested, "Keep an eye on Asami; I'll be back in a moment."

Hiroshi leaned to the side and called after his hustling wife as she exited the gallery, "It wasn't cheap!"