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Reunited and Housed

Mika ran, and she kept running as fast as she could, down alleys and through startled crowds...

"Richi!" she rasped for what seemed like the hundredth time. "Little brother!.."

"Well what does your sister look like?" Iroh asked the little boy in front of him.

"She's... ummm... she got... brown hair... and brown eyes."

"Well that narrows it own." Zuko said exasparatedly, his patience was already ranging from low to nonexistent... He never had liked children.

"She's wearing black because we just came from-... Sister!"

In her fit of hysterics she darted straight through a crossroads in front of wear Zuko and Iroh lived, but she was going farther away. The yell from her brother wrapped around her like a raging serpent and dragged her backwards to him at a jog.

"It has to be him..." she thought, she'd been searching for only about ten minutes, but it felt more like ten hours... And sure enough as she backtracked, she saw Richi standing in front of a rundown looking apartment complex, (I'm not sure, what would you call it? Sorry for the brief interruption), with an old man and a faceless figure in a doorway.

She didn't just run, she practically flew to Richi.

She hugged him silently, holding onto him tightly as he whispered into his ear, her already small voice sounding as if it might give out at any second. "Are you ok?"

"Of course! This is Mushi, but he says I can call him Uncle Mushi-"

"And this is my nephew Lee." Iroh cut it, still smiling, and Mika acknowledged him with a small inclination of the head and then a look at Zuko.

She picked Richi up and held him on her hip, and whispered in his ear behind a cupped hand, "He doesn't look like a Lee, does he?"

"She says you don't look like a Lee." Richi said smiling at Zuko, who merely scowled more, though the child's statement made him uneasy, and trudged back inside with a scowl etched on his features.

"My nephew is right, lets not stand here out in the cold. Please, come in." Iroh said with kind smile as he gestured to the open door.

Mika was edgy about these men... There was something hanging thick in the air that made her lungs heavy and her stomach churn in worry. Richi smiled at the old man, and though she felt her own instinct pulling her the other way, she whispered again to Richi, "Tell him we'll stay, and tell him if I had more of a voice then I'd thank him myself, and tell him we can't pay in money but I'll be happy to work."

"Sister says that we'll stay, which is good because I'm REALLY tired... and she also says thank you, and that... wait what was that last part sister?"

"I'll work for you." she spoke in her small whisper of a voice that was hoarse from her earlier calls, and she walked in past Iroh, and though Richi was quick to bound off and look for Zuko, Mika held back and bowed low to Iroh.

"You know what? I bet some tea could help you with that throat. Tell me what kind you'd like, and I'll make some." Mika was nervous as she looked after Richi, Iroh's words falling on deaf ears as she watched him disappear from sight with a pained expression.

"My nephew will take care of him." Iroh said as if reading Mika's mind, when really it was the nervous look on her face that gave her away. "Now how about that tea?"

Mika looked at Iroh, and then on impulse for Richi... But at remembering he was gone, she choked out with one of those painful smiles, "J-Jasmine would be n-nice..."

"Jasmine tea is my favorite!" Iroh said as he walked into a small kitchen-like room, and Mika followed still jittery and paranoid.

"Hi!" Richi said brightly as he appeared in Zuko's doorway.

Zuko ignored him completely, looking at the half-made fan on his table. He'd gotten the idea a short while before... Perhaps if he made good ones, he could sell some sort of artisan craft and make more money for he and his uncle... It wasn't working out too well.

This was the third fan in his attempt, the other two having been reduced to ash in a fit of frustrated rage.

He didn't know what to paint on this particular one, and so it lay white and bare as he regarded it... His patience was thinning as the artist's block kept him from drawing anything at all.

Richi skipped in, right up to the desk to stand on his tip-toes and stare at the plain white fan.

"What do you want?" Zuko finally asked, turning to the child who'd abandon his post beside Zuko and taken to staring interestedly at his broad-swords... Lucky for Zuko, Richi was well trained, and knew to not touch anything.

"So where are you from?" Iroh asked as he poured some tea for Mika, watching her as she held her head low so that her brown hair hid her face.

"Everywhere and Nowhere." Mika whispered back to him as she looked up and reached out with a long arm to take the cup and sip it.

"A refugee, hmm? Well I understand that,, but where are your parents?" Iroh knew that Mika, like Zuko, was sold enough to take care of herself... But Richi?

"Gone."

"Ohh..." Iroh spoke, knowing to press anything as he sipped his own tea. The awkward silence seemed to last a lifetime and a half, but Iroh had the courtesy to break it.

"This is some good tea, hm?" He smiled as he spoke, taking another drink as Mika smiled her own painful smile in return.

"Perfect."

"I doubt its perfect, but it is pretty good... You shouldn't hold her head down like that, a pretty girl like you should hold her head up high for everyone to see." Iroh pressed. Mika laughed, she really did, but it sounded like a dry cough as she looked up at her through long thin bangs. Her plain brown eyes dull as she said, her whisper a bit less hoarse but still scratchy...

"Pretty? No..."

"Pretty is an opinion, Mika... It is Mika right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Mika, as I said, Pretty is an opinion, and I think you're very pretty."

"You're-" She coughed, it was rare for her to talk so much so loudly... To her, in order to gain this whisper, it felt like shouting, which is why she usually let Richi speak for her.

"You're very kind..." She finished finally as she smiled at him before a loud clatter came from upstairs. Iroh, who was pouring more tea, spilled some on the floor as he looked up to see Mika at her feet instantly, eyes wide as she stared upstairs, her heart beating in her ears.

But then she heard Richi laugh, and she sat down again, breathing hard and looking at Iroh. He didn't speak, he just poured more tea for her.

Read and Review! Christmas cookies for you all! (If you think about it, it's kind of comical... Niether has noticed that thier stuff is gone yet!)