003 Peppermint Tea

"You don't look so good Kazumi." Stupid monkey leader remarks during the morning warm-ups, gray, protuberant orbs eyeing her up and down. Kazumi does not appreciate the inquisitive gaze, the sidelong, maybe-appreciative looks that her supposed commander is constantly giving her.

It makes the rather attractive woman—with her pretty face and lean, muscled body- harder to ignore.

Her disinterest in men baffles her. And it scared her when she had found herself thinking of mischievous Riko more and more than is appropriate for a good friend. She does not remember being like this. But it feels so right, oh so right. Even when Riko was clearly more enamored of Sakura, she did not stop. Even when Ty Lee is clearly sending her signs, she does not stop.

"Commander has a huge crush on you." Riko herself had noticed because contrary to what she let people think, she is the shrewdest one of them all. She swung her legs on the bed Sakura and she shared, the playful, teasing glint in her eyes clear in the candlelight. "I mean, she's always looking at you weird as though she just wants to ravish you right there."

"Hm."

"Why don't you give it a try? Could be fun."

"She might be planning something."

Riko had snorted. "Right. To seduce you. I know how lesbians look at a girl, Kazumi. I have been one for the longest time." Grin. "You are one too, aren't you?"

Of course, Riko had never noticed.

"She probably ate a bad sweet sugar cake last night." Riko tells Ty Lee, feigning enough worry in her voice. Kazumi lets her. Because that is the plan. Don't forget about the plan. "She's been complaining about stomach pains since last night. She probably would not be able to participate much in training."

"Is that true, Kazumi?" Ty Lee's worried tone is surely fake, contrived. Right? Right? She is a stranger. Right? Right? "I can have the servants prepare tea for you for breakfast."

"I'm okay." Weak tone. Slight wheezing. She contorts her face for good measure. She does not remember ever being sick. But she remembers being a decent enough actress.

"You know what, I'll let you skip the drill. Get a rest. I'll send tea for lunch." Ty Lee puts her hand on her shoulder and Kazumi tries hard, so hard not to flinch away. Ty Lee smiles. "You have been working so hard, Kazumi. You deserve a break."

Thankfully, Ty Lee breaks away and goes to check on the other trainees. From the corner of her eye, Riko winks. Kazumi sighs in relief.

She is not sure why.

…

.

"I heard you and Riko talking earlier."

"Hm?"

"Don't."

"What are you talking about?"

"The plan, Kazumi. Remember the plan." Sakura looks hard on her. "Remember that we are not captured here by accident."

The plan. Remember the plan.

Try to fight back while they are capturing you.

"I know. I haven't forgotten."

…

.

"The downpayment is…" The man had paused, ever the businessman. They never saw him around before. But he was trouble, they could tell. The type that they should not mess around with. "… I'm taking the old lady to the best hospital in Kasai."

"That is called hostage taking here in my town." Kazumi retorted. "Try again."

…

.

The Fire Lord's office does not contain the prize.

She expected it. Of course, it would not be. Such important thing would be safely stuck in someone's person, a waistband or a secret dress pocket. So that only left them with Plan B, to get it from the Fire Lord himself.

It would make the other mission easier that way in any case.

She takes one last look on the desk, the exquisite secretaire painstakingly carved into patterns that symbolized Fire Nation. Riko kept telling stories about a war she has no memories of. How it spanned a century. How their nation almost won. Riko's mother died in a factory accident. Their loss, Fire Lord Zuko's surrender to the Avatar… Kazumi thought that even though Riko did not really voice her feelings about it, this subordination, the show of weakness made her mother's death senseless.

Sakura… Her father left them even before she was born. The bastard of a nobleman. It is clear at first glance. The greed of such men who could not keep their hands to themselves and yet did not even have the guts to support the seed they planted.

Kazumi wonders if the parents she does not remember died in war too.

The Fire Lord's family is a beautiful one. A father with his hand on his son's shoulder. A mother sitting with a daughter who smiled, unknowing of the rigors outside their happy royal bubble. It made her freeze with an irrational anger, grit her teeth as she held the framed portrait. Here is the royal family, posing for paintings while the rest of the land they ruled bred orphans and broken families. Here is the royal family looking so darn perfect, while Riko ate scraps, Sakura was almost prostituted and Kazumi just woke one day having no idea who she was.

Here is the royal family with the whole library of family of history at their disposal while Kazumi was left with nothing.

Here is the royal family…

… lucky to be born.

… born lucky.

I love you.

I always have.

Footsteps coming. Echoes in the hallway. Kazumi straightens, makes sure she leaves no trace of her presence.

She puts the portrait down.

She is not sure why she wants to burn it so badly.

…

.

She reaches the palace gardens on the way back to the barracks.

She passes by who she immediately recognizes the woman in the painting, slightly older but looking as beautiful as she did on the old image. She looks up from the quacking turtleducks. Kazumi catches her eye for a brief second. Slumped shoulders. A sad image. She wonders why. Doesn't she have a perfect, little family? Queen of the nation. Mother of the all powerful Fire Lord.

She feels golden eyes train and fix on her as she walks away. She hears a wistfully distant voice of an apology, of an unacknowledged regret.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry I didn't love you enough.

There was a little girl in the portrait too, prim and proper, like she had no chance to be.

But Kazumi had heard nothing about a princess.

…

"Peppermint tea?" She stares aghast at the tea leaves, the note stuck under the cup. Messy scrawl of symbols. Ty Lee's signature does not look like the stamp of the Fire Lord's chief of staff. The throne is led by an idiot. The army is headed by a child. No wonder, Fire Nation is at odds with its citizens, governed as it is by headless stinkworms.

"Good for the stomachaches." Riko confirms, chuckling merrily. She slaps her shoulder, pushes. Kazumi winces and rolls her eyes. "She got it bad, Kazumi. Maybe you should give her a chance."

Sakura is eyeing both of them, carefully critical of whatever she will say next.

Kazumi sighs. "Remember the plan, Riko." She admonishes. "We are not here for romance."

"Too bad." Riko shrugs, mocking and sarcastic. Riko does not like Ty Lee, she could tell. The animosity is there. "I think she would have been a good match for you."

Kazumi thinks so too, despite her friend's jesting, ironic approach at it. Ty Lee is not bad. Not bad at all.

But some things are just not meant to be.

(TBC)