Chapter summary: In which Lee's get two offers of belonging and Iroh has hope.

7: Ba Sing Se

It's…enormous. They were still far from land but Lee can see the walls of Ba Sing Se and he could barely believe his eyes. Glowing read in the light of the newly risen sung, walls were so tall it made him feel small even from this distance. Tall, thick, all-encompassing, and fiercely defended, Ba Sing Se was the famous Impenetrable City. This was the place Than and Ying had been seeking; where they wanted to live with their newborn daughter in safety.

Safe. Ba Sing Se was safe. And Lee was almost there. They were all almost there.

But with that safety came a niggling thought that had begun whispering in his mind and dreams. He hoped it was nothing but his anxiety attempting to work him into a state. But hoping and knowing were two different things. The only way to know for sure was to ask.

But how would he know if he asked he would be planting the idea into Than and Ying's minds in the first place? How would he know he wasn't directly responsible for being left to his own devices once they entered the walls?

That was the root of the problem. He didn't want o be alone. He didn't want Than and Ying to leave him. He didn't want them to let him go. He wanted to stay. He wanted to… He wanted a family, their family.

"You know," Lee stiffened when Jet appeared in his peripheral vision, wheat stalk bouncing between his lips with each word he spoke. "Most people panic if they aren't allowed passed the Wall." Jet glanced at Lee and smirked. "Unless there's something I don't know."

Lee grimaced and deliberately kept his gaze on the great Wall, avoiding Jet's face. He should have known the arrogant boy would take offense. He did not know Jet would act on his offense by leaning over and sticking his face directly in Lee's. He gasped and flinched.

"What?" Lee gasped in a choked voice. "Don't you have any concept of personal space?"

"Yeah, I'm aware of it," Jet said, shrugging in a nonchalant manner. "I just choose to ignore it."

Why was Lee not surprised? He sighed and hefted his bag of fox spirit higher up his shoulder, ignoring Zenko's muffled complaint. After two days on the slow moving ferry, Zenko was ready to get out of her confining bag and she was not bothering to hide her growing annoyance. She'd already nipped Lee's fingers five times this morning alone. It was trying Lee's patience. He did not need Jet adding to his mounting frustration.

Huffing, Lee turned on his heel and strode across the deck towards the other side. It was early enough that most of the refugees on board were still asleep below or just making their way outside. Unfortunately, that meant it was easy for Jet to follow him.

Biting back a particularly snarky retort, Lee paused. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, held it, counted to five, and let it out. When he opened his eyes again, he glared at the persistent jerk who had the audacity to grin at him.

"What do you want?" Lee ground out.

"What?" Jet asked. "I can't hang out with a friend?"

"Wha? I hardly know you," Lee squawked.

"Obviously. Who knows anyone after a couple days?" Jet said, His eyes sparkling with amusement.

Lee gave Jet a flat stare and stepped around him, only for Jet to block his path yet again. Fuming, Lee glared at the boy. "What do you want?" he demanded again.

Jet's smirk softened to something darker and perhaps even sadder. "I was wondering if you had any plans for once we got into Ba Sing Se," he said.

Well that was the question of the day, now wasn't it?

"I was afraid of that," Jet murmured under his breath, glancing away. "Look, no pressure or anything, but if you're interested, you can stay with me, Smellerbee, and Longshot. We don't have much money," he admitted with a shrug, crossing his arms, "but we have enough to afford a place to stay. We'll have to get jobs to keep the money coming, obviously, but..." He tilted his head, pursed his lips, and met Lee's bewildered gaze.

Wha… Where did this come from?

"Wh-why are you asking me?" Lee stuttered past his surprise.

"Because I know a fellow outcast when I see one," Jet said seriously, every hint of a smile gone from his face.

Lee flinched, clenching his fist around the strap of his shoulder bag. Zenko made a soft boark and poked her head out of the bag, her furred ears brushing Lee's sleeve.

"I've watched the way you interact with your companions," Jet continued. "They care about you and you care about them." He grimaced. "It may have been ten years, but I remember the feeling of a family. Adopted or not, they matter. I don't want to take you away from them," he said quickly, holding up a hand to forestall the rebuke on the tip of Lee's tongue. "That's not my intent."

"You have an odd way of showing it," Lee said carefully.

Jet sighed and chewed his wheat stalk. "I just want you to know you're not alone," he said. "If you ever want some friends, we're here. We're used to crowds of people. We lost them a while ago and, well," Jet suddenly looked slightly uncomfortable, "we miss it. It's weird only having three of us when we used to have thirty."

"Thirty?" Lee repeated in confusion. "That's…" How to say it? "How did you ever get privacy?"

Jet blinked, then laughed. "You could find it if you really wanted it," he said, waving Lee's question aside. "Besides, we'd all some people we cared about, people we loved to the Fire Nation. They had nowhere else to go, so they came to me and became part of the family."

Lee frowned. "Why you?"

"Why not me?" Jet asked honestly. "I was the oldest one there, I'd lived there for years already, and I had experience fighting and surviving. I could protect them."

And yet they're gone now. Lee didn't say it out loud, but he had the feeling he didn't really have to. Still, if he looked at Jet's stance closely, he could see the sadness radiating off of him. It was subtle, but there if you knew where to look.

In a twisted way, Lee knew that sadness. He just didn't know how to respond to it. He'd lost his family, his friends, his name, everything. It still frightened him, but he didn't know how to be sad for something he couldn't remember. He missed the family he couldn't remember; he was even sad they were gone. But he didn't know what his family was like, what they looked like, how they acted, anything. He couldn't even remember if they loved him.

So while he could sympathize, he couldn't truly understand Jet's pain.

But Jet's offer wasn't the be all, end all of this situation. It wasn't a demand for friendship, it was an offer. Lee was free to say no if he wanted to. The question now was did he want to?

"I'll think about it," he said after a moment.

Jet nodded, accepting that answer. "Keep I touch?" he asked, hope evident in his eyes and tone.

"I'll try," Lee said. That was all he could offer.

"We made it," Ying breathed.

She was still exhausted from both the trip and the birthing, but she refused to enter Ba Sing Se any way but on her own two feet. Than had a supporting around her upper back, helping her stand upright. Hope was cradled in her arms and Lee, stood off to her side, staring shamelessly up at the great Wall.

They'd made it, together. The lady at the immigration desk hadn't been nearly as welcoming as the lady before they boarded the ferry. But now they were here, in the train station, waiting for the train that would take them into Ba Sing Se proper to arrive. It was Ying's dream come true.

They would have to find some place to live and work, but between Than and Lee, she was sure that could be accomplished. Once Hope was old enough, Ying could start looking for work as well. Between the three of them, Ying knew they would be fine. If there continued to be three of them.

She glanced at Lee, studying the boy's face. Lee's pale gold eyes darted here and there, taking in the stonework and people at the train station in wary curiosity. She wanted very much for him to stay. She'd only known him for a week and yet Lee had wormed his way into her heart as quickly and efficiently as little Hope had. And Ying knew Lee had no idea. It broke her heart.

That scar… Whatever had happened to Lee to force him to lose his memory, she knew in her heart it wasn't pleasant. Lee was a good person who wore his heart on his sleeve for all to see and, for better or worse, to judge. Lee looked at everything with wonder, curiosity, and more than a little fear.

Ying hadn't missed the way Lee was turning to her more and more when he faced something he didn't know how to deal with. Without either of them realizing it, Ying had become Lee's surrogate mother and she couldn't find a reason to hate that. Lee may not be her son by blood, but he was a part of their little family of four, whether he was ready to admit it or not. She only hoped Lee could see that.

She leaned over and nudged the boy with her shoulder, smiling when he jumped and stared at her, blushing shyly.

"Lee," she said, "I know I said this earlier, but you're welcome to stay with us. I understand if you want to use this opportunity to find out who you are, but I'd love it if you stayed." She reached out and slipped her hand into Lee's, smiling as the boy's blush deepened. "We would be honored to help you."

"We would," Than said with a smile. "Another pair of hands is always a good thing."

Ying clicked her tongue and elbowed her husband playfully. "Ignore him," she said, giving her husband a lovingly tolerant look. "You're good company, Lee," she said. "If you decide to leave, know that you're always welcome under our roof."

Pale gold eyes that should have filled Ying with terror were wide shock and hope. Ah, so she'd been right. Lee must have thought they wanted him to leave now that they had reached Ba Sing Se.

"Of course," she added, "my husband was right about one thing."

"Just one?" Than said, his lower lip sticking out in an melodramatic sulk. She swatted his small topknot with a teasing grin earning her the warm laughter she adored.

"Many thing," she corrected, rolling her eyes. "But in this case," she turned back to Lee, "if you stay, you can work with my husband and I. We work with pottery. If you're interested, we can teach you as well."

"It's a lot of work but it's rewarding," Than added, winking. "Besides, if you work with pottery, you can get dirty and no one thinks less of you." Ying rolled her eyes and Than snorted. "It's true."

Ying chuckled. Than was right. For a full grown man, Than was would always be such a boy.

"If…"

Ying whipped her gaze to Lee, trying hard to keep the hope from growing in her chest. If Lee said no, she would be devastated. She would understand, everyone had to go their own way eventually. But she would still be devastated.

"If I stay," Lee said slowly, "it wouldn't be a problem?"

Oh Lee. "Not at all," Ying said with a gentle smile. "And even if it were, I doubt it would be anywhere near the kind of trouble this one," she nodded to her husband, "could get into. Than can't go anywhere without tripping over trouble."

"Well," Than said, scratching his head with a sheepish smile, "at least one of those incidents resulted in you."

"I never said I regretted any of it," Ying said, grinning. "I'm proud of and it's one of the many reasons why I love you. Trouble and all."

"Then," Lee spoke again, "if you don't mind," his gaze flickered up at them before dropping to his feet, "I'd like to stay."

Her heart soared and Ying couldn't stop the smile from blossoming on her face. "Then welcome to the family, Lee," she said, squeezing the boy's hand.

Lee's eyes met hers and a tiny, genuine smile tugged his lips up.

"Do you like working with your hands?" Than asked, glancing back at the train track when the sound of stone moving against stone grew louder.

"I…don't know," Lee admitted, ducking his head.

"I think you will," Than said. "It's relaxing and it can help when you just want to break something sometimes. Word of advice, save some of your mistake pieces for when you need to throw something and get a satisfying crash." He laughed.

"You throw things?" Lee said, eyeing Than warily.

"Only when I'm alone after a long day dealing with rude customers," he admitted. "But I much prefer throwing kites. I could teach you how to build a kite too. My father loved kites," he said, stepping up to the track as the train pulled up and stopped. "I may have taken after my mother and preferred pottery, but I still make kites when I can. It's my way or remembering my father."

"Is he gone?" Lee asked, stepping into the nearest car with Than and Ying when the train doors opened.

"He died a few years ago," Than said.

"Oh." Lee dropped his gaze. "I'm sorry."

Than put his hand on the boy's shoulder and squeezed. "Don't worry about it," he said. "It was a long time ago. How 'bout this. I'll teach you how to build a kite and we'll go fly it on one of the hills in Ba Sing Se. What do you think?"

"Ooh, I might join you," Ying said. "I love your kites."

"We'll make a picnic of it," Than said, smiling proudly.

Ying watched as Lee's smile broadened and his shoulders drooped, the tension leaking out of them. The boy even began to sit straighter the more Than regaled him with stories and ideas. This wasn't exactly what she expected when she and Than started this journey, but she couldn't imagine a more perfect result. She loved her little family so much.

A bell from somewhere nearby rang once as Iroh rushed towards the train as fast as his feet could carry him. But he was out of shape and his ferry had landed late. He'd hoped to catch this train before it left, otherwise he would have to wait for the next one. While he didn't mind waiting, he didn't want to.

Zuko knew they were going to Ba Sing Se. If something happened to his beloved nephew, Iroh would never forgive himself. He could only hope that some of his contacts in the White Lotus could help him locate his nephew. With any luck, Zuko on his way to or, better yet, already in Ba Sing Se. Iroh could hope.

The bell rang again, twice this time and Iroh picked up his pace, on hand clutching his bag to his chest and the other holding his new straw hat. He stumbled when three young rascals bolted past him, easily out-pacing him.

"Sorry!" the shortest member of the group shouted back, his short blonde hair blowing in his face.

The leader of the group said nothing but tossed a reckless wave over his shoulder. He hopped onto the train car, turned around and yanked his two companions in just as the doors slid closed. The brunette's proud grin around the wheat stalk in his mouth brought a wry smile to Iroh's own mouth.

Oh well. There was always the next…train…

Zuko.

Zuko was on the train.

Iroh watched in despair as the train pull away from the station too fast for him to react, taking his heart with him. It had only been a glimpse, but the old general would recognize his nephew's distinctive scar anywhere. Zuko was in here. Zuko was in Ba Sing Se.

And Zuko had been smiling.

It both broke Iroh's heart and filled him with joy to see that smile, however briefly. He had begun to fear he would never see that smile again; that the boy who once smiled like that had died when the Fire Lord planted his burning fist in his face. Or perhaps earlier, when Lady Ursa vanished.

But that smile… It gave Iroh hope. He knew now that the Zuko he adored was still in there somewhere.

Ba Sing Se was an enormous city. It wouldn't be easy for Iroh and the White Lotus to find Zuko, but they would try. It would take time, but eventually they would succeed. Patience was a virtue not lightly dismissed after all.

Speaking of patience, Iroh took a seat on one of the stone benches to wait for the next train.

"Tea!" someone hollered in a bored tone. "Fresh brewed tea!"

Ah, tea. A perfect companion for patience.

"Excuse me," Iroh said, waving the salesman pushing a car of tea towards him. "You wouldn't happen to have a nice cup of ginseng tea, would you?"

"That'd be two copper," the salesman said, instead of answering politely.

The poor man must be having a long day, Iroh though. "Of course," he said, digging out two copper coins from his meager purse and handing them to the salesman.

The man swiped them without really looking, poured some tea into a cup, and handed it to Iroh. Then he left without word, pushing his cart before him and hollering the same sales pitch in the same bored tone.

Iroh furrowed his brow at the coolness of the cup bur paid it no mind and took a sip, only to promptly spit it back out. "Cold tea?" he cried, distraught. "Such a travesty."

With a quick glance around the station, he breathed on the liquid, smiling when the warmth seeped through the cup into his fingers. Another sip, and he sighed in bliss. Tea and patience. He was in Ba Sing Se. Zuko was in Ba Sing Se. They would find each other again. This was the Impenetrable City, the symbol of hope.

Iroh had hope.