A Day Out

Asami

The morning was evil, yet that was the only time the rookies could get at the gym. After several times of the fire ferrets moaning about this Chokin eventually just asked why they didn't just use Air Temple Island for training.

Which is why Asami and Chokin were now sitting around 'overseeing' their training while playing a game of Pai-Sho. A game she was currently winning, while the benders practiced in the courtyard.

"Come on, that's not fair" exclaimed Chokin as she took several of his pieces.

"You need think these moves through" she said smiling.

"No you don't" said Bolin, as he threw several discs at Korra, "Pai-Sho is a game about fast paced quick action, and speed. I should know I learned from Shady Shim"

Asami frowned "no it isn't I was taught by my Dad and he said it was a game about careful well-timed strategy"

"You're both wrong, I invented the game as a way for the White Lotus to communicate" said Chokin "it was never meant to be anything more than that"

"Wait you created Pai-Sho" she said, surprised. Chokin nodded, "and I'm beating you at it?"

"You don't have to rub it in" he moaned, but just then a spray of water sent their game flying, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

"Sorry" said Korra, waving her hands in apology "I was aiming for Bolin"

She sighed, sometimes Korra needed to think before doing this stuff "This is literally the third time, and each time I was about to beat him. You two don't have a deal going on do you?" she asked, Chokin's eyes looked darted around, as if looking for an escape.

"Korra, would you mind explaining what you have done to my courtyard" came Tenzin's voice as he gazed upon the destroyed courtyard. Destroyed from the bending practice.

"You know I think today would be a great day to spend in the city" said Chokin quickly.

"I agree" she replied as she darted after him.

"Us too" said Korra attempting to run but Tenzin grabbed her by the ponytail.

"Oh no you don't, if you're going to practice pro-bending in my courtyard we're going to have to establish some rules while my house is still in one piece" he yelled "And I expect you two here as well" pointing to Mako and Bolin, both of whom were trying to sneak out.

Out by the dock Chokin and Asami had made it out of Tenzin's clutches of anger.

"Did we miss anyone" said Chokin, as they got onto Asami's private speedboat.

"Err, Korra, Bolin and Mako" she listed off.

"Great, so nobody important" he said jokingly.

"So, wait are we actually going, or is this some kind of joke?" she confirmed.

"I don't know, but what is there to do but get our Pai-Sho game destroyed, we'll just leave a note" he suggested, getting a pen and paper. He wrote a note and stuck it to a post, so they sailed to the mainland.

"any ideas on what to do?" asked Chokin.

"Hmmm, we'll find something to do" she said as they pulled up to the dock and got into her car "What is it you do for fun?"

"I infiltrate extremist groups to laugh at them, or make new political scriptures on stuff, you?" he said cheerfully.

"Hmmm, I like pro-bending, race car driving and stuff like that" she answered.

"Sounds good" he replied, an awkward beat passed. Then a thought occurred to her.

"Hey you said you knew about the ancient Avatars didn't you?" she asked

"Correction I knew them personally, why do you ask?" Chokin asked.

"My personal tutor has always tried to find out about them, he's devoted his entire life to it but never found anything" she explained, it was true. Her Father never let her go to school since her Mother died so they'd hired a private tutor. His name was Professor Jiaoshou, and taught her 90% everything she knew apart from self-defence classes.

"And you want me to write a history book? I suppose I don't have anything better to do, sure I'll contribute to your history books. Not to brag but I play a big part" he said, with pride, but then a hint of sadness, "wow, a really big part"

Asami pulled up to her house and the two of them entered the building, her Butler, Guan, bowed them in "Ms Sato, you are back early. May I inquire about the occasion and may I have the name of this mascot"

Mascot? What Mascot she turned and saw that Chokin had his head in his palm.

She sighed, wordlessly Chokin and Asami agreed not to mention it.

"I'm Chokin, nice to meet you" he said shaking the butler's hand.

"A Pleasure sir, my name is Guan" he said formally, "Ms Sato may I get you anything"

"Could you ask Professor Jiaoshou if he's available I want to introduce him to someone" she asked.

"Of course, Ms Sato" he said as he went to the phone. Looking over her shoulder she saw Chokin entering a room that she really didn't want him to go into.

"No don't go in there" she shouted but too late he'd already seen everything.

Inside was nothing incriminating or really bad, but it was incredibly embarrassing.

"Why not?" he asked looking into the room. It was stuffed with inventions, blueprints and failed ideas.

"What's all this?" he smirked, looking at the blueprints.

"Please don't say anything, I was really young when I made them" she said.

"Why not? These sound great. An electric glove, a mechanized tank and what is that?" he asked looking towards her old fridge design.

"Please stop, you don't have to pretend these are any good" she said. She'd always had people pretend they were, but nothing ever worked, they were never perfect.

"But they are, imagine how that robot thingy will help in construction. And I could imagine the electric glove will be a great non-lethal take down" he lied continuously. Couldn't someone just tell her the truth?

"Could you please just pretend this never happened. And not tell anyone, please" she begged.

Something in her desperation seemed to get through to him as he nodded and the two walked out. He continued to look concerned.

"Ms Sato, the Professor is busy right now but he'll be ready in forty minutes" said Guan.

"Thanks Guan, we'll just stay here until then" she said as she plopped herself on the sofa, "any ideas on how to pass the time?"

Chokin was considering something, clearly lost in thought then he said, "What sort of thing am I meant to tell the professor anyway?"

"Just answer his questions and it'll be fine" she answered, but she sensed there was more to it "Chokin something's wrong, tell me about it"

Chokin stayed silent for a passing, "In the past I had advantages, advantages that are best left in the shadows until our enemy come into their field of view"

The twinkles, the spark, the warmth in his eyes vanished replaced with the deepest scars that dug infinitely deep. "What enemy? What are you talking about?"

But Chokin appeared deaf to her "They always come, like clockwork, unending. Mercy doesn't stop them, killing doesn't stop them. It's getting better but it's not ending, the idiots who think they can make the world better through violence, and the idiots who use violence to stop the first idiots"

Chokin's anger was now shifting into his skin, tentacles of purple started working their way down his palms. "Chokin?"

"I need… hate to keep the cards hidden, I can't reveal the secrets, the truth. Not my strengths, not my weaknesses and never about that" he continued.

"Chokin, you don't have to tell him anything you don't want to, he'll understand" she said, Chokin blinked, and shadowed his face. The tentacles were disappearing, and his eyes regained their warmth.

"I went dark again didn't I?" he said as if apologising.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Sometimes when us freaks, get angry stuff happens to us. Just it's my demon to deal with, perhaps it would help if I could get my head straight on what I'm going to say" he suggested.

"So, what I ask you questions and you think on whether you actually want to answer?" she asked, Chokin smirked, a twinkle of playfulness remerged themselves in his eyes.

She shrugged it'll help past the time "Okay so what were the other Avatars like?"

"They were pretty different, but for some reason they each had two things that always had in common. All the time, in every life and I don't know why? Possibly a side effect" he answered.

Asami was admittedly curious "what were these things?"

"First was that they'd always seem to be bisexual. I have no idea why" he said.

"Wow", did that mean Korra? She coughed "wow"

Chokin eyed her suspiciously "okay, and the other is their complete lack of respect for other secrets"

"What?"

"It's only natural I suppose, considering that a lot of these people end up being terrorists or something" he answered.

"Does that include Korra?" she asked, Chokin seemed nostalgic as he nodded.

Korra

"Out fishing, with Asami. Will return once Tenzin has calmed down. Chokin" she read of a note she'd found at the docks. Mako had gone home early but Bolin wanted to have a sleepover, and had tactfully asked Pema rather than Tenzin.

"He went fishing, ohhh Tenzin isn't going to be happy" said Bolin.

"When he says he's going fishing he means he's going on some kind of mission" she sighed. That was annoying, she would have liked to help.

"Really, what kind of mission?" asked Bolin, interested "Do you think I can go on the next one?"

"I don't know, I swear he's just making this stuff up as he goes along" she said then something occurred to her.

"Though if he's not here, maybe we can do some investigating into Chokin?" she suggested.

"What why?" asked Bolin "I mean he's our friend, isn't he?"

"He's hiding something, why else would he leave?" demanded Korra.

"Leave?"

"He claims he knew the past Avatars, or at least the really ancient avatars. But not Aang, not Roku and not any Avatar for the last 4000 years" she explained.

"Really? Then why come back now" he asked curiously.

"Good question" she said, walking to Chokin's room.

"Is there anything actually in there?" asked Bolin, as they entered it.

Inside it was relatively untouched only one thing looked out of place, the single hemp bag.

"Ooh I've always wanted a bag like this?" enthused Bolin looking at it "What's it in it?"

As they opened the bag she remembered getting a messenger hawk from Katara, when asking if she knew anything about this spirit, she had mentioned that Chokin had returned an old memento to her before she told him what ship she'd be on.

"Let's take a look" she said opening the bag. Inside there was nothing but papers and a cylinder.

She looked into the cylinder inside was nothing but ash, "Wait is that someone's remains" asked Bolin.

"No there's not enough, plus there appears to be the slightest scrap of paper in it. I think it's just a burnt painting or letter" she explained, Bolin let out a sigh of relief.

"Good cause Mako once told me a ghost story of someone who held the ashes of his victims remains and I couldn't sleep for a week" said Bolin.

"When was this?" she asked curiously.

"A week ago," answered Bolin. Right.

She pulled out one of the papers it appeared to be a letter

Chokin

Another Yapos village has been attacked by the Baojun soldiers in the Eastern province. It appears that the general is angry, what should I do?

These people appear so cruel, it's so confusing and you're all the way in the palace. Being the Avatar is so hard, and no one seems to think I'm doing enough.

Tai Yuan

"So, it's true. Chokin really did know me in at least one past life" she said, glad to have confirmation.

"Curious question, whose Tai Yuan?" asked Bolin.

"Don't know, she's not in the history books. And there's no mention of the Yapos or Baojun either. Still it's something" she said.

"Why don't you ask your past lives?" asked Bolin, curiously.

"I've been awful with connecting with them. I just don't know where to start" she sighed "I'll ask Tenzin"

A/N: First hints of a past in the Avatar world that hasn't been seen before in this chapter, something I'll definitely expand upon in Book 2.

After both Korra and Kyoshi were eventually revealed to be bisexual I thought it'd be interesting if that was always the case.

Finally does anyone think I'm going a bit overboard with the whole Chokin mystery thing? Leave a review if that's the case or you think it's fine, feedback is always appreciated.