It was the pain that woke him.

He felt as though a miniature octosquid had got loose in his head and was beating his brain with eight hammers. Everything was dark, but then again, that made sense, because his eyes were shut. Carefully, he opened one, then shut it with a groan. The light had made the pain in his head a million times worse.

A soft voice crooned next to him and a rough tongue licked his cheek.

What…? Rather than open his eyes, he tried moving his hand up to see what had just licked him.

It was some kind of winged lizard — a dragon? But dragons were extinct! He'd learned that in school—

School? He'd gone to it. He knew about schools. But he couldn't remember anything about—

Oh, spirits.

"You're awake. Good," a male voice said from the doorway.

Startled, he opened his eyes again, and yelped this time as he squeezed them shut. Nope, still a bad idea.

"You'll need to stay down for a while. Then perhaps you can help us care for the babies; that one seems to like you."

"Where… where am I?" he asked.

"You're in the Sun Warrior city," the male voice replied.

The Sun Warriors? But they were gone too, right?

Apparently not. He moaned. "I can't remember—" Anything. There was nothing there. Parents, siblings, friends, enemies, nothing. Not even a name.

"That happens sometimes, when you hit your head," the other replied. "You're wearing Fire Nation palace colours. We've sent a message to them, someone should come and claim you soon. In the meantime, we'll look after you."

Palace? That was wrong, wasn't it? He wasn't from the Fire Nation, he was from the Earth Kingdom. But he wasn't Earth Kingdom — colony. He was a colonist. Why was he in the colours of the palace? Distressed and hurting, the boy whimpered.

"Just lie there. Our doctor says you'll maybe be able to get up again in a few days. For now, stay where you are. The black dragonet will look after you." Receding footsteps meant the owner of the male voice was leaving.

"What happened to me?" the boy asked in a whisper, not expecting an answer.


It was nearly a day before Kouji could open his eyes without the light hurting him, and two more before the ache in his skull subsided. By that point, at least, he had managed to remember his name — and was going utterly berserk with the enforced idleness. When the man who had first spoken to him on his initial awakening again brought up the possibility of looking after the baby dragons, Kouji leapt at the chance to be useful.

Amused by the boy's enthusiasm, the man — Ham Ghao was his name — showed him how to handle the reptiles. Through the entire demonstration and explanation, the black dragonet padded after Kouji like a second shadow, which he found amusing. After all, he was usually the one doing the following.

Kouji grasped for that small fragment of memory, hoping there would be more attached to it, but it hung alone, suspended in nothing. Sighing, he returned his attention to Ham Ghao.

For six days, Kouji lived with the Sun Warriors, caring for the baby dragons — referred to alternately as dragonlings or dragonets — and trying to recall his past. He had more success with the former than with the latter, which the Sun Warriors didn't mind at all. However, no less than four of the girl-children Kouji's age seemed to find the amnesiac stranger a mysterious and romantic figure. Soon, the boldest of them began to seek him out.

As it turned out, a concussion and memory loss was not enough to cure Kouji of his fear of girls.

To escape her attentions, the boy wound up fleeing inside a cave. Hearing a noise, he turned around, thinking it was the object of his search. Instead, there was a tall man in green clothes with a circle on the chest. "Who are you?" Kouji asked, taking a wary step back. He wasn't fast enough — the man stepped forward and pressed a damp cloth over the boy's nose and mouth. Kouji tried to back-pedal, but then he tripped and everything went black dragon.

The boy cried out and fell to his knees, trembling, his grey eyes wide. The black dragon, who had indeed been the cause of the noise behind him, crooned softly as she climbed into his lap and then partly up his chest, hooking her claws in his shirt to rub the underside of his chin with the top of her head in an attempt to comfort him. Kouji automatically wrapped his arms around her, trying to calm down.

The dragonet mewled, and he looked down at her in surprise. "I… I don't know," he whispered. "I just... remembered something scary. I guess being in here brought it back — the scary thing happened in a cave."

She made an odd chattering noise, and the boy frowned. "I… think I was looking for something — no," he corrected himself, more certain now, "someone." Biting his lip, he tried to remember who he had been looking for, and ever so slowly, details began to fill in.

Annoyance — somebody, his brother, had promised they would practise bending together, and she'd run away again, so he had to go find her because he always could.

A face — like his, but rounder, softer, eyes amber instead of grey, mischief everywhere he looked — it belonged to her, to his twin sister.

"Yui," his mouth said.

It was as though speaking her name loosed a flood. Memories washed over him in a flash, one after another, every memory dragging three more with it. In a space of seconds, most of the major events, and no few of the minor ones, of Kouji's childhood flooded his mind: the day he'd realised he liked the Earth Kingdom more than his mother country, his terror on realising he was an earthbender, the time Ichiro had caught him bending and revealed that he was a firebender and had kept that secret so he wouldn't be sent back to the Fire Nation, the vow that he, Ichiro, and Yui had made to keep their love for the Earth Kingdom a secret from their xenophobic, jingoist parents…

There were still holes, of course, and everything stopped where the man in green had knocked Kouji unconscious, but at least half of his childhood was no longer empty. Shaken, the boy put the dragonet down and emerged from the cave to tell the Sun Warriors what he remembered —

And saw Ichiro.


After a week of travel, two letters, carried by hawks of a breed neither Haru nor Ichiro had ever seen before, were dropped on Zuko's head within hours of one another. After reading the first, the young Firelord said he knew where Kouji was. The second told them that the boy had hit his head and lost his memories.

"That… is either a good or a bad thing," said Ichiro, after a moment's deliberation. He sounded strangely calm, given that he was matching Zuko step-for-step in mad intensity to get to the twelve-year-old.

Zuko shrugged. "Either way, we know where to find him now. We'll deal with what we find when we get there."

They arrived in a ruined city a little over a week later. Haru let out a whistle as he felt the stones. "Wow… this place is ancient."

"Yes," Zuko replied, shortly, and went in search of its residents.

Oddly enough, the first person he saw was Kouji — clothed in the garb of a Sun Warrior, with a bandage around his head, emerging from a cave with a stunned, haunted look on his face.

"Kouji?" he asked, not quite daring to hope he was recognized.

The boy turned to stare at him. "Do I… know you?"

"Only if you want to," the young monarch said, after a brief pause. "I mean, yes, you do, but you don't have to. I just... I needed to make sure you were all right." He was slurring slightly, fatigue and pain finally catching up with him now that he'd reached his goal and his single-minded adrenaline rush was fading.

"Don't mind him," said Haru cheerfully, coming up behind the Firelord. "He was really worried about you, Kouji."

The boy took a step back, confused. "I… I don't… I—"

"Kouji?" It was Ichiro.

Kouji froze, then flung himself at his older brother, crying incoherently.

Zuko said nothing, just watched the two of them, wobbling a little.

"Sit," ordered Haru as the preteen started babbling at Ichiro, saying how he could only remember bits and pieces, he didn't know how he'd gotten here, the last thing he remembered was a cave and a man…

Zuko shook his head — and then fell over completely.

Haru caught him. "Now what?" he asked. Zuko didn't answer, just started to pull away from Haru to push himself upright again, with very little success.

And then Kouji said in a tiny little voice, "Zuko…?"

"Yeah?" he mumbled.

There was a sudden small explosion at his waist — Kouji had released his brother to cling to Zuko. "I'm sorry I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry—"

"S'ok, don' worry 'bout it," Zuko assured him, definitely slurring now. "You got between them'n me, s'all that matters."

"Okay, Zu, bed rest. Now," Haru said, detaching Kouji and scooping the Firelord up in his arms.

"Pumme down, 'm fine," he mumbled.

"Lies."

"Not lying."

Haru ignored him, carrying Zuko away to find the nearest Sun Warrior and politely ask for a bed.

.

Meanwhile, Kouji went back to the chores he'd been given while the Sun Warriors looked after him — namely, feeding the baby dragons. More of his memories had returned — specifically, his memories of that hellish night when he had been triggered and made to lead the Firelord into a trap.

The black dragon looked up at him and crooned.

"They'll kill me if I go back," he whispered to her. "What I did was treason…"

She snorted.

"Well, no, he wouldn't…"

She tilted her head, giving him a knowingly exasperated look.

"So instead they lock me in prison like… like…" Kouji groped for what he'd been trying to think of, but the memory eluded him.

She considered this for a moment, then crooned again.

"I betrayed him. There's no getting around that."

She nuzzled him.

"But I still…"

She nudged him again.

Kouji was silent for a long moment.

She waited.

"He… I haven't seen him since he collapsed…"

She rolled her eyes.

Kouji sighed. "I guess I kinda have to, don't I."

She nodded.

Wincing, the boy slid down the wall of the nestling cave and scratched her behind the ears. She crooned and nuzzled up against him, and Kouji smiled sadly, turning all his attention to her. He was spared having to search for Zuko when, several hours later, the monarch found him. "Kouji?"

The twelve-year-old had been dozing with the black dragonet in his lap; hearing Zuko, he jerked awake. "Y-yeah?"

"I'm sorry about earlier," Zuko started, then paused.

"You were exhausted," Kouji said softly.

"...Not so bad as all that. Really." He was lying through his teeth and they both knew it.

The boy sighed and gently stroked the dragonet's head. Zuko watched the pair of them, unsure what to say next. Finally, Kouji blurted, "What's gonna happen to me?"

"...If you come back with me, you'll be watched, to make sure you're not triggered again, and to make sure no one can get to you any other way, either."

Kouji blinked. "Th-that's it?"

Zuko nodded. "What happened wasn't your fault."

"But I led you into a trap!" the boy wailed.

"Not by choice," Zuko reminded him. "Look, forget that. There's only one thing I need to know. Would you ever intentionally do anything to harm me, my uncle, Song...I'm sure you can come up with a good list of the people I mean?"

Kouji shook his head vigorously, looking horrified at the very thought.

"See?"

"But what if they get to me again?" Kouji demanded. "I don't even know how they got me the first time!"

Zuko was silent for a long moment. "A few months before you came to the palace, the Dai Li managed to seize me off of the grounds. I still don't know how much of their conditioning stuck. So, yeah, you could be triggered again. But maybe I can be triggered, too." He shrugged, concealed a wince when his shoulder protested, and continued. "You're worth the risk, little brother."

Kouji froze and stared up at the Firelord. Little brother? Did he just…? Does he really mean…?

Zuko was watching him, waiting for his response. When it didn't come, he started talking again, as if aware that he was probably just digging himself a deeper hole, the way he always did. "You don't have to come back if you don't want to. But I'd like it if you did."

Gently, Kouji moved aside the dragon in his lap. Once he was clear, he launched himself at Zuko, holding the Firelord tightly around the waist and burying his face in the teen's shirt. Zuko, after a brief initial moment of startlement, hesitantly and painfully hugged back.

"I'll go back," whispered Kouji. "I can't leave you again… niisan." (1)

"Okay," Zuko said, relieved. "We'll get going as soon as you're ready." And he knew damn well Haru and Ichiro would argue, but if they tried, he would tell them exactly where they could shove their objections. He was fine, dammit.

...At least until he got home and his mother and fiancée started yelling.

Kouji let go reluctantly. "Okay."

"So, just let me know."

Before Kouji could respond, the black dragonling woke up, and curled herself around the boy's shoulders in a remarkably possessive manner.

"I think she wants to come with you," Zuko said.

"Wh-wh-what?" stammered the boy.

The dragonling crooned in agreement, licking Kouji's ear.

"I-I-I can't take her with me— the Sun Warriors are try-trying to repopulate the dragons, it wouldn't be right—"

"You two bonded. She won't breed now, anyways," a Sun Warrior said, coming up unexpectedly behind them.

Zuko jumped, on instinct reached for a pair of swords he no longer carried, cringed a little, remembering the last time he'd used them, and, very quietly, said, "Please don't jump out at me from nowhere, sir."

The Sun Warrior bowed to the Firelord. "I apologize, Lord Zuko." He then turned to Kouji. "You and this lovely lady bonded, and we can't change that. You're stuck with her forever. If you leave, she will follow."

Kouji's grey eyes were wide. "We bonded? How? When?"

"We don't really know how it happens," the Sun Warrior admitted, "but some dragons bond other dragons, some bond humans, some don't bond at all." He shrugged. "As for when...well, we don't really know that, either."

"Oh." Kouji glanced up at the dragon around his shoulders. "Guess I should name you then, huh, girl?"

She nuzzled him.

"How about… Qiang?"

She crooned a little and licked his ear.

Kouji couldn't help but laugh. Suddenly, things were looking up.

Even Zuko almost smiled.


The journey home was unremarkable. Zuko was still insistent on setting a faster pace than he could really handle — now that Kouji was safely recovered, he seemed to remember all of the many pressing responsibilities he'd left behind, and seemed determined to get back and fulfill them as soon as possible. However, Kouji seemed to need to travel at a slower pace than what Zuko wanted — or at least that's what Haru said, and the younger boy was backing him up. And so Zuko impatiently stuck to the pace they set.

The same thing would happen at night — Zuko would want to keep going until Kouji confessed to being tired, and then the Firelord would gracelessly cave in,

Almost every night, Zuko jerked awake after a while, coming out of his habitual nightmares. One of those nights, Kouji was trembling against Qiang, utterly silent. Zuko, frowning, dragged himself over to the younger boy and rested his hand on his shoulder. Kouji made a mewling whimper, but then quieted, his troubled face smoothing out into calmness. The Firelord breathed a sigh of relief, then sagged against a nearby tree to keep watch and make sure Kouji didn't have another nightmare.

"They had him picked out from the start, you know." It was Haru.

"Didn't know that," he said, wearily. "Thanks for telling."

"The General has the paperwork involved." Haru paused.

"Mmhmm. Good."

"Good and bad. The good is that it completely absolves the poor kid."

"Yep."

"The bad is that it implicates his parents."

"Great," muttered Zuko after a pause.

Haru ran a hand through his hair. "His father essentially sold him to the Dai Li."

Zuko made a very angry noise and started to launch to his feet; the earthbender caught him. "Down, Zuko. The general already knows. He's taking care of it. Ichiro'll probably be given custody of Yui, since Kouji's already your ward."

Zuko grudgingly sank to the ground. "Right."

"Ichiro knows about this," the earthbender went on. "Kouji and Yui do not."

"I won't tell them until one of them asks."

Haru nodded, and sighed. "There's just one thing we don't know."

"What?" Zuko asked.

"Who's backing it."

"Or any of these Dai Li messes that've cropped up in the last year or so." Zuko ran his hand through his hair. Well, I thought I was going to die during the war. Guess I didn't gain that much time by surviving after all.

"And nobody's seen their director since Ba Sing Se," Haru added with an annoyed snort.

"…And my sister is never going to confirm whether or not she killed him. Dammit," swore the Firelord.

"Of course not. That would make it easy," said Haru.

"'Zactly."

The earthbender sighed, then paused. "At least there's one thing saving that kid."

"Oh?" Zuko asked curiously.

Haru glanced at him. "Do you think the Dai Li would have just had him lead you to a trap if they'd known he was an earthbender?"

Zuko was silent for a very long moment. "Oh."

The older man blinked. "You didn't know?"

"Not 'til he used it defending me. And… it didn't really… I wasn't… man, I need to pay more attention."

"You were a little pre-occupied trying not to die," Haru pointed out kindly, though his face and voice clearly stated, yeah, you really do need to pay more attention.

And that's another problem, it shouldn't've taken so much of my attention, I should be better than that. "Mm."

Kouji rolled over and nestled closer to his dragon. "Yui…"

Zuko watched him some more, but the twelve-year-old made no more outburst.

"Also," said Haru quietly, "the only people who know Kouji was compromised are those of us here, Yui, and the General."

"No need for anyone else to know it, then," mused the Firelord.

Haru nodded, and Zuko fell silent, watching the boy sleep. At dawn, Haru woke Ichiro; by unspoken agreement, the three young men let Kouji sleep himself out.

.

The four of them managed to reach the capital relatively intact — or, at least, sustaining no further injuries. Once there, Ichiro went to talk to his sister, Zuko fled to his study to catch up, and Haru took Kouji (and Qiang) to see the General.

"Welcome back, Kouji," was all Iroh said.

Just to hear those words, honestly spoken and truly meant, without any hint of censure at all, was enough to get Kouji in tears again — even if his only memories of the old man were scattered and hard to keep hold of.

"Kouji's having some memory issues," explained Haru. "He hit his head."

Iroh nodded, and offered the boy a hug. After a moment's hesitation, he moved into the offered embrace, and the tears spilled over. The old man murmured soothing noises, stroking his hair. In short order, Kouji had cried himself out and retreated a few steps, wiping his eyes. "Th…thank you," he whispered.

"You're welcome."

Haru gave Iroh a questioning look over Kouji's head: His memory is spotty. How are you going to debrief him?

Iroh shrugged one shoulder. One step at a time.

The older earthbender nodded. I'll get him to his room, then.

Iroh nodded and released the boy.

"C'mon, kid," said Haru kindly. "You remember where you room is? No? I'll take you there."


Zuko didn't manage to find his way outside to meet up with Song until the next afternoon — he'd worked at his desk until he passed out that first night, and woken up late and had to scramble to catch up as a result.

He had a feeling she wasn't going to be very happy with him.

Unsurprisingly, she was out by the turtleduck pond, kneeling in front of it and feeding some of the half-grown ones.

"Hello," he said, softly, coming up behind her.

"Hello," was the cool response. She didn't turn, didn't look up, gave no indication other than by speaking that she was even aware of his presence.

Yep. She's mad at me.

"I'm back," he said, after an awkward silence.

"Are you?"

Very mad.

"Yeah. With Kouji." He wobbled a little. Dammit, should be more recovered than that.

Now some emotion entered her voice. "How is he?"

"Really upset. And still has a lot of holes in his memory."

"His memory?" Now she looked up at him, her concern for the boy overriding her anger at Zuko. "Sit down. What happened to his memory?"

He sat. "He fell and hit his head."

Song's eyes went wide. "Oh, spirits…"

"He's recovering it in bits and pieces, though," Zuko assured her.

She nodded. "That sounds normal. Knocks on the head can be dangerously unpredictable."

"Right," he murmured.

Song very carefully avoided telling Zuko that the trauma could well have killed the boy. "I'm glad you found him," she said instead.

"Me, too," he said, fervently.

Song managed to keep Zuko there for a little over an hour, asking him about Kouji and the details of the trip. Anger with her unofficial fiancé aside, he needed the rest and this was the best way to do it.

Zuko readily answered all her questions, completely unaware of her ulterior motive, and at the end of that hour, she reluctantly let him return back to work. She would read him the riot act later. He was a little nervous that it hadn't happened yet — the delay just made him dread it more. When it finally arrived after dinner that night — and she had made certain he ate — the lecture was loud, long, and basically boiled down that, before he hared off after his brother-of-heart, he needed to get healed and tell somebody where he was going.

He had very little to say in his own defence, so he just listened and took his punishment. When Song finally fell silent, she was glaring at him angrily and had tears in her eyes.

"Song…" He hesitantly reached out for her. She didn't respond, but she didn't knock his hand away, either. "You're crying."

"That's because I was worried about you, you idiot!" she exclaimed, the tears spilling over now.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, brushing away her tears.

"I thought I'd lost you," was the quiet response.

He awkwardly hugged her, and she leaned into his embrace, openly weeping now.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again.

"Don't do it again," she ordered him roughly, her voice muffled because she'd buried her face in his shoulder.

"I won't run off without telling you," he promised.

"Good."

He wished he could promise that he wouldn't scare her like that again, but…

Too many people wanted him dead.


Most people in the palace seemed to have completely forgotten that Yì Suì lived there — something that suited him quite nicely. He spent most of his time hiding in his room, but would occasionally curl up in an unused corner of the library.

Now literate, he'd started dabbling in writing poetry — something he kept very, very secret, not even showing Song or Ursa his efforts.

Today he was in the library.

He'd been in there for three hours or so, and then Kouji wandered in, with Qiang trailing after him. He didn't notice, having drifted off to sleep about twenty minutes before.

Kouji stopped, staring hard at the boy in the chair. I… know him, the younger boy thought. But where from? How? What's his name? These gaps in his memory were seriously annoying him.

As Kouji came close, the smaller boy twitched a little, whimpering faintly.

That was even more familiar. The younger boy was positive he knew the white-clad boy now.

Scarcely had he come to this conclusion when, with a faint gasp, the other one jerked awake.

There! A name! Kouji tried to say it before it fled into the darkness of his hidden memories. "Yì… Yì Suì?"

The smaller boy looked up. "K-kouji, y-you're back…"

"Yeah." Kouji smiled at him, even though he couldn't remember when last he'd seen Yì Suì — or maybe the last meeting he remembered had been the last time? He still couldn't remember how he'd got from the palace to the Sun Warriors.

"I'm g-glad…" Yì Suì's eyes then fell on the dragonling following him, and his eyes lit up.

Kouji noticed and grinned. "Yì Suì, this is Qiang. Qiang, c'mere and meet Yì Suì."

The dragon crooned and wandered over to nuzzle the smaller boy. Yì Suì actually smiled when he hesitantly reached out to pat her. Kouji laughed and settled down to watch boy and dragon interacting — Qiang seemed more than happy to play with the smaller human, and was uncommonly gentle with him.

"Oh, Yì Suì?" said Kouji after a few minutes.

"Y-yeah?" the smaller boy asked, looking up from the dragon.

"I just wanted to warn you… while I was away, I kinda hit my head." He winced. "For awhile, I didn't remember anything, and I'm still recovering. So I might not… remember everything we've ever done."

An idea occurred to Kouji, and he rose to his feet. "I have to go take care of something. Would you mind if I left Qiang here?"

"N-no," Yì Suì replied, rather quickly. Qiang made a rather amused crooning noise, then a more thoughtful one.

"You're right," Kouji told her, and then left to find the General. Hopefully the old man would only be amused by his request.

The General greeted him with a smile once Kouji was in his office. "Good afternoon."

"Afternoon," Kouji replied. "Um. You know those watchers you've got on me?"

"Yes, what about them?" Iroh, upon assigning the guards, had taken care to tell Kouji that they were there as much to protect him from being kidnapped and used against Zuko as they were there to prevent his being triggered again.

The boy blushed red; apparently the memory loss hadn't affected that part of him, anyway. "I was wondering if I could…. get girls instead?"

The old man arched an eyebrow. "I assumed you'd prefer men."

"I do. I mean, I did. But…"

The General suddenly understood. "You want to spend time with Yì Suì, and are afraid your guards will upset him."

Kouji nodded vigorously.

"I'll make the arrangements," Iroh promised.

"Thank you, general," the boy said, bowing.

"You're welcome," he replied warmly.

Kouji grinned, then flitted back off to the library. Yì Suì was right where he'd left him, scratching Qiang in the itchy place right behind her left ear. "Hey," the twelve-year-old greeted them both.

"H-hello," Yì Suì replied, surprisingly cheerfully.

The younger boy considered this startling cheeriness, and got another idea. "Hey, Yì Suì, could you do me a big favour?"

"Wh-what is it?" the smaller boy asked.

"I'm gonna have to start working again tomorrow," Kouji explained, "and I won't be able to give Qiang the kind of attention she needs. Could you do it for me?"

"S-sure!"

"Thanks," said the younger, mentally dancing. "I really appreciate it."

"W-welcome," Yì Suì said, with a bigger-than-usual shaky smile.

Sitting down again, Kouji began telling Yì Suì how to take care of the little dragon. Yì Suì snatched one of his rejected verses and scribbled down the instructions on the back of the page. "If you want," Kouji suggested afterwards, "I can leave you two to get further acquainted and come get her later."

"O-okay," Yì Suì said. "Wh-whatever y-you like…"

"Well, you do seem to get along." And Kouji grinned at him.

Yì Suì smiled back, and Qiang crooned.

"There isn't a lot I can do about it," Kouji pointed out to her. She sighed and flicked her tail at him, and he scratched her and slipped away.


(1) niisan — a Japanese word that is a shortened from of oniisan, or 'elder brother'. Puck chose to utilise this term simply because there is no simple English equivalent and repeatedly saying "big brother" just sounds stupid. Mokuba.