Thanks to kawaii kokeshi for telling me that it was "mochi" not "moichi."

V12.2


Longing

I absolutely loved waking up in Zuko's arms every morning. His wonderful heat against my back, his soft breath against the back of my neck, and one strong arm wrapped protectively around my waist made me feel loved and protected. When we were like this, I couldn't think of him becoming more distant. He was mine and I was his. That was all there was. We were Firebenders lost in a big Earth city but it didn't matter as long as we had each other.

I felt him stirring behind me. His lips were on my shoulder. I curled my toes into the hair on his legs, slowly stretching as the light filtered in through the slats on our small door. "Good morning," I whispered, turning my neck to look at his handsome face.

He only grunted, giving me a soft peck on the lips. Then he pulled me tighter against him and laid his head back down onto our pallet, trying to get comfortable once more.

"You can't go back to sleep," I said with a yawn, gently stroking the arm that held me. "We've got work today." His hips gently rocked against my backside making me gasp as heat ran through me. "Z-Zuko—"

His lips showed attention to the nape of my neck. I knew that he wasn't completely awake yet. In fact, he had been like this for the past few days since we'd started sharing the same bed. He woke up and he'd wanted more than I was willing to give. He'd kiss me and pay special attention to my body and yet he wouldn't talk to me about our argument the other day.

A wayward hand stroked up my body, missing my wound before his fingers tickled around my breast. I gasped, my hips unconsciously bucking back into his. I wanted to scold him but he felt too good against me. I my head around and kissed him, losing myself in the feel of his stubble on my skin. His hand disappeared under my night slip, grasping a breast with a calloused hand With no cloth to block his way, his thumb circled my nipple before he pinched in a way that made me gasp into our kiss.

He grasped my hips and pulled me around, one hand disappearing into my hair as he deepened the kiss. He pulled me half on top of him, the hand on my hip moving around to grasp my butt and mold me against him. I moaned, my hands tracing the lines on his chest and arms. I couldn't stop touching him. So when my hand started running down to see what else it could touch, it was a good thing that Uncle knocked and then quickly opened the door. I fell backwards, falling off the other side of the bed.

"Good morning, children," he said, a mischievous glint in his topaz eyes. "How are we this morning?"

The rest of the morning was kind of a blur; I fixed the men of my house breakfast and we somehow got over the embarrassment of the morning wake-up fiasco. But Uncle told a lame joke and then the awkwardness was gone, only to be replaced by the affection that I felt for those two men. When they started needlessly bickering, I just sat there, holding my tea, feeling a warmth fill my heart and a smile form on my face.

I noticed that it was almost time to go, so I leaned over to Uncle and kissed him on the forehead. "I'm not sure when I'll be home tonight. First day and all!"He smiled and wished me luck at work.

Zuko walked me to the door, pulling me against him and giving me a kiss that was a little too long considering that Iroh was right there.

"Zuko!" I scolded, putting my hands against his chest as I tried to push away. It was in vain, though, as he pulled me back towards him and kissed me again. I didn't resist this time, and he smiled against my lips as I did to his. "I've got…to…get to… work!"

He smiled again and kissed my neck persuasively. "You don't have to go to work…"

I slapped his shoulder playfully and let him kiss me again until I felt the sun move a little closer to my start time. "Mmm!" I mumbled against his lips. "I've got to go, and so do you!"

Zuko finally let me go, but his arm was still wound around my waist. "Be careful, okay?"

Again, I smiled, but it was slightly annoyed. I'd already told him that I would be fine. "Don't worry about me, Lee." I almost gagged by having to call him that. "I can take care of myself."

So I walked to Missy's Daycare Center, still feeling the touch of Zuko's lips on mine. I sighed and daydreamed about the future, about how well things were going even though we were peasants. It wasn't that bad, actually. Really, truly, I was enjoying it, and even Zuko seemed to be getting used to everything. Then again, there was that nagging feeling about his pulling away, but I quickly shook my head and stepped up to the address that Iroh had told me about.

The building was a one-story house that seemed very clean, if not a little worn. The front door had a small gate that kept little children from getting out, but the door was open to let in the nice spring air. I walked into the building and was impressed by what I saw. There was a small desk in front of me and behind it was the owner's quarters which included a couch and a small cot. That area was cut off from the play area by a half wall which I was just tall enough to see over.

"Hello?" I asked, opening the gate that led to the play area. I stepped on a few toys and cursed myself silently for not wearing more appropriate shoes, just in case little ears were around. No one answered.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I asked again, looking around for any sign of life. If this was a daycare center, shouldn't there be someone there to care for children during the day? And where were the children?

A small baby crawled out of the back room. He made little baby noises, his little black hair of head bobbing up and down.

"Aww!" Apparently I was a sucker for cute babies. First Ping, then Hope, now this little guy. My mother and father had both been only-children, so no cousins. And forget the idea of my brother or sister having children! I sat down beside the infant and smiled at his dimpled hands, feet, and cheeks. "Who are you, little guy?"

He answered by crawling in my lap and tugging on my hair. I looked at him closer and saw that he was a pretty chubby baby. But he was cute, sitting there with those big…topaz eyes. I smiled, knowing something that probably no one else did, and cuddled him. "You're a hair puller and fist-in-the-mouth kind of guy, arentcha?" He responded again by slobbering all over his fist and splashing it at me. "Yes, you are," I said, my voice monotone as I wiped the drool off my face.

Suddenly, a head full of brown hair popped out of the back room. "Hey, Salem, come ba—" She paused as she looked at me before disappearing. When she came back out she was wiping her hands on a dish towel. She was very pregnant—maybe six or seven months along—but beautiful in her own way. Even though she was in almost rags, she still shone with her own radiance. Pregnancy must do that to you.

"Hello," I said, guessing that she was Missy. I didn't stop playing with the baby, though, to stop and talk to her. She gave me a strange look, like I had gone crazy.

"Who are you?" she asked defensively, and I could see a blunt object that she must have kept near her to deal with people she probably thought were creepers.

"Amaterasu, ma'am," I said quickly, standing up and putting the baby on my hip. I wasn't about to have to fight a pregnant lady. "I'm your new employee."

She exhaled through thin pink lips and ran a hand through her plain, mousey hair. "It's about time you got here. I'm covered in baby!"

I laughed, wondering how I could be so scared of such a nice lady. But then again, that look in her eye when I'd handled "Salem" without introducing myself had been pretty scary. "Why don't you sit down and let me handle the children?" It couldn't have been easy to walk around with that big of a stomach.

She nodded and wiped her head with the towel in her hands. "Thanks, doll. You're a lifesaver."

"So this is Salem?" I asked, tickling his stomach, getting the cutest laugh. I imagined that his mother and father weren't really who they pretended to be, but that he was the child of Zuko and I. Why not? Our mothers and fathers all had those same eyes, and most of our families had the thick black hair. And he was just so cute, and I looked at Missy's belly and felt a longing for something that I probably wouldn't have for a very long time, if at all.

"That…" she told me breathily, lowering her thick legs onto the couch in her area behind the desk, "…is Salem Misson. His parents are my best customers…he looks like he likes you, which is unbelievable. The only people who can pick him up are his parents!"

I looked down at the baby lovingly. "So, Salem…what's the deal with you and hair pulling?"

He looked up to me and smiled a toothless smile.

oOo

"I'm bushed!" I cried as I opened the door to my little family's house. Zuko was sitting on the small couch we'd managed to get and looked very relieved when I walked in. Iroh was in the small kitchen; whatever he was making smelled delicious. "Who knew that taking care of kids was such hard work?" The place had gotten busier as the day went on, and I could've sworn that babies were crawling out of thin air with all the business we got!

Uncle smiled up at me, but he kept most of his attention on his work. "Would either of you like a pot of tea?" he asked, standing in front of it, still in his work apron. If it were up to him, I doubted that he would ever take it off!

Zuko sat up from his seat, scooting over to allow me room next to him. "We've been working in a tea shop all day," he said as he wrapped an arm around my waist, giving my cheek a kiss without seeming to think about it. "I'm sick of tea."

"Its like you're sick of breathing, then," I said, leaning my head onto his shoulder. I wondered how Missy and her husband interacted after a long day's work. I wondered how much her feet hurt after being on her feet all day. Did she know her baby's gender? Had she already started preparing? I instantly knew that I would have to make her something for being so amazing to me, giving me a job and all. Maybe a blanket or something. Those embroidery lessons may have paid off after all.

After playing with babies all day and taking care of them, babies were definitely on my brain.

Zuko leaned his head onto mine, giving a sniff. It was just baby powder; I actually kind of liked the smell but maybe he didn't. I felt myself frowning as I thought, Does that mean he doesn't want kids? "What have you been doing?" he asked, pulling my face around and sniffing my hair once more.

I laughed again, most likely from exhaustion more than humor, and said, "That, my man, is the stink of a hard day's work…and ten babies. You'll get used to it." Then I felt myself yawning and I had work the next day. So I stood up and leaned down to kiss Zuko's forehead. He usually went to bed with me but he never slept that early. Then I skipped over to Uncle, giving him a kiss and a hug, because I was feeling slightly sentimental.

I closed the small, slitted door, hearing a vague, "Have you seen our spark rocks?" from Uncle as I undressed down to my wrappings. I dove under the covers, loving the feel of the cotton against my bare skin. I started drifting off, wondering what Zuko had looked like as a baby and what our child might look like.

Babies filled my dreams that night.

oOo

Uncle poured a cup of tea for the officer that had walked in earlier, dressed beautifully. Instinct told me to run—he was the kind of man who would want to take us away. The kind of man who could find us to be Firebenders. But he was just there to enjoy a cup of tea, not hurt us. I just sat down my tray of freshly-made moichi onto the counter, glad to see that Uncle was becoming so popular among the customers.

"This is the best tea shop in the city!" the officer exclaimed. I couldn't disagree with him. Iroh had gone around, sampling the competition's tea, (and so did I, occasionally,) and nothing beat Iroh's tea. Except maybe my mochi rice cakes, of course.

I smiled and Uncle held the teapot to his heart. "The secret ingredient is love," he said as he waved his hand through the steam coming from the teapot and walked towards the back of the shop. I loved him so much, but that small proclamation made me laugh. I caught Zuko's eye and he smiled softly at me before returning to his work.

"Delicious," the owner of the shop said as he took a bite of one of my cakes.

"Thank you." It wasn't that big of a deal. It was just a recipe that my mother had given me. She said it was passed down from generation to generation, but mochi had always been made in the Fire Nation. All I knew was that it wasn't five minutes before the men in the shop had bought up all of my cakes. At least it doesn't cost much to make. And I made a little money on the side.

I was sitting down my most recent tray of rice cakes when the door slammed and someone stormed in. It was Jet! I hadn't seen him since we'd come into the city two weeks ago, so I was happy that he was here. "Jet!" I exclaimed as I rushed over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck in a hug. I pulled away, feeling a little guilty that Zuko had seen that, and smiled at him. "I was hoping to see you soon. We should have dinner or some—"

He ferociously grabbed my wrists and flung them around behind my back. Shock and pain flashed through me. I felt my wound stretching, making me gasp in pain. Then next thing I knew his knee was in my back and I was being pushed down into the nearest table, breaking it in half as I landed on top of it. For a moment, all I could see black. But I could hear him. I definitely could hear him. "I'm tired of waiting. These guys are Firebenders!"

Oh, no!

I was clutching my unhealed stomach in agony while Zuko and Iroh quickly exchanged looks, unsure of what to do. Oh no… "Zuko," I whispered as a ruckus started up, my breath full of pain. "Zuko, don't—"

He pushed Jet out of the way to get to me. He leaned down and put a hand on my face. I was in pain, but I'd be fine. "How could you hurt her?!" he shouted angrily at the ex-Freedom Fighter. From his knelt position I could feel the anger positively radiating from him in heat. "I thought you were her friend!"

Behind him, I watched as Jet got that crazy look in his eyes that I knew so well. He unsheathed his hook swords and prepared to fight. "I'm not friends with a Firebender. I saw the old man heating his tea!" He gave me an angry and hurt glare—we'd been together for so long and I'll I'd done was lie to him. I couldn't say anything, just grab Zuko's hand and breathe deeply. He wasn't wrong. I wasn't going to openly lie to him, even if I'd done it by omission before.

The officer we'd served tea to laughed, but it was tense and his hand was on a sword by his hip. "He works in a tea shop!"

"They're Firebenders, I'm telling you!" my old leader growled. His crazy eyes met mine and I could see the fury and betrayal held within. "How long have you known, eh, Red? Or is that why they call you Red? You're a Firebender too, aren't you?!"

Two officers sitting at one of the tables stood up and prepared to take care of the crazy boy who threw me into the corner. "Drop your swords boy, nice and easy."

Jet didn't back down. He glared towards Zuko, all of his muscles ready to fight. "To think, I wanted you to be my girl. But our kids would have been monstrosities like you."

"Leave her alone," Zuko growled, picking me up slowly. I gasped in pain and grasped at his shoulders, hiding my whimpers in his shoulder. "You don't get to speak that way to her."

"Don't defend her. You'll have to defend yourself. Then everyone will know. Go ahead; show them what you can do." He poised his hook swords and slowly walked towards Iroh and Zuko. One of the officers prepared to draw the sword at his waist when Zuko stepped in front of him and grabbed the hilt instead.

"Lee, no," I begged, clutching my waist. Iroh was there, then, holding my shoulders. "He just wants a show. Please don't fight him."

Jet laughed in a way that made me sick. I'd never heard that demented sound from him before. "You'd love that, though. Having two guys fight over you. I'm sure you've had this before, Red. I bet you've opened your legs for every man in this shop."

"Shut up," Zuko growled, unsheathing the officer's double broadswords and entering his fighting stance. "You hurt and slandered my wife, trashed my uncle's shop. I'm going to fight you for that, not for some insane allegation against us."

Jet's eyes widened at the mention of the word wife. I realized that I'd never told him. We hadn't really told anyone. "You and Red?"

"Yeah. Me and Ama." The name sounded strange coming from his lips.

"You know that's not even her real name," Jet said through his surprise. "I bet she's never told you anything about who she really is."

"I know who she is better than anyone in the four nations." Zuko was being scarily calm through all of this. His words warmed my heart even as my heartbeat struck through my wounds. "Fine. You want a show? I'll give you a show." He then pulled a table in front of him with his foot and kicked it at Jet.

Jet sliced his hook swords into the table and jumped over it. As he landed, my old leader swung both hook swords down at the Prince, who deflected the attack and jumped backward onto another table. Jet swung one sword through the middle of the table, slicing it in half. Zuko stepped to one half of the table and balanced on one foot. Jet followed up his attack by cutting through the legs on the half of the table Zuko was standing on, and the latter of the two quickly hopped onto the other half that was still standing and landed in a crane stance.

Jet knocked this half to the ground, but Zuko jumped into the air and swung both broadswords at Jet's feet as he landed. Jet somersaulted away and landed in a crouching position before charging forward at Zuko, who swung both of his swords at Jet. He blocked it and kicked Zuko towards the door.

Zuko burst through the door and tumbled into the street. Jet ran after him and did a few spins before striking at Zuko with both swords. Zuko managed to block the strike and both combatants locked swords.

They both struggled to gain control and walked off to the side, out of my view. "Please Jet, stop this!" I cried, grasping Iroh's arm to try and lift myself up. He helped me to the front of the store and outside where a crowd was gathering. I couldn't see them through the throng of people.

I heard some more struggling, then some heavy breathing from Jet. "Bet you wish she'd help you out with a little fire blast right now. Then you could go fuck and make some Firebending brats."

"You're the one who needs help," I heard Zuko say calmly, and I felt pride build up in me, that Zuko, my Zuko, was out there, defending us, defending his family. It disgusted me that Jet was insulting us. The things he'd said to me...he was like a completely different person.

Tears started pooling in my eyes. Iroh looked up at me with sadness. "You still love that boy, don't you?"

With his help, we managed to get around the people to see the rest of the fight. I didn't want either of them to get hurt. "Jet's just confused," I whispered. "He's going to get hurt." I knew that Zuko would win that fight. I'd trained with both of them over the years and Zuko was much better.

Iroh patted my back, though I knew that he was just as worried as I was about getting discovered. "It's either him or Zuko. Those things that the young man said..." Obviously they weren't true but it'd still hurt. And people had still heard.

I heard the crash of wood splintering, and then more metal on metal as the men fought even more. A hush ran over the crowd, and a deep voice rang through the street. "Drop your weapons!"

Uncle and I finally pushed through the crowd, coming upon some green-clad officers holding their hands at Zuko and Jet. The two men were paused mid-fight, blood and sweat mingling on their faces and clothes. "The men are Firebenders and the woman is a Fire Nation sympathiser," Jet growled, his chest heaving. "Arrest them!"

"This poor boy is confused…" Uncle said, leaving my side for a moment. "We're just simple refugees."

"What happened here?" one of the men asked, already circling in on Jet, not Zuko, which made me breathe a sigh of relief.

The owner of the tea shop pushed through the crowd and stood next to me, placing a hand on my arm. My blood went cold when one of the officers shot his eyes to mine. There was a lot of power in those eyes."This young man wrecked my tea shop, assaulting my employee and his wife!"

"It's true sir,"the officer who'd had a cup of tea earlier said to the green-clad, obviously higher-ranked officer. "We saw the whole thing. This crazy kid came in, slandering Miss Ama and hurting her. Can't tell if it was a lover's squabble or if he's on something."

The men in dark green robes walked up behind Jet, who looked at them angrily. "Come with us son," the second of the two said.

Jet swung his hook sword at the guard but he caught the sword with his hand covered in stones. An Earthbender. Obviously I'd been right about the power he'd emanated. The guard then disarmed Jet and both guards pulled the boy's arms behind his back, binding his wrists together using the stones on the palms of their gloves. They dragged Jet away towards a wagon designed for holding captured criminals.

"You don't understand!" Jet cried, kicking his legs. "They're Fire Nation! You have to believe me!"

The crowd began to disperse. On his knees, Jet looked up as the doors slammed shut. His eyes met mine the last second of his freedom and I felt my heart breaking. The people left in the street watched the wagon roll away. Zuko was rushing at me, pushing through the people before he finally found me and breathed a sigh of relief. He wrapped his arms around me and held me close, trying to warm me up by running his hands quickly over my arms.

It didn't work. I shuddered and held him close to me. Somehow he ushered me home. Iroh had stayed behind to give statements to the police. He sat us down on the small futon in the living room and that was when I realized, "You're bleeding."

"I'm fine," he said in a gruff voice, tucking a stray curl behind my ear. "I'm worried about you."

I couldn't think about me. If I thought about me, I'd think about Jet. If I thought about Jet, I'd think about all the times we'd had each other's backs and then about how nasty and vile he'd been. About how he'd attacked me and made our entire time together seem like nothing.

My hands were shaking as I pushed Zuko's shirt off of his shoulders. He was mostly just scraped but there were a few gouges that had taken chunks of skin. They'd need to be sewn up or else they'd scar. I chanced a look up at his face to see that he was staring me down. I wouldn't let myself look into those eyes, though. Instead I dabbed at the cut above his eye and knelt between his muscular thighs.

After fixing his face and neck, I set to bandaging the wounds I could reach. But he grabbed my wrists and stopped me. "Stop."

"Y-you're hurt," I whispered, refusing to meet his gaze. "Because of me."

"No," he sighed, pulling my hands up, making me move closer to him. I finally looked up to see that he wasn't angry. In fact he was giving me a soft look that made my heart clench in my throat. "Stop, Emiko. Come here." He pulled my arms around his neck and then wrapped his own around my waist.

I shoved my head in his shoulder and felt the tears coming. "I just...I just wanted to have a normal life. With a family."

He cooed against the side of my head, giving it a kiss. "Nothing that he said was true, Emiko."

"But we are Firebenders," I sobbed, clutching his skin in an attempt to be closer to him. His skin felt good against mine which was clammy and cold. My heart clenched tightly again and I breathed against his shoulder. "And I lied to him for so long, Zuko. We were teammates and I..."

"I know her better than anyone in the four nations." Those words came back to me as he said, "You didn't deserve any of that. He held some prejudice against us that was...wasn't..." He sighed and grasped the nape of my neck to pull me away. His thumbs came up and rubbed the tears away. "He didn't deserve you."