A/N: I really don't mean to be one of those authors, but I haven't had a review in quite some time and it's a little discouraging. I would love your input.
"Feet off the table, dear," Hinto said as he walked past the desk Kiet was sitting at.
"Whatever, Mom," sighed Kiet, planting his feet firmly on the ground, but his chin moved to the desk's surface. He wondered where all the injured people were, today.
Jo chuckled at the exchange as she watched out the window, folding towels. "You could pick some things up for us, if you're so bored," she offered, her voice thick with a Foggy Swamp accent.
"Eh."
She laughed again, but Hinto shot Kiet a dirty look; he didn't want Kiet to get on the bad side of their boss. Kiet rolled his eyes in response—Jo obviously appreciated him greatly.
The office had been empty of anybody except for its three employees for most of the day. Jo resolved this by beginning to clean and organize everything, but she rejected any help from Hinto and Kiet, citing that they wouldn't do it right. Hinto had been doing menial tasks in the downtime—replacing the barrels' water, looking over the healers' records.
A middle-aged woman entered the building and Kiet enthusiastically began his sole task of receptionist. "Hello, welcome to Big Sister Jo's Healing Hut, how may we—Oh." The woman walked past Kiet and instead went straight to Jo. She thanked her a few times and handed over a large platter of kimchi. It was an installation of payment, as she had little money to spare. Jo smiled and accepted it and the woman left.
"Hinto, wasn't that the woman whose wrist you fixed last month?"
"Isn't it always?"
Jo made more of an impression than Hinto did: she was fat, especially in the hips, with big hair and a bigger voice. Her accent and sweetness only made her more memorable; there weren't many from the Foggy Swamp in the Republic City, and even fewer who resolved to keep their traditional way of speaking.
Hinto didn't mind he knew Jo's personality overshadowed all others', even Kiet's. He took the food from her and put it into the icebox to save for later. He took a look outside of the window and noted that the end of the day approaching.
No sooner had he noted the winter sky's darkening did it light up again, accompanied by a low, loud, wall-shaking sound. Hinto pulled Jo underneath a table while Kiet ducked below his desk. However, Jo jumped back up immediately when she assessed that their building had not been hit. She went over to Kiet.
"Not queasy, are ya?"
Chie's meeting with Deng extended long past lunch. After he paid, Deng bid the driver to take him back to his office, where his secretary gathered papers which he and Chie went over together. She signed an agreement to allow a special benders' passport that would get her unlimited access of the city; she signed a contract for a paid apprenticeship for a man named Shi Bohai; she waved the offer of a house in a non-bending district of the city, but Deng told her that he would save the form, "Just in case you change your mind." He sent a boy about Chie's age to run the papers to another office, where more signatures would be put on them for approval. Chie sat in the waiting room outside during this time, listening to the radio and the clicking of the secretary's typewriter until the man on the airwaves announced, "It's five in the afternoon and you're listening to the Republic Broadcasting Board, where we have what we're being told will be a very important speech from Minister Xun Wei Bei. This was only publicized this morning but our listeners will trust that—"
Deng poked his head out of his office, where he was doing unrelated paperwork, and ordered his secretary to turn off the radio.
Following a visit from the young Gong Xun member, Deng beckoned Chie back into his office. The papers had made their way across the street and up the building, only to have to be approved again by Deng. Chie sat down across from him as he skimmed through the forms, sparing the occasional wary glance at the other man in the room. He smiled at Chie—something like a look of solidarity. "Do you know the pledge, Chie?"
She nodded.
"Say it for me, please."
The earth bender repeated the city-state's pledge; it was all equality and sovereignty and fidelity and unity—she stuttered on the unity part, but Deng was able to mouth her through it.
"Alright, very good," he said breezily and with his big smile, "We can take you home now."
The Gong Xun cleared his throat. Chie did not turn around to see him, but watched Deng's face—his raised eyebrows, his head shaking slowly from side to side. Finally, he stood up and told Chie to come with him; the Gong Xun followed. They took the elevator down together and got into a Xun Party car, where the younger, silent man, took the driver's seat. Deng told him to drive to the Lion-Dog Hotel, to which the man in black raised his eyebrows, perhaps in disapproval. But Deng quickly reminded him who was in charge of whom.
"Xun Deng," Chie said quietly, looking out through the windshield over the Gong Xun's shoulder, "Where are you taking me?"
Deng thought for a moment. "There's a riot in your district and the bridges across the Quanzi are closed. I'm putting you up in a hotel for the night."
They rode without speaking the rest of the way. Chie wondered about her friends and her families, but violence in her part of the city was nothing new. She made eye contact with the Gong Xun in the rearview mirror, but she quickly looked out the window.
From the outside, the Lion-Dog looked huge—it was tall and hexagonal, its walls interrupted with an uncountable number of windows. From the inside, it was even grander: all marble and gold and satin. "Are you sure this is necessary?" she had asked Deng as he waited to be handed a key from the receptionist.
"Xun Party's paying for it." He winked.
Deng introduced Chie to a bellhop and instructed her to ask an employee for anything she needed. Then he left.
Her room was high up and once inside she asked the boy attending her for a radio and a map—both were already in the room. "There's a list of stations next to it," he told her before asking if there was anything else he could do and finally leaving.
Chie spread the map out on her bed and turned on the radio, briefly toying with the idea that perhaps she was being kidnapped.
The Republic City's news station was covering the riot, as were both of its music stations. She didn't bother to look at the numbers and instead turned the dials until she heard clear sound—after a few tries, she found what she wanted and sat down.
"We have here a transcript and, later, an analysis, of Xun Wei Bei's speech to the citizens of her Republic City today," After some further explanation, the man switched to a woman speaker, who read the announcement for the world to hear. Chie didn't know where things were going until the last lines.
"And it is for these reasons that in the State of the Republic City, expecting compliance to the Noninterference Treaty of the Year of the Virtuous Harmony Snake, will ban all acts of bending within its borders. Thank you."
Deng got into the car.
"What do you think?" asked the Gong Xun.
"She still has an allegiance to the other benders, perhaps even the Hongse," He sighed. "I don't trust her, but I think she trusts me."
"She's only sixteen, sir."
"She's only sixteen," Deng repeated. After some time, he told the boy, "Take me home, then."