ZUKO

BY THE TIME HE HAD INHALED SOME BREAKFAST AND ASSEMBLED HIS PLATOON FOR THE MORNING BRIEFING, ZUKO FELT A LOT LIKE HE HAD JUST RUN TWENTY MILES IN FULL BATTLE-RATTLE AND FOUGHT A BATTLE AT THE END OF IT. To everyone's pleasant surprise, Lord Bei Fong had not been exaggerating about the accommodations; every platoon got its own barracks, with plenty of space, and every officer got their own room in the HQ building. To no one's surprise, however, this didn't make things any easier. After trooping back from town and settling into the compound at the entrance to the Bei Fong estate (conveniently placed right off the main road in and out of Gaoling), a brief period of chaos had been followed hard by a long evening and a tiring morning of tightly organized madness. By the time it was all settled, Zuko considered himself lucky in having managed to grab a few hours' sleep on the hard army bed in his room, before hurling himself up and being halfway through shoveling breakfast into his face before he was even fully aware of what was going on.

Sadly, going back to bed was not an option, so Zuko bravely chugged absurd amounts of army tea strong enough to eat a spoon and set to smoking enough cigarettes to kill a komodo-rhino, all the while entertaining intricate fantasies of a nice, long nap, preferably in a vault where no one could find him. He was in process of wondering if it would be possible to sneak a blue-eyed waterbender into that vault without tipping anyone off as to his presence when he stepped into the enlisted barracks to the sound of Sergeant Toshio barking the call to attention.

Zuko had no doubt that, just a moment before, everyone had been relaxing, swearing, smiling, stretched out helter-skelter across the floor. All of that vanished in the blink of an eye, the platoon leaping to attention, forty-one pairs of heels clicking together in almost perfect unison. Zuko paused in the doorway, while Toshio barked the order to bow, a bow which Zuko returned. He let his eyes drift over the assembly, and, finding nothing out of place, nodded at Toshio, who barked, "AS YOU WERE!"

Zuko moved to center stage (as it was), where a large map of Gaoling and its immediate surroundings had been posted to the wall. Toshio took his place beside him, handing Zuko a bamboo stick before sliding a respectful distance away. On the other side of the map stood a senior retainer in the Bei Fong livery, a white winged boar on his uniform and a jian sword at his hip. Zuko had met him the night before, at the officers' briefing. His name was Guan Yu. He was about the Captain's age, and had a similar way of holding himself. Zuko had liked him instantly, choosing to completely ignore the fact that it was obvious that the man was one of those Imperial Army soldiers who had avoided surrender when his uncle took Ba Sing Se and brought the Earth Kingdom to terms.

If anything, Zuko reflected, that just makes me respect him more.

Zuko nodded at his boys. "Morning, gentlemen."

"Good morning, sir!" came the chorus. Guan Yu, Zuko noticed, remained silent, but seemed to approve of the proceedings, even if he was always a beat behind, thanks to the translator whispering in his ear.

Zuko turned back to his boys, and tried not to smile. My boys. He knew every one of their names, their histories, their faces. He knew the names of their parents, who had brothers in the military, who had lost family in the wars. He knew the shirkers and the hard-workers, those who would exceed without prompting and those who needed a boot in the ass to so much as get out of bed. He knew the good, the bad, the ugly, and the boys who were just serving out their National Service, counting down the days until they could go home. He knew them all, and he loved every single one of them.

My boys. "How are we doing this morning?" This brought on a predictable chorus of groans. "Excellent! I'm glad to hear it! Well, let's get on with it; there's work to do, and I'm sure you're all eager to get to it!" Zuko paused, relishing the mixture of more groans and scattered laughter. "Alright then! Smoke 'em if you got 'em!" Zuko indulged the resulting cheer, and launched into his speech while the air filled with smoke.

Using his handy stick, he explained how everything was going to work. There were three main areas of responsibility: The stadium where the games would take place, the city proper, and the area around it where the overflow crowd was setting up camp. Each platoon would take one, and switch every few days, with the fourth platoon resting during the day so that they could perform night duty. Arms were to consist of naginata spears (better for tight spaces) and their usual wakizashi swords, but here, Zuko had to pause and put on his angry face.

"There are strict rules regarding the use of deadly force. That being, deadly force, or any force at all, is to be a last, extreme resort. Any man who steps out of line and causes trouble will answer directly to me. Understood?!"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Excellent." He went on, covering logistical details and the like. Rest, he emphasized, would be important; days were to be sun-up to sun-down. "Further," he growled, glaring, "this isn't a combat detail, but there will be no slacking off. Understood?!"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"That's what I thought." The stick had been shown, so it was time for the carrot. Zuko covered how leave would work. The platoon that had night duty on a given day would have the liberty of the town – unarmed, and in duty uniforms only – during the daylight hours before starting the night duty. Further, on each of the two Fridays that their stay in Gaoling would cover, the company would split into two halves, which would trade off enjoying an evening off, contingent on good behavior, Zuko emphasized.

"And what is good behavior?" Zuko asked. "To that, I say, remember the Captain's words. The Code of Military Justice will be fully enforced. Am I clear?!"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

After that, there was a brief Q&A session (there weren't many question, but Zuko felt that it was important that his boys knew they could ask, given that the proper procedures were followed). Zuko then turned the floor over to Guan Yu, at which point he was pleased to see that, without prompting, his boys snapped back to attention and bowed in respect.

Gods, I love these boys. Getting exiled was the best damn thing that ever happened to me.

Guan Yu, through his translator (whose Nihongo made Zuko wince, but was passable), gave a very concise, albeit comprehensive presentation, mostly about what they could all expect. Problems largely consisted of drunks and spectators angry when their favored fighters lost. There had been problems with the local Triad syndicate in the past, but Guan Yu didn't expect that they would try much with Fire Nation soldiers patrolling the streets. He finished by discussing crowd control procedures, humbly requesting that the soldiers not take any initiatives and follow their officers' instructions. When he wrapped up, Zuko thanked him, they exchanged bows, and Zuko once more opened the floor for questions. There being none, Zuko went over a few housekeeping details, urged his boys to get a good night's rest, and nodded for Sergeant Toshio to give the call to dismiss.

There was more to do, of course. Zuko watched, pleased, while his boys leaped into action. Sergeants strode into the assembly, barking orders. Soon, soldiers were bustling about the compound, getting ready for full duty on the morrow, and, Zuko did not doubt, looking forward to a final night of something akin to relaxation.

There was one final bit of what Zuko couldn't help but feel was the most important business of the day. In essence, it consisted of the Captain, puffing his pipe and smiling, while Zuko, Ryu, and Toru took advantage of dinner to take turns trying various ways to get Yukawa (Tsurukawa had hurled himself into bed immediately after finishing eating) to take one of their places at the ball the following evening.

To no one's surprise, Yukawa did absolutely nothing. He merely sat and smiled, watching as Zuko and his fellow officers flailed desperately about.

So, just some housekeeping details there, Faithful Readers. I felt it was important to establish how this would all be working; that way, the setting is firmly in your mind, and I don't have to spend too much time later calling back to it. Though, you can probably skip a lot of this. It's most important to me in established how Zuko feels about his boys, and how, I think, his boys feel about him. I hope it's obvious that they respect and admire him, without my harping on it.

Moving on...not too much else to say here. Sorry you didn't get too many updates today, and that they came so late. I had a real bad case of writer's laze, which is a condition different from writer's block. Writer's laze occurs when the writer knows exactly what they want to write, how they want to write it, only can't quite motivate themselves to do it. I was just in this headspace of, Meh, I want to be entertained for once, and I got wrapped up in Half-Asleep, which is an incredible fic by The Crushinator. Seriously, it's awesome. Go check it out if you haven't already. I was just...blown away.

Back to the fic, though...that's all for today. I promise you'll get more tomorrow! Speaking of which...

In the next chapter, Sokka takes Korra out for a walk around town, and they have a moment. Stay tuned!