It had been just about a week since we first arrived in Ba Sing Se and started working at the teashop, and all the while Iroh had fully submerged into his work having found something that he truly loved and enjoyed. I was glad to see him so happy, but I was worried that Jet still hadn't backed off and was still keeping us under surveillance. I expected him to maybe try something or make a move sometime soon, but that evening he just burst into the tea shop with a kick against the door, offering no prior warning but clearly fed up that he still hadn't found any evidence.

"I'm tired of waiting. These people are fire benders!" Pointing directly at us as I was in the middle of taking a pot of tea over to some customers, Zuko had quickly moved his arm to cover me as Iroh looked around in surprise as Jet drew his swords and took up an aggressive stance, signalling that he was done waiting around. Crap, this was bad. "I know they're fire benders! I saw the old man heating his tea!" Maybe not the best explanation he could have come up with just then, but I wasn't about to complain. Thankfully we had a few officers in the shop and all of them were now frowning warily at Jet who kept holding his weapons up.

"He works in a tea shop."

"He's a fire bender, I'm telling you!" Getting up in order to deal with him, the officer instructed Jet to stand down, hoping to resolve this peacefully.

"Drop your swords boy, nice and easy." Jet ignored them, focusing on Zuko as his main target as I slowly put down the teapot I was holding, ushering some of the customers towards the back of the shop as the manager came out to see what was going on.

"You'll have to defend yourself, then everyone will know. Go ahead, show them what you can do." Knowing that Zuko was never one to back down from a challenge, I saw him go for the double broadswords at the officer's waist and drawing them in order to retaliate against Jet's challenge, turning to face him ready.

"You want a show? I'll give you a show."

"No don't, don't fight please!" I jumped forwards and pulled on Zuko's arm, hoping to make him back down just for now. "This won't solve anything, please just…" Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jet move whilst Zuko had turned his head fully to look at me as I clutched onto his sleeve. Jet, hoping to take advantage of Zuko's distraction, lashed out with his swords and I gargled out a screech before pulling Zuko out of the way and held out my hand to stop Jet, blocking the way but one of the hooks slashed across my palm and the other raked against my cheek, drawing a long line of blood from both injuries as they suddenly gushed with heat and I cried out from the sharp sensation of pain.

"Kayo!" Zuko saw the blood, then all he saw was red. He grabbed hold of me, looking at the injury on my face as I cried like the wimp I was. Whirling around, Zuko bellowed with rage. "You hurt her!" There was no stopping him after that, he and Jet clashing against each other as Iroh hurried to bind up my hand with a cloth then pressed another against my cheek, wrapping an arm around me to try and calm me down as I blinked in a daze. Everywhere there was crashing and clashing, Zuko and Jet fighting all around the shop and every loud sound made me flinch and hide against Iroh who shielded me whilst I prayed for it all to stop.

When I heard the door burst open and Zuko grunt, I quickly twisted around in order to see him being kicked outside by Jet who followed after him. "No!" I started to grow worried, pulling against Iroh in order to break free but he held me back, not wanting to allow me to jump between the two of them again but followed the fight outside as everyone else did the same, gasping in shock as Jet struck at Zuko with both of his hooked swords, locking each other in combat.

"You must be getting tired of using those swords. Why don't you go ahead and fire bend at me?" Both of them glared at one another and grit their teeth, struggling to gain the advantage as Iroh called out desperately.

"Please son, you're confused. You don't know what you're doing!" Jet ignored Iroh and continued stabbing at Zuko, forcing him to defend before one of his blades was caught and deflected, forcing Zuko to lose his footing momentarily before they were exchanging blows again, locking swords and neither one giving way to the other.

"Bet you wish he'd help you out with a little fire blast right now." Jet taunted, slicing at Zuko's feet but Zuko managed to stab downwards and catch the sword through the hilt in the gap between the handle, catching Jet as he answered back.

"You're the one who needs help." They were both down to just one sword now, fighting fiercely with metal clashing against metal. When I realised that both of them were moving towards a well, my head lifted immediately and I pulled away from Iroh in order to take up a stance, taking a deep breath before focusing. I couldn't see the water, but I knew it was there. If I could pull it up then I could put a stop to this stupid fight and settle things. I felt the pull, the sensations rippling over me as Jet landed on the edge of the water as I felt it churning and rising below our feet.

"You see that? The Fire Nation is trying to silence me. It'll never happen!" Just as Jet hooked his sword into the wooden beam of the well's cover, I thrust my hands up into the air and the water exploded out of the well's mouth, causing everyone to shout and scream as I moved it to wrap around Jet and engulf him like a hand, pulling him back away from Zuko to then throw him into the ground. Everybody looked around in a panicked surprise until they started backing away from me, seeing my stance and raised hands as I pulled the water back towards me and formed a thick ring which spiralled around me.

"Enough! Stop this Jet, you're just making things worse for yourself." I called to him as he coughed and spluttered, dragging himself up from the ground where he was now drenched to the bone. He stared at me with wide eyes, seeing the water ring around me as I held my defensive stance.

"You're a water bender? That's impossible!"

"I don't care what you believe, I want you to stop trying to hurt my friend. Stop this Jet, or I'll stop you." Jet looked momentarily confused, struggling to comprehend that I wasn't a fire bender and I hoped that he might come to the realisation that we weren't dangerous, but no such luck.

"You may be a water bender, but those two have to be fire benders. I just know it! I'm going to prove it to you all!" Jet started to charge straight for Zuko but I stepped forwards, stabbing at the water with straight hands to send ice projectiles straight at Jet which forced him to deflect and defend himself, using his sword to smash the ice before I then whirled the water around as I turned and formed it into a water whip, lashing it forwards and catching hold of his foot to pull it out from underneath him.

He gave a yell, unable to fight back as I pulled him away from Zuko who had frozen in place, unsure of whether or not to let me handle it or finish his fight. Jet sliced at the water to break the hold, freeing himself but I continued to push forwards so that I was standing between him, Zuko and Iroh, water rushing to my hands as I guided it in gentle weaves and patterns, standing lightly on the tips of my toes as I found myself naturally dancing along with the movements in coiled, controlled motion.

When Jet rushed at me with a powerful yell, I calmly flicked out my hands to coil the water up and blasted it at him a final time, tossing him against a wall before I froze it with a breath, keeping him pinned down then with a final whip of water, I struck his hand so that he was forced to drop his sword. "Give up Jet. I don't like fighting or violence, but I'll make an exception for you. You can't win this fight."

"Ugh! You're a traitor! You're with the fire benders, and that makes you the enemy. How could you be on their side?" Jet yelled at me as he struggled against the ice whilst I moved all the remaining water back into the well, letting it drop as I then dusted myself off proudly.

"I'm on nobody's side but my own." Just then two well dressed guards appeared on the scene, clearly holding a higher authority than the usual guards and officers around here since everybody gave way to them.

"Drop all weapons! What's going on here?" They looked pointedly at Zuko who dropped his sword before frowning at Jet frozen in ice, so I bashfully let him go and turned my face away, trying not to draw attention to myself as he fell to the ground but quickly picked himself up, turning on us.

"Arrest them. They're fire benders."

"This poor boy is confused. We're just simple refugees." Iroh stepped up in order to rectify things as Zuko and I walked over to one another, his arm going around my shoulders to pull me over to him and keep me anchored at his side as I quite happily hid against him, hoping no one would point me out as one of the people who caused trouble as our manager angrily yelled whilst pointing at Jet.

"This young man wrecked my tea shop, and assaulted my employees."

"It's true sir. We saw the whole thing. This crazy kid attacked the finest tea maker in the city." One of our frequent customers, the officer, informed the high ranking guards which made Iroh blush at the compliment.

"Oh ho. That's very sweet." Needing no further evidence, the agents quickly seized Jet and his weapons before taking him away, though he kicked and yelled as they did so, still insisting that we were fire benders. I felt a little guilty for him because technically he was right, but we couldn't let anybody else know that. If we blew our cover here, we were screwed. Well, that was what I'd call one eventful night, and now we had to go back in and clean up the mess Zuko and Jet had made.

"I mean, I know you can't exactly help it but could you have at least tried to be more careful?" I complained whilst sweeping up a broken teapot that had been smashed the scuffle. "I hope our pay doesn't get deducted…"

"Not at all! In fact, I was thinking about giving you all a raise for doing such a good job." I jolted and squeaked when I heard the manager behind me, wincing inwardly at the fact that he'd overheard me. "So you're a water bender huh? It's unusual to see someone like you around here. Shouldn't you be somewhere up north with the rest of the water benders?"

"I wasn't born in the Water Tribes, so no. You were saying something about a pay rise?" Quickly moving the topic on, our manager laughed and assured us that since we'd brought more business through his doors in the last week than he had had in the past month without us, we were going to be well rewarded. I jumped up with a cheer of celebration before excitedly turning around to Zuko. "You hear that Lee? More money!"

"Yay, joy." My face fell at his total lack of enthusiasm, so I picked up my broom and hit him with it. "Ow! Hey! What was that for?"

"For being grumpy and moody. I know we said we'd keep our heads down but I couldn't just let that guy kick your butt could I? I had to do something."

"I was handling it on my own! I didn't need your help interfering. You were already hurt, you should have just stayed out of it." Reaching up to touch my cheek, I felt the open cut and my shoulders sagged a little. I hope it didn't scar. I wonder if that magic healing water trick would work on myself? It's worth a try at the very least, but still. It really stung, and my hand hurt too where it had been cut. That injury was deeper and had bled a lot more, turning the cloth that had been used to bind it bright red. Seeing that I was now upset and my spirits had wilted, Zuko soften and came over in order to apologise. "I'm sorry, that was harsh. You were just trying to help, and I appreciate it, but you shouldn't put yourself in danger like that." Resting his hand on my head to rub my hair, Zuko then inspected the cut on my face for a moment or two before pulling me against his chest to hug me. "It's not so bad, it'll heal in a few weeks. Let's just forget about all this, okay?"

"Hm. Good idea." Feeling a little better since Zuko had comforted me, I stood in his arms for a while before I suddenly blushed and cleared my throat, pulling away from him. "We better finish cleaning up, there's still a lot to do since you figured you'd smash up pretty much everything breakable in here." Zuko rolled his eyes but nodded in agreement picking up his broom again as I did the same and soon, nothing could be heard other than the sound of our rhythmic sweeping against the floor.