Even though Jin got that whole apology out of the way, a small part of her was still worried that things would be awkward at the tea house. She had realized, very belatedly, that she may have possibly blown the entire situation out of proportions. As she tended to do when she stumbled into social misshapes.
But she kept coming back to the shop, kept on her performances, and kept coming in to order snacks and teas, and tensions did seem to ease.
Iroh would always greet her with a jovial smile from his station in the back kitchen, and Zuko was getting to a point where he didn't grimace every time that Jin stepped through the front door. Only about eighty percent of the time now.
And she could actually talk to him like a normal person. It was usually just small talk, like about the weather, and the dry spell that the region was going through. Zuko would stick around for a minute to chat and then either excuse himself, or just turn around and leave while Jin was in mid-sentence.
Honestly, Jin would still count that as a win.
At least no one was quoting SpongeBob.
But all and all, life was pretty nice in Ba Sing Se. Sure Jin was still dirt poor, cut off from everyone she knew, and left to fend for herself in a fictional world but hey, at least she was doing the best with what she had available. Jin had a performing gig that she actually really enjoyed, she made extra cash on the side by babysitting kids out on the street, and walked around the city without having to fear that she might contract the plague or accidentally spread it to someone else.
Her classes were going really well too! Even though the whole earthbending thing didn't work out, Jin had still kept going back to the Learning Center for her language lessons. She was still on the alphabet basics, but now she knew how to spell her name now without any mistakes.
金
That was her name. Jīn. It means 'gold'.
It was the first thing that she had ever learned of this world's written language.
She nearly cried after that session. She wasn't really sure why, she was just overcome with emotions.
It was something that she could cling to. Something that was her's. Even if the name was only intended to be a temporary solution.
And besides that, she made friends with her co-workers! Or at least, she thought they were friends. Iroh was really nice, and friendly. Always ready to share some life hacks about solo living in a foreign city that Jin eagerly absorbed. And Jin thought that there was a slight chance that Zuko might even consider her an acquaintance.
Distant acquaintance.
A person who didn't immediately make him want to set fire to the entire Tea House.
Maybe.
Jin would readily admit that he was still a bit hard to read. But he didn't seem to be actively avoiding her all the time, and she found that she enjoyed his company when he wasn't busy running from table to table and she wasn't busy performing. So that had to count for something right?
But regardless, things weren't bad here for Jin. Not bad at all.
The weekend rolled by, and Monday arrived. Oh, sweet day off. Jin was honestly starting to like Mondays.
She found herself once again sitting at the corner table right next to the window. Not for the first time, she was incredibly grateful for the employee discount she got from working there. It certainly was a massive help to lighten her dismal budget constraints, and she could now comfortably afford three whole meals a day.
And so, Jin could afford to splurge a bit every once in a while. Like today.
The seventeen year old girl had come to the restaurant with the intent of branching out her tastes, with a goal of trying at least two different types of tea other than chamomile. While she absolutely adored her tea of choice, it was nice to mix things up a little and try new things.
So for the first time since Jin had first stepped foot into the establishment, she asked Iroh what sort of tea he served.
He blinked at her, slightly confused. "You are here so often that I thought that you would have already memorized the menu by now."
Jin felt herself flush, "Well I only ever drink chamomile, and I want to try out something new. You know, see what other flavors are out there."
"Oh," the former general smiled, "I'm never one to discourage someone from enjoying a wide variety of tea." And then he pointed to a small stack of papers. "We have a menu with all of the options right here."
Jin's smile wavered for a moment as she eyed the pile of menus. She had been hoping to avoid that little issue.
Breathe. She needed to remember to breathe.
Bitter and sweet teas awaited her.
With a hesitant hand, she picked up the paper and cradled it in her arms. Her eyes ran from right to left, scanning the contents of the menu and internally cursed herself.
Sure there were a few lines she understood like the big 'Pao's Family Tea House' at the top in big letters with the word 'Welcome!' underneath. But other than that, Jin was reaching out towards the deepest reaches of her mind to understand what the rest of the thing said. There were a few handmade black and white drawings of tea in the corners of the paper but that wasn't any help at all.
Tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, oh glorious tea.
Why must you be so difficult?
She took some more breaths.
"So…" Jin began, trying to look as casual as possible while she tilted the menu towards Iroh so that he could see the print as well. She was still kind of embarrassed to admit that she wasn't good at reading, so she hoped that Iroh understood the message that she was trying to get across. "Do you have any recommendations?"
The girl lifted her eyes up to look at the elderly man in front of her. He was watching her intently as well, but he never lost that grandfatherly smile on his face.
"Well we do have many options, and I am constantly adding new flavors so that menu you have there wouldn't have the full list." Iroh said, "Today we are offering chamomile, ginseng, jasmine, lychee, oolong, white dragon, ginger, black teas," he said, pointing to the name of each tea as he listed them. It was immensely helpful for Jin to hear the words out loud so that she could connect them to what they looked like in written form. She nodded along, committing it all to memory.
Then she hesitantly lifted her hand and pointed to the last couple of lines of the menu. "And there's green tea," she said, then dragged her finger down to the next line, "and… mixed berry tea?"
Though her statement came out as more of a question, Iroh still nodded in approval. "Yes that's correct."
Jin to beam in response, pleased that she was making some progress at least. Then Iroh continued. "All of these options are perfect in their own ways, but I would recommend the ginseng. The lychee tea is also a popular choice among the customers."
All of the teas sounded like great options, and Jin was relieved to find that she did know most of them from her own world. Except for the white dragon tea. She didn't think Sobeys carried that in their grocery stores.
That sounded like something native to the Avatar world. She should probably hold off on trying that until she knew more about that tea's actual contents.
Pity they didn't have any boba. She could really go for some taro milk tea.
"I'll try the lychee first, and then the ginseng after." Jin finally decided. "Thank you so much!"
Iroh chuckled good naturedly, "It is my pleasure. Feel free to sit down wherever you would like. I'll send my nephew over with your order."
The teenager complied and sat down at an empty table by the window. Within minutes Zuko placed the tea in front of her, and she thanked him. He grumbled something in return that Jin couldn't quite catch and went off to wait on another table.
Jin was by herself now in her little corner of the restaurant.
She felt herself melting when she caught a whiff of its absolutely delicious scent. After a few careful sips of tea, Jin tipped the cup back and down the rest of it in one gulp.
Jin approved of lychee tea. It wasn't too hot that it burned the inside of her mouth, but it wasn't cold enough that the tea lost its appeal. It was just the right temperature so that she could enjoy the naturally sweet and fruity taste of the beverage.
A solid ten out of ten, would order again.
When the ginseng tea arrived, Jin recognized it as an herbal tea that one of her friends from another life used to drink all of the time. Jin drank chamomile and her friend drank ginseng. That's just how it was.
The girl hesitated. She stared down at the orange-brown liquid. Her friend used to drink this. A lot.
When things were normal, and leaving the house didn't send Jin into a panic attack, Jin would drive to Halifax with her friend every weekend. She'd find some parking and then together they'd go exploring in the downtown area. First, the two of them would just walk around, see if there was anything new in the window displays of various shops or what was playing in the cinema. Then they would drag her over to the candy store where they would buy hard candies by the arm loads to refill their sweet stashes in their rooms. Finally after their sweet tooth was satisfied, Jin would lead them to a small coffee shop run by a family friend.
Jin wasn't a coffee person, and neither was her friend. So every time they went to the coffee shop they ordered from their small menu of teas that the store offered.
She would get the chamomile, and her friend would get the ginseng.
Jin had to breathe. Slow and steady. Focus on the breath. Focus on the tea.
It all came back to the tea.
Jin reached her hand out and picked up the cup. Jin knew before she even tried, that the tea was going to taste just as divine as anything else Iroh makes. But that just made Jin feel hollow inside. Because she knew it wouldn't taste like the overseeped monstrosities the coffee shop served that her friend loved so much.
Jin closed her eyes and breathed in deeply.
Then she brought the cup to her lips, and thought about her friend who's name was lost to time.
The girl ordered chamomile as her final drink, even though she hadn't initially planned to. She just needed to feel its taste.
"Hey kids! I spent all of yesterday contemplating the validity of my own existence, so who wants to hear a story about a giant ogre named Shrek and distract ourselves from our problems using the power of memes?"
"WE DO!"
"Well I hope y'all are ready because someBODY ONCE TOLD ME THE WORLD IS GONNA ROLL ME. I AIN'T THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED. SHE WAS LOOKING KINDA DUMB WITH HER FINGER AND HER THUMB IN THE SHAPE OF AN 'L' ON HER FOR HEAD
WELP
THE YEARS START COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING AND THEY DON'T STOP COMING-"
"You know, we've been co-workers for what, two weeks? Two and a half? And I feel like we should get to know each other better." Jin commented while she was rolling up the mat that acted as her stage during the performance that she had just finished. She let out a frustrated growl when she realized that it crookedly and she was going to have to redo it before she could put it away.
It was late, past closing time. The sky outside had already plunged into darkness hours ago, and the only available light source were the yellow lamps hanging from the ceiling that bathed the shop in a warm glow. There was no one else in the restaurant except for Jin, Zuko, and Iroh who was busy taking stock of all of his tea brewing ingredients in the back. Pao had left earlier that day for a meeting with some suppliers, and put Iroh and Zuko in charge of closing up.
Jin was just there because her own clean up after her performance was taking longer than expected. A string broke on her liuqin by the end of her last song, and she wanted to fix it as best she could before she left the shop.
She did manage to restring the instrument to a certain extent, but it still didn't sound the same when she strummed the cords. She was probably going to have to get it fixed by a professional, or at the very least someone more experienced than her.
She might be able to ask Iroh, though. After all, Jin did remember that he could play some sort of string instrument, even though for the life of her she couldn't remember what it was called.
But it was getting late and Jin didn't want to bother the old man since it was almost the end of his shift anyway. So the broken liuqin was a problem for future Jin.
As she finished rerolling her mat, Jin realized that there had been no response to her previous statement. She paused in her work and spared a glance in the direction of the only other person in the Tea House dining area.
Zuko stood frozen in place, his hands gripping the rag that he had been using to wipe down the last of the tables. He was staring at her with his brows furrowed, as if he couldn't quite make sense of what she was asking him.
"We could play a game," Jin prompted when it was clear that Zuko wasn't going to say anything on his own. "Take turns asking each other questions and stuff. It would be fun!"
"No it wouldn't." Zuko finally spoke up after an awkward pause, clearly trying to shut down this topic of discussion. "I'm a refugee working as a waiter, and you are a refugee working as a performer. There's nothing more we need to know about each other. We don't need to play any games."
Jin raised her eyebrows "How do you know that I'm a refugee? I could have been born here." she said, even though she really didn't know her own legal status in the city, and-
Oh.
Wait.
This could be a problem.
No, scratch that. This was a problem.
What was her backstory here? Did she even know that?
Jin shook her head, deciding to shelve that thought for now. She could worry about that later when she wasn't in the middle of a conversation.
Zuko glared at her, and then abruptly turned around and went to busy himself with the task of sweeping up the dust and dirt that had collected on the floor after a busy work day. "I don't care."
Jin leaned back and waved her hand to get Zuko's attention. "Come on, Lee! We can play a totally non-personal game of twenty questions. You can pass on any question you don't want to answer if you want. It would be fun!"
"No. I'm not playing your stupid game."
Jin grumbled to herself before speaking up again. "Fine. How about I ask myself a question and answer it first. What's my favorite time of day? It's the afternoon. There. Now it's your turn to answer."
The firebender paused in his sweeping. "Pass." He said, going right back to his work.
"What do you mean pass?" Jin asked in dismay. "That's like, the least personal personal-question I can ask."
"I'm not going to answer your stupid questions!" Zuko snapped, raising his voice a few notches.
"Yeah, but that's only for the big questions" Jin replied in a blasé manner, "Like 'Where are you from?', 'Why did you come here as a refugee?', 'What did you do before coming to Ba Sing Se'. I'm pretty sure you can answer the question 'What is your favorite time of day' without spilling your life story."
This time around, Zuko lifted his head up and stared at Jin dead in the eyes.
"Pass."
Jin groaned. "Alright then, have it your way." she conceded. "But mark my words, we will play twenty questions at some point! Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday we're gonna sit down and I'm gonna find out what your favorite color is. At the very least."
Author's Note:
Right, so I'm not dead, I'm still updating this story, and oh man it has been a significantly longer stretch of time between the last time I posted a chapter on this fic. Whoops.
Anyway, shout out to Pidgeapodge for their suggestion on Jin's name from like, a year ago. Sorry it took so long to actually get to this point in the story.
Thanks for reading, everyone who is still around!
Hope to see you next time!
~Lost-In-The-Muse