Chapter 5
It seemed like hours before his Uncle finally returned, rosy-cheeked and reeking of sake. Two smiling women followed him, giggling.
"Whoo! I'd forgotten how good the food and drink here is!" Iroh said happily, plopping down on the cushion opposite Zuko. The prince scowled in disapproval: he enjoyed the occasional spirit, but he would never let himself sink to his esteemed relative's level of inebriety.
"The cooks do their job well," Sienna murmured, smiling. "Almost too well sometimes."
"My good lady Sienna; if you're afraid the cuisine will outshine your loveliness, then may I be the first to say that you would be entirely wrong." Iroh swept a ridiculously low bow, stumbling into the table a little. His two attendants caught him and laughed as they righted him bodily.
Zuko ran a palm over his face.
"I came out here to tell you that dinner will be ready shortly," Iroh said. "Mai's brought in tumblers from town! They'll perform during dessert. Then a night of blissful… er… sleep." The general grinned at each tittering girl on his arm. "Our bedrooms are being prepared as we speak. We're very lucky tonight – we're getting the VIP rooms on the top floor!"
The prince made a noise. Sleep sounded like a great idea: that way, he'd open his eyes tomorrow morning and this whole fiasco of a birthday would finally be over.
"I'll go see to your bed," Sienna offered and gracefully rose from her place. As she made her way around the table, Zuko realized in horror what she meant.
"No!" He grabbed her hand. The girl stopped, alarmed. "I mean… that is…"
"If you would prefer me to keep you company during dinner, I would be happy to." She said demurely, an amused look crinkling her eyes.
Zuko realized he was still clinging to the water girl's hand. He let go abruptly. "Yes. That is what I want." He fumbled. "Please."
Sienna dipped her head as Zuko got up, his knees popping from having sat in the same rigid position for so long. He awkwardly proffered his arm and she took it with a broad smile.
They headed inside for dinner.
To say it was a feast fit for a prince hardly did the meal justice: Zuko looked over the dishes, realizing it was the first time in a while he had enjoyed anyone but Cook's simple fare. As it was, he preferred light meals of fish, vegetables and rice, but the platters of roast pork, pheasant, stewed beef, and soft-shelled crab laid out before him were too good to pass up.
He nibbled in his princely fashion, trying hard not to seem overly pleased by the food.
"Delicious! Absolutely superb!" Iroh set his bowl down as they finished and the servants cleared the table. Madame Mai beamed.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it," she said to both the men. "And now, dessert!"
She clapped her hands and a boisterous clamour of bells, drums, and cymbals started up. Two doors to the side of the courtyard opened up and out shot a half dozen acrobats in colourful leotards, somersaulting and flipping deftly over the cleared performing space. Four clowns juggled and danced around the edges, looking absolutely ridiculous but not in the ha-ha way.
Zuko barely paid any attention, choosing instead to stare off at some point in the middle distance, bored. Every feat the tumblers performed elicited a mental I can do that if I wanted to. Truth be told, Zuko probably could perform any of those tricks with a little practice.
"Is something wrong, Zuko?" Sienna asked at his elbow.
He had almost entirely forgotten the water girl to his left during the meal. His breath hitched once more as he looked at her sideways, seeing that dark brown profile with the wide blue eyes.
He looked away, a little guiltily.
"No… it's nothing."
Sienna looked into his face with concern. She could tell he wasn't having any fun – had not been having any fun since his arrival. She hadn't been working at the bordello long, but she had encountered plenty of clients who had been pressured into accepting the girls' services, and it never ended well for those who would not allow themselves any modicum of pleasure. She took it upon herself to try to at least make the teen a little more comfortable.
The servants had brought trays of dragon beard – sweet, powdered treats that only highly skilled chefs knew how to make. The sweets were made of crushed, honey-roasted peanuts wrapped in the most delicate sugared vermicelli-like strands. They simply melted in your mouth, and the women of the bordello had a hard time not gobbling down these delectable but messy and figure-widening confections.
Sienna deftly picked up a piece of the powdered sweet and scooted up closer to the birthday boy.
"Here Zuko, have some dragon's beard," She held the piece up to his face.
Zuko looked shocked. He stared cross eyed at the piece of food in her fingers then up at her face.
"I can feed my—MMRPH!"
Sienna shoved half the candy into the teen's mouth, and he had no choice but to bite down and chew. The girl took the other half away and proffered a napkin.
"Aren't they delicious?" She asked with a smile. Her hand strayed to his shoulder and he looked up at her, cheeks flushed with anger, or possibly confusion. The prince said nothing, his sugar-powdered lips looking temptingly inviting to the young bordello worker. He really was quite handsome; innocent, almost, despite the scar and perpetual scowl.
"Here," she offered the other half and Zuko looked at it warily, afraid she would assault him again. He hesitantly parted his lips and let her push the sweet into his mouth. His lips closed over her fingertips, and she felt them brush lightly against her skin.
He looked into her face momentarily, realizing the intimate contact they'd just made. A blush burned high on his cheeks and he looked away, even as she reached around and dusted the white powdered sugar from his chin.
She smiled and offered him another sweet.
Sokka was a little too stage frightened to do anything but stand in his designated spot and spin around like a fool. Looking like an idiot proved to be a lot harder than he had originally anticipated, but it would be well worth the five silvers he and Aang would each receive at the end of the night.
Despite the frenetic dancing, that particular shade of blue on the dais caught his eye and he stopped momentarily to catch a look.
His stomach leapt to his throat.
Katara?
He looked again: no, it wasn't Katara. Just someone who looked remarkably like her. At that moment, she was feeding morsels of something to her companion, a young man whose distinct queue of raven wing hair immediately caught his attention…
Zuko!
What the hell was the prince doing here? Sokka nearly panicked and ran off, screaming for Aang, when a tumbler looked his way and hissed for him to keep dancing.
What could he do? The monk was on the opposite corner of the square wearing a ridiculous bright orange wig and a billowing suit of iridescent scales. He didn't seem to have noticed Zuko yet, and the prince was too involved doing whatever it was he was doing with the girl at his side.
Sokka looked about, scoping out the exits and planning the quickest escape route he could. The main entrance was too prominent and out of the question, flanked on either side by tall, beefy-looking guards. His best hope of escape was with the rest of the troupe when the performance was over. He would just have to hope the teenage Firebender would continue to be too preoccupied to notice his prey dancing before him.
The Water Tribe warrior prayed neither Katara nor Aang gave away their identities.
Katara finished her supper and rushed to the door leading out to the main courtyard where the tumblers were performing. On a small dais at one end of the courtyard was Madame Mai and her two guests, flanked by a few of the girls. She was too far to see their faces, but figured they must be very important to receive so much attention.
She looked over at the performers and picked out Sokka, smiling as the proud, brave Water Tribe warrior hopped from one foot to the next, prancing about on the spot like an idiot. She scanned the other clowns and picked out Aang. It was his diminutive size compared to the other performers than gave him away. That, and the characteristic buoyancy of his movements Katara had learned to recognize.
The sinewy tumblers arced and jumped and soared through the air gracefully, reminding the Waterbender of penguins moving through the water. At one point, they formed a hoop with their bodies and each member leapt through it, taking the place of one of the hoop-makers as the next jumped through.
When she looked again, Katara noticed the esteemed guests weren't paying any attention. One of them was fawning over the girl sitting next to him as she fed him, the other was simply drinking and laughing.
How rude, she sniffed.
The tumblers leapt out of their formation and bowed, receiving hearty applause from the audience of servants and bordello workers. The lead tumbler stepped forward.
"For our final feat, we would like one of our guests to join us on the floor. You there!" He pointed at one of the men on the dais. He sat perfectly still, staring.
The other man urged the man to his feet and he was unceremoniously shoved down into the performers' midst.
Katara stared in horror, heart plunging to her stomach.
Zuko!
She looked at Sokka, who was trying to hide his face by staring at the ground. Aang looked equally as surprised, and was simply standing stock still, as if the prince could only detect his prey by movement.
Katara's head swirled. What could she do? She couldn't leave the boys there, and she couldn't call Appa: blowing the bison whistle now might alert any Fire Nation soldiers in the vicinity of the Avatar's whereabouts.
She had to wait. If they were lucky, Zuko wouldn't recognize Aang or Sokka. Thank the gods they were in costume and she was wearing the white servant's mask and kerchief.
The tumbler guided Zuko to the centre of the floor and had him stand very still. Into each hand, he placed a lit oil brazier, each giving of a hot flame. He instructed the teen to hold the lamps out at arms length to either side of his body. The tumblers each held three candles – the trick was they would leap and fly by, lighting all three of their candles on the outstretched flames in two passes or fewer. It was part juggling, part tumbling, part fire play. The prince did not look pleased as the acrobats took their places.
"Ready!" The leader shouted. "Set! GO!"
The tumblers had known it was his birthday, of course. They would have accepted no other "volunteer" except him. Iroh had gleefully pushed him to his feet, but it was Sienna who had sweetly urged him on. Ridiculously, a small part of him wanted to impress the girl.
And so he had gone up, albeit a little reluctantly, and joined the spectacularly dressed performers. He frowningly complied with the leader's instructions to hold very still, arms outstretched, holding the open flames. It seemed like such a stupid trick – he was a Firebender, after all, so the danger factor was quite low, or so he thought. And the acrobatics were really sub-par: he'd seen better that the Fire Nation palace. But that had been years ago, when he was still welcome in the court…
"GO!" He heard faintly.
A whirl of bodies zipped past him, sandwiching him uncomfortably between two lines of diving, leaping forms. He felt the jangle of the lamps in either hand as a candle or two was touched to the flame. Part of him thought about bursting into flame just to startle the performers, but Iroh had warned him against using his bending in this place – it wasn't regarded as good guest etiquette.
Even with the blur of acrobats squeezing him into his imaginary flat box of space, Zuko refused to close his eyes. He fixed his gaze on a point in the distance, not really looking at anything, and let his mind wander as he blocked out the action around him.
He thought about Sienna, and realized he was now seeing her as a separate entity from Katara. She wasn't the Water Tribe girl he had first encountered when the pursuit for the Avatar had begun in earnest: she was a bordello worker, a girl who made a living off pleasuring her clients. She was really no different from the concubines of the hougong at the Fire Nation palace, except that she was remarkably young, and saddled with unfortunate circumstances. Zuko idly wondered if she would go home to the Northern Water Tribe if given the chance – perhaps she had relatives there who would welcome her home?
But that was unlikely. People would wonder how she had survived the pirate attack, and how she had managed to make her way back home so well fed and healthy. The truth would come out sooner or later, and knowing what Zuko knew about the honour and the virtue of Water Tribe maidens, Sienna would be exiled from her homeland.
At least here in Madame Mai's court, she was fed, sheltered, and given a certain amount of protection. Perhaps she was better off here than anywhere else.
The oil brazier in the prince's left hand jangled alarmingly, jarring him from his reverie. For a moment, he forgot what he was doing and lifted his arm to inspect the lamp, just as a tumbler lunged for the flame.
The oil spilled, and Zuko found himself on fire.
Ah, torturing Zuko is so much fun... just one more chapter to go!