A/N. So, this is an Aang chapter. The next two are Katara, to get the count even.
I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender.
As the three guards were leading Aang up to the building, he tried to hold in his laughter. School? Seriously? That was great! This was the greatest thing that had happened in a while. He had never hated school at the temple, and he was actually curious how the Fire Nation would educate their people.
The building stood on the side of one of the mountains that surrounded the town, and from behind the whitewashed wall Aang saw a large statue in the courtyard of a man holding a flame in his hand. Probably the school's founder, or the person it was named after. They entered that same courtyard by a small door in the wall.
The airbender saw that the yard was actually lined with stone benches, and that at one side, where the building stood, a large but low staircase led into the school. The three guards that had apprehended him in the town, thinking he was playing hooky, walked behind him while they climbed those steps.
"Listen lad, it is really a stupid idea to miss lessons." The older man spoke rather kindly.
"I wasn't doing it on purpose." Aang answered. He didn't even know that he was wearing a school uniform, and he wasn't actually going to this school…
"Yeah, yeah, they all have the same excuses. But really, seeing you age, it is important. You wouldn't want to have a bad record when going to military service, believe me." The old man said. Wait, what?
A hundred years ago, the Fire Nation had already a military service in place, but only on a voluntary basis. If you objected or wanted to do something else, you could sign a paper to get in the reserve, which meant you could only be called up if needed… That had ben the case with Kuzon's father, who had never been a violent or military-style man, preferring his fisher's hut by the river.
"Thanks." Aang whispered. He tried not to think about all that had changed, and not for the better it seemed…
"Ah, one that still knows manners at least." The man smiled, directing him to the left corridor. He opened the first door in that hallway and gently pushed Aang inside.
He was greeted by around twenty people, all around his own age, staring at him. They all wore the same clothes as he did and seemed rather surprised.
"And who might this be?" A woman, standing to Aang's right, whom he hadn't seen until she spoke, stated. She looked… serious. With the hair pulled in a topknot, and the dark greyish eyes looking at him as if he was some kind of vermin.
"Eh… a new student?" Aang tried. He had to or get out of here, or lie his way he knew that, to keep their cover intact, that lying would be the safer option. If he had to bend here, that proof awkward, as he was capable of bending all elements except fire.
"You are from the colonies, if my ears don't deceive me. That accent is enough to know that for sure." The woman raised her eyebrows at him. Aang didn't exactly know why, but she seemed not to like him at all…
"Yes, the colonies! Yu Dao to be exact!" The airbender smiled, lying through his teeth. He didn't like to lie, but in this case, he might better lie as if his life depended on it. Because it probably did…
"Ah, Yu Dao… At least one of the better ones. Your etiquette is terrible, in the homeland we bow to our elders."
Homeland?
That had never been the nomenclature of the Fire Nation in his time… The fatherland? Sure. The Fire Kingdom? He had heard that one often enough… But Homeland? No, that sounded as if there were other parts of the Fire Nation, outside of the homeland… She probably meant the colonies. Maybe they had been officially incorporated into the nation?
"Ah, forgive me." He bowed politely, making sure to press a fist against his open palm, as Gyatso had taught him when he was younger. His mentor had always tried to teach him the customs and traditions of lands they visited, so he could, most of the time, greet someone as their country required.
The woman tapped a short stick against his hand. Why? This was the way that the Fire Nation greeted an elder… He looked up, and saw a girl in the front row put her fist under the open palm, as is the recreate a fire.
Ah… That had apparently changed… But he knew that greeting. That kind of bow was reserved to Fire Sages, no?
Aang reproduced the motion, and the woman nodded shortly, clearly satisfied by his correction.
"And we don't wear head coverings indoors."
"Ehm… I kind of have a scar there that I would rather not show…" He protested. It was true. His tattoo was kind of a scar, no? And he had to hide it. So, no lie!
"Very well." The woman sighed, clearly not very happy about it, but letting it pass, "And what is your name? Or should we just call you mannerless colony slob?"
Wow. That was harsh and kind of offensive to the people of the colonies…
"Slob is just fine." He couldn't resist that small act of resistance to the woman's unbearable way of trying to force her authority on him.
"Ah. And your real name?" The teacher was apparently not amused.
"Kuzon." He answered immediately. He felt guilty about using the name of his old friend, but he had to, no? At least, he was sure that it was a name acceptable in these territories.
"Well, Kuzon, go sit next to On Ji, and please don't disturb the lesson even further." The teach waved her hand to one of the tables in the front row, next to the girl that had helped him. Aang quickly sat down and sighed in relief. At least, his disguise had worked, and his lack of knowledge about recent developments was not too noticeable. For the moment.
Maybe it would be a good idea to spend the day here? At least, he could maybe discover how the customs had changed, so that he and his friends wouldn't be recognized as imposters? His friends… Spirits, he had promised Katara to watch out, and now, they probably didn't know where he was… There was nothing he could do about it without arousing suspicion, but still, it made him anxious.
He had apparently barged in on a geography lesson… The teacher unfurled a large map, and began to explain things about the economy of the island. Even if it had been an interesting subject, Aang knew he would have lost all interest. Because of the map.
It was wrong. The Fire Nation didn't look like that… It looked… Bigger. As if someone had enlarged each island, so that it looked as huge as the Earth Kingdom… Why would anyone do that? It was no secret that the Earth Kingdom was the largest of the four nations…
And there were other things that caught his eye… The west coast of the Earth Kingdom was also painted in red, as if it was a part of the Fire Nation… And… no.
The territories that had traditionally been associated with the Western Air Temple were also red… Had they… occupied those valleys and canyons? It was good farmland, Aang knew that, but otherwise, there had been little of consequence in those lands…
The Homeland.
Oh… Now he understood. The Fire Nation had annexed other territories… Spirits. That was wrong… so very wrong. It had been the task of the Avatar to stop that kind of aggressive expansion since that Chin the Conqueror had been stopped by Avatar Kyoshi…
"The island of Kirashi produces the ship for our glorious fleet since the first years of the reign of Fire Lord Azulon the Good." Those words managed to find their way to his ears.
The Good? If Aang wasn't mistaken, he knew enough about that man to know that that nickname was a very large overstatement. Sokka had told him once that Ozai's father had been the one to attack the northern part of the Earth Kingdom, and to occupy it. Then, he had ordered the construction of a large number of ships to fight the Water Tribes apparently…
"Those ships have been used in the victory this winter against the snow savages of the north."
What victory? In his eyes, no one had won that battle. No battle could actually be won. Each side lost, by the fact of losing the lives of so many people… The only victory that was possible was a peaceful resolution to a fight, as the Air Nomads had always tried to achieve…
The rest of the lesson past in a haze, and Aang was relieved when the teacher said that it was the end of the lesson, and of the day. Maybe it was a bit too much information… Or false information that was. How could anyone believe all this… He stood up, and began to walk to the door. He past the corridor, with all the other young people. They walked in a single file, going to the courtyard. He saw one or two of the others make a small gesture with their hands, as if to say join us in the file of sadness.
He refused. Aang remembered the end of a school day at the temple. The children had been allowed to run free and play around. But here, it was rigorous discipline. It was so different from the way he remembered…
The sun stood still high in the sky, as it was not even past half the afternoon, Aang suspected.
"Hey, watch out for Miss Atachu, she can be nice enough, but if she doesn't like you, she will come after you like a sparrow hawk." A voice called behind him. Aang turned around and saw the girl, On Ji stand behind him.
"Is she always like that?" He asked.
"No, she is really nice actually, just very keen on the rules being followed."
He had not mean that. Aang had wanted to know if her lessons were always weird and filled with lies…
"I've seen that!" He laughed. It was no use pouting about these… trivial things. If they managed to defeat the Fire Nation, these things could be changed. For now, they didn't have the power to change things. Even if he wanted too very badly…
"So, you're Kuzon, right? I'm On Ji!" The girl in front of him bowed politely, and he returned the gesture.
"Are you really from the colonies?" she asked him while walking to one of those stone benches that stood at the sides of the courtyard. Aang followed and sat down, because he was rather curious what young Fire Nation people thought and did for fun now. His only experience with Fire Nationals these last few months had been… a bit unsettling. Soldiers had hunted them, as had the royal family. So… What did normal people think?
"Yes! Yu Dao to be exact!" He said, while stretching his legs and feeling the sun on his face. He put the back of his head against the stone wall behind him. He had decided on that town, because it was the only one he had known, being the oldest of the colonies.
"I've never been outside of the island! How is it?" The girl asked, genuinely interested. Aang was relieved. At least, one normal person… One person that didn't look at him as if he was a relic.
"Every place is different, and it is always nice to visit new places. For example, here, the weather is so hot, and it's not even really summer yet! In the colonies, the weather is much more temperate, with rain and even snow!" He loved talking about those things… To tell people about his travels. And if it made these people talk a bit about other things than the production of battle ships… Well, that was a win in his book, no?
"Snow? You're pulling my leg, it doesn't snow in the colonies, it is always nice weather there." The girl laughed and didn't seem to consider that weird. But Aang understood. The Fire Nation had probably told their citizens it was a good life in the colonies, to make people settle the territory…
"Sure, I was kidding!" Aang tried to steer the conversation away from things that had been influenced by the regime.
"I like your headband!" The girl spoke suddenly, and she didn't look at him.
"Oh, thanks! Yeah, I have a scar there, so I prefer to wear something to cov-" before he could finish his sentence, a young man, maybe a year older than Aang was, stood in front of him and blocked the sun on his face.
"You don't have to babysit the new guy On Ji!" The voice sounded a bit whiny, in Aang's opinion. He squinted his eyes and saw that the gentleman in front of him had a large, square face, with small amber eyes looking down at him.
"I can talk to whoever I like Hide." The girl next to him protested, and it sounded like she did that often, to no avail apparently…
"Not to colony trash! You know the rules about those… people!" The boy in front of them began to talk louder, attracting the attention of other students around.
The boy, Hide extended his hand to On Ji, and she took in, clearly reluctantly. As she walked away with him, the girl looked back at Aang and waved. He waved back, not really sure what just had happened. Another boy, this time one that was plainly younger than the airbender
"Don't try and talk back to Hide, he is a bully. Thinks he can do everything because he is the nephew of the headmaster…" The boy explained in a hushed voice, looking around as if Hide could hear him.
Aang knew the type… At the Southern Air Temple, when he had just got his tattoos, one of the boys had begun to bully him. First, it were small things, like hiding his books when he needed to study, or just some name calling.
It had escalated after several weeks, and the boy, Penzo, had begun to shove him in the corridors of the temple until Monk Tashi had put a stop to it. Hide had clearly not been reined in and could do anything he liked.
"It seems like he could use some meditation and relaxing activities… Like going to the beach, maybe that would make him less of a bully? What is your name actually?" Aang suggested. The younger boy frowned at that.
"Meditation? That is all nonsense, or so they tell us at firebending lessons. Do you have those? Oh,A= and I'm Furzo!" The boy smiled, babbling away.
"No, I don't" Aang had better not try his luck in this case. It seemed to him that it would be better if his alter ego would be a non-bender. Better safe than sorry.
"Well, if you want to, you can come look, we have training at the end of the day! That is why school ends around three!" Furzo explained, waving him along.
And why not? It could be interesting to watch a real firebending lesson… Maybe even take some notes… He didn't want to learn it, but it may be a good plan to at least know the basics.
It took an hour. A long hour, looking at two dozen boys and girls training their kata. There were two teachers, one for the male part of the group, and another for the female. In his memories, the Fire Nation had never separated the two genders in school or at training, so it surprised him to see they did that here. It was not like the girls were taught some other kind of firebending, like the Northern Water Tribe had tried and failed with Katara…
No, it looked more like… they separated the two groups for the purpose of decency. That could be the only reason, no? As if the two groups should be kept apart during physical exercises, to avoid… problems.
That was nothing more than absurd… If two people really wanted to get together, they would find a way… But like this, the teachers ensured that that curiosity would be even more developed. At the Air Temples, they had also been separated… And Aang was not going to lie to himself, which had been rather difficult at around thirteen or fourteen… That was one of the things he had actually not liked about his people… All that talk about freedom and liberty to choose your partner, without being told what and how to do it… And yet, in the temples, they had been kept separate…
And here, that fault was being repeated…
When the training ended, Aang stood up, and began to walk away. He had taken much time… Too much. The others would be worried sick about him, and he needed to get back to them. He walked out of the courtyard and was greeted by a voice.
"Hey Kuzon!" It was On Ji. She was standing next to the gates, with several books under her arm, "I saw that you hadn't yet picked up your books, so I did it for you!"
Oh, that was nice! Finally, a normal person in this den of weirdness…
"Thanks! Care to walk to the town?" He suggested, thinking nothing of it, while taking the books from the girl, nodding.
"Yes!" She answered almost immediately, and hopped next to him, walking the pathe down towards the town.
"I'm sorry about Hide… His parents have met mine once, and that makes him think he is entitled to act like he does. My father wants to be friends with the magistrate, who happens to be Hide's father…" On Ji spoke softly.
"Oh… I'm sorry." And he was. It was a horrible practice, one that he had opposed before, and now hated, after what happened at the North Pole with Yue. If she had had a free choice, she would have had a nice last pair of weeks with Sokka. But that choice had been ripped from her, because of the way of thinking of the North Pole…
"It's not your fault, it is what it is." The girl next to him sighed, clearly having accepted her fate.
"No, it's not. Why not oppose that and choose for yourself. That is what I would do." Aang spoke, maybe a bit too forceful.
"Easy for you to say, you are a man."
"The Fire Nation has never forced marriage upon someone." They had not done that. Even if there had been room for improvements… The Fire Nation had been the most emancipated nation, safe from the Air Nomads.
"Under what rock have you've been hiding? We have never had a choice. The only place we are treated the same is in the classroom or on the army. Otherwise, I don't get a choice." On Ji nearly laughed, but Aang heard the bitter tone of that laugh.
"I know someone who has never accepted that and takes her own decisions. And the Spirits help anyone who tries to get in her way." He spoke without thinking, conjuring the image of Katara in his mind…
"That may be possible in the colonies Kuzon… But not here." On Ji sighed, "I live down the street, I'll go alone from here. Thanks for the talk." She waved and turned a corner to a street with rather large houses.
He himself crossed town, holding the books under his arm; thinking about what On Ji had said. If they managed to defeat Ozai… Well, there would have to be some changes. Most importantly, a return to the old ways would be quite good. The musicians had gone, there was no joy in these people. The schools taught propaganda and superiority. And even traditions had gone back several centuries, as if instead of progressing, the Fire Nation had taken a deep leap into the past.
As he arrived at the cave, the sky was still alight, for the days were becoming longer and longer now…
"There you are!" Katara's voice called out, clearly relieved, "Where were you, we were worried sick!"
"By that, she means herself. I told her I could feel you, being fine." Toph rolled her misty eyes. Aang sat down next to the fire that was blazing in the cave.
"I got kind of enrolled in a Fire Nation school…" the airbender explained, smiling at Katara. Spirits she was beautiful…
"ENROLLED IN WHAT?" Sokka screeched
"In a Fire Nation school Sokka." Aang sighed, taking a moon peach from a wooden tray that stood next to the fire, "I got caught by some guards, because my disguise is a school uniform, and they thought I was sneaking out of the school. I couldn't say that actually, I had stolen this, and that I was not a student, but the Avatar, could I?"
"Aang… That was dangerous… But I guess you are right." Katara responded, shaking her head.
"And if we stay here a bit longer, I will go back! I'm learning plenty of useful things… Like that this island is the main manufacturer of battleships." He added slyly to the argument. Sokka would love that.
"But… argh. You are right, that could be useful to know. But the minute they get suspicious, we are out of here!" the water tribe boy sighed exasperated. The airbender took of the headband, feeling freed by the lack of the cloth hiding his tattoos.
"I've got some books, if you would like to take a look at the geography book…" That would be the nail in the coffin. Sokka loved maps, and certainly one of the Fire Nation. Up to date and with every information he could ever need…
"Alright, give it here." Sokka's voice sounded greedy at once. Aang handed the book and saw how the water tribe boy went to Appa, sitting down next to the bison, opening the book.
"I'll start dinner. We've put a system into place for the chores. You cook tomorrow Aang." Katara smiled, standing up and walking to the bags that he hadn't seen before. Probably supplies the others had bought while he had been away.
That left him with Toph.
"Do you have homework Twinkletoes?" The blind girl asked, rather too nicely.
"No…" He answered warily… This sounded much like Good, then we are going to train until your arms fall off.
"Good. It that case, I have some for you. Here." The earthbender handed him a small stack of books.
Aang looked at the title of the first one… The Tales of Avatar Kyoshi? Why would he need that? He had learned about her at the temple… And if he had specific questions… He could always ask her.
"Ehm… Why do I need to learn about Kyoshi?" He asked. This made no sense at all.
"There is another book. I did not know which one, but you'll know. Now, put them away before Katara sees them."
It was only later that night, when everyone had gone to sleep, that Aang got a look at the books. The first one, about Kyoshi, he discarded, because Toph had been clear that that was not the one he should look at.
The second one, Jashi's guide on plants and their uses, didn't sound like he would enjoy it. Why had Toph given him these books? They were clearly Katara's. She loved reading about history, and the book about herbs was also something she would be interested in. Why would Toph give him Katara's books?
He put the small book in the green one about Kysohi, and took a look at the last one.
And his heart nearly stopped.
Air People's ideas of lovemaking
Had… Had Katara bought this book? They had talked about it once, in the Earth Kingdom, before meeting the blind earthbender… But he hadn't known she had actually possessed it… Feeling his face heat up rather dramatically, a thought crossed his mind.
That time in the barn… It wasn't really good… at least, not for her, he suspected… And… Oh Spirits… She had known… Katara had known what it was supposed to be like, and had not said a word about it to him…
Aang opened the book. He had homework.
Answers :
Gabriela N. Gonzalez : Yeah, Sokka knows nothing, and Toph only has suspicions, so that is going to be fun! And indeed, poor Aang… I tried to show how he thinks about it, and how he hates it. I try to take inspiration from historical governments and their flaws for the Fire Nation.
Rak : Yeah, that is actually why I wanted to include his thoughts in this chapter. He is playing a role, reluctantly, but one that come very easy to him! And Casanova will begin to make his appearance next chapter, and that is where I wanted Katara's thoughts lol!
CoyoteLemon : Can you see where this is all heading?
Jjsmith103 : Yes, I believe that is the hidden message in Book 3 : There is no one safe from where, even the people at home, or the winning nation. That is really a cool detail of the show. Oh, I'm setting up some things alright lol! On Ji is clearly crushing hard on him here already.