Take aways
Damn it! I stared at the torn-up floor. Lin´s cheeks still flared crimson and the angered artist started cranking up her gramophone. "You just HAD to ruin the floor." I growled. I was annoyed, my hand hurt as if on fire, I was exhausted and furthermore I had to fix this mess since Lin most likely didn´t even know how to cut boards. Lin flinched under my accusation and started to justify herself in a furious fit. "I-I didn´t do this on purpose! You were the one who barged into the shop like some Dai Li agent!" she rambled, obviously stressed out. "SHUT UP!" Lau Mi yelled while suddenly Jazz music shook the whole building. The volume was so high that I was waiting for the angered neighbours to storm into the building. How my daughter could like this kind of music was beyond my understanding. The whole song sounded as if a bunch of drunken schoolboys was playing randomly distributed instruments, while the singer definitely sounded as if his balls were slowly crushed. Lin however continued talking. I barely heard her over the gramophone. "Lau Mi just went to fetch the piercings – she said. You know that I was short of running off anyways? I´m – I´m just not used to be on the wrong side of law Lee! And then you stomp in there and start punching the floor. Every cop stomps the floor if some fugitive has to be in the house!" she was waving her hands around wildly. I blinked. Lin was shivering in a mixture of shame and fear I guessed. "Just why the fuck didn´t she tell me she was going to fetch you." Lin protested.
I snorted "Yeah, since you definitely would have accompanied her to my noodle cart!" I snapped back. "Gods – do you even know how worried I was – we all were!" I felt a lump in my throat. I had to tell Lin that her mother was in town again. It was the right thing to do, even if I would have loved to simply ignore it. Lin definitely would demand that I accompanied her to airtemple island. But I couldn´t, not after the promise I broke. It was dishonorable and even if I actually wanted to RUN to airtemple island I shouldn´t! a man should behave dignified. I didn´t feel ready to apologize like I had to – I really had hurt the whole Bei Fong Family and the Chief at most. You couldn´t be forgiven for something so easily, I would not LET myself be forgiven so easily! Lin still was blabbering something about Dai Lis, standard undercover tactics and other things I didn´t follow. She finally seemed to notice that I was far from cheerful. Lin went into a bending stance and moved through "earth flowing like water" to smoothen the dented congcrete. The grinding of the artificial stone luckily was mostly subdued by the howling of an ex- earthking! He movements were much more refined than in the past. She left behind a smooth surface that could have been mistaken for poured concrete. She then eyed the splintered wooden boards, picking up two pieces of the oiled bamali wood. "Could you help me pick them up`?" Lin asked in a snappy tone that strongly reminded me of her mother. Most likely that was what made the switchs in my head flip. "NO – Im NOT GOING TO PICK THIS SHIT UP!" I yelled even louder than the bloody music. Still no neighbors had arrived and even if that had been the case I would not have bothered for a shim.
"I´ve been running through the shittiest nooks and crannies of the bloody city to find you. Every gods damned night! For more than a motherfucking month, and then – when I finally manage to find you I´ve to race through half the city like some crazed koalasheep fucking retard!My gods damned palm looks like a fucking slice of raw bacon and I´m so done for I can barely stand!" my voice was toppling while I suppressed the uncontrolled twitching of my muscles by pure willpower. I was panting, while sweat had shot into my pores. "And now I´ve got to run through this whole township to find some dude selling crane-berry oil and bamali planks because you had to punch holes into the floor! Because otherwise Bumis ex-girlfriend will be EVEN MORE PISSED AT ME THAN SHE ALREADY IS! And you´ve got the bloody nerve to boss me around? Yeah? You little…" I barely could stop myself from calling her an arrogant, tightassed uppity bitch – something she would not have forgiven me. Instead of rambling back Lin blinked and wiped her eyes while genuine worry settled on her face. She grabbed my forearms and turned my palms up. "Gods dammit Lin, ya really needn´t…." I fumed. As if I couldn´t take care of my own burns. Furthermore Lin wouldn´t have gaze, wood alcohol and stuff on herself. "Yeah I know you´re a big boy." Lin seemed slightly humored, which startled me.
She looked so disappointed that my shoulders slumped and I seated myself in the tattoo chair like she wanted. She then went off to skipt through the disorderly shelves of the studio. "Lin – you can´t start rummaging in other people´s belongings!" I tried to scold her but she wasn´t to be stopped. After a short wile she triumphantly returned with a small leather bag that contained a watery iodine solution, gaze and even heavenly firelily salve. Of course the highly effective ointment doesn´t contain a shred of firelily but more the twenty herbs and grasses from all over the world. The stuff really works miracles if you have burned yourself. I wondered why Lau Mi had such a large pot of it. She wasn´t a blacksmith or welder! "Why didn´t you stupid idiot tell me earlier? Gods Lee – you´re worse than my mother!" she rambled. Lin wetted a tissue with the iodine solution and started cleaning the wound. Without a doubt I let out some quite unmanly sounds as the disinfectant burned all over my hand. Luckily the music was so loud. When the cruel Miss Bei Fong finally was satisfied with the state of my palm she applied the ointment, which led to the heavy pulsing dulling into a barely present pain. I even was able to feel Lin´s fingers, why the hell was she applying the ointment – I could do that myself! Still it felt nice to be cared for and most likely that was the reason why I didn´t tried to stop her. She then wrapped the hand up in gaze and finished with a perfectly symmetric ribbon on the backhand.
"So – was that soo bad?" she rolled her eyes. I gulped down any words of protest because that just would have proven her right about my juvenile behavior. "Thank you." I responded and actually meant it. I still would have loved to stay into the chair for at least another hour, but I just noticed that my noodle cart was still on the roadside. My heart stopped for a second. If somebody had stolen it I would´ve serious problems. I couldn´t simply buy me another one! My very livelihood was on the line, which gave me quite the adrenaline boost. "Oh FUCK!" I exclaimed and darted out of the shop. I stormed down the street, not caring about the students who now idly were sitting in house entrances, sipping on drinks and prepairing hot-pots or grilled meat. I definitely didn´t belong in this neighbourhood of strangely dressed young people. My noodle cart luckily still was where it should be, still something was wrong. Three boys simply had started using it! A group of people slowly gathered around the noodle cart thieves who had the nerve to simply occupy my property! I propelled myself forward, the wind pushing at my back like an angered ostrich horse. "What in Koh´s name are you bastards doing with my noodle cart!" I roared at them, while slowing down with my sandals slappling on the cobblestones loudly. The cook, an accurate looking young man wearing the white and black robes of the jurisdictional faculty of the university Just continued frying MY noodles. The gathered onlookers, which to a quite big degree were young women wearing costumes, suits and revealing kimono´s of quite dazzling colors turned around. "What´s the matter pops?" the young man, who of course was half a head taller than me, chided. This arrogant little prick! His two comrades also seemed to be lazing youths that were slowly approaching the third decade of their life. I had been a successful business owner at their age! And now these slackers wanted to take over my noodle cart? No way in hell I´d let them get away with that! "As I said before, this is my noodle cart. I just parked it less than an hour ago and you imbeciles just start frying MY noodles? What kind of idiotic thieves are you? Not even bothering to move it somewhere else!" I rambled. The young man´s face turned from chiding to disturbed, to annoyed.
"Today´s giveaway mid-week. And we were her first, so fuck off or I´ll teach you a lesson of iron palm Kung Fu." He treathened me. The girls were chattering like a flock of birds. Iron Palm Kung fu… this kid was so full of openings it hurt my eyes. Without a doubt he hadn´t seen the inside of a dojo once! I snorted. "So that´s how you´re going to play this?" I quirked an eyebrow while swaggering unconsciously. "Hey Ten, you really shouldn´t beat up an old man." One of the girls tried to soothe the boy who also was huffing himself up. "I´m an earthbender – so I ´d not advice you to get violent. We´ve found the cart before you, so please leave." Tens friend intervened. The boy was wearing a short cropped military haircut and was clean shaven. How the gals could find something in these sissies – bah! It seemed that this chest huffing would not lead to anything. Of course these guys would not give in in front of a crowd, even if they definitely knew they were doing something illegal. I could not risk my noodlecart – if the student told the truth he could spike it, or throw cobblestones at the cart. "Gods." I shook my head in defeat. "I´m getting too old…for this." I stepped forward placing a forceful jab on the white and black robed pal. He tumbled backwards and I added a stomping bison, which toppled him and his bending friend on their backsides. The third guy was merely grazed by the two young men. I wished to have a club at my side right now. The girls were screaming in panic. Obviously they had not expected me to topple two lads half my age. "Get the police! Help – murder!" a blonde dyed girl in a way too short skirt yelled hysterically. The first kid already was back on his knees and punched me straight in the bowels.
It hurt but luckily I didn´t go down. The boy was yelling like an enraged mooselion. I couldn´t step back – my precious cart could get hurt otherwise. I just pulled him closed and thundered my elbow on his skull. It was a knocking sound and the kid was out for the count. I tumbled backwards as a cobblestone zipped past my head. The earthbender had gotten back on his feet. He didn´t look so composed anymore – what I saw in his eyes gave me the chills. A patient mans wrath is something terrible. I threw myself into the seven celestial steps and barely managed to avoid the splintering projectiles. The guy snarled and lunged himself at me, this time compessed earth followed the stones. I launched myself in the air with "landing the bison" - yeah that´s the proper name for the kata - and delivered a dropkick to the boys head. He just took the hit, while I hashly collided with the torn up street. The girls had given us some space. Some were dragging some other boys out of their hot-pots. I of course didn´t was a thought on that and barely evaded a forming earth spike as suddenly the boy yelled in pain and gripped his lower abdomen – he was squeezed together by the cable I had shared an intimate relationship earlier that day. Lin was constricting it much harsher than it was necessary.
"Thai Len! We´ll kill you bastards." Somebody yelled. "What the hell is going on here?" "Beat these crazy punks up!" I panted while resisting the urge to touch my belly. I looked at Lin who also looked like a rabid wolfbat. Since my noodle cart was out of immediate danger – if one ignored the noodles that would soon start blackening – I suddenly noticed the utter strangeness of the current situation. Two people close to their golden years had subdued some rowdy youngsters in the middle of a nonsense yelling group of students. Also the street was quite messed up. I breathed deeply and yelled. "Everybody done his part of chest huffing and hurling rocks? So – can I take my noodle cart with me now? If ya don´t believe me I´m not against making a slugfest outta this. And what the fuck is a bloody giveaway day!" I used my bending to boost my voice. I was a quite difficult technique since it was really easy to distort the words beyond recognition. The people suddenly turned silent. They stared at me quite wideeyed. "You can ask Lau Mi if you don´t believe us!" Lin radiated an authority I had never deemed her capable of. It the situation had not been so tense I would´ve laughed at myself. Of course my friend wasn´t the same as twenty years ago.
The people were staring at her, some girls were whispering and one of the students was staring at her longingly. "And finally – why are you using other peoples noodle-carts to cook? That´s plain stupid." She stated. The girl with the too short skirt raised a hand. "excuse me mrs. I – I guess that´s all a misunderstanding." She squeaked. The earthbender still was panting furiously and tried to break the cable – without any kind of success. Luckily he was too angry to notice that his legs were still free. Some of the students still were swaggering around and tried to save the hurt dignity, but obviously they didn´t dare to approach us after they had noticed that me and lin were quite proficient benders. Well – there was a reason why equalitariarism was still popular right? People who can kill you with some flicks of their hands ARE frightening! I still chose to have a guarding eye on him, while keeping my chi at the fingertips. "today is a giveaway day, like once every month." She explained in patting her hands together. "And on a giveaway day people of the neighbourhood set things on the roadside. Things they don´t need anymore and everybody can stop by and take them home." She explained. What? I´d never heard of such a strange custom.
"And since the noodle cart was standing on the roadside our friends assumed it doesn´t have an owner anymore." She fell silent and added gulping. "Finders keepers n such." "Yeah – since just anybody in this fancy university district owns a noodle cart in the first place." I grumbled. "Lee…" Lin sighed annoyed. the girl didn´t respond anything to that, while the student of the law was creeping back on his feet again. "Still that doesn´t give you the right to beat up people!" he protestend whincing, while his nose was bleeding profusely. I had to fight a smirk off my face. "Yeah – about that... Who wanted to teach me some iron palm Kung Fu?" I shot back enjoying my small triumph. "you´re really lucky I´m no big friend of the clanky guys – cause the only people who did something illegal – are YOU!" I stated pointing at the boy. "YOU occupied my noodlecard without permission. YOU threatened me first. The cops believe an old geezer like me! Finally I didn´t screw up the street so that people can see the rain sewage pipes!" I added. "You as a student of law should know that!" "Lee – stop behaving like a prick." Lin grumbled listless.
I seated myself on the cart. "Well – I just want to hang out at some boring geezer like place for now. " I responded. I highly doubted that I could get the bamali boards after the ruckus I raised here. "But the floor." Lin interjected, obviously she wouldn´t let that go so easily. I groaned internally. "Well I guess we´ll have to search for bamali boards in another township – god´s Lin, not even I´m that disrespectful." I wanted to roll my eyes. Some girls giggled at an unknown joke. "So – you aren´t from here?" a young man asked, some of the girls were picking up the battered noodle cart thieves. "Of course not – do I look like some rich guy? Your outfit costs twice the amount of my worldly belongings!" I responded honestly. My robes were cheaper than these peoples sashes, so how could they think I was their neighbor? Lin stared at me wideeyed, obviously she felt ashamed of me admitting my poverty so easily. The kids suddenly looked at quite interesting things – public bins for example. It seemed that the girl caressing the struggling the earthbenders cheek managed to calm the raging madman to some degree. At least he wasn´t grunting like a komodo rhino anymore.
Lin finally could let go of her bending stance, she just had to be tired. "Yeah – get off here you freaks." A brown haired girl responded. "We – don´t need criminal scum here!" she obviously was shocked about a bit of violence – these children of peace surely were something strange and beautiful. Two of her friends were pulling her away from us, obviously afraid that we might assault the girl for her words. The whole situation got more and more embarrassing, since a heavy silence settled and the people were anxious, I was no exception of that. "So you came here with a noodle cart to buy wooden planks you can buy anywhere since Bamali trees are used as agricultures all throughout the Republic? A woman who looks like either an artist or a triad chick and some middleaged dude straight out of the rural firenation…." The expensive clad youth responded. He had a quite characteristic face, a broad chiseled chin, determined bluish eyes and the long nose of the water tribes. He wasn´t very dark though and sported a quite beefy built for somebody of the upper classes.
Still he definitely was old money, with his expensive suit a faintly lingering inner ring accent, silken sashes and white jade bracelets on his wrists. How he could be wearing a suit at these temperatures was a miracle, also his expensive clothing looked quite used and dusted. "Well – um – yeah…that´s the short version." Lin admitted while shifting her feet uneasily. "Actually we´ve got to fix Lau Mi´s floor since um… I punched a hole in the foundation?" she trailed off making a quite funny face. The students stared at Lin in disbelief. "Why would somebody do this?" "That´s one crazy bitch." Some of the girls were snickering around. "Hey weird girl – how bout my place?" the gawking student from before uttered, while blushing over his own courage. I never knew that Lin´s eye could get that big! Well the boy wasn´t looking half bad, a bit scrawny, his eyes a tad uneven but otherwise he was looking fine.
Still it was impolite to discuss such things in the streets, but I also had been that impolite some decades ago. The boy approached her with a broad grin. Lin however was quite flustered. "Um – no – I´ll not visit your place for whatever you intend to do there!" she responded while stepping back from the boy who now was outright embarrassed. "Well – that´s life bro. girls are cruel!" one of his mates tried clapping his back. "You´re a beast Cap - RRAAAARRRRR." Lin´s face really was weird, her upper lip was twitching slightly while she frowned. The inner ring boy just shook his head about such idiocy. "See guys – these people want to fix Lau Mi´s floor, they can´t be too bad can they?" he responded while rubbing his hands, he was a tad nervous. They were calloused and sported a lot of little injuries one would expect from a craftsman. He seemed to hold some kind of authority around here. "So, I´d suggest we´re happy nobody got hurt and do what we usually do in middays." He suggested scratching his head.
He was a tall man, which naturally gave him some respect. The people were chattering. The three students were trying to disappear as silently as possible, still they had to take some snarky remarks. Other people however still were calling me and Lin bunch of violent bullies, or even worse things. I always wondered how persinstent people could be in hurling insults at people they themselves had nothing to do with. Still the mob dispersed itself as fast as it had been formed. Lin however grabbed my collar. "What the fuck have you been thinking Lee." She hissed silently. "That could´ve turned really ugly so what´s the big deal about some kids frying some of your noodles?" she asked. Had I tried to turn into my goodnatured collected Lau An, self my efforts were wasted instantaneously. "I – thinking! That noodle cart is EVERYTHING that stands between me becoming a hobo and Sokka getting a penniless old fart as an heirloom Lin!" I was dead serious. "I´m not some fancy pants rich guy who can afford to risk something like that. I´ve got to pay the terras – and bald Aang doesn´t take any excuses if I don´t deliver." I responded. Lin blinked in shock, obviously she had not expected something like that. "B-But you had a company sold for more than hundred-thousand-yuan Lee!" she squeaked. My face turned sour as I was reminded on one of the big losses of my life.
"Yeah – and I lost it because I thought it better Sokka didn´t sold herself out to this gods damned Harada fuckwad." I snarked a bit harsher than intended. Lin blinked and paused, she looked quite shocked and opened and closed her mouth like a koi fish. "Chrm… excuse me." the young man interrupted us before lin could start sputtering nonsense. "I´m not one to linger into other people´s businesses, but you said that you were searching for Bamali boards." I had to bite my lips, even a rebellious brat like him spoke so sophisticated it made me want to gag. "Yeah." I nodded, while the cogs started turning, maybe this guy was the rumoured couchmaker Lau Mi had been so enthusiastic about. "And you´d know where we can get em – since you´ve got some business in the furniture sector?" I asked. He smiled politely, his smile still was guarded even if he tried to lose the snobby touch of the inner rings. Lin scratched her nose. "Yes – I am the couchmaker as people around these blocks call me – not that I haven´t a honest name. Shian Bei Ling." He responded silently. He wasn´t proud of his name, and I at once understood the reason.
"Well – um – I´m not like some of my distant relatives." He apologized in a well-practiced way. I chuckled. "I highly doubt that the Lords of Chu da make couches for a living kid…" I quipped. Lin kicked against my shin, while frowning. "You may as well follow me – I was planning to have a little barbecue but I guess that my friends will have invited themselves in the meantime." He looked at the sun, which was tinting the streets into a bright gold. "We – really don´t want to cause inconveniences for you – if tomorrow…" Lin started babbling. Obviously she had lost quite a lot of self esteem with her titles, it hurt to see her like that but of course things like these were natural. I myself had grown up as a nobody, otherwise this whole squirreltoad shit would´ve dragged my selfesteem beyond the floor as well. My life hadn´t changed much, besides me loosing my little brother, but Lin had lost everything she had worked her butt of for! It was a miracle she was holding up that well. "Oh, no." he rose his hands.
"You´re not causing inconveniences at all. I´m a very social man as you might have noticed. My friends and I party in the workshop anyways, so I´m just doing what I planned on doing before all of this ruckus occurred." He responded in my direction. I could hear the hint of accusation in his voice. We followed him, the pal showed quite the large strides for a noble. "Quite uncommon to find a noble running a carpentry." I stated dryly. Lin´s frown deepened. "My friend is being impolite – of course you don´t need to tell us your story." She snapped in my direction. I smiled, teasing Lin still was fun. "There´s nothing grand to it as you may think. No drama, no murder and no forbidden love." The man responded with a boyish grin. "I´m the son of a lower ranking concubine of a lower ranking lord in a lower ranking branch of the ling clan. So there wasn´t a grand destiny set for me anyways, maybe I could´ve become a tax collector like my father, or joined the army as an officer but actually nobody did care what I did…." He paused. "My mother just wanted me to be happy and she stated that quite eloquently, even to my fathers wives. And I really wasn´t into fighting or doing paperwork, even as a little boy I´d carved on all the sticks I could lay my hands on. I even snuck out to watch the carpenters renovating my fathers mansion and when I turned sixteen I decided I wanted to be a craftsman." Lin interrupted. "But isn´t that horribly improper in the kingdoms?" she asked the obvious.
"It is and of course my father forbade me doing something so shameful. Instead he sent me off to republic city to study business sciences, which is quite popular amongst the lower nobles." He explained. Lin shrugged, obviously that was nothing new to her. "When I arrived here I rented the smallest room I could find and saved up money, while whining about the expensive life in Rep City. Also I worked parttime in the construction business, fixed furniture…. I didn´t do much of studying at all. After five years I had the money I needed for buying tools and then I finally started my own workshop, that it flourished like that still amazes me, but I´ll keep going." He summed of his story. The young man greeted a lot of people on his way through the township, people that eyed us quite skeptically. Most likely the news of the violent noodle car owner had already spread like a wildfire. Luckicly I was working on the other side of Yue bay! We arrived in fron of a shabby looking old hose, which sported new wooden windowframes and a simplisiticly built warehouse that had been attached to it instead of a garde. The heavy wooden Gates of the warehouse were swung open, so that one a single slim cart would be able to pass the street.
There was indeed a colorful gathering of the four nations, something that still was almost exclusive to this city. People were playing tsungi horns, flutes and drums in a relaxed tune. There was a whole hippo cow leg sizzling over a small bonfire. People had seated beer kegs on working benches. Hammers, drills and rasps were stashed into orderly seeming shelves. Couches, chairs and tables were filling the warehouse in differing stages of their birth. The chatting crowd didn´t notice our arrival at once. The people were of differing ages, of course much younger than Lin or me. The inner ring boy was one of the oldest guys present, he must be rather close to thirty. "Good evening you slackers! I was delivering some tables to the fancy socks in the hills, while you lazy asses snored in some lecture rooms." The man introduced himself. It was as if a switch had been flipped. "Eeh couchie." Some girls tackled the man into close hugs while, a dreadlock wearing dude placed a mug into his hand. It seemed this guys presence alone made the people more cheerful. We let him greet his friends, which seemed to take quite a wile . There were close to fifty people hanging out here – if this was a small barbecue I was a privateer. Lin felt quite displaced and looked as if she wanted to disappear into the tiniest hole she could find.
"Awesome hair – I really wouldn´t be brave enough to wear something like that." One of the clingy girls addressed Lin. She was maybe in her early twenties, slim and a tad bookish. Still she wore the wide trousers and slim tops that were typical for hard tribal chicks. She wasn´t inked, nor did she sport any kind of piercings or a martial haircut like Lin. Lin was started and thanked the girl stuttering. While the kid started talking to her like a waterfall. Poor lin was quite baffled, the student simply grabbed her upper arm and dragged her towards the improvised bar. "You´re new in town? I´d have heard about you. I mean it´s totally cool that you don´t give a fuck about people´s opinion, especially at your age." The student talked. "This are my friends Lei-Lei and Mai." She introduced two girls that were obviously fliriting with a group of guys. The "Couchie" was chatting with two slim watertribe guys that were looking quite ordinary. They did not really fit into the crowd, as did anybody besides the core of hart tribal people, which numbered around fifteen to twenty heads. The music however was much gentler. "So – here I am again." I looked for Lin and spotted her bandaged head quite easily. "It took a bit longer, but it seems your friend doesn´t mind." He stated the obvious. Lin was making strange faces, which humored the youngsters – I wanted to bet she would do anything I asked if I freed her from her current position, but sometimes Lee Bei Gao was a cruel man. "I´ll let the girl have her fun – she´s twenty at heart." I chuckled a bit too devious. "But about the wood." I changed the topic quite drastically.
The people did not try to approach me, most likely because I still was quite on edge. Also I was glancing on the street quite frequently – to make sure my cart still was there. "All right, please follow me – about how many boards are we talking, how long, width?" he asked. "About ten to twelve inches, since Lau Mi has an old, handmade flooring I guess we´re in for some surprises." I sighed annoyed. I really was not motivated to carve curves into the board profiles because some important carrier structures were installed beyond the floor. The man grinned. "That´s the pinnacle of woodworking." He was quite enthused about that. I for my part could live a perfectly content live without woodworks but of course I didn´t smack that into his face. We wiggled through the guests who did look at me strangely. Still they didn´t quip any annoying comments, after all I was with couchie. We exited the warehouse and entered the true treasury of any carpenter. Stacks of old, partially wheather worn looking, wood. Even if no signs indicated the purpose of the strongly differing boards and beams the young man walked around as if he already knew what he was searching for.
A decent noble, that certainly was a rarity. He indeed showed my a knee high stack of bamali planks that felt bone dry. He drew them out with nimble hands, the wood was light and rough. Also the boards were at least somewhat fitting for Lau Mi´s floor. Most likely I would have to make them smaller and smoothen the surface up with grinding paper and polish after the oiling. "I´d like to take six of them." I answered while I already tried to calculate the quite substantial price. My pockets weren´t as full as I would like them to be. "I guess that makes fifty five." The guy responded in the nonchalant manner just old money sported. Fifty five yuans, that was half a week of earnings, a surprisingly civil price. "Ok." I responded and we bowed as a sign of courtesy. "I´ll pay you from the cart, since I don´t have so much money in my pouch." I explained. "Also I´d need some lychee oil." I added. The necessary tools for changing the floor were present already. Luckily an old house keep had died in our street. He had had some obsession about tools and therefore I, and some other people, had been able to equip us with everything the ordinary man could need for a quite low price. "I´ve got about seven brands, so let´s check em up before you choose. " the man amazed me, he was really bubbly about his business. We entered a small shack, which looked really disorderly.
"My fiancee..." He apologized, while cringing internally. I shook my head, paints, laquers, oils, everything was stacked on top of each other in almost bizarre towerlike heaps. Still the young man didn´t search long before he presented three tin barrels in front of me. "That´s ember´s second pressing, Chu Da with wild hemp, ochre colored oil from the mountains of shije wuji." He introduced the oils. I had no idea if that was true, since oils were something that belonged into a car, or into a pan! "I´ll take this." I responded, praying that he wouldn´t ask me why I picked said oil. The young man frowned. "I guess that´s no good idea. If I remember correctly Lau Mi´s floorings never were brushed with bleached oil, if we than add the fact that the bamali here is much, much younger…" he cleared his troath. "Well – then you don´t need bamali at all and you can just take some boards you find somewhere." He responded brutally honest. "But if you don´t know about oils… wouldn´t it be better if you let a professional handle this?" I quirked an eyebrow. "Nono – I don´t mean myself, or my boys! We don´t do floorings, I couldn´t bear the bad quality we would produce." He responded like a true artisan.
"But I know some quite good addresses, guys who make reasonable prices." He trailed off while giving my robes a closer look. "That´s not an option – except you know some guys that would work a day for some noodles and a few yuans." I admitted openly. He shook his head. "No – craftsmen don´t drop from trees, the guys know what they´re worth." He admitted. So I carried the planks and the oil to the card and parted with half a weeks worth of earnings. "Thank you very much, it was a pleasure conducting business with you." The youth again bowed slightly. Obviously this formalisms had been ingrained into his very bones, or he had principles. "Likewise. I really didn´t expect you to be willing to help us out, not after the incident on the street." I admitted feeling quite sheepish. The noble laughed loudly. "that´s nothing. I´ve seen much crazier shit every day. We´re a township full of students, artists and party people, a red light district is directly round the block. And I admit that the people have quite quirky customs here. I myself was startled for more than two years." He admitted amicably.
"Well, I´ve got some people to entertain Mr. Lee." He waved casually and joined some of his pals, who already had quite redish looking noses. Lin had moved on to taking a drink in the meantime. Some other gals had seated themselves quite close to her. I closed in, obviously the girls made some comments directed in the horizontal direction, since Linny regained some color and the kids were talking with hushed voices. Well – as I turned around a Saw a huge, barechested guy posing behind me, who most likely was the topic of all of this. His bizeps easily had the size of my whole arm. "So Lin, we´ve got what we came for." I responded. "So I´d like to get this shit fixed since I´ve gotta work tomorrow." the lone thought was crazy – how should I get myself out of the futon tomorrow? Lin took another sip. It seemed she was a bit tipsy already. Without a doubt she hadn´t eaten properly. She had said she was broke right? "Yeah. Sorry girls, but Lee´s right. We´ve got to fix this floor. But – it was really nice to talk with you and I´ll definitely check out Joo-Dee´s. " lin tilted her head. "Did you know that there is a store selling used clothing Lee?" her voice was so adorably sweet that I had to fight laughter.
"Of course – such shops exist in Shangyang since people´s memory." I responded dryly. "Come on Lin, let the youngsters have some fun. And don´t think I´ll do all the work myself." I added since my burned hand was still trembling from the effort of carrying the boards. Lin rose and followed after waving the girls a goodbye. She seated herself on the cart. "I´m cycling you home." She responded and patted on the metal frame behind her. I seated myself while holdin the boards and the tin can filled with oil. Lin cycled slowly but sill I was almost thrown from my improvised seat. My friend was outright exhausted as we arrived in front of Lau Mi´s studio. Lin was quite thin, but nowhere near being short of starving. The gaze wrapped around her head obviously was not for decoration. Since I knew how sensitive Lin was about scars and injuries I decided to ask her in a more private setting. I carried the boards and oil into the room, the gramophone had been silenced in the meantime. "Lau Mi?" I yelled. The artist wasn´t answering, great – she still was annoyed. I looked at the mutilated floor, which would be some hours of hard work. I dropped the boards and the oil, no matter how much I liked the idea of fixing the floor and making up with Lau Mi I wouldn´t be able to do that today.
I was lucky if I managed to go home, my head was quite fuzzy and I just wanted to sleep. "I´ll come back tomorrow and repair the floor. Um… since I don´t have rasps and stuff on me." I fell silent. The artist still wasn´t answering and I wondered if she still was here. I didn´t want to risk climbing up the ladder and checking. Lin was too busy steadying herself in the doorframe, she was holding her head with the left hand. "I guess I can´t help you Lee – I´ve got some headache." She admitted grimly. I nodded, too tired to notice that Lin actually admitted weakness to me. I could count the occasions she did on my two hands – I wasn´t Yumi or Tenzin. "I´m not thinking about working till nightfall – geez I´m really some pathetic old man." I sighed "You´re such a gods damned pussy it´s indeed pathetic Lee! JUST DO IT for fucks sake! That I´ve to tell ya something so obvious!" Lau Mi rambled suddenly. Lin lost her balance and almost tumbled to the floor while I flinched and went into a boxing stance. Do it? I had already assured her that I would come back tomorrow hadn´t I? "You want your floor looking like some slum hut´s? Them I´m doing it now, if you don´t want that I´ll stop by tomorrow." I responded. Lau Mi just snorted and muttered something barely audible. "Yes – I´m sorry. I´ll help to repair this – you really don´t need to be so mad. I´m sorry for what I did and I´m sorry for misjudging you. You´re a friend of Lee´s , of course he´ll be here tomorrow." Lin pleaded. The artist suddenly appeared on the railing. She was wearing her bindings and a tiny loincloth. Lin squeaked. "Heavens." She stammered, while I had to fight a grin off my face. "Pfft – the floor." Lau Mir frowned looking quite seductive.
"I was angry but that´s water under the bridge by now." She waved her hand dismissively. "You´re such pish posh idiots." She shook her head and mumbled something while looking quite delighted. Artists! "Well – um…good night then. I´ll not be too early." I responded while Lau Mi let out a silent sigh. Obviously she had feared I would start sawing boards at dawn. "Good night – I´s afternoon." She shook her sandy hair. I still felt that I owed the artist big time, and since she was turning away I wanted to give something back. "Chrm… If, there´s anything I can do let me know – thank you very much." I bowed low while a squirreltoad was struggling in my throat. She stopped. "Of course…You´re an asshole Lee." The tattoo artist responded. She obviously was upset, for what reasons I didn´t know. Lin gulped, obviously she wanted to say something, but she wasn´t able to.
Then we left the shop and I seated myself on the bicycle seat, while Lin took her seat behind me. Since it already was already after the markets closing hours the streets weren´t as busy as before. Neither me nor Lin were in the mood for big talks. When we arrived close to my neighborhood She breathed deeply. "You´re living like this?" Lin obviously was shocked. I smirked, while a tad of melancholy lingered in my chest. I had known the benefit of a comfy flat in a good neighborhood, but being bitter about things never helped anybody. The terra boys were hanging out at the streetcorner, my pulse sped up as I Noticed how Lins hands dug themselves into my shoulders with an iron grip. Now her disguise would be tested for the first time. "Evenin boys." I greeted the bulky teenagers. The soldiers were wearing daggers that had been sloppily tugged into their broad sashes. They noticed Lin at once. Some of the boys whitled. "Wheey getting yerself laid huh? Thought I´d never witness the day pious fucker." One of the boys responded. I guess that was one of the little drunkards I had beaten up, or maybe Sokka had punched out his lights. "Eh how much sweetie." another one of the guys teased. Lin showed him her middle finger. "Shut the fuck up lil bitch, or I´ll tear your guts out and shove em down yer lil virgin throath!" she barked furious, while I slowed down the noodle cart in front of my garage. I slid down from the bike, feeling like walking over to the little thugs and roughing them up good. I still was senisitive if people called women whores and bitches, especially when said women were my friends. But my rational self told me that it was quite unwise to anger bald Aang in my current position.
So I tugged in my cart and started unbacking my cooking equipment. I had quite a lot of stuff to clean, like every day. "What are you doing Lee? I thought you´re done for." She responded and hit the mark. "Of course, but I´ve got to clean up the equipment – it´s daily routine." I explained while carrying the woks and left overs in an admirably tall tower of stacked iron and clay pots. "Whoa." Lin was impressed that I managed to walk upstairs. She followed me into the house, and wrinkled her nose. "Urgh – why the fuck do these – these animals piss in their own staircase!" she growled. Lin was quite orderly, despite being raised by her mother and uncle Sokka. We walked upstairs and slowly the sharp stink of old urine dissipated until I reached my flats. I lowered thestuff I was carrying and unlocked the door. I than carried the dishes towards my washing basin, which was the lower quarter of an old petrol cask. I filled it with water and chopped some soap into it. "You´re living between soy sauce pots, dried meat and spring-onions?" Lin asked skeptically while searching for a futon and some kind of furniture. While I started scrubbing the woks. "That´s just working space, I´m living next door." I answered. "Oh – so you´ve got a spare futon?" she asked silently. I snorted. "you´re not sleeping between sauce pots. And you´ll have your own futon – of course." I shook my head. I didn´t want Lin to feel like a nuisance, dammit! Lin fetched herself a cleaning cloth and assisted me in my work. I had to talk about some quite emotional things, which didn´t motivate me at all. I was tired and I couldn´t use my right hand properly. "I guess we´re done for tonight." I responded, noticing that the sun had to be down already. So we walked across the floor and I opened my flat, which was secured by two locks. "You know that every professional burglar team has an earthbender, to you Lee?" Lin stated dryly. I gulped, even if I had expected that it sent an uncomfortable feeling of being exposed down my spine. I shrugged. "Does this look like the kind of hood professional burglars would operate in?`" I asked Lin while cocking my head. She had to chuckle at this herself. Then I opened the door and she entered. "Whoa." Her eyes scanned the room which most likely was smaller than her nursery. "I know it´s not what you´re used to." I pointed at the missing rooftiles, which replaced the non existant windows. "But I can´t afford anything better, since I´ve to safe up some money for…" I trailed off. Lin would most likely laugh at me if I told her about my dowry plans. "It´s much better than where I slept for the last month." Lin admitted feeling ashamed. "I couldn´t even repay these good people properly." She sighed in resignation. I just patted her shoulder, knowing this feeling quite well. I also hadn´t repayed people properly, which was the issue of the evening. "Aber that." My voice sounded quite gruff. I felt guilty and vulnerable. "Your mom´s back in town." I blurted. Lin froze in awe. "What?" she exclaimed quite shocked. "One of TenTens lackeys told me that she was back and – is ill." I responded while intensely staring at the floor. Lin was silent. "S-So how´s she. Did – did she come for me?" she croaked, obviously short of opening some floodgates. I just stood there. "Lee? What´s happened." She aked, there was iron in her voice. I had feared that it would become like this and Lin would insist on knowing what had happened. "I don´t know. I wasn´t there." I responded in a harsh voice.
Lin paused. "don´t play me for dumb Lee." She gripped my collar and tilted my head up forcefully, I still tried to avoid eye contact. "I know that you´re very close to my mother – maybe even closer than her own bloody daughters ever were!" there was some suppressed jealousy in her voice. It stung like a knife plunged through my chest but I kept my composure. "I can´t Lin – if I want to look in the mirror I can´t visit your mother." I mumbled, she somehow still understood my words. "And why would that be? You´re the only one who NEVER disappointed her. You didn´t arrest your own sister, or fucked up the stand in drinking!" she responded angered. I laughed a barking laugh. "no – I just broke a sun oath!" I was turning quite cynical – what Lin was talking about wasn´t even close to disappointing Toph Bei Fong, she should know that. Her sister might have disappointed her mother, but I wasn´t even sure about that! "You did what?" lin´s voice was silent, obviously she had thought of me as an epitome of integrity – utter bullshit!
I fought back a stinging behind my eyes and cleared my throath. "When uncle Sokka died, I – made a promise to chrm…" I trailed off while flushing brightly. "To keep your family together but when shit got real I just – just worked my goddamn job and didn´t do a thing a good brother would´ve done." I responded furious. "And your mom heard every word of my promise.." I just turned and wanted to drink myself silly. Lin was baffled, or horrified – she didn´t respond to me and so I walked towards worn looking cupboard, opened a door and grabbed myself a bottle of Aangs moonshine. I took a deep gulp of the burning liquid, that poured down my throath like a manifestation of self-hatred. Lin gripped the bottle and held it away from my mouth. "You´re a stubborn idiot Lee." Lin responded. "You guys did try – you invited us for dinner, you talked with my mother but we didn´t listen." She hugged herself. "My mother is an old woman Lee, I was shocked to see how old she is and if she´s ill we don´t know how many years she has left." There was an uncomfortable silence.
Toph Bei Fong was close to being ninety years old, of course she had not much time left, that was the way things went! And I wanted to see her, I really wanted. "Do you want to deny you and her a reunion because you think you didn´t try hard enough?" I was quite close to sniffling right now, my mouth twitching in strange gimaces. "I- don´t but – I´ve – I´ve not deserved.." Lin knocked against my head. Her knuckles stung quite prominently. "That´s not just about you Lee – my mother definitely wallows in the some idiotic self pity and moral swamp because keeping the family together would´ve been HER job in the first place!" Lin furrowed her brow. He gaze softened. "Also – I – well… what you did in the last month isn´t something just anybody would do!" she smiled and I finally let go of the moonshine bottle. I hugged her close and lin whinced in pain. I was very grateful she had forgiven me. Failing people – I really was afraid of that. "Oww." She protested and I let go with a sheepish grin. There was the second topic I had tried to avoid until now.
Maybe it would be better to delay it for some days, since too much emotions at once did ruin any relationship. "Sorry Lin, I´m not used to hugging a lady." I stated and ignored my rumbling stomach. "Are you hungry?" she nodded while walking around in my flat. The general nosiness of the Bei Fongs was something that silently irked me. I decided to make myself useful and whip up something for dinner, since I hadn´t eaten anything for quite some hours. Eating my own leftovers was the typical evening routine and so I started firing up the oven with pressed paper brickets. The paper press really was one of the greatest inventions of the past decade since it enabled people to fuel stoves without buying coal. That was true at least for republic city, in which paper was a commodity. That whole forests were chopped down to provide the supply for the largely unnecessary newspapers this city offered at hilariously low prices was something I didn´t want to think about. "You´re still not owning a suit?" Lin asked my astonished. Suits, even the word did make my fashionsense shiver. "No and I won´t put my legs into these – things!" trousers were even more terrifying than suits! Ling laughed a hearty laugh – then I realized that she had just looked into my not present wardrobe! "You also should be able to see the second futon I own. Since Sokka didn´t visit over night for quite some time it shouldn´t smell anymore. So you could set it up somewhere and make yourself comfy." I responded determined. Luckily Lin did heed my advice and stopped commenting my clothes. Not even Yumi had mingled in my clothes and like hell would I let any other woman do something like that! Lin had placed her on the other side of the room. Then I had prepared the dumplings and the fish sauce. It was quite unusual to have a guest for dinner and so I prepared the dumplings not very appealing. Lin didn´t mind since she was even hungrier than me and wolved everything down in an astonishing speed. She even burped loudly after finishing the last bete and released a content sigh. "that was delicious." She said while her head sagged forward. I also felt quite sleepy, so I just nodded. She most have eaten quite badly if warmed vegetable dumplings were something delicious. But since my friend wasn´t in a very talkactive mood I refrained from further inquiries and went to bed, where I slept like a stone – despite Lin´s loud snoring.