Rekindling
Chapter 1
You're alone
You're on your own
So what, have you gone blind
Have you forgotten what you have and what is yours?
(King, Lauren Aquilina)
Hong Zuko (洪蘇科) thought this would be another day of normals. Normality pretty much summed up the whole duration of his work ever since the day he started.
Fix some tea. Clean the cupboards and the tables. Do some dishes. Rearrange the chairs. Days were filled with monotony that swallowed him up, and he didn't really mind. It was better that way.
Dealing with the customers was probably the worst part. He'd rather stay behind the bar and prepare whatever tea they ordered, quietly listening to the soft Asian music that played in the background. But his job called for human interaction. Well, considering that the tea shop was quite hidden in the downtown Chinatown, only a few people frequented the place. Mostly old people who probably didn't have anything else to do with the time they have.
He expected this day to be no different, except that it was.
Finally seeing the end of his patience, he dropped the bags of dried leaves in the sink and turned to the source of the unwanted attention. His boss insisted that he needed help to manage the shop, to which he had vehemently disagreed, only to be laughed at and patted forcefully in the back.
He glared at the new waitress with a glare that could've melted the biggest glacier in the Antarctic, and she looked like she noticed, ducking her head with reddened cheeks.
Gathering a deep breath, he walked up to her and noticed the way she fumbled with the papers in front of her. He ignored this and intensified his scowl.
"Mind telling me what you've been looking at, Yane?"
Said orange-haired woman lifted her face up with a trembling, fragile smile. "Lee," she croaked, calling him by his false name, "I—uh, wasn't…"
"I caught you staring," he hissed, anger rising above his head as he walked one step towards her. "Why, is this the first time you saw a scar this big?"
Her earlier flushed face drained of color, and she gawked at him with disbelief. "No, that's not... Wait, you completely misunderstood."
"What's there to misunderstand about someone rudely staring at a flaw in my face?" he answered with a rough jab of his finger to his scar, not bothering to mask the venomous tone in his voice.
She shrank back at his outburst as she held on the multitude of papers in front of her like a shield. Hastily, she shook them before he could fire another word to her, the fluttering sounds of paper blending in with the background music.
Confused, he squinted his undamaged eye. Illustrations of what seemed like wounds were printed on the paper, ranging from harmless looking abrasions to gruesome and bloody avulsions. He opened his mouth to demand what she wanted to even relay, but she beat him to it.
"I was studying," she said sheepishly. "I have an exam soon, and it's kind of been a while since I practiced my... describing lesions skills for dermatology—"
His eyes widened at her words, and seeing this, she waved her hands defensively and spluttered, "Wait, let me explain! I'm just trying to observe your... scar in an objective manner, okay? It's not in the way you think."
Yane kept her gaze locked onto his, even though it's so clear that she wanted to practically start running away from him the moment an opportunity presented itself. Nervously scratching on her arm with her eyes averted, she continued, "Sorry if I offended you. I didn't mean to. I didn't think you'd notice."
He bit back the sarcastic reply that threatened to leave his lips and turned away from her to get back to work. The tea leaves wouldn't be boiling themselves.
"Can I help with that?" he heard her chirp from behind.
"No," he muttered and started to cut the bag open and pour out the leaves in the strainer. Today was Saturday, which probably meant old man Tai Jia was going to be here with the rest of his Pai Sho buddies to drink their asses off 'til the store closes. Which also means he'd be getting a huge amount of tip today.
A small, greedy smile graced his lips before he noticed. That nosy geezer might be a pain in the neck, but he paid well.
As fast as his smile appeared, it fell off his face like a loosely tied mask. Back in the days, he was an heir to a multi-billionaire company. He was close to what ancient times would've dubbed as royalty. A prince. But now, all of that remained a remnant that's barely tangible in his memories. Sometimes, he even forgot what life had been before... before everything went down south for him. Were they even real to begin with?
He gently grabbed the handle of the kettle and poured out the boiling water into the leaves, the steam partially obscuring his view. The aroma of Jasmine hit his nose, and as if by instinct, his eyes started to water at the sense of nostalgia brought about by that familiar scent.
He missed my uncle. He wished he was here to tell him that the way he was making his favourite beverage was wrong, to tell him that he had to put on a smile every time that door bell jingled a soft melody—
His stare traveled to his lone co-worker as she headed over to welcome the customers.
—and maybe to even tell him off for being ill-mannered towards a lady like that.
He watched Yane Koujida, if he remembered her surname correctly, waltz across the store with a wide smile plastered on her face. She talked with the newly arrived customers, speaking fluently in English while the old men replied with a slightly broken but still understandable form. Her lively demeanour dampened considerably upon her approach to him, a piece of paper no doubt containing the orders in her hands. Cautiously, as though he'd blow off on her again, she handed the list.
"Uhm, they said—" she began with uncertainty but was interrupted when Tai Jia from the table raised his hand to wave magnanimously at him.
" 季！新來的女侍嗎？(Lee! You have a new waitress?)" Tai Jia asked, earning a couple of smiles from his friends.
He kept his face neutral and shrugged, "嗯 。日本來的。(Yeah. She's from Japan.)"
"那麼漂亮啊！喜歡她嗎？(What a beauty! You like her?)" he asked with eyes narrowing into slits as a huge, annoying grin filled his face.
He shot the nastiest glare he could, but the supposed intimidating expression was instead rewarded by loud guffaws and jeers from the windbags. Yane was still looking to him as she waited for him to listen.
Sighing, he told her, "I'll prepare the tea. They always order Jasmine as their usual. Wait for me."
He started to walk away when she called back, "Wait."
Not stopping in his tracks, he asked impatiently, "What?"
"They told me that they had a new friend," she relayed, her voice, he noted, still a bit shaky like she was constantly jittery in her nerves. "And—"
He turned around this time. She jumped in her feet and quickly tore her eyes from his, looking bashful like she was a child caught stealing a cookie from the jar. She was still probably shaken after their earlier ordeal. He wanted to heave a deep sigh at that and straight up ask her if she really found him that scary. It was getting annoying and bothering all together.
He scratched the back of his head and repeated in a much softer tone, "What?"
Yane smiled uneasily. "She wanted some Nai Cha instead of Jasmine tea. Can I make that? I saw you do it a while ago, and it doesn't seem too hard I guess"
She added a small, awkward chuckle and hugged herself. He raised his eyebrows at the display and wondered if this jumpy woman would be able to make such a drink without accidentally knocking off some ingredients. Then again, she had to get used to it. Customers were most of the time few in number, but there were also times when they filled up the store like tea-hungry ants... Okay, that didn't make much sense.
He'd need a hand when those events came. Not to mention, Chinese new year was just around the corner. The earlier she learned, the earlier he got some work off his hands.
"Okay," he sent a noncommittal shrug and gestured her over. "I'll watch you do it."
Yane hesitated. He could guess she wanted to say that she'd do it on her own, but by the looks of her defeated and embarrassed pout, she realized that she couldn't exactly decline when he was three years her senior in this job. She nodded somewhat slowly and proceeded on preparing the ingredients.
She poured the ready-made black tea into the mixer, added two cups of hot milk and started to shake them gently, similar to how a chemist swirls a solution with unknown formulas. Zuko narrowed his eyes and leaned forward to take the mixer and give it a vigorous shake.
"You need to shake it stronger," he instructed. "You won't mix it adequately with how you're going."
She nodded and retrieved the container, her eyebrows scrunched up in attentiveness. Without any preamble, she rattled the thing violently like she was furiously mad and for a while, he worried that the metallic mixer would fly off her hand and shoot across the room to an unsuspecting customer. The rattling sound bit on his nerves and increased his agitation with each tick.
Adapting an aghast expression, Zuko reached for the mixer but she retracted her hands and opened the lid. Yane checked the beverage inside and grinned, "Looks mixed already. Is this okay?"
He glanced briefly at the bubbling, frothy milk tea and frowned. It looked more like a witch's concoction now than nai cha. Definitely not presentable, especially to a new customer. Sneering, he barked, "I didn't tell you to shake it that fast! Give me that."
He snatched the mixer and grabbed a spoon in the drawer. Fuming, he worked on removing the froth out and disdainfully throwing the bubbles into the sink.
"I'm sorry," she whimpered behind him. "I thought people like some foam—"
He heaved another loud, exasperated sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, the warning sense of an upcoming headache pounding on him. She was supposed to make his job easier. Not make him do more work by having him teach her things she should've been oriented with already.
He looked sideways to her frown, mimicking the expression of a scolded child, her eyes downcast.
He swallowed, Uncle Iroh's voice chiding him about his anger management issues again in his head. He groaned inwardly and resisted the urge to slap his forehead.
"Weren't you taught by the boss?" he asked in a controlled tone, patience tethering at the edges.
She met his eyes and shook her head. "She didn't. She just gave me a list of simple instructions, recipes, and asked me to google the rest up."
So, that old hag really left the troublesome part to him? He rolled his eyes as he poured the beverage into the tea cup.
Oh, joy.
"Come here an hour earlier tomorrow," Zuko tersely told her as he handed the cup over.
"You'll teach me?" she asked dubiously with wide eyes.
Her black irises glimmer under the dim lights, a flash of something passing over those eyes as an uneasy smile took residence on her face. He blinked, a carefully buried memory of a different set of obsidian eyes snapping unbidden. A frown took over his features before he could stop it.
He turned away from Yane and nodded, "Yeah, don't be late."
A/N: Hi, hi, welcome! I've always dreamed about writing a tea shop AU with Avatar, featuring our favorite, awkward firebender. It will be a parallel to the original series, but of course with some major changes because of the settings of this fanfiction and the existence of the OC right here. And yes, other than the fact that I know some Chinese, I'd make a guess that maybe the fire nation can pass as Chinese. But then, the nations in the Avatar do look likea mixture of races and cultures, so yeah.
Enough ramble. Next chapters are going to be longer, I promise. Please review as you go! I'd love to hear your thoughts. Take care!