One chapter and an epilogue left! So sad to see Part I end. But, eventually, I will have a second part written. We didn't spend over nine months training Huo to stop now!

Chapter 18: Grey Prison

I'm going crazy in this big, [grey] room of mine

Everybody's looking at me, everybody's staring at me

What do I do now? Smile, yeah, yeah

I took a few deep breaths of the musty air in the hold and let all the tension out of my body. Kojo's father had just left, fixing me with some new salve for my burns and some Waterbending healing and leaving without giving me the good medicine. Not because he hadn't offered it, of course, but because it separated me from the world and I needed to be able to concentrate.

Pain enhanced the fire in my belly. Pain helped me connect to the the source of my bending and concentrate on it. Meditation had never been a better escape or motivator.

It'd been, what, a week since I'd been put in that prison cell? I had a different rotation of soldiers every shift so that they wouldn't grow attached to me. I never talked to them but, when I opened my eyes, I saw them watching me with saddened eyes. I looked positively pitiful. I couldn't take a shower or bath because I had to have guards on me at all times (and the burns couldn't be soaked in water just yet) so my hair was greasy and sticky and I smelled to high heaven. I'd lost weight from the shock of my injuries and I was still regaining fluids, so I looked sickly and pale.

Li was on duty that day. He leaned against the wall opposite my cell, staring at me through the metal bars. I couldn't see him staring me down but I could feel it. "You aren't helping my concentration," I said a half-an-hour into my first meditation session of the day.

I could hear him drop something metal against the floor. I didn't open my eyes to the loud noise; rather, I took a deeper breath and tried to reconnect to my fire. Li wasn't about to let that happen, unfortunately. He was a talkative one but I wasn't expecting, "Did you watch me pee?" to come out of his mouth.

That made me start laughing uncontrollably. I probably looked half-mad, sitting with my legs crossed and a flame in my wrapped hands that went out as soon as I fell back onto the floor in my hysterics. Laughing made everything hurt so bad but I just couldn't stop. Out of everything, Li...Koh!

His face was bright red. What was even funnier was that I could still see his freckles so his face was red with a bunch of little tan dots all over it. "No, I'm serious, stop laughing! Did you pee with me in the room? Was I getting stared at by a girl while I went about my personal manly business? 'Cause that's not cool, Huo!"

Li was the first soldier who'd talked to me at all while I'd been stuck in that little grey room. The other soldier in the room (as there had to be two at all times)—a teenage officer who was stuck between blushing and giving Li a dirty look—said nothing as he stared away from me. I just ran a hand through my disgusting hair and sat back up. I stared him down a little ironically. "Li. I was much more occupied with keeping you from staring at me while I peed, alright? Get over yourself."

I was incredibly surprised that Li had even been able to stand guard. Everyone knew that he was somewhat a friend to me. Genji, for example, hadn't been allowed to stand watch over me yet. Neither had Zargo. Kojo was too young. And then I wasn't allowed visitors, either. I hadn't seen Iroh since everything had gone down. He could come visit me if he wanted to, I told myself with a sigh.

"Why would you want to be a guy anyway?" the teen asked in his crude way, using his pinky to pick something out of his ear. Having been surrounded by those of the other gender for so long, it didn't phase me anymore. "Aren't girls, like...I dunno, girly? Don't you like to get your hair done and your faces painted and go shopping or whatever?"

I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to return to my meditation. "It was kind of hard to do those things when I could barely afford to eat, Li."

"Oh."

"Yeah. And there was also the whole 'my entire village was killed by Equalists' thing, too."

"...oh."

He didn't say another word for his whole shift.

GGG

"How did she look? Was she okay? Are they taking care of her?"

Li pushed his friend away from him and shrugged off the questions. "Sheesh, Genji, she looked like she's been in a prison cell for a week, okay?" The Able-Bodied Seamen pushed through the line and found a seat in the rather demure enlisted mess.

The room was filled with a rather low hum of discontent. Without land training, most of the ship was undertrained and not ready for whatever the Avatar needed from them in Republic City. Many soldiers in that room had lost family to the Equalists...and many of them had their minds on the girl being held prisoner down in the hold. Either way, it made for a depressing aura in the room.

Genji growled, frustrated, and followed Li to his seat. Genji hadn't been able to check in on Huo. He had been the only one who'd known that she'd been a woman, even though it had only been for a few days before she'd eventually been found out. Iroh figured out that his newly-named Captain had known and everything went to Koh after that.

He was doing menial labor, for Koh's sake. He was an intelligent, talented Metalbending Officer and Iroh had the teenager swabbing the deck and serving under the enlisted men. While it was a punishment, at least Genji could check in on Huo with the men who were assigned to watch her.

Li stuffed a dumpling into his mouth and gestured with his fork. "You know she peed with us? Took showers with us? How in Agni's name did we not notice?"

Genji just smirked and shook his head. It was funny, actually. A girl had disguised herself as a boy and succeeded under the noses of some of the best-trained soldiers in the world. "She's smart. Really intelligent, actually." It wasn't in the book-smart sense, either. And she was incredibly naive. But she knew how the world worked, even if she wanted to look at it with a yellow, happy tint to it. "And it's not like she looked."

The freckled teenager gave Genji a knowing look. "C'mon, Genji. Don't be so naive. She's a teenage girl who showered with a bunch of not-bad-looking men. You can't tell me you don't think she took a peek?"

Genji was going to retort but then he locked eyes with General Iroh, who had entered the room and was looking around. The general stopped scanning the room as soon as their eyes met. He gave the teenager a look that in no uncertain terms meant that he needed to put his food away and run to his post. Something clicked in that second, though. "Actually, Li...I don't think she noticed us. Any of us. I've gotta go."

Genji didn't hear his friend's questioning protests as the officer threw his mess kit into the soapy dishwater he was offered and ran up to the officer's quarters. He straightened out his clothing and tightened his topknot but it didn't matter—he knew he looked disheveled.

He was led into an empty officer's mess, only Iroh standing there, bracing his arms against the table and staring down at something. A book, it looked like. And a rather thick one at that. Next to his hand was a tray with prisoner's fare on it—everything except for the large piece of chocolate cake and a cup of tea, that was. Chocolate cake definitely wasn't part of prison gruel. Neither was what smelled like Jasmine tea.

Iroh looked much like Genji felt—tired, confused irate. Not that the general showed it on the outside. It showed in a slightly crooked necktie and a stray wrinkle in his coat. Reading Iroh wasn't the easiest thing in the world but something was definitely off.

"Captain Genji," the general finally said, standing up. He'd wiped whatever emotions he'd been feeling from his eyes and stared at Genji with a strict sternness. Genji straightened and saluted, never letting his stance falter. "You've been asking questions about the prisoner."

"Yes, sir." He didn't bother denying it. Huo was his friend and he wasn't going to let her be treated any worse for the predicament she'd gotten herself into.

Iroh nodded and looked down to the cake on the tray in front of him. "If you're going to keep trying to check in on her, do it a little more discreetly."

Genji's eyes widened in surprise. "Sir?"

The general didn't look at him. He stared at the cake and at the cup of tea next to it. "She's a prisoner and she's betrayed the fleet. You can't be heard asking about her to the others. It makes you look like a conspirator."

The teenager took a deep breath, so many emotions broiling underneath his skin. I'm just going to say it. "With all due respect, sir," he said, his stance never faltering, "I knew about Huo a few days before she was found out. I am a conspirator."

Iroh just smirked and shook his head. His fingertip traced over the lip of the teacup delicately. "Of course. Right. Well, Captain, just ask your questions a little less often and with less soldiers around. Just because you knew doesn't mean that your career should tank with hers. You're a promising recruit—loyal—and I'd hate to see that thrown away."

Genji felt so much relief from those words that he had to clear his throat to keep his eyes from watering up. "Y-yes, sir. Thank you, sir." He stood there for a few more minutes, his arm starting to get sore as he stayed standing with the same salute as when he first entered. "Is there anything else you need from me, sir?"

"Hmm?" Iroh distractedly looked up from the teacup. "Oh, yes. Take this down to the prisoner's cell." He picked up a napkin and covered the tray with it. Then he turned on his heel and simply walked out of the room, the large tome still lying open next to the tray.

Before he picked up the tray, Genji looked down onto the book. He read a few passages about some old man named Bujing Gao. Huo's great-grandfather. A traitor to the Fire Nation. Another page was marked. He flipped through to see that it marked a chapter about the banishment of all of Ozai's most trusted men, as well as their families. There was a list of names.

Bujing Gao: Huo's great-grandfather

Bujing Maylin: Possibly Huo's great-grandmother

Bujing Mako: Most likely Huo's grandfather, the man that Adviser Hamin had known oh-so-long ago.

Genji didn't ask questions and he didn't waste any time after he read that. He was afraid that Iroh would change his mind so the teenager moved as fast as he could, picking up the tray and practically running to the hold. I don't blame Huo for her family. I don't.

A note fell off the tray and Genji hastily bent to pick it up. It read, 'If you were telling the truth, today is the Nineteenth Day of the Seventh Month. You aren't thirteen today.' Genji had no clue what that meant and just shook his head and almost ran into the man guarding Huo's prison cell.

It was Sergeant Roade standing guard, then, one of the foremost Huo-haters on the ship. "What do you want, Captain?"

Genji tightened his jaw and stood up taller. "The General asked me to bring the prisoner her food."

Roade started to pick up the napkin, saying, "Doesn't deserve food, that snake," but Genji snatched the tray away from him.

"The General says she is to be treated like a prisoner, not a murderer. She still needs to eat."

Roade raised his lip in a sneer but turned to unlock the door to Huo's prison cell. "Sup's up, prisoner. Eat while you still can."

Genji finally got a glimpse of her. She was wrapped from neck to hipbones in thick bandages. It contrasted sharply with her grungy black hair that fell in strings around her head. She was doing push-ups—push-ups!—and ignored Roade's grumbling comments. She didn't even look up to see that it was Genji, her friend, and not the ignorant man who was guarding her at that point in time. Her skin, from what he could see of it, had a sickly pale cast to it that worried him.

He cleared his throat. Huo glanced up just barely before she did a double-take to see him. She knew better than to make a big deal of it, as Roade was still watching, but she smiled in a very feminine way, a very Huo way, and he felt his heart melting just a little. He set down her food and handed her the note. She looked confused but took it, reading it, and she bit her lower lip and swallowed hard.

"Thank you," she said softly, her eyes closed, tears welling up a little under her thick eyelashes.

"It's not from me," Genji said under his breath, "I don't even know what it means."

Huo ignored him and peeked under the cloth napkin, a soft sob wracking her body as she saw what was underneath. "I know," she said, a crack in her voice. "I know who it's from."

"Well, what's it mean?" he wanted to know irately. He'd wanted to check up on her and all she could show appreciation for was a piece of cake from Iroh. "How are you, are they treating you alright?"

Roade grabbed his shoulder and pulled him out of the small cell. "Okay, enough, no socializing with the prisoner."

The girl on the floor brightened and looked up at her friend with molten hazel eyes. "I'm good, Genji. I'm a spinster now, but damn it, I'm good."

Nineteeth Day of the Seventh Month... He smiled, even as he was he was being manhandled away, and loudly whispered, "Happy birthday, Huo!"

She laughed out loud. Not a soft, delicate laugh like Opal, but full, like she'd been around men for the past year. Oh, wait. "Thanks, Genji! Don't let me get you in trouble!"

Roade practically kicked him out on his ass from the hold. He knew that he'd have more decks to swab and latrines to clean because of his outburst, but seeing that smile on Huo's face had been completely worth it. Happy birthday, kid.