Book Two: Break

Republic City whirred to life a few hours before the sun rose, the low hum of the street lights dimming for the collective roar of engines, the people beginning to file ant-like out of their houses. Kagami and Kise and Aomine had only dropped off to sleep three hours ago, but Aomine was woken when Kagami woke when Kuroko woke when Momoi woke, at the ding of the glorified egg timer that had served Kagami as his alarm clock since he'd picked it up from an air nomad peddler for a song. Kise had grown up in the dormitories of the Air Temples, though, and could sleep through everything but the morning bells to mediation, which woke him a bare ten minutes later instead, tolling over the water from Air Temple island, reaching through the windows to call Kise home. He rolled off the platform where he slept with Kuroko and Momoi, grabbed his glider and leapt out the window without opening his eyes, stepping on anyone or even checking his hair. Aomine stayed on his platform on the other side of the attic a little while longer, pretending he could still sleep. Momoi went to their tiny curtained-off washing area first, and the splashing of the water on her body kept Aomine from actually sleeping. Kuroko corralled Nigou before he could upset Kagami unearthing from the icebox half a basket of eggs to crack into the rice boiling on the other side of the tiny gas-powered stove. They had it with soy sauce. This was an improvement from last week, when they'd had porridge with soy sauce, end of.

Aomine was tired. Last night- no, this morning, they'd dragged themselves up after training with Nigou slipping out of Aomine's arms like a sack of potatoes to find Kuroko and Momoi already sleeping the sleep of the deeply exhausted, and this had been after a full day of work. They had their match tomorrow, though. They had to be prepared.

Kagami was the first one to leave, racing to the morning shift at the power plant. Union rules stated that lightning-benders needed to take at least three-hour breaks between six-hour shifts, which left Kagami struggling to fit in two shifts a day and pro-bending practice, running him the most ragged out of any of them except maybe Momoi. Kuroko slurped up his bowl and left too, taking Nigou with him. Momoi took a little longer, spreading her wet hair out over her shoulders, poking Dai-chan with the end of a stool to clean up the water and refreeze the icebox, closing the window after Ki-chan.

Aomine dragged himself out of his sheets and ate his breakfast, wishing he'd made enough yesterday for meat for them to actually eat, instead of the bones from last night's meal making up the broth for today's. Satsuki sat on the tattered, ancient sofa that had come with the attic and ate, and Aomine looked at the deep dark shadows forming under her eyes. He hadn't seen those since before Tetsu had come, when he'd first started going out with the boats for the catch. But Republic City was boiling over with benders who wanted those jobs and the fishermen here weren't likely to be as sympathetic to two orphans struggling to live on handouts as the villagers back home had been. The Kiyoshi Islanders hadn't stinted on what they had to give, but all the same their charity had left them clothed in castoffs and eating the same thing a week in a row. Aomine had thought they were past those times.

He sat next to her with the whole rest of the pot and said, "We'll win, tomorrow."

Satsuki ate neatly and quickly and said, "Of course you will." Then she added, "If you don't forget the rules or the zones and you don't get knocked out early by someone who knows what they're doing better than you do." She ruminated for a bit. "Or if Kichan doesn't accidentally airbend and get you all thrown out."

Aomine snorted and said, "We'll kill him if he does," which wasn't can we really keep this up. Aida had been clear and upfront about it, and Aomine had gotten the skinny from the other pro-benders who turned up to Hanamiya's gym. The winnings didn't start until they actually were competing in the tournament, and they had at least another two weeks until then, another fortnight of living hand-to-mouth and running themselves ragged trying to make something of themselves in this merciless city. Aomine didn't doubt they could win. But winning might not change anything for them.

Kise had not needed to be clear. If being the Avatar called him away, he would go. That wasn't even a question. They couldn't afford to think like that, though.

"Dai-chan?" said Satsuki, reaching to take the empty pot from him. "I'll wash it before I leave, come on. You need to go to the docks, right?"

"Nah," said Aomine, getting up and grabbing her bowl from her, already bubbling the soapy water over the bowls left in one of the buckets. "I've got this." He did.

.0.

Aomine hit the Red Monsoons again once it became clear he wasn't going to make any more than a fistful of yuans hanging out at the docks past the dawn rush. Mako had a few jobs he kept for guys he liked, his inner circle, the ones who were just as hard-eyed as he was. Aomine knew he was as a good a bender as any of them, better, but he didn't see any point in toadying up to Mako for scraps, which didn't work for most of them anyway. He wanted something that would make him some real money. He was sick of the thin sleeping pads they had in the attic. He wanted them to have fucking cutlery that matched and wasn't broken, was that too much to ask? Kagami was a prince. He could have walked away from their life any time he chose, but he wasn't doing it. He wasn't walking away from them.

Aomine fought, savagely. Not anywhere near cutting loose, but they were less strict at this place than that ref Hyuuga was, and the benders here took their hits without whining, coming right back up at him with sharp and vicious tricks, close enough to kill, but not nearly good enough to kill him. He wouldn't make these mistakes at the matches.

Looking over the railing that lined the second floor and onto the sparring areas, Hanamiya watched Kazuya fly through the air, trailing blood that frosted into interesting patterns in the air as he went. His eyes noted the slight hollowing of Aomine's cheeks, the drawn-out stretched look he was getting, the way he moved around the water like no one Hanamiya had ever seen. Hanamiya kicked Kentaro, who snorted awake and almost fell out of his chair.

Hanamiya nodded to the floor. "You're hitting Narook's later?" he said.

"It's that time of the week," Kentaro said, rubbing his elbow. "Boss," he added.

"See if the new guy is interested," said Hanamiya. "Take Sakurai, too. It's about time he took a good look at how we operate."

Kentaro rolled his eyes down to Aomine demolishing someone else altogether; his breath beginning to frost in the air. "How the hell's he doing this from down there," said Kentaro, cross-eyed. Hanamiya flexed his hands on the rail and water began to flow down all the walls back to the buckets. Aomine looked up, startled. Most of the chumps working in this place barely noticed. Ha. Hanamiya had known he was onto something. Of all the gyms in Republic City for this guy to walk into.

"Because he's working hard with the power of wonderful belief and spirit," said Hanamiya, locking eyes with Aomine Daiki. "Why do you fucking think? Because he's good. Take him with you, wave a bit of change in his face." And then they'd see if fucking Imayoshi wanted to talk like he had this city in the palm of his hand. Then they'd see if he really could.

.0.

Kuroko had extremely nice seniors in the newspaper office. Izuki had taken Hyuuga's gruff, "Look after him" to heart. Nigou had been whole-heartedly adopted by the staff, and he at least ate well on their tidbits. Aida-san also took charge of him during the hours when Kuroko and Momoi went to their night jobs and the other three practiced, and if he came back with his belly rounded out with food and with his fur soft and clean, they could only be grateful that Aida Riko was a softer touch than she looked. Kuroko had been given a thankless proofreading job, but the money was reasonable, he had his own desk, and there was always tea and biscuits. Kiyoshi also cleaned here, or at least came in sometime around lunch and then spent the evening hanging around looking wise as he bothered the rest of them at their work.

Kuroko learned a lot about Republic City from reading the things that passed his desk. A fluff piece about the completion of the Avatar's training told him that Kise's time had been well-spent since they had met him. The sheaf of articles on crime in Republic City gave him pause. Fleet movement reports told him that soldiers and sailors would shortly be returning to Republic City, just in time to fill the city to overflowing and in time for the conference being called in Republic City for the benefit of the young Avatar. The Fleet Commander was highly anticipated to be in attendance.

Mitobe interrupted Kuroko's work with a quiet cup of tea placed near his hand, and Kuroko murmured his thanks. Kise-kun's firebending master was coming to Republic City. Kise had alternated between terror and adoration in all his stories about Commander Akashi, who commanded the second fleet.

Koganei had followed Mitobe over with a new tin of biscuits, and he munched companionably over Kuroko while he and Mitobe chose their biscuits with solemn gravity.

"Your team is playing tomorrow, right?" said Koganei. "What's their name? I'm a Panda-Bear fan myself, but they already qualified, so I can root for your team tomorrow no problem."

"They're the Lion-Dogs," said Kuroko. "You follow the matches?"

Mitobe nodded.

"We usually do," said Koganei. "Even if we can't get tickets, you know? Izuki's broadcasting now, and his numbers are really going up. Last year they'd only just started with a radio slot, but now that a few more big teams are into it, the championships have been getting bigger and bigger. Hyuuga and Riko really put their backs into it."

Mitobe frowned.

"The gangs used to run the pro-bending in Republic City," translated Koganei. "Riko's being straight with everyone and running it like a business, but she wouldn't be able to do it without some serious money behind her. The triads don't like it when someone muscles it on their territory. They watch her closely so they can strike if she slips up."

"Is it very serious?" said Kuroko.

"If there was any wrongdoing, we would find and expose it!" said Koganei, thumping his chest with his empty mug. "And Riko's tough. She gets things done, even when she doesn't like how she has to do it."

Nigou chose this moment to brush past a napping Kiyoshi's legs, and he let out a yell as he was startled awake, which naturally roused the rest of the office because Kiyoshi rattled the earth in his surprise, upsetting anyone and anything that could have been upset. In the chaos of trying to locate Nigou through his barks in a sea of newsprint and paper, Kuroko forgot to ask Koganei what exactly it was that Aida Riko did not like to do.

.0.

Heads turned as the nice young man in the United Fleet's smart uniform laboured at the bicycle attached to a wagon. His passenger was another young man who could have been mistaken for the more eccentric class of tourist, the ones who found the noise of motorcars inauthentic or annoying and preferred to see the city by rickshaw. He was dressed in the manner of a wealthy Water Tribesman even in the heat of Republic City. In the wagon with him was a statue of Avatar Kiyoshi.

Takao raised his head and said, "What do you mean, you want to go to Narook's? That's on the other side of the city. If you want to go there then you take a crack at moving yourself around, how about that?"

"We could go to Kuang's," said Midorima, sighing in the manner of one making a huge sacrifice.

"Are you joking?' said Takao. "I couldn't afford a place like that, Shin-chan." He mulled it over. "Unless you're paying, obviously."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Midorima. "Then we'll just go to Narook's."

Takao slumped on his bike. By now he wasn't sure why he bothered to turn up to the embassy in full uniform, except that he still had his rank and no one could take that away from him, damn it. "I should never have introduced you to that place," he said.

"If you don't hurry," said Midorima. "Then obviously we won't get there in time for lunch." He settled down and adjusted the statue of Avatar Kiyoshi the length of his forearm sitting in the corner of the wagon. Auntie Wu had predicted some bad luck today for him, but that had been the largest lucky item Midorima had been able to find on short notice. In the whole city.

It would just have to do.