Chapter 5: the Funeral

The bison licked him as he let it free. His entire right side was covered in a thick layer of saliva that dampened and crumpled his clothes and left his hair in a traumatized cowlick. The spit was sticky and smelly and it itched against his skin.

He was probably allergic to the stuff. Typical. He stumbled as he was overcome by a wave of dizziness.

He dreamed of dragons - dragons of red and blue whispering in his ear. They coiled around his body and squeezed and pulled, with slow movements that reminded him less of the slithering of snakes and more of the self-assured readiness of a tiger-dillo prepared to pounce. The two beasts were locked in a quiet battle with one another and he was caught in the middle. He was a battle field, a pawn, a prize to be won. He couldn't think with them both hissing at him, with the intense heat from their fire, and with the fuzzy, dull headache that kept growing more acute. He didn't really want to follow either of them. Couldn't he just rest and think? Just for a moment? Cold scales slithered over his body, chilling him until he shivered so violently that he retched.

-This is not a natural sickness-

A dragon made of jade was singing to him. It was the strangest lullaby he had ever heard, soft and scared and lilting. Over time its voice altered to that of his mother as she gently ran a cool cloth across his forehead, then to his uncle, then the dragon was back with its tender eyes. It cradled his head and helped him sip water, murmuring words of comfort.

The blue dragon hissed in displeasure. It circled from a distance as though repulsed by the jade dragon. It stalked quietly, waiting for its moment to strike. The jade dragon scoffed, rolled its massive eyes, and shook its bottle green head. –Honestly, Mushi, you're so terrible- Zuko curled up against its hide, feeling the steady rise and fall of its armor as it breathed. He closed his eyes and slept.

Jin grinned up at the boy leaning against the wall of the work shop. Lee was back. He was back and the corners of his mouth were twitching towards what might be a smile.

She stood in front of him for a moment, watching the way his eyes shimmered in the wavering light, the way his shoulders were held back out of his usual slouch, and the way the muscles in his jaw relaxed as she approached.

"I'm sorry for not walking you home the last few days. It won't happen again."

"I'll forgive you but I'm still irritated."

She turned and started her walk down the street, staying ahead of him for a while so that he couldn't see the grin stamped across her face. She had no idea that he was watching the back of her head and smiling too.

Once she had tamed her smile into something more appropriate, she glanced over her shoulder at him, and turned to walk backwards with her hands clasped behind her back and her eyes searching his face. "Are you feeling better?"

"How did you know I was sick?"

She stopped and gave him an incredulous look. Grabbing his sleeve, she held it up, practically shoving it into his face. "You really didn't notice? You're so dense."

"Did you … tailor my clothes?"

She gave a tragic sigh. "Yes, I came over and fixed your clothes. I also watched you vomit twice, helped unpack your stuff, and your uncle tried to teach me to play pai sho."

He looked slightly mortified.

"Well, I'm not sure he was really trying. He kept making up new rules so that he would win. 'Every third turn, the wheel tile turns counter clockwise' and 'the chrysanthemum tile can move five spaces in a turn if you have more than four harmonies.' It's far too confusing for me."

"Yeah," he croaked, "those aren't real rules."

"Oh well." She pulled him into movement again, giving him a moment to gather his thoughts.

"Did you just come by to be obsessive about my clothes?"

"No, I came to see if your uncle was alright without you. You see, I'd thought you'd run off. And I figured that Mushi can't cook for himself, so I brought him some noodles, and then I found you there half dead. Goodness, you scared both of us senseless."

"You made him noodles?"

"They were take away."

"Ah." He couldn't really think of anything more to say. It was distressing to think of what she may have witnessed while he was sick. What had he said during his hallucinations? He tried to think, but it was all blurry and surreal. And she had seen him throw up? Gross. He would never live that down.

He hazarded a glance out of the corner of his eye. She was smiling. He felt slightly reassured, and soon he realized that he was smiling too.

"Sorry I missed your grand opening."

"It wasn't that exciting. I'm sorry I missed your graduation."

"Don't worry about it. It would have been boring for you."

"No. I don't think so."

She felt slightly flushed and turned her face away from him.

"So what are you doing with all your free time now?"

"Helping my mother. Sleeping eight hours. Visiting with friends. I'll come by this weekend and you can show me how to use your broad swords."

"What?"

"This knife is a girly weapon."

"You're a girl."

"You point that out often. I wonder why."

"It takes a lot of effort to master dual swords."

"Well, you did it."

"You're not very nice."

"It's payback. I told you that I'm still irritated."

"Fine."

"Why are you smiling?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I've got a new apartment, the tea shop opened successfully, and I'm walking with you. What's wrong if I want to smile?"

"Are you sure that fever didn't give you brain damage?"

Zuko laughed. She had never heard him laugh before. It made her pause. He just looked down at her with the most beautiful, peaceful smile she had ever seen.

Zuko continued to walk her home every night, which was impressive since it was an hour train ride from his apartment to the lower ring. They silently agreed to not mention it.

She made up for their diminished interaction by announcing every now and then that he was going to take her to eat, or he was going to train her to use broad swords, or he was going to buy her something heavy and then carry it for her. She didn't ask any more. She told him. And he complied without any fuss.

"Widen your stance."

"More?"

"Yes. More."

"I can't in this dress."

"Then you shouldn't have worn that dress."

"I see that the friendlier version of Lee is still rude."

"You wanted me to teach you."

"Teach. Not bicker with me about how wide my stance is."

They were in one of the upper ring parks. He hadn't bothered to give her swords, but figured that if their lessons lasted that long he could climb a tree and get her a couple of sticks.

He took a deep breath and explained in what he thought was a patient tone, "If your stance is weak, then your root can be easily disrupted."

She stuck her tongue out at him. He shoved her and she fell on her butt with an "oh!"

"See, your stance wasn't strong enough."

"Jerk." She stood, brushed herself off, looked around to see if anyone was watching, and tied her dress up to above her knees. With a widened stance she said, "Let's go again."

After an hour she managed to block him. After two hours, she got a hit in. She was a quick study. Her body was athletic, and her speed and agility made up for her lack of strength. He probably would have to give her some swords soon.

She collapsed spread eagle on the ground, announcing that practice was over for the day. He flopped down next to her and started pulling up blades of grass.

"I like this park. We don't have things like it in the lower ring. It reminds me of this field near our village that my mother used to take us to when I was really little before we came to Ba Sing Se. We would roll down the hill and play tag and hide and seek. This place is much nicer, but it still kind of reminds me of it."

"Us?"

"Me and my brother."

"What's his name?"

"Keung. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

He paused, wondering how much he should lie. "I have a younger sister."

She looked up at him like he should say something more.

He shrugged. "We don't really get along."

"Why not?"

"She's just … mean."

"Do you miss her?"

"Not really."

She propped herself up on her elbows. "Seriously?"

"Yeah."

She searched his face for a moment. "I used to think my brother was mean. He was always picking on me and doing things that I was too young to do and rubbing it in my face."

"You used to? What changed?"

"He went off to war and died."

"Oh."

She turned away from him.

"I'm so sorry."

"Make up with your sister. She can't be that bad. Little sisters need their big brothers."

He didn't bother to tell her that Azula was that bad. It was funny really, he envied her for having a good relationship with her brother, and she envied him for having a sibling that was alive.

He gazed off toward the towers of the palace in the distance. "My cousin died in the war. He was always really decent to me. We used to go to the beach." A fleeting smile crossed his face then faded. "It really tore up my uncle."

"Poor Mushi." She sighed. "Stupid war."

"Yeah. Stupid war."

Suri came up to Zuko while he was going through some paperwork in the back room. "Lee, there's a weird girl out there. Can you take a look?"

"If it's Mimi in a funny hat and this is some sort of surprise, it's really lame."

She rolled her eyes. "No. Come look. It's suspicious." She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the office. She opened the door a crack and gestured for him to peek out.

The girl did look strange. She was slouching at a table across the room, her hand splayed over the top of her tea cup as if trying to keep the steam contained, her finger tips latching around the lip to lift it like a spider. Her figure was small and stringy as if she was underfed, and she had an aura of anger and dishevelment. "Her manners are a bit … coarse. And she didn't know anything about tea."

"Lots of people don't know about tea. It's your job to help them out. And anyway, it just looks like she's from the lower ring and she's trying to pass off as upper ring." The girl's dress was actually put on improperly, and her face paint made her look like a malnourished raccoon. Zuko grinned at Suri, "That happens a lot, you know."

She rolled her eyes. She had been taking notes from Jin on how to ignore him. "There's just something … off. I have this feeling that she's dangerous."

"You're just paranoid." The strange girl's eyes met his and he suddenly knew the feeling Suri was talking about. He looked away quickly and slid the door shut. "If she's bothering you that much have Yun take over the table. She'll be gone in a little while, so don't worry about – AAAH!"

A throwing knife was embedded in his shoulder. Suri screamed, and Zuko fell to the ground with a weight on his chest. All the air was knocked out of him and he hit his head against the floor with a sickening crack. It took him a moment to realize that there was a second knife at his throat.

"Do you recognize me?" The girl's voice was a hiss.

"What the hell!" His vision was a little blurry and up close the girl's makeup was slightly frightening.

Her bony knee pushed harder into his chest. "Do you recognize me!"

"No! Get off!"

Suri was cowering in the corner with a hand over her mouth, being absolutely useless.

The girl on his chest yanked out the knife from his shoulder and pressed two fingers viciously into the wound, causing him to cry out. Her fingers came out bloody and she proceeded to wipe two red streaks across each cheek. Suri made a strangled noise.

Zuko gaped at her.

"Smellerbee?"

"It's your fault he died. It's all your fault and now I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you and you're going to know who did it and why."

"Who's dead?"

"Jet!"

"Jet's dead?"

"Yes, he's dead!" Her hand was starting to shake against his throat. "The Dai Li, they …" Her voice cracked and she pressed her eyes closed to hold back angry tears.

He tentatively reached up and took a firm hold of both her wrists. "I didn't kill Jet."

She collapsed into sobs, burying her blood streaked raccoon face against his good shoulder. He tossed both knives towards Suri's feet with a glare - Thanks for helping – and wrapped his arms around the crying girl.

Yun picked that moment to come into the back room. She raised her eyebrows at Zuko, still lying on the floor of the stock room with a tiny, crying, funny dressed girl on top of him. He raised his eyebrows right back at her.

Normal day at work it seems. "Suri, can you get a pot of red tea going?"

"Umm, yeah."

"Lee, you need a hand?"

He nodded, patting the sobbing girl awkwardly on the back again.

Longshot was amazingly easy to understand. He was surprised to see Zuko in his dingy one room apartment, but not overly so. He was irritated with Smellerbee and her rash actions.

She refused to meet his eyes even as he held her chin and scrubbed a damp cloth against her cheek to get the dried blood off. Longshot highly disapproved of over dramatics.

"I'm going to change clothes," she huffed and stomped down the hallway to the communal bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Longshot gave Zuko a long look, simultaneously apologizing for Smellerbee and asking what the hell he was doing in his home.

"She said you have his body and you don't know what to do with it. I came to help."

Longshot gave a small gesture of his head to point out a large chest across the room. Zuko tried to bite down the bile that rose in his chest knowing there was a dead body sitting in a box in these people's living room. And he was partially responsible for it being there.

Longshot put a hand on his shoulder. It really wasn't his fault. Jet just got out of control. They were going to start a new life together, but now it would just be him and Smellerbee and their new life had begun in tragedy.

There was really nothing Zuko could say.

The two boys carried the trunk out past the inner wall into the agricultural district. They stopped on the way and bought a shovel and some flowers. Smellerbee complained about the flowers. Jet wouldn't have liked them. Of course, she hadn't been helpful enough to pick out anything that would have pleased him.

She looked somehow softer as she walked along the road through the fields, holding the daisies, mourning internally.

They picked a spot on a hill under a tree and took turns digging. Dusk was coming on by the time they lowered Jet into the hole.

No one said anything.

After a minute of staring at the trunk-turned-coffin, Zuko picked up the shovel again and began to cover it with dirt.

"Are you alright?" Jin looked concerned. Her head was cocked to one side and there was a small crease between her eyebrows.

"Yeah, just a long day." He turned and started walking towards her house.

"You're covered in dirt. And… you're bleeding!"

She pulled him to a stop and inspected his shoulder where there was a growing red spot on his shirt. He cursed himself for bleeding through his bandages.

Jin attempted to undo his shirt and look at his wound in the middle of the street.

"Cut it out." He pulled away from her (which made him twinge in pain) and continued walking.

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"You're all banged up."

"And?"

"And that's not good."

"Hrumf"

"You're really not going to tell me?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I do."

"It doesn't matter."

"Was it the Dai Li or the soldiers?"

"No."

"… Was it your uncle?"

"What! No!"

"Was it Quon?"

"No."

"One of the girls from the shop?"

"No."

"… One of your girlfriends?"

"She's not my girlfriend."

"So that's a 'yes' then."

"Ugg. Drop it."

"Where did you meet her?"

"Just stop."

"Is she prettier than me?"

"No."

"I can keep asking all night. You might as well just spill it."

"We're almost to your house."

"No, we're not."

"You're annoying."

She grinned. "I prefer 'spunky'."