Chapter 13: the Party

Lee didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.

He stood with his arms crossed over his chest frowning at Jin while she straightened her dress. The gown had taken her a week to make, and he had to admit that it was stunning. But that was beside the point. She straightened up from the mirror that she had set on the desk, leaning against the wall at an odd angle.

Most nights she slept in a cot in the corner of the back room of the flower shop, right next to the pai sho table. The trip to the lower ring without the trains running was far too long to traverse twice a day. Plus she was trying to avoid her easily enraged father and zombie-like mother. She went home about once a week to check that they were alright, hand over the majority of her wages, and do laundry. About twice a week she would stay at Lee's apartment, either coming by for dinner and leaving after breakfast, or sneaking in the window on nights she couldn't sleep.

Lee wondered what Hyun Su would think if he knew how Jin was basically living in his shop these days. He probably wouldn't care.

"How do I look?"

"Fine."

"Just fine?"

"What do you want me to say?"

She turned back to the mirror, absently patting her hair.

"Since when is this your job?"

She smiled at him. "It's just a party."

"Oh yeah. Good times. Dancing. Getting drunk. Rubbing elbows with the Fire Nation. Great fun!"

"We both know that you can't go to Quon's party. They'll recognize you."

"I don't think you should go."

"Yeah?"

"Longshot can get the information from his sources."

"He's tried."

"Not hard enough." He grumbled. "I don't want you going in there without backup."

"No one's going to attack me at a fancy party."

"Can't we just send Mimi?"

"You're awful. And no one invited Mimi."

"Quon did."

She sighed.

"I could go and stay out of the way unless you need me."

She rolled her eyes. Jin had become very protective of Lee recently. She insisted that he stop going on missions that she deemed dangerous (so basically all of them) and restricted him to organizing things back at headquarters. He was beyond irritated with this arrangement. After a great deal of complaining, he finally uncovered that she was worried about someone finding out about his bending and taking his abilities away.

In general, Jin did not believe that the remaining earth benders could be any worse off than having their bending removed, and publicly dismissed any such notion. However, once she realized that Lee was actually pretty good (not great, but pretty good) she became afraid that he would be subjugated to whatever unseen horror was coming up next.

Crazy. Just crazy.

"You can't come. Deal with it."

He huffed.

"You should get going. He'll be here soon."

Lee's frown deepened. Him. He was the other reason that Lee didn't want Jin going to this party. He was just a dumb, rich guy looking for some arm candy, wanting to impress people who were even more stupid and rich than he was, and hoping to get a little action after the gathering. He had no personality at all. He had no real aspirations.

He was the kind of guy that would show up to this date with an orchid to give to Jin and think that he was being clever.

"If he pulls anything-"

"Yeah, yeah. He touches me and you rip his arms off. Got it."

"I don't like it."

"So you've said."

"I don't like you whoring yourself out like this. You're better than that. There's got to be a better way."

She gave him an exasperated look, then returned to the old standby of letting it pass.

"It'll be fine. Don't follow me." He snorted. "We need to know the enemy, right?"

"That doesn't mean we have to dance with them."

She walked towards him and wrapped an arm seductively around his neck. "You're a terrible dancer anyway" she purred.

"Liar."

"I learn from the best."

Her lips were a hair's breadth from his own when the shop door opened. "Hello? Jin?"

Oh Agni damn it.

Jin shoved him away and walked out into the front room. "Hisao. How wonderful to see you again."

"The pleasure is all mine." Oh, this guy was just asking for it.

"You look ravishing this evening." Ugg.

"Thank you." Did she just giggle? Lee felt sick.

"I brought you these."

"Orchids! My favorite." Lee groaned.

"Did you hear something?"

"No. Shall we go?"

"Yes. Let's."

Lee counted to twenty after he heard the door close before following them.

Hisao was nice enough. He opened doors for her, paraded her around, and was a pretty good dancer. He was also very well connected and introduced her to a great many people, who were all immediately taken with her.

She danced with several cultural ministers. She listened as a minor official told her of how terribly important his job was as the assistant manager of Middle Ring accounting. Jin smiled and nodded and laughed in all the right places and blushed at all the right times.

Quon didn't recognize her and offered her tea. "This is from one of my many business endeavors. It's jasmine, I believe." It wasn't. "Very rare." It wasn't. "Soon I will own every tea shop in the city that's worth anything, and have a monopoly on tea leaf." That was also not true. Poor Quon. She smiled and complemented the wonderful blend he had created. (Heh. Created. Yeah right.) Yun mimed gagging over his shoulder before serving a high ranking bureaucrat.

A Fire Nation Captain asked her to dance. His eyes reminded her of Lee, as did the uncommon warmth that seeped from his hand into her hip. He whispered into her ear, his voice husky and his breath warm. She shot him coy looks from beneath her eye lashes and allowed him to hold her a bit closer than was necessary.

Quin Wei was there, a feathered Pekinese in the crook of one arm. His wife stood next to him, looking exceedingly bored. One of his daughters was visiting and flirting shamelessly with one of the Fire Nation officers. Her husband was attempting to suck up to Quin Wei. The young man let out a loud, forced bark of laughter when Quin Wei pinched Jin's butt as she walked by. She would have to apologize to Mimi for ever doubting her.

Jin rejoined Hisao in the middle of a conversation. He silently handed her a drink, his attention still on the three men in front of him. She sipped her drink delicately, trying to look small and un-noticeable.

"That woman's a god send, I tell you. I cut my expenses in half in the last month."

"And they said Ba Sing Se had no resources! They've got the largest stock of cheap labor in the world."

"So cheap it's free."

"Why isn't she here now? I'd like to speak to her."

"I heard that Lady Yan Li is at the port for the next … what?... two weeks?"

"She'll be back on the 17th."

"Two weeks then."

"I guess I can wait that long. Those damned storms in the East sunk another of my ships."

"How many does that make this year? Three?"

"Four. And I'll be damned if I'm paying and loosing another crew. Better off with slaves. More economical."

Bingo. This is exactly the information that she wanted. They had suspected that a slave trade had been set up, due to the large numbers of the poor that had gone missing in the lower ring lately. But it was just an urban ledged, a story to frighten children: be careful or the Fire Nation will take you and put you to work in a coal mine. Be good or the fire nation will take you and use you as a pleasure slave.

But it was true. Jin repeated the information several times in her head. Lady Yan Li. The 17th. Lady Yan Li. The 17th.

"May I have this dance?" Jin snapped out of her musings to come face to face with Long Feng.

Look calm. Look calm. She turned to her date and blushed slightly as if asking permission to dance with someone else. Ridiculous. Hisao seemed thrilled that his date had drawn the attention of someone so important and agreed readily.

Long Feng's hand was cold in her own. Don't look nervous. Smile. Don't look nervous.

The song was half over when Long Feng spoke again. "I have wanted to meet you, Jin of the Jasmine Dragon."

Jin blinked once, then smiled. "I'm sorry, my lord. There must be some sort of mistake. My clan name is Ng."

"I know who you are."

She continued to give him a look that was simultaneously vacant and mildly curious.

"I notice that you are not on Lee's arm. I hope you haven't had a falling out."

"Lee?"

"The young man who runs Quon's tea shop. He was supposed to be here tonight."

"I'm afraid that you have been misinformed again. Mushi runs the Jasmine Dragon, my lord. And his nephew does not like parties."

"Indeed." He gave her a smile that made her skin crawl. "When you see him, will you kindly deliver a message for me?"

"I can try. My memory is not the best." She averted her eyes and managed a blush.

"I don't think it will be too difficult for you, my dear. Just tell him," he leaned in close, his cheek almost touching her own, "I'll be watching him."

She laughed. "Whatever for?"

"I don't want to worry you. Just deliver the message, and forget all about it."

"As you wish, my lord."

She bowed her head slightly, but the next thing she knew, he had lifted her face to meet his eyes. He held her chin in a tight, cold grip.

"He will never succeed in killing me" he hissed.

"No. Of course not."

Long Feng narrowed his eyes slightly, then released her and walked away. The music had stopped and her date appeared at her side to ask if Long Feng had mentioned him.

Lee would not kill Long Feng. No, that honor would be hers.

When Quon threw a party he went all out, even going as far as to arrange safe passage for his guests after curfew. Hisao walked her as far as the square with the statue of Ozai. It was slightly larger than life sized, standing in an aggressive fire bending stance, and sporting a muscled upper body that was surely an exaggeration. The statue always made her slightly uncomfortable. There was something about the face – the line of the jaw, the set of the eyes – that was eerie, almost familiar.

"Are you sure that you don't want me to walk you home?"

"I'm sure. It's not far from here. Thank you for a lovely evening."

"I had a good time. I hope I can see you again soon."

She smiled. "That would be nice."

He leaned in to kiss her and at the last second she turned her face, causing him to peck her cheek.

"Good night."

He nodded, frowning, then walked away. As she walked through the deserted streets, she smiled to herself, thinking of how irritated Lee would be that the young man hadn't insisted on walking her home.

She couldn't exactly hear the person following her, and she wasn't stupid enough to turn around to grab a glace. She wouldn't be able to see them in the dark anyway. It was like a presence she could feel on the back of her neck. It was probably just the Dai Li watching her. They would just follow her, they wouldn't attack her. She casually tucked her hands into her sleeves and took hold of the girly knife that she had stashed there.

A hand grabbed her waist as another covered her mouth to prevent her from screaming. She was pressed against a wall in a dark alley, her knife against her attacker's throat.

It took a moment for her to orient herself enough to recognize Lee in the dark. She sighed and crossed her arms across her chest. "You've been following me all evening?"

"Yes."

"I told you not to."

He shrugged. "Did you get what you wanted?"

"Yes."

His hand ghosted over her cheek. "I saw Long Feng grab you. Are you hurt?"

"No."

He exhaled slowly. "You handled yourself well." He sounded pained to admit it.

She offered a huffy response of "thank you" and they stood in silence for a moment.

"Was he a good dancer?" She could hear the humor in his voice. It was like an apology. It made her smile.

"Fantastic."

"Better than me?" he shifted his weight against her.

"What are you doing?"

He answered by kissing the spot on her neck that always made her knees weak. Damn him. That was just playing dirty.

She bit down a gasp. Managing to clear the fog in her head, she whispered, "We're in an alley after curfew."

"I know." The hand that wasn't rubbing warm circles into her hip was wondering through the yards of fabric on her skirt to find her thigh.

"Then why-"

"You're beautiful and spent the whole evening flirting with other men. I'm jealous." He kissed her again and she bit her lip to keep from moaning.

"We're going to get caught."

"Not if we're very quiet" he whispered.

"The Dai Li are watching you."

"Then they should avert their eyes."

"Idiot" she breathed, wrapping her arms around him.

There was a crowd forming around a section of broad street and Jin wondered up to see what the fuss was about. There didn't seem to be anything happening, but it looked as though something was getting ready to start. She spotted Lee and Mushi little further along in the crowd. They both looked grim.

"Hey. What's going on?"

Lee looked down at her and paused for a second before explaining. "One of the Fire Nation Captains was insulted this morning by another officer. It's a matter of honor and now they're going to work it out."

"How are they doing that?" She craned her neck to see if she could spot any action.

"Agni Kai."

"What's that?"

He nodded towards a man crouched in the middle of the road. His torso was bare save a ceremonial wrap. Further down the street she could see another man in the same pose.

He answered her confused look with more information that she didn't understand. "They're centering themselves. Meditating. That man's praying."

"How can you tell?"

"He's scared and his lips are moving." He shook his head. "He's already given up." Mushi nodded solemnly.

Jin watched as the two men rose from the ground as if by some signal that she had missed. They faced one another and fell into a bending stance. The crowd began to cheer.

"Maybe we should go inside. Jin? Nephew?" Neither of them paid any attention to Mushi's suggestion and watched in fascination as the men began to duel.

One was obviously more skilled than the other and pushed the man back repeatedly with blast after blast of fire. It was almost lovely to watch, like some sort of hypnotizing dance. She couldn't tear her eyes away, even as she began to understand the consequences of this battle. People in the crowd hooted and jeered as if watching human destruction was the best entertainment they had ever seen. It was disgusting, but then again she was watching too. She was participating in this madness, and she could not look away.

One man finally tripped and fell. He lay prone on the ground, panting. Mushi lowered his eyes and Lee's jaw tensed. The man on the ground slid his eyes closed, while the man above him wore a vicious smile.

"Look away" Mushi told her. But she couldn't. The fireball consumed the prone man's face and his scream engulfed her senses. Her shriek was drowned out by the crowd's cheers. She found herself pressed tightly against Lee's chest as the scene replayed itself again and again and she shook uncontrollably.

The crowd had begun to disperse and she still stood frozen to the spot in Lee's arms. Mushi hovered over them anxiously.

"It won't be the last time you see someone die" Lee whispered. She lifted her head uncertainly to see his face. "Why do you think you're training with those tiger hooks? What do you think needs to happen to retake this city? Someday you'll be the one to do the killing. Get used to it now."

She didn't know what part made her vomit. Maybe it was the gory scene she had just witnessed or the stench of burnt flesh that hung in the air. Maybe it was Lee's coldness and the truth that was blatant in his statement. Maybe it was the fact that the origin of his scar was no longer a mystery.