A/N: This thing turned into a total monster, so I had to divide into two parts. I'll probably post the next part sometime next week. Enjoy!

You Mess With My Dumplings, You Die - Part I

For Asami, it's become a sacred weekly ritual. She looks at her watch and sees that she has a half hour before her volunteer shift at the hospital begins. That's more than enough time to give the subject of her obsession the attention it deserves. She takes a deep breath and looks down serenely at the wooden dim sum steamer tray in front of her. Reverently, she lifts the cover off the tray and allows the vapor to billow out of the container. The steam eventually clears to reveal five perfectly-shaped meat and soup dumplings. Asami hungrily eyes each one, observing how they jiggle due to their juicy centers. She takes her chopsticks and carefully picks up one of the dumplings, gently blowing on it to cool it down.

"Come to mama," she says quietly to herself as she brings the dumpling to her mouth.

Asami bites down, releasing the hot juicy soup trapped inside, as well as the delectably seasoned meat filling. Her taste buds awash with exquisitely balanced flavors, she releases a satisfied sigh. Perfection.

Ever since Asami started volunteering at the nearby hospital two years ago, she's made a point of eating at Mrs. Hahn's hole-in-the-wall dumpling shop whenever she can. She swears that no one in Republic City makes more sublime dumplings, and going to the humble little shop is routinely one of the highlights of her week. So when a member of the Triple Threat Triads interrupts her lunch by rudely barging into the place, she's understandably peeved.

"Where the hell's Mrs. Hahn?" the Triad yells at one of the servers, making the other customers instantly uncomfortable.

He stands just inside the entrance of the restaurant, striking an intimidating stance with his arms crossed. Asami notices that the man's wearing a red jacket and a similarly colored fedora hat. A garish golden chain hangs over his chest. The tattoos on the side of his neck unmistakably identify him as a member of the Triple Threat Triads, most likely a firebender.

Mrs. Hahn quickly emerges from the kitchen to deal with the belligerent gangster.

"Hello Mr. Zheng," she greets him politely, "what can I do for you today?"

"Mrs. Hahn," Zheng warns her, "ya know how Mr. Zolt hates not gettin' his money on time."

Mrs. Hahn visibly blanches and begins to stutter in response to his threat.

"Oh, of course Mr. Zheng. We'll give you whatever we have right now, but I'm afraid it's not enough for this month's full fee."

Zheng clicks his tongue and shakes his head.

"That won't do," he admonishes.

"Please, Mr. Zheng," she begs, "we just had to pay for my son's funeral two weeks ago. We don't have enough money to make a full payment right now!"

"Not my problem."

"I swear we'll double our next payment!"

Zheng pounds his fist against the nearest wall, making Mrs. Hahn jolt up in fear.

"Listen, ya know I can't go back to Mr. Zolt with less than what you agreed on. You're either gonna have to give me the money, or me and my friends outside are gonna make it real unpleasant."

"I can't give you what I don't have," pleads Mrs. Hahn, unshed tears in her eyes.

Asami gets up from her seat, the delicious dumplings forgotten. Something inside her seethes at Zheng's bullying of the sweet old lady. Everyone else in the shop is petrified of the Triad member, but she's determined to put a stop to his strong-arm tactics.

She starts making her way towards Zheng when he whistles for his companions from outside to join him. A muscled Triad thug with a buzz cut and green tank top walks through the door first, an earth kingdom symbol printed on his shirt. He's shortly followed by a lean young man with a black jacket and unmistakable floppy bangs. For a second, Asami's stomach drops and she looks at the newcomer in shock. He stares back, mirroring her surprise.

"Tahno!" she yells out incredulously, "What's going on here?"

Tahno quickly recovers from the shock of seeing Asami. He shoves his hand in his pockets and responds to her question nonchalantly.

"What are you doing here?"

Asami bristles at his attitude. She can't believe that he's trying to look cool in front of these lowlifes! She puts her hands on her hips and levels him with a death glare.

"I'm trying to have lunch in peace," she answers in a cutting tone, "What are you doing?"

"Ya know this chick, Tahno?" Zheng interrupts.

"Don't worry," Tahno answers quickly, "I got this."

Before she knows it, Tahno's grabbing her by the elbow and leading her out the door.

"Don't take too long smoochin' wit' yer girlfriend, pal." sneers the Triad earthbender as they pass.

Tahno flips him the bird.

As soon as they exit the restaurant, Asami rips her elbow out of his grasp and turns her glare on him.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Tahno just looks down his nose at her, as if she's some little kid that needs to be shooed off.

"This ain't any of your business. Just scram."

Asami feels a spike of hurt and betrayal at his dismissive response. It grates her so badly that she can't stop herself from actually shoving him. For a split second Tahno's eyes register shock at her physical outburst before he recomposes his features into an impassive look. He's never seen her lose control of her normally cool facade before.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" she rants, "You're actually helping these thugs intimidate that old lady?"

"It's just business. That's the way things work in the real world once you step out of your ivory tower, princess."

Asami's jaw drops at his jerk-faced comment, utter disbelief in her eyes. That was low Tahno, she thinks, real low. She thinks about shoving him again, but she doesn't.

"I can't believe you! Despite what everybody says, I never believed you were a bad guy. But now I find out you're just a Triad thug?"

"No," he explains, "I'm not a Triad. I just do favors for 'em sometimes."

"Like extorting grandma shopkeepers," she bites back.

"Look," he says in an attempt to placate her, "they ain't gonna do anything serious. She fell behind on her payments. This is just a friendly reminder, is all."

Before Asami can reply, Zheng and the earthbender step out of the restaurant. At Zheng's command, the muscled earthbender start smashing the restaurant's windows. The customers inside frantically dash out of the restaurant, trying to avoid the flying shards of broken glass.

"That doesn't look like a 'friendly reminder' to me," Asami observes scornfully. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to do something about this."

Tahno tries to tell her to wait, but she's already stalking towards the two Triad members.

"Hey," she challenges Zheng, "does it make you feel like more of a man to pick on old ladies?"

Zheng focuses a predatory smile on Asami and then shoots a look at Tahno.

"You better get your girlfriend under control there, Tahno."

"She ain't my girlfriend," Tahno corrects him.

Zheng smirks and ambles towards Asami. He smirks as his eyes meet hers.

"Is that right? In that case, little girl, you better get out of our way."

Asami refuses to look away and stands her ground.

"I don't think so."

Zheng turns to his earthbender comrade and laughs.

"Heh, this one's got some spunk, Guo."

"I bet she's a real spitfire in the sack," Guo chortles back.

Tahno's brows furrow and he clenches his fists at Guo's tasteless remark.

Zheng refocuses his gaze on Asami. The way he leers at her disgusts her.

"So," he offers, "you wanna see what's it's like to be with a real firebender?"

"Maybe when the Boiling Rock freezes over," she spits back.

Zheng swaggers towards her until he's right on top of her, looking down into her blazing green eyes. He grabs her by the chin and twists her face as if he's examining some slab of meat. She wants nothing more than to throw up on him, but she waits patiently for her opportunity.

"C'mon gorgeous, you don't have to act like that. I'd hate to have to singe up that pretty little face of yours."

Unconsciously, Tahno's already moving towards Zheng and all he can think of is ripping the Triad member's arms from his sockets for touching Asami the way he is. But before Tahno can get there, Asami smashes the top of her head into Zheng's face and a sickening crack resounds through the air. The firebender drops like a sack of potatoes onto the sidewalk, unconscious. Tahno looks down at Zheng and sees that his nose is crushed sideways against his face, blood oozing everywhere.

"Try unbending that," she growls down over her fallen foe.

For a moment Tahno and Guo look at each other in shock, both of their mouths hanging open. Then Guo shifts into an earthbending stance, taking aim at Asami who's motioning for Guo to come at her.

"Oh crap," Tahno mutters as all hell breaks loose.

Guo shoots a number of skull-sized rocks at Asami, all of which she deftly dodges. Then he attempts to throw her off balance by bending the ground under her feet so that it thrusts violently upwards.

Asami anticipates Guo's move perfectly and uses the upward thrust of his attack to propel herself into the air towards her opponent. She executes an aerial front flip and aims her right foot to land squarely on Guo's jaw.

As Guo attempts to summon up more earth to block Asami's drop kick, he finds that his body's suddenly locked in place by a cage of ice. He glares at Tahno just as Asami's foot connects with his jaw. Guo crashes to the floor as Tahno's ice cage shatters around him. Asami gracefully lands on her feet and immediately turns to Tahno, fighting stance at the ready. She warily eyes him and contemplates attacking him just for being such a jerk today.

Before she can make a decision, the sound of police sirens fills the air.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" Tahno says as he quickly runs up to her and grabs her hand.

Tahno breaks into a run and drags her along for a few blocks before ducking into an alley. They stay still for a few seconds to make sure that they aren't being tailed by any metalbender police officers. Tahno finally lets out a breath and visibly relaxes. Asami looks like she's still fuming.

He's about to make some remark to break the tension when she suddenly rounds on him and decks him square on the jaw. He sees stars momentarily and crashes into the alley wall. Then he rubs his jaw to make sure it's still in place and that all his teeth are accounted for.

"Hey, what the hell was that for?" he screams, "I just saved your ass back there!"

He tastes blood in his mouth and feels the beginning of a nasty contusion on the left side of his face. Asami doesn't seem the least bit sorry about it.

"You should've been busy saving that old lady instead," she yells back, "not victimizing her!"

"Things aren't that simple -"

She can't believe that he's trying to justify his actions and abruptly cuts him off.

"How much more simple can things get? Are you even listening to yourself right now? "

Tahno pinches the bridge of his nose and exhales in the face of her self-righteous anger.

"In case you didn't notice," he finally interjects, "people have to scrap to survive out here. That's something you'd never understand."

Asami reels indignantly, believing that Tahno's cheap shot at her wealthy background is completely unwarranted. No matter what, she doesn't think that there's anything he can say to justify what he did today. She normally takes the high road during arguments, but something about Tahno's stupid face makes her want to rub his nose in the dirt.

"What I don't understand," she fires back, "is why you're shaking down old ladies when you're probably the highest-paid pro bender in the city!"

For some reason she doesn't understand, her statement strikes a nerve inside of Tahno. She can see his shoulders begin to shake and he suddenly rounds on her, real anger on his face this time.

"You don't know a god damn thing about me!" he roars.

Something about seeing Tahno so unhinged gives her pause, but she's so angry and tired right now that she can't bother to dig any deeper.

"You know what," she concedes, "you're right. I don't know what I was expecting from you. I thought that maybe you were different. But obviously I was wrong."

Saying the words out loud only makes her disappointment more acute. What was she expecting from him anyway? Perhaps some loyalty? Some decency? What right does she have to expect those things when they aren't even really friends? They're just two people that trade barbs with each other. Nothing more. It's disappointing.

She lets out a loud sigh and her shoulders slump, defeated. She realizes she's almost late for her shift.

"Look," she informs him, "I've gotta go. I'm late for my volunteer shift at the hospital."

He doesn't say anything. The expression in his face is closed off, his previously boiling emotions all bottled up.

"I'll see you around then," she says weakly.

She turns and walks out of the alley.

She's annoyed at how disappointed she is when he doesn't chase after her.

Review are greatly appreciated!