Chapter Four: Bao Fu
Toph was tapping her foot impatiently as she and Suki were still in the room, waiting for Katara to return. Apparently, Sugar Queen had gone to look for Toph when she had stayed too long in the kitchen looking for more cookies and possibly some milk. It wasn't her fault, Bumi had accosted her and started going on about the virtues of rock candy and how they were in harmony with cookies. Her eye twitched at the infuriating memory. The earth bender didn't know if it was just her, but the old man seemed to get crazier every time he opened his mouth.
"Look, I'm sure she just got lost," Suki looked over to the fidgety earth bender.
Toph shot her a look, "I didn't get lost, and I'm blind!"
"Why are you so worked up over this anyway? If you want, we could go try and find her," the Kyoshi warrior stood up, straightening her dress.
The other girl considered this and shook her head. She didn't want to waste her time looking for Sugar Queen, the girl was bound to turn up by the next day. Her foot slowed on the carpet, crunching her toes into the soft plush and grimacing at the feel of it. The fibers were almost as bad as sand in dulling her senses.
"Forget it. If she got lost, I'm not her mommy. I'm not going to look for her," she scoffed.
Suki looked around the unnecessarily large room, which was the once good, but now better guest room (as King Bumi had described). Although Toph was unwilling, Suki was not so sure. The Earth Kingdom palace was an odd place, almost labyrinthine in some aspects, just like the earth king's riddles. It was made of stone, so she wouldn't be surprised if the eccentric monarch remodeled on whim.
Suddenly, Toph rushed to the walls, pressing her ears against them, when Suki gave her a weird look she explained,
"I think Zuko just talked it over with Mai."
Suki watched her in amazement, thinking that the Fire Lord's room was at least five doors down, five enormous, thick doors with equally thick walls.
"And?" she asked.
Toph's lips twisted into a smirk, "Well, as awesome as I am, I can't hear what they are saying. But I do think they are yelling at each other."
"Yea they do that a lot," the Kyoshi sighed, "Very annoying."
Toph noticed the other girl's annoyance and remembered something. A slow grin was spreading on her face, "So…I heard you and Mai got into a cat fight."
Suki flushed and defended herself, "She had it coming."
The earth bender agreed, "Yea, I know. I haven't spent five minutes with her and I know she's a pain. I hope Zuko straightens things out."
Down the hall, the voices became louder, becoming audible to Suki even. Raising a brow, Toph looked at the door,
"Can you hear that?"
Suki winced and nodded as a loud slamming indicated the end of the argument.
Toph snorted, "And I thought I was loud."
After the two had left the garden, they wandered about in silence.
Katara looked at the silent fire bender next to her and resisted the urge to sigh. He had not said a word, only nodding or shrugging if she said something. She wanted to ask how it went with Mai, but looking at the dark expression on his face, she could not.
If only she hadn't been stupid enough to get lost, this would not be happening right now.
If she hadn't fallen asleep, this wouldn't be happening right now, but after days of putting up with the fire couple and dumb rumors about her part in the assassination, she had been stressed and tired. The sanctuary seemed so cut off from the world, quiet and still, that it had lulled her into a slumber before she knew it.
They found a room with servants going in, which turned out to be the kitchen Toph had been in earlier. In relief, Katara asked them the way back to her room and they kindly pointed out the way.
"See? I told you we'd find our way. It's just a matter of time," she grinned, trying to lighten up the mood between them.
He grunted, looking straight forward.
Rolling her eyes, she decided he was being too cranky to talk to anyway.
They parted ways in front of Toph's room, she watched him walk down the hall to his own door before going back in. Toph pounced on her as soon as she stepped foot inside,
"Where have you been?"
Katara grinned sheepishly, "Um…I got lost?"
"Why was Sparky with you?"
The water bender cursed inwardly, sometimes it wasn't so good to have the earth bending master around. Suki looked curious, and with an eager expression said,
"Zuko? Oh this is gonna be good."
The two other girls looked expectantly to Katara, who shrank back against the door. She didn't really know how to explain it.
"Well…um…you see…There was this garden, in the middle of the palace, if you'll believe it. And I…fell asleep…And when I woke up, Zuko was lost too. And and…"
Toph laughed, "Oh that's rich. You BOTH got lost? After saving the world, surviving Azula, you two got LOST in a crazy king's palace?"
As the water bender tried desperately to grasp for words, there was a quiet knock on the door that Katara was trying to melt into. Thankful for the distraction, the water bender flung it open to see a petite servant girl bowing to her.
"Yes?"
"Mistress Katara, the Earth King wishes to summon all you to dinner in an hour," the girl respectfully replied, not raising her eyes from the floor.
Uncomfortable at her subservience, Katara thanked the girl quickly and shut the door. She turned back to her friends. Looking at the still grinning Toph, she decided for some payback,
"Toph, don't you want to do something special for dinner?"
Suki cackled gleefully in the background and immediately hopped off the bed to help the water bender gang up on the other girl. Toph's pearly eyes widened in genuine fear,
"What?! Stay away from me! I'm warning you!"
Her mind raced, trying to think of something, and the first thing that came to her mind involved rocks and smashing, but she couldn't exactly do that to her friends. Could she?
"Suki, hold her down!"
The Kyoshi swiped the earth bender's legs with her own, unbalancing Toph and making her fall backwards. But before she hit the ground, the red head caught the other girl by her arm and quickly tied the ribbon that had been in Toph's hair to bind her wrists tightly. A waterfall of jet black hair cascaded in its newfound freedom around Toph's shoulders as the girl tried to kick at her captors. It was thick and uniform in its silky sheen, though Toph really couldn't care less about it, she really couldn't find it in herself to cut it as her mother had always loved to play with it.
Now she really regretted not doing it when she had the chance.
Katara cooed, directing the girl onto a footstool "Oh Toph, you have the most beautiful hair!"
"Thanks Katara, I'll remember that the next time I kick your butt!" the earth bender said sarcastically, struggling against Suki's improvised shackles. The older girl reached to run her fingers through some strands of Toph's hair, only to pull them back when they were almost bitten off by Toph's teeth.
If Fire Lord Ozai had tried to do Toph's hair, he probably would have been defeated much more quickly. But these girls were not Ozai, and when it became clear that Toph would not open the box of hurt on them, she settled for complaining as loudly as she could as they milled about her, shaping her hair around and discussing amongst themselves. Occasionally they would ask her a question, but every time they did Toph simply growled at them.
And so the hour came to pass.
The three girls stood poised (well, two of them anyway) and ready to make an appearance at dinner. Toph on the other hand, while immaculately groomed for the occasion, followed them grumbling and making faces the whole way.
She frowned, licking her lips, "What is this stuff that you put on my lips? It tastes gross."
"You're not supposed to eat that," Katara chided, and leaned over to reapply the lip paint, "Stay still, or we'll tie you up again."
Toph rolled her eyes, but complied. As much as she hated to admit it, it felt nice being worked on. Once in a while. She couldn't handle this every day. But once in a while was fine.
Self-consciously she touched the flowers in her hair, "Do I look okay?"
Suki beamed, "Toph, you look great. I didn't know that a little lady was under all that dirt."
"Technically I'm more of a lady than you," Toph snorted.
They entered the dining room, Katara chose a seat across from her brother with Toph while Suki sat next to him. He didn't acknowledge them, his brow was furrowed in concentration and hadn't noticed the girls come in. Finally, Suki cleared her throat to catch his attention. He looked with surprise at her and then a dreamy smile spread over his face,
"Suki…you look really nice."
The Kyoshi warrior blushed and fiddled with the sleeves of her light green dress, "You like it? I bought it before we went to the South Pole and didn't have a chance to wear until now."
The two exchanged compliments and giggles. Well, Suki giggled, Sokka chuckled in a manly fashion.
Katara watched her brother and Suki flirt with each other with a bit of nausea. Good for Suki, but this was her brother after all.
This went on until Zuko entered the room, his face looking ashen. He took a seat next to Suki, but stared at the empty plate in front of him. Katara looked with concern to him,
"Zuko, is something wrong?"
His lips twisted into a frown as he gripped a the tablecloth, a thin trail of smoke appearing from his clenching fist, "Mai."
"Where is Mai? She usually shows up with you, doesn't she?" Sokka turned away from his girlfriend and looked to the Fire Lord.
"She's gone."
Katara's eyes widened, "Has she been kidnapped? Zuko, we have to look for her!"
"No," he shook his head, "She ran away. I don't know where she is, but it was definitely her own choice."
"And how do you know that, Sparky?" Toph raised a brow.
The fire bender held out a pearl handled throwing knife with the character "Mai" embossed on the blade, "I gave this to her for her birthday. I found it on her pillow when I went to get her for dinner."
"What kind of weirdo gives his girlfriend a knife for her birthday?" Sokka cocked his eye at Zuko who defended,
"Hey! She likes knives, if you haven't noticed!"
"Are you positive that she left on her own?" Katara asked, looking at the knife.
The boy put it into a velvet lined box, and nodded, "There were no signs of a struggle. The window was open and there was a rope leading down from it. She's gone, she's really gone." His voice was thick as he repeated the words in his head in disbelief.
"Maybe she just needed some time on her own," she tried to reason, "I'm sure she'll be back."
He didn't reply, the only indication that he heard her was his forehead wrinkling deeply. For the rest of the meal, Zuko brooded over his food, barely eating or drinking. The others left him alone, not wanting to get on the wrong side of the temperamental fire bender.
Bumi entered the room and noticed the gloomy atmosphere, but had the surprising sensitivity to ignore it. The king looked at Sokka,
"So, did you find anything in those reports I gave you?"
Sokka slanted a glance to Zuko before replying, "Yes, I did. Thank you very much, Bumi."
"Is that what you were doing all day, Captain Boomerang?"
He frowned at the nickname, why did she still call him that? Boomerang was still a touchy subject, considering that it had not come back after the last time he had used it to save Toph's life.
"Yes, Toph that is what I was doing," he nodded despite the Boomerang thing, "And I found out some interesting things."
"Like what, Sokka?" Katara reached for a bread roll from the basket. She eyed Zuko as she took a bite out of it and then returned her attention to her sibling.
The water boy cleared his throat importantly, "Well, there have been reports in the town of Chen Mo that a group of rebels are recruiting there. They want to eradicate all Fire Nation influences, including the people that made their homes during colonization of the Earth Kingdom."
"Didn't most of those people leave anyway?" Toph asked.
"Mostly," Sokka corrected, "Because they were afraid that something like this would happen, but some stayed behind because they loved it in the Earth Kingdom and didn't want to leave. Some of them even left behind high paying government jobs to become farmers."
Suki gripped her spoon, "If the Earth People are given back their land, I don't see the problem in letting a few Fire Nation live here."
"That's the thing, these people are being discriminated against and pressured to leave. What's more is that this group is ultra patriotic and wants the Fire Nation to pay for everything its done. I think they have a lot to do with the attempted assassination of Kuei, who's been sympathetic to Fire Nation peace treaties."
They all looked to Zuko who was stabbing carrots in his vegetable dish. His expression was hard and flushed, but he did not say anything.
"What are they called?" Katara looked worriedly to her brother. Who would be next on their assassination list? Bumi was certainly friendly enough with the Fire Nation, and so was Aang in trying to balance the world.
Sokka's eyes were grim, "The Bao Fu."
Author's Note: Well that's chapter four for ya. Yay! So just a couple of things:
Chen Mo-Silence
Bao Fu-Retaliation.
So now we have a name to our...antagonists? I guess? I don't know, it's already in the summary, so you guys already knew that. Lol.
Thanks for the reviews guys. It's much appreciated. Love!