Hello, author here. Get it? Because that's what Zuko...never mind. Anyways, welcome to the third chapter of my Jinoochy fan to the fiction(: and might I add, thank you all SO MUCH for reviewing, all of you who have! I am forever thankful :3
In advance, please note that this is an all-Skoochy chapter. It's setting the stage for the (maybe) last chapter of BTEAS.
Read and review, per usual!
Disclaimer: I do not own Republic City, or its original inhabitants.
Book 1 ¼: Between the Earth and Sky
Chapter 3: Tell-All
Earth. Fire. Air. Water. 70 years ago, my grandfather, Avatar Aang, master of all four elements, ended the 100-year war against the Fire Nation. With help from Firelord Zuko he created Republic City, my home. According to my father, Republic City is at war. Amon, the Equalists, and the non-benders of our city have begun a rebellion against all benders. They think we have repressed them because of their inability to bend an element.
Avatar Aang has long since passed, but the new Avatar is here—Korra. She will find a way to bring light to the darkness. She has to.
...
The churning waters rose high above Skoochy's head, shadowing the fear in his eyes. Everything was in slow motion, the waves crashing down upon the boat, the sick, salty water filtering out of the holes it gashed in the ship, Skoochy's pleas for the storm to cease. One by one, the storm continued to attack his small fishing boat in waves, pushing him farther and farther out to sea until the rocking came to a halt and once again the sea became a simple, rocking lullaby instead of a hard rock ballad. The young boy didn't know where he was. There was nothing but the blue surrounding him—the one element that was unfamiliar to Skoochy. Tears doused in the bittersweet taste of what was lost cut into the boy's cheeks. He had never felt so helpless, so weak, so alone.
He was alone.
Gasping for air like a fish out of water, Skoochy sat up in his makeshift cot and opened his eyes. Before him was the dark, dank room of an evicted apartment building, the earthbender's home for the moment. There was a build-up of sweat holding tightly onto the boy's forehead, and has he leaned forward the perspiration escaped and slithered down the side of Skoochy's face. Oh spirits…
For a moment Skoochy glanced around to make sure that he hadn't awoken anyone. Mikah and Rai, who were sharing the other cot in the apartment, were sound asleep, their feet in the other's faces. Rai smacked his lips in his sleep, a sly grin of satisfaction creeping over the small non-bender's face. Across from the dreaming boy, Mikah seemed to be breathing evenly, but Skoochy knew better. Just visible in the moon, Yue's smile, the earthbender could just make out her fingers tightening around the hilt of her curved dagger.
In the darkest corner of the apartment lay Sage. In her dark clothes and purple-black hair, Sage seemed almost invisible to the rest of the world. Skoochy wasn't even sure the non-bender was even there until the shadow breathed.
Everyone was asleep, tired from the day's hard work of picking pockets and collecting money and 'filling out paperwork.' Everyone except for Skoochy. The dream he had…the earthbender had had that dream before, long ago, right after his old life had ended. Back when Skoochy was just a frightened little 8-year-old, barely surviving on the upper class's pocket change. Before Mako and Bolin had taken in the boy, given him warm clothes and a bite to eat, and a temporary family to depend on. That was four years ago. Now the young earthbender had his own family to protect, to take care of.
Skoochy tore the thinning sheets away from his sweaty, convulsing body, and let the cold air around him cool him down. The boy tried to level his heartbeat and breathing patterns, seeing as they were both suddenly jumpy and irregular. The earthbender grabbed his cap from the floor where it had fallen off last night, and pulled it over his damp hair. Instantly Skoochy felt protected by his father's hat, surrounded by a force field that caused the 12-year-old to feel smart, invincible. For the rest of the night, the earthbender stared out the small window of the apartment at Yue, the moon goddess, as she watched over Republic City. She gave him just enough time to collect the wits that had tried to run away from him again—something they hadn't done in a long time.
...
The leader of the gang sniffed the air, and opened his eyes to a steaming dumpling staring back at him. The rest of his team was in the background, already digging into their breakfast. "'Morning, Skooch," Rai smiled through his dumpling. In return, the earthbender wiggled his fingers at the small boy, and reached for his waiting food.
As Skoochy took a bite of his mouth-wateringly warm sweet dumpling, the taste of steaming meat and thick sauce melted across his tongue. After the first bite, Skoochy pushed the food to one side of his mouth with his tongue and asked, "So what are we doing today?"
Mikah looked up from her dumpling, which she was eating quite delicately, with her pinkies in the air and dainty little bites taken from her food. She put a hand to her lips and wiped the excess sauce away. Out of all the people in Skoochy's group, she was the only one that was polite. Secretly, everyone admired Mikah for this quality, but no one dared to say this out loud. The oldest girl cringed at the sound of Rai tearing into dumpling flesh, then cleared her throat. "They want me to run some money over to the boss today before noon. That's about all my appointments I got today."
"I'm going wherever you're going, Skooch," Rai piped up from his meal. Since Rai was the youngest, he wasn't allowed to go out on his own yet. For the time being, the small boy stuck with Skoochy.
Sage pulled back the hood of her black cloak, revealing her rich violet eyes and pale white skin. She licked the reddish sauce from her lips and looked up at Skooch, so that auburn met violet softly. "Paperwork," she mumbled, and dropped her gaze back down to her breakfast. Sage was the only one who could read, so she was the only one that was able to do the paperwork and tell the secrets she had learned to the rest of her impromptu family. In Republic City, everyone had a secret; to have the upper hand, Skoochy figured out that you had to notice everything and know every single person's secrets.
"Alright." The earthbender slapped his thighs, having finished his dumpling, and stood. Everyone else followed suit. Skoochy pulled his cap closer to his face. "Let's move. Rai, you're with me. Sage, Mikah, stick together. Make sure not to—"
Mikah stepped in front of the earthbender, cutting him off, and opened the door to the apartment. In return, the leader got a mouth full of chestnut hair. "We know what to do, Skooch. You don't have to worry about us." She winked at him, and vanished into the shadows in the hallway. Sage followed her friend out the door without really acknowledging either boy.
"See you back here." The shadow girl muttered to the ground. She yanked her hood back over her pulled-back hair, and was gone.
Rai wiped his fingers clumsily on his trousers. "I guess that only leaves us. So where're we going today?" The small boy followed Skoochy out the door and watched as he pulled the door shut. On the front of the apartment door was a sign that stated in big letters, 'EVICT.'
Shrugging, the earthbender shoved his hands into his pockets. "I don't know. Maybe we could go back near the Firelord."
The small boy groaned in response. "But we always go there! It's like you go there to watch people, not pick their pockets! And that's no fun." Rai pouted as he stepped out into the sunshine behind Skoochy.
"You're right, it is a good place to watch people," Skoochy agreed. He slipped his hand into someone's loose pocket, and withdrew their wallet. Quick to slip the collection of yuans into his pocket, Skoochy tossed the now-empty leather purse back onto the ground for its owner to find. As the wallet hit the ground, a small cloud of dust unfurled into the air behind the earthbender, but he and Rai were already gone.
"But it is also a good place to dish out secrets to people who need them."
"It's also a good place for us to get caught." Rai grumbled. "Speaking of…"
As the two accomplices walked towards the enlarged statue of Firelord Zuko, a burning ball of fire flickering in his outstretched hand, Skoochy quickly noticed two metalbender cops and two familiar-looking men talking to them. The earthbender pulled Rai behind a building.
"What are they doing here?" Rai hissed.
Peering from around the corner, Skoochy identified one of the familiar men—it was Tenzin, a councilman for Republic City and Jinora's father. The orange and yellow of the man's robes were unmistakable. The earthbender couldn't help himself. He began to cuss under his breath. When he was finished ranting explicitly, the older boy asked, "What are we going to do now?" He tried to get a good look at the other unknown man, but his back was turned.
"I don't know." Rai's voice was soft, scared. "They look like…they look like they're looking for something."
As the man next to Tenzin turned to face Skoochy and Rai, Skoochy finally identified the mystery man. Immediately the earthbender wanted to jump off the top of the nearest tea shop. "Or someone." He growled under his breath, and pushed down the shaking guilt in his stomach. 2 different run-ins on the same week? This was irregular, even for Republic City.
"Who is it?" Rai whispered eagerly.
"Remember that Sato-mobile I banged up last week?"
"Oh no…" Rai drew in a hissing breath, and scratched the side of his face with his finger.
"Oh yes." It wasn't Skoochy, but the deep voice of a metalbender. A cold hand curled around the collar of Skoochy's shirt. Instantly the earthbender was yanked up into the air by the metalbender cop behind him; Rai was given the same treatment. The cop grinned spitefully at both boys. "Well look what I caught here—two troublemakers."
Rai began to kick at the bigger man. "Let me down!" But the metal bender ignored the small boy's screams, and hoisted both scrawny boys towards Tenzin and 'Pops.' Skoochy couldn't escape; he couldn't even help turn Rai loose. He pulled both arms up in frustration and bended a pillar of rock right into the metalbender's crotch. This made the cop drop the boys and fall to his knees in agony.
"Move!" Skoochy hollered at Rai as he hit the ground running. He brushed past Tenzin and the other man, but the boys were too fast for either man to catch on.
"Where to?" Rai shouted over the whistling of wind in his ears.
"Alley Three!" the earthbender yelled back. From the corner of his eyes, Skoochy saw Rai surge into the air from a single bound, and landed perfectly on a branch at least 10 feet up. As both pick-pockets continued to run from the threats back near the Firelord statue, neither took the time to notice an orange and yellow blur airbend above them, watching their every move.
Finally Skoochy reached his destination alley, a little hole-up between buildings a few blocks away. Rai was already there, waiting for him, not even shining with sweat. "Why were they there?"
Taking his time, the earthbender bended up a rock to lean against while he tried to stabilize his breathing pattern and panted back, "I don't know. I think they were looking…looking for the person who banged up that guy's car. Which…would be me."
The wind picked up above the two boys. "Very good." Eyes wide, both Rai and Skoochy looked up to see Tenzin floating down from the sky in a ball of air, right between the boys and their escape. His brow was furrowed, and the airbending master looked infuriated, his grayish eyes shooting daggers of disappointment at Skoochy and Skoochy only. The sound of cop sirens played melodically in the background.
Skoochy mustered a slight grin and waved at the man, despite the feeling of unwelcome panic pooling up in his middle. "Hey, councilman."
Tenzin, in return, made a small growling sound in the back of his throat that came up as a groan. "So you were the one that crashed Haru's Sato-mobile?"
Rai pushed out his chest and piped up, "He only did it to save that girl from getting killed!"
If the councilman wasn't there with him, Skoochy would've strangled him.
The airbending master looked at back at the earthbender sternly. "Is that true, Skoochy?"
Slowly, the earthbender shifted his auburn eyes to the ground and let his cap cover his face. He began to trail his peeping toes in the dirt. "Maybe."
"Of course it's true!" Rai interjected. He jumped to the top of a dumpster to gather Tenzin's attention, and it worked. The councilman looked over at the small boy, who was now taller than him. "The dumb girl walked in front of the Sato-mobile without noticing it coming right at her and so to save her Skoochy bended a wall of rock in between them and pushed her out of the way with another rock but she was flying in the air and that's when she glided down like—like you did!"
Tenzin stiffened. "Did you get her name?"
"Who, the girl's? Yeah, I got it. It's…Jinora, right?" Skoochy finally looked back up, straight into the airbending master's wide eyes. He toyed with a smirk that was blooming upon the boy's cracked lips. He licked them, and watched as Tenzin's alarm began to shine through.
"She was here?"
Skoochy shrugged. "Yeah, something about books. I didn't pay much attention." But even as he said that, the 12-year-old flushed into a light shade of red.
The airbending master turned away from the two street urchins, and began to walk away from the boys and the alley. Before he left, Tenzin mumbled over his shoulder, "I was never here. I never caught you." And with a gust of wind, he was gone.
Rai jumped down from his dumpster. "He didn't even say thank you."
Listening closely to the sound of fading sirens, Skoochy pulled his cap down over his face to keep from revealing his ashamed smile, the one that had come from the utter fear that Tenzin had taken with him when he left the alleyway. Tenzin hadn't changed since the earthbender last saw him. The song of sirens finally ended, causing the older boy to regain his confidence and cool. Skoochy turned to face Rai.
"I think he just did."
Thanks for reading! (and reviewing? :D)