Before Lu Ten knew it, he was marking two years with Ayeshi's family. He'd become part of the community in this neighborhood in the lower ring; he'd become good old Lee from the noodle shop.
On the surface, little had changed in the noodle shop. Chin Lao still delivered vegetables every few days and Aunt Minna continued to pinch the cheeks of boys who were now taller than she was. But beneath the surface of the lower ring, change was brewing. Wei was old enough that he would have to go off to war soon, and Miyo spent most of her days fussing over him more than her other children. Still, Lu Ten and Ayeshi's names would often pop up in her ramblings, more and more often along with the word "marriage." Lu Ten very much did want that in his future, but didn't feel quite grown-up enough to do it. He was twenty and Ayeshi was eighteen; they had time. Meanwhile, Ton Yu was developing as an accomplished fire bender, beginning to display mastery of several forms and truly have his abilities under control. He hadn't been beat up for several months now.
Life was blessedly predictable, which was something Lu Ten loved after the stress of military life. But one morning it all came crashing down, the ugliness of his home nation slipping in through the back door with the vegetable delivery one morning.
Chin Lao came through the door, lugging crates of cabbages over the threshold. "Have you heard what's going on in the Fire Nation?" he panted. "There's been a big scandal."
"Ooh, tell me. Spill everything you know!" Miyo grabbed a cup of tea and leaned against the edge of the counter to listen.
"Prince Zuko's been banished!" Chin Lao guffawed.
"What?!" Lu Ten turned around so fast he dropped a tea pot and it shattered on the floor. "What the flameo happened?"
"Word has it he disrespected his father in a war meeting. Ozai didn't like that and challenged the kid to some kind of fight called an Agni Kee—"
"Agni Kai."
"Whatever. Anyway, the kid loses of course, and get banished. Rumor has it the only way he's allowed to come back home is if he finds the avatar."
"No. It can't be." Lu Ten put his head in his hands.
"Lee here is a Fire Nation deserter." Miyo whispered to Chin Lao. "He still hates it when we talk bad about the Fire Nation."
"I do not." said Lu Ten. "I am merely upset that Ozai decided banishment was an appropriate punishment for his thirteen-year-old son. I can't believe this. Did he just throw Zuko out into the ocean?"
Chin Lao shrugged. "I dunno, man. I just heard it through the grapevine. Well, I've got other deliveries to make. I'll see you around, Miyo."
"He's just a child." Lu Ten gasped after Chin Lao had left. "He's thirteen years old and he's been given an impossible task. He's not going to find the avatar, but he's too young to know it. He thinks he has a real chance at coming home. He probably just wants his dad to love him."
"What's going on?" Ayeshi entered the kitchen. "Oh, did we drop a tea pot?" She grabbed a dust pan and began sweeping up the broken china.
"Zuko's been banished. Ozai challenged him to an Agni Kai for 'disrespect' and then banished him. Told him he could only come home after he'd found the avatar."
"Zuko. Prince Zuko. Your cousin, Zuko? The thirteen-year-old, Zuko? How do you banish a child?"
Lu Ten nodded. "It's disgusting. Ozai doesn't deserve his children. And now Zuko's been thrown out to fend for himself."
"Can we do anything about that?" Ayehsi tipped the broken china into the garbage can.
"I don't know. But he's just a kid. How long can he last on his own? There's very few members of my family who aren't complete garbage and he's one of them. I have to do something."
"Where would he be?" Ayeshi asked. "What are places near the Fire Nation where he might be?"
"Talking about that Fire Nation prince?" A customer asked as he came in. "Crazy stuff. What do you expect from Fire Nation scum, though?"
"I just keep thinking about him out there all alone."
"You actually feel sorry for the kid?" the customer laughed. "Well, I guess he is pretty young. Rumor has it he's traveling with the Dragon of the West."
"The Dragon of the West?"
"Yup. I guess Ba Sing Se needs to be careful. No telling what those two could be up to."
Lu Ten nodded and went back to his teapots. "He's with my dad." He whispered to Ayeshi. "He'll be ok, at least for a little while."
"If we find him, you can see your dad again." Ayeshi whispered.
"I know. I don't know what'll happen with that, or if he'll be mad at me about the whole pretending to be dead thing. I can't imagine he feels too warmly towards the Fire Nation right now, though."
"We'll see what happens, then." said Ayeshi. "I have faith you'll find a solution."
That afternoon, as soon as Lu Ten could be spared from the kitchen, he ran downstairs and pulled a dusty map out from one of the baskets Ayeshi's family kept down there. "If I were thirteen years old, tasked with finding the avatar, where would I go?" Lu Ten's eyes lingered on the air temples. No avatar had been seen since Avatar Roku, so most people would probably look there first. The Air Nomads had been scattered to the corners of the earth, but if one was coming from the Fire Nation one would probably go to the western or southern temple first. Neither of those were very close to Ba Sing Se. Figures.
"Lu Ten?" Ayeshi had appeared at the top of the stairs. "What are you—oh."
"I'm trying to figure out where he might be. A logical starting point is probably an air temple near the fire nation, since the next avatar in the cycle should've been air. However, I don't know how fast he's moving, so there's no guarantee that I'd be able to find him there. But I have to try."
"Are you saying you want to go and find him?" Ayeshi came down the stairs and sat next to him.
Lu Ten nodded. "None of this would've happened if I hadn't died. Well, faked my death. You know what I mean. Ozai wouldn't have become fire lord if I hadn't died, and then he wouldn't have had the chance to publicly humiliate Zuko like that. If my dad was fire lord he would've put a stop the whole thing. I messed up, big time, and Zuko had to pay the price for it. I have to help him. I have to regain my honor."
"We'd better get busy packing then."
"We?"
"You didn't think I'd let you go alone, did you? Come on, we've got to pack and think about how much money we have. The answer is not a lot."
A noise from the top of the stairs made them turn. Miyo cleared her throat. "If it's money you're worried about, I do have a little set aside that you could use. I'd originally saved it for Ayehsi's wedding, since I was hoping for a nice wedding to a certain nice fire bender, but if it's that important to you then you can use it to find your cousin."
Lu Ten turned scarlet. "Err . . . thank you. Are you sure?"
"Thanks, mom." Said Ayehsi. She turned to Lu Ten. "When—if—we get married . . ."
"When we get married," he finished, "we can do something simple."
Miyo disappeared upstairs to get the money, then came back down with an old teapot stuffed with cash. Lu Ten took it out and quickly counted it. "This is kind of impressive for a simple noodle and tea shop owner."
Miyo shrugged. "People like your tea."
Ayeshi looked over Lu Ten's shoulder at the money. "That should get us pretty far, if we're careful about how we spend it. Mom, can you handle the shop alone while we're gone?"
"I can make tea." Miyo huffed
"No you can't, Mom."
"You're right. The boys and I can keep things under control, though."
"I can't thank you enough, Mom." Out of habit, Lu Ten bowed the way he'd done back home.
"You don't need to thank me." Said Miyo. "When you've got family members you can actually tolerate, you cling to 'em for all you're worth."
"Thank you. I won't let you down."
Miyo brushed some crumbs off her apron and cracked her knuckles. "If you do find him I guess I can offer him a job making noodles, since apparently all I do these days is employ fire benders in my shop."
"Would your cousin actually want to work in a shop?" Ayeshi asked as Miyo went back up to the kitchen.
"Definitely not. I love Zuko but he's not cut out for customer service." Lu Ten went back to the map. "Let's get started. The sooner we find him, the better."