Ferry Big Trouble

Needless to say, Zuko was not impressed by the accommodations on the ferry.

It was dirty, it was over-crowded, it smelled the same on top of the deck as it did down in Peacock the Second's stable, and the food was just awful.

Zuko took one bite of the swill the ferry workers had the audacity to call 'soup' and immediately spit it back out and then threw the bowl off the boat for good measure. "Don't feed any of this to your kid," he said to Ty Lee and Mai as he wiped his mouth. "You'll just make him sick."

Mai took his advice and immediately pushed her and TomTom's bowls to the side. Ty Lee, however, still ate hers despite how spoiled it was. "I've had worse," she said in a tone that let them all know she was referring to the Burial Mounds.

"It is most unfortunate," said Uncle, examining his own bowl for any bits that were less rotten. Finding none, he sent a concerned look at TomTom. "I understand there are many refugees, but I would have hoped for better food. At least to be provided to the little ones if no one else."

TomTom let out a hungry little whimper but bravely didn't complain. Both Mai and Ty Lee hated that it was probably his memories of starving in his early years as A-Yuan that had taught him how to do so.

"Oh, there is," said a voice behind them.

They turned to see a boy about the same age as the teens. He was scruffy in a roguish sort of way with a stalk of wheat sticking out from his lips.

"Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear," he said, though Zuko highly doubted that. The boy paid special attention to Mai and Ty Lee and gave a smile that probably had most girls he came in contact with swooning.

It, of course, flew right over Ty Lee's head, but Mai just gave him an irritated look and did what she had learned on their journey to be the most effective way of shutting down unwanted looks. Well, that or it gave Zuko enough of an excuse to beat up the creep to 'defend their honor'.

She reached over and grabbed the back of Ty Lee's head, and yanked her into a kiss. Ty Lee let out a surprised squeak at first but quickly leaned into the kiss and threw her arms around Mai.

The boy let out a chuckle at the sight. "Alright, ladies," he said, his hands up in surrender. "Message received."

"What do you want aside from ogling my sister and her girlfriend?" Zuko said, cutting to the chase.

"Just thought I'd let you know the captain is eating like a king while us refugees have to feed off his scraps," the boy said enticingly. "Doesn't seem fair, does it?"

Uncle looked over at him in interest. "What sort of king is he eating like?" he asked, sending another concerned look at TomTom, who had started playing with the spoiled food in the bowls like it was clay while his mothers continued to make out.

"The fat, happy kind," said the boy, looking irked.

A hungry look passed over Uncle's face, and he glanced at TomTom again. If there was that much food, it should have been spread to the refugees.

"You want to help my friends and I 'liberate' some food?" the boy offered Zuko.

Zuko glanced down at TomTom, before grabbing the spoiled food he was playing with and throwing that overboard as well. "I'm in," he said.

"Want us to come with you?" Ty Lee asked Zuko as she finally surfaced for air.

"No, you two stay with Uncle and Yuan," Zuko said to her and Mai. "On the off chance we get caught, we might need you to bail or break us out."

"You got it," said Ty Lee cheerfully, and Mai nodded in agreement before pulling her in for another kiss.

"Glad to have you on board, the name's Jet," the boy said, finally introducing himself. He then nodded to two other teens just behind him. "These are my Freedom Fighters, Smellerbee and Longshot."

"Hey," said Smellerbee, and Longshot nodded in greeting next to them.

"Jiang Cheng," said Zuko. "This is my uncle, Fengmian, my sister YingYing, her fiance, Lan Yi, and their kid, Yuan."

"Pleasure," said Jet, before leading Zuko away. "So here's how we do it…"

In the end, 'liberating' the food was fairly easy. Zuko hated to admit it, but he worked well with the Freedom Fighters.

Handing out their spoils to the other hungry refugees afterward was heartwarming, but nothing beat the look on little TomTom's face when he handed Mai a bowl of fresh food for him to eat.

"Angling to be the favorite uncle of more than just Jin Ling?" Ty Lee teased him as she accepted her own food.

"Shut up," Zuko said in reply.

Ty Lee pretended to lock her mouth shut and focused on eating. Then proceeded to say nothing for the rest of the night just to annoy him. Mai might have joined in too, or maybe it was just her being quiet. It could be hard to tell.

The rest of the trip went decently enough (aside from Uncle accidentally misgendering Smellerbee, but he was quick to correct himself) up until Jet took him aside and made a recruitment pitch to Zuko. Asking him to join his Freedom Fighters while in the process expressing his vehement hatred of the Fire Nation.

Needless to say, Zuko turned him down.

This was why Zuko felt a spark of dread at the look on Jet's face after Uncle firebent his previously cold tea so it was warm once they left the boat. He just knew this could only lead to trouble.

In the end, the only bright part of their arrival at Ba Sing Se was that they ran into Ying, Than, and Hope again on the train into the city. It was good to see they'd made it and were doing well, and Ying was able to let them know the Avatar brought them to the city and had accommodations in the Upper Ring.

For the rest, well, the sooner they found his other sister the better.

A/N Note, neither Jet, Smellerbee, nor Longshot interacted with anyone but Zuko here.