𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙜𝙚𝙨 » sokka {1}

20

chapter twenty

the cool air felt soothing on Yanmei's skin as she stood upon the top level of the ship. her eyes were closed as she took in the salty scent of the ocean and let the breeze calm her nerves of moving to Ba Sing Se. she felt at ease, as if the water was home and was calling her name. Zuko watched the girl with a faint smile, admiring her beauty and how peaceful she looked. 

"who would have thought, after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace..." Iroh turns to the teens with a flowered straw hat on his head and a grin on his face, "as a tourist!"

Zuko took his attention away from Yanmei and spoke grimly, "look around, we're not tourists, we're refugees," he sips from his wooden bowl of whatever concoction they served on the ship and immediatwly spits it out into the water in disgust, "ugh! I'm sick of eating rotten food, sleeping in the dirt... I'm tired of living like this"

Yanmei huffed as she faced them, "agreed"

"aren't we all?" a male voice speaks. the three pair of eyes turn to see a teenage boy. a stalk of grass between his teeth and a sly grin on his lips, "my name's Jet, and these are my freedom fighters, Smellerbee, and Longshot"

"hey," the small one, Smellerbee, greets. the other, Longshot, just nods.

Yanmei smiles kindly, but curiously, at the trio, "hello"

Jet stets closer to them, his eyes lingering on Yanmei, "here's the deal. I hear the Captain's eating like a king, while us refugees have to feed off his scraps. doesn't seem fair, does it?"

this sparks Zuko's interest, "what sort of 'king' is he eating like?"

"the fat, happy kind," Jet's eye move from Zuko to Yanmei, wh was very suspicious of these 'freedom fighters', "you want to help us 'liberate' some food?"

Zuko stares down into at the bowl of gruel and back up at Yanmei, who held a pleading look in her eyes, telling him not to get into trouble,  considering a moment before hurling it out over the rail, "I'm in"

Zuko and the 'freedom fighters' returned from stealing the food and passed it around to the passengers nearby. Zuko handed a bowl to Iroh, who eagerly took it, and then held one out for Yanmei. she hesitated, the food was stolen, but she was getting sick of what she was being fed before, so she took the food, muttering a small 'thank you'.

Zuko sat down beside the girl, his own food in his hand, "are you alright?"

she shrugged, "I'm nervous. we're traveling to a new home to start over, yet I feel as if I'm missing something..." she shook her head with a laugh, "forget it. it's probably nothing. I'm just being paranoid"

Zuko placed his hand on her knee and a faint smile formed on his lips, "we'll be fine, Yanny. Ba Sing Se is the safest place in the Earth Kingdom. we don't have to run anymore"