the avatar, and that one good firebender, lee

earth, part two

"aang, what are we doing here?" katara asks. "we're just--oh, hey, it's lee."

"lee, again?" sokka groans. "aang, we just got toph, so--"

said earthbender asks, distant from the conversation, "what are we doing where?"

"guys, hold on," aang urges, and the three of them quiet down. slowly, appa descends, dipping to the side of the refined jasmine dragon as aang scouts out a certain firebender. "where is he?"

"lee? he's over there." sokka points to the upper deck where zuko and jang stand, serving to two tables. "did he get a haircut? i feel like he got a haircut."

zuko, with his free hand, rubs the back of his neck. the wind up against his scalp is a foreign feeling, but jee insisted on the undercut, saying the shabby self-performed haircut was an eyesore. although he wanted to wait a day or two before serving to let it grow in, iroh was insistent, with business booming nowadays. the news article praising their brand from the other stop certainly attracted more customers.

a shadow looms over him and jang, feeling vaguely familiar. zuko's customers point up at another supposed tourist attraction, and before zuko can set down his tray and look for himself, a rope snags around his waist and jerks him up. "jang! jang!"

said tea server simply plucks the tray out from zuko's hands, waving goodbye with his free hand as zuko, to the customers' amazement and shock, ascends and falls onto appa's saddle. "lee!" aang cheers. "so glad you're here! nice haircut, too!"

"who's lee?" toph asks, moving over as katara scoots for space.

"who're you? aang, why do you always--"

"lee, this is toph, my earthbending teacher," aang introduces. now high in the air, he lets go of the reins and turns to face lee with a smile. "and toph, this is lee, who will be my firebending teacher soon, but for now he serves tea on the jasmine dragon."

" the jasmine dragon? the one that sells the premium jasmine tea?" toph sits upright. "that's my favorite."

"toph, how do you know the jasmine dragon? they're a traveling teahouse on a ship ," katara asks. then, for more clarification, "on water ."

"uh, we do delivery, too," zuko informs. it was feng's idea, out of the blue, that places inland would be more willing to buy tea they don't have easy access to. they like the imported stuff , he'd said. makes them feel rich. "sometimes we sell large boxes of tea for merchants to sell inland." katara shrugs, noting the fun fact. "so, why am i here? again?"

"again?" sokka narrows his eyes at aang. "have you kidnapped lee before? without us?"

"yeah, just once," aang shares a sheepish smile. "anyways, lee, we haven't talked in a while so i figured we should catch up. what's going on with you? with the new haircut?"

"i bet somebody broke his heart, that's all," sokka jokes.

"no, it's just..." zuko thinks hard. "well, the ship blew up, we bought a new one, my sister came over and tried to arrest me, and i got my hair cut." katara, aang, and sokka stare incredulously at the firebender, trying to connect all the points together, while toph throws rocks in the air below carelessly. "and now we sell biscuits."

"that sounds interesting," toph comments. "aang, tell him what we did."

"well, general fong tried to kill katara to get me to go in the avatar state. i got really mad about that," aang scratches the back of his neck with a nervous laugh. "then we went in a labyrinth in the mountain," over zuko's shoulder, aang chuckles lightly at katara's flushed face. "and then we snuck into omashu and pretended to spread pentapox to get everyone to leave, and i talked with king bumi, and then i went in a swamp, and then i met toph at an earthbending tournament, and then i thought about telling you all this, so we went to you!"