Black Jade - Zuko X OC

The Dragon's Visit

Over the next several days Dai Yu and Zuko played in every square foot of the vacation home, hide and explode in root cellars and closets, tag up and down the halls, he tried to show her some katas in the training room but neither child had the concentration to practice very long before it devolved into more rough and tumble play fighting. Dai Yu liked playing that way, she decided. Something about it felt very exciting and real. She was sporting two scraped knees and a few small bruises now but she couldn't care less.

Occasionally Dai Yu would practice her Pipa or sewing, and Zuko would watch for a bit until he lost interest and went outside on his own.

After one such expedition he brought in a turtle crab, which they put in a shallow bowl of seawater. Zuko chewed up a piece of fish and then held it out to the creature with chopsticks. Dai Yu was delighted to see it take the piece and nibble it.

"Can we keep it Nanai?" Dai Yu asked, running her finger over the turtle crab's shell.

Nanai was busy tidying up the dining area after lunch. "It should probably go back to the water hun, I don't think it would enjoy life at the palace much. But I suppose there's no harm in keeping him for a few days. I'm sure he likes the free food, at least. Uhg, Zuko, couldn't you cut it up instead?" Nanai asked, scrunching up her face in disgust as he pulled more chewed fish from his mouth.

"I could." Zuko and Dai Yu were sitting on the floor on either side of a small table. The dish containing the turtle crab's temporary living space between them.

There was a knock at the front door. Nanai put down the rag in her hand and walked out of the room to answer it. When she returned she had an official looking scroll in her hands and two packages. She sat down at the table and Zuko gently moved the turtle crab's bowl over so she could put the packages down.

Nanai opened the scroll first and read it silently to herself.

"Hmm, Looks like we'll be here a bit longer, kids." She said after a few minutes. "Seems things are still quite busy, and they feel that you might as well stay put."

"Yes!" Zuko threw his arms into the air, almost bouncing in place.

Nanai untied the strings on the larger of the two packages and peeked inside before pushing it to Dai Yu. "I think this is from your father hun, and a bet this little one is funds to keep feeding us." She shook the little package which made a clinking metal sound.

Dai Yu opened the package and was hit with Instant recognition. "Dad sent me the song book!"

She pulled the large old book completely out of the packaging. She'd seen and held it many times before. The cover was brown, frayed in parts and water stained. The pages, almost two inches thick, were yellow with age. It was filled with songs composed by her father and grandfather. It even had a song she'd written when she was younger, and eager to add to family history. Many of the songs in it were accompanied by journal entries or letters, a record of thoughts or events that happened when the song was written down. The song book was equal parts a historic timeline of music and of her family.

Dai Yu instinctively flipped to the back of the book where the most recent additions would be and saw a fresh page with her father's handwriting on it. The characters that spelled her name at the top in deep black ink, it was a letter for her.

Dai Yu shut the book quickly when Zuko scooched up behind her to look over her shoulder.

"I can't believe he gave this to me, it's really important." Dai Yu said.

"Is it?" Zuko asked, looking at it incredulously.

Dai Yu tried to quickly explain exactly what the book was. He still didn't look particularly impressed. Maybe that shouldn't surprise her, Zuko was the least musical person she'd ever met. Even non-musicians enjoyed listening and singing along to songs or dancing, but not Zuko. He talked about his tsungi horn lessons like old soldiers talked about war.