DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NICKELODEON'S AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER OR ITS CHARACTERS. I just repair the costumes for the wind buffaloes in the traveling Fire Nation circus!
"We cannot allow it, Fai. We simply cannot!" Ming Li paced back and forth in the bedroom that they shared in Iroh's house while her husband watched her with weary eyes.
"I know, dear. I know."
"You say that you know, but yet you do nothing."
"What would you have me do? Shall I lead a rebellion against Ozai? Shall I challenge him to an agni kai?"
Ming's eyes grew round and she looked around fearfully, as if someone might be lurking in the shadows. "Hush! You must not say such outrageous things!"
"What you demand is outrageous!"
"How? How can my asking you to help our niece avoid a loveless marriage be outrageous?"
"Because I can do nothing to help her! I cannot protest, I cannot even cite a precedence - whether there be one or not! I cannot, because the Fire Lord will do as he pleases! What would you have me do?!" He stood up, his hands fisted at his side, his face red.
Ming looked at him for a long while, and her face softened. She crossed the room and laid a hand on his arm. "I am sorry. It is not right of me to tax you with this. We shall solve this problem together, you and I."
Fai patted her hand gently, knowing that there was no solution.
He did not, however, tell his wife that.
Lan Chi was not planning. She was not thinking of what she would do. She was not thinking of where she would go.
She had simply decided that she would run away once she returned to Lao Hai. She would gather as much money as she could, as many small, valuable items as she could carry, and she would leave.
She would leave behind all the life that she knew. She would leave behind every thing that she had ever had. Where she would go she did not know, but she knew that she must not wait to be shipped off to a husband the way that a prize ostrich horse might be sent off to breed.
So when Ming came to see her in her room that night before bedtime, she felt that she could honestly tell the older woman that she had no plan.
Ming smiled at her sympathetically. "You can confide in me, you know, Lan. I will not tell anyone. Not even Fai." When Lan did not answer, she continued. "I never told him about - the incident with Zhao. You can trust me."
Lan looked back at her sagely. "I know that I can, Aunt Ming. Believe me, I know that. But I truly have no plans to do anything or go anywhere."
Ming's eyes narrowed. "No plans to run away?"
Lan shook her head. It would be safer for Ming to be able to truthfully say, should the need arise, that she was not privy to her niece's plans.
"I have no plans for anything." It was true. She had an idea, but no plan.
Ming's look was concerned. "How do you feel about it?"
"About what?" Lan Chi was being deliberately obtuse.
"Do not pretend to be oblivious with me. I know you far too well."
Lan watched her for a long while, then sighed, casting her eyes down. "How should I feel?"
"You told Fai that you were relieved."
Lan's smile was bitter. "You say you know me well, Aunt Ming. Do you think that is how I feel?"
