Fire Burns with Fury {Bolin x OC}

Kazuko Alone

A Few Days Later

"Pay up, Chen." I open my hand over the table and the older man sitting across from me rummages around his pockets, "Come on, I don't have all day to deal with you. I have several other games of Pai Sho to play today." I lean back on my free hand.

Chen places a bag of coins in my right hand. I lift it a couple times to see if the weight seems correct, "See you tomorrow, old man. We'll see if you can actually beat me then." He stands up from the short table and grumbles as he shuffles away.

"I'll take another pot of jasmine tea!" I call out to one of the waiters walking past me as my second Pai Sho opponent sits down in front of me. A middle-aged woman named Lian casts her eyes seriously over the board.

"Are you late on your rent, Lian?" I taunt. Her head snaps up abruptly and her cold gaze locks with my cocky expression.

"I won't take this kind of talk from a kid like you." She snarls.

"A kid like me?" I say, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Her expression changes from a frown to a smirk, "You really think the people around here don't know what kind of person you are? Some wealthy kid who was tired of the luxury they lived in, so they moved to the slums to gain some real-life experience... You'll never understand the reality we face every day."

"Oh, Lian..." I lean my arms onto the table to bring my face closer to hers, "You don't know the first thing about me."

"So tell me." She moves her first piece on the board. I do the same, "You wouldn't believe me, even if I did tell you."

"What makes you say that?"

"Let's just say I wouldn't be here playing Pai Sho with you if I was ready to come to terms with my life story. And for that reason, I won't be telling it to you."

Some More Time Later

I pull my scarf up over my nose and flip my hood up to almost completely cover my face. I wait in the darkness of the alley, keeping my eyes wide open for the perfect subject. And there he was. I grab him by the back of his shirt collar just as he is about to pass the alley. I hold a small blade tightly against his throat as I pull him into the dark, away from the prying eyes of the street.

"Scream, shout, yell or any of the sort and I will slice you open right here, right now." The man aggressively nods his head without a word of response.

"Empty your pockets," I whisper into his ear. I can feel him wiggle around as he reaches into his pockets. I hear the familiar jingle of a bag full of coins. I reach my free hand around him for which he places the bag of coins. Just as I seal my grip around the bag a shrill sound fills the air.

"Mama! There's a monster down there!" A small child, no older than five, stands at the entrance of the alley and their tear-filled eyes lock with mine. The child's mother comes into the light of the entrance as well and peers down at me.

I shove the bag of coins into the man's chest and drop my blade from his neck. He runs away from me as soon as I do so. He joins the woman and her child and is frantically talking and pointing towards me.

My heart pounds, but it also feels as though it has completely stopped and I might drop dead here in this small, dank space. A larger commotion starts forming at the entrance and I know I have to get out of here before anyone can catch me. Quite the headlines there would be 'Fire Nation Princess Caught Robbing a Man at Knifepoint!' I would rather not have to deal with that.