-From the lanes of Ba Sing Se-

CHAPTER 1

The silence was deafening as Kai watched helplessly while his mother lay on the hospital bed. White sheets and blinding lights was all Kai saw now. His mother, a thousand reports, doctors and nurses were all his life was composed of. A sad melody that kept playing and left him with no way to turn. He didn't even know where home was now, he didn't even know whether he had a home. 

What would he do when his mother was gone and the world turned dark? Because she was going to die, wasn't she? Turn into ash and dust and drift away, leaving nothing but a cold, stiff body behind .

'Kai, you're going to drop the cup.' A soft voice snaked its way into his thoughts, and Kai realised he was  going to drop the cup that voice had handed him, so he held it, though he didn't want to. Why would he, when every touch reminded him that he was living and breathing in a world he knew his mother wouldn't sing her songs into soon. Soon, yes that day was soon. 

Such a strange world isn't it? A world where the life of one is taken, and another is given, only to be taken again- on and on and on. Strange; so utterly, utterly strange. 

'Kai, you haven't slept in days. Won't you sleep now?' The voice said. Whose voice was it anyway? He should really ask soon. Soon, again that word. 'Kai, sleep.' Sleep. What was sleep again? He didn't know. No, he didn't. 

There was a sigh, then someone placed a hand on his, and he wanted to move away, but then he remembered who was talking to him, and he let her hand stay on his. 

Akemi, that's who was talking to him. She was his only friend, or was, before he lost himself in this boundless void. 'Drink.' Akemi said. 'It'll help with your headache.' 

'Thanks... for the tea.' Kai said quietly. He wasn't sure if she'd heard him. He didn't know if he'd said it, or whether it was a fragment of his imagination. 

'It's what I do, Kai. For you.' So he had spoken. Kai turned his head to look at her, standing beside his chair, and smiled, or tried to. He wasn't sure how to, his lips pulling into weird angles and lines, the expression feeling foreign on his face. Akemi smiled back. A bright smile like sunshine on a rainy day. When did he last see sunshine, anyway?

Her smile turned sad as she knelt down , completely fading as she faced him. 

'Kai, you need sleep.'

'No, no I don't.' Again that word- sleep.

She looked him straight in the eye. 'If you don't sleep, mother is going to worry. Don't you think she's worried enough as it is? Do you want to add to that?' That got him, and he rose silently, drifting to the cot beside his mother's. The one they'd claimed as his. 

He turned to face his mother and Akemi, realising how sore he was, and noticing that headache she was talking about. He thought of Akemi's words again, and knew she was right. So he closed his eyes to drift off into what they called 'sleep', and the last thing he saw was that sunshine- bright smile.