An Unexpected Reunion (Kozue) [Finished]

[\Mai-Dee/ *Erity* ~Kenzi~]

The advice that Yukiko offered still made sense, though another part of Kozue still rebelled against having to change her nature and the way she portrayed it. That is exactly what she'd been encouraged to do most of her years, and triply so in the past five years since her family had become refugees- but that wasn't Yuki's fault, nor did it change the way the world worked in most cases. Besides, if I've learned anything from these experiences, changing the way I behave can't change my soul, even when I wish it could. Accomplishing my goal is worth more than my pride, and it's definitely worth more than being found out and putting others at risk.[/i]

"I'll be sure to keep it in mind," Kenzi reassured Yukiko with a smile as the mahogany-haired girl continued to look at the small carving she held between her fingers. "If I can figure out Firebending moves that have been lost for hundreds of years based only on manuscripts and vague images I should be able to walk differently." There wasn't any trace of cockiness in her tone, only her usual self-confidence and the desire to make sure her friend realized that Kozue was taking what she said seriously. When someone was going out of their way and doing their best to help you was no time to be flippant or seem too casual about it.

The description of Genji brought back a vague memory from her childhood, visiting Yuki's house for some vacation or sleepover and seeing wooden toys and figurines scattered about the mostly-empty dwelling far too large for a child and a single adult. The elder brother was only an ethereal figure of mist, sometimes seen passing down halls or talking to his sibling in a cool tone and ignoring the others who were present- like herself. Knowing him a bit better know the assertation of his hobby made more sense. "It does seem like the sort of hobby he'd like- quiet control and attention to detail, as well as an appreciation for beauty. Those are things that you two have in common and I think that he'd be proud to know that you took it up too." A small smile of understanding crossed her face as she spoke to Yukiko and she meant every word she said. Genji had his good traits just like everyone, even if they were sometimes stifled by his more frighteningly negative ones.

With a small bow, hands clasped carefully, she accepted the gift of the turtle gratefully and slipped it into a pouch at her side. "Thanks for the keepsake, it's a reminder of happier times," she continued, then untied another small bag from where she'd fastened it to her gown and set it on the table, then slid it over to her old friend. "Don't worry, I never come visiting empty-handed. I didn't know how your supply routes out here would be so I brought you some of the finest tea I could get my hands on before I left. I know it's not much but at least it's a bit of a taste of home."[/color]

[Yukiko]

A small, sad smile quirked Yukiko's lips as she listened to Kozue. Genji knew she carved. He had been the one to teach her, after all. She had always been fascinated while watching him. To see a simple, shapeless block of wood become the exquisitely detailed form of some creature or even of their dead family had often left her in awe of what he could do. She missed that. I wish he had stayed. I wish they hadn’t died.... I wish a lot of things and most haven’t come true and probably never will. I guess I’m grateful that I’ve gotten to see Zu-se again. I missed her almost as much as I missed Genji.

“Yeah...proud,”she murmured, looking out the window once more. He had never seemed particularly impressed with her before he left. Keenly interested in spending time with her, yet...thinking back, he’d never seemed to pay too much attention to her - or rather, to what she really wanted. To be a whole family. She was beginning to wonder if she wanted him to be proud of her. Few others thought particularly highly of him, except for his abilities. Every kid at the Academy had thought he was weird and frightening - a freak, even. And then he had just...left. With naught but a letter to explain his disappearance. He was family and she had understood why he felt the need to leave, but even so. She had never really forgiven him for it and it had soured the rest of her time in the Fire Nation - a place that she had always loved. She was drawn from her melancholy thoughts by the sound of cloth sliding against wood. Looking down, she saw a small pouch before her. "Don't worry, I never come visiting empty-handed. I didn't know how your supply routes out here would be so I brought you some of the finest tea I could get my hands on before I left. I know it's not much but at least it's a bit of a taste of home."

She leaned forward and delicately grasped the pouch between her slender fingers. “Yes, I remember that quite well. You always brought something along when you would visit us, no matter how many times I said you didn’t have to.” She chuckled softly. “A taste of home, you say?” She held the pouch to her nose, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her eyes flared open in delighted surprise. Although she had access to some truly remarkable teas, she hadn’t tasted the Spiced Tea of her home since leaving the Nation so many years ago. It had simply been too much trouble to come by. Now, after the Fall, it was impossible to obtain outside the Nation. Anyone who knew how to make it abstained from doing so, while appreciators of its taste were almost entirely of Fire Nation descent. No one wished to be marked as a Fire Nation refugee because that inevitably led to more loss and sorrow. Yukiko suddenly felt very old and tired. She slumped back in her chair, staring at the little pouch that filled her with so much nostalgia. “What a world we live in, huh, Zu-se?” she asked, her thoughts as distant as the stars.

[\Mai-Dee/ *Erity* ~Kenzi~]

"I'm glad you like it," Kozue said with an easy smile, watching the expressions of reminiscence move over Yukiko's face when she smelled the tea. Different areas all had their own customs for food and drink, especially in something that outsiders would consider simple, like tea. Simplicity was only what asked for a little art to be thrown in so it could become truly extraordinary, and in the rigidly traditional and temperamental Fire Nation that was where the subtle arts had bloomed, or so she'd been taught as a child. Details were everything and made the difference between a mistake and a remarkable success.

There was a note of sorrow to the older Firebender's last statement as she made it and that was something easily understood; so many changes resulting in so many deaths, both to the culture of the Fire Nation as well as the members of it. "But we're still living, and it's still our world, Kiki," Zu-Se assured her friend in a tone soft with sympathy but filled with her own hope and optimism about what could be. "As long as we're here we can change what happens around us. Phoenixes are only born of ashes, so maybe that's what had to happen so we could be reborn in a purer form."

Moving a bit closer she sat at the table just to Yuki's left and sat down, crossing her hands and setting her chin on top of them, then cocking her head just a bit to watch her friend's reaction, careful to keep her tone more of a personal declaration and not a judgment, which it was never intended to be. "That's why I'm going to find out what happened during the Overthrow, Kiki. If we were wrong isn't it better to know so that we can fix it and prevent this from happening again? My relatives- they're the same as they always have been, plotting to grasp things in their fist rather than holding them in their hands, and it does seem like their intent is to crush everything they touch. I didn't want to have that life anymore and be their symbol for what I can't agree with."

Her own smile more pensive for the thoughts that ran through her head she set on the table the duck-turtle that her friend had been kind and cunning enough to make for her, then pushed it around the surface of the smooth surface before her with a finger, as though it was swimming across the table. "Listen to us, looking so deeply behind us rather than turning around and facing forward. It's time to make some changes, don't you think?" Forcing her smile a bit wider and more cheerful- fake it till you make it- she pulled out a small knife and with a few quick motions had bared her long, elegant and very traditional Fire Nation nails down to something more manageable and less easily placed. Now her hands only looked like she had the money to keep herself well groomed, not like an army of attendants had waited on her hand and foot. "What do you think?"

[Yukiko]

Yukiko raised an eyebrow as she watched Kozue shear off beautifully manicured, traditional Fire Nation nails. As each nail became much shorter, somewhat rougher, it was as though pieces of her past were falling off of her. She freely admitted that she had never quite gotten over the loss of her entire family. Oh, she acted as though everything was fine and dandy. It was how she managed to survive from day to day without losing her mind. But in her heart, she had always longed to return to that last year her family had been whole. Before her mother had been murdered - Yukiko had learned during her travels that it had been murder - before the Rift stole her brothers...before her once-grand father had wasted away into a shell and Genji had become stranger than normal. Yet now all that remained of that life was Hotaka. And he wasn't going to live forever, after all.

But for some reason, those nails did it for her. “You’re right. It’s our world and we need to be changing it,” she said softly. She kept her gaze on the shortened nails for a moment before laughing. Her voice remained filled with mirth as she continued. “I think they’re fabulous, Zu-se. Though I wouldn’t have used a knife. I have some tools I could’ve used to take care of that. But they’re still appropriate for the new you. Speaking of which...” Yukiko finally rose from her chair, stretching lazily. Satisfied with the slight burn in her muscles, she moved to a chest in the corner on the other side of the hearth. Pulling the key from a pocket, she knelt and unlocked it. Lifting the heavy trunk above her head, she rummaged one-handedly through the trunk's contents until she found her calligraphy set. She rarely used it now, but couldn't resist buying it when she had first seen it in Ba Sing Se. She carefully lifted it out of the trunk and lowered the lid, not deigning to lock it just yet. She returned to the table and set the kit down before moving to the bedroom she shared with Hayato. Pulling some parchment from the desk they kept in the room, Yukiko returned to the dining table and settled herself into her chair once more, mulling over what to write and to whom. “If it’s all right with Hayato - and I’m sure it will be, he’s so easy-going - you can stay with us for awhile. I’ve no intention of traveling with you to the Bulwark...but I might make my way over there eventually. I’m learning from your example,” she added with a grin. “Finding a way to make a difference in this world.”

[\Mai-Dee/ *Erity* ~Kenzi~]

All that Kozue could do while Yukiko spoke and then pulled out her calligraphy kit was watch her old friend with pride and enthusiasm. For a little while it had seemed like all of Yuki's drive had died over the course of their time apart, and while the younger Firebender took pride in her intelligence and learning she was always glad to be proven wrong when it made room for a more promising outcome. This was the best thing that could have happened, and the smile on her face was as fresh and bright as her friend's even as her eyes flashed with renewed hope. What ally could she ask for who would be better than her old friend?

"I'll clean them up a little later," Kenzi assured Yuki with a smile as she looked over the somewhat tattered edges, not minding them in the least. When they started to grow it would be easy enough to keep them cut short and filed so that she wouldn't have this problem over again. It might even improve her swordsmanship not that she didn't have to worry so much about keeping them from snagging on the bindings of the hilt. "Until then this will be just fine, and a good reminder not to slip back into some of my more rarified habits. It certainly feels lighter."

Once the calligraphy set was on the table and Yukiko was seated again Kenzi moved a little closer to where her friend was sitting, though not close enough to watch whatever she decided to write. "I think I'd like to stay for a couple days and catch up on old times," she assured the older woman, pushing some hair back behind her shoulders and grinning. "As long as it doesn't cause you any problems, of course. And just to be fair I'll teach you some of the new tricks I've picked up after you left if you want to learn them. There wasn't much else for me to do but read and practice." That fact hadn't been all bad, of course, but she would rather have had a close friend nearby, to go over the situation she'd found herself in. But now she did, and she meant to make the best of it.

THREAD FINISHED