One of the parts of the lesson for calligraphy and cartography are going to be to copy it down. It's always good to circulate that kind of thing. Even if the Dai Li finds out, there will be copies.
...
He steps away to greet new customers.
"That's really interesting," Smellerbee comments. She sounds like she's waiting for the catch. That won't come until much later, if they're open to joining the network.
"Like I said, it's free. Come if you have time. Help if you want," I pour us all the tea. "But you were going to tell me abut how you met Katara, Sokka and Aang."
"Thanks," she says, drawing her cup close. "So, we met them near a town called Gao Ling. The Fire Nation occupies it, so we were living in a camp outside, surviving. Well. Some Fire Nation soldiers attacked Katara, Sokka and Aang. We stepped in to help. That's how we met."
"Mmh," I say, eyeing them one by one. "I see."
"What do you see?" Jet bites out, hostile. He's not touching his cup. Shame.
I give him a look. "Those swords aren't very well concealed, you know," I sip my tea. It's good as always. "What made you decide to come to Ba Sing Se?"
"The Fire Nation forced us to! What else could it be?" he says, loudly.
"Economic reasons. Disease, natural disaster, wanting a taste of the life in the largest city of the Earthkingdom? There are many reasons why people move. The war is the most common one, these days, of course. It's why I'm here, too. It's just that my home still stands."
"Right," he says, averting his gaze and glaring at the cup instead.
That's when Mai and Zuko enter the teashop. They spot me right away and Mai comes over to hand off Peter to me, as she always does when she has the chance. For some reason, he's out cold. He's sleeping a lot lately. Must be all the walking he's been doing. "Shirking off the work on Haruto again, Kaito?" she accuses even as she sits down at our table, nudging me further towards Jet on the bench.
"You know me, lazy to a fault," I say, adjusting Peter on my lap so he's comfy. "Mai, meet Smellerbee, Longshot and Jet. You guys, this is Mai and Peter. Lee, come sit. Unless you have to work?"
Zuko sends me an uncomfortable glare. Iroh pushes him towards us with a friendly smile and some well-meaning words about making new friends. Zuko looks grumpy and embarrassed after that.
"Lee, it's good to see you again," Smellerbee greets him before turning back, "We met on the ferry here. So, are you like, engaged?" she asks, eyeing Mai and me. And Peter.
I laugh, choosing to let Mai answer that one for us. Met on the ferry, huh? Something must have happened, if Jet isn't normally this hostile. Which he wasn't before we entered the teashop.
"Not really," she says, and it's vague, but clear enough when she takes Zuko's hand on the tabletop. He blushes with discomfort at the scrutiny it brings.
Jet glares at all of us.
"I was just telling them about the school," I explain.
"Ah. Yes. I need your help on drawing up those lesson plans on the Fire Nation's history and indoctrination," she says it nonchalantly. She pretends not to notice the three new acquaintances gaping as she waves two fingers at Mushi while gesturing at our teapot.
"What?" Jet spits out finally.
"Oh, Mai, Lee and Mushi are Fire Nation refugees. They can't go back because they've been outlawed for helping me," I explain to them. It may have only been Mai, but Iroh doesn't want to return. Zuko… well. I don't know if I'll ever get to talk to him one-on-one at this rate.
"So Mai has agreed to teach about the Fire Nation and its history and indoctrination that happens from an early age.
You see, every child in the Fire Nation that isn't from the 'colonies' as they call conquered and occupied Earthkingdom territories, goes to school and receives a basic education. Part of it is of course indoctrination. Things like praising the Fire Lord and glorifying the war are daily occurrences."
Zuko's glare is heated. We don't see eye to eye on everything. But we don't fight because Mai is clearly willing to go along with my request. It's that favour I'm cashing in for healing Ty Lee back in Omashu. Which I'm not sure she's told him about. If she hasn't, he's probably feeling very conflicted right about now.
Mushi brings two more cups and a fresh pot of tea. He checks that all guests are satisfied, then he pulls up a chair and provides his own teacup from his sleeve.
I ignore the awkward silence. "Ah, Mushi, I wanted to ask, how are the textbooklets coming along? Do you need more helping hands?"
"We could always use more help, as you know. But I have already secured some of our younger pupils with legible handwriting for helping with those," he explains.
"Good. Thank you."
"It is my pleasure," he says, and I believe him.
I turn back to our new acquaintances. "Ah, sorry. You came here to hear about friends and I keep going on about school… So Katara is as good as a bending Master now, and Aang has incredible talent picking it up. The next time I see Aang, I'd like to get him to tell us about life at the airtemple. That's the sort of knowledge that shouldn't be lost."
Smellerbee nods, as does Longshot. Jet appears to be trying to get a grip on his upturned worldview. Or something. He looks like he's in that particular state of constipation.
"I also persuaded Professor Singh to come around in two days to teach advanced old language courses. If there's someone particularly talented, he said he'd consider taking them to the university library. So if any of you are into that kind of thing, show up. You might get a scholarship at Ba Sing Se Uni out of it."
Somehow this stuns them all over again.
"Here, I still have some of the original pamphlets. The address is on it," Iroh says and provides three neatly folded up pamphlets.
They take them. Stare at them. None of their eyes look like they are scanning the paper.
Oh. Can they. Can they read? Well. Then they should definitely come to the school. The reading and writing course is one we offer every day. The numbers of analphabetic people in the lower ring is very high.
"So anyway, Kaito," Mai says, "Gorou mentioned he wanted to talk to you. Dionu had some kind of news he wanted to share. You should talk to him soon."
"Urgent? Or can it wait until dinner?"
"Not sure. Gorou seemed on edge."
So yes. I frown. "Well. This cuts our chat short, then. How about we talk the day after tomorrow? We can meet at the school, I'll be there to talk to Singh about getting an advanced student from the university to help with the accounting classes."
"Don't forget to mention that you are going to teach Watertribe history and speak about the invasion. There are still too many rumours circulating about the night the moon turned red," Iroh adds.
Yeah. I like to forget about that. But I managed to live through an accounting of it once, I can do it again, in front of a more forgiving audience that doesn't ask such pointed questions about the exact numbers of ships and benders etc. "Right. There's that. So. I'll see you guys there."
I hand Peter back to Mai and climb off the bench, glad that I keep up exercise so that my body is flexible and strong enough to easily land lift me over the backrest. With a little force, I land next to Iroh. I can feel Jet's eyes on me more than ever.
"Kaito, no fish tonight, please," Mai says. It's our little good-bye ritual now. Even if she knows it's not my turn to make dinner.
"We'll see."
She huffs.
...
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