Chapter Text
You stare the guy down, squinting your eyes. Said guy is looking around nervously, and for a second you think you can see his fight or flight kicking in. But instead, you both remain frozen, you, midway to slapping up a “Missing Flying Bison” sign, and him, carrying tea leaves back from the market. Maybe he should just leave, yeah leaving sounds like a good idea-
“It’s YOU,” you yelled and channeled the whole alley’s eyes onto him. He broke out in a sprint, you following close behind, posters flying from your bag and into the air. “Wait no!” You yelled again, albeit quite softer, “I’m sorry, oh shit sorry dude, sorry ma’am excuse me, MY GUY JUST STOP, oh sorry my bad,” you apologized to the merchants as you tried to stay on his tail. Apparently, he was much more graceful than you ever hope to be. You sprint over tables and, honestly, people as you were trying to get ahold of this man and it feels like forever until he stops in the very place you wanted to go.
“Hey! What’s the big dea-” And now there is a sword in your face.
“What do you want from me?” The man mumbles as he stares you down from the other end of the sword, measuring you up as if you are the biggest threat to him and his life. “Oh shit oh umm I’m sorry, oh wow that’s sharp, uh I just want some tea… from you?” You are practically sweating a lake in the door to this tea shop, “could you, I dunno, not stab me?”
“You just want… tea?” The tea guy looks surprised, “Tea?” “yes sir, just tea, please put down the sword, please put down the sword,” you beg. His eyes widen and he lowers his sword, continuing to just stare ahead at you as you take a big breath of relief. When you finally get calmed down, he’s still staring, and you start glancing around him hoping for help with this guy. You question if you’ve ever met this guy before, but you can’t think of anything as you wave your hand in front of his face to gauge any reaction at all. A more aged man walks out, seemingly searching for the commotion and stopped to look at the guy with a sword drawn and you waving you hand in his face.
“What is the problem here, is this man bothering you?” The man walks out and begins poking the frozen swordsmen. “I’m sorry I just wanted some tea! I saw your shop on the way up the city and had to visit, but couldn’t find it for a couple of days. When I saw this employee, I remembered him from before, but he ran from me. I just wanted to ask directions! I’m sorry about the noise!” you bow and look back up at them asking forgiveness for something you did, not really sure where you went wrong there. Actually, maybe the chasing, or the yelling. Probably one of those.
“Ahh, no need for apologies, I am just glad everybody is okay,” the older man smiled with his eyes closed, so friendly that you question his choice of sword-wielding employee. “I am Moshi, you must’ve really startled my nephew Lee, he is very shy as you can see,” Moshi points over toward the now moving Lee who had turned to look away from the conversation and wiping down a table, but still listening in.
“Nevermind him, what kind of tea are you looking for?”
When Moshi returned with your tea, he took a seat down at the table, surprising you, but why not, you haven’t talked to anyone really since traveling with the avatar. “May I ask, what happened earlier, before you had a sword in your face?” Moshi said with a joking laugh, making you smile a little at his friendly nature.
“Thank you for the tea, and I was really just out hanging posters for my friend,” you jumped up with a thought, “That reminds me! Would you mind if I hung this in your window?” you grabbed one of your flyers for Appa out of the bag that you just now realized was quite a bit more empty than it was before the grand chase and handed it to the man in front of you.
“It would mean a lot to my friends, and me, I miss him too,” you remembered how Aang acted when Appa went missing, and it wasn’t exactly a good memory. You did miss ‘Moshi’s’ slight eyebrow raise at the poster in his hand and Lee’s cleaning pace slowing just out of your sight. You snapped out of it, “It’s alright if not, I just figured your shop is so popular, it might help get a few more eyes on it,” you smiled hoping that your flattery might help your cause a little bit. He seemed to think about it, grabbing at his beard, then shot out of his seat, “Of course! We would be glad to help!”
“Thank you so much! It’ll help, I’m sure” you smiled back at the older man. Moshi fondly looked at your grateful face, and got up to hang the flyer at the front of the shop and then left you to your tea while he spoke with the rest of the patrons. You gazed around the shop, admiring the simplicity of it while you sipped your tea. “Oh shit this is really good,” you whispered to yourself, “I gotta tell Katara about this place, maybe Toph too.” Your eyes scanned the room, maybe habit but hey you gotta be prepared with this war and whatnot. Glaring eyes locked with yours, and you stopped sipping your tea but kept your cup raised to your mouth. Lee didn’t exactly seem as friendly as Moshi did, maybe you should just stay away…. oh okay nevermind.
“I’m sorry about earlier… I’m,” he grimaced as he approached your table and closed his eyes, “shy.” He sighed and then went to turn around but stopped when he heard you speak. “It really is okay, I know everyone is on edge during these times,” you paused, “but can I ask why you ran?” You looked up at him from your seat with big eyes, your hands still clasped around the cooling tea. Turning around, he was surprised at how eager you were to hear his reason.
“I, uh,” he stuttered and looked anywhere but you, “I’m, it’s-” “It’s alright you don’t have to say,” you smiled up at him, “it’s not my business anyway.” You sipped the last of your tea and stood up, leaving some extra money and turned to him, “sorry for the scare Lee, I hope the rest of your day is less exciting.” Smiling, you waved goodbye to him and to Moshi as you left, thanking them for the tea. Lee, or Zuko, stood in silence as he watched you walk out, and though he would never admit it, he was a little flushed. He only snapped out of it when Moshi, or Iroh, slapped his back, “that girl is either incredibly intelligent and playing with us…. or she’s simply… stupid.”
When you got back to the house, you immediately went to Katara to share your adventure today. “You have to check it out, I don’t think I’ve had tea that good… ever? I don’t even know, and the employees were so weird, one was this funny older guy but he was so nice, but then there was a younger one,” you looked away for a second, “I don’t know he was weirdly familiar.” Katara and Toph stared at your contemplative face. You simply stared into nothing trying out his face and name to something, but you hadn’t really been in the Earth Kingdom that often. There is no way that it could’ve been from back then with the water tribe.
“Don’t think too hard, you’re starting to bend your drink,” Toph laughed and your tea fell back in its cup. “I think I’ll check it out tomorrow,” Katara started and sighed,” I need something relaxing right now so I can try and plan around this whole Earth King situation.” You all sighed again remembering how stupid this situation is, maybe you should just water octopus yourself in and just hope for the best at this point. You took another sip of your unbended tea,” Yeah even though he was pretty weird, I’ll give him some points for his looks,” you sighed, “he was pretty cute.” “Wow, weird but cute? Sounds like just your type, (Y/N),” Toph joked, and you all started giggling and then gradually cackling alone with each other.
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You were looking out at the view sipping on some tea when the doors slammed open to the shared house to reveal Katara in obvious distress. “Oh, did the tea not tickle your fancy-” “(Y/N) you were sitting and drinking tea with PRINCE ZUKO and HIS UNCLE!” You stared for a second at Katara as she went to find the others to warn them of the two fire benders that were in Ba Sing Se. You looked back down at your tea, “...ugh I said he was hot, too…” and promptly got up to assist the others with this new discovery.