whitelotusmods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
whitelotusmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
white_lotus2011-02-10 11:06 am
whitelotusmods) wrote in white_lotus2011-02-10 11:06 am
LNYE Fic: It's Yet Another Day (In Ba Sing Se), for livrelibre
Title: It's Yet Another Day (In Ba Sing Se)
By:jibrailis
Recipient:livrelibre
Rating: PG
Character(s)/Ship(s): June, Mai/Zuko, Iroh, Ty Lee
Content Notes: None.
Summary: June is a hard-boiled P.I, Zuko is suspicious, ladies are fierce, and Iroh is totally unhelpful.
It was a night for sin, a night as dark as the last dregs of tea at the bottom of a wasted cup. Rain fell against the sides of her office in sheets, and June kicked up her legs on the desk as she watched the soaking, rain-battered man explain to her exactly why and how he needed her services. It was about a a dame. Of course. It was always about a dame.
"You think she's stepping out on you, is that it?" June asked, and looked up to see the creak, creak, creak pressure of the rain against her weak-framed window. Her P.I office was in the bad part of town, though it hadn't been the bad part of town when she first arrived; the bad part of town these days was wherever she happened to stay for too long. June made no pretenses about working only for the good guys, the tenshi-faced clients who wanted her to find their babies and their grandmothers' lockets. June worked for whoever had the gold pieces, and while she asked questions, lots of them, she never let them get in the way.
This case though. This case piqued her interest. It wasn't every day, or every dark rainy night, that the Fire Lord himself schmoozed into your office, wanting to know more about what the future Fire Lady was getting up to. June had heard he vacationed in Ba Sing Se during the summer season, but she was under the impression he lived behind the walls of one of those big multi-courtyard houses on the hill and didn't consort with the mere mortals.
Well, she thought, well, well, well.
"Mai slips out at all hours," the Fire Lord said, his face a picture of painted tragedy. June remained unmoved; the truth would let itself out sooner or later. "She's evasive, she won't answer my questions, she's always whispering with Ty Lee and Katara and shutting up whenever I happen to wander by." He squeezed his fists into balls. "I think there's another man."
"Doesn't make sense to me," June drawled. She lit up a cigarette. It was a habit that was going to kill her, but everything was going to kill her. Why pick a single sob story? "A big man like you is worth keeping, ugly mug and all. Do you really think she's doing the Ganju dance on you?"
The Fire Lord looked conflicted. "I trust Mai," he said. "Most of the time."
"Ah," said June.
"But she's sneaky," he insisted. "Something important is happening that she won't tell me. I'm worried."
There were two types of fellows in the world, June thought as she studied him from behind hooded eyes. And both of them were equally as bad.
"You're cute when you cry," she said.
"I'm not crying," he said angrily, and the office felt much warmer all of a sudden.
"Not yet, you're not," June replied pointedly. "I'll take your case. But you pay the money up front, you don't get in my way, you don't get the fuzz involved, you don't question my decisions, and you never, ever drink from my teapot. You got it?"
The Fire Lord nodded.
"Good," she said and watched him go. When the office was quiet again, June walked out onto the worn lacquered porch that overlooked her own scraggly little courtyard. Rain beat down on her, but she put her elbows on the porch railing and leaned out. There was a snuffling sound, and then Nyla appeared in the darkness, perfectly wet and perfectly happy. "Well, Nyla," June said, putting out her cigarette, "play it again. Looks like you and me have got another gig to do."
:::
She started at the watering hole, at the local den of inequity, because that's what a smart P.I does: start at the place where the food starts, where the drinks start, where human passions run high, where the fights begin. In this case, it was that old man's damned teahouse where she knew the Fire Lord, the future Fire Lady, the Avatar, and all their little friends liked to spend their time in their off-hours, when they weren't saving a world that wasn't meant to be saved.
She knew she couldn't get in without attracting the old man's attention, so she didn't even bother. She told Nyla to wait out front and then she took a table front and center, her cigarette between her teeth as she looked at the tea menu. Too sweet, most of it was. Who put sugar in their tea? No self-respecting Earth Kingdom citizen, that was for sure.
"It's you!" the old man said, eyes crinkling as he came up to her. "But you're going to have to put that cigarette out, young lady," he added, so she waved her wrist airily and put it out on the edge of a porcelain spoon.
"Satisfied?" she asked.
"These days I'm always satisfied," he said.
"I can see that," she replied, looking at his stomach.
He patted it easily. "Ba Sing Se is good to me, and I hope that I am good to her. Now what would you like to drink, and what, may I ask, are you doing here? I know you go to other tea places, shady ones."
"I'll have Dragon's Testicle Piss," she said, and then caught herself on it because she was in a different part of town now and names were different. "I mean, Dragon's Essence," she said. "Steep the leaves good, and as bitter as you can make it."
"My favourite kind," the old man said.
"And I want to know what you know about that dame Mai," she said. Iroh was loyal to his nephew. Everybody with half a head -- and some of the people June spent her time with had less than that -- knew it. If Iroh had dirt on Mai, he had probably already passed it on to Zuko. Or maybe not, June thought, narrowing her eyes as she took in Iroh's cunning face, carefully hidden behind layers of fat, beard, and joviality. Iroh knew how to keep things close to the chest, and Zuko seemed the kind of high-strung, squirrelly guy you broke news to gently, with smelling salts. Not the best quality in a Fire Lord, but June's opinion of Fire Lords wasn't too shimmering to begin with.
"Her health is good," Iroh said. "She's taking up birdwatching. It helps calm her blood pressure. She got number one in Ba Sing Se's birdwatching competition last week. Did you hear?"
Was birdwatching supposed to be some sort of code? June looked at Iroh for clues, but he kept on smiling innocently, the unhelpful bastard.
"She won by spotting the red-bellied Sa Chu swallow near the palace compound," Iroh said. "Very rare and very beautiful. Very precious for all those reasons. Those I prefer the plainer birds, myself. You can learn just as much from them."
He stared at her. June stared back.
Then he winked.
You met a lot of unsavory types on the beat, June thought, and sometimes the only thing you could do was to keep your head above theirs and your knives sharper. She drank her tea quickly, whistled for Nyla, and left, thought she had a feeling she'd be back soon enough. She wasn't looking forward to it. Old men with secrets were more dangerous than firecrackers pointed in the wrong direction, or a deep, deep sleep. She'd dealt with them before. She'd pulled answers out of the Count of Qi's father-in-law, a grizzled old piece of cake with more venom than a sand viper. But it didn't mean she had to like it.
:::
The Fire Lord had given her a piece of his girl's skirt, torn off secretly and shamefully. June gave it to Nyla, and they tracked the lady of the week down to a street in one of the most fashionable shopping districts of Ba Sing Se, a neighbourhood that was likely to chase June out the moment they saw her, if they had the guts to do so. But they didn't. She left Nyla about two blocks east of where Mai was supposed to be. Nyla attracted a lot of attention, and June didn't want any of that. June slipped into the crowds, trailing close to Mai by foot and watched as Mai bent over a display of turquoise jewelery, accompanied by Ty Lee and Katara the Waterbender.
June had seen all of these dames in action before, and she didn't trust them as far as she could throw them. Which, after arm-wrestling with the men at the Monkey's Head, was damn far indeed.
Most adultery cases were the same, she thought, if this one could even be classified as adultery when the parties weren't even hitched. Well, it was a done deal, from what she knew. The wedding invitations had been all but engraved in red anyway; it was just a matter of time before the Fire Lord pulled his balls together and proposed. June didn't care, That was high society business and she had her hands busy dealing the scum of the earth. But something about the three girls and their oohing and aahing over the necklaces made her lip curl in derision. June never did that as a girl. June had spent her girlhood riding Nyla and following her father across barren lands and broken towns, where even just clean water was a dream to put in your pipe and smoke. June had fought Fire Nation soldiers and Earth Kingdom bandits, and maybe she'd never saved the world either, but she sure as hell hadn't wasted her time laughing loudly while pandering shopkeepers smiled on.
And she sure as hell had never cheated on anyone she'd ever been with before, though there'd only been one candidate in the past that June had ever thought was worth the time and the extra helpings of natto.
It wasn't apparent if Mai was two-footing the Fire Lord, just by watching her cut through the boutiques, her two friends flanking her sides like an honour guard. She walked cleanly and proudly, which June had to admire, but that could also be attributed to charm school education paid by daddy.
June watched and watched, and craved a cigarette, or alcohol. The sun was too bright after the night of rain, and Nyla was probably getting restless waiting for her. June didn't like to leave Nyla alone for too long; usually people tried to harass her, and then Nyla bit. June didn't fancy getting dragged in yet another time for civil misbehavior. The food in the holding cells tasted worse than Iroh's scallion pancakes.
But, just as she was prepared to slice her ropes loose from the future Fire Lady, she saw Mai duck into an alleyway and through an open door that closed swiftly using Earthbending when June followed to take a closer look.
June narrowed her eyes. That was interesting.
:::
There was no sign on the door. June waited until later in the evening, long after Mai had left, before visiting and pulling herself in front of the woman inside, who was short and dumpy and entirely too steely for her own good. "I'd like your services," June said, looking around and trying to figure out what the place was supposed to be. The walls were bare and there was only a table and a desk. It looked like an office. "I'd like your services now," June added. "Don't make me take off my gloves."
"I don't understand what you mean," the woman said, refusing to be bowed. "This is my house."
"It's in the middle of the shopping district."
"I like shopping," she said. "Now get out before I call the guards."
June stared at the woman and knew, with the gut sense that was the saving grace of every P.I who lived to sniff around another day, that this was a woman who'd rather die than reveal Mai's secrets. So she took a step back and gave her space. "Don't bother bringing in the brass," she said. "I'll show myself out."
:::
It rained again that night. June sat in the corner of the teahouse, watching Mai and Zuko sharing dinner. Zuko pretended like he didn't notice June at all, which was a good idea, though every now and then his shoulders tensed when she stood up and purposefully sauntered by him on the way to the washroom. Messing with the Fire Lord was good fun, she thought, and it was practically a perk of the job.
Thunder started not long after. The room got real cold, but Iroh came around with another pot of tea, followed by another pot, and a plate of steaming gyoza. "It's on the house," he said, and then he added, "How's your latest case going?"
He was messing with her.
So June lied. "Grisly murder case. You don't want to hear about it."
"That's true," Iroh said sympathetically. "I've seen too much killing in my lifetime." She looked at him sharply, but his expression didn't change. "But there can be other types of deaths too, Miss June. The death of innocence. The death of childhood."
"What the hell are you talking about?" June asked.
"The crescent moon in the month of the Tiger brings many joys," he said cryptically, and left.
:::
June sat in her office and thought. She could hear Nyla scuffing about in the courtyard, but June sat in her chair and danced a copper coin over her knuckles, the rhythmic movement of it helping her concentrate.
The job was shaping up to be what she'd come to think of as an Aang job. An easy trail to follow, as most bald hyperactive Avatars with shedding flying bison were. But Aang jobs were notoriously difficult to follow through, out the other end. She knew the woman in the alleyway with the unmarked door was key, but short of torturing her, there wasn't much pull in that area. And June had done many things in her life, many low and questionable choices that had landed her in Ba Sing Se, in the underbelly of the kingdom where all the lost souls went -- but she wasn't as low as that.
I may rub elbows with sleaze and slime, she thought, but I am my father's daughter. I do things the right way.
Times like these, June missed the war. She was as glad as anybody that it was over -- for one, it made finding your next meal a whole lot easier, and digging graves less of a hassle -- but the luxury of running among renegades was that if they didn't have honour, you didn't need to either. The right way was the rough way. In the city, it was different. In the city, especially in the parts where highborn ladies and their wide-eyed friends visited, things were softer. There were rules. There were standards.
Bah.
June spat on the floor.
Three rules she had picked up in life:
So June listened to the rain, sat, and thought, smoking through a package of cigarettes. The ashes fell to the floor, but she didn't bother sweeping them up. The office was getting filthy, but maybe it was about time to hire an assistant, a long-legged gal who'd run her errands and impress her clients. That sounded good. June would make sure the gal wore red, red lipstick and a cheongsam with slits to show off her praying mantis legs.
Then June made a decision. She stood.
It was too bad someone chose just that moment to try and kill her. It was really too bad.
:::
The stilettos came flying through the window that June had propped open to listen to the rain. June hit the floor in reflex, and the knives lodged into the wall two inches left of where her head might have been.
"Shit," June said.
Of course, no self-respecting P.I and former bounty hunter was a stranger to people trying to kill her. June didn't even have to think about it anymore. The moment the knives slammed into the wall, she was already crawling along the floor, below window view, to the door. Then she was out, running down the stairs into the courtyard and heading straight for Nyla. "Nyla, let's go!" she snapped, and Nyla bounded out to the front of the building, June readying her own knives for a grim takedown.
She and Nyla roared out onto the street, where several people hurried to get out of their way. "Come on!" June yelled. "You want a piece of me? I'm right here for ya! I'm going to put some terror on your blank face!"
But there was no answer. June took Nyla several circles down the street, pacing back and forth. Then she used the piece of ripped skirt, and Nyla started running, knocking over street signs and stalls, but it was by the time they crossed the earthen wall that circled the slums that June knew Mai was already far, far away.
:::
"It was a warning," Iroh said, pouring her the tea as black as he could make it. "It wasn't meant to hurt you."
"Bullshit," said June, wrapping her fingers around the steaming hot cup. It hurt, but she wasn't going to let a small matter like searing pain bother her. "You tell that niece-in-law of yours...you tell that uppity dame that if she wants to mess with me, she'd be better off messing with her hangdog boyfriend instead. He's the one with the bone to chew."
"Ah, Zuko," Iroh opined. "He just doesn't know how to treat the ladies properly."
"I'm going to kill both of them," June muttered. "She made me drop and ruin my fedora."
"The tortoise moves through the houses of the hare," Iroh said.
"Don't spout your wisdom to me, old man, if it's even wisdom at that," June said. "You don't want to tell me what's going on? No problem. But you'll be sorry at the end, I promise."
"So no tip then?" Iroh asked sadly.
"Dream on."
"How about a date with this poor lonely admirer?" he said.
"Sorry, I threw away my fossil collection a long time ago," June replied.
"You are a harsh woman," Iroh said, but his voice was admiring. She looked at him, at this former general turned teahouse owner, and she smiled.
"Born and bred to the bone," June agreed. "Now hurry up and bring me another pot of tea."
:::
It was still raining and darkness settled over the city like a weary traveler. Everyone moved through the streets heavily, as if weighed down with more stone than they could bear. It was the sort of night where wild things were bound to happen because someone was bound to snap. It was June's favourite kind of night, and she was in her office again, reading through her notes on Mai and Zuko and the rest of the Fire Nation's royal retinue. The window was closed, so the air in the office became thick with smoke, burdened even more by the incense that June had lit over to her left, jasmine orange and lotus blossom, hiding the scent of blood.
She was waiting.
It was just past midnight, like in the legend of the girl with the fur slippers, when Ty Lee came through the unlocked door. "Hi!" she said, bouncing on her heels. "Mai told me to bring you in!"
June cracked her knuckles.
She was ready when Ty Lee came for her, fingers outstretched. She'd timed it in her practices. Just before Ty Lee's fingers brushed her, June stiffened her body and fell crashing to the floor. Ty Lee pulled her fingers back, content with sloppy work and under the impression that she'd done the job, and June had to struggle to keep the smirk off her face. She was supposed to look furious, but that was easy enough to fake, and Ty Lee, for being such a small girl, casually swung June over her shoulder and carried her out.
Mai was waiting for them in a room above a pai sho store. She was at a desk composing a letter, her brush strokes even and calm when Ty Lee entered with June.
"You brought her," Mai said, monotone.
"Yep!" Ty Lee said. She put June in the corner and started tying her to a heavy piece of furniture. "It was easy too! I dunno, I thought it'd be harder."
June resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Instead she put on a cold face and said, "All this just to keep your dirty laundry in the laundry basket? If you'd rather do the rain and clouds with someone else, just tell him. Be a big girl now."
Mai turned around. "I like Zuko fine," she said.
"Are you kidding me? You love him!" Ty Lee enthused.
"Oh shut up," Mai told her, and June was surprised to see that there was a blush forming on her cheeks. "Anyway, is that really what Zuko thinks? That I'm seeing someone else?"
June shrugged.
"I'm going to kill him," Mai said.
"I can't believe Zuko would think that!" Ty Lee said. "Sure, you've been acting weird, but that's because you've actually been--" Mai shot forward and covered her mouth with her hand. "Mpghhh!" Ty Lee said. When Mai removed her hand, she sulked. "Fine. Don't tell her."
"She'll tell Zuko," Mai said. "That's what he hired her for."
"Depends," June said.
"Depends on what?"
"Can you offer me a higher price?" she said. "Come on, don't give me that pickled look. I need to eat same as anybody, and this is a tough city for those of us born without a phoenix spoon in our mouth." She shook out of the binds and stood up, much to the amazement of Ty Lee and the annoyed nerve pulse on Mai's forehead. "Mind if I smoke in here?" she asked. She lit up without waiting for an answer.
"Oh, let's bring her in on the secret," pleaded Ty Lee. "Katara will be so mad if she finds out we kidnapped her. I don't want Katara to be mad at me."
Mai leveled June a dark look. "How much do you want to become my P.I rather than Zuko's?"
June smiled scimitar-bright behind her cigarette. "Lady, I know you can afford me so I'm going to drag you in for all you've got."
:::
"So you found out what Mai's been up to," Zuko said when they were in her office again. He leaned forward eagerly, and then tried to play it cool by leaning back and looking at his fingernails instead. "I mean, that's nice. It's what I paid you for. And they say you're the best."
"None better, bub," June said. "But this isn't something I can really explain. It's something I'll have to show you instead."
"What do you mean?" Zuko asked.
"Follow me," June said, and she led him out of the office and onto Nyla's back, where they rode through the streets of Ba Sing Se up to the house where the Fire Lord and his entourage stayed for the summer. "Don't back out on me now," June warned when she felt Zuko stiffen. "You told me to see this through to the end."
"I did," Zuko said. He clenched his jaw. "I'm ready."
June chuckled dryly. "No one's ever ready," she said. She brought him up to his own door and then, when she made sure he was behind her, she opened it.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" yelled the party. There was Mai and Ty Lee and Katara and Toph and the Avatar and Sokka and many, many people that June only half-recognized but knew were the Fire Lord's friends and family, including that blasted old man Iroh. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ZUKO!"
Zuko staggered backwards. June caught him helpfully.
"I hate you," Mai said. "You don't trust me at all. Happy birthday. I hope you choke on it."
"B-but that's not what I meant!" Zuko said. She stalked off, the party hat perched incongruously on her head. Zuko looked baffled and helpless.
Iroh put his hand on his shoulder. "Go chase her, my nephew," he said.
Zuko stumbled off after Mai.
"Case closed," June said, watching as everyone else looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to party anyway, with or without the host and the birthday boy. Food was brought out on slabs of moving earth, courtesy of Toph, and the woman from the alleyway -- Rong Ting, the best kept secret in Ba Sing Se, the party planner for kings and stars -- floated about overseeing the entertainment. "Let's never mention this one again. What a disappointing ending."
"Not all cases can end in tragedy and rain," Iroh said. "Look, the sun is shining even. Let's enjoy it."
"This isn't my kind of joint," June said. "I'm outta here."
"No, please, stay," he said, and she stopped in her tracks. "I made sure that Rong Ting had the caterers bring grilled lizard tongues. I know those are your favourites. I bet you can't find them that easily, not even in Ba Sing Se. Local delicacy from your hometown, eh?" He waggled his eyebrows.
"How do you--" June began.
Iroh laughed. "You have your ways, I have mine. Mine involves less collateral damage, I think, and some very besotted scholar poets down at the teahouse."
"Tch, those scholar poets aren't worth the paper they shit on," June said. She paused. "These would be grilled lizard tongues with Bai Yi spice?"
"And southern style sesame sauce," Iroh assured.
"I guess I can stay for a while. My schedule today is light," June acknowledged. "But you're wrong. It's going to rain again. It's monsoon season. It's always going to rain and there's always going to be another case. People are evil. People are greedy. A P.I like me, willing to get down and dirty with people's business? I'm never going to lack for work."
"Today, you do," Iroh said, and then he put his hand on her elbow lightly and guided her towards the party.
By:
jibrailisRecipient:
livrelibreRating: PG
Character(s)/Ship(s): June, Mai/Zuko, Iroh, Ty Lee
Content Notes: None.
Summary: June is a hard-boiled P.I, Zuko is suspicious, ladies are fierce, and Iroh is totally unhelpful.
It was a night for sin, a night as dark as the last dregs of tea at the bottom of a wasted cup. Rain fell against the sides of her office in sheets, and June kicked up her legs on the desk as she watched the soaking, rain-battered man explain to her exactly why and how he needed her services. It was about a a dame. Of course. It was always about a dame.
"You think she's stepping out on you, is that it?" June asked, and looked up to see the creak, creak, creak pressure of the rain against her weak-framed window. Her P.I office was in the bad part of town, though it hadn't been the bad part of town when she first arrived; the bad part of town these days was wherever she happened to stay for too long. June made no pretenses about working only for the good guys, the tenshi-faced clients who wanted her to find their babies and their grandmothers' lockets. June worked for whoever had the gold pieces, and while she asked questions, lots of them, she never let them get in the way.
This case though. This case piqued her interest. It wasn't every day, or every dark rainy night, that the Fire Lord himself schmoozed into your office, wanting to know more about what the future Fire Lady was getting up to. June had heard he vacationed in Ba Sing Se during the summer season, but she was under the impression he lived behind the walls of one of those big multi-courtyard houses on the hill and didn't consort with the mere mortals.
Well, she thought, well, well, well.
"Mai slips out at all hours," the Fire Lord said, his face a picture of painted tragedy. June remained unmoved; the truth would let itself out sooner or later. "She's evasive, she won't answer my questions, she's always whispering with Ty Lee and Katara and shutting up whenever I happen to wander by." He squeezed his fists into balls. "I think there's another man."
"Doesn't make sense to me," June drawled. She lit up a cigarette. It was a habit that was going to kill her, but everything was going to kill her. Why pick a single sob story? "A big man like you is worth keeping, ugly mug and all. Do you really think she's doing the Ganju dance on you?"
The Fire Lord looked conflicted. "I trust Mai," he said. "Most of the time."
"Ah," said June.
"But she's sneaky," he insisted. "Something important is happening that she won't tell me. I'm worried."
There were two types of fellows in the world, June thought as she studied him from behind hooded eyes. And both of them were equally as bad.
"You're cute when you cry," she said.
"I'm not crying," he said angrily, and the office felt much warmer all of a sudden.
"Not yet, you're not," June replied pointedly. "I'll take your case. But you pay the money up front, you don't get in my way, you don't get the fuzz involved, you don't question my decisions, and you never, ever drink from my teapot. You got it?"
The Fire Lord nodded.
"Good," she said and watched him go. When the office was quiet again, June walked out onto the worn lacquered porch that overlooked her own scraggly little courtyard. Rain beat down on her, but she put her elbows on the porch railing and leaned out. There was a snuffling sound, and then Nyla appeared in the darkness, perfectly wet and perfectly happy. "Well, Nyla," June said, putting out her cigarette, "play it again. Looks like you and me have got another gig to do."
:::
She started at the watering hole, at the local den of inequity, because that's what a smart P.I does: start at the place where the food starts, where the drinks start, where human passions run high, where the fights begin. In this case, it was that old man's damned teahouse where she knew the Fire Lord, the future Fire Lady, the Avatar, and all their little friends liked to spend their time in their off-hours, when they weren't saving a world that wasn't meant to be saved.
She knew she couldn't get in without attracting the old man's attention, so she didn't even bother. She told Nyla to wait out front and then she took a table front and center, her cigarette between her teeth as she looked at the tea menu. Too sweet, most of it was. Who put sugar in their tea? No self-respecting Earth Kingdom citizen, that was for sure.
"It's you!" the old man said, eyes crinkling as he came up to her. "But you're going to have to put that cigarette out, young lady," he added, so she waved her wrist airily and put it out on the edge of a porcelain spoon.
"Satisfied?" she asked.
"These days I'm always satisfied," he said.
"I can see that," she replied, looking at his stomach.
He patted it easily. "Ba Sing Se is good to me, and I hope that I am good to her. Now what would you like to drink, and what, may I ask, are you doing here? I know you go to other tea places, shady ones."
"I'll have Dragon's Testicle Piss," she said, and then caught herself on it because she was in a different part of town now and names were different. "I mean, Dragon's Essence," she said. "Steep the leaves good, and as bitter as you can make it."
"My favourite kind," the old man said.
"And I want to know what you know about that dame Mai," she said. Iroh was loyal to his nephew. Everybody with half a head -- and some of the people June spent her time with had less than that -- knew it. If Iroh had dirt on Mai, he had probably already passed it on to Zuko. Or maybe not, June thought, narrowing her eyes as she took in Iroh's cunning face, carefully hidden behind layers of fat, beard, and joviality. Iroh knew how to keep things close to the chest, and Zuko seemed the kind of high-strung, squirrelly guy you broke news to gently, with smelling salts. Not the best quality in a Fire Lord, but June's opinion of Fire Lords wasn't too shimmering to begin with.
"Her health is good," Iroh said. "She's taking up birdwatching. It helps calm her blood pressure. She got number one in Ba Sing Se's birdwatching competition last week. Did you hear?"
Was birdwatching supposed to be some sort of code? June looked at Iroh for clues, but he kept on smiling innocently, the unhelpful bastard.
"She won by spotting the red-bellied Sa Chu swallow near the palace compound," Iroh said. "Very rare and very beautiful. Very precious for all those reasons. Those I prefer the plainer birds, myself. You can learn just as much from them."
He stared at her. June stared back.
Then he winked.
You met a lot of unsavory types on the beat, June thought, and sometimes the only thing you could do was to keep your head above theirs and your knives sharper. She drank her tea quickly, whistled for Nyla, and left, thought she had a feeling she'd be back soon enough. She wasn't looking forward to it. Old men with secrets were more dangerous than firecrackers pointed in the wrong direction, or a deep, deep sleep. She'd dealt with them before. She'd pulled answers out of the Count of Qi's father-in-law, a grizzled old piece of cake with more venom than a sand viper. But it didn't mean she had to like it.
:::
The Fire Lord had given her a piece of his girl's skirt, torn off secretly and shamefully. June gave it to Nyla, and they tracked the lady of the week down to a street in one of the most fashionable shopping districts of Ba Sing Se, a neighbourhood that was likely to chase June out the moment they saw her, if they had the guts to do so. But they didn't. She left Nyla about two blocks east of where Mai was supposed to be. Nyla attracted a lot of attention, and June didn't want any of that. June slipped into the crowds, trailing close to Mai by foot and watched as Mai bent over a display of turquoise jewelery, accompanied by Ty Lee and Katara the Waterbender.
June had seen all of these dames in action before, and she didn't trust them as far as she could throw them. Which, after arm-wrestling with the men at the Monkey's Head, was damn far indeed.
Most adultery cases were the same, she thought, if this one could even be classified as adultery when the parties weren't even hitched. Well, it was a done deal, from what she knew. The wedding invitations had been all but engraved in red anyway; it was just a matter of time before the Fire Lord pulled his balls together and proposed. June didn't care, That was high society business and she had her hands busy dealing the scum of the earth. But something about the three girls and their oohing and aahing over the necklaces made her lip curl in derision. June never did that as a girl. June had spent her girlhood riding Nyla and following her father across barren lands and broken towns, where even just clean water was a dream to put in your pipe and smoke. June had fought Fire Nation soldiers and Earth Kingdom bandits, and maybe she'd never saved the world either, but she sure as hell hadn't wasted her time laughing loudly while pandering shopkeepers smiled on.
And she sure as hell had never cheated on anyone she'd ever been with before, though there'd only been one candidate in the past that June had ever thought was worth the time and the extra helpings of natto.
It wasn't apparent if Mai was two-footing the Fire Lord, just by watching her cut through the boutiques, her two friends flanking her sides like an honour guard. She walked cleanly and proudly, which June had to admire, but that could also be attributed to charm school education paid by daddy.
June watched and watched, and craved a cigarette, or alcohol. The sun was too bright after the night of rain, and Nyla was probably getting restless waiting for her. June didn't like to leave Nyla alone for too long; usually people tried to harass her, and then Nyla bit. June didn't fancy getting dragged in yet another time for civil misbehavior. The food in the holding cells tasted worse than Iroh's scallion pancakes.
But, just as she was prepared to slice her ropes loose from the future Fire Lady, she saw Mai duck into an alleyway and through an open door that closed swiftly using Earthbending when June followed to take a closer look.
June narrowed her eyes. That was interesting.
:::
There was no sign on the door. June waited until later in the evening, long after Mai had left, before visiting and pulling herself in front of the woman inside, who was short and dumpy and entirely too steely for her own good. "I'd like your services," June said, looking around and trying to figure out what the place was supposed to be. The walls were bare and there was only a table and a desk. It looked like an office. "I'd like your services now," June added. "Don't make me take off my gloves."
"I don't understand what you mean," the woman said, refusing to be bowed. "This is my house."
"It's in the middle of the shopping district."
"I like shopping," she said. "Now get out before I call the guards."
June stared at the woman and knew, with the gut sense that was the saving grace of every P.I who lived to sniff around another day, that this was a woman who'd rather die than reveal Mai's secrets. So she took a step back and gave her space. "Don't bother bringing in the brass," she said. "I'll show myself out."
:::
It rained again that night. June sat in the corner of the teahouse, watching Mai and Zuko sharing dinner. Zuko pretended like he didn't notice June at all, which was a good idea, though every now and then his shoulders tensed when she stood up and purposefully sauntered by him on the way to the washroom. Messing with the Fire Lord was good fun, she thought, and it was practically a perk of the job.
Thunder started not long after. The room got real cold, but Iroh came around with another pot of tea, followed by another pot, and a plate of steaming gyoza. "It's on the house," he said, and then he added, "How's your latest case going?"
He was messing with her.
So June lied. "Grisly murder case. You don't want to hear about it."
"That's true," Iroh said sympathetically. "I've seen too much killing in my lifetime." She looked at him sharply, but his expression didn't change. "But there can be other types of deaths too, Miss June. The death of innocence. The death of childhood."
"What the hell are you talking about?" June asked.
"The crescent moon in the month of the Tiger brings many joys," he said cryptically, and left.
:::
June sat in her office and thought. She could hear Nyla scuffing about in the courtyard, but June sat in her chair and danced a copper coin over her knuckles, the rhythmic movement of it helping her concentrate.
The job was shaping up to be what she'd come to think of as an Aang job. An easy trail to follow, as most bald hyperactive Avatars with shedding flying bison were. But Aang jobs were notoriously difficult to follow through, out the other end. She knew the woman in the alleyway with the unmarked door was key, but short of torturing her, there wasn't much pull in that area. And June had done many things in her life, many low and questionable choices that had landed her in Ba Sing Se, in the underbelly of the kingdom where all the lost souls went -- but she wasn't as low as that.
I may rub elbows with sleaze and slime, she thought, but I am my father's daughter. I do things the right way.
Times like these, June missed the war. She was as glad as anybody that it was over -- for one, it made finding your next meal a whole lot easier, and digging graves less of a hassle -- but the luxury of running among renegades was that if they didn't have honour, you didn't need to either. The right way was the rough way. In the city, it was different. In the city, especially in the parts where highborn ladies and their wide-eyed friends visited, things were softer. There were rules. There were standards.
Bah.
June spat on the floor.
Three rules she had picked up in life:
- Never trust a fellow with a birthmark on his left cheek
- Always know where you left your tea
- Use your brain, because sure as hell no one else will
So June listened to the rain, sat, and thought, smoking through a package of cigarettes. The ashes fell to the floor, but she didn't bother sweeping them up. The office was getting filthy, but maybe it was about time to hire an assistant, a long-legged gal who'd run her errands and impress her clients. That sounded good. June would make sure the gal wore red, red lipstick and a cheongsam with slits to show off her praying mantis legs.
Then June made a decision. She stood.
It was too bad someone chose just that moment to try and kill her. It was really too bad.
:::
The stilettos came flying through the window that June had propped open to listen to the rain. June hit the floor in reflex, and the knives lodged into the wall two inches left of where her head might have been.
"Shit," June said.
Of course, no self-respecting P.I and former bounty hunter was a stranger to people trying to kill her. June didn't even have to think about it anymore. The moment the knives slammed into the wall, she was already crawling along the floor, below window view, to the door. Then she was out, running down the stairs into the courtyard and heading straight for Nyla. "Nyla, let's go!" she snapped, and Nyla bounded out to the front of the building, June readying her own knives for a grim takedown.
She and Nyla roared out onto the street, where several people hurried to get out of their way. "Come on!" June yelled. "You want a piece of me? I'm right here for ya! I'm going to put some terror on your blank face!"
But there was no answer. June took Nyla several circles down the street, pacing back and forth. Then she used the piece of ripped skirt, and Nyla started running, knocking over street signs and stalls, but it was by the time they crossed the earthen wall that circled the slums that June knew Mai was already far, far away.
:::
"It was a warning," Iroh said, pouring her the tea as black as he could make it. "It wasn't meant to hurt you."
"Bullshit," said June, wrapping her fingers around the steaming hot cup. It hurt, but she wasn't going to let a small matter like searing pain bother her. "You tell that niece-in-law of yours...you tell that uppity dame that if she wants to mess with me, she'd be better off messing with her hangdog boyfriend instead. He's the one with the bone to chew."
"Ah, Zuko," Iroh opined. "He just doesn't know how to treat the ladies properly."
"I'm going to kill both of them," June muttered. "She made me drop and ruin my fedora."
"The tortoise moves through the houses of the hare," Iroh said.
"Don't spout your wisdom to me, old man, if it's even wisdom at that," June said. "You don't want to tell me what's going on? No problem. But you'll be sorry at the end, I promise."
"So no tip then?" Iroh asked sadly.
"Dream on."
"How about a date with this poor lonely admirer?" he said.
"Sorry, I threw away my fossil collection a long time ago," June replied.
"You are a harsh woman," Iroh said, but his voice was admiring. She looked at him, at this former general turned teahouse owner, and she smiled.
"Born and bred to the bone," June agreed. "Now hurry up and bring me another pot of tea."
:::
It was still raining and darkness settled over the city like a weary traveler. Everyone moved through the streets heavily, as if weighed down with more stone than they could bear. It was the sort of night where wild things were bound to happen because someone was bound to snap. It was June's favourite kind of night, and she was in her office again, reading through her notes on Mai and Zuko and the rest of the Fire Nation's royal retinue. The window was closed, so the air in the office became thick with smoke, burdened even more by the incense that June had lit over to her left, jasmine orange and lotus blossom, hiding the scent of blood.
She was waiting.
It was just past midnight, like in the legend of the girl with the fur slippers, when Ty Lee came through the unlocked door. "Hi!" she said, bouncing on her heels. "Mai told me to bring you in!"
June cracked her knuckles.
She was ready when Ty Lee came for her, fingers outstretched. She'd timed it in her practices. Just before Ty Lee's fingers brushed her, June stiffened her body and fell crashing to the floor. Ty Lee pulled her fingers back, content with sloppy work and under the impression that she'd done the job, and June had to struggle to keep the smirk off her face. She was supposed to look furious, but that was easy enough to fake, and Ty Lee, for being such a small girl, casually swung June over her shoulder and carried her out.
Mai was waiting for them in a room above a pai sho store. She was at a desk composing a letter, her brush strokes even and calm when Ty Lee entered with June.
"You brought her," Mai said, monotone.
"Yep!" Ty Lee said. She put June in the corner and started tying her to a heavy piece of furniture. "It was easy too! I dunno, I thought it'd be harder."
June resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Instead she put on a cold face and said, "All this just to keep your dirty laundry in the laundry basket? If you'd rather do the rain and clouds with someone else, just tell him. Be a big girl now."
Mai turned around. "I like Zuko fine," she said.
"Are you kidding me? You love him!" Ty Lee enthused.
"Oh shut up," Mai told her, and June was surprised to see that there was a blush forming on her cheeks. "Anyway, is that really what Zuko thinks? That I'm seeing someone else?"
June shrugged.
"I'm going to kill him," Mai said.
"I can't believe Zuko would think that!" Ty Lee said. "Sure, you've been acting weird, but that's because you've actually been--" Mai shot forward and covered her mouth with her hand. "Mpghhh!" Ty Lee said. When Mai removed her hand, she sulked. "Fine. Don't tell her."
"She'll tell Zuko," Mai said. "That's what he hired her for."
"Depends," June said.
"Depends on what?"
"Can you offer me a higher price?" she said. "Come on, don't give me that pickled look. I need to eat same as anybody, and this is a tough city for those of us born without a phoenix spoon in our mouth." She shook out of the binds and stood up, much to the amazement of Ty Lee and the annoyed nerve pulse on Mai's forehead. "Mind if I smoke in here?" she asked. She lit up without waiting for an answer.
"Oh, let's bring her in on the secret," pleaded Ty Lee. "Katara will be so mad if she finds out we kidnapped her. I don't want Katara to be mad at me."
Mai leveled June a dark look. "How much do you want to become my P.I rather than Zuko's?"
June smiled scimitar-bright behind her cigarette. "Lady, I know you can afford me so I'm going to drag you in for all you've got."
:::
"So you found out what Mai's been up to," Zuko said when they were in her office again. He leaned forward eagerly, and then tried to play it cool by leaning back and looking at his fingernails instead. "I mean, that's nice. It's what I paid you for. And they say you're the best."
"None better, bub," June said. "But this isn't something I can really explain. It's something I'll have to show you instead."
"What do you mean?" Zuko asked.
"Follow me," June said, and she led him out of the office and onto Nyla's back, where they rode through the streets of Ba Sing Se up to the house where the Fire Lord and his entourage stayed for the summer. "Don't back out on me now," June warned when she felt Zuko stiffen. "You told me to see this through to the end."
"I did," Zuko said. He clenched his jaw. "I'm ready."
June chuckled dryly. "No one's ever ready," she said. She brought him up to his own door and then, when she made sure he was behind her, she opened it.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" yelled the party. There was Mai and Ty Lee and Katara and Toph and the Avatar and Sokka and many, many people that June only half-recognized but knew were the Fire Lord's friends and family, including that blasted old man Iroh. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ZUKO!"
Zuko staggered backwards. June caught him helpfully.
"I hate you," Mai said. "You don't trust me at all. Happy birthday. I hope you choke on it."
"B-but that's not what I meant!" Zuko said. She stalked off, the party hat perched incongruously on her head. Zuko looked baffled and helpless.
Iroh put his hand on his shoulder. "Go chase her, my nephew," he said.
Zuko stumbled off after Mai.
"Case closed," June said, watching as everyone else looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to party anyway, with or without the host and the birthday boy. Food was brought out on slabs of moving earth, courtesy of Toph, and the woman from the alleyway -- Rong Ting, the best kept secret in Ba Sing Se, the party planner for kings and stars -- floated about overseeing the entertainment. "Let's never mention this one again. What a disappointing ending."
"Not all cases can end in tragedy and rain," Iroh said. "Look, the sun is shining even. Let's enjoy it."
"This isn't my kind of joint," June said. "I'm outta here."
"No, please, stay," he said, and she stopped in her tracks. "I made sure that Rong Ting had the caterers bring grilled lizard tongues. I know those are your favourites. I bet you can't find them that easily, not even in Ba Sing Se. Local delicacy from your hometown, eh?" He waggled his eyebrows.
"How do you--" June began.
Iroh laughed. "You have your ways, I have mine. Mine involves less collateral damage, I think, and some very besotted scholar poets down at the teahouse."
"Tch, those scholar poets aren't worth the paper they shit on," June said. She paused. "These would be grilled lizard tongues with Bai Yi spice?"
"And southern style sesame sauce," Iroh assured.
"I guess I can stay for a while. My schedule today is light," June acknowledged. "But you're wrong. It's going to rain again. It's monsoon season. It's always going to rain and there's always going to be another case. People are evil. People are greedy. A P.I like me, willing to get down and dirty with people's business? I'm never going to lack for work."
"Today, you do," Iroh said, and then he put his hand on her elbow lightly and guided her towards the party.