Archive of Our Own ^beta

Kavik crawled through the rafters above an old warehouse Yangchen had located as a headquarters for illegal trade. Kavik had nearly made it across when an earth bender below must've slammed a rock in fury, shaking the entire warehouse.

Kavik nearly slid off the beam when a hand grabbed him and pulled him back up. “I told you to hold on. We can’t get caught” Yangchen said under her breath as she scowled at him. “Don’t get caught” Were the words Yangchen had drilled into Kavik's head just before the mission. The two had infiltrated the warehouse in hopes of finding information on the location of a missing ship importing silver to Bin-Er from Jonduri, the ship was supposed to dock at the end of the week but it had been two. The crew showed up in dingy lifeboats, explaining how they were robbed but didn’t know where the ship was taken.

They had narrowed down possible locations to a few islands near the tip of the Fire Nation. Yangchen and Kavik had been searching one of the islands for a warehouse like this for days, wearing disguises and elaborate names. Yangchen needed this mission to go right, she’d had similar problems with ships going missing before, and believed all the robberies were done by the same group of thieves. If she made this bust then thousands of resources could be disturbed to the people who needed them… and the shangs getting off her back about it would also be a plus.

Kavik furrowed his eyebrows together, he wanted to retort what she said and say he was holding on, but he knew this wasn't the time.

Yangchen held on silently to the beam below her, listening in on the conversation of the thieves below. “We have a boat coming in from Jonduri,” A large woman with several scars across her face and body said. “I heard it’s got enough gold and silver to set us up for life.”

“Yeah, but the higher ups are just gonna take it all and leave us the scraps.” A smaller bald man squeaked up. “They’ve done it with nearly every ship we’ve ‘jacked.” The bald man took a breath from a pipe before handing it to the woman who had just finished using her earthbending to move a crate.

Kavik tried not to gag at the foul smell that rose up to the rafters, but he bit his tongue. Yangchen looked up at him and motioned for Kavik to follow. Yangchen moved quickly along the rafters; she hadn't been in her heavy robes and was instead in an earthkingdoms commoners disguised that allowed her to move more agilely.

Kavik followed close behind but he wasn’t as nimble as the avatar, so he slipped and fumbled along quietly until they reached the back of the warehouse.

There was a small box office in the back right corner. Yangchen jumped down from the rafters and landed gracefully and silently on the roof. Kavik jumped down and landed with a thud. Both of them paused for a moment to see if anybody would come check out the nose. When nobody did, they both jumped from the office roof to the floor to enter said office.

The door was unlocked when they went to open it. Yangchen went inside first and generated a flame in her hand to create some light. The office was surprisingly clean, several shelves with drawers that were neatly organized. Could this finally be the mission where everything goes right? Yangchen allowed herself to toy with the idea.

Yangchen and Kavik glance at each other for a moment, both wondering if it was a trap, before dispersing to different ends of the offices to look through the files.

“We’re looking for a ship named ‘Dragons Egg’,” Yangchen reminded Kavik over her shoulder. “It contained about 7,100 ingots of silver, six crates of Omashu silk, and two hundred pounds of elephant koi fish.” It was a strange assortment of goods ordered by a shang in Jonduri. Yangchen didn’t care about how strange it was, she cared about locating other ships and other goods that were to be distributed to regular people. The Dragon Egg was just the most recent victim of the crime ring.

Kavik flipped through the files at the end of the shelves, all of these were dated back months ago and contained no information of the ships locations. Yangchen had some luck in finding information on locations, but it was just where the boats were taken from, not where they were going.

“Hey!” Came a half muffled shout from outside the office. Yangchens head snapped around towards the door where she saw a large man approaching them quickly from the aisle directly in front of the door. Yangchen sent a gust of air to slam the door shut. No, no this is not the mission where everything goes right.

Kavik bent the water from his water skin around the door knob and froze it to reinforce the lock. Yangchen and Kavik began to look through the files, no longer trying to maintain neatness, as the man banged on the office door and called for backup.

Nothing. The shelves, cabinets, files all had nothing. Yangchen quickly moved over to the desk and pulled at its drawers; The side drawers of the office desk all contained office supplies and the top drawer was locked. Yangchen held the flame in her hand up to the lock.

“What are you doing?” Kavik said as he pushed one of the many shelves against the door to buy them more time.

“Melting the lock. If it's hidden then it's got to be important.” Yangchen didn’t look up from her work as the key hole started to flow red and melt a bit. With one large yank on the handle Yangchen got it open.

The drawer was lined with files containing information on numbers and more valuable ships, and even the names of higher ups. Yangchen quickly memorized the information of the sheets but she kept digging, she needed locations.

“‘Chen, they’re gonna get through!” Kavik called out, using her nickname to at least maintain some form of secrecy of her identity. Kavik had to take some of the ice off the door knob, it had started to chip away and he needed a weapon in case the thieves got through.

“I just need another minute-” There, below everything in the drawer, was a map. Not just a map, a map when unfolded showed the locations of several warehouses and ports. In a moment of impulse Yangchen grabbed the map, along with other random papers to make this seem more like a robbery.

Yangchen folded the papers and stuffed them into the pocket of her disguise pants before going over to Kavik, who was desperately holding the shelf in front of the door. Once Yangchen was at his side, Kavik pushed off from the door and let the shelf fall out of place. The shelf shook a bit and launched back a bit as the thieves hit on the door more and more. Finally, one of the earthbenders used a stone to kick the door in and they came face to face.

Yangchen was the first to move, the thieves had already seen her firebend so that was the element she had to stick with to not get caught. Yangchen sent several fists of fire at the thieves, causing them to cry out and back up a bit before retaliating. Yangchen did feel bad about hurting them, but these thieves had probably hurt and possibly even killed countless sailors.

Kavik has melted the ice on the door and floor and used it to swipe at the thieves legs. There was a total of five thieves standing at the door: The large scarred woman and the bald man from before, the man who spotted them who had a purple bandana, he must’ve been the manager that night, and the final two was a many with several missing and rotting teeth, and a young woman with a dirt mustache.

The man with the purple bandana had gotten swiped at with the water, he took a large step back, knocking into the mustache lady and toothy man behind him. After bouts of complaints they recollected themselves, but that had given Yangchen and Kavik more time to brace themselves and figure out quick plans.

Yangchen sent a sheet of fire above while Kavik sent another swipe of water and ice below. This forced the thieves back more and the two had been able to start making their way out of the office they had been cornered into.

The purple bandana man cried out and crashed onto the floor as he clutched his burnt face and cut up legs. The bald man from earlier picked up a rock with his bending and sent it hurdling towards Yangchen. In a moment of quick thought, Yangchen used a massive flame to burst the rock before it made impact, sending pebbles, dust, and smoke everywhere, clouding hers and Kavik's vision for a moment.

More stones and rocks were pelted through the dust; Being an airbender, Yangchen could sense the movements of the projectiles approaching and dodge them. But Kavik… he wasn’t as lucky.

Kavik was hit hard in the shoulder with one of the stones. “I felt something pop!” He spoke urgently to Yangchen as the dust and smoke began to subside.

Perfect. Just Perfect. Yangchen mentally rolled her eyes. “Get to the rafters.” She said through gritted teeth as she sent more flames towards the thieves. Kavik nodded and climbed on top of the office as best he could with one arm while Yangchen covered him.

The purple bandana man was incapacitated, the mustache lady was pulling him away, and the toothy guy was standing back while Baldy sent stones and the large woman flames at Yangchen.

They didn’t seem to have any formal training which gave Yangchen an edge, but their unpredictability and freestyle was also very dangerous.

Yangchen took the chance to turn around for a moment and check Kavik's progress: he had made it to the roof of the office and was now trying to scale the warehouse walls up to the rafters. Yangchen sent a large sweep of fire to disorient the large woman and Baldy while she hopped up the walls of the office as well. She had made it to the office roof just in time for the rocks and fire pelts to come back.

Kavik was only half way to the rafters and visibly struggling, but he pushed through. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he had reached the top. He collapsed onto the rafters, tempted to close his eyes for just a moment, but Yangchen was still fighting below. Using his working hand, he opened his water skin and froze a few droplets before dropping them below.

A cry came from the bald man as the ice pierced his scalp; The tall woman was left unaffected because of her thick hair and raised body temperature from firebending. Yangchen took quick notice of Baldy's ceased attacks and saw him reaching to check the damage on his head, with a quick flick of her wrist a sprout of flame rushed at him and knocked him over.

Yangchen jumped up and began scaling the wall up to the rafters, only turning around to block attacks from the large woman. Once Yangchen reached the rafters she jumped over Kavik and quickly made her way to the hole in the roof through which they entered. Kavik groaned as he got up but followed quickly on her heels.

Yangchen and Kavik climbed up onto the roof outside, the warm air hitting them refreshingly. Yangchen used her earthbending to make a series of small steps to climb down into the alleys and streets below.

As soon as hers and Kavik's feet hit the ground they began running. They both knew the thieves would chase after them, so they had to put as much distance as possible. As soon as they rounded the first corner and ran two blocks they heard shouting and steps bounding from the direction of the warehouse.

“The town's center is the next left, three blocks, and then a right,” Kavik reiterated the town layout as he ran. “We can lose them in a crowd.”

Yangchen would’ve rather stuck with the original escape route, but she could hear the surprisingly loud thieves gaining on them, so she nodded and once they made it to the next split took a hard left.

—---------

The town center was busy-ish. There were several late night vendors and restaurants open, a small shadow puppet show was being performed for the children still out and about.

Yangchen and Kavik stopped for a moment to scan the area, there were crowds of course but not big enough to conceal the two. Could they split up? Yes. Did they have any other escape routes or routes in general back to the safe house that wouldn’t blow their cover? No.

Everyone in the town center's head perked up when they heard the loud shouts of the thieves. Yangchen glanced back and caught a glimpse of the tall woman and mustache lady chewing out some poor vendors for not being able to help them. Yangchen pulled her disguised hood over her head and grabbed Kavik by the forearm before tugging him along. She knew the thieves weren’t far behind.

They needed a place to hide or duck under till the thieves walked by. Preferably dark. Preferably secluded. Yangchen thought to herself as she tugged Kavik for the next few blocks. Yangchen was left stumped until she spotted a narrow alleyway, it was poorly lit, there were crates lining up in the back, the buildings around it looked worn. It was perfect.

Yangchen pulled Kavik into the alleyway and pushed him up against the wall. “Don’t get caught.” She said under her breath. Kavik didn’t know what she meant by that and was about to comment on it until Yangchen leant forward and her lips met his.

Kavik closed his eyes and cupped Yangchen's face, to cover it of course. Yangchen wrapped her arms around Kavik's neck, of course to block his face as well.

After a moment, the sound of footsteps came from the street. “Eugh- get a room! There’s kids out!” The mustache lady commented over her shoulder as she ran by with the tall woman. And after another few moments, their footsteps and shouts completely disappeared down the street.

Yangchen didn’t pull away immediately, and Kavik would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy the warmth of Yangchen's lips. They weren’t kissing per se, but their lips were touching, and it felt nice.

There was another moment of silence before Kavik started laughing, and then Yangchen started laughing, and they two held on to each other for support as they laughed together.

Yangchen broke from their embrace to collect some water from a puddle to heal Kavik’s hit shoulder, it was a minor fracture and some bruising, with proper ailments and clean water she should be able to correct it. But for now she used the water to shift the cracked bone into a more comfortable position before they made their way back to the safe house.

This time the pair were more discrete, taking backways, winding paths, and double checking their tracks as they made it to the safe house.

—-----

The door of the safe house creaked open, Kavik held it for Yangchen to slip in and he followed soon.

“What the hell took you two so long?” Came from a gruff voice of a large, one armed man. Akuudan, Tayagum, and Jujinta had been waiting in the safe house common area all night for their return. “Hog monkey here got us caught,” Kavik commented as he crossed his arms over his chest. Jujinta looked like he was about to impale him for making such comments about the avatar, but kept his cool.

“You took one hit to the shoulder and could barely bend.” Yangchen retaliated and raised her eyebrow giving him the Really? Look.

Before more comments and remarks could be exchanged between the two, Akuudan spoke up once more, “Was the job at least successful? I want us to go to bed with clear heads.” Yangchen took the papers out of her pocket, Kavik gulped back his annoyance at seeing that Yangchen had actually taken some documents, now there was proof they were there but he had to admit, the situation didn’t allow for quick memorization.

“Maps and ship bookings.” Yangchen explained as she tucked the papers back into her disguises pocket. “We can locate the missing ships and cargo with them.”

The team exchanged glances and telepathically agreed the mission was a success even though it didn’t go as planned.

Akuudan was the first to get up and announce his retirement for the night, with Tayagum soon following. Jujinta was sleeping on a map in the common area while Kavik and Yangchen each had a room upstairs.

As they were walking upstairs Yangchen leaned over to Kavik and whispered: “Meet me in my room to go over the maps and bookings, I don’t want to waste a moment.” She finished speaking once they reached the top of the stairs and turned towards her room at the opposite end of the hall as Kaviks.

—--------

Fifteen minutes later, Kavik entered Yangchen's room. He had changed out of his disguise/work clothes and into loose fitting, sleeveless tunic and pants.

When he entered the room he saw that Yangchen herself was wearing loose fitting pants and tunic. They both had the same idea to get into more comfortable clothing.

Once Yangchen noticed Kavik, she immediately motioned for him to sit on the bed while she retrieved some clean water from a bucket she had kept in her room.

Kavik sat down as Yangchen made her way over with a blob of water. When the liquid touched Kavik's shoulder he shivered at first because it was cold, but it gradually worked its way up to a comfortable temperature.

The two sat in a comfortable silence as Yangchen worked. After about ten minutes, Yangchen sent the water back to the bucket and leaned into Kavik.

Kavik took this as a sign and laid back fully on the bed, with Yangchen laying with him.

“I thought you wanted to look over the maps-” Kavik began to tease with his stupid grin before Yangchen shushed him.

“I may have been lying.” Yangchen scowled when she saw the mock look of horror on Kavik's face. “Oh- you- just don’t get caught.”