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Yangvik Week Day 1: Injured

@yangvikweek2024

Yangchen enveloped Kavik’s hands in water and took them in her own.

“Explain to me again where the mission went wrong?”

“It didn’t go wrong,” Kavik protested. “We got the information, and no one got caught!”

Yangchen pursed her lips. Kavik was pretty sure she’d be glaring at him if her eyes weren’t already fixed on the delicate work of healing burns. He sat very still, knee to knee with the Avatar, and let her work.

For a moment, all was quiet, except for the muted sounds of customers drinking tea and chatting on the other side of the wall. It was crowded in the backroom of the little teahouse that Akuudan and Tayagum had opened in Ba Sing Se, especially with all seven members of the team in it (nine if you counted Pik and Pak, who were perched on Boma’s shoulders.) It would almost be cozy, having the whole team back together, if his hands didn’t feel like literal fire.

Akuudan clapped one enormous hand on Kavik’s shoulder. “We made it into the records office without any problems. But then Feishan’s guards came making the rounds, and our lookout here saw they were opening doors as they passed, which we hadn’t expected them to do. So Kavik stuck his hands into a nearby torch, and then made up a story about a rogue firebender who’d attacked him.”

The guards hadn’t even questioned the unfamiliar servant boy’s presence; he’d been dressed in the right uniform, and there was a high turnover rate in Feishan’s palace. The horrific burns had also been very convincing.

Yangchen sighed. “Was that really necessary?”

“It was. You know what the consequences would have been if we were caught.”

“I meant, what happened to using the signal?”

Tayagum answered for him. “Our backup exit was blocked by a gaggle of court ladies shortly after we broke in. And anyway, we hadn’t had enough time yet to locate the correct documents. The whole mission would have been compromised if not for Kavik’s quick thinking.”

“I sent them on a wild pinegoose chase,” Kavik said. “I told them I was attacked by a fire bender who was 5 feet tall and one-eyed and had a shaved head. And then I said he ran towards the throne room and they booked it.”

“Do you ever come up with plans that don’t result in you injuring yourself on purpose?” Jujinta asked snidely.

Even though Kavik and Jujinta were on much better terms these days, his old Association partner couldn’t resist getting in a jab whenever the opportunity presented itself. At least these days his weapon of choice was sarcasm instead of blades. Mostly.

“Why?” Yingsu asked. “What has he done before this?”

“When we needed to extract information about Unanimity out of his lousy brother, I stabbed Kavik, and we pretended to torture him until we got Kalyaan to talk.”

“Wow,” Yingsu said, raising an eyebrow. “That’s dark. And here I thought you were the good guys.”

Kavik and Yangchen kept their faces carefully still. Neither said anything, each still feeling guilty about the ploy for different reasons, even if it had been necessary.

“It was his own idea,” Tayagum said, shrugging. “When we first met, I was smuggling him into Jonduri under an old crewmate's identity, but there was a last-minute change in the dock guard. We would’ve gotten caught, if this guy hadn’t purposefully ‘slipped’ and bashed his own nose in.”

“Is that why your face used to look like that?” Jujinta asked.

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t know about that one,” Yangchen said. She stopped what she was doing so she could look Kavik in the eye.

“The night we first met…” she began.

Kavik rolled his eyes. “I genuinely had frostbite that night, and I most definitely wasn’t aiming to get beat up by your guards. I’m not a one trick platy-pony, you guys. I don’t hurt myself everytime I run an errand. Believe it or not, I usually make a clean exit.”

“Hmmm.” Yangchen made a troubled hum in the back of her throat, and went back to healing him.

“… What kind of waterbender gets frostbite?” asked Jujinta.

Kavik’s hands were occupied, but his mouth wasn’t, and he was so incredibly tempted to spit icicles at Juji. See how he liked being subjected to surprise daggers for once.

Luckily, Akkudan spoke first. “Leave him alone, Jujinta. Frostbite is no joke. Even a firebender can get burned, even an earthbender can be crushed, and even a waterbender can succumb to the cold.” Not for the first time, Kavik wondered if there was a story behind Akuudan’s missing arm, or if he had simply been born without it. Kavik had never asked, in case it was a sore subject.

While they had been talking, the swelling in Kavik’s hands had gone down significantly, though his skin still bubbled and blistered in ways he did not like to look at. Yangchen gently set one of his hands down in her lap, so she could focus on one hand at a time for this next, more intense stage of the healing process.

“It’s always your hands,” she muttered in absent-minded annoyance. “You have such nice hands, why are you always damaging them?”

Tayagum made a strangled noise. “Nice hands?”

The question was addressed to Yangchen, but Tayagum’s expression made it clear that it was a threat towards Kavik. Any warmth the older water tribe man had cultivated for Kavik seemed to have been immediately replaced with suspicion.

The Avatar looked up in confusion. Kavik saw the moment she realized the possible implications of what she’d just said.

Boma smiled good-humoredly, “Anything we should know about?”

“I’d actually rather not hear about this, thanks,” said Yingsu.

Kavik’s face burned. Everyone noticed him turn beet red, and he noticed everyone noticing.

Yangchen spluttered. “I meant that his hands are very skillful!" Nope, that wasn’t any better. “—at sleight of hand! And- cheating at sparrow bones, and climbing, and things like that!”

Getting beat up, and cheating at tile games. Truly, Kavik had great skills that made him worthy of serving the Avatar.

Boma and Akuudan were laughing at them.

“Can we just focus on the info we stole?” Kavik snapped.

Still chortling to himself, Boma took the papers out of their folder and spread them out on the table.

The rest of the team began to read. Yangchen switched hands.

***

“Ohhh,” Jujinta said suddenly, much later. “You were implying they had sex.”

The burst of laughter and teasing and general noise that followed this statement was enough to send Pik and Pak flying.

Yangchen supposed that hiding her face in Kavik’s tunic would not help her beat the allegations.

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