Adrift - atla and mha

Chapter (Asami) Sato

Kirishima was glad to be in clothes that covered his entire body. He had been in his hero costume since they arrived, and Zuko's clothes were a little on the tight side.

On the downside, he had to be careful not to open his mouth too much, as his teeth could give them away, if his hair didn't betray them first.

Zuko possibly had it worse. He was a traitor accused of attempted regicide and turning against his country who had an incredibly noticeable physical feature. Anywhere but the Fire Nation, they might have been able to play it off as battle wounds, however this was the most secure prison in the world.

When they emerged at the yard, they were met with a scuffle.

"What did I do?" the prisoner asked.

"He doesn't know what he did. Isn't that cute?" the guard mocked, laughing. "You didn't bow down when I walked past."

"Is that was this is about? This is ridiculous. I'm leaving." the prisoner started to walk away when a whip of fire hit his ankles.

"Don't turn away from me Chit Sang!" he sent a stream of fire towards the prisoner, who quickly took control of it, and sent it back the other way.

"Tut tut. Using firebending? That's against the rules. Off to the cooler. You!" he turned to Sokka. "Take Chit Sang to the cooler."

Sokka quickly whispered "Meet me back here in an hour." to Kirishima and Zuko. They nodded before going their separate ways.

They followed some other guards to the lounge, discussing their plan on the way. Opening the door, they found a lively area filled to the brim with Fire Nation guards - all on the lookout for Zuko.

"Hey new guy, you can take your helmet off in the lounge." a woman shouted.

"Um, but what if a prisoner sneaks up on me and bashes me on the head. I don't want to be caught off guard and pass out." Zuko lied. Kirishima lifted his visor to ease her concerns a little.

"Give it a week, he'll loosen up." the man opposite joked.

"Actually, we have some questions for you." Zuko said, sitting down on the bench.

"You can't date the female officers."

"Trust me, you don't want to." the woman threw a beaker at her friends head while they both laughed.

"No... Tell me about the kind of prisoners you have here." Zuko leaned forwards slightly.

"We have some robbers, murderers, even some pirates." the two guards explained, "why do you want to know?"

Zuko racked his brain for a believable lie until Kirishima took over.

"We need to know who we're dealing with. By the way, are there any war criminals?" they seemed to be satisfied with his answer, as they answered his question without asking him to elaborate.

"There are some Earth Kingdom ones. They're awful prisoners. Always getting into fights and starting riots. I'd advise you to stay away from them, you don't look like you could stand your ground with them." the woman replied, looking the two boys up and down.

"Thanks. We'll be going now." Kirishima managed to escape their questions for now, but he didn't know if he would run into them again. He pulled Zuko out of the lounge until they were in a clear area.

"That was close." he sighed of relief. "You really need to learn how to lie better." The pair kept walking as to not raise suspicion.

They came across another guard standing watch over the yard, rather short compared to the rest of the officers.

"How goes?" Zuko asked, awkward taking a place beside them.

"Zuko? Kiri?" the guard shouted, raising his visor to reveal Sokka underneath.

"Sssshhh!" Kirishima hissed at him.

"We asked around a bit. There are only Earth Kingdom prisoners of war here. I'm sorry." Zuko broke the news.

"No... We came all this way... Now I've gotten you two stuck here too..." Sokka lamented on all of his past failures, throwing himself against the wall.

"Dude, stop being so dramatic, you're acting like Zuko. There's always a way out, no matter how hopeless things may seem." Kirishima held out a hand to help the other up with a warm smile.

"I'm glad you said that, I was about to make up some metaphor about clouds." Zuko whispered in Kirishima's ear.

"Maybe this trip wasn't entirely pointless! Look, there's Suki!" Sokka pointed at a girl sitting in the yard, kicking the dust around for something to do. "I have to go talk to her!"

"You can visit her when she's back in her cell. It'd be too obvious to talk in public areas. We can think of a plan in the meantime." Zuko told him, grabbing his shoulder both to keep him from running off and to consolidate him.

"Okay."