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The carraige stopped in front of Agni's Home a little before sunset and Aimi and her daughter stepped out on the dismal street. The elder Lady instructed the driver to park to the side of the street, while Zhen Hua remained quiet as usual. They went in together.

The building was expansive but looked rather less impressive than it probably once was. The walls were a different color than they must once have been-- about three shades below ivory and two above white-- and the table in the entry hall was scuffed here and there.

In general, it looked just like a house in which numerous children were raised each year would have looked. There was an absense of any breakable objects, and a conspicuous lack of anything quite sparkling clean. Zhen Hua decided she like it; it was very homey. It didn't make her nervous to move around a bit.

Cho-Yuudai Aimi looked around carefully for the matron of the establishment. Upon seeing no one in the entry hall, she frowned and left her daughter standing in the hall. She began sticking her face in the surrounding rooms. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

((You're one too? Shiny!))

Zhen Hua was brought out from her private musings by the sound of someone approaching them, and looked up to see the girl in the doorway.

The young woman was about her own age, or perhaps a bit older, with the characteristic dark hair and gold eyes of the Fire Nation. Her clothing was mussed and a little wrinkled, as if carelessly thrown on at the last minute, as she was slightly red-faced and a little short of breath. Small beads of sweat gleamed on her forehead, another sign of physical exertion (though probably a great deal more, Zhen Hua noted ruefully, than she herself would ever be able to manage). Her tousled hair framed a face that was not classically beautiful, but that Zhen Hua liked at once. It was an honest face, a face of a potential friend.

In any case, their companion did not look nearly old enough to be the Matron of Agni's. Perhaps she was an assistant, then.

Upon noticing the women's fine clothes and noble bearing, the girl gave a visible start, and Zhen Hua winced a little as she straightened her shoulders and became distantly respectful. Noble-born or not, the girl hated such displays of servility. "Welcome to Agni's Home," the girl said politely, bowing to her mother.

Aimi returned the bow fluidly. It was not necessary and went against centuries of custom for a noble to show respect for a lower-class citizen, but Zhen Hua's parents always did so anyway. Her father said it was to acknowledge his own base heritage from before he received his title, and that common courtesy demanded it. Zhen Hua made a point of returning the bow too.

"We have come to donate to the orphanage. Is the Matron around?" inquired the elder Cho, leaving Zhen Hua with no excuse to speak, so she remained silent. She didn't really mind this, though she was a tad wistful. The other girl did look nice.

((Sorry about not posting yesterday >.< Meh sis had a project due.))

The girl responded promptly to Aimi's question, "Officially, Maolin is in charge here, but she's in a foul mood today. I'm a senior resident here, though, so I can help you with it. I can gurantee you'll leave this place in a far better state of mind than if you dealt with Maolin right now."

"Oh, I see," Zhen Hua's mother replied, nodding in sympathy. "Well, it is best we do not trouble her, then. If we may have your assistance, we shall complete our errand and go along our merry way." Lady Aimi seemed almost cheerful about getting it over with. Zhen Hua didn't see why, really; they were just going to another stuffy court banquet after this. She hated banquets. They were always full of of fawning, "sympathetic" courtiers asking how her health was and lamenting that living with her "condition" must be so inconvenient. She frowned slightly at this thought.

Aimi, meanwhile, was engaged in paying their companion. The purse she had retrieved from her waist was small, to be sure, but even the few gold coins inside were worth a great deal. She held out the whole package to the Senior Resident."You do a good service here. Thank you for your time. And, if you please, give the Matron our apologies for not paying our respects."

((Gah! I just remembered I don't have an excuse for Zhen Hua to stay a bit yet!))

Li was in bed at his parents upperclass home, sleeping soundly, then suddenly there was a scream. Li shot up in his bed, even at 8 years old he new that his mothers scream meant somthing was not right. The child jumped out of his bed and ran into the main room to find his mother laying on the ground in a pool of blood. Across the room his father, ranking captain in the Fire Nation army was fighting with a man he could not recognize. His father shot a few blasts a fire, all which were easily evaded by the man. The shadowy figure ducks behind Lis father and with a quick slash the mighty fire bender drops. With this Li's frail young body drops to the floor as he lets out a cry. The murderer begins to slowly walk twards the crying boy, as he aproaches Li screams...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!.........Li shoots up from his nightmare and sends a quite large blast of fire foward, setting the dresser siting aross his bed on fire. "OH DAMN!" He screams as he jumps of his bed and runs across to the burning furnurture. Frantically he looks around, he grabbs the first thing he can get his hands on, the blanket from off his bed and begins to beat away at the flames. Finally they deminish and he lets out a sigh of relief...sinking down onto the floor.

This was the third dresser he burned this month... he thought to himself. These nightmares have been getting worse and worse as he got older...ever since the night his parents were murdered and his house burned to the ground...8 years ago. Sometimes he wondered why they botherd puting up with him in the orpahage, he kept burning down the rooms he lived in because of his constant nightmares.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room and suddenly realized the position of the sun outside his window. "OH NO IM LATE!!!" The 16 year old firebender grabbed his shirt and ran out the door of his room on the far western side of the house. He quickly put it on running and tied the side. Turning the corner he was too late to notice Nuiko talking to a couple of guests...CRASH...he runs right into her landing in a clumsy heap over top of her. Quickly he rolls off of her, blushing he says "Oh, Nukio, Im sorry, Im just...Im late for firebending school..."

(Yea, sorry about that, I fixed it for you, just in case you wanted to go back over it)

Li got up and brushed off his pants, and looked away, anable to look her in the eye. "Ill be sure to, Im sorry." He felt the heat rush to his cheeks, embarrassed that he had ran into her in front of these 2 people. He looked over to the guests, with a cold look in his eyes that could even give a war veteran shivers, "Im sorry for interrupting your tour, please forgive me." He bowed to them and started walking out the door, as soon as he left he began running down the street, in the direction of the firebending academy.

It was a few hours later when Li returned to the orphanage from fire bending school. The russled laughter and occasional screams from the other childeren were heard, but stayed unnoticed, these were common sounds in the building. He headed down the hall and into his room, the faint smell of smoke still wafting about from the accedent with the furnerture this morning.

He grapped a broom from across the hall and began to sweep the ashes from on top of the dresser...he was able to beat out the flames in time, this one would be fine, just minor surface damage. He grabbed the blanket he used to beat out the flames and held it up to the candle light...burned right through, burned holes and all. "Aw Agni...not another one" Li muttered to himself. He walked back down the hall and grabbed another blanket out of the closet, and retured to his room, laying the covers across his bed.

With a sigh he fell back onto the bed and rubbed his face, what was he going to do about these nightmares...he knew that the master was serious about expelling him if it happend again, he could not let that happen. He looked outside the window into the courtyard, it was afternoon and the sun had just. "Might as well get some practice in, Im sure it would be alright."

Li opened the window and stepped though it onto the soft grass of the courtyard, and breathed in the fresh nighttime air. He knew his bending wouldnt be as strong as it is in the day, but it was just practice, it wouldnt hurt at all. Li bent his knees and began taking deap breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth, letting himself relax as he did earlier in school. Stepping his left foot forward he let his right leg out with a powerful kick, sending an arch of flame forward, and as soon as this leg hit the ground he was flipping over, his left leg also sending out an flaming arch over his body. With this step complete he sent his palm out, launching a ball of fire into the air that quickly deminished, then let out another kick with another arc of flame. After this he sat down, and breathed a bit, letting himself drift into thought....

(Yea, tis night, the nobles left....I was gonna wait for them to respond...but I got impatient, sorry)

Li snapped from his thoughts at the sound of Nukios voice. "Well...if your so interested in my firebending then why dont you come out here and help me." Li said, with a slight hint of playfulness in his voice, "that is if you still got it in you?" He was very confused on his view of Nukio...its was strange, although she was only a year his elder, he still felt so small compared to her, so young, he honestly looked up to her.