Chapter Text
Kallik took one look at who was cooking and promptly decided to eat with Hakoda’s crew.
Zuko at least knew how to tone down the level of spice while cooking Anjij did not. And no he was not going to warn anyone from the ship he had been assigned to as to the mouth on fire/burn a hole through your stomach level of spice that was to come from letting, or what probably happened in this case, making Anja cook.
His daughter did not understand the concept of toning down the level of spice. As a fire bender she had a strong tolerance for heat both temperature and spice wise. It didn't help that her twin, his youngest son, Koji had nearly as strong of a tolerance as she did.
Anja is a menace. There is a reason he does the cooking at home the majority of the time and a reason why everyone seasons their own bowl/plate of food because otherwise with the majority of his family being fire benders him and Siqiniq his eldest would never be able to eat.
If his crewmates wanted to make his daughter cook because it's women's work or even if they just let her cook they would soon learn how much of a mistake it would be.
Hopefully some of them would be smart and take head of the fire red/orange color of the food and proceed with caution.
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Zuko was sitting on a blanket doing the laundry in the large tub they had taken from the Akhult when a boy from another ship came over with a wide grin on his face and a pile of clothes in his arms. He looked to be around Toklo's age. Zuko didn’t trust that smile. It wasn’t aimed at him but rather at Anja as she sat there doing the mending along side Panuk. Her work was the neatest and the best looking if she couldn’t make it invisible then she made it look nice by making fancy patch work like his dragon shirt or embroidering over the small holes.
She didn’t even look up from what she was doing as she cooly asked in a tone of voice that Zuko heard the warning in from years of dealing with sisters, “Is there something in which you require assistance in?”
The boy didn’t even falter before dropping the load of clothes in front of Anja some landing in her lap. “Since your doing laundry and you’re a girl you can do our clothes too. Since laundry is women’s work.” He announces mater of factly. Anja slowly tilted her head up having not once looked up at him instead having focused on her work but now those fiery blue eyes were focused solely on this boy.
Slowly setting down her work off to one side she moved the clothes that had fallen into her lap off her and dug into the pile in front of her pulling out some disgustingly dirty pair of unmentionables. Holding them up with her nails so as not to touch then with her skin she held up her other hand . Zuko immediately knew what she was going to do but seeing as how he was elbow deep in the tub and Koji had a stream of water in his hands that he was pulling out of some freshly cleaned but wet clothes neither could stop her before she light her free hand on fire and held it under the filthy article of clothing. Not that either of them would or could stop her. Anja was a force to be reckoned with and these other men needed to learn that women’s work was stupid and thar work was work. They hadn’t learned after the spice incident the other day maybe they would learn this time. Just because Anja was female and had some traditionally feminine skills didn’t mean they could push what they saw as women’s work off onto her to do.
The boy stared as the fire burned the filth and cloth away before his eyes. Once it was completely gone nothing but ash left, Anja had to have controlled that fire to purposefully burn everything and not leave any scrap behind, did she lower her hands the fire in them going out only for her to reach for another article from the pile. Then a second boy, maybe young man? He looked to be around Panuk’s age if Zuko had to guess, who had been hanging around watching them trying to look busy. Not in a hanging around ‘I’m watching you’ sort of way but more of a ‘I want to say something but I’m not sure how’ sort of way if that made any sense?, dove for the pile of clothes grabbing what Zuko assumed to be his clothes out of the pile wide gold eyes meeting blue as he backed away.
“I’ll do my own clothes.” He says hurriedly still staring at Anja who simply nodded before giving him a slight smile. “If you want them washed give them to Zuko and Toklo but you have to help Koji wring them out and check for holes.” She informs him before picking up her mending and going back to work kicking the remainder of the pile away from her. “Um okay?” He didn’t seem quite sure about what all had just happened.
Panuk took pity on him and gestured to the two who had their arms or in Toklo’s case almost his entire upper body in the tub. “That is Zuko and Toklo. The one who seems to have forgotten he is holding water in the air is Koji. I’m Panuk and Miss Sugar and Spice here is Anjij or Anja for short.” That seems to snap him out of it. “Uhh I’m Atka.” He says somewhat awkwardly before handing his clothes to Toklo who threw them into the tub moving around Zuko cautiously to go help Koji who had seemed to remember what he was doing by that point and finished pulling all the water from the clothes he had in front of him.
“Sorry about Tahni he can be a bit pushy and oblivious. The other men wouldn’t stop talking about how it’s nice to have a girl around to do the women’s work now and he got it in his head when he saw you guys doing laundry that she should do ours as well.” Atka says quietly. “Don’t apologize for actions that are not yours to apologize for.” Koji says seriously casting the still frozen Tahni a baleful glance his gold eyes cool like ice. “Um okay? Soo… why do you two speak so formally?” Atka asks trying to change the subject. “Our mom is a former fire nation noble women who ran away to avoid being forced into marrying a man twice her age.” Anja states bluntly.
“Um….” Atka didn’t seem to know what to make of Anja. “So how old is everyone?” He seemed to decide age was a much safer subject. “Panuk is the oldest at a mighty twenty one. I’m next at nineteen then there are the twins who are seventeen and Zuko is the ships baby at sixteen.” Toklo announces gleefully. “I’m not a baby.” Zuko growls at the same time Koji pipes up. “We’re almost eighteen on the equinox we will be turning eighteen.” “Huh so you are twins? But I thought twins looked alike and you two uhh…” “We are non identical twins yeah and we each take after a different parent. It happens sometimes.” Koji soothes.
Tahni seems to come to his senses and gathered the rest of the clothes to sheepishly slink off and wash himself without any help by then perhaps having learned his lesson on women’s work finally.