Chapter Text
Xiao-wei put a finger to her lips, and pointed to the space underneath the folded bundles of laundry. The earthbender-soldier's eyes widened, and he nodded rapidly, before ushering the children - probably his, but it was hard to tell when the place was in such chaos - under them before sliding in himself. A girl and a boy, Xiao-wei thought, but she wasn't sure.
She got up, put a new bundle in front of where they hid, and took a deep breath so that she could control her bending precisely: the fire under the kettles of water, full of the clothes she had yet to wash, sprang up higher so that the kettles boiled over just enough that between steam and smoke it was difficult to see; then she fussed with them until hands beat on her door.
Xiao-wei dried her hands and opened the door, to be confronted by Captain Haku, frowning under his mustaches. "Stand aside," he said. "We have to search the building."
Xiao-wei did not stand aside. She looked him up and down, pointedly eyeing his muddy boots and spattered armour, and scowled her most ferocious scowl. "Like ash you do," she retorted, fiercely. She had a reputation for being a difficult woman. This was why she cultivated it - well, a species of why. "You think I'm going to let you tramp around here and muck up my clean laundry? What, do you think I'm hiding a spy in my kettles?"
"Woman," the captain started to growl, and she poked him in the chest.
"Don't you 'woman' me," she said. "The nerve of you. The insult! After all my care - after everything I've done for you and your garrison, and for free I might add, you come in here and insult me by implying I'm a traitor and want to mess up my work. Would you like to tell the General why I had to rewash his underthings?"
The last was just her grousing; the important part of that was bridling at the insult, reminding them of their implied debt to her. Haku wasn't a bad man, precisely. Just an officious one, and one who didn't stop to question the word of authority. He flushed. "I have orders - "
"Oh for goodness sake," snapped Xiao-wei. "Come back when you're clean, if you have to! Who are you looking for, anyway? You don't actually think there's a spy here, do you?" She let her scowl shift to a worried frown.
"Well, we have a . . . situation," Haku said. He had not, as yet, tried to get in. "There's a renegade earthbender and he might have kidnapped some kids."
"Well he's not in here," Xiao-wei said, letting her eyes widen. "I've been in all day, trying to get that order ready for the General's dinner with the Marshall, haven't heard a thing. Listen, I'm serious - if you come in here now, I'll have to redo the whole thing. Go and get cleaned up and then you can search so you're not disobeying orders - in the mean time, tell me what this renegade looks like, and I'll scream if I see him."
It worked: a short description she didn't pay attention to later, and Haku gratefully left her doorway. She locked the door. That wasn't unusual, either: she was known to be a suspicious baggage.
"Alright," she said, to the bundles. "Get out here and change your clothes. What were you thinking? You stick out like a scream in a crowded market."