Chapter Text
The first time that Jin had spotted Lee in the tea shop, she thought her heart had stopped. She had caught a glimpse of him from the window and entered immediately to get a better look. He had a burn scar that marred his face that was no doubt caused by a firebender. It looked painful and she couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to have experienced such a horrific event. The burn was almost too precise, having been affected to only one side of his face, as if the firebender who did it knew how to inflict the most pain with the least amount of surface area. Without thinking, she entered the tea shop and sat down. She didn’t have the money to afford the luxury of tea, but she figured just this once it would be okay.
At first, Jin tried to ignore the young waiter, but she couldn’t help by watch him. Despite what some might see as a disgusting blemish, Jin knew that it told a story of survival, resilience, and growth. He was handsome because of it, not in the traditional sense of the word, but in that he had overcome the burn and its ensuing disability. He must have been at least partially, if not entirely, visually impaired in that eye, but the waiter, whom Jin had overheard his name as Lee, did not seem affected by it. Lee moved with confidence, like there was more to his story than what met the eye.
Jin wanted to know more about him. What had brought him to Ba Sing Se? How had he been burned? How did he end up a waiter at a tea shop when he clearly did not have the patience to work in customer service? These questions and more meant more visits to the tea shop. Despite having limited money, Jin started to frequent the tea shop to see him and his uncle Mushi, who was a wonderful man. Nervous to confront Lee directly, Jin settled for watching him work until she had mustered the confidence to approach him. Regardless of her crush on Lee, the tea made by Mushi reminded her of her mother’s tea. Tea made right and made with love and understanding brought back memories of a better time, a time when Jin didn’t have to worry about the harsh realities of living in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se or the desperate search for a job to make ends meet.
Jin was running out of money for rent and she did not know what she would do when she was finally evicted from the dingy apartment. Some might have argued that she should have saved the small copper pieces to pay for rent instead of buying a cup of tea every other day, but she knew that even if she had, she still wouldn’t have had enough. Jin was worried, but she had been homeless before. This wasn’t the first time she had run out of money; she would get through it—at least she hoped. So Jin went to the tea shop, any day that she could, choosing a different flavor and exploring every option.
After going consistently to the tea shop, Jin was beyond frustrated that she missed out on the scene where some punk refugee accused Lee of being a firebender and they had a sword duel where Lee totally kicked the other guy’s ass (or so Jin was told by other patrons). Maybe one day, she would hear the story from Lee himself.
Meanwhile, Lee, or as he was really named—Zuko, was beginning to notice Jin, though not in the same manner that she noticed him. At first, he thought that she just must really like her tea, much like his uncle, but then he began to realize that she would stare at him occasionally. After a week, he decided to go to his uncle with this issue.
“Uncle, we have a problem,” Zuko said as Uncle Iroh descended from the ladder that lead to storage. “One of the customers is on to us.” He glanced over to where Jin was sitting to see if she was looking their direction. “Don’t look now, but there is a girl over there at the corner table. She knows we’re Fire Nation.”
Uncle “Mushi” Iroh looked over to where Jin was sitting. At the moment, she was peacefully sipping her tea. Zuko yanked on his uncle’s elbow. “Didn’t I say don’t look?”
Iroh glanced over to the girl again, recognizing her as a regular. “You’re right, Zuko. I’ve seen that girl in here quite a lot. Seems to me she has quite a little crush on you.”
A faint blush made its way across Zuko’s cheeks. “What!?” Zuko looked more bewildered than anything, his confusion about the idea that a girl could like him overcoming his embarrassment about Iroh’s comment. Zuko didn’t have much time to recover when a few moments later, Jin approached the counter to pay.
Jin smiled at him. “Thank you for the tea,” she paused, then preceded to ask a question that she already knew the answer too. “What’s your name?”
Iroh grinned at the question, his intuition proving correct, and nudged his nephew gently.
“My name is Lee.” Gesturing to Iroh, he added, “my uncle and I just moved here.”
Jin smiled again; she almost said that she knew that already, but she didn’t want Lee to think of her as some stalker. “Nice to meet you officially, Lee. My name’s Jin.” Jin took a small breath and gathered her courage for a now-or-never request. “I…um…I was wondering if you would like to go out sometime…with me?”
Lee froze for a second, unable to process her forward question. Before his nephew could muster a response, Uncle Mushi interjected, “He’d love to!”
Jin withheld the urge to jump up and down excitedly and settled for a large grin, partly one of excitement and partly of relief that she wasn’t rejected. If she hadn’t noticed how hard her heart was pounding, she certainly noticed now. “Great! I’ll meet you in front of the shop at sundown.” Lee nodded silently and Jin exited the shop with an extra pep in her step.
She headed back to her dingy apartment, wondering just what in the world she would wear. She looked at the few clothes that she had in her small chest. She pulled out one tunic that used to be her grandfather’s. She loved the color of it and it was the nicest piece that she owned, but she knew that she could never wear it outside. She folded it again and placed in back in the chest. The green dress that she had on would have to do. Jin undid the sloppy twin braids she had in and redid her hair into a single braid down the middle. She did the best job she could manage without a mirror. Since Jin couldn’t afford any makeup, she would have to go all natural and hope that Lee liked her regardless of her flaws. Mother used to say I was pretty, Jin thought to boost her confidence.