Omashu - E

Michael dragged his hand through his hair and frowned. Half a year without a haircut left him with long, unkempt shoulder-length hair. He thought for a couple of minutes and turned to Katara.

"Hey Katara, can you cut my hair a little?"

The girl froze for a couple of seconds and turned to Michael.

"Why me?" She asked and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Seriously? You've lived with this idiot-" He pointed at Sokka. "-all your life and I don't believe he's capable of taking care of his hair on his own. Considering you're his sister, it only makes sense that you've been cutting his hair all these years. And I don't want to ask for a haircut from a bald kid, or from a teen who probably trims the sides of his head with a boomerang."

Aang and Sokka looked at each other and shrugged.

"Fair."

Katara sighed heavily and after a couple of minutes of searching, she found scissors in her bag. She waved her hand for Michael to come over to her and the teenager sat with his back to her, creating a mirror of ice in front of them.

"What do you want me to do?"

Michael hummed in thought and came to a decision fairly quickly.

"Surprise me, but keep it long."

Taking this as a challenge, Katara immediately set to work.

Katara wet his hair using Waterbending - he complimented her on her improved control and didn't see her cheeks redden at his compliment - and only then did she start cutting his hair.

A cut here, a snip there, a brush in between, it was so calming that Michael closed his eyes and allowed himself to daydream a little, to think that he had returned to his own time, to his first world. He's back in Igorevich's barbershop, the old fool mumbling something about teenagers with blood in their hair. The AC is on full blast as usual and Michael has to grit his teeth to keep them from chattering from the cold.

The old man will not even ask how to cut his hair, he will just do what he sees fit and drive Michael away without even taking his money. The teenager will smile as usual and still leave a couple of thousand next to the cash register. And he, as usual, will have to dodge the scissors that should have been stuck in his skull.

But it was not his time, not his world. He may never see Igorevich or his father again. He knew it. He accepted it. But God forgive those who killed him because if he can find a way to that world, he won't.

"Michael? You're asleep?" He heard through his half-asleep state.

He simply let his body fall onto Katara's lap, muttered something along the lines of "Tnk u" and fell asleep. He can deal with the hair that fell all over the place later, now he still felt tired from the journey as an Astral Projection.

'Though the hair flew away with the wind... That's good, less work for me.'

---

He woke up deep in the night, head still on Katara's lap and her hands in his hair. Appa snored under their bodies, two more even breaths from somewhere to his left. Michael put his hand on his forehead and enjoyed the cold of his skin through the bandages until Katara spoke.

"You fell asleep when I finished cutting your hair. We couldn't wake you up or move your body to the side. Even after Aang used Airbending."

That was a little surprising – did he feel so comfortable around them that he could truly relax? Not many saw Michael sleeping so carelessly, he taught his body to wake up at the slightest rustle in unfamiliar places.

"Hmm. That's unusual for me. I usually wake up at the slightest sound."

Both were silent for a couple of minutes.

"Michael?"

"Mm?"

"I don't think you're a bad person."

He removed his hand from his forehead and looked at Katara. The girl looked a little guilty but determined.

"What brought this on?"

"I... I overheard your conversation with Aang."

Michael froze for a moment, but relaxed as he felt firm fingers massage his scalp. Katara was not afraid of him.

'At least for now. I'm not sure she understands exactly what I was doing to survive.'

"Mm." He let out a quiet sound.

They fell silent for a second time, not sure how to continue, until Michael spoke again.

"Katara?"

"Y-yeah?"

"Thank you. If I met someone like you earlier in my life, I would be a better person."

Katara smiled, trying not to glow with happiness. Well, Michael suspected that the girl had a little crush on him. It was better to kill this idea as soon as possible before it becomes a problem.

Don't get him wrong, Katara is a wonderful person. He knew that in the future she would only get better, but he simply could not build a relationship with her. She had too many connections with this world. Family, friends, future love, her Tribe. This was her Home and he could never take it away from her.

"You know, before my parents died, we were expecting a new addition to the family. The doctors said it would most likely be a girl." He saw the look of horror on Katara's face and laughed darkly. "I never got to see her born, but if I had a younger sister, I think she would be like you."

Katara blinked away her tears and a faint smile returned to her face.

"You think so?"

"I know so. If I call you little sis, don't be surprised. I warned you."

He saw the inner conflict in her eyes and felt like crap about it. He never liked to manipulate people, but it would be better that way. She could lose him and move on, she was a strong woman, but she couldn't just leave everyone else behind. So that will be better for everyone. Especially for his mental health.

In the end, one side won and Katara patted him on the head.

"Well, I'd like that, big bro."

He smiled, but suddenly grimaced sharply and groaned.

"That means I'm Sokka's brother now. Oh, God."

Katara used all her strength to hold back her laughter.

---

Michael looked in the mirror and smiled, now his hair didn't look like a bad wig, he even attracted a little more looks than usual. His hair fell just below his ears and was about the same level around his head, which looked good with his wavy hair. He could hide half of his face behind his bangs so his eyes would draw less attention. In the end, he was pleased with Katara's decision.

They landed near a stone city built on a mountain, it was one of the few cities that were able to fend off the attacks of the Fire Nation: Omashu. The mountain on which the city was built was surrounded by a huge moat and only one bridge led inside the bastion, which, according to Michael, was stupid. He didn't see if there were more entrances in the city, but if there really was only one, then it was terribly inefficient.

Their arrival in Omashu was expected, according to the canon it was their next stop and Michael hadn't changed too much yet, so for now the story went on as usual. They quietly made their way into the city and Michael walked away from the group to collect to renew his first aid kit. He needed medicine and bandages. Especially the bandages.

So, he missed the moment when his friends - he already named Katara his sister, so he's ready to call them his friends - were grabbed by the guards, he was on the other side of the city. When the guards came for him, he immediately turned into a dark alley and disappeared into the shadows. It was his routine a year ago, after all.

His feet took him to not the most pleasant parts of the city, apparently, even in Omashu, there were slums. Poor people, crippled, sick, homeless, hopeless... He had seen this before; it did not shake his mind.

But what shocked his mind was the guards who grabbed the woman with the basket of food and began to drag her into a dirty alley. This made him pause.

'Well, I promised that I would leave every place I visited happier than it was before. Here I'll have to focus on just better.'

Without heavy thoughts, he followed them into the alley, no one even looked in his direction. People were busy with their own problems.

He expected to see what he saw. Two bastards harassed a woman who didn't even try to scream, it was useless in such places. His blood didn't boil with rage, his eyes didn't see red. He just silently approached the two idiots and knocked them out with karate chops to the base of their skulls. The woman looked at her savior with fear, but Michael only nodded in the direction of the exit from the alley. A moment later the woman was no longer in his vision.

His gaze remained on the bodies of the two guards all this time, and he began to notice that something was wrong with them.

Both of the armor had dirty spots and even small cracks in several places. The first dude was missing three front teeth, and the second had a torn left nostril. Their hair was unwashed and cut as if in a hurry. To put it mildly, they didn't look like upstanding citizens of Omashu city.

He searched both of them and checked their bodies just to appease his curiosity. Of course, he stole everything of value in their pockets - a couple of dozen silver coins - but he was more interested in the identical tattoos on their right shoulders.

The design was quite simple and quite rough. If Michael tried to guess, he would say that this is some kind of animal. The problem was that the author of this work of art saw this animal only once, from behind, at night.

He came to the only logical decision for him: these two belong to a gang.

'Now I have a reason to practice Healing with Waterbending. I hope my T&I techniques are not too primitive for this world.'

He took two unconscious bodies and dragged them into an abandoned building with thick enough walls. Luckily for Michael, it was actually abandoned. Four minutes later the two thugs were sitting back-to-back tied so tightly that the rope would bruise them. Not that he cared.

He woke the first one with a blow to the jaw and grabbed him by the hair with his right hand. Cordato didn't want to break his bones, it was too early for that.

"Wh-who are you?! What are you- I-I'm the guard of the great city of Omashu, let me go this very second!"

Michael didn't answer and just studied the look on the idiot's face.

"Do you know what the punishment is for kidnapping a king's servant?! You'll be ro-rotting in prison for the rest of-"

"You're not from around here, are you?" He cut him off.

The "guard" fell silent and looked at his warden with hatred.

"King Bumi wouldn't let bastards like you exist in his city for long. I think you're bandits outside. Someone new. The guards wouldn't let someone like you through, so there's another passage here. Am I right?"

The "guard" remained silent.

"... Well, we can do it the hard way. But when you break, don't ask me to put you back together."