Asami hadn't come back from work. Again.

It shouldn't have been surprising after all this time, yet somehow it always was before exasperation set in.

At least she wasn't spending the nights out in the city like other wealthy socialites, Hiroshi Sato consoled himself. And truthfully, he wasn't really one to talk, being gone for days to oversee the discreet buildup in various sites outside of Republic City.

If he remembered correctly, there hadn't been any meetings with investors today, and nothing broke spectacularly in the labs and workshops… So his daughter shouldn't be de-stressing at the racetrack.

Which meant Hiroshi had to drive back to Future Industries' main headquarters. Sure enough, the guards reported that Asami hadn't left the building at all ever since sundown, with only her new aide leaving briefly to fetch food for her and do other chores.

"The guy left once at around dinner time to get the missus her food, and then left again about…ten? Eleven?" The night guard gave an uncertain shrug. "Then he came back about close to one with a small pack. Snacks probably?"

And that was an interesting development; Asami had picked up a new hire on her own volition. One that she seemed rather content with keeping, to boot. Such was her track record that the security and employees had noticed.

"The guy…Xing?... He's an alright guy. Er, sir."

And it was a young man, to boot.

"Smart looking, polite… Probably knows what to say to keep Miss Asami from kicking him out like the other nine hires."

"Why do you say that?" Hiroshi had to ask, his instincts piqued.

The other guard gave a shrug as he joined in. "Miss Asami doesn't mind him walking beside her. Um… I don't wanna be spreading rumors, but I heard from someone at the labs that they were found laughing at something together."

A jolt of danger rushed through Hiroshi's veins at the implications of this frankly aberrant information. Hiroshi could understand if Asami decided to take on an aide as a favor to an investor (the Shing-Hua family notably being persistent with trying to intern their scions in an unsubtle attempt to worm their way into Future Industries' innovations), but for her to actually enjoy her assistant's company?

And that aide was a boy her age?

Reining in his paranoia, Hiroshi hurriedly made his way to Asami's private workshop, unable to keep himself from scowling a little.

There was a part of him that trusted his daughter being smart enough to handle her own affairs, including discerning the character of her personally selected employees. That part of Hiroshi told him to be calm and not overreact, that Asami likely had some very good, very rational reason for picking her new aide.

That part was smothered by the other voices screaming for wariness. Asami was still young, and though she had been severely careful with unworthy suitors and wild boys, she lacked the experience to handle every encounter. There was always a chance that she could fall for some trick she wasn't prepared for.

What if the boy was a bender? The infamous bloodbenders could puppet bodies… Could there be a type of bending that could manipulate emotions? A…a mindbender or something similar? That has to be a sort of waterbending, right?

The rush of worrying thoughts came to an abrupt halt as Hiroshi stomped out of the elevator and turned the corner. The vague images of his precious daughter being loomed over by some dreaded figure or being wrapped in shadowy arms was banished as he came across a young man sitting calmly outside Asami's workshop.

He was dressed like a respected retainer or butler, instead of a garishly dressed socialite who openly associated with the triads. Even as he was halfway up from a cross-legged sitting position by the closed door, he gave off the impression of more of a patient bodyguard than a loitering delinquent.

Bodyguard - not butler or common servant - because Hiroshi was well aware of how the man's arms at least were moving into a martial stance.

There was no evil snickering, no dark cackling. Instead, the young man's face was set to a neutral, stoic expression. Mildly tanned skin and a sharp face with keen, amber eyes suggested that he was more Fire Nation in origin than Water Tribes.

So no mindbending then, the bit of Hiroshi not completely caught off guard poorly joked.

The young man was already standing down by the time Hiroshi fully turned the corner, and a glance by his feet told him that the aide had been tending to a teapot set on a small clay stove. Curiously, a teacup was tipped over a couple of feet away, rolling lazily in a small circle.

"Hiroshi Sato, sir." The well-dressed youth addressed him sharply as he stood at attention, to the point that all that felt missing was a hand salute to go along with it. "Miss Asami should be…resting right about now."

"Resting?" Hiroshi managed to say as he stared at the young man.

What did the guard say his name was again?

The aide gave a single nod. "Yes sir. She should still be in her nap."

"I see." There was a second's pause before his thoughts caught up with what the young man had said. "Should?"

There was only a flicker of hesitation in his eyes before it hardened into something decisive. "I admit I haven't peeked inside to confirm yet, as I didn't want to risk waking her up from her rest. It's been an eventful day for Miss Asami, and I'm unsure if she's a light sleeper…"

Well, that's thoughtful of him. He sounds competent too, for what that's worth. Hiroshi hummed to himself as he tried not to glare too hard at the young man before him.

A soft clink and a sudden jolt of movement from the bottom of Hiroshi's vision suddenly caught his attention, and he glanced down to see another empty teacup suddenly rolling past the workshop door. The aide shifted, and as if on cue there was the loud clack-thunk of the workshop's heavy blast-resistant (not proof, as Asami had revealed in that one particularly unfortunate experiment) door opening.

"Urgh… Dad?"

With a groan, a tired and slightly unkempt Asami poked out, rubbing at her eyes as she squinted at Hiroshi.

He couldn't help the paternal smile that appeared on his face. "What did I say about spending nights in the lab, Asami?" Hiroshi lightly scolded.

"I told you I already installed a bed here," was her response through a groggy smirk. "I also thought you'd be back in the afternoon…"

"Things went smoother than expected," Hiroshi smoothly replied. Asami's smirk was about to turn into a smile, but it morphed into surprise instead when she glanced beside him and noticed her aide.

"Xing? I thought I told you to go back and sleep?"

"I did," came his answer, utterly dry of humor or cheek.

"Then why are you still here?" Asami asked, her sleepiness giving way to cranky annoyance.

"I went back to sleep, then I woke up, and then I returned here to resume my post," the young man…Xing…answered, deadpan.

"When I said 'see you in the morning', I meant after the sun rose, Xing."

"I'll note that down for the future, Miss Asami. In the meantime, I'll have some tea ready for you?" Xing shifted slightly to offer Hiroshi with a speculative glance. "Or should I make preparations to call it a morning?"

"Tea." Letting out a mix of a groan and a sigh, Asami gave her father a thin smile. "I'm about to finish with a new idea."

"So I see," Hiroshi replied with a disapproving frown, already dealing with this enough times to give up on having another discussion. "Please tell me you've eaten a proper meal at least?"

A smug grin appeared on her face before she threw a glance to Xing. "Of course. Xing?"

The young man cut in without missing a beat, somehow already offering Asami a steaming cup of tea. "Miss Asami had ordered in a full course from the Dai Chow Restaurant, which consists of four carefully selected dishes to ensure a decently balanced diet. Dessert was omitted as it was an unnecessary extravagance for her current needs."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Hiroshi blinked at the aide for a moment, and then looked back to his daughter, who had settled on looking pleased with herself before she realized something.

"Oh, dad, I forgot… This is Xing, my new aide."

"An honor to meet you sir," Xing smoothly greeted with a formal half-bow, as a proper household staff might. No cheeky grin, no insidious gleam in his eyes…

"Uh, right. Good to have you on board, Xing. Do you mind if I had a moment with my daughter?"

Xing actually gave Asami a brief look, waiting for a subtle shift of her head before he nodded. Hiroshi didn't know how to feel about that.

"Of course, sir. I'll leave the tea on your desk, Miss Asami?"

"Thanks, Xing."

The Satos watched in silence - one conflicted, one preening - as the aide picked up the clay stove and its resting teapot to carry it into Asami's workshop, and then plucked up the two empty teacups from the ground. Only then did Hiroshi noted the fine, almost invisible strand of string that was tied to each cup. Watching Xing spooling up the half-visible strands as he left, Hiroshi suddenly pictured a simple tripwire by the elevator, which would explain the first fallen teacup. Which meant that Xing had also set up a similar system in Asami's workshop?

"Mothspider silk," Asami suddenly said, having picked up her father's thoughtful stare. "Leftover from our research into alternative materials. I guess it's good enough for tripwires…not that we can market that as a product?"

"Quite." Hiroshi gave his daughter a look, noticing the nervousness peeking from underneath her smile. He did his best to keep his voice and expression neutral, treating the coming subject as if they were discussing her new projects. "So… Xing?"

Asami's smile faltered for a moment, but then she rallied. "I met him some days earlier," she explained with brittle confidence. "He's smart and able, and so when he lost his job, I quickly offered him a spot."

"Mhm…"

"He's proven himself very capable so far," Asami continued, "I mean, he isn't being a suck-up like some of the previous hires, or got underfoot like the others. He's also got some really good ideas I think we should look into, and um, well…"

Hiroshi simply stared at his daughter for a few seconds as her words trailed off nervously, and then finally he let out a heavy sigh. "I suppose he does seem diligent… I trust your judgment, Asami."

The bright smile she beamed at him and the sudden great hug he received instantly told Hiroshi that he made the right call. Still, he had questions, questions that might now be easier to ask now that his daughter was in a better mood.

"So, how'd he lose his job?" Hiroshi asked, careful to keep all judgment out of his inquiry.

A wince flashed across Asami's face. "Well, Xing was part of the White Lotus before this…"

White- What?!

"...and he's supposed to be the Avatar's minder of sorts."

The Avatar? Hiroshi couldn't keep his eyes from boggling.

"But they had a falling out, mostly because she's being a pain for far too long. So he left."

"You can leave the White Lotus?" Hiroshi blurted, to which Asami shrugged.

"They haven't come complaining about it as far as I know… I mean, you've seen Xing, dad. He's smart and considerate. People like that don't simply leave without good reason."

She had a point there, he had to admit. More importantly though…

"He used to be the Avatar's bodyguard?"

"Kind of? The way he says it, he's been her minder for a while, and judging from how he talks about her, Xing's as much of her bodyguard as he is her handler. He's too polite to say it, but the Avatar's a bit too willfully reckless. She wasn't supposed to be pro-bending, for example."

Now that was most interesting information.

"I see…" Hiroshi put on a sympathetic mask as he nodded to his daughter's elaboration. "Xing does seem to be diligent and professional, I have to admit… You're right that such folk usually don't simply up and leave unless they're forced to, one way or another."

Asami nodded eagerly, happy to be vindicated. "Well, Xing was forced to leave, but he was stuck here in Republic City without a place to go and without any funds. When I found out, I had to take him in."

Though he noted her excitement, Hiroshi's thoughts were more focused on what opportunities this little development might offer to the cause. A former confidant of the Avatar… Xing would likely possess useful information…

Returning to the present, Hiroshi put on a smile. "Well, as long as he proves capable, I'm not going to complain about him."

"Thanks, dad."

A sudden thought clicked in his head, and Hiroshi found himself frowning as he threw a guess. "Now, I'm told Future Industries is now sponsoring a pro-bending team?"

Nervousness flickered again across Asami's face as she nodded. "Uh, yeah. I, uh, bumped into one of the Fire Ferrets, and they apparently needed the funding. So…I thought that it'd be worth a gamble chipping in for them, in exchange for having our name tied to them."

"Is that so?"

She nodded again, with more conviction this time as she continued her pitch. "Yeah. The Avatar's playing in that team. If you think about it, there'll be plenty of people who'd be interested in seeing the Avatar play pro-bending, right? She's the Avatar, after all. And maybe with that sort of popularity, we can use the Fire Ferrets to advertise Future Industries? We'll give them a Satomobile to use, have some engineers quickly cook up some good pro-bending kit, so that everyone sees that Future Industries is working with the Avatar. Win or lose, that sort of association is bound to turn some business our way."

Hiroshi hummed thoughtfully as he nodded. The businessman in him could easily imagine what kind of a boon having such advertising might bring to his company. Having the Avatar basically guaranteeing your product's value simply by using it exclusively… If anything, he felt annoyed at himself for never considering that in the first place.

The Equalist in Hiroshi also appreciated the fact that such a relation would help mask his cause's operations, and perhaps even offer a chance to get closer to a more vulnerable Avatar.

"You raise good points, Asami," Hiroshi praised warmly. "We'll push our sponsorship with the Fire Ferrets as a proper campaign, maybe make a proper press announcement to really show off."

Asami slumped a little as relief washed over her. "I'm glad you think so, dad. Honestly though, Xing was the one who came up with the idea."

Hiroshi couldn't help the lopsided smirk that formed. "I figured as much."

"Oh? Er…"

"Up until now, the only ideas you've brought up all involved prototypes and engineering projects," he lightly teased. "Making a sudden turn towards public relations is surprising, to say the least."

Admirably, she recovered quickly, smirking back at her father. "Well, I guess then it's further proof that hiring Xing's a good thing for us."

Hiroshi let out a soft chuckle. "So it seems, Asami. Now, we've still got some hours before the sun rises, why don't you show me what you've been working on? It'll give me some time to prepare if we need to push it to the investors."

Her face lit up again, and Asami wasted no time in leading him into her domain. "Well, it's another thing Xing thought up. You know how drivers have been relying on hand signals to show they're turning? What if…"

Xing again? So he has a talent for providing useful insights. If it keeps up, he'd be a good boon for Future Industries.

And if that insight holds true for his past employment, it'd be worth keeping Xing close as a source of information about the Avatar and the White Lotus. Amon should be interested in such things.

Regardless, Hiroshi would have to keep a closer eye on Xing; such a knowledgeable person showed potential to be wily and insidious, and was a greater threat to Asami than a simple-minded corporate scion could ever be.