Gossip {Open}

Krodhi:

The early morning mists were slowly receding when Krodhi deigned to remove himself from Bhuvana's bed. The girl herself had left hours before, yelling at him to no bother the squeaky fish-things. Krodhi turned his nose up at the thought. Not this morning. He had things to do, things that involved secret cat stuff, which of course, Bhuvana, being human, would have no clue about.
Humans often didn't understand the way the world worked, Krodhi thought philosophically, stretching out his claws and sharpening them on the bed-post. Everyone thought that cats lived in their own little universe where they were the master, which was true. But cats were notorious gossips. Krodhi, who knew that without him, Bhuvana would be three feet under by now, had led the girl away from many a trap by listening to what the cats and the occasional dog told him on their two year journey to Ba Sing Se.
Leaping up onto the wall that divided Bhu's modest one bedroom unit from the rest of the street, Krodhi leisurely prowled across town, heading towards the lower ring. The two of them, plus the fish-things, lived in the middle-ring, albeit on the poorer side of it. Bhu worked in a tea=shop in the upper ring, and Krodhi had many an eventful afternoon walking around there. The upper ring was full of gossip, from the pampered lap dogs to the sleek and elegant ladies cats and the high-strung messenger falcons.
Today though, Krodhi was going downtown. Events were happening, and Krodhi was going to find out just what exactly 'it' was.

It has been a couple of weeks since his arrival within the Ba Sing Se Military Compound in the Upper Ring, where his team was stationed. Daily activities were now just a reflection of what happened the day before... true, sometimes unexpected events would occur, such as a fight between two soldiers or an injury here and there... but training drills were performed right on schedule; and the squad leaders were remarkable in helping him micromanage the whole 19th Squadron which was part of the Metal Bending Division.

Nevertheless, for Ketsuo; today was a day where he would just take some time for himself... do a few errands and take his mind off the military chores. Even an officer had to take a leave from time to time... although it was not an official leave... he was still on duty and dressed with his full uniform and escorted by two of his fellow soldiers... but all of them were without their masks... in the end, they were just performing "patrol duties", althought nothing really happened lately.

"Patrolling gives just the right excuse..." said Ketsuo with a smile on his face while he looked at the soldiers with him. With a small kinda nod with his head, the young Captain drew their attention towards a nearby tea-shop in the street that they were patrolling in the Upper Ring that, hopefully; was about to open "...breakfast time. My treat today" said while he walked slowly to the place hoping for them to receive a warm welcome... or at least a warm dish of miso soup and steamed rice.

The lower ring was a disappointment. While the news was news, it was normal, everyday news. Who had the best day-old bread. Which shop had milk that was getting old. Did you know that Mistress was sneaking out at night to meet with the man in the mask? Very interesting, and she didn't even give pats. After she'd woken one up from the best dreams about fish, too.
So Krodhi went the fast way back to the upper ring. The lovely white cat from the house three roofs over from the tea-shop always sunned when the sun was just peaking over the horizon.

Krodhi yowled at the lady cat prowling the roof of the tea-shop. He could see Bhu in the back, clearing the rubbish, and the couple of soldiers walking into the shop.
After apologizing to the lady he was serenading, Krodhi leaped down to the ground, landing neatly in front of the door and waved a paw bristling with claws at the three men.
"Who are you? Shop's not open yet."
Of course, all the men heard was hiss, yowl, hiss. But Krodhi was sure they would get the message, even if they couldn't speak cat. Humans were stupid like that.

{Bhu}
It was going to be a cold day today, she could tell. Concentrating on her chi, Bhu breathed into her hands slowly, warming them up just enough so she could move them. She hated the cold. Which was why she chose to work in a tea-shop. It also let her bleed off enough of the natural heat she had as a fire-bender into keeping the tea-pots hot as she walked them to the tables that she could pass off as a non-bender.

Hearing a loud yowl from the front of the shop, Bhu dropped her broom and ran around the side. She thought she had seen her blasted cat on the roof, sweet talking Madame Bei Kung's cat. How he managed to always find her, Bhu didn't know, but he had a nasty habit of interrogating every customer that walked to the door. If it weren't for the fact that he also kept the vermin away and that he had caught a thief because of his interrogating, Bhu would've told him off long ago. But her employer sang his praises, so it was Bhu's job to go rescue whoever Krodhi had held up now.
"Stop it!" She scolded, stomping past the group of men and reaching her cat. The cat jumped and batted her head on his way up the wall. Her hair, which was already loose from her run through the streets to get here on time, fell apart and flopped down to the back of her knees.
"Krodhi!" Bhu screeched. "I'll leave you for the ghosts to get, I swear to god!"

The three soldier kept their calmned but serious demeanor... not because they were actually sturborn old soldiers with no sense of humor or politeness (like many others had), but basically because they were in duty... until... a cat jumped in front of them just before Ketsuo could even knock at the door.

In a menacing way, the cat prevented him to step forward and even released a few typical sounds from a cat; but the young man didn't understand why.

The military officer didn't even had time to back off, in a matter of a second a girl came running to the cat and scolding it... even cursing it.

Ketsuo looked interested and couldn't help but to smile, not in a mocking way but... it was just that the whole scene was interesting this early in the morning.

It didn't take long for the man to address her since it seemed that she didn't look at them "Well, that cat seemed to be quite the troublemaker..." said Ketsuo in a playful way "...perhaps he is just cranky for the lack of tea in the morning. I sure get that feeling from time to time". The military officer remained motionless but he showed a smile on his face, he didn't want the uniform or his escorts to scare anyone... they usually did and it was not pleasant "When does the tea shop opens? I could use a warm cup today"