Matching Heartbeats: Sokkla Saturdays 2020
Day 5: “I melt in your hands”
On FF.net//On AO3
So. It really had come to this. Of all things, her first mission ever truly had to turn out like this.
She hadn't underestimated him when he had nearly shattered her bones with his club, had she been careless enough to stand closer to him or failed to evade his attack. No properly-trained firebender would ever be quite so stupid as to believe themselves superior to heavy weapons, especially one that looked as heavy as that damn club. Yet she had expected he would only be a warrior, at the time: she never expected him to be the brains of his group, for this was merely their second encounter, and while she was still assessing the enemy as they crossed blows in the abandoned town the Avatar had lured her to, she had never quite expected… well, that there would be a truly smart foe in the other team, to put it in some way.
"I know when I'm beaten," she had said, eyeing the group that surrounded her, her hands raised in the air. "A Princess surrenders with honor."
She had noticed they were whispering, though: just as she saw Iroh had been focusing on the earthbender, that tall warrior boy had spoken to the short, new member of their team too: the waterbender and the Avatar were listening as well, her brother, of course, was only focused on her… so many potential targets, what to do?
She chose to attack Iroh in the end, but it happened just as the earthbender attacked, too: a sudden surge of earth, and all her limbs had been restrained, held down: she tried to evoke fire, but the strain of this completely awkward position, prostrated on the ground, didn't allow for it.
"Quick! Look for something to tie her up, I don't know…!" the warrior boy had ordered… just as her brother screamed:
"AAAAAAH!"
Ugh. He was always so melodramatic.
She struggled against the restraints… only for the earthbender to take things further: she found herself buried to the neck in the ground, gasping for breath, panicking as she realized she couldn't move at all. What to do, what to do…? There had to be a way out, she just had to think…
"I found shackles!" exclaimed the waterbender, from inside one of the buildings: she and the Avatar had taken to rummaging through the nearby ghostly town to follow fit with the warrior's demand.
"Great! That'll be way better than rope, she'd just burn through that…"
"Oh… wait, Zuko!"
The waterbender returned with the shackles, but she handed them to the Avatar as she approached the firebenders: Azula's brother was crouched by their Uncle's inert form… and upon realizing the Avatar and his friends were approaching him, he shouted:
"Ugh! Get away from us!"
"Zuko, I can help!"
"LEAVE!" he exclaimed, and now he outright attacked them: wow, that was rude. And here Azula thought they were friends… it would explain why he had been so incompetent as to fail to capture them throughout the past months.
Yet just as she thought Zuko would get what he wanted, and she'd be left buried in this damn place for eternity, the tall warrior boy turned towards her. Azula scowled at him too, and he huffed, hands on his hips.
"No way we're leaving. Not without our prisoner, anyway," he said, stepping towards her.
"I'm not your…! You'd best stay where you are, or I'll make you pay for this!" she exclaimed, knowing her bravado was empty. What could she do, spit fire at his boots? Maybe he'd be outraged about it… and then he might outright kick her face. Which would be utterly deplorable and humiliating. What on earth had just happened? Why was she in this completely unacceptable situation?
"You know, I can move those shackles with my bending, lock them around her wrists underground," the earthbender revealed, with a mischievous grin. "That way she's not going to be a problem!"
"Wait, wait, wait!" the Avatar said, eyeing them all warily. "Are we… going to make her our prisoner? Really? But… why?"
"I'm with Aang on that. Why do we want her with us?" the waterbender asked, eyeing her fellow Water Tribesman – who Azula suspected would be her brother – and the earthbender with utter confusion.
"Well… to change up the game somewhat? It's always the Fire Nation trying to capture us, right? And this way, we know this one's not going to catch us again," the warrior suggested. "Not if we keep an eye on her ourselves."
"Ridiculous… my friends will find me. And then they'll defeat the whole lot of you without breaking a sweat," Azula said, with a proud smirk. "And if, somehow, you managed to avoid them, every Fire Nation soldier will attempt to find me once my captivity is known. You won't get away with this, and you'll pay for it with your lives, whether by my hand or anyone else's."
"You sure?" he had asked, raising his eyebrows. "Because, hey! We're already being chased by a lot of Fire Nation people and so far, we're doing pretty good! Honestly, you and your friends were the scariest ones to chase us so far, so it kind of feels like you were the best the Fire Lord could send already? Which means… now that we took you down, we're feeling pretty good about our odds against everything else they could send at us."
He smiled sardonically. She scowled, angrily. And while the Avatar and the waterbender appeared unconvinced still, they soon surrendered, and the damned warrior boy got his way: she was shackled and unearthed afterwards, and while she could presumably wield basic fire against them, she couldn't possibly perform a full kata within these restraints. She'd have to use more than firebending to escape… she'd have to use her wits. And that she intended to.
She would leave a trail of breadcrumbs for Mai and Ty Lee to follow. It was hard to decide on which breadcrumbs, but eventually she took to lightly burning the ends of her hair, by raising her shackled hands to wipe her face. The hairs would be in danger of floating off their own accord in the breeze, but hopefully they wouldn't be blown away too fast for her friends to follow her trail, much as they had followed the damn bison's…
And soon enough they wound up on said damn bison who, to Azula's chagrin, was fully clean now, and apparently not shedding anymore. It growled at her, and she scowled at it too. Shaggy beast…
And then she got dragged up to the saddle, where the three benders fell asleep, and the non-bender, despite having huge bags under his eyes, decided to stay awake and keep watch, for she couldn't be trusted. And of course she couldn't be: who wouldn't be mistrusting of their captive foe? It was natural. She had to figure out a way to turn that caution of his against him… or turn it into something else, instead.
"You look terrible. I bet you're far more handsome when you've had a few hours of rest," she said: men were fools in many ways. Perhaps a girl's compliments, however shallow as they might be, would sit well with him.
The reaction was just as she had expected it: that her plan would work at all, however, was rather startling: he was visibly flustered, eyeing her with uncertainty, but he appeared perfectly shyly pleased by the compliment nonetheless.
"Well, yeah… you'll likely see that later tomorrow, I guess, once I do get enough rest," he said, with a shrug. She did succeed at goading his ego, of course she did… perfect.
"Will I, now?" Azula replied, raising her eyebrows.
"Yeah… as long as you don't try to escape beforehand, anyway," he said, shrugging. Azula scoffed.
"What makes you think my friends won't find us before that?" she asked.
"That they haven't found us yet, I think," the warrior boy admitted, with an awkward grin. "You three dangerous ladies seemed pretty intense, but something – or rather, my instincts! – tell me that you're the brains of the group. Were you the one who decided to chase after us on that creepy machine? Where did you get something like that, in the first place? And those mounts… you've got to be some real top-of-the-line bounty-hunter or something, huh?"
"You think I'm a bounty-hunter?" she asked, amused. "So you don't see the family resemblance either?"
"Family resemblance…?" he said, blinking blankly. Azula raised her eyebrows. "Woah. Wait a minute, are you…? You're Zuko's sister? Hell, no, I don't see it!"
"Oh, really?" Azula smirked. He scoffed.
"You're way prettier, like, by a landslide. And you're smart. Huh. I think you got the family jackpot, come to think of it… which, huh, who knows why the Fire Lord's family has anything good in their lineage, but if there's anything at all, looks like you hogged it all up for yourself."
Despite everything, Azula laughed. Why did she laugh, she didn't know. The warrior chuckled too, scratching the back of his neck. Were they flirting, without meaning to? Or was this just honesty? She was having a hard time telling… for it was the first time any boy had called her pretty.
"Is that why you decided to keep me as a prisoner? Because you were smitten with me right away?" she smirked. The warrior scoffed. "It's alright, you can admit it…"
"And why would I admit something that's not true? I mean, come on, if it were a matter of being smitten, I'd much rather keep you chasing after me," he smirked. "Boys love the idea of being chased violently by beautiful girls."
"And girls love the idea of being hogged up possessively by handsome boys," Azula retaliated.
They both snorted. And then they laughed.
Was she seriously laughing with the enemy?
"Could you two idiots quit with the weird flirting and let me SLEEP?!"
Toph's shout certainly landed on its mark. Both a Princess and her new enemy-captor-possibly-new-friend merely nestled on a saddle quietly for a while, blushing and hoping the other one couldn't tell under de cover of darkness.
"Though…" she finally broke the silence about ten minutes later: she could tell he was still awake, and his head jolted towards her quickly. "Would be nice to know your names, at least. If nothing else."
"Oh… heh. I'm Sokka," he said, smiling awkwardly.
"Sokka, huh…?" she said, enjoying the sensation of uttering the foreign name's syllables. Curious feeling…
"And you're…?" he said, raising his eyebrows.
"Azula," she replied. Sokka eyed her appreciatively.
"Azula it is, then," he said, with a small smile. "Uh, the rest of us… the bison is Appa, the lemur is Momo, my sister there's Katara, and that's Aang, the Avatar, and…"
"Shut. UP!"
"… And the grumpy one's Toph."
"Right."
They did fall silent then… and the gears in the Princess's mind continued turning. No, this situation was far from ideal… but if she forged a bond, however basic it might be, with one of her captors, there was a far higher likelihood of escape than by only waiting for Mai and Ty Lee to find her. Those two usually were reliable enough… but who knew how far the breeze would blow the miserable trail she'd left behind herself. Not to mention, if that damn bison took off with them, she'd be as good as beyond their reach before long. No, this wouldn't do. She would find a way out of this situation by herself, and she'd obtain a ton of intel on the enemy in the process, too. It would be difficult to endure for a while… but it didn't hurt that the boy she'd chosen for her scheme wasn't that far from her type anyway. A little lankier than her preference, sure, but he could fill out more muscles with the years and…
And why was that even important? It wasn't. She had to focus.
That he was somewhat handsome – and she used both words quite loosely, no, she didn't like him, she wasn't a schoolgirl with a crush or anything like that – only helped matters anyway: she wouldn't have to feign her interest in him, at least, where it concerned his physical appeal to her. Everything else was a matter of delicately weaving a net of perfect deceit until he was so wrapped within her web that he'd be caught completely off-guard once she betrayed their fun little group…
It was just a matter of patience until the right moment to strike arrived. She wouldn't be a problem prisoner, she'd accept her fate… for now.
Flying on the bison was a strange, yet not entirely unwelcome experience, despite it practically sentenced her to not be found by her friends anytime soon. The group she was stuck with was… slightly strange, without a doubt. The waterbender often eyed her warily – she likely still disagreed with the notion of keeping her captive, and wanted nothing but to see Azula vanish from sight as soon as possible. The Avatar seemed careful too, but before long he started to talk more cheerfully, and Azula wondered if he had decided she was trustworthy already. The damn lemur had often climbed over her lap, and she had to shoo it only for the Avatar to laugh it off and say 'Momo was just happy to make a new friend'. As if she'd ever be friends with a large-eared rat…
The earthbender, to her surprise, seemed to be almost as new to the group as she was. She asked occasional questions about how things worked in the team, and it became apparent she had only joined them recently, just as Azula had suspected – her absence back in Omashu could have had many explanations, but that they'd only recruited her recently made perfect sense. And of course, the one she had decided would be her target was the non-bender… who was sleeping at the far end of the saddle, drooling awkwardly, with his limbs splayed in any direction, as though he were a carelessly discarded toy. She wondered how someone could rest in quite such relaxation when he had an enemy so close by… did he truly take their last conversation to signify she could be trusted? Or was it he trusted the rest of his companions to keep her in check? Or… perhaps he knew she wasn't stupid enough to try anything while hovering so many miles above ground, in foreign lands, when she had no idea where they were going.
"What exactly is our destination, if I can ask?" she sighed.
"We'll know when we get there," Katara said, simply. Azula's eyebrows twitched: this one was absolutely ruled out of her plan to earn goodwill from her captors. Anyone else would be fair game, save her. And that lemur. She really didn't like that flying rat.
They only reached that destination – a canyon – after about ten hours of flying, after which the bison apparently couldn't keep going any longer. Yet the Avatar seemed thrilled about where they'd wound up, and the warrior was also in a blissful mood after napping for most the day on the creature's saddle. Of course, the waterbender didn't stop giving Azula the stink-eye as they unpacked, though as the others seemed to be warming up to her, to a fault, Azula decided to poke the hornet wasps' nest instead of enduring the judgment and scowls.
"You really seem to dislike me quite strongly," she said, casually. "Which I find odd, seeing as it seems you've been chased by my brother for far longer than me, and yet you offered him a helping hand back when I attacked our uncle. Is it you feel threatened by my presence somehow, or…?"
"Threatened? Yes. Because I'm pretty sure you're exactly where you want to be," Katara rebuffed, shooting her another harsh glare. "And yeah, Zuko's been worse than you, so far. But that you're his sister doesn't help in the least. And I wasn't really offering my help to Zuko but to Iroh. He gave us a hand back in the North Pole, so…"
"Is that so…?" Azula asked, unable to mask her genuine outrage at those words. Katara scoffed.
"You do remember, still, that we're not your friends? You yourself said it, didn't you? Enemies and traitors, working together?"
"Right, but I just thought that perhaps you had a soft spot for Zuzu since he'd chased you for so many months… I figured maybe I had to up my game so I'd earn some goodwill around here, but I guess it's not that simple," Azula sighed. "Working against my nation seems to be the only way you'll trust me, huh?"
"And even then I don't think Katara will let go that easily," Aang said, smiling awkwardly, though he blinked a few times when his words were almost interrupted by a loud cackle: "Uh… Sokka?"
"Zuzu?! Y-you call him Zuzu?!"
Azula glanced at the warrior with unabashed amusement: he DEFINITELY was her target. And yet, to her surprise, the earthbender snickered too… and the waterbender snorted before covering her mouth with a hand. Oh, maybe this wouldn't be quite as bad as she had anticipated… if they could bond over trashing Zuko, she had plenty of material to work with.
"I wasn't laughing!" Katara exclaimed, and yet everyone laughed at her denial just as well.
"Of course I call him Zuzu," Azula smiled proudly, as Sokka gazed at her with brimming amazement. "I don't presume to know how it works in your culture, but in the Fire Nation, the younger sister's official job is to embarrass and torment her older brother as best she can."
"Oh, it's the same in the South Pole, surprisingly," Sokka declared, smirking at Katara, who stuck out her tongue in his direction. "Though it's true too that the older brother's job is to protect their little sister… a thankless job, but we are just that selfless."
"Pfft! You don't have to protect me! I can protect myself just fine, thank you very much!"
"Sure thing! You know, it's not just about combat, it's about everything else! Who's the one who goes hunting and foraging and finding food for us…?"
"The one who's ALWAYS hungry?"
"And who did you tell to get a job when YOU were hungry? That's right, it was me! And I went and got one, and nearly died in a STORM while you didn't get a job of your own, but did I complain? Not even once…!"
"You're complaining now…" Toph pointed out, smirking, but the argument seemed poised to continue regardless.
Azula watched them bicker, however, and a rather strange sensation nestled in her chest upon hearing their words… upon processing them. Was that really what a brother was expected to do? In other cultures, maybe… it was ridiculous, though, and she scoffed at so much as the idea of picturing her brother getting a job for her sake, or going hunting or foraging for her. That wasn't likely to ever happen… not that she needed it to, of course. She did fend for herself, unlike Katara. She had been apart from her brother for three years, and she saw no need to rely on him. She didn't truly need anyone…
Hours after a rather simplistic dinner – Sokka caught a small animal that didn't taste very good to Azula – the group was set to rest again. The earthbender crafted an earthen tent for herself, the waterbender set up a traditional tent for herself, the Avatar was resting on his bison's saddle… and again, the warrior seemed determined to keep watch.
"You're on guard duty again tonight?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows. Sokka nodded.
"It works, doesn't it? I got plenty of sleep through the day anyhow, I can take it," he shrugged. "You should get some rest too, Princess…"
"You'll still watch me as I sleep, won't you?" she teased, smirking. "Quite interesting to be the object of someone's observation to such extent…"
"Uh… yeah. Because you're a prisoner. And I don't want you pulling any funny business on us," Sokka said… and yet he was smiling. Ha. He found amusement in her teasing just as well.
"Oh, surely that's not all there is to it," she said, beaming mischievously. He chuckled and shook his head.
"There's not supposed to be more to it…" he said. "But anyway, you didn't sleep all day like I did, so you should rest now. You can even borrow my sleeping bag, if you want."
"Borrow your…?"
It hit her then that it wasn't a matter of older brother protectiveness: that was just what he was like. He protected people… even if they didn't deserve his protection.
"Only if you promise you won't set it on fire just to mess with me or anything mean like that, okay?" he said, smiling at her before reaching for his bags and unfolding the sleeping bag for her.
What a rare act of kindness… of generosity. What would he gain from this? What did he think he'd gain from it? Nothing, surely: he had to be stupid to think she had truly lowered her guard with no ulterior motive… and she could tell he wasn't stupid. At least, not when it came to things that mattered. So why show her any form of kindness…?
Once she was halfway inside the sleeping bag, she realized there was more to this apparently selfless act than met the eye: her stomach lurched at the scent of the sleeping bag, and she shot the owner an accusatory glare.
"W-why would you…?! Are you trying to kill me?!"
"What?" he said, raising his eyebrows. "Oh! Oh, yeah, Toph says it smells weird, huh…? Woops. Heh, I forgot. Okay, okay, I'll wash it as soon as I can! Sorry… but it beats sleeping on the hard ground, doesn't it?"
"That depends on how sick I am in the morning…" Azula huffed, covering her nose, hoping that breathing through her mouth would be enough for her to ignore the stench.
"Well, I do hope you don't die! I promise, that wasn't an attempt to kill you. You haven't given us any useful information yet, so what's the point in trying to kill you at all, huh?"
"Ah, that's why you keep me alive, and not so you can watch me sleep," Azula asked, raising her eyebrows. Sokka smirked and nodded.
"True. Not that I'm complaining about the other thing, but I've got my priorities sorted out," he declared. She bit her lower lip but smiled.
Was this really what it was like to flirt with a boy? She'd never truly made any progress with anyone on that front before. This one seemed rather responsive to her advances, though… well, it would be useful practice for the future, at least. She could count on him for that.
"Good night, then," she said, keeping her head safely out of the sleeping bag, in hopes to inhale fresh air rather than the stale scent of the sleeping bag.
"Good night, Azula," he responded. It was weird that her gut felt tingly upon hearing him say her name…
The next day, however, took Azula by surprise: the Avatar had actually chosen this location to train, it seemed. And when Sokka was finally taking his time to sleep, the earthbender took to teaching earthbending lessons to the Avatar, and all his attempts to rest were thwarted completely. Once Sokka finally gave up resting, he took off to hunt, and Azula tagged along: while it was rather useful to learn more about the mechanics of earthbending, to unravel how to fight against it more effectively, she couldn't be careless and disregard her main pursuit. And as tempers seemed to flare often in the Avatar's training session, she ended up tagging along for Sokka's hunting trip instead. It would be useful to learn how hunting was done, if nothing else…
… Or so she thought, until Sokka fell into a hole, after chasing after a moose-lion cub, and despite he begged her for help, there wasn't much she could do for him: she pulled at him, jerked his hands upwards, and he only seemed to sink further. Funny how ironic life was, considering she was the one stuck in the ground similarly just two days ago…
"I'm going to die stuck in here, aren't I?" he groaned, after Azula's final attempt to heave him out failed.
"It's a possibility," she acknowledged. "I could be more helpful, you know? If I weren't shackled…?"
"Not much luck with that, I'm afraid…" Sokka groaned. "I… don't have the key myself."
"Ah. Then I'm befriending the wrong Water Tribe sibling, aren't I?" Azula said. That, at least, got a smile out of the warrior.
"Damn. And here I thought I was your type," Sokka said, nonchalantly.
"I didn't say you weren't. Just that, if you don't have the power to get rid of these, you're not much use to me," she said. Sokka chuckled and shook his head.
The rest of the day was surreal: the small moose-lion cub Sokka had been trying to hunt decided to play with him, carelessly so, even bringing him an apple that Azula found a most ironic gift for the avid meat-eater. Sokka groaned, swore he'd go vegetarian, made countless baseless claims… and yet not once did he beg her to go ask the others for help. Odd, considering two of his friends were earthbenders, albeit one more trained than the other…
And then the actual, chaotic mess began to unfold: Aang, apparently sick and tired of Toph's harsh training methods, stumbled into Sokka and his awkward situation. He failed to airbend him out of the hole, and then proceeded to pity his poor efforts at earthbending with a rather unexpected string of unfortunate wording, such as claiming to be stuck between a rock and a hard place… Azula couldn't stop chuckling, earning herself Sokka's harsh glares in retaliation… and that was when the mother of Sokka's new friend, the saber-tooth moose-lion cub, had appeared on the scene.
"Aang, just earthbend me out of here!" was Sokka's most common request, but the Avatar appeared to want to do anything but earthbend… leaving both his restrained companions to somehow fend for themselves as the furious creature sought to attack them.
It was fair and good that the Avatar's airbending seemed to distract the moose lion on occasion… but at one point it became apparent that it would trample Sokka most deliberately unless it was distracted. And while Azula could barely bend, with her hands shackled as she was, she leapt between Sokka and the creature and shot a small plum of blue fire in its direction.
That, of course, only seemed to make the creature angrier: Aang had to intervene then, casting a powerful gust of wind that finally alarmed the creature enough about these humans and their potential abilities, and it left through the forest at last.
And then Toph took advantage of that momentum to force Aang to earthbend for good. The Avatar was astonished to finally unlock the secrets of the art… while Azula and Sokka were merely relieved they had survived a nearly lethal encounter with a beast that could've killed them both.
Katara was delighted to see Sokka safe and sound once they were all free to return to camp, though she scowled at Azula, ready to blame her for her brother's disappearance…
"Azula stuck by me the whole time I was in that stupid hole," Sokka sighed, smiling and clapping the Fire Nation Princess on the shoulder. "I kind of thought she'd make a run for it? But… she stayed! And then even tried to save me from the moose-lion, but she just made it angry instead…"
"Really?" Katara said, blinking blankly, utterly blown away by the explanations.
"Animals… don't like fire. Clearly," Azula said, sighing.
"But she still tried to help me! And that really took me by surprise," Sokka grinned. "You know, you might fit better with our team than I thought all along. Aang! How about getting a new firebending teacher? Jeong Jeong was a pain anyway, so we could just recruit Azula for it and…!"
"W-wha…?!" Azula gasped. "Did you forget I'm supposed to be your enemy?"
"I think you're the one who did, eh? You tried to save my life today!" Sokka grinned, spreading his arms as though to hug her, and Azula squirmed out of his reach, hoping fruitlessly for her cheeks not to be as red as she suspected they were, going by the heat that surged underneath her skin.
Had she forgotten she was their enemy? No, not really. But was she growing to enjoy their company…? His company, in particular?
Perhaps a little.
Many strange things seemed to happen to the Avatar and his friends… and being caught in the middle of so many happenings was a rather novel experience for Azula. While she wasn't quite the most sheltered noblewoman in the Fire Nation, the idea of traveling abroad with a group of teenagers and children close to her age, with no one to enforce real discipline, no rules beyond those they agreed upon, no stability beyond the ground underneath their feet – or the saddle on which they flew – wouldn't have crossed her mind at all until it became her reality.
After the wild encounter with the moose lions, they went on a strange vacation spree that she found utterly laughable – they took vacations carelessly, willfully ignoring that her father was surely gearing up to strike against the Earth Kingdom's bastions? Truly? – and that resulted in a highly questionable trip to the Si Wong Desert. It didn't help that a group comprised by one too many weirdos decided to recruit a grown-up who appeared to be even more airheaded than Ty Lee – some professor at Ba Sing Se's university –, and that Sokka had decided his vacation would take them to a Library. Oh, it was a real pain that his decision would be the first one that was slightly appealing to her, in all this mess… despite the obvious fact, of course, that visiting a Spirit Library sounded completely, utterly absurd to the Princess of the Fire Nation.
"Does this place even exist?" Toph asked, eventually, as they soared across the desert on the sky bison's saddle.
"Some say it doesn't," the professor replied. Azula scoffed.
"Unsurprisingly so. Why would a Spirit Library be located in a desert, of all places?" she asked. "Utterly inconvenient."
"Well, a desert probably has plenty of room to host a big Library, right?" Sokka said, casually.
It was absurd logic, as far as Azula could tell – might as well claim there was plenty of room at the bottom of the sea, too, and if the idea was to keep everyone away from the damn place, it was far safer underwater than in a desert –, but so much as looking at Sokka right now, while he was shamelessly shirtless, was a bad idea. Why he had decided to strip off his upper body's garments, Azula didn't know, but while she didn't believe she was a prude, she couldn't dare look at him if there was a chance he'd catch her. So far, she had merely glanced at him on occasion… and admired his lean body. Yes, that was harmless, it wasn't like she'd tried to make a move on him – not like she truly knew how, anyway. But if he so much as suspected what effects his shirtless figure was having on her mind, he would never let her live this embarrassment down. And curses, she didn't need further problems while traveling with this group…
"How about the fact that this is something… spiritual?" Azula said, with a sardonic grin.
"You know, that part's been bugging me too," Toph said, flopped upon the saddle as she was. "The heck does it even mean, a Spirit Library? Are spirits even real?"
"Of course they are!" Aang exclaimed, beaming.
Azula huffed, glancing – despite her better judgment – at Sokka as though to ask if he truly believed such nonsense… only to find a rather surprising, disheartened expression on his face. She frowned: what was that? Melancholy? Misery? Longing? Why would the mention of spirits make him react that way?
He was the one to spot something eventually: a tower in the middle of the desert, apparently. And yet, before long, the group realized the Library was actually underground, somehow. Curious, despite herself, Azula requested that they allowed her inside the Library too: while Katara hesitated at first, Azula agreed to the conditions of being shackled again once they were done climbing inside the building, and to everyone's surprise, she did nothing to hinder their mission – fools that they were, truly, for expecting otherwise. What was she going to achieve by attacking them in the middle of a desert, of all things? So Toph and Appa lingered behind, and the rest of the group entered the tower by climbing through with a rope.
Her initial disbelief was rewarded with the most incredible location she had ever set foot upon, and she had been raised in a Palace, of all things. But nothing was quite so astonishing as the giant owl: Sokka had to clap a hand over her mouth as they hid behind a pillar, hoping not to alert the terrifying otherworldly being of their presence. Alright, fine, spirits were real, and she sure wanted nothing to do with them. Yet the fool professor had ran out and revealed himself… and soon enough Azula caught herself watching as each of them offered knowledge of some sort to the creature. The Avatar's wanted poster had been accepted, though… that rang a bell.
"I'm sorry it's so crumpled," she smiled awkwardly, as she offered the giant owl another wanted poster, this time bearing the faces of her brother and uncle.
"Both of Fire Nation make?" the owl spoke. "Quite an astonishing find. I appreciate these additions to my collection."
Oh, she was saved. She had folded one of those posters carelessly into a pocket a long time ago, and that it was still there was a damn miracle… for, otherwise, she might be doing something even more ridiculous than Sokka's splendid knot. In Azula's opinion, it wasn't all that bad… but the owl was far from impressed.
"You're not very bright, are you?"
Wow. Those were harsh words to speak to someone who was, in her opinion, the second smartest person in this very group. The comment, of course, didn't sit well with the warrior, who scowled as the owl welcomed them into the Library and left them to their own devices.
"Bright enough to fool you," he said, bitterly, before setting out to rummage through the Library's contents.
The owl's comment had unsettled Azula too… though she wasn't entirely sure why it bothered her so much. She felt an impulse to reassure him, even if she wasn't sure it would be welcome: she did think he was smart. If anything, that owl appeared rather foolish to her for not being able to see it. And yet every time she wanted to speak out, she failed to find the strength to utter the words: why? Was it because they were too honest, this time around? What was wrong with her? Was she…?
… She wasn't. There was no way she was developing actual, serious feelings for this boy, was she?
Yet she kept following him through the Library, watching as he stuffed his bag with scrolls, and she watched with curiosity until he shot her a sharp glare.
"What? You think I shouldn't do this?" he asked.
"I wasn't judging you in the least, no," Azula said, blinking blankly. "Did you think I was?"
"… Maybe?" Sokka pouted, skulking towards another area of the Library.
"If anything, I'd think it's fair. After that owl's comment about you, I'd gladly ransack this place, too."
Sokka slowed on his footsteps and glanced at her with uncertainty from over his shoulder. Azula blinked blankly: had she said anything wrong? She had hoped to have conveyed her feelings nonchalantly enough that he might not suspect she had any deep motivations to speak them…
"You… you're really something, huh?" Sokka said, lowering his gaze. "You do remember, right? That… we're supposed to be enemies?"
"You think I'd forget?" she asked, though her heart sank at that question. That had to mean she was developing a stupid, one-sided attachment, right?
"W-well, it's just… when you say stuff like that, I end up thinking, well… stupid things, I guess," Sokka sighed. "Things I shouldn't. Especially not after… everything."
"Everything?" Azula asked, blinking blankly as she stared at his back. "Well… granted we didn't start off with the right foot, but… I thought we were getting along better lately. That you were happy I'd stood between you and an angry moose-lion? I wouldn't be surprised if you decided my being Fire Nation makes all that worthless, but…"
"It doesn't make it worthless, it makes it… complicated," Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "But that's not it. Not really."
"Then…?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows.
"I… look, I don't want to talk about this, usually," he said, breathing deeply. "And I don't know if you'd understand, anyway. But I… lost someone. Someone I liked, a lot. It happened in the Siege of the North, and… it still hurts. And sometimes when I look at you, I remember how that felt, and it's great for a second until I suddenly just think…"
"That you shouldn't be feeling this way about anyone else?" Azula ventured, warily. Yet, to her surprise, Sokka shook his head.
"That I shouldn't be feeling this way about someone I'll probably lose too, anyway," he said. "You know why we're here. You know what we're doing. You know I'll fight the Fire Nation, no matter which side you choose to stand on. And… no matter how friendly we've been, you'll choose your own people, won't you? Just… as I'd choose my own, if our situation were reversed somehow. There's… there's no happy ending for this, is there?"
Azula gritted her teeth, frowning… no, no, there wasn't. But… did this mean he liked her too, to a fault? He'd be the first boy to ever… no, the very first person she'd know for a fact had ever liked her, in whatever sense of the word. Was it wrong to fixate upon that now, when he was stating something as important as this? They were enemies, no matter what came next…
For she couldn't turn against her father, could she? She couldn't just become a traitor… she couldn't turn against her people.
Not even for the first boy she had ever grown to like this way.
"I'm not saying we can't be… well… okay, I don't know what we can't be, to be honest," Sokka sighed, turning towards her once she stayed silent for too long. "Or what we can be, either. But you'll want to stop us from attacking your nation, and we just want to set the world free of the Fire Nation's control. We want balance back. And unless you're having second thoughts about your life's mission… I don't know how things will work, from this point onwards."
Azula sighed but shrugged. Sokka gulped as she raised her shackled hands in a gesture of surrender.
"You're not wrong. Not in the least. If you want the truth? I… was trying to get to you. I thought maybe befriending a member of your group would be the best way to break out of this imprisonment, somehow. So… you don't have to worry about a thing. I was completely dishonest the whole time."
"Huh… the whole time?" Sokka asked, though his voice carried a tinge of disappointment that took Azula aback. It wasn't a surprised disappointment… but rather, an expected one.
"You… knew, didn't you? That this was why I…?" Azula said. He shrugged.
"I guessed. I hoped otherwise, but… what's the point?" he smiled sadly, shrugging again. "That… makes it easier, doesn't it? Because the whole time, I knew that was probably what you were after, so…"
"So, we were on the same page" Azula determined. Sokka nodded, too.
"Good thing we cleared the air," he said. She nodded.
"Then, I… will leave you to your research, whatever it may be," she said, simply. "I… will go do something else, in the meantime."
She walked away quickly, wondering if he'd call for her or stop her, anything dramatic and apparently romantic as that… and of course, it didn't happen. Ugh, she was an idiot. She was an idiot. Her heart was beating so sadly… why would a heart beat sadly? That made no sense! And yet each miserable beat seemed to propel nothing but misery through her system. Idiot… she really had grown fond of him. Too fond. What was wrong with her? What kind of fool grew to like the person who had taken them captive?
But she knew why… she did. He was the first person to laugh loudly at her jokes, and his smiles were the warmest that had ever been directed towards her. He was sharp, just as she was… he was strategic, cold-blooded, analytical. All of that sat well with her. Too well, if anything. But perhaps that was wrong, wasn't it? It had to be. Surely their similarities, the ones she had been surprised to discover existed between them, weren't all that strong in the end… or, if they were, weren't conducive to a good relationship. Yes, that was it. That was certainly the likeliest of truths. But… it wouldn't hurt to confirm it.
The disaster began when she was halfway through scouring across the romance section, seeking any books or scrolls on compatibility: the building trembled suddenly, and sand leaked through the walls. The whole group seemed ready to scram, and she caught up with them… just in time for Sokka and Aang to race back inside, and for Katara and the damn professor to stay behind.
"What is going on?!" Azula asked. Katara gasped, eyeing her warily.
"And to think… I took for granted you'd be the one to cause more trouble around here!" she admitted, with an apologetic grimace. "Run! We have to keep him distracted!"
"The giant OWL?!" Azula asked, astonished. Katara huffed.
"Who else?!" she asked.
Azula huffed, wondering what to do. There had to be a strong enough distraction, something that the creature would be too incensed by to remember it was chasing any of them…
Oh. Well, that was a risky gambit, but it was worth trying anyway.
"Katara! Remove these shackles, now!"
"Are you sure about what you were saying before you found that paper, Sokka?" Aang asked, as they moved the dials of the calendar in the planetarium room. "I know what you mean that it's probably better to let her go, but… are you really sure? You seem to really get along with Azula!"
"And that's going to be a problem in the future, don't you think?!" Sokka squeaked, eyeing the dials anxiously – not close enough, another attempt, maybe the next date would do…
"Well… I don't know how it's not going to be one, if anything," Aang said. Sokka scowled.
"What'd you mean by…? Oh, we're close!" he exclaimed. "Next one!"
"I mean… you're already so worried about her that you're pulling away in fear of getting hurt, or hurting her!" Aang said. "You really think seeing her off will change that? You're still going to care, if we bump into her in a battlefield! That's not going to change now!"
Sokka gritted his teeth and eyed Aang with uncertainty as he pulled the lever one last time. Why was that little guy so wise when he shouldn't be? Yes, at this point, he'd definitely hesitate if he found Azula in a battlefield. He'd never have the guts to go through with fighting her at his best… and then she'd kill him, surely, because she was raised to uphold her nation above all else. There was no reason for her to hold back… especially when her apparent interest in him had been feigned just to obtain a fleeting friendship that would buy her way out of the group.
Which… he had been about to give her.
Was he really about to give the girl the chance to fulfill her plan perfectly?
"It's this one, Sokka! Look, it matches!"
He hadn't even noticed the planetarium's lights were dimmer this time. He made sure to jot down the right date for the eclipse and then he dragged Aang out of the room at haste… only to find something was very, very wrong in the Library now.
"YOU MONSTERS! CRIMINALS! YOU DEFILE MY VAST COLLECTION FOR THE LAST TIME!"
"What…?" Aang gasped: the owl's voice seemed to come from the lowest depths of the Library. Was he truly down there, rather than chasing Katara up here?
They reached the landing where they'd left the rope… to find only Katara and Zei nearby. Sokka's heart nearly stopped.
"Where's Azula?!"
"She's…!" Katara grimaced, glancing downwards…
An inferno of orange flames burned brightly down below. Aang and Sokka gasped: they had found out about the burning of the Library's collection of the Fire Nation… and they knew exactly how angry Wan Shi Tong would be upon losing more of his collection now.
"What…?! What's she doing, hell…?!" Sokka exclaimed, clasping the railings of the Library's topmost floor glancing down at the inferno below before shouting: "AZULA!"
He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it: a sudden speck of blue in the sea of orange took him by surprise, more so when it continued to increase in size, constantly: was she jetting herself out of the Library's basement?
"She's coming back! Oh, she's actually…!" Katara gasped.
"We need to get out of here!" Aang said, unfolding his glider. "Grab onto the rope, Katara, Sokka, Professor Zei! I'll fly us all out as fast as I can!"
"Oh, but…" the professor hesitated… when there was no time to hesitate at all: Sokka and Katara clasped the rope they'd used earlier, glancing at the man in chagrin. "I won't find another collection like this. I'd much rather stay…"
"Are you kidding me…?!" Sokka exclaimed, but Katara gritted her teeth and urged him to grab onto the rope tight… for Aang was pulling at it already. "Professor Zei! You're going to die if you stay there!"
"Sokka, there's no point…" Katara said, gritting her teeth as they flew off… as the rope dangled before Zei, and he refused to take it.
And it turned out to be a good thing, for by the time Aang, Katara and Sokka had only just reached the exit, Azula was about to catch up to them: half the rope caught fire, and she nearly tore the whole window to shambles when her explosive firebending brought her out of the Library in a hurry.
She tried to ease her fall into the sand, but it wasn't easy. She could hear Sokka calling for her – was he for real? Was he really worried about her…? Oh dear, why was her heart beating that much faster upon that thought…? – but the adrenaline and the excitement over what she'd done was still bursting through her as she landed rather wildly on the sand. It hurt, she was definitely going to bear a few nasty bruises… but she'd be okay. She'd distracted the damn owl, and now…
"Azula!"
Two hands caught her shoulders, and suddenly she was being hugged. Hugged. When the blazes had someone hugged her this tightly, this intimately before?
Surely Katara could tell this was a rather awkward situation for her, as she returned Azula's near-frightened gaze with her own… though Aang wasn't quite so interested in whatever was happening with them. No, he had much bigger concerns in mind, for now that the Library was gone, there was no one but them and Toph in the wide expanse of the desert:
"Where's Appa?"
If she'd decided to bet on it, she would've sooner thought the first member of this strange team to lose its mind and decide to lash out at everyone aggressively would be the damn lemur.
That Aang would be distraught by the loss of his bison wasn't quite that impossible to understand. That he would unleash that frustration upon his friends, though, took Azula by surprise: even goody-two-shoes like him had dark sides, then? And yet he hadn't even asked about whether or not she was okay after her rough landing, disregarding how Sokka had demanded she was kept unshackled before helping her walk through the desert, an arm around her waist, and also disregarding Azula's rejection of Katara's offer for waterbending healing, for the Princess suspected that, without the damn massive hairy creature, they'd be stuck in a desert for eons, and wasting what little water they had on healing a few bruises seemed a bad idea.
And where she had expected Sokka to push her away, now he seemed to be doing the exact opposite. Why? It made no sense. Not that she needed it to, she rather liked being held by him… somewhat. She guessed. It was comfortable. That was all there was to it. Yet their last conversation hadn't been that friendly, and now he seemed to be protecting her with all his might…?
"Are you… alright?" she asked him. Sokka blinked blankly and gazed at her with unexpected shyness. "You're being, well…"
"I'm trying to help. I mean… it's my fault you set the Library on fire," Sokka grimaced. "And then you got hurt. I… I'm sorry."
"Ah? Then going back inside instead of running away when the damn building started to sink was your idea?" Azula said, huffing sarcastically. "Had I known it was you and not Aang I wouldn't have burned anything at all…"
He laughed and shook his head, and she smiled. It was weird… but it felt like they were back on track, suddenly. Maybe they wouldn't become anything else… but this was fine. This worked, for now.
Of course, what was happening with the rest of the team was a whole different story: Toph was riddled with guilt over not being able to stop the sandbenders from stealing Appa, Katara was confused over whatever was brewing between her brother and Azula, but more than that, she was aghast by Aang's terrible mood, too. He had taken to gliding frantically, searching for the bison to no avail. The sandbenders were gone… as was his best friend.
"Katara, can I have some more water?" Toph asked, suddenly. Katara warned her against consuming too much of it, and Azula agreed, silently, despite she accepted the small amount of water Katara offered each of them through her bending.
"Can't be that healthy to drink someone's bending water, huh…?" Sokka reasoned, before making a face of disgust. "Ugh! You used this on the swamp guy!"
"No wonder it tastes swampy," Toph said.
"Well, there's not much I can do about that. We can't find much water around here, can we?" Katara said, gazing around at the endless expanse of desert before them…
"Maybe we can!" Sokka exclaimed suddenly, beaming. "Look!"
He grinned before releasing Azula from his hold just to rush towards a cactus he'd spotted not too far from where they stood. Well, there was water inside plants, why deny that? And yet…
"You shouldn't eat strange plants, Sokka!" Katara told him: Sokka had already taken to slicing the cactus with his weapons, though, offering her a glimpse of the watery interior.
"I know it's not every day this happens… but I agree with Katara for once," Azula said, watching Sokka with uncertainty: Momo had taken to drinking with him, of course… that damn creature was a menace, Azula was certain of it.
"It's very thirst quenching, Azula!" Sokka grinned, motioning at her to approach him. "Come on, it'll do wonders for you, especially after all you bent in the…"
He stopped talking suddenly, only for his body to start reacting rather weirdly to the juice he'd just ingested: his pupils dilated, he shook his head violently, he smiled awkwardly, some of the juice trickled down to his chin…
"Drink cactus juice! It'll quench ya'! It's the quenchiest!"
Both Azula and Katara stared at him in chagrin… while Toph merely raised her eyebrows, entirely confused by what her feet were sensing: was Sokka waggling like a worm on the sand, for some reason…?
"Okay, that's definitely too much for you," said Katara, grimacing. "We have to keep moving on."
"Hey, who lit Toph on fire?" Sokka asked suddenly, before turning towards Azula. "It was YOU?!"
"U-uh, no? I didn't light anything on fire…! In the last, uh, two hours?" Azula said, blinking blankly…
And yet Sokka didn't seem to be all that appalled by the notion of her setting anything on fire. Instead, he was smiling brightly at her, and that only felt more ominous than anything else.
"You know what?!" he exclaimed. "Your fire's WATER TRIBE! Can you believe that, huh, huh?! You're Water Tribe, deep down! I knew that was why I got you so well, eh, eh, Azula?! You're like… wham! And I'm just… whosh! I melt in your hands, girl!"
"You… what? I have absolutely no idea what you're trying to say… and I'm not sure I want to," Azula swallowed hard, as Sokka waved his arms around recklessly.
"Oh, you know what I'm saying! You should marry me!"
The words stunned the three girls, outright. Sokka only smiled carelessly… while the lemur twitched awkwardly behind him. Azula's face was rather red now… and not precisely because of the sunburns a whole day in the desert would result in.
"Y-y-you… that's not a proposal, is it? Or is…?" Azula said, blinking blankly.
"You know what? I want some of that cactus thing," Toph decided, beaming. Katara flinched.
"Not a chance, Toph. I think one love-crazed, cactus-addled weirdo is enough for today…"
"Hey! I'm not in love with any of you, I won't start proposing willy-nilly…"
Azula stared at Sokka again, utterly blown away by their words: in love…? Was Sokka…? No. That wasn't right. That made no sense. That was just a weird joke between friends, wasn't it…? Just as the jokes she'd usually pull on Zuko and Mai back when they were kids…? For they couldn't be serious. Sokka couldn't be serious. The cactus juice was messing with his head… or was it making him more honest than he was before?
Suddenly, a gust of wind, and a rush of sand dust, startled the whole group: they turned towards its source to find it appeared something had exploded deeper in the desert, perhaps, by the pattern of the shifting sand…
"What's that?" Katara asked.
"N-no idea," Azula mumbled, quickly. It was a good idea to change the subject, yes. Weird sand clouds were much more intriguing and important than whether Sokka loved her or not…
"It's a giant mushroom! Maybe it's friendly!"
… Upon hearing those words, Azula's mild suspicions that maybe he was serious about his proposal went up in smoke, vanishing without trace, much as the giant mushroom had.
"Shouldn't have given you that much credit," Azula sighed, looking at Sokka. "Hey. We should get moving. No point in admiring the mushroom anymore."
"Oh! Okay! Let's do something else now!" Sokka decided, beaming.
She didn't foolishly believe she could anticipate to any of Sokka's weird decisions or words while he was in this strange, intoxicated state…
… And yet she never would have expected his new idea would be to kiss her.
Her face flushed red violently, more so when she heard Katara gasping behind her.
"Is he waving at the giant mushroom again…?" Toph asked, but Katara didn't appear to want to respond… not even when Sokka pulled away at last, beaming.
"You taste better than cactus juice!" he declared.
"Y-you…! T-that was my first…!" she exclaimed, blushing madly as she covered her mouth with her hands. "You're…! At the very least you should've had the decency to do that while you were on your right mind!"
"Oh, you didn't like it?" Sokka asked, blinking blankly as he tilted his head sideways. "Must be you need to drink cactus juice too! It's the quenchi-…!"
Azula smacked the small plant bowl he'd held in his hand so far, doing away with the remaining cactus juice, and Sokka gasped, digging at the sand desperately as though searching for the now lost liquid that had leaked through the ground.
"Nooooo! We're dooooomed!" he exclaimed. Despite the situation had been rather strange, Katara laughed softly now, and Azula only rolled her eyes and scowled at the foolish boy she certainly liked far better than she ever should have.
Yet as difficult as it was to navigate the desert for hours with an awkwardly rambling companion such as Sokka, it seemed to Azula his nonsense made the matter livelier, kisses or no… especially when Aang returned. He had been rather unpleasant about collecting water from a cloud that crossed the sky, right under the moon… namely because he had hopelessly thought it was his bison. Yet Azula's attention was caught by something else: Sokka's comment.
"Why would Princess Yue need Appa? She's the moon! She flies by herself!"
She had read reports of what had happened up north. Her father had briefed her of it directly, too. At one point, the moon had been blocked, its influence faded, all because of Admiral Zhao's decisions, apparently… she had thought it was a nonsensical claim, for waterbenders losing their power completely? It sounded like a rather helpful phenomenon, but a confusing one too. How had it come to pass at all…? Especially when it hadn't lasted very long, too: the waterbenders were back on track not long after, and the battle was lost.
According to her father, Admiral Zhao meant to destroy the Moon Spirit that day. Whatever that meant. She had given the matter little credit at the time, but was the Moon Spirit this Princess Yue…?
She resolved to ask Katara once they had a chance to take a light break, upon bumping into a sand glider that Aang helped steer most unwillingly. The waterbender was busy watching the compass, ensuring their course was true, and Azula offered to support her with that, for it was better to talk to someone rational than to talk to Sokka right now…
"What, exactly, happened with this Princess Yue?" she asked. Katara froze, glancing at her warily.
"You're wondering… why, exactly?" she asked.
"He brought up that he lost someone before. He didn't elaborate," Azula explained. "I didn't know what he meant, but… it surprised me a little to hear him talk about the Northern Water Tribe's Princess."
"Well… Sokka had a thing for her," Katara said. Azula damn near cursed herself for feeling disappointed upon hearing those words, even if she already knew them to be true. "But she was supposed to marry someone else? And yeah, I do think she liked him too, but… then she became the moon and there was no way they'd be together anymore."
"She became… the moon?" Azula said, with an awkward grin.
"She explained that she was stillborn," Katara said. "And then the Moon Spirit touched her when she was a baby: it brought her to life or so. When Zhao killed the Moon Spirit, she gave her own life to remediate things… she took the Moon Spirit's place and sacrificed herself to save everyone."
"And… she left Sokka? Just like that?" Azula asked, puzzled. Katara shrugged.
"She had a duty. He understood," Katara said, simply.
A duty. A duty to her people… to fulfill what was expected from her. And in the process, she had surely broken the heart of the boy she liked, even if she had never meant to.
No wonder Sokka had claimed to be ready to let her go even before anything serious started between them, too.
He was still his most carelessly goofy self as they traveled across the desert, but Azula found herself looking at him with different eyes now. How odd that a young man with such heavy burdens could be so reckless and silly when he wanted to… her lips still tingled where he'd kissed them. Ugh, it wasn't something she should be thinking about fondly, of course not… but that he might truly like her was still a most dazzling concept, one she wasn't sure how to cope with yet, let alone now that she understood the true source of his apprehensions.
She ended up finding a way to cope with it by watching over him once they stopped at a massive rock their compass led them to: Sokka claimed he felt better, but upon attempting to taste a gross substance on the wall, Azula decided he simply wasn't recovered yet. She slapped his hand violently and he gasped as she pulled him towards her.
"No eating weird sticky nonsense that's stuck to a cavern's walls!" she growled. He blinked blankly, staring into her eyes with innocent confusion.
"Why not…?" he said.
"Because if that tastes like crap and you kiss me again, I'll set you on fire," Azula declared.
"And I don't think anyone will stop her this time, Sokka," Katara smirked. Toph snickered too as Sokka winced… and yet he found Azula had taken his hand in hers, pulling him through the cavern with her.
"You're just… going to hold my hand now?"
"I can't trust you to behave yourself if I don't," Azula said, curtly, hoping not to betray just how nervous she was about acting this way…
Yet she could see, from the corner of her eyes, when Sokka bit his lip and smiled. Was he happy to hold her hand…? Or was he simply happy that someone was looking after him so closely, protecting him, when he was always the protector…?
She couldn't help but continue defending him once the buzzard wasps attacked: she shielded him with her body, even using her fire to chase away the beasts. Busy as she was ensuring the groggy Sokka wasn't hurt, she couldn't do anything to protect the damn lemur – she KNEW he'd be trouble eventually, damn little thing – when one of the buzzard wasps took him away. Katara was busy serving as Toph's eyes, just as Azula had taken to shielding Sokka herself, so it was Aang who saved him… rather violently too. But when the Avatar and the lemur returned to the team, and the buzzard wasps appeared to gear up to continue their attacks, towers of sand chased away the creatures… and that was when the sandbenders had appeared.
Tired as she was, puzzled by too many things at once, Azula barely paid attention to the exchange, checking on Sokka to ensure he was okay… and then the most terrifying of all moments began when the Avatar lost his temper completely.
This time, however, Sokka took to protecting her: he had seen this before, Azula realized. He collected Toph too, one arm around each of them, and helped them get away from the whirlwind of wild sand, stirred by the savagely furious Avatar. It was a display of power unlike anything Azula had seen, and she could barely take her eyes away from him: he had been so small, so innocent in her eyes, merely twenty-four hours ago… and suddenly he was the most punishing force of nature she had ever witnessed. Suddenly he wasn't just a symbol of everything her father had raised her to defeat, a potentially dangerous bender… no, he was already as dangerous as he pleased. And, as powerful as Fire Lord Ozai was… could he ever go against someone with such unnatural, otherworldly bending and win? Even if he was but a twelve-year-old boy?
Somehow, Katara managed to calm him down, if it could be called that. All the while, Sokka held Azula closely, her face pressed against his chest, his heartbeats reassuring her, despite she was anything but soothed… despite she suddenly found her world had taken yet another tumble on that chaotic, catastrophic day, and she wasn't sure how she'd compose it, or herself, ever again.
Finding water again was so refreshing, and drinking it cleared his mind completely, it seemed to Sokka. Katara was far more cheerful now, though that she decided to jump into the water by doing what she had called a "waterbending bomb" was probably not the best use of her improved mood – she soaked the maps Sokka had stolen from the Library, and she had to dry them under her brother's fierce glare.
All the while, though, one member of their group was unexpectedly aloof… and perhaps self-conscious. She had washed, rinsing off the dirt and dust from days on the road, but she hadn't joined the others at playing in the water. Sokka had expected her to join him in deciding which route to take to Ba Sing Se, where they hoped to find Appa… but so far, nothing. She had never been this distant, and she sat at a distance as a group of refugees, passing through the area, offered them useful information regarding a secret way into Ba Sing Se that the Fire Nation was fully unaware of. Even once they started on their way to Full Moon Bay, she was quiet and distant still, walking at some distance from the rest of the group.
"Say, uh… you two talked a bunch, while I was cactus-juice addled?" Sokka asked his sister casually, once he pulled her away from chatting with the refugees they'd just met. "I think, at least? I don't really remember most of what happened anymore, but…"
"Ah, you're not sure why she's being all that distant and weird now? Probably because you kissed her without permission," Katara declared, beaming. Sokka's jaw dropped. "Not that I know for sure if she's mad about that, but you know… surely doesn't help much, does it?"
"I…! Oh, no. She'll hate me now, won't she?" he groaned. "But… wait, when did I do that, again?"
"At the start? You'd just drank the damn thing and then you said you melted in her hands? You were being really weird about her," Katara said, smirking. Sokka raised an eyebrow in Katara's direction.
"And that… somehow doesn't bother you that much?" he asked. "I thought you didn't like her."
"Well, it's hard not to like the only other person who wasn't completely helpless while we traveled through the desert," Katara sighed. "Besides… I mean, yeah, she wasn't nice at first, and she did chase us, but she's definitely never done anything as bad as Zuko did. She's been with us for a while, she's not chained down anymore, and she's still done nothing to hurt any of us. I don't know, Sokka… maybe she's not that bad."
"I agree," he said, smiling at her. "I… I really think she isn't, either. Though, well, I guess we could be wrong. But the way she helped distract that owl, and she's tried to help keep me safe so many times… it's weird, you know? She jumps in front of me all the time…"
"She probably likes you too, see?" said Katara, smirking. "Which… I guess, from a rational point of view, it might not be a great thing? I mean, I know why you'd be apprehensive, Sokka, and if you think this isn't worth trying it's okay, but… I'd expected worse from the Fire Lord's daughter."
"Yeah… me too," Sokka smiled, glancing at the Princess, who walked far ahead of him and Katara.
"Just… talk to her? I guess?" said Katara, shrugging. "Maybe you still have a shot, somehow."
"Even if I kissed her when I shouldn't have, huh…?" he mused.
There were several reasons why he wasn't all that sure about this… and yet whenever he thought back to the past weeks of being allied with Azula, he couldn't help but feel warmth nestling in his chest. She was something else, wasn't she? And he… he was very much attached to her now, whether it was wise or not. Whether he had tried to push her away or not. And if he ever kissed her again… well, he'd make sure it was the right way, this time around.
He decided to talk to her once they reached the ferry station: Azula had been unusually quiet so far, and he guessed it was time he apologized for the cactus juice mess, anyway.
"Uh… hey, Azula?" he called her, unusually shyly, as they lagged behind at the end of their group: the station was very crowded, but they managed to find the line to request for passports anyway. "I, uh, wanted to say I was sorry for troubling you back in the desert. I didn't mean to, but… I guess I did a lot of things I shouldn't have."
"Oh?" Azula raised her eyebrows, intrigued by his words. "Such as…?"
"W-well… I shouldn't have had cactus juice, for starters," he smiled awkwardly. "And I shouldn't have, well, kissed you without asking…?"
"Without… asking?" Azula repeated. Sokka's face flushed. "So… you think it's fine if you ask?"
"W-well! Only if you say I can, even if I ask. T-that is. Well. I think so?" he said, swallowing hard.
Azula blinked blankly at the taller boy. He was so nervous… so endearing, too. She certainly didn't expect to grow genuinely fond of him, and she had resisted the notion for a while… but she was inevitably interested in him now. And his babbling wasn't helping matters at all.
"Hmm… well. I guess… I'll have to think on that permission, then. Just as that woman seems to be thinking about ours," Azula said, grimacing. "If only this were the Fire Nation, we'd be on a ferry by now just because I'm here…"
"Heh, yeah. No doubt," Sokka smiled awkwardly. "Though… we should try to not let anyone know you're Fire Nation, you know? A lot of people here probably were fleeing the consequences of the war, and if they knew…"
"Ah, true enough. Can you lend me your clothes?"
Sokka froze in place, staring at Azula in disbelief as she smirked teasingly at him. Yet she didn't take her words back.
"I mean… you lent me your sleeping bag before. I suppose your clothes will be smelly too… but no one would assume I'm Fire Nation Royalty if I'm smelly, right?" she said. Sokka's face was redder and redder by the minute.
She couldn't help but laugh as he failed to find words to respond with. Flustered as he was, he stared at her with disbelieving amazement, ignoring that Toph was securing passports for them to cross Full Moon Bay… and also ignoring that someone had walked up to him suddenly.
Azula frowned when the female guard suddenly forced Sokka to turn towards her: she was immediately tempted to jump between them, again finding protective instincts triggered when Sokka was concerned… did that guard think he was a criminal? Did they realize that whatever story Toph had fed the woman at the passport counter was bullshit…?
"Tickets and passports," said the girl. Sokka blinked blankly, inching away from her.
"Uh… I don't have mine right now. Go ask our, uh, team leader? Toph, over there," he said, before turning to Azula again. "Y-you don't really… I mean, if you'd told me you wanted to wear my clothes I would've washed them more thoroughly! We were at that waterfall, it would've been a good idea…"
"I was… messing with you," Azula said, smiling awkwardly: the girl behind Sokka appeared utterly perplexed by how he'd disregarded her words… and by the contents of the ones he was saying to his companion, too. "Is something wrong?"
"U-uh, no, I mean… no," said the girl, smiling dryly. Sokka glanced at her once more and she bit her lip. "You really… don't remember me?"
"… Am I supposed to?" he said, with an awkward smile. "Sorry?"
Azula covered her mouth with a hand, attempting not to laugh too boldly as the guard grimaced and sighed, walking away, defeated by Sokka's apparent forgetfulness. He turned towards Azula again, utterly perplexed.
"I… don't know what that was about," he said. "B-but anyway…!"
"I only hope she's not someone you kissed once too and then proceeded to forget about for no reason," Azula smiled. Sokka scoffed.
"Hell, no! I'm sure I don't know her!" he declared, pouting. "I've never seen that face before!"
And it wasn't a lie, not truly: never seeing Suki without Kyoshi Warrior makeup certainly hadn't prepared him for recognizing her without it – or without stronger clues aside from that confusing teasing.
The mood between Sokka and Azula appeared to make more sense now, although the underlying tension remained: Azula wasn't happy, however, when Aang determined they would give up their comfortable trips on the ferry for the sake of traveling across the dangerous Serpent's Pass with the same refugees from before. Sokka appeared just as miserable about the loss of their tickets and passports… and just as paranoid about the Serpent's Pass once they started to traverse it: at one point rocks nearly crushed them, and he shielded Azula with his body while Toph spared them from the falling rocks.
"Thanks, Toph…" Azula said, trying not to be flustered as Sokka pulled away slightly.
"U-uh… didn't mean to… yeah. Well. You're okay, though… right?" he said, biting his lip. Azula nodded weakly.
"You two need to climb a tree," Toph sighed shaking her head. The two of them shot her a confused glance. "You know? That song, people climb trees and make out there or whatever…?"
"Toph!"
She whistled carelessly as she walked past them, leaving Sokka and Azula flustered before each other. It wasn't enough, of course, that things were slightly awkward between them… their friends, naturally, had to make it worse.
But not a lot could make matters worse for Azula, as things stood. Once they made camp at last, in the middle of the night, she sat gazing into the line of the horizon, where the dark sky and the Mo Ce Sea seemed to merge together. The moon, Yue, as she'd finally come to know, hovered there… perhaps watching. Perhaps wondering if she could be half as good for that boy as she might have been. Perhaps knowing that Azula was plagued by the exact same conflict that had stolen her away from him…
And just thinking about him seemed to summon him: Sokka bit his lip as he took his seat beside her. He cleared his throat awkwardly before finally blurting out the actual words he'd wanted to say all day.
"What's bothering you?"
Azula raised her eyebrows and glanced at him. Awkward as he was, his eyes were full of concern.
"I… just can tell you're not okay. You're really quiet, and… well, I guess maybe it's because of how things turned out at the Library? Maybe it's because you don't want to enter an Earth Kingdom city…"
"There's a lot of reasons why I'm not okay," Azula said, simply, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her fingertips. "But… I guess the moon up there is the bigger one."
"The… moon?" Sokka said, gulping. "Huh… you talked to Katara about Yue, didn't you?"
"I'm not going to be an unreasonable asshole… I won't say that because I fancy you, you should've never had any history with anyone else before you met me," Azula said, with a sad grin. "If that's what you thought, anyway. But… I think once she told me about this, I understood. She's the reason why you tried to push me away in the Library, isn't she?"
"N-not for the reasons you might think," Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "It's not that I… that I don't like you as much as I did her, or anything like that. I just…"
"You don't want to lose anyone else the same way you did her. And you'd lose me, for sure."
Sokka gritted his teeth, his fists tightening. Azula breathed out slowly, gazing at the sky.
"I've gotten too caught up in this weird adventure," she said. "It's… nothing like I'd anticipated my first big mission would turn out. I thought I'd be successful, that I'd catch my brother and uncle, defeat the Avatar, overtake the whole Earth Kingdom singlehandedly… and so far, none of that has happened. Instead… I became a prisoner. And I… ended up befriending my captors, to the point where… where I don't even try to run away despite I'm no longer in chains."
"It wasn't that bad, though, was it?" Sokka asked.
"No. But it will be bad, in the future," she said, gazing at him earnestly. "I don't know what I mean to you… but I do know that I'm not much better than your Princess Yue. My loyalty is for my nation. I… I intend to fight by my father's side. Even if we're friends… even if we're more than that, as soon as I can find anyone trustworthy, I'd double-cross you. And then we'd be back to being enemies. And…"
"And?" Sokka said, his voice sad… though he was immediately alarmed by the chagrin on Azula's face.
"And… your Avatar? He… he's going to kill my father, isn't he?"
The question took Sokka by surprise. His eyes widened… for he had never thought of the Fire Lord as someone's father. As someone anyone genuinely cared about. And yet Azula's anguished face spoke lengths about how much he meant to her.
"It doesn't matter how hard we fight, how we push to win the war… I saw what he did when he lost his temper with those sandbenders," Azula said, gritting her teeth. "Not even with Sozin's Comet's return will we be able to stop him if he's trained enough by then. There's… there's no point, There's no happy ending, you said it yourself. And with him… I'll go down, too."
"N-no! No, Aang would never…!" Sokka started, but he froze: yes, Aang would have to kill Fire Lord Ozai, he had always assumed as much. Defeating him would likely require more than just demanding for his surrender. There was no chance in hell Ozai would step down for less than death… and yet: "He'd never hurt you. He'd never be able to hurt someone who was his friend."
"Not even if that friend is fighting alongside a man who'd do a lot worse to him than steal his sky bison?" Azula asked, eyeing Sokka in disbelief. "On top of that, I… I don't even know how I'll ever… how I'll ever fight you guys, if it comes to that. Any of you. I've learned so much about your skills, your abilities, your strengths and weaknesses… and I don't want to even picture going against you anymore. I…"
"Then don't picture it. Don't oppose us!" Sokka said, reaching for her hands with his. Azula blinked at the contact and gazed at him in confused disbelief. "Look… you don't want your dad to die? I get that. I don't want mine to die either. Granted, the war's not my dad's fault but… never mind, that's not the point! The thing is… Aang is a pacifist. He's a good kid. If it comes to it, maybe he won't want to kill your dad at all, and he'll find another way. We can all find other ways! You… you know him. You know your father better than anyone! If you want things to change, if you don't want us to defeat your nation, then… help us!"
"How does that make any sense…?" Azula asked, Sokka shook his head.
"Work with us," Sokka said. "See the world with us. Understand how many mistakes the Fire Nation made. And then, when we go see the Fire Lord… you can help him see reason. And if he won't? Then… we can try to defeat him without killing him. And you can take his place."
"I… what?!" Azula exclaimed. Her sadness was now replaced by utter disbelief. Sokka smiled awkwardly.
"Look… this is crazy, you and me. Maybe it's… too fast? Though, it was really fast with me and Yue too, so I don't know how to go slow, if anything" he chuckled "But I don't know how I'd fight against you either… not for real. I want you on my team. I want to be in yours. And heck… as big and burly and strong as the Fire Nation has tried to be, if you can tell already that the Avatar is going to overcome everything and bring back balance, what's the point of fighting? Your people will pay the price if the war continues to escalate and if Aang's involved, it will be turned against the Fire Nation eventually, just as it was in the North Pole. There can be a happy ending, Azula, if the war just… ends. If we don't have to go that far to make it stop. Look, I hate your dad… but if you can make him pull back his army and make amends as best he can for all the harm he and his forefathers did, I'd never ask for his death. I wouldn't need it. I don't need him to die, I just… I just need the world to make sense again. I just need a world where people don't have to die like Yue did. A world where… where I wouldn't lose you the way I lost her."
Azula didn't say anything for a moment, despite Sokka was gazing at her intensely, holding her hand as he was. He bit his lip at her silence, unsure of what to do… until she leaned closer, her lips hovering inches from his…
And then she lowered her head, pressing her face to his shoulder instead. Sokka bit his lip as her hand tightened around his, as her eyes closed tightly.
"You don't have to make a choice right away, right now," Sokka whispered, his thumb stroking the back of her hand. "But… you can choose anyway. Whatever Aang says or thinks… as far as I'm concerned, destiny can change if you want it to. If you fight to make it so."
Destiny…? Was that truly what guided them? Was there a force that kept them locked into set decisions and choices… or were they altering the world with each new step they took to oppose what was expected of them?
Azula raised her gaze, finding Sokka still watched her. She gritted her teeth before leaning in far more decisively: her lips brushed his lightly, and this time he kissed her wholeheartedly, no longer in as clumsy and silly a manner as he had while drinking cactus juice. That had still thrilled her when it happened, despite she hadn't wanted to feel giddy about it… but this? His arms held her closer, and her heart was beating so fast she thought it would burst from her chest. She liked this… she liked him. She really liked him.
Maybe she felt something stronger than that, even. For it seemed so did he.
She probably should have been losing her mind about how absurd it was to fall in love with the enemy. About how ridiculous it was to find herself so appealed by a Water Tribesman she had barely known for a few weeks. About how outrageous it would be that the exemplary, ideal Princess Azula had cast everything into the wind, forsaking all notions of being saved, of being found, of being her father's perfect child and heir… but somehow, the heart she had kept in check for so long was beating powerfully anew, filling her very soul with emotions and feelings that floored her. Emotions that she had thought she'd never feel… let alone for someone who embodied everything she should have never loved at all.
And yet that didn't stop her from falling asleep holding his hand that night. It didn't stop her from walking with him the next day, sharing awkward smiles, as she pondered her future some more. As she reasoned that there were so many choices left ahead of her: she could still push him away, if anything compelled her to… she could run away in Ba Sing Se, if she wanted to. Just so… she could stay, if she wanted to.
Granted, things weren't quite so cheerful anymore when the giant serpent attacked. That was quite the disaster: Toph fell into the water, leading both Sokka and Azula to jump in for her and swim her back to safety while Aang and Katara deflected the giant creature's attacks and ensured the refugees got through safely. And then? Then the pregnant one decided it was the ideal time to have her baby. Yes, of course Azula knew that wasn't something anyone just decides on, but she couldn't have picked a worse timing… yet huddling together with Sokka as they dried up after their incursion in the water wasn't the worst thing ever. And while the Avatar had still been somewhat miserable, it seemed he was far happier once Katara finished helping deliver the baby, and things should have moved along better from that point onwards, as they escorted the refugees to the city itself…
Until Aang saw the drill.
She knew what it was as soon as he described it. She knew exactly what was happening: it was a stratagem her father had plotted and concocted from a long time ago, commissioned to the inventor who had taken up refuge in the Northern Air Temple. It was on its way to tear down Ba Sing Se's walls, and it would breach all the way to the Earth Kingdom's Palace if it was uncontested… and it would be. It would be.
It was a won battle already. There was no way the five of them could stop them… and did she even want to stop them?
They climbed the Outer Wall and watched how Earth Kingdom troops were fighting back; the very sight of them told Azula she would have to make her choice far sooner than Sokka had intended her to. He eyed her with uncertainty often, though he didn't reveal his doubts… despite Azula could see in Aang, Katara and Toph's expressions that they were doubting, just as much as he was. It was the first time she had confronted her own nation by their side… and for all they knew, she would turn the fight around and help her nation, instead.
The so-called Terra Team attacked the drill relentlessly, but to no avail: their earthbending would never withstand the drill's might. The tanks that accompanied the drill had been cast away quickly, or so the earthbenders had believed, but they retaliated before long. And while the earthbenders fought fiercely, and defeated some of the firebenders, in the end their resistance amounted to nothing.
"So, the question is…" Aang said. "How are we going to stop that thing?"
All eyes turned towards Sokka, who had been studying the drill intently. He blinked blankly upon sensing he was being watched.
"Why are you all looking at me?" he said, grimacing.
"Because you're the idea guy," Aang answered, quickly.
"Oh, so I'm the only one can come up with a plan?" he retorted.
Well, no, no he wasn't the only one. But no one had asked her yet. And she wondered briefly if no one would.
"Azula?"
It was, of course, Sokka who called her name. He eyed her hopelessly, despite his tone seemed to suggest he clung to some sort of hope, regardless. The others watched him intently, and the Fire Nation Princess waited quietly for him to finish what he was saying.
"Do you know anything about this thing? Anything about how we can defeat it?" Sokka asked. Azula breathed deeply and raised her eyebrows, holding off from answering for almost ten whole, endless seconds:
"I might," she finally said. Sokka's eyes widened as the rest of the group gasped.
"Please, tell us!" Aang said, stepping towards her. "So many people will be in danger if we do nothing… Azula, I know you were our prisoner, but now? You're our friend. Please… help us save Ba Sing Se."
Her fist tightened. She frowned heavily. Cornered, forced to make up her mind, just as she was trying to enjoy the freedom of having a choice… brilliant.
"There's only one way to take down that thing," Azula said, dismissively. "And it's from within. We need to get inside the drill."
"Wait… we?" Sokka said, blinking blankly. Azula huffed, raising her eyebrows.
"Did you think you'd do this without me? That I'd sit out on my own plan?" she asked.
"Well… no. But, you know, you don't really have to join in if you don't want to," said Sokka, swallowing hard. "I know this isn't, well, anything you wanted to do, so…"
"Not like I have much of a choice anymore, do I?" Azula said, bluntly.
She proceeded to explain what she had in mind… and to her surprise, Sokka added his own ideas to her plan just as well. At first, her suggestions seemed to startle the others, for it sounded like a rather risky venture, one that could backfire so easily… and yet there was no other way. They had to trust her… to trust she knew that drill. To trust she wouldn't turn against them, even if her strange stiffness, her sudden distance, suggested she might.
They made their way down the wall again, gathered under a crevice: Toph whipped up a dust cloud and then a tunnel for them to travel through, unseen. Once they reached the drill, Sokka spotted a possible entrance, and Aang helped hoist each of them into the drill until Toph seemed to get cold feet at the last moment, choosing to stay on the ground and fight back from outside the drill instead.
"Okay, so we need the layout of this machine if we're going to figure out the best spots to break," Sokka said, looking around himself. Pipelines ran through the system, powering it, and before long, he settled on breaking one that appeared to be a source of gas rather than any other substance.
"What are you doing?!" Katara exclaimed.
"Someone's going to have to come fix it!" Sokka grinned. "And it'll probably be an engineer. We can just steal the drill's plans from him and be done with it!"
Azula bit her lip as she retreated into a dark corner with the group. Soon enough, an engineer did show up. Katara stepped out into the open…
Only for a sharp kick to her lower back to knock her to the floor.
"Wha…?!" Aang gasped. "KATARA!"
He had no time to respond: a sharp blow to the back of his neck knocked him unconscious just as well.
The last one left, of course, was Sokka. His eyes were wide with hurt, and Azula eyed him apologetically before striking him down too, digging her knee into his stomach.
"What is…?! What?! Princess?!" the engineer exclaimed.
"Ugh. It was about time," she said, rolling her eyes- "Please, help me bring those three to War Minister Qin. Clearly, one can't be captured around here and expect assistance, can they?"
"We heard you were missing in action, but we trusted you'd prevail!" exclaimed the engineer.
"Enough with the pointless excuses!" Azula shouted, freezing the man in place with her harsh words. "We have work to do. That city will be ours."
She glared at Sokka, who squirmed, the only one still conscious, on the floor. He gazed at her pleadingly, but her eyes' sharp, golden steel offered no respite. She had made her choice. She would simply have to figure out if she could live with it.
"You're ALIVE! It's a miracle! You've returned to us, Princess!" War Minister Qin was exclaiming happily, and Sokka would shoot glares at him from the top-most observation deck's floor. His sister and the Avatar, tied beside him against a railing, were doing the same thing, now they were back to their senses. "Oh, the Fire Lord will be thrilled that you are, and that you brought the Avatar with you, too! Today marks a grand victory for our great nation!"
"That it does, War Minister, for sure," Azula declared, languishing carelessly on a throne-like chair that still stank of the War Minister's stale perfume. Of course, the man had been happy to sit here until she had arrived. No doubt, despite all his apparent bliss over her return, he was definitely distraught about having to share his triumph with her. "Are we progressing well so far?"
"Perfectly on schedule, Princess! We should make contact with the outer wall within the next ten minutes!"
"Ten minutes, is it?" she said, raising her eyebrows. "How utterly sluggish and slow is this damn machine that it would take that long? This… this is truly a pathetic strategy. Did that Mechanist design this machine deliberately to stall us?"
"Well…! We have, yes, suspected as much, but… surely that's not the case! And even if it were, we'll keep going, Princess, of course!" said the War Minister.
Azula huffed, raising her chin haughtily.
"Full speed ahead, War Minister."
"F-full…? Well, we are going at the safest speed we can…"
"Full speed, I said!"
"R-right! Yes, Princess!"
It wasn't a good idea, he knew: the system was delicate, despite how sturdy it was from the outside. Any overloading of materials could cause a clog within the machine's drill, and if that happened… oh, her recklessness could doom their whole enterprise. She shouldn't demand for this, but how to say no?
The drill began moving faster, digging up earth from down below to move forward. A sharp glance at the three that sat, gagged and restrained, on the floor… Azula rose to her feet, and the War Minister nearly winced as Azula gestured at the periscope.
"Please, keep watch. Ensure we're headed in the right direction at all times, War Minister."
A rather ridiculous order, and yet again, the War Minister rushed to the periscope and abided by it. All other eyes on the command module were set on their respective tasks, too, for they were busy setting up everything so the Princess's full-speed order would be heeded…
And so, none of them saw the Princess step towards the three captives and burn off their restraints.
It was a rather strange but amusing pandemonium: Aang's airbending took everyone by surprise as he crafted a whirlwind inside the command module. Sokka rushed towards his weapons and Katara's water pouches, which the War Minister had requisitioned: together they took to taking down the rest of the engineers within the room… while Azula had a rather violent firebending showdown with the two Imperial Firebenders within the module, tasked with the protection of their mission. The War Minister screamed desperately, no doubt searching for a place to go… only for Sokka to deliver an uppercut at him, knocking him unconscious right away.
"HA!"
There wasn't too much time to celebrate yet, though: he rushed to help Azula, tossing his boomerang to distract one of the firebenders. The Princess smirked at him, taking the opportunity to deliver a most lethal charged fire blast at the firebender's stomach from the soles of her shoes, after she performed a somersault that left Sokka gaping in wonder at her skill. The next firebender attempted to attack only for Azula to dodge him, trip him with a firebending kick, and leave him for Sokka to finish off with a powerful blow of his club to his helmet, a sure way to knock someone out.
By the time the two main firebenders were done, everyone else was either surrendering or had given up already. And so, Azula made her way to the machines, switching each value to its opposite one as violently as possible, both to ensure the drill would either collapse fully or at least move in the wholly opposite direction.
"We did it! We stopped the drill!" Aang exclaimed, hugging Katara excitedly.
"And it didn't even reach the Outer Wall!" Sokka said, beaming brightly as he helped Azula with busting the machine. "Princess, your plan was GENIUS!"
It wasn't long before some loud explosion resounded through the mechanism: of course, so many careless commands would eventually be too many for the machine. It would break down – without exploding, hopefully – and it would be out of commission for good, as long as the Earth Kingdom's authorities took the machine and dissembled it safely…
Azula released a deep breath before turning to smile at Sokka. He stood beside her, grinning just as brightly as he had when he had been intoxicated… though far more earnestly, this time.
"I was sent to hunt down a traitor and a failure…" she said. "And I guess I'm the traitor now, huh?"
"Definitely not the other thing, though," Sokka said, beaming. "I always knew you were the best your dad could send after us! Look at this! You tore them down in one go! This was…! You're just…! Hell, I…"
"You have something to say, yes?" Azula asked, amused. "Are you going to sing praises about me? Declare me the greatest being that ever lived? Or perhaps will you say embarrassing things such as 'I melt in your hands' once again?"
"Y-yeah, well…" he chuckled, his hands on her shoulders. "You know what? Yes, I can say I definitely melt in your firebending hands, Azula. Especially after today. I know what this means to you. I know how much you're sacrificing for, well… us. But I think… or rather, I hope? That it'll turn out okay in the end?"
"I sure hope so too. Because if not, you'll have to refund me for all this faith I'm putting in you," Azula said, pointing at him and pressing her index finger to his chest. Sokka chuckled, lowering his gaze. "Make sure I won't regret this, alright? Tall, warrior boy?"
"I can think of an idea or two to achieve that, dangerous, beautiful Princess," he grinned.
His brow pressed against hers just before he kissed her, fully. Aang blinked blankly as he watched them – as did the conscious crew members of the drill, gaping in utter disbelief at their Princess's shameless behavior: wasn't she supposed to be the good kid, as opposed to her brother?
"Woah," Aang managed, but Katara laughed beside him, tugging him away, towards the people they'd have to keep watch over.
"Come on, it's not polite to stare," she said.
"You're taking this way too well, huh?" Aang grinned. Katara shrugged.
"What can I say? I guess she grew on me, just a little," she smiled. "Besides… this way you'll have a firebending teacher, right?"
"And she'll be the best teacher ever!" Sokka declared, revealing he and Azula had stopped kissing by then, though his arm remained wrapped around her shoulders. She gasped.
"Hey! I never did say I'd do that, did I?" she asked. Sokka laughed and shrugged.
"And why wouldn't you?" he said. "It'll be fun!"
Azula groaned and shook her head, though she smiled as her friends laughed together. Her friends… new friends, who hadn't wanted her for her title, her position, her privilege. Friends who had shared their meals, even their bedding with her, who had worried about her, who had protected her… and whom she had protected, just as well. It was a strange sensation, one she wasn't sure she had ever felt before… but as she stood there, an arm wrapped around Sokka's waist, watching his most goofy, cheerful grin, Azula guessed she melted in his hands just as well, for this was exactly where she wanted to be.
"So… do you really think Zuko is going to be somewhere around here?" Ty Lee asked, nonchalantly, at Mai. "Maybe we really should've gone back to find Azula… she would've tracked him easier than us."
"We had the beasts, she had nothing. If she didn't come back to us, it's because she couldn't. There's no reason to think she would've done any better than we have," Mai sighed.
The damn ferry station was a pain: she and Ty Lee had secured outfits to blend in as Earth Kingdom, dreary colorful stuff she would never wear if she could help it. Then, they'd tracked down two people and with her knives, threatened them out of their passports and tickets. They had raced away, crying… and Ty Lee had certainly seemed sorry for it, but Mai wasn't too bothered about the matter. Surely Azula would've done worse to people if she'd wanted what she didn't have, right?
But the damnable ferry just wouldn't arrive, would it? The sooner they reached that damn huge city, the sooner she'd be close to tracking down Zuko…
"Uh… huh? Mai! Mai!"
Mai's eyes drifted towards the direction Ty Lee was pointing at: the passports lady was speaking to two newcomers: a short, balding man with a silver beard… and a young man with dark hair, and a rather violent scar across his face.
"You… you figured it out! You found him!" Ty Lee exclaimed, beaming. "Aww! This is soooo romantic!"
Despite the discomfort of the situation hadn't decreased in the least, Mai smiled: maybe this ferry station wasn't so bad, after all.
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