#Appa draws badly
Text
#Appa draws badly#Rhink#elkhound (snugglebaby)#I literally bled to make this happen#No I'm kidding#But kinda#I was cleaning my desk to make room for drawing etc#And jammed the side of my hand into very sharp tweezers#Ouch#Anyway#Ever since I saw the pics and clips from#Mythicon#I wanted to draw Link in his dj getup
66 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Painted Lady
Air Bison, Sea Bison, and now Sludge Bison.
I have no idea how Aang is swimming through a solid. Must be an Avatar thing.
I bet there would be time for more potty breaks if Sokka hadn't spent 100+ hours of their time drawing up the schedule. A very Sokka thing to do though.
Because hills often have horns. Great disguise.
You can't tell me that a factory that close to their town wouldn't also become the town's primary employer.
That is a lot of town.
I sense a return of preachy Katara. This episode is going to suck.
I'm with Sokka on this one. Buy fish, move on, defeat Firelord, return to help with environmental remediation if time permits.
I like Doc. And Shu. Nice people.
Writers: if you have to make one of your characters an entirely different person to set up the episode's lesson of the week, maybe the lesson doesn't fit your chosen characters. This is the Warriors of Kyoshi all over again. Funny how that's happened to Sokka twice.
We are all Sokka.
And where exactly did this mysterious painted lady get the food to deliver to the village, if the reason the Gaang stopped in the village in the first place was because they needed food?
Let the record show: I lost the last of my patience with this episode 8 minutes and 9 seconds in.
Waterbending healing has never thrown off that much light before. Even the spirit oasis water wasn't that bright.
Also where is the water she's healing with? Usually she has a big bubble of it.
Impersonating a religious figure. That won't end badly.
"Well I hope she returns every night otherwise this place would go right back to the way it was." YES!!!!!! THAT'S THE POINT!!!!!
What was Katara's plan? Forget about the eclipse, forget about fighting the Fire Lord, we're going to stay here for the rest of our lives so that the painted lady can put in a nightly appearance. THIS IS WHY SOKKA DOES THE PLANNING.
Spirit magic is more doing the worm than doing the wave. Good to know.
Bold of a kids' show to advocate for ecoterrorism.
Aang's like "Hey spirit lady! Here's my resume! Here's my connections on LinkedIn!" Why did Katara think that faking being a spirit within two feet of the bridge to the spirit world would be consequence free? Actually that presupposes that Katara thought. Which she didn't. Sokka does her thinking.
"I don't get to meet many spirits. But the ones I do meet, not very attractive." I am OFFENDED on Yue's behalf. And Sokka's. I guess Aang doesn't like Water Tribe girls after all.
"I guess I just became her." No. That's an excuse and a deflection. I don't want to hear it.
What was I saying about Aang and Katara enabling each others' bad tendencies?
Sokka is horribly out of character this episode, but Aang is as well. In what universe would Aang be so unbothered by Appa being sick, and then so unbothered by the reveal that Katara had been faking Appa being sick? Like, this is Appa. He nearly skinned a bunch of sandbenders over the guy. And he finds out Katara's been messing with him and calls her 'great' and 'a secret hero.'
So this factory, despite being operational 24/7, has no night staff, not even a night guard? Because if it does (which it absolutely does - automation is a problem for factories in our world, not the ATLA one), Katara and Aang just killed A LOT of people.
And so she follows up one short term solution with another short term solution, which causes a third problem she will no doubt solve with a short term solution. You think there won't be reprisals for the only obvious suspects to this industrial sabotage? You think they won't rebuild the factory?
Sokka was kidding when he said that the Spirit Lady had better blow up the factory, but not in the way Katara thought he was kidding. Katara thought he wasn't being serious. But Sokka was serious, in that blowing up the factory is as short term a solution as appearing every night. He thought the joke - exchanging one bad solution for another - was obvious.
Somebody's enjoying himself a little too much.
Unfortunately, serving as Exhibit A is the most Toph has had to do all episode.
It is cathartic to see someone finally call Katara on her nonsense. But I'll bet everything I own that the narrative is going to side with her anyway.
Welp. I won that bet.
"You need me." Correct! Katara unsupervised needs bailing out after five minutes.
"And I will never turn my back on you." A much more realistic goal than never turning your back on anyone who needs you, and also Sokka summarised in one sentence. Impressive for an episode where they had to Flanderise him beyond recognition to make Katara somehow the good guy.
Oh for fuck's sake. It's not about having a heart. This late in the game it's pure damage control.
So that's where the Painted Lady's food came from. I guess Fire Nation factories count as pirates?
I like the jetskis. The seem far more stable than actual jetskis.
It never occurred to Katara to obscure the evidence even a little bit? At least rub some dirt on the emblem. Look at me assuming Katara has thoughts.
Actual reprisals for once. About time.
This kid is annoying.
Toph gets to be a haunted house sound effects machine.
That's awfully waterbendery for a Fire Nation spirit.
I don't buy for a minute that anyone would be able to stay perfectly upright and balanced after an air blast from below without extensive trampoline training.
This won't work. His superiors, or the next shift change, or the first recruit wanting to climb the ranks quickly, will rise to the challenge presented here by the "painted lady." And as soon as one FN attack goes unchallenged by the "painted lady," the village is toast. I give them a week, tops.
Kudos to some clever in-universe bending special effects. Doesn't save the episode though.
Katara's preachy speech here makes absolutely no sense in light of the rest of the episode. Scolding them for not saving themselves, when waiting around for someone to save them appears to have worked perfectly? And having little miss I-must-save-the-whole-world-on-a-weekly-basis-otherwise-my-sense-of-self-implodes deliver that scold?
Who are these people wearing the Gaang's skin?
Yeah, nothing screams undercover in enemy territory like an entire village knowing that you're a waterbender. Good thing the only competent tracker in the Fire Nation is Zuko, otherwise these kids will absolutely be dead long before the eclipse.
Hi Bushi! You're about the only part of this episode that doesn't drive me nuts!
At least the animators had fun with this one.
Is this guy mopping the river?
Exactly how many days did they take out of Sokka's schedule to restore the ecosystem? I don't care how overlevelled these kids are at bending, you cannot mechanically separate an entire river's worth of dirt from water in an afternoon.
Well that's just he piss icing on the shit cake, isn't it? It wasn't enough for Sokka to lose all reason and come around to Katara's very flawed way of thinking, it wasn't enough for Aang to call her a hero, it wasn't enough to have a village worshipping at her feet, Katara needs affirmations of how right and special and correct and perfect and morally justified she is from the spirit world itself. This is Mary Sue stuff.
Final Thoughts
This is the first time an episode of Avatar has felt like a waste of my time.
It's also the first time I've felt like an episode has gone out of its way to insult the audience.
Katara talking about how she knows what she's doing is wrong is worth absolutely nothing when a) she goes right back to doing it; and b) literally every other part of this episode trips over itself to assure Katara that she's in the right.
Katara is downright punchable this episode. Sokka is Flanderised; Toph is non-existent; Aang is just there; poor Appa is an unwitting accessory to crime; and Momo has as much impact as a housefly.
So the execs forgot about the existence of The Spirit World Part One and demanded a save the environment special episode. The writers responded by forgetting that they'd already established that Katara was ride or die for literally anyone with a pulse in Imprisoned, and gave us this to remind us of that fact. They also forgot that they'd already established that Katara has no moral code whatsoever the minute her personal interest is involved in The Waterbending Scroll, so they decided to recycle the "narrative sides with Katara endangering them all over Sokka being reasonable" plot from that episode and hope we wouldn't notice. We did.
At least with Imprisoned, Katara kind of sort of caused the problem that she fixed. She was super tangentially involved in that kid's arrest. Here, she causes problems by trying to fix problems that she didn't really have any business getting involved in.
The more of this I watched, the more I wanted someone to slap Katara. What I wouldn't give for an episode where she is wrong (has happened a lot) and the episode doesn't pretend otherwise (has never happened). For god's sake, LET HER BE WRONG AND FEEL IT. How else is she going to progress past being self-righteously fourteen? Why is she being so consistently insulated from consequences? Aang chooses power over family at the end of season two and gets actually murdered for it. Katara steals, lies, skirts dangerously close to being a false prophet and does a nifty little ecoterrorism (with Aang's help), and she gets villagers being a bit shouty before big brother comes in and fixes it. Then she gets divine sanction for her actions so even the shouty bit is negated.
There's an interesting contrast in Katara's "I will never turn my back on people who need me" and Sokka's "I will never turn my back on you." It shows which of the two doesn't have their head in the clouds, and has actually formulated realistic expectations of how much a single person can do. It also speaks to the fundamental difference in how they operate. Katara acts; Sokka mitigates. Sokka does Katara's thinking for her; Katara outsources her thinking and then gets pissed when rational thoughts don't conform to her emotions' view of the world.
Why haven't the villagers moved away? If the water was poisoning them this much, why are they still here? Was the early 2000s too early to have a theme of climate refugees? Or the pollution equivalent? That would have been more interesting than this.
I hated this. Why isn't this the episode that gets hated on like the Great Divide? Its sins are nothing compared to this.
Doc, Shu, and Bushi were the only good thing in this episode, but they weren't enough to make this one remotely rewatchable.
One out of Three so far on season three episode quality. No other season has had this bad a ratio this early. This does not bode well for the rest of this season.
116 notes
·
View notes
Text
sooo.... anyone else ever wondered how different ATLA would have been if aang had been frozen at age 16 instead of age 12?
yeah... me too 😌 my new fanfic "the teenager in the iceberg" follows the events of the show, but with only aang aged up, while everyone else remains their canon age.
also...cmon....how funny is it to switch zuko and aang's iconic dialogue to "you're just a teenager!" "...so are you?"
this idea was originally inspired by the talented @allgremlinart's aged up aang drawings, so please go show them some love!!:)<3
enjoy the excerpts from chapters one and two!
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
Aang chuckled, pushing himself up with his hands on his knees. He was… taller than Katara had realised, taller than Sokka. He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, turning to look over his shoulder at the remains of the boulder-sized chunk of ice he had just been blasted out of. “Aang. My name’s Aang.” He hesitated, momentarily seeming to puzzle something over. “And honestly? No clue. Don’t remember how me and…Appa!” He yelped, suddenly scrambling back over the hill of ice and snow. Katara followed him without thinking, and Sokka, grumbling under his breath, followed moments later.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
“So, you’ve brought a monster to invade the village, then? You’re some incognito Fire Nation soldier sent in as an undercover scout? Well, I’ll have you know that I’m the village’s strongest warrior, a-”
“The only warrior,” Katara chimed in, lightly elbowing Sokka’s side, earning herself a responding glare.
“The strongest warrior.” Sokka reiterated. “And I don’t much like firebenders.” He added the words pointedly.
“Ah.” Aang titled his head. “That’s a shame. Some of my closest friends are Fire Nation.”
“Of course they are,” Sokka glared, hunching over into a defensive position and adjusting his fishing spear until it pointed directly at Aang.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
Katara still wasn’t quite sure what to make of Aang. The Water Tribe boys had always been all flashy muscles, seal-jerky breath, and overconfidence, so Katara had never seen someone move, carry themself, the way Aang did.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
Katara had admittedly forgotten how much fun penguin sledding was. “Spirits, I haven’t done this since I was a kid!” she called to Aang as he raced past her, surprisingly skilled considering that he’d never even seen a penguin until half an hour before.
“You still are a kid!” He called back over his shoulder. “A kid who’s losing this race, badly !”
Katara’s competitive streak reared its head, her eyes narrowing as Aang stuck out his tongue. She sat up slightly, no longer gripping the penguin’s fur as tightly. “You wish!” She shouted back the words as she raised her hands, breathing deeply. Her hands moved through the positions she had practised from the few bending scrolls the tribe still held on to, and before Aang knew it, the snow in front of Katara turned to ice, and she shot past him as his own ice trail suddenly became dry snow with too much friction to slide on.
She made it to the bottom of the hill, beaming, breathing heavily. The wind had whipped her hair out of her bun, and she knew without checking that her hair must have looked like a lion-turtle’s mane. She watched as Aang made a show of drying himself off with a gust of wind that he then redirected at her, messing up her curls even more.
“You’re a cheater !” Aang gasped, mockingly clutching imaginary pearls at his throat. “I demand a rematch.”
Katara strode past him, only turning her head to cast him a smug smirk. “Maybe you’re just not as good of a penguin sledder as you thought .”
“Oh, not so fast!” Aang grabbed her wrist, tugging her back towards him, and she internally questioned why the momentary brush of their skin made her heart flip. He tried to trip her, she tried to flip him, and they both ended up on their backs in the snow, giggling, cheeks and noses bright pink from the cold.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
“Trouble sleeping too, huh?” Aang cocked a grin, tilting his head to Katara. She kept her eyes fixed upwards, trained on the moon and the stars, worried that if she looked away, she’d end up staring into his eyes like a weirdo.
“I always feel so awake with the moon’s light on me. Sleeping under the stars has never really been a thing that works. It’s too energising, too… too much. It’s hard to explain.”
“No, no… I get it. I feel the same way in a windstorm, all those breezes and gusts of wind, it feels… exhilarating.” She watched through her peripheral vision as he looked up at the moon. “In times of war, I think we all tend to forget how spiritual bending is at its core. I’d say it’s a good thing that you’re in touch enough with the origins of your abilities to feel the moon’s pull tug at you just as much as it does on the ocean.”
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
Aang smiled back. “Now is our time to try to make up for that. I can’t bring back everyone who was hurt in this war, and you can’t bring back your mother, but together, the two-, three of us can make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
“I’d like that,” Katara exhaled, her breath calming down and tears dissipating. The two spent hours talking back and forth, exchanging the stories of their respective childhoods. Katara learned that Aang had invented several new bending moves and had been a big fan of fruit pies, while Aang learned that Katara had always been the bossier one between her and Sokka and that she had almost chipped a tooth on seal jerky when she was six. They continued talking back and forth in increasingly hushed tones until the world faded away under the cover of clouds and sleep.
Katara awoke to the loud shout of her brother.
“Wakey wakey, lovebirds!” he yelped, chucking a rock-hard stick of seal jerky at both of them.
“Ouch, Sokka !” Katara snapped at him, rubbing her head at the spot where she had been hit, before realising that she was leaning against Aang and immediately jumping away, blushing furiously.
♥ check out the two chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->
#atla#katara#sokka#aang#kataang#<- because thats how it reads when u age aang up hehe...#avatar the last airbender#avatar aang#zuko#iroh#fanart#atla kataang#atla fanfic#atla fandom#ao3#writing#ao3 recs#ao3 works#ao3 link#ao3 writer#confessions#fluff#eventual romance#kataang fanfic#aang aged up au#older aang#prince zuko#atla zuko#sassy aang#quillthrillsatlafic
129 notes
·
View notes
Note
More de aged Azula ideas!!!
1. Sokka keeps everything Azula makes while she’s six. For example, any drawing she did Sokka held on to throughout the entire war.
2. When Azula is back to normal again, Sokka will still sometimes slip up and think she’s six so he’s make sure she’s with them, see if she needs help getting on Appa, etc.
3. Sokka has to be incredibly careful and cautious in hugging Azula when she’s crying or had a nightmare. Ty Lee not so much.
4. (Question). Does Azula remember how she acted when she has a childish moment? Or is it more that her 14 year old self just disappears for a few minutes?
Aww, this is so cute 🥺. I didn't think about this before but I'm definitely putting this in the story now.
Not just Sokka, all of them will. They've gotten so used to being around a six year old Azula.
Sokka doesn't want to invade her personal space and make her panic even more, while also worrying that she may respond badly to the hug. Ty Lee has no such worries since she's known Azula for years.
Yep, she does indeed remember those moments. It makes her incredibly embarrassed to be around the others whenever it happens.
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
I'm gonna draw appa from memory hang on
EDIT: IT WENT BADLY
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙 ✰
self-para in which soyi sees her father again / word count: 640
THE MASK COVERED SOYI’S FACE BUT DID NOTHING TO HIDE THE WAY SHE CHEWED AT HER BOTTOM LIP. This level of anxiety was pretty foreign to her, especially when it came to seeing her father. The two were always close but 3 years spent living away from home and spending 350 days of the year training led to distance growing even though they texted every moment they could.
Soyi took a deep breath and adjusted the cap on her recently bleached blonde head, nervously looking around at the crowd in the airport. The likelihood she’d be recognized was small, but many people here were just like her-- waiting for her father to arrive. It wouldn’t be strange if someone found her familiar, and she didn’t want to deal with the consequences if it did happen. Besides, this is her father’s moment. He’d been filming a movie in Japan for a while, so their contact had slowed but no matter what he always texted her good morning and good night--even when she didn’t remember to respond. She didn’t need to be here. It wasn’t like her asked her to join his crowd of fans to see him fly in-- they were actually supposed to meet for lunch after. But Soyi always loved seeing him in his element. Under the spotlight with all the cameras on him. Seo Soonyoung was her father, and he was a star. Larger than life even.
It always seemed like no matter how much older and bigger she got, he just seemed so far away. Maybe that’s way she’s following in his footsteps-- hoping one day she can be as big as him and she’ll earn her place in the galaxy alongside him.
[ ✉️ | soyi’s shining-twinkling-shooting star appa (>‿◠)✌ ]
my baby soyi~ appa is landing soon!! ( ๑‾̀◡‾́)σ" wahhh.. so excited for lunch, please tell me all the stories from training!! love love love you 3000 no 1000000000!!!!
Soyi couldn’t help the way her eyes teared up just from seeing his text message. It was silly, but it made her feel so loved.It didn’t take long for the crowd’s murmuring to turn to loud shouts, drawing Soyi’s attention so sharply she could swear she heard her neck crack. Seeing her father again made her feel like a child. Like he could pick her up and swing her around like he did when she was three. None of the fans or reporters were there-- it was just a father and his daughter.
Disguise be damned.
“Appa!!” Soyi shouted, her eyes full of tears and pushing to the front the best she could. Security, panicked, attempted to push her back but nothing could contain her in this moment. “Appa, it’s Soyi!” Someone would think she was hurt from how hard she cried. The only thing that stopped her tears was the feeling of her being wrapped in a tight hug into a familiar chest.
“Ah, Soyi. You know you can’t just run at me from the crowd like that. You could get hurt.” Soonyoung was laughing, but anyone could tell from the way his voice cracked that he wanted to cry just as badly as she.
“Appa... I missed you so much,” Soyi sniffed and rubbed at her eyes like a toddler, burying herself into her father’s arms. The flashing cameras and growing crowd meant nothing to either of them “I really, really missed you.” “I’m always right here.” Soonyoung meant it with his whole heart, laying a had on top of the cap on her heard and holding her impossibly tighter. “I’ll always be here.”
Soyi wailed again and even though her father laughed, he didn’t loosen his grip on her. Soonyoung was a star, yes, but more than anything he was her father--and she’d love him forever just like he’d always love her.
#[ ♡ ] self-para#[ ♡ ] just to show how big of a daddies girl soyi is and how she admires him in her path to become an idol
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
A ficlet for you to have a “ha-ha”
SO, I was slightly busy (and lazy) this past three days and i kinda wanna indulge myself now that i have a spare weekend
But i had this dumb idea a whole-lot-of-time ago, so now that i have a bit of free time to sit and outline slash translate this piece so yeahh
what-a-will await you is uh? i have no experience tagging ficlets of even fanfiction but i will try;
Zuko joins the gaang early kinda
Just past s1ep13 The Blue Spirit
Sokka & Aang bonding i hope
Sokka (finally) being a big brother (in his own way tho)
Sick Katara being coddled
Confused Aang
Momo & Appa!
Confused Zuko
Frogs
...and spirit shenanigans
Word count: 2296
So yeah? Click keep reading i guess if you wanna read it *shrug*
A fair share of spirits slips into the world of people. Capable of performing miracles and curses that are worse than death. The Kingdom of Earth seeks protection from spirits for a long milenia now; Honorable grand spirits of Earth, strong-war-thriving ghosts in battlefields, even the weak non-seeable ones receive a fair share of offerings in exchange for a slight chance of protection on their village from Fire Nation army, such a frequent wish. Shridevi, the patroness of rice and plantations; turned out to be friendly and tolerant of small spirits seeking refuge. It is not surprising that minor feeble spirits appear in her grand fields of crop, looking for their calling in this realm. Some of them will become attached to a quiet tree and make it their home, someone will find the hearth of a house and will join the service of Agni. Or be overwhelmed by another more greedy spirit to never exist as itself again. Spirits have no reason to love, definitely not. However, seeing a feebler existence begin to engress her safe plantations, drawing earlier and earlier, keeps a reflection of her deep anguish tangible.
The spirit that freed the avatar from Pohuai Stronghold must have been born in a moment of true unbalace that broke out there. Such a pity her plantations and worshippers long burned. Shridevi sent a gentle breeze across the space where endless fields stood as a farewell to another being she had not been able to see in person hoping her touch reached far enough.
A breeze run through a foliage of trees. “You know what's the worst part about being born over a hundred years ago is? I miss all the friends i used to hang out with!” Aang was sitting on the root of a tall tree. At what point they both ended up here is a real mystery. Why the avatar-child decided to open up abruptly and start talking about his past - a detective thriller in three acts, buy first two act-scrolls and get the finale for free.
“Before the war started, I used to always visit my friend Kuzon; the two of us, we get in’n’out of so much trouble together,” Aang's voice rose to the usual fluctuations in volume, if his head didn't hurt so much, it would be just perfect.
“He was one of the best friends i ever had; and he was from Fire Nation-”
“Just like you.”
OK, that’s it, maybe Aang got sick as well afterall ‘cause what is this sudden Fire Nation sympathy-talk means than. And it could kinda explain why he sees any other people -Fire Nation people- anywhere near their earshot. Well, if sickness makes Aang go suddenly all soppy and open and trusting, maybe it’s not gonna be real pretty if he now betrayed it. Plus, it’s healthy to be emotionaly open isn’t it? Not girly at all right?
“If we knew eachother back then, do you think we could’ve been friends too?” Aang's voice was full of trepidation, excitement, hope. But in his own gut- how could he let Aang down so badly? Hadn't they made it clear to the monk that they were friends? They are not just friends, they are each other's family.
Well, his father wouldn't have been such a great dad if he hadn't taught him how to support others. It remains only to remember how he did it and not how his gran-gran showed it.
“Aang,” the fear to say something wrong fettered him for a second. The voice didn't even seem to belong to him, but a real warrior does not show fear and sticks to his believes till the end. “I hope you know that I'm your friend, we're not on different sides afterall. I understand that your situation is difficult, so much so, that no one has actually faced it before you, but I hope that we can support you in some way, make it easier y’know” laying down and saying those words seemed wrong, but trying to get up and worry Aang seemed like an even worse idea, so be it. By the way, Aang at this moment looked shocked, only looking at him, goosebumps went up his skin. Shock quickly replaced relaxation, and a modest smile crept onto the face of the boy with the arrow on his forehead.
"I knew you weren't bad," Aang replied, he stopped hugging his knees, his smile broght ease into his gut. Well, he probably said something right ‘cause now this mischevous airboy got back at him for exiling Katara and him back and the South Pole right?
"I don't know what you mean, Aang." now, smiling seemed comfortable and easy. Their misunderstandings cleared up and they can relax again on treir respectable sleeping bags? Where is his sleeping bag?
“A-a-ang, what are those- are these leaves?” Oh the universe just lo-o-oves making him miserable huh, maybe he was too quick with the smiles so throwing a frown on his face seemed appropriate. Aang laughed. Even in his throbbing head he could’t stop his muttering about stupid airnomads and their stupid avoidance and their stupid all- Aanginess.
“Well, can you stand up? It's time for us to collect frogs for Sokka and Katara,” the monk jumped from his place on the root of a huge tree.
“What? Frogs? Why do I need frogs all of a sudden?” his body ached,little spots swam in his eyes, it seems that he did not fully recover. But he managed to get to his feet.
"I was at this herbalist's house and she said I needed to collect frozen bog frogs for Sokka and Katara to suck on." Aang looked sweet, content, as if he hadn't said the dumbest thing in the whole wide world. There was a springiness in his steps that usually showed when he was particularly pleased.
“Y”know, Aang, I'm not going to suck bog frogs and I think Katara will not approve either,” he hoped that maybe his fever still hadn't gone as he assumed and his mind was still coming up with words that Aang didn't actually say at all. It's a strategic move to mention all the keywords that Aang said to make sure he said them right.
"Mhm, I guess you won't need to suck on frogs," Aang looked away a little worried and stood still.
“You're not sick, are you? We can get more frogs, you know,” and lo and behold, the eyes of the avatar-child looked at him full of concern. How he could be so sincere was still a mystery worthy of great detectives.
“Uh, Aang, I do get what you mean, but I won’t put a frog in my mouth and definitely won’t suck one,” it seemed like the best option to move them legs and follow the boy; maybe he stopped coughing, but the fever churring weirdly in his stomach and whatever it was with him and Aang's hallucinations that say that somewhere there is a person from the Fire Nation and the frogs that heal are definitely still here. At least he doesn't feel like an earthbender. Everything has its pluses.
"Oh, we can't leave your mask and swords; I'll help," Aang muttered and quickly ran to the tree and the bed of leaves. And he returned, surprise-surprise, with a mask and a sword sheath with a sword hilt sticking out. At what point he managed to acquire a mask and a sword was also a mystery, but such gifts are not just dismissed. Aang jumped a little using his air magic tricks and shod a mask on him, the sword was bestowed in his hands.
***
It turned out that frog-hunting was not a hallucination and as for Aang's behavior; it could be mistaken for a hallucination or some kind of high fever symptom. He literally never ceased to generate happiness.
Something on the left side of his head kept pulling his whole face together, maybe when Katara gets better they can fly down to this crazy herbalist Aang told him about and she can examine his head. Good thing their hiding place wasn't as high as he thought. As soon as he frees his hands from the frogs, he will immediately claw from the avatar how he even ended up in the forest on a bed of leaves. Throughout their frog-hunting, Aang never stopped telling his past adventures with Kuzon and avoided any mentions of the dumb leavy-bed he made.
“Katara! Sokka!” It would seem that Aang can't vibrate with joy any harder than it already was, but here he is, in all his avatar glory.
“I brought you medicine! And you won't believe who I met!” oh, there it is, now he's jumping into the air without realizing he's using his air magic, typical Aang. Katara leaned out from under Appa's legs in an attempt to wave her meets to them. Oh, ocean spirits, she looks even worse than Aang described. She muttered something unintelligible and waved her hand languidly. The older brother's instinct did not fail him and he was already next to Katara and hugging her tightly. How could Aang leave her alone? How did he himself could leave her alone?
“Aang, what should we do? This so- so not looking good,” perhaps his voice betrayed a lot more concern, but this is his family, he can't just not worry.
“Zuko! It'll be all right, just give her the frog!" Aang's eyes darted from him to Katara, he was much more alert, almost nervous, stance ready for battle. Wait, Zuko? The mere mention of that name sent him into a fight-or-flight to inspect all of their hiding place, if the burning-fists prince-jerk was somewhere nearby, then they urgently needed to pack Katara up and fly away, but, there was no prince.His vision swam, he himself was not good to stand a fight and Aang still joke around about Fire Nation. Just. Not good.
“Aang, cut it!” he definitely didn’t shout so loud, as- he didn’t mean to frighten the monk so badly, but the boy cringed under his voice, his fighting stance wobbled as if he readied to bolt. OK, he'll deal with him later, Katara needs help right now. He wiped the cleanest frozen frog he could find and brought it to Katara's mouth. She herself reached out to the frog and literally inhaled the frog until it was half hidden in her mouth.
She...
Sucks.
The frog.
And her face seem’d to calm, the bog frog worked.
“Okay, I'm sorry I shouted, but just imagine how strange it is to put a frog in my sister's mouth, right?” he was still carefully examining how his sister sucked the frog from all sides and looked a little stupid, his hands found themselves gently patting her head and feeling her temperature. Definitely, if he remembers this sight well enough, he can come up with a joke and annoy Katara when she is all healthy.
“Sokka?” Aang asked puzzled. Sokka turned to look at the monk and raised an eyebrow, as if asking silently what he wants. The monk met his eyes, his face full of indescribable emotion, the main emotion was definitely bewilderment thogh.
“Oh, monkey feathers, how did i not see it sooner,” the monk slapped himself on his bald head and left his hand slowly slipping onto his face. Momo swooped down from the sky onto Aang's shoulder, Katara's water skin hanging full around his neck, Momo's fingers actually looked so weird sometimes, especially when those little grippers dug into people's shoulders.
“Aang? What?” Aang was a little too mysterious today, not in a soppy-sick way, it's time for Sokka to sort this out.
“You're Sokka, right?” Aang asked the strangest question Sokka had ever heard, not for the first time today. This is either a field of philosophy that he has not plowed and is not going to plow any time soon, or his fever is playing out again. Collecting himself and pulling himself out of his guesses, Sokka cleared his throat. Momo repeated his cough, but it definitely sounded like Momo, so his fever wasn't so high that he thought Momo was a conspyrasy-spying-animal against their world-saving plans and his high inteligent plays only for their side of this war.
“Yes, Aang, I'm Sokka, the one who is sick and sucks the frog lying on Appa - Katara, the one who stubbornly looks at me and-”
Sokka squealed. His squeal was the most masculine of all possible squeals, thank you very much, it certainly wasn't so loud and high-pitched in sound that everyone's ears got clogged. Momo seems to have suffered enough and flew away to hide behind Appa hiding his ears.
***
The second(?) Sokka broke out of the sleeping bag and performed a firebender kata that was supposed to set something on fire, but instead he just held his fist in the air for a couple of moments. “Hmm, didn't work.” Noticed the second Sokka out loud lowering his fist, after that he quickly did a couple of rolls, after which he grabbed Zuko-Sokka and took away his sheath with a sword- swords, after a couple more rolls, the second Sokka was near Aang, between Sokka and Aang, another Sokka that looks like Sokka. Oh this is so confusing, they need a better system than that.
"Avatar," a voice full of authority sound itself from the second Sokka. Hearing Sokka's voice in that tone was terribly unusual. The second Sokka drew Zuko’s sword from its scabbard and split the sword in two with too much grace for Sokka’s image.
"Whatever body you're hiding in, give up." The second Sokka's voice held on to determination, but his eyes studied each person in their place as like searching for a clue. The swords pointed at Aang and Sokka. “And, my body, you are also coming with me,” nervousness finally caught up with his intonation, he still continued to study everyone in turn thogh. Sokka let out what sounded like laughter in Zuko's body.
"Aang, Katara won't believe the kind of hallucinations I'm having right now. Here, Zuko in my body is threatening us with swords so that I go with him,” Sokka cackled laughing in Zuko's body.
“Well, you know, Aang, you convinced me. I now won't refuse to suck a frog," Sokka said in Zuko's body and was already stuffing the whole frog from his hands into his mouth. The squeal that followed will also be the manliest in the world if real-Sokka wished so. The real-Zuko's swords clanged to the ground,Sokka’s whole body restraining real-Zuko's hands with a reprieve. Appa did not like this concert of squeals as he let out a lowing sound that inclined his fatigue.
“What are you doing with my body?” shouted the second Sokka, probably Zuko-Sokka.
“Trying to suck a frog whole?” Sokka-Zuko answered too simply, still stretching his whole face and tongue towards the restrained hand with the frozen frog in.
“No! Do not dare!” Zuko-Sokka continued to slur, hiss, and pull Sokka-Zuko's hands away from the frogs. Honestly, Aang managed to get confused about who is who, their behavior was not very different from the originals, according to his observations, if he wants to keep track of where who was, then he should come up with something better than Zuko-Sokka and Sokka-Zuko as well.
“Spit it out!”
“Spit it out! STOP!” yes, Sokka was always the one who was not happy with things and he complained, he used to complain loudly. So? Not so different.
“No wait- it’s not- it’s not so bad, I- shhose fhe khleanesht onesh,” Sokka-Zuko justified himself. But to be honest, they saw how Zuko could do things worse than eating frozen frogs, and Sokka realy did choose cleaner ones. And so, the frog ended up in Zuko's mouth. Zuko's body? The loudest squeal escaped Sokka's body, okay, there's nothing to hide, they were both squealing too loudly. Appa sighed with his mighty lungs and lashed his tail in displeasure. Momo was definitely twittering as he crawled all over the bison's hide looking for cover.
Soon, the screams and even hissing stopped. Zuko, in Sokka's body, lay on the stone floor of their hiding place, barely moving. Aang should probably raise him off the stone floor so he could sleep peacefully.
“I'm cursed.”
Oh, thanks the spirits, he doesn't need to be lifted up.
"What do you mean, Zuko?" Aang asked, using Zuko's name just because, avatar intuition, definitely.
“My inner fire, my body, I have been deprived of all,” Zuko began to list sounding too depressed for Sokka’s voice. He let out a shaky sigh and muttered something else, Sokka liked to lie down like that sometimes.
“This is the work of the spirit, I shouldn't have saved the avatar. Spirits are apparently inheritantly evil.” cut Zuko, still face down on the stone floor. “Maybe I could’ve saved the avatar without using a spirit disguise?” at least now he unsticked himself from the ground. Good for him. “Of course!” hissed the prince in Sokka's body, and banged his hands onto floor into a shape that meant flames were about to come out of them. There was no flame.
“Aang! Aang!” having understood, the voice of screaming Zuko meant Sokka. So Aang turned his eyes towards Zuko, well, Sokka. Monkey feathers,what an awkward situation.
“Look!” Sokka was still screaming, but there was fire on his arm, so it wasn't much different from Zuko- It's not really surprising that Sokka was silent when Zuko whailed about loosing his fire and body. He made fire. Zuko seemed to be looking in the direction of the scream as well, because now he was screaming into the stone floor. His cries generally had the idea of something like “you can’t be a firebender for less than two minutes and already make a stable flame” and “this is my body, how does this fire even come out like this”.
#atla au#sokka#aang#avatar aang#zuko#katara#avatar the last airbender#atla#atla s1#prince zuko#momo#appa#my fic#my art#the gaang#atla fanfic
16 notes
·
View notes
Text
Fullmetal Alchemist:
A summary by someone who has never seen the series, but who fell asleep to my husband retelling the plotline based on his recollection from having seen it once over a decade ago
Apparently this is going to continue being A Thing for me. Summary below the cut.
In this world, there is a type of magic called Alchemy. You draw a diagram on the ground, and then throw ingredients into the center, and that casts the spell. It is rare for someone to be born with the ability to perform alchemy, and anyone who can do it is supposed to report to the Alchemist Academy for training, so they can fight in the war.
These two brothers were born in a tiny village, and both of them could use alchemy. This was unheard of, since the gift is apparently not genetic, and so some folks came to kill the boys. Their mom died trying to save them, but they survived. They were horribly heartbroken over the loss of their mother, so the younger brother (about eight years old) suggested they bring her back with alchemy. The older, wiser brother (about ten years old) said that was impossible, because her body was too badly damaged. So the younger brother suggested they just make a new body, since they know the spell for that, and put their mom’s soul in the new body. Older Brother agreed, but something went wrong, and Younger Brother’s soul ended up getting separated from his body. Older Brother panicked, but was able to think quickly and bind Younger Brother’s soul to a nearby suit of armor. Because he was now entirely comprised of metal, he was the Full Metal Alchemist. Older Brother lost an arm in the explosion, and crafted a prosthetic out of metal. He is a Partial Metal Alchemist.
Anyways, the brothers go on a quest to join Magic School so they can join the war and get revenge on the people that killed their mom. They have to fight many bad guys, and make many friends with the people they meet. Everyone thinks Younger Brother is a giant adult wearing a suit of armor, and that Older Brother is making a funny inside joke by calling him the younger brother. This is a constant source of hilarious miscommunication. The brothers are very protective of each other.
One time, they get separated, and Older Brother goes into a rage-fueled frenzy until he rescues him, just like Aang when he loses Appa. They’re reunited, and everyone is happy!
Over the course of their journey, they realize the war is unjust, and the kingdom is super duper corrupt. The magic school is mostly set up to indoctrinate the alchemists so that they will maintain the status quo and enforce the oppression of the masses. So they start a different quest, to eradicate the forces of evil in the world.
(Here is where I may have fallen asleep, so the rest may just be the dream fueled by my husband’s voice)
They get to a point where they can kill the evil ruler, but the brothers disagree on whether or not to go through with it. Either they end up having to fight each other, or they hesitate long enough for the evil ruler to get the upper hand, but somehow Younger Brother ends up being killed. Older Brother is heartbroken, and goes right into rage mode again. He attacks the evil ruler’s army, and is able to wipe them all out, but in the process destroys every other alchemist in the world. He has saved the kingdom from corruption, and from the evil alchemists that were glorified henchmen for the evil ruler. But he’s too depressed to go on, and kills himself. There are no more alchemists in the world now, and there are never any more again, for some reason, because I guess it was genetic after all (????????). The world becomes a Regular World Just Like Ours.
13 notes
·
View notes
Text
Enough | Sokka
based on this request: You want requests? I have an idea/request if you don't mind and are still accepting them, if not I’m sorry. Maybe “friends to lovers/teammates to lovers” where Reader joins the team from Ba Sing Se and while they’re preparing for the invasion, or beyond, Sokka and Reader fall in love, or start to fall in love? I hope that makes sense. Thanks! Your writing is all wonderful! <3
word count: 3.6k
The last thing you'd expected was for the Avatar to break into your house.
You'd been upstairs in your room when you'd heard a ruckus from down below, drawing you to your feet with nervousness and light footsteps. Who was it, burglars? You made your way down the stairs, body pressed against the wall. You heard muffled whispering.
"We can't just break into random houses, Sokka!"
"Well, what else are we supposed to do?! Do you have any better ideas?"
Silence.
"That's what I thought, Aang. Just trust the process."
You peered over the corner, catching sight of the intruders. A boy, a bit shorter than you, stood awkwardly in the corner of your living room. He was dressed in yellow and orange robes, his head decorated with a blue arrow. Huh. Beside him, pulling the curtain back cautiously to scan outside, was a boy seemingly about your age. He was tall, tan skin and dark hair, dressed in a sleeveless blue tunic. You didn't peg these guys as particular threats, so you stepped down.
"Uh, hello?"
They spun around with a yelp, assuming defensive positions. The taller boy held something in his hand - a boomerang? He narrowed his eyes at you.
"What are you doing here?" He demanded.
"Um, this is my house? Who are you?"
He lowered his arm, glancing around sheepishly. "Oh, uh, sorry. We needed to hide."
You raised an eyebrow. "Hide? Hide from who?"
The younger boy spoke up. "The Dai Li."
You furrowed your brows. "The Dai Li?" You questioned, confused. "Why would you need to hide from them? Did you, like, break the law?"
The older boy crossed his arms. "What? No!"
"Then why are you hiding?"
"Because they're after us!"
"Why would they be after you if you didn't break the law?"
"Because!" He was flailing his arms now, and you almost chuckled with amusement. "They - they're bad guys!"
You looked at him flatly. "That sounds like something a criminal would say."
He groaned. "Ugh, ok, ok. Once we know they're gone, we'll leave."
"Are you sure? I was gonna invite you for some tea and cookies," you teased. He glances back, as if seeing if you were serious, before turning back grumpily.
The younger boy scratches his head awkwardly. "Um, anyway, thanks for not kicking us out. I'm Aang."
You chuckle. "Yeah...no problem. I'm Y/n." You aren't quite sure why you're having a conversation with the guys who just broke into your house, but they seem nice enough. The older one's a little grouchy, but for some reason you feel safe.
Aang smiles brightly. "Nice to meet you. This is Sokka," he says, nudging his shoulder.
Sokka glances back at you. "Hey." You offer him a wave.
"So...why are you hiding in my house?"
Aang glances at Sokka, and it seems like a silent argument passes between them. Sokka shakes his head, Aang gives him an imploring look, and Sokka glares. Then he throws his hands up, mumbles a "Fine", and Aang turns back to you with a grin.
"Well, you see, I'm the Avatar," Your eyes grow wide. "And we're trying to get some important information to the Earth King. But the Dai Li don't want us to, so they're kinda chasing us."
"You're the Avatar?" You breathe. He nods cheerfully. "Wait - so, why are the Dai Li chasing you? Shouldn't they be helping?"
"Yeah, they should," Sokka says. "But they decided to, you know, not."
You're confused. The Dai Li are the highest level of protection for the people of Ba Sing Se. Why wouldn't they help the Avatar? You look around the room, spotting the closet near the door. An idea pops into your head.
"I can help." They both turn to you, looking skeptical. "I mean I can help you get out. Without being noticed."
They look at each other, hold their gaze, then turn to you and nod.
///
"I look ridiculous."
You stifle a laugh, taking in Sokka's appearance. "I think you look great. And it'll help you get by unnoticed, so that's what matters."
He's dressed in your father's trench coat, a heavy, brown beast of a thing that's so long it pools at his ankles. He's also sporting a dashing top-hat; the brim so wide it effectively shelters his face. He glares.
Aang comes bouncing in, dressed in a hooded cape that provides coverage for his tattoo. He stops short when he sees Sokka, doubling over in laughter. "Oh, you look great, Sokka."
Sokka groans, slumping over. "Let's just get out of here."
You lead them out the front door, scanning the road for any sign of threats. You step out, the boys following in tow, and walk as confidently as you can past the agents lining the street. Eventually, you successfully make it out of the middle ring. Sokka immediately sheds his disguise.
"Well, here you go," you say, looking around. Although only one ring above you, the Upper Ring is much nicer than you're used to. "Good luck with the Earth King."
Aang's eyes grow wide. "Wait! You should...you should come with us!"
You tilt your head. "Come with you where?"
"Back to our place! You could meet our friends!" He nudges Sokka, who appears disinterested. "Right, Sokka?"
Sokka's eyes snap to yours. "Oh, uh, sure. I guess."
You're about to politely decline, but Aang is staring at you so hopefully that you can't turn him down. You smile softly. "Sure, Aang."
"Awesome! Let's go."
You're led through the cobblestone pathways, eyes trailing after ornate carriages and towering buildings. Soon, you reach their house. The home of the Avatar. Sokka walks up and turns the knob, jumping back in surprise. In front of him stands a girl, not much younger than you, with her hands on her hips and her eyes bright with anger.
"Where have you been?!" She demands, dragging him inside by his collar. "We've been worried sick! I mean, you didn't even leave a note, didn't say anything-"
"We're sorry, Katara," Aang intervenes, hands raised in peaceful greeting. "We got caught up."
It's then that her eyes fall on you, gaze softening into uncertainty. She looks at Sokka expectantly.
"Oh!" He exclaims, stepping back and gesturing towards you. "This is Y/n. She helped us get away from the Dai Li."
The girl, Katara as she'd been called, offered you a slight smile of gratitude. "Thank you for helping my idiot brother."
You chuckled, grinning at the look of betrayal Sokka gave the girl. "It was no problem."
She nodded, extending her arm. "Do you want to come in?"
You glanced towards Aang, who was smiling excitedly. "Oh, yeah, sure."
You stepped inside, feeling a bit awkward. You didn't really understand why Aang wanted you to come so badly, but it was a kind gesture nonetheless. You scanned the interior; emerald walls adorned with gold plating that was probably more expensive than your whole apartment. You fidgeted your fingers, standing by while Katara and Sokka bickered about responsibility. A slam startled you out of your thoughts.
"Who's this?" A girl stepped out of the - hole? Yeah, hole, she'd just kicked a hole in the wall. Katara paused her lecture.
"Toph, this is Y/n. She helped Sokka and Aang with the Dai Li."
"Cool." She yawned, walking past you and plopping on the couch.
"We need to get to the Earth King," Sokka said, assuming a demeanor of focus and determination. "If the Dai Li aren't going to help us get to him, we'll have to do it ourselves." He briefly explained his plan, something about breaking into the fancy party that was happening later that night. They came up with roles, with guidelines for what each person should do, working together like a well-oiled machine. You felt out of place, you didn't know what your purpose was here. Aang turned to you, smiling softly.
"Y/n, you in?"
You stared. You couldn't comprehend the reason this boy had so much faith in you, the reason these kids were so willing to let you in on their scheme after just meeting you less than an hour ago. You didn't understand why you trusted them, either. You smiled.
"I'm in."
///
That was your first mistake.
When you'd agreed to break into an Earth Kingdom party with the Avatar, you didn't think you'd end up having to flee your home. You sat upon Appa's back, knees pulled to your chest as Ba Sing Se grew smaller. Sokka was steering, and the rest had their heads tucked into their hands. Except for Aang, who was lying unconscious next to Katara.
You'd remained in the city with Katara as the rest of the group separated, happy to spend some time with your newfound friend. It was then that things got messy; you found out the Fire Nation had infiltrated the government, the local tea-boy was actually a banished prince, and you found yourself in the crystal catacombs as a battle went on around you. You'd been there with Zuko and Katara, and you weren't sure exactly what'd gone down between them but it was obviously something serious, and you'd been there as he joined his sister - Azula. She was pretty scary.
You fought the best you could, your unpracticed earth-bending not doing much damage against the Dai Li agents, before Aang was struck by Azula's lightning. Now, you sat atop his sky-bison, mind racing and body numb from the shock of it all. You were in way over your head.
The five of you met up with Sokka and Katara's dad after dropping off the Earth King, because, you know, he was just casually there, too, boarding a Fire Nation ship as a means of disguise. Sokka introduced you to his father, Hakoda, who welcomed you with a warm smile and a firm handshake.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Y/n. Sokka's told me a lot about you. You two must really get along well," he said when Sokka was out of ear reach, voice laced with mirth. You flushed when you registered what he was implying; the mischief gleaming in his eyes. You frantically tried to put a sentence together.
"Oh, we're not - he doesn't...I mean we do, but not like-" He cut you off with a chuckle and a friendly pat to your shoulder.
"I'm just teasing. Come on, let's join the others."
You sat with your friends and the Water Tribesmen aboard the steely deck, huddling with Toph and Sokka for warmth. Katara went downstairs to heal Aang, who had yet to wake. Your meals mainly consisted of rice as it was too risky to stop and buy more supplies. You were still dressed in your Earth Kingdom clothes; green-tinted pants and a tunic, feet clad in worn-down boots. Not ideal for posing as a Fire Nation soldier.
You were still in shock, you supposed, at how quickly things changed and how fiercely your life was ripped from you. I mean, just a few days ago you were a normal kid living in the middle ring of Ba Sing Se, where nothing remotely exciting ever happened. Then, the Avatar and his friend had broken into your house and now everything was different. You weren't upset, it was just a lot to process. You were worried for Aang and a bit overwhelmed at the reality that seemed to be your new friends' normal. So when everyone else returned to their rooms for sleep, you made your way to the overlook.
The moon beamed down over the sea - ivory light caressing the waves and kissing the surface. You breathed deeply, inhaling the cool night air that smelled of salt-water and a freedom you'd never experienced. You sat there, slightly chilly from the cold, when a warm presence took place by your side.
You glanced up, seeing Sokka's skin glowing under the starlight. Woah, had he always been this pretty? It was probably just the moon...that and your sleep deprivation. Yeah, that was it.
"What're you doing up?" He questioned, eyes cast out to the horizon. His hair was loose from its usual ponytail - wolf-tail, as he'd passionately pointed out to you days earlier - the dark locks flowing freely about his face. You tore your eyes away, following his stare.
"Just couldn't sleep," you glanced over. "You?"
He sighed, leaning against the metal. "Me neither. Just worried."
You turned to face him, face softening into concern. "About what?"
He ran a hand through his hair. "About Aang. About the Earth Kingdom...just...everything."
You moved closer, resting your forearms against the edge of the ship. He pressed his shoulder against yours.
"I get it. I am, too. Everything that's happening is just...crazy. There's no way I could've even imagined it."
Sokka tilted his head towards you, blue eyes glimmering with compassion and softness. "Yeah...how are you doing? I haven't really asked, I mean, this must be kinda shocking for you."
You snorted, nodding your head. "Well, yeah. But it's ok. I'm not the one who has it worst right now."
"Sure, but you can still talk about it. You can talk to me...if you want."
You smiled up at him, his face shadowed by the abyss of the night. "Thanks."
He offered you a grin before staring up at the sky. "You know, that's my first girlfriend," he said, pointing at the moon.
"The moon?" He nodded. "That's...rough."
///
It was finally here. The day of Black Sun.
You'd be lying if you said you felt totally prepared, but with some rigorous earth bending lessons from Toph and sparring with Sokka, you felt more confident in your abilities.
A finger poked your cheek. "Hey, are you listening?"
You glanced at Sokka's teasing grin, scratching the back of your neck sheepishly. "Uh...yes?"
"Really," he said, moving to stand in front of you. "What did I say?"
"Something about...food?"
He laughed, shaking his head. "It's ok, I'll tell you later." He looked behind him, taking in the sight of the preparing fighters and looming submarines. He took your hand in his. "Are you ready for this?"
You sigh, squeezing his fingers between your own. "Ready as I'll ever be."
He smiles down at you, and the look in his eyes is pure adoration. He reaches to tuck a stray piece of hair behind your ear. "You know, I'm glad I broke into your house."
You snort, swatting his hand away. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks a lot, nerd."
He chuckles. "Hey, I know you're glad, too. Otherwise, you never would've met me and would've been miserable and bored your whole life."
You laugh, but it's probably true. You and Sokka had grown much closer over the past weeks, days spent in playful conversation and evening strolls, in play-wrestling and heads rested on shoulders. You were the one he came to when his mind was troubled, when his energy was too spent to conjure any jokes. Yeah, you were glad, too.
You were called into the submarines - Sokka's invention, something you were unfathomably proud of - and off you went. Into the Fire Nation. Your arrival went mostly smoothly, disregarding the few punctures in the submarine walls, and you ran out of the carrier with the earth at your fingertips. Aang had flown off to fight the Fire Lord, and it was up to the rest of you to deal with everyone else. Your heart pumped loudly, blood rushing in your ears and adrenaline flowing in your veins. You raised your arms, summoning the ground upwards to knock out a few soldiers.
"Y/n!"
You turned around just in time to see Katara swoop down on Appa, Sokka and Hakoda climbing up with her. "Come on!" she yelled. "We're going to take out the soldier's battlements."
You nodded, running towards the bison and pulling yourself atop the saddle with help from Sokka. Appa lifts off, reaching between the battlements.
"Katara and I will take the one on the right," Hakoda said, his voice one of a true commander. "Sokka and Y/n, the left. Let's go."
You climb the battlement, hoisting yourself inside through the window before scanning the room. Pointed outwards is a sort of cannon, aimed perfectly towards the group of fire benders that were advancing towards your friends. You step forward, trying to figure out the mechanics while Sokka climbs in. "Oh-ho," he says, taking note of the projection of the cannon. "This thing is just begging to be fired."
You nodded, toying with the controls. Sokka stepped behind you. "Here, I'll show you."
He placed his palm over your hand, guiding it to where it needed to be. From his pocket he pulled a match - where did that come from, anyway? - and nudged it between your fingers. "Light it up, Sunshine."
You place the tip to the ignition, Sokka aiming the cannon. He pulls you back against him, arms wound tightly around your waist, and you cover your ears. The canon booms, sending out a flurry of smoke. You rush forward, fearful of the damage you might have just inflicted, breathing out when you see that it only landed between the soldiers and your friends. It didn't hit them, something you were a bit grateful for, but it allowed the fighters to evade the onslaught. Sokka chuckled in your ear.
"Not bad, not bad."
"You did all the work."
"That's not true! You were vital."
You shake your head, fighting off a grin. "Ok, we should probably get rid of this thing now."
"Agreed."
You climb back out the window, jumping onto the ground with a thud. Breathing deeply, you concentrated your mind on the earth that lay below the battlement, and with a flick of your wrist, it crumbled. From the cliffside it fell, effectively ridding you of one other thing to worry about.
Sokka let out a low whistle. "Impressive."
You turned to him, out of breath. He stepped closer, brows knitted in slight concern as he lifted your chin with his knuckles. "Hey, you ok?"
You nodded, swallowing and trying to rewatch your breath. "Yeah, still a little new to this."
His thumb stroked your cheek before he moved his arm, placing it over your shoulders. "Come on, just stay with me."
You did, gladly.
///
So...things didn't exactly go as planned.
It turned out that the Fire Lord knew all along about the invasion, and Aang never had the chance to fight him. You'd come face-to-face with Azula again, something that made your blood boil. You'd had to leave - leaving the adults behind while the kids climbed aboard Appa's saddle. You were all exhausted, slumped over and falling to your knees when you finally reached the Western Air Temple.
You tried to mull your sadness; that guilty feeling that it was you who should've been left behind instead. You knew everyone was hurting - some in ways you couldn't really fathom. Aang felt like he had failed - again - and he went to bed that night with a half-hearted side hug and tired eyes. Toph felt weak, something she hated more than anything in the world. And Sokka and Katara...they'd lost their dad again.
So when you saw Sokka on the mountainside, head held in hands, you felt that he was more important. You plopped down next to him, his eyes snapping up and softening when they laid on you. No words were spoken; they didn't need to be. Instead, he sighed, pressing his cheek against your shoulder. You ran your fingers through his hair, soothing him with your touch. You only halted when he laced your fingers with his own, pulling your hand to his lap and tracing patterns across your skin.
"It's not your fault, Sokka."
He nodded against you, but you heard his sniff. You straightened up, his head begrudgingly lifting from its place against you before you cupped his face with your palm. "It's not," you implored, desperate for him to stop feeling so down on himself. "None of us could've predicted that they knew. And with Azula...she knew what she was doing. None of this is because of you."
He glanced away, blue eyes brimming with the tears he'd fought so hard to keep at bay. He dipped his head in silent acceptance, nuzzling against the warmth of your palm. You smiled sadly.
"It's not over, Sokka. There's still hope, now more than ever. And I know we'll figure it out."
He raised his gaze, and it seemed like his soul was carried in his stare. Slowly, enough so that you thought you imagined it, his eyes drifted down to your lips. He leaned in slowly, bringing his calloused hand to brush back your hair. You were frozen, as if one wrong move would shatter you from this dream. His palm was warm against your cheek, and his nose bumped your own. Your eyes met his, close enough together that it was a bit funny to look at, and he offered you a silent question. You answered with your lips against his.
He breathed against you, fingers carding through your hair. His lips were warm and oh, so soft, and they moved against yours with ease. You wound your arms around his neck, bringing him closer. He was warm, and he was familiar, and he was safe. You pulled apart when your lungs ached for air, peeling your eyes open with effort. He was looking at you, and you were looking at him, and suddenly a grin broke out across his face. He laughed breathily, nudging his head into the crook of your neck. You laughed with him, holding him tight. You sat there together for who knows how long, melted in each other's embrace under the light of the moon. He pressed soft kisses against your neck and whispered thanks into your ears. You responded with a peck to his tanned cheeks. You were right, he knew. It wasn't over. There was time left, and there was hope. Wrapped in your arms, he was sure of that.
#avatar the last airbender#prince zuko#atla#fire lord zuko#aang x reader#legend of korra#sokka x reader#zuko x reader#avatar#avatar: tla#sokka x you#sokka x y/n#sokka imagine#sokka#zuko#toph#katara#aang#appa#iroh#hakoda#southern water tribe#waterbender#earthbender#firebender#azula
377 notes
·
View notes
Photo
@zuzuzuko hell yeah more Zuko and Toph will happen :) as soon as I figure something to draw with them because that little kidnapping leading to probending “storyline” is over? I think?
unless somebody has some ideas? I’m open to prompts because any “excuse” to draw dem precious technically-not-siblings siblings will be taken :D
@elmofongo so here you have two braids in pice of one ;P
Actually I’m surprised (pleasantly surprised and giving big thumbs up of understanding to that surprise) how many people pointed out that braid. Which only happened because while drawing first panel to that comic I started thinking about how badly such a long hair would get tangled in the quite windy conditions of travelling on Appa (there even was a sketch of how badly it would get but I decided to be nice to poor Zuko :D)
Seriously. Now I’m wondering how exactly did Katara managed her undercover firenation citizen hairdo? I love it but how did it even happen? What crazy magical superpowers are you hiding Katara?
#nocek answers things and is attempting to socialize a bit#atla#avatar#toph#Zuko#sorry for answering in this form#i want to doodle as many things as possible as a thank you for all of the super nice messages#but I'm beginning to realize it won't be possible >.<
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
Different
summary : You just wished everything was different.
word count : 2.3k words
warning : Mention of One Night Stand and Alcohol
genre : I don’t really know how to tag this. Fluff? Angst? Can you call this that?
taglist : @ailoveyuta @killmeminyoongi @yutazen01
🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Y/N woke up hearing small footsteps from outside her room and smiled to herself, she knew by heart to whom they belong. It's Sunday though, why is he up early? And why is he quietly approaching her room? Haru quietly opened the door to her room, tiptoeing to where she was sleeping, and somewhat, she's glad that she's wearing decent pajamas to sleep in last night. "Eomma," he called softly, hearing a faint rustle in the background.
The five-year-old climbed up her bed, giving his mother a hug. "Eomma, wake up," he said once again, a little louder this time that made her turn to him while slightly opening her eyes. "Happy Mother's Day, eomma." he greeted, making her smile. Is that why he's up this early?
"Good morning, my Haru." she greeted with a smile, surprised to see someone leaning by her doorway and looking at the two of them. What is Yuta Nakamoto doing here? "Did you have a nice sleep?" And the child nodded, smiling at her the same way as his father did. They really do have that same lovely smile that whenever the younger would smile, she would be reminded of Yuta.
It was a graduation after-party. She got drunk and the next thing she knew, she’s sleeping next to the almighty soccer jock, naked. Although they had few conversations before, she and Yuta were never really close. It was a mistake, she knew. But Haru is the best mistake that happened in her life. A mistake she’s sure she’ll repeat over and over again.
Her pregnancy isn’t a secret to him but he made sure that they cannot have anything more than just the mother and father of the child. It’s alright, she thought. She can even take care of her son alone but Yuta just had to enter her son’s life like this.
Haru bounced on her bed, smiling at the man by the doorway who was carrying a plate in his hands. "Appa and I made something for you to thank you for giving birth to me and being a great eomma," he said that made her smile, surprised at the sudden eloquence. True enough, for a five-year-old, he is ahead of his classmates since he can speak fluently at age three and can converse in both his mother tongue and Japanese.
The older handed the younger a plate of pancake with chocolate syrup drawing of a heart, coffee also present by her bedside table. "This was all appa's idea," he said with a grin present on his face. "He even brought you a present."
Y/N looked at the door to see Yuta bringing in a bouquet of flowers and pink heart-shaped balloons. "I'm sorry for crashing in without your knowledge but Haru wanted this to be a surprise," he said sincerely that made the girl purse her lips in gratitude.
"Thank you…" she said quietly when he handed her the bouquet and admired the sunflowers in the bunch. She had always loved sunflowers. Does he know? Or maybe Haru told him. "Yuta-shii." she continued.
The girl grinned at her son, cupping his cheeks to give him a smooch. "Thank you, my Haru." And the younger guy giggled at the affection. Ever since young, her son had always liked the affection from her unlike other guys his age who wanted to act tough in front of their moms. Probably because it's always the two of them.
"Appa said that since it's a special occasion, we can go somewhere that you really want, eomma..." The younger claimed while licking the chocolate on his fingers. "Like the aquarium." And Y/N had to giggle at that. When did she say that she liked the aquarium? It was actually Haru who really wanted to go to the aquarium. "Right appa?" he asked while munching on the pancakes that made the girl smile.
Yuta just nodded and she wondered when the two became this close. Their soccer bonding? Is it really a good idea to let Haru know about his father? "You can just ask me if you want to go to the aquarium..."
"But I want to go with you and appa to the aquarium," he stated that made her look at him. Maybe he really is yearning for a family, a complete one like his classmates. "Please eomma," he begged, showing his puppy dog eyes. Where did he get this aegyo from? Probably from Yuta. The only girl just nodded, making the young boy scream in delight. "I love you, eomma. I'll get ready now." He said while peppering her face with kisses that made her laugh. Why is Haru like this?
He quickly ran off outside her room and into his, creating a loud thud from the door. The girl just kneeled down on her bed, fixing the sheets and removing the plate of now gone pancakes. "I'm sorry. Haru is always like that when he wants something," she said softly and Yuta was quick enough to get the plate. "Are you sure about this, Yuta-shii? Haru can be really hyper outside," she claimed then drank the coffee in one go. This is sweeter than the usual coffee she has.
The guy just smiled getting the coffee cup from her. "It's fine, I want to spend time with Haru anyway." She just nodded, unable to say something. Sensing the awkwardness, Yuta just laughed. "Cute pajamas, by the way." he complimented and she lightly glanced at the matching top and bottom light blue pajamas with yellow rubber ducks as design.
Y/N giggled to hide her embarrassment. "It's a matching set with Haru."
"You've always liked cute stuff like that." The comment made her stop. Huh? Why does he know that? Yuta cleared his throat at the sudden awkwardness. "I'll help Haru get ready. We'll just wait for you outside." And she just nodded, hearing the door close as she sat by her bed. Why is this so awkward for her? And what does Yuta want now?
From inside her room, while getting ready, she could hear Haru's giggles as if he's really happy with something. Once done, she went out of the room to see the young boy already dressed and on his father's lap laughing at something on Yuta's phone. "Appa, I think ojisan and obasan are really cool. Do you think eomma would let me meet them?" he asked innocently which made Y/N surprised. Does he want to meet them that badly?
Yuta nodded. "They'll be very happy to meet you. Let's ask eomma if we can go to Japan sometime." This is bad. They can never know about Haru, they shouldn't. She should prevent Yuta from taking over Haru's life.
"Eomma," Haru called that surprised her, snapping her out of her thoughts. "You look really pretty." And she honestly wanted to laugh at that, she's only in her white shirt and jeans. Is her son really whipped for her like this? "Isn't she, appa?"
Her eyes darted to Yuta who was looking at her with a surprised yet amused expression, he smiled then nodded. "Your mom is always pretty." Her face felt warm that instant, a blush creeping in her cheeks at how he said those words.
"Let's go! I'm excited to see the fishes." Haru said excitedly, that made her blink. He then held his father's hand, running outside the door.
Y/N is again thinking deeply about this scenario, is it correct to let Yuta in Haru's life? The doctor said that it is indeed good for him and she had been a witness to how his health got better when he had soccer and he bonded with his dad. But is it good for them?
Yuta opened the door to the backseat and the younger boy smiled before getting in. The girl was about to get in when he closed the door then pointed at the passenger seat that made the two adults look at each other. "I'm sorry," she said but Yuta shook his head, opening the passenger door for her.
It was really awkward. She didn't know that she'll be this close to the father of her child after the night they conceived him. She has no idea that a time will come and she would be next to Nakamoto Yuta like this. He's always an unattainable person for her, really cool and famous. Why does it have to be him? Alcohol is such a bitch.
The aquarium is full of people because of the weekend and it's a special occasion. Haru was holding tight on his father's hand as he shared to the older trivia about fishes that he would always read in his books. She was just watching how natural their interaction is, how excited her son is with the presence of Yuta. An emotion that she hadn't seen in him for five years. If things were just different, this might be an image she would witness every day.
Haru was playing in the playground when he sat in front of her, smiling. "Thank you for doing this, Yuta. Haru is really happy."
The guy just nodded then sipped on his cola. "You know I'll do everything for him." A shy smile appeared on his lips as he watched his son play with the other kids. "I already talked to Mika…" If only things were really different. "She wanted Haru to come with us to Japan." A gasp escaped her lips and she looked petrified. They wanted to take Haru from her? "I know it's a stupid idea but Haru can get treated in Tokyo…"
"I'm doing my best to take care of Haru." She revolted, tears springing from her eyes that they're starting to attract attention. She's doing everything for him all these years, taking care of him and juggling her job on the side. Yet Yuta wants to take him away from her when he just entered his life. "Please don't take Haru away from me."
He gulped hard, moving to the seat next to her. "I'm sorry. That's a really stupid idea." He mumbled, wiping her tear-stained cheeks. "Please don't cry. I don't like seeing you crying." He handed her a handkerchief and she quickly dried her tears, complaining that this is the first time she cried in front of him. "You always cry in the library during junior year."
What? How come he knew that? "Eomma, are you crying?" Haru asked, returning from the playground and looking really worried. She quickly turned around from him to hide her tears. "Did appa make you cry?"
The guy gave a heavy sigh then carried the younger boy on his lap. "Haru, do you remember the talk we had about eomma?" He nodded while giggling. "Can you promise me that you'll take care of eomma while I'm in Japan?" Yuta asked which made her look at the two of them. She hated how they looked so comfortable with each other like they shared a special secret between the two of them.
"You're going to return for my birthday, right?"
"Of course." Yuta grinned. "And eomma's birthday as well." Another surprise. Does he know her birthday? "But for now, appa had to work hard in Japan for you to meet obasan and ojisan."
The younger boy nodded in excitement and she hissed. Isn't he liking this so much? "Is that why eomma is crying? Because she'll miss you?" This kid really.
Yuta had to laugh at that. "Eomma likes ice cream, can you get her one?" he asked the younger boy who nodded when he gave him cash. "Chocolate for eomma. And you get one for yourself, as well." The younger can be seen skipping to where the ice cream is but her eyes cannot leave Yuta's face. Is he doing this to take Haru away from her?
"I'm sorry." The sincerity in his eyes was all Y/N could see right now. "You're doing a fantastic job taking care of Haru. I'm glad you're his mom." He held her hand that was above the table, his thumb running along the back of her hand. "But please, Y/N, if anything happens…" He looked conflicted, a new image of Yuta in front of her. "If you need anything, call me. You know I'll drop anything for Haru."
He does care about Haru but she refuses to believe that lie. There's one thing that Yuta cannot drop for their son. "Just, whatever it is, call me." She nodded just as the younger boy came with chocolate and vanilla ice cream.
Haru was still grinning on the ride home, wishing that the day could extend more. She wished the same thing. "Thank you, appa." Haru beamed, hugging his dad. "I'm really happy." She badly wanted to tear up at that, he really is. The happiness that only his father can give.
The two were still talking secretly that made her smile, Haru is giggling and Yuta is smiling at him. The younger went inside the house, running. "Yuta, thank you."
"Anything for Haru."
She smiled bitterly. Of course, it's for Haru. "Please say hi to your wife for me." The image of him in conflict appeared once again, replaced by a smiling one. "Take care, Yuta."
"You too, Y/N." He said then held her arm, lightly squeezing. This should have been romantic for her. If only things are… "I wish things were different." He mumbled, her eyes widened in surprise. "Nevermind." He shook his head then smiled at her way. "I'll see you and Haru soon."
Y/N had to repeatedly remind herself that he's doing this for his son. Nothing more, nothing less. That she should stop assuming that everything will be fine and they'll be a happy family. That's highly impossible.
Yes, she had his child. But she can never have Yuta's heart.
🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Second Part
#yuta nakamoto#yuta scenarios#dad yuta#yuta fluff#yuta nakamoto fluff#yuta nakamoto angst#yuta angst
172 notes
·
View notes
Text
Happy pride month, y'all!
#Appa draws badly#Rhink#rhink fanart#Fanart#For pride month the boys got each other a bunch of balls 😏
83 notes
·
View notes
Text
Zutarians, I need some help...
Happy Zutara week, y’all! I’m Lil.
I’ve been working on my fic for...awhile now, and I’m at the point where everything’s kind of turned into word salad. I’d like to finish this thing, soon, but I need editors - badly. So, if you’re one of those folks who can write. (And particularly if you can write Katara or Zuko’s voice really well.) Please, please take a look. Friendly feedback is welcome!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/25653406/chapters/62276836
And here’s an excerpt from a Zutara moment below the cut:
Katara looks out from high up in the north wing of the palace—reserved especially for the royal family and their guests. She can see across acres of bleak concrete pavement leading up to the palace gates and, behind them, the jagged volcano walls of the capital city rising in the distance. It isn’t a particularly comforting sight.
Fifty-six bacui berry, fifty-seven bacui berry, …she counts to herself. Until, finally, she reaches one hundred bacui berry, and turns away from the gray window, back towards Azula’s wide canopy bed. The princess’s mouth hangs open and a trickle of drool spills out, but otherwise, she looks better than she had an hour ago. Katara removes the last acupuncture needle from her wrist and places it onto a gauze pad, which she rolls up and hands to Zuko.
“These need to be sterilized in a white-hot flame for twenty minutes before they can be used again,” she instructs.
Zuko puts a hand up to the bundle. A flame appears at the center of his palm. “Do you want me to just—?”
“Sorry Zuko, but you’re not hot enough,” she says, without thinking.
The corners of his mouth flicker upward into the kind of smirk she hasn’t seen since his ponytail days. Spirits, he’s infuriating, she thinks—grateful that her skin is dark enough to hide a blush. She removes the rest of her supplies from Azula’s bedside and takes a seat by the window, trying to ignore the burning sensation of Zuko’s eyes lingering on the back of her neck. She forces herself to concentrate on the little vials and instruments in her hand, but it’s no good. Everything is in the wrong place. She’ll have to take it all out again and repack it later.
“Katara,” he says, coming up beside her at the window. “Did you ever read Love Amongst the Dragons?”
Katara shoots him a wry smile. “No,” she says. “Funnily enough, we didn’t have a lot of fire nation epics in our village library.”
“Azula made fun of me, but I always liked it.” He smiles a little to himself, then points, drawing Katara’s attention to a spot on the grim horizon. “Do you see that mountain, there? The one that curves?”
Katara shivers, drawing a little closer to Zuko. “The one that looks like a claw?” she asks.
He nods. “I know, it’s scary, isn’t it? If you believe the old story, it’s the claw of the great dragon, himself. It’s where the name of the district comes from — Kaa Garr. Great Dragon. And, right there where the mountain turns in on itself…” he moves his finger up the pane a little so Katara can see a black spot in the distance, “is the prison where I’m keeping my father.”
Katara lets out a little involuntary gasp and presses her fingers to her mouth. Zuko looks down at her, a wry glint in his eye. “If you thought my sister’s arrangements were bad,” he says, “you should see his.”
“I’m sorry,” is all she can think to say.
“Don’t be,” he shrugs. “You know my father isn’t exactly a nice guy. I didn’t get this scar on my face from a training accident, you know?”
“I know,” Katara says, reaching up to touch the edges of his burned skin with the practiced hands of a healer.
In truth, they had never really talked about how he’d gotten his scar, but Katara had heard rumors going all the way back to her time in the Fire Nation with Toph, Sokka, and Aang. Zuko allows her fingers to wander over his scar for a moment, tracing the lines and folds on the puckered skin. He gets lost for a minute in the phantom sensation—wondering if he’s only imagining the gentle pressure. It’s so tender and intimate that his breath catches in his chest for fear that a sharp exhale might disturb the delicate balance between them. But then Azula flops over in bed, bringing Zuko back to himself. He clears his throat, and Katara’s hand drops to her side.
“It just makes me wonder if I should be trying to help my father…you know…the way you’re helping Azula.”
Katara tries not to let her emotions show on her face. She does not believe for one second that Ozai is entitled to the same treatment as his daughter, but she also believes that, ultimately, the decision is Zuko’s to make.
“Do you think your father deserves a second chance?” She asks, trying to keep her voice even.
“No!” he shouts, raking his fingers through his hair in frustration. “That’s the problem, I don’t think he deserves it! But I can’t figure out why. I mean, he not that different from my sister, is he? But, every day, I felt guilty about Azula, and every day I’m grateful that my father is still locked up!”
Katara watches as Zuko paces back and forth across the antique carpet, winding himself up. “Then you came, and I feel better about Azula—I really do, Katara—but now I’m suddenly guilty about my father. I’m the fire lord, shouldn’t I at least be fair?”
“Zuko,” Katara says, holding out an arm to stop his pacing, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but when was the last time you had a bath? Or slept in a real bed?”
He blinks down at her, “Uh, it might have been a few days. Why?”
“I think,” she says, using her most soothing voice, “that all these big questions can wait for a day or two while you rest.”
He looks skeptical, but Katara insists: “Look at you, Zuko, you’re exhausted. I’m not saying that it won’t be difficult, but I promise it will all seem better in the m-morning.” As she says it, she stifles a yawn, and Katara suddenly realizes that she, too, is exhausted.
Noticing this, Zuko takes the medicine bag from her hand and, after checking all of Azula’s locks, leads her down the hall to her room. It’s hard to tell with Zuko, but he seems excited about something. The corners of his mouth keep twitching up, like he’s trying to hide a smile. The whole of the third-floor hallway smells like fresh paint, even though the hallways look the same as they’ve always been. It makes Katara’s head swim. When they arrive at what she assumes will be her bedroom here in the Fire Nation, Zuko throws open the door for her, and Katara gasps.
The room is in the style of the Fire Nation—a wooden chest for clothes, a low-slung writing table, and an imposing four poster bed, but the details are all Water Tribe. The walls are covered with bright blue paper depicting life in the poles. The furniture handles are all solid, gleaming mother of pearl. The bed is strewn with gigantic, fluffy pelts that could only have come from the south pole.
“What do you think?” Zuko asks, studying her face. “Is it too much? I had rooms made up for the Earth Kingdom and the Air Nation, too. I don’t want you to think I’m abusing your culture, but I do want my guests to feel welcome here. I know the Fire Nation royal palace isn’t anybody’s favorite place.” He winces, thinking about the terrible stain of his father’s legacy.
Katara considers Zuko kindly. He’s hovering just outside the room—neither in nor out. She realizes that she’s never felt more warmly towards the young fire lord.
“You’re a lot like your uncle, you know that?” she says, after a minute.
Katara watches as his guarded features break into a genuine smile. “Thanks,” he says, running his fingers along the edge of the doorframe. “You know I was hoping you or your brother would be the first ones to use this room.”
“You’re lucky it’s me! Sokka would be jumping on the bed, already.”
Zuko laughs, and Katara grins with pride. It’s not easy making Zuko laugh.
“I didn’t even ask!” He says, eagerly. “How is Sokka? And Aang?”
Now it’s Katara’s turn to look guarded. “Sokka’s fine,” she says, trying to keep her voice neutral. “He’s angry because he can’t go to Ba Sing Se without Appa…” Then, anticipating Zuko’s next question, Katara explains everything in a rush: “Aang left for Omashu. He got a letter from Bumi saying that the city was unstable, and he left me and Sokka behind.”
Zuko’s reaction is not what Katara expects. His eyebrow furrows, and he lets out a troubled groan, so sharp and low that Katara can almost feel the reverberations in his chest. “Katara…Bumi is dead. He died about a week ago. Didn’t Aang tell you?”
“Oh,” is all Katara can manage. She plops herself down at the end of the bed and looks up at Zuko, dazed. “No, Aang hasn’t written to me since he left for Omashu.” The admission earns her a sharp sideways glance, but she doesn’t notice. She’s too wrapped up in thoughts of the Earth King.
“What happened?” she asks.
“I don’t know,” he admits, lowering himself down beside her on the bed. “The Fire Nation has…informants…in Omashu, but I haven’t heard from them in a few days.” The way he hesitates before the word ‘informants’ makes Katara wonder if he is uncomfortable having spies in the Earth Kingdom. Zuko had always preferred fair-play and transparency, even at his own expense.
“But you have suspicions,” she presses him.
He nods. “To tell you the truth, I’m glad Sokka’s not in Ba Sing Se right now.”
“Why not?” Katara gasps, “It’s not unstable, too, is it?”
“No,” he says, resting his head against the bedpost and letting his eyelids droop. “At least none of my advisors seem to think it is. I’m the one who has an issue. And it’s only a feeling, Katara…”
“Because of Kai Kozu?” she asks.
Zuko’s snaps to attention so quickly that he sprains his neck. “Where did you hear that name?” he growls.
“Bumi wrote about him in his letter to Aang,” Katara explains.
“Ah, that makes sense,” Zuko says, rubbing the sprain. “Kai Kozu used to keep a pretty low profile. Barely anyone outside the Earth Kingdom had ever heard of him… But lately he’s been moving more and more into the public eye. I don’t like it. He’s already got power in Kyoshi and Chin. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had plans for Omashu and Ba Sing Se, too.”
“Oh no! Zuko!” Katara’s hand flies to the reassuring carvings on her mother’s necklace, and she traces them apprehensively. “What about Toph and Suki? What about your uncle? Isn’t he still in the city?”
“I did write to them,” Zuko shrugs. “I asked them to stay here in the palace, but Toph and Suki are out in the country somewhere. I can’t reach them.”
“And your uncle?”
“Uncle doesn’t want to leave his tea shop. And besides…” Zuko blushes brick red, “I think he might have a lady friend in the city. He’s acting like a love-sick teenager.”
Katara watches as Zuko drags his fingers through his hair, tugging at the ends. “You’re really worried about this, aren’t you?” she asks.
“I am,” he admits.
Katara leans back into the mountain of fluffy pillows and soft white furs, and closes her eyes—too tired to care that Zuko is still watching her. She says a silent prayer for Toph, Suki, and Iroh in Ba Sing Se, and thanks every spirit she can name for her father’s stubbornness. At least she knows Sokka is safe in the Southern Water Tribe—far, far away from the Earth Kingdom capital…
As she drifts off into sleep, she reaches out to feel Zuko’s warm body beside her—his chest rising and falling evenly. She draws a little closer, and he opens his arms wide to make room for her. She pillows her head in the crook of his arm and breathes in a scent like something out of a dream. In fact, she thinks it must have been a dream, because when she wakes up in the night he is gone, and the spot where she imagined he had lain is awash with moonlight.
23 notes
·
View notes
Text
traitor. (sokka x f!reader) pt 15
part 1 | part 14 | part 16
A/N: originally I wasn’t going to write a part that occurred during “Sokka’s Master” since Y/N was training Sokka but I changed my mind last minute. We all know who’s Sokka’s master is so...
Y/N shook her head and smiled. “Let’s allow the benders to save the day for once. We’ll get the next one, yeah?”
“Wow, I’ve never seen a meteor shower before.” Y/N stared in awe at the falling stars in the sky.
“Isn’t it cool? Makes you realize how insignificant we are,” Sokka said absently.
“Eh, you’ve seen nothing once you’ve seen it a thousand times,” Toph informed them.
“Oh my spirits,” Y/N sat up suddenly from where she was laying in the dirt. “What the hell?!” One of the meteors had broken off from the rest of the shower and looked like it was flying right towards them.
“You’ve never not seen anything like this,” Sokka trailed off as what looked like a ball of blue fire whizzed hundreds of feet above their heads and landed somewhere in the mountains behind them with a loud bang. The ground vibrated beneath Y/N’s feet and she knew Toph could probably see exactly how and where the meteor hit the ground off in the distance. The five of them clamored onto Appa without saying a word to one another because there was no way they were just going to not find out what happened.
---
“The fire is going to destroy that town!” Katara shouted.
“Not if we can help it!” Aang said.
Toph, Aang, Sokka and Y/N slid off of Appa’s back. Katara jumped to sit on Appa’s neck and grabbed the reins. “I’m going to bend water from that creek onto the fire.”
“Come on Toph, let’s make a trench to keep the fire from coming any closer.” Aang and Toph ran off closer to the crater.
“What are we gonna do?” Sokka grumbled.
Y/N shook her head and smiled. “Let’s allow the benders to save the day for once. We’ll get the next one, yeah?”
Momo sat on Sokka’s back and rested his head on the top of Sokka’s as they watched their three friends from a small hill away from the fire. It was still amazing to Y/N to see the different types of bending. She’d always known they existed of course but she’d never seen them before leaving the Fire Nation with Azula. Y/N looked up to see Katara flying overhead on Appa with a large bubble of water that she dropped into the middle of the fire. Toph had raised a slab of stone and was flipping it end over end, using it to stifle some of the flames.
Katara dropped another bubble of water to Aang and Y/N felt the wind pick up as he used airbending and waterbending together to cover the fire completely. Unfortunately for Y/N and Sokka, they were right in the blast zone. It happened so fast by the time she had blinked she was waist deep in something that was cold and wet.
She stood up and shook her legs letting the white, fluffy stuff fall to the ground. Her teeth began to chatter. “What is this?” She asked Sokka.
He held up a handful of it and raised an eyebrow. “Um, snow?”
Y/N bent down and picked up her own handful. “No way! I’ve never seen it before. I’d always imagined it would be hard or something.” She stuck her tongue out experimentally, and licked the snow in her hands. It was cold and immediately melted to water on her tongue.
Suddenly she was hit in the shoulder with something. She looked down to see snow dripping down her arm. Katara quickly pointed at Aang who ducked his head. Y/N took the snow in her hands and threw at the two of them but the flakes just fluttered harmlessly to the ground. She gasped. “How did you make it so you could throw it?!”
A snowball sailed over her shoulder and hit Aang in the chest. “Snowball fight!!” Sokka shouted.
Y/N watched Sokka pick up more snow from the ground and pack in between his hands. She did the same and threw it at Katara. She bent it away like it was nothing and it fell on Toph’s head. “Hey, no fair!!” Y/N yelled.
Toph wiped her face. “Yeah, I’m going to second that!”
Y/N made another snowball to throw but by the time she was done she was soaking wet from the onslaught of snow Katara had already bent at her. Katara was laughing so hard she could barely catch her breath and the sound made Y/N start laughing too. Y/N threw the snowball and Katara was distracted enough that it slammed into her cheek. “Oh it’s on,” she grumbled.
Y/N shrieked and started to run away but someone grabbed her around the waist and pulled her behind a snow drift.
Sokka leaned close to her face. “Rule number one. Don’t start a snowball fight with a waterbender. Let alone two.”
“You were the one who started it!” Y/N protested.
“Actually, Aang did. He threw the first one,” Sokka said matter-of-factly. He leaned up and cocked his arm back to throw but was subsequently hit in the forehead with a snowball. Y/N could hear Aang cackling from wherever he had hid himself. Y/N giggled at the look on Sokka’s face as the snow dripped down it.
He turned to her and Y/N thought her heart was going to slam right out of her chest. “Stop laughing or I’ll kick you off my team!” He tried to say it seriously but his own laugh tumbled out of his lips and betrayed him. He smashed the snowball in his hand above her face and let it rain down.
Y/N’s heart was so full, at the feeling of playing around with her friends in snow. Y/N wasn’t sure she’d ever have this feeling again. This immense joy that came with letting go for a moment. Y/N wanted so badly to just take a snapshot of this in her mind so she could go back and replay it over and over; watching her friends pelt each other with snow and laugh about it. Her cheeks were hurting from smiling so much and her hands were red and numb but Y/N was sure she’d never felt better. Her chest was heavy with… some type of feeling she couldn’t describe. Affection? Love? But it was all moot, she couldn’t waste any more time trying to figure it out. Y/N grabbed another handful of snow and packed it into a ball. There was a snowball fight to win.
---
At the moment, Y/N was trying to pinpoint exactly when their sparring matches became less about her teaching Sokka and more about practice between the two of them. Somewhere in the last few weeks, Sokka and Y/N had become equal partners because he knew everything she could teach him. Sure, she still beat him, she was faster and more agile and smarter about the moves she used but each match was longer and more grueling and they usually stopped after a few because they’d both be soaked with sweat and panting for air.
Sokka slammed her sword with a downward cut. She pushed his sword away, but she was still on defense. She was so distracted by her thoughts and how good Sokka was getting she didn’t see the rocks behind her–which she most definitely should have noticed–and she tripped. She didn’t fall, just lost her balance but Sokka’s sword still ended up pointed at her chest. He smirked as Y/N sighed. She really needed to stop thinking when they were sparring.
“What’s wrong?” Sokka asked, fixing her with an intense gaze. He sheathed his sword.
Y/N let the tip of her sword dig into the grass. “Nothing, I’m just distracted.” She didn’t feel like elaborating anymore on that so she added, “I can’t focus enough to kick your ass.”
“Come on, I’m done anyway.” He threw an arm over her shoulders and guided them out of the clearing and back to their camp.
It was meant to be a friendly gesture, it wasn’t the first time he’d done it either, but Y/N didn’t miss the way her heart sped up at being pulled so close to him. And it wasn’t the first time that happened either. She was always searching for an excuse, a reason other than the most obvious. Her mind supplied the most logical ones: Her heart was beating fast because they were sparring five minutes ago! She couldn’t catch her breath because she was tired! It made a little bit less sense when it was dinner time and he smiled and she couldn’t help but grin back just because he smiled at her. But you know! Friendly!
She matched her steps with his and let their hips bump as she racked her brain to figure out when she started to feel like this around him. When had this all happened? How had it happened without her knowledge? Y/N was pretty sure crushes didn’t come in a day so how did she not see this coming? Now Sokka was beating her at swordplay because all she did was think and that just couldn’t happen! Spirits, she felt so silly, having a girlhood crush. Sokka was her friend and yet her mind kept telling her that wasn’t enough.
Sokka settled his back against a rock and pulled out some of the invasion plans he was always pouring over in his free time. Y/N leaned against a rock opposite of him and started sharpening her sword. No one was at camp when they arrived, Y/N knew that Katara had talked about taking Appa to the town to get some food and Aang and Toph must have tagged along.
---
It wasn’t long before Y/N realized that she was spending more time watching Sokka work than she was sharpening anything. Sokka frowned over something on the paper he was looking at and marked it away with a pencil. He tapped his fingers on his knee in thought before writing something else down. Y/N set aside her sword and whetstone and made her way over to sit next to Sokka.
She peered over his shoulder at the paper he was holding. “You..made this?” She asked and pointed at the drawings.
Sokka looked up like he didn’t even know she was there and then back down over the plans. “Yeah, I mean. I drew this out, I have to send it off to the machinist to actually build it but, yeah.”
She traced a finger over the lines. Most of the work was way above her head. “You’re actually a genius,” she muttered. “Can you tell me about it?”
Sokka’s face grew red. “Uh yeah! So these are waterbender-powered submarines. They’re gonna take us underwater so we can’t be seen by the Fire Nation scouts as we’re sneaking in.” Sokka began explaining the more complex details of how they worked. Y/N knew Sokka was dumbing it down for her but it didn’t matter that she still couldn’t grasp most of the concepts, Sokka liked to talk about it and Y/N liked to listen to him.
---
Y/N woke with a start. She looked around for the reason she woke up but she couldn’t find any. Appa was nearby, Aang snoring softly on one of his legs. Toph’s rock tent wasn’t too far away on the other side of her. Katara was sleeping next to her and Sokka–wait where was Sokka?
Y/N didn’t have to look long, he was next to the fire with his legs pulled up, staring at the orange embers. His hair was down and he looked a little sad.
Y/N slid out of her sleeping bag and kneeled next to him. “Are you okay?” She whispered.
Sokka shrugged and nodded his head. “I had a nightmare.”
Y/N let out a sharp exhale. “You want to go for a walk?”
Sokka nodded his head again and Y/N led them to the lake they’d camped by. The moon was full enough that the reflection on the water made it easier to see one another.
“Do you think that Azula really killed the Kyoshi Warriors?” Sokka picked a blade of grass and began splitting it down the middle.
Y/N drew in a deep breath and let it out of her mouth. Y/N wasn’t aware Katara had told him. She had kept Suki and the other warriors out of her mind for far too long. Y/N thought, naively, by not thinking about them, by ignoring the glaring problem, it might have all been a dream. That none of it had ever happened.
“No, I don’t think she did,” Y/N said honestly. There was a little twist in her gut at the fear that she might be wrong but she pushed that aside because she was sure she wasn’t. “I thought maybe that she did at first but then I remembered something Zuko told me: Azula lies about everything. I think she knew saying it would hurt me. She knew that I let them go and her punishment for me was to take away the good I’d done; to knock me down a peg so I had no choice but to go crawling back for her forgiveness.”
Sokka seemed to be relieved by her answer. “But you didn’t.”
“No.” Y/N remembered the way Katara had come running into the throne room yelling for Suki. It had never occurred to her that they were all actually friends and that they all cared about each other; that it was more than just ‘yeah we’re all on the same side’ type of deal. Y/N thought about how sad Sokka had looked when he was staring into the fire like it was the only thing that existed around him. She definitely hadn’t thought that it was possible that Sokka could have cared for Suki in the same way that Y/N did. Jealousy burrowed into her heart but she couldn’t even tell who it was directed at; Suki or Sokka.
Y/N needed to switch gears before she fell way too deep into that thinking. “Is that what your nightmare was about?”
“Something like that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No–just. You don’t need to apologize for everything. You know that right?”
“Sorry.” Y/N smiled sheepishly. “Do you want to talk about the nightmare?”
Slowly, Sokka nodded. “It was just a dream where I lose everything. I feel so responsible for everyone, being the oldest–well, before you came. I have to keep everyone safe and I just feel like everything is on me. I can’t lose anyone,” Sokka said desperately. “I can’t.”
Y/N didn’t know what came over her when she reached for Sokka’s hand. She was more surprised when he laced their fingers together. They stood there for a moment, just staring at the water, both of them lost in their own thoughts.
She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand absently. “You are carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. Literally, since Aang is supposed to save the world and you’re taking responsibility for him. Don’t do that to yourself. We are all capable of taking care of ourselves. No one is going to get hurt.”
It was wishful thinking on Y/N’s part. This was war. It didn’t spare anyone because of their age. But she didn’t need to tell Sokka that.
Sokka didn’t reply but picked up a few rocks and chucked them into the water. His face was half-hidden by his hair but she could see the upturn of a wistful smile.
“I get nightmares too,” Y/N murmured. “It’s usually the same one. Me, Katara and Aang are in the crystal catacombs but we don’t make it out. I’m all alone again. Azula makes me choose, you know, ‘live with me or die with them’.”
“What do you choose?”
“I don’t know. I always wake up before I do. Part of me wishes I would stay asleep long enough to find out.”
“I know what you would do,” Sokka said softly, skipping a flat rock on the water.
“I think I do too.” Y/N watched him for what felt like a minute too long. She was a little struck by the way the reflection of the moon lit up silver on his face. Y/N thought about what she wanted to say to him because she wasn’t done, not even close. She couldn’t just go back to her sleeping bag and fall asleep now. Not when the world was silent, waiting with bated breath for her to confess. Right now was the perfect time, they’d already laid the foundation of trust between them weeks ago. They’d just told each other innermost secrets of nightmares that haunted them. She had thought, and thought and thought all day and she was tired of it. She wanted to do something. Sometimes when we spar or sit next to each other during dinner I think I like you. You’re funny and smart and you believe in me which is more than I could ever ask for. And sometimes I think you like me too.
Y/N squeezed Sokka’s hand, which she couldn’t believe she was even still holding and he turned his head. His azure eyes seemed to burn into hers and her heart sped up. Y/N opened her mouth to say it, just three little words but she took too long and she lost her nerve. If she had even had it to begin with. Both of them seemed to be holding their breath with the world.
“Can you teach me to skip rocks?” Y/N asked. Sokka laughed; and the bubble around them was broken. There was something so carefree about his laugh and Y/N wondered how this boy who was just lamenting his friends’ possible death could still find enough joy to laugh like that.
“Yeah, of course!” Sokka pulled his hand from hers but immediately replaced it with a cool, flat rock.
Y/N hoped she would find out where that laugh came from when she finally told him.
---
A/N: :)))) On another note, as much as I love writing, ideas for the next part and subsequent parts are really evading me so give me time. I’ll get her done ❤️
Taglist: @myexgirlfriendisthemoon @reclusive-chicken-nugget @astroninaaa @aangsupremacy @beifongsss @crownofcryptids @welovediaaxx @littlefluu @lozzybowe @thebluelcdy @ohjustlookalive @sugarmoongey @fanficdepot @teenbiology @13-09-01 @riespage @davnwillcome @naanlianid @creation-magician @lunariasilver @vintagerose1014516 @bcifcng @rockinearthbending-marauders @francesciak @thia-aep @aphrcditeee @milk-n-cheese @solarsuki @sendnuwudes @humbleseame @my--shitty--art @lovingcupcake51002 @loganrwebb @celia-not-cecilia @treestarrrrrrrr @p--e--a--c--h--e--s @velveteencurls @izzieserra @oddment-nitwit-blubber-tweak @salsasadd @nataliahaslosthershit @awkwardnesshabitat @lanie103 @emogril @im-the-galactic-starfish @charlotteisabella @alienmotel @smarshere @crxsshatcht @starxtt @sugamonster22
#atla#atla fic#sokka x reader#sokka x you#sokka x y/n#sokka#katara#zuko#azula#aang#toph beifong#mai#ty lee#suki#avatar the last airbender#avatar: the last airbender#avatar#avatar resurgence#avatar fic#avatar renaissance
438 notes
·
View notes
Text
This is the world we live in now
[prompt #86]: “I find peace in the rain” // Zutara Month #25: “Enemies”
Prompts by pxroxide-prinxcesss
[summary]: Aang dies on the day of Sozin’s comet + enemies + Zuko and Katara basically kill everything because they can + zutara (like obviously)
[Warning]: mentions of death, rape, mutilation, basically this isn’t graphic but there are some awful themes...sorry?
***
“I’m so tired of death.” she whispers, kneeling in the mud.
There is nothing for Zuko to say. He has been unable to speak since the Phoenix King cut his tongue out. Even if he could speak, what would he say?
Would he apologize for his part in the fall of the Earth Kingdom?
Would he apologize for failing to teach Aang to redirect lightning?
Instead, he puts a hand on her shoulder. She draws in a deep, shuddering breath. He tightens his grip for a moment. She shakes her head. “I’m not hurt.” she says, even though she’s covered in blood.
Katara stands, brushing his hand off gently. “Thank you, Zuko.”
He nods and they turn back to where Appa is waiting. Momo is chattering, perched on the one horn Appa still has. Azula shattered the other horn when they were escaping the Fire Nation.
It was miracle that they’d been able to escape that day, but Katara had always been something entirely else. Somehow she’d rescued him from the prison--he’d still be mindless with agony after Ozai had torn his tongue out and cauterized the wound with his own fire (he still woke up screaming most nights). She’d been dressed in a dead soldier’s clothes--Ozai had foolishly forgotten that shattering a waterbender’s hands and throwing her to his soldiers did not render her powerless--and somehow, she’d gotten them to Appa.
A year later, they are the only ones left.
It turns out, Zuko muses, that they were more than enough. The dead men lying in every direction would certainly agree.
Azula and Ozai might have razed half of the Earth Kingdom, but Ba Sing Se was still a stronghold protected by the White Lotus. Zuko and Katara made sure they could never take their focus off of the eastern front--let alone march for Ba Sing Se.
Zuko lifts his mask and follows Katara through the ruins of the company they’d decimated. He did not focus on the bodies laying in the mud--some smoldering still and others half frozen. Instead he catches Katara’s eye and signs to her, what next?
“Back to Half Moon bay, I think,” she says, “Dad will be there. He wanted to be there before they sent us to the Fire Nation. I think he’s going to argue against it.”
Zuko snorts. Hakoda had a snow ball’s chance in hell of convincing the White Lotus, or Katara for that matter, not to go to the Fire Nation. Some changed after suffering a loss; Hakoda had given up the fight after Sokka’s death and Katara had given up her mercy.
He signs back, sweep?
She shakes her head. “I haven’t checked for stragglers.”
Sure enough, as soon as the words leave her mouth, a fire ball erupts from behind the ruins of a tent. They’d ambushed this company in the dead of night and nearly a hundred men had died before the other half of the camp had woken. It’s only logical that some men had been smart enough to hide. The fireball is aimed for Katara, but Zuko steps into it’s trajectory and disperses it with his daos.
“Run!” a man shouts, “I’ll hold them off!”
Four soldiers, he counts, five including the man attacking Katara. They look like recruits--too young and untouched by battle. It only takes a few minutes for Katara to dispose of the first. By then, he’s caught up with the fleeing recruits.
It doesn’t take very long for the battlefield to grow quiet once more.
***
That night, they sit across a small campfire.
When they’d first begun, it had been difficult to light a fire without attracting a squad of Fire Nation soldiers. There had been so many littering the eastern country Earth Kingdom, so many little towns underneath the control of the Fire Nation. Now, they went weeks without finding a single solider. This had been their largest company for nearly two months and it had been child’s play to destroy it. It turned out that without scruples, the pair of them were very good at massacre. Katara was very good at it.
But she isn’t bending blood or drowning men in tsunamis at the moment; Katara is simply a water tribe woman fussing over dinner.
This is the only time he can find a glimpse of the girl he fell in love with. Even a year later, even after everything that has happened, she is most herself when she’s trying to care for others. Zuko would love it if it wasn’t aggravating.
“Here,” she says bending food into his dish, “Eat up.”
She’s cooked the duck-pheasant in a stew of potatoes and carrots. The meat is soft enough that it is easy for him to chew, but she’d still made him cut his portion up. He tries not to let it irritate him, tries to imagine what Sokka would say if he could see them now. It would tickle him, he thinks, and Toph would complain about all the motherliness. Aang, of course, would be glaring at him across the fire--at least until Katara turned her motherliness on him.
He nods in thanks and takes his bowl. Her smile is tinged with sadness, as if she’d known exactly what he’d been thinking.
***
Zuko massages her hands before bed.
The ointment smells strongly of ginger and citrus--it’s a Fire Nation blend they picked up in the last town they liberated.
“Thank you,” Katara groans, “I could kiss you.”
He smiles and signs, money. She laughs, “Of course I’ll pay you.”
She winks and leans over to kiss his neck. He can’t help kissing her back, until she’s flushes and glassy eyed and red with beard burn. “Hey,” she complains, “You can’t get lucky until you’re done with my hands.”
He feigns disappointment, but turns back to her hands. “I love you.” she whispers as he continues working the lotion into her hands.
Zuko smiles. He’s gotten very good at communicating without words in the last year; sometimes they don’t even need signals or bits of parchment to communicate. This is how he knows that she knows if he could talk, he’d never stop telling her how much her loved her. But he’s got a job, so he focuses on her hands. Even now, a year later, they still tremble in his grip.
Katara’s healing was on another level altogether, but her fingers had been crushed so badly. She could bend--if anything she could bend better than she had before--but it was difficult to grasp anything, difficult to manipulate or carry or touch anything. They’d spent months re-breaking individual fingers and even now, he helped her stretch and strengthen her fingers. Should could still manage bending and grip a spoon enough to eat, but she would never write again or sew or weave or squeeze his hand back when he held hers.
“Zuko,” she whispers, “Where did you go?”
He turns his attention back to her and smiles. She isn’t fooled, but she doesn’t say anything. Instead, she draws him back into their bedroll and they make love. This is the only time that Zuko feels normal again, when he’s inside her and it doesn’t matter that neither of them are whole anymore. It doesn’t matter that the entire world has fallen apart and their friends are dead. It doesn’t matter that in a few weeks, they’ll leave for the Fire Nation--that they’ll leave to murder the rest of his surviving family.
The only thing that matters is beneath him.
He tries to tell her, with his lips and hands and body, that he loves her more than life itself.
***
In the morning, they climb atop Appa and fly toward Half Moon Bay.
Neither of them look behind them, the ruins of a Fire Nation company lying behind them.
This is the world they live in now.
#lol this was a warm up drabble but two hours later here we are#no beta because we die like men#zutara month#zkmonth#zutara#atla#katara#zuko#tea induced insanity#writing#angst#aang dies au#dark au#yikes this is hella depressing#but also hopeful?#i don't know anymore
100 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Dancing Warrior: Water, Chapter 11
(Sokka x OC Reader)
A/N: I’m so sorry but this is a REALLY long chapter, possibly the longest I’ve written so far...but oh well. If anyone knows how to edit a post so it has the “keep reading” link PLS let me know I’m begging 😭
It had taken them quite a while to finally arrive at the North Pole. There were chunks of ice floating in the water and the air was bitter to Navani. She had been shivering profusely for that past couple of days. She had never been to either of the poles before so she had no reason for owning a thick coat like Katara and Sokka. Katara had given Navani her spare tunic, which was a bit small, but a lot warmer than her own. The only thing she had were her robes, a clear indication that she was Fire Nation. Something they had all agreed to keep secret. Navani vowed to solely bend water for as long at they were there. And she knew she had to keep that promise or else they would all be in jeopardy.
Navani sat at the edge of Appa’s saddle, shivering as she tucked herself as far as she could into her tunic. Her knees were snug to her chest with her arms wrapped tightly around them. How could someone live in the cold like this?
She had been so consumed in her own thoughts that she hadn’t been paying any attention to the conversation going on between everyone else. But then she was brought back when Appa’s smooth sailing suddenly jerked and everyone screamed. He tried to keep his balance but some ice threw him off, causing him to tilt. Everyone one held on with strong grips....well almost everyone. As Appa crash landed in the freezing waters, Navani was thrown over with a scream.
They all gasped as the girl fell into the water, “Navani!”
Her body felt numb as she broke the surface, gasping for air. Her teeth chattered as dozens of boats emerged from behind small glaciers. She moved a fast as she could, which honestly wasn’t all that fast, and hurled her stiff body back onto Appa. They all had rushed to her side, but at the moment were too occupied with Northerners approaching.
===
Everything there was beautiful. There was so much to marvel at. From the beautiful architecture to the people and culture. Navani wished she could’ve enjoyed it more but at the moment she was soaking wet in the freezing cold. Her and Katara had done their best to bend the water out of her cloths and one of the men from the boats had lended her some blankets. Which she was currently tightly wrapped in.
As they rounded a corner, there were people along the sides of the canals and buildings waving down at them. Navani couldn’t help but smile and wave back despite her condition. At least she could enjoy that. Or so she thought.
The warm feeling grew a little as a small canoe drifted passed them, catching both Navani and Sokka’s attention. There on the canoe sat a boy and a girl, side by side, no older then them. Navani watched intently, curious. They were dressed like they were important with their hair decorated with different pieces and jewelry. The girl’s was a stark white while the boy’s was pitch black. They contrasted perfectly. Not to mention they were both extremely good looking.
That definitely didn’t go unnoticed by Sokka. Who sighed and leaned against Navani as a deep blush rose to his cheeks, his eyes glued to the girl as the canoe drifted by.
“Could you make it anymore obvious?” Navani scoffed, removing her support from under him. Laughing as he fell to the ground with a thud.
===
“Tonight, we celebrate the arrival of our brother and sisters from the Southern tribe. And they have brought with them someone very special. Someone who many of us believe disappeared from the world until now, the Avatar!” Chief Arnook declared, from his seat at the middle of the table, “We also celebrate my daughter and son’s 16th birthday. Princess Yue and Prince Hai are now of marrying age!”
Navani nearly spit out her drink, turning to look but catching a view of the back of Sokka’s head instead. She scoffed, leaning back to see.
“Thank you, father.” Both twins bowed, Yue continued, “May the great ocean and moon spirits watch over us during these troubled times.”
The Prince turned and glanced her way, a blush so hot on her cheeks she thought her face would melt off.
“Now, Master Pakku and his students will perform.”
That was all Navani needed to hear to have her undivided attention. With an excited gasp, her head whipped around to look at the raised platform.
She watched with wide eyes as the three man manipulated the giant barrels of water to create giant streams moving in almost every direction. They moved in a manner she had never seen before, very different to her usual style. She was mesmerized. So much so that she hadn’t noticed someone standing next to her.
“Is this seat taken?” Hai asked politely, gesturing to the spot next to her.
With her attention still glued to the performance, she responded, “No, you can sit if you’d like.”
He chuckled, taking a seat, “I can tell you’re enjoying the performance.”
“Huh, oh.” Navani blushed hard, finally drawing her attention away, “Yeah, they’re really good.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.” Hai gave her a warm smile that made butterflies erupt in her gut.
“I, uh- I’m Navani...” She introduced, bowing her head.
“No need, Navani. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” His smile never leaving his face. She giggled, breaking their gaze to save herself from anymore embarrassment. As she did she caught sight of Sokka and the Princess next to her.
“I’m thinking, maybe, we could do any activity together?” Sokka asked, attempting to woo the Princess. Navani couldn’t help it but feel angered by this. She knew exactly what he was doing....
Navani turned back to Hai, “So you’re a Prince?” She tried, hoping it wasn’t such a sucker of an attempt to make conversation.
“Yeah...” He chuckled, “I’m a Prince.”
“And...you have a sister?...Who’s your twin?” She wanted to face palm so badly but she resisted, “You two don’t really look alike.”
“Yue was born first and there was something wrong. So my father called upon the moon spirit for help. And it did, that’s why she has white hair. Hence our names as well. They mean moon and ocean.” He answered with not much enthusiasm. Like Navani had pushed a little too much.
“Oh, I’m assuming she gets all the attention?” She glanced over at his twin.
“Mhm,” He hummed with an eye roll, “She’s older, only by a few minutes so whoever she marries automatically becomes chief. Which isn’t fair. It really should be me because I’m the chief’s first son. Plus I’m a water bender!”
Navani perked, an idea popping into her head, “Me too! I’m not that good, though. I could definitely use some practice...” She batted her eyelashes, resting her elbow on the table and leaning on it. And just like that she was in....or so she thought.
“Well, I’m sure healing isn’t that hard.” He said smugly, waving it off.
Navani faltered a bit, pressing, “Healing? What about real water bending? Like actual fighting moves? Or dancing even?”
Hai gave a hearty chuckle, “Well...I guess I could show you a little something but no one can know, alright?”
Her eyebrows knotted in confusion but she brushed it off, nodding and smiling.
“We could meet sometime tomorrow?” He offered, taking hold of her hand and placing a gentle kiss on her knuckles.
She turned away, blush furious on her cheeks. And for a moment she forgot about why she was doing this.
===
She had been out for a walk that morning when she caught sight of a canoe in the canal ahead. Inside was just the person she was looking for.
“Prince Hai!” She called from the walk way, speeding up a little to catch up to him. Both him and Princess Yue were sitting in the small boat as it drifted down the canal.
Just as Navani cleared the corner, she ran right into someone, sending them both into water below. Both the Prince and Princess giggled at the sight.
“Ahhh, Navani!” Sokka yelped, pulling himself out of the water.
She could care less about what Sokka was yelling at her, as she shook her hair out of her face.
Prince Hai had gotten up from his seat and moved to lean over the edge, “Meet me on the palace steps tonight!” He called out as the boat continued to drift, without missing a beat.
Navani swooned as she bobbed in the water, a light blush gracing her cheeks. Soon after she pulled herself out of the water, coming to face Sokka as he watched much to his amusement. He had noticed the way the Prince looked at Navani, like he was head over heels. He knew that feeling, or knows to be exact. Sure he was flirting with Princess Yue but he couldn’t deny that he did feel a pang in his heart every time he thought of Hai and Navani together. He had her first, well, almost had her. Until he screwed it up for himself big time. Maybe Aunt Wu was right...but no. He just needed a distraction for a little bit then he’d deal with that, right?
Navani felt somewhat guilty as she stood in front of Sokka, soaking wet. Like she shouldn’t have made it known that she was going to visit Prince Hai later tonight.
So instead she grounded herself, placing both her hands on her hips, “Yes?” She questioned Sokka’s trained gaze.
He crossed his arms giving her a suspicious glare, “Nothing.”
She exhaled bluntly, giving a huff from her nose, “I’m going back to the igloo. Feel free not to follow me.” She turned sharply, taking off back the way she came.
“I bet you don’t even remember how to get back.” The water tribe boy laughed, watching as she groaned, stomping away. He followed her, doing exactly the opposite of what she said, just to mess with her. He walked a few paces behind her, throwing words of mockery every time she made a wrong turn or went in the wrong direction. Either way, they had ended up in front of the igloo they were staying in.
“Well, would you look at that?” Sokka amused, “We both got what we wanted. You were able to get home and I was able to annoy the heck out of you while doing so.”
“I suggest you shut up before I physically hurt you.” Navani threatened, not even batting an eye his way as she made her way inside.
He laughed, following suit, “You really think you can hurt me? I bet you can’t even pin me to the ground.”
They walked further into the igloo, stopping at the center. Navani shed her big coat, tossing it to the side before wordlessly getting into a fighting stance. Her gaze set sternly on his as he just stood there.
“Come on, tough guy. Since you think you’ve got what it takes, let’s put it to the test.” She stated, dipping low, kicking low and knocking Sokka’s legs out from under him. He landed hard on the floor, letting out a loud groan.
She stepped so she was over him, leaning to look down with her hands on her hips, “What happened? I thought you said you were a warrior?” She taunted, “Get up, I’ll give you another shot. You get the first strike.”
Sokka starred up at her in complete shock. As to why he was shocked, he didn’t know exactly. Of course she could beat him in a fight any day, he was just messing with her after all, right?
Soon after he stood, both of them taking fighting stances. Navani stood with a relaxed, yet steady posture, ready for anything like she had been trained to do. Sokka on the other hand, could fall over with the slightest nudge.
Sokka gave his all with his first strike, deflating a little when Navani dodged it with ease. Almost like it was nothing. He swung a couple more times, watching her move with ease every step of the way, like she had been doing this for dozens of life times.
Sokka tried and tried. He kicked, punched, grabbed, pulled, and shoved. Still nothing. Navani stood strong, barely even breaking a sweat. She giggled at his exhaustion, shoving his shoulder lightly, watching him lose balance and fall only from that little push.
She strutted over to him, placing her foot on his chest, “I didn’t even have to use my bending on you.” She leaned down, towering over him triumphantly. Watching as a smirk curl onto his lips and an idea pop into his head.
“Who’s the warrior now-“ Suddenly her leg was being pulled out from under her, Sokka being able to roll out from under her and pin her down as she made contact with the floor. He sat square on her stomach, using a hand to pin both of her wrists to the floor.
“What the-“ Navani barked from under him. She struggled under his weight, which was almost surprising because he was a little slimmer compared to her trained build.
“Looks who’s on top now! Literally!” He mocked with a big grin on his face.
She hadn’t realized how close they were until then. It all settled in. His weight on her, the way his breath fanned over her face when he talked, his hand holding down her wrists above her head. The butterflies in her stomach matched the intensity of her beating heart. Not to mention she was almost as red as her shirt. Both of their gazes locked on each other, trained so intensely. All those things she had felt for him before over powered the hurt he had caused her. Maybe she had been a bit too harsh, a little too stubborn?...
It had felt like they had been sitting there forever until Katara came bounding into the room.
“Sokka! You’ll never believe it! Gran-Ahh!” She screamed. Both Sokka and Navani yelling along with her as Navani basically launched Sokka across the room. Kicking him off from on top of her.
Katara turned away with her hands over her eyes, “Oh my gosh! Can’t you guys find somewhere a little more private to do that!” She took off.
“Katara!” Navani called, getting up off the floor to run after her, “It’s not what you think at all! I swear!”
They both ran to the door but gave up on chasing after her. They stopped in the doorway, standing close to each other. When they realized it, neither of them jerked away like they normally would’ve. Navani felt....comfortable with their proximity. Something that shocked her, scared her almost.
“I- uhhhh,” Sokka stuttered, trying to ease the tension, “That was fun wasn’t it?”
Navani playfully rolled her eyes, giggling.
===
Later that day Navani was the first to rush out for her...date? Training? She didn’t even know what to call it, with Prince Hai.
For the last hour or two she had spent her time with Prince Hai as he taught her some water bending moves. She was surprised because she already knew a thing or two but his way was so much different from the way she had been taught by her mother. So she was grateful that she was actually able to learn something.
Now they sitting on the palace steps, just enjoying their time together.
“Thank you for teaching me.” She said, leaning back with her palms against the icy step under her, “I really appreciate it.”
He turned to her smiling, “You’re welcome. Thank you for letting me teach you. It’s not everyday a beautiful girl such as yourself gets to spend time with a prince.” He joked.
“I’m sure there are a ton of other girls who would be jealous of me right now.” Navani chuckled, noticing the space between them decrease slowly. Her laughed died off awkwardly as he got closer.
“Yeah, well it doesn’t matter anyways. There would be no gain in a girl marrying me with my current situation.” He sighed, the atmosphere around them shifting.
“Now don’t say that.” Navani comforted, “Any girl would be lucky to marry you.”
He looked into her eyes and Navani saw how bright they seemed to glow under the moonlight, “You really think so?”
Navani smiled, glancing down at his lips and seeing how close they were, “I know so.” She spoke, attempting to keep their distance.
But much to her dismay, he kissed her. She gasped at the sudden contact, her eyes wide with shock and confusion. She felt confused and just odd. It didn’t feel....right to her. It caught her completely off guard. At this, the Prince pulled away quickly with a worried look on his face.
“Oh spirits! I shouldn’t have done that.” He got up hurriedly, leaving Navani on the steps.
She got up after him, “Wait! Prince Hai!”
He stopped at the top of the steps, Navani catching up to him and taking a gentle hold on his wrist.
“I’m sorry,” She began, look up at him, “I’m sorry if it made it seem like we were anything more than friends. And I didn’t mean to hurt you in anyway. But I just think we aren’t destined to have a relationship in those sorts.”
He gave a sad smile, “I understand....you like someone else instead.”
Navani’s eyebrows knotted in confusion, “What?”
“Sokka, is it? I see the way he looks at you and the way you look at him. I was foolish for even thinking that we could’ve had something.”
Navani stood silently for a moment. Maybe he was right. Maybe she did look at Sokka a little too fondly sometimes. And maybe she still got butterflies in her stomach whenever she thought of him in such a way.
Navani took a step closer to him, “No you’re not, you were just doing what your heart was telling you to do.”
Hai smiled again, taking hold of her shoulders, “Go. Go do what you heart is telling you to do and find him.” And so she did. Of course she didn’t leave without giving her thanks and appreciation.
Navani walked back to the igloo in hopes of finding Sokka before he went off to do his activity with the Princess. She tried walking without being too loud. Or else her foot steps would echo off the ice walls. She trotted down a couple walk ways, crosses some bridges until she finally turned up at the igloo. With every step her heart grew with anticipation. She felt as though she could do anything. She rushed through the doorway, a smile as bright as the moon on her face.
“Where is he?” Navani exclaimed, out of breath.
Katara and Aang jumped, startled at her sudden appearance, “Who? Sokka?” Katara questioned.
Navani nodded eagerly, almost squealing with excitement. She was finally coming to terms with her feelings.
“He’s mentioned something about a bridge and seeing the Prin-“ Katara wasn’t able to finish her sentence before Navani rushed back out with a thanks.
At this point she didn’t care if she was loud and her stomping foot steps could be heard. She figured she start with the bridge where she sent Sokka and heralded flying into the water. She slowed as she approached the corner. Hunched over, she caught her breathe. She couldn’t help but over hear the conversation going on.
“Hi, Princess Yue. I made you something.” Navani over heard Sokka greet the Princess. She peaked her head around the corner, leaning as far up against the ice wall as she could. It hurt a little to see them together like so.
She watched as Sokka held out his hand to show Princess Yue what was supposed to be a fish carving. When did he have time to make that? Maybe he really wasn’t doing this just to mess around with her...
”I’m sorry. I’ve made a mistake.” The Princess cried, turning away, “I shouldn’t have asked you to come here.” She ran off as Navani stepped out from around the corner.
When she did something hard hit her in the head, “Ow!” She whined, rubbing the sore spot in her forehead.
Sokka stormed off without noticing Navani. She cursed herself for not making it known that she was there sooner. However she did make an effort to rush back to the igloo to make it seem like she hadn’t been spying on him this whole time. She ran through the doorway, startling Aang and Katara once again.
She tore her coat off in a hurry, along with her boots, plopping down on the ground next to Katara.
Not even a second later Sokka stomps right in, clearly upset. He kicked his sleeping bag and slumped down over it.
“How’s warrior training?” Navani asks carefully, making sure her pace was steady.
Aang looks at Navani with confusion. Navani gave him a desperate look and the boy quickly caught on, “That bad?” He played off.
Sokka groaned, “It’s Princess Yue! One minute she wants to go out with me and then the next she’s telling me to get lost!”
It saddened Navani to see him in such a sour mood over what had just went down. At that point she tuned out of the conversation and focused on relaxing. She laid down on her sleeping bag, arms behind her head and legs crossed. She hadn’t noticed Katara and Aang had left until a little while later. Leaving Navani and Sokka alone.
===
The events that occurred the night before greatly contrasted what was happening right now.
That morning Katara had challenged Master Pakku to a fight, which she still lost despite her skill. And now she was taking a walk with Prince Hai.
“You really like him don’t you?” The Prince questioned with a sly smile.
“What?” Navani blushed, trying to play it off, “I wouldn’t say really like him but-“
“Just admit and stop making it harder for yourself.” He laughed as they approached a bridge.
There stood the Princess and Sokka engaged in a kiss. Navani froze. Her whole body going numb. Her heart began to ache in her chest, under all the layers of cloths she had on. A lump grew in her throat, getting bigger by the second.
Prince Hai had done a service by leading her away from the scene as she wept. She knew she shouldn’t be crying. Because if Sokka had seen her and Hai kiss yesterday, would he have reacted the same?
Hai brought her close in a snug embrace, “Navani, don’t cry. It’ll be alright. She can’t even be with him. She’s engaged!” He explained, taking her face in his hands.
But her expression stayed the same as more tears fell upon her cheeks. Her breathing was choppy and all she could do was sob. She didn’t know why she was in the first place. It’s not like her and Sokka were...dating...in the first place. But she knew deep down that she wanted him. Yet she couldn’t have him.
[][][]
Taglist
@harmlessoffering
@ilovespideyyy
@eat-a-brick714
@none-of-ur-frackin-business
@smolbitch2006
@the-natureofme
@kaylove12
@missmorosis
@shellyseashell
#avatar the last airbender#sokka x oc#atla fic#atla x reader#atla#atla fanfic#aang#katara#toph#navani#sokka#original character#sokka imagine#sokka fic#atla sokka#sokka of the southern water tribe#sokka x reader#angie writes#oc fic
17 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
cccrowleyyy
“anthony janthony” crowley
saraisstillalive-blog
Untitled
skandhanshidm
Skandhanshi
jmellsystem
Untitled
eliellieely
ELlie Yuop