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kittyt-hexxed · 9 months

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Hiiii! I’ve been hesitant to ask because I’m not sure if you’re in this fandom, but could you do a fic for Suki from ATLA? Definitely older cause she’s like sixteen in the series, but one where Reader is Katara/Sokka’s older sister and she instantly falls for Suki. (Reader has a thing for women who can knock her out) Have her be a secret water bender (ya know, cause Katara) and like Suki catches her bending. Reader begs her not to tell and Suki is like “only if you let me train you.”

Maybe a smut scene after practice, it’s totally up to you! But I would love it if you wrote this, I love your Arcane work! Oh! And Reader has loooong curly hair like past her butt! Thank you!

Can You Keep a Secret?

Suki x Fem!POC!Reader

Author Note: You don’t understand the excitement I felt seeing an ATLA request! Writing this helped my writer’s block, too, so thank you for that! I am in both fandoms ATLA and TLOK! I have also read the Kyoshi novels for future reference ;)

Warnings: ATLA Spoilers (Season 1, Episode 4), Young & Dumb Sokka, Older Suki, Waterbender!Reader, Accidental flashing, Cute Flirting, Teasing, Playful Training, Suki kicks your ass and you’re into it, First Time, Hickeys, Fingering, Praise/Compliments

Summary: You tried your best to hide your bending, but Suki managed to find out within a few hours. You beg her to keep the secret and she agrees… only if you let her train you.

Your head was spinning from the events that happened within the last few days. Not only did your little sister find the Avatar, but you nearly got a face full of fire! It didn’t help that you were hiding your bending ability. You wanted to drown that stupid kid for attacking your family. He was lucky that Aang came in when he did, or you would have sunk him under the ice. Then there was the heartbreaking revelation at the Air Temple… so, it’s actually relieving to you that Aang wanted to go on a little break. You were also really enjoying traveling by Bison. You really enjoyed feeling the wind in your hair. It also helped that if you found the right spot, you couldn’t hear them talking over the loudness of the wind. It was your favorite place to take a nap until you shifted over.

“Stop bugging her, airhead.” This is the first thing you hear as you tune back into the conversation, causing you to open your eyes, “You need to give girls space when they’re doing their sewing.” You raise an eyebrow at that. ‘Where did he get that from?’

“What does me being a girl have to do with sewing?” Katara asks.

“Yeah, little bro.” Sokka jolts as he realizes you’re awake and listening, “What does being a girl have to do with that?” He’s silent for a moment as he tries to figure out the words to say.

“Simple. Girls are better at fixing pants than guys, and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that.” He shrugs, “It’s just the natural order of things.” Your eyes feel like they’re going to pop out of their head as you look at your brother in disbelief.

“Really?” You say coldly, “I guess I should stop hunting then since I’m so horrible at it.”

“I’m all done with your pants and look what a great job I did!” Katara says too sweetly, tossing his pants at him. They hit him in the face and he panics, realizing that there’s still a hole in them. He looks to you for help, but you close your eyes and pretend to go back to sleep. What he said concerned you. Where did he get those ideas from when you were the main caretaker of the family? You hunted, gathered firewood, and took care of everyone. That’s why you were so reluctant to leave in the first place. Your people needed you, but Gran Gran was persuasive.

By the time you landed, you wanted nothing to do with the group. Sokka and Katara had been bickering nearly the whole time while Aang kept trying to get your sister’s attention. You found it funny at first, watching this kid try to impress your sister while not knowing how to interact with her. You were silently cheering him on but it was painful.

“I’m going to go over there. Spirits know I need a moment to myself.” You point off to the side where there is a bit more of a private area, “Don’t do anything stupid.” You pointedly look at Sokka.

“Why are you looking at me?!” Sokka protests, “You should be saying that to Katara! She’s already done stupid things!”

“Oh, really?” Katara scoffs, “Like what?” You watch them bicker for a moment before shaking your head. ‘They wonder why I’m always hunting.’

“Don’t you want to see the Elephant Koi?” Aang asks you.

“No, I’m good. I’ll check them out later since we’re camping here.” You give him a reassuring smile. You glance at the two behind him who are still arguing and roll your eyes. There wasn’t a moment where your siblings weren’t at each other’s throats. It got tiring trying to be the mediator so you stopped. You just let them hash it out. You walk away from the group, looking forward to getting a little bit of alone time.

Now in a private place, you pull off your coat and strip down to your undergarments. You would have invited Katara along but between Aang wanting to impress her and your social flame going low, you chose against it. ‘Some peace.’ You smile to yourself. You find a place to sit in the sand and get comfortable. The sand was warm, already heated up from the sun, and felt wonderful on your skin. You sigh in contentment, laying back to enjoy the area's warmth. If you were back home, you would’ve been bundled up to avoid the cold. It didn’t bother you much, but it got frustrating sometimes. Having a chance to show some skin and not have the possibility of freezing to death is wonderful. You were excited to travel the world, even if you’d miss Gran Gran back at home.

You were probably lying down for a total of five minutes before you heard screaming. Your eyes snap open and you jump up from the sand. You’re sprinting back to the group before your mind can even process it. You gasp in shock seeing a giant sea serpent chasing Aang across the water. Your fingers flex, itching to jump into the water and help him as you get to the bank with your siblings. It wasn’t necessary though as Aang comes flying out of the water and collides with Sokka. You flinch as they get thrown back into the trees.

“Sokka! Aang!” You shout, running to them with Katara. You give Sokka a concerned look seeing him slumped against a tree while Aang looked fine.

“What was that thing?” Katara questions.

“I don’t know.” Aang responds, putting his clothes on.

“It might have been a sea serpent of some kind.” You put a hand on your hip, “Dad used to warn me that some hung out in the water near the ice floes. That’s why we didn’t go there for my initiation.” They all look at you as if they just realized you were there before shouting and turning around. You blink in confusion.

“Y-Y-Y/N!” Katara shouts, her face an impressive shade of pink, “Where are your clothes?!”

“I heard screaming. There wasn’t time to put clothes on if something was wrong.” You deadpan, crossing your arms over your chest, “I’ll go get them now that I know you’re all okay.”

“Great! Then we can leave!” Sokka says, not turning back, “I am not sticking around to find out what that creature actually is.”

“Yeah, yeah.” You wave him off, turning around and heading back to where you left your clothes, “I’ll help you get ready to go once I’m dressed.” You leave them by the trees. ‘There is a lot Katara and Sokka haven’t been exposed to.’ You frown. ‘Our age differences have affected them a lot more than I would have liked. I was thirteen when we lost mom. I had more than enough time with her to learn about waterbending or go adventuring with Dad. They’ve been sheltered for far too long.’

You find the area where you left your clothes and pull your tights back on. You exhale, sad that your moment of peace has gone just as fast as it arrived. You bend down to put up your tunic, straightening up to dust the sand off and the next thing you know a figure drops down in front of you. Your feet are swept out from under you before you can react, and the person grabs you by your chest wrappings as you fall. You’re yanked forward by them, but you feel them come undone as they’re not as secure as they should have been. The gang's haste to get into the air the other day didn’t give you the time you needed to do a warrior wrap. The person in front of you gasps as the wraps fall away, suddenly spinning you around and blinding you. You let out a yelp as your chest is exposed to the air, but your tunic is on shortly after. Ropes are tied around your upper body, pinning your arms to your sides. They pick up your body, drape you over their shoulder, and start running. ‘That happened way too fast.’ You think, dazed. That couldn’t have been more than a minute. You don’t even have the words to say, honestly. You were surprised. Very surprised. Who could move like that?! The only time you moved that fast was while ice skating! Were there people who could move that fast normally? Aang didn’t count because he’s the Avatar. Who knows the extent of his abilities.

You weren’t sure how long it took, but your body was tied to something after a while. From the sounds of it, the others were right next to you so at least you don’t have to worry about that. You shift your body, trying to figure out how exactly you’re tied up. You practically jump out of your skin when you hear someone talking.

“You four have some explaining to do.” A man’s voice sounds.

“And if you don’t answer all of our questions, we’re throwing you back into the water with the Unagi.” A woman says after him.

“Show yourselves, cowards!” Comes from your idiot brother somewhere to your left.

“Oh sure, Sokka. Call the people who tied us up” the blindfold is removed from your eyes, “cowards.” You hiss, then go silent as you see a group of girls standing in front of you. The man you heard was with him, but he was the only one.

“Who are you? Where are the men who ambushed us?” Sokka demands.

“There were no men.” The woman in front scoffs, seemingly irritated by that question, “We ambushed you. Now tell us - who are you, and what are you doing here?”

“We-” You try to speak but Sokka speaks over you.

“Wait a second, there’s no way a bunch of girls took us down.” You can hear the amusement in his voice and it makes you want to smack him. How many times do you have to yell at him for him to understand that it’s not just the men in your tribe who do things? Besides, the woman was clearly agitated, and saying that would only make it worse.

“Sokka, you’ve got to be kidding me.” You sigh.

“Bunch of girls, huh?” The woman grabs Sokka by his coat and leans in threateningly, “The unagi is going to eat well tonight.”

“Please ignore my dumbass brother!” You shout, getting her attention, “He does NOT speak for the rest of us!” You glare at him.

“Then, I’m sure you can answer my questions. Since you seem to be the oldest here.” She stands in front of you and you meet her dark blue eyes, “Who are you? What are you doing here?” Her voice was lowered and it was spoken in more of a threatening manner than before.

“We’re from the Southern Water Tribe. We were just passing through and wanted to relax before continuing.” You swallow, feeling intimidated, “That’s all, I promise.”

“It’s my fault.” Aang speaks up, from somewhere past your brother, “I’m sorry we came here. I wanted to ride the Elephant Koi.”

“How do we know you’re not Fire Nation spies?” The man hisses accusingly, “Kiyoshi stayed out of the war so far and we intend to keep it that way.” That makes you scoff in anger. How dare he accuse you of being a spy for that wretched nation! As if you’d want anything to do with the people who destroyed your family!

“This island is named for Kiyoshi?” Aang sounds oddly happy about that, “I know Kiyoshi!”

“How could you possibly know her? Avatar Kiyoshi was born here four hundred years ago. She’s been dead for centuries!”

“I know her because I’m the Avatar.” Aang says making your jaw drop. ‘He did not just say that out loud! Why would he tell people that after I told him to keep it a secret?!’ You panic. ‘If these idiots would have let me handle this, I could have gotten us out by now! But, no, don’t let the adult handle this!’

“That’s impossible! The last Avatar was an airbender who disappeared one hundred years ago.” The woman shakes her head as you drop yours in exasperation.

“That’s me!” You can practically hear Aang’s grin. You were going to strangle this kid the moment your hands were free. Avatar or not!

“Throw the impostor to the unagi!” The man commands. ‘So, he’s likely the chief.’ The women snap out metal fans and move closer to surround your group. Your eyes widen and you internally curse that your hands are bound. There was nothing you could do to help your situation.

“Aang, if you’re going to claim that you’re the Avatar you need to prove it!” You tell him, not liking the sight of those fans, “Do some air bending!” There’s a gust of air and you hear the people gasping in awe. Whispers fill the air as Aang floats down and you feel relieved as you hear the Chief say that he believed him. They threw a feast in honor of Aang’s arrival and you were shocked to see so much food on the table. You were hesitant at first, but Aang insisted so you ate until you were satisfied. The Chief and the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors joined your group. Thankfully, Sokka was too engrossed in stuffing himself with food to notice the warrior sitting with you. If he had, you were sure dinner wouldn’t have been as pleasant as it was.

“Hello.” The woman greets you as she takes the seat to your left.

“Hello.” You greet her politely.

“I wanted to apologize and introduce myself to you.” She brushes her hair behind her ear, “I’m Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. I’m sorry we ambushed you like that. While we live away from the mainlands, people have been begging us to join the war. It’s been going on since before I was a little girl. We’ve been very careful with newcomers.”

“That’s alright. I understand that. My village was raided by the Fire Nation when I was a teenager. After that, the men in the village refused to let anyone who wasn’t from the neighboring villages in.” You reassure her, “You were only protecting your home. I can’t blame you for that when I would do the same. It’s admirable.”

“That’s a relief. Thank you… but um… that’s not all I wanted to apologize for.” Suki rubs the back of her neck, lowering her voice, “I was the one who jumped you on the shoreline. You looked to be around my age, so I wasn’t sure what training you might have had.” Her words sink in and you begin to feel mortified.

“I saw your chest and I wanted to let you know that wasn’t my intention.” She whispers, and you think you see her face turning pink, “I’m very sorry for that.”

“I-It’s okay.” You frantically wave your hands, “I’m not upset about it at all. At least you had the decency to cover me.”

“O-Of course! I wouldn’t do that to another woman!” Now she’s waving her hands frantically, “Not unless they wanted me to, but that’s not- I’m going to stop talking now.” She facepalms, making you laugh at the absurdity of the conversation.

The mess that was your first conversation didn’t do anything to ruin the rest of them. You found yourself talking to Suki the most as you were sitting next to each other. She listened intently as you talked about your life at home and what you did for fun. Unfortunately, you had to leave out anything that involved waterbending. Katara was the one who talked to Suki about that one. But, you learned about Suki’s life on the island and how it was her dream to become a Kyoshi Warrior. You congratulated her on becoming the leader and she made a soft comment that had you raising an eyebrow, “It’s rewarding to train pretty women like you.”

You weren’t new to flirting. You were lucky enough to interact with people outside of your tribe before your dad left. It’s just been a while since you’ve had a chance. So, you fell into it. You flirted with her, and she seemed to be into it. You couldn’t believe your luck. You’ve been gone from home for such a short time and here was an attractive woman hitting on you! The end of dinner made you a little sad, but you had the itch for some more alone time, so you asked one of the islanders where you could find a quiet cove or something close to it. They directed you to one on the other side of the island that’s past the training building for the Kyoshi Warriors.

It was a good distance to walk, but that meant you wouldn’t be bothered by anyone either. With your siblings and Aang preoccupied, you took the chance to sneak away. It felt like the perfect opportunity to get some waterbending practice in. You let out a slow breath, moving through the meditative poses your mother taught you as a child. It helped not only to relax your body but your mind when it got too unfocused. And, it was definitely too unfocused. There was something about Suki that got into your brain. You couldn’t stop thinking about her. Knowing that she was the one who took you down earlier made you flustered. You’ve never come into contact with anyone who can do something like that.

So, once your body is focused, you let your awareness spread to the rolling waves in front of you. You smile to yourself as you lift the water and bring it towards you. It whirls around your body, the soft whooshing sound of the water bringing you peace of mind.

“Okay, mom.” You exhale, widening your stance slightly, “Guide me through the exercise.” You move through the waterbending techniques your mother taught you, steadily going faster and getting harsher with each re-run of the sequence. Your muscles are used to the movement, due to training over and over again. At some point, you’d have to break the news to Katara. She’d be pissed with you for keeping this a secret, but she wasn’t ready. You couldn’t teach her something that could kill someone if she couldn’t control her anger. You will never forget the day you nearly speared your father with an icicle during an argument.

“You didn’t tell me you were a bender.” A voice comes from behind you, making you shriek. You whirl around, the water following as you whip it at whoever snuck up on you.

“Ouch!” The person yelps, clutching their side and you realize that it’s Suki.

“Oh, Spirits! I’m so sorry!” You gasp as she looks at you with an impressed look, “Are you okay?!”

“It’s okay!” Suki giggles, rubbing her side as she moves closer to you, “I guess we’re even after what happened earlier today.”

“I guess we are.” You chuckle, “Are you sure you don’t want me to check?”

“Well… I’d have to remove everything so…”

“Oh.” You blink, “Then, I’ll take your word for it.”

“Anyway, that was some impressive bending. How come you didn’t bring it up when Katara was talking about it?”

“My brother and sister don’t know. Our mom trained me in secret in case my siblings couldn’t bend. I haven’t told Katara for various reasons.” You sigh, running a hand over your hair. It was the one conversation you were dreading.

“Hmm, is the reason because you’re so good at it?” She says flirtatiously, “If you had fought me with it this morning, I might have been the one retrained.”

“I doubt it.” You flirt back, “I could just freeze you in place.” You demonstrate by sneakily freezing her feet to the ground. She gasps, tugging on her ankles to try and get them unstuck.

“Then you wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere.” You giggle, giving her a playful shove. Suki laughs as she pinwheels, unable to fall.

“You’re interesting, you know that?” She grins, watching as you melt the ice and pull the water back to you.

“Says the woman who took me down in seconds.” You chuckle, “I have never been so confused in my life.” She could take you down that fast and had the strength to lift your body. You found that kind of attractive.

“Will you show me your bending?” Suki questions, leaning forward on her tiptoes, “I haven’t seen waterbending like yours up close before.”

“Only if you keep it a secret.” You get a raised eyebrow in return, “Please, Suki. I can’t have them finding out right now.” You give her a pleading look. She makes a face like she’s contemplating what you said. You bite your lip, wondering if she’d tell them about your secret. She didn’t seem like that kind of person, but you only just met her. She tied you up and planned on murdering you without a second thought, too. It was to protect her people but…

“I’ll keep it a secret.” Suki agrees, a teasing smile on her lips, “But, you have to let me train you. You’ll need to know how to protect yourself.”

“Deal!” You hurriedly agree. That earns you a big grin from Suki and you spend the last of your daylight waterbending for her. She seemed dazzled by what you were doing. She asked you questions and even attempted to do the moves with you. For the first time in forever, you didn’t feel alone while practicing. She made you laugh and even tried to surprise attack you! You managed to hit her away, but you suspected she made it easy for you.

Once the final dredges of sunlight were about to disappear, Suki took your hand and guided you through the woods. She said you could use the actual training building because you’d be the only ones there. With the arrival of Aang, she had given the others the evening off. But, it will be right back to work tomorrow morning.

“This is where you practice?” You gasp. The building was very simple on the inside with a large open space. There were some weapons hanging on the wall and two doors at the back of the building.

“Yup. From sunrise to sunset.” Suki turns to you, putting her hands on her hips, “Now you’ll get the chance to see how we train.”

“So, why did you want to train me?” You question, letting her pull your hair out of its ponytail. You shake it out and blush at the awed look Suki gives you. Your hair was very long. You took great care of it since there wasn’t much to do in your free time.

“If you’re going to keep pretending you’re not a waterbender, you still need to be able to protect yourself.” She retrieves a box and has you kneel before her, “So, I’m going to walk you through our traditions.”

Suki takes the time to get you dressed into the robes the Kiyoshi Warriors wear. You’re almost surprised at how heavy the robes are on your body. If they wore this and managed to move that quickly, they must be inhuman or something! It interested you, and you found the way Suki talked so proudly about it to be cute. You listened to her closely, letting her put the makeup on you as she explained the history behind it. Once that was done, it was time for practice.

“We’re going to move through some motions, so spread your feet apart like this and bring your elbows into your body.” Suki demonstrates. You mimic her and she stares at you intensely as you do. A few seconds pass before she walks over to you.

“You want to come down a bit farther.” She puts her hands on your hips and pulls your body down some more. You feel your breath catch in your throat as she manipulates your body. Although you had no skin exposed, you could feel her touch lingering on your skin. It felt like the air was heating up between you two. She watched your body movements, using her own hands to support you or correct your form. You stopped breathing when her hands moved up your body, feeling dizzy in a different way. Your gazes lingered, and you watched her lips move as she talked.

“You’re doing a great job!” Suki compliments you, “You’re a natural at this!”

“Thank you.” You feel fluttery hearing her say that, “It might just be because I have a great teacher.”

“A great teacher is only made by a great student.” She winks at you, making you giggle.

“Can you show me your moves in action?” You tilt your head, “Slowly, at least. I’d like to be able to see it this time.”

“Okay, get in position across from me.” Suki motions with her hand, and you do as she says. You lock eyes, getting lost in her gaze. A moment passes and then Suki becomes a blur. You gasp in alarm, feeling her grab your arm out of nowhere. You’re yanked forward and you feel your body flip through the air. You let out a grunt of pain as your back hits the floor and Suki pins you to the ground. Your jaw drops as she smirks down at you.

“Was that slow enough?” She asks teasingly.

“Yeah…” You breathe out, feeling an unknown emotion settle in your chest.

“That’s it for tonight, then.” The smirk doesn’t leave her face as she helps you up, “Let’s get you out of that. We’ll take the makeup off first.” You nod wordlessly, still in awe. The two of you head into the changing room where the shelves are filled with extra uniforms. There’s a basin of water there that’s used to remove the makeup, but you feel a little spontaneous.

“Let me remove the makeup for you.” You pull water from the basin and let it stick to your palms, “It’ll be faster this way.”

“Okay.” Suki smiles and sits down, patting the spot on the bench next to her. You get close to her, Suki’s hand on your thigh to steady herself as she lets you carefully run your hands over her face. Little by little, the makeup comes off to reveal her features and you’re taken by her beauty.

“You’re staring.” She whispers.

“Sorry.” You go to back away, but she grabs your wrist.

“I’m okay with staring… but I’d prefer to kiss you instead.” You make a noise in the back of your throat, surprised by her statement.

“If I read this whole evening wrong, you’re more than welcome to tell me no.” She continues, “But if I haven’t… I’d like to kiss you.”

“You haven’t.” You whisper, closing your eyes to remove the makeup from your face. Once you do, you send the water down the little drain next to the basin, “I’d like to kiss you, too.”

Suki didn’t waste a second. Her lips were on yours, soft and sweet from the berry juice in the lip paint. Your heartbeat picks up as she guides you onto her lap, and you rest your hands on her chest. She wasn’t your first kiss, but she’s the first kiss where it was good. Suki knew how to kiss and it showed. The way her tongue found its way into your mouth, not too much to send you running or she’d take a moment to suck on your bottom lip and make you impatient.

“Can I touch you?” Suki asks sweetly, “Have you been touched before?”

“Ah, no, I-I haven’t.” That question wasn’t one you were expecting at all. That made you a little nervous. You haven’t even touched yourself before. How would you know what to do or-

“Hey, don’t worry. We don’t have to do anything.” She brushes your hair behind your ear, “I was just asking.”

“I’d like to… I’ve just- I don’t-”

“You don’t need to do anything.” She giggles, “Let me do it for you.”

“Okay.” You agree.

“Let’s get you undressed then.” Suki waits for you to stand before instructing you to turn around. Piece by piece, she helped you out of the warrior’s uniform while leaving kisses on your neck. Your body felt warm, your heart was racing, and you were slowly getting excited for what was to come. When your robes were off, you helped Suki even though she didn’t need it. Taking your cues from her, you did the same thing and kissed her neck, giving in to the urge to leave little bites as well. You were doing something right by the way you’d hear soft gasps leave her lips. The moment the last piece of her robes were off, she backed you into the wall and hicked your leg up to her hip.

“Kiss me.” You demand, making her chuckle.

“Eager.” She grins before kissing you again. This time you were more intense with this kiss. You weren’t sure why but only that it felt right to be. You could feel her fingers playing at the edge of your underwear and it sends shivers up your spine. Her fingers move across and down, over your covered clit to press against that spot between your legs. You gasp against her lips, wrapping your arms around her to bring her closer to you. She rubs her fingers down there for a bit, continuing to kiss you as you struggle to hold in your moans. Your body is trembling at this point, eager for more stimulation from the gorgeous warrior pinning you to the wall.

“Do you still want me to put my fingers in?” Suki asks after backing from the kiss.

“Yes…” You breathe out. You hold each other’s gaze as you feel her move the cloth aside. Her eyes sparkle in the light, such a deep blue you could always get lost in them. You gasp as one of her fingers slips into you, whimpering as she touches you in a way no one has. It’s all you can focus on. The feel of her touching you so deeply in a place that sent your body tingling with pleasure.

“Suki.” You moan out her name, tilting your head back.

“You’re so beautiful, you know.” She kisses your exposed neck, “It’s a shame you’ve never felt pleasure like this before.”

“You’re the first.” You mutter, not able to speak any louder.

“I’m honored.” She hums, putting another finger in and stretching you out, “You have such a cute pussy. I’m enjoying letting you experience this.” You groan, the soft burning from the stretching not doing anything to distract you from the pleasure. Only a few hours ago, she had tied you up and now she was in an intimate position with you. Who would have thought leaving home would end up with you like this?

“Thank you…” You say breathily, “It feels nice. Really nice.”

“Don’t thank me yet, cutie.” Suki giggles, “I haven’t made you cum, yet.” You weren’t sure what she meant by that, but you couldn’t ask. She had moved her thumb to a bundle of nerves further up and you were too enthralled to talk. The trembling in your body only got worse, except now something was tightening in your abdomen. It kept getting tighter the more she touched you and you didn’t want to tell Suki to stop. You were more aware of her fingers than you were earlier and the pressure in your abdomen had reached its peak. A loud moan left your lips as you felt it snap, your fingers digging into her shoulders in the process.

“Spirits!” You hear Suki exclaim in surprise and then giggle as you feel a liquid run down your legs. She didn’t stop until you could feel your body relax, but your mind was definitely in a different state. You felt a little foggy.

“I didn’t think I’d make you cum that hard.” Suki chuckles, slowly sliding her fingers out, “Are you feeling okay?” She asks.

“Yeah.” You nod, trying to catch your breath, “I am. I just- I’m not quite sure what I’m feeling but it feels good.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll go away soon.” She kisses your cheek, “You did great, cutie.”

“Thank you.” You blush, thinking about kissing her again, “Can I…?”

“Can you kiss me again?” She smirks, making you giggle and nod your head.

“I don’t mind that.” Suki lifts your chin and kisses you.

#atla fic #atla #atla suki #suki x reader #suki x fem reader

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 7 months

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Vicarious (Part 16)

It isn’t perfect by any stretch but it is something. He can join them for meals comfortably now, even if he keeps quiet for most of it aside from a brief greeting. Now that it is out in the open, Azula speaks openly with him and he supposes that, that does help his case–rather her case.

He had always imagined that it would be easy to talk to the rest of the group since he doesn’t carry the resentments that Azula does for them. But he can’t stop himself from dwelling upon how he has been treated until now.

He feels like he has to ease back into liking his own friends but at least he doesn’t find himself flushing with anger upon seeing Azula interact with them. She is usually the first to invite him over. She or Aang.

They ask him how he is doing now, if he is taking care of his injuries, and if they are healing well. They ask him if he is eating and sleeping well. They don’t question him when he says yes even if they probably should. Granted he has been sleeping a little easier these days now that the loneliness isn’t driving him half mad. Now that he has memorized Azula’s optimal pillow arrangement.

They don’t speak about much of anything at breakfast. It is simply one of those mornings where no one seems to have slept well so everyone stays out of each other’s ways. He knows why he hasn’t slept and he has a guess or two about what is leaving Azula sleepy. He is pretty certain that he heard Mai and Zuko arguing last night–something about “you ate the last fireflakes!” That petty argument had descended into a much larger one about carelessness and a lack of respect.

At least he isn’t the only one constantly getting shit from his lover. He wonders if anyone is truly happy with their partners. He wonders what demons Aang and Katara have.

He turns his thoughts to the toast and eggs in front of him and tries to keep them there. Food is a safe thing to think about.

“I have good news for you.” Azula catches him after breakfast.

He could certainly use more of that on this drab morning. “What’s that?”

“I am taking Jin to a spa and resort.” She replies.

His brows scrunch. “For what?”

Azula rolls her eyes. “A date, Sokka. After witnessing that whole fiasco and seeing you…help me out, she decided that, perhaps, you could be sensitive and caring after all.”

“A-a date!? We’re back together?”

Azula nods. “She said that she wanted to give you another chance so I offered to take her to the spa and let her pick out the type of massage and the scents for the aroma therapy. She was torn between the hot stone massage and this water based massage so I decided to book a second appointment at the end of the month. You will be going with her as me. It will include a manicure and…”

He tries to listen to her lengthy description of both of the outing that she has planned but his head is once again caught in a whirlwind–a chaotic storm of conflict and confusion. He should be absolutely elated that Azula has managed to salvage his relationship. Instead he finds his tummy tickling unpleasantly. He is more thrilled to hear that she has managed to get herself a girl’s day with Jin–if they are lucky they’ll be back to themselves by then and she can have that hot stone massage firsthand. When it comes to her other supposedly good news…he forces a smile onto his face. It is the best he can muster.

And he can’t, for the life of him, place where this unease is coming from.

“Thank you, Azula, I appreciate it.”

Azula nods. “Sure, Sokka. You’ve helped me out, so…” she shrugs. “I’ll try to fix things with Jin for you.”

He would wager that she did quite a bit of work helping herself from the outside but he isn’t certain that she’d like him pointing that out. Instead he asks, “when is the date?”

“I’m going to start getting ready for it once we are through with the discussion.” She replies. “I just hope that it goes better than that last one.”

“Well this time you aren’t set up for failure.”

“Yes. Thank you for that one.” She grumbles. Her expression forms into something of a half pout. “I should start getting ready. Your hair is a nightmare to style.”

“You have much more hair.” He combs his fingers through the locks that fall over his shoulders.

The look she fixes him with can only be described as one of pure dread before her expression flickers back to something more deadpan. “Which is what the servants are for. You should let them know that they have permission to do your hair too.”

“Will this arrangement continue after we switch back.”

“Not a chance! My servants are my servants.” Sometimes it is hard to tell when she is being serious and when she is just messing with him. Either which way, her tone is much more vibrant now. She seems happier, and it fits his body much more.

“I’ll let you know how it went when I get back.” She places her hand on his shoulder as she passes him by. “Oh, and if you take the Avatar up on his offer to have tea, try a black tea, peppermint bled. I find that those make me feel refreshed. Enjoy your afternoon.” He can so easily imagine how those would sound coming from her lips. He repeats them to himself after she leaves, just to know for sure. Just to hear it for himself.

He very nearly understands where his conflict about Jin comes from. Perhaps if he dwelled upon it just a little more he would know for certain. He almost does–he almost recites her words using her lips.

Aang pokes his head around the corner and asks if he is ready for tea.

He hadn’t realized that Katara would be there too. Or that they would be having it in a rock garden. He doesn’t mind the change of scenery at all.

He hopes that Azula won’t be upset with him for taking Aang up on his offer for meditation and yoga. He can’t imagine that she will be when he tells her how much tension relief it offers her body.

.oOo.

All in all, Azula is in a good mood. She realizes that she has been lately. Coming off of years of complete and all encompassing hopelessness, this splotch of a chance has given her a weightlessness, a little lotus of light that unfolds in her mind in the spaces that were so heavily infested with dark thoughts. It makes even the slightest joys feel somewhat monumental.

It doesn’t take all that much to snuff that light right out.

She just thought that she would have it for a bit longer.

The date had been going so, so well. She had come out of that water massage feeling absolutely amazing. An entire month’s worth of tension and stress had been washed away. Eucalyptus still lingers in her nostrils even hours later as she lays on the bed next to Jin.

Jin who puts her scrolls aside and traces her pointer over Azula’s bare chest in lazy spirals. Jin who slides her hand up the side of her neck and strokes Sokka’s beard. Azula’s heart pounds in Sokka’s chest. Her breathing quickens. Jin’s touch is so pleasant, it is damn near everything that Azula has been deprived of, everything that she has been craving.

But she is scared. Scared beyond what she had ever imagined that she would be. No one has ever touched her like this. Not when real emotions were involved. Jin’s hand lowers from her cheek to chest. Her fingers trace over the lines of Sokka’s pectoral muscles and then over his abs.

She swallows hard, Sokka’s adams apple bobs.

“W-wait.” She says as Jin lowers her head, probably to place a kiss on her chest or naval.

“Wait?” Jin furrows her brows. “I thought that–”

She had made a mistake. She had let things get a little too romantic, let things go a little too far. She isn’t sure if Sokka wants this.Agni, she isn’t even sure if he wanted her to kiss Jin for him.

She knows for certain that it isn’t fair to Jin. Jin who has no idea who her hands are actually caressing. Who she has actually been kissing. “We can’t. Not now.”

“I don’t understand you, Sokka! One minute you’re so romantica and affectionate and the next you’re distant and detached.”

“Can’t a man have second thoughts?”

“Of course!”Jin exclaims. “I just wish that you’d voice them earlier. That’s the problem Sokka, you never tell me how you feel until after I did something to upset you. You bottle it up until things get weird and I get blindsided.”

Azula swallows. “I told you beforehand this time.” She tries.

Jin rubs her hands over her face. “Yes, and you’ve also told me before that part of the problem in our relationship is that we didn’t have more intimacy in our relationship. You were the one who has been asking for this. And now that I’m ready you’re suddenly not into it.”

“It’s not that. It’s just…this isn’t a good time.”

“Well let me know when it is, Sokka.” Jin frowns. “Look, I’m not mad about this, if you’re not in the mood then you’re not in the mood. But I want you to figure things out before we do anything else. I’m tired of trying to navigate mixed signals and awkward situations.”

Azula nods.

She had been so busy trying to mend things for Sokka the way he has for her that she had forgotten to take her own comfort and Jin’s into account. She has wasted both of their time and gotten Sokka’s hopes up.

Jin sighs. “I had a nice day, Sokka.” She squeezes Azula’s hand. “Thank you.”

Azula nods but she knows when there is a ‘but’ coming.

“But I think that you’re right, this just isn’t the right time for us. Why don’t we enjoy the rest of this spa trip as friends. You can invite Azula along.”

Inviting Azula along is precisely the problem. She is already here and she shouldn’t be. She just hopes that Sokka won’t be too disappointed when she extends the spa day invitation to him.

#avatar the last airbender #azula #sokka #sokkla #fanfiction

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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re: that ask you posted a couple days ago about the male and female representation in RWBY, part of what makes RWBY's whole 'girl power' thing ring exceptionally hollow to me is the fact that there are like... no women in positions of real power in remnant. like at all. except the big bad.

winter is second in command to james. glynda is second in command to ozpin. all of the headmasters are men (for no discernible reason, imo; why theodore and not dorothea?). the leader of the ace ops was a white man (and then winter seemed to take over clover's position instead of either of the women of color on the team, and she was still second to james). RWBY is an all girl team, but JNPR was led by a boy despite a girl arguably being far more qualified (pyrrha). the happy huntresses are all women, and robyn had no real power to speak of--she didn't even manage to win the election, because jacques rigged it, and then the council ceased to matter. there was one (1) woman on the council, but she was so inconsequential that i can't even remember her name. (i suppose we're lucky it was the guy and not her who james shot lol) jacques controls the SDC instead of willow, even though he's not even a schnee by blood and actually married into the family for power. (and we don't even know how he got it over his wife.)

and then there's the white fang, which ghira led and not kali--and it's ghira who leads menagerie itself, while kali seems to be a housewife. sienna had five minutes of screentime before being brutally killed and her position assumed by adam, a man. cordovin is basically a one off lackey we haven't even thought about before or since. neo was second to roman. you have cinder, sure, who is a second but to salem, a woman, and raven as the leader of the branwen tribe--but what does it really say about your 'girl power' narrative when the only women with genuine systemic power in your world are villains or antagonists with massive bodycounts??

atla has the same sort of problem--a couple great female characters, but all the leadership positions are men (except the kyoshi warriors, an all girls group, and even then the leader of their island is an old man) and the one female mentor figure also turns out to be evil--but it at least has some great writing to help overlook that fact, and it came out in the mid-00's and so has some sort of excuse of being a product of its time. but rwby didn't even start until 2013 and it's still going and still making these kinds of decisions well into 2021.

where is this supposed girl power, exactly? am i really supposed to overlook the very patriarchal worldbuilding just because the title characters are girls?

That's an excellent summary of the situation, anon, and as with so much in RWBY, it comes down to the full context. Any one of these examples isn't necessarily going to mean much on its own. It's when you look at the pattern that you can start making a case for those conclusions: Why is the show marketed on "girl power" set in a world where men hold the vast majority of that power? And, more importantly, why is that setup not the point? We could easily have a story where that lopsided gender dynamic is the problem that the girls are looking to fix, but... that story doesn't exist. Like the problems discussed with Jaune, the supposed point here exists only on the surface. Dig just the tinniest bit — the above — and you hit on a lot of structural problems with this "girl power" world.

To add just a few details to what you've already said:

Salem indeed has power, but she's never allowed to fully use it. Each volume the frustration with this grows as Salem accumulates more abilities and then just sits on them. From literally hiding out for a thousand years to worries that she won't use the Staff in Volumes 9-10, Salem really isn't allowed to be the threat she's presented as on the surface. And yes, this is absolutely due in part to the "She's too OP and the writers don't know how to let her be that powerful while still having the heroes win" issue, but again, context. That problem doesn't exclude others occurring simultaneously.

Same double explanation with Summer. Yes, dead moms are an incredibly common trauma to dump on a protagonist, but it still left Yang and Ruby with Tai as their primary influence. And Qrow. The uncle becomes the extended family influence while Raven is the absent one/eventual antagonist. It's personal power as opposed to political power, but Tai, Qrow, Ozpin, formerly James... most of the mentors are men. Maria, a key exception, has been ignored in that regard. The story announced that she was Qrow's inspiration, setup her being Ruby's new mentor, and then... nothing. Nothing has come of that. She disappeared for a volume and then went off to Amity and was literally forgotten by the story when evacuating everyone was the finale's whole point.

Like that Endgame moment I mentioned, the Happy Huntresses feel a little too forced to me. Yes, it's the same basic idea as in ATLA, but ATLA, as you say, has a lot more going for it. The Happy Huntresses feel... on the nose? Idk exactly how to explain it. Like, "Here they are! Another team of all women! Isn't this how progressive storytelling works? Just ignore how this is a one-off team of minor characters compared to the world building issues discussed above." And if you're not paying attention, you miss just how insignificant they are, with a side of Robyn being, well, Robyn. The Kyoshi Warriors, at least, are based off of Kyoshi. A woman avatar who is a significant part of their history. That is, presumably, why they're an all women warrior group (but who notably still teach Sokka). The Happy Huntresses are all huntresses because...? There's no reason except that meta "We want to look progressive" explanation. Just like having all the women superheroes team up for a hot second so people get excited and ignore the representation problems across, what? 21 films? Don't get me wrong, I love that May is among the Happy Huntresses. I think including her in the explicitly all-women group was one of the better things RWBY has done in a long time, but the rest is still a mess.

RWBY is arguably about these smaller groups as opposed to systematic power (despite the writers trying to work that in with things like the White Fang and the election. Not to mention the implication that everything in Atlas is fine now that evil Ironwood has died and taken the symbol of wealth (the city) with him. We saw a human holding hands with a faunus after all. Racism and corruption solved, I guess.) So yes, our group is dominated by women... but Whitley is the one saving Nora, helping to defeat the Hound (plus Willow), thinking of the airships, and providing the blueprints they need to escape. Salem is our Big Bad, except Ironwood is the one the volume focuses on. Ruby is our leader, but Jaune is the one leading the group into the whale and getting praised for how heroic he is. Ren does more to shake things up, even if he's painted as the one in the wrong. Oscar gets to confront Salem and destroys the whale threat. Ozpin provides the information they need to evacuate. Meanwhile, when the girls do things in Volume 8 it's almost always followed by a long-stint of passiveness. Nora opens the door so she can be unconscious for most of the volume. Penny keeps Amity up so she can also be unconscious for a good chunk of time. Ruby sends her message and then sits in a mansion. Blake fights so she can tearfully beg Ruby to save her. Weiss, as said, takes a backseat to Whitley (and Klein). They forward the plot, absolutely, but comparatively it doesn't feel like enough.

It's that pattern then, no one specific example. More and more the personal power, not just the systematic power already built into Remnant, seems to be coming from the men. Not all the time, but enough that scenes like the tea drinking moment feel like a part of a much larger problem. Pietro taking control, Watts hacking, and Ambrosius literally remaking her when Penny is supposed to already be in control of herself and her fate. Winter being presented as the active mentor to Weiss, only to turn around and claim that Ironwood was actually responsible for everything. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and May straight up commenting on how awful things are out there while Yang, Jaune, Ren, and Oscar lead the charge against Salem — with the latter three doing the most to forward that mission (no fear, semblance, cane). As others have only half-joked, Yang's supposedly badass moment was bringing up a mother she's ignored for six volumes and briefly blowing up the immortal woman for a couple of seconds (with Ironwood's bombs). Even Marrow is arguably the most significant Ace Op after Clover. Vine isn't actually a character, Elm slightly less so, Harriet is there to go crazy and try to drop a bomb (notably before admitting to never-before-existed feelings for Clover), but Marrow? He's the one who breaks out. Who is meant to heroically stand up against Ironwood. Who comments on how awful it is that teenagers are fighting and, regardless of how messed up the moral messages are, is supposedly pushing for active change while all the women in his group, including Winter, insist on maintaining the status quo. Look at all these choices as a whole, it makes throwaway worldbuilding choices like "All the Maidens are women" feel pretty hollow. Why does it matter if Amber is a Maiden if she dies in a flashback so Ozpin can struggle to pass on the power? If Pyrrha dies before becoming one so Jaune can angst about it? If Raven is one and then disappears from the story entirely? If Winter has enough power to break Ironwood's aura, but supposedly had no power throughout every other choice she made getting here? If Penny is one, but is continually controlled by men and then asks another man to help her die? It's just really unconvincing, once you look past the surface excitement of a woman looking cool with magic powers.

When you do consider the whole of the story — both in terms of our world building and who is forwarding the plot in the latter volumes, getting the emotional focus, being proactive, etc. — there are a lot of problems that undermine the presumed message RT wants to write. They say, "girl power" by marketing RWBY with these four women, but too many of the storytelling decisions thoroughly undermine that, revealing what's likely a deeply ingrained, subconscious bias.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

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rolandtowen · 3 years

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Dumbass Romantics, the first part of a series exploring the ways in which Sokka and Zuko falling in love after the War.

Sokka and Zuko seem to keep “accidentally” flirting with each other with romantic gestures from their respective cultures. It takes a while for everyone else (and them!!) to catch on. Set a few months after the end of the war, featuring chronic pain and cultural flirting.

Read it under the cut!

The Fire Lord hated the cold. He supposed he should have commissioned a fur cloak before visiting Katara and Sokka, but where could his tailors find fur on such short notice? He couldn’t bring himself to slaughter dozens of squirrel-toads just for one coat. He had settled on a cloak woven with extra koala-sheep wool, but stepping out of his ship’s warmth now and into the crisp air of the Southern Water Tribe, Zuko knew he should have heeded Sokka’s advice to him to dress warm.

The cold was a bitch. But thankfully, he didn’t have to dwell on it long.

“Zuko!” Came Katara’s voice from somewhere below him. Zuko hurried down the rampart and came to meet his old friend. He went to bow formally, but she laughed and pulled him in for a hug. “Maybe save the bowing for when we have dinner with the old folks tonight.”

Zuko raised his eyebrow.

“Oh! It’s nothing big – just my Dad, Bato, Kanna, and Pakku. I do hope you’ve worked up an appetite for stewed sea prunes, that’s all my Dad can make without blowing the kitchen up – unless you’re allergic to sea prunes, of course, but I guess you wouldn’t know yet seeing as you’ve never tried them—”

“Katara,” Sokka’s voice startled Zuko a little bit, coming from his left side. Zuko shifted his head so he could hear him better. “You’re rambling again. Let the man breathe!” Zuko let out a low chuckle and turned to fully face Sokka.

“It’s good to see you too, Sokka.”

“And you, jerkbender! Spirits, aren’t you cold? I told you bring layers!”

The trio started to walk towards Katara and Sokka’s village. Zuko pondered what he should say: admit weakness and say he was, in fact, cold; or be miserable for the rest of his visit in silence?

“I’m okay, it’s just that the Fire Nation hasn’t ever had a need to make warm clothing. My tailors wouldn’t even know where to start on finding fur for a cloak.”

“Well then,” Sokka said, “it’s lucky for you that we have polar leopards!” And with that, Sokka unclipped the fur-lined cloak he was wearing and draped it over Zuko’s shoulders, fastening the metal clips with practiced ease. Zuko was shocked.

“Sokka, I can’t take your cloak!” He protested, stopping in his tracks.

“Relax, jerkbender, there’s more where that came from. When are you going to learn to dress up for your visits, dork?”

Katara chimed in. “The last time Zuko was here, his body temperature was elevated by his righteous search for the Avatar. I’m sure peace and love have probably cooled your hot head off quite a bit, huh?”

Zuko only hummed, looking down at the cloak that had been thrust upon him. It really was, quite warm. And quite intricate as well! He ran his fingers over the moon phases embroidered at the seams, a striking white against the deep blue of the cloak.

“Enjoying my handiwork?” Katara asked.

“Yeah, I am.” Zuko answered in a daze.

He wasn’t sure if he should tell them what it meant in Fire Nation culture, to place your own cloak on another’s shoulders, to literally and figuratively place another under your protection. Really, Zuko couldn’t remember the last time he had been given anything as a gift. Charity was not a concept Ozai was familiar with. Sokka couldn’t have possible known that what he just did was like the Fire Nation equivalent of a betrothal necklace. Still, it did leave Zuko touched that Sokka would so willingly give over such a valuable garment. He decided to leave the matter alone and revel in the warmth of the cloak.

“Sooooooooo, do you wanna go fishing together?”

Zuko sighed. He was a little bored. When they got back to the village, Katara had immediately ditched them to go help Kanna and Hakoda prep for the night’s family dinner. Leaving him and Sokka to do…. whatever until dinner time rolled around.

“Uh, I don’t really know how to fish—”

“That’s alright! I can teach you. Just grab your cloak!” Sokka leapt up and swept out the door. “You are coming, right?” Sokka called from afar.

“Yeah, I’m coming!” Zuko hollered back. He fiddled with the clasp on Sokka’s – er, his cloak—and stepped back into the cold.

Sokka was at the edge of the village, spears in hand. “You ever been on a kayak before?”

Zuko chuckled. “No, the ships I’ve been tend to carry more than one person, I don’t suppose you’ve got one of those?”

Sokka punched him in the shoulder. “We can’t use one of the warrior’s boats, we’ll scare the fish!” Oh. That made sense. “Now I get it, you really don’t know anything about fishing, do you? What have you got to say for yourself?”

“Two things: one, prince; two, fire nation. We much prefer Komodo sausage to seal jerky.”

“Well, your hotness, let me show you how it’s done.” Sokka hopped into one kayak, patting the one next him. “I assume you at least know how to use a paddle?”

Zuko laughed. “I may have been an adrift refugee once or twice. I think I can handle a paddle.”

“Good,” Sokka smiled at him as he climbed into the one-seater kayak. Zuko took a few moments to adjust to the shift in his center of gravity, then nodded at Sokka.

“Let’s catch some fish.”

It turns out, Zuko is not a natural at spear-fishing. He watched closely the first few times Sokka threw his spear, bringing up fish each time. “Go on, try it,” Sokka encouraged him. Zuko looked into the depths and tried to aim for the blurry shadows he took to be fish. His spear came up empty. “That’s okay! It took me a few fishing trips before I really go the hang of it.” Sokka analyzed his form. “Make sure you extend your arm a bit before your release the spear, then you can change your angle more easily.”

Zuko nodded, mirroring the way Sokka was holding his spear. They waited in silence, kayaks knocking gently into each other on the waves. A fresh school of fish appeared underneath them, and they released their spears at the same time. This time, even Zuko had caught a fish! Only one, compared to Sokka’s two, but it was his first fish! Sokka smiled widely at him. “I knew you could do it.”

“I guess I should call you Sifu Sokka now, my fishbending master.” Zuko quipped.

Sokka blushed and he hoped the gathering snow hid it from Zuko. “I think we should probably get back; you don’t want to miss Dad’s stewed sea prunes.

“Definitely not.” Zuko replied. “What, what does one do with a fish once they’ve caught it?”

“It depends – I think it being your first fish, we should celebrate it! What do you say to making some boiled fish dumplings?”

“I think that if you’re teaching me, it’ll be wonderful.”

If it was even humanly possible, Sokka blushed harder.

When they docked their kayaks, Zuko noticed that Sokka was favoring one of his arms over the other. Normally, it wouldn’t be strange to see a person favoring a side, but Zuko knew Sokka was ambidextrous. He didn’t say anything, so Zuko kept his observations to himself. Kanna met them outside her home, and positively beamed when Sokka told her that Zuko had caught his first fish.

“Well, better a late bloomer than never, eh?” Zuko laughed but still bowed his head in deference.

“It is very nice to finally meet you, Lady Kanna. Sokka has told me much about you in your letters.”

“Oh, he has, has he?” Kanna gave a mean side-eye to Sokka, who was suddenly very interested in the icy ground. “He’s told me about you as well. You have my gratitude – I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if you hadn’t gone to the Boiling Rock.”

“It was my pleasure, Lady Kanna.”

“Just Kanna, just Kanna, my dear. Well, come in! I see Sokka has leant you a cloak, but you still must be freezing! In, in!” Kanna shooed them inside. “I will take special care of your first fish, Zuko. Anything you had in mind?”

“Uh, dumplings?”

“Excellent choice, dear. Fish dumplings coming right up!” She disappeared into the kitchen of the home.

Sokka sat down on floor, covered by blue fabrics and pelts. Zuko noticed how gingerly he set himself down, now obviously favoring his right side. Sokka’s lips were drawn tightly as he rubbed circles into his left shin. Zuko could have almost swore he heard Sokka whimper. Almost.

“Sokka,” Zuko knelt down next to his friend. “Talk to me.”

“Mmph,” Sokka scowled.

“Words, Sokka.”

“It’s mostly my leg—you know how I broke it on the day of the Comet?”

Zuko grimaced. He did remember. Even in his lightening-induced fever, Zuko remembered. He heard his physicians set Sokka’s leg and pop his shoulder back in place. He wanted to forget those sounds of Sokka in pain, but he couldn’t.

“Well,” Sokka continued. “Ever since then, it still… it still hurts. Katara’s tried everything, but I’m probably stuck with it forever. My leg hurts the worst, but my shoulder’s the most inconvenient. I’m old enough to start putting braids in my wolf tail, but I just—can’t. I can’t lift my arm above shoulder-level. And I know I’m wallowing to the guy who literally got half his face burned off but—”

“But nothing, Sokka. You’re allowed to be in pain. Here, you know what, pull up your pant leg—”

“Geez, buy a guy dinner first will you?”

Zuko blushed but Sokka did as he was told, exposing his left shin and ankle. Zuko focused a little bit of heat into the palms of his hands. He placed one on Sokka’s ankle, scanning his face for any pain. When Sokka relaxed into the touch, Zuko placed his other hand on Sokka’s shin, applying the slightest bit of pressure.

“You know, with those hands you could almost be a healer like Katara.”

Zuko snorted. “And you need to learn to let people help you.” After a few minutes, he pulled his hands away, fearing that if he kept them there too long he’d burn his friend. “If you want, I can help you braid your hair. I won’t even tell Katara.”

Sokka smiled shyly at him. He guessed Zuko didn’t know the importance of braiding another’s hair in water tribe culture—reserved for family members and, well, lovers. But Zuko was kneeling in front of him, in a water tribe cloak, offering to help him with a warrior tradition. After everything they’d been through, Zuko was family—and maybe, he could be open to being something more?

“Okay,” Sokka nodded. He pulled two beads from his pocket, both striking shades of blue, one carved by Kanna and one by Katara. “You know how my Dad wears his beads? It’s the same idea.”

“I caught my first fish today, I’m pretty sure there’s nothing I can’t do now.” Zuko settled himself closer to Sokka’s face. “I’m going to let your hair down now, is that okay?” Sokka nodded again.

Zuko took out the hair tie and separated two sections of hair thick enough to support the beads. For lack of another set of hands, he resorted to holding the sections in his mouth while he carded the rest of Sokka’s back into place and tied it into the wolf’s tail again. Sokka was suddenly very aware of how close Zuko was to him—more specifically how he never wanted him to leave. He loved the warmth that radiated from him, but furthermore, he couldn’t remember the last time someone helped him with his hair. He hadn’t asked anyone since he got back from the war, and while they were on the run… he was focused on more important things than his hair. Sokka risked a look at Zuko’s face: he was rewarded with Zuko’s adorable concentration face. Wait, adorable? Where had that come from?

“How do you know how to braid, anyway? I didn’t see a whole lot of braids in the Fire Nation.”

“My mother used to let me braid her hair when I was feeling anxious or overwhelmed. You know, it’s calming, repetitive, doesn’t involve fire—perfect for mess of emotional issues like me.”

“Hey, you’re not a mess.”

Zuko laughed darkly.

“Well, not anymore than the rest of us. We all already had our own issues and then a war happened on top of that. You were just lecturing me on letting people help me. You don’t have to be alone in this.”

Zuko’s fingers trembled as he finished the second braid. “I know. I’m still getting used to having people I can actually trust.”

Kanna suddenly called from the kitchen. “Are you two done lounging around or are you going to help an old woman with this fish?”

They looked at each other and laughed. They did kind of forget about everyone except each other.

“Hey, Zuko,” Sokka started as Zuko stood up and held out a hand for him.

“Yeah?”

“You can braid my hair anytime you want.”

Zuko resisted simultaneous urges to bow and to hug Sokka. He smiled instead.

“I’d like that.”

Bonus:

Kanna had heard everything of course. But she couldn’t bear to interrupt them sooner. Tui and La, if those two didn’t end up together she’d have a riot. In the few months since Sokka had been home with her, he hadn’t opened up to anyone about his pain. And he certainly hadn’t asked anyone for help with his braids.

Spirits, those two were good for each other. Dumbasses in love.

#my fic #mine #rolandtowen #zukka #fic #zuko #sokka #chronic pain #the dragon and the wolf #cloak sharing #avatar #atla #avatar: the last airbender #firelord zuko #ambassador sokka

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hi-i-love-u-bitch · 3 years

Text

Azula the good sister AU (AKA the Fire siblings have a healthy relationship AU)

I’ve just finished binge watching Avatar the Last Airbender and I already have an AU ready in my head. Please enjoy my ridiculous rambling!

Azula is still really tough and intense but she isn’t a fucking psychopath like in the series

She’s still a bending prodigy and “daddy’s favorite” but the latter isn’t something she wanted or strived for

She shows affection by teasing people, but she is also fiercely loyal and protective over the people she cares about. Like she’s nice but she’ll still cut a bitch if they hurt her friends and brother.

As most siblings do Azula and Zuko like to playfully argue and insult each other:

Zuko: *having just woken up*

Azula: wow you look like shit

Zuko: big talk coming from a midget with rat nest hair

Azula: at least I only look like this in the morning, you willingly keep that rat tail on top of your head. No wonder you have no friends!

Zuko: oh yeah what’s your excuse then?

They’re the type of siblings that in a modern-day setting would send each other a picture of a toaster saying “I found you a new bath bomb”

She absolutely adores her older brother and Zuko took his role as older sibling in stride even if Azula could practically take care of herself

They’re great training partners

Their favorite memory as children was feeding turtle ducks with their mother, they still do so even now after she’s gone

When she overheard her grandfather ordering her father to kill Zuko she left to tell her mother immediately afterwards she snuck into Zuko’s room to cuddle with him in bed claiming that she’d had a nightmare.

Their mother came in to kiss them goodbye goodnight before disappearing into the night. Zuko had been half asleep so he had no idea what was going on but Azula did and she knew what her mother was about to do. She didn’t know what the outcome would be but she knew that it would be the last time she’d ever see her mother.

Azula never told Zuko what happened only that it was all their father’s fault

It was then they began mutually hating on their father

Of course, they had no choice but to respect him as he was still the Fire Lord and could possibly kill them. But as soon as he was out of ear shot the siblings were like:

Azula: Why the fuck did he think growing out his beard was a good idea???

Zuko: He looks like a goat-pig

Uncle Iroh treats them both as his own children and helps them perfect their fire bending as well as teach them the art of tea brewing. Zuko still thinks it’s stupid but Azula becomes just as much of a tea fanatic as her uncle

Azula has had a giant crush on Ty Lee ever since they were children and everyone, but Ty Lee knows about it. On the flip side Ty Lee also has a giant crush on Azula ever since childhood and everyone but Azula knows about it.

Azula: That's a sharp outfit, Ty Lee. Careful. You could puncture the hull of an empire-class Fire Nation battleship, leaving thousands to drown at sea, because it's so sharp.

Ty Le: *confused but happy that her crush complemented her* Gee thanks Zula.

Azula: *later, screaming into her pillow* I’m such an idiot!

Zuko: *sitting beside her, sipping tea* Yeah, you really are.

The day Zuko was challenged to Agni Kai Azula told him that he was an idiot and that he better kick that loser general’s ass or it would be an embarrassment to both their training. It was her own way of telling him to be careful and that she was rooting for him.

When she found out that it was her father challenging Zuko to Agni Kai she had to be held back by Iroh to keep her from jumping into the arena to help her brother

Azula was determined to join her brother in his banishment but Zuko wouldn’t allow her, saying how it was his fault for speaking out of term and that his sister shouldn’t have to suffer from his mistakes.

They had a big fight after that because the siblings were nothing if not hotheaded and stubborn. Zuko didn’t want his sister to leave all she knew behind just because of him and Azula didn’t want to be stuck doing nothing while her brother suffers alone.

They parted there days later, regretful, angry, and sad. They didn’t necessarily apologies (let’s be honest what kind of siblings apologies to each other) but they did start writing letters to each other, which was their way of saying that they were cool now.

Zuko wrote to her about his journey to find the Avatar as well as Uncle Iroh’s ridiculous jokes and tea ramblings while Azula wrote to him about how things are back home as well as potential places where the Avatar could be located.

Both aren’t sure if the Avatar even exists anymore, but they keep hoping as it means that they will one day be reunited with each other.

The day Zuko found the Avatar he entrusted only his sister with the information as he knew that once word got out that the Avatar was still alive it would be an all-out man hunt.

Everything works out relatively the same as in the series except with Azula helping out her brother in the background. She’d secretly send her brother information about general Zhao’s whereabouts so as to avoid him as well as any resources he needed for his journey.

When Ozai ordered Azula to go retrieve her brother and uncle she was both delighted and terrified; she was happy to see her brother again, but she didn’t want to take him as her prisoner. So of course, she came up with a plan.

The first thing Azula said to her brother after two and a half years apart was: “Wow, you look like shit.”

He replied without missing a beat: “Big talk coming from a midget with rat nest hair.”

They hug for the longest time and in that moment, she quietly resights her plan to him: They had to pretend to escape from her and go into hiding. She’ll pretend to hunt him down and he’ll somehow manage to escape from her clutches every time. All the while they’ll work together in trying to capture the Avatar.

She enlists the help of Mai and Ty Lee telling them the minimal amount of information just in case things go south they can plead manipulation. Of course, Mai and Ty Lee are ready to go down with their captain/friend no matter what, but they don’t mind being out of the loop for the time being. They trust Azula and know that everything she does is to help her brother and uncle.

The events leading up to the battle of Ba Sing Se are pretty similar up until the part where Zuko makes a choice between helping the Avatar or his kingdom. He’s realized the pain and terror his ancestors have installed in the world; tearing away hope for a better future.

Just as Azula was about to strike Aang with a finishing blow Zuko stops her, telling her what they’ve been doing is wrong and if they want the world to prosper, they need to help the Avatar.

Azula was a bit annoyed seeing as she went through the trouble of sneaking into Ba Sing Se and taking over the earth kingdom from the inside out. But then again, her brother was right as she already knew of her father’s end game plan.

Azula: Zuzu, I love you, but couldn’t you have told me we were going to rebel against father sooner so I could have planned accordingly.

Just as there are loyalist to the Fire Lord there are also loyalist to the Princess as they see her as a more fit leader than the current ruler. And thus, that is how team Avatar was able to get a good portion of the fire nation army on their side.

Ba Sing Se has now been established as their main base with the entire city now having chosen the side of the Avatar.

At this point Azula still had Suki and the Kyoshi warriors held prisoner close by so she was able to bring them back without much fuss.

Azula: Er, sorry for imprisoning you and stuff. I just needed to save my stupid brother but we’re on your side now. Cool?

Suki: Only if I get to punch you in the face as hard as I can.

Azula: That seems fair.

Katara does NOT trust Azula and Zuko which is fine because Azula doesn’t trust her either but she knows they need to work together if they want to even have a slim chance of beating her father.

Katara: You might have everyone else here buying your ‘transformation,’ but you and I both know you’ve struggled with doing the right thing in the past. So, let me tell you something right now. You make one step backward, one slipup, give me one reason to think you might hurt Aang, and you won’t have to worry about your destiny anymore. Because I’ll make sure your destiny ends right then and there. Permanently!

Azula: Right back attcha bitch!

Toph and Azula get along swimmingly which both amuses and terrifies Zuko because one: he’s glad that his sister is finally making somewhat normal friends but two: those two together is just chaos incarnate

Ty Lee also really bonds with the Kyoshi warriors who teach her some of their fighting techniques in exchanged for her teaching them some chi blocking moves.

Suki and Mai start getting cozy with each other with Suki liking Mai’s skills and straightforward attitude and Mai admiring Suki’s confidence and bravery. It’s easy to talk with each other.

Sokka, at one point: Why the hell don’t we just send the girls out to defeat the Fire Nation? We’re all completely useless compared to them.

Also after a few month working together Zuko can now join his sister in her gay screaming

Azula: Did you seriously fall for that Water Tribe boy?

Zuko: You’re one to talk!

Azula: Hey! Ty Lee is an angel and we’re all lucky to have her!

Zuko: She once ate a whole bowl of fire flakes by herself and had to get her stomach pumped.

Azula: Look, what Fire Nation teen hasn’t done that at least once

Zuko: She did it THREE times!

Once the siblings and Co finally bond well enough with team Avatar tension lessens and their attitude go from: “uhg, I guess we have to work together or whatever” to “you are my friend now and I would die for you! I would literally commit murder if you asked me to, no questions asked”

Aang is baby and the Fire squad has now joined in the “Aang protection army” and in a similar fashion team Avatar have also learned that Ty Lee is baby and have now joined the “Ty Lee protection squad”. Even though Aang and Ty Lee are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves one cannot help but want to protect and care for the literal ray of sun shines.

Zuko and Sokka still have their epic rescue adventure to the boiling rock, with the extra help of their team. They sneak into the facility with disguises, Azula and her crew walk in like they own the place (news of her betrayal to the Fire Lord has yet to reach certain places), while the rest of team Avatar keep watch from afar just in case things start going south.

You know that scene where Zuko gets put in the freezer and when Sokka goes to let him out Zuko breathes out a breath of fire with a smirk? It was then and there that Sokka realized that his teeny tiny crush on Zuko might actually be a giant massive crush.

In this AU it is actually Azula that helps Katara track down the man that killed her mother because let’s face it, no matter what universe she’s in Azula will always be down to beat a bitch is ass.

This is the first time Azula has ever witness somebody blood bending and unlike most people that would usually freak out she was actually really impress and kind of turned on.

Azula: You know if I weren’t already madly in love with Ty Lee, I’d ask you to marry me in a heartbeat.

Katara: And I would accept that offer if only for the pleasure of rubbing it in your dad’s face

Azula: Why didn’t we become friends sooner?!?!

It is then the Little Sister alliance was formed in which they teamed up to poke fun at their bumbling brothers who keep awkwardly dancing around each other.

Their friendship can be summed up to: “I will kill you where you stand but also I respect you”

Okay, Imma just say this right now: Sokka is a fucking badass and even after getting taught how to fight by the Kyoshi warriors and the Fire sibling + Co. he reached a whole new level of badassery once he learned the ways of the sword by Master Piandao. Zuko’s little gay heart could only take so much and Sokka being all cool and collected while wielding a sword made the former Fire Prince short-circuit.

Zuko, in his tent, face down screaming into his pillow: Uhg, I can’t with this boy anymore!

Suki, rolling her eyes at her best friend’s melodramatics: Pull yourself together man.

Ty Lee, patting his head reassuringly: Don’t worry, you’ll get through this.

Azula, sipping tea beside him: This wouldn’t be happening if you just asked him out already.

Zuko: Don’t you fucking start with me hypocritical bitch!

Azula: *nervous gay drinking*

The day of the final battle Azula and Katara lead Hakoda’s army plus the Kyoshi Warriors to reclaim the fire nation capital while Aang, Zuko, Sokka, and Toph chased after the Fire Lord and his war ships.

The battle to take back the capital was brutal as there was still an entire army keeping guard with one of the Fire Lord’s generals acting as temporary leader. Unfortunately for them Azula still had a reputation of fear amongst the Fire Nation army and a lot of soldiers surrendered once they realized it was her leading the invasion and not the Avatar. Those that didn’t surrendered were defeated in battle because let’s be honest with a team this fierce there is no way in hell they couldn’t not win.

There’s also a scene where Azula is fighting off the general and a bunch of soldiers and it seems like she’s not gunna make it but she does, bloody and bruised but victorious. I imagen in that moment Ty Lee goes running up to Azula, jumps into her arms, and kisses her right then and there, while they’re still in the middle of battle. It’s super cool and romantic and it seemed to give Azula more energy than Sozin’s comet ever could as she seemed now ready to defeat god.

Azula: Y’all bitches be fucked now! I ain’t afraid to die but now that I gotta girlfriend I’m not going nowhere fuckers!

With Aang and his team it goes about the same as it did in the show; take down the ships, battle the Fire Lord, almost die, etc. That scene where Sokka thinks that Suki died on the aircraft is now replaced with Zuko almost dying then coming back to save their asses at the late minute. They too also kiss once they see that the other is unharmed while Toph rolls her eyes and gags at the sight.

Again, Aang does not kill the Fire Lord and instead takes away his fire bending powers before locking him in prison to rot. The fire siblings come by sometimes to annoy the shit out of him by flicking fire flakes at his head for target practice or psychologically torture him with excruciating detail of how they’ve been thoroughly fucked by their significate others in is bed and on his thrown.

Zuko: How’s it feel knowing that not only are both your kids gay but they’re also bottoms?

Ozai: *screams*

Azula: Ty Lee also fucked me atop your war room table :)

Ozai: *screams intensify*

In the end Zuko really doesn’t want to be Fire Lord so he happily passes that torch on to Azula who only agrees to take the job so long as Zuko becomes her second in command. Everyone is happy and with a lot of hard work throughout the years there is finally peace amongst the four nations.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #avatar #atla #princess azula #azula is a good sister au #au #fire siblings

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bullshittierlists · 4 years

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I see no god up here other than me

Ty Lee- Ty Lee is best girl and I find it hard to argue with that statement. She’s just so bouncy and cute and honestly really powerful for not being a bender. I mean, the ability to paralyze someone on contact, much less being able to pinpoint specific parts of the body to paralyze, it’s just incredible. She was so cute in that beach episode because all the guys hit on her, which of course they do, have you seen how cute she is? I’m not super on board with her backstory, but it wasn’t a huge part of her character, so it’s fine.

Sokka- The man, the myth, the legend. It’s been said before, but the only reason Sokka couldn’t bend is because the creators knew he’d be too powerful. That’s the same reason he has to put his hair up. Also, he’s totally bi, change my mind.

Jet- I have several friends that watch this show and that watched the show before me. They all knew that I’d like Jet because he’s a “backstabbing traitor” despite their hatred of him and I guess I have a trend of liking those characters. I jokingly agreed with them and was excited to meet him. Little did I know just how much I would fall in love with him. A lot of my friends say that it’s just because he’s cute or he’s a sad boy, but there are honestly so many reasons to love him. I absolutely adore psychology and deep-diving into the minds of characters and his mentality is so intriguing. You would think this would lean me more towards Zuko, then. But Zuko gets so much focus that his psychology is always precedent, right front and center. But Jet doesn’t get that spotlight. I originally liked him more because he was under-appreciated, but now I realize just how amazing he is. At a very surface level, his actions are bad. He’s trying to murder innocent people for the sake of getting rid of a few fire nation soldiers. But as soon as you look deeper into his intentions, you can clearly see how badly he wanted to do good. These types of characters are always the saddest, the characters who think they are helping the world by destroying it. They legitimately think that the actions they are taking are the right ones even when everyone around them thinks otherwise. Other examples of this type of character are JD from Heathers and even Hector from Castlevania to some extent. Yes, he acknowledges that he will be sacrificing innocent lives. But he also knows that he will be saving lives in the future by going through with the dam plan. There’s so much more I could say about him, but I’ve been rambling for long enough.

Zuko- There’s nothing I could say about Zuko that hasn’t been said before. I already gushed about Jet for entirely too long, so have this instead: Sokka and Zuko have a wonderful relationship and I think that both parties could have benefitted greatly from being together romantically. Thank you.

You’re the best

Iroh- What can I say? He’s a good old man with lots of wisdom that we should all take to heart.

Momo- Some of my favorite parts of the entire show were scenes with Sokka and Momo just vibing. There should’ve been more emphasis on Sokka’s relationship with the animals in general.

Appa- I was really excited when Sokka started flying on Appa without Aang the first time, because I thought that meant that Sokka had created a really unique bond with Appa and was the only other one that could fly him. I was mistaken and incredibly upset.

Teo- He’s just a cute boy. I like his goggles.

Hey, I think you’re pretty cool, I like you a lot

Azula- Oh boy. There’s so much here to say, but she’s been analyzed to death, so I won’t go on for too long. As much as I would’ve loved to see Azula on the “good guy” team, I’m really glad she didn’t get a redemption. Not her, specifically, but more the villains in general. Zuko’s redemption was marvelous and there’s nothing that will ever top it, but if Azula had also gotten that redemption, his would’ve been downcast. It would’ve showed that anyone’s capable of a redemption and that he wasn’t special, he was just lucky to have that change of heart. Which maybe that’s still true, but at least with the ending we got, we give Zuko that spotlight. But back to Azula, she’s pretty cool, as the category would suggest. The Girl Gang (Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee) were a treat to watch and I instantly fell in love with all three of them as soon as they were introduced. Then they had to change to the Gayng once Zuko joined and I still loved all of them.

Longshot- It was super powerful when he spoke for the first time in Jet’s “death” scene. That was the first time he had said anything and he made it count. He helped show how even thought Jet is a “bad guy” at the surface level, he was still good enough of a leader and a friend for his group to stay with him in his ultimate time of need.

Suki- She’s badass. That’s about it. All parts of The Boiling Rock were my favorite episodes and they featured her pretty heavily in the back half. And I was not complaining.

Toph- Again, badass.

Aang- He’s the main character. I don’t have any super negative things to say or any super positive things to say. So he’s just here.

Kuei- I know he doesn’t do anything, like at all, but I can’t get over him and his bear.

Yue- When I started watching this show, I knew about some of the ships and I wasn’t super into it. Which was weird, because I’m always super into shipping. I wouldn’t have watched some of my favorite shows if it weren’t for the shipping aspect. But I just couldn’t get on board with it in this show. Aang and Katara felt kinda forced and weird, Sokka and Suki was alright, but I couldn’t quite get into it. But when I first saw Sokka and Yue interacting, I was enthralled. I was in love with their relationship and I thought it was so cute. I was genuinely excited to see where their relationship would go. But you know what happened next.

Mai- When I first met Mai, I loved her. She was an emo girl that just didn’t want anything to do with anything. Obviously, I still love her, but just slightly less. Something happened to her in the third season, and though I can’t pinpoint quite what, I have a feeling it was Zuko. I’m not a huge fan of Mai and Zuko’s relationship and I’ll possibly elaborate on that in a future post, but it really felt like the worst possible scenario for both of their characters. I do like Mai and Ty Lee together, but the shipping doesn’t really have anything major to do with it. She just dropped in quality a little in the third season and became a love interest instead of a character.

Kyoshi- Peace was never an option.

I remember you

Cabbage guy- This is normally the type of character I’d put at the top of the list and use as a joke to pretend like I especially enjoy the joke characters. Sometimes I do, but this list’s tone was a little different than usual, so I figured I’d put him where I really thought he should go. He was funny, sure, but I don’t religiously follow him like I do Ty Lee and everyone else in the top tier.

The other characters in this tier are in no particular order. Most of them are here just because I remember seeing them a little bit, but I don��t really remember much about them or I remember just not caring.

You are literally the worst. Actual scum. Leave this planet and never return.

Haru- This is more directed towards his newly-grown facial hair. He was so cute in his first appearance and then he had to do that. Even Sokka’s “I flirt with everyone” bisexual ass thought it was grody.

Hama- Nothing against her, personally, bloodbending’s just gross.

Zhao- He’s a typical villain. I can appreciate that, I just don’t like him.

Katara- This will take some explaining. It’s unpopular, but so is everything I say. I think of Katara in about the same way I do Allura. She was bearable in the first season, annoying in the second, and flat-out awful in the third. I understand that characters should have flaws, and I appreciate when they do, but her flaws aren’t necessarily treated as such. The worst offender I can think of with her is when she accused Sokka of not missing their mom as much as she did. This broke my heart. Seeing Sokka’s depressed face as he realized what his sister thought of him. He had been seeing her as sort of a replacement for their mom, but she accuses him of moving on without a second thought despite how much effort he puts into remembering her. This obviously isn’t the only bad thing she’s done. Another huge offender is when she assumed losing her mom was worse than Aang losing his entire nation. And then the show just keeps moving like she’s justified in thinking that. She’s done so many other things that caused other characters to halt in their development or causing the plot to just stop completely. Most of her actions are nonsensical at best and harmful at worst, but the show portrays her as always being a caring motherly figure. She does act like that at times, but we still need to acknowledge when she doesn’t.

Ozai- Literally the same as Zhao except he hurt Zuko physically AND emotionally.

#bullshittierlists #atla #avatar the last airbender #was a little confused why I wasn’t getting any notes and then I realized I didn’t leave any tags #sorry to everyone who likes Katara #but it needed to be said #tier lists #ty lee

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seyaryminamoto · 4 years

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I like how you do OCs. So many fanfictions make them overpowered and without flaws. But your ones come off more natural, half of them aren't even martial badasses but just regular people getting by. Like Kino, or Shouji. If I recall, Rui Shi was once some nameless caption before you developed him. Hina is, haha, yeah, a bitch, lol. Is it just me or would Ozai's assassin and Toph make a great comedy duo? The blind girl and the invisible man. Even Xin Long has personality. My fav is still Rui Shi.

Well, like I always say, Shoji isn’t an OC :’D he’s another repurposed one-time canon character who got a much bigger role in Gladiator than in ATLA, just like Song. This is him! It’s possible that it will become more obvious that he’s a canon-based character in chapter 201, but even if it’s not that obvious, now you know the truth!

Either way, I’m glad you like my OCs! Rui Shi is one of the best of them, without a doubt, so I take pride in knowing he’s your favorite. I guess there are many secrets to making OCs for fanfiction, because chances are you will need OCs in a long-term story like my own… but when I started out with the story, I always kept them at a minimum both because I wanted to use as many canon characters as I could (hence, Shoji), and because I knew of the stigma that surounds fanfiction OCs. There’s people who do like reading about OCs… but the majority of the readers will open a fic out of interest in the canon characters they already know and love. If your story isn’t outright about OCs, you risk alienating readers by introducing characters who could feel out of place in the setting (and that, I think, is what bothers you with OCs who are overpowered and flawless).

Admittedly, it may sound like I’m talking out of my ass because of characters like Rhone and Seethus, who probably do fall into the overpowered OC cliches… but uh, small secret: they’re not exactly my creations. They were a suggestion by a friend, one of Gladiator’s staunchest supporters from its very inception (being upfront, Gladiator wouldn’t even exist without him), and I did my best to accommodate them into the story despite there were some things in his original ideas for the characters that would have been quite difficult to work with. Seethus seems to have been received much better than Rhone, which is a relief for me, but the truth is that neither of them are 100% mine and they follow entirely different character-building principles because of that.

Outside of those two, though, the other OCs we have generally obey the need for these characters to exist in this world and setting: when it comes to the soldiers in the Fire Nation army, the show portrayed them as real people by the last season but I wanted to flesh out some of them further than that, beyond showing they can be nice to prisoners (Iroh’s friendly prison guard) or playful with each other (the ones from the Boiling Rock). That’s where Rui Shi came from, the most exasperated and tortured Royal Guard in the history of the position. Part of Rui Shi’s success, I think, comes from him being 100% loyal to Azula despite being 100% exasperated by her antics just as well :’D he’s a cool guy, but all he ever wanted was to protect a Princess who refuses to be protected and who seems to make a sport out of making his job more and more difficult xD which results in his constant clashes with her and his little patience for the ridiculous crap she gets up to more often than not. He serves as a counterweight, I think, to all the characters who are starstruck by Azula and Sokka: he’s a grounding character, helps us see these two are a pair of reckless dorks in love who need to get reeled back into their best behavior once in a while.

And then there’s Kino, who basically breathed life into the South Pole and created much more fun dynamics with those characters than everything that had preceded him. Kino was a REALLY lucky hit, a completely random night-time idea that came to me when I was about to go to bed… and when I woke up the next morning I couldn’t remember him anymore :’D it took a while for me to remember what that damn great idea had been… I was so glad when he returned to me, honestly xD Kino is a lot of fun, and as comedic a character as he may appear, that comedy is what makes him an individual rather than just another soldier. The idea of him being largely ignored by his fellow soldiers and commanding officers started off as a funny way to ensure he could hang out with Katara and Aang without trouble… but in Part 3 that will result in a pretty useful skill that everyone shall cherish him more for. He’s a counterweight to main characters too, in a sense, but in the opposite way Rui Shi is: he lightens up the generally serious and heavy South Pole chapters and embodies the common, ordinary Fire Nation citizen who has been indoctrinated since youth but who can find a new path for himself, learn better, cherish new ways of living once he’s removed from that very toxic environment.

I could talk for ages about the OCs in the story: Xin Long being so feisty, for instance, comes from my need to give him a visible personality, reminiscent of Azula’s own, just like Appa and Momo had in canon. Otherwise he’d feel like a mere object to be ridden back and forth between places and nothing more… which would be really demeaning for a proud creature like that, huh? :’D But I think you’ll get bored of reading too much of my OC theory, because I’ve thought about this stuff a lot xD Still, I’d like to add that there may be some characters who feel a little more complex, who may have more substance to them than initially obvious…

… And it’s because they do have more of it: I had an original story before Gladiator, pretty dense and huge story, and I’ve littered Gladiator with cameos of those OCs EVERYWHERE, it’s just not something anyone can tell because that story was never published (and never will be x’D). So… remember the Priestess of the Flames, from the Dragon’s Pit? She’s one of my favorite characters from that story xD some of her defining traits in Gladiator are outright taken from her original iteration (if you don’t remember her, no worries, you’ll see her again in the upcoming Slave Riot arc and I suspect she’ll make more of an impression there). Your Doom, his sponsor, the Ruthless Hero, the Dark Rook, Scoundrel and his sponsor too… they’re all crossovering OCs who got small roles in Gladiator xD in general, these repurposed characters have always been background or secondary characters (the ranking is FULL of these OCs, even if they might never get speaking roles, because that way I could fill up the ranks a little faster :’D), but that they already have established personalities allowed me to work easily with the ones who do have a starring role in the story, without needing to spend more time than I could afford fleshing them out so they felt believable.

I guess that really should be my final point: the OCs have to feel believable. If it looks like they have a life beyond interacting with the main cast, I don’t need to devote too much time to developing them unless strictly necessary (as was the case with Yang and Haiyan, as a quick example). OCs are, ultimately, characters: they have flaws, they have personality, they have a history just as everyone you walk past in the street does, even if you can’t fathom what it might be. As much as the world absolutely revolves around Azula and Sokka in Gladiator, each ordinary individual’s world doesn’t revolve around them. These two are as good as celebrities to admire, leaders to look up to, obstacles to overcome or nuisances to deal with… but they’re not the center of everything for the average citizen, as things stand. They’re not the only thing on their minds. Each OC has their own struggles, their own pursuits, some more mundane than others, just like every canon character does. It’s easy to think of characters, especially OCs, through a very simplistic “helpers” and “foils” filter… but real people are a lot more complicated than that, and so are they :’)

#anon #gladiator #OCs #not gonna lie I love my OCs #I mean I think most people love their own OCs #but I don't think I say it often enough about my own #and yes the Priestess owns my sorry ass #she's one of the coolest characters I've concocted #sassiest asshole with a heart of gold #writing her has always been my privilege #can't wait for you guys to see her appearances through part 2 (slave riot AND the race!)

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cow3survivor · 3 years

Text

Ep. 5: “Nothing to Report” - Jabari

JENNET

jennet vs ethan? more like jennet + ethan😀😀😉😉

(a little later)

plan was a success, i know thats right!

ETHAN

Somehow the Pennino vote worked, and Pennino if you are reading this, you really are an amazing guy, and I hope we get a second chance someday. That being said, you are too smart and self-aware, and that is dangerous. For this round, the reward challenge is interesting. I haven't met everyone in the game yet, so I don't know if people are looking at challenge results yet, and I have done my best to have middling performances, but winning this would mean I get put in the spotlight again for winning 2 individual rewards, so that potentially makes me nervous. More than anything, I want to avoid tribal, I don't think there would be a repeat of last time if we go again. I anticipate a swap in 1-2 more votes, either to 2 or 4 tribes. Video conf coming soon :D

JABARI

The girls and I flopped on the reward challenge and Ethan came up like a beast. I really feel out tribe of 5 is doing well and hopefully we can pull win and stay together. If not I Imagine Sam will be out, as for idol searches nothing to report though I feel I am getting close.

JAKE

https://youtu.be/FM19WJ1tTmk witty catchphrase, y'know?

SAM

https://youtu.be/MrYZw3I22ms

JESSICA

Me when I found the idol: :) Me when the hosts told me I had to gamble my vote like 13 times in order to get it: :( I really wish we’d lost now so Nicole could be out and I could have an idol! If we don’t swap next time and it’s there, I’m taking the idol and throwing the challenge. Then we can vote Nicole out and I can have an idol! Will my allies be suspicious that I didn’t vote at that tribal? Not if it’s unanimous for Nicole which you KNOW I’d be doing the work to make happen. If we do swap, I’ll probably go get the idol anyways UNLESS we swap to tribes of 5 and my tribe is bad. But even then, I might as well go get it because I could play it that round if I needed to. Um not much else happened this round! I hope we merge soon.

LINDSAY

sorry ur getting text today ok im so fucin ajfdkhsakjlfhsalkjfhskjfhksjd i hate this anyways i think the tribe is split into two duos and then me - jennet and jabari /ethan and sam. pennino was kinda my duo but also eh. i think ethan has an idol or at the very least an advantage. a f r a i d not sure what to do. could stick w jennet and jabari and hope for the best or preemptively flip and try to make it w ethan and sam... i think there'll be a tribe swap soon but ajsfhsaldfhsdkj afraid if there's too few calumma come merge we'll be fucked but sokka pulled it off before it's not impossible we'll be okay depending. but if i piss off jennet or jabari calumma might not vibe w me following so i'll be stuck at the bottom of the totem pole w old not calumma and that's not a good spot to be either. :( my "lets do something fun" says lets flip fuck it, but my loyal ass/wants to make it to merge this game ass says sticking w calumma is my best bet. jabari was posting cryptic shit last night so im gonna lead into that and see what hapepns anyways fuck this tribal. fuck tribal. i love all of these people i dont want to vote them out like genuinely there's no one here i want to see gone i HATE THIS anyways if i flip on calumma id probably go jennet bc she's a bigger threat than jabari iirc and if i stay loyal i'd probably aim for ethan bc sam is the more obvious target i... think?

JONES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApcRUkdtxm4

JENNET

going go tribal again im SUPER nervous... i formed a tight alliance with ethan and sam and i feel bad for betraying the girls but this will help propel me in the long run and i have to take this shot

JESSICA

REALLY hoping we don't swap tonight...... that way I can instantly go get the idol! Or if we do swap, I hope I stay on Calumma. I think I should have actually just gone for the idol but I was worried about needing my vote at next tribal and not knowing what's ahead. Like imagine if I went for it, I lost my vote, and I only got the idol to be good for one round. Or for no rounds. It literally would have been useless and I would hate to swap and have no idol AND no vote. At least now if we swap, I definitely have one of those things! I'm not interested in gambling everything to get nothing so it just didn't seem like a smart choice. I did consider taking it and only gambling once just so Nicole definitely didn't get the idol but that didn't seem like a good idea. She only has like a 1/25 chance of finding it IF she's been guessing every single day and even if she does find it and we don't swap, my guess is Pete will want to throw his vote on Mikey which is fine with me because that is their relationship that will be affected, not mine. 24/25 odds Nicole has no idol is better than a 1/13 chance of losing my vote right? I'm honestly not sure as I still to this day cannot do any math <3 I have been saying this whole game I think we're going to swap at 15 into 3 tribes of 5 so hopefully I am wrong! And we swap at 14 or even better do not swap at all again until the merge. At least I will know who could have the idol if we swap. Narrowing this down is useful, as is knowing that the all 3 pre-merge tribe idols likely have expirations close to final 8/9 and probably aren't good until f5. Plus I'll get the chance to try and get another idol from a different tribe (or find out that someone else already has it too!). You may notice I didn't mention my other teammates in this confessional. Well that is because none of them are really here and nothing is going on since we've been winning. I have still been talking to Mikey and Pete on and off but Lovelis seems to be pretty busy so he hasn't been here. And Nicole...... has left me on read again. We just do not know what is going on there.

LOVELIS

WOO we won immunity!! I'm anticipating a swap soon so I'm tryna stay as cool with Mikey and Nicole as I can just in case I'm put on a tribe with them again, but I do hope I can stay with Shane or Jessica in the future because those two are the ones I get on with the most for sure, and I'd feel more comfortable moving forward on a tribe with them for now! I don't think Nicole has any trust in me after the Nash elimination so I'd be more weary if I had to work with her in order to save myself in the long run, but let's see what the future holds shall we!

SAM

https://youtu.be/F0Zt0L8lScA

ETHAN

Ok this tribal is terrifying. Apparently lindsay and jabari are trying to blindside me by telling me the vote is Sam, and this could be a super good bait from Jennet to try to get Sam to idol. If they’re playing logically, they vote Sam if that’s the case anyways. It wouldn’t make much sense for Jennet to spill, not vote with us, and vote for me, I hope these people are logical, because I’m operating under the assumption that they are.

MADISON

I honestly have to laugh at Shane messing up 2 times during the challenges, us having the lowest counting score, and still being immune at the end of the day. It's truly beautiful. Daisy won the reward so she will be attending the tribal tonight and I hope she can give us an idea of how the dynamics are on another tribe. It's hard when there hasn't really been much to do on Brookesia so having a little bit of info could go a long way in this game.

NICOLE

Hello! So we won. I was having a little bit of a hard time this round if I'm being honest so I'm glad we won immunity because I think I definitely would have hit the road if we did not. Logic puzzles are really gonna be my legacy in this game huh...anyway, I have been searching for idols everyday and have not found ANYTHING except a second guess which I already used to find nothing. Even worse it seems that everywhere I look something has already been found! Which means other people have things! Which stinks. But, I think I'm in a pretty good spot if we swap after this round. But if we stay on this tribe....yikes!

JENNET

super nervous, i have TWO alliances with the same name... hoping that helps me at tribal so when i say the name of it, both groups thinks its them😳😳

(a little later)

told ethan and sam what jabari and lindsay have planned for them... hoping it doesnt blow up in my face

(after searching for an idol)

was hoping to vote out lindsay bc shes been playing this like shes our leader but shes the stronger competitor and i dont want to push sam and ethan too much

SHANE

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-RKbRCfntNc75XUsCg7iKmFfxne0qcMt

SAMMY

i feel like this game is nonexistent lately...I do want to say Shane is lucky bc in the counting challenge he messes up like 2-3 times and i was like ...blinks.... idk but luckily we managed to escape tribal council once again so our odds going far and having numbers are pretty high I’d say? I feel like a swap is coming tho so I’m a bit nervous! My confessionals are gonna remain dry for now sorry mwah

DAISY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuVm7kTkEL4 ugh sorry its so shitty this didnt go as planned and i give up. love u all. kiss kisss

PETE

I’m pretty sure Nicole may still get numbers against me when the time comes. I’m nervous for a merge but honestly i’ll be grateful if I even make it to one for the first time lmao like at this point I may have a few numbers but I’m hoping another struggling alliance picks Jessica and I up at the merge and we can rest in majority for a little bit at the start of it. I was thinking about maybe throwing one challenge so we can either A. Vote off Nicole who is a big threat and could do damage later on. or B. Vote off Mikey who could be a secret snake which could win a couple more trust points with Nicole and maybe pick up and ally there. I’m not sure. I did save Nicole in one light by redirecting my alliance’s target from her to Nash, but in another, I didn’t side with her in voting off Mikey so she lost her ally. It’s complex, I feel like throwing a challenge AND not throwing a challenge could both be the mistake I look back on when I get voted out later on. i dunno send help lmao

TRIBAL COUNCIL

youtube

JABARI EXIT INTERVIEW

youtube

#cowsurvivor #confessionals

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 2 years

Text

Ten Into The Fog (Part 5)

She can't explain her sense of unease but it is creeping and growing steadily with each inch closer that they grow to the palace.

There's a certain uncanniness, the sense that she truly has been winked out of the universe and displaced back into another one that is exactly the same but just subtly different enough to make her feel weary and small.

There are statues at the heart of Caldera City; one of Zuko standing tall and proud next to Aang. There must be some reason, some reason that makes sense as to why they would erect a statue of a traitor and an enemy. There is one of herself. Perhaps the people mean to topple the Zuko statue in her name so all that remains will be the one in her likeness, grand and glimmering. It wears a bold smirk, much more imposing than she feels in current. Its golden hand holds a sapphire flame. She might be flattered by it were it not for the angles that the artist had added to her face. She is mightily familiar with artists taking creative liberties, touching up her face where it is flawed. But something about this seems excessive.

So focused as she is on the look of them, she hadn't even thought to be alarmed by the sudden existence of those statues.

Her stomach twists and turns with butterflies and that sense of nausea won't seem to go away even when she thinks that she isn't nervous.

She wishes that they would have just taken the palanquin but Zuko insists that walking through the city will help ease her into things.

Things like seeing Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe flags in windows and the odd Earth Kingdom cuisine family. Things that are pulling at and fraying threads in her mind. Things that make her feel dizzy and dissociated.

"You alright, Azula?" Sokka asks.

"Princess Azula." She folds her arms across her chest. "I'm fine." She would just like to be at home, in her bed, where maybe someone will realize that the Fire Nation is being invaded. That she is a hostage, chains or none.

She finds herself hoping that it is a hostage situation, a full scale invasion that had happened while she was out, anything other than finding out that Sokka’s words had been the truth.

Perhaps she should make a run for it. She ought to but she still feels so queasy and her body still aches. She can't afford to hurt herself again so soon. Not when she has several foes who will surely track her down. She needs to bide her time.

"Are you sure? We can stop at the Golden Paprika. It's your favorite. I can get you one of those kebabs with the komodo rhino meat and the lightly seasoned yellow peppers.”

Azula can feel the color draining from her face. A lucky guess, she tells herself. Deep down she knows that she is lying to herself. “I’d like to get back to the palace.” She wishes that she had Mai and TyLee with her, but then she can’t trust them to tell her the truth either.

She can’t trust anyone.

She is beginning to wonder if she can trust her own mind.

She grits her teeth; she had sworn that she wouldn’t let them take her mind from her. And she won’t. Whatever sort of rouse this is, however they are pulling it off, she won’t let it get to her. She won’t!

Not even as she steps into the palace. Not even as the guards greet Fire Lord Zuko with a bow and welcome the Avatar and his friends into the palace with enthusiasm. Her head spins. No, no, no, it is all wrong; how could things have fallen apart so quickly in the few weeks to a month that she was out?

Had they truly managed to overthrow father so quickly and so easily?

Zuko can’t be Fire Lord.

No.

No, there must be something that she is missing. Some piece that can explain why everyone is letting these traitors and enemies waltz about the palace. Perhaps father has plans of his own, a trap set up for them. Perhaps they think that she knows more than she does and it will simply be a matter of pretending that she truly does know as much as they think she does…

.oOo.

Sokka knows her well enough to tell when Azula is thinking and overthinking. When she is distraught or stressed. She gets tense when she is stressed, she grips at the excess folds of her robes. And the deeper they enter the palace the tighter she holds her sleeves.

She has an excuse for everything; the palace looks different simply because furniture and decorative art has been rearranged or taken down, the staff is different because servants have quit and guards got fired, the palace garden is bigger simply because the gardeners have been working harder.

For every little change, Azula is able to swiftly evade the truths that they reveal right in front of her eyes. For every larger difference that they confront her with she finds a way to rationalize it away. Her reaching and all of those mental contortions to arrive at the conclusions that she does would leave TyLee envious.

Until, of course, she comes by indisputable proof–namely a trip to the nearby prison where Ozai is being held.

The shift from denying that there has been any change at all to acknowledging that, indeed, everything is quite different is frustrating when coupled with a brand new type of denial–an adamant refusal to believe that it has happened over the course of a decade.

“Let me speak to father.” She growls again. She won’t budge and neither will Zuko. And if Zuko does budge, Sokka vows to hold him in place. The last thing she needs is to speak to Ozai especially with her newly regressed mindset.

“You can’t keep him from me, Zuzu.” She scowls.

He shakes his head. “It was a mistake to bring you here.”

“No kidding…” Katara grumbles.

Azula says nothing more, she doesn’t need to. He can see that determination in her eyes; one way or another she plans to break the man out. Sokka is just grateful that she doesn’t remember that it is as easy as signing a few forms. That she had been charged with keeping him under lock and key.

“Let’s go.” Zuko replies firmly.

“Or what? You’ll have me locked up too?”

“We’re not going to imprison you.” Sokka says. “I swear that I already told you…”

She holds up a hand. “I know that you Water Tribe barbarians have no sense of order but here in the Fire Nation we speak when addressed.”

Sokka grits his teeth. Raava, it has been so long since she has spoken to him like that. Since she is spoken to anyone like that. It begins to settle in more fully just what they are going to be facing.

He just hopes that he won’t hate her by the end of it all.

.oOo.

For the most part they keep their distance, save for Zuko who has grown a little too brave since technically beating her at the Western Air Temple. And braver still now that he has successfully imprisoned father. Evidently she suspects that sooner or later he and the others will grow tired of this game, bind her up, and send her to their own version of the Boiling Rock when they realize that she isn’t falling for this trickery.

They must think rather low of her to believe that she will eventually buy into their lies.

Zuko sits on the edge of her bed aggravatingly unfazed by the danger she poses. He still hasn’t bothered to restrain her and sooner or later she will show him–show all of them–exactly what a mistake that had been. “I wish that you would talk to us.” Zuko urges gently. “We’re trying to help you.”

Help her? She sniffs. “You’re trying to get into my head and break me.” She replies needlessly defiantly. “It isn’t going to work. I’ll admit that you’ve been putting on a good show. You’ve clearly used my unconscious months wisely.”

“Azula, it hasn’t been months…”

“There’s just one thing that I don’t understand.” She cuts him off. “You’ve already overthrown father and taken his throne, why bother with me? Other than sick satisfaction, what do you have to gain by trying to convince me that I’ve been asleep for ten years?”

“That’s not what we’ve been saying at all.” Zuko frowns.

“We’ve been saying the opposite.” Sokka reiterates from the doorway. “You’ve been awake the whole time, you’ve been living your life. You’ve been creating a life for yourself–a good one! You just don’t remember it.”

And then it dawns upon her and she gives a bitter chuckle. “This is about vengeance isn’t it? I’ve played mind games with all of you and now you’re teaming up and giving it a shot. You want me to question myself, my perceptions. You want me to think that I’m crazy.”

Sokka looks damn near tears.

He takes her hands, actually swoops in and snatches them up! The audacity! And he holds their hands to his chest. “I don’t want you to think that you’re crazy.” He sounds almost pleading. Agni, it is such a painfully realistic act. “That’s the last thing that we want.”

She jerks her hands out of his grasp.“Then what is your goal?” As if they would tell her.

“To help you remember.”

“There’s nothing to remember, Sokka.”

“I know that it’s scary to think…”

“I am not afraid. And I am not convinced.” She folds her hands over her chest.

.oOo.

He gives a sad little smile. “You haven’t had a chance to look at yourself. You look different you know. Your hair is longer..”

Her hair is longer, her skin is scarred in places, she has the tattoos, and Raava he’s is almost certain that she is pregnant. They had begun to speculate as much only a few days prior to the incident. A few mornings back when she had complained that her perfectly fitted clothing had grown a touch snug and he had to reassure her that he hadn’t noticed a thing and even if he had, she is, in fact, still perfect the way she is. And then she complained of feeling ill.

Raava’s tendrils he is an idiot; he hadn’t even tried to talk her out of going. Just that little inkling should have been enough to tell her to let them handle things for once.

How in Raava’s name is is supposed to tell her that? How and when? She refuses to accept even the little truths.

Once elated at the prospect of starting a family, he now he finds himself hoping that their speculations have been wrong. It’ll only make an already frightening situation absolutely terrifying and he can’t even reach out to comfort her. Not when she is looking at him with such thinly veiled disdain.

“You need to remember.” Is all he manages. “I need you to remember.” As if she has a choice.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #Azula #Sokka #Sokkla #Fanfiction

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 3 years

Text

From Chin To Yon Rah (Part 41)

I typed this chapter on mobile so it might have more typos than usual and I, a responsible fic writer, do not proof read.

Warmth. There is a sense of community in warmth and trying to stay in a state of it during the colder months. Wujing makes a celebration of doing so. And that is how she finds herself seated around the largest fire she has seen in the Earth Kingdom. She is their go to women to keep it lit until the festivities are over.

They seem to rather adore her fire and on nights like these she yearns to display a vivid blue. Perhaps one day. One day after she tells Hajime who she is. Though she isn't sure when she would tell everyone else. She hopes that everyone will take just as well to her fire when it burns blue. Perhaps if she is lucky, they will enjoy it more.

Until then she adds more orange to the blaze while Atsu shifts his weight in her arms. "My turn, Atsu!" Caihong declares.

"No-o." Atsu shakes his head, "she's my mama, go by yer dad!"

Despite the boy's protests, Azula lifts the blanket and let's Caihong crawl under it and next to Atsu. Hajime steps away from the fire and returns to her side. "I'd say that this is a promising way to start the winter."

"We've had a productive year. We have more than enough to get the Wujing through the winter." Seukhyun notes.

"No thanks to you, boy." Ojihara jests.

"I did most of the work ol' man!"

Listening to the father and son go back and forth is one more constant in her life. A thing that wouldn't feel right if absent.

Azula, to the best of her ability with to little beasts in her lap, moves closer to the fire. "Hey!" Atsu shouts, "I was com-fera-table!"

"I wasn't." Azula shrugs. Truth be told her legs are tingling from having held the same position for so long. "I need to stand up."

Neither of the children takes the cue so she tells them both to stand. She doesn't know why she expected to be met with anything other that a, "no, Rikka! We're cozy!" And an agreeing not from Atsu.

"Hajime, hold these things." She sets Atsu and then Caihong in his lap.

"These things are called children, Rikka." He laughs while Atsu folds his arms and pouts.

"They're more like chittering toad-squirrels if you ask me." She stretches her arms and then her back with a contented sigh. She makes her way even closer to the fire.

"Cider?" A man offers. She recognizes him from the market square, a clothes salesman she thinks. She can't quite recall his name but it could be Poying or maybe Poyang. The man is quite fond of telling everyone that he has a tinge of Air Nomad blood. Azula isn't the only person to take this with several grains of salt. But he is an honest man otherwise do she takes the glass with a thank you.

"Gimme'a sip, gimme'a sip!" Caihong makes a jump or two for Azula's cider.

Poyang chuckles, "aye, lil' one we got plenty more, ya don't have to snatch Rikka's."

"You don't have to take me." She repeats smugly, holding her glass just out of Caihong's reach. The girl sticks out her lower lip, folds her arms across her chest, and gives her foot a stomp--making sure to rumble the ground for good measure.

Hajime gives her a little nudge. "Aww don't tease Cai."

"She's gonna get her drink anyways." Seukhyun dismisses just as Poyang comes back with more cider.

"Poyang has the best stuff!" Atsu declares after his first sip.

"Cause his brother's the apple man!" Caihong declares enthusiastically.

"One day we'll have to visit his orchard together." Hajime offers.

"We have a lot of one days to get to." Azula points out. But she supposes that they will have a lifetime to do them.

"It's nice to have a lot to look forward to, isn't it?" He slings an around her waist and pulls her closer. Hot cider splashes onto her shirt. She crinkles her nose, "thanks, Hajime."

"You said that you were getting cold. I thought that I'd help you warm up."

"Won't be so warm when this cider freezes…"

"That's what you get for not sharing it!" Caihong declares smugly. That impish little earth gremlin…

That day she learns that there is a special bond, a sense of community, that comes with the seeking of warmth.

.oOo.

She hadn’t expected to outlast him, but her demise comes as a surprise all the same. And maybe it is because she had wrapped her topmost parka around him. Maybe it is because she had stripped off her remaining glove to keep a fire going for him. For the both of them.

But she is weak and grows weaker as the cold burrows into her wound and seeps deeper into her bones. She looks at the teeth marks with much hatred. Could those have been prevented?

“Azula?” Sokka murmurs. It is the first sound that he has made in a while. And she could cry. Maybe both of them will die, but at least she won’t have to watch another lover do it before she succumbs for herself. She is so terribly cold, she can’t imagine that it will be much longer now.

"Yeah?" She answers.

"What happened?" He slurs.

"First we got caught in a blizzard and then we we got attacked by wolves…"

"Where's dad?"

Azula grits her teeth. "We couldn't find him, remember." They might have fared better against the wolves if they had. As things were they had taken a good chunk out of her arm before being struck down by Sokka's boomerang. The man best appreciate her taking those teeth for him instead of focusing on her own fight. On the grander scheme of things she supposes that it doesn't matter at all. They had done more damage than even that in shredding Sokka's parka and stealing one of her gloves. If they hadn't, she might not have had to spare one if her own.

Agni, she isn't built for this weather. She isn't adapted to withstand it. And it hurts so terribly. Everything stings and tingles. Her face and toes especially. Her fingers had tingled it that has subsided to a more than alarming nothingness. She sniffles, if only to remind herself that she still has a nose. Her cheeks are so red and she feels as though they have been slapped repeatedly. In a sense, they have. The winter slaps them with a force that a human hand couldn't possibly manage.

She had never realized just how much the cold could burn. Very resentfully, she thinks that the cold might just be higher than even her fire.

She huddles closer to Sokka, rather she tries to do so oh to find that they are as close as they can possibly be. And there is nowhere near enough warmth between the two of them.

"Take your parka back, Azula." Sokka says.

She shakes her head.

"Azula, you need it more, you're not…"

She shakes her head, "no." She won't be the weak one here. She can't allow it. She can't allow it especially if it means watching another lover die. "No."

At least now she can say with conviction that she does love him. Very much. Just as much as she loved Hajime. And more than enough to let herself succumb to the cold to give him a chance.

He tries to remove his parka anyhow so she rolls atop him, he is too weak to shove her off. Which is good because she would have been too weak to resist if he had.

The bite marks on her arm flare. She closes her eyes and shudders as another pang passes through her. How long have they been out here like this? Long enough for the blizzard to pass.it occurs to her that she and Sokka are half buried. The realization come with a jolt of panic--a queasiness in her belly and a spinning in her head. She doesn't want to be buried in a coffin of snow. She doesn't want to be buried at all. The panic is fleeting when she recalls that she has already unburied herself in putting her body atop Sokka's. Though that isn't to say that more snow won't come to cover them up, she hopes to be hours dead by then.

"You know, I always thought that I would die in combat." She mumbles, pressing her ear to his chest so that she can hear his heartbeat. So that she can be sure that she isn't alone. "That would have been more glorious than this."

"You're not…"

But she isn't done lamenting, "but I also always thought that I would be alone when I died. So I guess that this is better." It's certainly better than dying alone and dehydrated in a grassland.

"We're not going to die."

"We're in the middle of nowhere and the rest of the village didn't expect us to venture this far out to the glacier. We've been out here for hours, my arm won't stop bleeding…"

"Yeah." Sokka's expressions darkness. "Looks pretty grim doesn't it." He is so cold that his breath no longer comes out in puffs. He is quiet for a very long while. "Katara, Aang, Toph, and I were once lost in a desert with ver little water. You made it out of several situations like this…"

"Yes, Sokka and it was mostly luck. How many times can I keep getting lucky?" She doesn't have the energy for shouting. For changing her tone and diction at all really.

She feels Sokka's hands patting her hair. "Hopefully every time."

.oOo.

There is no worse feeling than watching Azula go limp and mostly quiet. For the last several minutes, the oh sign of life was an occasional wimper. Her body is still trembling but not as violently as it had been. She is shutting down. And she still won't take his parka.

"I'm so cold, Sokka." She whispers, her voice sounding so pathetically small. But she is afraid. He can tell, if only because he is terrified too.

"Yeah, me too, Azula."

She rubs her face against his chest. She gets no warmth out of it because there is none left in him. He looks to the sky. To the glimmering cosmos above. Maybe he'll be reborn as one of them…

Azula clings to him with what can oy be the last very last ounces of her strength.

"It's okay, Sokka." She tries to smile though her face is too stiff with the cold. "I told you on the first day that I came back that I had more waiting for me in the Spirit World…"

"Don't say that." He squeezes her tighter.

"It's okay." She says again. "I think I that he wanted me to do a bit more exploring but he'll be happy to know that I got this far."

He wonders if she is thinking of Caihong at all. He wonders if that will do her any good anyways. He doesn't want to say it, especially not to her. But she is right, she is dying. He doesn't think that she will last the night even of he does force her back into her parka.

He hugs her as tight as he can. And then he rolls her onto her back. She murmurs some sort of protest, some sort of distress. But there is something that he wants her to see. Something that he needs her to see.

"Look up, Azula. Open your eyes." He gently slaps her cheeks and her eyes flutter open. They are unfocused and mostly vacant. He slaps her cheeks again until he has her at least a little more alert. “Look at the lights, Azula.”

He thinks that she might have smiled. "That's nice, Sokka." But her eyes close again and the moment is good.

She doesn't cry. She doesn't bargain or beg. She simply squints and, to the best of her ability with blackened, numb fingers and clumsy daze, touches his cheek. And then her hand falls and her eyes close once more. No amount of slapping gets them to open again.

In the distance he hears barking. Sprits, he prays that the wolves aren't back. He squeezes her hand if only to feel her slowing pulse.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #Azula #Sokka #Sokkla #Fanfiction

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 3 years

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From Chin To Yon Rah (Part 33)

The fog of sleep still clings to her. She isn’t sure for exactly how long but it must have been a while. Even in waking, she is so deeply exhausted. Tired to her very soul. Each and everyone of her limbs seems to pulse with a dull ache. A dull ache that is sharply contrasted by the lavish softness of an expensive mattress and a dozen plump and fluffed pillows. But her head hasn’t quite caught up with her body yet. The comforts are thwarted by momentary confusion. Still, only half-awake, her tummy begins to flutter. She is indoors, in a room. Someone has taken her. Her breathing quickens, but only for a moment--the moment before she remembers that she has made it to the palace.

It is finally over. Her physical strife has finally come to a close. Her eyes flutter shut once more and she stretches her arms.

She isn’t aware that Zuzu and Sokka have remained at her bedside until she senses a hand hovering just over her throat. Her belly flops and she opens her eyes once more. She holds his stare. “Zuzu, is that you?” Her speech is slurred with sleep. When he doesn’t answer she says, “I’m thirsty, Zuko.”

This time she has been coherent enough to earn herself a, “tea or water?”

She doesn’t have any preference whatsoever, her throat is once again dry and she doesn’t intend to let it stay that way again. She sits up as Zuko leaves the room. Curtains of hair fall into her face. Sokka is quite lucky that she noticed him reaching out, her stomach flutters all the same as he moves the strands out of her line of sight.

“Don’t touch me.” She says quietly, almost numbly. He mutters an apology before making inquiries of her whereabouts. Questions that she is not ready to answer. Not when she has only just found sanctuary. Not with so much history between them. And yet he is treating her as though there is no bad blood at all. She repays this small mercy with a diplomatic, and vague, “it is probably easier to tell you where I haven’t been.”

“You’ve been in the Earth Kingdom!” He guesses. She confirms as much. His enthusiasm does little to alleviate the nervous tickles that still dance in her tummy. “A long while, I can tell.” He adds with just as much spunk.

“How?”

“Your accent.”

She furrows her brows, she hadn’t realized...hadn’t even considered that she would have picked one up, “I don’t have…”

“You do!” He insists.

And with the confirmation, her cheeks grow delicately pink. Moreso as the man continues rambling about his own travel experiences. Her head only grows dizzier--she has been gone for so, so long that it has morphed even her speech. She dreads to think of what others will think of her newfound dialect. “It’s a good thing!” He interrupts her thoughts. “I mean I like it.” She shifts, wishing that he would stop drawing attention to it and just let it go.

“Nevermind. How long have you been back home?”

“However long I’ve been asleep.” Her tone is level. She is too tired for biting remarks. She doesn’t think that she wants to make one even if she could. It isn’t as though he is trying to antagonize her. Most likely he is simply stumbling his way through an awkward reunion.

“I mean, when did you get back to the Fire Nation?”

She thinks for a moment. “A few weeks ago. I had enough coin to buy myself a trip from Chin Village to Yon Rha’s Village. I walked the rest of the way.” Frankly it could have been much longer than that. Or maybe it had been significantly shorter. And technically she hadn’t walked the entire rest of the way… But there is no sense in overcomplicating a story that she isn’t ready to share. “That explains why your shoes are so worn.”

She nods, wondering what he must think of her. What Zuzu had thought. Do they think that she is dirty and uncivilized? Do they think that she has no semblance of elegance left? She feels as though she is reverting. As though all of that time spent learning that there is no shame--rather there is a peculiar sense of dignity--in worn shoes and hardwork. But the palace...it makes her feel so...unclean. Unworthy.

“What were you doing in the Earth Kingdom?”

She shrugs. “I guess that I just wanted to find somewhere quiet to stay.” That is the basic gist of it. A diluted truth.

“Did you?”

She nods again. Her stomach is absolutely reeling. She thinks that if he keeps pushing the dam might break. “Did you like it there?” Another nod. And she craves it. Craves it so very much.

“Then why did you leave?”

She grits her teeth. She can tell that he means well; his curiosity is so innocent, perhaps a way of displaying that he is willing to put the past in the past. But she has to shut it down before it breaks her all over again. “You ask too many questions.”

“You answered them all.” He points out.

She doesn’t have a witty retort, neither can she deny it so she offers only a shrug and lays back down. The pillow is so heavenly, so inviting.

“Does it have to do with that?” He points to her neck. She hastily pulls the blanket up to cover it. “It does, doesn’t it?” And she rolls to face away from him. She is a question away from curling in on herself and covering her ears.

“Okay, fine. Different topic…” But he still bombards her with painful questions. Each pierces her like a dagger to the soul.

“Why do you care what happened to me?” She mumbles.

“I don’t know, I guess because it’s been so long and we thought that you...you know…”

“Died.” She could inform him that she almost did, several times over. Could tell him that she had yearned for it many times. She could tell him that she still does. But she realizes that, that isn’t true. She doesn’t want to die. Despite it all and despite his onslaught of questions, she thinks that she has found something to latch onto. His chatter makes her think that there is a chance. A chance to reconcile. A chance to face her past once and for all and make something of it. He rubs the back of his head, “yeah.”

“And that would be preferable, yes?” She tests.

“No!” He answers right away. “I think that it would have been kind of sad if you did.”

“It wouldn’t have been all the tear jerking.” She replies quietly. “I think that I have more waiting for me in the Spirit World than I do here.” She has said too much. Agni, she isn’t ready to get into this yet. She hopes that he won’t put two and two together. But she knows that he will, he always had been the brains of the Avatar’s group. And she given him a critical hint. He leaps upon it, “you lost someone, didn’t you?”

She doesn’t trust herself to answer without choking up. Agni, she wants someone to reassure her. She hasn’t had reassurance in ages...

“Sorry.” His gaze lingers on her neck and she thinks to conceal the scar once more.

“Well, it’s good to have you back.”

“Is it?” She asks. She is happy to be back, relieved to be out of the merciless sun, relieved to have a comfortable place to sleep and meals waiting for her. But she isn’t sure that anyone else will benefit from her surprise homecoming. She had parted on horrid terms...

He seems to study her face. Seems to take in each detail. She thinks that he might be trying to find her story in her eyes so she closes them. She feels his hand on hers and when she opens her eyes she is greeted with a warm smile. “I think so.”

The fluttering in her belly becomes more pleasant. It is still jittery and skeptical but the tingles aren’t quite as unpleasant. He is offering her a second chance--or maybe it is more appropriate to call it a third. She does her best to return the smile before fatigue grips her once more. She lowers herself back to the pillow and nuzzles her face into it. At the very least, he has given her something to latch onto, a small hope to cling to just when her stash of it had been depleted.

That day she learns that even the worst of her deeds can be reconciled. That she isn’t a lost cause.

.oOo.

Sometimes she thinks about her first night back at the palace. Sometimes she wonders what would have happened if she had gotten snappy or aggressive. She wonders if Sokka would have been patient with her or if he would have written her off entirely. She thinks that her musing is pointless. It is pessimistic and she hasn’t the need for it. Not while she is laughing, face and clothing smudged with clay. Clumps of it cling to her locks. Not while the man is chuckling harder still as he tries to wipe some of the clay off of her cheeks.

As it would turn out, long nails are no good on a pottery wheel unless the goal is cleanly slicing cups and bowls in half before they have a chance to become something useful.

Sokka’s cups and bowls may be lopsided and asymmetric but at least he had managed to craft them at all. She has only managed to ribbon her own and has resigned herself to admitting defeat.

“I’ll heat those up for you.” She mutters as she snatches up those hideous ceramic structures.

“Once they’re done we can use them for dinner.” Sokka grins.

“I’d rather starve.” She deadpans.

He slings an arm over her shoulder and barks out a laugh. She quite likes his laugh as unrefined and obnoxiously loud as it is. She frowns and plucks a few particularly large chunks of clay out of his beard. “You need a bath.” He blinks and gestures towards the clay dirtying her entire persona. “I never implied that I didn’t need one.” She shrugs.

“Alright, we’ll just let someone else heat up the clay and finish it and we can take baths.”

.oOo.

When he had suggested that they take baths he hadn’t expected her to suggest just one bath. One bath, wherein she is massaging shampoo into his hair with a look of steely determination. “Your hair is a tangled mess.” She comments every now and again. “When was the last time you combed all of this?”

He shrugs, “I just let it do it’s thing.”

She sighs, “that’s how you get dirty hair.” With a good yank, she manages to get one of the more serious knots untangled. She adds more shampoo and conditioner to her palm. Mostly her fingers are gentle and he enjoys the sensation of them in his locks. He finds himself disappointed when her hands retract. “There, I think that that’s most of them. I’ll have the servants do the more laborious grooming.”

She holds out the small bottle of perfume, “do mine.”

He studies her for a moment; the water has mostly washed away the smears of clay but some of it still holds onto strands of her hair. Hair that clings to her neck, shoulders, and collarbone--it hasn’t yet grown past that. Her skin is still very sunkissed and her scars stand out more starkly for it, particularly the ones upon her throat.

Their occasional sparring matches have done her well, muscle definition is beginning to take the place of malnourishment. It is reassuring to see her in a more solid state of health.

She clears her throat and gestures towards the shampoo. His face flushes and she turns around. It is his cue to put the shampoo to use. He takes a curtain of hair in one hand and pours an overly generous amount of shampoo upon it with the other. He runs his fingers through her hair until her locks are impeccably silky and the water comes back clear.

“Thank you, Sokka.”

“Any time.” He reaches for the bar of soap, “do you want me to…?

She takes the soap from his hand and shakes her head.

.oOo.

Azula holds the soap to her chest, cleaning herself, only for a moment, with thoughtless sweeps of her hand. Her shoulders have a decent layer of foam by the time she hesitates. She casts a look at Sokka and quirks a brow.

“We only have one bar of soap.” Quickly he adds, “don’t worry, I can wait.”

She brings the bar away from her body anyhow and runs it along the man’s well sculpted arms, her fingers over the lines of his biceps. She glides the soap across his chest, wondering just when the man had gotten so strongly built. She supposes that the soap is just an excuse to run her hands over his abs. He reaches out and strokes her hair again. Satisfied for the moment, she hands him the bar of soap and turns around again. She moves her hair and lets the man lather the back of her neck down the curve of her spine. Her rinses the bubbles away and offers her back a trail of kisses. She closes her eyes and feels his lips on the crook of her neck and her arms around her torso.

“I think that you’re mostly clean now.”

She nods, “yes, mostly.” Though she isn’t particularly interested in the bath anymore. “You can…” she takes his hand that holds the soap and holds it against her chest. “You can finish up.”

“Yeah, I think I can do that for you.” He smiles.

She must say that this is the mostly lovely, relaxing bath she has had in ages. He is good to her. Good to her in a way that is uniquely his and with a touch that is uniquely his. A touch that leads her to decide that it is safe to remember but move on.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #Azula #Sokka #Sokkla #Fanfiction

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 4 years

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Mutilated Mannequin (Part 18)

Breakfast is strangely quiet and Azula can’t place why until Ozai clears his throat. “I called Dr. Guhira. He said that he can do some revision surgery.”

Azula laughs, a few tears threatening to spill over. “Are you serious?” She pauses. “You want me to get more surgery?”

He clears his throat again. “I thought that you might…”

“No. No more. My face is already damaged enough.” Her voice hitches.

Ozai opens his mouth but Ursa’s voice fills the quiet. “What’s going on here?”

Her farther cringes.

“He’s being insensitive again, isn’t he?”

He casts her a pleading stare but she can only work to swallow down her tears.

Her expression only seems to kindle her mother’s temper further. “You and Zuko won’t have to worry about that soon.” She slaps a stack of court documents onto the table.

Something about it makes Azula’s stomach lurch.

“Azula, I’m trying to…I’m trying to fix this.”

“Then stop telling me to get surgery.”

“It’s different than…”

“I have to get to class.” She mutters as she picks up her bag and heads for the door. She doesn’t know what she looks less forward to, a run in with Jet during gym class or the tense conversation that she is about to have with Chan.

She makes her way to his locker and loiters there, running thorough her script until she sees him sauntering up. He runs his finger though his hairline. “You want to start or should I?”

Azula shrugs.

“How did I make you feel like you needed the surgery?”

“It wasn’t just you. It was actually mostly my father.” Azula admits before recounting the comment that inspired her to get work done. He rubs his face in the way that he always does when he is particularly stressed.

“I guess that, that was pretty shallow, huh?”

“Absolutely.”

“I should have told you…” he trails off, “that you didn’t need the surgeries.”

She folds her arms and replies with a soft, “yeah.” It is all she can manage for the time. What’s done is done. She considers briefly, her father’s offer. But, no, she won’t let him goad her into another operation. Not for cosmetic’s sake anyhow.

“Homecoming probably didn’t help either.”

“No.” She agreed. Not that it was of any more use that she didn’t mention what had been bothering her so much.

“So, what now?”

Azula shrugs. “Nothing, I guess. I just wanted to let you know why homecoming ended the way it did.”

Chan nods. “Kind of glad that you did.” He scratches the back of his head. “Are things going to be less awkward now?”

“I hope so or this conversation was pointless.”

He lets out a loud curse when the bell rings.

“Don’t worry about it.” Azula dismisses. “I’ll just tell Kyoshi that I was having trouble carrying all of this.” She opens her locker and pulls out more textbooks than necessary. She hands them to Chan and picks up her bag. “"And that you were giving me a hand.”

“Ah, so you’ve discovered the wonders of being ‘helpless.’” Tops grins. “It comes in handy sometimes.”

“Is that why you’re wandering the halls?” Azula asks.

Her grin widens. “ Hell yes!”

.oOo.

Kyoshi lets her join them for frisbee. “How intense can throwing around a flimsy disk get?” She clearly underestimated the sheer chaos three of the school jocks could stir.

The absurd amount of combined testosterone wafting off of Sokka, Chan, and Jet is enough to build a future resume for a frat house.

She is thankful for it; it keeps Jet from pestering her. She lingers with Katara and Yue at what she hopes is a safe distance from the sport related pissing contest. Though she has landed herself in the center of an age old rivalry.”

“Don’t let her get the frisbee!” Yue declares as Azula sends it sailing to Katara. Yue groans as the other girl’s hands clamp down on it. The girl looks smug. She tosses the frisbee back to Azula who passes it to Yue and then it is back in her hands again. She rolls her eye, realizing and accepting that they were never going to pass it to each other.

“Mind if I join you guys?” Ruon asks.

Azula passes the frisbee to him and he flicks it to the nearest person, Yue. “Sorry about your face.” He comments.

“It is what it is.”

“Yeah. Chan was telling me a bit about it.”

She finds herself pleasantly to have such a considerable amount of support. Frankly she had been almost certain that Yue would cut her out. Granted, the girl is tactlessly truthful but she has come to know that, that’s just the girl’s personality. She supposes that she appreciates the honesty.

“Why aren’t you with Chan?”

“I’ve taken eight frisbees to the face and we’ve been playing for five minutes.” Ruon shrugs. “I’m not into extreme frisbee.”

The four pass the frisbee between one another. Azula watches it sail into Katara’s hands and Katara passes it to Ruon.

“Hey! You skipped me.” Yue complains as Ruon tosses it to her.

Azula outstretches her good arm to catch it. Before she can, a different frisbee collides with the back of her head.

“Careful, Longshot.” Jet leers. “We can’t mess up the back of her head too.”

Azula picks up the frisbee and glowers at Jet. Her gaze flickers between he and Longshot before she ultimately decides to toss it at Jet. She lands her hit square on his nose. Longshot chuckles, unaware that she still has one frisbee at her disposal. This one stikes his ear. She offers them the dullest expression she can muster, one that might even impress Mai.

“Jesus.” Ruon remarks with a half laugh. “I didn’t realize you had such good aim.”

Azula shrugs. “I have many talents.”

“I think that Longshot is gonna whine to Kyoshi.” Yue comments.

“Let him.” Azula replies. “Kyoshi likes me.” Even if she does get a lecture, the satisfaction of striking the both of them will outweigh it. Getting the last hit takes the edge off of the sting they left her with.

But still, some tingles of doubt remain.

They carry her to math class and into lunch.

She wishes that her mind would stop lingering on the petty comments. They seem so small in comparison to the kindness everyone else seems to afford her.

She arranges her food, and simply observes the conversations around her.

“Are you still taking Zuko to the comet festival?” TyLee asks.

Yue grimances. “Oh God no.”

“Aw, why not? He’s kind of cute.”

“Gross.” Azula mutters.

“The first half of homecoming was nice but then he started talking about Mai and it got awkward.” She pauses. “You still going with Kei Lo.”

“He’s nice and everything but he doesn’t like that I have to bring Tom-Tom along with us on our dates sometimes.” Mai shrugs.

“Soooo…is it too soon for me to asking him to the festival?”

“Have at him.”

Azula’s heart sinks again. She is still alone. She pretends to be interested in her meal, wishing that they would all just stop talking about dates and dances. She thinks of bringing up their sports teams, heaven knows that TyLee can talk about gymnastics for ages and Yue did love to boast about her award for her 500 meter freestyle. She doesn’t speak up fast enough.

“Are you going to ask anyone to the comet festival?” Yue asks.

And again she takes too long to answer.

“She can ask all the people she wants, nobody is going to say yes to a face like that.” Jet comments. “She couldn’t get a date before, she sure as hell can’t get one now.”

“That’s bold coming from someone who lost his date.” Chan comments.

“I’m taking Smellerbee.” He shrugs.

“Poor girl.” Yue comments, “I’d try to help her if I liked her, but she has one of those coconut haircuts and I don’t condone that kind of sin against hair.”

“It least she isn’t made of plastic. Broken plastic.”

Broken plastic…

Azula absently brings her fingers to her cheek. She hasn’t seen it yet, but she can feel the raised ridges of scar tissue.

She hears Toph enter the conversation but the words never settle. The face Jet makes brings her some satisfaction, but it is fleeting as his words echo in her head. Moreso when she catches tunes in to hear him say, “you can’t even fucking see, of course you think that she’s pretty.”

“Jet, my asshole looks prettier than you.” Toph grumbles.

“How about this? How about you leave beauty related opinions to the people who they are meant for; people who can see. Blind people don’t get to call things beautiful.”

Toph folds her arms over her chest and blows at her bangs. “Whatever I’d rather be blind then look at whatever you have going on.”

She should say something. Anything at all instead of hiding behind the rest of them. But she had thrown away most of her fight with the frisbees and the rest of it has been sapped away by Jet’s commentary.

She thinks of Ozai’s offer. Dr. Guhira has always been good to her, at the very least he made her feel comfortable and like she had a choice. She can imagine that he’d be able to perform a healthy corrective surgery.

“Good luck with the festival.” Jet’s voice cuts through her thoughts. “I bet that even that faggot Aang get more dick than you.” He offers her a final sneer before going to receive his high fives and words of praise.

Katara starts to stand and Suki holds her down. “He can’t talk about people like that, Suki.” Her grip tightens around her empty water bottle. “Did you hear what he called Aang? Aang isn’t even here!”

A mist of outrage settles over the table. And through the fog, they don’t see her get up and leave. She leans herself against the wall just outside of the cafeteria. She could give her father a call…

The double doors open and Katara emerges.

“You can get written up for ditching, you know?”

“I guess I’ll take my first write up then.” She replies. “Is this the first time…?” She looks at Azula before clarifying, “that people have talked to you like this?”

Azula nods. “I have to admit, I admire their sheer audacity.”

Katara laughs. “I always thought that you’d have some crazy comebacks.”

“Disappointed?”

Frankly she thought that she would too. She seems to have them at the ready on TyLee’s behalf and on Mai’s...and Zuzu’s if he’s lucky and she’s feeling generous. But when it comes to herself she seems to lose her bite.

“Not really.” Katara says. “I’m sure I’ll hear them soon enough.”

“Maybe.”

Katara pulls her into a gentle hug. Usually that is reserved for only TyLee to do, but today she accepts the comforting gesture.

.oOo.

She is, once again, the first person to spread her picnic blanket on the ground. This time she is bundled up in a coat and several layers of sweaters that are just thin enough to accommodate her sling.

“Hot chocolate?” Pathik offers.

Azula holds her hand out. Stargazing and hot chocolate, she supposes that she can really use that today. She takes a sip and looks at the sky until bickering from below draws her attention away.

Katara gives a little wave.

“I can’t believe that you nerds talked me into coming here again.”

“You say that every week, Yue. I think that you enjoy astronomy.” Azula speculates.

“I enjoy the idea of free hot chocolate.” She wraps her arms around herself. “It’s too cold out for this.” She gestures to the telescopes.

“Yes, but it’s the only time that you can see Canis Major.” Katara points out.

“And Venus is best seen this month.” Azula adds.

“Who cares about Venus. I still haven’t gotten to see the moon.” She shiverers and burrows further into her coat. “Look at this.” She waves her arms around at the snow. “Too cold.”

“Maybe if you’d zip your coat, you wouldn’t be as cold.” Katara suggests.

Azula hears a clatter and a muffled, “oh dear.” Katara wanders over and helps their professor pick up his telescope. When the remaining few students make themselves comfortable Pathik addresses them. “Today, I would like to start by telling a story to get us in the winter spirit…”

She never imagined that astronomy club with come with fairy tale read alouds. But then, Pathik has never been anything but whimsical. She isn’t opposed to his story choice either.

“Hey, can I share your blanket?” Katara asks.

Azula nods and tosses the blanket over her shoulder.

“What about me?” Yue asks.

“First come, first served.” Azula shrugs.

She and Katara were the last remaining people after the telescopes have been packed away. Katara looks at her phone and bites her lip, “I forgot that Sokka had an away game tonight.”

“I’m sure that my limo has some extra space.” Azula replies.

Her face slackens in relief. “For a second I thought that I’d be walking home. I mean, it isn’t that far but my nose is getting numb.”

“Yes, mine too. Just like old times.”

Katara laughs, “I never thought that I’d have to help someone change nose pads.”

“I suppose that I didn’t think I’d ever have to ask someone to help me with that.” The conversation fades out. In its place is the soft sound of sleet hitting the parking lot.

“He’s wrong you know.”

“Hmm?” Azula knits her brows. “About you not going to get a date to the comet festival.”

“Can we avoid this topic?”

“I guess we can, if you really don’t want to go with me.”

Azula stares at her for the longest time. “You...you want to take me?”

Katara’s hand squeezes hers and she nods. “I’d really like to give it a try. Jet was a horrible date…”

“So the bar is pretty low.”

“So I need something extra special to make up for it. I figured that you like a challenge.”

Azula smiles. “I do like a challenge, yes.”

“So you’ll go with me?”

Azula nods. “I’ll go.”

Katara leans forward, when Azula misses her cue, the girl rolls her eyes and pecks her nose instead. Katara brushes Azula’s bangs aside and leans in for a second try. Azula hesitates before tilting her head. The girl’s lips are meer inches from her own when two rapid horn bleats cause them both to jolt.

“That doesn’t look like a limo.” Katara mumbles, a blush creeping onto her cheeks.

“We’re having a family dinner.” Zuko calls from the car window.

“We’ll have to drop Katara off first.”

“She can come with us.” Ursa smiles. “There’s an open seat in the back.”

“Thank you Ms. Kasai.” Katara climbs into the back.

“You won’t be thanking us after dinner.” Azula whispers. “Family dinners are always…”

“Dramatic or weird.” Zuko fills in.

“Are you going to tell me about your girlfriend?” Ozai asks, tapping the steering wheel.

“Yup.” Zuko muses. “It’s gonna be weird this time.”

#Avatar #Azula #Katara #Azutara #Sokka #Jet #Yue #Toph #Zuko #Mai #Tylee #Fanfiction

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