Things Happen
Which is a piece of fan-fiction written by one Miss Spookshow
~A DISCLAIMER~
This story contains characters, settings, concepts, and previous canon from one series, "Avatar: The Last Airbender" by name, that does not belong to the writer. I profit not in the least by this, and as such, should not be sued. Thank you.
-o-
CHAPTER ONE
-o-
"BOOZE. You, me, the town. What do you say?" Toph was shocked. The last time that she had seen Sokka - a full year ago - they had gone on a rather epic bar-hop. The result had nearly landed both of them in jail, and they had spent the night throwing up and passing out, and the next morning cursing every spirit and god in existence. In her estimation, a good time, but Sokka hadn't agreed. Maybe he'd come around in the year they'd been apart.
"Now that's a greeting! Let's go!" She grinned. "I guess Aang and your sister aren't in town yet?"
"You see any crowds forming?"
"I don't-"
"FEEL, whatever! Your feet see the same as my eyes. Better, even."
"No." Truth be told, the streets of the east outer quarter of Ba Sing Se were fairly quiet this time of evening. A beat passed. "So why are you getting so snippy? Didn't think it was your time of the month."
"Let's... let's just say I've got a good reason to want to drink and leave it there." He hadn't reacted to the shot at his manhood, and he hadn't made a joke back. Ooh.
"You know I'm not gonna stop needling you about it."
"...I know." He sounded somehow resigned.
"So that means it's really bad."
"How do you figure that?"
"Because if it wasn't, you'd come out and say it. And if it was just bad-bad, you'd be in denial about keeping it under wraps."
"You're getting GOOD." A trace of the humor that had been absent from his words trickled back in.
"I was already awesome. I'm just getting better." She smirked, punching his shoulder. At 18, Sokka was even taller than before, taking after his father - and, Toph noticed as they walked, pretty muscular, even if he erred on the side of trim and flexible. A fencer to the core, she supposed. The Blind Bandit, on the other hand, had barely grown a foot. At well under five feet, she still cut an imposing figure, her own muscles seeming more impressive than Sokka's. "So... before we start swimming in sake... spill."
"Niiice alliteration."
"No more compliments. Out with it!" He sighed. On the one hand, he didn't want to talk about it. On the other, dragging out an inevitable defeat would just make it worse. And possibly lead to punitive punchings.
"Suki left me." Toph stopped short. She was one of the strongest benders in the world - presently the only one capable of metalbending. She could level a mountain if she had cause to. It took all her strength to hold back an exclamation - and even then, it slipped out once the full weight of his words hit her.
"Wait, WHAT? The way you were getting on last time, I figured she was pregnant!"
"No, it... that was..." He stumbled over his words. "...the last year was... it was a lie. She was away at Kyoshi island most of the time, and I..."
"You were helping with the expansion at the South Pole."
"Right." Toph had been by there once - she didn't last long barefoot, and Katara had ended up leading her around with boots on. It was an interesting project, the structures now only half ice, the remnants of old Fire Nation ironclads stripped down for materials - though Toph couldn't appreciate much of that from the way it had to be described to her.
"So... you saw it coming, though... I mean, you're Sokka, the Wolf of the South! You've got girls falling all over you, right?" Sokka scoffed, and Toph frowned sharply. He really was taking it bad if he let that joke pass without comment.
"She left me for another woman, Toph. The whole thing..." He mumbled. "I was just... I was a phase. An experiment."
"Hey... no you weren't." She stopped, turning him aside so that he was looking straight at her. She looked up at him - though the blank gaze through her bangs was directed more at his chin than his eyes. "I saw how you got on. I saw how she treated you, and how you treated her. That was love, bud. And if it wasn't, she was a hell of an actor, alright?" Silence. "Y' should have been together. Just... can't control who you're attracted to, right?" A shrug. Sokka took a deep, heaving sigh.
"You said it."
"Still burns, huh?"
"And so..."
"The drinks, right." She slung an arm around his waist, leading him to the watering hole. They were going to get PLASTERED.
-o-
"This place smells like a stable." The words were a soft grumble, spoken with a faint aristocratic air. The black-clad woman received a quick slap on the back of her head.
"This is your big celebration of getting back out, silly! It's time to immerse yourself in the world again."
"You couldn't have chosen a place less like a barnyard sauna for my immersion?"
"...not if you don't want to sleep in the street tonight. I only have so much money." A soft snort, and the two women approached the bar. While in a seedy part of town, even the slums of Ba Sing Se were fairly safe these days, and so the sight of two unescorted women didn't so much as raise an eyebrow. A handful of the people at the small bar might have recognized the figure in the green robes. Ty Lee, of the Kyoshi, the warrior woman who had defected to the Earth Nation during the dying days of the last war. She was unarmored, and without the war paint that would have marked her as one of the members of that sect, but the green robes were starkly utilitarian, and most notably she still carried warfans at each hip. Her form was toned, lean, but strong.
The woman in the black robes, however, none recognized - a blessing. Her withered, thin form held some beauty, though her haughty, condescending tone drove it far from her - and the patch placed over her left eye drove her appearance into something vaugely dangerous, or possibly romantic, some bandit princess ravaged by time and the rigors of war. None would have guessed that the worn figure was Azula. Azula the Mad, Azula the Last Conqueror-Firelord, Azula the Exiled.
The last part was what stung. She realized why she could never return to the Fire Nation from a political standpoint; she had been Fire Lord. If she returned, there would certainly be those that wished for her to overtake her idiot brother and depose him... and as much as she hated to admit it, he was doing a better job than she would have. Absolute power had hastened her descent into madness before; she was not planning on returning to that place again. Her mind had been rebuilt, almost from the ground up; she was in control once more.
She gestured to the bartender - two drinks. She didn't care what swill they served here, as long as it was strong. To her shock, she was treated not to rotgut, but to a small bowl of fortified cinnamon wine - strong, yes. But sweet and fiery and pleasant to the tongue. She drank eagerly, savoring the taste instead of quaffing it and flinching. It was the first drink she'd had in four years that wasn't water or tea, and at once she realized why Ty Lee had insisted on this. The potent taste of the drink, the crowded, noisy conditions... it was the complete opposite of the conditions at the... the facility. It reinforced in her mind what she knew already - that she was free. Then again, perhaps all that was just in her head, and the acrobat had merely thought this a pleasant outing.
"...I retract half of what I just said." She mumbled.
"See? I knew you'd like it." Ty Lee beamed, scooting closer on the bench - this place didn't have barstools, just a series of short benches. Cheaper, she figured. And easier to repair when the drunken yokels inevitably started fighting each other over whatever drunks fought about. "If there's one thing I learned when I was training, it's that the little places like this are always better than you'd think - because otherwise, they'd be closed."
"Hm. And here I thought you'd have learned something about fighting in a warrior training camp." Ty Lee just laughed, letting the thinly veiled insult slide off, and Azula mused that she would need much, much more wine.
-o-
"'N... 'N you know sommin'?" Toph's cheeks were a beet red, and she was slurring her words already. Most of the night had gone swimmingly; the last hour, however, things had turned back to Suki - and she'd started drinking HEAVILY. Sokka was impressed - he was good and tipsy, but she looked absolutely plowed - and that point was hard for her to get to. "She's... she's no... no good f'r you. She's... she was a fu... fuckin'... LOUSY... kisser." She slammed the bottle of Sake down, and Sokka spat out his drink.
"Waaaaai, whaaaaa?"
"TOTALLY was."
"N' how'd you know? Don'... don' tell me she was seducing YOU, too." He pointed at her half-accusingly. The thought just twisted inside him somehow. Suki. Seducing him. Seducing Toph. Who next? Was she sharing her bed with Momo, too? Momo. That backstabbing lemur...
"PFFFFFFFno. Re... remember... Serp... se... the big feckin' sea snake place?" Serpent's pass. Sokka nodded. Silence. Nodded. He groaned when he remembered that she couldn't see.
"YES."
"I... she jumped in t... to save me... an'..." She laughed. "I thought she w's yooooou...!" Laughter. Peals of it as she fell to the floor, rolling on her side. Sokka stared at her, his addled mind trying to work it out. All that he knew at the moment was that Toph had evidently had too much to drink... he sighed. So much for their night of chaos. This was the first time he could recall that Toph had succumbed before the third bar.
-o-
"One more." Azula was smiling. She was actually smiling. This was progress! Ty Lee beamed, already feeling a pleasant buzz - although she'd switched to tea, not wanting to end up losing all that lovely drink. She knew her limits, after all. The heat in the bar had grown to stifling levels as the night went on - the adobe structure had no windows, and only the one small door. Truth be told, she had chosen this place because it had reminded her of the bar she'd gone to the first time she went drinking, at the circus. The ringmaster had deemed her 'old enough' to come along, and the night of carousing had done a lot to soothe her nerves and make her feel at home with the troupe. Mostly, she was hoping that this place would stoke something like that in her friend.
Sweat beaded atop Azula's brow, and though she would not admit it, the combination of the warming drink and her robes were making things rather... uncomfortable. Not that she was going to complain. The poise that had carried her through life - the poise borne of an unnatural need for control - was still in place. She allowed her single golden eye to roam over the room. Two elderly men played Pai Sho in the corner, arguing over a rule interpretation. At another table, a group of miners laughed and told bawdy jokes, while a third was swarmed by a large group playing at dice - gangsters, she noted, the tattoos telling the tale. Most were stripped to the waist to display them -
And when she returned her gaze to her companion, she found that Ty Lee had followed suit. Granted, she was still modest, a sarashi wrapped about her chest, but it was still far more skin than she had grown accustomed to seeing from the acrobat. At least outside of the beach...
She took stock of Ty Lee quietly. She'd grown stronger - the muscles that had once been subtle curves now had definition, though not bulk. The way the handled herself was steadier, too, and...
The scars were new.
A hatchwork of thin white wounds across her back, her belly, her shoulders - even her arms. She'd noticed a few on her forearms, and had ignored them. But this... was impressive. Evidently she'd been more active in the Kyoshi than she thought.
"I see your new compatriots are leaning on you heavily... or else your vaunted defenses weren't enough for once..." While worded as a jab, there was a hint of concern in her voice. Ty Lee's face bore a curious expression, as if not sure what she meant; Azula glanced at her arm, at one of the more noticable scars. The girl in green followed her gaze - and then realization struck, along with something that looked like surprise - or shock. Did she actually not realize she had those wounds? Azula took another swig of her drink. That didn't sound like the body-conscious Ty Lee she knew.
"Ohhh... don't worry about that. The warriors are treating me just fine."
"Really?" A trace of sarcasm.
"Sure!" She beamed. "It's nice to see you worried about me, but I'm okay, really."
"I'm not worried..." She grumbled. "Just... surprised." Again, a look of surprise, mingled with a bit of... worry? Gah. She was fine. She was out of the asylum, and the one who had broken her so definitively and completely was locked away for the rest of his life. She would be fine. Really.
-o-
"In you go." He grunted, tossing her back on the bed. Of course, she'd insisted on a piggyback ride. Just like old times. And he'd complained loudly about how heavy she was, just like old times.
"Tu...ccccck me in." She muttered, drawing out the "ck" into a long rattle.
"A'right... a'right..." He leaned over, grumbling softly, drawing the blankets up, only to have Toph hug him - tight. Pulling him down on top of her. "Mm... Toph, lemme up." Silence. "Toph?" He realized after a few long moments - she was asleep. He sighed. Well... he guessed that he could spend the night there. Wasn't hurting anyone... he just... he just wished she'd told him more about that kiss. So many questions.
-o-
"...YOUR MOTHERS AS WELL!" Azula grunted, hauled out of the bar, her arm slung over Ty Lee. That had been a very bad idea. One of the men had decided to hit on Ty Lee, and... things had gotten... complicated. She wasn't sure how it happened, whether she'd been the one to throw the first insult or not. Her head was foggy - not totally intoxicated, but her body didn't realize that. Her legs were wobbly, and while she could stand on her own, Ty Lee felt the need to help support her. Azula groaned, rubbing her head. "...I'm sorry... I'm sure you had planned on staying a while longer."
"I can make more tea in the room, it'll be fine."
"...you were drinking tea?" Azula groaned. No wonder she was still unimpared.
"I'm not allowed to really get drunk anymore. Warrior's duties, y'know."
"Lovely." She let her friend drag her back to the inn, and around back to the isolated room they had taken, a converted storage shed by the stable. It was much cheaper, and the other guests were less likely to get a good look at her - Ty Lee was insistent on her presence in the city not being realized until she took her to... wherever she'd been authorized to move her. The details were still unfortunately scarce.
"Come on... let's get you into bed now..." Ty Lee rolled out the tatami and eased Azula down, as if she was some child that needed reassurance. Ridiculous.
"Ty Lee... where are you taking me?" She had held off on asking from sheer relief at being let out, but now...
"It's a surprise, silly." She stuck her tongue out cutely. "You'll see tomorrow."
"Stupid girl... what's the use of hiding it from me? I'll know now..." Ty Lee turned from her, rolling her eyes, still smiling, and Azula's hand darted out to grab her shoulder... but it drifted low. Pulling her sarashi. The wrapping pulled down, Azula gasped as she caught sight of a massive white gash, a gouge mark, a massive scar right next to her spine.
And she remembered.
-o-
He smelled SO damn good.
Even the scent of the sake on his breath was sweet. She had to hand it to Snoozles - he was smart. But when he got depressed, all his skills of observation went out the window. Like tonight - he hadn't noticed that after the first round, she'd sloshed most of her drinks on the counter. Or pretended to drink, when she had the bottle. Oh, sure, she'd give him his full-on drinking binge later - but not tonight. Tonight, he needed to relax. And...
...okay, so it was totally selfish, and she just wanted to hold him. But he'd thank her in the morning. Really.
-o-
The whip in her hand was still stinging her palm, and the girl before her who was not-Ty-Lee but was the demon betrayer was screaming and she was still slicing into her and watching her howl and she was screaming that her father's sacred will would be upheld and she would punish the beast that had betrayed her and Mai or Not-Mai was screaming that she was killing her and she took the blade and shoved it straight through her and-
Azula's eyes cleared. She was still in the room, and she was screaming, and sobbing, and - and Ty Lee was there, clutching her close, murmuring that it was all alright, that she was safe, that she could calm down.
As the flashback faded, she clutched her close, sobs wracking her form. Every scar. She'd been responsible for every one.
"Why...?"
"Azula... it's gonna be okay... you're safe now..."
"You aren't!" She screamed. "I killed you... I killed you..." She kept whimpering it over and over again. Ty Lee stroked her hair slowly.
"I'm alive, Azula. I'm not going anywhere." Whether she was just trying to reassure her or she meant it, Azula couldn't tell anymore.
"...animal... just... just an animal... you should have killed me. You should have let me die..." Ty Lee shook - and grabbed her friend's wrists, staring into her good eye.
"No."
"Y-"
"NO." There was steel in the normally soft voice. "You are not an animal. You are Azula, daughter of Ursa, and the best friend I've ever had. Now are you going to let what your father turned you into pass up everything you've ever been in your life, or are you going to move on - like we've been trying to help you with for the last four years?" Azula stared at Ty Lee. Desperation. She remembered the last time Azula had been like this - the episode that had claimed her eye, and nearly her life. And her bending, taken by the Avatar, so that she could never try it again.
And Azula remembered all that. And she remembered Ty Lee helping to talk her down. She remembered her coming in when the doctors would let her, and talking them into letting her come more often, even when she was tied down and pumped full of that disgusting herbal concoction that stripped her of all feeling.
Whether it was the drink, or just the sudden intensity of the revelation, her mind was blank, except for something she heard Iroh say once.
You don't know who is there for you, until you have nothing else.
And that was it. The girl who she had seen as a plaything, as a living toy, as something to be tormented for her pleasure and pitied for her simplicity had grown to far more than that. She was all that she had in the world - and the fact that she had that love... that... perfect, pure generosity in her soul...
She didn't even realize that she'd tried to kiss her until after their lips met.
Ty Lee looked shocked - stunned - and then -
The world was blackness, as the drink finally claimed her, and she passed out.
-o-
"Toph, I fucking... hate you." He grumbled. The blind girl slid him a cup of tea - extra strong, ginseng.
"Why? I stopped you from getting more drunk."
"Because you got... ultra... crazy-ass drunk and you aren't hurting." He squinted at her, head still hanging in his hands.
"Fluke." She shrugged. If he still hadn't figured out that she was faking it, he had no one to blame but himself. She was leaning against the side of his bed, her long black hair unbound; while it had a tendency to flounce out in a mad rat's nest when she was younger, it had grown far more... manageable... nowadays, running straight down over her shoulders, the bangs still half-concealing her pale eyes. Not one hair seemed out of place; Sokka, on the other hand, with eyes rimmed with red, his wolf tail looking like he slept on it wrong, and his lean figure slumped over half-limp, still looked like he'd been on the losing end of a fight with a hippobull.
"I mean, you even..." He laughed. "You even said that you had kissed Suki before! How's that for getting soused?"
"Well, I did." Sokka's face distorted sharply.
"...Oh." Toph measured his reaction carefully before she continued, not wanting to head on if it was too painful for him. Or if he wouldn't be receptive. It took too much for her to get up the nerve to do this, and she wasn't going to go through it twice.
"On the cheek."
"Oh." His face relaxed, from tortured to just... blank.
"...`Cause I thought she was you." She sat down, leaning against the bed. He stared at the ceiling, head propped up on a pillow, sipping his tea.
"You said that, too."
"Mm. Thought so." There was a moment of silence as Sokka pondered whether he should go on or not. Drunk talk was often the sort of talk that no one wanted brought up again. The spirits knew he'd found out more about Zuko than he, or anyone else, ever wanted to after the drinks started flowing. But... well, he couldn't just leave well enough alone.
"You meant it?"
"Yeah." Well, now he really wanted to know. And - he was surprised to realize that his ego didn't seem to have anything to do with that desire. He just...
"So..."
"So?" She was almost enjoying drawing it out.
"So... what do you mean by it?" Silence.
"Well... when I was younger, I... had a huge, frickin' crush on you. I just... kind of clicked with you in ways that I never clicked with anyone, right? And it seemed like you did the same with me."
"...yeah." As much as it felt weird to admit it, she was right. They were a natural pair. Push and pull. Tui and La. Give and take. Explosive loudmouth and straight-man, and they could swap places at any moment. "But that was just puppy love, right?"
"Of course. I stopped having crushes when I turned 13."
"Ah." He sounded almost disappointed - almost. Toph sipped her own tea, bracing herself. She didn't like hiding things, but there were some things she'd never been comfortable with. Like shoes. Or this.
"I just fell in love with you instead."
"Right, because Mister Sarcasm and Meat was that much of a catch. C'mon, Toph, don't joke."
"I'm not." Her voice was almost soft. Quiet. Sokka swallowed hard, sitting bolt upright. He didn't need this with a hangover.
"...serious?"
"Tore me up inside whenever I saw you two together. And you know the worst part?"
"Wait, let me guess. Being nice to Suki?"
"Sleeping with my feet in the air." Sokka rubbed his eyes a moment, the statement sort of catching him off guard.
"Not getting you, there."
"Our tents were too close together." Sokka's face fell. He suddenly realized that with her feet on the solid ground, she could see EVERYTHING close to her. Including two randy, hormonal teenagers screwing each other senseless in Sokka's tent.
"I... I..." He stammered, searching for an apology. He didn't quite find it, getting sidetracked sharply. "Wait, how did you manage that?"
"I had my shirt and I had a tentpole."
"Clever, clever." Time passed wordlessly. She was in love with him. Love. Capital L. Shit. He didn't know what to say about that. And then she was on the bed with him, leaning against him.
"So...?"
"So."
"So what do you think of that?" He stared at Toph a moment. Long black hair. Porcelain skin that hid muscles that could tear iron. Blank, pale eyes, that... conveyed far more emotion that one would think. She was actually nervous. Toph. The strongest girl he knew. Sokka's brain and heart kicked into gear at the same moment, powering through the haze that still filled his brain, blowing it away.
"I think... that if we'd tried when we were kids, it would have fallen apart. Just too young, you know? Can't all be like Aang and Katara with the perfect fairy-tale romance."
"Mm. And now?" He stroked her face, and closed his eyes.
The kiss was wonderful.
-o-o-o-
When the acrobat awoke, Azula was already awake. She was sitting by the small table in the corner of the room, sipping what smelled like very strong tea, likely nursing a hangover. The dark bags under her eye told her that she hadn't slept long.
"Good morning, you..."
"...morning." Her voice was weak - almost broken.
"You really didn't remember, did you?" Ty Lee took a seat next to Azula, and wrapped an arm around her.
"No." That scared her, as much as what she'd done. And the fact that a memory lapse frightened her as much as almost killing her best friend stung somehow.
"I didn't think so."
"But you're still here."
"Yes." A trace of something almost... almost as if there was something inherently amusing about the question. The former princess felt terribly conflicted about this whole thing. About her reaction, her loss of control - damn it all, her relapse to... to the state... she didn't want to think about it. It was why she was trying to keep her composure this time.
"It's... it's a lot more than I deserve." She swallowed hard; despite the drink, her mouth felt dry. "Thank you."
"You don't need to - "
"No, I do. I... I really do, Ty Lee. I don't want you thinking that last night wa-"
"Azula." Her voice was strangely firm, her cheeks suddenly blazing red. "You... you're in a very emotional state right now. I know you think you feel... like that. And..." She was turning her toes in - kami, she'd enjoyed that! Azula's heart pounded in her chest. "...and... I think... you need to step back a little... and wait. Just... to make sure, okay?" Silence. Azula's face fell a little, her jaw hanging open. "I don't want to hurt you, that's all." She squeezed the princess' hand, and Azula felt a twinge of something that might be a smile come to her lips.
"But... you're not going."
"Never." She found herself swept up in one of Ty Lee's squishy, pleasant hugs; it was hard to force the images from so long ago from her mind, but she managed. For the sake of the moment, she managed.
-o-
They lay in each other's arms. The whole day had been spent there - no, there was no sex. Not yet. Just lots of kissing. And holding. Not a lot of talking yet, but... they knew each other. Better than anyone else - they'd fought together, nearly died together, saved the world together. They didn't need to. And dammit, it all felt so right. So... perfect. Sokka could have kicked himself for the way he was acting last night. Suki had broken up with him TWO MONTHS ago, and it had been a year since they'd really... been... together.
So... so... what now? He knew he'd be seeing her soon enough. How awkward was this going to be? Or - or would she be unaffected by the whole thing? Happy for him? He liked to think that his ex would at least wish them well. Probably... despite the shock of her confession, they'd parted on amiable terms. Mmf. Why was he thinking about Suki when Toph was right here? Couldn't he turn off his brain for a while and just... well, because he wasn't Katara. Blind optimism was her department. There were going to be awkward parts - he'd deal with them as they came along. They'd deal with them, rather.
"Hey." He scruffed her hair lightly.
"Yeah?"
"...wanna get something to eat?"
"Ugh, about time you asked! Sun's almost going down, and I haven't eaten anything." She sat up, stretching, her back popping twice. He shook his head.
"I wasn't making you stay, you know."
"Well, yeah, but I couldn't leave you like that, all forlorn and pouty."
"I'm not pouty!"
"You were. How could I know if you'd relapse or not?" He just laughed.
And so it was that the two pairs of individuals set out that day, from different parts of the city, unknowing of each other's presence, not realizing that they were both traveling to the same small tea shop...
-o-
To be continued. Reviews appreciated.