Prompts:
An AtLA character meets a LoK character in a crowded bar; Falling; "If I could take it all back, I would"; "A real friend is one who walks in when everyone walks out" - Walter Winchell
element: Metal
Words: 2217
Takes place right after Lin arrested (Well, tried to arrest) Suyin and her triad friends.
Smoke from cigarettes and possibly illegal substances swirled around in lazy spirals. The haziness mixed with dingy lights and the alcoholic breath of patrons slumped in rickety chairs. In the corner, a scantily dressed girl was dancing and singing with a small jazz band, holding out a can to collect any small sum of money from a crowd of oglers. The heavy makeup did not hide her desperation for a ticket, any ticket to survival in the rotten slums of Republic City. Meanwhile, dozens of couples were packed onto the tiny dance floor, grinding against each other in drunken ecstasy in sharp contrast to the dark edges of the room, which were lined with the despair of desolate laymen. Faces were barely distinguishable in the bar, dark haziness lending an anonymity to desperate people who wanted to escape the realities of life, if only for one night.
In the late hours of the night, (or was it early morning?) the entire bar reeked of crime and destitution...which was why it was such a surprise for Councilman Sokka to find the daughter of the affluent Chief of Police, a fifteen-year-old who was waaaay below drinking age, to be participating in a drunken brawl with two young thugs who were probably triad members.
"TAKE THAT!" bellowed Suyin as she crushed a load of tin cups into a wire, and proceeded to coil it around one man's ankle. She contracted her fist and staggered to the side, using the metal wire to hurl the first man into the second. "Don't you dare talk about my family! Don't you dare blame ME, you idiot!"
Suyin let out another shout of rage as one of the thugs tackled her. She could feel herself falling, and she braced her shoulder against the ground, crackign apart the tired on the floor. She ripped a handful of tiles off the ground and hurled them outwards blindly, causing a series of pained yelps from her opponents. Then with a growl, Suyin stood up and lashed out with the metal cord again.
But to her surprise, she felt a jerk on the other end of the wire, instead of metal on flesh. Suyin lost her balance and lurched forwards again, but this time, she felt herself falling into a pair of warm, familiar arms. It was almost safe. She looked up hopefully, but to her chagrin, she was met with the disapproving blue gaze of...
Her Uncle Sokka.
Crap.
A few minutes later, Suyin was sitting on a bed in a rented room above the bar, drinking a headache remedy and clutching her stomach. Although she had thrown up a few times, she was still obviously more than a little inebriated.
"Suyin," sighed Sokka, pacing around the room, "What were you thinking? Do you know how worried everyone is?"
"Well they shouldn't be." muttered Suyin petulantly, "They never noticed me before."
Sokka only sighed again, before handing her a couple vegetable buns.
"Here. You have to eat if you've been drinking. Or else you become even more intoxicated."
"And I suppose you would know from experience?" retorted Suyin sarcastically as she snatched up a bun.
"Actually, I do." said Sokka with a wistful smile, "But that doesn't mean you should learn from me!" he said, hastily covering up his moment of fondness. Then he sighed heavily and started to head out of the room, "I'm going to phone your mom now-"
"NO!" shouted Suyin around a mouthful of food, "I mean...please don't tell her."
Sokka lifted an eyebrow, one hand on the doorknob.
"She'll be so ashamed! She reeeally won't love me then." explained Suyin, words slurring together slightly, "She already doesn't think I'm special and I screwed up sooo much and now I have no friends and nobody cares about me and-"
"Su," interrupted Sokka gently, "Is this about the arrest report?"
Suyin shut her mouth immediately. She crossed her arms and started to turn away, trying to shut everything out.
Sokka sensed a change in her mood and went to sit next to her on the bed.
"C'mon, Suyin," he said, ruffling her hair in a sad attempt to lighten the mood, "Tell the wise and noble Sokka what's wrong!"
Suyin turned her face away and huffed, "No. You'll just tell her. And nothing's wrong anyways!"
"Something obviously is, or else I wouldn't find you in a bar fight with two random guys!" exclaimed Sokka in exasperation, "Did you even know who they were?"
"Maybe." muttered Suyin.
Sokka sighed for the third time within the minute. Interrogating adolescent earthbenders was more slow and painful than pulling teeth. Plus, being the daughter of Toph Beifong didn't do any favors in mellowing down the recalcitrant teenager beside him.
"Su, whatever is wrong, just tell me." sighed Sokka, "Come on! You can trust me. I'm the coolest out of everyone, right?" he appealed, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Nothing you say will leave this room.
"You're not allowed to bring my mother into this room to tell her either." muttered Suyin.
Sokka looked at her in surprise.
Wow, she actually caught that.
"Pffft. I wasn't planning anything nefarious." he said lightly, "But seriously. You need to talk to people, alright? Just start with those two young men in the bar."
"They are my friends. Well...were my friends." she said sadly.
"What went wrong?"
"It was Lin's fault!" Suyin burst out suddenly, "She was jealous because I had friends and she didn't! All she ever does is try to please mom and make her pay even less attention to me. And I was only giving my friends a ride and she was about to arrest me! And she said they were LOSERS."
"Suyin, I'm sure Lin wasm just trying to protect you." said Sokka quite unconvincingly.
Spirits, that was bad. I didn't even believe myself, he thought.
"Stop trying to cheer me up." grumbled Suyin, "It's not working at all."
"Fine...fine..." said Sokka, "Back to the interrogation, if it makes you feel better."
Suyin glared at him. Sokka ignored her.
"Soooo, were those the two guys in the bar your triad, erm...'friends'?" asked Sokka suspiciously, "Didn't they get arrested? Aren't they supposed to be in jail?"
"Uhhhh...about that..."
"You busted them out, didn't you." sighed Sokka, "Why am I not surprised." he muttered to himself as an afterthought.
"I thought I was helping them!" cried Suyin "I owed them a favor and-"
"Spirits, Su! Between the drinking and triad activity, do you realize that you committed more than twelve separate crimes within the span of about two days?"
"But I wanted to see them one last time!" said Suyin angrily, with tears starting to bead in the corner of her eyes, "I'm leaving the city because my mom wanted to dump me on my grandparents and I thought they were my friends and actually cared about me and they said they would help me stay in the city if I metalbent them out!"
"They were using you, weren't they." said Sokka heavily.
"Yes. They tried to ditch me like I was just some...some disposable tool! And they said I was just an annoying, stuck up b...bitch with a prissy family and that my own mom doesn't even love me!" she stammered, crying into her palms, "And they were right! It was my fault they were arrested in the first place and-"
"Stop." breathed Sokka, pulling her into a tight embrace. His heart went out for the confused girl, who was shaking with suppressed sobs. He buried his nose in her hair and held her securely, trying to hold together the pieces of her that were cracked and falling apart after years of neglect.
Actually, Suyin was quite strong to have held up by herself all these years, especially after her older cousins all left to learn and travel the world and nobody was left to take care of her. Even Lin, her sister, was getting completely sucked into her work in the police department...just like her mother.
Oh Toph...you idiot...what were you thinking, choosing work over your children?
"Su. It wasn't your fault. They never meant to be friends with anybody." murmured Sokka, rubbing soothing circles on her back, "A real friend is one who walks in when everyone walks out. You've been a great friend to them. You deserve much better."
Suyin only sniffed in response.
"Come on. Cheer up. There are still many people who care about you." said Sokka soothingly, "Put this behind you."
"It's so hard though." whimpered Suyin in a small voice, "I just want my mom and Lin to pay a little more attention to me. I wish they would actually listen to me. You're the only one I can even talk to at all."
Then, she squirmed out of Sokka's embrace and buried her head in her hands, "I wish I had a real family with a dad. And I wish...I wish I concentrated on working hard. I wish stayed in the upper city and never got myself associated with the triads. I wish I didn't piss off Lin and mom so much." sighed Suying heavily, "If I could take it all back, I would."
The two of them fell into a weighty silence.
Suddenly, Suying slammed her fist into Sokka's arm. "Don't EVER tell anyone I said any of this." she growled.
"Yeesh kid...I'm not telling!" yelped Sokka, clutching his arm, which was surely bruised. "Why do you have to be so much like your mother..." he muttered under his breath.
Then, he noticed Suyin turn her head and stare at him sharply.
"What did you say?" she asked suspiciously.
"Erm...I said: why can't you talk like this with your mother?" amended Sokka hastily.
"Of course you did." grumbled Suyin, sarcastically.
"Of course I did." said Sokka, smirking back, before turning serious again, "But in all honesty, you do need to discuss these kinds of things with Toph and Lin. Despite what you think, they are your real family, and families are painful without communication." he said sadly.
"I know. I just want my mom to tell Lin and I who our dads are!" huffed Suyin, "I mean, it's one thing if she can't get us a dad, but couldn't she at least let us know their identity?"
"Your mother is...stubborn and independent and really does try her best." said Sokka awkwardly, "She wants to be both the mom and the dad for you two."
"Well she's not good at being either." muttered Suyin.
"She didn't have a normal upbringing herself, you know. She's trying to give you everything she didn't have...and going waaay overboard with it." said Sokka, smiling ruefully.
"You seem to know mom very well." noted Suyin.
"Haha, well...we did bring down this crazy, homicidal Firelord together." laughed Sokka, swallowing nervously.
Suyin hummed noncommittally.
After a few more minutes of silence, Sokka suddenly slapped his hands against his knees and stood up.
"Welp...this has been an interesting night." he stated, looking down at Suyin, "So kiddo, you think you're sober enough to leave?"
"Yeah." sighed Suyin, rubbing her head against an oncoming hangover, "Yeah. Let's go."
As Suyin slowly exited the dingy bar with her Uncle Sokka, she considered what they discussed about family, friendship, and forgiveness. Perhaps it was time to shed her old identity and become a new person. If she could let the past fall away, if she could let go of her grudges and force herself to forgive, she might be more satisfied with her life.
The day after tomorrow, she would be leaving to live with her grandparents out of town, and it would be her first time out of Republic City alone. There was no better opportunity to start over than now. She could shed everything from her old life and travel the world to build find own identity. Once she was established, could return as a whole new person. Maybe by then, Lin would have forgiven her too...
By the time Sokka and Suyin had returned to the Beifong residence, the first rays of morning sun were streaking across the horizon.
Sokka rang the doorbell and Suyin immediately heard heavy footsteps rushing down the stairs. But before her mother got to the door, Suyin hugged Sokka tightly around the waist.
"Thank you." she murmured, "Thank you, for keeping my life from falling apart."
Then, the door was wrenched open and she was immediately bowled over by her worried, relieved, and angry metal-clad mother.
"Thank you...thank you so, so much Sokka." breathed Toph hoarsely as she clung onto Suyin like she would never let go. After a long moment, Toph finally waved goodbye and dragged Suyin into the house.
Suyin looked over her shoulder until the door closed on her Uncle Sokka's smiling face, framed by the beginnings of the sunrise. Then, she glanced warily into her mother's eyes.
Despite the blindness, the milky green orbs had no issue conveying barely suppressed anger and relief.
"Young lady...I have been making phone calls all night!" bellowed her mother, voice getting louder with every word
Suyin sighed as her mother led her into the house, and she braced herself for a looong lecture.
a/n: Tokka? Pffft. There's no Tokka! What are you tokking about? (Okay, that was a Sokka worthy pun right there.)
Sorry. Pardon my insanity.
And Suyin is a little inebriated for most of this. She normally wouldn't be so feelzy. (yes, that is a word.) Also, I'm totally in love with the idea that Sokka is Su's father and nobody but Toph knew, but Sokka suspected it because he was in a relationship with Toph, and she would get overly defensive and never talk to him about it because she wanted to be a single parent.
Review plez!