Vows
Written for Probending Circuit (Round 1).
Team/Position: Red Sands Rabaroos/Earthbender
Prompts: (Color) Green | (Location) Ba Sing Se | (Quote) "To be or not to be, that is the question" - Shakespeare
Word Count: 1419
Note: This is written as a time when the persons are apart. Please enjoy!
"Come on, Sokka, I believe in you. You've loved her since you were 15. You can do this." The nonbender gripped the brush in his hand, almost snapping it in half from frustration. They're just vows!
Just take a deep breath, Katara's voice reminded him and he followed as she said.
You only get married once.
Hey. Hello! Hey!
Oh, that's not Katara. Sokka looked up from the paper.
"Hey, I'm Yuwaku. Where ya headed?" A raven-haired woman with a large bosom leaned over the back of her seat to ask him. The angle gave Sokka a great view of her chest. He had to look above her head to not get distracted.
"The upper ring of Ba Sing Se," he told her.
Yuwaku looked him up and down. "And why're you so dressed up like that, huh?"
Sokka put his supplies to the side and straightened out his fur robe. "I'm getting married," he said with a proud grin on his face.
"In that get-up?" She asked incredulously. The stranger had plenty reason to react in that manner. He guessed the majority of grooms Yuwaku saw weren't wearing the ceremonial wedding robe from the Southern Water Tribe dyed green. Nor did she normally see grooms traveling to their wedding via train.
He couldn't help but laugh at how his situation must have looked to an outsider. "My fiancée is a Kyoshi Warrior and I'm from the Southern Water Tribe. Kyoshi Warriors can't get married and the only people who can marry us now are in the Northern Water Tribe." He found himself spitting out the whole story to her. "They're very traditional and I couldn't convince them to marry us. So, we compromised everything. We're getting married in Ba Sing Se, it's in the Earth Kingdom and close to the Northern Water Tribe. I'm wearing the traditional robes of the Southern Water Tribe in Kyoshi green and she's wearing her warrior outfit in blue."
The lady rolled her eyes, most likely thinking that they were a pair of lovesick saps. "And you're traveling by train directly to your wedding because?"
"I'm the Water Tribe ambassador of Republic City. A meeting was called right before I was supposed to originally leave so I had to get ready by myself."
Yuwaku took one last look at him before asking, "And there's no way I can convince a hunk a meat like you to meet me back in the bathrooms?"
Sokka's drifted back to her chest for a moment before quickly shaking his head, finding the room suddenly hot. "I don't think so."
"That's a shame." She huffed and got up, making her way to talk to some other unlucky gentleman.
Despite the awkward encounter, Sokka just had to smile. He had gone through enough- including almost losing that wonderful woman that he was about to marry- to let that upset him. Surely, he could find the words he wanted to say to Suki during their wedding.
"Excuse me," Sokka heard another person say as he was tapped on the shoulder.
He turned around to see a young woman with a toddler laying his head on her lap. The warrior looked in admiration at the toddler, remembering his own desire for a child.
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but to overhear your conversation. Are you… Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe?" She asked, awe in her eyes.
He grinned. It wasn't often that he was recognized, but it definitely made his day when he was. "Yes, I am. Famous for taking down a fleet of Fire Nation ships single-handedly."
"I thought Suki the Kyoshi Warrior and Toph the metalbender helped with that as well?"
He shrugged, a sly smile on his face. "They may have."
"So, your wedding… I'm assuming you're marrying Suki?" She asked hopefully.
Sokka nodded with a silly grin on his face that he couldn't seem to get rid (And, quite frankly, he wasn't sure he wanted to). "Yes, finally- finally, we're getting married. Even with all the obstacles life has thrown at us, it's happening."
The woman giggled, adjusting the child in her lap. "What could war heroes possibly have troubles with?"
"You'd be surprised. It was hard for a long time since I lived in the Southern Water Tribe, and then Republic City, while she lived in Kyoshi Island. I wouldn't get to see her for months at a time. In fact, I haven't seen Suki since our engagement," he counted on his fingers, "three months ago! I was lucky my sister was there to help us out." Then again, Katara would have butt her way into planning the wedding with or without Sokka asking. "There were times when we would be apart that it was hard to tell if it was even worth it."
The lady nodded. "Ah, I understand. To be or not to be, that is the question."
"I'm sorry?" Sokka had never heard that phrase before.
"I've been faced with those problems myself. My husband is a literary professor in Ba Sing Se University. He's the one who coined the phrase since we live so far apart. I had to take care of my mother out in the country while his job was in the city; we weren't sure if our marriage would last. To be or not to be, that is the question," She said again, now imitating her husband. "Then, we had this little one and we just decided it had to work." She stroked the child's hair.
Sokka mulled over her words. He could recall times when it had pretty much come down to that question. It was an odd way to phrase it, but indeed their fights boiled down to "To be or not to be."
"So how did you solve it?" She asked.
"Solve our distance problem?" He had to think for a moment. "Well, we never did. There was a night that Suki and I got into this huge fight. I was angry and she was crying and it looked like that was the end of Fan and Sword… But something in me told me I couldn't just let go of that. I had a necklace I carved- pfft- probably two years ago and I proposed to her with it."
The lady raised her eyebrows. "And she accepted after everything that had been going on?"
"Well, I am fairly suave with my words," Sokka bragged. "It was more than just giving her the necklace. It took a lot of convincing, but it's all been worth it. All the pain and suffering is all going to be worth once I can finally tell the world that she's mine and I'm hers."
The mother looked impressed. "That's very poetic. I think you both are lucky to have each other."
Just then, the child woke up and began to tug at his mother, claiming that he needed to use the bathroom.
Sokka glanced towards the back of the car where the lady with the large bosom, Yuwaku, was walking into the restroom. "You should probably use one in another car," Sokka suggested as the mother began to get up. She laughed and thanked him before leaving him to go back to writing his vows.
"Good job Sokka, you didn't flirt with either of them," he congratulated himself. If that didn't mean he was ready to get married, he wasn't sure what would. But that wasn't exactly something he could write in his vows.
Then again, that didn't mean his encounters hadn't helped out. Sokka stared down at the blank piece of paper, fiddling with the brush in his hand.
"Alright."
To be or not to be, that is the question. Suki, the past few years have been torture for our relationship. But I am unbelievably happy that the both of us are choosing "to be." Here in Ba Sing Se, wearing green instead of blue, I promise to always make you happy no matter what the compromise. I vow to support you, push you, inspire you, and above all love you as I always have, for better or worse, in sickness and health, for richer or poorer, as long as we both shall live.