Young Love, Part 2

The two children slept through the night, unconsciousness allowing them to be at peace in each other's presence for the first time.


Sokka woke up early the next morning, if you could call the sluggish dark before dawn a 'morning.' This was his first hunting trip, and so the first time he was getting up before the sun while camping. He didn't mind mornings, but this was a new challenge he hadn't expected. He fumbled in the impenetrably dim shadows for his spark rocks, intending to light the hanging lamp so that he could get ready, but he couldn't find them. Maybe he left them in his knapsack? But he'd never find them in the darkness! Then he remembered that he had another way handy to light the lantern.

But wouldn't that be betraying Mom?

But not living up to the expectations of being a true hunter would be betraying Dad.

Sokka reached over and poked Azula. She didn't react, so he moved his hands until he found her shoulders and gave her a gentle shake. Reminded of how Katara would wake him up on Gran-Gran's orders, he leaned over and blew gently down at what he figured was her face. "Time to wake up, evil Fire Nation girl."

Azula groaned and stirred. "Wha."

"I need you to reach up and light the lantern."

"Wha."

"Are you awake?"

"Nh."

"Come on! Hunters get up before the sun." He shook her harder, and blew some more air into her face.

"Stp tht." She started sitting up, so Sokka got off of her. He waited in the darkness for a moment but nothing happened. Finally, Azula's voice croaked out again, "Lmp?"

"You can't find the lamp?"

"Yah."

Sokka reached out again, groped for Azula's hands, and when he found one, he lifted it up and stuck it in the lamp. "Now do the fire."

It was another long moment, but then Azula's breathing picked up, and the lamp glowed to life. In the new light, he could see that Azula's eyes were still closed, and her slack face made it look like she was still sleeping. Sokka poked her again. "You gotta wake up so that we can hunt."

"Yah," she said. Then she collapsed back on her bedroll.


By the time Azula actually woke up, they didn't have long before it was time to report to Hun outside, but once she was conscious, she worked quickly and efficiently. Sokka finished his own preparations by strapping Boomerang to his belt, then quickly tying his hair back in an awesomely manly Warrior's Wolf-tail. He looked over at Azula, and spotted her playing with her own hair. As he watched, she tied a string at the base of the topknot-thingy she always wore, and then let go of her hair.

The topknot flopped to the side, and some hairs escaped in the front to hang over her face. She deflated into a truly profound slump.

Tugging his own hair, Sokka said, "Um, you okay? We gotta get outside to Hun."

"That was my third attempt." She didn't even turn around to say it. "I can't go out looking like a... an exile."

"Well," Sokka found himself saying, despite his black eye's continued soreness, "I could try."

Now, Azula did turn. "You? Touch my Royal person?"

"Hey! You didn't mind this morning. Besides, I've helped my sister with her loopies. Your topknot doesn't look that hard."

Azula stared at him with her freaky golden eyes, and then nodded. "Very well. Be quick about it."

And he was. Sokka actually really liked helping Katara with her loopies after Mom wasn't around anymore, but she hadn't needed him for that in a while. It was too bad, because while it was totally unmanly, a small part of him found making the pretty arrangements to be really rewarding. Azula's normal look was relatively simple, but he took special care to properly proportion the small, dagger-like bangs she liked on either side of her face.

That done, he stepped quickly away and grabbed his spear. "Come on, we're almost late!"

"I know," she grumbled. "And your work is pleasing."

It was only after he was out of the tent that he realized the statement was probably a 'thank you.'


Sokka was starting to think that Hun was just trying to keep him out of the way.

He had come on this trip- gotten Dad's permission to go on this trip- to learn how to be a real hunter in this strange green land. The settlement had been here for a year, since just after Mom died and Dad had taken his family somewhere that the Fire Nation would never find a Waterbender. In that time, all Sokka had learned was that the life skills he had so painstakingly cultivated in the South Pole were completely useless in a land of warm winds and forests. Except for the few Water Tribe warriors who had come with Dad, and the occasional Waterbender traveler from the North who Dad could convince to stay a while and teach Katara some moves, the village was made up entirely of Earth Kingdom refugees and Fire Nation fugitives. Sokka and his family had been forced to adapt quickly, and the boy couldn't help but think that sometimes the other villagers looked down on anyone who wore blue.

Except for Dad. They were impressed with him.

Well, Sokka had his own problems with some of the other villagers. He didn't like any of the Fire Nation people, even if they did wear gray now, and he was going to show the Earth Kingdom hunters that anything they could do, he could learn and improve upon. He wasn't some yokel from the South Pole; he was Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe.

Except Hun wouldn't even teach him! "Take the Fire Nation monkey girl," he had said, "and show her how to move through the forest. You know that much, right? Good. Tomorrow I'll show you how to throw a spear, or something." Sokka didn't say that he already knew how to throw a spear. Dad would be hearing about this when he got back from his latest trip!

If he cared.

So for now, Sokka led Azula through the forest. He was pretty sure he was following a game trail, but he wasn't entirely sure. It wasn't like following tracks in the snow. "So, do you know what fresh grass tracks look like?"

Sokka glanced back, and saw Azula looking at him through narrow eyes. "Aren't you supposed to know?"

"Did you miss the part where this is my first hunting trip, too?"

"Your logic is contradictory. If you don't know, and this is your first trip, and this is also my first trip, what would possibly lead you to conclude that I know?"

Sokka didn't reply to that. Stupid Fire Nation girl thinking she's smarter than him. She probably thought he was a yokel, too. Then he spotted something just ahead, something that he thought was a good sign. "Look, droppings!"

"Ew. Don't step in it. You'll stink and then all the animals will smell you coming."

"No, I mean we're on the trail of something. I've heard about this part, we need to check if they're warm to see if the animal is still nearby."

Azula's eyes grew wide. "I don't know if I have the fine Firebending control for that. How warm do you expect them to be?"

"No no no." Sokka shook his head to clear the thought of Azula doing her crazy Fire Nation Firebending Fire dances in front of a pile of poo. "I mean one of us needs to touch it."

Their gazes met.

"Let's just keep following the trail," Azula finally decided. Sokka nodded his agreement. He might have made some squeally sounds as they stepped carefully over their find, but Azula thankfully ignored them and they both moved on.

Sokka was still thinking about how a real hunter wouldn't have been afraid of touching droppings when the coyotaroo popped out of the foliage, bit down on Sokka's Warrior's Wolftail, and yanked the boy to the ground with a twitch of its canine head.

This wasn't Sokka's first encounter with a dangerous predator, though. He had even been terrorized by a tiger-seal, once, back in the South Pole. It didn't even take him a full second to understand that he was under attack, and although he might have screamed like a little girl at the surprise, his other immediate reaction was to thrust his spear right at the coyotaroo's face.

The doglike creature sprang back with all the strength of its curved back legs. Sokka scrambled to his feet and attacked the creature with a proper thrust of his spear, but it hopped away again with a taunting bark. Sokka dashed after it, but every thrust of the spear just sent it dodging in circles around him. It was enough to make him growl in frustration.

The coyotaroo growled back, deeper.

Then a ball of light and heat flew between Sokka and his prey, exploding into fire. Sokka cried out and stumbled backwards, but the fire didn't go anywhere near him. It curved along the grass back towards the coyotaroo, circling it with perfect curves and trapping it in a ring of flame. The animal whined and hopped again, but the flames rose in time with it, blocking it from escaping.

Sokka stared in wonder until Azula's voice cut into his thoughts with, "Stab the stupid creature already! I don't know how high it will jump if it gets scared enough!" Sokka glanced over to see her in a fierce-looking stance with her arms held up and away from her body, her face intent on the fire. Then, remembering his spear, Sokka took it in both of his hands, targeted the coyotaroo's chest as it reared back from the flames in front of it, and gave it a running stab.

The hit was true, and the animal died as Azula extinguished the fire by lowering her hands. One tongue of flame that had settled on Sokka's spear went out as well.

It was just the two children on the game trail with their catch.

"Wow," Azula declared. "That was easier than I thought. Want to catch another one?"

Sokka blinked.


They brought back three of the coyotaroos back to the camp by the end of the day; the carcasses were tied to Sokka's spear, which both kids supported, one on each end. Despite the weight, Sokka grinned with pride at the stares of the other hunters, and he could only imagine that Azula was doing the same behind him. Let them all get a load of that! Water Tribe wasn't so bad after all, huh? Of course, the same could be said for the Fire Nation, considering Azula's help...

"Coyotaroos," he heard one man grunt. "Their legs are good eating. Those kids did pretty good."

Hun snorted. "The furs are singed. Could have set the whole forest on fire if the monkey girl lost control."

That hadn't even occurred to Sokka. Dropping his end of the spear, he turned to look at his partner. "Really? We could have set the forest on fire?"

Azula let go of her end of the spear as well, and put her hands on her hips. "Did you hear him? That's only if I lost control." She stepped forward so that her nose was just shy of touching Sokka's. "You will never see me lose control." Leaving their catches on the ground, she stalked back to their tent.

Sokka was so rattled that he barely heard the other hunter speaking to Hun again. "Those two are gonna get married, aren't they?"

"Nah, she's just being a little fire-monkey again."


Overall, Sokka and Azula returned to the village quite pleased from their hunting trip. They did so again from their second a little while later, and a third after that. It was only then that Dad finally came back. Sokka wasn't there for the landing, being in the house with Gran-Gran and Katara pretending not to be learning how to sew, and so the first he knew of it was when a nail was suddenly driven into the wood above the front door.

By the time they emerged from the house, Dad had finished nailing the first of three dented Fire Nation helmets above the door.

Despite the awkwardness of that, Dad had smiled when he saw his kids and wrapped them up in big hugs. He told Katara that he had brought her another Waterbending teacher who would be staying for a whole two weeks this time, and he gave Sokka a club that he claimed had felled a Fire Nation Captain.

That night, Miss Ursa showed up at their house, knocking daintily on their front door in the middle of a Family Storytime session about Dad's recent battle with a giant Spirit Owl. "Chief Hakoda," she said with a dazzling smile when he answered the door, "it's so good to finally meet you. I remain in awe at your accomplishments in establishing this village and keeping us all safe from the Fire Nation."

Katara stayed over by Gran-Gran, but Sokka crept up behind his father to better check out the situation. He hadn't seen much of Azula's mom yet, really, and he was curious.

Dad's head moved up and down as he took in the sight of the guest. "You must be the Princess."

"Yes. You have my undying gratitude for offering a haven to my children and I. But I was hoping to speak to you about a small issue. I apologize for disturbing you with it, but I wanted to be sure I'm respecting your proper authority."

"I'm listening." Dad crossed his arms over his chest and stayed right where he was, blocking the doorway.

"Thank you. As you might have heard, my daughter has been allowed to serve the village by learning to be a hunter as part of the regular trips, and this has been most agreeable to my family. However, it's come to my notice that the hunting party's regular leader, Hun, has been calling my daughter a... a 'fire monkey.'" Miss Ursa's face, which had been very friendly this whole time, shifted for a moment so quick that Sokka wasn't even sure of what he saw. "Would you care to speak to him about this matter?"

Dad leaned back a step. "I don't see the need."

Miss Ursa blinked. "Oh. Then it would be okay if I handled the matter?"

"If you feel the need. But you shouldn't be causing trouble."

Miss Ursa moved a little, leaning against the doorframe and looking up directly at Dad. "I don't wish to be any trouble, Chief Hakoda. I'm just looking out for my children, in a new home where I want them to become good members of the community. As a parent, I'm sure you-"

Dad moved so fast even Sokka was startled. In an instant, his hands shot out to clutch the doorway and Miss Ursa jumped back with wide eyes. "I'm the only parent my children have left," he said so softly that Sokka could barely hear it. "The Fire Nation is the cause of that, and from what I've been told, you were happy enough with the situation until it turned on you. I'll honor my offer of refuge to anyone who needs it, but there are a lot of bad feelings towards the Fire Nation here, and perhaps you should be more understanding of that."

Miss Ursa left without another word.

As they settled back down for storytime, Sokka kept his eyes on the floor. "Um, Dad, Azula's a good hunter, and maybe Hun shouldn't be mean to her. It's not a big deal, right?"

Dad lifted Sokka's head so that their eyes met, and Sokka was surprised to see his father smiling down on him. "You're a good kid, but our home here is more fragile than you'd think. You'll see, when you're old enough to come with me on my trips, how justice is truly served."

The next day, Hun had a black eye, and he never said anything about monkeys again.


It took six months for Sokka to work up the nerve to say anything about it to Azula. They had both volunteered to train as guards for the village in between hunts, and were whiling away the afternoon doing sit-ups. Sokka hated sit-ups, but at least he was fit enough that he wasn't out of breath like some kind of fat bandit king. "Hey, what do you think about the war?"

Azula wasn't even sweating. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know, you used to live in the Fire Nation. And the Fire Nation started the war."

For a while, he didn't think Azula was going to answer. Finally, she said, "The Fire Nation teaches that reason for the war is to bring civilization and progress to the corrupt and backwards foreign lands."

Sokka had to halt his exercising mid-crunch when he heard that. He tried to speak, but the sustained pressure on his abdomen made that hard, so he flopped to the ground before trying again. "They- they make it sound like a good thing! That's so messed up!"

Azula stopped for a breather as well. "Of course. That's how leaders lead. I, of course, figured out the truth: the Fire Nation is strong, and the other lands are weak, so the strong take what they want from the weak. It's a simple fact of existence, played out on a global scale."

Sokka turned his head and looked at the girl lying on the grass beside him. "And you liked that better?"

Azula shifted and met his gaze with her strange gold eyes. "I did. Then I learned that my Dad and I were weak. Now, I- I think it's probably smart to avoid making assumptions about people. And nations." She started her sit-ups again, adding almost as an afterthought, "And someday I'll make the Fire Nation even weaker than me."

"Sounds good. I'm in." Sokka watched her exercise, and couldn't help but notice the hard, serious look on her face. Tired of all this angst, he reached over, poked a finger into her side, and wiggled it. "Tickle tickle tickle!"

Azula squealed and convulsed, grabbing at the spot and motioning with her hands, and Sokka didn't even realize what else had gone with that until a wave of cold ran down from his finger.

Then the pain hit. A squeal pushed out of his throat, and his finger glistened in the sunlight. "Ahhh! You- you bur- burned me!"

Azula's face swung right up against his, golden eyes wide, and her words tumbled out almost too fast to make out. "I'm sorry I order you to be okay!" She gasped for a breath. "Quick, cover it and don't let any air get at it. I'll get your sister."

"No!"

Azula blinked. "What?"

Sokka moved his arm around his body and stuck his finger into the armpit, then clamped the other arm down over it. That seemed to cut off a portion of the pain, as far as he could feel. "Don't get Katara. She'll tell and you'll get in trouble."

"But she can heal you with her Waterbending."

He shook his head. "She only learned fighty Waterbending." Slush, his finger really hurt. Maybe sticking it in the brook wouldn't be a bad idea. "Dad only brings those guy teachers for her."

Azula's face scrunched up at that. "Hmph. Hasn't anyone here heard of a combat medic?" She finally leaned away from him, her facing relaxing, and crouched on the grass. "Are you okay? It was an accident. I apologize for my... well, lack of control."

Sokka kept his finger right where it was, even if it did make it him look like a demented lemur. "And here you told me I'd never see it. Um, I think I'm going to take the afternoon off, filch a bandage or something. Tell them I pulled a muscle."

"Okay. Um, th- thanks for- um, thanks." Making a sign in the air, she added, "It shall be considered an honorable wound, forevermore."

"Great." He was much more impressed with the actual 'sorrys' and 'thanks' he got. For all her rough, sharp, jagged edges, Azula was a good partner. Sokka decided that he didn't mind covering for her.

Later that day, he asked Dad what a 'medic' was, and one conversation later about oopsies on the battlefield, his father decided to see if a Healer from the North couldn't be persuaded to visit for a little bit.


A year later, the wound was long restored to clean skin and completely forgotten. Sokka and Azula were once again in the grassy fields between the village and the forest, but today they were in the company of their siblings as well. Azula and Zuko were both sitting with crossed legs and closed eyes, while Katara worked a steam of water through the air in complicated patterns that Sokka found more funny shapes in than a field of clouds. He, in turn, was sharpening the edges of his Boomerang and watching the others.

"I'd like to be a wandering swordsman," Zuko said to the standing question.

Katara spared him a quick glance. "Wandering where?"

"You know, around. Just walking the earth. That's the point of wandering. Just going around and helping people who need it. Like Xiangyu." When no one reacted, he added, "You know, the guy from the adventure stories?"

Azula didn't even open her eyes. "Why swords when you're a Firebender?"

"Well, you know, not all people like Firebenders."

No one responded to that. Finally, Katara said, "I'm going to go up to the North Pole and teach all the women there to fight. Then we'll form our own army and invade the Fire Nation."

Azula's lip quirked. "I like that one. Better than being a simple assassin."

Sokka scraped his whetting stone slowly alone the sharp side of his Boomerang. "I think we should all stick together. We're already used to training together, and we all spar often enough to know each other's strengths and weaknesses. That's, like, half the work of forming a super-team already. We can free the water-women or whatever, then wander the Earth Kingdom for a bit and see the sites and blow them up, but we'd be most effective as a team, don't you think?"

Katara guided the stream of water into the flask at her side, then relaxed and looked at Sokka. "I don't think Dad's warriors would like us working with... well, Firebenders. No offense!" She smiled at the siblings from the Fire Nation. "You two are our friends, but we'll need their connections with the Whit- um, his connections- if we're going to win the war. We'll take you back home when the fighting's done, if you want."

Zuko's eyes snapped open, only to fall into a stream of blinking. "Your dad doesn't like us?"

Sokka put Boomerang down. "He doesn't say anything explicit, but the last time we saw him, he warned us about upsetting the rest of the village with 'unwise alliances.' Also, he seems to get real tense when Miss Ursa is around. I think they really don't like each other."

"Oh," Katara breathed. "Is that what that was? I thought that maybe they used to- um, you know."

Azula opened her eyes, and stood up in front of Katara. "Your father and my mother are not, nor have they ever been, romantically involved." Turning away, she added, "And I don't think my mother would be happy with us going off to war with you two, either. I think she worries that with no other marriage prospects around, Zuzu and I will marry you two in some foreign ceremony that won't really make us husband and wife. Our parents are ill at ease in each other's presence because they're on guard, like enemies awaiting an attack. Trust me, I've been trained to see such things. Sexual tension looks completely different."

Sokka's heart skipped a beat. "You can see sexual tension? How do you train for that?" Azula wasn't even a teenager yet! Of course, he wasn't quite either, but-

She just smirked at him.

Behind them, Zuko jumped to his own feet with a growl. "The next person who mentions sexual tension in the same thought as my mother is getting their head dunked in the brook."

Azula finally broke eye contact with Sokka. "Oh, grow up, Zuzu."


The years passed much like that. Sokka and Azula became both hunters and guardians, focused on their responsibilities to the village. Sokka had the distinct impression that their professional partnership was tolerated by the older generation only because of their effectiveness, but that was good enough, because together they could run rings around anyone or anything the village was willing to throw at them.

As grown-up-feeling and empowering as that was, the moments Sokka enjoyed most with Azula were the times they could just get away from it all, like the time he taught her how to fish. She learned from him with the same intensity with which she honed her Firebending, taking careful note of how he baited the hooks, put them in the water, and pulled the catches in.

When he asked why, she just said, "I can't know what skills I'll need until I need them."

"Need them for what?" Sokka almost asked, but then they put another line into the river, and Azula sat next to him on the bank, and it was just kind of nice. Sokka may have leaned a little against his friend, and she let him, but in the quiet of the forest, with no one around to witness them, could it be said to really happen?

Yes. In Sokka's considerable opinion, it very much could be.


So it was that years after a trio of scary foreign Royals arrived on a gray beach, an older, wiser, and much more confused Sokka found himself walking down to the same beach with his sister to see if the Firebending siblings were free.

"Oh wow," Katara said when they reached the sands, and Sokka had to agree. Azula and Zuko were sparring again. The sister was obviously winning, keeping control of the fight's pace even when she gave ground, but that wasn't what truly captivated him.

He just found himself awed by the way the twelve-year-old Azula moved.

It was music in motion, if he could be allowed to indulge in a completely nonsensical metaphor. Sokka didn't even really care about music, but he definitely enjoyed the sight of Azula here.

With a leaping butterfly kick, she flew sideways over Zuko's latest fireball. The centrifugal motion carried her feet so that she landed upright directly in front of her brother, and she finished the fight by popping a bloom of orange flames right in front of his face. Zuko cried out and stumbled backwards, tripping and landing full on his back in the sand. Azula planted one of her feet on Zuko's bare chest, and gave him a grin that looked decidedly superior. "You flinched, Zuzu."

Sokka couldn't help it. He began clapping. Beside him, Katara crossed her arms, snorted, and said, "Don't let your tongue hang out too much. You'll catch flies."

Sokka spared her a glare. Katara was completely misinterpreting his interest. Sure, Azula was pretty, and her legs had become especially interesting in the last few months, but Sokka just admired good warriors, was all. Katara had probably been rooting for Zuko and was ticked now. Resolving not to let his sister get him sidetracked, Sokka trotted over to the Firebenders. "Nice match," he said.

Azula snorted. "For half of us." She stepped off of Zuko and turned to face Sokka. "So, come to observe another of my flawless victories over my inferior brother?" She clasped her hands behind her back and stuck her chin out a little, smiling.

Sokka smiled back. "Heh. I- uh, I mean, you looked good- not that you ever look bad, because you know, you're very conscious of your appearance- in a good way- and I like that shoulderless tunic on you, plus you're a really good fighter... but that's not why I'm here." Sokka ignored the way his face was burning. "Your mom asked me to come get you two."

Zuko's eyebrows rose from his sprawl across the sand. "Our mother came to you about us?"

Katara ambled over. "Not quite. She was asking anyone in gray where you were, but then Sokka and I decided to cut to the chase and just pass on her message."

"Um, yeah." Sokka gave a slow nod. "I guess we're a rogue diplomatic envoy. Anyway, the important part is that this freedom fighter guy just walked in out of the woods- specifically looking for our village, he says, and you can imagine how thrilled Dad is about that- and the whole town is assembling to hear him out.

"He says his name is Jeong-Jeong."

Zuko didn't react, but Azula's face grew thoughtful.


The town assembled into its usual color formations: blue Water Tribe and green Earth Kingdom clustered together but with a little bit of mixing at the shared border, and the gray Fire Nation grouped within razor sharp lines. Sokka stood beside his Dad at the front of the Water Tribe assembly, with Katara and Gran-Gran somewhere in the center. It was lucky that Dad was around for this, as his trips had only lengthened as Sokka and Katara grew up.

Across the clearing, Sokka could see Ursa standing a step ahead of the other Grays in the middle of their front line, flanked by her children.

Jeong-Jeong himself stood in the center of the whole gathering, alone by distance but not by attention. He stood like a soldier, but his body seemed unusually tense to Sokka, and his eyes scanned over his audience with a probing intensity.

Then the newcomer began speaking. His voice had none of the soft strength of Dad's; it was all snapping and hard edges. "I have come to you to offer the Firebenders of this settlement a way to erase your burden." That got the crowd talking, but Jeong-Jeong ignored the commotion. "There is no use denying it. The world is out of balance, but the Fire Nation alone is not to blame. Fire itself is the enemy, and Fire lives within my nation's Benders. We cannot purge ourselves of it, and we cannot even control it. We are all tainted by it, dragged down to the level of animals by the urges it ignites within us. At best we can simply resist it, and direct its pain against those who would give in more readily."

Ursa's voice rang out from the crowd, just as sharp as Jeong-Jeong's: "Perhaps you should speak more plainly of your proposal." Affirmations came from other gray-clad Firebenders.

Jeong-Jeong nodded. "Some of you know me. Most don't. I used to be an Admiral for the Fire Nation. Now I am a Deserter. A traitor. I could go no further in the depravity demanded by the monster Azulon." In the distance behind the guy, Sokka caught Azula flinching at the name, but she didn't make a sound as Jeong-Jeong continued. "I intend to strike back at the Fire Nation, purge my past mistakes in the only worthwhile way possible. I will overthrow the Fire Lord within two years, and destroy the country's ability to wage war. Who will come with me?"

Dad stepped out form the crowd as Jeong-Jeong said, "two years." Sokka could see that the muscles in his father's neck were at their tightest, and that sent a jolt of worry rattling up his spine. What would throw Dad off like that?

But all his father said to Jeong-Jeong was, "You're referring to... you know about it?" It wasn't loud enough to carry very far, but Sokka heard it clearly.

The Deserter nodded. "We share some connections, it seems." Then, louder, "Any Firebenders who wish to come with me, I leave at dawn tomorrow. Don't worry about ever coming back to this... 'haven.' It will be victory or death."

Even before Jeong-Jeong pushed through the crowd and back out of the village, Sokka could feel the heat emanating across the clearing from the Fire Nation grouping. And he could see, even from this distance, that Azula was standing on the balls of her feet.

Ursa, however, just tossed her hair behind her shoulders and called out, "I'm going to remain here. Self-destructive crusades are for those who can't let go of the past. I was raised better than that." She stalked off through the crowd of Grays, and Dad glared at her the whole way.

Dang. If only those two could work together, the Fire Lord would be hiding from them.


"You don't really believe that junk about fire making you evil, do you?"

They were in the yard behind Sokka's house, and the only light was the glow of the moon above. Nevertheless, Azula's golden eyes were vivid when she turned to answer Sokka. "My, my, you've grown up, haven't you? Well, to answer your question, not particularly. I'm more interested in it as a metaphor."

"A metaphor?"

"Yes. Jeong-Jeong is, essentially, offering me a chance to get revenge on Azulon for what he did to my family. To me."

Sokka couldn't believe what he was hearing. "So, what, you're going with him? I thought-" Well, no, they hadn't quite agreed to anything. She said she liked Katara's idea of invading the Fire Nation, but the conversation had kind of fallen on its face when they got to talking about Dad and Miss Ursa. "You're kind of young to run away and join a fanatic, don't you think?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't be stupid. You and I are smarter than anyone else in this village, and I'm every bit the Firebender my mother is already. I don't care at what age Water Tribe boys go ice-dodging; I can take care of myself, and anyone who gets in my way." When she spoke again, her voice was softer, slower. "Jeong-Jeong only asked for Firebenders, but you could come with me. I could make him accept you. He certainly hasn't bought into this joke of a community, and you're one of the few who ever cared about its supposed ideals. You're smarter than you realize, and I... think you could be a valuable partner."

She- she was asking him to run away with her? Sokka's heart hammered in his chest, and he had to sit down on the grass before he fell over. She wanted him to come with her... but he would have to leave everyone- Katara, Dad, Gran-Gran- and go with the crazy Deserter guy. The brain in his heart had a definite answer it wanted him to give, but his primary brain had a good, long list of reasons to say no.

Sighing, he grabbed Azula's hand and pulled her down to sit in front of him. "You're already valuable here. Please, stay. I want revenge on the Fire Nation, too, but we're both too smart to go for it this way."

Azula studied him for a long moment, her golden eyes pale like ice in the moonlight. She let out a breath and nodded. "Okay, I'll stay."

Then she leaned over and kissed him.


The next morning, Sokka woke up to the sound of a frantic knocking on the door. He wasn't anywhere near as fond of mornings as he had been when he was a kid, especially when he wasn't on a hunting trip. He tried swatting the noise away, before sleep fully left him and took that nice dream with it. He had been dreaming about Azula, how they were talking in the yard, and then they shared their first kiss (which was way nicer than he would have expected the act of pressing lips together to be), and then-

Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait.

That wasn't a dream!

Sokka opened his eyes and snapped upright with enough force to flip his futon underneath him. Gran-Gran was opening their house's door to reveal Miss Ursa standing there with wide, bloodshot eyes. "Is Azula here? Have your kids seen her? I can't find her anywhere!"

Oh slush.

By the time Sokka got out to the forest's edge, the only one there was Dad, staring through the trees. When he heard Sokka running up from behind him, he just shook his head. "Forget about them. We can't afford any distractions if your mother's spirit will ever rest easy."

TO BE CONTINUED