Title: Silk
Author: Traxits
Chapter Rating: Teen.
Chapter Content Notes: Author chose not to use warnings.
Chapter Word Count: 2788 words.
Author's Notes: All right! So thanks so much to Iron from Archive of Our Own for betaing! My open call for a beta for this fic is now officially closed, and since I have the rest of this story outlined, hopefully it will be much smoother sailing from here on out. I do plan on a total of twenty-four chapters for this story, and that will take us through the end of season one. Now, I'm not too sure if I'm going to continue completely rewriting the series— that's an awful lot of words— but rest assured, I will at least take us all the way through the end of season one. The North Pole should be fun!

(Chapter 10, Abandoned)

Leaving the ship meant a three-guard escort, apparently, and for possibly the first time in his life, Sokka wished he were still with Zuko. At least his escort then— the few times he was off the ship anyway— had been Iroh, who laughed and joked and made the whole thing enjoyable, or Jee, who managed to be warm even as he was all business. The guards Zhao sent with him, however, were nothing like Zuko's men.

Sokka bought the basket of apples just to have an excuse to keep his hands busy, to keep the guards from reaching for him and moving him around the other people in the market place. He didn't even want to eat the apples. He was far more intrigued with the jerky that a vendor a few stalls down was selling, but he was fairly sure, given what little he'd seen of the other women in the marketplace, that Fire Nation women were supposed to be delicate. And actually enjoying the jerky would probably only garner him attention in the ways he didn't need right now. He sighed and brushed his fingers over the apples— wasn't there an Earth Kingdom story that went along with a girl and a basket of apples?— and moved through the marketplace.

It was dry, dead and dry and there was a huge statue of the Fire Lord that constantly spat fire. Sokka wasn't sure how a marketplace so full of people managed to be so damned dead. Maybe it was the lack of any color but red and black around him. Not a single growing anything. He glanced down at the apples, and he swallowed before he finally fished one out.

Bright red against his skin, but it was a warmer red than the fire, less... destructive. It looked alive, at least. He turned toward his guards, and he smiled as he held it out to the first one.

"I didn't catch your name," he said, trying to remember how Katara was with new people she wanted to charm. "But would you like one? There's far too many for me to eat here."

He got all three names— Delun, Enlai, and Liang— in exchange for three of his apples, and he looked back across the marketplace. Even the breeze felt oddly dry here, considering that they were still right there by the water.

A group of children playing by one of the stalls drew his attention, and had they not been dressed in red and black, they could have been children in just about any nation. Sokka smiled just a little to himself, and then Enlai swatted at the one girl who had come too close.

"Hey," he snapped sharply, and all three guards went still. He swallowed, but he'd already committed this far, hadn't he? "Stop it," he added, and he dropped down to the girl, brushed her hair back from her face, and smiled as warmly as he could manage before he gave her an apple too. "Here," he murmured, "take this. Do you want two?"

She hesitated, looking up at him through wide eyes, and something in his chest twisted as he spotted the scar along her shoulder. It made him think of Zuko's scar, and what kind of nation was this where people just had those everywhere?

When she nodded, he gave her a second apple, and he watched her go before he turned back to his guards.

Enlai was the one frowning at him, and he caught Sokka's arm with one hand and tugged him toward one of the clothing stores.

"Careful, Princess," he said, "begging children in the streets are thieves, especially this far from the Capital."

Sokka swallowed back his retort that all Fire Nation were thieves, and instead, he focused on the clothes in the store. He made Enlai carry the basket.

None of the clothes came in anything except red, black, or charcoal gray. The occasional yellow accent splashed across the other colors. He'd never been so aware of just how much color had worked its way into Zuko's ship. His fingers slid down the first white dress he found. Zuko had responded well to the white dress, and while Jee had long since explained the connotation for the Fire Nation, all Sokka could see when he looked at it was snow and ice and death. Tense and serious faces.

Everything he'd long since associated with home.

He picked out two white dresses, since Zhao had told him to buy whatever he liked, and after a long consideration, he added a yellow one. Then he headed out to find a store with fabric instead of pre-made clothes, leaving Liang to handle the payment for the dresses he'd picked.

He blew out a very slight sigh of relief when he found somewhere to buy fabric. It came in more colors and shades than anything else here.

It was pure luck that he sewed at all, and he was fairly certain that he could mimic some of the forms and lines he'd seen in Earth Kingdom clothes. At the same time, he had to be careful, had to keep his status in mind at all time. What made him valuable was that he wasn't Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom. He'd need to figure out some way to imply Water Tribe in his clothes. Zhao needed to look at him and see whatever value he thought Sokka could bring him.

He needed to look at Sokka and see the princess that everyone kept calling him.

He was inspecting a bolt of blue silk when Zhao rounded the corner and spotted him. Sokka kept his eyes down until Zhao was too close to ignore, and then he lifted his head with a warm smile.

"What do you think of this one, General?"

Zhao looked the fabric over before he nodded, reaching out so that his fingers were just shy of Sokka's on the fabric. "Very Water Tribe," he said. They both wanted Sokka to look exotic then. Sokka slid his hand down the fabric, trying to guess how much he'd need of it to make...well, anything. Zhao's hand dropped away. "Princess, I doubt we have time to wait for them to make you something from it."

"Of course. Your work keeps you busy," Sokka murmured. "What if I purchase some so that I would have something to do on the ship?"

Zhao's eyes widened, and he looked back at it with renewed interest. Apparently the thought of giving Sokka something to do to keep him in his quarters appealed to him. Sokka's eyes narrowed.

Was he planning on letting Sokka wander the ship then?

"Yes. Get some of that. I've found you a maid to help you with your..." A hand wave supplied the rest of that sentence instead of words, and Sokka was tempted to press, to see just what sort of 'things' Zhao thought he needed a maid for. He didn't press, however. He just smiled, and he motioned the shopkeeper over to take his request for several yards of the silk.

Before he let her go, he also decided to get some of the green and a bit of the yellow, just to have a variety to work on. Zhao watched him with a furrowed brow, and Sokka smiled as he nodded and finally looked back at the general.

"A maid, that'll be nice. I must admit, I might not know what to do with a maid." Sokka shrugged, and he spread his hands. "I have not exactly been in much position for one, you understand."

A slight snort that Zhao tried to muffle— more because it was considered rude by Fire Nation standards, Sokka was sure— and then Zhao shook his head. "No, I acquired her to assist you in your... clothes and such. I understand that there's quite the art to a lady's dress."

Something cold washed through him, but Sokka dropped his eyes back down to the silks he'd been looking at before he shrugged. "Sometimes, certainly. Do you plan on standing on such ceremony with me, General?" It was the best he could do on such short notice. He had no idea what a lady's dress truly entailed in the Fire Nation, but he imagined that the things he'd been planning to sew were suddenly out. He swallowed. "I have been...enjoying our time together," he said, and that was bold. Overly so, even.

Zhao was angling for a betrothal, Sokka had decided before they docked. It was obvious in both how Zhao treated him, how he flaunted the Water Tribe Princess in front of others, and in the choice of gifts he'd already given Sokka to keep him quiet on the ship. Unless, of course, the only literature the Fire Nation had featured captive royalty and captive nobles saving their people by realizing the glory and splendor of the Fire Nation.

Who knew with these people?

Zhao's hand reached out to brush against his, and Sokka didn't let himself go still. Instead, he let his own hand drop down to brush against the crook of Zhao's elbow, and Zhao led him out of the store after signing for the purchases. Sokka's eyes narrowed. Zhao hadn't flinched over the total. So perhaps he had more money than Sokka had originally guessed.

It was another piece in their Pai Sho game.

Zhao led him back toward the ship, and Sokka smiled before he finally made his quiet excuses, asking for a few minutes to lie down. Unlike on Zuko's ship, Zhao did not keep him in the room across the hall. Sokka couldn't have explained just how relieved that made him, because any more similarities might have sent him right off the edge of the ship in sheer frustration. His room was down the hall, several doors down, and Sokka pulled the door shut behind him with a grateful sigh.

Then his eyes opened, and a startled squeak escaped him at the young woman waiting in there for him. She looked up when the door had opened, and she smiled. It was a practiced smile, one designed to make her less noticeable. Sokka knew that because he'd been practicing that exact same smile in the mirror here.

"H-hi," he managed after a second, and he swallowed before he dropped his eyes and headed across the room to the window seat. A maid, Zhao had said, but Sokka thought he'd get longer before he had to share space with her. What was he even going to do? It wasn't as though he could actually hide himself from her—

He blinked at the cup of steaming tea suddenly in his face, and he looked up to meet her dark eyes. She had the same smile on as she tipped her head, and her dark hair fell forward over her shoulder.

"Good afternoon, Princess," she said softly. Her voice was delicate. Wind chimes. Sokka found himself smiling just a little as he took the cup from her, careful to keep his hand flat under it while he steadied it with his fingertips.

"Good afternoon," he murmured. "I wasn't expecting you so quickly."

"The General believed you might have need now that he has obtained you a proper wardrobe." She sat carefully on the seat beside him, and Sokka's brow furrowed.

"He obtained me a proper wardrobe? I found a few things in the market—"

"Oh, no, Princess. The market was a diversion. Something to keep you entertained." The girl's smile widened slightly, the beginnings of something more real, and Sokka didn't let himself look away. "He had proper clothes delivered from some of the noble homes. Mostly second-hand, of course, but only because there was no time to have things properly made."

Sokka sipped his tea, and he looked back out the window. "I can sew a few things," he said. "Have you a pattern for what is considered a necessary wardrobe?"

She tipped her head, and the decorative pin in her hair chimed softly. "No, Princess. I'm afraid not. But I can also sew, and between the two of us, we can likely figure something out. Do all Water Tribe princesses sew?"

Sokka went still for that question, innocent though it might have been. It was dangerous territory, and while he had answers prepared now for most of the questions he thought himself likely to get, he wasn't sure how practiced his response needed to be around her. She'd been chosen by Zhao, after all, and she probably reported back to him. Sokka shrugged, and he sipped his tea once more. "I wouldn't know. It isn't as though there are very many of us. Besides, my circumstances have been unusual, even for our people."

She nodded, and she followed his gaze out the window. He saw her head move out of the corner of his eye. For a long moment, they were both quiet, just breathing and feeling the ship around them, and then she asked, her voice very low, "Are all Water Tribe princesses boys?"

He jerked for that, and it wasn't until her hand brushed against his that he realized he was clutching the tea cup so tightly that it was a miracle the thing hadn't shattered. Not much of the tea had splashed when he had spun to look at her at least. His skirts could be salvaged. "W-Why would you ask such a thing?" he said, and his voice was too sharp, he'd given too much away—

"Because I don't think anyone else has noticed," she replied, and she took a handful of her own skirts to dab at the tea on his. His breath caught in his throat, and she leaned in a little closer. "You must understand, Zhao has no loyalty from me," she whispered. "He has yet to earn it."

"And me? Have I earned anything from you?" Sokka replied, and he didn't pull away from her. They were barely inches from one another now, and her hand still pressed the soft fabric of her skirt against his.

She swallowed thickly— he watched her throat work on the motion— and then she finally dropped her eyes to focus on blotting the tea stains. "No," she said, "but you... you have a kindness that most lack. I saw what you did with your apples in the market." She brushed her hands around his on the tea cup. "You didn't have to give any to that girl." She smiled, and this one was not practiced at all. Sokka wasn't even sure she realized she was doing it. "You would have given her anything you had when all she wanted for was a few coins."

"I didn't have any coins," Sokka replied. And her smile widened.

"I know," she replied. "And now we will see if we can't keep your secret a little longer, yes, Princess?"

"I don't even know your name," Sokka protested faintly.

"Meili." She reached up and brushed her fingers against his hair, and she giggled slightly. "We'll have to figure out something for your hair. It's definitely the least... royal thing about you."

Sokka snorted a laugh, and he leaned back, placed his cup on the window seat, and reached up to pull his hair back how it was supposed to be kept. It was longer now, growing out, and while it no longer itched, he was definitely more aware of it. The tail felt weird, considering how long it had been since he'd worn it that way.

"Warrior Wolf's Tail," he said, and she nodded before he let go of his hair and let it fall back around his face. "It's a boy's hair cut in the Water Tribe. A warrior's."

She nodded again, and then she reached up and combed her fingers through it, humming a tuneless, thoughtful note. "We can work with this. A few hairpieces or a longer headdress, and no one will even notice how short your hair is. Much easier to maintain than a wig at sea."

"I'll need practice moving in them," Sokka said quickly, "and I need... I don't know. Coaching. On looking like a woman."

"Trust me, you're doing fine. No one has noticed. But we can practice. After all, they expect you to spend your time in here doing embroidery or sewing or reading. The only times they'll expect you anywhere is at meals."

"And evenings with the General," Sokka murmured. "We play Pai Sho."

"I'll be with you for those from now on," Meili promised. "You're a lady. You shouldn't be seen alone with him."

"You can't protect me from him."

"No," she agreed lowly. "But I can protect your name. And that's what you're surviving on, isn't it?"