AN: Remember how I said I was a week ahead in that last one? Well, here I am publishing chapter 7, and I still haven't finished chapter 8 yet. So, yeah, the trace edge of worry is setting in.

The World without the War

S-Michael

Chapter 7:

In Which Azula Unveils an Evil Plan, and, Unrelatedly, Goes on a Date with Sokka

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Sokka kissed Azula. Azula froze for the slightest moment, then kissed back.

"Aw, isn't that sweet?" Toph teased.

"What were you saying about him not being your boyfriend?" Ty Lee asked.

They pulled apart, still holding on to each other, but with space between them. "That was…" Azula said eloquently.

"…Emotions running high," Sokka said. "Sorry."

"Oh. I see," Azula said a bit coldly.

"I'd like to do it again. In the future. Sometime. But, it's just…"

"…Too soon," Azula supplied.

"Yeah."

"Okay. But don't make me wait too long."

"I'll try not to."

"Are you two done having your melodrama yet? Because not all of these people are dead, and now that we've got what we came for, I'd prefer to be out of here before we end up killing anyone else," Katara said.

"Right, then. Who're our friends?"

Azula made the introductions. "Kasha with the Dai Li, Usani with the Earth Army, my friend Mai, and Usani and Mai's mutual friend, Toph Bei-Fong."

Sokka did a double take. "Toph Bei-Fong? Your solution to my being kidnapped was to go recruit Toph Bei-Fong? Alongside a Dai Li? You are, just, awesome."

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"Perhaps you should get out of Saibei for a while. All of you," Usani said. "As I said, Kasha and I will take care of Dodo—I mean, Doro Kim." They nodded to the others, and walked into the darkness of one of Saibei City's alleys. And out of their lives.

"Well, this puts a crimp in our plans to find the Avatar," Azula said.

"Actually, no, it doesn't," Sokka said. "I had a vision in the cave. Apparently my toilet water came from an enchanted spring. Avatar Aang spoke to me. The Avatar is in some swamp somewhere. We need to bring her to the Fire Nation to solve some sort of problem. Also, there was something about a guy named Ilmarinen who bleeds fire and lava, and Tsubasa was banished for her Cloud Empire sympathies, but those things weren't connected to anything Aang was saying to me."

Glances at Tsubasa. "Oh, like I'd admit it even if it was true," she said. "And, just for the sake of argument, if it was, it's not like a girl can't change in a couple years."

"A swamp. Great," Azula said. "Do you have any idea how many swamps there are in the Earth Kingdom?"

"There are a lot of swamps in the Earth Kingdom," Toph chimed in, "but there's only one that I know has waterbenders in it. Tell them Toph sent you to deal with the poaching problem."

"See? A lead already," Sokka said. "Look, worst case scenario, I'm wrong, and, well, we'd have to lay low for a while if we stayed in the north, anyway. At least this gives us something to do. And if I'm right, we find the Avatar and save the Fire Nation from whatever unknown threat is going down that requires the Avatar's help."

"Alright, the pros outweigh the cons," Azula said. "Let's go. Mai, do you want to come along?"

"No, Azula," Mai said sarcastically, "I'm going to pass up the opportunity to actually do something interesting and return to civilization—and my boyfriend—so that I can hang out with a bunch of young boys and old men. All of whom are bald."

"Toph?"

"Sorry, Princess Pyro, I've got other responsibilities."

"Could you draw us a map, then?" Azula asked.

"Gee, could I draw you a map?" Toph mock-wondered.

"Oh, right," Azula said. "How about you give us directions, then?"

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Ty Lee insisted that it was better to travel at night. Personally, Sokka thought she'd just get bored out of her skull if she had to be conscious while riding the air bison for hour after endless hour. Fitting six sleeping bags and their occupants in Fluffy's saddle was a neat trick, but Sokka wasn't complaining. Of course, he might be singing a different tune if he wasn't the only male in the bunch.

The stars were bright, the moon was nearly full, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Sokka was awake, sitting with his elbows wrapped around his knees which were under his chin, and staring at Azula, who was sleeping. She was…cute. The adjective applied whether she was awake or asleep, only when she was asleep it meant something closer to "adorable," whereas when she was awake…he looked away.

Admit it; you're developing feelings for her. Oh, really? I'd never have guessed. Is that why I kissed her? But Sokka's mental flippancy with himself didn't fool…well, himself. That could be explained away by the highly charged emotional situation at the time, and you know it. Only it's not, or not entirely, and that's what you've got to face before you convince yourself otherwise. You LIKE her. Even the mental voice trying to force Sokka to be brutally honest with himself about this shied away from using the other "L" word.

Sokka sighed. It was true, he did like Azula…which made him feel like he was betraying Yue. Honestly, Sokka, it's been less than a week, and you're already moving on to someone else. It wasn't like that; there were mitigating circumstances. Still, from the outside, it looked…bad. And he wasn't comfortable with it on the inside, either.

It didn't make rational sense. He and Yue could never be, after all. He smirked at himself: Of course, whoever said that humans were at their core rational was suffering from the most irrational delusion of all.

The romance with Yue had been a whirlwind. Love at first sight…well, okay, what he was feeling at that point was probably a bit baser than love, but that's beside the point. Sokka had fallen, head over heels. It was said that you never loved like your first love, and now Sokka knew why; after your heart's been ripped out and trampled on (whether by the person you gave it to, or by fate taking that person away from you, or, in this case, by some stupid Northern Water Tribe tradition) you're slow to take that risk again.

Still, and all, he remembered what he'd felt in the cave when Azula came to rescue him (and Katara, and a bunch of other people, but that wasn't important just now). Maybe it had been elation at being rescued, relief at the fact that he was not, in fact, going to die. But one way or another, Sokka could remember the way he'd felt about her at the moment, vividly, and he leaned, back, closed his eyes, and savored that remembered glow. It had been the most intense feeling he'd ever felt in his life, he was pretty sure, and it had felt…good.

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They landed outside of a town. "Well, I've got business to take care of," Tsubasa said. "Have fun unsaddling the giant mattress with fleas." She flew off.

"What business could she possibly have?" Katara demanded as they began to unsaddle Fluffy.

Sokka shrugged. "Writing a letter to her mother? Do the Air Temples keep track of that sort of thing?"

"You're both missing the really big question," Azula said.

"Which is?" Katara probed.

"Why is she trying so hard to make us dislike her?" Azula answered.

"Maybe she just doesn't care," Mai suggested.

"Yeah," Katara added. "According to Sokka's dream, she has or had Cloud Empire sympathies, so maybe she's a racist?"

"No, she cares, and she'd deliberately antagonizing us," Azula shook her head. "It's not to make herself feel bigger, either, I don't think—and I'm really good at reading people, you know. No, it's like she wants us to dislike her because she doesn't want to risk herself starting to like us."

"And that's what's worrying you, isn't it?" Sokka supplied.

Azula nodded. "I can only think of two reasons she could have for it. Either Katara's right, and she's just a racist…or she's prompting herself to betray us in some way."

"So what do we do?" Katara asked.

Azula grinned evilly. "We be as nice and decent to her as possible. Which doesn't mean we don't call her on her shit, of course. If we go out of our way to be nice to her, after all, that'll just make her suspicious. We invite her to join in our reindeer games, as it were. We need to do something fun, and try and get her to join us. We seduce her over to 'our side.'"

"I like this plan," Ty Lee said.

"You would," Mai said.

"I don't know if I'm up for that sort of thing so soon after Yue, and with my confusing feelings for you—"

"Not a literal seduction, Sokka," Azula said. "Whichever the case is, it ought to work if we do it right. I also intend to write to Mai's parents and see if they can't track down information on Tsubasa. Maybe, if it's something more than simple racism or 'bending bigotry, we can figure out what it is. And if it's not, at least there'll be one less bigot in the world. But that can wait until we've finished making camp, at least. In the mean time, let's flesh out our tactics…"

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"You didn't have to help me deliver the letter to the post office," Azula said. It was an obvious sort of thing to say, but Sokka had been walking with her in silence for a while, and she figured that he needed the prompt.

"Yeah, I know. It's just…see, the thing is…I, uh…"

"…wanted to talk to me in private?" Azula supplied.

"Yeah, that," Sokka said. "Yue wasn't all that long ago, and I'm not sure I'm ready to move on, and I'm not sure I should have started this by bringing up my last girlfriend but moving on," Sokka took a deep breath after having said this last part really fast, "but I really like you, Azula, and that's not going to go away, either, and it's really going to torture us so maybe we should really do something before we end up trying to kill each other, and wow, I really suck at this."

"Sokka, hold this," Azula handed him the letter.

"Okay, but why—?" Azula grabbed his face and kissed him, taking advantage of his open mouth to slip her tongue in. "That was cheating," Sokka whispered throatily.

Azula grinned. "Yeah, well, I am an evil genius."

"That's so hot."

"In all seriousness, though, Sokka, you need to let it out. Let yourself feel this. I don't mean to trivialize what you had with Yue, but you have to take the guilt you feel and shove it aside. Tell me, can you honestly tell me that this—" she kissed him again "—feels wrong?"

"No."

"Is it wrong?"

Nasal sigh. "No."

"There you go, then," Azula said. "The truth is, I wouldn't be nearly so understanding if I didn't feel just a bit guilty myself. If I'd made a move earlier, you wouldn't have been interested in Yue in the first place and we could have avoided all this melodrama. And actual drama, in the case of the whole kidnapping thing."

"No," Sokka said. "This is not in any way your fault. That doesn't even make sense. Besides, I learned something from all of this."

"Which is?"

"I really, really, really dislike the Northern Water Tribe."

Azula laughed. "After all of that, I think 'pathological hatred' would be excusable."

"Quite. But, the thing is…aw, never mind. Is there anything to do in this town other than make out in random streets?"

"Doesn't look like much. I saw a restaurant; why don't we get lunch?"

"Lunch. Not as romantic as dinner, perhaps, but the spirits only know where we'll be by the time that comes around, so it'll do. It's a date." He kissed her.

"Aw, how sweet; you got over the ice queen," Tsubasa said. "And in record time, too."

Sokka and Azula jumped. "Didn't see you there, Tsu," Sokka said. "Where'd you come from?"

Tsubasa nodded at the post office. "Had a letter to send."

"Oh, right, I've got one, too," Azula said, a bit flustered. She took the letter from Sokka's hand, and jogged over to it.

"So…writing to your mother?" Sokka asked conversationally.

Suddenly, Tsubassa pinned Sokka against the wall, her forearm crushing his larynx. "How did you know that?"

"I—didn't—I—guessed," Sokka choked out.

"Oh," Tsubasa said bashfully, letting him go.

"Great spirits, woman, I was just trying to make conversation!" Sokka panted.

"Sorry," she said softly. "I'm going to…go." And she left.

Azula came back. "Anything interesting happen while I was in there?"

"Yeah, I asked Tsubasa if she was writing her mother, and she totally flipped out! She pinned me against the wall—"

"I didn't know she liked you like that."

"Ha, ha. Anyway, she was all, like, 'How did you know?' and I was all like 'I didn't, you crazy bitch; I was just trying to make conversation,' and she was all like, 'Oh, sorry.'"

"Fascinating," Azula said. "She actually said 'sorry'?"

"Yeah, I said it, didn't I?"

"Fascinating."

"So, what are you thinking?"

"That her mother is a sore point for her."

"Wow, Azula; your powers of deduction leave me in awe." Sokka's voice could've turned the swamp they were headed to into a desert.

"Which makes me think that whatever Mai's parents will find will come in very useful, indeed."

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Feeling adventurous, Sokka and Azula decided to try a local pie called a pizza that the locals insisted was a meal and not a dessert. The pie's crust was especially thick, the filling was a mixture of tomato sauces, cheese, various kinds of meat and veggies, and the selfsame mixture was also spread on top of the pie, though it was more layered, with the sauce on the bottom and the cheese on the top. It was surprisingly good, though not at all sweet. Azula and Sokka attacked it with knives and forks.

"Eh, what's there to tell?" Sokka shrugged. "You know my sister, and you've met my Dad. Actually, you haven't met my Mom, now that I think about it. So, right, Mom: What can I tell you about Mom? Somehow I doubt that telling you how she used to tuck me in at night and kiss my forehead is going to impress you with my manliness. Oops."

Azula grinned. "You're bad at this, aren't you?" She stabbed a piece of the pizza-pie, cut off a bite-size portion, and ate it.

"Yeah, well, everyone's related to everyone else in my Podunk little village. If I wanted a girlfriend, I had to trek some ninety miles through the ice and snow to the next village. Not that I didn't want one, but…you know, ice. And snow. That's where my Mom was when you came to visit, though she wasn't looking for a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend! Wow, I really suck at this and should stop talking now.

"So, what about your family?"

Azula sipped her juice. "Well, my uncle Iroh's the Firelord. My cousin Lu Ten's the crown prince. My father…is a prince, too. My mother's the granddaughter of Avatar Roku."

"Descended from the Avatar, eh? That's kind of neat," Sokka said.

Azula shrugged. "Considering how long the Avatar's been in the world, I think we'd be hard pressed to find someone who's not descended from her.

"I also have an older brother, Zuko. You and he have a lot in common, I think."

"We do?"

"Yeah. You both have little sisters who are much better fighters than you."

"Oh, I'm wounded," Sokka said dryly. "I notice you seemed kind of reluctant to discuss your father." And so I bring it up; smooth move, Sokka. Just…smooth!

"He attempted to usurp the crown from Iroh and was banished," Azula said. She was playing with and looking at her food; Sokka got the feeling she wasn't really talking to him any more: "When I was younger I used to look up to him. Worship him. I was his favorite, you know. He said that this world existed for the strong, and that the weak had no right to exist in it, and I believed him.

"But now, I think that maybe…no, I know he was wrong. But Sokka, he's still in here," she pointed at her temple. "Sokka, I'm—"

"Ruthless? Audacious? Ambitious? Capable of great cold-bloodedness? I know," Sokka said. "Azula, I saw you when you came to rescue me. I heard the story of it. So I know. No one who wasn't all of those things could have pulled it off.

"The second you knew I'd been kidnapped, you knew what you had to do, didn't you? And you didn't hesitate for one moment, did you? Someone who was less audacious and ambitious wouldn't have thought four teenage girls could take on these mysterious forces, especially when it turned out you had enemies in the Dai Li and the Northern Water Tribe as well as the entirety of the Glacier Plateau Raiders. Someone who wasn't as ruthless would have looked for some way to find the information other than cold-blooded torture. Either way, something in Doro Kim's plans would have gone wrong—they seemed to be that complicated—and I'd be dead.

"But that's not all there is to you, Azula. Maybe in some sort of bizarre hell-dimension where your father succeeded in becoming Firelord, he'd have been able to burn all the good out of you, I don't know—I don't believe it, but maybe—but he didn't do it here.

"Azula. I saw you, in the cave. I saw the part of yourself that you keep locked inside. I saw the cold, pitiless darkness that resides in your soul, waiting to make your enemies pay for crossing you. And it made me love you even more. Not because I'm attracted to that sort of thing, of course, but because I realized how truly strong you must be to hold something like that in check.

"You are a good person, Azula; don't forget it," Sokka finished. Then: "Wow, we can't even go out for a night on the town without some sort of melodrama popping up. Day, whatever."

Azula grinned. "You said you loved me," she teased.

"I suppose I did." He paused, thinking that you weren't supposed to do this sort of thing on a first date. Fuck it; we've already established that I suck at this whole dating thing. "I suppose I do."

Azula looked at him, pale and serious. She gulped, clearly not in her comfort zone. "I suppose I do, too."