The Story of the Moral

An Azula-centric fanfic.

Disclaimer: The voice of Sokka was created by Jack DeSena.

Author's notes:

You know, I thought the new divider would be easy... And the spoiler was just about what happened last chapter, so no fear of spoiling anything now. That's the hint you'll get this time.

Oh, and if you're curious, this is about half-way through the fic, give or take. That's the intention, anyway.

/ Another Duck

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Take a Hike

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The boat made its way slowly north-east. Well, it was one of the smaller warships the Water Tribe had acquired during the war, so it wasn't exactly slow, but to Azula, who had previously been flying at very high speeds, it was. Despite that the sun was up, it was rather cold, so she was grateful for the clothes she currently wore.

As she preferred to do while she was otherwise bored, she practised. Due to the diminutive size of the vessel, she didn't have as much room as she'd like, but it was still enough for several of the more stationary forms. The particular form she performed at the moment was one that emphasised control of the kicks and punches rather than speed and movement. It was also one Sokka recognised.

He sat a bit farther back than her, quite enjoying the cool weather, and watched her train. He'd never had the opportunity to just study her technique before. Most of the time he'd been at the end of it, or otherwise busy with her friends. On the other hand, he had seen Zuko practise a lot, and this was very similar. It was hard to judge, but the sister had an edge in her control, although the brother was likely stronger, at least physically. Azula was definitely stronger at firebending.

At the end, Sokka noticed one difference between the two siblings. While Zuko finished right where Azula was now, she had one move left: lightning generation. She drew first one arc with her fingers, then another one and focused the energy in preparation to cast it out over the side of the ship. That's when she fell down forward. The lightning discharged from her hands and through the metal floor, but some apparently went through her as well, since she was clearly in pain, even if she didn't let out a sound.

Concerned, Sokka went over to her, but by the time he got there, she had recovered, relatively speaking. She was sitting down, breathing heavily.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes."

"What happened?"

"A while back, I had a concussion. It's coming back to haunt me at times, but it's getting better." She found it surprisingly easy to admit her weakness. It probably had to do with what he had seen of her before; as she had said back then, she didn't have much more to lose. "Why do you care anyway?"

"I don't," he quickly protested. "But I don't like to see people in pain. Even you."

"I find it amusing."

"How can you say that? It's horrible!"

She gave him a look, reminding him of who he was talking with. "You find it funny to see someone stumble, or drop something on their feet, right?"

"I suppose," he relented.

"Imagine that, but without any scruples about hurting people."

"I see what you mean."

They fell into a comfortable silence for a while, thinking about how things had changed between them. Not long ago, they were more or less mortal enemies, but now they were talking on rather friendly terms. It wasn't something either of them had expected to happen any time soon.

"I know you don't trust me, but I think I actually trust you now, at least a little. You risked your life to save me."

He thought back at the end of the duel. When he threw the boomerang that last time, he had calculated where it would hit, and what would happen. Being used to the cold and having experience with the ice, he didn't really believe he was in any danger, but he thought it was better to keep that little fact to himself. There was a certain risk to it after all, and it was probably far worse for a firebender.

"It's hard to trust someone you take for granted will lie. The phrase, 'Azula always lies,' is rather common around here."

"I have tried to be honest now. It's different, but it serves my purpose. It's hard, though. So much easier to not say anything, or say something that doesn't reveal anything."

"You mean to tell me you've been completely honest?"

Thinking back at what she had said, she gave him a small smirk and shook her head. "I knew the sword was yours. Master Piandao had it, and he only gave it to me so I could bring it to you."

"What? You dirty li'l..." Pausing, he remembered how it turned out in the end, and instead started smirking back at her. "Oh, well. Look where that got you."

She had a sudden urge to smack him, but restrained herself. It would probably not be a good idea. "You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"Of course not."

She sighed, unable to let out her aggressions the way she wanted. "Lately I've felt like some sort of cosmic plaything. Or at least comical relief for the wind spirit."

"I can relate."

"Speaking of Piandao, by the way," she started before digging out a leather pouch she carried with her, "I found this on the Boiling Rock. He thought I should give it back to you." Producing the White Lotus tile, she handed it to him.

"I don't even know what it means."

She could tell he was lying, but decided not to press it. "If you know, you know; if you don't, I won't tell you."

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They eventually reached Chin Village, or a nearby beach, anyway. The ship was going to head north from there, but Azula and Sokka were heading towards Gaoling. Sokka didn't want to stay long there, so they quickly picked up some supplies, and started their trek eastwards. The weather was warmer there, so they had packed away their heavy parkas.

"This is still weird to me." Sokka was eyeing Azula with a contemplating look.

"I agree." There were probably more things she thought were weird than normal at this point. "Are you referring to anything in particular?"

"You're wearing my sister's clothes. It's just so different from what you've usually been wearing."

"Really?" She pulled at her garments. "But they fit so well, and she's shorter than I am."

Raising an eyebrow, he looked her over. "They sort of look a little tight on you." She just shrugged. "We can't get new clothes as often as some royalty I know of, so they're easily adjustable. It makes it possible to wear them while growing up without getting new ones all the time."

"Well, I kind of like them. The colour suits me."

"Who would've guessed? Azula likes the colour blue."

"Yes, she doe-ooh..." The word got cut off when her mind faded out for a second, and she slumped down to lean her hands on her knees.

"You said you were getting better?"

"I am," she assured him, and started walking again. "I barely even felt that one."

"Sure. Well, at least you weren't charged with lightning this time. That looked like it hurt."

No answer was given. Instead she began playing around with very small gestures, parting the energy in the air. It did generate lightning as usual, but instead of firing it off, she let it dissipate within her, trying to get a sense of what it felt like, and what she could handle.

To Sokka, it was mildly disturbing, to say the least. She was good at masking her pain, but he could still tell it hurt every time she did that, from how her arm, and sometimes more, jerked with no control of her own. They walked for a while, and he grew more and more agitated. A few hours later, he couldn't stand it any more

"Why must you continue torturing yourself? It's appalling."

Confused at his offended tone, she shot off a small bolt into the ground and turned towards him. "Is that one of those moral things? I'm just practising precision lightningbending, and it doesn't hurt that much."

"Doesn't hurt that much? I can see your entire arm spasm. That has to hurt."

"It looks worse than it is, and it only really hurt before I got the hang of it. Now it just tingles very strongly."

"Whatever you say. We should stop for the day now, though. It's going to get dark soon."

"We can save a few hours if we walk until it actually gets dark."

"You go ahead and do that. I'm setting up camp now."

After standing still for a few seconds deliberating whether to continue on her own, she shrugged and went with him some distance from the main road. She found she preferred his company over being alone. It wasn't really that she felt safer, but more that she felt her paranoia vanishing when someone else took her mind off of it.

They hadn't planned on being on the road for very long, so they had opted for a light-weight wind shelter instead of a tent. They lied in their sleeping bags, watching the stars, ready to get some sleep. It wasn't something that came easily to Azula, though.

Her mind was still rolling around everything that happened to her in the last few days. Her life was so different, but it wasn't a bad change. Sure, it was hard at times, and many times she only appreciated it afterwards, but overall, life provided her with unexpected challenges she was glad to solve. She also liked to think she solved them better than, let's say, Sokka trying to make dinner.

"I thought you said you were good at roasting meat."

"I am!" he declared with some hostility. "It's your blue flames. They burn the meat way too fast."

"Sure, blame it all on me. Everyone else does." It wasn't something she took offence to. She was more amused by Sokka's attempt at blaming someone other than himself.

"Yes, poor you." He turned to the other direction. "Just go to sleep."

"I'm trying to; I just can't fall asleep."

"It would be easier if you'd just put out the fire."

"But I like it." Lying on her back, her eyes rolled towards her forehead to gaze into the flames. "So full of power, capable of causing death and destruction to anything that comes into its way, but still so beautiful and living."

"Say what you want; I still think it's just a night light for a big baby who's afraid of the dark. Now go to sleep like the mature woman you pretend to be."

He heard her shuffle around a little, then ask him with a soft voice, "Sokka, take my hand."

"What? Why?" Turning back to her, he saw her lying relaxed on her side with one hand held almost daintily towards him.

"Please?"

The kind visage that followed her pleading shocked him completely. Pulling up one of his hands from the sleeping bag, he extended it to her. The quite literal electric shock that followed made him scream out loud.

"Thank you!" she told him with a smile that still didn't look like her old, evil self, but rather like a happy, little girl. Obviously, she wasn't truly as innocent as she looked.

He grumbled to himself as he kept a careful eye on her. She appeared to be sleeping, but he wouldn't trust her appearance any more After a while, just after the stinging in his hand ended, the camp fire turned back to its natural yellow. He took that as a safer sign that she finally had fallen asleep than her peaceful breathing. Now he could finally relax.

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Close to the end of their trip, Azula was in a good mood. Despite Sokka's decision to set up camp early, they had made good time. Partially because she found she slept rather well even if they didn't have a real tent or any kind of bed, but also because the universe had left her alone and not played any tricks on her.

Turning her head slightly, she observed her travel companion. He was feeling unquestionably worse than she was. She wondered how much that had to do with the way she woke him up with a splash of water when she felt he had gotten enough sleep, or how she'd refused to let him spoil any more meals by cooking herself.

She reflected briefly on how cooking was normally considered a woman's job, a stereotype she'd been avoiding most her life, but at the same time, it was also part of her fire mastery. At least she wasn't sewing, although Sokka's complete inability to do so had almost made her want to take over his attempt at mending a hole at the knee of his pants.

Almost. It had been amusing to watch nonetheless. She wasn't sure she'd done better, though. These typically female skills weren't any she had in quantities, and definitely not qualities. For instance, she had completely messed up her hair once before, even if that only was because of her mental state at the time. It wasn't something she was very good at, but she could do her hair up properly if she concentrated. She was starting to wonder about her current braid, however.

For some reason, Sokka had talked her into wearing a more traditional Water Tribe hairdo instead of her normal top-knot. It was a little annoying, but not enough to ruin her mood. The way her hair hung down over her eyes made it hard to see well, and she wasn't sure it was particularly flattering. Sokka's comment that it made her look, "almost humane," didn't help much.

How had he talked her into it? Well, he wanted to play a prank on his sister. Toph wouldn't likely notice any difference, although neither of them were aware that he would come with the princess. She had pretended to be someone else before, and didn't really mind it, but doing it just for fun was new to her. It would be interesting to see if she could fool Katara this time, as pretending to be a Kyoshi Warrior had failed once they met eye to eye. Playing someone Katara hadn't met before would likely be easier, though.

Sokka had told her Toph hadn't met her parents in a long while, so they had decided to meet a little bit outside town, in a clearing. They had found the stream the earthbender said led to the clearing, or at least they hoped it was the right one. It was unusual to follow a blind girl's directions, after all.

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Author's notes:

Thus ends the tenth chapter of the story. This was one of those chapters I knew I had to write, but had no idea what would actually happen within it. I found it relaxing, though, with just the two of them interacting casually, and nothing special going on.

/ Another Duck