Sokka groaned as his eyes fluttered open and the pounding headache came to him. He always hated that downside of drinking. He laid in bed for another few minutes before slowly getting to his feet. He squinted as he looked out to the lashing rain, the grey sky still too bright for his eyes to handle. He began getting dressed, but frozed. His eyes widened.
"She was completely drunk. There's no way she'd remember what happened last night...right?" He quickly said a silent prayer to whatever spirit dealt with memories and finished getting dressed. He stepped into the hallway and glanced into Satoru's empty room as he walked past. "She's probably still asleep. Just act like nothing happened."
He let out a loud yawn and stretched his arms towards the sky as he stepped into the kitchen. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Satoru sitting at the table, writing in his notepad. He let his arms drop and hit noisily against his sides. Satoru glanced up at him and quickly looked back down. Sokka watched him as he walked to the counter before heating up a pot of tea. After a few minutes of silence, Satoru sighed and flicked a couple of pages back.
"Sokka–"
"Don't even speak to me."
Satoru pushed his glasses up and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I want to apologise for–"
Sokka turned quickly, slamming his fist onto the table and glaring at Satoru. "I told you to stay quiet!"
Satoru gulped but didn't break eye contact. He calmly raised his palms to Sokka. "We need to talk," he said, keeping careful watch for any sudden movements.
"No, we don't." Sokka turned back around, picking up his cup.
"Yes, we do!" Satoru sat up straighter when the Southern warrior looked back over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at him. "I don't want to fight; I wouldn't have a hope of winning."
"I know you wouldn't, especially against a savage like me," Sokka spat, and Satoru's face fell.
"Please, just sit down and listen to me." Satoru mumbled, his voice wavering.
"Now you want me to listen to you? What happened to us talking?"
"Sokka, please." He fidgeted under Sokka's gaze as he stood there. Sokka slowly walked over and sat at the table. "Thank you."
"Have you talked to Toph?" he asked, eyeing Satoru suspiciously.
"Yes. She told me to apologise to you and tread very lightly from now on," Satoru said while Sokka looked back to her room. "Apparently, her head was killing her and she was throwing up. She went to the Jasmine Palace to see if Iroh has anything to help." Sokka twisted back around, eyeing Satoru. "First things first, I'm sorry about what I said last night. I was drunk and I know that–"
"I was drunk too, but I didn't go around calling you an ash maker," Sokka cut in. "Even though I have a lot of reasons to still be angry at the Fire Nation."
"You're right, but would you please let me explain?" Sokka gave a slight shrug and motioned for him to continue. "Thank you. I headed straight back here last night to do a bit of thinking," Satoru told him. "Would you agree that you haven't been the most...hospitable person towards me since you joined this trip?" Sokka cocked his eyebrow. "Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm on about."
"So you called me a savage because I've been mean to you?" Sokka said as he leaned forward.
"I never called you a savage."
"You implied it," he shot back. Satoru rubbed his eyes again as he let out a long sigh.
"Fine, yes, I did."
"And now you're suggesting it's my fault for your remarks in the bar?"
"No!" Sokka was beginning to give him a headache worse than any cactus juice could. "However, I do think the way you've treated me certainly...attributed to my outburst." Sokka sat back in his chair, crossing his arms. "Since you joined Toph and I on this trip, I've tried to be nothing but friendly towards you, but for whatever reason, you seem to despise me."
He paused, expecting some quip from Sokka, but he stayed quiet. "At first, I thought you were simply a reserved person, but these past few weeks have shown me different. I don't know if it was a coincidence but you seemed to change from uninterested in being civil to outright hating my guts just before we visited Aunt Wu."
"That's a strong way to phrase it," Sokka noted as he watched Satoru reach into his bag. He frowned when he spread out four cards across the table.
"These are the cards Aunt Wu used to tell my fortune," Satoru told him, scratching the back of his neck and looking away from Sokka. "She let me have them to help me keep an eye out for the fortune."
"You're basing your thoughts on something a fortuneteller told you? I expected too much of you clearly."
"Yes, I am. I didn't know what to make of it at first but what she has told me about these cards is–"
"Extremely vague and can be applied to any situation."
"Will you listen for five minutes?!"
"You're lucky I'm even here." Sokka grinned as Satoru massaged his temples. Once the engineer calmed himself, he flipped the first card on his left.
"The four of diamonds stands for financial upswing; an older person may give advice worth listening to," Satoru said, reading from the notes in his book. "I gave hardly any thought to these until Iroh spoke to me in the Jasmine Dragon, then everything else began to make sense." Satoru glanced up and caught the roll of Sokka's eyes. "No smart comment?"
"Other than you're an idiot for believing this stuff? Nope." Satoru gave a small shake of his head before turning over the second card.
"The Jack of Air stands for a dark-haired youth who is hostile. I immediately thought of you when Aunt Wu first told me this. Although I didn't need a card reading to tell me that you disliked me." Sokka's apathetic look didn't leave his face. "However, it was this third card that made me realise why that's the case."
"This should be good." Sokka raised an eyebrow, shifting forward in his chair, as Satoru flipped over the third card.
"The five waves represents jealousy– more specifically, the jealousy that someone has towards you." Sokka's eyes went wide for a moment before he bared his teeth.
"You think I'm jealous of you?!" he growled. "Why would I be jealous of you? Yes, you're smarter than me, but I've met a lot of people who are, so don't think I'm intimidated by that." He squinted at the nervous engineer. "Maybe you think I'm jealous of the fact that you're from the great Fire Nation, and I'm just a lonely Southern–"
"You're jealous of Toph and I spending time together," Satoru said. "That's it, isn't it?"
Sokka's mouth hung open for a few seconds before he forced out a laugh. "You're delusional!"
"I'm only delusional because I didn't realise it earlier. You obviously see me as some sort of…" Satoru bit his lip, noticing the way Sokka slightly cocked his head, "threat to you and Toph's relationship."
"You...you honestly think I like Toph in that way? She doesn't even like me like that!" Sokka said, uncertainty in his voice. It was Satoru's turn to stare at Sokka.
"You don't think Toph likes you?"
"Of course, she doesn't! We're close friends, sure, but that's it." The events of the night before replayed in the back of Sokka's mind.
"Then you're more blind than she is." Satoru chuckled lightly. "Would you think for second just how close you two are?" His eyebrows shot up when the warrior didn't respond.
Sokka's mind raced with the little things– none of which he had ever given a second thought. The way Toph would grab onto him first if she couldn't see, how she didn't mind hugging him when she would keep most people at arm's length, and their conversation when she and Katara were fighting. He wasn't going to admit it, especially not to Satoru, but it made him happy to realise how strong their bond was.
"I guess she might care more for me than I thought," he admitted. "Don't think that means I'm the same." Satoru smiled at him. "I love Toph, but not in that way," Sokka snapped.
"I see the way you two are together. Why else would you be–" Sokka stood up from the table and began walking away. "So you have no problem with me dating Toph when she turns sixteen next year?" Sokka stopped dead in his tracks.
"You put too much trust in the palms of frauds."
"I'd have thought someone who reads them for a living would need trustworthy palms," Satoru muttered.
Sokka didn't move. He looked down at his hands, and realised he was tracing the very line Aunt Wu had focused so much on. Love is blind, echoed in his mind.
"Assuming I did like Toph, why would you give up someone as amazing as her so easily?" Sokka said, half turning his head towards Satoru, who sighed as he turned over the last card.
"The three waves symbolises a difficult choice in the matter of the heart; an inability to decide who to love."
"You're not about to tell me you're in love with me, right?" Sokka gave a weak grin.
"Nothing of the sort," the engineer said through a small laugh. "The way Toph has spoken about you before makes me certain that my experience with you has so far been an anomaly. I thought I was close with her, but after spending only the past couple weeks with both of you, I've come to realise...I'm not you." He let out a slow sigh. "Toph and I could probably have a great relationship, but I think she would be much happier with you. I'm perfectly fine with simply being a friend of hers and that's not going to change. Personally, I think this is the best for Toph."
Sokka looked at him, his mouth dry.
"Think it over. You'll see I'm right. You should get packing, by the way. We're travelling to the South Pole today."
Sokka licked his lips, but simply gave Satoru a short nod and headed for his room.
Thanks to NerdyJFics for reading over and helping me with this chapter, and Serenity for the further help!
Well I felt like that talk went quite well; Sokka and Satoru have somewhat made up and no one lost a tooth. I hope you enjoyed finally finding out what Satoru's fortune was and how it eventually tied into the others. There is only two chapters or so left in the story. Planning to have the next chapter up sometime next week.
For those of you who may be wondering about the card suits, I wanted to make them seem a bit more Avatary and thankfully fortune telling with playing cards already have the elements attached to them. You might or might not find it interesting, so here. Hearts – Water - Waves Clubs - Fire - Flames Diamonds – Earth Spades - Air - Winds
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as always would love to hear your opinion on it so far, or any little comments you may have. Consider following if you'd like to keep up with the story. Thanks for reading!