Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 3, Chapter 2.
Author: roses_are_a_weed
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.
Rating: Mature.
Warnings for this part: References to attempted rape. References to the aftermath of a tragic event. References to violence and suffering. Crossdressing.
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.
Notes: So the renovations, or at least the ones that affect me, are finally over. Just in time for Uni to start on Monday. Yay, or something. So I managed to get this written, but I'm not sure when the next chapter will be finished.
000
Breakfast tasted like ashes in his mouth; he had no appetite, but he had to eat, he had no keep going. Light came in weakly from the latticed windows, leaving a dappled pattern on everything it touched, like sunlight filtering through leaves. He felt numb. Dead. Cold and hard and frozen to his bones.
The day before wore at him, seemed to sit on his chest and force all the air out. Maybe he had died in that alleyway, it felt like it.
Toph sat near him, but not too near, her presence at once faintly comforting and horrifically oppressing. He wanted to be alone and it made him feel guilty. He wasn't the only one trapped in this awful life, this awful place, and she deserved better, but he couldn't quite make himself okay, and the pressure of having to try for her sake was strangling him.
It wasn't her fault, of course she was concerned. He knew he wasn't doing a good job of acting like there was nothing wrong.
He managed about half his small bowl of rice-porridge before he gave up, handing it to Toph without a word as he got to his feet. The clunk of his heavy wooden soles against the stone floor was reassuring. Until they could afford weapons he wasn't going anywhere without them, they were the only thing he had to defend himself aside from his fists, and the night before had shown him how well that would work. He smoothed down his outfit, readjusting the heavy black cloth of his new pair of voluminous trousers with a glance to their washing line where his violently green Spring Sparrowkeet uniform hung, still too damp to wear. The night before, while Toph ate and he picked at his own dish of stew, he'd carefully mended the cuts and tears it had suffered in his misadventures, before washing both it and himself.
Hopefully Mei-Chu would understand; hopefully. If she didn't maybe she'd give him his pay before firing him, it was payday after all.
He slipped the knee length, black-on-black embroidered jacket over his standard white shirt with the back collar and cuffs, and fastened its black-stone toggles, looking to Toph when he was done. She had finished her breakfast and was stretching, preparing to get to her feet so they could start their futile search.
They didn't have enough dried meat left for him to start a stew for lunch, they had a little bit, sure, but not enough. Unless they wanted the expense of eating at a restaurant that night, if he was paid, both lunch and dinner were going to have to be rice or millet and maybe a mouthful or two of dried meat. If he got his pay the first thing he would do the next morning was go to the market and get some food, even before getting some new posters done.
"Are you ready to go?" he asked Toph, speaking for the first time since he'd awoken from a surprisingly deep, and thankfully dreamless, sleep.
"Yeah," she replied, standing and walking to the door; he followed after, shutting the door behind them.
It was shaping up to be a beautiful, sunny day, a fact that left him feeling the faint aftertaste of annoyance. Clouds, rain, lightening would be more fitting, he felt, though the weather wasn't there to pander to his emotional state. They walked in silence to where they'd left off the day before-the day before, before commencing their search, as futile as it felt, again in silence. The next couple of hours were filled with the sound of his shoes clacking against the cobbles, the sound of the unasked questions welling up in Toph's throat, the sound of the crowd, but never the sound of their voices.
At least he could no longer hear screams.
It was nearing lunchtime, work time, so they turned around, beginning the trek back; he gave the street one last glimpse over his shoulder, before freezing. He'd caught a glimpse of blue fabric disappearing around a corner, blue fabric, Katara. He opened his mouth to shout her name, except a man was suddenly stumbling into him. "Sorry miss," the man said, staggering back and leaning heavily on his cane "Didn't mean to stumble into you."
"That's okay," he mumbled, distracted, eyes darting around, hoping for another glimpse of blue.
The man kept getting in the way, moving into his field of vision "Are you sure miss?"
"Yes, yes," he waved off the man's concern "I'm sure."
"Are you sure you're sure?" and, okay, this was starting to get irritating. The man was too close.
Before he had a chance to reply, Toph was snapping "Yes, she's sure. Now leave us alone."
The man drew himself up, looking down his nose at both of them. "If you want to be like that," he hissed, contempt clinging to his words as he turned and hobbled off down the street.
Toph sighed and shook her head "What is wrong with the people in this city? Why won't they leave us alone?"
"I honestly don't know," he replied, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder. She covered his hand with her own, giving it a quick squeeze in return, before turning to him and speaking.
"It felt like something startled you before we were interrupted?"
"I saw, thought I saw, someone wearing blue over there, going around that corner. Did you sense- sense her?"
She shook her head. "It's far enough away that things are a bit fuzzy, and I was focussing in the other direction." She paused, looking down "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," he said, "but if it was her she may still be here."
Toph nodded, and as one they started in that direction. He kept his eyes open as they turned the corner, but he didn't see even the slightest flash of blue. They went from shop to shop, searching inside and asking the people they met, but no one had seen anyone who matched her description, and it was getting late, he had to get back if he wanted to get to work on time.
"This is pointless," he sighed "Come on; if we hurry there'll be time for lunch." Toph walked along beside him for a few streets, before stopping. "What?"
"I think some of them were lying," she said, a contemplative frown on her face.
He whirled to face her "What do you mean, 'you think'? Either they were or they weren't! And why didn't you tell me this earlier?"
She shrugged "They were terrified. Really, honestly, terrified. So I'm not completely sure it wasn't just their fear I was sensing."
"Oh," if only they had time to go back, to ask more questions, but that might not have been- her- and if it wasn't... it just wasn't worth losing his job over. "Could you come back while I'm at work? Look around, see what you can find."
She nodded, said "Yes" decisively.
"Good," he sighed, "We'd better get going."
They were approaching the market when the crowd began to thicken again, when he saw people fleeing as surreptitiously as possible, when the anxiety level of the populace began to increase and shouts began to rise above the throng. It was going to be another blockade, he just knew it. "Do you have your passport?" he asked Toph as he checked to make sure his was still in his pocket.
"Yeah," she replied "Why?"
"Because, if I'm right, there are men up ahead inspecting them."
"Should we find another way?" she asked.
He shook his head "I don't think any of the other streets will be clear either. What's the point of a blockade if people can find their way around it?"
She grunted, noncommittal, but didn't say anything else. The crowd moved slowly forward, pulling them along until he could see the green uniformed guards, see the people bound with rope, see the same sights as the last time. Unlike the last time, this time a guard, looking bored, distracted, asked to see his passport, Toph's. They showed him their documents and were waved through, just before a scuffle broke out after a large man hit another one of the guards in the face. He led Toph away without looking back, what could he do? It was none of his business.
The delay meant that he didn't have time for lunch, not even time to return to the apartment itself. He stopped in front of The Spring Sparrowkeet and turned to Toph "I need to get to work now; I know it's not much, but have the last of the dried meat for lunch, okay?"
She didn't say anything for a long moment before shrugging, "yeah. See ya."
"Bye."
He turned to the restaurant and took a deep breath, hoping he wasn't about to be fired, before walking inside. Jun looked up as he entered, an ugly smirk crossing her pretty, painted face. She preened a bit, readjusting her neckline so it showed just a tad more flesh, before turning to Xun, who was lounging near the back of the room. "Xun," she simpered, batting her lashes "Should I go get your mother? That girl has come back."
Xun grunted, but was saved the trouble of answering when Mei-Chu entered from the kitchen.
"Oh, you came back," the woman said, looking him up and down, her eyes lingering on his bruised face "I suppose you have an explanation for yesterday, as well as what's happened to your uniform?"
He nodded, thinking carefully about what he was going to say. He wanted it to be short, concise, and above all else he didn't want her asking questions about what had happened to him the day before. He didn't want to have to think about everything that had happened the day before. "An apartment collapsed when I was delivering the doctor's lunch. He asked me to help him, which I did, this led to my uniform being damaged and stained with blood." All those people, all those lives- "I've mended it and washed it, but it's not dry yet so I can't wear it. I'm sorry," and those words burned. What did he have to be sorry for? "For the inconvenience."
Mei-Chu nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I'll take your word for now, though I will be checking with the doctor to make sure you're not lying. I won't be paying you for yesterday. Or today, as I expect you to pay for the spare uniform that I'll be getting for you so that this doesn't happen again."
That meant she would be paying him, just not much. With two day's pay docked just then, plus half a day for the first uniform, he'd only be getting three silver. After the cost of the posters there wouldn't be that much for food, enough to last the week probably, but they weren't going to be eating anywhere but at home, and nothing too fancy. "I still have the job then?"
Mei-Chu rolled her eyes "Yes. Now get to it."
000
Something had happened to Sokka the day before. Something bad. Really bad. He thought he was being subtle, thought he was hiding it, but she could feel it rotting away at his core. He felt frozen, like ice, or glass, maybe glass was a better description, since it felt like he could shatter at any moment.
Maybe it was what he said it was, maybe it was just due to what he'd seen when he helped with the collapsed apartment, that would be more than horrible enough, but he'd felt like he was lying, and she wasn't mistaking terror for a lie either. She knew him too well for that.
No, something had happened to him, and if she discovered that it was a someone that had hurt him- well, what was one less monster in this monstrous world. She raised her head as Gan and Chun-Hue approached, for now she would focus on finding out if that had been Katara.
000