Thanks, Papyrus, VividDreamer. :D I will admit, I was pulling out every organ stop I could on that one. (I'll also admit I was aiming to make an echo of those particular words…) He will always be with her, I think. If he has anything to say about it.
This next one I wrote, um… in a less serious tone. Hope you like this one too. And thanks again for reading, everybody.
Short Shorts
Sokka was up in the early morning in the winter at the Fire Palace. The Gaang was there as guests of the Fire Lord. He was up and no one else was, so he thought he'd explore.
He pondered aesthetically at the Fire Nation architecture, made faces at the Fire Lords in their grand ceiling-to-floor tapestries, and thought it was funny how in a place called the Fire Nation, the whole building was so dark. He was going to have to pull Zuko's leg about that.
The funny thing was that was exactly who Sokka came upon next. He found Zuko practicing his Lightningbending—or trying to.
The Fire Lord was clad in a loose, tan-colored tunic and pants, and he stood in a room with a sand floor and a reinforced, fire-blackened wall at one end. Zuko stood stock still, hands at mid-level, centering himself. He raised a hand to shoulder level and scooped it down, gathering charge. Then the other hand went high and came down, gathering more. He brought his brought his fingertips together, centered, and pointed—and the air exploded. Zuko was blown off his feet.
Sokka jerked way from the doorway. He looked over at Zuko, concerned.
Zuko was decidedly less sanguine about it. He got back to his feet, dusted himself off, and centered himself. Again one hand went to shoulder level and came down, again the other hand did the same. Zuko brought them together, centered, pointed—boom. Another explosion. And more floor time for Zuko.
Sokka stood there and watched, his head tilted with a frown on his face.
This went on for a while. Zuko labored on, experimenting with different facets of what he was doing—changing his starting positions, moving slower, concentrating more, moving faster with greater force, greater speed—but he couldn't change the results. The only progress he was making was in how grubby he was becoming.
Sokka shook his head. He walked away—then shocked his hand on some of the metal in the doorframe. "Ow!" He shook his hand a little. Blasted dry weather—
Then he stopped. He looked at his hand, then at Zuko, still practicing… then at his hand again, then again at Zuko. A sly smile came to his face.
He waited for Zuko to get in range, which wasn't going to take long, given all the explosions. He shuffled his feet, building up a charge of his own, waited until Zuko was concentrating once again on gathering the lightning…
Then Sokka made a light-footed dash, came up behind Zuko, and touched him on the ear.
Zap.
Zuko whirled around in response, hitting Sokka's midsection. That unfortunately completed the circuit, and after a moment of sizzling shock…
BOOM.
Both Zuko and Sokka were knocked flat on their backs. Painfully they levered themselves up onto their elbows.
Zuko glared at Sokka. "Idiot."
Sokka just closed his eyes and grinned at him.
