SUKI

EVERY DAY SINCE SHE SNUCK OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND TOLD THEM EVERYTHING SHE KNEW, SUKI MET WITH A MEMBER OF THE AVATAR'S PARTY. It was always after dinner, when the Warriors of Kyoshi were allowed a short break, technically free to go and do whatever they wanted. Some read, some practiced, some meditated, some sat around and gossiped. Suki, though, had always been known for her walks. She would stroll off into the woods, and disappear. She always went to the same spot, a small clearing deep in the forest that surrounded the central compound and its attached village. She avoided the roads and the trails, skirted the fields and the farms. She just went to her spot, and forgot about the world.

Lately, though, she had company. Every day, it was someone different. Sometimes it would be Lobsang, and he would tell her jokes and do his best to keep her spirits up. Other times, it would be Toph, though how Toph got there, Suki couldn't begin to guess. The day before, it had been Azula, whom Suki suspected of just wanting to show off that, no matter how closely she was watched, she would do whatever she damn well pleased.

Today, though, it was Sokka, and Suki was a bit nervous. Because, see, that clearing?

That was their spot.

It had been where she had trained him, laughed with him, gotten to know him, broken through the language barrier to joke and work and…well…

Do some other things she wasn't supposed to be doing…

Which, sure, always made her smile to remember, but, well…

Things had changed…

She beat him there, as was to be expected. Sokka always had run on what he called Water Tribe Time, which he described as, We get there when we get there. She wandered the clearing while she waited, unable to sit still or clear her mind. She kept looking at various spots, and remembering various things, and it was all very difficult to concentrate.

Focus, girl. You're twenty-five-years-old. Far too old to get flustered about such things…

Not for the first time, she cursed the vow of chastity that bound members of the Order. Sure, it was followed as much in the violation as in the observance (as evidenced by the fact that the most common item sold in the local apothecary's shop was moon tea), but the mere fact that it was technically forbidden meant no one talked about it. So, whilenormal girls could talk to girlfriends, or sisters, or aunts, or whoever, Suki was stuck running things around in her head, without the experience of others to compare it to.

It was, in a nutshell, extremely annoying, not to mention confusing, neither of which sensations were things Suki had ever had much patience for.

She heard him long before she saw him. She turned to a spot in the trees, and smiled as he came bursting out into the open. He was brushing twigs and leaves from his clothes, stomping his feet, a scowl on his face as he cursed a blue streak in his native tongue. She giggled, crossing her arms and tilting her head to one side, the better to take in the view. "Have fun?" she called, doing nothing to hide the amusement in her voice.

He shot her a scowl which she took great pleasure in. "Yeah, laugh it up." He brushed a few final leaves from his clothes, before pulling out his tobacco pouch to roll himself a cigarette. "By the way," he said, sticking the cigarette in his mouth and lighting it with a match struck off a tree, "there is way too much bullshit to get tangled on in these woods."

Suki shrugged, turning to a tree to run her hand along the bark. "I dunno, personally, I like it. Peaceful, quiet…"

He scoffed. "Quiet?"

She rolled her eyes. "Well, quiet when normal people travel through it. Not everyone barrels through the woods like a komodo-rhino in heat."

She turned back to him in time to catch the shrug. "Maybe so, but not everyone grows up surrounded by trees."

"What, they don't have trees in the South?"

He looked up. "Not like these they don't." He blew out a thick stream of smoke, before looking back to her. "How're you doing, Suki?"

She could only shrug, and try not to feel a few sudden degrees colder. "That's…that's a very good question. Sokka. Things are…tense, and they don't seem to be getting any better."

"Are they getting any worse?"

She shook her head. "I wish they were; then, I might know how to respond. No, they're just…staying exactly as terrible as they already are. Which, you know, sucks."

He nodded, his face twisted in a grimace. "I know what you mean."

She gave herself a shake, shrugging off her dark thoughts. "Whatever. How goes things with you guys this evening?"

"Well…Korra's on some crazy meditation jag, and Toph's convinced she's one small step away from cracking metalbending, so she's pretty much focused on that."

Suki popped an eyebrow. "Korra's on a meditation jag? Isn't that more Lobsang's bag?"

"Meh, she's changed a lot since you met her. A…a lot of things happened, you know? Not all of them good, but…" He trailed off, a look on his face that she couldn't quite figure out. There were so many things there, so many feelings and emotions, struggling for dominance. What those things were, she could only guess, and she wasn't sure she really wanted to know. "But…yeah," he said, giving an awkward shrug, "that's that."

She nodded, not entirely sure what she was thinking. "And what about Azula?"

Sokka chuckled, and that lopsided grin of his was back. "Well, Azula, you see, spent last night swiping a book from your Matron's bookshelf, and she's got her nose stuck in that tonight. She'll probably be up half the night, plowing through it."

Suki sighed, shaking her head. Not only did Azula not strike her as the bury her nose in a book and read type (though, Suki had to admit, she is a princess…), but, there was that other matter. "Let me get this straight: Your friend, the princess, broke into Matron's room and stole a freaking book?!"

Sokka laughed, and gave a what-can-you-do sort of shrug. "What can I say? Girl's a big believer in go big, or go home. It's why her and Toph get along so well."

Suki could only laugh at that. "I can imagine. Still…" The question came out of nowhere, hurtling from the furthers reaches of her mind, back where she had buried it. "Hey…Sokka?"

"Hmm?" He was looking at her with those innocent eyes of his, as if he had no idea what was coming. He probably doesn't, she admitted to herself. He's not one to ponder the hidden questions of life.

"Um…are we okay?"

He blinked, obviously confused, and she instantly regretted ever bringing it up. Rubbing the back of his neck, he said, "Um…yeah? Why wouldn't we be?"

She shrugged, wrapping her arms around her body, feeling rather chilled. "Well…um…" She paused, and had to struggle not to nibble on her lip or start playing with her hair, because she was a warrior, dammit, not some confused little girl. And it's time to get this out of the way. "Because…you know…you and me…we had that thing…"

He went beet red, and coughed into his hand in an obvious attempt to cover it up. "Well…um…yeah…we did…um…but…uh…look-"

She was raising her hands, palms out, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she had time to think about them. "It's just that…you know…we had our thing, and it was fun, and awesome, but a lot of things have happened since then, and a lot of things have changed, and I just don't want there to be any awkwardness or confusion or mixed signals or…you know…stuff…"

She realized with a shock that she had stopped looking at him. She tore her eyes from what had, until that moment, been a very fascinating rock on the forest floor, and settled them on him.

She instantly felt like a fool. What was I even worried about? He was standing there, beet red, mouth hanging wide open, looking completely and utterly lost and confused.

It was very hard not to laugh at herself. Clapping a hand to her face, she heaved a very relieved sigh. "You weren't thinking about any of that at all, were you? You weren't even worrying about it."

He chuckled, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well…um…I'm not going to lie and say that I wasn't thinking about it, because, you know, who wouldn't, you look really good naked, and I'd have to be dead to not stand in this place and remember that."

You look pretty good naked, too, she remembered with the kind of smile she'd almost forgotten she could make. "Naturally," she admitted, doing nothing to restrict the feeling of pride that welled from within at his compliment, driving the last of the chill from her body.

"Heh…yeah…but…um…you're right. Things have changed, and a lot of time has passed, well, maybe, not a lot, but almost three years, you know? And I'm not the kind of guy to assume that, just because a girl and I had a fling, she's been pining away for me all this time, desperate to hurl herself into my arms again."

"Good," she said, with a forcefulness that she tried to soften with a smile, "because if you had been thinking like that, I'd totally kick your ass."

He chuckled. "Yeah…and I'd deserve it…still…we're totally just having a long conversation about how we're both on the same page, aren't we?"

She rolled her eyes, more at herself than him. "Yeah…pretty much." She gave herself a shake, and stretched out her hand. "Friends, though, right?"

He took the hand, and gave the kind of handshake that someone from the Water Tribes would normally only give a man. Good, she thought, because if he ever tries to give me that pansy handshake he tried to give me when first we met…

She remembered Sokka, a few years younger, sprawled in the grass, eyes wide, while his sister doubled over in hysterics. Oh, Katara, if you could only see me now…

He was smiling. "Um, fucking duh."

They let go of each other's hands, and she heaved a big sigh of relief. Seriously, Katara, where are you when I need you? "So, news and intelligence, right?"

He performed his patented shrug-and-grin. "That is why we're here."

"Heh…quite. So…"

I almost didn't put this in (PHRASING), mostly because I was worried it would come off to someone as, Oh, look at Suki, the giggling, blushing girl. But this is a fact of life, isn't it? Sometimes, we have a fling, and then we meet up with that person later, and if the fling went well, and there was some emotional connection there, well, it can get awkward, you know? Most of the time, we don't talk about it, because, for us Americans, at least, sex is taboo, and should never be spoken of.

Personally, I'm a big fan of two adults talking it out if they have something to talk about. So, Suki needed to get that off her chest, because it has been a long time, and a lot of things have changed, and it's not like they have time for that kind of thing, anyways.

And then I wrote it, and I liked it, and I kept it. I hope it came off well.

Moving on! In the next chapter, Toph is fucking awesome, and I'm totally going to make you experience some feels. Stay tuned!