gemsofformenos: "Their captors seem to have abandoned this place since they have found out that Azula survived her escape." Yeah, they didn't want to take any chances lol so they hauled ass. "So far this place seems to be a dead end and even worse it brought back the raw panic in a terrible flashback." But yes, it was a dead end and pretty much just ended with Azula getting triggered into something of a flashback. "She won't take her actions easy." She won't take well to knowing that she'd hurt Sokka. "Azula is far from having handled her horrible experiences." Pretty much, she still has to face her demons there. She has support but she still hasn't come to terms with what has happened to her. "This was the first moment I found some time to read the new chapter and leave at least a bit of feedback, so sorry for that :-/" It's alright I actually had a kind of busy week too lol. Hopefully you can find time to catch up with your reading and writing! You're welcome and I hope that things will be less hectic soon.
Meep123456: "Holy crap this is good. Cant wait to see what happens next" Thank you :D I hope you like the new chapter.
RadioDog77: xP And naturally I got busy IRL just on time for the mother of all cliffhangers in this fic. I hope that this one is worth the wait!
Azula jerks up right, it is dark and nippy and her body still shakes. She inspects her arms, but it is too dark to see if there are any new stitches. She doesn't feel like there are. She doesn't feel the slick warmth of blood. If they haven't picked at her arms then…
She lifts her shirt and runs her hands over her sides and belly. She only finds the visages of old wounds.
Squinting her eyes, she feels the length of her legs. They are smooth and unscarred.
Perhaps her back…
She begins to come back to herself. She realizes that she is not in the white room and when she tries to recall what has happened to her, she remembers it with perfect clarity. And, Agni, does she wish that she didn't.
Azula swallows hard and draws her legs up to her chest. Sokka and Zuko snore audibly and the Imperial Firebenders-save for the one on look out-slumber around her.
She wonders how many of them it had taken to subdue her.
She is dangerous.
This is why everyone had looked at her with fear in their eyes when she'd first come back.
"You're awake." Sokka notes. She cringes and scans his chest for a burn. His parka has a hole burned through it but it doesn't look as though she has hurt him. That doesn't stop her from thinking of how terribly she might have.
She casts her eyes away from him as she says, "yes."
"Good. I was kind of worried." At Sokka's reply, Zuko stirs. "Why don't we go somewhere else so we don't wake everyone up?"
"Because you probably shouldn't be alone with me, especially not here."
At first he looks puzzled and then he seems to connect the dots. "I'm not afraid of you."
"Maybe you should be." She mutters as she props herself up against the wall. Against, perhaps, her better judgement, Azula pushes away Sokka's parka. She nearly grimaces at the sight of an angry red blotch on his upper chest.
"It's no big deal!" Sokka says quickly. "It's like a sunburn…"
Azula narrows her eyes. "Sunburns only blister when they are serious."
"It's an easy fix." He insists. When we get back to Katara, she can heal it right away."
And when Katara sees it...when the others see it...the delicate trust that they've established will be null. She lightly bites her lower lip and says nothing at all.
"Go back to sleep, you could use the rest."
Azula puts her head back down but she doesn't close her eyes. There is no sense trying. She watches Sokka get himself cozy again. She rolls onto her side, feeling sick and nauseous. The compound has been built to keep the cold out but she finds herself chilled in spite of this. She can still feel hands on her. Can still feel needles and scalpels burrowing into her delicate skin and exploring her chi points.
Her head throbs.
Her body shakes lightly.
She holds herself tightly. She knows that it is terribly irrational yet she still feels as though and can't fight off the thought that they will come back for her. That she will see their silhouetted figures haloed in moonlight and battered by snow standing in the doorway. That they will pick her off of the floor and drag her into the compact bowles of the compound where they will wrap vines around her head and continue to pick her apart.
Azula swallows and fixes her eyes on the door, should it so much as creak she will have fire on her palms. She can hear her blood beating behind her ears and her heart thumping in her chest.
.oOo.
She is crying softly to herself again. He is surprised that she has only awakened him. He doesn't need to see it to know that her golden eyes gleam with tears. He has an urge to wipe them away with his thumbs. Instead he reaches out. His hand stops a few feet from her shoulder before he retracts it and utters a quiet, "hey."
Azula's body jerks. He catches the smallest burst of fire before it dies away. He finds himself thankful that he hadn't abruptly touched her again.
She turns to him.
"I can't sleep here Sokka, I can't stay here" She chokes out.
Sokka bites his lip, beginning to regret having so quickly shot down the possibility of seeking shelter elsewhere. "Sorry." He mumbles.
"For what?"
"For not even considering trying to find somewhere else to stay…"
She dismisses the apology. "Not logical anyways."
"Huh?"
"For the whole of the group, it is better to stay here." Her voice is still breathy and shaky with nerves but her speech sounds much more like her. Reassuringly like her. "But I can't stay here."
"Do you want to try to find someplace else?"
She seems to hone in on the relentless howl of the wind as it beats against and throws snow at the compound. She shakes her head. "It'll be morning by the time we do, anyways."
"So what do you want to do?"
She shakes her head. "Nothing that I'm actually able to do right now."
His heart clenches and he gives the room a once over. "Why don't we go for a little walk? We can find a part of the compound that you haven't been in much." He suggests.
Azula nods. "That might help."
He offers a hand and hopes that she will take it. He freats when her eyes wander to the singed portion of his parka.
.oOo.
She lets Sokka help her to her feet, though she is perfectly capable of doing as much on her own, it is nice to have the hand there. "That hallway is familiar." She points to it. "We should try that one." She tugs him towards the hallway opposite it. He makes no objections.
"Are you going to be alright?" He asks.
"In the morning, when we leave here, I will be." Azula answers.
She takes a corner and drops her pillows and sleeping bag.
"You just want to sleep in the hall?"
"I don't like being in any of those rooms." She suppresses a shudder. Distantly, in her mind, she still feels out of sorts. Still feels as though she is in two places...two time frames at once. That she is not quite in her own body.
It will only take a small nudge to knock her out of it completely and back to that place. That place that is only torment and unyielding fear.
"Okay, that's fine." Sokka smiles. She tries to keep her stare on it. It is pleasant, unlike the angry red mark on his chest. She spreads out her sleeping back and sits down upon it. Sokka takes a seat next to her and hovers his hand above her back. "Can I?"
Azula nods and his hand finds its usual place between her shoulder blades. "You're so tense." He remarks.
"Yes." She confirms.
"Here, lay down."
Her body aches and strains all over so she complies with that instruction. She lays upon her belly and tucks her arms under her head. Sokka lifts the back of her shirt and gently prods at the chi point located at the small of her back. She gives a soft little sigh, only one chi point in and some of the tension has already left her.
He works his hands up her back, tenderly rubbing the aches out of it. She closes her eyes and silently drinks in the soothing feeling of his touch.
.oOo.
He wonders if it would kill the mood to tell her that he had, indeed, asked Dr. Phang for massage tips after her little jest about doing so. Decidedly, it will so he continues quietly working out the knots in Azula's chi points.
Her breathing is growing more relaxed and even and his heart floods with relief. He can only imagine how relieved she feels. He reaches the spot between her shoulder blades, this is a particularly tense spot, the muscles beneath feel almost more knotted than the chi points. He cups his hands in small C's over her shoulders and carefully squeezes and lifts. With any luck he can relax her enough to get her to sleep.
Azula still says nothing but occasionally gives a hushed, satisfied hum.
"Roll over."
The princess does so. Now, lying on her back, Sokka places the heels of his hands on the sides of her neck and rubs out. "This one has always been tricky for me." He notes as he tries to work out the kinks in her neck.
"You're fine." She mumbles.
He smiles. "Good to know." When he finishes working with her neck and works with her arms. These are nearly as tense as her shoulders. It takes him longer to rub the soreness from them. He lightly but firmly presses his thumbs over her chi points, taking special attention to not dig too deep and cut off her chi.
Sokka is reassured that he is doing well at the faintest smile that appears on her lips.
.oOo.
He sets right arm down and picks up the other. Her right arm hums and tingles pleasantly. It is looser and considerably less achy than it had been. Sokka doesn't quite have the expertise of Dr. Phang, but he is a formidable substitute.
From her arms he moves to her legs. Personally, she would have gone for the chest first but she doesn't argue. Her legs are mighty sore from trudging through the snow for hours. It is well to feel some of the tension in them alleviated. It is a very helpful distraction from her surroundings. She closes her eyes as his hands move to her navel. Truly, her fire chakra and the chi points around it can use the massage. He is kind and careful when working with it. He works the palm of his hand in circles over her abdomen. Over and over until she feels like her fire is flowing freely. It has been a while since she has felt her chakra burn so pleasantly warm.
She gives another small and pleasured sigh.
He seems to hesitate, his hand lingers above her chest until she takes it in hers and brings his touch to her skin. "I don't mind. Go on." She doesn't mind at all. She just hopes that he is comfortable as well.
Sokka hesitates only a moment more before rubbing the same circles on her chest. The massage is endlessly soothing. She can almost find sleep. Mayhaps one day, she could try to return the favor.
"There." He says, withdrawing his touch.
"Lay down?" Azula pats the sleeping bag.
Sokka stretches himself out next to her. Her belly flutters, she isn't particularly one to take chances, but the entirety of her night has been full of anxiousness and discomfort. At least this time around it will be controlled. She pulls herself closer to him, half expecting him to scoot back or to lightly push her away.
Instead he resumes rubbing her back and shoulders.
She wraps her arms around him and presses her forehead against the unburned part of his chest.
She thinks that, perhaps, she can sleep like this.
.oOo.
Nervous jitters tingle in Sokka's tummy as the princess nuzzles herself against him. He was plenty aware of the intimacy of a massage, particularly an all over massage. But he hadn't been quite prepared for her to wiggle herself so close.
He doesn't have any complaints though. The night has an abundant chill and her body is tremendously warm, especially with her fire chakra flowing more freely. She wraps her arms around him and he returns the gesture.
As he rubs her back and shoulders, he again finds himself wondering if he should be so affectionate with her. He peers down at Azula, her frame is so small against his own. Small but full of frightening power. He feels her hands curl around the cloth of his parka.
She is, by all accounts, probably the most precious thing he has seen in a long time.
Since Suki.
Yet, he vividly recalls when that soft expression had been coldly and cruelly blank. When fire cast sinister shadows upon it. When it was accented by a truly devious and unkind smirk. When those hands that bunch into his park hand punched bursts of fire at he and his friends.
And she is oblivious to the burnt of it.
For the time, her hands trace the muscles of his biceps, rubbing in small circles that are as tender as the ones he had offered her. Still, he can't help but wonder how long that will last when her mind is whole again.
"Thank you, Sokka." She mumbles.
His stomach lurches and he feels guilty for thinking somewhat ill of her. "For what."
She squints her eyes as though he has inquired about the most stupid thing. "Just in general, I suppose."
He finds himself running his hand over her hair. She utters a quiet little purr.
Still it takes him aback when she presses a kiss to his neck. And this one is much less brief than the peck she had given him back at the institution.
He hugs her closer.
Fears and reluctances be damned, he thinks that he might be falling for her.