Bao gave his dagger a final swipe.
Cold winds brushed against his hair. The fire flickered in front, near the hundred year old abandoned fire vessel. He did not wait for the visitor to step close to his side. "How is everything?"
"As expected," the elderly Noatak, croaked, sitting up close to Bao on the lone log. "The chief's in law has not suspected you, even though she is a sharp one."
"I am kind to her."
"Of course," Noatak said, studying Bao for a bit more, "...but you have done well, and the Southern Water Tribe will thank you for your brave sacrifice. It is all for the best. Her staying here will complicate things even more-"
"She is having a son."
Noatak grew silent, his lips turned into a scowl, "Where did you hear the news from?"
"Sokka tells me everything."
"They will kill it. Her father will make sure it is done."
"Not if it severs ties with us," Bao murmured, checking the tip of his dagger. It was sharp enough to cut the toughest leather, sharp enough spill blood. "I have spoken to the Phoenix King to tell him the news. He is willing to consider the child's position in our relationship with the Fire Nation. If the child is there, safe with his mother, the Southern Water Tribe could have a political standing as high as the Northern Water Tribe. We will not be seen as lesser than our enemies, our enemies will fear us enough to not attempt to conquer us again."
"How can you be so sure?"
Bao looked up at the old wrinkled fool. "Princess Azula is on our side. Even though we will betray her for the survival of our tribe, I know she would take a dagger for us if necessary. Her innovations will forever be met with gratitude from my end - but unfortunately, she has become a liability to our people, and she knows it."
Ty-Lee had a terrible sensation. It gnawed the pit of her stomach, and as of late, she would clutch it so tight that she'd feel her nails digging into her silk clad skin. Her maid waited patiently for her to respond to the news she gave Ty-Lee.
The girl's appearance fooled others into thinking she was from the Fire Nation, but her name revealed otherwise. Ty-Lee took the girl in when the girl's mother, a Southern Water Tribe maiden, disowned Yuatak the moment she gave birth to her.
Yuatak's father, roamed the Royal Plaza knowing that Yuatak was the unfortunate result of his decision to rape her mother, and had yet to speak to the girl. Ty-Lee knew who he was, and took every opportunity to bring Yuatak to meetings where he was involved in order to make the filthy fool as uncomfortable as she wanted.
Yuatak proved that not only her mind was sharp, but her ears were sharper, and she informed Ty-Lee every secret once hidden.
Ty-Lee blinked at the eighteen summer old slave.
"Where did you hear this?" she asked, tightening her hold over her stomach. "Are you sure Princess Azula is expecting a boy?"
"I overheard it near the chambers," the girl said. Her blue eyes, her only Water Tribe trait, gleamed. "The strange man talking said the king wants to kill it."
"Not if the king wants to die quickly," Ty-Lee barely caught herself when she spoke.
Yuatak ignored her statement. She was the only person who knew Ty-Lee's allegiance, and was king enough to not speak back. "Your majesty...do you think they want to kill the boy...because he is like me?"
Ty-Lee turned to the open balcony, and the sun rise filtering into her room. Her legs peeking out of the slit of her robe, toasted under the sun's warmth. "Of course they do, Yuatak. But you have to understand that this world is filled with dangerous fools, people like that go very far to do evil."
"Alright."
Ty-Lee folded her arms. The gnaw in her stomach deepened, but she forced it down and looked up to the sun. "Even if they try doing evil, there is a high chance they may not succeed. This child is lucky for one reason: his mother and father are not the easiest people to kill off."
Sokka could not sleep. He has not been able to since the Phoenix King sent word he wanted Azula back. Sokka remembered reading the letter in front of his father, who advised him to keep silent for a few days before telling Azula.
Azula did not need to be told. She knew the moment he came back from the council meeting that something was wrong.
"Why aren't you sleeping?"
Azula sounded hoarse when rising from sleep. Sokka could feel her heartbeat each time they laid together. It kept him sane, it kept him from staring at the ceiling too much and not at the stars in his dreams. He took his wife's milky hand and kissed her knuckles.
"Go back to sleep," he murmured, his lips touching her ear as his hands palmed her bottom. "Before I take you up on a round two."
"I sleep peacefully when you do," she never moved her head front underneath his nose. She smelled sweet. "Your boy is restless, he won't sleep either."
"You're getting big in the right places," he murmured, squeezing her bottom. "Will I disturb him if I do a round two?"
"Oh no. You're making it easy for him to slide out when it's time...and thank you for letting me know I am as big as a whale," he laughed at her response. Azula shifted until she shared his gaze. "I can barely walk the way I used to."
He kissed her nose, then her lips. "You look gorgeous when you walk like a penguin."
A slight hush slipped inside the igloo. Azula froze, but not before Sokka rose quickly beneath the furs and snatch his dagger by the bed. They waited for the noise to utter out again.
Warmth grew behind him as a blue flame from Azula's hand, lit up the area. No one should be up by this time of the night. There should be no wandering shadows, no one sneaking into their sanctuary...no one attempting to assassinate them.
"Someone is here," Azula murmured.
"I know."
An orange light peered inside. Sokka held a hand out. A shadow peered behind their clothed doorway. The figure looked heavily bundled. When Sokka noticed he had no torch, his heart dropped. "It's them-"
"No. Wait." Azula said.
"What for?"
"Just wait…" she murmured, placing her free hand over Sokka's shoulder. "...he looks lost."
The curtains flew aside. The figure hid in the massive bundle of clothing around his body. Sokka could only see his eyes. The intruder paused, as soon as he spotted the blue light behind Sokka's silver dagger at his neck.
"Damn," he muttered, regarding Sokka's and Azula's naked state. "I thought this was a living room."
"Tell us why you're here," Sokka said. "Or I'll slit your throat and feed you to the polar bears in the mountains."
The intruder's golden eyes narrowed. "Tell me why you and my sister are naked and I'll give you an answer."
"Here."
Zuko took the bowl of pepper berry porridge from Azula. He sent Sokka a venomous look, taking the bowl with hands that could have been frozen if it were not for them. Zuko's lean frame worried her.
The boy who begged her to come with him did not resemble the emaciated man in heavy furs and long hair. The fireplace flickered. She sat back and watched her brother drink greedily from the third bowl he took. Not once did Zuko stop to focus on her. He kept giving Sokka a look that could kill one if they stared long enough.
"No mochis?" he asked, finally watching her. She shook her head, stunned by how much he resembled a haggard version of their father. "What type of village is this?"
"The village that kept me safe when our father banished me," she said.
Zuko paused. His eyes flickered and the scowl on his face dwindled. Azula wanted to reach out to hug him but she did not know how. She did not know what to say to him or what to do with him after watching him eat. Zuko put the porridge down and studied her a bit more.
"What?" she asked.
He blinked before returning back to his food. "You look like mother...and sound like her."
"..oh."
"You're expecting," he said with a low murmur. "This makes my mission difficult."
"What mission?"
Azula heard a shift. Sokka gave her a quick nod and stepped outside of the igloo. Katara and the others would have to be informed about her brother's arrival, and she had a lot of questions for him. The Southern Water Tribe was not an easy place to access. The only best route of travel besides traveling alone and risking hunger or being a Phoenix King and having the resources to travel alone, was to reach the Northern Water Tribe first and tip a sailor to head south.
Zuko sent the empty doorway a glare, "To take you out of this hole and off to the Earth Kingdom. I have a good home and Uncle Iroh owns a tea shop. He's waiting for you there. You don't have to be a prisoner to this place any longer, I could save-"
"Wait...you think I'm a prisoner here?" she asked.
Zuko frowned. "You're not? Father banished you here."
"Yes, and I did want to return back home for some time, but they've never held me hostage, and father ordered for my marriage to be consummated." she said.
Zuko's eyes widened. "He ordered for you to sleep with the wolf-"
"My husband," Azula stressed. "If I ran off, father would kill me. The people here even wanted to send me off once and lie that I was dead."
"But the news-"
Azula sighed. "Zuko, father made it illegal for me to stay here only after he tried to ask me to return home. Don't tell me you believe the tabloids back home?"
"What was I supposed to do?" he whispered, before biting his loaf of bread. "I didn't know how you were doing and they sent you here against your will. Did you really think I was going to listen to you when you told me you wouldn't follow me? I was planning."
Azula paused. "Planning for me?"
Zuko gaped as his brows furrowed. "What? Are you crazy, Zula? Of course I'd snatch you off if I had the chance, but this wolf screwed my chances-"
Curtains fluttered. Zuko returned back to gobbling down his porridge. Azula smirked at the knowing look on Sokka's face. Sokka gave her a wink before heading back out, sending Zuko another telling look. Zuko kept eating, sent quick glances back, and went back to eating again. Azula spent the early morning watching him with a tiny smile on her face. Her brother may have changed, but his 'Zuzu' spirit never left him.
Still…
Zuko's visit gave off several warnings. The lies her father spewed now reached the Earth Kingdom, and worst, many other parts of the world.
If the lies were so intense that her brother traveled to the Southern Water Tribe alone, what if her father already sent more fighters than the usual to come after her?
"Be careful this time, Arrluk," Sokka said to the young boy removing weights from his canoe onto the shores. "We have a new visitor. Check the premises to see if he brought anyone else."
Arrluk was Sokka's most sharpest spy, and quickest to escape if he saw any 'visitors'. Arrluk left the last weight in the canoe. He took a quick look around the premises before stepping up forward to the Chieftain's son.
The skies were an indigo blue, overlapping the sea's deep abyss and snowy caps above the igloos. The watchtowers of the Southern Water Tribe, surrounded the citiscape. No lights but the stars, gave the homeland a fluorescent glow.
"I heard a few things...they aren't too good...tell Chief Pakku to hurry up with Princess Azula's trip to the North."
Sokka frowned. "What about Pakku? Hasn't he scheduled the trip yet?"
"That's the problem. You need to ask him to take the princess out as soon as today."
Sokka paused. The frozen look Arrluk sent him. His skin paled, and he fiddled with the collar of his coat, sending another look around the premises. "The enemy may be closer than you think."
"Who is it?"
"...I was hunting. I came home later than expected. I heard two men speaking by the abandoned vessel and hid...it looks like these two made a deal with the Phoenix King."
Sokka kept still. "What type of deal?"
"The deal we've tried to avoid. One of the men was Noatak, and the other…I didn't get a good look at him. I know his voice...but I'm refusing to believe it is him. This man said that the Phoenix King is willing to keep your child alive, for as long as Princess Azula is returned home."
The winds covered up Arrluk's low whisper, but Sokka heard it. "Who do you think this man is?"
Arrluk fidgeted.
"You saw this man..." Sokka said, his voice lowering into a strange tone when he unsheathed his dagger. "...but I know you are too shocked to believe it is him. I will ask you again. If you say you do not know who he is I will kill you. Give me his name."
"...it is Bao."
Sokka paused. "Is that all?"
The Chief's son took his dagger back into its sheath. The cool breeze did not calm the burn building in his chest. He remembered days where Azula spoke calmly to him about the changes in Bao's demeanor. She never accused him of any wrongdoing, but her mentioning Bao's change sharpened Sokka's dormant senses. He watched Bao from a distance, put on his best charm and joked with him. But all the time he did, Sokka accepted the fact that even though Bao was instrumental in his and Azula's union, he would betray him one day.
The only one who knew Sokka as deeply as no one else, was Azula. Azula read through him since the day they met. She understood his jokes and bright charm that earned him popularity as the next Chieftain in line, masked a sharper character underneath. Sokka's brilliance with engineering, one of the traits Azula used well in redesigning the tribe, held a man who paid close attention to the people he called his allies.
Arrluk frowned. "Yes...I assumed, but my chief, I assumed you trusted him and would be shocked-"
"I trust no one," Sokka murmured. "Check the premises. Be back before the sun rises. I will deal with Bao myself."
"..will you kill him?"
Sokka gave Arrluk a quiet look. He turned, and his cape followed suit. The first particles of snow fluttered over his face. Bao was the least of his worries.
Azula could not stay here any longer.
Notes - On to the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed and will update soon.
