Zuko had eventually left with Chit Sang to head down to keep an eye on the engines powering the zeppelin's turbines, and Hakoda had gone off to search out Giman to keep an eye on her. It was long past time for her to confront Sokka. There were going to be some questions that she felt like he didn't really want to ask, but she knew that it was something that they both needed to talk about.
She eventually found him an hour after he'd fled the lounge, standing on the bridge at the front of the ship beneath the moon's -Yue's- light, watching the vast carpet of black pass by underneath them.
"So Zuko mentioned that Ba Sing Se fell?" Best way to open it up. Neutral topic, doesn't touch on how he's been acting.
"Another thing that Zuko told you, huh? Have a lot of time for chatting with your new best friend?" She could hear the bitterness in his voice, and she was just about done with it.
"Yes, because he actually tells me things. Though he wasn't really thinking when he told me; last time I saw him, I'd been working as a ferry official at Full Moon Bay. Just like you guys, he couldn't recognize me without my Kyoshi makeup, so I just didn't tell him. I wanted to see how he'd react to Suki of the Earth Kingdom, no particular affiliation. He was understandably paranoid, given that he was in a foreign country with no one except his uncle, surrounded by people that he'd been taught his entire life were the enemy. He was… well, polite is probably generous, but he didn't attack me." She shrugged. "So I gave him a chance. I didn't turn him in, and that was the last time that I saw him. Before you guys showed up, I mean."
Sokka sighed and slumped down on the railing overlooking the water far below. "That's it? That's really everything?"
"Sokka, what are you going on about? You're friends with Zuko, aren't you? Why would it be so weird if I was too?" She paused for a moment, before deciding to get right to her point. "You've been weird ever since I saw you in the Boiling Rock, Sokka. What's going on?"
He turned and looked her dead in the eyes, turbulence visible beneath his blue eyes. "Have you been flirting with Zuko on purpose, or is this all a big misunderstanding?"
Oh. Oh. So that's what this is about. "I.. what does that have to do with anything?" Suki was mortified by the blush that she could feel rising on her cheeks. It's not like you have any sort of claim over me, Sokka. You've only got room for one woman in your heart, and I refuse to compete with a dead woman. I'm worth more than that.
Sokka turned away, a matching blush on his face. "It's just… we had a moment. A couple of them, really." The blush faded from his face, and he faced back towards her. "And then I find you flirting with Zuko. Zuko. " He threw up his hands. "Of all people."
And what's wrong with Zuko? She had to bite down on her immediate defense of Zuko. Yeah, he's cute, and I'm almost positive that he was flirting back, but I've got no reason to be this attached." Because he's from the Fire Nation? I'd have thought that teaching the Avatar firebending would balance that out."
To his credit, Sokka honestly did look a little offended. "What? No, Zuko's fine. Great guy. Besides, I can't exactly toss him onto thin ice after what he did."
"Then what?"
"I kinda thought that you and I could give it a go, you know? You're pretty, I'm not bad looking, and we have a good time together." Sokka gestured between them, an unsteady smile on his face. "Besides, between the two of us, I didn't burn down your village." He added with a grin and a wink.
Spirits, is this really my life? I do not have time for this. Fine. Hard way it is. "Sokka. I like you, I do. You're a great guy, with a good sense of humour and you actually listen. Well, most of the time. But I'm not going to be anybody's second choice." She crossed her arms and gave him an unimpressed glare.
"Second choice? What, no, Suki… that's not fair."
Suki remained unmoved, facing off against Sokka's devastated expression. "Okay, prove it." She walked over to the other side of the cabin, standing in the full moonlight. "Kiss me. Right here, right now."
She'd been expecting it, but it still hurt to see him stagger back a step, a look of disbelief on his face. "Look, Sokka, it's nothing about you. From what you told me, Yue was a wonderful woman, and you fell in love at first sight. That's great. But she's always going to be up there, shining down onto you, and you'll never be able to move on until you grieve for her. Don't use me as a distraction to try and move past it. I'm worth more than that." He reached out for her, but she swept past him.
"If you need a friend or an ear, Sokka, I'll always be there for you. But if you don't own your own heart, don't try and offer it to me."
The clicking of the door was the loudest noise left in the room as she walked out.