Howdy y'all and welcome to Chapter 17 of A Walk Through Fire! Last week's update was a bit...interesting. It was showing that the chapter was there and then it wasn't actually there. Long story short it was mess. If y'all didn't see Chapter 16, then I highly recommend that you read it. This chapter is a bit different from the other chapters. Since 16 was only Aang and Azula, 17 will only be Sokka and the Crew. 18 will return to the normal 2 perspective split in the chapter. I hope y'all enjoy this one. I think it's hilarious but I'm biased since I wrote it. TLDR, hope you enjoy, dont't forget to Review, Follow and Favorite.
I do not own Avatar the Last Air Bender!
Suki and Sokka had been working together on the ship deck for what felt like hours. They had been doing everything from scrubbing and checking the sails, as well as maintaining the small amount of ammunition that was, in fact, active on the boat and taking inventory on everything that Mr. Rizon had. They had been at it for two weeks now, and they were starting to get a bit sick of it.
Sokka, who was used to water and being on boats, was a bit more adept when it came to how they operated, but even he had a breaking point.
Suki, on the other hand, was tired of it from the very beginning. She could handle traveling, but only to an extent. That extent was traveling on Appa with the rest of the group. Once she got onto the boat, she soon found out that being on the high open seas was not for her.
14 Days Earlier
"Alrighty, kids. Welcome to the S. S. Shanagle!" Mr. Rizon said as he gestured to a long old wooden boat. There were two large while sails which were tied down since they were at port. There were also six cannons on either side of the ship. It was painted black and green and had the name of the boat at the bow written in dark green ink.
"Wow," Suki said as she covered her hands over her mouth.
Mr. Rizon chuckled, moved behind the girl, and clapped his hand onto her shoulder, making her jump slightly. "Ain't she just the prettiest thing you've ever seen?"
"I mean, you've seen nothing once, you've seen nothing a thousand times," Toph stated in a bored tone as she faced the aging man, who merely sweatdropped at the remark.
"Well, aren't you pleasant to be around?" Rizon mumbled to himself as he walked towards Sokka, who seemed to be examining the boat. "Ah, do you know a thing about boats, young man?"
"Yeah," the young Water Tribe native replied as he countinted his examination of the ship. "This is a very fine ship. Where did you get it from?" He walked towards the large amount of rope that was tied towards the dock.
"It's quite a funny story, actually," Mr. Rizon began as he walked with the boy. "I won it from a great merchant while in the Fire Nation. We were playing a game of blackjack." He smiled at the memory as he walked to Sokka.
"Wow! That must have been some game," Suki acknowledged as she followed the men. "What did you bet?"
"Why, I bet my entire life's fortune, of course!" Rizon replied with a cheeky smile on his face.
Both Suki and Sokka looked at each other before facepalming. Sokka groaned lightly in his hand before looking back up to the merchant. "Are you sure you are qualified to be leading us towards the Fire Nation?"
"Yup!"
Suki leaned into Toph's ear and whispered lightly, "We've found a bigger idiot than Sokka."
Toph smirked a little bit and replied, "Well, this just became a lot more fun."
"Oh yeah?" Rizon said as he jumped onto the ship. "And what makes you say that? All three of you are my crew, after all."
"Well, I'm blind, so I can't really do anything to help out," Toph replied. She thought that she was going to be getting out of working on the ship.
"Oh, there are plenty of things that you can do!" Rizon said as he led them onto the wooden vessel. "You get to make sure that everyone is fed and taken care of!"
"And how do you expect me to do that?" Toph asked.
"Well, while we were talking, Suki mentioned that you could see metal, right?" He waited for confirmation from Toph. "Well, the entire bottom of the ship is made out of metal. And since it's a boat, everything is connected so you should be able to see everything below deck!"
Sokka laughed at Toph who was now frowning heavily at the idea of making sure the entirety of the deck below was clean. She glared at him and then punched him in the arm.
"Alright, now that just leaves you two," the large man said, pointing to Suki and Sokka, who gulped. "You both will be taking care of everything aside from cooking and navigating. That includes, but is not limited to: checking the sails, cleaning the top deck, general boat maintenance, inventory, and anything else I don't feel like doing!"
"Now, wait a minute, buddy," Sokka retorted at the man, who still had a smile on his face. "How long is this trip going to take anyway?"
"Ohh, six to eight weeks," Mr Rizon guessed, stroking his chin as if deep in thought. "Oh well. I'm sure that it will be a fantastic journey and that it will all be worth it in the end!" He jumped and clapped his hands in the air which made Suki and Sokka sigh. Toph merely stared off into space.
Present Day
Sokka looked up into the sky as it was nearly noon. He sighed and looked at his girlfriend who was currently ringing out clothes that she had used to polish the cannons. He smirked, walked behind her, then wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck. "Hey," he mumbled into her ear.
She jumped slightly and then relaxed under his touch. She turned around and kissed him on the lips. "Hey," she softly spoke into his face. She closed her eyes and kissed him again, dropping the rags that she was holding.
They stayed like that for a few seconds until they both were gasping for air. She looked at him and smiled. "How has your day been going?" she asked as he held her in his arms.
"Oh, you know, a sweep here, a scrub there, the usual," he spoke casually. "I can say that this has been the best part of my day so far." He moved his hand lower so that he was lightly touching her butt.
"I can tell. It seems like someones a bit excited," she remarked, smirking at him as she lightly moved on his hard-on which earned a groan from her boyfriend.
"Well, when my girlfriend is bending over cannons all morning," he said, squeezing his hands a bit with a returned moan from Suki, "I tend to get a little excited." He smirked and was about to make a move until he heard banging come from below the ship.
Suki smirked as she moved out of his embrace and headed towards the stairs that led towards the deck below. "Looks like that will have to wait a little bit. Lunch must be ready."
Sokka merely groaned as he followed his girlfriend down to the living area of the ship.
As Mr. Rizen had said, the entire underside of the ship was made out of metal, from the beds, to the walls, to the table.
Toph was standing in the kitchen, holding two plates in her hands. She looked up when she 'saw' Suki enter her field of view. "Well, look who decided to grace us with their presence," she said as she handed her a plate and noticed that her heart was beating much faster than it normally did. "What were you and Snoozles doing up there?"
Suki immediately started blushing and glared at her friend. "We were cleaning and doing the rest of the bullshit that Rizen makes us do everyday."
"No you weren't," Toph stated matter-of-factly. "Your heart rate is elevated slightly, but not enough for you to be working or cleaning." She walked over to the table and placed Sokka's sandwich down at his spot at the table. She then walked over and grabbed her own turkey sandwich and sat next to Suki.
"You know, Toph," Suki spoke after taking a bite out of her sandwich. "I never thought that you would be a good cook." She looked at her friend and smiled at her.
"I refuse to have Snoozles be better than me at something," she replied as she, too, took a bite out of the sandwich.
"But, still. I've never known a blind person to be able to make really good food before!"
"Thanks. I've never known a leader of a group of girls could be so bad at it!" The Earthbender laughed a bit at her subtle jab.
Suki blushed a little and placed her sandwich down. "Hey, I didn't take the cooking classes because I was leading advanced military tactics to the eight-year-olds! Such things that are forigen to you."
"Still, Snoozles isn't gonna want a wife who can't cook."
"At least someone wants me as a wife," she mumbled under her breath. "I'm sure Sokka will be happy to know that he will be doing the cooking in our marriage," she said defiantly. "And what makes you think that we are getting married?" she added curiously.
"Oh, come on! From the way you both act at night, I'm shocked there isn't a gaggle of mini Sokkas and Sukis running around!" Toph yelled which made Suki flush slightly.
"What's this about mini me's?" Sokka asked as he walked down the stairs after putting away all his cleaning supplies.
"Oh, I was just talking about how y'all fuck like the world's about to end. No big deal," Toph stated bluntly to her friend who mealry shrugged.
"Oh, okay, that-HEY, THAT'S MEAN!" he yelled as he went to the cantine to get some fresh water.
"But it's not wrong, is it?"
"We don't even do it that often!" he snapped back as he walked back to the table.
"We must have two totally different definitions of 'not often' because every damn night sounds pretty often to me!"
"It's not EVERY night! And it's only a stress reliever for both of us after a hard day's work." He walked over to the table and sat next to Suki who was blushing beet red.
"How could you POSSIBLY get stressed out about cleaning, inventory, and checking some sails?!" Toph exclaimed as she took another bite out of her sandwich. "IF anyone is stressed, it's me. I'm cooking WITHOUT FUCKING EYES!"
Suki simply watched the argument take place between her boyfriend and her best friend. She examined as Sokka started blushing due to his own stupid answer. Then she realized that they were also talking about her and she decided to intervene.
"Alright, so maybe we have sex somewhat often. You're just jealous that we're getting action and you aren't," she smugly gloated as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Yes, like I would get jealous of having sex with a man who can't even get up on time when his job is LITERALLY FIVE FEET AWAY!" Toph accused as she finished her sandwich.
"Someone's awfully cranky today," Sokka murmured, trying to pin the situation on Toph before he was faced with more insults. "Did someone not take their afternoon nap yet?"
"Yes, I'm cranky because I haven't gotten any sleep in the past six days because SOME PEOPLE don't know how to keep it down when they fuck!"
Suki sighed as she realized that they were getting nowhere in the conversation and it was just spiraling out of control. "Alright, Sokka and I won't have sex as frequently as we normally would. I'm sorry that we have kept you awake the past couple nights."
Toph nodded her head and smiled a little. "Thank you. At least SOMEONE is able to realize the problem here." She glared at Sokka who merely stuck his tongue out at her.
The group continued to eat their food in silence, not wanting someone to start talking and cause another argument. Sokka looked around the table and decided to restart a conversation. "What do you think Aang is doing right now?"
"You know, it's funny you should ask," Suki spoke up and looked at her boyfriend. "I've been wondering the same thing recently."
"I'm sure Twinkle Toes is having a wonderful time being a prisoner to the Fire Nation."
"I actually don't think that he's a prisoner anymore," Sokka intervened, which earned confused looks from both girls sitting near him. Seeing that he was going to have to explain himself further, he went on. "Think about it. Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee all were trying to get him back to normal."
"Actually, now that you mention it," Toph said as she grabbed her chin and sat in thought. "Didn't she say something about wanting to return him to normal and not have him kill Zuko?"
"Yeah. She said something like wanting to solve the problem or something." Suki chimed in.
"You know what would be funny?" Sokka chuckled to himself as shook his head slightly.
"What, Ice Brain?" Toph asked, curious as to what was on his mind.
"What if Aang and Azula started dating." He couldn't even get the statement out of his mouth before everyone in the room started laughing at how ludicrous it is.
Aang and Azula were sitting in their rooms when they both sneezed at the same time. They both looked at each other and smiled. "Someone's talking about us," they spoke simultaneously.
"Sokka," Suki spoke in between fits of laughter. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my fucking life!"
"What?" He raised his hands in defense. "If you think about it, it makes sense."
"Sokka, I knew you were dumb, but do you have a brain?" Toph spoke while holding her side due to laughter.
"Oh, come on guys, think about it! Why else would Azula run out to the battlefield like that?" He proposed to question but only received more laughter from the group.
"She could have not wanted her weapon to get out of control," Suki proposed as her laughter started to die down.
"Or she could have not wanted to die. You know she is selfish like that," Toph suggested. She, too, got a solid hold on her emotions.
"Nah, because she said that the situation was her fault in the first place," Sokka spoke in a calm tone as he was thinking about her past actions. "I feel like Azula wouldn't be the kind of person to try and help someone...especially her brother."
"That's true," Toph remarked. "But all of it could have been a trick to try and kill all of us. Remember, I was captured, after all, and she was the one to do it."
"But something about it just doesn't seem right," Sokka responded as he finished his sandwich. "I feel like she genuinely wanted to help Aang. I can't explain it, but something has definitely changed between them." He took a sip from his cup.
"How would that relationship even work?" Toph asked. "Azula and Aang are total opposites when it comes to ideologies. They would never work out."
"That's true," Suki acknowledged. "Let's propose that one of them actually likes the other. They both are enemies who wanted to kill each other." Suki pushed her plate in front of her and looked at Sokka who was nodding in thought.
"More-so Azula wanting to kill Aang than the reverse," Toph noted with a slight smirk.
"I mean, look no further than my sister and Zuko. They both hated each other and then Katara decided to have one heart-to-heart with him and now he's a part of the crew now," Sokka added. I don't even want to think about what they are doing back at camp right now.
"Yeah, but this is AZULA we're talking about," Toph reminded them as she got up and grabbed the plates from the table. "We aren't even sure if she has human emotions."
"She definitely does, or else she wouldn't have come back to save her brother, or Aang for that matter," Suki responded.
"Either way, something is going on. And we need to find out about it!" Sokka exclaimed as he leaned back in his chair.
"Speaking of unlikely relationships," Suki added and looked at her boyfriend. "How do you feel about Zuko dating Katara?"
"Wait, they are actually dating?!" Toph yelled from the kitchen.
"I mean, he gave her a ring the day that all hell broke loose, so I would say that they are dating. Wouldn't you agree that that would classify as dating?" Suki asked. She received a nod from Sokka.
"Yeah, I guess I haven't really thought about it recently. I mean, with us being on a boat towards the Fire Nation and everything else that has been happening, I just never thought about it," Sokka reasoned as he moved his hands to the back of his head.
"You have literally been on a boat for the past two weeks. You've had all the time in the world to think about everything!" Toph yelled as she cleaned up the kitchen. Everything other then fucking your girlfriend, that is.
"Well, I mean, I'm happy for them if they are, in fact, dating," Suki stated. "Zuko needs to get over his superiority complex, but yeah, he's alright. I mean, if what y'all said about how he provoked Aang which then made him beat the ever living shit out of him."
Suddenly, heavy footsteps could be heard on the upper deck, which got the attention of Sokka and Suki. "Should we check that out?" he asked, looking at his girlfriend who nodded her head. Both of them grabbed their respective weapons and started walking up the stairs quietly.
"Ah, Sokka, Suki. Glad to see that you both were able to join the party," Mr. Rizon spoke casually as he clubbed one of the pirates in the head.
"Wait, who are these guys?" Suki asked as she threw one of the knives that she got before the tip into one of the guy's legs.
"Who cares," Sokka said as he threw his boomerang at a few of the men in all-black uniforms with red markings on them. They weren't wearing masks, so they were able to be easily hit by the boomerang.
"Do you know who these guys are?" Mr. Rizon asked as he beat another enemy with his club.
"Well, I'm just glad that we finally got some action," Sokka yelled over the fighting as he punched someone in the jugular and slammed the body into another enemy, knocking both of them unconscious.
"Do you think that we should kill them all or interrogate one of them?" Suki asked carelessly whilst snapping one of the enemy's necks and then grabbing his sword. She expertly swung it and mowed down three other attackers.
"Yeah, I think we should keep one and then check the ship that they came on," Rizon answered as he kicked two of the guys over the ship.
"Alright, bet! Until then, let's kick some ass!" Sokka called as he caught his boomerang, but not before it hit two people in the head.
"Let's have some fun!" Suki shouted as she continued to slash through people that were in her way. She continued to cut and weave her way through her group of enemies, leaving nothing but groaning and dead bodies behind her.
Sokka and Mr. Rizon were doing much the same as they continued to knock down the pirates with ease. Sokka was using a knife that he found and his club to chop and hack through the bodies as Mr. Rizon just used his club and expertly parried and blocked attacks that were being thrown at him.
After a few minutes, Mr. Rizon, Sokka, and Suki had finished neutralizing the enemy. When all was said and done, there were, in total, fifteen dead pirates on the deck of the ship. One of the pirates had been tied up and the group walked up to the man and smirked.
"Alright, friend. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," Mr. Rizon spoke threateningly which made the pirate immediately freeze up.
"I will never tell you anything!" the pirate spoke nervously while looking at the ground.
"You sure? I'll give you a discount at my shop when I land at the first island," Rizon said as he looked at the man who was tied up.
"Why would I ever help scum like you?" The pirate spat on Rizon's face and smirked.
"Alright, I warned you." Rizon stepped back and allowed for Sokka and Suki to look at the poor man and smirk.
"So, you won't talk, huh?" Suki grabbed her knife and brought it dangerously close to his foot. "Do you like your feet?" she asked in an innocent tone.
"You wouldn't cut off my foot, would you?" the pirate uttered in a shaky tone as the knife hung over his foot.
Suki smirked and brought the knife and slowly started sawing at the man's foot, causing him to scream in pain. "You can make this pain stop if you just tell us about who sent you to attack us."
"Never. I will never sell out!" he yelled as his foot was getting removed from his leg.
"Your loss," Suki said as she continued to hack off limbs.
After a few minutes of pure torture and a few missing limbs later, the pirate finally succumbed to the pain and started talked.
"Alright, I'll tell you! W-we got a letter from some fire nation commander saying that if we attacked this ship, he would pay us! That's all we know. I swear that's all I know!" he answered before passing out due to the pain.
"Alright, so we should probably get information off of the boat," Suki said while slashing the man's throat. She looked at the collection of limbs that she had cut off and kicked them off the boat. She then looked behind her and sighed. "Well, that's twenty more people who won't see their families."
"Yeah," Sokka said as he came up, grabbed the knife from her hand, and tossed it over the boat and into the water. "I think you could have at least not cut off both of his legs."
"Well, I'm sorry," said Suki. "Sometimes I get a little carried away." She sighed and looked at all of the dead bodies.
"Well, those are the consequences of being in a war," Mr. Rizon stated as he slowly walked over to the couple. He sighed. "Let's go see if we can get any information from their boat so that we have a solid chance to figure out who these guys are and who sent them after us!" He walked over to the ship and jumped onto it.
"Alright, let's do it!" Sokka yelled as he jumped over with him. He started walking around the ship and into different corners. "Hey, is it possible that we could take some of their food? They've got quite the supply."
"Sure, that's fine!" Mr. Rizon spoke from the captain's quarters where he was going through all the documents that seemed to be important.
While he was searching for an important document, Sokka was busy stuffing as many different kinds of foods into his pockets as he could. There were entire crates dedicated to various kinds of meats and non-perishable foods that could be eaten. He continued to walk around the ship until he came across an intricate black sword. He grabbed it and held it in his hand. This could be perfect for me! He smiled and holstered to his hip.
He continued to walk around the ship and found a large collection of gold and silver coins. He instinctively grabbed the chest and brought it to the top deck before heading back down to look for anything else that could be useful. He located some clothing and extra medical supplies, but other than that, there wasn't much. He headed back to the top and saw Mr. Rizon holding different maps, scrolls, and books.
"I see you found quite a lot of useful items," Sokka spoke, looking at the man with a smirk on his face.
"Yup!" Rizon smiled and walked back across to his boat. "How are you gonna get those things over? Want me to move a couple boards so that you can walk across?"
"Sure, that would be great. Could you get Suki to help me?" Sokka replied as he lifted up the chest of golden coins that he found.
Mr. Rizon nodded his head and moved two wooden boards so that Sokka could walk across. He also motioned for Suki to come over and help her boyfriend, which she eagerly did.
Once all of the crates were secured and loaded onto the boat, Sokka and Suki hoisted the sails and they were, once again, moving towards the Fire Nation.