Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or anything associated with it except my fanfictions.
Sorry for the late chapter.
Sokka walked out back to his cabin with wide eyes. He tottered like an old man before finally collapsing on the floor, his new bed less than an arm's length away from him.
"Must... bed... need... badly..." he said, shell-shocked. He was certain, however, that no amount of sleep would ever heal his traumatized mind from what he had witnessed.
No one told him about music nights! No one told him that the men would participate in singing and dancing like a bunch of girls! He muttered undesirable things under his breath. He would not stand for this. He was a man. A watertribe man. And he would stick to his honor and his sex until the very end. Men were superior to women, after all. Hence why he had only chosen Kanna to lead the village as a last resort. Old and experienced though his Gran-Gran was, men were naturally better at certain things than women were. Men did the hunting, the fighting, the leading. Women did the cooking, the sewing, and the household stuff. It was just how the world worked.
Not like these ashmakers did. And they claimed they were better than the rest of the world and engaged in female activities! He grumbled under his breath as he crawled the short distance to his bed and flopped on it, trying to forget the horrors of music night. And tried to forget that there were more to come.
Iroh watched over his nephew with zealous care.
Zuko's fever had toned down somewhat, but the prince had begun to babble about strange things. Something about Appa eating Momo, and Azula using their father for lightning practice, and stumbling on some weird cave in the Si Wong Desert... if Iroh did not know of the consequences of an internal struggle like this, he would have been terrified out of his wits. As it was, he always kept a basin of cold water at the ready, and frequently placed cool cloths on Zuko's head to abate his nephew's raging fever somewhat.
Aang stepped in the room. "How's Hotman holding up?"
Iroh did his best to hide a smirk. Even in his old age, the term "Hotman" had been outdated for a decade or two. Maybe even three. Age was not so important as the person it was applied to. And Iroh - when he was not obsessing over the wonders of tea, of wisdom, or of firebending, he had the heart of a ten-year old.
Like his Lu Ten...
He said a little too loudly, "The fever is going down, but my nephew still has far to go. I hope he will be able to see the path he must take before the wilds consume him for good." As it almost did him... as it had done for Lu Ten...
He remembered the day all too clearly. Sneering down at the Inner Wall of Ba Sing Se, confident in the naivety of his adulthood that he would be able to decimate the Earth Kingdom Capital. And then an emissary came bearing bad news. Iroh had rolled his eyes in his foolishness, thinking it was some odd tragedy that befell some poor company. Instead, the next words he read shattered the sheltered life he had led until that fateful day...
Deepest regrets and condolences to inform the Crown Prince that General Lu Ten has proven himself worthy of Agni's valor...
And he had stepped back, his first of many moments of supposed "weakness." And he took another step back and another and another. Then he crumpled to the floor, tears streaming in his agony, drowning in his own grief and tears. He ordered a retreat, and after six hundred long days of besieging Ba Sing Se, the Fire Nation Army returned to their homes, demoralized, defeated, destroyed. Betrayed.
None more so than Iroh.
He remembered wandering the Spirit World, crying out his son's name, in the foolish hope that somehow, they would find a way to be together again in the physical world. Eventually, however, he came to his senses, and returned to the Physical World, enlightened if not completely free of his burden.
That burden vanished when he finally gleaned the wisdom impartial destiny had parted to him. He realized that, despite the loss of the people one loved, one would always find others to fill the void left behind. In his case, he took to Zuko. He was so much like Lu Ten: a rough exterior belying a pure, pristine person inside. He took special care of Zuko when no one else did. He weathered the harsh words levied at him, for he knew, that the day would come that his wisdom would finally show itself in all of its righteous glory.
And that was why he doted so over his nephew, no, his son. Zuko had become like one of Iroh's own children, and like any loving father, he only wanted the best for his boy, for his boy to finally see the light nearly extinguished inside of him...
Zuko propped himself on one elbow. "W-water?" he croaked.
Iroh handed Zuko the entire water bucket, having learned what would come next. Zuko greedily dumped all of the water into his parched mouth, then settled back into a murky fog. Zuko had been unable to stomach food, and this was what worried Iroh the most. It had already been many days since Zuko fell into his reveries, and Iroh was beginning to have his misgivings that Zuko would not make it through.
But his thoughts were interrupted by the helmsman outside, who shouted, "We've arrived! Kyoshi Island's in sight!
Lieutenant Jee stood on the bow of the ship as the acting commander of the crew. With Prince Zuko out of commission, Jee was the next in command and as such was the one leading the ship wherever it had to go; in this case, where the Avatar wanted to go.
"You told me this expedition was one of the utmost importance, Avatar," Lieutenant Jee remarked to the young boy standing next to him.
Aang smiled back. "Yup! It's super-duper important! I couldn't have missed this for the world!"
Missed? For the world? Uh-oh, thought Jee. Silly boy moment coming on. "And what could possibly be so important that we must stray from our vague course to both the Fire Nation and the North Pole, might I ask?" Jee asked dryly.
Aang shrugged, "Well, the monks used to say that you never truly lived until you rode an elephant koi. And they're only found here. So!" he chirped, taking off all his clothes except some undergarments. "Watch this!" and the boy with the arrows dove into the water.
Jee knew that this was bound to happen. Let immature children take over instruments of war, and suddenly it was playtime, only with much higher stakes. Still, the Lieutenant couldn't help but feel slightly concerned for the Avatar when several minutes had passed and the boy still hadn't gone up for air. Sure, it was an Air Nomad he was concerned for about running out of air, but still. It never failed to be somewhat cautious -
The water exploded, and the ship was showered in torrent of salt water. Jee hacked and sputtered as he tried to get the stinging water off of himself, but stopped and couldn't stop a boyish grin from forming on his face when the annoying, endearing Avatar emerged from the water - holding onto a distinctive orange-and-yellow fin. "Yahooooo!" shouted the reincarnation of a thousand lives as he let his inner child go free.
The other crewmen stopped to watch the spectacle. "It's really something, ain't it, sir?" said an unkempt man by the name of Masashi. Lieutenant Jee and the rest of the crew were too engrossed in the spectacle to respond to Masashi's comment. "The story of my life," sighed Masashi as he returned to watching Aang with a ridiculous grin on his face. The grin quickly disappeared when he saw a strange disturbance in the water, near the elephant koi that Aang was riding. "Uh, guys," said Masashi. "What is that?"
Jee stared at where Masashi pointed at, and worry creased his brow. "I don't know -" his eyes widened. "The Avatar's going to become lunch."
Soon, shouts of "Avatar! Be careful!", "Get out of the water!", and "Something's stalking you!" rang out from the ship. Aang cocked his head to try and hear the voices better. He was too far away to make out any of the words, however, so he just smiled and waved at the ship while holding onto the fin of the elephant koi.
Suddenly, he felt a shadow loom over him. He turned around and saw a fin that towered him on the elephant koi, and his eyes widened. Why didn't the crew warn me that I'd about to be lunch? Aang thought in agitation. However, whatever thoughts and complaints he had were wiped away by the scream on his lips when the owner of the large fin suddenly burst from the water.
Aang's eyes widened. "Oh boy..." he said. Then he suddenly grinned. "This must be why the monks told me I wouldn't live until I rode the elephant koi! Hello Mr. Sea Creature, mind if I hop a ride on you?"
The Sea Serpent lunged for the airbender, and he nimbly grabbed onto one of its barbels, quickly realizing the mistake he made.
"AAAaaaAAAaaaAAAaaaHHHhhhHHHhhh!" The airbender screamed as he was tossed back and forth like a rag doll, the serpent trying in vain to dislodge the boy and make a meal of him.
Finally, Aang's grip loosened, and with a final twist of its head, the serpent sent the Avatar flying through the air. If Aang wasn't already a proficient airbender, he would have become an Avatar pancake on the sandy beach.
"Ptah!" Aang spat out some sand that got in his mouth. "Welp... I can say I've truly lived now!" Aang chuckled, forgetting the danger he had just escaped. He celebrated too soon, however, as he quickly became ensnared in a net. The disgruntled, happy-go-lucky, all-powerful Avatar was dragged off into the woods with his arms crossed, a petulant look on his face.
Sokka stood anxiously waiting for Aang to return.
All they knew was that Aang had managed to land on the beach, and that he was still able to laugh without a worry in the world. But when they got to the shore, all that was left were multiple tracks of footprints leading away from the beach.
Finally, Sokka had enough. He sighed. "I'll go search for the Avatar. It's gotta be on my own because I doubt these Earth Kingdom villages would take too kindly to seeing Fire Nation soldiers on their footsteps. And if you think I'll run away with the Avatar, just know that the bison probably won't be able to escape its quarters and that Momo's starting to grow on me. Right, Momo?" the flying lemur landed on his shoulder, eating a moon peach offered to him. "Yeah that's right, you cute little fluffy wuffy puffy," he cooed.
The crew shared a look, and Jee spoke for the rest of them. "Fine. But don't be gone for too long. Like you said, I don't think these rockheads would look on it too kindly if a troop of Fire Nation soldiers come around, especially if they're asking for the whereabouts of the Avatar. You can have your boomerang and club, just for self-defense."
Sokka nodded. Although his armor provided good protection, it was a little too noisy and could very easily give away his position to the enemy. Not to mention it would probably get caught on the foliage of the forest.
So it was that Sokka traipsed through the woods, cutting through the obstructive plants with the sharp side of his carefully crafted club. The dual-sides of the club had been his idea, but he'd never been able to put it to practice until that moment.
He was so engrossed in admiring his manly attributes and skills that he didn't notice the net coming towards him until he was being dragged on the forest floor.
Aang was tired of waiting.
He didn't see much of his captors besides overhearing them and being surprised that they were all young girls - granted, they were older than him, but their leader couldn't have been older than sixteen, if even that.
He had been tied to a wooden post near a decrepit old statue of Avatar Kyoshi. It had felt like ages since he tried to ride the elephant koi and what he assumed the villagers called the "Unagi" (they were very scared whenever someone mentioned it). He wasn't hungry; the monks had taught him how to meditate and fast. He wasn't thirsty; in fact, he thought he saw enough water to last him several years. No, he was just bored. He still had the marbles he'd snatched from the Southern Air Temple when he and Zuko visited it, but his hands were behind his back, unable to reach them to give himself some entertainment. At least the monks did teach him how to loosen bindings without anyone knowing.
A solid mass slammed against the pole Aang was tied to with an audible "oomph!" He recognized the dark-skinned, blue-eyed boy that was being securely tied to the post with Aang. He inwardly sighed. Time to undo the bindings again. "Hello, Sir Sokka. Fancy meeting you here today."
Sokka just narrowed his eyes at Aang. "I swear, I get concerned for you and then I get ambushed. Who are these men anyways?"
A lady dressed to look exactly like Kyoshi snorted. "Oh please. Men wouldn't have caught you as easily as we did."
Sokka bent over as much as he could and started laughing. "Ooooohhh... that was a good one!" He tried moving his arms to wipe a tear from his eye, then remembered the situation he was in. His eyes narrowed. "Except you couldn't possibly have gotten me. Girls don't fight. And they sure aren't smart enough to ambush boys!"
The lady's eyes narrowed. "Oh really? Perhaps the Unagi is going to feast well tonight."
Aang snickered, and everyone stared at him. "What?" he said. "I think it'd be amusing to see sexist Sokka get his desserts. Me personally, I've known many capable women of many different professions, most of them better than their male counterparts. Besides, the monks always told me that gender was a mislabel of people, one that should not be judged."
The lady started. "Did you say... monks?" she choked out.
Aang nodded. "Yup! I'm the last airbender. And the Avatar." He opened his arms, letting the ropes holding him fall to the ground, and he flew to the top of Kyoshi's head, showing his airbending. "By the way, you really need to restore this Kyoshi statue. I almost didn't recognize it, even though I've been accustomed to the face for two-hundred thirty years! Well, more like over four hundred years if you count Avatar Roku and the hundred years I spent in an iceberg."
The Kyoshi lady stared at Aang, scrutinizing him for his sincerity, and then sighed. "You have a LOT of explaining to do. First, we see you aboard a Fire Nation ship. Then, we see you interfering in our livelihood. And then you destroy our beaches, have your friend insult females like a sexist idiot, and then prove you're the Avatar by saying the long-gone and forgotten creator of our island, while all evidence points to you being in cahoots with the Fire Nation."
"It's a long story," Aang sheepishly pointed out. "Much longer than your spiel of complaints."
The lady sighed and cut Sokka's ropes with a metal fan like the ones Kyoshi wore. She grabbed Sokka's collar and started ignominiously dragging him off to the village. "The name's Suki, leader of the Kyoshi warriors, by the way," the lady said. "And we have a long time to hear your story. This war's been going on for a hundred years as it is. A short hour of recounting won't make much of a difference."
Aang finished telling his story. The silence following must have woke up Suki, because after ten seconds of the sounds of the flickering fire filling the night, Suki's eyes shot open. "I've been listening!" she frantically shouted. Then she looked at the thoroughly worn-out crowd in front of her and blushed. "...Oh."
The entire ordeal had taken most of the night, to the point where the moon had long passed its zenith and the sky was beginning to brighten. Suki noticed this, and after waking the entire village up, she profusely apologized to everyone for making them endure this tribulation.
Once everyone had turned in for the night - or rather, morning - Suki turned to Aang. "So to sum up everything you just said, the banished prince found you frozen in an iceberg, unintentionally broke you out, then you found out you were the last of your people, went to the South Pole, found a village, met this sexist idiot over here ["Hey! I take offense to that!"], went to your home to pay respects, found out that this meathead ["So what? Meat is delicious! Can you please tell that to vegetarian Aang?"] somehow managed to evade the ship's crew for weeks on end, and that now you're here with a sick prince trying to ride the elephant koi?"
Aang shrugged. "Yeah. Don't say I didn't warn you that it was going to be a long story."
Suki sighed. "I wasn't planning on it. Anyways, since you're here, you might as well stay the rest of the day, then go back to the Fire Nation ship you're practically in charge of. We'll give you supplies and stuff to last you however long you're going to take till the prince wakes up. Make sure you put in a good word for us. Avatar or not, no one coming from a Fire Nation ship can be completely trusted. But can you at least promise me you'll put in a good word for us and the prince?"
Sokka winked. "Sure, babe. Anything for a hottie like you."
Aang and Suki stared at the watertribe boy, then walked away together. "Boys," Suki said.
"You're talking to one right now," said Aang cheekily.
Sokka snuck up to the house where those ladies were dancing in.
He still couldn't wrap his mind around how a warrior had been taken down by a bunch of girls playing dress-up. Most of them were younger than him, for goodness' sake! He frowned. It was way past time to show those girls their true place in the world.
He sauntered in. "Nice dance you're doing. What's the number?"
Suki glared at him. "It's an ancient fan martial art c-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ancient art, sacred to your people, blah blah blah. I don't really see how the word 'martial' fits in there though."
Suki walked up to Sokka. "Oh yeah? You wanna go?"
Sokka flexed his muscles. "As a matter of fact, I do. I'm not sticking around letting a bunch of girls prance around without showing them their place first." he grinned cockily.
The other girls moved towards him, but Suki held them back. "No. He's mine." The girls formed a ring around Sokka and Suki, waiting for the match to start.
"You know, I'm the best warrior in my village," Sokka boasted before charging the girl in front of him and delivering a punch.
The next thing he knew, he was held near the floor, arm twisted behind him and held by a thoroughly amused Suki. "Hey," he complained. "I was only warming up."
And thus began the most humiliation he had ever endured in his life. Every time he tried to attack, no matter what he did or how he did it, he would always end up soundly defeated. Finally he slunk off, nursing his bruises and his pride, beginning to think maybe girls weren't so cut and dry as he thought they were.
After sitting outside the dojo where the girls were training, he finally realized what he was going to do, and humbly walked back in.
Suki noticed him immediately, and put her arms on her hips. "So. Want another rematch or what?"
Sokka stood there silently, and then fell to his knees and kowtowed to the Kyoshi Warriors. "I would be honored to be taught in your ways." He could almost see the girls looking at each other in surprise. Finally, he heard Suki say,
"Hmm. Alright. But that means you gotta follow all of our ways. And I mean ALL of them. Are you up to it, watertribe warrior?" she asked with a glint in her eye.
Sokka looked up at the beautiful, terrifying warriors before him and nodded.
"Yippee," Sokka said sarcastically.
He was dressed in the Kyoshi warrior garb. Green kimono, elaborate makeup - the only thing he was missing was a headdress, something which - he just realized - was the distinguishing feature of each Kyoshi warrior.
Suki, with a golden headpiece signifying her importance as leader of her Kyoshi Warrior team, smiled. "There! All set!"
"This is a dress!" Sokka whined.
Suki only smirked. "Get over it, wussy boy," she said, feeling a thrill at bossing around the boy who before was jeering at her sex. "Besides, it's a warrior's uniform. You should be proud. The silk threads symbolize the brave blood that flows through our veins. The gold insignia represents the honor of the warrior's heart."
Aang popped his head in the door and widened at the spectacle before him. "Hey Sokka! Nice dress!" he ran away, sighing that the village offered him nothing to do. There weren't even people out! Probably because of the Fire Nation ship...
"Says the boy wearing my sister's necklace!" Sokka shouted in vain. He sagged, defeated.
Suki did her best to suppress a laugh while Sokka looked at her with puppy dog eyes. Something stirred inside of her, but she dismissed it as the satisfaction of humiliating this boy.
After teaching Sokka a few moves and seeing him lose his fans multiple times to the innocent trees around him, she finally stepped in. "You know, it's not about your own strength. It's about using the strength of your opponents against them. Think of the fan as an extension of the arm. You wait for the right moment to strike and then -" she charged towards Sokka, but for the first time, she was being held above the ground by her trainee.
"Ha! I finally got you!" Sokka crowed.
Suki flushed. "Oh please. I only did that to make you feel better."
Sokka snorted. "C'mon. Just admit it. I got you there. Besides, it was your teaching that let me do that." he smiled at her, and her heart skipped at beat.
She smiled shyly. "Well, I suppose since you put it that way... I guess you did get a lucky shot. Let's see if you can do that again, Sokka..."
"Oh, and by the way, what I said about me being the best warrior in my village is true." Suki rolled her eyes, preparing herself for the conceited remarks of Sokka. She was caught off guard when he said, "Only because the other boys are too young to know what fighting is." Suki laughed until tears came in her eyes, and she stared at Sokka, the first boy her age she had met, that she could relate to.
"Uh... Suki? Why are you smiling?"
She was smiling? "Oh, I was smiling?" Suki said with a blush. Sokka stared at her and then shrugged, and they resumed their training, although something felt... different between them.
Aang and Sokka had packs on their backs, ready to leave the village. Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors escorted them out.
When they got to the beach, Sokka turned around. "I need to say something..."
Suki rolled her eyes. "What is it?"
Sokka mumbled something. Suki sighed. "Speak louder," she demanded. "Remember. Bravery and honor a Kyoshi Warrior makes."
Sokka looked her straight in the eye and said, "I'm sorry."
Suki was taken aback. "For what?" she asked.
Sokka hung his head. "For treating you like a girl... when I should've treated you like a warrior," he said regretfully.
Suki examined him, and then shook her head. "Sokka... I am a warrior," she began, and then kissed the boy on the cheek. They both blushed. "... but I'm also a girl," she said shyly, heart fluttering.
They smiled at each other, and when the ship left, Suki was still waving after the Fire Nation flag had long left the horizon.
She heard a giggle next to her. She turned to the offender. "What?" she snapped.
The girl giggled. "Someone's in love," she sang, and the other girls started laughing.
"Am not!" Suki said, face blushing. "I mean, sure, he's handsome and smart and funny and..." Suki's eyes widened as she realized what she had said, and the giggles began anew. "Let's just get back home!" she said crossly, and she had to endure laughs and teasing all the way back to the village.
Sokka walked to his bed and fell.
Besides some questions about where they were and what they did, the crew was surprisingly lenient with the two boys. They were just glad that they were okay.
And music night... Sokka sighed. Girl stuff.
So why did men try to elevate themselves to the level of women when the men stood no chance in the first place?
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