Sokkla Saturday Week 8: First Time
The first time they met, he was seven and she was six.
Sokka had been dreading this day. It was the day of his grade one piano exam and he was nervous he would suddenly forget how to play even the simplest of notes. Thus, he tried to come up with a dozen different excuses to worm his way out but Kya saw through his was how he ended up sitting in a hotel lobby waiting his turn to be called.
Looking across, he spotted a girl playing with a violin, the sounds of a perfectly executed melody filling the room, not one note out of tune. Curious, he slowly made his way to her, curious about this guitar looking object that one placed on the neck and played with a stick with hair on it.
Understanding that she would probably not want to be disturbed, he merely sat down a few meters in front of her and merely basked in the tune. When she finished, she found she had garnered an audience of a boy roughly her age looking enraptured by her song.
Standing up, he offered a hand and said "That was very nice! I'm Sokka, what's your name?"
Blushing slightly, she said shyly "My name's Azula, but dad says we shouldn't talk to strangers. And erm, er, thank you.", unsure of what to do with such praise as back home, she was drilled intensely by her father, with compliments rarely forthcoming, if at all.
Just then, both their parents called out for them, and the duo parted ways in the opposite direction.
The first time they made each other cry, he was ten and she was nine.
Getting in trouble on the first day of school was the last thing each of them expected, but then again, getting into trouble was par for the course with the duo. Being sent to the principal's office on the other hand, was not something either of them expected on the first day of school.
In Sokka's mind, he was doing what an elder sibling should by standing up for his sister when she was relentlessly teased by Azula and her friends. Needless to say, this resulted in them engaging in a vicious catfight that left a couple of bruises on her arms while Sokka earned some nasty scratch marks on his arms as well as one across his right cheek for his troubles.
Thus, both of them were more or less dragged kicking, screaming and crying into the principal's office for breaking a variety of rules, some of which would probably have to be added in after this.
Given that it was only the first day of school, it was too early to be handing out suspensions thus after a very stern and harsh scolding, the duo were let out with tears in their eyes. As they walked back to their class, Sokka noticed she was looking very scared all of a sudden and muttering something to herself.
"Hey, what's wrong? You don't look so good."
"What's wrong? What's wrong?!" she half screamed, half sobbed. "Dad's going to kill me if he finds out!", before breaking into tears and sitting on the steps of the stairs. At that, Sokka's brotherly instincts kicked in and he sat down beside her, trying his best to comfort her. Suddenly an idea came to his mind. Leading her by the hand, he took her to the canteen and bought a piece of mochi for her.
"T-thank you." she whispered, as he handed over the piece whilst dabbing away her tear with his handkerchief.
Upon hearing this, Sokka started to blush and he stammered out some apology before making his way back to class, leaving her and her mochi.
The first time they started to cop feelings for each other, he was seventeen and she was sixteen.
Granted, it was something neither of them were expecting, despite their friends' insistences that they totally were. Not that it helped matters that there was actual money on the line, thanks to Toph, who had a penchant for gambling and running various money making schemes that at best, were morally grey and other times completely and utterly on the other side of the law. In her defence, making a tidy profit was in her blood, what with her being a Beifong and all.
In addition, Sokka was dating the captain of the kendo team, a soft, sweet red haired girl named Suki, who handed him a severely needed asswhooping after his uncalled for taunting and blatant sexist remarks. That day, Sokka added to his knowledge just how hard a wooden sword could actually bruise. To add insult to injury, Suki was seriously contemplating kneecapping him there and then when Azula walked in on the scene.
"Good work captain, he needs to be put in his place every once in a while." she smirked.
Turning her head to the interloper, Suki asked "Aren't you his girlfriend or something?", a quizzical expression on her face.
"Me? With him? Nah, he's all yours. Anytime you need a hand whooping him, let me know." she smiled deviously.
"With pleasure." Suki beamed while Sokka groaned painfully from the floor and wished that he could will the earth to swallow him up there and then.
Then again, it was in some sense, inevitable given that they went to the same music school on Saturdays and the same martial arts institute after school, as Sokka added fencing and kendo to his skill with the piano whilst Azula trained in Wing Chun on the other side of the institute. Besides, puberty had clearly blessed them both to where Sokka had to literally fend off some of the juniors from trying to jump him outside of school while Azula took up lessons from her best friend Ty Lee in shutting down any boy real quick. If pressed, neither of them could deny that they weren't stealing long glances at each other when they thought each other wasn't looking. And so it was that they suppressed their mutual feelings for one another, content in being just friends, not wishing to rock the boat too much. After all they had seen how awkward things could get and had no desire to get themselves in such a situation.
The first time they confessed to each other, he was twenty-two and she was twenty-one.
In college, they were on wildly diverging paths, he went into engineering while she did a double major in political science and sociology. Thus, they didn't see each other much, if at all as their classes were on the complete opposite sides of the campus, as were their apartments. To them, it was almost like a sign that they should just stay friends, no more no less.
However, they would still occasionally run into each on the way to the music hall, where one could book a booth in the basement to practice whatever instrument they wished. For Sokka, playing the piano was a way to relieve stress whilst for Azula, it was more of a pragmatic thing as she did not want her skills with the violin to deteriorate. Thus it was that both of them found themselves in a back to back room, where one could still hear bits and pieces despite the soundproofing.
As they each played, somehow both of them ended up playing the same song together in sync without knowing. While playing, Azula could hear snippets of piano that sounded like the song she was playing while Sokka noticed a violin playing the same song as him. Exiting their booths, both of them were shocked to see each other exit.
"Well this is uh, interesting." Sokka blurted.
"You don't say." was her reply.
"So, erm, how's things been?" he asked, trying to break up the awkwardness.
"Well, things have been busy. You know how it is with a double major and all. Anyways, don't want to keep you from Suki." she said, a slight hint of jealousy seeping through with the last sentence.
"We broke up a few months ago, the whole long distance thing was getting unsustainable."
"Well, sorry to hear that."
"Gee, thanks I guess?"
"Really though," she said while closing the distance with him before whispering "I'm not that sorry.", sending a shiver down Sokka's spine and blood rushing to a certain part of his anatomy.
"So how long have you been harbouring this crush on me?" he whispered back conspiratorially, enjoying the way he made her cheeks turn a bright shade of pink.
"I-I-, that's classified!' she pouted.
Laughing, Sokka replied "I forgot how cute you look when you pout."
"I'm fierce, not cute!" she hissed while stamping her foot on the ground to emphasize her point.
"If it's anything, I've been feeling the same way about you all this time, if I'm being honest."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Then I suppose you won't mind this." Azula said, turning her head briefly to make sure her violin case was securely slung across her back.
"Don't mind what?" he asked, before he found himself pinned to the wall.
"Wait Az-" were his last words before Azula pulled him down with one hand by the scruff of his shirt and crashed her lips onto his. When they broke for air, Sokka wiggled his hands free and lifted her up to his face level. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his, put her arms around his neck and began another furious makeout session that left them both breathless and wanting.
Foreheads touching, Sokka asked "Are you a C major scale? 'Cuz you're like, a natural at this."
"Well, this ain't the only natural Cs I've got." she purred.
"Is that so, well let's go to my flat and get natural, shall we?" he smirked, before setting her down gently and taking her hand in his as they both exited the building into the chilly autumn night, their love keeping them warm and toasty inside.