1The Meaning of Forever

Captive Audience

Chapter 5/?

By Paperkat

02/19/08

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender

Story Synopsis

Just because the war is over doesn't mean the story ends. Mainly Katara and Zuko centric.

Chapter Synopsis

Chief Sokka has found someone to relate to.

"And then, they wanted twenty pelts! Can you believe it? Twenty!" Sokka ranted, the bowl in his hands rocking precariously as he gestured with one hand and pounded the pestle into the mortar with the other. "Do you know how long it takes to get a polar leopard pelt, just one? Weeks. Maybe months if the seals have moved inland."

Sokka threw a glance over his shoulder at his audience. With a measuring eye, the Southern Water Tribe Chieftain judged the temperament and fortitude of the now silent listener before turning back to his task. Sokka threw a few more ingredients into the smooth stone bowl and started pounding again.

"I mean sure I could send a full hunting party out, but what's the village going to do in the mean time? Food don't grow on trees around here, you've got to go get it and convince it with a blunt object to come home with ya."

Stopping a moment to examine the mixture in the bowl, Sokka pushed it around a few more times to test the consistency before deciding it was perfect. The pestle was traded for a small, shallow spoon that he used to scrape the sides of the bowl, collecting the contents in a slimy pile at the bottom.

"Alright now, I know we've had this discussion before, but I'm serious this time," Sokka said as he pulled over a low stool and sat down barely a foot from his companion. The Chief's blue eyes were hard and unyielding as he continued.

"You have to eat all of this and I'm not going to take any lip from you this time, Little Bit."

Prince Roku blinked his clear golden eyes and regarded the Southern Water Tribe Chief with a bored stare. Of course there wasn't much else he could do since he was swaddled and strapped to a board that was mounted on a post near the warmth of the lodge's fire, but it was better than the Fire Nation child crying. Not that Roku cried often, or made that much noise at all, a fact that bothered both Sokka and his wife. It just wasn't normal for infants to be so… blah.

"Ok, open up," Sokka instructed, offering a half full spoon to the prince. Roku's tiny eyes narrowed and he turned his head away.

"Ah, come on, I promise you'll like it this time," Sokka entreated, as he reposition the spoon to be in front of the baby's mouth, and once again Roku turned away.

"I put twice the blubber and half the prunes," the young Chief tried to tempt with a sing-song voice, but the Fire Nation Prince just tighten his lips further when Sokka pressed the spoon to them.

"I even but in some of that fire spice," Sokka told the prince. "But if you tell Suki you're on your own next nappy change."

The seven-month-old infant still refused the offer of food despite the fact it had been many hours since Suki had given Roku his breakfast. It bothered Sokka how little the prince-ling ate, and how tiny Roku still seemed to be. The reason the little boy was still swaddled at this age was because of his utter lack of baby fat. Roku just couldn't handle the cold, arctic weather unless he was tightly wrapped in warm furs. Sokka would have blamed it on him being fire nation and just not being of the right stock for this part of the world, but Tom-Tom, Ruko's own uncle, had been a nice round little thing at this age and would have done just fine.

Not for the first time Sokka wondered if the poison that had killed his mother had permanently damaged the heir to the Fire Nation in some way. It was a fear that he knew he shared with Suki and the small group of four Fire Nation Elite Guards, Roku's Honor Guard, that had been assigned to watch over the prince. He wished he could talk to Katara about it, but his sister had not acted normal since the day Roku was born.

She was the one named as the prince's guardian. It was her duty to care and watch over Roku at the Fire Lady's dying request, a request that was made official by Fire Lord Zuko the next morning with a declaration of Prince Roku's wardship to the Southern Water Tribe. In short, Zuko had given Roku to Katara until the prince's fourteenth birthday when he would resume his place as crowned prince.

Apparently it was a common practice of the Fire Nation's upper class with second sons, but completely unheard of for a first-born or boys younger than 10 years. But there had been to time to question the order when the entire Southern Water Tribe Delegation was sent away from the Fire Nation for their protection from the plot that had killed their Fire Lady and nearly killed the most powerful waterbender alive.

It should have been Katara feeding, clothing and more importantly changing Prince Roku's nappies, not him, but his sister had retreated mentally into some kind of void since the day she woke from being cured of the kiwi-berry poison. She hardly spoke or ate without being prompted to, and she spent most of her time looking out over the sea.

Sokka was on the verge of contacting Aang and demanding that he use his Avatar-y-ness do something about this situation, either for Ruko's sake or his sister's but Suki held him back and he understood the reasons why. Sokka couldn't let it appear that they, the Southern Water Tribe, was unable or unfit to care for a single infant, they couldn't afford to seem that incompetent. He also didn't want to shout out to the world that his sister was not currently functioning with all her oars in the water.

Katara was their biggest deterrent to being run over by the larger more developed countries. She was well known and respected, and it gave them at least a small amount of leverage in trading negotiations. Not that it seemed to have any weight with that Earth Kingdom merchant. Twenty pelts! What was he thinking! The infant in front of him gave a bored sigh, and broke Sokka from his silent musings.

"Sorry about that, Little Bit," Sokka apologized as he freshened up the untouched mashed food on the spoon. He offered it to Roku again with the same results.

"Look it's not that bad," Sokka declared with a huff as he shoveled the food into his own mouth. At first he was shocked that he had unthinkingly put baby mush in his own mouth, but after a second of rolling around the slightly chunky, salty, sweet meaty mixture with a spice kick, Sokka hummed his approval.

"Actually, it really isn't that bad," he said somewhat surprised and impressed with his own cooking as he loaded up the spoon for a second taste. It was half way to his mouth when he caught the Fire Prince glaring at him.

"Figures," Sokka grumbled. "Now you want it because I like it."

Roku's only response was to pop his mouth open. Sokka shoved the spoon in before the prince could change his mind and was delighted to see that done of the mixture came gushing back out. The spoon was hardly refilled before the infant was silently demanding more, mouth wide open.

"Now we're talking," Sokka praised and tried to keep up with the eating machine.

"I've been thinking," the young chief said, as his arm moved back and forth from bowl to baby. "You're going to need to gain a few more pounds and a proper Tribe name pretty soon if you are going to be staying with us, because you really don't want to be called 'Little Bit' trust me."

Suki had taken to calling Roku 'a little bit of nothing' with how tiny he was, and the nickname had stuck, at least around their lodge. The most the other villagers had seen of the prince was on the rare occasions that it was mild enough to take Roku outside with the arctic winter rolling in. Sokka frowned but Roku ignored everything but the spoon.

"I can't believe it's been seven months and we haven't heard a peep out of your father," the water tribe male told the fire nation infant.

"I mean I understand what Iroh was saying about a national period of morning and all, but seven whole months without even a single letter?" Sokka said with disapproval.

"I know that Iroh's Pai Sho buddies are keeping him up to date," Sokka amended, referring to the old general's personal guard that were hand picked from the White Lotus ranks and were probably at this very moment just outside the lodge door watching and listening. "But to go seven months without once asking how his own son is doing, it just… wrong."

Sokka had tried to put himself in Zuko's place. He had tried to image what it must have been like for the Fire Lord. Sokka constantly asked himself what he would have done if the same thing happened to Suki, but the same answer kept coming up. He would have not let Otok out of his sight for even a moment until he killed the basters that took his mother from them.

"No offense or anything Roku, but your father can be real stupid sometimes."

"I told you not to speak ill of his father in front of him."

Both the Chief and the open-mouthed Prince turned at the sound of Suki's voice from the doorway.

"It's not like he knows what I'm saying," Sokka grumbled, popping another spoonful into the baby's waiting mouth. "Or that it isn't true," he added under his breath.

"Sok-ka," Suki warned, drawing out the syllables in his name to show her displeasure.

"Fine," he relented giving Roku the last bite before tossing the empty bowl and spoon onto the table behind him. "Where's Otok?"

"He's coming," Suki told him as she hung up her heavy parka. "He insisted on walking on his own."

Sokka smiled at the pout on his wife's face. At fourteen months old, Otok was already fiercely independent and Suki was starting to miss the infant that she could pick up and carry with her everywhere without fuss. Having Roku around helped, but the Fire Nation Prince was not the squealing, laughing, go-lucky ball of pure chaotic energy Otok was. As if thinking about his son made him appear, Otok blew through the doorway, walk-running on his toes, arms waving in the air as if he could take flight by simply moving fast enough while flapping his arms. Before Sokka could stop him, Otok slammed into the post Roku was secured to, and wrapped his arms around it.

"Be-be," Otok demanded as he repeatedly pushed himself up on his toes with his arms stretched out over his head. The young child's mitten covered hands could just brush the bottom edge of Roku's papoose board, but that didn't stop Otok from trying.

"Be-be, be-be, be-be," he repeated over and over again, ignoring his mother as she started to remove Otok's heavy outer coverings.

Once his son was completely unwrapped, Sokka snatched Otok from the floor and spun him around in a circle high in the air. The resulting squeal was high and piercing, and left Sokka's ears ringing, but at least it got Otok to stop calling for Ruko.

"And what were you up to young man?" Sokka questioned. Otok babbled back, his smoky grey eyes alight with pleasure and his pale cheeks stained pink from the cold outside. Only every fifth word out of the child's mouth was intelligible, but Sokka had been listening to it long enough to know what his son was trying to say.

"Penguin sledding again?" Sokka asked surprised.

"Yes," Suki replied with a tried sigh. "The only reason he came in was to see Roku."

"Be-be," Otok said happily at the mention of his playmate's name. Not that Otok could really play with the little prince, but he liked to talk to the infant and stare at him for seemingly hours on end. Now with his attention back on track, Otok kicked and wiggled until Sokka was forced to put him down or drop him.

"Well, Roku's done eating so I guess it's alright," Sokka relented as he unhooked the cradleboard from its post. Otok squealed with delight, his chubby hands making faster and faster grabbing motions, as Roku was untied. Sokka still didn't unwrap the blanket, but he did get down on the floor cross-legged with the infant in his lap so that Otok could have easier access. Once settled, the chieftain's son leaned in close, pressing his nose and forehead to the Fire Prince's nose and forehead making Roku's golden eyes cross in the attempt to watch what Otok was doing.

"Be-be," the little boy sighed, finally content.

"It's differently time for another one," Sokka commented slyly, giving his smiling wife a meaningful look.

Suki slid in behind her husband, her arms creepy around his chest without disturbing either of the children in front of Sokka before whispering low and soft in his ear.

"I'll be sure to get Aang right on that."

Sokka scowled at his wife as she slipped away into the next room laughing at the old joke. Thankfully it didn't bother him any more how much Otok looked like the Avatar and how little he resembled his father. Personally, Sokka didn't think his son looked anything like Aang. Otok looked Earth Kingdom with his light skin and grey eyes, which of course came from Suki's side. But Sokka had to admit that when Otok was a newborn and completely bald with the Avatar holding him it was uncanny how closely the two resembled each other. If anything it had been Aang that had been the most upset at the inferred fathering.

"I wouldn't touch Suki for anything!" the Avatar had sputtered out in protest of the comment, arms flailing, only to catch the Kyoshi warrior's sour look.

"Not that there's anything wrong with Suki," the bald young man had tried to sooth. "I mean even Sokka will have her." At that point it had been the Water Tribe male that had given him a frown.

"What I mean is that I'm a monk. Monks don't do that kind of thing," Aang had said with a sheepish grin his right hand tucked behind his head. That had finally settled everyone's ruffled feathers. That is until he had opened his mouth again.

"Yeah, if I was going to do it with anyone, it would be with Katara," the monk had said unthinkingly, prompting the brother of said master waterbenter to wrap his hands around the Avatar's neck. Sokka wasn't sure if he would ever see Aang that shade of magenta again.

Sokka never found out what had happened between his sister and Aang. He had been certain that there was a marriage proposal in their future. He had even prepared his brotherly speech for the day Aang asked for Katara's hand, but it never came. One day his sister came home alone after spending two years traveling with Aang. When asked about the Avatar she just smiled warmly and redirected the conversation.

Prince Roku gave a frustrated cry making Sokka bring his attention to the children in front of him.

"All right Otok, I think Roku's had enough," Sokka told his son as he lifted the prince out of reach.

Otok gave a pout but contented himself with 'talking' to Roku when Sokka placed him back into the papoose in the prince's customary place next to the fire. The rest of the day continued pretty much as it did every day. Suki kept an eye on the children and her husband giving comfort and advise to whomever needed it most at any given moment. Sokka busied himself with Tribe affairs, periodically leaving to handle things that needed his direct attention. When it was time for the evening meal, Sokka put on his heavy outer gear to go retrieve Katara from her seaside vigil but was startled to find her silently standing in the doorway.

"Oh, good you're here," Sokka said as he started to remove the coat he had just donned. "I was…"

Whatever he was about to say died in his throat when Katara looked his way. Through the fringe of fur trimming her hood and surrounding her face, Sokka could see eyes that did not belong to his sister. As cold, hard and black as the metal of his meteorite sword, they seemed to reject the warm firelight making her face appear to be in shadows.

"Suki!" Sokka called out, hoping that his wife in the other room would understand the warning in his voice and keep herself and Otok safely there. The Southern Water Tribe Chief was painfully aware that Katara stood between him and his weapons, but almost immediately the thought of arming himself against his sister was banished from his mind.

"Katara?" Sokka asked gently his hands opened palm up and his parka hanging half-on half-off from one arm. His response was a slight tilt of Katara's head before he was painfully thrown against a wall. The impact was bad enough, but the sensation of millions of tiny hooks holding him against gravity to the wall was even worse. Not because it was particularly painful but because Sokka had felt this before at the ends of a puppetmaster's strings.

Bloodbending, his sister was using bloodbending against him. No not his sister, Sokka decided, but something controlling his sister.

"Katara!" Sokka yelled trying to hopefully call his sister forth from inside, but he was completely ignored in favor of the only other person in the room.

"No," he whispered with sickening realization when Katara unhooked Roku from his place by the fire and turned to leave.

"Stop, what do you think you're doing?!" Sokka struggled against the force holding him, but just like with Hama, it was useless. Even after his sister left, Sokka continued to be held against the wall.

"Damn Firebenders and their cursed existence!" he screamed, more convinced than ever that the universe was out to get the royal family.

He understood the whole 'world being out of balance' thing and it being the firebenders' fault, but Roku was an infant, he hadn't done anything to anyone. And besides that, hadn't Iroh and Zuko proven that they were just as dedicated to fixing what was broken as the Avatar? Hadn't they suffered enough? What would hurting Roku do other than cause more harm to this so-called cosmic balance, and why was his sister constantly drawn into these things?

Suddenly Sokka was released and he hit the floor. He stopped just long enough to put his parka completely on and grab his sword before rushing out the door. Just outside the four crumbled forms of the Fire Nation guards were tossed about like broken dolls, but the steam from their breath told him that they were a least still alive.

The snow around the village was too compacted to be of any use for footprints, and the constant twilight of the approaching winter made it too dark to see far, but when the sky towards the ocean danced with lightening, Sokka knew exactly were to go. It never rained in the South Pole, even in the summer, all their water came from melted snow, and so lightening was something that he had only become familiar with once he had left his home to help the Avatar.

He yelled for his warriors but did not wait for them to emerge. A wall around the village had been constructed years ago during one of Toph's infrequent visits, but they were useless with the main gate hanging wide open. Sokka didn't pause as he ran through them, and the sight of Roku's discarded hand-me-down cradleboard only made Sokka move faster.

Up ahead, and below the lightening, was what looked to be some kind of fog, but when Sokka reached it he found himself walking against a monsoon. The air was almost tropically warm and the rain felt like needles driving into the exposed skin of his face in the twisting gale. The snow beneath his feet was melting and became too slick to make much headway, but he forced himself forward, though he had no idea where he was going. Then suddenly it all stopped.

Sokka hit the ground with an 'umph' when the wind he was pushing against disappeared. The humid air was quickly turning to a light snow as the arctic chill moved in, soon after Sokka's parka began to crust with ice from the rain that had coated it. Still slightly dazed from his fall, Sokka forced himself to his feet and continued, his only source of direction a faint blue glow ahead of him. When he was close enough, the glow resolved into the form of the Moon Spirit crouched over a body.

"Yue?"

The Moon Spirit turned, revealing that behind her voluminous gown lay Katara, her clothes almost completely torn away to show her traditional bindings underneath, on her chest partially covered by her unbound and frozen hair was Roku in only his nappy, his fur wrappings nowhere to be seen. Sokka scrambled frantically over the sheets of ice, realizing that somewhere in the storm he had lost his sword, but uncaring, both his sister and the Fire Prince would freeze to death if he didn't get to them in time. But his path was blocked.

"Sokka, it's all right," Yue told him, her voice sounding like a chorus at the bottom of a well. Sokka was about to bark back at her that it certainly was not all right, when he noticed a slash of bleeding crimson across the Spirit's cheek.

"What…" Sokka didn't get to ask his question as Yue placed her fingers over his lips to silence him.

"It will be all right Sokka. Sleep," she told him, her eyes just as loving and soft as they had been all those years ago.

Sokka tried to fight the lethargic feeling seeping into him, but his vision was failing and his limbs wouldn't respond to him.

"It's alright Sokka, it's alright," he heard her repeat again and again, getting more distant and softer with every cycle.

"…Sokka… alright… Sokka can you hear me," his wife's voice asked as his eyes opened.

"Whaaa…" Sokka responded intelligently as he blinked slowly, his head felt heavy as he raised it from the table.

"Are you alright Sokka?" Suki asked, her concern colored with amusement as she peeled away the parchment stuck to his cheek with drool. Sokka wiped at his face with his sleeve, his eyes still refusing to focus entirely.

"Talk slower Suki and use smaller words," Katara commented dryly, and Sokka glared in his sister's general direction when his wife giggled.

"What time is it?" he asked, rubbing the heals of his hands into his eyes in an attempt to clear them. His fuzzy brain didn't want to let go of his crazy dream. A monsoon in the arctic! Who ever heard of such a thing?

"Dinner time," answered Suki as she left to stir a pot of stew over the cooking fire. When Sokka's eyes finally cleared he saw his sister on the other side of the fire, Roku cradled on her shoulder. A sense of wrongness flowed over him for a moment watching to two of them. The prince gave a deep, shuddering sigh and buried his face into his guardian's neck.

"Is he still fussy?" Sokka found himself asking even though he knew that Roku had been perfectly fine all day.

"Yeah, I just got him to settle down," Katara responded tiredly, a faint smile curving her lips. "I think he's teething."

"It's about time," Suki said from the fire. "Should I call everyone in?"

Sokka nodded while yawning, his neck and shoulders popping when he stretched. Roku's Honor Guard filed in one at a time, each one quietly taking a spot around the fire mindful of their prince sleeping on Katara's shoulder. As everyone was being served his or her stew, something at the back of Sokka's mind kept scratching to be recognized. He knew it was important, but for the life of him he couldn't seem to recall what it was.

"Did you ever get a response from that new Earth Kingdom merchant?" Katara asked, having to sway and hum softly to Roku to quite him after she spoke. In a rush Sokka remembered what he had been working on this morning.

"Twenty pelts, Katara. Can you believe it? Twenty!"

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