Lightning Can Be Warm

Chapter 7

AN: Whoa! Responses! You guys are amazing, but there are quite a few of you who aren't signing in and writing a comment. If you have an account, please do sign in, I love chatting to readers (It's probably why I take so long writing and doing other PRODUCTIVE things...) I also notice all the constructive criticism (and occasionally, just criticism) are from people aren't signed in. I love, love, LOVE improving my stories and I want to thank whoever it is who tells me what's wrong with my writing or who I could improve it. Please sign in and review so I can thank you all.

Anyway, here's the next chapter. I kept having to listen to ENDHIRAN'S soundtrack, especially Kilimanjaro to write the 'Agni Kai'. The tune and the inflections of the voices (not the actual words) are how I imagine the encounter would go, that is, if it were in song, which it isn't. (Search it up, the video is particularly funny, though if Sokka and Azula dressed up like that, I would burst out laughing and never stop.)

Azula finally stood up. She had been calmly listening to the entire conversation and there was a silence immediately. She went up to Sokka and started talking, a hint of sarcasm lacing her words.

"Sokka, you believe boys are better than girls? Why don't you prove it? Here and now. I CHALLENGE YOU TO AN AGNI KAI!" she finished with a flourish.

Zuko facepalmed. This could not be good.

"But Azula," Ty Lee piped up after a moment's pause, "An Agni Kai is usually one on one. And the two people competing have to be firebenders. How is this going to work?"

"We'll adjust it slightly." said Azula with a smirk. "Instead of actively fighting each other, we'll each have a period of time to show off our skills to another the person. That other person can only defend in the period of time. Then we switch positions. Whoever gets the other down fastest, wins. This is for Sokka's benefit, so he can have a 'fair contest'. I would prefer an Agni Kai, personally."

Sokka looked slightly nervous and/or regretting what he'd just said in a fit of temper. He looked to Aang and Zuko.
"A little help here guys? Boys stick together and all?"

Zuko looked incredulous. "Do you really think we're going to suffer for your stupidity? We know girls and boys are equal in every way, we aren't quite that friendly yet to be humiliated for you. Right Aang?" Zuko appealed.

Aang frowned. 'I can't exactly say I'm happy about all of you fighting. We went through this yesterday. I hope that we'll be able to defuse enough tension today so we won't have to do this tomorrow evening. And personally, I'm staying out of this, I'm not taking sides. Avatar has to be impartial and all that jazz..."

Sokka sighed, just another thing to add to the list of unfortunate events that happened today. "No chance I could back out and admit defeat now?" he asked.

Azula shook her head before any of the others could react. "Not a chance, peasant."

He ran his fingers through his hair and breathed out. If he had to go through with this, he might as well make the most of it by making Azula as angry as possible. Possibly the others too, but mostly Azula. Stuck up princess brat.

"How could you think girls could ever be better than boys?" he asked, "Who does everything in society? We hunt food, we build houses, we defend our families; not to mention we're stronger than you!" he called out, as they spread out into the clearing, much further away front their supplies, so as not to hurt them. While he was doing this, he pulled out his boomerang and his machete. These would have to be in ship-shape if he was going to fight Azula.

Katara scoffed as she helped Ty Lee to take off Azula's armour. "Please! Women cook the food you hunt, mend the clothes you rip while building houses and clean the stinky clothes from practicing to fight! I don't think I've seen you touch your socks! You wouldn't know the first thing to do! And girls can do all of the above mentioned things! I'd like to see you try to cook Gran-Gran's stewed sea-prunes. You'd put in so much spice, even the seal-lions would run away from it!"

Sokka laughed as he pulled the whetstone along the edge of the machete. He preferred to sharpen his machete to nick clothing and make a ladder in them. Katara always got annoyed when he did that. His boomerang wasn't too sharp, so as to pack a punch but not seriously injure.
"True, but when have you in particular ever done any of the 'above mentioned things'? I do all of them! That is why boys are better than girls! Always better!"

Azula smirked as she rubbed talcum powder into her hands to make the fire burn colder. She didn't want to seriously injure Sokka, just teach him a lesson. She had no doubt that she would win, he had no training and no discipline.
"Sounds like you Water Tribe are seriously backwards. In the Fire Nation, we may be 'cruel and callous' as you like to describe us, but everyone is equal in our eyes. No one is denied because of age, skin colour or gender!" she said with a laugh. "Tell you what, if you think we're so feeble, how about you let us go first? We'll show you how...'delicate and girly' we really are." She said. Ty Lee looked at Azula nervously.

"Azula, he can't bend." She whispered.

"I know," Azula whispered back, retying Ty Lee's braid "I'm not going to hurt him. He's pathetic. This is just to show him a lesson." Azula rapidly got confused at the hair and shook her head. "Get Mai or Katara to finish this, I can't do braids." Ty Lee grinned.

(X)

Mai sighed from the sidelines. She couldn't be bothered to get involved, there was no excitement in beating up someone who couldn't defend themselves. "Hey Zuko," she whispered, "Aren't you going to help him? Azula will probably murder him."

Zuko gave her a look before going back to sharpening his dao blades.
"Azula's just playing. She won't hurt him. Anyway, I'm not getting involved in that. I have more self-preservation instincts than Sokka, you know that." He said, shooting her a sly look before putting an arm around her awkwardly and pulling her closer.

"Having fun yet?" he asked and she leaned on his shoulder.

"Describe your definition of fun. It hasn't been amazing, but I could never describe this as boring." She said in her dry tone.

"Better than home, though?" said Zuko, putting the swords away.

"Definitely..." Mai said, smiling.

It was then Azula, tired of the taunting from Sokka and the retorts from both of them made her first move. She jumped into the air, spun around and sent two jets of flame towards Sokka before back-flipping and sending another one. Sokka dodged the first two and dissipated the last burst with his machete. Unfortunately, it was made of metal, and as Mai watched impassively, he dropped it, his fingers redder than usual and throbbing.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Get the salve ready Ty Lee," he whispered, "The fool's going to get burnt more than that."

Katara looked concerned at that. "He may be an idiot but he's my brother. Tell me honestly Zuko, will Azula hurt him?" she asked, her eyes not leaving Azula's ferocious fire-whip attacks that Sokka only just seemed to be dodging.

Mai shook her head. "No, Azula's playing with him. If she wanted to hit him, she would have. He's not that fast. I could hit him with a knife from here."

Zuko nodded in agreement. "Mai's right. Every firebender gets burnt before they control fire."

Katara looked annoyed. "He isn't a firebender! He isn't any kind of bender! He's just my stupid but clever brother. I can't watch this anymore."

"Actually, I think you should..." said Aang, his eyes fixated on the scene.

Katara turned around, looking confused. "He's winning..." she breathed. Sokka was using his environment to his advantage. Hiding behind rocks, climbing into tiny caves to avoid being hit, galloping through plants...Katara hadn't ever seen her brother fight this well before and Mai hadn't ever seen someone frustrate Azula so much. She exchanged a look with Zuko who looked nervous. Mai scooted closer to Zuko.

"Do you think she will lose control?" she asked, her voice deadpan to all but those who knew her.

"She never has before...but no one has ever fought like this to her before. It's always been strength and skill with Azula, never tactics and tricks like Sokka's using here. He has a completely different way of fighting to the Fire Nation... but you can see, he's getting slower. He can't keep this up. He's not properly trained. He fights like a swordsman I used to sneak out and watch in action, with less discipline."

Ty Lee grinned. "You're talking about Piandao, aren't you? My brother used to adore him..." her voice petered away and Zuko put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"What happened to your brother?" asked Aang as Sokka skidded on a piece of bamboo through Azula's legs.

"Banished. He was a Fire Nation deserter. He left along with Piandao and Jeong-Jeong as part of the 4th Troop Revolution. No one knows whether he's alive or dead and to be frank? No one cares. Apart from me." said Ty Lee, her usually bright tone, clouded and blunt. She winced as Sokka taunted Azula about something; she had no doubt been probably very offensive to her.

Zuko swore and stood up. Katara looked at him with concern. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"She's going to lose control. Ty Lee, come with me. Neutralize her."

But Mai shook her head. "No. She isn't. She's going to beat him. See? The twitching in her hand's gone. Watch..."

Everyone sat down at once as Azula seemed to acquiesce to Sokka's tauntings and they seemed to get rather close together.

"Are they going to kiss?" asked Ty Lee, shock written over her face. But to Zuko's surprise, Aang was rolling around with laughter.

"No!" he sputtered before guffaws overtook anything he was going to say and Zuko watched with growing amusement as Sokka was thrown to the floor and Azula seemed to be smirking in his face.

Zuko rushed over with Mai and Ty Lee on his heels.

"You really thought you could win, didn't you?" said Azula, as Zuko closer into earshot.

"I was doubtful at first, after all, if no one else was going to fight you, you must have done something good, but as the fight went along, my confidence grew. You were rubbish! ...then you shattered any hope of winning. Figures."

"Ha! I beat you, you Water Tribe peasant. Girls are better. Always. Admit it."

"You might have beat me, but remember, I'm heavier, wiser and I almost beat you. Girls aren't the best. You are." said Sokka, pushing her off him.

"Sokka..." Katara said as she garbed the salve from Ty Lee, "Let me put this on, you're fingers look horri—

Sokka's hand pushed into her face. "It's warm enough to sleep out here with a sleeping bag. I'm not hungry. Leave me alone, I need some time. I'll be back in the morning." He took the salve out of Katara's hands, slung his bag on his shoulders and walked out of the clearing, a scowl etched on his face.

Katara looked worried. "He's really upset. He's always hungry! How is he not hungry now?"

Zuko sighed. "He needs time. I always did every time Azula beat me."

The aforementioned girl looked confused as Ty Lee and her quietly talked in the corner. Mai could only catch the words, "Did he compliment me after I beat him?" of the whole conversation. She figured it mustn't have been anything important to their 'quest'.

"Coincedently, Aang, why were you laughing like you were gassed?" asked Zuko, his face contorted as they restarted the fire and roasted the raw arctic-hen he had stolen from the ship.

"Gyatso used that technique on Mother Milana when the Southern Air Temple was hosting a festival of the air-temples. That was just before I got my tattoos..." said Aang, getting steadily sadder as he drifted into memories.

Azula put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't dwell on their disappearances. Dwell instead on what they taught you and how you laughed."

She sat down next to Zuko and stole his piece of meat from the fire. Zuko squawked indignantly.

"That's mine, Zula!" he said, his voice filled with righteous indignation. Ty Le giggled and Aang chuckled as Azula took great relish in eating just to make Zuko jealous. He rolled his eyes. "I should have known with Sokka gone, you'd all make fun of me!" But there was a good-natured tone to his voice, one that had never happened in Sokka's voice.

(X)

Sokka sighed as he clambered out of his sleeping bag. Usually, sleeping was an easy task for Sokka, and it should have been on today of all days, but Sokka found himself unable to rest. He picked up his sleeping bag, hoisted it on his shoulder and walked away from the forest. He reached the beach and looked down at the water lapping at the shore. There was light mist gathering on top of the water.

Sokka sat down and stared. Katara would have said that the spirits were in alignment and that the dead were exerting their influence on the world. Sokka knew from the traders that occasionally visited that the mist was caused by condensation, but after the events of today, Katara's theory would be true.

Sokka put his head in his hands. He wasn't sure who he was and why everything he thought was true was being challenged. He didn't believe in luck but if he had, he would have said he was having a streak of bad luck. But as it was, Sokka blamed it on Katara. Everything was always the younger sibling's fault. It was in the sibling handbook.

Peace child, you will find your strength.

Sokka darted up. Nobody was there but he could have sworn he'd heard a voice. Sokka slapped himself. Now he really was going mad. But the womanly voice was gentle and calm; and Sokka felt stronger and more resolved than he had before.

'Find a goal and you'll find yourself, Sokka. That's how I cope.' He remembered the words of Bato at that moment. They had been uttered a long time ago as the two of them had sneaked out to hunt polar-seals, contrary to what his Dad and Mum had said. That was just after Bato's wife had died and Sokka had asked how he was coping. He had understood grief, even then. He'd always been an odd child.

I need a goal. thought Sokka. 'Find yourself' was FAR too ambiguous and 'Help Aang master all of the elements' was too vague. Sokka yawned and put his sleeping bag on the sand. He'd be woken up in the morning by high tide, he knew, but then again, that was a better alarm clock than his sister and the devious little Avatar.

Everything would be better in the morning. There was no rational explanation as to why, but Sokka just knew.

AN: Okay, so this is a short chapter, but I didn't want to get into the details of the 'Warriors of Kyoshi' as I have a LOT planned for that chapter. Prepare for a lot of Fire Nation bashing (despite my feelings about that) and Suki being far less naïve than she was before. When I said this was AU...I meant it.

Oh, and please, if there are any Narnia fans amongst you, my loyal readers, please go vote on my poll. I can't seem to get my Narnia craze out. I've loved the series since I was 5, but I've been enlightened to the fandom by reading too much by 'elecktrum' and' obsessivelyodd' works. I need to get it out of my system!

Okay, long AN (for the tiny chapter) over. Review if you liked. Review if you didn't!