A/N: Mind you, another longish chapter in which NOTHING HAPPENS! Course, if you're used to reading my stuff, this should come as no particular surprise. No apologies, no regrets.

As for Disclaimers: Please, no claims, profits or creative. Go bother real bad guys.

Chapter 20

Sokka inhaled deeply when the guard closed the door on Ty Lee's cabin, after being unceremoniously dumped upon the expanse of her bed.

It was rather nice to be alone again, free to breathe. Not that he could do anything else, literally, at the moment. But hey, that didn't have to diminish the pleasure of not having a shoulder digging into your gut as you attempted to do something so simple as breathe without it giving you pain one way or another. First let him take a moment to savor this, and then he could move on down his, unfortunately rather limited, agenda.

At first Sokka concentrated on noting the feeling returning to his limbs, but he had to acknowledge that it was still clear that full control of said appendages was probably perhaps as much as another hour away. Following hard upon that realization, for the admittedly rather innocent teenager, was acknowledging the reality that it was her bed on which he was recovering.

Adolescence is not a kind mistress.

Sokka already knew this from his unruly physical responses to young women long before he'd found himself a prisoner with a gaoler of a lascivious bent of mind. Still, his previous experiences clearly had not adequately prepared him for the extraordinarily blatant sexuality of the Fire Nation acrobat and her assumptions as to his acceptance of it.

On the one hand, he couldn't deny there was something very… flattering in it all. This - no, she wasn't just another girl, this woman clearly wanted him to satisfy her, em, sexually! For all that he was her enemy, and a foreigner, she still wanted him!

On the other hand, well, there was something definitely political and manipulative about it all. Even if Ty Lee hadn't explicitly admitted as much, the reality was that he was under her mistress's eye – and yon miss had expressed a desire to peel away his skin in the interest of furthering along his interrogation.

Not exactly something easy to overlook.

Sokka was fully aware that any bedroom antics with delectable Ty Lee might as well be imagined with Azula as onlooker. Azula. The rather lovely if decidedly deadly Fire Princess with an apparent penchant for skewering her opponents verbally before barbecuing them. Oddly enough, he was having a hard time deciding if that served more to cool his ardor or spur it on. It was kinda fun dodging her skewers.

Again. Adolescence is nota kind mistress.

Granted, given the idiocies adolescence was prone to, a little sternness was probably a good thing. Sokka had wasted a rather appreciable amount of time and brain cells contemplating this apparent deviant streak within himself before opting to decide that, as someone on the cusp of manhood it should hardly be surprising that he found virtually everything to be sexy. It was amazing what a relief he'd experienced from such a conclusion. Rather more disconcerting was the doors it opened onto his imagination. It was almost enough to make him regret all that research he'd done, especially when it came to envisioning turning the tables on Azula and how gratifying that could be and how he really, really did not want to think about that!

On one hand… but on the other hand.

Then there was that damned third hand. Nope. Not that anyone normal had a third hand when it came right down to it. But Sokka distinctly remembered arguments with his sister in which she had the gall to raise that iniquitous third hand. More times than not, the third hand carried the day.

Sokka being Sokka – which meant, of course, being Katara's brother – therefore could not even attempt to avoid considering that damned third hand.

Which meant thinking about the image of Gran-Gran observing everything he did with Ty Lee – oh, thank you very much, Katara, for that one!

Of course, it was the third hand that objected to Ty Lee purely on the grounds of her being Fire Nation and his captor. It was the third hand that screamed against his even considering compromising his values in this way. That reminded him how his physical response to the girl had resulted in his losing relative anonymity as far as being able to prevent his friends from knowing he was captured.

Water Tribe pride snapped at him angrily at thinking any dalliance with the girl was even an option. He shouldn't have needed to evaluate it tactically since it should never have even crossed his mind! They were too damned different! Then über-rational Sokka intervened. Ur, was that actually Water Tribe pride talking or some idealistic abstract? Had Water Tribe pride actually looked at the girl?

And then, yes, some quiet secret voice in his reptilian brain reminded him that it was his beloved hidebound grandmother who'd traversed one global pole to the other to escape tradition's demands. Granted, she'd found succor with another Water Tribe but, that reptilian brain continued to whisper, she could just have easily gone aground somewhere in-between. Sokka's grandfather could have been of the Earth Kingdom or, even, the Fire Nation! Conscious brain shuddered at reptilian brain's suggestions, but the seed was planted…

Ah, the dangers of being open-minded.

Given family history, Sokka's prescient wry smile at Sparky's obvious anger-cum-jealousy at the thought of Ty Lee's favoritism necessarily had a note of self-mockery and very little sting. For Sokka himself, it became a matter of accepting that perhaps his conscious brain was a bit in sympathy with the old reptile thrashing angrily at what amounted to an admission on Sparky's part as to wanting to fuck Ty Lee himself, probably again.

Well then. No point in mining that particular question any further, now was there?

Ah yes, he could bend not only fingers now, but his wrists on both hands. And Ty Lee had yet to show her face. Clearly, she was assuming he was useless to her until he'd regained his mobility, and he could appreciate that she had rows to hoe in explaining his presence in her cabin, as opposed to his cell. Mmm. Glad I ain't the one negotiating those shoals. Really, is it even possible that Azu-zu will condone this? Damn, what a pervert she must be!

Sokka thanked the spirits for Ty Lee's absence. It gave him time to think how best to respond to her return. After all, putting Ty Lee off further was no longer an option.

Well, it could be actually. If he really wanted to. Sokka spared himself a blush as he admitted he was more than prepared to…er, well, "fuck her silly," if he had the opportunity. As near as he could guess, it would be his last opportunity to make the best of a damned shitty situation.

Ah, hell. Sokka may have lied to his sister and, by extension, anyone else who mattered. But he didn't lie to himself. And the thought of losing his virginity to Ty Lee seemed to offer more than one stroke on the list of life achievements to look back on later. Even if later was measured in mere minutes.

Fuck. At least he wouldn't die a virgin. And if he managed nothing else, he was damned sure he wouldn't die alone.

It shouldn't have mattered in the least bit. After all, hadn't she acknowledged to herself that he was more of an annoyance than anything else? Turning over all aspects of his interrogation to Ty Lee – albeit through seduction – was merely a means to a cost-effective end on her part.

So why was Azula still annoyed?

She liked to think it was merely a vestigial reaction against the plebeian's inevitable sexual response to Ty Lee, and her necessary involvement. How many times had she played out this game anyway?

Argh. No point in that particular train of thought. It was all too easy to slip off into the darkness of her soul and wonder which of them had gotten the better part of the deal. Ty Lee, Azula's admitted slut of a handmaiden, had the somewhat dubious pleasure of being first ear to a range of confessions, coupled with the physical releases that had inspired such. Azula was the beneficiary of such admissions, all without staining her silken skin with even a single heated bead of perspiration.

And nothing in the princess's stances of her kata, sweat-drenched and fiery-eyed, gave rise to any visions or even rumors of any hint of anything like apparent frigidity … or worse, betrayal.

Or why Azula had awakened wide-eyed and determined that morning, with more in mind for the dawn than her usual singular worship.

The truth was, she had been a bit disappointed when, first, Mai had come up on deck to interrupt her session with Sokka, and then Ty Lee had slid into her intermediary role. Even while he feared her, she could see in his eyes determination not to let her beat him. And while, of course, she could not allow such an attitude to continue she also could not help – at least, after her second meeting with him when he still proved defiant – but find such defiance rather… admirable.

What was admirable was, necessarily, attractive.

That it was also necessary to crush it did not in the least detract from its attractiveness. The longer it survived the more… intriguing – if frustrating – it became. Thus, Azula found herself dipping into her own mind's eye for specific cruelties to visit upon the Tribesman in order to distract her from her attraction to him. She smiled.

And heretofore her brother had only sufficed to receive such attention.

Would Sokka recognize her hand in the leather encircling that strong young throat, rubbing harshly against the smoothly-carved ivory and shell standing guard? She would like to have been able to imagine it in yet closer proximity to him, perhaps pressed against the pulse point on his throat. Yes. That would have been satisfying. Did she need a reason to rob him of that symbol of barbarian rituals? Would he understand if she had it ripped from his neck now? Maybe not.

Ah but, surely he would protest her ascendancy over him even as he bowed his back over Ty Lee. In her mind's eye she imagined every thrust of his hips between her pliant friend's splayed legs as a direct challenge to her…

Azula found herself oddly breathless as she contemplated this exchange.

It was a first. She was no stranger to imagining Ty Lee's antics with her swains – hell, some portion of the fun for both of them was in the verbal sharing of the experience afterwards. And Azula had thus learned the pleasures of both anticipation and remembrance, if only vicariously. It was, after all, very necessary to ensure her reputation as princess remained intact and pure.

Or rather, that not even Ty Lee ever be given reason to suspect otherwise.

Somehow though, this time was different. This time Ty Lee's boy-toy had challenged her personally, and damned if his wit and sly tongue hadn't made the challenge count for something. This time the thought of Ty Lee as surrogate for her was … pale … and somehow just a bit inadequate.

The tea she'd ordered a good ten minutes earlier finally appeared. Azula narrowed her eyes at the servitor, momentarily distracted by assessing the likelihood of his robes' merely smoking being sufficient to overcome him before his screams shifted from being satisfying to merely abrasive. Smoke was not as attractive as actual flame, of course. She sighed. The reality was that taking pleasure in the pain of others was no longer as satisfying as it used to be. At least, unless they understood the pleasure she was taking in it….

Just how much time should she allow Ty Lee with the Tribeman before summoning one or the other of them before her for a report? How long need she wait for just the right response from him over the indignity of being collared like a pet?

And was she seriously contemplating exchanging Ty Lee's leash for her own? Ty Lee would whine, of course, but it was probably time she'd drawn the line on her anyway. No, the better question was as to whether a Water Tribe peasant actually warranted so much of the Fire Princess's attention. She had come dangerously close already to crossing that line of interest.

After all, she told herself, he was merely a comical non-bender only associated with the Avatar because his much more talented sister had found him at the South Pole. That's what the reports said. He was a non-entity. Weak sentiment would cause his friends to attempt to rescue him. It had absolutely nothing to do with his intrinsic value.

Azula sipped at her tea in silent contemplation. So much of the data supported exactly that assessment of the handsome dolt she'd allowed her friend to shelter for purposes of seduction in her cabin. Yet somehow, she didn't believe it. No, not after actually meeting him without the distraction of others more obviously talented. His every interaction with her since being brought aboard belied the fool, when considered with doubting eyes.

Which was, of course, the point of the collar. To let him know that she saw through him and despised him anyway. She knew it would gall him mightily. But she also suspected he would bear it if he thought he had any chance of outwitting her anyway.

Therefore, the collar was not enough.

It had taken probably more time than was warranted, but somehow Ty Lee was uncomfortable with the thought of announcing to the ship at large that Azula had ordered her to collar Sokka. As a result, she had made her way reluctantly down to the section of the ship devoted to those few craftsmen brought aboard to service the needs not easily met by either local vendors or long-term shipments from the Fire Nation. That this was a necessarily limited component of the warship had yet to take force in Azula's conceptions, and was still further removed from Ty Lee's. Mai perforce had dealt with it given her need for a ready supply of throwing knives, but that was another story.

It did not occur to Ty Lee that Azula intended Sokka's collar to be a rough and ready affair. She took her lady quite literally at her word, but also considered her own intended uses.

So it was more than two hours later that she found herself smoothing her hand over the supple length of leather proffered for her approval. It was a hefty piece, measuring a full knuckle to base-joint in width, and once sufficiently snugged against Sokka's neck should prove a significant reminder of his place in the princess's household. The underside was a soft, forgiving suede that would almost caress the shell of his Tribal necklace. She had convinced the leatherworker to keep the base color a stone-grey in her own family's honor, with a simple flameworked knot both at buckle and halfway between in recognition of the First Family of Flame. She consented to inserting a metal-worked loop in the leather near the buckle, and allowed the craftsman to devise a fitting that assured that Sokka would not be able to easily slip the buckle, if Azula chose to exercise it.

As she walked back to her cabin, collar in hand, Ty Lee wondered at her own discomfort. She had worked any number of seduction schemes to Azula's advantage over the years. Quite frequently her lovers had been wholly unaware of the final ear for their pillowtime meanderings, and she had never felt the least remorse at turning over such secrets to Azula.

But Sokka was by no means so obtuse. It was clear that he fully expected her to report to Azula anything he said. So it wasn't as if she were cheating him in any way. She wasn't pretending to any innocent attraction to him. It was all open and aboveboard, and anything he said could be used against him in a court of law or in pursuit of his friends and family…

As she walked along the deck to the central tower it finally struck Ty lee as to what was bothering her about the whole affair.

Virtually every young man she had seduced she had been honestly attracted to. That they often happened to fit within Azula's plans for interrogation had been a mere lucky happenstance. They were always pretty much unaware of Azula's interest and thus Ty Lee was always secure in their interest in her.

Sokka was, obviously, very different.

Certainly, she had had to convince him of her very real interest in him apart from Azula's political shenanigans. But he was no idiot, and the half hour or so they had spent in each other's arms the night before had been quite compelling as far as expressing real 'interests'. Surely he felt the same! Well, his physical reactions had left no doubt as to that, but still…

She remembered his thumb along her jaw, other fingers splayed across her skull and the horribly solid wall of his cell far too close for comfort when she'd come to, frankly, attempt a seduction. There was no doubt he could have crushed her skull against the wall before she could have disabled him. They both knew that.

The erotic charge of her realization of that fact still sent sizzles along her bloodstream.

That he had not done so clearly spoke to his ability to weigh his options. A lesser man would have jumped at the chance to take out one of the Fire Nation's best, already accepting his own death as a result. That he didn't, of course, suggested he might have been a coward. But Ty Lee didn't believe it. After all, every interaction she had had with him said that was prepared to die in his fight against the Fire Nation. So why didn't he kill her when he had the chance? It would have been a great coup in th war against the Fire Nation.

But Sokka apparently had greater ambitions. It wouldn't be enough to kill Ty Lee. Perhaps, even, he was reluctant to do so. In any case, it was apparent he still believed he had a chance at escaping and somehow aiding his cause further by doing so. Well, if he could stop the Avatar from stepping into Azula's clutches that would be significant. And his escape would almost certainly achieve that.

Damn. He was a clever boy, wasn't he? Obviously at first, he'd assumed that his death would achieve that objective, and he'd sought it blatantly. When it was clear that dying at this point wouldn't matter, he'd quite objectively shifted prerogatives.

Delightfully enough, he'd recognized that her attraction to him might possibly serve that goal. Ty Lee appreciated pragmatism that worked in her favor.

And so she continued to act in ways that kept him, hopefully, off balance even as she asserted her interest in him. Ultimately, she wanted to achieve Azula's goals. But first, of course, was the satisfaction of her own desires. And there was something about this barbarian boy that was particularly attractive. Oh yes, it had its roots in his raw physical attractions – those lovely blue eyes, strong clean lines and that exotically dark skin, sending highlights and shadows along delineated muscles... And there was something rather exquisite in the way he continued to fight against her – if she paralyzed his arms would he still find strength to deny his body's responses as she kissed her way down his torso?

And what about that snow-wolf that had nipped at her nose, the aspect of his personality that she had been calling "dangerous Sokka" in her mind? How would Azula's collar affect him? She shuddered pleasurably in anticipation.

Once she'd realized that the collar was a mere symbol, humiliating but otherwise wholly ineffective, she found herself increasingly intrigued as to Sokka's response. Would he be so outraged as to react against her forcibly before she could respond? Should she collar him well before he recovered from her paralyzing his chi? Or would a more equal struggle satisfy that risk-taking element of her own personality that kept her pushing the envelope of safety? And where did Azula's approval fall?

Sokka was a fool, when it came down to it. He could have killed her last night, but he didn't. Instead, he'd chosen to play the odds of a better opportunity presenting itself.

Knowing he was so much of a gambler gained her an immeasurable advantage over him. Sokka was a gambler. Ty Lee, on the other hand, was not. In any battle between the two, the advantage lay with the one who recognized the point at which to cut their losses.

Sokka would have said Ty Lee was also a gambler. She just wasn't prepared to admit it, so secure she was in her own certainties.

No matter how much she wanted him, Ty Lee knew that she would not be the only thing on Sokka's mind when he finally took her to bed. The male was congenitally incapable of maintaining focus on a single effort, just as he was equally incapable of divorcing his feelings from any such bedding as to the reality of his position as a prisoner, or her role therein.

Nonetheless, Ty Lee couldn't help wondering if she'd made the right decision in bringing Sokka to her bed, rather than pursuing him on the hard bench that comprised his own bed.

Was it really rational to believe that helpless Sokka, disabled by her assaults to his chakra points, in her cabin, was somehow more at a disadvantage than the surly young man in his cell? Of course he would howl at her asserting ownership of him; men had howled before at her dominance. What difference would it make with Sokka?

Ty Lee had no real answers for these questions, but she seriously expected that such a lack would prove important to not only her, but even to Azula in the long run. As she turned the key in the lock on her door, Ty Lee schooled her face into its habitual vacuous grin as she considered the young man sprawled across her bed.

After all, while the reality of personal curses was a not-to-be-ignored possibility, every foreseeable future for the local princess boded well.

Mai rested her arms along the stern railing in a deliberately contemplative pose. She honestly didn't care what political or even recreational escapades her schoolmates indulged in. Her own allegiance was clear.

She closed her eyes and the soft innocence of echoing amber orbs brushed askance against her consciousness. She forced her eyes open to ignore the differences in the innocence of the eyes that confronted her as to her own. Spirits knew, she had trusted to innocent eyes before. And shouldn't anyone be expected to trust the innocence of the eyes of a prince?

But Mai knew better. The sweet innocence of a prince was useless unless it was bound within the restrictions of reality. It was only in fairy tales that a girl would find herself a princess because of a prince's attentions. Mai was no princess. And she didn't live in a fairly tale.

Shit. While she was not princess she was still pretty damned high when it came to Fire Nation aristocracy available to the prince of the Fire Nation.

Hell, Ty Lee couldn't make a claim to Zuko – there was that whole Air Nomad shadow to be dispelled from her heritage. And they all knew it couldn't be. Ty Lee's family status rested entirely upon the betrayal of the Air Nomads by one of their own.

Of course, the idiot girl had never showed any preference for Zuko anyway. Well, unless you speculate upon some interest to compare the Fire Nation's best with that of the rest of the world!

Mai sighed. Zuko had been a handsome, good-hearted boy, from all reports quite intelligent and reasonably talented as a fire-bender, before that fatal day in the war room. No one ever said he'd compared with his sister though. But then, in their world no one had actually expected him to. Which is why she'd never quite given credence to Azula's disdain of her elder brother.

Well, that was then and this was now.

Innocent eyes, be they amber or cerulean blue, held no value in the struggle to stay alive and on top of the game. Mai allowed herself to think wistfully of times past, enjoying the pleasant warmth curling in her belly as her mind's eye obligingly added years to the prince's visage and bulk and sinew to his frame. She pictured Zuko with more mass than the Water Tribe boy evinced, despite their apparent similarity in age, probably because of the inherent power his family had always displayed, and the muscularity she had always associated with it.

With a sudden jolt of perspective, Mai found herself casting upon the dusky planes of a stubborn jawline memories of an equally determined frown cast in much paler tones. Long-lined limbs fleshed out in disciplined ridges – perhaps garnered from stolen glances at training rounds at the various sites of her father's political appointments, or even her own imagination – and a grace she knew was stolen from watching Azula.

It was, actually, with some relief that she recognized this unusual interest in Sokka was more than his expertise with the boomerang. That his strength of will reminded her of Zuko was reassuring – it meant that the boy himself had no real attraction for her that she needed to worry about. He was merely about Zuko's age and, as Zuko was, unusually attractive and brave.

That was, of course, all there was to it.

A/N: It amuses me to no end that this fic – which started as a lark but took on a life of its own and therefore I claim little in the way of responsibility for – has attained such a following: nearly every chapter has 1,000 hits! Hell, not bad for a story focusing on purely secondary characters, don't you think? (And right up there with my Sokka/Zuko stories, to which I'd attributed pure Zuko fandom) So Sokka's a bit more of a magnet than I had imagined, I guess.