A/N: I thought this story wouldn't amount to more than a couple chapters showing what idiocy the capture fic featuring Sokka is. Oops. Kinda made that genre a bit fun, now didn't I?

Disclaimer: I own nothing and have no profit expectations. Civil suit is pointless.

Chapter 22

Sokka marveled a bit at his own self-control – although he was reasonably sure that sheer shock probably had more to do with it than anything else as to what prevented him from acting upon the fury that coursed through his veins once he'd realized the nature of Ty Lee's actions. It certainly wasn't Ty Lee herself - he knew that instinctively. Just as he also instinctively knew that this was Azula's act, with Ty Lee merely the acquiescent agent. Had he any doubt, Ty Lee's tears would have proved more than adequate confirmation.

What an amazing bitch the fire princess was! It wasn't enough to rob him of his freedom, followed shortly by emasculating him as well – that had been effectuated with Ty Lee's blatant control of what he still believed was the reverse of a proper seduction – no, Azula went further to deny him his basic humanity. The collar said he was not merely a prisoner; he was a pet!

And she really, really wanted him to know it.

Sokka became vaguely aware that the dampness of his palms was not so much a sign of sweat as the blood drawn by his own nails in his desperate attempt to keep his arms slack upon the coverlet, just as he decided he didn't really give a damn if his blood stained said bedclothes. He was fairly sure that Ty Lee would hardly question that level of muscle control, given the provocation, if she even noticed. At least, he was relatively sure given the level of her tears even as she recognized the shock radiating from every fiber of his being as she slipped the end of the collar through the keeper after the buckle's tongue shot home and he'd realized the enormity of her act.

By keeping his focus on peripheral issues – such as the slight tremble of her fingers as they worked the collar's fixtures; the shimmer in her eyes as tears gathered, real or otherwise; and the absurd collapse across his supposedly helpless body that positioned her limbs rather more than suggestively across his own lower extremities — Sokka managed to avoid what he was sure would have been a failed attempt at murdering Ty Lee. Again, he wondered at his own ability to suppress such instinctive reactions in favor of predetermined planning.

As a side thread of thought, he found himself a bit curious as to the end result of his mental explorations regarding the issue of self-control. Hadn't he managed to embarrass himself often enough before in speaking or acting on his own confident assessment of a situation? According to Katara and Toph – Aang kept silence in recognition of male solidarity in such concerns – even his experiences at the North Pole hadn't seen fit to quell his determination to "take charge" purely on the authority of age and gender.

Well, it seemed that his instinct also still knew well enough when to duck and take cover. Damn it, either he was a coward after all or he was actually getting better at forcing himself to think before he acted. Since he had been quite determined beforehand to hide his recovered basic bodily control in the face of whatever happened next – although getting collared had not entered into his calculations at all – he rather hoped that it was intellect rather than cowardice that ruled him now. He hated to think that it might be otherwise.

It was odd how the fury within him burned itself out so quickly, to be replaced by yet another layer of icy hate against the Fire Nation. Oh, it still smoldered a bit, and Sokka gathered a hint of the heat that fueled so many fire-benders even as his soul eased its transference into yet another crust upon the shell of resentment built up over the years.

Well, if it kept him alive to take charge later, to greater purpose…

So was it fear of yet another embarrassment of failure that kept him from fighting this ultimate humiliation? Sokka reconsidered his own healthy flight response and, given the realities of life at the South Pole wholly unmitigated by his experiences thereafter, he remained convinced that in most cases running away was the smart thing to do. Aside from the fact that, in this case, the option of running was actually quite lacking, of course, this seemed to be the perfect case in point. Even if he could overcome Ty Lee, his hope of escape was slim.

Almost certainly Azula would have increased the guard outside her door, anticipating some such hope on his part. With flight impossible what option was left - ?

As he awkwardly pressed his cheek against Ty Lee's in some odd act of comfort –qua-forgiveness, Sokka shifted his head enough to see confirmation of his guess in two helmets in view beyond the door Ty Lee had left ajar. The cynical aspect of his brain assumed the girl had left the door ajar deliberately for him to see as much, content to let him take his choice in believing her innocent or complicit in the additional security.

Following that train of thought, he found himself of two minds as to Ty Lee's guilt regarding the entire situation. Sokka had absolved her of any deep guilt once he'd ascertained for himself her very real interest in him physically the night before. There was something very disarming in a high-born Fire Nation girl's pursuit of a Water Tribe peasant, even as the thought set off all kinds of alarms regarding its suspiciousness. The balance had been tipped, of course, with her willingness to put herself in real harm's way. And Sokka never suspected Ty Lee of being foolish enough to be unaware of her peril the night before.

"Well, Brat, it could have been fun. Getting along, I mean. Pity Fire Nation has such a poor understanding of common language as to not understand that it's a two-way street," He was fishing a bit, here, for information, as well as digging in whatever knife he might have at his disposal for Ty Lee's act against him.

She was snuggling rather more intimately against him as he spoke, and for a breath she froze in position. Clearly, she had taken the brief caress of his cheek against hers at face value, optimistic as to any repercussions Azula's insistence on collaring Sokka would have on the relationship between them. Even as she resumed positioning her body more comfortably against his prone form, he knew she was reevaluating that optimism.

By speaking, Sokka accepted his own conclusions regarding this changed situation, one part of his mind keeping time even as he focused on maintaining his limbs in a slack position. His focus shifted fully back onto the Fire Nation girl in whose room and bed he found himself. A bed, he reminded himself, that was ultimately owned by Princess Azula.

Even as her tears rained down upon him Ty Lee was fully conscious of the tenseness of the male form beneath her. She had been surprised at his ability to lift his body from the bed at all, let alone with any kind of force. And yet, shortly after her fingers had managed to complete the circle around his neck, sliding one end of the collar through the metal keeper and then catching a tooth of the buckle through the ready-made hole, he had managed to lift his torso full off the bed, although his arms remained slack against his sides. A growl of frustration had filled the room even as the handsome face had contorted itself fiercely through a range of expressions she hadn't had time to register – beyond the coldness that had closed down again over his face as his torso fell back against the pillows.

Betrayal was not a word that had often found its way into Ty Lee's lexicon, oddly enough. Even so, for the first time in her life she felt like perhaps she understood just what it meant to be on the receiving end. Funny that. For all their games, she'd never felt any similar sense regarding Mai…

Ah, but! Mai's eyes had never held so much indignation or disappointment! Yet, that was what she had read in the shifting hues of the Tribesman's eyes when she finally dared to meet them again. Where her childhood friend's eyes seemed incapable of registering any emotion in their obsidian depths, the Tribesman's fury and disappointment formed a veritable kaleidoscope, particularly in his eyes and easily read, despite their alien color. And surely those emotions were aimed at her. Well, why not? She deserved them. After all, she'd never claimed to want more than physical gratification from him, and she'd definitely offered to make his life as a prisoner easier in return. But she'd never suggested that in addition she would require such ultimate submission from him. Of course he would feel she'd cheated on their deal.

This was a schock to her. While Ty Lee may have spilled her lovers' secrets to Azula, she'd never actually deliberately compromised any of her lovers' positions. Generally, it was a social boost to a man to have been in her favor, and both of them knew it. As far as she knew, none of them had actually suffered as a result of her attentions.

But the reality was that Sokka had not been far out when he suggested that Ty Lee had no idea what she was doing as a gaoler. It was one thing to peruse the files of a prison and seduce a likely captive, and altogether something else to be responsible for the status and well-being of a valuable political prisoner. It wasn't until Azula insisted on twisting the bonds surrounding Sokka with the prospect of additional humiliation that Ty Lee began to understand that there were levels to imprisonment. Levels that went beyond mere restraint of limbs.

And, somehow, despite the lack of restraint upon the limbs that a mere band of leather around the neck proffered, the existence of such a bond was sufficient upon itself as to offer insult almost – if not equal – to bonds upon the limbs themselves.

Well, duh! Ty Lee wasn't stupid and she knew perfectly well that to place a collar on someone, to suggest by such means that they were not even human but a mere pet, was enormously insulting. And the very act of placing such an instrument upon someone's neck suggested the power to enforce its meaning.

Ty Lee had cringed even as she affixed the lock on the hasp and buckle that secured Sokka's collar. If she knew what was going on she knew that Sokka was also aware of it, not just on her level but probably on a scale somehow comparable with Azula herself.

"You're going to take this out on me? Surely you know I didn't want things to go this way," silently she intoned, It's not my fault… and if you loved me… For all her many escapades, Ty Lee had never considered the distinctions between the words 'love' and 'want', assuming the latter to be merely a degree of the former.

Sokka's own education had been far more exacting. So he was wholly unaware of her silent plea.

"Don't be a fool, Brat," The kaleidoscope was gone, leaving behind the steely blue that matched his voice. "You expect honor in a deal from a caged animal? Better consult your princess or throw me back below decks."

Ty Lee considered how many times she could paralyze Sokka's chi before it might kill him altogether, and whether she would feel better if she actually killed him or had to live with the condemnation that was so clearly evident in those blue eyes. And why did it matter in this case, when it never had before?

He shrugged when pressed in the galley; hell, anyone stationed on the foredeck had seen him heave the Tribesman over his shoulder and, following the Lady Ty Lee, haul him into the tower instead of down below deck back into the cells. He didn't want to talk about it and, after all, Ty Lee hadn't given him leave to unbutton his lip indiscriminately anyways.

Oh, he heard the kitchen boy refer to him as "Sparky", and he was quite aware that the Water Tribe prisoner had referred to him the same way. Given Sokka's limited contact with the crew it seemed evident that the guards themselves had talked too much – as he himself must have during off hours. The Tribesman had a funny way about him – his dislike of the Fire Nation was clear and yet he was incorrigibly social, willing to even make jokes about himself for some acknowledgment from those around him. It hadn't taken much questioning to learn that Sokka had something of a flare for bestowing catchy nicknames – "Grumpy", "Slick", and, oddly, "So fine" had caught on with Sokka's guards – an almost unconscious acceptance of his assessment of obvious characteristics. It took a little digging to learn that some of his other soubriquets had also caught hold: "Ass Wipe" and "Snotty" were far too descriptive and far too obvious to argue about – and "Sewer-Dog" had become common references to the remaining unranked soldiers that served, as guards and otherwise, since Sokka had been brought aboard.

It wasn't in the purview of ranked soldiers to mix with the unranked, let alone officers with enlisted. Generally, it was conceded that unranked soldiers were the dregs of society. Since most of the ranked men were fire-benders, "Sparky" had seen no particular reason to take offense, although he did wonder if Sokka perhaps called all fire-benders "Sparky". Again, simple questioning had yielded that where guards did not offer names Sokka presented his own, some clever, some stupid; "Flash" for a particularly quick-on-the-draw guard and "Deckman" for an overweight guard prone to flatulence. The former, he thought, was obvious, and the latter was generous. Since he had no real objections to his own nickname, "Sparky" had a hard time articulating a real objection to the man himself.

Another sop to his conscience, perhaps.

But nothing and everything had argued towards the latest turn of events. Only an idiot would believe that an assassin of Ty Lee's caliber – sure, he'd sussed out the girl's role in her ladyship's favor early on – would be ignorant of the vulnerability of her position.

So she was confident enough as to her own abilities to deal with the Tribesman either as idiot or spy. If he were honest with himself he would have to admit it wasn't fear for Ty Lee that bothered him as to her interest in Sokka but simple jealousy. The tribesman was young, handsome and presumably virile. He was also obviously not as enamored of the young noblewoman as virtually all of the men-at-arms on board were.

Sparky sighed heavily as he methodically consumed his dinner. He was fully aware that Lady Ty Lee's tastes were far-ranging, and he was in no position to complain. Still, if Princess Azula saw fit to fry the Tribesman upon their next meeting, he would be happy to shovel the remaining char overboard.

When she thought about it she had to admit there was a certain exultation warming her heart from the moment her guards had brought word that Ty Lee had in fact dealt Sokka what should have been a breaking blow of humiliation in collaring him. Granted, the fact that Ty Lee had seen fit to issue a flood of tears across his bosom as she did so, detracted a bit from the triumph of the act itself. But, when she thought about it, maybe it was even better that Sokka had to know the order came from herself, and wasn't some idiotic kinky sexual move on Ty Lee's part.

Yes. It was much better for him to know just how much Ty Lee was a creature of her bidding, and how little she would prove as a bulwark between them in his favor. Gloves off between them – if any such device had ever existed anyway – was so much better.

As she thought about it, Azula wondered again if she had been wise in allowing Ty Lee to play any role in this game at all. Ah but, surely she would prove at least valuable as a distraction, dividing his attention between what was truly important and useless pleasure politics. Her brother might have objected to this as unworthy, but Azula knew better. Their father had taught her the lesson of looking for weaknesses wherever you may find them, and exploiting them.

Still. It would have been nice to force Sokka to submit to her on the basis of her own strength alone. To make him worship her and appreciate her for how much she rose above everyone else, including girls such as Ty Lee. After all, did he really think anyone but her could appreciate his wordplay on either his first or second interrogations?

Of course not. And it was something he should be forced to admit. In fact, she would not allow him to die until he did fully appreciate her. When the time came, he would count it as a blessing.