Gladiator

by Seyary-Minamoto

In a world where the Avatar wasn't found, the Fire Nation took over two nations and they strive to overcome the last one. Water Tribe warrior Sokka seeks to fight for his people's rights, but he's captured by his enemies. His life is no longer in his hands as he fights as a Gladiator, and his fate will eventually depend on the Fire Nation Princess, who needs him for her own ends...

213. Chapter 213: The Spirit Library 4

Time appeared immovable while they were inside the Library, despite it wasn't likely that its spiritual properties could possibly affect reality to that extent. Sokka had torn through all books he could find about horned dragons, writing down every bit of relevant information – including everything related to mating, despite Xin Long's dismissing it with a proud shake of his head. He didn't quite feel like a dragon expert after what he'd done, but his understanding of Xin Long's kind had broadened beyond all his expectations after this visit to the Library.

He would share as much of it with Azula, for she would certainly be much more eager than he was to learn about dragons and all their details. Still, he had no chances to do so just yet, for after their second night in the Library, Azula scarcely had time to do anything but eat and sleep. He'd only be able to tell her about all he'd learned once they were on their way back to Ba Sing Se, and who knew when that would be…

"Xin?" Sokka had called the dragon: he had taken to toying with the Knowledge Seeker assigned to them, casting small fireballs the Seeker dodged expertly each time "You think you can go up to the spire and check if it's dark out yet? I don't know about you, buddy, but I may have lost all sense of time while we've been down here, so…"

Xin Long huffed stubbornly, shaking his mane in a blatant refusal as he returned to his games. Sokka huffed, rolling his eyes and setting aside the latest book he'd picked up. He'd check the spire himself, then… somehow. It was quite far away, but if he could catch any sunlight filtering through its windows, he'd know it was still daytime.

After taking in, and writing down, everything valuable he could find about dragons, he had distracted himself by reading anything that caught his interest, taking leisurely walks around the bookshelves while fishing for amusing stories or useful information. All the while, his rational mind reminded him that there was one thing he ought to be looking into, one book he hadn't bothered opening yet, and he'd do better to focus on that rather than wasting his time with unrelated nonsense…

And his conscience warred with his rational mind, of course, for if he dared do it, the consequences could be difficult, troubling, dangerous and who knew what else. He wouldn't put Azula in danger by acting out and risking Wan Shi Tong's wrath. In fact, he refused to, especially when he felt they barely knew, let alone understood, the spirit she had spent almost three days locked with.

If only he had been allowed to join them in their latest transcription session… he sighed, his shoulders slumping as he raised his head, eyes raking the tall, dark spire above him: it was distant, but he could see something glowing above still, and it wasn't the green crystals that had guided them through the library. So it wasn't that late yet… that was a good thing, as far as their journey was concerned. But it was a bad thing too… because if time was passing so slowly, Sokka would have to bear for who knew how many more hours without Azula, and with that damn book tempting him to figure out what he'd wished to learn about…

Well, he couldn't do anything about Azula. But he could do something about the book.

"Alright, alright, quit trying to set the library on fire, Xin, or the owl is going to kill us, no matter if it's just an accident" Sokka said, returning to the dragon. Xin scoffed, most willing to defy Sokka despite Wan Shi Tong still terrified him deeply "As for you, foxy…"

The Knowledge Seeker was ready for anything he might ask, it was clear… though it seemed surprised, despite how inexpressive it appeared on first sight, that Sokka would pick up the book on chi-blocking, offering it to him in return.

"I'm sorry I asked you to get this one when I didn't read it at all, pal. Just take it back, okay?" he said, and the Knowledge Seeker took the volume between its jaws. Sokka grinned and patted his ethereal fur gently "See? Good foxy. Thanks for everything"

The Knowledge Seeker darted off without further ado, retiring with the book… and Xin Long groaned with annoyance behind Sokka. The gladiator scoffed and turned towards the firebending creature, finding he was pouting and releasing smoke through his nostrils.

"What? You didn't want me to interrupt your games? Well, I'm sorry but… hey. No. I'm not going to play 'dodge the dragon's spit' with you! Don't you dare…!"

"Seems like I can't leave you two alone for longer than two days or you'll turn on each other, huh?"

Azula's return was a most welcome respite for Sokka, not only because Xin Long had stopped his menacing game immediately upon noticing his rider was back… but hearing the voice he most cherished, after what felt like hours of nothing but silence and talking to himself – with only an occasional reply from a grunting dragon –, was bliss unparalleled. He turned towards her with a wild grin, barely paying attention to the large spirit owl that tailed her.

"Not that I didn't suspect that might happen already, but…" Azula continued, smirking until Sokka lunged forward with his typical, bone-crushing hugs "S-Sokka…!"

"You're back! Ah, I was so afraid you'd never return" he sobbed playfully on her shoulder, prompting her to laugh as she shook her head "Your dragon's being a brat, though! Get him in line, he refuses to listen to me…"

"Like I'd have better luck at forcing him to behave himself" Azula smiled, despite knowing that yes, there was at least a slim chance that might be the case…

Though, now that Wan Shi Tong was back in his field of vision, Xin Long had returned to trembling and shrinking in his frame, hoping the strange, eerie and imposing creature wouldn't decide he had misbehaved far too much by playing with his Knowledge Seekers.

"Though perhaps it's Wan Shi Tong who can get him in line, rather than either of us" Azula observed, smirking at her terrified dragon "Who'd have thought spirits would be so very scary for him…?"

"Well, in his defense, we were all scared at first" Sokka bit his lip before shaking his head "Anyways, are you guys done now? Or are you taking another break? Because, well, seems like it's still daytime, but…"

"We can't afford to stay much longer, yeah" Azula nodded "I've offered Wan Shi Tong an overview on many subjects pertaining the Fire Nation as it is, and we've decided to stop for now. He seems to believe that, if we were to continue, we'll be cooped up recording the information I offer him for another three days or more, so…"

"Then we're taking off soon?" Sokka asked, raising his eyebrows.

"You could, if you wished" Wan Shi Tong declared "Nevertheless, I'd expect the sandbenders you hoped to avoid will be at their most active during daytime. You might want to wait until sundown before you leave. Feel free to browse my collection until then"

"U-uh… well, that makes sense, but really?" Sokka asked, smiling in amazement "That's awfully generous of you. Thanks!"

"Do enjoy the library" Wan Shi Tong said, bowing his head so very curtly "I will let you know when it's dusk so you can leave, as you wished"

"Thank you" Azula smiled too, nodding at the spirit.

"It ought to be I who thanks you, Crown Princess of the Fire Nation" Wan Shi Tong said "My Fire Nation collection's glory days are still far away, but I hadn't hoped to restock it anytime soon. Do enjoy yourselves now… though I will warn you not to do anything inappropriate, either. This is a place of study"

"Oh, uh, yeah. We'll be good. Promised thing" Sokka said, grinning awkwardly.

The owl didn't reply to that: instead, Wan Shi Tong merely slid away as he had before, his speed steady, as though he were carried away by wheels rather than talons.

"You must be tired" Sokka whispered, squeezing Azula's arm underneath her armor.

"Definitely could use some more water" she grimaced "He kept me talking the whole time… I think my throat wasn't so dry when we were flying over the desert"

"Well, we'll be back in Ba Sing Se soon" Sokka grinned "By then you can have lots and lots of water! And, uh, lots of potty breaks afterwards too, because you'll need them…"

She offered him her typical, skeptical sneer at his bathroom terminology, but Sokka was too pleased to have her in his arms again to complain over her judgment. Instead, he sought the no-longer trembling Xin Long and procured another waterskin for Azula.

"Say, as you mentioned Ba Sing Se…" Azula said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand once she had emptied half the waterskin "Did you look into the chi-blocking at all? Or were you caught up reading about dragons until now?"

"U-uh, well… you know how you said he'd understand?" Sokka said, biting his lower lip as Azula closed the waterskin and returned it to bag of supplies: busy as she was listening to Sokka, she scarcely noticed they were quite close to empty, by now…

"You didn't think he would, then?" Azula asked. Sokka sighed.

"I don't know. I mean, maybe he would have, but some part of me just felt like… like it wasn't right, for some reason" Sokka said, shrugging "I had the book right there but… in the end I just gave it back to the Knowledge Seeker and took to reading anything else to pass the time while I waited for you. I guess you might have expected something better, but…"

"Maybe I did, but if anything, I'm only worried about you, Sokka" Azula said, stepping closer and cupping his cheek gently "What are you going to do about Toph, if not that?"

"I… I don't know, really. Might be something else will come to mind" Sokka said, smiling sadly "Either way, I'm not sure I'll feel good if I beat her this way, no matter how legal it might be…"

"Well… that sounds like you, despite it all" Azula smiled "I just want to be sure she won't break your leg or impale your shoulder, or any of those nasty things she did the first time you fought…"

"Considering I got pretty close to beating her the second time I fought her, one-on-one, I'd think it's fair to say you don't have to worry about that" Sokka smirked "Still… yeah, I'd like to beat her. I mean, technically we already did, but… it feels like I really am ready this time. And if I already feel ready, do I really need some crazy bomb to help me out too?"

"Beats me" Azula smiled, leaning closer to wrap her arms around his body "That's what I told you in Ba Sing Se, but you thought this was a good idea…"

"I know, and I did. But it sounds like the risks are too steep, doesn't it? I didn't want Wan Shi Tong to do anything bad to you" Sokka said, rocking her gently in his arms "If it's to protect you, I'll sacrifice knowledge and anything else I might need to, without a doubt"

"Well, it's not exactly news that you're an incorrigible, hopeless romantic, so I guess your logic makes sense" Azula sighed happily. He grinned.

"You're okay with this, then?"

"This is up to you, Sokka. I trust your judgment" she whispered. Sokka couldn't bite back a grin and a blush, try as though he might.

"Well, damn. When did we get so mature and grown-up, respecting each other's decisions no matter what, and all that…?" he snickered. Azula gave him a playful, reproachful glare before reaching for the neck of his armor to pull him close, into a heartfelt kiss.

The roughness of her gesture was offset quickly enough by his gentle embrace. It wasn't until they had spent well over three minutes breathing each other in, switching from sweet pecks to deep, long kisses, that they wondered if this was the exact kind of misbehavior Wan Shi Tong had warned them about…

"Might be better if we slow down…?" Azula smiled, as Sokka chuckled, his lips reddened both by the remains of her makeup and the wildness of their kiss "Would be a real waste to get ourselves exiled from this place just when we're a few hours away from leaving it safely"

"Fair enough" Sokka chuckled "We'll save it for Ba Sing Se, huh?"

"Oh, no, we won't…"

"Ugh, so boring, really… I'm sure there has to be some dark, hidden room we can use in the Palace" Sokka smirked "Some secret passageway, maybe? We could go exploring, once we return…"

"I admit, that's really tempting. But we'll see" Azula smiled "We do have to follow up on your leads to find dragons, so I don't know if we'll have too much time to spare…"

"Ah, true. Damn, then I guess the Barge it is…" he pouted, bringing the Princess to chuckle and press her forehead to his shoulder "Oh, by the way, I found something you might like!"

"Oh? Please don't tell me you found the erotic books section…"

"… Okay, I forgot to look for those, but we can do that right after I show you this other book" Sokka chuckled, taking her hands to guide her towards the bookshelves he had strolled through earlier.

His excitement as they paced the library together was far more innocent than his earlier smirks, and he was quite forthcoming with explanations about each library section he had explored so far. Azula's fingers were laced with his as they walked past scrolls and books: most the ones nearby were related to their world's fauna, but past the bridge they came across collections on geology and architecture. Sokka kept going regardless of Azula's curiosity about these books, constantly assuring her that what they needed wasn't much further away.

"You really must have had a lot of time to kill, if you went through all these bookshelves without much trouble" Azula smiled.

"Well, in my defense, I went through a lot of books about dragons, so you can't complain about me slacking off at my assigned duties" Sokka said, proudly "Did you know there's two known species of dragons? Well, beyond the many different possible categories for them, altogether…"

"I did figure as much, Xin Long has no wings and all dragons I'd ever heard about did have them" Azula shrugged. Sokka chuckled.

"Well, if you thought it'd be boring to call Xin Long merely a wingless dragon… turns out we could call him a horned dragon instead!" Sokka announced.

"Oh? Is it the others didn't have horns? I'm pretty sure those ghastly trophies my grandfather decorated the Palace with had them…" Azula said, but Sokka shook his head.

"It's not that the others didn't have them, but they weren't quite as big or as diverse as the horns of Xin Long's kind" Sokka smirked "His species has a wider variety of horns, and of scale colors too, from what I read!"

"Huh" Azula smiled, biting her lower lip.

"And they're also a tad bit cuter, as far as the art shows. Just saying" Sokka said, smirking.

"Oh, that was obvious, of course" Azula declared proudly.

"The others were bigger, though, so I bet the old refuges had to be waaay larger than the one your dad built for Xin" Sokka said "And they also had a strange tendency of splintering their claws? It sounds painful as heck, doesn't it? I guess that's part of what riders had to take care of too, filing their dragons' claws to make sure their dragons wouldn't have any claw-related accidents while on their way somewhere. Really, you told me it was difficult to take care of dragons back in the day, and now I sure get why. Aside from all I've said, looks like the winged ones ate twice as much as Xin does… ah! We're here!"

"Oh? What section is this?" Azula asked, as Sokka tugged her towards one specific row of bookshelves.

"The section on legends, of course" Sokka grinned, stretching up to reach one of the topmost shelves: the tome he removed wasn't as dusty as the others, despite it was rather old. Azula guessed he had browsed it for a while "Earthbending legends, in particular…"

"Oh?" Azula smiled back, her chest tightening with anticipation. Sokka snickered as he offered her the book.

"As you must imagine, theirs is the very first story… or, well, ours" he said, with a cheeky smirk.

Azula spread the book open carefully: the pages were yellow with age, and her fingertips prickled just over touching them. She barely registered the discomfort, though, taken immediately by the delicate drawings of the two lovers. Their tale was recorded with far more detail in these pages, she couldn't fail to notice that… and her smile only widened as she read further.

"They met by chance, looks like. And… she thought he'd attack her" Azula smiled "As he was in military garb. But the moment he saw her…"

"He thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen" Sokka finished, beaming "The more you read, the more convincing this is: definitely our past lives, girl, they have to be …"

"Oh, perhaps" Azula laughed softly, though she pressed her head to his shoulder "Apparently, reincarnation is as real as our new spirit friends and this huge Library… or so said Wan Shi Tong"

"Yeah, you implied something like that on our first night here" Sokka smirked "He told you that, then?"

"He did" Azula nodded, passing the pages carefully "But he also says that the Avatar is known to reincarnate because there's only one person in each generation who can bend all four elements. Which suggests that people only reincarnate as whatever type of bender or non-bender they were in a past life…"

"Uh… yeah, well, maybe, but that also kind of implies there's a fixed number of souls being recycled in our world, right?" Sokka said, raising an eyebrow "So, if a couple decides to have twenty kids, and the universe doesn't have enough souls to reincarnate into each of them, how does reincarnation work within that particular situation, huh?"

"I wouldn't know" Azula laughed "I guess new souls are created once in a while, at least… but I did say that it suggests people retain their bending abilities, not that it's a certainty. So, while logic dictates maybe we weren't earthbenders in our past lives… there's just about as much information to confirm it as to deny it, since Wan Shi Tong says there's no way to figure out who your past life was unless you're the Avatar"

"Heh. Good. Though I still doubt there's such a specific number of souls cycling between life and death just like that…" Sokka pouted, and Azula smiled at him "And I'm also pretty sure we're these two, okay?! Look, look, read more! It says he wrote poetry to her and left it for her to find at the tree they often met at, whenever he was called for battle!"

"Well, I admit, that definitely sounds like something you'd do" Azula smiled, kissing his cheek softly "I don't know for sure whether they're us or not, honestly… but even if they weren't, I'm pretty sure we'd understand each other perfectly. We're as good as in the same situation they were in, aren't we?"

"He wasn't her gladiator, though" Sokka mused, stroking Azula's hair gently "Not that it kept him from saying that he'd fight for her. Looks like, by the end of the war, he was trying to stop his fellow villagers from fighting and he even spared enemies often. Truthfully, it… it's not known whether it was Shu's own people who killed him, or Oma's. It's really sad"

"Yeah, that sounds… sounds awful" Azula said, grimacing.

The mood had been quite cheery so far, and Sokka cringed to realize he had dampened it by bringing up Shu's untimely demise. Still, he could certainly change the subject…

"Anyways, I thought you'd like to see that book but now we have to find the erotic books' section, yeah, we do!" he declared, taking back the old book and putting it away after Azula put up no resistance. Maybe the next time they visited the library she'd read it more thoroughly.

"Where do you suppose that is? Did you find the romantic books section, by any chance?" Azula smirked.

"It's funny but I actually haven't yet? And not for a lack of trying…" he admitted, stroking his chin as he led her through the library again "And while a Knowledge Seeker might have helped me track down the erotic books, eh, I… I didn't really feel like asking? I mean, you know how unnerving can it be, right? Asking a fox to take you to the dirty books…"

"It would have been hilarious to witness" Azula laughed "You ought to do it now, with the next of the Seekers we find. The look on your face when you do it will be worth remembering for the rest of our lives…"

"Hey, now! Don't be mean, I'm just… curious! About that account on indirect bending! That's all!" Sokka squeaked, his face red enough that the green glowing crystals couldn't even shine enough light to conceal the hue of his cheeks.

"Sure, that's all…" Azula repeated, a knowing grin spread across her face. Sokka huffed and shook his head.

"Like you wouldn't benefit from it if it were more than that, really…" he pouted, his cheeks still alight, prompting Azula to laugh further.

They continued to search through the library to no avail so far: while they had found the section on legends, they hadn't quite tracked down the one on full-blown fiction yet, and that was where they expected to find erotic stories.

"Perhaps on a lower level?" Azula suggested, glancing down the banister that enclosed the Library's internal bridges: the building was so massive she couldn't possibly see the final floor from where they stood.

"Eh, I guess it's possible, but… uh, we're not alone anymore"

Azula raised her head to find a Knowledge Seeker sitting right by Sokka. Her gladiator seemed tense, surely wondering if he ought to make his request or stay silent…

"Ah, and your opportunity arrives. You'd better take it while you can, Sokka, really…" Azula smirked, as Sokka snarled at her.

"As if! You're the one who should, if that's so!" he squeaked "Sounds to me like you're the one who wants to read all about how people can make each other s-… u-uh… see stars, to put it in some way"

He glanced down at the fox, wary of its reaction over his near-indiscreet comment… and just like it had been earlier, the creature took off in a rush after pointing in one direction. Azula raised an eyebrow, puzzled.

"Is it… guiding us somewhere?"

"Yeah, that's what the other one did when we wanted to see the books on dragons" Sokka smiled and sighed "Oh, well. May the owl not hate us for being pervs, eh?"

"Who knows? Might be we have an idea or two that could bolster his collection, as far as eroticism is concerned…" Azula suggested, biting her lip. Sokka snickered but nodded, taking her hand in his as they followed the fox.

They didn't have to go far until the creature stopped before what appeared to be a large, heavy, round door: it reminded them of the Cave of Two Lovers immediately, despite this door was far grander, golden, engraved in the shape of a flower, perhaps, or an ancient depiction of the sun. Despite everything, the two stopped by the door to admire it as the fox scurried off towards the next wall, sliding underneath it through a hole at its foot.

"Huh. That's some heavy protection for the erotic books" Sokka chuckled "I guess he really doesn't want people like us to rummage through them…"

"It sure is a huge door. Hopefully not another earthbending-powered one… because, if it is, you're not tearing it open with your sword this time" Azula said, pointing at Sokka threateningly with her index finger. Sokka gasped in feigned indignation.

"Why, perish the thought, why on earth would I do such a thing…?" he said playfully, and Azula chuckled.

"Imagine that, you rejected reading something to find information that might bring someone harm, we're holding back from doing anything perverted, and after all that, you'd outright tear down chunks of the building? That'd get us exiled from this place far more urgently than anything else…"

"Well, true, but it looks like no vandalizing is needed" Sokka said, gesturing at the door:

The central circle had slid sideways, revealing that the fox sat inside the chamber, panting proudly after guiding his two guests to where they had wanted to be. But what was this room?

Azula and Sokka entered the large chamber carefully, finding it was devoid of books, altogether. The light from outside barely drifted through the door, and they couldn't easily glimpse whatever was inside… though there was a round platform before them, a platform the fox had walked purposefully towards once they were inside the mysterious, dark room.

"Y-you don't think he literally led us somewhere where we could, uh…?" Sokka asked, with an awkward grin, and Azula huffed.

"This is a Library, not some inn or anything of the sort where people would… wait, what's it doing?"

Sokka had stopped paying attention to the Knowledge Seeker until Azula brought it to his attention again. The creature stood on its back legs now, using the front ones to push a lever, right in front of the round platform…

The very ceiling shifted suddenly, as what appeared to be a cupule rose from the floor and reached higher and higher on its way to covering the whole room. Azula and Sokka jumped, both over the mechanical noise this contraption made, and the sudden spread of darkness above them… darkness topped by blinking lights, akin to stars.

"What is…?" Azula gasped, astonished enough to forget their previous intention to search for the section on erotic books. Sokka, as well, barely seemed to remember how much they had joked about it, utterly enthralled by the mysterious place they'd wound up in.

"Look!" Sokka said, gesturing at another shifting figure: it was a circle, suspended above them, close to the ceiling… and shaped as a white moon.

They were only reasoning with what they were witnessing when the spreading mantle of darkness reached the bottom of the floor… only to be replaced by a new, brighter spreading mantle, this time a blue one, accompanied by another circular shape: a yellow sun.

The room was fully lit up now, so much brighter than before, and the shifting ceilings stopped moving after the blue covered up the full expanse of the room, the mechanical, yellow circle hovering above them now. Both Azula and Sokka remained speechless for a moment, barely giving credit to what they'd witnessed.

"What the heck is this place?" Sokka smiled awkwardly, glancing at Azula off the corner of his eyes: maybe she'd understand. Maybe she'd seen something like it?

She appeared utterly clueless, however… but absolutely intrigued. He had seen her eyes gleaming over new knowledge before, and he recognized the same expression now over her face. However crazy and strange this situation was, he certainly had time enough to admire her beauty, even now.

"I… I have no idea what it is, but it's… mechanical, obviously" she started, shaking her head briskly as she tried to regain some of her rationale. It wouldn't do to simply gawk up at the ceiling instead of unraveling what was truly going on "We saw the stars just before, and the moon. Now it's the sun, and daylight. So… it's an imitation, a simulation, isn't it? Of the locations of celestial bodies?"

"Which sounds really cool, but… I think it's cooler still" Sokka said, raising a hand to point at the platform next to the lever, at the very center of the room "Look!"

They strode towards the platform together and Sokka smiled wildly as he took in the dials that comprised it: the symbol of the yin and yang stood at the center. The sun's shape took the place of the yin's black dot, whereas the moon occupied the classic white dot in yang…

"They determine whether the simulation stops at daytime or nighttime" Azula reasoned, and Sokka nodded.

"And over here…" he said "The next dial is numbered, from one to twelve. So…"

"The months of the year?" Azula asked. Sokka smiled and nodded.

"So the next dial is the days, meaning… you could simulate the state of the stars, sun and moon on any given day with this thing?" Sokka laughed in amazement "And look! The very last dial, the year… and before that, isn't it each era?"

"It is" Azula sighed, blinking in amazement "Goodness, this place is incredible. What wouldn't Goro give for a room like this…"

"Goro?" Sokka repeated.

"The Mad Alchemist's sponsor" Azula laughed "He's an astronomer, he ought to get his loose cannon of a gladiator to build something like this for him, rather than causing all that trouble with ridiculous weapons…"

"That'd be a thought. And a nice thing for those of us who had to suffer through said ridiculous weapons" Sokka chuckled "Wow, but really, this is… wait, why did we end up here?"

"Uh, I don't know. The Knowledge Seeker thought we wanted to come here, I suppose…" Azula mused, stroking her chin as she glanced at the fox spirit, who was on its way out of the room "And he's leaving now. Fancy that"

"As long as he doesn't trap us in here, we should be okay" Sokka smiled uneasily, but the door remained open even after the fox was out of their sight.

Azula glanced at the simulator with curiosity. Had anyone else crafted buildings like this one somewhere? Perhaps in Ba Sing Se University…? It would be worth looking into, once they returned. But how did it work? The nighttime mantle appeared so smooth, so life-like…

She turned the dial of daytime, swapping into night, and she tugged at the lever: again, they were covered by darkness, with sparkling spots gleaming down over them in no time. Sokka smiled at the beautiful sight, mesmerized.

"Is it… crystals, maybe? Small ones?" Azula asked, narrowing her eyes to get a better view of the simulated stars. Sokka shrugged.

"Might be" he said, turning around and biting his lip "I wonder if they change locations depending on what year it is. Or what era…"

"Oh?" Azula raised her eyebrows as Sokka mischievously spun the era dial until he found one distant enough from theirs, and he tugged at the lever again.

Daytime swept across them first, even if the nighttime dial was selected. But once the nighttime was back…

"They changed!" Sokka exclaimed, grinning wildly, pointing at the simulated stars "I was staring at those stars, you know, right there! But they're not there anymore, so maybe…! Maybe they're somewhere else? I wonder where…"

Before Sokka could figure out where the stars had drifted off to, Azula took to switching dials around in a hurry. Sokka raised an eyebrow, watching her with unabashed curiosity, and the Princess smirked while trying to track down a particular date.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Just… thought of something. Let's say I'm challenging the room" she smirked, winking at him. His throat dried over the gesture, and suddenly he was tempted to pin her to that calendar and make love to her under the stars of a whole different time…

"W-what are you….? Huh?" he said, smiling awkwardly as he hoped she wouldn't notice how her gesture had affected him.

"I don't know how detailed this might be, but there's one thing I'd like to test…" she determined, as she finally switched the dials completely.

"What date is that?" Sokka asked, approaching the dials to analyze which positions Azula had set right under the gold markers.

It wasn't quite necessary to ask, as merely gazing at the dials would tell him enough: the last day of the seventh month, in the Year of the Monkey of their era. He frowned: wasn't that the year of the final battle of Ba Sing Se? The year when the war over the Earth Kingdom had ended to the Fire Nation's favor?

"Let's see if I got it right. It was ages ago, so…" Azula said, reaching for the lever again.

Again, the spectacle above them was fascinating, but the outcome of the daytime scenario startled Sokka: the sun and the moon were so close together they nearly overlapped.

"Woah" he said, blinking blankly as Azula snapped her tongue behind him.

"No, probably was the first day of the next month instead. Dammit…"

"Wait, wait… what's going on?" Sokka asked, with an awkward smile.

"Uh, well…" Azula said, biting her lip as she switched the day-dial to one instead of two "Let's just say that something happened, back in the year of the end of the war, and it was a pretty unsettling experience. I'm not sure I ever told you about it…"

"I don't remember it, so I guess you didn't" Sokka said, hands on his hips.

"Well… this is what happened" Azula said, yanking the lever once more.

While everything appeared the same as before, the brightness of the daytime simulation was dimmer this time. Sokka didn't have to ask why, though: the moon overlapped with the sun completely.

"There we go" Azula sighed, her voice the epitome of defeat "I guess it really is that good, huh?"

"A solar eclipse?" Sokka asked. Azula nodded "How come do you remember the exact date of a solar eclipse, huh?"

"Well… solar eclipses aren't worldwide events, as you may know" Azula said "But I've been affected by one. It happened on that day, merely about a month and a half before the war's worst, final stage started…"

"Affected by it?" Sokka repeated, blinking blankly "What, did you get sick or something? How does an eclipse affect someone…?"

"As much as the sun's presence was constant, it was blocked, physically, by the moon that day" Azula said, sighing "When that happens, for however long it is, firebenders lose their ability to bend"

"Say what?!" Sokka exclaimed, eyes widening.

"Yeah, well, like I said, it's not a worldwide thing and it doesn't happen very often, so don't get all mischievous here, trying to figure out how to make me powerless or so…" Azula smirked. Sokka snorted, shaking his head.

"Like it'd matter, you'd be tough as hell without firebending anyhow" he declared.

"That's flattering to hear. I should hope so" Azula conceded, chuckling "Anyways, I remember it because we were warned about it merely about a month before it happened. Our astronomers aren't quite as skilled as this room, I suppose, so they couldn't quite predict it so early… either way, my father had non-bending soldiers doubling their shifts and working all over the city while the firebenders were left powerless. And the truth is, I… I've never brought it up because it never seemed important, but it was so strange, so uncomfortable, not having the power to call forth flames as soon as you wished to"

She gazed at her hand, and a blaze of blue fire sparked over it within moments. She sighed in relief, almost as though the very memory of not being able to evoke her fire had scared her into fearing she might not be able to evoke it right now.

"Those were some really unsettling eight minutes" she chuckled, as Sokka crooked an eyebrow, folding his arms over his chest.

"Well, well, I've spent all my life being powerless, as far as firebending is concerned, and I handle it just fine, Princess" Sokka smirked, leaning against the calendar. Azula rolled her eyes.

"It's hardly the same thing. Though, I suppose you, of all non-benders, should understand this plight" Azula said "You've experienced what it feels like to firebend, and if I dare say so, I think you even like it by now"

"U-uh, well, maybe I think it's kind of fun, but that doesn't mean I…! Y-you know, it's just because I like being so connected with you, not because I…! Oh, quit looking at me like that!"

Azula laughed and shook her head, leaning close to kiss his cheek softly. Sokka pouted anyways, though she could tell he wasn't quite so flustered once she had kissed him.

"Okay, then… imagine that, for eight minutes, your entire body forgets how to obey your commands when you're trying to jump into combat. You want to raise your sword and parry an enemy's attack, but somehow when you try it, it fails and the enemy swipes the sword out of your hand without even trying. Your footing is all over the place, like an amateur's… and you know, in your head, what you're going for. You have a purpose in mind, you know what the result should be, but your thoughts aren't being translated at all to your body. So your movements are chaotic, failing, and nothing works…"

"That sounds like a bad dream. A really lousy one" Sokka said, grimacing.

"Yeah, well, those eight minutes felt like a bad dream" Azula sighed "I suppose, if I'd had something to busy myself with, it wouldn't have been so strange. Granted, it was strangely interesting not to have my bending at my beck and call for a short time, but I wondered, even if I knew it was irrational, if maybe the moon would stay where it was for longer than I thought. If maybe… if maybe even when it was gone, I wouldn't reclaim my bending. Foolish fears, I know, but still…"

"Well, okay, sounds like that'd be really unsettling for you" Sokka smiled, wrapping his arm around her shoulders "But then you guys got a pretty huge and nasty power-up instead, huh? With the comet… come to think of it, this can't record the comet, can it?"

They glanced at the calendar together: within moments, they had switched the dials of day and month, smiling mischievously at each other until they pulled at the lever… to find no new, surging symbol of a comet over the blue sky. Azula snorted and shook her head.

"Yeah, can't be that accurate" she said "The sky turned red that day, even. It certainly looked like the sky was… well, pledging itself to my father's cause. I found it fascinating, and I tested some of my bending that day, but… I guess if the comet were to return during our lifetimes, I'd likely be a lot more bothered by what we've proven capable of doing with its power"

"Yeah, you firebenders sure can be a hazard when you're playing at being almighty, huh?" Sokka smirked, patting Azula's head gently "With how powerful you already are… I can barely imagine what you'd do with extra firepower under your sleeve"

"Might be I'd pull off multicolored fire by myself, who knows…?" Azula mused playfully, and Sokka chuckled before kissing her temples.

"That'd definitely be wonderful to behold" he whispered.

"Say…" she spoke softly, a hand rising to his chest gently. She bit her lip in a teasing gesture, and Sokka raised a questioning eyebrow.

"What is it?" he asked "If you're getting funny ideas… well, I'm not sorry to say I had them first, but I don't know what to do about them if we're supposed to be in our best behavior so the owl won't kill us"

Azula laughed and shook her head, but she cupped his face between her hands before pressing a sweet kiss to his lips. Without further ado, she turned around and worked on the dials once more.

"And what are you looking for now? Moon eclipses? I wonder if moon eclipses would do the same to waterbenders as sun ones do to firebenders…" Sokka said, stroking his chin in sudden thought "I mean, as far as I know, the shadow of the Earth passes over the moon, so it's not like there's a physical object blocking it or so, right?"

By then, Azula was finished shifting the dials, and she stepped closer to Sokka to pull the lever, standing right in front of him as she waited for the new spectacle to unfold. His musings went forgotten quickly: why was she so intrigued about whatever new date she'd inputted into this strange calendar contraption?

She had selected nighttime on this particular occasion: the ceiling darkened again, and crystal stars glittered above, reflecting off her eyes, lighting up her proud grin. Sokka would have been intrigued by the stars if only she hadn't been so breathtaking in that very moment…

"Don't know what date this is, do you?" she asked, her voice teasing.

"Uh, sorry, was a bit too busy looking at you to pay attention" he admitted, with a guilty grin.

He turned his eyes on the mechanism… and his lips parted as he took in the aligned dials. Oh, he should've known, of course he should have…

"Seems like the stars were quite beautiful on the day you were born, huh?" Azula said, grinning far more earnestly now, after glimpsing recognition on her lover's face.

She should have expected him to react emotionally, though she didn't quite think he'd shiver, tears flooding his eyes as he pouted, attempting not to cry happily at her words. Still, what she did expect was for him to hug her hard enough to damn near tackle her to the ground, and he didn't disappoint:

"Sokka!" she gasped, once his arms were tight around her body, her back arched as she struggled to keep her balance.

"Y-you have to stop this! This isn't fair!" he whined, his voice cracking as she laughed with abandon "No woman so beautiful and intelligent and wonderful and epic can be that romantic too!"

"Ah, so you'd prefer it if I'm an asshole! Great!" Azula announced with a proud grin, but even that wasn't enough to soothe Sokka altogether.

He offered her a deep, heartfelt kiss that saw them swaying before the calendar. Azula laughed, clutching at him as she felt her balance dwindling… and before long they had toppled over the dials, laughing into their kiss carelessly, forgetting all common sense and reservations as they gazed at each other with no end of affection.

"Your owl buddy is going to kill us if he finds us like this" Sokka asked, prodding her nose with his.

"Might be" Azula smiled, brushing his lips lightly with hers before offering him another kiss.

"Then maybe we ought to use the calendar for its proper purpose…" Sokka suggested, smirking "Time to see what the stars looked like on your birthday!"

"Wait, what? No! You've barely looked at yours!"

"We can switch between them whenever we want, we've got time to spare!" Sokka laughed, climbing off Azula as he set up to shifting the year dial with a proud smirk on his face "Then, Year of the Snake…!"

"Stop it!" Azula laughed, wrestling with the dials against him.

The Knowledge Seeker that guided them to the planetarium room hadn't returned yet, and neither of them had paid any attention to the fact so far, lost in their playful games as they ever were: the fox spirit trailed carefully towards its patron, Wan Shi Tong, who had been organizing the new Fire Nation section. But instead of finding the owl and the many other Knowledge Seekers hard at work, the new arrival would arrive when the tall owl spoke with one of the small fox spirits instead…

"… You are certain he did not read it? He asked for it, and then changed his mind?" Wan Shi Tong asked: the fox offered a quick nod in response to his questions "It goes against all human behavior I've heard of. Is it a matter of integrity? Or is it fear, perhaps? He may have underestimated the value of the book you found for him. You fetched the more thorough one, you say? The one with information on chi-sapping weapons and techniques? And he still didn't read it?"

The All-Knowing Spirit fell silent when the new Knowledge Spirit stepped into view. The fox conveyed information to Wan Shi Tong silently, and the owl released an appreciative hum.

"Well, then. In the planetarium room?" he confirmed, and without wasting another moment, he set out towards one of his library's most complex rooms…

Everything had been too smooth and easy. He had set up traps for them, one by one, playing dumb and convincing his Knowledge Seekers to play dumb just the same. So they would lower their guard, so they would finally admit they were no different from what he had expected…

But somehow, he had a strange feeling about these two. Three, if the dragon counted too. While he had reservations about the Princess's explanations about slavery and that gladiatorial business, nothing seemed more suspicious than the fact that two people with such complicated history would somehow love each other as deeply as they claimed to. But if they were alone… if they thought no one could see, perhaps they would show their true colors. And then, surely, as soon as the Knowledge Seekers weren't keeping watch, they would set out to find the knowledge they needed, all be it to defeat their enemies… mortals were predictable that way, weren't they?

Perhaps the repenting Princess longed for a chance to, in her eyes, right the wrongs of her nation against the world. And she might be willing to do what her own father surely had: she would want to find a method to take out the Fire Lord without opposition. And if they were in the planetarium, perhaps they would seek a future solar eclipse to try their luck. The darkest day in Fire Nation history… if the Princess was committed to correcting her nation's course, she might not be above fratricide. What noble intentions for the misuse of Wan Shi Tong's knowledge… had he any blood flowing inside him, he had no doubts it would be boiling by now.

But he was smart, silent, careful: he stopped by the open door that led to the planetarium, blocking no light, remaining out of sight… all of it to listen. To catch the pair in the midst of their crime, whether by proving they weren't lovers at all, or that their purpose with knowledge wasn't quite as pure as they'd pretended…

"… Hey! It's your turn still!"

"Five minutes are up! Your birthday again!"

"That wasn't five minutes! It had to be like… five seconds, if anything!"

"Quit being whiny, Sokka, you barely even looked at yours earlier… see? That star was glowing much more brightly on your birthday than on mine! Uh, huh. Come to think of it, could that be a planet rather than a star?"

"And then it looks brighter in the summer than in the winter?"

"Could be? Depends on whatever its trajectory around the sun is like, I'd guess?"

"This is every bit as fascinating as it is confusing, isn't it?"

"You're too easily entranced by what confuses you…"

"Yeah? Says the most entrancing, confusing thing that ever happened to me…"

"Oh, I'm a 'thing' that happened to you, am I?"

"Oh, okay, sorry: you're a woman who happened to me, if anything, and what a woman you are indeed…!"

"Okay, no. Stop gushing about me! Just look at the stars! Look and…!"

The muffled sounds betrayed the man wasn't looking at the stars at all: chances were he would be looking at the inside of his eyelids as he kissed his secret wife, who had fallen silent now too. Wan Shi Tong dared venture a glance… and there they were, swaying in place, underneath a dome of stars.

Well, his predictions had been based on observation, not on gut feelings, so he had nothing to be ashamed of: predictions could be wrong, on occasion. Humans could be difficult to predict, it couldn't be denied: the last one to visit the Library before them had been as charming as they come, and he had proven to be more destructive than anyone else he'd seen so far. So, it wasn't all that surprising that, when he had been bracing himself for the very worst, the humans in question happened to take the entirely opposite route he had foreseen. Not only had they been honest… they truly loved each other. And it did seem that, despite they had no shortage of enemies, they didn't intend to misuse the knowledge they could acquire in this Library, no matter how tempting it might be. It seemed they had different priorities… priorities that might lead them to offer him a rather distasteful show in his very planetarium unless he interrupted their passionate kisses before they went too far.

So he slid inside the room quietly, eyeing with curiosity as the two seasoned warriors remained oblivious to his presence. Were they so focused on each other that they barely registered someone was watching them? So many romantic stories spoke of such events, but Wan Shi Tong had never witnessed it personally before. He wasn't entirely sure he had wanted to.

"It seems you've found the planetarium" he announced loudly enough to startle the two kissing lovers into jumping out of each other's arms.

Well, he certainly had no doubts left their love was genuine: with no one to watch them, they had been foolishly playing at seeing the positions of the stars on their birthdays, apparently, kissing with abandon when they thought they were alone. He would have been compelled to lash out at anyone who indulged in such displays of affection in his Library in the past… right now he was appeased by it, surprisingly.

"W-well! Your, uh, foxy friend got us here" Sokka said, swallowing hard, cheeks flushed just as Azula's were "We don't exactly know why, though…"

"From what my Knowledge Seeker said, you had asked about a way for people to 'see stars'. Did he misunderstand?"

Both Sokka and Azula tried to hold a straight face at Wan Shi Tong's question, but Azula snorted and doubled over laughing while Sokka blushed and smacked his face with a hand. They had stopped questioning why the creature would have guided them here, intrigued and fascinated by the room: the mystery had been cleared up rather successfully by now, however.

"Y-yeah, well, we weren't really talking about this, but we did say that" Sokka admitted, grinning awkwardly.

"I see. The pragmatism of linguistics, I suppose" said the owl spirit, glancing at his accompanying Knowledge Seekers. The foxes lowered their heads in apparent shame.

"But it's alright! No need to be all bashful and sad, we really enjoyed this room! It's so cool!" Sokka said, grinning brightly at the stars glittering above them "Though… we really should be looking at Azula's birthday instead, yes we should…"

"If that is what you hoped to do…" Wan Shi Tong said, raising his eyes to the dome-shaped ceiling "Then I'm afraid I must confess not all the movements of the stars above are perfectly accurate. Most are, but deciphering the pattern of star movements has taken me many centuries still, and it certainly will take me many more centuries. There is much to discover yet"

"I see" Sokka hummed, raising his eyebrows.

"It's still a really impressive mechanism, though" Azula said, glancing about herself in amazement "If only I hadn't already promised I wouldn't reveal any of what we've seen here with anyone outside, I'd be sorely tempted to share this experience with an astronomer I met…"

"Temptation, is it?" Wan Shi Tong said, and Azula tensed up "It is quite curious that you'd admit to temptations… most who are ready to act on them would never acknowledge they feel any pull to do something they shouldn't"

"Well… perhaps" Azula admitted, trying not to blush "But I have no intentions to act on it, so…"

"Indeed. You don't. And neither does he, I suspect" Wan Shi Tong admitted, turning his large eyes on Sokka, who grinned awkwardly "You did not know this, but you were being tested, all along"

"W-wait, what?" Sokka blurted out, his grin fading quickly.

"I didn't quite allow you to explore my collection as freely as you thought. The Knowledge Seekers were to keep an eye on you" Wan Shi Tong explained "Even if you had betrayed no ill-intent, I would have had you watched, all the same…"

"B-but we didn't really have ill-intent!" Sokka squeaked, spreading his arms in a gesture of surrender "I mean, yeah, I did consider searching for some information for myself, but… after what you'd said, I thought twice about it and I didn't go forward with it. It wasn't like I wanted to discover that information to hurt anyone, if anything it would have even been… well, less dangerous to have information on how to chi-block someone without hurting them physically!"

"A rather roundabout way to look at it" Wan Shi Tong said, his voice dripping with judgment. Sokka shrank under his glare, though his eyebrow twitched rebelliously "And you certainly did intend to do it. Otherwise, you wouldn't have asked for that book. But… you returned it. You did not read it"

"No, I didn't" Sokka pouted.

"Your temptation stood before you, yet you decided not to go forward with it" Wan Shi Tong said "Why?"

"Because… because there are more important things for me than getting ahead?" Sokka said, shrugging "I don't know you, and no offense, but you look huge and creepy, and spirits are… kind of a novel thing for us. So I had no idea if Azula would be safe if I went behind your back to do something you didn't want me to. Even if she thought you might not be so harsh on us, I wasn't going to risk her safety"

Azula swallowed hard, staring pointedly at the checkered floor under their feet. She had told Sokka to try… that maybe Wan Shi Tong wouldn't care. He had been surprisingly calm when hearing all about the cruelties of the Fire Nation… she had expected him to react far more explosively to those, if he had disapproved of them. Was it all a test, then? Was he not only weighing her to figure out if she truly disagreed with her forefathers' actions… he was also weighing Sokka, all along?

"Strange" said Wan Shi Tong, glancing at the Princess now "Humans, mortals, are quite predictable… I always had thought so. That is, until you two came along. Everything dictates you shouldn't love each other, after all. If that is the gladiator's birthdate, then even as far as zodiac compatibility is concerned, you shouldn't even work well together"

"W-wait, what?" Sokka exclaimed, eyes wide now.

"It is but superstition. Pay it no mind" Wan Shi Tong said, waving a wing carelessly as Azula chuckled at Sokka's dumbstruck face "Somehow, the two of you have proven to be honest and far more resilient to trickery than most humans I've tested in the past…"

"So, this is a habit of yours?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows "Tricking your guests into revealing what terrible people they are?"

"Indeed. Though I hardly had to trick you two at all: you admitted quite readily that you have been a dreadful person" Wan Shi Tong said, and Azula froze while Sokka gasped in indignation "Yet… if you still were one, you would have never ventured Fire Nation information to me. Or agreed to share your life with a man who, if your romantic association were discovered, could become your very undoing"

It was Sokka's turn to freeze now: hearing an all-mighty spirit say the words somehow was all the more flooring and terrifying than knowing them by heart. But Azula didn't waver.

"Even your partnership with your dragon speaks for itself" Wan Shi Tong continued "No dragon would have joined forces with a woman who wanted nothing but to butcher those of his kind, the way your forefathers did. So… nothing about you quite makes sense, Crown Princess Azula"

"I suppose it'd seem that way, yes" Azula sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her fingertips.

"And that… is remarkably intriguing"

His words weren't entirely flattering – he made them sound like experimental subjects of some sort, if anything –, but Azula and Sokka glanced up at him in surprise for them. The owl cocked his head sideways, eyeing them with interest.

"Perhaps I will be proven right, and humans are indeed predictable and dishonorable, as they ever seem to be" Wan Shi Tong declared "But if you prove me wrong… then my understanding and knowledge of humans might yet grow further. All depends, of course, on whether you uphold your vows to better your world and my collection or not… but for now, I believe offering you the benefit of the doubt is the least I can do"

Sokka smiled and nodded, reaching out with a hand to clasp Azula's proudly. The Princess grinned too, wondering whether or not to be affronted by being subjected to a test without her awareness. She couldn't quite blame the spirit for distrusting them, not truly… having overcome his expectations was rather satisfactory regardless of that.

"And that is, indeed, a good thing for all three of you. Otherwise I would've merely sank this Library into the Desert for good and added you to my collection" Wan Shi Tong announced, as he turned around and slunk towards the door again. The pleasant mood froze over his last statement.

"Wait, what?" Azula said, grimacing.

"He can't stop being creepy…" Sokka gulped, scowling at the tall owl: he felt watched by those white feathers, patterned as eyes, on the back of the creature's head.

"It's safe for you to leave now. It will be best if you don't dawdle" Wan Shi Tong advised them: he didn't need to ask them twice, not after his threat to add them to his collection, whatever that meant…

Still, Azula smiled and glanced at the projected night sky one last time, beaming brightly at the stars meant to simulate the very night of Sokka's birth. Just as she had told him in the past, she was ever grateful he was part of her life… ever grateful that he had been born in the same world where she would be born too, merely a year and a half later.

He tugged at her gently by their linked hands, and Azula turned her gentle grin at him. Sokka smiled too, leaning close to press a quick kiss to her brow before they stepped out of the planetarium room, following the eerie, hunched figure of the owl towards the Library's spire, their only way out of the massive building.

In their absence, Xin Long had carelessly played with a few Knowledge Seekers. Now, though, the dragon was back to his cautious behavior, ever wary of the intimidating creature that reigned over this spiritual place.

"Ensure to fly out of the path of the buzzard-wasps' nest" Wan Shi Tong warned them "It's a…"

"Massive rock with many creepy tunnels, yeah. We came across it on our way here" Sokka nodded, fastening their mostly empty bags back on Xin Long's saddle. Azula helped him dutifully until they were fully ready to restart their journey.

"Then I shall hope you have a fine journey" Wan Shi Tong declared, nodding in their direction as they climbed on Xin Long's saddle, with Sokka nestled carefully behind Azula, his hands on her hips "It has been a long time since mortals earned any of my respect. I would loathe to lose it in the future, so…"

"I know, I know. I will certainly fulfill my oaths" Azula said, bowing her head towards him "One way or another. Thank you for everything"

"Thank you for aiding in the restoring of the Fire Nation wing" Wan Shi Tong said, his voice almost emotional. Almost "I never thought I'd see the day when I would be able to stash new knowledge in that area"

"Then I'm glad I offered you that opportunity" Azula smiled "See you in a few years, then"

She spurred Xin Long to fly, and he sped upwards as hastily as he could, while Azula and Sokka glanced back at the shrinking shapes of the spirits down below: it seemed to Sokka the foxes' ears were tilted downwards, as though they were sorry to see them go.

"Guess those Knowledge Seekers don't get nearly enough company these days, huh? They're going to miss us" Sokka chuckled. Azula smiled, her hands finding his over her waist.

"Possibly. But we'll return one day" Azula stated "And by the time we do… I'd dare say we will have made the most of all your investigations on dragons, right?"

Sokka grinned and nodded, while Xin Long roared happily, vying for the small window that loomed above: by the time they finally squeezed through it, the sun was almost fully set, but the glint of orange sunlight still would shine upon the Desert.

"Alright… north to Ba Sing Se" Azula said, tugging at Xin Long's reins carefully to direct him properly. The dragon groaned and followed her lead, as Sokka turned his head to watch the last shreds of the sun sinking in the horizon.

"Not the first night we'd spend in the Si Wong Desert, true… but it will be the first we'll spend this deep inside it, huh?" Sokka asked "You think it'll be as cold as it was in the Race?"

"Might be" Azula acknowledged "But you're traveling with two firebenders. Either of us can make a fire to warm you up if you're too chilly at any point of our trip"

"Yeah, well, I like being chilly, you're the one I'd worry about" Sokka snickered, burying his face in her neck as Azula laughed.

"Oh, sure, you'd worry" she said "If anything you're hoping it'll be cold. You've been looking at me funny for the past two days…"

"Funny… or sexy?" Sokka teased her, wiggling his eyebrows.

Naturally, Azula's reaction to that was a snort, followed by a spree of careless laughter. Sokka bit his lip but smiled, ever basking in her happiness whenever it was as genuine as it often was with him.

"Oh, you're a lost cause" she determined, once she had stopped laughing for the time being "In less than a week we'll be on the Barge again, and you'll be free to do anything you want by then…"

"Well, free is an understatement" Sokka smirked "Technically, I don't think I'm free to sneak into your room and make love to you until morning…"

"Yet you do it all the time, don't you?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows. Sokka snickered.

"Oh, yeah, I do…" he smiled proudly "And I wouldn't mind doing it again… and again. And again, and…"

"Stop thinking about it so much or else we'll be in trouble when we get to Ba Sing Se. I mean it" Azula said, patting his knee gently.

"But… look how awesome the desert looks under the spread of darkness!" Sokka smiled, eyeing the black-blue sky, and its slowly-appearing glittering stars, with a bright grin "I mean… the desert's mostly pretty creepy, but it kind of looks nice at night, doesn't it?"

"Depends on what's your standard for nice, I guess" Azula smiled "Either way, we're not going to stop for a quickie somewhere in the sand. Not only does that sound uncomfortable as hell, we should just go back as fast as we can. Rui Shi won't stand for anything less, and I think we all agreed it's better if he doesn't barge into the desert to find us, right?"

"Right…" Sokka pouted, before sighing dramatically "Well, then, the next time we come to the Library together, we're bringing a nice blanket, laying it down like we did in Shu Jing, and we're going to go at it right underneath the stars because we can"

"Just like in Shu Jing indeed" Azula said, failing to stifle a smile. On some days, it felt like that glorious week had happened to someone else… but the happiness they had shared back then was still so real, so vivid, that it wasn't all that difficult to let her mind retread over her brief stint as the Jing to Sokka's Wentai.

Lost in thought as they were, finding strength and peace in the wonders of the week they had shared merely a few months ago, neither of them noticed a few details about their flight until the sky had darkened fully, and only stars lit their way…

"Say, I… I know we're supposed to stay clear off the big rock, but shouldn't we have passed it by now?" Sokka asked, his chin on Azula's shoulder "We've been flying for at least an hour or two…"

"Might be it was further away than we realized?" Azula shrugged "I mean, we can't be going in the wrong direction. Xin Long doesn't get swept up by air currents as he used to…"

But something indeed seemed to be wrong with Xin Long, a fact Azula hadn't noticed until now, upon paying further attention to her dragon… and his gradual, but certain, loss of altitude.

"Xin…? Xin!"

Her yell startled the dragon, who damn near threw them off his saddle with the sudden jolt he did, midflight. Azula, placid as she had been, now scowled heavily at the back of her nervous dragon's armored head…

"Xin, are you…? You're sleepy, aren't you?" she said, an eyebrow twitching.

The dragon was silent at first… and then he began groaning and moaning, complaining through an array of sounds that Sokka could only infer as protests over being overworked at such late hours. Azula huffed in exasperation, a hand over her brow as the dragon slowly but surely continued to descend on the desert's sands.

"How is it my fault that you tired yourself out chasing Knowledge Seekers, exactly?" Azula groaned amidst her dragon's sounds "Xin, you knew we'd be setting out soon, you needed to be at your full strength and…! Well, yeah, I know we didn't pack enough food for your usual standards, but it's not like you ate that little! You ate like twice as much as Sokka did and most nobody can do that…!"

"Hey!"

"Seriously, Xin?" Azula grunted, as the dragon touched the ground and stubbornly strode towards an unusual cluster of vegetation within the desert and settled there, by a large rock where he could perch himself and rest "Oh, you think I ought to carry you instead, for a change? Well, if only you didn't weigh that much, I'd give it a shot!"

Xin Long turned his head only to stick out his tongue at Azula, adamant about his protests: either they allowed him to hunt, which still would waste their time, or they would let him sleep and gather more energies that way, but he would certainly fail to reach Ba Sing Se by morning if they didn't take a break. Azula sighed, shaking her head but desisting: she climbed off the saddle, and Sokka followed suit.

"Okay… care to translate?" Sokka asked, with an awkward grin "I can understand some of it by context, but…"

"He's sure he can't keep this up" Azula said, gesturing at Xin Long "Looks like he spent most his energies flying us as fast as he could on our way here… and now he's nearly out of reserves, partly because, instead of restoring his strength while in the Library, he decided playing hide and seek with foxes was more fun"

Xin Long was quick to assure her that it was indeed much more fun, but there hadn't been anything to hunt in the Library – the fox spirits had become his friends, and the owl was really creepy. So there was nothing to be done: he needed nourishing and rest before their journey could continue.

"You see, I'd say it's fine to let you rest all you want if there wasn't a risk that those sandbenders might, I don't know, sense us from miles away and decide to take you captive because your horns would sell wonderfully well on some sketchy black market" Azula huffed. Her words startled Xin Long, and he eyed her warily. Was she serious? "Yes, I am serious. I don't know what they're capable of and I'm not eager to find out. So, if it's hunting you need, then go hunt crickets or whatever you might find in this damn desert, but be quick about it because the sooner we're airborne again…"

"Are there any crickets here?" Sokka asked, grimacing "Truthfully, it… it looks like there's not much edible stuff anywhere nearby. Well, other than these plants. Care to go Air Nomad for a while, buddy?"

Xin Long huffed and shook his head. Azula, naturally, rolled her eyes.

"You're not exactly in a position to be a picky eater, you know?" she said, and Xin Long huffed at her, smoke pouring from his nostrils "Oh, no, you wretched dragon, you aren't going to intimidate me with your funny smoke displays. You've known that since we met, or did you forget I scared you just as badly as that big owl did?"

Xin Long rolled his eyes too, grumbling that she obviously hadn't scared him as much as the owl had. And anyways, he wasn't scared of the owl. Just cautious. Just wary. Spirits were weird, especially if they were twice your size.

"Uh… Azula?" Sokka called her suddenly, just when the Princess had been about to give her dragon yet another piece of her mind. His tone wasn't quite so urgent… but it didn't herald anything good either, and she knew it "Do you think this could help Xin?"

"What?" Azula asked, eyeing him warily as she approached him, right by the small cluster of drying bushes…

And amidst them stood a cactus. Awkward, but slender, with round branches… if those could be called branches. Azula crooked an eyebrow before she remembered what Sokka's question had been.

"Wait… no" she said, eyeing Sokka skeptically "No, no, no, no. Sokka… from the first moment I heard about this Library, my father was laughing as he told me he suspected Zhao drank cactus juice and hallucinated the whole thing!"

"Well, now you know he didn't hallucinate anything…"

"Which doesn't rule out that cactus juice could have dangerous effects on people!" Azula exclaimed, staring at him in disbelief "And on dragons too!"

"Okay, okay, maybe that's possible, but maybe it's edible! Or drinkable, either way!" Sokka shrugged.

"The Ba Sing Se scholars! They made fun of Professor Zei by saying he had probably gotten drunk with this stuff and imagined all the rumors about the Library! People have never used cactus juice for anything other than stories on how drunk or high they had to be to have ridiculous delusions about stuff that couldn't possibly exist!"

"And like I said, they did exist…!"

"That's not the point!"

"Well, how do you know natural cactus juice really does that?" Sokka asked, skeptical "I mean, maybe there's some crazy drink based on cactus juice that has that effect! Might be that's why people associate it with hallucinations or whatever…!"

"And it just might be that it actually causes hallucinations" Azula huffed, stubbornly.

"Okay, okay, you know what?" Sokka said, raising his eyebrows "I'm going to try it out myself…"

"WHAT?!"

"And then, if I start acting weirdly, you can make sure Xin doesn't have any of it" Sokka said "Because, uh, if I act weirdly I doubt I'll be able to stop him myself, so… anyways, point is, I'll take this one for the team. Xin should be in good shape because he'll fly us places, and you're too important to take big risks like these, so…"

"Sokka, no one is unimportant enough to warrant drinking cactus juice in an already potentially risky situation!" Azula snapped between gritted teeth. Sokka pouted.

"Well, then, what other solution can you think of? If we just go to sleep, we might wake up with sandbenders all around us, like you said! And there's nothing to hunt for our big buddy. Our food supplies are as good as finished, so I guess maybe we could give him what's left? And then he'd probably still need more rest after another two or three hours of flight, so…"

"So, cactus juice is going to resolve everything" Azula said, skeptically.

"Well, it'll at least serve as a source of hydration. I, uh, I hope. I think" Sokka sighed "Look, it's not ideal, but that's why I'm willing to take a shot at this, so neither you nor Xin Long have to…"

"Okay, fine, and what if it turns out that the damn thing does cause hallucinations?" Azula asked "You'll be potentially at risk of… I don't know, attacking us, or running off on your own accord? Jumping off Xin Long's saddle on a wild whim, maybe? And then we'll have to work twice as hard to get to Ba Sing Se if you're absolutely uncooperative. How helpful is this?"

"Uh… okay, I don't know if I'd lose my senses to that degree, but if I did… I guess you'll have to knock me out" Sokka said, swallowing hard. Azula's jaw dropped "You know, press your fingers to my temples and I'll black out in no time…"

"I don't…! I don't want to knock you out!" Azula exclaimed, as Sokka laughed "Sokka…!"

"I didn't expect you would, but if I got that dangerous it's not the worst idea" Sokka smiled "You could probably use spare bandages to tie me up if I'm being stupid…"

"The more you try to elaborate on this, the more I… wait, Xin? Xin!"

The dragon had taken advantage of their argument to do what Sokka hadn't been able to so far: with a sharp claw, Xin Long carved a hole into the cactus. A white-green fluid had leaked from it, and Xin Long had brought his moist claw to his snout, sniffing and then licking the substance, disregarding his rider's horrified stare.

"Xin Long, you utter, irresponsible, ridiculous dragon! I told you not to do this!" Azula exclaimed, as Sokka grimaced beside her.

Xin Long huffed, assuring her he was fine. If anything, he was starting to think her reservations were nonsense. It even tasted good… for a weird plant with teeth, that is. His tongue ventured out towards the hole on the cactus, licking at the juice without a care in the world, as Azula fell on her knees before him.

"You… you're going to kill us, dragon. You will" she said, watching in horror. Why on earth did he have to be so stubborn whenever it suited him?

Yet, strangely, Xin Long remained level-headed… sane. Even after a few mouthfuls, the dragon reported not feeling anything strange. Azula's eyebrow twitched: something didn't feel quite right about Xin Long's reassurances, but she couldn't decipher why just yet.

"Well, if Xin's okay…!" Sokka declared, interrupting her focus on the dragon immediately.

"Sokka, don't!" Azula warned him. The gladiator pouted.

"Look, there's not much left in the last waterskin. You should have it, if just to brew your tea in the morning, like you always do" he said, reaching for the half-empty waterskin and offering it to Azula "If Xin Long isn't going crazy yet and he's draining that cactus as he pleases, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine too"

"Need I remind you Xin Long isn't human? Not to mention, his body is far larger than yours. It's entirely possible he processes the damn substance much more slowly than you will" Azula growled. Sokka bit his lip before shrugging.

"Then I'll only drink a little, same as he did when he started out! Then it won't be that bad, and if I feel weird, I'll stop. Is that okay?"

"No"

"Then I'll take the water and you take the cactus, how's that?"

"Sokka…!" Azula growled, but Sokka smiled and shook his head, leaning closer to kiss her brow.

"Stop fretting. We'll be fine. Somehow, I can tell we'll be fine" he smiled, turning quickly to chop a chunk of the cactus with his knife.

"Because your instincts and impulses have never led us astray?" Azula asked, rolling her eyes "Honestly, every single time you get a bullheaded idea, I tell you not to follow through with it and you ignore me. I look forward to rubbing this one in your face for as long as we live, just as I do with all the rest of them!"

"See, I'll even give you something to laugh at me about" Sokka chuckled. Azula huffed as he raised the chunk of cactus he had cut, where the white-green juice waited for him to drain it "Cheers?"

"You're an idiot"

He was cautious enough at first, Azula admitted to herself, as he merely took a light sip, sampling the drink's taste before swallowing. His approving smile attempted to be reassuring… and yet it couldn't change Azula's certainty that something about the situation was inevitably foreboding.

"This… this stuff is good!" he exclaimed, beaming before draining the full, improvised cup in one swig. And so, all caution had been damned, and whatever respect Azula had for his latest, wild whim vanished as fast as it appeared.

"Sokka, are you crazy?! Don't drink it all in one go!"

"But it's so good!" he laughed, grinning at her brightly "Better than water, better than…!"

He fell silent suddenly, and Azula gasped at the unexpected, vacant look in his eyes.

Something was wrong. Obviously.

"A-Azula…?"

"Sokka? Are you alright?" she asked, concern rising to pair with the anger she felt over his recklessness.

His body was reacting strangely to whatever strange toxins or substances were contained in the juice: shivers shot all over his body, making all his hairs stand on end, and his pupils dilated so much Azula could barely glimpse the blue of his irises – not that there'd be much of them to glimpse in the night's darkness anyhow.

He didn't answer her question, not verbally anyways: instead he yelped, and then raised his hands… and wiggled his fingers. Azula blinked blankly as she watched him: a weird humming sound came from his lips, and it stopped when he abruptly turned his head around to look at her, jaw dropped, eyes open wide.

"Azula! Cactus juice tastes so good! It tastes so good, so…! Wait, wait, wait, why are you going so fast? No, no, stop going! Too fast! Azula, you gotta slow down…!"

"Slow down? Sokka, I'm not even moving!" Azula exclaimed, her patience decreasing at an alarming rate. Sokka gasped again at her words.

"Then why's everything going so fast?! Everything's… oh, oh, Xin! Xin, buddy!"

Azula watched Sokka rush to Xin Long's side with a disdaining eyebrow raised… only to be utterly horrified upon glimpsing her dragon appeared to be draining the cactus from all its liquids as fast as possible.

"Xin! Stop that!" Azula exclaimed, as Sokka slowed right beside the dragon, his body hunched over as he waited for the creature to pay him any attention.

Body mass certainly had something to do with how fast and strong the cactus juice's effect would be, for Xin Long had been fine until then… and Azula could tell as much because he certainly wasn't so fine anymore: his mind, connected to hers, was feeding her all sorts of nonsensical, colorful images, including dancing Knowledge Seekers underneath him, for apparently that's what the grains of sand were, according to her newly intoxicated dragon.

"You… you've got whiskers, buddy! And I've got… stubble!" Sokka exclaimed, pointing at each of their facial features as he spoke: Xin Long appeared utterly entranced by his words "S-so that means, together… we're a whole beard!"

Xin Long roared in celebration at this great discovery, while Azula buried her face in her hands. The minute they sobered up, and they got out of this damn desert, she was going to need a drink of her own to soften the urges she currently was experiencing… urges to strangle both her partners for being so reckless and foolish, naturally.

"It's my great pleasure to destroy this heartfelt moment between you two by pointing out that Xin Long has ALWAYS had a beard of his own" Azula growled, stepping forward and pointing at it "And may I say, it is much fuller than yours"

"Woah! Hey, now, how did you grow that? Xin! You didn't have that beard a minute ago! You should teach me that trick!"

"He's had it since we found him, you…! Ugh, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you both. So much for staying true to my promises to better the world with you…!" Azula growled, pacing in circles as she ranted. As much as she knew she had to remain level-headed, especially when her two companions were far from it, she could barely hold back her outrage.

One glance again told her that Xin Long was rather anguished now, trying to look at his own beard and failing catastrophically at it. He whimpered pitifully, bending in ridiculous ways until his entire body flopped onto the sand – in his mind, the Knowledge Seekers were cheering for him now, passing him between their outstretched paws like an excited crowd might.

But Sokka suddenly was quiet… and looking at Azula with what could be a sudden glimpse of lucidity, or the exact opposite of that. Oh, how she hoped for the former…

"Say, Azula…" he started. She grunted curtly "You're real damn pretty"

"I… oh. Right. Now that's what you'll get hung up on, huh? You'll butter me up, hoping that this way I'll stop being angry over your stupid cactus juice idea?"

"You're the prettiest girl in the world!" Sokka chuckled, grinning goofily "I… I wanted to write it, you know? In a book. But… maybe when we visit the big ole' owl again! Haha! Maybe then we can tell him, you know? That you're the prettiest girl there ever was…"

"Right, without objective, scientific, provable evidence?" Azula asked. Sokka grinned.

"Just gotta look at you to know. You're the prettiest, and I want to build a castle with you"

"You… what?" Azula repeated, and without further ado, Sokka dropped on his butt on the sand, mere inches from where Xin Long was lounging amidst his non-existent fox fans.

"Build a castle! Come on, come on, the sand's gonna go away if we don't! Y-you know, like it does in the Arena…"

"The sand doesn't go away in the… oh. You mean, in the hourglass that times the fights?" Azula asked, and Sokka blinked blankly.

"The what?"

"… Never mind" Azula sighed, rolling her eyes and sitting as well, though not too closely as Sokka gathered some sand in front of himself "How do you plan on making it stick, though? You're not going to use what little water we have left, and you're not an earthbender, so achieving it without water isn't going to work"

"We're gonna grill meat outdoors in our castle, and we'll invite our neighbors and… wait, I'm not an earthbender?! I could be an earthbender!"

"Sokka, you're from the Water Tribe and you're not a waterbender. Why would you be an earthbender?" she said, sighing as she wondered if perhaps there would be a chance to save Sokka's rationale by forcing him to reason with his own words.

"Well, I could firebend! Like… well, I did it before!" Sokka pouted "So, I guess… I'm the Avatar!"

"No, you're not" Azula sighed, though she smiled a little "You only bent fire when you did because someone else was bending it through you, remember?"

"And how d'you know if the Avatar's big bending wasn't…? You know, that he wasn't bending through…? Or rather, he was through his bending and… people were bending out of the Avatar? The Avatar… had four people inside him!"

"Uh… the worst part is you're not completely wrong about that last bit, but I'm not about to debate the metaphysics of the Avatar with you" Azula sighed "Not while you're like this, anyhow"

"Then if the Avatar's got people bending in him I… I can be the Avatar!" Sokka announced, and he swatted his hands while puckering out his lips "Woosh! Fwoom! Zoom…!"

"And what's that?" Azula asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm… earthbending!" Sokka declared, proudly.

"No, you're not. Your stance is off" Azula smirked. Might as well play his game somehow, the same way he had played it with the first homeless man they had met in the Capital, so many years ago.

"Oh! My feet!" Sokka exclaimed, but where Azula thought he'd try to stand up and strike up a poor imitation of an earthbending stance, Sokka instead jumped and kicked both his feet forward… a rather nimble accomplishment, considering his intoxicated state.

And it was a clumsy one, too: he fell hard on his rear again, lost balance and landed with his head against Xin Long's hard scales, arms and legs stretched out clumsily.

"Sokka…" Azula sighed, shifting closer to inspect if he had hurt himself somehow after his latest stunt. Yet Sokka was utterly unconcerned by her concern…

"Oh. Stars're kinda pretty" he said, letting his limbs drop before he started giggling for no apparent reason.

"And what's so funny now?" Azula asked, uncertain over whether to touch his scalp or not. It didn't look like he was wounded, at least…

"That one told a joke, you know, so they're all laughing, don't you hear?" he chuckled.

"Is that so? And what was the joke? I missed it, you see…" Azula sighed dramatically. Sokka bit his lip and shrugged.

"Yeah, I don't know what it was, it was just rude not to laugh" he explained. Azula rolled her eyes but grinned anyhow.

"You're infuriating and yet somehow you still manage to be cute. Unreal" she said, finally daring raise his head gently to confirm he didn't have any scrapes over his scalp, fortunately so.

"Say, I'm kinda thirsty again" Sokka declared, grinning "I want more juice, it's really good, totally quenching and…"

"And Xin Long drank the whole cactus already so I'm sorry, but you can't have more" Azula shrugged. Sokka yelped in horror, his jaw dropping as he turned an accusatory glare on the dragon that lay upside down on the sand.

"You did not!" he exclaimed, aghast.

Xin Long burped, as good as an answer to Sokka's outrage, before groaning something like "get your own cactus", as far as Azula could understand from his mind, which was currently crowded with hallucinated chanting foxes. She couldn't help but smile at the ridiculousness of their fight.

"Here I thought we were pals, pal! But you were waiting to double-cross me from the beginning, weren't you?! T-to pounce! On my cactus! It was mine! I… I saw it first? Didn't I? I… I think I did"

"What dreadful ordeal, what immense, unforeseen betrayal… how shall you two ever recover from this terrible conflict?" Azula sighed dramatically, and Sokka huffed.

"That's what I said!"

"Uh, no. That's what I just said. You were deciding whether the cactus was yours or not" Azula smirked.

"I was?" Sokka blinked blankly, mystified as he gazed upon her…

And then he was smiling. Smiling with sheer abandon, genuine joy, as he let himself fall against Xin Long again. Azula raised a confused and wary eyebrow.

"And what's gotten into you now?" she asked.

"Hehe. I like your nose" he smiled. Azula grinned awkwardly.

"Why… thank you?"

"And your chin. Your jaw's like… the same length, you know? On the left and the right. See?"

"Well, I'm glad I'm so symmetrical. Really glad" Azula said, folding her arms over her chest. Why on earth she was blushing at Sokka's sudden spree of compliments of her features? It wasn't like he never called her beautiful, he'd been doing that for a very long time as it was…

"Your cheeks are so cute too" he said, raising a hand only to poke at it gently with his finger. Azula sighed, unsure if she should let him continue with this nonsense or not "And your lips are… ahaha. Your lips…"

"What about them?" Azula asked, tapping her elbow with a finger impatiently.

"They're pretty too and I want to kiss them all the time" he declared, still chuckling "You know, like, all the time. Right now…"

"Nope" Azula said, swallowing hard. She certainly felt the urge to kiss him, but she couldn't just reward him for his ridiculous behavior that way, now, could she?

"That's okay. Maybe later" Sokka grinned "They're very kissable. You're very kissable. All of you. Huh, I should do that!"

"Do what?" Azula asked, as Sokka raised a fist triumphantly.

"I'm gonna kiss you everywhere! Like, everywhere!" he decided, laughing "Before we die, I've gotta have to… to have kissed you everywhere. Yup"

"Well… if that's your new life ambition, cool, but I have the feeling you've already pulled that one off" Azula said, grinning awkwardly. Sokka turned his face towards her, eyes wide with chagrin.

"I did?!" he asked "B-but… that can't be! You're saying I've already kissed you before?!"

"Like a million times, if not more?" Azula smiled. Sokka gasped, and it was inevitable for Azula to laugh as his cheeks flushed.

"I… kissed you. Oh. Oh, that is good. That is great. Haha. I've kissed you" he said, beaming as he settled against Xin Long again "Did you kiss me too?"

"Yeah, like a million times too"

"Haha! I'm the best! I'm the winner! Azula kissed me!"

Whatever contest he considered himself victorious at, Azula didn't know, but she couldn't hold back her soft laughter as she covered her face with a hand while Sokka hooted proudly for his achievement. It took around thirty seconds before he fell quiet, grinning at the stars again.

"Who's in charge of the stars?" he asked. Azula shrugged.

"Well… beats me. Is anyone in charge of nature?" she asked.

"Well, they should, you know, rearrange 'em" Sokka said "And make fun paintings in the sky. Like… a painting of you! That'd be neat!"

"Only if they make one of you too" Azula said, sighing "And probably a dirty one of us together as well, you know. Maybe that one should only be visible from specific, secret places, but…"

"Oh? What kind of dirty?" Sokka asked, laughing in an unusually perverted way.

"I haven't got a clue, but I'm sure you must have an idea or two" Azula lied, wondering if perhaps he had forgotten they'd had sex before, just as he apparently had forgotten they'd kissed countless times.

"Hmmm… I dunno. But it should have… your boobs. I like your boobs" he blurted out suddenly, before giggling carelessly "Bet you didn't know thaaaat…"

"Oh, no, I could never guess, considering how you treat them whenever we're in bed…" Azula smiled.

"Oh? Y-you like it? When I… what do I do?"

"You'll probably remember eventually, all on your own" Azula smiled.

"Hmm, gotta kiss them real nice and grope them plenty, because they're soft and juicy" Sokka declared, beaming. Again, Azula blushed, glaring at him from the corner of her eyes.

"You know, I used to think you didn't hold anything back. That you were as blunt and honest as anyone could ever be and blurted out your every single thought just because you could" she said "But… I was wrong, going by this experience. Do you really think all this stuff about… w-well, my body?"

"Sure do! But I don't say it because then you'll be all flustered and it's cute but then you get mad if I say it's cute and then we have fights and I don't wanna fight unless it's just to play around. Because haha, I love it when we play-fight. That's fun. And when you make fun of me. That's also fun…"

"I'll be doing plenty of that come morning, I promise you that much" Azula stated. She spoke as steadily as she could, hoping to conceal her fears that, if he and Xin Long weren't better by morning, sandbenders might just catch them with their guard at its absolute lowest…

"Good. Because you always smile when you make fun of me, and then when I get angry you smile more and… and it's so cute" Sokka chuckled "You're prettier than the whole universe when you smile"

"Didn't know the universe was pretty, but… thank you, I suppose" Azula smiled awkwardly.

"Ah. And I like your ass"

"Well, that I did know. Thank you"

"You're welcome!"

He chuckled to himself, and only then did Azula notice he had rolled onto his side, smiling at her in a childish, dreamy way. Strangely, her urges to smack him had subsided by now… replaced by the urge to hug him, holding onto him as tightly as possible to protect him, no matter how high and foolish he might be. For, just as he enjoyed her playful jabs, she rather enjoyed his foolishness, craved it, even…

"And I also like your hips" he continued "And your secret spot"

"My… huh. I suppose I should be grateful you called it that" Azula gritted her teeth.

"And your pussy"

"Sokka!" Azula exclaimed, blushing far more intensely now as he blinked innocently at her "Y-you… what the hell were you talking about before, then?"

"Before what?"

"W-when you said… what's the secret spot?" she asked, gritting her teeth.

"You know, the one like… right above your pussy" he continued, and Azula gritted her teeth at his crudeness. Oh, she was right back to wanting to kill him right now, never mind… "I dunno, forgot what it's called, but then I tickle you there and you go crazy, ahahaha… it's fun"

"Maybe we should change the subject…" Azula mumbled. She probably shouldn't be so shy about talking about her own body parts, especially with someone who was so closely acquainted with them, had been for years…

"Your legs!"

"I said change the subject!"

"Your… ears?"

"Stop talking about me?"

"Your eyes!"

"Oh, for crying out loud…" Azula sighed, dropping against Xin Long's body too as Sokka chuckled happily.

"Your eyes are soooo…"

"Pretty, yeah, everything about me is pretty, you've said it already" Azula grumbled, masquerading her embarrassment quite poorly. Sokka huffed.

"Oh. Then… your eyes are beautiful! And so is your nose, and your ass, and your…!"

"For fuck's sake, are you never going to…?" she asked, but Sokka was ignoring her readily as he continued to recite all her body parts carelessly, a bright grin on his face.

"And your fingernails, and your elbows, and your throat, and the nape of your neck too, and your hair…!"

"Okay, you know what? You win. I've had it" Azula growled, clasping him by the edge of the armor and pulling him closer.

Just as in the early days of their relationship, when she had often threatened to silence him with kisses, she did it now… though to less successful results: he continued to mumble unintelligibly against her lips, his muffled words prompting Azula to laugh as she engaged his lips – and eventually his tongue as well – to ensure he wouldn't be free to say whatever he pleased anymore.

By the time she pulled away, Sokka was smiling groggily…

"… And your navel" he said, prompting Azula to snort and laugh in disbelief, dropping her head against his shoulder "Heeeeey, it's a really cute navel! Wait, beautiful. Though it's also cute! And you also have a cute…!"

"A cute husband, apparently" Azula said, grinning "Maybe I ought to start talking about all the things I love about…"

"What?!" Sokka gasped, startling her by his sudden horror "Y-you… you're married?!"

"Oh. Yeah. Did I forget to mention that?" Azula asked, a knowing grin on her face. Sokka's perennial happiness had faded, though.

"Oh, no. Oh, this is not right. I thought I had a shot" he said "I mean, I'm not 'n your league or anythin' but… I really thought…"

"Such a tragedy, isn't it?" Azula asked, amused.

She only stopped it when she saw tears blinking in the corners of his eyes. It was inevitable for her to laugh and take his face between her hands, startling him by her forward movement.

"You're the biggest idiot in the world, you know that? Yes, I do have a husband: it's YOU!"

"I… me?!" Sokka exclaimed, smiling brightly now. Azula could barely handle the laughter anymore, dropping her face on his lap as she fell forward, unable to sit upright anymore "I'm the husband! Xin, can you believe it?! I'm the husband! Oh, goodness, oh, goodness! I'm married! I married the prettiest, cutest, hottest, most beautiful woman in the history of the universe?! Oh! Oh, how did this ever happen?! We have to celebrate! Hahaha! Oh, where's the cactus juice?"

"In Xin Long's stomach" Azula retorted, her face still pressed to Sokka's thigh.

"WHAT?!" Sokka exclaimed glancing at the dragon with utmost outrage again.

"And you already knew that" Azula chuckled. Sokka's new emotional bout ended quite easily at that.

"Oh. Did I? I forgot. Ahaha. I guess it's because you're so pretty I can't think of anything else. Haha. You're the prettiest" he said, grinning lazily before clearing his throat… and lashing out in a poorly-tuned, improvised melody: "The most prettiest giiiirl…!"

"Oh, no. Oh, no, you're not going to sing!" Azula exclaimed, sitting up again in a frenzied panic.

"Built a castle in the saaaaand!" Sokka continued, beaming "And… married a fooooool!"

"You… oh, hell, you made a haiku" Azula realized, staring at him in disbelief as Sokka chuckled.

"Did you like the song?"

"I… was thrilled. Amazing. You're… insanely talented" Azula said, with a dry grin. Truthfully, there was some merit to be given to his instinctive ease to construct a haiku properly… not quite as much merit for his singing voice, however. That was certainly not something to commend him for.

"Then another one! I found a stone of pebble! A stone of pebble I found…!"

"Oh, you're unbelievable…" Azula sighed, smiling despite herself as Sokka threw an arm around her shoulders while lashing out into a poor rendition, with misremembered lyrics, of the weird song he'd sung to her, so many years ago, in Xin Long's refuge…

And speaking of Xin Long, the dragon decided to join in with the singing too, in his guttural, tone-deaf manner, just as incapable of holding a melody as Sokka was. It was inevitable for the anguished, irritated Princess to laugh now, far too carelessly, as the dragon and the gladiator attempted the clumsiest, weirdest duet she'd ever heard… and just so, the most unforgettable one, for sure.

When she sensed Xin Long's condition was improving, Azula would ensure they returned to their trip across the desert, however slowly and clumsily her dragon might fly while under the influence of such strange substances. They'd reach Ba Sing Se at some point during the next day, and she deeply hoped it'd happen before Rui Shi took off on a wild rescue mission that, hopefully, would prove unnecessary. But until then, she'd sit with them, keeping a wary eye out in the horizon on occasion… and ensuring to shut Sokka up playfully, sometimes by kissing him, sometimes by pushing his jaw back up in the middle of his singing. He protested against none of it, and at all times he offered her an unabashed, sincere, wild grin.

It certainly had been bothersome and distressing that he'd drink the cactus juice, disregarding her better judgment… but as he continued to gush over her through the night, voicing thoughts that he often kept to himself – some of them sweet, others rather raunchy, but most of them unbearably adorable –, Azula found herself thinking that, despite the obvious dangers, perhaps there was something endearing, something beautiful, even, to being stranded in this desert at night with the two people she cared about most.