"I asked you to do one simple thing!" Azula whispered incredulously, planting her arm firmly on her hip and pacing the length of the room. "All I asked you to do was hold the door open! Was I somehow unable to stress the importance of the simple task I gave you?"
If this keeps up, she'll cook me before we're able to get out of here. Sokka reflected as he watched her as she still frantically paced the room.
"We should try to yell, maybe Zuko or Aang might hear us and-" Sokka began as he walked towards the door, trying to push it open.
"No one can hear us, it's completely sound proof!" Azula screamed impatiently.
"Well why on earth is it soundproof?" Sokka yelled back, suddenly annoyed by the impracticality of the room.
"Maybe because we didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to get locked in here!" Azula gave him an accusatory glare, "until now…"
Stupid? I'm sorry did she just call me stupid? Did she realize that the only reason he had left his post was to keep that pot from falling on her head? "Maybe I should've just stupidly stood in the corner and let you die!"
"Oh don't be so dramatic," she rolled her eyes at him "you could've just yelled "Azula, watch out!", and besides, the worst that would've happened was a slight headache, so quit flattering yourself…let you die my ass."
Azula knew how ridiculous she sounded as she said it. Just by looking at it she knew that pot weighed two tons and would've probably inflicted real damage, but she wasn't going to admit that. She was angry and this was his fault, so she could be as irrational as she liked.
"It was practically off the rack already! Do you really think yelling "Azula, watch out!" would've made any difference? And besides, you were the one who made it fall off in the first place!" He yelled as he turned back, attempting to open the door again. If she wanted to play the blame game, then fine, they'd play the blame game.
Azula looked like she was just about ready to turn him into runny pile of melted goo. "Well if you hadn't started asking me all kinds of stupid questions instead of quietly doing what I asked you to, then I wouldn't have gotten mad and it wouldn't have fallen!"
Sokka was about to reply, before he realized that she wasn't even worth the reply.
She's blaming me because she got irrationally angry. There's just no reasoning with her.
And so he just ignored her, back turned as he carried on trying to get the door to budge.
His silence somehow made her angrier, it seemed. He was making her feel dumb and she hated that. Determined to provoke him further, she opened her mouth and said the first thing that popped into her head.
"You're unreliable, untrustworthy, and unserious. It's no surprise your Kysohi girlfriend left you."
Sokka, still pressed to the door, hands pushing on the solid meta, stopped suddenly. He thought he had heard wrong, but her silence confirmed otherwise. It was the silence of someone who felt proud, like they had won or achieved something. She may have achieved what she was hoping to, but that was a low blow, even for her.
After a beat, he turned slowly towards her as he said, "what did you say?"
"Did I stutter?" Azula looked him square in the eyes. She wasn't afraid of him. If anything, he should be afraid of her.
That only infuriated Sokka more, "For your information, and not that it's any business of yours, but Suki and I broke up on mutual terms because it was what was best for us both!"
Azula rolled her eyes as she said "oh, I'm sure it was."
Sokka stared her down, eyes full of hate. "Oh and you're one to talk. At least I had a girlfriend who was with me because she loved me. But you? What do you have? Do you really think men don't like you because you intimidate them? Suki intimidates me and that's one of the reasons I loved her. It's because you're a horrible, terrible, insufferable person. Everything about you is irritating and annoying. And when people are with you, it's because of your status and wealth, not because they find any part of you desirable. Your own mother didn't even love you. The reason no one loves you is because you're simply unlovable."
Azula's hands suddenly blazed with fire, as gaped at him in a contempt filled glare. Her chest heaved with anger, as did his.
"How dare you!" she whispered as she walked slowly towards him, staring deeply into his blue eyes, eyes she had thought magnificent as art, mere moments ago, but now wanted to rip out.
He took his own step towards her, undeterred by the open flames on her hands, stare as intense as hers as he replied, "How dare you."
They glared at each other a while before finally she broke their long staring contest, putting out the flames in her hands and walking toward the table as she she said, "Fuck you!"
"You'd like that wouldn't you, princess?" He said with a smile that didn't meet his eyes as she sat down.
Azula was grateful for the warm glow of the candles, illuminating the room in a neutral golden tint, as she felt the intensity of her blush creeping up on her pale face and neck.
Why did he say that? she thought back to the way he was staring at her moments ago; with feeling, with intensity, and something else she couldn't quite name. she flushed again.
Suddenly, aware of his eyes staring at her contemptuously, she remembered that she was furious, and flushing over his vulgar suggestions wouldn't do. She rolled her as she replied, "Not on your life."
"Finally something we both agree on!" He said as he plastered the fakest smile she'd ever seen, on his face.
She smiled a false smile of her own as she 'hummed' in agreement.
He turned back towards the door and went back to his pushing and feeling, hoping to perhaps find a secret hidden doorknob to turn and run for his life while he still had his sanity.
They were both silent for a while, that is at least before Sokka decided to hit the door and yell for help, hoping that someone would hear him and open the door.
He was on his seventh "help!" And 17th hit of the door when Azula decided she had just about stomached all she could of this foolishness.
"I already told you its soundproof! no one can hear you…except me unfortunately." Azula said, as she rubbed her temples in irritation.
"It was worth a shot," sokka said as he collapsed on the floor sitting. "I don't see you doing anything to help".
"Again…I already told you, there's nothing we can do but wait for someone to come down here and open it in the morning." Azula said between gritted teeth.
"Whatever." Sokka sighed tiredly.
They both remained silent for all of thirty minutes, that is until sokka shrieked, a wide grin on his face, "Lychee nuts!"
As he crawled over to the lower cubicle on his left to grab a handful from the slightly opened sack, Azula couldn't help but smile at the sight of him crawling like a squirrel to get his nuts.
As he crawled back to his spot on the floor, he stretched out his hands, filled with nuts, and asked "want some?"
Azula quickly removed the smile on her face and rolled her eyes at him, ignoring his inquiry.
Sokka merely gave her a deadpan expression, " look, we're gonna be here a while, so we might as well try to get comfortable and maybe even make civilized conversation with each other."
Azula glared at him, determined to hang on to her anger, and walked towards the bag of nuts, grabbed her own handful, sat back down and munched silently.
"It's a start." He muttered.
Sokka didn't have any particular desire to speak to Azula, not at this moment anyway, not after everything she had said, and he sensed she felt the same way. But the silence hurt more than his hatred for her. It was so thick and heavy, he thought that if he reached out, he could feel it. He just really wanted to fill it out, even if it meant talking to Azula, or himself.
And talk to himself he did. he had tried to find some random, animated conversation to lose himself in with her, but she ignored him all the while, choosing to pick at her cuticles whenever he'd asked a question or play with the shell of the nuts she'd eaten.
After about an hour of so of talking to himself, he simply sighed, his voice thick with resignation and said "I tried, I'm done talking to you.. Or myself actually!"
Azula looked up from her work on her cuticles and stared at him. Suddenly she felt a wave of guilt at the resigned expression on his face, but as suddenly as she felt it, it was replaced with a fresh wave of anger.
I shouldn't feel bad, not after everything he said to me…
But I did start it by bringing up his girlfriend…
Yeah but what he said was wayy worse than I said…
But he wouldn't have said those things if you hadn't said anything in the first place…
Her mind was suddenly all over the place, and the silence was only giving way for her mind to run free. The silence is way too loud, she thought.
Inwardly she rolled her eyes at herself and what she was about to do, but it was the only way to keep her mind at bay and keep her from over thinking.
She straightened on the table, a heavy sigh escaping her lips, as she begun, stuttering lightly, "…it..it's for pun-...punishments. He used it to punish us."
"What?" Sokka asked, lifting his head to give her a confused look.
Azula inhaled deeply and braced herself to answer his question. "You… you um…you asked me earlier w- why… there was..there was uh..um…"
She trailed off, staring at the deepening expression of confusion on Sokka's face. She really didn't want to talk about, she hated to even think about it, but Sokka was right she realized, they were in this mess because of her. The least she could do was try to explain to him why she had freaked out, inevitably causing them to be locked in the chilly space.
I can do this, she thought as she clenched her fists. "You asked me earlier why my father had a cold room built. I-…I lied…when I said my father didn't make use of it…he did, only on zuko and I…that's why I was out here tonight. I had a dream…about this place, and I couldn't sleep so I decided to walk around the beach a little and clear my head. But I got hungry so I came in here for a snack."
Sokka blinked at her in surprise. she was here because she had a bad dream…
She saw the look on Sokka's face and decided she wasn't going to allow him express concern or ask any questions because she didn't want his pity. Immediately she continued, "We were both stubborn children, Zuko and I, and my father didn't like that, so he had this room built into the kitchen. Every time we would do something wrong, or wonder too far, or say the wrong things, he would lock us in here for a day, sometimes a day and a half…only opening the door to give us food."
She looked up from her hands to find sokka staring at her intensely, hooked on every word she said.
"He would lock you and Zuko here together?" He said, his brows furrowing.
"No. If we were together we would have just figured out a way to escape." She smiled ruefully, "my father intended to separate us, take away our bending and isolate us…i don't know exactly what lesson he was trying to teach, but I guess he was just trying to say that we may have been siblings, who could bend, and were around the comfort and safety of the familiar, but that could always be taken away we dared cross him."
Sokka stood up suddenly and walked towards the table. "What are you doing?" She asked, testily.
He rolled his eyes, as he sat down beside her on the table. "Sitting down. The floor is freezing."
"You think this is bad? You should've been in here before we took most of the ice out." She said, amusement written on her face. "Wait, aren't you from the Northern Water Tribe or something? You'd think you'd be able to handle a little chill."
"The Southern Water Tribe, and it's not like we were sleeping on the snow itself and eating it. We get cold sometimes, deal with it." He said, poutily.
Her amusement turned into laughter. "That so?"
"Yes, that's so." He narrowed his eyes at her and she smiled.
She stared vaguely into distance for a beat before saying, "You know, I was the first one to get punished. Shocker, right? That's how I discovered this place was practically sound proof. I remember after being let out of this horrible place, I asked Zuko why he didn't come to get me, because I screamed for him. He looked shocked and scared when he saw me, and told me he didn't hear me, even when he was in the kitchen. I didn't believe him…that was the dent my father needed, to completely destroy our relationship…and for a while, he succeeded."
"Your own dad? All my dad ever talks about is the importance of family, and how we're never alone, but your dad basically pretty much made you believe that you're forever alone and you have to-"
She turned to him suddenly, eyeing him suspiciously, "You're not feeling sorry for me are you? Because I don't need sympathy. It may have been cruel but it made me strong."
She was worse than he thought. A part of her actually believed that what Ozai did to her and Zuko was okay. Suddenly he burst out laughing. "Wow..you're even more fucked up than you seem."
She narrowed her eyes at him, and he quickly composed himself and tried for sober. He began slowly, "listen, I'm not trying to mock or Judge or pity you…far from it. I'm not gonna sit here and act like I know even half of what you went through, cause I don't. But what I am going go say to you is that you're wrong. That isn't where your strength lies. Your strength lies in the people around you, Zuko, uncle Iroh, Ty Lee, Katara, Aang…all of us, and your dad was cruel, but that's where it ends, no buts. We're your family, and you know what family doesn't do? They don't make you feel alone or hated. No, they make you feel loved…you're loved."
Sokka was staring into her eyes with a seriousness and sincerity that told azula he meant every word of what he said. Suddenly she felt a sharp uncontrollable sting in her eyes that made her feel like a complete weakling, as she stuttered "i-...you said I was unlovable…"
Sokka wanted to kick himself as the tears pooled in her eyes. There was so much pain, and hurt in those eyes, and in that moment Sokka wanted to make sure he never saw her in pain again. "Hey, hey…i-...I'm sorry, okay? I was being an absolute asshole. I shouldn't have left the door and I shouldn't have said those things to you…especially the part about your mom. I'm a dummy and I have a really bad habit of not thinking before I speak." He reached out and methodically wiped her tears with his thumb. "What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry and you're the most loveable human on the planet..on good days."
She laughed and Sokka smiled, grateful that even in this horrible situation, even with all the heavy stuff she had just told him, he was able to make her laugh.
"Hey, I never told you why I was out here too." He remembered. He didn't know why he was about to tell her this, and he didn't think she'd even care, but since she was laying all her cards on the table, it was only fair that he did the same. He continued, "I mean, I did come for the Lychee nuts…but I wouldn't have even wanted them if I didn't wake up from a bad dream."
"What bad dream?" Azula had asked, to his surprise, because he had assumed she wouldn't care.
"Oh, um…it's kinda dumb…" he trailed off, scratching at his head awkwardly.
"Let me be the judge of that," Azula smiled, "besides, I told you about my shit, now you have to tell me yours…so go on, I'm listening."
He smiled at her version of gentle coaxing, and continued. "Okay, okay…remember when you and your dad were attempting to take over the the world?"
"Ugh. How could I forget? I could've been one of the greats!" she said, a joking smile on her face.
"You're taking it better than I'd expected." Sokka grinned, "Anyways, Toph, Suki and I were responsible for taking out the blimps and war blimps and…well, at some point when we were jumping from plane to plane, toph and I almost fell off but my sword was keeping us on."
Azula didn't interrupt him, she only peered curiously waiting for him to continue. "...and I know we won the war and all of that but…ever since then, I've been having nightmares where I hang off that plane, but this time it's just me, and it's no longer just the ground below me, but some…some infinite abyss."
Sokka was staring pointedly at the stretch of wall before him, as though a ghost had lingered there a second before. Azula wasn't sure what to do, she hadn't come from an environment where showing people love and care was practiced often. But for some reason she wanted to be there for Sokka, to listen to him and maybe even help him, if she could only figure out how. Without a second thought she reached out suddenly and grasped her hand in his.
He jerked his head towards her, startled at the contact. Sighing lightly she made herself turn towards him. She started "okay…so i-...I'm not good at this whole caring-for-people-besides-myself thing." She paused to give him a small smile, "but I'm going to try, okay?". He nodded, his face alight with amusement.
"Okay, so…you dangled over the side of the plane and thought you were done for…but you weren't and you aren't…" she trailed off, trying to gather her wits to phrase her sentences right. After a moment of sputtering she sighed, her shoulders sagging. Sokka looked just about ready to burst.
"Anything funny?" Azula said darkly, her eyes narrowing into slits.
"No, nothing…" Sokka tried for contrite and failed, his laughter visible on his face.
She rolled her eyes. "Do you want my comfort or not?"
"I do…oh I really do…comfort me, Azula!"
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Azula's brow quirked.
"What?" Realization dawned on Sokka's face and it was his turn to sputter "i-...no-…it was-...i- um…i just meant that-...I didn't mean it like that!"
"Ah so you don't think I'm good enough to want?" She was mostly joking, but a part of her was curious to know if he viewed her like that.
"I didn't mean it like that either!" Even in the warm orange glow cast around the room by the candles Azula could see the obvious reddish tint of his frustration. She was loving every second of it.
"Then what did you mean it as Sokka?" She meant it rhetorically, because before Sokka could try to explain himself she continued, throwing her arms resignedly into the air "no no, I get it…the unlovable Fire Nation prin-"
He didn't think he would ever be able to get a word in with all her rambling, he didn't want her to complete the sentence because he felt it might make it feel more real to her, he didn't want her to believe a word of what she was saying about herself, so against his better judgement, he pressed his lips against hers, because by his reasoning, not only would it stop her rambling, it would show her that she was far from undesirable.
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Let's just hope that the outcome of that kiss doesn't result in pain and suffering on Sokka's end lol
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