Sokka

The North Pole was amazing! The people here had mastered living in such a frozen place; best of all, there were no vegetables here! Well, that was a lie but you could hardly taste the plants when everything was wrapped in meat, sometimes in fish, sometimes some tiger seal and even buffalo yaks when they managed to catch some parts of a herd unaware.

The girls here were pretty nice too, properly girly and very respectful of warriors. Sokka was tempted to try something with one of the until he saw the princess, she was more beautiful than anything else in here not even the northern dancing lights were as eye-catching as her, sadly it seemed like she was spoken for. Her relationship with her fiancée wasn't very good, or in less polite words, it was a shitshow.

A shitshow that Sokka had tried to break by inserting himself as a candidate for the princess's hand, sadly it wasn't meant to be, he realized that when in their first meeting she looked at Sokka like he was a bug, sure he wasn't a renowed warrior but he had brought the Avatar to the city so that had to count for something! Then again her fiancée was supposedly a great warrior and she didn't like him at all.

Sokka took a bite out his steak and moved his mind to more important matters, the mood inside the city was very jubilant, the arrival of Aang had brought a surge of enthusiasm that he hadn't expected. It was nothing like what happened in the South Pole and there was lots of bowing from Aang and from the master waterbenders and the chief aaanndd the healers. Sokka wasn't really a guy who followed orders perfectly but he could admit to himself that having someone more experienced and with a higher rank calling the shots was very comfortable which was the reason he was now going to intrude in the 'secret' meeting between Iroh and master Pakku.

As he approached he started hearing something that made him check out if his ears were working properly, he pushed a finger inside one and tried to see if there was anything blocking it, nope, everything was clean. That meant that he was really hearing master Pakku's laugh. Sokka couldn't say that he knew the old master but the old waterbender was not aa very happy person.
According to the rumors that Sokka had managed to get out of some of his students his bride to be had escaped the city when he was young and the heartbreak turned the old man's heart to stone.

It was a very tragic story and one that many think would repeat itself with the princess, not that any has had the courage to tell the chief that his daughter was going to leave if he kept things up.

"Your nephew is more daring than I anticipated!" the voice of master Pakku said and Sokka put his ear as close to the door as possible while making sure that his shadow didn't give away that he was spying.

"He is a heartbreaker! I was once worried about his chances with the ladies but he proved more than a match for me in my youth!" Iroh ended his sentence with a laugh.

"Oh, I very much doubt that you once wooed a princess while disguised as poor earth kingdom man, her father is not going to be happy when he realizes who his daughter is pinning for and the heartbreak that will follow" there was a soft rebuke in the words of master Pakku but what took Sokka's attention was the mention of the princess, there was no way that they could be talking about Yue…right?

"There will be no heartbreak old friend, my nephew can handle the situation and don't tell me that you haven't thought about how easier life would be with some comforts from the Fire Nation" Iroh said with some cheer "besides I'm sure that your chief would be very happy if his daughter married the most powerful man in the world, not to mention someone that has been blessed by the sun itself"

"Comforts that would make us dependent on the Fire Nation, I know that things will be different once the war is over but you can't tell me that you won't be looking out to make the Fire Nation the world leader even after the war" this time the rebuke was not implied or soft as the voice of Pakku rose in tone and Sokka was starting to think that listening to this conversation had been a bad idea. "And while you may think that having the sun's blessing is a great thing I will remind you that our princess has the blessing of the moon"

Sokka would need to explore the library again, having two people that have been blessed by the more important figures in the cosmology of the world was surely something important or that heralded something important. At least Sokka could now say that he was defeated by a man that had the sun backing him, the loss seemed a lot less sad when one was fighting what was essentially a prophet or chosen figure.

"You don't need to be so hostile, of course I want what's best for the Fire Nation, I don't agree with the war but I don't want it to be destroyed either, making sure that all nations work together and depend on each other will make sure that something like this doesn't happen again. And don't you see that having balance between sun and moon is something that should be encouraged and celebrated, just imagine the possibility of an alliance that goes beyond the material world!"

There was big silence that was starting to get to Sokka, he had so many question and he wanted to go inside and sate his curiosity but he managed to hold himself back, there would come a time when he could do ask about everything.

"A firebender could never rule here" Pakku said at last.

"And a waterbender could never rule in the Fire Nation, a woman can have many kids and a man can father many children, we could arrange something to make sure that the appropriate child rules the appropriate nation"

"We're getting ahead of ourselves here old friend, the White Lotus shouldn't concern itself with matters like this one, not to mention that I have yet to see a woman who would allow her man to see other women"

Then the silence came again and Sokka was left with much to think about, he looked at his hands and the plate where the steak he was eating now sat half frozen and sighed, first he would reheat his meat and then he would get more answers.



Aang

When he had first arrived at the North Pole Aang was thinking that his presence would bring the same hostility that the South had displayed but much to his relief it was nothing like it! the people here greeted him with respect and warmth, sure the older guys around were respectful but not awed at him, not that Aang wanted that, they felt a little colder than the younger generation (and what did it say about him that having a bunch of groupies had lifted his spirits after Katara had left) but everything was great, they even had some strictly vegetarian recipes!

The girls were very nice too, Iroh had told him to be careful with them because some Avatars before him had rough relationships because some women wanted the Avatar's child but not the Avatar himself. Aang's ears still burned when he thought about that conversation and what it meant to have children with a woman.

"It looks like something is bothering you Avatar" The sentence was finished with a girly giggle that made Aang's stomach flutter, the owner of the voice was very close to Aang, close enough that he could feel the heat of her body.

"Ru! Don't scare me like that" Ru was one of the girls that had been showing him the city and the most outgoing one of the bunch a very friendly girl that reminded him of Katara but who had a more playful disposition. She liked to tease him a lot and Aang didn't have the heart to tell her that her chest was pressing on him or that he could feel the way her nipples were poking him thanks to the cold.

"I scared the Avatar" Ru said with a flourish as she brought one of her hands to her chest in a dramatic gesture, the way she moved made her assets bounce a little attracting Aang's eyes but he steeled himself before his gaze could wander too much "maybe I should be the one training to be a fighter"

Aang returned the playful smile that she was giving him with one of his own, she was a great friend and her training as a healer could make her a very valuable companion, he was thinking of asking Iroh and Sokka to take Rue with them, just in case anyone got hurt.

"I told you to call me Aang not just Avatar, I'm a person too you know"

"Hmm but I like calling you Avatar" Ru did a little twirl and once more Aang's eyes were drawn to her chest.

'I want you to call me by my name!' Aang screamed in his mind, Ru was…she was…well she was very nice and Aang would like to have a closer relationship with her was that really too much to ask? Perhaps it was since everyone that got close to him had their lives changed in unexpected ways but Aang wanted to be a little selfish this time.


Ru

When Ru first received her mission she thought that it would be impossible, the Avatar was supposed to be a figure larger than life and airbenders were men that didn't like to be tied down by anyone or anything, there was a reason that people said free as the wind but instead what Ru found was a little boy, a little boy that like any other was very gullible. It had broken her a little that the person that was supposed to save the world was ogling her instead of training as hard as he could to finally end the war that had been raging for nearly a century.

It was a familiar feeling that she had experienced before, that feeling of disillusionment. Ru had felt it when she was told that she would never be a warrior, that her life was going to be following the norm and that she would never be more than a healer, just another girl that was a healer that's who Ru was but now she had a great opportunity to be something more, even if she had to sell her body and dignity for it, it was a price she was willing to pay as long as her life changed for the better.

Sure being the Avatar's girl wasn't what she had in mind at first but a world of possibilities would open up for her once she had a child of the Avatar, a child that could possibly be an airbender her life would be set, she could do whatever she wanted! even learn what was denied to her ever since she was a girl. Was it bad that she was using Aang? Perhaps but the boy would be using her body so that even it out in her mind.

Sometimes she felt a little bit bad about what she was doing but the prize was so tempting and she had some incentives as the chief wanted the Avatar to remember the North Pole as fondly as possible and once the war ended he wanted the Avatar to stay here, to be a deterrent and a point of pride for her people that had languished in obscurity as the rest of the world tore itself apart.


Author note: this is back and will update every wednesday...today is an exception.