(Untitled)

[i_spoiled_it]

Take one small circular expanse of snow.

Surround with ice in shape of small dome.

Fill with preserved food and blankets.

Lower surrounding temperature to dangerous-to-human levels; fill air with swirling vortex of snow.

Now, fill tiny igloo with two teenagers.

Mix.

Comments

[notanoptimist]

Later. The wind still howls outside and the air is crisp just outside the blankets. But beneath, the leather is warm and the furs are soft and Steph and Sokka are curled together.

Sokka wraps his arms around his girlfriend, settling his chin on her shoulder and lacing their fingers together, looking at the blocks of ice in flickering candlelight.

"...when my sister and I were little," he says, soft and casual, as if continuing a conversation, "she used to bring animals home. Like, all the time. Anything. And no warning either, just bam! hut full of penguin chicks."

[i_spoiled_it]

Steph smiles into his skin, curled against him, tired and happy and warm.

She pictures a house full of tiny penguin chicks, and Sokka standing in the middle with one eyebrow high and his hands flung out, and grins sleepily.

"Why? Where'd she get 'em?"

[notanoptimist]

"Just outside the walls. She'd always come back crying, Sokka, he was lost or His mother abandoned him or whatever else. Maybe sometimes it was true, but I think she would have stolen a polarbearcat from it's nest if she had the opportunity."

He nuzzles her temple gently, quiet and comfortable.

[i_spoiled_it]

She smiles, squeezing his hand softly, more because it's there than anything else. Interlinked fingers, arms around each other; yeah, still a storm outside, but that really doesn't bother them.

"What did you do? When she did?"

[notanoptimist]

It's warm and cozy and close inside. The howling wind beyond the igloo is a whole other world that has nothing to do with them. Not right now.

"Yelled at her for a couple of minutes. She never listened, though, so it didn't do anything. They'd usually run off anyway, except-- oh man, except for Flo." He groans, low and irritable, and takes a hand from Steph's waist to cover his eyes. "Ugh, Flo."

[i_spoiled_it]

This earns a hint of giggling. "Flo?"

[notanoptimist]

"She was a catseal," Sokka explains, still grumbling and irritable, "a retarded catseal, oh man, she was dumb. She'd sleep in Katara's bedroll and get too hot so she'd come out and then she'd be too cold so she'd try to get closer to the fire.

"She set herself on fire almost every night for all the years we had her!"

[i_spoiled_it]

More than a hint of giggling, for that. She wraps her arms around him and nuzzles into his side, in an attempt to soothe the grumpy without actually having to move too much from her warm cosy cuddle spot.

"'S why you're so good at being uncle to firebenders, is it?"

[notanoptimist]

Sokka nuzzles in return, cuddling close.

But he still blinks in surprise at the question.

"...I dunno, I never thought of that before."

[i_spoiled_it]

Steph kisses his shoulder. "Well, you're just good at looking after people generally. Getting practice couldn't have hurt."

[notanoptimist]

Sokka smirks a little - more of a smile than anything - and nuzzles her temple again, arms curled around her.

"I don't think Mel or Zuko would appreciate me callin' their daughters flammable retarded catseals."

[i_spoiled_it]

Steph giggles, wrapped up in him totally, breathing the smell of his skin and so ridiculously in love.

"You think about her lots?" she asks, a bit quieter, and she isn't talking about Mel ... or Flo. He never talks about his sister, but he never talks about a lot of things. That's just how Sokka is.

[notanoptimist]

"...yeah."

He doesn't curl closer, snuggle, none of it. Just lies there with her in his arms, wrapped around him.

"A lot."

[i_spoiled_it]

"Yeah."

Steph is quiet, holding him close, like she could somehow protect him from his own thoughts just by being there.

"What was she like ... when she was OK?" she asks, tentative. "Apart from rescuing mentally unstable animals."

[notanoptimist]

He's quiet again, feeling as small and dark as the space inside the igloo. Small enough for Steph's arms to reach around him, for the comfort she offers to be everything he needs in the world.

"...annoying, know-it-all little brat."

Sokka smiles.

"Almost as much as I was."

[i_spoiled_it]

Steph smiles, too, picturing it.

"I bet she was, if you were her only influence. Smart as you?"