FIC: Interlude: Aang (The Taking Turns series)
Interlude: Aang
By Keelywolfe
PG
Sokka/Zuko
Summary: Set during the previous story, Manly Pursuits
Fifth in a series:
No Turning Back
Division of Time
Conflicted
Manly Pursuits
If you were willing to ignore the whole conquering the world thing, the fire nation was kind of cool. Of course, most people were completely unwilling to do that, what with all the war and destruction and stuff.
Still, the Fire Lord did have a pretty cool house. Underneath the dust and weird knickknacks was a house with a sense of history and dignity and also an insanely cool banister that he and Sokka had rigged so you could sort of slide down it if you balanced right, or up it if you were an airbender and balanced really, really right. He and Toph and Sokka took a go every morning. Katara always shook her head and pursed her lips in a way that made Aang think she was chewing on the words she wanted to say and the first time he'd seen it, Zuko had looked sort of like he was about to have an aneurysm from being forced to be around all that laughter and fun. At least he hadn't told them to stop.
It made Aang wonder if he was really as stuffy as all that, if maybe under all that gloomy dignity he was wishing he could give it a try. He'd brushed off any offers, though, even when Sokka had thrown himself to the ground and begged loudly for him to just give it a try, dammit.
Okay, so Zuko had looked at Sokka like he'd sprouted a tail and boar-q-pine quills, and had left pretty quickly after that. It didn't mean he didn't secretly want to try...
Aang shook his head. Even in his own thoughts he was rambling tonight. It was just insanely hot and sticky, was all, and how the Fire Nation people could live in this, he would never understand. It felt like he was breathing through a heavy, damp cloth and he couldn't sleep. He'd been tossing around, sheets kicked to the floor, when he'd finally decided that a quick dip in the fountain sounded like a fine idea.
Outside it was dark and it felt even hotter. Even without the heat , he didn't quite dare light a flame to find his way. Zuko had said no one would look for them here but it didn't seem wise to light up a supposedly empty house like it was a festival night.
Besides, he knew the way pretty well, managing to stub his toes only once on a rocky outcropping and he bit his own tongue to muffle his yelp of pain, rubbing his foot fiercely before stomping the offending rock flat. That was one piece of earth that would never attack unsuspecting toes again.
He was nearly at the fountain when he heard a soft noise, murmuring voices. Mostly curious but a tiny bit alarmed, Aang walked quietly towards the sound, creeping through the shrubbery edging the path. Had someone found them here already, some suspicious villager making sure that no one was pillaging the great Fire Lord's bathing suits?
They were male voices, that much he could tell, whispering in that furious way that was secretly a shout. Zuko and Sokka, he realized, relief so deep in him that he shivered with it. It was way too hot to get into a squabble with someone who was likely to try toasting them all.
Okay, so no fight tonight but that left another question: what were Zuko and Sokka up talking about, anyway.
The last time Zuko and Sokka had secretly gotten together, they'd taken a trip to a Fire Nation prison, rescued Sokka's dad and Suki, and managed to steal an airship. On Aang's field trip they'd gotten gooey and licked clean by weird furry creatures which clearly showed that the universe had no sense of fairness where adventure was concerned so there was no way Aang was missing out on another excursion. Hey, they'd seen dragons, which was sweet, but really, prison riots and escape plans. The scales were clearly not in his favor. Time to bust in on this party.
Aang darted out of the brush, the bright words in his throat catching and fading and the hand he had raised in greeting sort of wilted, drifting down to fall back to his side as he slowed to a stop.
Okay...they weren't arguing. Unless you considered mashing your face against someone else's arguing and Aang really didn't...oh, yeah, he could see some tongue there, too. What were they doing?
Sokka made a weird, high little sound and Aang felt a blush spread over him so deeply it was a wonder that the air around him didn't get pink. All right, so he knew what they were doing. The monks hadn't been naïve in instructing their pupils but if there had been a class covering this, Aang had been frozen in an iceberg during it. They were...kissing and touching and little grunts and noises and wow, this was not at all the kind of adventure he'd wanted to get in on.
Carefully, Aang backed out the way he'd come in, taking each step like the tiniest pebble might explode. Not that he needed to bother; Zuko and Sokka seemed pretty intent on the task at hand....er...so to speak.
"Okay, soooo," Aang muttered under his breath, hurrying down the path. "Zuko and Sokka are doing...things. With each other. At the same time."
At that moment, Aang was equally aware of two things, the first being that if Zuko and Sokka wanted to go on a field trip together, he really, really didn't want to tag along. No adventure was that good. The second was that he wanted to be in that fountain about ten minutes ago so he could not think about this any more.
Yeah, the fountain. Maybe some waterbending practice might be good right now. Soothing, even. Just him, alone, with a lot of nice, cold water.
Yeah.
When he got to the fountain, Aang jumped in, clothes and all, sloshing through the water and splashing it on his hot face and head. Soaked through and gleaming wet, he flopped back into the water and floated, staring up at the velvety black sky with its weaving of stars.
It was pretty, really, the sky clear and the water cool...Sokka and Zuko making out right on the path. Aang sighed to himself. Yeah, his brain was probably not going to let that go really soon. It was twirling dizzily with questions, was this a firebender thing? He didn't recall any waterbenders in the South Pole going for other guys but he hadn't been really looking for it, and there was Suki, and what were they...why were they...and who could he even ask? Not Toph, not Katara...
Aang sighed again, climbing slowly out of the water and smoothly drawing all the wetness from his clothes with a flick of his hands. He tossed it back into the fountain, and started the slow walk back to his room. He was cooler and clean, and seriously tired, but somehow, Aang didn't think sleep was going to come much easier.
The path was empty, no sign that the other boys had been there at all and if he didn't have irrefutable evidence that he was awake, Aang might have hopefully thought he'd dreamed it. But a dip in the fountain wasn't something you could sleep through and that little sound Sokka had made, sweet and high and pleading, was echoing in the back of Aang's head.
It made him blush, skin overheating all over again and when he got to the stairs, the only thing he did with the banister was rest a hand on it as he climbed up. Slipping quietly into his own room, Aang stripped down and got into bed, closing his eyes against a memory that came with its own weird music, moans and sighs, the soft sound of lips touching, and sleep was a long, long time coming.
-finis-
Next Chapter
By Keelywolfe
PG
Sokka/Zuko
Summary: Set during the previous story, Manly Pursuits
Fifth in a series:
No Turning Back
Division of Time
Conflicted
Manly Pursuits
If you were willing to ignore the whole conquering the world thing, the fire nation was kind of cool. Of course, most people were completely unwilling to do that, what with all the war and destruction and stuff.
Still, the Fire Lord did have a pretty cool house. Underneath the dust and weird knickknacks was a house with a sense of history and dignity and also an insanely cool banister that he and Sokka had rigged so you could sort of slide down it if you balanced right, or up it if you were an airbender and balanced really, really right. He and Toph and Sokka took a go every morning. Katara always shook her head and pursed her lips in a way that made Aang think she was chewing on the words she wanted to say and the first time he'd seen it, Zuko had looked sort of like he was about to have an aneurysm from being forced to be around all that laughter and fun. At least he hadn't told them to stop.
It made Aang wonder if he was really as stuffy as all that, if maybe under all that gloomy dignity he was wishing he could give it a try. He'd brushed off any offers, though, even when Sokka had thrown himself to the ground and begged loudly for him to just give it a try, dammit.
Okay, so Zuko had looked at Sokka like he'd sprouted a tail and boar-q-pine quills, and had left pretty quickly after that. It didn't mean he didn't secretly want to try...
Aang shook his head. Even in his own thoughts he was rambling tonight. It was just insanely hot and sticky, was all, and how the Fire Nation people could live in this, he would never understand. It felt like he was breathing through a heavy, damp cloth and he couldn't sleep. He'd been tossing around, sheets kicked to the floor, when he'd finally decided that a quick dip in the fountain sounded like a fine idea.
Outside it was dark and it felt even hotter. Even without the heat , he didn't quite dare light a flame to find his way. Zuko had said no one would look for them here but it didn't seem wise to light up a supposedly empty house like it was a festival night.
Besides, he knew the way pretty well, managing to stub his toes only once on a rocky outcropping and he bit his own tongue to muffle his yelp of pain, rubbing his foot fiercely before stomping the offending rock flat. That was one piece of earth that would never attack unsuspecting toes again.
He was nearly at the fountain when he heard a soft noise, murmuring voices. Mostly curious but a tiny bit alarmed, Aang walked quietly towards the sound, creeping through the shrubbery edging the path. Had someone found them here already, some suspicious villager making sure that no one was pillaging the great Fire Lord's bathing suits?
They were male voices, that much he could tell, whispering in that furious way that was secretly a shout. Zuko and Sokka, he realized, relief so deep in him that he shivered with it. It was way too hot to get into a squabble with someone who was likely to try toasting them all.
Okay, so no fight tonight but that left another question: what were Zuko and Sokka up talking about, anyway.
The last time Zuko and Sokka had secretly gotten together, they'd taken a trip to a Fire Nation prison, rescued Sokka's dad and Suki, and managed to steal an airship. On Aang's field trip they'd gotten gooey and licked clean by weird furry creatures which clearly showed that the universe had no sense of fairness where adventure was concerned so there was no way Aang was missing out on another excursion. Hey, they'd seen dragons, which was sweet, but really, prison riots and escape plans. The scales were clearly not in his favor. Time to bust in on this party.
Aang darted out of the brush, the bright words in his throat catching and fading and the hand he had raised in greeting sort of wilted, drifting down to fall back to his side as he slowed to a stop.
Okay...they weren't arguing. Unless you considered mashing your face against someone else's arguing and Aang really didn't...oh, yeah, he could see some tongue there, too. What were they doing?
Sokka made a weird, high little sound and Aang felt a blush spread over him so deeply it was a wonder that the air around him didn't get pink. All right, so he knew what they were doing. The monks hadn't been naïve in instructing their pupils but if there had been a class covering this, Aang had been frozen in an iceberg during it. They were...kissing and touching and little grunts and noises and wow, this was not at all the kind of adventure he'd wanted to get in on.
Carefully, Aang backed out the way he'd come in, taking each step like the tiniest pebble might explode. Not that he needed to bother; Zuko and Sokka seemed pretty intent on the task at hand....er...so to speak.
"Okay, soooo," Aang muttered under his breath, hurrying down the path. "Zuko and Sokka are doing...things. With each other. At the same time."
At that moment, Aang was equally aware of two things, the first being that if Zuko and Sokka wanted to go on a field trip together, he really, really didn't want to tag along. No adventure was that good. The second was that he wanted to be in that fountain about ten minutes ago so he could not think about this any more.
Yeah, the fountain. Maybe some waterbending practice might be good right now. Soothing, even. Just him, alone, with a lot of nice, cold water.
Yeah.
When he got to the fountain, Aang jumped in, clothes and all, sloshing through the water and splashing it on his hot face and head. Soaked through and gleaming wet, he flopped back into the water and floated, staring up at the velvety black sky with its weaving of stars.
It was pretty, really, the sky clear and the water cool...Sokka and Zuko making out right on the path. Aang sighed to himself. Yeah, his brain was probably not going to let that go really soon. It was twirling dizzily with questions, was this a firebender thing? He didn't recall any waterbenders in the South Pole going for other guys but he hadn't been really looking for it, and there was Suki, and what were they...why were they...and who could he even ask? Not Toph, not Katara...
Aang sighed again, climbing slowly out of the water and smoothly drawing all the wetness from his clothes with a flick of his hands. He tossed it back into the fountain, and started the slow walk back to his room. He was cooler and clean, and seriously tired, but somehow, Aang didn't think sleep was going to come much easier.
The path was empty, no sign that the other boys had been there at all and if he didn't have irrefutable evidence that he was awake, Aang might have hopefully thought he'd dreamed it. But a dip in the fountain wasn't something you could sleep through and that little sound Sokka had made, sweet and high and pleading, was echoing in the back of Aang's head.
It made him blush, skin overheating all over again and when he got to the stairs, the only thing he did with the banister was rest a hand on it as he climbed up. Slipping quietly into his own room, Aang stripped down and got into bed, closing his eyes against a memory that came with its own weird music, moans and sighs, the soft sound of lips touching, and sleep was a long, long time coming.
-finis-
Next Chapter