[ p a i n t ]- Chapter 6
Author:Emmay, lotusunset
Title: Paint, Chapter 6
Word Count: 4,218
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance/Mystery
Characters: Sokka/Azula
Summary: When lady fate brings Sokka and Azula together, he discovers Azula is keeping a secret she didn't even know she had.
Chapter Summary: Azula recovers and actually manages to compliment Sokka on his latest artistic achievement. Sokka then pulls a stupid move which causes both of them to do some major contemplating.
Notes: This chapter is dedicated to
nayara_malfoy because its her birthday~! =D
This would have been up a lot sooner but I, unfortunately, had a nasty case of writer's block for about a week. ;_;
Comments of any kind are loved like whoa! =D
Previous Chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5
When Azula opened her eyes, she saw nothing. Nothing but an endless black abyss in front of her. She tried to move. She couldn't do much of that either. She was chained to the wall. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out.
One by one, dim yellow lights started appearing in front of her. She heard footsteps.
There were three men trying to hold her down, trying to restrain her. She squirmed, writhed and bucked, anything in an attempt to break free. Nothing worked.
She was strapped down to a chair. Her gaze went from one man to the next. They were dressed in the most peculiar way, she noted. They mumbled to each other. Another man came and pushed the other two aside. He bent down and hovered over Azula. His piercing green eyes causing her physical pain.
"Yes, you will be of use to me," He smirked, then laughed.
Azula shook violently, trying to break her restraints. The man just kept laughing.
Azula closed her eyes, trying to block out the sound.
Alarms were blaring, panicked faces were all around as Azula was finally free. She attacked one man who was in her way, smashing his skull against the stone wall. When another approached her, she bit two of his fingers clean off. That would show them. How dare they try to contain her, how dare they try to contain a...
...A monster.
They had her again. Somehow they had managed to trap her again. But she wouldn't give up. No. She tried again, and again, and again, and again. Failure, after failure, after failure. Azula could feel the tears bubbling up in her eyes, clouding her view. She wouldn't give in, no, not ever.
Azula felt a large jolt and saw a blindingly bright flash of pale blue. Then she was in excruciating pain. She screamed.
Silence.
Except for the birds chirping and the sound of a light breeze rustling the leaves.
Everything was calm.
Azula looked around herself. She was in her home. Not one thing out of place. She sauntered over to the table, grabbing a paintbrush. She examined it for a moment before something else caught her attention.
Smoke. There was black smoke rising up from the floor. In an instant there was a wall of blue flames before her. Behind her, surrounding her. Azula's breath got caught in her throat as she gasped for air. She wasn't afraid of fire. She tried to get to the door. Despite the searing hot temperature, she shook the knob, unable to get the door open. She moved to a window instead, trying to open it. Didn't work. She tried every single window and door in the house, any potential escape point. As the smoke started to get to her, she realized something.
She was trapped.
Again.
She fell to her knees. How could she let this happen? How could she let them restrain her again? She tucked her head against her lap. It was only a matter of time now. She couldn't bend the flames away, why even bother trying to get away? She felt the intense heat against her skin for a long time.
Then it stopped. She raised her head to see a group of people standing before her. Their eyes were in shadows but she recognized them anyway. Her brother, the blind girl, the waterbender. Mai and Ty Lee had joined them too. The Avatar stood in front of all of them, a sadistic smirk on his lips as his arrow began to glow. He held up his hand. Blue fire was ignited in his palm.
Azula's face twisted into anger and she launched herself towards the group. But as soon as she would have made contact, they all disappeared without a trace.
Azula was alone then. In a vast space of nothing. And more nothing. All around her, she didn't see anything. Where was she? There had to be some sort of explanation for this. There always was.
She started slowly walking into the nothing. It didn't seem like she was going anywhere. Until a small red dot appeared. She started running towards it. It got bigger and bigger and Azula recognized that it was the form of a young girl sitting on the ground, her back was facing Azula. The closer Azula became, she also heard the child singing.
"An extraordinary beauty from the North, the most beautiful being in the world..." As the form of the girl got clearer and clearer, Azula slowed down and stopped. She was standing a few feet away from the girl.
"From her first glance, the city bows before her, from her second the empire falls to ruins..." The girl stood up and brushed off her clothes. They were clearly Fire Nation. Clearly Fire Nation royalty.
"And there isn't a city or empire we can admire more than her..."
She turned around, her song finished. There was a green doll in her hands. Azula knew exactly who she was looking at.
"Artists are useless," the child said, examining her doll. She looked up at Azula, her bright gold eyes filled with hate.
Azula looked down at the girl with anger.
"You're useless," A devilish smirk grew on her small lips, "Just like this doll." The young girl ripped the doll in two. The body in one hand, the head in the other. She held both parts up, still smiling. Then she set them on fire. Blue fire. It was always blue, never red, never red. The girl started laughing. And laughing as the doll shriveled up. She tossed it to the ground where it continued to smolder. She took a step forward towards Azula.
"You're next."
Azula's eyes snapped open. Her breaths were quick and uneven. She sat up and looked around. She was in her bedroom. It was only a nightmare, just a nightmare... She stared up at the ceiling for a few moments before she sat up in bed, rubbing her temples. Judging by the way the light was filtering in from the windows, it was late morning. She rarely slept in that late. Azula thought about the previous day, trying to remember what exactly had happened. She recalled she had been painting that landscape commission and then everything just...blacked out.
With a sigh she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, stretching. She needed to go sketch out what she remembered from her nightmare before she forgot. Nightmares were not an uncommon occurrence for her. And more often than not they came in broken up little pieces. By sketching out (and sometimes painting) what she remembered of them was her way of trying to make sense of the pieces, trying to put them together. She didn't know what they meant but they had to mean something. To Azula, there was a meaning and an explanation for everything, even if it wasn't always immediately clear.
As she walked up the hall and into the main room, Azula wondered where that Water Tribe imbecile had run off to. She wouldn't have put it past him to still be sleeping. But the house was quiet. And usually, if he was still sleeping, you could hear his ridiculously loud snoring.
After running her fingers through her messy dark hair a few times, Azula sat down at her table. She grabbed a piece of lead, making a mental note to get some more the next time she went into town and then she noticed the painting that was in front of her. It wasn't the tropical landscape she had been working on. It was a painting of a sleeping woman. It was a painting of her. That idiot must have done it yesterday while she had been sick. She had to admit, it was a good piece. For something that was created by Sokka, of course. The composition was pretty good. Anatomy was decent. She compared that painting to the one he had done the previous morning and it was an improvement. Idiot was right when he insisted he could have done better...
She swallowed a hard lump in her throat as she realized something. When she got headaches like those, she usually collapsed wherever she was at the moment. The last place she remembered being was sitting at the table, Sokka standing over her shoulder. When she had woken up this morning she had been in her bed. That moron must have caught her and carried her back to her bedroom...
Azula cringed slightly at the thought of him touching her, let alone carrying her to the other side of the house, but he was...smart enough to not leave her laying on the floor. And just wait a second. Hadn't her hair been in a braid yesterday...?
The former princess refused to expand her thoughts on that, but she figured she ought to go find him and at least say something about the painting. Over the last month she had learned that much like a dog, Sokka responded well to positive reinforcement.
Azula quickly went to change clothes and washed up a little. She then began looking for him throughout the house. While she did, she noticed that he had also done a little bit of cleaning too. That brought a small smile to her face since Sokka was normally quite the slob. Maybe her strict rules were finally starting to rub off on him.
He wasn't anywhere in the house so Azula ventured outside. Sure enough, there he was, right outside the door and sitting amongst the flowers. Painting them.
"Good morning," Azula said from behind him, her voice calm. Startled, Sokka nearly jumped three feet in the air.
"Oh, uh, hi, Azula," He greeted her, standing up.
"You're up early," she commented.
"Mmhmm, yeah. I didn't sleep well last night," He explained.
"I see," she said.
"Are you feeling better?" Sokka blurted out the question. Azula nodded.
"I wouldn't be out here if I wasn't now would I?" She replied, crossing her arms.
"No, I suppose not," Sokka laughed a little.
"So what were you doing?" She inquired.
"Painting the lilies. I thought it'd be good practice," Sokka responded.
"Let me see," Azula ordered. Sokka bent down and picked up the damp piece of parchment, holding it out for Azula to see. She leaned closer to it, examining every brushstroke, "Not bad. You're finally starting to understand that petals are all relatively the same size. And your color choices are getting better as well."
"Thanks," Sokka accepted the sort-of compliment with a big smile.
"I saw the painting you did yesterday, "Azula continued. She could see a slight tinge of red appear on Sokka's cheeks.
"Oh, you did...I just...I got bored," He said. He couldn't keep eye contact with her for more than a few seconds. Maybe it was just the light messing with his mind but he couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked again. Even if she looked like a complete mess compared to the way she usually did.
"Understandable, I suppose. I was out cold for most of the day, wasn't I?" Azula questioned.
"Yeah, you were," Sokka said softly, unconsciously leaning a little closer to her, "So...what did you think of that painting?"
"Room for improvement, but very good," Azula smiled, "You must have spent a lot of time on it."
"I did," His voice grew even quieter as he kept slowly leaning closer.
"You weren't kidding when you said you thought you could do better," She said.
"You know me," Sokka started, "I'm just not the type to kid around." He laughed a little at his joke. Azula cracked another smirk.
"No, not ever," She agreed, her head tilting to the side a little as his face grew nearer to hers. He was so close she could feel his warm breath on her face. "Sokka?"
"Hmm?" Sokka was slightly confused. She rarely ever called him by his name in a non-mocking fashion.
"Thanks."
"For what?" He questioned her, his eyes half closed.
"Don't play stupid, you know what I mean," Azula whispered.
Sokka inched even closer to her and nearly closed the gap between their lips. And he probably would have too, if Azula hadn't backed away at the last second, a strange expression immediately coming over her. It was mixed with confusion and a little bit of anger, Sokka thought.
"I...I have things to do," She said sternly, almost angrily, before turning around and heading back into the house. Sokka grumbled to himself. What the hell had just happened? Sighing, he slunk back down into the flowers. He had a painting to finish.
Azula also had a painting to finish. She moved Sokka's paintings off to the side, not really caring where they ended up at the moment and she sat down at her table. She popped the lids off of all her canisters and picked up the best brush she could find. That idiot must have been using all of the good ones. Normally, Azula would have gone back outside and demanded them back from him but she was trying to avoid him at all costs after what had just happened.
He had almost...kissed her. Just the very thought of it seemed so foreign to her. It angered her. How dare he think he could get away with that? Hadn't she made her boundaries clear? Of course, he was a total, complete imbecile. Though Azula was now starting to think that was being too generous to him.
Taking her brush, she started finishing her landscape. Since her firebending had been taken away from her, art had become her outlet. In her irritation, however, she messed a few things up. She started fixing them as she continued to think.
She was about this close to kicking him out of her home. Yes, he had been a great help around the house. But now she was starting to think he had overstayed his welcome. He had been living with her for over a month now! If he was interested in staying in Makung more permanently, Azula's was just not the place to do it. He didn't even pay her rent! Azula thought she had been more than hospitable towards the Water Tribesman, even if he was a spy for Zuko.
...Though she had to admit, having a little company, even if it was just that moron, was a little refreshing. Azula usually made it a point to avoid all contact with people unless absolutely necessary. She liked her privacy and feared that if she was too sociable her true identity would surface and then she'd be hurled back into the spotlight. Not to mention criticized for her actions against the country she now called home.
Azula sighed, swishing her brush in the rinse water. Her thoughts turned back to Sokka. His actions...confused her. And that was not an easy thing to do. Why would he even want to kiss her? Because she had no idea what he had been doing if that wasn't it. (Which might not actually be too far off base, but Azula was too prideful to admit that, even to herself.) They were supposed to be enemies. Maybe that wasn't the best term for it; the war had been over for over a decade, but she and Sokka sure as hell weren't supposed to be friends. Azula didn't have friends. She didn't need them. She didn't want them. Friends were a pointless annoyance to her. Not worth the time or the effort. Trusting anyone but herself was foolish, Azula knew.
There. That was good enough. Normally, Azula would never slack off, she'd give everything her best effort, but she feared that if she kept messing with this painting she'd screw it up further and be forced to re-do it. Which she most definitely didn't want to do. With a sigh she rinsed out her brushes and dried them a little with a rag. She'd still get paid a decent amount of money for it, which is all that really mattered, right?
Sokka was done painting his flowers as well. Carefully he carried all of his supplies back in the house. He tried to ignore Azula the best he could. He glanced at her for a moment. She wasn't paying attention. She was too busy doing something else.
Azula had concluded that she needed to relax and clear her thoughts. She decided she needed to have a nice, long, meditation session. She walked over to a small table in the corner. Four candles were set on top. She tossed her spark rocks up in the air a few times before she sat down on her knees before the table.
Sokka put all his supplies away exactly where he had put them, in better condition than what he had found them. He paused for a second to admire her finished landscape. It looked exactly like a beach on Ember Island. Almost made him want to vacation there again...
She tried to light her candles, but the spark rocks weren't exactly cooperating. She attempted a few more times. She grumbled in frustration and that caught Sokka's attention. As much as he didn't want to bother her more than he had to, he couldn't resist helping her out.
"Having issues?" He questioned from behind her. She said nothing. Sokka squatted down next to her, plucking the spark rocks from her hands. Azula glared at him. It was one of the insulted 'how dare you!' variety. It took Sokka a few tries to get the rocks to spark, but they sparked up for him, lighting the first candle. It glowed a warm yellow. Sokka grinned smugly. He also couldn't resist throwing a bad joke out there.
"So, does this make me more of a firebender than you?" He teased, setting the rocks on the table. Azula's glare changed ever so slightly. Now it was saying 'go away before I light you on fire.' Sokka understood that immediately. He stood up and straightened his clothes a bit. Azula picked up the burning candle and used it to light the other three.
"I'm going to go into town for some lunch, alright?" Sokka said, Azula didn't respond. She was ignoring him. Sokka sighed and left. She was so irritating. Just when he started thinking she might actually be a decent person somewhere in there, she had to go and be cranky and mean. Of course, Sokka's voice of reason made him rewind and rethink about that little joke he had thrown out there. Probably not the best thing he could have said to the former firebender. Of course, he had probably said much worse things than that to her in the past month. But for some reason, this time he actually felt pretty bad about his word choice.
As Sokka ate his lunch, he sat down at the fountain in the middle of town, watching the people go about their daily lives. It was sort of entertaining. There was a bunch of kids running around, playing. A group of teenage girls gossiping. An old farm couple arguing over prices. A young couple walking down the street, holding hands and stealing kisses from the other.
Sokka suddenly started feeling a little ill as he remembered his actions from that morning (how could he forget?). Why in the world had he almost kissed Azula? And why did it look like she almost wanted to kiss him back before she pulled away and ran in the house? Confusion! Sokka knew that he was physically attracted to her. That wasn't a new revelation. In fact, he probably would have been kind of worried about his mental state if he didn't find her physically attractive in some way. But what in the world came over him that made him want to kiss her? He just remembered finding himself staring at her lips, thinking about how soft they looked. And then she was running off like a spooked animal.
Unable to finish the rest of his lunch, Sokka started throwing small pieces of it to the birds. Might as well not let it go to waste. He was a little upset with himself over the whole thing. He thought of Azula as a friend. That was it. A pretty good friend. Kind of like Zuko or Toph. He wasn't supposed to want to kiss either of them! So why had his brain told him to kiss Azula? He pouted in frustration.
"I know that look. You're just trying to fool yourself," There was his inner Suki again. He grumbled. If the voices in his head were caving, then there had to be something more to this. And that kind of scared him.
Lust. Yeah, that had to be it. Nothing but a little lust since Sokka hadn't gotten any action in over a year. So he wanted to kiss an attractive woman. That was perfectly normal. Even if it was Azula, of all people. And maybe if he actually did kiss her, all of this would go away.
...Or she could tear him to shreds and set him on fire. He gulped, shaking his head. He needed to stop thinking about her for a while, that would probably help him immensely. Yawning, he stood up and stretched out a little bit. He'd go check to see if he had any letters from his friends and family.
Sure enough, there were two letters. One from Zuko and one from Aang. The one from Zuko wasn't that interesting. It was rather short. They usually were from Zuko. The Fire Lord was a very busy guy, it was kind of a miracle he even found the time to reply to Sokka's lettersl. Everything was going relatively well in the Fire Nation. Aside from the small rebel groups that still opposed Zuko's rule, of course. They were easily dealt with, however. In about a month or so, Zuko and Mai would be travelling to Ba Sing Se for some fancy royal thing. Mai was doing good and now that things were starting to settle down a little, the royal couple were trying to produce an heir. Sokka idly wondered if he should say anything to Azula about her brother and his wife. He knew Azula had been good friends with Mai...But he almost instantly decided not to. If he said anything about Zuko, Sokka was afraid Azula would start berating him for being a spy again. In the past two weeks, she had finally started to cool it with all the snide spy remarks.
...So much for not thinking about Azula.
The next letter, the one from Aang, wasn't much longer than the one from Zuko. Aang said he'd be in Makung in a month or so. Maybe more, maybe less. It wasn't a top prioreity at the moment. Sokka was okay with that. The blue light mystery wasn't that important. It was more of an annoyance to the townspeople than anything, Sokka had sort of figured. Judging by the date on the letter, though, Sokka estimated that Aang would be there in about three weeks. He was rather eager to see Aang. It had been a while since he had seen him last.
When Sokka got to Aang's warning about Azula, he smiled. "Be careful, this is Azula we're talking about. You never know when she could have something up her sleeve. Don't get yourself into more than you can handle, Sokka..." Sokka found that last statement kind of amusing. He probably had bitten off much more than he could chew a month ago when he asked her for painting lessons.
Sokka wrote replies to both of the letters and sent them off. He dawdled around town for about another hour before he started heading back towards Azula's house. It wasn't that he was avoiding her or anything...
Okay, he kind of was trying to avoid her. He just didn't know what to say to Azula. He was almost certain that there was nothing he could say that wouldn't make him look like a jerk or make him look like an idiot. More of an idiot than usual. He hoped she was still meditating when he returned. Or at least off painting. Or doing laundry. But knowing his luck, she'd be up and about and cleaning the house. And then he'd get suckered into cleaning as well. Sokka hated cleaning for Azula. She was just so...nitpicky. He could never clean anything right for her.
Coming up to the house, Sokka opened the door as quietly as he possibly could, just in case she was still meditating or taking a nap or something. He most definitely didn't want to disturb her. Disturbing Azula was never a good thing.
She was sitting in the corner, meditating. Just like he had left her. And she hadn't noticed his return. That was good. Very good. He closed the door behind him and took a few steps forward, watching her carefully. At that angle, he could see the candles too. And there was something very clearly different about them. Sokka distinctly remembered pretty, glowing yellow-orange flames burning on top of those candles.
But now? Now the flames were distinctly blue.
Title: Paint, Chapter 6
Word Count: 4,218
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance/Mystery
Characters: Sokka/Azula
Summary: When lady fate brings Sokka and Azula together, he discovers Azula is keeping a secret she didn't even know she had.
Chapter Summary: Azula recovers and actually manages to compliment Sokka on his latest artistic achievement. Sokka then pulls a stupid move which causes both of them to do some major contemplating.
Notes: This chapter is dedicated to
nayara_malfoy because its her birthday~! =D
This would have been up a lot sooner but I, unfortunately, had a nasty case of writer's block for about a week. ;_;
Comments of any kind are loved like whoa! =D
Previous Chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5
When Azula opened her eyes, she saw nothing. Nothing but an endless black abyss in front of her. She tried to move. She couldn't do much of that either. She was chained to the wall. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out.
One by one, dim yellow lights started appearing in front of her. She heard footsteps.
There were three men trying to hold her down, trying to restrain her. She squirmed, writhed and bucked, anything in an attempt to break free. Nothing worked.
She was strapped down to a chair. Her gaze went from one man to the next. They were dressed in the most peculiar way, she noted. They mumbled to each other. Another man came and pushed the other two aside. He bent down and hovered over Azula. His piercing green eyes causing her physical pain.
"Yes, you will be of use to me," He smirked, then laughed.
Azula shook violently, trying to break her restraints. The man just kept laughing.
Azula closed her eyes, trying to block out the sound.
Alarms were blaring, panicked faces were all around as Azula was finally free. She attacked one man who was in her way, smashing his skull against the stone wall. When another approached her, she bit two of his fingers clean off. That would show them. How dare they try to contain her, how dare they try to contain a...
...A monster.
They had her again. Somehow they had managed to trap her again. But she wouldn't give up. No. She tried again, and again, and again, and again. Failure, after failure, after failure. Azula could feel the tears bubbling up in her eyes, clouding her view. She wouldn't give in, no, not ever.
Azula felt a large jolt and saw a blindingly bright flash of pale blue. Then she was in excruciating pain. She screamed.
Silence.
Except for the birds chirping and the sound of a light breeze rustling the leaves.
Everything was calm.
Azula looked around herself. She was in her home. Not one thing out of place. She sauntered over to the table, grabbing a paintbrush. She examined it for a moment before something else caught her attention.
Smoke. There was black smoke rising up from the floor. In an instant there was a wall of blue flames before her. Behind her, surrounding her. Azula's breath got caught in her throat as she gasped for air. She wasn't afraid of fire. She tried to get to the door. Despite the searing hot temperature, she shook the knob, unable to get the door open. She moved to a window instead, trying to open it. Didn't work. She tried every single window and door in the house, any potential escape point. As the smoke started to get to her, she realized something.
She was trapped.
Again.
She fell to her knees. How could she let this happen? How could she let them restrain her again? She tucked her head against her lap. It was only a matter of time now. She couldn't bend the flames away, why even bother trying to get away? She felt the intense heat against her skin for a long time.
Then it stopped. She raised her head to see a group of people standing before her. Their eyes were in shadows but she recognized them anyway. Her brother, the blind girl, the waterbender. Mai and Ty Lee had joined them too. The Avatar stood in front of all of them, a sadistic smirk on his lips as his arrow began to glow. He held up his hand. Blue fire was ignited in his palm.
Azula's face twisted into anger and she launched herself towards the group. But as soon as she would have made contact, they all disappeared without a trace.
Azula was alone then. In a vast space of nothing. And more nothing. All around her, she didn't see anything. Where was she? There had to be some sort of explanation for this. There always was.
She started slowly walking into the nothing. It didn't seem like she was going anywhere. Until a small red dot appeared. She started running towards it. It got bigger and bigger and Azula recognized that it was the form of a young girl sitting on the ground, her back was facing Azula. The closer Azula became, she also heard the child singing.
"An extraordinary beauty from the North, the most beautiful being in the world..." As the form of the girl got clearer and clearer, Azula slowed down and stopped. She was standing a few feet away from the girl.
"From her first glance, the city bows before her, from her second the empire falls to ruins..." The girl stood up and brushed off her clothes. They were clearly Fire Nation. Clearly Fire Nation royalty.
"And there isn't a city or empire we can admire more than her..."
She turned around, her song finished. There was a green doll in her hands. Azula knew exactly who she was looking at.
"Artists are useless," the child said, examining her doll. She looked up at Azula, her bright gold eyes filled with hate.
Azula looked down at the girl with anger.
"You're useless," A devilish smirk grew on her small lips, "Just like this doll." The young girl ripped the doll in two. The body in one hand, the head in the other. She held both parts up, still smiling. Then she set them on fire. Blue fire. It was always blue, never red, never red. The girl started laughing. And laughing as the doll shriveled up. She tossed it to the ground where it continued to smolder. She took a step forward towards Azula.
"You're next."
Azula's eyes snapped open. Her breaths were quick and uneven. She sat up and looked around. She was in her bedroom. It was only a nightmare, just a nightmare... She stared up at the ceiling for a few moments before she sat up in bed, rubbing her temples. Judging by the way the light was filtering in from the windows, it was late morning. She rarely slept in that late. Azula thought about the previous day, trying to remember what exactly had happened. She recalled she had been painting that landscape commission and then everything just...blacked out.
With a sigh she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, stretching. She needed to go sketch out what she remembered from her nightmare before she forgot. Nightmares were not an uncommon occurrence for her. And more often than not they came in broken up little pieces. By sketching out (and sometimes painting) what she remembered of them was her way of trying to make sense of the pieces, trying to put them together. She didn't know what they meant but they had to mean something. To Azula, there was a meaning and an explanation for everything, even if it wasn't always immediately clear.
As she walked up the hall and into the main room, Azula wondered where that Water Tribe imbecile had run off to. She wouldn't have put it past him to still be sleeping. But the house was quiet. And usually, if he was still sleeping, you could hear his ridiculously loud snoring.
After running her fingers through her messy dark hair a few times, Azula sat down at her table. She grabbed a piece of lead, making a mental note to get some more the next time she went into town and then she noticed the painting that was in front of her. It wasn't the tropical landscape she had been working on. It was a painting of a sleeping woman. It was a painting of her. That idiot must have done it yesterday while she had been sick. She had to admit, it was a good piece. For something that was created by Sokka, of course. The composition was pretty good. Anatomy was decent. She compared that painting to the one he had done the previous morning and it was an improvement. Idiot was right when he insisted he could have done better...
She swallowed a hard lump in her throat as she realized something. When she got headaches like those, she usually collapsed wherever she was at the moment. The last place she remembered being was sitting at the table, Sokka standing over her shoulder. When she had woken up this morning she had been in her bed. That moron must have caught her and carried her back to her bedroom...
Azula cringed slightly at the thought of him touching her, let alone carrying her to the other side of the house, but he was...smart enough to not leave her laying on the floor. And just wait a second. Hadn't her hair been in a braid yesterday...?
The former princess refused to expand her thoughts on that, but she figured she ought to go find him and at least say something about the painting. Over the last month she had learned that much like a dog, Sokka responded well to positive reinforcement.
Azula quickly went to change clothes and washed up a little. She then began looking for him throughout the house. While she did, she noticed that he had also done a little bit of cleaning too. That brought a small smile to her face since Sokka was normally quite the slob. Maybe her strict rules were finally starting to rub off on him.
He wasn't anywhere in the house so Azula ventured outside. Sure enough, there he was, right outside the door and sitting amongst the flowers. Painting them.
"Good morning," Azula said from behind him, her voice calm. Startled, Sokka nearly jumped three feet in the air.
"Oh, uh, hi, Azula," He greeted her, standing up.
"You're up early," she commented.
"Mmhmm, yeah. I didn't sleep well last night," He explained.
"I see," she said.
"Are you feeling better?" Sokka blurted out the question. Azula nodded.
"I wouldn't be out here if I wasn't now would I?" She replied, crossing her arms.
"No, I suppose not," Sokka laughed a little.
"So what were you doing?" She inquired.
"Painting the lilies. I thought it'd be good practice," Sokka responded.
"Let me see," Azula ordered. Sokka bent down and picked up the damp piece of parchment, holding it out for Azula to see. She leaned closer to it, examining every brushstroke, "Not bad. You're finally starting to understand that petals are all relatively the same size. And your color choices are getting better as well."
"Thanks," Sokka accepted the sort-of compliment with a big smile.
"I saw the painting you did yesterday, "Azula continued. She could see a slight tinge of red appear on Sokka's cheeks.
"Oh, you did...I just...I got bored," He said. He couldn't keep eye contact with her for more than a few seconds. Maybe it was just the light messing with his mind but he couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked again. Even if she looked like a complete mess compared to the way she usually did.
"Understandable, I suppose. I was out cold for most of the day, wasn't I?" Azula questioned.
"Yeah, you were," Sokka said softly, unconsciously leaning a little closer to her, "So...what did you think of that painting?"
"Room for improvement, but very good," Azula smiled, "You must have spent a lot of time on it."
"I did," His voice grew even quieter as he kept slowly leaning closer.
"You weren't kidding when you said you thought you could do better," She said.
"You know me," Sokka started, "I'm just not the type to kid around." He laughed a little at his joke. Azula cracked another smirk.
"No, not ever," She agreed, her head tilting to the side a little as his face grew nearer to hers. He was so close she could feel his warm breath on her face. "Sokka?"
"Hmm?" Sokka was slightly confused. She rarely ever called him by his name in a non-mocking fashion.
"Thanks."
"For what?" He questioned her, his eyes half closed.
"Don't play stupid, you know what I mean," Azula whispered.
Sokka inched even closer to her and nearly closed the gap between their lips. And he probably would have too, if Azula hadn't backed away at the last second, a strange expression immediately coming over her. It was mixed with confusion and a little bit of anger, Sokka thought.
"I...I have things to do," She said sternly, almost angrily, before turning around and heading back into the house. Sokka grumbled to himself. What the hell had just happened? Sighing, he slunk back down into the flowers. He had a painting to finish.
Azula also had a painting to finish. She moved Sokka's paintings off to the side, not really caring where they ended up at the moment and she sat down at her table. She popped the lids off of all her canisters and picked up the best brush she could find. That idiot must have been using all of the good ones. Normally, Azula would have gone back outside and demanded them back from him but she was trying to avoid him at all costs after what had just happened.
He had almost...kissed her. Just the very thought of it seemed so foreign to her. It angered her. How dare he think he could get away with that? Hadn't she made her boundaries clear? Of course, he was a total, complete imbecile. Though Azula was now starting to think that was being too generous to him.
Taking her brush, she started finishing her landscape. Since her firebending had been taken away from her, art had become her outlet. In her irritation, however, she messed a few things up. She started fixing them as she continued to think.
She was about this close to kicking him out of her home. Yes, he had been a great help around the house. But now she was starting to think he had overstayed his welcome. He had been living with her for over a month now! If he was interested in staying in Makung more permanently, Azula's was just not the place to do it. He didn't even pay her rent! Azula thought she had been more than hospitable towards the Water Tribesman, even if he was a spy for Zuko.
...Though she had to admit, having a little company, even if it was just that moron, was a little refreshing. Azula usually made it a point to avoid all contact with people unless absolutely necessary. She liked her privacy and feared that if she was too sociable her true identity would surface and then she'd be hurled back into the spotlight. Not to mention criticized for her actions against the country she now called home.
Azula sighed, swishing her brush in the rinse water. Her thoughts turned back to Sokka. His actions...confused her. And that was not an easy thing to do. Why would he even want to kiss her? Because she had no idea what he had been doing if that wasn't it. (Which might not actually be too far off base, but Azula was too prideful to admit that, even to herself.) They were supposed to be enemies. Maybe that wasn't the best term for it; the war had been over for over a decade, but she and Sokka sure as hell weren't supposed to be friends. Azula didn't have friends. She didn't need them. She didn't want them. Friends were a pointless annoyance to her. Not worth the time or the effort. Trusting anyone but herself was foolish, Azula knew.
There. That was good enough. Normally, Azula would never slack off, she'd give everything her best effort, but she feared that if she kept messing with this painting she'd screw it up further and be forced to re-do it. Which she most definitely didn't want to do. With a sigh she rinsed out her brushes and dried them a little with a rag. She'd still get paid a decent amount of money for it, which is all that really mattered, right?
Sokka was done painting his flowers as well. Carefully he carried all of his supplies back in the house. He tried to ignore Azula the best he could. He glanced at her for a moment. She wasn't paying attention. She was too busy doing something else.
Azula had concluded that she needed to relax and clear her thoughts. She decided she needed to have a nice, long, meditation session. She walked over to a small table in the corner. Four candles were set on top. She tossed her spark rocks up in the air a few times before she sat down on her knees before the table.
Sokka put all his supplies away exactly where he had put them, in better condition than what he had found them. He paused for a second to admire her finished landscape. It looked exactly like a beach on Ember Island. Almost made him want to vacation there again...
She tried to light her candles, but the spark rocks weren't exactly cooperating. She attempted a few more times. She grumbled in frustration and that caught Sokka's attention. As much as he didn't want to bother her more than he had to, he couldn't resist helping her out.
"Having issues?" He questioned from behind her. She said nothing. Sokka squatted down next to her, plucking the spark rocks from her hands. Azula glared at him. It was one of the insulted 'how dare you!' variety. It took Sokka a few tries to get the rocks to spark, but they sparked up for him, lighting the first candle. It glowed a warm yellow. Sokka grinned smugly. He also couldn't resist throwing a bad joke out there.
"So, does this make me more of a firebender than you?" He teased, setting the rocks on the table. Azula's glare changed ever so slightly. Now it was saying 'go away before I light you on fire.' Sokka understood that immediately. He stood up and straightened his clothes a bit. Azula picked up the burning candle and used it to light the other three.
"I'm going to go into town for some lunch, alright?" Sokka said, Azula didn't respond. She was ignoring him. Sokka sighed and left. She was so irritating. Just when he started thinking she might actually be a decent person somewhere in there, she had to go and be cranky and mean. Of course, Sokka's voice of reason made him rewind and rethink about that little joke he had thrown out there. Probably not the best thing he could have said to the former firebender. Of course, he had probably said much worse things than that to her in the past month. But for some reason, this time he actually felt pretty bad about his word choice.
As Sokka ate his lunch, he sat down at the fountain in the middle of town, watching the people go about their daily lives. It was sort of entertaining. There was a bunch of kids running around, playing. A group of teenage girls gossiping. An old farm couple arguing over prices. A young couple walking down the street, holding hands and stealing kisses from the other.
Sokka suddenly started feeling a little ill as he remembered his actions from that morning (how could he forget?). Why in the world had he almost kissed Azula? And why did it look like she almost wanted to kiss him back before she pulled away and ran in the house? Confusion! Sokka knew that he was physically attracted to her. That wasn't a new revelation. In fact, he probably would have been kind of worried about his mental state if he didn't find her physically attractive in some way. But what in the world came over him that made him want to kiss her? He just remembered finding himself staring at her lips, thinking about how soft they looked. And then she was running off like a spooked animal.
Unable to finish the rest of his lunch, Sokka started throwing small pieces of it to the birds. Might as well not let it go to waste. He was a little upset with himself over the whole thing. He thought of Azula as a friend. That was it. A pretty good friend. Kind of like Zuko or Toph. He wasn't supposed to want to kiss either of them! So why had his brain told him to kiss Azula? He pouted in frustration.
"I know that look. You're just trying to fool yourself," There was his inner Suki again. He grumbled. If the voices in his head were caving, then there had to be something more to this. And that kind of scared him.
Lust. Yeah, that had to be it. Nothing but a little lust since Sokka hadn't gotten any action in over a year. So he wanted to kiss an attractive woman. That was perfectly normal. Even if it was Azula, of all people. And maybe if he actually did kiss her, all of this would go away.
...Or she could tear him to shreds and set him on fire. He gulped, shaking his head. He needed to stop thinking about her for a while, that would probably help him immensely. Yawning, he stood up and stretched out a little bit. He'd go check to see if he had any letters from his friends and family.
Sure enough, there were two letters. One from Zuko and one from Aang. The one from Zuko wasn't that interesting. It was rather short. They usually were from Zuko. The Fire Lord was a very busy guy, it was kind of a miracle he even found the time to reply to Sokka's lettersl. Everything was going relatively well in the Fire Nation. Aside from the small rebel groups that still opposed Zuko's rule, of course. They were easily dealt with, however. In about a month or so, Zuko and Mai would be travelling to Ba Sing Se for some fancy royal thing. Mai was doing good and now that things were starting to settle down a little, the royal couple were trying to produce an heir. Sokka idly wondered if he should say anything to Azula about her brother and his wife. He knew Azula had been good friends with Mai...But he almost instantly decided not to. If he said anything about Zuko, Sokka was afraid Azula would start berating him for being a spy again. In the past two weeks, she had finally started to cool it with all the snide spy remarks.
...So much for not thinking about Azula.
The next letter, the one from Aang, wasn't much longer than the one from Zuko. Aang said he'd be in Makung in a month or so. Maybe more, maybe less. It wasn't a top prioreity at the moment. Sokka was okay with that. The blue light mystery wasn't that important. It was more of an annoyance to the townspeople than anything, Sokka had sort of figured. Judging by the date on the letter, though, Sokka estimated that Aang would be there in about three weeks. He was rather eager to see Aang. It had been a while since he had seen him last.
When Sokka got to Aang's warning about Azula, he smiled. "Be careful, this is Azula we're talking about. You never know when she could have something up her sleeve. Don't get yourself into more than you can handle, Sokka..." Sokka found that last statement kind of amusing. He probably had bitten off much more than he could chew a month ago when he asked her for painting lessons.
Sokka wrote replies to both of the letters and sent them off. He dawdled around town for about another hour before he started heading back towards Azula's house. It wasn't that he was avoiding her or anything...
Okay, he kind of was trying to avoid her. He just didn't know what to say to Azula. He was almost certain that there was nothing he could say that wouldn't make him look like a jerk or make him look like an idiot. More of an idiot than usual. He hoped she was still meditating when he returned. Or at least off painting. Or doing laundry. But knowing his luck, she'd be up and about and cleaning the house. And then he'd get suckered into cleaning as well. Sokka hated cleaning for Azula. She was just so...nitpicky. He could never clean anything right for her.
Coming up to the house, Sokka opened the door as quietly as he possibly could, just in case she was still meditating or taking a nap or something. He most definitely didn't want to disturb her. Disturbing Azula was never a good thing.
She was sitting in the corner, meditating. Just like he had left her. And she hadn't noticed his return. That was good. Very good. He closed the door behind him and took a few steps forward, watching her carefully. At that angle, he could see the candles too. And there was something very clearly different about them. Sokka distinctly remembered pretty, glowing yellow-orange flames burning on top of those candles.
But now? Now the flames were distinctly blue.