Spoils of War: Chapter 3
TITLE: Spoils of War (Chapter 3)
PAIRING: Ty Lee x Sokka, with Azula, Zuko
RATING: PG-13
SPOILERS: Diverges after 3 x 07.
WORD COUNT: 4740
SUMMARY: Azula hatches a plan to capture the Avatar using Dai Li brainwashing. But before she goes for the prize she must test her theory. Time is short, and her friends less than enthusiastic about the roles Azula has cast for them.
Step 1: Acquire Appropriate Bait
Step 2: Gather Allies
Step 3: Test the Hypothesis
Sokka contemplated his toes. They never seemed quite so far away as they did right this minute. His fingertips hung inches above them. Not good enough. With effort he managed to bob low enough to just brush the tips of his fingers against the nails, and as he did, something in the back of his knees complained sharply. He straightened out and felt his spine pop ominously. "There. Toes touched."
Ty Lee had squinched up her mouth to one side, as though she were chewing on a particularly tough peace of jerky, or possibly pondering a difficult decision. "Well," she said after a long second, "That's… a start. And we all have to start someplace, don't we! Do it some more." She broke into a bright infectious grin again.
Sokka resisted the urge to goofily grin back. No, Sokka, no! He had to show Ty Lee that he was serious about training. He'd gotten off on the wrong foot already, and lost his chance at having Zuko train him in hand to hand. Now, despite Ty Lee's smiles and encouragement, he could tell she had serious doubts about training him as well. It was there in the slightly tight curl of her lip, the almost wince that she controlled every time he did something she asked. As though she had deep seated doubts about him, but was just too damn nice to admit it.
Worse he was having a bit of a crisis of imagination about this training himself. What kind of fighting is she going to be teaching me that requires a lot of foot touching? He looked down at his feet. "How many times do you want me to touch my toes?"
Ty Lee's smile slipped again and she looked blank. "I don't know. Twenty." Her smile sprang back into place, but again there was that slight furrow in her brow that made Sokka nervous. What did it mean?
Sokka frowned, but then went back to trying to touch his toes. Master says, apprentice does, that is the way of things.
It was just that Ty Lee wasn't anything like what he expected his Master to be, and it was throwing him off guard. On one hand everything he did seemed to make her happy - on the other, nothing truly did. And he really wanted her to be happy, wanted it more than anything he could ever remember wanting in his life.
Ty Lee -- he'd fallen in love with the name from the first time he heard it. It sounded firm and kind. It had the flavor of better things to come, of belonging, and family, and hope. Of everything he sorely missed in life. His master, Ty Lee.
He'd been on pins and needles at the thrill being trained by an actual fighting expert the whole carriage ride from Loong Quan to the Palace. In his mind, he envisioned an old, grizzled man, covered in scars and muscles, showing him flashy moves with a sword. He'd spun his expectations into a wondrous father/son relationship, something that filled the aching void of loneliness in his heart. He'd imagined long evenings sitting at the foot of his master, listening to the pearls of wisdom and feeling warmed by the knowledge that he'd done well.
But then Ty Lee turned out to be a girl no older than himself. That pretty much killed the father/son fantasy cold. What's more she was an extremely attractive girl. Distractingly attractive, and to top it off she was nice. Not to belittle the hospitality of the Princess, but it seemed like he'd been surrounded by nothing but burly, humorless, well armed companions for days. It was frankly quite nice to see someone who genuinely seemed to like him.
But it was nerve racking as well. What was the proper amount of deference? Where was the comfort line with her? What was he supposed to do? He'd already stuck his foot deeply in his mouth once today, he didn't dare do the wrong thing now. It was so easy to let his mouth run away from him, maybe say something a bit too fresh, too off color, and end up with a slap.
He was pretty sure that girls generally didn't appreciate boys getting drooly and stupid on them. But right now he couldn't quite muster suave and confident. And yet it was taking just about all of his willpower to remember that she was his master and not someone to hit on.
If I could just impress her with my skills… yeah, that's the way to go.
Touching his toes was really starting to make the backs of his legs burn.
"Yeah, that's right," said Ty Lee. "Now see how deeply you can bend with your back straight." She put a gentle hand between his shoulders, and swept it down to the small of his back. It felt nice. Really, wonderfully, inappropriately nice. He wondered if Ty Lee had a clue what it was doing to him.
Nice thoughts… pure thoughts… She doesn't mean anything by that, it's just training.
But man, oh man, Ty Lee wasn't making this easy. For one thing, it was hard to miss that he was doing his training in her bedroom. Her bed, the place where she slept, was just a few feet away. The bed was neatly made, covered with a girlie pink duvet with an adorable stuffed turtleduck perched a top a heap of pillows. It all looked rather soft and squishy and inviting to rest and let her do more of this back touching she seemed to like.
No, he wasn't supposed to be noticing these things. He was supposed to be thinking about his feet. Which were a bit hairy, now that he was looking that way. And his big toe could use clipping. And his legs were rather scrawny, and his knees a bit knobbley, and his underwear… a bit yikes-I'm-almost-naked-y.
He felt vulnerable. And cold. And really unsure why Ty Lee needed him to undress in the first place -- after all, he fought Zuko perfectly well with his clothes on. Did he really want to use a fighting technique that required him go into battle like this? Maybe if the idea was to convince the enemy that he was completely insane…. He stopped and looked up at her suspiciously. "Is the no pants thing really necessary?"
Ty Lee's cheeks pinked. "Your clothes would have hindered your movements and I wouldn't be able to see how you were stretching properly. Really, that's all it is." And a perfectly good reason it was. Now Sokka felt stupid, and he'd embarrassed Ty Lee at the same time.
Stop being so paranoid, Sokka chastised himself. There was surely a good reason for everything: that pained look, the exercises, the reason for him even being here in the first place. It would all come out in time, he just had to be a bit more trusting and ignore that itchy feeling in the back of his mind that there something odd going on here.
He pushed his fingers toward his feet trying to keep his back as straight as he could as he bent. Sixteen, ouch, ouch, ouch, Twenty. "Okay, done," he said, standing straight again. He straightened up and shook his shoulders. More back pops. Ow. "Though, Master Ty Lee, I'm not really seeing how touching my toes is going to be much use to me in battle. Unless my opponent is really, really, really short."
Ty Lee giggled. "This is flexibility training Sokka. For the pressure points to work, you will need to get yourself into position without the enemy being able to attack you. That takes a lot of agility. The enemy doesn’t normally just stand still for it."
"Flexible. How flexible are we talking here?" Sokka crossed his hands over his bare chest.
Without a second's hesitation, Ty Lee bent over backwards until her hands touched the backs of her heels and her head poked between her own loosely garbed legs. She then lifted her own feet off the ground and rolled until she was lying, belly down on the floor. She straightened her arms and arched her back up and greeted him with a sunny smile as though this were the most comfortable series of maneuvers a person could do.
Sokka gaped. "That's… awfully flexible. I-don't think I can do that."
"Of course not," said Ty Lee rising amazingly gracefully to her feet. "It takes years of training to get in this shape. I've been working at it since I was three."
"And I have to be able to do that back bendy thing in order to do your pressure point technique?" Sokka meantally did the arithmetic - sixteen now, plus twelve years of training meant he'd be ready just about the time he became officially old.
"Maybe not quite that maneuver. But you should be able touch your toes without wincing." Ty Lee looked thoughtful. "Actually, flexibility is just one part of it - it's getting to the points to press. The heart of the technique is mental, and I suppose you can do it without doing all the flips and things I usually use. Really, all you need to do is learn to manipulate your opponents chi."
"Their what?"
"You know, the colors you see around their body."
"The colors…" repeated Sokka stupidly. "Of…. their… clothes?"
"Of their auras, silly!" Ty Lee laughed, then she grabbed his hand and flipped it over. "See the color coming off of your hand - see how it moves about you, like a shadow made of light? Right now yours is dark yellow - almost brown, which means that you are really stressed out and full of doubts."
Sokka studied his hand, turning it over slowly. He saw the calluses on his palm and tiny white lines of old scars across his knuckles but nothing like a brown light coming from his skin.
Ty Lee put out her hand. "Here, look at my aura… can you tell me what color you see?"
Sokka froze. Should I lie? Will I lose my last chance at being taught by a master if I say I can't see anything? Should I guess? But what if I guess wrong? How can I possibly learn a technique if even the first lesson is beyond my abilities? Sokka saw Azula clearly in his mind. She sat on the tatami mat in the tea house, her arms folded against her chest, and her narrow brows pulled down in a furious frown. "Well I've given you the chance to work with two masters and you blew it with both of them. I'm afraid I'll have to send you back to the colonies. What a useless thing you turned out to be. Your father would be so disappointed."
The moment stretched painfully. And then Sokka made the hard decision.
"I don't think I can learn from you, Master Ty Lee," said Sokka very softly. He turned his head in shame. "I don't think you can teach me your technique."
"I'm sorry," Ty Lee said, no smiles, nothing but pained disappointment. Sokka turned his gaze away, embarrassed and angry at himself. He heard her hesitate for a long moment, then she said, somewhat more optimistically: "I think there's a scroll in the library, maybe it will help us both learn how to do this…"
She turned around and walked to the door, opening it with slow determination. Sokka dared look up, then swallowed in shock. When her face turned as she headed out the door into the hall, he noticed a tear on her cheek.
"Don't give up," she said, still turned three quarters away from him. "I won't fail you. Just… stay there. I'll be right back." And then walked away, turning the corner and disappearing behind the white washed wall.
I've just insulted her teaching skills. Sokka realized as her last words sank in. Told her she couldn't teach.
"Wait," said Sokka, racing forward. "I didn't mean it that way! What I meant was that I don't have the skill… I'm the problem." He ran out the door only to find his way being blocked by the biggest damn servant he'd ever seen. He literally bounced off the man's expansive stomach. Then stopped in his tracks to look up. The man was using a long thin bamboo broom to sweep the cobwebs off the ceiling, but when Sokka attempted to skirt around he lowered the shaft to inconveniently bar Sokka's way.
"Hey," he said. "Let me through… Ty Lee!"
Ty Lee turned around and seemed to notice the servant. "You, shoo!" she said. The servant did, giving Sokka a somewhat hostile glance as he went. Sokka glowered back at him, but then turned back to Ty Lee just in time to catch her wiping her face with her sleaves. "I told you to wait in the room for me." She seemed to have a fragile hold on her composure, but her voice was brittle.
"Wait, Ty Lee," said Sokka, "What I meant was that I'm not sure I'm good enough for you - not that you are a bad teacher. I just want to make that clear."
Ty Lee smiled, there was a gleam of hope which then seemed to dim. "But that's the problem, Sokka. I'm not a good teacher. I don't know what I'm doing. I've never been successful teaching anyone before. I wanted to impress you and I ended up losing your confidence. It's just that, I want so much to… to … be someone you … liked." Her voice took on a hysterical edge. "But, it's not working, even with all this. I don't even know why it's not working. I mean, boys always liked me in the past, why not you, why not now? I'm sorry, I've never had to work this hard before to gain a boy's attention. And now I haven't even finished my first lesson and you don't want to be with me anymore."
Sokka slapped his face. "You have it completely backwards. I'm the one not worthy of you, not the other way around. You… you are amazing, and you can do things like see auras and bend into twisty knots. Of course, I want to be around you. I just don't see what you could possibly see in me."
Ty Lee hugged him. "But you are the sweetest, smartest, coolest boy I've ever met." She rested her forehead on his shoulder.
"If by cool you mean 'dorky,' I think I can buy that." But Sokka's heart warmed and he hugged her tight. "I want to be with you so much Ty Lee. You are the first person in… well, ever… that I really feel comfortable around. I feel like I belong here with you, holding you. Like it was meant to be." He nestled his face against her neck, all thoughts of keeping his place forgotten.
Ty Lee melted into him. But then after a moment pulled away. "Will you let me teach you then?"
"You can teach me anything."
"Then… let's go back to my room. If we keep hugging in the hall the Palace rumor mill will accuse us of all kinds of scandalous behavior by sundown. And trust me, that's not a good thing."
They walked back to Ty Lee's room, her hand seeking his, and he taking it. Sokka's mind was abuzz. She likes me he thought. She thinks I'm cool.
Hours later Sokka felt anything but "cool", and not just because he was soaking in water hot enough to turn his skin red. What he felt like was old, as in let me talk about my bunions ancient. Apparently he had muscles in places he never considered before, like the inside of his thighs, and along his stomach, but oh howdy he knew they were there now. Ty Lee had twisted him in positions he didn't even know were physically possible, and strictly speaking some of them weren't, at least not for him. He hadn't really minded at the first, but gradually he started noticing that the burning stabbing pains didn't exactly stop when he untwisted himself, finally he had to beg off, or risk not being able to walk.
On the plus side, it gave him the perfect excuse to take a nice long soak. One thing about the Fire Nation, hot water was never scarce. None of this waiting a week for a turn in a luke warm barrel, or worse taking a dip in the ice cold ocean. No putting up with your neighbor's pungent man-musk, either. Everyone smelled like flowers and spring water.
Ah, luxury… it was almost worth the complete lack of privacy.
"Ahem," said the person who Sokka had been more or less ignoring for the last minute.
Sokka let his eyes drift open, and scanned lazily over the artificial hotspring. Slow drifts of steam rose above the stacked pools, pushed about by the draft coming from the high open windows. He saw one of the ubiquitous servants standing near the door looking pointedly down his narrow nose at him.
"There's plenty of room, climb in," said Sokka. He was the only one in the baths at the moment, but there was room for a dozen or more. "Don't mind me."
"Sir, the Princess has asked for you."
Sokka jerked into a sitting position, and winced as his body complained. "Why didn't you say that!" He scrambled to his feet and waded to the edge of the pool, trying not to trip on legs that were embarrassingly wobbly. The servant didn't exactly sneer in just the same way that all the other servants in the place didn't exactly stare at Sokka as if he were an intruder. Not that Sokka really cared about the attitude, after all, he was the favorite of the Princess, not them.
He managed to hobble down to his clothes, bent like a grandpa and tender on his feet. On second thought, maybe I should have cooled my muscles with wet cloths rather than soaking them with hot water. He never could remember when you did which - after all there was always… someone else … tending him when he was hurt.
Who was it? Sokka paused, clenching his eyes momentarily shut as he searched his memory, but for the life of him he couldn't remember who it had been who'd spoken to him about the remedies. He knew someone had lectured him on it. Maybe it was just fatigue and heat making his brain stupid. Yeah, he could almost believe that.
He shook his shoulders to rid himself of a chill, then put on his shirt. He then turned to the servant. "Okay, lead the way."
The servant took him from the bath house along a maze of roofed walkways to one of the inner buildings. To either side smaller gardens opened up, many with small calm pools, others filled with sand and rocks and everywhere peaking from both greenery and water were sculputural accents. He was lead through a delicately carved red door to a set of interconnected rooms, and finally to the princess herself.
Azula knelt on a pillow at a low writing desk, seemingly not noticing their approach. Sokka noticed frown lines etching her brow as she carefully sealed a roll of parchment with ribbon and wax. As they came within a few feet she looked up and her face smoothed.
"You've found him, good job," she said, then waved her hand in dismissal. The servant bowed and turned to head back out the door. Azula then turned her attention to Sokka.
Fighting stiffness, Sokka bowed deeply, fist to palm. "Your highness? Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Sokka," Azula savored the name. "So how did your first training session go?"
"Well, ma'am."
"Shall we test how well Ty Lee taught you? Ready for a duel?" Azula stood up and began to roll back her sleeves. "Don't hold back, now. I should warn you I'm not as generous as my brother when it comes to incompetence."
Sokka's eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped. At this point he doubted he could even dodge a fire attack. "No! I mean, no your highness, I've just started learning, I couldn’t possibly… please, don't fry me!"
Azula laughed, hands on her hips. "Of course, I won't, Sokka. I'm just teasing you." She sat down again and rolled out a map of the fire nation across her desk, holding down the edges with small obsidian rocks carved into the shapes of dragons. "How were your lessons? Are you enjoying them?"
"I like them a lot. And Ty Lee is an excellent teacher." Sokka found himself fascinated by the map. It was higher quality and more detailed than map prints he'd seen before. He tried to read the upside down names.
"Gossip has it that the two of you have hit it off quite well," Azula stated. "I hope you are treating her honorably." There was just a trace of warning in her tone, but her eyes were on setting out ink and pens.
Sokka reddened. "I would never!" He swallowed hard. So this is what Ty Lee meant about regretting hugging in the hall. Who knew what stories those nosy servants had concocted. "Whatever you may have heard, I've been a gentleman."
Azula smiled. "I'm still teasing. I think it's cute that you and Ty Lee get along so well. In fact, I rather hoped you would. Sweet thing she is, she's been rather lonely since I pulled her away from her circus life. Not that I regret doing so, mind you. Talent like Ty Lee's is not something I can afford to squander. But to the extent that I can, I do wish to make her happy. She is one of my dearest friends." Azula sighed.
Then her eyes snapped to his. "So with that in mind, tell me how you feel towards her, and do be honest." Sokka recognized an order and he scrambled to use the most diplomatic words he could to satisfy the princess.
"I think she's the nicest person I've ever met." Sokka toed the ground awkwardly. "Ever since I first saw her, I seemed to feel some connection to her. I want to protect her, and learn from her, and be around her. You don't have to worry about me hurting her - I'd never do that."
"Well for what it's worth you have my full endorsement to woo her if you wish. She needs a steady boyfriend, and not one of those brainless twits that always flock around her. You have intelligence and integrity and I believe that you care about more than just her body."
"Thank you, your highness." All these compliments were making his head swell.
Azula smiled "I'll tell the servants to mind their business about you. One of the perks of being a princess, people mind you when you tell them to do things."
"Well," said Sokka. "It would be nice not having them staring at me like I was some kind of worthless spy."
Azula's eyes sharpened. "I will definitely speak to them about that as well."
"Azula," said Sokka hesitantly. "If I may ask, why are you doing all this for me?"
"Selfish reasons, I assure you," Azula said with a deep rolling chuckle. "I have big plans for you, Sokka, don't you doubt it. You work on your training and keeping Ty Lee happy. Enjoy your time here. I will be putting to your unique talents to use sooner than you know. I won't tolerate anyone making your life here miserable, so please, don't hesitate to come to me if anyone is giving you grief."
"Thank you, Princess," said Sokka, amazed and grateful. "I won't let you down."
"I'm sure you won't." Azula looked deeply into his eyes and Sokka saw a glimpse of something behind the superficial concern and mild amusement. Something sharp, and cold, and for lack of a better word predatory.
"You are dismissed," Azula said, watching him intently.
Sokka blinked. For a moment there, he'd seemed to zoned out, and his head was still a bit buzzy. Too long a soak, he rationalized.
Azula's lips quirked up into a smile, and then she turned her attention back to her work. She gathered up a set of ribbon bound parchments and put them in the wooden box to the side of her writing desk. Where had all those come from? They hadn't been there a moment ago.
"I'm rather busy, Sokka. It's nearly supper, you must be hungry. Go on, I'll talk to you more about your progress tomorrow." She craned her head to the door, and clapped her hands. A servant stepped out and bowed. "Take Sokka back to Ty Lee - and fetch me some dinner from the hall. You know the things I like."
"Sir," the servant said to him.
Sokka bowed to Azula and followed the servant, still a bit dazed. He reached up and rubbed his forehead, even though he didn't have a headache. His hair was dry, even the odd ponytail. He lowered his arm and saw something odd on his hand. For a second he thought it was dirt - but how had his hand gotten dirty in the few minutes since he'd left his long soak? He examined the smudges closer and recognized the bluish tint to the black.
He had ink on his hand. A narrow streak on the pad of his thumb, like it might get if he'd dipped his brush a bit too deep and brushed up against the lip of the inkwell. A second dark smear crossed the heel of his hand, as if he'd been writing and his hand accidentally touched the still wet page.
He hadn't written anything since he'd arrived in Loong Quan, and even if he had, the long bath would have removed it. Yet the ink on his hand was dry and didn't smudge when he rubbed it. It had been there for several minutes at least.
Sokka's heart quickened. He'd lost time. His memory problem was getting worse.
It was bad enough that he couldn't actually remember his father's face - that the more he thought about the small Earth Kingdom village he'd grown up in, the more uncertain he was of anything about it. He knew he'd had friends. He knew he'd chased girls. He knew he'd learned how to use a sword, and sail a boat and dozens of other skills ranging from important to completely useless. But when he put his mind to it, everything grew foggy and indistinct. Faces blurred, settings shifted, names eluded him entirely. It was like his entire life before coming to the Fire Nation were just a lingering dream, half remembered, half imagined.
He hoped to god it was some transitory illness, perhaps brought on by stress or a hard knock on the head, and not the dementia of the old. He was barely sixteen - still working on becoming the best man he could be. He couldn't become like those drooling old men with sour smelling breath who couldn't recognize their own children. It wasn't fair. He had so much he wanted to do in life.
He mustn't let anyone know about it. There is no way Ty Lee would want a guy who was losing his mind. And Azula would drop him quickly if she realized that he might not be of use to anyone soon. And what would happen to him then? Alone and friendless with no family in a strange place. Sokka didn't want to think about it.
The worst of it was he thought he was sure he was getting better. His memory was sharp enough from the time he'd left the fortress at Loong Quan. He remembered insulting Zuko yesterday only too well. But then there was that gap, it must have been several minutes at least, but who knows, it could have been over an hour. And it was simply gone, like it had never existed, not even a vague dreamlike impression in it's wake.
What did it mean? What did any of it mean?
PAIRING: Ty Lee x Sokka, with Azula, Zuko
RATING: PG-13
SPOILERS: Diverges after 3 x 07.
WORD COUNT: 4740
SUMMARY: Azula hatches a plan to capture the Avatar using Dai Li brainwashing. But before she goes for the prize she must test her theory. Time is short, and her friends less than enthusiastic about the roles Azula has cast for them.
Step 1: Acquire Appropriate Bait
Step 2: Gather Allies
Step 3: Test the Hypothesis
Sokka contemplated his toes. They never seemed quite so far away as they did right this minute. His fingertips hung inches above them. Not good enough. With effort he managed to bob low enough to just brush the tips of his fingers against the nails, and as he did, something in the back of his knees complained sharply. He straightened out and felt his spine pop ominously. "There. Toes touched."
Ty Lee had squinched up her mouth to one side, as though she were chewing on a particularly tough peace of jerky, or possibly pondering a difficult decision. "Well," she said after a long second, "That's… a start. And we all have to start someplace, don't we! Do it some more." She broke into a bright infectious grin again.
Sokka resisted the urge to goofily grin back. No, Sokka, no! He had to show Ty Lee that he was serious about training. He'd gotten off on the wrong foot already, and lost his chance at having Zuko train him in hand to hand. Now, despite Ty Lee's smiles and encouragement, he could tell she had serious doubts about training him as well. It was there in the slightly tight curl of her lip, the almost wince that she controlled every time he did something she asked. As though she had deep seated doubts about him, but was just too damn nice to admit it.
Worse he was having a bit of a crisis of imagination about this training himself. What kind of fighting is she going to be teaching me that requires a lot of foot touching? He looked down at his feet. "How many times do you want me to touch my toes?"
Ty Lee's smile slipped again and she looked blank. "I don't know. Twenty." Her smile sprang back into place, but again there was that slight furrow in her brow that made Sokka nervous. What did it mean?
Sokka frowned, but then went back to trying to touch his toes. Master says, apprentice does, that is the way of things.
It was just that Ty Lee wasn't anything like what he expected his Master to be, and it was throwing him off guard. On one hand everything he did seemed to make her happy - on the other, nothing truly did. And he really wanted her to be happy, wanted it more than anything he could ever remember wanting in his life.
Ty Lee -- he'd fallen in love with the name from the first time he heard it. It sounded firm and kind. It had the flavor of better things to come, of belonging, and family, and hope. Of everything he sorely missed in life. His master, Ty Lee.
He'd been on pins and needles at the thrill being trained by an actual fighting expert the whole carriage ride from Loong Quan to the Palace. In his mind, he envisioned an old, grizzled man, covered in scars and muscles, showing him flashy moves with a sword. He'd spun his expectations into a wondrous father/son relationship, something that filled the aching void of loneliness in his heart. He'd imagined long evenings sitting at the foot of his master, listening to the pearls of wisdom and feeling warmed by the knowledge that he'd done well.
But then Ty Lee turned out to be a girl no older than himself. That pretty much killed the father/son fantasy cold. What's more she was an extremely attractive girl. Distractingly attractive, and to top it off she was nice. Not to belittle the hospitality of the Princess, but it seemed like he'd been surrounded by nothing but burly, humorless, well armed companions for days. It was frankly quite nice to see someone who genuinely seemed to like him.
But it was nerve racking as well. What was the proper amount of deference? Where was the comfort line with her? What was he supposed to do? He'd already stuck his foot deeply in his mouth once today, he didn't dare do the wrong thing now. It was so easy to let his mouth run away from him, maybe say something a bit too fresh, too off color, and end up with a slap.
He was pretty sure that girls generally didn't appreciate boys getting drooly and stupid on them. But right now he couldn't quite muster suave and confident. And yet it was taking just about all of his willpower to remember that she was his master and not someone to hit on.
If I could just impress her with my skills… yeah, that's the way to go.
Touching his toes was really starting to make the backs of his legs burn.
"Yeah, that's right," said Ty Lee. "Now see how deeply you can bend with your back straight." She put a gentle hand between his shoulders, and swept it down to the small of his back. It felt nice. Really, wonderfully, inappropriately nice. He wondered if Ty Lee had a clue what it was doing to him.
Nice thoughts… pure thoughts… She doesn't mean anything by that, it's just training.
But man, oh man, Ty Lee wasn't making this easy. For one thing, it was hard to miss that he was doing his training in her bedroom. Her bed, the place where she slept, was just a few feet away. The bed was neatly made, covered with a girlie pink duvet with an adorable stuffed turtleduck perched a top a heap of pillows. It all looked rather soft and squishy and inviting to rest and let her do more of this back touching she seemed to like.
No, he wasn't supposed to be noticing these things. He was supposed to be thinking about his feet. Which were a bit hairy, now that he was looking that way. And his big toe could use clipping. And his legs were rather scrawny, and his knees a bit knobbley, and his underwear… a bit yikes-I'm-almost-naked-y.
He felt vulnerable. And cold. And really unsure why Ty Lee needed him to undress in the first place -- after all, he fought Zuko perfectly well with his clothes on. Did he really want to use a fighting technique that required him go into battle like this? Maybe if the idea was to convince the enemy that he was completely insane…. He stopped and looked up at her suspiciously. "Is the no pants thing really necessary?"
Ty Lee's cheeks pinked. "Your clothes would have hindered your movements and I wouldn't be able to see how you were stretching properly. Really, that's all it is." And a perfectly good reason it was. Now Sokka felt stupid, and he'd embarrassed Ty Lee at the same time.
Stop being so paranoid, Sokka chastised himself. There was surely a good reason for everything: that pained look, the exercises, the reason for him even being here in the first place. It would all come out in time, he just had to be a bit more trusting and ignore that itchy feeling in the back of his mind that there something odd going on here.
He pushed his fingers toward his feet trying to keep his back as straight as he could as he bent. Sixteen, ouch, ouch, ouch, Twenty. "Okay, done," he said, standing straight again. He straightened up and shook his shoulders. More back pops. Ow. "Though, Master Ty Lee, I'm not really seeing how touching my toes is going to be much use to me in battle. Unless my opponent is really, really, really short."
Ty Lee giggled. "This is flexibility training Sokka. For the pressure points to work, you will need to get yourself into position without the enemy being able to attack you. That takes a lot of agility. The enemy doesn’t normally just stand still for it."
"Flexible. How flexible are we talking here?" Sokka crossed his hands over his bare chest.
Without a second's hesitation, Ty Lee bent over backwards until her hands touched the backs of her heels and her head poked between her own loosely garbed legs. She then lifted her own feet off the ground and rolled until she was lying, belly down on the floor. She straightened her arms and arched her back up and greeted him with a sunny smile as though this were the most comfortable series of maneuvers a person could do.
Sokka gaped. "That's… awfully flexible. I-don't think I can do that."
"Of course not," said Ty Lee rising amazingly gracefully to her feet. "It takes years of training to get in this shape. I've been working at it since I was three."
"And I have to be able to do that back bendy thing in order to do your pressure point technique?" Sokka meantally did the arithmetic - sixteen now, plus twelve years of training meant he'd be ready just about the time he became officially old.
"Maybe not quite that maneuver. But you should be able touch your toes without wincing." Ty Lee looked thoughtful. "Actually, flexibility is just one part of it - it's getting to the points to press. The heart of the technique is mental, and I suppose you can do it without doing all the flips and things I usually use. Really, all you need to do is learn to manipulate your opponents chi."
"Their what?"
"You know, the colors you see around their body."
"The colors…" repeated Sokka stupidly. "Of…. their… clothes?"
"Of their auras, silly!" Ty Lee laughed, then she grabbed his hand and flipped it over. "See the color coming off of your hand - see how it moves about you, like a shadow made of light? Right now yours is dark yellow - almost brown, which means that you are really stressed out and full of doubts."
Sokka studied his hand, turning it over slowly. He saw the calluses on his palm and tiny white lines of old scars across his knuckles but nothing like a brown light coming from his skin.
Ty Lee put out her hand. "Here, look at my aura… can you tell me what color you see?"
Sokka froze. Should I lie? Will I lose my last chance at being taught by a master if I say I can't see anything? Should I guess? But what if I guess wrong? How can I possibly learn a technique if even the first lesson is beyond my abilities? Sokka saw Azula clearly in his mind. She sat on the tatami mat in the tea house, her arms folded against her chest, and her narrow brows pulled down in a furious frown. "Well I've given you the chance to work with two masters and you blew it with both of them. I'm afraid I'll have to send you back to the colonies. What a useless thing you turned out to be. Your father would be so disappointed."
The moment stretched painfully. And then Sokka made the hard decision.
"I don't think I can learn from you, Master Ty Lee," said Sokka very softly. He turned his head in shame. "I don't think you can teach me your technique."
"I'm sorry," Ty Lee said, no smiles, nothing but pained disappointment. Sokka turned his gaze away, embarrassed and angry at himself. He heard her hesitate for a long moment, then she said, somewhat more optimistically: "I think there's a scroll in the library, maybe it will help us both learn how to do this…"
She turned around and walked to the door, opening it with slow determination. Sokka dared look up, then swallowed in shock. When her face turned as she headed out the door into the hall, he noticed a tear on her cheek.
"Don't give up," she said, still turned three quarters away from him. "I won't fail you. Just… stay there. I'll be right back." And then walked away, turning the corner and disappearing behind the white washed wall.
I've just insulted her teaching skills. Sokka realized as her last words sank in. Told her she couldn't teach.
"Wait," said Sokka, racing forward. "I didn't mean it that way! What I meant was that I don't have the skill… I'm the problem." He ran out the door only to find his way being blocked by the biggest damn servant he'd ever seen. He literally bounced off the man's expansive stomach. Then stopped in his tracks to look up. The man was using a long thin bamboo broom to sweep the cobwebs off the ceiling, but when Sokka attempted to skirt around he lowered the shaft to inconveniently bar Sokka's way.
"Hey," he said. "Let me through… Ty Lee!"
Ty Lee turned around and seemed to notice the servant. "You, shoo!" she said. The servant did, giving Sokka a somewhat hostile glance as he went. Sokka glowered back at him, but then turned back to Ty Lee just in time to catch her wiping her face with her sleaves. "I told you to wait in the room for me." She seemed to have a fragile hold on her composure, but her voice was brittle.
"Wait, Ty Lee," said Sokka, "What I meant was that I'm not sure I'm good enough for you - not that you are a bad teacher. I just want to make that clear."
Ty Lee smiled, there was a gleam of hope which then seemed to dim. "But that's the problem, Sokka. I'm not a good teacher. I don't know what I'm doing. I've never been successful teaching anyone before. I wanted to impress you and I ended up losing your confidence. It's just that, I want so much to… to … be someone you … liked." Her voice took on a hysterical edge. "But, it's not working, even with all this. I don't even know why it's not working. I mean, boys always liked me in the past, why not you, why not now? I'm sorry, I've never had to work this hard before to gain a boy's attention. And now I haven't even finished my first lesson and you don't want to be with me anymore."
Sokka slapped his face. "You have it completely backwards. I'm the one not worthy of you, not the other way around. You… you are amazing, and you can do things like see auras and bend into twisty knots. Of course, I want to be around you. I just don't see what you could possibly see in me."
Ty Lee hugged him. "But you are the sweetest, smartest, coolest boy I've ever met." She rested her forehead on his shoulder.
"If by cool you mean 'dorky,' I think I can buy that." But Sokka's heart warmed and he hugged her tight. "I want to be with you so much Ty Lee. You are the first person in… well, ever… that I really feel comfortable around. I feel like I belong here with you, holding you. Like it was meant to be." He nestled his face against her neck, all thoughts of keeping his place forgotten.
Ty Lee melted into him. But then after a moment pulled away. "Will you let me teach you then?"
"You can teach me anything."
"Then… let's go back to my room. If we keep hugging in the hall the Palace rumor mill will accuse us of all kinds of scandalous behavior by sundown. And trust me, that's not a good thing."
They walked back to Ty Lee's room, her hand seeking his, and he taking it. Sokka's mind was abuzz. She likes me he thought. She thinks I'm cool.
Hours later Sokka felt anything but "cool", and not just because he was soaking in water hot enough to turn his skin red. What he felt like was old, as in let me talk about my bunions ancient. Apparently he had muscles in places he never considered before, like the inside of his thighs, and along his stomach, but oh howdy he knew they were there now. Ty Lee had twisted him in positions he didn't even know were physically possible, and strictly speaking some of them weren't, at least not for him. He hadn't really minded at the first, but gradually he started noticing that the burning stabbing pains didn't exactly stop when he untwisted himself, finally he had to beg off, or risk not being able to walk.
On the plus side, it gave him the perfect excuse to take a nice long soak. One thing about the Fire Nation, hot water was never scarce. None of this waiting a week for a turn in a luke warm barrel, or worse taking a dip in the ice cold ocean. No putting up with your neighbor's pungent man-musk, either. Everyone smelled like flowers and spring water.
Ah, luxury… it was almost worth the complete lack of privacy.
"Ahem," said the person who Sokka had been more or less ignoring for the last minute.
Sokka let his eyes drift open, and scanned lazily over the artificial hotspring. Slow drifts of steam rose above the stacked pools, pushed about by the draft coming from the high open windows. He saw one of the ubiquitous servants standing near the door looking pointedly down his narrow nose at him.
"There's plenty of room, climb in," said Sokka. He was the only one in the baths at the moment, but there was room for a dozen or more. "Don't mind me."
"Sir, the Princess has asked for you."
Sokka jerked into a sitting position, and winced as his body complained. "Why didn't you say that!" He scrambled to his feet and waded to the edge of the pool, trying not to trip on legs that were embarrassingly wobbly. The servant didn't exactly sneer in just the same way that all the other servants in the place didn't exactly stare at Sokka as if he were an intruder. Not that Sokka really cared about the attitude, after all, he was the favorite of the Princess, not them.
He managed to hobble down to his clothes, bent like a grandpa and tender on his feet. On second thought, maybe I should have cooled my muscles with wet cloths rather than soaking them with hot water. He never could remember when you did which - after all there was always… someone else … tending him when he was hurt.
Who was it? Sokka paused, clenching his eyes momentarily shut as he searched his memory, but for the life of him he couldn't remember who it had been who'd spoken to him about the remedies. He knew someone had lectured him on it. Maybe it was just fatigue and heat making his brain stupid. Yeah, he could almost believe that.
He shook his shoulders to rid himself of a chill, then put on his shirt. He then turned to the servant. "Okay, lead the way."
The servant took him from the bath house along a maze of roofed walkways to one of the inner buildings. To either side smaller gardens opened up, many with small calm pools, others filled with sand and rocks and everywhere peaking from both greenery and water were sculputural accents. He was lead through a delicately carved red door to a set of interconnected rooms, and finally to the princess herself.
Azula knelt on a pillow at a low writing desk, seemingly not noticing their approach. Sokka noticed frown lines etching her brow as she carefully sealed a roll of parchment with ribbon and wax. As they came within a few feet she looked up and her face smoothed.
"You've found him, good job," she said, then waved her hand in dismissal. The servant bowed and turned to head back out the door. Azula then turned her attention to Sokka.
Fighting stiffness, Sokka bowed deeply, fist to palm. "Your highness? Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Sokka," Azula savored the name. "So how did your first training session go?"
"Well, ma'am."
"Shall we test how well Ty Lee taught you? Ready for a duel?" Azula stood up and began to roll back her sleeves. "Don't hold back, now. I should warn you I'm not as generous as my brother when it comes to incompetence."
Sokka's eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped. At this point he doubted he could even dodge a fire attack. "No! I mean, no your highness, I've just started learning, I couldn’t possibly… please, don't fry me!"
Azula laughed, hands on her hips. "Of course, I won't, Sokka. I'm just teasing you." She sat down again and rolled out a map of the fire nation across her desk, holding down the edges with small obsidian rocks carved into the shapes of dragons. "How were your lessons? Are you enjoying them?"
"I like them a lot. And Ty Lee is an excellent teacher." Sokka found himself fascinated by the map. It was higher quality and more detailed than map prints he'd seen before. He tried to read the upside down names.
"Gossip has it that the two of you have hit it off quite well," Azula stated. "I hope you are treating her honorably." There was just a trace of warning in her tone, but her eyes were on setting out ink and pens.
Sokka reddened. "I would never!" He swallowed hard. So this is what Ty Lee meant about regretting hugging in the hall. Who knew what stories those nosy servants had concocted. "Whatever you may have heard, I've been a gentleman."
Azula smiled. "I'm still teasing. I think it's cute that you and Ty Lee get along so well. In fact, I rather hoped you would. Sweet thing she is, she's been rather lonely since I pulled her away from her circus life. Not that I regret doing so, mind you. Talent like Ty Lee's is not something I can afford to squander. But to the extent that I can, I do wish to make her happy. She is one of my dearest friends." Azula sighed.
Then her eyes snapped to his. "So with that in mind, tell me how you feel towards her, and do be honest." Sokka recognized an order and he scrambled to use the most diplomatic words he could to satisfy the princess.
"I think she's the nicest person I've ever met." Sokka toed the ground awkwardly. "Ever since I first saw her, I seemed to feel some connection to her. I want to protect her, and learn from her, and be around her. You don't have to worry about me hurting her - I'd never do that."
"Well for what it's worth you have my full endorsement to woo her if you wish. She needs a steady boyfriend, and not one of those brainless twits that always flock around her. You have intelligence and integrity and I believe that you care about more than just her body."
"Thank you, your highness." All these compliments were making his head swell.
Azula smiled "I'll tell the servants to mind their business about you. One of the perks of being a princess, people mind you when you tell them to do things."
"Well," said Sokka. "It would be nice not having them staring at me like I was some kind of worthless spy."
Azula's eyes sharpened. "I will definitely speak to them about that as well."
"Azula," said Sokka hesitantly. "If I may ask, why are you doing all this for me?"
"Selfish reasons, I assure you," Azula said with a deep rolling chuckle. "I have big plans for you, Sokka, don't you doubt it. You work on your training and keeping Ty Lee happy. Enjoy your time here. I will be putting to your unique talents to use sooner than you know. I won't tolerate anyone making your life here miserable, so please, don't hesitate to come to me if anyone is giving you grief."
"Thank you, Princess," said Sokka, amazed and grateful. "I won't let you down."
"I'm sure you won't." Azula looked deeply into his eyes and Sokka saw a glimpse of something behind the superficial concern and mild amusement. Something sharp, and cold, and for lack of a better word predatory.
"You are dismissed," Azula said, watching him intently.
Sokka blinked. For a moment there, he'd seemed to zoned out, and his head was still a bit buzzy. Too long a soak, he rationalized.
Azula's lips quirked up into a smile, and then she turned her attention back to her work. She gathered up a set of ribbon bound parchments and put them in the wooden box to the side of her writing desk. Where had all those come from? They hadn't been there a moment ago.
"I'm rather busy, Sokka. It's nearly supper, you must be hungry. Go on, I'll talk to you more about your progress tomorrow." She craned her head to the door, and clapped her hands. A servant stepped out and bowed. "Take Sokka back to Ty Lee - and fetch me some dinner from the hall. You know the things I like."
"Sir," the servant said to him.
Sokka bowed to Azula and followed the servant, still a bit dazed. He reached up and rubbed his forehead, even though he didn't have a headache. His hair was dry, even the odd ponytail. He lowered his arm and saw something odd on his hand. For a second he thought it was dirt - but how had his hand gotten dirty in the few minutes since he'd left his long soak? He examined the smudges closer and recognized the bluish tint to the black.
He had ink on his hand. A narrow streak on the pad of his thumb, like it might get if he'd dipped his brush a bit too deep and brushed up against the lip of the inkwell. A second dark smear crossed the heel of his hand, as if he'd been writing and his hand accidentally touched the still wet page.
He hadn't written anything since he'd arrived in Loong Quan, and even if he had, the long bath would have removed it. Yet the ink on his hand was dry and didn't smudge when he rubbed it. It had been there for several minutes at least.
Sokka's heart quickened. He'd lost time. His memory problem was getting worse.
It was bad enough that he couldn't actually remember his father's face - that the more he thought about the small Earth Kingdom village he'd grown up in, the more uncertain he was of anything about it. He knew he'd had friends. He knew he'd chased girls. He knew he'd learned how to use a sword, and sail a boat and dozens of other skills ranging from important to completely useless. But when he put his mind to it, everything grew foggy and indistinct. Faces blurred, settings shifted, names eluded him entirely. It was like his entire life before coming to the Fire Nation were just a lingering dream, half remembered, half imagined.
He hoped to god it was some transitory illness, perhaps brought on by stress or a hard knock on the head, and not the dementia of the old. He was barely sixteen - still working on becoming the best man he could be. He couldn't become like those drooling old men with sour smelling breath who couldn't recognize their own children. It wasn't fair. He had so much he wanted to do in life.
He mustn't let anyone know about it. There is no way Ty Lee would want a guy who was losing his mind. And Azula would drop him quickly if she realized that he might not be of use to anyone soon. And what would happen to him then? Alone and friendless with no family in a strange place. Sokka didn't want to think about it.
The worst of it was he thought he was sure he was getting better. His memory was sharp enough from the time he'd left the fortress at Loong Quan. He remembered insulting Zuko yesterday only too well. But then there was that gap, it must have been several minutes at least, but who knows, it could have been over an hour. And it was simply gone, like it had never existed, not even a vague dreamlike impression in it's wake.
What did it mean? What did any of it mean?