Mist
Chapter 5
“Well...I don’t see why we can’t then!” Sokka let out happily, and rubbed his stomach.
“If you set me free, and you give me food...and you won’t chase The
Avatar, I don’t see the downside!” He laughed out in a naive sort of
joy.
Sokka still wasn’t one hundred percent convinced that Zuko had ‘peace
and tranquility’ on his mind, but so far he’d take anything he could
get to try and get some food. He’d had nothing but salty tasting water,
and bread that was described more as mold than an actual food. He tried
to imagine eating the disgusting meal day after day for more than a
week. It literally made his stomach, and knees, feel weak.
Sokka stood, and stretched his arms above his head, as Zuko stood with
a little more grace than Sokka could ever hope to gain in the next few
years of his life. Zuko eyed the Water Tribe teen and sighed with
agitation.
“You reek.” he stated simply, and beckoned the other with a finger.
“What? I do not!” Sokka let out indignantly as he raised an arm, and
sniffed his own body to try and detect a scent, if a foul one.
“You do. None of the ship’s crew is your size, or near it, so you’ll be
using my old set of pants, and shirt. Complain, and you get to walk
naked upon the deck for the rest of the voyage. Like it or not, you
will be changing out of that, and bathing yourself. Your stench is
sickening.” Zuko cut harshly into Sokka’s ego as he spoke with a cruel
honesty.
Sokka felt his forehead tense in the reaction that pulled an ugly frown
from his expressions. He snorted as Prince Zuko sliced deeply into his
pride, and ego. The Prince of Asses was really starting to annoy him.
Sokka flicked his wrist in a sardonic expression for Zuko to ‘lead the
way’.
“Hmph...” Sokka grumbled out, and crossed his arms over his chest.
Zuko watched the path of the limbs, and shook his head. The childish
movement made his Gouka roar, and tremble on its edge. All day, he’d
been containing the Fire that was ready to consume him on a constant
basis. What was it about this silly peasant child that made his Gouka
reach so strenuously for him? Why did it want to consume Sokka with so
much more fervor than any other mere person he’d met before?
Zuko didn’t have the time to ponder the question as he was reminded
that the other was waiting for his leadership into the innermost parts
of the ship. The parts where the crew actually slept, and his quarters
also resided. Sokka was tapping his foot in the most irritating way,
and it actually reminded him of a black smith at work. Only it was a
foot, on his floor. Sighing in distaste, Zuko motioned for the other to
walk ahead of himself.
He may be ready to strike a small truce with the Water Tribe teen but
he did not trust his back to the likes of Sokka. A moron who was a
klutz half the time, and a glutton the other half was not his ideal man
for being behind him in an attack, or any sort of situation.
Zuko pointed out turns for the boy ahead of him before they got there
so that Sokka would not just walk around blindly. It brought a smile of
almost sadistic intent to Zuko’s face as to know that the other was in
such misery at not know where they were going. He watched the back of
Sokka, relishing in his glory when they reached his quarters all to
soon.
“Wait here...” Zuko grumbled out, and slid inside his room.
He didn’t want anyone to see his walls. The nightdemons were getting
worse, and the Gouka was starting to control his actions when he slept.
It was getting worse, and he didn’t want his long time enemy, now
forced friend, to know any of his weaknesses. As Zuko slipped into the
room, he shut the door and gave a harsh order to the other.
“Wait here. Don’t move.” Zuko seemed to be very quiet at the moment, but Sokka pouted all the same.
It was strange that Zuko was being so tongue tied when he had been
lashing out with said appendage so often earlier that day. It was as if
the man was starting to think. Ha. A Fire Bender thinking. It was a
laughable thing.
Sokka stuck his own tongue out at the door that Zuko had disappeared
into the room behind it. He looked at the door, studying it as he
waited for The Prince to return from his journey inside his own room.
It seemed there was a poem etched into a piece of metal. It looked very
old, and seemed to be written in an old type of verse.
Now, Sokka didn’t know much about poetry, but knew that it had an
affect on the person who read it. Some people were deeply touched by
the Word Art, while others hated it beyond reason. Sokka never found a
taste for the stuff, but he did appreciate how the words fit together
like a puzzle. It seemed that the poem engraved into the metal across
Prince Zuko’s door was older than most. It used a choppy language that
they used in this day and age. Sokka leant closer to the door, and
squinted to read the language printed there.
“Air from around me,
water from before me,
earth from below me,
fire from within me,
I call thee now
Air as my guide,
Water as my sea,
Earth as my home,
Fire as my heart
Remind me of why I fight
Air as my freedom
water as my compassion
earth as my wisdom
fire as my passion
Please guide me now.”
Sokka paused, and looked up as he read it aloud. It was the strangest
thing he’d ever heard. It was as if the four elements were in harmony
with each other, and they were one. A controlled being that all could
love as their own.
Sokka leaned closer to reread it when the door was shoved open. The
door opened from the outside, inwards so that the person trying to
reach the room could enter easily if they were being followed. In this
case, it lead to Prince Zuko, and the Peasant Sokka standing nose to
nose with each other.
“Uh...” Sokka looked into the eyes of the Fire Prince who had let the angry facade drop in surprise of the situation.
“You have beautiful eyes?” He said, and grinned stupidly.
Zuko’s eyes widened at the declaration, and then glared out at Sokka.
The other gulped, and flicked his tongue across his lips in a nervous
gesture to wet his lips as the Fire Prince’s glare pierced him.
Throwing the clothes at the other, Zuko stomped out of his room, and
pointed down the hall.
“Go on. There is a showering room where you can rid yourself of that
stench, and dress. I will be...burning those clothes you wear now.”
Zuko grumbled out as the Gouka roared in wrath since Sokka’s nervous
gesture encouraged it.
The Gouka was beginning to look for any excuse to tangle Zuko’s
emotions, and make his own mind set fail him. The Hell Flame was
starting to pervade him in the manner that it demanded Zuko to grasp
onto the other and-...and he didn’t know! It wanted SOMETHING! His best
guess was to burn the other teen, but he couldn’t do that! The truce
had to be honored if he wanted to ever find his balance to the Gouka.
His own body was rebelling against his mind, and it was most tiring.
“Go on...” Zuko pointed, and Sokka sighed.
“Alright alright, keep your pants on.” Sokka taunted the other, and walked to the door which the other had pointed out.
Sokka waved a cheery little wave as he stepped into the room that
emitted steam as soon as the door was open. Zuko glared with his one
good eye, and leaned against the wall that was opposite the bathing
door.
He couldn’t find any clothing that was small enough to fit the wiry
frame of the Water Peasant, and so he used a retired model of Fire
Bending attire to dress him. He wouldn’t give his own clothing, but he
was more than willing to loose the garb that he had never used.
The clothing that he had given Sokka was made of a normal type of
cotton from the plants grown in the Earth Kingdom. They were easily
grown anywhere, so it was adapted to the needs of Fire Bender’s, and
brought up in a more heated environment. Thus, the cotton like
substance has adapted, and helped keep the clothing made from the new
hybrid from being burned as easily as its cousin did. The shirt was
made from the material which happened to be called, ‘Kindled Cotton’.
It was cliche, the name of the plant, but the shirt had the rough
colour of sandstone mixed with blood. A papery brown colour that exuded
red as well. It had a tiny pattern of an ornate flames crossing the
neck of the shirt, the sleeve ends, and the of the hems of the shirt.
It was plain, for it was an undershirt, but it worked as well as any
other clothing that the idiot might have been wearing. The pants that
were given to Sokka were made of the same material, but rougher, and
not as well processed as the shirt. It was a darker brown, almost black
that gleamed crimson in the light. It also helped protect from singeing
and burning.
The pants went to the knees of himself as he had been told, and the
boots were to cover the bottoms of the pants. The boots were made from
the hide of one of the creatures that covored the lands of the Earth,
but Zuko didn’t know at the moment. All he knew about the hide was that
it kept the skin underneath from burning, singeing, and even from
getting overheated.
Zuko looked up from his thoughts as Sokka stepped out of the steam
showers, and waved the condensed moisture out of his face. He coughed
as the mist in his lungs attacked. It seemed that he wasn’t used to the
mist that was surrounding him, then again...it was fire, and water
combined. Mist was a thing that could calm and relax some, while
killing others with weak lungs. It was amazing how the mixture of
elements could bring out different reactions in people you would think
to be the opposite.
“Finally done? Who knew that the Water Tribe needed so much time to
change clothing...Prissing yourself up?” Zuko asked haughtily, and
reached out his hand to receive the rank clothing from before.
Sokka frowned, and reached out. He plopped said clothing into the hands
of the awaiting Prince, and snorted. With the sudden gesture, the loose
neck line fell from Sokka’s slim shoulders down to one mid arm. Zuko
froze as his eyes drank in the sight of revealed skin.
The tanned flesh showed weeks of hard work in the sun, even if his skin
colour was already a deep tan. It showed the slim joining of muscle,
and skin at his collar bone where it peeked almost shyly from beneath
the hem of the Kindled Cotton. Zuko’s throat constricted as he gazed
upon the skin of the other male before him. His own flesh rippled
beneath the clothing he wore, and his Gouka snarled in absolute rage.
It burned him in such a fierce way that his arm was lifted to take away
the sensation. He looked almost surprised to his shoulder to find that
where he had lifted it, his body stopped burning. It felt
almost....cool.
He stepped forword to escape the sensation of fire, and found that it
started to cool. He stepped again in an almost trance like state, and
suddenly his fingers were bathed in an icy coolness. Feeling the fire
of Hell for most of his life left him with the feeling of desperate
need for the touch of coolness. He NEEDED the feeling of cold seeping
into him, to keep him sane.
He looked to where the wonderful absence of heat was coming from, and
saw that his hand had come in contact with Sokka’s own skin. The satiny
soft skin of the other left him with a craving to draw closer in an
attempt to cool his own heat. To douse his own Hell Flame that seemed
tamed by this young boy.
“Uhm...why are you touching me?” Sokka asked, his voice teetering on angry, and confused.
“...” Without a word, Zuko pulled his hand down Sokka’s shirt, and
pulled up the neck line to cover the skin which he so desperately
wanted to touch. To feel. To even taste to see if it were cold on his
lips like it was on his fingers.
“Covering you up. None of us want to see your body.” Zuko replied
scathingly as his very core yearned for the closeness of the boy who
exuded comfort for the Fire Bender.
“Ha ha. Very funny. It’s not my fault that your stupid shirt doesn’t fit me...” Sokka pouted out in a childish way.
The Prince stared unbelievingly at the petulant like boy who knew
nothing of politics, and manners. This child was so precious to The
Avatar, but acted as if only seven himself. What was this world coming
to?
