Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Amber ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A/N: Chap-tah three! I hope you approve. I still do not have a Beta, so if there are any plot inconsistencies or it does not flow right…blame yourself for not volunteering. ;) j/k. Seriously though, there are only so many times I can proofread it without getting sick of it. Btw, I am sorry to any Suki fans out there, but hey, if you want a story where everything is sunshine and roses—write one. You may notice that Sokka has a lot of suggestive humor in this fic, but please keep in mind that he is a teenager. That is how they roll. Disclaimer: I own jack. (By this, I mean nothing.)

"…ka…Sok…Sokka…SOKKA!" The voice echoed in his head like an army of little chisels, all tapping away merrily at the inside of his skull. He stumbled through the haze—there was something he was trying to reach, something he was trying to grasp, but he just couldn't seem to touch it. He heard muffled voices and shouts all around him but nothing was familiar—where the hell was he? He couldn't remember what he'd been doing before. Maybe he'd gotten too drunk at a party. It was weird though, he couldn't remember what party he'd gone to. It seemed like a fog had wrapped around his thoughts and he could catch snippets, understand bits and pieces, but nothing was coming together.

He tried to sit up but something held him back. It felt like arms were pushing him down, creating a giant weight on his chest. It was restricting his movements and the more he struggled, the tighter the iron bands got. Panic set in and he was bucking his body, trying to sit up against the heavy pressure. He couldn't think, he couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, what the hell was going on? Distantly, the muffled shouting got louder and became a din of noise. The roaring voices were deafening like he was in the middle of a crowd, and it sounded like someone was covering their mouth, screaming.

"….ka! Sokka! Stop! Shit, dammit, FUCK! Where the hell is all this blood coming from! Where the fuck is the other healer? Get him NOW goddamit or I swear to the spirits that if something happens to Sokka I will hold ALL of you PERSONALLY responsible. Sokka you dickhead, stop trying to move, dammit!"

Sokka? Who was Sokka?

Oh yeah. HE was Sokka. Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe.

After the first memory leaked through, the rest flooded his mind like water bursting through a dam. Along with it, every single cut, bruise, broken bone and bodily injury that he had been blissfully numb from before came crashing down on him. The pain was utterly debilitating. Hands were touching his sides with swift and sure strokes assessing the injuries up and down his body. Each touch brought searing pain which made his back bow in agony. The problem with tamping down pain as he had when travelling from the palace gate to his room was that when you moved around so much with injuries, things tended to get worse. Then they tended to hurt more. In that order. As he opened his mouth to voice his agony, he realized that the muffled screaming he had heard earlier was coming from his own throat.

Dark figures were darting around the room as he managed to crack one heavy eyelid open. Yellow bathroom walls were fuzzy and spinning, the delicate pattern on the paper swirled into crazy symbols and shapes. Every time he tried to focus on something a sharp pain lanced through his skull.

"Sokka! Sokka! He's awake! Sokka, stay with me here." He gagged as strong fingers gripped his shoulders and shook him slightly. Spirits, even the pain from a simple touch was ridiculous. Either his injuries were worse than he'd thought or he had contracted a fever from the open wounds. "Sokka, we're going to have to move you, there's not enough room in this bathroom. It…it may hurt a little, I'm so sorry." And baby, he wasn't kidding. Sokka was grateful this time as he fell back into the comforting oblivion of unconsciousness.

When he came to again, he found himself being awakened by angry whispers.

"Lord Zuko! You need to move. Let the healers do their jobs. There is nothing you can do for him right now, you are only getting in the way!"

"But Uncle-"

The response came a little more gently, "Zuko, you are truly a skilled fighter and a capable leader. But you are NOT a healer, my nephew. My injury from Azula was nothing compared to…compared to…tothis." Shit, just how bad did he look? "I am just as worried as you are, but we need to be patient and help in the ways that we can—and that is not by hovering around like a mother hen, Zuko." Iroh's voice sounded exasperated, like he had made this argument repeatedly before. The short silence that followed was punctuated by a heavy sigh. "Have you contacted Suki, Nephew?"

Sokka held his breath for Zuko's answer. He wanted to let the two men know he was awake but he also really wanted to hear Suki's response. It was wrong to eavesdrop and he felt kind of guilty, but he seriously doubted he would get the full story otherwise. Everything that had happened with Suki had just…sucked. Pretty bad. He started to feel a little sad as the silence stretched on.

"Lord Zuko, if it were you laying there, Sokka surely would have contacted Mai no matter what the consequences would have been—from you or from her."

Zuko made a disgusted sound. "It's not the same, Uncle. Mai and I, we fought. We fought a lot. We still care about each other, but you just can't restore a country to peace when there is war at home."

"Zuuuko. That was almost poetic of you. Country to peace…war at home…I should use this for one of my tea cup fortunes."

"Ugh. I can't believe those cheap cups of yours are actually successful. They're so embarrassing. I saw one the other day that didn't have words in the bottom, it had...it had…pictures. And a couple actually bought a whole set! Have you no shame, Uncle?"

"Hahahaha, Nephew, when you are my age you may learn to appreciate that shame is highly overrated!" He paused for a full-bellied chuckle. "But Zuko, what were you doing in a store that sold my cups with pictures on the bottom? If I recall, that series was a little…risqué."

Zuko made a strange gargling sound, like the words were stuck in his throat, "Uh, nothing. I was just…curious about something. About—about THAT kind of trade in our capital. And uh, what-what nations might be willing to trade those…things…with us…" Wow. That sounded a little weak, even to Sokka. Although it was certainly entertaining to hear Zuko squirm (and there would definitely be some blackmailing later to get a field trip to this "store"), it seemed like the topic of Suki had almost been forgotten. He was about to let them know he was awake—again—when Zuko blurted, "And anyway, that has nothing to do with Sokka. I mean, Mai. Crap-no, I mean Su…argh, Uncle, it's just not the same! Mai and I, it was mutual! Sokka and Suki—it wasn't. I know she didn't mean to, but she hurt him pretty bad." Sokka felt something painful tighten around his heart. He hadn't known that Zuko realized how badly he'd been hurt. He had tried really hard to keep that locked up pretty tight. Was this the real reason Zuko had approached him about becoming an Ambassador?

The conversation seemed to stop there for a while as both Fire Nation men sat and contemplated, not breathing a word. For a third time, Sokka was about to let them know he was awake when Iroh's rumbling voice stopped him. This was just getting silly, he just needed to sit up and nip this conversation in the bud but for some reason his heart wasn't letting his body follow his brain's orders. It was a complicated chain of command.

"So, Zuko. What was her response?"

He could almost feel the daggers that Zuko was glaring at Iroh. Zuko had been a really good friend throughout everything. It almost made him a little smug that he was getting so worked up on Sokka's behalf. About a year after the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai, his relationship with Suki had taken a sudden and unfortunate turn for the worse and things in Sokka's life had fallen apart. Everyone had been so busy right after the war. There was a lot of disorganization and chaos that had needed to be dealt with, particularly as many troops were suddenly disbanded. After spending their entire lives under a military-happy regime, scores of Fire Nation soldiers hadn't had anywhere to turn and no trade or skill to pick up. As a result, more bandits, smugglers and criminals had started to pop up around the countries than had ever been seen before. Sokka had been part of the team that had travelled around, cleaning up the violent outbreaks and collecting the bad guys—along with Toph, Chit Sang. A handful of Jet's old crew had adopted the motto "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," and had helped him craft numerous clever plans to catch bandits.

Suki had gone back to Kyoshi and was too busy helping her people rebuild to join their team. Katara and Aang were worked to the bone forming political alliances between key members of each nation and he hadn't seen any of them for months. After about a year, their team had come pretty close to ridding the countryside of virtually all gangs and bandits related to the war—or at least as best they could. So he had thought, 'What a perfect time to finally meet up with Suki and pick up where they had left off, right?'

Oh, how wrong he had been.

He could still taste the salt on the wind from that day on Kyoshi Island. A nice breeze had been lifting the cool air off of the ocean and bathing everyone in a fine mist. It had been only a little relief from the heat, but the weather wasn't unbearable like it was in the Fire Nation. His pants had felt slightly tacky as the salt and moisture had permeated the thin cloth. He remembered tripping over the loose wooden plank coming off the ship and stubbing his toe. It had been pretty embarrassing to faceplant in the sand, but everyone was fairly used to his antics and they had all laughed it off together.

His intention was to surprise Suki in a giant display of romance that topped all of the goofy things he had ever done before. Forget roses in a tent, he had dressed himself up as one of the Earth Kingdom package delivery men—sweet bird ride and everything. (He still wasn't entirely sure what kind of animal the bird he was riding was, but it was pretty friendly and even managed to hand him the reins whenever he dropped them) The gesture may have been gag-worthy, but he had packaged up a painting of a heart (drawn by yours truly) and was all set and ready to deliver! He had waited a year for Suki and he planned to make it up to her for every day they had missed, in triple. They had a really strong relationship that had stood the test of time before and had even gotten stronger during the trials of the war.

So being the faithful, loyal guy he was, when he walked into Suki's lodge after their long separation, it was with a big smile and his heart on his sleeve (and in a box).

He had immediately turned around and walked right back out. Apparently Suki hadn't believed in waiting.

He had received letters but they remained unopened. It was probably a bit of an overreaction on his part—after all a year was a really long time to wait for someone. But he had waited. A worried Katara had flown down on Appa at once to visit him when he returned to the Southern Water Tribe. He eventually discovered that she had spoken with Suki shortly before heading down to see him and that Suki had sent a message with Katara. After refusing to listen for a few days, Sokka finally gave into his sister's pressuring. Suki had expressed a lot of feelings in the message, regret amongst other things. It seemed that she had not realized he would, nor expected him, to remain faithful during their year-long "break." They had never made this clear between them, but he had always just assumed that she would feel the same way that he did about it. There were a lot of other sentiments but Sokka had just let the words fall on deaf ears as he sat staring blindly forward in the cold little hut. It was all one giant misunderstanding, but that didn't stop his heart from feeling about as barren as the fields of ice around him. Seeing Suki embracing another man…there was just no way to go back to what they had had. The few months after had been a dark time for Sokka as the scene kept replaying in his head.

Three months later, Zuko had popped up on one of his nifty little metal ships and whisked him away to become an Ambassador. There had been such a whirlwind of activity that Sokka had never even questioned Zuko's motives for choosing him. The time since had been taken up by packing, planning, organizing, learning his new role, attending lessons on Fire Nation culture, debriefing the Advisors on Water Tribe customs that they would need to respect, that by the time he had a moment to think about Suki and the pain in his heart, it had already become just a dull ache rather than the sharp pain it had been. In retrospect, it had likely been Katara who had made the suggestion to Zuko, even though Sokka had probably already been on his short list of candidates for the position. Zuko had never mentioned it though, and Sokka had never brought the subject up although he was sure Zuko knew the details.

"I don't know. I haven't heard back." Zuko's terse reply interrupted Sokka's trip down memory lane. He couldn't tell if it was relief or disappointment that was causing the fluttering feeling in his stomach.

"…I see. Ah, the healers have returned. Sokka, you can wake up now." He felt the heat flood his face as he realized that Iroh had known he was listening the entire time. Cracking his eyes open, he got his first full look at where he was. Looking straight up, he had to let his eyes take the time to focus—a process that felt infinitely painful as his vision adjusted to the soft light of the room. His pounding head was telling him that ANY light was bad light right now.

A massive swath of red and gold silk hung ten feet above him in a swirling canopy. Solid dark wood was carved in to four posters, with scenes of dragons and other fire-breathing creatures carved into the beams like totems. He lay on a plush sea of deep burgundy fabric that felt like smooth heaven under his touch. The two men in question stood to the right of the bed and Zuko's worried face hovered over his as he blinked up at the Fire Lord's worried eyes. He was totally in Zuko's room. He snickered.

"…kinky, Zuko. Do you always get the girls into your bed while they're unconscious? I mean, I like you and all but it's just the first date…"

Silence.

"Ugh, I don't know why the hell I worry about you. How can you be so ridiculous in this situation!" Zuko threw up his hands and stalked away from the bed to side table that sported a silver tray with a pitcher of water and two short glasses. Filling one up, he made a sound of disgust as he stalked back over to the bed and shoved it into Sokka's fingers as the liquid splashed over the edge onto the sheets.

"It's one of my finer qualities."

"That was rhetorical. And you just made the assumption that you have any redeeming qualities. Somebody must have lied to you, Sokka."

"Damn, I knew I shouldn't have listened to that little voice in my head." The playful banter almost made him forget how badly every inch of his body felt. Almost.

Zuko sighed. "Sokka, here again you just made an assumption that there is anything in your head."

"Are you saying you just want me 'cause I'm pretty? You're so shallow, Zuko." He murmured as he took a refined sip from the glass of the water. "I was certain you were different from the other boys."

Zuko snorted. "At least we can see that your mouth wasn't injured. Too bad you didn't get the sarcasm knocked out of you."

"The maids would have been devastated if I couldn't talk. They may be fond of your ass, but they say I have a better personality, you know."

"You're joking if you want me to believe that someone willingly talked to you…wait a minute, what the fuck Sokka, this NO time to be sucking me into one of your retarded conversations! What the hell happened to you? No, don't answer that now, first tell me where you're injured—no wait, don't answer that either, you're injured everywhere. In fact, just shut up and stay still while the healers check you, but don't think you're off the hook. When you pull through this and you're feeling better, I am going to personally FRY your ass and you will tell me every minute detail that happened—down to when you took your first shit of the day…"

Sokka blinked. Wow. Zuko was upset. That was quite a tirade he had going there. He was pacing back and forth beside the bed while the healers changed some bandages and the resident Water Tribe healer used the water-bending techniques on a few of his larger injuries. She had to be getting a hefty sum of money for this.

"…and you are under no circumstances allowed to leave the palace without at least two guards with you at all times. Katara and Aang should be here tomorrow and she's going to work with you on some accelerated healing-"

"—Wait. Shit—fuck! Katara and Aang? Tomorrow?" Holy spirits! How the hell had he forgotten to tell Zuko about the assassin? "Zuko! Stop! There is something really, really important I need to tell you! Shit! How long have I been out of it? These people need to leave now."

"You've been out of it for a week. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, it's not like I've really had a chance but Katara and Aang heard about what happened and they decided to rush here a few weeks early to help you recover-"

"NO! You've got to send them back, Zuko!" Zuko gave him a level stare and Sokka got a good look at him for the first time since he had woken up. His hair was down around his face and it looked like he hadn't taken very good care of it in a while. Dark circles stood out under his eyes which were rimmed red with sleeplessness. His skin looked a little pale and Sokka was pretty sure he hadn't eaten in a day or two. Damn, he looked like shit.

"Friends, thank you for helping. I think Sokka needs to get some rest now. Iroh and I will look after him for the time being, please help yourselves to some dinner and some rest. I know you have all been working hard." The dismissed healers shuffled wearily out of the room, throwing curious glances back at the now-serious and deadly quiet trio. Sokka had almost forgotten that Iroh was in the room earlier, but now both uncle and nephew drew close to the bed to hear what Sokka had to say.

"Zuko. I promise I will give you every single detail later, but you have to listen to me right now. There is an assassin in the palace somewhere. That rebel group that we have been tracking in the capital—they are a bunch of ex-soldiers and they planted someone named Zhen in the palace. Months ago, Zuko—months. They are planning to kill Katara, pin it on you somehow and pit you and Aang against each other in a fight. And they're betting on Aang to win. Everyone would lose face and if nothing else, if Katara was murdered the government would be weak enough from the backlash for a group to slip in and cause some serious chaos if not completely take over. I know, I know, it is the most unoriginal plan ever—but there were those rumors about you and Katara a while back, Zuko. Even if Aang doesn't believe them, that doesn't mean that people wouldn't at least be suspicious and that can cause more than enough damage by itself."

"Hm. This plan sounds just stupid enough that someone may get seriously hurt. Let us just hope that it will be the bad guys." Sokka nodded his agreement. Those had been his exact thoughts, as well. "Lord Zuko, will you be contacting Katara and Aang? Can you get them to cancel or at least delay?"

Zuko's eyebrows knit together in concentration as he mulled over the situation. Sokka was grateful that the two men hadn't even questioned him, they had simply reacted and begun brainstorming. "I may be able to get Katara to delay, particularly if Sokka is willing to let her know that he is o.k. for now, but I think I have a better chance of stopping one of Azula's metal drills with my right pinky toe than I have of getting Katara and Aang to cancel their visit." Sokka snorted. So true.

"I suppose that will have to do. I will send word immediately to have two hawks brought up and a message drafted. In the meantime, Sokka, Zuko, please begin thinking of a way to flush this traitor out. If they have been here for months then they have had absolutely too much time to prepare traps or disguise weapons around the palace. We must be careful and no one should be alone at any time for any reason. You will both remain here until we know how to proceed. Zuko, if it is acceptable with you I will put all meeting on hiatus with the excuse that we are waiting until Sokka returns to health. I will be posting two guards to this room at all times until further notice." Both boys nodded their agreement. Nodding back at them with a sharp jerk of his head, Iroh spun and exited the bedroom, muttering preparations to himself.

Two pairs of eyes watched him leave, staring at the heavily embellished inner door long after it had shut.

"Sooo. Zuko. How's it hangin?"

He sucked in a breath as an angry face with blazing amber eyes suddenly occupied all of the free space in front of his. Two fists slammed into the pillows on either side of his head and hot breath blasted his face in angry puffs as Zuko struggled to keep his anger in check. His body was angled to lean over him, but the fire bender was very, very careful not to let any weight rest on Sokka's injured limbs. Blue eyes widened as Zuko brought his face even closer while his nose twitched as he noticed the plume of smoke that was curling up lazily from the pillows where Zuko's fists connected.

"Don't you ever. Ever. EVER. Worry me like this again. When you cut lessons, did you even remember that the entire palace was going to be gathered for a meeting about the big conference with the Avatar? Do you know the only reason we found you? You got a package from some street vendor, Sokka." Oh, that's right—the present. He distantly wondered what had happened to it. "That's the only reason the maid found all that…all that blood." Zuko's voice got thick and he squeezed his eyes shut. The candles in the room were alternately blazing and sputtering out with every labored breath. Zuko let out a shuddering breath and his whole body seemed to deflate as he tipped his head forward to touch their foreheads. "…If you hadn't gotten that package…I just, Sokka—whathappened? I was so worried when they said there had been some kind of accident, and when I saw you like that…I just lost it. I've lost so many people in my life Sokka, and then I thought I'd lost my best friend…"

Sokka peered up Zuko's face and smiled as he bumped their heads together gently. "Sorry, buddy. I didn't mean to make you worry." A soft blush lit up Zuko's cheeks as he dipped his head and looked away. They stayed like that for a contented moment.

"Uggh. So tired." Zuko swung his legs up onto the bed and flopped onto his side next to Sokka. After treating his body to luxurious cat-stretch, he settled in with his arms and legs akimbo, earning him a disgusted look from Sokka.

"You're like a dog, Zuko. You can have the whole damn bed and yet you choose the side I'm on." The fire bender responded by snuggling deeper into the covers and burying his face in a fluffy down pillow.

"Don't get too comfy, peasant. This is MY bed and we are on MY side. You are just a guest until you recover. And don't think I will forget about getting all the details about how you got your ass handed to you."

"Aw shucks, Zuko. You have the sweetest pillow talk." All of the recent excitement with Iroh and Zuko had left Sokka feeling weary and exhausted. Despite the two guards that he was certain Iroh had already set in place, he had wanted to remain awake to keep watch. As it was, his eyelids were growing heavy way too quickly. There was something nagging at him, though… something he just needed to figure out…

"Shut up and go to sleep. We need our rest to deal with this situation. And how the hell do you catch an assassin anyway," came the muffled response from the pillow.

"About that. I think I have a plan."

Final A/N: Yeeeeah, let's crank up the death plots, peeps! Veritas Vos Liberabit