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Eventually, the Eden Team gets the car going, by the grace of Sokka's brilliance alone.

(Granted, he's not entirely sure what was wrong with the car still, as it had started up while he was busy kicking and cursing at the damn thing to just start already! ...but no one else needs to know that.)

Steph called first dibs on driving and Sokka and Mel had exchanged a glance and a quick, silent game of rock-paper-scissors to decide who got to sleep and who had to stay awake and monitor Steph's skills. The whispered argument Sokka started when Mel had rock and he had scissors stops abruptly when Steph looks over, but Sokka makes sure to kick his sister before climbing into the passenger's seat.

When his eyes aren't riveted to the window and the ruined buildings around them, he's glancing back at Mel and the babies. Partly to make sure they haven't been stolen to another world already, mostly to make sure no one's going to wake up, start crying, and wake everyone else up while she's at it.

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Smirking a little, Sokka pauses. This time he does give her a look, one brow arched high.

"...you have met Zuko, haven't you?"

"Like, twice," she protests, but she grins. "...and okay, yeah, you have a point.

"There's just so many mocking opportunities, with a tiny version of you running around."

"It's a good thing he's far away, then, isn't it?" Sokka asks, grinning a bit back at her. "You'd like him - he can make anybody look good."

There might have been an 'even you' added onto that sentence, but a row of derelict trucks beside what must be a crumbled car dealership steals his attention for a moment.

Steph laughs. "He did all right. Hey, I didn't know you could use a sword as well as a boomerang. I'm totally impressed, how come you never told me?"

She slows down so he can ogle the trucks, grinning.

He notices - which is why she gets an extra grin thrown her way before he slumps back against his seat.

--and sends a quick glance back toward Mel and the girls in the process.

"That was after me - I've never even held a sword. He's not bad with it, though, I was pretty impressed."

"Oh, well, that's a relief," Steph says cheerfully, grinning over at him. "I was afraid I was gonna have to work harder to kick your ass after that display. They okay?"

She's apparently forgotten that she was mocking him ten seconds ago for needing to reassure himself that everyone's here and well.

Sokka sticks his tongue out at her, a tease quickly interrupted by drawn, worried brows as he twists further in his seat. "No-- no, Steph, they're gone! There's just this note!

"We couldn't take Steph's constant lies so we ran away to live under rocks where she can't find us." Turning to look at her, deadly serious, Sokka shakes his head and frowns disapprovingly. "Look. What you. Did."

The car jolts -- Steph's foot slamming on the brakes -- until she realises he's joking, and panic melts from her face.

"Oooh, if I wasn't driving, I'd smack you so hard for that, you jerk," she informs him haughtily, but she's laughing by this time, at herself as well as at him. "Soooo maybe I'm a little clingy. Can you blame me? As far as I know, this is my world." She gestures one-handed at their surroundings.

Sokka's too busy laughing, though it isn't nearly as hard as it should be, grinning at her and holding tight to the arm rests when the car jolts. "You're the one that was teasing me for checking on them every couple of seconds - I'm not allowed to bug you about it?"

As for it being her world, Sokka shrugs a little, but his sigh is deep as he looks out the windows again. "I'm not blaming you. And... I hope we find your mom and all, but a bigger part of me is hoping this isn't your home."

Like walking into the Northern Air Temple and finding corpses and rotting buildings where there had just been life - life Aang recognized.

Steph nods, turning serious with the conversation, looking out at the grey destruction around them.

"Yeah. I'll be heaps less worried if I can just find out for sure whether they're here or whether -- whatever, y'know. I just have to know for sure."

She wrinkles up her nose at him, giving him a grin. "I really hope it's not. It's kind of getting to me. I'm getting twitchy."

"You were already twitchy," Sokka informs her, sitting up a bit to inspect the sparking lights from an old fast food sign. "Like a big, blonde rabaroo in purple spandex."

"Involuntary muscle spasms," Steph says, nodding. One hand twitches to show him.

Slap.

"See? Twitch twitch."

He catches her wrist before her fingers have done much more than brush the back of his head, looking over at her with an arched brow.

It doesn't stand a chance against his grin and very-manly-giggles.

"Brat."

"You love me." She grins, watching the road while she twists her hand to flick at his head. "You need someone to keep that massive ego down."

"Funny, I thought that was what my super-powered sister and fire-breathing nieces were for," Sokka guesses, releasing her hand to flick at her hair, careful not to let it cover her eyes.

"Obviously they're not doing a good enough job," Steph points out, smirking. "Sorry, you'll just have to put up with me as well."

"Woe is me," Sokka replies, sarcastic as he rolls his eyes. As if they didn't spend every spare moment together in Eden anyway.

He doesn't seem to understand that this sarcasm could be taken in any other way than that.

Steph lifts an eyebrow at him. "Hey, you don't have to come," she says, suddenly serious again. Just in case he meant that. "I mean it. My mom's pretty much ... well, she's ... sick."

Junkie.

"And Dad ... honestly, I don't even wanna look for him. He can look after himself. He's good at that.

"You and Mel, I'm totally okay with you guys -- like, I dunno, you can just cruise around and do whatever you want, you don't have to come with at all."

A beat passes where Sokka's confused half-smile is focused on the dashboard. Directly afterward, it's focused on Steph.

"...did the fact that we decided to come with you just totally fly over your head or is this your brainsickness attacking again? It's not contagious, is it? These are tight quarters and if it gets airborne..."

"Yeah, but I made you come, jerk," Steph points out. "'Cos I need someone around to remind me just how brainsick I'm not in comparison, don't I?"

But she's honestly relieved - obviously it's been on her mind. Sometimes she just has to be told a few times, Steph does. She's not used to people who'll do things for her without first being pleaded with. She'd figured they probably just hadn't thought about it, and they'd change their mind when they did.

Sokka gets her widest brilliant smile.

Edited 2007-11-14 01:48 (UTC)

It's impressive! Sokka obviously thinks so because his first-response smartass remark pauses in favor of smirking at Steph and choosing a nicer one.

"I hate to break this to you, Steph, but you aren't nearly as demanding or evil as you think you are. There's not a whole lot anyone can make Mel do, and I like to pretend like I'm not too far from that, too."

They came because they wanted to. Nothing more or less.

Steph grins at him. "One day, when I'm a real boy, I'll totally be evil, and then you'll be sorry."

The Pinocchio reference probably goes straight over his head. She forgets.

"I guess I'll just have to put up with it till then."

From the funny dance Sokka's eyebrows are doing and the short and highly embarrassing (for him) glance he gives her body, she should be able to remember fairly quickly.

Even without the commentary.

"So... Robin has more secrets than just his name? Gotta say, at least this one is kind of interesting."

If fairly disturbing, from Sokka's expression.

Steph blinks at him for a moment, confused as to why he's looking at her and vaguely irritated at the mention of Robin (he's a distressing topic!) -- and then realises and laughs, hard enough that she has to slow the car to a halt.

"I'm just full of surprises," she tells him once she has her breath back, giggling still. "But that's not one of them, I promise. It's a movie, in our world."

"About girls becoming boys." Sokka's smirk is mostly to Steph's reaction, more than the explanation - though both are baffling. "Sounds like a real winner. Also, for the record, I'm really glad that's not one of your surprises 'cause... weird."