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[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

OOC: [HI I'M BACK AND I BRING THE GIFT OF ANGST < 3 But I'll do real stuff soon, too, I promise.]

The wall is cold and solid where Sokka crouches, sitting and thinking and waiting for nothing. He's a man by the standards of his tribe and feels one, too, with his weapons of stone and bone, a necklace of the same, linen wraps and leather boots. And when the monster comes, leaping over the wall to start idle conversation that can lead to nothing good, he knows exactly what to do.

Wham!

Nothing's ever felt so good than watching that skinny, spectacled boy go flying backward off a hundred foot wall.

He's back soon enough, talking and taunting - don't talk about my sister - but they waste no time. Both have weapons and both use them skillfully. One has eons worth of dreams and training, a supernatural strength on his side. The other has very little beyond a club and a knife.

Save for hatred, and a thirst for revenge.

I wanted to know why she replaced me with you, the monster says. It's because we were both weak -- and she thought she could take care of both of us. But-- you got stronger then me.

He hates him in that moment, more than any other, more than finding his friends and family beaten and broken at the creature's feet, more than any other comment. Because this is a taunt of his wildest dream, wanting to be better, wanting to protect, and he can't tell if it is a taunt or if it's an honest observation.

But when has the monster ever been honest?

When I speak, you should listen closely. I don't lie half as often as I speak the truth.

Bullshit.

It's knees crack, the monster's, and he's down, he isn't getting up, he tells Sokka, Sokka the Warrior, how to kill him and the Warrior raises his club. But something stops him, something icy cold and strong, grabs his weapon and holds it still. It looks at him with innocent blue eyes, looks at him from a gold cage that she's reached through to stop him and begs him Don't kill the monster, don't do it, please but she can't give him a good reason why.

And he wants to argue but she walks out of the cage, away from the gold, and stands in front of him. She helps the monster up, watches impassively when it strikes at the Warrior, makes no comment when the Warrior-- no, the boy, he's smaller now, dressing up in his father's gear - when the boy starts to bleed. She lets the monster go and she waves to him, smiling fondly.

And when she turns back to the boy, her eyes are brimming with tears. Are you hurt? Let me heal you.

He tries to move away from her but his feet are stuck to the floor. His wounds disappear and it's like nothing's ever happened. She smiles and turns away from him to address the growing crowd - the monster was here but the Warrior was so kind, he let him go, he believes in her and thinks they should, too.

The boy believes no such thing, but he can't find the words to argue when those blue eyes look at him again.







Sokka wakes with a gasp, lying on his back and staring wide-eyed at the ceiling. His hands lift and he starts to rub at his face, heels of his palms pushing into his eyes, trying to force the innocent blue out of his mind.



OOC: [Based on this scene from apharsites.]

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[alwaysroomforhope]

There is a warm hand on his shoulder, and a different shade of blue eyes above him. (Sokka's life is full of blue eyes.)

"Hey. Socks."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

His shoulders jump beneath her hand and he makes a noise, something strangled and angry and panicked, as he turns sharply but-- once his eyes focus, Sokka just blinks at her with blue eyes of his own. Ashamed.

"...hey. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, uh... go back to sleep."

It's a weak order, especially when he's trying to squirm out from beneath her hand to head for the washroom.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Dork." She sits back a bit, looking at him with equal parts concern and the patented 'I'm-friends-with-a-moron' look, and keeps her hand on his arm when he sits up.

"... you okay? And if you say 'yes' I'm going to smack you, just so you know."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

"Then why are you even bothering to ask?" Sokka demands, glancing back at her with a smirk. He doesn't stop walking, but he does make the effort to make that smirk look genuine. "I am okay, and if you follow me just to smack me, you'll be doing it while I'm peeing, and I'd rather you didn't."

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Socks ..."

But he's gone. Steph flops back on his bed, rolling her eyes at the washroom door.

Hmph. Comfortable bed. Maybe she'll just stay here and wait.

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

She'll be waiting a little while. The toilet's not that far from the room and it's obvious when Sokka's finished in there. But he has to linger at the sink, spying this short-haired, bare-necked guy in the mirror that he didn't recognize...

Until he remembers that it's him.

He should really get rid of his linen wraps while he's at it. Make a clean break and all that. Not now, not when it would be so obvious, but later. Yeah. That's what he should do.

What he'll do right this second, several minutes after he'd left, is return to the bedroom he's sharing with Steph and flop into his own bed across from hers, yawning monstrously.

Or at least he would, were his bed not occupied.

Sokka still manages to yawn, though. He just does it while attempting to simultaneously glare at Steph, who is perched on his bed.

"...you're making it really difficult to go back to sleep. I like my bed better than yours."

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Me, too," Steph says, smirking at him. "I didn't realise this mattress was so much better. Anyway, we're not going back to sleep just yet, either."

Even if she believed he could after waking up like that. Steph's way too familiar with nightmares that leave you sweating and staring at the roof.

"I happen to know there's fresh tea in the kitchen. Lucy brought it from India today. Or yesterday. Is it midnight?" Bats are irritatingly perky in the dead of the night, apparently.

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

Sokka scowls at her. Well, mock-scowls. It's a very obvious-mock-scowl, too, since Sokka really would like some tea, now that she mentions it.

Still.

(mock-)Scowl.

"...I don't know what time it is, you can't have my bed, and fine, but you're prepping the kettle."

[alwaysroomforhope]

She grins, hopping to her feet. "Yeah, cos that 'on-off' switch is so hard to work.

"I like your bed. I think I might have to argue that one. Did you somehow test all the mattresses before Jamie allocated them? Cos I totally wouldn't put it past you, you know."

Chatter chatter chatter while they're picking their way through the silent, crowded farmhouse to the kitchen.

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

By the time they make it there, Sokka is doing a great deal of smirking and eye-rolling in her general direction.

"...and that's why I couldn't have tested all the mattresses, even if I'd been here when Jamie was moving them all. I don't even know where I'd find a pigchicken in this place."

[alwaysroomforhope]

"You haven't looked in a mirror recently?"

Steph's grinning, because smirking and eyerolling was the aim, really. Anything but that haunted look.

But cups of tea are good for that, too, so before long the teapot's sitting on the table brewing while Steph sits on the bench to watch it.

"So."

Change of tone, and she glances over at him, pouring tea carefully.

"...who's Harth?"

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

She gets more eyerolling and smirking, right up until he lifts his tea mug to his lips.

Because then she's asking a question that makes him choke.

"Hurk-- uh-- what?"

[alwaysroomforhope]

"You were kind of loud," Steph points out, still watching him carefully-- worried about him. "So I figured the funniest possible time to ask would be when you could make the biggest mess."

Well, really it happened by accident, but why not take advantage?

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

Either way, it worked - instead of looking utterly stunned and caught like a deer on the freeway, Sokka smirks a little. A very little, but it's there all the same.

"Oh... uh... well, that's 'cause you're a bitch, first of all. And, um... Harth's... a lotta things. Uh... in that dream, he was mostly just... my sister's pseudo-boyfriend."

It's been so long since he talked about any of this, and mostly by choice. He doesn't want to remember these things or think about them. So maybe it's just that Steph's there, maybe it's that the tea is calming... or maybe it's just that he's so very sick of dreaming and the only way he knows to make it stop is to talk, at least a little.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Figures," Steph says, pushing a tray of biscuits over -- and then on second thoughts, reaching into the cupboard behind her for grapes, instead.

She really loves Lucy's fondness for fresh fruit.

"You're just the sort to get crazy protective." It's easier to be flippant and teasing than too serious -- and besides, he'd probably run.

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

It makes no sense at all, then, while she's being flippant and teasing, for Sokka to do anything but smile and laugh and tease her in return. So that he, instead, chooses to blink at her with something akin to insult and hurt, is surprising to say the least.

"...his initials are HF," he says quietly after a moment, head bowed over his tea.

In the dim light, the scars on his temples are disturbingly clear.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Oh," Steph says, eyes wide -- and then wider when she puts it together with the pseudo-boyfriend part.

"Oh. Shit. Sorry."

His sister -- and the -- the -- Wow.

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

Sokka just shakes his head, still focused on his tea. "Don't be - you didn't know."

There's no much more to say than that and it's mostly empty anyway. If she's going to feel guilty or overwhelmed, there's not too much he can say to relieve any of that.

[alwaysroomforhope]

So maybe it's a surprise when she slides off the bench, after a moment, and comes around to wrap her arms around him from behind.

Giving hugs is what best friends are for.

"Harth's an even stupider name than Sokka."

And teasing.

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

Sokka stiffens - but only for a moment, just out of surprise. In the next moment, he's chuckling softly and leaning back against her, hands still wrapped around his cup. "Yeah, it is. You should've heard him when he'd go on about his title - 'I am Harth, The One Who Will Lead!'"

[alwaysroomforhope]

"What a loser," Steph agrees, hugging tight for a moment before letting go, slipping into the seat next to him. "Anyone who gives themself a title might as well stick a sign on their head saying 'I suck, please mock me.'"

"... code names don't count."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

Sokka closes his mouth and smirks.

There's a whole history, a story, a prophecy even behind Harth's title. It's just not important enough to be explained.

[alwaysroomforhope]

She grins at him, halfheartedly.

"... what was he trying to prove? With the ..." She waves a hand sort of vaguely at his temples, drawing her knees up and wrapping her free arm around them. "It doesn't make any sense."

[slayer_fray]

The second time he goes to sleep, someone creeps into his room, picking her way carefully around the toys so as not to wake anyone - Sokka, Steph or the two babies in her arms.

Erin has taken a bed elsewhere, but Mel knows where she is.This time, she just wanted to find Sokka.

Silently, she crouches down and carefully lifts his arm, tucking Hana underneath him, then she curls up with Loo, and is asleep herself within a second of her head touching down.

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph wakes up anyway, because someone else in the room will do that to a Bat, but she just grins when she sees Mel and the babies sleeping there.

Baby therapy is the best therapy ever.

She rolls over and goes back to sleep herself, smiling.