thingsareswinging:

Day 3

He doesn’t sleep much, even at the best of times, which this isn’t. He’s never shaken the habit of working under moonlight, and even though there’s less he has to do in order to minimise the chances of getting beheaded than he used to, he still finds himself up most nights, tidying or writing or doing some other small things. He likes it, usually.

Now, though, he’s been sitting on the white sand trying to mend a fishing net for an hour now, and getting nowhere.

It’s been a week. He’d been really expecting to have calmed down by now. But he’s as worked up as he was when he first heard about this newest, final punchline to the joke called the Fire Nation Royal Family.

He doesn’t think he’s got unreasonable standards. All he wants is for the people he loves not to hurt. A few years ago, the best way to accomplish that had seemed to be to follow them around, menacing anything that looked at them funny with a machete.

But at least Katara and Aang and Toph had known to fight back. There’s something horrible and sad in Azula and her brother, some cloying passivity that keeps telling them they deserve whatever they get, and some days he can’t tell if he wants to bundle them up and take them away from everything that’s ever gone wrong for them, or just shake them until they start standing up for themselves

At least he’s pretty sure he’s figured out where they got that attitude from. So that’s one good thing that’s come out of this mess.

He doesn’t know what Zuko decided to do about Ursa, and frankly he doesn’t want to. Maybe she was back by now. Maybe it turned out she’d had a really good reason to do what she did. Sokka didn’t care. The way he sees it, out of all the things she could have done, she’d picked the one that caused the most pain for the stupidest reason.

With a snarl of frustration, he throws the net down at his feet, and stomps back to the rented beach house.

Azula is sound asleep when he slips back into bed. She stirs a little, her brow creasing unconsciously, but the moment passes, and he sinks into the sheets, pulling her body gently towards his, feeling his breathing sync with hers, letting her warmth fill his limbs. He feels the tension in his shoulders drain away.

It’s okay. In spite of everything, it’s okay.

He falls asleep with her heartbeat in his ear.