Mist: Chapter Six

TEE! You guys are so wonderful for waiting for slow ol’ me! ::clings you all:: You guys are so wonderful!

Also, I apologize for my lateness. I’m going through a lot of crap at home, so if you read my DA journal, you should understand. Dare to complain to me, and I will send my legions of bad yaoi, and their fans after you. Roar.

EDIT: My grandmother just died, and all hell has broken loose. My family is in shambles, so I’ll try to poke out a chapter as often as I can, but there is a lot of other things that are more important in my life right now. Your encouragement, and support means a lot to me. Thank you all.  

SECOND EDIT: My beta reader hasn't talked to me in about a week, so sorry if this chappie sorta sux...::clings:: Anyways, please review!!

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Mist:</i>
Chapter Six

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Sokka looked down to his shoulder where the Fire Prince had touched him, and he shuddered lightly once more. The skin looked the same as the rest of his body, but it felt...heated. As if touched by a burning flame that didn’t burn like a normal flame. A flame that heated him, but didn’t burn the skin. Something that...DAMMIT! He couldn’t describe it without sounding like a love struck girl! Disgusting!!! It was impossible to try and talk, or think anymore.

Sokka shook his head, determined to rid his mind of that thought pattern, and looked towards a very confused looking Zuko. He was staring at his hands as if they had moved on their own. It was possible, but not very likely.

“Hello? Zuko?” Sokka asked impatiently, and stared hard at the Prince.

“Ah, yes. Let’s go. You can find your own way out. I’ll leave you on deck, I’ve important business to attend to.” Zuko replied without thinking.

He was still amazed that his Gouka had immediately cooled to a temperature that he wasn’t used to even when he had been meditating intensely, and his uncle had dumped cold water over him. It had startled him, but it didn’t cool his burning heat in the way that the simple touch had cooled his fingers.

He craved the absence of heat like a food. More than a food, a passion if he wanted to be cliche. Sokka seemed to be better for something other than a bargaining chip it seemed. It was as if the teen male was good for mollifying him at least.

Zuko’s plan for the teen boy was to make him a piece of his plans. He was to being a bargaining chip to The Avatar to force the younger teen to go along with his plans. If he didn’t, than the joke of a Water Bender would be executed. Heatless, but it got the point across. Zuko wouldn’t let anyone or anything stand in his way.

Zuko’s Gouka then gave a twitch, or was it his heart? As the Fire Prince waved the thought away, he gestured to Sokka.

“Come on. I don’t have all day.” He ground out impatiently.

“Yeah yeah, I’m not all strong and mighty as you seem to be...” Sokka said sarcastically, and pulled up next to the Prince.

“What business do you have to attend to?” Sokka asked in a mock innocent voice.

The Fire Prince turned, and glared back at the Watertribe Peasant. The man was getting on his nerves again fast, and he had just been thinking thoughts that were...ugh! It was disgusting! How could this immoral creature be so damnably annoying, but so appeasing to the Hell Flame that he guarded.

It was insanity.

“I have to attend to the ship. I am it’s captain. I would think you would know that by now.” Zuko snorted, and kept walking.

The pair were coming up to the stairs that lead to the upper parts of the ship, and Zuko turned to the other as they reached said stairs.

“You, will stay down here. I need no one else that is about to learn of our alliance of sorts for now. Understood?” Zuko demanded in a way that spoke that he was in a hurry.

“What if I want fresh air? You can’t tell me what to do!” Sokka replied haughtily.

The Fire Prince growled out, but said nothing. As he turned and swept up the stairs, Sokka snorted. The arrogant Prince constantly had a stick up his ass about something or another. Sokka was incredibly good at adapting to a situation, and moving along with the flow.

It was something that he’d learned to do when he was the only male left in the village. His father, and uncles had said it was for their villages sake. He was supposed to protect them. He had frowned, and hide the tears. He knew better, and Sokka turned away from them as they left. They had left him because he was weak.

He had been weak then, but now he was strong! He had even gotten the Firebender Prince to go along with a plan! Sokka rubbed his hands together, and laughed almost manically.

“I wonder what’s down here anyways...” He said aloud, and began to walk back in the direction that he and Prince Zuko had just come from.

~*~

Above deck, the Fireprince himself pace on the deck. He couldn’t let his guard down again as he had done below. If his men had seen that, he would be the laughingstock of the ship. Iroh would even find out, and he would never hear the end of it. His Uncle was comforting at times but at others, he was as bad as a child himself.

“Men! Where are we headed?” he shouted out.

Ever since he had captured the teen male that was currently below, he’d not given orders for directions of pace. He had wanted to wait for The Avatar to come to him in search for his friends. Where was an area that The Avatar was known to frequent enough, so that he could spread a rumor of the Watertribe’s teen capture?

“We are heading North by North-West m’lord!” shouted down one of the crew mates.

“Start leaning towards the West then! We will make berth at Omashu!” Zuko bellowed out.

He was beginning to relax once more. It was quite a long time since he had felt things were once again under his control. It was very recent that he could feel this way since the male Sokka was in his control, and he had a very high chance of working something to his advantage out with The Avatar. Yes, it was very good when he was in control.

“Yes m’lord!” the crew mate bellowed out in happiness. It had been a long time since they had been to land, and it would be good to feel warm air for once in a long while.

The ship’s crew consisted of twelve males of various ages between 17 and 62. Their were also three female fire benders. They had been accepted onto the ship with the greatest care to their high reputations, and healing abilities. Females were considered the weaker part of Firebending. It was laughable, because the weaker part of Waterbending were the males. To bend water, one had to be calm and collected. To bend fire, you were to be turbulent and ready for action. No prissing about when you played with fire, and no rash action when mixing with water.

His crew had been carefully selected from the academies, and from his Uncle’s friends that were loyal to the cause. He had been sure to pick strong fighters, medicine makers of great promise, and only the best warriors. So far, they had disappointed him. Then again, ever since the capture of one of the group that had belonged to The Avatar, they had seemed to gather some strength at the fact they could accomplish something.

“Give me word at any change!” Responded Zuko as he turned to find his Uncle.

If he wanted advice on political matters, Uncle Iroh was the one to talk to. He had been a great diplomat in his day, and even if Zuko was sorry to say it, he needed help. He had no idea how to bargain with The Avatar over a human being. It wasn’t unusually barbaric for Zuko to think in such a way that would make other humane creatures cringe.

It was a necessity of life.

‘Just as that boy has become. It seems the Gouka has make him a necessity. Are you willing to kill him just to spite one that never really mattered?’ a soft, and slow voice whispered in his mind.

Zuko waved the thought...or voice away from his mind. He had no time to ponder his own physic. It wasn’t possible to try and even sort out his night demons yet. Not just yet, but maybe soon. Or maybe never. Either was an option he didn’t really care about.

~*~

Sokka sighed as he kept walking down the endless maze of hallways. What kind of a ship did the Firebenders have to build to make it so hard!? It was supposed to be a simple design so that a warrior could run through without confusing himself. A warrior needed to be ready, a warrior needed to be-

...

And at that thought Sokka tripped, stubbed his toe, and cursed loudly enough to startle himself. As the clumsy oaf fell to the ground, and clutched the offended appendage. He looked down to it still cursing lightly, and slipped off his boots. The nail had been split, and a droplet of the crimson fluid was leaking from him.

That was just great.</u>

Now, he was going to get infected, and DIE from the stupid Firebender ship. It was all the Prince of Asses fault, and he was going to complain his ear off until-

“Yeah, I know. Prince Zuko should really come by to get that medicine we recommended him.” Sokka heard a female’s voice say almost whimsically.

“Yes, I’ve heard that his Night Demons keep getting worse. He’s bending as he sleeps now to. That’s not healthy for him, or the rest of our crew...” the second female voice stated, worried now.

“We can’t make him do anything, but it would be nice if he’d try to help himself...” came the first.

“Shh! You can’t let anyone hear you talk about the Lord that way! You’d get killed fool!” came the second voice in a hurried whisper.

“Yes yes...always looking behind your back, even on your own ship. I know the routine.” came the other voice in a tired drawl.

As Sokka listened to the female Firebender crew mates walk past, he made note of their conversation. So the Prince did have a weakness did he? Sokka would just have to exploit that to the best of his ability.

‘Is that really very nice to do to the man that released you?’ a small voice called out in the back of Sokka’s subconsciousness.

Sokka rolled his eyes, and ignored the proverbial ‘angel’ that was sitting on his shoulder.

If the Firebender had a weakness of some sort, it was up to Sokka to exploit that to its fullest. He was still an active Water Nation Tribe’s Man, and so he still had to defend his country. Even if it was with pointless babble, and trying to overthrow a Fire Prince with petty talk.

“So have you heard of his captive though?” The first woman stated as she started to walk around the corner.

Sokka strained to catch the rest of the conversation, but the last he could hear was,

“Yes! There’s a rumor that the captive is male, and has been made The Lord’s love slave!” the second giggled in a giddy way.

“What?!” Sokka theater shouted to himself, and clutched his head between his hands, and sat.

“Why’s that going around the ship?” Sokka tried to reason, and just let his head fall in defeat.

It was his time to try and find more out about the Fire Nation Prince, and so...to find more out...he had to follow the path of information. It seemed that the path was currently the two women that had just walked past.

‘Damn! Where’d those two go?’ He thought to himself as he stood, and began to run in the direction they had taken. If he was to find more out about the ship, its ‘Lord’ and the rest of its crew, he’d have to be like a spy.

If he hadn’t been wearing the clothes that Zuko had given him, he would have stuck out like a sore thumb, and that would have been disastrous. He would probably be shoved back into the prison cell and locked there until a laughing Zuko came to free him once more. Sokka’s cheeks burned at just the thought of being laughed at. Luckily, he was already wearing the clothes of a Fire Nation crew member, and so he fitted in! What luck it was to be dressed by his enemy.

...

‘Wait...that didn’t come out right...’ Sokka thought to himself, and slid past a corner.

The Water teen saw clothing whip across another corner, and he sprinted after it. It seemed he was finally getting somewhere!