markofthewise | Sokka the 73rd

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Sokka the 73rd - [Action/Voice]

[The house was demolished. And apparently it didn't have the decency to start putting itself together again. Not to mention the whole town was soggy. Most of Sokka's stuff in his room had been damaged. Some of it was salvageable, much of it he had to just throw out. His important valuables were in the basement and though there was a few inches of water down there, his stuff was up high and out of reach. Still, another mess to clean. At least there were two waterbenders in the house to clean that up. For a lover of stuff, Sokka was pretty put out by it. He hadn't been able to sleep in his room because of it. In a way though, he couldn't be upset. It felt right. Like starting over.

And then there was the smithy. Or what was left of it. The whole thing was rubble now. He wasn't even sure if there was a point in trying to pick through it. Best to wait until the Malnosso fixed it, right? It was freeing up his schedule considerably, anyway. At least he was back to his normal practice schedule in the mornings. Even if two straight weeks of combat had left him... weary of it, to say the least. All the same. He found himself to be glad to be back in Luceti. Back in the library, studying his alchemy. Sure, he lost all his notes and would have to start over, but it would be easier since he already knew what needed to be done again. Still. There was so much to go over.]

A guy can't leave for a few weeks without the town getting demolished, huh? Anyway. So uh. A lot of stuff has happened this past week. If anyone wants to, you know, spare some of the good details? I'll be around. Interested. And if you want? I can tell you all about space. Which was pretty great.

[Very around. Like hanging out in the plaza around. No smithy kind of leaves him with no daytime hangout spot. Especially without Suki to spend time with. So besides his training and time at the library, he's very much a man with nothing to do. Evidenced by the fact he's sitting at a bench near the fountain, lazily sprawled out as he counts his one hundredth consecutive hit on a paddle ball. It's uncanny how good he actually is with it.]

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[Darn. Those were his alchemy notes too. He frowns a bit as he fishes them out of the water.]

I'd rather just have a swimming pool.

Well, maybe you can talk to Aang and Toph about it.

[She starts walking up the stairs with the water she's collected.]

[She's upset. It's not hard to tell. For a moment he stands idle, before following her.]

Hey. I'm sorry about your garden. I know it was important to you.

[She turns away from him. Now is really not the time. If she thinks about it, she'll start crying, and if she starts crying she's not sure when she'll stop, and she's not interested in witnesses for that.]

And so was your stuff.

[She dumps the water into the sink.]

I should be able to just pull the rest of it up from here, since we already cleared off the fragile things.

Yeah. [He won't push it. But. Still. There's something he wants to talk to her about. Selfishly he doesn't. Or just wants to put it off. But the longer he does, the more he knows she'll be upset by it.]

What would I do without a convenient waterbender around, huh? [He says with a forced smile.]

[Now if that wasn't a straight line for something along the usual line of "Yes, I'm awesome," she doesn't know what is. But. She doesn't feel awesome right now.]

Get a bucket.

[Like they did all those years before she finally learned. She's got this amazing gift, this incredible talent, and she's never once been able to help out at home with it when it mattered. She bites the inside of her cheek.]

Well actually using a hose, you can get it to flow automatically if you--

[Okay, no, too much information that she won't care about. So.]

Thanks. A lot of my stuff was down there, so I'm glad I can at least have the basement back soon.

I know.

[She gives him a small smile as she walks past him to have a better view of the basement doorway.]

Hopefully you'll be able to salvage most of your things.

It's just stuff. There's plenty of time to replace it.

[The important stuff, he's got. His sword, his boomerang, and Suki's necklace.]

[She tries to screw up a hint of her normal humor.]

Can I quote you on that?

[You know. To Zuko. Who you have been harassing nonstop.]

[He guesses why. And he's right.]

... let's not. Stuff can be replaced, but it's still really hard to do it.

[Katara just shakes he head and starts streaming up the remaining water.]

[He'll wait. Let her finish that. Because there's something they should... try to talk about. He's not even sure if he will yet. So he'll watch instead.]

[Once she's finished draining the water, she puts her hands down.]

Let's go make sure nothing else needs bending down there.

[Before she moves on to the next thing on the list.]

[It's a good place to talk. Down there. So yeah.]

I think the only bending left down there is the kind where I bend down to pick things up.

If you need any help with that, be sure to ask Zuko.

[She's kind of got a list.]

Oh, trust me, I will.

[Once they're downstairs again, though... He takes a breath and lets it out in a sigh.]

Listen. There's something I need to tell you.

[Well, she just loves the sound of that.]

What is it?

[He heads over towards his work desk, leaning against it and looking away.]

Something happened. While we were in the city. I was hurt. Bad.

What do you mean? What happened?

[How does he even put this? There's no way of easing into it. Making it sound like no big deal. "My heart stopped working?" That doesn't quite cover it.]

I was fighting an Elite. I defeated her, but... [But. But. But.]

I was gone. Not just... down. I was gone. Really gone. Dead.

[And I haven't told anyone. And the fact it happened terrifies me.]

What?

[Moving quickly, Katara comes to stand directly in front of him. She has to look up now to look in his eyes, and for some reason that's disorienting right now, because he can't be saying this, he can't be telling her this, she would have noticed, she would have known, she would have been there.]

Sokka, what happened?

I did it. I did it. I was stupid and thought...

[He stops. Confessing this hurts. He can't stand it. It's not just the humiliation. Or the feeling stupid. It was realizing... how reckless he had been How fragile his life was.]

I thought I could control it. It was too much.

[She reaches up to put both hands on his shoulders, both to brace him and get his attention, and to reassure herself that he was right here.]

Sokka, I don't know what you're talking about. What did you think you could control? What did you do?

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