beliefovermisery | (no subject)

(no subject)

If this were Apocalyptica or Eden or even Kansas itself, if Mel and the babies were at the house with them, Sokka would have woken up in a dogpile of limbs and baby drool. But with Mel and her daughters off with Erin for some sisterly bonding, Sokka wakes up in a rock bunker made by yet another Toph that doesn't recognize him with five feet between himself and the other occupant of the room.

A glance at Steph and a smirk given for the tangled blonde hair hanging in her face, Sokka grins a little and gets to his feet. There's a pool outside that will do well enough for a mirror and he really needs a shave.

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Sokka blinks, staring a little. "She heals? You mean in a couple of seconds?"

The younger one nods, waving an arm in a gesture of demonstration that makes perfect sense to himself. "Yeah, she showed me -- just -- whoosh, and it's like she was never hurt at all. Weird, right? But cool!"

Younger-Sokka has a crush on Claire.

Younger-Sokka has a crush on Claire.

Younger-Sokka has a crush on Claire.

Older-Sokka isn't sure if he should find this entirely hilarious or entirely weird.

"Uh-- yeah, really cool. Handy in a fight, too, I bet." He grins a little. "So you hang out with her a lot?"

He nods, happily. "She's cool. But we're just friends," he adds hurriedly, in case his older self gets the wrong idea.

Shifty eyes.

"...I mean, uhm, so far. It's ... not like I have, you know, good luck. With ... girls."

It's not a confession if you're only telling yourself. And the older Sokka is cool and knows stuff, and seems to have girls falling all over him, so he can help, right?

If girls are falling all over him, no one's told Sokka about it. And because the younger's admittance really does get admitted to himself, it explains the older's reaction:

Sokka blushes.

"Yeah, well... that could change. Not like you've been around girls your age all that often."

"Mm," Sokka says, and looks down at his shoes, crouching down to polish his boomerang with a handful of snow.

No, his actual boomerang, guttermind.

"...um, can I ask you something?"

Sokka is quiet for a moment, fighting the natural urge to reply with an immediate NO to a question asked in that tone.

"...yeah, sure. Of course."

He'll just stand there and shuffle his feet in the snow a bit.

"Did you ... um, split off, or leave, or, uh, whatever ... before or after the battle of the North?"

Before, or after Yue?

The younger Sokka is going to keep crouching down and working on his boomerang, intently.

Blinking, Sokka stares at the younger boy for a moment before crouching in the snow himself, poking gently at the surface of the pond.

"I got pulled after the siege. After Yue."

The kraken pokes back, idly, from the pool, but not with much effort. He's lazy in the cold.

Sokka sits back in the snow, frowning.

"... and, um. Suki, we haven't seen her for ... for ages, or heard from them or anything."

Not even though his dad is actively looking for the Kyoshi warriors to put together the invasion force.

Poking back at the little squid, turning it into a game, Sokka looks at the younger boy for a moment. "Well... out of everybody, Suki's the least to be woried about. She's pretty good at kicking ass."

"Yeah, but..."

Sokka doesn't like putting this into words; it's bad enough that it's occurred to him. He tries not to think about it.

"...maybe it's different for you. But ... uhm. You know. People ... get hurt."

Around him.

"...the women you're close to."

Sokka glances at him again, just for a moment, frowning very slightly.

"...I was engaged. Before I got pulled to Eden. Nothing ever happened to her, I was the one that left, and I didn't want to. But she was fine. She's probably still alive, still okay in that first world."

"...yeah."

He pokes at the water, inspecting his broken reflection in the glossy black waves.

"...engaged, really? Who was she?"

Sokka's quiet for a moment before grinning a little, amused.

"Another blonde. Apparently, we have a thing."

The look younger-Sokka is giving older-Sokka now is -- not quite blatant hero-worship, it's tempered with worry and empathy and admiration. And the vague hope of 'one-day-I'll-be-like-you'.

And a faint smirk.

"It is pretty," he points out, flicking a patch of snow from the back of his hand. "The yellow -- blonde."

Weird word.

"It was really long," Sokka says after a moment, trying to match the others' smirk, glad to see him cheered. "Like down to here," he gestures, "and she'd wear it down all the time and get mad at me when I wouldn't stop touching it."

"And now you're hanging out with that Steph girl," Sokka observes, faint smirk growing a little stronger. "I guess we do have a thing."

He draws absently in the snow with the corner of his boomerang.

"...Claire heals up. She doesn't get hurt."

It's sort of a non-sequiteur, but not really.

"I've had other friends that were blonde, though," Sokka notes wryly, still smirking a little. "And Steph had someone else, in the last world. A boyfriend. She's not interested in me like that, and I've... it's only been a year since I saw Paige.

"Claire sounds nice."

Sokka nods to that, leaning back on his hands and watching his older self play with the little kraken.

"Yeah. She's nice."

He's talked to Steph a couple of times since she got back with Sokka. She's nice, and she laughs a lot and treats everything as a joke. She's not as pretty as Claire. At least, he thinks so. She'd probably be a good friend, but ... he has his friends. Besides, he likes that when he gets older, he gets to be followed around by girls like that.

"I think we're going to Metropolis together. Me and her and Toph and this red girl who doesn't talk. Someone said Katara was there, and I have to find her."

Sokka will understand this.

Sokka absolutely does. Even if, strangely, he doesn't immediately jump at the chance to follow along.

"I heard she was here," he says instead, nodding a little. "Mel saw her - and another one of our clones, too, I guess. And, uh... no offense, but I'm glad I missed him."

"...>another one? There's another me?"

Sokka flails, just a little.

"What is wrong with this world!?"

"Apparently, it really, really likes us," Sokka replies, laughing a little at the other's expression. "But, really, who could blame it?"

"Me," Sokka says, sighing, flopping back in the snow. "Stupid world.

"...at least there's snow. It's still not proper weather, but snow's a good start on getting me to like this world."

"Man, don't even lie, I know you think I'm awesome," Sokka sniffs, head lifted high.

Which makes it very obvious that he's kidding, even if he wasn't grinning a second later.

"Snow's nice, though. Now if I could just get some fish."