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Throw Her Overboard - Chapter 5

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Lips

Sokka looked down at his map- not one of his more technical navigation maps, but a beautiful, highly detailed layout of the whole ocean between the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom with rainbows and sea monsters drawn in appropriate places- and frowned.

He had just painted a little X on the map right on the depiction of the Buzoku Islands cluster, but as he stared at it, the mark failed to magically align with all the other X's to reveal dark secrets and/or tell any kind of useful story. In fact, the lack of a story was the only story being told: whoever this 'Pirate King of the Sixteen Seas' was, the incidents attributed to his organization were spread out across a distressingly large chunk of ocean and showed no pattern.

This wasn't unforeseen. That's why such an open-ended cover mission had been concocted, to give Sokka and his crew the freedom to tool around and chase clues for as long as they needed. The proper thing to do would be to continue on this Southern Water Tribe 'goodwill pirate-hunting tour,' improving the general state of humanity and picking up clues and news where he could find them. He should wait until he had real, actionable intelligence before doing something stupid. Or, ideally, not do anything stupid at all.

Except his instincts were telling him that something was wrong, and he needed to pick up the pace. This so-called King's vassal ships weren't shy about mentioning him, and he had to know that. So he likely had a good idea of what his enemies knew about those operations. And if he knew that, and Sokka and his friends knew that, and the King knew that they knew that, then wasn't the only smart conclusion that a misinformation campaign was in full swing and no one knew as much as they thought they knew?

The only way to break the cycle was to do something unexpected.

Something stupid.

Sokka sighed, rolled up his map, and took it with him down to the crew berths.

The large cabin he went to was noisy with the snores of the sleeping crew shift, and when Sokka found Azula's hammock, she proved to be a lone silent sleeper. She was curled up in the center of the hammock in something like a fetal position, limbs tucked protectively with her sweaty, unbound hair splayed over her like a blanket. Her lips were moving as she slumbered, pursing ineffectively at the strands of hair that tickled them.

Sokka took the rolled-up map and poked her in the face.

Her eyes flew open instantly, and there was no involuntary shudder or start. Her only movement was to shift her head just enough to glare up at him, piercing golden gaze asking him wordlessly why he had woken her up and whether it was something for which he was prepared to die a horrible wracking death.

He poked her again and motioned for her to get up and come with him.

Sokka maintained the silence until they got back to his cabin, and then he spread the map down on his desk again and clapped his hands in time with a cheery Water Tribe dancing tune Azula wouldn't know. "Good morning, Princess! So kind of you to join me!"

The expression she gave him through her tangled hair was distinctly unimpressed, but after a short yawn she managed, "I am at my Chief's command all hours of the day. How might I pleasure you?"

"Look at this map."

"This is a nice one. Can I have it?"

"Only after I'm done with it. So, never. Anyway, look at the marks I made. Anything stand out to you?"

She pulled her hair out of her face and twisted it into a knotted ponytail, all without ever taking her eyes off the map. "We've been to some of these places. Those marks are more recent. The others, the older marks, are all either near the places we've visited or along our planned routes."

Slush, she was good. "You can go ahead and say what I know you've already figured out. No need to be embarrassed, we're all friends here."

She looked up at him, something like a smirk pulling at her lips. "You're looking for something. You've been looking all this time."

He nodded. "Do you have any opinions on how I might find what I'm looking for?"

"My opinion is that it would be easier to help if I knew what exactly you want to find." She took a step forward, closing the distance between them. "But you would have already revealed that if you trusted me. Even after all this, we're still playing games. Such fun games, too."

He walked straight past her, giving her ponytail a little swat as he did so. "Yeah, sure, fun. Have you been keeping score? How many have I won?"

"It's cute that you think you've won anything." She sat down at the desk and began studying the map. "Give me something to write with. Something temporary."

Sokka found a piece of charcoal amidst his supplies, and tossed it over to her. Then he went to stand over her shoulder and watch the magic happen.

She started drawing circles around some the marks on the map, and then made little triangle symbols next to a few islands that fell within the circles. Sokka recognized all those islands; they were larger ports, well-known stops where honest sailors could pick up supplies, sell off smaller cargos, and enjoy a little shore leave. He found himself nodding at her logic; even pirates needed a chance to live like everyone else, and it made sense that they'd make use of facilities within an reasonable voyage's range of their targets.

Sadly, Azula had made too many marks to just investigate all her targets, but perhaps with this strategy in mind, he could look over all the rumors about the Pirate King's forces again and see if anything new jumped out at him like a bear-dog pup happy to see its master, and not like a desperate mugger in an alley demanding to be gifted with all your coins.

"Good work," he said. "You can go back to that wonderful dream you were having about burning the whole world and rubbing the ashes of your enemies all over your skin in a really creepy way."

She actually snorted at that as she got up from the desk. "If you must know, it was the dream about falling off The Great Drill of Ba Sing Se again, but either way, it's not long until my shift. I may as well stay up and get in a little more Firebending practice. You never know when I may have to kill an entire army for you." She reached for her belt and produced a little glass vial of a clear liquid. Walking out of his cabin, she popped the cork off and downed the contents.

That's when Sokka grabbed her shoulder, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her so hard they fell on top of the desk together.

When he finally pulled back, he found her eyes wide and her cheeks as red as a three-day Fire Nation festival. She sputtered for a bit before being able to stammer, "Wh- what w- what was-"

Sokka licked his lips and stood up. "That was your concoction, right? The one that helps you think clearly? Interesting taste it has. Salty, almost metallic. And also slightly sweet, as if a fruit extract was added to try to cover up the flavor. That's to make it harder to figure out the ingredients, right?" He looked back, keeping his expression innocent.

She stared up at him from the desk, making no move to get up. Her hair hand come unbound at some point during his little attack, and while her expression had settled into passivity, her face was still flushed. "You could have just asked to lick the bottle."

"I know. But that's what you were expecting me to do, after baiting me by taking your medicine right in front of me. I'd hate to become so predictable that you'd get bored with me."

She smiled, a real smile and not a smirk or a twist of the lips or anything coy like that. "Never, my Chief."

"Great. Now please get your butt off my nice map."




A few days later, they pulled into the port on Three Quarters Way Island (renamed from 'One Quarter Way Island' after it had been conquered by the Fire Nation 83 years ago) to resupply and give the crew another chance to spend some time off their ship. As Captain, Sokka was acting as the purchasing agent, seeking out the supplies they needed and negotiating for price and delivery and all that boring stuff. And, because his handwriting was commonly mistaken for the unholy runes of a death cult, he brought along his sour-faced, smooth-cheeked, golden-eyed 'cabin boy' to fill out any paperwork. Pussiq the Scribe was far too important to write down that kind of mundane financial information, and besides, he'd been on duty for Buzoku Island, so he hadn't been able to get as drunk as everyone else. Fair was fair.

That Three Quarters Way Island happened to be one of the places circled by Azula on his map was never spoken aloud, nor was the fact that some of the unique treasures stolen by one of the Pirate King's ships was later sold by a certain barterer who Sokka had recently discovered was now operating here under a new name.

And so Sokka the Purchasing Agent just happened to be moving all over the port, looking at the docked ships to see if they were unloading any cargo he wanted to buy, and asking around about various unique items that would make great diplomatic gifts and maybe I don't know pirate plunder fit for a King. His 'cabin boy' kept a sharp eye out, too, of course.

Even so, he wasn't prepared when she nodded at one of the ships bobbing next to the docks and said, "That one is the 'Zhao's Revenge.' You know, the ship that raided Nagisa City?"

Sokka found himself looking at the ship and dismissing the notion because the reports said Zhao's Revenge was supposed to have a dragon figurehead and this one was a Jingwei bird, but then he remembered that Azula wasn't supposed to know about any of that. "So, you broke into my cabin to see what else I was keeping from you?"

She gave his shoulder a comforting pat. "It was rather remarkable of you to actually hide those papers from my earlier explorations, but once you revealed a map I had never seen before, the natural conclusion was that there was more to be found. My compliments on the design of the secret compartment."

"Thanks." It was a rather ingenious design, wasn't it? The keyhole looked exactly like the mark made when he threw his boomerang into the woodwork, and his boomerang happened to be the only key that could reach the secret switch. "You understand that I need to kill you now?"

She licked her lips in a way that was the complete opposite of fear. "We'll duel to the death after we find your pirates. Or rather, after we find more of your pirates. That ship is the Zhao's Revenge, but it's been repainted and disguised."

Sokka looked back at the ship in question. It was certainly built for a fight; he could picture it bearing down on an innocent cargo vessel with black flags flying and archers ready at the rails, sails puffed out by the wind.

Lost in his thoughts, he forgot to add any kind of sarcasm or baiting when he told Azula, "Good work. Thanks."




When the Zhao's Revenge left port the next day, Sokka's own ship very coincidentally set sail in, coincidences of coincidences, the same direction. Of course, Sokka made sure his crew kept them back at a considerable distance, beyond the sight of anything but a proper telescope.

Everything was going well until Kassuq the lookout took his spyglass off the Zhao's Revenge for a moment to look behind, and found three more vessels following them in turn.

"Well," Sokka said, licking his lips when the news was brought to him, "I guess we weren’t as clever as we thought. Let’s get the weapons distributed, and if anyone onboard still likes to hope for lucky breaks, feel free."

TO BE CONTINUED
For the second Sokkla Saturdays challenge, a series of prompt-inspired shorts detailing a special seagoing mission that Sokka and Azula undertake together. Chief Sokka is trying to show that his tribe is worthy of being on the world stage, but what happens Princess Azula shows up in all her villainous, oblivious glory?

Previous: Wine
Next: Reveal

Sokkla Saturdays: www.fanfiction.net/topic/16548…
© 2016 - 2024 Loopy777
Comments5
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This been great reading and have to say I am looking forward how this proceeds.

I got feeling there is something between Azula and Pirate King ranging from wanting part or entire medicine from him to Azula actually is Pirate King. The recognizing Zhao Revenge was kinda suspicious followed by getting boxed by 4 ships.

Sokka method of finding out about medicine was highly amusing. Also Sokka you are many things, but boring is not one of them. I do fear he is going to have to be even more creative next episode.