Fan 'n' Flame; Earth 'n' Sword

Three's Company: Chapter 6

Sokka sighed angrily as he crumpled another piece of parchment up and tossed it to the side. He grabbed a new one and slid a wooden block across it, flattening it and keeping it from moving. This was the fifth time he had done this today, and he was close to snapping his brush. He looked at the Beifong family symbol again, trying his best to get it right. He couldn't exactly understand why he was having so much trouble this time.

That one I painted for Toph was probably one of the best I've done, and I did it without even realising it. Sokka thought to himself as he worked on the wings of the boar. Another few minutes past and he sat back, trying to figure out what was annoying him about this one. Something about the hooves, and the eye...and everything! He sat back in his chair and huffed. He glanced down at his brush handle, and realised he was tracing the same line on his palm as Aunt Wu had traced. He pulled his hands apart quickly, making the ink on the brush fly and splatter on to his painting. In another moment of genius, Sokka slammed his fist into his forehead, and let out a long, slow breath as the ink flowed down his nose. The door to his room slid open slightly and a spectacled eye glanced through the gap.

"Mind if I come in?" Satoru said through the door, his voice slightly muffled.

Sokka scrapped the sixth painting for the day and grabbed for a cloth. "Come in," Sokka called as he tried to get the ink off his face.

"Thanks, I wanted-" Satoru stopped as he looked at the crumpled parchments lying scattered around the room, and the smudged ink stain across Sokka's forehead. He gave a small smile. "Bad day?"

"What do you want?" Sokka said curtly as he began to put away his tools.

Satoru's eyebrows raised before settling back down to a slight frown. "Oh well..." Satoru started, caught off guard at Sokka's tone. "As you know we'll be in Ba Sing Se in a few days." There was a short pause between them, and Satoru shifted awkwardly under Sokka's gaze. "I was wondering if there was anything you want to do?"

"I would have thought you'd have everything planned out for us," Sokka said, standing and stretching his back, busying himself with cleaning up his desk.

"I did," Satoru said with a slight chuckle. "However, Toph told me she wanted to spend a couple of days there, so I'm looking for any possible suggestions." Sokka pursed his lips and lightly scratched his chin. Glancing at a small map of Ba Sing Se to the side of his desk he eyed the centre of the city.

"I haven't seen Earth King Kuei in a while, maybe we could pop in for a visit," Sokka said, deciding to stop being petty and look at Satoru, whose eyes had gone as wide as possible.

"Earth King Kuei?" Satoru exclaimed. "I've been trying to get in contact with him for ages, you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to meet him." Satoru hurriedly grabbed a notepad out of his pocket and flipped it open, writing down a heading for questions for the Earth King. He glanced back up at Sokka, a large smile on his face. "Do you really think you could just go and see him?"

"Trust me, I know better than anyone how hard it can be to see the Earth King," Sokka said. Dealing with Long Feng and his Dai Li agents had not been pleasant. "Toph and I sort of saved the world, I heavily doubt he'd turn us away," Sokka told him, frowning as he saw Satoru once more get an excited look in his eye.

"This is amazing, I could talk to him about allowing us to mine closer to Old Ba Sing Se, the amount of crystal deposits, ores and other riches that aren't being mined is huge." Satoru returned to his notepad and wrote down whatever came to his head for when he would meet the Earth King.

"I said he wouldn't turn Toph or I away," Sokka reminded him. He didn't like that he took a bit of satisfaction as he watched Satoru deflate at his words. "He'd probably see it as a cordial visit, not some business meeting."

"Well if you do go meet him, would you try to put in a good word for me?" Satoru asked. Sokka was once more surprised that he even considered just giving a shrug of his shoulders to see Satoru be disappointed, and thought better of it.

"Old Ba Sing Se is quite an important historical and symbolic area for the Earth King," Sokka told Satoru, whose face dropped. Sokka paused for a moment. "But I'll mention it to him. That's if we do see him; he might be busy. No matter how famous we are, he is still the Earth King after all." Satoru smiled gratefully at Sokka, who looked away. "Speaking of old friends, we should visit the Jasmine Dragon."

"That is already on the list," Satoru told him, tapping the notepad. "Toph told me to write it down the moment she got me to agree to the extra stay. It would be amazing to meet the Dragon of the West."

"I think he'd prefer Iroh honestly; those days are behind him." Sokka saw Satoru write in another small note.

"I guess we can spend our days at the Jasmine Dragon, I'm sure Toph and you have some catching up to do with Iroh." Satoru's eyebrows shot up as went to put his notebook back. "I forgot, these arrived just before we set off from Makapu, I had meant to give them to you but it must have slipped my mind," Satoru said, taking out a small bundle of letters and handing them to Sokka. He opened the first one, which was addressed from Katara. After reading the first couple of sentences, Sokka looked to the calendar on his wall, and his eyes narrowed.

"Satoru, how long are we staying in Ba Sing Se?"

"We should be spending maybe a week at most. First couple of days will be checking out the possible site for our new mine, then some meetings with some government officials about actually mining there," Satoru explained, watching Sokka move closer to the calendar and run his finger along the days. He slowled his speech. "Afterwards, we'll probably be forced to do whatever Toph wants to do."

"I can't believe I forgot," Sokka mumbled to himself. Satoru looked at him questioningly as Sokka turned around, an unreadable look on his face. "It'll be my birthday while we're there." Sokka frowned as he put the stacks of letters on his table.

"That's perfect, we'll all head out to celebrate," Satoru told him, smiling widely. "Birthday wishes?" He gestured to the letters.

"Yeah, Katara probably made sure everyone sent one. Guess I'll try to make my way through them," Sokka said, sitting cross-legged by his table. Satoru stood there for a couple of silent moments.

"So we'll head out on your birthday then?" He saw the short nod from Sokka and decided that was the best he was going to get. "Dinner will be soon, by the way. Sokka continued going through the letters, giving no indication of having heard him. Satrou stepped out of the room, sliding the door closed and pulled a face.

What in Agni is his problem! Satoru thought. I can't believe I thought we were actually becoming somewhat friendly, now he's just been nothing but rude. Satoru walked into the main living area and looked over to Toph, who was having a great time spitting over the edge of the railing outside. She was right about him being innovative, but there's no doubting that snow savagery is still there. Satoru did a double take and put his hand over his mouth. He couldn't believe he had just used that term to describe Sokka, someone who had saved the entire world from destruction. Once a savage, always a savage. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind, walking towards the blind earthbender. It was wrong of him to think like that. Sokka was clearly an intelligent mind...perhaps they just got off on the wrong foot?

"I guess I'll keep trying, at least so we don't end up fighting and Toph just smacks us both around," Satoru muttered to himself as he stepped out onto the platform, going to tell Toph about the plans for Sokka's birthday.

OoOoO

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a vote and tell me what you thought if you'd like! And follow me so you can keep up with the story!

A small chapter this week, we'll be landing in Ba Sing Se, and visiting Iroh! 

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Thanks for reading!