Playing a Game of Pai-Sho

.o0o.

The war was over.

The war was over and there was almost exactly two weeks and three days of perfect giddiness and relief and the whole city wired in a jubilant not-having-to-fight-ness, wired in the way that only people who haven't had enough sleep could be. There were feasts and cheers and speeches that people didn't mind hearing and toasts that people didn't mnd giving and it seems like those fire nation people, who've despaired during the rule of both Fire Lord Ozai and and dreaded the rule of Fire Lord Azula, who've kept their heads down because it was safe and because they didn't have the capacity to help, they came out of the woodwork and the metalwork and a deserted city became full again. These, who would smile, surged ahead and celebrated and stood tall.

Them, who did not smile, waited.

Sokka stares at the guy in front of Aang. He's slowly developing a tick under his left eye and he increasingly wants to slap himself there.

Aang, pushed by Iroh's advice, created a small circular auditorium on the shore of the bay of the Fire Nation's capital. It was earth, raised from the sea bed, created in partnership with the Fire Nation, open to the skies and fresh air. Aang would sit there and listened to people who wanted to talk with him; like he is now, sitting on the bench that runs along the circumference, Sokka and Toph off to the side, half-hidden by a pillar.

Lien, the current petitioner, smiles like a gentle grandfather and sounds as reasonable as the sky is blue.

But Sokka knows that the sky isn't always blue.

Sokka doesn't have the words for what he is looking at but he knows that the guy isn't to be trusted. He looks towards Toph, at his elbow, but before he speaks she says, "He isn't lying." She looks uneasy, "But he isn't telling the truth."

She says, quietly, "My father often lost money, to guys like that."

Sokka looks at Aang, the airbender is bright-eyed and full of trust, and opens his mouth. "Aang! Isn't it lunch yet? Let's go find something to eat!"

Toph catches on and grabs Aang and the three of them go off in a pile of energy and arguments and laughter.

Sokka glances back and sees the guy with his face darkened.

.o0o.

The guard was just finishing up when the Water Tribe boy ambled up to his second and apparently asked for a spar. There was distrust twisting the faces of some men and boredom on others and a touch too much interest in a few more.

"You are dismissed." Jang said, firmly, and let his voice carry across the field. He halted his most trusted with his eyes and they strode to where this child-who-is-the-avatar's-companion is talking to Pei.

He chuckled and held his hand up at Pei's protest. Jang remembered rumors that this boy supposedly orchestrated the invasion, not to mention the defeat of the great air fleet. He wondered how much of that was truth.

"Let's see what this kid's got." He said, but warm and friendly. The kid's a spitfire and reminds him of his own.

"My name is Sokka," the boy said pointedly, a flash of miffed anger with two handfuls of good humor. Jang laughed.

"Well then, Sokka, let's get this started."

In truth, he was expecting a massacre and though he trusts Pei to hold back, he expected to have to step in to help the boy save face. In truth, he was expecting to be somewhat bored. Instead, he watched the spar wage across the field bemusedly, watched as Pei stopped holding back, this young Water Tribe against a Firebender seven years his elder who out-weighed him and out-reached him. You get to know a man, Jang thinks, by how he fights, and this water tribe is, is wincingly clumsy and unrefined, true, and is also surprisingly slippery and... ruthless. If that is the word.

He runs more than he faces dead on, weaves aside instead of holding his guard, uses the walls and the sand and the sun to confuse or blind his opponent, and mercilessly exploits all of the openings that either Pei let fall or that he himself creates.

Well, Jang watches as this 'Sokka' swerves aside at the last moment, almost all. The combatants skid to a stop and Pei raises a hand to call a halt.

Sokka settles with uncertainty in his face and his stance, a half-turn from changing it into a pose of defense; he knows, Jang thinks, that Pei knows that to not have swerved would've been a deathblow, but Sokka doesn't know if Pei would react in anger. Jang watches as Sokka glances at him and his men in the same way, then returns to hold his gaze on Pei, who looks back at Sokka steadily, the both of them heaving like horses. And Jang was about to start forward with a smile and congratulations, but Pei bursts out in an amazed laugh the moment he catches enough of his breath back, and booms, "That was well done!" And claps a heavy hand to Sokka's shoulder. (The boy wobbled, but stayed upright.)

It's like a signal, and it broke the shock, and his men surges forward in a friendly wave of back slaps and questions.

This, Jang thinks, is interesting, and suggests that they move to somewhere with refreshments. The Water Tribe immediately bursts in with his suggestion of a meat bun house; it doesn't surprise Jang that it is strategically near where his sister the Waterbending master and the Avatar has set up a relief clinic.

Then again, it does have the best meat buns in the city.

It almost convinces him. But then--

"So tell me about this Lien you've been hired to guard," the boy asks in a way not at all subtle. Jang stares. Such a request is quite unheard of, not to mention quite rude, but sincerity pours off the young man and no sign of deceit. And even though good intentions are nothing if they're not backed up with intelligence, and even though the Water Tribe looks, to be honest, somewhat stupid, his spar with Pei said different. (You get to know a man by how he fights.)

Lien fights dirty, this he knows, even if they've never crossed swords before. He opens his mouth to speak, quietly.

.o0o.

The evening ran long, but they had alot to talk about, much of which makes Sokka's eyes narrow. But despite some of the heavy words being shared, the camaraderie was present and warm especially after Sokka expressed his friendship with (and no few stories about) their new Fire Lord.

When finally it was time for them to disperse, Pei bowed to him, and Sokka scrambled up to do the same. He saw the respect in the eyes of Pei when he raised his head and turned to see the same respect in the eyes of Jang.

"When you need help, you can call on me," Pei said.

What felt like an eon ago and a lifetime again, Sokka, on the shores of his homeland, watched his father and their warriors leave. In that moment it struck him; he, who had always been the youngest, is suddenly the old. It felt sort of breathless, tasted of the heaviness of responsibility with the vague tang of fear.

It felt the same now, and Sokka doesn't yet know why.

.o0o.

end.

.o0o.

AN: Initially this was going to be an epic about how Sokka forms his spy network and sorta ends up in the White Lotus sideways. And then I got sidetracked by Naruto fandom. I may or may not continue this, if so, I'll take it off 'Complete'.