Chapter Text
As the first week of their new guest’s stay with them comes to a close, Sokka isn’t sure how to feel about Lala. She had gotten a new parka so she didn’t look like she was drowning in fur anymore, but the young warrior still couldn’t help but give her a suspicious look as she helped his sister build the wall of their newest snow fort. And not just because she had decided to team up with Katara again for their snowball war. No, it was because mom had pulled him and Katara aside yesterday when dad was showing Lala how to start a fire, and told them she was from the fire nation.
Katara didn’t seem to get why it mattered. Lala was nice and she liked sharing a room with the other girl, even after the ‘doll incident’.
Lala never even said sorry from what he had heard. She did promise though ‘not to throw a kitchen knife at Katara’s new earth kingdom doll’ a suspiciously specific promise…
Despite ‘I’m sorry’ never leaving her lips, she did seem to learn a new sentence after the incident, ‘I don’t want to’. And it seemed there was plenty she didn’t want to do. Playing with dolls? ‘I don’t want to.’ Playing house? ‘I don’t want to.’ Petting the baby otter penguin Sokka found? ‘I don’t want to.’
But even with her lack of recent knife throwing, Sokka wasn’t so sure about her. He remembers the last fishing trip he had gone on with the men. Some of the older sailors were telling stories about fire nation raids. How soldiers in steel had attacked their villages. Had burned their ships. How all they knew how to do was destroy.
Sokka thinks about those stories, and isn’t sure how the truth of them could match up with the image of Lala and Katara drawing their names on their snow fort and laughing over some joke he can’t hear.
All attempts of trying to reconcile those two thoughts however, are tossed from his head as a ball of snow crashes into his face.
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Sokka dragged his feet as the trio made their way back home for dinner. Even with help from the boys in the village, Katara and Lala had led the village girls to a crushing victory in the snowball war. The two young leaders happily talking about their victory through giggles and bright smiles.
Now that the snow has stopped flying, Sokka’s mind wanders back to his old train of thought. Lala seemed nice, but they still barely knew anything about her. Why was she staying with them instead of some fire nation family? Mom had mentioned that her parents couldn’t take care of her anymore but why not?
Before he can think more, his questions tumble from his lips, “Hey Lala, what happened to your family?”
The girls in front of him come to a sudden halt. The echo of laughter hanging in the silent air as his sister shoots daggers at him with her glare. “Sokka! You can’t ask her that!”
“What? Why? I just wanna know?” He shot back, embarrassment rushing across his face.
His sister stomps towards him in a huff, her gloved hand poking him in the chest as she scowls up at him, “Because! She-“
“They left.” Lala’s quiet words are enough to cut off the bickering siblings who are now both behind her. A hand brushes across her face before she turns towards them, an indifferent expression freshly plastered on. “Mother and brother left me to die in the earth kingdom.”
The whiplash from the content of her words and the apathy in her tone stun the siblings. Their confusion over her lack of emotion mixing with their heartbreak at the words.
“It really shouldn’t have surprised me. She did always love him more.” The walls of her detached mask start to crack so she hides it behind checking her nails. A technique that only moves to concern the siblings more when she forgets she’s wearing mittens.
Sharing a look, the siblings step forward and Katara puts a comforting hand on the younger girl’s shoulder. Oblivious to the way she tenses at the touch, “I’m sorry Lala. Your mom and brother were wrong to do that.”
It takes the firebender a moment to process her words. Of course it hurt that her mother and brother abandoned her, but were they really wrong? Katara had already started to see what kind of monster she was, but still she thinks they were wrong? She eventually responds with a simple nod, not trusting her voice at that moment not to waver. Her veneer of indifference was getting harder and harder to keep up.
In a far more gentle voice than before, Sokka asks, “What about your dad.”
This time her apathetic facade isn’t able to hold. Not with two sets of sapphire eyes on her. Not with the wave of grief threatening to drown her. She tilts her head towards the ground hoping maybe they won’t actually hear her. Won’t hear how her voice trembles when she tries to hide from the words. “He’s dead.”
The silence follows is a sharp contrast to the joyous laughter that filled the air only minutes prior. With only the whistling of sub zero winds to add sound to the eerie scene. Gaa! Why can’t I keep my mouth shut! This is worse than that time I told Katara the solstice spirit wasn't real!
Wracking his brain for a solution, a memory floods his mind unabated. Tukkiya had held a funeral for his pet reindeer dog. Sokka was only eight at the time so he hadn’t know what to say, not that being ten now made a difference, but he remembers the small service the older boy held. They’d returned the reindeer dog’s body to the sea, as they did with the bodies of all the tribesmen. Out on the sailing ship, he’d watched the teenager fall apart. And he watched as the other men comforted him. Some silently through a comforting touch, others lend an ear for him to grieve. For him to just talk about the loved one he’d lost.
Lala didn’t always respond well to touch, but maybe…
“Do you… want to talk about him? Tell us, what was your dad like?”
Latching on to Sokka’s words like a life line, she wipes her eyes and wills her tears back. His question giving her direction, giving her something to do other than fall apart. “He was the strongest fighter EVER!”
She shoots the water tribe boy a defiant glare, daring him to say otherwise. Even after less than a week she had caught on to the older boy’s argumentative disposition. A disposition she normally enjoyed immensely. But not now, not about her father.
“A-and he wanted to make me and my bro-” too weak flames flash through her mind. An embarrassing display of bending as her brother flounders across the throne room. The downward tilt of her father’s lips at the disturbance. “H-he wanted to make us strong like him.”
“But, grandfather didn’t think he was as strong as uncle. Didn’t think he was strong enough… a-and…” the words catch in her throat as the tears she battled back slip free. The heels of her palms try and press with all their might to push the rebellious tears back, but to little avail. The sub zero air catching onto the tears like fire on oil, the burning cold making it hard to stop even more tears from falling.
A sob escapes the fire princess as the water siblings encase her in a warm embrace from both sides. Like a castle wall trying to block out invaders. A warm igloo, blocking out the storm. Above the crying girl, Sokka and Katara share a determined look. Silently promising to themselves, each other, and Lala, that they wouldn’t abandon her like her old family.
He wasn’t strong enough to survive. He wasn’t strong enough and now he’s dead. He wasn’t strong enough and now I’m alone. I wasn’t strong enough. I wasn’t strong enough and now I have nothing. All goes unsaid as the proud princess tears through the comforting shelter of the water siblings, and rushes off.
Her ears not hearing as the siblings shout after her. Her feet cut the twists and turns of the igloos at harsh angles, too fast for the older kids to keep up before they lose sight of her. Which is how they fail to see when she goes sprinting out of the village towards a particular valley.
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It’s less than an hour later that Hakoda finds her.
The flashing of blue flames is visible far before the little bender. The encroaching winter violently pushed back as he enters the valley. A wave of heat pouring over him as he steps over melting snow. The controlled bonfire he saw only a few days ago is long gone, in its place is a raging inferno.
Walking towards Lala is like walking through a forest fire. Her silk smooth forms have been superseded by twitchy explosions of muscle. Power begetting power as she telegraphs a full body punch towards an invisible opponent. Said invisible opponent no doubt falling to the mass of flame that followed.
If Hakoda thought Katara throwing a tantrum was bad, this was another level. Instead of the wall of their family igloo, he isn’t sure how much of the village would be left if Lala hadn’t had the sense to flee to her bending hide away.
But despite the sweat sliding down the side of his face, and the discomfort he felt in his suddenly too warm parka, the chief of the southern water tribe didn’t try to interrupt. Didn’t make a move to quell the raging fires of the grieving seven year old. His children had come running home terrified after having lost their guest. Their words jumbled together as they rushed to tell him what happened. He was out the door towards the little hide away long before they had finished. Kya sharing a silent look with him she began comforting their children, assuring them they had done everything right.
A terrifying axe kick sent a pillar of fire crashing into the hill only a dozen feet from him. But the chief still didn’t reprimand her for her lack of control. How could he? He was only a few years her senior when Kanna became a single parent to him. When the fire nation ripped apart his family the same way it had Lala’s.
A wise woman of the village had told him some time later that grief came in stages. But if you had asked him then, all it left was rage. Rage at the soldier that had raided the village. Rage at the sailors who brought them. Rage at the village for not having stronger defenses. Rage at his tribesmen for not fighting back harder.
He had thrashed and ripped and tore anything he could sink his teeth into. Like a reindeer pup that had gone feral. Or a polar bear dog chewing through its leash. So when he turned sixteen, and the then chieftain was taking volunteers to intercept fire nation supply ships, he had been in the front of the line. His spear and machete had found homes all along the seas of the southern earth kingdom.
So no, he didn’t deny Lala the destructive outlet she needed. Not when the sun began to tip below the hills, nor when her flames started feeling more like a hearth and less like a house fire. Not even when her ragged breaths sounded more like sobs. He, stood back, letting her feel everything she had been too afraid to.
And when her flames stopped coming, and her foot work gave out, he swooped in, catching her as she fell. At the tensing of his touch he was quick to rescind his grip. Not missing the slight flinch as he moved too quickly. Too soon for a comforting hand it seemed, he just sat in front of her, any motion slow and telegraphed. Like trying to reassure a lost polar bear pup. Or an abandoned polar bear pup.
He fought the urge to wrap up the pup in his parka. As if he could battle away her grief if he held her close enough. But that would only scare her right now. No for now, he just sat with her, a light house for her sail towards when the waters became too dark.
As her sobs slowed, she finally acknowledged him. Shooting him a glance that was as confused as it was defensive. Asking what he wants while also searching for what she was supposed to do.
And while Hakoda would never claim to be the wisest even despite his title as chieftain, he knew the answer to both of those questions. He offered his hand, slow, so as to not startle the wounded pup. And his faith was rewarded as she slowly reached to take it. Both of her small hands finding purchase in his larger one. He gave her a reassuring squeeze as he pulled them both to their feet. Ignoring how she clung to his hand like a life line. The walk back was quiet, but he felt certain from the grateful look in her eye that that's what she needed right now. A life line to hold onto when the waves grew too tall. A calm shelter in the storm.