playinginsand | AU: Street Eden

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AU: Street Eden

People who have known Sokka since he was fifteen, sixteen, or even seventeen have often shared a common hope - that he will, eventually, calm the hell down about his work. Or at least cut down on the questions and excited babbling.

At thirty-four, Sokka is dangling from the roof of one of the two-story buildings in Eden, sitting in a sling constructed entirely of scavenged blankets, replacing a broken bulb in one of the lights they'd long installed on the street. The source of the blood they found on the walls from the beginning was known now and, honestly, they all felt better knowing there was light on the street in the middle of the night.

So.

Dangling Sokka from a roof, replacing a bulb and checking out the wires. Possibly whistling. Though it might be a yowling animal of some sort. As Zuko likes to say, Sokka couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.

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"Eh." Hana shrugs. "He's whiney. And the 'my uncle's more evil than yours' game gets boring after a while. Plus I reckon he was only going out with me 'cause I remind him of someone back home."

Stupid boys.

"Who, you? You're one of a kind, Hana. And your dad and I thank the spirits everyday for that little piece of luck."

Filling up his toolbelt and grabbing onto the top of the sling, Sokka scrambles up onto the roof - not unlike a monkey. (or Harper, but Hana doesn't know that) And, having done this, sits on the edge with his legs dangling over to drape an arm around his niece's shoulders. "How d'you feel about it? You guys weren't together long."

But it must have been nice having someone her own age around.

Hana shrugs out of the hug, because it's embarrassing to be hugged by your uncle. She doesn't move away, though.

"I'm fine," she says, although it's not like she'd tell him if she wasn't. "Not sure what I saw in him, really. I'm over it."

It's not so much a hug as a place to rest his arm. Besides, they're up high. Sokka has no qualms about tugging her back in and ruffling her hair. "Don't worry, I'll tell all the cool kids I paid you to let me hang on you.

"Over it already? That was quick. Or did this happen weeks ago and you were waiting until I was working with electricity to tell me?"

Hana tilts her head and gives him a Look.

"We've only been dating for a couple of weeks," she says.

Sokka returns this look. He invented the browraise, young one.

"Doesn't mean you didn't like him." A pause and he makes a face, looking out over the street. "Though I liked Marco more than him. At least he was funny."

He can say these things because he's the uncle, and also because Harry was whiny.

"Yeah, but he was a really bad kisser."

Hana stops and makes a face.

"I can't believe I just told you that."

Sokka is too busy laughing to pay attention to that face. "Don't worry, my faint hope that you'd stay three forever ended when you turned six. I figured you were kissing somebody."

"That's 'cause you're cooler than Dad," Hana says, this time leaning on him. "Dad looked like he was gonna roast Marco alive when he found out."

Beat.

"That'swhyhedoesn'tknowaboutHarryandyou'renotgonnatellhimright?"

"Actually I am. You know why? I secretly have a fetish for being set on fire." Ruffling her hair again, Sokka tilts his head to butt against hers lightly. "Don't worry about it. As long as your dad keeps his 'kill the messenger' mentality, all of your secrets are safe with me."

A pause is inserted here so he can use the hand in her hair to turn her face toward him and frown.

"That is not an invitation to use me as your personal confessional so you don't have to worry about consequences."

"Gotcha," Hana says, with a smirk. "Not that I've got anything that needs confessing or anything."

Smirking back, Sokka tilts his head. "'Course not. You come and visit me while I'm working all the time. I know how much you loooooove building things. Want to hear my lecture about the hydraulic engine again?"

He tortures because he cares.

Hana does her very best to look tortured, as well.

"Un-cle!" she protests. "Can't it wait Iroh's finished training?"

"But Iroh actually tells me when something's bothering him and why," Sokka whines right back, pouting at her. "I have to use a totally different technique to get him to talk. You're not going to try and mess up my system, are you? It's been working so well for all these years."

Hana scowls at him. It's a special scowl that she didn't learn from either parent, but just seems to come naturally.

Then she's looking at her knees again.

"It's not anything new or important or anything."

It could be said that it's Azula's scowl except that, Sokka finds, it's hard to compare them without murder and soulless-ness behind Hana's eyes.

With his arm around her, Sokka just stay quiet, squeezing her shoulder rhythmically. He will do this until the end of time - or until she tells him.

"Harry says that he used to get dreams if something really important or evil was happening," Hana starts.

It's a random place to start but it's what's made her think of it all again.

The squeezing continues. He may not have known Harry that well, but he knows Hana wouldn't have cared about Harry's dreams unless there was something else they applied to.

"He says they're different from other dreams. Really vivid - all the sights and sounds and smells and stuff, it's like he's really there," she explains. Then she's silent for a long time, kicking the brick work idly, trying to figure out how to get where she's going.

"I get dreams like that all the time."

Well, that's... unexpected.

Frowning slightly, Sokka stops squeezing her shoulder, tilting his head to try and look at her. "And Harry's dreams... they come true?"

"I think so," Hana says. "It's not like, y'know future dreams or stuff. They were about things this evil guy was doing at the same time. He wasn't quite clear on the details.

"And he started yelling when I asked him any more."

And then Hana had thrown fire at him and... it hadn't been pretty.

Sokka can guess. Which is why his concerned look has a hint of parental Oh God Not Again to it. But he'll lecture later.

"So you're worried your dreams are gonna come true, too. Are they like his? You're watching somebody do something?"

Honestly, by this point, the idea of someone's dreams coming true, premonitions, or transference... it's not quite mundane but neither is it a huge shock anymore.

"No," says Hana. "I'm... I'm doing it. Fighting, mostly. But it's not here. It's... I don't know where it is. It's always somewhere different. But it's never anywhere like Eden."

He doesn't say anything at first but that's because Sokka is watching her, waiting for Hana to finish a thought. She's never shied away from fighting before - just training.

"...who're you fighting?" he prompts.

It's not that she's shying away, she's just confused.

"Monsters," she says promptly. "Only they're not. Not like the ones we have here. They look like humans, but they're not that either."

She brings up her hands to her brows and makes grabby motions, incating a raised ridge.

"They're all bumpy."

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