playinginsand | [AU: Kaylee in Eden]

Kaylee's listening to him with about half an ear as she crouches down next to it, then peers under at the mechanism.

"Look at this lìngrén jingyì coil you've got here," she says. "And the flux transmission - that's inspired. How long were you working on it before you worked..." she stops and there's a squeal. "That's a home-made T.G.-riser!"

Part of the reason why Sokka had never thought to be jealous of Iroh finishing the machine before he could is that he'd taught his nephew everything he knew. There were other teachers, of course, passing in and out of Eden, but there was no question of who had been the biggest influence in Iroh's work.

Which is why he is grinning as he stands beside her, hands slipped into his pockets. "Dui, tread caps aren't exactly sitting around here so we had to make our own out of clay. This part here," he crouches down beside her and leans in, pointing to a piece just beyond a tangle of wires, "see it? That's a re-worked piston set, clay under steel. I think it works better than standard copper but I don't think anyone would've thought of it if we hadn't had to improvise."

He wonders, for about two seconds, if she'll be proud of him for the single word of Chinese, or if she'll be impressed that he understood what she called the coil. Impressing Kaylee had been right up there on Sokka's scale of importance with impressing Harper and Wash.

...actually, for the first ten minutes he'd known her, fifteen and eager to please, Kaylee had been first on that scale of importance.

The Chinese washes right over her because there's just no reason to assume anyone couldn't speak Chinese.

Besides, he speaks machines, and that's more important to Kaywinnit Lee.

"

Cái búshì

! Clay under steel would hump out the natural resonance. But that means this... is that wood? Your nephew really knew what he was doing, huh?"

She disappears a little further under the machine, poking at it in a way that can't possibly harm it.

"Hey, have you tried bypassing this wire hub?"

"My nephew's brilliant," Sokka informs her and so long as the main topic is machines, his pride isn't tainted with sadness in the least. "Puts me and all his other teachers completely to shame.

"...it probably helps that the generator he saw me build when he was little was mostly clay and wood, too.

"Yeah, I thought about that, but it seems like it'd just be a waste of materials and not for much extra help, you know? We tried a few other things before we settled on that one like..."

It's always so nice to be able to dissolve into this sort of talk without thought to anything else.

"Oh yeah, I guess if you've got this..."

She tilts her head down, and looks at him. "You built a generator from scratch? Could I see?

Serenity

- that's my boat - she needs a new compression coil but work's been a little tight. You have any ideas?"

Yes, actually, he wants to say, blinking at her for a moment. I have a lot of great ideas because I spent half a year listening to you tell me all the ideas YOU had for it. I know which one you decided on, too, and I know how to build it because you had me help you between projects.

"...what kind of materials are you working with?" he asks instead, rising to his feet with a tight smile.

"Well, we ain't, right now," she says, "work's been tight, as I said. Hopin' the passengers we're takin' on at Persephone'd help with that, otherwise we're just kinda drifting."

She pushes herself out from under the machine. "I'm Kaylee, by the way."

"Sokka," he replies easily and, while it occurs to him for a moment, he doesn't try to place this Kaylee from the one he knew. A hand is offered, and a more relaxed smile. "Nice to-- uh, hen guixing renshi ni."

This time around, in Eden, it's not about impressing her so much as it is making sure the short time she spends here isn't spent freaking out in a panic. And randomly breaking into Chinese should cover that.

He hopes.

"Uhm... if you're near any salvage yards, a new enough compression coil should get you were you need to be, at least until you can buy a real new one."

"Oh yeah, that's what I figure," Kaylee says. "But if I can make a new one, it'd save us money and maybe I could get a new gravshaft."

Tha random Chinese certainly isn't doing any harm, but the machine talk is distracting her even from the getting home.

A better man would remind her of that, force her home.

A lesser man would keep up the shop talk for as long as he could for his own benefit.

"Y'know, if you can get some clay, I bet you could patch your regular one right up, with enough left over to make a whole new one when you need it. I know the coils are usually made out of something more flexible, but-- well..." Glancing back toward his building, the small two-story with the shop at the bottom and an apartment at the top, plus his blankets on the roof, Sokka rubs at his neck, suddenly sheepish.

"Actually, I could show you the one I put in on the generator. It's not exactly the same, but it's pretty close."

Even if he really, really should be getting her home.

He's a bad man, taking advantage of her weakness.

Maybe. It's not like she wouldn't ask if she wanted to go home.

"You'd do that?" she asks sweetly. "It ain't everyday a girl gets to see a generator made completely from scratch like this beauty."

If he notices the sweetness of her tone or suspects any sort of advantage-taking on her part, Sokka doesn't show it.

Smiling slightly and nodding toward his building, Sokka starts to lead the way. "It's really not that special. If we had the materials for it, we'd get a lot more power. But it gives enough for the lights and the alarm and anything else we need, usually."

She follows, but stops at the first light, laughing as she eyes the handiwork, and catches up with his longer stride.

"Have you been here long? Looks like you really made a home."

Glancing back to grin when she laughs, Sokka shrugs and slows to let her catch up easier. "Yeah, about six years. We set up what was necessary to live here-- speaking of which, if you're hungry, let me know and I'll show you over to the store."

Once they reach the building, Sokka leans in to open the door and steps back to let Kaylee get in first. The generator is against the far wall, humming steadily and radiating warmth in the chill of Eden.

"Shiny!" Kaylee exclaims, apparently not all that hungry after all.

"She's a real beauty!"

"Thanks." Now he's filled with pride, standing off to the side to let her get as close as she likes, but his eyes are on the machine as he grins. "I check it at least once a day, but I've only really had to do upkeep twice in six years."

"Well, they like to be cared for," Kaylee says, "once she's responding to you, it's just a matter of listening to her... oh listen to me. You know all about this anyway, right?"

She turns and grins at him; a real bright smile.

"You ever been in the black?"

He blinks at the brightness of that smile. It seems familiar somehow, that particular light in her eyes, and Sokka just slowly smiles back at her, nodding slowly. "Yeah, but it's been a while since someone passed through I could babble with, so don't worry about that."

As for the black, he's rubbing his neck again, letting his eyes move back to the generator as he shrugs. "Nope. Just in the, uh-- atmo, now and again."

"Shame," she says. "Somethin' special about a good responsive boat. It's more than just a few machines, not that machines ain't special."

But she's back looking at the generator again, peering around the back, where she finds blankets.

"See you camp our down here when she's sick, though," she remarks. You ever have sex down here?"

He smiles and ducks his head, nodding when she waxes poetic on her ship. "Yeah, I've heard that," is all he says, quiet.

Sokka looks up when she notes the blankets, opening his mouth to offer an explanation. The problem comes when he chokes on air a second later.

"Do-- I-- what?"

Kaylee's eyes go wide. "Have I said too much?" she asks with a nervous laugh. "You much think I'm some sort of guàipĭ de rén. I'm just stuck on my own in the engine room all day, and you must get girls passing through all the time, right?"

There is a fifteen year old in Sokka's brain right now squeeing. Fortunately, the twenty-three year old is quashing him under eight years of confusing sexual exploits.

"Uh," he begins, and figures it's probably a good thing he doesn't understand the Chinese. "No- no, I don't think you're a... it's just... uhm..."

He clears his throat and prays he's not blushing as hard as he thinks he is, blinking at her. "It's been... a long time." A beat and he grins a little, sheepish. "...most girls that pass through want to know me longer than twenty minutes. And that's just-- assuming they haven't gotten totally sick of me talking machines yet."

"Well, just forget I asked, then," Kaylee says easily. "It's been a long time for me too, is all. Hey, you know you've got a loose connection here, right?"

He doesn't come forward right away, brows drawing together with worry as he looks at her. This hadn't been on his mind when he saw her from the roof, nothing like it had been on his mind since he first met her. But that doesn't mean he isn't...

Intrigued. Intrigued is a good word. Besides, he doesn't want to insult her.

Taking slow steps to join her, Sokka frowns as he crouches beside her, trying to peer where she's pointing. "Where? I've got some tools up on the roof I can go get."

You know, if he turned his head to the side, he'd be very, very close to her face.

He would, wouldn't he?

"Here," Kaylee says, pointing directly at it. Then

she

turns

her

face to explain, and it treated to a close up of one of those scars.

"It's not urgent, but if one of the magnets slips, the whole thing'll go down in seconds."

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