playinginsand | [AU: Kaylee in Eden]

"I am," Sokka replies, grinning when he glances to Kaylee and then puts his eyes back on the generator, and the pride is there, obvious in his gaze. It wasn't his first invention and certainly not his biggest; he'd been more proud of the light and alarm system in Apocalyptica, his proudest had been the zeppelin.

But the generator... that was the first thing he built alone.

A pause and his grin is sheepish, laughing quietly at himself. "Even if my nephew was the genius behind the machine that'll take everyone home."

"Then it clearly runs in the family," Kaylee says with a laugh.

"Where is he now, your nephew?"

Grinning when she laughs, Sokka makes a face anyway, sitting back on his but with a knee up to rest his arm on. "He and his sisters used the machine to go back to the world my nieces were born on. He's got the plans he needs to make another machine and he was born here, so they'll come back when they're ready."

Though it wasn't-- supposed to take quite this long.

"Oh well, ain't that just shiny," Kaylee says. "Dimension hopping 'stead of planet hopping. Bet they get to meet all sorts of people."

"They were pretty excited about it," Sokka agrees, nodding. Though, perhaps his grin is a little forced now, a hint of tightness at the edges.

Suddenly, he wishes he'd spent more time building and less time upkeeping. So he'd have more material for changing the subject.

Oh, emo, right

Kaylee ducks forward, her smile gentler, but no less genuine.

"Guess you really miss 'em, huh?"

Awkward with the question, Sokka's hand is at the back of his neck, his eyes on the machine as he shrugs.

"They're family."

"Yeah," Kaylee says, sitting back, and rubbing the her own shoulder. "Guess I can understand that. Least they've made it so I don't have to worry 'bout missing my family."

"Right."

Tilting his head to look at her again, Sokka smiles and the hand that comes up to settle on her shoulder and squeeze is automatic. "Speaking of which... I mean, you're welcome to stay as long as you like, but I can fire it up whenever you're ready."

Kaylee's hand is already there, and she takes his hand when it touches hers. "Well, I don't reckon I'm in any hurry. Ain't like we were in the middle of anythin'."

His eyes dart to their hands, but his smile doesn't falter and he doesn't attempt to pull away. "If you're sure. I'm not going anywhere.

"...er, the machine. Well, I guess neither of us are going anywhere really.

"...was there something else you wanted to see?"

Other than Sokka setting the record for biggest foot shoved in a mouth?

It's natural, now, to just sit there, glancing up at the generator and around the room.

"What else is there to see?"

She's still got his hand, too, which is confusing Sokka terribly. Not to the point of asking her to let go, though, of course.

"Well," he begins slowly, glancing around the room, though it's empty save for the generator, and his eyes pause on one of the dark lights above them. "...actually, I could show you the lights, or just the alarms. They're both kind of linked."

"Shiny," is all she says.

Nodding once, and only a little awkward this time, Sokka stands and helps her up. It's not too hard, considering her hand is still in his. "They're upstairs," he says, pointing to the stairwell that used to have a door in front of it, blocking off the store bit from the apartment above. Sokka just found it easier to go tearing down the stairs if he didn't have to worry about slamming into a door.

"This is where I live - up on the roof - so I try to keep all the big stuff here, where I can get to it easy."

It doesn't even occur to Kaylee to drop his hand, using it to help herself stand and grinning at the perceived chivalry in a man helping a girl to stand up.

"That's a mighty fine idea," she says. "My bunk on

Serenity

's the other end from the engine room, so I spend a lot of nights sleeping with the motor."

Quiet for only a minute before his mouth gets ahead of his mind, Sokka has a hint of a smirk around his lips when he speaks. "...and that'd be why you asked me if I had sex down here?"

Oh, Kaylee, you naughty engineer, you.

Beat.

Then Kaylee squeals in laughter.

"Not like that!" she says, then adds, "though I do got whole other motors for that."

He grins when she laughs-- and then she gets him to crack up, a little pink in the cheeks but not shying away from the conversation anymore.

Or the contact.

"Listen," he says quietly as he leads the way to the stairs, "what I said before... I didn't mean... I mean, you're beautiful, obviously, and it's been a really long time since I was turned on that much just by looking at a generator..."

"Oh, I get turned on by lookin' at generators all the time..." Kaylee starts to explain. Then she stops walking.

"You really think I'm beautiful?"

"That much," Sokka repeats, but his grin shows that he's kidding.

A little.

She stops walking and Sokka can't go much further, with their hands still locked. Besides, the question stops him dead anyway and he has to spend the next few moments blinking at her.

"...you've got to know that... I mean, you do have mirrors on your ship, right?"

"Some o' the engine parts are kinda shiny," Kaylee allows. "An' there's more'n a few mirrors in the Amassador's shuttle, but I ain't exactly her."

He laughs at that, grinning at her, still a little dumbfounded by her reaction. "Well, hell, Kaylee, you don't need to look like someone else to be-- well, yeah, beautiful. You're not the first girl I've ever seen and I can still see it."

It's easier since he thought the same thing eight years ago, but he probably didn't need the help.

"Now I know you just ain't had a good roll for a long time," Kaylee remarks lightly.

He doesn't answer quite as quickly, giving her a halting, "--M-a-ybe." But the smile is genuine and the shrug is sheepish and he gives her hand a slight squeeze. "Doesn't mean I haven't seen people and... anyway, I wouldn't flatter you for sex. You offered before saying anything, I'm just trying to tell you why I'm... surprised about the offer."

Because she's beautiful and brilliant and has no idea who he is.

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