playinginsand | [Rabbithole: Loo and Sokka, post Mikideath]

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[Rabbithole: Loo and Sokka, post Mikideath]

The Fire Palace is techincally a series of much smaller buildings grouped together and locked by walled footpaths and ornate gardens. The Imperial audience chambers are in the centre, near where the Royal family live in a smaller, heavily walled domicile. Guests are quartered in expansive rooms in one of the outer rings, a short walk away from the temple, used by all who live in the Palace.

One of the low buildings in the temple itself is dedicated to memorials to the departed. Smoke rises in thin worms from a thousand incense sticks, set before rolls representing the dead, individually or collectively. At the front, facing the worshipper as he enters, are twin rolls representing the parents of the current Fire Lord - one handsome king with his face marked by a hug burn scar, and one exotic looking blue eyed woman, sporting a scar of her own. As only four people in the world have ever met Melaka Fray, no one's arguing the likeness.

The victims of the recent border attack are in a temporary position next to Zuko. Each name is written out in perfect and careful calligraphy grouped by nation, and not one is left out, no matter who they might have been or which element they subscribed to. The sand in front of that scroll burns with more sticks than anywhere else, today.

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"Really?" Ursa asks, face lighting up with excitement and looking to her Mom for confirmation.

"What's her name?"

Sokka's grinning for her reaction, put a little more at ease for sending his daughter off to the Fire Nation if she's going to be received well. "Panya."

"Panya," Ursa repeats, loudly, laughing a little at the strangeness of the name. "Is she nearer my age than Meila and Roku's?"

Sokka tries not to smirk too much. If it were Zuko, he'd be making fun of his children's names, but as it is, he just smiles at the little girl and shakes his head. "Mm-mm, she's a little closer to the twins' age. Don't worry about her ganging up on you with them, though, Ursa - she's the youngest herself, she knows better than that."

Ursa's face falls anyway. "Aw. She'll want to hang out with them more, though."

"Maybe not," Sokka tries to reassure her, squeezing Ursa's hand again. "When her brother and sister are away, Panya's the oldest girl in the village. She's used to spending time with younger children anyway. Though, I should warn you, she'd rather spend time training than anything else."

"I'm the youngest in the whole palace," Ursa says sulkily. "Do you think she'd let me train with her?"

"Sweetie, the way Panya trains, I don't think she'd let you say no. She's never gotten to train with a Firebender before."

Ursa beams.

"Is she a Waterbender?"

Sokka grins back at her. "Nope. Just my daughter Sakari is - Miki fights like his mother and Panya got to train more with me."

"So training with her will be like training with you?"

Somehow this seems even more exciting than training with a waterbender.

"With a lot more bouncing around," Sokka agrees, nodding. "I'm too big to do all the flips and jumps my wife and Miki can-- but Panya learned from them when she was small, too, so she knows a bit of it."

He caught himself using present tense with Miki but... why point it out?

"I'll be allowed to train with her, won't I, Mom?"

Louise laughs. "Sparky, anything to tire you out. Now you should probably go tell your sister it's time to get ready for dinner."

"Go on!" Sokka agrees, swinging her up high to get her feet off the ground. "Don't forget to get all fancy for dinner."

Ursa laughs when she's swung up, but sighs dramatically at the thought of dinner.

"Don't forget you promised I could sit with you!" she tells Sokka firmly, before running up the ramp into a building.

Smiling, Louise waves as her daughter runs off, but her eyes are inexplicably damp.

"I won't!"

He doesn't say anything at first, or even turn to look at his niece. For the moment, Sokka stays watching as Ursa runs off. He's smiling but it's not all positive, something sad or nostalgic or...

Something.

"She's a good girl," he tells Loo quietly.

"That's what she wants you to think," Louise warns, but there's fond amusement in her voice.

"Well, I do have a history of thinking little girls are far too innocent than they really are..."

Sighing softly, Sokka finally turns back to his niece, smiling at her. It falters when he notes the shine in her eyes, though, and he reaches out to settle a hand on her shoulder.

And smiles again.

"So who else is going to be at this special dinner, huh?"

She shakes her head, rolling her eyes up. "Well, Toph and Aang, obviously. Zheng, Mai and the kids. Some of my colonels. And a list of dignitaries as long as my arm, Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. Oh, and Issorak arrived earlier with a huge entourage. He's acting like he's lost close personal friends."

Nodding absently to the list, eyes on the fountains, Sokka turns sharply to look at her when she mentions the Northern prince.

"...unannounced, I'm guessing, since I hadn't heard of this before." He sighs and curses softly, reaching up to tug on his wolftail. "He and Arnook have been sending messages nearly every week asking when Sakari will be back."

"When does he ever announce his arrival?" Louise says dryly. "He thinks we're a defeated nation."

Which technically they did, but even with reparations, the Fire Nation is still the richest country of the four, easily.

When he mentions Sakuri, Louise glances at him and sighs. "Tell them to rut off," she says firmly. "Sakuri needs mourning time."

"Everytime I start to tell them just that, Steph comes up with something even ruder and reminds me I should be at least attempting diplomacy," Sokka replies with a smirk, looking over at her. He sighs heavily and then leans back to put his arm around Loo's shoulders, hugging her far closer than necessary to tease.

"All right, let's go. But so you know, I prefer war on the field than at the dinner table - less people complain when I punch someone."

"Please," Louise says, turning towards the guest suite, "if you see me about to punch someone, get in there first. It'll cause fewer problems if you do it."

Catching sight of a servant, she calls out, and the girl stops, and bows.

"Hey... Kia, is it? Princess Ursa wants to sit next to Chief Sokka at dinner. Tell them I said so, OK? Oh, and put them at the other end from the Northern Water Tribe?"

"Yes, Princess," is the answer, and she hurries off.

"Now, that's not fair," Sokka replies, pouting as he walks with her. "How am I supposed to punch him if he's at the other end of the table from me?

"It'll only cause less problems if I do it because the Southern Tribe isn't considered a threat. I swear, every time I hear somebody say that or use the word 'barbarian,' I want to build another generator, mine for oil, and build my own damn flamethrower."

"Hey, I never said I didn't consider you a threat," Louise says. "You terrify me just as much today as you did the day you caught me running off to kill that alien."

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