#a tad more introspective than expected

[batfambrainrotbeloved]

SOMEONE MADE A FIC INSPIRED BY MINE?? AND YOU SHOULD READ-

Fic Summary- Tim Drake died and woke up possessing the body of an alternate version of himself who also just had died.

The new reality he found himself in, appeared to be a parallel Earth with a future as close as any other alternative Earth, until the point where Tim never became Robin, or even more than just neighbours with the Waynes, instead becoming the most stereotypical affluent, obnoxious, nuisance he could be.

Having a reputation that might as well make him the metaphorical love child of Brucie Wayne and Lex Luthor, Timothy Drake seemed to embody all that was wrong with the rich. This made finding a way home a tad more difficult than he had originally anticipated. That is, if there even was a way home to be found.

* Yellow_sprouts' fic 'The Drakes Spoiled Brat. (im sorry dad)' inspired this one. I obtained their permission to write this, and I encourage everyone who reads it to read their fantastic fic!

My impression + Link below!!

@Narratiuncula has a very descriptive and introspective writing style- really set the scene for what to expect both from Tims perspective (which is always essential considering everyones interpreatation differs) on both himself and his family. Even in chapter one sets up the "old" Tim just through Tims eyes + Analysis and then sets up the future scene where he has to start adapting to this new life.

Predictions im already getting the vibe for a more morally ambigious Tim or at the very least more serious vibe than I have in my work but still maintains a level of humor throughout. Im getting at some lovely family conflict since in my AU "Timothy Drake" was an act- but in this version hes a whole other person so we shall see how it plays out.

Anyways y'all should check it out- its only on chapter 1 but I already have my popcorn bucket and everything

[readingrobin]

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain. 

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe. -Storygraph

I've always had a hard time trying to break into the sci-fi genre. I don't know if it has to do with the common settings, tropes, or themes typically associated with it, but there's always been something that keeps me from seeking out these stories and really enjoying them. Whatever the case, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet easily became one of the outliers of this issue, right alongside The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to which it feels like its distant, more emotional cousin.

At first, I was surprised at the more character-driven nature of the story. It focuses more on the journey to the titular small, angry planet, where the crew takes various pit stops and detours, whether to gather supplies or visit old friends and family. Surprisingly, the main conflicts come more from the interpersonal relationships of the characters rather than the world at large, though there are greater threats that appear in the book's third act to introduce more dire stakes. From what science fiction I have read, there is a greater emphasis on story driven content, where conflicts are typically more physical and the characters develop through that rather than their connections with each other. This quality of the story definitely gives a breath of fresh air to the genre, or to me at least.

While the tone is fairly laid back, the characters are what truly keep the book moving. Following a cast of ragtag, lovable weirdos, this book exudes the oh so wonderful found family trope, where no matter how many disagreements they have or what trouble they find themselves in, they're in it together. Chambers gives a chance for each member of the crew to shine, making the most out of the ensemble cast. I think I liked the Wayfarer's pilot, Sissix, the most, as it was so interesting to see a nonhuman character try to navigate situations through human terms. Her species is highly affectionate, having no qualms about intimate displays of touch in public settings, which naturally isn't going to fly well with those who are more influenced by human social standards. As a result, she has to hold back what comes so naturally to her, which, in turn, gives her a bit of discomfort. 

What Chambers does so well in this story is depict cultural differences not as a way to keep people apart or deem them "inhuman," but as a way to better understand others. There are moments when the differing perspectives of the crew clash, but ultimately, they remain respectful. No one is in the right or the wrong simply because to judge a species' custom or belief through the lens of their outsider's views that come from their own, differing culture is a tad unfair. To accept these differences is to better know and connect with those that come from different walks of life and to share them is for them to better know us in return. The inclusion of aliens that actually feel like beings distinct from humans leads to an engaging diversity that prompts discussion about our own values and why we may possibly think the way we do.

If I had one criticism, it would be that there were some scenes that seemed a bit disconnected, that there were events that were mentioned, but mostly glossed over or were told rather than shown. But really  it wasn't enough to bring the book down as a whole. This was an excellent feel good session in space and I really can't wait to see what other worlds Chambers has in store.

(4/5)

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 06/04/2024 (Beyoncé's COWBOY CARTER)

Welp, as one would expect, she gets the double, the #1 album with COWBOY CARTER and “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” is back up top. Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

As always, we shall start with our notable dropouts - songs exiting the UK Top 75, which is what I cover, after five weeks in the chart or a peak in the top 40 - and this week, we bid adieu to some big deals: “FRI(END)S” by V (more BTS on the way), “BURN” by Hitler and Goebbels, “Coal” by Dylan Gossett, “Grey” by Yung Filly, “Selfish” by Justin Timberlake, “redrum” by 21 Savage, “Nothing Matters” by The Last Dinner Party, “Strangers” by Kenya Grace and finally, “Escapism.” by RAYE featuring 070 Shake.

As for our returns, we see “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus and “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi back to bottom-dwell at #75 and #74, alongside “vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo at #71, “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac, they’re basically all in the same boat. Notable gains on the other hand… we see boosts for “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift at #67, “if u think i’m pretty” by Artemas at #52, “FE!N” by Travis Scott featuring Playboi Carti at #50, “Never be Lonely” by Jax Jones and Zoe Wees at #41, sigh, “Been Like This” by Meghan Trainor and T-Pain at #40, SIGH, “Evergreen” by Richy Mitch & the Coal Miners at #38, “Slow it Down” by Benson Boone at #27 (likely even further next week thanks to the album), “Happier” by The Blessed Madonna and Clementine Douglas at #26, “Back on 74” by Jungle at #25 (what a great new run this is having), “Belong Together” by Mark Ambor at #22, and finally, Artemas gets his first top 10 with “i like the way you kiss me”. I mean, at least it’s interesting.

Now our top five should look pretty familiar: “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)” by Ariana Grande at #5, “Too Sweet” by Hozier at #4, “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims at #2 and of course Bey knocks Benjamin Boonerang off the #1 to #2 with “Beautiful Things”. Now to talk about - let’s be real - Beyoncé and some minor cameos.

New Entries

#64 - “NEURON” - j-hope, Gaeko and YOON MIRAE

Produced by Pdogg

So, j-hope of BTS released an album - or it seems more like a mixtape - that landed at #38 on the albums chart thanks to the classic BTS sales. Whilst there doesn’t appear to be a clear single on the project, especially considering j-hope was always more of a rapper in the group, but this got the video treatment and is very much what I expect from j-hope, at least from the very little I’ve heard of his solo work. It’s got a set of blissful pads against a vocoder sample and surprisingly heavy-hitting boom bap drums, as well as sing-songy rap flows in a nasal, almost J. Cole-like delivery that could be about love but keep it vaguer in the verse, it might be more conscious and spiritual, especially considering the focus on neuron activation. Gaeko is a lot more explicitly introspective, looking back on his life and how he’s not as aggressive as he used to be in his youth, finding more solace in playing ball with his son that “embracing the bomb” - some of the Genius translation could miss out some detail or context here. Now YOON MIRAE, a female rapper, really brings the heat here, as the intensity of the pianos ramp up, the beat gets a tad more minimal and she raps bilingually in a deeper yell than either of the guys here can cough up. She speaks somewhat generically of the rap game and motivation to grind, but her riffing on the final chorus is what convinces me, as well as her acknowledging that she’s granted the beat drop in the song, it shows an awareness of the structure of the song and not just being a guest rap verse, it’s clever and interesting, really puts the verse into perspective. So I ended up really liking this - it’s a bit fluffy, as K-pop often is, but it’s got grit and meaning to it this time around, and with the variety in flows, focused content, I can dig this.

#62 - “Jump” - Tyla, Gunna and Skillibeng

Produced by Sammy Sosa

I quite liked Tyla’s self-titled debut, currently at #33 on the albums chart. The South African singer brings a reassuring, youthful joy to detailed production and it’s all a light, feathery bliss that’s just a delight to sit through, even if the record is clearly not for sitting. I have a full first-impressions review on my RateYourMusic listening log (the account is exclusivelytopostown) if you want more thoughts on that, but my favourite moments on the album are when guest features with a little more smolder are brought in to balance the sweetness, like with Tems on “No. 1” and with Gunna and Jamaican deejay Skillibeng on this track, “Jump”, which has a subtle sprinkling of Afrobeats guitars and keys over the very unsubtle rhythm section, a great deep bass and busy drums that can counter the choir vocals in the verses as well as Tyla belting a tad on the chorus. There’s little substance to it - it’s just about being hot and having fun, with a hilariously repetitive post-chorus, but both Tyla and Gunna shout out her native Johannesburg and if you were expecting anything of further depth, you’re just listening to the wrong album. This is a lot of fun and I hope it catches on.

#61 - “I LUV IT” - Camila Cabello featuring Playboi Carti

Produced by El Guincho and Jasper Harris

Sometimes I wish this show was a video series. For this entry, I would probably just point and laugh at the calculated attempt to be interesting, for a demographic I’m a part of, and failing so catacylismically that no-one is buying it or bothering to listen more than once. I don’t mean to be harsh, and I’m not blaming the artists, more so the label and marketing teams: when releasing a pop single, you first have to consider - who is this for? Who can you appeal to and how? Here, Camila has her own fanbase already, so she’s going to try and appeal to them, naturally. Also, it has a very edgy, cinematic video for fans of say, The Weeknd or people who watch Euphoria. Sure, okay, that could work. Oh, and the song sounds like Charli XCX - though she recruited ROSALÍA’s producer - so she’s trying to appeal to her hyperpop crowd, that’s fine, you’re stretching yourself a bit thin there though, it could be a bit too camp for the edgy crowd if you do that, and a bit too dark for the hyperpop crowd if you get Playboi Carti on board, because I guess she needs a rap crossover audience… or at least an experimental rap crossover audience in this case. At least she’s not using a nostalgia-bait sample of a Gucci Mane song from… oh, she’s using a nostalgia-bait sample of a Gucci Mane song from 2009. Okay, so I guess the target demographic is everyone now, but hyperpop fans like authenticity, and this clearly doesn’t have it. Carti fans hate women, Camila’s own fans, if her old comments are anything to go by, hate… “rappers”, let’s say that. And really, what person who would be nostalgic for Gucci’s “Lemonade” - never charted here, by the way - would even be keeping an eye out for Camila Cabello? This is just a travesty of a lead single… and the song’s brilliant, all of that context just makes what the eventual end product is completely hilarious.

I’ve always been an advocate for mess in pop music - not necessarily the discourse, but the music itself and the rollout surrounding it - because it is exciting and part of the reason I do this show. There are more fascinating stories to be told with music when it reaches a mass audience, it’s just natural, and that’s especially interesting when the song is a Goddamn trainwreck that’s catchy as sin and does everything wrong. There are rage synths that don’t last the entire measure for no reason - and they don’t try and hide it - whilst the synths on the chorus play the role of a theremin. Cabello not being able to sing all that well means that her playing staccato, hyperpop robo-girl over a pretty rote Jersey club groove actually goes really well for her, even if she inexplicably decorates the song in breathy ad-libs as if she herself was Playboi Carti. Speaking of ad-libs, they leave in Gucci’s original “brr”s in the chorus, seemingly out of either laziness or refusal to re-record the choir hook, and given both hooks are just mantras, there are basically two choruses instead of an active chorus/post-chorus dynamic, especially since there is no considerable change sonically or tonally between the two. This lack of structure culminates in a “bridge” that is JUST multi-tracked ad-libs, and features Cabello saying “slow down, baby”… the tempo remains the same entirely and the drums don’t go into half-time like they probably should for a Playboi Carti feature. He goes for his deep, richer voice and the song just kind of… ends with his verse? Barely catching up to the beat, Carti rambles as usual, even less coherent in his mumbling than usual, and eventually, Cabello tries to insert herself into his orbit, it’s so painful. It’s telling that when I search for this song on Spotify, the artists recommended to me are Carti, Charli and then Ken Carson and Lancey Foux. Camila herself is nowhere to be seen in that list of artists and whether that’s because there’s none of her personality in this song or she didn’t have any to begin with is a question for another day. For now, this is garbage. I love it.

#60 - “Outside of Love” - Becky Hill

Produced by PARISI

Now Becky Hill kind of has something to prove to me now, she’s been on increasingly better production that fits the places she wants to go with her voice a lot more as of recent and it’s been pretty promising. Also promising are PARISI, a duo who I mostly connect with Fred again.. but have also worked extensively with Ed Sheeran, and particularly on some of his most interestingly layered songs vocally like “Afterglow” and “Visiting Hours” which may be a coincidence but had me really excited for what the boys could do with Ms. Hill. Turns out it probably was a coincidence, the vocal mixing is kind of mediocre actually, they don’t really contain her belting very well, not that it really needs containing given this is fully in festival mode. Everytrinkling synth pad, house kick, it feels like it’s a constant light fluttering under Hill’s desperate attempt to jigsaw this relationship back together. I know it’s an EDM-pop track so the lyrics are little to write home about but it should still be said that the description of herself as on the “outside of love” is interesting imagery, it makes me wonder what could be done with that concept by a more poetic writer who has a bit more time and, let’s be real, a fitting sonic palette for that kind of lyricism. Whilst this hasn’t immediately clicked with me as much as the past two, I feel I’ll appreciate this one for just being a maximalist bop with terribly-mixed gospel-like vocals on the final drop, it goes for an onslaught of everything in a very admirable way. It’s cute, it reminds me of when 2000s Eurodance hits would go way harder than they needed to simply to raise the dramatic stakes. So yeah, another Becky Hill song I like. World’s crumbling.

#9 - “II MOST WANTED” - Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus

Produced by Beyoncé, Shawn Everett, Michael Pollack, Miley Cyrus and Jonathan Rado

So, there’s a Beyoncé album, I think? It’s got a country and western tinge to it. Heard it’s long, heard it’s pretty good. Haven’t heard it. I probably will not listen to it and I’m not saying that to be “cool” or contrarian because if I were, I’d have listened to it and pretended to hate it. Realistically, I don’t have a dog in the Beyoncé does country argument. I’m not a country fan, or a country hater, I’m not a big Beyoncé fan, or Azealia Banks, so I have nothing valuable to contribute to the discourse as well as no reason to hear a damn near feature-length record. When Beyoncé did house, firstly, she did it well, and secondly, I’m a fan of house music! I know more about it than other genres, I’m quite educated in certain subgenres and I recognised a few of the samples and cultural references she was lifting from on RENAISSANCE. I feel like most of them may be lost on me or not fully resonate when discussing her pivot to country music, and I wish that wasn’t the case. Part of me just wants to say that I listen to Weezer and future bass so leave me alone. Thankfully, the British public has given me the easiest plate of two tracks from this album: a Dolly Parton cover and a mid Miley duet. It’s about being a ride-or-die, it’s got soaring guitars and both ladies have an audible rasp and grit to their voices, even if Miley ends up like a backing vocalist at times to Bey. They’re trading lyrics or in harmony nearly all the time, and Miley plays it a lot calmer than Bey, naturally, who probably wants and needs to prove herself in country pop more than the seasoned player. Hell, I actually think their chemistry here is awkward and not accentuated by the vague western-soundfont lyrics that don’t play into any notable angle, and in the bridge, just kind of give up on themselves. It’s a bit disappointing, to say the least.

#8 - “JOLENE” - Beyoncé

Produced by Beyoncé, Khirye Tyler, Jack Ro and NOVA WAV

Dolly Parton’s iconic 1973 jam “Jolene”, begging desperately for this beautiful woman not to cheat on her husband, is pretty undeniable, right? Well, I’ve never really liked it, sorry to say. My taste in country is pretty horrific, I’ll be the first to admit, but I’ve always found the instrumentation underwhelming and going for sinister when Dolly is selling it with a long of strength and desperacy, like she’s at her last tether. The sapphic elements are compelling of course, but they collapse in the third verse, then it fades out having sonically done nothing much at all. There’s always been something breezy about it to me that I never really understood, and that’s no disrespect to Dolly, she’s easily my favourite part. Regardless, this is one of those times where I have to give a chart history, so flashback to 1976, when “Jolene” first lands on the UK charts and peaks at #7, when “Combine Harvester” by the Wurzels was #1. I know that one because of my dad, if you haven’t heard that song… you know what, don’t.

“Jolene” was Dolly’s first top 10 over here and ended up re-entering a few times in the 2010s. Before that came many re-imaginings. First, in 1985, we had Glasgow’s Strawberry Switchblade cover the song, in a weird mix of new wave, freestyle and western elements that really show what performative country aesthetics can be, because this has more to do with darkwave than anything from the Deep South. It peaked at #53 and it is terrible. The 2000s is where the covers really ramped up, firstly in 2000 with the #100-peaking cover by London alt-rock outfit Queenadreena. Seemingly not on streaming, it came with their original, “Pretty Polly”, and fully goes into the dark cabaret aesthetic, especially in that... choice of a music video. I think I might prefer it to the original, it makes Jolene sound like an evil woman who I would like to step on me. We also saw a #99 peak for a song in 2007 by folk singer Ray LaMontagne also coincidentally called “Jolene” - it’s not a cover, but it’s a pretty great, tragic narrative ballad if you’re interested. Good accidental discovery to make. My favourite cover of “Jolene”, however, and the only version to get close to Dolly’s original peak until Queen Bey was the version recorded by the garage rock duo, The White Stripes, specifically a 2004 live version that peaked at #16. Now, am I biased because I love Jack White? Yes. Yes, I am, and so does Beyoncé, so shush. Everyone and their mother has covered Dolly, but out of all “Jolene” renditions I’ve heard, Jack just sounds the most devastated, and the eventual crash into distorted, hapless guitars and Meg White’s ugly-ass snares after that rushed, chaotic percussion panned exclusively to the left throughout, is incredibly cathartic. And that’s just the studio version - the live version that charted is even more dire and Jack is downright pathetic on it, worsened by the audience wooing, cheering and clapping on occasion, it eggs on Jolene in a way and publicises his angst “Jolene - Live Under Blackpool Lights” might honestly be one of the greatest cover songs of all time.

So how does Beyoncé fare? Well, she changes a lot of the lyrics to act more as a warning to people attempting to take JAY-Z instead of desperately begging Jolene not to get with JAY-Z, mostly because I don’t think Beyoncé could easily sell being helpless, especially in the context of her husband - we all heard Lemonade. I’m not sure how effectively you can sell the warning shot either considering, well, there was a Becky with some good hair who did all of this a few years ago. Sonically, I’m not head over heels for what sounds like a pretty rote rendition, even if Beyoncé’s vocals and some of the lyrics add a lot of character that simply isn’t in the instrumental. The backing vocal repeating “Jolene” at sporadic intervals, I can’t figure out exactly who it is, probably The-Dream, but he reminds me of Wyclef Jean on “Hips Don’t Lie”. That’s my intellectual observation. I just used a review of a song from the biggest black female country album ever to talk about a guy whose last name is literally White. When she releases a pop punk album, I’ll be more in tune, but for now, leave it to Azealia Banks and Spectrum Pulse, I’m sure if you combined the two, you’d create Frankenstein’s cultural critic.

Conclusion

Fascinatingly enough, this was a great week outside of Beyoncé, who takes away Worst of the Week for “II MOST WANTED” with Miley Cyrus and the Dishonourable Mention for her cover of “JOLENE”. Neither song are terrible, but I think I established in both reviews that my general disinterest for the album doesn’t entirely cover a lot of the flaws I believe are present in these tracks, I’m sorry. Again, I like Beyoncé, just not these particular records. As for the best… oh, God, it’s Camila Cabello’s “I LUV IT” featuring Playboi Carti, isn’t it? Honourable Mention goes to Tyla, Gunna and Skillibeng for “Jump” but I think I’ll have to spend a few days in rehab recovering from picking the other song as my Best of the Week. As for what’s on the horizon, more insufferable discourse as J. Cole drops a surprise diss record. Other than that, Charli XCX links with Gesaffelstein, Benson links with Boone and there’s new tracks from Bryson Tiller, Ava Max and the Imagine Dragons. All of it could chart, none of it could chart, we’ll see. For now, however, thank you for reading, long live Cola Boyy, and I’ll see you next week!

[grapecaseschoices]

Hii <3 If you're still answering questions for the relationship ask, Self, Mentor and Friendship for Val? No pressure, though!

I almost missed this! So sorry, @serenpedac! From this ask game.

Self: How is your OC's relationship with themself? Does your OC like who they are? Is there anything about themself that they would change?

Haha. Not as good as they pretend it is. I know this about SELF but trust me this is related. Val's approach to OTHER'S is very 'take me or leave me' [sometimes in a shruggy/uninterested manner, sometimes in a hostile or daring manner], but they expect to be left.

And that is sort of how they see themselves? Someone not worth sticking around with. I think asking if Val likes themselves begs upon more introspection than Val wants to give the subject/than Val feels the subject deserves. They are very 'I am who I am, deal with it' as much to themselves as they are with others. So, any change Val does is semi-subconcious. It's like they might notice something they say hits wrong with someone they care about and they may brush it off at the moment, but I feel later on if a similar situation occurs they might tone it down a tad. Val is more of a reactor, I feel. So I feel tho they act automatically [and obnoxiously], they take in things just the same. It's like in the back of their mind.

In short, Val is one of my egoists with low-self-esteem. My Jake Peralta. LMAO. Val knows they're good at their strengths. And they probably overblow it. They know. They think they're stylish and their hobbies are cool. But they also think they're trash [and not the way I call them my trash gremlin]. They know they don't process or react to emotional things the way most people do/people believe they should. And they don't come off as 'decent' and 'kind' or 'hard-working' and 'dedicated' and 'mature' as people believe they should. So in their mind they know they're not as valued or taken seriously. But that's a YOU problem. Deal with it.

Mentor: Does your OC have a mentor? Have they ever reached out to anyone for guidance or teaching, or been taken under someone's wing? How does your OC get along with their mentor?

No. LMAO. Val has no Raymond Holt. BUT, in THEIR OWN WAY, they do respect the Captain a lot more than one would think given how much they're sardonic @ him. And his opinions weigh a touch more on them than one [probably even him] would think. A good job from the Captain has Val feeling unnaturally peppy. LMAO. He is their dad, woogie boogie.

I don't think Val would ever call the Captain. But if he was there, and he said something useful ....

Strangely though, if Val WERE to reach out to someone for guidance it might be Adam. And for advice/teaching it might be Felix.

Don't look into it!!

Friendship: What's your OC like as a friend? How are they at making new friends? What are the most important friendships in your OC's life?

Awful. LMAO. I don't know why Tina and Felix are still around. Honeslty, Val has probably said quite a few things unintentionally and intentionaly to shut that down. But als. That said, once you have Val as a friend, I think they're great for laughs and not a bad shoulder to cry on. I don't see them loyal in the traditional sense but they are more protective than they believe. They aren't a BIG hugger but they actually are pretty goodat it for someone so teeny/slim. Physical touch is their love language [one of them] but it's more broish.

All their new friends, including Adam, sort of just came upon them. Though with Adam it was a mutual coming upon. Adam, Felix, and Tina are the most important friendships [probably in that order lmao.] They are very fond of Verda tho. It's grown that way. And they grow fonder of Mason as well.

Thank you for the ask! Apologies for the super delay <3

[usermaha]

THE MONTH OF TXT

There's lotttsss coming up from txt and im super excited but also. a tad bit worried.

SWEET- 5th July

When I heard this was gonna be a full album i was sooo hyped. Since we have JPN versions of all the Titles now, we could expect at least a handful of original tracks right? No we just got one :/ I have yet to listen to the whole album, and who knows, it might be an enjoyable listen front-to-back, but im still disappointed.

As for the song herself: I wanna talk about it in another post but Hydrangea Love is an easy classic txt homerun. Slower romantic track. Killer vocals. Huening Kai. What more do you need?

Im genuinely confused about how the album dropped. SRR JPN dropped in late June, then Hydrangea Love also dropped before the album was set to release? Why?

Do It Like This- 7th July

here the marketing is confusing me. They announced it as a "comeback", and are clearly treating it as such. Did Jun have to go caramel for a collab track? I dont remember making this much noise for Valley of Lies.

I suppose Jonas Brothers is a much bigger name, but they haven't done anything relevant since their comeback in 2019 either.

Idk the hype around this is very high and it can very easily fall through. It can very easily end up sounding like a pop song from 2015, no txt-ness in sight. Ryan Tedder is the producer i think which puts me even more at edge.

Another thing is the timing. Placing both the JPN album and this Collab so close to each other doesnt seem like a good idea to me. How do we get the time to properly promote both? I thought they were shooting for a proper comeback later in the year (it still might happen, which furthers my point.) The US leg just ended, there is Lolapalooza...

I just think there is too much going on surrounding txt. Its been one thing after another for years at this point. I would rather have them properly rest for a reasonable stretch of time, and have more complete projects, rather than rushing one-song-releases.

Our Lost Summer- 28th July

Again marketing i was like "what is this???🤔" in the comments till a kind moa explained its a tour documentary. From Disney Plus :/

But why Our Lost Summer as the title though? Doesnt that automatically make you think of 2020? We didnt lose that summer we made the best out of it. Shouldn't it have the sentiment of Our Glorious Summer?

To be fair i did want there to be a One Dream Season 2, a full-circle moment. bc One Dream was about their first time taking on the U.S as txt, and after three years its their first world tour. But without Mnet's involvement.

I hope this can be introspective and delve into the persepectives and experiences of each member and kind of like round up their career until now (i basically want a doc about txt as a whole not just that summer). Instead of just "here's some tour footage". Honestly id take that too bc ive been hungry for high-quality tour footage. The whole thing on streaming would be the ideal but. I'll take anything 🤲🤲

Man looking back at it all will be great that moment in time. felt so unreal. Best time of my life? Arguably.

[foxfren]

Books I’ve Read in January

This month’s reading was very…chaotic

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt || 3.5/5

‘When you feel homesick,’ he said, ‘just look up. Because the moon is the same wherever you go.’

A tad long, but interesting nonetheless; we get the opportunity to truly understand, or at least view, all of what makes up Theo, the main character. The novel tells us the differences in valuing art, the battle of authenticity and fabrication, and the significance and immortality surrounding art. I’d consider the ending open ended, which I find fitting for the story. A frustratingly good and introspective read.

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens || 1/5

I wasn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full.

I honestly didn’t like this book, and wouldn’t read it again. It’s listed as a drama, mystery, & thriller book, but it read more as a fictitious biography. Much of the dialogue was confusing and hard to read due to the way it was written. The characters weren’t very complex, and there’s a lot of inconsistencies throughout the book. One star for Kya being a girlboss in the end ig (& I sometimes liked how the marsh was described, but oftentimes seemed overly descriptive & unnecessary).

Icebreaker by A. L. Graziadei || 3.5/5

And that matters far more than the name called first.

This book was touching and heartfelt, and I really like the premise of this book. Unfortunately, the ending felt rushed, and the relationship between Mickey and Jaysen felt underdeveloped. However, I really liked the portrayal of mental illness as Mickey navigated the expectations everybody set on him, and how he learned to lean on others for support.

M Is For Monster by Talia Dutton || 5/5

I look…nothing like you. It’s all so messy. Like I could just fall apart.

A graphic novel about grief, love, identity, and what it means to be human. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, especially those who liked the Frankenstein novel. M’s conflict between wanting to be loved yet fearing rejection (and dissection) was beautifully portrayed, and so touching. I simply cannot get enough of this story!

Payback’s A Witch by Lana Harper || 2/5

This town is in your blood, in a way you might not even understand just gets.

The world building was interesting but the premise didn’t live up to my expectations; the antagonist felt silly (not in a good way), and I was left in confusion about the characters’ actions a lot of the time. The pacing was slow, the chemistry between the main couple was lacking, and the ending just felt off. Yes there were good scenes, but it was overshadowed by the amount of filler. Overall, it was cliche and predictable.

Ship It by Britta Lundin || 0/5

‘Til the dirt hits my chest.

I am on my last straw 😭 The protagonist is insufferable and disrespectful of others’ boundaries, none of the characters are held accountable for their numerous actions, the dialogue is cringey, and the relationship between Claire and Tess is literally so toxic yet is portrayed to be cute. I didn’t like anything about this book.

[hawaacassim]

The Future is Bright

"No one should expect perfection when they're first starting out." -Shirō Nishi, Whisper of the Heart (1995). This was one of the lines that stood out to me while watching Hayao Miyazaki’s Whisper of the art, a movie about the difficulties of having a creative spirit, and the melancholic feeling about falling behind in life. This line specifically had got me thinking about my degree and I.

Since practical’s had started at the beginning of this year, I’ve had this immense feeling of self-doubt that I just could not seem to shake. I had learnt that there was a name for this feeling, imposter syndrome (Cuncic, 2024). This had aptly described my feelings! My colleagues always seemed to know what they were doing, and I felt as if I was falling behind, like everyone had a special handbook on how to be a good OT and I hadn’t received a copy. However, at the end of the block, I had learnt so much! The imposter syndrome had still lingered a tad bit, but I had not felt like the same little OT student that had set foot in the giant bustling hospital at the beginning of the semester.

I had acknowledged my imposter syndrome, and instead of letting it get to me, instead of letting the self-doubt accumulate, I had decided to do some introspection, why did I feel like such an imposter? This helped me realize, it is important to embrace the imposter rather than letting it fester and grow. (Home, 2024). The imposter had of course returned once the new block had started, coming up with activities, handling psychiatric patients and adapting write ups and case studies to be more psych based was so unbelievably overwhelming. But again, by the end of the semester, the self-doubt had almost dissipated! I had put effort into learning and relearning theory that would help become a better Occupational Therapist.

 Circling back to Miyazaki’s quote, my first mistake was expecting perfection while I was still learning, this had of course led to inevitable disappointment. It was hard to see my future as an OT as “bright” if my eyes were so clouded by my flaws and shortcomings. Instead, I need to learn to work on those flaws to become a better, more competent OT. Another strategy that helped me overcome these negative feelings was thinking about why I got into OT in the first place. I do not have to stifle my creativity while helping people live their lives to their fullest potential (Circuit, 2024).

Occupational therapy, compared to other disciplines, is relatively new. Due to the ever-evolving nature of technology, there is so much potential change and growth and creativity within the profession, for integration of completely new methods that will make therapy so much more efficient. (Baker College, 2024). This might include integrating AI into fields such as Cognitive therapy, or virtual reality in social skills training (Mathew, 2024), the creative possibilities are almost endless! The fact that I am lucky enough to be around while these changes are in progress is enough to squash any self-doubt, I have about making an impact in people's lives.

The future of Occupational therapy, both my little career and the profession as a whole, is indeed bright. I am apart of a discipline that is so open to embracing change, open to use and create effective and creative methods to help patients achieve their goals. The fact that I may be a part of the research behind furthering these revolutions within OT is enough to make me take off my proverbial sunglasses and take in the incandescence of the future of our growing profession!

References

3 Insights: The Future of Occupational Therapy | Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences. (n.d.). © 2024 Boston University. https://www.bu.edu/sargent/about-us/our-publications/inside-sargent/inside-sargent-2019/3-insights-the-future-of-occupational-therapy/

Baker College. (2024, June 20). The Future of Occupational therapy: Emerging trends and opportunities. https://www.baker.edu/about/get-to-know-us/blog/occupational-therapy-degree-trends-opportunities/

Circuit, P. (2024, February 7). Five reasons to study Occupational Therapy. https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/student-advice/what-to-study/five-reasons-to-study-occupational-therapy

Cuncic, A., MA. (2024, September 23). Is impostor syndrome holding you back from living your best life? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/imposter-syndrome-and-social-anxiety-disorder-4156469

Home, J. H. (2024, June 18). Imposter syndrome. The British Medical Association Is the Trade Union and Professional Body for Doctors in the UK. https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/your-wellbeing/insight-and-advice/first-times-in-medicine/imposter-syndrome

Mathew, M. M. M. (2024, July 12). The Future of Occupational Therapy: Trends and Innovations. Xceptional Learning. https://xceptionallearning.com/2024/07/12/the-future-of-occupational-therapy-trends-and-innovations/

[jadejedi]

Mid-Year Reading Roundup

I haven’t posted a review in a while because I am quite busy at the moment, but since we are more than halfway through the year, I wanted to do a quick highlight of my favorite reads of the year so far. (I’m planning on doing a bigger breakdown of everything I’ve read this year in December). I will link my full reviews where applicable. So, here are my top five favorite reads of the year so far, listed in the order I read them in:

Babel, by R.F. Kuang 5/5

I loved the main character so much, and I thought that Kuang ‘went there’ in a way that I was absolutely not expecting, even though I should have from the title. It is a tad slow in the middle, but everything else about it was so good that this is one I recommend to everyone. I don’t know that a book has ever made me cry so hard as this one did. 

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir 5/5

This is the second book in The Locked Tomb Series, and let me tell you, this book is bananas crazy and it absolutely took me a second read to fully get it. On the first read, I actually had to take a break because I was just so confused, even though I had spoiled myself and read the wikipedia page. Then, once I got to the ending, I was so blown away I immediately had to go and reread the first one, and then this one. The amount of foreshadowing and references to things that you straight up can’t understand until you reread it is crazy. But the story is wonderful and it has such amazing reveals and twists. The characters from book one you’ll love or love to hate even more, and the new characters are just as good.  

Circe, Madeline Miller 5/5

I didn’t expect to love this one as much as I did, but oh my god what a beautiful 

book. I haven’t read Song of Achilles (yet), so I didn’t have any experience with 

Miller’s writing. I was so blown away by her writing style; most of the time it didn’t feel like I was reading at all, it just felt like the story was carrying me along. It’s just so beautifully introspective. Not much happens, but at the same time, so much happens. And the ending touched me in a way I did not expect. 

Happy Place, Emily Henry 5/5

I found out that this is many people’s least favorite Emily Henry novel, and I just have to say… WHAT????! This book absolutely blew me away. I guess if you’re not into the miscommunication trope, then sure this one might be hard to get through, but I love me some angsty miscommunication so this one was perfect for me. I also think that Henry does such a good job at making the friendships her protagonists have just as important to the plot and to the MC’s character development as the romantic interest, and that is especially true for this one. This one is just as much about friendship as it is about romance, IMO. And it’s also about like, identity and careers and the things we do to feel like we have value. Also, this one made me cry like three separate times towards the end. 

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson 5/5

Okay, ngl, I kinda went into this one hoping I’d hate it. Sanderson is just such a big name in fantasy I was kind of feeling snobbish and hoping I could turn my nose up at it. But no. No, despite the audiobook being over forty hours long, I flew through it and loved every second. I don’t think Sanderson is as good of a writer as someone like G.R.R. Martin, or N.K. Jemison, but he is a very compelling story teller. 

(Honorable mention to The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison, another 5/5. I left it off the list because it just made me so so so sad lmao.)

[bookdepositori]

Post-vacation post 1/4

Hey everyone, I just got back from a week trip in Boston. While I was there, I did a lot of reading, but not much writing, so I’m going to make some brief posts talking about what I read over the next few days.

On the flight to Boston, I took Normal People by Sally Rooney to read on the plane. I chose it because I read Rooney on my last flight and one of the blurbs on the cover suggested reading the book in one sitting. I honestly don’t really agree with that sentiment and I’ll touch on that later.

This is my second book by Rooney after reading Beautiful World, Where Are You and I was really excited to read more by her. Instantly, I sort of realized I created an inaccurate picture of Rooney in my head. The prose in Beautiful World was stylized to such an extreme that I assumed all of her books would be written in the same way. Beautiful World is written in a way that’s drier than any piece of realist fiction I’ve read and I fell in love with it because of that, so when I read Normal People and it was written somewhat more conventionally and didn’t have that same absolute objectivity, I was a bit disappointed, but I still got a lot out of the book.

This is in essence, a book about being trapped by societal expectation, even when those expectations are not actually enforced. You follow the cast over the course of several years, starting in their late teen years. One of my favorite things about this book is how convincingly the characters go from acting like teenagers to being more grounded adults. A lot of time passes between chapters and characters introspect and grow a lot between them in a way that never feels sudden or forced. That’s why I don’t really agree with the recommendation to read this book in one sitting, because so much character growth is done without the reader present.

Also, I do sort of wish this book had a different title. I definitely get the reasoning behind it and it definitely fits a book about a bunch of kids learning how to be people, though it sacrifices a lot of subtlety the later chapters could’ve had. Every time a character pondered about the concept of “normal people” I would feel a tad annoyed. I still like many of those passages, but when they’re all so concentrated at the end of the book, it feels like Rooney’s bluntly telling you what to feel about her characters.

While I don’t want to give it away, I did genuinely really love the ending to this book. It’s really mature in a way that was really refreshing to me. I’m tempted to throw my copy at someone just to get to talk about the ending, lol.

Overall, I think I might be a bigger fan of Rooney’s later work, but I still got a lot out of this. Really appreciate the experience this book gave me. Definitely going to read any future work of Rooney’s.

[seyaryminamoto]

Underneath Starlit Skies: Sokkla Saturdays 2021

Day Four: Body Swap AU

On FF.net//On AO3

He knocked on her door and she responded with an urgent tone, to let him know she was almost ready. Sokka was aware that Azula had more than a few grievances regarding the location of their latest spiritual adventure – if they could even be called that, considering none of them had been successful so far –, and she would be dressing up in twenty parkas to brace against the cold… unnecessarily, he knew. The oasis was a strangely warm area of the Northern Water Tribe, he already had told her as much, but it would hardly be the first time his traveling companion, friend and ally rejected his advice…

At last, she pulled the door open to reveal she was bundled up in multiple thick layers of outerwear, an irritable expression on her face. Sokka smiled awkwardly at her, and she scowled in his direction.

"Yes. I look stupid. You don't need to say it: I'd rather look stupid than freeze to death," she snapped, starting down the corridor without waiting for Sokka's say-so. Sokka snickered: clad in as many clothes as she was, Azula couldn't walk remotely as fast as she would have liked, so he kept up with her pace without a hitch.

"Well, you won't freeze to death if you don't wear ten parkas, is all. Especially in the oasis," Sokka shrugged.

"If true, I'll take off some of them once we're there. But damn it… why did he have to come up with something like this?" Azula groaned, running a hand over her hair. "I get it, we're his test subjects, if he can teach the two of us any sort of spirituality, it means he can be the absolute best of all bridges between spirits and humans. But couldn't he wait for an eclipse to happen someplace warmer than… here?"

"As far as I understand it, Aang's just dialing things up as wildly as he can," Sokka said, with a sigh. "It's not just that there will be an eclipse, which is apparently a strong moment of spirituality that brings both the human and spirit worlds closer together, or whatever… it's also that it will reach totality above a highly spiritual location, too."

"So, he's bringing together both time and place in the hopes that, at long last, those will be the perfect circumstances in which you and I will be able to meditate and access the Spirit World?" Azula asked, puzzled. Sokka nodded.

"Seems so, but you know what?"

"You don't think it's going to work."

"Read me like a book!" Sokka grinned, and Azula grimaced.

"If you're right, this will have been one hell of a waste of time. Didn't you get captured and taken into the Spirit World once?"

"I did, and I remember nothing about it. Only that I needed to go to the bathroom when it was over," Sokka confirmed. Azula huffed. "If I had a single spiritual bone in my body, well, maybe I would've remembered something or another… but I don't. So… yeah."

"I still don't know why we agreed to any of this…" Azula growled, as they climbed the steps down from their assigned rooms, intending to stroll together all the way to the oasis, hidden within the icy cliffs of the Northern Water Tribe.

Despite having spoken those words countless times, however, Azula never truly forgot why both she and Sokka had joined the Avatar's utterly ridiculous attempts to unravel whether or not he could be a good spiritual leader even for the least spiritually inclined people out there. Aang had admitted he didn't know for sure if Azula would have a chance to see Lu Ten at all, in the Spirit World… Iroh had vaguely suggested once that he had been able to contact his son somehow, and that was why he had returned home when he had, a year after abandoning his Siege of Ba Sing Se. While Azula had certainly come a long way since the days of the war, finally on genuinely friendly terms with the Avatar's team and her own brother – a miracle she hardly could fathom, most days –, there were loose ends, problems she needed to settle first, before truly being ready to look inwards and understand who she was.

Such problems had been difficult to acknowledge, but the Avatar's long period as her and Sokka's spiritual guru had forced her to look inwards indeed and truly attempt to unravel the chaos of her own soul. Finding Lu Ten, getting true closure with his spirit, would be but one way to smooth over her process of self-reflection until she finally could find peace within herself… or so the Avatar believed. By now, however, Azula had made peace with the possibility that she might never find true peace, twisted and ironic as that notion might be.

Sokka, in the meantime, had similar problems to deal with. His lingering fears, his deep trauma, had been internalized and kept locked away because there were always more important things he had to worry about. Aang's attempts to get through to him hadn't gone over very well, Azula had even been surprised to find he was worse at spiritual things than she was… but in the end, the root of his problem might have been similar to Azula's own: he had to make his peace with many things, and in his case, it seemed the ghost that haunted him wasn't a dead relative, but the Northern Water Tribe Princess with whom he had never found true closure. Their whirlwind relationship had been too quick, perhaps, to take it as seriously as he had… but his failure to protect her had resulted in far more complicated, troubling behaviors than Sokka himself had ever acknowledged. His willingness to serve as a shield for others, to protect them in just about any circumstances, often resulted in damage to himself… and in the end, it seemed he was persistently attempting to atone for the failures of his past. Azula had been surprised to find someone could be more troubled than she was, in some ways… but it had helped her, too, to know that maybe her deeply ingrained problems wouldn't be resolved, much like Sokka's own wouldn't. Maybe he'd never find closure, maybe she'd never learn to unravel everything that plagued her, either… maybe they'd never find true peace. It would only be a sad revelation if they allowed themselves to see it as such, as far as she could tell. Acceptance could be its own kind of peace, after all.

The whole process had proven interesting, however: she and Sokka hadn't always gotten along – especially not over the course of the war –, she had been much quicker to bond with Toph once she started spending more time with their group. Sokka always appeared too boisterous, too careless in some regards… she didn't look down on him back during the war, let alone did she do so these days, but his behavior had never compelled her to believe he'd be a good friend for her… and yet, when Aang had asked the two of them to start on this journey with him, she had discovered far more intriguing sides of the warrior than those she had known all along. They had found common ground and understood each other better through their shared meditation sessions, sharing so many of their introspections with each other and Aang across the past year, that she actually thought they were friends by now… well, friends who teased each other about their terrible attire choices, among many things.

"Well, then… fair warning: don't try to do anything funny with the fish in the central pond of the oasis," Sokka said, and Azula smiled at his warning. "One of them, as you know, is, uh…"

"The host of your first girlfriend's spirit?" Azula asked. Sokka grimaced.

"It's weird to think of it that way, I know, but still… I'm just saying, let's be very cautious," he sighed. "I don't want to disturb the place at all. It's very important for the Northern Water Tribe."

"I'll be good, I'll be good… no burning the grass, not even if I get bored during the meditation process," Azula smirked. Sokka scoffed but smiled at her.

"I'll hold you to that, you hear me?"

"Ah, you're such a worrywart, really…"

Aang awaited them in the Oasis. He smiled brightly as both Azula and Sokka bowed respectfully in his direction when they crossed the doorway that led into the sacred location, staying true to the apparent protocol for gurus and their initiates. It was odd to treat the goofy-grinning Avatar with such reverent respect, but they had already been in this process with him, with frequent meditative sessions once every few weeks, for about ten months now – if anything, they were used to it.

"Alright, you guys! Welcome to the Spirit Oasis, one of the most spiritually charged locations in the world!" he exclaimed. "Now, then, this time for sure, your souls will be entering the Spirit World, and you'll put all our teachings into effect once you do…"

"You said that the last time, too…" Azula recited, with an awkward smile. Sokka grimaced.

"And every time before it, as well," he said, hands on his hips. Aang, still sitting down, stopped smiling and started pouting.

"Well, is it my fault that I have high hopes today? Really, if this doesn't work, I think I'm just going to give up with all this guru business," Aang sighed, shaking his head. "I've done my best to follow on Guru Pathik's footsteps since he passed away, but I know I'm not as good at it as he was…"

"You're just inexperienced. And we're just lost cases," Sokka said, smiling and gesturing at Azula and himself.

"I'll probably agree with that if this doesn't work today," Aang sighed, gesturing at them to sit down. "Please, sit facing each other now."

Azula and Sokka did as they were told, though Azula took her seat awkwardly, in her very thick apparel. Despite Sokka's reassurances that she wouldn't need so much outerwear, Azula didn't quite feel compelled to remove any of it so far. She crossed her legs in a lotus position, and Sokka did the same…

"Alright, then. Deep breaths… it'll start in about ten minutes, I think," Aang said, biting his lip as he gazed at the sun, bearing on them from above. "The whole process will take a few hours… so you'll have time to meditate properly before the total eclipse starts. If the total eclipse ends and you haven't been able to cross over, well…"

"It'll suck, but we'll live with it," Sokka said, fists together in front of his torso. "Alright, then: let's do this."

They sat silently at first, intending to meditate, just as Aang had taught them. Still, the strange sensations inside Azula brought her to frown and open her eyes after a moment: she could feel her power weakening slightly, even though the eclipse was only beginning. Her concentration broke, and Sokka noticed it right away.

"Something wrong?"

"Not sure. I mean… I doubt it matters," she admitted, frowning. "But I'll lose my bending once the eclipse reaches totality."

"Hmm. We just keep bumping into each other during eclipses, don't we?" Sokka teased her. Azula smirked slightly. "Do you think it'll stop you from entering the Spirit World, maybe…?"

"Well, it shouldn't," Aang pointed out. "You'll enter the Spirit World spiritually… so you won't be able to bend at all, whether there's an eclipse or not, Azula."

"I guess so," Azula sighed, closing her eyes and focusing again. "Never mind, then. Let's focus."

Sokka nodded, closing his own eyes. The spirituality of the place wasn't truly reaching him just yet, keenly aware as he was of the fact that Tui, swimming in that pond nearby, happened to only be alive through Yue's own soul… he grinded his teeth together and focused anew. Her spirit was here, and yet it wasn't. If he'd put a stop to his countless troubles, it would be by reaching out to the actual Yue and ascertaining he hadn't wronged her. Ascertaining he hadn't failed to protect her… even if, deep down, he thought he had. Even if, somewhere in his heart, he wondered just what would have happened if only he had attacked Zhao before the man could do his worst…

Again, he had to stop himself from going down the path of regret, for he'd never succeed at crossing over if such thoughts weighed on him, Aang always said so. As the moon traveled over the sun, sooner than later he would find himself freed from his earthly body, and he would have a short time, in all likelihood, to find her for good…

Time passed quietly, and the brightness of the day in the Northern Water Tribe slowly seemed to be tinged with other colors, affected by the powerful solar eclipse. Aang watched it with his eclipse glasses, courtesy of the Mechanist: any moment now…

"Okay… it's here! Are you guys…?" he asked, anxiously…

He stopped speaking when he realized he'd get no answers from either of his initiates.

Aang gasped, glancing between them in astonishment: they had done it? He could feel something strange, a vacancy in their bodies… a vacancy he had no doubt left behind, too, whenever his own body had been separated from his soul. He bit his lip, gazing at the sky intently: the moon had overshadowed the sun completely, at last. Totality was here… and Sokka and Azula were not.

Twin yelps left their lips when they suddenly found themselves standing in a strange, foreign place with faded colors. It looked like they stood on a mountain peak, a strange and tall mountain… Sokka whimpered, glancing about himself warily and worriedly before reaching for Azula, pulling her close in his typical protective demeanor… though Azula wondered if he hoped she'd be just as ready to protect him as he was to protect her.

"We have to stick together!" he exclaimed, looking at the mountain with uncertainty. "This place… huh, it looks a bit like one very big, tall mountain back in the South Pole. It's a pretty treacherous place, actually…"

"I don't have my bending," Azula pointed out, grimacing as she gazed at her blue-hued hands. "This feels weirder than the other eclipse…! Sokka…"

"We did it," he confirmed, nodding. Azula raised an eyebrow.

"Were you concentrating on Yue?" she asked. "I focused on Lu Ten, the way Aang said we should if we want to evoke them, but…"

"I was, though it was a bit chaotic," Sokka admitted, glancing about himself. "Still… I don't see them anywhere. Do you?"

"Not at all," Azula said, though it was hard to say whether anything else was happening anyway: the world seemed to warp and wobble in strange ways, and now she was the one clinging to Sokka for safety when the mountain suddenly seemed to start shifting. "Sokka!"

"I-I've got no idea what's going on, either! Just hold on!" Sokka exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her as firmly as their souls allowed it: whatever happened next, he needed to make sure he wouldn't lose the Princess. Maybe that wouldn't help matters much, either way… they had only been in the Spirit World for about ten seconds, it seemed, and he already wanted to leave. How did Aang ever stand it here…?

The strange shifts in the terrains around them seemed to catapult their mountain all the way across the planet: a new, more familiar place – at least, for Azula – suddenly spread out: it was the North Pole, and up in the sky, the eclipse…

… Or was it?

"Sokka?" Azula tugged at his arm once the mountain slowed down. "Sokka. There's… something's up there. The moon… it shouldn't look so bright in an eclipse, should it?"

"Maybe the Spirit World is doing the eclipse upside down, somehow…?" Sokka ventured a guess, frowning…

What was happening in the sky above them couldn't be good news, he thought, though he wasn't sure why he was so certain of that. His heart clenched when their mountain started to grow in size, bringing them closer to the source of this strange phenomenon in the sky… the source he had a strong suspicion wouldn't be a total stranger for him, not if those white vestiges he could see in the sky were, by any chance, the wavy strands of white hair and the pale, ethereal, spiritual attire of the young girl he had once fallen in love with…

"A-Azula, that's…" he gasped, clutching at his companion with uncertainty when they were hovering closer yet to the sky: he had no doubts anymore, none at all, but saying it aloud would be so much harder than he imagined possible. Yue… it was finally Yue!

And she wasn't alone.

The Princess hadn't ever seen Yue before, so she couldn't quite be sure of what they were seeing. When the figure ahead turned around, however, she found something far more recognizable had been standing right behind the first figure… it was a darker silhouette, and yet it seemed to shine, in a rather contradictory way…

The silhouette was already telling, but upon the chance to see the profile of his face, Azula confirmed, with a gasp, that it was Lu Ten…

… And he appeared to be wrapped in a most passionate embrace with a woman of white hair.

"W-wait a minute. Wait a minute, what is…?!" Azula gasped. Sokka grimaced, his face paling, his heart seemingly slowing down at the sight before them… "Lu Ten…!"

Her last words caused Sokka to yelp: a second glance at the man who appeared to cradle his first love startled him profoundly… and yet he couldn't recognize him, not any more than Azula could recognize Yue. But if she thought it was him, if she did, then…

"You're shitting me," he said, as a sudden realization struck him at the sight of them. "You've got to be…!"

"I don't… I don't know what's going on," Azula confessed, though her apprehension revealed she already suspected what Sokka already knew. "But is that…?"

"Yue!" Sokka called her.

It didn't seem the Water Tribe's Princess could hear him, though: she was utterly enraptured by the man holding her… the spirit-man, that was, who smiled at her with the most heartfelt affection, cradling her face in hands currently covered by a veil of darkness.

"My love…" Lu Ten whispered softly. "When the moon meets the sun…"

"Anything can happen, in this world and beyond," Yue answered.

Both their ethereal voices seemed to carry on to infinity, yet their echoes fell to the wayside when, to Sokka and Azula's utter disbelief and astonishment, the embracing pair before them joined in a passionate, powerful kiss.

Sokka whimpered, a hand going up to his head, and this time it was Azula who had no choice but to clasp him firmly if she hoped to keep him on his feet. Yet she couldn't quite blame him for his reaction: watching a girl he had once loved, whose death had marked him so profoundly, sharing such heated kisses with Azula's own cousin, was undoubtedly disturbing.

"W-what is…? W-what are they…?!" Sokka squeaked, staring at the scene in chagrin: he wanted to stop watching, he really did, but his eyes couldn't seem to tear away from it at all…

"He's… become the spirit of the sun, somehow," Azula guessed, swallowing hard. "She's the spirit of the moon, and then that means that, upon each eclipse, they…"

"They meet and… and kiss?" Sokka asked. Azula winced.

"Well… I'm not sure that's where they'll stop, actually," she pointed out, fingers digging into Sokka's arm when Lu Ten tilted Yue's body gently backwards.

Their kiss was as powerful, as overwhelming, as it had been when it had started… but there was something strange happening with their bodies too, for they seemed to lean in and angle together, in a most intimate manner…

"Oh, shit. Oh, hell…! I can't. I can't, I can't see this!" Sokka squealed, finally turning around and closing his eyes. "Let it end, damn it. Let it be over. How the hell is this supposed to give me any closure at all?!"

"Sokka… calm down," Azula said. Sokka huffed, staring at her in disbelief. "I'm only saying, losing your mind will probably…!"

"What, snap me back to my body because I'm too emotional?! Well, great! I'd rather go back! I don't want to be here for another moment!" he exclaimed. "Not if it means… watching that! You don't want to see it either, do you?!"

"Well, no! But we came here for a reason, and the damn Spirit World was strangely helpful as to bring us to them…!" Azula said, despite her words sounded more and more hollow as she spoke them. Sokka clenched his jaws.

"True enough, but they're too busy to pay any attention to us, as you can see," Sokka grimaced. "I can't do this, alright? I can't. I'm getting out."

"How?" Azula asked. Sokka flinched. "Look, I respect your decision to not want to know whatever your… well, your ex does in her second life? But I have no idea how we'll leave the Spirit World now that we're here. It's entirely possible that we'll have to wait until the eclipse ends to…!"

"What?! It's going to be like eight minutes long!" Sokka squeaked, staring at her in chagrin. "You're telling me we have to endure this until then?!"

"Eh… well…?" Azula grimaced awkwardly. "Come on, it's not like I'm particularly keen on watching either, so maybe we can just not watch at all! Come on, let's just… leave this place for the time being. Run away! Jump down the mountain! We're spirits at the moment, right? Maybe, if we fall, we won't get hurt…"

"And if we do?" Sokka asked, puzzled. Azula huffed.

"Well, you're in pain already. What's a little more?" she asked. He couldn't see much harm in her logic, in truth…

"Okay, then. Okay. We're going to jump," he said, swallowing hard, clasping Azula's hand firmly. "When I say go…"

"Count back from three, if anything…"

"Okay, fine! Three, two, one…!" Sokka said, clasping her hand. "GO!"

They leapt. And they didn't fall down the mountain at all.

"W-what… what is happening?!" Sokka nearly shrieked, clasping Azula's hand firmly as they started floating upwards, instead. "No, no, no, no! Not any closer to the…! Stop it! Enough! Let me out of here! She's got another guy, that's more than enough for me! Good for them, now let me out!"

"Sokka, stop struggling!" Azula chided him, clinging to him regardless as she raised her eyes to the eclipse, anew…

The intensity seemed to be fading now, though… a mournful silence was shared between the two astral lovers. Was it nearly over already? So quickly…?

"Again, we shall meet…" Yue whispered.

"Upon every cycle, at every opportunity…" Lu Ten responded. "I will seek you, no matter where in the world you may be."

"And I shall have to let you go… every time," Yue said. "But the promise that we will meet again will never fade away."

"We are fated. We are linked, for eternity…" Lu Ten said, softly.

"My beloved sun…" Yue whispered, smiling kindly. "Shine on, my beloved sun…"

Sokka snarled, only hearing the words, refusing to see the pair directly again. Who knew he'd find himself so willing to avert his gaze from the usually enthralling sight of an eclipse? And yet he did… and yet he did.

Impulsively, recklessly, he pulled Azula closer and pressed his face to her shoulder, as though to hide from the horror the scene represented for him. Azula gasped, astonished: maybe Sokka hadn't noticed it, but the sudden, brusque contact between their souls had sent a strange vibration across them through that violent collision…

"Until we meet again… until our paths cross, once again."

The two lovers in the sky spoke the last words in unison, and suddenly, the strange, ethereal world that didn't follow any of the rules and logic of their familiar, human world, faded into nothingness.

"Guys… guys! Oh, finally!" Aang gasped: he had been shaking their shoulders for what had felt like hours when the two initiates finally gave away signs of being conscious anew.

The eclipse was well and truly over by then: the sun would shine again, and the moon continued on its own trajectory in the sky. Aang had been anxious, fearful that the pair he had brought to the Oasis would never awaken again, somehow… but they did, at last.

"I was so worried…" he sighed, glancing at Sokka with a heartfelt smile. "So, how did it go?"

"Ugh… curses," Sokka said: his voice tone sounded somewhat strange to Aang, same as his particular choice in expletive. "My head is throbbing. But if you really want to know, it… it went badly. Really badly. It…"

"THAT'S IT: I'M NEVER TRAVELING TO THE SPIRIT WORLD AGAIN!"

Azula's voice suddenly cut through their conversation, and Sokka frowned heavily upon hearing it. He had been blinking awake in the middle of the oasis, but he hadn't quite processed anything before his eyes yet… and neither had Azula.

"Hell… how is it even possible?!" she exclaimed, snarling. "I mean…! Sure, okay, now I have closure regarding our relationship, but that's not what I was going to the Spirit World for! I had to talk to Yue, to talk to her properly, not to…! To see her making out or doing worse than that with your…!"

Her tirade broke off when she raised her head… to stare at the most surreal and confusing sight in front of her.

Sokka had raised his head by then, too. His eyes widened, a tic on his nose and corner of his lips as he returned Azula's stare with just as much horror and panic as her own… while Aang, sitting between them, blinked blankly at the utterly confusing situation. Something was wrong, something was very wrong… and his instinctive guess about what it was left him floored where he sat. His jaw dropped as he gazed from one to the other… as Azula yelped, as Sokka flinched…

"T-this… is still the Spirit World," Sokka suddenly said, swallowing hard. "It is! This is just another of its weird tricks, like that mountain rising out of nowhere, moving around on its own accord…!"

"Right!" Azula agreed, wincing, her voice cracking. "It's… tricking us again! To… make us think we're each other. Right?"

"Right!" Sokka grinned in a panic, raising a gloved hand and removing its thick mitten quickly. "See, I won't be able to bend because it's the Spirit World…!"

Indeed, Sokka's attempts to bend went nowhere: no elements answered the call of his movements, and he actually let out a soft sigh of relief… when Aang cleared his throat.

"Um… you guys?" he called them, startling the confused pair. "Sokka's not a bender. Sokka was never a bender. Azula is the bender. Right?"

"R-right… but I'm Azula," Sokka said, with a trembling smile. Aang's eyes widened.

"And I'm Sokka… though, well, he's Sokka? She's Sokka! W-what is…? This is stupid!" Azula exclaimed, huffing. Aang shook his head.

"You… whoever you are," he said, pointing at Azula. "Take off your own mitten. Try to bend."

"I don't know how to do that!" Azula squeaked. Sokka huffed.

"It's not even hard," he said, dismissively. "Take a deep breath, the power will tingle in your body, and then you can channel it through your fingertips, that is, if you can bend at all. Which you probably can't, because like we said, it's the Spirit World!"

"Sokka… or Azula?" Aang grimaced, looking at the body of the man with whom he had traveled across the world when they both had been but boys. "I didn't enter the Spirit World with you. This is the human world."

"It's not!" Azula scoffed, though she had removed her mitten already – one of them, for there were two more layers of gloves underneath. "The Spirit World is weird and full of totally batshit nonsense, like all the stories you told us, remember? Hei Bai! Wan Shi Tong! Koh the Face-Stealer?! Any of those ring any bells? Well, maybe the damn Spirit World said it was going to imitate you now! And it's fucking with our heads because of it!"

"R-right…?" Aang grimaced – it was so very strange to hear such a strange choice of wording and voice pattern, so distinctive of Sokka's whenever he was in a bad mood, in someone else's voice altogether.

"So, see? I'm gonna do it, and when I do, you'll stop trying to trick us, you weird Avatar-doppelganger spirit!" Azula announced: finally, her hand was free, and she raised it towards Sokka, at first… then she grimaced and angled it towards the sky instead. "A deep breath…!"

She inhaled, deeply… and then a strange, swirling and powerful sensation burst inside her gut. Azula's eyes widened as she sensed it and, nearly as though she were trying to shake off an unwanted bug that had crept onto her clothes, she squeaked and shook her hand carelessly… drawing arches of blue flames in the process.

Sokka, sitting opposite to her, gasped in sheer horror.

It was fire… no, it was HER fire.

She was Azula. And she was in Sokka's body. In his non-bending, male body… while he was stuck in her firebending, female one, too.

"W-what is… w-what is happening? What is happening?!" Azula's voice exclaimed, with unbridled panic. The true Azula, inside Sokka's body, had no doubts she had never spoken with such unrestrained fear in her whole life…

But she couldn't blame him. How could she possibly blame him, as she raised her hands to touch her face… which wasn't her face. Her shoulders, so much broader, her muscles so much larger…

Everything was different. Everything was strange. Nothing made the slightest bit of sense… but the most obvious answer for the questions asked by Sokka-in-Azula's-body was given by none other than Aang himself:

"Guys… I don't know what happened when you were in the Spirit World, but your spirits seem to have gotten mixed up in the process, and now, well…"

He sighed. He really had never heard of something like this before, and it certainly didn't make him feel any better about his duties as bridge between humans and spirits… but he knew what the truth was. It was plain and clear in the sharp but fierce and fearful glare of Sokka's blue eyes, in the panicked, wide gold eyes of Azula…

It was Azula, behind Sokka's eyes. And it was Sokka, behind Azula's.

"Well, guys… looks like you've swapped bodies."

...

The situation couldn't have been more confusing, and more frustrating, for the two people who suddenly found themselves more antagonistic towards each other than they had been in years. Neither one had any say in what had happened, and yet the immediate impulse they felt was to blame it on each other… despite neither dared voice said thoughts, keenly aware of how irrational they were. Still, said frustrations manifested themselves in various ways as they languished in a sitting room in the Northern Water Tribe's Palace, shooting glares at each other with utmost distaste.

"What?" Sokka, in Azula's body, asked bitterly as he lay slumped against a wall. Azula, in Sokka's body, scoffed and shook her head – or was it his head?

"Can't you at least try to have a decent, not sloppy posture?" she asked, bitterly. "Look at you… me! It's… unnerving."

"Well, I can't look at myself, or yourself, as the case may be… I can only look at you. Or me," Sokka grunted, eyebrows twitching. "And for that matter, you should stop looking so uptight and cranky. You're making me look scarier than anyone should be. I had no idea I could look so scary, for starters…"

"I'm not 'looking' scary, this is just the way I am, damn you," Azula scoffed: her own voice annoyed her, deeper and unequivocally male… this was so surreal she could hardly make sense of it. "Are you trying to say you've always thought I was scary?"

"Are you trying to say you've always thought I was sloppy?" Sokka rebuffed. Azula scoffed again, and Sokka hummed, folding his arms across his chest in vindication…

… Or rather, her chest.

He had breasts now.

It wasn't hard for Azula to notice his sudden, keen awareness of what kind of body he was in: her eyes widened when she caught the trajectory of his eyes, shifting lower until they settled on…

On her heavily covered body, that was. So many layers of parkas had to be good for something, at least.

"What are you doing?" she asked, with a vicious snarl. Sokka flinched and raised his hands – her hands – in a gesture of innocence and surrender.

"Nothing! I'm just… okay, you know what? We should talk about this. Establish ground rules, because we have no idea how long this nonsense is going to take, so…!"

"Ground rules?" Azula asked: Sokka's blue eyes had never seemed more daunting, he had no doubts about that… "That sounds like you expect this to last for quite a while, actually. And the way you were trying to… to check me out? Ugh! At least do that when you're not in my body, it's less creepy that way!"

"Well, for one thing, Princess…" Sokka said: how ridiculous could it be to hear her own voice calling her a Princess…? Oh, she wanted to fall asleep, wake up and discover it was just a very stupid, ridiculous, eclipse-induced dream… "I'll gladly check you out as many times as you want when we switch back, if just for the sake of rejoicing in knowing that you're in your body, and I'm in my own, too! But see… if this doesn't get reversed in ten minutes? We're going to have to go to the bathroom eventually. And when we do…"

"Ugh…!"

"You're going to have to handle my junk, and I'll have to handle yours!" Sokka continued, as Azula shuddered: truth be told, she had been trying, quite stubbornly, to pretend that nothing had changed, nothing at all… but there was certainly something different, something new, between her legs. Something she certainly had liked better when she had seen it in someone else's body… "And if it takes even longer than that? We'll have to bathe, and change into outfits every day, until we can swap back! So, what, exactly, is your plan? For me to leave your body to fester with filth just so you can be sure I won't be a perv over you? Well, I don't think I can risk catching any weird skin diseases in your body or you'll kill me for being careless too, so it's up to you, Princess, dear: will you let me be a decent guy and look after your body, naked or otherwise, or will you be a proud prude and refuse to let me even acknowledge the fact that, despite I never imagined it possible, I have actual breasts now?!"

Azula's eyebrows twitched and she shook her head. Sokka seemed to wait for an answer, bitterly so… and he got one, if a surprising one, at that.

"Not sure that's entirely fair. Your chest feels way bigger than mine does," she said, bitterly. Sokka blinked blankly.

"W-what? You're saying I have manboobs?" he asked, astonished.

"I'm saying…! You have a very broad chest, and it seems terribly muscular, and…!" Azula said, twitching. "And yes, fine, you're allowed to acknowledge it! But you're not allowed to…! To grope anything you shouldn't! Or to admire me in the mirror or anything like that!"

"How're you going to make sure I won't do that?" Sokka asked, amused. "Besides, you're the one who's coming up with all these thoughts, so… how do I know you're not going to do the same thing, huh?"

"Well, you'll be stuck with me for the foreseeable future. And I with you, so I suppose the answer is quite obvious…" Azula said. Sokka's eyes widened.

"Say what?"

"I'll watch as you bathe and change into your clothes. And in the privy, too. You can do the same thing, of course, if you don't trust me…"

"WHAT?! That's insane! Major breach of privacy there!" Sokka squeaked, staring at Azula as though he couldn't believe such words had come… from his own mouth.

"As far as I can tell, we're done having any privacy!" Azula hissed, waving a hand in his direction. "Your body is mine now, mine is yours, and all we could possibly go on is, what, a vow, a promise that we won't do anything inadequate without each other's approval and consent?"

"Well…! Do you just… not trust me at all to be a gentleman?" Sokka asked, grimacing. "Look, I won't be able to help looking in certain situations, alright? And I will be weirded out by the changes, same as I'm sure you will be. But if it means anything to you… I won't do anything bad to your body. No groping, let alone anything crazier than that… okay?"

"Uh… no," Azula frowned. Sokka's eyebrow twitched. "That's not the only way you could do something inadequate to my body, now that I think of it."

"What else do you think I'm going to do? Give you a bad haircut?" Sokka asked, rubbing his forehead with his fingertips.

"The bad posture is bad enough… but I've seen your appetite," Azula snapped: Sokka's eyes widened. "You're not eating to your heart's content while you're in my body, and that's final."

"B-but…!" he whimpered before dropping flatly on the floor, in a pitiful fit of fake sobs. "Fuck it, Aang! Get back here and fix everything, you damned, weird Avatar…!"

"Maybe you're right to blame him, come to think of it…" Azula pointed out, glancing at the door of their sitting room.

As much as he wanted to help them sort it out, Aang's responsibility in their catastrophic circumstances wasn't easy to forget. The Avatar had left them here while he tried to research on all matters spiritual in the local libraries. He claimed he had no knowledge of any phenomena of the sort – it seemed Air Nomads frequently meditated and traveled to the Spirit World in old days, but never had he heard of them messing up their return to their bodies this badly –, but he had chalked it down to basing most his knowledge on his personal experiences and understanding of spirituality. Surely there were countless things he had never learned of… and so, after securing a safe room for the body-switched pair, helping them avoid everyone who might realize something was off about both Sokka and Azula, he had rushed to read as many books as he could find, in hopes of tracking down any sort of mention of body swapping over spiritual journeys.

Yet by the time he returned – about ten minutes after their latest argument dimmed into silence – it was clear by the lackluster expression on the Avatar's face that he brought no good tidings, whatsoever.

"I tried, you guys, I really did!" he said, grimacing. "Ugh, I really have to be the worst guru ever. There's no way I can do this!"

"Maybe you should've reached that conclusion before you body-swapped me with your best friend," Azula scoffed, glaring at the Avatar viciously – somehow, this was proving to be quite the experiment in proving Sokka could be a terrifying person, and Azula could be a much less uptight one, if only they ever tried it… though their current expressions didn't particularly suit each other's faces, in Aang's opinion.

"Okay… okay," Sokka said, rubbing his forehead with his fingertips. "Let's just… think about this for a minute, okay? If this weirdness happened once, it definitely should happen again if we try to make it happen. So… we just need to return to the Spirit World."

"As easily as that?" Azula asked, skeptical. "It already took the Avatar ten months to prepare us for a single successful journey, in which we cleansed ourselves from countless dark feelings and whatnot…! Well, I'm quite sorry, but I'm filling this body of yours with all sorts of dark emotions all over again, right now. Meditation is out of the question for the time being."

"Well, damn, I get that you're not ready for it right now, we're both pretty pissed about this whole thing," Sokka said. "But, see… if the only way to get back to our normal bodies would be to meditate and do the whole process again? I'm down for that. Or would you rather be stuck with my nasty, manly body forever instead of returning to your pristine one, eh?"

She didn't think it would be right to remark that she didn't quite think his body was nasty, despite she didn't know how to be comfortable under his skin… but saying anything remotely nice about him right now seemed like a bad idea. She simply harrumphed and glared at the window, as though it were somehow responsible on some part for her many misfortunes.

"Thing is, though… you two really aren't spiritual at all," Aang said, grimacing. Both eyes, gold and blue, glared at him fiercely. "I mean, yeah, maybe I'm just a bad teacher! But if it took us a whole eclipse and a highly spiritual location for you to access the Spirit World while at your best, I don't think we can hope for any conditions short of that, if you try it again."

"What…? You mean we have to wait for another eclipse?!" Azula exclaimed: Sokka's voice cracked over her utter loss of composure, and she cringed at the sound. Why were his vocal cords so strange…?

"Eh… well, likely," Aang grimaced. Sokka scoffed.

"And when the hell are we going to get another solar eclipse in a highly spiritual location?" he asked. "Look, I may not be the most knowledgeable guy out there for these… uh, guy. Girl? What the hell am I at this point?! Ugh! Whatever! The point is, I don't know a lot about astronomy, but I still know solar eclipses don't just happen every two months or so! Let alone total eclipses!"

"True, but… ugh, I don't really understand how something like this could happen. Could it really be just an accident? Why would your souls be better attuned to each other's bodies than your own?" he asked, rubbing his bald head awkwardly. Azula and Sokka eyed each other with suspicion.

"I'm not… attuned to this body," Azula scoffed. Sokka nodded.

"I think there's not a lot of things Azula and I are in agreement about, lately? But that one's certainly one of them," he said, twitching. "I feel so… short."

"Well, at least you're not at risk of walking into dangling lamps this way…!"

"I never was at risk of that, I pay attention to my surroundings," Sokka declared, pompously. "But frankly, the most unnerving thing is the firebending… every time I take a deep breath, it's like someone lights a match inside me! How the hell do you people live like this?!"

"It's… a grand feeling," Azula said, with a miserable grimace. "A feeling I've fostered and strengthened across many years of training… and to you, it's just unnerving. Just give me my body back…"

"Gladly," Sokka scoffed, as she shook her head in disbelief and denial.

"Okay, so it's not like you two spent all this time of becoming friends over the course of our meditation sessions wishing you were each other, right?" Aang asked, and his two initiates glared at him skeptically. "Okay, evidently not, heh! Uh, well… then I have to say, maybe this isn't happening by sheer chance. That's my instinctive understanding of it, anyway. Could be I'm wrong, but if this is happening for a reason, maybe you guys have to, uh, I don't know, learn a lesson in each other's bodies before you can be ready to switch back…?"

"What, exactly, do you think we'd learn from being stuck in each other's shoes?" Azula asked, skeptical.

"I have absolutely no idea, but first of all, I should make sure this theory makes sense," Aang said, with a weak grin "Did… did they say anything? I mean, Yue and Lu Ten. You said something like that, Sok-… Azula."

"They did say a few things. Weird things," Azula grimaced: across her, Sokka scowled and withdrew, displeased upon thinking about their brief time in the Spirit World. "I can't remember all of it, but one of them was that… that anything was possible if the sun and moon met?"

"That's…! Well, that's not really it, not entirely, but I think they did this on purpose!" Aang grinned. Sokka let out a humorless laugh and fixed a glare on him.

"Right, because that's just the way you help a guy who's trying to finally get proper closure and leave things in the past!" he snapped. "Show him the way you make out with his companion's cousin and make him feel like an inadequate moron who's been stuck on something meaningless while she moves on in a heartbeat, spirit that she is now! I went there to get answers, to make sure things weren't as bad as I had thought they were. To deal with my grief, my remorse, and finally put it all behind me so I can resolve my past and build myself a future! This? This isn't a future! This is a ridiculous hurdle along the way, and if it's Yue's idea of a joke? I'm damn sure I'm over her now. Damn sure of it!"

Azula grimaced: it certainly didn't sound like he was over his fury, if nothing else. What he'd witnessed had done a number on him, she hardly blamed him for it… but if Aang was right, it did mean Yue had to have become a rather heartless moon spirit, if she hadn't been so cruel in her human life.

"Okay, sorry, but… oh, I'm trying to figure things out here," Aang sighed. "As far as I can tell, recreating the previous circumstances that allowed you guys to finally reach the Spirit World isn't going to be easy. It might actually take us a long time to make it work. And by long I don't mean a few months… I mean it could even be years. I'll try to come up with other spiritually charged places where maybe we could hope for another total eclipse, but…"

"Do that," Sokka huffed. "We wound up in the Spirit World's version of a familiar place, if that helps at all. We were at the top of this very tall mountain, in the South Pole…"

"Oh? Huh! Maybe that means something, too," Aang said, tapping his chin. "Could be that's a spiritually charged location, as well! We can look up eclipse forecasts, or you guys could even learn how to predict them, and then we could try to find as many eclipses in the South Pole as possible, and more eclipses in the North Pole! That, at least, broadens our possibilities a little."

"I suppose we should be thrilled for that," Azula said, with a twitching grin. "But two locations still don't guarantee that we'll get another total eclipse anytime soon."

"We'll look into it. At least I will," Sokka declared, with a sigh. "Maybe by the time we find one, Aang will have found another way to get us to switch bodies. You never know."

"I also will advise, though… you guys really should try to make efforts to get in touch with your deeper spiritual problems," Aang said, gazing at them hopelessly. "I can try to help you, if you want, but… even if we do find the eclipse, if you're in greater disarray than before, it's not going to be much use. It might even fail… and then we'd have to hunt another eclipse and hope for the best."

"Find information about body swapping," Azula told him, cuttingly. "As much of it as you can get your hands on. Whether theoretical or practical, I don't care: look into how to reverse it with objective, tangible means to make it work. I know you want us to be spiritually inclined and whatnot, Aang? But I'm well past the point of wanting to be, no matter how badly you may want it. This is… it's a problem. A huge one. How the hell are we going to live out our lives in each other's bodies until another eclipse comes around?"

"That's a very serious point," Sokka grimaced. "I'm expected in Republic City…"

"And I'm expected in the Fire Nation," Azula said, bitterly. "I don't think I can do what Sokka needs me to do in his stead, nor could he do what I need him to, in mine. This is…"

"I get it, it's a big mess, a bad problem…" Aang recited, sighing heavily. "I get it. I'll look into it, as best I can, but just… try to do as I told you, too. It can't hurt, can it?"

"If it doesn't work, the one who's going to hurt isn't going to be me," Azula said, with a dry grin. Aang swallowed.

"That expression looks scarier when you're in your own body, but that's still scary… okay, okay, I'll do my best, I will! But… well, you two could maybe, at least, take a vacation for a little while? At least while we sort this out! If you need somewhere to stay, Air Temple Island is…!"

"No, thank you," Azula said, cuttingly. "I don't even want to imagine dealing with Katara while I'm in her brother's body…"

"And what about me dealing with Zuko in yours?" Sokka scoffed. "I won't even be able to breath near him without him assuming I'm up to no good!"

"Well, good. You'll be able to see for yourself how ridiculous his behavior is," Azula declared, proudly. Aang sighed.

"I'll probably tell Katara and our closest friends… though they probably won't believe it easily," he reasoned. "Still… I suppose a nice silver lining is that you're both single right now, huh? Otherwise, you'd have to deal with some very awkward situations with each other's boyfriend or girlfriend and… well, it would suck."

"It really would," Sokka grimaced, shuddering – after what he'd witnessed in the Spirit World, he felt compelled to swear off from romance altogether.

Azula didn't respond, though… and that brought Sokka to study her facial features more intently. Was he always this crystal-clear when he was in deep thought? What was there to think about, though…? He had merely agreed that being single was better under the current circumstances, why would Azula be bothered by his comment?

"Alright, then… I'll try to research other ways to reverse it," Aang said, with a deep sigh. "I'll ask some the Air Acolytes to help, too. Meanwhile… I guess you guys should try and study, well, eclipses and all that?"

"I guess we will," Sokka groaned, shaking his head. "Maybe we'll find some good astronomers in Ba Sing Se University, or… I don't even know. Are there any good ones in the Fire Nation?"

"Maybe a few. I know of one," Azula responded.

"Then we'll find them and, if they can't figure out how to predict if the eclipses will affect the north or the south poles, we'll do that part of the work ourselves," Sokka declared. "The sooner we're back in our own bodies, the better."

It was a reasonable, logical conclusion, and yet Sokka couldn't help but notice an uneasiness in Azula's behavior ever since Aang had said what he did. The Avatar took off for a second scouring of the archives in the Northern Water Tribe, and for the sake of it, it seemed Azula had decided to take a walk – growing used to their new bodies would be a slow process, for sure. Sokka himself was slightly puzzled by the differences too, glancing across the Palace as he followed Azula while feeling inevitably short… and inevitably cold.

He started taking deep breaths only to feel the tingle of warmth in his gut: to think he'd underestimated her need for so many layers of outerwear… he really should have thought twice about the hardships a firebender faced in such circumstances. Staying warm wasn't easy for him, not even when he started to take advantage of his bursting firebending to stay warm when they stepped up to a balcony in the Palace.

"You're not cold, are you?" asked Sokka. Azula blinked blankly before glancing down at herself – or himself, as the case might be.

"Actually… huh. I'm not. You really are adjusted to the cold…" she reasoned: the breeze did brush against her face from time to time, but it wasn't remotely as unpleasant as it had been in her own body. Which… "And I'm not. Are you the one who's cold now, Sokka?"

"M-maybe," he admitted, with a shrug. "Who cares, anyway? Uh, I just wanted to ask, though… are you okay? Something Aang said clearly bothered you, I think…"

"Oh? Am I that easy to read in this body?" Azula asked. Sokka snorted.

"I've spent way too much time with you, actually. You'd be easy for me to read in this or that body, makes no difference," he declared.

"I'm predictable for you, then?"

"Easy to understand isn't the same as predictability… though you're not always easy to understand, true," Sokka said, with a sigh. "Anyway, don't change the subject, will you? What's wrong? Well, other than all that's wrong, of course…"

Azula clenched her fists before taking a deep breath. This wasn't something she was ready to disclose, she hadn't told anyone else about it so far… but now that things had come to this, she couldn't keep it to herself. Not when this might just affect Sokka personally, eventually…

"Well… he said we were lucky, right? To be single," she said. Sokka nodded. "Well, I… may not be that lucky, then."

"Uh… Wait. Wait! You have someone?!" Sokka gasped, surprised: Azula inevitably blushed. "Really, now?"

"It's not… like that," she said, stubbornly. Sokka snorted and clapped her shoulder awkwardly, in his usual friendly gesture – though she was so much taller than him now that he had to make extra efforts to reach her. "We're not exactly planning a wedding or anything like that. It's just something I do, on the side… sometimes, when I have free time."

"Okay?" Sokka said, raising his eyebrows. "Still should be a relationship, though, even if it's the 'no-strings-attached' kind…"

"I guess, which is why I… I hadn't really thought about it right away," Azula said, glancing at Sokka remorsefully. "But I suppose now you'll have to be the one who…"

"Who… what?" Sokka asked, puzzled. "You're not about to ask me to date this person for you, are you?"

"No!" Azula grimaced. "I mean… I wouldn't. It would be very awkward, and I think we'd all be uncomfortable…"

"Then… are you asking permission to be with this person with my body?" Sokka asked, grimacing.

"Of course not!" Azula rebuffed. Sokka sighed in relief.

"Good. Thank you for that," he said, smiling at her.

"It's just…! I don't know what we're going to do about it. I mean, I can avoid him for a few months, I suppose, but he'll likely ask for an explanation before long," Azula said, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips. "I guess… ugh, I'll have to break up with him, won't I?"

"Well, you don't have to," Sokka said, grimacing. "You can just… tell him you're up to some really serious top-secret investigations for the Avatar. You can't really disclose what, but it's life-or-death stuff, something like that?"

"You mean you'll have to tell him," Azula pointed out, glancing down at him. Sokka froze. "You're the one in my body now. If I tell him we need to take a break, in this body, well…"

"Okay, okay, I get the picture," Sokka grimaced, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Well, I can do that for you, don't worry about it. I'll be, um, delicate about it. As much as I can be."

"Well… like I said, it's not exactly an easy situation to explain," Azula said, grimacing. "And what we have is, uh… mostly, mainly, physical."

"Eh… eh?" Sokka blinked blankly.

"So, I guess he might decide to kiss you the minute he sees you…" Azula said.

"Okay, nope! Let's try to avoid that!" Sokka winced.

"And let's hope he doesn't ask for our last night together to count for something…" Azula said, with a slight smile. Sokka shuddered and shook his head.

"Please, stop! I… goodness, don't even make me imagine it! Believe it or not, the idea of sleeping with a guy isn't exactly something that crosses my mind often."

"Crosses mine often enough," Azula laughed. "I wonder how it would work, in this body…"

"Well, for that matter I ought to go after girls in yours!" Sokka pouted. Azula eyed him skeptically, and he smiled a little. "Not a deal you're ready to take, are you?"

"To be honest… try to date someone in my body, and I'll likely skewer you," Azula decided, with a sigh. "Thus, I won't do it in yours, either. It's… wrong, by all means. The likelihood that we'd ever find someone who understands what's going on with us isn't very good, and I doubt Chan would ever understand it, so…"

"That's the guy you're seeing?" Sokka asked. Azula nodded. "So… how about writing letters to him? That could help, I think…"

"I've never done that before. I suppose it wouldn't be terrible, but I doubt it'll help preserve the relationship anyway," Azula sighed. "I'm a little surprised you're so willing to help, though. Earlier, it sounded like you don't want anything to do with romance altogether, after what we saw…"

"Well, yeah, but I'd have to be a monumental ass if I expected everyone around me to do the same thing just because I will, right?" Sokka said, his mood darkening immediately. Azula grimaced.

"I'm not exactly an optimist, where love's concerned…" she admitted. "But it sounds like you're even more miserable about it than I am, at this point in time."

"Well… it's a little unnerving still. Maybe I'll get over what we saw in the Spirit World in a few days, but…" Sokka sighed, shaking his head. "I'm sorry. You probably don't want to hear my groaning."

"I don't think I really want to… but I suspect I should. I'm in your body now, aren't I? Understanding you better would be necessary if I'm supposed to live in your body until a remedy comes up," Azula said. Sokka bit his lip. "Come on, then. What were you going to say?"

"I… okay, I haven't really talked to anyone else about this," Sokka confessed. "But… this wasn't my first time seeing Yue as a spirit."

"Really?" Azula asked, surprised. "And here I thought you hadn't been in contact with spirits at all…"

"I don't know how it happened. It was in the swamp, you know, in the southern Earth Kingdom?" Sokka said, with a sigh. "We all saw visions, but… I didn't really tell them what my vision of Yue said to me."

"What was it?" Azula asked: she wasn't sure she had ever heard Sokka speaking so seriously… made all the stranger by the fact that he spoke from her body, rather than his own.

"Well… she told me I'd failed her," Sokka said, sternly. Azula's eyes widened. "That I… didn't protect her. I never knew if that was the real Yue or just some strange vision of the swamp, but… I think that's where my actual problems began. I always did want to protect my sister and Aang, and I never really felt like I was strong enough to do better than them, but I still looked after them, as best I could. And then, the first girl I ever had feelings for? When the time came, I tried to protect her, but… I failed. I couldn't do anything to keep her from giving her life to save the world. From that point on, I… I guess I spiraled in silence, without my awareness."

"Aang did say you kept all your problems bottled up, much like I did," Azula pointed out. "That you've let them fester for too long… is this it?"

"Probably," Sokka sighed, hugging himself tightly. "I… I've never thought I was good enough for her, alright? And seeing her with your cousin… well, it only made matters worse. I wasn't good enough to protect her, I wasn't good enough to deserve her… and maybe I'm just no good at being with anyone, altogether. Everything I've tried afterwards has failed, so… could be I'm just not cut out for love."

"Or you've just had the worst luck of all," Azula suggested. Sokka sighed and shrugged. "You've protected others constantly, at the expenses of your own health and happiness, it seems… and you're not at peace with that, are you?"

"No, but what else am I supposed to do?" Sokka asked, bitterly. "This is… it's who I am."

"Is it?" Azula asked. "Right now… well, I think neither you nor I should be all that sure about who we are. Especially after our body swap."

"Heh. Good point," Sokka sighed.

"Have you considered… maybe Yue and my cousin showed us what they did to prove that it's time for you to move on, just as she already did?" Azula asked. Sokka grimaced.

"Very sensitive way of putting it. Could've just told me that to my face rather than making out with your cousin," Sokka said, shaking his head. Azula smiled a little.

"Well, if it helps at all, it means she has a life of her own, as a spirit. She has different ways of seeing the world now, I'd imagine," Azula reasoned. Sokka sighed.

"So… it's not about me, is what you're saying. I really shouldn't think of it that way, huh?" he mumbled. "I… I guess I get it. It still hurts, but I get it."

"Love doesn't have to be completely off the table for you, if it isn't for me," Azula said, with a shrug. "Not that I'm really in love with Chan, at least I don't think I am, but…"

"Is he in love with you?" Sokka asked, puzzled. She shrugged.

"No idea. But I guess… maybe we could be more than just physical, if things could continue. And maybe we won't have that chance, and I'll just find someone else? Who even knows at this point," Azula said, with a shrug. "I'm probably not going to let it happen anyway because I…"

"You're not exactly big on opening your heart to others?" Sokka finished for her, when she trailed off mid-sentence. Azula smiled and shook her head.

"This is probably the most I've done of that in… uh. Ever, I guess," she said, glancing at him warily. Sokka smiled a little.

"Hey, if you understand me, and I understand you, we'll have a better chance at getting through this weird ordeal together. Right?"

It was strange to look at herself this way at all… to see her own features tinged by Sokka's mannerisms and traits, by his typical expressions. She had no doubt he felt the same way about seeing his own body affected by her spirit, in whatever way it was…

Maybe it was a good idea to let themselves run with this, then. To open up, to trust… to let themselves believe in each other, in the bond that had been forcibly strengthened the minute they had traded bodies.

"We really have no choice but to trust each other, do we?" Azula asked, angling her body towards Sokka. He breathed in and nodded: a spark of fire burst from his lips then, and he winced while Azula smiled. "You need me to teach you how to control that, too…"

"Firebending's… not fun," Sokka whimpered, twitching. "I bet if it was any other kind of bending it'd be so much easier… but this thing is inside me!"

"It's one hell of a feeling," Azula laughed, closing her eyes as she tried to evoke it… unfortunately, Sokka's body couldn't do firebending at all. Such a pity… "But it's fine. All you need to learn is how to control it, so it doesn't run away with you. You're not about to join wars or perform for entertainment, are you?"

"Not if I can help it. I hope you didn't have either thing in your schedule for the foreseeable future," Sokka said, with an awkward smile. Azula laughed and shook her head.

"I hope too that your schedule was also relatively clear for the foreseeable future," she said. "I'm not sure I'd have it in me to organize your sister's birthday party in your stead, or so…"

"Fortunately, it already passed, so that means you won't have to… at least, not unless this takes us another year," Sokka's eyebrow twitched. "Which, hopefully, it won't. But yeah… you're right, we'll have no choice but to trust each other, eh?"

"I guess… we ought to think of it as lending each other our bodies, temporarily?" Azula asked, her thumb against her chin – a light scruff of beard grew in it, and she flinched upon realizing, just now, that she had facial hair for the first time in her life. "And that means… well, dealing with all the differences and changes. Such as, uh… heh. Periods."

"P-periods…?" Sokka repeated, with an awkward smile. "Please tell me yours isn't coming anytime soon…"

"You have a week and four days before you suffer pain beyond your imagination," Azula declared, raising her head haughtily. Sokka winced.

"Okay, well… maybe that's true, but you know what? I've been through my share of pain and then some, in my own body! So maybe I'm better trained to deal with it than you are!" Sokka declared, grinning. Azula laughed and shrugged.

"We'll see about that in a week and four days," she finished, smirking.

"Besides, isn't your body accustomed to it?" Sokka asked, raising an eyebrow. "Bet it won't be that bad…"

"You're such an optimist… learning to handle your own pain threshold is more a matter of the mind than the body," she said. Sokka grimaced. "But anyway, I guess I'll help you, then, too. But beyond this… like I was saying, we really will have to trust each other."

"So that means… no crazy plans of watching my every move in the bathroom?" Sokka asked. "Or any of the weird stuff you said you'd do, before?"

"I guess so," Azula said. "But if I see any signs of you being weird with my body or eating completely ridiculous diets…!"

"You'll yell at me, fine, I'll live with that," Sokka smiled. "Same's true for you, too. If I walk into your room and find you playing around with my…"

"I wouldn't!"

"We'll see if you wouldn't," Sokka laughed mischievously, as Azula's cheeks reddened. "I'm only saying, it's really awkward in the mornings…"

"I've heard of that, but… how bad is it?" Azula asked, eyeing him warily.

"Not as bad as a period, if that makes you feel any better," Sokka smiled. "It goes away after a while. You learn to ignore it."

"Good, then. Good," she said, breathing deeply. "Then it's not like I'd have to, um…"

"What, jerk it off every morning? I mean, you could, but then, for fairness's sake, you'd have to allow me to do the same with…!"

"You don't have any reason to do that!" Azula scoffed, as Sokka laughed carelessly. "Ugh, what a stupid situation this is, when I think about it… you really won't do anything too crass, understood?"

"I said I wouldn't, I said I wouldn't…" Sokka waved a hand dismissively in her direction, and Azula grimaced.

"But I suppose… as long as you don't disrespect my body considerably, I'll learn to live with it," Azula sighed.

"It boils down to treating this as… a responsibility, I suppose," Sokka said, scratching the back of his head.

"As protecting each other?" Azula asked, glancing at him with a knowing glint in her eyes. He gritted his teeth but nodded.

"Might be that's really what it means, huh? Might be I'll end up finding it's much better to protect others with your body than with mine," Sokka said, with a sad smile.

"You're free to think so, if you're saying it because you can firebend now, but… I'm not sure it'll be as easy for you as that," Azula said, raising an eyebrow. Sokka glanced at her in surprise.

"How so?"

The answer to his question became clearer once they were sailing back to the Fire Nation, a few days later: they would meet Azula's astronomer acquaintance there, and hopefully learn of the projected dates for future eclipses with his help. They would do their own share of work to create projections too, while on their way there… and there was one more thing they'd do, on the largest deck of the ship:

"Breathe. For now… breathe," Azula said, firmly. Sokka nodded and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath… and then that tingle of flames seemed to burst inside him. He stopped breathing at once, and the fire extinguished. "You're not breathing."

"W-well, your fire's a bit scary, like I said," he mumbled, embarrassed. "I'm trying, Azula, but…"

"Believe it or not… I understand, probably better than you do," Azula said, frowning. "A regular firebender not only needs to develop their power but their stamina, their capacity to create fire, their body's ability to wield it: you already have all those things, and far more bending capacity than a lot of people can fathom. I know it firsthand, better than anyone, because I'm the one who built it up. You, however… you've never bent any elements and now you have every capacity while absolutely no control and no clue of how to level yourself to handle my fire. Clearly, you need an unusual kind of training… but as I can't think of anything else, for now you should get accustomed to bending itself, first of all. So… breathe."

Sokka sighed but nodded, complying with her orders. The power Azula held inside her… it was terrifying because of how new it was, for him. Perhaps, over time, he'd grow used to it… perhaps, within a few more weeks, he'd know how to keep it in check. But for now, every two deep breaths found him releasing sparks into the air, no matter if he didn't intend for that to happen.

He supposed he'd offer to teach Azula how to use a boomerang, if she cared to learn… but at the same time, he wondered if that might be unnecessary. With any luck, another eclipse would happen sometime soon… though, after the first nights of working on charts to project the trajectory of the moon across the sky, he wasn't sure he'd be that lucky at all. He and Azula worked together to develop projections – or rather, Azula had been watching him working and trying to keep track of his efforts while Sokka grumbled under his breath about every calculation he could make. She seemed intrigued, eager to learn, curious about the rudimentary charts he was developing, based on what he understood of astronomical values, aware that he was lacking several variables, but even so, he dared project the rest of the moon's trajectory on its way across the sky, all the way until its shadow finally would pass across their world…

"Hmm. I don't think this would be a total eclipse, though," he reasoned, eyeing the pattern of the sun and the moon. "A partial one, instead…"

Azula watched, almost entranced: had she known Sokka could focus so much on intellectual pursuits of this nature, she might have talked with him more often about such things, through the near-year of their mutual association as partners in spiritual adventures. He certainly seemed to understand what he was talking about, even if he admitted to struggling, at times, with measurements and constants…

In the end, their trip back to the Fire Nation was surprisingly agreeable for the body-swapped pair. Yet, upon finally finding the top astronomer of the Fire Nation, that agreeable mood soured considerably when Sokka's very worst fear, his darkest projection, was confirmed by the astronomer himself…

"Indeed… the next total eclipse in the North Pole will only happen in another ten years, pretty much," the expert said, with a shrug.

"You… you're kidding. You're kidding!" Azula exclaimed, in Sokka's voice: the astronomer, Goro, flinched at her apparently aggressive reaction. No doubt, the man had expected Azula to be the one with a dangerous temper in this visit… and he wasn't wrong to expect that, of course, but Azula wasn't in her own body, hadn't been for weeks now. "Ten whole years?! I can't do this for ten years! Nobody in their right mind would do this for ten years!"

"A-… Sokka, relax!" Sokka winced, staring at Azula intently – when she lost her temper like that, it was actually quite easy to recognize her in his own body. "It's not our only choice, it's possible Aang will find out something else, and besides…! South Pole eclipses! Do you have any other projected eclipses with totality for the South Pole? Maybe there will be a better one far sooner than in ten years, right?"

"U-uh, right, I think so, but… I don't really know," Goro admitted, inching away from the man who looked like a rather dangerous foreigner. Still, he turned back to his papers until he finally pulled out one with the information the so-called Princess was asking for. "Aha! Here's one, total eclipse for the South Pole… in five years."

"Five…?!" Azula repeated, before huffing and rising to her feet, storming off and out of the room. Sokka, left behind, grimaced and smiled at Goro with discomfort.

"Any chance you'll find something better than that…?" he asked. Goro shook his head.

"I'm afraid I can't quite do anything about the moon's trajectory across the sky, Princess," he said. Sokka suppressed a shudder upon hearing someone referring to him as a Princess.

"I… I see. Maybe we should get earthbenders to move it, then," he reasoned, with a bitter smile. "Oh, anyway… I'll go get, uh…"

"Your friend Asokka, yes,"

"Uh-huh! Yep! That's him!" Sokka grinned awkwardly, rising to his feet. "Thanks for receiving us at such short notice, and for the information, and… I'm off to make sure she – he doesn't do anything stupid, hehe. Bye!"

Goro appeared perplexed over the Princess's behavior that day, but Sokka had no intentions of sticking around to explain matters: he found Azula stomping on the ground right outside the man's estate, her chest heaving as she struggled to calm her fury at the unfair hand the universe had dealt them.

"Azula…" he called her. She snarled and turned towards him.

"You do realize… five years? That's… that's too much. Five years of wasted time, pretending to be each other?! That's forever!" she exclaimed. Sokka grimaced and shook his head. "We're supposed to be in the prime of our lives here, aren't we?! All the things we wanted to achieve, every damn plan we ever had in mind…! It's all on hold and none of it is bound to happen because, at best, this will be over in five years, and at worst it'll be way longer than that…!"

"Calm down, alright?" Sokka said, stepping up and placing his hands on her forearms, as though to reel her in. Azula snarled, staring down at him as Sokka gazed at her with sincere, clear eyes… eyes she wasn't sure had ever looked that way, when they had belonged to her. And perhaps they never would belong to her again… "Listen here… five years, yes, is a lot. But you and I? We can get through this. If you need me to do something in your place… I'll learn how. If I need you to do something too, I'll teach you how to go about it. It's still possible Aang will learn how to figure things out, but if he doesn't… then we have no choice but to do our best and be ready when those five years come to an end, okay? I… I'm not saying I really want this or anything, but I do think…"

"That it's an opportunity we should make the most of?" Azula asked, mockingly. Sokka sighed, dropping his hands.

"I think… I don't mind being you as much as I thought I would, at first" he said, simply. Azula's eyes widened. "Maybe because I haven't experienced everything yet… maybe because the worst of it is still far ahead. But I think… I think we can get through this if we work together. This strange mess… it doesn't have to be a waste of time if we don't let it be that. We promised to take care of each other, to protect each other, right? And… I still mean to do that. So…"

Azula breathed deeply: the lack of tingling flames inside her body, upon doing so, ached in places she could barely remember existed inside her anymore. Because they didn't, in this body…

But he was right. Unless Aang found any other way of helping them, they would have no choice, in the end, no matter how frustrating it would be, than to endure this for five or ten years, however long it might be. Yet, in that time…

"It really will have to end… between me and Chan, huh?" Azula asked. Sokka grimaced. "He's never going to hold out and wait for five or ten years… let alone when we weren't even that serious. I… I'll have to end things. I'll have to…"

"You can go long-distance," Sokka suggested, eyeing her hopelessly. "I mean, I know you said it was physical, but if you guys don't want things to end…"

"I don't know what I want anymore. I don't think it matters, even, because I don't know what I'd want while I'm in this body," Azula reasoned, with a sigh. "I know you want to help… but it's no use, Sokka. I think… it's better if we get ready to face our lives are about to change a lot, and I don't know if for the better."

"I guess so… I guess so," Sokka whispered, eyeing her sadly. "For what it's worth… I'm sorry."

"I am, too. I don't mean to steal five years from your life… just as you don't mean to steal five from mine," Azula said, eyeing him with unease. "But I suppose, if this is what it takes…"

"We'll learn to be each other. To act like each other, when the need arises… and to be free to be ourselves once we're together and, well, alone, likely," Sokka said, with a sad smile. "I suppose… if nothing else, we're stuck in this together. So, we won't be alone, no matter how long it takes before we switch back."

Azula breathed deeply again… reasoning with his words. Reasoning with his sudden, unexpected companionship and everything it entailed. She had been lonely for most her life… even if they were stuck with each other, and it wasn't by choice, at least he was right to say she wouldn't be alone anymore. It was an odd source of comfort, but a source of comfort, all the same.

"Okay… okay. We'll… we'll work through this mess together, somehow. Test all the theories Aang may find, if he finds anything…" Azula said, closing her eyes. "But first, I… I think I have to go see Chan, after all."

"Well, we're in the Fire Nation now, so… where does he live?" asked Sokka.

"Ember Island. It'll be a brief stop before… well, whatever it is we'll be doing next," Azula said. Sokka nodded.

"Then Ember Island it is," he said, offering her a weak grin. "I'll be as considerate as I can be, alright? And, say, if I can get him to think about waiting for you for five years…?"

"Don't bother" Azula said, shaking her head as they marched out of the astronomer nobleman's estate, to the carriage they had rented earlier. "He deserves better than waiting for something that might never arrive. It's not worth it."

"Fine, then… fine. I'm still sorry, but if you're sure…" Sokka said. Azula clasped his shoulder and urged him to climb the carriage first.

"I'm sure. Let's go," she said: the faster it was done, the better.

Their new journey took only a day, during which Sokka was most uneasy about what he'd have to do for Azula. Breaking up with someone couldn't possibly be easy, but doing it for someone else, simply because there was no other choice, sounded worse yet. Azula attempted to coach him into behaving more like her, for they'd finally face someone with whom one of them had a personal relationship – unlike how it was with most sailors, who, at most, shot them confused stares upon hearing them referring to each other by the wrong name –, and who had no idea of what had happened between them.

Chan's house stood deep in Ember Island, at the height of a tall hill. Sokka swallowed hard as he followed Azula in that direction, uneasy and nervous, until she finally stopped by the door and ushered him to knock.

"Alright. If we're doing this, we'd best get it over with quickly," she said, nudging him. Sokka winced and stepped forward, knocking on the door nervously.

He shot Azula several worried glances as she turned her back towards the door, anxiety plain across her face. She was tugging at the bandages he always wore on his forearms, and if she kept doing that, they'd likely come undone…

The door opened, and the familiar sound of Chan's happy gasp reached her where she stood.

"Look who it is! I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me!" he cackled, spreading his arms out in Azula's direction…

In Sokka's direction, actually.

"STOP!" he nearly screamed, with Azula's voice: Chan's puckered lips froze inches away from his face as he spread his arms out in his lover's direction. Or who he thought was his lover, anyway.

"W-what, what? Something wrong? Do you need me to…? Oh! Haha! I didn't notice we had company! Who's this?" Chan asked, looking at the tall man Azula had traveled with.

"T-this is… it's Sokka. The Avatar's friend," Sokka recited awkwardly, nudging Azula with an elbow.

"Eh? Oh, wait! It's that guy you were doing that strange spiritual retreat thing with?" Chan asked: Sokka's eyes widened. She had told him about that? Maybe their relationship was more serious than she'd implied…

"Yep! That's him, it's… u-uh, I mean, yes. Here you are. Meet Sokka," Sokka said, attempting to sound far more formal and serious as he gestured at Azula.

She sighed and turned around… and she gazed at Chan almost mournfully. The tall man froze in place, astonished to find such an emotionally charged blue gaze in the complete stranger he stood with, right now…

"U-uh… you okay?" Chan asked, warily. Azula swallowed hard.

"I'm, uh… fine. Nice to meet you," she said, clearing her throat.

"Nice to meet you too, I think," Chan said, with an awkward smile. "No idea why you looked so sad, but I hope it's not because you somehow swept Azula off her feet and came here to announce you're getting married…"

Azula flinched, and Sokka laughed nervously, shaking his head rapidly: despite his intent was to sound as convincing as possible, their joint reactions only made Chan even more suspicious.

"Of course not! W-why would I want to be with a guy like that when I could have you?!" Sokka squeaked. Azula stared at him in utmost confusion: he was supposed to be breaking up with Chan, not praising him!

"Uh… huh?" Chan smiled a little, gazing at Azula intently. "I mean… sure, but he looks a bit like me and all. Hell, he even has muscular arms, isn't that what you liked the most about me?"

"I…! I d-don't like any kind of muscular arms, though! Yours are better!" Sokka assured him, nodding awkwardly. Chan threw his head back and laughed.

"Oh, come on! What's this, you're trying to make me jealous or something?" he asked. "Look, if you're going to come clean and say you cheated on me with this guy, it's… well, awkward, but it's not like we had any sort of exclusivity thing going on, right? We said so from the start, so…"

"I'm not… dating her," Azula said, hoarsely, staring at Chan in chagrin. "But… neither will you. That's why we're here."

"Uh… what? Is this some sort of competition over Azula?" Chan asked, puzzled. "Do I really have to do something like that…?"

"That's not it!" Sokka exclaimed, smiling awkwardly. "Look, it's just… Aang, the Avatar? He needs us to help him research something pretty crazy that happened to… to some other friends of ours! You know, my sis-… rather, Sokka's sister!"

"And our earthbender friend. They, uh, meditated together and went to the Spirit World, came back in the wrong bodies," Azula continued: somehow, this idea hadn't come up between them when they discussed this before, but it had been a stroke of brilliance on Sokka's part, in Azula's opinion. "We need to help them set things back on track."

"Wow. No wonder the Avatar wanted you guys to learn your way with spiritual stuff, if that's the kind of wacky shit he's dealing with," said Chan, scratching the back of his neck. "But then… why does this mean I don't get to see you anymore, Azula?"

"I… will have to be gone. For a while," Sokka said, grimacing. "It'll be… uh, complicated, you see? It's probably going to take us about, uh, five years? It could be even worse than that…"

"Woah! Five years to fix one mistake? That's some shitty luck," Chan snorted: Azula's eyebrow twitched as she closed her eyes to keep herself from glaring at him in retaliation for his apparent levity over the subject – of course he'd think it was funny, if just because he had no idea the actual people who had suffered through that nonsense were them. "Well, damn, you won't have even a couple of weeks to check on me, in that case? That sucks, you know?"

"I do know. I'm really sorry," Sokka said, with an awkward smile. "But, you know, if you happen not to be comfortable with being apart from me for so long, we can always send letters to each other, maybe? Check on each other, make sure we're both okay…?"

"Uh… huh. I'm not much of a writer, myself," Chan said, biting his lip. "You're sure there's really no way around this? And… I mean, it sounds pretty crazy, and you suddenly show up here with this guy…"

"You really don't have anything to worry about," Azula said, stepping forward as though to clarify, as earnestly as possible, that there was nothing happening between her and Sokka – nothing beyond the rather confusing complication of having swapped bodies. "I'm not interested in her that way, alright? I couldn't be, I…"

Suddenly, a switch seemed to flip in Chan's mind: suddenly, Azula found herself staring at a smile she hadn't seen in a long time… a smile she hadn't wanted to see, either. She grimaced instinctively at the sight of it, as Chan laughed nervously.

"Ah, I get it! Oh, I get it. Haha, okay then! Well, I, uh… I'm not interested, sorry about that, and I'm actually kind of sorry if you're serious about not liking her at all, because I really thought this whole 'we'll be gone five years on this weird adventure' thing was either an excuse or a good reason for you two to, well, get closer, if you wanted to? And believe me, I wouldn't have minded at all…!"

"What…? But that's not it!" Azula exclaimed: Chan raised his hands in her direction.

"It's a waste, is all I'm saying, if you guys really aren't into each other," Chan smiled good-naturedly. "We always said we were just taking it easy, right, Azula? So, if you fell for this guy, I wouldn't have been pissed, you know?"

"Eh, great, but…" Sokka said. Chan sighed and glanced at him next.

"But if you're serious and nothing's up… I get that it's over, I do. But how about a last quickie, eh? For old time's sake?" Chan smirked at him: Azula's stomach dropped over how predictable he was, and Sokka winced as he stepped away from Chan. "Come on! You guys just got here, your buddy can sit around and wait until we're done… I can even call some friends of mine who are like him, you know? They might even give him a good time-…!"

"Oh! Haha! Y-you think…! Oh, hell, Sokka isn't interested in guys that way!" Sokka laughed, glancing at Azula nervously as she blushed, inevitably, upon finally understanding what, exactly, was what Chan's interpretation of Sokka "Right? Right?!"

"He's looking at me like he's drowning and I'm the only water glass around, what'd you mean he's not interested?" Chan snorted. "Oh, Azula… you're gorgeous too, girl! But the heart wants what it wants… or the loins do, anyway."

"They do! And right now, they really want… to go to the bathroom! Yeah! I ate a super bad, explosive meal earlier today, I think I need a potty break right now!" Sokka decided, choosing to make up a twisted story to, hopefully, scare Chan away for good.

It worked, to a fault, for at least his amusement receded into utter confusion. Sokka smiled awkwardly, and he decided to strengthen the deceit by twisting his posture awkwardly in Azula's body. Chan inched away from him, glancing at Azula, in Sokka's body, next.

"You two, uh… probably are in too much of a hurry with that trip of yours for this, right? She's just trying to spare you being a third wheel, I take it? Okay, sorry if I was insensitive…" Chan said, glancing at Azula with an awkward smile. "Just… well, take good care of her, alright? Whether you decide girls are your thing or not…"

"T-they're not. They're really… not," Azula sighed, dropping her face in her hand as Sokka snarled in her direction – guys weren't his thing either, and he had no intentions of kissing Chan goodbye forever…

Which appeared to be what the guy expected, even now, as he leaned in, towards him.

"Wait, so you really won't lend me your bathroom?! You're really cheap! This is my worst break-up ever! Okay, see you!" Sokka exclaimed: he had spoken rapidly right when Chan had attempted to swoop him into his arms. Then he stepped away and rushed down the road, without waiting for Azula to catch up.

"W-what is…? What is it with her?" he asked, glancing at Azula, who offered him an awkward grin. "She's acting weirder than ever. She's usually the one who's ready to jump my bones, after all…"

"Well, you know, maybe she's just… not that interested anymore," Azula said, with an awkward grin of her own. Chan huffed.

"Even if that's how it is, can't say I'm going to ask you to fill in for her," Chan said, with a teasing smile. "It's no big deal, I'll find someone else soon enough…"

"You think it's that easy? Finding someone…?" Azula asked. Chan shrugged.

"Sure. Not like I'm looking for someone to marry, or so… never expected to marry Azula to begin with. Anyway, see you or not, Sokka, and good luck getting a boyfriend."

Azula winced as Chan reentered his house, closing the door behind him. She'd need good luck with that for sure, but she didn't intend to get one while she was in Sokka's body.

This certainly had to be the weirdest break-up scene she could have imagined, but the strangest part was finding that, in the end, maybe she wasn't all that sorry to see the back of Chan. He wasn't a bad guy, in the end… but she wasn't entirely sure he was any good, either. In some strange ways, she had certainly hoped for more than she ever should have, with him… and as much as she had spoken as impassionedly as she had tried to reassure him about having no interest in Sokka whatsoever, suddenly she lowered her gaze to take in the body of the twenty-five-year-old she now inhabited, and…

And it was a good body. A great body, even. She had already taken a few baths, she had changed in and out of clothes while attempting, as best she could, to ignore the urges to check him out – for it meant she was checking herself out, and that was utterly stupid to even think about. But after Chan had pointed out that he and Sokka weren't all that different, physically, she couldn't help but agree, too… and along with said realization, an even stranger epiphany arrived: maybe she would prefer being stuck in Sokka's body than in Chan's.

Their relationship had been platonic so far, and yet Sokka and her had already bonded more than she ever had with Chan, even after she made amends for the harm she did to him in her teenage years and started over with him, as she had. Sokka was making a personal, genuine effort to understand her… had Chan ever tried to do that? She had been fine with it at first, with not expecting he'd try at all… but now that Sokka had, she somehow found herself wishing Chan would be more like him. That he would try to understand why they'd have to break up… that he'd be aghast, genuinely, over the possibility that she might have a relationship with someone else, while they had been apart.

Sounds within the house startled her: maybe he wasn't even alone today… she grimaced and shook her head, remembering again that they had never been on any exclusive terms, to begin with. It was supposed to be a break-up, but suddenly it felt like there wasn't much to break, altogether.

Sokka was waiting lower down the long road that led to Chan's house: such a goofy, fearful expression certainly seemed ill-suited in Azula's own face, or so she thought… and yet, where it could have annoyed her before, it only amused her now. She smiled and shook her head at him, as he gazed at her worriedly.

"I'm sorry! I really thought I could handle that better, but he just…! Ugh, damn it, it must have been the most awful thing for you. Did he say anything bad to you after I took off? I really shouldn't have, I just…!"

"If you hadn't, he'd have kissed you and that would have made things even weirder than they already were," Azula laughed. "It's fine, Sokka. You didn't do anything wrong. I doubt there's any reasonable way to break off a relationship over a factor as unexpected and confusing as 'I swapped bodies with my meditation partner', so…"

"Well, yeah, it's definitely a tricky thing to bring up to a significant other…" Sokka sighed, shaking his head. "Still… I'm sorry I couldn't handle it any better than I did. And I'm also sorry that he seemed to… to not really care much, one way or another? I had braced myself for waterworks and all sorts of begging…"

"Heh. You really think a guy would beg to get back with me if I broke up with him? You give me too much credit," Azula said, skeptical. Sokka blinked blankly.

"I… I do?" he said. "Well, I don't know if I do, but…"

"Not every guy out there is like you, Sokka. I think you should know that by now," Azula said, reaching out to clap his shoulder gently. His eyes widened. "That protectiveness you think is a bad thing, well… it's flaring up again now, and I think it always does, actually. But not everyone feels that strongly about anyone around them, whereas… well, you just seem to be rather quick to get attached to people, I'd say."

"Is it really that I'm quick to that…?" Sokka asked, scratching the back of his head "Or…?"

"Or what?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows.

It was such a typical expression of hers… an expression of intelligence, of wanting to see more than what was in plain sight, while still bracing herself for any words that might follow. Sokka's heart suddenly sped up as he gazed into eyes that had been his own, once… eyes she had given her own spark of cleverness and depth to, the intensity of her very own blue fire blazing through them. In a strange instant, it was easy to see her for who she was… to forget in which bodies they were trapped, and feel as though their souls were free again, in the Spirit World…

And then he reeled himself back and shook his head, cheeks reddening.

"I, uh… what was I saying?" he asked. Azula blinked blankly.

"Are you alright?" she asked. "Still baffled a guy that hot wanted to kiss you, by any chance?"

"I… no! He's not my type!" Sokka huffed, folding his arms over his chest as Azula laughed and shook her head, dragging him back towards the town and, soon enough, to the port.

"Unfortunately, he's mine," she said. "Which, in some way, makes him your type indeed, as you're me, and I'm you…"

"Oh, please…" Sokka scoffed, though he stared at her – at himself – for a silent moment. "Though, now that you say that… he did point out that he and I look plenty alike, eh? If that's your type… does that mean you're stuck in a body that also happens to be your type?"

"Ah, am I?" Azula answered enigmatically… and she snorted as she savored the clueless blush that spread over Sokka's cheeks again – her own cheeks. Did she really look that silly whenever she was flustered? "I suppose the thought didn't occur to me until today, but… maybe I did get that lucky, eh?"

"W-what's that supposed to…?!" Sokka squeaked, staring at her with wide eyes. Azula winked at him as she outpaced him, marching towards the port with far more confidence than she actually felt.

Unaware, entirely, that Sokka's heart was racing furiously in his chest now… well, Azula's own heart, that was. He stared after her… after himself, utterly confused and blown away. Did she actually… like him? Was she interested in him in a deeper way than he had expected? In truth, he had no intentions of starting a relationship until he sorted out his own personal problems… but if he was honest, it would be impossible to be so blind as to not realize how beautiful Azula was. Surely even Toph could tell, and she was well and truly blind.

That night, after they boarded the ship that would next take them back to Aang in Air Temple Island, Sokka stepped up to the mirror in his room, something he hadn't been quite so eager to do until then. The less he looked at her body, at himself in her body, the easier this would be, or so he had hoped…

The Azula that looked back at him lacked the wicked smiles and deviously clever mind he had come to admire… to cherish far more than he had ever understood. He swallowed hard as he raised a hand to her top knot, letting it come undone so all her hair would fall upon her shoulders.

He swallowed hard, heart racing. It had been so easy, so damn easy, to overlook the obvious… to focus, instead, on what was underneath. To look into her eyes, to get lost in her words, to pay attention to her every choice so he could plan his own, in turn… but because she was his equal in a thousand ways, because she could outsmart him, because they could bicker for hours, because they could have deep conversations and stupid ones alike, because of so many factors, he hadn't let himself truly reason with the fact that…

That she was beautiful. Azula was ridiculously beautiful.

It went without saying, too, that she was even more beautiful when she was the one in her own body.

He swallowed hard, tying up a ponytail as he paced towards his closet, knowing he'd have to bathe next. Yeah, he'd have to do that… and now with his newfound appreciation for Azula's physical beauty. While he had certainly tried not to think too much about the fact that he was stuck in a female body over the past few weeks, everything was different now that she'd set his heart to a racing rhythm, whether deliberately or not. His chest heaved… her chest. He swallowed hard and picked her favored sleeping robe and made for the bathroom. He'd do as she'd told him to: he'd respect and treat her body with dignity. Yes, he would, he could certainly do that…

Merely one cabin below his, Azula stood before a mirror of her own, staring at the nearly fully naked body she currently inhabited.

She hadn't taken off the loincloth, no, she wouldn't be quite so bold, but… she didn't really need to be. Curses, he was in better shape than Chan, that wasn't something she had even let herself reason with until now. His face was more angular, his hair softer… she bit her lip, staring at her reflection for a moment longer, knowing it was easier to just see Sokka as he presented himself, as the typically loud, chatty guy whose mood could be the jolliest of all… or the darkest and moodiest, at the drop of a hat. He was her equal, a match for her in more ways than she had wanted to acknowledge all along, just as lousy at spiritual matters as she was, and just as keen at learning everything he could get his mind to grasp…

But indeed, he was a handsome man. Perhaps even the most handsome one she knew and, fool that she was, she hadn't quite realized that until now.

She laughed to herself, covering her mouth with a hand – his mouth. Even when he smiled he was stupidly handsome, damn him…

A sudden shift in her loincloth startled her.

Her eyes traveled south, wary and worriedly, to find that a certain body part she wasn't sure she had any control over had just jolted in a strange, undesirable way. She shuddered, wondering what sort of fool would get a boner upon looking at themselves…

"Someone might call me a narcissist over this, if only they knew…" she said, with an awkward smile. "The hell is wrong with me…?"

And yet she wasn't quite sure anything was wrong with her, in the end: whose fault was it that she'd be stuck in his body, anyway? She had no choice upon the matter, and neither did she have a choice when it came to Sokka's hotness…

"Well, what can you do, right?" she said, carelessly marching to the cabin's bathroom, picking up a towel on her way there…

...

A strange air of discomfort and shame hung between them whenever they crossed paths on the next day. She said she had to check on the ship's crew, he claimed he was hungry and going to get a healthy snack, just as he was supposed to… at which the two were utterly suspicious of the other. It happened again later, just as she had a terrible urge to go to the bathroom. He had forgotten something in his cabin. She was thirsty, he needed a nap…

By night, Sokka stood at the door of Azula's cabin – his former cabin –, fists clenched, his determination flaring dangerously. He had to be honest… and he had to make sure she was honest, too. None of this made any sense, he knew it didn't… but if she was guilty of the same apparent crime he was, did it really mean they had done anything out of bounds? Wasn't it, in some twisted sense, entirely consensual and fair, this way…?

"Okay. Okay. Doesn't matter, doesn't matter, anything she says is fair and valid, you're just coming clean and making sure she does too," Sokka gave himself a pointless pep talk before knocking on the door subtly… only to hear footsteps climbing upstairs moments later: she wasn't in her room, after all.

"Oh. Uh… heh. Needed something?" Azula asked, with an awkward smile. Sokka swallowed hard and shook his head impulsively at first… before groaning and nodding instead.

"I do. I… think I need to… uh, talk to you," he said. Azula breathed out slowly, averting her gaze before nodding.

"Fine, then. Not like we should beat around the bush anymore," she said, jerking her head upwards: they'd find more privacy in her old cabin, the topmost one.

"Okay. Okay," Sokka smiled awkwardly too, following her upstairs silently.

They sat together at two chairs that had been set in the cabin all along… the very place where he had made his first projections for the upcoming eclipses. Azula's heart clenched at the memories of moments far more careless and simpler than the one they were stuck in, right now…

"Alright, then… yesterday was a weird day," Sokka started. Azula nodded in agreement. "Kind of… a very weird day. So, uh…"

"Just say it: you jerked off with my body, didn't you?" Azula sighed. Sokka blushed despite wanting to look at her reproachfully.

"I… am not proud of it. I didn't really intend to…!" he started, but then he raised his head. "You're acting weird too so, unless you somehow are spying on me, does this mean…?"

"It means I did it too, yes, in yours. We're shameless and awful that way," Azula declared, with a simple grin that would have suggested she felt no shame indeed… if only her cheeks and even ears hadn't reddened upon admitting the truth. Sokka huffed, burying his face in his hands.

"Look, I… I admit I was stupid enough not to really think about how damn beautiful you are before," he said: her blush strengthened upon hearing those words. "I was especially determined not to think about it when this whole mess happened because it was only going to make things worse! B-but then, you know, after all the things that happened yesterday, and the things you said, I… I feel like I've gone completely off the rails because you're way more appealing to me than you should be. And… hell, if I was in my own body, it'd be one thing! B-but I'm in yours so… what the hell am I supposed to do? Kiss myself?!"

His hysterical suggestion brought Azula to laugh in a far more feminine way than any Sokka had ever heard from himself. Even though she was in his body, the gesture seemed terribly endearing to him, right now…

"That would be a sight to behold," she said, shaking her head. "Oh, well, good to know you're as bad as I am, anyway. I kept wondering how the hell I'd face you, but… guess I don't have to worry anymore. We're both disgusting, rotten people in the end."

"You were right to distrust me. To distrust us," Sokka whimpered, dropping his head on the desk. "What the hell are we going to do, Azula…?"

"Well, for starters, we'll have proper sex once we switch back, if just once," Azula stated, plainly: Sokka's face flushed crimson at her straightforward decision. "It's clear as day we both want to, so I don't see the issue, really…"

"The issue is we'll be waiting five years, at best, to make that happen unless Aang finds a miracle cure any sooner," Sokka pointed out. Azula sighed and shrugged.

"Then… what? You want to try it like this?" she asked. Sokka winced and sat up, looking at her in confusion.

"I… no! I mean… do you?" he asked, puzzled. Azula snorted and shook her head.

"I'd like to say I do, but admittedly, it would feel strange doing this to… my own body?" she said. "I don't even know for sure how to… well, be a man in bed, quite literally. Men are quite strange, I'd say…"

"Strange how?" Sokka asked. "You're weirder yet, if you ask me…"

"Only because you were born in this body. I was born in that one, and it made a lot more sense to me than this one does," Azula declared, proudly. Sokka snorted.

"Well… huh. Come to think of it… maybe we really should do this," Sokka said, eyes wide as though he'd come by the greatest epiphany of all. Azula crooked an eyebrow.

"Say what?"

"Look, we're both adults, we've both had enough experiences by now to know what we like and what we don't like, right?" Sokka said, grinning brightly. "Which puts us in a most… unique situation! It means I can show you my own weak spots, the things I like, and you can show me yours… in our switched bodies!"

"That sounds… utterly weird. Very weird. Are you serious?" Azula asked… and yet Sokka could see it: the spark of devious curiosity in her eyes. Oh, she wanted to try this, he could tell she did. The seed had been planted, and she was asking him to persuade her further just to gain more time to come up with excuses not to do it…

"I'm quite serious… and I think you want to test it too, if nothing else," Sokka chuckled. "Look: we're friends, right? I can't pretend I've ever really tried doing this with someone without first starting a romantic relationship with them, but… we're on the same boat, in all sorts of ways. We're stuck together, partners in body-swapping adventures…!"

"I get the picture," Azula said, eyeing him skeptically.

"Then… I'd say, as long as we're both in agreement, it's not a bad idea. Right?" Sokka said, with a gentle smile. Azula's eyebrow twitched.

"You… definitely enjoyed yourself too much last night."

"And you apparently didn't. Guess women enjoy it more?" Sokka asked, amused. To his delight, she smiled.

"Maybe we do. Sucks to be you… I confirm it, apparently," she teased him. He chuckled, rubbing his forehead with his fingertips. "Alright, then… you're saying this is another no-strings-attached situation, then? We're just… going to see how things turn out. If it's fun, great. If it's not… well, at least we can laugh at each other later, maybe?"

"Maybe. You'll have tons of ammunition to mock me if you don't enjoy it anyway," Sokka suggested, smiling.

"That just means so will you," Azula pointed out. Sokka snickered and shrugged.

"We're keeping each other on our toes. Nothing so bad about that… right?"

Azula sighed, biting her lip… pondering this a little further, it was, by all sense and logic, a reasonable solution and idea of Sokka's. It might be strange, it might be ridiculous, but if there was anything worth regretting, it was merely that they wouldn't be experiencing this for the first time in their own bodies. Still… it might be for the better this way. Once they swapped back and made her promise of at least one go at it in their real bodies, they'd be utter experts on each other's bodies, as well as their own, so… why not?

"Alright, then… maybe we can try it. Maybe," Azula said. Sokka grinned nervously. "But this means… we'll have to start with, uh, well…"

"Kissing each other? Or kissing ourselves, heh?" Sokka twitched. "Yep, this is exactly what makes the whole thing very, very awkward."

"Well, if you ever wanted to know if you were a good kisser at all, this is your chance to find out," Azula laughed. Sokka huffed.

"Right back at you, Princess," he smiled. "Well, then… one step forward, and then we'll see if we should keep going, alright?"

"Alright," she agreed, nodding.

He inched closer… and the otherworldly ridiculousness in kissing himself took him aback for a moment. Azula blinked blankly at the dorky expression on his face as he shuddered and shook his head.

"Okay… okay. Can you make one of those typical Azula expressions of yours?" he asked, with an awkward smile.

"I'd ask the same of you, but you're pulling it off already," Azula smirked.

"That's it! That's the one!" Sokka said, clasping her shoulders. "Okay. It's Azula, not me, it's Azula, not me…"

"You're seriously going to repeat that to yourself the whole time, Sokka?" she asked, amused. He groaned and shook his head.

"You know what? I should stop thinking, altogether. We'll close our eyes… and we'll go for it. No, I'm not having sex with a guy, with myself…"

"You already did that last night, technically…"

"You know what I mean!"

The ridiculousness of the situation truly seemed poised to break them: soon enough they were laughing while clutching to each other, without having exchanged anything but laughter. They couldn't catch their breaths easily, but Azula surmised, silently, that perhaps the true solution was to do what most people did… to close their eyes and forget everything else. Maybe, once they did that, every sign of awkwardness would finally fade away…

She took Sokka's face between her hands, finding her cheeks fit perfectly in his large palms and long fingers… and then she leaned forth, pressing their lips together at last.

All their previous awkwardness seemed to dwindle as she held onto him for a longer moment, doing nothing more than keeping their lips pressed together. Before long, though, she felt him respond… and then she broke off the kiss, newly unable to shake off the strangeness of the situation.

"Well… we kissed ourselves. Weird, eh?" Sokka said. Azula laughed and shrugged.

"It'll take some time getting used to it, I think," she said. "Think it's completely disgusting yet?"

"Well… no. Surreal and confusing, yes. But not disgusting," Sokka smiled shyly. Azula sighed in relief.

"Surreal and confusing certainly sounds accurate right now. Maybe… maybe we should start slowly," she said. Sokka nodded. "Not go all the way right away. Air Temple Island's a few days away anyhow, so…"

"So, we can take our time to… to adjust to everything," Sokka said, smiling a little. "Besides, it's not like it's fundamentally that different from what we did yesterday, eh? Just… we're not doing it alone anymore, hehe…"

"Right," Azula said, breathing out slowly as she rose to her feet. Sokka glanced at her with uncertainty. "Well, now, no need to look at me like that. Come on. We're moving elsewhere."

"We are? B-but you said we'd start slowly…"

"You can lie in bed with me without making things weird, can't you?" Azula smirked at him over her shoulder – again, that unbearable urge to see her as herself took over him. Again, his heart jolted upon feeling her so acutely in every fiber of his being… he really wanted to do this when they were back in their own bodies. He really needed to do this, once that happened…

By then, he wasn't sure he'd be satisfied with just taking it slow. He wasn't sure he'd be able to stay true to his claims to swear off love, either. Maybe he'd already broken that vow, without noticing it…

He climbed into bed with her, lying side by side, gazes lost in the ceiling at first… until they lowered them towards each other's eyes, only to laugh stupidly at being in such uncanny, perfect synch with each other.

"Alright, then… alright. Let's try again," Sokka said, taking her hand in his. "Slow…"

"This slow?" Azula asked, amused. "I think holding hands is fairly easy, compared to everything else…"

"Still feels weird to hold my own hand…" Sokka said, smiling a little as he rolled on his side. Azula bit her lip and followed his example. "But let's see if we really can adjust to this, eh?"

It really felt like being teenagers again… like they were discovering their body's pleasures for the first time, for it was a new body, and they were new pleasures, just as well. The awkwardness didn't recede quickly at all, leaving them to laugh more often than they touched or kissed, but it didn't stop them from trying anyway. By the time they fell asleep, they were wrapped in each other's arms, breathing a mere inch away from the other.

The rest of the journey flowed as smoothly as their ship traversed the waters, if with far more amusement, when it came to what happened behind closed doors in the cabins of the body-swapped pair: their explorations continued, with the occasional bold choices – Azula had dared attempt to kiss Sokka deeply, and at that point it had been quite easy to forget they were in the wrong bodies, for once –, and with non-stop communication regarding what they were doing, or if they were doing it right, altogether. They slept in the same bed, every night. By the time they reached Air Temple Island's shores, they hardly wanted to disembark at all. Aang's strange attempt to help them strengthen their spirituality into allowing them passage to the Spirit World had seen an initially distant, if cordial, acquaintanceship blossoming into a strong friendship that now meant more than they dared put into words, as they found intimacy with each other they had never experienced before – as could only be the case after they had inhabited each other's bodies in such a surreal manner.

"You know… we could always turn back. Right back, to our cabin, pretend we just missed our stop," Azula suggested, eyeing the dock warily from the window: she could already see Katara's figure there, no doubt waiting to confirm, with her own eyes, that Aang hadn't been spinning wild tales willy-nilly, no matter how strongly she clung to that belief.

"You just don't want to deal with Katara fussing over you now that you're her… uh, brother. You know, sometimes I think I'm getting used to this and then I just spiral right back to the start, and nothing makes sense anymore," Sokka laughed, shaking his head before taking her hand in his: their luggage awaited in a corner of the room, and he urged her to follow him there. "Come on, then. Let's go, before she comes in here to look for us."

"You think she would?" Azula winced.

"Oh, I know she would, rather," Sokka declared, and Azula shuddered in horror.

"Promise me we'll leave as soon as the chance arises…" she said, as they picked up their bags. "Your sister was finally putting her qualms with me behind… and now she'll think I stole your body."

"Just imagine what she'd react like, if she knew just how intimate we have been so far…" Sokka smirked at her over his shoulder. Azula snorted, smiling a little again.

"Well, we haven't gone all the way yet. She might think she still has a fighting chance to prevent… well, whatever it is that's happening between us, I'd say."

"I suppose time will tell, eh?" Sokka reasoned, stepping to the door.

"Time will tell… what, exactly?" Azula asked, raising an eyebrow. "Whether she has a fighting chance, or if what's happening between us will continue or not?"

"I'm inclined to say both… but I don't really plan on letting my sister choose my life for me, either way," Sokka said, grinning as he opened the door. Azula smiled too, tightening her grip on her bags before stepping outside the cabin.

The waterbender that awaited them clearly knew what had happened, or at least, Aang had told her of what had happened… but she still studied them both with utmost discomfort, her eyebrows twitching as they disembarked and came to stand before her. Azula only offered her a dry grin, as Sokka smiled a little more earnestly.

"Not going to say anything yet, are you, Katara…?" he asked, with a small voice – Azula's voice. Katara winced.

"I… don't even know if… ugh!" Katara grimaced, glaring between them. "You swapped bodies. Aang says you swapped bodies. I don't really want to believe it, so… prove it, somehow!"

"I used to brush your dolls' hair when I was six," Sokka declared, with a deadpan version of Azula's voice: inevitably, Azula snorted and laughed, with Sokka's own voice.

"Did you, now? No wonder my hair looks better these days than when I was managing it. Who knew dolls could be used as something other than kindling…?" she said. Sokka gasped.

"You burned your dolls?!"

"Oh, no. You burned your dolls, I brushed the hair of mine. Because I'm Sokka, and you're Azula…"

"Don't you dare shirk your responsibility on that crime this way, young lady!" Sokka squeaked awkwardly, prompting Azula to laugh again.

Katara's eyes widened: he had indeed conveyed information Sokka wasn't likely to share with anyone else freely, information she usually mocked him about if it ever came up… but the reaction from Sokka's body, the inflexions of Azula's voice, the bickering…

"Oh, I hate this. I hate this so much…" Katara groaned, covering her face with her hands. "Ugh! Fine, then, it's true! I surrender, despite I hate it! Come on, come on, Aang and the Acolytes have been researching all week…"

"Eh, and here I thought convincing her would be trickier," Sokka said, before grinning and rushing forward, wrapping an arm around Katara's shoulders. "Thanks for being so open-minded, sis!"

"L-let…! Let go! I know you're Sokka, but you're Azula! Azula and I aren't on hugging terms, alright?!"

"Well, Azula doesn't want to hug you either, if that helps at all," Azula smirked, walking behind the other two as Sokka giggled almost guiltily while Katara groaned in frustration anew.

"There's no way I'm ever getting used to this. No way, no way in hell…" she grumbled, guiding them to the main building in the island.

The Air Acolytes and Aang were hard at work in the room that was sure to become Air Temple Island's library now. The building itself was quite recent, and they were still settling down in the new home for the Air Nomads, but no room was bound to be as filled with books and scrolls as this one was. Both Azula and Sokka eyed the collection approvingly, and Aang gasped upon glimpsing them.

"Oh, you guys made it! Good!" he grinned, ushering them to join him and a few of the Acolytes at the far end of the room. "I sure hope you bring good tidings…!"

"The next total eclipse in the North Pole is due to happen in ten years," Sokka said, with a dry smile. Aang's jaw dropped, and Katara winced visibly, staring at the body her brother inhabited with absolute horror. "There's one that will happen in the South Pole… in five years."

"U-uh… wait, really?" Aang grimaced. "That's… that's all we've got?"

"Afraid so," Azula sighed, as she and Sokka sat down before the Avatar. "Surely if you have all these people poring over old books about spiritual shenanigans, though, you've found better information than that…?"

"Well… hardly," Aang admitted, surprising his body-swapped friends. "I've found a few things that might help, but there's nothing definitive. So far… it really doesn't look like a common thing, for two spirits to flow into the wrong body upon returning from the Spirit World. So… it's clear to me and the acolytes that this wasn't a natural event: something in the Spirit World triggered this swap."

"Then you're sure it was Yue and Lu Ten's doing," Azula said, frowning. "They were the only ones we saw…"

"Yeah… I know it's uncomfortable, but it's likely," Aang said, gazing at Sokka mournfully… at Sokka's body, that was. He quickly had to remind himself that Sokka was in Azula's body instead, and to no surprise, he seemed displeased to hear Yue had somehow decided to amuse herself, for all he could tell, at his expenses. "So, I'm afraid the likeliest chance for the swap to be reversed would be for you two to…"

"To talk to them? Find them again?" Sokka guessed. "Unfortunately, I don't know if that'd work other than with an eclipse. But… maybe it doesn't have to be a total one, right? The moon's still very close to the sun in the partial and annular ones. Might be, if that's all we need…"

"It could work, hopefully. There were other eclipses meant to happen sooner, but they weren't total ones," Azula said. Sokka nodded.

"Though we'd need to reach out to those two and hope they'll be so kind as to switch us back," Sokka said, an eyebrow twitching. "We don't even know what they were after, so finding them again is no guarantee that they'll swap us back either."

"Fair," Azula admitted, frowning.

"Well… it's probably true that the best way to fix this would be by getting Yue and Lu Ten to help out," Aang said, with an awkward smile. "But maybe there's, uh, other ways to go about it."

"Such as?" Azula asked. Aang swallowed hard.

"We've done a lot of investigation into this, as you know… me and the acolytes have been looking into all sorts of things. One thing we found was that spiritual connections can be forged between two souls, and it's possible that, upon switching bodies, you two have had one such connection forged between you, in an unnatural sort of way. These connections… well, the way the Air Nomads referred to them was as spiritual attunement. It usually means that a bond is born when two people understand each other completely…"

"Oh? But… we don't really understand each other completely yet, do we?" Sokka asked, glancing at Azula, who shrugged in his direction.

"I guess not," Aang smiled awkwardly. "But the thing is the bond has been forged, forcibly… and now, you guys need to fill it, so to speak? Kind of like a silhouette, in a drawing…!"

"And now we get to color it in," Sokka finished, tapping his chin.

"These connections can be easier between a person and an animal companion, for instance," Aang said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Me and Appa? We definitely have a connection of the sort, and I think we always have. But I guess humans are just… well, complicated."

"So… what, you and I aren't attuned that way?" Katara asked, skeptical. Aang flinched.

"W-we totally are! I bet we are!" he grinned awkwardly. "Though I don't know for sure, but we must be!"

"And then, these two have to… attune themselves to each other?" Katara asked, grimacing. "By understanding one another perfectly?"

"Well, yeah. There's a lot of ways to go about it," Aang said, with an enthusiastic smile. "Talking about your past, most your experiences, would already be necessary for you two to play each other's roles with people who don't know you swapped bodies. But there's also that Sokka needs to learn firebending…"

"We've been working on that already," Azula said, as Katara snorted behind them.

"My brother, a firebender?" she said. "I don't know if that's the funniest thing in the world or the worst one…"

"Y-you… be quiet!" Sokka scoffed, unable to sound as daunting as Azula did, though his tone still reminded Katara strongly enough of the actual firebender who belonged in that body. "I won't set my own pants on fire, if that's what you think is going to happen!"

"Heh, we'll see about that…"

"Well, guys… I say you should just start testing ways to really understand each other thoroughly," Aang said, with a shy grin. "Then, once you're ready, maybe you can meditate, and your souls might flow back into each other's body. Easy, right?"

"Uh… sure?" Sokka said, glancing at Azula, who shrugged at him. "Guess we're on our way there already, anyhow."

"I suppose we can give it a shot, for the next few months. If it doesn't pan out, we'll start eclipse hunting," Azula decided, Sokka nodded in agreement.

"Then… let's get started!"

Their lives changed considerably from that day onwards: they spent their mornings training, indoors when they were exercising regularly, outdoors when Sokka had to practice his firebending. He had learned a fair share of moves during his many travels and opportunities to watch firebenders in action, but while he imitated them fairly well, he clearly didn't have the basics down, let alone did he understand the subtleties and usefulness for each move. Azula would instruct him carefully each time, and Sokka seemed less likely to set himself on fire by accident after each session.

After a lackluster lunch, they'd spend their afternoons sharing as much information about themselves as possible: they took turns, writing down notes of each other's stories, laughing about the ridiculous tales, silently empathizing with each other over the less amusing ones, and ultimately finishing each session by quizzing each other, whether on the contents of that day's session or the previous ones.

By night, however, they would return to the awkward exchanges they had enjoyed on their ship, on the way to the island. It was much easier with no lights on, they realized, much simpler to forget they were in the wrong bodies, to detach from the strangeness of the situation and bask in the pleasurable feelings of brushing their tongues together, or caressing their bodies lightly. They were as quiet as possible, trying not to alert either Aang or Katara of what was going on between them, though they expected it wouldn't be long before the pair caught on, if any of the Acolytes reported, eventually, that one of their rooms saw no sign of being used ever since they had first started to stay there.

After the fifth week of this process, Aang decided to test the boundaries of meditation anew, urging Sokka and Azula to try their best to meditate together and attempt to flow back into their own bodies. They sat close together, close enough that Sokka could reach over and clasp Azula's hand…

"Ah! Good idea!" Aang exclaimed, and they broke off the contact nervously. "No, no, no! Maybe if you hold hands, the process will go more smoothly."

"Oh. Hehe. That's what I thought, too!" Sokka laughed nervously, clasping Azula's hand anew.

They couldn't easily do away with their smiles, but they closed their eyes and surrendered to the now familiar methods of meditation Aang had taught them. Holding hands as they were, however, they accessed no superior plane of existence so far, despite they were quite relaxed, holding each other's hand.

"Ugh… so still nothing?" Aang sighed, once the sun was setting that night.

"We remain adamant, unchangeable spiritual failures," Sokka declared, with a sarcastic smile.

"This is… well, damn. I didn't want to tell you guys about this one," Aang sighed, scratching the back of his head. "I sure didn't want to say it in front of Katara, either. But… there's one thing you could do. I know you'll probably think it's weird, you're in the wrong bodies after all, but, umm…"

"Are you trying to say Sokka and I should have sex?" Azula asked, bluntly: the Avatar blushed, as did Sokka, in Azula's body.

"I-I-I…! I mean, it's not just regular sex," he said, swallowing hard. "There's books I can lend you guys about it…!"

"Woah! That doesn't make it sound any better, ahaha…!" Sokka laughed nervously: how could he possibly play it smooth when last night their heated exchanges had brought them further into dangerous territories – he had wound up with his sleeping gown open, Azula's loincloth had been tugged loose, and there had been far heavier petting than ever before, even if they hadn't gone all the way just yet either, still occasionally broken apart by the sudden realization of what they were doing and which body they inhabited…

"Well, I'm sorry if it doesn't, but I'm a bit desperate now," Aang groaned. "It's… tantric sex. That's the actual name of it."

"Tantric sex?" Sokka repeated. "Uh… that sounds like some sort of meditative sex? How does anyone, um, focus on meditation if they're getting horny, exactly?"

"Well, believe it or not, it's possible," Aang pouted, cheeks red. Azula snorted.

"Sokka, please stop asking questions. You probably don't want to know that much about it," she said. Sokka huffed.

"Why not? He's telling us we have to do it, the more we know about it, the better…!"

"He's totally done that with your sister, is all I'm saying."

Sokka froze cold in the spot, and Aang's cheeks reddened even further: somehow, Azula's body made Sokka's protecting older brother behavior even more terrifying than it did when he was in his own body.

"I-It's a perfectly healthy thing! It's… slow! It means you take your time learning your way with each other's bodies o-or… or in this case, your bodies! Haha! Eh, w-well, the point is to channel energy, to respect each other's body as thoroughly as possible…!"

"Is that so, eh…? Y-you really are that respectful, eh…?" Sokka asked, an eyebrow twitching as Azula nearly cackled next to him.

"Please, Sokka… just listen to me," Aang whimpered, with a desperate smile. "The point in this sort of sex is to build a deeper connection between two people! This connection already exists with the two of you, because your circumstances are unique. S-so… it's possible that, um…"

"That if we do this and climax at the same time, our souls might pour into our shared energy and we could swap back?" Azula suggested, amused and skeptical: Aang grinned and nodded.

"There we go! Exactly that!" he said, eyeing Sokka warily again. He huffed, folding his arms over his chest.

"You know what? Just give us your books about it and stop trying to explain it yourself. Maybe that way I'll stop thinking about the fact that you two do this all the time…" he grumbled.

"W-well, not all the time, but…!"

"Don't want to hear it! Books, Aang, books!"

It was far too late to start reading about it that day, yet once they turned in that night, Sokka and Azula's embrace was somewhat more tender, more thoughtful, than before, when it had been guided by impulse, above all else.

"You really think it's a good idea? Going for… that?" Azula asked, as Sokka trailed his fingertips over her face – it was so much easier to think it was her face, when he could barely see it in the dark… "I suppose we've been working towards it, but… switching back over sex sounds wishful."

"Well, if it fails, at least we'll be satisfied," Sokka smirked. Azula laughed, pressing her forehead to his. "I'm not sure that this will go so smoothly, though, so… if it fails, let's not take it to heart, alright?"

"We can enjoy it for what it is, rather than just… stressing out about switching bodies?" Azula asked. Sokka nodded. "Well… I guess we're on the same page, then."

"Isn't that the whole point of this?" Sokka asked, amused. Azula smiled and nodded before sealing their newest agreement with another deep, heated kiss.

They trained again, on the next morning… but by afternoon, they read Aang's books instead. They talked thoroughly about the practices, the logic behind tantric sex, and they realized neither one had ever done something like that while putting so much thought into it beforehand. It sounded amusing, at first…

… But not so much when they tried it, that night, to find they were both far too excited, far too amused, and far too weirded out to actually enter the right mindset for the tantric sex.

"Okay… this isn't working," Sokka stated the obvious, as they sat next to each other against a wall, blushing awkwardly while averting their gazes. "Probably because this would be our first time together, so…"

"Nobody can enter some sort of tantric superior state of mind on their first time?" Azula guessed. "At least… not without a lifetime of training."

"And not if the person they're with actually means something to them?" Sokka suggested, with an awkward grin. "We've made out and done lots of crazy stuff lately, but… would it be weird if I said that I think you're my best friend right now?"

"Considering we're indeed building up a connection of this sort… no, I don't think it's weird. Though I don't think best friends do this sort of thing, eh?" Azula asked, glancing at him. Sokka returned her gaze with a slight smile.

"Not really. Not most of them, I bet. But… you and I have good reasons for it. Chief among them… we're very attracted to each other," he declared. Azula snorted.

"Thought the biggest reason was that we should swap bodies back…" she pointed out. Sokka laughed and shook his head.

"Want me to tell you something?" he said, dropping his head against the wall. "Once we switch back… I wanna try it all over again. I want… to try being with you, the right way."

"You mean…?" Azula glanced at him with uncertainty. Sokka laughed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I know, I know. I swore off love, I wouldn't have any more relationships, maybe this isn't for me, all the stuff I always say…" he sighed. "And yet I… I can't really help it. Every time I look in the mirror, I just… I just want to be in my actual body so I can hug you myself. I want to look at your face, directly, not my own. I want you… I do want you. And I don't think that'll change if we switch back. But, well, obviously if you don't agree…"

Her hand fell upon his, and Sokka swallowed hard as he raised his head towards Azula. She leaned in quickly, pressing their lips together softly.

"I want… I want that too," she said, trembling. Sokka's breath hitched. "Like… like I said back on the ship, when we're back to ourselves… we're doing it again, all of it. But if you mean we're not just going to go for it one time, but rather, t-that we'll be really together… yeah. I want that, too."

"Then… we'll figure out how to be together, in our own bodies," Sokka said, with a grin. "T-though… would you rather wait until then? I mean…"

"What? Oh, come on. You're more of a scientist than I am: if we do this, we may just be the only people in the world who have experienced sexual arousal in two different bodies," Azula laughed. Sokka chuckled and shrugged. "If just for that reason alone…"

"Bet you just want to see who's better in whose body, don't you?" Sokka teased. Azula laughed guiltily. "Knew it."

"If it turns out we're better like this, we can always switch back. In the best-case-scenario, five years in each body doesn't sound that terrible, does it?" she asked, stroking his face gently. Sokka chuckled.

"This is weirder and weirder. If we really did that, then… in the end, well…"

"What?"

"It'd feel like our bodies belong to the two of us. Not so much to just… one of us," Sokka grinned. "Who'd say where one of us begins, and the other ends?"

"Two souls so deeply merged together nobody can tell them apart?" Azula asked. "Sounds like the subject of folktales…"

"Huh, I've never heard one that requires body-swapped sex in the past, but I guess Fire Nation people are just that spicy…"

"I'm not talking about…! Oh, you're an idiot," Azula laughed, hugging him against her chest. Sokka laughed too.

"Then… we will do this, both now, and later?" he asked, once their laughter receded. Azula hummed and nodded, pressing her face to his hair. "And not the tantric one just yet, because that won't work right now, which means…"

"We'll have to do it several times, until we're ready to try that one?" Azula said. Sokka smiled and shrugged.

"Yeah, but… we'll have to do things the right way, even if our bodies are switched," he said.

"Huh… what does that mean, doing things the right way?" Azula asked. Sokka grinned encouragingly at her, and Azula raised an eyebrow…

...

"A-are you just not going to talk to me now, or…?"

"You'd be lucky if I didn't talk at all! You…! How could you suggest something like that?! Seriously, Aang?!"

"Our own attunement's definitely going to falter if you keep losing your temper this way, dear…"

"Well, then, maybe we'll fix it with tantric sex later! Isn't that what you told them to do?!"

"Oh, monkey feathers…"

"Curses, I can't believe you convinced my brother to sleep with… with his own body!"

"With Azula!"

"It's disturbing!"

Katara's voice echoed across the building as she marched furiously towards Azula's room: Sokka's had been empty, but she had no doubt hers would be occupied with the two of them, and she had certainly braced herself for the unsettling sight she'd likely see…

She shoved the door open forcefully to find the room was empty, yet again.

"W-what…? What?! Where are they?!" Katara nearly bellowed, as Aang laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.

"Well, guess they weren't going at it right now, at least, despite your fears…"

"Ugh, just…! Hell, I hope they had the decency to find an inn somewhere else, or something…!" Katara huffed, slamming the door closed just as an Air Acolyte rushed towards them, anxiously:

"T-the boat… our boat is gone!"

"W-wait… I wasn't being serious. I didn't really mean…!" Katara gasped: had they actually decided to find an inn? That wasn't truly what bothered her…!

"Oh, monkey feathers on top of monkey feathers," Aang sighed, shaking his head. He wasn't sure what those two were up to, but he'd hope he could keep Katara at bay at least until they came back…

Already a couple of miles into the sea, Azula watched in utmost awe as Sokka sailed their somewhat-borrowed boat expertly: he seemed to be riding the waves with utmost delight, a wild grin across his face… a grin so powerful she could acutely feel it in her current body, so powerful it seemed to blur out her own image, replacing it with the handsome man whose body she inhabited right now… it was only a brief mirage, and yet it was one she had glimpsed more often than not, ever since they had started to make their peace with their swapped bodies.

"Oh, yeah! Sailing's way more fun than it has any right to be!" he exclaimed, beaming as the boat soared at a wonderfully rapid speed across the waves. "Come on, Azula, I'll show you how!"

"Oh, really, now?" she asked, amused.

"Totally! It's part of understanding each other, I bet!" Sokka grinned now at her, and her heart jolted for it: after everything they'd discussed, everything they'd talked about, every fiber of her being seemed to sing with the need, the longing, for the man whose soul her body hosted, right now.

"Well, then, if you're sure…" she said, smiling as she rose to her feet and extended her hands towards the rope he was holding. "What do I do?"

Their fun had only just begun with their sailing adventures: Azula learned the basics for sailing that day, sprayed by the sea water and delighted by sharing no shortage of laughter with Sokka. Once their boat was docked, though, the currently booming Republic City awaited: it was still expanding into a city that might one day rival the Fire Nation capital, or Ba Sing Se, even, but it was still charmingly cozy for the time being. Sokka had seen much more of the city than Azula had, so far: he ensured to guide her across everywhere familiar for him, and then they also adventured across the districts neither one had any previous experience with.

They had the chance to look through every interesting store, to buy snacks at most restaurants – and then eat proper lunch in one of them, when the time was right. Sokka had greedily picked a restaurant that would serve lots of meat, arguing that today was a day off their routine, therefore he could be sloppy and careless with Azula's diet if just for one meal… only to discover, halfway through his third full dish, that Azula's body certainly wasn't adjusted for the massive amounts of food he typically liked to eat. It was Azula herself who wound up devouring every available dish on the table, to Sokka's utter amusement: at last, it seemed she understood why he was such a glutton, for as much as she ate, she could always go for more, even after the meal was over.

The city wasn't wild and bustling with countless sources of entertainment, but after a fun hike, they had a chance to watch the sunset from the heights of the taller mountain that hugged the valley within which the city was located: Sokka leaned on the sightseeing railing, smiling brightly as the last shreds of sunlight sank into the orange-tinged ocean.

"Seen like this…" Azula said, holding him from behind. "It'd be so easy to mix the sky and the sea into a single thing, huh?"

"The sea was perfectly blue, once we sailed across it…" Sokka grinned. "But now it looks… red, pretty much. Almost like fire. Well, not your fire, or now, my fire? You know what I mean…"

"I do," Azula laughed, pressing her face to his shoulder. "Some things that look so distinct and different may just not be that far apart, in the end."

"The sky and the sea mimic each other… answer each other, back and forth, until they reflect perfectly," Sokka said. "I wonder if that's what attuned energies are like."

"I bet it is. I bet it is," Azula whispered, pressing her face against his neck. Sokka swallowed hard, his heart racing.

"Say, I love this view, but, um…"

"You're ready, now?" she asked, amused. "I think I am, too."

"Really?" Sokka asked, biting back a smile. "Then… should we go back, or…?"

"An inn might be a better choice," Azula laughed. "Though… let's finish watching the sunset, first."

"Does it make you feel… well, closer to firebending, maybe?" Sokka asked. "I've noticed the way your inner fire flares at sunrise… and it seems to dim, slightly, at sundown."

"It doesn't really affect this body, no," Azula admitted, and Sokka grinned awkwardly, aware that that was the likelier answer for his question. "But… holding you like this almost makes me feel like myself again. Almost."

Sokka's fingers slid between hers: he turned around and kissed her passionately, breaking with her determination to watch the sky… but she didn't mind the interruption much. Instead, she took him in her arms, letting their kiss spread out as long as it could, careless about doing this in such a public place, where anyone who glanced in their direction might just spot them. Sometimes, it was impossible to forget they were mismatched, that their souls and bodies belonged to the other… and sometimes it seemed none of that mattered anymore. Sometimes, they were simply the sea and the sky… sometimes they were a storm, pouring recklessly into swirling whirlpools, and sometimes they were bright stars, gleaming peacefully in the heights of the night sky and the placid sea alike…

They found an inn nearby in the hills, well outside the city. They paid for it in advance and rushed into their room, continuing what they'd started earlier: gradual practice had helped them grow acquainted with how their current bodies worked so far, and now as they laid in a futon together, it was time to help each other understand their own bodies, just as well…

Sokka gasped once Azula found an unexpectedly pleasurable spot on his neck to nibble on, Azula groaned when Sokka's hands caressed her inner thighs. Little by little, they became more adventurous, and yet the journey wasn't quite that of discovery… but of showing each other so much more of themselves than they had ever exposed, before anyone else.

"Do you… want to be on top?" Azula asked, softly. They laid on their sides, holding each other intimately upon each kiss they traded. Sokka hummed and shrugged.

"Not sure. Do you?" he asked, slightly. "I've had time to get used to… well, what's about to happen, but I'm not sure I'm fully ready yet."

"We'll start slow," Azula said, breathing out. "I do wish I'd know how it feels, to have you inside me, but… I will after we swap back."

"Yeah… and by then I'll feel what you'll feel now, too," Sokka grinned. Azula smiled and nodded.

"You've already done whatever you pleased with my body, I'm aware," she whispered, trailing her hand lower down Sokka's abdomen. He flinched, instinctively tucking in his belly as Azula dared venture lower still. "But I wonder if there's a few tricks I might yet teach you that you might not have figured out so far…"

"This is… unreal in every crazy way ever," Sokka laughed, closing his eyes as Azula's fingers dipped through his underwear… his chest heaved as her fingertips touched his sensitive skin. "H-hell, this shouldn't be so hot…"

"We have to take advantage of the fact that it is," Azula laughed, kissing his lips softly. "Go with it, will you?"

To forget himself, to simply give in to the pleasure… Sokka rolled onto his back, effectively pulling Azula atop him, distracting himself with kisses while her hand fondled him expertly. His legs shuddered at the rushes of excitement he had never felt this way before, at the reactions she elicited through him… at every spot he hadn't dared touch before, hadn't even needed to touch before, and while part of his body – or rather, her body – urged him to pull back, to hold off from so much pleasure or it might break him, he didn't dare slow her down or stop her. Instead, he gave in, completely… and in doing so, the body he occupied shuddered violently upon each rise and spike of pleasure, listening to Azula's soft words or losing himself in her powerful kisses…

"This is a good spot… perfect for when you can't hold out much longer," Azula explained: Sokka gasped, clutching at the bedding desperately.

"G-great, then… show me…" he said, knowing he was a greedy fool for asking something like that… but he was entirely lost in pleasure now, so much he couldn't possibly think anymore: it was blinding, persistent, as a climb to the top of a volcano, and he felt as though he were about to leap right into the smooth heat of lava. Would he survive? He had no idea, but it would be worth it, even if he didn't…

He yelped, throwing his head back, when the last burst of pleasure overwhelmed him entirely: she didn't even stop there, though, prodding further, persistently, as he burned his way through one climax… and progressed steadily to the next.

"A-Azu… Azula…!" he managed to gasp, only to lose all words upon the next burst of excitement. His lower body shuddered, and helpless moans poured from his throat… and then she had the gall to laugh softly at his reactions, a laugh he could just as well envision with her proper face, in her actual body…

"I've only been a guy for a few months and look at the techniques I've mastered. Aren't I impressive…?" she said, mockingly, as she slowed down when his second peak receded. Sokka snorted, smiling at her taunts too.

"Well, I've only been a girl for a while, too… but I can return the favor, if you really want me to," he said, reaching up to clasp the nape of her neck, reeling her in for a grateful kiss. "Is this really what… what I'll make you feel, once we're in the right bodies?"

"Surprisingly good, huh?" she teased him. He chuckled.

"I'll do my absolute best… to make you feel amazing too. I'm so… so ready for more, damn it," he laughed. Azula grinned right back. "But first… you."

"First… me," Azula sighed happily, rolling onto her back.

Sokka didn't quite climb atop her: he rolled on his side, pressing his exposed chest to Azula's arm. She teasingly touched and prodded the nipples, and Sokka giggled foolishly at the sensation of bouncing breasts. Azula laughed at his reaction.

"You're so silly, sometimes…"

"You were angry about my reaction over having boobs, at first, eh?" he said. "Having them is weird, but still fun. But… I like it better if you touch them, looks like."

"That so?" Azula asked, kissing his lips warmly as he giggled against her.

"Let's see if you feel the same way about me," he whispered: his hand traced its way over her chest now, and Azula blushed immediately at the sensations his own fingers elicited upon her nipples. "I did like this sort of thing, after all… hope it feels nice for you too."

His words only made matters worse: the manhood that had already hardened plenty earlier was now as good as a full mast, and Azula stared at it in chagrin, even in the darkness of the room. Why couldn't she react in a less embarrassing manner…?

It was even more explosive yet, though, once he trailed down her pelvis, and once his hand wrapped firmly around the shaft. Azula yelped at the sudden sensation, so familiar and yet so different from what she knew… rather than a slow tide, surging and rising, it was a spark that suddenly burst to life, and it quickly surged, strengthening and racing across her whole body…

Just like her, he knew exactly what to touch, where to apply pressure, which spots to leave for later, to boost the arousal fully. Every inch of her skin seemed electrified, and she couldn't help but shudder and sigh longingly as she clutched the bedding, much as he had, earlier. She had already done this with his body before, out of utter curiosity… but this was so different, and so much better, and the torrent of energy appeared to rage and surge so strongly now…

"I-I can't…!" she gasped. Sokka hummed, kissing her longingly. "K-kiss me more… I'm going to… I'm going to…!"

His hand moved faster, deliberately brushing the palm more prominently against the exposed head… and suddenly she was groaning and moaning desperately into his mouth as she finished explosively, as all that energy burst out of her in spurts… and then her chest heaved, as she failed to catch her breath immediately. Spots danced in her eyesight, and she smiled in disbelief at the explosive pleasure, so unlike that which she was used to…

"Had fun?" Sokka asked, nudging her with his nose. She laughed and closed her eyes.

"M-maybe being a guy… isn't that bad, after all," she declared. Sokka laughed, dropping his head on her shoulder.

"And maybe being a girl isn't that bad, either," he said, kissing her collarbone. "But you know what? Being you… that's what I've really grown to like, by now."

"Really?" Azula asked, narrowing her gaze. Sokka hummed and nodded.

"Believe it or not, I'm starting to be afraid that I…"

"That you like being me more than being yourself?" Azula asked. Sokka seemed to shrink beside her. "Well… good to know it's not just me, huh?"

"It's weird. I feel… so different, ever since this happened. Ever since we started to work together to reverse it, I just… I forget my problems so much more easily. I have you by my side at all times, we're almost always together, so I just…"

"You're not alone," Azula whispered, wrapping her arms around him. Sokka returned the gesture, with so much enthusiasm he wound up on top of her.

"And neither are you," he whispered. Azula smiled, pressing her face to his hair.

"I thought I was used to it… keeping everyone at bay. But… now I don't think I could do that with you even if I tried. You've not only seen through me… you know every part of me, quite literally. You know what it's like to be me… and somehow you don't hate it nearly as much as I do," Azula finished, her eyes downcast. Sokka swallowed hard, raising his gaze to hers.

"It's stupidly weird to say this, I bet, but… I don't hate it at all, Azula. I… I actually love it," he whispered. "I love being you because I… because I love you."

Azula frowned, gazing at him with confusion. Sokka bit his lip, pressing his brow to hers.

"When I look at myself in the mirror every day… I don't hate what I see. I really can't, not anymore, because… it's you," Sokka whispered. "I'm you. And it's been liberating, somehow. I've… been my best self, I feel like, because of you. Maybe I'm crazy, I know that, but…"

"If you are, the same is true for me," Azula said, stroking his hair delicately. "I feel the same way, damn it. Being alive, in this body of yours… it was strange, still is, but I… I can't really help but enjoy it, in the end. Everything that seemed to weigh me down before seems non-existent now, and… I don't know what to do about it. If this keeps going, I… I might just not want to swap back at all."

"I know, right?" Sokka said, with a sad smile. "And yet…"

"And yet, I'd rather love you directly," Azula admitted, pressing her face to his shoulder. "To hold your body, to experience this the way it would have been, if we hadn't swapped…"

"We're a messy complication, aren't we?" Sokka asked. Azula nodded. "And a big contradiction. But… isn't it easier, too, to not hate ourselves as much as we used to? Now that… that the one in our body is someone we love?"

"It is. Even if it's still weird," Azula admitted, pulling back. "But I don't think I could ever truly…"

"You could never hate me, in any body I'm in?" Sokka guessed. Azula smiled and nodded. "Good. Neither could I."

"The more I think about it… the more I wonder if this is what they were after," Azula said: Sokka's eyes widened. "There's no reason why… why they would've swapped us just to torment you further, right? Yue wasn't… she wasn't that kind of person. Even if she had been bad in any way, I bet you would've brought out the best in her, just like you have with me…"

"She wasn't bad, just… confused, trapped between duty and her true wishes, I guess," Sokka said. "Now she's freer, in a way, but…"

"But you still think you may have failed her," Azula said. "Have you thought that, maybe… the only way in which you have failed her is by not understanding that she loved you? That she wanted you to be happy, just as she is, whenever she can be with my cousin?"

"I… haven't," Sokka admitted, swallowing hard. Tears wallowed in his eyes, but as much as he felt an urge to run away, there was no running from Azula… no running from himself. "It's much easier to think…"

"To think they would never forgive us and always resent us?" Azula asked, with a weak smile. "Yeah, well… I figured Lu Ten would have nothing good to say to me, if I reached him at all. And I did, but it was to no avail anyway, he said nothing at all so maybe I was right to think so. But maybe this is… maybe this is what they wanted us to understand. All our fears, all the shortcomings, all our beliefs that maybe we aren't worthy of love unless we constantly prove ourselves, unless we're perfect, unless we give everything we are to those whose approval we crave…"

"They're easier to see from a distance. From another's eyes," Sokka said, trailing a hand over Azula's chest. She did the same, with his: their hearts beat strong, fast, at unison. "It's… not something we can fix just by acknowledging it, though. It's not easy…"

"I know. I doubt I'll be over it quickly, myself," Azula admitted, closing her eyes.

"But if we try…" Sokka whispered. Azula swallowed hard. "If we help each other… we're better at that, right? Taking care of others, rather than ourselves…"

"Fighting for others, rather than ourselves," Azula continued. Sokka smiled.

"Then… we fight for each other. We protect each other. No matter in which body we may be… no matter what it may entail. Maybe we won't ever really learn to love ourselves, but… maybe by loving each other, we're learning, little by little, how to do that?"

"That's definitely one way to look at it," Azula smiled, reeling him in, closer. "Maybe… maybe this will take time, Sokka. More time than we thought would be necessary when we were so desperate to switch bodies."

"Five years, then?" Sokka asked. Azula nodded, weakly. "In that time… we might actually get to move forward and understand each other fully. Love each other… and learn to love ourselves, if just a little."

"It's a big commitment to make," Azula said, with a slight smile. "But if you're willing…"

"With you, I'll go anywhere," Sokka said, cupping her face and kissing her deeply. Azula responded warmly. "I'll do anything. If it's you… I don't mind, lending you my body at all. I'm honored, if anything, to be in yours. I… I love you. I want to be one with you, in every way that matters."

Azula smiled brightly, tears blinking in her eyes, much as they did in his: another passionate kiss was the lead-up to the next stage, as they rolled together on the futon, hugging intimately, warmly, as their sexes met at last, bridging together and brokering a new burst of pleasure and wonderment once their bodies had been joined. They gasped breathlessly at the smooth way they fit together, at how suitable the connection was, at every ridge, every smooth line, every curve, every sensation…

They rocked together, exchanging endless kisses, gazing at each other intimately often, even when their lips were joined. The arousal surged as a rolling tide or as a burst of lightning, and whether they were a stormy sky or a nightly shroud of endless peace, neither one knew for sure: their bodies collided erotically, but their souls met in a smooth embrace, and in that glorious joining, their physical world seemed to fade away, giving way to another plane of existence, a blissfully light experience, where their spirits met and swayed together, where they found a powerful, stabilizing balance between them where the body they inhabited no longer mattered nearly as much as the connection between their bonded souls did…

It wasn't enough, with just one round. It wasn't enough, with just one thorough chance to explore themselves and each other: the blissful, enthusiastic kisses flowed so much more smoothly between them, between joyful laughter, as they tried everything they dared do.

The night spanned out, slowly giving way to a sunrise that awakened Sokka after a mere few hours of rest. For a moment, he thought he was back in his body. The peace he felt was so strong, as though everything was right… but one glance at his lover revealed otherwise. And yet… and yet he wasn't disappointed. He wasn't fearful. He wasn't horrified. Instead, he smiled and embraced Azula once again, knowing he would be ready to inhabit that body again, one day. For now, he thrived in being hers… in being her. In a connection so deep and intimate he had never imagined possible between two people, ever before…

...

Katara's jaw had nearly hit the floor when they finally returned, hand in hand, to Air Temple Island and revealed their newfound resolve to see this through, across five years. Aang appeared perplexed over their unexpected peace with their strange, complicated situation… and yet that meant he'd finally be able to stop reading thousands and thousands of books and scrolls to find absolutely no useful information for Sokka and Azula's body-swap, at least.

"B-but… then you tried what Aang asked you to do?" Katara asked, staring at their joined hands in horror. "And it didn't work, but now you're… together?"

"It worked in ways I can't even begin to explain, Katara," Sokka declared, grinning at her. "Though… we didn't really do it your way, Aang."

"Eh, heh, s-so you haven't really tried that…?" Aang smiled awkwardly. Katara winced – hearing about her brother's sex life with himself, as far as she could tell, was utterly unnerving as a concept. "Well, it means it's not completely ruled out as a possibility… though I'm not sure it'd work, even if you haven't tried tantric sex yet. Still, uh… try it eventually? But… what will you guys do, from this point onwards?"

"We talked about it this morning…" Sokka said, glancing at Azula, who breathed deeply.

"We'll travel together, if just for a time. See more of the world, work more on our attunement skills and whatnot," she said. "We'll try to be ready, in our own way, for the eclipse coming up in five years."

"But if we're not, we'll make our peace with it," Sokka said, nodding. "We'll also come back to visit sometimes, if you guys want to see us at all…"

"Well… you can always come here, of course, but ugh," Katara grimaced, shaking her head. "This is still so hard to stomach… half the time I can't tell which one of you is which anymore."

"Funny, I thought the same thing last…!"

"Don't! Curses, Sokka, stop it!" Katara huffed, marching away as though to rinse the image from her mind somehow. Sokka snickered, as did Azula.

"Well, she really can tell us apart even now, she realized it was me even if I'm in Azula's body," Sokka grinned.

"I'm sorry things have been so chaotic, you guys, but… are you sure about this?" Aang asked, gazing between them. "This is really the path you choose?"

"It is," Sokka grinned. Azula nodded firmly.

"For once… I think we're both sure of what we want in life," she said, tightening her grip on Sokka's hand. Aang smiled.

"Then… good luck, you two. Though… uh, just in case you want to try it, you can borrow a couple of those books on tantric sex anyway," Aang grinned, blushing slightly. Sokka and Azula laughed.

"Thanks, though I have no idea if we'll need them, but I guess I'll take you up on that offer," Sokka decided.

In the end, they wound up staying one more night in Air Temple Island before starting on their journey. It seemed Katara wasn't sure whether to be delighted or mortified upon coming to terms with the likely reality that, liked it or not, Azula was bound to become part of her family sooner or later… and yet even she struggled slightly with her emotions upon watching the pair sailing away on the next day, to destinations unknown, yet at greater peace than she imagined possible for either of them, no matter how mismatched their souls and bodies might be. As worried as she was, she could still hope the pair would be just fine, in the years to come…

...

Five Years Later…

...

As ever, the firebender was quick to wake up after a few hours of rest, for the sun didn't hide at all during the last months of the year in the South Pole. Huddled under many layers of furs, nothing sounded quite as unappetizing as leaving the comfort of the smooth sleeping bag… or the warmth of the most tender embrace of all.

"Always sleeping in, huh…?"

Had today been any day, Sokka might not have spurred Azula to get up at all, but he had no choice. He could cuddle with her all they liked later, but today was supposed to be a big day, even if it didn't feel quite as important as it once had.

He pressed his lips to hers, waking her exactly the way she liked to be woken, as he'd learned over the years. She groaned and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him in… letting her hand slip down his rear, and rise up to his bare chest, too…

"Woke up adventurous, did you?" he chuckled. "C'mon, I thought we'd had a lot of fun last night already…"

"Not sure it's enough yet…" she answered, with a smirk. "Might be we'll never get to do this like this, ever again…"

"Might be we'll only ever get to do it like this, for as long as we live," he replied, prodding her nose with his.

"Not much of a loss, is it?"

"Not a loss at all, not after all this time," Sokka agreed, smiling and kissing her softly. "C'mon, we'll have so much sex when we're back in our bodies, I promise…"

"I've been looking forward to that for a while, it's true…" Azula acknowledged, opening one blue eye to find his golden ones. She smirked. "But I need some extra motivation anyway."

"You're just insatiable, seriously…" Sokka huffed, climbing atop her as Azula laughed, hands on his hips still. "Five years of this, five years! And look at you, as giddy and eager as the first time…"

"Retort and talk back all you want… who's straddling me already? Ah, yes, that's right…" Azula snickered: Sokka laughed and leaned in, kissing her fully before they devoted themselves to cherishing the morning of their big day as best as possible.

Reckless as they ever were, they still did their best to prepare right after they were done, eating a quick breakfast together before dressing up for the day. Azula ensured to clad Sokka in many layers of warm outerwear, though their long stay in the Southern Water Tribe had slowly seen to his adjustment to the cold weather. Their five years on the road hadn't been quite that, in the end: they had spent almost a full year in the Southern Water Tribe, building an igloo together and living as the spouses they would be, legally, within another month.

They had no idea if today's big cosmic event would change anything at all. Maybe this time the eclipse would have no effect on them, beyond taking away Sokka's firebending, which he had refined plenty over the years, to the point of even producing some lightning, to Azula's utmost pride. Even if nothing happened, though, they would proceed with the wedding all the same: they were ready, had been for a long time, for the intimacy of their relationship most certainly transcended all potential bodily trappings. Even if all plans failed today, their future remained bright and promising.

Aang and Katara awaited them by the central square of the Southern Water Tribe. The city had been growing steadily since the times of the war, spanning out across the harbor by now in many beautiful rows of igloos and waterbending-crafted adornments, some of which Katara had bent herself. Appa stood with them, as did Hakoda, who smiled warmly at the sight of Sokka and Azula.

"And there you are. Hope you two kids are ready," he said, stepping up and clapping their shoulders gently – he knew, of course, what was happening. Sokka had believed they could trust him with the knowledge, and Hakoda hadn't disappointed him. Most people who had known Sokka during his younger years certainly could feel something strange about him when they had first come to the Tribe, but most of them had chalked it down to maturity, perhaps… if their plans paid off, those people might just be very confused to see him acting far more like himself, even if he had matured indeed, after their next trip.

"As ready as we can hope to be," Sokka said, with a weak smile. "With any luck, I'll be in my old body again the next time you hug me, Dad."

"So be it," Hakoda laughed, hugging him as expected. "Good luck, Sokka. And you too, Azula."

He didn't hold back from hugging her too, and Azula was used to it by now. She smiled and patted Hakoda's shoulder as she pulled away.

"I won't be able to look at you at eye-level anymore if things do turn out as we expect them to, huh…" she reasoned. Hakoda laughed and shook his head. "Oh, well. I enjoyed it while I could."

"Five years of being tall still not enough for your tastes, Azula?" Sokka winked at her, as he climbed on Appa's saddle, helped by Katara, who had climbed first.

"I'll start walking on stilts if we do switch back, mark my words," she warned him, climbing on the saddle afterwards. Despite their humor was often so ridiculous, Katara still smiled at their jokes… she had done that far more easily, as time went by. She certainly missed her brother being who he was, but she had grown used to the strange situation all the same… even if it had taken her about five years to adjust, indeed.

"You guys ready, then?" Aang asked, sitting at Appa's neck, as always.

Settling against the saddle's railing, Azula wrapped a protective arm around Sokka, who leaned into her before they both nodded firmly at Aang. He smiled warmly in their direction before turning forward anew:

"Yip yip!"

The trip to the mountain was slow and easygoing: Sokka took the chance to relax and rest for a few hours against Azula, who hugged him closely. It wasn't until the bison was finally close to the mountain that Katara woke them, startling them out of their easy nap.

"Hmm… we're here already?" Sokka asked, glancing at the mountains. Katara nodded.

"I think I can see where we're supposed to go, actually" Aang said, shaking Appa's reins delicately and easing the creature's descent on…

An oasis. Another oasis. Sokka and Azula gasped at the sight of it, and even Katara was dazed upon noticing the unexpected grass underneath Appa's feet.

"Woah… you think it's connected to the one in the north?" Sokka asked.

"Has to be. Feels like it, anyway," Azula smiled, tugging at him so they'd rise to their feet: a glance towards the sun, visible in the distance, revealed the eclipse was beginning. "Guess we're here on time, huh?"

"Oh, boy. Okay, no point in getting nervous now," Sokka said, biting his lip and glancing at Azula meaningfully. "Let's go, then."

She nodded affirmatively, climbing off the saddle and offering Sokka her hand so he could climb down more easily. Aang and Katara followed, as the four of them marched deeper into the oasis – it wasn't as cared for as the one in the north, due to nobody even knowing it existed so far, but it was a beautiful location all the same.

"Be careful, then… Katara and I will be here, if you guys need anything. Not that I know what we could do, if you did, but still…" Aang sighed. Sokka grinned and nodded.

"No problem. We'll make sure this works, if it's possible that it does," he said, taking Azula deeper into the oasis.

They finally found a good spot to settle in, and they took their seat as they had once before, when they had returned to consciousness in each other's body. Sokka let out a deep breath, glancing around himself with unmasked eagerness.

"I'll definitely miss a few things, I won't pretend otherwise…" he said, smiling at his lover. "But there's some I sure won't. If I'm ever an ass to you while you're on your period, please slap me."

"I don't think that you'll ever make a mistake of the sort after experiencing them yourself," Azula grinned. Sokka chuckled and shook his head. "Admittedly, five years without them have been quite the gift…"

"That, and being taller than me?" Sokka asked, amused. Azula chuckled.

"It's nice, being able to wrap myself all around you when I hold you…"

"Well, sure, when we're face to face. But when we're not, you always somehow manage to be the little spoon…"

"I do not!"

"Rest assured, you'll be a very happy little spoon once we're through with this," Sokka grinned. Azula scoffed and shook her head proudly.

"You're just trying to make excuses so we don't swap back at all. Try all you like to pretend you didn't enjoy it, Sokka… but we both know you're going to miss firebending."

"I… uh, well, I have no opinion on the matter," he declared, blushing. Azula smirked. "Anyway! We should just focus, we're one and we're perfect for each other, so… time to meditate on that, shall we?"

"Right, right. Run away, sure thing…"

"Shhh. Meditating here."

Azula smirked, and she knew he was smiling too. She started to meditate indeed, cycling through the process gradually, slowly, eased by thoughts of the wonderful man across her, the powerful love they shared… the knowledge that their love would be strengthened and renewed after today, no matter the outcome, and after their impending nuptials…

A rustling sound revealed Sokka wasn't meditating, though… and before Azula knew it, she suddenly had him sitting on her lap, with legs crossed behind her back.

"Are you trying to go for another last-minute quickie?" Azula asked, amused. Sokka chuckled and shook his head.

"I want to kiss you like this, one last time, at least," he said. "And I don't know about you, but… I think I do my best meditation when we're together like this."

"Well… yes, I suppose it's fair to say so," Azula admitted. Sokka grinned brightly, kissing her lips quickly. "Oh, now, is that as good as it gets?"

He laughed and offered her a deeper kiss, which she answered keenly: the eclipse was close to reaching totality, and Sokka sighed in bliss as he hugged her tightly. Azula returned the favor, her face tucked in the crook of his neck, his resting on top of her head…

"I love you," he said, quietly.

"I love you too," Azula responded, comforted by their warm embrace.

They closed their eyes… and once they opened them again, they were no longer sitting atop each other. They seemed to float, easily evenly… and while a blue brightness surrounded the features of their bodies, both Azula and Sokka could only focus on one thing: their souls retained the shape of their original bodies. For the first time in five years, they were themselves…

And for the first time in their lives, perhaps, being themselves was delightful, rather than miserable.

"Azula…" he gasped, gazing at her with wonderment, raising a hand to cup her cheek. Azula's earnest smile almost made his heart melt, as she took his hand in hers.

"That's right… this is it. The man I'll marry…" she whispered, leaning in to embrace him fully. Sokka chuckled, hugging her back.

"To think we were so distant, the first time this happened to us… and now I feel closer to you than I have, with anyone else I've ever known," Sokka said, with a tender grin.

Azula would have returned the words, if a sudden burst of light hadn't startled them… just as its sudden disappearance did. They turned towards the fluctuation of brightness… to find two humanoid shapes floating above them, watching them with affectionate smiles.

"Ah… look at that. The culprits of our chaos, eh?" Azula smiled. Sokka chuckled, hovering towards them with Azula: Yue and Lu Ten nodded approvingly in their direction.

"It may have been a difficult journey…" Lu Ten said, gazing at his cousin with kind eyes. "But you are much stronger now, aren't you?"

"Love, the truest of loves, now dwells inside the two of you," Yue whispered, smiling just as kindly at Sokka. "Where you were closed off, now you've opened your heart… and you finally have understood the truth about yourselves, haven't you?"

"We've done our best… that's for sure," Sokka said, smiling weakly.

"Two souls as hurt as yours… in learning to love each other, you've learned to love yourselves, just as well," Yue said, proudly.

"No longer will you define yourselves by the errors of your past, but by the new paths you choose to tread, by your own volition," Lu Ten said, nodding. "When the moon meets the sun…"

"Anything can happen, in this world and beyond," Yue finished: Azula and Sokka glanced at each other, hands tightly wrapped together. "An eclipse is a brief moment in time… and yet it carries the power to change day into night. To renew every soul, to cleanse them and rebirth them…"

"You two… you embody an eclipse of your own, as long as your love continues to strengthen and renew itself every day," Lu Ten said. "You learned to see the world through each other's eyes… to walk the path of another. To turn weaknesses into strengths… to open your minds and hearts to the unknown."

"It looked like a curse, at first…" Azula whispered, smiling warmly at Sokka. "But it was a gift, instead. A chance both of you bestowed upon us… so we could live out the lives that you couldn't experience yourselves?"

They glanced once more at Lu Ten and Yue, who smiled sadly and nodded: their hands were linked all the same as Azula and Sokka's were.

"Our destiny sees us crossing paths in moments, across the ages… yours will see you sharing a human lifetime," Yue whispered. "Cherish each moment, just as we cherish ours…"

"We will. We always do," Sokka said, firmly.

"Then never forget all you've learned… never forget the bond that binds you," Lu Ten grinned. "Never forget the true meaning of an eclipse… a meaning you embody, just as well as we do."

Azula and Sokka nodded, as Yue and Lu Ten drifted away again towards the skies… they were left behind, watching the two spirits swaying together in the beautiful dance of nature that they could only give themselves to during an eclipse. Even when kept from the one they loved, even when destiny had inflicted an unwanted struggle upon them, both Yue and Lu Ten had given them a chance to find true happiness together… they had arranged it, if in a rather confusing way, at first. Their very last gesture of love towards both Sokka and Azula had been the opportunity to help them find a strong, undying love, in each other.

"Who'd have thought we'd be so grateful for this… after all was said and done?" Sokka smiled, tears in his eyes. "But in the end… I really am. I… I think it's true. I learned to love you… and in the process, I did learn how to love myself, too."

"So did I. In believing you were worthy of every ounce of love I could dare give you… it meant I was open to receiving it from you, just as well," Azula reasoned, grinning tearfully at him as well. "For the first time, I think…"

"Me too… for the first time, I'm not afraid of being unworthy anymore," Sokka whispered, taking her hands in his and kissing her knuckles softly. "I love you, Azula…"

"I love you, Sokka," she said, pushing herself up to kiss him again. "I love you… I love you."

He repeated the words back to her, between kisses, their vibrating energies thrumming in their spirits… not knowing what would happen, once they came back. Not knowing if they would be back to their first bodies, or still swapped… not caring, either, for they were so deeply intertwined, so profoundly touched by each other, so renewed by the strength of that eclipse that was only just starting to recede, only starting to bring back warmth to…

To her chest.

To Azula's chest.

She gasped, breathing out against Sokka's lips: he came back to his senses with a start, realizing only then that they were kissing in reality, just as well…

And she was sitting on his lap.

The sun was coming back, and he couldn't feel his inner fire. Her inner fire.

His eyes widened as he took her in… as he gazed at her, every single beautiful inch of her, of the body he had cherished so deeply for as long as he had been inhabiting it… the body that had now returned to her, much as his own had returned to him.

"S-Sokka…" Azula gasped, caressing his face with a warm, tearful smile. "Sokka!"

He barked a relieved laugh as well, hugging her tightly, pressing his face shamelessly to her chest. Azula roared with laughter, causing them to topple over and roll on the grass, sharing no end of laughter and tears alike. In the distance, Katara and Aang seemed to finally realize that it had worked: they were back in their true bodies, at last…

And it seemed it was true, too, that the brightness of that eclipse had renewed their love profoundly, so profoundly they couldn't possibly stop gazing at each other in wonderment, with tearful eyes. They had indeed made their peace with their circumstnaces, before… but now they were ready to march forth into a new destiny, ready to inhabit their own bodies… to finally prove to themselves that they had truly learned every lesson they had cherished throughout the last five years. It was a new beginning, as bright as the sun that now peeked out from behind the moon's shadow… they were ready to live up to their promises, to spend the rest of their lives ensuring to cherish their journey, every step they took together… every moment spent bridging their spirits until they were as profoundly linked as the sun and the moon, the sea and the sky… as spirits and humans, ever inspiring change in one another, and creating something beautiful upon doing so.

[broadwayandnetflix]

i have a request for bo burnham!!:) maybe like the reader and bo watch the special when he gets done editing it and doing all the other stuff he has to do for it, and he records her reaction to the whole thing and that’s how he announces the special?? i know that’s weird but it’s been stuck in my head, so you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to!

Test Run - Bo Burnham x Reader

Warnings: Language

Theme: FLUFF (angst if you like squint)

Word Count: 1.6k

A/N: y’all I wrote this so fast, like kachow. I hope you enjoyed it, and got a break from all of the angst. but angst is still good. but this fic is not me fangirling over inside. never, couldn’t be me. I hope you enjoyed the fic though @bos-a-feminist I had sm fun writing it.

It had been late one evening when Bo had practically burst into the door of your bedroom. You sat puzzled as you gave the man time to catch his breath, as he gave you an eager look.

Trying not to giggle as Bruce yipped at Bo’s feet in pure excitement, it seemed he too was trying to figure out what was going on.

“What? Are we finally gonna have sex again?” you say humorously, causing the man to break composure for just a second.

“No! I mean what the fuck? Yes, yes, and to answer your question, yes. But not right now.”

You giggle as he looks at you with an expression you couldn’t fully decipher. In any constellation, it had been months since you had seen the man this energetic.

Usually, when Bo would come back from his long days in the guest house, he’d tend to be exhausted. Often just giving you a quick kiss before collapsing onto the mattress.

His blue eyes softening towards you as he extends his hand for you to take. Which made you realize that there was an ounce of seriousness in his actions.

Your hands fitting perfectly in his as he pulls you up from the bed, one hand making sure to hold the small of your back.

“Where are we going?” you breathe out.

Bo remained silent, but you found out soon enough as he led you outside to the guest house.

You had stopped dead in your tracks, causing him to do the same. Eyes widening as you realized what was gonna happen, turning to Bo and giving him the biggest grin you could muster.

From the minute he had set foot in the guest house to begin his special, he had been very secretive about it. Something about how it helped him to create something that no one really knew about.

I mean, you had some idea when the UPS trucks kept delivering camera equipment. Or when he had asked if he could take some of your clothes. Other than that, though, top secret.

It had been about roughly a little over a year when he had started the special. A year of emotions and hard work, and by the looks of it.

It seemed as though he had finished.

“Wait are you doing what I think you are doing?” you say, looking at him expectedly.

“Shit babe you catch on quick. Yes, if we are on the same mindset. I think we are, now hush, or I’ll never get to show you it.” Bo instructs before leading you inside.

In all honesty, you didn’t know what to expect. The last time you had seen the guest house had been roughly two years ago. Now? It looked completely different.

Wires and different camera equipment lay waste on the floor, making it almost a hazard. Other lights of various types and sizes filled the room like mini metal trees. It looked disorganized and yet organized at the same time.

Yet Bo walked through the maze of equipment with ease, almost as if it wasn’t even there. You smiled before tiptoeing to the clearing that Bo had made for you.

“Yeah apologies, I wasn’t expecting company.” Bo smirks as you break into laughter.

“It looks…well it looks well used.” you reply, getting comfortable on the chair he had provided.

In front of you sat a projection on the wall of what seemed to be an editing software. You looked back at Bo with an eager grin; he gives you a slight wink.

Anticipation settling in the air as you watched him mess around with the monitor. Until his cursor finally presses on a folder and a video screen pulls up.

You half expected him to sit beside you. Still, instead, he remains behind the computer, amongst his sea of technological instruments and cameras.

“Y/N, I’m showing this to you. Simply because you deserve to see why I’ve been so busy for like a year or more. Plus, you mean the world to me and I wanna know your input.”

Bo says softly. You can detect a hint of nerves in his actions and tone; you practically melt, realizing that was he anxious. Regardless you knew without a shadow of a doubt you were gonna love whatever he puts out.

You open your mouth to reply before he presses play, and an eerie ringing fills the room. Music filling your senses as the special, titled Inside, plays before you.

The next hour or two fills you with a multitude of emotions that you can’t quite place. It seemed like Bo was making you laugh seconds ago, and now you can’t help but feel tears well up in your eyes.

Cinematically it was stunning, breathtaking even. It was hard to believe that Bo had turned the little guest house into a studio. Or at least to the extent that it became, with its gorgeous displays and production.

Performance-wise, it was a completely different ballpark. Bo fucking delivered in more ways than one, whether in humor or just pure raw emotion.

Acting or not, it broke your heart to see the man you loved so dearly in the state that he was in. Of course, you could tell something was up even then when he was filming, but he never gave away the extent of it.

Just hearing him cry made your stomach twist in knots; you wanted to comfort him. Only to be reminded that it was just merely a video of him.

Even at the moment, it took you everything not to look back at Bo; you knew how much he valued your attention. Plus, you wanted to experience the special in full, just as you would if he were on stage.

The special wasn’t the same as his others, but it was well needed for a time like this. It felt personal and introspective, but it was also oh so clever and in-depth. You adored it and the time and effort that he had put into it.

As the credits rolled out and you saw an acknowledgment for your name, your heart soared.

You knew that the two of you had worked hard to be there for each other the past year. Especially with everything that was going on and Bo working most of the time.

To know that you had helped him in any shape or form. It just meant a lot, in more ways than he’d ever know.

The lights in the room flickered on as if he had made a make-shift movie theatre. You wiped away any stray tears, and before he could even say anything, you ran into his arms.

Bo jolting back in surprise before accepting the embrace and holding you tighter into his chest. His head resting gently on top of yours due to his taller stature.

“God I love you so much, more than you’ll ever know. I seriously don’t know if I would’ve made it out alive this past year if I didn’t have you.” he croaked into your hold.

It took you a second to realize that the man was crying, and you pulled away to meet his eyes. Your fingers brushing away his tears before reaching up to give him a kiss.

His figure bending down just a tad to meet your lips as he kisses you back sweetly. It’s light and yet so filled with passion for making up for what time that had been lost.

Yet as he looks down at you, a smile etching across his lips. As he asks you about what your thoughts are on his special, he already knows your response.

Unbeknownst to you, he had recorded your entire viewing experience. Of course, if he were to ever share it anywhere, he’d ask your permission, but it was apparent.

Even as you told him how much you loved it and how much you enjoyed it. You knew that he knew that you understood the special the way he had intended it.

It was one of the many things that made him adore you endlessly. You meant the world to him.

“We should celebrate babe! Maybe order a pizza or something.” you exclaim, arms still wrapped around his neck in your embrace.

“We definitely should, but what pizza places are open at this hour?” Bo smirks as you give him a slight frown.

“I don’t know, that’s a good question.” you hesitate.

“Actually I do know one place that’s really good and delivers.” Bo whispers seductively up against your ear.

You giggle and gesture for him to continue as he swiftly pulls away from your hold. His hand outstretched for you to take once again as he leads you towards the house. Or, more importantly, towards your bedroom.

“Me.”

——————————————————————------------------------------------

Bo sat anxiously beside you as his fingers lingered over the ‘post’ button on his different social media accounts.

The post in question was a video that he stitched together of you watching the special. With your consent, of course.

It had been edited together to be vague enough that he wouldn’t spoil the special. But nonetheless, it was sweet, and he totally made sure to include you tearing up in it.

You made it a priority to tackle him for that one.

The video was sweet and short, but it got the intended message across, and you personally loved it, just like you loved Bo and the special.

“Any-day now Robert.” you tease as you hold his one hand in yours.

“Do you think that they’ll wanna watch it?” he whispers quietly.

“Of course they will, it’s you. Baby you are so talented, your fans will be so excited.” you reassure.

Bo sighs before squeezing your one hand tightly before pressing the button. And letting Inside out into the world.

[wallwriterstuff]

Our Dearest Moments ||Alec Volturi x Reader||

Warnings: None, this is nice and fluffy

Words: 2964

Summary: A request for @royalvolturisblog    Forever is a long time to live, an occasionally a little reflection upon who we are and how we got here is needed to maintain our sanity, and decided some very important answers to equally as important questions.

Sometimes, life is not all we expect it to be. Sometimes, life is cruel. Sometimes, life is disappointing. For me? I can safely say it’s none of these things. My life had always been easy, the best of everything and wanting for nothing. As doting as he was, my father had spoilt me rotten and never let me work hard for anything, never given me life skills that most normal people would need to live a functioning, adult existence. Why would I need them? Money was not a problem for my family nor would it ever be, so why go to the hassle of building a life where a nine to five job sapped the life from me when I could, quite sustainably, simply enjoy my life to its fullest at my loving father’s expense? Why make your child work if there was no need? I would not settle for a subpar life as nothing in my life had ever been less than luxurious.

That was my life in a nutshell. It was flat screen TVs in a ginormous bedroom which would have fit some people’s houses inside it, four poster beds and every new games console, every makeup palette fresh off the manufacturers line and vacations to the most remote and lavish corners of the Earth. I never even had to ask for some of it, my father simply expected I would want things and provided them without request – as those of guilt soul are wont to do.

“Well? What do you say?” Alec asked, his lips pressing the gentlest of kisses against my shoulder. I hummed, leaning back against him.

“Forgive me, I was hardly listening to a word you said, my mind is…elsewhere.” I admitted. Alec squeezed my hips, arms widening around my waist to tighten his hold on me.

“You’re ignoring me now? How very rude. I thought we were passed this.” He chided, though his tone was more playful than scolding.

“Call it introspection.” I sighed. Alec chuckled.

“Introspection? Now that sounds dangerous. I happen to like you as you are, if you haven’t noticed.” He teased, pressing a kiss to my temple. I turned in his arms with a smile. He stood a little taller than I did but I didn’t mind; it always gave me the best angle of the soft curve of his jawline, the fullness of his lips that didn’t like to stray from my own for too long. It also gave me the perfect excuse to nestle my head against his collarbone, escape those all seeing crimson eyes of his. Alec had seen right through me from the very start.

“I happen to know, you inform me every day…you sap.” I smiled a little as he lifted a hand to play with my hair.

“Then why decide to be introspective? What is there to reflect on? What would you wish to change?” he questioned.

“I already have changed,” I pointed out, lifting my hand to play with his coven crest, “I actually work for a living now.” Alec actually laughed at that, pulling back to feign shock.

“You? Spoilt? I would never have guessed.” he teased. He wasn’t wrong. Even now my room was lavish, silks and fine fabrics and luxuries filling every corner, but at least this time I had worked for it. Being a part of the Volturi was a privilege in itself but it required hard work, it required proving your worth and working for the greater good of your species. It was rather odd, how I had turned my entire life philosophy around in the span of a few centuries. Maybe it was Alec, making me humbler and wiser. Perhaps I owed some of it to Vladimir and Stefan, who had taught me to fight for what I wanted rather than throw money at it. I could still remember that fateful day, though faces and names were murky now in my ‘old age’.

Samuel and Scott were two boys I had craved the presence of a lot in my human days, though I couldn’t honestly tell you why anymore. Perhaps it was the familiarity of money, or the comfort that came from knowing someone of your status and experience walked alongside you and understood your world view, but they were the closest friends I had for a long time. What was better than going on vacation with your friends at the closing of exam season? Rome had been beautiful, the sights enamouring and the food…I suppose it was okay – my tastebuds had changed since then. I could still vividly recall the kind of heat I wasn’t accustomed to back home, and the dazzling brightness of the sunlight that spotted my vision and made my ever blurry human memories seem even worse quality somehow. I also remembered laughter, and warmth, the kind of warmth that flooded your soul and felt like a good hug on the worst of days. It was strange, the things that stayed with you.

Then there was too much warmth. The process to immortalise one’s body came at the cost of burning the eternal soul till only a shell was left behind, petrified and cold. That was how Stefan put it at least in his usual, grim way. The memories of my time with them had most certainly been the most vivid, since I was very much a vampire by then and I could remember every little glance, every change in the tone of their voice. Those days….those days were full of anger. My doting father taken from me, my best friends none the wiser as to where I had gone and yet never once pleading on the news for my safe return as most others did for their loved ones. Through time and trial and error, Vladimir and Stefan had shown me that I had actually lost nothing in this life, only gained. I was stronger, swifter, better than any human version of myself could ever be.

Then came the gift.

It had been purely accidental at first. Another boy taken in by Stefan only to be turned (in what I would later find out was an attempt at raising a small army) was similarly gifted. He had the quite remarkable ability to make anything he touched smaller or larger, depending on what he wished it to look like, and unintentionally I had taken his gift to use for myself. He hadn’t stayed much longer after that, Vladimir and Stefan reluctant to let him part but allowing it – only because they knew the Volturi would send the Guard after an unruly newborn causing havoc. Why should they need him when they had me? They had been the ones to train my gift, an enhanced trait from my human life they had said – as I had taken what I wanted then I could do so now with startling efficiency. By the time Alec had arrived I had not truly gotten it under control, hence my confrontation with Jane.

It turns out the unruly newborn had been smarter than we thought, and the Masters’ had dispensed the Guard to see about this gifted vampire the Romanian’s had collected. At this point it had been months since we’d even seen the boy, years since Vladimir and Stefan had stolen me from Rome’s streets on one of their daring missions taking them close to Volturi territory. My gift had made me indispensable to them, though I like to believe that on some level they cared for me as a person, given all the gifts and birthday celebrations they had indulged in for me. There had been trips and movie nights all at my request, and affectionate gestures such as hugs and chaste kisses to my forehead that had lulled me into the false sense of security that I was where I ought to be.

“Your mind keeps wondering. I happen to be trying to ask you a very important question.” Alec was sounding a tad frustrated with me now and my eyebrows furrowed.

“I’m sorry, really, I just…do you ever have one of those days where you feel like you can’t escape thinking about the past? Thinking about the things that led you to this moment?” I sighed. It was perhaps a tad dramatic, perhaps even silly of me to be this distracted by such errant thoughts, but they wouldn’t leave me be. Alec stared at me for a long moment, and then he tucked a lock of stray hair behind my ear and swept me off of my feet to seat us on the sofa before our fireplace. Draped across his lap as I was, he had made me his sole focus and gave me his undivided attention now.

“I can’t say I do, so explain it to me. What are you thinking of in particular?” he questioned. My head tilted slightly, the briefest of smiles tugging at my lips.

“Demetri fixing up his nose the day we met.” I giggled. Alec snorted, eyes rolling.

“Vladimir did hit him rather hard.” He agreed. The commotion hadn’t much bothered me, my head buried too deep in my book to really be bothered by such trivial things, but then he had screamed. It was a blood-curdling kind of scream, the sort you heard in slasher movies when the victim is disposed of. It was the first time I had seen Jane’s gift in action, and the only time since I had stolen it. I had only meant to shove the menacing little blonde away from the man I had grown to see as a second father, only to accidentally set her own gift on her. She had crumpled like a straw doll, screaming all the while, and anyone else who came at me went down the same way.

Felix, Demetri and Jane just writhed on the stone floor while I tried and failed to keep Alec at bay, the mate bond I had unknowingly just set with him the moment we locked eyes preventing me from hurting him and vice versa. His mist had danced at the edges of my feet as he gave me more warnings than I was sure was customary of a Guard with his reputation until I managed to calm the raging inferno in my own mind, and douse the flames in theirs.

“Then you misted me.” I recalled, scowling at him slightly. Alec looked amused.

“You were getting rather violent,” he pointed out, “I’d merely suggested an even trade, their lives for you accompanying us to Volterra, and poor Demetri lost his nose a second time that day.” I could still recall the crunch of his skin beneath my knuckles as I vowed to never let them take me anywhere, and now two centuries on I couldn’t bear the thought of being anywhere other than in Alec’s lap. His hand skimmed my arm as I dropped my head on his shoulder.

“You think he would forgive me for that by now.” I said. Alec chuckled and kissed my forehead.

“Not in a million years, his ego is more fragile than his nose.” He murmured against my skin. I hadn’t been happy for a very long time after that. Dragged away from my home against my will and told it was all for a mate bond I hadn’t been ready to accept. I was cruel, very cruel, and I called Alec all sorts of filthy names. Neither him nor Jane had ever really done me wrong, yet still I rarely addressed them as anything other than ‘witch’ or ‘terrors 1 and 2’. I spent the majority of my days avoiding as many people as I could really, though I found Marcus to be quite calming and consequently ended up with the Masters’ more often than not. It was with their encouragement I ended up confronting my two-arch nemesis, their gentle prodding that had led me into Alec’s arms in the end.

“God I’m sure your mother would weep if she could see you now!”

“She did! She wept and pleaded with the villagers tying us to the stake until they caved her head in with stones. How about yours?”

I cringed slightly, the memory as fresh as if it had been just yesterday. Jane had looked ready to roast me that day, while Alec had cut me down to size with his words. Their mother’s fate, their deaths, they were nothing such of tragic incidents that should never have occurred, not to these two. It had triggered a memory I had thought had faded as most other human memories had, though I could see no eyes in the soft, familiar features of my mother’s face given I couldn’t remember the colour of them. She had been reaching for me in my dreams for years, that single bloodied hand protruding from the wreckage of a car only I had escaped from haunted me to this day. How far I had strayed from the woman she would have wanted me to become.

“How could you forgive me?” I asked finally. Alec raised his eyebrows.

“For punching Demetri in the face? Quite easily. I found it entertaining.” He answered.

“Not for that! For…everything else. I was nothing short of difficult and downright cruel to you.” I reminded him. Alec tilted his head, quietly making a noise of understanding. It wasn’t so long ago Alec had asked me to marry him, at least, five years didn’t seem all that long for a vampire. He shifted till I was facing him, straddling his lap and chest to chest with our noses almost touching.

“I forgave you because I loved you, even then. I didn’t see cruelty, I saw hurt that never truly healed. Our scarred hearts were made for one another, even if you weren’t ready to accept it.” He murmured.

“But all those awful names I called you…” I sighed, closing my eyes as shame ate away at my insides. Alec chuckled.

“Some were quite inventive, I’ll give you that,” he said wryly, “Y/N…you replaced every bad memory with a good one. The time you gifted me that bookmark because you knew how much I loved to read? The memory of our first walk in the Garden’s together where you taught me all about gardening and when the best time of year to plant certain flowers was. Our first kiss, the first time you held my hand even. You made the effort to make it right.” He kissed my nose sweetly before capturing my lips with his. His every kiss had been intoxicating since our very first one, the sweet taste of his mouth on mine addictive, the way his lips moved a hypnotic dance I could forever get lost in performing with him over and over. When we parted I pressed my forehead to his.

“I do love you, you know.” I swore. Alec flashed me a smile.

“I know, you impossible little brat,” he teased, tugging my hair lightly, “Now will you please listen to what I’ve been so desperately trying to ask you all day now?” My eyes rolled, but I nodded.

“Make it worth my while, baby.” I teased.

“Don’t, you know I hate when you call me that,” he warned, though his lips twitched upwards, “Y/N, my impossibly stubborn, talented little beauty. I’ve never been in doubt you love me, and I hope I’ve never given you reason to doubt that I love you just as much. You challenge and enrage me daily, yet you are also my greatest comfort and strength when I need you to be. So stop being so bloody awkward and marry me already!”

“That wasn’t a question.” I pointed out, eyebrows raising. Alec groaned exasperatedly, his head falling back against the back of the sofa. My head tilted slightly.

If my day of reflection had done anything, it was show me how far I had come. I was no longer the same spoiled little girl I had once been. I had become a protector of our kind, and my journey with Alec had humbled my tongue. I was perhaps wiser, far kinder. I had not felt worthy of the mantle before but seeing him beneath me now, my love so ardent in his affection and persistent in his showing of it, I realised I had no need to be afraid – I had proven my worth to Alec tenfold. Gripping his chin, I forced him to look at me. He looked rather frustrated.

“This is the modern era Alec,” I scolded, “I will never say yes to your proposal.”

“But-“

“Because you are going to be saying yes to mine. Marry me, Alec.” I didn’t ask, more stated it. I knew he wouldn’t say no. With another exasperated groan he shook his head.

“You do make me work for it don’t you? So long as I slip a ring on your finger I really don’t care who asks who. Fine, I’ll marry you.” He leaned in but I pressed a single finger to his lips, preventing him from kissing me. His eyebrows arched into his hairline, almost as if to say ‘what now?’.

“It’ll be a Winter wedding.” I decided. A brief smile flashed his lips upwards.

“Spring.” He retorted.

“And the bridesmaids will wear emerald green.” I continued.

“Peach.” He countered, his smile growing as I pulled my finger from his lips.

“Oh and I want diamonds Alec, they’re a girls best friend.” I grinned, our noses brushing now.

“You’ll get a cereal box ring and be happy with it for all the waiting you’ve made me do.” He huffed. I didn’t get to protest, not when he smothered my mouth with his own, both of us laughing as we let the past be and looked forward to our future instead.

[mpfuro-station]

FOR RONALD AND MORTIMER!!! (why did the latter catch my attention?)

Describe your ideal partner.

That's all-

This came out a lot longer than I went in thinking it was going to be...

Hope you enjoy these very opposite people XD

Ronald:

The deer beastman practically pranced to the interview room. This was the best extra credit project ever! It was like he was experiencing press from a race well won, and this first question was golden.

Please describe your ideal partner

Ronald puffed in pride, "Of course! That's a very common question when people have a fan club, and it's only a matter of time until mine is formed." He ignored the awkward roll of the eyes from the interviewer.

"So, the wonderful ladies, enbys, and gentlemen want to know about what I want in whoever gets the title of number one super fan. I can gladly give some details," Ronny shuffled in his seat to match how he's seen other famous racers sit during press conferences. "I guess the first thing is that they have to have a bit of a daredevil in them. I have a need for speed, and I want to race through the hills and/or sky with them grabbing my waist with the wind in our hair. I'd feel awful if that stuff had them quaking in genuine fear."

Ron let his shoulders slide down as he became more introspective. "I want what my Ma and Pa had. By themselves, they were awesome! Totally amazing beastfolk that became even more spectacular when paired together! Where one fell short, the other picked up." He picked himself up once more, "Support is very important to me. I want to be there lift them up when they need it, but I also want to know that they'll be there when I need it. Fame can get lonesome otherwise. Knowing that someone is there at the finish line waiting for me just makes me want to cross that much sooner!"

The buck sighed at the thought. Then he started to blush and fiddle with his antlers. In a more muffled whisper, he tacked on at the end, "I-I guess I like them taller and a tad bit flirty too...But that isn't really important! Ehem...Is that enough detail?"

Mortimer:

"Tido said that this is a way for me to...appeal to masses more. Show them that I'm not just some hunk of muscle to throw around," Mortimer said as he slicked back his dark-green hair. He gave the interviewer a cold stare as he smirked. "But who'd have thought they'd cut straight to my more intimate affairs. I think my crowd appeal is working just fine, despite what my flappy henchman says."

Um, could you des-

"Describe my ideal type. Yes, I was getting to that," Mortimer crossed his legs as he sat back. "I suppose if a man wanted to have the best chances of garnering my favor, he'd have to be a gentleman first and foremost. Some people might like that 'country charm' but not me. Been there, done that, and it's not my thing."

"I value grace, intellect, and artistic visionaries. Someone to enjoy the finer things in life, and if they are able to easily afford such a life it makes things so much easier," He gave small toothy grin. "But since I already plan to achieve such a lifestyle, I'm not too concerned about it. Rather...I'd like to make the most of whatever I can get and make it what I want and need. If I cannot attend a ball with my beloved, I will make a ballroom and play the finest music. If no gallery will allow us entry, well, my artwork far exceeds those dusty canvases. We can admire my work."

The third year grew uncomfortable. "If this is shared to others, and they think they have a chance, I suppose I should get this out of the way." He leaned forward and looked straight ahead with half lidded eyes. "I'm not a family man. I will be cordial with my in-laws, maybe even enjoy them, and...entertain any small family members, but don't expect me to raise anything more than pet children."

"I will happily be a father to cats, maybe a dog if I really love the person, but I don't wish to wake up and deal with children every day. If my significant other so chooses to show their philanthropy threw helping children, by all means they can. However, I will not be someone's legal guardian." He leans back and whispers, "I will not be another one to add to generational...issues."

He pushed his hair back again as he collected himself. After a long sigh he finished, "Yes, someone graceful, intelligent, with an appreciation for the arts, being well endowed in the pockets in a nice perk, and not set on child-rearing are my criteria. Bonus brownie points if they are of beastfolk decent. A preference of mine, but it hardly makes a dent compared to everything else."

"Next question?"

[hajimewhore]

Body Swap 👫 (Iwaizumi Hajime/Reader) ➸Rated T, fem!Reader, 2.7k words  ➷Humor, fluff, angst, awkwardness, pining, swearing, my tendency to write introspective, the usual stuff in here  ➷ Masterlist, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, ✈Part 6, Part 7

“Hajime, let’s walk together without Tooru.”

You hear a voice call out to you the second you step out of the gym. The abrupt call startles you when you register it’s your own voice—it feels a tad cryptic, considering you’re still not used to hearing it unless it’s coming from you. 

Hajime is glancing around, keeping his voice low, clearly wary of any prying ears or casual listeners. 

“Huh? Yeah, alright.”

You jog up to his side, exiting the school grounds with him. A worry creeps in your gut, but you push it aside to hear what he has to say first. No use getting anxious when he hasn’t even said anything yet.

It’s interesting, your strides are much longer than you’re used to, so you have to actively think about matching your pace with Hajime’s currently shorter legs (you hate to call your legs short, but there is an obvious comparison). 

It’s something you never worried about before, considering you were always the one surrounded by long-legged bastards, but it has you thinking that Hajime must’ve always consciously walked in step with you. Even Tooru tended to take long strides (as if he were the main character in an anime, leading the way for the extras). 

You try to quell the metaphorical butterflies that are making themselves at home inside your ribcage, but it’s rapidly replacing the anxiety that was stirring from Hajime’s abrupt request. 

You’re supposed to be serious right now. You can’t be caught up with how sweet and caring Hajime is, even though he doesn’t voice it and generally has an attitude that needs minor adjustment, but you’re constantly reminded every day how his love language is more about acts of service and silent gestures with no intent for acknowledgement and—

“What’s up?”

You say with as much nonchalance as you can muster, it’s best to cut that train of thought off, especially when said train is being directed by Iwaizumi Hajime—not only filling your brain but the space directly next to you. 

You can only assume there’s something pressing he wanted to talk about, maybe practice, judging by his sour expression. Not that he doesn’t always have that expression, but lately he’s been more conscious of the faces he makes in your body. There must be something gnawing at him to let that slip. 

But if you’re being completely honest, you’d rather not think about practice after the shit show of a performance you had earlier. 

“Something…” he pauses, not quite sure how to phrase it, “weird, happened. And I really don’t want to talk about it, but you should know.”

Hajime looks highly agitated, and very uncomfortable. He’s refusing to meet you in the eye, not particularly focused on anything but the air to his right. He’s struggling to find a way to busy his hands, crossed over his chest—nope not that again– shoving them in his track pants pockets, before deciding to whole up in his jacket pockets.

You think about what could possibly make him that level of awkward, but only one thing comes to mind,

“You didn’t start your period, did you?”

“WHA- WHAT? NO, no, fuck,”

Hajime’s eyes blow wide when you unintentionally remind him about the existence of said bodily function. Is that something he’s going to have to worry about? He needs out of this body, stat.

“Good, cause I just ended, so if you started that would’ve been a little worrying.”

You can’t help but laugh at his reaction, and he grimaces, red hue dusting his cheeks, he’s clearly perturbed by the information and realization that was just forced upon him. 

“Good to know. Hopefully we’ll swap before the next... one...”

You roll your eyes, but can’t exactly blame him for his discomfort. As much as you’d like a man to physically endure and comprehend the plight of women, you also hope you’ll be able to switch soon. 

Besides, that's something best cursed upon someone bad mannered, like Tooru. 

It does succeed in reminding you that you and Hajime should put your nose to the grind, if it wasn’t urgent before it’s imperative now that you figure out ways that could possibly switch you back. 

Hajime clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck, snapping you back to his current dilemma, 

“Someone asked you out.”

You blink at the information, that’s what he wanted to talk about? You’ll certainly take that over talking about your shit show of a practice tonight. 

“Whaaaat? Again? Jeeeez, I guess I’m just popular today.”

You stick your tongue out with a giggle, sounding extremely misplaced with his voice. 

Surprisingly, he doesn’t reprimand you for it, and it makes you tick a brow in curiosity. 

“...so uh, did you shoot ‘em down? Finally understanding some of the struggles that women go through, huh?”

You attempt to laugh off the unpleasant aura that’s starting to hang thick in the air.

“Not exactly. I said I’d text him, I wasn’t sure what your answer would be.”

At that, you freeze, turning back to stare at him in shock. 

“What? You actually considered my feelings instead of shoving a boy out of my life?”

You halt your steps to turn and grip Hajime by the shoulders, faux tears threatening to spring up and burst any minute. You gaze at him with all of the awe of a proud mother seeing her child matured and all grown up. 

“Don’t say it like that! And knock that look off my face, before I do it myself,” he sounds as gruff as he can with a feminine tone, “and of course I care about your feelings! The men that like you are just shit.”

He turns his nose up derisively.

Hajime always figured that was the case, at least, that no man was good enough for his best friend, and the ones that liked you wouldn’t know what to do with you. All that ambition, attitude, spark, with a tendency for being too kind and too caring. What could a high school boy who dicks around in the back of the classroom ever put forward in a relationship with you?

But it seems he was a bit misconstrued. While he’s positive he marked those boys right, there may have been a little jealousy at play he was never made aware of until recent events (in other words, the Matsukawa Incident–he’ll refer to said event as such now). 

Hajime unintentionally acted with his own self interest, driving away any boy that made eyes at you, and hid behind his self-proclaimed ‘protective best friend’ title, told himself it was fine, because Oikawa was doing the same—they both knew what was best for their friend. 

As if you couldn’t decide for yourself. 

Hajime clenches jaw, he should’ve known something was off with him the moment he started going along with Oikawa’s antics. 

He doesn’t feel particularly bad or regretful about driving away those glaringly transparent guys, but he does feel a pang of guilt for having done it without your say in the matter.

“Well, thanks, I guess. But who are you talking about anyways, I’m dying to know who’s won Hajime’s stamp of approval.”

You look at him with curiosity brimming from tip to toe, and a deep frown tugs at the corners of his lips, the dread and anxiety he felt before coming back full force. Now that he’s placed the feelings he has for you, it’s demoralizing to see you interested in other men.

“It was Matsukawa,”

Now Matsukawa was different. 

Hajime knew him personally, and considered him a close friend. They often spent free time together, had lunch together. They of course played volleyball together, and judging from that alone Hajime could tell that Matsukawa was a man with talent, passion, and drive. He was good natured, and Hajime is positive he’d treat you with the respect you deserved.

“He was the one that asked you out.”

Your eyes widen at the information, and Hajime feels his shoulders tense. Is that excitement? What will you have to say about that? 

Well, if you like Matsukawa, Hajime will just have to deal with it. 

He easily turned away other boys and suitors, but the fact that it’s Matsukawa changes everything, it’s thrown a fat wrench in his love life (if he can even call your relationship that, he’s starkly aware you’ve always been ‘just friends’, and the Matsukawa Incident isn’t exactly helping any).

Hajime knows Matsukawa can make you happy, there’s no reason to stick his nose into that. 

When you’re out of this body swap situation, Hajime will just have to support you from the sidelines. But even then, as your best friend, he has to be with you every step of the way. 

Your solo time with Hajime will practically become non-existent if you get yourself a boyfriend. No more movie nights with the two of you, passed out on the couch before the halfway point, no more casual dinner dates, no more coming to each other’s houses at ungodly hours because the other person is only seconds away. 

Hajime guesses he could still have all those things, but with the addition of Matsukawa–that thought sits bitter in his mind. And Hajime loves his friend more dearly than he cares to admit, and loves you more than he thought he did, but his heart breaks at the thought of the two of you together. 

“Mattsun?”

His spiraling train of thought is dashed the second you burst out into a boisterous laugh, something Hajime wasn’t expecting. 

“He’s such a flirt. You should’ve just brushed him off!”

Hajime states in his bafflement. Matsukawa, a flirt? He thought that was just in the moment. What are you talking about? You’re talking about the same Matsukawa, right?

“What? I didn’t know if you liked him or not, I couldn’t say no!”

His face heats with a scowl as he attempts to defend himself, Hajime is in disbelief he let that get to him so much.

“Oh no, you didn’t get all awkward did you? Now he’s gonna think I have a crush on him.”

You huff, and Hajime grows more confused by the second. 

“Is that such a bad thing?”

And now he feels the need to defend poor Matsukawa’s honor, though he won’t deny the feeling of relief washing away his anxiety like a massive ocean wake. It’s as if the salt water is mending the dull cracks that started chipping at his heart, your full smile and animated laugh uplifting him.

“Not really, I guess. But he flirts too much, and I always put him in his place! But now that you’ve gone all doe-eyed school girl on him, he’s gonna think his charm or whatever worked.”

You click your tongue, and Hajime bristles, how could he forget about how bad your personality could be? Any time he finds himself in awe over you, it’s always short lived. 

“I did not go ‘school girl’ on him, I was confused the entire time! I didn’t even know he was flirting with me at first!”

He rants, seemingly back to himself, and you bite your laughter at the outburst. 

“I’m sorry you had to experience that, Hajime.”

“One of my best friends and teammates... was flirting with me.”

“Technically, me.”

“I can’t look at him the same way.”

“If you want, I’ll let you go on the date. But when I’m back in my body, I’m cutting that off.”

Hajime sends you a look that sends a chill down your spine, vibrating from the intensity of it. 

“Kidding, Hajime, kidding!”

You put your hands up in defense and Hajime grunts, decidedly not beating your ass, fortunately.

Though, Hajime does feel a swell of happiness at the fact that you don’t seem interested in Matsukawa. 

“I guess I should let you know...” you pause and Hajime hums in acknowledgement, “make sure to turn everyone down for me.”

Hajime blinks at your request, and attempts to not sound so desperate and eager when he speaks, 

“Uh, sure. Everyone? ‘don’t have anyone you like?”

He figures he’s pushing his luck with that one, but he wants to know the answer, even if he’s shooting in the dark. 

“No, not interested in anyone in our classes, or your teammates, for that matter.”

You clarify, and he awkwardly glances away at the pointed comment. 

“Right. I can do that,” he glances to you before continuing, “the same goes for me.”

“You already told me that!”

“You need a reminder. I don’t want a random girlfriend I’m not interested in when I’m back in my body, okay?!”

And the reminder was so good to hear, you’re happy Hajime doesn’t have an interest in anyone, even if that gives you the smallest chance.

“Okayyy, okay!”

You laugh, and he hides the way his lips turn up into a smile.

“Now let’s go to my place, we have to do more research on our situation.”

You walk alongside Hajime, ignoring your buzzing pocket, no doubt Tooru. You can’t exactly have him crashing your research sessions, so you decide to come up with an excuse for later. 

Days in a row you’ve done research with no concise evidence or method of solving your body swap, you’re starting to feel disheartened by the situation, but at least the weekend is starting.

Even if it’s nearly impossible to come up with anything helpful, you’ll be able to research more and not worry about putting up a front at school or with yours and Hajime’s teammates. 

“We don’t even know where to start! This shouldn’t even be possible!”

The research Hajime has also done leads to zero results, of course. And both your frustrations are piled as high as the plushies and extra pillows Hajime threw off your bed.

You flop onto your back, said extra pillows and plushies cushioning your fall. You’re surprised Hajime left some of them on the bed, it seems he had discarded a majority of them. 

You can’t believe it, Mr. Tubbs, the big stuffed cat Tooru gifted you years ago, cast aside, face down on the carpet. 

If you weren’t so frustrated by your research developments (or lack of), you’d be amused that the only plushes with bed privilege were the ones Hajime won for you at fairs, or gifted you in the past. 

“There’s no legitimate research, for obvious reasons, and most of it is just stories or movies.”

Hajime sighs, browsing through tabs on your laptop. 

“Are we just going to have to wait?” You bite your tongue, “Hajime, what if we’re just stuck like this?”

The sharp look Hajime sends you makes you freeze up. 

“Don’t talk like that. We’ll figure something out.”

He says it so resolutely that it makes you believe him, or at least want to believe in him. And you have no shortage of belief in Hajime’s abilities–if he’s confident you’ll get through this, then you will get through this. 

“If you say so, I’ll believe you. Sorry, Hajime.”

He hums at your response, eyeing you carefully as you continue to scroll on your phone through a rabbit’s hole of mysterious threads, and cryptic posts. 

Your phone pings with messages from Tooru, the buzz startling you out of an odd Reddit thread that seemed more like a troll or a work of fiction than anything. 

The message(s) are in all caps, and you swipe them out as they come up rapidly. You’ll have to think of yet another excuse to give him later, but you’re running out of ideas. 

It was suspicious enough as it is that both you and Hajime had a dentist appointment in the same week–Tooru not-so-kindly pointed out that dentist offices were closed after your school’s hours, and it didn’t help that Hajime made the same excuse a day after you.

The both of you were even forced to skip out on your monthly movie night together, and you and Hajime can only claim to be sick for the night so many times.

You don’t intend to, but you wind up forgetting to message Tooru back that night. 

The stress is stacked high, everything feels personally against you, and you’re too overwrought to focus on anything other than yours and Hajime’s body swap, let alone school, and especially volleyball practice. Which, is increasingly making Tooru more insufferable than usual. 

Swiping out of yet another cryptic site, you briefly worry about what viruses that could’ve creeped onto your phone before searching again.  

Mr. Tubbs making an excellent cushion, you roll onto your side as you scroll away.

A/N: I’m excited to say I’ve got the rest of the story mapped out from here, I usually just wing it and have zero follow through lol, but I’m trying my best! 

taglist: @cybergovl @babybellecheese @keijikunn @168-cm-png​ @sexy0android​

Masterlist, Part 7

[we-love-imagines]

Little Secret

Valentine’s Event: Happy Valentine’s Day!

Prompt: Kakyoin + Tattoos

Ao3 Link

Author’s Note: Hey guys! Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you’ve enjoyed my little fic collection over this past week, it was so much fun to write! I’d like to thank @magthemage for beta reading all these stories! Go read her stuff, she’s awesome!

This story in particular is an everyone lives! au, where you are a former Stardust Crusader, and you, Kakyoin, and Jotaro are all college students who enroll in an American University and share an apartment. Also, while the reader is gender-neutral, I did say they were smaller than the rest of the crusaders... sorry if you’re a beefcake! There’s also the tiniest bit of suggestiveness, but no actual nsfw. Everyone in this fic is aged up to be over 21, and please drink responsibly! Enjoy!

“Kakyoin!” You exclaimed, wrapping your arm around your sober friend’s shoulder, “C’mon, it’ll be so cool!”

“Yeah, we can all get ‘em in the same spot too! It’ll be so rad! C’mon, even Jotaro is down!” Polnareff slurred from the other side of the table, motioning to Jotaro who only gave a solemn thumbs up.

“We are not getting matching tattoos,” Kakyoin deadpanned, getting tired of all his companion’s drunk antics. It’s funny- after defeating Dio, he thought all his troubles were over. But, because the injuries he got in Egypt rendered him unable to drink, he was forever doomed to be the designated driver.

Unluckily for him, this was a rowdy group to handle.

“Kakyoin,” Mr.Joestar placed a hand on his shoulder, brushing you off of him, “We’ll even let you pick. It’s not as cool if we don’t all get one.”

“You’re all wasted,” he chuckled, looking at how all of his friends swayed, red in the face, letting the conversation wander aimlessly after way too many shots. After you all defeated Dio, you made it a tradition to meet up and celebrate the bastard’s death by getting as plastered as possible. While you still saw the others fairly regularly, seeing as you, Jotaro, and Kakyoin became roommates after high school, it was nice to have the others fly in to see everyone again.

Kakyoin watched as Jotaro and Avdol sat in silence, the former’s signature cap pulled over his eyes. They were subdued drunks, getting all quiet when under the influence. Kakyoin noticed how Avdol would turn a tad introspective after a few shots, abruptly bringing up thought-provoking questions like “Do Stands Dream?” or “Where do the clouds go after they roll by?” Jotaro, on the other hand, tended to mellow out. His short fuse stretched out a bit when he was drunk, and for once, he could take a joke.

Polnareff and Joseph, on the other hand, embodied pure chaos. Joseph would always try to instigate things: karaoke, bar fights, getting matching tattoos, and Polnareff would sing his praises and go along with all of his crazy schemes. Somehow, the Frenchman would get even louder, barking for the bartender to bring him more shots so he could out-drink everyone in the building.

Then, there was you. While you could certainly hold your booze better than others of your stature, you were no match for the hulking giants that were your fellow crusaders. So, while you kept pace with them while you were drinking, you would get shit-faced before they were feeling the slightest bit buzzed. While you were usually pretty fun and adventurous, the alcohol in your system turned that up to eleven, making you down for anything and everything.

“Wouldn’t it be so cool to get something together?” You grinned to Kakyoin, eyes wide with excitement, “To show how close we are after everything that happened, Jotaro?”

“You’re talking to Kakyoin, (Y/n),” he sighed, calling the bartender over for the bill. You had all had more than enough for the night.

“Then why are you wearing that funny hat, hm?” You said, flicking Kakyoin’s pronounced bang with a giggle. You were trashed. Kakyoin thought about your impending wrath tomorrow, and having to deal with a hangover for the ages.

“What would we get for a tattoo? Dio’s name?” Polnareff asked the group, sitting back in the booth seat. Jotaro, with surprisingly little bite in his voice, grumbled and shook his head.

“I’m not getting that asshole’s name anywhere on my body.”

“Y’know that picture we took? When we first got to Egypt?” Joseph spoke up, “We could all get that across our backs!”

“That’s way too complex!” Polnareff protested with a smile. You got everyone’s attention when you slapped your hands down on the table with a thundering ‘boom.’

“Guys,” you beamed, pure excitement in your voice, “Iggy. Tramp. Stamps.”

The table fell silent as everybody stared at you blankly. For a moment, Kakyoin thought everyone would laugh at your silly idea. That was the tackiest tattoo anyone has ever thought up!

Polnareff, with a look as serious as death, gave a resounding “Hell yeah!”

After that, all hell broke loose, as even the more subdued members of the group went along with the idea. It was agreed that Iggy, who Polnareff took in after everything went down, would get a collar with his own face on it in solidarity. Despite the risqué location, everyone seemed pumped to get matching tramp stamps of the world’s grumpiest Boston Terrier. Even Jotaro was nodding along as the more vocal members rambled on and on.

“Okay, it’s time to go,” Kakyoin shouted over the group, causing the uproar to die down for a moment, “I’m driving, let’s get in the car.”

“Oh my gosh, he’s doing it,” you cheered, wrapping Kakyoin in a tight, powerful hug, “Kakyoin’s gonna drive us to the tattoo parlor!”

The others broke out in celebration, high-fiving each other as they readied themselves to get all inked-up. The bartender gave Kakyoin a sorry look as he herded everyone into his car, having to walk you there the whole way as you stumbled through the parking lot.

It seemed that everyone felt dizzy as they stood up from their seats, and while Polnareff and Joseph were still a little talkative, the car’s atmosphere was a lot more relaxed than the bar’s. Kakyoin had done this drive a few times before, having to calm down his former travel companions after a hearty night of drinking, so he had it down to a science. Putting a CD labeled “Joseph had a Crazy Idea -Mix” into the player, Kakyoin drove around the block a few times, waiting patiently for the conversation to die down.

Soon enough, the car fell silent as everyone stooped into a drunken haze, bodies limp in their seats as they nearly dozed off to sleep. However, you were buckled into the passenger’s seat, lightly snoring as you drifted into dreamland. Just as expected.

As Kakyoin slowly dropped off the various men at their hotels, who had forgotten about their planned misadventure in their intoxicated stupor, he found himself smiling at your sleeping form as you wormed around in your seat. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t have feelings for you- he knew he did all the way back when you two were teenagers, when you saved him from certain death at Dio’s hand- and seeing you like this always warmed his heart. You were a battle-hardened badass like the rest of them, having seen Dio’s horrors at an age that was simply too young for comfort; but here you were, sleeping peacefully with the giddiest look on your face imaginable.

Sometimes, being your roommate was hard. He knew you were so close, that he could just walk over to your room and confess his ever-growing feelings for you whenever he wanted, that one day he could share a bed with this sleeping angel right next to him. It was on days like this that he realized why he liked you so much: you were kind, cute, and a lot more fun then he was.

Pulling up to your apartment, Jotaro slowly made his way out of the backseat, not even giving Kakyoin a passing glance as he went into the apartment. Leaving Kakyoin to deal with your passed out form, the red-head sighed, unbuckling your seatbelt as he pulled your from the car. He carried you up a flight of stairs, careful not to let you stir, using Hierophant to open the apartment’s door.

Jotaro looked dead, passed out face-down on the couch. Kakyoin rolled his eyes as Hierophant pulled a blanket over his friend- he’d be a pleasure to deal with in the morning. 

“Jotaro,” you giggled out, taking Kakyoin by surprise as you lightly flicked his bang around, “Are we at the tattoo parlor yet?”

Kakyoin quickly tried to shush you, rushing into your room so as to not wake your more aggressive roommate, “No, (Y/n), I’m Kakyoin.”

“Jotaro,” you repeated, much to Kakyoin’s sober displeasure, “Do you think Kakyoin is gonna get the tattoo?”

“I don’t think so, you should try and get some rest,” he whispered to you, setting you down on your bed. He helped you take off your shoes, and despite being in full dress, you make yourself cozy under the covers.

“That’s too bad,” you sighed dramatically, looking up at him through blurry vision, “I was hoping I could see his ass while he got his tattoo. You know how much I like his butt!”

Taken back by your comment, Kakyoin couldn’t stop the hearty laugh that slipped through his lips. He knew he shouldn’t press this topic further, but he was so amused he couldn’t help himself.

“You like Kakyoin’s ass, huh?”

“Duh!” you laughed along with the man, despite not knowing what ‘Jotaro’ found so funny, “Have you seen him in that one pair of skinny jeans he owns? Hot Damn!”

Kakyoin started laughing even harder, wishing he could record this conversation and show it to you later. You’d probably kill him, but this was a nice treat after a long night of dealing with a hollering group of drunken idiots. However, he couldn’t help but feel all warm and fuzzy at your words- did you really find him attractive? It felt really nice to be thought of that way, especially by you.

“I think that ass is made of pure boyfriend material, if you ask me,” you snorted, taking Kakyoin completely by surprise, “Jojo, I know you tell me to just man-up and ask him out, but I don’t wanna scare him away. If he doesn’t like me anymore, he won’t take me to get tattoos!”

Kakyoin froze, trying to process everything he just heard. While cheesy, he never wanted to forget that ‘boyfriend material’ line, or the way your voice softened while you spoke about him. He was in awe of the fact that you had feelings for him- feelings so strong that they had to be confided in Jotaro- and how you feared that he wouldn’t be interested. The red-head was puzzled by your doubts. How could someone as wonderful as you ever not be enough? How could you ever think he didn’t return your feelings? Sometimes, he felt like his feelings were obvious- but, here he was, standing before you as you wearily blinked up at him, eyelids becoming heavy.

“Shhhhh, don’t tell him!” You yawned, weakly dragging your finger over his lips, “Wake me when we get to the tattoo parlor...”

Kakyoin watched your head clunk down onto the pillow, and you were out like a light. After tucking you in, he left the room feeling a little guilty; that was obviously a secret you didn’t want him to hear. However, at the same time, he was over the moon. The person he had admired for years was suddenly in his grasp, finally attainable after years and years of silent pining. 

Before he went to bed, Kakyoin made a point to pull his skinny jeans from his closet, laying them out on top of his dresser. He’d be needing them for tomorrow- he wanted his ass to look good while he asked you out, is all.

[carrotycake]

the world put you in front of me (and we aligned)

A chance encounter at an Ishgardian dance, and Ysayle finds herself falling in love all over again.

4.1k words | Rated M | FFXIV | Estinien/Ysayle pairing | AO3

*

It’s funny, Ysayle thinks. She has spent so much of her life fighting and despising everything the nation of Ishgard stood for, that to be standing here, on the balcony of one of Ishgard’s largest manors, feels a tad hypocritical. For the first time, she appreciates the beauty of the land stretching out in front of her, the late-night sunset (which is as close to a summer as Coerthas gets) casting orange and pink hues across the grey pointed spires of the city itself. She rests her arms on the balustrade, observing the chatter of guests down below. It is oddly peaceful, despite her protestations at being invited in the first place. And still bitterly cold, of course, despite it being summer. Ysayle, shivering, rubs her hands together in an attempt to warm herself up; she had left her coat inside and the thin fabric of her gown was not nearly enough to ward off the freezing night air.

She sighs, her breath exhaling into a cloud of mist in front of her. Had she not gone by the name ‘Iceheart’ for years, revered by her heretic followers? She had survived many harsh Coerthas winters, only for her to shiver now at the merest hint of a breeze. Admittedly, she had found the warmth of the ballroom inside to be a little much, packed as it was with nobles, commoners, and politicians alike. The fresh air, cold as it was, was extremely welcome.

It was Aymeric, of course, that was behind the ball, and her invite to it – the Warrior of Light’s dear friend, and perhaps the most influential man in the city. Endlessly charming, he had persuaded her that it was an olive branch, of sorts, to mend the rifts between heretics and men. And – well, she had wanted to make amends. Lead those who walked after, and all that.

“Out here enjoying the festivities, I see?”

A familiar voice drags her from her thoughts, and she turns to see the tall, lithe body of Estinien crouching carefully on the gables above the double doors leading back into the ballroom. She frowns, irritated that he had caught her unawares in a moment of introspection.

“How long have you been sitting there?”

He shrugs, getting to his feet and gracefully hopping onto the ground beside her; ever the dragoon, she notes. He’s not in the armour he wore the last time they had seen each other, before Azys Lla. Like Ysayle, he is dressed in an approximation of Ishgardian formal wear, his long white hair tied in a loose half-ponytail. He’s handsome, her mind helpfully supplies, and she wills the thought away before it becomes trouble.

“Long enough,” he replies, leaning on the railing a fulm or two away from her, his gaze distant. He frowns. “Formal…balls aren’t really my thing. I needed some air. And – a break from drunk nobles trying to get me to dance with their offspring.”

Ysayle chuckles, despite herself. “I must admit, I did not recognise you at first. You clean up well, when you’re not head to toe in dragon blood.”

He bows his head. If Ysayle is not mistaken, she sees the hint of a blush colour his pale cheeks.

“Well,” he mutters, “You are the opposite, Iceheart. I believe there was not a soul in that room that did not notice you upon entering.”

She raises an eyebrow. “In a good way, or a bad way? Pray, do elaborate.”

Estinien splutters for a second. “Well, I – It is a nice dress. That is all I meant. No doubt the haberdashers will be inundated with requests for similar styles by tomorrow morning.”

A slightly backhanded compliment, but a compliment, nonetheless. “Damned by faint praise, I see.”

She turns to look back towards the sunset. “It is actually one of Tataru’s creations, so they’ll have a hard time prying the pattern from her little hands.”

Tataru had taken over creative control of this project, because formal dances were certainly not Ysayle’s area of expertise, and the Lalafell had been only too happy to help out. The light, drapey cerulean fabric of the dress belied the traditional Ishgardian style, but Ysayle had never cared much for tradition anyway. It was pinned and tucked beautifully, with embroidered details on the neckline and hem. It even – scandalously – showed off a little cleavage, something Ysayle wasn’t necessarily unhappy with.

They stand like that together, a little distance apart, for a few minutes; enjoying the last rays of the sun in what appears to be a companionable silence. How many times had they done this, a mere few months ago? Accompanied by Alphinaud and the Warrior of Light, of course, but together nonetheless. Sunsets always seemed even more spectacular when seen on islands beyond the clouds. Ysayle had never thought to see such beauty again in her lifetime; she had expected to die on Azys Lla, one last act of service as Shiva.

The gods, as it happened, must have had other plans, as she’d fallen from that great height and landed in the middle of a Vanu Vanu outpost; the last remnants of Shiva’s protection shielding her from further harm in the fall. Word had gotten back to Camp Cloudtop of her survival, and she had eventually woken in the infirmary in the centre of Ishgard. Mere days after her own discharge, and Estinien was staying there under the very same care as she had.

She had avoided visiting, though, despite Alphinaud’s almost-insistence that she do so. She had never thought this far ahead in life; now there was peace, real peace, and her old role was no longer needed. Lord Aymeric, introduced through the Warrior of Light, had requested her help in rehabilitating the remaining heretics and repairing the city in exchange for a pardon for her crimes, and she was not about to turn down such an offer. The Scions had allies, and she herself was still blessed with Hydaelyn’s gift, so she might as well make herself useful.

In quieter moments, however, her mind always drifted back to Estinien. She admitted to being a little disappointed when he disappeared from Ishgard without a trace after his recuperation; the small, naïve girl within her longed to believe that they could have been…something, more than just acquaintances passing in the night.

“You are deep in thought, my lady,” he says, a statement more than a question. Ever with the formalities, even when they were at each other’s throats with opposite ideals.

She shakes her head. “Just reminiscing. My life has taken on a trajectory I could not have anticipated before I had met you and your allies. I have much to be grateful for.”

“I admit, I was – glad to hear you had lived. My own fortunes were, you could say, not so lucky after our victory on Azys Lla. I did not hear about – you – until after I had awoken in the infirmary.” Estinien looked – embarrassed, perhaps? Ysayle could not tell, in the dim light of the evening.

“I-” He falters, swallowing. “I wanted to apologise. For things I have said. Knowing now the full truth of the war betwixt man and dragon, I – I said some unkind things. ‘Twas not your fault that I was ignorant.”

Ysayle takes a moment to think on his words. They were not the people they once were, after all. The truth, she thinks, has changed them both. She looks at him, then – he does not shy away from her eye contact – and nods.

“Apology accepted. For what it’s worth, I have a great deal to apologise for as well. My conscience is not clear, by any means.”

Estinien cracks a small smile. (She tries not to think that a smile suits him. It really does.)

“Aye, that is true.”

Their conversation was momentarily interrupted by a change of music from the ballroom – a slightly faster tune, reminiscent of folk tunes Ysayle heard as a child at communal dances in Falcon’s Nest. It was clearly designed to bring more couples onto the dance floor, and was so far having the intended effect. Ysayle could see the Warrior of Light, dressed in finery (another of Tataru’s creations), swinging Alphinaud a little too fast round in circles on the dancefloor. Aymeric could be seen, too, dancing politely with Hilda; commoners and nobles alike danced merrily to the band’s music. If this was their new republic, Ysayle thinks, then she quite likes it.

It is this train of thought that compels Ysayle with more bravado than she has; not thinking about where it might lead, she turns to her brooding companion.

“Well, when all is said and done-” She holds out a hand to Estinien, “Care for a dance?”

His brow furrows. “I’ve never- I mean. Forgive me, Ysayle. I’m not much of a dancer.”

She smiles lightly. “Neither am I. But we are alone, for the time being. Indulge me.”

“As you wish,” he frowns, still a tad reluctant, but he takes her outstretched hand regardless and pulls her close and Ysayle thinks, oh.

Oh no.

It has been a long time since she has been this close, physically, with anyone, and she wonders if Estinien can feel her heart thudding loudly in her chest. They stumble at first, taking a few attempts to figure out the rhythm of the song versus the clumsiness of their feet, but eventually settle into a gentle waltz.

Ysayle is acutely aware of the position of Estinien’s hand on the small of her back; its warmth – and he is so warm – practically burning through her dress. They are closer than they need to be, exactly, for the formality of ballroom dance, but Ysayle finds that she does not mind. He is avoiding her eyes now (deliberately, she thinks), so she instead concentrates on the position of her hand on his shoulder, her other hand clasped tightly in his as they circle aimlessly together across the balcony.

“So,” he begins, uncertainly, once they’d found their rhythm, “Where did you learn to dance, then? You seem to have more of a head for it than I.”

Ysayle smiles. “A little, as a child. And we had plenty of impromptu dances when I was-” When I was with the heretics¸ she would have said. Another time, in another life. Estinien, evidently noticing her hesitation, raises an eyebrow.

“Forgive me, my lady, but I simply cannot imagine a band of heretics indulging in such trivial things as dances whilst plotting the fall of Ishgard.”

“You are a fool, then, if you believe that we did nothing but sit around and curse the Holy See whilst getting drunk on dragon’s blood,” Ysayle scowls, swinging Estinien round a little more forcibly than she had intended. He stumbles, a little, before righting himself.

“I did not give much thought to the heretics unless they were forcibly attacking the city,” Estinien says, his tone serious, but the quiet glint in his eyes relaying a certain kind of humour. Ysayle rolls her eyes. He always knew exactly how to push her buttons to get her riled up when they were travelling together, and it seems not much has changed.

“I’ll have you know,” she huffs, “Lord Aymeric himself requested my assistance in restoring the city-”

“To avoid a jail sentence, yes,” Estinien has an eyebrow raised, smirking. He positions his arms just so, allowing her to dip backwards as part of the dance. His arms are secure, holding her in place perfectly before swooping her back up. They continue their circles together, Estinien chuckling at Ysayle’s irritation.

“For someone of little skill, you have picked up this dance remarkably fast,” she comments, her face flushed – from the exertion of the dance, or from Estinien’s attention, she was yet unsure.

“I’m a fast learner,” he says, and was it her imagination or was he a little closer to her than before? He stares resolutely ahead, his expression faintly jovial, and Ysayle tries not think about how good his arms felt holding her up.

The upbeat song currently playing comes to a close and, after a brief interlude, a new one starts up, slower than the previous one. Adjusting their pace accordingly, she thinks back a few months to their expedition together. Gods, she had not cared for the dragoon upon first meeting him. He was narrow-minded, and brash, and had been all-too willing to fight and kill the very creatures they were trying to make their allies without a second thought.

And yet – she had grown to like him, over those many days travelling. At first, the attraction had been purely physical. He was handsome, after all, and Ysayle had caught a peek of him removing his armour to see chiselled muscles and a wiry frame; something inside of her had fluttered, momentarily, when he had removed his helmet in front of her for the first time, revealing uncharacteristically soft, fair hair and deep-set blue eyes.

“Don’t get used to this,” he’d muttered, noticing her looking at him. “I can’t eat your soup with a helmet on.”

She’d blushed, then, almost as much as she was surely blushing now.

Even with Estinien’s growing connection to the Eye of Nidhogg – she’d felt it, creeping, growing, gnawing at him even as they travelled together – and his insistence that killing the wyrm was the best solution, she had caught glimpses of a kinder man underneath his harsh determination. Alphinaud had seen it too, as had the Warrior of Light. It endeared him to her, whether she wanted it to or not. And in the long weeks that had followed her miraculous survival, there had been much time for her to dwell on these thoughts.

Halone’s tits, she was in it now, wasn’t she?

It occurs to Ysayle, just then, that the slow pace of the current song meant that their little, secluded waltz had become less of a dance and more just – swaying gently, endlessly circling, not really paying attention to any kind of rhythm. The whole world, for a second, felt like it was just the two of them, the stars aligning to bring them together in a single moment.

“Your hands are cold,” Estinien murmurs, and she forgets for a moment that she still had one of his hands in hers. Usually a woman of great eloquence, she suddenly finds she is tongue-tied, she cannot speak-

“Y-yes, well. Perhaps it is you that is warm,” she whispers, her breath hitching in her throat as he brings her hand to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles. He almost seems surprised at his own boldness, his eyes crinkling in a rare bit of humour at her response.

“Mayhap,” he replies. The night is almost completely upon them now, the only light illuminating their faces being the candlelight from the outside lanterns and the ballroom itself. Their eyes meet, Estinien’s expression unusually soft.

Ysayle is not sure who makes the first move but suddenly his lips are on hers, her arms snaking around his neck, his hands on her hips, guiding them in a new kind of dance. In the end, it does not matter, because she is kissing him, and it is suddenly all she can think about. How long had she thought of this moment? How long had she imagined what Estinien’s kiss would feel like? It was, in truth, longer than she would care to admit.

He kisses with the air of someone who does not have a huge amount of practice, but makes up for whatever experience he lacks with strong, guiding hands; Ysayle soon finds herself pressed up against the iron railings of the balcony, the coldness of the metal on her back in sharp contrast to Estinien’s warm embrace. She feels goosebumps on Estinien’s neck where she is touching him; – yes, her hands are always cold, so cold – she moves a hand round to his lapel, using it to anchor herself to him and pull him closer, ever closer.

They break apart to catch their breath, and she looks up at his face, flushed as red as she’d ever seen it, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Do you, perchance, have a residence in Ishgard, Ysayle?” he breathes, still so close to her. Ysayle knows where this is going, knows where this might end up. And she wants it, Halone knows she does.

“That depends,” she says, curling a lock of his hair around her finger. Estinien exhales, almost impatient.

“On?”

Ysayle pulls away, just enough to see his face fully. “Is this…something you want? Truly?” Am I someone you want? She doesn’t say it, but the words settle between them anyway.

He frowns, a trademark scowl, and grasps the hand currently playing with his hair.

“It is. I am not one to deliver undue suffering to a soul such as yourself. And-” He looks flustered, struggling to articulate, “-this is something I have thought about often. In times of difficulty. The possibility of…something more.”

Oh.

“Well then,” she murmurs, his answer more than satisfactory, “In that case, I have a small apartment in the lower wards of the city.”

“I would very much like to get out of here,” Estinien replies, pressing a kiss to her cheek, another along her jawline. She lets her nails scratch the back of his head, just a little, privately enjoying the effect it seems to have on him.

“If you would permit me, my lady-” He breaks away suddenly, a spark of mischief in his eyes, and scoops her up bridal-style. She splutters, wriggling.

“What are you doing?!”

He peers over the edge of the balcony cautiously. “Avoiding any odd stares we might receive from my good friend’s guests. Now, hold still.”

Before Ysayle has any chance to protest, Estinien bends his knees and leaps, and Ysayle’s heart is rushing, the wind howling in her ears momentarily, and it is not far off what a dragon in flight feels like-

He lands, gracefully, some distance away from the mansion, and places her back on her feet with an uncharacteristic amount of care.

Hand in hand, she leads him through the lamp-lit streets, following well-worn paths to the lower area of Ishgard. More than once he catches her against a wall in a bruising kiss, so the walk takes considerably longer than it normally might on one’s own, but Ysayle is too busy wrapped up in Estinien’s arms to care.

The night is fully upon them now, so upon reaching Ysayle’s apartment there is a small amount of stumbling in the dark until she manages to find a lantern. Estinien, helpful as ever, is predictably distracting as she reaches for a pack of matches, hindered by his hands on her waist as he caresses her from behind.

“You know a lantern isn’t really necessary,” he growls, apparently eager. She rolls her eyes – realises too late that it was a gesture he could not see – and bats him away, momentarily.

“I don’t know about you,” she retorts, “But I like to see my lovers when I’m in bed with them.” She manages to strike a small flame into the lantern, illuminating them both in dim, soft candlelight.

Estinien raises an eyebrow, tailing after her as she leads him to the bedroom. “And has the Lady Iceheart had many lovers, in the past?”

She places the lantern down on the chest of drawers with a thunk. “A few. Borne out of convenience, mostly. Some out of love. All enjoyable, for the most part.”

It might have been a cold way of looking at it, but her time leading the heretics had come with its perks, namely that there was no shortage of people interested in her and her powers. She would never have dared manipulate anyone into sex or abuse her power in any way, but she had not been without company, had she so wanted it.  

“And what about the famed Azure Dragoon?” she says, her tone a little more defensive than she had intended, “I’m sure the position comes with its own amount of attention.”

“Some,” he concedes, “But for the most part, I preferred to spend my free time training. A few dalliances, here and there. Nothing serious.”

Ysayle nods. Fair enough, she thinks. You’d have to be out of your mind if you actually wanted to sleep with that grouchy, stubborn arse of a dragoon anyway. Yet here she was.

“Well then,” she says, instead, “I still wish for your company tonight, if you’ll have me.”

Estinien is already against her, capturing her mouth in his and lifting her – a little roughly, not that she minds – onto the bed. “I was hoping we would get to that eventually,” he grins, wickedly.

“You’re an arse,” she replies, but there is no heart in the insult, not really. There’s not much time for thinking, after that, and she is happy to lose herself in Estinien’s arms for the time being.

Ysayle wakes from what might have been the most restful night’s sleep she’s had in some time. She casts a sleepy glance over her small apartment; the curtains had been left half-drawn the night previously, and the morning light was casting a bright glare across her bed, and the sleeping souls that lay within.

Ah, right.

Estinien is still sound asleep next to her; they must have moved apart in slumber during the night, but she distinctly remembers falling asleep in his arms. For the first time, she sees him and all of his scars in full daylight, and fights the urge to trace them gently with her fingertips. She settles for brushing his bangs out of his eyes; he is so peaceful in sleep, she thinks, his usual furrowed brow replaced with one of general content.

There are bruises too, newer ones, scattering across his neck and chest. Ysayle blushes, a little, because she knows that she is the one who put them there, and that there are similar marks on her own body. They will be covered with clothes, eventually, but for now they sit as a reminder of newfound passions and a lover she can’t quite forget.

His eyes flutter open, and an immediate scowl crosses his face as he adjusts to the bright light streaming in.

“Gods, do you always wake this early? To this kind of racket?” His voice is raspy with sleep, his long hair a little dishevelled.

She throws him a mock-frown. “Usually I remember to shut the curtains. I might have been…a little distracted last night.” She runs a finger along his jaw, lifting his chin so that she could lean and kiss him. He leans into her touch, a different kind of reverence.

“Ah,” he says, softly, when she pulls away, “Yes, that would make sense.”

Their clothes, haphazardly rumpled on a nearby chair would also suggest a measure of distraction. They had only paused long enough last night for Estinien to peel off Ysayle’s dress and his own clothes and place them somewhere off of the ground before continuing his ministrations.

“I don’t have anywhere to be today,” she says, by way of invitation, unsure as to how her overture would be received now that it was morning. Morning, bringing with it clarity, and the uncertain light of day. Estinien may not want anything more than whatever the previous night had been.

To his credit, though, Estinien reaches for her and brushes a few strands of silver hair behind her ear.

“Me neither,” he says, and Ysayle’s heart thuds in relief, “What activities have you planned? Lunch out, mayhap?”

This elicits a laugh from her, despite herself.

“Mm,” she smiles, “Maybe later. For now, I want you all to myself.”

Estinien responds in kind, using his advantage of strength and centre of balance to hold her firmly by the waist and flip her over, laying on her back.

“That can be arranged.”

His eyes are dark with want, and Ysayle finds that it pleases her greatly to be able to obtain this kind of reaction from him. She wants – well, she wants Estinien. All of him. Now. Obviously.

What she really wants, though, is Estinien for longer. Knowing that they might have something to come back to, a home found in each other’s hearts – the thought terrifies her, as it wasn’t something easily articulated to her stoic lover. Still, she thinks, perhaps in time.

For now, she has the man she wants in her bed, and that is enough.