Je rêve de sang

Hello 👀

Molly art coming in

Detail shots below cut

Long may he reign <3

Sokka rarely felt the cold of his home. Partly, that was because they wore clothes that protected him from it. Here, he was clad in the richtly embroidered fur and suede that they had used for generations, shielding them from the elements. He wore them today, too, the blue of it bright and stark against the blinding white of the snow and the ice. And yet, he felt chilly beneath - and feverish at the same time.

They stood on the cape, watching the fleet appear in the distance. The fire nation had, on Sokka's advice, made some changes to their boats, which were now built more for travel than for war. They, as a result, looked less like a threat as they loomed in the horizon - but the thick clouds that billowed from their steamers took Sokka back for a moment.

To years ago. Another life, it seemed.

He had been scared, then. But now, the chill and the fever did not hail from fear - but from anticipation. He glanced, sidelings, at Katara and Aang. They stood by his side, hands entangled as they so often were. He saw the excitement in Aang's eyes at the prospect of seeing their friend again. He saw the softness in Katara's.

She did not look at him. But she had looked at him earlier. With eyes that had been questioning. And he wondered if she knew.

She couldn't know, he told himself. She shouldn't.

However, that did leave him very alone with his feelings, that he hadn't shared with anyone. After all, that was what he had promised Zuko when they parted ways. They had no reason to stay together, and so they had each returned to their own home. A home that had never truly felt like home again, without him.

   All that hardly gave him the freedom to travel and mend those bonds with the other nations, even though he knew he had friends there.

     He hadn't set sail out of freedom, either. Accompanying him were multiple ships, loaded with ambassadors, gifts, goods for trade. Anything to prolong his stay    --- again something he was doing almost unbeknownst to himself.

     As the ships unloaded and he was escorted down toward the cape, the welcome was rather surreal. Not as elaborate as he had come to know back in the Fire nation, but certainly a lot more- personal ? With his head tilted, and a somewhat questioning look on his face he watched a group of children do their utmost best to recreate a Fire nation dance.

     Adorable, but it wasn't altogether surprising that Aang was the first to burst into laughter and tried to pull him into the dance.