#zeelied

I mean, look at her. Look at him. Look at them !!

She tried not to roll her eyes in response to all of this. It was quite silly in her honest opinion...but a thought soon entered her mind. She could make herself look better and put herself in the other's good graces if she were to lend a hand in all this!

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ❛ Well, well, well, look what the crawfish dragged in. A princess? One of Triton's brood, no less. How is my dear brother? Wait, no don't tell me...still mourning the loss of...what was her name? Adicia...no, that's wrong...Aerope, that must be it, hmm? ❜ The witch chuckles to herself. ❛ Now what can lowly old Ursula do for you, your highness? ❜

Eric was walking down the hallway, eyes glued on a letter with a royal emblem that had arrived not too long ago, when he caught a glimpse of red hair by the corner of his eye. It was quickly folded and put in his pocket. It definitely could wait especially since he wanted to make sure his new wife was settling in and adjusting. He was so so very happy she was there, that she was real!

At the mention of her father and the stupid little crab, Jotaro silently thanked whatever higher being he could at the idea. He wasn't entirely ready to meet with the King of the Sea, and he wasn't sure he could handle the constant nagging of a crab who over thought and worried so much. But when she mentioned Flounder and Scuttles - a talking fish and bird? At least that's what he remembers her mentioning, it sounded absolutely ridiculous in so many ways.

Sokka stood near the edge of the shore with his boots half sunk into the damp sand, a small bundle tucked awkwardly beneath one arm while the other kept fidgeting with the strap holding it together. Necklaces, bits of polished glass, a little music box ; things he’d gathered one by one because every time he saw something beautiful or strange lately, his first thought had been @zeelied would love this.

The second he spotted her in the water, his whole face lit up in a way he couldn’t hide even if he tried. “There you are,” he called, relief slipping into his voice before he could smooth it over with humor. “You know, normal people send messages when they disappear for this long.” His grin softened almost immediately after, “I missed you. Also… I brought you stuff. Which is apparently what happens when I go too long without seeing you. I start collecting shiny objects like some lovesick sea hawk.”

The canoe rocked gently beneath him, wood creaking in a familiar, tired rhythm as Sokka dipped the paddle into the dark water of Yue Bay. Moonlight stretched across the surface like spilled silver, rippling with every stroke. Somewhere beneath the quiet, cold waters was his space sword. Or maybe it wasn’t. He’d come back here more times than he cared to admit, looking for it, so why he felt compelled to torture himself again, he doesn't know.

It had been a little over a year since the war had ended and everyone else seemed to be figuring out how to live in the quiet peace that's followed, but Sokka still wasn’t sure how to do that. Peace gave him too much room to think, too much empty space for his mind to wander and spiral, and sitting here now on a warm night beneath Yue’s soft, watchful glow, his thoughts drifted inevitably back to @zeelied.

He thought of her more than he should, and he wondered, not for the first time, if somewhere beneath the waves she felt the pull of the moon and thought of him, too.

Sokka paused his paddling and let the canoe drift. His reflection wavered on the water’s surface, fractured by moonlight, and for a moment, he barely recognized it. The war had torn the boyhood out of him piece by piece and forced him to grow up faster than he ever wanted to. He had lost people he loved, made choices that he sometimes hates himself for, and accomplished things the loud, overconfident boy he used to be would never have imagined himself capable of. Whatever was left staring back at him now wasn’t the same person he’d been when he met her.

Maybe he’d never find the sword. Maybe the ocean had claimed it for good. But he realized that wasn’t the only thing he was hoping the water might give back to him.