trans_9 | [closed to Sokka]

"No pepper? They don't even have real meat. What makes you think they'll have pepper?" Sokka quipped as he say down across from Zuko, prodding at his slop with equal lack of enthusiasm.

"I mean, this is getting really tiring. Bet Aang would love this stuff though."

Oh hey, it's that guy. Zuko is not used to the Water Tribe peasants - siblings - treating him with this much familiarity, and this little animosity.

"Why, does he not like pepper?"

"No, he doesn't eat meat!" Sokka scooped up some of the slop and reluctantly dug in, grumbling. This isn't weird to him. He's used to having tea with the guy in Ba Sing Se.

"I kinda wish he was here though. Maybe he could have kept Katara from joining all that stuff that went down the other day. The whole 'yeerk' thing."

Zuko, intent on his ventcrawling, missed all that.

"I was going to ask about that," he says, pausing to take - and swallow - a bite of his slop. The Prince of the Fire Nation has good table manners. "You should know, Aang's here, though. He's just in captivity." Pause. "And no, it's not my doing."

"It was a real messy situation. People shooting at each other with those gun things and there was a bunch of freaky stuff, basically."

Another gulp of the stuff. Soooo unappetizing.

"Yeah, I heard from Katara. And why would I assume you did it? You guys are like, good friends." He's still not used to the whole 'different times' thing, Zuko!

"I mean, you totally went and learned Jerkbending together. You taught him."

"I . . . did?"

He has an idea of what "jerkbending" is, and he'll punch you for it later, Sokka.

"What else did we do?"

"Totally did."

He might deserve it. But it's so worth it.

"Uh, well, you and me busted my dad and Suki out of the Boiling Rock. And you and Katara faced off with Azula. And Aang beat the firelord. How do you not remember this stuff?"

Seriously Zuko, were you dropped on your head?

Zuko stares, taking all this information in, and shakes his head.

"I think . . . somehow, I'm from the past. I never even made it to the Western Air Temple before I was brought here."

"That's like...how is that even possible. This place is so weird."

Seriously weird. Creepy weird, even.

"Any idea where Aang is?"

"Not yet. But I've been looking."

Not to capture him! But, uh, Sokka already seems to be cool with that.

"I have to recheck the lab. I found his bison whistle there, once."

"Huh...he wouldn't leave that thing anywhere if he could help it..."

He scratches his chin, then glances at his slop.

"I kind of lost my appetite. Wanna go check that out again...?"

"If I have to force any more of this slop down, it's not going to stay down. So yeah."

Zuko pushes his tray back, still in the habit of letting the servants get it, and stands up. "Let's go."

Sokka took his tray, intending to drop it off in the waste receptacle.

"Lead the way, Jerk Lord." He smirked.

Zuko frowned. "Don't call me that."

He was humbling himself, but this was a bit much.

"You're always so serious! Calm down. I'm just giving you a hard time. I mean, you're about a million times better than your dad. Or your sister."

So true. Both of them are crazy.

"Yeah. My sister."

Despite all Sokka's teasing to the contrary, Zuko continues to be serious as they walk to the medlab.

"After Aang defeats the Fire Lord . . . what happens to her?"

"Um..." Awkward. It's so weird having a Zuko who doesn't know about all this stuff.

"She's in a hospital for people who are sick in their heads, you know? It's really hard, since she has to be restrained to keep her from just burning the place down..."

Way to kill the mood, Zuko.

What mood? Zuko has only one mood, and that's BROODY.

"And my uncle?"

That's a much nicer subject.

"He opened up his tea shop in Ba Sing Se again. He's pretty happy with that whole thing."

That . . . that brings a smile to Zuko's face.

"That's . . . that's great." He pauses, trying to find the right words - "Thanks."

They're getting closer to the lab, and Zuko's striving for conversation topics now. He looks around a bit, thinking a little.

"And . . . your family is all right?" he asks, as they enter the medlab.

Sokka smiles right along with Zuko. It's a rare occurrence, even after the whole saving the world thing. So it's good to see the guy relax.

"No problem." He adjusted the sheathe for his sword, then looked back at Zuko.

"We're alright. All back together again, which is good."

"Good. That's good."

He doesn't want to ask anything about his mother. Just in case it's either bad news, or because Sokka doesn't know anything -

"We need to try and get deeper in to the lab," he says, as he passes the used equipment.

"Yeah. Yeah it is."

They're guys. That's all that needs to be said, right? He paused once or twice to examine a machine that caught his eye as they moved deeper and deeper.

"How are we supposed to do that? Are there doors back here or something?"

Actually, there are. The lab's been fixed up, so the enclave Zuko found the bison whistle isn't there anymore, but a door is there that wasn't there before, recently opened, where a machine was that's since been shoved out of the way.

It leads to another part of the Special Weapons Division.

"In here."

Zuko ducks through the door, igniting a small flame in his palm to light the way.

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