alwaysroomforhope | (no subject)

The building would go a lot quicker if there were two people working on it. But maybe, Steph eventually realises, once her anger has subsided enough for her to think in as close to a straight line as she ever gets, it isn't the end result that's important.

She can't sit still for too long in this weather. They'll have to move at least some of the gear from the hide tent into the igloo, whatever they're going to need to weather out a storm, Steph guesses. Lamps. Clothing. As much food as theyv'e got. Not hunting gear and none of the drying racks. Probably flooring of some kind. She has no idea what the floor of an igloo consists of - just ice? Definitely the sleeping roll and as many of the other furs as possible, then.

Tea. Definitely tea.

Rope, because they'll need to be able to find their way to the lat and back, and Steph has some recent and painful experience with white-out storms. Her pack, because there's still a handful of dried food supplements and a thermal blanket, which might be useful.

She tidies everything, folds sealskins over the equipment that they won't need in the igloo, moves what they will need into the centre of the tent in preparation for carrying it over.

And then when she's done, quiet and calm - at least on the surface - she makes tea again, and kneels down by the fire to wait, resisting the urge to go to him.

(she has no idea what she's doing, no idea how to fix anything. but she has to try.)

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"You never know," she says, grinning, and links her free arm through his to drag him over to the igloo, through the first flurries of snow. It's light and soft and the first few flakes stick to the outside of their parkas, but they melt on Sokka's face, and Steph wants to kiss them off for the first time since arriving.

Things are okay again.

"It might be your only form of self-defence. Hey, this thing is way warmer than I thought - awesome!"

Sokka gives her a very light, very loving shove into the igloo, smirking behind her.

Then kneels to peer in at her and grin.

"That's part of why it's so small. The friction of the ice keeps it warm by itself. Add in body heat and there's a chance we'll get too hot, without even making a fire."

Body heat. Steph's smile suddenly has an added element to it. She reaches out to grab his hands and yank him in as well.

"Yeah? What about other kinds of fire?"

Seven months is a long time. And he's still her favourite person in the entire world.
"I mean, after I bring you up to date on the farm and the girls. Up to, like, a month ago when I left, anyway."

Sokka is adding in even more body heat. Just from the face.

Dragged in and suddenly very close and almost-not-quite-horizontal with her, Sokka hesitates and keeps hold of her hands. Seven months is a long time, but so is four when you're a teenager - or in your early twenties.

He... hesitates, fingers linked with hers.

"...so what was happening when you left?"

Steph wraps her mittened fingers around his, wriggling back to lie on the snow, not quite touching except for hands. Just ... close, and happy with that.

"Mel and I fought a herd of enormous beast things," she recalls. It was nearly four months ago that she left the farm, in her time. She frowns a little, because they'd killed a lot of them. "Pretty gory. Oh!"

Dismay, outright.

"And they crushed my bike!"

She loved that motorbike.

Sokka frowns a little, concerned especially for 'gory.' But it's the exclamation that really gets him, sitting up a little in the snow, brows drawn and worried and--

Actually looking just as dismayed.

"What?! Your bike?! The purple one?"

He helped tune that motorbike!

"I know!" Steph exclaims, scowling at the absent monsters, grumpy as anything. "And all the work you put into it, and me, and you even painted it for me! Ohhh, I was not happy."

She folds her arms, lying back in the snow, glaring at the ceiling - and then laughs at herself. "Mel and I rode the monsters for, like, a hundred miles, and then we had to walk back. It took us a day and a half. That day sucked."

Sokka continues frowning, grumpy and irritable because, damn it, he liked that bike for Steph and she liked it, too, and they'd worked together to get it running so well, and maybe he can just build her a new one when they get back, yeah, he'll grab a Honda chassis with a Harley engine and some dirt biking tires and he'll...

...he'll think, for the first time in four months, about technology more high-class than a knife made out of stone used for carving.

Smile slow and thoughtful now, Sokka reaches over to tuck blonde hair behind Steph's ear. "You guys probably had the time of your lives," he points out, amused. "Sounds like something you'd both do by choice."

Steph wrinkles her nose ... and grins just a little, especially with his hand at her face. "The camping was fun," she admits. "I don't know about all those monsters."

It was fun at the time, but ... Steph thinks she was probably a little bit crazy at the time.

"I like them best when they stay away from the farm and we go to them. Plus, Hana and Loo were super grumpy that we missed storytime. Iroh had to tell them the catper book about fifty times before they'd sleep, apparently."

Which is funny again.

"They still haven't burned that book? I'm not sure if I want to go back."

At this point, Sokka would probably read the catper book fifty thousand times, just to get his family to forgive him.

Steph laughs, but it dies quick. She reaches up to touch his cheek, a bit aimlessly, a bit just wanting to touch, to reassure herself he's here. If only for now.

"... do you? Want to go back? I mean, it's been so long..."

He blinks at her touch, then looks away for a moment. They're lying on their sides in snow and fur, close but not touching save for the hand on his cheek.

"...I think if I don't go now, when you're here to make me, I might never go back," he admits quietly. "Mel... she's really angry with me. I don't know if she needs me, I don't know if anyone's better off if I'm there... but if she's mad enough to say... things, then she at least wants me there. Maybe... maybe that's enough for now."

Steph brushes her thumb against his nose gently.

"... everyone wants you back," she says, and grins suddenly, relief and delight. "Mel's angry, the girls are lonely, even Spots wants you back. And I don't think Mel knows how much she needs you either, but I know - she does. You don't stop needing family just 'cause you're mad at them."

"And I need you, too.

"... and I need you alive, so we should drag the supplies in here before I sit you down and tell you just how much."