Polar Opposites

* :( Fights

Hakoda was in the commanding office of the ship with his son, Bato, and some of the older men, them going over the plans for their invasion on the Fire Nation. The air was rather tense and uncomfortable between Hakoda and Sokka, which absolutely killed Hakoda. He and Sokka had always been close, so Sokka practically avoiding him hurt (even though he knew that he was the one that caused it). So, he was surprised when Sokka had asked to speak to Hakoda privately when their meeting was finished.

Once all the men in the room had left, there was a deafening silence between the father and son. Hakoda cleared his throat and asked in a fatherly tone, "So, what were you wanting to talk about, son?" Hakoda obviously knew what Sokka wanted to talk about, but he was sort of hoping that he was wrong. Sokka scratched the back of his neck and questioned awkwardly, "So Elodie... Do you really love her or have you just been lonely, dad?" Hakoda's face softened and he nodded, "Yes, Sokka. I really do love Elodie and it is my intent to hopefully marry her after the war ends." A shocked, "What," was heard by the men. Katara was standing in the doorway, tears in her eyes and teeth clenched. She gripped her hands into balls as she glared at her father, "Y-You want to marry her?! You can't! Wh-What about mom? And she's not even from here!" He walked over to Katara and placed a hand on her shoulder, "No one will ever replace your mother, Katara. Just because I love Elodie and want to be with her does not mean that I do not love your mother anymore. She will always be special to me and Elodie understands that." Hakoda's voice was filled with emotion as Katara pushed his hand off her shoulder and walked away without saying another word.

Hakoda sighed and flopped into a chair, resting his face in his hand. Sokka's voice made him look up, honestly forgetting he was there for a second, "Is that true? What you said to Katara?" Hakoda nodded, "Yes. All of it was true." Sokka was quiet for a good minute before looking up at his dad, "I'm ok with it." Hakoda, making sure he was hearing correcting, asked, "What do you mean?" Sokka made eye contact with his dad, "I'm ok with you and Elodie... being together. I know she makes you happy and I liked her before, so I guess I give y'all my blessing." Hakoda smiled and gave Sokka a good pat on the shoulder, "Thank you, Sokka. You don't know how much that means to me and Elodie." Sokka smiled weakly at his dad, "I'm just glad that you're happy."

Their touching moment was ruined by loud yelling and a bunch of movement on the deck. The father and son gave each other a panicked look, were they being attacked? They practically sprinted to the deck to find... Elodie fighting with Petak? The crew had formed a circle around an out-of-breath Elodie and calm-looking Petak slowly pacing around each other. Hakoda rushed to the crowd and was about to go knock some sense into Petak when Bato's hand held him back, "Calm down Hakoda. He's been teaching her some self-defense techniques and he's testing them out right now."

For being such a quiet and reserved being, Petak was one of the best fighters in the crew, if not the best in hand-to-hand combat. And he was a tough teacher. Hakoda had been noticing some bruises on Elodie, but she had just told him that she was bumping into things and that she bruised easily. Elodie narrowly dodged a rather fast and hard punch from Petak. He coached her, "Your small and fast Elodie, don't get sluggish because you're getting tired." She scowled as he kept on going after her, but it was true. She was becoming tired from constantly dodging, but she couldn't find the right time to attack. She was caught off guard when Petak kicked one of her legs out from under her and elbowed her hard enough for her to end up onto the metal floor. She winced from the impact and Hakoda clenched his jaw, wanting nothing more than to run out there and pummel Petak for her, but Bato was still holding him back. Petak grinned, "Better luck next time Elodie. But that was bett- Ah!" While he had been busy gloating, Elodie kicked his legs out from under him and got him in a position that he couldn't move in. She smiled widely, "You were saying?" The men cheered loudly as she got up from Petak and raised her arms victoriously.