The Thief |Sokka

ONE

"Ceba, I caught a fish! Look, a fish!"

Ceba let out a small laugh, his smile wide as he fixed her with a fond look. He reached to ruffle her hair.

"Well done, Jaya. I'm so pr-"

The ring from the speakers had her jumping, shaken from her sleep. The rusted door to her cell opened and she turned to follow the movement with her eyes as she breathed in and out in an effort to calm herself down. She raised a hand to her head, closed her eyes. She let out a deep sigh. It was time for their outing in the courtyard. 

She forced herself to stand up, smoothed down any wrinkles in her maroon uniform and ran a hand through her long, dark hair in an effort to smooth it down. She left her cell, followed the rest of the prisoners to the courtyard, acting as nonchalant as she possibly could, trying to act as if her dream hadn't affected her in the slightest. This wasn't a place for pity. It wasn't a place for mistakes. She got outside, shielded her eyes from the sun for a moment as she looked around in search of a specific person. When she found her, she instantly walked over. 

"Stop looking so lost it's depressing," she spoke the moment she was close enough. The girl, perhaps the only other person in the whole prison that was her age, didn't seem amused at her comment.

"Sorry, Jaya, I'll try to be cheerful for you next time."

"Not for me, Suki," she rolled her eyes, sat down on the rock beside her, threw an arm over her shoulders. The act was on. "For you. Once you find the silver lining about being in a prison it gets so much more bearable."

"Yeah?" Suki turned to her with a raised brow. "I'll humour you. What's your silver lining?"

"That I don't need to pay to live! There are no taxes when you are in a prison, they pay for your food and pretty much everything," she shrugged, "also, the riots are funny. And once you've spent as much time in prisons as I have you can make fun of the new guys."

"Really amusing," she shook her head, pushed her arm off of her shoulder. "And I suppose I am one of those new guys you like to make fun of."

"Of course not, you are intelligent," she waved her off. "The other good thing about people here is that you can hear all sorts of stories. Everyone wants to talk about themselves."

"Yeah," Suki pursed her lips. "So I've realised."

"Is that not one of the people who arrived last week?" Jaya asked, bouncing from one subject to the other. She didn't wait for her reply as she called out. "Hey, you with the long hair!" 

A few ways away, a man turned. He looked rather intimidating, although after all these years Jaya knew better than to judge someone just by looking at them. So she ignored the scary-looking scar on his brow and his pursed lips and sent him a wide smile.

"You are new, aren't you?"

He walked closer. "Yeah."

She hummed, "What are you here for?"

"Killed a bunch of Fire Nation soldiers in the Earth Kingdom colonies," he replied, flexed his muscles. 

"A nonbender?"

"Yeah."

She whistled, "And still you killed them. Impressive." She ignored Suki's look as the man smiled.

"What are you here for, kid?"

"Oh, I was originally caught a few years back for stealing," she started, "but I broke free from the prison they put me in somewhere around the first two weeks. I kept on stealing, they caught me, I got in another prison. I've been to all prisons of the Fire Nation, escaped from all of them. This one, though, has put a stopper in my plans. I've been here for almost two months. It's the longest record yet."