[Rewriting) Keeping the fire close [Zuko × Sokka]

No Rest

After all of the soldiers to be finished their 30 laps around the ship, Prince Zuko told them to go the training room and wait for him and some of his soldiers so they could all train together. Of course the trainees would get their asses handed to them, massively. But if they didn't do their training then they were to suffer by Zuko's fire whip, so it was either fight with swords and get burned while getting sliced up, or get twenty lashings from a hateful prince who wouldn't stop until they passed out. All the little boys followed Sokka's example and picked up swords, getting in a fighting stance, but it could also be summed up as a volley ball stance, waiting for the ball to head your way, hands together at the hilt of the sword, knees bent while bending forward slightly, waiting for the fire nation soldiers to attack them. While in this position Sokka felt empowered, he felt his heart beating quickly, every option was running through his head, he could try and take on Zuko, end up failing and get another taste of the fire whip, he could stay and practice with the rest of the soldiers to be, he could try and run away from this situation, get caught and be slaughtered. There was really no way out. He sighed and gripped the hilt of his sword tighter, in real situations he and the boys knew that swords wouldn't help that at all, but they didn't have anything else to defend themselves, they weren't benders, Sokka's club and boomerang were taken from him and he barely knew to fight on his own. Sure he knew the basic ways to evade and how to break someone's nose, how to get out of a chokehold but that was all.

Zuko held his hands behind his back and looked at both sides, young boys who were going to be trained and worked into submission, and soldiers who were once where those little boys were standing. He smirked a little bit at the thought of turning little children into his minions, wondering how many of them would beg for their lives for the first two years of being on the ship, who would break the fastest and who would cry the loudest. "Now, today you'll be using your swords young soldiers, to try and 'kill' my men, pretend that they are friends of the Avatar, that they are out to end you and all of your companions." He spoke loudly, looking to all the prepubescent sons. Glaring at each and every one of them, his eyes landing and staying on Sokka. For a moment their eyes locked onto each other, almost as if the water tribe warrior was trying to non verbally challenge the prince who could easily end his life, kick him off the boat and torture him however he wanted.

However Sokka took his eyes from Zuko's and looked ahead of him at the fire nation soldiers who were tightening their armor to make sure that they actually didn't get impaled or fatally damaged. "Begin!" Zuko shouted and stepped back, watching at the two sides ran at each other, uselessly screaming at each other, mostly doing this to display anger or dissatisfaction with their situation. While the shoulders were swinging their arms at the beyond pissed children, who saw the soldiers as the young prince himself, angrily swinging their swords, trying to land any possible blow they could that would be considered a kill. Young and old the soldiers took swings, blows, jabs, and even punches at each other, most of the children under the age of 10 had been beaten earlier on when practice was first permitted to start. Sokka was doing well, he got knocked back a couple times, and even got punched in the face aswell as his sides and gut, but he was determined to beat the vision of Zuko he saw, which was really just a random soldier who had been through the same thing as the water tribe warrior.

It had been almost an hour and Sokka finally gave up, he dropped his sword and fell backwards onto his ass when the soldier delivered one last blow to his gut. He was covered in sweat, burns, and was even bleeding from the nose, he looked around tiredly, dehydrated and exhausted from doing nothing but being a punching bag. He was the last to go down, and felt some pride in being the last one standing "congratulations" Zuko's clapping echoed through the empty and large room that was  filled with nothing but small panting children.