Free (Sokka x Reader)

Chapter 25- Proud and Consent

Sokka, Zuko and I walked into mom's house. It was a nice small house with some water tribe decor in it.

"Come sit down on the sofa, i'll make some tea." She said to the three of us.

I sat in the middle of the couch with Sokka and Zuko on either side of me. My leg bounced up and down out of anticipation.

"It'll be okay, just calm down." Sokka whispered in my ear, putting his hand on my thigh.

Mom came back and poured us some tea, she sat on the chair that was right across from us and crossed her legs.

"So...where did you go?" She asked me. She smiled and leaned forward, I could tell that she really misses me.

"Well...It's a long story but i'll try to make it quick. Basically dad burned my throat, ruining my vocal chords, I ran away to the northern water tribe, got adopted by the royal family. Met a wonderful person named Yue, she was my step sister and she taught me sign language so I couldn't talk. The avatar and his friends came along, I met Sokka, he had a thing with Yue, and then we traveled around the world since then. Oh yeah and he's my boyfriend now." I took his hand and squeezed it.

"Wow, that was a lot to take in. Nice to meet you Sokka, I'm Esca. And how did you become friends with the Prince?"

"He turned good and taught Aang Firebending." I laughed. Zuko didn't really say anything.

"Oh I forgot to tell you." I started off, "I'm a really good water bender. I can bend vines, predict what the other person is about to do, blood bend, create ice straight from my hands-"

"Wait you can do what?" She interrupted me.

"Create ice out of my hands?"

"No the one before that, did you say you could blood bend? What's that?" She took a sip from her tea.

"Oh right...I learned how to control the water in people's blood and control them. I'm not very good at it though."

"You created that?" She shockingly said.

"Well no, a crazy old woman was technically the first but I didn't know about until recently. But I'm the first to do it without a full moon."

Mom leaned back in her chair and frowned.

"What's wrong?" I stood up.

"I don't know what to think, you're a very powerful water bender just by hearing the things you're telling me but I'm also afraid that Zhao got to you."

"The Avatar sent him to the spiritual world, so I'm fine." I sat back down, my leg bounced up and down again.

"I know but...Zhao only wanted you so he could use you as a weapon, to be honest I never wanted you to be a powerful water bender just to despite him."

So she's not proud of me.

"Yeah..I understand." My voice got quieter. Sokka squeezed my hand, while Zuko put his hand on my shoulder. "So mom...where did you go?" Now it was my turn to get answers.

"When Zhao burned my cheek I ran away and wrote a letter to him, saying that I wanted you to come with me. A couple of days later I came back and saw that you were gone. I was devastated and left again. I asked about you to everybody but they all said they didn't know where you went. Some said that you had a handprint scar on your neck and couldn't speak. After a couple of months I gave up looking for you. I'm so sorry that I couldn't protect you." She broke down in tears. I got up and walked over to her and rubbed her back.

"It's okay, I'm not mad."

She stood up and looked over at the two boys and then back at me. She took ahold of both of my hands.