The Sake of Hope

The sun was setting and there was a small chill in the air. All night at supper Zuko stared at Sake, constantly wondering what it was she wanted to show him. Minutes seemed like hours and they passed slowly, the sun seeming to stay in the same spot of the sky all night. Finally, without laying a finger on his food, people started to leave the table, and Zuko was alone with Sake.
She continued to eat in peace, finishing her pie properly and with lady-like manners, as if there was no time in the world. It drove Zuko crazy, and he knew she was doing it to bother him. Finally, she took her last bite.
“Ok, so what is it you want to show me?” he futilely masked his anxiousness. Sake looked up at him as if it was the first time she’d ever laid eyes on him.
“Calm down. It’s better to go when it’s getting dark anyway,” and she grinned as she got up from the table.
“Go? Go where?” Zuko called to her, getting up to follow her back upstairs.
Once he reached her doorway, she was half out her window already, stepping onto a broad tree branch.
“Sake! What are you doing?”
“O c’mon it’s perfectly safe, I do it all the time. No reason to be afraid,” and she looked away from him, hopping down to lower branches.
“I’m not afraid,” he grumbled, grabbing the window sill and boosting himself onto the first branch. She laughed a little as she hopped to the ground, knowing that what she said would bother him.
Finally, Zuko hopped down next to her, and she wasted no time in walking around to the back of the house and into the woods. At first, Zuko was leery to where she was leading him, but something in him told him that he didn’t have to worry. It was called trust… but he didn’t know that.
Traveling directly West, the sun was bright in their eyes, but usually didn’t bother them. Trees blocked it sufficiently and the trees here were thick. The ground was treacherous, untouched and unused. Zuko kept his eyes to the ground to avoid random rocks and roots. Sake, however, glided along ahead of him, stopping only to check behind her to make sure Lee wasn’t on the ground in a hole somewhere.
With his eyes to the ground, Zuko didn’t look ahead, and was completely shocked when the full sun hit him in the face. He held up his hand to shade his eyes a bit, and to let him get his bearings. He felt something tug at his hand and he looked down to the source. Sake sat cross-legged on the ground beside him.
“Come down here, the sun isn’t so bad. The trees on the horizon will block it.”
He did as she said, and immediately the sun subsided. It wasn’t that he minded the sun, in fact, the sun here pumped him full of strength and he could feel his finger tips tingling. He sat to gain some control over his fire bending, or lack-there-of.
For a second, he sat, not peeling his eyes from the sun and it’s new horizon. Then, he looked over at her and she sat, smiling, looking straight at him.
“What? Why’d you bring me here?” and instead of frowning at his sharp tone, she continued to smile.
“This is my place. I come here all the time. Can’t you feel the… serenity… the energy?”
Oh… he could feel energy, but he thought it best to not tell her exactly what kind.
“It… It’s nice,” was all he could say.
Sake watched him, stared at him, as he looked forward, towards the horizon, towards the trees, and the water, and everything that moved. He looked to her like a sponge, soaking up everything with his eyes, not missing a thing. It fascinated her because it was what she did when she came here. The sickly, bored look left his face and left his eyes and he was truly blissful.
A few minutes passed as they both sat in silence, looking about themselves, breathing.
“So, is this what you wanted to show me?” Zuko asked. Sake looked at him and frowned. “I… I mean, I like it, but is this it? I was just wondering.”
“Well…” Sake hesitated, then stood up. “Come here,” she said, and walked toward a patch of bushes a little ways from where they were sitting. Zuko got up and followed, intrigued. They were tall, flimsy bushes, thick, but easy to move, and they seemed to form a small tower. As if there was a space in between the circle they formed.
“I brought you here, Lee, because I… I trust you. I mean… well… here,” and she pulled back and handful of branches to reveal what was on the other side.
Anyone, including Zuko, would have lost their breath at the beautiful sight on the other side.
The very ground Zuko stepped on was a beautiful work of art- quite literally. In fact, the whole space was art, including where Sake stood. On the surface of the earth lay carvings and pictures and maps of intricate detail. Each one was different- some were flowers, some people. All of them lay attached to the ground, completely carved into the earth. There was one huge one, it was a tree, and other small ones that lay around it. Zuko felt one with his fingertips, to make sure it was real.
“How did- did you…” but he couldn’t say anything.
Sake watched him, mesmerized by the ground. She smirked a little.
“I do them in my free time. I used to come out here, and just sit. But… I don’t know, I would get so inspired, I wanted to express it. So I hid them back here.”
After a few seconds, Zuko finally looked up at her.
“Why hide them? They’re… beautiful. I mean, people would pay a lot for them. Why keep them back here?”
Sake looked away and picked at the hem of her robe.
“Well… I don’t really want people to see them… to find them…”
“That’s pointless, Sake. They’re amazing. Like… these details… How did you do it? What did you use?”
Sake didn’t answer for a long time, forcing Zuko to look up at her.
“Sake?”
When she looked at him now, her eyes were sad. They were also afraid at the same time. Zuko didn’t understand, and couldn’t imagine what he would piece together.
“Lee… people… can’t find them… I- the tools-” Zuko stood from where he was kneeling immediately and cut her off.
“You’re an earthbender,” he said with more force than he meant to. If he were still “Prince Zuko” he wouldn’t have cared how he had just acted, but he was “Lee”- an Earth Kingdom refugee. He had never been to the Fire Nation, never ridden a Fire Navy Ship, never worn Fire Navy Armor…
Sake’s eyes grew wide at his sudden outburst, and fear crowed her heart. Suddenly, she regretted this whole thing and started to even wonder why she had trusted him this far.
“Lee- you won’t tell anyone, will you?”
Zuko thought about it, still standing, still staring at her, almost menacingly.
“It’s illegal,” was all he got out.
Sake was calmed a little at him not immediately running off to police. She turned away from him and sat down with her knees up, her arms on them, and her chin on her arms.
“I know, Lee. Don’t think I’m not aware.”
“Well… I could tell someone…” but he hesitated, and Sake felt it.
She turned to look at him, and was confused by his expression. It was pained, as if something about this confused him. He was fighting a great internal battle right now, and she was going to use it to her advantage… but even then, she wondered about him.
“… but you’re not going to,” she said softly, and he glared down at her.
“Don’t tell me what I will and won’t do!” and he clenched his fists and started to turn around.
“WELL FINE!” and with no sound at all, Sake put her hand to the ground and every last trace of her work was diminished. Zuko felt nothing, but at her outburst, wondered what she meant. It was apparent to him when a single cloud of dust wafted over his shoulder. When he turned and saw the bare ground, it hurt more than he thought it would.
“I- you- what…… they’re gone.”
“Obviously,” Sake replied, and it was muffled because her chin was back on her arms.
“But… they’re gone- I mean… you just got rid of them?” and this time it was Sake to stand and clench her fists.
“Well of course I got rid of them! You were going to report me- I couldn’t just leave the evidence! But now that they’re gone, go on- go tell- go collect your reward. Just don’t forget you live with me now- you have to see me every day. And don’t think that I will ever show you one ounce of respect ever again!”
Zuko didn’t reply, but he might have- had it not been for the tears in her eyes now. Of course, she turned away from him.
“I could never be taken away from them, Lee. They need me. You think Aunt Jun would make it alone? Don’t get me wrong… I’m only saying she needs help, and I help her. I… I feel sorry for her… So, this will just have to stay the way it is, and I’ll have to stop bending. I’ll just wait- until you’re gone!”
And still, Zuko stood. The conflict inside of him was overwhelming. He shouldn’t feel this way. These were peasants… she broke the law… with the extra reward money for turning her in he and his uncle could leave… but why was this fair? And since when did he worry about fairness? And why exactly hadn’t he thought about that before? None of this was fair… but… the Fire Nation… his father…
“I feel sorry for you, not your aunt,” he said, breaking the hard silence. “I feel sorry that you have to spend every day living your life as a peasant, serving peasants like yourself. And that you keep denying an inevitable fate, keep hoping that the Fire Nation lose this war. Well guess what- they’re not. They’re going to win, and they’re going to win soon,” and he said more than he should have.
Sake didn’t think anything he had to say would be worth listening to, but she was proven wrong. She didn’t bother to wipe the tears off of her cheeks or brush the strand of hair that flew in her face in her moment of fury. She could only watch him speak, and speak undeniably truly.
“You’re horrible.”
To Zuko, experiencing the horrible conflict within him was terrible enough, but to see her face now, to hear her words, and know it was he who had inspired them, knocked the wind out of him. The pain he felt was nothing compared to knowing he’d hurt her, and this drove him insane, in good ways and bad ways.