Story [Avatar: The Last Airbender] Trading Yesterday (50 sentences, Ursa/Hakoda)

A/N: This was written over a year ago. It was the first type of "tell stories in fifty sentences" thing I'd ever tried writing, but I had a lot of fun with it. It was also the first Ursa/Hakoda I ever wrote. I was planning "Guide Me Home" at the time and I was struggling to figure out who these characters were in my head. So I wrote fifty sentences about the two of them, already together, in the future of the Avatar world. This gave me an idea of the kind of people they were and how I wanted their relationship to turn out. In a way, it was like writing their ending before I wrote their beginning. I drew on some of this for my full-length story, too.

This was written for Miana Kenobi, who first set me onto this pairing. (THANK YOU! )

Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me.

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1: warm

She had been born in a place that was always hot, but she never felt warmer than when she moved to the South Pole to be with him.

2: contradiction

She's gentle and compassionate, and as stubborn as an earthbender, but it's the times he witnesses her sharp tongue or a rare flare of temper that he's reminded she's irrevocably Fire Nation at heart.

3: soft

It's been a long since she had the soft hands of nobility; years of hard work put calluses on her fingers but she doesn't care, because she has discovered the pleasures of a hardworking life-and a life with a man whose hands are just as callused as hers.

4: resolution

When she goes to see Ozai in prison to try to make peace?if not with him, then with herself?Hakoda waits for her right outside the prison and hopes this will make some of her nightmares go away.

5: dangerous

The first time he takes her ice dodging, she watches the icebergs whipping past with a mix of fear and exhilaration, realizing that it wouldn't take very much to send their boat smashing into one.

6: safe

She lies in his arms and listens to his slow, steady breathing, and does not remember the last time she ever felt so safe.

7: jewelry

The betrothal necklace he carves for her is the most beautiful and precious piece of jewelry she has ever owned, and she loves the way his eyes fill with such light when she accepts it.

8: market

There are some things she misses living at the South Pole?green grass, temperatures above freezing, and for reasons she doesn't quite know how to explain to Hakoda, the bustle, smells, and excitement of the markets she grew so used to during her years in the Earth Kingdom.

9: silk

She trades her silks for the warm furs of the Water Tribe, but sometimes it's hard to feel attractive while wearing the bulky skins of dead animals.

10: blanket

He always tells her she looks fantastic no matter what she's wearing, and in fact, he might prefer it if she decides not to wear anything and just climbs under the blankets with him.

11: lock

There are some disadvantages to not having proper doors on the igloos and tents of the Water Tribe?such as her stepson deciding on a surprise visit and bursting through the doors without warning?and isn't sure whether to laugh or be mortified when she hears Suki's voice from outside say, "I told you not to just run in there; don't you remember what we were like when we didn't have kids to worry about?"

12: corner

She can talk him into a corner and he never quite knows how he got there, but really, she grew up in a court full of politics, so what else was expected?

13: beautiful

He doesn't have to tell her he thinks she's beautiful, because she sees it in his eyes every time he looks at her, but he tells her anyway.

14: cook

He comes in to find smoke filling the igloo, the source of it his very irritated wife stabbing a spoon into a pot of burning sea prunes, and he puts his arms around her, kissing her temple with a cheerful, "I think they're done."

15: anger

There occurs a rare flare of temper which involves her wishing curses on her pot and on all sea prunes and waving a not-so-threatening

 

This is really cute! I've never seen this style before, but I think that it makes a nice way to show snippets of thei lives together.