Creampuffs

Sokka rolled over in his bed, trying to go back to sleep.  Well technically it wasn't his, but he slept in it for the night so it was his.  The warrior's stomach growled and he concluded that it was time for a midnight snack of some sort.  Sokka soon became conscious of the sounds of the rain from outside.  He yawned and stumbled, nearly falling out of bed.  His stomach growled again as he grabbed a robe and walked to the door leading to the hallway.  Sokka opened the door and began to walk down the chilly hallway.  He veered to the open windows only to be met with a breeze and cold rain.  He quickly jumped out of the way to avoid getting wet.

"Stupid Fire Nation with their stupid cold rain." Sokka grumbled while walking down the hall, holding his grumbling stomach.  "I know stomach, I'm hungry too."

He peeked around the corner to see if anyone was coming.  Once that he decided that the coast was clear he tiptoed into the hall that led to the kitchens.  He quietly walked down the hall that led to the kitchens.  He quietly walked up to the door and pressed his ear against the door to listen for anyone that was still inside.  Once Sokka was sure that no one was inside he pushed open the door only to flinch and have an expression of pain on his face when it made a loud creak.  He pushed it just enough to make an opening that he could squeeze through.  He waited for his eyes to adjust to the light before poking around the kitchens for something to eat.  Shortly after he found an oil lamp and quickly lit it and carried it around so he wouldn't run into anything.  Sokka licked his lips at the thought of a delicious midnight snack or even a meal.

"Good thing about your friend being Fire Lord is that you have unlimited access to the kitchen, right stomach?"  He said to himself.  He rubbed his hands greedily at another thought of food.  "Let's get to raiding the kitchens!"

Sokka hungrily ran up to a cupboard to grab some food.  He moved odds and ends around to find something he found suitable for him to snack on and grabbed it.  After rummaging through the cupboard some more he found some sweets.  He smiled as he bit into a creampuff and decided that it was too cold.  He lit a small fire in the cooking area and put the puff on the end of a long cooking knife and heated it over the fire until it was deemed warm enough.  Sokka took a bite out of it and smiled in triumph.

"I'm a genius."  Sokka said as he heated up more creampuffs.

When Sokka was on his fourth creampuff he heard something at the door.  He quickly put out the cooking fire, put out the lamp, grabbed the rest of the creampuffs, and hid behind the counter area so he couldn't be seen.  Sokka poked his head around the corner slightly to see what it was.  He saw Zuko in his pajamas and a blanket wrapped around him.  Sokka watched quietly as he opened and closed the door quietly and walked into the kitchen.  The young Fire Lord was rummaging through the very same cupboards Sokka looked through earlier as he mumbled about the cold and the lack of something.  Zuko stood up and looked around the kitchen with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Now where is my secret stash of creampuffs?  I put them right there…"  Zuko said to the nothingness around him.  Zuko began walking towards Sokka's hiding place, casually looking for his missing snack.

Sokka gulped as his friend was unknowingly walking towards his hiding spot looking for the remainder of his prize.  Sokka quickly tried stuffing the puffs neatly in the pockets of his robe so there wouldn't be a mess.  Sokka froze when he felt like he was being watched.  He looked slowly behind him as Zuko stood over him with an angry and confused expression on his face.  Sokka scooted to the other end of the counter area while trying to hide the creampuffs.  Zuko quickly walked around behind him to see the rest of his snack.  He walked around Sokka again and sat down in front of him.

"Creampuff?"  Sokka said nervously as he held one out before Zuko could say anything.

Zuko looked at Sokka and then to the creampuff.  He shrugged and took the creampuff as he leaned up against the counter.  Zuko quickly heated up the creampuff and took a bite out of it.  Sokka sighed in relief when he was sure that his friend wasn't going to kill him for taking and eating most of his secret stash.  He then took a creampuff and took a bite out of it and sighed in relief.  The two boys sat in silence for a few moments enjoying their midnight snack.

"It's best eaten when it's warmed up."  Zuko said trying to break the silence.

"Yeah, I already tried that… Sorry about your secret stash."  Sokka said in reply.

Zuko shrugged as he handed a warm creampuff to Sokka.  Sokka gratefully took it and bit into it.  They sat in silence again.  Zuko pulled his blanket tighter around himself as if he was cold.

"I thought it was supposed to be warm here constantly.  This is the Fire Nation of course."  Sokka said in an effort to start a conversation with his sleepy friend.

"Doesn't mean it always is, now does it?"  Zuko replied.  "It's probably warm for you because you live around piles and piles of snow on an iceberg."  He shivered at the thought.

"Yeah, you're right."  Sokka replied.  "But this is a different kind of cold.  It's like this entire place is cold."

"It's always been like that, with this kind of cold.  It's been like this for as long as I can remember actually.  It would be nice and warm under the covers but when you got out, it'd be freezing."  Zuko explained.  "It's probably because this place is so big.  Sometimes in the winter it never gets comfortably warm all over."

Sokka looked at his friend with a look of pity on his face.  "Well at the South Pole it's colder than here.  You know how cold it is.  Well anyways, it's cold.  In our houses if you can call them that, well they aren't the biggest places in the world considering there's no waterbenders besides my crazy sister.  Like I said, you know what they look like, you know, when you invaded my village and stole Aang and all."  Sokka said with a teasing grin on his face.

"Uh, sorry about that."

Sokka looked at Zuko quietly for a few seconds then he burst out laughing.  "Its ok buddy, no harm done except to my spear and watchtower."  Sokka grinned.  "Anyways, in my house there's like two rooms.  One for my dad and Gran Gran and me and one for Katara, but when it got really cold in the winter we'd all sleep in the same room so we'd be warmer.  Well before we went to sleep, dad would always set a small fire and close all the openings except for a hole in the ceiling so it doesn't fill the place with smoke.  Well we'd keep the flap to our room open so the heat would come in."

Zuko looked at Sokka as he explained with a puzzled expression on his face, as if everything Sokka said was other worldly.  Sokka paused and Zuko motioned for him to continue.

Sokka smiled as he continued explaining.  "Yeah, so dad would light a fire and all that.  Well we were all warm and toasty in our blankets from body heat and the fire.  Sometimes it'd get so hot you'd have to kick off the blankets."  Sokka paused and watched as Zuko's eye's widened at the thought of not using any blankets during winter.  "Yep that's right, no blankets.  Well yeah, in the morning sometimes the fire would be nothing but embers but all the trapped heat kept it warm.  When that happened dad would light another fire to keep it warm and then he'd come and wake me and Katara up.  Once we were up and had food in our stomachs, dad would let us do whatever as long as the chores were done and we didn't let a lot of heat out when and if we went outside.  Oh and didn't make Gran Gran mad."  Sokka concluded proudly.

Zuko stared wide eyed at Sokka as he finished his story.  The two sat in silence again for a few moments until Sokka spoke up.

"So, what did your family do when it was cold?"  He asked.

Zuko shrugged and began to speak.  "Well the servants would come and wake you up, sounding all sweet and nice to the point where it got annoying.  At least it annoyed me.  Well I'd get up after trying to stay warm for a little while longer.  Then I'd get ready and have some dinner with my family, without my grandfather of course."  Zuko paused.

"Why without him?"  Sokka asked curiously.

"He really didn't like people."  Zuko paused before he continued.  "Well we'd eat breakfast and then do some firebending training and stuff.  After that, Azula and I had to do a bunch of lessons for a while.  When all that was done we'd go and sit with our parents in front of a fireplace while Uncle told a story of some sort.  We weren't aloud in the warmest room in the entire palace though."

"Why?"

"It was the throne room.  Grandfather didn't like when family was interrupting whatever he was doing, which was always in the throne room.  Well if we were lucky Uncle or my father would request an audience, or even on the off chance that grandfather wanted to see the entire family at once, we'd go in there and it was nice and warm."  Zuko smiled at the thought of the warmth.

Sokka and Zuko sat in silence until it was broken again by Sokka's loud yawn.

"Man am I tired."  Sokka said as he stretched his arms and finished off the last creampuff.  "Well I know we're both gonna sleep in late tomorrow.  Am I right buddy?"

Zuko nodded in agreement as he stood up, wrapping the blanket tighter around him.  "Well good night."

The two friends walked out of the kitchens and down the hallway together until they had to go their separate ways to their rooms.  Zuko walked into his large and unsurprisingly cold room and literally fell onto the bed and covered himself in more blankets to try and get warm.  He soon fell asleep with the thoughts of how people of the Water Tribe kept warm at night.