Shorts

After saying her goodbyes to Soo, which brought tears to her eye, she loaded herself onto the ship. Elodie honestly didn't know why she had been feeling the urge to cry for the past couple of days. It was very unlike her to be so emotional. Well, she only got this emotional one time a month- oh crap-a-doodle. It suddenly hit her why she was moody. She was definitely PMSing and was probably about to start her time of the month. Her stomach dropped at the thought because she had nothing that she needed for the dreaded event. She was about to run back to the sanctuary to see if anyone there had the products she needed, but the ship had already started to leave.

Petak, who was walking beside her, saw her face and asked, "Did you leave something?" She nodded, "Yeah. I mean, kind of. Do you think its too late to turn back?" Petak nodded with a guilty look on his face, "Yeah. Unless it's really important. I'm sorry." Elodie gave him a reassuring smile, "Don't worry about it. It's my fault for not thinking about it." She pat his arm before saying, "I'm gonna see if Zokkik needs help. I'll see ya later." He waved goodbye before Elodie headed toward Zokkik's room to help him put everything away.

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It took Elodie and Zokkik until the middle of the afternoon to correctly label, count, and put all the items he acquired from the Sanctuary away. They took small breaks ever so often and ate lunch in his room. There was a knock on the door about an hour after they had finished putting everything up. Elodie was chilling on her bed, reading a book that she had already read several times. After Zokkik told the visitors to come in, Elodie joked, "I think I'm going to be an expert on medicinal plants by the time I'm off this ship." Zokkik shook his head at her as the visitors, who just so happened to be Hakoda and Bato walked in.

Elodie sat up on the bed as Zokkik greeted the two, "Chief. Bato." They greeted him back and Bato explained, "I'm here for my treatment." The tallest man in the room side-eyed Elodie and she cleared her throat, "I'll leave y'all to it. I think I need to walk around some." She stood up and Hakoda said, "I actually have something for you in my office. It's from Soo." Elodie nodded and successfully, but barely, stop a blush from climbing up onto her face, "Ok." As the Elodie and Hakoda left the room, Elodie mentally scolded herself, 'Why are you blushing, you dork? Y'all agreed nothing is going to happen again.'

They soon reach Hakoda's office and Hakoda let Elodie in the room first. She quietly thanked him as she entered and stood in front of her desk with her hands clasped in front of her. He walked in as well, not shutting the door. The air around them was so awkward as he looked around for Soo's package for her. She tried to break the silence, "So, um, I didn't know that you had kids." Hakoda looked up at her for a second before searching again, "Yes. Sokka is my eldest and he's 16. And, Katara's 14." She nodded calmly, but inside she was freaking out. She made out with a man whose children were closer to her age than she was to his!

In this midst of her slight mental break-down, Hakoda finally found the package, "Here it is. It must have been moved on accident." Elodie took it from him, "Thanks." She was about to jet out of that awkward situation before Hakoda cleared his throat, "There's actually one more thing, Elodie. It's about your, um... your pants." She looked down at her shorts, "What is it? Is there a hole in these? I thought I got a good pair." He scratched the back of his neck, "No. There's not a hole. It's just that they are very... short." Elodie froze and she looked up at Hakoda with an unhappy expression on her face, "What?" Hakoda gulped slightly, "Well, they are pretty short and some of the men-" Elodie cut him off, "They are not that short! They hit the middle of my thigh." Hakoda sighed, "Look. It just that those are very short for where we are from and-" She cut him off again, "So what? People can get over it. I'm not going to wear longer pants because some of the men are offended by it or can't control themselves!"

Hakoda started to get mad, "Dammit Elodie! Don't you see how the younger men look at you! I- you shouldn't-" He tried to stop himself before he said something stupid, but it was too late. Elodie narrowed her eyes at him, "I don't believe it. It's not the men on the ship, it's you! You don't want them to be attracted to me!" She was fuming, "Just because we had that thing last night doesn't mean that you have any power over me or anything I do! Hell, even if we were together you still wouldn't!" Hakoda's face fell a bit and he plopped onto his chair, "You are right. I'm sorry Elodie. I don't know what came over me." Elodie's anger left her, "It's fine. But don't you ever try to do that to me again." He nodded and Elodie couldn't help but giggle.

Hakoda looked at her with a questioning look on his face, "Why are you laughing?" She grinned, "You look like a little boy pouting like your mother just got on to you." He made a face, "I do not." She teased, "Yes you do!" This went on a couple more times before Hakoda got up and made his way over to her, "I do not." She bit her lip before throwing all of her logic out of the window, "Then show me." Hakoda grinned before walking closer and closer to Elodie, making her walk backwards towards the open door. He reached past her to shut it and her back soon met with the door. He finally spoke, "I'd thought you'd never ask."

In seconds, his lips were against hers and a repeat of the night before started. Hakoda was a muscular, tough, and strong man, so you would think that would carry over into the romantic side of him. However, he was actually very gentle and it took him a while to get wild. Elodie on the other hand was a bit rougher with showing affection. For their past two rendezvous, Elodie was the one that tried to speed everything up. However, Hakoda just took his time and enjoyed the moment. It annoyed Elodie, so that's probably why he went extra slow and gentle. He thought she was so cute when she was irritated.

Their little session went on for only five minutes because a knock at the door caused them to separate and stand on the opposite sides of the room. A voice projected from the other side of the door, "We need you on the deck, chief." Hakoda cleared his throat, "Ok. I will be there soon." Once they heard footsteps walking away, Elodie and Hakoda looked at each other and said at the same time, "This was the last time."

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