A/N: Decided to give Aang and Toph a break and give Sokka some spotlight
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or the characters
Sleepy Sokka
To Sokka, sleep was very important. Right next to meat. And his boomerang, and his sword and... okay, maybe it didn't take much for something to get on his list of 'all-important and very much needed' but he still very much maintained the fact that sleep was very important to him. Therefore, he always ventured to get at the very least an appropriate amount of sleep. Which was what he was trying to do now.
It was already late in the morning, but Sokka was still in his sleeping bag, snoring loudly.
"Sokka, get up!" Katara practically yelled.
"Just five more minutes, Gran-gran..."
Katara's eye twitched. Did she even look or sound anything close to being a grandmother? A few seconds later, Sokka was up, screaming. Or trying to scream at least.
"Mmph!" He was doing his best trying to pull off the layer of ice that sealed both his mouth and nose.
"Good, you're finally up," she said, turning her back on him. "I need you to go run a few errands. Zuko and Toph are busy training Aang and I've still got some cooking to do."
Sokka was close to fainting on the spot when Katara finally allowed the ice to melt. "That was unnecessary, you know. And where'd you get the water?" he asked, seeing that her water pouch was nowhere in sight.
"You were drooling enough," she said with a tone of disgust. "Which reminds me, wash your sleeping bag would you? The stink is really starting to get to everyone."
"Then why don't you wash it? I'm not bothered."
"That's because you and that sleeping bag share the same stench. And trust me, if you weren't immune to your own stench, you wouldn't be able to eat as much as you do."
Sokka put on an offended face but decided that arguing with a master waterbender wasn't a good idea. "So? What do you need me to do?"
"I need you to gather food and firewood. Make sure you're back before midday." She walked away, busy with many other things.
As soon as she was out of sight, he looked at his sleeping bag with longing. "Maybe just a few more minutes." He pulled himself back into it and relaxed in the drool-moistened cushion. He yawned wide and took a sniff before closing his eyes.
"Dunno what they're talking about, smells fine to me..."
--
His few more minutes ended up being a few more hours. Midday was soon approaching and he was still snoring peacefully. Unfortunately for him, Aang had another idea. Smirking, he crouched at the foot of Sokka's sleeping bag and snapped his fingers, sparks coming forth.
Sokka started fidgeting. It was getting kinda hot. Really hot. It was only when he could smell burning fabric when his eyes snapped open. Screaming a girlish scream, he jumped out of his sleeping bag and stomped the fire out. He looked over at Aang who was doubling over in laughter.
"Aang. Buddy. Seriously not funny."
"Actually, it really was. I didn't know screams could go that high."
"You've been hanging around Toph too much."
The monk shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Anyway, shouldn't you be gathering food and firewood? Don't tell me you're already done."
"No worries, I just dozed off a few minutes. I've still got plenty of time," Sokka said, stretching out his still sleepy muscles.
"Sokka, there's only a few minutes left till midday."
"Oh..." Silence passed between them. Sokka was still evidently sleepy, the gravity of the situation still hadn't gotten to him. Katara would turn him into a popsicle for simply ignoring her.
"You know what? Let me give you a hand," Aang said airily. Before he knew it, Sokka was blown out of the Western Air Temple up to the nearby forest, his screams echoing in the air.
"Toph was right, this is fun."
--
Sokka did try to get around to the chores Katara had given him, but he was still feeling pretty lethargic. Once or twice he had clumsily stumbled into a bunch of thorny bushes.
"That's gotta hurt." He looked up to see Zuko, who was carrying a bunch of dry wood under one arm.
"Hey Zuko."
"Where have you been? Because of you, I had to go run your errands."
"Oh, you know, I've been busy with impotant stuff."
Zuko's shoulders sagged. "You were just sleeping, weren't you?"
"Hey! Sleeping's important!"
"Not when Katara's gonna freeze your butt shut for ignoring chores she gave you." Sokka shuddered at the idea. "Anyway," he continued, "you should probably hide out for awhile until Katara cools off."
"Aww, but the meat's back at camp!"
"So you'd rather get your butt frozen than hide, as long as you get your meat?" Zuko asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Okay, okay, hiding wins," he consented. "But only by just a bit."
"I'm glad you have some common sense. All of us are going to try and calm her down for now."
Zuko left through the bushes and made his way back to the Air Temple. Sokka on the other hand, knowing Katara wouldn't go easy on him even if he did return with an armful of logs and food, abandoned his chores.
"I just wanna sleep," he grumbled.
--
And sleep he did. Figuring that it was best to hide himself unless he wanted his long nap to be interrupted, he had climbed up one of the trees and slept in it. As he would say, it takes a true master to be able to sleep anywhere at all. However, his sleep didn't last long, as he was knocked screaming out of the tree by a flying boulder.
"Toph!"
"Twinkle toes was right," she laughed. "You do scream like a girl."
"Hmph! I happen to think that my scream is very manly," he huffed. "Anyway, how did you find me? I wasn't anywhere near the ground."
"There was this funky odor that I could smell from a mile away. Had to be you," she said simply.
"Hey! It's the smell of men!"
"So hog-monkeys are men too? And platypus-bear poop? And-"
"Okay, okay!" Sokka huffed again. Being bullied by a little blind girl was seriously not manly, and she could do it both verbally and physically. "And? You were looking for me?"
"Yep. Sugar Queen's calmed down already, so its safe for you to come back."
"Alright, let's head back." He dusted himself off a bit and started walking toward the Western Air Temple with Toph. And wouldn't you believe it, he was still sleepy, blundering along the forest path.
"You know what Snoozles? Let me give you a hand." Recognizing the words used on him earlier, terror flashed on his face as he tried to run away as fast as he could. Of course, this did nothing to help him. He was blasted away toward the temple via earthbending.
--
"I didn't know Katara could even get this angry," Aang said, looking at the fuming girl. If she were a firebender, she would explode soon.
"I did," Zuko simply stated. "Though I thought she would be easier to cool down than other people, being a waterbender and all."
"Looks like Sokka's gonna have to spend the night in the forest. Hang on..." Aang looked around the temple. "Where's Toph?"
"And what is that?" Zuko asked, squinting his good eye at the little speck in the sky.
"It's coming right at us."
"And is it screaming? Sounds like a girl." Realization suddenly struck both of them. "Uh-oh."
Sokka landed with a dull thud in the middle of the hall, right at Katara's feet. Everyone in the room shivered as she looked at her brother with a piercing glare.
"We should probably hide," Zuko whispered.
"Yeah, probably." Aang looked a moment at the siblings. "But I kinda wanna see what happens," he added with a smirk, digging a ditch in the stone floor to hide in.
Zuko smirked as well and jumped in next to Aang. Toph jumped in a moment later.
"Did I miss anything?"
"Figures you're behind this," Zuko muttered. This side of Toph actually scared Zuko, as she hadn't made good on her payback for burning her feet yet.
Aang shushed them. "It's starting."
"Hey Katara," Sokka smiled, completely unaffected by her glare. "Do we have any meat left? I'm starving."
Katra remained silent, glaring at him with all her might. Sokka was slowly starting to catch on.
"Katara?"
She responded with a water whip that was dangerously close to hitting his groin area.
Aang, Toph, and Zuko all winced with every crack of the water whip. Though they truly sympathized with Sokka's pain, especially the boys, they were still enjoying the show very much.
"Ouch. He's gonna feel that for awhile." Aang said.
"Better him than us," Zuko muttered. They all agreed silently, still watching Katara's combined physical and verbal assault. But it looked like Sokka had finally reached his limit.
"Okay, that's enough!" Sokka yelled. "Stop or I will hug you!"
Katara did stop, but it was more out of bewilderment than out of respect. "What?"
"I'm serious. I haven't had a chance to take a bath in three days and if you think I smell bad from a distance, try coming up close." Eveyone actually shuddered at his threat. Saying such things felt weird for Sokka, since he was pretty much insulting himself, but it was all he could think of.
"You wouldn't be able to get close to me even if you wanted to," Katara said, recovering.
"I am our strategist, I'm pretty sure I can come up with something."
"I could just give you a bath with my waterbending," she challenged.
"Please, if you thought waterbending at me would have gotten rid of my stench, you would have done that ages ago."
Katara's resolve began wavering. She honestly didn't know how to respond to that.
"Now listen up, including you three over there," he said, pointing to where the spectators were watching from. "I'm gonna sleep now and no one is going to disturb me or else I am gonna hug you like there is no tomorrow."
With that he walked over to his sleeping bag and pulled himself in. Everyone just stared at him. Though everyone wanted to disturb that sleep of his, no one could make a move. Katara had managed to brave taking a few steps toward him but before she could get in waterbending range, her nose told her to back off.
Sokka smiled. No one was actually attempting to ruin his sleep! But curiously, he took another sniff, at himself and the sleeping bag.
"Is it really that bad?"
A/N: Took me awhile to get this done. Haven't really written about Sokka before. Maybe not as funny as my other fic 'Aang's Secret Weapon' but picking on him is really fun, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Please review!