intimate moments, an all canon compliant one-shot
warning: use of coarse language and mildly sexual situations
Sokka was fifteen years old. Sure, the ladies he came into contact with during his travels seemed enraptured and caught off-guard when he revealed his youthfulness, but it was true. He had called himself a man at the age of nine, when he had chased a penguin-seal back into the sea with nothing but his flailing limbs and a roar that he had been practicing for several weeks. He had been used to being the center of attention and being stared at while he flexed his muscular arms and showed off with his boomerang in the villages they passed through. He was traveling with a group of strong benders and still, he was the skeleton, the brains, and the glue that held them all together. In his mind, this only seemed to be a modest interpretation on his staggering effect on his group.
Sokka was fifteen years old; so he recognized it the second he heard it. The uneven, sharp intakes of breath. The heated, murmured whispers against the fabric. The rustling and moving about of someone akin to having a sleeping pack full of fire ants. Sokka knew someone was having an intimate moment.
And Sokka hated intimate moments.
He peeked open a bright blue eye and allowed it to adjust to the darkness. His brain rattled as he remembered where he was and who his companions were. He tried to imagine Toph before a mixture of horror and embarrassment colored his cheeks. Imagining the earthbender doing something as private as that only made Sokka cringe with unnecessary curiosity and the horror of catching a friend in the act. It wasn't much better when he suspected his sister and he had rolled himself over—he didn't want to choke himself with his own vomit before he finished sleuthing out the offender. If he ruled out the two females, it left only two males. He shivered at the whispered exclamation that met his ears and found himself as still as a stone as he realized what the sounds were. He knew the familiar syllables being uttered in the night air and it further increased the young warrior's terror.
"Katara." The voice whispered and then, Sokka definitely knew someone was having an intimate moment.
And Sokka hated intimate moments.
Even more than that, Sokka hated people having intimate moments about his sister.
His prior embarrassment shifted to fear and then shifted to rage as he scrambled out of his sleeping pack, now refusing to funnel his thoughts into the offender. He tripped himself up several times until he pulled his legs from the tricky fabric and straightened himself. He pulled his boomerang out, although what he intended to do with it after he figured out which of the two males were having moments about his sister had escaped him. Sokka knew he was brilliant with drawing up plans but after that, he didn't really do such a good job of drawing up what to do after the execution of the plan itself.
First, Sokka turned to the firebender. He had his back to him and was detached from the rest of the group, but his sleeping pack was also dangerously close to where Katara slept peacefully. He folded his arms and let out a harrumph. "Brooding," he mumbled as he gazed at the rise and fall of Zuko's body under his pack, "a likely story." The tactician stared blankly at the firebender's pack, at the top of his dark brown head, and wasn't sure what to think. The breathing seemed to be unaligned with what he had heard, despite the fact that it was quiet for that moment, but Sokka trusted Zuko about as far as he could throw him. Which although he was a warrior of massively brutish strength, was not very far. In battle, he could safely turn his back and know that the firebender would keep him out of harm's way. But in physical matters, he was the oldest of their group and he was sure that the Fire Nation girls had provided a boring change of pace for the former Prince. Sokka scowled at the thought.
Finally, Sokka turned to the airbender. Aang was only a stone's throw away from Appa and Momo but he too was in a close proximity to Toph and Katara. At first, it had been harmless placement. Sokka had set up his pack first, which meant it had been furthest away from the fire. Toph and Katara set up their sleeping arrangements side by side at a fair distance from the fire. Aang had happily put his sleeping pack between Sokka's and Toph's and Zuko, wordlessly, had dragged his belongings to the far right of the fire, although still within safe range. Sokka wondered just how innocent the airbender was. "After all," he muttered to himself as his eyes traced the arrows of his friend's bald head, "he's been encased in ice for a hundred years." But the first person he had seen after all that had been his innocent baby sister and it caused him to frown suspiciously at the younger boy. Avatar or not, Sokka resigned, he'd have to defend his sister's virtue and pick a fight with Aang.
Standing gapped between the two of them with his arms crossed, Sokka shifted his eyes between Zuko and Aang suspiciously. For the first five minutes, it had been silent and his eyes quickly tired from darting back and forth. As he crossed to his sleeping pack, accepting the fact that he may or may not discover who was having a moment over his baby sister, he heard it.
"Katara."
This time, Sokka had been standing at the top of his pack and peering down at the fabric bed. It was the only reason he noticed Aang's face screwed up in frustration, his hands trapped between his knees, and to his horror, a rocking motion that threatened to make Sokka vomit as it had earlier. His breathing sped up and even though Sokka knew the Avatar was clothed, his actions caused the warrior's eyes to widen dangerously. He saw Aang's face and saw Aang's hips rocking back and forth and he saw Aang's lips form his sister's name.
"Katara."
With an unnatural fury, Sokka raised his foot and planted it in the side of Aang's sleeping pack. It felt like it was against one of his hips and he shuddered before kicking it, rolling the sleeping Avatar over onto his face. He spluttered and sprang awake, pushing himself back with a gust of air that only knocked him onto his back. Sokka watched him flail in the confines of his sleeping pack like a tiny, bald, sister-stealing caterpillar. Aang finally worked his way out of the sleeping pack and gazed up at Sokka, his eyes wide as well. A blush swept over his cheeks and it only infuriated Sokka.
Aang was blushing because Sokka had interrupted his intimate moment.
Aang was blushing because Sokka had interrupted his intimate moment with his sister.
"You disgust me!" Was Sokka's indignant cry as he shoved Aang. The Avatar stumbled again, his eyes confused and hands raised towards Sokka. "What kinds of depraving, humiliating, debasing things were you thinking about my baby sister?!" He demanded to know and an embarrassed and enraged blush took over Aang's face.
"It isn't your business!" He countered, moving past Sokka and away from their sleeping friends. Sokka gaped at him and his lack of denial before he hurried off after him.
"It's my baby sister, so it's my business! I won't have you..." Sokka shuddered at the idea of finishing that thought. He was honestly shocked. Aang had been...no. He couldn't even bring himself to say it despite the fact that the Avatar stood in front of him with no evidence to the origin or type of dream he had. But Sokka knew because Sokka had heard his voice and seen his face. "Just, don't go getting any ideas about putting your hands on her! Or your arrows on her either!"
Aang's blush did little to satiate the small part of Sokka that appreciated his arrow humor. "Sokka, I—"
"I mean it, Aang!" The warrior shook his boomeraang fiercely at the Avatar, who tilted his head down and away from his friend. Sokka frowned before he replaced the boomerang in its case. If he was going to threaten Aang, it would be with his fists. Using his boomerang would only encourage Aang to use his bending. The Avatar would have never raised his fists and Sokka was semi-anguished and semi-grateful for his frantic and desperate grip to the Air Nomad culture. "I don't care that you're the Avatar. Keep your hands off of her!" Sokka wished that he had slept through Aang's disturbing dreams for a good number of reasons. Katara was an annoying brat but she was still his sister. He had trusted Aang to protect her the same way that Sokka protected her — like a brother. And now he had to face his friend to defend his baby sister. And even more important, Sokka knew he wouldn't be going back to sleep with the image of Aang's face contorted and his body writhing and his lips calling his sister's name.
Sokka really hated intimate moments.
notes: this one is dedicated to Kimberly T, whose suggestion for a prequel got me thinking. i'm not sure how confident i am to demonstrate that much of a solo activity, but hopefully this cuts it and i hope you enjoy third person sokka and his inflated ego!