Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar.
Training Turmoil
That night, Sokka and Zuko set a course for the Boiling Rock in Zuko's war balloon.
As the sun rose in the sky, Aang, Katara, Toph, and the others awoke to notice Sokka and Zuko's absence. While Duke went to feed Appa some bails of hay, the others followed Katara. She noticed a sleeping Momo, clutching a piece of paper. As Katara grabbed the paper Aang and Toph approached her.
"What does it say?" asked Toph. Katara read it out loud:
"Need meat, gone fishing. Back in a few days.
-Sokka and Zuko
One more thing, Aang, Practice your fire bending while I'm gone. Do twenty sets of fire fists and ten hot squats every time you hear a badger frog croak.
-Zuko"
As Katara read the note Aang went to lay down back where he had previously been sleeping.
"I'm going to take a short na…" started Aang, interrupted by a yawn. Just as his eyes shut, a badger frog croaked. His eyes then flicked open in annoyance.
"Nobody else has homework," he muttered irritably. He stood up, went off to the side, facing the western wall in the temple and started doing hot squats.
"One hot squat.
Two hot squat.
Three hot squat.
Four hot squat.
Five hot squat.
Six hot squat.
Seven hot squat.
Eight hot squat.
Nine hot squat.
Ten hot squat."
"I'm done," Aang said relieved.
"No you're not," said Toph hurrying towards Aang, "You still have to practice your earth bending." She poked his chest with one strong finger.
"HEY!" Katara called crossly, from the other side of the temple "Aang has to practice his water bending first."
"Who needs weak old water when you can use the strength of the Earth?" Toph goaded.
"Earth bending is nothing compared to water bending" Katara replied firmly.
"Why don't you say that to my face," Toph said starting to get irritated.
"What difference does it make, you can't see me," taunted Katara. She and Toph continued to argue.
As they argued Aang slowly slipped away unnoticed. As soon as Aang thought he was safe, he bended air into an air scooter and hopped on. While he rode around, Aang quickly looked back to see if Katara and Toph realized he'd left, but they were still screaming insults at each other.
Aang wasn't driving his air scooter attentively. When he turned back to see where he was going, he realized he was heading straight for a rock right in front of him! He desperately tried to swerve out of the way but he didn't react fast enough; he crashed, and was thrown into the air, falling flat on his face with a loud thump. Katara and Toph turned to see Aang sprawled on the ground. He grimaced painfully.
"Where do you think you're going," Katara and Toph said in unison.
"Hey, I'm training him," Katara said angrily.
"No, I'm training Twinkle Toes now," Toph angrily replied.
"Hey, hey, calm down, why don't you guys just train Aang together" asked Haru, as if were the most obvious thing in the world. He, Teo and the Duke had heard the yelling and were hoping to stop them.
"Fine," Katara reluctantly agreed. Toph nodded. Haru, Teo and the Duke left, clearly eager to explore more of the Western Air Temple. Aang knew his training would be twice as hard and he still had fire bending training…
A loud croak of a badger frog interrupted Aangs thoughts.
"Argh" Aang growled, knowing what the croak meant.
"1 fire fists,
2 fire fists,
3 fire fists…
Fifteen minutes passed…
"8 hot squats,
9 hot squats,
10 hot squats."
"Yes, I'm finally done-" began Aang when his words were drowned out by a loud "croak." He groaned. "You have got to be kidding me…"
After 20 fire fist and 10 hot squats…
"Now, I'm done," Aang said tiredly, collapsing on the bare floor.
"No you're not! You still have your water bending training!" Katara said sharply.
"Don't forget earth bending," added Toph.
Aang hesitated and then said "Oh, well it can't be worst the fire bending training Zuko ma-"
Croak! The badger frog let off another croak. Aang was about to complain but he knew there was no point. The badger frog was not going to stop.
After 20 fire fist and 10 hot squats
"No more please, no more," cried Aang, almost pleading. He fell down on his knees. Aang knew it wasn't the end; he still had to train with Katara and Toph.
"Aang, take a little break and then we'll train, OK Toph?" said Katara alarmed by Aangs exhausted, pitiful form.
"Fine" Toph said disappointed- she was interested in making Aang suffer a little.
They called it a day and after a hot, simple meal, retired for the night.
The Next Day
The next morning when everyone awoke, they realized that Sokka and Zuko weren't back yet. Katara was a bit worried.
"Where are they," she muttered wonderingly. All Toph could think about was her stomach.
"Why aren't they back yet?! I want some meat!"
As they had promised, now it was time for Toph and Katara to train Aang. Aang wanted to go back to sleep, but he knew he couldn't- there was simply too much to do. As he was getting up from his bed he heard a noise.
"What's that noise?" Aang asked. He did not hear what it was.
"It was a badger frog Twinkle Toes, you know what that means," Toph said, an evil grin spread across her face.
"Why do you have to have such good hearing?" Aang said, scowling, not wanting to do the fire fist and hot squats.
"Hello! I'm blind! So my other senses became stronger," Toph replied. Without another word Aang did Zuko's homework.
After 20 more fire fist and 10 more hot squats
"Even as an ally Zuko is trying to kill me," Aang muttered crossly. After he finished, it was finally time for him to practice water and earth bending.
Aang, Katara and Toph took their stances as they usually do when they training or in battle. Katara and Toph stood on either side of Aang.
Katara opened her pouch and bended the water, aiming in Aang's direction. With a quick movement Aang redirected the water back to Katara. Toph stomped her foot, creating three large boulders. She made a kicking motion, sending the boulders flying at Aang. Aang reacted fast- he punched the rocks into pieces.
Katara and Toph continued to train Aang for a couple of hours. All three of them grew tired as the minutes went by. By the way Toph and Katara were acting, it was apparent that they wanted to finish it off. Katara bended more water, shooting it right above Aang, and at the same time, Toph sent earth in the same direction. Aang couldn't help but laugh.
"You guys must be tired because that wasn't even close," said Aang, grinning.
"Wasn't aiming for you," Toph answered, the familiar evil grin reappearing on her face.
Aang heard a noise but wasn't sure what it was. He soon realized it was coming from above him, and looked up. A large pile of mud was forming overtop of him. Not having enough time to react, Aang was buried under the mountain of mud. Katara and Toph laughed with triumph.
"Didn't expect that did you Aang?" Katara grinned. Aang poked his head out of the mud mound.
"Yeah, Twinkle Toes," agreed Toph.
"No fair, your guys weren't supposed to work together-"
Croak!
"Why me!" cried Aang exasperatedly. Aang cleaned himself up and then started to do the fire bending training.
After 20 more fire fist and 10 more hot squats
As Aang was finishing up, Katara declared practice officially over and dished out some dinner.
"Yes, finally! We can eat!" Toph said happily.
"Is that all you think about?" Katara stated laughing a little. Toph shrugged.
After they had sated their hunger, they all went to bed.
The Next Day
Katara was the first to awake; she was worried for her brother and wanted to know if he had arrived. To her disappointment he wasn't back. Once the rest of the group was awake, Katara spoke.
"I'm worried, Sokka and Zuko aren't back."
"What? Still no meat?!" Toph said disappointedly.
"They're gone for three days and that's all you can think about Toph," Katara said in disgust.
"Hey, I want meat," Toph said. Before a fight could start Aang spoke.
"Calm down, they probably are just taking their time. Maybe they'll be back toni-"
Croak!
"Why is this badger frog making me do this stuff, somebody stop it… what's the point if I've done it a million times?" Aang grumbled.
After 20 more fire fist and 10 more hot squats again
"Why don't we go look for them?" suggested Katara.
"What, the badger frogs?" asked Aang. Katara shook her head.
"No silly, look for Sokka and Zuko!"
"Well it beats doing another hundred hot squats," said Aang.
"Or lying on the ground, doing nothing," added Toph.
Aang, Katara and Toph climbed onto Appa.
"Yip, yip," said Aang, grabbing hold of the reins. Appa grunted and flew off, Momo flew beside him.
"Tell us if you see them," Katara said.
"Alright" Aang replied. After Aang talked there was a long pause.
"Toph" Katara said questioned at why she did not answer.
"What, I wouldn't be able to see them" Toph said pointing at her eyes.
"Oh, sorry Toph," Katara said softly.
For the next few hours, Aang, Katara and Toph searched for Sokka and Zuko with no success.
"Let's go back to the Western Air Temple," yawned Aang. Momo was already sleeping on Aangs head.
"Alright" Toph and Katara said together.
When they arrived back at camp they saw Haru, Duke and Teo already eating. Without a word Aang, Toph and Katara joined them in eating. Toph cursed at the lack of meat. After they finished eating they heard a noise.
"What was that," Aang asked, alert. An odd sound, like rushing wind, was coming from near the entrance of the temple. No one answered. As Aang, Katara and Toph walked closer to the source of the noise they realized it was a Fire Nation vehicle. Aang, Katara and Toph prepared to fight, knowing this might be an attack. To there surprise, it was Zuko and Sokka, climbing out of a monstrous ship that had never been there before.
"What are you doing in this thing? What happened to the war balloon?" Katara questioned as Sokka and Zuko left he vehicle.
"It kinda got destroyed," Zuko replied.
"Sounds like a crazy fishing trip," Aang said
"Did you at least get some good meat?" Toph asked hopefully.
"I did. The best meat of all. The meat of friendship and fatherhood." Sokka said proudly. As Sokka said this Suki, Hakoda and Chit Sang walked out of the ship.
"I'm new, what's up everybody" Chit Sang said waving.
"Dad," was the only thing Katara could say with tears streaming down her face. She ran to her father.
"Hi Katara," Hakoda said running to his daughter. As Katara and Hakoda met they hugged each other.
"How are you here? What is going own? Where did you go?" Katara asked with a tint of happiness.
"We kinda went to a fire nation prison," said Sokka. With that said Hakoda grabbed Sokka and hugged both of his children.
"Seriously, you guys didn't find any meat," Toph asked in disappointment
Authors note: Yeah, I finally decided to write my first story. This is more of a filler story about what the rest of the Gaang was doing when Zuko and Sokka went to the Fire Nation prison. I would like to thank my editer Chocofreakazoid, because without her editing my fanfic wouldn't be as good and for helping make the title. Please read and review.