Sokka's Fruitcake
"Why'd you have to go and make me so constipated?" Weird Al Yankovic
The gang was all gathered in the kitchen of Zuko's old family vacation home. A weird aroma ---- the source being the stove ----- floated through the room.
Cooking may seem like an ordinary task to most normal people. But, for Sokka, it was quite rare and unusual to catch him standing over the stove actually cooking something. He never cooked, only hassled his sister when she prepared the food for the group (which is pretty much all the time). Sokka would even harass her to cook quicker. But Katara never really saw why it mattered, since all he'd do is devour the food in one huge gulp, then beg for her to make more ----- after he rushed her for the first batch. And, never, not once since they lived in the South Pole, would he ever cook.
That is, until today.
So, it was expected for the group to be just a tad bit baffled by his behavior ------ especially when he offered to share with the group, when they all knew very well how greedy Sokka was with anything that involved food.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Aang asked Sokka again, for about the umpteenth time since he proposed the idea to cook.
"Yeah, you're not under the influence of cactus juice again, are you?" Toph chimed in, a devious smirk plastered on her face.
Sokka leaned off the island counter, "No! Is it that hard to believe that I want to cook??"
The group exchanged glances, "yeah," they said in unison, bursting out in laughter.
Sokka pouted, turning to the stove to check back on his dish. He peeked in to take a quick glance at the food, more scents flooding the room. Zuko wrinkled his nose, turning towards Katara to ask, "Does he even know how to cook?"
Katara chuckled, then replied with a smile, "Sokka has never cooked anything a day in his life."
This answer didn't seem to satisfy Zuko at all, only made him wince in his chair more than he already was. Katara laughed.
"Alrighty guys! Food's ready!" Sokka exclaimed, grabbing the platter with the plates all full of food in his hands. He shelved the plates around the table so that everyone had one. The faces of the gang were, well, quite interesting, to say the least...
"What...is it?" Suki asked, staring at the abnormal, steaming multi-colored loaf before her.
"It's fruitcake! Duh!" Sokka replied, plopping down in a chair next to his girlfriend.
"Well, is it edible?" Toph questioned, poking her fork at it. She had absolutely no idea what the food looked like, but, judging by its smell ----- which was unwillingly clogging her nostrils ----- it probably didn't look very...appetizing.
"Of course it's edible! It has berries and mangoes and all the other fruits growing out there, " Sokka trailed.
The group was rather reluctant in tasting Sokka's wild food concoction. Toph kept poking at it with her nose up high; Zuko looked disgusted to even have it in his presence; Katara kept pretending to put it in her mouth, and then the small would always end up persuading her to put that little piece right back on her plate; Suki did nothing but stare; and Aang kept wondering if Sokka's so-called 'fruitcake' was as disgusting as the Southern Water Tribe's weirdly disgusting soup.
Then, to their surprise, they watched Sokka as he practically swallowed his slice whole. Zuko was almost horrified. Katara decided to be the first one to try the fruitcake. She regretted it the instant the fork had touched her tongue. She tried swallowing it as quickly as she could, which only brought her more agony. Still, she faked a smile for her brother's sake. Toph sat beside her laughing to herself the entire time. Katara shot her a sideways death glare. Toph only laughed harder.
"So, how is it?" Sokka asked between a mouthful.
"Oh, it's definitely...something different, I'll tell you that," Katara said, as her fork sliced off another piece of the dreaded loaf.
Following Katara's lead, Aang shoved his fork into his mouth. The rest of the group watched his reaction carefully. Aang was drastically surprised. His big, grayish eyes twinkled as he dug for another piece.
"You know, Sokka, this is actually really good," Aang commented. Sokka beamed in pride. Katara had a strong feeling that Aang wasn't kidding about his compliment. She looked at Toph, who further confirmed her claim with a smirk and a light shake of her head. Well, he did drink that weird stuff that Guru gave him, she thought to herself, watching Aang and her brother.
At the same time Aang was trying his fruitcake, so was Suki. Her reaction was the polar opposite from Aang's. She felt like she had to throw up, but she tried her best to disguise that urge, since Sokka is her boyfriend.
Toph never tried the fruitcake, instead got up from the table with the plate clutched in her hands, made a smacking sound while she waved her fork in the air and said, "That was nice. So nice I think I'm gonna give Appa and MoMo a taste, too, " as she walked out the door and down the couple of steps to get to the sandy bottom of the beachy island. Her sandbending was better than before, so she at least detected senses of movement from the bison and faint movements from the rarely grounded flying lemur.
"Alright guys, I'ma need you to eat this stuff," Toph said, placing the plate on the ground next to the huge furry animal. Appa sniffed the plate once, then grunted and took his nose away from it. Momo, his long tail flying along with him, came to the dish and pressed his tongue against the loaf. Toph heard the creature eating at the plate, even licking it clean,
"I wonder what you guys ate back with the nomads," she said to Momo, listening to the sounds of his chattering and chewing on the food.
Back inside, Aang and Sokka battled over the last loaf slice while Suki and Katara barely got through their first (but they both knew they had to eat something if they wanted to live through the trip to the Fire Nation Palace.)
Zuko's face was still contorted in abhor as he played around with the deflated piece of loaf on his plate. "How is it?" he leaned over and whispered in Katara's ear.
"About as bad as your attempt of preparing tea," she replied, a secret smirk playing at her lips.
Zuko grunted.
"You might as well eat it. We won't get anymore food once we're on Appa," Katara said as she swallowed.
Zuko heaved a huge sigh, pinched at his noce, and shoved one-fourth of the loaf into his mouth. His eyes bugged ----- he ran to the nearest trash can and spit it out.
"You don't like it?" Sokka asked while he chewed a mouthful.
Zuko coughed, "It's disgusting."
Sokka made an over-exaggerated sad chibi face, holding at the sides of his face with his hands. Katara and Suki were laughing from opposite ends of the table silently to themselves.
Toph couldn't sleep for one minute ---- she kept feeling movements on the floor of the house, like someone kept walking back and forth down the hallway. She tossed and turned, before she just decided to give up. Toph jumped up, grabbing the doorknob and swinging the door open.
"Would you idiots stop moving so much? I'm trying to sleep!" she yelled out. Grunts and whines floated to her ears as stomped down the hallway, where the source of movement was the strongest.
"Get out of there, Suki, it's my turn," Toph heard Katara whine at the bathroom door. She cocked her eyebrow, wondering what Katara was talking about.
"What's your problem?" Toph asked, her nose wrinkled.
"That fruitcake Sokka made....the berries...from the trees...they were poisonous," she managed to get out, trying not to throw up on Toph's bare feet.
Toph laughed deviously, "Oh, really?"
"Move out the way!" Sokka yelled, the vibrations of is feet thumping the floor like the paws of a shirshu. Sokka opened the door without a warning, ran in and barfed into the tub, next to Suki who was hunched over the toilet puking. Katara ran down the hallway and joined Aang and Momo outside, vomiting along with them.
Toph leaned on the wall of the hallway. She heard more vibrations, which she instantly knew were none other than the footsteps of Sparky himself.
"What's all the commotion about?" he asked in a sleepy voice.
Toph pointed to the two barfing teens in the bathroom. "Sokka fruitcake. Need I saw more?"
She heard Zuko groan. "I knew if Sokka cooked it, it had to be gross."
Outside, Katara held her hair as she heaved back and forth, making sure that her hair wasn't caught in her vomit. "I sware...Sokka's never gonna cook again."
The song up top is called "A Complicated Song", in case you were wondering. And I don't own that, or Avatar, and I wish you'd stop rubbing it in my face!! =) Please review if you read the story, thanxx!! Happy holidays!!