Thanks for the reviews everyone!!! Here's the next chapter. I don't particularly like it, but maybe someone else will. XP I don't own Avatar.

03. C

Costumes

Sokka looked like he was about to kill someone. He was clad in a long-sleeved red shirt and blue overalls, complete with an absurdly large straw hat. "I feel ridiculous! And this hat is so itchy!" He made to take it off, but Aang swatted his hand away.

"You're lucky I can't see. Why am I wearing this again?" a disgusted Toph chimed in. She plucked at the thick cotton shirt Katara had forced over her head and scrunched her nose at the stiffness of the fabric.

"You can't go to a costume party without a costume," Aang replied, barely suppressing a grin.

"Yeah, but you and Katara have cool costumes! You got that seamstress lady to make you Oma and Shu, and I'm stuck as a farmer!" Sokka argued, clearly exasperated.

"That's because you wouldn't come with us," Katara explained for at least the dozenth time that evening. "You told us to 'just pick out any old costume, I don't care.'" She imitated him so perfectly that Aang laughed.

Sokka rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "I should have known."

"It's what you get," Aang said matter-of-factly. "You too, Toph, since you didn't want to come with us either, for some reason."

Toph groaned. "What am I supposed to be?" she asked, bracing herself for yet another unsatisfactory answer.

"You're... the farmer's wife." Aang and Katara exchanged a glance.

"I'm WHAT?!" Toph shouted, clearly insulted. "You took advantage of my blindness to dress me as Meathead's WIFE?"

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "Hey, what would be wrong with marrying me?" he asked coolly.

"Well..." Toph thought but couldn't come up with a very good answer. Is it too much to ask to be able to keep my crush a secret? She changed the subject."I bet I look ridiculous in this!"

"Actually, Toph," Sokka said, "you look kind of cute."

Toph suppressed a blush and rolled her cloudy eyes. "Whatever," she answered, though she felt anything but indifferent. She linked her arm with Sokka's. "Come on, Meathead, let's go. And don't get any ideas, this is a one-night-only thing for me."

"Agreed," Sokka said.

Aang and Katara smiled and followed along a few paces behind them. "See?" Aang whispered. "I told you it would work."