A/N: I have to say: This was extremely fun to write. Its not really in the 'hilarious' category, but its got its little moments. :D
Prompt: The Gaang goofing off at a peace meeting
Requester: CyclonePhsycho—(Thanks so much!)
Words: 1,094
"Uhh!" Aang groaned pitifully, collapsing on to a stone bench in the courtyard of Ba Sing Se's palace. Frustration, irritation, and exhaustion gleamed in his glazed gray eyes and radiated from him as he buried his head in his hands. As if in response to his unspoken lament, the breeze ruffled through the smartly tended garden bushes, and they rustled harshly against one another.
Following not far behind, Aang's four companions filed into the courtyard through the lavishly decorated archway, all looking pale and drained. Each step was an effort...a battle between energy (or lack thereof) and will. Their faces were drawn and their eyes dull as each assumed a position in the quaint little oasis that had become something of a release for them over the weeks that had been heavy with the intense debate and complex politics of the world's four nations.
Sokka dragged his feet melodramatically in an exaggeration of the exhaustion everyone felt as he crossed the yard and plopped down on the bench beside Aang. The warrior dug a pinkie finger nonchalantly in his left ear, making annoyed faces as he complained:
"Who knew these stupid meetings could be so dang boring?"
His response was met with a chorus of moans.
"Please, Snoozles," Toph drawled, falling flat on her back in the middle of the walkway with a muffled earthen thud, "Don't even talk to me about boring! I wish I only had the luxury of being bored! Nearly every one of those creepy old guys are expert liars..." she shuddered, "Took me a good while to figure them out—try, like two weeks—and even then, there was no possible way for me to catch them all in the act at once...ugh."
Katara sat down on a bench across the isle from her brother and Aang, massaging her temples with her index fingers. Glancing down dejectedly at the sprawled Toph, she sighed and complained, "I have the most massive headache..."
Zuko, arriving beside her and not bothering to watch where he was sitting, slipped straight from his feet to the floor, halfway out of (or into...exactly which was uncertain) a daze.
Whistling through the spindly branches of a newly planted maple sapling, the wind prompted someone to end the tired silence that had laid itself over the group of teens. After a few moments of this short-lived, peaceful quietness, Zuko blinked, covering his ears with cupped hands. He removed them after a moment, and a flash of confusion crossed his face. His gaze swept over each of his friends' momentarily, halting finally on Katara sitting to his right. She looked back at him with a raised eyebrow, and he explained, "Is it just me, or are your ears ringing too?"
She grimaced and wordlessly nodded the affirmative.
"This is impossible," Aang sat up, his voice raising to an uncharacteristic high-pitched whine, "We've been at this for three weeks, and already it's falling apart. We're not resolving anything! How am I supposed to do my job if no one will agree to compromise?"
"Compromise weakens a government, Aang," Zuko replied wistfully, managing to state a solemn fact rather than actually defend a personal political position. The firebender tugged on his earlobe with a pained expression. It was clear that his hearing hadn't settled down to a normal tone or volume quite yet.
"And these so-called 'nobles' know the fact too well," Toph commented with annoyance from her spot on the ground.
"Compromise teaches people to work together for a common good," Aang countered with conviction, curling his hands into fists, "Everyone has to sacrifice in order to get the benefits!"
"That's just it," Katara elaborated for him, "If a delegate decides their losses outweigh the overall benefits, they aren't going to agree with it."
"But--"
"Aang," she went on, "There may be losses they are considering that we haven't thought of yet. We need to learn as much as we can and gather everyone's perspective on a certain subject before we can judge them each correctly."
Settling back with a stubborn frown, Aang sighed huffily. "I know."
"No one said it was going to easy," Toph waved a hand consolingly toward the airbender, "You made Ozai eat your dust, and you can do the same to those gas-baskets!"
"Ha," Sokka laughed suddenly, blinking, "Gas-baskets."
Everyone turned to glare.
"Just trying to lighten the mood, geez, people," the warrior protested, wrinkling his nose and holding up his hands, palms forward. "You could humor me, at least."
Silence.
A distant bird twittered in its nest.
"Fine, be that way, you fun-suckers," Sokka slumped into a sulky slouch a moment later, and quiet fell over the group once more as the wind picked up. In the plant beds, fragile purple blossoms bobbed up and down on the breeze, and the short, cropped grass shivered as it passed.
Katara's shoulders shuddered in a sigh that seemed to make the air before her vibrate, and Zuko followed up with an obnoxiously loud, open-mouthed yawn that was utterly inappropriate for a dignitary of his status.
Aang, his foul mood evaporating in an instant, attempted to unsuccessfully stifle a giggle. Instead of quieting his softer, much more manageable laugh, as he had intended, his suddenly self-blocked airway caused him to hiccup loudly through his nose. More of a snort, really.
Covering her mouth to hide her laughter, Katara's face turned pink with the effort. Sokka, getting in on the game, elbowed Aang in the ribs, causing him to hiccup again--this time, rather loudly.
Toph, not one to be left out of the loop on any account, pressed her hand into the ground and sent a rumbling shiver toward Sokka and Aang.
The bench quivered slightly just before it jerked upwards abruptly, tossing the water tribesman into the bushes behind him, as Aang grappled for a solid hold on the tilted bench, his ringing laugh reverberating off the walls of the enclosed courtyard. Forgoing a decision to re-grip, the airbender slipped off the bench entirely, flopping onto his back in the dust with an audible oof.
There was a brief pause before the stillness of the air evaporated beneath the pealing laughter of the five—four teens. Sokka's noises of protest filled the background as he untangled himself from the prickly rosebush he had so unluckily landed in.
"Ouch! Ow! Ow ow ow ow OW!!" Hopping on one foot as he wrestled himself out of the bracken, managing to tear his breeches in the process, he cried,
"Bad thorns! You do NOT belong in there!!"
A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter and gave me requests!
