Chapter 11: Awkward dinners

Sokka was eager; he was less than 2 hours away from being engaged. No longer Suki's boyfriend, Sokka was about to gain the title of fiancé. He held Suki's hand as the group walked towards their table.

The concierge led the group to a large table at the back of the restaurant. The lighting was minimal, and was provided by candles stationed strategically around the restaurant. The tables and half-walls were made of a deep cherry colored wood. The fabrics were red; untraditional of Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom in general.

Suki and Sokka were seated together at the back of the table. Aang and Katara sat next to each other on Sokka's side and Zuko and Mai sat next to each other on Suki's side. Toph sat across from Sokka, and in between Aang and Zuko.

The waitress distributed menus to everybody, including Toph, who waved her hand in front of her face to indicate her blind status. The waitress awkwardly took back the menu and blushed.

"Sorry." The waitress said, discomfited.

"It's fine." Toph replied in a surly tone. She wasn't upset about the menu; she was upset about Sokka's future marriage.

"I'm Joo-Dee." The waitress introduced herself.

Aang's eyes widened, and Katara laughed. Sokka also laughed and tried to examine Joo-Dee's face in the dim light. It was not in fact the Joo-Dee they had had a year ago, but he figured she must have come from the same brainwashing camp.

"Can I get everybody something to drink?" Joo-Dee asked with a smile on her face.

"Tea." Toph said; her voice flat.

"Tea please." Katara said politely.

"Water, thank you." Aang said, his eyes shone with excitement for his eventual brother in law.

"Water." Sokka said, trying to contain his excitement.

"Tea please." Suki said, contemplating the surprise. She thought she had figured it out, but she wasn't 100% sure.

"We'll both have water." Zuko said, Mai didn't want to talk. Nobody minded this.

Joo-Dee nodded and walked away. The group sat in awkward silence until Katara broke the ice.

"Sooo…" Katara said, drumming her fingers on the table.

"Can you just tell me what the surprise is?" Suki asked desperately.

"Have you seriously not figured it out yet? I thought you were the smart one of Sokka's various love interests." Mai said with a sour expression.

"I have an idea, I'm not dumb." Suki replied sharply.

"Oh look our drinks are here!" Katara said, thankful that the drinks prevented a fight in the middle of the restaurant.

Joo-Dee handed out the drinks and walked away.

"Why don't we decide what we're going to eat?" Katara half-asked, half-demanded.

The group nodded and turned their heads down to look at their menus.

"Does somebody mind reading the menu to me?" Toph asked loudly.

"Sure." Aang replied kindly. "What are you in the mood for?"

"Brains." Toph replied with a sarcastic smile.

"Very funny." Aang replied.

Aang read the menu to Toph and everyone else scanned it as well. Katara noticed that all the dishes contained meat.

"Aang, is there anything you can eat on this menu?" Katara asked quietly, leaning over and whispering in his ear.

"Did you check the vegetarian section?" Aang teased.

Katara's cheeks turned red briefly. She flipped the page, and there it was: the vegetarian section.

Joo-Dee returned with a notepad in hand.

"Are we ready to order?" She said cheerily.

"Yes." Everybody spoke simultaneously.

Everybody placed their orders and sat in silence. Sokka had expected this dinner to go much more smoothly than it was.

"So are you excited?" Aang asked Sokka.

"Yes! More than you could possibly imagine." Sokka said, his face broke into a huge grin.

Sokka turned to Suki with his stupid grin. He lifted his arm from his leg and put it over her shoulder.

"Do you know what the surprise is?" Sokka asked, his grin was gone, but his tone was still playful.

"I think so." Suki said excitedly. She whispered into Sokka's ear, "I think Aang is going to ask Katara to marry him."

"Let's go with that." Sokka smiled; relieved she hadn't ruined his plan. Sokka was in fact a little surprised she hadn't figured it out yet.

Mai rolled her eyes and sighed a disgusted sigh. Toph sat back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest.

"What's with the unimpressed looks?" Zuko asked.

"Mai's always unimpressed with everything, and I don't know what's up with Toph." Suki said, shooting a dirty look at Mai.

"Are you trying to start something?" Mai asked in her whiney tone.

"Wow, just calm down you two." Aang said shooting a menacing look at both Suki and Mai. "And Suki has a point, what's the matter Toph?"

"You guys wouldn't understand, I'm fine." Toph said, with a sour expression on her face. The truth was the group would understand, they just wouldn't like it. Toph liked Sokka, but nobody else knew. She kept her mouth shut because she didn't want to upset anything.

Aang wasn't going to press the matter, he had learned the first time he was eating with Toph not to aggravate her.

"Ok." He replied tentatively, in fear of being smacked into the table.

"You know what? This is an occasion to celebrate." Katara said.

"Does she know Aang's going to propose or is she talking about something else?" Suki asked Sokka quietly.

"I don't know." Sokka whispered back.

"What occasion are we celebrating?" Aang asked.

"The gang is back together! The entire group hasn't been back together for at least 3 months. Frankly, I missed everyone. I was really hoping we would be back together earlier."

"Here she goes with the preachy hope speech." Toph said quietly. Luckily, Katara didn't hear.

"I'm really glad to see everyone too! I missed everybody a lot." Suki agreed.

"I didn't miss anyone." Mai said quietly.

"Well why don't you go back home? Nobody missed you either!" Suki said sharply.

"What is the matter with you two?" Zuko and Sokka asked at the same time, trying to defend their girlfriends.

"Well if you recall, you captured my group of warriors, and then posed as us to overthrow Ba Sing Se. I can't imagine why I still would possibly be upset with you." Suki said, crossing her arms across her chest.

Joo-Dee appeared with a tray full of food. She was quite good at arriving in time to prevent possible death matches. She distributed everyone's dinner and walked away.

Everyone dug into their dinner, it was very delicious. The tension between Mai and Suki was looming in the air, but everybody tried to ignore it.

Suki reached over with her chopsticks and stole a piece of roast duck from Sokka's bowl. She laughed with her mouth full of food.

"Really?" Sokka asked.

"Mhm!" Suki nodded, covering her mouth her free hand.

Sokka quickly stole a piece of her chicken, and popped it in his mouth. He quickly chewed and swallowed.

"Ha, now we're even!" Sokka laughed, kissing Suki on the cheek. Toph stared down at her bowl, even though she couldn't see, she still knew what was going on.

Sokka picked up another one of Suki's pieces of chicken and put it up to her mouth; she kindly took it and smiled warmly at him. She returned the gesture and Mai fake gagged.

"Oh come on, it's not like we aren't that sappy most of the day. We can barely keep our faces apart." Zuko laughed.

"You do make a good point, but they're just- It's weird." Mai complained, picking at her food.

"Oh calm down, it's not that big of a deal." Zuko replied, stealing one of Mai's pieces of meat.

"I'm so glad I can't see any of this." Toph said with her mouth full.

"I think it's cute." Katara smiled and kissed Aang on the cheek.

"You think everything's cute." Toph said sourly.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do." Katara said quite proudly.

"Ok guys, what is with all the tension?" Aang asked, setting his chopsticks down loudly. "Toph, let's start with you."

"I'm just jealous that everybody else has a boyfriend or girlfriend. It's been bumming me out, but it's fine." Toph blurted out. She hadn't intended to say anything, but her mouth beat her brain.

"Well we can solve that." Sokka replied.

"No you really can't. I'll figure something out on my own." Toph replied, putting food in her mouth in hopes that other people wouldn't keep pressing the subject.

"Ok, but if you ever want help, just ask." Aang said nicely.

"Thanks twinkle toes." Toph laughed.

"What about you Mai, what's your deal?" Aang asked.

"Have you not met Mai?" Zuko laughed, his arm was around Mai's shoulder and he shook her playfully.

"Really Zuko?" Mai asked, slightly infuriated by his response to Aang.

"Chill out, you have been higher strung than usual. What's going on?" Zuko asked compassionately.

"I'll tell you later." Mai said, staring down at the table. She had no real intentions of telling him, but it got him off her back for the time being.

"Suki, why are you so tense?" Sokka asked.

"I still haven't forgiven Mai for what she did to me. That and her uncle is the warden." Suki replied, picking at her food.

"I understand." Sokka said, lifting Suki's chin up and kissing her on her lips.

"Is this little talk it out thing over? I'm pretty sure the levels of awkward are hazardous to our health." Toph said. She had finished her dinner and was finishing up her tea.

Everybody else was close to finishing their meals, and Toph eagerly waited for dessert. She sat patiently, contemplating her lack of a boyfriend.

Mai appeared to have calmed down, as did Suki. Katara was never worked up about anything. She was just excited her best friend and brother were about to get married.

Joo-Dee returned. "Is everyone ready for dessert?"

"Not quite. These 6 weirdoes were discussing their feelings instead of eating." Toph replied.

Joo-Dee nodded and walked away. Toph sat there, looking at the table while everybody else finished their dinners.

About five minutes later, everybody had finished and Joo-Dee returned. She gathered everyone's dishes and returned to take their dessert orders.

Suki and Sokka ordered chocolate cake to share, Mai and Zuko ordered cheesecake to share, and Aang and Katara shared a fruit pie. Toph had her own egg custard tart.

Suki and Sokka took turns feeding each other the chocolate cake. It was 2 layers of cake, stuck together by thick chocolate frosting.

"This is the best chocolate cake I've ever had." Suki smiled. Sokka took a piece of chocolate cake up to Suki's mouth, and when she opened it, he quickly popped it into his own mouth.

Playfully, Suki inconspicuously got some of the frosting on her finger and smeared it on his nose. When everybody saw what she had done, they laughed.

"Really?" Sokka asked, laughing with the group.

"You betcha." Suki laughed, offering the last piece of cake to her boyfriend.

Everybody finished their deserts in a matter of minutes and they waited for Joo-Dee to return with the bill.

Zuko was the Fire Lord, and therefore had the most money. Since Sokka was one of his close friends, he decided to pay for everyone's meals.

"Thank you Zuko, but you really don't have to." Sokka said, extending his hand for the bill.

"Just consider it a we- present." Zuko smiled sheepishly at his slip-up.

Zuko grabbed a handful of gold coins and Joo-Dee's eyes widened.

"You can keep the difference." Zuko smiled.

Joo-Dee couldn't speak. This was the best tip she had ever received. She smiled and walked away.

"Well are we ready to go?" Sokka asked.

"I guess so." Aang replied.

Sokka stood up and pulled out Suki's chair for her. She stood up and kissed him on the cheek.

"You're dad taught you very good manners." Suki smiled as she waited for everyone else to stand up.

Sokka took Suki's hand and fiddled with the betrothal necklace in his pocket with his free hand. Everybody stood up and left the restaurant and headed towards the Firelight Fountain.

Suki and Sokka were ahead of the group by a few paces and Toph was trailing a few paces behind Zuko and Mai.

Sokka was on his way to being a married man.

Yay chapter 11 done! Hope you enjoyed it, and it took much less time than chapter 10. It was quite fun to write, and I hope you liked the awkwardness. I really really don't like Mai, as you might be able to tell. Of course I still have to write her in because she is a part of the story. It's not cool to just kill someone off because you don't like them XD. So anyway, one more chapter and Sokka's a married man! Many surprises and twists on the way.