Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender does not belong to me. In fact, the idea for this drabble does not even belong to me. Anyway...so, yeah. Not mine.
"…and one time when I was six I almost drowned."
"Really?"
"Yeah. We were ice-skating and Sokka pushed me down. I didn't know how to control my bending yet. I had meant to move the ice under him and make him fall down too, but I must have melted the ice under me instead. The next thing I knew I was up to my chest in ice-cold water."
Zuko sat down on the bed across from me. One of his legs hung down off the side and he grabbed at my hands. Bringing them to his mouth he asked, "And then what happened?"
I laughed as his breath tickled my wrists. "Well I didn't have a Firebender to keep me warm," I said, inching closer to him. "Eventually Dad came and fished me out."
"I'm glad you didn't drown," Zuko said, leaning in and pressing his lips to mine.
"Me, too," I say beneath his lips. "You don't care if I sleep here tonight, do you?"
Zuko smiled. "Of course not." He leaned back and swung his other leg down off the bed.
I made myself busy trying to undo his tiny bed and climb beneath the safety of the covers. "Holy Spirits!" I cried.
"What's wrong?" Zuko jumped up and went to the window, thinking I saw something.
I pointed to his feet. "What happened to your feet?"
"Huh?" He looked down at his feet and then back to me. "Katara, are you alright?"
"What happened to your feet?" I repeated. "Let me heal them." I scrambled out of the blankets and reached for my water pouch.
Zuko walked towards me and pushed me back down on the bed. "Nothing's wrong with my feet," he said, smiling.
"They're so white. And where are your toes?" I asked. Zuko was trying not to laugh, I saw it in his eyes. "Don't laugh at me Zuko! Tell me what's wrong! Why are your feet bandaged?"
"They're socks, Katara," he sniggered.
"What the hell is a sock?" I shouted.
"A sock," he said, lifting his foot and pulling off the white thing, "is something we wear in the Fire Nation."
He handed it to me to examine. "What does it do?" I asked, bringing it close to my face. I threw it across the room when a disgusting odor filled my nose.
Zuko took off the other one and brought both his feet up on the small bed. "It protects our feet from getting blisters from our shoes. Don't you wear socks in the South Pole?"
I stared at his feet. He still had ten toes. "No. Our boots are lined with fur."
"Well, socks are like fur for us," he said.
"Really?" I asked, eying the pieces of smelly white cloth that lay bunched on the floor.
Zuko laughed. "No, actually, not really." He brushed a strand of hair out of my face. "But see, I'm perfectly fine. The socks didn't hurt me."
I smiled into his eyes. "I'm glad. I don't think I like socks."
We laughed and climbed into the small bed together. I snuggled close to him, intertwining my toes with his. Zuko yelped. "Katara you're feet are like ice."
"And yours are so warm," I sighed, pushing myself against him.
"I'm getting you your own pair of socks," he mumbled.
"Please don't."
He laughed, and then I felt his lips against my neck. "Whatever you wish."
A/N: So this is a drabble written for a FABULOUS reviewer who almost always reviews and gets my spirits back up...So BIG, HUGEMUNGOUS thank-you's go out to them!
I hope you like this. Did I do the challenge justice? "Sock" was a really hard topic to write about, and there is a funny story about how I actually came up with an idea...So we went on a class trip to see the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night--and when my English teacher was trying to give an explanation she said that the script was taken and made into a movie with Amanda Bynes called "She's the Man". And I am absolutely in LOVE with that movie and I went home and watched it. And when Duke is in the gym with Olivia and Viola and he says "I have to...change my feet", I always crack up and so I'm in the middle of laughing when I put two and two together and get four and run upstairs and use that as an inspiration to write about "Sock". Don't ask me how I got to that conclusion...I'm not even really sure myself.
But yeah...I REALLY HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT!
--Twisted
