A/N: Warning: This is a continuation of the one-shot series from posts 15-18 of From the Heart, so understanding the background of this tidbit may require a refresher of chapter 15, titled '1: Everything'. Keep in mind, this piece was written before I saw the end of the series, so there may be some inconsistencies with details regarding the finale.
Consultation
Katara came from the washroom, where she had cleaned up and gotten ready for bed. She tied a full-length, blue polar-seal fur robe securely around her slim waist and crossed the room, dropping down on her skin mat beside a shivering Toph.
The waterbender smirked. "Regret not bringing a pair of boots?"
The earthbender, sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest and her gooseflesh-pale arms wrapped around them, clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering as she responded. "Not...at all."
"I assume," Katara began jokingly, shifting her weight and stoking the small, contained fire between their two bedrolls with a decorative dagger, causing it to flare up in protest. "You sleep with blankets, right? Or would you rather freeze to death?" The heated dagger made odd scraping sounds as the flame licked the blade.
Deciding to ignore the taunt, Toph responded by changing the subject. She gestured toward the waterbender's hand. "That weapon, I don't believe you had it when we last met. Where did you get it?"
"Oh, this?" Katara hastily took it from the fire and tossed it to the side, where it sizzled angrily for a second before falling silent. She suddenly sounded as if she was disturbed. Toph, despite her almost absolute blindness due to the absence of rock and stone, detected an increase in heartbeat pace from her friend. She smirked knowingly. "Who is it?" the earthbender asked casually, propping herself up on her elbows.
She felt Katara's eyes studying her face for a brief moment before she heard a rattled sigh. "He is—was—a suitor."
"Oh?" Toph responded almost instinctively, and she immediately blanched in disgust at her genuine interest in this man—such 'girly' habits had lately begun to kick in regularly.
Katara smiled wanly. "He was nice and all, a man known for his high social status in the Northern Water Tribe—but I turned him down. I hope I'm doing the right thing...Gran-Gran says I'm way past normal marrying age for women in our tribe."
"Why did you turn him down?"
"Needless to say," Katara went on, ignoring the inquiry, "My dad was disappointed. I mean..."
"Sweetness, you're avoiding my question. Why?"
Katara rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. "Why? Hmmm... Why what...exactly?" She was feigning sincere confusion, but Toph detected a telltale elevation in her heart rate.
"It's Twinkletoes, isn't it?"
The comment caught Katara off guard, and she sputtered, making a disapproving noise with her lips. "Pffft...Uh...gee, uh, no."
Toph's eyebrow arched upward. "I don't even need earthbending to tell you're lying this time, Sugar Queen. It's as obvious as that big fat nose on your face!"
"Hey..."
Toph waved a hand in front of her sightless eyes. "Seriously, you guys will never get it, will you?"
Katara took the opportunity to flash a brief smile. "Do you enjoy shoving people into the bottomless abyss of depression and yanking them back out before they have time to scream, Toph?"
The earthbender grinned deviously. "It's what I'm here for!" Her expression grew more serious. "So, are you going to tell me about this guy you left heartbroken? Or do I have to drag it out of you?"
Katara suppressed a mock frown. "And down I go again..."
Thud.
A chorus of laughter rang through the corridor.
"Aang, that wasn't funny!"
More laughter was abruptly cut off by a loud thwack and a sharp "Ow!"
Sokka and Aang stumbled through the arched doorway to their room. The airbender plopped down on a skin mat and huffed, half-panting, half-laughing hysterically. He tentatively reached to touch the back of his head, wincing as he did so, though his eyes were aglow with child-like joy.
Sokka shoved one end of his preferred weapon into the icy doorframe and leaned against the wall, his blue eyes sparkling. "Don't ever underestimate the almighty power of my boomerang skills!"
Aang laughed again, his arm draped over one knee. "I thought I had you for a moment there," he stuck his tongue out of the side of his mouth, focusing for a brief moment on lowering his breathing rate back to a normal steady rhythm. Then he blinked and brightened. "Remember when we first played Air Ball? You know, the original version? Back when we first met? Before we modified it to work with a boomerang and a non-airbender?"
"Yeah, bouncing over ten-foot high stilt-poles aren't as easy as you make it look, Aang. I'm glad this version is just closer to the ground."
The younger teen grinned up at his sore and forlorn companion, who, though he prided himself with his mastery of several different kinds of weapons, still wasn't up to standards when playing Aang's favorite bending game. "Well, if you want to play it the right way, Appa can always take you and me to the Southern Air Temple this summer for a..."
"Oh-no. No, no, no, no, no. Really, Aang, not to hurt your feelings or anything, but I don't think my body—muscular and strong as it is..."
Aang laughed.
Sokka glared, but didn't break the flow of his statement. "...or the space between my legs...can handle even a few minutes more of that...game. Game, indeed! It's a deathtrap, is what it is! If a guy were to slip on those poles..."
Both he and Aang shuddered.
The airbender recovered pretty quickly and went on to beat at Sokka's pride unbashfully. "Oh," Aang replied with a mischievous glint in his gray eyes, "So you're saying you're weak?"
"What gave you that utterly ridiculous idea?" the warrior pushed himself from the wall and collapsed with a soft groan onto the mat adjacent to Aang's. He continued his claim in the form of a teasing taunt, "I'm definitely stronger than you, Twig-limbs, and therefore better with girls, too."
"Who decreed that the stronger men get the girls, Mister I-Think-I'm-Suave?"
Sokka made a rude sound in his throat. "Only the Universe, duh. And I happen to know that particular entity fairly well. So that gives me a double advantage."
Aang wrinkled his nose with disdain. "Are you implying that I can't get girls?"
The warrior shrugged. "Look at the facts...I have a girlfriend. That particular girlfriend first kissed me...not the other way around. Whereas...you haven't done either of those things."
Aang could barely suppress a smirk. He could beg to differ. "I've kissed a girl before!"
"On the lips? And you're mom doesn't count!"
The airbender shot him a questioning look.
Sokka knocked a fist against the side of his head as if to remind himself. "Oh, right...growing up among monks...I keep forgetting that."
"Yes," Aang answered his first inquiry solemnly, "On the lips. Twice. Twice on the lips. Well, you could possibly count another time…but twice for certain."
"How old were you?" Sokka probed, attempting to squeeze information out of the airbender so to verify or disprove his claim.
"Does it really matter?" Aang asked, feeling that to proceed was stepping on dangerous terrain. He hadn't planned on boasting the entire story and completely throwing it out into the open. Curse this urge to somehow prove himself romantically superior to Sokka!
"Yes, it most certainly does! Now answer the question! How old and who with?"
Aang frowned. "The 'who' wasn't in the original question..."
Sokka spread his arms in an 'oh-well' gesture. "Okay then, I guess you didn't..."
"I did so!"
The warrior poked a menacing finger in the airbender's chest. "Then tell me!"
"Okay...but you must promise me something."
"What?" Sokka demanded, impatient.
"That you won't be angry with me after I tell you, nor hold any grudge whatsoever."
Sokka eyed his friend strangely. "I get the feeling I know this particular girl."
Aang took a steady breath. "I suppose you could say that."
"So who is she already?"
"Okay..." Aang inhaled sharply, ready to do the men's equivalent of pouring one's heart out. "The three times that I kissed her, I was...twelve."
Sokka's eyes rolled to the ice ceiling as he dove into his memories. "Twelve...that was right after Katara and I found you in the iceberg...to, I believe it was around a month after the war ended. So, that basically leaves two people whom I know really well, Toph and my sister. In so using my extremely intelligent and fine-tuned deductive reasoning skills, Toph wouldn't be a likely candidate because she'd beat you to little more than a pulp before she'd kiss anyone, and that leaves the only remaining choice: Katara. Am I right?"
The extremely composed way in which Sokka presented his 'case' baffled Aang to no end, and he only managed a stiff nod.
But the warrior actually looked surprised when his answer was confirmed, almost positive he had been too categorized in his assumption that someone he 'knew' was someone really close to him. "Really?"
Aang winced when he deciphered the shock in his old friend's voice, and just nodded again, only with difficulty. Inwardly, he wondered how Sokka could not have ever noticed.
Sokka frowned, contemplating, voicing his thoughts only with a low, "Hmm..."
Anxiety was flourishing in Aang's heart. He couldn't bear to stand the silence, or that puzzled, thoughtful look on Sokka's face. "So..." he began hesitantly, "Are you...okay? That is, I mean, are you...well..."
The warrior glanced toward the stuttering airbender with a compassionate expression. The Avatar, he who, in the face of the enemy, would stand tall and intimidating, yet in asking for Sokka's permission to court his sister, he faltered and fell. It was a comical thought, but Sokka refrained from laughing, not desiring to cause his friend further embarrassment. He sighed. "Look, Aang," Sokka moved forward, and placed a hand on the airbender's shoulder in a brotherly gesture. "Do you believe me when I say I trust you with my life?"
Aang glanced at his friend curiously. "I...guess so," he shrugged.
Sokka closed his eyes. "Then you should have no trouble taking my word for it when I tell you that you are the most trustworthy person I know, and therefore I don't doubt that you'll take the best and most considerate care of my sister."
Aang's face broke into a relieved smile. "Really?"
"Really," Sokka nodded the affirmative. He moved away abruptly, hopping to his feet and reaching toward the door. With a sharp tug, the boomerang was free from its icy constraints, and Sokka tossed it toward Aang.
The airbender ducked as the weapon zinged overhead, barely suppressing a gasp of surprise.
The warrior caught it deftly on its return flight, and he looked at his friend, who had sprung from the floor. "Enough mushy stuff," Sokka laughed, "Up for another game?"
"You know it," Aang replied with a grin.
A/N:
