Chapter 2: Fishing for Trouble

A/N: I don't know how long it will take to write this, nor will I promise anything like a sensible update schedule. I go back to school, shortly, and that's going to leave me with a lot less time. Thanks to the Boozebenders for not drowning me in my own Martini.

Disclaimer: Gods, I only wish I owned these characters; I'd be rich.

Katara awoke to the sound of Toph taking some violent revenge on Sokka for some imagined slight or other. The ground rumbled ominously, inspiring Sokka to shriek and run back the way he'd come from. Unfortunately, his sister had begun to rise since the last time he leapt over her sleeping form.

She decided that she was going to kill him slowly. Very slowly. Possibly by bludgeoning him to death with his own boomerang.

Katara stared at the sky for a few long moments while Sokka failed to get off her because he was caught in her sleeping bag. He was still shrieking like a little girl who couldn't ride the carousel when he finally untangled himself from her. So, Katara did the only sensible thing that one could do in that situation -- she grabbed her brother's ankle and tripped him before he could trample Aang.

She sat up angrily. "Stay down, Sokka," she grumbled before turning to Toph. "What did my brother do this time?"

The blind girl flicked her wrist and several small stones pelted Sokka.

"Without doing any more damage." Katara sounded like a rather restrained teacher, resisting the ever-present urge to slap the truth out of a student.

"He was sneaking around the river while I was washing! He's a –"

Sokka cut her off. "I was not sneaking! I was trying to get breakfast! Has anyone noticed that there's no food over that fire?"

Katara sighed. Now that she looked at them, it was fairly obvious – Toph was still wet and looked like she'd dressed in a hurry. "Go get us some breakfast, Sokka. And you," she pointed at Toph before realising it was pointless, "go get dressed."

Sokka and Toph stormed off in opposite directions. As Katara turned to pack up her now-trampled sleeping bag, she heard applause from behind her. Turning around, she expected to see Toph being sarcastic, but it was Aang and he looked impressed.

"How do you do that?" He asked. "I can get entire tribes to stop their wars, but I can't get a hand between those two." He shook his head and got up to help her pack what they could of the camp.

They joked between themselves that her skills were some sort of ancient waterbending secret until Sokka came back with a basket of fish. Toph couldn't be bothered to join them for breakfast, the cooking of breakfast, the cleaning up after breakfast, or anything that might put her in proximity to "that pervert, Sokka". In the end, she was loaded onto Appa's back wrapped in a sleeping bag.

"So what are we doing, today?" Sokka asked, lazily resting against a pile of stuff that didn't have Toph in it.

Aang was quick to answer. "I heard in the last town we were in that there is an island near here with a wonderful marketplace. I could do with something other than fish for breakfast, tomorrow. Maybe we can do some work or put on a show to get enough money for some good food."

"Mmm, fooood." Sokka drooled as he considered a breakfast other than fried fish.

"So, that's settled, then," said Katara, with a smile, "We'll go to this island and see what we can do to get some food. Maybe we can even stay in an inn, if they have one. A real bed has begun to sound awfully good."

Toph finally spoke. "And maybe I can get a shower without that pervert staring at me."

"I wasn't staring! I was hunting!"

Katara looked at Aang and shrugged.