How You Doing Insane Gang!
I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
When they pulled into the complex he was surprised by the number of cars there. Not only that but the ice rink looked to be the only updated and well-maintained building in the whole town.
"This many people show up to watch practice?"
Toph punched him in the arm. "What did we say Sparky? In a town this small we got to get behind something."
He rubbed his arm before getting his bag. The boys went down the locker room tunnel as the girls made their way to the stands.
"Who's ready for great practice boys!" Sokka called out.
The others answered less enthusiastically.
"Hey, hey I've got the answer to all of our problems, guys this is the recruit Zuko Sozin. Zuko this is Haru our goalie, Jet our starting defensemen, starting winger Longshot, and the rest of the lines."
Zuko waved a hand in greeting "Uh...thanks for having me guys."
"Does the coach know about this?" Jet asked, crossing his arms.
Sokka pointed at him. "No. But he will when he sees him."
The team dressed in their standard practice gear: Marine blue shorts and a gray mesh jersey with the same blue wolf claw logo and helmet.
A well-built man cruised in on his skates observing the boys. The relationship between father and son is uncanny. He blew his whistle once. "On the line boys!"
He did a headcount. "Wait, a minute, we have an extra!" He pointed a thumb at Zuko who stuck out in his own red practice jersey.
"You! What's your name son?"
"Zuko Sozin, coach." Hakoda's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I'll be damned, Sozin! It's about time your uncle brought you down. Tell me, son, how did you get here?"
Zuko removed his helmet to be able to have a clear conversation with the man. "Katara." He motioned with his head to where the three girls sat in the stands. "...and Sokka and Aang really wanted me on the team."
Hakoda nodded his head in approval. "Alright, if my son vouches for you, we can give you a shot but I already saw some film that your uncle showed me so this shouldn't be hard for you." He cheekily smiled.
He rose his voice to address the team. "Split into your positions for drills and then at the end, we'll scrimmage."
The squad wasn't near the caliber that Zuko was used to play on. They had passion and personality though, something the state teams lacked. He watched his two friends practice on offense. Can he say they're friends? He's only known them for less than a day.
For a center, Sokka was very selfless. He preferred crisp passes to his wingers to get the goals more often than not it was Aang.
Aang's play was fast and fancy stick handling. Zuko's partner was Jet. They thought in common and seemed to have a similar playing style though Jet was more reckless and didn't think things through. Hakoda had him running footwork and shot-blocking.
Coach called a water break. Skating to the bench with the rest of the guys, he took a towel to wipe his visor clear while chewing on the side of his thin red mouth guard. He basically did this unconsciously as he developed the habit to help him focus.
Sneaking a peek at the crowd, he saw that most of them were female students, and over to the other side were adult men. They seem to take pleasure in scouting and betting.
He had no problem picking out the blue eyes. His breathing seized upon him and only recovered when Jet banged on the top of his helmet.
"Let's skate Sozin, we're up against the first line."
Zuko resisted rolling his eyes. This was obviously the test. Aang was placed on his right. The top goalscorer vs top defensemen.
The third line was pretty useless in handling the puck. It left Jet and him always defending in their third.
Zuko had to keep Aang wide so Sokka would have to make further passes. Aang was definitely faster but he had the body mass.
Sokka failed to see Zuko coming up towards Aang. The forward just stood around waiting for the pass, his stick barely corraled the puck by the time Zuko hip checks him into the boards. Most of the girls gasped. Aang was never hit during practice or rarely during games. He crumpled to the ice as Zuko stole the puck to pass it up to the center zone.
He glanced back to see Aang dazed.
"You alright Aang?"
Hakoda blew the whistle. Sokka skated to the both of them, holding his helmet by his visor. "Dude! You got clobbered!"
Zuko unbuckled his helmet. "I didn't think I hit you that hard."
"Great hit Zuko, but take it easy on practice, we can't be injuring our own guys." He leaned down to check Aang's eyes for a concussion. "Aang, you're gonna have to learn to
absorb those hits better." He sighed in relief, "Little dazed but you should be fine. Practice is over, ice up boys for the game this weekend."
Sokka helped up Aang who already had his helmet off, he tried his best to wipe up the slushy residue on his bigger curved visor without a towel. Zuko looked up to see Katara's fiery staredown. He gulped.
Oh boy...
They stripped down and out of their gear. The girls were waiting outside the locker room. Katara had her arms crossed, foot tapping on the carpeted ground.
Once the boys were out she immediately fussed over Aang. He blushed as soon as her hands started checking for broken bones.
"He's fine Katara, Dad says he needs to learn how to take a hit anyway."
Her eyes connected with Zuko. In self-defense he raised his mostly black hockey stick, his black tape still covering his longer shaft and in the middle of his blade. Regardless, she pushed at his shoulder.
"You didn't have to go so hard at him."
Toph snorted, "Says you, I thought it was a solid hit Sparky. I could feel the vibrations through my toes the whole way up to my seat."
"I'm used to playing at this pace, this team has a lot to learn to be on a championship level." He brushed past Katara to head home.
It wasn't until he was in bed that he began kicking himself for being too cold. But he knew it was necessary to get the team where they want to be.
I am also accepting requests for one-shots in the canon universe so if you guys have any feel free to comment down below or PM me.
Stay Crazy.