Chapter 15: Born Lucky

An abrasive blast from an airhorn signaled the start of the race. As it turned out, this wasn't your average racecourse. The student council had set out an entire obstacle course, complete with ropes, tires, walls, and hurdles, the first of which was a cargo net climb.

Ty Lee, Katara, and Mai darted ahead, taking an early lead, with Jet and Sokka trailing right behind them up and over the rope wall. Several other students were competing as well, but all Jet cared about was making sure Sokka came in first so he could steal the prize of first dance with Azula, the crowned Queen of the talent show.

"Come on, slowpoke!" Jet taunted. "Is that all you got?"

Sokka had his game face on as he soared over the low hurdles like a cat-deer.

Ty Lee found herself in first place after the third obstacle, the balance beam. However, Jet and Sokka had just caught up to Mai and Katara at this point, while some other students started dropping like flies.

"Hey, Katara," Jet said flirtatiously. "Didn't realize you wanted to dance with Zuko so badly."

"Wrong sibling," she smiled, focusing on the course ahead.

"Wait, really?"

"I want to make sure Azula is okay after, well, you know. She took it pretty hard."

"That's really nice of – "

"Isn't that why you're taking this so seriously?" she asked, wiping sweat off her brow.

"What? No way!" Jet teased. "Zuko's the only king for me."

"Blech!" Sokka groaned, pushing ahead.

Katara giggled.

Unfortunately, come the stutter-step tires, disaster struck.

"Oww!" Sokka yelped as he tripped and fell awkwardly to the grass, seething in pain.

"Sokka!" Katara gasped, rushing to his side.

"My ankle, my ankle, ahh, damn it!"

"You guys go on ahead," Katara called, tending to her brother. "Go win this race for Azula and Zuko!"

Jet nodded before sprinting off. He was always taken aback by Katara's selfless and maternal nature. Well, with Sokka out of the race, that only meant one thing. He had to be the first one to cross that finish line. He wasn't going to let Azula's first dance be ruined by some random student. It had to be perfect. Nothing was going to stand in his way.

He raced side-by-side with Mai to the next obstacle, the tiger-monkey bars. Other students were close behind.

"Hey," he said, panting.

"Hey."

"Look, I… I hate that we don't talk much anymore. Not since…"

"I know," Mai cut him off. "Me too."

"You were right, by the way. About Ursa."

"Not entirely…"

"Huh?"

"Ursa only left because Azula and Zuko's half-sister fell on the tiger-monkey bars, just like these," she grunted before jumping up to the first bar. "She had to go to the emergency room."

"Oh." Jet hopped up behind her. "Still, she could have at least stayed until intermission."

"Yeah." She paused. "Anyway, I'm sorry."

"Look, if anyone should be apologizing around here, it's me. I overstepped – "

"I forgive you," she said, hopping off the bars and smiling back at him.

He grinned.

The last obstacle was up ahead, an 8-foot wall climb. Ty Lee had a narrow lead.

Jet and Mai hopped the wall at the same time, but other students were coming in steadily behind them, too close for comfort. And then Ty Lee did something miraculous.

She spun around and threw her arms wide open, blocking everyone behind the trio from getting past. "GO!" Ty Lee screeched, acting as a human barricade. "Azula and Zuko need you!"

"Thanks, Ty!" Jet shouted before turning his attention back to Mai, who was smiling affectionately at the contortionist. "Hey, come on. Let's win this thing!" Without thinking, he extended his hand. And to his surprise, she took it.

Coming in first place, Jet and Mai crossed the finish line, holding hands.

"So," Azula smirked as she swayed with Jet on the dancefloor, "I couldn't help but notice how aggressively you raced today. You must have really wanted to dance with me."

He chuckled. "Maybe I just wanted to be crowned Prince. Couldn't hurt with the ladies, you know."

"Whatever you say, Prince Jet."

"Fitting that the Prince and Princess would get to share the first dance, isn't it?"

"I keep telling you not to call me that. And besides, today I'm the Queen." She grinned.

"Yeah, yeah," he smiled, laughing softly. "Does that make you my mom or something?"

"Don't make it weird."

His laughter grew.

They were quiet for a moment as they continued to dance, holding each other closely. Azula stole a quick glance at Zuko and Mai who were slow dancing nearby. They seemed content, though a bit uncomfortable. Probably because neither of them enjoyed dancing or being the center of attention.

"By the way… you look beautiful tonight," Jet said quietly.

"I know."

He groaned.

"You clean up nicely too," she smiled.

"I know."

She rolled her eyes.

As the song ended, he pulled her into a dip, gazing into her eyes with a cocky smirk plastered to his face.

"Smooth," she said sarcastically.

"Yeah. I know you want me," he teased.

"Ugh."

"Hey," he said looking slightly past her, "Looks like someone else is waiting to sweep you off your feet…"

She turned her head over her shoulder to see Sokka standing there in a navy-blue suit and tie. All she could do was smile.

"Well, I'll leave you to it," Jet grinned, pulling her back up on two feet.

"Thanks," she whispered.

Sokka extended his hand. "Mind if I steal you away for the next dance?"

"It would be my pleasure." She graciously took his hand, and he pulled her close.

"You say that now, but once you see how little I can move…"

"Your ankle, that's right! You shouldn't even be dancing!"

"I know. Probably not the wisest decision on my part, but I wasn't about to let a little sprain ruin the night."

"I hope it's not too bad once the swelling goes down some."

"Thanks," he smiled. "Let's just dance real slow, okay?"

"Okay," she breathed, wrapping her arms around his neck. She had no problem with this arrangement. His hands were on her waist, and with her stiletto heels on, they were able to dance cheek-to-cheek. This was heaven.

As she moved with him to the music, as carefully as possible, she noticed that Jet had found a new dance partner as well: Katara. Azula caught his eye for a moment and raised an eyebrow. He shrugged nonchalantly in response. Katara seemed plenty happy to be dancing with him, but Azula hoped that Katara wouldn't just become Jet's rebound.

Zuko and Mai were still dancing together, and Ty Lee unsurprisingly had a sea of boys around her, all vying for her attention. She was just eating it up.

"You look beautiful tonight," Sokka whispered into her ear.

For a second, Azula was struck with some serious déjà vu. "Thank you, Sokka," she whispered back. "You look quite – "

"Ravishing?" he finished for her, joking. "I know."

She laughed. "I was going to say handsome, but… you're not wrong." With her cheek pressed to his, she felt him smile.

"Your performance was phenomenal, by the way. I've never seen blue fire like that before. It's mesmerizing."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it. Your slam poetry was… actually quite inspiring."

"You really think so? Most of the student body seemed bored."

"That's because they didn't get it. All the metaphors and wordplay."

"But you got it? Ah, who am I kidding, of course you did."

"It was about your mother."

"It was," he nodded. "Speaking of… I'm really sorry about – "

"I don't want to talk about that right now, if that's alright."

"Understood. We'll just dance then. If you can even call this dancing." He chuckled.

"Best dance I've had all night."

"I'm telling Jet you said that," he teased.

"Please do," she laughed.

Like all good things, the song eventually came to an end. Of course, Sokka did not end the dance with a dip due to his injury, but instead took both of Azula's hands in his and raised one to his mouth, placing the softest of kisses to the back of it. Azula's cheeks immediately went hot.

"It was an honor to dance with you, Queen Azula." He playfully bowed.

"The honor was all mine," she smiled, curtsying.

The rest of the dance was way more fun than Azula had anticipated. As it turned out, being Queen turned her into the lady of the hour; students were lining up to dance with her all night. Zuko seemed equally as popular, though he probably didn't appreciate it as much. In addition to Jet and Sokka, Azula also got to dance with Mai, Ty Lee, Katara, and even her brother. In fact, throughout the night, pretty much every permutation of pairings within her friend group ended up sharing a dance. The only exceptions to this were with Sokka, who was too injured to dance with everyone, and Mai, who just didn't care for dancing. Besides Zuko, Ty Lee and Jet were the only two who were able to convince Mai to dance with them.

Sokka spent most of the evening nursing his ankle, but Azula did not fail to notice him dancing with Suki at one point. While that did evoke some strong feelings of jealousy, Azula also saw Sokka dance in a similar manner with Zuko, so perhaps it didn't mean anything after all. And even if it did, nothing would take away from her dance with him. She could still feel his lips pressed to the back of her hand. If only she could feel his lips pressed to her own once more.

"It's stupid, it's just so stupid," Azula grumbled. "They're lucky BSSU has a no bending policy or else I would have committed some major arson already."

Zuko gave her a pitying look.

"The talent show was supposed to make them fear me, not… not this!" She let out a melodramatic sigh.

In all honesty, Jet found the whole situation funny. The morning after the school dance, a rumor started circulating that Azula was some sort of good-luck charm, that touching her would grant one wish of happiness. Apparently several students who danced with her that night had something good happen to them. One student found a long-lost personal belonging, another got asked out by their crush, someone reconnected with an old friend, someone else achieved some academic award… of course, it was purely coincidental, but with the widespread use of social media, people started drawing conclusions. As a result, students had been following Azula around all day, hoping to "accidentally" bump into her in the hope of getting their wish.

And because of this, Azula was hiding out in his house, lying on her back on the couch as if she were in a therapist's office. Zuko was on the beanbag chair, Jet was sitting on the floor, and Sokka was… Jet actually had no idea where he was. Maybe the fencing armory.

"Everywhere I go, randos have been patting me on the head like I'm some sort of pet!"

Jet snickered.

"It's not funny!"

"It's kinda funny – "

"Well Father always said you were born lucky," Zuko stepped in.

"What are you saying, Zuzu?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Maybe it's true?"

"Well, I danced with both of you last night. Did anything lucky happen to you?"

Come to think of it, Jet had found twenty dollars in his jacket pocket this morning, but he decided to keep quiet.

"Yeah, actually," Zuko said. "I caught a shiny Pokémon earlier today – "

Sokka opened the front door looking like absolute hell. He was pale and dazed; he looked as if he had just been slapped across the face several times.

"Hey, are you okay?" Zuko asked.

He just stood there in the door shaking his head.

"What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Jet, Azula, and Zuko all looked at each other with concern.

"Is there anything we can do?" Jet asked.

"No. I just want to sit."

"Here," Azula said, sitting up and shifting over on the couch.

Sokka slowly dragged himself over to the couch and lay down on his side, placing his head on Azula's lap.

Her eyes went wide. "Umm…" Tentatively, she started stroking his hair. "This okay?"

He nodded.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell us – " Jet started.

"I'm sure."

"Hey, I know." Zuko pulled out his cellphone. "How about I order us some pizzas for dinner? How does that sound?"

"Good," Sokka murmured.

Jet was always impressed by Zuko's mindreading abilities when it came to Sokka. He always knew just the right thing to make his friend feel better.

"Pepperoni, sausage, and bacon," Sokka added.

Zuko smiled softly. "Coming right up."

The rest of the gang came over when the pizzas arrived, fully briefed that Sokka was going through something and wasn't in the mood to talk. Everyone had the decency not to press him about it.

Azula's thoughts were spiraling with what could possibly be going on with him. Was it school-related? Family-related? Friend-related? Was it… girl-related? Well whatever it was, it sure didn't seem to affect his appetite at the very least.

Sokka barely said two words during dinner, but after all the pizza was gone, he finally addressed the group. "You guys…"

Everyone turned toward him.

"…if touching Azula truly granted one wish of happiness, what would you wish for?"

It seemed Sokka still wasn't ready to share what was on his mind, but at least he was talking.

"Ooh, I know!" Ty Lee said excitedly. "I'd wish for a beautiful girlfriend!"

"You'll find one, Ty!" Katara smiled. "I just know it!"

Ty Lee smiled back.

"For me," Katara continued, "well, that's easy. I'd wish I could talk to my mom one more time…"

Ty Lee got up from the table to give her a hug.

"I'd also love to be able to talk to my parents one more time, but…" Jet paused. "…after growing up bouncing around different foster homes, I'd wish for a stable life."

Zuko nodded. "Along those lines, I'd wish for a normal family, like the one Kiyi gets to have. I wish Azula and I could have that too." He turned to his girlfriend. "How about you, Mai?"

"I… I'd wish for… courage."

"Courage?" Ty Lee asked.

"Courage to live authentically," Mai said quietly.

"What do you mean by – "

Mai quickly turned to Sokka. "What would you wish for?"

A weak laugh escaped his lips. "Right now? Probably more pizza."

The group laughed, but Azula, and probably her other friends as well, could tell he just wanted to feel better and move past whatever was souring his mood. If only Azula really were a good-luck charm. Wouldn't that be something? Because if she were, well…

She would wish for somebody to love her.

Author's Note: So sorry to have to do this again, but I'm going to take another hiatus (shorter this time) from this story so I can work on my Sokkla story for the Sokkla Gift Exchange 2021. I find it difficult to work on two different stories at the same time. Thanks for your support, and thank you for reading! Have a very Happy New Year!