ZW 2010 Day 4: Date
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Sokka and Toph Take Up Stalking
Katara and Zuko get to know each other better. Sokka and Toph make a point to keep an eye on them.
"Stop moving! I can't see!" Toph hisses.
Sokka strokes his beard and sinks lower in his seat. "Sorry, geez."
She shoots him a nasty glare. "It's harder since somebody insisted I wear shoes."
It's not like his sister and the jerkbender would recognize her immediately without her shoes or anything. No, they're just as blind as Toph. "Just tell me what you can see!"
Toph rolls her eyes and goes very still. "They're just pushing the food around on their plates," she mutters. "This is boring. Can we go trash a bar now?
"No!" Sokka snaps, just a little too loudly. The people at the tables around them stare at him, and Sokka finds himself nearly underneath his own table, sliding off his chair. "We have to keep an eye on my sister and that jerkbender."
Toph sticks her lower lip out and slumps, resting her chin on her hand. "Nothing's going to happen, you dolt. Zuko's as dangerous as a baby turtleduck."
"Exactly!" Sokka says, jerking up in the seat. "That's just what Katara's going to think, and then she's gonna get all baby sabertooth moose-lion eyed over him, and that's when he'll strike!"
Toph scoffs. "Zuko's going to strike?"
"Toph, I know you can't see and all, but for your information guys like Zuko are always looking at Katara, and I don't like it."
"Guys like Zuko?" Sokka thinks Toph is doing a poor job of suppressing her laughter. "Harmless dorks?"
Sokka is about to respond when he notices a shadow falling across the table. Two shadows, actually.
"Does your brother think we're on a date or something?" Zuko asks, obliviously.
Katara shrugs, obliviously. They walk away, and Sokka suddenly notice the servants trailing behind them, carrying scrolls that look like legalese.
Sokka deflates. Toph cackles at him. "You thought they were on a date."
"I'm just trying to look out for my sister, Toph!" he squawks.
"Can we go get thrown out of a bar now?"
Sokka doesn't see why not, so long as Zuko and Katara are chaperoned.
…
"This is stupid," Toph mutters, bending small figures in the dirt where she's sitting. Sokka glances down at her from his perch in a tree and gestures with his binoculars.
"Shhh!"
"Don't shush me, Meat Head," she snaps.
Sokka presses his binoculars to his face again and strains to see over the tree branch. They're sitting at the edge of a park in Republic City, three days after the founding, and Sokka has decided it's high time Zuko was getting back to the Fire Nation. Or high time Katara got back to the Water Tribe; he's not really picky. His sister and the jerkbender are standing in front of a dilapidated fountain, and Katara is describing Sokka's mechanical plans for it and how they're supposed to interact with waterbending and blah blah blah. Sokka squints through his lenses. It looks like Zuko is less than twelve inches from Katara when he KNOWS an arm's length is the bare minimum. "Toph, can you feel how close Zuko is to Katara?"
Toph snorts. "Far away."
Sokka pulls himself away from the binoculars again and glares down at her. "Helpful."
"They're not on a date you idiot. You can hear them talking about that stupid fountain!"
"Just because they're not on a date now doesn't mean this won't turn into a date while I'm not looking."
"You're turning into a creep."
Sokka gestures wildly with his arms before settling on a face palm with one hand, binoculars in the other. "I am just a brother doing his moral duty of protecting his baby sister!" Toph sees an opportunity. She slams her foot down into the ground, shaking the tree. Sokka loses his balance and hits the ground with an unmanly screech and a loud thud. "TOPH!"
Katara and Zuko come running. "Sokka, what happened?" Katara rushes to her brother and helps him up off the ground.
Sokka rubs his head and grumbles incoherently.
"I think he has a concussion."
Zuko looks at Toph. Toph looks in Zuko's direction. They come to the mutual conclusion that now is the perfect time to slip away and let Katara fuss over Sokka. Zuko does, after all, have a boat to catch, and Toph has an Earth Rumble VII to organize.
Behind them, they can hear Sokka grumbling about how hard it is to be an older brother (no kidding, Zuko mutters).
…
The next time the group gets together, they return to the Fire Lord's house on Ember Island. Suki occasionally thinks her relationship would be healthier if Sokka gave it as much attention as he gives Zuko and Katara. "I think you actually want them to be together," she says, sipping her tea and leaning back in her beach chair.
Sokka looks up from his sand sculpting (he's just finished punching the one that used to be Zuko's head). "No way! Look Suki-" he points dramatically at the pile of sand that was ever so briefly Zuko's head. "-There's no way that jerk is getting anywhere near my sister."
"I thought you liked Zuko."
"I do!"
Suki eyes him skeptically. "Then what's your problem?"
Sokka, for once, has nothing to say.
Suki sits up and takes another sip of her tea. The birds chirp around them and the breeze blows gently, but her warrior instincts are telling her this peace is short lived. Sokka pushes some sand around and avoids looking at her. "Is it hard to see Katara growing up?"
Sokka's expression softens as he looks up at her. "She's my little sister. It was always my job to protect her. I promised our dad when he left that I'd never let anything happen to her."
"And you can't protect her anymore?"
Sokka doesn't answer, but Toph barrels into the vicinity like a komodo rhino. "Hey Snoozles! Katara just told Zuko she'd meet him for dinner at the Grumpy Platypus Bear tonight!"
"WHAT!" Sokka leaps to his feet, whipping his tunic over his head. "They can't go to the Grumpy Platypus Bear without me!" He sprints to the house, and the beach is quiet again. Suki sighs and looks at Toph.
"What?"
"Thanks." Her tone is dry, perhaps caustic.
Toph looks at her quizzically, shrugs, and wanders into the beach house. Suki collapses against the back of the chair and glares at her tea.
…
Sokka returns to the house from the Grumpy Platypus Bear with several boxes of leftovers, looking half contented and half angry. "Toph!" He barks, stomping into the kitchen. She and Suki are sitting at the table talking to Katara and Zuko who, despite Toph's announcement, were not at the Grumpy Platypus Bear.
"Where have you been?!" Sokka squeaks, pointing his finger between his sister's eyes.
Katara gives him an odd look. "Zuko and I were on a date. It was nice." She walks toward the door, smiling.
Toph laughs at him. "Guess there was something going on."
Sokka has never felt more vindicated. But also he thinks he should have put money on this. And he's still going to have words with Toph about sending him to the wrong restaurant.
…
A/N: I feel like I should really start writing more Aang involvement in these stories, not sure why I don't. What other characters do I neglect?
Grumpy Platypus Bear is partially inspired by the Grumpy Grouper restaurant in Myrtle Beach, SC. If anybody else has already claimed that name for a fictional restaurant, let me know and I'll come up with a new one.
