This one requires a bit of explanation. You see, I have a theory that Sokka's goofiness, as much as it is a part of him, is also something of a façade. We've all seen how intelligent he is, and he's the Idea Guy of the Gaang. I thought, perhaps he likes to be written off as a goofball, because it makes him look like less of a threat and then he can surprise everyone. I thought, wouldn't it be interesting if Azula also happened to get an idea like this? This is also my way of rationalizing this pairing, because let's face it, this is pretty much the crackiest Avatar pairing you can get without getting OOC.

Also, Azula's mind is a scary place to be. Even scarier is that I seem to be able to get into her mind.

Disclaimer: Sokka and Azula aren't mine, they're Bryke's. (Not Viacom's, because I hate Viacom.) I'll take Sokka, but they can keep Azula... Oh, but the unnamed intelligence scouts are mine because I don't think they were actually in canon, but it wouldn't surprise me, knowing Azula.

Dork

Sokka had never really been able to leave a good first impression on people. Either his brass attitude got him into trouble or he ended up injured somehow while trying to impress them. But Azula had always been particularly interested in this Water Tribe peasant. Intelligence scouts had brought her detailed descriptions of the Water Tribe siblings traveling with the Avatar: Katara, the waterbender, and her brother Sokka. Azula was not particularly concerned with the girl; she was powerful, but nothing to a firebending prodigy like the princess.

Her brother, though – he was interesting. According to the scouts, he had a critical mind and seemed to be the tactician of the group. Yet he was also an idiot – a bumbling fool who, it seemed, had trouble putting one foot in front of the other sometimes.

Or was he?

Azula found this behavior fascinating. Obviously this Sokka was far more intelligent than he let on; perhaps his own sister didn't know the depths of his cunning mind. In fact, at his best moments he reminded Azula a bit of herself. She stopped to think about that for a moment. How odd that a culture so different from her people and so…primitive could produce someone with a mind so clever, so calculating, so…attractive?

This surprised Azula. She'd never given much thought to the subject of romantic relationships. What was the point? Father would probably just ship her off to some nobleman's son when she came of age. Anyhow, attachments of any kind were silly and only got in the way. Look at what happened to her mother when she'd tried to protect Zuko – she'd never been heard from again. And it served her right, thought Azula, for getting in the way of Father's ambitions. A husband, children, it all just hindered you in the end. What man could keep up with her? All of the males she'd met in the Fire Nation were too pathetically simple-minded and meek, not at all like her father.

But someone like Sokka, someone who schemed and plotted and hid his true nature from the world…someone like that made her reconsider her stance on relationships.