Hiii. I'm back! I feel like I'm lagging a lot on my stories... would somebody tell me if they think my writing process is slow? Hanging on a string here! And also, since Jelosy and Jokes, plus Carrot-Bunny's Avatar The Last Airbender Awards are the only selections, I'm going to take matters into my own hands. Apologies to all the authors whose works I used here without alerting them first. If you kill me, I'll kill you (favorite chess quote!).
When Sokka got out of the room, a few minutes later, he was bruised a bit, and seemed like he was deaf in one ear. He kept tilting his head to his left, muttering 'Eh?' every time somebody said something on that side. Toph found it extremely funny. Sokka did not. Whenever he wasn't exaggerating his limp to earn attention from Suki, he was complaining to the others about Katara's 'female ferocity'. As for Katara, although she had taken out her anger on her brother, it seemed that endlessly large quantities of it still remained. She steamed throughout dinner (Toph was the sole person who enjoyed the new 'Sugar Queen'), acting kind and normal towards everybody, then shooting a death glare at Sokka. After dinner, she washed the dishes violently, then stomped back to her room, leaving Suki, Sokka, Toph, Aang and Zuko sitting silently in a circle. Finally, Suki broke the silence.
"D-do any of you want me to go talk to her-"
"YES!" Sokka yelled pleadingly. "I can't take it anymore! GO! GO GO GO!" Then he proceeded to push his girlfriend in the direction of Katara's room. Suki raised her eyebrows in question, but left. The three boys were left alone with each other.
Katara heard Suki push the door open. Quickly, she rearranged her face into a smile.
"Hey, Suki! What's up?" Unfortunately for her, even if Suki hadn't known something was wrong, Katara's overly cheerful facade and slightly strained smile would have alerted her in a second.
"Katara, you don't need to act like that around me. Seriously. I know something's up, and nobody's liking it. Except Toph, of course. But seriously! You can't live like this!" Sokka popped into the room unexpectedly.
"We can't live like this!" He proclaimed. "You're cooking stank today!"
He probably would have kept on talking, but then a mop of shaggy dark hair appeared behind the Water Tribe boy, and he was yanked backward. The door slammed, and the two girls could hear Sokka complaining. Suki sighed, then turned back to her friend.
"The point, is, Katara, if you can just tell me what the problem is, we might be able to solve it. We hate seeing you like this! You have to pull yourself out of it!"
Katara sighed, then began telling Suki about exactly how angry she was. How much the fact that some random person she didn't know could predict her future rubbed her the wrong way, how she hated that her fate had already been set.
"The thing is," she said shakily, "I think it all boils down to the point that I'm not ready to learn how I'm going to grow up. It was all too much for me! Reading that Aang and I were to have three kids, knowing the gender, even the fact that one was a nonbender! I was just so unprepared, it caught me off guard."
"Then... why did you beat up your brother?"
"Oh, because he made a joke."
"He always does that!"
"None of them were pointed at me like that before."
The two girls stayed in Katara's room all night, then left early in the morning to get more food. Katara left a note for Sokka, apologizing for her behaviour, and asking he pass on her apology to Aang. She didn't tell them why. When the two came back, the Gaang were gathered around the unopened iPad. Katara briefly frowned at the sight of the electronic, then sighed and sat down in the circle.
"So, what are we reading today?" She asked. Sokka nudged Aang, who nudged Zuko, who nudged Aang back twice as hard. Turning red, Aang cleared his throat.
"Erm, we thought that, this time, maybe just you and Sokka should read. Stories about just you two. You know, so we don't have to bear the wrath- er, I mean, consequences, in case something goes wrong." Katara opened her mouth, ready to object, but then Sokka cut in.
"That's a great idea, Aang! All right, people, hup, hup, hup, everybody out!" He said, herding Suki, Aang, Toph and Zuko out the door. When he sat back down, Katara looked at him weirdly and changed the story filters to Character A: Katara and Character B: Sokka. Eyes wide, she waited as the results came in. Sokka was about to click on the first one (Impetuous, by EssaGueraFulo), when his sister's hand stopped him.
"Let's read the little summary down there, first, okay? Wouldn't want me to get mad again, would you?"
Grudgingly, Sokka admitted his sister's wisdom and sat back down, drumming his fingers on the ground. Curiously, he looked up as Katara gave her verdict.
"No. In this one, I'm still somehow a mother. Or pregnant. No, thank, YOU!"
"Aw," Sokka whined. "But it looks so inviting!"
Without a word, Katara began looking at the next selection.
"Hm," Katara mumbled. "A Promise Kept, by Esamitch. Looks pretty good!"
"Yeah..." Sokka said slowly. "'Showcases Sokka's selfless nature in the heat of war?" Pounding himself proudly on the chest, he smiled. "Finally! Someone who understands the awesomeness of Sokka!"
Katara quirked a brow at her brother's antics.
"That was such a Toph line." She said simply. Then she began reading. Sokka had no choice to follow- it was already hard to keep up with his little sister's supreme reading speed. He didn't want to get farther behind.
Outside the door, Toph and Aang were eavesdropping on the siblings. As Zuko put it, they were 'keeping guard', ready to pull Katara out of the way for Sokka's own safety. Nothing happened for a long while, except for a small snuffling sound in the middle-ish of the room that did not sound at all related to any danger in what would be in hindsight the last few minutes. So they were very surprised when Katara burst out of the room, opening the door hard onto Aang's face, eyes red, tears streaming, and Sokka followed slowly, like a zombie, eyes wide, mouth agape. Toph burst out laughing, and Aang glared at his firebending teacher's sleeping form. Next time, Zuko was going on guard duty with Toph. Then he went into one of the bathrooms to check the damage on his face.
Soo... reviews, anyone? And if anyone wants to find out why she was crying, you can read it yourself. You're welcome, Esamitch. :P
