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Various misunderstandings involving penguins
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After dinner, Zuko and I went down to the beach to let of steam again. We always make time to do this, no matter how weird/wacky/tiring the day has been. Normally we call it a draw after a while but tonight we ended up in a eerr ….compromising position. We were rolling about on the sand and somehow, I don't even know how, Zuko ended up on top, straddling me. How did he do that?
He is so wily.
Anyway he was on top of me and we were just looking at each other and our faces were really close and instead of thinking get off me now my brain was just whirring and going this is the hottest thing ever! And my stomach was doing this weird smushing thing. It's a weird feeling. I don't know how to describe it.
Anyway we stayed like that for a moment and I have a horrible suspicion that I had the dopiest smile on my face. Zuko smiled back at me and then seemed to realise the..eerr compromising nature of our position. His eyes widened and he blushed scarlet and got off me really quickly. He reached out a hand to help me up and we brushed the sand off each other and walked back to the house.
-?-
Zuko made us some tea and we drank it together on the verandah. Zuko asked me how Aang had seemed to me today. Hmmm... Aang seemed, I wasn't really really sure. He's definitely in a funny mood. Zuko asked if Aang had asked me heaps of really personal questions during training. In all honesty, he had not. Zuko said he hadn't asked Toph any either. I said that I guessed it was just him who had the joys of answering Aang's personal questions about love. And he said lucky me quite sarcastically and then looked startled and said wait, did you hear what he was asking me? with some alarm. I tried to act nonchalant and said I hadn't really been listening (just a little white lie) and that I had just assumed that's what Aang would be asking about-because he'd asked Sokka and Suki about love all afternoon. And that Sokka had answered him by talking at length about penguins.
Zuko smiled and said from what he overheard of Sokka and Aang's conversation, Sokka has an unhealthy obsession with penguins.
He asked me how waterbending training had gone and I told him about the iceboard surfing. He said that he and Toph had been talking. They both thought that Aang was getting too tense and frustrated with their respective bendings. They agreed that it might do him some good to practice another bending that he was really good at. Being good at something was always a confidence boost. Zuko is of the opinion that airbending and waterbending both came quite easily to Aang. He thought a large part of the reason why Aang got really frustrated with earth and fire was because they did not come naturally to him at all.
They had created a schedule with Sokka, (Sokka loves schedules) and he thought it would be better if there was more waterbending on it. He was wondering if I would be willing to waterbend with Aang three times a week (Well initially he thought only twice a week would be sufficient but we have had a bit of negotiations regarding this. Twice a week is not enough for any improvement! But more than three times will eat into precious firebending time.) I have agreed. We got out the schedule and made a few changes to it and Zuko left a little note to Sokka that apologised for messing with the schedule.
Sokka hates it when people do that.
-?-
Sokka has had a weird dream. Which he told us (Me and Zuko) about this morning over breakfast.
At length.
He dreamed that Suki turned into a penguin while they were making out and Suki was just this penguin with red hair. Zuko looked a little aghast at this conversation and just said a penguin? You big pervert! Sokka got a bit defensive and said it's not like he enjoyed the Suki/penguin dream. Because I felt like teasing him I said there was a lot of truth in dreams. Then it was Sokka's turn to look aghast. He asked if I was implying that he fantasised about penguins and I grinned and said yes, deep deep down. He said the penguin-ness was not the point of the dream, because he was a penguin too. But that the Suki/penguin had given him a bag of fireflakes to look after. Sokka, in penguin form, had sat on it and then the Suki/penguin had swanned off with me (I am also a penguin in Sokka's dream) and he'd been left alone sitting on this bag of fireflakes.
Zuko said that he worried about Sokka in a very condescending tone and I chipped in that penguin fantasies are not exactly normal and I'd certainly never dreamed about snogging penguins. Sokka replied that I had been the one who dreamed about grand master Pakku dressed up like a Ba Sing Se show girl and doing a naughty dance for the whole northern water tribe.
Okay that was me.
But I had too much ice cream just before bed. That's the only reason why I would dream something so ridiculous. It was a dairy overdose. I now regret telling Sokka about the dream and I ranted about how it was only caused by ice cream and at least I hadn't snogged bird life in it ….and that the dress had quite suited Pakku so it wasn't too weird. Zuko was looking at me with that frowny face he does when he is trying really hard not to smile.
I have poked them both with the common sense stick.
-?-
Suki has started reading Love Amongst the Dragons and has gotten quite engrossed in it. I cannot engage her in conversation until she reaches the end of the next chapter.
-?-
Sokka has found Zuko's amendments to the schedule. He is displeased. He has drawn up a new schedule so it will look 'neater' and gently scolded Zuko for making a mess of the first schedule. Zuko was feeling a bit cheeky and made a remark about penguins and sitting on fireflakes. This caused Sokka to chase him around with the common sense stick (which he snatched off me). I proceeded to chase Sokka to get my common sense stick back. And there were shenanigans.
Suki called up that if she had to put down Love Amongst the Dragons and get off the couch to sort us out -she was going to be pissed off.
Toph and Aang returned from training and were perplexed by the shenanigans going on. I cheekily recounted Sokka's dream (much to his embarrassment). Toph laughed her arse off but Aang thought about it seriously for a second. At first I thought he was humouring Sokka, but then he said that the daddy penguin normally sits on the eggs and if penguin/Suki had given him a packet of fireflakes to sit on- maybe Sokka's dream was telling him that Suki had the magical ability to make fireflakes, or that he had to take better care of our supply or fireflakes, or maybe he should eat more fireflakes.
Suki sighed, put aside Love Amongst the Dragons and announced that she was not a magical fireflake producing penguin – there is a sentence I bet Suki thought she'd never have to say.
-?-
So me and Zuko were in the kitchen making tea. We have had an awkward conversation. About penguins.
What is it with penguins today?
I blame Sokka.
Well it started off about penguins and Sokka's penguin dream. Zuko was worried that the penguin dream would come true. I gaped at him in a most incredulous fashion and explained that there was no way in the entire universe that Suki was going to turn into a red headed penguin. That wasn't was Zuko meant. Zuko meant...here he just gestured hopelessly and looked supremely embarrassed. If I knew what he was getting at I would have been able to help him out, but I was at a loss. He fluffed off for a second and made a compose yourself gesture at the door and came back for a second try at this ridiculous conversation. I was sure that whatever he was about to say would be really ridiculous to warrant this much awkwardness.
He came back and fussed about unnecessarily with the tea for a second. He started going on about how we all knew that Suki and Sokka were being intimate but the penguin dream had made Zuko worry that they weren't being careful at the same time that they were being intimate.
This worries Zuko because he is a big worrywart.
At first I thought he was worried about accidentally walking in on them. I thought he was going on about the locking the door sort of careful not the other careful. I told him not to worry, they have been discreet about it so far. This prompted a worried rant from Zuko about how you can't be discreet about a baby. If Suki got pregnant, pregnancy usually led to an infant and what would we all do with an infant. He asked if I was I ready to be Auntie Katara?
I felt a thrill of cold horror go down my back.
No. No I am not ready to be an auntie just yet. I hadn't ever worried about that before Zuko mentioned it and now I can't stop worrying about it. Zuko thought that I should have a quiet word with Suki, because I was a healer and a girl and I knew about babies and lady bits etc.
I countered that he should have a quiet word with Sokka too and he looked horrified. Apparently boys don't talk about this sort of thing together. Why not? I pointed out the blatant double standard present. Zuko said that if a boy needed to talk about something touchy feely he would go find a girl because girls were just better at that sort of thing. I pointed out that he had touchy feely conversations with Aang and his uncle and they were both boys. He said that was different and that he normally looked for me if he wanted to talk about something touchy-feely.
Aww, I'm like really flattered...in a really strange way. Anyway he got a bit embarrassed after this statement, so I could get no further touchy feely comments from him. I have agreed to have a quiet word to Suki about the different ways of being careful etc. This has reassured him somewhat.
In truth, now I am worried about it as well. I think a quiet conversation between me and Suki is the best way of putting everyone's mind at ease. Afterall, I have miles more tact that both Sokka and Zuko put together. If the two of them tried to have this conversation...
Okay, now my brain just got this mental image of Sokka going on (and on and on) about penguins and Zuko whacking him with the common sense stick.
Yeah, it's best for everyone concerned if I just talk to Suki.
-?-
I had to wait for Suki to get to the next chapter in Love Amongst the Dragons which gave me a bit of time to figure out what I wanted to say. She sighed happily and folded her page down and we were ready to go. We walked into town together because I didn't want anyone overhearing our conversation. Suki was giving me a slightly bemused expression but agreed to have tea with me in a nice little tea house overlooking the harbour.
We had a nice view of the boats. After we had ordered and our tea and dumplings had arrived, I knew I could no longer avoid this conversation. I chickened out at the last minute and started talking about my friend, who had just started being intimate with this guy. I said this with an exceptionally pointed look at Suki so she would know that she was the friend I was referring too. She did. She gushed a little about how great it was for my friend that she had found a guy that she clicked with and how she thought my friend and this guy were both really compatible.
I agreed that they were. Sokka and Suki do go quite well together really and I wanted to reassure her that I did support their relationship and I wasn't judging them for being intimate with each other or anything. I talked a little bit about how my friend was the sensible one in the relationship and Suki whole heartedly agreed with me. I told Suki that her sensibleness was why I had sought her out because I wanted to ask her something private. Suki told me to ask away. I started going on about how being intimate was a really big deal. And Suki interrupted me to ask when the intimacy had started -which struck me as a little odd. I mean surely she had been there at the time!
I wasn't quite sure about the date or anything. It's not like I've been keeping track of them. So I just said it had started ages ago. Suki seemed really surprised by this and I was surprised by her surprise. She kept pestering me about the date. Was it before we came to Ember Island? Yeah, I knew they started ages before we got here and said as much. Suki then said something most strange. She said Damnit! I owe Sokka five silver pieces. I was confused. I mean I've never had a boyfriend before unless you count Jet or Haru, which I don't. But surely you don't exchange funds after a certain amount of time. Maybe this was a Kyoshi Island tradition.
There was a slight pause in conversation before Suki asked me what I wanted to talk about. I replied that I wanted to talk about the various ways of being careful when you are being intimate with a guy. Suki appeared a little alarmed by this and asked suddenly if my friend and this guy had been intimate without using contraception. I didn't know-that's why I'd brought her down here in the first place. All I managed to say was that I'm not sure and then Suki came over and gave me a hug and said I should have come to her sooner.
I mean all hugs are good, but this was a weird hug. Something was askew in this conversation and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
Suki was acting quite strangely. She gave my hand a little squeeze and said she was a little surprised and dissapointed but that we would figure it out. Then Suki started going on at length about the various forms of contraception. She even got some ink, a brush and some paper from the front desk and started drawing diagrams. She got quite into her explanations of the various forms of contraception and how it was important to finds one that was right for my friend.
I kept trying to interrupt her politely and eventually I had to click in front of her face to distract her from her rant about sponges vs these tablets they have on Kyoshi Island that you take once a day. When I had gotten her attention I explained that while I appreciated her (long) lecture about contraception, it wasn't necessary. I already knew all about contraception. I was a healer after all. Aside for all the various herb compounds and sponges and tablets, there are a few handy waterbending tricks that Yugoda taught me just in case. Suki was quite confused and asked me why I was asking her about it then. I told her that I was just hoping to impress upon my friend the importance of using contraception. We are in the middle of a war after all and if she got pregnant it would be a big problem.
There was a really long pause.
Suki gaped at me in shock for a few seconds and then cleared her throat. She asked, in a very dignified voice, if she was the friend we had been talking about. I told her that of course she was. Who else did she think we were talking about? She shrugged delicately and just said that she had assumed that Zuko and I had finally got it together and I had wanted to tell someone.
What?
I may have said something rather rude in my shock and surprise. Me and Zuko? Where did she get that idea from. She said that the two of us are always talking and whispering and cuddling and messing about with each other and she just figured it was only a matter of time.
I went on a little bit of a rant about how me and Zuko were just friends and I hadn't bought her down here to talk about my friendship with Zuko. I had brought her down here to make sure she didn't end up up the duff and I didn't have to become Aunty Katara at 15. Suki laughed at our weird and crazy misunderstanding and reassured me that all my worry was for nothing.
There was a brief lull in conversation. I was feeling supremely awkward. This awkwardness was not helped by the fact that Suki really wanted to talk about me and Zuko and ascertain the status of our friendship. She asked if we had ever...and then she made a rather rude gesture. I said no with a bit of indignation. And she smiled and said she knew we wouldn't have yet. And then grinned and said that Sokka owed her five silver pieces
Okay, what was with the five silver pieces!
Suki told me that she and Sokka had a small innocent bet (for funsies). Sokka is convinced that me and Zuko got our nasty on back at the rendezvous island. I asked (a bit grumpily) why Sokka didn't just ask Zuko instead of making childish bets. Suki gave a small laugh and said that boys didn't talk about this sort of thing easily. Then she said Can you imagine; Sokka would probably just mention penguins a great deal and whack Zuko with the common sense stick a bit.
I had to concede her point.
After a brief pause, Suki coughed delicately and said just for clarification, both of us at this table know about the importance of - and different methods of -contraception. I agreed that she was correct in this summation. she said Well that's good then in the same tone that she used dealing with Aang yesterday.
-?-
We we were walking back, I asked Suki what she had meant by yet. Back in the tea shop she said that she knew me and Zuko would not have been intimate yet? Did that yet mean that she thought we were going to do it eventually. Or did she just mean that we hadn't done it and probably would not in the future. Suki shrugged and said she just meant that she thought we would get around to it eventually, when we were both ready.
I protested at this. I had another small rant. We are just friends. Can't a girl be friends with a guy and cuddle him and let off steam with him and want to talk to him. It doesn't have to mean anything more than friendship. And there is a war on. I don't have time to think about boys in that way in the middle of a war. Can't me and Zuko just be friends without bloody assumers making big assumptions and bets at our expense.
Besides Zuko drives me crazy most of the time.
Suki smiled knowingly and said that when two people drove each other crazy the way that me and Zuko drove each other crazy, it meant something.
I told her that it only meant that Zuko needed to be poked with the common sense stick more often.
Suki smiled and said if you say so honey in a rather condescending tone.
-?-
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Lovely wonderful readers! You have reached the end of 'various misunderstandings involving penguins'. Congratulations and I hope you enjoyed reading it! Big thank you to all my brilliant splendid reviewers! You guys are brilliant! I know I've up-ed the awkwardness in these last two chapters, but I think anything involving sex is bound to be a little awkward at that age! I felt there were a few more misunderstandings and awkward conversations regarding sex to be had!
But naturally YMMV on everything!
In this chapter: Zuko suggests that Katara and Aang spend more time bending together. Don't be cross! There are reasons! Aang is a principle member of the group and I still want him and Katara to interact and have conversations etc. even though this is a Zutara fic, I still adore Aang and want him to have a role. I also do think that Zuko primarily wants what is best for Aang regardless of if it conflicts with his own desires/needs etc.
Zuko knows what it is like to fail and feel like you are not good at anything and what a good confidence boost it can be to realise that despite struggling with somethings, there are other things you are good at. Zuko struggled with his own firebending as a kid and I think he would have take solace in things like dao swords and ninja skills because those were things he was really good at. Aang is really good and water and airbending. I think he sees Aang struggling with firebending and he wants to make it a bit easier for the kid.
Sokka's penguin dream and Katara's showgirl Pakku dream are just ridiculous bits of fluff. Sokka over shares with his dream because it was quite vivid and really weird. The dad penguins do sit on the eggs and babysit – but Sokka wouldn't have gotten that from being told to sit on the packet of fireflakes – at the kitchen table he is just wondering if the other guys think he is a big weirdo for dreaming about penguins. Yes Sokka, they do. But I still love ya! It's only when Aang mentions daddy penguins that Zuko's worrying tendencies go into overdrive. I think Zuko is a bit of a worrier at heart.
Zuko knows that he's not too good at touchy feely conversations. Katara is his go-to girl for touchy feelyness and when he starts to worry about a possible penguin baby- she's the first person he tells. He hopes she can fix it. Katara didn't worry about a possible pregnancy for Suki and Sokka until Zuko mentioned it. But she is a worrywart as well and after he brought it up, she would have been consumed with worry.
Suki is reading Love Amongst the Dragons because all the Gang will have a go at reading Love Amongst the Dragons.
So ages ago, I wrote that I had gotten an idea regarding Suki being pregnant and I think I worried a few of my lovely readers. Don't worry, this idea was as silly as the rest of my ideas. This fic isn't going to go an turn into one of those fics on ya! My idea was just that Suki and Katara would have an awkward sandwich of a conversation regarding contraception.
So Suki and Katara have a big giant misunderstanding of conversation. Suki is sure that Katara has brought her out to the tea shop to spill her guts about getting her nasty on with Zuko and is using the term 'My friend' because she feels a little shy. Katara thinks that Suki knows that she is the friend and that Suki is just playing along with the code name. They both get the wrong end of the stick when they are talking about their friend It's only when Suki thinks that Katara and Zuko are doing it without protection that she gets really worried and the my friend ruse falls apart.
***** a short rant about contraception follows*************
I know everyone's MMV wildly on this, but in my imagination, there is contraception in the Avatar world. I just think that it is important thing to acknowlegde. Being intimate with someone is a Really Big Deal with contraception and it is an Impossibly Big Deal without it. I'm very much of the mindset that whatever happens between two consenting adults is their business, but that safety is of the utmost importance. I think sex is a crucial part of romantic love and shouldn't been seen as something shameful. It is a huge expression of trust and affection. However, unless the people involved are well ready to have a kid then contraception should absolutely be used.
So in my imagination Katara and Suki both sensible girls. They both know about contraception and they are both the sort of girls who would be 'safety first' when it came to sex and wouldn't just throw themselves around. When Suki first thinks that Katara would engage in sexual activity without contraception she is surprised and disappointed (and a little appalled). She proceeds to give her a long lecture about contraception. In my imagination they even have options for contraception in the avatar world! because I want to look after the lovely ladies and give them options. (That Kyoshi Island Tablet that you take one a day – is the pill. Because I say so and for no other reason.)
**********end rant***********
Suki is also a bit of a shipper on deck – possibly a consequence of hanging out with Sokka too much. I've given Suki a bigger role in the last two chapters, but there hasn't been much of the fabulous Toph. I love Toph and I seek to remedy this instantly. The next chapter will deal with what happens when Hawky returns with a response from Toph's parents.
That thread was just left hanging in the show!
Til then lovely readers...