Katara walked into the upstairs lounge of the Jasmine Dragon one day to find her brother and boyfriend poring over a piece of paper while armed with brushes and ink. "Guys, what are you doing?"
"They're making a list of all the stories we've read so far, and what genre they are," Toph explained as she sat to the side, looking sufficiently bored.
"Really?" Katara wrinkled her nose as she thought back on the stories they'd read before. "I was under the impression that we were reading mostly romance tales."
"No, there was The Tale of Kara, which doesn't count as a romance story," Sokka pointed out. "Well, at least not yet, since we all know she's going to wind up with either Aang or Zuko."
Aang held up his fingers and started counting them off one by one. "There's also that one where the Cabbage Merchant tried to kill me, and the one where Chit Sang tried to kill us all…"
"Not to mention having me fall for basically every guy I can count as a friend," Toph added. "So yeah, Sugar Queen, you're not far off the mark after all."
"Oh, I'm sure there are some stories there are not too bad," Katara said as she spotted the Companion on the low table and picked it up. She took a seat on the couch as she browsed through the pages before suddenly stopping at a story. "Hey, I found something! This one's titled Babysitting, and it lists Sokka as the main character!"
"As what, the babysitter or babysitted?" Toph smirked.
Sokka crossed his arms and huffed. "Hey, just so you know, I'm nearly sixteen and find myself entirely lacking of the need of a babysitter, okay?"
"You never know, Snoozles. You just might find yourself being babysitted by Azula or something in one of these stories," Toph grinned. "But anyway, say he is the babysitter: who is he gonna babysit?"
"Mai's little brother?" Aang guessed. "I think his name was Tom Tom or something."
"Oh, please no," Sokka groaned. "Anyway, let's just start the story and find out, okay?" he said as he looked towards Katara, who nodded and promptly began reading.
Sokka groaned inwardly as he sat in the living room of his sister's house facing three youngsters. The oldest, Kya, was staring at him with her mother's sapphire eyes; her younger brother Bumi was playing with a toy battleship and acted like he didn't exist, and Toph's daughter Lin was simply giving him an uninterested frown.
"What's Toph's daughter doing in Katara's house?' Aang wondered.
"Being babysitted by Sokka; it's rather obvious Twinkletoes," Toph answered.
"Hey, those names they used for the kids – Kya, Tenzin and Lin. We came across them before in Sir Sokka, remember?" Sokka said as he looked towards Aang, who nodded as he recalled the story.
"Oh yeah, you guys told us about it before. Maybe they're from the same author?" Katara suggested.
"Maybe, although I'm still trying to get used to the idea of me having a kid," Toph replied. "At least she knows enough to give Sokka an uninterested frown," she grinned, while Sokka shot her a glare.
What in the name of the spirits did I do to deserve this, he wondered silently. True, he had eaten a whole lot of living creatures in the span of his close-to-forty years, but that didn't mean the spirits could go and arrange for three of his friends to have their own engagements on the same night and leave their little ones with 'Uncle Sokka'.
"Don't worry Snoozles, the kids don't seem to be too happy being watched by you either," Toph pointed out. "In fact, it seems they rather dislike you."
"Hey, there's one just staring at me," Sokka responded. "At least I have her attention."
"Unlike the boy Bumi, who's acting like you don't exist," Katara said wryly.
"And don't forget, my girl's totally not interested in you," Toph added.
"Don't worry, I'll just make sure the three of them don't end up killing each other and all will be fine," Sokka said casually.
At least Zuko's offspring wasn't here. Mostly because his family was living in the Fire Nation royal palace and not here in Republic City, but the last thing Sokka needed was having to babysit the complete set of Team Avatar Junior.
"Complete set, huh? Let's see: I've got one daughter, Katara and Aang have two kids -"
"Three, actually," Aang interjected as he corrected Toph. "In that story we read before, Katara and I still have a son named Tenzin."
"Okay, three. And Zuko has his own unspecified number of little brats, which leaves Snoozles as the only childless member of Team Avatar."
"Hey, just because they're not mentioned doesn't mean I won't have kids!" Sokka protested. "Just you wait and see: Suki and I are going to have lots of babies!"
"Whatever pleases you," Toph shrugged. "Just don't tell me all about it."
"I wasn't planning to," Sokka reassured her.
Not that there was anything wrong with Zuko's daughter; as the oldest of the bunch, she was a very well-mannered and good-tempered little princess, and Zuko planned for her to take over his throne when the time came. If she was here, she might even be able to help him out with the younger ones, but now he was stuck flying solo.
"Zuko's got one princess, huh?" Toph remarked. "Well, guess the Fire Nation will have a 'Fire Lady' in the future then."
"In the story at least," Katara said, "because we're not even sure if all this is going to happen at all."
"Usually I won't believe that anything in these stories is going to happen in real life," Aang said, "but this one actually sounds possible."
"Meh, you're just excited at the prospect of having three kids with my sister," Sokka said bluntly, and the airbender blushed while grinning sheepishly.
"All right kids," he said as he pasted a fake grin on his face, "who wants to hear a story?"
"Not me," Lin replied simply, and Sokka's fake grin dropped. Bumi was making chugging noises as he propelled his toy battleship across the air, immersed in his own play world and thoroughly ignoring his uncle.
"Poor uncle," Toph smirked.
"Thanks for your sympathy," Sokka said drily.
Kya gave Sokka a bright smile reminiscent of her father. "Uncle Sokka, we should give Tenzin his medicine first."
Sokka sighed. "Fine, we'll give Tenzin his medicine." With that, he got up and headed towards the stairs leading to the bedrooms on the second level, picking up a bottle of flu syrup and a big spoon in the kitchen on the way.
"So that's why the kid's not in the torture chamber yet – he's sick in bed," Toph reasoned.
Sokka gave her another glare. "Hey, me babysitting kids isn't such a bad thing, okay?"
"I dunno Sokka; you have a history of banning potty breaks for little kids, remember?" Katara smirked while Toph sniggered appreciatively.
"Thanks for reminding me," Sokka said dully.
It wasn't until he was halfway up the stairs that he noticed all three kids following him. "Hey, what are you guys doing here? Just stay in the living room until I get back."
"I can help you give Tenzin his medicine!" Kya beamed, and Sokka couldn't help but smile at his niece. Having inherited her mother's waterbending abilities, she aspired to be as great a bender and healer as her mother was, and never gave up a chance to play nurse.
"Wow Katara, you can teach our daughter everything you know!" Aang said as he beamed at his girlfriend.
"I'm not sure Aang; I've never tried teaching little children before," Katara said hesitantly.
"You taught me, and I know you're a great teacher."
"Thanks, Aang."
"Someone please stop the lovey-dovey," Sokka groaned as he shield his eyes from the sight of the two lovers making doe's eyes at each other.
"I just want to see Tenzin. Mom told me he was sick, but I haven't gone to see him yet," Lin explained. Despite her uptight demeanor, which was rather unlike her mother, she held a soft spot for the Avatar's youngest son and always played with him whenever she was at Uncle Aang and Aunt Katara's house. Sokka had joked on many an occasion before that the two would end up marrying each other, only for Toph to declare that she would never let her daughter marry 'Twinkletoes Junior'.
"I'm with the me in the story: having an airbender as a son-in-law is going to be horrible," Toph announced.
"Then what about having one for a brother-in-law?" Sokka enquired.
"Oh come on Toph, you'll let your daughter marry whomever she loves anyway, won't you?" Katara said knowingly.
"Pretty much, although if she decides to hook up with some emo prince of Zuko's, I'm going to ground her," Toph grinned.
"I'm just returning to my room," Bumi stated. Sokka immediately felt like slapping his forehead; he should have realized that earlier, considering Bumi's room was just right next to Tenzin's.
"Ha ha," Toph commented, while Sokka shot her yet another glare.
Groaning to himself again, he arrived at the second floor landing and opened the first door he came to. He entered a small but cozy bedroom, where a little boy sat on his bed in the corner buried under a layer of think blankets. The boy sniffled once before looking up at his visitors. "Hi Uncle Sokka."
"Hey Tenzin. Feeling better?"
Tenzin shook his head once before burying his head under the covers again. Lin ran forward and plopped herself down on Tenzin's bed. "Tenzin, are you sure you're okay? Do you want to drink some hot soup? Or do you need a glass of water?"
"It's okay, I got water here," Tenzin reassured her as he gestured to a jug of water sitting on his bedside table along with an empty glass. Still not looking too relieved, Lin put her hand to Tenzin's forehead. "You're a little warm. Maybe you shouldn't use too many blankets."
"He's fine, Lin. He's got the great Councilman Sokka to take care of him, remember?" Sokka smiled again as he moved to sit down on Tenzin's bed while Lin jumped off to make room for him, never taking her worried eyes off Tenzin even once. Jokes aside, he could swear by the spirits the two of them would end up married, whether Toph liked it or not.
"Your daughter really does like my son, doesn't she?" Aang said to Toph.
"I guess," the earthbender shrugged. "Although I think she's got reason to worry, what with 'the great Councilman Sokka' caring for her future husband. At this rate, he probably won't be around to marry her at all."
"Am I such a lousy nurse?" Sokka grumbled.
"Well, there was that time when we were kids and you tried to get rid of your cough by swallowing raw sea slug…" Katara began, and Sokka started to retch at the memory while the other two laughed.
Sokka poured out the flu syrup into the spoon and held it towards Tenzin, who opened his mouth obligingly and swallowed it. The little airbender was usually rather disapproving of his uncle's silly antics, claiming they were a bad influence on his older brother, but now he was very much subdued by the sickness and had become very obedient. Sokka was about to give another spoon of medicine when Tenzin suddenly wrinkled up his nose and opened his mouth wide. "Haa… aah…"
"Oh no, run for cover!"Sokka cried as he grabbed the closest child, which happened to be Lin by the way, and ducked under the bed. Tenzin gave out an almighty sneeze that shook the whole bed and flew up into the air, hitting his head on the ceiling before falling down onto the bed again. Looking only a bit ruffled, he bent over to look at his cowering uncle underneath his bed. "It's okay now, Uncle Sokka. And I think you're suffocating Lin."
"Oi, don't try to murder my daughter Snoozles."
"Hey, I'm just protecting her from the dangers of a full-blown airbender sneeze," Sokka protested. "They have been known to fly ten feet into the air on occasion."
"So I'll be putting my life in danger if I marry Aang?" Katara asked wryly.
"Sort of, but don't worry, I'm sure you'll survive," Sokka grinned.
"I am? Sorry." Sokka crawled out from underneath the bed and released his grasp on Lin, who gave him a scowl before sitting back on Tenzin's bed. Sokka looked around and saw Kya standing to the side, manipulating a bubble of water between her hands. "Kya, what are you doing?"
"This water spilled out of the jug just now when Tenzin sneezed, and I saved it from spilling onto the floor!" Kya declared proudly. "I'm going to try and put it back into the jug!" And so saying, she slowly made her way towards the jug with the bubble of water, only to trip over a toy battleship lying on the floor and fall forward. "Uh-oh…"
"Oh no, don't tell me…" Sokka groaned.
This time Sokka didn't have enough time to get out of the way, and the water splashed onto his head, completely soaking his hair. As he looked up with water dripping down his face, Kya burst out giggling, Lin gave a snort of laughter and even Tenzin cracked a small smile.
"Oh sure, let's all make fun of poor dripping wet Uncle Sokka," Sokka grumbled as he grabbed a random towel and dried his face. "You certainly have inherited your mother's talent for dumping water on people's heads," he told Kya.
"No kidding," Sokka said as he nodded his head in agreement. "It seems I'm the one in danger when I babysit your kids, Katara."
"At least it keeps them entertained," Toph smirked.
"That's good," Katara agreed with a laugh while her brother simply sulked.
The olive-skinned girl widened her eyes. "Mom once spilled water on your head?"
"Oh yeah, plenty of times. I remember once…" Sokka was about to continue, but it was then that he saw Bumi standing in the doorway and peeking in, and in a flash he remembered who owned the toy battleship that had caused his head to get soaked. "Bumi, get in here! Why is this battleship lying around here on the floor! Someone could've tripped on it! In fact, someone did trip on it!" he said while pointing at Kya.
"Hey, don't scare the poor kid Snoozles, it's not her fault she tripped."
"I'm just stating facts," Sokka explained.
"Well, you do tend to come across as frightening to anyone under ten," Katara pointed out. "I remember how the kids back home were so scared of you, they always ran off whenever you walked past."
The Water Tribe teen huffed indignantly. "If I'm so scary, then why do you still leave your kids to be babysitted by me?"
"Call it a momentary lapse of reason then," Katara retorted.
"Or the anticipation of your painful torture," Toph grinned.
"Everybody hates me, don't they?" Sokka groaned.
"I don't hate you," Aang spoke up.
"Thanks, Aang. I guess having an Avatar on my side should help a little." And with that, Sokka's face brightened slightly.
Bumi ran into the room and picked up the toy battleship. "Oh thanks, Uncle Sokka! I was looking for this!" he beamed obliviously at a sullen Sokka. "And why is your hair wet? Did you take a bath?"
"He's definitely your son, Twinkletoes," Toph grinned.
"I can see the resemblance," Katara agreed. "But if we do have a son, I'm not so sure I'd want to name him after Bumi."
"Why not? The old geezer does have a few cool moves up his sleeve, although that's nothing compared to me," Toph said smugly.
"In other words, Katara might as well have named her daughter after you," Sokka countered.
"Hey, not a bad idea. Why don't you do that when you have your own daughter with Suki, Snoozles?"
"In your dreams."
"Sort of," Sokka replied. "Now let's just head downstairs and give Tenzin some rest, okay?"
"Okay! I wanna hear about Mom spilling water on your head!" Kya said brightly.
"Me too!"Bumi agreed, and even Lin nodded her head.
"I guess I can come out of bed to hear this," Tenzin said as he carefully got out of bed while assisted by a helpful Lin. "Come on Uncle Sokka, let's go downstairs."
Sokka scratched his head. "Wow, you guys are that excited about me and your mom's childhood, huh? Okay then, come with me." And they all trooped down the stairs for a session of reminiscence courtesy of Uncle Sokka.
"I hate to spoil your fun Snoozles, but I think they're more interested in hearing how their mother dumped water on your head," Toph pointed out.
"You just couldn't let me dwell in my happy dream of being the fun and witty uncle, could you?"
"Hey, someone's gotta keep your head out of the clouds. Wouldn't do for you to keep living in your fantasies."
"I like my fantasies a whole lot more than reality right now," Sokka grumbled.
A few hours later…
Aang tilted his head to the side in confusion. "A few hours later? Does that mean the story skips some time and starts again a few hours later after that last scene?"
"Quite obviously, Twinkletoes," Toph snorted. "What else is that line supposed to mean?"
"Oh. Just checking."
"Do you think the kids are asleep yet?" Katara asked Aang as they crept into their house silently. It was night already, and the moon was shining overhead, casting its light on Air Temple Island.
"There's an Air Temple Island?" Sokka looked towards Aang, who shook his head, equally confused.
"I've never heard of it. There were only four Air Temples in the north, south, east and west. Other than that, the airbenders roamed the world at free will, but there were no other places where groups of them lived together in permanent locations."
"Maybe you and Katara moved to an island after you got married and named it Air Temple Island," Toph suggested. "I'm not much for living on islands, but oh well, it's your house after all."
"I think it sounds sweet," Katara smiled as she glanced at Aang."I suppose it wouldn't be too far off from where the rest of you live though, if Toph's daughter is also here and Sokka's babysitting them there."
"But a good distance away from old Zuko's palace," Toph reasoned. "Ah well, I'm sure he can visit every now and then. Be sure to set aside a comfy bedroom for me when I visit when you're planning the place, okay?"
"We'll try to remember," Aang grinned.
"I'm sure they are; they always get tired out by their Uncle Sokka," Toph grinned as she followed them, having come to pick her daughter up.
"We'll see soon enough," Aang said as they entered the living room, where they found four kids curled up on the floor sleeping soundly while their Uncle Sokka snored peacefully on a comfy armchair, finally having a rest from his babysitting duties.
Katara closed the book and looked up at her friends. "Well, that's the end of the story. It's actually rather nice, if I do say so myself."
"Watching Sokka get tortured by little kids is pretty fun," Toph grinned.
Sokka gulped. "Um, no thanks. Remind me never to agree to babysit your kids in the future, got that Aang?"
"Who's babysitting?" Zuko asked as he emerged from the stairs with a tray of teacups full of warm tea. He set down the tray on the low table and glanced at the book in Katara's hands. "Oh, you're reading stories again?"
"Yeah, and you get a daughter who's going to take over from you when you retire," Sokka piped up.
"That sounds nice," Zuko remarked as he offered everyone a cup of tea. "Are you planning to read any more stories?" he asked as he took a seat on the couch with his teacup.
"Of course! Why should we stop now?" Sokka immediately grabbed the book that Katara had just set down on the table next to the tea tray and started flipping through the pages.
Someone suggested that since the Gaang seems to think that the Companion's stories are about either romance or killing, I could let them read a family-centric story instead. And then a few weeks ago, I came across a fanfic about Sokka interacting with his niece and nephews, and that was when the idea of having him babysit Team Avatar Junior came to me. Reviews are very welcome, and I hope to see you all soon!