Night Changes

Chapter 2: Nothing's Stronger Than Family

"What a dumbass! Did you see that? Oof."

"Yeah, I definitely saw that."

"No one should think twice about messing with family. Nothing's stronger than family." Slight pause. "Well, Vin Diesel's family."

Katara and Sokka burst into laughter; for the past couple of hours, in the comfort of Katara's living room, Sokka miraculously pulled through on his promise to keep his younger sister entertained. How? By pulling out a Fast and Furious movie. Although the series was far from Katara's favourite, she watched it a lot with her brother when she was a kid. And it helped that the commentary he provided every single time they watched it was hilarious.

Oddly enough, seeing all these car chases and street fights were just the thing to help lift Katara's spirits.

But what was even more odd was the fact that whenever Sokka and Katara had their movie nights, they always made a gigantic mess in the living room. Popcorn kernels all over the couch, some soda stains on the coffee table, and pillows thrown about the room. It was almost like they were itty bitty kids again.

"The look on that guy's face. It would suck to be him," Sokka snickered, his blue eyes still glued to the wide screen television.

"No doubt. Who wants to be on the receiving end of Diesel's punching?" Katara yawned, before stretching her arms; after this movie she vowed to get up and move around for a bit. If she had to be confined to the couch any longer, Katara would have a mental breakdown.

"You look a little better," Sokka pointed out. He dove his hand into the bag of popcorn that he made about half an hour ago, tossing a few popped kernels into his mouth.

"I don't feel like puking my guts out anymore." Not now, anyway.

"Good. Cuz if you still felt like shit, I don't know what Zuko would have done to me."

"You keep making him sound like a thug. He wouldn't have done anything," Katara sighed, wrapping the cozy blanket around her shoulders once more. The stupid thing just had to keep slipping. "And second of all, stop pinning that responsibility on him."

"I'm not that stupid, Katara. Need I remind you that he burned my stir fry on purpose the other day?"

'The other day' Sokka was referring to actually happened two weeks ago – before Katara even started feeling sick. The whole gang was over at their apartment for some stir fry, and for some reason Sokka thought that he was being targeted specifically by Zuko.

"I like how you're still making a big deal about it. Besides, it's not like you haven't played pranks on him in the past."

Why did Katara have to be so reasonable?

"I don't think that qualified as a prank. It took me forty-eight hours to wash out that burnt aftertaste."

"Whatever. But you love him as much as I do. You were the one that introduced us in the first place, right?"

Of course Sokka knew that. But it wasn't like he ever intentionally wanted the two of them to meet.

In all honesty, Sokka never believed that Zuko was the type to have a steady girlfriend; he was the epitome of a bad boy in every way, with his amber eyes, dark scruffy hair that reached his neck, and the way he dressed in faded jeans, boots, and onyx Henley shirts. It wouldn't be hard to tell that Zuko was freaking shredded underneath. But even though he was theoretically a chick magnet, there was the burn mark that touched the left side of his face, and it was noticeable enough to most people. It was usually a look at that scar that turned most girls off, and Sokka did feel sorry for the guy because of that.

But if that wasn't enough, Zuko was dealing with family issues (which Sokka did not want to go into), and interrelated with that were his anger management issues. Sokka would know, considering that he witnessed him in action multiple times. How many times did Sokka see Zuko break his phone by throwing it against the wall with lightning speed? How many times did he see Zuko flip the table whenever he got beaten at cards? How many times did Sokka see Zuko being goaded into a fight by someone who thought he was hitting on his girlfriend? Well, when he started being friends with him, these all happened a lot. Too many to keep track of.

But as the years went by Sokka witnessed Zuko mellow out. Sure, he still got salty whenever he beat him at CoD. But at least he stopped breaking things that cost hundreds – if not thousands – of dollars. That was progress.

Still, Sokka always hesitated to introduce Zuko to his sister. Maybe because of the fact that he was an overprotective older brother; what good older brother would introduce potential perverts to their sisters? Not Sokka. He was classier than that. But in all honesty, Sokka didn't think that Zuko and Katara would get along. Their personalities were too different.

But apparently life found a way – one day he just had to throw a party, and he just had to invite his sister, and he just had to invite Zuko, and thus finding himself in the same room as Katara and Zuko, and one thing led to another.

Sokka was kind of right in his assumptions; Katara and Zuko didn't exactly get along well. You know, the whole first impressions thing. It was just like a scene from one of those chick flicks, where someone did something to piss off the other person, the whole room would erupt in screaming matches, but over time they get over their differences, etc.

Sokka didn't even know what Zuko did to piss his sister off so much; one minute he was busy hitting on Suki, and the next thing he knew, Katara was in his face, going on and on about how Sokka's friend was an ass.

After that disaster of a party, Sokka expected Zuko to say the same thing; but you could imagine how surprised he was when Zuko asked him about Katara – Sokka nearly had a stroke.

He knew it took quite a bit of time for Zuko to win over Katara. It would have been six months worth of coffee runs, dining out, game nights, unexpected hospital runs, and movie nights before Katara was open to exchanging social media accounts and phone numbers.

But he remembered thinking to himself that the two of them might as well have started sleeping together: considering he saw all the disgusting lovesick looks that Zuko sent Katara's way during movie nights.

Ugh – just thinking about it again made Sokka want to puke.

"Yeah, and I've been regretting it ever since."

Katara clicked her tongue and shook her head. "I'll be sure to tell Zuko that when he comes back tonight."

"Whatever," Sokka sighed, just as he was fixing his short locks of dark hair.

"I didn't think that you'd still be scared of him," Katara commented, with a sly grin on her lips. "You've known him longer than I have."

Sokka didn't take kindly to that comment. "Scared? Who said I was scared?"

"I mean, the look on your face says otherwise."

"Ha-ha," Sokka spat out sarcastically.

"I was just kidding around, Sokka," Katara sighed in disbelief. Sometimes it felt like Sokka took everything she said too literally.

"I knew that. But for the record, I really don't know what he'd do to me."

"You guys are best friends. I get that. But I'm his girlfriend – and that trumps friendship," Katara giggled, tapping her brother's nose lightly.

"You've said that for the past two years." It wasn't a new argument by any stretch of the imagination.

"Because I'm not the one who's jealous."

"I'm not jealous. I have Suki, remember?" Sokka was quick to shoot down that accusation.

"And when did you start dating her? Last year?"

Sokka didn't have an immediate comeback for that one. "Shut up."

"Anyways, Sokka, thanks for coming over. It means a lot."

"What was that? I didn't quite hear it," Sokka snickered, leaning to the side, cupping his left ear.

Katara merely rolled her eyes in response. "If I wasn't feeling like crap, you know—"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You'd kick my ass." Sokka paused, this time he looked more serious than he had in the past couple of hours. "You know, you should really see a doctor."

"Look, for the twentieth time, I'll be fine," Katara breathed in through her nose, holding her breath for a moment before exhaling; she was trying to keep calm, but it was getting harder to. Katara didn't know when the last time she had the flu that was this bad before, but she didn't want to be treated any differently.

She was about to go on another tangent about how she could take care of herself, but the sound of her phone vibrating captured her attention. Katara quickly grabbed it, and she couldn't hide the smile blooming on her face when she realized that Zuko texted her.

I might be able to come home early tonight. I'll pick something up for supper.

"What did loverboy say now?"

Katara ignored her brother's question, and instead redirected her attention to texting Zuko a reply.

Thanks, but Sokka already picked me up some soup. We can have it when you come back. 3

How bad can I expect the place to be?

Katara laughed; Zuko truly knew what she and Sokka were like when they were left alone to their own machinations. She could just imagine how peeved he would be when he came home to this mess.

Not with her, of course. But with Sokka.

Just a few pillows here and there on the floor. Nothing too bad.

Katara could assume that in the next few minutes that passed that Zuko went back to work. She was glad though that she managed to talk to him for a little bit.

"Well, now that the movie's over, what do you feel like doing?"

It would be a while before Zuko got off work, so Katara wanted to do something else that would take her mind off things. "I don't know. Can you see if Toph or Yue can come over?"

"I can try. What did you have in mind?'

"Uno."

"Of course."