Reality?
…Nothing…
…because Suki and Ty Lee barged in almost immediately, and Suki stopped the spinner by picking up Azula's hair pin before it could land on anything.
Sokka's eyes doubled in size. His mouth fell open as if he were about to scream, but nothing came out.
"Are you joking me right now?! You don't have time for games. Don't you hear Izumi crying?!" Suki shouted before abruptly singling out Aang. "You. Go."
"M-Me?!" Aang squeaked.
"You're going to become a dad any day now – you need this experience the most."
"I – Yes ma'am," Aang sighed, hanging his head as he dragged his feet out of the dining room.
"Ehhh…" Toph pointed in the direction of Sokka, who remained silent and slack jawed. "…what's up with him? He seems… weird, well, weirder than usual anyway."
"You…" Sokka started, slowly turning his head toward his ex-girlfriend. "You ruined the game! Now we'll never know what would have happened!"
"What would have happened?" Suki asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The timelines," Azula muttered, rolling her eyes. She could tell Sokka wasn't actually upset, but was just playing up the drama to be funny.
"The timelines!" Sokka vehemently confirmed.
"The timelines?" Ty Lee wrinkled her nose in confusion. "I don't get it."
"We decided to leave it to fate to decide who got to take care of Izumi by using this wheel of elements," Azula explained, gesturing at Sokka's drawing. "The chosen element determined who had to leave – "
" – thus creating four different timelines," Sokka finished for her. "And now everything is thrown into chaos because Suki stopped the spinner. Which timeline even is this?! Are there five timelines now?! Are there infinity timelines accounting for every possibility in the universe?!"
"You can't seriously be freaking out right now over this made-up mumbo jumbo," Toph said dismissively. "This whole timeline thing is stupid – there's only one timeline and it's called… reality."
Sokka ignored her as he continued to think out loud. "One could posit that we're actually in the Air timeline since Aang was the one to leave…"
"No, that doesn't make any sense," Azula quickly dispelled. "If this were the Air timeline, then we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. This has to be a brand-new timeline."
"You're right." Sokka paused, tilting his head and stroking an imaginary long beard. "Okay, hear me out. What if… all the timelines happen all at once, but in parallel!"
"Ugh," Toph and Suki groaned simultaneously, while Ty Lee continued to look confused.
"Parallel universes, hm?" Azula repeated, trying to come up with any logical rebuttal to this theory but finding none. "I guess I can't definitively dispute that. So then, Sokka, what's happening in these parallel universes?"
"Oh no," Suki whispered. "There's two of them now…"
Ty Lee snickered.
"I'll tell you what's happening," Toph sneered. "Absolutely nothing because they don't exist."
Sokka pouted.
"But if I were to play along, I'd say whoever leaves to take care of Izumi gets pooped on. By Izumi, if that wasn't clear."
Peals of laughter echoed throughout the group.
"Ooh, ooh, can I play?!" Ty Lee asked excitedly.
"You want to get pooped on by Izumi?" Toph teased.
"No! That's already happened one too many times for my taste…"
"Ew, you tasted it?!"
Sokka burst out laughing.
"No, gross! Ugh, I mean," Ty Lee huffed, "I want to take a guess at what's happening in the other timelines.
"Go on, Ty." Azula was curious to see how her imagination played out.
"Okay, so…" She smiled. "…in the Water timeline where Sokka leaves to take care of Izumi, Azula, Aang, and Toph would inevitably get into some sort of bending competition, which would eventually result in Toph earthbending a giant pillar straight through the dining room, destroying the palace."
"Yeah!" Toph exclaimed with a wide grin. "I like the way you think! I might just do that anyway. Thanks for the idea!"
"Please don't," Azula said disparagingly.
"And in the Earth timeline where Toph leaves," Ty Lee continued, "Azula, Sokka, and Aang would get into a philosophical debate, kind of like this one about timelines and parallel universes, but about something far more stupid."
"Like what?" Sokka asked. "I don't disagree, but I need examples."
"Like… what came first, the platypus-bear or the platypus-bear egg?"
"The egg," Azula and Sokka answered at the same time before staring at each other in astonishment and then admiration.
"Or, do plants grow better if you talk to them?"
"No," Azula and Sokka answered again in unison, this time erupting in laughter over their shared responses.
Suki quirked an eyebrow. "Have these two always been so similar?"
"I dunno," Toph groaned, shaking her head.
"Now in the Fire timeline where Azula leaves," Ty Lee grinned, "a no-holds prank war would break out between Sokka, Aang, and Toph, until someone, let's be real, Sokka, got seriously injured."
Sokka chuckled. "Yeah, I could see that happening."
"Yeah, me too!" Toph laughed.
"And finally, in the Air timeline where Aang leaves, hmm…" Ty Lee thought for a moment before smirking. "You know, I'm really not sure, but the universe is telling me that Azula and Sokka would somehow end up kissing."
"WHAT?!" everyone shouted at the same time, with Sokka and Azula sharing a brief panicked glance.
"T-There's no way that would happen," Azula disputed. She couldn't believe what had just come out of her friend's mouth. "Toph destroying the palace is far more likely to happen than Sokka and me…"
"Stop pretending I might not just destroy the palace anyway!" Toph quipped, seeming a bit annoyed.
"Yeah, what makes you say that, Ty?" Suki asked. "I mean, it just seems so…"
"Preposterous," Azula finished for her.
"Well, yeah."
"Because," Ty Lee continued to smirk, "during the war, Azula told me she thought Sokka was cute, and he's even better looking now than he was back then, so there's no way Azula hasn't noticed."
"I told you that in confidence!" Azula muttered, her cheeks burning. "And you of all people should know not to share secrets, considering you have a pretty big secret of your own…"
"Hey, hey, hey," Suki quickly stepped in, "w-we don't need to be spilling each other's secrets, now do we – "
"You think I'm hot! You think I'm hot!" Sokka gloated, doing an obnoxious, boastful dance. "Did you hear that, everyone?! Princess Azula thinks I, a lowly Water Tribe peasant, am hot!"
Too humiliated to function, Azula buried her face in her hands and waited for all of this to be over.
"Hey, don't get too cocky now," Ty Lee simpered. "I'm sure you wouldn't want me sharing what you confessed to me during Aang and Katara's wedding…"
"Huh? What did I say? Was this at the after-party, because I had quite a lot to drink…"
"Yes, you were as drunk as a bear-skunk. And you were all like, 'How's Azula been since she moved back to the palace? Hehehe, did you know I had a sex dream about her after the eclipse? I had her pinned up against a wall and she was all helpless without her bending, and I' – "
"O-Okay, I think we've heard enough," Sokka interrupted, completely red in the face.
But Azula yearned for more details. Looking back, that vivid moment on the day of black sun had been one of her biggest sexual awakenings, but she never would have imagined it had meant anything to Sokka. They were enemies back then. She had captured his then-girlfriend. He should have hated her. He shouldn't have wanted to…
"Really, Sokka?" Suki groaned derisively. "That was when we were still dating!"
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to go ahead and use my 'you're the one who broke up with me' card. And not only that, you can't get mad about what dream Sokka does. I can't control him!"
"Fair enough," Suki huffed.
"Do tell me more about this dream," Azula taunted, taking advantage of the turned tables. "Shall we act it out, perhaps? Was I like this?" She dramatically draped herself against the nearest wall.
"If things are about to get gross, I'm outta here," Toph said, getting up and crossing to the entryway. "Snack break!" She crossed the threshold into the hallway.
"So, in conclusion," Ty Lee sneered, "Azula and Sokka are, and always have been, attracted to each other, so no matter the timeline, they would end up together in some way."
"Absolutely not," Azula said at the same time as Sokka said, "No way."
"You can deny it all you want, but you can't hide it from me. Your pink auras say it all."
"They're pink because you're embarrassing them, Ty," Suki snickered. "We should stop bothering them and leave them alone now."
"Yes, yes we should!" Ty Lee strongly agreed. "Try not to kiss while we're gone, okay?"
"Won't be a problem!" Azula called after them as they took their leave. "Or… will it?" she teased Sokka, trying to push his buttons. "After all, I'm – " She threw her arm across her forehead. " – so helpless up against this wall. Whatever will I do?" To her surprise, he smirked and walked deliberately toward her with a look in his eye that read: I see your bet and raise you twenty.
"Actually, you were more like – " In one swift motion, he pinned her wrists to the wall with his firm hands.
Their eyes locked.
Her heart swelled. She felt as if she couldn't breathe.
"So," he chuckled in a failed attempt to break the tension, "Ty Lee's whole thing about us getting together in every timeline, that's… ridiculous, right?"
She smiled, gazing softly into his blue eyes. "Utterly and completely ridiculous."
Author's Note: So, which was your favorite timeline? Please let me know in the comments! As always, thank you so much for reading my story! Until next time :D