Blindsided {sokkaXoc}

9

The Misty Palms Oasis was disappointing to say the least. The ice was no longer a grand ice crystal risen from the earth's core, but was instead a stump.

"Must've changed ownership since I was here." Aang chuckled awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. "Ya think?" Ashton muttered to herself moodily, the sun was already turning her pale skin a light shade of pink and her body ached from the heat around them. The desert wasn't made for her she had decided.

The group made their way past the ice spring and by some sandbenders. One spat at Sokka and Ashton's feet. Sokka glared at the man in response while Ashton, with full force, stomped on the man's foot. Katara quickly grabbed them both and dragged them away and into a bar. There she scolded Ashton who just shook her head at the girl with a smile on her face.

Sokka chose to ignore them though and became enraptured by the slicing of melons behind the counter and grabbed the princess's arm and rushing up to it all the while saying "I don't see anything wrong with having one of those fruity beverages while we plan our strategy." Once arrived Ashton looked at Aang curiously who looked just as excited about the prospect of a beverage as the warrior who still grasped her forearm.

While Sokka attempted to catch the bartender's attention, a traveller bumped into Aang and spilled his drink all down the airbenders robes. "No worries, I clean up easy." suddenly the beverage was airbended from his clothes and the man was quite obviously fangirling.

Ashton soon learned that the man was Professor Zei from Ba Sing Se University that had a knack for history and travelling. But, after that she stopped listening. She began sipping on the drink given to her by katana and neglecting to listen to the group drone on about maps, plans, and destinations. Her grey eyes trailed across the room taking in every dingy detail before they became enraptured by Sokka's face.

She began noticing things she never had before. The small scars that littered his face like light freckles. In dim lighting his eyes less resembled the icy waters of the south pool and instead looked almost like the deep dark sea. His jaw had become more prominent since she had first met him and his biceps....woah.

"Ashton, come on, we're leaving." Toph grumbled, waiting for the girl to snap out of her daze and leading her to where the others were.

"Sandbenders!!! Shoo! Away from the Bison!" Zei yelled, flapping his arms wildly.

"Wait, where are we going?" The princess asked once she reached Katara's side. "To an ancient library...wait we've been talking about this for like a hour. What were you even doing?" Katara looked at Ashton knowingly as the firebender blushed. Deciding to ignore the waterbender the girl started climbing Appa when Sokka reached his hand out making her blush ten times more, but she accepted regardless.

As they flew through the burning desert sky, Ashton only felt her skin grow redder. She was so burnt at that point that it hurt to move and after an argument between the watertribe siblings, Ashton let Katara heal them as they came.

Zei was talking to Appa admitaly about Sozin knows what as Aang sat examining a paper " Wow, shouldn't be too hard to find a place like this out here." he said, handing the illustration to Ashton who looked at it in awe. It was beautiful.

"Does it even exist?" groaned Toph from her place on the edge of Appa's saddle, she was obviously tired of not being able to see. "Some say it doesn't." Zei responded contently while Ashton's jaw dropped, "You. Have. Me. Out. In. The. Burning. Sun. Looking. For. Something. That might. Not. EXIST????" Ashton screeched at Sokka using the scroll to him in the head between words. Katara laughed loudly as her brother screeched apologies to the firebender who looked like she was about to set him, well, on fire.

Suddenly, Toph popped up from her perch excited pointing "There it is!!". Everyone, besides Ashton, crawled quickly to her side only to be met by nothing. "That's what it will sound like when one of you spots it." she said smugly, waving a hand in front of her blind eyes and turning back around. "Idiots." the princess muttered to herself before going back to glaring at the water tribe boy who only chuckled nervously.

Ashton fell asleep in Sokka's lap not long after, basking in his shadow as he sat across from his sister studying the image of the library closely. "It shouldn't be this hard to spot a giant, ornate building from the air." Katara muttered before brushing some of Ashton's hair out of her face and sighing. Sokka only ignored her and continued to gaze around him through a telescope, his eyes widening when he finally saw something "Down there, what's that?"

The water bender only rolled her eyes looking from the tower in the distance and to the illustration in her hands, "Forget it. It's obviously not what we're looking for. The building in this drawing is enormous."

Soon after seeing a fox climb into the tower's window, they deduced that it truly was the library and the group left Sokka on the saddle to wake the princess in his lap. "Ash.." he whispered slightly, taken back at how beautiful she looked simply asleep. Even with her reddened skin she looked like a porcelain doll, She looked like a goddess he decided and he was just lucky enough to feel her weight on his mortal legs. "Ashton," he said more firmly "You need to wake up" she shook her a bit before hearing a groan escape her lips. "What?" she asked, still half asleep. "We found the library." He responded by pulling his shirt on that he'd discarded earlier to resist the heat. She sat up and looked at him, her eyes were more striking with her sunburns, "So, it is real'' He nodded smirking slightly "Well, i'm still mad at you." She said sourly, grabbing her bag from the back of the saddle and jumping off making the warriors smug expression drop as he chuckled slightly and muttered "She's just perfect, isn't she?"