Book 3: Fire (Sokka Love Story)

Book 3: Chapter 4: Pain, Bread, and... D'oh!

Sokka snorts, rolling his eyes. "Right, yeah, they've completely accepted it."

He turns his back to her and leans back against the rim of the crater and nods his head to Katara, who is obsessively rolling water along her hands, eyes flicking to each movement whip-quick. "See Katara? She is having a mental breakdown because she can't tell whether you're telling the truth or not. Needless to say, my word means absolutely nothing to her, that useless rat-toad."

Next he turns his gaze to Aang, who looks normal for a steady period of time before suddenly pausing for a couple of seconds, and then he returns to splashing around. "Aang there keeps realizing small things about you that perfectly fits your story and it's... it's messing with his head; he has a crazy look in his eyes, but he's also trying to justify the fact that such a thing as universe travel isn't possible. I can't wait for him to think about the spirit world – oh, he's got there already." Aang had frozen, mouth gaping at the water.

(Y/n) finds herself smiling when Sokka turns lastly to Toph. "She is the most stable of the lot. After interrogating you, that is. However, Toph is plotting ways to wring out the meaning of 'fuck' from you."

She barks a laugh. "I'm not telling her anything. What about you?"

Sokka turns his head, smirking. "I've always thought you were a little too strange to be from here. After finding out you're from another universe, I realized that no matter where you came from, you're still a crazy person." He holds out his hand. "Now get in the water, Sunshine."

(Y/) slips off her perch and sighs as the water envelopes her. When Sokka pushes her head down, she startles, holding her breath underwater, and when the pressure is gone and she pops back up to breathe, Sokka is already halfway across the pool, laughing.

She grins and begins chasing him. As they play-fight in the water, Toph suddenly shouts out, "Aang, I know swimming is fun and all, but do you really think you should be exposing yourself like that. Cover up!"

Aang, who has taken to floating aimlessly – probably realizes overthinking would make him have existential crises - with Momo curled up on his chest, opens one eye. "What? I'm wearing trunks."

Toph raises her arms in frustration. "I know...it's your tattoos I'm worried about. What if someone sees you?"

Katara turns to Toph and waves around as if she can see. "There are walls all around us. It's completely safe. And besides, if (Y/n) were truly from another universe, she'd know if we were in danger. Right?"

(Y/n) chuckles nervously, eyes flickering to where Sokka was swimming underwater to catch her feet. "Right."

Toph points a finger in a vague direction. "Prove it."

"Alright," she agrees, rolling to the side just as Sokka leaps where she was. "Metal man."

They all pause. Aang is already gone somewhere with Momo, probably in a water tunnel, but the others are completely baffled.

"Metal man?" Katara asks sceptically. "Okay, my brain is done thinking. I'm gonna nap."

"Not a bad idea," Toph muses.

There's a muffled yell, and before they can even prepare themselves, Aang comes shooting out from a hole in the crater, propelled by air until he breaks the surface of the water and raining it down on them. He plops back in and grins. "That was fun. The ride back up was exhausting, anyone else wanna try?"

Sokka scoffs. "Because I have bending to get me up, sure."

Either way, Aang was pretty disheartened when none of them wanted to try the water slide.