The Forgotten Princess (SokkaxOC)

ii. VI

A/N; Alright, here we go - time for our next meetup wih Azula. Honestly, I was probably more excited for this chapter than I had any right to be, but idk I still like this episode a lot. Definitely a high point of season 2 imo.

Anywho, I'm not gonna waste anymore of your time - let's dive into it :)

Katara P.o.V.

"Hey! You guys picked a great campsite. The grass is so soft."

"That's not grass," Sokka explained to her. "Appa's shedding."

Katara grimaced as she realized she was covered in the stuff, despite trying to tiptoe through it. "Oh, gross!"

"It's not gross," Aang countered from where he was sitting peacefully on Appa's back. "It's just a part of spring! You know, rebirth, flowers blooming, and Appa gets a new coat."

Azami seemed to be in a similar boat as Katara when she looked down at the fur pile uneasily. "Yeah, Appa's not the only one," she muttered, plucking different pieces of fur off of herself before continuing to unpack.

"Don't worry, it's just the beauty of spring!" Katara exclaimed sarcastically. Next to her, Appa slowly started to open his mouth wider and wider, and the waterbender only had a second to panic before the bison sneezed, coating them all in another layer of fur. "Stop! Appa, stop!" she begged, but the bison continued to shake his head and rain fur all over her.

"It's not that bad, Katara," Sokka's voice called out from where he was crouching. To her horror, when he spun around to face her, he had a huge tower of Appa's fur piled up on top of his head. "It makes a great wig!"

As if things couldn't get any worse, Aang then jumped down to join him, his face covered in fur. "And a great beard!"

The two boys laughed together, while Katara simply crossed her arms in frustration, unable to believe she had to babysit her older brother and the Avatar. "Well, I'm just glad we girls finally outnumber the boys, because you two are disgusting."

Aang and Sokka both gave her an unimpressed look, before making way to let Toph pass by them. "Excuse me," the earthbender announced. "But does anyone have a razor? Because I got some hairy pits!"

Toph lifted her arms up behind her head, revealing the fur she'd stuffed into her shirt? The three of them just laughed like crazy, and Aang sneezed, launching him into Appa's leg before collapsing to the ground in a cloud of fur. Which, naturally, only added to their laughter.

Admittedly, Katara laughed a bit too - she couldn't help it.

"Did I miss something?" Azami called down in an amused tone. "Do mine eyes and ears deceive me, or are you laughing at these disgusting acts, Katara?"

She just sent the firebender a sheepish look in response, and the two girls soon joined the others in their laughter.

A few hours later, once they were all cleansed of Appa's fur and started setting up camp, Katara couldn't help noticing that Toph was just laying off to the side, doing nothing to help at all. She wanted to snap at her then and there, but she forced herself to remember that Toph was still new to all this, and probably just needed a bit of guidance on how things worked.

So, putting on a sweet expression, she headed over towards the earthbender, trying to appear as friendly as possible. "So, Toph, usually when setting up camp we try to divide up the work," Katara explained, sure it would help the other girl come to her senses.

"Hey, don't worry about me," the earthbender casually shrugged. "I'm good to go."

That's not the point, Katara grumbled. "Well, actually, what I'm trying to say is - as some of us might fetch water, while someone else might set up the fire pit, or put up the tent." Thankfully, Momo flied in with the nuts he'd collected, proving her point further. "Even Momo does his fair share."