a/n: this chapter is all Sokka, fyi. Think of it as like, an independent chapter. The next will be all Zuko.
***
Sokka:
It's been a couple days since Zuko dropped the Boiling Rock bombshell (not to be dramatic,) and since then... well, I have extremely mixed feelings. Katara would make a list of all my different thoughts, so that's what I'll do.
Number One: I want to go to Boiling Rock. I really do. For two reasons... um...
Number One part A: My friends! The soccer team, who I all love, and Suki, of course. Suki's loads of fun. I would love to be able to hang out with the soccer team for an entire weekend, team bonding and whatnot.
Number One part B: Zuko, obviously. Maybe we could even be roommates... it'd be like the ultimate date, only safe from the suspicions of Azula and Katara because it's school-sanctioned.
Number Two: I'm a pretty bomb skier. I mean, there's not a whole lot of things to do in the South Pole, and most of them involved the snow. You don't just grow up in a snowy tundra for most your life and not learn all the effective means of transportation: snowmobiling, snowboarding, snowshoeing, sledding, ice skating, you name it, Katara and I have done it.
Number Three: Unfortunately, Boiling Rock isn't going to happen, because it costs 3 grand. Zuko definitely sugarcoated the "up north" bit, it's at least a five hour bus ride, and all the kids here are so rich the busses themselves are probably five-star resorts.
Which leads me to where I am right now, whining on Suki's shoulder after practice got out. We're sitting on the bleachers as the other exhausted, muddy teammates leave, the sky giving a little drizzle as if the weather itself can sense how miserable I am. At least someone can. Suki seems quite indifferent.
"Sokka, that does sound like quite a dilemma-"
"Oh you have no idea!" I gasp. "I cannot afford that!"
"Then don't go," she advises flatly, pulling out a handheld mirror to check up her flawless eyeliner. How she can absolutely destroy the entire team in scrimmage and lead the team through grueling workouts for an hour, and still have the most badass makeup is beyond me.
"That's not an option," I mumble, pressing my sweaty face in her jersey even more.
"Then do go," she says in the same monotone voice, snapping the scrunchie on her wrist as she turns to face me, crossing her legs and taking my fidgety hands in hers. "Look, Sokka. I want to help, but-"
"No, that's ok," I assure her quickly. "I just don't know what to do about it. It's so much money, and I can't put that on Gran-Gran. Any money we spare is in Katara and I's college accounts."
"Well, don't be too hard on yourself," she tries to comfort me. "I'm not sure if I can go. Hell, I'm not sure if half the soccer team can go. The trip price is just, a lot this year."
"There has to be something we can do then!" I exclaim. "A fundraiser or something."
"Hm," she contemplates. "The team used to sell stuff at the cultural heritage festival, which is this weekend, but the theme for this festival..."
"Just tell me Suki I have to go on this trip-"
"It's Asian heritage," she tells me, and I have to nod. Suki herself is Japanese, and Nation High, as Katara would put it, is known for its 'diversity.' Probably half the soccer team is Asian of some sort, so this should be great.
"Great, so what should we make? Sushi?"
"No," Suki gasps, a hand flying to her mouth dramatically. "I would rather die than make goddamn sushi. My grandmother, much less my ancestors, would kill me. Goodbye Suki."
"What are we talking about?" One of the soccer players, a midfielder named Kyara walks up, sitting next to us. She must've lingered after practice. Kyara is nice, and a really good soccer player, usually one of Suki's assistants. She's also the envy of many a soccer boys, with her perfect Vietnamese features and long black hair, which is currently tied up with our signature green scrunchie
"We're having a fundraiser so we can go to Boiling Rock," I tell her excitedly.
Kyana scrunches her nose up, confused.
"But everyone can already-" Suki elbows her before she can finish, and Kyara shuts up.
"Already what?" I ask, turning to Suki, who just smiles.
"Everyone can already, um, help! I'm sure we can find lots of volunteers to help," she says. I just shrug, brushing the weirdness off.
"Ok, well, that brings us back to the big question. What are we going to sell at the cultural heritage festival?"
"Fans," Suki says excitedly. I look at her, confused.
"I'm sorry? Like, electric fans?"
"No, stupid," she cuffs me over the head, and Kyana laughs. "You know what my entire family does, right?"
"Cool eyeliner?" I guess. "Killing sexists?"
"Dominating the soccer world?" Kyana adds in.
"Make scrunchies that shoot knives?" I say, laughing so hard I bump into Kyana who is also laughing. Suki does not seem impressed.
"Y'all aren't actually that far away." We stop laughing and look at her suspiciously. "C'mon, let's meet my family."
As we walk to the subway, Suki explains a bit about her family to both of us, and it's nice to hear this side of Suki. We're very close friends, but I've never been over to her house.
"My family has been here for ages," she explains. "They were here when Nation High was built, and they founded the soccer program here, which is why we're called the Kyoshi Warriors."
"It did seem a bit much for a high school soccer team," Kyana muses. I have to agree.
We get on the subway and ignore the looks. We do look a motley crew- Suki, as badass as ever with her short choppy brown hair and long eyeliner, flawless Kyana, attracting looks from every boy in the train, and me, with my ponytail in a scrunchie, all of us wearing matching, filthy, sweaty jerseys. We get let off and Suki guides us through the crowds. I've never been through this part of town, the tiny shops with fascinating smells and even more fascinating strangers almost distracting me on several occassions. Soon, though, Suki leads us to the corner of a bustling street, to a shop with a glowing sign reading Kyoshi Fans.
"Ah," I say, and take in the whole shop. It's obviously old, but with hints of modernity. The window displays are full of the most gorgeous ornate hand fans of all different colors, some metal, some bamboo, some other materials. She leads us in the door and the shop... well, it radiates Suki. On one side, there's what looks like a dojo, where girls in matching uniforms spar each other and fight dummies. It looks like karate, but with a twist- they throw razor sharp metal golden fans into the wall. On the other side of the shop is even more dazzling arrays of hand fans, and a girl hops up to us. She's wearing dark green paperbag pants, clunky white shoes, and a black tank top, and she looks like she's maybe eleven or twelve, her hair tied up in chopsticks. I know that eyeliner...
"Suki!" She gasps, and gives Suki a huge hug. Suki laughs, a little embarrassed as the girl peels off from her, filthy as well.
"Hey, Yori. These are my friends from the soccer team," she introduces us. "This is Sokka, and Kyana." The girl, Yori, bows at Kyana, and then turns to me, eyes wide.
"Oh, helllloooo," she practically swoons.
"Uhm, hi?" I try. "Nice to meet you?"
"The pleasure," she proclaims, "is all mine." Suki quickly ushers her away before coming back to us.
"So, I was thinking, maybe my grandmother will let us sell the fans at the festival. It's kind of a short notice but if we stay here all night we'll be ready by tomorrow."
"I'm down!" I say excitedly, and Kyana nods.
"I'll call our teammates, see if anyone wants to help. Suki, I'm still not sure why-"
"Let's get to it, then," she says briskly.
***
Time Skip: (Still Sokka)
I wake up the next morning sprawled next to someone. Hm.
"Zuko?" I whisper when I see black hair, but then Kyana rolls over and smiles sleepily.
"Sokka, you idiot, I'm not your boyfriend." A couple thing hit me. I remember last night and all the... oh spirits, I never wanna make another fan in my entire life. Also-
"Zuko's not my boyfriend," I whisper, furiously red, hoping the other handful of teammates who fell asleep in this backroom too are still asleep.
"Ok, Sokka, sure," she rolls her eyes, which even I can see in the dim light. I hear someone rustle and I sit up quickly, to see Suki grinning.
"Definitely your boyfriend, Sokka," she says in a normal volume.
"Shut up!" I hiss, but I realize all the other teammates are awake and grinning at me.
"Ok, Sokka," they chorus, and I have to bury my head in my arms. How humiliating.
A couple hours later, we are at the fair, just opening up our booth. My hands are calloused from making so many fans, but it's worth it seeing the displays.
"Kyana, get back here!" I hear Suki scold as Kyana wonders off to look at the other displays. "Sokka, pay attention, we have customers coming. Yori, I knew I shouldn't have let you come put-that-down-this-instant-"
"Relax," I say, giving her a big hug. She squirms out of my arms but gives me a smile anyway, running her hands through her hair. It's a little odd not seeing Suki in her schoolwear or soccer uniform- she's wearing a black tank top, her usual mom jeans, a big baggy green coat with a red, yellow, and blue pattern on it. I also recognize her chunky white and green sneakers. "It's gonna be fine."
Several long hours later, things are, as a matter of fact, very much not fine. We've sold maybe three fans, every customer just walking right past us. It's about 3 in the afternoon, and we're approaching the end of our allotted shift, so we're packing up. I can't help but sink into the heavy feeling in my heart as I feel Boiling Rock with Zuko slipping away.
"I'm sorry Sokka," Suki comes and comforts me. I give her a quizzical look as her eyes widen.
"Why are you sorry? Now you can't-" It hits me. "Oh. Unless you all can afford it and were only doing this for me." Guilt slams into me like a brick wall as the other team members look at me, embarrassed. "Tell me you didn't do this all for me. Suki-"
"Um," she starts, but I don't know what to say. This is so embarrassing. Suki dragged everyone out here for hours and worked all night so I could hang out with my boyfriend for a couple days, and it didn't even work. I quickly tape the last box shut and then walk away, ignoring Suki's call. How do I tell Zuko I can't go? He's so excited, too. There's nothing I can do, though, so-
"Oh-" I startle as I bump into someone in the crowd. "I'm so-"
"Snoozles?" I look down to see a short someone with black hair in a huge bun, a big gray sweatshirt underneath an even bigger green t-shirt, over-the-knee black socks, and tan combat boots. She looks up- well, sort of up, more over my left shoulder.
"Oh, hey, Toph!" I say, relieved as she clutches to the sleeve of my jacket. "Are you out here by yourself?"
"No, I was with Katara," she grumbles. The crowd starts bumping into us, so we start walking. "But my parents came and if they saw me like this-"
"Not good," I guess, from what little I know of her parents. I pull her slightly to the right as a guy in a wheelchair comes by.
"So I ditched her." I have to give it to her, she has guts. "What's wrong?" There was only the slightest bit of concern in her voice.
"Well." It's a long story, but Toph's a pretty good listener, so I tell her all about it.
"I see. Shut up, don't laugh!" she punches me as I giggle. "I understand. You really want to get at it with your boyfriend at a fancy resort-"
"Toph!" My ears turn red, and I'm glad she can't mock me for it.
"-but it's too pricey, and you refuse to tell Zuko that so you went to Suki for help, who felt bad she convinced the soccer team to pretend like they couldn't go so they could help you with a fundraiser because your stupid pride makes things too complicated."
"Spirits, Toph," I grumble at her monotone voice. "You don't have to be so, so-"
"Honest about it?" She flatly says, and I nod before remembering she can't see me.
"Well, yeah."
"There's only one thing to do, I'm afraid," she drawls, throwing herself dramatically in my arms which makes navigating through the crowd quite hard to do.
"What?" I say eagerly, and she pulls my face in real close to reveal the most devilish grin.
"The only thing left to resort to."
"What?"
"Crime."
I almost drop her right then and there.
"Crime, Toph?"
"Shut up, Sokka," she hisses, and smacks me. I look around guiltily at the crowd, glad the nearby crowd control guy didn't hear us.
"Well, what do you want me to say?" I hiss back. "Care to elaborate?"
"Look around, snoozles," she proclaims. "What do you see?"
"Um," I start, annoyed. "There's a lot of people. A lot of booths selling Asian stuff. There's a big dragon with kids in it walking around. Mhm, that smells good."
"Focus, snoozles," she demands and I roll my eyes. "I know you rolled your eyes."
"How?" I ask, but she just shrugs. I look away and peer through the crowds. "Um, there's some sort of like, carnival games?"
"Bingo, snoozles!" She sounds so triumphant, and points in the opposite direction from them. "Let's go."
"Towards the games or where you're pointing?" I ask, confused. "Because you're pointing at a brick wall."
"The games!" She growls, and punches me.
"Ow," I complain, but I cut out of the crowd and towards the nearest one, where it looks like you have to hit one of those things with a hammer really hard to make the little thing fly up- you know what I'm talking about. "Care you explain what we're doing here?"
"Besides my parents not knowing that I wrestle," Toph explains, "they don't know I used to sneak out of the house all the time to do these. Watch and learn, snoozles."
"Come one, come all!" A Chinese guy with an impressive mustache calls, trying to get lingering passersby to play. "Win cash! A grand total of a thousand dollars to the strongest among you!"
"Nobody could do that," I hear someone familiar say, and turn to see Aang, wearing his familiar orange hoodie.
"Um, where did you come from?" I ask.
"I was looking for Katara," Aang says brightly, but then peers at Toph. "But what you guys are doing looks like more fun."
"This isn't fun, twinkle toes," Toph snaps, making Aang jump. "This is going to get Sokka some serious cuddle-time with his boyfriend, it's for a good and important cause!"
Aang still looks as confused as ever, and I'm still trying to figure out how he got here, when Toph drags me forward.
"Hi," Toph says brightly, her face full of surprisingly good innocence as she faces the man. Well, close enough to the man. I subtly angle her so she's facing him, but she pushes me away. "This sounds like fun. Can I play?"
"Are you sure, little girl?" The man laughs, and Aang looks nervous, like he wants to step in. "You might want to leave it to a, well, bigger friend." He looks at me and Aang, and then shakes his head.
"Hey-" I step forward, insulted, but Toph shoves her hand back, keeping me back.
"Well, I'd like to give it a go," she says sweetly, and forks over five bucks. He takes it, sniffs, and turns back to calling other people. I hand Toph the hammer, watching with avid curiosity. You can't see it under her strategically-worn hoodie, but Toph is actually ridiculously strong for a little blind girl. Still, there's no way she could-
"Hey, snoozles," she whispers, and the guy turns to us, but she just gives a little stretch, making him shrug and turn away, back to yelling at random pedestrians. "Put your hand on the back of the backboard." Mystified, I reach behind the glowing lights and feel around. "Feel a switch?"
"Yeah," I whisper.
"Switch it as low as you can."
Trying to look as subtle as I can, I do what she says.
"Good?" She asks, and I nod. Wait.
"Yep." The vendor turns back around again, but Aang is there quickly to distract him.
"Can my friend go now? Please? Please?" Aang asks, giving me enough time to pull my hand out and position myself.
"Yeah, yeah, kid, get it over with."
"Ok, mister," Toph grins, and pulls the hammer back, before slamming it down with such force the needle climbs all the way up and hits directly where it needs to for the flashing lights to go off. She almost broke the machine, and the guy's face is priceless.
"I don't- I can't- you cheated!"
"I'm just stronger then I look, I guess. Beginner's luck? Should I go again?" Toph asks, sticking her bottom lip out a little bit for effect. He fervently shakes his head no, and scampers over to his cash box, unlocking the three different locks and pulling out a wad of cash.
"Just- that's enough for today!" Toph takes the wad, the most shit-eating grin on her face.
"Ok, sir!" She chimes, and Aang and I just stand there as dumbfounded as the vendor as she walks away, cackling. "Have a nice day!"
"C'mon!" I grab Aang's arm and we race after Toph. The moment we're out of ear's distance from him, we begin bombarding her.
"How did you do that?" Aang asks incredulously.
"Simple, twinkle toes," she shrugs. "First off, I always wear baggy clothes, so I look like a helpless little blind girl and they can't see these guns." She flexes for effort, but I'm too stunned to laugh. "Plus, behind most of the hammer games is a little switch that tells the modes. They usually have it rigged, but every once in a while they'll switch it. A game that nobody wins is a little suspicious. So, if you put it on the most non-rigged mode, and the combination of me being pretty muscular..." She brandishes the cash. "Voila."
"I..." I'm actually speechless as she thrusts it into my hands. "I don't know what to say-"
"How about, 'thank you Toph!'" She mocks. "'You're a genius, Toph.'"
"Thank you Toph you're a genius," I say automatically. "Are you sure I can take this?"
"Please," she snorts. "This fair comes here like, every month. If I want I can always come back."
"So is that enough?" Aang chirps, and I have to shake my head.
"I would need about triple this. But thank you Toph, this seriously helps-"
"Shut up, snoozles," she says, and drags us towards a new game. "I can do this all day."
Well, we only had to do it for about an hour. The next game we properly scammed was a dice game, where Toph just had me tell her when they were about to roll so she could slam her fist down behind her back, messing up the rigged dice and properly winning us the game. (The appeal of the game was that unless they rolled doubles, you won. Obviously because they were rigged, they normally won. But not with Toph.) We pulled a similar trick on a game with some sticks, of which there were lots of vendors for that game we could scam. Then, there was a 'Test-Your-Strength' game, where they guess how strong you are and then you have to arm-wrestle a machine. Toph easily won like, $500 at that one. All she had to do was bat her eyelids and stumble around a bit before they guessed she could barely beat the machine and, with the help of a handy button on the underside of the machine and Toph's bizarre strength, we dominated. Finally, Aang actually won the last game for us, one of those where you climb the horizontal rope ladder to hit the button. I guess Toph's name for him, 'twinkle toes,' is pretty accurate, because he looked like a tiny monkey scampering up and down the rigged ropes.
"So, how much did you get, Sokka?" Aang eagerly says as we leave the festival. I quickly shuffle through the bills, and- yeah, it's unbelievable. We're $200 above our goal. I tell them that, and Aang practically jumps around in glee, while Toph just smiles.
"Thanks, Toph," I say, as Aang hops around whooping. "I really- um, I really appreciate-"
"Stuff it, snoozles," she says, laughing a tiny bit. "No problem."
"I think we deserve a treat," I announce, and then add as an afterthought, "and I need to apologize to Suki."
"Nothing says 'sorry I'm a dink' and 'good for us' like custard tarts," Aang says, veering off to the side to a vendor selling the most delicious tarts. I steer Toph over, and Aang was right. Not only will Suki love these, but knowing that I get to go to Boiling Rock with Zuko because of my amazing friends?
Well, it feels pretty good. (Almost as good as these tarts.)