ᶜᵃᵖᵗᵃⁱⁿ ᵇᵒᵒᵐᵉʳᵃⁿᵍ

I did a thing!

“Don’t tell me you were hitting up that Cactus Juice again. I keep telling you, it’s bad stuff, Ryan.” Not that Sokka had much room to talk, considering he drank the stuff whenever he could get his hands on it. He had been particularly excited to see it bottled and sold in the Earth kingdom, though his sister had certainly scolded him when she’d seen him with it. “Let me take you to my sister. She’s got a real talent for helping with the daily aches and pains. Well, that is so long as you aren’t being one to her, so I’ll do my best not to get on her nerves for once just so she’ll give you one of her treatments.”

Sokka lifted a brow, inspecting said item even closer. He knew she was from the Fire Nation, sure, but it didn’t mean Sokka knew everything about the Fire Nation. “And what are you going to do if I don’t? Let me see? Please? I swear I’ll give it back when I’m done.” Sokka had a magnifying glass out as he inspected the rock. It was darker in shade than any of the ones around the South. “Are you sure you didn’t find this in a volcano? And why travel with a rock?” He’d been surprised Daiyu had managed to get to the South on her own, but the South weren’t ones to turn people away who needed help, even Fire Nation. That was, so long as they weren’t a threat and he and the rest of the tribe had agreed that she wasn’t one. Seeing the look on her face, Sokka sighed and offered the small rock back to her. “Fine, have it. You’re no fun with that look on your face, you know.”

“You are NOT going to die, Katara.” And everyone thought that he was the dramatic one in the family. “Toph rode the Sokka-Cycle just fine and she’s blind, so if anyone was gonna complain, it’s her.” He huffed a little as he glanced back at his little sister. “Besides, you jumped off of Appa once, midair, you can’t tell me you're scared of this thing.” Sokka had guaranteed its’ safety before allowing anyone other than himself to ride the cycle. Granted, even having just himself use it was dangerous enough, but it was more smooth sailing these days and fun too. “Come on, little sis. Lighten up, would ya? And I’ll get you to your boyfriend, this was a quicker way to meet up with Aang, after all.”

“Asking you …WHAT!? NO!” Were Sokka’s ears scarlet? They probably were. Thank Tui and La Toph couldn’t see that, but he had a feeling she was going to start smirking any minute now when she realized how fast his heart was racing. It also didn't help that his voice had gone strangely high pitch too. Cool it, Sokka, you weren’t asking her out, she’s just reading too much into things. Was he asking her out? He didn’t think he was. Sokka scratched the back of his neck, feeling awkward and embarrassed all of a sudden. “Can’t a guy ask his friend to lunch without said friend assuming it’s a date?” Sokka asked, a slightly accusatory tone in his voice. “Besides, this place has some Earth kingdom treats I thought you might enjoy. But if you don’t want to go, that's just more for me instead!” He was definitely avoiding the whole asking out thing, well, as long as Toph let him avoid it at any rate.

“This?” Sokka looked at the mentioned blood Yue had pointed out, seeing the panicked look in her gaze made him want to reach out and comfort her. “Fresh? Nah. Didn’t you know? All the guys went hunting and just got back. That blood from our kill must have splashed some, we try to be clean about it, but things happen.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug before finally reaching out to touch the princess' shoulder gently. “I’m alright, Yue, really. And hey, the North will have a new batch of seal jerky meat soon enough. They’re already beginning to get what they need for that, at least that’s what it looked like they were doing before I left.” Maybe he should’ve gotten cleaned up before he saw Yue, but he’d wanted to show her what he’d found down by the beach. “Look at this,” Sokka said. He rummaged in his pocket, pulling out a unique white, almost pearlescent looking shell that had a pretty swirl to it. “I thought you might like to add it to your room, you know, to spruce up things a bit.”

“What’re you going to do if I don’t, pretty boy?” Where had that come from? Sokka wasn’t sure, but he was known to tease, so he figured the comment would get blown off. “What’s written on this anyway? Oh! Is it a love letter from Mai? I bet that’s what’s got you all blushy, eh Zuko?” His mouth tilted upward as Sokka dangled the scroll in the air. For Zuko to be reacting like that, it had to be something he definitely didn’t want Sokka reading. “You shouldn’t leave your scrolls laying around if you don’t want anyone to read them, you know. That probably goes against courtly protocol.” Like Sokka knew anything about courtly protocol, but he knew enough being chief, well … nearly chief at any rate. “Hm, let’s see what this says. Dearest Zuko …,”