The Outsider- Avatar Fanfic

Chapter 23 - Under Siege

'Oi!'

My snowball landed in the middle of Sokka's shoulder blades with a satisfying thump, leaving a white smudge of snow on the dark blue of his parka that came away with the scrabbling of his fingers. My wide grin met his annoyed eyes.

'What was that for?'

'I was literally calling out your name for two minutes trying to get your attention,' I said as I walked up beside him, my grin morphing into a teasing smirk. 'Off in fairyland are we? Thinking about a certain white-haired, blue eyed beauty who also happens to be a princess?'

'Of course not,' he mumbled, but I could see the pink blush on his dark skin. I winked at him suggestively, but left it at that. I had been teasing him on a daily basis since I noticed Sokka constantly disappearing to do 'activities' with Yue.

Activities. So that's what the kids were calling it these days.

'Anyway,' I said as I shifted my feet in the soft snow, 'you wouldn't happen to know where Aang is would you?'

Sokka rubbed a gloved hand over his partially shaven head, squinting his eyes as he thought. 'Um, haven't seen him recently, no. Have you asked Katara?'

'That was going to be my second question,' I said with a shrug. 'Can't find her either.'

'Tried the training grounds?'

I blew off a piece of snow that had landed on my cheek. 'Yeah, but maybe I'll check again. Pakku might've asked them to put in more training hours or something.'

Sokka nodded, his eyes wandering. 'Yeah, sounds about right.'

I quirked an eyebrow, not missing his sweeping gaze as he looked behind me. 'Waiting for someone?'

His stare snapped back to mine, and he had the grace to look sheepish. It was kind of adorable, really. A boy with a crush is a beautiful thing. I gave a little laugh, but my mind briefly went to Suki. I shrugged it off.

'Alright then, I'll leave you to it. If you see your sister or Aang, point them to the training grounds for me will you?'

'Sure thing,' the teenage boy said with an easy smile. I gave a little wave as I continued on through the maze of canals, my feet already knowing where to go. Since we got here just over two and a half months ago, in the beginning of winter, I had been working my fingers to the bone trying to train up fast enough to meet the end-of-summer deadline. Aang had been working no less tirelessly, although perhaps losing concentration a little sometimes. Momo got so distracting playing with the water orbs that Pakku banned him from the training grounds. Momo took personal offence to that and had since been compiling a treasure trove of items that I suspected were the Waterbending Master's. Especially when Pakku once complained that he kept finding odd pairs of socks.

But anyway, basically all three of us were at the training grounds every day. Katara had taken to the training like a duck to water, pun intended, and was quickly proving Mater Pakku and the rest of the Water Tribe conservatives dead wrong about women and water bending. It was definitely satisfying. Even in the months we had been Master Pakku's pupils, several women had joined.

Additionally, both Katara and I had taken to visiting the Healing Hut at least three times a week, especially when we accidentally discovered Katara's healing abilities. Literally, she had gotten a paper cut and put it in water, when suddenly it had started glowing and her cut healed up in seconds. The head Healer, who insisted we call her Yugoda, had said that Katara had a special healing ability that far surpassed any medical tech from my home. We'd all been shocked, but let's be honest, it wasn't the weirdest thing that had happened to us. I mean, I'm a dimension traveller for crying out loud.