Work Text:
“Kang Sae-byeok!” The girl called out. Her friend, the dissenter, stopped in her tracks.
“Thanks for playing with me.” The diminutive girl smiled. She looked like she was at peace, despite the tears falling from the other girl’s face.
BANG!
Player 240 dropped dead to the ground, a bullet in her head.
Azula put a hand over her mouth. She had not expected her emotional heartstrings to be pulled, despite how extremely brutal the show was. Sure, she had been warned but...Agni, what a scene!
Then she heard a sniffle, then a gasp. She turned to her companion.
“Sokka, are you - are you crying?” Azula asked incredulously.
“Yuh - yeah! How are you not!” He exclaimed as he paused the show and reached for a pack of tissues. Tears were, quite literally, pouring down his face. “That was so sad! They were talking about drinking mojitos and then she-she-”
Azula rolled her eyes as she leaned her head back onto his shoulder. “Oh c’mon, that wasn’t even that bad. Remember Arrival? Spirits, you were going boo hoo hoo hoo,” she snickered as she mimicked his bawling.
She leaned away as her boyfriend loudly blew his nose. After discarding the tissue he looked at her in faux-hurt. “No, I told you, I was crying because we were watching that over the holidays and it started snowing right when the movie ended!” He turned his nose up in playful disdain. “And besides, it’s in bad taste to make fun of men crying. Toxic femininity right there.”
“Yeah sure, when it’s men in general. But I’m making fun of you specifically.” Now Sokka was smiling like the idiot he was and then he leaned forward and somewhere along the way Azula found herself leaning forward-
“Oh hey, you’re watching Squid Game?” Katara’s voice rang out. Azula and Sokka instinctively jumped apart - old habits die hard after all. “Loveee that show,” she drawled as she smiled at them from the other end of the couch.
“Katara!” Sokka nearly screamed out. Then, after lowering his voice and glancing at the ceiling, “what the hell? You’re supposed to be in bed!”
His sister scoffed as she walked to the nearby kitchen table. “We’re not middle schoolers, Sokka, I don’t have a bedtime. And besides, I’m hungry.” She held up a bowl and spoon to prove her point.
“The girl’s hungry, let her have something to eat,” Azula scolded. Sokka, hounded on all sides by the two girls, seemed to deflate into the couch. “By the way, nice kimono - wait. When did you watch Squid Game? You never told us.”
Katara fished out a jug of milk from the fridge before answering. “I watched it with Zuko.”
That seemed to light a fire under Sokka. “WHAT!? When?”
“Hey, dummy, quiet! Mom and dad are sleeping. Also I’m not done talking. Remember when I visited you in Republic City? That night you went to go play detective with Haru and your friends-”
“-it’s called an escape room-” Azula had to stifle a laugh at her boyfriend’s attention to detail.
“-we binged most of it that night.”
Now it was the Fire National’s turn to be suspicious. “Aren’t you dating Aang? That kind of looks suspicious, hanging out one-on-one with my brother like that. Also, hanging out with my brother one-on-one? How can you stand that?”
Katara put a spoonful of Flameo Cereal in her mouth and rolled her head back in exasperation. “I am dating Aang. Nothing happened between me and Zuko.”
Sokka furrowed his brows, all thoughts of the violent show erased from his head. “So that’s where you were that night…”
His sister threw her hands up. “Am I not allowed to have a platonic male friend? By the moon and ocean, I can’t believe you two!”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say ‘by the moon and ocean’,” Azula cackled.
“Shut up. Look, Aang knows and he’s confident enough in our relationship to trust me. And for the last time, Zuko and I are just friends.”
With Katara not giving anything up, it looked like Sokka had lost interest in the conversation. “Ok, fine. Can you leave us alone now so we can keep watching?”
She shrugged. Apparently being put on the defensive stole away whatever mischievous mood she had tonight. “As long as you remember the anti-capitalist themes the show has. I know that tends to fly over your head when you watch these things.”
Azula scoffed and turned her body to face her friend. “Kind of impossible to let these things fly over your head, no? The show practically beats you over the head with it.”
Katara cocked an eyebrow as she munched on her cereal. “Yeah, but a lot of people still miss that. These are important themes you need to point out to people, themes that reflect on modern-day society and especially the nature of class divisions.”
“Wow, Katara, you should run a Tumblr blog with all that pretentiousness.”
“Ouch. I already do run a Tumblr blog, and what’s pretentious is you assuming that everything on there is pretentious!”
“Oh, you take one college-level course on sociology and you think you know ever-”
Sokka abruptly stood up, making both of them jump. "Good fucking spirits, will you both be quiet!?” He yelled. Then, almost comically, his rage turned into fear as he glanced at the ceiling with wide eyes, waiting for the footsteps of his mom or dad to sound out.
Nothing happened.
“Hey, idiot, they’re still asleep,” Azula said as she smacked his arm.
The Water Tribesman let out a breath he’d been holding in for some reason. “Close one. Ok, Katara, leave. Stop bothering us or we’ll all get kicked out of the house.”
His sister smiled as she kept munching on her cereal. “Sure thing, ponytail. Goodnight you two!” She winked at Azula, who winked back with a grin.
They heard the soft patter of footsteps on the stairs, then the click of Katara’s bedroom door. “I hate sisters,” Sokka muttered after they waited a bit to confirm she wasn’t coming back.
“Eh, you should try living with Kiyi.” Azula smiled as she put her head back on Sokka’s shoulder.
He sighed and put an arm over her. “And you should try living with Katara. I'll never understand your weird dynamic with her.”
“Oh, Sokka. That’s what makes relationships, relationships. They’re all so wonderfully unique, don't you think?”
She kissed him on the cheek, then hit play. Squid Game resumed - this time with the box of tissues right on Sokka’s lap.