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“What the hell happened, Sokka?”
He wheezed, limping toward her, barely being able to cough out a response. “I have put my– I’m in a predicament.”
“I can see that,” Katara said, pulling him into her examination room in the Fire Nation palace and sitting him down. He could see her frantically looking him over, then told him to open his mouth. Her eyes bulged at the irritation he felt down his throat – the same irritation that was preventing him from speaking too much. “Geez, big brother, what did you swallow?”
Not being able to speak much more, his throat feeling like it was on fire, he brought his hand up to the necklace around her neck and tapped it twice. She looked down and back up with her eyes wider than they had been before. “Sokka, you– tell me you didn’t swallow her betrothal necklace.”
Sheepishly, he shrugged and coughed a couple of times more, throwing himself onto the examination bed pathetically. “I didn’t have a choice,” he rasped.
Katara snorted, gathering her healing water and materials she needed, then bent the water on the outside of his throat. “You don’t just decide to swallow something made out of metal and earth, Sokka.”
Sokka resolved to not dignify that with a response solely because his voice would have betrayed him. If he had been able to respond, he would have told her that he really had no other choice than to swallow the necklace’s charm or lose it. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to lose it after he took so long carving and fashioning the thing. Not in a million years.
Katara told him to open his mouth and keep it open so that she could work on the lesions down his throat. As he closed his eyes, trying to ignore the cold feeling of the healing session, he heard her say something about how he couldn’t talk because the stone and metal charm he had swallowed somehow managed to damage his vocal cords; not to mention the irritation. The tone in her voice was beginning to turn scolding, so before he had to endure her spiel about thinking things through because he was an "adult” now and he had “greater responsibilities,” he shut his eyes and tuned her out, thinking about how he ended up in his dilemma in the first place.
He’d been minding his business, out and about in the Fire Nation capital and on his way to meet Toph at an agreed-upon lunch spot after finally finishing up her betrothal necklace. He’d wanted to hand-carve it, as per Water Tribe tradition, but with the materials he wanted to use, it would have been impossible, so he enlisted some help from Aang for his earthbending and a welder for the metallic component he’d chosen to add. He had been so happy with the way it turned out that he could not keep his hands off it where it was in his pocket. With a pep in his step, he walked around the markets a few minutes away from the palace when suddenly, he heard a scream and his warrior instincts kicked in. And after his track record of his instincts being (mostly) on point, he could not just ignore the need he had of finding the source and reason of the scream, so he did.
And he regretted it immediately because it seemed to have been an elaborate trap set up by some idiotic hoodlums.
His instincts had told him that much, too. Late, but they told him.
When he was backed into the end of an alley by seven men, all kinds of fists ablaze and weapons pointed at his face, he knew he’d be on the losing end of the day. Only he could get into these situations, couldn’t he?
“Drop the weapon and slide it over to me!”
Sokka cursed under his breath and raised his hands over his head, knowing that he couldn’t really use his boomerang to fight off all of those boneheaded idiots, and pulled it out of its sheath, reluctantly sliding his treasured weapon toward the men. With an edge to his voice, he said, “You won’t be able to do much with it if you don’t know how to use it.”
“Shut up and empty your pockets,” one of the men growled. He had a very large amount of facial hair and Sokka inwardly wondered if he’d ever heard of shaving because it would have certainly done him some well.
The color drained from his face. The charm. “Wh– why would you want me to empty my pockets?”
The same man with the beard spoke. “Because I said so.”
Sokka knew better than to argue with someone like this, despite how much he wanted to. So, slowly, he reached into one of his pockets and tossed the yuans that filled it onto the ground and did the same with the other, leaving only the charm in it. He’d hoped they didn’t pat him down.
Someone snickered, counting the money Sokka had thrown at them. “Seven yuans? Really?”
“I’ve really been wanting to dial down on carrying too much money with me, you know, in case I got mugged.”
“Smart boy.”
“Appreciate that coming from you, buddy.”
“Alright,” another guy said, “Enough pleasantries. Pat him down.”
Great.
A big, brawny man stomped up to him and gave him a hefty punch in the stomach, making him grunt and topple over in pain. Sokka used this opportunity to dig his hand into his pocket and fish out the charm. Unfortunately, the man decided to kick him again and the charm fell to the ground.
“I thought we told you to empty your pockets, wise guy,” said Brawny Boy, looking at the ground. “Looks like you missed something.”
In spite of the pain in his stomach, Sokka threw himself onto the ground before Brawny Boy could pick up the charm, and did the first thing that popped into his head: grabbed the charm first and swallowed it.
The things Sokka did for love.
The pain he’d felt when the artifact slipped down his throat was almost unbearable, but it didn’t matter because he saved it. Regardless, he was wheezing like an injured ostrich-horse as the men stared at him appalled, their weapons no longer up in defense.
“This guy’s crazy,” said someone, and Sokka was oh-so inclined to agree with him as he croaked and coughed on the ground. “Let’s just take his money and go. We got more than we expected.”
With that, the men fumbled for the money on the ground, and scurried off, leaving Sokka to cough maniacally on his own. As he had attempted to recompose himself, he stood up and noticed that his boomerang was still on the ground, much to his delight.
At least one thing turned out alright!
Startling him out of his daze, Katara gave him a smack on the shoulder. “Say something for me.”
“Something for me?” Sokka said carefully, satisfied when he heard his voice sound clearer and felt no pain or scratchiness in his esophagus. There was still a raspy sound to it, but it didn’t bother him in the slightest. He grinned brightly and sat up, also noticing that the pain in his stomach had disappeared. “You, my sister, are a miracle worker.”
Katara looked unimpressed. “Uh-huh. Do you mind telling me how this happened?”
“I do mind, actually,” he said, standing up and stretching out his body. “It’s a very long story with no resolution… But I do have a question.”
“Hmm.”
“When… will I see the charm again?”
“Should be about seven days,” Katara said, a smug look on her face as she bent away the water from her hands. “If you’re lucky.”
Sokka gaped. “What does that even mean? ‘If I’m lucky.’”
“It means that you’re either going to shit it out in a week or you’re going to have to come back here so we can get it out alternatively, so you better hope you pass it soon,” she replied, leaning nonchalantly against the examination table.
The thought of him having to… pass a stone and metal charm that was arguably larger than his… you know, was making him queasy. Then, he groaned, remembering why he wanted to have it today in the first place. He was going to propose to Toph at lunch.
“I can’t believe– what am I going to do now?”
Katara gave him a look of compassion. “You could always postpone? Maybe it’s not meant for you to do it today… considering all that’s happened.”
Before he could respond, the door burst open, an angry-looking Toph standing at the entryway. “You stood me up.”
“Toph,” Katara said tiredly. “You can’t just barge in. You never know who could have been in here.”
Toph rolled her eyes and leaned against the door frame. “Right, because I wouldn’t know the heartbeats of the people I’m most constantly around to be able to barge in here, would I?”
Katara sighed and walked out of the room, pressing a kiss to Toph’s cheek as a greeting in passing. “You’re both such pains.”
“That’s why we’re compatible!” Sokka yelled after her, smiling when he saw Katara shake her head as she retreated.
His angry girlfriend shut the door and stepped toward him when they were finally alone. Again, she said, “You stood me up.”
“I almost died,” Sokka said, approaching her. “So I have an excuse.”
She squinted her eyes at him, or near him, skeptically, then worry replaced her anger. She could tell that he wasn’t lying to her. “What did you do?”
He rolled his eyes and sat against the edge of the bed, pulling her into him as he did so with some resistance from her. “Why do you assume I did something?”
Despite herself, she leaned her head against his chest and shrugged. “It’s a valid assumption.”
He was going to argue, but he ended up agreeing with her, so he laughed into her head and pressed a kiss onto it. “I’m sorry for standing you up. I was going to go meet you as soon as Katara was done fixing me up.”
“Hm, it’s fine, I guess,” Toph said teasingly, cuddling into him. “What happened to you anyway?”
“I just got, uh, mugged,” Sokka said, and she pulled her head off his chest. Knowing she would be alarmed, he quickly amended by saying, “It’s no big deal, really. I’m fine now. I promise.”
Toph made a face. “Is that it?”
Sokka chewed on his lip, wondering how he was going to word his response. “It’s, um, uh– It’s none of your business, nosey.”
“Oh? So this… whatever else happened… it involves me, does it?”
“Again,” he said, lowering his head to peck her lips. “None of your business.”
Toph sighed dramatically, making him breathe out a laugh, and said, “Fine. I can take a hint. But don’t think I won’t find out what you were doing, Snoozles. I have my ways.”
“I know you do, dearest.”
She pinched his bicep, emitting a yelp from him. “Did you get a good look at ‘em at least? Your dipshitted muggers? We can track them down and beat their asses.”
He laughed and shook his head, pulling her into him again. “It’s okay. I’m good. Although I wouldn’t mind seeing you kick some ass sometime soon.”
“Is it not enough to see me beat your ass every time we spar?”
“Hey, hey. I let you win. It’s called chivalry.”
She snorted and circled her arms around his waist, her chin on his chest so their noses were almost touching. “Is that what it is? I thought it was called losing miserably. At least that’s what we call it in the Earth Kingdom, but each nation has its own dialect, I suppose.”
He paused, crossing his arms over his chest, marveling at the smirk on her face. “That was uncalled for.”
“With you, it’s always called for.”
“Touché.”
Toph walked up to the door and pulled it open. He could see her meteorite bracelet peeking from beneath her sleeve. “Can we go eat now? Thanks to you, I’m starving.”
An idea popped into his head at the sight of her bracelet, then a grin overtook his face as he took two steps toward her and pulled her out of the room. “Yup! And I have a question to ask you when we get there, so we better get a move on.”
“Oh boy.”