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With only two fingers, Sokka tilts Azula’s chin up and gives her a quick kiss. Her cheeks flush and she clears her throat, “Sokka, we have things to do today…”
“But we can do other, funner things instead.” He quirks a brow.
Azula scoffs and readjusts her collar and that flush fans out from her cheeks to almost the entirety of her face.
He supposes that he should stop teasing before he gets a good slap. But there is something terribly endearing about making her blush and it is a surprisingly easy feat to accomplish since she had begun trying to make amends with everyone. Really it is awkward moment after awkward moment and he finds himself watching her stumble through a great many conversations. Ones that should be rather mundane and uninteresting. And yet her lack of social skills make them both highly entertaining and agonizingly painful with how strong the secondhand embarrassment is.
He slings an arm over her shoulder. “I mean that we could go for a walk or something, have a picnic, watch an ostrich-horse race.”
“An ostrich-horse race?” Embarrassment subsides and gives way to puzzlement which, evidently, is just as hilarious to behold.
“That settles it, ostrich-horse race it is!” He declares. “We have to get you cultured.”
“Get me cultured.” She sputters. “I will remind you that I am a princess, I …”
“Yeah, yeah; princess, powerful, intellectual, fiery fury. I know the spiel.” He pulls the very disgruntled princess in closer. “You need to branch out and learn about other cultures now instead of just Fire Nation customs.”
“And you think that some peasant, rural ostrich-horse race is the way to go? Take me to Ba Sing Se’s renowned libraries or art museums. Teach me traditional Earth Kingdom song and dance–those things are enriching and culturally immersive.”
“Okay, but that’s not a real taste of the Earth Kingdom. If you want authenticity, then you have to speak to the common Earth Kingdomer.”
“How about we skip that and go to the Water Tribes?”
Sokka wags his finger. “No way! First things first; if you can’t wrangle a hippo-cow, how to you expect to face polar-boars!?”
Azula blinks. “You expect me to herd animals? Absolutely not, Sokka. We did not agree to that. Zuzu and I didn’t either; the arrangement was that I’d get keep my crown if I learned to appreciate other cultures…”
“And…!” He interrupts, “what a better way to do that than to part take for yourself.” He taps his fingers against her bicep.
“You just want to make me look stupid.” She frowns. “I’ll have to wear one of those ridiculous hats…”
He grins. “ We will have to wear those ridiculous hats.”
“Sokka. No.” She deadpans. But he intends to be one-hundred percent unrelenting. He ruffled her hair, “who knows, you might enjoy it.”
“I will not.”
“Have you ever tried herding animals?”
“No.”
“Then you can’t knock it!” He declares rather boldly.
Azula blinks. “I certainly can and I certainly will!” She sputters, that blush creeping back in. This time he isn’t sure exactly what has her so flustered, unless he has unwittingly unearthed her deep, dark, secret love for ‘peasant’ activities. “Wait a moment…” she grumbles. “I thought that we were going to watch an ostrich-horse race.”
“Yeah, baby steps.” He nods. “After that you’ll be herding hippo-cows like a pro.”
Azula rubs her hand over her face. “So that’s it? You watch one ostrich-horse race and suddenly you can wrestle hippo-cows and other large animals?”
“Okay so there’s some stuff in between, but ostrich-horse racing is the gateway.”
“Great, let's keep that gate firmly locked.”
“Why? Because you’re afraid that once you open it you won’t even want your crown anymore because you’ll want to spend the rest of your days herding hippo-cattle with me on our rustic Earth Kingdom ranch.”
“I’d like to see you get trampled by a herd of hippo-cows on our rustic Earth Kingdom ranch.”
He smirks. “So you’re admitting that we would get a ranch together? That we live in…together?”
“Wh-what!?” Her face grows red all over again. “Absolutely not! I would room with one of the hippo-cows before rooming with you!”
“Which is why you let me…” He leans in and pecks her forehead.
She folds her arms and her lip twitches in irritation. “I…that’s…let’s just go watch this silly race of yours.”
Sokka gives her a lopsided grin. “Well why didn’t you ask earlier. I would love to see an ostrich-race with you, hotman.”
“That’s it, I’m taking that word from your vocabulary.”
“You can’t…”
“Revoked.”
“But ‘hotman’ is an important staple of Fire Nation culture.”
“Consider yourself uncultured.” Azula grumbles.
He rubs the back of his head. “I guess I’ll just have to get extra into this hippo-cow culture thing then. And of course I’ll need someone to share my interests with.” And by someone he means one very specific and very cranky firebender.
Azula cringes. “You can have ‘hotman’ back.”