Squealing Santa 2k17: Rivalry
A/N: Ho ho ho hello calmturquoise! I’m so sorry it took so long to post this. I had some internet problems because of holiday travel and generally no time for writing hahaha. Without further ado, your Squealing Santa fic!!!
Summary: A silly argument between siblings escalates into a contest amongst the gang.
[Read on AO3]
“There’s no way.” Sokka sneered.
“Ya-huh!” Katara grinned widely.
“You’re absolutely worse than me!” Sokka insisted.
Aang sprang up as usual, seemingly out of thin air, to investigate the argument. “What?”
“Aang!” Sokka turned to him, intense eyes staring him down.
Aang swallowed hard, preparing to settle a serious argument.
“Who do you think is more ticklish? Katara? Or me?”
“What!” Aang rolled back laughing onto the ground. “That’s what you’re arguing about!?”
“Yes!” Sokka insisted.
“Um……” Aang pondered, sitting upright and bracing himself with a serious expression. “I don’t know.” He said after a deep breath.
“I mean. It’s definitely her. Girls are just more ticklish!” Sokka interjected.
“Yeah right.” Katara butted-in. “We all know Aang is more ticklish than me and he’s a boy!”
Aang laughed sheepishly. “Fair point….but getting off topic!” He grinned at them both. “I know how we can settle this…”
Katara and Sokka stared at each other wide-eyed. “Now wait…”
“But I’m gonna need Toph to help!” Aang sprinted off toward their camp, returning moments later with a confused Toph.
“What is going on here, Twinkle Toes?” She looked uninterested.
Aang leaned toward her and whispered, while Sokka and Katara watched a smile grow on her face. “Ok! Now that sounds entertaining.”
Katara and Sokka backed away from the pair, hands up defensively for a moment. They took one more step when the ground shifted under them, knocking them both onto their backs.
“Aang, I think there’s a better way..” Katara began. The ground curved around her wrists and ankles, holding her in place with her arms out 90 degrees and her legs straight out. Sokka faced the same predicament.
“What? Scared ‘cause you’re gonna lose?” Sokka taunted.
Katara’s expression scrunched up. “Bring it on, loser.” Sibling competitiveness sometimes truly got the better of her.
“Okay, so…who goes first?” Aang asked.
“Should we assign spots? Like rank them?” Toph suggested. “We know Katara’s feet are worse than Sokka’s for sure, but does that mean she’s more ticklish or does he have an even more ticklish spot?”
“Hmm…. I didn’t think of that. This seems more complicated than I thought.”
Aang and Toph stood over the blushing siblings, teasing them as they concocted a fair plan of attack.
“Just get it over with!” Sokka fumed, his nervousness getting the better of him. “I know I’m gonna win so…”
“Alright. Sokka first. Thanks for volunteering!” Aang smirked.
“Work from the feet up or the neck down?” Aang asked.
“Well we know what the result for feet is gonna be, so let’s start there and work our way up. More unexpected results.” Toph suggested.
Aang clasped his hands together, giving off the most sinister aura Katara had ever sensed from him. “So, let’s try tickling each of them for a minute on each of them, and then we will analyze the volume of laughter, the strength of struggling, the begging….” He winked at Sokka.
“Hey! I don’t beg!”
Aang crouched down, slowly pulling off Sokka’s footwear. His feet were already wiggling.
“Hey, hey- wait this is so not fair-” Sokka’s nerves again showed through.
A precise touch from a light finger had him gasp in a breath. He shut his mouth to try to hold out on laughing.
Aang added more fingers, sliding up and down his sole. Sokka was twitching, unable to pull away and unwilling to laugh it out. Aang’s fingers were literally feather-light, and he knew exactly what he was doing. Give him a canvas and he will paint.
Sokka squeaked when Aang suddenly pulled back his toes, wiggling his fingers under them. His wall broke quickly after that. A few titters turning into giggles turning into full on laughter. Sokka laughed openly, cursing himself as he reacted to Aang’s fingers.
Katara jeered at him from her place on the ground. “What? You can’t handle a little tickling?”
“You’re up next, princess.” Toph raised her eyebrows at the waterbender.
Sokka sank into the dirt when Aang finally stopped. He caught his breath slowly.
“Pretty ticklish, held out for a little longer than I expected. Toes are worse than the soles of his feet.” Aang analyzed.
“Katara’s turn!” Sokka called out when he could speak fluently again.
“Now, Aang…” She started.
He whisked her footwear off and started similarly to how he had with Sokka. But this time, the reaction was instant.
Katara squealed the minute someone touched her feet. It had always been that way. Her face was red with laughter a few seconds in, and she was struggling hard.
Toph watched on with amusement.
“What the-” Zuko’s voice appeared behind Toph. “Um, what are you doing?”
“Having a contest to see who is more ticklish.” Aang said matter-of-factly.
“That’s…..new.” Zuko looked more confused than ever. “I heard Katara scream so I was just seeing what all this was about.”
“You can help. If you want.” Aang suggested, not skipping a beat in his skilled torment under Katara’s toes and along her soles.
“AAANGHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHA PLEHEHEHEASSE AHAHAHAHAHA!” Katara cried.
“Is that begging, I hear?” Toph teased.
“I do think so.” Sokka replied.
After a few moments longer, Aang finished. Katara was wheezing to catch her breath.
“Well, we know Katara lost that one on her feet.” Aang concluded. “Can challenger Sokka keep up the winning streak?” He said in a fake-announcer voice.
Zuko watched with disbelieve, the avatar and gang of expert benders and warriors, playing around and tickling each other. There were certainly tickle fights interspersed in their lives, which Zuko had been dragged into a few times. He was quite flabbergasted the first time someone in the group tickled him actually.
“Zuko?” Aang stood up, clapping his hands together as though finished and proud of his work. “Would you like to have a turn? Knees are next.”
Zuko laughed, a blush rising on his cheeks. “Um…. alright.”
“Sokka first, then Katara.”
“No way! No fair!” Sokka called.
“Oh my god this is so embarrassing.” Katara lamented.
“Great.” Zuko cracked his knuckles. He kneeled down between them, reaching experimentally for Sokka’s knee. He spidered his fingers over the top as Aang had once done to him. The leg jerked in reaction. He started adding more movement and eventually tickled softly behind Sokka’s knee. Sokka was laughing right off the bat. When Zuko started squeezing the top of his knee, Sokka screamed like a girl. “HahahahahaanononononoNOOO!”
Zuko repeated the treatment to Katara, who reacted more to the light behind the knee tickling than the harder squeezes. They concluded about a tie.
Moving onto stomachs, and Toph wanted a go. “Alright, make way, a real expert is gonna show you how it’s done.” She grinned.
Sokka felt himself shrinking as Toph approached. She wasted no time, starting with side squeezes and digging into his soft stomach. Sokka twisted and cackled as her fingers put his pride to shame.
It seemed like the world’s longest minute, as Toph spidered her fingers all around his stomach and dug in near his bellybutton.
Sokka had tears streaming down his face when she stopped.
Katara looked like she’d seen a ghost when Toph turned to her.
Toph squeezed her sides, making Katara do a little wiggle-dance alternating as fingers played along her skin.
Katara struggled noticeably less than Sokka, but still laughed loudly. The favor was thrown her way.
Ribs, and Aang was up. “How about we switch the order for who starts for the last 3 spots? Ribs, armpits, neck.”
Sokka and Katara groaned simultaneously.
Aang took to the ribs, really tickling and working his nimble fingers between each bone. He worked all the way up near the base of the underarm all the way down to the sides. Katara and Sokka both struggled valiantly, but a kill spot on Sokka’s upper ribs made him throw in the towel. Aang laughed as he noted that Sokka was the apparent loser. He zeroed in on the bad spot for the remainder of time.
Toph had armpits, another great spot to dig in. And she didn’t waste her time, she worked over Katara, whose arms screamed to come down and nearly broke the rock holding them. She worked over Sokka, who laughed like a girl when you really dug into the center. She took things a little further, after they had finished, she said it seemed like a tie and squatted down between the two of them, wiggling one of her hands into each of their armpits.
Cries of laughter and cheating filled the air. Aang and Zuko watched on in amusement. Katara was declared the winner by a small margin.
Zuko was last, and had the chance to tickle both Sokka and Katara’s necks. Toph added some stone to keep their heads in place so that they couldn’t shrug away from the firebenders deft touch.
Katara’s sensitive neck lost her the final challenge. And as a result, Katara had a worse neck and more ticklish feet, but Sokka was worse on his stomach, ribs, and underarms. They tied at the knees.
Toph released Katara first, declaring her the winner. “Woo!!!” She laughed, “I knew you were more ticklish than a girl!” Sokka stuck his tongue out at her.
“What do I get for winning?” Katara thought aloud.
“How about a chance to show the loser why you won?” Toph grinned.
Sokka immediately started to struggle. “Hey! No way! Not a chance! Toph! Let me up!”
Katara leaned down near her brother. “Come on now, no hard feelings. Let’s all share in this victory.” She called over the rest of the gang.
Sokka was crying the moment 4 sets of hands descended on him to tickle and tease him. He was screaming with laughter, and after a few minutes of victory, Katara felt she should have at least a little mercy on her brother.
Sokka was released soon after and curled up on the ground in a ball.
“That was so funny.” Aang rolled back laughing.
“Definitely…..not the result I expected.” Zuko chuckled.
“Oh yeah? See how you guys would do then.” Sokka snapped.
Katara smirked. “That’s an interesting idea.”
“Not a chance you’re getting me, I’ll lock you all down and tickle your feet until you cry.” Toph insisted.
“Fair enough. We all know you’re only ticklish under your arms.” Sokka replied.
Toph was blushing. “Don’t push it.”
“Wait wait wait. You mean us?” Zuko and Aang looked at each other.
“I wasn’t even a part of this!” Zuko started.
“But you joined in.” Katara reminded him.
“Yeah but…..”
Sokka patted him on the back. “Come on, this might be one time you can actually defeat the avatar.”
Aang and Zuko both glared at him.
Toph flicked her wrist and sent both Zuko and Aang to the ground, restrained in the same manner as Katara and Sokka had been.
“Come on, we were just being nice and helping you settle an argument!” Aang pleaded.
“Yep. And now we’re getting revenge.” Katara laughed.
She and Sokka took turns analyzing the ticklish spots on both Zuko and Aang, Toph jumping in on occasion too.
Aang overwhelmingly lost.