46. “I…can’t explain.” + the Gaang. Can be just friendship or can include Zutara, it's up to you. ;)
Katara, Toph and Suki are cheerfully discussing the upcoming wedding over breakfast when Sokka bursts in.
Considering that he’s been so cheerful for the past, oh, two months that Katara has actively considered knocking him out so she doesn’t have to deal with him, his clear displeasure is surprising.
“What is this?” he demands, slamming a newspaper down on the table. Of course he leaves his hand in the middle of it so all she can make out is that it’s one of the firenation papers – it warms her heart to know that it’s being delivered this far in the earth kingdom again.
When no one responds he pulls it up and shakes it at them, before shoving it in Toph’s face.
Katara can make out the picture, however, and she sighs, because she knows what sorts of things her brother would assume from a picture like that.
“Well?” he asks, voice shrill.
Toph snorts and snatches it out of his hands before smoothing it out and pretending to study it. “Wow, is this true?”
“It better not be!” Sokka exclaims, still too caught up to realize what’s happening.
Suki sighs and pulls the paper away from Toph before examining it. Her eyebrows shoot up and she turns to look at Katara, back at the picture, then she makes the logical leap and turns her attention to Sokka with an exasperated expression.
“Sokka,” Katara says, trying for calm as best she can, “how many times have you seen me in the last, oh, five years?”
He blinks, derailed, and says, “Oh, I dunno, a lot?”
She rubs the bridge of her nose. “Then explain to me how you think that I could possibly have hidden a five year old child from you. Not even the child itself, just the pregnancy. Think about it.”
Suki hands the paper back to her and she takes it, smoothing it out. The photo is from when she was visiting some of the orphanages specifically for war orphans – most of who are of mixed heritage – a five year old with clear water tribe skin and firenation eyes has her by the hand. Jun was her name.
Katara had wanted to adopt her. Not that she is currently in a position to do so but – the child had been so sweet and Katara had long ago given up on her own romantic prospects when things with Aang didn’t work out and the only other person she was interested in was well beyond her reach.
Which brings them back to…Her nose wrinkles and she shakes the paper back at Sokka, while Suki explains to Toph what the picture is. “Who did you think I would even – “
Sokka looks ashamed and glances towards the side of the house where Zuko is staying, he’d gotten in very late last night and – Katara can feel her face flaming. “Sokka!”
She proceeded to tea bend and chases him around the kitchen table while Suki giggles – it’s good she finds Sokka’s antics amusing, since she’s the one marrying him.
Zuko enters the room a mere five minutes later to find Katara perched on her brother’s back while his hands are bound to the ground with frozen tea and his legs are kicking in the area – he’s frantically telling her that she’s his favorite sister as she tries to force fire-flakes down his throat.
“Wha—what’s going on?” Zuko looks sleep rumpled and dangerously attractive and Katara turns back to what she’s doing, hiding her flaming face behind her hair because now her brother has put the idea into her mind and –
“I…can’t explain,” Suki says with a sigh, holding out a fresh cup of tea towards the firelord.
“I can!” Toph crows loudly and even before she starts in on it Katara knows well enough to want to sink through the floor.
Drunk fic! If you finished Daredevil (I can't remember lol oops) then Matt/Claire + first real date. If not, Kate Bishop + cooking attempt in Clint's apartment. (Or both in one? lolz)
I didn’t, actually, finish it. Though I still intend to. (I’m so bad at keeping up to date on shows. Like, almost entertainingly bad.) I’m doing the second and this is in an AU movie ‘verse because I said so. Clint!centric
“Is that supposed to be on fire?” is the first thing Natasha signs when she walks through the door.
Clint blinks slowly, his coffee hasn’t kicked in yet despite the fact that it’s six in the evening, and turns his head to see flame coming from his stove. He suspects it’s probably making some noise, but since his last run in with a series of bombs killed his hearing aids he can’t even hear a hint of it. At some point he’s going to want to talk to Tony about making new ones – he’d thought the SHIELD ones were small, but Tony’s had been basically a sticker. Damned impressive. Even if Pietro had managed to rip one off as he ran by one of those times. Little bastard.
Natasha ruffles his hair as she goes back. Which is – if he doesn’t trust Kate at a stove (and apparently he shouldn’t) he definitely doesn’t trust Natasha cooking for them.
Which isn’t to say she’s bad at it – he’s not entirely sure, she’s probably amazing at it because he can count on one hand with fingers left over the number of things Natasha isn’t amazing at (points to paranoid cold war planning, he guesses) but because she might put hot sauce in a donut or something just for entertainment value.
It takes him a few minutes to locate his computer – his Stark phone died when he accidentally through it at a mob member (knocked the dude right out though, which gives it huge bonus points) so he’s using an old Nokia that he thinks he might’ve gotten when he was fourteen originally. (He could definitely kill a man by throwing the Nokia at them – it’s roughly the weight of a brick.) Once he’s got his computer he orders a pizza.
He’s pretty sure he doesn’t have cash, but that tends to be the sort of thing Kate can figure out. Or Nat can just convince the guy to give them the pizza for free. (It’s only happened once and Clint had promptly proposed.)
By the time he turns back to the kitchen the flame has died down. There aren’t flashing lights so, somehow, the fire alarm hasn’t gone off. That probably means it’s dead and he should fix it, but mostly he’s relieved he’s not going to have to deal with fireman.
Nat and Kate have their heads bent closely together, turned away so he can’t see their lips.
He turns back to the computer and offers a 20% bonus if the pizza comes in the next ten minutes.
DRUNK FIC PROMPT :D - Captain Swan + college AU + 'we're both drunk and we decide it's a great time to head to the library to work on that paper that is due next week'
“No, no, Swan – I am sure that is was Franklin who did the lightning thing – it was in an episode of Sleepy Hollow!” Killian is listing dangerously to the side as he does something with his hands that Emma assumes is either to demonstrate the lighting thing or something about Sleepy Hollow – she’s not actually entirely sure.
She squints at him, mostly to get the numbers of him back down to one – one Killian is hard enough to resist, four is just asking for trouble.
“Are you sure?” she asks, with one eye closed and squinted so she can just see the blurry outline of him deftly avoid running into a trash can. He is such a bouncy drunk, she has trouble keeping up.
He nods hard enough that he almost knocks himself over before pausing, hand braced against the side of the library, which they have finally reached. “Yes, yes, absolutely I am sure.”
She steps closer, not because she needs to but because she just can’t help herself. She’s been resisting for so long, but she feels like there’s a magnet wrapped around her ribs that’s constantly dragging her to the ore in his. She pokes his chest and tries to be threatening, though the smile that’s tugging at her lips doesn’t help her cause any. “Are you sure sure? This paper is worth fifteen percent of our grade.”
He draws a wobbly X on his heart and smiles at her, resting his prosthetic hand against her side. “I am totally, one hundred percent sure. I wouldn’t lead you wrong, Emma.”
She leans closer to him. It’s so rare that he uses her first name and it’s like honey on his tongue and –
“Hey, no loitering. Miss, are you okay? Do you need an escort back to your dorm?”
And they’re interrupted by a well-meaning campus police officer.
She rests her forehead against Killian’s chest for a moment before turning to face the five wavering police officers her vision tells here are there, and smiles. “I’m fine! We’re going to work on a paper! Thank you!” and she’s dragging Killian away, his hand warm against hers as she heads to the front doors of the library.
Pairing: Steve/Peggy (or any pairing of your choosing with Peggy) + College + Road trip. :)
Sorry this took me so long, HonorableEmily! I hope it meets with your approval.
Peggy hummed along in agreement with Angie’s outrage over the phone, waiting until the other woman was done to add in, “I think you handled it perfectly. Let me know if – Oh hell.” Her gaze was fixed on a small sign she hadn’t noticed in the window of the gas station until right this moment.
“Pegs? What’s wrong?” Angie’s voice brought her back to herself and she shook her head, hopping off the hood of the car.
“I just realized that someone in the gas station is with the Friends of Humanity. I sent Steve in by himself.” She peered through the grimy window, sure enough, Steve was scowling up at a man over a foot and a half taller than him. “I have to go, Ange. I’ll call when we’re back on the road.”
“Okay, English. Go knock out the mutant-hating scum and save your boyfriend. Call me if you need bail money. Though I’ll have to send it with Buck or Nat, I’ve got work tomorrow!” And with that cheery ending, the other woman hung up.
Peggy stuck her phone in her pocket and headed inside to rescue her maybe-they-were-maybe-they-weren’t boyfriend from the cashier.
***
Steve shot her a warning look from the driver’s seat when she removed the soggy bag of peas that he’d bought her from her knuckles.
She rolled her eyes and pointedly put them on the ground at her feet. “They’re defrosted, Steve. My hand feels fine.”
He made that exasperated clucking noise that she and Nat were convinced was actually a kind of Morse code that he and Bucky had created amongst themselves.
She rolled her eyes and reached out to cover his hand where it rested on the gearshift. It was a sign of how far they’d come that he didn’t start and stare at her like she’d put her hand there accidently, instead just shooting her a sheepish grin. “Really. I’m fine.”
He nodded, shifted gears, and then grabbed her hand and nodded. “I believe you.”
She watched him, curiously for a moment, before asking what had been bugging her since they’d left the gas station. “You left money for the peas. Why?”
He made a face and focused on the road, saying, “That ignoramus said that the mutants were stealing from him. I didn’t want to give him more fuel.” His ears turned a delightful shade of red, the color sufficing over the rest of his face within moments. She knew he would try to convince her he was flushing because he was angry, but she knew better. He was blushing because of calling someone a bad name in front of her. Her favorite part was the knowledge that the blush did go all the way down.
She shook her head in exasperated amusement before leaning forward and kissing his cheek. He glanced at her with a half smirk that made her want to try to talk him into pulling over on the side of the empty road for a moment, but they were only half an hour from their motel. It could wait.
***
She stared at him incredulously. “What do you mean you don’t like being little spoon? Everyone likes being little spoon!” She shook her head and chided herself, “I shouldn’t be arguing about this. Being little spoon is the best. I’m glad you don’t want it.”
But part of her was a bit offended on his behalf. Had no one ever taught him the joys of being little spoon? That was just criminal. He made an amazing big spoon, this wasn’t about that, it was just about how comforting it could be to be held. She’d honestly thought he was insisting on being big spoon because this thing with them was still so new and undefined. Not because he actually had something against being the little spoon.
He pulled at bits of the bedding, frowning down at it. “It makes me feel small.”
She stared at him and straightened her back. “Do you think it makes me lesser when I’m little spoon?”
He jerked back so hard to stare at her that he almost fell off the bed, squawking, “What! No, of course not!”
She nodded, having known the answer before she asked. “Good. Because I don’t feel small when I’m little spoon. I feel protected and loved and cared for. And I am going to make you feel those things too.”
His blush spread at quite a speed, and by the time she was reaching for him he was bright red. He continued to object and she paused before actually manhandling him, asking, “Does it really bother you that much? I promise, my intention is not to ever make you feel small.”
He let out a breath and rubbed a hand through his hair. “Alright. We can try it. But just this once, okay?”
She nodded her agreement with a grin.
By the next morning she knew she had made a mistake, but somehow she enjoyed the nightly argument over who got to be little spoon more than she did actually getting to be little spoon.
***
She could hear Steve talking to someone, probably on Skype since she could hear the vague murmur of another male voice, through the bathroom door. She finished drying her hair before opening the door. Her suspicions were confirmed when the voice from the speakers became much clearer.
She rolled her eyes and propped her hip against the doorframe of the bathroom, crossing her arms and watching in amusement as Steve gesticulated a story to a wildly laughing Bucky on the other side of the computer.
It was a total exaggeration, she knew since she’d been there. The cashier she’d punched out was now another foot taller as well as several stone heavier with solid muscle.
He was such a dork.
For one thing, he was cheerfully swearing up a storm with Bucky but he couldn’t even call someone an ignoramus in front of her without blushing. Hell, the last time he’d tried to call someone a ‘dickhead’ in front of her he’d stuttered so hard she was worried he was having an asthma attack.
She wasn’t sure where he’d gotten it in his head that it wasn’t polite to swear in front of ladies, though she suspected it was from his late mother. She regretted having never had the chance to meet the woman.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Steve’s blue streak stuttering to a stop. For a moment she thought that he had finally noticed her, but when she looked up his gaze was still fixed on the computer. Then she heard Nat, saying a phrase that made both men squawk.
She couldn’t help it and laughed out loud. Steve looked up at her, eyes wide and face red. She arched an eyebrow and stepped away from the door, slipping her robe off her shoulders. His eyes went dark.
“Sorry-Buck-I-have-to-go-right-now-bye-Nat!” He managed in a rush, slamming the laptop shut and shoving it onto the couch.
She grinned and he stumbled in his rush to get to her. She didn’t mind.
She thought, maybe, that she could just accept it. He was her boyfriend.
