Chapter Text
“Now remember if you see a fish, stab it with this, don't use any of your freaky water magic,” Sokka instructed as he carefully handed his little sister his second favorite fishing spear, though with the look that Katara was giving him he wasn’t sure if it was his best idea to put a dangerous weapon in her hands.
The two siblings were sitting on either end of their canoe and had spent the majority of their day paddling down Whiterush River, the large river that cut through the icy arctic tundra not too far from Wolf Cove, their little village in the South Pole.
Today the waters were calm and after a few hours of paddling, they had found a perfect spot. Fat, arctic cods were lazily swimming up the river, brushing past their seal skin canoe without a care in the world.
Before Sokka had pre-maturely scolded Katara, the two had pulled their oars in from the water and rested them against the sides of the canoe. Now both got in position as they prepared to catch dinner.
“Waterbending isn’t freaky water magic,” Katara huffed, gently grasping the fishing spear in her hands. “It an ancient technique-”
“-Handed down by generations and generations since the beginning of time whatever!” Sokka said, finishing the spiel he had heard from his sister a thousand times before. “Listen, you see a fish you stab it!”
“Whatever!”
“Don't raise your voice you’ll scare the fish away,” Sokka whispered scolded. “Like you did last time you used your freaky water magic!”
“Say one more thing about ‘freaky water magic’ and these cods aren’t going to be the only things getting stabbed,” Katara threatened. “...Besides don't you think it’ll make more sense to use waterbending to pull fish from the water?”
“Yeah if you actually knew how to pull fish from the water!” Sokka said in the same low tone from before. “But last time all you managed to do was cause a big splash…and I went home with an empty stomach!”
“I just need a little practice!” Katara argued. “Kind of hard to do when I’m the only waterbender in the tribe!”
“Oh for the love of- this is not something we need to be discussing right now!” Sokka informed her. “This is the last time I take you fishing with me.” Katara rolled her eyes at her brother’s theatrics.
“You said that last time.”
“Well this time I mean it,” Sokka said. “Now will you shut up! I’m trying to catch us something to eat.”
“I’m trying to!”
“Trying to argue!” Sokka snapped, raising his voice a little as he looked over his shoulder to shoot her a glare. Katara whipped around to give him an identical look. The two were locked in a staring contest for a moment before reluctantly turning around, neither wanting to give in to the other. However, the urge to catch a nice dinner won out and the siblings quieted down as they retained their focus.
Katara watched the water closely, waiting for a fat cod to swim by her end of the canoe. After a few moments, the perfect opportunity presented itself and Katara pulled her arm back and aimed down at the fish.
She struck quickly! Stabbing down into the water, however, to her disappointment when she pulled the spear back there was nothing on it! Her aim had been off and all she had managed to do was scatter the other cods that had been swimming around her end of the boat.
“Great…” She thought with a frown, watching as they all quickly swam away from the canoe. As they nearly disappeared an idea popped into Katara’s mind. She glanced over her shoulder again to see Sokka still perched up on his end of the boat, his arm in position to strike at the water.
Katara turned back to the water and waited. It only took a few minutes before another fish came lazily swimming past their side of the boat.
“Our lucky day, this river is filled with fish at the moment…if only we could catch one!” Katara thought excitedly. She moved quickly not wanting another chance to pass her by. She moved her hand out, sticking her tongue out between her teeth as she focus. She concentrated on the water around the cod, feeling her heart slamming against her chest as the water around the fish grew stagnant.
A smile broke out across her face as she slowly began to lift up her arms and with it a ball of water with the fat cod inside! A triumphant feeling burst through Katara as she slowly began to back up, keeping her eyes focused on the water and her fish as she brought it closer and closer to the boat.
“Sokka…Sokka…” Katara called out to her brother.
“Hush woman, I’m trying to focus!” Sokka whispered, keeping his eye trained on his own fish. He got into position, ready to strike at it.
“I’m doing it Sokka!” Katara said happily lifting her arms up further. Sokka said nothing as he pulled his arm back quickly.
“Ow!” Katara hollered as the back of Sokka’s spear smacked her head. She bent over and grasped at the spot where Sokka had just accidentally hit her! Above them the bubble of water burst and the cod inside of it swiftly fell, landing squarely on top of Sokka’s head!
He let out a little yelp as the fish flopped off of him before falling back into the river! Sokka reached up and grabbed his head letting out a litany of curses.
“Sokka!”
“Katara!” The siblings both shouted at the same time, spinning around to give one another a murderous look.
“You hit me!” They said in unison.
“I hit you?” Katara exclaimed. “You smacked me in the head with your stupid spear!”
“And I should smack you again!” Sokka cried. “You hit me in the head with a cod…how in the world did you even do that?!”
“My fish!” Katara exclaimed, Sokka’s words causing her to realize that her catch had escaped her. “Sokka you idiot you ruined it! I managed to bend the fish out of the water and almost had it in the boat…you made me lose my concentration and now it’s gone!”
“Yeah well, your big head got in the way of my catch!” Sokka complained, spinning around to glance over the side of the canoe to confirm his suspicion. All the fish had scattered and now all that was staring back at him were the dark, inky waves of the river. He turned around and gave Katara an annoyed look.
“All the fish are gone…I hope you’re are happy with yourself, we’re going to have a big helping of air and starvation for dinner!” Sokka cried out, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically.
“Oh, so this is all my fault!” Katara demanded, completely incensed by what Sokka was saying to her.
“Yes, it is!” Sokka said. “What did I tell you about using your freaky waterbending magic Katara!” He demanded, motioning to her hands. “This is the second time now its ruined our fishing…ugh, I should have known better than to bring you along! Leave it to a girl to screw everything up.”
Katara’s face immediately flushed with anger as Sokka’s final insult tipped her over the edge!
“You are without a doubt the most sexist, immature, jerk I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing!” She ranted, thrusting her arms out to the side as she hollered at her brother. All around them the water immediately reacted. The river, which was once calm, came to life as waves began to rock the canoe.
Sokka jumped as he noticed, turning to give Katara a frightened look as she continued to yell at him.
“I can’t believe I’m related to you! You know ever since mom died I’ve been doing all the work around home while you’ve been goofing off and pretending to be some big shot soldier. I cook, I clean, and I even do your laundry! It’s not fair and then you yell at me!” She hollered as she continued to wave her arms back and forth.
“Katara!” Sokka cried, holding onto the edge of the canoe tightly as the waves became more violent threatening to tip them over.
“Sometimes you are just the worst brother in the entire world!” She hollered.
“Katara you have to calm down!” Sokka hollered back, hoping to get through to his sister.
“No! I won’t calm down, you take everything that I do to help you for granted,” She cried out, pointing an accusatory finger at her brother. “So you know what? From now on I’m done helping you! You can do everything by yourself, you’re on your own!” She bellowed, stomping her foot against the bottom of the canoe.
And then suddenly from the sole of her heel erupted a furious flame that matched the feelings welling up within her. Sokka’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as Katara continued to rant and rave, the waves now nearly tipping the canoe over, though Katara didn’t seem to notice. Nor did she notice the flame that came from her foot.
Sokka did however! His heart began to slam against his chest as he watched the flame begin to take a life of its own as it spread across the bottom of the canoe.
“Katara!” He shouted, shooting his arms out to grasp her shoulders. He shook her as hard as he could to grab her attention. “The boat! It’s on fire!” He succeeded in his task. Katara stopped mid-rant as she looked down.
“The boats on fire?!” She hollered, repeating her brother’s panic as she scrambled backwards. With her ranting and arm-waving coming to halt, so did the river return to its calm state.
“BEND!” Sokka shouted.
“Right!” Katara said quickly.
“But water!” He said, Katara didn’t understand what he meant but didn’t have time to dwell on it either. Picking her arms up she mimicked what she had done again and focused on the water. She quickly pulled it over the side of the canoe and splashed it on the growing flame. However, the damage had been done and the fire had created a hole in the bottom of the boat.
Water was quickly rushing inside of it and the canoe was beginning to sink. Sokka cursed as he looked around the river.
“We have to abandon ship,” he said quickly, his eyes landing on ice chunks floating not too far from them. They were certainly big enough for both himself and Katara to fit on, Sokka just hoped it was sturdy enough to support their weight. “We have to get to those ice chunks over there!” Sokka said, pointing to them.
“They're not too far away, we can probably jump from here over to them!” He said quickly. Katara felt hesitant as she stared at the distance between them and the ice. However, the canoe was quickly sinking and they didn’t have much choice.
Stay in the sinking canoe and die or attempt to jump to the ice and possibility not die. It seemed like a no-brainer for Katara. Nodding quickly Katara stepped on the side of the canoe at the same time Sokka did. Together they jumped as hard as they could, launching themselves the distance between their boat at the ice.
Katara gasped as she smacked against the ice, the breath being snatched from her chest as she quickly scrambled to safety. Beside her, Sokka did the same and felt himself relaxing for a second as he realized the ice wasn’t sinking into the water.
Turning around, he felt dread come over him as the canoe disappeared under the fridge waters of the river.
“Well,” Sokka began. “We’re officially stuck! The boat is gone!” He groaned, flopping down on his back as he glared up at the sky.
“What happened?” Katara asked, pushing herself up to her hands and knees as she turned to look at her brother. “The boat…how did it catch on fire? I don't get it…” Sokka frowned as he propped himself up on his elbows.
“What do you mean what happened?” He asked, furrowing his brow at the question. “You were totally freaking out and waving your arms back and forth like a crazy woman! You caused the river to become violent and the waves nearly tipped us over!”
“...I did that?” Katara asked, her voice filling with awe. She held her arms out in front of her and looked down at them, not fully believing what her brother had said. Katara had never been able to bend much beyond small amounts of water and some snowballs. She had never created waves strong enough to almost tip over a canoe!
“Yeah, you did that!” Sokka said with frustration. “And if that wasn’t bad enough you slammed your foot against the bottom of the canoe and fire burst from your foot! That’s how the boat caught on fire…because of you!”
Katara slowly picked her head up, her eyes growing wide as he arms dropped down to her side. It took her a moment to take in what Sokka had just said.
“What?” Katara asked slowly. “You’re saying I…I started a fire? With my foot?” She stammered.
“...Yeah,” Sokka said, leaning back as he took in his sister. “I saw it…it like…exploded from your foot.”
“You’re saying I firebended Sokka?” She questioned before gulping thickly. “But…that shouldn’t be possible. I’m a waterbender…” Sokka felt a headache beginning to pound in the back of his head. He turned away from Katara and peered out across Whiterush River.
“Congratulations,” He said before turning back to Katara. “You have officially gone from weird to freakish.”