Chapter 13: When The World Needed Him Most Part 4

Shortly after they set off from the shore, Kel was already regretting his decision to let Katara lead the way. She was currently leaning on the front end of the boat and constantly pointing while barking orders. 

"Sokka, this way! No, no, stupid, to the left, more power! Sokka, come on, go faster on that bend, there's a block of ice in the water!" As Katara was saying this, the boat sideswiped the said block of ice that was floating in the water, causing some water to splash furiously around the boat, some hitting Katara's face and causing part of her hair to become wet, which immediately made her turn around, cross her arms, and frown facing Kel. 

"Sokka, I told you to go faster, now look what you did!"

Kel was trying his best not to snap back at Katara because he knew that would simply lead to an argument which, she being a woman, wouldn't concede to, especially to her older brother—it didn't matter if Kel's argument had the backing of the finest minds known to man. 

So, rather than go that pointless route, he chose to lead her on. "Oh, see, other times when you were behind and I was looking over, getting water splashed all over my face, I didn't complain," Kel pointed out, but Katara quickly cut him off. "Yes you did! you always complain, every single time."

However, Kel didn't falter and shrugged it off, answering, "That, I just do that to get on your nerves. If I really hated it, do you think I would do it all the time? But you just won't deal with it, Katara. This is what you wanted, unless of course, you're trying to say you give up and that me, your handsome big brother, is the only one that can do it."

"Handsome? Grow up, Sokka, you're about as attractive as a dead fish," Katara mustered.

'Must be why I attract vultures like you,' Kel muttered to himself, which prompted Katara to frown and ask, "What did you say?"

"I said your hair looks nice when it's wet," Kel replied. Katara suspected he'd said something bad about her, and so she narrowed her gaze at him.

While she was doing this, another block of ice struck the boat and nearly caused her to fall into the water. Only, Kel had acted on reflex and held onto part of her tunic, though this led to the boat wobbling on one side more than the other, which nearly caused it to overturn completely. Thankfully, it wobbled right back, and Katara fell onto Kel. Unfortunately, he wasn't as cushioned as he landed on some of the hard tools, with Katara's weight on him. 'She ain't light,' he thought to himself, groaning audibly.

Katara, embarrassed, pressed herself off of him, which added evenmore forceful tone, causing Kel to groan again. "Ow, ow, ow!"

This time Katara backed away and asked with grave concern, "Are you okay, Sokka?"

Seeing this opportunity, Kel was definitely not going to be okay. "No, I feel a sharp pain in my back. I think I landed on something when I fell." 

"Remove your shirt, let me see," Katara urgently asked, showing a concern that was inconsistent with her usual rudeness.

Kel could see she genuinely cared for Sokka despite their constant bickering, which can be said for all bickering siblings. He wasn't going to let this opportunity pass and so he thought to himself, 'Damn, I better sell this shit like WWE.' 

With that in mind, he began trying to take off the upper part of his outfit while groaning constantly in pain. "Ow, ow, ow."

"Where does it hurt, Sokka?" Katara urgently asked as she helped him disrobe. Once the clothes of his upper body were completely removed, Katara placed her hands on the part Kel was directing her to, as the origin of the pain. 

As her hands made contact with his skin, she began to feel out his muscle, only then noticing how firm and fit his muscles were, being incredibly well-toned and structured and practically glistening due to the sweat that had accumulated due to the constant paddling.

Her, who'd only looked at Sokka with feelings of disgust and irritation found that she was enjoying running her hands over his body as it gave her a peculiar sensation she wasn't familiar with.

Though rather than feel good about this, she felt inwardly disgusted, but did her best not to show it as the urgency of the situation was her first priority, to which she was acting. 

Doing so, she made sure that her priority was simply checking the area to see if it was sore anywhere, as this wasn't her first time treating Sokka, though she really couldn't feel any problem aside from a slight reddening on the area of impact, which Sokka was simply overselling.

"Nothing serious, don't be such a baby," seeing that it was nothing grave, Katara shifted from her motherly concern and no longer showed any urgent worry. This disappointed Kel because he knew he likely couldn't take it any further from here, and he was now thinking that this really wasn't going to be as easy as he thought. 

Some progress was better than none, and much to his surprise, in the next moment, Katara went over to the paddles and said, "You lead the way. Since you're hurt and all, we can't have you paddling."

Katara was trying to do something nice for him by saying this, but again, he by no means knew the way, and quite frankly, the view of Katara's backside as he paddled wasn't the worst thing in the world, in comparison to standing on the edge of the boat while giving directions to navigate over icebergs. "It's fine, Katara. I made a promise and I plan to stick to it. A real warrior doesn't let his injuries stop him," Kel replied, trying to imitate some of Sokka's usual unmatched bravado.

This only caused her to frown for a moment before she shifted into a smile and then said to him, "Fine Mr. warrior, you continue paddling, we're almost there anyway. And try not to hit any icebergs this time."

"Once we're there, I'll even start doing the fishing while you tend to your little 'booboo' that seems to hurt so much," Katara added with a bit of sarcasm.

However, Kel felt relief. He'd dodged a bullet like this; not in a good potential. 'Man, if only this shit was as easy as Hentai. But oh well, the grind continues.'