Chapter 17: When The World Needed Him Most Part 8

As Katara was wiping Kel's body, she noticed that her brother had gone unusually silent. She paused for a moment to face him, but in that moment, Kel had been staring at her butt as she slightly bent inward to reach more of his back to rub. Despite this, he quickly looked away, but at that point, Katara had practically already seen him and scowled. 

"What were you looking at, Sokka?" Katara immediately questioned.

Kel tried to complete his alibi by simply answering, "Oh, nothing."

However, Katara, still demanding an answer, soon pressed the cloth against the area Kel was faking so he pretended to groan in pain. "Ow, okay, okay, I was looking at your butt," Kel quickly answered, preventing himself from using the more common term he was used to.

Katara stopped pressing down on the area Kel was feigning an injury on and pulled away from him before crossing her arms. "Why? What's wrong with it?" Katara questioned in a very defensive tone, thinking that perhaps Kel was making fun of her in some way. As a growing young woman, she of course had some insecurities about her body. 

'I better answer right, or this won't end well,' Kel thought, keeping in mind that he had blatantly invoked something she was insecure about. Considering the fact that he had mentioned it before and called it cute, it wasn't hard to see why Katara would assume this brother of hers, who constantly made fun of her, was likely doing the same now. But rather than just yielding to the situation, Kel decided to try and take advantage of it.

He seemed to hesitate for a moment. "It's just..." Then he seemed to stop himself and said, "No, never mind, it's fine."

"No, no, no, explain," Katara naturally refused this, crossing her arms even more and leaning slightly forward with narrowing eyes.

Kel sighed, expressing defeat. "Alright, stand up," Kel instructed, which made Katara raise a curious brow before standing up. In the next moment, she moved her hands to her hips.

As she did this, Kel gestured for her to turn around slightly so that he could look at her from the side. At first, she thought he meant for her to fully turn around so he could point out something about her butt, so he had to correct her. "No, no, not fully, just halfway so I can look at you from the side."

Katara readjusted herself but felt very silly doing that. "What's the point of all this, Sokka?"

"Just stand there and stay still," Kel instructed before bringing his hands up and holding her by the knees.

Katara became very confused. "What are you doing, Sokka?" 

'Confusing the enemy,' Kel internally thought, though on the surface, he feigned a serious expression. "You'll see, just try not to disturb me," he replied cryptically. 

Although Katara was irritated by this, she felt curious enough to see where he was going. She let out an unsatisfied huff but crossed her arms and remained silent, which told Kel he had the right to continue.

He did exactly that, proceeding to start moving his hands a bit higher while slowly pressing against her thighs. As he was moving up, at one point, he muttered aloud, "Wow, they're even nicer than I thought."

Katara immediately frowned and looked Kel's way. "What do you mean 'nicer than you thought'?"

"Learn to take a compliment," Kel retorted, sounding offended and continuing to rub Katara's thighs. 

But she wasn't done with him, going as far as to point at his head and give it a few pokes. "That's not a compliment, Sokka! You're basically saying you thought my legs weren't nice at all. What is this even for anyway?" she asked, raising her hands in absolute bewilderment.

Kel didn't answer and continued to move up Katara's thighs, massaging them more gently and deliberately.

As he began doing this, he looked up and asked, "How does this feel for you?"

Only now was Katara brought to the attention of the massage being given to her thigh. At first, she had been so focused on the other matter that she didn't really pay any mind to it. As strange as it was, now that she did, she showed an odd expression as she realized that it wasn't so bad. Rather, it even felt good.

"I guess it's not bad," she replied in a hesitant manner, while trying to act unimpressed. Kel already knew this was as good as he would get in terms of a compliment from her. 

'Should I go further?' Kel wondered to himself, but he knew that things were going so well, it would be too risky to ruin it now. Either way, to ensure his plan would work, as he pulled away his hands, he looked at Katara and slightly shrugged his shoulders while saying, "Fine then, I guess I'll stop."

"What? No, don't," Katara quickly interjected as if by reflex. Then, realizing what she had said, she quickly crossed her arms in front of him, trying to recover by adding, "Not that it's good or anything, I just want to know the reason you were staring at my butt."

This time, it was Kel who crossed his arms and shook his head. "Nope. You already said it was only 'not so bad,' so why continue?"

Katara couldn't help but stomp her foot and pout a bit. "Why are you so difficult today, Sokka?"

Seeing that Katara was about to break into a rant or big argument, Kel immediately chose to end here. "Fine, fine," he sighed.

"Finally," Katara sighed in relief, but then Kel added, "Tonight."

"…."

A brief silence then followed, with Katara staring intently at Kel as she closed her fists. "Don't make me hurt you, Sokka."

'I just had to have a violent promax version of a sister. At least she's naive and innocent.' Kel thought before taking a gamble on the surface as he shook his head. "I said I'll tell you tonight. You said it yourself, I need rest, so if or when you come to check up on me tonight, you'll know everything. And I'll even have something special prepared just for you."

Hearing this all-too-good-to-be-true enticement, Katara kept her position on the matter. "No, at least tell me what it is."

 Kel raised his finger and moved it side to side. "Tsk tsk, Katara. That would spoil the surprise if I told you. Just trust me, okay? Now can you hurry and finish up here so I can get to sleep—I mean, so I can rest."

Katara felt she wasn't going to get anywhere with Kel at this point, and a big part of her was indeed now curious, so much so that she even wanted to linger around longer—something she would usually be so appalled with. "Fine, Sokka. But if I find out you're lying—"

Katara warned before showing him her closed fist, which did not really intimidate Kel much. 

'Or what? You'll finger me?' he thought, though on the surface, he showed a small smile. 

"I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."