Avatar - The Amazing Zucchini
Commission #161
For Zenith
---
The Amazing Zucchini was on stage right now and before Sokka and Zuko’s very eyes, he was performing a set that was making the volunteer, aka victim, act like a mutt for the amusement of the crowd.
Sokka grinned as he sat with his arms crossed, observing the play by play while Zuko sat next to him in the same position but with a slightly less enthused look on his face. It read as someone being unsure of what they were seeing. He didn’t even seem confident that he was or wasn’t being entertained. He was just confused.
“Isn’t this amazing?” Sokka asked, holding out one of his hands to gesture towards the stage. “You know, if only we could have just done this to our enemies and then we wouldn’t have had to worry about all that frightening stuff we went through to get to where we are today.”
“I mean… I guess?” Zuko shrugged a bit. “Kind of takes the self-fulfillment out of it a bit. Doesn’t seem particularly honorable either.”
“Man, you and your honor. Lighten up dude. It’s fun,” Sokka insisted.
“Am I having fun?” Zuko asked. Like, he was directing it to Sokka as a genuine question here. He didn’t seem to really get why Sokka insisted on this being how they spent their day today. Aang and Toph's adventure together sounded more like a full-fledged vacation when he heard about it.
“Yeah, it’s fun. Watch closely. Really get into that stage presence. It’s a show that draws you in isn’t it?” Sokka said, leaning forward a bit and concentrating on the magician and the hypnosis spiral he had in his hand.
Zuko narrowed his eyes and followed his lead. If fun was at the other end of this then he’d try and find it..
—
Exiting the hypnosis show saw them both feeling fulfilled. Zuko was confused why he did but as he walked by Sokka he turned to him with a peppy assurance.
“You know, I feel pretty good suddenly. Not sure why but I think you were right.”
“See?” Sokka smirked. “It’s all a matter of perspective. Sometimes it’s okay seeing people humiliated in a public setting. Especially if they volunteer for it.” He smiled a bit and let his eyes wander a little. Why? He spotted a butterfly crossing his path.
Zuko saw it too and turned his head to glare at it which prompted the both of them to smack into each other while walking. They both grunted and apologized before stepping away.
“Sorry… just… that butterfly–” Sokka began.
“Yeah, no, I get it,” Zuko nodded. “It was a really interesting butterfly…” He said, feeling a strange urge to stumble after it. He then turned to see if there were any more around but found himself looking down at his bottom a bit instead. He winced a little and couldn’t get a clear enough view so he spun to try and see it better.
It didn’t really work and he kept doing it to make sure it eventually would. However, he stopped when Sokka tapped his shoulder.
“Uh, what are you doing?” Sokka asked, a brow raised.
“Hmm? Oh I was just… spinning in a circle, I guess?” Zuko said, suddenly realizing that’s exactly what he had been doing.
Sokka looked behind him. “Why? Is something on the ground that you’re trying to find? Oh… wait a minute…!”
Sokka found himself doing the same thing. Zuko blinked a few times before he held out his hand to stop him. Sokka blushed a little.
“Sorry. For some reason I felt like catching up to my butt... or something. Weird right?”
“...Not that weird,” Zuko responded, looking to the side. They decided to keep walking straight. This was turning out to be a strange day after all.
—
“Days” was probably more like it.
After the two of them returned home, the gang was inundated with a lot of weird instances of strange behavior from the two of them that stretched across a few days. Sitting down to eat dinner with Katara sitting across from them saw her placing bowls of soup before the two of them like normal. However, the reaction they had was to stare down at the food and then start relentlessly licking at it without even touching the utensils.
Katara raised a brow as she observed this and the two took notice of their behavior before stopping and looking off to the side, slightly embarrassed.
“So…how was your day?” Sokka asked, fiddling with the spoon in his hand and violently jabbing it in the bowl. He looked like he was restraining himself from doing something even more violent.
“Oh, you know, another really good day of… doing normal stuff and acting normal,” Katara said, trailing off a bit. “Kind of like the opposite of you two lately.”
“What do you mean?” Zuko asked, biting at his hand. He looked a bit irritated and kept doing it for some reason.
“... Nothing, nevermind.” Katara said, leaving it alone for now.
The ensuing day or so saw that as an inevitable impossibility however. The very next day, in fact, she saw Sokka outside, digging into the dirt hunched down with his butt in the air. He sniffed the dirt and then took notice of Katara about a second or so later.
When he did, he sat down properly and smiled sheepishly before pointing at the ground. “Yeah, you know me… just… making sure the ground smells… like… dirt. And it does. Kaythanksbye~!” He said before scampering off.
He did so on all fours before realizing it and then jolting back up to his feet in a sweaty panic. Katara watched him go with a clear air of confusion hanging over her head.
Later in that day she caught sight of Zuko walking by with a large bone in his mouth. He was biting at it all over and getting it wet with drool to the point where Katara had to tap him on the shoulder to catch his attention.
“GYAH! KATARA!” Zuko gasped and stumbled a bit, the bone flying every which way in his hands before he snagged it out of the air and hid it behind his back. “What are-what’s how are–hello?”
“Yeah, uhm… you know whatever piece of meat you were eating is long gone by now right? There’s nothing on that bone to bite off anymore,” Katara said, hunched over to try and take a peak at the thing she already saw behind Zuko’s back.
“Oh… yeah. Sure… uhm… you know I just bought this though so I might as well get every bit of nutrients I can out of it,” Zuko said, taking the large bone out and shaking it a little.
Katara raised a brow. “Actually… that looks like one of those fancy dog bones they flavor for… well, dogs.”
“... Does it?” Zuko pretended to look it over. “Well, that’s weird. Be seein’ ya.” He then plugged it back into his mouth and scampered off. He hit a tree and swiveled around it to try and run away but caught sight of a squirrel and angrily growled at it. When Katara saw him kick at the tree and paw at its trunk, seemingly really upset by the furry animal, she made a play at slinking off to go somewhere else and ponder this.
The day after, she entered the dining room with a look of determination on her face. It took a bit of mental gymnastics but she did eventually recall the hypnosis show that Sokka and Zuko went off to earlier in the week. With Aang and Toph still out on their little mini-adventure together it seemed like these two took a bit of a strange one and were somehow suffering from the consequences of it.
How did she know? Well, the two of them were currently hunched over on the floor, wiggling their tails in the air and pawing at a scrap of ham on the floor.
“Okay, how about this? We split it 50-50!” Sokka suggested.
“Deal! So long as I get the other 50!” Zuko said.
“Ooo~! You’re not getting me with that you sneaky devil!” Sokka said, sounding a bit pensive. The desperation in both of their voices was obvious.
Katara’s shadow loomed over them and the two of them tilted their heads to look up at her. She stood with a pouty look and her fists on her sides, judging them without a doubt. For multiple reasons, really.
“Why are you two bargaining over a scrap of meat on the floor?” Katara asked before pointing off to the side. “We also have more in the refrigeration unit, not two feet off to the side over there.”
Sokka and Zuko lowered their bottoms a bit and then got into a more proper sitting position, blushes on their faces. It was the sitting position of two mutts that had just been caught doing something they ought not to.
They glanced at each other a bit and frowned before turning to look back at Katara. She was tapping her foot and waiting for a response. Unknown to them, she already knew why but she wanted to know if they did.
“It’s because… it’s… we’re doing it for the sport?” Sokka said.
“To hell with this. Something’s wrong with us okay?” Zuko blurted out. “My instincts are shot. I keep chasing butterflies and getting mad at squirrels. If I’m not doing that, I’m chewing on bones and eating dirt and meat I find on the ground! It’s disgusting and I can’t help myself. There’s a plate on the table right above me and I’ve tried multiple times to move my hand to place it there but it just won’t budge!”
Sokka narrowed his eyes to the left when Katara faced him and leaned down to peer at his sweaty face.
“... Okay, maybe… there’s a bit of dog-like behavior happening between the two of us but y-you know it’s… oh God! Katara, please help! We went to a hypnosis show and The Great Zucchini was doing a set where he hypnotized a guy to act like a dog and I think we stared a little too hard at his spiral or something!” He gave up rather quickly.
He didn’t think this show of indignity was worth suffering through to keep what he was feeling and doing a secret from her. Yeah, it was embarrassing admitting he was likely hypnotized by the Great Zucchini but what else was he going to do? Continue acting like a dog forever?
“Yeah, I know,” Katara sighed.
“You know?!” Sokka and Zuko asked in unison.
“I mean, I figured it out. It had to be something like that. You two were acting so strange that I looked into what you’d been doing in the past few days and it led back to a hypnosis show. Either that was the explanation behind it or you just really liked the idea of being dogs randomly,” Katara said, putting a finger to her lip and smiling.
“Okay… well then great. If you figured it out before you even came here to confront us then you’ve likely already started looking for a way to get this undone!” Sokka said. Yeah, it was out in the open now. They were hypnotized to act like dogs, the both of them. It was humiliating, especially for Zuko, but it could be fixed for certain. With Katara’s foresight, surely she–!
“No.” Katara said flatly.
“No, what?” Sokka asked.
“No, I didn’t look into how to reverse it,” She continued.
Zuko looked off to the side and then back at her again before frowning a little more. “Please, can you help us get back to normal then!”
“Please! We’re begging you here! We’d do it ourselves but I think there’s a bit of an itch back here that I can’t get properly and it’s really eating up a lot of my time!” Sokka said, raising his leg and scratching at his side like a puppy would.
Katara giggled when she saw it. “The answer is still no, Sokka.” She said with a now cheeky grin.
The two of them looked at her, stunned into silence with their maws open.
“Why not?” Zuko asked, sounding like the walls were closing in on him.
“Because, I want to have some fun too,” Katara’s eyes looked rather powerful here. She was leering down at them like she would two puppies that were under her care. “Wouldn’t you?”
Maybe they would. Maybe they wouldn’t. All that mattered was that she had decided to and the next day saw her already knee deep in the special activities she had for them.
---
With the secret out, playtime in the yard came early for them. Katara entered the yard with a ball in hand and the two boys followed behind her on all fours before sitting down doggy style on both sides of her body.
This was a bit of a far cry from yesterday. At least they walked upright sometimes but voluntarily going on all fours seemed to indicate that things were getting worse for them.
Oh well. She’d make due and so would they.
She ruffled their hair and elicited pouts and whines from them both.
“I’m not enjoying th–Ohhh! Actually, that’s nice~!” Sokka grinned when Katara patted him just right. He even blushed a little bit.
Zuko was blushing as well but more so from embarrassment. He wanted to rush off and do anything else but Katara had ordered him out here and he wanted to be an obedient pupper.
This special day was quite fun at first. Sokka was annoying but in a different way. He would race around the field on all fours with his tongue out while demanding she hurry and throw the stick she had in her hand.
“Come on! Do it! Throw it! I’m open! I’m open! Arf! Arf! Sticky stick woo woo!” He shouted, making exclamations that he found humiliating but did anyway because it might mean getting the stick. He was flushed a bright red despite that.
Katara shook her head but took to playing fetch with him and tossing the stick at his discretion. He bolted off like a dart and went to pick it up with his mouth and then sauntered back over to her to place it back down by her feet.
Katara picked up a tennis ball she had and was about to turn her attention to Zuko, who took notice of that and silently prayed she’d keep focusing on Sokka, but Sokka demanded attention and wiggled his bottom about proudly when he put the stick down.
“More! Come on! More! Throw! Throw it again! I got it! I got it!” Sokka sounded so into it. He looked like he was on a high right now.
Katara grunted and obliged. However, she used water bending to carry the stick further ahead like it was being fired out of a water gun. That sent the stick quite a ways away and thus Sokka was out of her hair for a bit.
She then looked slanty eyed at Zuko. Zuko gulped.
She raised the tennis ball and tossed it. “Go fetch.”
“Oh, come on now Katara. I’m not gonna-okay,” He said and then raced forward. Zuko plucked the tennis ball up with his mouth and scampered back over to Katara, dropping it at her feet. “Just once though.”
She picked it up and tossed it again. Zuko hurriedly rushed after it without another line of protest. It made her laugh.
Zuko came back and dropped it by her feet again. “Fine. Maybe twice. M-Maybe a few more times if you really feel like it. Just if you feel like it though because I totally don’t.”
He said this right before raising his foot and scratching behind his ear with it. Thankfully, he was barefoot out here, same as Sokka, so the scratches were actually relieving. He didn’t even know why he liked wearing shoes before. His paws were great.
His feet. His feet were great.
Sokka came back a little later and almost bowled Zuko over to lay the stick in his mouth at her feet, panting with excitement at the idea of going again.
Katara shook her head. “Okay. Let's take things up a notch. How’s about a tennis ball and a stick at the same time?”
—
After the fun in the open yard, Katara left the two of them alone. Zuko and Sokka seemed to be a bit out of sorts without her. It was very strange.
“When it she coming back?” Sokka asked, sitting by the front of the house and feeling himself fidget in an unusual manner.
“Patience,” Zuko said. “She’ll come back. She lives here. Why she left, I have no Earthly clue. It doesn’t matter though.”
“I really want her back here though,” Sokka whined, pouting a little bit.
“You’re hopeless,” Zuko said with an eye roll.
Katara came up to the house shortly after he said that, carrying a small box. Zuko lost control of himself and rushed off the porch, tackling her with his whole body and knocking her onto her back.
Katara was taken by surprise at first but began laughing with delight when Zuko started to lick her face with excitement.
“Okay, okay! Yes! I’m back, I’m back! Get off of me okay? I have something to show you two!” Katara giggled, lightly pushing Zuko back so that he sat back down.
Zuko beamed with happiness but then noticed Sokka’s cheeky smile as he sat down next to him. With a heavy blush and a stint of realization, Zuko turned up his nose at him and grunted.
“S-So anyway, where were you? What did you get?” Zuko asked, his voice a tad shaky.
Katara placed the box down and opened it up, smiling happily. She then pulled out two collars, one red and one blue. The red one had Zuko’s name on it. The blue one had Sokka’s.
“Oh… dog collars…” Sokka muttered. Zuko twitched a little, unsure of what to say or think.
However, it didn’t really matter. She reached over and put the collars on the two of them. Their reaction was to stare down at them with a noticeable stint of discomfort, scratching at them a bit, before swooning with submissiveness a little.
“Okay. Now that you’re officially my doggies, let’s try and enjoy this new step in our lives together.” Katara smiled, producing two leashes. The two of them tilted their heads. They seemed more curious than anything. They then scratched behind their ears together.
That put an end to that long day of theirs but the next one saw things going into play a little more quickly this time. That said, the repeated things these two were doing were starting to be a little concerning for Katara.
—
When she woke up and made her way to the yard to check on her new dogs, they would tackle her instantly and the combined weight and strength they possessed took a considerable amount out of her. She fumbled to the ground and had to do a lot of attention grabbing to get them to chill.
She sat up and grumbled before watching them go off to play. However, even observing this saw things coming off as a little problematic.
“Yeah! This is the best stick in this yard! You’ve been holding out on us, Katara!” Sokka exclaimed before picking the shovel up with his mouth and waving it about like crazy. Him whacking it against the tree like he was made it shake and she wasn’t appreciating it one bit.
“Come on Sokka. Stop that. Sit! Heel!” She ordered with a stomp of her foot. Sokka didn’t really obey her. He just kept going, whacking at it endlessly because it was such an awesome stick. If anything he wanted to play fetch with it.
“Sokka! I said st-AH!” Katara jolted when dirt and strawberries from the ground smacked against her cheek. She turned and gasped at what she was seeing.
Zuko was digging in her yard. It was strange too because he was doing it without pants on. Her garden was getting destroyed and he was flashing his… wait, he wore briefs?
That was surprising. Sokka wore boxers.
Eh. Whatever.
“My garden!” Katara snapped back to attention. “What are you doing?!”
Zuko turned to look at her, dirt on his face and a bone in his mouth. “Sowwy. I just thought this would be the best place to put this. It’s good right?”
“There was clearly something already there! Don’t dig up the garden to bury a single bone!” Katara snapped at him. “Also, where are your pants?!”
Zuko plopped it in. “Sorry. I rolled around in them and got stuck so I left them on the floor. They weren’t very fun to chew on either.” He sounded rather disappointed about that. “This is really embarrassing…” He admitted with a red face. That didn’t compel him to stop though.
Katara sighed and pressed a hand to her face. Yeah, this was already pretty evident but the more time passed the more of a problem it was coming off as.
Neither of these dogs were trained and both of them were stronger than she was. They weren’t listening to her and trying to take care of them was going to prove to be more and more of an issue.
Case in point, after this little incident, she brought them both inside and led them towards the bathroom. Getting them out of their clothes was tough. She admonished Zuko for not putting on pants earlier but now she was wondering how he managed to get any clothes on.
Eventually, she got them both naked and blushed a little bit at how spirited they were when they jumped into her instead of in the tub.
“Ah! In the tub, you two! Come on!” Katara ordered as Sokka tried to scramble over her.
“No way! I want to go out and play in the yard a little more! Also, this is embarrassing! I can’t let you bathe me!” Sokka shouted, as if he hadn’t allowed just as much embarrassing stuff already.
“Please Katara! I promise not to dig up the garden again. Much. Just let me go and try to cover myself. If I need a bath, just use a hose on me!” Zuko pleaded. “Uhm, Arf? How was that? Did you like that little yip I just did?” He added that little arf at the end. Why? He thought she'd like it.
Katara grumbled as she did her best to fight with them. Eventually, she put her hand over the tub and used water bending to wrap a closed water whip around Sokka and Zuko, dragging them off her and towards the tub. They were still resisting, however, which was making this hard.
Katara rolled her eyes before getting an idea. With a grand smirk she leaned over and whispered something into Sokka’s ear. Sokka gasped and pushed Zuko back before jumping into the tub. Zuko, angry at being pushed, jumped in and started splashing everywhere, yipping with disdain as he crawled up along Sokka to try and nuzzle him down into the water for the shove. The mud and dirt on them was quickly washing off on its own but cleaning these two mutts was going to prove extremely difficult.
“Yes! I did it first! I got in the tub first, that means that bone you buried earlier is mine!” Sokka proclaimed, tongue out and panting with his fists in the air. He was already daydreaming about it.
“Hey! Don’t go making up bets like that! I never promised you my bone! Go get your own!” Zuko snapped, growling with his bare teeth showing while pressing a hand against Sokka’s face.
Zuko never did but Katara just whispered into Sokka’s ear that he did. That was good enough for him, thankfully.
Katara got a scrubber and some rubber gloves on, looking before them with a grumble. “Will you two chill out, please?”
She attempted to clean them down but they kept squirming around and pushing the other in one another’s way, trying their best to get the attention they both felt they equally deserved. It was rather annoying.
“Stop! Now! Or else no bones or meat for either of you!” Katara shouted.
Both of them stopped and began to pout and whimper with their heads down. She brought the brush over and began cleaning them off with a sigh. This was already taxing.
They seemed somewhat okay with listening to her orders which meant training them to obey without question was likely possible.
Taking them out of the tub and drying them up with towels saw them continue to whimper and whine. Katara brought the two naked boys out to the kitchen. They sat down on the floor with their hands in front of them, covering their naughty bits while blushing heavily and looking every which way around the room.
“C-Can you please j-just let us try and put clothes on again?” Zuko asked with an embarrassed stutter. “I promise I’ll try my best not to get tangled up in them.”
“This isn’t proper you know. You may be my master but you’re also my sister and I won’t be humiliated like this any longer… but also what are you making? It smells good. Maybe we can discuss it more over lunch?” Sokka exclaimed.
Katara sighed and eventually finished her meal making. It wasn’t a very pleasant looking dish though and when she set it down before the two pups, they got a closer look as to why.
It was gourmet dog food and she had placed it in two doggy bowls. The two boys blushed heavily and gulped before glancing back up at her.
“Eat up,” She ordered. “I made it for you so you’d better be appreciative of the hard work.”
The two of them grumbled a bit but found themselves bending down to press their faces into the bowls and eating. Once they started, they couldn’t stop.
Katara took that time to at least go fetch them some underwear. Sokka was granted access to his blue boxers and Zuko, his tighty whities. Of course, she had to help them both get them on which was an ordeal and a half.
Sokka was awkward because he was her brother and he kept rolling around on his back while she tried to do it.
Zuko was awkward because… well, obviously it would be right? Zuko tried to close his eyes in order to not see it happen but his submissive puppy side took over and he began rolling about on his back and kicking lightly at the air too.
It was cute and not as annoying as Sokka considering he didn’t interject with instructions on how to dress him followed by asking if they had more dog food. Still, she found it way more tough getting those briefs on then she would have liked.
Her dogs had the underwear on now though and they sat there panting with their tongues out as she stood before them with her fists at her side. Glancing at the empty bowls of dog food, she smiled and patted their heads.
“Good boys,” She exclaimed. The two of them felt a stint of pleasure well up within them but they weren’t daft enough to say that meant they were enjoying this.
Katara had made the decision to continue on with them as dogs and now began their training.
—
Her first attempt to get them to obey her started off that day. After lunch she put their leashes on and took them out for walkies.
The both of them were beyond humiliated, walking on all fours as Katara hummed behind them.
“I can’t believe this…” Zuko whimpered.
“They’re all staring at us. I can feel it,” Sokka said, eyes keeping forward. He didn’t want to look around to have that suspicion confirmed. Thankfully, Katara wasn’t really taking them on a route where they’d be spotted. If anyone found out she was doing this there’d be a risk of being asked to stop and she didn’t want to.
They really needed this to be reversed. They were partaking in all this dog behavior because of a compulsion that neither of them want. Resisting was futile. If only they–!
“Cat!” Zuko and Sokka screamed in unison.
“Huh?” Katara blinked before yelping as they tugged her forward. The two of them began to bolt down the sidewalk, slobbering with menace as they chased after a cat that had dared cross their path.
“Why do I want this kitty?” Sokka asked as he kept chasing it.
“Beats me but I must catch it!” Zuko shouted. “Oh God. Somebody help us!”
They did eventually lose sight of the cat. When stopped, they sat on the ground and grumbled, annoyed that they weren’t allowed to give chase despite not knowing why.
“Bad dogs!” Katara wagged her finger at them.
“I’m not a–!” Sokka began before Katara used water from the nearby pond to spray at his face.
“Hey, can I–?” Zuko began before she did the same thing to him. “Ack! Hey!”
She was using water bending as a replacement for a spray bottle. The two of them took offense to this but any motion to resist was met with them jolting a little and then staying in place. It was frustrating as hell.
The walk ended soon after that incident. When re-entering the house, Katara was walking with a hand to her forehead, wondering what good these doggies were.
“Can you at least fetch me my slippers so I can rest a little easy?” Katara asked.
“Sure, we can do that your highness…” Sokka grumbled before sniffing the air. He then raised a brow. “Oh! Wait a minute! I think I’ve got a whiff.”
“Yeah. Me too actually…” Zuko said as he began sniffing around with Sokka. The two of them were still leashed but she saw fit to let them go and watched them crawl around the living room area before returning to her, each with a slipper in their mouths.
Katara’s jaw dropped. She had found their use alright.
“Say… before we settle in, there are a few things I’d like for you two to help me search for.” Katara snickered.
“No way. We’re your pets, not your slaves,” Zuko said.
“Dude! We’re not her pets either!” Sokka interjected. “Right master?” He turned and asked Katara this. A few seconds later he growled with disdain for what he just said.
Well, whatever. They were going to try and refuse this request.
All Katara did was wave a bone in the air, claim it would be their prize if they listened, and she had them wrapped around her little finger again.
With that secured, the two of them used their suddenly good sense of smell to fish around her house and discover items of hers that she once thought were lost. Now it was clear they had simply been misplaced.
Sokka and Zuko ended up with two piles of her belongings before them, looking proud of themselves for being so good at this wonderfully weird task.
“Good boys!” Katara clapped her hands together with delight.
“Boy, you sure did have a lot of missing trash,” Sokka commented. “But still, I’m glad I could help. I’m not just a good boy. I’m the bestest boy.”
Zuko twitched. He didn’t know why but hearing Sokka say that about himself bothered him greatly.
“Uh, yeah, no. I am.” Zuko said, narrowing his eyes as he peered over at the person who was suddenly a rival in his eyes.
Sokka gave Zuko the same look when he responded that way. “Uh, check yourself before you wreck yourself man. I clearly have the bigger pile.”
“Maybe so but my pile is full of more essential stuff. She obviously needs the hair dryer more than the little keychain thing,” Zuko mused.
“You don’t know that. It could have some long lost sentimental value pertaining to a tragic backstory that we don’t know about!” Sokka said, pressing his nose against Zuko’s.
“You’re her brother! How could she have a tragic backstory you don’t know about, idiot?!” Zuko snapped back.
“She doesn’t tell me anything, duh!” Sokka snarled. Zuko snarled too. They began yipping and snapping at each other while Katara began to sift through the stuff they brought, picking out stuff from both piles to admire.
As she was in the middle of basking in the afterglow of how good a score this was, she was almost knocked over by them rolling around on the floor and pawing at each other.
The sensation of it happening made her upset all over again, unfortunately.
“Nope. Not dealing with this inside the house. Not tonight.” Katara said, stomping her foot to put emphasis on her decision here.
It had been a long day but now that it was night time, they all needed rest. Katara wanted it done her way though. That’s why she made sure she was inside while the two doggies were put outside and tied to a post via their leashes.
The two boys grumbled where they were, laying in the grass and making disconcerting and annoyed faces. At least it wasn’t cold out tonight but still, this was unfair. They just found her stuff and just because they likely were about to demolish the living room fighting, that didn’t matter? What a rip!
“I can’t take this anymore!” Sokka sat up and grabbed at the collar. “If she won’t help us by fixing us then we need to do it ourselves.”
Zuko sat up as well. “Absolutely. We’ve indulged her long enough. We shouldn’t have done so at all but the compulsion was too great.”
“Well, whatever. That’s all over now…” Sokka said, hands resting on the collar. Zuko had his hands on his as well and waited.
The next step was to tear the collar off, clearly.
They didn’t.
“Hey… uh… what gives?” Sokka grunted, looking over at Zuko. “Why aren’t you pulling your collar off?”
“I don’t know!” Zuko yelled back. “Why aren’t you?”
“I don’t know. I asked because I figured you’d know why we weren’t but I guess we’re both just… not able to?” Sokka whined and tightened his grip. This collar was an ordinary dog collar. Taking it off shouldn’t have been a problem but simply he couldn't do it.
“The hypnosis runs way too deep,” Zuko realized. “I don’t think we’re able to take these off without our master’s consent.”
“She’s not our master!” Sokka whined and waved his fists about with disgruntled anguish.
“I know but tell that to our subconscious!” Zuko fell back and laid on the grass. “So long as we believe she is underneath our human exterior, we’re always going to be her dogs. There’s no way out unless she reverses this!”
“We could-uh-we could run away?” Sokka said, leaning over to look down at him. “Dogs do that all the time. Master or no master.”
“Yeah but run where?” Zuko asked. “Plus, if we do we’ll be recognized in public. We’ll still be forced to act like dogs, even without Katara here. The original hypnosis spell made us into dogs, not dogs-only-when-Katara-says-so. If we risk that we’ll be seen and–!”
“Humiliated beyond repair…!” Sokka finished for him, pressing his hands to his cheeks. “Oh no! No! We really are stuck like this then?!”
“We have to find a way out of this though. Even if we risk embarrassment, it may be the only way to–!” Zuko started before the back door opened.
“If you two quiet down I’ll give you extra treats for the night,” Katara said, wagging a box of dog biscuits at them.
“Ha! As if we’re gonna fall for–!” Sokka began before she tossed several of them out at the two boys.
Instantly, Sokka and Zuko yipped and panted with excitement, racing over to the treats in the grass and munching down on them. They ate while wagging their butts at the night sky. Katara yawned, content to witness this and turned off the light inside before heading to bed.
As the two ate their treats and followed that up with a heavy blush and a reluctant slump back into the grass, the realization of how boned they truly were dawned ever more on their shoulders.
—
Things were tough and they continued to be for a while. No matter how often she’d spray them with water, or have them sniff around for her things, or ask them to sit still while she bathed them, there was always some sort of mess being made.
Eventually, though, all of what transpired earlier became more routine. They did this stuff in a nice pattern and thankfully, she managed to succeed at getting them well trained.
As she stood over them, watching the two of them rest while curled up on the floor and scratch behind their ears involuntarily, she realized something.
This hadn’t really been worth it.
Not only had this been a huge hassle to do but continuing on, even with them well-trained like this, was going to lead to a whole host of problems for her.
There was too huge a limited scope of what she could actually do with them here. She couldn’t take them too far out otherwise they’d all be recognized. Not to mention, Aang and Toph were liking coming back from whatever adventure they were on soon and she didn’t want either of them finding out.
As fun as this was there was an expiration date on this experience as is. Perhaps it was time to fix this.
If they could be hypnotized by accident then they could be hypnotized on purpose. She wasn’t a professional but hey if it took so little to get them under then a little bit more than that should snap them back to normal.
Or… better yet–!
—
Sokka and Zuko blinked when Katara finished waving a spiral in front of their faces and snapped her fingers. This was the position they found themselves in the very next morning and it was a godsend.
It was also an odd feeling. They both shivered and stood up, blinking with their hands at their sides and tilting their heads a little.
“So? How do you feel?” Katara asked.
“I feel… good? I think?” Sokka asked, scratching his head. “I swear, something might still be weird but I don’t have any compulsion to do doggy stuff anymore!”
“Yeah…” Zuko patted himself down, glad to be on two legs again and feeling an overwhelming sense of shame wash over him when recalling how often he was in his underwear in front of Katara.
Oh God. She dressed him so much too.
'Don’t think about it, Zuko! Stop thinking about it dammit!'
“Well, that was fun. I hope you two learned your lesson," Katara smiled and turned to walk away.
“Yeah, we sure did…” Sokka nodded. Zuko turned to glance at him, slightly confused.
Then it got quiet before Sokka jolted with realization. “Wait a minute! No we didn’t! We didn’t do anything wrong!”
—
It was merely a day later that Sokka and Zuko managed to collectively feel the weight of their experience and the relief that came with no longer being trapped in it. As a show of celebration, they decided to spend time with their girlfriends. Neither really wanted to see Katara right now, understandably.
It was a double date today. Sokka had Suki across from him while Zuko had Mai. They met up and exchanged pleasantries like usual. Sokka talked about how the hypnosis show was an “eye-opening” experience for him and Zuko.
When asked about it from Mai, Zuko merely said “It was fun, I guess” and left it at that. He didn’t seem to really want to elaborate.
He heard that they were headed to the park so that’s where they went. They even brought a frisbee to toss around. Even better. With their bodies moving they could work on ignoring the nonsense that had happened to them a lot better.
“Alright, catch~!” Suki said as she threw the frisbee. She then grinned and shouted, “Good boys!”
Before they had even done anything, the two of them heard the phrase “Good Boys” and felt their entire bodies jolt. A trigger had gone off and in a split second, they raced for the frisbee in unison before smashing their foreheads together in a humorous collision. They then fell on their butts, eyes rolling for a bit, before they growled at one another.
Zuko clamped his mouth around the frisbee and Sokka followed suit. They both played tug of war with it for about a full minute before the anger on their faces turned to confusion.
They both began to sweat and blush with heavy embarrassment but were also unable to stop!
The crushing weight of this reality made their spines run cold. How?! What on Earth happened?!
They didn’t seem to notice Suki and Mai smirking to themselves a bit away from them.
Katara’s words held merit alright. She had gone to see them before this double date happened and told them about the new triggers she created for Sokka and Zuko. Now their girlfriends new what to say to flip the switch on the dog boys whenever they wanted.
Of course, that all sounded like a convenient excuse when read aloud. There was a chance this was all conjecture and these blushing dog boys just had the spirit of puppies within them all along.
Who could really say when there wasn’t any proof?
