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Sokka was excitedly showing Toph the bamboo Scroll he just bought, waving it in her face.
Apparently it was very cool and amazing.
She sighed.
“How many times do I have to remind you, Snoozles? I can’t read.”
Sokka wasn’t deterred, though. “No, no. Not the writing on it. The texture! It’s marvellous!”
He was super excited.
Toph knew bamboo, obviously. She didn’t grow up in the South Pole. And, even though paper was a lot more popular, she had felt bamboo scrolls before. She had to admit that this was a very nice one, though. She turned the scroll around in her hands and runs her fingers across the materials. The bamboo is thinly cut and the string each piece is tied with feels nice, too. Probably silk.
It was very pleasant to run her finger across it.
Sokka handed the scroll to her rolled-up. She makes to unfurl it, so she had more area to touch, when she notices something. A tiny raised line.
She moves her finger perpendicular to it and notices more lines, all about 1 inch apart from each other.
“Are these more strings?“ she asked.
That was unusual. Bamboo scrolls were usually tied with one string at the left and one at the right. That was enough to keep the pieces together.
“Yes,” Sokka answered. “It’s a lot of strings. The ones at the side are red and the ones in the middle are white. I think they are meant to be decorative. The motive on the scroll is also done in red ink. The shop owner told me these were all the rage now.”
“So it’s not a bending scroll?”
Sokka coughed. He sounded embarrassed. “Um…yeah. Maybe possibly it wasn’t totally necessary to buy this one. But it looks really nice!” Sokka defended himself. “And it feels really pleasant, too!” he added.
Toph had unfurled the scroll a bit and placed her thumb on one side, her pointer finger on the other side of it.
“I’m not complaining,“ she said, moving her fingers up and down. “You might just have to take up your budgeting plan with Katara, though. I know you’re the plan guy, but you’re also the shopping guy and maybe that doesn’t always mesh the best,” she teased him.
Sokka groaned dramatically and let himself fall backwards to the ground.
“I am being bullied. I can’t believe it, I’m bringing you this amazing scroll and you’re bullying me for it.”
Toph handed him one end of the scroll, as if in reconciliation.
Sokka started grumbling something along the lines of “very generous, to give me half the scroll that I own anyway“ but he was very quickly distracted by the happy stimming and soon they sat in companionable silence, enjoying the scroll and each other’s company.