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There was a crease on her forehead as she spoke with some guy about making some renovations to the pro-bending arena. She had been going back and forth with the young contractor who had been nice enough to check out the arena and consult her on the expansions she envisioned. Toph insisted that she had to expand the arena a bit because she wanted to make it more difficult for teams to make their opponents fall out of the stage. It had always been interesting to Sokka to see Toph so concentrated on her work. The way that she would conduct herself when speaking to others who might perceive her as weak was always a sight – her eyebrow would rise, her hand would find her hip, and her attitude and defensiveness would increase ten-fold. And she was so small in size that anyone who didn’t know her would think she’s defenseless. It was impressive to him how someone so short had so much bite to compliment her bark. While it was true that she had grown some since they met, it wasn’t more than a few inches. Sokka chuckled to himself knowing that Toph would kick his ass to next Sunday if she had the ability to hear his thoughts.
“Well, you know what? I’ll do it myself,” said Toph angrily from her desk to the man who seemed to be cowering in his seat. “I have connections at council. I can get the permit I need to bend some more space in here. Screw you and get the hell out of my office.”
“I, uh, but, Miss Beifong-“
“Nope, no,” she interrupted, circling around her desk and pointing to something near the exit rather than the exit itself, “Out!”
Sokka watched as the man hastily gathered his things, mumbled an apology to Toph – which she waved off grumpily – and left without another word. The councilman looked at her incredulously and let out an astounded chuckle, “That was really mean.”
Toph shrugged, sitting back on the chair and resting her feet on her desk. She took an apple and bit into it before saying, “You know I could have been meaner if I wanted to be.”
He made a face at her, then reluctantly nodded in agreement, “Yeah, okay, that’s fair. But the poor guy looked like he wanted to pass out.”
“Well, there’s a healing clinic right next door that he could have recurred to if had passed out,” she replied nonchalantly, contentedly chewing on her apple, with a smirk playing on her lips, “which he did not.”
“You have a response for everything today, huh?” Sokka asked, taking a seat in front of her desk as he resisted the urge he had of kissing the smirk off of her lips.
“I’m in an arguing mood,” Toph responded with a smile on her face as she chucked the apple core into the trash bin next to her desk and leaned into it. “So sweet of you to notice, Councilman Snoozles.”
Sokka smiled at the nickname, then thought about what she had told the contractor, “Speaking of council… You planned on using me to get your permit, weren’t you?”
“You don’t have to pretend that you aren’t going to do me the favor. We both know you were going to help me if I asked anyway,” she said smugly, moving from her chair to sit on her desktop, directly in front of him. His breath hitched at the sudden closeness and cursed at himself for holding out hope for something that was likely to never happen. Toph had been in a relationship with one of the pro-benders for a while, Kanto, for some months before he had to leave town for some reason Sokka never found out about. He was an okay guy – but he wasn’t Sokka and that’s what upset him. And though this was true, he couldn’t bring himself to tell her how he felt. Not yet.
He pushed his feelings away and stood up to tower over her. Looking down at her, he said, “What makes you so sure?”
Her eyebrows knitted together and said in the most obvious tone, “Because I know you love me.”
In his head, he responded, Yeah, I do love you. What of it? But instead, he said, “Yeah, yeah. Can we finally go eat? I’ve been waiting for you to be done for hours.”
“Hey,” she scolded, picking her bag up from the ground and directing herself toward the door out of her office, “You’re the one who wanted to have dinner with me. So take it easy, Speedy.”
“Are you actually insinuating you didn’t want to have dinner with me initially?” he asked, feigning to be dismayed by her words as he followed and opened the door for her. “That hurts – you wound me.”
“Eh, you’ll get over it,” she chuckled, leading him out of her office as he followed her out to Chung’s, their usual spot for grub, in comfortable silence. As they left the arena, he looked at the structure had been in. Truthfully, Sokka was impressed with what she came up with and did; it wasn’t surprising to him, though. Her Blind Bandit days were clearly not over because as soon as she was able to, after having opened two more metalbending academies in addition to the one already established, she decided upon opening the pro-bending arena. Within a few weeks of its grand opening, benders started to sign up to compete in the tournaments and everyone in Republic City would either listen to them or attend. It was a moneymaker for her in Sokka’s eyes, and he was happy that she was doing something she enjoyed.
Sokka, on the other hand, was getting tired of serving on the council. After finally ruling to jail Yakone, he felt as though the trial and the ordeal in and of itself had taken a toll on him and decision-making just wasn’t fun for him anymore. He missed fighting and protecting people, but then again, he felt like he was making a difference on the council by being able to give the Southern Water Tribe proper representation in terms of law and policymaking.
When they finally arrived at the restaurant and were seated, he voiced his concern to Toph, who was sitting on her crossed legs in the booth.
She said, “No, you have to stay on the council. I won’t let you quit.”
Confusedly, he knit his brows together, “Why not?”
“If you do,” she said after taking a sip of the drink she had in front of her, “I won’t have anyone to run to with my problems and I’ll have to play the ‘I-trained-the-avatar’ card or the ‘I-saved-the-world’ card whenever I need a favor, and that’s no fun anymore. Who knew the world would run out of free stuff and favors for war heroes?”
Sokka laughed, kicking her leg under the table softly, taking a sip of his own drink while he waited for their food to come. Then, he sighed, conflicted, “Be serious, Toph. Please.”
Toph’s face softened, and she leaned into the table in search of his hands, which she found wrapped around his drink. Clutching them tightly, she said, “Look, Sokka, I know you’re conflicted, but I can’t tell you what to do because you already know what to do. The only thing I can do for you right now is have your back, and Spirits know that I do.”
Sokka’s heart swelled and he squeezed Toph’s calloused hands affectionately. There was a small smile on her lips and he could have sworn that he saw a faint blush on her cheeks. He mentally groaned, thinking about how damn difficult she was making it for him to not devour her at that very moment. After realizing that he had been silent for too long, he finally said jokingly, “You suck at helping. But I guess you’re right — I do know what to do.”
Much to his dismay, she let go of his hands to smack his forearm and lean back into her seat, “It’s offensive you still think I wouldn’t be right about things at this point.”
Again, Sokka laughed at his best friend just as the food was being set in front of them. The two of them instantly quieted as they quickly turned their attention to the meaty dishes set before them. Toph used her chopsticks to snag some food off Sokka’s plate, and he did the same to her, though to no success. Before they knew it, both plates were empty and they were headed toward her apartment nearby.
“Are you coming in?” she asked when they were standing in front of the apartment door. “I can’t promise I won’t fall asleep, though.”
Sokka understood her fatigue, “It’s alright. We can hang out tomorrow. I’m tired too.”
Toph chuckled, giving him a soft punch on the shoulder, “Go snooze, then, Snoozles. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Alright, yeah,” he said, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck as he moved away from the door. “Have a good night, I love you.”
The smile that Toph had on her face dropped just as quickly as the color drained from her face — she looked almost frightened. For a moment, just before Sokka left for his own apartment, he thought something had happened to elicit this reaction from her, but then he backtracked and realized what he had just said. His eyes widened and he walked closer to her.
“I didn’t, uh, I meant that,” Sokka stammered pathetically, “I meant it in the most platonic way possible.”
Toph nodded slowly, looking uncharacteristically nervous. Her hands were fidgeting at her sides as she opened her apartment door wider as an invitation for him to come in and talk, “You sure? I’m suddenly wide awake. Let’s talk about it.”
“I’m, uh, sure,” Sokka said, letting himself walk into her apartment. He was so stupid. How could he slip up like that? For all he knew, he had destroyed their friendship with three stupid little words.
He saw her purse her lips and lick at them, a small smile finding its way back onto her lips as she shut the door behind her, “You promised me once that you would never lie to me, Snoozles.”
This time, he pressed his eyes shut and facepalmed. How could he forget that she can see right through his lies? Before he could bring himself to open his eyes, he heard a soft chuckle and he felt a hand, calloused from years of bending and fighting, settle onto his cheek. Forcing himself to open his eyes, he saw Toph standing inches away from him.
“Tell me the truth, Snoozles,” she whispered, pressing her hands to his chest, her hot breath hitting his chin and giving him goosebumps. “Do you love me?”
Sokka looked down at her, impulses taking over, and he tilted her chin up for easier access to her lips. He found her lower lip with his thumb and slowly caressed it making her shiver slightly under his touch. Pulling her closer to him by the waist, he allowed himself to breathe her in. The way she smelled, he noted, was a pleasant combination of lavender and petrichor — he’d always loved her scent. The hand that wasn’t on her face ran up and down her arms that were decorated with goosebumps, and his face nuzzled into her neck. Sokka pressed purposeful kisses onto her skin as she bit back a moan of pleasure. Toph’s hand that was on his chest found his face again and she guided him to her lips. Warmth radiated through Sokka’s body as he pressed her against him.
Unfortunately, his chest began to burn after a while due to the lack of air between the two as they kissed. Sokka pulled away, noticing that he was as breathless as she was. The smile that crept its way onto his face was difficult to resist when he set his sights on Toph’s flushed face.
“You could have just said yes, you know,” she quipped, her hand still on his cheek and her thumb caressing his scruffy skin.
“I don’t know,” Sokka pretended to consider, “But that was a bit more fun, wasn’t it?”
Toph bit her lip and rolled her eyes at his comment. The gesture drove him crazy. She pushed herself away from him and grabbed his hand, pulling him further into the apartment, “I’ll do you one better.”