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There was nothing Sokka hated more than being away from his girls for long periods of time, although the ship ride he was taking back to them in the rain came in a very close second. The city was already in his view, so he didn’t bother taking cover anywhere, his skin becoming slick with rainwater, his hair and clothes dripping in time with the precipitation. The late-night wind was unrelenting against his wet skin and clothes, making him shiver with each gust, but he didn’t care because he would be greeted by Toph and Lin when he docked.
Three months were much too long of a time to go without being with his loves, but duty had called. His father sent him a letter saying that he needed someone to step up as interim Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe while he and Malina visited and cared for a dying relative of hers. Sokka didn’t mind the trip or the responsibility since he would have to take over his father’s duties at some point anyhow, so it was a great opportunity for him to correctly learn the ropes. Besides, he had someone on the council willing to step in during his absence, allowing him a seamless leave.
Still, this came at the expense of being with Lin and Toph, the latter of whom all but pushed him out of the apartment they shared in the city because she wasn’t going to be the person responsible for him not helping his father. She also pointedly told him that she wasn’t about to accompany him to his homeland; she had her own job and a child to tend to and the ice and sensory deprivation weren’t persuading her much, either. He reluctantly left with nothing but a promise to bring back a present for his surrogate daughter and an “I love you,” along with a tender kiss from the police chief.
His mind filled with images of Toph – of the way she felt against his skin and body, of the way she tasted, of the way she smelled, and of the way she would sound when she allowed herself to be affected by his touch. The corners of his lips twitched as he reminded himself of her reactions to him – reactions that she would only reserve for him. His thoughts were interrupted by the prolonged sound of the ship’s horn, signaling its imminent docking. Sokka made quick work of locating his belongings below deck and hauling them onto his shoulder as the boat began to slow to a stop.
His eyes darted from one side of the ship port to the other, trying to spot Toph and her daughter. It took him a minute to do so because of the rainwater clouding his vision, but within a moment, he found her seated under an earthbent structure that kept her from getting rained on. Sokka smiled affectionately at this; he knew that she hated being caught in the rain on any given day, yet she was there waiting for him. He could imagine how she must have snarled at anyone who tried to take cover under her earthen tent, telling them to get their own shelter from the rain.
Toph was someone who liked her personal space and she made that quite clear to anyone who dared to invade it unnecessarily, but for some reason, she would let Sokka into her bubble constantly. He was the only person she would continuously allow to be so close to her, and he relished in this fact. She wasn’t one to like people hovering over her or giving her too many physical affections, but he would do so regularly and received no complaints on her part.
It was true that Toph wasn’t a very trusting person; people had to work for it in order for her to open up, and Sokka was lucky enough to have earned it very early on in their relationship. He knew that the reason she wasn’t trusting with her space was that her own family, her parents, left a void that she thought was unfillable, and circumstances were never aligned with her interests in terms of her love life. It was a vicious cycle of heartbreaks that he had to watch her suffer through. Ultimately, though, he found himself constantly thanking the Spirits for the fact that she found security in him. She felt safe with him, and he was more than lucky to have her trust.
Sokka’s eyes remained trained on her distant form as the ship’s crew allowed passengers to disembark, a smile plastered on his face. His heart was beating strongly against his chest in excitement. Spirits, he missed her so much. His smile faltered slightly, though, when he realized that Lin wasn’t with the earthbender; he missed the young girl as much as he missed her mother – maybe even more, but he would never tell Toph that.
His legs carried him down the ramp and onto the dock and he hastily walked in the direction of where he had seen her. He noticed her stand up with her eyes wide and a small smile on her face when he moved off of the wooden dock and onto the sidewalk — she must have singled out his heartbeat or his footsteps out of the mass of those that surrounded him. Seemingly and suddenly not caring for the rain, Toph tentatively walked out of her makeshift shelter and then broke into a sprint into his arms. Sokka stumbled backward because of the force with which she collided into him and his bags fell forgotten to his side on the wet pavement. Her arms went around his neck and her legs wrapped themselves tightly around his waist while his face buried itself in her shoulder. She smelled of flowers and rain.
“Spirits,” Toph said into his neck, her voice muffled. “You smell like shit.”
“Gee, I missed you too,” he said with a chuckle, pulling back a bit to get a view of her face. She was beautiful. He didn’t wait for her to respond to press a long, intense kiss onto her lips, making sure to show her how much he missed her as his arms tightened around her waist. Her mouth tasted like the mint tea she usually drank after a long workday and he smiled at the sensation of the mint prickling at his lips.
Toph began to slip out of his grip because of the water on their bodies, so she climbed off of him, their lips disconnecting with a pop. He noticed her flushed cheeks and smirked to himself, pulling her back into him and giving her another kiss that she broke out of first. She stomped her foot on the ground and her face reddened even more as she realized the number of witnesses to their public display of affection there were around the two of them. People were staring; Spirits forbid their police chief ever shared an intimate moment with a council representative. “Missed me that much, huh?”
Sokka’s arms were still around her waist as the rainfall became nothing more than a light drizzle suddenly when he squeezed and said, “You have no idea.”
Toph bit her lip in a way he loved and grabbed his hand, pulling him with her, and had he not felt them at his sides, he would have left his belongings behind. Her hand in his felt most natural and he missed feeling it there. Despite the coldness in her touch because of the rain, he was warm and he longed to feel more of her.
His bags were hanging off his shoulder and banging against his hip and rear as he walked quickly to keep up with his speedy girlfriend. He chose to mess with her a bit. “What’s got you in a rush? Hot date?”
Without turning to look back at him, she used his own words against him, a smirk in her voice. “You have no idea.”
Sokka let out a loud laugh, giving her hand a squeeze as they continued the short trek from the docks to their apartment. He frowned as he remembered that Lin wasn’t with them. “Where’s Mini Beifong? I was hoping to see her tonight.”
“She was hoping to see you, too,” Toph replied, not slowing her stride and pulling him along by the hand as if it was a leash; he was having trouble keeping up with her quick pace, tripping every couple of steps. “But Zuko heard you were arriving tonight and he took it upon himself to collect my child from my household – he basically kidnapped her – saying that you and I had “catching up” to do and that he was taking her to the palace for the weekend for some quality time with her Uncle Zuko. I wasn’t going to argue.”
“Oh,” Sokka said with some disappointment in his voice. He really wanted to see Lin. At her request for a gift, he had brought her back an authentic Southern Water Tribe boomerang that he’d teach her how to use once she was old enough to learn. Despite Lin already showing signs of being an earthbender, as she had been able to clumsily move around pebbles at her five years of age, Sokka wanted to be sure that she knew how to defend herself in alternative combat.
“Disappointed?” Toph chuckled, a hand flying to her chest dramatically. “If you are, you wound me.”
He looked at the back of the earthbender’s head. While he did miss Lin and wanted badly to present her with his gift and shower her with hugs and kisses that she would pretend to hate, he also wanted to spend uninterrupted – and well-deserved – time with his girlfriend. So he ultimately said, “Disappointed? Never. You?”
“Ask me again later.”
At that, Sokka gave a humorous scoff and before he knew it, they were walking up the steps leading up to their home. The wind was still going strong and he felt a chill when it blew against his back, his still-wet skin and clothes exacerbating the coldness of the air as she bent open the door.
Toph hadn’t even closed the door behind her after they entered when Sokka dropped his bags and encircled her waist with his right arm, pulling her into him. He pressed her against the doorframe and watched as her eyes fluttered shut as soon as he guided his head toward hers and met her lips with more desire and fervor than their kiss mere minutes ago. Her hand flicked haphazardly, bending the metal door to a close. Sokka’s hands were tangled in her damp bun, they then traveled down to her arms, and were met with the cold metal from her uniform. Huskily and desperately tugging on her shoulder pads to no avail, he said, “Off. Take this off.”
Toph pushed him away from her for a moment and she hunched forward, causing the metal attire she wore to fall in a pile to the ground with a clang , giving him a better view of her body in her bindings. Sokka watched her as she kicked her uniform aside and balled his shirt in her fists, pulling him flush against her, lips reconnecting with his and her back slamming into the wall behind her. Her hands went around his neck and to his head, undoing the secured tie that gathered his hair.
Their tongues danced in each other’s mouths; his hands began to wander to the soft, warm and exposed skin of her stomach. He moved away from her lips and left open-mouthed kisses down the smooth stretch of her neck, feeling her shiver and hearing her moan. Toph tilted her head to the side, giving him more access to the spot that was making her sound off as Sokka licked along the length of her neck, stopping to suck at her pulse point. She gasped, gripping his tunic tightly.
“Take it off,” she said breathily, fingers squeezing at the drenched fabric, making the water drip down to the ground. “You’re still wet.”
He hummed against her earlobe before he bit, breathing out a laugh to himself at the potential double meaning of her words.
Sensing the reason behind his laugh, Toph tsked at the sound and pushed herself off the wall she was pressed up against, directing herself toward the bedroom. Missing her warmth, Sokka audibly protested and made haste to follow her as he pulled off his soaking tunic and threw it somewhere on the floor. His pants were already beginning to tighten, but he waited to rid himself of them until he made it to the room.
When he arrived, Toph was already sitting in the middle of the bed, leaning back against her hands and her legs bent, exposed. She was in nothing but her breast bindings; he spotted the other half of her undergarments on the floor. The sight of her like this made the already existing tightness in his pants increase, giving way for him to finally kick them off and rid himself of them. He strode up to the bed in only two steps and captured her lips in his, already making quick work of undoing her bindings and tossing them aside.
“I missed you so much.”
“Good,” Toph said, tightly grabbing his arousal in her hand, making his breath hitch at the touch. “Show me.”
Sokka swallowed, nuzzled his face into her neck, and smiled – she smelled of sweat and petrichor, now.
Toph moved onto her side so that she was facing him, more for his benefit than hers. Her hand went up to his face and her thumb ran across his bottom lip before she pressed her own against his. Sokka’s eyes fluttered shut as he pulled her toward him, enjoying her warmth, the lingering taste of her. Once they pulled away, he couldn’t help but smile at her and say, “I should leave town more often if this is going to be my homecoming gift.”
She scoffed, giving the skin on his chest a pinch and laughing when he yelped. With a louder laugh at his reaction, she leaned further into his chest, tightening the arm she had around his waist. “Don’t you dare. I’ll cuff you and keep you in the basement.”
“Kinky.”
“Oh, shut up,” Toph laughed again. He smiled down at her as he brought his hand up to her head and ran his fingers through the tangles in her now loose hair, her eyes closing in relaxation.
Before they officially got together, there were many things Sokka could assume about Toph, considering how well they knew each other to begin with, but he would have never guessed that she was a cuddler. She always leaned into him as if she couldn’t help herself and it drove Sokka crazy in the best way possible. He knew she didn’t need him, but he did love feeling like he could bring her comfort and warmth and any kind of joy. And after not having seen her for more time than he ever wanted, he reveled in every second of this moment.
Sokka watched her for a few moments until he felt his own eyelids become heavy with fatigue and let himself shut them. Not even seconds later, there was a knock on the door, bringing the two of them up. Toph was off the bed first, reaching for a nightgown that hung on the room’s doorknob.
She sighed as she slipped the gown on. “It’s Zuko.”
His eyebrows flew upward as he stood and gathered some dry clothes out of their dresser. “And Lin?”
She gave him a small smile as she walked out of the room. “Yes, Snoozles, and Lin.”
“Are they okay? Is she okay?” Sokka asked, worry evident in his voice. Why would Zuko bring Lin back home after he had insisted on taking her? Had something happened? His mind was racing.
Toph fondly rolled her eyes. “They’re fine, you worrywart. Nothing feels off.”
Suddenly, Sokka felt giddy, his fatigue and worry forgotten. He hastened to tie up his pants and slip on a shirt so he could run to the living area and toward the duffle bag he knew Lin’s gift was in. After a few seconds of digging through the bag, he smiled when he found what he was looking for. There was another knock on the door, and once she opened it, Toph said, “Geez, Firepants, calm down.”
“Momma!” Lin shouted, launching herself into her mother’s legs. Toph crouched and pulled her up onto her chest and hugged her.
“Hi, baby girl,” Toph said with a smile. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, Badgermole, but what are you doing here? I thought you were staying the night with Uncle Sparky.”
Zuko spoke up this time before Lin could, unaffected by Toph’s nickname for him at this point in their friendship. “Izumi might have said that Sokka was coming back tonight and she wanted to see it for herself before she went to bed. She threatened to practice her bending on my stone floors and that’s what got me – they’re newly installed, I can’t have this one destroy them.”
The earthbender rolled her eyes at the last bit of Zuko’s explanation, and as she moved away to allow him entry to the apartment, she said to her daughter, “You should have done it. Just for fun.”
Lin giggled, and Sokka watched her looking around for him from his hiding spot behind the couch. “Where’s Sokka?”
Toph let out a soft chuckle, then her voice dropped to a shouted whisper. “Don’t tell anyone, but he’s behind the couch.”
The young earthbender let out another giggle as Toph let her down, running toward the couch and smiling so widely when she saw Sokka sitting on the ground with a grin of his own on his face. Toph busied herself in the kitchen to make tea for herself and Zuko as Lin’s eyes widened and she rammed into Sokka before he could even stand to properly greet her. “Sokka!”
“Ah, Lin,” Sokka said, hugging her tightly, readjusting himself so he wouldn’t fall on his back with Lin on his chest. “I missed you.”
“Me too.” Her little arms were tight around his neck, then they suddenly weren’t as she pulled away from him and sat on his lap. She looked around for a second, then asked, “But where’s my present?”
Toph and Zuko let out a laugh and the latter said, “She wouldn’t stop talking about how you promised to bring her something back, so for your sake, I hope you did.”
“For his sake?” Toph scoffed. “She’s staying with you tonight, Hotpants.”
Zuko grumbled, making Toph laugh more.
Sokka tsked and tapped his finger against his chin in mock thought. “I don’t know. I don’t think she missed me enough for me to give it to her.”
Lin gathered some of the fabric of his shirt into her tiny fists and pulled. Sokka dramatically leaned forward so she could think she’d been successful in pulling him toward her and quietly thought about how alike to her mother the child was. For five years old, she had a strange amount of bite to her bark. “I missed you, now, where’s my gift?”
Lin was certainly, without a shadow of a doubt, her mother’s daughter.
Sokka let out a chuckle and pulled the gift bag out from behind the metal coffee table at his side. He held the bag up to her, but when she went to grab it, he moved it from her grasp. “Tell me you missed me like you mean it, Linny.”
Despite her sudden frustration, she allowed a giggle. “I missed you. A lot, a lot.”
“How much is a lot?” Sokka asked, knowing he was pushing it, but he couldn’t resist.
The girl stretched her arms out to her sides. “I missed you this much!”
“What do you guys think?” Sokka turned to Toph and Zuko, who were both leaning against the island in the kitchen with amused looks on their faces. He pointed to Lin, whose arms were still extended to demonstrate the amount she missed Sokka. “Is that enough for a present?”
“I’m not getting involved,” said Zuko with a comic shrug. “I’m the one who has to sleep under the same roof she is this weekend.”
Toph snorted at Zuko, then shook her head at her Sokka’s antics. “As much as I’m enjoying this – no offense, baby girl – just give her the gift, Snoozles, or we won’t hear the end of it.”
“You mean I won’t,” Zuko corrected.
“Oh, save it for someone who cares, Firepants,” Toph said, then elbowed her best friend in the ribs. Sokka watched Zuko grumble despite the smile on his face.
“Okay, okay, fine,” Sokka laughed, then let Lin take the bag from his grasp. “I’m glad to hear that you missed me as much as I missed you, Linny.”
Lin eagerly pulled at the paper that hid the present in the bag. Her eyes widened when they landed on the shininess of the boomerang he’d had custom-made for her. As carefully as a child could, she dipped her hand into the bag and took it out, admiring the weapon. It was sheathed, but the metal peeked out of the top. “Is this…?”
“The best weapon in the history of the word, especially in comparison to any kind of bending? You bet your butt it is.”
He turned his face to Toph, who had a smile on her face, then he looked back down at Lin, who was speechless – a first for the quick-talking girl. As she was about to unsheath it, he stopped her by putting his hand over her small one. “Not yet. When you’re a little older.”
She frowned at that, but still asked, “Can I see it?”
Sokka nodded and took it from her hands to pull it out of its sheath to reveal an angular, shiny metal throwing club. It had sharp edges and strategically placed holes along the flat sides that made the weapon’s flight smoother when thrown, much like his own. But Lin’s had engravings along the whole of the metal; of her last name and the Earth Kingdom symbol right next to it. Her small fingers reached out to touch the engravings and he let her do so. To Sokka, it was enjoyable to see her so wide-eyed and enthralled by the gift that he didn’t want to interrupt her observation of it, but his curiosity of whether or not she liked it was eating at him. “What do you think?”
She was quiet for a moment, and his heart was beating so hard against his chest in anticipation. He noticed Toph walk up behind him, crouch down to hug him from behind, and press a kiss to the back of his head; she must have felt his nerves through the ground. Then, Lin finally said, “I love it, Sokka.”
“Yeah?”
Lin smiled and flung her arms around his neck. “Yeah.”
“Good,” he smiled, hugging her back. “Once you’re a little older, I can teach you how to use it.”
“Why not now?”
“Because we need to make sure you don’t deck someone out while you practice now, Badge,” Toph said, a smile on her face. “Besides, we need to focus on refining your bending, too.”
Sokka laughed as he watched his girls bicker back and forth about bending and boomerangs, joining Zuko for some tea. He let the warm liquid slip down his throat and thought about how much he loved them, how he would give anything to make them happy, and how his leaving town couldn’t hinder their bonds. The idea of this being his family brought a bigger smile to his face as he wondered what it would be like if they had a child of their own.
Someday. Maybe. Or not. Who knows?
He was content, regardless.