Chapter Text
By the time Sokka stumbled through the apartment door, it was nearly midnight.
His backpack hit the floor with a heavy thud, followed by a small metal part that rolled across the hardwood.
"I'm home," he called.
"You're late."
Toph's voice drifted from the living room.
"I'm exactly as late as I said I'd be."
"You said six."
"I meant engineering six."
She snorted.
Engineering six apparently meant "whenever the prototype stops catching fire."
Sokka rounded the corner into the living room to find Toph
sitting cross-legged on the couch, one earbud in, her laptop balanced on her knees. The screen reader chattered through an assignment at double speed while her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Without looking up, she asked, "So...did it explode?"
"Only twice."
"Improvement." Toph mentioned simply
"I'll take it."
She smiled to herself.
It had been three years since they'd moved into this apartment, it was a two-bedroom apartment shared by two best friends, officially.
Unofficially...
Toph slept in Sokka's room more often than her own.
She insisted it was because his mattress was better.
Sokka had long since stopped pretending he believed that was the only reason.
He wandered into the kitchen, opening cabinets almost absentmindedly.
Every plate.
Every bowl.
Every mug.
Exactly where it belonged.
Not because he was obsessively organized.
Because Toph had memorized the apartment down to the inch.
If he absentmindedly left a chair pulled out or decided the coffee mugs looked better on a different shelf, she'd be the one paying for it.
So he didn't.
After three years, putting everything back where it belonged wasn't something he remembered to do.
It was something he simply did.
"What're you making?" Toph asked.
"Grilled cheese."
"It's midnight."
"So?"
"You already had dinner."
"I had cafeteria food."
"...Fair."
The pan hissed as butter melted.
A moment later, Toph stood and moved her folded her white cane sitting beside her on the couch, and rested it against the wall beside the entryway door before walking into the kitchen without hesitation.
She didn't count steps.
She didn't trail a hand along the walls.
She simply walked.
Three years of living here meant she knew the apartment better than Sokka did.
She leaned against the counter.
"Katara texted."
"Oh?"
"Yea, Apparently Aang volunteered both of them for another community cleanup Saturday."
"Sounds like Aang."
"And Katara somehow ended up organizing the whole thing."
"Sounds like Katara."
Toph grinned.
"They're hopeless."
"They're adorable."
"They're hopelessly adorable."
"Ewww." They both say in unison
Sokka flipped the sandwich.
"So..." he said carefully.
"I know that tone."
"The robotics club needs volunteers."
"No."
"You don't even know what I was going to ask."
"I know enough."
"You'd literally just have to demonstrate lifting techniques."
"No."
"Please?"
"I’m already there enough as it is, having to drag you back home to the apartment and girlfriend you keep forgetting you have."
Sokka pretends he doesn't hear her.
"They'll listen to you."
"They won't."
"They absolutely will."
"They'll spend the whole time trying to build a robot that can deadlift."
"..."
"They already are, aren't they?"
"...Maybe."
Toph sighed.
"I hate how predictable you are."
"You love how predictable I am."
"I tolerate you."
"Liar."
She bumped his shoulder with hers.
It was a tiny gesture.
The kind neither of them thought about anymore.
The front door buzzed.
Sokka glanced toward the intercom.
"Expecting someone?"
"No."
He pressed the button.
"Yeah?"
"It's me."
Zuko.
"Door's open."
A minute later, their friend and downstairs neighbor stepped inside carrying a grocery bag.
"I bought too much takeout," he said.
"You deliberately ordered too much takeout," Toph corrected.
"...Maybe."
Sokka accepted the container with a grin.
"See? This is why you're my favorite neighbor."
"Your ridiculous."
Another knock followed almost immediately.
Toph laughed.
"Let me guess."
"Aang forgot his bike lock again?"
The door opened before Sokka could answer.
"Good news!" Aang announced.
"No," Katara sighed behind him. "It's almost never good news when he starts with that."
"I got us permission to plant trees on campus this weekend."
Katara rubbed her forehead.
"He also volunteered everyone in this apartment."
"I knew it," Toph muttered.
Sokka looked around the room.
His sister.
His oldest friend.
His best friend.
His neighbor.
The people who somehow turned an ordinary apartment into the place everyone ended up at by the end of the day.
None of them had planned for their lives to intertwine this way.
Somehow, they all ended up exactly where they belonged.
And none of them would have traded it for anything.