It's Your Fault.
Ding-dong.
She let out a sigh. She moved her hand over her nightstand, knocking things over until she found her glasses. Picking up her own sleepy body from her bed, she walked out of her room.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
"One second!" She called out, jogging to her door.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
"Why would you guys let Twinkletoes ring the bell?" She tossed her door open.
"Good morning to you too, Toph!" Katara smiled sweetly, looking down at Toph's black and yellow Batman pyjamas. She knew her friend was never one to give out pleasant greetings.
"Don't even try that, Sugarqueen, it's nine in the morning!"
Toph suddenly felt somewhat guilty. It was a Saturday. Saturdays meant Toph's house.
"Just come in." She sighed reluctantly.
She stepped aside to let her friends in. Katara wore her hair down in a braid, letting two loops of hair wander freely around the sides of her face. She had a silky blue top with grey lining that puffed at her shoulders. She wore a wavy skirt and blue leggings leading down to her grey flats. She practically skipped into her house.
Aang let his hairy, shaggy dog, Appa, walk into the house himself. Appa was only a puppy, so he wobbled in as Aang guided him. Aang had on his usual orange toque with a blue arrow pointing downwards to face, he was always fond of that toque, there were rare occasions where he took it off. He also had on an orange sweater with rolled up sleeves, and a yellow collar shirt underneath that.
Zuko walked in with his dark raggedy hair shadowing his face as usually. He wore a simple fire red shirt and black jeans with high-tops. He ruffled the top of Toph's hair walking into her house, looking around the room. She was like a little sister to him, a real one, not like his actual sister, Azula. Toph shut the door behind him.
"Where's Sokka?" She asked, hopeful for a reassuring answer.
The three looked around at each other. Aang and Zuko urged Katara to answer.
"You tell her."
"Why can't you?"
Appa barked wanting to join their rant.
"You're his sister!"
"That doesn't mean I always ha-"
"If someone doesn't tell me soon, someone's going to have to drive you guys to a hospital!" Toph glared at her friends.
Katara spoke up hesitantly. "Sokka and Suki, urm…broke up yesterday. Sokka back at home, sulking in his room, we told him we'd be here, we all tried to have him come with us but," she paused; she looked at Zuko, then back at Toph. "He said he just wanted to be by himself."
They all stared at Toph, unsure what to expect. They all knew she and Sokka were the best of friends, whenever one was had a problem they could always count on the other to cheer them up; in fact, they would usually go to each other before even considering anyone else. Yet now, Sokka was at home, by himself, sulking.
"Oh." Toph said, trying not to let her disappointment show.
"He might drop by later." Katara tried desperately to lighten the mood like her brother always could.
"Well, we're not going to sit around and wait, turn on the tv, I'm just going to change out of my pyjamas."
She walked past them quickly to her bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her.
The three glanced around nervously at each other.
"She took it better than expected, right?" Aang plopped down onto Toph's couch. He lifted Appa up from underneath and onto the couch. Appa barked cheerfully, with no idea what was going on.
Zuko walked up to the TV and turned it on. He then picked up the remote walking over to the couch Aang was on. Katara sat alone on a sofa.
Toph put on a light green hoodie with loose and baggy beige shorts. She had fixed her hair, although decided to let it flow down rather than keeping it up in the bun she was well known for. She, as she'd been told time again, was also well known for not wearing shoes when given the opportunity.
Toph walked into her living room, feeling the smooth cold floor on her bare feet. She looked around at her friends. They all seemed worried. She knew they weren't worried about Sokka. No, they were worried about her.
Toph wasn't enjoying the silence. "Um, you guys want me to call for a pizza?"
"Vegetarian, please!" Aang pleaded.
This caused the mood in the room to plummet back down. They were all used to Aang and Sokka debating over whether they should get a vegetarian or meat-lover's pizza, and the typical result of Sokka's choice. This time there wasn't even a differing suggestion.
Toph walked out of the room, into the kitchen, and picked up the phone.
Meanwhile Toph dialled and ordered a vegetarian pizza, the three in her living room sat in resounding silence.
Aang, for one, was never all that fond of silence, and was an expert at disturbing it.
"Look!" He pointed at the tv. Appa's tail wagged from his sudden excitement. "The Wolf-Bats just beat the Platypus-Bears!
He looked back hoping to see amused friends. Zuko and Katara paid no attention to the jumpy teen.
"Guys?" Aang groaned desperately. "You guys are acting like Sokka died or something! He's just lying in bed, moping over Suki. It's not that bad! He'll be back to being the same old Sokka in a week! Two weeks tops!"
Katara shifted in her seat. Zuko turned his head to stare at Aang.
"It's just different without him, and Toph's probably not feeling all that great about her best friend not confiding in her when he needs her most."
"Exactly!" Aang explained. "As much as it hurts you guys, Toph is probably feeling worse! So can we, you know, smile or something?"
"For Toph." Katara stated, staring at the ground.
"For Toph." Zuko reassured Katara, genuinely smiling. Katara blushed.
"Uh oh." Aang said, his eyes wide as he picked up his dog.
"Uh oh?" Katara and Zuko repeated together.
"Appa's…not house-trained yet."
The perfect moment for Toph to walk in.
"Twinkletoes!" Toph started, glaring down at him.
Zuko and Katara stood up, cautious of Toph's every move.
"Toph, I'm so sor-" Aang was cut off.
"Twinkletoes!" That didn't sound good.
She charged at the alarmed boy and pinned him to the ground. She balled up her fist just as Katara grabbed hold of her arm, long enough for Zuko to pick her up.
"Toph, it's fine! I'll go get paper towels and clean it up." Aang darted into her kitchen.
He wildly rushed to clean his dog's mess, working over the hectic shouting of insults and curses from Toph, and the failing calming attempts of Katara and Zuko.
Zuko had set Toph back on the ground once Aang had finished, although he and Katara still held her arms, just to be safe.
"Let me go. I won't touch precious Twinkletoes."
Zuko and Katara hesitated. Zuko let go and sat down onto the couch with Aang. Katara walked back over to the sofa.
Toph sat in between Zuko and Aang on the couch. Before anyone could stop her, she elbowed Aang in the gut.
"Ouch, The Wolf-Bats just knocked the Lion Vultures out of the ring!" Zuko whooped; he hadn't noticed what Toph had done.
Katara laughed. "Really? That's what you notice? I'm watching a different show." Katara smiled at Zuko confused face. She imitated the pro-bending narrator on TV. "Look at that, folks! Toph breaks her promise with a head-spinning elbow-to-the-gut! Hold on folks, can it be? It is! Zuko's completely oblivious to the two right beside him!
They all burst out laughing.
A burden seemed to have lifted off their shoulders. Toph walked back to the kitchen laughing to the kitchen to refill the bowl of chips again. Suddenly the doorbell rang.
"The pizza's here!" Aang shouted running over to the door, a huge smile on his face.
Aang swung open the door.
"Vegetarian pizza? It's as if you guys didn't expect me here."
Toph dropped the bowl of chips when she saw who it was.
The boy at the door wore a light blue plaid collar button-up shirt overtop of his dark blue long sleeve shirt. He has light blue jeans that went well with his navy blue high-tops. He handed the pizza to Aang as Aang gazed at him, jaw open in disbelief. It was Sokka at the door.
"Sokka!" Toph exclaimed as she ran towards him, leaping into his arms.
"Nice to see you too, Toph!" He chuckled. She jumped back down to the ground.
"There's nothing wrong with vegetarian pizza." Aang mumbled as Toph closed the door behind them.
"Wow, Sokka, didn't expect to see you here, and especially not so giddy and… Sokka-like." Katara smirked at her brother.
"Well, I decided it's pointless to just sit around at home, mourning over Suki, when I could be here, having fun with you guys."
Sokka looked around the room at the delighted looks on his friend's faces. Yep, he definitely made the right decision.
He quickly received a blow to the arm.
"Augh, what was that for, Toph?" He grinned, rubbing his arm, not out of pain, but habit.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again, okay?"
After what seemed like only a very short time, it was 4am. Aang had been worn out from his own bouncy attitude and was silently snoring, laid out on the couch using Appa as a pillow.
The other four sat on the floor watching a scary movie, all their eyes glued to the screen, each one of them keeping track of its events. The young boy had run down to the basement, hiding from the man with the chainsaw. The little boy hid in a storage cupboard under the stairs. Then the boy heard slow creaking. It got closer and closer with each step. Their own heartbeats racing; Katara's was in the lead, but was closely followed by Toph's, Sokka's and Zuko's tied not too far behind. The boy's heavy breathing deepened and fell in tune with the creaking. The man was at the bottom of the stairs. This was the end. There was no hope. They all held their breath. The cupboard door shot open.
Screaming echoed all around Toph's living room. Toph was curled up in a ball, Sokka holding her tightly. Zuko's arms were flailing wildly as Katara her face in his chest. None of them were even paying attention to the movie anymore. However, nobody stopped screaming until Aang woke up, flipped off the couch and landed on the remote, causing the TV to turn off. They all released each other immediately. Each one of them panting deeply. Aang stood up from the floor, stroking his back. He walked up in front of the TV, turning to face his horrified friends.
"What does 'NO SCARY MOVIES' mean to you guys?"
Zuko and Katara stammered in protest. "It was Toph and Sokka's idea."
They all turned to face the two. Sokka was petrified, grasping his chest in terror. Toph, on the other hand, regained her bravery quickly. She shrugged.
"What can I say? Seemed like a good idea at the time."
Aang sighed in disappointment of his friends. "Look, it's late, how about we all just go to sleep?" He slumped back down on the couch, resting his head back on the still very much asleep Appa.
"No!" The four shouted simultaneously.
"There's no way I'm going to sleep after that." The other three nodded in agreement.
Aang groaned in disappointment of his friends' poor choices.
Toph stood up and stumbled into her kitchen. She came back and plopped down four brightly coloured energy drinks that read 'Cactus Juice! It'll quench ya!' onto the floor in front of her friends, opening one herself. Katara and Zuko both went for the second bottle, blushing slightly when their hands brushed. Zuko instead took the first bottle. Sokka was already chugging his down when Toph handed the last one to Aang.
"Don't go flying off the walls, Twinkletoes!" Toph snorted.
It had hardly been an hour before the effects of the Cactus Juice took over.
Zuko and Katara were running around in Toph's backyard, Katara now chasing Zuko with a water hose. Aang was barking at Appa as his tail wagged, pleased to be having their obviously very fascinating conversation. Sokka had been rummaging around in Toph's kitchen, while she-realizing that the energy drinks were not something any of her friends could handle-tried desperately to get Katara and Zuko back inside.
"Toph, do you want mushrooms on your waffles?" Sokka called out.
"What? No! Sokka! Get out of my fridge!" She shouted back, giving up on Katara and Zuko and striding back into her kitchen.
It was a mess. Every cupboard was wide open, the sink was running and his left shoe was whirring in circles around in the microwave. Black and ashy toast sprung up from the toaster. Sokka stood by her fridge, taking yet another bottle of Cactus Juice.
"Sokka! You meathead!" She shouted, glaring angrily at him. She sprinted over to the microwave, slamming shut cupboard doors and turning off the sink on her way.
She took the warm shoe and threw it at him, hitting him in the chest before thumping down next to his foot.
"You're a horrible person, you know!" he whined.
"Sorry, but shoes don't belong in microwaves!"
"Not that! You made Suki and me break up!"
"I didn't do that! I don't even know how you guys broke up, but I didn't have anything to do with it, Sokka!"
"You had everything to do with it, Toph! It's your fault I don't feel the same way I used to about Suki! It's your fault Suki became jealous! It's your fault you're adorable! It's your fault you're so much better to hang out with!"
Toph was taken aback, blushing fiercely. Clearly, everything he was saying was because of the Cactus Juice, he didn't mean any of it. She couldn't let his words get to her; it would only end in heartbreak from her best friend.
Sokka then pinned her to the fridge. "It's your fault I want to do this."
The next thing she knew, Sokka's lips were pressed against hers in a passionate kiss.
Once they noticed the tapping of Appa feet and jingling of his collar, they separated to find Katara, Zuko and Aang, all smirking at the two in front of them. Katara spoke up first.
"So, Sokka…I'm guessing you're over Suki?"
"Definitely over Suki." he beamed back.