Wow, random oneshot here that kind of fell out of my fingers and onto the computer screen. Thanks to three good friends from KF for beta-reading this for me, and helping me come up with a title... because yes, it is harder than it looks!
Enjoy.
The crackling of the fire was all Toph cared to pay attention to among various other noises that were erupting all around her, the majority of them being excited voices intermingling with laughter. Her bare feet against the naked earth could feel the vibrations of people hugging, using wild hand gestures to exaggerate emotion, and heart beats growing continually faster until they reached a speeding plateau, particularly coming from a certain couple.
The young Earthbender wrinkled her nose in spite of them all, her expression hardening like the rock she was so used to associating with. She inched slightly closer to the fire, holding her hands closer and closer to the dancing flames, as if begging them to warm her faster. A slight breeze pushed against her from behind; her hair moved with it around her cloudy eyes, but it didn't phase her. It never did.
Toph let out a breath she wasn't even aware she had been holding. With it, the smallest of sighs had escaped, and she immediately inhaled sharply, as if to take back the display of emotion. Grunting slightly, she shifted her weight upon the log that acted as her seat for the night, instinctively digging her feet deeper into the earth to feel the soil sift between her toes.
A particularly loud burst of laughter from the friendly group a few yards away forced her attention to what they were saying. Even though she wasn't pleased with hearing what they had to say, she felt herself tilt her head in curiosity when Katara started speaking.
"That's amazing! I would have never thought to do that!"
Toph scoffed. Sugar Queen. She was such a suck up.
"It was nothing, really," Suki said. Toph felt her shrug off the achievement Katara had been praising her for. "When you're stuck in a prison for weeks on end, you have time to ponder things you would have never thought of otherwise. Besides, being chained up in those cells makes escaping always the first thing on your mind."
If I'd been there, Toph thought to herself, it wouldn't have taken me two minutes to escape, much less over two weeks. She flexed her fingers, feeling the knuckles crack as she thought about bending metal.
"Still, you got out even though your weapons had been confiscated," Aang supplied, sounding somewhat impressed.
"Thanks," Suki said. Toph could only imagine she was blushing, although it wasn't the type of thing she could feel from this far away. A short silence followed, one where Suki turned to look at the only person who hadn't praised her yet, and took a step closer to him. Toph felt her heart skip an angry beat and she waited to see what Sokka would say, if anything.
"Out of all the people here, you're the only one who hasn't commented on my method of escaping," Suki said, a hint of jest in her voice. "What's the matter, Sokka? Was the process too complicated for you to digest?" She gave the Water Tribe teenager a playful shove on the arm, causing Sokka to try and hide a smile.
"Your methods were rather impressive, I have to admit," Sokka said, taking on a superior tone that implied he was joking as well. "However had I been in your predicament, I would have done things quite differently."
"Oh, would you now?" Suki asked, crossing her arms as she smirked. "Let's hear your master plan then."
Toph scowled when Aang and Katara laughed in utter enjoyment of the banter. Those two, Toph muttered in her mind. They're always so giddy. Probably because they spend all their free time making gooey love faces at each other. It's ridiculous.
"…That's what I would have done, anyway." Toph tuned back in to the others' conversation just as Sokka was finishing a short description of how he would have escaped the Fire Nation prison cell had he been there with Suki. "Of course," Sokka added, his voice softening slightly. "If I'd been there with you, maybe being locked up wouldn't have been so bad."
No, no! Toph felt herself thinking as she squeezed her eyes shut in disgust. Go and ruin a perfectly regular and slightly tolerable moment with all your mushy talk, why don't you? Disappointment sunk in further after Toph felt Aang and Katara inch away in order to leave Suki and Sokka alone.
Don't leave! Toph wanted to yell at them. Don't you know what they're going to do once you're gone? They're going to talk and catch up and forget about everyone else. They're going to stare into each other's eyes and then what? They'll kiss. They'll kiss and everything will be perfect again. Toph grunted and crossed her arms over her chest. She hated perfect.
"Here, I carved this for you," Toph heard Sokka say. The warrior searched around in his pocket for a couple of seconds before producing a poorly formed wood carving. He placed it in Suki's hands, and she turned it over curiously, not speaking.
"It was supposed to be a bear," Sokka said a little too quickly. "But then I cut off a little too much from the back, and this led to that, and well… now it's just a… heart." He let out a small breath. He was a little nervous, Toph could tell. For a second she thought it was slightly attractive. But then she remembered why he was nervous and anger flooded through her veins once again.
"Do you like it?" Sokka asked. "It was the only gift I had time to make after you came back."
Toph suddenly became aware of the meteorite bracelet wrapped firmly around her upper arm.
"Oh," Suki said, sounding a little flustered. "Thank you, Sokka. I like it a lot… it's very nice." Toph felt her look into Sokka's eyes, and she could feel him staring back. She should have left right then and there; she knew what was coming. Her limbs refused to move, though, and she stayed rooted to the spot where she sat. Then it happened. The two warriors were drawn to each other like magnets. They kissed hesitantly at first, but then slowly melted into each other's embrace.
I could Earthbend them apart right now if I wanted to. Toph told herself as she picked up a nearby stick and started poking at the ground. There are a lot of things I could do right now if I wanted to. She added stubbornly, a list of ways to force them apart automatically running through her mind.
I could do a lot of things that Suki couldn't. I would win a battle against her in a heartbeat. I could pound her into the ground with a single slab of earth. What in the world does Snoozles see in her that makes her so amazing?
A thought crossed Toph's mind, a thought that caused her to scowl deeply and silently fume about the shallow hearts of men. She plucked the meteorite bracelet off her arm and started bending it furiously, as if molding it between her fingers would somehow ease the frustration. Finally stopping on a perfectly round sphere, Toph fiercely gripped the meteorite in her hands and imagined smashing it into a million pieces, wishing that this single phrase that kept running through her mind could die along with it. She felt Suki and Sokka stop kissing for a second only to gaze into each other's eyes.
The meteoritic sphere hit the ground with a soft thud as it escaped from her hands. Toph bent over to pick it up, but stopped before her hands reached the rock. Deciding to leave it where it lay, she slumped over and focused on Sokka and Suki again, for once wondering about those things that others could see but she couldn't.
I bet she's beautiful.