A Good Thing
Toph finds out what it is to have too much of a good thing, and she enjoys it immensely.
"She doesn't really like sweets," Zuko supplied helplessly, once Sokka had exhausted his store of ideas for a proper dessert: including, but not limited to, all kinds of cakes, cookies, pies, buns, sweetbreads, and pastries.
"Geez," Toph muttered into the tabletop, already bored with the situation. "No wonder she's so bitter." There wasn't a trace of sarcasm in her voice.
"Haha," Zuko retorted, not amused. "There's nothing wrong with my wife's character, thank you."
Sokka eyed Toph across the table. She appeared to be looking back. "You wanna take that one?" he stage-whispered to her behind his hand. Zuko gave a low growl, and Sokka said, "All right! Fine! You know, there are plenty of sweets that aren't really… sweet."
"Eww!" Toph drawled, pulling a face. "Icky!"
"Like what?" Zuko asked, ignoring Toph, who was beginning to wilt in her chair at the thought of unsweet sweets.
Sokka thought for a moment, then began to tick off on his fingers, "Fried bananas, rice pudding, dark chocolate, rum cake-"
"What did you say?" Toph demanded, sitting up in her chair, immediately alert at the mention of two of her most favorite things in the entire world.
Now Sokka glanced at Zuko – though Toph couldn't tell – and then said, "Fried bananas?"
"No, after that!"
Another glance. "Rice pudding?"
"No, dummy!" Toph exclaimed. "The cake!"
"Rum cake?" Sokka asked, perplexed.
"You can put rum incake?" she demanded, standing up and planting both her hands on the table, leaning toward Sokka.
"Ye-es," he drawled, still at a loss. "Why would you-"
"Sokka," she interrupted. "It's rum. And cake. What are my two favorite things on the entire planet?"
"I… Oooh!" Understanding dawned, and he nodded appreciatively.
"The party will have rum cake!" Toph announced, as though the matter were decided.
"Wait a minute-" Zuko began.
"Rum cake, I said!" Toph shouted over him.
"It is really good," Sokka added.
Zuko sighed and sat down shaking his head. "Fine. Rum cake it is. But I'm telling her you chose it."
Two hours before the big to-do found Toph sneaking down to the kitchens, tiptoeing across the paving stones as she held the hem of her swishing skirts off the ground. She wasn't quite sure why she was sneaking, exactly, for there were staff and servants bustling around her, back and forth from the kitchen and the hall, but she felt the occasion called for it. Weaving her way easily past the business going on around her, she pushed past the slatted cloth curtain that separated the kitchen from the surrounding rooms, and ducked to stand in the corner, giving herself a few moments to feel out the movement of the room's occupants.
It had always been difficult to see things that were laying on tables, especially if no one was near enough to it to create the vibrations that made up her strange sight. She knew that what she wanted was close by – she imagined she could smell it – but she didn't want to go searching across the table without first knowing exactly what she was looking for.
She didn't have to wait long. Very soon after ducking into the corner a young woman broke away from the group clustered around the stove, wiping her hands on her apron as she came to stand before Toph.
"Have you come for the little cake, my lady?" Raiya asked in soft, lilting tones. Toph couldn't say for sure, but she somehow suspected this woman was very pretty.
"Yes, please," Toph answered primly. Raiya paused, knowing well that Toph's simpering was purely theatrical, and not seeming to appreciate being humored. Still, she went to the table with sure steps, lifting what appeared to Toph to be a small covered tray. She could feel the delicate porcelain of the platter, smooth and warm, when Raiya handed it over.
"Go carefully, mistress," she said as Toph shuffled her way out of the kitchen. "There's a cream pitcher full of extra glaze I thought you might enjoy."
"Isn't that where most of the rum is?" Toph queried, walking backwards a few paces so Raiya could hear her over the din of the hallway.
"Precisely," the maid answered before disappearing back into the kitchens, leaving Toph and her cake to themselves.
A half an hour into the festivities, Sokka still couldn't find Toph. He'd been searching fruitlessly the entire time, and had turned up neither hide nor hair of the young earthbender. It was in his nature to worry – though Toph would have kicked him the shin for it – and he had decided almost immediately that he couldn't enjoy himself until he knew precisely where she was.
When he finally found her, it was on the floor of one of the many spare rooms of the palace. She was fast asleep under the table – which only came up to about Sokka's knee – with a large smear of yellow cakes crumbs and some sticky amber-colored sauce all down the front of her once-beautiful cream dress. It looked quite ruined now. There was a distinct smell of liquor about the room, and it took Sokka a few minutes to discover that it was coming from a tiny silver pitcher, the insides of which were coated with the same glaze that Toph was now wearing.
"Who let you into the rum cake?" he asked her prone form, nudging her with his toe.
A small pinnacle of rock pushed itself up from the floor, catching him in the back of the opposite knee so that he stumbled forward and barked both his shins against the sharp edge of the little table. While he staggered around, swearing, Toph began to snicker.
"I thought you were asleep," Sokka groused, glaring at the little space beneath the table.
"I was," she mumbled through a yawn. "But you walk like you're feet are made out of lead. You woke me up halfway down the hall."
Still grumbling, Sokka muttered, "Yeah, well, the party's on. You wanna go change, or are you down for the count. Looks like that cake really got the drop on you…"
"Have they cut the big cake?" she asked instead, crawling out from under the table to sit up and rub at her eyes.
"No," Sokka answered wearily, eyeing her.
She thought for a moment, before replying, "Bring me a piece when they do. A big one." Then she crawled back under the table and closed her eyes.
"You can't sleep in here," Sokka protested.
She rolled over, but gave no other indication that she had heard him.
"Fine, fine," he mumbled, taking care to slam the door as loudly as he could on his way out.
Toph grinned, rolled over again, and went right back to sleep.
AN: Just a silly little something I did for Artemis Rae's birthday this year that never got published. Enjoy.