Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of these characters….or Avatar….I'm not Nickelodeon! Storyline belongs to fairycloud22, so please do not copy. Thanks.
Note: Everyone in this story is a little bit crabby because 1) in Toph's memories before "The Chase" they were adjusting to having a new member (Toph vs. Katara stuff) 2) after "The Chase", they all fall asleep because they are REALLY tired (and crabby). Just letting you know. And Katara is this cranky in the episode, not her usual Kataraness
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"Funky Smellin' Sleeping Bag"
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Finally, the endless race through the night and day was over, the "freaky ladies on lizards", as Sokka described them, were gone, along with Zuko and Iroh. With them, went all their fears and anxieties that had caused tension in the group, so they all began to settle down for a long awaited rest.
"We're on our way to Ba Sing Se, no Zuko to capture us, and Katara and Toph won't bite each other's heads off…RIGHT?" Sokka peered out of one squinted eye as he scrutinized the twosome across from him.
Under his accusing glare, the girls chimed "Of course we will!" then smiled rebelliously at Sokka, sporting identical grins.
Sokka slapped his hand to his forehead, letting it slide down his face in his disbelief, stretching his skin and pulling his lower lip down into a ridiculously dazed look.
Katara and Aang laughed at her brother and Toph joined in willingly. Though she could not see his face, she could feel the erratic rhythm of his pulse, going to the beat of an intoxicated drummer.
"Then it's all settled." Aang yawned, eyes drooping. "The Avatar's work is done." He rolled over into a curled-up sleeping position.
"Your work?!" Katara fumed. "You were the one that made Toph go away in the first place!"
"Hey…I'm not looking for a fight!" He waved his hands in surrender over his head while still lying on the ground. "Katara, let's just sleep. Azula is gone, and we're still really tired. I'm just glad you guys made up."
"Sorry." Katara mumbled apologetically, resting her head beside Aang and Toph's. "I'm' really glad to, Aang, and it was partially my fault. I'm just cranky when I'm tired. 'Night."
"G'd 'Night." Toph muttered into her crossed arms.
"One last thing." Sokka insisted, raising his finger in the air importantly.
"Sokka!" Aang protested, rolling over to face away from the watertribe boy.
"I just was wondering…" Sokka scratched his chin, "Toph, how did you know how my sleeping bag smelled?"
A surprised stifled grunt came from the little blind girl, and she slowly sat up, casually leaning on her hands placed behind her back and facing in his general direction.
"That was random." She answered gruffly. Sokka's steady heart beat became slowly annoyed and angry, so she continued nonchalantly, "You threw it at me, remember?"
"I don't think I did…" Sokka scratched his head and made a face, confused.
"Well you did, you just forgot after all this," she gestured vaguely to the sky, "happened. Now get some sleep, Nosy."
About to protest, Sokka was quickly silenced when the air was knocked out of him by a punch in the gut from a small fist. Grumbling "Stupid earthbenders…" he finally laid his head back down to sleep.
However, Toph remained in her position, leaning on her hands, and waited a few long minutes until loud snoring could be heard. Holding tightly to the rim of the saddle, she cautiously made her way around her friends to the back.
Moving around blindly, as she always did when she was in the air, she found a certain bound blanket and brought it to her chest, inhaling. Everyone, including Sokka, had been too lazy to get their sleeping bags out.
It was not like she had searched out his sleeping bag on purpose; she had just stumbled upon it on the day she was desperately trying to find a good handhold on this crazy ride for the first time.
Feeling around the back, she had tripped over a pack of Katara's, and fallen headfirst into the meaty, smelly, dirty mess that was Sokka's sleeping bag. Of course, that was what Katara called it, but Toph had sniffed and entirely different fragrance through her highly acute sense of smell.
Inhaling, the familiar smell of earth and soil from her village and other parts of the earth kingdom greeted her, along with an ashen mix of steel, campfires, and hunting. A whiff of snow, ice, tundra, and water also hinted at the edges, but only ever so faintly.
The last and most prominent scent was something like smell she had anticipated and waited for, like cookies in the oven or the dust rising from a rock she had cut cleanly from the ground, bending it to her will while the dirt engulfed her. This hearty, but also heady aroma was something she would later call "Sokka."
The scent wrapped her in safe unseen arms and comforted her, so she clung close to the filthy bed roll, holding it tightly in her chest for the rest of her flight thousands of feet in the air. This is, until she discovered its owner.
Night was falling, but Toph did not know it, half asleep as she was on the back of the bison. Still drowsily clinging to her makeshift pillow when they touched down to the ground, she sighed.
They landed, everyone helping unload and set up camp, except for Toph, as usual, to Katara's frustration. Though tonight, Katara was especially annoyed with her brother. He had insisted that his boomerang was lost, when it was in his hand the whole time, and that he had to be served a good helping of "man's meat", forcing her to slave over yet another hot fire with the greasy smoking stuff. Aang's vegetable diet was so much simpler.
"Katara!" Sokka hollered.
His sister blew a "hair loopie" out of her eyes and sighed, "What is it now, Sokka?"
"I can't find my sleeping bag!"
"That nasty old thing? Just sniff around, and you'll find it." Katara replied sarcastically.
For some strange reason Sokka's sleeping bag was nowhere in sight. Katara scolded him, and then tried to help him find it, but they could not see it anywhere.
Even though they had quickly learned to keep a respectful distance from Toph, Sokka once again checked the back of Appa's saddle. Peering curiously to see what she was holding so closely, he smirked. Tapping on the ground to let her know who was there, he placed one hand on the sleeping bag next to hers.
"I might need that." He said with a little bit of laughter in his voice. "I can't sleep as comfortably on the ground as you can."
Jerking fully awake, but too shocked to be embarrassed, she thrust the sleeping bag into his arms in what she thought was a business like manner. Muttering apologies and "here you go" she almost pushed him right off the bison.
Sokka cringed at the impact, rubbing at the place his sleeping bag had hit his chest. Saying hesitantly, "Uh, thanks, I guess." he grimaced, and then slid effortlessly off Appa, leaving a stunned and now embarrassed Toph behind.
When Katara heard the story, she giggled to Toph in her rock tent, "Sorry that you had only Sokka's stinky blanket to use as a pillow, I'll make you one of your own sometime."
"Yeah," Toph agreed, "It did smell really funky. No wonder it was Sokka's, but seriously, I'm fine with my earth. It shapes any way I want it to, and it doesn't smell like meat."
But she didn't really mean that. Earth, though it was one of the most wonderful things in Toph's world, would never have the signature… "Sokka"… smell she had grown fond of. It made sense that someone who loved mud and dirt as much as she did would like it. NOT that she was crushing on him, she just liked the scent.
So she laughed the incident off with Katara, and everyone forgot, except for Toph.
Now clinging to the sleeping bag and inhaling the smell of it, she decided that sometime she would get the bravery to more than just move rocks twenty times her size. Toph wanted to get through to Sokka's "thicker-than-rock" heat, or maybe just sit next to him…
She glanced blindly in his direction through glazed eyes.
…or even hold on to him on their next flight, where she could get a real whiff of his aroma…as long as she did not sniff TOO loudly……..Imagine what he would say if she did that! Toph stifled a loud snicker.
Sokka- "Toph why…? Wait, are you SMELLING me?"
Toph- "Errrrr…(uncomfortable silence)….Heh, heh, heeeah…OF COURSE NOT MEATHEAD! (punch) What gave you THAT idea?"
Sokka- "I dunno, just asking…."
So for now, she was content to sticking with his funky smellin' sleeping bag. Toph fell softly asleep with a smile on her face and a blanket cradled in her arms.