Title: Thirty Ways in Thirty Days (to Fall in Love with Your Best Friend)
Pairing(s): Tokka, Maiko and Kataang hints
Rating: PG-13 for language, innuendo and sexuality
Summary: "I just need you to pretend to be my girlfriend for a month, that's all. Y'know, so Suki and Yue will back off. No strings attached. Right?" Yeah. Right. AU Tokka.
A/N: I've decided to post this chapter (sorry for the wait!) but I'm a little uneasy about not making Sokka, perhaps, pesstimistic enough. So if you see any major OOCness, just tell me and I'll be glad to go back and fix it. Once again, sorry for the wait! ON WITH THE TOKKA!
Chapter 2: If We Were a Movie I'd Kill the Director
Murdering you during opening credits would be nice, too
"Snoozles is really dumb for making me go on this date, isn't he?"
The mirror didn't answer me.
"Yeah. I'm gonna kick his sorry ass first chance I get."
I was beginning to wonder if it should concern me that I'd resorted to one-sided conversations with sheets of glass.
Scowling (why was I doing so damn much of that lately?), I plopped down on the bed. "Stupid Snoozles," I sighed, "Why didja hafta go make everything so complicated, huh?"
Complicated. Story of my life.
And a song by Avril Lavigne, now that I thought of it.
Rising up, I stared in the mirror once more. A blank-eyed girl stared back at me, lips quirked downward. The green tank and miniskirt somehow looked out of place, like they belonged on some glamour queen five blocks down.
I decided I should probably go for a more punk-rocker look next time.
Wait, no. There wasn't gonna be a next time. I would put my foot down. On Sokka's head, if need be. Because I was independent. I was strong. I was resistant and self-sufficient and proud and—
And a whole bunch of other things. Way too nice for her own good being among them.
Normally I wouldn't have used nice to describe anyone I knew, let alone myself. But that was the only word for it. I must have been struck by a sudden bout of niceness. I was sick. I was ill. I needed to see a doctor.
I was stunningly horrible at excuses.
And I was brooding. I did not brood. Or babble. I did not babble. And babbling inside my own head? Hell, that was life-threatening. A sign of mental illness. Definitely a reason to—
"Oh my god," I uttered, sinking back onto the bed. I was turning into a—a…boy-loving-date-angsting-clothes-wearing-preppy girl. This was all Sokka's fault. In fact, it was his fault that I'd fallen in love with him in the first place!
With this new way of self-empowering thinking, I marched downstairs. Leaning against the wall of the foyer, I stared out the front window, brushing a loose lock of hair from my face. As I relaxed against the hard surface, my mind wandered to Sokka—which, actually, had been happening more and more lately.
I decided that tonight would be the night. The night. The night where I would squash my feelings for Sokka once and for all—
Unfortunately, my determination vanished not the moment of the sharp rap on the door, but in the split-second that I knew that Sokka was waiting out there—waiting for me.
I was really turning into one of those romantic-types, wasn't I? Next thing I knew I'd probably be reading love poems for fun, watching midnight chick-flick, and obsessing over who would sleep with who on the next episode of this month's most popular soap opera.
Pulling at my skirt and hastily smearing on a gob of lip gloss, I threw open the door. Sokka stood there. "Hey, Toph—" he broke off.
Eyes going wide, he stared at me. I threw him a look. "I don't look that bad, do I? Come on, at least say something," I added irritably.
Sokka's mouth worked soundlessly as he continued staring at me. At last, when I was ready to strangle him, he seemed to snap back into existence. "Toph," he asked seriously, "When did you get so pretty?"
Despite myself, I began to blush. Desperately searching for something to say, I finally settled with, "I dunno, Snoozles. When did you start noticing?"
Sokka's cheeks flushed the tiniest bit. "Err…Today?" He glanced down at my skirt, then stared back at me bemused. "Toph? Are you feeling okay?"
I snorted. "What do you think?"
"Have you been feeling…different lately?" Sokka continued, waggling an eyebrow at me. "Bouts of insanity? Temporary girliness? Spontaneous combusting?"
I stared at him. "…Was that supposed to be some sort of twisted pick-up line? 'Cause if it was, Snoozles, I'm really not getting it."
"I," he told me grandly, latching hold of my wrist and dragging me toward the car—and myself tingling at the feeling of his skin on my own, "Could pick up a girl in two seconds, pick up line or no pick up line."
"Oh yeah, Snoozles. You're the smoothest there is," I agreed sarcastically.
Sokka raised his head up high, puffing out his chest as he pulled open the door for me. "Th—" his mouth fell open in a comical expression of surprise, and I was unable to hold back a snort of laughter. "Hey—!"
"Like I said—smooth, Snoozles," I rolled my eyes, affection rubbing through the edges of my tone.
I felt like slapping myself. Well, jeez, Toph—all this smiling and laughing is sure helping you get over him a lot, isn't it?
But—one more night wouldn't hurt, would it? One more night of being in love with Sokka.
Just one. And then—
Then it was back to no extra complications; no doodling his picture on the back of my homework; no staring at him all day during the classes we did have together.
Satisfied, yet strangely anxious, I slid into the passenger seat. Pulling my knees to my chest, I poked at a large, dark stain on the seat cover. "What've you been doing in here, Snoozles?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.
"I drive myself. I'm my own taxi service." He leaned back, one hand on the wheel, and shot me what he must have thought a suave smile.
It didn't matter that he looked like a grinning elephant: nope, it still gave my stomach flip-flops.
Whoa. I was in deep, wasn't I?
As the car began moving, my eyes were forcibly drawn to Sokka, lounging in the driver's seat and chuckling to himself. Almost instantaneously, my cheeks began to heat up, and I turned to stare out the window. God! This was so damn stupid!
"Toph? Do you want me to turn the AC on?" Sokka asked after a moment, giving me a sidelong glance through wide, blue eyes. I immediately sensed that something was off.
"Why?" I demanded suspiciously, glancing back at him, still unable to quell my—annoying—blushing.
"Well, you're just so red. I thought it might be getting kind of hot in here," Sokka said innocently, giving me his best I'm-just-a-naïve-little-boy-don't-hurt-me look.
Except I really thought he didn't know. Sokka was just too oblivious.
"Yeah," I muttered, turning away, "That'd be good. Turn on the AC all you want, Snoozles."
Sokka scrutinized me carefully. "Are you sure you're not—"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I interrupted airily. Damn, I was getting pretty good at this "hiding my feelings" stuff. "As if I, the great Toph Bei Fong, could ever possibly get sick," I scoffed, holding my head up proudly. Thank you God, I thought immediately, before realizing that I was supposed to be an atheist. Already my hot cheeks were beginning to cool.
"Well—I never get sick either!" Sokka immediately claimed.
"Uh-huh. And the chicken pox two years ago was Magic Marker," I said skeptically, shooting him a triumphant smirk.
"Yeah! Yeah, it was Magic Marker! I was going for a…new look!" Sokka lied badly, averting my gaze.
I hid a smile. "Sure. And my middle name is Bobetta—haven't you heard?"
"You look more like a…Lucy," he told me, and we laughed.
You know how when you're just starting to have a good time and enjoy yourself, Fate always decides to poof in and change things up a bit?
Yeah. Well, Fate must have been in a particularly bad mood that day. Musta been skipping out on all those anger-management classes he has to take in order to resist the temptation of completely ruining my life (although I have to admit that this time he'd come pretty damn close).
Yeah. 'Cause, apparently, the car had to choose that exact moment to break down.
For a moment, we just sat there, staring through the windshield at the apparently stationary pick-up truck. After a moment, thought, Sokka took action.
"Well, gee, thanks Kami," he grumbled, sulking as he stomped out of the car, and reached over to grab some sort of wrench from the glove compartment, "Someone up there hates me, don't they?"
I rolled my eyes, watched as Sokka came around the front and yanked open the hood. A cloud of steam blew out, followed by a bout of coughing and a muffled curse.
There was a metal clang; a squeal of pain, and Sokka came hopping around, clutching his foot and very red in the face. When he saw my scornful expression, Sokka set his foot down with a poorly disguised wince and said unconvincingly, "Just a few more minutes, and then it'll be all fixed! Fix-It man, that's me!" Letting out a long sigh, despite his unbelievable announcement, Sokka hobbled back to the front of the car.
At last, when I thought all the stifled swearing, bangs, clangs, and pings would never stop, Sokka wearily plopped back into his seat. "It needs…err…professional help," he told me weakly.
"And that means…?" I prodded, even though I was already pretty sure.
Sokka grimaced. "We have to…walk."
I uttered a small shriek of frustration, and skulked out of the car. "I hate you, God," I told the evening sky loudly. "Really, I do. So? Smite me!"
No smiting.
I kicked a rock against the car.
Where the hell was bad luck when you needed it?!?!
As we walked, Sokka darted around the barely-used back road, every so often jumping into the bushes with a "Hah-YAH!" only to come out, disgusted, with an indignant rabbit clutched in his hand.
I had to admit, I really felt sorry for the rabbits. As for Sokka? I could say so, but I'd have been lying.
"What are you supposed to be, some sort of ninja?" I asked sourly, as Sokka returned from yet another detour into the underbrush.
"I'm protecting you from the evils of the forest," he told me, karate chopping in mid air. "I know you're scared, Toph, but don't worry…" Sokka put his arm around me and smiled cheesily, eyes darting about dramatically. "I'll protect you!"
I shoved him off of me. Although part of me would have loved his arm to stay there, the other half was seriously pissed off. "Yeah, yeah, Snoozles. Now when are we gonna get there?" I asked crossly.
"There's a place I know of up ahead—but the road will be hard," he whispered, creeping in front of me with his ass sticking up in the air. "Dangers of every kind lurk down this dark path…"
As you've probably guessed, Sokka missed out on any good old Indian Jones action, as the road was easy and completely devoid of dangers of any kind.
Well, unless you wanna count a toad. But Sokka took care of that.
Poor toad. I think he was scarred for life. Maybe I'd find him later…we could start the 'Scarred for Life by Sokka' club. Think of how many members we'd have! One day, we would dominate the Earth!
Cue villainous laugh here.
After about twenty five minutes of fake-boyfriends that acted like three year olds with a ninja fetish, and a route much, much longer then I'd hoped, we arrived at the beginning of a large stretch of sidewalk, and a few dingy buildings lining the empty street.
"I knew I'd get us there safely! You can thank me later," Sokka told me grandly.
"Yeah, 'cause bunnies are just that dangerous," I grumbled, despite my relief that we'd finally arrived.
Sokka led me to one of the larger buildings, music spilling out through the windows and a large, pink neon sign just above the doorway. Eyes drawn forcibly to the obnoxiously bright letters, I had my first introduction to a place that I was pretty sure had not been Sokka's original plan. In fact, he was beginning to look as though he sorely regretted choosing this particular place to remember at the most inopportune moment possible.
Serves him right, I thought, as my mouth fell open.
"Bumi's Karaoke Bar?"
It was gonna be a long night.
Ooo! Cliffie! Btw, we're gonna see Aang and 'Tara next chapter. Guess where Sokka and Toph run into them...And I already have a very good idea of next chapter. (Let's just say that the drinking age doesn't exist in Italy. Guess where my good friend Bumi comes from.) Go to my profile to vote on which song Toph should (drunkenly) sing!
