Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender belongs to Bryan Konietzko, Michael DiMartino, and Nickelodeon, not me.
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Drabble #4: "Dress-Up"
Setting: During "City of Walls and Secrets"
The lids of the trunks clanged and clicked, rattling Toph's remaining senses. "I'm sure there's something in here," Katara said.
Toph groaned loudly and flopped backwards on the bed. "I really don't care. Just pick something," she said.
The thumping of Sokka's big feet interrupted the other vibrations. "Would this work?" he asked, flapping some kind of fabric piece in the air.
"No," Katara whined emphatically. Toph could almost hear her eyes rolling. "That's a day dress, not an evening dress. You don't wear cotton at a fancy party."
Toph clapped her hands. "Way to go, Sugar Queen, you know something about fancy manners," she said.
"I'm not as dumb as you think I am," Katara said.
"I never said you were dumb. I just said you weren't trained to handle this kind of social event," Toph said.
"I know plenty about social graces," Katara snapped.
"What about this?" Sokka asked. Something clinked into Katara's hands.
"Um…" she stammered. "Well…I don't know…"
"Give it to me," Toph said. Katara placed it in her palm; Toph rubbed its smooth surface. "Pearls are always good. It'll work
"There's plenty of accessories in here, but no dresses," Katara said. She shut a trunk with a solid thunk that made Toph's knees vibrate.
"Well, here's our options," Toph snapped, irritated by the feeling. "We send Joo Dee to go out and get something."
"No," the siblings said immediately.
"Too many questions," Katara said. "She'd want to know why."
"So you and I could go get something, but then we won't have time to do anything with our hair and makeup."
"It takes that long to do hair and makeup?" Sokka said.
"Of course," Toph said loftily. "It takes my mother three hours and two maids to go to a party."
"That's ridiculous," Sokka mumbled under his breath.
Toph poked him in the shoulder. "So you and Aang could go look for something," she said.
"Oh, no," Katara said. "No way am I trusting those two with my clothing choices."
"It's either they pick, or we go naked," Toph said.
"Um, awkward," Sokka said. "Remember, brother in the room? Ew?"
Katara sighed heavily. "Sokka, you and Aang had better go," she said. She scrambled over to the little desk and scratched a charcoal stick across a piece of paper. "But I want it to look this. Make sure the sleeves fall like that. Oh, and pick a color that suits my eyes."
Toph felt Sokka's confusion radiating through the bare soles of her feet. "I can't guarantee anything," he said. "Toph, you have any rules for me?"
She shrugged. "I don't care," she said.
"Okay," Sokka said, rustling the paper. "We'll be back as soon as we can." He loped out of the room, slamming the sliding door behind him. "Aang! We've got an errand!"
Katara cracked her knuckles. Toph winced. "We'd better get ready," she said. "Hair first?"
"Yeah, hair first," Toph said begrudgingly.
"There's some fancy headdresses in here. Should we wear them?"
"Duh," Toph said.
"You don't have to be so snippy," Katara said. "Take your hair down and brush it. And go scrape some your dirt off. I'll start my hair, and then I'll do yours."
"Fine," Toph mumbled. She ambled to the door.
"Get a move on!"
Toph went into the little bathhouse, her bare feet tapping noisily on the clay tile floor. Water bubbled in a fountain in the corner; she dipped her hands in it and splashed her face. Her stomach knotted. She shoved it away and stripped off her outer clothes. But as she rubbed the lightly scented soap over her skin, the anxiety bubbled back up.
She hated parties. Her parents had assigned her an etiquette tutor when she was only six, making her study fine manners and society small talk and all sorts of ridiculous things like that. She disliked the lessons, but everything got worse when she was eleven and her parents made her come to their stupid dinner parties- posing as someone else's child, of course. The simpering over her dress, the pinching of her cheeks, the unnecessary swooning and fawning- it was all just too much. Especially when the ridiculous people walked away and talked amongst themselves, thinking she could no longer hear. Of course, they were too stupid to remember that, devoid of one sense, the other were all the sharper.
"That poor little baby."
"Born blind! Can you imagine?"
"Bless her dear little heart."
"She makes me so uncomfortable, though."
"I know exactly what you mean! That wide open stare-"
"Never looking in the right direction-"
"The way her eyes don't move and she doesn't blink-"
"Positively creepy!"
"Completely frightening!"
Toph savagely scrubbed water over her arms and legs, rinsing off the soap. No, she was not looking forward to tonight.
When she walked back in the room, the smell of hair pomade assaulted her. "What did you do? Baptize yourself with that stuff?" Toph asked, pinching her nose.
"My hair's so wavy. I just want it to lie smooth," Katara protested. She took Toph by the shoulders and forced her to sit down. "I'll do your hair and then your makeup. Just sit still, okay?"
"I can sit still on my own," Toph said, twisting her shoulder and forcing her hands away.
"Well, fine, little Miss…Bitter Queen," Katara said. She pulled Toph's headband off.
"Oh, nice comeback," she scoffed. Katara yanked a long hairpin out, bringing several hairs with it. "Ow!"
"Not so tough now," Katara said. She pulled out the rest of the pins and combs until Toph's hair hung down in a thick cascade over her shoulders and back.
"Careful," Toph warned.
"Oh, so you're tender-headed," Katara said. Toph could hear a wicked grin in her voice, but Katara ran the boar-bristle brush through her thick hair gently. She struggled to sit still as Katara swept locks of her hair up into a bun. "So…what kind of things do I need to remember?"
Toph squirmed as Katara jabbed a pin into her hair. "Don't eat too much," she said. "Bow as gracefully as you can every time you're introduced to someone. If a man flirts with you, accept it without flirting back."
"Oh, men won't flirt with us," Katara scoffed. Toph was silent. "You're not serious!"
"I'm serious," Toph sighed, half raising off her seat as Katara pulled a little too energetically. "I've had men old enough to be my grandfather ask me when I would be old enough to marry."
"That's ridiculous," Katara said.
Toph scratched at the back of her neck; Katara batted her hand away. "Be glad you're not rich, or a noble," she said. "Plenty of us wealthy man's daughters get married off when we're sixteen or so." She bit her lip, debating whether or not to swallow the words that rose up in her throat. They spilled out on their own, whether she liked them or not. "My parents are already taking bids." Katara yanked hard on a lock of hair. "Ow!"
"Sorry," she apologized hastily. "They're bidding on you?"
"When a nobleman has a daughter, other noblemen start sending offers as soon as possible," Toph said. "Sometimes they offer for their sons, sometimes they offer for himself, no matter how old they are." Katara fingercombed the loose strands of hair and began braiding them over her shoulders. "All that matters is which houses are being united, whose bank accounts are getting shared. It's all about politics."
"In the Water Tribe, marriages are arranged a lot," Katara said. "But the parents always try to find matches that will work well."
"Was your parents' marriage arranged?" Toph asked, interested. Sokka and Katara didn't talk about their family very often, at least not in any personal details.
"No, not really," Katara said. She combed the other half of her hair and divided it into three pieces. "Maybe half-arranged, I guess you could say. My father saw my mother on the shore when he was out on his boat. She was fishing with a net, so she was standing in the water with her legs bare…and he thought she was beautiful. And a good fisher. When he told Gran-Gran, she told my mother's parents that if they didn't get married she would personally see to it that she didn't marry anyone else." Katara flipped Toph's braids over her shoulders. "Now hold still. I'm going to start putting your makeup on."
Toph tried to stay motionless- which was difficult, as Katara smeared the creamy foundation across her cheeks. "Katara?" she ventured.
"Hm?"
"Are you going to get an arranged marriage?"
Katara laughed as she leaned forward and dabbed blush high on Toph's cheekbones. "I doubt it," she said. "I want to get married, but I want to pick the person I spend the rest of my life with myself, you know?"
Toph thought about the men she met at her parents' parties- their big sweaty hands, their arrogant laughs, their pompous self-promotion. "Yeah," she said.
"Hold still. I'm going to do your eye makeup." The kohl pencil's smooth track over her lashline made Toph's eyelid twitch. "Are you going to go along with whoever your parents pick?" Katara asked.
Toph cracked her wrist as she let the older girl brush shadow over her eyelids. "I don't want to," she said. "But I might have to. They're my parents, and they're very caught up with doing the whole traditional thing. And I am their only child." Her eyelashes lifted up suddenly. "I don't think I'll find anyone on my own though. From what I can tell, I'm not the kind of girl that boys like."
Something cold and wet slicked over her lips. "You're only twelve, Toph," Katara said. "You've got plenty of time for sweethearts. Besides, you're very pretty."
Toph raised her eyebrows. "Seriously?"
"Seriously," Katara said. The soft heady scent of a peony overwhelmed Toph for a moment before she realized that it was being pinned to her headdress. "I predict that when you grow up, you're going to be quite a beauty."
Toph touched her fingertips lightly to her cheek, damp with makeup. "I doubt it," she repeated. She paused and slid to the edge of the seat, pressing her toes to the floor. "The boys are back."
The door banged open. "We've got stuff!" Aang said cheerfully.
Toph felt Katara dash across the length of the room in four long strides. "Get out!" she shrieked, slamming the door shut. "You can't see us yet!"
The door slid open partway. "Aang, let me handle this," Sokka said. "Okay, the box on the top is Toph's. The box on the bottom is Katara's. If we got the wrong size, we didn't mean to offend you."
A big box was thrust abruptly in Toph's hands. She sat down on the floor and opened it warily. Katara ripped the lid off of hers. "This'll do," she said, satisfaction radiating from her voice. "You boys go wait. We'll be ready soon."
Toph lifted her dress out of the box. It felt soft and silky, made with a thin inexpensive silk. She poured it through her fingers back and forth. It made a delicious rushing noise. "What does mine look like?" she asked.
"Hm?" Katara said, muffled by her dress.
Toph held up her dress. The silk smelled like cinnamon, saffron, and vanilla beans. "What does mine look like?" she asked again. "Also, the boys got this from the dress shop by the spice stand, but that's beside the point."
Katara took the dress from Toph's hands. "Oh, Toph, it's beautiful," she said. "It's white and gold. You'll look like an angel."
"I won't look ridiculous?"
"You'll look great," Katara said. "Get dressed. We need to go soon."
Toph pulled off her clothes. Goosebumps popped out on her shoulders, so she quickly pulled the linen underdress on. It felt a little big. Toph slipped her arms through the long full sleeves of the light silk dress and wrapped it tightly around her waist. She smoothed her hands over the slippery surface, frowning.
"Toph," Katara said. "You look beautiful."
"Yeah, whatever," Toph said.
"I mean it," Katara said. "Here's your fan. Oh, and hold still." Toph squirmed as Katara slipped the thin hooks of earrings into her ears. "How do I look? Oh, wait, never mind. C'mon, let's go." She grabbed Toph by the wrist. "Hold up your fan. We should make a good entrance."
Toph held her fan over her lips as Katara flung open the sliding doors. They could only hold the suspense for a moment; and they giggled behind the fans.
"Wow," Aang said. "You look beautiful."
Toph hid her frown. She knew he wasn't talking to her. Katara started to say something, but her jealousy got the better of her, and Toph smacked her on the mouth. "Don't talk to the commoners, Katara," she said haughtily. "First rule of society."
She could tell Katara was annoyed, but she didn't care. Those who received compliments on their looks on a regular basis deserved to have their buttons pushed every once in a while. "We'll get into the party and then find a way to let you in the side gate," she said. Toph followed her demurely. Katara's simple leather boots made a light swishing sound against the stone floor, hidden under her long skirts. Toph swallowed her sigh. It would be easier to spend all night with her feet bare- she could see that way- but she'd have to spend all night paranoid about someone noticing. She tucked her hands in her sleeve and shuffled awkwardly behind Katara.
The marble porch was freezing cold, despite the warmth of the spring night. Toph's sensitive toes curled against the stone.
"Hey, wait!"
"Sokka, what do you want?" Katara asked, exasperated. "We have to leave."
"I forgot something for Toph," Sokka explained.
Toph's stomach flipflopped. "Go on ahead, Katara, I'll catch up," she said.
"I got something for you." His clothes made a rumpling noise as he fumbled in his pocket. "Here."
Toph felt something soft fall into her palms. "What the-"
"I figured you'd need shoes," Sokka said. "They're kind of flimsy, but I thought that if they were thin, you could still feel the ground through them."
"Thanks," Toph said, surprised. She drew up the skirts of her dress and hopped on one foot, trying to wriggle them on.
"Here, let me," Sokka said. He knelt down and slipped one shoe on as she placed her hand on his broad shoulder. "Other one." She balanced on the other foot.
"Thanks," she said again.
Sokka stood up. "Be careful, okay?" he said. "And make sure no one hits on Katara."
"I will," she said, her lips twisting.
"And tell me if anyone hits on you who shouldn't."
"Oh, you won't have to worry about that," Toph said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"No, I mean it," Sokka said. "It's a good thing you don't look like that all the time. We'd never have any peace with you looking this pretty."
Toph snapped her fan open and hid behind it. "I'll try to contain myself," she said.
"Hurry and catch up to Katara," he said. "See you later."
She nodded and hurried down the street, her soft new slippers so thin she could feel every comfortably reassuring cobblestone. The warm night and her quick steps were a good excuse for the pink in her cheeks.
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Author's Note:
And, collective squee.
This is one my longer ones, and one of my personal favorites out of the drabbles I've got going. It stemmed from wondering where on earth Katara and Toph managed to find fancy clothes for the party, and it all kind of grew from there.
As to Toph's marriage bids…her parents have let it known in their inner circles that they have a daughter, but she's at boarding school in Ba Sing Se. (The Toph-centric story I'm working on deals with this). So Toph is officially on the market, but no one has seen her yet. Meanwhile, Toph's parents send to parties along with several servants to protect her so that she can get some firsthand experience at a fancy party. So yeah. That's how it works.
Really, this was such a fun drabble to write. I like writing Toph as a burgeoning young lady.
Coming up next: "Thunder"
