Commentary: Sorry this is a bit late! I hope you all enjoy it anyway. =)
POT CALLING KETTLE
Chapter Ten
"Oh c'mon," Toph sighed, drumming her fingers against his sternum. "You're not still mad about the boob thing, are you?"
"I'm not mad," Sokka disagreed, twitching the reins. Appa coasted higher. Dawn and chilly, the gray sky around them streaked toward red at its edge. Soon the sun would crest the horizon, bringing with it the unbearable dog day heat still persisting from summer's end—Sokka had thought it better to get their travels started early and planned for a break near noon. "Seriously," he continued. "I'm not. I'm traumatized."
Toph giggled into his shoulder. He scowled. When some girls giggled it was cute—Toph just sounded sinister. "Aww," cooed the Earthbender, "poor baby, getting to cop a feel!"
"On my best friend! My best friend," he clarified, "who's like, oh I don't know, the strongest woman I know, who crushes dudes like me and wipes the floor with their blood and fluids—"
"You're welcome."
Fuming, the tribesman wrangled around so he could look at her. "I'm sorry. Did it sound like I was thanking you? Because I wasn't. I promise."
"Are you trying to tell me you didn't enjoy it?" Toph stuck a finger into the soft flesh of his cheek. "I mean, you're acting like an ass about it if you did enjoy it, which you must've—you're a dude. I might be missing a giant chunk of my memory, but I know about dudes, Sokka." She prodded him. "And dudes? Dudes like boobs. You could at least pretend you're marginally grateful that I let you—"
"Forced me," he interjected.
"—strongly encouraged you to appreciate my extraordinarily voluptuous and downright magnificent talents."
"There's such a thing as consent, Toph." He shifted his gaze back to the fore, where muddy steel clouds tempered the morning sky and there was nothing to look at but a line of geese flying south with them, their shadows like footprints on the ground so far below. Toph's finger bumped along his jaw and into his hair.
"You gave it," she insisted, drawing back. "I didn't hear a no. I also didn't feel any resistance when I pulled you over, but you know what I did feel?" He didn't have to look at her to know she was leering. "I felt your hand goosh right up against my—"
"You surprised me!"
"People like surprises!" she crowed. She looped her arms around him and squeezed him such that his breath left his lungs in a hoarse yelp. "And as much as you've sulked about it, don't even try to lie. You really liked my surprise."
Sokka blinked, temporarily derailed from the argument. "Wait. You remember you're able to tell when people lie?"
"Sure," Toph agreed lazily. Muffling a yawn into his shoulder, she stretched.
"But we're—we're not even on the ground!" protested the warrior.
"I don't have to have working eyes, much less any Earthbending skill, to see right through your transparent ass. You liked it." Smug, she thumped his ribcage from behind.
"Traumatized," he disputed. "Forever."
"Sweet supple flesh," she crooned in his ear.
"I will land this bison, I swear to—"
"Okay, okay! Keep your shirt on, geez! Crybaby." Heaving an explosive sigh, Toph shifted around a little and proceeded to fall into a sullen quiet. Minutes passed—half an hour. The burning coin of the sun, copper-hued, climbed steadily up into the clouds and kissed them colorful. The air thickened, crisped. Sokka began to sweat. He was also cultivating a strong desire for breakfast when Toph spoke again.
"So that was really the first time you'd seen them." She said it carefully, contemplatively.
He frowned. "Huh?" Craning his neck to peer over his shoulder, he asked, "The first time I'd seen what?"
"My boobs, genius."
He cringed. "Aw man, Toph! Why are we still talking about this?"
A chance updraft rocked Appa and Toph's nails dug into his hip. "It's just a question," she informed him. "Answer it, how about?"
Exasperated, Sokka dropped the reins over his knee and spun again to look at Toph. "No, how about this. Why do you even want to know?"
She grinned into the press of the wind. "Don't you think I have a right to know if you've ever seen my boobs?"
For a moment Sokka sought a way to argue the point, then grudgingly admitted, "I guess." He followed up with, "Yeah, err—no, uhm. That was the first time. Are you happy now? Can we just drop it?"
Scooting forward into his previous position, he took up the reins once more. Idly he scratched Appa's ear. The bison groaned appreciatively. For her part, Toph was quiet.
But, "Really?" she pursued at last.
Sokka's stomach growled. He winced. "Uh-huh."
"No kidding." Toph's fingers tapped softly over his hip, catching now and again in the fabric there. "So we're not together?"
"What, like… together-together?"
"Yeah."
"No." Sokka shook his head. "No, we aren't."
"Why not?"
He squinted into the horizon's pink blaze. Had she really just asked that? "What?"
"Why not?" Toph persisted.
Sweat pooled in the dip of Sokka's collar, dribbled down his neck. His clothes were sticking to him. "Uhm," he managed. "Uh. I don't… I don't know, I guess. I never thought you—you would ask anything like that, sorry—"
"No, it's cool. I get that my awesomeness might be overwhelming. But seriously," she went on, "why not? You're single, right?"
"…thank you for bringing that up. Yes. Yes I am. Currently. But—"
"And I've always been single. Correct?"
That made Sokka feel a little better. "As far as I know."
"Okay. Gotcha. So, let me get this straight." Leaning around him, Toph thrust her face into the meager breeze, her eyes pointed more or less in his direction. "Based on what you've told me, we've been traveling together for years. Years. A long damn time, anyway. And we always hang out with each other. We like the same stuff. You're a guy. I'm a gi—err, I'm not a guy. And I have these." She motioned to the curvier parts of her torso. "All of that's true. Yeah?"
With the desperate but inescapable sensation of walking into a trap, Sokka affirmed, "Well, yeah."
"Right." Frowning now, Toph provided, "Enlighten me. Why aren't we together?"
Helpless, Sokka gestured to nothing. "I don't know! You—you think I'm stupid! And you've never acted interested—"
"I could be wrong, given my brains are the equivalent of scrambled eggs right now, but I'd wager those two statements aren't exactly true," Toph cut in.
Sokka stopped. He glanced down at the top of his best friend's head, his mouth pursed. He was abruptly and damnably curious. "So you're saying you don't think I'm stupid?"
"I don't think you're stupid right now." She shrugged. "I can't promise how I'd feel with all my reasoning intact, though."
"And you might be… interested in me." He couldn't quite make that a question.
She wiggled the same finger she'd used to prod his cheek earlier at him. "Might have been. Past tense. At this moment you're just sweaty and fun to harass."
He blanched. "Thanks. Thanks just so much." Tugging the reins enough to bear them collectively off to the right, he considered and pursued at last, "Hey, by the way… what makes you think you might have ever been interested in me at all?"
Toph smirked. "Well, I didn't have the inclination to flash my boobs at you or anything, right?" Tapping her chin, she snapped her fingers and corrected, "Oh wait…"
Sokka spent the remainder of the morning locked in a suffering—if not thoughtful—silence.