Title: Growing Old Together
Rating: K
Character/Pairing: Toph/Sokka
Spoilers: None
Author's Note: Written for 31_days, 12 July: "if I didn't know you, I'd rather not know." I happen to have a great love for couples that are no longer newlyweds being sweet. Also, JoJoDancer made me post it (and also beta'd it).
Warnings: I will tell you now this is far and away the fluffiest thing I have ever written. You have been warned.
Summary: Late at night, Sokka reflects.
Growing Old Together
Sokka gazed at his sleeping wife, still and curled beside him in the dark. Her breath made steady, rhythmic, warm puffs against his arm.
Toph had always been small, but during the day her loud voice and constant movement always made her seem much bigger than she really was – even now, in middle age, a few grey hairs starting to appear among the inky black ones. At night, though, still and curled up against him, Sokka remembered how tiny she really was. They had been married for many happy years; all but their youngest was grown and moved out, but even after all this time the contrast could still take him by surprise, as now. He thought about how lucky he had been, to marry this woman and share in her life.
Toph stirred. "What's up, lover boy?" she asked sleepily. "Is it morning?"
"No," Sokka replied quietly. "Go back to sleep."
"What are you doing up, then? Staring at my face? That's kind of creepy, you know," she mumbled.
"Just thinking," Sokka said, but Toph was already asleep again.
He could feel himself starting to join her, and as he dropped off to sleep, he reflected that, if he could have lived another life, he didn't want to know about it. It would never have been this nice.
