Chapter 14: Wager
The Duke leaned in, letting his lips gently find hers again.
They met softly and sweetly, one set pressed snugly against the other.
A perfect fit.
Home.
It was another moment or two until two sets of burning lungs reminded them to surface for air.
"You," Toph gasped, "you are—"
"The world's best kisser?" he panted. "A very handsome young man? All of the above?" he jested, offering suggestions to complete her sentence.
"Don't flatter yourself," she teased, still catching her breath. "But if it's any consolation, none of that stuff matters."
She gingerly held his cheeks and kissed The Duke's nose.
"Because I love you too, you Tinhead."
A smile grew to fill the corners of his mouth. He made a motion to kiss her back, but slipped past her lips to favor her ear.
"Hardass," he whispered.
"Duchess."
"Queen of Pride Rock."
"Jungle Boy."
"Slave Driver."
"Just shut up and kiss me."
The Duke was all too happy to oblige.
Several hours had passed, and Toph and the Duke had managed to make their way back to the base camp before dinner (it had helped, of course, that Toph had finally permitted him to remove the bandana and put his boots back on once they had reached the surface again). The day's events had rendered the both of them ravenous and exhausted, and neither was too keen on answering the avalanche of questions they knew people were itching to ask.
And now, at the peak of dinner hour, they were seated next to each other in the middle of the mess hall, inhaling their food. Meanwhile, The Duke was doing his best to avoid questioning glances from Pipsqueak and Longshot.
Of course, it didn't help that they were sitting right across the table.
"Where's Smellerbee?" The Duke asked casually, sending a glance at Longshot.
"She's running a little late," said Pipsqueak, shrugging his shoulders. "Probably got stuck in the food line."
"Oh."
Utensils clinked awkwardly.
"So where were you two all day?"
Toph nearly stabbed her chopsticks through the table.
The Duke, however, handled the situation smoothly.
"What are you talking about?" he replied. "Toph and I haven't seen each other all day."
Toph kicked him affectionately from under the table. He tapped her foot with the toe of his boot in return, keeping a perfect poker face.
Pipsqueak wasn't convinced.
"I was already operating under the assumption that you were both conducting your own activities separately. You confirmed my suspicion, but didn't answer the question."
"Well then maybe you should have been more specific, Pipsqueak," he replied cheekily.
"And now I know that you're avoiding the question, smartass."
Before The Duke could retort, a scratchy female voice put him in even deeper water.
"Are you two playing footsie under the table?!"
Toph felt her insides squirm with humiliation, but she clenched her jaw and refused to allow her facial expression to change. Neither of her feet had been on the ground to sense Smellerbee's silent approach from behind. The Duke's reaction was not dissimilar to hers, though he proved to be a little less successful at concealing his discomfort when he visibly gulped.
"Well?" asked Smellerbee loudly, balancing her tray on one hip and resting her hand on the other.
Neither answered.
Exasperated, Smellerbee rounded the table to join Longshot. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek in greeting and proceeded to dig into her food.
"Whatever," she muttered, buttering a slice of cornbread. "I know what I saw."
"Then why'd you ask?" Toph bellowed, digging her fingers into the edge of the table.
Dropping his chopsticks, The Duke immediately reached over to squeeze her hand. Toph's grip reluctantly relaxed as his pulse became known again.
He turned his head to address the other perpetrator.
"Take a card out of your boyfriend's book, Smellerbee," challenged The Duke. "Draw whatever assumption you like, but please do so silently."
Before she could yell at him, The Duke reached around Toph's shoulder and pulled her body closer to his, gently kissing her cheek as his arm draped over her shoulder. She cupped his chin and kissed him on the lips back, though with admittedly a little less grace than he had.
Mouths agape, Smellerbee and Longshot regarded them with shock. Pipsqueak was momentarily surprised, but had chuckled knowingly and resumed eating before they broke apart.
"Wait—"
But The Duke cut Smellerbee off before she could verbalize her confusion further.
"That's right, you know what you saw. You got a problem with it?"
Her look of stupor turned into one of pleasant surprise.
"Do I have a problem with it?"
Smellerbee took the sourdough roll from her plate and chucked it at The Duke, hitting him square on the nose.
"It's about damn time you two got together!" she exclaimed, reaching over to her boyfriend's plate so that she could throw his roll at Toph. "I honestly thought that you were going to make us wait until the next reunion!"
"What does this have anything to do with making you wait?" asked Toph, dodging the projectile.
"You two have been looking out for each other since the day you met," said Pipsqueak matter-of-factly. "We've been shipping you two for ages."
Longshot eyed the two of them thoughtfully.
"It was never a matter of if," he muttered in a rare comment, "but when."
Pipsqueak grinned. "Speaking of which…"
He turned toward Smellerbee and Longshot, folding his hands in a manner that suggested that he was conducting business.
"…I believe I've won."
The couple groaned in unison as they pushed some coins across the table.
"Hold on a sec!" exclaimed Toph, freezing the coins on the table with her metalbending. Aghast fury began to well up inside her as she came to a conclusion.
"The three of you," she began, "started a wager…"
"…to determine when the two of us would hook up?!"
Longshot pulled at the neckline of his shirt, while Smellerbee suddenly found something under the table fascinating.
"Guilty as charged," finished Pipsqueak, "but it was actually between the five of us. In fact, I have to go and collect my winnings from The Boulder and The Hippo, so if you'll excuse me…"
He pushed in his chair, leaving an unfinished plate and his winnings behind.
Through gritted teeth, The Duke made note of this.
"You forgot—"
Pipsqueak waved the reminder away.
"Keep it," he said coolly.
Toph crossed her arms, unobscuring her eyes with an indignant huff.
"You do realize that this is like a drop in the ocean, right?"
He smiled. "That's front-row admission to Earth Rumble Twelve. I heard there's a pageant portion this year, Miss Beifong."
Realization washed over the addressed, turning her white. She had completely forgotten about her own wager arranged only a few nights before.
"Oh, no—"
She noticeably clenched her fists, prompting Pipsqueak's swift and laughter-heavy exit.
As The Duke sat there in confusion over what had just transpired, he couldn't help but notice the inconvenient detour his friend made on the way to The Hippo's and The Boulder's respective tables to high-five an equally smug Katara.
"Mission accomplished," he heard her affirm.
Author's Comments: SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVERRR BECAUSE COLLEGE. EPILOGUE COMING SOON.
Thanks to sugartitshoneybutt for beta-ing!
Pipsqueak is the ultimate troll. Just sayin'.
And Queen of Pride Rock. Yeah. The potential for subtle Lion King crossovers was too great to ignore.
Yep, touching and saliva exchange are gonna be about as steamy as this gets, folks. I know this might disappoint a few of you smut fans out there, but I just… can't write a sex scene between two members of a ship I like to think is so innocent. It's The Doph, guys. I can't.
okaymaybeinanotherficifyougu ysREALLYwantitbutnottoday.
By the way, the comments on the last chapter made my day. Seriously. I'm glad that I made a lot of people happy (at least, that's what I've gathered so far… I didn't get any hate, so that's proof enough for me /not really/) and that my approach to the scene was good enough to make people cry/almost cry/have an oogie explosion.
Just let me quote VinylDinosaurs (btw this is the best and you are the best):
"Wow.
Um.
I just puked rainbows all over my screen.
This isn't fluff...this is...froth of hot melted moonlight punch ice cubes with incinerated oogie flavored glaze."
I might just have to illustrate this, brb. Speaking of illustrations, I made a few of this fic: specifically, Chapter 13 (because I love to spoil you guys). They're on my Tumblr (cfpepperz), if you'd like to have a look-see!
post/29814585567/the-doph-sketch-dump-1-i-was-so-sick-of-the
post/29833153711/the-doph-sketch-dump-2
BUT. SERIOUSLY. Thanks everybody for being so supportive!
THIS IS THE LONGEST AUTHORS NOTE
P.S: THE DOPH WEEK IS COMING UP THIS MONTH! I WILL BE POSTING FANART AND HEADCANONS ON TUMBLR, SO GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER FOR A FEELS-FEST.