FOURTEEN: Smile

He loves her hair and her personality and her laugh. But most of all, he loves her smile.

Her smile was always there. He could tell. Even when she was angry, she'd get this little twitch in the corner of her mouth. It was like she didn't know whether to grin at the idiot who had offended her or to promptly toss a rock in the direction of their head.

Her smile was brilliant. Her teeth were amazingly white. Katara had even been a little jealous, the brown-haired girl had confessed a few years down the road. 'They're so white. And she doesn't even brush them four times a day or anything! Some people get all the luck.' His sister would rant. Her teeth were white, as well, though she brushed her teeth very well three times a day.

She had so many smiles.

The triumphant smile for when she beat him in sparring matches. The evil smile for when she had a plan that she didn't tell anyone about. The sickeningly sweet smile that she gave when she wanted to appear innocent. The cocky, smirky smile when she knew she was going to beat someone. The laugh smile. He could go on and on and on.

But his favorite smile was the one she used when it was just the two of them. It was softer than the other smiles as it slowly spread across her pale face. Once, when he had been feeling especially bold, he had dared to trace it with his fingers as it formed.

"What are you doing?" she had wanted to know.

"Shh," he murmured, fingers touching the corner of her mouth as her grin softened. "Don't talk."

"But – "

"No. Shush." He said firmly. She rolled her eyes but the smile didn't stop spreading across her face. "No talking."

She had waited patiently (if there was one thing about her, it was the fact that she could be still and wait like no one else he knew) as he had carefully traced his fingertips around the outline of her mouth. Her lips were soft against his mostly-clean fingers that still smelled of the salted meat he had snacked on.

Once he had finished, he pulled his fingers away from her and instead took her hands. "So what were you doing?" she wanted to know.

"Getting to know your, um, smile."

She laughed. The laughing smile. "You're weird, Snoozles."

"Thanks. Coming from the girl who sees with her feet, it means a lot."

She shrugged, moving so that she sat next to him instead of across from him. "What do you mean, you were getting to know my smile?"

"You have a lot of different smiles. I was tracing."

"You were tracing… my smile?"

"One of them," he explained, aware of how cheesy he sounded.

She stayed silent for a moment. "And which smile were you tracing?"

"The one that you use when it's just you and me."

"Oh." She grinned, this time it was the sneaky smile that she used when she had a plan.

"Mhmm," he agreed.

"You know what I call that one?" she wanted to know.

He shrugged. "No. What?"

"The Sokka Smile. It's yours and yours alone."

He smiled, an arm snaking around her shoulders. "That's fitting."

"Really? Why?"

"Because Sokka is yours… and yours alone."

Yeah. Not all of these stories are going to be miles long. This one's pretty short. But sweet. And yeah, Katara's jealous of Toph's teeth?