Ground rules: this is a college AU- no bending but still the same universe. Trigger warning for literally everything. I will be updating every other day or so and am active on my tumblr (midnightsun-madness). Leave me some feedback! And FINALLY: I don't own A:tLA :)
Chapter I
Syllabus Week Pt. I
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Friday, January 10th; 4:33 p.m.
Aang shut the door of the apartment behind him, the handle still sticky from the jungle juice Sokka had spilled across the wall the night before winter break had commenced. His suitcase rolled across the wooden floor of the hallway, a tacky sound interrupting the palpable silence of an otherwise busy campus. Red plastic cups and spongy orange cylinders littered the floor, sticking to the coating of sweet intoxicants. Aang had been early getting back, which he now knew was terribly convenient for Sokka. Winter break and the events leading up to it had been a bit of a blur, but the sweet stench of alcohol and stale tobacco cast a light through his foggy memory. What had transpired didn't matter now- only a long list of bleach and citrus-scented consequences remained. Throwing parties, Aang decided, was overrated.
Despite how far gone he had been, Aang knew better than to invite the festivities into his personal sanctuary, relieved to find the handle of his bedroom door stiff and unsticky to boot. He fingered through his set of keys that hung limply on a tattered friendship bracelet. In an attempt to avoid ruining the carpet with the muck that was now glued to his soles, Aang slipped off his canvas loafers before entering the room at the end of the hall. Shoes were typically removed at the front door in this household, but this was a special exception.
The suitcase now lay beneath a makeshift mural on a large corkboard: a map of the University of Omashu, a polaroid of his girlfriend given to him by a nameless and now faceless person, a used ticket to a violin recital, a class schedule, colorful paper wristbands from bars, and countless receipts from the Jasmine Dragon. Across from the wall was an unmade bed and rickety desk. With a soft rip, Aang pulled the schedule from the anchor of a pushpin. Spring semester would begin in three days, and after a long break with Toph as his only company outside of the seminary, he needed a tangible reminder of what courses that past life of his had assigned for his second semester of college. The boredom of back-to-back days in Gaoling paired with Toph's antics were a deadly combination. His brain cells had paid the price.
However, the amnesia and its culprit had reminded him.
Aang snuck his long fingers underneath the strap of his backpack and placed it on top of the suitcase. Past the decorative pins, keychains, and patches laid a plastic baggie full of empty canisters of nitrous oxide and shriveled balloons. There was no way in hell he was disposing the evidence of his and Toph's escapades in the dumpster of the seminary. At the time, he could practically hear Monk Gyatso's voice scolding "karma" and "spiritual desecration". He had periodically felt brief washes of shame and guilt before Toph would clamber into the passenger seat of his car for the umpteenth time. The logical, more sober side of him had led Aang to shelter the evidence in the trunk of his car until this moment. No garbage man would raise suspicion on a college campus.
The bag of small silver missiles landed loudly into the bamboo trash can that sat in between his bed and the side table. He drew his eyes back to the sheet of paper in his other hand: Intro to Epistemology, Calculous I, Ethics II, Literature of the Four Nations. With a silent thank you to himself, Aang stood up and gingerly reinserted the pushpin next to the gaping rip at the top of the sheet. 12 credit hours was child's play.
Aang had treaded water in school, an average student. There were subjects that came naturally to him, while other concepts felt more like foreign languages. Mathematics was one of those vexing vocabularies that refused to cooperate. At times, it felt like he was trying to extinguish a wildfire with only his breath. But seeing college level calculus on his schedule did not worry him as it once may have. Toph had tutored him in high school, the initial conversations over Pythagorean theorems and exponents solidifying Aang's respect for her authoritarian intelligence. As in semesters past, the blind would lead the blind once more.
He began tossing out the rest of the contents of his backpack. Miscellaneous items and articles of clothing flew around the room except for a glass bottle of foundation, which he wrapped in a lone sock and shoved into the corner of his desk drawer, and his cell phone.
After sending a text to Sokka, Aang crooked his neck to the left, releasing the tension that had accumulated during his long drive with a satisfying crack. He would finish unpacking later. It was time to clean.
Friday, January 10th; 7:18 p.m.
The bus sat idle in the congested highway, waiting for its turn to get off the turnpike and officially exit the city limits of Omashu. The University of Omashu, or "UFO" as the students had coined decades past, was situated nearly 40 miles south of the bustling city. The passengers of the bus were unsurprised but disappointed nonetheless to find the country roads just as busy as the highway after passing through the tollbooth. After all, it was Friday night, and many students would be making their way back to campus to have the weekend to prepare for the new semester.
Despite his fondness for travel, Sokka hated flying, and was more than happy to be sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic rather than choking on the smell of jet fuel 7 miles above ground. He pulled out his bag of dried sea prunes a la Gran-Gran and settled back into his seat next to Katara. Their trip to visit their birthplace in the South Pole had been nostalgic for him, having spent the past three and a half years at UFO studying civil engineering, and the prior ten in Gaoling. Gaoling was a large town southeast of Omashu and nothing like the tight-knit community his family had left behind. He, his younger sister, and his father had only visited their homeland a small handful of times since moving. Hakoda had labeled the relocation as a "fresh start", away from the memories that his wife's death had frozen in the cold walls of their old home. As a child, Sokka had initially protested this cliché. What use was it to try to forget his own mother?
After staying there for the past four weeks, Sokka found that there was a lot he had forgotten, but some blurry memories had indeed chilled too deep inside of him to defrost. The view of the lights of Omashu from the airplane beckoned him like a warm fire, softening the icy shell he had built around himself during break. His hunger to get back on campus only increased with every pothole their bus now jostled over as they gained speed.
He tossed another sea prune into his mouth before considering offering one to Katara, who had been peering out the window for the duration of the trip, including the 6-hour flight. In fact, she had been unusually quiet for the entire vacation. Sokka reconsidered and returned the bag of salty fruit to his backpack, suddenly losing his appetite for the family specialty. He didn't need her to tell him that the trip had been hard.
His sister would be starting her second semester as a sophomore at UFO, studying Biology to eventually continue her education in naturopathic medicine. In the face of all the quack jokes he made, he was genuinely proud of her for overcoming the anxiety that often accompanied setting life paths. He thanked his father silently, for the hard choices that he too had made.
They had finally gained a decent speed. Sokka followed the gaze of his sister and watched the fields pass by, tracing the bushes and shrubs that flanked the road. It wouldn't be too long now until the terrain began to shift from flat to hilly- little wrinkles in the world that led to their campus nestled in the valley of three mountain peaks.
He grew antsy at the prospect of being back again. He couldn't wait to kick his feet up and have a well deserved drink, or seven. How many he had consumed the night before leaving, he couldn't recall. If Aang's text describing the state they had left their apartment in was any indication of how intoxicated everyone had gotten, it was probably a good thing that he had blacked out.
[To: Aang]
[Sent: 7:34 p.m]
[Always taking one for the team. You da best.]
[To: Aang]
[Sent: 7:34 p.m]
[Btw, going to be there in like 15.]
Their bus pulled up to the campus gym, finally coming to a slow halt and sighing with a hiss as the luggage compartment below them opened up. The gym was the first stop for the night, and conveniently the closest drop-off station for their respective apartments. Katara finally detached her gaze from the window.
"Ready for your last semester?" she asked with a deep breath, one Sokka felt like she was taking for the both of them.
In truth, he was not ready. Sokka had not been giving his life after graduation the attention it needed and had yet to schedule an interview with anyone, prioritizing his frequent outings, videogames, and coursework in that order. On top of that, Aang and Toph, who had visited him multiple times with Katara throughout the duration of his college career, had finally graduated high school. The shenanigans of having the whole group together on campus were some of the happiest of his life. That was how everyone said college was going to be, but nobody could try to sugarcoat the depressing monotony of life after it all ends. Now was the time to grab it all by the horns.
Sokka clapped his hands together and rubbed them vigorously. "High school graduation's going to have nothing on this."
Friday, January 10th; 8:06 p.m.
His sheets were old, wrinkled, and unwashed but smelled softly of beeswax soap and incense all the same. Oh, how she had yearned for this reunion.
Katara finally lifted her face from the bed, no longer able to ignore Aang's poking and prodding. She wanted to feel happy in that moment, to indulge her eyes on the sight of the dimples that hadn't left his face since she walked through the door. Why had she agreed to go to that cold hell when she could have spent all that time with him here? Why, after all her progress, did her father insist on dragging her back to that graveyard and forcing her to unearth the memories she had spent so much time burying?
"What's your opinion on me staying over tonight?" Aang asked with a childlike glee, reeling her back into the room.
Katara rolled over, now facing the ceiling. Her eyes immediately found the stain shaped like a rabaroo, a funny accent to the room Aang had discovered that she now couldn't unsee.
"I'm still on my period," she sighed, recalling the events that had occurred shortly after Aang had first pointed out the ceiling mark. They had taken edibles that fateful evening, and weed happened to be a potent aphrodisiac for her.
"You know that has nothing to do with me wanting to sleep over," he said softly, now picking up on her mood. He lied down next to her. "What's wrong?"
The love she felt for him never wavered since their first encounter in high school. Katara was a sophomore, and Aang had just transferred out of homeschooling at the recommendation of the board of the monastery. He liked and was liked by everyone- even the teachers cooed over his mannerisms and bouts of wisdom, regardless of whether they knew his somber history. But it was Katara that had ultimately enchanted him, and after a tender friendship, they found themselves dating a year before she was to leave for college. She had spent weeks in grief, the anxiety of separation shrouding any encouragement from her boyfriend. Too much had happened her senior year, and she couldn't bear the thought of leaving her best friend and boyfriend to fend for themselves. Her imagination thrived in those moments- he'll find someone else, he'll get beheaded in a car accident, all the tests were wrong, he won't get into the same college. They were the final blocks on top of her wavering tower of things to worry about. Had the overwhelming threat of shame and disappointment from Sokka and her father not persuaded her into the packed car, she would have delayed her studies for a year. Instead, she went to the doctor.
"Nothing's wrong," she started matter-of-factly. "I think the break was good for us, good for me."
Aang wasn't buying it, and she knew it. "Were you taking your pills?"
She hesitated, avoiding his gaze. Was it wrong to lie to him? She had taken her prescribed dose of anti-anxiety medication every day during break, sometimes twice. Well, mostly twice. Aang had always told her that she wouldn't achieve true stability while under the dependence of substances, that this trip back to the source of her pain could be her defining moment of strength. She had failed him, failed herself, but she didn't want his chilling judgement. It was only salt on the wound.
"It was really hard," Katara began, upping her defense. "Everything just felt so sad and weird, and I couldn't talk to you about it because the service was so bad, so yeah, I took them when I needed to. That's what prescriptions are for."
The silence that followed her defeated sigh gently gave way to the slow approach of rain. Katara pushed herself up to look through the window, hugging her knees to her chest.
Swallowing with nervous indecision, she closed her eyes. She was here, finally, with him. The smells, the sounds, the way she could feel his mood without looking- was this peace worth the risk?
She carefully let her guard down, just enough. "Gran-Gran has dementia. My dad didn't come back with us."
They sat there for a few moments, listening to the growing patter on the rooftop, the chiming of the gutters. A car sped by, the swish of a wet road echoing in its wake.
"Katara, I'm so sorry. I didn't know-"
"I know you didn't. I'm just giving you my excuses."
She felt him rise up, felt his arms wrap around her, felt the unsaid beg. The raindrops ran down the glass, morphing into each other at close enough contact, a quiet little dance with friction and gravity. Her mother had passed her last breath during a blizzard, not a rainstorm, but the sky was cloudless and breezy for weeks after Aang had enrolled in her high school. It stormed during Sokka's graduation, all of their pictures from the event depicting his wide grin underneath a sopping wet cap. Sometimes, when all was well, Katara would sit on the porch and watch the steady downpour. And when all was more than well, she'd find mud slipping through her toes, her nose cold, goosebumps sprouting over her wet arms. Her body was a garden in those moments, alive and always changing. There was only one kiss in the world as sweet as that of the rain.
"It snowed a lot while we were there," she said softly, following the drops to their resting place in a hibernating garden on the windowsill. "Toph won't be coming back until tomorrow morning. Do you want to walk me home?"
He shifted, eager at the prospect of a lighter topic. "We should probably take the car. It's dark and wet and cold."
"I'll let you shower with me afterwards."
Aang laughed and squeezed her. "That definitely sweetens the deal, but we always shower together. You're going to have to up the ante."
She turned to face him, pushing her sadness down deeper. There was nothing she had to worry about here.
Saturday, January 11th; 11:10 a.m.
The cab had just left the circular drop off of the parking lot, and Toph was on her own. Free at last.
Yu, to Toph's delight, had important business matters to attend to, and would not be able to drive to campus and back for the whole day, so he hired a cab. The only downside was waking up at 6 in the morning, but the benefit of operating without the watchful eye of her parents or their relatives, friends, and housekeepers was almost too good of a tradeoff to be true.
"Alright, Badger. 233."
The badgermole immediately recognized the command, pulling against the leash attached to his harness. Badgermoles, once said to be terribly large creatures that lived underground, had been bred for convenience after man had found that they possessed startling intelligence. They shrunk them in size, selected for less aggressive temperaments, and had transformed them into the number one seeing-eye animal for the blind. No other creature could compete with the skill and intuition of the badgermoles, for they too once, were blind.
Toph followed the pull of the leash, confident in her companion. As a Beifong, she had been gifted the best of the litter when she turned 6 years old, and with childish facetiousness, named him Badger. Their bond, to her parent's satisfaction, was incredibly strong, and part of the reason they had allowed her to go off to an out-of-town college on her own.
They hadn't, however, allowed her to live outside of the dorms.
She stood in the elevator, music leaking from her headphones and filling the empty space with a muddled melody. Badger licked his nose, his whiskers twitching at the familiar environment. A vibration, three buzzes, interrupted the song to signal a new text message from Katara. Toph had set up her phone in a way that worked best for her: one short buzz- Aang, two short buzzes- Sok-ka, three short buzzes- Ka-tar-a, and four buzzes in the beat of Jinthoven's Fifth Symphony- her parents. Everyone else just got a long buzz.
The elevator doors opened before she could hear the message. Badger pulled her to the right and soon scratched at a door. With a swipe of her key card, the door unlocked, and Toph entered her single room, immediately dumping her suitcase on the floor and turning around.
"Bosco's".
Once back in the elevator, Toph pressed her thumb onto the disc of her phone, unlocking it. With two taps in the leftmost corner of the screen, her messages began to play.
"One new message from Katara. Sent at 11:12. Are you here yet. I'm so excited. I missed you so much. We are meeting at the boys tonight but I am home now. Give me a call if you can. Colon. Close parentheses. End of message."
Toph couldn't help the giddy smile that crept across her face. While she had enjoyed her time with Aang over break, she found herself deeply missing her fellow female companion.
"Toph!" A raspy voice called out as she stepped out of the elevator and into the basement level, where Bosco's, a student-run 24/7 drugstore, was located. She knew that hoarse voice anywhere.
"Hi, Smellerbee."
The girls caught up while Toph stuffed random bags of chips and pads into her basket. They had met the first day of orientation at the dorm, and rapidly hit it off over their disapproval of the annoying pop music that droned repetitively from the speakers. Smellerbee, upon discovering Toph's musical talents, had immediately enlisted her into her band. While Toph still played guitar for the Freedom Fighters, she soon after decided that she wanted to call the shots. And so became Earthbound, around which their current conversation finished with a plan to practice on Wednesday night.
Toph lifted the plastic bags onto her sheet-less mattress, now back in the stillness of her empty dorm room. She began feeling her way to her desk where a small safe sat tucked in the corner of the wall at the corkboard. Toph felt the braille on the lock and opened up the metal box, where she reached to feel the treasure inside- still safe and sound.
"Alright, Badger. Let's go home."
Saturday, January 11th; 9:17 p.m.
The door swung open with a slam. "I have arrived," Toph said, a wide grin on her face. "Ugh, why's the doorknob sticky?"
"Toph!" The trio exclaimed in unison.
Katara rose to greet her roommate for the second time with a hug, as if they hadn't reunited earlier that day. Sokka stood up to follow suit.
"What do you want to drink?" Aang asked her, allowing his girlfriend and her brother some room to reconnect. After all, the amount of time he had spent with Toph over break didn't necessitate a reunion.
"Nothing," Toph replied, releasing Katara from her hug. "I brought my own stuff," she announced, pulling out a pint of firewhiskey from the inside of her coat.
"This is why I love you," Sokka yelled, taking his turn at greeting Toph by vigorously shaking her shoulders.
"Besides," she continued, voice wavering as she tried to still Sokka's pushing. "If we're playing King's Cup, you gotta get your liquor in before the beer."
"Liquor before beer, you're in the clear," Aang sang, familiar with the advice. "You don't want a chaser?" he asked, reuniting the red cup he had retrieved for her with the stack that stood tall on the kitchen bar.
"I'm no pansy, Twinkle-Toes."
Sokka sighed happily, guiding her into the chair that sat at the foot of their small dining table. "I'm so glad we adopted you," he told her cheerfully, turning to pet Badger, who had just been picked up from the ground by Katara. The creature curled its hairless tail around her forearm, whiskers twitching in friendly recognition.
"Did you have a nice break too?" Katara cooed, as if the animal she cradled was a young child.
"I sure did," Sokka wheezed, his voice morphing into that of an old man. "Made sure these two whippersnappers took their vitamins."
"You are a stinky old mole, aren't you?" Toph said, reaching behind her towards Katara and lifting Badger up from under his front legs.
"How long do badgermoles live to anyway?" Sokka asked, giving the animal a curious look as he made his way towards his seat at the opposite end of the table.
"Hey!" Toph spat, setting Badger down onto her lap and stroking the white stripe that ran down his back. "We don't speak of such things in his presence."
Aang mouthed "about twenty" to Sokka, holding up two fingers in the air in and tilting his other hand back and forth in estimation. Sokka shot him an exaggerated frown and nodded back, impressed at the lifespan of the curious creature.
"Alright guys!" Katara chirped, returning to her seat. She had finished setting up for their card game moments before Toph arrived and was eager to start playing. "Who's going first?"
Nobody seemed to notice. Toph was busy removing Badger's leash and harness, Sokka had left the table once again to change the song, and Aang's eyes were glued to his phone.
"I invited Teo over," he announced. "Haven't seen him in a while. Zuko isn't coming back until tomorrow. So Sokka, maybe you could invite Haru and Suki? Or maybe we could invite Smellerbee?"
"No, let's just stay in tonight-" Katara said, wanting nothing more than some hearty, quality time with her closest friends.
"Why would you invite our drug dealer?" Sokka asked, raising his voice as he turned the music up and unintentionally cutting his sister off.
"Toph, would you even be okay with Teo coming over?" Katara inquired, a hint of concern in her voice.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be? We only dated for like 3 days."
"You guys were together almost all of senior year!" Aang countered.
"Was it really that long? Huh," Toph replied dryly, digging earwax from her ear and wiping it discreetly on her sweatpants. Katara had packed herself an overnight bag, but Toph was far too lazy and opted to arrive in appropriate couch-crashing apparel instead.
"Wait, you invited Teo?" Sokka asked incredulously, sitting back down at the table. "We live on the third floor, buddy."
Aang facepalmed while Toph shrieked with laughter at his misfortune. "Looks like somebody did too many whippets over break," Sokka continued, relishing in his roommate's embarrassment. "I saw your trashcan."
"Motherfu- I mean monkeyfeath- I mean- fuck! Motherfucker!"
Toph was barreled over now, but Katara tried to stifle her for his sake. "You okay there, sweetie?"
"I'm not used to being back yet. Fuck fuck fuck. What am I going to say?" He whipped his phone back out from the pouch of his hoodie, eyes wide with worry.
"Just hope he already has plans," Katara suggested with a snicker, sneaking her fuzzy sock-clad foot from the floor and rubbing it against Aang's shin in an attempt at private comfort.
"I'll carry his wheelchair up the stairs no problem," Toph said, her bout of laughter dying down. "I owe him one anyway. It's all thanks to Teo that I get to live with Katara."
Katara smiled at her. She recalled the conversation she and Toph had after the two youngest of their group had graduated high school, following in their friend's footsteps to the University. Teo, now a finance major, had been the catalyst Toph needed to achieve independence from her parents.
"So what happened with that again?" Sokka asked, taking a sip of his beer and balancing his seat on the rear legs of his chair.
"He was just way too overprotective and like-"
"No I mean with your living situation."
"Oh, that." Toph unscrewed her bottle, breaking the safety seal and taking a swig before continuing. "Well my parents made an investment fund for me. Ya know, biggest bank in the Earth Kingdom and all. Teo helped me do some sleuthing, and it turns out I got full rights when I turned eighteen."
"Ahhh, so you're just sitting on a big fat pile of cash."
"No," Toph rebutted after swallowing her second sip. "It's better than that:
"So Teo and I called the bank and I was able to get admin access to my brokerage account, which had about 122K yuans sitting in it. The average rate of return was what, like, 8% a year? So 813 and change every month, which is more than enough for rent. And that's not even including dividends, which is like 190 a month if I don't just reinvest it- then it would be over a grand a month that I could use as income, or a 9.8% rate of return, although it doesn't really work like that with the market and all- anyway, I'm totally going to pull that out for my birthday. We're gonna rage."
Toph finished her flurried explanation with a boyish squeal of excitement, and Katara scratched her head awkwardly. Toph had confided in her about her financial situation, but she didn't feel it was her place to let Sokka or Aang in on the secret. Toph, however, clearly did not entertain the same taboo. She glanced at her brother, who was now tapping away at his phone.
"Fuckin math majors, man," he chuckled, shaking his head and peering at the calculator on his screen. "Toph, you've got to be a savant or something."
"I thought you had to have a mental handicap to be considered a savant," Aang wondered aloud, willingly oblivious to the gravity of Toph's financial situation or the perfect setup he had made for Sokka's incoming insult.
"What's your point?" his roommate sneered, smiling devilishly up at his victim.
Toph sprang from her chair, eliciting a snuff of surprise from Badger who had since taken refuge on the couch. "Lemme at 'em," she chanted, shaking an uppercut in the air.
Their laughter died down into a happy, buzzed peace. Once everyone had settled comfortably back with their respective drinks in hand, Katara decided it was time for her to seize the opportunity.
"Five is never have I ever," she announced, placing the card underneath the tab of the can of beer that sat centered on the table. If the game was going to be played, someone had to start it. She lifted up two fingers in preparation.
"Ugggh, that's the worst one," Sokka moaned.
"I gotta agree with Sokka on this," Aang said. "We already know pretty much everything about each other, it's so easy to gang up on one person."
Another opportunity, this time more devious in nature, presented itself to Katara. "Never have I ever gone to class on mushrooms," she stated confidently, aiming her diabolical grin across the table at Aang, hoping he would catch her drift.
"Alright, Sokka down one," Toph announced with nonchalance, not needing sight to know that his finger had in fact curled back into the palm of his hand. "Never have I ever seen the giant mole on Professor Bumi's face."
This had been yet another planned attack, since Toph knew that only she and Sokka had taken advanced mathematics courses. She had heard in passing that the professor was rather strange looking, and if his rickety voice and bizarre jokes were any indication of his appearance, Toph wouldn't be surprised.
"We've been over this," Katara sighed. "No blind never-have-I-ever's!"
"Yeah, Tofu," Sokka spat in agreement, now fully aware of the coordinated attack on his sobriety.
"Never have I ever seen a butthole," Toph laughed, testing her luck again. "That one should still count, because even if I could see, I wouldn't have seen that."
"Never have I ever had a fucking inheritance," Sokka muttered under his breath as he lowered his hand from the air and onto his can of beer, taking the loser's swig. Aang did a double-take as he watched Katara roll her eyes and lower one finger, oblivious that Sokka had already lost that round.
"Wait, when have you seen a butthole?"
Sokka choked, some ale running down his chin.
"Remember after senior year when I shadowed the maternity ward over the summer?" she reminded them. "That's where babies are born, believe it or not."
Aang settled into the back of his chair, recalling that summer. Katara had decided months into her senior year that she wanted to get into medicine, and had begun volunteering at the hospital down the street from their high school, earning her a spot in their summer internship program. She had probably seen worse than buttholes during her time there, he figured.
"Anyway," Toph dismissed, reaching her arm out to feel for the stack of cards. She lifted the card on top, turning it towards her and sliding her finger to the corner where its identity was stamped in braille. "Six is dicks. Drink up, boys."
Two games and several drinks later, Aang and Katara had retired to the bedroom at the end of the hall, leaving Toph and Sokka sprawled on the couch in the living room. Nowadays, having played their drinking game so many times with each other, the group often grew quickly fatigued and would migrate to the T.V. Katara and Aang, like clockwork, would last about 15 minutes before either preparing food or slinking away to Aang's room, as was the case on this night. Sokka forgave them, knowing they had a lot of catching up to do. He changed the source of the T.V output and pulled a gaming controller from off the coffee table.
"Don't tell me you're going to play Zelda," Toph moaned, poking his head with her foot.
"You know you love it," he said, grabbing her ankle with one hand and tossing it over the couch.
Toph did love it, though she'd never give him the pleasure of knowing it. The soundtrack was nice, and the sound effects were telling enough of what was occurring on the screen. She especially loved the "Game Over" jingle, having been conditioned to taunt and tease upon hearing it.
But the lull of the background led her attention astray. She found herself regaining consciousness in the middle of the night, immediately noticing the familiar lattice fabric of the sofa in Sokka and Aang's apartment instead of the silk of her pillowcase. She stretched her foot out from underneath a blanket- which, if her memory served, had not been there when she passed out. The empty cushion confirmed her suspicion: Sokka had retreated to his room. She heard Badger give a wheezy sigh, and she let her arm drop down to the wood floor to stroke his coarse fur. Too tired to be lonely, she thought, echoing his exhale. Her body shifted around towards the wall to succumb again to her drowsiness. She wasn't aware of the time, but nobody else was awake, and that was enough of an invitation for her.
Sunday, January 12th; 11:36 a.m.
"Sokka, I swear to God."
Aang stirred awake, lifting his eyelids slowly. He knew the other two must already be awake, at the sound of it. He shifted his sleepy gaze away from the closed bedroom door to the dusty alarm clock that sat on his bedside table. The red lights read [11:37 a.m].
He shivered for a moment, noticing the lack of any substantial cover except for the gray sweatpants he wore as pajamas. He slowly turned around to face Katara, who had bundled herself with all of the blankets, only her face peeking out like traditional water tribe folk. A thin curtain of light was seeping through the end of the blinds, allowing Aang to admire the dust that floated lazily in its path. He shifted again, encouraging more glittery particles to swim through the air.
Katara's morning voice interrupted his meditative state. "Mornin'", she rasped, sleep still thick on her breath, the faintest trace of last night's beer hanging on. She had lost both of the rounds they played last night, and was subject to chugging the ale as retribution.
He kissed the tip of her nose and echoed her greeting. "You hungover?" he asked, now digging her out, trying to find an end to one of the blankets so he could cover himself.
"Mm-mm" she declined, unravelling herself and sweeping the covers over him. He scooted closer, melting in her warmth. It had been far too long since they had cocooned themselves together like this.
"If I hear you open the map one more goddamn time, I'm going to scream."
Aang and Katara both turned their gaze towards the door, smiling. It was good to be back.
"I'll bring you a glass of water," Aang said, leaving the nest they had made but draping one of the loose blankets over his shoulders as a warm souvenir.
He closed the door behind him on his way out, following the familiar sound effects of the game. He peeked his head around the corner at the end of the hall to see Sokka violently covering Toph's face with a pillow as she yelled into it, thrashing about. Badger huffed and snuffed, running in circles in despair.
"Goodmorning friends," Aang chirped, turning into the kitchen and retrieving a cup from the cupboard. Sokka paused, allowing Toph to poke her head from under the pillow and greet Aang with a matched cheerfulness. Sokka stood up from the couch, ceasing his assault on Toph.
"She hungover?" he asked, opening the fridge to retrieve an expired carton of orange juice, unbeknownst to him.
Aang poured cold water from the kitchen tap into his glass. "Nope, but she does have a closing shift at Jasmine tonight, so I think we're going to try to sleep some more."
"Sounds good." Sokka bent down, looking at Toph through the bar counter and the cupboards. "Hey! Dead-Eyes! Want O.J?"
She had picked Badger up, trying to calm him from his overreaction. "Sure!"
Aang retreated back to his room, closing the door on Toph saying, "Unless it's from before you left for four weeks," and Sokka cursing loudly.
To Aang's surprise, Katara had also left the nest. She sat crouched on the floor, rustling through her backpack before popping a pill into her mouth and swallowing it dry.
"Here's something to wash it down," Aang said with a bitterness that he hoped made the drug taste like sugar in comparison.