A/N: Thanks to all the consummate reviewers: Ashley Barbosa, Gabriela Gonzales, Stag 96, Honeysucklebee. I torture you all with severe angst, but you seem to like it?
CH 36 | Tremors
Dawn came and went with no signs of Aang and Katara for morning practice. No one had been able to screw up the courage to approach the tent of the two lovers who seemed to be making up for a century's worth of time they—by all indications—believed they'd somehow lost.
Mixed feelings already brewed beneath the surface of the gang. On one hand, Aang was now not only earthbending, but also seemed to take to the element with more vigor and enthusiasm than he'd ever had.
Toph was proud of her student and increasingly pleased with his progress as he pushed against boundaries that surprised even her at times. On the other hand, the normally very candid Sifu found herself cringing a bit any time she recalled the early evening that Aang first moved earth.
"Toph! Tof-Tof-Tof-Sifu Toph!"
She could hear the flutters of his sweater fabric, indicating he was waving his arms to get her attention. "Such an idiot…" she mused internally, and not for the first or last time. "Once again Twinkletoes, I can't see you. You're gonna have to use those big boy words."
If Aang's feelings were hurt, he made no indication. "I think I've finally got it!"
Toph straightened in anticipation when she felt him finally fall into the exact right stance. He executed flawlessly- a large boulder punting across the wooded thicket as easy as if it were a football. After weeks of barely controlling a pebble, Toph rewarded the Avatar with a rare smile. "Congratulations! You're an earthbender!" she praised genuinely, then added quietly, "…finally."
"It just finally clicked, you know?" Aang enthused. Normally this level of happy would send him into air-puffed bouncing that punctuated Toph's vision. The earthbender noted this new, prideful tone full of flat feet and driving heels. An earthbender indeed.
"I kept struggling with this idea of controlling the earth, trying to dominate when it seems so disrespectful. But then I realized that earthbending is cooperative and really quite beautiful when the domination is done with consent! You were right about the earth wanting to be controlled—once I get that acknowledgement in the gut you just…" Aang demonstrated with another stance that first pulled earth up and through the ground surface, then sent it flying after his first boulder, "take charge." He growled happily.
The wording was strange and sent an eyebrow into Toph's hairline. "O….kay. Whatever helps you connect it all. I don't know how thinking of the earth as animate will impact the more advanced moves as we progress, but I suppose it's good for now."
"Oh, definitely animate" Aang replied enthusiastically. Suspicious, Toph couldn't help herself in asking, "what, might I ask…spurred you to this…epiphany?"
She felt rather than heard his answer. Tensed nerves around the stomach, tight shoulders and increasing temperature in the groin. He was recalling a memory. A sexy memory.
"Oh spirits…class cancelled." Toph complained, throwing up her hands. She went straight to Sokka, gesturing to the blunt sword in his hand, "please cut my feet off."
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Most of their daytime flirting was innocuous and unobtrusive—sweet embraces, cheek kisses, pet names. Toph and Sokka even appreciated (as teachers) that they could count on the couple to take care of one another—this way, they could push Aang to the physical breaking point knowing he had a healer literally sharing his bed. The results were dramatic—the Avatar's muscle volume blossomed in an accelerated fashion, and the speed of his hand-to-hand now regularly sent Sokka to a tap-out.
Other times, like the evening prior, were the stuff that led to the creation of Sokka's explanatory word, "Oogies."
Sokka was passing noodle bowls to Toph and Zuko when he immediately lost his appetite.
Aaaaannnnng….guhh.
"Nope. Nope. Nope." Was his only response as he seized his bowl and made for the beach. "wh-s w-'im?" Zuko asked the earthbender through a mouthful of noodles, oblivious to the punctuated murmurs still drifting out of Katara's tent.
"He doesn't really want to hear his sister and his friend getting it on. Constantly…" Toph ended in a slightly annoyed murmur.
"Then why do you keep cutting him up during practice? They wouldn't have to get it on so much" Zuko reasoned blithely. Even without sight, Toph felt the need to glare inquisitively at the naïve young man.
"Zuko…do you…know what they're doing in there?" Toph ventured deridingly.
Zuko finished chewing and swiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Obviously. They're doing another healing session. They have to do them a lot. Are you sure you aren't doing permanent damage to Aang?" As he asked it, Zuko wondered if he actually cared.
"I didn't sign up for this talk. I am not equipped for this. Iroh did NOT prepare me for this level of babysitting." Was all Toph could mentally process. She parroted Sokka with a "Nope. Nope. Nope…" before making her exit, leaving an indifferent Zuko alone with his noodles. On her way out, she stomped up a handle of scotch she had apparently buried like the pirate she was.
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She found him perched on one of the larger stones above the tideline. Plopping down savagely, Toph fixed Sokka with a wry smirk before rolling her thumb in an amused wiggle against his palm.
'I laugh at your expense,' was the general translation of the movement.
Sokka chuckled dryly and drummed his folded fingertips as he pressed her hand open in response.
'Please chop my feet off.'
Toph rewarded the man with the open-mouthed laugh that only he got to hear as they carried on in their secret language. After some time, she produced the whiskey with a theatric gesture to which Sokka finally broke the silence with a "YES!" and practically launched himself at the earthbender to grasp at the bottle.
"H-hey! Get off you oaf!" Toph squealed between giggles. He leaned back, taking his victorious mouthful, and worked his fingers back into her hand for a full squeeze.
I'm grateful for you.
Toph returned the squeeze and settled against him, at peace. They sat there, "watching" the waves for a time before Toph sighed, turning her head towards him.
"Zuko doesn't know what sex is."
Sokka laughed heartily again. "Oh man…he has no idea about—" "—nope." Toph confirmed.
"You have to give him the talk…" Toph informed him sagely. "Noooooope. The last time I gave someone "the talk" my sister ended up in bed with the Avatar."
Toph cackled without sympathy.
"I mean…it's fine. I don't appreciate hearing it and especially not so…. regularly…. but I'm glad they're happy. Everyone should have a person."
Toph swallowed hard, deciding to act before she lost her nerve. Keeping his hand squeezed in her own, she pressed it against her racing heart.
You're my person.
His heart rate soared. He was drinking his confidante in with a new light. She sat facing partially towards him, his hand still clutched against her chest. Her choppy bangs whispered in the breeze, revealing punctuated glimpses of jade eyes full of trembling vulnerability. He knew she showed this face to no one, and the knowledge filled him with anxiety, confusion, but above all, gratitude.
She listened to his chest hitching as though he'd forgotten to breathe. Amidst the tense moment, she felt the tiniest itch of annoyance at the amount of time it was taking for Sokka to connect the dots in his brain.
Then, all at once, they were crashing against each other. Sokka's lips were the stuff of her dreams, large and overwhelming. His forgotten breath suddenly reared as he gasped in surprise and exhilaration, and Toph responded with her own sigh of relief.
Toph pressed back into him with a gentleness that once again caught him off his guard. Petite though she was, she caught his lower lip deftly, rewarding his flesh with firm pressure and hot exhalation. Sokka dropped the whiskey bottle with a shatter as he leaned in to grasp either side of her face, holding against her as if she might slip away.
For the first time in months, he felt grounded. He groaned at the warmth of it, only now realizing just how lonely he'd been.
Toph was drunk on his nearness. She'd never been able to be this close, able to deconstruct his soothing scent. Ocean brine and an unassuming soap, the musk of a man on a humid day, licoriced alcohol against her tongue.
She grasped at him as if her were her anchor in a typhoon, leaning into their kisses that were rapidly devolving into something sloppier, needier. Her enthusiasm only served to cloud his judgement as he returned the force, allowing the fevered couple to topple into a grind, Sokka cushioning her head against the stone that probably would have bent to catch her.
At that moment, the woman who could command the very earth was putty in his hands, unraveled and completely unguarded in a way she'd never allow. "Sokka…" she breathed into his mouth with desperation.
His heart undulated and ached.
His exceptional logic crumbled.
All he wanted in this moment was to drown in this woman, to be buried in her desires, to live in the thrill of her lips without concern.
All his realizations about the ways in which he loved his best friend—her strength, her confidence, steadier than even the earth she commanded. He thought about her body, seriously for the first time as she arched into his hands beneath him, guiding him to where she wanted, where she needed.
Simply letting the façade slip, the act of laying herself emotionally bare, was enough to set Toph's frame on fire. She throbbed at his closeness yet ached for more. She wanted his warm hands, she wanted to feel him desiring her too.
But she felt his hesitation.
She felt his stomach sink with heavy guilt.
She felt the press of his hand as it drew back, and his center drew up. Still breathless, he spelled into her palm a paragraph made from a singular pressure of his fingertips.
Suki. The Avatar. The Siege. Recruitment. Duty. Responsibility. Impending Death.
She let her own stomach plunge in response as she sat up. Like whiplash, her whole chest, neck, and shoulders ached as she came down from opening up and accepting this wound. Clearing her throat as it threatened to betray her thick despair, she pushed away and hugged herself.
"Forget I said anything." She whispered.