I'll admit, I'm not really a fan of romantic Tokka, but how could I resist the Tokka Week prompt that fell on my birthday? You can check out the full information on Tokka Week at tokka-fans-united at deviantart dot com.
Tokka Week - Moonlight
"Are you in?"
"Not yet," Sokka growled. "They're using several layers of encryption, not really surprising, but considering our time limit, I figured it would be easier to just spoof an authorized user access. So, I pulled their password-generation algorithms from the security servers, and also the stuff for their dynamic keys. Now I'm processing it all for a new set of login information. Once I have it, we can go in and just access their typical interface, no hacking involved."
Behind her visor, Toph closed her useless eyes. "Aside from the hacking you did to get all that stuff, plus the time it took to reverse-engineer their full login system. What part of that actually saved us time again?"
"...um, well, I thought it was easier. And I'm the hacker, so..."
"So I'll just hold my breath until you get the power- and the life support- back on."
"...sorry. My hunger is making me cranky. First thing I'm going to do, after I get the air scrubbers back on, is hit the food generator. Anyway, I'm almost in, but I need to figure out the local Stellar Sector time to input into the last algorithm."
Toph shot a lightspeed-fast query through her cyborg components, and they came back with an answer before Sokka even finished speaking. "Right now it's 22:47:03. That's out of a twenty-four hour day, if it makes a difference."
Sokka blinked, opened his mouth to ask a question, and then stopped himself. He typed the time into his datapad, and set the algorithm running. "And... we're cleared. I'm bringing up the life support, the domestic hardware, the control console, and the interstellar comm. Congratulations, we're now the proud owners of a stolen Plasma Empire spacecruiser."
Toph ignored his rambling for a moment, and once again let her cybernetic systems whisper binary promises directly into her brain. "I can already detect the carbon dioxide levels dropping. Good work, Oh Master Hacker."
Sokka grinned at the praise. "Well, not everyone can manipulate the phases of matter, like you can with Solids. Some of us have to make do running the machines that keep us all from choking and freezing in space. Speaking of Master Manipulators, I just sent a message coded for the APPA-1, so we'll hopefully be rendezvousing with Aang and Katara soon."
"Then we're good to go." Toph cracked her knuckles. "You said you were hungry, right? I'll race you to the food prepper!"
Sokka didn't move. That simple lack of action, when the arrival of food was nigh, disturbed Toph more than the whole previous 'lack of oxygen' thing. "You okay, Master Hacker? I said that the soup's on."
Sokka shrugged. It was a subtle gesture, but Toph could detect it clearly. Her sonic receptors caught the returning soundwaves that her equipment was constantly emitting, and transformed the inherent data into a real-time image of Sokka's body, accurate to millimeter precision. She could sense any movement he made, whether Sokka was aware of it or not.
It felt like an eternity before he spoke. "How did you know what time it was? There aren't any utility broadcasts out this far, and we never calibrated our timekeepers off the local sun." He gave a soft laugh. "It's not a big deal, but... you know, I couldn't figure out how you did it."
Toph waved his awkwardness away. "The moonlight."
"Moonlight?"
She smirked. "Yeah, that little sliver of light that's shining through the window. All I needed was a quick look outside to get the data on the sun's brightness, the nearest moon's reflective intensity, and the way they move in relation to each other. I can tell what time it was just based on the intensity of the moonlight in here. Not bad, huh?"
Sokka was supposed to banter with her. It was how they communicated. This solemnity was all wrong. Maybe it was because she mentioned a moon. Sokka had some thing about moons, from some incident before she joined the APPA-1's crew. Regardless, he plowed on, refusing to be his normal, playful self.
"It's all numbers, though. Right?"
"Well, yeah, in the raw form, but my cybernetics-"
"So, basically, you see everything with numbers."
"...so?"
"I just... I mean, it's great that it works for you. I couldn't even imagine being blind. You know, like you, since birth. But... I'm a computer expert, and even I think a world of numbers sounds a little... cold."
"Sokka, what are you getting at? Really, I'm hungry."
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't even be talking about this. It's lame of me. Come on, let's go eat."
"...wait."
Sokka waited. He hadn't even moved yet.
"Maybe... I could do without the numbers for a few moments."
"What do you-"
"Just hold still, Master Hacker." Toph activated a mental command, and the world went dark. All her cybernetics- the visor and sonic receptors and heat sinks and light decoders and everything else that covered her and were wired directly into her body- went into hibernation mode.
Toph's world went dark.
She reached out a hand, and after a few moments of groping into the void, one of Sokka's hands caught hers. She didn't let him hold on to her, instead traveling her hand up his arm, past his shoulder, jumped over his neck, and gently landed on his face. It was the work of only a few seconds to feel the contours of his visage, but Toph didn't rush things. She didn't treat herself very often.
"Okay, I got a good look at you. Lunch?" Her own voice sounded strange, heard only through her organic ears.
"Lunch! I thought you'd never ask." Sokka's voice, strangely, sounded exactly the same. Or, at least, that's the way she thought of it.
She reactivated her cybernetics and followed him happily, back in her cage of numbers...
A cage through which the moonlight shone.
END
