So there I was, happily working on the To Know Most Truly epilogue when, out of NOWHERE, Smellerbee and Longshot broke into my brain and staged an Azula-level coup. So TKMT is still happening, sorry it's taking so long, I just had to get this out of my system first. Enjoy the goofs!
PART 1 - the idea
Toph didn't know Smellerbee that well yet, but she liked what she'd seen. She was outspoken and confident and smart in Professor Piandao's Civics class, all of which Toph valued in herself as well. So she was pleased to be paired with her for the first presentation project. In order to work on that, they'd gone to Smellerbee's apartment a few blocks from main campus and spread snacks all over the floor, along with their books and laptops. The shower was running when they got there, which Toph thought was weird, considering it was 2pm. Smellerbee explained one of her roommates worked the lunch shift in the dish pit and liked to get clean afterwards, and apologized for the lack of bathroom access it caused.
They'd just gotten settled into their work when, 10 minutes later, the water shut off, the door clicked open, and a guy came out. He had a towel around his waist, and rubbed another over his hair, which was long and black and still dripping wet. And his abs. Good Lord, his abs.
Smellerbee glanced up at him, then back down at her notes—just a bit too quickly, Toph couldn't help but notice. "Hey Longshot."
"Oh. Hey," he replied, and even colorblind, Toph could see the blush rising up his neck. He hurried through the living room, skirting the mosaic of notes, textbooks, and sleeves of Oreos all over the floor, and a second later, a door elsewhere in the apartment slammed.
"Who," Toph said into the ensuing silence, "was that?"
"One of my roommates, Longshot," Smellerbee said, sounding way more defensive than Toph's question deserved.
"Just a roommate?" Toph pressed incredulously. "Come on. Tell me you're hitting that."
"What? No!" Smellerbee gasped. "He's my friend!"
"Not even friends with benefits?"
"No." More firmly this time.
Toph pursed her lips. "But what about his abs? Dude's fit."
"I know that." Smellerbee's voice dropped to a furious whisper and the blush that had recently stained Longshot's neck was appearing on her face instead. "He's really hot, I know, I know! But he's Longshot. He's too… he's my friend. That's it."
Toph dove headlong into this distraction from their Civics presentation. Homework took a backseat to drama every time as far as she was concerned. "Do you want more though?"
Smellerbee glared at her, and Toph did her best innocent face. She knew better than to think it really made her look innocent, but Smellerbee's blush could fry an egg at this point. She'd spill, soon. Any minute now…
"Yes, okay?" Smellerbee hissed. "I do." Toph grinned. She loved being right. Smellerbee pushed her hand up through hir thick mop of hair and sighed in mingled frustration and surrender. "But… he was Jet's friend first, and he's a junior and I'm a sophomore, and he takes his grades really seriously because of his scholarship, and… why would he… want me back?" This last was mumbled almost too low to be heard.
Toph blinked, surprised but pleased by this demonstration of vulnerability. She and Smellerbee weren't exactly tight yet. Did this girl not have girlfriends? She decided to be supportive rather than teasing, for once. "Because you're tough and cool? And it's not like he's out of your league or anything. He may have like, a god-tier ten-pack, but his nose? Quite large, I noticed." Smellerbee spluttered, but Toph forged on, warming to her theme. "Isn't that weird actually? That we always assume that the people we like must have great self-esteem and see themselves the same way we do? I dunno where that comes from, but it sure does get in the way of shit." She came down from her philosophizing to find Smellerbee staring at her. "What?"
"That was… kinda smart, actually."
Toph bristled. "Thanks, I—" But her snark was interrupted by the sound of a door opening and footsteps coming through the apartment til the man of the hour, Longshot himself appeared again. He was dressed now, in dark joggers and an old hoodie and sneakers, with a messenger bag and a road bike slung over his shoulder. His hair was back in a ponytail, revealing ears that vied with his nose for the title of Largest Feature. An excellent joke materialized, but she filed it away for later use. The right audience was just as important as the joke itself, after all.
"Going to class?" Smellerbee asked as he again picked his way around their study mess. He glanced at her—was he blushing again? he was totally blushing again—and nodded. "Kay. I'm gonna eat dinner early before work. See you at the Comm? Bout five?" He nodded again, and Smellerbee's relieved smile was small but unmistakable.
Inspiration struck Toph like a bolt from the blue. "Oh, hey," she said, as though just remembering something. "My friend is having a party on Saturday. You guys should come."
Toph examined the look Longshot and Smellerbee shared with keen interest. Despite Smellerbee's recent discomfort, she displayed no embarrassment in meeting his gaze. No, there was real communication going on there. They had a connection. This was demonstrated when Smellerbee turned back to Toph and said, "Yeah, we can be there. Can we bring Jet and the others if they're free?"
"Sure," Toph agreed easily. "The more the merrier." ...at this party she'd have to arrange now. Fortunately, Snoozles needed practically no excuse to throw a rager. They'd manage something by Saturday, no problem.
PART 2 - reconnaissance
Toph found Snoozles in one of his two usual places: the robotics lab. The other would be the basketball court, but she was glad not to have to go in there. She was 19 and still barely 5'2". She was beginning to accept that she might not get any taller, and confronting anything that made her realize that again—like, for instance, tall people jumping high in the air—made her very grumpy. So she was glad to find Snoozles in his nerd den. "Hey, guess what," she said, dumping her bag and plopping into the seat next to him.
"Yeah?" he said distractedly.
"We gotta have a party on Saturday."
"Cool. Any reason?"
"My new friend needs an excuse to make a move on her hottie roommate."
That got his attention. He sat away from the tiny electronic gadgety thing he was poking and looked at her with one eyebrow way up. "You know I'll throw a party for anything, but can you tell me for sure that this interest is mutual? I will not have it said that Sokka throws parties where any kind of bad shit happens."
"Oh, it's mutual," Toph assured him eagerly. "Get a load of this." And she spilled the whole story, mentioning Longshot's abs twice just to make sure Snoozles got the picture.
But shockingly, Snoozles was not totally convinced when she wound up. He leaned back in his chair, stroking his chin in what looked like a parody of deep thought, though Toph knew it was totally sincere. "Okay…" he said. "I'm like three quarters with you. But maybe he was blushing because he didn't expect to get out of the shower and find a stranger in his living room who then, apparently, ogled his bare chest pretty hard?"
Toph grimaced. She hadn't ogled anything, but denying it now would just look suspect. Plus, it was an annoyingly plausible point, and she hated plausible points that opened the possibility of her being wrong. "I'm telling you, there are feelings there. All they need is an excuse to act on them."
"Alright, listen, if you can get me verification of his feelings, I'll throw the biggest shindig you ever saw. If not…" He shrugged. "Maybe I'll break out the PlayStation and ginger ale."
"Sokka! Come on, man!"
He put his hands up. "Sorry, I don't make the rules."
"Yes you literally do!" He grinned, and she groaned. "I can't just go up and ask him though. He already knows I was talking to Smellerbee, so that would be way suspicious. And I'm not in their friend group so I don't know who… Well, actually, Smellerbee mentioned some dude named Jet a couple times. Yeah, she said Longshot knew Jet before he knew her. Do you know a Jet?"
"Uh… I think Katara was complaining about a guy called that a while ago." He bent back over his gadgety thing. "Dunno if it's the same person though."
"Good enough for me!" She pulled out her phone and messaged Sweetness. Twenty boring minutes later, she got back, hey, just got out of class. Toph rolled her eyes. Sweetness was such a square. I know Jet. Why?
Realizing that calling her would be more efficient than tapping out the long-ass paragraph that would be required, she did that, and explained again about Smellerbee's crush, Longshot's blush (and abs), and her need to ask Jet if the feelings were mutual before Snoozles would agree to throw the party.
"Toph, when are you going to learn that interfering with peoples' love lives is not always the best thing to do?"
"Ok, in my defense," Toph said hotly, "you totally did have a thing for Haru. And look, I'm trying to avoid a repeat of that situation by checking with someone about Longshot first! I'm learning!"
Sweetness sighed. "Fine, I'll send you Jet's number. Don't tell him where you got it though."
That piqued her attention, but she had enough plates in the air already. "Cool, thanks. See you."
"Bye." The text came through right after they hung up, and Toph immediately shot off a text: this is Jet right?
A few minutes later, the reply came: depends who's asking
She rolled her eyes. Im a friend of Smellerbee. Do you know her and Longshot?
I live with them so I should hope so
Jackpot! So Longshots totally in love with Smellerbee right?
Gonna have to ask who the fuck u are and how u got my number now, friendo
lol, fair. Im not allowed to say how I got your number, but im Toph. Im in Civics with Smellerbee and I have only the best intentions for her
Quite a long pause. Ok so katara probably
Toph snorted. like I said, cant say
fine. u on campus? meet me by the new gym in 10 min
Toph whooped loudly, got shushed by several nerds, and punched Snoozles on the arm. "You're totally throwing that party! I'll text you when I have my evidence."
"Sure, sure," Snoozles laughed, rubbing his arm. Toph raced out of the robotics lab and crossed the quad at a sprint, only interrupting three ultimate frisbee games as she went. Around the chem building, past the smaller library, down the stairs and past the conservatory, swung a left around the Registrar's building, and pounded across the courtyard to the coffee shop and adjacent shiny new gym. It was a pretty busy time for the gym, a steady stream of people were going in and out, but she looked around for a stationary figure, someone who looked like they might be called Jet.
He spotted her first. "You Toph?" She turned and found a tall guy with a big floof of hair and a cigarette standing behind her.
"Yeah, and you're Eyebrows," she said. Because good grief, his eyebrows!
He raised the features in question in a look of wry amusement. "Alright then Pintsize."
She bridled. Nicknames were her thing! But she was here for information. She had to play nice if she wanted that party. So she dipped her head in the barest acknowledgement of his riposte. "What's the deal?"
"Right down the business, huh? I can respect that. Come on, let's walk." They went back across the courtyard together, but went out towards the theater, while Jet lit his cig. "Longshot and I were assigned to be roommates our first year here," he explained between drags. "He's pretty quiet, you probably noticed if you met him, but we got along. Smellerbee came in the year after us, I met her kinda by accident but all we started hanging out. And you could just tell there was something with her and Longshot, you know? You said you're in class with her?"
"Yeah," Toph agreed, accepting the give and take structure he was establishing. "We're in Piandao's Civics section and got paired for a project. We went to her place—your place, I guess—to work on it, and just watching them interact for five seconds was enough to earn me a minor in mutual pining." Eyebrows laughed, and she grinned. "So I want to have a party to give them an excuse to do something about it, but my friend says I need someone to confirm Longshot's feelings before I'm allowed."
"Only his feelings?" Eyebrows asked a bit sharply.
"Well, I mean, she already told me she likes him, so I got that covered."
"She did? What did you do, drug her?"
"Excuse you!" Toph exclaimed, meanwhile congratulating herself on intuiting that Smellerbee didn't have enough girlfriends. "Girls tell each other things they don't tell boys. Drug her, my ass."
"Alright, sheesh, sorry. She just doesn't talk about her feelings that much, so I was surprised."
"Like I said."
"Fine, I get it."
"So yeah, what's the scuttlebutt on him? If you've known each other for like three years I would hope you had something."
Eyebrows sighed out the last drag of his cig and ground it under his heel. Good thing Twinkletoes wasn't around to see that. "I mean, yes and no. Like I said, he's quiet, like, really. So he hasn't ever told me so in words. But behavior is information too, right? And he can't get enough of her. Just always hanging around her, always looking at her with this sappy-ass face. It's gross, but it's pretty sweet, I guess. This one time he straight up punched a dude we overheard talking shit about her. Just decked him and walked away, it was beautiful." He sighed dreamily and gazed off into the middle distance til Toph had to clear her throat. "Right! So like, he's never said he likes her, or wants anything with her. But he totally does."
Toph chortled. She really loved nothing more than being right. "Excellent. That'll be enough to get this party happening."
"Yeah, about that… Longshot doesn't drink."
"And? It's not about the alcohol, it's about the atmosphere. Special things happen when the time feels special."
Eyebrows quirked his eyebrows at her. "You're pretty wise, you know that?"
"Oh-kay, why is everyone so surprised I can say smart stuff!?"
PART 3 - party time
The week blitzed by after that. Between helping Snoozles plan the party and half-heartedly keeping up with homework, Monday afternoon to Saturday evening felt like two days rather than five. The usual suspects were all at Snoozles and Sparky's place. Sparky's uncle paid the rent, so it was way nicer than any of their other friends' living situations (especially Toph's, whose parents forced her to live in the dorms for crying out loud). They were up on the third and top floor of their building, and they had a living room, dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms (one of which was used as the gaming room/crash pad, of which Toph frequently availed herself), a small porch, a bathroom with an actual bath tub, and no downstairs neighbors because the landlord thought his kid lived there (she lived with her boyfriend across town, Toph happened to know). All in all, the ideal party location. Snoozles was mixing drinks in the dining room, Twinkletoes was setting up the gaming system, and Sparky and Sweetness were bickering about music in the living room. Perhaps if tonight went according to plan with Smellerbee and Longshot, those two should be her next targets? Interesting…
Toph herself was stacking boxes of Pabst in the kitchen when people started arriving. First, unfortunately, were some of Sparky's idiot friends from home, Chan and Ruon-Jian and some of their crowd, but soon after came Suki and a bunch of her friends, who evened things out and put Snoozles in a good mood. Those two were bound to start dating soon, and Toph put 'figure out nickname for Suki' on her mental to-do list.
An hour in, she was starting to wonder if she should message Smellerbee when she and Longshot showed up, along with Jet and several others Toph hadn't met. Her nerves ticked up a notch. Game on.
"Hey," she called, trying not to look like she was hurrying as she went to greet them. She had to control the situation and make sure everything started off right. She shot a look at Jet, indicating that they were not to let on they knew each other. He nodded slightly. "Glad you found us. What can I get you? We've got beer through there, and hard stuff in the dining room. And seltzers or soda, if you're into that," she added, remembering what Jet said about Longshot. "Who're you all?" she asked, prompting Smellerbee to provide introductions for Pipsqueak, Sneers, The Duke, and Jet. But she hiccupped right at the end, and Toph couldn't help but grin.
"Pregamed pretty hard, huh?"
"No!" Smellerbee exclaimed. "I've had them all day. I can't get rid of them."
"I hear kissing helps," Toph said brightly. "Diaphragm control and all that."
Smellerbee and Longshot both blushed and looked in opposite directions from each other, and Jet smacked his forehead. Ok, so it was a bold opener, but that's what these two needed! If they were literally living together and hadn't had anything happen yet, drastic measures were called for!
"Come on, I'll give you the grand tour!" They lost The Duke and Pipsqueak to the video game in the spare room, lost Sneers to the dancing in the living room, and finally, Mr Eyebrows McGee went to smoke a cig on the porch, casting Toph one last look over his shoulder, as though telling her to take good care of his friends, or else. She wrinkled her nose at him and turned to her unknowing targets. "Wanna play beer pong?" Longshot shifted on his feet, and Smellerbee glanced at him, but Toph forestalled the explanation. "Or whatever-you-wanna-drink pong. The game is the point, not the drinking." They both relaxed and nodded. Smellerbee even went so far as to smile gratefully at her. Toph felt warm right down to the cockles of her jaded little heart.
She looked around for a partner for herself and located Snoozles, who was trying valiantly to extricate himself from the determined advances of one of the girls who had shown up with Chan and Ruon-Jian, and decided to kill two birds with one stone. "Sokka! Come kick these two's butts at pong with me!"
Practically oozing relief, he joined them, and they set up the dining table to play. While Smellerbee and Longshot were finishing their side, Toph gripped Snoozles' bicep and whispered, "These guys are them." His eyes widened and he nodded seriously. The game shaped up well: Smellerbee was good, even with her hiccups skewing a few shots, and Longshot was great. Toph didn't play her best, wanting the opposing pair to bond through victory, and Sokka picked up on the strategy and sank fewer shots than usual too. They groaned good naturedly and drank their losses, but before they were even halfway through the game, someone grabbed Toph's arm and dragged her bodily from the room.
Once in the hallway, Toph managed to twist free and confront her kidnapper. "What the hell, Sweetness!"
Sweetness did not look very sweet. In fact, she looked livid. "You did not tell me Jet was going to be here tonight!"
"I figured that was a given?" Toph retorted, massaging the wrist Sweetness had grabbed (surprisingly strongly, if she was honest).
"Well, it wasn't! You said you just had to talk to him about some guy's crush! And you also said you wouldn't tell him where you got his number!"
"I didn't!" she protested, offended. "Do you wanna see our messages? I literally said 'I can't tell you where I got your number' and he was like 'oh, so it was Katara'. Word for word."
Sweetness took this in, arms tightly crossed and still clearly fuming.
"Why is it a big deal?" Toph asked after a beat, curiosity overcoming caution. "Do you have, like, real beef with him?"
Sweetness grimaced. "Not exactly? We were in Dr Pakku's Philosophy of Ethics and Law class together last year and he seemed really cool at first. We hung out a little bit and made out once or twice, but then later we got into some stuff in the reading and it turned out he was a total sociopath! We got in this huge argument about it in class and… well, we weren't together so we didn't break up really, but basically." She waved a hand, indicating that the specific word mattered less than the thing itself.
"Shiiit," Toph said, almost admiringly. "How did I not hear about this?"
"Ugh! It was right after I broke up with Aang, so things were still really weird with that. And it was all over in like a month anyway. And it was embarrassing! To fall for a guy that hard and then find out he's a freak and end up crying in class?" She shook her head. "I wanted to forget it even happened, not dissect it for weeks on end."
"Fair enough." She was still impressed. Sweetness always got into the best drama somehow. "Do you want Sparky or your brother to get him to leave? Oh but shit, that might piss off Longshot and Smellerbee. They're his roommates, they're the ones I'm trying to get together." Reminded of her mission, she peered back into the dining room. "Shit! Where'd they go? Dammit, Sweetness! You and your hysterics!"
"Hysterics!" Sweetness shrilled, but Toph was already gone, searching out her subjects.
What she found was not good. Longshot was skulking in the back of the spare room, watching a bunch of people play JackBox, but worse, Smellerbee was in the living room dancing with Ruon-Jian of all people! There could be no contest between Longshot and Ruon-Jian, Smellerbee had to know that. Longshot had those amazing abs. Ruon-Jian had that stupid hairdo. And Smellerbee already liked Longshot! What in the world was she thinking? What had happened after Sweetness dragged her away from pong?
In service of this question, Toph went in search of Snoozles, and found him in the kitchen talking to Suki. "Sorry, it's an emergency!" she called, pulling her protesting friend away. Sparky's room was closer so she shut them in there.
"What are you doing?" Snoozles demanded. "Things were really going well with her!"
"Shut up, you two are a shoe-in. What happened to pong? Longshot and Smellerbee aren't even in the same room anymore!"
His face lit up with a hopeful grin. "You think we're a shoe-in?"
She snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. "Focus, Loverboy!"
"Uh, pong, right. After Katara took you away, some freshman someone brought volunteered to take your spot and we couldn't un-convince him. He got really bent out of shape that Longshot didn't take a drink, 'it's in the rules' et cetera, and Smellerbee was getting mad, so I took the kid aside and explained a thing or two, but by the time I got back the other two were gone. I didn't see where they went so I figured they went somewhere to cool off." He shrugged, but looked concerned. "You're saying they're not together? Not in the same place, I mean?"
"No, and she's dancing with Ruon-Jian!"
"Ew, what?"
"Exactly!"
"What are you gonna do?"
"I don't know! But I'll figure something out. Go back to Her Ladyship out there."
"Her Ladyship?" Snoozles repeated skeptically.
"Yeah, I don't like it now that I say it out loud. I'll keep working on it." Snoozles snorted and departed for the kitchen while Toph headed out for some serious damage control. The first thing to do was get them back in the same room at least, and it turned out Longshot had partially solved that for her already. He'd emerged from watching JackBox and stationed himself in the wide door between the living room and the dining room, not-very-subtly-at-all watching Smellerbee dance with Ruon-Jian. They weren't being super sexy or anything, still facing each other with some space between them, but still, it was pretty overt. Trusting instinct to tell her what to say when the moment came, she made a bee-line for Longshot, only for someone to reach out and grab her by the arm again.
Okay, it was less of a grab this time, but still! She turned frustratedly and found herself face-to-face with Sparky (or more accurately, face-to-chest considering he was ten or eleven inches taller than her). "Yeah?" she asked more belligerently than she meant.
He took a half step back. "Uh, sorry, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, sorry," she said, putting some effort into moderating her tone of voice. "What's up?" She glanced behind her. Good: Longshot hadn't moved.
"I was wondering…" He rubbed the back of his neck, eyes flicking to the side. "Katara seems sort of upset about something. Do you know if she's alright?"
Toph almost smacked her own forehead a la Jet after her kissing-cures-hiccups gambit. "Yeah, she's been better honestly. There's a guy here she had a—well, it's not my business to share." She couldn't help but enjoy his look of thwarted curiosity. "But if you wanted to go cheer her up, I'm sure she'd appreciate it."
A tentative smile worked its way onto his face. "Really? Cause I don't want to intrude if it's—"
"No, trust me. Talk about…." She groped for the words Sweetness had used. "...ethics. Or philosophy or something. Or maybe actually don't. Go tell her about the messiest breakup you ever had, how about that?"
Sparky paled. "The messiest?"
Toph narrowed her eyes at him. There was a story there that she'd have to hear later. "Yes."
"Okay, uh, that's gonna—"
"WHAT THE SHIT, LONGSHOT!"
They both spun to face the living room, where all the dancing had stopped and a wide space had formed around the scene in the middle of the room. And although the action was over, it could not have been clearer what happened. Ruon-Jian lay sprawled on the floor, clutching his nose and moaning. Longshot stood over him, fists clenched at his sides, trembling with fury. Smellerbee stood between the two of them, incensed. Fuck.
Even as Toph and Sparky hurried over, Smellerbee continued yelling, responding to something she saw in Longshot's face that was invisible to Toph. "Yeah I know he grabbed me, I was there! And I could have punched him my-self, dickhead!"
Oh, fuuuuck.
"What's going on?" Toph usually found it funny when Sparky had to put his Host Voice into action, but this was too wild. Snoozles and Sparky were always careful to run their parties responsibly and there had never been a fight at one before, so this was uncharted territory. Was her plan about to go down in flames? Were Longshot and Smellerbee's fates now diverted from each other all because of her? Ok, cool it with the dramatics, she instructed herself. This could still be salvageable.
"Are you okay?" she asked Smellerbee.
"Yeah, great!" Smellerbee shouted, and Toph understood that it wasn't really directed at her: she was just too full of emotion. "I love having dudes swoop in and save me when I don't even need it!"
"What happened?" Sparky asked again.
"This asshole just hauled off and punched me, Zuko!" Ruon-Jian had regained his feet. He was still holding his nose, and blood dripped off his upper lip and chin. "For no good reason!"
"No good reason!?" Smellerbee howled, but still had the presence of mind to smack a hand against Longshot's chest before he could finish his lunge forward and throttle Ruon-Jian. "This asshole grabbed my butt while we were dancing, and before I could tell him what he could do with his hand instead, Sir Gallant over here went and threw his hat in the ring."
Sparky turned a very serious gaze to Ruon-Jian. "Is that true?"
"We'd been dancing for like an hour, man!"
"It was five minutes!"
"Ruon-Jian, you should leave."
"Zukoooo, don't be such a pussy, man!"
"You know where the door is."
Ruon-Jian looked almost comically offended. "Dude. I thought we were friends."
"We were. So you can grab a napkin for your nose."
Ruon-Jian gaped for a good minute, then scoffed and shouldered his way through the crowd.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Sparky asked Smellerbee, who was still breathing hard and glaring at practically everything.
"Yeah." She seemed to realize she still had her hand on Longshot's chest, and quickly snatched it away. "Yeah, I'm fine." But she stormed away without looking at anyone, her head down.
Everyone watched her go, but Toph looked quickly at Longshot instead. He was watching Smellerbee too, and she could easily read his expression now: he was devastated, and guilty, and there was more than a touch of that sappy longing Jet had told her about.
Toph wanted to tell him to go after her, that if he went and apologized then all could still be well. If everything worked out after all, or even just reset back to normal, Toph could avoid feeling guilty, and worse, being proven wrong. But before she could say anything, he went out the other way.
"Shit," Toph murmured.
Sparky sighed and scruffed a hand over his hair. "That sucked. I wish Longshot hadn't hit him. Would you go check on her?"
"Uh," Toph said. "I'm not sure how happy she'd be to see me. I'm sorta the indirect cause of all this."
"But you're the only one she knows who knows what happened."
"Ugh, fine." Still nervous of the reception she might get from the other girl, she followed the direction she'd gone, poking her head into rooms as she went. Still beer pong in the living room. Someone had set up a game of King's Cup in Snoozles' room. Someone was throwing up in the bathtub and Twinkletoes was standing by with Gatorade. There weren't many other places she could look, but before she got really desperate, someone touched her shoulder. She spun eagerly, but it turned out to be Eyebrows. She deflated. "You're not the member of your household I'm looking for," she groused. "Have you seen Smellerbee?"
"No," he said. "Is she okay? I tried to talk to Longshot just now and he practically bit me. What the hell happened?"
"Some idiot groped her while they were dancing—"
"WHAT!"
"Woah, cool your jets, uh, Jet. Yeah, so Longshot hit him, but Smellerbee got mad for being damseled. I'm trying to find her now."
"Longshot hit a guy again? And I missed it?"
"Is that really the most important thing right now?"
"Okay, maybe not. Just… damn. Did you see it?"
"I'm gonna go find Smellerbee," she said impatiently. "And you stay away from Katara while you're at it!" she added, and left him there.
But the more she searched, the more hope she lost. Smellerbee wasn't in the kitchen, or either bedroom, or the spare room, and she definitely wasn't playing pong or dancing again. And she couldn't find Longshot either. Had they both just left? She couldn't really blame them, but she could be bummed as hell.
Despondent, she wandered out to the porch. But just before she stepped outside, she heard someone speaking, and froze.
"...for yourself, of course I know that. I just got so mad at that kid!" It was Smellerbee! Toph pressed herself flat against the doorframe and plugged the ear that faced the party, the better to hear outside. "What kind of infantile moron really thinks it's cool to try to make people drink? But I'm sorry. For making you feel like I didn't think you could handle it."
A short pause. Toph's damn heart was pounding so loud she almost missed Longshot's answer. "I'm sorry too. I know you could have hit him, better than me. But I just got so mad…"
Smellerbee let out a tiny, teary laugh. "Yea—" but the word was cut off by a hiccup. She laughed again, more plainly happy. "Remember what Toph said when we got here?"
Toph had to stuff her hand practically into her mouth to keep from squealing into the silence that had settled outside.
"Bee…" he said so softly that Toph nearly didn't hear it. But she definitely heard Smellerbee's quickly indrawn breath, and the following gentle release of it through her nose.
She would die if she didn't make sure. Ever so slowly, she poked her head out the door, and yes! In one back corner of the porch, Longshot and Smellerbee held each other tightly, lips pressed together, eyes blissfully (thankfully) closed. His hands were flat and firm on her back, her arms tight around his shoulders. They kissed like there was nothing else in the world, and now Toph was sure she would die of relief and satisfaction rather than tension or disappointment. But then Smellerbee reached up and pulled Longshot's midnight-dark hair out of its ponytail and started running her hand through it, and at that point Toph beat her retreat. She was a lot of things, but she was not that much of a voyeur.
But what she was was right, and there was no better feeling than being right. The jubilation it created in her made her feel at least as tall as Sparky as she returned to the party. Now, who should she help next…?
A/N
I have a headcanon that Toph would have gotten on like gangbusters with the Freedom Fighters if they'd ever really interacted besides breaking into Lake Laogai that one time, lol. Also I think she stays very short and sturdy into her adulthood and LoK can't tell me different.
I've seen and support the trans!Smellerbee headcanon, but as a cis woman who was frequently mistaken for a boy while growing up, that's how I relate to her and that's how I wanna write her.
Anyway, I hope you liked this! Smellershot needs way more love and I have a lot more ideas for them, so you'll probably be seeing some of those after TKMT is done. :)
E.I. signing out
