Author's Notes: I'm not sure what's up with this one. And Aang and Katara have mysteriously disappeared. And Sokka is childish... more so than usual. And... I dunno. You choose.

(But review no matter what you think.)

Alisa

Just Him and Her

Hair

Snicker-snicker.

Toph Bei Fong blinked blind eyes in the direction of the noise and frowned. Ignoring it, she went back to styling her hair.

Snort.

She closed her eyes in a silent prayer to the spirits to give her strength and did her best not to rise to the bait.

Chuckle-laugh.

She turned to the disturbance with narrowed eyes and hands clenched in fists. "Just what is so funny, Sokka?"

Said warrior coughed into his hand exaggeratedly and said, "Oh, nothing, nothing at all…"

"No, Sokka," said Toph, voice lined slyly with false sweetness, "please enlighten me as to what is so funny that you can't stop giggling like a little girl."

A change in demeanor—all the weight on one leg, hand on waist, just like his sister would stand. "Well, if you must know…," he drawled. "I was laughing at your hair."

Toph could feel her cheeks heating up and she frowned. "You know that if we ever want to infiltrate the Fire Nation, we're going to have to disguise ourselves. Katara's changing her hair and I figured I might as well too."

"Then why didn't you just have Katara do it for you?" he asked snarkily, and she could see the Sokka in her mind's eye leaning forward as if to be condescending and intimidating.

"I can do my own hair, Ponytail," she snapped, stomping her foot and spinning on the spot.

Snort.

"What is so awful about my hair that it's funny?" Toph demanded, not turning to him for fear of taking his head off with a rock.

"It's just" —another giggle— "your buns are uneven."

With a snarl, Toph pulled the ribbons holding her hair in place and the two lopsided buns fell down her back in a rather lumpy wave. "There! Are you happy now?" she growled, shaking the ribbons in her hands mercilessly.

He proceeded to chuckle, then say, "Your hair is even funnier when it's down."

Toph gave a defeated sigh. "Then what am I supposed to do to get you to shut up?"

There was a short pause, and then: "Why don't you wear your hair in braids? I really liked it when you wore your hair in braids."

Toph would have hated to see how eager her face looked as she turned and asked, "Really?"

"Oh, yeah," he said, leaning forward now with signs of excitement. "I really liked it in braids—it made you look older."

Toph wasn't sure how looking older was a good thing, but she would take what she got.

He was still talking. "You looked really pretty without your bangs in the way. I could finally see your eyes."

"So? It's not like that would do much good," Toph pointed out, though a mental note to brush her bangs out of the way more often was made.

"But I like looking at your eyes. We don't have green eyes at the South Pole," he said.

Toph shrugged, unsure of how to respond to the praise.

"You just looked really pretty with braids," he said again, now shuffling his feet. "I think you should wear braids."

"No need to be so redundant, Ponytail," Toph said with a smirk. "I heard you the first time. Unanimous vote of Sokka—I'm wearing braids, I guess."

"Good." She could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

"But what about you, Sokka? How are we going to do your hair?" Toph asked, grinning. "Do you want braids too?"

Sokka laughed and Toph couldn't help but feel a spark of hope inside her—she had always liked braids….

FIN.