Chapter Twelve

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Conflicts and Accords

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Sokka stirred to life, vaguely aware of a certain feeling.

A familiar feeling.

A particularly ill feeling.

Clapping a hand to his mouth and keeping his eyes tightly shut in response to the sudden nausea, he blindly probed his surroundings with the other as quickly as possible, seeking any hollow object. His fingers brushed against something fairly large; and like a giant octopus, he pulled the article to his body and coiled himself around it as he proceeded to fill the item in question with his leftover stomach juices from the previous night.

Once purged of his digestive upset, he closed his eyes and rolled over to sleep off his now apparent headache. Something kept tickling his nose, however, and he tried to bat it away, but to no avail. Grunting his annoyance, he swept at the tickly source again, and this time his fingers connected with something soft and warm.

He blearily opened his eyes, and a vision of a sleeping Toph lay before him. He gazed at her calm countenance, her hair swept back from her pleasantly featured face, her lashes quiet and still, and her mouth slouched open beneath his fingertips. She was so much like herself at this moment, but also different somehow. Maybe it was that in sleep one could see her softer side, the inner self she kept guarded with protective walls and attitude. Or maybe, Sokka considered, she's still comatose after last night…

It had been her breaths tickling his skin; and when she exhaled again—against his fingers now—he felt an altogether different kind of tickle as her energy passed through his fingers all the way to the pit of his stomach where it trembled and hummed.

He swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat, and, his brain oozing pitifully somewhere into the crevices of his skull, he scooched closer to her, his fingers gliding gently to her neck, his lips reaching for hers.

Her eyes opened.

He nearly swallowed his tongue from fright.

He remained very still, praying she would not catch him, that maybe she was going to start sleepwalking, that maybe it was just a weird tic blind people had to open their eyes in the middle of slumber.

Her nose twitched.

"Holy…What stinks?" Her hand flew to cover her nose.

That was when Sokka remembered one of the cardinal rules of kissing. Never kiss and barf. Never barf and kiss, rather, he corrected grimly, but whatever.

Instantly clamping his mouth shut to prevent further fumes from seeping out, he curled up like a pill bug and escaped by rolling away as quickly as possible, his cast leg knocking into walls and doorframes in his haste.

Toph sat up, now braving the smell as she sniffed around for the source of the odor. Her nose led her to Sokka's Stomach Contents Refuse Upheaval Unit (more commonly known as a SCRU U), and she turned a sickly color as she fully realized just what scent was pouring into her investigating nostrils.

"Good God!" she shrieked, jumping away from it. "Who the hell blew chunks in my house?!"

From the living room, Sokka pretended to wake up very loudly. Too loudly, in fact, for before he could muster his most innocent sounding "What's that, Toph?" she had rushed into the room and flung herself upon him, grabbing his shirt and yanking his face to hers. With one sniff, she knew the truth and shoved him back to the floor, pinning him there.

"Damn it, Sokka, it was you! What are you, some kind of pig? Hell, even Momo knows not to do that in someone's freakin' house!" she shouted.

"Hey, where is Momo?" Sokka wondered suddenly.

"Don't try to change the subject! By God, Sokka, you go clean that up now," she hissed, standing up and not bothering to step over him, opting to boot him in the side as she went.

"Ow!" he smarted. "Come on, Toph, you'll make me do it again!" he whined.

"CLEAN IT UP, BARFBAG!" And with that she slammed her bedroom door shut. Mere seconds later Sokka heard the shower turn on full-blast.

Grumbling, Sokka tracked down the cleaning supplies and apron he had originally bought for Toph when he and Katara and Aang had helped her move in. She had never used any of these things, of course, least of all the apron, and Sokka cursed under his breath as he slid it on over his clothes and tied it around his waste.

"Rule #1 of cleaning up others' puke, your puke, and unclassified puke," Sokka recited to himself. "Make sure none of it can get on you."

"Besides," he thought, fingering the design on the front of the apron, "It's got a cute little baby chicken on it. Toph should want to wear it. Piyo piyo!"

Lugging all the unopened cleaning products to the front hall, he finally looked upon his makeshift SCRU U. It was clearly a pot of some kind, but Sokka had rendered their original contents practically unrecognizable. Curiosity trumping his repulsion, he quickly set to work clearing away his vomit to excavate that which lay beneath. He was puzzled by what he discovered.

"Flowers? Toph doesn't keep flowers in her apartment."

He lifted the pot above his head and turned it around slowly, inspecting the sides and the bottom, looking for some hint or clue to explain its rather sudden appearance. He set it down again and stared at it. He thought he maybe saw an accompanying note in a small envelope, damp and soiled now because of Sokka's hangover shenanigan.

Sokka hesitated to touch it, but…

"I've gotta read it!" He grabbed the pixie-sized envelope, opened it and tossed it away in favor of reading its contents.

The card inside read

To Little Sweetfeet,

I know since I left, you've been feeling lovesick.

So let's go on a date—it'll do just the trick!

Sincerely,

Your Love Stoned

"What the hell!" Sokka shouted, immediately ripping the card to shreds.

"Toph can't see that," he reasoned after his initial burst of anger subsided. "This guy's good—she could actually fall for his rightly-called 'tricks' if she knew what it said. I'll just put the card into the trash bag along with the rest of the mess and save her a lot of grief." He had to admit it sounded like a good plan, and he congratulated himself for the idea.

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Meanwhile, Aang hesitated outside the Bending stadium main entrance. What was he going to do? He could neither forget Meng's kiss, nor could he ignore it. He would have to confront her, but not in mean way, they just needed to talk about the fact that she kissed him was all, and that he didn't really like her that way, or at least he didn't think he did, but he could tell her that without hurting her feelings, right? As characteristic of the Airbending way, he approached the problem from many different angles, struggling to find a good solution. However, with people neither an absolute nor a certain solution exists, and he knew this and tried to accept it. Okay, fine. He accepted it. He could go in now.

But what was he going to say?

Instead of entering the building, he entered into another crazy self-contained debate and paced anxiously back and forth. Meng found him thus as she exited the building with a gaggle of her fellow groupies.

"Aang, hi!" she chirped, though it felt to her like a squeak. "How are Toph and Sokka doing?"

"Oh, uh, they were still sleeping when I left," Aang mumbled, glancing nervously at the girls using the excuse to wait for their friend as a means to stay and eavesdrop.

"Let's talk somewhere else," he said, taking her hand, and in a rocket-like blast of air, they soared up to the roof of the stadium.

The gaggle below squealed in shock and delight, and Meng blushed furiously, dreadfully certain what topic of conversation he had in mind.

"Look, Meng, I—" he started, but she quickly interrupted.

"Aang, it's okay, I get it. I made a mistake. You don't like me, you like Katara, and I made a fool of myself. Do we really have to go over it all again?"

"Meng…" Aang said, hurt to see her so upset.

"I haven't even said anything yet," he realized bitterly, "And she's already on the verge of tears. What am I doing wrong here?"

He didn't have time to ponder this, for one thing he did know was that the most painful he could do to her would be to remain silent.

"Meng, it's not like that."

"Really? Because you didn't kiss me back, and you're not looking especially in love with me right now, so I'm pretty sure it is like that," she returned, hugging herself as she turned her indignant eyes on him. It struck him that she looked very young at that moment, to the point of childishness, but the sorrowful flame of unreciprocated love burned in her eyes. He felt very close to her then, closer than he had when they were both younger and in a very similar situation.

"I do care about you, Meng," he said, startling himself as much as her as he related this realization. "But I'm not ready for anything yet, and I don't know when or if I will be, and I don't want to lead you on. It just wouldn't be fair."

Meng watched him intently, not saying a word. She loosened her grip on herself, and it looked as if her body sighed and let go of something, the intense fear of rejection from the boy she had fallen for twice.

"If Aunt Wu says my destiny is here in the Fire Nation…" she began slowly, "And I'm not saying you're destiny, Aang, but if you are…"

She lowered her gaze and smiled softly. "I don't really mind waiting here…"

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"So did you throw out your bucket o' barf?" Toph asked, exiting her bedroom, hair still damp from her shower.

"Yes, Toph, I threw it away," Sokka sighed heavily. "I know how to clean up sometimes, you know."

"Yeah, sometimes," she emphasized, walking around to sniff her apartment and make sure all traces of the puke smell were gone.

"Hey, Sokka," she called from the front hallway. "What's this flowerpot doing here?"

"I dunno," he replied, shrugging. "Maybe Aang got it as a get-well present for you."

"I don't think so. Why would he give it to me now? I'm fine."

Sokka rolled his eyes, though he did have to admit she was recovering very well and not wincing and cringing as much as she had.

"Was there a card with it?" she asked.

"No! Nope! No card!" Sokka piped, immediately adjusting his pitch to a deep and (what he thought was a) take-no-prisoners' sort of tone. "No, Toph, I haven't seen any card."

Toph was skeptical. "That's strange because I can feel where it was in the dirt. The indentations are clear."

"You can tell that?!" Sokka cried, his pitch jumping up several octives and giving him away.

"Where's the card, Sokka?"

"I-uh-I dunno," he tried to lie again, though very poorly.

"You have no right to go through my mail!" she shouted.

"If your friends can't go through your mail, then who can? You can't read!" he countered.

"That doesn't give you the right to read it without asking, you jerk! Who were they from? Who sent me flowers?" she demanded.

"Your little boyfriend sent them!" he shouted.

"My little boyfriend? What are you talking about? Which one?"

This was not what he wanted to hear.

"Which one? Just how many guys are you dating, Toph! All the Benders in the league?" he shouted, knowing he was being ridiculous and pissing her off, but not taking the breath to give a damn.

"Just because you can't get a date doesn't mean I'm not allowed to!" she yelled back, bristling with hurt and anger and pride.

"Woah! Where the hell did that come from?"

"Like you care," she spat, grabbing up the potted plant and throwing it to the ground where it crashed and sent clay and dirt scattering. "Whoever this guy is, he doesn't matter to me and neither do his damn flowers. But what I do is my business, Sokka, and if you don't like it, then you can leave."

Still brimming with anger and a separate and inexplicable rage, Sokka at least had the sense to concede grudgingly that he did not want to leave.

"Fine, then, stay. But you need to grow up." And for the billionth time that week she stomped to her room and slammed the door.

"I'm not the only one that needs to grow up," he muttered under his breath, kicking over some of the throw pillows to let off some steam.

"You're beating up the furniture…did I come at a bad time?"

"Katara?"

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To be continued…

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A/N:

Yay! Cliffhanger! I told y'all Katara was coming back soon. Hm…I think this marks tomorrow as the beginning of Part 3 perhaps. Huzzah!

And a couple things to point out:

Hehe I just now realized I haven't included Momo in the fic so far. Well, he's not dead, folks, just…not around at present and not barfing in people's homes, which are two important things to note, I assure you.

Today's chapter included cameos by Maison Ikkoku's leading lady Kyoko's signature chicken-garnished apron! Yay! Mad props to Rumiko Takahashi!

Oh, and SCRU U? S'all me, baby. lmao Next time you're about to barf, just call for a "SCRU U," and trust me, people will come running to help. Not really. But if they got mad and tried to fight you, at least you'd end up puking on them, which is GAME OVER always. Never get tetchy with someone who's wretchy. XD

So, yes, I hope you enjoyed today's chapter, and I look forward to seeing you at the next if you'd like to join in! And don't forget! Please review! It's the only pay I ask for my whore-like services. Peace and love!

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P.S.

Again I do not own any of the characters that appeared in today's chapter. I did own the potted plant and note Stonehenge oh-so-romantically sent to Toph, but then Sokka barfed on and tore up the note and Toph smashed the plant, so…I don't want either anymore. Oh, and it was supposed to be silly that Sokka would think Stonehenge's poetry would even impress Toph a little, but the poor dear's so overcome with jealousy that he's just not thinking clearly. /sigh/

And please review! /points to self/ Review whore because!