Wow, another update so soon? Again? How odd…well, again, my Tokka kick will not be denied and I'm having fun with this story, and don't feel like doing homework right this second. The time is right for another chapter! This time there may even be some action in it, versus talking and stalking, but I can't promise anything… Still, I hope you enjoy it!
Also, I'm retconning one small detail Sokka and Toph had at the beginning of Wakin' Up in Ba Sing Se; instead of Aang dropping Toph and her just disappearing for three years to recruit, I'm incorporating The Promise volume 2.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except this stuffed bunny rabbit…wait, no Cujo!...well, back to square one.
…
"So…let me get this straight. Again. Hina is our crook?" Toph asked as Sokka moved the bowl of sea prunes onto the table by the sofa, but by the direction his head was facing, he was probably contemplating moving it back to the kitchen counter. "Oh, for spirits' sake, it's fine there! You've been moving the damn thing back and forth for five minutes; no one's going to care if they have to walk two feet more to eat your sea prunes."
"But it has to be perfect!" Sokka insisted. "It's our party—what if no one eats anything and the food just goes bad? We don't have enough storage space for this many leftovers!"
Toph paused and then sighed. She was tempted not to dignify that with an answer, but…. "You are such a girl, you know that? Remember the reason we're even doing this? Catch a bad guy? Get better rent? Save the city?" She hated it when he got so worked up, caring about what other people thought; granted, he didn't do it as often as say, his sister or Twinkle Toes, but still. Granted, she understood that sometimes it was necessary, but that didn't make it any less annoying. Fortunately, at least one of us can stay on ask.
She didn't have to see to know that Sokka winced; it was all in the sound of his voice, "Fine, fine; you're right, Toph. You always are." Damn right, she thought, but she decided to spare him her agreement; the fact he was admitting showed he had already learned. "It's just that…we need this to go well; it's probably our last shot at Hina for a while; besides, we need to catch her before the Dragon strikes again, you know?"
"Fine, whatever—I'll excuse your little tantrum if you just tell me what makes you think Hina's involved?" Toph said, her arms crossed. Dear spirits, I hope I don't seem like Katara.
"Simple: one, the material for the Dragon's mask could only have come from her shop, two, she has been missing a few shifts since the Dragon appeared, which suggests she's planning something soon, and three, the manager said that she had Fire Nation contacts, which would explain her borrowing from Fire Nation lore."
"But I thought we agreed that the Fire Nation isn't involved? After all, they're trying to be accepted by the rest of the world again, right?"
"Yeah, but she's Earth Kingdom—that may be her point; for all we know, she could be betraying her friend and getting rid of the Fire Nation one step at a time." Toph shrugged; they didn't have enough information yet. "Plus…I just want it to be her, so we can move on to something else and I can actually get some sleep versus starring at the corner all night, waiting for something to pop out at me."
Ah, there's the Sokka we know and love…er, tolerate; I meant tolerate. Toph thought. She got the feeling of being stared at. "Yes, Sokka? What's wrong now, the crab puffs aren't facing the West at a ninety degree angle? Relax."
"No, that isn't it." He paused. "Just wait a second." He walked off into their—her—room. She could hear the rustling as he went through one of their bags. What's he up to? Her question was answered when he came back out a minute later with, judging from the clinking and rustling sound, a bag of bottles. There was a slight clunk sound as he set them down on the counter. "Just hold still and trust me, okay?"
"What're you do—" She was cut off when she felt a light brush stroke on her eyelid. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She thundered as she tried to push him away. She didn't have to see to tell he was embarrassed.
"Well, we're having a party and you're a girl, so…I figured you'd probably need makeup. Katara suggested it, actually!" He added quickly; though he could tell right away that he wasn't helping himself at all.
"WHAT? Sokka, that's the stupidest thing you've ever said!"
"Look, no one else knows that you're blind, okay? Everyone thinks you're awesome, but that you're also just a regular girl—woman…you know what I mean—and regular girls use makeup." He argued. Toph's eyebrows clenched and she gave him her fiercest scowl; Sokka didn't back down. Not even a whimper? Must be losing it. Or it could just have been whatever paint or gunk or shit he put on her took away from the effect. Granted, he did raise a point, but that didn't make him right. She had already spent years pretending to be the pretty little rich girl for her parents; that one time with Katara aside, she never wanted to deal with that fake stuff ever again…it made her look like a clown.
She heard Sokka sigh. "Look, I get it, okay? You've already pretended to be somebody else for so long with your parents; I should've thought of that before I asked you to tag along, and I'm sorry for that. But just because you're Omai doesn't mean you can't be Toph, right? Look, I'll just add a little, just enough for people to notice, but no more, okay? It'll be gone before you know it."
Toph paused. His words seemed heartfelt, but she was still reluctant. Clown.
Sokka's tone softened a little, "Don't worry; no one will make fun of you, even if other girls tend to be total bitches. They wouldn't dare, because I'd kick their asses long before you'd get a chance." She could hear the smile in his tone and was tempted to smile as well; but as touched as she was by the gesture, she was also annoyed. He may've understood (Katara must've told him about their girls day thing), but there he was, blaming himself again—what, did he think she didn't understand the requirements when she agreed to the job? Spirits, how arrogant—she could suck it up and take one for the team and Sokka's annoying attempts to be the martyr be damned.
"Fine Snoozles, you…have a point."
"Would it kill you to say 'gee Sokka, you're so right and I'm wrong.'" He asked in a high, squeaky voice that Toph suspected was his attempt at sounding female.
"Yes, it just might and if you had any balls, I'd kick them up to your chin." She crossed her arms. "Just get it over with." She tried not to roll her eyes when she felt the brush against her left eyelid—she had been practicing ever since Sokka's attempt to save her metalbending academy (after the Yu Dao incident, they hadn't really seen much of each other), though after being stuck with him for the past few weeks, she was practically a master. Though she had to admit, she was the tinniest bit impressed with how delicate Sokka was manipulating the brush. "You really don't have any balls, do you?"
She could hear the groan in Sokka's voice. "Hey, I'm dating a Kyoshi Warrior—makeup comes up…a lot." She snickered—she had heard the tale of Sokka the she male Kyoshi Warrior from Aang. "Shut up."
"What? I'm not—mmmmf!" She had to force her mouth shut as Sokka moved to her mouth. Instead, she just settled for cocking her eyebrow and looking bemused—she knew he hated that. A few seconds later, she felt the brush leave.
"There, done. Was that so bad?"
Toph shrugged as she headed to the room. "Hey, I don't mind looking girly; I just like giving you a hard time." She would've done her usual punch-to-the-arm, but he was out of reach; instead, she mentally promised a double punch for next time and went about dressing for the guests.
…
"Hello Mrs. Fink! So glad you could make it." Toph heard Sokka force out behind teeth that were surely clenched and hid her smirk. She figured that Mrs. Fink was giving him an odd look after all the fake things Toph told her.
Sure enough, Mrs. Fink just snorted. "Please—I had to interrupt your hanky panky and sin at some time—it's my duty as the older one to guide you back to the path of normalcy." She brushed past Sokka. "Hello dear; I trust you've kept him in line and kept him out of your things?"
Toph found herself caught between laughing and asking Mrs. Fink whether she meant physically or the clothes, but decided to spare Sokka the humiliation—and Mrs. Fink the heart attack. "He's behaving…though you do know I was kidding about that story, right? It was just a joke. He and his sister hate each other, I swear."
There, that hopefully put a lid on that for a while. Besides, there were already other guests there; from what she could tell with her bending, Gin was on the couch, sipping some of the cactus juice Sokka had smuggled in. Meanwhile, Tiguh was leaning on the kitchen counter, taking a break from binging and, Toph suspected, smuggling crab puffs into her robe, to face the door; she had noticed Mrs. Fink's arrival.
"I'm sorry, but Ao and his brothers wanted me to tell you that they had work this evening, so they won't be able to make it." Mrs. Fink added after glaring at Sokka for a few seconds—at least, that's what Toph guessed she had been doing; the way her heart was beating, Toph suspected that Mrs. Fink was still mad. Oh well, I did all I could, she thought as she punched Sokka in the ribs, much to Tiguh's amusement, if the snort that came from her general direction was any indication; thus far, only Hina, Kahn, and Ti were missing—that didn't give Toph a good feeling, especially after Sokka had told her about Hina's supposed connection to the Spirit. She knew that Sokka was probably thinking it out now; unfortunately, it wasn't the time.
"Dude, stop just standing in the doorway and come talk to the guests." Sokka groaned a little, but shut up after Toph gave him another quick punch in the back. There; all squared up. He walked over by Gin and sat down on the couch. Toph wandered over and sat down next to Tiguh; Mrs. Fink noticed this and decided to join the girl side of the room. A silence fell.
"Well…this is awkward." Gin remarked dryly. "Couldn't you have at least gotten a musician or something? If you can't commit to throwing a decent party, how can you commit to a decent relationship?"
"Those two aren't related and you know it, you ass; trying to sound philosophical only makes your idiocy more apparent—you know that, right?" Tiguh called over; Gin pretended to ignore her.
"Well, we manage somehow."
"Oh, so it's one of those open relationships I keep hearing about." Gin sounded bemused. Does that guy ever hear a word we say? "Why the hell would you do that? Wouldn't that living together be expensive than just going down to the Red district and hiring…." A loud thunk silence him; Toph figured Tiguh had thrown something at him.
Sure enough. "Shut up! There's an old woman here! Do you want to give her a heart attack?"
The old woman sighed. "It's alright, young one—I too, once lived vicariously through romps of sex." Everyone else in the room gagged at the mental picture that inspired. "You'll either grow out of it or wake up to find yourself knocked up and married to a hobo in a dumpster in Ba Sing Se." She paused and touched the ring on her right hand. "I still miss Robi to this day."
Silence.
"Is that really how you met your husband?" Toph asked carefully, trying to ignore the similarities to her Ba Sing Se experience. There must've been alcohol involved.
"Oh yes; didn't I tell you I met him in Ba Sing Se? Anyway, dear Gin, just get out while the getting's good—do you want to be a bum all your life? At this rate, you're bound to catch something, so be careful."
"Mrs. Fink, I'm always careful…." Suddenly, Toph heard Gin begin to gag.
"How can you already have an STD, you scumbag?" Tiguh yelled while Sokka hopped off the couch. "What was her name?"
"Cr-crab-pu-puff…caught…in….throat…." He rasped out. Toph sighed and walked over. With a swift punch to the gut, Gin collapsed and hacked up the crab puff…along with everything else he had eaten or drunk (which, from the smell of it, was quite a bit, the cheap bastard). She heard Sokka made a noise of disgust and smiled—she knew who was going to clean it up. Triumphant, she walked back to Mrs. Fink and Tiguh.
"Good work, Omai." Mrs. Fink said, approval in her voice while Tiguh just clapped—however, Toph noticed something. Tiguh's heart rate was slightly off—she was still hiding something. But what was it? No one had brought up the Dragon or her rate or anything. Toph glanced back over in Gin's direction—Sokka had gone over to get the cleaning supplies. Had she actually been worried about Gin? I'll figure this out later."Now avoid men like Gin; you wouldn't want to catch something."
"I…told you it…was…a crab puff!" Gin snapped.
"All men are scum, Omai." Tiguh said sagely, then turned back to Gin. "What, is Crab Puff the name of your stripper! Be honest!" There was her heartbeat again. She's lying.
"Hey!" Sokka protested; Toph felt Gin shrug in acceptance and she heard Mrs. Fink chuckle. Thank Spirits that Landlord Fuin wasn't around to hear this—he'd probably fire them, for all the detective work they were doing; granted, it was hard to detect when their prime suspect wasn't even there.
As if by divine providence, there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" Sokka called as he leaped to his feet and jogged to the door. He paused there for a second, then Toph heard the click of their door being unlocked. From what Toph could tell, there were two people standing at the door; one was— "Hina!" Sokka said. "Hi! Glad you could make it." Well, that made the evening slightly better and hopefully more productive. "Who's your friend?" Sokka asked Hina.
"Hey man, I'm Bu. I used to live here, but I moved out a week ago; used to help fix the pipes 'round here." The bigger man, Bu, replied. As they walked in, Toph tried to keep her face from furrowing in thought—Bu's heartbeat felt familiar. If he only used to live here, why was he coming to their party?
"I think I remember you…" She could picture Sokka stroking his chin. One of these days, she'd figure out just what it was about facial hair that captivated him so. "I remember now! You were the guy who was checking out when we got here!" That was it! At least it'd stop bugging her now.
"I guess you look a little familiar…" Bu replied in an equally thoughtful tone, as if he were trying to remember them. "Sorry, but I'm terrible with faces."
"It's no problem; how about you both take a seat over by the kitchen while I clean up the…accident?" Sokka's tone clearly said "don't ask."
"Oh! I can help you with that." Hina said cheerfully. She walked over to the mess and with a familiar flick of her wrist, the smell began to recede and Toph made out a slight whooshing sound. "I managed to get the smelly stuff out of there, but you'll have to take care of the meaty bits—are those sea prunes I see?" Toph wasn't sure if she was talking about the ones in the bowl or the ones on the floor by Gin's feet, but much more importantly—Hina must be a waterbender. Toph had spent enough time fighting Katara to recognize those signs.
"Oh sure, help yourself; they're right there in—wait, you're a waterbender?" Sokka began to answer but interrupted himself once Hina's actions caught up with him—that, or he noticed the water floating in the air. Subtly was not often his forte; Toph resisted smacking him, but settled for a face palm instead.
"You'll find yourself doing that often." Mrs. Fink said helpfully, no doubt noticing the red mark on her forehead. Lady, you have no idea.
"Oh yeah, you guys wouldn't know. You're new; yeah, I'm a waterbender."
"Huh; I thought you were Earth Kingdom." Sokka shrugged; Hina's heartbeat suggested she was more than a little annoyed.
"I am. On my mother's side, but my dad was one from the Water Tribe." Toph could tell she wasn't lying, and smirked. They certainly were getting somewhere.
"Er, right. That's interesting!" Sokka tried to sound casual, but he could clearly tell he committed a social taboo. Hina must not have been subtle, as Toph heard him apologize. "Sorry if I offended you."
"It's nothing—I just don't like anyone asking about my past; the same with everyone else here. We came to the city to start over, right? So why let it bother us?"
"Just because you moved to a new place doesn't mean you can just leave your baggage behind." Sokka countered lightly, but Toph could tell that Hina had struck a nerve. "Important things get forgotten that way." Ah, right…his dad; Toph had forgotten about his daddy complex. Still, it seemed the two had made things awkward enough—time for an intervention.
"I'm sorry about Sou—ignore him. That's what I do and I get along okay." Toph wandered over and gave Hina a hug. "Thanks for helping with cleanup. Just take a seat and Sou will get you some food—won't you, Sou?" She glanced in his general direction and nodded. She just heard him sigh and begin to walk over by Tiguh. "So where are…Tea and Crumpets?"
"…do you mean 'Ti' and 'Kahn'?" Hina asked. Dammit.
"Right, those guys!" She chuckled. "I'm bad with names! Sorry." She felt Hina wave her off.
"It's okay; those two couldn't make it because they had to deal with an emergency at work. Or something. They were kinda vague about it, right Bu?" Judging by the way Hina's tone, she was annoyed—perhaps the brothers were normally more communicative? It was difficult to read, but the earthbender felt a familiar pattern in Hina's heartbeat; Toph almost sighed. She probably likes one of them…Spirits, can't we just get away from all this romantic crap? If we wanted to deal with that, we'd have stayed with Aang and Katara.
Bu shrugged. "I guess so; didn't seem too odd to me." He helped himself to a sea prune. A silence fell on the room, save for the sound of Bu's happy munching. Even Gin was quiet, but then, his throat was probably too raw from stomach acid to say much. Small blessings.
"So…how long have you guys been in the city?" Sokka asked, placing himself by Toph.
"Oh, let's talk about that yet—that's boring stuff." Mrs. Fink yawned. "We want to hear the story of how you two met." From the slump of Sokka's shoulders, Toph was willing to bet everyone seemed a little too interested.
"Yeah!" Hina clapped. "Those are the best stories!"
"Ah, no, we don't want to talk about us; we threw this so we could get to know you guys better, remember?" Sokka chuckled, playing it light.
"Well, that's a two way street, you know." Tiguh went back to resting her head on her palm. "That's odd; most couples gush over this part." A fair point. They were getting too off topic from the important stuff. She judged from the big breath Sokka just took, he was about to retort.
"Look, how about this?" She cut him off. "Let's play a game—winner for each round can ask everyone else a question."
"W-what is this, summer camp?" Gin coughed. Oh, go choke on a crab puff. Fortunately, everyone else seemed more agreeable.
"Sounds fair." Bu said. The others agreed and soon, the party goers found themselves sitting in a circle on the floor.
"Damn, this is cold!" Gin complained. "You'd think that cheap bastard Fuin would chip in for rugs or something." He glanced over at Tiguh. "Aren't you cold? All you got on is that short dress thing."
"That's okay; my hot ass counters the cold." Toph heard Sokka laugh and she gave Tiguh an approving nod—she knew there was a reason she had liked this girl.
"If you're that worried, just complain to Fuin when he gets back from the theatre." Sokka said.
"So Fuin isn't here?" Hina asked.
"What a relief." Gin sighed. "Wouldn't want that bastard's luck to rub off on us." He leaned closer into the circle. "Rumor has it that he beat up a Fire Nation colonial and that's why the Dragon is haunting us."
"Seriously?" Sokka asked. "He beat a Fire Nation man?"
"Well…we wouldn't go that far, but…he did get rough with a guy not too long ago; we just assumed he was a Fire Nation guy, since those are the only people Fuin seems to hate." Tiguh answered.
"Yeah, but he seems like a better business guy than that—why else would he rent to Ao and all them?" Toph asked.
Tiguh just shrugged. "If you say so; but enough with the depressing stuff, let's just play the game already!"
"Okay then, I'm going to roll these stone dice and you guys call even or odd—if you guess wrong, then you have to answer a question." Toph smirked; she loved this game. And to think Katara said scamming people wouldn't teach them anything good.
Sure enough, on the first roll, she and Sokka got off scottfree; unfortunately, Gin, Tiguh, and Bu didn't get so lucky.
"Well then, let's see: Gin, do you dye your hair?"
"What are we, seven?" Gin scowled; Tiguh just punched him in the arm.
"Just answer the question: does your curtain match your drapes?" Toph thought she heard Mrs. Fink gasp.
"…no, I don't dye my hair."
"Seriously? It's practically yellow…you expect us to believe that's natural?" Sokka asked; that was almost as odd as the bear. Gin just said nothing and sulked and murmured about "how much crap this hairdo gets me." "…moving on then," Sokka continued. "Tiguh, what do you do for a living?"
Tiguh paused. "I don't think you need to know that." Now it was Gin's turn to smack her on the arm. "I'll do it, geez! Well, if you must know…I'm an artist."
"Really." Gin deadpanned. "You expect me to believe that?" All Toph heard was a crunching noise and Gin was shut up.
"Yes 'really', jackass. But my paintings haven't been selling the best for the past year, so I'm a little behind on the rent…." Everyone else who couldn't read her heartbeat must have been giving her skeptical looks, because she quickly added. "But I sold one to someone from an upcoming business for a boatload of gold! It's going to hang in their lobby and everything! I can prove it." Everyone looked away, while Tiguh just muttered. "At least Fuin believed me." And we have our answer as to why she didn't get kicked out… Well, that means they were down a suspect. Toph made sure to throw an encouraging thumbs-up in Tiguh's direction and mouthed "I believe you."
"Anyway, Bu…how long have you lived here?" Sokka asked, bored of taunting someone else's artistic talent.
The larger man shrugged, "I guess I've lived here for three years."
"Where you living now?" Toph asked.
"Isn't that another question?" He asked.
"That's right, Omai—you have to play by the rules." Sokka chuckled and patted her back. Go to hell. While she did have patience, she could feel they were getting close to something. But what, she wasn't sure. Sokka rolled the dice again and she made sure to call odd to Sokka's even. With a subtle flick of her wrist, she knew the dice had landed odd. She made sure to smirk in Sokka's direction while he sighed. Along him were Hina and Bu—Toph quietly suspected that Mrs. Fink had fallen asleep and just wasn't playing anymore.
"Okay Sou…" Tiguh began. "how did you meet the lovely Omai here?" Toph flushed a little—as far as she could tell, Tiguh wasn't lying—though she was curious as to which version of the tale Sokka was planning on telling this time.
"It's a long story, but basically a friend of mine had a project he was working on and needed to find engineers of a sort to help him out. He recruited one of my sisters, but he also had to drag a jerk I knew from…school into it—though he didn't turn out to be so bad; I guess he matured or something...or maybe it was his new haircut…but he went through so many…" He could sense the others' impatience, because he moved on. "Anyway, he also hunted down this grenade here and recruited her."
She made sure to punch him on the arm. Ha! Who's the grenade now…oh. "After that, we got to hang out a bit; granted, she didn't like me much to begin with—you know how it is—, but I won her over eventually. Things just clicked you know? After the project finished, she stuck around and helped me out of a dark place—that's when I knew."
"Knew what?" Mrs. Fink asked, trying to coax the more mushy parts of the tale out of him. Guess she was awake after all. However, Sokka's heartbeat was a little irregular—maybe it was just the mixture of lies and truths he put into the story. But which parts are the lies, she couldn't help but wonder as she played with her scarf.
"Knew that she was the one for me. Of course, her father didn't like me, but you know what? I said 'screw that' and proposed anyway—and yes, the proposal story is a different question." He cut Hina off before she could ask. "Anyway, so we ran off to Republic City to start over and save up for an actual wedding or something."
"Aw…," Tiguh sighed happily. For such a hardass, she was surprisingly romantic. "I find your answer satisfactory, Sou."
"Yeah, isn't he great—anyway, it's my turn to ask!" Toph jumped in. "So Hina…what do you think is the reason for this Dragon thing showing up?"
Hina didn't reply right away; her heartbeat had increased though. Was she frightened of something? Feeling guilty? Why did it have to be so damn hard to tell the difference? Finally, she began, "Assuming a Dragon exists—which they don't—it probably wouldn't be hanging out around here just to scare people…I'd say that it's because Fuin beat up that Fire Nation guy." Lie.
"But what about those three Fire Nation colonials?" Sokka asked. "Fuin hasn't kicked them out."
"But they aren't from the actual Fire Nation, you know? Just the colonies—the guy Fuin beat up was." True…kinda. Toph's brow furrowed in thought. What did this mean? However, before she could give it much thought, the dice began to shake.
"How could you tell he was from the actual Fire Nation versus the colonies? Was it someone you knew?" Sokka pressed. Toph winced—the rumbling was getting worse. How the hell can they not hear it? She reached over an pulled on his sleeve.
"Sou…"
"Just a minute, Omai." Sokka shushed her. She just pinched him. "Ow! What was that for?"
"Something's coming…" she whispered, but by this time, the rumbling had gotten loud enough for everyone else to notice.
"What the hell is that?" Gin asked as he got to his feet. Everyone hopped up and got to the corners of the room not a second too soon. Toph gapped—in the few seconds it took everyone to get up and out of the way, a hole had been made in their floor—someone was earthbending. From what she could tell, someone just launched themselves up through the hole and had landed on their floor. An odd smell started to make her sinuses hurt. At least they had a heartbeat—a strong one. And it was angry.
"Leave Hina alone!" It howled in an unearthly voice. She felt Sokka began to put himself between him and whoever it was.
"Well, at least we've found our Dragon." Sokka said. He didn't get to say much else before the Dragon charged them.
…
And…a cliffy! Finally, something besides talking is happening, even if that's mostly what happened this chapter. How can Toph and Sokka deal with this thing without giving themselves away? Who is the mysterious Dragon and its connection to Hina? Why am I asking you these questions? I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I will try to get the next one up by next Sunday…we'll see; my class schedule suggests that I should prioritize a little more. BUT I WILL GET THE NEXT PART UP SOON, one way or the other. Feel free to guess the who the bad guys are; as for their motivations, well that's a secret for now….
Please read and review!