Chapter Text
"Just give me a second."
The wheels on his portable dry-erase board were stuck again, letting off an unholy screech as Sokka tried to slide it across his apartment floor.
"Do you need help?"
"NO!"
Seated next to a disgruntled Zuko on his couch, Aang looked visibly startled by the sudden outburst and deflated slightly. Sokka tried and failed not to roll his eyes; he felt bad but he hadn't expected Aang to take it to heart, but maybe that was foolish of him to assume. Aang of all people was permanently incapable of not wearing his heart on his sleeve.
"There!" With a final tug, the board came barrelling toward him, almost running over his foot if he hadn't halted it's trajectory in time. Slowly spinning the board to reveal its contents, Sokka noticed how Aang's previously sulky expression was now one of slight amusement, while Zuko's permanent scowl had turned to a look of confusion.
"What does… S.S.P. stand for?"
"Sacred Sibling Pact."
Sokka's jaw dramatically snapped shut. Aang really didn't comprehend the whole whiteboard presentation set-up he had going on.
"Uhhh, excuse me, I don't think he was asking you."
A beat.
"It stands for Sacred Sibling Pact."
Zuko snorted before getting up to observe the board (in all of its glory), Aang trailing close behind.
"Yeah, your handwriting is terrible; you're going to have to translate for us regular folk."
"Ah, Zuko, you are far from regular, but I'd be happy to. Take a seat." When neither Aang nor Zuko moved back to their designated places, Sokka threw his hands in the air, continuing with his presentation with or without their cooperation but not without a grumble or two.
"Here—" He was pointing to the first subheading with a stray chopstick he'd found, embedded in the clutter he'd plucked the dry-erase board from.
"—are the three ground rules of the Sacred Sibling Pact. From this point on, I will refer to it as the SSP—for brevity." On his right, Aang nodded animatedly, a sign that he was genuinely invested in what Sokka was going to say next; at least someone appreciated the effort.
"And here—" He was now pointing to a second subheading, "are my potential plans of action."
"Okay, I do recognize an A and a B here."
"Good eye, Aang, Option A is—I find a way to woo her, y'know, all rom-com like. We're both engineering majors, so that's one thing we have in common; surely there must be countless other's. And Option B is—."
Aang's eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets, and at this point, even Zuko had an air of thinly veiled curiosity surrounding him. He had them hanging on every word. (If he was a lesser man, he'd probably drag this part of the segment out, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't making himself impatient.)
"I forget about her completely and move on."
"WHAT!" Aang and Zuko's protests were resounding, startling Sokka from his place between them both.
"Sorry, what? You've been obsessed over this mystery girl for the past couple of days and now you're just going to forget about her? I don't believe you."
From his place—where he was now nestled on Zuko's shoulder— Aang was furiously nodding, his eyebrows furrowed and a slowly growing pout etched into his features.
"Yeah, it doesn't make any sense."
Letting out an exaggerated exhale, Sokka took three paces toward his dry-erase board and took a pretend drag from his chopstick now turned cigarette.
"Gentlemen…" he paused to take another drag before tutting and shaking his head. This action caused the deerstalker hat (he'd forgotten he was wearing) to slip off his head and hit the floor with a harsh thump.
Clearing his throat, He quickly crouched down, reclaiming his hat and fastening it back to its rightful place atop his head before pausing to repeat himself.
"Gentlemen—"
"Oh my spirits, shut up." Sokka snapped his head towards the impertinent interruption that came from none other than Zuko himself, the same Zuko who was now wrestling Aang off his position perched on his shoulder.
Sokka gawked at his response before promptly ignoring it and finally getting to explain himself.
"Look, in all seriousness—" Zuko snorted.
"In all seriousness, I did come up with the Sac— the SSP with Katara and it would be unfair and even irresponsible to just walk it back now. I owe it to her as my sister to respect her boundaries especially with her friends."
Hearing his words, Aang cooed and moved to swing his arm around Sokka's shoulder, but not without pairing the motion with a crude ruffling of his hair.
"Hey, hey, Hey. Just because you're taller than me now, it does not give you permission to fuck up my hair. Like seriously, do you know how long it takes to perfect this bad boy?" He was now observing his tufts of hair that were sticking up wildly in the glare reflected from the dry-erase board and using his fingers to deftly smooth them back into place.
"That's really honorable of you Sokka, That probably wasn't easy."
"Yeah, I actually agree."
"Well don't get too sappy, it's mostly because I'd never let Katara go back on the pact, her dating Aang is bad enough."
"Uh, Hey!"
Sokka only had a couple of seconds to react before Aang launched an unnecessarily firm pillow square at his head. Once he'd dodged it (with ease), he stuck his tongue out and pivoted to situate himself right beside Aang on the couch, not before dragging Zuko down with him.
"Hey, get off me." Zuko's cries fell on deaf ears once Sokka trapped him in his patented headlock-and-tousle combo. "I'm serious," he tried to mask his chuckles, but his efforts were futile. Through his own bouts of laughter, Sokka almost forgot he was still leaning on the back of Aang, who had suddenly decided to enact his own divine retribution onto Sokka by encasing him in a headlock of his own.
Their roughhousing continued for the next few moments, all three of them laughing and elbowing the sides of whoever was closest, until one particularly sharp motion from Zuko's leg sent Sokka's punch-bowl of chips somersaulting off his table and colliding with the floor below.
"Dude!"
"You know, you actually have really pretty hair; you should wear it down more often."
"I already don't know why I'm letting you touch my hair; don't push your luck, Pinky."
Upon hearing her words, Ty Lee brushed through a particularly tough tangle in Toph's hair with (in her opinion) far too much vigor. Her current hairstyle had been weighing on her, literally, and she'd sought out Ty Lee's help to give her an albeit temporary, but different look that didn't make her neck scream out for help; obviously, that had been a stupid idea.
"Hey, what the fuck?" Toph bent her right arm over her shoulder to playfully swat Ty Lee, but she'd already seen the action coming and sidestepped out of her reach.
"I don't get that nickname; you don't even know what pink looks like…" The obvious pout from which these words came almost made Toph burst out laughing, but she resigned herself to an eyeroll.
"I don't know what it looks like, but I know of it, and I definitely know your entire wardrobe is pink. I mean, come on, I'd bet my entire life savings that you're wearing pink right now." Toph had turned around so Ty Lee could get the full extent of her current shit-eating grin, even though they were already situated in front of a full-length mirror.
"…Well, it's not all pink." Toph felt Ty Lee's palm snap her head back into position. "And stop moving; I'm almost done."
What felt like an hour had passed (even though it was realistically only a couple of minutes,) before Toph was startled out of her boredom-induced reverie by the shrillest shriek any eardrums had ever had the misfortune of hearing.
"Spirits, what is up with you." Ty Lee decided to respond to that retort by pairing her shrieks with furious hand clapping.
Before her knuckle could make contact with Ty Lee's shoulder, the taller woman raised her hands in mock surrender, finally ceasing her assault on Toph's ears.
"Okay, okay, sheesh. It's always violence with you." Seeing Toph's look of annoyance revert back to her earlier look of confusion, Ty Lee relented.
"It's just, you look so pretty," she squealed yet again. "You need to let me do your hair more often." Ty Lee clasped her hands under her chin, seemingly admiring her handiwork; she'd revamped Toph's usual hairstyle of a bun into two "chic braids," in her own words. The pair now lay slack against her collarbone, behind the two streaks of black hair Ty Lee had left out to "frame her face."
"So, what do you think!" Ty Lee was positively beaming at this point; Toph could even hear the sound of her eyelashes fluttering at such a rapid speed she was worried her friend was about to spontaneously take flight.
Dramatically, as if she were the star of a pantomime, Toph shook her head from side to side, pretending to check out the new look in the mirror, all the while Ty Lee was mirroring these movements anxiously behind her. Then she squinted her eyes, sticking out her neck to get even closer to the mirror, hemming and hawing as Ty Lee began to chew anxiously on her nails.
Finally, her head snapped back into place and she ended her performance by twirling one of the front strands of hair around her finger and boisterously exclaiming, "I love it!"
"Really?" The awe was practically radiating off of Ty Lee before she was instantly shot down.
"No, you forgot I'm blind, Princess." Waving her hand over her eyes to really drive the point home, Toph took this moment to finally burst into the chuckles she'd been holding in the entire time.
Sadly, this moment of unrestrained joy was cut short. Toph noticed the way her friend deflated, and her energy (Ty Lee was really starting to grow on her) had changed to grow gradually more dour, which was very out of character for the girl Toph knew and loved.
"Geez," Toph playfully poked her shoulder, "I may have been kidding, but on a serious note, you did do a great job, like, for real." Even with her sightless eyes, she could tell she was being met with a stern glare.
"How would you even know? Like you said, you're blind." Ty Lee paired her remark with the same action Toph had done earlier of waving her hand over her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, but every time I try to do a braid, it turns out like shit. I can't see what it looks like, but I can feel it, and it feels pretty good…" She hated whenever they goaded these sappy moments out of her; I mean, she was lucky she didn't throw up! But Ty Lee was able to see right through the smug facade and wrapped her arms around the younger girl, her squeals returning but this time doubling in magnitude.
"Okay, okay, I said they were good, not amazing. Now get off me!" Her pleas were futile, however, as Ty Lee only aimed to envelop her into an even tighter hug (where this newfound strength had come from was lost on Toph).
"Nuh-uh! You said they were great, which in your language basically means you love it!"
On Toph's obituary, under cause of death, it would be labeled, "Death by squeal."
He'd woken up late again. If Sokka didn't know any better, he'd call this a habit. No matter how tirelessly he set out an itinerary, planning out each minute of his day down to how long he'd brush his teeth, Sokka would find that what he never planned for was how much he cherished his sleep, and his three snoozed alarms proved that.
When Sokka opened the door to the lecture hall, he found the place completely packed; since when were people actually excited to learn about sustainable energy systems? He'd have to admit defeat—since he was part of that aforementioned group excited to learn—and try to find any seat he could, hopefully without drawing too much attention to himself.
Once he'd finished that exact train of thought, he promptly tripped over some random girl's backpack, knocking over her water bottle in the process and almost eating shit entirely. What looked like the entire lecture hall had now paused to stare at him—just my luck, he thought.
Among the faces that were scrutinizing him and clearly trying to blow him up with their minds, only one stood out to him. She—well, Toph had also turned in his general direction, and it was now that he could see her white cane folded up on her desk (he set a mental reminder to kick himself for not noticing it before.)
There was something different about her, though. She still looked beautiful, of course; the sharp intake of breath he'd taken and was still holding was proof enough. But it wasn't just the way the sun filtered over her face through the blinds over the windows, or the way there was a little crease above her eyebrows signaling her discontent; it was something else, something more, and the fact that he couldn't figure it out was going to piss him off for the rest of eternity.
Once Toph and half of the class finally turned around to focus back on the lecture, his mission went from deciphering Toph's seemingly new look to finding an empty seat in the sea of filled ones. After a quick scan, then another, and another, it dawned on him that the only available seats were the ones directly next to her—the exact person he was aiming to avoid. It was just his luck.
Sighing, he made his way to the seat two places away from Toph, hoping the seat between them would be enough of a buffer.
"Hey, man, that's my seat!"
Before he could even think of sitting down, however, Sokka was interrupted by another late interloper slotting themselves in the same seat he'd just selected. Noticing the look of confusion on Sokka's face, Chair Guy (Sokka's new name for the stranger) continued his tirade, waving his arms around and proclaiming, "Dude, were you even here last lecture? Just sit in that seat." Chair Guy jutted his chin in the direction of the seat directly next to Toph—the same Toph that was looking at the scene with growing levels of perplexity.
Inwardly groaning, Sokka did as he was told—not because he wanted to but because there was literally no other option—and took his place beside her. Once he'd settled down, unpacking his laptop and notepad, the droning of the lecture began to fade into the background. He'd copied what was on the board and some notes from Chair Guy, who was strangely nice about the new arrangement, but Sokka would be lying if he said he cared about any of it to begin with.
His objective of ignoring her was going terribly. At this present moment, Sokka was trying and failing not to look at her through the corner of his eyes. She looked annoyed; every couple of seconds that passed she'd huff dramatically, blowing the strands of hair in front of her face in every which way before nestling the cheek that was resting in her palm impossibly deeper.
He was resisting the urge to reach out and brush those strands away—because that would be weird and creepy, and he was not weird or creepy—when, before he could finish chastising himself for being in way too deep, she suddenly snapped toward him.
"Hey, I can feel you staring at me."
Even though she was technically whispering, the harshness with which she was delivering these words made him feel like he was actually getting a lecture.
"Oh, shit, sorry…"
With a sheepish look on his face, he slowly turned back toward the front of the lecture hall, feeling like he'd been doused in 15 liters of gasoline and set on fire with double the amount of matches. Sokka was famously bad at dealing with awkwardness, the fact proving itself when his fingers started to drum on his desk to the tune he was now humming—Why am I humming? I don't even hum!
He decided to rectify the situation, turning back toward Toph to…make amends.
"Look, I'm sorry about earlier." She did not look amused. "That was kind of weird, my bad. I'm Sokka, by the way." He added a little wave to his introduction because he was stupid and this was clearly his first time interacting with a fellow member of the human species.
"Yeah, I know who you are," she scoffed.
At that, Sokka quirked his head. What did that mean?
"What does that mean?" He chuckled, but he wasn't sure this was a chuckling environment.
"Listen, Sokka, was it?"
He wasn't sure if she was genuinely asking since he just told her and she also said she already knew who he was, but regardless, she continued.
"I know you're, like…interested in me or whatever, but I'm not looking to be another one of your… conquests."
Conquests? What was he, a Fire Nation General?
"Okay, whoa. Conquests?" He tried and failed to stop himself from bursting out laughing; the concept was so absurd but also kind of insulting.
"Is that what people think of me?" He intended to come off more incredulous or irritated, but the bite had been lost and the words felt small on his tongue.
"Yeah, dude, you kind of have a reputation." He didn't like how she said 'reputation' or what it implied. Sokka wasn't that type of guy, but clearly people who barely knew him expected him to be. Was he that type of guy?
"You don't even know me."
"I know that you've been ogling me for the past twenty minutes."
"What! I have not been ogling you; I've been looking at your hair this entire time."
"Oh really, my hair?"
"Yes! It looks…different from the last time I saw it. Is that so hard to believe?"
A weird, almost imperceptible look flickered over her face. Sokka hoped it wasn't due to how creepy that sounded.
"Whatever."
Toph turned dramatically, facing away from Sokka but now absent-mindedly fidgeting with her hair.
"Whatever."
Sokka mirrored her action, going a step further to pretend like he was going over the scrawl of notes he'd made earlier. Over his shoulder, he could hear a snort, and without turning around he could already tell who it belonged to. He turned around anyway.
He rolled his eyes but remembered she wouldn't be able to see it, felt bad, then promptly scoffed at a volume he was sure she'd be able to hear. Clearly, that pushed her over the edge.
"Listen, Meathead, if you're going to keep being such an asshole—"
"Meathead? Are you being serious right now?"
"Yes, I'm being serious. If you took your head out of your ass, you'd able to see that."
"Oh, I don't think you should be the authority on seeing."
"Wow, that's so clever; definitely never heard that one before."
"Aww. thank you. I tried really hard to come up with it."
"I'm not surprised. I could tell that quip came with a lot of brainpower. I can feel the brain matter pouring out of your ears."
"Really? Because I thought—"
"Oh my spirits."
Another voice that was definitely not Toph's came from Sokka's right.
"If you two aren't going to fuck, can you shut up already?
"Shut up, Mustache!"
That voice did belong to Toph, who clearly recognized whoever Chair Guy was if she knew he had a mustache. She'd turned back in her seat, placing her headphones over her ears and trying (and failing) to conceal the now-spreading blush on her face.
Sokka followed suit, keeping his eyes focused on his notes and not on the peering faces their argument had brought or the horrible mustache on Chair Guy's face. But now that he'd thought about it, it was clearly going to be the thing that plagued him for the rest of the hour.
Once the bell rang, signaling the end of the lecture and Sokka's plight of mentally counting each follicle of that mustache, a stampede of adults poured out of the hall. everyone else similarly as eager as Sokka to get back to their lives.
Next to him, Toph had unpacked her cane that was resting on her desk and practically sprinted away. She'd forgotten her bag, though, and Chair Guy had half-jogged, half-sprinted to return it to her. They'd shared some insults, if their expressions were any sign, before pausing and looking in Sokka's direction. He attempted to look neutral and not like he was spying, but he knew he'd been caught and resigned to completely facing away from the both of them.
A couple of minutes later, Chair Guy returned, slapping a hand to Sokka's arm with a wide grin on his face.
"You know, I think you guys would actually be really cute together." He instantly burst out into a fit of cackles, wiping away a mock tear.
"Yeah, Yeah. Laugh it up…" Sokka tried to be a good sport, chuckling himself, but internally he was praying Chair Guy would have an anvil dropped on him.
"Oh, and I'm Haru, by the way." He copied the wave Sokka had implemented earlier before continuing his fits of laughter between his murmurs of "I'm just kidding" before leaving Sokka in the lecture hall.
Later that night, Sokka was trying to fall asleep, but he'd been tossing and turning for what felt like the past hour. Realistically, it was probably only a couple of minutes, but he couldn't get the argument—their argument—out of his mind.
He couldn't believe he'd been crushing on her. After everything she'd said to him, Sokka was starting to think he'd dodged a bullet. Flipping onto his stomach, he felt his mind start to clear and he was finally on the verge of sweet, sweet dreams.
.
.
.
Braids. Her hair was different because this time it was in braids.