FIC: Interlude, Toph (The Taking Turns series)
Interlude, Toph
By Keelywolfe
PG
Sokka/Zuko, Hints of Other Pairings
Summary: When you see through vibration, other people can be really annoying at night!
Twelfth in a series:
No Turning Back
Division of Time
Conflicted
Manly Pursuits
Interlude: Aang
Say Anything
Interlude, Suki
Random Curiosity
Envy Was A Fever
Couldn't Drag Me Away
For the Love of Cheese
The only bad thing about seeing through vibration was that, unlike eyes, vibrations never turned off. Toph was pretty used to it by now and she could usually shut out the things she wasn't interested in. But there were times, like tonight, when she was trying to sleep like a normal person would at god-knows-what-time at night, when she couldn't quite get the vibrations out of her head.
She rolled over with a sigh, stuffing her pillow over her head and winding her blanket around her feet. Someone was out there, keeping her awake, and it was starting to get really annoying. She knew who it was, of course; she could tell who every person in their group was by the way they moved. Aang, lightly prancing around like the Twinkletoes he was, Sokka, trampling around like a moose-lion, Zuko, surprisingly easy on his feet for a guy weighted down with all those issues. In fact, Sokka was pretty easy on his feet when Zuko was around, or rather, easy with his body and boy, those were some vibration images to cherish.
Speaking about vibrations, the ones keeping her up tickled back in, like someone tapping on the bottom of her feet and Toph finally gave in, scratching grumpily as she made her way outside to get to the bottom of this. Not that she usually cared about the nighttime activities of the others but this time it was interfering with her nighttime activities, namely sleeping. The night that Zuko and Sokka had snuck off on their fishing trip, she'd known they were up and about but at the time, she'd just figured they were sneaking off to make out somewhere. Like they hadn't been obvious from the very start, man, she'd expected Sokka to start mooning over Hotman Moodybutt much sooner than he had.
She didn't bother putting on any clothes, her underclothes were decent enough to sleep in so they must be decent enough for a little night time jaunt. It didn't take long to follow the vibrations to the courtyard and the person there didn't hesitate in their katas, moving and twisted with expert precision.
"What are you doing out here?" Toph yawned, rubbing her eyes. Weird that she couldn't see out of them but they were still dry after she woke up.
Suki finished her last form before she turned to Toph, "Practicing."
"Shouldn't you be getting all hot and bothered with our fearless leader by now?" Toph flopped down to sit crosslegged on the ground, the pebbles scattering before her butt hit them.
"He's with Zuko." There was a soft sound, a towel being rubbed over sweaty skin. "He was really upset after the play."
"Yeah, the end really did suck," she agreed. Understatement. She'd half expected Zuko to throw himself on a sword. Every step he'd taken as they'd walked away from the theater had been leaden, heavy as an elephant-horse. "You know, not that this is any of my business, but Sokka seems to be spending a lot of time with Zuko lately."
"I know."
"And you're okay with that?"
"What do you think I should do?" Suki sounded genuinely interested. "Yell? Hit him? Demand he pay more attention to me?"
"Yeah! I would start with the hitting, though."
She could hear the smile in Suki's voice. "I've seen all kinds of these trios before. It always starts out evenly and everyone is happy but eventually, it leans from one side to the other until it gets situated."
"And what, you don't even want to try to win?" That didn't sound like the greatest plan to Toph but what did she know? Sokka was the plan guy and even he didn't seem to have a clue in this situation.
"It's not about winning, Toph. I know Sokka loves me. It's about preference. It's like iced cream. It's not really his fault if he wants chocolate right now instead of vanilla and I can't fault him for it."
Toph considered that, toeing the pebbles at her feet. "You just want to beat the crap out of both of them, don't you."
"Yeah, pretty much."
"What are you going to do?"
"Wait until they get things figured out," Suki walked over and sat down next to Toph. "It doesn't take a genius to see they're both pretty new to this kind of stuff."
Toph snorted, "With the way those two dummies are acting, it could be years before they realize what's going on."
"Maybe." Toph felt the faint ripple of motion that meant Suki was shrugging. "But Zuko--" she hesitated. "I love Sokka and I want him, but I think just now Zuko really needs him more than I do."
Inspiration struck, like a flash of light that Toph would never be able to see. "You have a thing for Zuko, too!"
Soft laugh. "What's not to want?"
"He's all, woe and betide, I was once the evil and now I'm just this gloomy guy with bad hair." Toph flung herself to the ground, dramatically pressing the back of a hand to her forehead.
Suki laughed again. "He's also tall, muscled, an excellent warrior, and he kisses really well. Besides, his hair isn't that bad, Katara only said that because she was grouchy that Zuko brained Sokka."
That perked Toph up. "You kissed him?"
"Once," Suki leaned in, whispering conspiratorially. "His mouth was hot and he tasted like jasmine tea."
"And Sokka was all cool with that?" Relationships were weird.
"Sokka is cool with a lot of things that get him a good view."
"Yeah," Toph sighed wistfully. "That's one thing you miss out on when you see with your feet, kissing is a little fuzzy. Of course, the good bits are usually action packed so I can get a good view of that."
"Have you been spying on them, you little sneak?" Suki asked. There was no anger in her voice, only admiration.
"Not deliberately," Toph admitted. "It's not like I can turn the vibrations off, you know? It's weird, though, I always thought Sokka would be the bottom boy. He's so--" she flapped a hand impatiently. "Bottom-y. Zuko never struck me as the type. Hm," Toph considered it. "I bet he's pretty bossy, even on his knees."
"Yeah," Suki said, amused. "And I think Sokka is a big bottom boy, he just hasn't figured it out yet. Did you notice him walking a little funny the past couple of days?"
"I did!" Toph slapped her forehead. "I should have known!"
Toph felt Suki looking around before she leaned in to whisper, "I'm pretty sure that was his first time."
"He doesn't tell you everything?"
"Nope," Suki shrugged again. "I'd love to hear it, I mean, hello hotness, but he doesn't tell me everything. Just most of it."
"I would have thought Sokka even jabbered in his sleep."
"He does," Suki snickered. "But not about sex. He talked about blubbered seal jerky for an hour, once."
"That sucks," Toph exclaimed, slamming a fist into the ground hard enough that a rain of pebbles rose and fell lightly over them. "If I had to listen to him all night I would at least want a running commentary on sexy bits."
Suki was silent a long moment before she said, softly. "I watched them, once."
"Really?" Toph lowered her own voice. Not that she was all that great at girly bonding but even she recognized the, 'don't tell anyone I told you this' voice.
"Yeah, in the bathtub."
"You were in the tub with them!" Toph squeaked. "How did I miss knowing about this! I know everything!"
"It didn't end well," Suki sounded unhappy and didn't elaborate. "But at the time, Sokka was really--" she blew out a sharp breath. "He was wild. And Zuko just let him do whatever he wanted, right there in the tub."
"Wow..." Toph was seriously impressed. "I wouldn't have thought Sokka had it in him."
"He didn't, Zuko did."
It took a second and then, "Ha! You're dirty, I like you."
Suki laughed softly. "Thank you."
They sat there a little while longer, Toph sprawling back on the courtyard, shifting rocks and earth enough to make a comfortable little place to lie, before she said, "Sooo, do you ever try the chocolate side of the iced cream cone?"
"You are way too young for me," Suki said instantly.
Damn. "What, I was just asking," Toph complained.
"No, you weren't," Suki said calmly. "You were broaching the subject slowly and you were going to work up to asking me to kiss you, providing you could think of a reasonable excuse. I'm hoping it wasn't the 'I might die a virgin' one, it's really overplayed."
"Hrmph, I knew Twinkletoes couldn't come up with a plan to save his life," Toph complained. "He told me it would work!"
"Who did he try it on?" Suki asked laughingly. She was moving, doing something to her hair.
"Uh..." Okay, maybe she was hanging around Sokka too often. Her mouth was starting to get an impulse control problem of its own. Unfortunately, Suki didn't seem to be hanging around Sokka enough because she was figuring things out on her own.
"It wasn't Katara, she would have told me," Suki mused. "It obviously wasn't you. That leaves Sokka and...ah. It was Zuko, wasn't it."
"Yeah," Toph sighed glumly.
"He fell for it, didn't he."
"Boys aren't very smart."
"No, they-" Suki cocked her head to the side, listening, at the same moment Toph felt someone, no, two someone's walking down the path. Zuko and if her feet told true, he had stripped off his shirt, mm, well, that verified what they'd been doing on the beach. It was a shame her sand vision was still fuzzy, maybe she should work on that while they were here. Sokka was walking right beside him and-wait a second-
"Sokka, what happened to your clothes?" Suki exclaimed. Both boys jumped, Zuko with a burst of sparks and Sokka with a decidedly girly shriek, which really went along with the way he was wearing Zuko's shirt as a sort of makeshift skirt. Toph slapped a foot on the ground. A really short makeshift skirt, according to her very untwinkling toes.
Zuko still believed in the power of silence and only stood there letting Sokka warble and flail about the ocean attacking them and gobbling up his clothes and it was a good thing they were only Zuko's hand-me-downs and tomorrow, maybe they could go shopping tomorrow and get him something decent to wear, if of course he could find any other clothes to wear to the market because it wasn't like he could wear Zuko's shirt into town, at least not like this--
"I think it's sweet, sharing clothes," Toph broke in loudly. "Next you'll be doing each other's hair, right? Katara was just saying that Zuko could use a little styling, what do you say, Sokka?"
The brief silence was deafening and then.
"We are not doing each other's hair!"
"What do you mean I need some style!"
The chorus of wounded masculinity was like a lullaby to her soul and Toph stood and stretched with a loud yawn. "Well, thanks for the music and the show, but I'm hitting the sack. See you in the morning; hopefully a little less of you, Sokka."
"Toph, wait," Suki said behind her as she climbed to her feet. Toph turned to her expectantly. All this girly bonding was bound to have a price but hey, she'd call it worth it for information gained.
The soft feel of lips against her own was completely unexpected, gentle pressure accompanied by the soft flick of a tongue against her lips. Toph opened to it automatically, hopefully, and to her delight Suki obliged, the velvety wetness of her tongue caressing Toph's far too briefly before she pulled away.
Soft lips brushed her ear as Suki leaned in to whisper, "I know you can't see it but trust me when I say that we aren't the only ones who like a good show."
With that, Suki sauntered away, walking past the two boys and Toph didn't have to see their faces to know they were gaping at the two of them.
Toph graced them with a smirk as she walked past, following Suki into the house. Unlike Sokka, Toph knew that sometimes? You don't have to say a word.
-finis-
Next Chapter
By Keelywolfe
PG
Sokka/Zuko, Hints of Other Pairings
Summary: When you see through vibration, other people can be really annoying at night!
Twelfth in a series:
No Turning Back
Division of Time
Conflicted
Manly Pursuits
Interlude: Aang
Say Anything
Interlude, Suki
Random Curiosity
Envy Was A Fever
Couldn't Drag Me Away
For the Love of Cheese
The only bad thing about seeing through vibration was that, unlike eyes, vibrations never turned off. Toph was pretty used to it by now and she could usually shut out the things she wasn't interested in. But there were times, like tonight, when she was trying to sleep like a normal person would at god-knows-what-time at night, when she couldn't quite get the vibrations out of her head.
She rolled over with a sigh, stuffing her pillow over her head and winding her blanket around her feet. Someone was out there, keeping her awake, and it was starting to get really annoying. She knew who it was, of course; she could tell who every person in their group was by the way they moved. Aang, lightly prancing around like the Twinkletoes he was, Sokka, trampling around like a moose-lion, Zuko, surprisingly easy on his feet for a guy weighted down with all those issues. In fact, Sokka was pretty easy on his feet when Zuko was around, or rather, easy with his body and boy, those were some vibration images to cherish.
Speaking about vibrations, the ones keeping her up tickled back in, like someone tapping on the bottom of her feet and Toph finally gave in, scratching grumpily as she made her way outside to get to the bottom of this. Not that she usually cared about the nighttime activities of the others but this time it was interfering with her nighttime activities, namely sleeping. The night that Zuko and Sokka had snuck off on their fishing trip, she'd known they were up and about but at the time, she'd just figured they were sneaking off to make out somewhere. Like they hadn't been obvious from the very start, man, she'd expected Sokka to start mooning over Hotman Moodybutt much sooner than he had.
She didn't bother putting on any clothes, her underclothes were decent enough to sleep in so they must be decent enough for a little night time jaunt. It didn't take long to follow the vibrations to the courtyard and the person there didn't hesitate in their katas, moving and twisted with expert precision.
"What are you doing out here?" Toph yawned, rubbing her eyes. Weird that she couldn't see out of them but they were still dry after she woke up.
Suki finished her last form before she turned to Toph, "Practicing."
"Shouldn't you be getting all hot and bothered with our fearless leader by now?" Toph flopped down to sit crosslegged on the ground, the pebbles scattering before her butt hit them.
"He's with Zuko." There was a soft sound, a towel being rubbed over sweaty skin. "He was really upset after the play."
"Yeah, the end really did suck," she agreed. Understatement. She'd half expected Zuko to throw himself on a sword. Every step he'd taken as they'd walked away from the theater had been leaden, heavy as an elephant-horse. "You know, not that this is any of my business, but Sokka seems to be spending a lot of time with Zuko lately."
"I know."
"And you're okay with that?"
"What do you think I should do?" Suki sounded genuinely interested. "Yell? Hit him? Demand he pay more attention to me?"
"Yeah! I would start with the hitting, though."
She could hear the smile in Suki's voice. "I've seen all kinds of these trios before. It always starts out evenly and everyone is happy but eventually, it leans from one side to the other until it gets situated."
"And what, you don't even want to try to win?" That didn't sound like the greatest plan to Toph but what did she know? Sokka was the plan guy and even he didn't seem to have a clue in this situation.
"It's not about winning, Toph. I know Sokka loves me. It's about preference. It's like iced cream. It's not really his fault if he wants chocolate right now instead of vanilla and I can't fault him for it."
Toph considered that, toeing the pebbles at her feet. "You just want to beat the crap out of both of them, don't you."
"Yeah, pretty much."
"What are you going to do?"
"Wait until they get things figured out," Suki walked over and sat down next to Toph. "It doesn't take a genius to see they're both pretty new to this kind of stuff."
Toph snorted, "With the way those two dummies are acting, it could be years before they realize what's going on."
"Maybe." Toph felt the faint ripple of motion that meant Suki was shrugging. "But Zuko--" she hesitated. "I love Sokka and I want him, but I think just now Zuko really needs him more than I do."
Inspiration struck, like a flash of light that Toph would never be able to see. "You have a thing for Zuko, too!"
Soft laugh. "What's not to want?"
"He's all, woe and betide, I was once the evil and now I'm just this gloomy guy with bad hair." Toph flung herself to the ground, dramatically pressing the back of a hand to her forehead.
Suki laughed again. "He's also tall, muscled, an excellent warrior, and he kisses really well. Besides, his hair isn't that bad, Katara only said that because she was grouchy that Zuko brained Sokka."
That perked Toph up. "You kissed him?"
"Once," Suki leaned in, whispering conspiratorially. "His mouth was hot and he tasted like jasmine tea."
"And Sokka was all cool with that?" Relationships were weird.
"Sokka is cool with a lot of things that get him a good view."
"Yeah," Toph sighed wistfully. "That's one thing you miss out on when you see with your feet, kissing is a little fuzzy. Of course, the good bits are usually action packed so I can get a good view of that."
"Have you been spying on them, you little sneak?" Suki asked. There was no anger in her voice, only admiration.
"Not deliberately," Toph admitted. "It's not like I can turn the vibrations off, you know? It's weird, though, I always thought Sokka would be the bottom boy. He's so--" she flapped a hand impatiently. "Bottom-y. Zuko never struck me as the type. Hm," Toph considered it. "I bet he's pretty bossy, even on his knees."
"Yeah," Suki said, amused. "And I think Sokka is a big bottom boy, he just hasn't figured it out yet. Did you notice him walking a little funny the past couple of days?"
"I did!" Toph slapped her forehead. "I should have known!"
Toph felt Suki looking around before she leaned in to whisper, "I'm pretty sure that was his first time."
"He doesn't tell you everything?"
"Nope," Suki shrugged again. "I'd love to hear it, I mean, hello hotness, but he doesn't tell me everything. Just most of it."
"I would have thought Sokka even jabbered in his sleep."
"He does," Suki snickered. "But not about sex. He talked about blubbered seal jerky for an hour, once."
"That sucks," Toph exclaimed, slamming a fist into the ground hard enough that a rain of pebbles rose and fell lightly over them. "If I had to listen to him all night I would at least want a running commentary on sexy bits."
Suki was silent a long moment before she said, softly. "I watched them, once."
"Really?" Toph lowered her own voice. Not that she was all that great at girly bonding but even she recognized the, 'don't tell anyone I told you this' voice.
"Yeah, in the bathtub."
"You were in the tub with them!" Toph squeaked. "How did I miss knowing about this! I know everything!"
"It didn't end well," Suki sounded unhappy and didn't elaborate. "But at the time, Sokka was really--" she blew out a sharp breath. "He was wild. And Zuko just let him do whatever he wanted, right there in the tub."
"Wow..." Toph was seriously impressed. "I wouldn't have thought Sokka had it in him."
"He didn't, Zuko did."
It took a second and then, "Ha! You're dirty, I like you."
Suki laughed softly. "Thank you."
They sat there a little while longer, Toph sprawling back on the courtyard, shifting rocks and earth enough to make a comfortable little place to lie, before she said, "Sooo, do you ever try the chocolate side of the iced cream cone?"
"You are way too young for me," Suki said instantly.
Damn. "What, I was just asking," Toph complained.
"No, you weren't," Suki said calmly. "You were broaching the subject slowly and you were going to work up to asking me to kiss you, providing you could think of a reasonable excuse. I'm hoping it wasn't the 'I might die a virgin' one, it's really overplayed."
"Hrmph, I knew Twinkletoes couldn't come up with a plan to save his life," Toph complained. "He told me it would work!"
"Who did he try it on?" Suki asked laughingly. She was moving, doing something to her hair.
"Uh..." Okay, maybe she was hanging around Sokka too often. Her mouth was starting to get an impulse control problem of its own. Unfortunately, Suki didn't seem to be hanging around Sokka enough because she was figuring things out on her own.
"It wasn't Katara, she would have told me," Suki mused. "It obviously wasn't you. That leaves Sokka and...ah. It was Zuko, wasn't it."
"Yeah," Toph sighed glumly.
"He fell for it, didn't he."
"Boys aren't very smart."
"No, they-" Suki cocked her head to the side, listening, at the same moment Toph felt someone, no, two someone's walking down the path. Zuko and if her feet told true, he had stripped off his shirt, mm, well, that verified what they'd been doing on the beach. It was a shame her sand vision was still fuzzy, maybe she should work on that while they were here. Sokka was walking right beside him and-wait a second-
"Sokka, what happened to your clothes?" Suki exclaimed. Both boys jumped, Zuko with a burst of sparks and Sokka with a decidedly girly shriek, which really went along with the way he was wearing Zuko's shirt as a sort of makeshift skirt. Toph slapped a foot on the ground. A really short makeshift skirt, according to her very untwinkling toes.
Zuko still believed in the power of silence and only stood there letting Sokka warble and flail about the ocean attacking them and gobbling up his clothes and it was a good thing they were only Zuko's hand-me-downs and tomorrow, maybe they could go shopping tomorrow and get him something decent to wear, if of course he could find any other clothes to wear to the market because it wasn't like he could wear Zuko's shirt into town, at least not like this--
"I think it's sweet, sharing clothes," Toph broke in loudly. "Next you'll be doing each other's hair, right? Katara was just saying that Zuko could use a little styling, what do you say, Sokka?"
The brief silence was deafening and then.
"We are not doing each other's hair!"
"What do you mean I need some style!"
The chorus of wounded masculinity was like a lullaby to her soul and Toph stood and stretched with a loud yawn. "Well, thanks for the music and the show, but I'm hitting the sack. See you in the morning; hopefully a little less of you, Sokka."
"Toph, wait," Suki said behind her as she climbed to her feet. Toph turned to her expectantly. All this girly bonding was bound to have a price but hey, she'd call it worth it for information gained.
The soft feel of lips against her own was completely unexpected, gentle pressure accompanied by the soft flick of a tongue against her lips. Toph opened to it automatically, hopefully, and to her delight Suki obliged, the velvety wetness of her tongue caressing Toph's far too briefly before she pulled away.
Soft lips brushed her ear as Suki leaned in to whisper, "I know you can't see it but trust me when I say that we aren't the only ones who like a good show."
With that, Suki sauntered away, walking past the two boys and Toph didn't have to see their faces to know they were gaping at the two of them.
Toph graced them with a smirk as she walked past, following Suki into the house. Unlike Sokka, Toph knew that sometimes? You don't have to say a word.
-finis-
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