Avatar: And When the Gauntlet's Down: Chapter 3
Title: And When the Gauntlet's Down
Rating: T
Characters: Toph/Sokka
Summary: Sokka's instincts cause him to nearly blow a mission. Toph is affronted.
A/N: I kinda forgot about keeping up on posting these on LJ. *blush*. This is another chapter from me "Zuko as a crazy assed Fire Lord" soap opera AU, more information which can be found out here in Chapter 1. I really need to backdate an entry just explaining it and putting the chapters in chronological order (because they are neither posted nor written in order), but if you're really outrageously confused, feel free to leave comments letting me know.
This chapter is the first of a three chapter mini arc, exploring the relationships between Sokka and Toph, and Aang and Katara, and how they relate to each other. It actually takes place several years before the first two chapters, putting Toph at 16 and Sokka at 19. Zuko's War has been going on for about a year and a half - two years at this point.
Chapter 3 - Fine Line, Between Love and Alibis
The smell of saltwater washed over them, spilling into their mouths with every breath they took, whipping around them in the sea breeze and washing over them as the tide hit the shore.
Sokka found himself relaxing for a moment, leaning casually against the wall in a dark dead-end alley within sight of the ocean. It was near evening, the time of day when the sky was dark orange fading into purple, barely any visibility possible if not for the round moon Sokka knew was rising behind him, if he cared enough to turn around and look. He zoned out, eyes trained on the shore, losing himself in his blank mind and enjoying the calming sound of crashing waves. Occasionally a dark silhouette would interrupt his line of vision; Toph was pacing relentlessly in her determination to feel out the whole scene before allowing them to move.
They were undercover in a little Earth Kingdom seaside port that was now occupied by the Fire Nation, looking for information on the remains of Lord Zuko’s navy and who, exactly, was running things here in the Fire Lord’s stead, and what kind of operations he was running in order to capture the Avatar or his Companions. This had led them to the dirtiest, grungiest, loudest bar in town, the surest place to get into a fight that was also the most popular resting spot for members of the navy on shore leave.
Sokka was unsure about their plan of action; Toph had easily overridden his objections - he never really had stood a chance against her, but lately it was getting harder than usual to argue with her. There was a loud crash from inside the bar next to him - Toph startled in surprise - but he merely sighed and reflected that he shouldn’t have been surprised that Toph would be drawn to such places; someone who preferred the deepest, darkest parts of the earth probably would prefer the darkest, dirtiest parts of humanity as well. She never really felt comfortable in polite society - memories of the never-ending balls and state dinners from the very short time of peace filtered through his mind - and it was kind of a shame, he thought, that now that she was old enough to really enjoy the benefits of sitting in a dirty bar, drinking and singing bawdy songs, that she had to do so with an edge of paranoia, never sure who might be right behind her.
They’d gotten stuck together with more and more missions of this nature when the fighting had started up again; Aang was by far the most wanted human being on the planet, and Katara was stuck to his side at all times; Sokka and Toph, while both recognizable and wanted as well, were better at hiding and looking inconspicuous. (“You mean we’re better at lying!” Toph had cheerfully informed Aang, who’d gone beet red but hadn’t disagreed.)
“Hey!” a small hand landed a blow to the side of his head. He stumbled forward and rubbed the wounded spot, looking at Toph and frowning.
“What was that for?”
“You’re staring off into space again.” Her frown was just as fierce as his. “You aren’t going to be distracted the whole night, are you? Because there’s a whole bar filled with Fire Nation soldiers next to us, and you’re so out of it you didn’t even see my hit coming.”
He snorted in irritation and reached out and caught the edge of her hood, drawing it forward. “Well you didn’t realize that your hood was so far back that I could see your eyes. Anyone will know who you are in an instant.”
She batted his hands away impatiently. “I did too know! I was waiting for you to get your head together so we can get into the bar and get this over with.”
He knew that tone; it was more cranky embarrassment than any actual annoyance - she didn’t like to let anyone catch her in a mistake like that. “Alright. Are you ready to go?”
She put one hand back up to the stone wall, checking out the scene one last time. “Let’s go.”
Fire Lord Zuko had made cigars fashionable. Sokka hated them with an intense passion; the smoke stank and bothered his nose. Toph hated the smoke as well; even though she could see with her feet she used all her sense to keep a complete picture of everything around her in her mind and the smoke interrupted that sense of flow in her senses. Much to their chagrin, almost every single soldier in the bar had a cigar hanging out of their mouth, most of them blowing smoke right in the pair’s faces as they slurred on about where they were being stationed next or why they had been sent to the Earth Kingdom; all useful information, but an overall intensely annoying atmosphere.
They had both gone past their two drink limit and broken their cardinal rule about sticking together; at some point, two older, grizzled-looking soldiers at the bar had taken a liking to Sokka and boxed him in at the counter; their lips had loosened with age and Sokka allowed himself to indulge as they kept the rounds coming while they talked his ears off.
Out of the corner of his eye, he kept a close watch on Toph, who had made friends with a group of younger men crowded around one of the tables in the corner of the room. She’d earned her way to the table - and several rounds of free drinks - by beating every single one of them in arm wrestling, a tactic that’d made him intensely nervous, though outside of the one stray comment about her height and the fact that her hood was drawn up, no one seemed to notice yet that anything was off about her.
The table - which had grown so popular that it now expanded to include several other tables that had been hastily pulled over - was now creating a terrible ruckus as the members of the group attempted to out-brag each other while telling stories of terribly macho feats. Sokka watched with interest while making a mental note to investigate some of the locations the two older gentlemen were going on about - it appeared there were active Fire Nation bases in the south, just as Aang had feared.
“No, no, no!” the guy next to Toph shouted, waving his arms in another’s face before curling an arm and flexing a muscle. “You want muscles like these, you have to drink at least three raw dragon’s eggs every morning-“
Toph laughed, putting a hand up under her hood to her mouth. The soldier frowned at her. “Laugh all you want, but it really puts hair on your chest.” He accompanied this statement by reaching out and slipping a hand in Toph’s cloak, giving her a friendly pat on the chest. A strange, half-confused look crossed his face; his hand didn’t move.
Sokka’s brain short-circuited.
What happened next seemed to come in slow motion; he automatically bolted from the bar, rudely interrupting one of the men who was speaking to him and booked it over to the table, a single thought in his mind: Protect Toph. Then time blurred, and the next thing he knew he’d picked the guy up by his collar and heaved him halfway across the room.
The bar went silent.
Before he could even take a breath a balled-up fist slammed into the side of his face. Sokka hit the floor hard, barely hearing the sounds of crashing and scuffling over the ringing in his ears.
Time blurred again, and the next time he came around again he was back outside, the salty air blasting into his face and forcing him awake. They were back in the alley they had started out in; Sokka slumped against the wall, Toph standing in front of him, arms crossed in anger.
“Are they…” Sokka rubbed his face and forced himself to stand, using the wall for support. “Are they fighting in there?”
“They sure are!” she exclaimed in a cheerfully sarcastic voice.
“Did you…” His mind was finally starting to clear. “Did you hit the guy that hit me?”
“I’m the one who hit you, moron.” Toph snapped.
Maybe his mind wasn’t clearing as much as he’d hoped. “Huh?”
She huffed, as if it should have been obvious. “Of course I hit you, you idiot. I had to start the brawl so that people didn’t start asking questions. I could have played that off easily. I could have said there was armor or something - why did you just haul off and attack that guy for no reason?”
“No reason?” Sokka sputtered, his voice cracking in disbelief. “No reason?! He - he was - Toph - did you realize - he was,” his stumbled over his words, unsure how to phrase it and settled on hissing, “He was touching you inappropriately.”
“For a girl, yes! But he thought I was a guy! I didn’t need your help!”
“I wasn’t-“ Sokka wasn’t sure how to make her understand that what he’d done had been out of instinct and didn’t actually reflect his opinion of her fighting skills.
“Why did you get involved? You’re little bit of “help” in there nearly blew the mission entirely! You could have exposed both of us!”
“Damnit, Toph, I just wanted to protect you!” he burst, interrupting her tirade. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wished to take them back.
She gaped at him, her face twisted in disgust. “I have never needed your protection!”
Which was exactly why he was so desperate to give it, though she’d never understand. He made a useless attempt to pacify her. “I know you don’t need me to protect you, but-“
“But nothing!” she half-shrieked, her voice rising dangerously. “I always thought you, of all people, would know that I didn’t need anyone’s help -“
“Of course you don’t need my help!” Sokka shouted, leaning forward and grasping her by the shoulders and squeezing, trying to force the understanding into her. “But I’m not going to just sit there either! I can’t just let something happen to you right in front of me! You can protect yourself all you want, but if I can prevent something from happening to you, then I will. Because -“ he cut himself off. This was going into different territory, something they had both skirted the borders of but remained uncharted still. “Because nothing can happen to you,” he finished quietly, hoping it would be explanation enough as his heart raced loudly in his ears.
There was a long pause from Toph. Her head was down, eyes trained to the ground as if she were concentrating hard on something. The hood of her cloak had fallen partway back again, but her long bangs had fallen into her face and he couldn’t gauge her feelings at all - she was, literally, like a rock.
Finally she moved, shrugging out of his hold and turning her back to him.
“I can tell you’re lying,” she said quietly in a toneless voice. “You don’t respect me, and you think I’m still a child.”
With these words, she left him in the back of the alleyway, walking back towards the entrance to melt in with society.
“Toph!” he called, unsure of what had just happened and desperate to make her understand.
She stopped but didn’t turn back to him. “You nearly blew our cover once,” she said in that same toneless, dead voice. “Don’t do it again.” Then she slipped out of the shadows and back into the real world, easily mixing in with the crowds that were starting to spill out of the bar.
“Blow our cover?” he screeched. “Your hood is down again!”
Even though there was no response, he was pretty sure she had heard him; her hearing was certainly acute enough to pick him out of a chattering crowd. Sokka sighed and dropped his head against the stone wall in frustration, wondering how awkward the trip back to their head camp was going to be with Toph refusing to speak to him.
A/N: Part of the reason I enjoy Sokka and Toph so much is that they both have their protection issues - Toph can’t stand the idea of anyone helping her and Sokka can’t stand the idea of letting someone protect themselves. Which makes them fun to write.
Oh stubborn Toph. You think she’d have learned already that just because someone’s heart is going nuts doesn’t necessarily mean they’re lying.
Rating: T
Characters: Toph/Sokka
Summary: Sokka's instincts cause him to nearly blow a mission. Toph is affronted.
A/N: I kinda forgot about keeping up on posting these on LJ. *blush*. This is another chapter from me "Zuko as a crazy assed Fire Lord" soap opera AU, more information which can be found out here in Chapter 1. I really need to backdate an entry just explaining it and putting the chapters in chronological order (because they are neither posted nor written in order), but if you're really outrageously confused, feel free to leave comments letting me know.
This chapter is the first of a three chapter mini arc, exploring the relationships between Sokka and Toph, and Aang and Katara, and how they relate to each other. It actually takes place several years before the first two chapters, putting Toph at 16 and Sokka at 19. Zuko's War has been going on for about a year and a half - two years at this point.
Chapter 3 - Fine Line, Between Love and Alibis
The smell of saltwater washed over them, spilling into their mouths with every breath they took, whipping around them in the sea breeze and washing over them as the tide hit the shore.
Sokka found himself relaxing for a moment, leaning casually against the wall in a dark dead-end alley within sight of the ocean. It was near evening, the time of day when the sky was dark orange fading into purple, barely any visibility possible if not for the round moon Sokka knew was rising behind him, if he cared enough to turn around and look. He zoned out, eyes trained on the shore, losing himself in his blank mind and enjoying the calming sound of crashing waves. Occasionally a dark silhouette would interrupt his line of vision; Toph was pacing relentlessly in her determination to feel out the whole scene before allowing them to move.
They were undercover in a little Earth Kingdom seaside port that was now occupied by the Fire Nation, looking for information on the remains of Lord Zuko’s navy and who, exactly, was running things here in the Fire Lord’s stead, and what kind of operations he was running in order to capture the Avatar or his Companions. This had led them to the dirtiest, grungiest, loudest bar in town, the surest place to get into a fight that was also the most popular resting spot for members of the navy on shore leave.
Sokka was unsure about their plan of action; Toph had easily overridden his objections - he never really had stood a chance against her, but lately it was getting harder than usual to argue with her. There was a loud crash from inside the bar next to him - Toph startled in surprise - but he merely sighed and reflected that he shouldn’t have been surprised that Toph would be drawn to such places; someone who preferred the deepest, darkest parts of the earth probably would prefer the darkest, dirtiest parts of humanity as well. She never really felt comfortable in polite society - memories of the never-ending balls and state dinners from the very short time of peace filtered through his mind - and it was kind of a shame, he thought, that now that she was old enough to really enjoy the benefits of sitting in a dirty bar, drinking and singing bawdy songs, that she had to do so with an edge of paranoia, never sure who might be right behind her.
They’d gotten stuck together with more and more missions of this nature when the fighting had started up again; Aang was by far the most wanted human being on the planet, and Katara was stuck to his side at all times; Sokka and Toph, while both recognizable and wanted as well, were better at hiding and looking inconspicuous. (“You mean we’re better at lying!” Toph had cheerfully informed Aang, who’d gone beet red but hadn’t disagreed.)
“Hey!” a small hand landed a blow to the side of his head. He stumbled forward and rubbed the wounded spot, looking at Toph and frowning.
“What was that for?”
“You’re staring off into space again.” Her frown was just as fierce as his. “You aren’t going to be distracted the whole night, are you? Because there’s a whole bar filled with Fire Nation soldiers next to us, and you’re so out of it you didn’t even see my hit coming.”
He snorted in irritation and reached out and caught the edge of her hood, drawing it forward. “Well you didn’t realize that your hood was so far back that I could see your eyes. Anyone will know who you are in an instant.”
She batted his hands away impatiently. “I did too know! I was waiting for you to get your head together so we can get into the bar and get this over with.”
He knew that tone; it was more cranky embarrassment than any actual annoyance - she didn’t like to let anyone catch her in a mistake like that. “Alright. Are you ready to go?”
She put one hand back up to the stone wall, checking out the scene one last time. “Let’s go.”
Fire Lord Zuko had made cigars fashionable. Sokka hated them with an intense passion; the smoke stank and bothered his nose. Toph hated the smoke as well; even though she could see with her feet she used all her sense to keep a complete picture of everything around her in her mind and the smoke interrupted that sense of flow in her senses. Much to their chagrin, almost every single soldier in the bar had a cigar hanging out of their mouth, most of them blowing smoke right in the pair’s faces as they slurred on about where they were being stationed next or why they had been sent to the Earth Kingdom; all useful information, but an overall intensely annoying atmosphere.
They had both gone past their two drink limit and broken their cardinal rule about sticking together; at some point, two older, grizzled-looking soldiers at the bar had taken a liking to Sokka and boxed him in at the counter; their lips had loosened with age and Sokka allowed himself to indulge as they kept the rounds coming while they talked his ears off.
Out of the corner of his eye, he kept a close watch on Toph, who had made friends with a group of younger men crowded around one of the tables in the corner of the room. She’d earned her way to the table - and several rounds of free drinks - by beating every single one of them in arm wrestling, a tactic that’d made him intensely nervous, though outside of the one stray comment about her height and the fact that her hood was drawn up, no one seemed to notice yet that anything was off about her.
The table - which had grown so popular that it now expanded to include several other tables that had been hastily pulled over - was now creating a terrible ruckus as the members of the group attempted to out-brag each other while telling stories of terribly macho feats. Sokka watched with interest while making a mental note to investigate some of the locations the two older gentlemen were going on about - it appeared there were active Fire Nation bases in the south, just as Aang had feared.
“No, no, no!” the guy next to Toph shouted, waving his arms in another’s face before curling an arm and flexing a muscle. “You want muscles like these, you have to drink at least three raw dragon’s eggs every morning-“
Toph laughed, putting a hand up under her hood to her mouth. The soldier frowned at her. “Laugh all you want, but it really puts hair on your chest.” He accompanied this statement by reaching out and slipping a hand in Toph’s cloak, giving her a friendly pat on the chest. A strange, half-confused look crossed his face; his hand didn’t move.
Sokka’s brain short-circuited.
What happened next seemed to come in slow motion; he automatically bolted from the bar, rudely interrupting one of the men who was speaking to him and booked it over to the table, a single thought in his mind: Protect Toph. Then time blurred, and the next thing he knew he’d picked the guy up by his collar and heaved him halfway across the room.
The bar went silent.
Before he could even take a breath a balled-up fist slammed into the side of his face. Sokka hit the floor hard, barely hearing the sounds of crashing and scuffling over the ringing in his ears.
Time blurred again, and the next time he came around again he was back outside, the salty air blasting into his face and forcing him awake. They were back in the alley they had started out in; Sokka slumped against the wall, Toph standing in front of him, arms crossed in anger.
“Are they…” Sokka rubbed his face and forced himself to stand, using the wall for support. “Are they fighting in there?”
“They sure are!” she exclaimed in a cheerfully sarcastic voice.
“Did you…” His mind was finally starting to clear. “Did you hit the guy that hit me?”
“I’m the one who hit you, moron.” Toph snapped.
Maybe his mind wasn’t clearing as much as he’d hoped. “Huh?”
She huffed, as if it should have been obvious. “Of course I hit you, you idiot. I had to start the brawl so that people didn’t start asking questions. I could have played that off easily. I could have said there was armor or something - why did you just haul off and attack that guy for no reason?”
“No reason?” Sokka sputtered, his voice cracking in disbelief. “No reason?! He - he was - Toph - did you realize - he was,” his stumbled over his words, unsure how to phrase it and settled on hissing, “He was touching you inappropriately.”
“For a girl, yes! But he thought I was a guy! I didn’t need your help!”
“I wasn’t-“ Sokka wasn’t sure how to make her understand that what he’d done had been out of instinct and didn’t actually reflect his opinion of her fighting skills.
“Why did you get involved? You’re little bit of “help” in there nearly blew the mission entirely! You could have exposed both of us!”
“Damnit, Toph, I just wanted to protect you!” he burst, interrupting her tirade. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wished to take them back.
She gaped at him, her face twisted in disgust. “I have never needed your protection!”
Which was exactly why he was so desperate to give it, though she’d never understand. He made a useless attempt to pacify her. “I know you don’t need me to protect you, but-“
“But nothing!” she half-shrieked, her voice rising dangerously. “I always thought you, of all people, would know that I didn’t need anyone’s help -“
“Of course you don’t need my help!” Sokka shouted, leaning forward and grasping her by the shoulders and squeezing, trying to force the understanding into her. “But I’m not going to just sit there either! I can’t just let something happen to you right in front of me! You can protect yourself all you want, but if I can prevent something from happening to you, then I will. Because -“ he cut himself off. This was going into different territory, something they had both skirted the borders of but remained uncharted still. “Because nothing can happen to you,” he finished quietly, hoping it would be explanation enough as his heart raced loudly in his ears.
There was a long pause from Toph. Her head was down, eyes trained to the ground as if she were concentrating hard on something. The hood of her cloak had fallen partway back again, but her long bangs had fallen into her face and he couldn’t gauge her feelings at all - she was, literally, like a rock.
Finally she moved, shrugging out of his hold and turning her back to him.
“I can tell you’re lying,” she said quietly in a toneless voice. “You don’t respect me, and you think I’m still a child.”
With these words, she left him in the back of the alleyway, walking back towards the entrance to melt in with society.
“Toph!” he called, unsure of what had just happened and desperate to make her understand.
She stopped but didn’t turn back to him. “You nearly blew our cover once,” she said in that same toneless, dead voice. “Don’t do it again.” Then she slipped out of the shadows and back into the real world, easily mixing in with the crowds that were starting to spill out of the bar.
“Blow our cover?” he screeched. “Your hood is down again!”
Even though there was no response, he was pretty sure she had heard him; her hearing was certainly acute enough to pick him out of a chattering crowd. Sokka sighed and dropped his head against the stone wall in frustration, wondering how awkward the trip back to their head camp was going to be with Toph refusing to speak to him.
A/N: Part of the reason I enjoy Sokka and Toph so much is that they both have their protection issues - Toph can’t stand the idea of anyone helping her and Sokka can’t stand the idea of letting someone protect themselves. Which makes them fun to write.
Oh stubborn Toph. You think she’d have learned already that just because someone’s heart is going nuts doesn’t necessarily mean they’re lying.