AtLA: Jealous of the Moon
Title: Jealous of the Moon
Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender
Author: kawaiispinel
Feedback: ...Is loverly.
Word Count: 798
Rating: G
Prompt: 29. Affaire de Coeur
Characters: Toph, mentions of Sokka and Yue.
Pairings: One-sided Toph/Sokka. Sokka/Yue.
Summary: Maybe she was just a bit jealous... Maybe.
Disclaimer: It's still not mine. Really.
Author's Note: Jeebus, I've had this thing sitting on my computer for ages, because I didn't want to post it until I'd finished The Lily Among the Thorns, because it's set in the same 'verse.
She wasn’t here by choice, but by Aang’s pleading request, which she had trouble refusing. They had a Waterbending Master to find and he wasn’t about to lose his Earthbending teacher in the shuffle, which meant she was spending quite a bit of time in a place she wouldn’t have wished on anyone in her position.
She wondered if the North Pole was really as beautiful as everyone kept telling her it was. She couldn’t see how a place filled with nothing but ice could even compare to her world where the earth could be felt under her feet and she could see for miles, as it should be. Also it was cold here- freezing would probably be a better word, and she was used to the far more temperate climate of the Earth Kingdom. It wasn’t her idea of paradise.
Making matters worse was Sokka, or as she was wont to start calling him now, North Pole Sokka, as ever since he’d set foot in this icy world, he’d become someone she didn’t recognize, someone she couldn’t cling to because she couldn’t see (she hated to cling to anyone, really, but desperate times called for desperate measures and she’d prefer to cling to him than anyone else). He seemed to be exuding some strange sort of euphoria and it didn’t take her three guesses to figure out why. Sokka had been flirting with the princess without restraint since the second he laid eyes on her, talking about her when she wasn’t around to anyone who would listen (she’d made it a point not to be around when he started that up, because she didn’t want to hear it, but there had been times when she was a bit too slow and perhaps a bit too needy of his company), and generally ignoring her. She had gotten so used to his presence by her side ever since Omashu that it felt strange and foreign to be without him again.
Also she might have been jealous, maybe.
She had no way of knowing whether or not the princess was beautiful, but somehow she couldn’t help but believe it. The sound and cadence of her voice spoke of beauty and power and all the sorts of things one expects from a princess in a fairy tale. It would be so easy to hate her for all of that if she hadn’t once been that same girl once upon a time. Perhaps not a real princess, but close enough to one, and as much as she hated to admit it, she and Yue were kindred. The only difference was that Toph had forsaken that life and Yue was still bound to it. There were moments when she wanted to ask Yue whether or not she really wanted this life, but she already knew the answer, because also unlike her, she had this icy kingdom and people who loved and respected her. All Toph had was wealth and prosperity and rules that she deemed worthy of breaking.
Although she suspected there was something about the princess that ached for rebellion- she’d fallen in love with Sokka, after all. Oh yes, there was that word that she’d refused to think for the past few days- love. Yue was in love with Sokka and he was in love with her. Yue, as in "Not Toph." She didn’t know why that upset her so much, since love had never been anything she cared about, but a selfish side of her had always thought she’d had some sort of claim to Sokka’s heart. She hadn’t quite realized it was love until now, just when she realized that wasn’t the case.
So maybe she was jealous. Horribly, painfully jealous. And a little bit angry, because to be perfectly honest, she could have been the girl Yue was now. She could have chosen that life, but she didn’t. And where did it get her? She was the Avatar’s Earthbending master and traveling companion... And on the run from hitmen who were willing to kill her because of a certain Earthbending tournament gone awry. (Well, it wasn’t her fault that Xin Fu had bet so much money on her losing Earth Rumble 6 in Omashu. She didn’t lose. Ever.)
Except now, of course. Yes, this was what losing felt like. She didn’t like it much. It left her hollow and cold in a way that had nothing to do with the temperature of this icy place. She preferred winning and there was nothing that could convince her that she might have won this game if she was aware of the rules. She could have competed with Yue then. He could have fallen in love with her first...
She could keep telling herself that. It would make her feel better- for a little while anyway.
Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender
Author: kawaiispinel
Feedback: ...Is loverly.
Word Count: 798
Rating: G
Prompt: 29. Affaire de Coeur
Characters: Toph, mentions of Sokka and Yue.
Pairings: One-sided Toph/Sokka. Sokka/Yue.
Summary: Maybe she was just a bit jealous... Maybe.
Disclaimer: It's still not mine. Really.
Author's Note: Jeebus, I've had this thing sitting on my computer for ages, because I didn't want to post it until I'd finished The Lily Among the Thorns, because it's set in the same 'verse.
She wasn’t here by choice, but by Aang’s pleading request, which she had trouble refusing. They had a Waterbending Master to find and he wasn’t about to lose his Earthbending teacher in the shuffle, which meant she was spending quite a bit of time in a place she wouldn’t have wished on anyone in her position.
She wondered if the North Pole was really as beautiful as everyone kept telling her it was. She couldn’t see how a place filled with nothing but ice could even compare to her world where the earth could be felt under her feet and she could see for miles, as it should be. Also it was cold here- freezing would probably be a better word, and she was used to the far more temperate climate of the Earth Kingdom. It wasn’t her idea of paradise.
Making matters worse was Sokka, or as she was wont to start calling him now, North Pole Sokka, as ever since he’d set foot in this icy world, he’d become someone she didn’t recognize, someone she couldn’t cling to because she couldn’t see (she hated to cling to anyone, really, but desperate times called for desperate measures and she’d prefer to cling to him than anyone else). He seemed to be exuding some strange sort of euphoria and it didn’t take her three guesses to figure out why. Sokka had been flirting with the princess without restraint since the second he laid eyes on her, talking about her when she wasn’t around to anyone who would listen (she’d made it a point not to be around when he started that up, because she didn’t want to hear it, but there had been times when she was a bit too slow and perhaps a bit too needy of his company), and generally ignoring her. She had gotten so used to his presence by her side ever since Omashu that it felt strange and foreign to be without him again.
Also she might have been jealous, maybe.
She had no way of knowing whether or not the princess was beautiful, but somehow she couldn’t help but believe it. The sound and cadence of her voice spoke of beauty and power and all the sorts of things one expects from a princess in a fairy tale. It would be so easy to hate her for all of that if she hadn’t once been that same girl once upon a time. Perhaps not a real princess, but close enough to one, and as much as she hated to admit it, she and Yue were kindred. The only difference was that Toph had forsaken that life and Yue was still bound to it. There were moments when she wanted to ask Yue whether or not she really wanted this life, but she already knew the answer, because also unlike her, she had this icy kingdom and people who loved and respected her. All Toph had was wealth and prosperity and rules that she deemed worthy of breaking.
Although she suspected there was something about the princess that ached for rebellion- she’d fallen in love with Sokka, after all. Oh yes, there was that word that she’d refused to think for the past few days- love. Yue was in love with Sokka and he was in love with her. Yue, as in "Not Toph." She didn’t know why that upset her so much, since love had never been anything she cared about, but a selfish side of her had always thought she’d had some sort of claim to Sokka’s heart. She hadn’t quite realized it was love until now, just when she realized that wasn’t the case.
So maybe she was jealous. Horribly, painfully jealous. And a little bit angry, because to be perfectly honest, she could have been the girl Yue was now. She could have chosen that life, but she didn’t. And where did it get her? She was the Avatar’s Earthbending master and traveling companion... And on the run from hitmen who were willing to kill her because of a certain Earthbending tournament gone awry. (Well, it wasn’t her fault that Xin Fu had bet so much money on her losing Earth Rumble 6 in Omashu. She didn’t lose. Ever.)
Except now, of course. Yes, this was what losing felt like. She didn’t like it much. It left her hollow and cold in a way that had nothing to do with the temperature of this icy place. She preferred winning and there was nothing that could convince her that she might have won this game if she was aware of the rules. She could have competed with Yue then. He could have fallen in love with her first...
She could keep telling herself that. It would make her feel better- for a little while anyway.