Title: Family Matters
Rated: PG
Warnings: Future fic, humor, implied het romance.
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Challenge:
tokka100Prompt: 065 - Birth
Spoilers: None.
Pairings: Sokka x Toph Bei Fong, slight Zuko x Katara.
Summary: Sokka knows how to deal with stressful situations. Really, he does.
Author's Notes: I adore Sokka. Thus, I must torture him. X3
Disclaimer: All things Avatar: the Last Airbender belong to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Grassy only lays claim to the plot.
Pace, pace, pace. Turn. Pace, pace, pace. Turn. Pace, pace, pace. Whirl around.
“Should it be taking this long? Nothing’s going wrong in there, right?”
“You’re asking me?” Sightless green eyes gazed impassively past the panicking mess of a man before her.
“No,” Sokka bit off impatiently. “I’m talking to my other blind, earthbending wife capable of telling me what’s going on in that room.”
“Oh, okay. Then I’ll let her tell you.” Toph smirked, amused despite the tension that permeated the air.
“You- I- Toph!”
“Sweetness is fine, Sokka.”
Sokka nearly collapsed in relief. “Really?”
“Well, no.”
“What?!”
Toph enjoyed the unmanly shrieks coming from her husband. “Did you panic like this when I was in labor?”
“No, of course not. What kind of man do you take me for?”
“I can tell you’re lying,” she sing-songed.
“You’re so cruel,” Sokka whined in frustration.
“Giving birth isn’t easy, so she’s not exactly in happy-happy, la-la land, but nothing seems out of the ordinary.” Toph pulled the restless warrior onto a chair beside her. “Your sister will be fine. If anything, I’d worry about Firefly.”
“Why should I worry about Zuko; he did this to my sister!”
“And you did the same to me. Should I complain?”
Sokka stared at the small pebbles Toph rolled between her fingers calmly. “Uh…no?”
“Thought not.” With a crack, the earthbender uncurled her long fingers, brushing away the fine dust from what had once been stones.
With a determination and fearlessness learned on foreign battlefields, Sokka bravely refused to edge away from his wife. No matter how scary she was, it was better not to cower away. Toph chased after fear the way a crocodile-shark chased the scent of blood. And was just as fierce in capturing her prey.
Toph silently counted the slowly passing moments. When she hit twenty-seven, the tense figure perched beside her sprung to his feet once more.
“Right. Can’t just sit around doing nothing.”
Pace, pace, pace. Turn. Pace, pace, pace. Turn. Pace, pace, pace. Whirl around.
“Should it really be taking this long?”
And so it begins again, Toph mused with a sigh.
The End