Hehe -
Havi's pov
"Well, look who decided to join us. Where have you two been? Off scamming again?" Katara patronizes Toph and I as we return to camp around dinner time. She was right. Toph wanted to go back into town and I felt uncomfortable around Sokka so I left with her. No harm.
"Yes, we were," Toph answers.
"And I suppose you don't think what you're doing is dangerous at all?"
"No, I don't."
Katara puts her hands on her hips, "Really?"
"Yes, really."
"Well then, what's this?" She aggressively pulls out a wanted poster. Hold up, a wanted poster?!
"I don't know!" Toph yells frustrated, "I mean seriously, what's with you people. I'm blind."
"It's a wanted poster of you. The runaway. Is that what you're called now? Are you proud of this?"
"Where did you get that?" Toph bites back to avoid the question.
Katara avoids her gaze, "it doesn't matter where I got it. The fact is—"
"You went through my stuff!" Toph explodes, "you had no right!"
"Your stuff was messy and I was just straightening up and I happened to stumble across it."
"That's a lie, you're lying, Katara," She points an accusing finger in the girl's face.
"Fine, it's a lie but you've been so out of control lately, I knew something was up. I knew you were hiding something and you were!" Toph rips the poster from Katara's hands, throws it off and leaves, "Don't you walk away from me while I'm talking to you."
"Oh, really, mom? Or what are you going to do?" She taunts, "send me to my room?"
"I wish I could."
"Well you can't because you're not my mom and you're not their mom," My eyes widen as Toph points at Aang, Sokka, and I.
Katara jabs back, "I never said I was."
"No but you certainly act like it. You think it's your job to boss everyone around but it's not," Toph rants, "You're just a regular kid like the rest of us, so stop acting like you can tell me what to do. I can do whatever I want."
"I don't act that way. Sokka, do I act motherly?"
He puts his hands up, "hey, I'm staying out of this one."
She turns to me and I just shake my head rapidly so she moves onto the last person, "what do you think, Aang? Do I act like a mom?"
Aang scratches his eye, "Well... I-"
"Stop rubbing your eye and speak clearly when you talk!"
The three of us immediately straighten our posture, "Yes ma'am."
"I can't be around you right now," Toph walks away.
"Well I can't be around you!" Katara storms in the other direction.
The silence following was so quiet but... so loud...
The bird squeaks and Sokka sighs, "I know, Hawky. Why can't they just get along?" We sit and watch the two girls for a second, "hey, Aang, want to test out my messenger hawk with me? I've got an idea."
I don't think my frown could get any frownier. Now he's leaving me out when I'm less than two feet away from him. Is he that wigged out by what I said? Kind of dramatic but I don't know. Who am I to say how he feels. Only the person themselves can judge that.
"Sure," Aang agrees and I just stay quiet and out of their way.
"I'm gonna send a note to Katara and say it's from Toph, who wants to apologize. Then, everyone will be friends again," I deadpan at Sokka's idea. It would be good under normal circumstances but it seems he's forgotten one dire detail.
Aang is too charmed to realize it, "I got to say, Sokka. You continue to impress me with your ideas."
"Eh, it's a gift," he grabs a paper, ink, and read out loud while writing, "dear Katara. Sorry for everything. Your friend, Toph." Sokka places it on the letter holder and sends the bird to his sister.
She unrolls the scroll and stands, "I know this is from you, Sokka. Toph can't write. Ugh, you're all driving me crazy."
Katara storms off as Aang whines, "I can't believe we forgot Toph can't write."
"Yeah, how's that?" I ask.
"You knew the whole time and let us look stupid still?" Sokka asked and I just shrugged.
"I wanted to see if it'd work."
"I guess plan b is we send a note to Toph pretending it's from Katara," Aang suggests.
I shake my head, "I think you're gonna run into a similar problem."
"Sorry, Hawky, looks like I'm gonna have to do this without your help," Sokka walks over to Toph to have a talk with her.
• • •
A few minutes later, both them and Katara return to our camp, "hi, Toph. Um, I wanna—"
"Katara, stop," Toph interrupts, "You don't need to apologize. I was the one being stupid. These scams are out of control and I'm done with them."
"Actually, I wasn't going to apologize. I was gonna say, I wanna pull a scam with you."
My jaw drops in shock.
"What? You want to pull a scam?"
"Not just any scam. The ultimate scam," Sokka and Aang just about faint to her words, "what do you say Toph? Me and you, and Havi I'll need you too. One last go. You in?"
"You know I'm!" Toph looks to me for an answer.
I shrug, "why not."
"The plan is simple," Katara starts, "this wanted poster says you're worth a lot of money. 10 times more than you've made in all your scams. So we're gonna turn you in and collect the reward then you'll metalbend yourself out of jail, and we're on our way."
We all look at each other with smirks on our face. With a short bit of approval, it was time to secure the bag.
• • •
Katara and I chase Toph through the village streets. Eventually, our ruckus catches the eyes of fire nation soldiers who quickly get her in a net. "How could you guys do this to me? You betrayed me!"
"You brought this on yourself," I act up my part.
Katara crosses her arms, "we had no choice."
As our friend gets dragged away, a lone soldier walks up to us, "you did the right thing by turning in the runaway."
"The right thing is its own reward," I grin.
"Well, I'm happy to hear you say that."
Katara smiles meekly, "but we still want the actual reward.
"Of course. Right this way," the man leads us to a small room and retrieved a small case. As he opens it up, someone else opens the door. "That's her, those're the girls you were looking for."
The blood drains from my face and I turn to see sparky sparky boom man in all his glory, third eye and all. His eyes burned into us as he forced us along into a wooden jail cell. Sitting there already was none other than our very own Toph.
As we settled into a position of denial, she speaks up, "Wait. It's a trap."
"Really? No kidding," Katara says sarcastically, "is that why were sitting in a wooden cage right now? Gee, how'd you figure out it was a trap?"
I cover my ears, "Can you guys not argue? At least wait until I starve to death first."
"I'm not arguing and it's not for us, Katara," Toph explains, "we're the bait. He wants Aang."
Katara gasps in realization, "I can't believe I was so stupid. See, this is exactly why I'm against these scams. I knew this would happen."
"But this was your idea," I point out.
"I know," she says quietly before turning the blame to me, "Well, why didn't you see into the future and tell us we would get taken, huh?"
"Sorry! It's not like I'm an expert, how was I supposed to know this would go wrong?"
"Again, brainy - magic - powers!"
I shake my head angrily at the girl, "again, it was your idea."
Katara takes a breath and calms down, "I'm sorry. I wanted to show you guys that I'm not so motherly. I wanted to show you that I can have fun too."
Do I hear, progress?
"Katara, you are fun," Toph replies, "if nothing else, you're at least fun to argue with."
"I know your relationship with your parents is complicated and I shouldn't have said with I said."
"It's okay. I was really mad when you said that because, well, because maybe it's true," Toph admits sadly, "I try not to think about it, but when I left, I probably really hurt them." The sound of her sniffling filled the room as we bring her in for a group hug.
With an extra zap of energy, Toph gets up and tries pushing the wood open. "What are we gonna do?" Katara asks.
Toph groans, "I don't know, I wish we have some earth or water. We need bendables."
"What about your meteor bracelet?" I suggest, "you could make a saw."
"I left it back at camp. I was worried they would take it," We give up once more until the water tribe girls starts running in place, "Uh, Katara? Are you okay?"
"Just fine," She answers.
Still confused, I ask, "Well, what are you doing?"
"I'm making my own water," She wipes the sweat from her forehead and bends it against the wood.
Suddenly, a realization pops in my head, "okay, you guys are gonna hate me."
"What is it?" Toph asks.
I give a nervous laugh and take out my dagger, "seems that I forgot about this... Heh."
They stare at me in disbelief, "just get to work." I do as told and together, Katara and I manage to break through the wood and escape.
When we get outside, we're met with billowing smoke and a fight.
Sensing that the real target may have been found already, we rushed around just in time to see Aang cornered by the explosion man. Katara is quick to freeze water over Sparky's head, "Aang, get up!"
"Let's get out of here," Toph says while we run off.
"Hey! I got it! The perfect make for that guy," Sokka shouts, "combustion man."
"Good job, Sokka. Now let's get out of here before combustion man catches us."
"See, it fits so well!"
• • •
Later that day, we had swiftly left the town, curtesy of our very own Appa, who flew us off to a new camp site. Sokka yawns from the saddle, which we weren't sitting together in if I may add, "I'm pretty exhausted. Hawky, how about you, buddy? Yeah, you're such a lazy little bird."
As he hops off I follow after him. After making sure no one was eavesdropping, I softly speak up, "Sokka?"
"Oh, uh, yeah?" He puts down his bird.
"Can I talk to you?" I guess my face showed just about as many nerves as I felt cause he looked at me with what I could only guess was pity.
"Yeah, of course. Always," I release a breath I was holding and drag him away from prying eyes.
"I'm sorry," I get right to the point, "I don't know if what I said earlier made you uncomfortable or something. I didn't realize it was such a big deal and would make you upset with me."
"Havi, I.." Sokka squints, "I'm not upset with you."
"You're not?" I ask surprised, "I was so sure because you were obviously avoiding me. Leaving me out. I thought I made you mad or something."
His face softens and he takes a step forward to caresses my cheek. I lean into his touch even those his fingers felt cold against my skin. "Please, don't feel like that. I was just, I don't know, confused."
"Why?"
"Because," Sokka takes a deep breath, "I wish that you meant it. That you meant what you said and not in a joking way."
A smile takes over my face as I realize that this was not such a problem. I slide my hands around his neck and graze my lips across Sokka's, not quite a kiss but definitely intimidate. Our noses touched as his uneven breath tickled my cheeks. His hands wrap around by back to close the space between our bodies and I say barely above a whisper, "Sokka, I have been so worried about how to say it or when. I never knew if the time was right or if you'd say it back but, I don't want to wait anymore," I press his lips against my own. As I attempted to end it, his teeth pulled softy on my bottom lip, "Sokka. I love you. Not in a joke way and not in a friend way. I love you."
His face lights up brighter than I've ever seen before; his eyes crinkled and nose scrunched. Sokka captures my lips in his once again. My hands creep up into the bottom of his hair by the nape of his neck, which has been a nice edition since he's grown it out. We pull back for air as he tells me, "Havi, I love you too."
:)