literature

Tokka Week: Bedtime

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Sokka rolled out of his sleeping bag, a muffled thump sounding as he hit the cold, hard ground. Bleary-eyed and half asleep, he crawled slowly out of the rock tent. After a whirlwind year of traveling the world on Appa, sleeping in this same tattered bedroll, on snow and ice and earth and sand of all kinds, he had been more than ready to retire the thing when he moved into Toph's metalbending academy. But tonight's revival of outdoor camping was bittersweet-a few students had finally mastered the art, which was a miracle; but the results were less than great.
As his bright blue eyes adjusted to the area around him, he sighed, surveying the damage again. Huge mounds of rough pebbles and rubble surrounded spot where the classroom had previously stood. Various chunks of metal of varying purity levels were twisted around just about everything in sight. The academy's sign, meticulously carved by Sokka himself earlier that year, was splintered into several planks of wood, sharp ends sticking up out of the ground haphazardly. Despite the painful scene before him, Sokka had to laugh at the fresh memory of Toph's reaction. She'd been furious at the bursts of incompetent earthbending, probably resulting from poorly-developed variations on her ever-powerful seismic sense, exploding each new pillar of twisted clay and stone as it rose out of the ground, screeching at her students to get ahold of themselves, stomping and accidentally creating a deep ravine in the center of the school. He'd been watching nervously, frantically trying to knock down the rising piles of earth with his space sword and boomerang, yelling at nearby students to stop what they were doing and calm down. And then they'd both frozen, on cue, as a single strand of wire curled around one of the heaps. And suddenly it was metal, bent in and out of miniature canyons and ridges, lining the ruined walls and accidental trenches, curving in arcs where the ceiling used to be.
Sokka and Toph had stood, stock-still and amazed, admiring the success, finally, of the metalbending students. But rather than the elaborate landscape of metallic wrecks, what he remembered most vividly was the expression on her face-her sightless eyes were alight with excitement and mischief, and her smile was wide and heartbreakingly beautiful. Stringy chunks of black hair hung in her face and she radiated pure elation. Of course, two minutes later she was harshly scolding the whole lot for their undisciplined style and form, and bossing everyone to clean the mess up and raise tents for the night. But that was Toph.
He'd spent the rest of the evening attempting to joke with her until she was less tough with her young students, and had collapsed with exhaustion a few hours ago. But Toph's sarcastic laugh kept echoing in his dreams, and, his subconscious refusing to disclose to him why, he'd woken up, trying to figure it out for himself. He lay back on the metal-studded ground to gaze at the bright, full moon. "Why can't I stop hearing that laugh, Yue?"

Toph lay in her rock tent, feet coated in dirt, her blind, pale eyes appearing to stare up at the moonlight through the slitted opening in the top of the structure. Arms lazily folded behind her head, she sighed at the thought of the day's previous events. She couldn't believe her feet when she'd felt the distinctive vibrations of metal twisting through her map of the landscape of the school. The technique was awful, of course, and her students' stances could definitely use some work, but it didn't matter as much as she pretended. They had finally gotten the hang of it! Metal had been bended, and that was enough to put Toph in a good mood for a few days, at least.
As the intricate spiraling motion of metal and terrain began to fade from her mind, the recollection left in the front of her thoughts was of her and Sokka, motionless in the center of the astounding event, and knowing there was no better feeling than that: her skill passed on to others, a marvelous feat of earthbending evidencing itself all around her, with her best friend in the entire world standing right beside her. Of course, he'd trailed after her the rest of day, nagging her to be nicer to her unwieldy students-but it was probably the best way to handle them, she'd relented.
Feeling a rustling movement outside the tent, she crawled out of her shelter, stealthy-badgermole-style.
"Hey, Toph," Sokka's familiar voice greeted her. She sighed in relief, shaking her head at the blush starting to heat up her face.
"Hey, Snoozles. Since when do you waste valuable sleeping time?" She sat down next to him on a log of rough stone.
"Couldn't sleep," he mumbled groggily, "today was too crazy."
"Same here," she agreed. "I can't wait to start really pushing them!" She grinned evilly.
Sokka sighed. "Don't be too hard on them, Toph. They only just figured it out."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. They can learn like slowpokes. Not like they're ever gonna have to metalbend their way out of cages and crash Fire nation airships. They have it easy!" she proclaimed somewhat sarcastically.
Sokka smiled, sure she could feel rays of its emotion even without being able to see it. "Have I mentioned lately how glad I am that you were there?"
Toph mock pouted. "Not nearly enough, Captain Boomerang!" The nickname worked as she'd thought it would, and the bubbling sound of his laugh prompted one of her own.
"Well, I am," he told her sincerely, yawning. "I really am…" he trailed off. A few minutes later, the air around her filled with the sound of his snores, and she let herself fall against his shoulder and drift to sleep herself. There was nowhere else she'd rather be.
Avatar: The Last Airbender belongs to Bryke, as usual.
My first contribution to Tokka Week! :D
The prompt list is here: [link]
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ipwnlocks's avatar
space your paragraphs. everytime you hit enter, hit a second time to make a blank line.