A Day in the Life

A is for Abiding.

If Sokka had ever met anyone so completely, utterly unpredictable, it was Toph. One second she'd be scowling and the next she'd be laughing her head off, one moment near tearing up and the next beaming.

He decided, eventually, that this was what he liked about her. Everyone else could just be so boring, after all—Aang, Katara, and Zuko were just too predictable. But Toph was the unknown, an enigma in the midst of puzzles already solved. Sokka wasn't foolish enough to believe that he could ever crack the code, but he could try.

In the end, it was this about Toph—her irregularity—that made her so sturdy, so firm, so constant to him. He could count on Toph. She did what she had do and helped him when she could. No matter what she said, or how she acted, Toph was stable and unshakable and steady and always there, and that was more then he could say for 90 percent of the population.

Ironically enough, Toph found Sokka to be reliable for exactly the opposite reason. He could always be trusted to act a certain way, or say a certain thing, and wouldn't let her down in his behavior. She appreciated the fact that while Aang was liable to snap at the oddest of moments, as were many others, Sokka's point of breaking at least made sense to her mind. There was always somethingthat meant the final straw, and Toph could usually find that it would've meant the final straw for her, too, had she been in Sokka's position.

Sokka was Sokka, and nothing but. He made bad jokes. He drank cactus juice. He told her stories of Water Tribe lore, and when she asked why this spirit had a head shaped like an octopus, or why this one didn't go for the girl he loved till it was too late, Sokka would put up such a wonderful fuss until he was wheedled into the fact that he purely didn't know. Toph, in turn, would suggest that perhaps it was because no one did, and that the Water Tribes should be smart enough to rely on their own strength to get them through (like the people of the Earth Kingdom) instead of stupid spirits.

The first time this happened, Sokka called her blasphemous, insisted that the spirits would punish her for what she had said, and smugly told her the week afterwards that the real reason she couldn't find her secret stash of chocolate was because the spirits had decreed it so.

Toph responded by shoving him into a crevice in the stonework of the Western Air Temple and leaving him there for seven hours—without a bathroom break.

In retrospect, Sokka figures he really, really should have expected this, and wonders to this day why he didn't.

B is for Badgermole.

When Sokka first met a badgermole, he nearly wet his pants.

They were huge. They had a lot of hair. They were cute…if you cut out the fact that they could crush your skull with one twitch of a limb. Sokka hadn't expected to walk out of that one, and yet, he had.

It was a few months later that he discovered that badgermoles were blind, just like Toph, and that they "saw" using earthbending—just like Toph. After that, all of the summaries sort of piled up.

Toph may not have been huge physically, but in Sokka's opinion, her earthbending prowess made up for it. Her hair fell to her knees when let out of its customary bun, and…well…Toph was kinda cute, wasn't she? Especially when she blushed. And there was no doubt that she could earthbend Sokka into oblivion with the twitch of her little finger.

Once, he'd even pointed it out to Toph: "I don't know how, but somehow you've started to remind me of a badgermole."

She blinked, then smirked. "Oh, that's alright," Toph said, tossing her head in a very un-Toph-ish way. "Y'know, I've always thought of you as—"

"A badger-lion? A tiger-panda?" Sokka prompted eagerly. "A dragon?"

Scoffing, Toph snorted, "No. Actually," she grinned, after a moment's pause, "You kinda remind me of a kangaroo-squirrel."

Sokka didn't bring up badgermoles again for a long time after that—and for good reason, too. If anyone ever did, Toph smirked at the person in question, snickered whenever Sokka walked into the room, and wouldn't stop referring to him as her "beloved pet turtle-squirrel" for two weeks straight.

C is for Christen.

They didn't name their child until two days after it is born.

It's very simple, really: Toph had a dream. So strange, because although it was all fuzzy and blurred she could've sworn there was someone she met, someone she wasn't remembering.

Someone Sokka might've mentioned once or twice.

When she woke the next morning, Toph was never able to explain the next few words that spilled out of her lips.

"I think we should call her Yue."

D is for Defend.

Even though Sokka never told her, as her fingers were pried from his and Toph was a second away from slipping into the abyss, he made a deal with the gods: if they could let Toph live, and maybe him, too, then they'd never have to worry their pretty little heads about her safety every again. Sokka would protect her from everything else and keep her safe her entire life.

When Toph and Sokka did live, not because of the gods but because of Suki, Sokka promised himself that he'd protect her anyway.

E is for Everywhere.

Ever since he first became friends with Toph, Sokka couldn't help feeling the tiniest bit safer whenever his feet were on the ground—because as far as Sokka could tell, Toph could see everywhere on earth with those feet of hers. Besides, he hadn't doubted her earthbending prowess since he'd seen her launch twenty soliders into the air at once, and that meant Sokka could rest a little bit easier knowing that someone was watching not only his back, but that of his own family as well.

It was in that way Sokka discovered that the role of protector was much easier when shared, especially with someone like Toph: a girl that could see and feel everywhere at once, and not be spread anymore thinly then an army of ten thousand.

F is for Freedom.

Toph was always very particular about her freedom. She didn't let Sokka or anyone else tell her what to say, or to do, or to eat for breakfast the next morning. She was independent. She was strong. She would never admit that deep down, in her heart of hearts, she depended on Sokka, on his goofy, but helpful advice; on his steady prescence; and on his wonderful taste for spices more than he could ever know.

G is for Give.

In all honesty, Toph was not a generous person. If it wasn't her problem, odds are she didn't quite care enough to help fix it. When it came to gifts, she figured it was enough to give the person in question a quick punch on the shoulder or a pat on the back.

Toph could say in equal honesty that she'd never really imagined she gave Sokka much of anything, and that their relationship survived on love and cactus juice alone. It certainly couldn't be anything she'd done for him.

But Toph's entire outlook on the giving (or non-giving) side of her changed the day their first daughter, Yue, was born. Toph had just experienced a greuling and exhausting birth, and now it was simply her and her husband—her and Sokka—in the room.

Reaching out to cup their daughter's cheek, Toph smiled to herself. It may have sounded ridiculously cheesy, but...at that moment, she knew that all the weird food cravings, uncomfortable sleeping positions, and even the exhausting effort she'd just gone through was worth it. Sokka slipped his hand over her own, and with the other gently brushed back the hair from Toph's sweaty forehead.

"Thank you so much, Toph," he whispered, and although Toph couldn't see the look on his face—of love and happiness of so much more—she could hear it all in his voice.

"But I've never given you anything," she mumbled sleepily, holding their daughter closer to her chest. "Snoozles, you got it all backwards."

Leaning down, he gently pressed his lips to her forehead. "I don't think so," Sokka murmured. "In fact, I don't think anyone could ever give anymore than you do."

"Huh." Toph managed to arrange her lips into somewhat of a smile. "Really? Like what?"

By the time Sokka had finished rattling off his list—amounting to about two hundred different things (happiness, cactus juice, and "a reason to wake up in the mornings," to name a few)—Toph was already asleep.

H is for Happiness.

He once asked her if she was happy with the way her life had turned out.

For a long moment, Toph didn't respond, but simply stared blindly into space with a thoughtful expression across her features. "Yes," she answered honestly a few seconds later. "Yeah. I guess I am happy with the way my life turned out." Surprised that this was her god-to-honest answer, Toph mused, "It's a good life."

Sokka asked her what made it that way.

"You know, Snoozles, I'm not really all that sure," she said, brushing her hand against his. "But I haven't lost an Earth Rumble tournament yet, the world's a hell of a lot better than it was twenty years ago, and as far as I can tell there's still a smile on my face."

Speaking of smiles, Sokka asked her who, exactly, who put it there.

"Oh, that's easy," she scoffed, leaning forward to press her lips against his. "You did."

I is for Ignore.

Sometimes, Sokka would get the strangest feeling that frankly, he liked Toph more than he should. It was the twinge he felt when her hand slid through his for the first time; the comfort of her presence when she so often stood or sat beside him; and above all it was the shock Sokka felt when he saw her in a swim suit for the first time and realized oh, spirits, Toph is growing up. Toph was supposed to be his friend. Clearly, this was not the same as what friends typically felt for each other.

When he rescued Suki from the Boiling Rock, Sokka was sure he'd be able to finally, finallyshove those feelings gone astray to the back of his mind. But that wasn't how it happened. Sokka stillliked Toph more than he should, even when he liked Suki (in that way, at least) a hell of a lot more. His hand still twinged and Toph's presence still comforted him more than anything else and whenever he saw her in a swim suit he couldn't help but be surprised. He couldn't help it.

Eventually, Sokka decided that a few years down the line he might act on these feelings. Right now, Toph was just too young and innocent for Sokka to do anything about it. After all, Suki wasn't necessarily here forever and ever, like Katara and Aang or Zuko and Mai would surely be for each other. Until then, all Sokka could do was try to ignore those troublesome feelings and hope he succeeded.

J is for Judgement.

Even though it may seem otherwise to those around her, Toph doesn't pass judgement on other people without getting to know them first. She just doesn't.

But that doesn't mean she didn't long ago pass judgement on Sokka. In fact, Toph frequently said she was the only person that knew him well enough to pass judgement on him in the first place. Upon hearing this, people frequently ask her if she has passed judgement on Sokka and, if so, would she be so kind as to share it with them?

Toph frequently replies that he is a comedic moron, an inventive genius, and the most trustworthy person she has ever met all rolled into one.

K is for Kaleidoscope.

Toph was never able to put much emphasis in colors, and sometimes wondered if they actually existed. It sounded like such a strange concept to her, and quite impossible as well. From what people had told her of them, colors were bright, and above all, diverse. There were many of them, and colors were just a part of every day life for most people—just like Toph's to explain it any farther than that, they said, was too difficult.

But soon enough, Toph felt that she knew what they meant. Sokka's touch, voice, and so many other things about sent emotion after emotion and sensation after sensation running through her. That's what colors were, right? They were constant, but they were each very different, and no less gorgeous in their own way.

Whenever Toph was around Sokka, she decided to turn all of those feelings into colors within her own head. That way, she could see him just as well as Suki or Ty Lee or anyone else could, and know that whatever Sokka looked like to them, to Toph he would always be the brightest, most colorful person around.

L is for Laughter.

Sokka decided long ago that Toph's laughter would be beautiful...if it wasn't so often direct at him.

M is for Mine.

Although he never told her, Sokka couldn't help but look at her and occasionally think, She's mine. But then again, Toph never told Sokka that however many times she reminded herself she'd never consent to being claimed by anyone other than her self, there was the smallest comfort in knowing she was his and Sokka was hers. But when it came down to it, Sokka did not hold possession of Toph, nor vise versa. In the end, they belonged not to each other, but with each other.

N is for Nightmares.

There were occasional periods when she would have nightmares. Horrible nightmares, really. Toph faintly remembered that she'd experienced the same type of thing as a young child, and often wondered why she had to deal with them now, of all times. The nightmares, fortunately, were the kind where you woke up covered in sweat and breathing hard, but not the screaming kind. Toph didn't know what she'd do if she'd had to live with that kind of nightmare, because there was an unspoken list between the four of them that entailed in detail things that absolutely did nothappen to Toph Bei Fong. Among these was "falling in love" and "having nightmares."

Unbeknownst to her friends (or so Toph believed), this list was constantly overruled. Toph fell in love (with Sokka) and she had nightmares (aboutSokka). And that was the thing: the nightmares, for the most part, were all about Sokka—mainly nightmares in which he was killed. These were the worst. Katara, Aang, and her parents each took their turn, but more than all of them combined did Sokka's death haunt her sleeping hours. Sometimes, she was lost in the dark and unable to help him. Sometimes, he was bleeding to death in front of her. Sometimes he drowned. Sometimes Toph wished they'd give up trying to scare her and stop, even though she knew that by all rights Toph Bei Fong should not be having nightmares in the first place.

Sometimes, Toph wished she could tell Sokka about them. She wished she could tell him that the list of things that did not happen to Toph Bei Fong was actually a list of things that often did. Toph wished she could say how much he meant to her. And when she finally got down to the nightmare part of it, she wished that Sokka would reassure her that he would never, everleave her, and that Toph didn't have anything to worry about. Sometimes she'd wake up in a cold sweat and panting and wish that she could tell him more than anything else in the world.

But Toph didn't and never would, partly because she didn't want Sokka to carry more burdens than he already did—but mostly because there was a list of things that absolutely did nothappen to Toph Bei Fong, and having nightmares was one of them.

O is for Oblivious.

Sokka was the epitome of the word—or so Toph thought.

Of course, he proved her wrong. Eventually.

It's hard to look at the man you're in love with and think oblivious when he's just kissed you in a way that in most culture's would be defined as "passionate, intense, hot, etc." and it's even harder to call it obliviousness when, judging on the abnormally short distance his lips are from yours, odds are that he's going to kiss you again.

P is for Perfect.

Toph wasn't. It took Sokka approximately five years, two months, and eight hours on the dot to realize that in the end, he would never want her to be.

Q is for Quiet.

Neither of them liked the silence, but there was something to be said about the moments they shared when no words were needed. And however much Toph hated being quiet, she couldn't deny that at times she thought she liked these times best of all.

R is for Reason.

Even years after the fact, Sokka never once discovered a reason in existence for one of the biggest events of his life: falling in love with Toph Bei Fong. He'd considered that perhaps he fell for girls that were tough; after some thought on it, Sokka determined that Toph had ventured out of "tough" long ago and began to steadily move towards "scary." For a little while, he'd begun to wonder if it was because of her sarcastic and witty mouth, but decided that Toph used it against him too much for it to apply as proper reasoning.

At last, the curiosity grew so great that Sokka resorted to asking Zuko. "Asking Zuko" was normally so far-fetched that Sokka didn't even consider it, but he sure as hell wasn't gonna ask Aang (for fear of being spewed lovey-dovey crap about his sister, for Tui's sake) and there was no one else Sokka knew who had experience with the fairer sex (Haru didn't count, as Sokka was positive that even though he'd been dating Ty Lee for over a year now, the earthbender was gay).

"Hey, Zuko?" Sokka asked at their twice-a-year reunion at Iroh's tea shop, "Is there any reason in the world that even startsto explain why I fell in love with Toph?"

"Love doesn't need a reason," Zuko said quietly, glancing over at Mai. A small smile formed on his face, and it obviously took some effort for Zuko to switch his attention back to Sokka. "It just...happens."

Sokka mused on this for a moment. His friend had a point: why did he even needa reason for falling in love with Toph? The answer was, he didn't. In fact, now that he'd thought about it, Sokka wasn't all that sure that he wanted one.

"You might be right. Y'know, Zuko, for a jerkbender, you're pretty smart," Sokka grinned.

"Stop calling me that!" the firebender snapped, glowering.

"Okay, sure...as long as you promise to stop jerkbending at me whenever you get drunk, you jerkbender."

S is for Snow.

However many times Sokka swore that this would be the time; that soon she'd be begginghim to take her to the South Pole not just once a year, but once a week, Toph never did end up liking the snow.

T is for Team.

In what Toph often referred to as the "later years," when she was seventeen and he was twenty and there was barely a world they couldn't conquer, their names were always heard right next to each other. When it wasn't "Lady Bei Fong and that Water Tribe peasant," it was "the Blind Bandit and her mysterious companion," and among their friends, of course, you couldn't walk into the room without hearing "Toph and Sokka" this, "Toph and Sokka" that. They were the pranksters and the bringer of shenanigans all around. No matter how many boring, stiff-necked nobles were attending a party, Toph and Sokka always found a way to spice it up.

But no matter how many times banana cream pies flung into their faces of important nobles, or the cake ended up missing from the reception party, or something ended up completely destroyed, no one could deny that Toph and Sokka worked better as a team than anyone else did.

Unfortunately, they forced Toph and Sokka to pay for the collateral damage anyway.

U is for Understanding.

There were only two people in her life that ever made Toph feel like she completely and totally belonged; like she was completely and totally understood.

One was not a person per say, but close enough: the badgermole that taught her earthbending.

And the other was Sokka.

V is for Vacation.

Once a year, they took a vacation away from their three children to somewhere special—liked a tropical island in the Fire Nation, or the southern tip of the Earth Kingdom. But whenever their children asked their father, "Daddy, what did you and Mommy do on vacation?" all they recieved as an answer was a smirk from Toph, a blush from Sokka, and after a few moments some sort of mumblings about "you'll know when you're older" and "grown-up time."

By the time their oldest daughter, Yue, was eleven, she'd stopped asking her father and mother what they'd done on vacation and satisfied herself with filling in her siblings on all the dirty details.

W is for Warmth.

There was a certain warmth about him that Toph liked; a comforting glow that emenated from deep inside him. No firebender, even Zuko, could ever have duplicated Sokka's brand of warmth. Fire was bright and energetic. The warmth Toph felt whenever she was in his arms, or whenever he so much as brushed against her, spread from her toes to her nose. It enveloped her in a warm hug and refused to let go. Sokka was just plain old warm.

Even on the occasions when Sokka brought her to the South Pole, and Toph was sure she'd never be warm again, all it took was his hand slipped through hers or a small peck on the lips, and suddenly she was warm again. He was better than any blanket, and a great improvement from any furs they'd brought with them. In the morning, Toph would wake up curled up close to him, more often then not with her head against his chest (it was the center of all his warmth). Although Toph was sure that at times her grip had turned suffocating, Sokka never minded. In fact, he'd pull her closer to him, wrap the blankets tighter around them both, and kiss her with a sleepy happiness, or every so often with fierce passion (Sokka was tired in the mornings, and after all, tents weren't private enough for that sort of thing).

However many times Toph complained to him about the cold that greeted her when she oppened the door, Sokka would simply sling his arm around her shoulder and Toph would quiet down. After all, however much of a chill remained, Toph knew that she'd be a hell of a lot colder without Sokka here with her.

X is for Xin Fu.

They ran into him, once, at an Earthbending tournament south of Omashu. Xin Fu took one look at the barely-there flush in Toph's cheeks, and the affectionate lilt in her voice whenever she spoke to the Water Tribe boy, and knew. A smirk formed on his face and held throughout the brief confrontation.

Before she could run off, Xin Fu placed his hand on Toph's shoulder and whispered into her ear, "Heh, Blind Bandit, I never guessed that you would fall in love."

Toph broke away from his hold, aimed a chunk of rock right where it hurt, and left Master Yu in roaring laughter for nearly twenty minutes after he'd heard the story, but that didn't stop Xin Fu from sending them a wedding present. For some reason, he just knew that Toph would put those whip and handcuffs to good use.

Y is for Yes.

When Sokka proposed, there was no other word that sprang to her mind.

"Yes," Toph said, embarrassed to feel tears of happiness prickling at the back of her eyes. "Oh, spirits, you moron, yes."

Z is for Zigzag.

Her life didn't end up follwing that simple, straightforward path she never wanted, and Sokka took so many sudden twists and turns it was a wonder he ever managed to dictate it. And yet, it wasn't the fabricated love story you'd find in a fairy tale.

It wasn't destiny. It wasn't fate. After all, Toph and Sokka were not mystical or foretold in the stars, and they were most certainly not Aang and Katara.

But they were real. They were sturdy. They were the kind of bickering old couple that showed up besides the happily married lovers. They were the type of playful friends that verge on romance and depend on sarcasm. They did not put on airs. They were exactly what they appeared to be, and nothing else.

This was honesty. This was faith. This was truth. This was something that would stand tall year after year, no matter how many times she flicked him on the forehead or he told a corny joke or they ended up in an hour-long argument over the medical properties of cactus juice. Their relationship did not travel in a straight line, and it never would.

This was not what either of them expected. But all the same, this was something that would never, ever crumble, and as Toph had pointed out so many times, that was plenty good enough for them.

A/N: This took FOREVER to write, but I AM FINALLY DONE. MWAHAHAHAHA. It was fun to write, especially the smaller moments between Toph and Sokka. Hope you like! :D

Oh, and do ya mind dropping me a review? XD This IS nearly five thousand words long, after all...