Tokka Week 4: Moonlight

"Hey, Sokka?" Toph barely whispered above the wind. "You awake?"

"Hm," he muttered, lifting his head from where it rested on the edge of Appa's saddle. "Yeah, what is it? Don't tell me you gotta pee, because we aren't landing yet."

"No," she hissed. Toph rolled off her stomach onto her back and propped her feet up on the saddle curve, the footrest/back support of their mode of transportation. "Tell me what the moon looks like."

Sokka's lips twisted, and he glanced at Katara sleeping across from him, then to Aang's bald head poking out from where he sat on the sky bison's neck. The young Avatar directed Appa towards the mountain range they had originally planned on reaching long before nightfall. As luck—well, their fortune, anyway—would have it, they got held up by another village's problems. Animal problems. As in infestation. Little roachrats all over the place. It was, without a single doubt, one of the most disgusting experiences in Sokka's life.

Stretching his legs out to ease his numb feet, Sokka dislodged Momo from his lap. The lemur chattered and crawled to curl back into a little ball on Katara's knees instead.

"It's just no one's ever told me what it looks like," Toph explained, irritated at his silence probably.

"Uh," Sokka breathed, wondering where to begin. "It's…round."

"Round," Toph snorted. "You're usually better at this."

"Hang on, I got it. It's…well it has a round face, white and soft as snow but more pale. And pretty. It makes everything look silver, like a polished sword. Especially the water," he said softly, gazing into the sky with a crooked smile. "There are a couple gray patches here and there on the moon's face. Not sure what they are."

"So the moon is a face in the sky that's white but the light from it is silver?" Toph wondered. "How does that work?"

Sokka waved his hand. "I don't know. The moon's a spirit, and she does what she wants."

"A spirit? I thought the moon was some rock."

"No, she's not a rock," Sokka protested indignantly. "She's a spirit."

"What's wrong with being a rock?"

"She's not a rock!"

"Fine! The moon's a spirit rock!" Toph relented, flopping her arms out to her sides. "But how do you know it's a girl spirit?"

"I just know, okay? Who's from the Water Tribe here? Me. It's my job to know these things."

"Okay, oh, scholarly one. I'm asking Katara about this tomorrow," Toph muttered.

"Go ahead and ask her," Sokka goaded. "She'll tell you the exact same thing!"

"Guys," Aang's tired voice fell from above them, carried on a quick burst of wind from the airbender. "I appreciate it if you're trying to help me and Appa stay awake, but I'd rather you didn't argue."

Thoroughly thrashed by a twelve-year-old boy, Sokka and Toph adopted a thoughtful silence.

Toph broke the quiet again with another whispered question before too long though. "Anything else?"

Yes, Sokka immediately thought.

"No, not really," he said. "Tired yet?"

"Yup," she grunted and buried herself as close against the saddle as she could get. "You're descriptions are boring."

"Night," he sighed, half smiling at her small back.

Sokka placed his elbows on the saddle's edge and stared into the sky to keep himself awake for when they finally landed. The mountains loomed much closer now. Appa shifted a little to the right and the leather beneath Sokka groaned and stretched. The utter calmness closed his weary eyes for him.

"I'm going to want to hear the story one of these days," Toph mumbled. Sokka pried his eyes open to see her little hand wave, finger pointed like she spoke absolute truth and fact. Which she always did.

Sokka held his breath for a couple seconds, for once completely unsure of whether he wanted to share that still heartbreakingly tender memory with the earthbender. Maybe when he remembered more than he regretted that moment in time.

"One of these days," he agreed, unsure if she fell asleep before he said it or not.