[Polychromatic/Avatar] color everywhere (Toph & Sokka gen)

[storypaint]

Title: color everywhere
Fandom: Polychromatic/Avatar
Length: 580 words
Prompt: polybending fic battle: What Is This
Pairing: Toph & Sokka gen
Other: Polychromatic-verse.

Summary: A curse gives Toph the ability to see with her eyes. She's not entirely thrilled.

She wasn't sure that she liked this, but she couldn't say it. Everyone was so happy for her, insisting that she look at this and look at that, that she treasure the day that she had because no one knew when it would come around again. She understood their enthusiasm, kinda, because she'd probably do the same thing if they ever developed earthbending, but she just couldn't deal.

Instead, she said she was going to the bathroom, and she crept off to her room instead. Turning off the lights -- who needed those? -- she sat down on the floor and shut her eyes, feeling better immediately.

"I didn't ask to see with my eyes," she mumbled to herself. "I'm fine as I am. I'm happy. Stupid curse."

Her eyes had never betrayed her before, not really, no matter what people said. They didn't get in her way. Now she was having a weird double-vision thing, seeing the shapes and also seeing --

color, they all said, like it was nothing, but it wasn't. It was bright and distracting and Toph already had a headache. People didn't look like they were supposed to. They wanted her to look them in the eyes and watch their eyebrows moving. They wanted her to decode a code she'd never known, to paint pictures and memorize appearances, and she just wanted everything to be normal again. She wanted what she was used to, what made sense.

"Hey, you okay?"

Toph didn't realize she was crying until she heard Sokka's voice. Her eyes flew open in surprise, and he was silhouetted in the doorway, just a shape against the light, and that was almost right. But not really. She wiped at her eyes hastily.

"Fine," she muttered.

Not dissuaded, he stepped into the room. She shut her eyes and listened as he stepped into the room and walked over to the bed. He sat down near her and didn't speak for a long moment.

"You remember when I set the couch on fire?" he said thoughtfully.

Toph snorted, wiping her nose on her sleeve. "Kinda hard to forget."

"So," he said, "I thought that I should be... really happy that I could bend then. Because, I mean, I am great with my sword, but who doesn't want fancy powers?"

Toph nodded.

"But the thing of it was, I set the couch on fire. And possibly other stuff I didn't tell anybody about. Until General Iroh helped with training. And as it turns out, bending wasn't as much fun as everyone said. At the beginning, anyway. It was kinda nice to wake up as normal Sokka the next morning."

"Lucky for the couch," Toph said, her voice a little wavery, but Sokka didn't comment on that.

"So yeah," Sokka said. There was a moment's silence in which Toph leaned over and socked him in the shoulder.

"Oww!" he protested.

"I'm going to take a nap. I'll see things later. I have a headache," she said. "You can go now."

"Thank you, Sokka. You're so helpful, Sokka," Sokka mocked, getting up, but there wasn't any irritated tension in his stance.

"Yeah, yeah," she said, and paused. "Thanks."

She turned over and made herself comfortable. When Sokka left, he shut the door behind him.

For the first time today, Toph smiled.