Feel It!

(The following contains adult content and descriptions of consenting minors engaged in sexual situations. Reader discretion is advised.)

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Feel It! Chapter 3
By Gunwild

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Things had been worse than this. A few times. Possibly.

Except that those few times, Sokka had been with someone who could watch his back. Right now he was alone, and things were probably going to get bad. So, really, this was worse than those times. Relativity was cruel like that.

“Alright, kid, you need to drop your weapons, and we can all walk away from this peaceably.” There was officiousness in his language, though little in his tone.

Hearing it only made Sokka tighten his grip on his knife and club. “No.”

One of the other three law officers added his own thoughts, knocking his short club against the wooden buckler on his left arm. “You know, there ain’t enough cells to hold another piece of dirt tonight. We could fit you in a grave, though. I just don’t see why you felt like you had to come to *our* whorehouse!”

“I was hoping to find a cop's wife,” Sokka put in. The other patrons, the ones these police were so happily ignoring, let out a gratifying chorus of *Ooooo*s.

The same cop gritted his teeth. “That’s it. We take him out.”

Their leader, a corporal (though Sokka couldn’t know that), removed his straw hat. “Saiga, just back the hell off. He might have weapons, but they’re not Fire Nation, and even if they were he wouldn’t be able to take us all on with them.”

That angry patrolman was insistent. “He might be some kind of bender.”

“Then what the hell do you want to fight him for? Let’s sit down, get drunk and enjoy some girls. He ain’t hurting anybody.”

To show good faith, Sokka hooked his club back into his belt. “I hate the Fire Nation just as much as you gents do, okay? I’m not looking for trouble.”

Predictably, the angry guy was first to answer. “You still look suspicious! Why you shakin’, boy?”

For once, he decided that frankness would help him out of this. “Because I’ve never been in a place like this and I’m nervous. That answer square with you?”

“It’s fine,” the corporal answered, motioning with his hat. “Come along, boys. Our table is waiting, and our beds after that.” They moved on, the corporal in the lead and the angry patrolman stalking along behind.

“Okay,” Sokka said to himself, “That was stupid.”

“Men don’t act particularly intelligent in places like this,” said a woman passing by. Her pretty face was smiling.

The elderly, bespectacled man on whose arm she was hanging glanced at Sokka. “Makes one wonder whether coming inside in the first place is very smart, doesn’t it? A wise man would think twice.”

“Wait, what are you saying?” asked the young lady, blinking.

“I mean because you’re all mine tonight, dear, and you’re the only reason to come here.”

“Oh. Tee-hee!” She gave him a small hug, and they retreated out of the dining area to somewhere more private. Sokka scratched the back of his head, thinking. He’d expected this place to be somewhere solely for seedy, irritable men like that cop. But it looked to him like all sorts of people, even some older *women* came here for female companionship.

His mouth had gone dry at the prospect of confrontation. He needed something to drink. Sitting down at one of the wide tables he rapped his knuckles on his bench to call for service. Another pretty woman, this one with innumerable small braids in her hair, strode over. She looked about his age. That was probably why she’d been the one who answered. “Yes? Can I help you?”

“I’m thirsty. Give me the, uh, *second* least expensive drink you have.”

“Sure. That’s mint tea.” She bowed formally, and his eyes darted down her black-feathered bodice for a second. He looked away. That wasn’t what he was here for. “I’ll be back with it in a moment.”

This looked like the kind of place he’d wanted to find. It was clean, for one thing, and not made out of loose timber or bamboo. It actually had firm stone walls and a roof that didn’t leak, as well as fine accoutrements. Perhaps he could actually… no. He didn’t want to buy sex. There was something he wanted more than an uncaring night with someone he’d never see again. And he only had so much money of his own.

She brought his tea back sooner than he’d expected (these ladies probably didn’t want to spend a lot of time feeding men when they could be earning more otherwise), and sat herself next to him, the beads in her braids clicking against each other. Sokka’s face felt rather hot as her arm snaked around him. “I want to tell you that you seem nicer than our usual clientele, but I think it would sound like a rehearsed line.”

“Actually, what you said sounds like it could be rehearsed, too.”

She laughed. It wasn’t some loathsome, disingenuous laugh, though he was no expert on deception. This woman was just amused by something a customer had said. Nothing sinister about it. She wasn’t aiming to, say, wipe out his entire race through a scorched-earth campaign of attrition and genocide, like certain people. So that already had her on his good side.

So did her fingers stroking his abdomen. But he found the force of will to take her by the wrist and remove that hand, looking her dead in the eyes. He was here on real business. “I’m looking for something specific.”

“Oh. Well, we offer a number of types of play, all at prices you’ll agree are well worth your money or other forms of payment.” Hm, she actually seemed put out by his refusal. She was probably a war orphan – which he could relate to – and in another world she’d be a normal girl and him a normal boy. That would be something.

But he was in the here and now, and had a plan to be with someone of his own. “It’s not that. What I’m looking for is more… textual. It might be a stupid question, maybe just one of those stories kids tell each other, but I’ve heard there are scrolls… *technique* scrolls that…”

The girl gave him a more platonic pat on the shoulder. “Oh, of course! How do you think we study when we first come here? I’ll get the boss lady. Can I ask your name?”

“Uh, Sokka.”

“Okay, Sokka!” She stood and was rushing off, her strides quick in spite of her elaborate shoes.

He only just had time to drain his tea before another, older woman arrived. Her graying hair contrasted intriguingly with a generous figure and a face that was somewhat lined, but still had the glow of youth.

“I am Aunt Wu. How can I help you, young man?”

Sokka’s brain made an unexpected connection. “Uh… did you know there’s a fortune teller by that name in a village over the-”

Aunt Wu – this one, that is – bowed slightly, looking pleased. “Then you’ve met one of my sisters. Perhaps you’ve heard of the other? A healer of the mountains?”

He slapped his own knee. “She made me suck frogs to stop my fever!”

“Yes, that’s something she does. I’ve never had to see if it works for myself.” Aunt Wu – or Madam Wu – sat across from him at the table. “There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who seek knowledge and those who seek pleasure. Today you are both.”

Sokka twiddled his fingers, trying not to consider his own edginess. “I thought it was people seeking *power* or pleasure?”

His host waved her hand dismissively. “There is no knowledge that is not... blah blah blah. You’ve heard that saying, right? What do you need, and why?”

*I’m being honest today.* He swallowed any pride he was still clinging to. “Uh, I like this girl and I want her to like me back. And I want us to… be together when that happens, but I don’t know how. I barely know how to kiss.”

She didn’t seem surprised. That disappointed Sokka a little bit. Madam Wu joined her hands under her sleeves. “Very well. Follow me.”

At this point Sokka had to hurry to keep up with the older woman, whose pearl-studded sandals should have slowed her walking, but didn’t. *Obviously they work hard at that. But I'm gonna need to work hard to. Like at even getting Toph to speak to me.*

Madam Wu made her way up a flight of stairs, past a few richly-appointed doorways (through which interesting sounds came) and even a sculpture that reminded Sokka of something. The madam, whose long studies of men had nearly taught her to read customers’ minds, explained. “Surprised to see Avatar Syamira there?”

“Avatar?” He remembered Kyoshi and its statue. “Is she from this town or something?”

“She’s from this house.” Madam Wu gestured to a hallway, which Sokka went down ahead of her, though he didn’t take his eyes off of her. He’d have to hear the whole story to believe it. “Syamira worked here centuries ago, although the building was different then. People liked to say later in her life that she’d put this part of her life behind her, but that wasn’t entirely true. When the place burned down, she came back herself and rebuilt it stone by stone. She mixed earth and water, fired the concrete and dried it with air it all in one day, and when the night came it was open for business again.”

Now Sokka was really confused. “So you’re saying that not only was she a… well, not only did she work here, but she approved of it? Of this stuff?”

“I wouldn’t go that far. But like all reasonable people, she realized that selling is legal and sex is legal, and that someone will always be selling sex. Better it be in here, where we have hygiene and security, than out in the streets where it’s no different than all the other crimes.”

Sokka thought that sounded fair, though he still wished he hadn’t needed to come to a place like this just to do some reading. He wondered if, somewhere in the back of his mind, Aang remembered the events of this tale. “Okay. Good story. But, uh, what security? I haven’t seen anybody who could say, take on the rowdy police downstairs, or me.”

“That’s because you’re not looking, shrimp.”

Sokka had almost walked straight into her, but halted just short. He stopped breathing at about the same time. He recognized the woman standing in front of him, with the lethally unhappy eyes and thin but eye-catching figure. He especially remembered the whip coiled around her arm, ready to strike faster than a snake. “Holy crap! It’s you!”

June crossed her arms. “No, it’s some other fantastically sarcastic bounty hunter who looks just like the one who tried to catch your friend a few months ago.”

Sokka blinked dumbly.

“Yes, it’s me, idiot. My name’s June, and I work security here in the off-season.”

June now joined their procession towards the door at the very end of the hall, though her step was slow and she kept track of where Sokka was standing at all times. “There’s an off-season for bounty hunting?” He asked conversationally. This wasn’t someone whose bad side he wanted to get on again. “Incidentally, why aren’t you thrashing me and asking me where Aang is right now?”

“The off-season is whenever my Shirshu is in heat. She runs off to have a fling with some other horny pile of fur, and then comes back like she was never gone. And this is how I feed myself in the meantime. I’m not beating you down because nobody’s offering money I can collect on for the Avatar.” She didn’t appear happy about that. “The Fire Lord and his creepy daughter don’t hire third parties to get their work done, even if they’re as talented as me. Plus… well, I’ve been exiled from the Fire Nation.”

“Can I ask how-”

“No. Before you ask, I’m not for sale, either.” Sokka thought June was opening the hardwood door for him, but in fact it was opened for Madam Wu. Before June could shove him to the floor, he let the lady pass.

“I wasn’t going to ask to sleep with you, you know.”

“Then you’re even stupider than you look.” The steely-eyed bounty hunter eyed him up and down, like she might an opponent in a fight. “Though we wouldn’t sleep much. I could do a lot with someone like you that might not break you in half.”

Sokka didn’t know whether that was a complement, a come-on, or a threat. It might have been all three. He decided to shrug and follow her through the door.

There was no bed in here – just a pair of sofas, some paintings and a bookshelf stacked with thread-bound plain paper codices. “This is the study,” Madam Wu announced. “We keep all our texts here, but you don’t have the time for that, from the sound of things.”

“Planning to knock boots with someone in a hurry?” June asked.

Madam Wu waved a hand ever so slightly. Without even changing the look on her face, she seemed to become stern. June looked like that tiny movement had been a hard slap in the face. “I’ll thank you not to be rude to the customers, Miss June.”

June bowed. Even though she’d rarely been friendly to her previous employers, she evidently respected Madam Wu. “Of course, ma’am.”

“Young fellow, be a dear,” Madam Wu said, “Open that screen for me, will you?”

He hurried to act. The shoji door slid on clean runners, and inside were the fanciest scrolls he’d ever seen. They had carvings on their handles, and were on actual wood pulp rather than rice-straw paper. More than that, they had literal silver linings, with metallic threads running along their edges. “Should I…”

“Take the top right one, Mr. Sokka. You’ll start at the start of things.”

Sokka took the scroll gently. It wasn’t some ratty roll of paper, abused by time like the shelves and shelves of them in the desert library. These were new, or nearly so. They must have been copied over again and again to keep them in good shape. Of course, that was a reminder that the knowledge, more than anything else, was precious. “What’s on this one?”

“That is the kissing text you wanted. Have a seat, open it.”

The sofa he picked bounced a bit under his weight. It was far more comfortable than the ground and rock he’d been sitting on all his life, and he adored it. But then, Toph preferred rock and earth. It could be that this entire thing was a bad idea. Maybe they would just make each other miserable… especially if he was wrong, and she hated him for what he’d seen.

Didn’t mean it wasn’t worth a try, though.

Paper skimmed smoothly against paper; when opened, the scroll revealed itself to have been as tightly rolled as such a large amount of paper could possibly be. “Wow. This is… extensive.”

There were illustrations – and not just loose, artistic brushstroke illustrations, but sharp charcoal diagrams showing exactly where lips went and how to keep your teeth out of the way. The descriptions were short and concise. Perhaps too short.

Showing her wisdom again, Madam Wu said “Yes, these are an excellent starting point. Of course, there’s no substitute for experience. Which you could buy here, if you were so inclined, or accrue easily enough on your own.”

“I… I don’t know. I get nervous. Can you do anything to help with that?”

June huffed. “Oh, hell. Come *here*.”

The quick-moving bounty hunter took just two steps to close the space between them, and then her hands were on him. One on his side and one on the back of his neck. For a tenth of a second he was worried she was going to kill him. But then her painted lips were on his, and he was staring in amazement at her open eyes.

It wasn’t like he’d expected. It was better. Rather than just slamming their open mouths on each other or wrestling with their tongues, June was… well, dancing with him, sort of. Her tongue was there, but it wasn’t in his mouth. She was kind of sucking on his lower lip, and the tongue circled it now and again. It made his head spin. He surprised himself by doing the same thing to her upper lip and putting his hands on her hips.

When June had finished with him, she nodded approvingly. “There. Not so bad. I hope you realize that didn’t mean anything.”

“I disagree,” he said, hands on his own hips now. “It means I’m less afraid to kiss somebody now.”

“Hold on to that,” Madam Wu advised. “But remember that not all women are as… forward as Miss June, here.”

“I know,” Sokka said, wiping the lipstick off of himself with his thumb. He imagined Toph’s small, soft, uncolored mouth touching his own. His entire body felt eager and exhilarated. “But I’ve only got one in mind.”

“Hmph,” grumbled June. She took the scroll from his lap and dropped it on a low table, then sat in front of it and pulled open a drawer. From inside she drew simple paper and a normal quill, and started jotting, copying the scroll over.

Madam Wu swept nearer, and sat daintily next to Sokka. “I hope you can forgive her. She is used to having any man she wants, picky though she may be.”

“I can see why.”

“Because she’s frightening, or because of her good looks?”

Sokka tried his hand at wit. “Definitely both.”

She giggled at him. Also not in a phony way. Madam Wu gestured again in her stately fashion. “She can transcribe the instructions, though the pictures you’ll have to do without. Still, she just showed you the most complicated form of kiss – where your lover’s mouth is around your lower lip. It can be hard to please them with so little access to them, but if you understand-”

“He does,” hissed June unhappily.

“-then it should be fine. Nobody gets everything at once. Start slowly, build to greater things. That’s a fine approach to all lovemaking. Though not, I’m afraid, what my ladies are used to. You may not be buying this girl’s company, Sokka, but I would suggest that you treat her as though she is priceless. Do that, and she’ll belong to you more than if you’d paid for her yourself.”

Sokka breathed a sigh. “Poetic.”

“I’m a romantic, really. Married twenty years. Four children. Seven grandchildren. Oh, and June, who I like to think I look out for.”

“Hmph.”

Madam Wu smiled. “We heard you the first time, dear.”

They watched as June wrote almost mechanically, at speeds Sokka wouldn’t have guessed possible. She even pulled a second scroll off of the shelf and copied that, too.

“It will be twenty copper for both together,” Madam Wu said. Sokka had only a little more than that, but didn’t try his hand at haggling. “And yes, I am giving you a good deal, inasmuch as one can receive a good deal for something like this. Normally the scrolls are fifty coppers each, or five silver, or one gold. But since June is taking the time to copy them for you, I can simply sell you the transcriptions and keep the originals. Not the best business sense, but June does like you. Probably because you’re playing hard to get.”

June wrote even faster, as though driven purely by anger. “Hmph.”

He had no idea what to make of this. “Uh, thank you, June?”

“Hmph!”

Sokka decided not to bother June anymore. “So what’s in the other scroll?”

“Proper procedure for three sexual positions, with a few words on foreplay.” Madam Wu noticed Sokka’s nervous glances at the floor. “Don’t be so twitchy. It doesn’t become you. Trust me – when the time comes, you won’t shake. Men sure in their purpose never do.”

That cheered him up a bit. She’d called him a man. Finally, June was finished and she blew on the pages, though her thin handwriting was almost dry already. After folding them, she almost slammed them into Sokka’s outstretched hand. “I hope you make good use of them. Learn them well.”

“I think she wants to test you someday,” Madam Wu put forth, chortling quietly behind the fan she now held.

“Hmph!” hmphed June a final time, and she stalked off for the door. Sokka tried not to let his eyes follow the movement of her behind.

Madam Wu shut her fan and waved it like a band conductor. “Note, if you will, that she did not say ‘no.’ Keep this in mind, young fellow. If a woman has not yet said ‘no,’ it means you are following the path to a 'yes.' Only refusals are refusals. Everything else is a step in the right direction.”

“Communication?”

“Communication,” Madam Wu agreed, pointing to the hall after June. “You’re a quick study, Mr. Sokka, and I would adore speaking to you again the next time you pass this way. Perhaps your beau, too, if you succeed, which I think you will. However, today is a busy day, and I must ask that you hurry on to whatever tasks you’ve set yourself.”

“Where did you learn to talk like that?”

Madam Wu grinned. It wasn’t an old lady’s grin, but the grin of an amused child who’d just heard a good joke. This let Sokka know beyond all doubt that he’d done the right thing by coming here. She took his arm – not in a flirtatious way, but a friendly way – and they began to walk

They returned together to the front. When the patrolman from the altercation before saw Sokka on the arm of the beauteous Madam Wu, he spilled some of his drink and cursed. The boy – or man – from the southern tribe bowed to her, she bowed back, and he took his leave.

He did not immediately go back to camp. Instead he found a good spot in the village (a bench corner in a small bar) and set about reading. As it happened, Sokka stayed a bit too late; he ended up lying down in the forest halfway between the town and the others, and dreaming a little dream. His mind – and other parts of him – got away from him.

In the dream, he was near June. June was naked. He himself was not, but June seemed intent on fixing that. She was taking off his shirt, and he was hardly objecting, but then he felt the need to look off to his right.

Toph was there, too. This made the second time she’d surprised him in a compromising situation, though at least this was a dream. Circling over her lazily was a hard-flapping winged boar that soon flew off into the dark distance. Distantly aware of the truth, Sokka wondered if his mind had constructed that based on Aang’s story from the swamp, or if indeed this was some dream world and he was seeing real things that normally went unseen.

He didn’t much care, right now. Toph was resplendent, and commanded all his attention. She was wearing that formal dress in that he’d seen her in at her home. It was an earth kingdom thing, the hanbok, or something like that. Instead of the childish puff-balls in her hair, she had two milk-white flowers that matched her eyes. Her face was unpainted and natural, as opposed to June’s dark-lipped beauty. “Don’t worry about me,” she said, “I’m just a kid.” But Sokka couldn’t help it. He kept on staring at her.

“Hey,” June interrupted, “We were in the middle of something!”

Sokka started over towards Toph. As so often happens in dreams, he wasn’t walking so much as floating. He wondered how much Toph had seen, or at least felt-out with her earthbending. “I’m sorry, Toph.”

“What for?” She asked. “We’re not together. You don’t belong to me yet. But just so you know… if we were… I’d like that.”

And that was when June struck him on the bare back with her whip, which had materialized from nowhere. Sokka thought the shock of pain would have woken him up, but instead he fell to his knees, bowing his head. He knew it was a dream and that he couldn’t feel pain here if he didn’t want to – but something about it still stung. Maybe the guilt. “Go away,” he told June, as though this were a perfectly natural response to being lashed on the shoulders by an unclothed mercenary woman. “I don’t even know you.”

Also as if it were perfectly natural, June did leave. Though not before favoring them with another loud “Hmph!”

He looked up at Toph. She put her hands on the sides of his head, bent down and kissed him once, on the mouth. It wasn’t like June’s surprising, forceful assault on his lip. It was a peck, almost chaste, but it still thrilled him to his very core.

Unable to stop himself, Sokka tried what June had done to him, though more softly. He brushed their mouths together slightly, without their lips lined up, trying to make it more of a tease than anything else. Toph actually laughed and moved her hands to his neck, which she rubbed affectionately. His muscles tensed and the hairs on his neck bristled. Without standing up, he put his arms around her torso and hugged her until their chests were pressed together. Toph’s knees were bent and she lost her balance, laughing as she fell on top of Sokka, and then they were both lying down on their sides. Even though she was wearing clothes, he marveled at how warm she was. Her leg, between his, shimmied just a little as she tried to get comfortable. Surprising himself, he put his hand on the outside of her thigh, under the dress.

She squeezed his trapezius, eyes shut. Her breath was short, like she was trying to hold it in and not let him notice how excited she was. The tops of her cheeks were just slightly red.

“We don’t have to do this, you know.” Sokka didn’t know why he was saying so. This was a dream, right? But he felt like it was important.

Toph kissed him again, hard, by way of an answer. She was pressing so ferociously that she didn’t even notice when it started to hurt. Still, she kissed him harder and harder, until Sokka pulled his face away. “Owch!”

Toph gasped, trying to disentangle herself from him. “Oh no, I’m sorry, it-”

Sokka spat, pulled her back down and pinned her, grinning. He had the tiniest of cuts on his lip. Toph’s bite had barely hurt him, and certainly thrilled him. “It’s the thought that counts.”

Now, with her under him, Sokka tried using his tongue in a kiss. He pulled her lip into his mouth and taunted it, careful to keep his own teeth out of the way. He knew he was handling himself well when she moaned and squirmed, unable to control her own body.

His hand wandered up her leg, keeping skin contact all the way up to her underclothes. The plain panties were actually a little loose, and he snuck a finger inside without even meaning to. Toph gasped, her legs pulling in close. This actually had the effect of rubbing Sokka’s whole hand on the outside of her underwear, and her spine quaked. “Ah… you shouldn't touch there… it’s so… it’s not…” She was obviously surprised by how much it was tingling.

*Only a refusal is a refusal.* “What if I touch here?” Reaching up farther, he pressed his hand to the laced surface of her camisole, making sure she felt each of his fingers roll over her nipple one at a time. His other hand was behind her head to serve as a cushion. He wanted to kiss her, but he wanted to see her face even more. Her tightly-shut eyes and fast breathing aroused him. Sokka didn’t know why he wanted her to feel this flustered, but he did, badly. As soon as he saw her bite her own finger and tug at the collar of her hanbok, he knew what to do. “Clothes feel heavy?”

“Yes!”

“Wish you didn’t have them on?”

“Yes!”

“Wish I’d stop teasing you so much?”

“Yes!”

“You’re not a good liar.” Because he knew plenty about knots, he undid the triangle hitch with a single twist of his finger. The skirt and the underskirts fell open at once, and he was left looking at a girl in nothing but underwear, lying on top of her own clothes. Her erect nipples poked at the inside of her camisole (which he thought much nicer than his tribe’s simple chest wraps) and she had her legs shut to keep him from seeing what she was so ashamed of. Even so, she let him kiss her as he rolled her onto her side and started untying the knots he found on her back.

“This is embarrassing… I don’t have a nice body like girls your age.”

“You’re only saying that because you can’t see yourself.”

Toph pressed the fabric to her own chest after her back was naked, not wanting to reveal everything. Sokka played his hands over it, enjoying the softness. Her delicate shoulder muscles rippled under his palms. For once, he was the one making Toph feel nervous. “Put your hands down. I want to see you.”

Eyes still shut, she dropped the clothing from her chest and shifted onto her back. Now that they were both shirtless, Sokka wanted to hold her again. Her stiff nipples poked into his skin, and her heaving chest was burning with exhilaration. Toph was so delirious that she didn’t really notice him slide off her last bit of clothing, his finger following the crack of her behind down to where she was most sensitive of all.

It was wet there when he touched it. Toph was trying to scream out loud and failing, instead grabbing at Sokka spasmodically and almost drooling, blind eyes widened in shock. But she nearly passed out when he slithered a finger into her boiling slit and moved it up and down, entertained by the way it got the entire rest of her body to move. “You’re like a finger puppet!”

“This is funny to you? Aah!” One of the blossoms in Toph’s hair fell out as she slammed her cheek into his shoulder. “I’m not… I’m not… agh, Sokka you bastard!”

“You want me to stop?”

“No!”

“So you want another finger?”

“No!”

“Then what should I do?”

“I don’t… I don’t…” Toph acquiesced and kissed him hard again. Sokka made sure they had their mouths open this time, and then pulled his finger out of her with a wet pop. “Aaaah!”

Sokka had been nursing an erection since the beginning of this fantasy. The hard-on wanted badly to bury itself in Toph, but instead he just pulled his pants down, turned her small body around with his strong arms and rubbed her wetness with three fingers. Now she was lying on top of him but turned around, and faced with his hard-on. The squealing noise she made was nowhere near cute, but it was certainly satisfying. “What should I…?” she asked.

“Anything you want,” he said. To give her an idea of what he was going for, he licked all the way down Toph’s outside and then poked his tongue at her inside. It had very little taste, but if anything it was like her saliva. So it had the flavor of Toph. Wonderful.

Toph, for her part, hesitated before gripping Sokka fully. She looked a little afraid of it because of both the size and the unfamiliarity, but still handled it gently. A smile appeared on her face when Sokka moaned her name happily, and she fondled him with care, rubbing the head in time with his pulse. She managed to keep absent-mindedly pleasing him as his mouth brought her to a low, slow, exhausting orgasm that let him taste all he wanted of her fluids.

The cooing sound she emitted got him off, getting Toph’s hand sticky with his come. Nothing stopped her from smiling, though, or him. The satisfied sighs they let out were so similar as to be one sound, and their final kiss went on as Sokka fell out of his reverie and into warm, pleasant, uninterrupted sleep.

A few miles away, Toph turned over in her bedroll, almost waking up from a magnificent dream. She was remembering a story her mother had told her years ago: that if two people dreamed about each other, they would meet in the place on the other side of sleep, just as surely as if it were the real world. And in her mind, she had just met Sokka.

They would meet again, awake, in the morning.

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TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 4
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NEXT TIME: It all comes together as confessions are made, but can this possibly work? And can everything that’s happened possibly stay secret? Hope you come back for next time!

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(This fanfiction was not produced for profit, and without the permission of Viacom, its subsidiaries or other authorities of Avatar: The Last Airbender trademarks and indicia.
Apologies to Messrs. DiMartino and Konietzko and the voice acting cast.)

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THE LETTERS SECTION

(Welcome to the letters page, where we take the time to respond to some of the reviews posted. Read along, won’t you?)

P-ear: Wow this is one of the best storys I've ever read.

(Then you need to read more. Thanks, though.)

Wein 6: I must know what happens next.

(And now you do. Funny how that worked out.)

Yellow 101: Man this story just keeps getting better and better.

(Yeah, we’ll see how long you keep that opinion. But don’t worry if this chapter didn’t grab ya, ‘cause the next one will!)

:P: This story rules. Please update?

(I intend to finish it, and it won’t be a thirty-chapter epic. If I ever take more than a week to update a story it’s surprising.)

Prettycullurs: I cant wait for the next update! Plz update soon?

(Naturally. Of course, more reviews couldn’t hurt. If I make five per chapter, I feel like I’ve done a good job. Okay, that’s it for now, fans… I just have to keep typing before new episodes of the show throw me a curveball! Peace! [Gunwild@mail2world.com])