Commentary: Another short story told in short snippets. I'll update this either every day or every other day. Each chapter will be between 500-1,500 words.

I hope you enjoy it! =)

POT CALLING KETTLE

Chapter One

"I've got you!" she screamed over the snap-crackle roar of the flames. "I've got you, I've got you!" And she did have him, Sokka thought as she surfed a wave of dirt over to him, taking out three insurgent Firebenders in the process. They buckled like flowers under a boot, their arms waving, their fingers clawing. She collided with him. She grappled at his armor, hoisted him upright. "Can you walk?" she demanded. "Hurry. They'll dig out."

Leaning on the small Earthbender, Sokka tried. He managed a wobbling canter with her and grated, his jaw clenched so hard he thought his teeth might shatter, "It's fine. Yeah, I can."

Toph huffed into his ear. "Good. Can't carry your heavy ass around forever. Which way's clearest?"

"That way." Sokka both pointed (instinct) and nudged her (learned behavior).

Immediately she tightened her arm around him and made off in the indicated direction. Under the smeared slant of her brow her eyes narrowed. "How bad did they get you?"

Sokka checked. The round of flesh beneath his shoulderplate was bruised, bleeding, and singed, but not the blackened ruin it might have been without Toph's timely arrival. "It's all right. Katara'll fix it." He blanched. "Don't tell her I walked into that trap, okay?"

"Are you kidding?" She aimed a fiendish grin at him. "You made me miss lunch, buddy. I'm going to tell her every last gory detail, right down to you twisting your ankle and crying like a baby—"

"I'm not crying," Sokka interrupted petulantly. "Spirits, Toph, I've got cinders all mashed up in the corners of both eyes here! They're watering!"

"Suuuure," she sneered. "It's funny how you're the only one with that problem, isn't it?" Toph's eyes were as clear as they could get, not to mention dry.

"I'm chalking that up to the fact that you're ridiculously short and, as a result, below most of the smoke," said Sokka.

"You say that like you're a giant."

"And you tease me like you're not a midget." He stumbled, yelped. Toph caught him in an embrace of pebbly soil and heaved him aloft again.

"Badassery comes in small packages," she insisted, and threatened next, "chop-chop, Snoozles, or I'll Earthbend us both out of here. I don't care how much grit you get between your buttchee—"

Whatever else she intended to say was lost to the abrupt clonk of metal against bone. She folded against him immediately and silently, like a doll, and he went down on top of her, a little to protect her but mostly because she'd been the only thing keeping him on his feet. He looked down and there was something shiny sticking out of her head like a third terrible ear. Her eyes were still, dull. A tributary of blood trickled into them from the river in her hair.

He opened his mouth to call her name and something smashed into his temple. Constellations exploded across his vision. The world fell away into star-specked darkness.