"You know this is a bad decision!" said Toph, smacking her hand on Sokka's ash desk.
"I don't have a choice, Toph," he replied. "There's just not enough evidence to convict Quon Li. It doesn't matter how much I trust your judgement ," - he put his hand on Toph's, where it still rested his desk – "and I do, the law is really clear about this."
Toph pulled her hand away and turned her back to him, speaking over her shoulder.
"I can't believe you're just going to let him walk free.
This is a mistake. I'm making myself clearabout that."
She stormed out of Sokka's office, slamming the door behind her.
Aang stood shocked next to the guest couch he had been seated in before she had come raging in.
Sokka stood up with a sigh, picking up the plaque on his desk that read 'Council Chairman – Sokka', and giving it a lingering glare.
"She's right, you know," he said, looking up at Aang. "'This whole situation reminds me very strongly of the Yakone affair. And even if I try to convince the council to convict him, no one will do it without the right evidence."
Aang stroked his beard, an annoying habit he'd picked up in the last few years that Sokka and Toph (and in private, even Katara, albeit more tenderly) teased him about mercilessly. "Quon Li is definitely a threat," he said. "It concerns me that he has covered his tracks so carefully. It's a miracle that Toph managed to arrest him at all."
"Toph is nothing if not good at her job." Sokka said.
He put his plaque down and walked around the desk to follow Aang out of the room. "Let's go and get some lunch before I have to get back to work."