dis: i don't own Avatar or any of the characters.
The sun was setting.
A warrior sat on the rocky beach, staring out at the water. He sighed and ran a hand through his long brown hair. He'd changed since the war, not just physically, and he knew it. Everyone had. None of them would ever be the same.
Throw…catch. Throw…catch.
Absently, he threw his bladed boomerang, catching it as it came back and throwing it again and again. He knew weapons. Like his boomerang. He could throw it over and over, and he knew he'd be able to catch it every time without cutting himself. He wasn't as good with people. He could admit that he wasn't the brightest candle in the candelabra; his sister was much better at speaking and problem-solving than he was. That was probably why she was the diplomat and not him. He tended to hit first and work things out second.
His sister. He knew that his sibling had gotten together with the Avatar; hell, he'd been at the wedding. When last he heard news from the capital, they were expecting a child. Inwardly, he grinned. He'd get to be the fun uncle that neither he nor his sibling ever had.
Throw…catch. Throw…catch. Throw…catch.
His train of thoughts turned to the Avatar. As kids, he'd been amazed at the seemingly magical abilities of his best friend, jealous as he had been at times. Not even growing up with a waterbender as a sister had erased it. When he'd met the kid all those years ago, the Avatar was just an airbender, though a strange one. Then he'd learned to waterbend, which had been the first clue that what was happening was real. Then came the earthbending, taught by the blind, sarcastic girl, if the gender marker could really apply to her.
He sighed and stared out at the ocean. The setting sun had turned it fiery, reminding him forcefully of when he, his sister, and his best friend had been caught and trapped in the temple dedicated to Avatar Roku.
Throw…catch. Throw…catch. Throw…
"That you, Sokka?"
…miss.
"Toph?" the warrior asked, turning around. The petite black-haired noble stood behind him, careful to keep her balance on the sand. "Shouldn't you be at the capital? I thought you were supposed to be there, greatest earthbender in the world and all."
The blind young woman deftly crossed the sand and picked up the fallen weapon, handing it back to him.
"I almost couldn't tell it was you, Sokka. Your breathing was slower than usual, and the breeze keeps moving the sand. Things are fuzzy." Then she gave a wry grin and sat down next to him. "I snuck out of the capital. Watching Twinkletoes and his pretty little family parade around the capital gets real old real fast, and I was tired of teasing Appa."
"'Watching'?"
She glared at him with uncanny accuracy. "You know what I mean."
That made him laugh. "Yeah, I do. What brings you out here, anyway?"
"I usually come out here when I need to think. Kinda like what you're doing now."
"Ah."
The two war veterans sat in companionable silence for a few moments. Looking back, he realized that the tiny woman had been invaluable during the war. Without her, they would have been ambushed by firebenders more often than he could count, with only a waterbender, the Avatar, a water tribe warrior, a lemur, and a bison. Near the end of the war, the exiled Fire Nation prince had joined them, and he'd been a huge help as well. He had, in fact, laid the final blow on the tyrannical Fire Lord Ozai.
Throw…catch. Throw…catch. Throw…catch.
"Hey, Toph…"
"Yeah?"
"Do you ever think about…" he trailed off.
"Think about what happened?"
"Yeah."
The earthbender sighed and pulled her knees up to her chest. He could see a faint layer of dirt on her still-bare feet.
"More often than I really care to, honestly."
"Me too…"
Throw…catch. Throw…catch. Throw…
Toph grinned suddenly and held up a hand. The boomerang made a ninety-degree turn mid-air and sailed into her hand, glinting in the dying evening light.
…miss.
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