It had been a long, boring day. Aang had roused him before sunrise, and begrudgingly climbed aboard Appa for their morning inspection.
Every morning was the same. The framework for Republic City stretched out in every direction from the harbour at its core. The salt spray from the ocean would chase away the sleepiness as Appa swept low, and Sokka would prepare himself for the long day at hand.
There was an endless stream of work to do. Buildings were taking shape, and there were any number of minor details to finalize for them all. When Aang had asked Sokka to help him build his city nearly a year ago, Sokka had expected...well, he didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't this. Something more exciting, not mediating disputes between workers and settlers, each trying to carve out a piece of the work or of the land.
This day was longer than most, and had called Sokka to the distant edges of the city to investigate a series of complaints. A narrow river snaked its way down to the ocean, and it was the source of the dispute. Three different men had laid claim to a narrow stretch, each with plans to build a bridge. Sokka had spoken with them for hours before convincing them to cooperate in the construction, and split the profits of the toll they intended to charge.
Now, the sun was little more than a dull red glow in the west, casting skeletal shadows on streets littered with lumber and tools. Most of the workers had retired to their temporary housing for the night, but Sokka could still hear the sounds of a few workers finishing their work for the night. Other than those distant echoes, all he could hear were his footsteps in the quiet of the night.
"Well, Aang better still be at the council building by the time I get there. I'm not swimming back to that island," Sokka muttered to himself, casually running his fingers through his hair while shaking his head. Why Aang had insisted on building his new airbender temple on an island was a mystery to him. As he skirted a pile of bricks which had been left in the middle of the road, he heard a soft gurgling sound from the alley to his right.
A narrow surge of water rushed out of the shadows, snaking towards his face. With a shout of surprise, Sokka sprang o the side, landing hard on the bricks beside him. Rubbing his hip, he watched the water speed back into the alley. Having spent so much time with Katara, he knew that whoever was bending that water was only bringing it around to strike again. His hand snatched for the grip of his sword, and the blade sprang from his back just as the water whip snapped out at him once more.
Slashing with the flat of his blade, Sokka splashed the water away from himself while rolling off the bricks and to his feet.
"Who's there?" Sokka said to the darkness, but before he was given an answer, a heavy weight slammed into him from behind, throwing him against the wall. The man who had tackled him was slightly shorter than Sokka, and quickly rolled away as soon as Sokka turned his attention on him.
Sword raised, Sokka sprang at the man, but his sword jerked him awkwardly to one side. Glancing over his shoulder, Sokka saw a large chuck of ice frozen to his blade, the extra weight pulling it to the ground. The smaller man came to his feet, a palm-sized knife in hand, while from behind Sokka, the waterbender stepped into the twilight.
He was, of course, dressed in the style of the Northern Water Tribe, if not a little rough around the edges. Grime streaked his clothes, and they frayed at the hem. His fur collar was patchy, as though it had somehow caught mange. Long hair tied in knotted braids framed his dark face, handsome but for the oddly angled nose. He wore four water skins lashed across his chest, hanging under his arms. The two on his left hung limp and empty, and he drew the water free from a third, hanging on his right. The water swirled in a figure eight in front of him, as he threw Sokka a cruel smile. Sokka could have sworn that one of the man's teeth was made of ivory.
"Give us whatever coin you've got on you," the man with the knife said, menacingly stabbing it at Sokka, even though it was obviously a knife meant for cutting, with a wide curve and no sharp point. He dressed as an Earth Kingdom commoner, his drab green and brown clothes hanging loose on his wiry frame. A moustache that hung past his chin wavered slightly as he spoke.
"Best listen to him, he's pretty quick with that thing," the waterbender said, still sweeping his stream of water around in front of him, "And your sword is no good frozen in ice. Nobody has to get hurt here."
"Oh sure, since I didn't get knocked out right away, now you want to negotiate!" Sokka said, glancing uneasily between the two. His sword was useless now, but he still had his trusty boomerang. His hand started for the sheath that held it, before he paused, uncertain which of the two he should strike first.
"Look, we're not negotiating. You are going to give us what we want, or we are going to take it," the man with the knife growled, taking another step closer. With a flurry of motion, Sokka drew his boomerang and let it fly, his mind made up for him. The curved blade whistled through the air, striking the smaller man's hand and sending his knife skittering over the stone street bricks.
"Yeah, boomerang!" Sokka shouted, readying himself to catch it when it came back. The boomerang arced through the air, before burying itself into the fresh timber of a building hemming in the narrow street. "Aw, boomerang..."
Hearing the growl from behind him, Sokka danced to the side, avoiding the crack of the water as it whipped past him. Grabbing one of the bricks, Sokka reared back, and let it fly at the Northern Tribe outlaw. With a whistling slice, the waterbender cut the brick in two with his water whip, while drawing yet another stream from his last skin. Intertwining the two streams, he unleashed a deluge at Sokka.
Shouting in panic, Sokka dropped down to his hands and knees, and heard a loud "Oof" from behind him, as the deluge washed the smaller non-bender away. Seizing his opportunity, Sokka rushed the older man, fists flying.
His skins depleted, the older waterbender was reduced to a fist fight, but his waterbending skills had readily prepared him for that. Catching Sokka's arm, he twisted and threw the younger man to the ground. On hand and knee, Sokka scrambled away before the waterbender's kick landed. Sokka saw a loose plank on the ground nearby, and reached out for it. Wrapping his fingers around it, he flung it behind him. While the waterbender was dodging it, Sokka managed to get to his feet. He didn't have any more weapons, so when he saw both of his attackers on their feet, his stomach dropped. Maybe if he ran, they'd settle for his sword and boomerang.
"Now you're going to pay for this," the waterbender said, drawing some of his spilled water up off the road, "I'm going to make sure of it. Maybe if you'd run right away, but now I'm mad."
With that, the waterbender thrust his hand out before him, opening them wide, and sent the water splashing over Sokka's feet. Seconds later, the water froze solid, freezing him in place. Tugging at his feet, Sokka started panting nervously, while the non-bender closed at a run with a wooden plank raised over one shoulder. Sokka winced and closed his eyes, waiting for the blow. The air whistled as the plank tore towards him, but the blow never landed. After a few seconds, Sokka opened one eye to see what was going on.
The non-bender stood, the board extended out towards Sokka, but was no longer able to move. Heavy wire cable, meant to hoist building supplies, wrapped around his arms, holding fast. Suddenly, it snapped taut, and flung the man off-balance, sending him careening against a nearby wall. The waterbender wheeled around, looking for the source of the cable, when several bricks came sailing out of the dusk darkness. He managed to knock the first two away, but the third struck him in the shoulder, and the fourth in the stomach. Falling to his knees, his water spread out across the street once more. When he looked up to find his attacker, one last brick sailed lazily into his forehead. Dizzy and confused, he scrambled into the alley and ran off, followed shortly by his non-bending companion once he had extricated himself from the wire cables.
Sokka finally managed to break through the ice holding his feet, and although he couldn't feel his toes anymore, he sighed in relief.
"Thanks, whoever you are, for helping me out there," Sokka said, walking over to grab his boomerang, "And nice work using the wire as a lasso. I'm impressed, it must have been hard to throw it that far." Sokka grunted as he pulled his boomerang out of the wood. It had buried itself really deep.
"Twinkle-toes told me I would find you out here," she said, stepping out into what was left of the red sunlight, "I guess you never did learn to stay out of trouble."
"Toph!" Sokka said, tossing boomerang back in its sheath. He ran up to the blind earthbender, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. They were quite a bit higher off the ground than they used to be. "What's it been, like two years since we saw each other last?"
"I've never seen you, Sokka," Toph said smiling, "But you certainly don't sound the same. Your voice finally stopped squeaking then?"
"Of course!" Sokka tried to say, but it inexplicably came out in a high squeak, something that almost never happened anymore. Toph laughed at that, and Sokka had no choice but to chuckle along with her. The two old friends parted as Sokka stepped back, to take a better look at her. She had gotten tall. Taller than Katara. That was the most glaring difference, but she was still the same as he remembered her otherwise.
"Just like always," she said, patting his cheek playfully. All of a sudden, Toph froze, as if she had turned to stone, hand still resting on his face.
"Umm...Toph?"
"Beard!" Toph shouted, her other hand springing to his face. She began roughly rubbing his face with both hands, fingers tracing from ears to nose, and down over his chin, "Sokka, you have a beard! When did you get a beard? It doesn't feel glued on..."
"Of course it isn't glued on! I grew it, isn't it great?"
"Well, it's kind of thin and patchy here," Toph said, point to his left cheek, "here," pointing to his right jaw line, "and here," she concluded, pointing to his upper lip.
"Oh yeah, I'd like to see you grow a better beard!" Sokka said, flustered at the blind girl's callous, if completely accurate and honest, criticism, "That's right, you can't!"
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Patches. Now, grab your sword, and let's get going. Aang told me he was going to leave without you after sunset."
"He what! Some friend, I come all this way out here to help him keep order in his city, get attacked by some crazy waterbending bandit and his knife-waving buddy, and he won't even wait to give me a lift home at the end of the day? Some friend he turned out to be!" Sokka raved, furiously working to pry his sword out of the ice. When it finally gave way, he nearly lost his balance and fell backward, but managed to catch himself in time. "Oh well, let's get moving. We might be able to catch him before he leaves us behind."
Together they set off towards the bay, back along the same route Sokka had been walking when he'd been jumped. Even with all the noise he was sure the scuffle had made, Toph was the only person he had seen any sign of. If any of the workers in the area heard him, they'd made off before trouble found them as well.
Right now, it was just the two of them, walking in the dusk twilight.
"So Toph, what have you been up to since the gang split up?" Sokka asked, absent-mindedly rubbing his hip once more. It was still sore from his landing on the pile of bricks.
"Well, you remember my metalbending academy? That really caught on. So many students I can't keep track of them all, let alone teach them all. And half of them don't have any idea what they are supposed to be learning. Some rich merchant enrolled his son, and I don't even think the kid is an earthbender," Toph said, flicking her hair dismissively.
Sokka hadn't noticed before, but Toph had changed her hair. The tight bun Sokka had always known was now loose, her dark hair cascading down just past her shoulders.
"So I had to put some of my best students in charge of teaching the others. That's who I have covering for me while I'm out visiting you guys. I just couldn't say no to an invitation from Avatar Twinkle-toes," Toph continued, oblivious to Sokka's assessment of her hair, "This is a nice city you two have here, Sokka."
"Oh yeah, we have lots left to do, but it's really coming along. People seem to really want to get in on the ground floor here. Almost every day I have to settle arguments about who gets what piece of land. Just this afternoon, there were three earthbenders who each wanted to build a bridge in the same spot over the river. It took all day to settle that argument, and it was one of the good ones."
"Well, I hope you are ready to take some time off, because I'm not going to sit around alone in a strange city. And I'm definitely not going to sit around and listen to the happy couple all day," Toph said, sticking out her tongue and punctuating her point with some theatrical gagging noises.
"They aren't so bad anymore. It took them long enough to stop being so sickly sweet, but they eventually stopped. Well, most of the time," Sokka said, shrugging. Katara and Aang had driven him half mad in the earlier days of their relationship, not least because he didn't really approve of it. But now, he had grown used to them, and more importantly the idea of them. Katara had fought alongside him in the war, and had captured Azula. As hard as it was to admit, she didn't need her big brother to protect her anymore.
"If you say so, although I don't believe you," Toph said.
"You'll see when we get back to the island. Katara will be happy to see you too, she's been complaining about there not being any other girls around since Suki left."
"Oh yeah, where is Suki? Aang didn't say anything about her."
Sokka felt like she had just dumped a bucket of cold water over his head, dampening his cheer at seeing her. His mouth twisted into a sad frown, and he stared as his feet as they walked. After a long moment, he realized he needed to give Toph an answer.
"She...she went back to Kyoshi Island a couple of months ago," Sokka finally said. Another long moment of silence followed as Toph tried to work through the sudden change in the atmosphere.
"That's...kind of a long trip," Toph said, trailing off. More awkward silence.
"It was hard at first, when she left, but I'm dealing with it. All the work to do has helped keep my mind off of it, but honestly, Aang and Katara have been the worst," Sokka said sadly. Realizing what he had just said, he started backpedaling, "I don't mean that they haven't been really supportive and tried to help me, because they have, they've been great like that, telling me that things will get better and all that, it's just...it's just that being around two people who are so happy with each other all the time makes it that much harder to accept that she is really gone."
"I'm sorry Sokka," Toph said, her voice genuine in its sympathy, "I didn't mean to bring it up. I didn't know."
"It's not your fault Toph, don't worry about it. Besides, everything will work out. Especially now that you're here to keep my mind off it."
Unnoticed by Sokka, a faint blush crept across Toph's cheeks, pooling in her ears.
They were nearly back to the council building when they heard the groaning roar from above. Sokka looked up to see Appa swoop low overhead. The great bison banked and came down hard on the stones. A thin puff of dust rose up from around his many feet, and his rider sprang lightly to ground.
"Sokka! There you are. You didn't have any trouble finding him, did you Toph?" Aang said cheerfully, brightening Sokka's mood once more merely by his presence.
"Not a moment too soon," Toph said, with a mischievous smirk.
"Huh?" Aang said. He looked to Sokka, expecting an explanation.
"I'll tell you on the way back. Let's just go, I'm starving!" Sokka said, hauling himself up into Appa's saddle. He reached down to offer Toph a hand, but the earthbender thrust herself up onto the bison with a narrow column of earth.
"Let's go!" she said, settling herself into the saddle and pulling Sokka down beside her. She held his arm in an almost painfully tight grip.
"Uh, Toph," Aang said as he carefully bent the earth pillar back into place in the flat street. After taking a moment to straighten the paving stones, he went on, "You should be more careful with your earthbending here. We need these streets to get around, and so we need to keep them clear."
"Yeah, yeah, duly noted Grandpa, let's just get this over with. I've gotta say I didn't miss flying."
"Let's go Aang, Katara will be waiting for us. I'll tell you what happened with the river on the way back."
"Ok, Appa; yip yip!"
With a groan, the sky bison slapped the earth with its great tail and the group rose into the sky, striking out westward into the setting sun.
"You tried to rob the Avatar's man?" Master Fu growled.
"Uhh...well we thought he was just some other rich developer. Bao tailed him from a meeting with Liang Xin, the bridge developer."
"That's right boss," Bao said, "If we'd known it was the Avatar's guy, we'd have left him alone."
"But anyway, we didn't take any of his stuff, on account of that earthbender who helped him."
"Very well. I'll look the other way this once. But you two idiots need to lie low for now. I've got a number of key investments relying on the Avatar's good graces in the coming days, and I don't need his little militia sniffing you out in my kitchens," Master Fu said, leaning back in his seat. With one hand, he stroked his long, pointed beard, "Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes sir," Tonrar and Bao said in unison.
"Good. Now get to the docks. Fang's got a shipment going out tonight, and he's asked me to provide some extra security to make sure it gets where it's going."
"You can count on us boss," Bao said. With that, the two toughs bowed, and backed out of the study, leaving the older man to his many letters and ledgers.