Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender, or else this story would actually be an episode.

Author's Note: This is massive. And massively fluffy. I think this was out of my hands from the very beginning, though not literally. Anyway, I think Toph might have this type of problem with the rain; it's sort of like staring at blinking Christmas lights for a long time, I'd think.

And now for the warning: This fic may cause excessive 'aww'ing and damage to your connection to reality. Proceed with caution. Remember to grab an angsty fic on your way in, because after you read this, you'll need it.

Oh, and review.

Alisa

Rain

"It's raining again! Why is it always raining? I hate the rain!"

The Earthbender stomped her foot for emphasis as another sheet of rain slashed across the roof of their apartment, followed by the crack of lightning and the accompanying boom of thunder that sent Momo scurrying under the table.

Sokka and Katara shared a look across their tile game. Aang Airbended himself up from where he was watching Sokka lose horribly.

"The rain's not so bad," he told the irritated—and now pacing—Toph. "Just think of it as… soothing."

"SOOTHING?" Her cloudy eyes were wide and wild behind her bangs. "How can the vibrations of millions of raindrops hitting the Earth be soothing?!"

"Calming…?" Aang offered cautiously.

"Ugh!"

She threw her hands up in the air and dropped onto Sokka and Katara's ongoing game. Katara sputtered indignantly between her ruined game and Toph.

Sokka, rather than commenting on the destroyed game (personally he was glad, as he'd never been losing quite as badly), said slowly, "You know, Toph, I think I have an idea."

She didn't even bother turning her head toward him as she spat, "I'm not gonna let you hit me over the head with your boomerang, Ponytail."

"That wasn't my original plan, but now that you mention it—"

Toph turned to her hands and knees on the table, sending tiles in every direction, before sticking her face in Sokka's. "Spit it out, Meathead!"

"You sure get angry when it rains," commented Aang.

"You would too, Happyboy," Toph growled, her face still uncomfortably close to Sokka's, "if all you could feel were those never-ending little vibrations everywhere you go and no matter what you do they're always there dripping and pattering and—UGH!"

She threw her hands in the air again, slumping in defeat.

Aang placed a light hand on Toph's shoulder and said, "It sounds like you could use some meditation. That might help you relax and embrace the rain—"

"Embrace the rain?" she cried indignantly, cutting him off. "If me and the rain embraced any more we'd be married!"

"Well, that's an interesting metaphor," said Katara with an apprehensive little laugh. Out of the corner of her mouth she hissed, "Sokka, your plan."

"Hmm? Oh, right." He turned to the blind girl in front of him. "Hey Toph, why don't we go for a walk?"

"You want to go for a walk? Sokka, it's raining everywhere! No matter where we'd walk, it would still be raining!" she cried, looking as if she wanted to shake the Water Tribe warrior.

Sokka heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Fine, if you don't want my help…."

She folded her arms across her chest and pouted.

Sokka waited a few moments, in which Momo crawled out from under the table to perch on Aang's shoulder and Katara began gathering up the forgotten tiles, before finally frowning.

"C'mon, Toph, we're gonna go for a walk." The boom of thunder could be heard under Sokka's words and Momo hissed.

"You can do whatever you want, but I'm not going out there," said Toph stiffly.

"Either you come with me now or I'll make you."

"Make me?" Toph gave a loud snort of laughter. "I'd love to know what you'd do. Ha! You wouldn't be—what're you doing!"

Sokka grunted as he settled Toph over his shoulder. Katara and Aang couldn't help but laugh as the blind girl struggled against her captor, who was finding it difficult to hold her still.

"I'm making you," the warrior mumbled as he struggled to keep her kicking legs from his stomach, then added sharply, "Would you hold still?"

"HOLD STILL? Put me down and we'll see how well I can hold still!" she cried, beating her tiny fists against his back. "Ohh, if only I could touch the ground, then you'd be sorry!"

Sokka didn't dignify her with a response as he opened the front doors. "We'll be back eventually," he informed the others with difficulty before shutting the door behind him.

Aang looked over to Katara and said, "What has Sokka gotten himself into?"

Outside, Sokka gripped Toph's calves tighter in an attempt to hold her still. She was shouting something at him, but he couldn't hear her over the sound of the rain beating on the roof of the apartment; it probably wasn't something he wanted to hear anyway. Stumbling down the stairs and into the road, he carefully set Toph on her feet, where she immediately kicked up a rock and sent it hurtling past him.

After watching the bolder create a sizable hole in the road, he turned back to Toph, who was fuming with her head down and her hands clenched. She stood on her toes and poked his chest with a finger, shouting something that sounded like, "—did you think you were doing! Now I'm soaking and I'm gonna—"

"So, where d'you wanna go?" Sokka shouted over her.

Heaving a sigh, he heard her say faintly, "Away from Ba Sing Se."

"Away from Ba Sing Se it is!" he cried, and took off down the road, Toph following.

They had only gone forty yards when he noticed Toph trailing from the road, leaving sloshy footprints in the mud behind her. Jogging over to her, he set a hand on her shoulder and she jumped.

"Where're you going?" he questioned.

"I thought we were getting away from this stupid city," she snapped.

"We are," he shot back, "but you're wandering off the road."

She sighed. "It's hard to feel vibrations with all this mud and rain messing me up. It's almost as fuzzy as sand."

"Then you're holding my hand," he said, encompassing her tiny hand in his.

But she pulled her hand from his. "I'm fine by myself."

Sokka merely laced his fingers more tightly in hers. This time she didn't protest. Her hand was surprisingly warm in his, and he found himself blushing as Suki flashed through his mind.

She must have sensed this because she said, "What're you thinking about?"

Rain trickled down his neck and he shivered. "What Suki would think if she saw me holding hands with another girl."

Toph laughed, but her fingers still curled possessively around his. "I don't think Suki would see me as a threat."

Sokka let the thought hang as he led Toph down the muddy road. They had only been walking for about five minutes, but he could feel her shivering and there was mud up to her knees. Pants that were usually just dusty were now edged in mud, and her feet made a squelching sound with each step, leaving small pools behind. Another five minutes passed before the rain began letting up, now only a fine drizzle, and Sokka spotted a large tree a ways ahead of them.

Breaking into a jog, Toph dragging behind him, Sokka headed toward the shelter of the tree and what looked like dry ground underneath it.

"Sokka, where are we going?" Toph demanded, digging her heels in the mud and effectively stopping him.

He gave a mighty tug at her hand, but she had found her footing and was firmly planted. "We're gonna go sit underneath a tree, okay? So… let's go sit!"

She shook her damp bangs out of her eyes and mumbled under her breath. "You could've just said that in the first place."

He gave another tug on her hand and she followed, though not as enthusiastically as Sokka. When they had reached the protection of the tree, Sokka dropped Toph's hand and collapsed onto the dry grass.

Toph sat down neatly next to his sprawled-out body, her arms wrapped protectively around her knees. "Sick of the rain already?" she asked mockingly. "You seemed so willing to embrace it before."

He lifted his head from where it had been resting in the grass. "I'm not sick of the rain, I just prefer mine frozen."

"That's snow, Snoozles."

"Exactly."

She didn't laugh at that like he had hoped she would; instead, she simply sat in silence for a moment, her head tipped down like it always was, her eyes burning a hole in the Earth she couldn't really see. Finally, she said in a voice that seemed too small and weary to be Toph's, "Why did you bring me out here, Sokka?"

The question surprised him, not because he hadn't been expecting it, but because he wasn't sure what the answer was. He settled on saying, "I'm gonna teach you how to like the rain."

She frowned at him then, turned her head at him and stared him straight in the eyes with an unnerving accuracy and pulled her mouth down in a sullen curve of her lips.

"I promise," he assured her, as aware of his plan as she was.

"Fine," Toph murmured, then added with more bite, "But it better work."

"It'll work, don't you worry," he said, and groped around his conscious for some sort of plan as she looked at him expectantly.

"Okay. First… first, I want you to lean back against this tree," Sokka said in his commanding voice. She did what she was told, albeit with a frown. He scooted next to her and breathed a sigh into the tree—he hadn't realized how tired he was.

Toph's voice cut through his reverie. "What now?"

"Now? Now… let's just listen to the rain."

What had slowed down to a drizzle when they were walking was now returning with more force, blurring the outlines of houses and filling the sky with volatile color and depth. It was kind of soothing, like Aang said, he noticed. The constant sound, the consistent feeling… like water, ever-present, yet ever-changing….

Sokka only noticed he had been drifting off when Toph's head landed on his shoulder, a gentle touch of soft hair to his dry skin. The smooth inhale/exhale movement of her chest was his only indication that she was asleep. He used his free hand to rub his tired eyes and noticed that the rain had dissolved, leaving a clearing sky and a sparkling new world.

But this sparkling new world, it was… different. There was something different, or something different inside him, maybe. He was watching a bird in the tree above him when he realized what it was. Something tightened around his hand—another hand.

Toph's hand.

Sokka looked at the two of them. Dirty, muddy, damp, rumpled clothing, probably smelled a bit strange too… no different than usual, he thought with a smirk. But it was different. Toph never held his hand, or put her head on his shoulder, or curled her body toward his… different.

Different could be nice, Sokka thought to himself. And different was nice.

Suddenly Toph took a deep breath and sat up stiffly. "Sokka?" she asked, her voice thick with sleep.

He squeezed her hand and she dropped her head back to his shoulder with a yawn. Stretching her legs out in front of her, the Earth seemed to crackle as well.

"What happened?" she questioned, her voice still groggy. Her eyelids were fluttering shut.

"You were learning how to like the rain," he told her.

She curled into his shoulder. "I think it worked," she murmured.

"Really?" he said, surprised.

She nodded. "It reminds me of your heartbeat."

That made him smile, the soft kind of smile he reserved for when he was staring at the moon and thinking of Yue or watching Katara sleep. He was just about to respond when he heard Toph's gentle snoring fill the air, light and even and in time with the Earth around them. He really didn't have the heart to wake her, not when she was so obviously tired, and it was so nice here, very calming and serene and fresh, that he decided they could stay for a little while longer.

It only took ten minutes for Sokka to think they had stayed long enough. Toph was starting to drool on his shirt, his arm was getting numb from where she was leaning against it, and his clothes were still uncomfortably wet, not to mention the fact that his arm itched badly and he couldn't reach it because of the iron grip Toph had on his hand.

Sokka twitched the hand that Toph was holding on to in an attempt to pull it free, but all that caused was her grip to tighten. Sighing in defeat, Sokka turned to Toph's ear that was pressed into his arm and whispered her name. She didn't even stir.

Sokka nearly wanted to cry. Preparing for the worst, he tried her name again, this time in a louder voice.

Toph groaned and dragged the back of her hand across her mouth, pulling his with it. He cringed at the thought of Toph drool on his hand and tried to shake it free. She gave it up and pushed her face into cupped hands, rubbing her eyes, then her temples.

"What?" she croaked, voice dry from disuse. "Why'd you yell?"

"It's time to go back to the house," he informed her, massaging the life back into his arm now that he had it back.

Toph stretched her arms above her and something cracked loudly. "Let's just stay here," she said, slouching back against the tree.

"Toph, we've been gone for ages," reasoned Sokka, now twisting back and forth to work the kinks out of his cramped back. "Katara's probably worried out of her mind."

Toph let out an exaggerated sigh. "Fine, but I get the bath first when we get back."

"Agreed."

With a few huffs and puffs, Sokka and Toph were on their feet, brushing their clothes off the best they could, which really wasn't much of an effort as it was. After a few yawns and many more grumbles on Toph's part, they began the trek back to the apartment, which took a surprisingly shorter amount of time without the rain and without the mud, Bended out of the way courtesy of Toph. When Sokka questioned why she didn't do that on the walk there, she just shrugged and turned the faintest shade of pink.

When they were within spotting distance of the apartment, Sokka noticed that Aang and Momo were sitting on the front steps, sharing a snack. He felt his stomach complain as Aang shouted a greeting and ran back inside the house, most likely to tell Katara that her long-lost brother and the missing Earthbender had been found.

Sokka didn't even bother to sigh as they trudged up the stairs. The doors flew open and the two were greeted with the sight of a very distressed Katara.

"Do you have any idea how long you've been gone?" she began, looking slightly hysterical. "Aang and I have been worried out of our minds!" Here Aang looked as if he might interject, but on second thought decided not to. "You left two hours ago, Sokka, two hours ago! I was afraid that you'd been ambushed or captured or hurt! And you had Toph with you! I expected you to be more responsible!"

Sokka was about to say that they would have held off any ambush or capture quite fine by themselves when he found himself enveloped in his little sister's arms.

"I'm just so glad you're fine," she said, and Sokka gave her a weary smile. "And you too, Toph." She turned to the other girl, placing a tentative hug around her shoulders.

"Mmhmm, nice to see you too, Katara," Toph said, patting Katara on the back, who then pulled back and gave them an appraising look.

"Just what were you two doing for such a long time?"

Sokka turned to share a look with Toph, realized he couldn't, then said, "We went for a walk."

"But you're both absolutely filthy! It looks like you were rolling around in the mud!"

"Toph was."

Toph snapped her head in his direction and barked, "I was not! If anyone was rolling around in the mud, it was Ponytail over here."

"ME? Well at least I can walk in a straight line!"

"At least I don't snore in my sleep!"

"I do not!"

"Do too! I could feel the vibrations!"

"How could you, you were too busy drooling all over me!"

"Don't make me!" she growled, and Bended a rock out of the floor beneath them.

"You wouldn't!" He pulled his boomerang from its case.

"She won't," interjected Katara sharply, stepping between them. "Now, what is going on?"

Toph returned the rock to the floor with a pout. "That's the last time I let Meathead try and teach me anything!"

"You're the one who said it worked!" Sokka shot back.

"I thought it did, but now I'm not so sure!"

Sokka blinked and felt a little ripple of something flow through him. Disappointment, maybe, or… hurt?

Katara stood awkwardly between the two, Aang and Momo slipping out the front doors behind her. She cleared her throat and opened her mouth to say something, but Sokka cut her off.

"I guess that's something we're going to have to work on next time then, now isn't it?"

He'd said it almost mockingly, but Toph's eyes widened slightly behind her bangs anyway before narrowing quickly.

"I guess it is," she returned with the same kind of sharp near banter.

Katara just sighed. "Toph, let's go get you cleaned up, okay?"

Toph gave Katara a brief nod as the latter went to prepare a bath for the younger girl, leaving Sokka and Toph dripping dirt by themselves. They stood in awkward silence as the sound of running water filled the apartment. Toph shuffled her dirty feet across the floor.

Sokka broke the silence with a question. "You did learn something, though, didn't you?"

Toph shot him a grin. "Yeah, that you're a good pillow."

He laughed, but not a true one.

She shuffled her feet again. "If I say I did, does that mean we're not gonna do it again?"

"Not unless you don't want to…"

"And if I do?"

Sokka shrugged, then smirked. "I guess I'll just have to teach you some other stuff."

"Good," Toph said, and smiled a real smile, the kind of smile that made her eyes light up, even if they were blind.

"Toph!"

Katara's voice floated through the house, and Toph turned toward her voice with a sigh, then turned back to Sokka for one final word.

"Thanks, Snoozles," she said, and punched him in the arm. She could feel him smiling in the soles of her feet as she walked away. That's when Toph decided that maybe the rain wasn't so bad after all. After all, Sokka was a pretty good teacher….

FIN.