Go crying out, the sound goes silent.
The first thing Toph noticed when Aang greeted her at the door to Zuko's fancy new Ember Island beach house was that his voice was deeper. Like, way deeper. Gruff and low, yet still smothered in the same ridiculous cheerfulness his original chipmunk voice had always adorned. Toph grinned as she enveloped her friend into a hug, noticing that he had also hitched an impressive growth spurt since the last time she'd seen him. She lightly punched him on the chest after they broke their embrace. "Finally hit puberty, huh, Twinkletoes?"
Aang rubbed the slight bruise forming on his skin cautiously, unwilling to admit that the earthbender's playful slugs still affected him. "It's good to see you haven't changed too much, Toph." Aang told his friend, patting her on the head jokingly. Toph swatted his hand, choosing to laugh with the Avatar instead of sending him flying. He gets one tease, she decided, just cause I haven't seen him in so long. Next time, he's dead.
Stepping past Aang and into the seemingly elaborate home, Toph tapped her foot into the ground, eager to see her other friends from old times. Sure enough, she soon sensed nimble, feminine footsteps practically racing towards her before she was almost knocked over by the overwhelming force of the hug.
Katara's immensely girly scent was comparable to chloroform. Toph could hardly breathe in the thick tangle of the waterbender's hair, and the fact that the much taller girl was basically squeezing the intestines out of Toph's body didn't really help.
"Ka...tara… can't… breathe… too much… friendship…" the small girl groaned, her whole body refilling with air once Katara loosened her deathly grip. Toph barely had time to remember how to breathe when Katara began drowning her in comments and compliments.
"Oh my goodness, Toph, you stopped covering your face with your bangs! Well, except for the two pieces on the sides, but… your eyes are so pretty! Your new clothes are so cute, where did you get them? Your skin is so fair and perfect, how do you keep from getting sunburnt when you go outside all the time? Your figure is so gorgeous! You're still so cute! You're so short!"
Toph blew the ends of her hair out of her face with a smirk, ignoring her praises. "I missed you too, Katara."
Katara probably smiled. It seemed like a Katara thing to do.
Toph felt around for a wall, then leaned her spine up against it, crossing one leg over the other nonchalantly. "So, where's the rest of our little crew? Zuko and his cloudy girlfriend - ''
"Fiancée," Aang corrected. Toph attempted to roll her eyes, trying to recall Sokka giving her a detailed tutorial on how exactly to do it a few years back. "Right, right, same thing. Snoozles and Suki, are they here or - ''
"Um, Toph," Katara coughed, and Toph could feel the waterbender's heartbeat quicken. Immediately, Toph's admittedly happy composure dropped.
Had something happened to Sokka that had been kept hidden from her? Was he hurt? Been wounded doing something brave like defending kids from bullies or was it from something dumb and meatheaded, like getting frozen into ice by falling asleep outside? Was he okay? Was he dead?
"Whatever it is, just tell me," Toph said through her teeth, preparing to dash back out the front door if the news was really terrible. She kept her breathing even, her senses calmed, when Katara finally spoke.
"Sokka and Suki broke up about a month ago."
Oh, thank God. Instantly, Toph relaxed. She laughed. "That's all?"
"Well, yeah, but… aren't you and Sokka, like, best friends? Shouldn't you be a little more concerned about him, you know, losing his soulmate?" Aang questioned, probably doing something funny like scratching his head.
"Twinkletoes, I know Sokka better than anyone. I'm confident in that." Toph crossed her arms over her chest. She could practically hear Aang and Katara exchange glances.
"Yeah, but then shouldn't you - '' Katara started.
Toph put a finger to her own lips in order to shush her friend. "As Sokka's best friend, I've always been acutely aware of something off about his relationship with Suki. Once they started getting more and more serious, and Sokka would bring up useless things with me like marriage and children, I was super convinced Suki just wasn't the one for him. They don't click, you know? But, fulfilling my role as his best friend, I didn't butt in, and instead let him figure it out for himself. I know, it was a lot of responsibility to put on little Snoozles, but hey, he did it."
There was a moment of silence before either of Toph's friends responded. "Toph - you're really weird, you know that? But also kinda smart." Aang complimented the girl, causing her to shrug in response. "Anyway, Sokka's supposed to be here any day now. Maybe even later tonight." Here, Toph decided to drop the Sokka subject by not replying to the Avatar's comment on her best friend's arrival time. Instead, she inquired, "Where's Zuko and his wifey?"
"Not wifey yet, Toph," Katara reminded her. Toph nodded distractedly; that hadn't answered the question.
Aang coughed uncomfortably, stumbling in his place. Toph sighed. Such an uncoordinated airbender. "We think they're out, planning last-minute things for the wedding, maybe getting food, or… um, something," the Avatar finished lamely, his heartbeat spiking. He wasn't very good at lying, Toph observed..
"So, since Mai and Zuko are off taking care of some funny business," she shot a glance in Aang's direction - at least, she hoped - and continued, "Then what are we three going to do?"
"Well, Ty Lee - the acrobat, you remember her, right? She invited us to a party! She's actually a really nice person, she's around for the wedding like us, and she said that there are going to be tons of fun people there. You wanna come?" Aang seemed excited enough, and though third-wheeling wasn't ideal, Toph didn't have anything else to do. "Sure," she said, leaning her head on the wall, fixing her fake-gaze on the ceiling. "What time is this party?"
Katara clucked her tongue. "It's in a few hours, which means I'm going to help you get ready, Toph!" there was an unpleasant amount of sweetness in her voice, which was just familiar Katara fashion. Toph groaned, but easily obliged. She knew better than to protest at this point.
So, Toph suffered. She suffered through hair washing, brushing, braiding, face-globbing, outfit-picking, and then was finally presented like a chicken plucked of its feathers. This kind of pampering had been a daily evil throughout her childhood, up until she ran off with Team Avatar. The young earthbender could feel a pretty casual outfit slung over her body, with some intricate hairstyle and, of course, makeup pounded onto her face. She better make sure she didn't faceplant into a puddle.
Aang offered to hold her arm on their way to the house, but of course Toph declined. Her vision wasn't too fuzzy on sand, at least not as bad as wood or underwater. She was a strong, independent fourteen-year-old blind girl that could take care of herself just fine, thank you very much. Plus, she didn't want Sugar Queen thinking she was trying to steal her boy candy.
As the three friends arrived at the doorstep, Toph realized her vision had worsened. Is this a wooden patio? she questioned, her heartbeat racing. If the whole house is wood, I swear to God…
"We'll meet you back here in a few hours, Toph!"
She heard a door swing open, quickly followed the sound and took a step inside the house. The young earthbender almost let a very colorful curse word slip past her lips but managed to restrain herself. Aang and Katara are probably too involved with each other to remember I can't see on wood, she tried to blow her hair out of her face in grief, but remembered it was doing something funny on the back of her head, courtesy of Katara. Okay, come on, Toph, blend in. This is where you can prove yourself. If you act normal, nobody will even notice you're blind. Pretend you're a fly and stick to the wall.
After about ten minutes of being a fly, Toph was more bored than any fly in the universe. Hungrier, too. So, she took a bold step forward and - landed flat on her face.
"Oh my, miss, are you alright?" a strong arm immediately began helping the small girl up off the ground. She grunted a thank-you, her face heating up at the prospect of embarrassing herself like this in front of some stranger. "Where are your friends, sweetheart? You didn't come here alone, did you?"
Sweetheart? Toph almost snorted, but didn't allow herself to mock this person so soon after meeting them. They were just trying to be nice, after all. "They're fine, I just wanted to have some alone time. I'm kind of third-wheeling, you see."
The stranger laughed. "Well, my name is Dai, and it's a pleasure to get to meet such a beautiful young girl such as yourself." Against her will, Toph felt an even stronger blush creeping up onto her face. She coughed. Perhaps not noticing, the stranger continued. "I understand your predicament, and mean no offense, but isn't it a little dangerous for a blind girl to be wandering a party by herself?" Toph cursed under her breath, angry with herself for being unable to sheath her weakness even in the face of something she'd never met before.
"If you want, you could hang out with me. I can get you some punch - you must be thirsty, and we can just chat." Dai's offer was sweet, and his tone was pleasant, but Toph sensed something strange underlying not with her feet but her ears.
Ugh, no matter if this guy was going to be a bore or not, she really didn't have any other option. "Sure, sure, sounds great." the young girl agreed, a plastic smile spreading across her face. Dai left and swiftly returned with a cup he planted in her small hands, seemingly eager to begin conversing with the earthbender. Taking tiny sips of the liquid, then practically dumping it down her throat, she discovered it was a pretty tasty, tangy juice.
If Toph didn't know any better, she would say this guy was flirting with her. He couldn't go three seconds without telling her how pretty she was. It was foreign, getting such heavy and constant attention from a boy, but she had to admit it felt… sort of nice. Of course, she would never want to pursue a relationship or anything serious with him - he sounded a lot older than her, probably even a little older than Sokka and Zuko - and he was so positively boring he never once mentioned anything about himself aside from his name.
Every time he left to go refill their drinks, the young earthbender felt nice. A little fuzzy, but that was from her lack of vision. It was only after Toph lost count of how many glasses of juice she realized she was feeling ill.
She gagged, clasping her hand over her mouth in order to prevent any vomit from escaping.
"Are you alright?" Dai sounded incredibly concerned. "Here, honey, I'll take you up to the bathroom. Maybe you ate something bad earlier, or caught the flu from one of your little friends?" he continued listing possible methods of contamination as he led her upstairs and down a hallway. Toph was a bit disoriented at this point, all her senses were numbed and she could hardly even walk. How did I get so sick so quickly? she wondered as she passed through a door frame, clutching her stomach with one hand and allowing Dai to guide her with the other.
Then, something inexplicably strange happened. Toph was shoved, hard. Her head made rough contact with either the ground or a wall, she couldn't really tell anymore. Was she standing up, or lying down? She tried to open her mouth, to form words, but she was so dizzy. So confused. Her head, it was really pounding, was it bleeding? She tried to reach up to clutch it, to make it stop hurting, but something was holding her hands up above her head.
What? Toph thought foggily. Am I being kidnapped?
Something weird, something wet, was running all along her body. She felt cold air all over her and warm, unbearably warm, rough hands - why was she naked? What was going on?
Toph began to cry. The tears felt hot and they were left to dry at the bottom of her chin as real pain began to set in, so surprising her sightless eyes opened wide, practically bulging. She wanted to scream but the person, they were too heavy on top of her and she couldn't really breathe. The tears came streaming down faster after their hiatus, her breathing growing more and more labored as she sobbed. She was so confused - where was she? More importantly, where were her friends? Where was Sokka?
Just to be clear, since this is a Tokka fic, I'm not trying to romanticize rape or molestation in any way by having Sokka 'heal' her or whatever, I just thought that something like this happening to Toph was a good counter for her personality: independent, in control, etc.
Also, I tried to make the scene as least graphic as possible, since I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. The story probably won't get any more explicit than that, so I will be keeping it at a T rating.
This fic will be canon according to ATLA but not LOK, since I never finished Legend of Korra and likely will never. As I've been rewatching Avatar, I've come to a very surprising realization that there is a severe lack of quality, completed Tokka fics on this site. Don't get me wrong, there are countless adorable one-shots and incomplete stories but those really don't compare to a fine, finished fic on a favorite couple. So that's my reasoning for starting this.
The song I will be using is Open Hands by Ingrid Michaelson.
Have a great day.