BACKGROUND INFO: This one-shot is basically a smaller-scale Titanic scene in the Avatar universe. Toph and Sokka are in their late twenties and have just become chief of police and councilman of Republic City, respectively. They've been dating for the past few weeks after a while of being separated from their previous significant others. Okay, enough talk, enjoy :)
Toph rubbed the sleeves of her borrowed parka and tried to ignore the cold sea spray as it prickled her face. She'd come out on deck to get a little warmth from the sun, but the morning air was still annoyingly crisp and thin.
Aang and Katara just had to have their wedding at the South Pole, didn't they? Toph felt obligated to at least attend the ceremony, but at this rate, she might not even make it in time. She and Sokka had been kept back at Republic City to convict a particularly nasty criminal. The man was behind bars, but she and Sokka were the only close friends of the couple not at the tribe yet. They had had to take the last ship headed toward the wedding, and most of the other passangers were just annoyingly pompous officials who wanted to get on good ground with the Avatar. Blech.
"No shoes? You're going to freeze your feet off!" a familiar voice exclaimed.
"So you decided to join the land of the living." Toph smirked in Sokka's general direction and crossed her arms over her chest. "You know I don't wear shoes–not even in subzero temperatures on a dumb wooden deck where I can't see a thing."
"You're cute when you're stubborn," Sokka said as he planted a casual kiss on her forehead and circled an arm around her waist.
"I thought we agreed not to use the word 'cute'."
"I know, but..." Sokka's response trailed off into nothing before he gasped, "What is that?"
"What is what?"
"That-that thing in the water shooting straight towards us."
"Gee, Sokka, looks kinda like a dolphin dog to me."
"What are you talking about? It's some kind of dark spiri...why do you do that?"
Toph skipped her usual sarcastic remark and furrowed her brow in concern. "Did you say dark spirit?"
"Yeah, and it doesn't look like it's slowing down." Sokka's worried voice shifted into full-blown panic. "It's going to-" Sokka didn't finish, instead slamming into Toph and purposely knocking her aside. Toph landed hard on her black with Sokka hunched over her like a human shield.
They'd barely hit the deck when the terrible sound of grinding, twisting metal exploded into the air as the boat was rammed into by a massive force. The entire vessel rumbled and shook, and the terrified screams of other passengers tore through the air. As soon as the trembling lessened, Toph shrugged Sokka off and clambered to her feet. She jogged to the center of the boat and took a deep breath as she planted her foot firmly on one of the metal smokestacks.
Toph sensed the entire makeup of the ship. People, rooms... and a giant, gaping hole cut clean through the center of the boat. She turned to Sokka. "It tore into the ship like tissue paper. We're going down."
Sokka took Toph's hand and began running towards the front of the ship. "Come with me!"
Toph followed her boyfriend blindly, cursing the creators of this damned boat for deciding to make the deck of the ship wooden. They hadn't made it far when yet another screeching, tearing noise filled Toph's ears. She didn't need her seismic sense to know that the boat was breaking in half, likely from the spirit making a second round to do more damage. The ground began to tilt from under them, and the pair had to half-run, half-climb the last stretch of deck to the bow's railing, slipping and sliding the whole way.
Sokka caught on to the metal and heaved himself over, Toph in tow. The boat finished tilting and stood straight in the air. Toph and Sokka lay on their stomachs, hugging the railing under them for dear life. Toph was on metal again, so she could sense the boat under her. She only saw half, meaning the other section of the boat had broken off completely. Shit.
"Talk to me, Sokka." Toph gripped the railing with white-knuckled fingers. "What's going on?"
Sokka crossed one of his arms across Toph's back and tugged her to himself. When he spoke, his normally light voice was tense and strained. "There were about five waterbenders on board as far as I can see. They're doing their best to get everyone in the water onto makeshift ice sheets, but there's so few of them and so many people that need help."
His voice hardened. "They won't be able to help us in time. Listen, Toph. We can't have more than a minute before the tip of the ship is completely underwater. When we hit, we're going to be pulled down from the suction of the boat. I have an idea. It's not much, but it's something."
Sokka's speech slurred together as he rushed to get everything he needed to say out before they reached the water. "When we're under the water, I need you to bend the metal of the boat under us up like a kind of springboard to launch us up and keep us above the water. Think you can handle that?"
"Not sure if you're aware, Sokka, but you're talking to the greatest earthbender of all time." Toph flashed her boyfriend an encouraging smile even as her heart thumped violently against her ribcage. She was in the middle of the ocean, completely out of her element. The sound of screams and grunts of agony assaulted her ears from all sides, but she pushed those aside and tried to keep a grip on her composure. "I've got this."
"Okay." Sokka's voice wobbled as he took ahold of her hand and squeezed, hard. "W-we've got about ten seconds now. Ten. Nine."
Toph took the hand not gripping Sokka's and slammed it down on the metal beneath her, bending the steel so it wrapped around her fist.
"Eight."
Using her grounded fist as support, Toph scrambled up from her stomach and onto her feet in a low crouch. The boat rumbled and shook, but she somehow managed to stay upright.
"Seven. SIX."
Toph bent metal around her feet to steady herself and tugged her fist from it's brace, then stood. "FIVE. FOUR." She released Sokka's hand so she could reach out and roughly snatch his shoulder, hoisting him to his feet. She circled her arms around his torso and held on tight.
Sokka counted off the last three digits in a terror-filled shout. "THREE. TWO. ONE."
Toph took a deep breath, and then her world was thrown into a chaos she never could have prepared for. All at once, she was completely submerged in the terrible, roaring ocean. She could feel bubbles and foam rip by her as the impossibly freezing water froze her limbs like ice.
For a moment, she couldn't so much as move as her shocked body was violently and swiftly torn downwards. It was all she could do to keep a grip on Sokka, and when she got enough wits about her to take the metal under her and launch them upwards, she couldn't hold on. The opposing forces in the swirling water were to much, and Sokka and Toph were torn from each other's arms as they launched toward the surface. Toph waited to break the surface and be greeted with air, but it never happened.
Oh no.
Toph felt a shock of alarm shoot through her body like lightning as her mind spun in panic. She couldn't swim, but even if she could, she wasn't sure it would have done much good because of her blindness. The turbulent water surrounding her was incredibly disorienting. Toph found she couldn't differentiate up from down. Her only means of seeing-the metal ship-had been ripped from her and was well on its way to the ocean floor. She was swirling through an empty black void, engulfed by numbingly frigid water on every side.
Terror lit up her brain like fire, but fire doesn't last long in freezing waters. Her horror and fear slowly ebbed as it was replaced with an odd kind of acceptance. Toph stopped flailing. Her body pulsed in agony for air, but she knew she wouldn't get it.
She was going to die down here. She was going to-her thoughts were cut short as two strong hands grasped her forearms and tugged her in a direction.
Suddenly the world righted itself, and she and whoever had saved her broke the surface. Sokka's familiar voice coughed and sputtered as the pair gulped in lungfuls of air. The frosty atmosphere burned Toph's throat and lungs as it went down, but she didn't mind. The pain reminded her that she was alive. For now, at least.
Toph kicked her legs in a feeble attempt to stay afloat and clutched onto Sokka, her sole solid, real thing in her blind world of nothingness. "S-S-Sokka." The word came out in a shaken sob.
"Shhh." One of Sokka's hands found the back of her head and entwined itself in her wet, undone hair. "I've got you. We're going to be okay."
Toph continued kicking, and acidic bile rose in her throat as she failed to find anything to ground herself with. She needed earth. It was a part of her identity, part of her soul. To her, it felt more essential than food, water-even the air she breathed. Without it, she felt exactly like the identity she had been running from her entire life-a blind, helpless damsel.
"Sokka, I can't do this. I'm scared." The croaked words were things Toph would never dream of saying under normal circumstances, but this experience had drained her of everything.
"I know." Sokka pulled Toph even closer to him in the water so that she was pressed against his chest as he treaded water. "But if anyone can get through this, it's you. You're tough as nails, Toph Beifong. Earth or no earth. Besides, I-HEY! OVER HERE!" Sokka cut off his encouraging words and began shouting at what Toph guessed was a waterbender.
The words had barely left his mouth when the water around them developed a current and shot across the ocean. They were being pulled somewhere. Toph could sense the water around her surging up, and the next thing she knew, she and Sokka were washed up on a block of ice.
The air left her lungs with a woosh as she became colder than she had ever been in her life. Toph thought the water had been bad, but being soaking wet in the frigid artic air was almost more than she could stand. She was numb and aching and consumed with fire all at once. Daggers of freezing cold air bit into her wet skin from all directions.
Then, just like that, it was gone. Whoever had saved them swiftly bent all the water out of their clothes so that the cloth was left cold and stiff, but at least dry. The daggers of cold faded to bites, and Toph found she could breathe again.
The exhausted voice of what sounded like an elderly man panted, "You folks alright?"
"We are now." Sokka stood and gently tugged Toph up along with him. "Thanks for saving our lives."
"Don't mention it. I'm going to do one last sweep to make sure we didn't miss anyone, but try to warm yourselves by the fire." There was the sound of splashing water, and then Toph and Sokka were alone. At least, she thought so. The solid ice was a welcome change from the water, but she still couldn't see or sense a thing.
Toph reached up and rubbed her shoulders, hopping from foot to foot as the ice beneath her froze her bare feet. "F-fire?"
"Yup." Out of nowhere, Sokka's arms wrapped around the back of her knees and her torso, then hoisted her into the air. Without her earthbending to see with, it caught her completely off guard.
Toph let out an alarmed squeak. "Sokka! What are you-?"
"You don't have shoes, rockhead."
"For goodness sake! I'm a grown-ass woman, Sokka."
"Well you do have a nice ass, but-" Sokka accepted his punch to the shoulder without comment and ploughed on, "But that doesn't mean you can't get frostbite. Besides, I'll take any excuse I can get to hold you in my arms."
Toph blushed and grumpily crossed her arms over her chest. "You're going to make me puke."
"Thanks. By the way, we're on a big slab of ice, and there's a group of survivors up ahead. A couple of firebenders are using a scrap of metal from the ship as a fireplace, and they're burning what looks like hats and stuff to make a fire."
"Well then why are you still standing here, meathead? Get a move on."
Sokka set off at a brisk pace. "On it, chief."
Toph nestled against Sokka and let the steady rise and fall of his chest unravel the knots of anxiety in her stomach. She smiled softly. "That's more like it."
Before long, the pair had arrived at the fire. Toph couldn't see, but she guessed that the survivors around the campfire only stared at them numbly from the complete lack of communication. She didn't blame them; they'd all just been through a lot.
Sokka set Toph down. There was a rustling of fabric, and then he gently guided her to a square of cloth and nudged her as a signal to sit. Toph sat on the fabric and reached her hands towards the heat pulsing from the fire.
Sokka settled down behind her, sitting so that her back pressed against his chest and his legs wrapped casually around her. He circled his strong arms around her torso, and Toph furrowed her brow as she reached up with one hand and touched the thin fabric covering his arm. "Sokka."
"Yeah?"
"Please tell me you didn't just take off your coat for us to sit on."
"...I may have. What? I don't want you to have to sit on cold ice."
"Well, I don't want you to die of hypothermia!"
"Pffft, you're talking to a guy who grew up knee-deep in snow. I can take a little brisk wind. Besides." Sokka gave her a gentle squeeze and nuzzled his head against her shoulder, planting a soft kiss on her neck as he did so. "You can keep me warm."
"Porcupine-bull crap," Toph retorted. "I'm as cold as a slab of ice right now."
"Well, maybe I like taking care of you for once. You're always saving my butt with your earthbending, and I just toss my boomerang at the bad guys every once in a while."
Toph grinned. She was feeling pretty helpless and vulnerable, and remembering what she was normally capable of helped cheer her up somewhat. "Yeah, I am pretty amazing. And badass. Basically just all-around legendary." She fumbled around a bit and found Sokka's hand, squeezed it. "But I also have some awesome friends. As much as it pains me to admit it, you save me all the time. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Perish in the depths of the ocean, probably. Or cry yourself to sleep every night. Maybe both."
"Aaaand you just reminded me why I'm never nice to you."
"Whatever, you know you love me," Sokka teased.
Toph closed her unseeing eyes and leaned back into Sokka with a soft sigh. "Yeah. One of my few flaws, really."
"So not even the greatest earthbender of all time is perfect." Sokka set his chin gently on top of her head. "Good thing I love her anyway."
Toph didn't even bother with a comeback as a little smile tugged at the corner of her mouth and she gave in to exhaustion. She was safe to doze until help came. Sokka would stay up and hold her as long as she needed.
He wouldn't let her go.
After all, he never had before.