It started as a whispering. Just a slight, far off noise that you honestly credited to a shrew-mouse (or maybe a shrew-rat, being that this was a ship and only the spirits knew what crawled inside of it.) It's enough to wake you up though and you huff aloud, wondering at how long it'll take you to get back to sleep this time since you've been up half the night already.
Insomnia isn't one of your main problems, usually, but all of the water around you is setting your nerve endings on fire, pardon the metaphor. You've never been in a place as alive as the southern oceans before. There's no ice to cover or choke it here and, instead of being just water, it's like a living thing around you. Full of currents and eddies and rocking waves at just dare you to try to drive them, make them change their ceaseless wanderings for once in a millennia. And you wish you could, badly, but you can't. Regular, Earth Kingdom ships like the one you're in haven't had waterbenders driving them for centuries and you can't blow everyone's cover for a bit of fun.
Once again it's the 'shrew-rat' that forces you away from your activities - in this case, sighing wistfully instead of sleeping - and you're forced adapt your hypothesis because shrew-rats can't talk and if even they could, they certainly wouldn't be swearing like a sailor in a voice you know better than any other.
"Toph?" You call out uncertainly, sitting up on your bunk. The swearing cut off abruptly at the sound of your voice and the answer was delivered in a completely different tune.
"Oh, thank the spirits, Sugar Queen. I was getting ready to give up." She sounds far off and so relieved that you smile unconsciously, not even noticing when all of your previous thoughts crumble away like Toph's element in her presence.
"Give up on what?" You question to keep her talking as you stand on bare feet and try to feel for a wall in the pitch black that surrounds you. It really is unfortunate that lanterns aren't allowed to be lit below decks an hour after dark, but you hadn't thought it was going to be a problem until now.
"Life. I can't see a damn thing." Toph sounds closer than before and, abruptly, your hand finds a the ship's wooden wall with a bump.
"We should make a club," you joke and keep your hand to the wall as you move toward where her voice is sounding from, "I can't either."
"Hardy, har, har. I mean," you gasp suddenly as a hand reaches out from the dark and grabs your wrist, but then relax as you recognize the feel of calluses and dirt against your skin, "that the signals this wood is sending me are so garbled, you might as well be Sokka."
"Ew. Don't even." You wrinkle your nose for nobody's benefit and re-arrange your hands so that your fingers are intertwined with hers. You know she probably didn't come all the way here for just this, though, so you go for the point. "What's up?"
"Nothing." She mutters too quickly, then sighs and pulls you down until you're both sitting on the wood floor with inches separating you. "This whole boat thing's just really messing with me. I feel like an invalid or something." She growls the word as if it's a curse. "Plus I just missed you and needed something solid to hold on to."
"Aw," You giggle, "Toph, that's so sweet!"
"Yeah? Don't get used to it." Nonetheless, you can hear a grin in her voice and your own expression turns a little mischievous in response.
"Well, you said you needed someone to hold on to, right?" She pauses hesitantly, probably wondering what you're getting at.
"Yeah, I guess-" You cut her off before can finish. With quick motion of your arms, you scope her up, she's as light as a feather compared to the water jugs you had to carry back home, and deposit her in your lap with one smooth motion, encircling her with your arms to finish and all without letting go of her hand.
"Well, then, this is better right?" You can't deny the bit of smugness that creeps into the words, and you also can't deny that you might deserve the punch she gives you with her free hand. She doesn't try to get away, though, and it all proves worth it when she only grumbles a little before tucking her head under your chin and letting out a little hum of contentment.
"Whatever you say, Sugar Queen."