A/N: Hey! So yes, Tokka Week Eight has started at TFU on DA. So, here's the vary first submission. Or at least, that I know of. I'll b(hopefully) updating this daily for the rest of the week. That's the idea, anyways. The day one prompt was TLC (Tender, Loving Care). May not be the best, but it was written in an hour and a haft at near midnight. This was the best I could do. Please R&R if you want to!
Toph absolute hated being coddled. She was fine taking care of her self. No one else needed to help her. So it irritated her when people thought that she did. When would they all see past her disability? Sometimes, when everyone still seemed to want to care for her like a baby, it felt like she never would be able to receive that respect. Endlessly, she had people asking is she needed help getting around. Or if she might be lost.
Even her friends still did it. Katara would ask if she wanted help with everything. Aang told her it was fine if she couldn't preform the move she was teaching properly. When they did this, all she wanted to do was take a giant bolder and throw it at them. They had saw her in the fighting ring right? And when the insane girls chased them all night? When would they understand she was perfectly fine on her own! They all pityed her.
Except Sokka, that was.
He, of course, like the others, asked her at first if she needed help with anything. But, unlike Katara and Aang, he learned fast that she didn't need or want any help with anything. So Sokka didn't ask her. And, in a big way, she was grateful. As much as she teased him, Sokka was pretty smart when her wanted to be. It was obviously soon that they would be close friends. By the time they were headed to Ba Sing Se, Toph considered him nothing less then her vary best friend. Not to mention the small crush she had on him.
Then the thing at the serpents pass happened. And she got a big wake up call. Sokka liked someone else. And her crush was not never gonna lead to anything. Then, Toph was thrown for another loop. When he screamed that he was going to come save her. Despite having been saved by Suki, she heard Sokka voice when he called to her. He sounded so...scared. And worried. Toph was sure she had never heard him that terrified.
After that, Toph realized it wasn't so bad to have someone care for you. She still was no fan of coddling, but she understood the difference. TLC was okay. There was a big difference between caring for someone because you thought they couldn't do it themselves, and caring about someone because you loved them, be it like family, friend or otherwise. Tender, loving care.