Chapter One: Denial

"I don't like him, I don't! I can't like him!" Toph told herself, walking in circles in her room.

She couldn't believe she liked him, it was simply impossible! Besides, what was there to like? He joked around all the time, ate like he had five stomacs and couldn't even get those filled, carried his sword with him constantly and on top of all that: He was a lot older than her. She didn't even know how he looked like! She didn't know how anyone looked like. Sometimes she just hated herself. Why did she have to like him? Why did she have to like anyone anyway? If she wouldn't have went with the little gang at first, none of that would've happened. But no, she, Toph Bei Fong a.k.a. The Blind Bandit, wanted to go on a journey. And what kind of journey. It was full of pleasure and fear, love and hate, smartness and stupidity. She always loved the good things that happened, besides love, but she hated the bad things, like fear. Especially fear. She hated it to be afraid. She felt weak when she was afraid. And she didn't want to be weak. Weakness was something for little girls who held daddy's hand, and a while ago, she was one of them too. But that didn't take away the fact that she now had one of her most hated feelings inside her: Love. And not just love like loving your friends as friends, but love like loving one friend as something more than a friend. Her parents wouldn't have approved it, they always wanted her to marry some Earth Kingdom-guy or at least someone of a royal family, and last time she checked, her 'oh so lovely guy' was neither of those. But then again, she never did what her parents told her to do, as a matter of fact, she did the complete opposite. So, actually, Sokka was the good man to marry. Why was she thinking about marrying?? She didn't even like him. Or that was what she told herself. She sighed. What did she have to do?

"Suki, Suki, Suki, Suki, Yue, Toph-" He shook his head. "No! Not Toph! Only Suki and Yue!" he told himself, lying on his bed.

Every time he thought about Suki, he immediately thought about Yue, and then for an unknown reason, Toph popped in and pushed both of them away. He didn't even know why she pushed them out of his mind. He didn't even know how she got in. Toph was an irritating, blind, young girl, and that was that. But actually, he kinda liked it when she irritated him, because then he had her attention. And the fact that she was blind didn't bother him at all, she wasn't even really blind. But then there was the young-part, which he didn't really mind either, it was just a good excuse to tell himself she was not the right one for him. Besides, he had Suki, and he loved her. He didn't know if Suki was still alive, but he was sure she was. He was sure that Azula would keep her alive, just to use her as a distraction, a trap or something else. It didn't entirely reassure him, but he at least got some more hope. And besides, he thought, Toph can simply kick Azula's butt.

He smacked himself on the head. "Aaagh!" Again Toph! Couldn't she get out of his mind for one minute? Apparently not... But did he want her out of his mind? Of course you do, idiot! He laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Earth... Toph. He turned onto his side while making an annoyed sound. He was facing the wall where a little animal was crawling on. What was it? He followed the little beast until it disappeared in a little hole in the wall. Just like the badgermoles did when we were lost in those caves. Sokka thought. Didn't Toph talk about badgermoles once? He punched himself on his head and turned onto his stomac, lying with his face on his soft pillow. He smiled. Hmm... Softness. He sank a little in the pillow and closed his eyes. It feels like Toph's clothes... He gave himself another punch and turned onto his left side, seeing right through the door opening. He saw a few bushes, birds and snailflies. Yuck, he hated snailflies, they were slimy, just disgusting. Toph can be disgusting too...

"Aaah!" Sokka shouted as he got off his bed. "Can't you stop thinking about her for one little minute?!"

He walked outside, he needed something to block her out of his mind for a while, and he knew exactly what would help.

"Toph, have you seen Sokka?"

Toph was sitting on the ground, leaning against a rock and she was chewing on a leave. She spit it out right in front of Katara, who made a disgusted face. Toph could be such a pig sometimes.

"Nope, haven't seen him, Katara. Haven't felt him either." she said while rubbing over her stomac. "Say, is dinner almost ready? I'm starving."

"That's why I wanna know where Sokka is, I'm about to start cooking but there's nothing to cook anymore, unless you wanna eat vegetables?"

That made Toph get onto her knees, hit the ground with her bare hand and trying to feel any vibrations that felt like Sokka's. There was no way she was going to eat vegetables! And now she had a good excuse to be alone with Sokka again. She shook her head. Not now, feelings! Katara saw the little girl shaking her head, and started to get a little worried. Toph was acting strange lately.

"Umh, Toph? Are you okay?" she asked carefully.

Uh, oh. Improvise, Toph! "Uuh, sure!" She looked up at her friend. "I've found him," she lied, "I'm gonna tell him to get his butt into the forrest and get some meat, good?"

"Good. Thanks, Toph."

Toph stood up and mumbled 'whatever' while walking away from Katara. Katara gave one last worried look at her friend and then walked back towards the others. From the moment Toph was sure Katara wouldn't come back, she stopped walking. Shoot, where is he? she thought while hitting the ground with her foot. Ah! There you are! she thought happily when she finally felt his vibrations. She crinkled her nose and raised an eyebrow. What's he doing there?

Sokka held his sword tightly in his hands and made some quick movements while shouting things.

"Ha-ya!" He took a big step forward and pretended to stab in his enemy's stomac. "Ha!" he yelled while kicking in the air and holding his sword close to the ground. "Whoo!" he screamed, and made a big jump in the air, like his enemy was attacking his legs and he was avoiding it.

"Sokka!?"

Sokka stiffened instantly and dropped his sword. "Toph." he whispered.

His eyes widened as he heard her yell his name again. Soon he heard her running. Her feet ran through the grass, which made every move Toph made audible. When she arrived at the place where Sokka's vibrations were the strongest, she stopped. She turned a little to the left, facing Sokka, who still hadn't moved a muscle.

"Uh, Sokka? What're you doin'?"

She got no reaction, or at least not on the outside. On the inside though, there was a lot of reaction. His breath started to fasten, just like his heartbeat. She tried to ignore it, even though she could feel it very well, and shot a little rock at her dream prince. He rubbed over his head and looked around, trying to find the one who had hurt him, although he could guess who it was. Finally his eyes found her. There she was, standing with her hands in her hips and looking slightly annoyed at him. He tried to control his heartbeat, but when he saw her, his heartbeat even increased.

"Oh, hi Toph. What's up?"

She sighed, trying to control her heartbeat too. "Katara wants you to get some meat."

"Now?"

"It's that or eating vegetables."

"Okay, you persuaded me." he said before picking up his sword. "You wanna help?"

"What?" Toph asked, feeling she got a little more nervous.

"Hunting? You wanna help me? You know how stupid I can be sometimes."

Yeah, that's a good reason. She'll buy that for sure. he thought proudly.

"Yeah, that's true," she agreed, "You'll need my help for sure."

"Great." Sokka said, a smile was crawling upon his face. "Let's go."

"There's one!" Toph yelled, pointing to her left.

"I'm on it!" Sokka screamed as he ran towards the bush Toph was pointing to.

He held his sword in the air, ready to kill whatever kind of animal that was behind that bush. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" he yelled while jumping over the bush.

Suddenly, all sound was gone. Toph didn't feel Sokka anymore. Where was he? What had happened?? She jumped over the bush too and shouted his name.

"Sokka?!"

When she landed on the ground, she knew her mistake. She forgot to tell him there was an abyss not too far from the bush, and probably he fell in it. What had she done?! She immediately jumped to the edge of the abyss and hung her head over it. "Sokka?!" she yelled, trying to hold up her tears.

She couldn't feel him, maybe he was still falling? That seemed impossible, the abyss wasn't that deep. But it was deep enough to hurt him badly. How she hoped he didn't fall in the abyss, she wanted to tell him so bad that she loved him. What if it was too late now? What if he was dead? Then she had to live with the thought she never got to tell him how she felt about him. I have to help him. she thought. After all, it was all her fault. If she told him about the abyss, he wouldn't of fallen in it.

She turned with her feet to the abyss and put one foot on the edge. The next foot went a little lower, and so she started to climb down, hoping to find the one she had loved for so long. She went down very carefully and very slowly, and suddenly, she slipped. She was hanging on the edge of the abyss, holding onto it. She tried to stay calm, but her immediate reaction was yelling. She yelled as hard as she could, hoping someone would hear her.

"Toph?"

Toph's eyes widened instantly. Did she hear it well? Was it him? Wasn't he dead? Didn't he fall? Was she... wrong?

"Toph?" the voice asked once again.

She lifted up her head, trying to face whoever it was. "Sokka?" she asked carefully.

She felt the body moving and looking over the edge, looking at her. "What're you doing there?"

"Sokka!" she yelled quite happily.

She was so glad he wasn't dead, so glad he didn't die, so glad he was still alive. "Sokka, you gotta help me!" she begged.

He laughed. "Well, well, look at that. The Blind Bandit needs my help? I don't know what to say..."

"I don't know if you noticed, but I'm about to fall into an abyss, so would you mind pulling me up before I die?"

"Hmm... Let me think."

"Sokka!"

He laughed again and stretched his arms. "Don't worry, Toph, you're up in a second."

He grabbed her pulses and pulled her up immediately. He was stronger than she thought he was. He pulled her up like she was a light feather, which she actually was for him. A beautiful feather more like. He pulled her up with so much strength that she was up in a second (like he said). She fell on top of him and he fell on the ground. They laid there for a minute or two, trying to recover from the fall. Sokka might've been someone who ate a lot, but he never got fat, so he wasn't exactly a soft pillow to land on. Toph didn't mind it though. She got up with a blush and scratched the back of her neck. Sokka outstretches his hand, waiting for Toph to help him up.

"Do you think you're funny?!" she yelled angrily at him. Her blush had disappeared.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"I thought you had fallen down and tried to save you!"

"I sat in that tree to scare you. It was just a joke-"

"Just a joke?! Are you insane, Sokka?? I could've been dead!"

"Sorry, I didn't-"

"Regret is always too late."

He got up himself and took her hand. "I didn't mean to scare you that much. Really."

He wasn't lying. He was saying the truth. Toph started to blush again, he was holding her hand! She shook her head, telling herself he almost let her die, telling herself she had to be tough. She pulled her hand back and walked away.

"You can hunt by yourself." she said in a cold, numb way.

"Toph, come on!"

But she didn't come back, nor did she answer. She just kept walking. She kept walking away. From him. I can't believe I like him!

"Aagh!" Sokka yelled while turning around and putting his hands in his hair. "I can't believe I like her!"

He sat down on a rock and leaned with his arms on his legs, holding his head in his hands. "But how much I hate it, I can't deny it. I like Toph Bei Fong."

Toph dropped herself on the ground, her legs wide open and her hands on the ground between them. I hate to admit it, but I can't deny it anymore... I like Sokka.

End of Chapter One