A/N: I'm sure this idea has been done before, but I haven't seen it yet. I thought of doing this after re-watching "The Serpent's Pass". It was also inspired by the waterfall scene in the movie Tuck Everlasting, so you may spot a few similarities in a couple of lines of dialogue. Once again, the art was done by lightskin from DA, who graciously allowed me to put it on this story. She has lots of gorgeous work that you should check out, including plenty of Avatar related pieces! :)
Sokka returned to camp after a successful food gathering trip, slapping down the several fish he had caught on the ground along with a sack-full of berries that was sure to make Aang happy. He straightened up and spread his arms out, preparing to make a self-satisfied announcement along the lines of 'the triumphant returns!', only to realize he was alone. His hands dropped to his side and he scowled at nothing in particular as he pulled his knife out of its pouch to begin cleaning the fish.
Right before he started, however, a muffled curse followed by the sound of splashing from behind some bushes distracted him. He decided to investigate, edging around the bushes and holding his knife at the ready, just in case. The only thing he discovered, however, was Toph, stripped down to her underclothes and kneeling at the edge of the small lake that bordered their campsite.
"Well it's about time you got back, Snoozles. I was beginning to think the fish had decided to catch you for dinner instead of the other way around," she quipped, keeping her back to him as she wrung out a wash rag, only to soak it once more before slapping it over her arm and running it up and down its length.
"Nice to see you too, Toph. Where's Aang and Katara?"
She huffed a piece of hair out of her face as she swiveled her head around in his direction. "Aang gave her some crap about his stupid scar hurting, so she took him off somewhere to heal him. Again. Please, as if they're fooling anybody."
Sokka raised a single brow in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You can't be serious. Well, I guess they are fooling somebody," she responded blatantly, before returning her attention to scooping up handfuls of water to scrub over her neck.
Sokka knew exactly what she was implying, but he was unwilling to admit that his little sister and one of his best friends were to the point of making up sneaky excuses to go off and touch each other. Gross. Instead, he decided it would be in his best interest to change the subject.
"If you don't mind me asking, what the heck are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing, genius? I'm trying to take a bath. Katara's been nagging at me to for a week, so I figured I'd shut her up to get some peace of mind."
"You know, bathing is a lot more effective if you get all the way in the water."
"No thank you, this is deep enough for me. I can't swim, remember?"
"Not being able to swim is one thing, but I'd call your incapacity to go further than ankle-deep water, aquaphobia."
"Oh would you, Dr. Sokka? Because I'd call your incapacity to stay out of other people's business, stupidphobia."
"That doesn't even make sense."
"I don't care! Just drop it!"
"No, I'm not going to drop it. You need to learn how to swim for your own safety."
"No."
"Yes. We're doing this. What if one day you start drowning again like you did that time in the Serpent's Pass, but no one's there to save you?" He began making his way over to her, pulling his shirt over his head and dropping it on the ground along with his knife.
Toph stood abruptly, planting her feet firmly and obstinately crossing her arms. "You can't make me. Besides, what makes you qualified to teach someone how to swim?"
He rolled his eyes in frustration. "I'm from the Water Tribe, and anyway, there's nothing to it. Honestly, swimming is the easiest thing in the world."
"I. Don't. Care. I'm not doing it."
"What are you afraid of?"
"Uh… drowning, obviously."
"I'm going to be right next to you, and I'm not going to let you drown."
"I won't be able to see anything!"
"You don't have to see to swim. You just have to feel," he calmly assured her, taking note of the way her hands were shaking.
"But…"
"What else are you afraid of? That it's going to be too cold?"
"No," she snorted.
"Are you afraid of me?"
"You wish!"
"Then let's go," he stated, booking no refusal and grabbing her by the hand to lead her into the water.
Toph surprised herself as she allowed Sokka to pull her forward, but she couldn't come up with a single solid argument against any of his. There was only one thing he had asked her that she had lied about, but she couldn't admit it without embarrassing herself for life.
She held onto his hand with a death grip as the water went past her knees, then grabbed onto his bicep with her other hand as the water reached her waist. In her fright, she wasn't able to keep her fingernails from digging into his skin, which must have been painful for him, but to which he didn't utter a single complaint.
"Okay, I think this is far enough," Toph squeaked, startled by how high her voice sounded.
"Just a little further. Come on, I know you can do this. You're one of the bravest people I know."
Not wanting to prove him wrong, she begrudgingly permitted him to walk her deeper into the lake, biting back all the swear words that wanted to burst out of her mouth. He halted once the water was up to her chest, by which point she had both her arms wrapped completely around his left arm with her face pressed against his shoulder, trying with all her might to keep from shivering with terror.
Sokka tried in vain to shrug out of her hold. "Ease up, Toph! You're cutting off my circulation!"
"I can't," came her muffled reply as she tightened her grip.
He rolled his eyes for the second time but tried to keep his thinning patience in check as he stated pragmatically, "We're not going to accomplish anything like this. If you're not going to cooperate we might as well go back to the shore."
"Good idea! Let's do that."
"No. You're going to see this through. Use your common sense, Toph! This is a survival skill. So quit your whining and be grateful that I'm taking time out of my busy schedule for you."
That finally snapped her head up. "Oh, have I forgotten to thank you for dragging me into this hell hole? My gratitude knows no limits, oh gracious benefactor!"
"Sarcasm is not going to save you from drowning," he replied dryly. "Let's just get this over with before we both lose our tempers. Now the key to swimming is to learn how to float, so just start off by taking your feet off the bottom and try to let your body come to the surface on its own."
"Are you crazy? I'll sink like a rock!"
"As long as you have that attitude, yes, you will. But if you trust the water, it'll carry you. The human body is made to swim, even dead bodies float."
"Somehow that doesn't comfort me."
"Just try it, okay? The worst that could happen is you might get a little water up your nose."
Sokka observed the expressions flitting back and forth on her face in amusement as her thoughts seemed to be waging a mighty battle inside her head. He bit his lip in anticipation until she finally appeared to give into his persistent encouragements.
Toph slumped her head slightly forward as she muttered meekly, "You won't let me go?"
"There's no chance of that," he assured her.
She didn't know if it was the tone he used or the words themselves, but something about his insistent delivery had her inner voice telling her to succumb. However, she knew without a doubt that if it was anyone else besides Sokka, they would have found themselves smacked into the middle of next week before they managed to budge her an inch.
"Okay, what do I do?" she asked, hardly believing the words coming out of her own mouth.
"Well, just start off by loosening up, then take a deep breath and just make kind of a little jump."
With some effort, he slid his arm out of her grasp, but maintained contact by holding both her hands in one of his and keeping his other hand splayed across her back.
"Ready?"
"As much as I'll ever be."
"Then go."
Toph sucked in the largest gulp of air she could manage, kicked off from the bottom, and… instantaneously plunged completely beneath the surface of the water.
Sokka had been expecting as much to happen, thus preserving his firm hold on her. He had also foreseen that her next action would be to try to stand again, but to prevent this from happening he swiftly took them out into the deeper water where she would not be able reach the bottom. He had not, however, estimated that this would cause her behavior to begin resembling that of a drowning jungle cat.
To put it mildly, Toph was panicking. Clawing up his arms, she began spluttering and gasping for air as her head reemerged from the lake. Her world had gone completely dark as she was thrown into the suffocating element of water, with Sokka as her only pinpoint of light. This was true blindness. She stretched out her legs, expecting to once again meet the comforting touch of earth with her feet, only to swipe out at nothing while her head dipped underwater yet again.
"Whoa, watch out! You're just making yourself sink," Sokka tried to reason with her.
"You idiot! What did I tell you would happen?!" Toph screeched at him as she continued to fight with the water, him, and everything else.
She kicked out fiercely with her feet, helplessly searching for the scrape of mud with her toes and clinging to the slippery surface of his neck, every muscle in her body tense with panic.
"Toph," Sokka murmured right next to her ear, his voice setting off a series of soothing vibrations. "This isn't helping you or me. I know you can't see in the water, but you can see me, can't you? I'm not gonna let you go. Relax."
She stopped fighting almost immediately, affected as much by his tone as by the reassuring words that floated from his lips. She had never heard him speak so tenderly before, at least not to her. Suddenly, her fear of her long-hidden feelings being revealed to him threatened to override her fear of a watery death.
"Okay, that's better, but you're still stiff as a board. You have to loosen up."
"G-great plan, genius. How do you suggest I do that?" she asked, her voice still high and trembling.
"Mind over matter, Toph, and don't forget that I'm here. Relax. Relax against me."
At his gentle command, she slowly began to soften her limbs and let him support her. Heat rose in her cheeks as she realized she was doing something she had only fantasized about before. Holding and touching him while he did the same to her. Skin to skin, consistent contact, and she would most likely never have the same opportunity again. So what if she couldn't see anything? This was almost like a dream. A very vivid dream with intensified sensations and sounds.
As if in a trance, she forgot all about the fact that there was no solid, supporting earth beneath her. Sokka was her earth. He was the water. Nothing existed for her at that moment but him, because he was the only thing she could see, and he was the only thing she wanted to see. Toph wordlessly obeyed as he gave quiet instructions to regulate her breathing, bend her spine, and spread out her arms, and was stunned to find herself levitating up through the water until her entire body breached the surface of the lake. She was floating on her back. Sokka's hands were touching the exposed skin of her back and legs, but just barely.
"I'm doing it."
Sokka smiled with pride as he watched his student blossom under his tutelage; however, no cocky words of 'I told you so' made their way past his lips. He was too enraptured by the scene taking place before his eyes to even clear his throat. He heard her gasp in wonder as the apprehension of what she had accomplished dawned on her. Her eyelids fluttered as her sightless, green-eyed gaze lifted towards the sky. Long tendrils of ebony hair had come loose from their bindings to flow around her in a swirling halo, and, for some odd reason, her cheeks were flushed, creating a dramatic contrast against her pale white skin. Everything about her seemed so ethereal in that moment as she floated on top of the water. Sokka was suddenly taken aback at how much he was affected by her. She was so… beautiful.
"What's wrong?" Toph blurted out unexpectedly, grabbing onto his arm and twisting her neck around as she pricked her ears in attention. "What happened?"
"What are you talking about? Nothing's wrong," Sokka answered her in bewilderment.
She calmed down noticeably, but focused a questioning look in the direction of his face. "Your heart started beating faster all of a sudden. I figured you saw something."
His mind blanked in horror as he realized how in-tuned she was to the confusing emotions rushing through him. "Wh-what? No it's not!"
"Uh… yes it is, and now it's going even faster. Are you okay?"
He was certain that if she wasn't blind that she would also point out the fact that his face was as red as a tomato. "Of course I'm okay! It's just… I must be getting tired of holding you up for so long. Yeah, that's it. You weigh a ton! And… sometimes I suffer from… spontaneous muscle failure. It usually only flares up when I'm… swimming."
"Oookaaayyy. Are you sure it's not spontaneous brain failure?"
"Very funny. I think we've done enough for one day. I'm beat. We'll continue these lessons later," he said, deciding it would be best to get out of the water and away from her, as well as the strange stirrings her proximity was eliciting.
"Whatever you say, Snoozles."
She clung to his arm once more as she waited for him to lead her back to the shore, but Sokka noticed that this time her grasp was gentle and trusting rather than fearful. Warmth spread in his chest and a smile curled on his lips that had nothing to do with his satisfied pride and everything to do with the most unique girl he had ever known. He remembered that this was not the first time she had relied on him when she didn't have access to her element. It was something endearing about her as it was a stark contrast to her usual independent nature, and it never failed to throw him for a loop when she chose to let him guide her.
Despite his affectionate thoughts about her ricocheting inside his head, he suddenly became aware of a golden opportunity which was just too tantalizing to ignore. As they got closer to the shore and Toph was finally able to walk alongside him, Sokka stopped her and said bracingly, "Hang on, there's one last lesson I want to teach you today."
"What?" she asked curiously.
"How to take a dunking!" he shouted, sweeping her legs out from under her and shoving her head under the water in one quick movement.
She resurfaced to hear his uncontrollable laughter and felt an instant thirst for vengeance. "Thank you for that lesson, Master Sokka. Let's see how much I've learned," she responded collectedly.
With a single, earthbending stomp to the ground beneath her, Sokka was rocketed up into the air with a resounding shriek and tossed back into the middle of the lake, which was succeeded by an enormous splash.
He came up for air, coughing, spitting, and shaking the water out of his nose and ears, but smiling all the while. He hadn't expected anything less. He began swimming back to where she was cackling in pleasure at his expense while standing in waist-deep water, and a wicked smirk settled over his features as he silently approached her. After all, she couldn't see him…