Title: Heartrate

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Word Count: 465

Rating: PG, fantasy violence-ish.

Timeline: Following Book 2's conclusion.

Pairing: Implied Sokka/Toph and Sokka/Suki

Summary: Toph's always been able to tell when people are lying. Introspective, from Toph's POV.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar. I'm kinda glad I don't because I'd fuck it all up!

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He's worried about a lot of things. Aang predominantly; he doesn't have a problem admitting this. I don't blame him. I'm concerned for Twinkletoes, too. According to Katara, he took a lightning blast to the back during the Avatar State--and from what I've heard, that's definitely bad news. We don't know how that'll affect Aang, since he's been asleep for the past few days.

He's worried about Katara, but not much more than usual. Older brother stuff. He's even a little worried about Iroh, who had stayed behind in Ba Sing Se in order to let Katara and Aang escape from Azula and Zuko.

Those are all the subjects we covered. Sokka's a brave kid--strong, for someone without Bending powers. As we talk, his voice--youthful in sound only, as there's an older, more experienced and war-weary edge to it--fills the air. He's not complaining for once. We're both sitting on the same boulder, with a river burbling away nearby. Judging by the way the earth bowed before us, curved into a deep, long trench that went on further than my Earthbending could tell me, the shore can only be a few feet away at most.

I don't "see" like most people can. I was born blind. But that's more of a blessing than anything else; it's allowed me to hone my Earthbending powers to levels nobody else can meet. My 'sight' is something Sokka once called tremor sense, being able to sense movement through vibrations in the ground. It also lets me sense a person's heartrate and breathing, if I'm close enough to them. I can tell when they're lying because their pulse gets faster and their breath comes out shorter.

Sokka's lying to me right now.

I'd asked him about Suki--the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. She was a nice girl, very brave. She saved me from drowning once. Azula invaded Ba Sing Se with her friends wearing the robes and makeup of the Kyoshi Warriors, leading us to suspect they had ambushed Suki and the others. And while Sokka brushed off his concern--said Suki was strong, capable of taking care of himself--his heartrate told a completely different story.

Sometimes, the really girly part about me--the one that nobody really sees--wishes he'd care about me like that. Sometimes I want to just hold him and tell him how I feel, and maybe get a little reciprocation. But it's just not my style; when the people who know me look at Toph Beifong, they expect the tough exterior and a tomboyish, rule-breaking, tradition-hating Earthbending Master. That's my real face. And I want Sokka to like me--to care for me--for who I am.The girly side of me, that's my deception. That's where my heartrate changes.