Chapter Three: New Sounds
Dinner was great, everything seemed normal again. Toph gave Sokka the usual comments, and Sokka reacted like he was insulted. It felt like all those weird and awkward feelings were gone. After dinner, almost everyone got busy. Katara cleaned all the bowls, Aang helped her, Zuko went off to train some more and The Duke tried to convince Haru & Teo to call him The Duke, and not just Duke.
"Typical." Toph said annoyedly while crossing her arms.
Like she hadn't noticed that Katara wanted everyone to get busy so they could be 'alone'. It was like she knew something even they didn't know. Didn't she know she only made things harder and more uncomfortable? Apparentely not.
"What is?" Sokka asked.
He liked being alone with Toph. It had been a little while since they've been alone, and Sokka missed those moments.
"Come on," Toph began, "It's so obvious Katara has told everyone to leave us alone."
"She has?"
Toph sighed. Sokka was fun, but sometimes, he was a real goof.
"I'm leavin'." Toph mentioned while she stood up.
Sokka watched her as she left, and once she was out of his sight, he sighed and leaned with his arms on his crossed legs. What was she going to do? And more important: What was he going to do now she was gone? Maybe he could follow her...
No, the warrior thought while shaking his head, She'll notice that. But there was something inside him that made him curious. There was something inside him that told him he had to find out what that little girl went to do. This wasn't the first time she went away, in fact, it was something like her 10th time since they had arrived in the air temple. But then again, he had secrets himself. And he wanted them to stay secrets.
"Sokka, where's Toph?"
Sokka jumped up at the sound of his sister's voice, which he didn't really recognize. "What?! I don't have any secrets! Who told you that?!"
Once he saw his sister looking sort of annoyed at him with her arms crossed over her chest, he tried to act normal and scratched the back of his head.
"Sorry..." he apologized before he tried to cough the awkward moment away. "So, what's up?"
Katara sighed, she didn't want to repeat it again, but it looked like she didn't have another choice. "Do you know where Toph is?"
"Uh, no, actually, I don't." he answered truthfully.
He really had no idea where she was, and wished he was lying, but sadly enough, he wasn't. Katara lifted an eyebrow as high as she could and let her other one almost fall onto her eye.
"Sokka..." she began with her 'I-don't-believe-you' note.
"I don't! Really! I swear!"
And how much it hurt to say that. He wanted to know where the earthbender was, he wanted to lie for her. But he couldn't. She just left him there, completely alone. Or that was how he felt. Alone. Empty.
"Oh." was all Katara could say.
She definitely wasn't expecting that her brother would tell the truth. She didn't know for sure if he was telling the truth, true, but there was something in his voice that made her believe him, and his eyes didn't seem like he was lying either.
"Would you mind finding her for me?"
"Wh-"
"Just find her for me, okay?"
"Okay."
"Now," she said friendly, waving with her hand for him to go away, "Off you go."
Sokka sighed, mumbling something that sounded like he couldn't believe that his younger sister bossed him around like that and that he obeyed her. Katara just gave him a wide smirk before going back to her best friend, better known as the Avatar. Sokka had noticed she and Aang had been hanging out quite a lot lately, but it was probably just his imagination. Or that was what he hoped it was. Hmm, maybe I should stop drinking cactus juice. he thought seriously. That delicious, but kind of dangerous drink was maybe the cause of all the 'weirdness' he was seeing and feeling. He saw Katara & Aang hang out a little too much and he thought about Toph every minute of the day. As much as he hated to do it, he had to give up the juice. Suddenly, all his thoughts vanished. He heard a sound, a sound he had heard before when it was night, but he had always been too lazy to get up and see who or what was making that sound. And now he heard it again, only this time, it wasn't night. It sounded like a singing nightobin, singing a sad, but also beautiful song. It didn't have lyrics, the sounds just made the song sad. It was something he loved to hear, at night, he would fall asleep with a content smile on his face. He could even fall asleep now, that beautiful was it. He followed the sound curiously, wondering who made that wonderful sound. He was sure it was a person, and not an animal. No animal could make such sounds, although there were similarities. Sokka pointed his ears, he wanted, no, he needed to know who the producer was, he needed to know whose voice he was falling in love with. It's probably a beautiful lady of my age, Sokka thought dreamily, And she probably has long legs, beautiful hair and a sweet, cute face.
He stopped in front of several bushes which were gathered in front of him, tall enough to block his view. He was now only a few steps away from the one who made that sound. He pushed away a part of the bushes, his eyes wide open and shining, and then, he saw her. His big and shining eyes disappeared instantly, and that wide smile that was on his face a few seconds ago, had disappeared too.
"Toph?!" he shouted.
Toph closed her mouth at the sudden sound, which wasn't hers, and turned her head to the one who had shouted her name in astonishement. She felt Sokka had covered his mouth with both of his hands, and was pressing them tightly against the source of the sound.
"Sokka?!" she shouted back.
That was all she could do. There were no words to explain what she was doing. It was pretty obvious what she was doing, but the problem wasn't what she was doing, but that she was the one doing it. Sokka ran away immediately, and Toph only got up from the chopped off tree she was sitting on. She tried to yell, tried to demand him to stop, but her voice was gone. Completely. She tried to shout again and clinged her hands together, but there was no sound to hear. She crouched and put her hands in her hair, pinched in it, telling herself how stupid she had been. Why did she have to be so inattentive? And why didn't she just tell Sokka before she had a great singing voice? She let out a yell, one that ran through Sokka's bones like a virus. He kept running though. He kept running away from her. He got scared. He didn't know why, but he got scared. He didn't know this Toph. Or better, he didn't want to know this Toph. It was scary to see her like that. To hear her like that. He couldn't believe that Toph, The Blind Bandit, was a singer. And a good one too.
After running as fast as he could, Sokka finally reached his room and puffed once he was inside, leaning with his hands on his thighs. Eventually, he took a deep breath while straightening his back again.
"How can such a tough girl have such a good singing voice?" he asked himself after he dropped himself on his bed.
Yes, Toph's voice was sweet and sort of cute, but he never thought it'd be able to sing. Not at all. He thought she only used her voice for insulting people and making them feel bad, but apparentely, he was wrong. That wasn't so bad, actually, the bad thing was that – like he had mentioned before – he was falling in love with the voice. And since he had been thinking about Toph a lot lately, it made him even more afraid. He started to think liked Toph a little too much to think of her as a friend. Sokka shook his head. No, impossible! It's Toph! It's just not... It can't... It's impossible, and that's my final word! Thought.
"I can do it. Come on, wimp, do it!"
She was shaking. Trembling. Shivering. She showed every kind of fear, and she couldn't stop it. She had to tell him, he heard her singing just a few hours ago! Since then he had disappeared, but so had she. She sighed loudly. Crud, she thought when she noticed Katara looked up. You couldn't have sighed any louder, could you?
Katara walked over to her blind friend, she had seen Sokka leaving his room like an hour ago, and he hadn't told her where he was going or what he was going to do, and since Toph was his best friend, Katara assumed for her to know.
"Toph, oh Toph!" she shouted while running to her.
"Yes, Katara?" Toph answered annoyedly.
Katara noticed the annoying tone and simply ignored it. That was what got her into a battle with her last time.
"Have you seen Sokka, I've been looking all over for him."
"No, I haven't, and yes, I'll look for him." she answered even before Katara could ask her anything.
"O-Okay," Katara replied surprisedly, "Good. Thanks. I'll start cooking then."
"You do that." Toph said before turning her back to her and walking away. "I'm sure Sokka will be here instantly once he smells food."
Katara forced a laugh before going to her kettle and beginning with making dinner. Toph felt Aang helping her enthusiasticly. Hmm, strange...
"Oh, and Toph, keep your eyes open, it's getting pretty dark!" Katara yelled.
I'm blind! Toph thought irritated, but just answered: "Okay, thanks, Katara!"
Katara smacked her bare hand against her forehead, which left a big red dot once she removed her hand. She was really an idiot sometimes.
Almost an half hour later, the sun was gone, Toph could feel it. Things were a lot colder. Especially the ground, and because of that, her feet were cold as well. And because of the fact that her feet were cold, she couldn't feel the vibrations that well.
"Shoot, Sokka, where are you?!" she shouted.
She placed herself on a rock, thinking about how stupid she had been for not stopping him when he ran away several hours ago.
"Okay, Sokka," she started helplessy, facing the sky, "I give up! I can't find you! You win whatever game you're playing!"
"Game?"
Toph fell from her rock when she heard the voice. She knew whose it was, but she wasn't expecting an answer. Sokka came from behind the tree and got down on one knee, right next to Toph. He offered her his hand to help her up.
"Need help?" he asked.
"No." Toph answered.
She had her pride, and she wanted to keep that. She got up all by herself, and Sokka rose with her. Toph cleaned her clothes a bit and then faced Sokka, her unseeing eyes pierced right through him.
"What?" he asked uncomfortable.
"Oh, I don't know," she began innocently, "Maybe you haven't noticed, but you disappeared for hours and you didn't tell anyone where you were going to or what you were going to do! Not even your sister!"
"Toph, I just-"
"No, I don't wanna hear it!"
"Toph, just li-"
"No!" she refused, putting her hand right in front of his face, the front of it turned to him.
He pushed her hand away. "Toph, I just wanna say that-"
"I don't have a lot of patience, Sokka, I thought you knew that!"
Toph was boiling. She was about to explode. He better runs away before I kick his butt so hard he'll never be able to sit on it again. she thought angrily. She had enough of his games and was done playing. And if he wasn't about to realise that soon, he'd better run for his life.
"I just played on my flute!" Sokka yelled desperately, throwing up his arms.
Toph snorted with laughter. "Your flute??"
Sokka sighed. He was afraid this was going to happen. That was why he hadn't told Toph before, that was why he hadn't told anyone before. He was afraid they'd laugh with him.
"Yes, my flute." he repeated.
"And you can play it?"
"Yes, I can."
"Can I hear some of it?"
"What?" he asked a little shocked.
Did she just said she wanted to hear some of his music? Or was she just making fun of him?
"Can I hear some of your music?" she asked again.
She had to admit, she never thought Sokka would be a musician, but then again, her being a singer must've been something surprising too. Sokka took her by her pulse and pulled her softly with him.
"Sure." he answered, giving Toph a smile he had never smiled before.
Toph began to blush a little, but luckily, her hair could hide it. Sokka placed her on a rock, and went sitting on another one himself. The view was amazing. He could see the Western Air Temple from there, too bad Toph couldn't see it. Or at least not like him. He looked at her again and smiled. He really had to stop smiling, he didn't like smiling, not like that. It was a very rare smile, a smile only Yue had put on his face once or twice.
"So," Toph began, "You gonna play something or not?"
"Of course I will." Sokka answered before moving the flute onto his lips and blowing through it.
Toph closed her eyes and smiled. It was beautiful. Somehow, she recognized the song he was playing, although it was something he was playing straight from his heart. It contained sadness, love, hate maybe, and trust. It sounded like someone was playing what Toph sang a few hours ago. It sounded the same. And after a few minutes of enjoying the sound, she cleared her throat and began to sing with it. Not with actual words, but just with sounds. Together, it sounded like a love-story, and the more Toph sang & the more Sokka played, the faster their hearts started to beat, and the more they wanted to move up and get a little closer. But both were too stubborn to give in to their feelings, so they just kept singing and playing.
Katara and Aang were training beneath the full moon when they heard the unfamiliar sounds. They stopped bending and looked at each other.
"Who's that?" Aang asked.
Katara shrugged, but somewhere deep inside, she meant to know who it was. Or who it were.
"It's kinda romantic." Aang noticed.
Katara blushed, knowing where this all could lead to. "Yeah, it is..."
Aang started to blush too, thinking the exact same thing as Katara. She suddenly shook her head and got in a waterbending stance again.
"Okay, get ready." she said before attacking him.
One hour later, Sokka's breath was almost completely gone, and Toph could barely speak. They got up from their rocks and bowed profesionally at each other.
"It was nice making music with you." Sokka said.
"It really was." Toph laughed.
They started walking to their rooms, which were quite far away.
"Nice voice you got." Sokka complimented Toph.
"I know."
But there was no way she was going to give a compliment too. She had he pride, you know.
End of Chapter Three