Skydiving

Now I'm falling 100 m-p-h, these memories I wanna make,
I'm wrapped up and I don't know what to do (be)
But I (you) will catch you (me)
And now I got to try to see the light, instead,
I'm falling heels over my head
And, kid, I've got to try to fly
(please try to fly) I'll try to catch you
You'll catch me (I'll catch you, darlin')
Now I'm falling through the sky,
oh take that dive, with me.

"Sooo, how've you been?"

"Good, good."

"That's good."

"Yup. What about you? How've you been?"

"I've been pretty good."

"…good."

Oh God. This was it. This was the big confrontation she'd been so afraid of? They've only said, like, five sentences! Good being the centre of them all! She felt retarded; she'd lost countless nights of sleep for this? This…this…oh, come on, you couldn't even call this a conversation! Toph was visibly restraining from banging her head against the desk.

This was so stupid!

Here they were, two old/ex best friends stuck together in an even more stupid advanced English project about…something or other and all they could come up with were half-hearted pleasantries? She was Toph Bei-Fong: Mistress of Sarcasm! How could she just sit there picking her nails and trying to avoid eye contact? The world must be coming to an end!

"Wow. Toph Bei-Fong: Mistress of Sarcasm, speechless. The world must be ending."

Well then.

"Shut your face, football head. This whole project is going to be suckish, so let's just get this over with."

"Football head? Really, stealing insults from a children's show? Pa-the-tic."

Her cheeks heated up (out of anger, of course) and she punched him roughly in the arm before scooting her desk next to his with one long screech. "Ugh. So what is this project even about?" She asked in a resigned voice, looking everywhere but at him.

He flicked her shoulder. "It wasn't assigned. We get to pick."

"Oh," she said. "So is it just, like, a book report?"

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Were you even listening?"

"Dude, have you forgotten who you're dealing with?"

He sighed, at least someone was paying attention for once (thank God for Ritalin). "Dangerous and/or addictive activities."

Toph crinkled her nose. "Ew."

"No kidding. It's got to be a," he cleared his throat here and mimicked pushing glasses up the bridge of his nose like their stuffy teacher Mr. Kuei, "ten page long essay, not including the bibliography, real life account, diagram or graph, and an "attractive poster to tie it all together"."

She folded her arms and laid them on the desk, throwing her head against them with a groan. "Mfwhf errvie gunna fu?"

"Well," Sokka shrugged. "What's dangerous?"

"You think someone's jumping out of that plane?"

"No. That's stupid. It's all forestry over there, they'd die."

"Maybe someone will catch 'em."

"Who would catch a skydiver at a million miles per hour?"

"You'd catch me, wouldn't you?"

"You'd be falling at a million miles per hour!"

"Oh, so you'd just let me crash and die, huh?"

"I'd still want to catch you." He turned over to his side on the soft, dewy grass and she swore her heart stopped. "I'll always want to catch you."

"Promise?"

"Promise." He reached towards her to brush away a stray lock of hair on her collarbone. "I'll always be there to catch you whether you want me to or not."

"I do want you to. I want you to catch me."

"I'm glad." His hand was trembling slightly as it fell back from her gooseflesh skin. "I…I really want to be…be the one who catches you."

They thought for a few seconds then Toph's head flew up and the two locked eyes before saying together,

"Skydiving."

After about ten minutes, the pair discovered that they could most certainly not concentrate during class (due to Toph falling asleep each time her partner spoke and Sokka doodling every time it was his turn to write) and decided to "work" at his house after school. Now, as she sat in his room all by herself (on his bed, no less) while he convinced his Gran that they didn't need milk and cookies (she begged to differ, he ignored her), she sort of wished she was at home playing Black Ops instead of resisting the urge to go through his drawers.

This was so annoying! God, she used to spend the night in this room! Of course, that was before there was a highly disturbing playboy poster on the wall, but still! She slept in these faded blue Spiderman sheets! The thought now made her skin crawl…in a not all together unpleasant way.

Not good.

"Sorry, my Gran is kind of–why are you under my bed?"

Sokka, however much he wanted to be, was not exaggerating. She was indeed, under his bed. Her feet stuck out as did her rump as she was on her hands and knees rummaging through his things. She wasn't exactly sure of what she would find–nothing, probably–but she did it anyway. It turned out to be a mega waste of time because all she saw were dirty socks, an old boomerang, one broken GameBoy (courtesy of her temper tantrum five years ago), and a dirty magazine; all of which had dust collecting on top.

Toph froze at the sound of his voice. Panicking, she called out, "Oh! I was just searching for my contact!"

She crawled out and stood up shakily as he crossed his arms and looked her up and down. "You had laser eye surgery; you don't wear contacts."

She turned her head to the side and swore under her breath. Oops.

"Right, well. Um…skydiving! Yay!"

Sokka raised an eyebrow at her before sitting down on his mattress and pulling the papers out of his backpack. It was going to be a long project.

That's for sure.

And it was a long project. They spent several weeks at each other's houses and very waking moment together "working on the project". People were starting–scratch that, were suspicious.

Toph stood in front of the bathroom mirror, carving her initials into the bottom left-hand corner. Someone coughed behind her, trying to gain her attention. Oh shoot, it was Katara.

-cough-…-cough-cough-…-cough attack-

"Sooo, what's –cough- up with you and –cough-cough- my brother? You're not hooking up are you, that'd be really weird. –cough-"

Sokka walked down the lunch line, tray in one hand, shiny apple in another. "One," he said, addressing the foaming kid beside him, "I don't even know you, so why do you care?"

Toph turned around, her eyebrows furrowed. "Two, are you okay? You keep coughing."

"And three…"

Sokka slammed his tray down. Toph put her hands on her hips.

"Nothing is going on!"

Sokka was a lot of things, but he wasn't stupid.

Well, he was when it came to being street smart, but not other things. Except for guys. And some sports. And video games. And…well that wasn't the point. If there was one thing he knew about, it would be girls. And he knew for a fact that Toph did not have the hots for him, no matter how much Zuko thought she did.

She was Toph! His old best friend! They used to spend every day at each other's houses, never left the other's sight, for God's sake, they could even finish each other's sentences! How could they ever be anything beside friends? So after high school started and he decided he wanted to be a jock and she wanted anything besides being a cheerleader, they split ways.

Okay, maybe it was mostly him doing the splitting but that's because she started to get all weird around him! Obviously she was still upset over the stupid skydiving incident and the whole "I'm-a-jock" thing just wasn't helping. He was doing her a favor! Breaking up with her before either one of them got hurt! Err, not breaking up. Because they weren't dating…doing their separate ways. That's what happened.

But once they got assigned to be partners for the stupid project after two whole years of ignoring each other in the hallways, he thought he was going to die. His stomach flip-flopped (out of hatred, you know) and his palms got all sweaty and all he could think was 'Oh God, she's so pretty. When'd she get so pretty?'.

He was always kind of slow.

But after he started to spend some more time around her, he remembered just why they were best friends and why he liked her so much, he was such an idiot for ever trying to end it. But now that he knew what he wanted, he also knew she didn't want the same.

It hurt and it stung and it felt sort of like the time Katara slapped him in the face, but hey, it's his fault anyway, so, guess it's what he deserves. Stupid, Sokka. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

"Uh, Snoozles? Why are you hitting your head against the locker?"

Oh, crap.

"I…just…uh…"

"Ooh, great reason. That's my excuse for everything now a days!" she exclaimed sarcastically, winking at him. He blushed. Oh, man, why am I blushing? He blushed harder.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, let's just…go h-home." He swung his backpack over his shoulder and followed her out of the busy hallway. His eyes trailed over her form and were mesmerized by the swing of her hips. All he had to do was reach out and just–

Mr. Kuei walked by, eyeing him disappointingly and wagging his finger no.

Sokka: 4. World: 4739820156

"We got an A+! We got an A, we got an A, in your face losers!"

Toph was singing and waving around their paper in the rest of the class's faces, sticking her tongue out and dancing in her seat. Sokka beamed, watching her.

"So, since we obviously have the smartest kids in our class, why don't we have them tell us about how they worked together successfully to get a good grade. Ms Bei-Fong, Mr. Waders?" Their teacher pushed his glasses up his nose and Toph sent Sokka a look, chortling.

"Weeelll, Sokka and I just have the greatest chemistry. I mean, why wouldn't we work well together?" Toph put one hand on her hip and smirked.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Once you work with Toph, there's just no resisting her obvious charm."

She sniffed, "Obviously."

The class laughed.

"So are you two, like, dating now?" Someone called out. The rest of the students giggled and Sokka's cheeks burned. Toph looked composed as usual and just smiled cockily, like she knew something they didn't. Sokka wanted to know, desperately.

"That's for us to know, and you to shut up about."

The room oooh'd and Mr. Kuei shook his head slowly. "Now, now," he gestured with his hands for everyone to calm down. "Let's not get angry. Deep breaths, Ms Bei-Fong. In, out. In, out."

Toph's eyebrows shot up to her hairline.

"So, what are you doing this weekend?" Sokka asked, hands in his pockets as they strolled out of the high school building. Toph gave him an odd look–he couldn't decipher it.

"We're not doing the project anymore, you don't have to hand out with me if you don't want to." She said nonchalantly, examining her fingernails .

"No, no, I want to." I want to be the one to catch you.

She stumbled suddenly (she never trips) and he mind went blank except for 'crap' and she knew she was going to crash on the sidewalk and oh, God, how embarrassing but then she didn't. Warm arms wrapped around her waist and her breath caught in her throat.

"You–you don't, I mean if you, and I was, falling, would you–"

"I want to." Sokka whispered seriously. "I want to catch you."

"I want you to, too." She couldn't breathe. He was close, much too close. She could feel his warm breath fan her cheeks, and see his eyelashes flutter together, and hear the thundering sound of his heart (or was it hers? Did it even matter at this point? When were they so alone?).

He was close, closer than he'd ever been to her, even when they used to be best friends and hold hands because it was comfortable and just nice; closer, even, than when they'd lay side by side watching skydivers and airplanes and had become just a boy and a girl again, ready to grow up, but not ready for the changes and…

He kissed her.

A/N: does anybody even like tokka? i do. beginning song is an original by moi :) it's for a future up-and-coming never-going-to-be-finished musial of mine. review, please?