Aang stood on the dock of Air Temple Island, his eyes peeled for the boat. It was nearly three hours late, and while no word came forward of any trouble, there was always a worry in the back of his mind.
Then, as soon as he thought it, from around the bend of the island he saw the ship.
"Katara! Katara! He's here!" Aang shouted excitedly as he jumped up and down.
"Aang, for spirit's sake," Katara hissed as she ran out onto the dock. "You'll wake up the kids."
"But Katara he's here!"
Aang bounced up and down, and it took his wife laying a hand on his shoulder to restrain him from jumping on his glider and going out to meet the boat. A feeling of annoyance and love rushed through Katara.
Same little boy I fell in love with.
"Well if it isn't the high and mighty Avatar himself. Surely you aren't so excited to see little old me?" Sokka said as he jumped off the ship.
Katara was the first to pull Sokka into a hug, followed by Aang.
"You're late," Katara scolded. "Aang has been waiting out here for hours."
"Awww. You really love me dontcha lil bro?" Sokka said, pulling Aang into a playful headlock.
"Hey, hey," Aang said as he struggled to get free. "Tomorrow we become Councilmen."
"Exactly. Tomorrow. Means I gotta get all of this out of my system tonight," Sokka laughed.
"Come on," Katara said, waving them on as she started her way down the dock.
"So who all is here?" Sokka asked as he dropped his bag onto the floor just inside the entryway to Aang and Katara's home.
"Well, Zuko has been staying for a few weeks to work with Aang to get everything finalized. Mai and Izumi joined him earlier today. Father is here, but you knew that. Kya and Bumi have barely left his side since he got here last week," Katara said as the list ran through her head. "We have the Councilmembers from the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom… Oh and Toph and-"
Katara cut herself off. She exchanged a glance with her husband, who shook his head ever so subtly.
"And Toph. I had to convince her to stay with us. She wanted to stay in her apartment on the mainland, but I told her that since tomorrow's a big day, we should all be together. We'll have a nice big breakfast and everything."
"Oh good. I should stop and say hi before I turn in."
"Well, she's probably putting-" Aang started.
"She's probably asleep," Katara interjected. "Yeah. You're pretty late so everyone already went to bed. You should just catch up with her in the morning."
Sokka's shoulders dropped slightly.
"Yeah. Well, just show me to my room I guess."
"Of course."
Katara led Sokka down a hallway on the ground floor. The room was at the very end of the hall. Sokka could see the stars through the outside windows.
He put his bag down on the bed. Katara lit the nearby lamp. They exchanged goodnights before Katara made for the door. But just as she reached it, she paused.
"How-how long has it been since you saw Toph?"
"About a year and a half. Since that going away party when she left the academy to come create a police force. Why?"
"I-I know you're going to try and see her tonight."
"You don't know that."
"I know you. And I just want to…" Katara took a deep breath. "Just remember that it's been a while, okay?"
"Of course," Sokka said, his brow furrowing. "Katara, you're acting strange. Did something happen? To Toph? Did she get hurt?"
"No, no. Spirits, no. Just… I just care about you. And her. That's all. Goodnight."
Without a second glance, Katara turned and left.
Sokka scratched his head for a second, a wave of worry coming over him. In the end, he chalked it up to his sister being weird.
The rest of the temple was dark as Sokka went looking for Toph's room. He listened close to any door that had light peeking out underneath the door. The first proved to be Zuko, pacing. The second was the Earth Kingdom councilor, talking softly to his wife.
Sokka pressed his ear close to the door of the third room. There was the sound of footsteps and some kind of scratching against the wooden floor and a muffled voice.
"And so I said to him 'come on Twinkletoes, you couldn't build one room in this huge place with a dirt floor?' and he said some blah dee blah about Airbender tradition and how important it was that he did it right, so here I am unable to see a damn thing," Toph muttered.
There was the sound of more scratching.
Sokka silently turned the handle and pushed the door open, and had to stop himself from gasping.
Toph had changed significantly over the past few years. Though she only gained two or three inches since they were kids, years of sparring followed by teaching metalbending and now training the police force had toned her so she was a wall of muscle.
She wore a tight white tank top and loose pants, which Sokka could only imagine had been worn all day under the metal police armor in the corner. The golden chief's badge glinted in the soft light from the single lamp. In her hand was a thin metal rod made from a piece of cable from her uniform, which she moved back and forth over the wood floor.
But it wasn't Toph that caught him off guard. It was the infant resting against her shoulder.
The baby, about seven or eight months old, had the same pale skin as its mother, with large green eyes and a shock of jet black hair. It contentedly sucked on its fist as Toph tried to get her bearings in the room.
"Well now that I've found the bed, how about I lay you down for a sec," Toph muttered. "How 'bout that, sweet girl?"
She carefully placed the baby down on the bed. The baby barely moved or reacted, instead opting to gaze up at her mother, fist still in her mouth.
"I should have just ignored Katara and slept outside," Toph continued, as she felt her way around the bed. "But nooo, I have to sleep inside this stuffy wooden box because I'm a public figure now and Lin's too little to be exposed to so much dirt. Yeah, well Sugar Queen, Lin was conceived in the dirt, so I think she'll be fine."
The baby let out a giggle.
"Oh you think that's funny do ya?" Toph said, smirking. "You think that's funny?"
Toph grinned as she made her way back to the end of the bed and knelt down in front of where the baby lay. She gently lifted up Lin's shirt and blew a raspberry on her belly. The baby erupted in a fit of giggles. Toph blew another raspberry, causing more giggles.
Toph continued to talk softly to her daughter as she tickled her. Her words were lost to the baby's giggles, so Sokka had to lean in closer to hear what she was saying.
The hinge on the door squeaked.
"Who's there?"
The cable in Toph's hand straightened. She aimed it at him, and he watched with horror as it began to sharpen into a point before his eyes.
"It's me, it's me," he said quickly, putting his hands up. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."
Toph paused, the hand not holding the cable twitching in the direction of her uniform, as she decided whether or not to bend it to her.
Her brow furrowed as she focused on the smell of the entrant. It was a familiar smell. The smell of roast meat and seawater.
"S-Sokka?"
"Yeah. Yeah it's me," he said. "It's me."
"You're lucky I smelled you before I did something… regrettable."
Sokka chuckled, his hands still up.
"It wouldn't be a real visit with you if there wasn't a threat on my life at least once."
"What are you doing here?" Toph said, the cable in her hand still resolutely pointed towards him.
"I wanted to come and say hi. It's been a while."
"Well hi. Now go away. It's late. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Can't we just chat?" Sokka asked quietly. "There's things I'd like to say. I'm sure there are things you'd like to say too."
Toph lowered the cable.
"There are several things I'd like to say to you, but Lin doesn't like it when I curse."
Toph stopped. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Sokka waited, but there was silence.
"So her name is Lin. Your daughter's name is Lin," Sokka stated. "You have a daughter."
"Yes. I have a daughter. Yes, her name is Lin. Spirits, I forgot how thick you are," Toph said, though her sarcasm was shakier than usual.
Sokka looked from Toph to the baby on the bed, who was still content, her little legs kicking around happily.
"I was going to tell you," Toph said quietly, in a voice so low Sokka almost had to strain to hear it. "I was going to have Katara write a letter, but I...I decided against it."
"I'm kind of glad you did," Sokka said, with an honesty he didn't expect from himself. "Look I care for you deeply and all, but I'm not sure that I'd really have wanted to hear that you'd already moved on and gotten married and got pregnant by another guy."
"I'm not married," Toph corrected.
There was silence. Toph's head was slightly down, and her hair, released from it's normal bun, fell around her face and obscured it from view.
"How old is she?"
"She'll be eight months next week," Toph replied.
As if remembering Lin was still lying alone on the bed, she turned and took a tentative step forward towards the bed. Lin gurgled happily, and Toph followed the sound, scooping the infant up and put her back against her shoulder.
"If she's eight months old, then you got pregnant…" Sokka began.
"A little less than a year and a half ago," Toph finished.
She began rocking slightly as Lin yawned.
"So when you said you were going to send a letter, did you think…"
Sokka's voice faltered. Toph took a deep breath, but then a look of anger came over her face.
"I don't have to explain myself to you," she replied. Her voice, though more confident, still was rather shaky.
"But if you thought-"
"I found out that I was pregnant farther along than usual, and when I did the math... " Toph said, her tone a mix of exasperation and anger. "When I did the math, there was… a chance."
"So what you're saying you cheated on me?"
"Hell no," Toph snapped.
Lin began to cry at the sound of her mother so angry. Toph began to bounce her and in a moment she had grown quiet.
"Well then what happened?"
"I left. I was given the chance of a lifetime, and I wanted you to come with me. But the morning I was ready to leave, you changed your mind-"
"I didn't change my mind," Sokka interrupted. "I had to figure out how to tell you. And it took me a while."
"Well I had to go. I had no choice; I was committed," Toph said, continuing as if she wasn't interrupted. "I had a responsibility and people counting on me. And I had a really long stupid boat ride to think about it. And I got to the city, and those first few days, I was so angry and sad and lonely... and you know how much I hate feeling... emotions… So I did the only logical thing I could do and got drunk, and-and make shitty choices."
Sokka stared.
"Do you even know who the guy was?" Sokka asked, jealousy stirring in the pit of his stomach.
"Of course I know," Toph hissed. "It- I met him in the bar. He was a traveling… musician. I never got a good look at him. All I ever learned was his name and the… size of, uh, certain things."
"But you said when you did the math-" Sokka started, only to get cut off.
"I hoped it was yours, okay?" Toph spat. "I-I knew, I knew in my head that there was very little chance it was yours, but I wanted it to be. You're the only person I've ever loved. And looking back, I don't know if I wanted it to be yours because I wanted to give you a reason to come back to me or because I just wanted a part of you to keep with me, but yeah. I wanted her to be your daughter."
Sokka and Toph stood in silence. Lin had drifted off to sleep in Toph's arms. Toph knew this, but continued to gently rub her back anyway.
"But she's not my daughter..." Sokka said slowly.
"Does she look like she's yours?" Toph said, perhaps harsher than she intended.
"No I just-"
"No, no. I'm sorry. I meant…" Toph took a deep breath. "Does she look like she's yours?"
At this, Toph turned slightly, hoping she was able to give Sokka a better view of Lin's face.
"All anyone will tell me is that she looks exactly like me. But I don't know what that means. And I remember vaguely hearing something about how the Southern Water Tribe has darker skin than my family and I-I," Toph said. "I've always had this sneaking suspicion that your sister and brother-in-law might try to protect me from the truth."
"Couldn't you tell if they were lying?" Sokka asked, knowing full well his ex-girlfriend was a human lie detector.
"Certainly not in this place," Toph said darkly. "And they're not exactly lying when they say that, or they don't think they are. But I never could tell if it was the whole truth."
Sokka turned his head and observed the infant again. There was no doubt that she was Toph's daughter, that much was clear, but…
"She's not a water tribe baby," Sokka concluded. "And I don't think you need a dirt floor to believe that I'm telling the truth."
Toph took another deep breath, but nodded. Silence fell once more. Lin made a small sound in her sleep.
Taking the silence as a pause to the conversation, Toph used the opportunity to make her way cautiously across the room to the wall closest to her uniform. She bent a rectangle of stone out of the wall, and slowly moved her hand down until it formed a small basin. She worked the stone a little more until it formed some kind of small, open topped cage suspended out of the wall.
Or crib, Sokka realized as Toph leaned over and gently set her daughter inside.
"There you are, my little badgermole," Toph murmured. "If I can't see anything else in this wooden-floored nightmare, at least I can see you."
Lin smiled in her sleep as Toph withdrew from the crib. Toph laid a hand on the rim of the new stone crib, and smiled at the vibrations of Lin's heartbeat. As she turned back towards Sokka though, her brow furrowed.
"I… I really have to get some sleep," Toph muttered. "Lin'll be up early. And once she's up, I'm up. So I gotta get some rest."
"Of course, of course. Plus we officially launch a new city tomorrow. Gotta be all rested up for that."
Sokka nodded as he turned back towards the door. Toph tentatively took a step forward, followed by another, her hand reaching out just in case, until she made it to the doorway.
Sokka took a step back into the hallway as her hand settled on the door frame
"She really does look like you," Sokka said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. "Like exactly like you. Like if I had to imagine a baby Toph, she's-"
"I get it, meathead," Toph said, her cheeks starting to burn. "But thank you."
"She'll be just like you when she grows up. Just as kickass and amazing."
"Nah," Toph smiled. "She'll be better."
Sokka smiled, ready to say goodnight, but there was something on Toph's face that made him feel like she had more to say. After a moment, she sighed.
"Okay. Since I've already said much more than I'm comfortable with and I will categorically deny having said this should you bring it up again, I guess there's no point in hiding it. I missed you like crazy. This place just doesn't- this place can't feel like home without you around. And I guess no matter what happens between us, I'm glad you're around, ya know?"
"I wanted to come with you," Sokka blurted. He immediately blushed a deep red. "I wanted to come with you. But my father was counting on me to continue working on rebuilding after the war. You know. Diplomacy and all that. I couldn't just let him down."
Toph did not acknowledge this, but stared just over his right shoulder. Sokka gulped and continued.
"I hated watching you leave. Seeing you like that," Sokka said."I love you, uh… loved you. And I knew how much I was hurting you. And I really didn't want to do it, but I couldn't let my father down. I just want you to know that I missed you everyday too. Really. Every time Katara or Aang came down to visit, I couldn't bring you up fast enough. I'm glad you're back around too and maybe someday we can…"
"Ugh. Enough with this mushy emotional crap. Just shut up and kiss me."