Premise: I'm basically trying to explain why- in may opinion- Tokka ship did not develop in a smooth way, ending up as we all know, with the two of them split apart, Sokka alone as the Southern Water Tribe Chief and Toph roaming around the world, deeply in conflict with her two daugters.
Starting from Lin's birth -but with intrusions in the past - I'll provide you all the missing moments the cartoons didn't give us. Some will be funny, some will be painful...I hope I'll be able tro give you a plausible version of what may have appened to those two. But no more blabbering. Enjoy!

CHAPTER ONE: THE MELON LADY

120 AG* (see note below) - 10 days before Lin's birth

"I am the Melon Lord! Muahahahahah" shouted Toph in the middle of the kitchen, raising her hands towards the ceiling and starting to laugh creepily.

Sokka was having breakfast, sitting at the table of Toph's house, a slice of bread topped with marmalade squeezed in his mouth at his friend's assertion and he freezed in that position. Sokka blinked towards Toph twice in search for an explanation. She had suddenly dug that idea out of nowhere. For a moment, Sokka asked himself if the 31-years-old friend, now Chief of Republic City Police, was eventually going crazy.

"That's a story of long ago" he just ended up saying "Why did you resume it?"

"Yeah, right- allowed Toph -it's pretty incorrect now. Maybe I'd better say that I am the Melon Lady"

And saying that, she pinpointed both her indexes at her huge rounded womb. Actually, it did seem like a melon.

Sokka understood the joke and started laughing "Ahahahha you nailed it! Nice wordplay Toph, Ahhahahaah".

Toph had been pregnant for more than 8 months now. She had become very large, growing up difficulties in managing the house, even simple moves had become extremely complex. That was the reason why Sokka agreed to stay overnight at her place, the reason why he was there so early in the morning. He had offered himself to help her anyway he could in these last days of her pregnancy. The deliver day was about to come and none of her friends felt at ease at the idea to let her handle it alone. Unfortunately, they were all busy for one reason or another and the only one who seemed to be perfectly free -except for work duties as the Water Tribe Councilman- had revealed to be Sokka. The man accepted kindly. He was really willing to help Toph.

To see her so high spirited in the morning made Sokka in a good mood, to be true; he was glad to see her old friends smiling. It was actually relieving. Toph needed a long time to finally accept her new status in the previous months, or better to say, to convince herself she would do great with a daughter and all. Despite she was going to be a single mother. Despite she was not fit for family and this child came totally unexpected. Despite she was blind. A doubtful and scary Toph was something Sokka bet he'd never seen in his entire life. The word loved to prove him wrong even on that topic.

Sokka had felt so sorry seeing her in such a miserable state. Fragile. In denial. Alone and lost. Something Toph always hated to show to the other, she was eventually needed to expose. All her pain, all her suffering…and she did a great job to endure everything. To overcome and accept it all. Sokka was so proud of her. She indeed was the strongest woman he knew.

Now, Toph joking around her pregnancy was the better sign of her renewed hope she was carrying along with her. No need to cheer up her anymore. She was again the one to cheer others up.

-Notes-

*In each chapter, at the beginnig, I'll be providing you the date in wich the events occur to help you cronologically collocate them.

-Author's corner-

Hello! I'm an Italian fanficion "writer" and that's my first attempt to write a story in English! I hope you'll enjoy my first work. I hope I didn't make too many grammar mistakes...if so, I'm sorry. I'll be glad to receive any advice from you in order to improve and maybe give you better stories. I'm still not accustomed to this site so I hope I didn't mess up with anything about the formal aspects of this story...

There will be five more chapters at least -but they'll probably be many more and much longer than this. I have already written down many of them, but I prefer to publish them separately instead of giving you a oneshot long-fic.

Thank you, you all, for reading!