I'm attempting the Tokka 100! Don't expect regular updates from me until the summer. I'm sorry, life is crazy. Anyway, constructive critisism is welcome. Is it too short? Is it not Tokka-ish enough? Please tell me your opinion!

Tokka 100

77: Slur

"Come on, Toph. It's C, not B. Please, try one more time!"

Toph grunted. Ever since Katara had taken it into her head to teach each member of Team Avatar an instrument, she had dreaded seeing the waterbender. Since Aang already knew the tsungi horn, he was safe. But Sokka had endured endless anguish while his sister tried to teach him how to play the pipa. Suki had inevitably joined in, seeing as she played the stringed instrument herself. In the end, Sokka had gotten so frustrated that he stormed out of his own home and had since ignored both Katara and Suki. That turned out to be both good and bad. On one hand, Suki and Sokka were no longer a couple, and anything that drove a stake between the two was fine in Toph's book. On the other hand, however, Katara pounced on Toph like prey. She was determined to teach the girl how to play the flute. Of course, usually Toph would glower at anyone who treated her differently because of her lack of sight, but today, she hoped with all her might that Katara had finally realized how futile it was to try and teach a blind girl music.

The earthbender put her flute back up to her mouth and ran through the scale again. It was hard focusing her mind on two completely different things at once. She told her fingers to move and ran through the notes in her head: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.

"No, Toph, an A is this fingering!" Katara stated, tugging at one of Toph's calloused digits.

Toph, fed up with the incessant corrections and overall pointlessness of the exercise, threw her flute to the ground and got out of her chair. "It's no use!" she shouted, "I hate the flute, Katara! Go teach it to someone who cares! To me, it's weird that the alphabet ends at G! It's insane that you have to know the difference between slurs and staccato! I don't care! I just don't CARE!"

She stomped angrily away, but could sense Katara pursuing her. Toph stomped harder on the ground, and a wall sprung up between them. Through her haze of fury, the blind earthbender realized that Katara had already gone through the exact same thing with Sokka. She also came to the conclusion that Sokka would understand how she felt.

Toph turned her aggravated course toward Sokka's favorite restaurant. She pushed past anyone who got in her way and, upon recognizing Sokka's breathing and heartbeat, she plopped herself down in the chair across from him.

"Your sister is annoying," Toph grumbled.

She could hear the sympathy in his voice when Sokka asked, "What did she do this time?"

"Sugar Queen told me I should join the Ember Island Players because I'm no good at the flute."

Toph noticed a soft plop, which was probably Sokka's food dropping out of his open mouth. "Really?" he questioned, flabbergasted.

Toph smirked. "No. Now that I've got your attention, I'd like to make an announcement. Music is stupid, and I shall never learn to play an instrument for as long as I live."

Sokka laughed. "So your 'attention grabber' wasn't all that exaggerated. And because of that, I propose a toast." At this, he raised his glass, and Toph lifted her own imaginary drink to his. "To non-musicians!" Sokka declared, and Toph echoed his words with much gusto.

After that, the talk turned to trivial things, like Earth Rumble VII, Momo's new peach stealing habit, and the latest news on small rebel Fire Nation groups that hadn't been destroyed yet.

Toph let herself go on autopilot as her friend's words washed over her. She loved to hear him joke, even though some of his puns were punishable. Even more, she loved hearing him tell stories. She was perfectly content sitting right here, with no Suki to get between her and Sokka. Her Water Tribe friend got extremely animated when telling tales, and Toph let herself get carried away by the ebb and flow of the plot.

Toph was also extremely glad that it was only the two of them. Even back when they had traveled the world to stop Firelord Ozai, there had always been someone else. And lately, Toph felt like she was growing farther and farther apart from Sokka, while he was growing closer to his girlfriend. Toph and Sokka's meetings had been short and far between.

Now, Toph felt the friendship between them spark again, as if they had become connected. Her mind flashed back to something Katara had mentioned earlier, during her torturous flute lesson.

"Staccato, Toph, it's not a slur! Slurred notes should flow into each other, and you use one breath. Staccato has to be brief and pointy."

Toph finally snapped back to pay attention to what Sokka was saying, and she found herself in the middle of a story about penguins and pants.

"-so then," Sokka was saying, "I ran around - and no matter WHAT Katara says, I was NOT screaming like a girl. I may have been screaming, but it was manly screaming. And just as the penguins pounced on my pants, Katara comes running, right, because she heard the screaming. The manly screaming. She tried to waterbend the penguins off of me, but would up freezing my head to the ground. The penguins finally managed to get the fish, along with my pants. Let me tell you, it is NOT fun to be in the middle of a glacier without pants." Sokka stopped, and Toph could feel his eyes on her. "Say," he began. Toph felt his heart beating slightly faster, as if he was nervous. "Do you want to come back here for lunch tomorrow?"

Toph opened her eyes wider and smiled a bit. "I'd love to." Now Sokka's heart was definitely beating faster, in a rhythm identical to her own. The companions got up and strolled out of the restaurant, taking separate routes back to their respective homes. As Toph meandered back to her apartment, she thought about her music lesson.

The musical terms seemed to apply directly to how she felt right now; though Sokka and Toph may have been sharp and distant before, the pair were becoming closer and more connected with each word that came out of their mouth. The girl much preferred being a slurred note, as long as the next note was Sokka.

Hmm, thought Toph, Maybe music's not so stupid after all.