Chapter 1
After the war everyone went their separate ways. Sokka went back to the Southern Water Tribe to remodel a better city for his people, Toph started her own metal bending school at Master Yuh's Earth-bending academy, Zuko became the new fire lord, and Aang and Katara went back to help the earth king fight fire nation rebels who still followed the Phoenix King, Zuko also helped with this. They promised each other that in a years time they would meet once again and stick together.
"See you soon Sokka! I'm sure it will be a great city!" chirped Aang.
"Tell Gran-Gran I said hi and that I miss her and I love her and. . ."
"Ok Ok! I get the point Katara!" Sokka said. Katara frowned at her obnoxious brother but then smiled when she looked past him and saw an unusually quite Toph standing near Appa.
"Toooph!" Katara said playfully
"What!" she snapped back
Toph wasn't happy about splitting up. It's not like she needed her friends it's just that they had become the new family and she defiantly wasn't going back to her parents!
"Can I get a hug goodbye?" Katara asked fully knowing Toph doesn't do huggs.
"Noo! Ew! Get off sugar queen!" no matter how hard Toph protested Katara kept squeezing her, soon Aang, Suki, Zuko, and finally Sokka joined in the hug. Toph gave in when she felt part of Sokka's arm on her cheek.
"Alright all ready I get it, your all ganna miss me! And I guess I'll miss you guys too"
After that the all climbed on Appa. First taking the new young Firelord back to the fire kingdom, Suki to Kyoshi Island, Toph back to her home town and Sokka to the South Pole.
On the way back to Ba Sing Se a tearful Katara spoke "I'm ganna miss them so much!"
"I know" Aang said "we've been through so much together, but we have some things to do on our own before we reunite."
Katara looked at him. Ever since the war Aang had become more serious, but he was still the fun loving airbender that she fell in love with.
Chapter 2
It had been three months and the small water tribewas already looking like a whole different place. With the help of Pakku, Katara and Aang's waterbending master, the city took on a look similar to the northern water tribe's. Sokka of course added a few watch towers around the perimeter, for safety reasons. He was so busy making sure nothing when wrong with the city that he skipped meals, forgot shirts, and most importantly forgot he had a girlfriend. Suki.
After arriving back at Kyoshi Island she told stories of the war and used her experiences to better train young girls who also wanted to be Kyoshi warriors. In her down time she wrote letters to Sokka who never replied. This frustrated her. Was he seeing some one else? Or am I just being paranoid? No, Sokka wasn't seeing someone else. Yes, he loved Suki, but rebuilding his home town was the most important thing on his mind right now and he wasn't letting anything or anyone distract him.
Meanwhile Toph was having a hard time teaching metal bending. She tried a number of tactics like putting them in a mock jail to see if they could break out, flinging metal at them, and even locking them in a metal box. Nothing worked so she resorted to earth bending. Maybe if their earthbending skills improved they would get the hang of metal bending.
After a long six months all the Phoenix King rebels had been captured. Firelord Zuko had his crazy sister, Azula, put in a mental asylum under high security. He also made frequent visits to interrogate his father Ozai on the whereabouts of his mother. He was slowly getting answers.
When Aang and Katara finished helping Zuko and the Earth King they went back to Ba Sing Se. They requested a house in the inner ring large enough for their close friends and near Iroh's tea shop.
*11 months later*
"Can you believe it!" squealed Katara as she hugged Aang "only one month until we all see each other!"
"Yeah I know!" said the now taller monk. "It's going to be so exciting to see everyone" then a quiet knock interrupted the moment.
"TOOOOPH!" Katara shouted in surprise as she opened the door.
"Yup I'm early. I thought since. . ." she felt slight vibrations other then Katara's in the room. Twinkletoes. He was coming closer and his vibrations quickly stopped. In an instant Toph drilled herself in the ground preventing Aang from going through with his sneak attack.
"Hey Toph" he mumbled through a face full of dirt.
"You can't fool me that easy, Twinkletoes!" Toph said with a smirk on her face.
Same old Aang she thought.
Chapter 3
Finally a year had passed. The old Gaang (plus some others) was going to reunite. A huge celebration was held all through out Ba Sing Se in honor of the brave heroes. There were fireworks, food, a parade the whole nine yards. Everyone was enjoying the festival except for Toph. First of all she had to bathe and wear a fancy dress, an second she was blind so the fireworks sounded like cannons and the parade was just noise.
"Isn't this parade great?" Sokka said to her in between bites. His breath smelled like meat. "The built a float of me!"
"Yeah that's exactly what the world needs! Another 20 foot you!" Toph's normal sarcastic voice sounded a little more irritated the usual. Sokka notice this.
"Hey, do you wanna get out of here" he asked. Toph turned her head in the direction of his voice and said "yes! Please!" Sokka looked over at Suki who was busy talking to Katara and Haru, then over to Aang and Zuko. Nah they won't notice us leave. He thought and followed Toph out side.
As soon as they far away from all the noise, Sokka grabbed Toph's wrist and led her to a small hill looking over the party. Toph gave no protest to the gesture.
"So why did you bring me here" she asked
"Umm…well… err…you looked like you were having a bad time so I thought um you know… uh" Toph "looked" at him and gave him a small smile. The two sat there in silence. Toph lost in thought and Sokka watching her as she played with the space earth gave her.
"What do they look like… fireworks? They sound terrible but everyone loves them. Why? What's so great about them?" Toph wondered out loud. Startled by her sudden question, Sokka looked at her then at the fireworks then back to her. He studied her small but fit silhouette, letting his eyes roll over every curve of her body. From her head down to her cute little toes, peaking out from under her sole-less shoes. She felt his eyes on her and she blushed.
"Well!" she snapped. Waiting on his answer was irritating her. "are you ganna tell me or not?" Sokka came out of his trance and looked back to the on going fireworks.
"oh yeah" he said nervously while tugging his wolf tail. "Um … fireworks are… bright. Full of color."
"Uh hey genius blind person here!"
"Oh right well." He thought for a moment before continuing. "think of that feeling that you get when you eat a fruit. The juice burst on your tongue with each bite. That's kind of like a firework."
Toph took in what she just heard. She liked that explanation. Fireworks are fruit. Popping with flavor.
"Hey Sokka?" she asked the warrior.
"Yeah Toph"
"Can we get some fruit? I want to see some fireworks tonight" her voice was low and soft, not Toph-like at all.
"Yeah sure there's a whole bunch back at the palace."
"ok thanks" she said getting up ever so carefully so she wouldn't rip the dress. She used earthbending to get the dirt off. Sokka's eyes were locked on her again. She's grown. Her face wasn't the same kid face he remembered its was more beautiful now. Or maybe she was always this beautiful and I never noticed. Sokka pushed that thought away and started walking back to the palace.
"Oh wow" Toph said after finishing an apple. "Those fireworks were AMAZING!" Sokka smiled as he saw the puzzled look on all his friends faces.
"Its late lets all get some rest" Zuko said eyeing Toph suspiciously
Chapter 4
*a week later*
Mornings, Toph hated them. She was always awoken by Katara's annoyingly sweet voice. Sometimes she wished she could sleep forever and only wake up to eat. Sokka also had this in common with Toph. They love sleep and hated Katara for interrupting their dreams. On her way to the restroom Toph "accidently" bumped into a very sleepy Sokka. "Toph watch wher… sorry"
"Whatever" she said and stumbled into the bathroom. Before she closed the door Sokka whispered into her ear "I'm glad you liked my fireworks" he sounded sweet and kind. Toph remembered that was the same way he talked to Suki.
"Yeah they were great Snoozles" she said and closed the door before he could see her blush.
"Common Toph! We gotta go!" The Gang had been on her for 15 minutes. they had to take Zuko back to the fire nation for a post war meeting. When toph appeared laughter was held. "Toph, if you needed help getting dressed you could have called me or Katara." Suki. Toph thought. I would never let Suki help me.
"What do you mean, Suki?" toph asked in a fake sweet voice.
"Well your hair is a me…" Zuko started but was soon silenced by Katara's scowl.
"Here let me and Suki fix you up a bit" Katara said while hopping off Appa. When she got to Toph she took Toph's long ebony hair out of its sloppy bun braided it while Suki buttoned Toph's top correctly.
"Um thanks Suki, but Katara this isn't a bun" Toph was feeling the long braid that ran down her back.
"Well you have really long hair and the braid looks pretty."
"fine!"
"It really looks nice Toph." Suki chimed in. Toph just nodded in her direction.
The ride back to the fire nation was a long and awkward. Since Toph can't see on Appa she would normally hang onto Sokka's arm but with Suki there she didn't bother. Toph sat off to the side until she felt she felt a strong hand on her shoulder. Its was Zuko. "need a hand, or um arm? You know since you're not with Sokka"
Toph nodded and clung to Zuko's arm for dear life. It was weird for Toph not having Sokka's arm. She was so familiar to his slender muscles and meaty sent, not to the very muscular, jasmine tea smelling fire lord. Sokka who was barely holding Suki's hand looked over at the two and felt a pinch of jealously surge through his body. Why didn't she hold his arm like the old times. This thought lingered on Sokka's mind for the rest of the ride.
After arriving at the fire nation and dropping Zuko off the Gaang set up camp outside of town to avoid thousands of crazed fans. Aang, now a fully realized Avatar, built a big bond fire and rose up five stools from the earth for him and his friends you sit on.
"You're a great earthbender now twinkletoes." Complimented Toph.
"Not as great as you metalbending teacher, how's the school going anyways?" Aang asked.
"It's hard! Some of these lilly livers can't even earthbend! So far I have two decent metal benders."
That's how the rest of the night went, everyone sharing stories about how their year went and all their accomplishments. Then came Suki's turn. "Well I trained a new set of Kyoshi warriors…" Toph tuned her out until she heard her mention Sokka's name and felt his heart spike. "It was a great year except for the fact that Sokka never replied to any of my letters" Sokka' face turned red from embarrassment as Suki shot him a look of disgust. Sokka and Suki had been arguing about this ever since the reunion. "Hey! I said I'm sorry like a thousand times!" he said in his defense. "did you even keep my letters?" Suki asked. There was long silence between the two of them. Toph could feel the anger building up in Suki with every passing second. "Suki, I'm sorry… but have you ever built a whole city? I mean…"
"Answer the question. DID YOU KEEP ANY OF MY LETTERS?" Suki's voice was sinister.
"N-no" Sokka mumbled. He looked over at Aang and Katara for help but only saw that they left. The only other person around was Toph, who was sitting under a tree playing with her space earth. Sokka smiled.
"Oh so it's funny?" Suki yelled snapping Sokka's attention back to her.
"What no!"
"No! I am done! I have wasted a year of my life devoted to you and you don't even care! There are plenty of guys DYING to be with me but I away said that I had you. Well it's obvious that you're over me, so tomorrow I'm going back to Kyoshi Island and forgetting about you!" Sokka just blinked at what he just heard. To his surprise he wasn't sad. Yes he liked Suki but maybe it was time. "Ok" he finally said. When he turned to face a tear eyed Suki he was knocked out by a series of quick jabs and a strong punch to the face. Ty lee taught her that was his last thought.
Chapter 5
The next morning Sokka woke up with a throbbing pain in his right cheek. He didn't realize he was in an earth tent until he hit his head on the roof while trying to stand up. He crawled out of a small hole in one of the walls. "Morning" Toph said. She was laid out on the ground, her blind eyes cast upwards. "Morning Toph" Sokka grunted as sat next to her.
"So some fight last night huh?" she said
"Oh you heard that"
"Yeah I was only ten feet away... Are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm fine but I don't know if Suki is. Where is she anyways?"
"Didn't you hear anything she said last night? She went back to Kyoshi Island like she said. Aang and Katara took her. There also bringing back food."
"Oh. Why didn't you go?"
"Well Katara usually sits with Aang who sits on Appa's head. I can't see on fur or on the saddle, so I would need to hang on to something or some one, and I sure wasn't ganna hold onto Suki. Things are weird between us anyways. We aren't really friends"
"What why?"
"Well if she didn't tell you I'm not going to!" Toph was referring to the incident at serpents pass.
"Common tell me" Sokka said scooting closer to Toph. Her grabbed her hand and said "you can tell me anything." His voice sent shivers down her spine and his touch made her blush. When he say her blush he thought, Toph blushing? Weird. Toph felt his heart beat sky rocket so did hers. Crap he noticed! She quickly pulled her hand away and got up. "Wait Toph what's wrong?" he said. There were butterflies in his stomach, he suddenly felt nervous, and his palms were sweaty. Ugh what's happening to me? He thought
"Um I just need to take a nice long walk… to think." She said
"Let me come with you"
"No I…" but it was too late he was already at her side matching her steps.
After a while of walking in silence they reached a small lake. It was now mid afternoon. The water looked a deep blue the sun made the surface of the water sparkle. "It's so blue!" Sokka gasped "hmm blue. I've always wondered about that color. bluuuue" Toph replied. Sokka looked at her. The sun made her skin glow and shown through her bangs turning them a dark brown, her hair was still in the long braid Katara did. After staring at her in awe, Sokka cleared his throat and said "blue is calm, cool, it's like water. It can be gentle and playful but strong and powerful."
"Red" Toph said with a smile.
"Hot. Red is alive, feisty like fire. Red can mean danger or passion." Toph laid back on the soft earth, Sokka did the same.
"Green"
"Nature, trees, plants. Green means bold, fresh, strong, full of life."
"Yellow"
"Yellow is warm and free like air"
"Pink you know the girly color" Sokka chuckled
"Yeah the girly color. Pink is perky, it means love. Pink is fluffy and soft."
"Orange? Purple!"
"well orange is like red but more free it's a mixture yellow and red. Purple is like blue but more serious but the lighter the purple the more fluffy it gets like pink"
Toph took in all the colors. Red-passion Orange-alive/free Yellow- warm Green-life Blue-calm Purple-serious Pink-love.
"Sokka"
"Yeah"
"Um what color are you?"
"Blue" he said with out hesitation. "Katara and I are blue. Aang is yellow. Zuko is Red. And you are green full of life."
"Wow I love colors!" they both laughed.
"You know meathead you're really good at describing things to a blind person" Thanks Sokka said.
Chapter 6
"Sokka? Toph? Dinner!" It had been a few minutes after their color conversation when Katara's voice rang through the woods. "We should get back" Sokka said. He stood and took Toph's hand to help her up. As they started walking he realized he still had Toph's hand. Why didn't she yell at me, pull back her hand, or punch me like she usually does. He stopped and looked at her a deep blush on her face. Passion. He thought. he blushed himself. Love. He thought again. No not love! Me love toph? No NO! n-maybe…
"um uh lets get back to camp" he said letting go of her hand. Toph smirked as she felt his heartbeat. Fast, alive, red, passion.
At dinner Aang tried to avoid the Suki topic but it still came up anyway.
"I guess it just wasn't meant to be" Sokka said. That answer didn't seem to satisfy Aang or Katara. "Why do you guys even care anyways? I don't go asking about your love life!" snapped Sokka. He was tired of the two interrogating him. Toph sat quietly listening and eating her soup. "Well what about you Toph? Got a boyfriend?" Katara asked. "I'm sure you caught some one's eye. Even though you can't see it you really are …" "beautiful" Sokka finished absent mindedly. His sister, Aang, and Toph snapped their heads in his direction in shock. Sokka's face burned for embarrassment after he realized what he said. "Um yeah you know like cute… adorable!" He was lying. Toph could feel it, he truly meant beautiful. "Um I'm sure your quite the catch too, Snoozles." Toph said causally. The rest of the night was filled with awkward conversation and Sokka's sideways glances towards Toph.
Chapter 7
"Katara, how do you tell someone you like them?" It had been four months since the reunion, four months since the break up, two year of Toph liking Sokka. "Oh my goodness! Toph you have a crush! That's so adorable! Oh who is it?" "Ugh calm down Sugar Queen!" the two were sitting on Toph's bed back at the house in Ba Sing Se. In a couple of days they were preparing to pay a visit to king Bumi, Katara was helping Toph pack. "oh Toph please tell me who it is!" "um you'll find out soon enough"
"Well what does he look like?"
"Gee I don't know. I'm kinda BLIND!"
"Oh yeah sorry."
"Anyways I just wanted to know how to tell him."
"Well you could recite a poem, or take him to a restaurant, or bake a …"
"Um never mind I'll figure it out"
"Aw Toph you're growing up so fast"
After dinner Toph made her way up to her room and thought. How will I tell him? She decided to wait until he was asleep so he didn't like her back he would think it was all a dream. That made enough sense to her so she decided to stick with that plan.
It was maybe one in the morning. Toph could tell by the hourly toll of the distant bell tower. Quietly she snuck into Sokka's room and took in her surroundings. She listened to his rhythmic snoring and smelled his meaty sent. She tip toed to his bed and sat on the edge.
"Sokka"
*grunt*
"Sokka" she poked his noise or something on his face.
"Wha … Toph?" he asked sheepishly
"Sokka listen. I like you a lot! I always have ever since the day I met you. You're smart, funny, sarcastic, and can take a punch. Sokka you're my best friend but I want to be more." Sokka watched Toph she was pouring out her heart just for him. This was a whole new Toph that he had never seen. Toph felt around until she found his hand and squeezed it. "I guess I kinda love you meathead!" Sokka was now wide awake. He got those butterflies again. Then he realized those were the same butterflies the got from his first love Yue.
As Toph got up to leave Sokka sat up and grabbed her arm. "Toph I love you too. I'm so sorry it took so long to realize it!"
"You do… love me?" her voice was nearly a whisper.
"Yes I really do." he sounded sincere. He sat at the edge of his bed pulling toph closer to him, sitting her next to him, and wrapping his warm arms around her. She loved being close to him and he loved holding her. She turned her head and gave him a kiss that was meant for his cheek but landed on his neck. Sokka chuckled and tilted her face up to his. "Here let me help you" through the darkness his lips found hers. A warm tingling sensation made it's was through Toph's body. This was her first kiss and who better to share it with then Sokka.
Toph was too tired and emotionally drained to go back to her room so she decided to stay in Sokka's room. She knew she could trust him and he wouldn't do anything she wasn't ready for. Sokka held her with one arm and ran his fingers through her hair with his free hand, until they both let sleep take over. She'll be right there in the morning. Right by my side, not as my best friend but as my girlfriend. He thought as he dozed off.
"Morning sweetie." Toph's eyes fluttered open to the sound of Sokka's voice.
"Sweetie? I prefer Toph or worlds greatest earthbender" Sokka laughed. "Ok worlds greatest most beautiful and powerful earthbender!" with that he kissed the top of her head." Yeah I guess that'll do" Toph said and then she quickly sat up.
"Um Sokka" she sounded nervous. Sokka sat up too, worried that he did something wrong. "Yeah Toph"
"Your face… can I see it… um I mean feel it?" Sokka relaxed. He grabbed her hands and placed them at the top of his head. His hair was out of its normal wolf tail it fell below his ears. She took her time slowly working her way around his face, feeling every inch of it leaving no part untouched. Then she got to his lips. With one finger she traced the top one and then the bottom one. Finally the moment she'd dreamt of "seeing" the face of the warrior she loved had happened. Toph smiled at him and said "You really are a catch Sokka"