A/n:

SO. I got to the second chap. That is amazing. Omg. I hope you all like it!! Third chap is coming soon,
I have it all planed out. Read and review please!!

--

Katara agreed to help Toph in what she thought a futile effort but agreed nonetheless and swore not to tell anyone as to her request. Katara decided she would work on Toph during the evening or the afternoon, using the excuse that they needed to bathe or chores or something to get out of questioning for the disappearances to come.

"Ya know, you two keep talking to each other so much, it's making me think that you're gossiping and actually getting along." Sokka accused as he sat down next to Aang. The sun was high in the sky and Toph was enjoying the warmth she felt from it on her feet. Katara was busy making lunch, but she glared at her brother from across their little square.

"We get along. There are just times when Katara is crabby." Toph answered.

"It's not a crime to talk to a friend Sokka. We're getting to know each other better." Katara added, ignoring Toph's comment about her being crabby.

"I think it's wonderful you guys are getting along." Aang chimed in, happy that the two were bonding.

"Thank you Aang." Katara smiled at the Avatar and concentrated on stirring the soup that was being made. She took the four bowls that were sitting next to her and water bended the soup into the bowls. She then gave a bowl to Toph, then Aang, then Sokka. The soup looked like a strange concoction, but Sokka and Aang tasted at the same time and didn't seem too disgusted by it. The group ate silently, listening to the sounds of the Water tribe. It wasn't long before Toph finished first and got up.

"I'm done," she announced. Katara looked up to her and placed her bowl on the ground then got up too.

"Do you think you could help me with some chores, Toph?" Katara asked. Toph gave her the why-are-you-asking-me-? look. She thought it over for a second and seemed to have realized the hidden message in the question. She shrugged her shoulders in a casual way.

"Sure Katara." She answered. Aang finished his soup quickly and air bended his way up off the ground and smiled.

"Do you want some more help Katara?" he asked, more then happy to help the girl he loved. She shook her head.

"It's ok, I only needed one person to help me anyway." She replied, hoping she didn't hurt his feelings or anything. Aang's smile turned into a frown as he sighed sadly and sat back down next to Sokka who was still eating.

"Don't worry 'bout it Aang. It's probably just girl stuff anyway," Sokka said.

--

"I take it that I'm not going to be helping with chores, am I?" Toph asked. Katara smiled.

"Nope. We're gonna start working on your eyes." Toph knew this time was coming after Katara had willingly agreed in helping her, and she was excited but at the same time nervous. What if this worked? What if Katara was able to cure her of her curse and be able to see after 12 years of darkness?

Katara led Toph to a tent that was not in use and had a few empty beds in it. This was where the sick would rest and get better. Toph wrinkled her nose to the faint smell of sick people and Katara stopped her in front of one of the beds.

"Lie down," the water bender ordered in a gentle tone. Toph was somewhat reluctant in doing so, but did it anyway.

"What are you going to do first?" Toph asked, curious how Katara was going to do this, and jumped up onto the bed, staring in the direction of her friend. Toph could hear the swishing of water and guessed Katara had grabbed something filled with it and heard her walk back to the bed. Toph lied down against the flat surface of the so called bed and sighed.

"First, I'm gonna figure out how I'm going to do this. You know Toph, I've never done anything like this…" Toph could hear the conflict inside Katara's voice, like she was fighting with herself to not do this. Toph couldn't have this.

"It's ok Katara, I trust you. I mean, you can't possibly do anything to mess up my vision then what it already is." Katara grimaced at her words and stood next to the girl's head. She took off her mittens, exposing her flesh to the cold air inside the tent.

"Alright then…" Katara took the water out of the container she had and it wrapped around her hands, the color turning a light blue, to where it was almost white.

"This may be cold, but try to stay still Toph." She warned, not wanting Toph to freak once she placed her hands on the girl's eyes.

Toph gave a silent nod and Katara let out a deep breath, one she hadn't realized she was holding in. Her hands hovered over Toph's eyes and lowered them slowly. Once the water touched the bridge of Toph's nose, she jumped a little, but not enough to scare Katara. She was expecting as much. Toph tried to relax as much as she could as Katara fully rested her hands on her eyes.

"This feels really weird…" she chimed. Katara really didn't know what she was doing. She felt bad.

"It probably will at first…You'll get used to it though." It was the truth, but she didn't mention anything about her dilemma now being this was the first time ever doing anything this extreme was beyond Katara.

Toph was also scared. She had her hands clenched into fists around some of the fabric of her clothing and whatever nails she had in her left hand, dug into her palms as Katara continued what she was doing.

She had spent about an hour on her friend's eyes and learned a great deal on what was possibly wrong. She had tried to correct some things, but she didn't know how well it had gone. Toph had said she didn't feel all that different except for remembering the weird sensation it gave her, having her eyes submerged in the water without her body being so.

When the girls arrived back to the center of the village, Katara noticed there were a few more snow buildings up. She knew this was the work of her brother and probably Aang.

"You're back!" Katara turned to the voice and felt soft lips press against hers for a split second. Then she saw his beaming face, his bright smile, and his love-filled eyes.

"Uh, hey Aang." She greeted, her cheeks now a tint of pink. Sokka came out of one the snow buildings and brushed his pants off of extra snow.

"Hey guys. What took you so long?" Katara glanced to Toph and smiled.

"Chores took longer then I thought they would take." She replied simply. Sokka shrugged his shoulders and the group walked to their tent.

"So, when do you think we're gonna leave?" Aang wondered, sitting close to Katara, smiling. Toph found her blanket she had been using and wrapped it around her body.

"Hopefully soon." She muttered under her breath. Sokka sat in between her and Aang and was munching on some dry meat he had gotten from his father.

"Oh, come on Toph. It's not that bad out here. Sure, it's cold here, but other than that, it's nice!" Sokka complained.

"Psh. Yeah, ok Sokka. Whatever you say. I like my earth not covered in snow though. It messes with my sight, so I can't see straight." Toph replied. Sokka didn't want to let this go.

"You can't even see the snow. If you could, you might like it." He argued. What he hadn't realized though is that he had just stuck his foot in his mouth.

Toph clenched her hands into fists and closed her eyes.

"Well, I'm sorry that I was born blind! I guess I'll just leave." She got up and stormed out of the tent and passed Hakoda who was about to enter their tent and sit down with them. He looked at her confused but decided not to press into it and continued inside.

"You idiot! Go after her and apologize!" Katara yelled. Somehow, she knew something like this would happen sooner or later, but she was shocked it came out of his mouth. She was sure it was going to come out of hers' out of anger towards the Earth Bender, but she never thought Sokka.

"Um…am I interrupting something?" Hakoda asked, confused on what was going on, but had some common sense to think it had something to do with the little girl that walked passed him, pissed apparently.

"No. We're just realizing that Sokka is a bone head." Katara said to her father as she folded her arms across her chest and glared at her older brother.

"Fine! I'll go apologize. I don't what good it'll do since she probably won't accept it." Sokka grumbled inaudible things under his breath as he got up and left the tent. Hakoda took his sons spot and looked at Katara.

"Wanna fill me in on what's going on?" he asked, wondering if he really wanted to know.

"Sokka made Toph feel bad about her being blind I think." Aang answered. Katara looked down.

'You have no idea…' she thought to herself, thinking back to the day before, how broken she had looked in that one moment.

"Hmm…it didn't really look like anything could upset that girl," Hakoda thought aloud.

"She's pretty good at hiding her feelings…" Katara confessed.

--

Sokka wondered aimlessly outside as he looked for Toph, not really wanting to find her at the moment, being that she was angry and she was probably more dangerous then Katara would be and sighed.

"Why can't I just keep my mouth shut sometimes?" he asked himself.

"Cause you've always been a loud mouth." A voice replied. Sokka jumped a bit from surprise and looked to where the voice had come from. Toph was sat on the ground, sitting on the blanket she had and she was hugging her knees to her chest. He couldn't see her face well, half of her face buried in her arms. He felt bad again.

"Toph, I'm…"

"It's ok." She didn't even let him finish his sentence. She knew what he was going to say. He looked somewhat confused now that he didn't know what to say now.

"Can I sit down?" He'd at least ask to sit by her so as to if he did and she didn't want him too, get earth bended into the air and land on his face in the snow somewhere, if he was lucky enough to fall in snow. She shrugged her shoulders. Sokka sighed and took a chance and sat down next to her, not to close to her, but within arms reach.

"I really am sorry for what I said…I know I was out of line and I didn't realize it until afterwards," He started.

"Sokka, you don't have to,"

"No, I do. You're my friend and I shouldn't have said what I did."

"I get it! Now stop apologizing already." Sokka became silent and placed his arms on his knees and then rested his chin on his arms. It was a silent moment between them, except for the sounds coming from the polar bears and children laughing loudly. Sokka glanced at Toph and sighed. It didn't seem like she wanted to talk or anything. He had never seen her like this, and he had seen her break down sometimes in front of him, like with her issues with her parents. This was something completely different.

Something was wrong and he wanted to find out how to fix it.

"Something's wrong, isn't there?" he asked bluntly, passed beating around the bush in asking her questions. She continued to stare blankly at the ground with her blind gaze. He sighed and got up but to be pulled back down, falling on his back and his head bumped against Toph's leg. He looked up to her in confusion as she continued to glare at the ground.

"Ok…?"

"Stay." Was all she said. He could hear her pleading in that one word and a long stream of sadness went through his heart. He wanted to do something, but was too afraid. He wasn't even sure what he was feeling right now, about the girl in front of him

He and Suki had problems in their relationship, so they decided to stay friends and end the relationship. At first he was upset about it all, but soon became numb to the feeling it had left him. Being with his friends really did help him, at least to feel like he wasn't about to break. He'd found himself hanging out with Toph more often then usual then. Aang and Katara were almost inseparable, even if they didn't see it themselves, so he didn't really want to try and separate them. He had really enjoyed being with Toph…

Sokka got up from his position and noticed Toph had a really good grip on the bottom of his jacket. He sat back down in a more comfortable way and gently pulled Toph into his lap, wrapping his arms around her small form. She was small, he always thought her fragile, but knew she was strong. What he didn't expect for her to do was to bury her head into his chest and wrap her arms lightly around his waist. It was a first, but Sokka didn't say anything about it and they stayed like that for a long time.

It was like they had fallen asleep in their moment they had and were out for a few hours. Sokka woke up somewhat stiff, from sitting through the hours with nothing to lean against and forcing himself mentally to continue sitting up right with Toph in his arms. His grip around her had somehow tightened and she was bundled in his lap, safe from the southern tribes' cold wind. She looked so innocent, it made Sokka smile. Deep down inside her, she was innocent and adorable. He snickered at the thought, not really being able to picture her being innocent while awake. After moments of thinking, he noticed that his eyes had wondered down her face to her cheeks. They were the lightest color of pink and without even thinking, he leaned down and brushed his lips against her skin, light enough to where she would hopefully not be able to feel it. Confusion drifted into his mind now as he pulled away and closed his eyes and sighed. He was awake now, but he kept still for Toph.

She didn't know where she was. She was lost somewhere dark and had no idea where to go. She thought about giving up, but as she was about to, the faintest light caught her eye. She turned to it and noticed that once she started walking to it, it got closer. Excitement coursed through her as she sprang into a run and ran faster towards the light, the light getting brighter and brighter. But when she reached it, it disappeared. She closed her eyes and wanted to cry.

Opening her eyes, they were assaulted by something she didn't know. Instead of the black darkness she was so used to, it was something different…it was brighter then her dark prison. Toph groaned and raised her arm up to shield her eyes from whatever it was and let out a yawn.

"Ugh…Did we fall asleep?" she asked, not really directed to anyone. Sokka opened his eyes and saw hers looking up to him. He was sure she didn't know what she was looking at, but her eyes held his in a sort of spell. He was so sure he had looked her in the eyes before and never felt this way. He shook it off as he loosened his grip on her and looked away from her.

"Uh, yeah. We did." Toph groaned as she tried to get up. Sokka set her on the ground and stood up, wobbly at first but then solid and helped Toph up.

"Thanks." She looked around and the light she had seen was real. It seemed like her dark prison was looking brighter. She smiled.