A/N: Thank you all SO much for reviewing. They make my day! Due to events on the show I think this is AUish but oh well, seeing as I have yet to watch said new episodes I have no idea what actually happens. Plus I wrote this before said episodes came out. I hope you all enjoy this anyway.

Pairings: Tokka, implied KataraxHaru

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar and never will. If I could I would love to own Sokka just because he's funny and maybe Zuko but since I don't, don't sue.

Chapter Three

Bitter

I sigh rubbing at my temples as I sit at my kitchen table. I really wish I couldn't feel vibrations otherwise I wouldn't be like I am right at this moment. It has been five days since Sokka has been back. He doesn't sleep properly, he wakes up in the middle night and I can tell by the vibrations he's upset and sad. He doesn't usually go back to sleep once he's awake and try as I might I can't fall back to sleep either. He only comes down to eat his meals otherwise he's practically locked himself away in his room and it is driving me crazy. When he is around, he's harsh and extremely cynical and his sarcasm is bitter and hateful. It hurts me so much to see him like this. This time I'm wishing my home wasn't made of stone then I wouldn't be able to feel his vibrations throughout the house.

I growl forcibly throwing the chair over and storm out of the house. I can't handle it anymore; I have to go see Iroh. Maybe he can explain what was wrong with Sokka or maybe even Aang, heck even right now some sparring with Aang or Zuko would make me feel better. I head for Iroh first, knowing he would be working on his plans on opening a tea shop. He had worked on the plans for months but with his duties to Zuko as Zuko's advisor he just doesn't have any time.

I walk through the palace knowing my way easily enough. It takes me a moment to find Iroh's vibrations but I am already heading in the right direction. I stop in front of a door with two guards standing on either side of the door. I quirk an eyebrow at them and they step aside as I knock on the door. It is so nice to have respect around here. I feel Iroh move towards the door before opening it. He smiles brightly pulling me into a hug. This is happening more and more often I'm finding and I'm starting to dislike it but I hug the older man back.

"Toph, this is such a surprise. Come in, come in." He says ushering me into the room. I immediately smell tea brewing as I sit down on a pillow by the table. "I was just making tea. It is one of my new blends I'm trying. I hope you like it." I smile as the stemming hot cup is placed in my hand. He sits down across from me, taking a sip of the tea. I take a sip and feel some of my irritation in my veins slip away. I take another sip and give a satisfied sigh as I also feel the ache in my head slip away. He smiles.

"You knew I was coming." He chuckles, setting down his cup on the table and I take another sip feeling myself relax a little more.

"I travelled with Sokka after all. I knew you would come sooner or later to talk about his strange behaviour. Also knowing how you feel about him, I knew you would need to relax." He says with a small smile in his voice. I nod so he knew what I needed to know. I wouldn't have to go looking for anyone else. I also wouldn't have to go ask Zuko or Aang to spar though it would be nice.

"So you can tell me what's wrong with Sokka." I feel relief swim over me. I need answers and I need them badly after five days of this new anti-social Sokka. Iroh sighs before shaking his head slowly. The tension is back and I force another swallow of the tea but it doesn't help me.

"I can only tell you what I have observed. If you want to know what is wrong with Sokka you will have to ask him yourself. He was his same old self until the day we found Suki's prison. Sure he had some times where he was upset but he was his same self until that day. After the Kyoshi warriors all went home and we came here, he withdrew farther into his self. The crew on our ship was concerned as he didn't even eat most days. He even refused to come to the palace when he arrived. He went straight to your house once I told him where it was. He asked about you so often even when he was completely unlike himself like he is now. I know he really missed you. He worried about you more than he worried about Suki who he was looking for." Iroh took a sip of his tea and I sigh, blowing the hair out of my eyes. He reaches out placing his hand over mine. "Talk to Sokka my dear. It should help you. By the way, Toph, I don't know if anyone has commented but you have really grown. You have become a beautiful young lady." He smiles at me.

"Thank you for the compliment Iroh." I give a bow after I stand. I turn leaving, I need to find Aang so I can get some sparring in before I go home and face Sokka.

Finding Twinkle Toes takes me no time. There is no one else who walks like him or gives off vibrations like him for that matter. I'm not surprised to find him with Zuko sitting in a garden. They look at me and I know they think I look like I had a run in with a mooselion.

"Come on, Twinkle Toes. I need a work out and you are the only one around here that does Earthbending and would give me a challenge." I can tell Zuko is amused but gives Aang a little push.

"I have the perfect place for you two to do some Earthbending." He says, grabbing Aang's wrist and mine pulling us off somewhere. I eventually find myself with an audience on the steps in front of the palace. Right now I truly hate Zuko but Aang sighs as he places a blindfold over his eyes to make it a challenge. My fancy clothing is flapping around me in the breeze but I block the feeling out. I rather hate this clothing but I've been forced into clothing like this when I'm going to the palace. Aang and the other boys don't have to dress anywhere near as fancy as myself or Katara do, they can just put something nice on and it's fine. I don't and the officials start talking to me; bad idea for them because I give them a piece of my mind when they do.

I can feel I'm getting more irritated by the minute. Zuko stands up from his seat on the stairs looking back and forth between Aang and me. He is waiting for something and I'm not sure what it is. The wind shifts slightly blowing my bangs out of my face completely. I smirk, Twinkle Toes is nervous, he hasn't had to spar with me in months but if he is going to be a great Earthbender, he is going to have to keep practicing.

"Begin." Zuko says. I immediately drop into my stance; I know Aang's stance is weak. He is not solid enough. He hasn't been practicing. My foot moves forcing a large rock out of the ground and threw it across the space between us. I smirk as he skids back a few paces. The crowd cheers as Aang shatters my rock to pieces. He moves and I chuckle as I drop into the earth. I force myself up into the air throwing rocks everywhere trying to hit him, while trying to avoid Aang's sudden assault as well. I land on the ground with an audible thud and scrap into the earth backwards to stop myself from flying too far away from Aang.

I smirk, he can be resourceful sometimes but he's not getting enough of my irritation out of my system yet. I force myself forward towards him and he heads straight for me as well. I can tell he's Airbending as he's moving much faster than me. He's not steady enough while doing that. I stop suddenly forcing various rocks to appear underneath his feet. He trips landing rather hard on his face and I sigh as I walk towards him. I stop in front of him, tapping my foot with my arms crossed over my chest. He's laughing as he removes his blindfold.

"I shouldn't Airbend while facing an Earthbender as my stance isn't solid enough." He says as he sits up. I chuckle, offering him a hand up which he takes. Boy he's grown, having grown several inches taller than I remember. I hear him chuckle and I raise an eyebrow in question. "You are a mess. You have a lovely thick coating of earth on you." I fling my arms out taking off the coat but I have a feeling the white clothing I have on is horribly stained and I can tell it's ripped. Yin will have to replace the dress with something else. Zuko walks forward putting a hand on our shoulders and I shake my head.

"Well I hope that was a good exercise for you both." His voice is soft and kind. I nod slowly before crossing my arms over my chest once more glaring pointedly at Aang who shrinks under my stare. He rubs the back of his neck nervously.

"I know I know. I need to practice more often. Well how about we spar again tomorrow. Who better to keep me on edge than the Greatest Earthbender in the world and my sifu." He has a huge grin on his face and I smile before punching him in the shoulder.

"Be prepared. You are getting sloppy." I say, he knows I'll be here tomorrow ready to kick his ass again. Although he may be the master of all the elements, he isn't a master like me. One day he may exceed me but he'll have to work hard to do it. I bow to him and smile. "I better get home. I have someone to confront." Aang gives a sigh and nods as Zuko radiates confusion. Aang pulls Zuko away presumably to tell him what he can about Sokka.

I enter the house and I know Yin isn't home as no footsteps are running towards me excitedly. She must still be in school and I think she said she was going to be late tonight as she was going to play with one of her friends after school. She'll be home in time for dinner. I sense immediately where Sokka is; in his room. I sigh, trudging up the stairs and down the hallway. I pause in front of his door and I know I'm stalling so I don't have to face him yet. I sigh raising my hand to knock on the door. I pause once again.

I knock hard on the door three times. I can feel Sokka move inside the room, he stops at the door, hesitating more than I even did. I growl in irritation knocking on the door again to remind him what he is supposed to be doing. He opens the door to look at me. I can tell he's tired by the way he's holding his body. His movements are lethargic at best. He sighs, stepping out of the way of the door and lets me enter.

I feel him close the door and move to the sitting area of the room. I follow him and sit down in the opposite chair. We sit in silence for several long minutes before I growl in frustration and chuck the book on the side table at his head. When I hear it smack him and he growls back at me, I know I found my target.

"Why the hell did you do that for?" He asks. I narrow my eyes at him, my body on edge knowing I should really be going about this in a civil matter but I'm just not like that. The vase across the room or the table itself is looking tempting to throw at him.

"Because you are driving me crazy! I let you live in my house and for five days all you have done is hid in this room! You don't sleep well and half the time you don't eat! I want to know what has happened to you or what is happening to you. What happened to the Sokka I knew?" I knew I was shouting and by my last sentence I had started pacing around the room, throwing my hands up in the air. I realize he's staring at me and I clear my throat, trying to gain some composure but he knows this is me. This is me in my true nature, straight to the point but not always so emotional towards the subject usually. He sighs; running fingers through his hair. He stands up taking my wrists gently into his hands guiding me to sit down.

"I'm sorry for being so distant and biting towards you, Toph. It's just my journey was supposed to be so different then what actually happened. Though the task was serious, I thought there would be light-hearted moments like when we were all on a journey to stop Ozai. It took me all that time to find Suki and only after Iroh had done some more digging then even I was able to do. I had travelled to Ba Sing Se and dug around there for a long time. The Earth King had the Dai Li look into things for me but all they found was that Suki had been in Lake Laogai for a short time before she was transferred somewhere else. Their records never said where." He pauses, taking a deep breath.

I'm unsure of what to say if I say something he may not continue. I reach out placing my hand over his reassuringly. I'm not sure why I did it but it seems to help as he smiles entwining our fingers. I force down a blush as he looks towards the fireplace.

"I wasn't sure where to go from there but I went to Kyoshi Island hoping they had heard something from their warriors. They knew as a little as I did. They had heard rumours the warriors had been captured by the Fire Nation. So I continued looking and travelling finding any and all rumours. I checked every little lead and there was still nothing. When Iroh had finally tracked me down, I had been travelling for so long on my own I was just glad to see a familiar face. I had done a lot of thinking while travelling alone about Suki, Yue, Katara, Aang, Zuko and especially you. When I finally did reach Suki, she was broken. Her will to live was nearly depleted. Her eyes were dead; there was no shine or spark in them anymore. There was no drive or fire in her soul like when I first had met her. Her skin was so pale and she was so weak, a shadow of her former self. She didn't even know the war had been over and that we had won. When we brought her out into the sunlight, she screamed and screamed every time she tried to open her eyes." He pauses once again and I know that seeing his love like that must have hurt badly.

"I never left her side the entire time." I feel a streak of jealousy spread throughout me but I force it away. "She would sit staring out into space for hours on end, barely speaking. When she looked at me, she looked right through me. The last three days, she was in the medical facility, she started talking to me about what happened to her. Tortured for days on end, little to no food, the water was dirty, she slept on a patch of hay and some days she just sat and hoped someone somewhere would find her. The doctors said it would take her years to get back to the way she was and even then it was a slight chance. When she climbed on the boat, she looked happier then I had seen her since she saw me open her prison door. That last day, as the changed woman she was, she said goodbye, not a so long, not a see you soon but a true goodbye. I had been hopeful that maybe just maybe, we would see each other again and that she would get better. I wasn't sure what feelings I had for her but I had a duty to find her. As she left on that ship, it had become very clear to me that everyone I had loved had left me; my mom, Yue, and finally Suki. I feel like I'm cursed that anyone I love will leave. I just got so down and depressed, I just didn't want to see the world. Coming to see you that first night, I couldn't wait but in the back of my mind I was worried that maybe you too would leave me. Throw me out on your doorstep; hate me for being gone away for so long, for not being a good friend. I guess I haven't been a very good friend; I was moody and sarcastic to you so many times. I'm sorry, Toph." Before I knew what was happening, he had pulled me into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry, Toph. Please don't ever leave me." He had whispered it so quietly I almost didn't hear it.

I hugged him back fiercely. I just let him hold me and hold me. He was crying in my shoulder but I didn't say anything. He would pretend like it didn't happen so I couldn't say anything against his manliness. My dirty dress is now wet but I don't mind in the least. I really didn't care as long as Sokka was Sokka again, nothing else in the world mattered.

To Be Continued…

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