Author's Note: Thanks to Mkitkat, BeatricBlack, and Meerkatgirl13! I'm so glad you all stuck through the last chapter, and, as promised, this one is both longer and better. I'm not sure if it really enhances the story, but to me, it really shows how much Sokka has grown up, and yet, how much he's stayed the same at the same time. Anyway, the mood struck and the story will not be denied. Hope you enjoy, please RxR!

Disclaimer: Still don't own that Avatar. Sad it makes me, but 'tis true.

"I really miss Appa right now."

"You've been walking for 20 minutes, lazybones! We're not even out of the city yet!"

Sokka stretched. "I guess the legs just aren't what they used to be. " He smiled. Of course, there was nothing wrong with him, but, he was the complaining guy. Some things never change.

"You know you're an idiot, right?"

"Why this time?"

You're nineteen."

"I feel older than that."

"Helping save the world will do that to you. How often do you think I feel like a normal sixteen-year old girl?" Toph replied, hands on her hips.

"There's nothing normal about you."

A swift punch was all he got for his troubles.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"What exactly do you mean by that?!"

Sokka thought for a moment before realizing what she was talking about. When he did, he burst out laughing, even though he knew Toph would only get angrier. He couldn't help it.

"What? About you not being normal? Toph, you're barely sixteen and you're already the world's only metalbender, you trained the Avatar, and you helped save the world all by the time you were thirteen. What exactly is normal about that? You're the most not-normal, special girl I've ever met. There's no one like you. Not even close." He fought the urge to add in how beautiful she was, too, when it sprang up unbidden in his mind.

Get a hold of yourself, man. It's Toph! Your best friend! Just because things are rough with Suki doesn't mean you can go and spout off stuff like that. Good way to get yourself hurt.

"Sokka, are you hitting yourself?"

Sokka came back to reality to realize he'd been smacking himself in the forehead for the last few seconds without noticing, and not only did he feel quite silly, he was also sporting a whopper of a headache.

"Ow."

"What the hell is WRONG with you?" Toph asked, genuinely confused. Sokka had done plenty of crazy things in the time she'd known him, but purposely causing himself harm was a stretch, even for him. First the cliff, now this?

Either he has a death wish, something's really, really wrong, or he's on the damn cactus juice again.

"Nothing. I'm fine." he replied, almost coldly.

Toph's lips pursed. She could tell he was lying even without the fluttering in his heartbeat, and was about to press the issue when they passed through the gates to Ba Sing Se's outer wall tram station.

I'll beat it out of him later, she mused to herself.

The Tram Lobby, while no longer flooded with the mass of refugees it was in the just the few short years past, was still one the busiest places in the city. People bustled to and fro, shipping crates were being unloaded for transport to the various shops around the city, and noodle and tea carts were set up in strategic spots around the diameter to provide optimal purchasing arrangements. Everyone seemed to be in a much bigger hurry than necessary, but that was the nature of such places.

"The beauty of public transportation, eh Toph?" Sokka gently nudged her.

"Suck it up Snoozles. If I have to, so do you. "She smirked a little. Places with so many people on the same surface hurt her head a bit, but it was nice to see a place so alive. She'd been cooped up in the upper ring of the city for too long.

"Yeah yeah. Let's get moving Toph, I wanna be across the lake tonight, and on the road tomorrow towards a well-deserved vacation and some quality butt-whoop."

Toph snorted, contempt clear. "Who's vacationing? You only came up with this plan to keep me from kicking your ass when you nearly killed me this morning."

Sokka winced. "I was kinda hoping you forgot that part."

"I didn't."

"That sucks."

Toph again punched him in the arm, this time with a smile.

"That was the 'affectionate' slug in the arm, right?"

"You know me too well." She smiled sweetly.

"My shoulder wishes I didn't...Hey! Heeeeyyyy! Let's just calm down now!" Sokka cried, dancing his way out of range of another punch.

"Easy, easy!"

She laughed. "You're such a baby Sokka. It's only a little love-tap." She cocked her head and winked.

Others might have found it strange at a blind girl giving a wink to them, but Sokka wouldn't be one of those people. He knew she'd spent her whole life proving she was just as capable, if not more so, than anyone else out there, and even though she'd proven it time after time, she still liked to freak people out now and again. Pity it didn't work on him.

"Yeah yeah, you tell me that all the time and yet the bruises never seem to go away." He smiled. "I'm getting on the tram. You coming or not?"

"Yeah yeah. Impatient baby." Toph smirked back.

Sokka gave nothing but a noncommittal grunt as the tram to the ferry docks pulled in and began to unload. Given the free and clear by the earthbender crew, he hefted his pack and got in, taking a seat in the corner, Toph close behind.

As the tram began to fill, heads began to turn as the fellow passengers took stock of the odd pair. The tall, muscular, wavy-haired handsome man who was clearly no Earth Kingdom native, and the petite, willowy, raven-haired beauty sitting across from him, hair curiously covering her eyes.

Murmurs of recognition began to flitter through the tram. Sokka, lost in thought, didn't catch the whispers of "Sokka" and "water tribe warrior" and "Toph, the Avatar's teacher" floating around the tram, which, with a bump, took off for the docks. Toph, on the other hand, caught every word, and on top of everyone in the car talking incessantly about the two of them, the things the group of women at the other end of the tram were saying about Sokka were making her ears blush. Mercifully, the ride was short, and they departed the tram without much fuss in a matter of minutes.

Sokka shifted his pack and little and was making his way towards the ticket booth when a couple of younger earth kingdom children nearly took his legs out from under him in their rush to get...somewhere. Snorting angrily, he was about to turn around and set them straight when his eyes landed on a large crowd in the corner of the docks, raising quite the racket now he was bothering to listen. Normally, he wouldn't have thought anything of it, but something didn't feel right. There were too many people over there for it to be something simple, and even more curiously, Sokka couldn't see any of the guards around that normally kept watch over the area.

Bad feeling rising in the pit of his stomach, his conscience finally got the better of him.

"Toph, something doesn't feel right about the crowd over there. Something's got them interested and none of the guards are around. I'm going to go see what's going on." She nodded. "Okay. Try not to get your butt kicked, there are people here." She flashed him a grin.

"You're so supportive." He chided, shaking his head.

Burning need to appease both his curiosity and his conscience, he walked over, doing his best to peer through the crowd as best he could. Though he couldn't see much, he did manage to see that the crowd was standing in a large circle, with a fairly decent sized gap in the center. His bad feeling only worsened when he saw a flash of green he could have sworn was the spitting image of an Earth Kingdom standard issue army hat.

If the guards are already here, then what is the all the fuss about?

Sokka couldn't stand anymore, and began to gently push his way through the crowd until he managed to worm his way through the circle and straight into the middle of things.

On one side, there was what appeared to be a small family, and from the look of the clothes and the hairstyles, Fire Nation, if not overly wealthy Fire Nation. There was a small boy crying with low sniffles and sobs next to a woman, obviously his mother, kneeling over the prone form of a man, whom Sokka assumed was her husband, who was sporting a rather nasty looking black eye and glaring angrily in the direction of three equally glaring Earth Kingdom guards, all three of which dressed in matching Earth Kingdom Army uniform green, rocks held at the ready.

Dammit.

"What's going on here?" Sokka demanded, pushing himself gently through the remainder of the people standing between him and the altercation.

"Who are you?" The center guard asked, turning to face the source of the voice, and Sokka happened to notice a flash of yellow before burly arms crossed over a barrel chest.

An Officer. Great.

"Step away, Citizen. This is official Earth Kingdom business."

Sokka did not relent. "I'm just curious what happened, that's all."

The guard replied with a snarl, "These filth," He spat at the ground near the family, "Think they can come here from the Fire Nation and just be let in like nothing ever happened during the war, like they're better than us. Especially after this one," He pointed to the man, "tried to firebend at us while he was resisting arrest. He'll get what's coming to him. Now why don't you," He pointed a finger at Sokka," Step away, before I decide you don't look so friendly to the Earth Kingdom either and arrest you both."

The woman perked her head up when the officer mentioned her husband. "That's absolutely ridiculous! He did no such thing! None of us are even benders, he just tried to fight back when you three jumped him for no reason!"

A rock smashed into the ground by her kneeling form, and she yelped and fell over.

"It's no good to lie. Your husband tried to firebend at us, and we don't take kindly to that around here." The officer replied with menace, holding up another rock.

There was a dull flash, a grunt, and a thud, and before any onlooker could blink, the officer was on the ground with Sokka's black sword at his throat, perfectly steady, with both halves of the rock he was holding lying still next to him.

"What~? You'll pay for this! Guards, arrest this man for crimes agai-" The officer gurgled a little as Sokka's sword pressed closer.

True to form, the soldiers, who were no novices to battle, only took mere moments to ready rocks designed to restrain the mysterious warrior, and were about to fire before the ground erupted beneath them, pinning them both completely in cones of solid rock and stone.

The crowd relented, letting a sighing Toph Bei Fong through, shaking her head. "You can't go anywhere without me, can you?"

Sokka grinned. "I wouldn't want too. Thanks Toph." Though his manner had changed, his eyes had never left the soldier below his blade. The officer, after seeing the young girl who took out two of his best soldiers like they were nothing at all, finally made the connection. "Lady Bei Fong? That means you...You're Sokka of the Water Tribe, the Avatar's friends!"

Sokka growled out the words, "That's right. We are. Let me guess who you are. You're a soldier who saw an opportunity to make yourself look tough in front of your men, and decided to put on a good show for them by throwing your weight around with an innocent Fire Nation family, or, wait, maybe it's out of some outdated sense of duty for your kingdom." He scoffed. "Maybe you've forgotten about it, but I was THERE the day Treaty of Four Elements was signed. In fact, two of my best friends signed it personally. I think you've heard of them. Fire Lord Zuko, maybe? How about Aang, the Avatar?" His voice dripped with sarcasm. "Let me fill you in. You're not bringing honor to your kingdom. You're shaming the thousands who died, on both sides, to bring the opportunity for that treaty to BE signed. The war is over. You're not enemies anymore. Think about that the next time you decide you're bored and want to show your flunkies who's boss." With a disgusted sigh, he sheathed his blade, and held out a hand for the soldier to grab, which he did. With a grunt, Sokka lifted the man to his feet and turned, intending on leaving. Thinking better of it, he turned back around and punched the soldier square in the face, landing him flat on his back, unconscious, with a black eye forming to rival that of the Fire Nation man's.

Turning to the family, he held out a hand for the man. "Don't worry." Sokka said, flashing him a grin. "You're alright." The man smiled and accepted, giving a word of thanks. Sokka turned to the woman. "Are you alright Miss?"

She was, and immediately ran over and grabbed her son, lifting him to her chest, cooing softly to silence his cries. Fishing around in his pocket for a moment, Sokka pulled out some rock candy, which he offered to the little one, smiling broadly when it was accepted.

"I don't know what to say. Thank you so much." The woman gushed. "Say thank you, Lee." The little boy mumbled a thanks from behind the candy.

"Don't worry about it. But you are going to miss your tram if you stay around here any longer. Go on, get going. I'll take care of these guys." He poked a thumb over one shoulder, indicating the guards.

The family gathered their belongings and moved on, thanking Sokka again and again. He waved it off, smiling the whole while. When they were finally on their way and the crowd was dispersed, Sokka turned back to the guards, smile replaced with a scowl.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you two. You're both going to stay here until he,"Sokka poked the unconscious guard with the toe of his boot, "wakes up and earthbends you out. I dunno how long it'll be, but I want you to think really, really hard about the way your lives and careers are going. Oh, one more thing. I want you to inform him...What's his name?"

"Jing, sir." One of the guards peeped out.

"Jing. Inform Jing when he wakes up that, by the authority vested in me by the Earth King and the Council of Five, I relieve him of command and demand he report straightaway to his commanding officer and explain exactly what happened if he wishes to remain a loyal soldier of the Earth Kingdom. Can you do that?"

The guards nodded, terrified they would be next.

"Good. Carry on then." Sokka turned on his heel and walked off.

Toph followed behind him. "You don't have that kind of authority...do you?" She asked, bewildered.

He grinned. "No. But they don't know that. He'll report what happened to his superior and they'll take it from there. Either that, or they'll never tell him and hope I don't come back to find out. Either way, they won't be straying out of line again."

Toph was silent, letting that sink in. He's grown up a lot...The old Sokka never would have thought of that. Or maybe...he would.

She stayed quiet the entire time Sokka was getting them tickets on the ferry, even when he instinctively held out his arm for her to grab on the wooden deck of the ferry boat, like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. He led her to the side of the deck, and closed his eyes as he listened to the ebb and flow of the waves as the ferry began to move.

Toph finally spoke a short time later. "That was a really good thing you did back there, Sokka. Even when you socked that guy in the face."

Sokka smirked. "Saw that, did you?"

"I don't 'see' anything, you idiot." She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. "But I do know you."