The following morning Toph woke with a start after a fitful sleep. When she had gone to bed last night she had re-made her nest of blankets on the floor after locking her door so Sokka wouldn't come in unannounced. She feared he would start asking questions she didn't want to answer if he noticed how strange she had become. She laid in her blankets, blinking unseeingly at the ceiling trying to recall if she had dreamt. Her stomach rolled suddenly, her mouth salivating, her jaw clenching. She sat up and darted from her room down the hall. She nearly collided with Sokka on her way to the bathroom. "Toph, I had to pee!" He whined loudly. She ignored him as she shoved his sleepy form from the doorway, about to lose the contents of her stomach. She fell on her knees in front of the toilet and wretched. Sokka was at her side in a second, holding her hair at the nape of her neck. "Are you ok?" He asked, thoroughly puzzled. Toph would have made a snide comment but her stomach clenched again the acid burning the back of her throat on it's way up. "Toph," he said sympathetically rubbing her shoulder. She shivered at the gentle touch and jerked away from him. He frowned, confused and worried about his best-friend. He didn't let go of her hair but removed his hand from her shoulder. He leaned over and yanked a washcloth off the sink and ran the faucet with his fingers, soaking the rag and squeezing it out. He placed the cool cloth at her neck and reached around to feel her forehead. It wasn't often Toph contracted something, she played in the dirt for fun and her immune system had become nearly impenetrable. The coolness on her neck actually calmed her stomach.

Eventually the blind earthbender quit vomiting and sat back on her heels, leaning against Sokka's legs. She was tired and shaky, her abdomen was sore from the stress. Sokka removed the washcloth from her neck and reached forward and wiped her mouth. She blushed, mortified and upset with herself for being so weak in front of him. "Are you sick or something?" He asked as she shoved his helping hands away when she stood.

"I don't know, I guess," she fumbled, searching for a plausible excuse. "Maybe it was something we ate?"

Sokka's face scrunched in thought. "I don't feel sick," he thought aloud, rubbing his belly, "and you're not feverish…"

"Maybe I just got a flu-bug or somethin'," she said creeping back to her room to shut the door before he saw she'd been sleeping on the floor. She shut the door quickly and nearly smacked into his chest when she turned around to go to living room. He was still prattling on about possible reasons for her illness. She flopped down on the couch and rolled away from him, yanking a blanket over herself from the back of the couch. She tuned him out for a long time while he wandered around the kitchen, rattling around in the cupboards to make breakfast. She became lost in her thoughts, wishing she could just go back to sleep. Luckily, it seemed as though her friend had not become suspicious yet, but if her sickness continued like this, every single morning as it had been doing, he would start asking questions. She didn't want to send him away, and she suspected he planned on visiting for a while, maybe even a few months and by then there would be no way to hide her growing stomach. The only way she could keep her secret would be to send him away, but as distressed as she became when he touched her in any way, she felt safer with him here. She missed human contact more than she thought she would and now that she'd had a taste of it again, she craved it. And although she didn't sleep well last night, it hadn't been because she was afraid the monster would break in her house to hurt her again. Having an extra set of eyes and ears to look after her was… a mollifying sensation. And she certainly didn't doubt Sokka's fighting skills… or his loyalty to her, at least until he found out what had happened to her. She frowned at that thought and wondered just how much longer she'd have a best friend.

She hadn't even registered Sokka had stopped talking until the room became silent. "Do you need anything, Toph? Can I do anything to make you feel better?" He asked sincerely from the kitchen.

"No, Sokka, thank you," she sighed. He was so kind and good to her. And she didn't deserve it. He started right back up with his cooking racket. Toph had not realized she'd dozed off until she was shaken awake.

"Hey, breakfast's done. There's congee and fish and some fresh fruit too."

"Ok," she said groggily, "that sounds good." She sat up and wobbled over to the table, still half-asleep. Sokka had already filled his face with food by the time she sat down. She tasted her hot food, almost moaning at the flavor. It was so much easier to eat when he was here, and when he made such good food too. "This is really good, when did you become such a good cook?"

"At the Fire Palace actually. In between meetings I'd sneak down to the kitchen and help the cook. She showed me a lot of stuff." He paused as he lost himself in the memory, "and she hit me with her spoon a lot too." Toph cracked a smile at that.

"You probably deserved it."

"Probably," he smiled. "But she taught me a lot, and honestly I started enjoying being in the kitchen more than being in meetings. So then I knew it was time to move on. By then Zuko had probably already made the decision to suggest moving on."

Toph poked around at her food, eating all the good bits of fish first and then moving on to the congee. She wanted to make sure she had room for the fruit beside her plate though. It was bizarre to her, actually enjoying food again. She had missed it. She was relatively quiet for the rest of breakfast, listening to Sokka enthusiastically tell stories of his adventures in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. "So anyways, that's how the last few years went," he finished lamely. It was quiet for a while after that. "Um, you feeling better now?"

"Yes, a lot, thank you."

Sokka snorted. "You sure are being polite," he chuckled. Toph frowned at him. "What? It's true."

"Well, I've grown up in the last few years," she quipped. Sokka frowned. He had just been trying to cut up a little.

"You ok, Toph? You've been acting strange ever since I got here…"

"I'm fine," she said sharply. The blind earthbender got up from the table quickly and started scrubbing away at her dishes. "Here, give me those," she said reaching out a soapy hand towards Sokka, who sat at the table, watching his best friend. He got up and handed her his dishes. He stepped back and wondered at her strange behavior. Maybe she was just being moody; this was Toph after all.

He squeezed in beside her at the sink and bumped her hip with his. "I'll rinse and dry," he told her, plunging his hands into the opposite side of the sink. He was used to dealing with her mood swings, even if it had been a few years. This... this was different. Toph felt different. Sokka frowned a little as he dried a plate and set it on the counter. There was definitely something wrong with his best friend, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it. He continued to rinse and dry in silence. Toph worked quickly and efficiently, placing her dishes in the right side of the sink just as Sokka would finish drying one. Even after all these years, they still worked like a well-oiled machine. He glanced over at her from the corner of his eye. She felt different in a good way too. Her body had changed from a child's form, to solid muscle, and now into something more beautiful than the last. She was still very short, very small and her strength still rolled under her skin with every stroke of her arm. But now her body had transformed from that muscle-ridden creature into an athletic beauty. He felt his cheeks heat at the thought that he found his best friend attractive.

The pair finished their chore and then took a walk down to the creek. Sokka was determined to catch a few fish for super tonight and Toph was along to laugh at him. Although, she was sorely disappointed to find he had actually become a skilled fisherman, spearing three fish within the span of ten minutes. It seemed she would not get to witness him fall head first into the water after the elusive creatures. After he had caught five fish he plopped down on the bank and removed his shirt. Toph felt her cheeks heat, a bit shy and feeling slightly awkward. "Remember that time when Appa was shedding everywhere and we made beards out of his hair?" He chuckled.

"Mmhm," she replied quietly.

"Man, that seemed so long ago," he murmured, scooping water into his hand and rinsing his neck of the fine layer of sweat from his fishing. "Those were some of the worst and best days of my life."

"Mine too," Toph said back softly. She had already experienced the worst days of her life in the past few weeks, the war days hardly applied anymore.

"You ok?" He asked, ducking his head trying catch her eyes, something he did despite the fact he knew he couldn't.

"Fine," she answered shortly.

Sokka didn't believe her. "Katara and Aang visited the Fire Palace a few months ago. She told me Zuko and Mai were acting pretty strange," he said hoping to bait her into talking to him with juicy gossip. But she didn't say anything, just kept staring unseeingly into the water. Sokka cleared his throat awkwardly. "Yeah and um, she said they were being really affectionate and oogie towards each other…" he trailed off, hoping it would do the trick.

"So?"

"Well I mean that pretty strange coming from them, I mean its Mr. and Mrs. Doom and Gloom we're talking about here." He paused. "Anyways, Katara says she thinks they're trying to have a baby."

That did make the earthbender perk up. Sokka jumped right on it and bolstered on the topic.

Toph felt sicker and sicker the more he talked. Zuko and Mai's child would get to have a wonderful life with wonderful parents. They would be able to parent their baby well and rear the little fire-breather with confidence. The heir would get to have a mother and a father. And would get to know and love them both. Toph's own child would have a crappy mother, someone who didn't know what she was doing and would screw up constantly. Her baby would have a mother… and no father. That is, if she kept the kid. It was getting a little bit harder every day thinking of giving her child away to strangers. But her resolve stayed sure, although a bit shaky. But maybe the adoptive parents wouldn't have to be complete strangers. Surely Katara would know some good people, a family who would love her child like their own. People who would be good parents. However, having Katara's assistance would mean revealing her secret instead of doing everything quietly like she had planned. No one would have to know of her disgrace that way.

She felt tears stinging her eyes. She was in a whole heap of trouble and confusion. She didn't know what to do or how to do it. And this infernal child growing in her belly was making her love it more and more all the time. She had to give the baby away, for it's own sake. Her thoughts drifted back to her other friends getting married and having children and she was so jealous and heartbroken. It just wasn't fair!

"Hey, are you… are you crying?" Sokka asked suddenly. Toph swallowed her gasp of surprise and her hand darted up to wipe her eyes.

"No," she jumped up and straightened her clothes. She sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Toph hurried off to the house, completely ashamed of her weakness.

"Hey, whoa!" Sokka said leaping up behind her. "Toph," he called. She kept walking, just wanting to get away from him. "Toph!" He said firmly, grabbing her arm and pulling her around to face her. "What is wrong with you?" He demanded.

"Nothing," she said trying to pry his fingers off her arm with her other hand.

"Toph," He said gently but firmly, holding her a little tighter. She tried to yank her elbow out of his hand, becoming more and more frantic with each tug. "Toph, stop it!" He ordered grabbing her other elbow and giving her a little shake. "What is wrong?" Sokka demanded.

"Let go of me!" The little earthbender nearly shouted.

In all the years he'd known the young woman he was restraining, he had never seen her act like this, like some scared animal. Fear was not in Toph's makeup. He tried to still her but she kept struggling to get away from his grasp. What had happened to her these last two years? The Toph he knew would've hit him for holding her against her will instead of desperately trying to escape his touch like she'd been doing the last two days. "Toph!" He shouted. He hated raising his voice to her. It seemed to catch her attention; she had scratched his arm up pretty good by now. He released one arm and grabbed her chin tenderly but steadily. "What has gotten into you? You never act like this. You don't cry, Toph, why are you crying?" He almost whispered, heartbroken and scared to see tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I'm fine." She growled, pulling her jaws from his hands. "Leave me alone."

"You're my best friend, tell me what's go you so upset? I haven't even been here for two days and I've already noticed you're not yourself."

It nearly broke Toph's heart in two again to hear him say that. She knew she wasn't herself anymore, her own body didn't even belong to her anymore. It was that monster's now. Sokka was confirming her fears and it terrified and cut her deeply. She yanked her arm out of his grasp, thoroughly fed up with having hard hands on her. It wasn't as if she hadn't dreamed of restraining, demanding hands enough as it was.

"I'm fine," she growled under her breath, folding her arms across her chest.

"You're lying. I don't have to be an earthbender to see that." Neither of them said anything for a long second. "I'm your best friend, Toph. You can tell me anything."

"Not this," she said, tears threatening to fall again. She spun on her heels and nearly ran for the house. When she had burst through the front door she couldn't hold back her sobs any longer. She darted through the house and locked herself in her room, huddling in her nest of blankets. She pulled a blanket to her chest, burying her face in it, hoping to muffle her cries.

Sokka had followed her to the house and had her bedroom door shut in his face. When he heard her heart-wrenching sobs from behind the door, he felt his heart ache for her. He couldn't stand the thought that she was pain and that there was no way he knew to help. He felt useless, a feeling he hated. His best friend was hurting so terribly over something and he had no idea what had incited these raw emotions from the usually rock-solid girl he knew. He slumped down the door and listened to her cry for nearly an hour. Something had hurt her deeply and he wished he could make it better. He wished he could just take all the pain from her, whatever it was.

Toph was not sure how long she had been in her room. By the time she had stopped crying and her nose and become uncongested, the scent of cooking food had wafted in from under the door. She undid her ponytail and scraped her fingers through her tangled hair, trying to look and feel a little more put together. She rubbed her fingers over her eyelids and towards the corner of her eyes, hoping to press out any swelling. She didn't want to go out and face him yet. What was she supposed to tell him? That she had an emotional breakdown for no reason? She decided to just hole up in her room for the rest of the day. She was exhausted anyways and sorely needed a nap. She curled up and pulled her blankets over her head, hoping to block out the scent of food from her growling stomach.

Sokka had sat in front of Toph's door for a long time, even after she had stopped crying. He rubbed his face, jaw and chin like sandpaper from not having shaved this morning. He got up and drifted around the house for a few minutes before deciding maybe if he cooked something it would lure her out of her room. She always had loved food almost as much as him.

When Toph woke the room was cool and she was ravenous. She was going to go get food even if it meant having to deal with Sokka's questions. It wasn't as if she could've stayed locked up in her room until he left. She opened the door and nearly knocked over a bowl. She reached down and picked it up with one hand, grabbing the cup in the other. Sokka had made her food, and judging by the cool temperature of the contents of the dish, it had been a while ago. She felt so guilty for being so short with him and even more embarrassed at showing her weakness to him. But, despite it all, she felt a little smile at her lips. Sokka cared about her and after months of hating herself, a little bit of love felt nice.

"Thanks for this," she said as she passed the watertribesman lounging on the sofa on her way to the kitchen. She heard him get up from the couch and follow her.

"Here, why don't I warm this up and you go sit on the couch."

"No, Sokka, it's really ok, I-"

"Please, Toph. It's the least I could do after the way I acted this afternoon."

What? The way he acted? She had been the one acting like a lunatic.

"But I-"

"Sit, Toph. Besides I have something to show you," he said smiling softly. She did as she was told and let him heat her food back up on the stove. She threw a blanket around her shoulders and tucked herself into a corner on the couch, glad the cushion was still warm. When Sokka came back her handed her her food and sat down beside her. "So I found this book." Toph ate a bite of food and made a noise in her throat to prompt him to continue. "I was thinking since, um, you know, you can't read that maybe I could read it to you?" He stumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

Toph stopped chewing for a moment. It would be nice to be read to. It wasn't something she'd ever really concerned herself with, it had just never seemed important. "Yeah, that'd be nice."

"Good, that's good," Sokka smiled awkwardly. "I've never really read to anyone before, so sorry if I'm terrible," he apologized as he opened the book.

"Why would you be terrible?" She asked around her food.

"I can't really read all that well…" he said shyly, rubbing his hand across the cover, nervously.

"But I always thought you read just fine back when we were kids."

"I just had to take a few minutes to make sure I knew all the words first and… sometimes I improvised," he chuckled.

"Well, you can certainly read better than I can," Toph smiled.

Sokka nudged her in the ribs. "That's my girl."

Toph never knew how amazing books could be until that night. Within the first two pages she was hooked. Sokka seemed nervous, for what reason Toph couldn't really understand. He should know she wouldn't care how literate he was. He had to stop a few times and work out a couple of words but read pretty smoothly the rest of the time. The story was interesting, a bit corny, Toph thought, but interesting. So far there was a man named Hinto, a watertribesman who had moved to the Earth Kingdom to start a hippo-cow farm. He prized his ostrich-horses as they were crucial to his cow farming. There was also a young woman named Lin, a native of the Earth Kingdom from a wealthy family. They also owned ostrich-horses but bred, raced and showed them. Her parents were smothering and she hated the rough way they trained the horses. And Lin wanted out.

It was late, Toph was nodding off, smiling faintly as Sokka purposely changed the sentences to complete nonsense just to see if she was still paying attention. She was, of course, and nudged him in the ribs when he did that. Eventually they both peeled themselves from the couch and passed out in their respective rooms.

Toph slept soundly at first, no dreams, just solid, healing sleep.

Sokka was a light sleeper anyways so when Toph began screaming, he was bolting out of bed before her second cry reached his ears.