A/n: Somehow still on schedule. Tally ho!

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Prompt 03 - Endangerment

"Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, makes the night morning, and the noontide night." – William Shakespeare

xXx

On his fifth day of consciousness, Sokka decided that he could not sit uselessly on the sidelines of the investigation any longer. The visit from Toph's parents had shaken him in a way nothing else had—perhaps it was the outpouring of his grief that had ruined the necessity for silence, but he ceased his quiet streak at once and became a model patient. He again explained to Aang and Katara everything that had happened that day. The path they had taken from the southernmost tip of Earth Kingdom mainland, where they had stayed when they collected the classified intelligence report. Their exact location when they tromped into the middle of a massive group mid-preparation for an attack on the southern stronghold. How long it took them to fight and how far they traveled in the process. And finally, how Toph had convinced him to run.

The more intimate details of the engagement Sokka kept to himself, furled and stuffed into a secret corner of his mind like a love note in the depth of his pocket.

It was this memory that kept him talking when talking was the only way of playing a role in finding her. He otherwise sat and let the nurses prod him and change his wound dressings without complaint, rising only to hobble to the toilet or to test out his newly re-mangled leg (the latter ending in dismay).

In the meantime, Aang was tripling his search efforts while simultaneously following up on what had turned out to be the most critical intelligence report yet (at least this travesty of a mission has yielded something worthwhile). Katara was running between the hospital and the nearest base like a madwoman, growing more exhausted by the minute. Sokka sat and yawned and itched at the inside of his leg bandage with a chopstick.

When he awoke on the fifth night from a nightmare, he decided that it was time to get moving. If he could only get to the spot he last remembered, maybe he would notice something the others had missed. Nobody, except perhaps Aang, knew Toph's fighting style better than Sokka. She was the sparring partner who kept him guessing, the steadfast warrior at his shoulder, the first one to return the favor if someone knocked him off his feet. She had left him signs before, when the fight managed to cleave them apart. In the event of a hostage situation such as this, Sokka and Toph both knew that leaving a trail was priority.

All he had to do was get to Appa, who Sokka assumed was staying wherever Aang and Katara slept at night…a location he hadn't quite figured out yet, but it had to be close. So he climbed out of bed, pulled his burned parka on over his naked torso, traded his baggy hospital scrub bottoms for Aang's spare windpants (which Katara had forgotten to take with her in her rush), shouldered his bag, and shuffled out the door.

Katara found him two hours later about a hundred meters from the hospital, face-down in the snow. His crutch had caught a root, sending him into a stomach dive that his sprained wrists were not well enough to break. His first response was to crawl on his elbows, but the ensuing spark of pain that flared in his ribs and lungs was enough to sever his efforts altogether.

Oddly enough, and despite his constant drive to find his friend, his two-hour rendezvous with the ground had helped to calm him. He didn't realize how anxious the bustle of the hospital made him until he had escaped from it. Out here in the woods, the only sound was the quiet banter of nature, the occasional winter songbird and the plunk of snow falling from tree branches.

He had pulled his hood up to keep his ears safe from frostbite, but did not grant himself the privilege of flipping over to his back. Again he had failed. His body had been strong for so many useless years, through so many escapades, until the moment he needed it most. It baffled him that in abandoning Toph he had managed to run for three miles before breaking down. Now he was all but paralyzed (the logical side of his brain, which he promptly ignored, suggested a causal relationship between his past exertion and his current condition). If he was too helpless to aid his best friend, then he could lay here in the snow and bear the punishment of sharp air in his lungs and the slow creep of snow through his parka.

His foray into the woods had also let his mind wander out of its fixed point (panic, mostly) into something much more complicated. In the very last moments, Toph left him with one gesture for Sokka to contemplate in the aftermath—a kiss, not stolen but given, and accepted in return. Sokka returned to this puzzling twist as he lay on the ground, his limbs numbing over with cold. He and Toph had established long ago that their dynamic worked better than either of them predicted during her first few weeks as the Avatar's teacher. They had an easy banter and complementary temperaments that meant they almost never fought. Viewing their friendship through the cloud of recent troubles, Sokka could picture the lazy summers of their teenage years, spent in hours of aimless conversation while his machete dangled at ease around his shins.

Sokka could admit that, yes, he enjoyed spending time with Toph, perhaps more than with anybody else. They never grew tired of one another, always stumbling upon something new to discuss even when he fell short with others (including Suki before their mutual breakup, though he would never let the admission creep out from behind his teeth). It was the reason that, while visiting his sister in Republic City, Sokka jumped aboard when Toph mentioned her looming trip to the southern stronghold. The way down had been an adventure rather than a chore; with no need for catching up, they spent otherwise wasted time on exploring the towns in their path. The previous years had presented him with several predicaments (namely the occasional but overwhelming attraction he felt for the blind Earthbender), all of which he swept off of his shoulders in the name of friendship.

But that kiss. Now, after years of reassuring himself that his intentions were only ever platonic, he was having trouble differentiating the general sting of loss with something else altogether. Would this hollow ache in his head and heart be any different if it were someone else—Aang, or his sister? It was a theory he hoped to never test, but imagined that it must feel the same. If this particular array of circumstances had sparked in him an epiphany or change, Sokka promptly ignored it. This was the time to defer, not linger.

Sokka heard Katara's gasp off to the far side, the sound of her boots cutting through the snow as her pace quickened. A moment later she appeared, pale and aghast, on the fringe of his vision.

"Sokka, what happened? What're you doing out here?"

"Oh, you know, just reconnecting with my native element," he sighed.

Together they managed to sit him upright, and Sokka let Katara check him over without argument. A rush of warmth ran through him as Katara pressed her palms to his ears.

"You're freezing," she said, clearly burying her relief in a tone of annoyance. "At least you had the sense to wear your coat—you could have frozen to death!"

"It's practically summer compared to home," said Sokka. He waved away her concern and winced when his wrist twinged. "How'd you know I was missing, anyway? Before I, uh, decided to sit down for a bit, I was looking for wherever you're staying."

Katara frowned, withdrawing her gaze. "I've been sleeping on the lobby couch," she said.

"Oh."

"Well, I suppose if you're all right…"

Katara's sentence drifted. Sokka noted with a pang that his master plan had only done more hurt to his family. Newly ashamed by his impulsive decision-making, Sokka tugged her into the tightest hug that he could manage. As Katara reciprocated, she added, "But you should know that there's a room of angry med staff who aren't as forgiving as me."

"That's okay, I probably deserve it."

When they parted a few moments later, she helped him to his feet. He dusted away as much snow as he could without eliciting a grimace, took his crutch from her, and started the long trudge back to the hospital. The quiet followed them until the hospital appeared over the hill, where smoke rose demurely from the tall chimney and the bustling noise began to drift across the clearing. Sokka eyed the snow-frosted building warily. Once inside, he would consent to stay until otherwise released—as he had just demonstrated with his latest escape attempt, he was not fit to search for angry rebels (much less single-handedly fight and complete a rescue mission if he found them). Katara seemed to be thinking along his train of thought.

"You can't possibly have thought you could go find her on your own," she said, adjusting his arm around her shoulder as they began the descent downhill.

A jolt ran up his side, which he plowed through with a grimace. Leaning heavily on his sister, Sokka used his crutch to take every other step forward, his doubly-bad leg bent at the knee.

What Toph had fed him was a numbers game, in so many words. Toph had a better chance than he of holding the rebels off and escaping afterward; why waste her talent on a getaway if she could save them both? Toph had willingly offered her life in exchange for his—an act, Sokka was coming to realize, that had not been purely logical. And in return for her sacrifice, he was out looking for a fight he could never win.

"You're right. By endangering myself, I put everything at risk again. Toph… well." Sokka shook his head. "She'd leave a bruise if she knew, anyway."

"I'm sure she will."

xXx

A/n: A Thousand Thanks to Sapphire Leo, Snows Of Yester-Year, guyw1tn0nam3, wherewulf, tomboy26, Lord Momo, jasminedragons, Katsumara, and somebody's world. Your support has just been... phenomenal. Thank you all so much for your kind words and enthusiasm (and, in a few cases, delightfully outraged keyboard smashing). I realize this story isn't the most unpredictable thing... and I also realize that, so far, it contains a whole lot of moping for a seven-chapter story. But things will pick up! Eventually. So help me Toph.

A super special thanks goes out to Enna Moon, whose concrit REALLY helped me in polishing this chapter. Your suggestions were exactly what I needed to get my brain in gear. I hope this is more along the lines of what you mentioned!

Thanks, and see you soon!