Author's Note: Only one this time? How sad. Then again, considering the length of time between updates, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Thanks to Meerkatgirl13! I'm glad you're enjoying so far. ^_^ This next chapter isn't as long as the last, and it deals with an emotion I don't have a lot of experience writing in, but I felt it was important to the story and needed to happen. Trust me, I'm not going to make a habit out of it. Please RxR, and I'll let you in on a little hint: There's good stuff happening next chapter! Maybe even a particular Earthbending Tournament? See we shall!

Disclaimer: Me+Avatar=Not owning.

The ferry drifted smoothly through the murky blue waters of the lake, waves lapping idly at the sides as the sunlight waned, twilight settling in with blazes of orange and red splayed over the horizon.

Sokka wished Toph could see it.

Toph, however, had other things on her mind. Sokka's behavior, while normally pretty weird, had been getting getting increasingly stranger as the day wore on, and with nothing better to do but watch the waves she couldn't see anyway, she intended to find out just exactly was going on with her favorite clumsy, obnoxious swordsman, one way or another.

"Sokka." she said, finally breaking the long, but not uncomfortable silence between them.

"Yeah?" He murmured, eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of the swaying ship and the soft sound of the waves immensely.

"Tell me what's wrong with you, and don't lie to me like you did back on the docks."

Sokka sighed, his reverie broken, and opened his eyes. There was really no point in trying to hide it from her any longer. No one in the world knew him better than Toph did, and they both knew she didn't even have to bother listening to his heartbeat to know when he was lying. He was actually surprised she'd let him slide with it back at the docks, and even more surprised it'd taken her this long to bring it up.

"I don't suppose it would do any good to say I really, really don't want to talk about it, huh."

"No."

"Didn't think so. How about 'it's my problem and I'm taking care of it?'"

"Not happening."

"How about-"

"Quit stalling and OUT WITH IT ALREADY!" Toph screeched, drawing the attention of...Well, everybody in earshot.

"Wow. Okay, okay." He drew in a deep breath, closing his eyes once more. He'd had a hard enough time admitting the truth to himself this morning. Telling Toph...That was another beast entirely.

"Sokka, I'm really worried about you. Please just out with it so I can fix it or kick your ass for it." Toph begged, a very un-Toph-like thing to do. He knew she was serious.

"I'm not happy, Toph."

Her face crinkled, clearly confused. "What the hell does that mean? Not happy about what?"

"Suki."

Toph's eyes widened. Wait. What?

"W-What do you mean?" Her voice cracked a little with the shock.

There it was. It was finally out. The burden he'd been carrying for so long, before he'd actually gotten up the nerve to accept it for what it was. Almost immediately, he felt like a heavy weight was lifted off his shoulders. It felt good to actually hear the words out loud, to share them with someone he knew would care and understand. As terrible as it was, one of the first things Sokka learned was that your troubles would always stay troubles until they became your problems and you solved them. It was a very valuable piece of advice his father had given him, and he had never forgotten it.

"I'm not happy anymore, Toph. With Suki. Things just aren't the same. I don't miss her like I should when she's gone, she's gone all the time, I can't remember the last time we had a real conversation or had a day to ourselves or even kissed, let alone acted like we love each other. We're like strangers who happen to live in the same house. The worse part is, I have no idea why or when it happened. It's why I couldn't sleep yesterday. Why I haven't slept for weeks. I'm losing my damn mind, Toph, and it sucks." He finished his rant with a disgusted sigh and turned around, leaning his back against the deck railing, lazily blowing a strand of hair out of his eyes. "I don't know what the hell to do anymore..."

Toph had barely heard a word of it.

Her ears had caught the words "Suki" and "I'm not happy anymore" and her heart stopped...And then it started again, beating faster and faster like a raging dragon was trying to erupt from her chest. Feelings she'd repressed deep down in her heart for years blossomed in a way she couldn't begin to stop, let alone control, she took a ragged gasp of air to try and calm the fire burning in her chest. Every second she'd known him, there was always one part of Sokka she couldn't have. Sure, she was his best friend and knew him better than anyone, but there was a always a part of him that belonged to someone else, the part she wanted more than anything for herself.

"So...So...What are you saying, Sokka?" She managed to croak out, trying desperately to get herself back under control before making a total fool of herself in front of him.

Sokka's eyebrows arched up. "Saying? I don't have a clue in the world. I'm miserable all the time because the girl I love is never around and even when she is, we spend most of our time away from each other anyway." He sighed again.

At the mention of 'love', Toph got control of herself again. For everything he just said, he hadn't lied. Sokka still loved Suki, as much as he ever had. The only thing that had changed was what he felt about the love he did have.

That's what you get, Toph. You let your hopes up, and there it is. He still loves her. He always will. He just wants you, as his best friend, to tell him everything's gonna be okay. And why shouldn't you? It's not like...

It's not like you could match up with her anyway.

With a small sniffle and a hiccup, Toph finally got herself back under control, thankful Sokka hadn't said anything about her irrational behavior, but also very aware her cheeks were still burning.

"I...I think you deserve better, Sokka." Her voice almost betrayed her. "You deserve someone special. And maybe it isn't Suki. You guys aren't kids anymore." She felt better, and yet, worse, the more she spoke. There it was. Even with everything she felt, everything she desperately wanted to tell him, she was still his best friend first. "You guys have been together a long time. Maybe you've just outgrown each other." She shrugged her shoulders. "Then again, what do I know? My longest relationship..."She trailed off.

Sokka looked up. "What about it? I didn't think you'd been in many...Or...well, any, actually. You keeping secrets from me, Toph?" He smiled a little.

She socked him in the arm, causing him to yelp in pain. "It's you, you idiot. You're the only guy, person, really, I hang around with who isn't married to another one of our friends."

Thank the spirits.

...Wait, what? Why is that a good thing?

Why am I glad I'm the only man in her life?

Is that even really what I'm saying?

...What the hell is wrong with me?

...

He laughed. "Good to know." He sobered a little, staring up at the rockets of color hanging in the sky. "I think that's why I'm so glad we're going to Gaoling. I need to get out of the city, clear my head a little. I'll figure something out. I'm the idea guy, right?" He let out a little chuckle.

She smiled with him. Yeah. You'll figure it out. Just like you always do.

With everything except how I feel about you.

She didn't stop him as he reached out for her and drew her into a tight hug, rather, she basked in it, closing her eyes and pretending for just one moment, they weren't best friends...They were what she wished so much they were. And so much more.


Sokka couldn't sleep. Again.

Even though they had tried to insist on passage as regular citizens, as soon as the captain got wind of who he had aboard, he and the first mate had immediately offered up the services of their cabins to the pair, and even though they had tried to turn them down, the officers had insisted, and so Sokka was now lodged in the certainly comfortable first mate's room, while Toph was across the hall in the captain's lodge.

None of this changed the fact Sokka still could not sleep. Again.

However, instead of last's night problem, where there was only one person on his mind...Now there were two.

Toph and Suki.

Sokka couldn't get the thought of either of them out of his head. They just kept swimming around, one after another. Suki's smile, Toph's laugh, the way Suki made breakfast in the morning, the little sounds Toph made when he rubbed her feet for her...Over and over the images and memories played through Sokka's mind, clear as a midsummer's day in the Fire Nation.

"GAH!!!!"

He couldn't take it any longer. He had to do something, anything. He had to get out of his own head...Before he remembered he was on a ship, it was the middle of the night, and the only thing he had to do was lie there and pretend he was doing something, anything else.

"If I make it out of this mess with my sanity..." He said, to no one in particular. "Well, I have no idea, because I'm pretty sure I'm already insane." He fell back onto the bed, totally exhausted, unable to sleep, with nothing but the two women he loved most swapping back and forth in the starring role of the play taking part in his mind.

"Why isn't there a saber-toothed moose-lion around to eat me when I actually need one?"


"How am I supposed to sleep when my brain won't shut up?" Toph yelled, to no one in particular, flailing around the captain's room in a futile effort to quiet her brain and let herself get some much-needed sleep.

Of course, she knew that was impossible.

In the course of just a few short hours, everything she knew defined the terms of her and Sokka was shaken to the very core. She knew exactly what she wanted, what she had wanted for years, and yet, the only reason she wasn't across the hall throwing herself at him, begging him to love her like no one ever had or ever would, was the same reason it had always been.

What if he rejected her? What if he didn't feel the same way? What if he thought it was just another joke?

Toph wasn't afraid of many things. She had faced down earthbenders two, sometimes three times her size, helped take down an airship fleet with nothing but two friends and a lot of guts, and left everything she'd ever known to train a boy she hardly knew but believed in with all her heart could save the world. Yeah, not a lot of things scared her. But the idea of losing Sokka...She literally froze with fear, and her head swam with just the sheer notion. He was as much a part of her as own two feet, and just as important.

So she sat, clad only in her nightgown, sobbing her eyes out, partly because she was so unbearably happy she might finally have a chance to tell the man of her dreams how much she cared and make him hers, and terribly sad because she knew deep in her heart she would never have the courage to take that chance, that plunge, because she was so deeply terrified of the alternative.

So she sobbed harder, hot tears splashing at her nightgown, until she had literally cried herself out of tears and fell back onto the bed, totally exhausted, unable to sleep, with nothing but one person on her mind, in the same place he'd been for more years than she cared to remember.

"I love you...You idiot..."