Toph didn't have to struggle in the water for long. She caught up with Sokka in a few minutes, since Sokka was actually swimming to fight the current and to prevent himself from going further downstream. As the water nearly pushed the Earthbender into the dark-skinned boy, she felt him wrap an arm around her waist to keep them together in the water.

"Toph!" he yelled over the water. It was strange – Toph had come into the water to save him, but now he had more control over the situation than she did. Who was the one doing the rescuing? "Swim towards shore, okay?"

"I can't swim! I don't know where the shore is!" she yelled back at him, holding onto him for dear life.

Sokka thought his arm might go numb and fall off because she was holding onto him so tightly. "Okay, well, then let me do the swimming…" he trailed off, trying to decide what to do with Toph while he was swimming. "Get on my back, okay?"

Toph hung onto Sokka with a death grip, not wanting to chance drifting away from him. "Okay."

"… Toph?"

"Yeah?"

"You have to move." He said softly, and pulled her hands off of his shirt. It was hard to stay afloat without his hands, and for a moment the two bobbed under the water. Toph came up spluttering, but Sokka shifted her to his back while he had the chance. "Hold on!"

Toph took his words to heart, and wound her arms around his neck very tightly. Sokka took one of his hands and attempted to make her grip a little less tight. "Not… so… tight!"

Realizing that she was strangling one of her best friends, she loosened her grip around him a tiny bit. She wasn't going to risk falling off of him… she might end up drowning! With her slackened grip, Sokka could maneuver better in the water. He set his face – now it wasn't only him that was being carried along swiftly by the current, but it was also Toph.

The combined weight of the two people made it especially hard for Sokka to swim toward the shore, so by the time they reached the sandy shore he was utterly exhausted. He climbed onto the sandy land, and immediately lay down onto his stomach with a sigh. He hoped he never had to do that again.

"Toph?" he caught her hands with his own, and unwound her arms from around his neck. "Are you, uh, okay?"

She flopped off of his back, and started kissing the sand. "I'm never going into the water again, Ponytail! Oh, land! I've missed you!" she cried dramatically, and Sokka started laughing at her sand-covered face.

"Great rescue job!" he teased her, and watched her shake the sand out of her black hair and wipe it off of her face.

"Nice swimming job. I thought you grew up around water, Ponytail? Is that how they taught you to swim?"

"That doesn't mean I swam in the frozen water."

Toph rolled her eyes, and continued to wipe the sand off of her face. "I can tell."

"At least I'm not dumb enough to get sand all over my face."

"Hey, I got it all off," she growled back at him, her milky eyes staring off into space like they usually did. Sokka looked at her, and his eyes drifted towards her mouth. Sand was still stuck to the corners of her mouth.

"No, you didn't."

Toph's hands flew around her face. She began wiping her cheeks vigorously, making red chafe marks appear on her face. "Get it off!"

"Quit it," he ordered, grabbing her wrists and pulling them off of her face. "It's on your mouth." He reached towards her mouth, and gently brushed the sand away with his fingertips. "There."

Toph blushed, and her eyes widened at the sudden contact. She had half a mind to launch him into the river with a well-bended boulder, but decided against it.

Sokka noticed her blush, and his own cheeks matched hers. He had never been this close to Toph before. Well, except in the river. But he had never been this… well, he had never touched her lips before. They weren't chapped at all, like he had expected from an Earth bender. They were soft and warm despite the chilly river they had both been in moments before. "Toph?"

"Yeah?" she asked him, making her voice sound a little more hard than she usually did. Hopefully that would throw him off of the trail she knew they were both about to go down.

He hesitated. "Is this what I'm supposed to appreciate?"

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AHAHAHA. Cliff hangers ROCK! This is the next-to-last chapter, folkses. Sorry. Thanks for all the reviews and ideas. Sorry if it's rushed – this was the hardest chapter to write. Eurgh.