A/N: Hello readers! Sorry this one took a little longer than normal, I [finally] found an A:TLA RP group to join and I was working on getting established with them this took a back seat for a couple days. Anyway, sorry to keep you waiting, especially after how depressing the last chapter was. Hope this one is a bit better on you :D


Sokka woke the next morning, sun bright in his eyes. He yawned and stretched, rolling over and laying his arms out to his sides. He began to panic. Something was missing.

He shot up in his sleeping bag patting around the ground for his sword. He couldn't find it anywhere. It had been right there, next to his club and machete. But something moving in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

He watched as Toph, silhouetted by the bright, low morning sun swung his sword in quick, fluid movements. She was attacking an invisible target, quiet and determined. He admired her grace as he watched her move. He'd seen her fight on many occasions, but it was always hard and strong, what was required from earth bending.

He wondered how long she'd been up. He could see she was glistening with sweat, as she sliced through the gut of her imaginary advisory, and plunged the sword into the ground as a sign of victory. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and pulled the sword back out of the ground.

"Enjoying the show, Snoozles?" She jeered at him, without looking. She sheathed his sword and walked over to where he was sitting. She placed the sword in his hand and sat down at the foot of his mat.

He looked at the weapon she had just handed him. The hilt was warm from where she had been gripping it.

"Aren't you going to tell me a blind girl shouldn't be sword fighting?" Toph interrupted his thoughts, smirking at his silence. "I just couldn't fall back asleep when I woke up, so I figured I'd do something fun. I didn't mean to make you freak out."

He laughed at her. "When have I ever told you that you shouldn't do something because you're blind? And I wasn't freaking out!" He ended the last sentence with a pout, which caused her to giggle.

"You were too! I could feel you flopping your hands on the ground!" He shoved her shoulder playfully but when he did the smile dropped from her face. She got up off his mat and started walking back to where her earth tent had been and grabbed her bag. "We should get going."

Sokka sighed as he watched her disappear into the airship. He put his face in his hands. Why is everything I do wrong?


They had been in the air for over two hours and they hadn't spoken a word to each other. Sokka was spinning the pilot's chair back and forth out of boredom.

Toph was sitting to the right of the console, her back against it. She was playing with her space earth arm band mindlessly, twisting her hands to form it into random shapes. Every time Sokka pointed the chair at her he would watch her for a moment before swinging away.

Watching her play with the space rock caused him to feel a twinge of longing for his old sword he'd lost during the war. Master Piangdao had since crafted him a new one, but it wasn't the same. Toph's arm band was the last remaining piece of his hard work. But every time he thought about how much he missed his old weapon, he was reminded why he lost it in the first place.

He closed his eyes, thinking back to Toph dangling from his hand. His leg was in incredible pain and she was crying. It pained him to think that if Suki hadn't come back…well…he couldn't even think about it. He opened his eyes again to reassure himself that his friend was still there.

He hated the silence that blanketed them. He missed the old times when they could talk about nothing and laugh about everything. She was the only one that would ever take his side over his sister's and he loved that. He dug in his mind for something to ask her, something to talk to her about.

"So who taught you to sword fight?" Her ears perked in his direction but she made no other acknowledgement that he had spoken.

"Who says anyone taught me?" He knew she was going to be difficult. He humored her.

"You taught yourself?"

"No…Zuko did." She sighed as put the arm band back on.

He felt a twinge of jealousy. He would have loved to have taught her that. "Oh, I guess that makes sense."

She shot a glare at him. "What is that supposed to mean?" She demanded, crossing her arms.

"Nothing bad!" He defended quickly afraid of a fist flying at him. "I'm just assuming he taught you with double sword, right?" She nodded. "I could tell by your form. It's a little different with just one. I could show you."

"No thanks, Meathead, I'd rather not have the ship crash and burn because you're busy showing off instead of driving this thing." She was smirking.

"So, you and Zuko are best friends are something?" He tried to mask the jealousy, but knew he had failed. Somehow, though, it went unnoticed.

She pondered his question for a minute before answering. "I don't know, I've never thought about it that way. We spend a lot of time together whenever I'm there for meetings. We never really talk about things though, so I don't think I'd call him my best friend."

Sokka didn't know why he was so relieved, and he was happy she was talking to him. "So what else did M. Fancy Pants teach you then?"

She scratched her head and looked at him. "Um, well. There was that one time he taught me to swim."

"You can swim now?" The thought relieved him, thinking back to the day they crossed the Serpent's Pass.

"Yea, enough to keep me alive if anything happened. It's never something I'm going to enjoy as a recreational activity like you. I can't see at all…I let him teach me as a survival method more than anything. I'm keeping my feet nice and dry if I can help it."

"Alright, alright I'll settle for you not drowning." He laughed. "What else?"

She began to laugh thinking back on a memory. "He had to teach me to dance once." She laughed even harder as she began to recount the memory. Sokka frowned at the thought of her being held that close by another man. He hadn't gotten to dance with her at the wedding, though he suspected even if she wasn't mad at him she wouldn't have let him anyway.

"Go on!" He urged her.

"Well it was when Mai was pregnant, like, about to pop pregnant. Anyway, there was this reception for all these dignitaries, and it's tradition for the Fire Lord and Lady to open the party by sharing a dance. Well, Mai was cranky for obvious reasons and didn't want to go, so she asked me to do it for her."

"Mai asked you to dance with her husband at a party?" Sokka laughed at the notion. Pregnancy obviously changes a woman. Mai's jealousy regarding Zuko was pretty well known. He shuddered thinking about what Aang was about to go through with his sister.

"Yea, she didn't want to even get out of bed. She said she wanted to just sleep until that 'thing that her jerk of a husband put inside of her' was out." She laughed hard again, putting air quotes up when imitating Mai's angry voice. "He made a smart choice when he hid her knives from her once she started showing."

"Yea, there's no way I'd deal with a pregnant woman that's skilled in stabbing people." Sokka laughed with Toph. The sounds of their laughter mixing together made his heart swell. He missed this.

"So yea, we spent all night the day before the party trying to teach me the proper dance for the opening. I got it eventually, but man it was pretty awkward dancing with him in front of all those people."

Sokka smiled. "So did he teach you anything useful?"

She smirked at him. "Swimming isn't useful? Swords aren't useful?"

"Okay they are, but it seems like he's your favorite Sifu now, I just thought I'd find out what other wisdom he's imparted on you." He bowed to her mockingly, and received a swift punch in the leg in return.

"Well, he taught me to write and read." She paused for a moment. "Well sort of…that's useful right?"

"What do you mean?"

"He drew words in the dirt so I could see them, and then taught me how to write them myself. I don't really know a whole lot just some names and a few words."

He watched her as she traced her finger on the metal floor in front of her, writing out her name. He got down off his chair and kneeled next to her. He hesitantly took her hand into his. When she didn't object, he moved her hand with his, slowly so that she could take in the movements.

"I know it's just on metal." He said quietly, looking at her hopefully. "But did you see it?"

She swallowed and nodded, a blush creeping up her cheeks. "What was it?"

"Sokka." He said, and she turned her head to face him. He wished he could tell what she was thinking. It was always so hard to read her. Even more so when her lips her inches from her, bringing back sweet memories of what it felt like to kiss her. Her hand was still in his, and she was looking at him. It gave him chills the way she was able to hold eye contact with him without being able to see. What was even worse was that he knew she could feel his accelerated heart beat. It was impossible to hide anything from her.

"Toph…I…" Her eyes lowered as he spoke. He didn't know what he wanted to say. Toph I'm sorry. Toph I want you to know how much you mean to me. Toph I don't know why I lived this long without out.

But nothing came out. A loud beeping noise on the console above them startled them both. Toph quickly retracted her hand from his and crossed her arms, leaning away from him.

Angry at the ruined moment he sighed and stood to see what was going on. He saw land in the horizon, and the auto pilot was alerting their proximity.

"Are we almost there?" Toph asked him, still looking at the ground.

"Yea I'm going to start bringing her down should be about fifteen minutes or so." He watched her as she grabbed her bag and disappeared into the back room of the small airship. He didn't bother asking what she was doing he knew she wouldn't respond.

Sokka brought the ship delicately to the ground and began to shut everything down. He quickly jotted down a letter to Zuko, telling him where he could retrieve the ship since they were going to be moving on foot from now on. The hawk flew away as Sokka opened the door to the ship, and Toph re-emerged from the back room.

She had changed her clothes. She'd replaced her loose fitting green pants and yellow tunic for tight black leggings and a wrapped shirt. She had wrapped her arms from her knuckles to her elbows, and was in the process of braiding her hair. Her sack was slung over her shoulders, and there was a mask tied around her neck.

He stared at her with a raised eyebrow. "What are you wearing?" He asked with a smirk. "Just because you call yourself the blind bandit doesn't mean you have to dress like one."

She rolled his eyes at him. "Don't be an idiot. The easiest way to track someone is if they don't know who's tracking them. I've been doing this for a long time, don't question me. Don't forget I didn't even want you here in the first place."

She walked passed him out into the sunlight. She began to feel the ground, similar to the way she had the day before. Sokka had to coax himself not to stare at her body; the tightness of her new outfit was making him sweat a little. Her curves were displayed much more prominently then they ever were in the dresses he had seen her in. This is going to be a rough trip.

"She was here, well over there really." She pointed north down the beach. "There's a town not too far from here, it feels like she went that way. My guess is she was looking for new clothes, and probably some food. We'll start there and ask around, and we're going to have to get you something better to wear."

He scoffed at her as she pulled the mask up over her face. Only her eyes were visible now, though just barely behind her unruly bangs that fell in front of them. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"Did you not listen to what I said, stupid? The second Azula hears there's some guy dressed in blue with a boomerang is following her, she's going to know exactly who it is, and it's going to put us in danger. We'll lose the upper hand. I have yet to fail at a mission like this and I'm not going to start now just because you're here." She turned heel on him and began to walk in the direction of the town.

He ran forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her around. He didn't know why he was getting so angry; he should be used to her bossing him around. He didn't want to be a tag along on this mission. "I wasn't questioning you, but you don't have to be such a bitch about it. You may be used to doing this solo but you're not now, and it's going to make things a lot easier if you just try to get along with me."

Her eyes were narrow slits behind her hair. "Then maybe you could start by not calling me names." She hissed at him, stepping closer to him. She had an odd way of looking down her nose at him while standing well under his chin.

"You're right. I'm sorry." He closed his eyes, hoping she would accept his sincerity.

"You don't hear many rumors back home, do you?" She asked putting her hands on her hips.

He didn't understand what she was asking. "What does that have to do with anything?" He asked, frustration coming back to him.

"I've been doing this for a long time now, Snoozles. The very first people Zuko sent me to capture were with someone else. This guy saw my face, and was able to warn their other partners who I was. They saw me earth bend. They were totally prepared for me when I went back the second time to get the rest of them. It was foolish, and stupid. Since then, anytime I've been sent to capture someone, I dress like this." She waved her hands up and down.

"I've created this persona, this disguise so that I'm able to be more stealthy, and careful. No one knows who I am, I use earth bending as little as I can, or in subtle ways that it goes unnoticed. The easiest way to catch someone is if they don't know who's coming for them, or better, they fear who is coming."

He studied her as she finished talking. She pulled the bag on her back in front of her and pulled a long dark cloak from it, before throwing it back over her shoulder. "Okay, but I don't get what that has to do with rumors getting to the South Pole."

"Okay, has anyone in your village ever talked about the Spirit Snatcher?" She was throwing the cloak behind her back and fastening it., sounding annoyed with him.

He thought about it. "Actually, yea they do now that I think about it. Some of the older teens would tell the little kids about this spirit that comes in the night and takes away people with ill-mannered intentions." He was scratching his chin, trying to remember the story. He laughed and said, "They told the kids Zuko had traded part of his soul to the spirit of death, so that it would come and take away those who fought against his peace plan. But what does that have to do with anything?"

Toph smacked her forehead with her hand and then waved her hands up and down gesturing to herself. He shook his head, still confused.

"You're so thick, you stupid knucklehead!" She said, punching him hard in the arm. "It's me, stupid! I'm the Spirit Snatcher!"

"Ow! Hey that hu-wait you're what?" She sighed again. "Oh! I understand now. Geez Toph, how many nick names do you need?" He laughed as he dodged another jab from her. He could tell she was smiling behind her mask. "Ahh! And you want me to be your side kick! And get me an outfit! And the world shall fear the ground we walk on!" He threw his hand triumphantly in the air and began marching towards the town.

The blind girl followed his lead, and pulled the deep hood of her cloak up over her head and it dropped down her face, putting her eyes into further darkness. "At least you recognize that you're the side character in this little story. Come on, Snoozles; let's get out of that dork costume you're in and into some man clothes."

"You can't even see what I'm wearing!" He shouted throwing his hands in the air again.

"I don't need to see it to know you look like a dork."

He shoved her lightly and she laughed. "Whatever, Blind-Spirit-Melonlord-Bandit-Runaway-Snatcher Girl. Let's go!"


A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Sorry it's a little slow plot wise, but these two needed to get their weirdness all shaken out, so it's a little more fluffy than I had originally intended. Don't hold it against me! Please PLEASE review, I need to know someone is still entertained by these two as much as I am ^_^

More Tokka fun-time to come in the near future, review and stay tuned!