"You think she's calmed down?" Sokka asked, sprawled on the ground with Momo hopping on his chest. Katara glanced over from the fire pit where she was working on their dinner.

"The aftershocks have stopped," she offered, casting her glance upwards. "So I'd say yes."

"Well then, where are they? Shouldn't they come back?"

"They'll get back when they get back. Quit whining."

"I'm not whining."

"You are."

"Katara, my eye's still sore."

She blew out an exasperated sigh. "Stop touching it then."

"But it tingles."

"I told you it would."

"Does it still look bad?"

"No, Sokka! It's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"I don't look weird?"

"You've always looked weird," she mumbled under her breath, rolling her eyes. Sokka groaned.

"I don't look like Zuko, do I?"

"For the love of--!"

"Where are they?"

With a deep-seeded growl Katara shot to her feet and stomped over to her brother, looming over him with her hands planted firmly on her hips. He squinted up at her, wrinkling his nose. "What?" he asked.

"Do you want to talk about something?" she asked. He frowned at her.

"Why would you say that?"

"You're not shutting up."

"I'm just asking--,"

"Exactly; you're not shutting up. So what do you want to talk about?" She leaned into one leg but didn't sit down, which Sokka knew meant she wanted him to say his piece and be done with it. Now wasn't the time for a bonding, heart to heart between big brother and baby sister.

"I'm worried about Toph," he finally admitted, and then made a face up at Katara. "Happy?"

But she didn't throw him a snide remark, only blew out a breath and shook her head. "Yeah, I am too, actually." She cast a look in the direction Aang had run off towards. "She's barely said two words to me for three days and she's been quiet. No laughing, no jokes, nothing." A shiver traveled up her spine and she shook it away.

"Do you think she's mad at me?" Sokka asked. She nodded without hesitation.

"Yeah."

He sat up abruptly and stared up at her. "Really?"

"Of course! You did something stupid."

"How do you know?"

"I don't know for certain," she said, striding away from him and returning to her work. "But you usually do."

"That's a sister's bias," he mumbled, scrambling to his feet and following after her. "Seriously though, do you think I did something horrible to make her angry?"

Katara turned to look at him, her gaze scrutinizing. "She's complicated," Katara finally said, speaking truthfully. "I mean, we all are, but this is Toph, you know?" She shrugged. "She's lived a different life from you and me, so I have no idea what could be going on in her head."

"She sees things for what they are, plain and simple," Sokka said, partially retaliating with his own knowledge of Toph. "She's less complex then us in that way. No second skin, just bare bone."

Katara nodded knowingly. "That's exactly what I mean; complicated."

Sokka rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, you're right."

--

"Are you okay going back now?"

"Yeah."

"Are you going to talk to him?"

"Probably, yeah."

"Aren't you nervous?"

"A little bit, yeah."

Aang eyed her as they wove their way through the scarred hillside. "You don't seem nervous."

"I'm just that amazing," she replied distractedly. He grinned.

"Sure."

As they reached the edge of the campsite they ran into Katara. She was carrying one of their large, clay pots and heading towards the river.

"Hey, you're back!"

As they came level with her Aang immediately stepped forward and relieved her of her weight, taking it into his arms without hesitation. "I can go fill this for you," he said. Katara smiled at him.

"You sure?"

"Positive." He tried to shoot Katara a subtle gesture then, eyeing the back of Toph's head and then nodding purposefully to the waterbender, but subtleties were the very essence of the ambassador's existence and she could feel the slight wind disturbance from his head nods and the shift his weight as he pointed to her.

"Go, Avatar. I get the hint: let Katara take care of me now."

Aang winced. "Oh. Uh, well…okay." And, because he knew he couldn't say anything to redeem himself, he went on about his business.

"That wasn't a smooth transition," Katara offered. Toph just shrugged.

"It wasn't, but when has anything ever gone smoothly with any of us?" It was a hidden reference that only the earthbender was aware of. Katara reached out and looped an arm around the girl's shoulders, her frame, even after all this time, so small in comparison.

"You don't have to explain anything to me if you don't want to," she started to say, "but I do want you to tell me if you're okay or not."

"I know. Sorry."

"Don't be." They started walking back to their camping ground, still linked. "You know, we haven't had any real time to talk and catch up, other than our spa day in Ba Sing Se. Thanks for that, by the way."

"No problem."

"Oddly enough, we've actually been busy on this trip."

"Everyone wants a piece of us. You can't deny our fans what they want." Katara laughed. "But I agree. I think I do need to talk to you." She actually considered finding counsel in Katara over her certain 'problem', but decided that she would keep the bigger details out of the discussion; details like names, for instance. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"It's about Aang."

"Oh." It wasn't a nervous 'no' or a cautious 'no'. It was the kind of 'no' that came with a smile and a smirk and few secrets hidden in between. Toph raised an eyebrow.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know. What are you asking?" She was grinning, it was all over her voice.

"Ah…are you--," she hesitated. "I was wondering how things were going. With him, and with you, and with all this air in between," she said, waving her hands around helplessly. Was that how someone was supposed to ask? She didn't know. She'd never had to ask before.

"Are you asking what I think you're asking?"

"Can you even understand what I'm trying to say? Because I can't." Katara laughed and then she laughed. Genuinely laughed. That was surprising.

"Yes, I know what you're asking."

"Okay."

"And my answer is that I love Aang," came the immediate reply. Toph felt herself smile, surprised yet pleasantly so, as Katara went on laughing. "Everyone knows I love him."

"Well, yeah."

"The thing is, I don't know what that means right now."

"Ah." Toph wanted to say that she understood that thought on a level that might have even surprised the girl, but she didn't. Katara just sighed.

"Ask me about it sometime; I've got loads to tell you."

"Hmm. Wait, sometime?"

"Sometime."

"Not, now-time?"

"Right now I think a different Water Tribe sibling needs your attention."

Of course. Damnit. "Ah."

Katara gave her a quick hug and then stepped away. They were next to Appa and, judging from the impatient vibrations coming from the fire, Sokka was only a few yards away, waiting for his turn to be acknowledged.

Toph considered letting the earth swallow her whole. She could do it, too, if she ever wanted.

"I'll leave you two alone." The older girl squeezed her shoulder and wandered off, picking up Momo as she went. Toph tugged on her hair.

"Yeah, thanks." With a hearty breath she strode forward, trying to arrange her expression into something that could be conceived as normal. She came level with Sokka and lifted her chin, showing off how normal she was attempting to be. She wondered if she was succeeding.

"All right, go."

She stopped in her tracks and frowned. "What? Go where?"

"Go ahead and apologize. I'm waiting."

She crossed her arms and frowned in his general direction. She could 'see' him lounging there, legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles, with his one foot jiggling incessantly to portray his impatience. Toph raised an eyebrow.

"Are you serious?"

His foot stopped. "What kind of question is that?" he asked blandly. She shrugged, ignoring his frustration.

"A legitimate one. Do you want me to apologize sincerely or do you just want the words to be said, regardless of its delivery?" She couldn't help it. She couldn't help the sarcasm. It was just there.

There was a pause, probably because his mouth might have been hanging open. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "Why are you doing that right now? This is not a time to be sarcastic, and I know the exact times to be sarcastic."

She had to stop herself from smiling lest he find even more offense in her attitude. It was just so rare to hear Sokka be truly angry, and even rarer to have that anger directed completely towards her.

"Okay, fine." She raised her hands in surrender and settled down on the log opposite him. "Sorry, sorry--,"

"You don't mean that," he interrupted. "You're almost laughing."

"Oh, so the delivery counts?"

"Toph." He was on the verge of blowing a fuse, she could tell. "Do you understand what you did to me?" he asked, overly slowly. She heaved an equally over-dramatic sigh.

"Um, I hit you with a rock? Is that such a big deal all of a sudden?"

He did blow up at that.

"Of course it is!" he screamed, jumping to his feet. "The intention to inflict lasting pain is a very big deal! Look at my eye!" She just sat there and then he swore under his breath. "Oh…damn it! This is—ugh…"

She shook her head. "You are such an idiot." He started pacing.

"What has been wrong with you lately? This isn't cool."

"Did you really just say 'this isn't cool'?" she laughed, but when that didn't get the reaction she was looking for she rubbed at her forehead in her own frustration. "Is it really that bad, Sokka? I mean, is it really that bad?"

He let out a throaty growl. "You know what, it is! And I'm not just complaining about the pain—it's throbbing, by the way—but about the other stuff too."

"What other stuff?"

"The other stuff, as in why you did this in the first place. It's one thing that I have a shiner, but its another thing that it came from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You don't do things like this unless you have a reason, Toph. You, the great earthbender who waits and then reacts, doesn't just clock a guy in the face with a rock for no initial reason."

A twinge of apprehension sounded its chord, but Toph kept her face passive. "So I have to have a reason to hit you now? When was that a prerequisite? Katara doesn't need a reason."

Sokka continued to pace for a few moments before he stopped and faced her, arms crossed and foot tapping. When they were younger this was the stance he would use for all of his crazy alias when they were trying to pull scams or pranks. Despite herself, Toph was drawn into her memories. "This whole thing," he started, "has nothing to do with Aang, right?"

"Huh? When did we start talking about Aang?"

"When you two went into the village--,"

"We were bored out of our minds."

"So this has nothing to do with--,"

"Aang has his own things to worry about. Leave him alone."

"Well, okay." He breathed deeply. "Then this does have to do with our talk. Great." He gratefully plopped back down on his log as Toph's pulse suddenly shifted to booming.

"Why do you assume that?" she grumbled. "You know what they say about people who assume."

"Yeah, they tend to be right." He let out a light and unfeeling chuckle. "I started to think about it and I might know what's wrong."

"No, you don't," she said playfully, but she was silently dreading the worst.

"I might though, and I'm sorry."

"For what?"

He had picked up a stick and was poking at the ashes of the fire pit. It was distracting, not only by the scraping sounds that it made but because of the scratchy vibrations it sent up Toph's feet. She lifted them off the ground and folded them beneath her. "For saying you were lonely."

"Um…" For ten crucial seconds Toph racked her brain, pushing aside the dread she felt at having her secret found out and trying to remember a time when he had called her lonely. Oh, she realized, accurately recalling the moment and the words. Ha, I remember that. "Yeah, that was a little much," she said out loud. She hoped he would overlook those ten awkward seconds of silence, and he did.

"But you understood what I meant by it, right? I didn't say it to--,"

"No, I know. You explained yourself before, please don't do it again." Please, she inwardly pleaded.

"Well, I'm sorry for that. Oddly enough, you've never seemed like a lonely person, just someone who was alone, by happenstance."

She shrugged and nodded. She hadn't actually been offended by anything, but she was in no position to correct him. So she said, "okay." He nodded.

"So, I apologize."

"Yeah, you said that already."

"No hard feelings?"

"No! Drop it, Sokka."

A pause stretched out.

"That's not it?"

She jumped at the exasperation in his tone. "What? What's not it?"

Sokka just growled and tugged at his hair. "That's not what's wrong, is it?"

"Huh? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention…."

"Toph!"

"What?! Sokka, I really am sorry, okay?" she blurted, throwing up her hands in surrender, trying to smile to hide her unease. "I know I've been…well, odd lately, and short-tempered, so I'm sorry. But really, nothing's wrong--,"

"Something's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong!" She laughed sardonically, jumped forward and knelt down before him, reaching out to hold his hands, like he had always done with her. Ironically the physical contact didn't affect her like his words did; this was normal between them. "I'm fine and everything's fine. I've been— I've been a little on edge, you know? It's been awhile since I've been out adventuring and, well, I'm trying to get used to it, is all." She smiled and squeezed his fingers affectionately, like he had done to her, or like Katara had done to her, or like Aang had done to her. She realized then that she'd never had the instinct to comfort a person; she was the sort who had to learn it from somewhere. Did that make her odd?

No, probably not. She wasn't so unique as that.

"You're lying."

That threw her off. He had said it so abruptly and with such finality that she didn't have time to shed the astonished look on her face. He saw it, and he sighed. He stood up and took her with him, pulling on their linked hands until her cheek lay against his chest and he embraced her there, his chin on her hair. All the while she wore the same, astonished expression.

"Whoa, Sokka--,"

"I don't know why this is such a big deal to me," he said, "but I have this feeling that something is wrong with you, and it's annoying. And I also think that part of it is my fault, and that just makes me feel guilty."

"Hey, Sokka--,"

He held her tighter. "Your touch isn't so reassuring." A little part of her died inside at that, but she kept it hidden. That just meant she had more to learn, she supposed. "But, for the part that's my doing, I'm sorry."

When he spoke she could feel his words vibrate in his chest and onto her skin. She could hear his heartbeat and each breath he took to speak. She could smell the musk on his skin and the nature in his clothes. She could feel those foreign, hard muscles on his arms pressed into her shoulders. She didn't know what he was showing in his eyes and she didn't know if he his smile or frown looked real or fake. It was one of those horrifically rare times when she actually wished she could see.

"Sokka." He let her go and she took half a step back. She kept her face down. "I'm sorry about your eye."

There was a silence and then he let out a single, heartfelt 'hah'.

"Hm. Yeah, that's okay."