"I'm not sure I-"
"Sokka, I love you. Do you love me?"
"Of course I do!"
"Do you love me as more than a friend?"
"…"
"These are yes or no questions Sokka! Though I'm pretty sure we both already know the answers to them!"
"So then why are you asking!?"
The young man was thoroughly surprised and out of his element. He didn't know what to expect or what to do. He paced back and forth around the extinguished campfire. Toph had suddenly become stern and silent on their walk back to camp; her pace had increased with austere intent. In his mind the day had gone so well up until that point. It had seemed like an understanding had been reached and everything would go back to normal.
What had happened? What did I say? What is she thinking?
"I'm asking because I'm tired of this charade! I'm asking because I don't want to pretend like this doesn't exist anymore!"
They had eaten, if in an awkward silence. Sokka had tried to drum up the usual conversations, but Toph focused on the task ahead. She had sat near the blackened circle of ash, stones, and sticks that had been their fire and waited till he had finished packing up the supplies.
"Well maybe I'm not! Maybe it existed for a reason. Maybe!... I had hoped it could be like when we were kids…"
"But we're not kids anymore Sokka."
The young man sighed in somber acceptance.
"I know…and it's time to grow up."
He turned to look at his best friend. She didn't look back, rarely did. She sat there, staring vacantly at charred ground.
"Toph, I love you more than anyone else in the world but I have also promised myself to another. By my honor I cannot break this sacred trust, even at the expense of what I truly want."
"Oh come off it, you sound like Zuko! Since when did having honor mean withholding your true feelings for some estranged sense of loyalty to someone who is neither your wife nor is committed enough to even remind you of her existence for years on end!"
"You know it's more complicated than that!"
"Is it really?"
"Yes really! Suki saved my life; she saved both our lives on multiple occasions! I can't just abandon her."
"Suki's was my friend too, still is, but you know what? So what if she did? That's what heroes do! I saved your life before! In fact I did it again today! Aang saved your life! Your sister saved your life! Some random guy in a prison saved your life! We owe our lives to dozens of people, none of which did it on the condition that we swear the rest of our lives to them!"
"But I have a relationship with Suki! Are you going to assume I'm dead and buried if a hunting trip happens to run long?"
"It's been years! For all we know she could be married with kids and you're just holding on to a phantom relationship because you're afraid!"
"Afraid of what, Toph!?"
Toph was silent for a moment. She stood and turned to face her friend, her head bowed to the ground, her voice becoming compassionate.
"Afraid of losing someone you let too close to your heart…You're afraid of letting her go because it would also be letting go of Yue. You're afraid of being with me because it would feel like you'd be betraying Yue again."
That struck a chord, a deep, painful, chord. Sokka remembered how he felt when Suki had tried to kiss him for the first time. He had pulled away from that kiss, it had felt like such would tarnish her memory and insult her spirit. She had even tried to apologize for it, but he hadn't let her. It wasn't Suki's fault then and it wasn't Toph's fault now. If anything it was his fault, a fault for having loved them back. Sokka closed his eyes.
"The last thing Yue said to me after she sacrificed herself was that she would always be with me."
"She is with all of us Sokka. Her sacrifice was for the world, not just you."
He knew this was true. She died for everyone. Yue was a woman of duty and obligations. Even if she was still alive it wasn't likely that they would be together. For her people, she would have married someone she did not love nor loved her back. The time he had spent with Yue was exceptionally short in comparison with both Suki and Toph. Yet she had died loving him. It had felt wrong not giving the same in recompense.
"Toph, I want to be with you… but I have these feelings of dept and regret and remorse and I will not burden them on you!"
"Then let them go! Just! Let! Them! Go! They help no one! They honor no one! The only thing they cause is pain!…to everyone…"
Silence befell them both. Sokka stood, staring at the woman he wished to love. At a stern pace he walked to the woman he loved and embraced her tightly.
"The last thing I want to do is hurt you. The last thing I want to do is let you go. But if I let them go, will I one day have to let you go?"
Again the sounds around then became inert. Toph moved her arms around him and embraced him tightly.
"If I am gone. If I go on before you. I want you to let me go. I want you not to cry. Your pain does me no good. Toughen' up and get on with it."
They held each other for some time. Sokka softened his squeeze, making sure not to suffocate his lover. Toph listened to the beating of his heart, relaxed by its steady rhythm.
"Hey Rocky."
"Yea Snoozles."
"I love you."
"I know Snoozles.