"Really?"

Toph stealthily brought her left hand to wipe the stray tears that were building up in her eyes. Her voice remained unfazed by the emotion obvious on her face. "You don't make me happy as a friend."

"Alright."

There was a lapse in the conversation. Not one of them moved from their spot, yet neither spoke a word. When one of them did move, it was when Toph shivered slightly. Sokka didn't say anything of it but he changed his stance into something stronger. Even though his heart was in shatters, he needed to tell her, friends or not.

"I'm staying here. When you guys leave."

He swore he saw her cringe. Her hands remained near her face as far as he could tell, but Toph still refused to turn to him and speak to him face to face. Her legs were still mid stride, in that exact position. "That's…great."

Any hope that Sokka had that Toph didn't really mean what she had said earlier was thrown out the window. "That's all you're gonna say?"

"What do you want me to say? This seems like the place that makes you happy. That's great."

"Are you kidding me right now?" Sokka grabbed at his hair.

Toph spoke with more fury. "What do you want me to say!?"

"I want you to tell me that this is a bad idea! I want you to tell me that things won't be the same if I stay down here! I want to know that I am your friend! I thought I was your friend, Toph! We were supposed to be best friends!"

"Well, I guess you really just don't understand things then, Snoozles. Have a nice time in the South Pole." She was walking away again but this time Sokka wasn't going to let her run away. As much as Toph told everyone that she was the greatest earthbender in the world, the girl liked to run away from her problems like her opposite element. But not this time. He told himself that Toph was going to talk to him now because there sure wasn't going to be any other time that will be convenient.

Sokka ran to her and grabbed her wrist. With just the right amount of power, he made her turn towards him and he grabbed her other wrist before she can pull away again. Blue met milky green and if Sokka thought his heart couldn't break any further, it did at the sight of her beautiful face.

Although she tried turning her head away, Toph's eyes were red with emotion. They stung with pain both literal and emotional to which Sokka did not know the source. Realizing that she had been wiping her tears away the entire time she was faced away from him, he allowed his hands to let go of her own arms so that he can grab her face to brush the continuing streams away. The metalbender's face tensed at the feeling of his gentle hands. She froze, captured by the gesture that Sokka was performing. It didn't stop the tears, but only caused them to fall faster. Sokka had no idea what he was doing to her.

He knew that she was fast, but the water tribe warrior had not even seen her hands coming. The callused hands pushed hard against his chest and they separated at once. They fell to the ground on their butts, shocked by what had just occurred.

"Stop it!"

He just looked at her. "What's wrong, Toph?"

The master earthbender heard him approach her again and she began to shuffle backwards. "Sokka, just leave me alone. Please."

Anger fueled his response once more. "No, Toph! You are going to tell me what's wrong and you are going to tell me right now!"

"Of course I don't want you to stay here! I don't want you to stay here because it would mean I couldn't see you anymore."

"Toph," Sokka held the bridge of his nose, not understanding her hypocritical response. "minutes ago you were saying good bye to me and now you are saying that you need me to go with you? You are so confusing!"

She responded back with the fight she usually argued with. "You are such an idiot you know that?!"

Sokka yelled. "And now you're insulting me? Toph. You're making no sense right now!"

"Can't you see, Sokka?!"

The intensity of the conversation suddenly cut in half. Sokka just sat there looking at Toph trying to breath correctly as she cried in front of him. She inhaled with anger, but exhaled with sadness. Her eyes were filled with pain, pain that seemed to have been plaguing her for awhile now. All this frustration, all the outbursts, seemed...in time. Sokka's instinct told him that she has been meaning to say whatever she is about to say. So what did he do?

He made a joke.

"Is that supposed to be a blind joke?"

Instead of the tension cutting into another half, Toph's fuel seemed to have ran out and she slumped into the snow. There was no more power to be strong. There was no more time she could waste. She was giving up. "You can't even take me seriously."

"I do-"

"No. No you don't. You never have, Sokka. You honestly have never taken our relationship seriously. This," Toph waved back and forth between them. "can't work because let's face it, this never could happen, right?"

"What are you-"

"And you know what's even more sad? You don't even know what I'm talking about. It's been four years. Four long years of hoping, wishing, praying, and worst of all dreaming. Dreaming was always the worst because it always seemed so real. But in reality what you say to me, in my dreams, never happened."

He waited for her to continue. When several seconds past, he asked quietly. "What do I say? In your dreams?"

Toph wiped her nose with her sleeve, the tears coming back with a vengeance. "You tell me that I'm beautiful. And not just to be nice. You tell me I'm beautiful because you really do think so. You tell me I am easy to talk to. You tell me you admire the things I've accomplished, something my parents can't even tell me to my face. You tell me I make you laugh on some of our toughest days, because let's face it, we have had way too many of them. You tell me I'm the only one to make you happy and forget how young we actually are. We aren't supposed to feel this tired, Sokka. Not at this age. But I feel so tired. So tired of waiting on something that will never come."

"I-"

"Sokka, you aren't stupid. Even if I tell you you are all the time. So please," She clawed at her sobbing eyes. "don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. I am so tired."

He didn't speak. He couldn't because he was presently watching the strongest person that he had ever known crumble before his eyes. Sokka was scared. Toph wasn't supposed to be sobbing, practically rocking back and forth in front of him. Toph was the strongest tree among the forests that had been burned during the comet. Toph was the wave that sailed them out of the storm. Toph was the metal that she had worked so hard to bend.

And so, the hardest thing to grasp about this whole situation, was that Sokka was the one that had tortured her all these years.

He would be lying if he had said he had not known about Toph's crush on him. When they were still dating, Suki had mentioned the small blushes on Toph's face when he said or did something that ultimately flattered the young earthbender. Blinded by one of his first loves, he had thought nothing of it, deeming it as cute. When he and Suki had finally broke up, Sokka's attitude stayed the same. Toph must have just had a crush and had gotten over it by now. So they remained acting like friends, Sokka still blind to the still existing blushes that appeared on Toph's face every now and then.

But these past few days, helping her around the South Pole and getting to talk to her seriously, now it was Sokka telling himself that Toph and him would never happen.

Now, Sokka knew that Toph had been telling herself that for the past four years.

"You don't make me happy as a friend, Sokka."

The water tribe warrior still didn't reply.

"You make me so happy that I...I...I-"

He was right. It was amazing. Toph' eyes widened at the feeling of his lips on hers. She didn't know how he had gotten to her so fast, she didn't know why he didn't say anything beforehand, and she didn't know why he did it. Their mouths stayed immobile, savoring the feeling of their lips together. However, Sokka brought his hand gently to the left side of her face. His thumb gracefully rubbed her cheek with such delicateness that the shock slowly left Toph's body. He kept at it, encouraging her that it was real. His left hand came to her right hip and he squeezed it, making her feel the slight pressure from the force. He needed to convince her that this was all real.

Suddenly, Toph began moving her lips under his. Knowing that she was inexperienced, Sokka led the dance this time.

"Alright, give me your hand."

He shifted his lips to kiss her again and again. He let his tongue lick her lips, asking to be let in.

"So, you just put your hand there."

Toph obliged and let him complicate their intimate routine. He tasted so good, just as she had dreamed.

"And then what?"

Her hand came to the back of his neck, pulling him closer to deepen their dance. Sokka smiled against her lips. She was a natural.

"Then we just…hold with our free hands."

Sokka pulled her closer, letting their bodies come together. She fit perfectly, allowing him to feel every part of her against him. They kissed, and kissed, biting, sucking, tasting. The feeling of her hands caressing him rather than punching him was amazing. The longing that was slowly killing Toph inside was finally demolished and once again, Sokka has made her beyond happy, like he always has.

When they finally parted, Sokka spoke with his words warming her face.

"I love you too."

They didn't move. Sokka stayed put because Toph stayed put. He was waiting for a reaction from the earthbender. But she didn't budge. She remained unmoving, their faces touching and Sokka could feel her breath as she inhaled and exhaled.

"I'm going to wake up soon, aren't I?"

Sokka looked at her confused. "What are you talking about?"

Toph sighed loudly. "This a dream, right? I'm just sleeping in my room."

"This isn't a dream, Toph. I promise."

She didn't reply.

He tried something else. His brilliant mind had went to work once more. "Have I ever said I love you in any of your dreams?"

Sokka hated seeing the sorrow flash across her face. "Not even in my dreams."

"Well then," he came in for a quick kiss letting their lips taste each other once more. "This is real, Toph. I love you."

A minute passed by before her arms came around his neck and Toph crushed him in a hug. Sokka couldn't help but laugh and just wrap his own arms around her small waist that he could clearly feel under her coat. Her sigh tickled his ears. "Well, why didn't you just say so, Snoozles?"

"Me? What about you?" He chuckled into her hair.

A saddened expression came onto her face. "I don't even know if all of this really happened."

His hand was back to her face, brushing her cheek. "It is, Toph. What am I going to do to convince you?"

She only pulled him back to her body. "It's been four years. Four years of trying to move on. It isn't exactly something I can brush off."

And in a way, Sokka knew that Toph was being honest. They weren't going to just fall into each other's arms and have the full capacity of trust that Aang had for Katara or that Zuko had for Mai and vice versa. No, these things will take time, because they had to face it: they weren't just any couple. They were Toph and Sokka.

So, Sokka did the only thing that would fix all of it.

"I'm still staying here in the South Pole."

Toph pulled away. "What?"

Sokka brushed her hair away. "Just for a month. I'll help my dad rebuild everything down here and be back just in time for your birthday."

"A month?" Toph's scowl began to come back to her face. "I just confessed everything that I've been feeling for the past four years. How is now a good time to be separated from each other?"

"Because you can't say it back yet."

Even though the way she cocked her head to the side was beyond adorable, Sokka stayed strong. "Say what?"

"That you love me, Toph. You don't trust me like that yet. You don't trust this yet. But don't worry about hurting my feelings because I know you do love me. It's just going to take some time." He allowed himself to smile at her as her expression changed from anger to uncertainty.

The master earthbender swallowed hard. "W-Well, it's just kind of hard. It's not that I don't-"

"Toph," Sokka brought his lips to her cheek and let his lips linger on her soft skin. He spoke straight into her ear. "You're fine. You gave me four years. I'm more than happy to give you at least a month."

"Do I make you happy, Sokka?" She was also whispering.

"More than you know."