Loss
She felt it as soon as it happened; the sudden leap of surprise and pain in his heartbeat, his stumbling over his feet as he fell into the ground, clutching his side.

And each drop of blood as it hit the ground.

No.

"Sokka!"

Her voice wasn't even recognizable to herself as she shrieked, an unfamiliar griping panic seized every part of her. She barely recognized her feet starting to move on their own accord to his side.

"Sokka!" Toph cried out as she threw herself down to the ground beside him, reaching out to clutch the wolf warrior's hand in hers. "No, no- Sokka – no-" She choked slightly, the sounds of the battle seeming far away, almost surreal. "No – no, this can't be – it's not – dream." Toph clutched his hand tighter, shutting her eyes tightly in a futile effort to block off the images the earth gave her, "It's all just a dream. It's going to... going to..."

No. Sokka couldn't be dead. He wasn't dead.

With a stifled sob Toph pressed her head to his chest, the vibrations of the ground no longer enough to convince her that his heart was still beating. She held her head to his chest, clutching his body to her lightly as she heard his faltering heartbeat, his faltering...

No, she refused to think about that. With a small sniff Toph sat up, ripping off a wad of fabric from her clothes and pressing it onto his wound.

"You'll be okay, Sokka," she whispered so softly she couldn't even hear herself, "You have to be. You have to be. Katara will come and heal you and-"

"T-Toph."

Toph's head snapped up alarmingly at the unfamiliar voice, her expression panicked, before she realized it was his voice, his gasping voice... His dying voice.

"Sokka..." She knew her voice sounded weak, but she didn't care. She pressed against the wound harder. She wouldn't cry. He would be all right. "Sokka, you're going to be okay. You're going to."

"Toph... I... I can't..." Sokka let out a shuddering breath that caused Toph's hope to fall even further.

"No, Sokka, you'll be okay – Katara will find us, and she'll... she'll fix you. You'll be oka-"

Her voice was cut off as the dying warrior grasped her with a strength that seemed to come from nowhere. Sokka clung to her, pulling her as close to him as was possible.

Toph let out a gut-wrenching sob as she returned the desperate embrace, burying her face in his neck. She couldn't have moved even if she had wanted, and refused to move even as she felt the life draining from his body.

"Don't die," she whispered into his neck, pleading one last time, though she knew there was nothing either of them could do, "Please don't die."

She felt him smile weakly as he gave her one last weak squeeze before he breathed out with his last breath, "Toph."

Then, and only then, Toph let the tears fall from her eyes.

OMG, angst! I didn't know I could do that!

This was inspired by a poem by a friend of mine (Parabola on Kataang Forever), which was amazing and I had to write this. Yeah.

I'm still crying, I have been ever since I finished it. ;-; Angst is not ftw.

Comments/crits?

-WS

PS, if anyone wants to read the poem tell me and I'll PM it to you. It's not my own work, so I didn't want to post it up here.