A/N: To break up some of the doom and gloom, please enjoy this chapter of light-hearted fun.

‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›

In which Toph wakes up completely naked on the beach, with no memory of the previous night, and must use her detective skills to figure out why…

What Sokka Knows

Bumbumbumbumbumbumbumbumbum

A strange sensation on Toph's feet and ankles pulled her out of a dreamless sleep, the faint repetitive noise echoing all around her. She sat up with a start, gasping. "No! Not again!"

Pressing her palms into the sand - Wait, sand? What? No, that's not important - she could feel the pulsing beat emanating from the ground. The ground, not her. She let out a relieved sigh. Water tickled her feet, then retreated, only to return a few seconds later. It wasn't until then that she finally noticed she was naked. Well, naked except for the wet sand that clung to various parts of her body.

I'm...on a beach? What is going on?

Aside from what she could only assume was someone beating a drum somewhere relatively nearby, there were no significant vibrations in her vicinity. "Where am I?" she muttered. But that question was easily answered by getting to her feet and giving the sand a good stomp. "The Island…?" Well, it was better than the alternative. And it would explain the drumming. Jingbo liked to incorporate it into his morning meditations, as Toph had learned the first time she slept on the Island.

She sat back down, cross-legged in the sand, her head propped up in her hand pensively. "What the actual fuck?" she said to the tiny, gentle waves crashing just out of reach. In an attempt to figure out how she'd ended up here, she mentally retraced her steps. Or tried to, anyway. What was the last thing she could remember? Wait, what time was it? She touched her wrist and found bare skin. Apparently, she'd taken off her watch (as she'd taken to calling it when Sokka wouldn't let it go). Hopefully, it was safe. Her meteorite bracelet was gone, too.

Ok. I left work, went home, changed my clothes. Sokka showed up, promptly ripped all those clothes off. Got dressed again. We went to Air Temple Island for Aang's birthday dinner.

That was it. That was where the mental trail ended. Most significantly, Toph did not have any symptoms of a hangover, besides the holes in her memory. No headache, no queasiness. Her mind was clear, just...empty. Turning her head, she could detect the warm summer sun on her face. She guessed it was probably around nine or ten o'clock, which meant Rinna would have already sent an officer to her apartment to check on her. They would be starting to get a little worried now.

She stood back up with a sigh. The mystery could not be solved by sitting here, futilely trying to remember. Raising her arms carefully, she bent packed sand around her indecency. While nudity had never bothered her – as far as she was concerned, everyone was nude all the time – she did have her reputation to uphold, and she knew that walking around naked wouldn't be a great look for the Chief of Police.

Even with the modest sand covering, she opted to hike up to the house through more rugged terrain and undergrowth to avoid any wandering acolytes or tourists. As she got closer, her footsteps on solid ground told her that the house was empty save for one large form in a bed. He was snoring loudly when she crept inside.

"Sokka," she said, shaking his shoulder lightly.

"I've got the marbles," he mumbled, a smile in his voice.

What? "Sokka!" she said louder, shoving him a little harder.

He jerked awake. "Wha-! T- Toph? Wh- Why are you...wearing...sand?" His voice was thick with unadulterated confusion.

Toph picked up a nearby piece of clothing and went to open the window. With a swiping gesture, the sand flew from her body out the window and was replaced by Sokka's shirt. It smelled of him and reached nearly to her knees.

"Man, I must have had way too much to drink last night," he muttered.

"You don't remember anything, do you?"

There was a slight pause. "No... Nothing. What happened? Did we really...? Here ?"

"No. Well, I don't think so."

"Then where are your clothes?"

"I wish I knew," Toph said with a sigh.

"You don't remember either?"

"I remember getting on the ferry to come here for dinner. After that, nothing."

"And you woke up here, naked?"

"Actually, I woke up on the beach, naked."

Sokka laughed. "Oh, Fuck, T. What the shit? I don't even feel hungover."

"Neither do I."

"We gotta find Aang and Katara," he said, getting out of bed.

"I need to find my fucking clothes. My watch is gone. So is my bracelet."

"Oh." He now sounded much more serious. "That's not good."

"Katara's coming," Toph said abruptly, picking up her friend's footsteps. She hadn't been paying attention. How were they going to explain this? She could feel the vibrations of Sokka quickly putting his pants on. In his hurry, he tripped and fell into the dresser.

"Sokka?" Katara's voice called from down the hall. A few seconds later she was standing in the open doorway. "Oh..."

"This isn't what it looks like," Toph said.

"Not even going to ask." With a soft snort, she headed back towards the lounge.

"Hold up, there, Sweetness. We gotta talk."

What Katara Knows

Katara was silent for a few long moments after Toph and Sokka's somewhat confusing explanation of what was going on. "That...is a really elaborate way of trying to pointlessly cover up the fact-"

"We're not lying," Toph interrupted. "I really did wake up on the beach. I have no fucking idea what happened last night, or where my stuff is."

"...You're serious?"

"Yes!" they both said together.

"What time is it?" Toph asked.

"Almost ten."

"Fuck. I need to get a message to Headquarters."

"Alright, well, why don't you come and put on some of my clothes, first?"

"Yeah, ok." She followed Katara to her bedroom. "Do you have any idea what happened last night?"

"You stayed pretty late and decided to sleep here. You were gone when I got up so I assumed you left early. Here, put this on."

"This is so weird," Toph said as she dressed, Katara handing her items one at a time. "I don't think I was drunk. I don't feel hungover at all."

"You and Sokka shared a bottle of sake last night, but you didn't seem drunk."

"Maybe it had gone off or something?"

"You both seemed fine. We ate, you and Aang did some training with Riju, then had a little sparring match with each other. Riju went to bed and we all sat around and talked for a while."

"Did we all go to bed at the same time?"

"Yeah. Well, I thought I heard Sokka walking around after I went to bed, but I was pretty tired and fell asleep quickly."

"What about Aang? Would he know anything"

"I don't know. He left hours ago."

They went out to the lounge and met Sokka coming back inside. "I sent Xing-Ying to the docks to send a telegram to the station," he said.

"What did you tell her to say?"

"Just that you had some business on Air Temple Island and wouldn't be in until later."

"Ok," Toph said, thinking. "I think we should come at this like a case. Scour the Island for clues and question as many people as possible."

"I'm sorry, but I can't help you," Katara said. "I'm teaching a healing class in five minutes."

"Oh! Gimme a second!" Sokka exclaimed, hurrying to his room. He emerged a minute later and Katara groaned.

"You must be joking," she said with a derisive laugh.

"What? It helps me think!"

"What are you doing, Meathead?"

"He's wearing that ridiculous detective hat that he got on Kyoshi Island during the war."

"It's not ridiculous." He sounded genuinely offended.

"Well, you two have fun solving your little mystery," Katara said, walking away. "Let me know how it goes."

"Alright," Sokka said. "First thing: Let's look for footprints down by the beach and try to retrace your steps from where you woke up."

"Sounds good," she said, heading outside. "I came up this way so no one would see me."

"In your little sand bikini?" Sokka laughed.

"Shut up."

"What? I thought it was great! Very resourceful."

"I'm glad you liked it," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I like you in blue, too. I would be lying if I said I didn't have some...relevant fantasies."

"You have fantasies about me wearing your sister's clothes?"

"Wh- That is not what I meant," he muttered while Toph laughed at him. "Being in the South Pole is boring and lonely. Sometimes I imagine you're there with me." There was an odd vulnerability in his voice that tamped down her amusement and made her chest ache a little.

They didn't speak again until reaching the place where she had woken up. "Yep, there's that ass print," Sokka said. "I'd know it anywhere."

She rolled her eyes again but ignored him. "There are footprints that come from that way."

"Tide's coming in, we better hurry."

They followed the trail until it faded, the ground becoming more solid.

"Well, that didn't help much," she remarked. "Do you see anything unusual? Anything out of place?"

"Hm. Nothing's jumping out. Let's split up and have a look around."

Toph walked around, periodically stomping her foot to scan the area. After a few tries, she noticed a tall, narrow boulder that had a weird hole carved in it. There was something in the hole.

"Sokka. Over here." Reaching inside, her hand felt familiar cloth.

"It's the clothes you were wearing last night."

"What the fuck? Why would I take my clothes off and put them here?" Feeling around, she located her watch and sighed with relief. But wait...something was missing. "Damnit."

"What?"

"My bracelet's not here." Her shoulders slumped despondently.

"We'll find it, T. It's got to be on the Island somewhere."

They spent another fifteen minutes scouring the area, coming up empty. "I think it's time we start questioning people," Toph announced. "Let's start at the docks. Maybe whoever was on duty last night saw something."

What Naki Knows

"Oh, yeah, you might wanna give this a read," the man in the boathouse said with unveiled amusement. "Soto left me this gem from his shift last night. Though he also gave me a live rendition, too, which was a lot more entertaining," he finished with a laugh.

Sokka cleared his throat to read. "' Chief Beifong and Mr. Sokka arrived around eleven pm and had an urgent need to go to the mainland. Something about the city being on fire. Pretty sure they were drunk, but who am I to question the Chief of Police? Took them across. Ianto brought them back a few hours later with a similar story.' "

"What the fuck?" Toph said, again, amusement pulling at the corners of her mouth despite a twinge of annoyance for the report's mocking tone. "We weren't drunk," she added, feeling the need to defend her dignity.

"Hey, I didn't write it."

"This isn't good," she mused, frowning. "If we were in the city last night, that drastically widens our search area."

Sokka gripped her shoulder. "C'mon. There are still a lot of places we can look."

"Maybe it's at my apartment."

"What did you lose?" the man asked.

"It's a black bracelet made out of a meteorite," Sokka said. "Have you seen anything like that?"

"Sorry, no."

"Alright, thanks anyway. C'mon, let's go," Sokka said, pulling Toph towards the ferry. On the other side, they were met with another man with a log entry detailing their antics, but no actual relevant information.

"This is getting ridiculous," she muttered as they headed to her apartment, less amused than before. "I really don't have time for this. I have a lot of work to do."

"Do you want to stop looking?"

"No, of course not. I was just stating a fact."

"I'm sure they can survive a few hours without you."

"I guess. Just means I'll have to stay later tonight." The moment she touched the doorknob to her apartment, she knew it was unlocked. Silently, she put up a hand in warning as she gave a light stomp. "Ok. It's fine. There's no one in there. I must have been here last night and left it unlocked. Hopefully, no one stole anything."

"Everything looks normal," Sokka said, walking around. "Furniture hasn't been moved. Hm. Cupboards appear to be undisturbed.

Toph paced around, searching for small objects on the floor. "Guess I might as well get my armor if I'm going to be wandering around the city doing detective work." She went into her bedroom and tossed her bundled-up clothes on the bed. A moment later, she realized her wardrobe was wide open and empty. "Fuck!"

"What?! What's wrong?" He ran over to her. "Oh no."

"Yeah."

"You think it was stolen?"

"I don't know. Why would someone do that?" She went over to her dresser and rummaged around for the emergency cash she kept hidden in the back of one of the drawers. It was still there. "Why would someone come in here and take my armor and nothing else? And who would dare to come in here, anyway, knowing it's my apartment?" The thought made her bristle with indignation.

"It seems a lot more likely that you did something with it, T. We were obviously...not ourselves last night."

"Great. Something else I have to look for. Did you have a good look around out there?"

"Yeah. I didn't find anything."

"Alright, let's go."

"Where to, Detective Beifong?"

"Oh, I'm demoted now?"

"Sorry. Detective Chief Beifong."

"I'm not sure that's any better," she said with a dry laugh. "C'mon. I want to stop by Headquarters. Maybe we went there last night." She made a beeline for her office but was stopped in the hall by Nato.

"Morning Chief," he said, holding back laughter. "Heard you had a good time last night. Hey, nice hat."

"Why thank you," Sokka said.

"Oh, Spirits," Toph said, exasperated. "What did you hear?"

"Pretty much everything. You're not really gonna fire Oron and Naki, right?"

"Huh?"

"You don't remember?"

"I assume they wrote a report from their shift?" she asked impatiently.

"Yeah. Rinna's already got it. What the heck are you wearing? Where's your armor?"

Toph realized she had forgotten to change at her apartment. "They're Katara's clothes. A story for another day," she muttered, breezing past him to go to her office.

"Morning, Chief," Rinna said cheerfully.

"I need Oron and Naki's report from last night."

"Ah...sure." There was a sound of shuffling papers. "Here it is."

Toph grabbed it but handed it off to Sokka for the sake of expedience. "' Chief and her friend Sokka came in approx. two o'clock in the morning. She said something about danger in the city but pretty sure she wasn't serious. Not sure if we're fired or not. Sorry, Chief. '"

"That's it?"

"I skipped over everything else that didn't have to do with us."

"Get me their addresses."

"Sure, just a minute," Rinna said.

"You haven't seen my bracelet here, have you?"

"No...sorry." There was the faint sound of pen scribbling on paper. "Here you go."

"I might be out for a few hours," Toph said, heading for the door.

Sokka followed, taking the slip of paper from her. "Ok, looks like Naki's place is closer," he said.

Ten minutes later, Toph was rapping on the young officer's door. After several tries, she could detect a form trudging slowly towards the door.

"Chief!" Naki exclaimed sleepily. "Wh- What are you doing here?"

"I need to ask you about last night."

"Oh...um. Ok…?" she mumbled.

"What did we say to you?"

"You don't remember?"

Toph sighed. "No."

"You said there was a stone dragon rampaging under the city. And, um, you said the streets were infested with giant boar-q-pines."

Sokka burst out laughing, leaning heavily against the doorframe.

"You wanted our help," Naki continued. "We figured you were just drunk and then you, er, fired us when we wouldn't come out to help you."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Toph muttered, though she was trying not to laugh. Sokka wasn't trying at all. "Was I wearing my armor?"

"Yeah."

"Get it together, Sokka."

"Hehe. Sorry. Ok, I think I'm good now."

"Um, Chief… Am I really fired?"

"No. Did I say anything about where I was going next?

"No, sorry."

"Ok. I guess that's it. You can go back to bed now, thanks."

Sokka was still chuckling as they left. "This is fucking wild ."

"It's a little embarrassing."

"Spirits, you've gotten boring in your old age," he said, thumping her back. "You're allowed to have a little fun every now and then. No harm in your officers seeing you as human."

"I am neither old nor boring, as evidenced by our behavior last night. But you're wrong about my officers. I don't like them to see me out of control."

"Mm," he mused, leaning into her. "I'm the only one that gets to see you lose control."

"Not the time, Meathead," she chuckled, pushing him away. "Focus."

"Ok, ok. Where to next, Detective Chief Beifong?"

"I guess...we should go back to the Island. We still have to interview the acolytes."

What Riju Knows

"Well," Ling said, "I did hear some weird noises, really early this morning."

"What kind of weird noises?" Toph asked.

"Sounded like an animal on the roof of the temple. But big. Much bigger than any kind of bird or small rodent."

"You didn't go out and look?"

"It was still dark. I couldn't see anything."

Chun-ya said he had heard voices in the middle of the night. People yelling down by the docks. He'd been too scared to investigate. Rula said she'd taken a late walk, around midnight, and had seen the two of them sitting outside the main house, talking and sharing a bottle of something.

"This is just making less and less sense," Toph said to Sokka. "So...we did have more to drink, then? What could make us black out like that?"

"I've never had anything that caused this kind of memory loss."

"Maybe we should check around the house, see if we can find any evidence of what we were drinking," she suggested. They started scouring the ground and foliage around the outside of the house.

"Toph, I think I found something."

"What?"

"Broken glass. Looks like it's been cleaned up but a piece got nudged under this bush. Hm… The residue smells familiar. I can't place it, though."

"We need to find the rest of it. Someone obviously swept it up and put it somewhere."

"I'll check the trash," he offered.

Toph followed him inside and waited, tapping her lips in thought.

"Fuck. It's been emptied already," Sokka said.

"Where is it taken?"

"There's a larger bin out back. Otherwise...it'll have gone down to the ferry to be taken across." He led her back out and around the house. An awful smell assault her nose when he lifted the lid. "Ugh. This is not exactly how I'd been planning on spending my day off," he muttered.

"You seemed to be having quite a lot of fun back in the city," Toph replied dryly.

" You feel like sticking your hands in this mess?"

"I'm fine, thanks."

"Hold on. I think I found something." There was a brief pause, then he started laughing. "Oh, man," he said, struggling to speak through his amusement. "I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner. It seems so obvious now."

"What?!"

"It was the cactus juice from your sixteenth birthday."

"Oh, for fuck's sake. You saved that shit?"

"Of course I saved it. Spirits, I must've found it last night." He closed the lid, the metal clanging shut. "Well, mystery solved, I guess. Obviously, four-and-a-half-year-old cactus juice should not be consumed."

"Mystery not solved! I still have no idea where my armor and bracelet are!"

"They've got to be here somewhere," Sokka said placatingly. "We'll just have to keep looking."

"It's a big island, and I don't have all day."

"We'll ask the acolytes to help search. But...first, I'm going to need something to eat. How 'bout we take a lunch break?"

"Alright, fine."

Sokka draped his arm across her shoulders as they walked. "You'll feel better with some food in you."

Back inside, Toph sat down at the table to let him rustle something up. Food preparation wasn't exactly her area of expertise. She let her mind wander. The armor can be easily replaced, but how could I have lost my most treasured possession? Because I decided to drink fucking expired cactus juice? Footsteps coming into the house interrupted her morose reverie.

"Oh, hey, Sifu," Riju said with a yawn.

"Finished with your lessons?" Sokka asked him.

"Yeah." He yawned again.

"Has Yang been boring you to death?" Toph smirked.

"No. Well, yeah, but that's not why I'm tired. Don't you remember?"

She sat up straight. "Remember what?"

"Waking me up in the middle of the night?"

"I did?"

"Yeah. You were acting really weird. You said Sokka had turned into a saber-toothed moose lion and that you needed me to help you. I thought you were sleep-walking or something."

Sokka started laughing; she would have, too, but wanted to hear more.

"Then what?" she prodded.

"You really don't remember?"

"Just tell me."

"I told you you were nuts and to let me go back to sleep, but you dragged me out to the stable and started talking to Appa."

"And?!"

"And nothing. You forgot I was even there so I went back to bed."

Toph got up and headed for Appa's stable, Sokka and Riju following after a few seconds. The six-legged beast was dozing but roused at their entrance. She put her hand on his snout and gave a gentle pat.

"I don't suppose you know where my stuff is, do you?" He responded with an affectionate roar, then lumbered around to face a corner. Eyebrows furrowed, she followed his motion, then stomped her foot. "It's there," she murmured, walking to the corner and dropping to her knees in front of some hay. In a messy pile was every piece of her armor. And her bracelet. "Ugh. It's all crusty. And it smells like Appa's slobber."

"Oh yeah!" Riju said. "I just remembered! You said something about how Appa needed to eat some metal and it would make it so he could talk to you." He laughed. "You're so weird, Sifu."

"I'm never drinking cactus juice again."