Warning: Mild bad language.

"Toph, please open the door. I can't let you do this to yourself. I can't let you do this to Lin."

Sokka knocked on the blind earthbender's locked door once more. He fiddled with the locked metal door, cursing himself slightly for encouraging Toph to install it. He sighed heavily and leaned against the door, hoping and praying that Toph would let him in. He knew how difficult it can be to lose someone you love, and he also knew that what Toph was doing was unhealthy by every definition of the word.

"J-just leave me alone," came the muffled reply from the other side of the door.

Sokka reached up to massage the space between his dark brows. "I gave you your space. I gave you your space for an entire week now. And you haven't left your house, you've barely eaten anything, and you missed your mom's funeral this morning." A strangled sobbing noise sounded from the other side of the door. It was strange hearing a girl usually so strong broken down like this. "Toph... just open the door. Let me in. Let someone in. I know it's tough, but I promise we're going to get through it together."

A pause ensued. And after what felt like an eternity, Toph began metal bending the lock. Sokka pushed upon the now unlocked door and peeked inside the room to find his best friend sprawled out across the couch, clutching a letter close to her chest. Her knees were tucked in, her bony arms reaching over to cradle them. Her body convulsed with silent sobs, and from what Sokka could see from his angle, her skin was ghastly pale.

His brows knitted together in concern and he made large strides across the room so that he was sitting next to her, his fingertips making soothing patterns on her back. Sokka suspected that her mother's sudden death had really been Toph's tipping point. Toph's father, Lao Beifong, passed in his sleep several years ago after months of battling sickness. Still, Toph hadn't expected it. And just a few years ago, Lin's father died very suddenly from stroke. Toph hadn't expected his passing either

And last week, Poppy Beifong was involved in a horrible accident.

After a few moments, the sobs that racked her small frame came to a gradual halt as his fingers traced patterns onto her back. When she unfurled herself from the position she was in, she rubbed at her bleary sightless eyes with the back of her pale, pale hand.

"How's Lin?" she asked.

For the past week, ever since Toph got the news, her five-year-old daughter had been staying with Katara and Aang. When she dropped her daughter off, she had told them that she didn't want Lin seeing her mother like this. Aang and Katara had happily agreed, of course, but everyone could tell that Lin just wanted to go home to her mother. Combine that with the fact that this morning, at Mrs. Beifong's funeral, Lin was pacing around and asking where her mother was — and Sokka's heart nearly broke in two.

That was when he decided to pay her a visit, help her get it together. If not for herself, for her young daughter.

"Fine," he answered, "Missing you. But fine."

Toph nodded vaguely. "You probably think I'm such a horrible mother, I know that," she whimpered, "But I can't have Lin seeing me like this. I can't be weak in front of her."

Sokka didn't know what to say. Mainly because she hit the nail right on its head. Instead, he just held her tighter.

"How... how did you get through it?" she croaked after a minute, her voice hoarse from disuse. "Your mom's death, I mean. How...?"

Sokka let out a heavy exhale. "Strong support system, I guess. It was before my Dad left, and Gran Gran and Katara were also there. But I guess what helped most was talking about it. It isn't good to keep everything bottled up inside," His hand snaked over to grasp hers and he gave it a squeeze.

Toph's eyes narrowed and she kept silent for a long time. But Sokka didn't push her. He knew that her letting him in was already a big step for her, and he didn't want to push her too much. Instead, he kept her hand tight in his and with his other hand, began rubbing her back soothingly. Finally, after what felt like a small eternity, Toph released his hand and scooted back on the couch so that she was sitting upright.

Her eyes were fixed forward, not meeting his. They were red-rimmed and glassy, but no tears fell.

"I didn't have a good relationship with my mother," she said finally, clutching the letter in her hand tighter. It was the one she had written to Toph back in Ba Sing Se, the one that had tricked her into getting captured. "I didn't expect for her... passing to break me this bad. My mom and I had a lot of disagreements, but I knew that deep down, she really did care about me. Even if she didn't know the right way to go about doing it. She loved me, and I was such a horrible daughter."

The water tribesman shook his head silently. "Toph, she was lucky to have a daughter like you."

"No, she wasn't!" she snapped, "My mother died thinking that I hated her, and I can't ever make that right to her. I can never fix that!" Several tears escaped and began rolling down the curve of her cheeks. "You know what the last thing I said to her was, Sokka? Do you?" Her voice went shrill at the end, almost hysterical.

"No," he said softly.

A humorless laugh escaped her lips and tears steadily began streaming down her face. "She came to my house. We got into a fight. She was sitting on this couch, and I told her, I looked her in the eyes and I told her, that I hated her. My mom stood up and left and got into her carriage. And that was the last time I ever fucking saw her, Sokka! That last fucking time! I'm such a bad daughter, I didn't even attend her damn funeral! You don't get to just sit there, and say that she was lucky—"

Her words died in her throat when Sokka suddenly drew her into a powerful hug. One that knocked the air out of her lungs. She was stiff for a moment, surprised at the contact. Then, she began crying all over again. Real bad sobs, too. The kinds that make you all wheezy and make your eyes sting afterward. Sokka was vaguely aware of the tears wetting his shoulder, but he didn't care. He tightened his grip around her and felt a few tears streaking down his own face.

The pain, the horrible ricocheting pain of loss was one that he was all too familiar with. He experienced it when his mother died, and when his father left for war not too long after. He experienced it when his grandmother passed away in her sleep three years ago. And he experienced it, though on a smaller degree, when he and Suki had broken up two years ago. It had been mutual, but it hurt nevertheless.

And after a moment, Toph began clinging onto him as if he were her lifeline.

"It hurts, Sokka," Toph whimpered when they pulled apart, and she hated how weak she sounded. "My relationship with her was so messed up, so why does it hurt so much?"

Sokka pulled an arm over her once more and held her tight. "It's the messy relationships that hurt most when you lose them," he finally said, his mind traveling back to the messy split between him and the Kyoshi Warrior.

"I'm tired of losing people," Toph said, sniffling, "I lost Dad, then Kanto, and now Mom. I can't lose anyone else." She tilted her face up at him, her eyes pleading. "You better not ever leave me."

He leaned down and pressed his lips to her temple.

"Never."

A/N: Finally, I present to you Tokka! Sorry for the long wait; in my defense, I was supposed to post this like two weeks ago but couldn't due to the power outages here in Texas. So, I'll be honest, I hadn't even considered the possibility of a TophxSokka pairing when I was first watching the show. But the main reason I started this little series was because I'm such a big, fat multi-shipper. I ship Zutara, Kataang, Maiko, Taang, Sukka, Yukka, Tokka, Tyzula, Mailee, Zukka, Ty Luko, and literally so many more. Basically, if you give me two characters who don't have a weird age gap and aren't related (and somewhat make sense together), I'll probably ship them.

Regardless his one-shot/drabble was very fun to write (I'm a sucker for the comfort trope), and I actually have a new-found respect for the pairing after doing some research about them. I might do another Tokka oneshot in the future since I know this was a little shorter than the previous ones, but I hope you still enjoy it. As always, any criticism/suggestions/prompts are always happily welcomed.

Up next will be Wuko followed by a Boulder-centric one-shot.