"There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction." -Franz Kafka

"Well, hello to you too, Sokka," Suki greeted him with a light laugh. Her cheeks flushed a faint pink, coloring her timid face.

Sokka blinked wildly at the last person he expected to see. She looked lovely as always. Time favored Suki, its paintbrush of age never could seem to leave its mark in the corners of her eyes or along her porcelain skin.

"W-What?"

"I said hello," Suki repeated, her laugh easy and natural. It was always a private pleasure of hers to fluster him this way.

"I heard that," Sokka confirmed, rubbing his forehead nervously, "I just didn't expect you to be here."

"I wasn't originally planning on it, but I got to thinking about-"

"Oh, man. You gotta get out of here," Sokka cut across her in a panicked voice.

"Excuse me?" Her nose crinkled at his comment. It was quite a departure from moments ago when he seemed eager to do nothing but kiss her again. She opened her mouth to continue asking him where this sudden change of heart had come from when the door creaked. Suki spun around to find Toph standing in the doorway, frozen.

"Toph!" She greeted brightly.

"Suki?" Toph asked, "Wow. I didn't expect to find you in here."

"Neither did I," Sokka supplied urgently.

"Uh...I'll let you guys get back to whatever it is you were doing," Toph began awkwardly as she went to pull the door closed. Sokka grit his teeth and made a pained expression, gripping at the air as if it would pull her back into the room. His gesture went unseen by both ladies.

"Did you need something?" Suki asked before Toph was able to shut herself away from the couple.

"No...I just...I was making sure Sokka could find his room. He was lost earlier. You know how he is," Toph mumbled.

"All too well," Suki laughed knowingly.

Toph let out a laugh in return that was perhaps a little too hearty, "Ha ha, yeah. Good ol' Sokka. That fucker," she pointed her finger in his direction and shook it playfully, "You really are one stupid fuck, Sokka. Ha ha."

Suki's mouth flattened out at Toph's overdone laughter and strong statement, before she turned to Sokka and raised her eyebrows. She jumped slightly as the door closed behind her forcefully. They listened to Toph's exaggerated laughter as it echoed all the way down the hall.

Suki's eyes drifted between the doorway and Sokka's defeated expression, "What was that about?"

Sokka sighed and shook his head, taking a few steps back and sitting on the edge of his oversized bed. He pat the space next to him, "Come here."

Suki watched him cautiously. His shoulders sagged and he had that look on his face that was usually followed by bad news. It was the same look he gave her when he told her of his decision to stay in Republic City years ago. She sat beside him, stealing a tentative glance at his furrowed brow.

"What made you decide to come here?" he asked in a low voice.

"You sound disappointed," Suki projected, swallowing her confidence.

"Its not that, no," Sokka insisted with a small wave of his hand, "I just thought you...I thought there was someone else."

Suki suddenly felt as if the walls were closing in and her cheeks colored again. She did write him a letter to that effect, but talking to him about it face to face was another story. A story that made her rather uncomfortable.

"There was," she admitted regretfully, "but honestly it was something I had to do for myself, Sokka. We'd been together so long and I never wanted to hurt you or jeopardize what we had, but I needed to see what else was out there."

Sokka nodded, eyes trained on the floor.

"And I realized what was out there, wasn't all that great," she concluded. They sat in silence for almost a minute when she noticed a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"What?"

"You slept with him and it was bad, huh?" he ventured, looking up at her as his smile spread.

She couldn't help but smile back and cover her face in embarrassment, "Yes," she admitted with a small laugh. They both chuckled a bit and she slapped his arm playfully, "Don't laugh."

"Just glad to know I'm still number one," he joked shrugging his shoulders. The silenced stretched between them again.

Suki looked at him seriously, "Have you? I mean- have you been with anyone else?"

Sokka looked at her with an apology in his eyes. He clearly had been and his experience wasn't nearly as regrettable as hers.

"I realized something when I read your letter," he began to explain, "I realized that I'd been feeling the same way. I was sad, but I wasn't angry about it- which kind of told me that maybe we weren't working out. If Sokka from five years ago had gotten that letter he would have been on the first boat to the Fire Nation..."

"But this Sokka," she said, laying one hand on his arm, "didn't care."

"No," he told her with certainty, "I cared. I'll always care. You were a big part of my life, Suki. A wonderful part. But, I just think that maybe that part ran its course."

She turned her head from him expecting tears, but none materialized. She blinked a few times just to be sure it wasn't a delayed reaction before she turned back to him. She thought this would hurt more. That is when she realized he was right- she had been trying to fix something that wasn't broken. Something that was no longer there at all.

"She's a lucky girl. Whoever she is," Suki told him with sigh. Sokka looked at the ceiling quickly and blushed.

Her eyes widened, "Who?" She looked down to see he was literally twiddling his thumbs as he avoided the question, "someone I know, obvious- oh my spirits!" Her mouth hung open as she pieced together Toph's presence at his door and her strange behavior. She hit his leg in surprise.

"Ow!"

"I can't believe it. Actually, I can believe it...," she muttered to herself, "you two weren't... while we were..." she asked crisscrossing her hands.

"No!" he insisted hotly.

"Is it serious?" she asked finally. Sokka looked up again in thought, his expression suddenly pensive.

"I think so," he told her, "I don't know...probably not anymore," he sighed looking at her pointedly. Suki shifted slightly, leaning away to look him over. She knew Sokka like the back of her hand and there was no part of his summation that come across as disingenuous. She felt a pang of jealousy, a hint of despair for what might have been. Those feelings didn't linger however, they washed away when she saw the seriousness and worry in his eyes. She sighed, making peace with the fact that he may always love her, but he was falling in love too. She leaned in and brushed her lips chastely against his cheek.

"I think I'll go ahead and ask Zuko for that other room now," she told him, standing. She walked the short space to the door and paused there, turning to address him, "I want you to be happy Sokka..."

"I want you to be happy too," he replied with a sad smile.

"I will be," she nodded without doubt. She turned to leave when Sokka's curious voice stopped her progress.

"Hey," he began, and she could just picture him rubbing his chin. Turning back, she saw he was doing just that. "Was this Zuko's idea?"

"Yeah, he talked me into coming," she confirmed bashfully. Sokka looked relieved.

"That makes the wink he gave me earlier way less creepy," he laughed. She laughed too.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Suki."

As she made her way down the hall, she heard his door click open in her wake. She didn't bother to turn around, knowing that it would only be to watch him walk to Toph's room.

The handle on her door jostled slightly. Toph lay in the darkness next to her snoring five year old and listened to the metal jangle and click fruitlessly. The door wasn't locked, but her will on it was. She could imagine that it was probably Sokka coming to "explain" or some nosy house servant here to roll her over or something equally absurd. Either way, she wasn't answering.

"Toph?" came Sokka's whispered voice from the other side. He couldn't see her, but she crossed her arms in a huff anyway.

"Toph?"

Lin's body squirmed slightly and she mumbled a few nonsense words before rolling over and burying her face in Toph's armpit. Great. If Sokka woke her up he would be twice as dead in the morning. There was a light tapping against the wood of the door and Lin let out a small whimper. Toph reached down to smooth her hair, which was soaked with sweat. Lovely. She whined a bit more and began pushing back at Toph's hand which encircled her carefully to comfort her from what was presumably a nightmare. The quiet knock came again and Toph was at her wits end with his disruption so she let one leg drop off the side of the bed and kicked at the ground. In less than a second she heard the sound of Sokka's strangled surprise at being confronted with a large pillar of rock to the face.

Leaving her foot on the floor she sensed his retreating footsteps. It was a disappointment and a relief. A voice in the back of her mind told her that he must not care if he's going to give up that easily. Who was she kidding anyway? Of course he wasn't going to stick around forever. Sokka was charming and from what she understood, handsome. He certainly felt nice. She blew a few strands of hair from her face. Toph was brash, and crude, and had no idea where she landed on the scale of attractiveness otherwise, because she was blind- another bonus point. Oh, and tack on an extra ten points for the unwed mother factor. Yeah, she thought, what a prize.

Lin twisted a little in her grasp and she leaned in slightly to kiss her damp forehead. This was all she really needed right here. She'd given Lin the same pep talk not too long ago. They had each other and that was enough. Same, same. Beifongs against the world.

She admonished herself from ruminating on something as pointless as a boy. Toph Beifong doesn't pout and she certainly doesn't pine. With a determined breath Toph let her eyes flutter closed and tried to sleep. It came after a long while and with no dreams to speak of.

The following morning Toph woke to the melodic plucking of harp strings outside her window.

"What's that sound?" Lin asked from what Toph estimated to be one millimeter from her face.

"It sounds like a harp, death breath," Toph replied with a yawn as she felt the bed shift and Lin bound out and run to the window.

"It is a harp!" she announced from the balcony. From where Lin stood she could see a woman strumming a large harp languidly below. She looked to one side and saw Katara and Aang on their private balcony, watching the harpist as well, their children pushing eager faces against the slotting of the stone walls in hopes of a better view. Toph slowly pad her way to the balcony, standing beside her daughter.

"I guess this means its breakfast time?" Aang questioned across the space between them in an amused voice.

"This is proof that some people have too much money," Toph replied by way of confirmation.

"You mean to tell me you never had a harpist as an alarm growing up?" Katara asked, skeptically.

Toph snorted, "Of course not...we had a guy that played the qin."

Katara raised one eyebrow at Aang, satisfied that her point had been duly proved. He then whipped his head in the opposite direction, "Guess it wasn't enough to wake Sokka," he noted as he observed Sokka's empty balcony.

All the muscles in Toph's back seized. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that it was going to be like this all week and she had better get used to it. Suki was here, Suki was in his room, Suki was the reason he was still in bed. Her stomach lurched.

"Alright guys, let's head down to breakfast," Aang said, mercifully interrupting her train of thought.

Breakfast got off to an awkward start. There was always a bit of formality surrounding the Firelord, even on holiday. Zuko made the effort to call it off when possible, but when the machinery of the royal household got to turning it was somewhat unstoppable. Aang joked that he bowed so often it was going to leave him with an eight-pack before the week was out. For the Beifong's part they were prepared to use proper table manners. Lin had even taken to pinching Tenzin's leg under the table when he picked up the wrong utensil or tried eating before Zuko. It wasn't the pomp that made their meal uncomfortable, however.

By happenstance Sokka and Suki entered the dining room at the same time. There was collective gasp of excitement when the rest of the party saw her. Katara jumped out of her seat to hug Suki before realizing she was breaking protocol. She blushed a bit, but did not seem to regret her action until she noticed the only adult in the room not looking enthused. Katara took her seat again, watching her blind friend carefully. The table filled with chatter directed primarily at Suki.

Zuko smiled a bit before addressing Sokka on the side, "I hope you don't mind the little surprise we set up for you?"

"He set up for you," his wife, Mai insisted from beside him.

Sokka looked nervously around the table and opened his mouth to reply when he heard Suki's voice first.

"Actually," she said loudly, drawing attention, "I want to tell you guys that while I'm so excited to be here this week... Sokka and I have decided to stay friends."

"You were going to stop being friends?" Bumi blurted and Princess Ursa rolled her eyes. There was gentle wave of laughter that swept across the table at his naivety followed by an extended silence, the sound of cutlery clicking against china filling the room. Nobody was quite sure how to follow that announcement, so they continued eating in relative silence.

Sokka watched Toph curiously, but she offered no discernible reaction to Suki's announcement. She simply munched away staring in no particular direction. Catching her attention silently was certainly a waste- they would never lock eyes and exchange a knowing look. Toph couldn't see the sincerity in his eyes, she would never understand the unspoken feeling, or the quiet apology in his worried expression. Non-verbals were never going to work, he realized. So, he cleared his throat.

"Um," he started to say, realizing just how booming his voice sounded in the quiet room. Everyone at the table looked at him expectantly, except Suki who must have known what was coming because she studied her food with diligence.

"Um, I also wanted to...tell you guys something. I mean, I guess we need to tell you," he rambled. Toph's head turned in his direction as she felt a rush of adrenaline shoot through her veins. She was afraid she knew where this was going.

"Right, Toph?" he asked, hoping for her approval to out them. All the heads turned in her direction this time and though she couldn't see it, she could feel it. Instead of answering she simply swallowed.

"What is going on?" Katara led as her patience wore thin.

Sokka let out something akin to a nervous laugh.

"Toph and I have been...seeing each other," he said, pausing for the obligatory blind joke from Toph which never came.

"Everyone is staring at me, aren't they?" Toph deadpanned. A moment of affirmative silence passed before she sighed in annoyance.

"Mom?" Lin asked, her voice tinged with confusion. Toph suppressed a groan and pushed her chair out, reaching over to grab Lin. She said nothing as she rested her daughter against her side and made her way out of the dining hall.

"That didn't go as I expected," Sokka commented after Toph's exit. The entire table seemed to be at a loss for words. Suki refused to look up from her food, worried that she would be inundated with pitiful stares.

Katara finally spoke, "Are you going to go after her?"

"Right," Sokka replied, pushing his own chair out, "Sorry," he apologized with a bow as he walked backward from the hall.

He made his way to Toph's room where he anticipated she was headed, but was advised by a housekeeper that the lady had gone outside. He wandered down the hall and out the doors, looking around with squinted eyes in the morning sun. He finally spotted her and Lin making their way down to the shore. He took off in a sprint, calling out to Toph in a matter of seconds. Toph's shoulders dropped a bit and she set Lin down on the sandy pathway in order to free up her hands for placement on her hips.

"What the hell was that?" she barked at him as he approached.

"What? I'm not the one who got up and stormed off," Sokka countered in frustration. She scoffed at him, then ticked her head in the direction of her daughter.

"I haven't even had a chance to talk to her about this," she argued, crossing her arms with authority. His head rolled back, noting his stupidity. She had a point. As far as Lin was concerned, her father was away for some finite amount of time, able to turn up at any moment and pick up where they left off. He wasn't sure Toph had even told her that they were separated romantically.

Sokka looked over at Lin sympathetically and waved his hand at her, "Come here, Bones." She did as she was told and ran to him without hesitation, offering no arguments as Sokka lifted her from the ground and into his arms.

"Listen, we've got some stuff to talk about," he began walking over to where Toph stood, "Should we head down to the beach?"

"Yeah, sure," Toph relented, walking alongside them. Lin rested her head against his shoulder in an attempt to find some comfort in the midst of the uncertainty surrounding her.

"Lin," he began, "What did you think when I said your Mom and I have been seeing each other? Do you know what that means?" She buried her face in his shirt, embarrassed to admit she did not understand.

"It's grown up code for dating," Toph explained, reaching up to rub her back lightly, "you know that one, right?" Lin nodded silently, her hair catching static against the fabric of Sokka's clothes. "Well, what do you think about that?"

Lin shrugged, keeping her face pressed against his shoulder.

"You're gonna have to use your words with me, kid," Toph reminded her.

In a small, muffled voice Lin asked, "What about Dad?"

"Turn up the volume," Toph instructed, pointing at her ear.

"What about Dad?" Lin repeated with a little more strength. Toph chewed her lip at this question, which wasn't altogether unexpected.

"Well, baby girl, your Dad and I are split up," Toph told her plainly. Lin's face pressed into Sokka again and he began to feel a dampness forming through his shirt. He reached up and began rubbing her back.

Upon hearing a telltale sniffle, Toph reached her arms out and Sokka passed the weeping five year old over. She was accepted with a grunt, "Damn, kid. You are getting big," Toph commented with a hint of mischief, hoping her change in tone would cheer Lin. It did cause her to let out a laugh against her will and Toph and Sokka laughed in return to keep the mood light as they sat down in the sand before the rolling waves.

"Listen to me," Toph told her, "just because your Dad and I aren't together doesn't mean we don't both still love you. Got me?" Lin nodded reluctantly.

"What if he comes home and Sokka is there?" Lin asked finally.

Sokka wrapped one hand around her small shoulders and gave her a light jostle, "Your Dad will always be your Dad, Lin. I'm not going to take over for him. I'm just going to be there too...as long as that's ok with you." When she didn't look up, he nudged her again, "I promise to make you rolled omelets whenever you want..."

Her mouth curled into a smile at that as Toph chimed in, "I'm not sure Dad is going to come back anytime soon, but if he does, having Sokka in our lives won't change anything. He loves you still, I love you, and Sokka loves you. Its like a bonus grown-up that makes omelets and teaches you how to sword fight," she pointed out helpfully.

Lin looked up at Sokka with wet eyes and the faintest hint of a smile, "You can date my Mom if you teach me sword fighting."

"Really? That's it?" Sokka asked with a mock incredulity, "That's all it takes?" Lin nodded, biting her bottom lip with a giggle.

"Well that was easier than expected," Toph shrugged as Sokka and Lin were sealing the deal with a handshake.

"You drive a hard bargain, Beifong," Sokka commented seriously as he shook Lin's small hand with comedic vigor.

"Let's start now!" Lin shouted, jumping up suddenly full of positive energy. Her fist punched the air with excitement though her eyes still brimmed red with tears.

"Actually," Toph began, "how about you go pick out some shells for me while I talk to this dunderhead." Lin groaned. "Go on, punk," Toph repeated with a wave of her hand, "we'll come get you for training in a minute."

Lin huffed, but walked away toward the surf as she was told, scouring the sand for something worthwhile.

"That worked out," Sokka noted brightly.

"Not so fast," Toph replied, placing one hand on his chest, "What was Suki doing in your room last night?"

"Talking," he answered, "Zuko thought he'd play matchmaker, but neither of us were willing. I told her about us."

"I should hope so," Toph returned, thinking of the scene at the breakfast table.

"Is that explanation enough? Are we good? Are we dating now?" Sokka asked, leaning in close.

Toph tapped her lip in thought, "Hmm...date you? You'll have to make me a lot of rolled omelets and teach me sword fighting," she joked.

"Beifong ladies are hard to please," he returned with a laugh, "but I think we can work something out."

"Ok then, I guess I'll let you date me," Toph sighed in feigned exasperation as he leaned in a bit closer and pressed his mouth to hers.

"Eww!" Lin cried out a short distance away as they both burst into laughter.