The birthday surprise was too much to put into one chapter, so its two. Hope you enjoy. It may have Sokka out of character for a line or two, but i'll let you be the judge of that.

Disclaimer: I dont own a:tla. Im getting tired of these already...

Sokka watched as Toph climbed tentatively down the hill to meet him at the spot. He stretched atop Appa, the setting sun glarin in his eyes, before climbing down. Everything was going according to plan. Now it was time to distract the girl. But truth be told, he was kind of excited to go down and hang out with Toph. The more time he had spent with her the last couple days, the more he looked forward to it. Somehow he could tell that she was interested in what he had to say, as if she could relate to it.

But Toph was not talking, so he didn't know for sure.

The girl was perched on the arches of her feet when Sokka reached her. "Looking at the sunset again?" he asked, half joking. Toph looked at him and nodded. "It's really pretty today," Sokka added, sitting down across from her.

Something about Toph seemed…unconfident tonight. Sokka studied her as she looked down at the rock beneath them, not even looking in his direction. She seemed intent of keeping away from eye contact. He waved his hand in front of her face before realized that…well…she was blind…

"So today's lecture will be about the future plan of the world," Sokka started, using a mock serious voice, hoping to catch her attention. Toph looked up at him and smirked – and so the discussion began. The two conversed, Toph silently of course . She could nod or shake her head in response to his questions and even in one tricky situation Toph drew some battalion arrangements in the rock as Sokka talked about military strategies.

Sokka smiled. The plan was working. The sun had set and the two friends were not even close to reaching a conclusion to the discussion. But then again, the future of the world was a broad topic. Sokka fell silent, leaving the two to sit in, coincidently, silence.

Katara and Aang were decorating the top of the hill to surprise Toph. Katara ran around lighting lanterns and doing the manual work. Aang did what he could in his weakened conditions. He earth bended a table (with much used effort) for the small group to sit at as well as helped cook the food – which basically resulted in him watching the food to keep it from burning.

The Avatar stood up, walking to the east side of the clearing where he could see Toph and Sokka conversing. Toph's back was to him. He could see that Sokka was doing all the talking and remembered what Sokka said about Toph not talking. That would be interesting to the point of awkardness. Yet, the two kids talking on the rock seemed happy, but soon fell into silence. But as Aang watched them, he saw the look Sokka gave Toph – the avatar smiled in realization. He would have to talk to the water warrior later.

But for now, he would give the two their privacy.

"You know Toph, sometimes I'd really like to hear what you had to say about your life and how you feel about…stuff…but you cant really do that when you're taking a vow of silence," Sokka said awkwardly, staring at the rock, not wanting to make eye contact – not that Toph would be able to tell, but still.

The earth bender thought about it. Despite the fact that she hardly told anyone about herself, it would be nice to tell Sokka about her history and how she felt about her friends and how she wanted to be independent. But no, when Toph started something, she stuck to it. The silence vow was the same case. She sighed and shook her head.

Sokka looked up at her, somehow feeling hurt by the fact that she didn't want to talk to him. A rock flew up and hit Sokka's eye, breaking him out of his disappointed state. "Damn Toph what was that for?" he asked, rubbing his face. The girl rolled her eyes and pointed to the ground. The etched words in the rock said, "I'm sorry,"

Shaking his head, Sokka stood up. "Don't be sorry Toph. I wont give up on talking to you. I told you, I'll make you talk again and then you'll owe me…how about…fifty wishes?" the boy said, getting back into his easy-going mood.

The earth bender stood up too, shaking her head. She held up one finger and waved it in front on his face. The boy grabbed the finger and yanked her, making her loose her balance.

"One wish? You sure that's all you want to give me?" he asked. Toph gained her balancen back although Sokka still held her finger and was trying to shake her back and forth. Teetering between balance and falling, Toph gritted her teeth and held up two fingers.

Sokka laughed, "Alright. Two wishes." The boy let go of her finger; Toph, standing firmly now, smiled viciously and genuinely. In one easy movement, she twisted her fist, forcing the rock beneath Sokka to churn. A surprised look crossed his face as he fell over.

The water warrior could have sworn her heard Toph laugh.

Standing up, Sokka started to climb up the hill. "C'mon. Lets go make dinner," he suggested. Toph simply shrugged and climbed up after him, smiling all the while.

Sometimes Sokka was such an idiot, pulling the whole two wishes things on me. But I had to admit it; the boy was a character. My stomach rumbled as a followed him up the hill.

"Hey Toph, do you know what day it is?" Sokka asked as he made it to the top of the hill. I stopped behind him, standing on the incline. He couldn't know what day it really was, I made sure I erased my own birthday memo before Sokka woke up, didn't I?

I didn't answer him. How could I?

"It's the first day of spring," Sokka answered himself. I started to breathe again and climbed up the rest of the hill.

The first thing I noticed was change in the landscape created by a table of earth that wasn't there before. The second was the presence of Aang and Katara. Sokka put his arm lazily over my shoulder and I jumped. I think my heart stopped in those couple seconds…in surprise of course.

"It's also your birthday," Sokka said. I could almost imagine the grin on his face as he looked upon my shocked on my own.

"HAPPY THIRTEENTH BIRTHDAY!" the trio coursed. As much as I love being the tough girl, the un-breakable, the fortress, I couldn't hold up that image now. I could have easily smirked and made them feel like this was all stupid.

But I could not hide my happiness.

It kinda sorta showed a little teensie bit through when I broke into the biggest smile ever.

Thirteen years, Toph old girl. How do you feel?

Loved.