A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Free-Spirited Dreamer - Oh? Funny you should mention that...

Tokka Week 2015

3. Illness

It was my fault for sticking around her. Other people are catching - their thoughts, their mannerisms, their being. It shouldn't come as any surprise that we wound up suffering the same malady.

She kept quipping that I ought to beat it if I couldn't take a beating. "Why are you such a glutton for punishment?" she'd ask, punching my shoulder to emphasize her point. I'd wince and give her a nervous grin, but I didn't offer a response. Truth to tell, I didn't understand why. If you'd asked me, I would have freely admitted that Toph was fierce and you ought to do what she says. She told me to go away. I never saw the contradiction between my thoughts and my actions, for I never went away.

Perhaps it was because the more I stood by her the more I could see that her strength had a softer side. We'd been friends long enough that I knew her bravado was neither false nor true. It was something more complex than that - a part of her, but also a shield. Sometimes she lowered it so that I could see her as she truly and simply was, but even when she raised it up - which was most of the time, honestly - I could recall all I knew about her, and she accepted this unspoken understanding. She tries to be strong. She is strong. But that doesn't mean she's invulnerable.

She'd glare at me, facing the wrong direction. She'd sneeze, exaggerating the loudness, but her tiny frame would belie the effort. She'd grumble about me, my stubbornness, my boorishness, my weakness, and yet she never convinced me that she actually wanted me to leave.

Maybe that's it, why I stuck around. Here was this awe-inspiring world-traveling top-notch bender (I like to think I merit two or three of those terms, but I'm not holding my breath on the bender part) who somehow wanted me to stick around. I suppose someone wanting your company is good enough a reason for most people. But, hey, that description could match Azula, too, and if she asked me to hang out I'd refuse.

There was something about Toph, for all her abrasiveness, that drew me in against my better judgment. After months on the grandest adventure we've ever known, and years of keeping up the connection, it was only natural that I, in all my vulnerability, couldn't leave this contagious girl alone.