Part One: Winter
Chapter Three: The Messenger Hawk
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender
Disbelief coursed through her veins.
She wanted to rip that message up, tear it apart,
Burn it forever.
But it was there, in his hands.
Of all people. She thought he would understand!
She hated them.
She hated their ignorance.
She was like a beautiful bird
And they wanted to clip her wings.
For the first time in a while, Aang stirred.
He was having a dream again, Katara thought. A dream. She let go of his hand and stared at him quietly.
Zuko had left a while ago. She had seen him out.
"Just ignore it! Send Hawky back and let them think I died, or whatever. I don't want to go back."
"They're your parents, Toph. They care about you!" Sokka's voice was calm, collected, but there was something else in his voice. Toph couldn't quite make it out, so she took a wild guess.
"You want me to leave?" she shot back icily, her voice quiet in the dimming sunlight.
"No, of course not Toph, I just think that... you should visit. Just for a while." His voice was unwavering, soft.
Toph sighed and bowed her head. "I made it clear in the letter. I told them that I loved them, but I didn't want to go back!"
Sokka could sense the stress in her voice, and he sighed. The wind howled, and Hawky gave a shrill caw in the distance. How Toph envied the bird- majestic, beautiful, free. So unlike her, in so many ways.
The Earthbender stood there, head bowed, contemplating, until she glanced up at the warrior.
"Sokka?"The teenage boy turned at the sound of her voice.
"If you really want me to go back, come with me," she stated. The wind howled, and Hawky flew into the trees, to seek warmer refuge.
Sokka glanced at the Earthbender. How small she looked compared to the tall trees. How vulnerable and how weak she looked among the remnants of the camp. People could manipulate her, destroy her. She was so blind and so unlike the Toph he knew.
"I don't want to go alone. My parents will keep me there forever," she continued. "But if I could see them again, tell them that I loved them but running away was for the best..."
The sky was dimming, the air had grown cold, but the two stayed standing.
"Maybe they'd understand," She finished firmly.
Sokka looked at Toph again. Why did she seem so different now?
Her unseeing eyes, for some reason, could pierce his heart.
"Now that the war is over, now that we have nothing to do... Sokka, come with me or I won't go at all. I need a backup plan if they want to keep me there."
"I'm still not sure. Maybe we should ask Katara, she could go with you."
Toph laughed, a bitter, hollow laugh. It seemed as if the joy had gone out of her after that one message... or had it gradually been slipping away?
"Idiot. Did you think she would want to leave Aang?"
Sokka sighed and cursed himself for being so stupid.
After all, they both knew the answer to that question.
"The sunset looks beautiful, Aang."
The Waterbender led the boy to the edge of the cliff. The sparkling blue waters below reflected the majesty of the crimson-gold sunset.
"It is, it really is." He found himself saying. He gazed out into that golden horizon, into those rippling blue waves, and was reminded of her eyes.
The gulls shrieked in the distance, and Aang felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"The war's over, we can do whatever we want to now," the Waterbender whispered into his ear. He smiled, and faced her, faced that beautiful girl.
"And to think, though... without the war, I never would've met you." She continued, a smile on her face. Aang sighed contently and tried to take in the beauty of it all- the sea, the gulls, the sunset, Katara...
Being unconscious really snapped everything else into perspective.
"Katara, can I come in?"
A weary Sokka had spent an hour or so trying to convince Toph to go visit her parents.
Alone.
The Earthbender had huffed and groaned and shrieked and hurled rocks at his head, but the warrior had remained firm.
He had always had the best of relationships with his parents, and ever since the war separated him from his mother and father, he was always so eager to see his family members again, always so willing...
But Toph, she was the exact opposite.
Sokka couldn't imagine hating one's parents so much. Now, if his father had told him to abandon the army camp and return home, he would've done so. It was practically expected of him.
Toph hated the idea of leaving. The idiot.
Strangest of all, she had also wanted him to come. She had been trying to convince him that her parents would try to keep her there, try to destroy her dreams. Sokka found that hard to believe. If he were there, wouldn't her parents feel even more inclinced to keep her sheltered?
After all, he was a klutz. He wasn't a leader. He failed at public speaking. He couldn't keep his mouth shut.
The Bei Fong family was practically royalty! And Sokka was the exact opposite.
"What is it now, Sokka?" Katara asked quietly. It was dark in the room, but Katara had lit some candles, and at least they provided some light.
"Oh, nothing much." The warrior sighed, closing the door behind him. It was makeshift, made of pieces of wood and stones, and was on the verge of crumbling. "Only the fact that Hawky came back with a message from Toph's parents, Toph doesn't want to go back unless I go with her, and I don't want to."
"Yes, that explains so much."
Sokka nodded. "You heard our 'conversation'?"
Katara raised an eyebrow. "I would've heard it even from the Spirit World."
She immediately turned back to Aang, who had evidently fallen back into a dreamless slumber, and after a few moments of silent contemplation, turned back to her brother, annoyed.
"Well, that's it, right? Then go. Aang needs some rest."
"You aren't going to help?"
"I'm sorry, but Aang needs me. You deal with it, you're older, and you have time on your hands."
"But Katara..."
She frowned, then the words flew like arrows.
"Aang is trying to recover-"
"-Yeah, but that doesn't mean-"
"-Yes, it does, it means that-"
"-No, there are more important things-"
"-Why don't you just get Toph to help-"
"-When Toph is the one causing the problem?-"
"-Oh, a twelve year old girl is-"
"-Well, you're dealing with a twelve year old boy-"
"-That's not the point, and he's thirteen-"
"-Then why don't you help me?"
"Please, Sokka! Stop acting so immature!"
"I'm not acting immature! You're the one who pretends that you can do something about Aang dying, that you can prevent it by being Miss Healing Hands! The world does not revolve around Aang! There are so many more things that need to be done!"
Sokka immediately wished he had not said anything at all, because the glare his sister was giving him now... it was murder.
"He's not going to die, Sokka."
"Katara, please, just accept the fact that-"
"He is not going to die, Sokka, and as a matter of fact, the world does revolve around Aang because he's the one keeping it alive. Now get out."
"Katara, Toph is going to-"
"GET. OUT. NOW."
Sokka had no choice but to comply.
Toph sat there silently, her bangs falling over her eyes.
She hated being blind.
Not only blind in her eyes, but blind to the world.
Why did everyone see her as helpless?
"I am not weak." She said to herself. The wind howled in reply, taunting her.
She stood up, straight, trying to imagine her mother and father before her.
"Mom, dad, I am not weak."
She said it louder this time, and something overtook her. Strength. She had strength.
She laughed in the wind, and imagined the world before her. The world saw her as blind, but she was going to prove them wrong.
"World, TOPH BEI FONG IS NOT WEAK!"
The strength inside her was there, and she could feel it. She could face her parents with that strength.
Who needed an idiot like Sokka? The universe was hers.
AN: Looks like I've freaked out some people with the Zutara thing. Don't worry, it's part of plot development.
Expect some Tokka in the future.