Emotions
She sat on the floor, Sokka's head buried into her shoulder.
He was her best friend, and yet when he came to her crying she didn't know what to do. She had never been one for emotions and "silly" stuff like that but when she asked him to see Katara he shook his head and mumbled something about needing Toph. Maybe it was the fact that she really couldn't see his face very well that made her confused. Maybe it was just that she was 13-year-old tomboy who had her a 17-year-old male best friend crying on her shoulder. Something really must have been bothering him tonight.
It was funny how he did this, she thought. One day he barely even saw her, engrossed in his girlfriend. The next, he was crying on her shoulder. She liked it, of course, that he came to her. Even if she was being used a little, she liked being the one that he ran too.
"What's wrong?" she managed to ask. He stopped crying, realizing what he was doing.
"I'm sorry. I must look like a fool."
"You do," Toph retorted. Then corrected herself, channeling Katara, "but its okay."
"Thanks." Sokka knew that Toph wasn't one for emotions mainly because she wasn't always the best at reading people's faces. She could see them through her earthbending senses pretty well, but they were still fuzzy. He remained silent, but that only bugged her more.
"Look snoozles. Are you going to just sit here and cry into my shoulders or are you going to tell me what happened?" She even surprised herself as she asked this. She was turning more and more like Katara everyday.
"Ok. So I don't know why, but Suki wasn't here today."
Toph laughed. Suki had been out looking for Sokka's birthday present all day.
"And we had a fight…."
"Sokka, I'm sure that she's going to come back."
"No I don't think so. I said some mean things."
The thought of Suki and Sokka fighting confused Toph. She never heard either of them complain about one another. Toph pondered over this.
"She thinks I'm too controlling, and maybe I am."
As a friend, Toph knew the best thing she could do was tell Sokka that Suki did really love him. But, in some sort of crushy love with Sokka herself, she could barely bring herself to say this. What she really wanted was for Sokka to stay on her shoulder forever. But she took a deep breath and told him the truth.
"She getting better at seeing emotion," Sokka thought to himself.
Soon after, Suki arrived and kissed Sokka. "I'm sorry about our fight yesterday."
"Me too."
The next day, Sokka pulled Toph to talk to her alone.
"You know Toph," he said aloud. "Sometimes I think because your blind you can't tell what people are feeling. But it seems like you're the one to know best."
She smiled. "I know."
Sokka laughed.