"If you miss him so much, why don't you marry him?"
Toph felt her heart clench in anger. If only it was that easy. She thought bitterly. Those words had been bugging her for days and usually appeared when she least expected it. Recalling the conversation she and Azula had, she shook her head and sighed.
The older girl had admitted to having feelings for her. She didn't know how to respond and was relieved by the fact that Azula was too busy to train Aang to pay attention to her. Her emotions were in turmoil and all because Katara had made that joke one boring afternoon. "Katara, you are so going to pay for saying that."
"Who's going to pay for saying what again?"
Toph yelped and threw her arms up in the air. Rock rose from the ground and clamped itself around the person standing behind her.
"This…is just…overkill," Sokka stated, an annoyed expression planted on his face. "Do you always do this to any sane creature that crosses your path and, by chance, happens to surprise you in anyway or, am I just a special case?"
Toph grinned sheepishly. "What do you think?"
Sokka squirmed a bit as he put on his thinking face. "I really don't know," he admitted.
He looked at Toph expectantly. After a few seconds had passed, his thoughtful expression turned into a frown. Momo suddenly appeared out of nowhere and clambered up his head. With some berries in hand, the winged lemur slapped Sokka in the face and started licking him.
"Once I get out of my stone prison, I am going to make some Momo-barbecue!" Sokka snarled and shook his head rapidly. The lemur flew off his head and into some nearby bushes.
Toph burst into laughter.
"Not funny! Not funny!" Sokka bawled. "This is your fault, Toph. Release me at once."
"All right already. You don't have to be so impatient about it," Toph said and, with a flick of her wrist, she made the stone unlatch itself from Sokka before returning to the ground, leaving no mark that an earth bender had even used that piece of land.
Sokka stretched, working the kinks out of his muscles. Wiping off the lemur-saliva that had clung to his hair, he asked. "What took you so long, anyway?" Sokka grumbled. "Is your head in the clouds? You do know that we have Aang for that. Coz he's always flying around." He said, emphasizing the last sentence by flapping his arms up and down.
Toph blushed. "I was just…thinking."
"About what?" Sokka asked. Pulling out his fake beard, he clamped it on his face and began stroking it. "What's bothering you, little missy?"
"Sokka, what would you do if you like someone and don't know what to say to that person?"
He blinked. "You're actually asking me about love? I thought you girls always liked to discuss it with yourselves; not with us men."
Toph snorted. "You're hardly a man, Sokka, besides, Katara isn't here right now." And I might as well tell you. She added to herself silently.
"Ok, ok." Sokka said. "Because I'm feeling generous today, I might as well impart some of my glorious wisdom unto you." He sat on the ground in a lotus position. Furrowing his eyebrows, he concentrated.
"Well?" Toph asked. "I'm waiting for you to impart your glorious wisdom upon me so that I can be enlightened or whatever."
"Shut up!" Sokka huffed. "It's not as easy as you think."
Toph sighed and smacked her head with the palm of her hand. Sitting in front of Sokka, she placed her hands on top of Sokka's shoulders. "I like you, Sokka."
Sokka squeaked. "You-you do?"
Toph frowned. "You don't seem too happy about this."
"Of course I'm not!" Sokka shouted and placed his hands over his mouth quickly. Looking at Toph guiltily, he said, "Listen, Toph, there's a lot of reasons why it won't work between us."
The girl's shoulders drooped. "I knew this was going to happen," she murmured to herself. "Is it because I'm not feminine enough for you? Should I stop picking my nose?"
Sokka covered his eyes and let himself fall against the ground. "It's not that I don't find you attractive, Toph. I mean, seriously, you're cute and all but—"
"I'm not your type. I'm too young for you. You can't because you only see me as a sister. You can't because you only see me as a friend. You like—"
Sokka shook his head. "No, Toph; it's not because of that. I—" He hesitated. "I am not worth it, Toph. Ok? You deserve someone better. A bender perhaps, like Aang maybe?"
She snorted. "I may be blind, Sokka, but I do know that our resident Avatar has the hots for your sister."
"Oh, right, right…" Sokka scratched his head and moved into a sitting position. "What about—"
"Will you at least tell me why?" Toph cut in for a second time.
He sighed. "Because over the course of this journey, I've fallen in love with three people. The first one became the moon spirit, the second one is in Kyoshi Island being held prisoner by Fire Nation soldiers—or so Red says, I don't believe her—and the third…" He gritted his teeth anger and dropped to the ground again. "The third is much too worried about his Freedom Fighters to join us."
"Jet?"
Sokka laughed throatily. "Longshot, actually. Can you believe it? We met in Ba Sing Se and from there…" He gulped. "We understand…each other. It's just that…his loyalty still lies with Jet who's probably dead by now."
Toph dropped to the ground, next to him, and said, "That doesn't really explain why."
"I just…my heart is still out there some where. With him, I guess." Sokka said, letting his hand rest over his chest.
Toph laughed bitterly. "I should have known from the start. How could I be so blind? Oh wait, I am blind." She stood up and tried to glare at Sokka. This involved staring at the ground icily. "If you tell anyone we had this conversation, I'm going to turn you into meat. Minced meat."
Sokka chuckled. "I should be the one threatening you. Besides, aren't you bothered by the fact that I've just admitted I'm in love with another man?"
Toph made a face. Hello! I've just had a cold-blooded princess in the guise of the Red Spirit confess to me. "Being able to listen to the earth has given me insight of some of the grosser things in life. Trust me, I've heard worse."
A/N: So their romance isn't as fast as some of you think.
I won't be able to post the next one soon because I have tons of homework to do today. (I swear I didn't see them this morning!) Sucking up to my teachers doesn't help. Haha.