Hey, Sokka's Fan-Lawyer here…and will be here long enough to commit seppuku for the delay this has gotten.

I'd like to say that I was biding my time and waiting to see how Korra would end up, as to sync the plot with canon as much as possible (and that was part of it), but I realized that for the villain to play out as I wanted (and if all goes well, it will be quite the surprise); however, the delay was mostly due to life as much as it was to plot. This is an area a bit outside of my normal comfort zone, given the mystery element, on top of confirmed, if one sided romantic feelings and that's more than a little intimidating, I guess. Still, once I got started on this chapter, I found that I wasn't able to do the whole groundwork that I was hoping too, basically: an intro chapter, groundwork chapter, villain reveal chapter. But at least for this particular case, that didn't quite work out. Still, let me know if there's anything I could improve on! Thanks for being patient and I only pray that it was worth your wait.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing related to Avatar's copyright or characters…provided merchandise and action figures don't count.

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"Sign here, and here…and there….," Mr. Ji Fuin mumbled to Sokka as he gestured to the piece of paper resting on the desk before him. Sokka cringed inwardly and hesitantly held the brush before the page. Fuin noticed his reluctance. "Afraid of a little ink, Mr. 'Detective'? Just sign your name to the lease and I'll be out of your hair for the time being." He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"You know, you're being really pushy for a guy who needs of our help." Sokka scowled and quickly scrawled out "Sou" in the various blank spaces on the page.

"From a guy who claims to be 'the most amazing detective I've ever seen' who just happened to come in when my business was suffering from this 'haunting'?" Fuin rolled his eyes. "Please; this isn't my first time encountering a con man, but now that I have your name in writing to this lease promising to pay me full price until you solve this thing, I'm willing to play along. Besides…it's not like you could do much more to damage my business and reputation any more than this dragon has." He shrugged and blew on the ink to make it dry faster. After a few seconds, he nodded, satisfied, and rolled up the parchment. He glanced at Toph, who had gotten to her feet at the sound of the crinkling paper. "Don't worry little Missy—I only need one signature and your boyfriend seems to be the one in charge, so it's his balls on the line if either of you destroy something or forget to pay me." Toph snorted, but fidgeted a little with her green scarf at his words. 'My boyfriend'…? Is that how we appear, she wondered to herself. Granted, that had been the goal in their disguise but she still didn't like that people assumed that she was the weak one. Their mistake—and pain—, my gain. She shrugged and privately vowed that one of the ridiculous vases in the lobby would meet an unfortunate and tragic end by nightfall. After all, "Sou" was responsible…she smirked at the thought.

Sokka glanced in her direction, probably suspicious of what she had in mind and she quickly wiped the smile off her face and tried to feign innocence. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. "Don't you even think about it, Omai…," He scowled. "Remember, we have a shared account now so it's not just my ass on the line, rich girl."

"For a guy who promised me a raise and bought himself that fancy hat he just had to have match his purse, you're being quite the tight wad 'Boss'." Toph could picture Sokka narrowing his eyes. Now that she had said it, he had to confirm it or the manager's suspicions would be raised.

"That was before we came to the big city, 'Omai', and you bought that scarf and just insisted that we had to rent on the more expensive side of town just because you were afraid of bed bugs crawling in your paranoid ears."

"Me, paranoid? You're the detective here—you practically ooze paranoid from your greasy pores; how professional is that supposed to be?"

"Well maybe if you would stop spending our coffers on drinking with informants, I could afford a shower now and then!"

"Guess what dumb ass, that's how we find stuff out! Like that last case with the traveling circus and the fraud juggler, the only reason we solved it—no thanks to your flirting, by the way…." Fuin watched the exchange and snorted.

"You know, you two remind me of my brother-in-law and his wife…always bickering."

"This isn't bickering! It's charming banter." Sokka turned to their new landlord and sighed.

"No, I'm pretty sure we're bickering at this point." Toph coughed and crossed her arms. Sokka ignored her.

"Whatever." Fuin just shook his head and looked skeptical; despite Sokka's deductions about him earlier, he still seemed suspicious. "Look, I'll be calling a tenant meeting tonight and letting you meet everybody; afterwards, I can show you the 'crime scene' and you can talk to me about your observations. If I don't like what I hear, I'm tossing you out your ass and reporting you to the authorities, understand?" Sokka and Toph nodded. "Good. Now then, I'm sure you'll enjoy the room…but I guess I'll give you time to get settled in. The kitchen's over there," Fuin gestured to a one corner of the room. Toph just ignored him; as usual in their adventures, the cooking would be delegated to Sokka, given her blindness and slight tendency to set things on fire. She could feel Fuin move as he showed Sokka the bedroom which had what was probably a wooden door, given that she couldn't "see" it, another room down the hall that was apparently their bathroom with running water; Toph just took his word for it, as ridiculous as the idea sounded, and trusted Sokka to call bullshit if otherwise.

While they were busy getting the brief tour of the apartment, Toph found herself fiddling with her necklace, as she had often done since the whole Ba Sing Se incident. There were still times when she would wake up and be surprised to find her space earth betrothal necklace around her throat; she flushed a little at the idea of its implications but quickly tried to quash her hopes and shook her head. Stop it, she ordered herself. One night of drunken shenanigans did not mean that her best friend was secretly in love with her…no matter how much she may have wanted it to be true, not that she would ever admit it to anyone, much less to herself. She was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of Sokka letting out a small squeal at the sound of rushing water. "Omai, you have to see this! The water actually comes out of this 'faucet' thing, whenever we want!" She sensed him hurry to her side and reluctantly allowed herself to be dragged along by the hand as he led her to the bathroom. "Check it out…," Sokka whispered and she could sense the metallic handles as the Water Tribe warrior reached for one and turned it on and the sound of rushing water occurred. "Hot or cold! Can you believe that?"

Toph hid her smile at his childlike enthusiasm; whenever a new toy came along, he would just become even more energetic. However, she sensed the manager rolling his eyes. Yeah…acting like hicks probably isn't helping us sell it. Instead, she just coughed. "Yeah Sou, now if only your Wang was as reliable." She tried not to snicker as she felt Sokka and Fuin tense; she could practically feel the heat from Sokka's blush. While he sputtered a response, Fuin just shook his head. "And with that, I think I'm being summoned by…anyone that isn't here. Remember that there'll be a meeting tonight and…I'm counting on you." He gave them a strong look. "Please." With that, he walked towards the door and shut it behind him softly.

Silence reigned for a few seconds after Fuin's exit, until Toph said, "Well, I think that went well." She navigated away from the bathroom and approached the bedroom. "Only one bed? I hope he doesn't expect us to share…"

"Forget the bed; why the hell would you even insinuate that you and I were doing…it…?" Sokka followed her into the bedroom. With a sigh, Toph sat down on the large bed and shrugged.

"It got him out of here, didn't it? You should be thanking me. Besides, this…" She gestured to the black necklace hidden under her scarf. "isn't going away." Willingly, she admitted to herself. The truth about the necklace and its seemingly "stuck" state was a bit more complicated then Sokka knew. If he did ever find out…Toph mentally shuddered at the idea; there were very few things in this world that scared Toph and the idea of her best friend hating her was definitely at the top of the list. She knew she was being selfish and a tad deceitful but when she had found Sokka getting miserably drunk in that lower ring Ba Sing Se bar, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to try and help him out of his funk, just like he had countless times before for her. As she learned of Sokka and Suki's fight and the Kyoshi Warriors' betrayal that had forced him to leave Kyoshi Island (A/N: For more details, check out "Wakin' Up in Ba Sing Se, chapter 1, on sale now at a near you!…or the profile link), a burning anger had filled her veins; how could anyone hurt her friend like that? Even now, the mere thought of Suki was enough to make her want to punch something.

Granted, Toph admitted that she may be the slightest bit biased, given that she had had a crush on Sokka for the longest time during their travels during the War.

So, when they woke up the morning after Toph's helpful "throw more Cactus Juice at the problem until you couldn't remember what it was" approach and discovered their "engagement", Toph found herself in a moral crossroads. She would have given almost anything to remember what exactly happened that night, but when she felt the necklace around her neck, she had been shell shocked. Originally, she had planned on telling Sokka the truth and just manipulating the necklace back into a bracelet after she had apologized for getting him hammered, but then he did the damnedest thing: he thanked her for helping him. They had had a warrant for their arrest, created countless property damage, couldn't remember what they had done, gotten engaged, and he thanked her for it. She had not felt closer to anyone in her life than Sokka and when he said it…she didn't know how to feel. But then in the same breath, he said that he was going back to Suki and they could pretend that it had never happened… She fingered the necklace again. Well, she didn't want her friend hurt again. So she had made a quick decision and faked not being able to bend it back. Was it the right decision, she wondered for the hundredth time.

She shook her head and focused back on Sokka, who had been ranting for the past few minutes—well, sputtering in embarrassment as he kindly told Toph to never discuss his sexual prowess or lack thereof, in front of their employers. "Was it my fault you were acting like a hick off the street? I know we established that we're new to the whole 'city' thing, but we want this guy to have confidence in us, right? Besides, I'm sure your blade works just fine, Mr. Wang." She saluted him, just because she knew it would piss him off. Sure enough, she could just sense his slack jaw and flushed face, and smirked. "Anyway, I got dibs on the bed; you can be the man in this relationship long enough to sleep on the couch." Sokka scowled.

"Why do you only believe in chivalry when it's convenient for you?" He lamented and tossed his sack of clothes onto the couch from his position in the bedroom's doorway. He did a quick fist pump of victory but quickly stopped when Toph raised her eyebrow questioningly. "Anyway, I guess the first thing to do would be acquire some food…." Sokka took a quick look around the apartment. "This is a decent setup, given the price."

"Yeah, having a 'Dragon Spirit' haunting the place would do that to rent rates. So Snoozles, what's our first move?"

Sokka shrugged and took off his cloak. "As I said, we need food and to unpack first, then go from there. We can't really come to any conclusions before Fuin shows the scene and tells us what actually happened. But hopefully we wrap this up quickly…the money that Aang loaned us won't last long at these prices."

"Right, you never got around to explaining how this dragon thing fits into the 'master plan'." Toph got off the bed and seated herself on the couch that would be Sokka's bed and promptly farted. "So; out with it."

Sokka shook his head in irritation but he couldn't wipe the smile from his face. "Have I ever told you how nice it is to be on the case with you again?" Toph felt a little warm at the sentiment but quickly tried to keep her pleasure from her face; instead, she just smirked.

"You could stand to mention it more." And more. Toph couldn't understand it; hadn't she gotten over him years ago? Perhaps Katara may have had a point… She shook her head and focused more on the matter at hand. "So…?"

"Right! Right….anyway, Aang sent us here to find out a mysterious cause behind those missing benders, right?" Toph didn't dignify that with a response and just looked at him expectantly. He slouched a little, but continued nonetheless. "Right, but that is probably a matter that most people here aren't even noticing, or are too afraid to admit it's happening, okay? They need someone to look into their personal missing persons case, all sneaky like, like say…a detective and his sarcastic-but-woman-of-few-words, psychic partner."

Comprehension dawned on Toph. "So once we solve this case…."

Sokka nodded. "Exactly! Think about how far this story's gone; once we solve this case and catch this freak, our reputation will go just as far. With time and a few more cases, people will begin to come to us with the cases related to the benders and that gives our covers an in on the case without getting too much attention."

Leave it to Sokka, Toph thought, with more than a little pride. "That's…not bad, Snoozles; you really thought that up yourself?"

"Yep! The night Aang asked me to take the case, in fact." He bragged. Toph just rolled her eyes and hoped she looked annoyed; as good a friend as Sokka was, when he got complimented, he had an annoying tendency to let it go to his head. Thus Toph had long ago adapted the habit of throwing him a tiny bone every so often. "Anyway, I'll go take care of the food problem…and the utensils…dammit; we're gonna have to ask Aang for a raise." He sighed and walked towards the door. Toph just saluted him sarcastically.

"Whatever you say, oh Captain, my Captain. And what exactly do you want me to do in the meantime?" He looked at her and shrugged.

"Well, it's been a long trip and I'm sure that trying to sort through all the new vibrations is taking a lot; you have my permission to take the afternoon off and get used to the place." Toph shrugged but mentally smacked herself; Sokka wasn't an idiot despite his behavior, so of course he would've noticed her discomfort. It was a fair point; when they had first gotten off the bus, she had thought her senses would explode from the sheer overload of different vibrations; there was just so much more going on here than she was used to. Still, adapting wasn't proving to be as difficult as Sokka had assumed; she had, after all, fought on battle fields that were as chaotic as the city. There was nothing that Toph, the greatest earthbender in the world, couldn't handle…excluding romantic matters; those didn't count. Not even the fucking Avatar mastered the art of 'heart bending' right away and if Katara was as temperamental as she was back when they were traveling together, he was still in for a time of it.

She could sense that Sokka had closed the door, which left her with an annoying amount of time on her hands; she didn't feel like trying to sort out her feelings and plans to deal with them (which consisted of the "ignore them until they solve themselves" category), so what else could she do? Go down and check out the first floor? What room had that Ed guy have been on again?

The decision was taken from her by a knock on the door. Through the stone floor, she could get a general feel for their visitor: a short and wider woman, who seemed to be sporting an injured leg. Actually, if Toph focused hard enough, she could get a feel for how many other people lived on their floor. She'd try the matter after she had dealt with the woman, who seemed harmless enough, by her reckoning. With a grunt, she got off the couch and approached the door, which was a vacant spot for her senses. Fortunately, the metal of the knob reached her senses and she turned it, and opened the door just as the woman was in mid knock.

"Oh!" The voice—definitely older, from what Toph could tell—said in surprise; she quickly shook off her surprise though. "There you are! I saw Ji show you and your husband the room and just assumed you were new neighbors…." Toph didn't even bother correcting her; she seemed old enough that if Toph even suggested that she and Sokka weren't already married, the old woman would freak out or die of a heart attack or something, and Toph would have a body on her hands. "I'm Mrs. Fink! I live right across the hall from you." She held out her hand and Toph took it; she could hear the rustle of thick robes and smelt of what she assumed was old person smell; definitely an old person or just one very ripe short guy. Not for the first time, Toph wondered what another person looked like; to her senses, people were just gray outlines whose actions she could read by the heartbeat or other subtle telltale signs the body's insides gave away.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Fink. I'm Omai and…the man I live with is Sou; Mr. Fuin was going to introduce us to the other residents tonight at that tenant meeting thing going on tonight."

Mrs. Fink sighed. "Another one of those? These days, they're just dreadfully depressing, as he tells us who left or got injured or that the rates have gone up again…there's only so much more money I can ask my rich suit-er, my husband for, to keep living here."

Suddenly, Toph remembered what the man who had been checking out when she and Sokka had arrived: he had said something about the dragon injuring Mrs. Fink. "Oh, are you talking to that dragon thing we've been hearing about? The people who directed us here said something about it." Toph felt Mrs. Fink's blood pressure pick up and mentally smiled. Wait till Sokka heard about this….

…

Sokka groaned as he lifted the heavy sack of goods over his shoulder. It had taken him until nightfall to collect enough food to get them through the week, not to mention the pots and pans and other cooking materials. As it was, the stuff he did buy was second hand and probably more than a little used, but he hoped that Toph would be able to do something about it when he got back. He set the bag down with a grunt and tried to find the key to their room, only to remember that he didn't have pockets and that he had left his bag inside. "Er…dammit." He face palmed himself and, with shoulders slouched from exhaustion and a bit of embarrassment, he knocked on the door.

A few seconds later, Toph opened the door. "Why hello 'dear'…we were just talking about you." 'We'…, Sokka wondered, but then he saw an elderly woman sitting on their couch. She waved at him and Sokka tentatively returned the gesture.

"Were you? Well that's…that's….Omai, who the hell is this woman?" Sokka hissed to Toph, who smacked his arm.

"Sou, be nice! I know you're stressed from the all the moving about but come on, this is our neighbor Mrs. Fink. Introduce yourself like a good boy."

"But…you just said my name…and were apparently discussing me…." She punched him "lightly" on the arm, which made him yelp. He glared at her while he rubbed his now sore arm. "Well, Mrs. Fink, I'm Sou, Omai's partner in crime…."

Mrs. Fink chuckled and gave Toph a knowing look. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Sou; I'm sorry to interrupt you while you're trying to move in. Is there anything I can help you with? I made some tea and some biscuits…." Mrs. Fink picked up her cane and struggled to her feet.

"No thank you, ma'am." Sokka grunted as he dragged the sack through the door. He noted Mrs. Fink's near stumble and her struggling with the cane. A recent injury…wait, did Mrs. Fink? That's the one who was injured by the dragon…., he glanced over at Toph, who nodded. He smiled. Clever….

"Really? That's a shame; your wife and I worked so hard on them…."

Sokka dropped the sack. "M-my what…" Toph shot him a glare over the oblivious Mrs. Fink's hair bun and shook her head. Sokka gave her a meaningful glance. We can't just lie about this; she'll figure it out eventually. Toph understood but her glare said Then you try explaining to this old fashioned little old lady why a man and woman are living together. Besides, wasn't this your cover story idea to begin with? Sokka flushed a little and tried to picture how Gran Gran would've taken the news. With a slump of his shoulders, Toph knew that she had won the silent argument. "Er, I'm sorry Mrs. Fink but we're not quite married yet…Omai is still my fiancé, but her father doesn't really approve of me, so he refuses to pay for the ceremony, so we're working in the city until we save up enough." He patted himself on the back for coming up with that. From the teary eyed look on Mrs. Fink's face, he knew she had bought it.

"That's so sad; it's just like something out of a story… Good luck to you both." Reluctantly, Sokka took a biscuit, which made Mrs. Fink perk up immediately. She turned to Toph, "Just follow your heart; don't let anyone stop you from being with the person you love—if they have problem with that, they can go through me!" Toph looked genuinely touched by the woman's advice and bit her lower lip; Sokka filed that under something to ask about later. Meanwhile, Mrs. Fink was trying to get into some kind of fighting stance to emphasize her point, but winced as her right leg fell out from under her.

"Er, we appreciate the sentiment Mrs. Fink, but somehow I don't think you'd last long with that leg. Did you just injure it recently?" Sokka asked politely.

Mrs. Fink's joking mood faded a little and her face darkened a bit. "Yes it is." Bingo. The Earth Kingdom woman (Sokka assumed by her skin being somewhere between the tan of the Water Tribe and the pasty whiteness that was the Fire Nation) sighed. Sokka took a bite out of the biscuit and tried to look sympathetic.

"Do you mind if I ask what happened?"

She shook her head and hobbled her way to the door. "Not today, Mr. Sou; I just can't go through it again tonight—I told your fiancé most of the story, so feel free to ask her. Regardless, I must be going, though I'll see you two at Ji's stupid tenant meeting, I trust?" Sokka and Toph nodded and Toph showed the old woman out. Once the door had closed, Sokka collapsed on the couch.

"So 'honey', did you get the food and shit?"

"Given enough time, they're both the same thing, but yes, I did get the pans and stuff; though, if you could take a look at the quality and did what you could to fix 'em up, that'd be great." He reached down from his seat to the sack and began to pull out a pan.

"Yeah, yeah; I can feel how crappy they are from here…is this how you poor people ate back in your village?" He tossed the pan in Toph's general direction. "Fuck!" She hissed as she rubbed her foot. "What was that for, you asshole?"

"Payback's a bitch Toph, get used to it. Anyway, so what did you and your new friend talk about?" Toph glared at him and bent the pan in half. "Oh come on! I paid 2 gold for that…"

"Tough titty jerk. I'll bend it back later." She sat down beside Sokka with a grunt. "Anyway, she and I just talked about little things; apparently, there are only two other rooms with tenants on this floor, three on the second floor, and two on the first floor, including Fuin. So at least we don't really have to worry about much in the way of neighbors…"

"And we can always convert that room next door as our detective office…with an excellent hat collection…." He stroked his stubble thoughtfully.

Toph rolled her eyes. "First we have to solve this case, meat for brains." Sokka's stomach growled at the mere mention of meat. "Okay, first we have to eat some dinner, then solve this case."

"I'd drink to that, if we could afford Cactus Juice." With a groan, he got off the couch and began sorting through the sack for food. Satisfied, he approached the counter and got out his Water Tribe custom bone knife. "I managed to get some cabbage…though the dealer just gave me this suspicious glare the whole time, as if he expected me to blow it up or something. Spooky guy, I guess…."

"Or it could be your people skills." Toph called out helpfully.

"Or it could be my people skills…hey!" Toph just waved in acknowledgment; Sokka just rolled his eyes and focused on the dinner. Much to his dismay, he realized that he would have to be charge of food preparation, given Toph's blindness. He shuddered at the mental image of her slicing up his old blankie instead of the cucumber beside her accidently. Wait…how did my blankie work its way into my daydream? Shrugging it off, he focused on the meal before him and tried to ignore Toph's snores.

…

Thanks for reading! Reviews please!