A/N: Sorry for the long wait! Blame aboyofmanyfandoms, he is very distracting. Anyways here it is. Short and boring. The next chapter is MOST definitely like plusteen/mature rated so yeah some real action begins. As usual, iI own nothing. Bryke owns it all, I just use them to fill my headcanon.

Toph had been gone for ages. The boiling afternoon became early evening quickly as Katara wandered back to camp with not much firewood for kindling in her arms. She saw Aang and Sokka enjoying some moon peaches he had found, Momo and Appa munching on assorted fruits. As she came forward out of the trees Aang waved to her.

"It took you that long just to get that?" He called to her jokingly. "What did you do, waterbend the tree limbs off?"

Katara didn't smile at his joke like she normally would, just shook her head and placed the wood in a neat pile in the middle of camp.

"No, I ran into Toph destroying half the forest, and that kind of took up most of my time..." She said with a disturbed tone, coming and sitting next to Aang. "Did something happen while we were gone?" She asked, eyeing Sokka

Aang slid his eyes between Katara and Sokka, noticing her stare, feeling he was missing part of a story and feeling tension build. Sokka looked away from his sister. "Nothing profound." Sokka lied smoothly.

"Really? Because she was really upset. I haven't seen her that mad in a long time..." Katara replied, trying to pry information out of her brother.

Sokka just shrugged and continued to eat his fruit, not wanting to talk about it. Aang looked between the siblings again and shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea what had happened between Toph and Sokka. When he returned to camp Sokka was just sitting on the ground, relaxing. To him, Toph and Sokka had always been good friends. Katara was becoming frustrated with his lack of information and decided to change the subject to try and get him to talk.

"So, you? Eating fruit? No fish today?" She asked mockingly, knowing full well that there were plenty of fish in the river.

"Nope." He knew she was prying and wasn't going to fall victims to her interrogations.

Aang looked back to Katara, concerned for Toph. "Is she coming back soon, do you know?

"I'm not sure," she answered, changing her focus from Sokka to Aang. "I had her calmed down a little when she left me, but she was still really in an uproar. She absolutely refused to tell me what the problem was though..." she trailed off, glaring at Sokka once again. She knew this was somehow his fault. This time Sokka had something to say.

"She's always upset about something. It's probably some stupid girl thing." He said, still unable to meet her eyes.

Before she could press him again for more information Toph came walking up from the river bend, the same way she had left. As the silence enveloped the group, Toph got feeling the sense that they had just been talking about her. The tension could have been cut with a throwing knife. Toph ignored the atmosphere around them all and flopped down next to Katara, acting natural.

"So, what's for dinner guys?" Toph broke the ice, the silence killing her. Katara was happy to oblige.

"Aang seems to have found lots of fruit. We've got moon peaches, some lychee nuts, and this one that is really big and I can't remember what it's called, but it's delicious." She said, passing her one of the mystery fruit. Toph took a big bite and wiped the juices off her face with the back of her hand.

"So what, no fish? No meat?" Toph asked. Aang was quick to answer her, unaware that she was trying to cause trouble.

"No, apparently Sokka's fishing skills aren't very good when it's hotter than the sun outside." He laughed out while Toph smirked.

Sokka gave her a dirty look, one that didn't go unnoticed by his sibling which frustrated her even more. She felt she was missing something big. But before Katara could say a word, Sokka threw away his peach pit and pulled himself off the ground with a soft grunt.

"I guess I'll just go try again..." he said flatly, walking off toward the shore of the river and picking up his previously discarded pole, sitting on the edge of the river bank with no boulder to sit on now and out of earshot from the three. There was a brief moment of silence before Katara spoke.

"Are we all gonna be okay?" She asked slowly, looking over to Toph.

"Maybe." She said with attitude.

Katara rolled her eyes and looked to Aang pointedly. A look that said 'You're the Avatar, fix this.' Aang sighed and scooted closer to Toph, speaking in an extra calming voice.

"Toph, what happened while we were separated?" He asked, his eyes filled with concern for his friend. He couldn't imagine what could be potentially tearing their group apart. Toph sighed and finished her fruit, shrugging as she tossed the remnants to the side.

"Things were said, rocks were thrown, feelings got hurt. Nothing special."

The lovebirds shared a glance and waited for more details but they didn't come easily. Aang leaned closer to her and tried again, this time with a little more authority in his voice.

"I can't do my Avatar duty by keeping peace if I don't know how to fix it."

"You can't make this better..." she whispered softly, mirroring her previous conversation with Sokka.

Katara took hold of Toph's hand. "Please tell us what he did to make you so angry..."

"He didn't do anything. I was just being stupid. I was just trying to help..." she signed and slipped her hand put of Katara's, standing up and walking off toward her tent.

"Don't you any fish?" She called to her friend.

"I'm suddenly not very hungry..." she said as she climbed into her little self made home, bending up the door and blocking all other communication from the group.

"Great, now we have two in dire moods." Aang said softly, looking from Toph's tent to Sokka perched on the river's edge, still concentrating on fishing.

She stayed in there the rest of the night, mostly thinking up arguments in her head that she would have snappy comebacks for. The more she fumed, the more she realized she was angry with both of them.

Why did I even bother? She thought. I shouldn't feel this way...why the hell am I so worked up? I did like Suki. I was happy that he was happy, right? Because he's my friend. So why do I feel all this rage about his depression? Am I actually angry at him, the situation, myself... or Suki for leaving him?

That last thought made her stomach drop.

What if all this anger is misdirected and I just screwed up a perfectly good friendship? What if I hate Suki for doing this to him, and since she's not here, I'm taking it out on Sokka. But he still loves her, right? Otherwise he wouldn't be this depressed.

" UGH, DAMNIT!" She yelled in her tent, pounding her fist into the ground like she had been for a few hours now. The ground was no longer hard... it had been beaten into sand by her outbursts.

When did this all get so complicated? We can save the world together no problem. But when it comes to relationships...

She shook her head and curled her knees to her chest on the soft ground. She felt that she was upset more often than usual, especially when it came to him. In fact, her thoughts had seemed to revolve around him lately and she had no explanation. Even before he was like this, she often found herself wondering about him when she was away from the group. She cared about Katara and Aang and Zuko... but she never wanted to send a message to them. Not like she did to him. But she couldn't. And would refuse to have someone else write a message for her - that would be stupid. How would she read his reply?

Toph was about to give up this emotional self abuse and get some sleep when she felt someone walking around the camp site. She recognized those heavy footsteps. For a while he was over by the fire, but then she could sense him pacing outside her tent, the vibrations and the tension of his close presence driving her insane in a way she couldn't label as anger. After a few anxious moments of just feeling his pace back and forth she bent her whole tent down.

"Is there something specific you need from me or are you just trying to keep me up all night?"

Sokka stood there dumbfounded before he realized she would have felt him moving around for a while now. He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

"Sorry... um, you didn't get any fish earlier... so I wanted to bring you some but I wasn't sure if I should wake you... It's fresh." He said, handing her the warm stick that two fish where poked through.

She took the fish and ate silently as he crouched down to sit in front of her. When she was finished she tossed the bones and stick to the side. She had actually been starving but didn't want to go back on her previous dramatic exit.

"Thanks..." She said and trailed off into silence, the fragile state of their friendship coming to her mind and making her very anxious.

"Can we... talk?" He asked tenderly.

"I don't know, can we?" She asked rather curtly, extracting a sigh of exasperation from him.

"Look. I am sorry about how I acted earlier. I know you and I are not exactly touchy feely with our problems like my sister and Aang are. And I know you were somehow trying to help in your own way..." He hesitated as he placed his hands on her arms. "I want us to be okay. I don't want to fight with you or ignore you or anyone else..."

The warmth of his hands on her skin made her feel something she didn't recognize. It was instant, strong, and it made her feel like her stomach was filled with buttermoths. Through this simple gesture she knew they were going to be okay. And then she realized, it was just the two of them. No one around to retell her in this moment if she were to show any sign of weakness. She turned her face up towards the sound of his voice and wore a distressing look on her face.

"Sokka, I just want you back." It came out soft and genuine, something not seen from her very often. Sokka was surprised that someone so stubborn on the outside could be so concerned and caring... that she could show so much emotion out of her eyes that couldn't search his own. She had failed to mention how everyone else wanted him back to normal and he caught that, feeling something he hadn't felt in a while; loved. Not necessarily the level he had from Suki, but something on some level made him feel better. And in that one sentence he found his resolve to make this better. For her, for everyone.

"It will be better from here on out." He believed out loud and she heard the smile in his voice. He surprised her by coming closer to her and giving her a quick but tight embrace. As he got off the ground to walk away from her, he half turned to her.

"Toph?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

She smiled and he did too and he walked away into his own tent as she bent hers up again, curling up on the sandy ground and sleeping with ease.