Colors

Toph was quiet. Totally in shock. She felt Aang and Sokka looking at her, waiting for her answer, but she didn't know what to say. Sokka finally spoke up, "Aang, is it really possible?"

"Yes it is. I looked back as far as I could and the ancient Avatars say that I can do it as long as I can get a spirit that's willing to help me." he turned to Toph, "I've always wanted to do this for you and Teo, but he declined because it's only temporary." he stepped to her side, kneeled beside her and put a hand on hers. "Toph, let me do this for you. I know it won't last forever, but your memories will."

Toph turned her head to him "This can really happen?" she asked solemnly.

"Yes." the Avatar said smiling at the chief.

"And…there's a spirit who cares enough about me to help you?"

"Yue wants to do this for you. She offered before I could ask."

Toph couldn't hold the tears back anymore. "I'll be able to see my baby?" she turned to Sokka, "I'll be able to see my Lin?"

Sokka smiled "Aang says he and Yue can do it. I think you should try."

Toph turned back to Aang "And it'll last about two weeks?"

"Give or take. Will you do it?"

She reached over and hugged him, "Yes, thank you Twinkletoes."

.~.~.~.~.~.

Soon they were on their way to the North Pole. Sokka and Toph took a month long leave of absence, long enough for them to make the trip to the Northern Water Tribe, see the sights and go to Gaoling for Lin's Coming Out Party.

Sokka took Appa's reigns with Toph close by his side. She gripped onto his arm like she had since they were kids. Appa also carried half of the luggage, the rest went with Aang and Katara on Hariti. Bumi, Kya, Lin and Tenzin took Pong.

When they landed in the North Pole the new chief, Arnook's nephew Dasan, was there to meet them. He had some of the young men of the tribe take care of the bison and unpack their saddles while he walked with the group to the Spirit Oasis. He stopped at the door "I wish you the best Avatar Aang. Tell my cousin we thank her for her protection."

.~.~.~.~.~.

When Sokka helped Toph into the oasis, she immediately sat down and ripped off her boots and socks. She sighed in relief when she planted her feet on the warm ground then she went about snatching off her jacket. She never understood why Sokka loved all the ice and snow.

While everyone else was removing their heavy jackets, Aang led Toph to the water. He stepped into the pond and held her hand as she stepped down into the pool. The others stood around the pond in awe as the Koi circled the two and Yue appeared.

"Hello Aang. Hello everyone." she spoke smoothly in her otherworldly voice. They all quietly bowed to her. "Aang, shall we begin?"

The air bender nodded his head and placed his hands on either side of Toph's head. Yue stood behind Toph, placing her hands on top of Aang's. The three were bathed in a white light that lasted a moment and then faded away.

Toph stood there, afraid to open her eyes. What if it hadn't worked? What if it did and she didn't like or understand what she was seeing. She pinched her eyes tighter and turned away from where she knew everyone was. She was afraid and she was angry at herself for feeling that way. Yue floated in front of her, "Toph, don't be afraid. Open your eyes."

Toph wanted to be defiant, but she did as the Moon Spirit told her. Slowly she lifted her lids. Before her stood a beautiful girl with long hair, a flowing gown and bathed in light. "Yue?" she asked stunned at being able to see.

The spirit said "Yes Toph. I will leave you to enjoy your family." and with that, she faded away.

It was silent. Toph still didn't turn around. She stood and looked at the water 'This must be blue' she thought as she was mesmerized by the way water glistened, then she looked down and saw an image in the water. She stared at it as it rippled with Aang's steps toward her. "Twinkletoes…is…is this me?"

She heard the smile in his answer "That's you Toph."

She studied herself. She looked at her hair that everyone had always told her was black, and her eyes that they said were green 'Blue, black and green.' she thought to herself, then the other reflection in the water caught her attention. She turned around slowly, "Aang?"

"It's me Toph." He said sweetly with a grand smile on his face.

She reached up and put the tips of two fingers on the arrow on his forehead, 'blue' she thought 'and gray. Katara said his eyes were gray.'

"Toph, are you okay?" he asked still beaming at her.

'White' she thought looking at his smile. She grabbed his cloak and looked up at him, "Is this orange, red or yellow? She asked. She wanted to know every color.

"It's red," he pushed his cloak open and pointed to his shirt, "and this is orange," then to his collar "and this is yellow." he fought the urge to chuckle at her curiosity.

Then she completely surprised him and hugged him tight "It's good to see you Aang." she said half crying, half laughing.

"There are others for you to see." he said, hugging her back.

"I know," she whispered "I'm nervous."

"Don't be." he said "Come on." they turned around, Toph's face still buried in the comfort of her friend's robes, and he walked her to the shore. "Toph, turn around."

She turned slowly, looking down at the water. The earth bender gently raised her head. When she stopped her gaze landed on a pair of sparkling green eyes just like the ones she had just seen on the water, "Linny?" she said, her voice quivering, "Lin you are so beautiful."

"Mom? You see me?" the girl turned around, "She sees me guys!" then she jumped into her mother's arms sending them both into the water "Mom!"

They both laughed as the water splashed around them. Lin lifted herself up and Toph pushed the wet curls away from her daughter's face, "Look at my pretty baby." she said quietly.

"Come on Mom," Lin said holding her hand out to Toph "lets get out of this water."

Toph took her daughter's hand, still staring at her. She watched Lin climb out of the water, then she saw another hand reaching out for her. This hand was large and darker than hers, or Lin's or Aang's. There was a tremble in her voce as she looked up into his eyes for the first time and said "Sokka?"

He smiled "The one and only." he said, trying to joke as he noticed her misty green eyes were now bright and glimmering.

She put her hand on his face and thought 'Brown, I love brown. And more blue' she thought looking into his eyes 'this blue is awesome.' Toph threw her arms around Sokka and fell into his chest. He kissed the top of her head, "Is everything as beautiful as you and Lin?" she whispered.

"It's all wonderful." he answered.

After familiarizing herself with everyone and having Kya pull all the water from Toph's clothes, they got back into their coats and took the walk across the Northern Water Tribe to the house they always stayed in when they were there. Now that Toph could see it, she understood why people lived at the poles. Despite being cold the place was absolutely lovely. The blues, purples and brown skin popped so nicely against all the snow.

Everyone took turns telling Toph what things were and what signs said. She wanted to know what everything was. Inside the house there were so many more things to see. The thing that really stopped her for a while was the fire that Aang shot into the fireplace. The way it flickered and danced mesmerized her. She wondered how something so pretty could be so destructive. Toph thought about Zuko and the scar that dominated the left side of his face. He'd let her touch it when they were younger and the way it felt scared her. She wondered what it might actually look like.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

That night, Toph stood in front of the full length mirror in her room studying her nude body from every angle she could see. When Sokka came in he was shocked. "Whoa" he said closing the door quickly behind him, "what's going on in here?'"

She looked at him with curiosity in her eyes, "You like seeing me like this?"

He smiled, "I always have, I always will. You don't like seeing yourself naked?"

"It's…different." she said looking back to the mirror. "I can't explain what I thought I would look like but-" she looked at him again "Take your clothes off." the police chief said bluntly. She noticed Sokka's strange expression "I want to see all of you. I want to match the feelings with the image."

He smiled, "Okay, let me put some more wood on the fire."

He did so and started to pull off the layers of clothes he was wearing. It was strange to know that Toph was actually watching him undress. When his top half was bare she stepped up and started touching his scars. She knew where they all were what had put them there, but seeing them was entirely different from touching. There were some that were flat and dark, and others that were lighter and slightly raised. She looked over the scars on his chest and arms and then went to the ones on his back. Those were the ones she liked best because she had put a least a couple of them there.

When she was done inspecting his top half she pushed his underwear down to his feet. She covered her mouth and laughed. "Hey!" Sokka said offended as her covered his crotch with both hands.

"I'm sorry." she said wiping a tear from her eye, "you've got to admit, that's funny looking. Do all men look like that?"

Sokka huffed "Basically, but everybody's different."

Toph tried to suppress her smile as she moved forward to take his hand away "I'm sorry. I love every part of you." she kissed him on his cheek. "Now make it jump."

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

The next afternoon, Toph was actually excited to get on Appa. Sokka was taking her to the Fire Nation to see Zuko. The Fire Lord didn't know that they were coming or that she could see.

For the first time, Toph enjoyed the flight. Seeing the clouds, the birds and the endless sky caused her to hold on to Sokka for an entirely different reason. She was overwhelmed by old feelings of hating flying and new ones of wanting to see more.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

"Fire Lord Zuko, the Avatar's bison is approaching the palace."

"Thank you." Zuko told the guard and he got up to go meet them in the courtyard. Aang usually told him when he and Appa were coming. 'It's probably not Aang,' he thought 'It's probably Kya and Yeshe coming to pick Ursa up for the party.'

When he got to the courtyard, he saw that it really was Appa, but Sokka and Toph were with him. "Hi boy," he said as he petted the bison, "It's good to see you again. I'll have someone bring you a cart of cabbages."

Appa growled his thanks as Toph and Sokka slid down from his head. Sokka walked up to Zuko and clamped both of his hands down on Zuko's shoulders, "Hey buddy, how's it going?"

"I'm fine. I wasn't expecting you. To what do I owe this honor?"

"Toph wanted to come for a visit." he said with knowing smile on his face.

Sokka stepped aside and Toph walked up to Zuko with her head down as usual. She stopped when she got to him and lifted her head. Zuko furrowed his brow at the sight of Toph's eyes. Before he could say anything she put her hand on the scarred side of his face and said, "You are very handsome Fire Lord Sparky. This looks way better than it feels."

"You-you can see me?" he said, then he thought twice. "No, you're playing a trick on me. I don't think that's funny Toph."

"I can see you, just like I can see a pretty girl walking up behind you." she turned to Sokka, "Is that Junior?"

Sokka nodded and Zuko was still not convinced. "Come on Toph. You probably sensed her coming the second you got off Appa."

"And how would I be able to do that?" she asked holding a foot up to show Zuko that she was actually wearing shoes complete with bottoms.

The fire bender reached out to hug his old friend "How is this possible?"

Ursa walked up just in time to hear the story of how Aang and Yue made it possible for Toph to be able to see for a couple of weeks.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Toph sat in Appa's saddle admiring her feet. She'd decided that she liked shoes, but only the pretty ones, and the ones Ursa had given her were very pretty. They were covered in tiny diamonds. She knew that she'd have to be putting her boots on again soon, after all, they were heading to the South Pole.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

It was early in the morning when they arrived at the Southern Water Tribe. They'd only spent a few hours in the Fire Nation, just long enough to let Appa eat and get some rest. Toph insisted on seeing where Sokka and Katara grew up while she still could. There was time, they still had two free days before they were due to meet everyone in Gaoling.

"Son," Hakoda said as he embraced Sokka "I wasn't expecting you. Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine Dad. Toph just wanted to see you."

The elder warrior hugged the small earth bender, "How are you? I thought you said you were never coming back to this 'frozen wasteland'."

She laughed, "Well, things change."

"Welcome back, Daughter."

"Thanks Pops. You know, for an old man, you're pretty hot."

Hakoda gave her a questioning look, then laughed, "You shouldn't tease me like that. For a second I almost believed you." then he noticed, "Toph, your eyes are different…you really see me, don't you?"

"She sees you Dad." Sokka answered, sure that Toph was tired of assuring everyone that she wasn't pranking them.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

As they walked through the halls of Kanna University, no one paid much attention to the little black haired woman holding on to the chief's son's arm. Many of them had seen her before and they all knew that she could not see. No one noticed that this time she held her head up and looked around; no one except for Kimi.

"Toph!" she said as she ran down the hall towards them.

"Well damn, Sokka. Every guy in this place is probably trying to be your son-in-law."

"Watch it Toph." he warned.

"Hey, I could've said the first thing that came to my mind, but I censored myself."

"I appreciate that." he said as his daughter wrapped her arms around Toph. He turned his attention to Kimi, "Well you just don't see me, do you?" he said in a jealous tone.

"Hi Sokka." she laughed as she released Toph and hugged her father, "Don't be like that. I haven't seen her since I was in Republic City." she looked around, "Did Lin come with you?"

The couple went into telling the young woman where Lin was and why. Kimi was amazed by talk of the North Pole, the Spirit Oasis and Yue. After her initial disbelief and following acceptance, she gave Toph and Sokka a tour of the school.

When they got to Shima's office, Toph asked Sokka and Kimi to wait by the door while she paid the professor a visit. Sokka was hesitant. He knew whatever Shima had said to Toph on that day she'd went to the police station had rubbed the chief the wrong way, but Toph wouldn't tell him what the conversation was. He watched her go into the office. When she closed the door, he leaned against the frame so he could hear.

"Hello Shima." Toph chirped.

Shima lifted her head from the stack of papers she'd been reading, "Well hello Chief Beifong. What a pleasant surprise."

"I'm sure." she said sarcastically, "Anyway, I just stopped by to tell you that you were right."

"I was right? About what?"

"About what you said about me not being able to see the way Sokka looks at me. It was a bit of a waste, but now that I've seen it, you don't have to worry about that anymore."

"What?" the startled professor asked.

"Yeah. I've seen him, the way he looks at me and so much more. And I've gotta say it's all great." she smiled at the dumbfounded woman "Well, I just wanted to pop by…oh, and by the way, we asked Kimi to go with us to Gaoling as a surprise for Lin. She said yes. Bye."

Toph turned to leave and saw something else new, a very angry Sokka. She looked back at Shima and smirked, then walked out of the door.

"How dare you?" he growled as he stepped inside and pulled the door shut, "How dear you say something like that to her! What kind of a jackass taunts somebody about a disability? You know, I've been spending months telling myself not to be angry with you for keeping Kimi away from me. I told myself that you were young and scared and you did what you thought was best, but you haven't changed. What did you think saying those things would accomplish?" he closed his eyes and held his hands up in disgust, "You know what, don't answer that. I don't want to hear any of your crazy ass reasoning." and with that he stomped out of the door without giving her a second to respond.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

I've been considering doing this for a while, but I second thought it because I've seen the same idea in a few different stories. But I decided to go ahead with it because my version took it outside of the Spirit World.

I also changed my mind about how I would end the situation with Toph and Shima. I think this was a good way for Toph to get the last laugh and (although Toph doesn't need it) I wanted Sokka to stand up for her.

Dasan is a Native American name meaning chief/ruler. It's also my son's middle name.

I don't own ATLA, just Kimi, Shima and my ideas.