It was as if nothing happened. Like trees shedding leaves, not so important it seemed to everyone who came upon it. Expect the tree itself. Sadly Toph felt as if she was shedding to nothing at all. Sadly she wanted to be the everyone who came upon it. She wanted to be everyone but Toph. Everything but the tree.

Work days were the bitter ones because he treated her sternly. Like an acquaintance instead of a long lost friends. Like a stranger. Toph, with solemn remorse realized that he was the everyone that came upon her shedding dismal. He could help, he could show interest but instead kept on his marry way.

Was this what he felt when he was left at the altar?

Of course Toph should be anything but happy. Wasn't this what she wanted? The space? The freedom? No more guilt? Rather now she felt more miserable than ever, more guilty than she had when Sokka was living with her. She guessed that she wasn't that sure then, that it came with the piece of distance. No, she never knew it came with a piece at all. Maybe deep in her subconscious she was aware that all things came with a consequence. He was always the aftermath.

Maybe he was the reason or where the verdict fell upon this night.

In the halls she found that she was the only one smiling when they brushed by. In meetings she was the one itching to speak. Time was the one making her loose her mind because only it could tell you what was to come. Sadly it only spoke sign language. Sadly times occupation was worse than when it was a healer. But all in all, she quite understood what it was trying to mutely say: There was nothing. He gave her nothing. Nothing but empty air.

If she was lucky she would receive a firm hello if it were possible, but what she hated about this little detail was that it came forced. Most of what he did recently after he moved out was forced. At times she tried to remember everything but. She was momentarily scared when it was this new him that she remembered.

It was most embarrassing when she tried to pick a conversation because it was like trying to save someone who doesn't want to be saved. How could she even talk to him if he shuts her down, quickly putting an end to any attempt?

In a miserable instant she wondered if he compared her to Suki.

The others notice the change in the atmosphere and tension in the air and just when it was going to be brought to the conversation Sokka remember that he had other important things to attend to and she decided then to make a run for it. She wasn't going to be confronted alone. Not when he had some fault into it. Either way, after it was quickly done and failed no one proceeded in asking anything.

This was one of the short reliefs. Toph wish that her life was made of short reliefs maybe then she wouldn't feel like she was decomposing.

Toph didn't know and she didn't ask also what became of Sokka after he moved out, where did he go, where was he staying, why was he angry at her? She only had one answer to all of her questions. Yes, he hated her. The others she guessed according to what she heard around work and what others slipped up.

Apparently he moved back to the old house he shared with Suki. Toph reminded herself that it was better than living with her.

Apparently he had moved on.

Apparently he not only was mad at Suki, he was mad at Toph also. The only difference: nobody knew what had caused the muted disagreement. Toph only wished she was part of those who estimated other people's problems.

But above all what caused her more anguish than anything occurring these days was the lack of care or not care at all that Sokka used to refer to Toph to others. She wasn't sure if he didn't know she was there or if he knew she was, nevertheless his words would still echo at the end of the day. Like critics. Except Toph didn't mind what others thought of her. Only him. And hearing him do so was like taking the world on her shoulders. It took everything for her not to cry.

"Don't ask; she wouldn't know," he had said, "she couldn't see it even it was in front of her."

She once was happy when she had heard him laugh. It was such liberation until it sarcastically continued. "Yeah. She's at blind as they come."

She wasn't sure it was at her but she was sure it was. Maybe all she witness was a coincidence but something in her stomach told her differently. And by then she had hit her limits in taking every critic he threw, even if not directly, at her.

"She's just Toph. A bit ignorant but you shouldn't let it bother you. I mean you get over it easily. I did."

"It's good to know you're okay." Toph said loud enough for him to hear as she passed.

As she exited the doors from the Republic City police force she was hit by cold night air. The working day was done and if it were normal happenings she would have gone to her house and rested the weekend away. Not tonight. Tonight her heart was filled with bitterness, with resentment, tonight the question was what should I drink, where should I do drown my problems. Where can I forget.

It was momentarily answered when some men from the police force asked her to come join them celebrate a goodbye since some of them were going to be transferring to other areas of the four nations.

She accepted.

The night was a blur and all that she remembered was laughter and swooshing colors and light. Men, strange men. But then there was him. She couldn't actually see but she was sure he was beautiful. The air that surrounded him, the way he talked, the way he carried himself, the way he said her name with just knowing her a few hours ago created the sense, the foreboding that he was that type of man. And maybe for a moment, if her mind wasn't so drunk, she had thought that this man was better than Sokka. And maybe later after that when it dawn on her finally she started to cry.

For everything.

All the things he did. All the things he was. All the things that he meant. All the things he did to her. All the things he didn't do to her. All the things he was to her. All the things he wasn't or could ever be to her. All the things he meant to her. All the things she didn't meant to him. All the things he said behind her back. All the things he made to hurt her.

Everything that's him.

She cried for everything that's him.

Then all of the sudden her sorrow was forgotten. Then all of the sudden everything blackout. In those moments she was happy, she was ultimate. If there was a place with nowhere to go she had reached that place. Toph didn't want to wake; she didn't want this bliss to end. She didn't want this contentment to reach a finale.

But quickly after her conscious surfaced she felt pain. She felt sore. Something was missing.

The first thing she felt under her feet was four walls. Then she made out it to be a bathroom. The only explanation for why her pants were down. But then she felt her shirt.

Her heart fell.

Toph wasn't aware how but she had tried to clean up and now was headed off the bar or whatever it was. There was no one except for this one man sweeping the floors. He told her they were closed and then he told her it was morning.

Oh, how she wanted to cry again.

She was out of there as quickly as she could. She was tripping with her own feet, each time she did she hiccupped her hysteria. She couldn't say that everything was blurring because she couldn't actually see but her eyes were oceans as vast as her ears witness every time it was brought to a conversation. But on another level, her vibrations were unreadable and all she heard was he heart racing in a panic, trying to runway to a hiding place. As much as Toph tried to explain that it was forever trapped in a cage made of feeble ribs it didn't listened, it kept pumping. Shameful.

For a second she thought the small heart dead when it stopped when Toph was grabbed by the arms.

"Toph?"

How long had she been running? Why was Sokka here? Where was she going?

"Let me go!" She twisted, stumping until she broke. Her breath came like small interjected flights from so called birds. For a second she thought she tweeted. But then she realized she was just exasperated. She wasn't thinking straight.

"What's wrong?" Sokka questioned her precariously.

What was wrong? She asked herself. But the possibilities were infinite. The potentials were unlimited. The answers inestimable. You, she said. Me, she said. Me, she repeated. Me, she repeated. Us, she concluded. We, she figured. What's wrong with you?

Her answer was mute and yet as clear as hands under blood soaked water. She took off, her feet wobbling. Not the color but the word red repeating over and over.

"Toph!" he shouted, his voice fading.

Obviously she couldn't see. She was grateful for that. Grateful that she couldn't see his face. Grateful that he didn't follow the trail she left behind. That he didn't chase her. Grateful that ironically she did saw that coming.

There was that knock again. She was stupid to believe he wouldn't look for her. Well, she hadn't gone to work for three days now. She had some part controlled, under her regimen. But facing others was far out of her puppets strings. Toph for some crazy idea was tearing thinking of all those people she had to face. The reality that awaited her.

Toph cringed at the sound in her bed where she was cocooned in. She was, she figured, in a state of shock. She was afraid of herself, of who she could become. And how that person would react around company. Correction: the strings were cut.

This was the hundred time Sokka was at the door. Somehow that made her feel a little safe even though the threat was far away. But the implications of what happened stayed with her. A shadow overcasting under her.

For the first time she stood. Not like other times Sokka persisted in the knocking, and every time he did she heard the same voice accusing her and she could no longer take the words that heaved around her shoulders.

As she neared the door she wanted to trace her steps back to her bed, where she could rest and digest something that was only half bitten. But she pushed herself.

One last knock before she opened the door.

There was silence and Toph wasn't sure if Sokka had left. She was about to close the door, thinking that she had imagined and in fact was going crazy when he started to speak up.

"Toph?" he said her name and it reminded her of something so familiar that it made her want to puke. "What's going on?

The voice answered. I slept with a man. A Stranger.