Toph was scowling, vowing to punch Katara really hard when she felt better. The healing sessions always felt great while they were happening, but within about two hours, Toph would be in horrible pain. After the healing session following her awakening (during which Katara had told Toph she'd been out for four days. Four days?!), Sokka had returned with Lin, who had squealed with happy tears and, forgetting her pre-adolescent resolution to never hug Mom in public, had hugged Toph fiercely.
Toph had smiled through clenched teeth, blinking through tears of her own, and was deeply upset that her pain had been more present than her daughter's relief and happiness. Nonetheless, she hugged Lin back just as fiercely. She had never wished she could see more than at that moment, but she would settle for the clean scent of her daughter's hair and the solid, still-childlike weight of her.
Now, brooding on her current pain - not as bad as that day, but still pretty damn awful - Toph heard footsteps coming through the doorway, and immediately recognised them as Sokka's. He had come to visit at least once every day in the five since she had come to, usually bringing Lin with him, but today he was alone.
"Hey Sokka," she said.
"Hi Toph," he replied, and put a hand on her shoulder as he took his accustomed seat to the left of her bed. "How was torture today?"
Toph brought a fist and a palm together in a threatening gesture - something she couldn't have done without a spasm of pain just two days before - with a sly grin. "As soon as I'm out of this hospital, Katara and I are having a duel!"
He had a good laugh at that. "Seriously though," he said. "How's the pain?"
"Bad, especially right now. But I can move around a lot more, and in a few hours the leftovers from my session with Katara will have died down a bit. She really is very good."
"I'm glad to hear it."
She heard him rummaging for something in that ridiculous 'manbag' he always carried.
"What are you hunting for?" she asked.
"Just a minute!" The sound of his excavation continued.
"How much junk do you have in there, Sokka?"
"It's not junk!" He said, sounding affronted. "It's just stuff I need with me."
The rummaging abruptly stopped. "Found it!"
"Found what? For a second there I thought you came to visit me just to sit and hunt for your house keys."
Sokka sighed, and Toph sensed that he had grown serious after their light banter.
"I wanted to give you something, to let you know how much you mean to me, so -" Toph felt blood rising to her cheeks as he said it, and didn't want to hear the rest.
"Sokka, you don't have to-"
"No, Toph, I want to. And let me say this, okay?"
She nodded.
"I watched a man stab you in the back. It was pretty much the worst thing I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. Now, I know you can handle yourself - you certainly handle yourself better than me - but for a long time I've just wanted to have your back like you always have mine, and that night... that night..." Here his voice wavered, and he cleared his throat, trying to steady it. "That night I didn't have your back, not because I wasn't trying, but because I wasn't good enough. And I want you to know how much I wanted to."
Toph could hear in his voice that he was actually weeping, and even though she very badly wanted to speak, she kept quiet. He clearly needed to say this.
"You mean everything to me," he said. "It's not like it's new to me, it's just that until I saw someone target you like that, saw you go down, I didn't realise that I don't say it nearly enough."
He took her hand and pressed something into it.
"I carved it for you. It doesn't have to mean what it would normally mean, but I didn't know how else to tell you that I love you."
Toph was stunned. Sokka had just told her he loved her. The way he said it, she didn't know whether he meant it the way she had always, albeit only in the deepest corners of her heart, hoped he might, but she would take it.
She took the item he had given her and examined it with her fingers. It was two narrow lengths of soft fabric, weighed down and joined by a round piece of stone. Running her fingers over the carving, she felt a rectangular shape in the center, surrounded by curved lines.
"Sokka, is this... is this a betrothal necklace?" she asked. Her cheeks were very warm now, the pain in her back completely forgotten.
"Technically it is, but it's more just me telling you that I'll always have your back. I wanted you to have something that would symbolise that."
"I don't know what to say. This is just..." she was truly lost for words. She reached for him and pulled him into an embrace, gripping the necklace in one hand. "I love you too," she said into his ear. "I always have." She wasn't surprised to feel warm tears course down her cheeks.
After a moment, Toph pulled out of their embrace and held out her new necklace.
"Would you put it on for me?" she asked.
"With pleasure," said Sokka. He took it from her and she felt the caress of the fabric on her neck a second later. It took a while for him to fasten the necklace – his hands were trembling – but when he was done he let his hands linger on either side of her neck and pressed his forehead against hers. Toph covered his hands with hers.
They sat that way for a long time – it could have been five seconds, it could have been five hours, neither of them knew or cared.