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“What are you doing today?”
Sokka sighed, stretching out on his sister’s couch. “Nothing.”
“Well, you should do something. It’s a nice day and you know we haven’t had many of those lately.” Katara made a face as she chopped some vegetables and absentmindedly bent the broth she was stirring. “It’s been so rainy and muggy. Go and do something.”
“Damn. Kicking me out already? I just got here.”
“Don’t be stupid. I’m serious. It’s nice out!”
He lifted his head a bit to take a look out the window. The sun was bright in the sky and there were no gray clouds visible. Still, he shrugged and laid back. “Eh.”
“You should go to the park on Main,” Katara told him casually. Too casually. “I know you liked the fountain there. It’s been a while since you’ve been by.”
“That—that was years ago.”
“But the fountain is still there. It hasn’t changed.”
“I have,” he muttered.
Katara looked at him pityingly and he hated it. She said, “You should still go. You’ve been mopier than usual and I think this could help you.”
He wanted to argue, but he knew that it was true. Sokka hadn’t been much of himself lately. He felt unhappy, though he loved his career path and he loved his work. He had the right people in his life, he was constantly with company that he enjoyed, and he wasn’t lacking anything. But, in truth, there was something missing, and he wasn’t sure if he could even get it back after so much time had passed.
So yeah, he was mopey, and he wasn’t opposed to some time out to clear his head of the cloud that had decided to take residence there recently.
Considering Katara’s suggestion, Sokka threw his head back against the couch, hugging a pillow to his chest and sighing. He hadn’t been out of the house recently and he only had a handful of time left until his impromptu four-day vacation from work was up… it couldn’t hurt to actually catch some Sun, breathe in some of Omashu’s polluted air, and get some steps in, could it?
The location was up for debate, however, because he’d only ever visited the fountain in the park on Main with his best friend, once upon a time, and since she’d left, he hadn’t wanted to visit it again. And regardless of the fact that he hadn’t been to their spot in two years short of a decade, he knew that it wasn’t going to be the same without her. Nothing ever really was after she took off.
Home just didn’t feel like home without her around.
They hadn’t fallen out or had any kind of disagreement when she left. They tried to stay in touch, but timing and circumstances, and life made it nearly impossible. By the time she’d moved away for college, Sokka was just getting ready to graduate and was awaiting grad school application decisions as Toph was gearing up for her first year and the big move. Once she’d left for Yu Dao, their constant communication began to dwindle, phone numbers were no longer active, addresses had changed, and their friendship fell through the cracks.
He knew he should’ve done better to keep their relationship above water, but he could barely do that for himself. Engineering was no joke, and if he wanted to be successful throughout his college career and, eventually, his professional one, he had to focus. Had they been able to talk at all, she would’ve understood.
A lot of his other personal relationships were hung out to dry, too, but it was easier to build those back up when his close friends were his sister and her boyfriend, plus one of his girlfriends turned friend. But none of that mattered to him all that much. Maintaining his relationships and friendships fell to the back burner because the most important one to him was no longer a factor.
No one could hold a candle to Toph.
His relationship with Toph Beifong was everything to him. They’d known each other since they were kids in pre-school and they stuck together like glue until life pushed them apart. She was the first person to understand him, hear him out without fearing any judgment, and actually give a shit about what he had to say. She was the person who taught him how to love, even if she herself didn’t know as much.
Funnily enough, he even harbored this ridiculous crush on her for years after they grew into their teens, and it was bordering on something else he never dared to think about. And after a while, whatever he felt for her outgrew the parameters of what a ridiculous crush was.
Sokka loved her, plain and simple.
He knew that it had once been platonic and innocent, but it went way beyond that at some point. It just wasn’t something he wanted to think about, worried that it would ruin something, and when she left, it just hurt to think about it at all.
He was almost certain that she knew about his feelings, how much he loved her, even if he didn’t quite know himself back then. Though if she had, she never gave him any grief for it or teased him about it, despite the humorous nature of their friendship. She was very perceptive, so it was impossible that she hadn’t figured him out, but still. The fact that she didn’t mess with him about it made him feel… safe. He’d never felt that way with anyone before Toph, or since her, not even the girlfriends he’d had through the years they’d been apart.
Sometimes, he wondered what it’d be like if he were to seek her out. Would she have changed? Would she even remember him the way he remembered her, or would she simply regard him as some guy she knew? Did she ever spend entire nights fantasizing about what their lives together might be in the present day? Was their history ingrained in her brain the way it was in his?
He would torture himself with those questions he knew he’d likely never have the answer to, but he supposed that he should’ve been happy for the fact that he even had a childhood friend like her. Not many people could say the same.
“Sokka?”
His sister startled him out of his thoughts and he blinked a few times, trying to remember what they were talking about. It took a frustrated huff from Katara and her saying, “The fountain?” for him to remember.
It was true that he hadn’t been there in what felt like forever, but what would he lose?
He nodded to himself and grunted as he stood up from the couch before making for the coat rack by the door and grabbing his keys. “I’ll see you later, sis.”
As much as he hated to admit it, Katara was right about the weather. It was warm and breezy, making it a nice day for a walk. The sun wasn’t beating against his skin, allowing him to keep his jacket on and not have to begrudgingly carry it around, and the wind was cool, blowing the stray strands of hair that escaped his wolftail out of his face.
Making it to the fountain took no time. As much as he tried his best to avoid it all these years, he still remembered the way there.
How long had it been since he’d been there? Just under eight years because he went religiously after Toph left until he figured that there was no reason to go back again. He always felt lonely without her there and bringing anyone else—maybe other than Katara and/or Zuko, though it was still not the same—would’ve felt like some kind of a betrayal.
Sokka inhaled deeply, taking in the smells of the park. There was someone barbecuing something a few feet away so he could smell the charcoal and whatever was burning; there were some parents slathering sunscreen on their kids’ faces despite the heat not being too present, so he could smell the beachy scent of the lotion; and the chlorine that the fountain was emitting.
The place was energized, but he felt nostalgic and reminiscent as he approached the edge of the fountain and took a seat at a very specific spot. His fingers instinctively went to the engraving in the stone beside where he sat down before he looked at the imperfect impressions of his and Toph’s initials.
That was their fountain, they would say, and no one could take it away from them.
With a heavy sigh, Sokka laid back on the fountain edge horizontally and shut his eyes, thinking back to the fun times he would spend at the park’s fountain, wreaking havoc with Toph, and being entirely carefree.
The last time the two of them had been to the fountain together was the night she was leaving for college. They were quiet on the walk over, and they were quiet when they sat down in their usual spot because neither of them knew what to say. They were comfortable around each other, though. They always were.
That night, Sokka watched her as she kept her eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the night as the moonlight hit her just right. And something possessed him—he leaned in to kiss her, but he stopped himself short of brushing her lips. He couldn’t do that, especially not the night that she was due to leave—and unbeknownst to him at the time, never return. So he cleared his throat and struck up a conversation to keep him from thinking about what would’ve happened if he had gone through with his impulse.
Breaking him out of his wistful thoughts, someone walked up to him, notably blocking the sun from hitting his face, despite his closed eyes.
“You’re in my seat,” said a woman brashly.
Sokka didn’t bother opening his eyes to look at her, but he let out a frustrated huff at her cocksure tone and attitude. “There’s a whole bunch of other places you can sit.”
“Well, I want to sit here. In my seat.”
“I don’t see your name on it, lady.” Who did this chick think she was?
A scoff. “I can’t see it, either, but I’m very certain that my name is right under your ass.”
At that, Sokka’s heart rate climbed to a concerning velocity and he quickly sat up to a point where he became the slightest bit dizzy. It took him a second, but when his eyes landed on her, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing—who he was seeing.
“Toph,” he breathed out.
She was smirking, her arms crossed over her chest, and her eyebrow arched. Nothing about her was different save for the stud on her nose, the slightly more muscular build, and—no, not her height. She was just as short as she was when she left.
But other than that, she was still Toph. His Toph.
He was taking her in, trying to find his words or his movement when she cheekily asked, “Are you just going to sit there and gawk, or are you going to get your ass up and say hi? I'm fine either way."
It took him about half a second for him to come to his senses, stand up, and pull her into a bone-crushing hug. Sokka buried his face in her neck, breathing her in, as her arms wrapped around his neck, embracing him just as tightly—if not tighter.
Holding her like this felt as though it was right, as though he needed to make up for lost time for letting them go years on end without catching up, without knowing a thing about each other. He wanted everything he was too afraid to say at that moment to be translated through their embrace.
“Good grief, okay,” Toph told him laughingly after a while, though her words came out a bit muffled as her face was pressed against his neck. “All right! I’d like to breathe one of these days.”
When he didn't listen and refused to let go, as if doing so would have made him wake up from whatever dream this was, Toph brought her hand to his right underarm and pinched him until he yelped and pulled away.
He hissed for a bit then looked at her smirking face standing in front of him. He said, “Some things never change, I see.”
“I could say the same about you, Snoozles.” She smiled and plopped down onto the fountain wall before patting the space beside her. “It’s been a minute, huh?”
“That’s an understatement,” he said with a snort, a bit shocked that she even remembered her old nickname for him. Doing as she requested, he sat right next to her, leaving no space for air to pass between them. She didn’t complain, so he didn’t move. “How—how are you? I—You have to tell me everything.”
“So, just give you an elaborate report of the last eight years?”
A pause, then a nod. “Pretty much, yeah.”
“Okay, that’s not a tall ask at all.”
“Definitely not.”
They laughed, but there was an awful silence between them afterward. It was awkward and uncomfortable, and he hated it. Every single minute of it. But before he was able to open his mouth to say something to break it and try to get them back to where they left off all those years ago, she beat him to it.
“You’re actually here.”
He grinned despite the bout of awkwardness. “I am. And you’re still real—I didn’t make up half of my childhood.”
Toph’a face brightened as she chuckled, then she turned serious. “I, uh, I thought about reaching out a lot throughout the years. You know, after we lost touch.”
“Yeah. Same here.”
“But?”
A shrug. “It never seemed like the right time, and by the time I figured I’d try, numbers and addresses were changed, and I just—well, I’m not going to lie—I guess I didn’t bother. I—I wanted to save myself the disappointment of, like, not striking gold when it came to getting in touch with you.”
Toph nodded at him and then dug into her pocket before slapping something against his chest. He fumbled for a second before grabbing her phone as she said, “Put in your number and text yourself from there so you can save mine. That way, neither of us will have an excuse to not reach out no matter where we are. It’s not impossible. Your sister seemed to have found a way—I knew she was up to something, especially when she firmly suggested that she and I meet here; she’s who I was waiting for. Until now, I guess.”
“Wh—” He let out a long sigh. Sokka should’ve known that Katara was up to something, too, when she suggested that he took a walk by the fountain—something she never does because she knows the significance of the place. He tapped away at her phone and did as he was told before handing it back over to her and pulling out his own to save her number. “Okay, but how did she manage to—how—I looked for—she—”
“I was always against setting up social media accounts—for myself and for the academy I run," Toph began to explain, "which explains why I was pretty much a ghost until recently—but I finally gave in to get my team to shut the fuck up about it, at least in terms of my business. They’re still working on getting me to make a personal account and they’re going to keep at it until I make them cut it out.
“So a few weeks after the academy’s accounts went live, my business partner Aang came to me with a direct message from Katara seeking me out. We exchanged numbers and we talked, then she extended an invite to her place for a few weeks.
“It happened to be good timing because I was looking into opening another academy here in Omashu, and it worked out.” She adjusted the strap of her bag against her shoulder. “I was planning on looking you guys up, but I didn’t even know if you were here anymore, so I figured I’d just wait for the universe to do its thing, I guess. And it did, evidently.”
“How did I not notice that she—”
Toph snorted at him, cutting his question off a second time. “Because things can be right in your face yet you somehow manage to miss them.”
“That—I—you’re mean.”
“That the best you got after all these years?” she teased. “I’d have thought you would’ve gotten better at the comebacks, Meathead.”
He laughed aloud and shook his head, baffled that she still seemed to know everything about him. He shouldn’t have been surprised, though—he still knew everything about her, too. Like he’d ever let himself forget.
It felt as though they’d spoken just yesterday, which shocked him because they hadn’t heard from each other in almost a decade. But again, he shouldn’t have been taken aback. This was Toph. Their dynamic was unlike any that he’d ever experienced or known.
All of a sudden, he furrowed his brows, realizing what she’d said a moment ago. “Wait, so you—an academy? Here?”
She nodded, starting to walk away from the fountain as he followed. “Mhm. So I opened it soon after I graduated college. Got a loan from my parents and I paid them back with what I earned from running the school. Clearly, the place isn’t doing too badly because, as turns out, Omashu is in the market for the Toph Beifong Metalbending Academy treatment, too. It was either this or Ba Sing Se—the decision was easy considering how much I hate that damn city.”
“Clearly a no-brainer,” he said with a slight chuckle, trying to keep his cool as his heart was accelerating at what she was suggesting. “What does that mean for you then?”
“It could mean a number of things.”
“Such as?”
A shrug and the twitch of her lips. “We can talk about it over lunch if you have the time.”
The banter, the borderline flirting, it was all too familiar and it was making him a kind of giddy that he had only ever felt around her. Before he lost his nerve, he teasingly asked, “You asking me out, Beifong?”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head, her brows knitted together, though there was a hint of a smile playing on her lips. “That would be way too forward of me considering the amount of time it’s been since we’ve hung out. I’m a lady, Naitok.”
“Shit, then something really has changed, huh?”
Toph guffawed and smacked him in the chest. “Asshole.”
“Your one and only.” He laughed along with her, rubbing the spot where she hit him. They continued walking, and he asked, “So lunch… At Kwuang’s?”
She stopped walking. “Is that even a question?”
“Sure isn’t, but I had to make sure that your absence hadn’t done anything to mess with your roots.”
“You’re insane if you think so,” Toph said, rolling her eyes and shoving Sokka’s shoulder. Then she groaned. “I’ve dreamt of Kwuang’s wonton noodles from the moment I stepped foot onto that plane all those years ago. I have no idea how I lived without them for so long.”
Sokka didn’t know either because Toph lived on those noodles. She would have them with a side of barbecued pork and either black tea—iced or hot, depending on the weather—or the soft drink of the day, which was anything from soda to beer, and the occasional milkshake. They spent most of their free time split between the eatery, the fountain, and one of their bedrooms or backyards or roofs.
They always had the best time together and from the looks of it, that wasn’t changing any time soon.
At least he hoped it didn’t.
They stepped foot into the restaurant and it was as though they’d walked into a time capsule.
Not a thing had changed. The place’s décor remained around the space, the same smell of grease and good food filled his nose, and the place was jam-packed; even the booth they used to favor was taken, a fact that made Sokka deflate.
Reading his mind, Toph elbowed him in the ribs. “I bet that I can get those mouth-breathers out of there.”
“No—”
“Come on—it’ll be like old times.”
He turned to look at her and there was something about her smile and the glint in her otherwise blank eyes that he couldn’t say no to. Sokka shook his head and huffed ironically. “You can’t be serious.”
Toph slapped a hand on her chest, mockingly indignant. “Was I really gone that long? So long that you don’t remember that I most definitely am serious? You can’t really be so forgetful, Snoozles.”
For the second time that day, the nickname makes him smile. Sokka tilted his head at her. “I can’t believe you remember that. The—the whole Snoozles thing.”
“That’s insulting. It was some of my best work; of course I remember,” she replied nonchalantly. Then, she pursed her lips, and added, “I remember everything about us. And home. You. I—of course I remember.”
Sokka was unable to respond because, by the time he thought about something to say, Toph cleared her throat as she rubbed her hands together. “Let’s get this show on the road,” she said mischievously.
It took him a few seconds to realize what she meant, but not much longer than that as several people screeched from the booth he and Toph had their sights set on. Turned out, she’d created a teeny earthquake under the table, effectively freaking out the patrons at the table. It wasn’t long after that they slapped a few yuans down and fled.
With a grin, Toph walked up to the hostess and pointed a finger in the direction of the now-deserted booth. “Two for that table, please?”
The hostess looked at her, confused, then turned to look at the table, and told her that they just needed to wait a few minutes for it to be cleaned and sanitized, to which Toph gladly obliged. As they waited, Sokka felt his anticipation building. They were about to sit down and talk about everything that they’d missed out on, about their lives, about what they’d been up to. He wanted to know everything.
It took no time for them to be shown to their stolen table. They plopped down on opposite sides of the booth and ordered their drinks.
“The milkshake of the day, please,” they both said at the same time, prompting them to laugh.
Their waitress grinned. “Same straw?”
“No—I—we aren’t—”
“Two drinks,” Toph said smoothly, lifting two fingers in the waitress’s direction, then lowered her middle finger to leave her index up, “one straw each. Thanks.”
With a nod, the waitress bounced away to grab their shakes, and Sokka’s face was burning to the soundtrack of Toph laughing at him.
“Was that so hard?”
He sighed and threw his head down on the table. “Evidently.”
Toph reached under the table and settled her hand on his leg to him to stop bouncing it. He hadn’t even noticed that he was bouncing it. “Would you relax? It’s just me.”
“I know,” he mumbled, lifting his head off the table as she pulled away her hand. “It’s just—”
“It’s been a while. I know.”
“Yeah.”
She sighed, then clasped her hands in front of her on the table. “Then let’s, uh, minimize how long it’s been by catching each other up.”
Sokka nodded slowly, nibbling on his lower lip and running his suddenly clammy hands up and down his jeans. “Catching up. Yeah—let’s do that, yeah.” He looked around the restaurant, trying to come up with something to ask her because his mind was suddenly blank. Without even realizing what he was about to say, he blurted, “So are you seeing anyone?”
What?
“First of all,” Toph said with a little smile, “what a funny way to phrase that question.”
“Sorry—”
“Second of all… is that really the first question you want to ask me, Snoozles?”
“It—I panicked, okay—”
“Uh-huh.” She rolled her eyes as the waitress dropped off their drinks and asked after their order. Toph quickly spewed her wonton noodle order and Sokka opted for street fries and the same barbecued pork side Toph ordered.
Once the waitress jotted down their meals and walked off, Toph clasped her hands on the table again and said, “To answer your very random and somehow very predictable question, no, Sokka, I’m not dating anyone.”
“Oh, uh, good to—good to know.”
“Any reason?”
Sokka felt his cheeks redden. Was there a reason he was asking? Of course there was—he was itching to know. It was one of the first things that popped into his head that he refused to acknowledge after their initial greetings.
So he decided to reply, “Nah. Just wondering, really. Just—just curious, you know.”
She nodded slowly and leaned into the table, then gestured at him with her index finger to come closer, which he did. “I’m sure you’ve forgotten about this, but I can tell that you’re lying.”
Shit.
“But it’s cool,” she continued, sitting back again with a smirk on her lips. “I was wondering the same thing when Katara reached out. She managed to clear up the doubt pretty quickly, unprompted.”
The sudden urge to commit sororicide entered his mind, but he took a centering breath. “She—”
“Hasn’t changed much, either. That much was very clear from the jump.” A shrug. “But I appreciated it no matter how much of a pain in the ass I remember her being. I really—I missed you guys.”
“I—we missed you too, T.”
Understatement of the century.
The two of them spent the rest of the time at the restaurant as they waited for their food to be served and beyond talking and getting each other up to date on everything they’d missed out on. It was evident that they weren’t going to cover the entirety of the eight years they’d been apart, but that afternoon was a great start for them.
Before he was able to really dive into the real question-asking, he spotted a very familiar black band around her bicep. He’d given it to her as a gift just because he saw the strange rock and it reminded him of her. His heart began to beat hard against his rib cage.
“You’re quiet,” Toph noted. “What’s up?”
“I just—you still wear that? The, uh, the meteorite?”
She brought her hand up to her arm to feel the bracelet, almost as if she forgot it was there. Biting down on her lip, she nodded. “Thing’s like my good luck charm. So, yeah, I still wear it.”
Something about her reply and her reaction made him feel warm and giddy in a way that he probably shouldn’t have felt right then.
They jumped back into their catch-up session soon after that. Sokka had just finished telling Toph about his job at the engineering firm where he worked and she was launching into a monologue about how she got into teaching metalbending when the food was served before them. Indiscreetly, Toph groaned at the smell of her meal and dug in without another word. Sokka smiled at her and followed her lead, having not been to Kwuang’s since she left.
Their conversation resumed when her noodles were gone and there were a few stray pieces of beef on her side plate. For some reason, they decided to pull truths from their childhoods out of their asses, and they were loving every minute of it.
“So that was you!” Sokka exclaimed accusingly albeit jokingly. “That was my favorite action figure and you just—it was melted… I’d always thought it’d been Zuko who did it.”
Toph laughed, throwing her head back. “It had to be done. You were emotionally attached to that doll. It was creepy.”
“Action figure.”
“Doll, action figure… sounds about the same to me.”
He groaned, then said, “Well, fun fact—I knew when you were cheating at our card games and board games. I just didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you to kick my ass.”
Again, she laughed, making him smile. “You know me so well.”
The statement rang true, he realized as he fished a fry out of his seemingly bottomless order, even then. So much time had passed but it really didn’t feel that way. Everything felt so smooth and relaxed. He just wanted it to last.
“You know, now that we’re laying everything on the table,” Toph started conversationally as she brought him out of his daze, biting the top of her straw as she sipped on her shake. “I used to have a thing for you.”
Sokka stopped chewing and blinked rapidly, stopping himself short of choking. “Bullshit.”
Toph snorted. “I know right? It was ridiculous. Made me a lovesick fool, Snoozles. I still resent you for it.”
He quickly shook his head. “I don’t believe it for a second because I liked you for the longest time, and I’m pretty sure I would’ve noticed that the girl I was into for forever was into me, too.”
“Now I’m calling bullshit.”
“No, seriously! It was—it was a whole thing.”
“Well,” she cleared her throat during a bit of silence as she processed what he had just confessed, “I wouldn’t put it past you not to have noticed because you’re an oblivious idiot, so.”
“Hey!”
Lifting her hands up in defense she said, “I only speak the truth.”
Sokka scoffed at her, grabbing one of his fries and sending it flying at her head, but coming short a few inches with it landing right in front of her. She was unphased, though, as once she caught wind of it, she grabbed it off where it landed on her plate, dipped it in her shake, and popped it into her mouth with a smirk.
Sokka swallowed thickly, trying not to be affected by her. It’d been way too long of him feeling this way—it was high time he got over it.
Still, he got himself together and picked at another fry, mimicking her and dipping it into his own milkshake. “But yeah, I was, like, head over heels for you; it took me until high school to realize it, though,” he said. Then he added before he could stop himself, “I think I was even in—”
He paused, unsure of whether the admission was appropriate to make after nearly eight years of radio silence. He wasn’t even a hundred percent sure about what he felt back then, yet as the words were about to slip past his lips, he sensed the truth in what he was going to say. There still was truth in what he was going to say.
Regardless of that, he was going to find a way to segue away from the topic, but Toph nodded before he could, her cheeks tinted pink, and said, “Yeah. I was—me too.”
The comfortable air between them turned the slightest bit awkward, then, and he hated it. He should’ve just kept his mouth shut; this was always an issue with him, not knowing when to shut up.
But when Toph cleared her throat and slid her cup over to him before taking his and sipping out of it, the discomfort slipped away. “I’m kind of glad we didn’t act on any of it, though. You were my best friend. I didn’t want to fuck that up.”
Sokka furrowed his brows, understanding her but wondering aloud, “Do you really think that our friendship would've been ruined if we had known and we… you know.”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t’ve wanted to risk it either way.” She shrugged. “I know I had Katara and Zuko before I, uh, had to leave, but you—our friendship was—”
“What? Special?” he asked with a goofy smile, trying to break through the seriousness. “Is that what you’re trying to say, Beifong?”
“The bane of my existence, actually. That’s what I was trying to get at.”
“Sure,” Sokka smirked, kicking her leg under the table and immediately regretting it as he felt her mimic the movement with twenty times the force. He grunted. “You—that hurt, you know.”
“Glad to hear I haven’t lost my touch.”
Tui and La, he was grinning like an utter fool.
It was lost on Sokka how much time had passed from the moment they sat down at the booth and ate, but he figured enough had because they were all but kicked out of the place. Toph would’ve complained, according to her, but she did have things to do, so he got the bill before she could yell at him about it, and they took off.
They wordlessly walked the way they came and toward the fountain again. The air between them was a bit thick as he had things left unsaid, such as his thoughts on where they would go from there. Would they keep in touch or would they just go back to merely wondering about each other every single day?
Well, at least that bit on his end.
“Where will you be staying while you’re here?” he asked her as they slowed their pace down to a stop in front of their spot at the fountain.
She knitted her brows together in what he guessed was confusion, but jutted her bottom lip out and shrugged to herself. “With your sister for now. Why? Planning on paying me a visit?”
“No, no. Why would I do that? You’re awful company.”
“Clearly. You’re solidifying that statement by having spent most of your day with me.”
“Mhm, I have courtesy, you know.”
“Ohh.” She nodded, a jesting look on her face. “Got it. You’re just hanging out with me out of courtesy.”
“You’ve got that right.”
Holding back a smile, she pointed her thumb behind her, and said, “In that case, I’m going to head out. I’ll see you never, Snoozles.”
When she started walking away, he cut the shit, grabbed her shoulder, and pulled her into his chest. Toph embraced him with her arms raised such that her chin rested on his shoulder. He closed his eyes to relish the moment, knowing that he didn’t do so enough when they last said goodbye. Sokka realized that he didn't want to let her go. And he knew that she didn't either.
They remained still for a short while and then for nearly a minute, neither of them wanting to be the first to pull away.
Jokingly, she said, “You know you have to let me go if we’re ever going to leave.”
Maybe I don’t want you to, he almost said.
Instead, he did end up pulling away and saying, “I know. But just—keep in touch, okay?”
“I will if you will.”
She landed a halfhearted punch on his shoulder and he couldn’t help the smile that graced his face.
“You’ve got my number,” she said before turning around and walking away. “You better use it!”
Sokka watched her receding figure, and the more distance she gained, the more the permanent ache in his chest—that had somehow disappeared during the past few hours—made itself known again. He’d gotten used to it, to what he was now able to identify as longing, but he wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to continue feeling it for another eight years.
So he got his bearings, jogged up to her, and took her wrist, forcing her to stop in her tracks and turn toward him.
The setting sunlight was hitting her just right and she was wearing her signature smirk again, almost as if she’d been waiting for him to do what he just did.
“Thought you’d had enough of me for the day.”
He shook his head, reluctantly dropping her arm. “Impossible.”
“Right,” she said with an eye roll, though he could tell that she wasn’t irritated or annoyed, a fact that made his heart swell the tiniest bit. “So what’s this about then?”
“Are you busy?”
“Kind of—I was going to catch up with your sister, actually, seeing as she left me high and dry in favor of getting us to hang out.”
“Which I love her for,” Sokka waved a dismissive hand. “But screw her.”
A snort. “I’m not standing your sister up. She’s making me dinner and a bunch of her desserts I’ve missed out on over the years. I’m not passing free meals up.”
“Okay, but—”
“We have time,” she cut him off, her tone uncharacteristically reassuring. “I’m not—I won’t be going anywhere for a while. I’m here and I will be until I have to move on, which I don’t foresee happening anytime soon. I—Sokka, what do you think my opening an academy here means, you dingbat?”
Oh.
Despite his slight chagrin at the very belated realization, Sokka resisted the urge he had of grinning but managed to say, “That’s—okay. Yeah—that makes sense.”
“Right. So… we have time.”
“Time, right.” He swallowed, bringing his hand to the back of his neck, rubbing sheepishly. He rocked on his heels a bit like he did when he was a kid before clearing his throat. “Anyway, uh… how’s the rest of your night looking?”
Toph turned her face away from him for a second, trying to hide the apparent smile that was spreading across her face before angling her face toward him again. “After I spend the evening with Katara? My schedule’s pretty flexible."
Nodding, he scratched his stubble. “I’ll probably crash your little dinner party, in that case. I’m unofficially warning you.”
“It’s not considered crashing if you issue an unofficial warning,” Toph pointed out, much as she did when they were younger and he would announce his sneak attacks. “And it’s not a dinner party. It’s just dinner, you idiot.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll still crash it.”
“Mm, and what’s with the insistence?”
He shrugged, finding his courage, despite the fact that his heart was beating in his throat, threatening to jump out of his mouth at any moment. “I let you go once, and I don’t plan on doing that again.”
The smile on her face faltered just a bit and it sends Sokka into an internal panic. He really had a knack for sticking his foot into his mouth.
Before he continued down his mental spiral, Toph nodded once at him, her playful smile returning to her face before she gave his calf a kick. “Pick me up at eight.”
“Eight.”
“Mhm, you know where I’ll be.”
She was about to walk away when the unexpected happened and she got on her toes to press her lips against his. It was one small kiss, a peck, really, but it ignited his entire being in a way he never thought possible.
And just as quickly as the moment began, it ended.
Toph stepped away with her lips pursed, almost as if she was hiding another smile, and walked away.
The world kept spinning around him, but his had stopped almost like his heart had in his chest. He wasn’t entirely sure that what had happened, happened, but that giddiness he felt earlier returned tenfold with his anticipation for the evening he was going to spend with his best friend matching its pace.
He had her back, and the next step was to not let her slip away from him again, even though he couldn’t really help it the first time.
Sokka kept his sights on Toph until she became completely enveloped by the people coming and going from the park. Then, once she was out of his view, he turned in his heel, and walked home, thinking only about Toph and their day together.
And, spirits, that kiss.
Sokka was broken out of his dopey thoughts by his phone vibrating in his pocket a few minutes later. Quickly, he pulled it out and grinned at the name and message on the screen.
Toph [16:23]: you good, snoozles?
Sokka [16:23]: Good is an understatement. You?
Toph [16:24]: same. just wanted to make sure you were still there
For the love of Tui and La. He was grinning like an idiot at the message. It was turning his stomach into knots and his chest was fluttering and he felt like a kid again after reading just one sentence.
He shook his head at himself and hovered over his keypad as he thought of something not creepy or too forward to say, but as he did so, the typing indicator popped up, and shortly after, another message that made his grin widen impossibly.
Toph [15:26]: before you say anything to ruin the moment, which you inevitably will, you should know that i’m still here too. and i’m not going anywhere.
Sokka had to sit down to type his response.
Sokka [16:27]: Good thing I’m not going anywhere either, then.
Sokka [16:27]: I’m also mildly offended that you think I’m capable of ruining moments. I’m a moment maker. Not a moment ruiner.
Toph [16:27]: i hope you can hear my laugh from where you are.
Sokka [16:28]: Like I said: MEAN
Toph [16:28]: cry about it
Sokka [16:28]: Maybe I will
Toph [16:28]: we should just call off tonight; i don’t like the idea of being seen with you and your waterworks
Sokka [16:28]: Those are fighting words
Toph [16:29]: fitting, since i teach people how to fight for a living
Sokka [16:29]: Funny
Toph [16:29]: i know
Sokka [16:30]: See you tonight
Toph [16:30]: i won’t!
Sokka scrolled through their short conversation for minutes after it ended before he decided to get up and go back to his apartment. He felt like he was walking on water, he was so happy.
He’d thought about meeting Toph again on many occasions throughout the years, and he constantly wondered if they would slip into their old dynamic, if there would be any kind of animosity for some odd reason, if things would be tense or awkward or something. But the fact that everything was seamless, that everything felt comfortable and as though they’d seen each other only moments earlier brought him so much elation that he couldn’t even describe it.
When he got home, he threw himself face-first onto his bed and pulled his phone out to call Katara.
“How was your outing, big brother?”
“Oh, you know,” he said vaguely, a smile permanently etched on his face. “I just—I was calling to thank you.”
“Obviously. This little reunion wouldn't have happened without me."
Sokka was about to protest, but he decided against it. She was probably right; it took forever for this to even happen, and neither he nor Toph had made much of a move recently to look each other up.
His sister spoke again, "You and I both know that you were at your best when she was around. It was the least I could do.”
Sokka felt his cheeks warm up at that, and he had to agree—not audibly, of course. That would've given Katara more ego fuel than she needed, but she was right. Toph was always the best of him and when she left, she took a little bit of that part of him with her.
But now that she was back, he had no excuse to continue moping around, pretending that he didn't know the reason why he was. It wasn't all because of Toph's absence, but it certainly was a contributing factor, now that he thought about it. He hadn't felt as happy as he did today in years.
He and his sister hung up some moments later after he promised to not barge into her apartment while she and Toph were hanging out. They both knew that he was going to, regardless.
He'd been serious at the park. Now that he had Toph back, he didn't plan on letting her go again. And he had a feeling that she wasn't about to let him do that even if he tried.