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When he was fifteen and he visited Makapu Village for the first time, Sokka was immediately skeptical of the reliance so many people had on Aunt Wu’s fortune-telling. They were all waiting on pure coincidences to happen at the word of some woman who claimed she could see their futures. None of it was real. It was all a hoax, and he was sure of it – he still was.
Anything that sounded too good to be true made him have high hopes that he just could not afford in such an uncertain world. A world where anything could happen to shatter those hopes just as quickly as they had initially appeared. Of course, this was pessimistic of him, a negative trait that he was trying hard to shake off, but he couldn’t stand clinging onto something that would ultimately prove to be unreal, untrue, or intangible.
Yet that was exactly what he was planning on doing as he sat in wait at Aunt Wu’s Fortune-Telling Salon, munching on a surprisingly delicious bean curd puff.
Not having seen the place since before the end of the war about seven years prior, he realized that a lot about the salon had changed. Aunt Wu seemed to have updated the place a bit, having rearranged some of her furniture and decor. The strong aroma of incense flooded his senses immediately upon entry and mystical crystals, colorful fog, and lights adorned the waiting room he was sitting in. There was also additional staff aside from an older and more kept-looking Meng. The place seemed livelier.
The fact didn’t change how much Sokka disapproved of the con Aunt Wu was running.
Still, hearing something that was likely false was better than wallowing in self-pity and despair over a break-up. It offered an interesting distraction, he thought.
After almost eight years of an on-and-off relationship, Suki had officially decided to break things off with Sokka. She’d said something about how their lives were going in different directions and how they were growing apart instead of growing together and that they both wanted different things. He was aware that he hadn’t been the best partner, yet he did nothing to remedy it while he still could. There were other things that he felt took precedence over his relationship with Suki, like his tribe, Katara, and his friendships with Zuko and Aang, and Toph. It was truly thanks to him that it didn’t work out between them and there was next to nothing he could do to fix it. His heart still felt heavy after five days of traveling from Kyoshi Island to Makapu because he knew he failed her.
Initially, the plan had been for him to finish out his visit to Suki and pay Toph a visit at her metalbending academy in Yu Dao, but for some reason, he chose to disembark a stop earlier for a few hours. Perhaps he needed some time alone to become comfortable with the idea of being alone, without someone to call a romantic partner, for the first time in years. He didn’t know what unsettled him about that idea, but he did know that if he had done next to nothing to save this relationship, how would he manage to maintain another?
Or perhaps he just wanted to take a moment to himself before he dumped his emotions onto his best friend when they were meant to have a good time together. Besides, it had been more than three months since he had last seen her, and he missed her. Things weren’t the same without her by his side after he had gotten so used to having her around. But she was doing well with her academy and he was proud of her for working so hard, despite the fact that he saw less and less of her no matter their efforts to avoid it. So if he was going to see her after the better part of a year, he needed to get over his shit.
So maybe that’s what he was doing at the salon, waiting on Aunt Wu to give him his likely false and out-of-her-ass fortune. He just needed to get his mind off things. It wasn’t because he believed any of this foolish fortune-telling bullshit. It wasn’t.
It was somewhat of a scientific experiment to him that could ultimately give him a more…positive outlook on relationships.
And he didn’t have to believe it. He wasn’t going to believe it, regardless of the outcome.
Truthfully, Sokka hadn’t planned on paying Aunt Wu: The Con Artist a visit, but curiosity killed the catgator in the end and he ended up going when he saw the salon in passing. Prior to entering, he had been walking around the village Aang had saved when he was at Mount Makapu last, and he watched how people continued to brag about how their told fortunes were coming true or were on the verge of coming true. He rolled his eyes at their naivety. They were never going to learn.
Meng’s still-loud voice startled him out of his thoughts, the half-eaten bean curd puff slipping out of his hands and onto the ground, much to his dismay. “Master…”
Sokka cleared his throat and not-so-subtly adjusted the faux-beard on his face – it was more slippery than he remembered. In his deepest and most sophisticated voice, he said, “Ah, it’s Fire. Wang Fire, to be precise. From the, uh, Fire Nation.”
She gave him a skeptical look and scanned him from top to bottom before shrugging. “Aunt Wu is ready for you now.”
At that moment, he realized that he felt nervous as he grabbed his belongings and followed Meng into the rear area of the salon. He had no reason to be, Sokka thought. He was merely doing this for the hell of it, to get some kind of distraction from his breakup. He wasn’t seeking a true fortune in relation to his and Suki’s fate because it wasn’t going to be true anyhow. These fortunes were a hoax.
Meng came to a stop in front of a tall sliding door. “She’s waiting for you inside.”
“Thanks,” Sokka said softly, his Wang Fire persona slightly faltering as she gave him a nod and walked away. He had decided that it would be prudent of him to disguise himself to decrease the likelihood of Aunt Wu recognizing him as the boy she once met who would suffer from self-inflicted anguish. It’d been a long time since their last encounter and chances of her recalling who he was right off the bat were slim, but he wasn’t going to take the risk of being told that it was a matter of time before he succumbed to fortune-telling. This was simply an experiment and he was going to play the part.
With that thought and a deep breath, he slid the door open and let himself into the large and dimly lit room, the only source of light being a small fire in the center of it. Aunt Wu was seated on a pillow behind the fire, farthest from the entrance.
“Master Fire,” she called, a small smile on her face. She tapped the throw pillow at her side. “Please, take a seat by me.”
Wordlessly, Sokka walked over to where she was, bowed, and sat down with a scratch at his beard. He focused on keeping his Wang Fire voice on. “Aunt Wu. Thank you for seeing me on this, uh, fine day.”
Aunt Wu squinted at him, observing him. She cocked her head. “Have we met before?”
“No,” Sokka erratically shook his head, his voice cracking and rising about ten octaves as though he was fifteen again. He cleared his throat. “No, uh, no, no. I have- this is my first time in Makapu.”
“Hm, okay. And how may I help you today?”
After recomposing himself, he resisted the urge he had of rolling his eyes. “I’d like to have my fortune read. That is what you do here, isn’t it?”
“That, it is, Master Fire,” she nodded once, pulling out a white teacup with a few tea leaves at the bottom of it. “Now, may I ask, are you a tea drinker, sir?”
Sokka gave her an affirmative grunt, adjusting his headpiece. He hated having it on his head; how Toph could walk with one on her all the time was beyond him.
Aunt Wu poured hot water into the cup and let the leaves steep, and the two of them sat in somewhat tense silence as it did. After about three minutes, she pushed the teacup toward him and said, “Drink up. But leave a touch of the liquid in the cup when you finish. And be sure to have the intentions of your visit in mind as you drink.”
He knitted his eyebrows together and looked at her, then at the cup before him dubiously. “Why should I-”
“Do you want your fortune told, Master Fire, or not?”
“The first option,” Sokka mumbled, bringing the tea to his lips to sip at the hot liquid.
What had he wanted to achieve from this visit? He wanted to prove that this was all a hoax, but to prove that, he would have to comply with what she asked, wouldn’t he? The first thing to come to mind was Suki. Would they get back together? Or was there someone else, someone different in store for him? Somewhere, deep down, he hoped it was the latter.
At that thought, oddly, Toph came to mind. He almost choked.
As he drank, he wanted to scream out at the searing pain in his mouth because he didn’t think of letting the tea cool off a bit, but nevertheless, he drank until there was nothing but a bit of liquid and the crushed tea leaves at the bottom of the cup. He slid it over to her. “What now?”
She shook her head. “Swirl the cup around once or twice and pour the liquid into the fire.”
“Wh-”
“Fortune or no fortune, Master Fire, your choice.”
He shot a glare at her, but did as told, and placed the cup in her outstretched hand when he was done. He watched her as her face contorted into one of concentration as she examined the leaves in the cup. With a nod, she finally said, “You’ve just ended a relationship, yes?”
Despite his heart jumping into his throat at the fact that she knew this information, he squinted his eyes at her. Sokka wasn’t the one to end the relationship, it had been Suki. Just as he was about to correct her, a smug smile on his face at the fact that there was already an inaccuracy in her reading, Aunt Wu spoke again.
“Actually,” she started, moving the cup closer to her face, “ someone else ended the relationship with you. Pardon me.”
The smile dropped from his face immediately. He frustratedly grumbled, “That’s right.”
“Interesting,” she mused, bringing herself and the cup closer to the fire for a better view. Sokka was curious to see what she was seeing, so he leaned forward in an attempt to get a glimpse of the cup to no avail. “It looks like that relationship was never going to last. My sincerest apologies, Master Fire.”
“Right,” he huffed. Of course, she would say it wouldn’t last. Classic. This couldn’t be real. How could she possibly know any of this?
“The tea leaves are shaped into a mushroom,” she said quietly, as though she would send the tea leaves flying if she spoke louder. “It means separation.”
Pshh, tea leaves , he thought bitterly. What do the tea leaves know?
She hummed, suddenly, interrupting his mental rant. “Now this is interesting.”
“What? What’s interesting?”
“It looks like you’ve got new love on the way. And she’s closer than you think.”
Sokka subconsciously scratched at his fake beard and held his breath. “New love?”
“Indeed,” she said, tipping the cup toward him so he could see inside. With her pinky, she pointed at the edge of the cup. “In those tea leaves, what do you see?”
It took him a moment, but he noticed a small and perfectly round circle right below the rim of the cup. “What is that? Is that a ring?”
“Yes, that is correct. And this means that love – or marriage, although I do doubt this is your case given your situation – is near,” Aunt Wu said with a nod. Then her pinky moved slightly to point at something else that he couldn’t make out. “I ask you, Master Fire, do you know anyone from or who lives in the Earth Kingdom?”
Sokka rolled his eyes. Of course, he did. “Yes. Why? What of it?”
“Well,” Aunt Wu started, a patient tone to her voice, “because the leaves are showing me the Earth Kingdom symbol, which usually means that this is the nation where your future significant other is from.”
He readjusted the beard on his face and curiously leaned toward Aunt Wu. “Do I know this person?”
“I can’t say,” she said sadly. “But nine times out of ten, my clients usually do know the person the leaves refer to.”
At that, Sokka silently went down the list of women he knew in the Earth Kingdom. Out of those he could name, June came to mind. While he couldn’t deny that she was incredibly attractive, he wasn’t really a fan of the whole bounty hunting thing. And her shirshu freaked him out a little.
Then, there was Smellerbee. She was cute but wasn’t really his type. Besides, she was already with Longshot, and that’s one archer Sokka definitely did not want to mess with.
There was also, of course, Suki. But despite how much comfort he knew he would have in her and how much love he had for her, Aunt Wu had already ruled out the possibility of them rekindling their romance. Not that he believed Aunt Wu, but it was something he had to factor in, logistically. And regardless of that, he didn’t hold too much hope for the two of them after their break-up as much as he would have liked to have given it another try in order to prove to himself that they could work things out. They always had, after all. But there was something that told him that wouldn’t be the case this time.
His reaching this conclusion had nothing to do with Wu’s fortune, though. Nothing.
And then, there was Toph. But there was no palpable reason for him to think her to be a possibility in terms of his love life. This was Toph – his best friend, his confidant. There wasn’t a reason for her to even be a factor, was there? Aunt Wu simply could not be referring to her in any way. It was just Toph. He didn’t like Toph like that. He would never think of her as more than just his best friend.
Although there was this one time during one of his breaks from Suki that they were at the Fire Nation and she was wearing a gold and red dress and he remembered thinking how flattering red was on her and her hair was loose, but he could still see her eyes because her hair was picked up in the front and it was important for him to be able to see her eyes because he always loved looking into-
No.
Spirits, this is Toph, he’s talking about. Toph Beifong. The same Toph Beifong that would very constantly accost him for merely breathing. She couldn’t be who the tea referred to.
She couldn’t.
Could she?
No.
Then, a wave of realization rushed over him. This was all a farce. None of this was real and he was freaking out over nothing! Aunt Wu’s fortunetelling wasn’t real. It wasn’t. It was inexplicable scientifically.
“Master Fire,” Aunt Wu’s voice called from his side. “Are you alright?”
He shook his head and stood up. “No. I am upset at this fake display of… absolute fakeness .”
She bit back a smile as she nodded. “I apologize if your experience wasn’t pleasant.”
“It,” he said, motioning around with his hands erratically, “was not pleasant, thank you very much. And I will not be referring you to any of my, uh, colleagues at the… uh, fuel company … I work...at.”
“Many more apologies, Master Fire,” she said, standing from where she was as Sokka marched toward the door. Her voice stopped him from immediately leaving. “But before you go, you should know that your future will be filled with struggle and anguish, but only if you allow it to be. Open your eyes, Master Fire, don’t let your feelings live incognito.”
Sokka gave her a curt nod, walked back out into the waiting room to gather his belongings. As he did so, Aunt Wu’s words to him replayed in his head. Struggle and anguish. He stopped what he was doing, a deadpan expression. The bitch knew who he was the whole time and didn’t say anything?
Great.
He frustratedly pulled his beard off and stuffed it into his bag, mumbling a few choice words about the fortune-teller as he set off toward the docks. So much for Wang Fire being his go-to disguise from here on out.
Bitterly, he pushed his way out of the salon and all but stomped toward the docks to find the ship that would take him to Yu Dao. As he walked, he couldn’t help but think more about the readings Aunt Wu gave him. They were so incredibly outlandish that he could not bring himself to believe them. How could she possibly know that he was going to find his one true love soon? And how would she know that it wasn’t supposed to be Suki? Even though he didn’t believe that there was more to his relationship with her at this point, the readings were more pessimistic in that regard than he was.
And the fact that he was spiraling over who the person the readings were alluding to made him want to scream until his throat felt raw. His mind kept turning to Toph and he wanted badly to get her out of his head. The two of them wouldn’t make sense. They were great as friends and he loved her in a strictly platonic way that she, with no doubt, reciprocated. But they were just that: friends. Nothing more, nothing less. And they were comfortable like that. There was absolutely no reason to ruin what they had, regardless of what he felt for her.
Sokka stopped in his tracks at that thought, and some people in the queue to board the ship bumped into him. He quickly mumbled his apologies and continued to walk up the ramp and into the vessel, the gears in his head working in overdrive.
“Regardless of what he felt for her” would imply that he did have feelings for Toph that were more than friendly and this was not the case. She wasn’t his type. Sokka’s type was not strong and powerful and no-nonsense women. Sokka’s type was not barefooted, blind earthbenders who didn’t give a single shit about what other people thought of her. Sokka’s type was certainly not his best friend.
It wasn’t.
Yet after his boat docked in Yu Dao and he found his way over to Toph’s academy, he stopped outside and watched her instruct a group of young students. Just watched her. A small smile crept onto his face as he saw her in her element. Sokka had always enjoyed watching Toph work and do her thing; she just looked happy and comfortable and so like herself. And that’s one of the things he loved about her, how she was so devoted to what she did that she was at her best when she did it. He loved it.
No, not loved; liked. One of the things he liked about her. Strongly liked about her.
Because Toph wasn’t his type.
Sokka took a moment and turned his back on the window of the academy to recompose himself. A deep breath in and out. Then, he silently cursed Aunt Wu and her bogus fortune-telling scheme for making him think about his best friend in a different light.
Just as he was about to turn around, he felt a familiar fist make contact with his shoulder blade and he hissed.
“Damn, Snoozles,” Toph said brashly at his side, her hands on her hips. “I was starting to think that you stood me up.”
His body felt clammy all of a sudden and his cheeks were warmer than he would have liked. Bashfully, as he rubbed at the spot she punched, he said, “Ha, ha, yeah. Sorry. I got, uh, caught up.”
“Pray tell, whatever were you caught up in?” she asked, pulling the bag he was carrying off his shoulder and directing herself back into her academy. Despite his slight embarrassment at the thoughts he was having about his best friend, he allowed himself to look around the establishment when he entered, noting how much it had grown since he’d seen it last. There was more space for her benders, and a few more rooms that he knew hadn’t been there the first time he came.
Sokka followed Toph into her office, where she set his belongings inside a sizable metal compartment that she bent shut with a flick of her wrist. Her question wasn’t one that sounded like she expected an answer, but he found himself telling her anyway. “Yeah, uh. I stopped at Mount Makapu for a few hours before docking here. I needed to clear my head.”
She furrowed her brows, leaning against her desk and crossing her arms against her chest. “Isn’t your head clear enough?”
“You’re not funny,” he said, leaning against the doorframe. “I got dumped.”
“Oh,” she said, scrunching her nose in something that resembled discomfort. “Do you… want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“Fantastic,” Toph clapped her hands, pushing herself off the desk to walk toward him. “Drinks, on me. Tavern’s a stone’s throw from here.”
Sokka didn’t even have to answer for her to know what his response would be as she grabbed him by the wrist and practically dragged him toward the tavern with no mercy. When they arrived, he followed her toward the bar and took a seat next to her as Toph ordered a round of drinks and finger food for the two of them. Her hair was disheveled and she was talking to him at a mile a minute. His pulse was skyrocketing and he very badly wanted to stop his nonsense. He focused on his breathing.
It was just Toph. It was just Toph.
But if it was just Toph, why did his drink sit untouched because he was unable to peel his eyes off her? Why did he feel like his heart did backflips in his chest every time she so much as laughed after she told him a story of one of her students’ idiocies that day? Why was he currently overthinking every single detail about their relationship and how he felt?
“How’s Satoru?” he blurted randomly, then mentally facepalmed. “I mean, how are you two doing?”
She snorted after swallowing a bit of her drink. “You’re so stinking subtle, Snoozles.”
“Well? How is he?”
“I don’t know. He should be fine. I wouldn’t know because I haven’t talked to him in a month,” she said with a shrug as she leaned back into her chair.
Something like hope flourished in Sokka’s chest, but he ignored it. “The last time I saw you, the two of you seemed… alright.”
“Yeah, and then we weren’t.”
“That’s it?”
She nodded slowly. “That’s it.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
A thick silence overcame them and it became uncomfortably tense, and he didn’t know what to do about it. Conversation was always easy with them and he was making it an impossible task. She was fine; she was being a normal person, yet he was struggling to talk to her about simplicities. This was Toph, he reminded himself for the billionth time that day. There wasn’t a reason for him to be acting so awkward with her.
Before he could say anything, though, she said, “What’s with you today, huh? You’re acting… weirder than usual.”
He huffed, then laughed. “It’s been a long day, Toph.”
“Well, it’ll be even longer if you don’t drink with me and quit being so quiet,” she said pushing a full shot glass toward him. “It’s been a minute and I missed you, fucker.”
Sokka found himself relaxing against his chair. She was right. It’d been a while since they had last seen each other and he knew that much. He missed her. So he needed to stop being a little bitch. With more fervor, he grabbed the shot she’d slid in his direction and swallowed it in one quick motion.
He was fine. He was just being melodramatic. He was sure of it.
It was just Toph.
It wasn’t just Toph.
He was not fine. He was going to die. He was sure of it.
The week after he met up with Toph and had gotten his mind fucked up by Aunt Wu, Katara had invited everyone over to Air Temple Island for, according to her, “a much-needed get-together.” He really, really didn’t feel like going because he had spent the past six days thinking and overthinking his fortune and how all roads led to Toph no matter how he spun it.
And of course, Katara guilt-tripped her brother into coming and staying the weekend, where he moped around like a sad sap.
Currently, he was spread out on the couch, one of his legs hanging off the back, the other out straight in front of him with his arms behind his head. Bumi was enthusiastically running around him as Sokka half-heartedly cheered him on every time he saw his nephew make a lap around the couch.
“Hey.” A cup of water was thrown at him, making Bumi stop and wheeze at his uncle. Sokka sputtered and fell off the couch, immediately standing and glaring at his sister. She asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing until now ,” Sokka groaned, dripping water onto the carpeted floor. “I have to go get changed out of these soaking wet clothes now, so thank you very much.”
Katara rolled her eyes and wiggled her fingers, all the water on his person flowing off of him and back into the cup in her hand. “Better now?”
“Right,” he nodded once bashfully and threw himself back onto the couch, hugging the first pillow he got his hands on. He could feel Katara’s eyes burning into the back of his head. “You’re staring.”
She sent an overexcited Bumi to his bedroom and plopped down next to her brother. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
Sokka furrowed his brow in confusion.
“I asked what was wrong with you.”
He rolled his eyes. “Nothing’s wrong, Katara.”
“You’ve been quiet.”
“Can’t a guy be quiet without being interrogated?”
“Sure. But not you,” Katara said, snatching the pillow out of his grasp; he almost pouted. “ You’re never quiet.”
With a silent shrug, he thought that it was true that had been quiet for the past few days. He was just stuck in his head and he felt like he couldn’t escape the thoughts roaming around. The reading – which he still thought to be absolutely bogus and unreal – had really done a number on him and he hated that it was somehow warping his perception of his best friend.
He cursed Aunt Wu and her Fortune-Telling Salon of Death before Katara poked her finger into his ribs. “I’m going to ask again: what the hell is wrong with you, Sokka? What happened? I thought you’d gone to visit Toph… Is everything okay?”
Sokka coughed when he heard her name, but said, “Everything’s okay.”
“Bullshit.”
“Kat-”
“ Bull-shit . I call bullshit.”
“But you-”
“Is it about your break-up with Suki?”
He shook his head. For the first time in years, it wasn’t about Suki.
“Did something happen between you and To-”
“ No .”
He didn’t dare look up at Katara because he could literally feel her glaring at him. Anytime she did that led to him spilling his guts and he was not going to look at her. He wasn’t going to let her intimidate him. Nope. Not today, Agni.
But she just. Would. Not. Stop. Staring.
He felt like he was under a looking glass, so ultimately, he quickly muttered, “I saw Aunt Wu.”
Smugly. “You’re going to have to speak up, big brother.”
“I saw Aunt Wu, okay?”
There was a pause, then he noticed her shift in her seat out of the corner of his eye. “The fortune-teller in Mount Makapu, Aunt Wu?”
He nodded.
“The self-inflicted-struggle-and-anguish, Aunt Wu?”
“We only know one Aunt Wu, Katara, it’s not that difficult to discern.”
She was quiet for a second. "Did she say anything about me?"
"Wha– Why would she say anything about you?"
"We had a bond when you and I were kids. She liked me. I would assume she remembered me."
"Well, she didn't mention you, sis."
Katara huffed, disappointment evident in the way she slouched. Then, she remembered what they were talking about and asked, “What… did she tell you that has you in such a mood? You said she was a hoax. And last I checked, you didn’t believe anything that didn’t have scientific backing.”
“I don’t .”
Katara was silent again and the lack of questions was making him nervous. He didn’t really want to tell her about any of this Aunt Wu business or what the fortune had revealed. He wasn’t even sure what it had revealed because he was just- he was jumping to conclusions.
“She said something about Toph, didn’t she?”
Sokka grabbed another pillow, brought it to his face, and groaned into it. “Would you shut up? Geez.”
“It’s just you, me, and Bumi here. You can talk.”
Sokka gave her a side-eyed glance. Well, he knew that . Aang was out running errands, Zuko was probably still on his way over from the Fire Nation, and Toph… well, he didn’t know where she was yet, but he was both dreading and looking forward to seeing her again.
The last bit was truer than the first.
“What did she tell you, Sokka?”
He sighed nervously. He should tell someone, right? That would be the Adult Thing to do. And he was an adult. Besides, even if that wasn’t the case, Katara did always give the best advice, and as much as he wanted to deny the fact, he couldn’t.
So he told her. He opened his mouth and he couldn’t stop talking. He told her about his Wang Fire costume and how it had failed – she laughed at that. She hadn’t laughed, though, when he told her about the fortune, how Aunt Wu read it to him, what she had responded when he asked questions. She was pretty serious, in fact.
“So you think that the person you’re supposed to end up with is Toph?”
“I just- I don’t- I- yeah. Yeah, I guess.”
“I mean…” She shrugged, tucking her legs up into her chest. “It makes sense why you would land on her.”
Sokka knitted his brows together, his voice going up and octave and cracking. “What? Why?”
“Where to start?” She laughed heartily. “You’re best friends, Sokka. You’ve been through almost everything together, and you’re pretty much attached at the hip. I wouldn’t be surprised if the two of you did end up together eventually. It would make the most sense. And I… like the idea of you two together.”
“Why would you say that?” he exclaimed, burying his face in the pillow he was holding. Telling Katara about this was supposed to make him feel better about this, not make him even more freaked out than he already was. She’d all but given them her blessing! “You’re not helping.”
“Not helping what?”
Sokka froze, his eyes as wide as saucers. He heard Katara hold back a snort as she stood up and walked over to Toph to give her a hug. “He’s just upset that I drenched him earlier for moping.”
Toph snorted, walking over to sit next to a nervous Sokka. Her thigh was pressed against his, despite there being a very large amount of space remaining on the couch. If his heart dared to beat any louder, he’d probably go into cardiac arrest. Why was she so close?
Not that he minded it. But why ?
“He’s been moping all week, hasn’t he?” Toph said, nudging his ribs with her elbow. Then, she dropped her voice into an exaggerated whisper as she covered one side of her mouth and turned her head toward where she knew Katara was standing. “He’s brooding over his breakup with She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.”
No , he wanted to answer, I’m brooding because I’m in love with you.
No, wait. Hold up. In love ? Since when?
He began to cough loudly, having choked on air or his own spit, he didn’t know. Toph’s hand quickly came to his back, smacking it as his coughing fit fizzled out. “Breathe, Snoozles, breathe.”
Katara came to his side, a fresh cup of water in hand. There was a touch of humor in her voice. “Are you alright, Sokka?”
“I’m fine,” Sokka rasped, setting his feet on the ground and scooching away from her a bit because he felt like he was suffocating. And looking at Toph, he said, “I’m not brooding over my breakup with Suki, okay?”
He noticed how Toph’s eyebrow raised at that and how she remained silent, no longer pushing. Instead, she shrugged to herself and leaned into the back of the couch, her arms crossed over her chest. She must have figured he was telling the truth. And he was , but not the whole truth.
At that instant, he really hated Aunt Wu.
There was a bit of tension in the air, and he shuffled in his seat, shooting Katara a pleading look and hoping she could use her sibling telepathy to deduce what he was trying to say: Help .
His sister, ever intelligent as she was, cleared her throat and said, “I’m going to go, uh, check on Bumi. If you two need anything, well, just shout.”
With that, she pretty much sprinted away, but not without sending a knowing look toward her brother. So much for that sibling connection.
“Sokka?”
He looked at Toph, whose blind eyes were settled somewhere between the floor and the coffee table, and hummed. “Hm, what?”
She hesitated for a second, and turned to him – he knew that it was more for his benefit than hers. “You know you can tell me anything, right? I mean, I know that I pull your leg and I act like I don’t give a shit about, uh, you, but it goes without saying that I… you can talk to me.”
“I know. You, too.” Sokka could tell that saying this was difficult for her and his heart swelled. Before he could stop himself, his hand landed on her knee, his eyes never leaving her face, and he could have sworn that he saw the faintest tint on her cheeks, but he didn’t linger much on that. Rather, he scanned her entire face and drank in every feature as though he was looking at her for the first time.
And it was almost as if he was because it was the first time he was actually looking at her after coming to terms with how he felt, despite how tumultuous the road was to arrive at the conclusion just some seconds ago.
He was in love with her. Completely.
Toph’s hand covered his, her thumb running to and fro in a gentle manner that was uncharacteristic for her. His arms became enveloped in goosebumps and his heart began to beat loudly in his ears. Involuntarily, his hand squeezed her thigh in reassurance or affection – he wasn’t sure.
And he must have started to lean in because his eyes fluttered shut and he could feel her lashes on his cheeks; her breath on his lips.
But a door slammed and they jumped apart. Sokka was on his feet sheepishly rubbing at the back of his neck, and the moment was gone. They’d reacted almost as if they had been caught doing something they shouldn’t have been. And maybe, they shouldn’t have been. But it felt so right. So perhaps, it was right.
And she hadn’t retreated.
“Sokka!” Aang said happily strolling into his home, a huge basket full of uncooked food in his arms. He set it all down and gave Sokka a hug. “How’re you doing, buddy?”
“You act like you haven’t seen me here all weekend.”
Aang smiled. “I feel like I haven’t because you’ve been cooped up in your room-”
Sokka gave him a slap on the back, harder than what he’d intended, to interrupt him. “Hey, Toph’s here.”
“Oh, hey Toph! I didn’t see you there,” he said, giving her a quick hug from behind the couch.
She just tapped his hand twice. “You didn’t? A shame.”
Aang visually deflated, making Sokka crack a smile despite the bout of tension in the room between him and Toph. “That was– I’m sorry.”
“Don’t let it happen again, Twinkletoes,” Toph said, standing up to cross over to the kitchen and grab something out of the basket Aang had just brought. She settled on an apple. “If it does, I don’t know what my poor, fragile heart will do.”
Sokka and Aang guffawed, and a smirk appeared on Toph’s lips as she bit into the apple. Eventually, Katara joined them and had them all help her with dinner, where Toph sat on the surface of the island in the kitchen, munching away on her fruit as Sokka chopped garnish that he threw into her hair a few times before she finally smacked him in the chest.
He was grateful that their moment earlier didn’t make things awkward. The exact opposite, actually. He felt comfortable and it seemed as though she did, too.
Their shenanigans continued until there was a strong and familiar knock on the door, and Sokka noticed a smile immediately settle on Toph’s face.
“Zuko,” she said, sprinting toward the door and tugging it open.
The fire lord, looking as regal as ever, gave Toph a tight hug as soon as she invaded his personal space. There was a small smile on his own face as they became reacquainted with one another and she let him into the house.
Sokka didn’t even try to keep his eyes off of Toph’s smiling face in Zuko’s neck or the one she’d had when she’d finally released him after Katara complained that she was hogging him.
Spirits, that smile.
In his daze, he hadn’t realized that Zuko was standing directly next to him, his arms out and waiting for a hug from him. Sokka blushed and pulled him into a tight hug. “How are you doing, buddy?”
“Well enough,” Zuko said, fondly clapping his back a couple of times and pulling away. “How are you doing? I heard about-”
“She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named,” Toph interjected, wagging a sarcastic finger at Zuko from where she was. “We do not speak her name in this household.”
Zuko furrowed his brows. “She…Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. How are you doing with that?”
Sokka shrugged, not knowing what to answer anymore because he really didn’t feel anything anymore in regard to the breakup. He just glanced over at Toph for less than a second, then said, “Yeah, I’m fine. No big deal.”
Too knowingly, Zuko smirked and nodded. “I can see that.”
“You’re so-”
“So dinner?” He interrupted Sokka’s impending insult. “It smells great, Katara.”
Sokka grumbled to himself, childishly stomping over to the dining area and grabbing his usual seat toward the center of the table, Toph sitting to his right and Bumi taking the seat at the other side of him after Aang summoned him.
Still, his eyes would dart over to his side every so often to see her hungrily slurping her noodles and drinking her tea and taking jabs at the ungodly length of Zuko’s hair whenever she could. The sound of her laugh filled his ears, and ultimately, he couldn’t help the need he had of fully turning his head toward her to look at her.
At that moment, he felt the contempt he held toward Aunt Wu and her fortune-telling dissipate. She had told him that he should stop living incognito and what she meant hadn’t quite clicked until he was looking at the smile that spread across Toph’s face as she animatedly spoke.
He still didn’t believe in the con Wu was running, of course – of course – but it was thanks to her that he realized that he was in love with his best friend.
And he’d have to tell her that one day.