Chapter Text
1.
Sokka leaned against the gate of the Beifong Metalbending Academy, watching with a knowledgeable eye as the last class of the day finished up their lesson. The sun was just beginning to dip below the trees behind him, casting the courtyard in dazzling golden light, and he couldn’t help admiring the form of the advanced students as they moved in the hazy summer air.
At the front of the class, Toph stood proud and firm, hands on hips and feet set wide as she felt through the earth the stances of her students. With a twist of her foot she corrected someone’s form. Then, having found the class in front of her acceptable, she barked out a dismissal that had them all relaxing out of their horse stances and gathering into small groups to chatter and head inside for dinner. From one of the groups, Penga — one of Toph’s original Metalbending students and now a teacher to the beginner groups — waved to Sokka, and he returned the wave and headed over to her.
“Hey, Penga. How’s the class going?”
“The class? Great, actually — Sifu has us manipulating these little gears to create — well, let me show you later, I don’t exactly understand how it all works together — but Sifu…” And here Penga paused to pull a grimace that indicated Sifu was, in fact, not doing as great as her Metalbending class.
“Did something happen?” Sokka asked, glancing up to where Toph was talking with another student. She was conversing casually enough, but Sokka also knew her like the back of his hand, and could easily read the tension in her shoulders and the firm stance of her hips.
Penga shrugged. “She was gone all this morning and came back slinging rocks. She didn’t say anything to me, but—” Penga shrugged again. “You're gonna fix it, right?”
Sokka looked at her with a mixture of surprise and skepticism. “Me? What makes you think I can fix it?”
Penga raised an eyebrow at him.
“I’ll talk to her. No promises, though,” he said, pointing to Penga as he started walking toward Toph.
“I have faith in you!” Penga called after him. “And find me later, you need to see the thing!”
Sokka gave a final wave as he jogged up the steps to where Toph was waiting for him, arms folded tight across her chest.
“What’re you doing here?”
He stopped short on the step below her. “Oof. Here I am, your best friend of uncountable years, holder of all your deepest secrets, stalwart companion in every boring political meeting we get wrangled into, and I don’t even get a hello?”
She huffed her bangs off her face and tried again. “Hello, Sokka, best friend, etcetera etcetera. What’re you doing here?”
“I was gonna see if you wanted to go get some dinner, but I’m not sure I can take you out in public right now.”
She scowled and he couldn’t help but laugh. “C’mon, Toph, come here, sit with me.” He folded himself onto the step and patted the spot next to him a few times. The courtyard had cleared of all but a few lingering students, so he knew she wouldn’t mind talking with him out in the open like this, and the sun still hit the steps, warming his face and arms pleasantly.
Toph exhaled quietly as she sank onto the step next to him, arms crossed over her knees.
“Hey,” Sokka said, pressing his shoulder to hers. “You gonna tell me what happened? Penga said you came back pretty upset.”
“Leave it to Penga to tattle on me,” Toph grumbled.
“I would’ve known either way,” he pointed out. “Your shoulders are up to your ears, you’re so tense.”
She took a moment to roll her shoulders back and stretch her neck from side to side. Then she admitted with a sigh, “I went to visit my parents.”
Sokka knew Toph had a complicated relationship with her parents, of course; he had been one of the people to help her run away from home originally. But things had been especially difficult since they had moved to Yu Dao a few years ago. He had been on the receiving end of more than one rant about how, despite the years that stretched since she had left home and her countless accomplishments both in the war and after, they still could not help their desire to mold her into their idea of what a daughter should be.
“Not a good visit?” he guessed.
“Hah.” After a moment, she couldn’t contain herself anymore and burst out, “It’s been how many years since my parents learned about the real me, and still, nothing, nothing I do — I have my own school, I invented a new form of bending, I helped end the fucking war!” Toph took a shuddering breath, hands fisted tight against her legs, “And still,” and her voice wavered just slightly, “they want to tell me what to do.”
She wiped her sleeve across her eyes angrily. “All I want is for them to see me as I am. That I don’t want the same things for myself that they do, and guess what? It’s my fucking choice, not theirs.”
A heavy exhale escaped her, and she rubbed the heels of her hands hard against her eyes. Sokka had to resist the urge to pull her into his arms; he hated seeing her like this. Instead he asked, “What was it this time?”
Toph shook her head exasperatedly. “I had a fitting for a dress for the wedding. They’re going, you know? And therefore I have to be dressed to suit the Beifong name. Which, fine. Zuko and Mai’s wedding? Sure, I’ll dress up for the Fire Lord’s nuptials.”
“Can you imagine if you didn’t?” Sokka snorted. “Who would come for you first, Poppy or Katara?”
“Don’t tempt me, I could take them both — and Mai would back me up.” She continued her story, “I’m standing there, stuck full of pins, and Mom has the nerve to say” — here she turned her body toward him and placed a delicate hand on his arm, a bland smile on her face — “All this wedding talk has made me think… isn’t it about time you settled down, Toph?” She broke character to mime gagging. “And she brought up Satoru! Wouldn’t that be quite the match!”
“Like what, marrying him?” Sokka had a sudden vision of Toph and Satoru, dressed in finery, holding hands in ceremony, and couldn’t help his derisive laugh. “As if you’d want to get married!”
Immediately he knew that was the wrong thing to say: her entire body stiffened next to him.
“Toph? Did I —”
“The point is,” she said over him, eyebrows drawn together, “it’s never about if I love someone, it’s about security. Security for me, security for the Beifong name, security for my father’s business. It’s not about what I want or who I want, it’s about what benefits the family. And the worst part? She still thinks this is her way of taking care of me.”
Toph deflated, having expelled the day’s worth of pent-up frustration, and scrubbed at her face. Next to her, Sokka swirled with twin desires, unsure of which to pursue: did he try to console her about her family, or apologize for whatever gross misunderstanding he’d made? And what did her reaction mean — that she had thought about marriage? Toph?
“They do love you, you know,” he finally said, because how could he not offer some words of comfort after all that? “Even if that love is misguided.”
“Misguided isn’t good enough,” she said simply. “Not if it hurts me. I did that for long enough and it’s shit.”
Sokka looked at the woman next to him, at the way the golden evening haze lit up her face and hair, at the way she sat strong even in the face of this emotional burden, on this island of a school that she had built herself, and couldn’t imagine why anyone would want her to be any different.
“I can’t believe they think they could get you to do something you don’t want to,” he said, slightly bewildered. Had they met Toph? “Besides, you’re more than capable on your own — you’ve proven that time and time again. And, well, if you do ever need any security… It doesn’t have to come from an arranged marriage or your dad’s money.”
She gave him a small smile from behind her bangs. “What’re you saying, Meathead?”
He shrugged. “You know you have me. And Katara. Aang. All your friends.”
Her smile grew teasing. “You offering to be my backup?”
“As long as you don’t need money. I don’t have any of that.”
She gave his leg a friendly punch. “Who needs a politically or financially motivated wedding when you’ve got the Avatar and his knuckleheads to catch you if you fall?”
They sat in silence for a moment, the mood having lightened, before Sokka steeled himself to face his second concern.
“Hey,” he began, “I think I should apologize — about what I said, I guess I just assumed you weren’t interested… I mean, you’ve never even dated anyone —”
A frown had grown on Toph’s face. “Yes, I have.”
Sokka looked at her, startled. “What?”
“I’ve been on plenty of dates.”
“Plenty of dates? How — how did I never know about this?”
“I didn’t realize I had to report to you —”
“I’m your best friend!”
“They just didn’t seem very noteworthy, okay?” she said defensively. “So I didn’t bother telling anyone.”
“Huh.” Sokka stared off into the distance, unsure what to make of this new information. Never in his many years of knowing Toph had he ever imagined her as someone seeking a relationship, yet here he was, faced with the fact that there was a part of his best friend he’d had no idea existed. It made a heavy feeling tighten in his chest, that there was a part of Toph he had not known, and that she had purposefully kept it from him.
“You’d tell me, right? If there was someone noteworthy?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re first on the list.”
Sokka watched her out of the corner of his eye, puzzling over this. What kind of man attracted the attention of Toph Beifong, greatest Earthbender in the world, inventor of Metalbending, friend and sifu of Avatar Aang, with her own bending school, her affluent family, her slightly awkward sense of humor, her mischievous smile, her steadfastness, her desire for a challenge?
She must have sensed his eyes on her because she asked, a bit defensively, “What? Is it really that bizarre of a concept?”
“I was just thinking,” Sokka said, leaning back on a hand, “they’ll be lucky.”
“What?”
“When you find someone. They’ll be lucky to have you.”
“Oh.” Unsure of what to say, and perhaps to cover up the faint blush on her cheeks, she punched him.
“Hey!” Sokka rubbed his sore arm. “Generally a person would say thank you after a compliment like that.”
“Yeah, well —” And she sounded so thrown off balance that Sokka grinned, delighted to have the upper hand for once.
“Did I embarrass you?”
“No!” she said sharply, a clear lie.
Sokka laughed. “I can’t believe I embarrassed you!”
Toph hit her palm flat on the step and the rock under him tipped Sokka over, but even flat on his back he couldn’t stop laughing.
“Shut up! I’m not used to you being all — all sweet.”
Sokka grinned up at her. “Do I need to be sweet more often?”
Toph didn’t say anything, but her deepening blush answered for her.
“Toph Beifong!” Sokka crowed. “You're a romantic!”
“Oh, that is it!” she cried, rounding on him. “I’m gonna kick your ass!”
Sokka was lucky she came in with fists, because he could parry those easily enough while shaking with laughter.
Then she had him pinned, his hands trapped by his head, Toph triumphant over him. She looked so fierce, with her flushed face right above his, her scowl so passionate, that Sokka felt his breath catch in his throat and his laughter die on his lips.
Her scowl softened and fell away altogether, and Sokka was certain that she was sensing something about him, the same something he was sensing about himself. His eyes searched her face, hoping it might give him an idea as to what it was.
The air lay heavy between them for a second longer, then Sokka cleared his throat. “Toph?” He pushed up on his trapped wrists.
She pulled back abruptly and stood up. Sokka got up with a groan after her and brushed himself off.
“So, did you still want to—?”
She turned back to him quickly. “Hmm?”
“Should we go get some dinner?”
“Oh. Yeah, sure. Let me go grab my stuff.” Toph turned and disappeared inside the building.
Sokka stood on the steps, feeling awkward and confused, sure that something had just happened but clueless as to what it was.