Disclaimer: Avatar: the Last Airbender is not mine, or Tokka would be absolute canon.

Author's Notes: I always wondered what would happen if the AangGaang got sick... and here we are! Beware, this story has a life of its own -- not even kidding. It just keep going and no matter what I did, it just wouldn't die. XD I think this is the longest oneshot I've ever written... but that's mostly thanks to Sokka. He just never shuts up. :P

Enjoy, and leave a review on your way out!

Alisa

Katara first noticed the absence of the Earthbending prodigy known as Toph when she didn't hear Sokka complaining about waking up with a rock sticking in his back (one of Toph's personal could-you-wake-up-Sokka? favorites). That didn't stop him from complaining about other things, though, and complain he did.

"When's Aang going to get back with the food? I'm starving over here!" her brother loudly informed Katara, his arms wrapped around his stomach as he leaned over the small fire he had managed to start up.

Katara tutted as she rolled her sleeping bag up neatly. "Sokka, Aang only left ten minutes ago. Give him some time; I'm sure he'll be back soon. But in the meantime," she went on, looking up from her sleeping bag, "why don't you go wake Toph up?"

He gave Katara a pointed look and said, "Why don't you wake Toph up?"

Katara donned an annoyed expression and gestured to the pile of luggage in front of her. "Because I'm actually doing something useful. You, on the other hand, are doing nothing."

The thought of protesting crossed his mind, but Sokka was too hungry to do anything about it outside of grumbling and limping over to Toph's Earth tent. He sighed exaggeratedly and tapped on Toph's tent with his boomerang, saying in a loud, tedious voice, "Wake up, Toph! Breakfast is coming!"

All four of Toph's Earth walls melted away to reveal the Earthbender herself, facedown in the dirt, hair flying every which direction. She rolled on to her back and blind eyes stared up at Sokka. He leaned in closer and noticed that Toph's normally pale face was flushed pink and her brow was beaded with sweat.

"You don't look so good, Toph," Sokka said, and as if on cue the girl was on her feet, running toward the nearest bushes. Sokka quirked a curious eyebrow until he heard the sounds of retching.

"Uh… Katara?" said Sokka, his eyes still glued to the spot where Toph had disappeared. "I don't think we're gonna be doing any traveling today."

Katara appeared from behind Appa. "Why not?" she questioned.

Sokka pointed to where Toph was reemerging from the bushes, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. Katara immediately gave a pitying sound and rushed over to Toph, where she began cooing at the younger girl, including pressing a hand to Toph's forehead. Then she turned to her brother.

"Sokka, get out the sleeping bags and then build up the fire. We're not going anywhere." Placing a guiding hand on Toph's shoulder, Katara led the sick girl to where Sokka was unrolling sleeping bags.

Toph collapsed on Sokka's sleeping bag before he even had a chance to open it and muttered thickly through the material, "Thanks, Katara."

"Don't you worry about a thing," cooed Katara, yanking her sleeping bag from Sokka's hands and unrolling it over the girl. "Sokka and I are going to take good care of you."

"Me?!" yelped Sokka. "No way! I'm not getting sick!"

Katara frowned at him and was just about to give him a piece of her mind when Toph asked feebly, "Sokka, could you get me some water?"

He stared at the young girl for a moment before sighing. "Fine…," he muttered, and marched off. Grabbing a chipped Earthenware teacup from their few dishes, Sokka filled it with the water they had gathered the night before and delivered it to the blind girl.

Toph eagerly took the cup from his hands and gulped the liquid down in two mouthfuls. Dropping the cup she muttered, "Thanks, Sokka," and leaned back on the sleeping bag.

Katara stood up from where she had been running her healing hands over Toph. "It seems like she's just got the stomach flu and a little fever. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about that." She looked down at Toph and turned to her brother. "Sokka, why don't you get Toph comfortable while I make some tea?"

Sokka nodded and Katara went to busy herself with the fire. He turned to the tiny girl in front of him. "Okay, Toph, here's what we're gonna do," he said, kneeling next to her. "Let's lean you against Appa. So sit up—a little more… now scoot back—no—you're gonna have to lean forward more… look, just—now put your arm around my neck… right… now hold on!" One arm hooked around Toph's shoulders and the other under her knees, Sokka managed to lift the girl up and stand on wobbling legs. For being so tiny, Toph sure weighed a lot.

Kicking the sleeping bags with one foot, Sokka slowly made his way over to Appa. The bedding was getting coated in dirt, but Sokka figured Toph wouldn't mind. Now that he thought about it, though, Katara might. Shrugging it off, Sokka did his best to lay out the sleeping bags against a sleeping Appa with only his feet. Once they were adequately laid out, the warrior tried his hardest to lay the girl down without injuring either of them. She moaned when he nearly toppled over her, but other than that the process when smoothly.

Sokka collapsed next to her on the furry bison and puffed out his cheeks. "If I get sick," he said, turning to the girl next to him, "I'm blaming it on you, you know."

Toph didn't say anything, just moaned and clutched her stomach.

Sokka leaned on his elbow to better see her and asked concernedly, "Hey, are you okay?"

She gave a short, bitter laugh. "Does it look like I'm okay?" she spat.

The warrior leaned back against Appa, his hands resting on his stomach. "You know what my mom used to do when me and Katara were sick?" he asked. "She used to just sit with us and talk about everything she could think of. I always liked that—it made me feel better." His eyes found the face of the blind girl. "D'you want me to talk to you?"

Toph curled her body toward his, pulling Katara's sleeping bag tight around her shoulders, and gave the slightest of nods. Sokka brightened, then tapped his chin with a finger.

"What to talk about…," he muttered under his breath, contemplating. He looked at the pale eyes of Toph's that were focused somewhere around his nose. "Well, what d'you want to talk about, Toph?"

"Why don't you tell her the story of how you got two fishhooks stuck in your finger?" chimed in a voice, and Sokka looked up to find Katara hovering over them.

Toph's ears perked up. "You got two fishhooks stuck in your finger?" she snickered.

"Only once!" Sokka argued, sending a glare at his sister. "What d'you want, Katara?"

"I made Toph some tea to help with her stomach," the Waterbender said, setting down a small teapot and several cups. Addressing the younger girl, she added, "It should make you feel a little better."

"Thanks, Katara," said Toph, and she sat up to prepare herself a cup of tea.

"Here, let me get it," Sokka quickly said, brushing her hands away from the teapot as Katara walked away, shaking her head.

"I can pour my own tea, Sokka," Toph insisted, eyebrows dropping into a frown. "I don't need your help."

The warrior crossed his arms and leaned back against Appa with a huff. "Fine," he muttered sourly, watching as she easily poured herself a cup of steaming tea before settling against Appa.

Toph sipped at the hot tea carefully and nestled deeper in the tangle of material and fur that surrounded her, head cocked in Sokka's direction. She downed the rest of her tea, letting the empty teacup roll down Appa's side and come to a stop at her feet, which were still exposed.

"So," she said, then paused as her stomach made a loud growling sound. Toph shivered momentarily before going on, "Are you going to tell me that fishhook story?"

Sokka frowned. "Once upon a time, I got a fishhook stuck in my thumb, then I got another fishhook stuck in my thumb. The end."

Toph rustled next to him for a moment, then said, "That wasn't a very good story, was it? I bet I could tell it better, and I've never even gotten a fishhook stuck in my thumb."

Her quip was met with silence. Toph sighed, irritated. "If you really want to pour me a cup of tea that badly, then just do it."

Sokka moved around next to her and Toph heard the sounds of clinking Earthenware dishes and tinkling tea. A cup was shoved into her hands. She took a sip of it and asked mockingly, "Do you feel better, Snoozles?"

"Yes," he admitted rather grudgingly, frown now replaced with a pout. He turned to face her, legs crossed under him, sour mood now dissipated, and asked, "D'you want me to tell you a story?"

Discarding her teacup, Toph buried herself within the sleeping bags and focused blank eyes on the origin of his voice. "Go ahead," she prompted him, adjusting the material around her shoulders.

Sokka made a face as he thought, one eye squinted in concentration, his tongue poking out the side of his mouth. Suddenly his face lit up and he announced, "I've got the perfect story. Are you ready for my amazing story-telling skills?"

Toph wrinkled up her nose as she wiped the sweat from her flushed face. "I've been ready for the past ten minutes, Ponytail, just get on with it."

Sokka cleared his throat loudly and exaggeratedly before beginning, "Once upon a time, there was a handsome, smart, funny, and very skilled warrior from the South Pole."

Toph snorted into Appa's fur and the bison himself—who seemed to have been listening—gave a roar.

Sokka ignored them and continued, "He was the bravest of all the warriors in his village and everyone looked up to him. He had a younger sister who liked to annoy him all the time and complain about washing his socks. She never did anything helpful when he got fishhooks stuck in his fingers."

"I thought you only did that once," interjected Toph, but Sokka shushed her.

"One day he and his sister found a bald kid stuck in an iceberg and decided to heroically rescue him. When they got the bald kid out, they took him back to their village and everyone praised the warrior. But the bald kid was actually being chased by a bunch of crazy soldiers, so the warrior and his sister decided to travel with the bald kid on his journey.

"They all rode on his giant flying bison all over the world and even stopped at an island to ride the elephant koi. The warrior, his sister, and the bald kid were ambushed there by a bunch a girls. The warrior was going to attack but didn't want to hurt girls, so he let them capture him."

Toph snorted again, and Appa made a rumble of protest.

Sokka cleared his throat to get their attention and went on, "That's when the warrior met a pretty female warrior, one of the girls he had let ambush him. He even let her teach him some of her fighting tricks, but he had to leave with his sister and the bald kid before he got to spend any time with her. He missed her a lot after they left, and he still misses her now."

Sokka paused for a moment and Toph borrowed deeper within his sleeping bag, a small frown on her face. "What happened after that?" she asked.

Sokka shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and said, "After that, the warrior went with his sister and the bald kid to the North Pole. That's when the warrior met the princess of the North Pole, the first girl he ever fell in love with. But she had to give up her spirit to the moon to restore balance to the world…"

He cleared his throat gruffly and continued, "Then the warrior, his sister, and the bald kid traveled to the Earth Kingdom. The warrior reunited the bald kid with his ancient crazy friend in Omashu, even if it was under Fire Nation control. After that they made it to Gaoling and heard about underground Earth competitions. That's where they met this blind Earthbending champion. The warrior didn't like her at first because she beat his favorite fighter—"

"You mean I wasn't your favorite fighter?" Toph broke in indignantly.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "—but he forgave her when she rescued the bald kid. Even though her parents didn't want her traveling with the bald kid, the Earthbender left her home anyway and the warrior thought it was very brave of her to do that."

Toph turned just a little pinker under her flush.

"The warrior liked how sarcastic the Earthbender was because his sister and the bald kid didn't like sarcasm very much, even if the warrior did. And he liked that she didn't need to be protected, because the warrior already had to protect his sister and the bald kid and he didn't know how many more people he could protect.

"Then the warrior and the Earthbender went to the desert with the warrior's sister and the bald kid to look for a library. When they found the library, the warrior was worried about leaving the Earthbender all by herself, even though he knew he didn't need to. And when she held up the library all by herself and saved everyone's lives, the warrior was really amazed and proud and glad that the Earthbender was traveling with them."

Sokka paused to pour himself a cup of lukewarm tea, then poured another for Toph, who drank it quickly before hiding under the sleeping bags again.

"Are you cold?" asked Sokka concernedly, watching her curl up in the mass of cloth. "I can get out some more blankets if you are."

"I'm fine," said Toph firmly. "Just keep telling your story."

Sokka settled back on Appa and rested his teacup on his stomach. He tipped the cup from side to side as tea sloshed around inside of it and thoughts darted through his head. He stopped only when he heard a quiet voice say, "Sokka?"

He looked up to find Toph much closer than where he last remembered, her pale eyes focused intently on his chin. Sokka tried not to laugh; it wasn't everyday that someone stared at his chin like that.

"Look up a little more," he instructed, and Toph's eyes moved up to his forehead. "Down a little more—to the left… there."

She squinted her eyes a little, as if it would help her see. "What am I looking at?" she asked.

"My eyes," Sokka said simply.

Toph folded her arms and said exasperatedly, "Why am I looking at your eyes?"

"If you don't want to, then…" —Sokka puckered his brow and thought— "then I'm looking at your eyes."

Toph sighed and said, "Just get on with your story," though she was careful not to move her eyes too much.

Sokka drained his cup and shuddered—cold tea. "Anyway… the warrior and his companions were trying to get to the great Earth Kingdom capital, but it was kind of hard as they had tons of soldiers after them. They tried to get into the city by boat, but they decided to help out a really pregnant lady and her family instead by going across the Serpent's Pass. On the way there they met the pretty warrior girl from before. She wanted to help them get across the Pass. The warrior was really happy to see her again and might have been a little overprotective, even if he didn't need to be.

"While they were crossing the Pass, a giant serpent attacked them. They had almost made it all the way when the Earthbender fell through the ice bridge the warrior's sister had made." (Toph shivered under the sleeping bags even though she wasn't cold and lowered her eyes.) "The warrior didn't think he'd ever been as scared in his whole life and was just about to jump in when the warrior girl jumped in before him. The warrior was a little mad at the warrior girl for jumping in—what if she couldn't get to the Earthbender in time? What if something bad happened? But the warrior girl saved the Earthbender and they were both fine."

Sokka ran his fingers on the rim of his empty cup and blinked in Toph's direction. "After that," he said quietly, "the warrior promised himself he would never let anything bad happen to the Earthbender again, even if it meant never letting her out of his sight. But no matter what he did, it still wasn't good enough and the Earthbender would get captured or hurt or separated. Even when she got sick and he tried to tell her stories, they still weren't very good."

That elicited a small laugh from Toph, and Sokka smiled. Appa rumbled underneath them.

"But most of all, the warrior just wanted the Earthbender to know how much he cared about her and that would do anything for her, because…" He could feel and hear just how his voice was getting strained, tight, forced, but he didn't stop talking—he had to say something. Her eyes were wide behind those dark bangs, wide and shocked and hopefully not too displeased. "Because… Toph, I—"

Suddenly Toph clamped a hand over her mouth, kicked the sleeping bags off of her legs, and darted behind the nearest tree, where all the tea that she had drank came back up. Sokka wrinkled his nose in disgust and disappointment and waited for Toph to trudge back to the sleeping bags.

It took a few minutes, but Toph came back, considerably paler and with her bangs clinging to her damp forehead. She clutched her stomach and proclaimed, "I'm never drinking tea again." She collapsed on the pile of sleeping bags and curled in a ball before asking faintly, "What were you saying?"

"Oh, look," said Sokka in a monotonous voice, ignoring her. "Aang's back with food. D'you want anything? Please, let me get it." He pushed himself up from the bison and shuffled over to Aang, who had brought back an armful of strange-looking fruit. Katara inspected one before handing it to Momo, who chirped.

Toph sat up. "Really! What were you going to say? Sokka?" She got up and stumbled over to her friends, the sleeping bags dragging behind her through the dirt. "What were you going to say?" she demanded, poking Sokka in the chest and trying not to fall over—she was a little dizzy, now that she thought about it, and pretty little dots were dancing in front of her eyes….

Toph pitched forward; Sokka caught her just in time and nearly fell backward himself.

"Toph!" cried Katara and Aang at the same time.

"Is she all right? What's wrong with Toph?" Aang quickly asked, Airbending himself around Sokka and Toph in confusion and anxiety.

Sokka grunted under the weight of Toph leaning on him and struggled to hold her up, which was made more difficult by the fact that she was pushing against his stomach in an attempt to stand up.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said thinly, before leaning all her weight on Sokka. She gave one more feeble attempt at standing by herself before giving up.

From next to them, Katara was waving her hands around frantically. "Aang, just back up and calm down. Sokka, go lay Toph down. I'm going to get some water and cloth." She was just about to run off when she added, "On second thought, Aang, make some more tea."

Sokka just grumbled and heaved Toph over to the flying bison, who gave a quiet roar as Sokka adjusted the blind girl on the ground next to him. He blew out a great gust of air from his cheeks and said, "You okay, Toph?"

She waved her hand in his direction. "I'm fine, I'm fine," she repeated. "Just a little dizzy, that's all. Just a little dizzy." She pressed her hands against her eyes and leaned back against Appa.

Sokka looked at her pityingly and brushed her bangs from her forehead gently—he pulled back quickly, surprised at how warm she was. "Are you sure you're all right, Toph?" he asked, a little more urgently this time.

"Yeah," she said, her hands moving back to her stomach. "I'm—I'm okay now."

Katara chose that moment to rush over with a bowl and a handful of rags. She dropped to her knees before she had even stopped running and quickly threw the rags in the cold water. She pulled one out, wrung it, and then gently pressed it against Toph's brow; the Earthbender shivered.

"You're cold!" Katara proclaimed loudly, and rushed over to the long-forgotten pile of food, which the sleeping bags were next to. She shook them off quickly, sending a cloud of dust everywhere, and nearly tripped over the trailing material in her rush to drape them over Toph.

"Katara," said Sokka quietly, pulling another wet rag from his sister's hands, "why don't you have a cup of tea with Aang? I'll take care of Toph."

The Waterbender seemed to deflate just a little in front of him as she sighed. Then she said, "That sounds like a good idea." She shuffled over to where Aang was pouring tea into cups and Sokka dropped the rag back into the bowl with distaste.

He pulled the sleeping bags up past Toph's shoulders and tucked them around her arms. "Are you comfortable?" he asked, pulling one of the rags from the bowl with two fingers and eyeing it cautiously.

Toph nodded, her eyes shut tightly, and asked in a thin voice, "Does your story have a good ending?"

Sokka dropped the cloth into the bowl, splashing water over the ground and his knees. "That depends," he said, frowning at his wet pants. "What's a good ending?"

"One where everyone lives," Toph murmured. "Happily would be good too, but I can settle for just living."

"Well," said Sokka distractedly, dabbing at his pants with the edge of his tunic, "this story doesn't really have an ending yet."

"Why not?" questioned Toph, frowning.

"The ending hasn't happened yet," Sokka informed her, dumping the bowl of water out, this time soaking his wrist bands.

"Then what do you want the ending to be?" she asked, her eyelids drooping slowly.

"I don't know," muttered Sokka, wringing out the cloth like Katara had done. "The bald kid can defeat the evil Fire Lord and the war can be over, and maybe he'll work up the guts to kiss the warrior's sister. Then the warrior can go visit his dad at the South Pole—the Earthbender can come, if she wants—and they can settle down, get married, even, and have some kids or something. Visit the bald kid and the warrior's sister a lot, too, and their kids, because the warrior just knows they'll be getting married as soon as they can. They can all live happily ever after, too," finished Sokka, dropping the rags into the bowl. "Just because that sounds nice. What d'you think, Toph?"

Sokka turned to the Earthbender to find her snoring gently, her breathing slow and even. He sighed and pushed the bowl away from himself before fluffing the Appa fur next to Toph and lying down.

He had just closed his eyes when a voice whispered in his ear, "That does sound nice."

Sokka was sick the next day, but he decided that it was definitely worth it. Toph told the best stories.

FIN.