the beat of my heart

For Zoetekohana, because she is sweet and awesome and wonderful to talk to. (I have no idea how she manages either of them, much less all at the same time.) Enjoy. :D

If Toph Bei Fong knows one thing about life, it is that it never goes quite as if expected. Or, rather, it never goes as she expected it. Her twelve year of life was one of life's best curveballs: Toph never expected to leave her parents house; to earthbend at her very best with her own, given name on her opponent's lips; to stand in the sunlight with no one to guard her or shelter her, and know that she was free.

Toph never expected to fall in love, either, and if she had expected to fall in love—well, Sokka, certainly, would have been the farthest form her speculations.

To her knowledge, life was still cackling over that one. Oh, yes! Let's make Toph Bei Fong do the crazy, and fall in love with some boy with a boomerang.

Secretly, though, Toph doesn't mind. Falling in love is nice, like living through a thousand warm, summery days and cool, balmy nights. Twelve is definitely the biggest curveball life ever launched at her, without a doubt.

Of course, that twelfth year—when she discovered so, so many things about herself and about her friends—is now six years long gone. Six years of growing and learning and still being free.

Six years of growing and learning and still being in love.

It hasn't all been easy. There've been some tough times. Suki wasn't easy to handle, but that relationship disappeared by the time Toph was sixteen. Sokka's obliviousness wasn't any easier to take. There were times she came close to letting him go, only to find that she couldn't.

But Toph has taken it all in stride. It's what she does. It's what she'll always do, if the universe will allow her.

Today, after months of being apart, they are reuniting—just the four of them—at a spot in the Fire Nation where they all went swimming so long ago. Aang and Katara are engaged to be marry come fall, and Toph will go to their wedding as surely as Sokka will.

They are a family. They have never been anything less. Toph might complain about the ice a few dozen times, sure, but she loves Aang and Katara all the same, even if she'll never admit it out loud.

Currently, the lovebirds are floating lazily in the water, arms clasped around each other. Aang says something; Katara laughs, and kisses him. From her post at the edge of the water, Toph rolls her eyes at their sickeningly cute antics.

Sokka is fishing—or, he was. Now, he's gotten up, and he's walking over to her, isn't he?

No blushing or racing pulse or anything of the sort gives Toph away, because first and foremost, he is her friend. She swings her feet in the water, and pretends that she can see the ripples in the water in the same way that she pretends she can see the smile on Sokka's face.

He steps over to her, with footsteps that are so steady and strong and dependable that for one wild moment, Toph thinks she might spend the rest of her life with Sokka of the Water Tribe and never doubt him once.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey, Snoozles," she says casually, as he sits down beside her.

"So, Toph, I haven't seen you in a while, right?" Sokka comments, after a moment of comfortable silence. Something, though, is different in his voice, like he's confused. Toph cannot tell what, and does not dare to think that it might be her.

"Yeah, it has been a while, hasn't it?" Toph agrees, when she realizes that she has not spoken and that Sokka is still waiting for her answer. "But I'll see you for the wedding this autumn."

"That's true. Hey, you can't see on ice, can you?" Sokka voices suddenly. "How're you gonna get around?"

She smirks, half annoyed and half endeared by the concerned tone of his voice. "Well, you'll just have to be my eyes for me, won't you?" Toph teases.

And she could've sworn that for a moment, Sokka's heart speeds up the tiniest bit, as if he actually wouldn't mind. The idea is so preposterous that Toph credits it to her imagination.

"I could do that," Sokka shrugs. "I hope you like snow, though. And ice. And blizzards."

She frowns. "Wait, Aang and Katara's wedding isn't in winter, Snoozles."

"Well, that sort of stuff happens all year round," he explains wisely. "Not just during the winter."

"Hmph." With a little harrumph, Toph crosses her arms. "Well," she huffs. "No one told me that. I guess I'll just have to borrow your parka, too," she grins a moment later.

"Why don't you go ahead and take everything from me, woman?" Sokka grumbles. "Would you like the shirt off my back next?"

"You're not wearing a shirt," Toph points out, and when it's obvious from the speed of his heartbeat that he's blushing, she bursts out laughing.

"Well," he says, as her snickering quiets down, at a poorly concealed attempt to salvage what's left of his dignity (zero zilch nada)"I better get back to my fish." With a long stretch, Sokka rises up from beside her. And as he walks away, he brushes his hand against her shoulder in a way that is not as nonchalant as it once was.

"Good luck with the fish. Try not to fall into the water and drown. I don't wanna have to haul your ass out of the lake," Toph calls out to him. Sokka flips her the bird.

"I hate you," he deadpans without really meaning it.

Toph simpers back. "I hate you, too," say her lips.

I love you, beats her heart.

And for a split second that is all hope and no sensibility or reason whatsoever, Toph wonders if there will come a day (soon) when her heart might beat I love you—and she might hear Sokka's heart beat I love you back.