Sokka woke to the sound of surf, rather than the seismic presence of Appa snoring, or any of the noises that his friends made when they (always) woke up before he did, and it took him a moment to get his bearings. He was alone in his bedroll on the floor of a room richly furnished in Fire Nation colours. Sitting up, he pushed a hand back through his hair and sighed.

Fire Lord Ozai had been defeated, and yet the situation he left behind wasn't simple. Zuko was on the throne and the public face of his succession was happy and peaceful. Still, in the weeks that had followed, little brush-fire problems started popping up everywhere. They'd been handling them, but for a variety of reasons – including security – Zuko had asked (ordered more like) that Ember Island be cleared of citizens for a while and given everyone quarters there. Unlike his predecessor, Zuko was actually compensating citizens for this, which had caught public interest. One more plan to show Zuko was not his Father.

On the other hand, the assassins weren't partof the plan.

It all made perfect sense at the time, but soon Suki had gone home when he went to help Zuko with some 'settling in' problems, and then Aang and Katara had gone back to the mainland for some public appearances. That left Iroh and Toph, and then some bright idea Sokka hadn't entirely caught meant that they hadn't come back to the island either.

He'd been alone for the first time… ever, really. It was weird. When you had a sister like Katara, part of you screamed for privacy and independence for as long as you could remember… and then when you had some actual time alone it was peaceful, but hollow.

Or at any rate, he'd become tired of it quickly.

He climbed to his feet, got dressed – he was still living like they were on the road, just with a roof to keep off the rain – and heard the noises coming from the beach. Sokka went out on to the veranda and saw a figure kicking a leather ball around the sand.

It was obviously Toph. She'd kick the ball off in a direction, then fling up towers of sandstone to send it careening back at her before she hit it again, dropping the old towers and starting all over again. As he watched, she settled deeper into her horse-stance and grinned so that he could see it from the house. A ball of stone the same size as the leather one hurtled out of the ground and into the air. Toph shifted sideways to strike the rebounding leather ball, then rapidly sidestepped as the stone one smashed into the ground where she'd been. She hurled it skyward again as she turned to strike the leather ball with her forehead – making an audible thump.

Sokka winced as the stone nearly brained her – again – and heard Toph start to laugh. He shook his head. There was no way someone her size should sound so damned evil.

He leaned forward on the balcony railing, "Morning Toph!"

In retrospect, he shouldn't have done that. Or at least worked on his timing. Toph startled and spun toward his voice: first, the leather ball bounced off her shoulder, then she went into a hasty forward roll to avoid her stone ball – which dutifully pulverised a tower a little too close to where she'd been.

The small girl dressed in green sat in a sprawl amid the settling dust in total silence for a count of five before a blistering shout of "Damn it, Sokka!" carried up to him on wind that smelled of salt water and (now) dust. He winced.

Okay, not his best idea ever. He'd hunt out some breakfast for the two of them and go down… later. When she didn't seem quite so murderous.

After finding a bag full of fruit and other supplies and waiting for a safe period, Sokka found Toph down by the edge of the water.

She was pacing like a caged wolf-bear he'd seen at a roadside carnival once, back and forth on the beach. He could see the channel her footprints were leaving in the sand, and from her stance, she didn't seem happy. Maybe breakfast could wait…

A flash of colour caught his eye, and he sighed when he figured out what it was. The leather ball had bounced off Toph when he distracted her and rolled out past the breakers. It was bobbing there happily, so at least it wasn't going out to sea, but Toph couldn't see it – even if she could get to it.

As he watched, a gull came in to land on a rocky outcropping that the waves lapped past as they came in. As soon as it landed, Toph barked "Ha!" and kicked down. A bridge of land shot out of the water, including a crater around the rock so that the 'ball' wouldn't roll away. Toph ran across her bridge, reached for where the ball should have been, and found a stunned gull that flapped in a panic at her hand before taking off.

For a moment, she seemed very fragile.

Then she spun on one heel and stalked back to the beach, as businesslike as ever. Sokka tossed her an apple that she caught easily and sank her teeth into with a vicious crunch.

"So," he said after a moment. "You got back okay?"

"Yep. Iroh's gone for a while, though."

"Any idea when Aang and Katara are coming back?"

"Didn't get a chance to talk to them much, it's all kind of busy."

Sokka threw himself down on the sand. "Yeah. On the surface Zuko taking over the Fire Nation was all roses, but a lot of the military higher ups still think of Zuko the same way that Zhao guy did – as a worthless exile. No threat to anyone. So they figure they can take over as soon as the Avatar has his back turned. Zuko's been quite… uh… efficient at correcting that idea, but that just means the assasins are getting trickier. Oh yeah, and there are apparently forces gathering that want to put Ozai or, gods help us all, Azula, back on the throne."

Toph looked in his direction, her face drawn up in an exaggerated expression of surprise. She put one hand to her chin. "You mean to say that the public appearance of an event is different than what's going on behind the scenes?! Oh, you are so worldly, Sokka! Please teach this poor, innocent country girl about this thing you call 'politics'!"

She waved a hand. "Duh. Stuff like this always happens when you stop people from making money – like some have been from the war – or get in the way of their ambition. So much of the Fire Nation is invested in being all Militarily Awesome, it's not surprising. And it's not like we don't get assassins in the Earth Kingdom."

Sokka looked at her and felt an eyebrow quirk up. Huh. News to him, really…

She continued. "I've been trying to get Zuko to see if he can trick assassins into attacking him publicly so word of the spankage can spread. Doesn't matter if he can take them if nobody knows he can, it'll just get annoying. Incidentally, Katara and I are competing to see how many we can squash before it gets that far." She paused, "I'm winning."

Toph sat up and glared out to sea, where the ball was still being tossed by the waves. Sokka eyed her and the ball.

"I could go get that for you," he said neutrally. Toph didn't respond.

The two of them sat in silence for a while, listening to the surf and the cry of gulls.

Eventually, Toph muttered, "My parents thought I was helpless ever since I was little. I hate that feeling. It doesn't happen very often," she added sharply, "but when it does it messes with my head."

Sokka sat up and considered her. She was sitting with her arms folded around her knees, and looked like a surly lump of elbows that wanted to bite somebody. He really didn't know what to do when Toph was like this. Things that would help Aang or Katara feel better would probably make Toph feel she couldn't look after herself. Or worse, make her feel that he felt sorry for her. And then she'd punch him and yell, and that would hurt.

It was a problem.

Until Toph, Sokka had never been around someone who couldn't swim before. Being part of the Water Tribe, the situation had just never come up.

Hmmm. He chewed thoughtfully at his own mouthful of apple, then cleared his throat.

"You know, if this is because you can't swim… I can probably help you with that."

Toph's head whipped around sharply, turned more toward the house he'd come from than where he was sitting, but her suspicious scowl was definitely meant for him.

"I can't swim, and I can't learn to swim! No way to know if I'm going the right way."

Sokka had noticed that when being blind actually got in Toph's way, she didn't mention it – she talked about the problems it caused instead.

He shifted around so that he was kneeling closer to her, and shrugged. "Well, you don't need to learn how to swim for it to be useful," Sokka said in what he hoped was a reasonable tone. "I can show you how to keep yourself afloat for a long time, or keep your head above the water if there are waves."

Toph's scowl had degraded to where she was thoughtful, rather than entirely dismissive of the idea. "Someone would still need to come get me."

Sokka noted she didn't say 'save.'

"Yeah," he said gently, "But you'd be in a lot more control. Remember when you got thrown into the sea at Serpent's Pass?"

Toph nodded, her expression turning pensive for a moment.

"Suki dove in after you right away because you were in serious danger. If you decide you do want me to teach you, it'd mean that if something like that happens again…"

Toph's milky green eyes blinked neutrally as she said, "Someone would still have to rescue me, but I could be doing something to give them more time. So if I fell in again, I'd be less of an emergency."

Sokka nodded. "You'd have more control. Of course, doing that at Serpent's Pass would just give the Serpent more time for breakfast, but you get the idea."

Toph grinned slowly – man, she looked feral when she wanted to – and then she gave a sharp nod. Her expression looked similar to when he'd seen her training Aang: focused, martial and intent.

"So how do we do this?" she asked.

Sokka looked thoughtful. "Welll… what you're currently wearing is probably a little heavy. Did you feel like it bound you up or dragged you down at the Serpent's Pass?"

Toph nodded.

"Yeah, find something lighter. I'd also tie your fringe back, otherwise it'll get wet and fall into your eyes."

Toph snorted. "Not like I'm using them."

"Right," Sokka countered, "But just because you're not seeing with them doesn't mean salt water won't hurt. Anything you can do to cut down on surprises or distractions is a good idea."

Toph saluted, or at least did an energetically sloppy approximation of one, and laughed.

"Yessir, Sokka sir!"

He shoved her shoulder, which had the same effect as if she'd been a tree-stump because, well…. Toph.

"Aren't you glad I'm here to share my wealth of knowledge with you?"

Toph stood up and vaguely brushed herself down. "Yeah, sure. 'That Sokka,' everyone says, 'Can't bend, but doesn't sink. He's a keeper.'"