Floating:

An Avatar: the Last Airbender fanfiction

Set up: This takes place after a previous story I wrote "Ten Seconds" which was at the end of the airship battle during "Sozin's Comet" where I had Toph fall from the airship, and Sokka jumps after her. This story is fairly straight forward but you might want to read the previous story first just for clarity.

Part: 3

Toph had her finger up her nose and she loved it. Katara had finally taken the bandages off and Toph's fingers were stiff, but they were free and she could use them. It was two days since she had woken up in that evil bed, and she finally had real clothes on and had gotten a lot of her strength back but her hands would be a problem for a while yet. She dug around in her nostril, her nails had grown, and she had to be careful not to scratch the inside of her nose but they were a good length for getting hold of boogers.

Got you Toph bragged to herself as she got her nail onto the giant, evil, monster booger in her left nostril. She started to work it down but then she found that it had captured a nose hair at some point and it was not going to let it go. She got enough of it down below the nostril so she could grab it between the nail on her index finger and her thumb nail. One, two, three and she pulled it out, the hair coming with it. The sting from the hair being ripped out ran all the way up her nose, but no pain no gain she told herself.

Toph rolled the booger between her thumb and forefinger, and then she shot it onto the floor. She felt it hit, then moved her heel over and crushed it into the stone of the floor. She could feel the air moving through both sides of her nose. She raised her hands over her head in triumph, she had won The Battle of the Booger, Toph you rule she sang in her head. That was the best feeling she told herself, then she remembered the feeling of lips touching her own, of strong arms around her, of a warm hand in her own, no not the best. She felt the tears begin again. Oh, not again! She complained, stupid useless eyes, when are you going to stop this! It had been going on for two days now! She would just start to cry with no control, no stopping it.

Toph used the heels of her palms to wipe the tears away. She sat in the earth chair she had made in her room. Katara had not understood why Toph had made an earthchair when there were two perfectly good wooden chairs in the room. No, Katara would never understand Toph told herself. She lifted her foot up onto the seat of the chair. Now for some good toe picking she thought, luxuriating in the anticipation of it, but when she felt her toes she found that someone had washed her feet. Those idiots! She complained, why would anyone wash my feet! she asked herself in frustration. If Sokka had been here… she began, but that just started the tears again.

Toph sat in her room thinking as the day wore on. She had heard GlidyGirl and Sparky talking earlier. They had not realized she could hear them, but you could hear a lot through a wall, especially if you were Toph and the wall was made of stone. Glidy had told Sparky that she thought Sokka could have saved himself but had launched himself after Toph on purpose, had even avoided landing on The Suki Girl's airship just to get to Toph. That Sokka had never expected to survive, that was what the "sorry Katara" and the "sorry Suki" had been about. He had sacrificed himself to be with Toph, so that she would not have to die alone, falling in absolute darkness.

Toph wasn't sure if Mai was right but she felt she had to do something, everything seemed over now. Team Avatar was no longer a team, the war was over, and she was on her own again. She was not going home, that was clear, and she couldn't go back to The Earth Rumble, that just seemed so pointless and selfish after losing… someone. She had to do something, and she spent the day trying to think of what it would be.

Toph finally decided what she was going to do. She figured it must be late, since she was very hungry and there was no activity in the house and very little on the streets. She went to the kitchen and after a rather tedious search, stupid wooden cupboards, found what she needed. She brought the supplies back to her room, took one of the blankets from the evil bed, put the supplies in it and rolled it up into a bundle she could easily carry. She shouldered her bindle and quietly left the house and made her way out of the city.

It took Toph longer then she had expected to get clear of the city and by the time she made it into the surrounding open country she was very tired, and very, very hungry. She set up a cold camp by simply unrolling her blanket and raising an earthtent. She went through her supplies and found the cha siu bao she had taken just for this moment. She ate it almost in one bite, and a lot of chewing, then, using water from the gourd she had filled, swallowed it down. She had one more she was saving for tomorrow, after that it would be dried fruit and such. She had not found any jerky in the kitchen, typical she thought. If Meathead had been in the house, it would be full of jerky, fire flakes, all the good stuff she added to herself. This last started her eyes burning with tears again.

"Stupid, useless eyes!" she cried out! "Can't see anything, but you work perfectly when it comes time for the water works!"

She pushed the tears down again by taking deep breaths. I'm just tired she told herself.

The young bender thought about her plan, it was really very simple, she would find Sokka, she would find Space Sword and Boomerang and bring them to him. Then she would raise a mountain over him, not just any mountain but the tallest mountain in the world. It wasn't right that he should be lying there all alone, forgotten. She did not care how long it took, even if it took her the rest of her life. He had given his for her, so the least she could do would be to give hers for him. She felt that this was the right decision and she was going to stick to it no matter what. Thinking about the plan started her eyes to fill with tears again.

Not this again! Toph screamed at herself. She was so sick of this stupid crying, she was so sick of her stupid useless eyes, can't see anything but you can cry all the time! Perfect for that! she ranted in her head. She tried to force the tears down but it didn't work this time. Her stomach began to flutter, and the tears just kept coming.

"Useless!" she spoke aloud now! "If you stupid things worked, I could have seen the ground and started bending sooner and saved both of us."

The frustration kept building making her voice louder and angrier.

"If you actually did your job, I wouldn't have been the 'Helpless Little Blind Girl' and he wouldn't have tried to save me. He would have let me go and saved himself!" She was sobbing now, "All you ever do is cry!"

Then the anger came to the front and turned her voice cold and full of purpose,

"I have had it with you useless things! This is it! I am getting rid of you!" She brought her hands up to her face reaching for her eyes.

"Toph Stop!" a voice called out.

Shocked Toph called out,

"What? Who's there?"

Great! Some idiot has heard all of this she thought. Wait a minute she told herself That is impossible she was in her earthtent, no one could have gotten in, besides she would have felt them approaching. She placed her hands on the ground and sent a wave of bending out. She felt the wave return and there was no one anywhere near her.

"Ah? Toph?" a voice said, "Sorry I didn't mean to startle you."

Toph heard it, he was right there in front of her. He! she told herself, it was him! Her voice quavering she asked,

"Sokka?"

The young girl wiped the tears off of her face and then reached out for him. She felt nothing. Her hands made no contact, and her feet told her that no one was within leagues of her.

"Is that you?" she asked the air.

"Yea, it's me!" she heard from in front of her.

It was definitely Sokka's voice. She reached out again but felt nothing.

"Sokka where are you?" she asked the emptiness around her" They said your were dead, I have been going crazy thinking you were gone!"

"Oh… sorry, no… yea I'm dead." Toph heard Sokka reply. "Yup… I'm as dead as dead can be. 'Dead as a door nail!" he told her, then in an introspective tone asked "Now why is a door nail deader than any other kind of nail?" Then he added to himself "I think I read that someplace."

"Meathead!" Toph said letting a little of her frustration creep into her voice.

"Sorry!" he said defensively, "I got distracted. I am a spirit Toph" Then with an arch edge to his voice he went on, "A ghost of my former self." He began to laugh at his own joke. "Boy! I've still got it, yes sir…" he said to himself as he continued to laugh.

"That is not funny!" Toph told him. Sokka replied in a hurt tone,

"Oh come on that was pretty good, besides I've been waiting to use it for days".

"It still wasn't funny!" Toph rendered her decision, crossing her arms over her chest, though a small grin did find its way onto her face. Then she leaned forward toward the voice and asked accusingly "Snoozles, if you're a spirit what are you doing here? Only the Avatar can move between the spirit world and the real one." She had him with that, her logic had proved that he must still be alive somehow.

Sokka was ready for her,

"Well Toph" he began in his Wang Fire voice, "You see I am very special".

In her mind's eye Toph could see him stroking that ridiculous phony beard of his.

"Before you joined 'Team Avatar'" he continued "this forest spirit monster, who was actually a giant panda, well a giant spirit panda, took me body and spirit, when he was the spirit monster, not the spirit panda, into the spirit world. Ever since then my body and spirit have been different. I don't know if my body is partially in the spirit world and my spirit in the real world, but anyway I am different." Then he added with a little tone of sadness in his voice "Also I have a friend, and she was able to help me."

"You mean the girl from the play, who became the moon?" Toph asked.

"Yes, Yue," he replied.

Neither said anything for a moment, but finally Sokka broke the silence with,

"So I came back and have been following you around for a while". Then he added in his spooky story voice, "I've been haunting you. Ooooooo…"

Toph didn't even acknowledge this with a smirk. A little deflated the young warrior went on,

"Well so I was in the spirit world, and it's really boring, and none of the people there, and there are a ton of Air Nomads let me tell you, have any sense of humor, I mean after Aang I would have thought the Air Nomads would appreciate a good joke, but I couldn't get a rise out of any of them. So I was thinking about how much I missed you guys."

Now it was Toph's turn to feel a little deflated he missed all of us she told herself.

"Especially you!" The tribesman said, "I know you're just a kid, and I don't want to get weird or anything, but you're the one I could talk to, even more than my sister, or Suki. I didn't have to be anyone else around you, because you were never going to be impressed with anything I did, so I could just be me with you. You were the one I could spend all day with and have a good time. I guess I just really missed… you." He became quiet, she could tell he was embarrassed by the admission and he softly finished with "So I did what I could, and got some help and came over to see you again."

After a time Toph said,

"Katara missed you a lot" then trying to sound nonchalant she added "but I was ok, I didn't see what all the fuss was about".

She felt very successful at hiding her feelings until a tear came and began to dance at the bottom of her eye, threatening to run down her cheek. Sokka responded with,

"I have been following you around for the last three days Toph. I know you have been having problems, and I have to tell you, you had me really worried." She bridled at this saying

"I've been fine!"

"Toph I have to tell you something, it's kind of the reason I am here." Sokka's voice became earnest as he continued. "You are not to blame for anything that happened to me."

She looked up to protest this but Sokka continued on before she could say anything,

"I did what I wanted to do. It was my choice, it had nothing to do with you being blind. I did what I wanted to do because I love you. I don't know 'how' I love you, I mean as a friend or as a sister, or as a girl… I don't know. I am very confused about that right now. But I do know that I wasn't going to let you fall all alone. I was going to be there for you no matter what. You don't owe me a thing."

"You saved my life!" Toph told him "I owe you everything!"

"No, Toph! I owe you!" Sokka answered. "You made my life special. You made me a success." His voice became passionate as he went on,

"My life had been nothing but mistakes, and failures up till then. You are my great success, you lived. If I had let you die alone I could not have gone on. You have already paid me back more than I can tell you just by being here. And I want to ask you to do one thing for me, to make me a real success, to make me really happy. I want you to live your life!" His voice grew serious, "Celebrate your life, your youth, be as great as only you can be! Find someone who loves you and love him right back!"

"I have!" Toph answered.

Sokka was quiet for a moment then Toph felt something touch her hands, like a light breath of warm wind.

"I will be with you as long as I can, but I don't know how long that will be. If there is anything in this reincarnation stuff then in some life I will find you. In some future life when you are a totally awesome new person, some annoying guy is going to come up and bother you. He is going to grab onto you and never let you go."

The touch left Toph's hands.

"I have to go soon."

"No!" she said plaintively. Sokka said,

"Sorry, but that's the spirit bizz." Then more seriously "Let me tell you the things I miss. I miss being with you, being with my family, and being with my friends. So always enjoy those people you love, Toph, because no matter how much time you have with them, it is never enough."

She felt a wisp of air move her bangs on her face as he said

"Toph I always loved your eyes, they are beautiful, and the way you always seem to be looking ten years into the future. Seeing them always stopped my heart."

Then she felt something touch her lips, just a light tingle, then, it was gone.

Toph called out

"Sokka?" but there was no answer.

She let the tears come then, she accepted them now.

Mai was crossing the main room of the house, she was very distracted, and at first had not heard the knock on the door. She was coming from the kitchen where she had been washing dishes. This was an entirely new experience for her, she had had servants all her life and had never washed anything, well except herself, but even that was not required, she just didn't like people touching her. But to actually do dishes was a new and terrible experience, well at least at first. She and Suki had been assigned the job, and Mai quickly discovered that she hated it and made it obvious in her attitude.

Suki had noticed and suggested they play a game that Sokka had taught her, apparently he had not liked washing dishes either. The game was to figure out who had used the bowl, cup, plate, chop sticks, etc… by what was left on them. Suki had claimed the easiest was always Sokka since he left all the vegetables in little piles all around the outside. Toph was next since everything was ordered in little groups. Mai was thinking of how she wished she had had a chance to meet Sokka and not just fight him, though fighting him she felt had given her a good insight into his character, when she finally heard the knocking on the door.

It took Mai a few seconds to realize that there were no servants and that, being the closest, she should answer the knocking. She went to the door and opened it, she saw Toph standing there, looking unsure, and nervous, when a strange thing happened. Mai could not feel it but it seemed that a little breeze ruffled Toph's bangs. Toph became calm then, and walked into the house sitting down in one of the chairs in the main room and put her feet up on a table.

Mai closed the door and stood wondering what had brought Toph back, she realized it did not really matter, strangely she was glad Toph had returned, she had missed her. Mai then got an idea for a Suki-ism, Suki had obviously never lived with servants, and had come from a largish family. She was constantly making announcements to the house about things. Mai felt a delicious thrill of being bad run through her. She had always been told by her parents to be quiet and stay out of the way. She coughed quietly to clear her throat, she was not very good at being loud yet but she was getting better. As loud as she could speak, she announced to the house,

"Toph's home!"

The End

Disclaimer: "Avatar: the Last Airbender" the characters and the world were created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and owned by Nickelodeon and Viacom or Paramount or some huge corporation. This is purely a work of fan fiction because I wanted to play in their world and I love the characters that they created.

Authors notes:

This was the second story I ever wrote and it is over a year old now. I hope it has held up and I hope I have improved since then. I still like this story.

Sorry about being so late with the update for "I'll Walk You Home". Hopefully this will make up for the delay in some way.

Thank you very much for reading.

JustThisGuyYouKnow