Love Enlightened - 7 +Tokka+

Love Enlightened

Chapter 7:

The trip was uneventful, but uncomfortable (explaining to Katara all that had happened and subsequently being chewed out for his rash and insulting behavior) and felt painfully long. When they finally touched down on the Bei Fong estate, Sokka was already looking around wildly for the jet-haired earthbender. He saw nothing.

"We'll ask her parents where she is and then go talk to her. It's going to be okay, Sokka." His sister tried to sooth his impatience.

He didn't answer.

Katara sighed and just looked to Aang on Appa's head, who shrugged. Both of them felt helpless in the current situation.

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The servant came into the room and bowed low, nodding to Mr and Mrs. Bei Fong before announcing that the Avatar had just landed in the front of the estate. Lao opened his mouth to speak but his usually soft spoken wife stood up quickly and said "I'll take care of it, Lao."

A little stunned, he nodded and went back to his papers. Poppy exited the room, waving a hand to dismiss the servant, and made for the front door.

Sokka was about to reach up and knock on the door when it opened. His heart skipped a beat before he realized that the black haired and pale-skinned woman before him was Toph's mother. She slipped out the big wooden door and closed it behind her. Sokka took a step back, unsure.

"You are looking for Toph, correct?"

Sokka didn't really know what to say, but Aang came up behind them and said, "Yes. Do you know where she is?"

"How did you know?" Sokka asked, confused but finding his tongue. Mrs. Bei Fong coughed discreetly and rolled her eyes a bit, looking less and less like a proper wife and more like Toph's mother.

"She came back early this morning and stomped straight to her room. I went to check on her and offer her breakfast a few hours later and she wasn't in her bed anymore." She answered. Sokka's face fell and Poppy's eyes snapped to him, studying him closely. "You understand now, don't you?" She asked slowly.

Deciding not to question the woman, who was turning out to be extremely intuitive and much more intelligent than she seemed, Sokka only nodded dumbly. He almost swore he saw a smirk in the corner of her mouth before it disappeared and Poppy was all business.

"Young man, if you really want to talk to her, I can help you find Toph."

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Toph sat absolutely still in the silence, her hair cushioning her head against the dark rock and soil of the cave wall. She breathed slowly and deeply, reveling in the smells of the earth. She could nearly name every mineral by smell, and their unique sounds and vibrations reverberated back to her after every breath. The solidity of the earth around her brought her peace as she emptied her mind of troubling thoughts and memori-

"You're lying!"

Of ALL troubling thoughts and memories. She let them slide out of her mind, focusing instead on the immenseness of the ground beneath her, and the gentle rumblings that came from deep within the earth.

"I just want you to feel the water with me."

She shifted, drowning out the memory with all of the vibrations that came back from the many different stratas of rock beneath her feet.

By the time she'd gotten home, all of her energy was spent - thanks to her fight with Sokka and the long boat ride. She crashed on the bed and forced herself to sleep, but only got a few hours before she was woken up by the sound of his voice in a dream. No matter how she turned, the sheets were uncomfortable warm and soft beneath her body. She finally slipped out the window and ran to her private cave, the place she'd met the badgermoles for the first time so long ago, trying to drown herself in the vibrations of the earth. Tomorrow she would go see Ohev and accept his offer, and just forget about him. Just get on with her life.

But his voice just kept coming back no matter how many times she drowned it out. Forgetting to push away the thought, she wondered in the briefest moment of panic and despair if it would be this way the rest of her life.

"You look really nice tonight."

If it was going to always be this way, she supposed she deserved it. She should have let this crush go a long time ago, instead of fanning the flame in the vain hope that it might turn into something. She did the right thing in telling him what she'd found out about Noni, but if he was happy with Suki then she was selfish to hope that he would leave his fiance because of that. She tried to be compassionate and instead she blew up at him for denying something that was simply hard to accept.

"Hey... Toph."

Thinking it was just another memory, she ignored it and remained motionless. Sokka stepped closer, heart thudding uncomfortably in his chest. Half of him expected her to flick her wrist and send him into a cavern in the ceiling to think about how he'd treated her back on Kyoshi.

He wouldn't argue that he didn't deserve it.

He took another step and Toph all at once took in the vibrations and came to the realization that the greeting hadn't been just a memory. How did he find me? was the first thing to go through her head.

Well, other than the all-around shock that he was there.

Her second thought was Why?

She tensed, still not moving, not giving anything away as he just stood there awkwardly, staring at her. She wasn't wearing her dress anymore, but she wasn't in anything fancier then a plain tunic. It wasn't even her regular outfit.

Her mind raced. She suddenly felt intense guilt. Had he come here, and left his fiance, just to make sure there were no hard feelings? Just to make her feel better or congratulate her on her coming engagement? He had left the woman he loved and the child he chose to believe was his JUST to come talk to the selfish girl who'd torn his world apart?

"I'm sorry." She gasped. He took a step back, eyes wide. He wanted to say That's my line! but thought that maybe this wasn't the time and place for a dumb joke.

"Toph..."

She jolted to her feet awkwardly, ignoring the buzzing as the limbs that hadn't moved in hours were forced to work again.

"I'm fine, okay? I'm happy for you, I really am. I'm so sorry I wrecked your party and got you upset." Once the feeling had returned to her limbs, she stepped towards him and grabbed his tunic. "You're an amazing guy and Suki is perfect for you-"

"But Toph, I-"

"I'm happy you found her. Forget what I said, okay? I-"

"Toph."

"I just want you to be happy, okay?"

They both stopped talking, and Sokka stared down at Toph, amazed. She stood still, limbs still a little tingly, still clasping his tunic with her hands.

"So... so go home. Go marry Suki and teach Noni to love meat as much as you do, okay?"

He placed his hands on her forearms. They were shaking, and she kept her head tilted down, her face hidden behind her bangs.

"Toph, I'm not getting married."

Her head tipped up, her sightless eyes shocked. "What?"

"I'm the one who should be sorry, Toph. I'm so sorry for acting the way I did."

Her mouth gaped like a fish as she struggled for words. "But Suki..."

"Suki understands."

Toph took a moment to try to take it in, and Sokka waited with uncharacteristic patience. When she spoke again it sounded much more like the normal Toph that he knew... and loved.

"It's a good thing she does, because I don't understand at all."

Sokka laughed and just lifted his hands to her head, pulling her to him and placing his cheek on her hair. She turned her head and rested on his shoulder, her arms snaking around his back. She was the perfect height to listen to his heart beat. The gentle thumping nearly put her tired mind to sleep.

"So I have something to talk to you about." He said, not releasing her. She smiled in recognition.

"Shoot."

"Are you getting married?"

"Do you think I should?"

He pretended to think about it. "Not particularly." He said finally. He released her and cupped her head in his hands and searched her face. "But I just want you to be happy."

She put her hands on his arm wrappings and rubbed them absent-mindedly. "I dunno... he made me a really nice necklace." She teased.

"I've invented hot air balloons, submarines, and all other sorts of things, and I get beat by a cheap necklace?"

Toph released his arms and pulled the necklace out of her tunic and over her head and voluminous hair in order to hold it in her hand. He held the underside of her hands and studied it.

"Wow, that is pretty good." He said, mildly impressed. He looked up to Toph's face and she was smirking, like she was laughing at her own private joke. "What?"

"This necklace isn't going to make me happy."

"Does that mean you're not getting married?"

"Not anytime soon. I will one day." She grinned.

He smiled and pulled her head forward, kissing her on the forehead. "Good."

She rubbed her fingers on the necklace's design one more time, looking thoughtful. "He really is a nice guy. I'll try to let him down gently."

It was Sokka's turn to smirk. "Oh, he'll be fine. We can tell him he has a kid on Kyoshi Island he could go claim. Instant family."

Toph stood stock still as Sokka turned and walked towards the entrance of the cave, trying to take in what he just said. Her eyes got wide.

"Wait... what?!"

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"So Noni is Ohev's kid?"

The afternoon sun filtered down through the trees as they walked hand in hand through the little patch of woods that seperated the Bei Fong Estate from the hidden entrance to the cave. Toph was a little upset that her mother knew where it was, but the fact that the guy she'd been crushing on for nearly six years didn't want to let go of her hand kind of distracted her from being too unhappy about it. Aang, Katara, and Mrs. Bei Fong had gone ahead back to the estate on Appa, giving the pair a chance to talk and set things straight.

"Yeah, apparently."

"He never told me..." She said softly.

"Well," Sokka said in Ohev's defense, "I doubt he knows. He ran off before Suki even knew she was pregnant. Seeing as they were drunk, there's no telling how much of that he actually remembers."

"I guess we'll get to tell him." Toph said a little too cheerily.

"Oh yeah, that'll go over great. 'Hey, Ohev, remember me? Well, Toph loves me, not you, aaaand you fathered a child over on Kyoshi island, so how about you go take care of that, yeah? Good luck getting on Suki's good side after the tough spot you left her in!'"

Toph punched him with her free hand, "Who on earth said I loved you? I never said that."

"Suki said so. And your mom did too, kind of. And Katara's claiming she's always known-"

"That's a bunch of horsefeathers, and you know it."

"-and you DO say it. Everytime you squeeze my hand and smile that special smirk."

"I do not have a special smirk for you."

"Oh, now that I've deciphered your code, you're going to go into denial. Way to make a guy feel loved."

"Out of your own mouth you said that you had NO IDEA until Suki told you about the Serpent's Pass. How does that count as you 'deciphering'?" Toph grinned and squeezed his hand.

"See? There it was, you just did it again." He chuckled, his own face splitting into a smile. She blushed and punched him in the arm.

"No, I didn't 'see' it, actually..."

Sokka only laughed and kissed her hand before releasing it and running towards the Bei Fong estate wall, which was now within seeing distance. She chased after him, matching his laughter.

As they ran in through the open side gate and played tag in the garden, Poppy looked out through an ornately framed window, bringing her teacup up to her gently smiling lips and taking a sip.