Letters: A Tokka Fanfic

2

Sokka's P.O.V.

Opening the door to the office, I heard a gentle rustling from behind a stack of scrolls on the desk. Leave it to Katara to make a barricade out of the daily mail. How does she even have so many letters to respond to?

"Sokka, is that you?"

"How'd you guess?"

"I could hear you scoffing at something or other." She didn't bother to look up from whatever it was she was writing as I made my way to her side of the desk, but I could see an opened letter beside her and figured it was a response of some kind. "Perfect timing actually, I have to send this out immediately, can I borrow Hawky Jr?"

"Why can't you just use one of the other messenger hawks?"

"I need to make sure this gets there before I do and you know he's the fastest."

"Well I mean of course he is. He's the best! Wait, are you going somewhere?"

"I got a letter from Toph. Her parents are planning on throwing her a birthday party in a few weeks and we were all invited. I'm a bit worried about her though so I wanted to go early. I figured it was a good excuse to go for a visit. "

"Why worry? It's Toph, she can handle anything!"

"Usually I'd agree with you, but I'm not so sure this time." Her face was all scrunched up as she overthought whatever it was she was thinking about and I sighed.

"I'll go get Hawky." I left the office to retrieve the messenger bird, thinking it over in my head. It'll be nice to see Toph again after such a long time, maybe I should go with her. I shook my head at the thought as I got Hawky Jr. ready. She wouldn't wanna see me after so long. I hadn't written to her in years. After we left her with her parents in Cranefish Town, I wrote to her every week. But then... Suki and I decided to take a week-long vacation together and everything fell apart. We hadn't seen each other much since we were both working in different places trying to rebuild, so I thought it would be good for us. We only got a few days in when she- rather angrily- pointed out that I'd spent most of our time talking about Toph and everything she'd been up to lately. Jokes she'd told me, funny stories she'd written to me about, I just kept bringing every conversation back to her. By the end of the week, she had left and we'd called things off. She said that the distance was hard enough as is and that if I wasn't fully present when we were together things would never work out. I was too upset to write a letter that week. I scrapped every letter I tried to write the next. I couldn't bear to sound so weak- not with Toph. It went on and on until I realized too much time had passed for me to be able to write to her anymore. I didn't want to explain what had happened at first, then didn't know how to start a conversation, and eventually she stopped writing too. Chances are she doesn't really wanna see me after all this time.

"Here, he's all set. When are you leaving?" I handed her the bird and she rolled up her response to tie it to his back.

"In a few hours. I'm leaving as soon as I'm packed. Aang will meet me there the day before the party since he's so busy right now." It didn't escape me that she hadn't said anything about me.

"What about me then? I'm hitchhiking all the way to the earth kingdom now?" Katara stopped what she was doing to look at me, annoyance obvious in her features.

"Are you planning on going? You've been pretty stubborn regarding the whole not talking to her thing so I wasn't really sure you'd want to bother with seeing her." I winced slightly, knowing that she was right. I've been a pretty crappy friend to Toph. It's not that I didn't want to see her or talk to her, I just wasn't sure how after so much time had passed. If anything this invitation was the perfect ice breaker.

"I get it, I'm an ass. But I want to go to the party and see her. Besides, it'll give me a chance to apologize for disappearing like that." She huffed in response, but I could tell she was softening up to the idea.

"Whatever. Do what you want."

"Great! Then we'll leave in a couple of hours!" I ran from the office to go pack my things, hearing her yell after me. I know Katara was upset with how I handled things with Toph, but she was my best friend. I've already wasted way too much time being stupid, I wasn't gonna miss out on her birthday just cause I couldn't swallow my pride. It'll be fine, you just need to apologize... and bring a really good gift.

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