I Won't Leave You (Toph Beifong x Male! Reader)

The Desert

You wake up to the feeling of getting dragged across sand and open your eyes to see Sokka pulling you by your shirt. "Hey, cut some slack will you?! This is made of fine linen!" He drops you out of shock and you fall into the sand, Toph trips over you and falls on top of you, her face a couple centimeters from your own, you push back a blush and laugh nervously, "Sorry. You good?"

"Yeah, they took Appa."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault. I'm afraid news doesn't get better either."

You sit up and look around. "Wait, where's Zei?" They don't meet your eyes. "Wait, don't tell me-" They nod. "We have to go back! We have to save him!"

Sokka looks down. "He said to tell you that your place is with us and that his was with his work. He also said to give you this." He hands you a book with a title in slim, gold letters; The L/N Tragedy. You feel a slab of pain settle onto your chest as you take three breaths to lock it away and keep solid.

"Thank you, Sokka?" The boy nods, "Yeah. This..." you swallow dryly and force a smile, "...means a lot to me. Thank you."

With that, you push yourself to your feet, your legs are wobbly, and it burns like fire, but you get to your feet no less. "Woah, Y/N, I don't think that's such a good idea. Katara just got all the poison out." Sokka warns. You shoot him a glare and he backs off, then you stretch, feeling several crackles and pops throughout your body, afterwards, you start walking forward, "Are you even human?!"

"No I'm from Mars." You say, sarcastically. Sokka picks up on it and nods, continuing to walk forwards, you pull back and walk a few meters behind the group, putting the book in your bag. You grab your flask of water to find it empty and sigh as you put it back, then catch up with the group who are thankfully walking slowly to let you keep up. "Where'd Aang go?"

"To find Appa." Katara replies, walking forwards.

You four walk on for what feels like ages until Toph bumps into Sokka, "Hey! Can't you watch where you're-"

"No." Toph says.

"Right. Sorry."

Katara speaks up. "Come on guys, we need to stick together."

"Oh, if I sweat anymore, I don't think we'll have a problem sticking together." Sokka grunts, trying to pull his shirt free of Toph's.

Toph shoves him down, erasing that issue as she looks at Katara, or as close to her as she can get. "Katara, can I have some water?"

"Okay, but we've gotta conserve it." She offers four balls of water, but you refuse yours on the basis of conservation and it goes back into the bottle.

"Wait, we're drinking your bending water?" He tastes it for a second. "You used this on the swamp guy!"

"It does taste swampy..." Toph admits. Even the monkey lets out a displeased burp.

"I'm sorry, that's all we have."

"Not anymore. Look!" Sokka exclaims, pointing at a cactus.

"Wait, that's not a good-" You try, but it's too late, Sokka runs towards it, cuts a piece off and drinks from it.

"Sokka, you shouldn't be eating strange plants!" Katara hisses.

"There's water trapped inside these!" He cheers, offering Katara a piece.

"I don't know." Katara decides, after seeing you emphatically shake your head.

"Suit yourselves. It's very thirst-quenching, though." His pupils dilate and you facepalm, "Drink cactus juice! It'll quench ya! Nothing's quenchier. It's the quenchiest!"