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mycomfortblanket · 5 months

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The Box at the Back of the Closet pt. 2

Lin's tinny voice plays through the recording machine on Sokka's entryway table and he can't move as he listens to her cry. He's just barely able to make out a few words, but it's enough to make his blood run cold.

Suyin.

Dad.

Why?

Whenever he came home and hit the button on the recorder and continued to walk further into his apartment, hearing her voice shrill and heartbroken was the last thing he had expected. He really thought that he was going to come home to another night alone in his apartment, the silence deafening loud in his eardrums as he waited for the hour to strike an hour that was reasonable enough to go to sleep.

He slowly turns to look at the machine, expecting her to be standing there. It's been a few months since he has seen either of the girls and even longer since he had an actual conversation with Toph, but he can picture them clear as day. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he slowly walks back to the table that housed the phone and recorder machine.

He hesitates as he picks up the phone and with dread filling his stomach, Sokka dials the number to Toph's house.

~~~

Honestly, Sokka should have known Lin was lying when she said her mother knew he was coming.

Suyin is jumping up and down beside him with a tight grip on his hand, yelling about all the fun activities they are going to do. Lin is standing next to the door she just opened with a nervois grin, and Toph... Spirits, she is a sight for sore eyes. She's standing in the kitchen wearing compression pants and her top wrappings. Her hand is outstretched as if she was about to grab the fruit that was on the counter. Her eyes are wide, mouth hanging open, and her face is slowly turning red.

After what would be considered a comical amount of time, Toph finally closes her mouth and moves towards him, punching his shoulder without much enthusasim. "Snoozles. What uh-" she wipes her hands down her front as if to smooth out the wrinkles in her shirt before realizing she isn't wearing one and just crossing her arms in front of her chest. "What are you doing in Republic City?"

"Well," he shoots a look over at Lin over Toph's shoulder to see her frantically shaking her head, "I was put on a last minute assignment and thought I would come visit my three favorite girls."

Toph narrows her eyes at him before calling over her shoulder to Lin, "Do you forget that I can tell when you do that?" She looks back towards Sokka, "And do you think," she pokes him in the chest, "I can't tell from the way both of your hearts are beating that a "last minute assignment" is not really why you're here."

"Toph-"

"No, I don't want to talk about it right now. I ordered take out, which should be here in about thirty minutes." From the abrupt change of topic, Sokka knows not to breach the subject until she does. Suyin starts to pull on his hand again and drags him towards the living room, already prattling on about what she has been doing at school the past few days.

From the corner of his eye, he sees Toph disappear down the hallway toward her room, most likely to put on a shirt. He looks up from Suyin and over to Lin, who is stills tanding next to the front door, wringing her hands in front of her in a nervous way.

"Are you mad, Uncle Sokka?" he hears over Suyin's loud chatter. Suyin's turned away to pull out some color sheets and hands a few colored wax to Sokka so that he can color with her.

"Of course not, Stink. You know I could never be mad at you for something like this. Your heart was in the right place, you just didn't think your plan all the way through," he says as gently as he can. She walks over slowly and gently lowers herself onto the couch. "A little heads up would have been nice, though," he says in a mock stern voice, but the grin on his face causes Lin to let out a deep breath.

"Yeah, a hint for me too would have been nice, Badgermole," Toph says as she walks back into the living room and makes a beeline directly to the front door, opening it a milisecond after the knock is heard.

After a quiet and slightly awkward dinner, Sokka finds himself back on the couch with Suyin curled into his side as he reads her one of her favorite picture books. The drawings are decent and the book itself must have been published when the printing press was first made since everything on the pages is slightly tilted. But nevertheless, Suyin insisted he read it to her.

Every so often, he glances up to see Toph in the kitchen making tea with Lin when another knock at the door sounds. Toph turns her head in the direction of Lin with a scrowl on her fac e. "I told you that you couldn't go out tonight," she says, her voice stern.

Lin raises her hands in an inocent manner, "I told them I couldn't! I didn't know they would be coming over." Toph purses her lips for a second but then lets out a breath.

"Go ahead," Toph waves a dismissive hand and goes back to making her tea.

Letting out a squeal, Lin kisses her mother on the cheek before dashing out the door, grabbing a jacket off the back of one of the kitchen chairs. "I'll be home by curfew!" she tosses over her shoulder as she flings open the door and into the crush of her friends.

The silence that fills the apartment after Lin leaves is thick. The only sound that can be heard is the heating of water and Suyin's quiet snores. "Does she always get away with things like that?" Sokka asks quietly so not to disturb Suyin.

Laughing through her nose, Toph shakes her head, "No," she says in an equally soft voice. "She must have had this elaborate scheme cooked up with her friends. She wasn't lying, but she definitely wasn't telling the truth. But I figured we needed to talk so..."

"Well, can't really blame her. She did get that from you, the whole half-truth thing." He looks down at the sleeping Suyin, a soft smile coming onto his face. "I'm going to go put her down," Sokka calls as he scoops her into his arms. Picking her up, Sokka carries Suyin into he rbedroom and gently lays her down on her bed, pulling the covers up to her chin.

He is just about to turn to leave when he hears a small voice say, "Are you going to stay, Uncle Sokka?"

"I'm just here for a few days, Stink," he says gently, smoothing the hair back from her forehead. "I've got to go back to Caldera for work."

"I like it when you're here," she says through a yawn. Her small hand comes out from beneath the covers and she reaches out for him. He takes her hand in his and gives it a little kiss. "I want you to stay. Mama is happier when you're here," Suyin's voice says as she drops off into sleep.

Sokka's brow furrows and he leans in closer to her, "What do you mean, Stink?" but the little girl is already fast asleep. Sighin, he runs a hand through her hair again and kisses her forehead before leaving her room and closing the door quietly.

Back in the living room, Toph is seated again on the couch, her legs proppeed up on the coffee table with the steaming mug of tea in her hand. Next to her feet on the coffee table, is another steaming cup.

He pads over to the couch and drops down onto it with a sigh. Reaching out, he grabs the cup and takes a sip and he can't help but smile. It never fails to amaze him how she manages to make the tea just the way he likes it. Neither of them talk, they just sit there in silence enjoying each other's company again.

Sokka isn't too sure how much time has passed before her head drops down onto his shoulder. The familiar weight of it as well as her smell enveloping him causes a deep ache to rise in his chest.

"I know why she called you, but what did she say to get you to come to town?" Toph whispers into the quiet living room.

"Well, she never has to say much to convince me," Toph snorts at that and he can't help the smile that pulls at his lips. "She left me a message. I wasn't able to make out much because she was crying, but I heard 'Suyin' and 'dad' which I figured seemed important enough to come over. Although, she did tell em that you knew I was coming."

She doesn't say anything for a moment, and Sokka is afraid he's upset her.

"Well, the truth was bound to come out, I guess," Toph says through a long exhale. "Not the way I wanted to do it..." she trails off, leaving the sentence unfinished.

"I suppose you're right, although I thought one of the girls finding out would be a lot smoother than this," Sokka mumbles back to her and shifts to drape his arm across Toph's shoulder. The clock that is hanging on the wall above their heads chimes the hour, letting them know it's 10 pm. "What time is Lin's curfew?" he asks.

"One, although she's usually home an hour early," she says and sets one of her feet down on the floor as if to feel for her daughter's footsteps. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm fucking them up as badly as my parents fucked me up. I can never read her, she's so hot and cold."

Sokka shakes his head, "Well, remember what you were like when you were fourteen? A Spirits-damn riot. You didn't start to calm down until you hit your twenties, and even then, it was difficult to keep up with you.

"Never seemed to stop you."

Sokka doesn't reply. He feels like that sentence could mean more than just the surface level. Toph was always really good at having a double meaning in her words, probably something she got from hanging around Iroh so much.

Toph pats his knee and then stands up, stretching her arms above her head. "Well, you know what hasn't changed? My need for sleep." She picks up their cups and sets them in the sink and then waves her hand at him, "Come on, you're sleeping with me."

"Jeez, Toph. I know it's been awhile for you, but I do need to be wooed a little bit," he says through a smirk. When he stands up, he feels the ground shift and throw him a few inches, causing him to nearly fall over.

"Watch your mouth. I've got little ears around her."

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#the box at the back of the closet #tokka #toph beifong #sokka #of the southern water tribe #tophxsokka #sokka x toph #toph x sokka #angst #tokka angst #maybe a happy ending?

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