A/N: Well, this is it! I hope you have enjoyed these little fics. Thank you very much for reading and reviewing. :)

Tokka Week 2015

7. Complete

"Y'know, Toph, we really do make one big family."

"I suppose being around each other all the time does that to people."

"No, I mean we're gonna be - I guess we aren't right now - all related to each other. But we need to work on you."

"Huh?"

"Well, for starters, Katara's my sister. That's a given. And then Aang's going to be my brother-in-law - I can't deny it any more. Then there's Zuko. His great-grandfather was Roku, who's basically the same person as Aang, so they're related. And then when I marry Suki, she'll be part of the family, too. So that just leaves you."

"What are you suggesting, that I get with Zuko, or something?"

"Haha, no! But, I mean, maybe he has a cousin, or something, or maybe Suki does... or you could find a descendant of Kyoshi. It just seems fitting, y'know? Being one complete family?"

Toph was silent.

Sokka rolled his fingers across a couple smooth, flat stones he held in his hand, shifting one over the other. He stepped to the edge of the shore - from which he had taken the stones - and hefted one in his right hand. Leaning sideways toward the ground, he launched it into the air. He watched it skip across the surface.

Skip, skip, skip. Another followed after it. He bent over to find more stones.

"Every year we'll have to go back for the Arctic Hippo Feast. It's not really an arctic hippo feast, if you know what I mean, but it's kind of like the Unagi Festival, except instead of fish, there's a lot of meat. Love it. And I think it's high time someone got an actual arctic hippo involved - they're pretty intimidating, you see - so I'm thinking of trying to lasso one like my dad did this one time- pretty crazy, huh?"

"Pretty crazy," Suki confirmed quietly.

"Anyway, with all the business in the Earth Kingdom, it'll be nice to get away sometimes. That'll probably be a good time to carve out a visit to Kyoshi Island, too."

Suki was silent.

Plunk.

Sokka straightened up slowly, his eyes fixed yet not quite focused on the spot where the stone he had just thrown unceremoniously sank into the water. Well, sometimes that happened... He closed his eyes, telling himself he should just pick up another and try again.

Several moments passed without him making a move.

He probably would have stood there longer, but the back of his neck prickled, and he had the uncanny sense that he was being watched. Turning around, he spotted Toph perched on a rocky outcrop, not terribly close, but certainly not far away enough to be unaware of his presence, blind or no.

What does she want? he thought anxiously. He was out there by himself because he wanted to be alone. For a moment he wondered if he could pretend she wasn't there - as if he hadn't spotted her - but she tilted her head towards him, evidently savvy of his attention.

He turned around, opting to search for more rocks to skip.

"We really need you here," Sokka said with wide eyes.

"I have things of my own to take care of," Suki said, looking him in the eyes before looking away. "I know you're trying to do important things, but I am too. My Warriors need me. The people we're trying to help... they need me. And I don't think you need me as much as you think."

"Of course we do," he insisted. She looked up at him, and his heart gave a nervous little dance. She gave him a little half smile.

"Thank you. But I still need to go."

"Okay," Sokka said after giving a long exhale. "You said it won't take long, right? So I'm counting on you... I'll see you soon."

Suki was silent.

Skip, skip, skip.

"So, why are you here?" Sokka asked without bothering to turn around.

"I'm a little concerned about you," Toph said casually from her perch. "Your heartbeat's been pretty erratic, so I wanna make sure you don't keel over. Tell me, was it something you ate? Or has someone challenged you to a duel? Or are we dealing with a sillier kind of heart issue?"

He shot her a glare. "Oh, come on," he said as he turned back to the water to throw another stone. "It can't be that hard to guess."

Toph muttered something under her breath. Sokka thought he caught the word "stupid," which didn't improve his mood. But then she said, "Sorry, I guess it's still too soon."

He paused for a moment while an especially nimble stone danced across the water. Too soon? It had been at least a month- or maybe it was two now? He had to admit it was hard to keep track. Time was a very strange thing right now, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it.

But something in her tone made him take note. He opened his mouth, then pursed it. After a moment, the only reply he managed to give was, "Oh?"

Toph braced herself against a rock by her side, launching herself effortlessly to the ground below. "You know, Katara used to always go on about hopes," she began as she walked towards him. "And I used to make fun of her for it, but I guess it turned out pretty important during the war... and after," she added softly. "I can also see," she continued after a moment, "that hopes can be kind of harsh. That we all have them, and it takes strength to survive them being dashed."

Sokka watched her as he listened, then turned to the water to watch it in contemplation. He wondered if she was speaking just from observation, or from experience. Was she still thinking of the struggle it took for her parents to understand her? Or was there some more recent hope of hers that he had missed over the years?

"Yeah," he croaked. He took a deep breath to get his voice back. "I know I always talked about... about the future. Heh, I guess I share something with my sister, even if I didn't realize it... But," he continued, trying not to let his throat close up, and he threw another stone, "It wasn't just all in my head, was it?"

"No," Toph assured him, toeing some water-smoothed rocks at her feet. "We all thought you were pretty well settled."

He wanted to ask if Suki was included in that "we," if she had said anything or if Toph could tell from her heartbeats when or how things became unraveled. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. But not knowing, having to run through the memories and try to sort everything out, was killing him.

"Do you know why?" he finally managed. He took a breath. "Did I really mess up so bad that she had to cut ties with everyone to get away from me?"

"Ties?" Toph asked with a light tone of surprise. "You were always the main reason she stuck around."

"Nonsense," Sokka countered, flinging a stone into the air. "She loved being with everyone."

Toph was silent.

Sokka was bending over to retrieve more rocks when he halted. Propping himself on his knees, he looked over at Toph. Really looked, for once. He straightened and came towards her, realization dawning on his face.

"You never really liked her, did you?" he asked.

Toph shrugged. "She was alright," she said. "We were on the same side. We all were. But personally, what we did have in common... it never did bring us together." She tilted her face away from him. "It wasn't just me. She seemed like she belonged in your sphere to us, so that's where she stayed." There was a pause where Sokka tried to decide how he felt about that, how he could respond. But Toph continued, softly, before he could. "Maybe if we helped her feel more connected to all of us she would have stayed."

Sokka breathed deeply, processing the idea. It wasn't an apology, no, but it was an admission that relieved him, ever so slightly, from his worst fears and self-deprecation. Could he believe it? He cast about for memories and happenings that supported this new idea.

Bits and pieces began fitting together, hinting at a bigger picture he had long missed.

"So I was wrong all along, then," he said after several moments, in a lighter tone than he would have expected to manage under the circumstances. "She never really was part of the family." He frowned, continuing to retrieve stones and flinging them across the water. "The whole idea was a figment of my imagination."

"I think you were at least a little bit wrong," she admitted.

Skip, skip, skip.

"But..." Toph trailed off. Sokka saw her stoop down to pick up a smooth, flat stone the size of her palm. "Maybe your vision isn't completely out of the question," she said, hefting the stone up and down in her hand. "Maybe she hasn't completely closed that door for you." She paused. "But if she has, and you find yourself whole and ready to move on," Toph continued, facing the shore and readying her stance to throw the stone, "there's still someone else who isn't quite part of the 'family' who wouldn't turn you down."

The stone flew through the air, touching upon the water at just the right angle and just the right speed to begin its dance across the surface.

Toph inclined her head towards Sokka, who looked at her speechlessly, before she walked away. He watched her go, his mind racing to confirm that he hadn't misheard her and that he hadn't misunderstood what she said.

Behind him, the stone she had thrown continued to glance across the water far into the distance, time and time again.