I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender

Chapter 1:

After the war, after the Harmony Restoration movement, and after Toph became a business woman, renowned metal bending teacher and correspondent with the Fire Lord, head cheiftian of the Southern Water Tribe and the Avatar, she grew into a tall, stocky young woman of nineteen. She was confidant, happy, strong and surprisingly pretty and popular with the boys. But their attention was lost on her. The girl who always had to prove her strength and power and loyalty, often couldn't think of these men of any more than good buddies, playmates and friends, if only fillers for the friends she saved the world with. Her true family.
And now, on the eve of her 20th birthday, the biggest, craziest, greatest reunion party of all time was in her near future.

Toph sat heavily down in her chair and blew her bangs out of her face. It had been a long day, ever since Aang and Zuko had asked her to be some extra muscle during their construction of a whole living society and city, she had been working her butt off. Keeping the workers busy and raiders away and uprisings down and petty crimes basically nonexistent didn't leave room for a lot of free time. 'Republic City', as it was going to be called, was like a small village so far, but a hub of technological advancement and bursting with new life. Toph hadn't taken up permanent residence anywhere since The War, but she could see herself liking this place, so long as the police weren't too strict about rules.

One thing she liked about it was that it was pretty close to, well, everything.

Aang was still traveling all across the globe, doing his Avatar thing and teaching the Air Acolytes, but also spending a lot of time in the South Pole where Katara was helping her dad do a bunch of stuff for their tribe. Zuko and Suki lived in the Fire Nation capital but they had come to visit Republic City twice since Toph had moved in and she had been to visit the royal palace once. They had all been business meetings as Zuko was very involved in the building of Republic City, but they always managed to make some time for reminiscing and sharing stories and catching up. It was good to be with people she *knew* without the mental exhaustion of ignoring the judgement that radiated off most people when they met her.

And Sokka... well she hadn't seen much of him in a long time. They always seemed to miss each other with visits and since Toph couldn't read any letters he might send, all she had heard was a few verbal messages passed on from either Aang or Zuko or someone else who had stumbled across the Water Tribe native. She missed him, but that was only because she had seen him the least, she decided. It's not like she missed him because he was special.

But that was going to be different.

Tomorrow was her twentieth birthday and by special request, the whole gang was going to be there. Zuko, Suki, Katara, Aang, Appa, Momo, the Kyoshi Warriors, the Boulder and King Bumi... everyone she could think of was invited.

It was also the grand opening of the city's one and only pub, which might have been coincidence, and might have happened by some gentle persuasion from Toph.

But tonight, they were coming, it was all planned.

Toph, let her feet down off the table where she had propped them and felt for the arrival of her friends, any minute now. She had worked hard all week to make sure nothing would get in the way of this weekend, of her time with her friends.

Well, hopefully nothing. As a group, things tended to not go to plan for them.

She started tapping her hands on the table. Even though she was in her little ground-level apartment, she could still 'see' everything outside. The people, the stray dogs, the buildings going up, her friend Kay putting the last few touches on his pub.

And a small motorized metal machine humming it's way down the street.

Curious, Toph got up from her chair and went to her front door and opened it up so she could hear better.

Like one of the fork lifts from her factories, but different.

It rolled up right in front of her house and a tall, well-built young man stepped out. She couldn't help the blush that crept up to her cheeks as she felt each each of his muscles smoothly pull himself from the car and stand upright, nor could she stop the silly grin that plastered her face as she felt his breath hitch and the blood rush to his head as he took her in.

"Toph..." He greeted her, his voice a few tones lower than she remembered, but still his voice all the same.

"Sokka!" and she lunged at him, arms open wide.

Hey guys! I hope you liked the first chapter of my new story! I'm not really sure where this is going yet, if it's going to be a big, long story or not.

I've been thinking a LOT about Toph and Sokkka lately, but I had to grown them up a bit so the age gap isn't weird.

ALSO, I'm trying to follow what happened with the comic books after the show ended, but I can't remember everything Toph did because they kind of glossed over her character a lot. oops. All I know is that she is AWESOME and that she reconciled with her dad.

Also ZUKO AND MAI broke up AND Sokka and Suki broke up and Zuko and Suki are together in this story. I know, it's weird, but it was totally happening in the comics and I'm just gunna go with it. I shipped Zuko and Mai in the show, but it was too flat and boring in the comics so I'm switching it up. Also I don't super love Sokka and Suki so it works for me.

Until next time!