There were millions of questions that went unanswered in the four nations of the world. How did Katara attach her hair loopies? Did it hurt when Aang got tattooed or did they use some magical variant of the painful needles Sokka had seen Water Tribe men use? How did Mai get her hair buns to stay perfectly round on the top of her head? Sokka had thought many of these thoughts (and many, many more) throughout the year, but he had never really gotten an answer. They were just mysteries. I should have thought to ask them all when we were together last time, he told himself. The Gaang had recently had a reunion a few years after the last big battle of their lives and he scolded himself for not asking those questions then.

Now the only person he could ask was Toph (because he was passing through the Earth Kingdom and her parents had offered to let him stay at their house) and she wasn't a big help. There were very few questions he wanted to ask Toph.

"Hey, Snoozles," she greeted him as she entered the large room with the dining table in it. She sat down, expertly pouring herself some juice into a cup. He couldn't pour it without spilling it sometimes, and he wasn't even blind. She amazed him.

"Did you just finished getting dressed?" he asked, blinking as he took in her appearance. She was made up in one of her jade dresses that he had seen her in before. It surprised him. She only got dressed up when someone important was coming over.

"Yeah."

He thought for a second, stabbing his spoon in her direction as he spoke. "Weren't you up before I was?"

Toph just shrugged, grabbing a pink fruit from one of the plates on the table. "Yeah."

"Why does it take you so long to get dressed?"

She shrugged again, a brief look of annoyance crossing over her face. "It just does."

"Why? I thought a dress would be easier to put on than all those layers of your usual Earthbending stuff…"

The look of annoyance was not brief this time. She pursed her painted lips at him, starting to peel her fruit. "I'm blind." She stretched out the word so it sounded like, 'bliiiiiiiind.'

"Never stopped you before."

"Yeah. Well. There are a lot of layers to this dress. It's hard to put on."

"Dresses aren't hard to put on." He argued quietly, setting down his drink to pick up a fruit that was identical to hers. He wasn't familiar with it, so he watched her start peeling away at it so he would know how to eat the Earth Kingdom fruit.

Suddenly, without any warning, the fruit was shot his way. "Because you've worn a dress before." She said it in a skeptical, sarcastic, Toph-like way.

"Yeah." He said without thinking, focusing on trying to catch the fruit and not focusing on what was coming out of his mouth. It was only as their conversation fell silent that he realized what had just come out of his mouth.

"… what?"

"I mean no!"

"You said you wore a dress!" The look upon her face was one of pure glee.

He stood, banging his hands down on the table as his face flushed. "It was a warrior's uniform! It wasn't a dress! The threads symbolized – "

"Girliness!"

"No! Stop it! I fought with honor and – "

"Lip paint!"

"No! Toph! You're ruining my – "

"Girly fun!"

"You're one to talk, Miss Man!" he said hotly, speaking without thinking again.

Toph shut right up, looking sour as she stood. Her chair shot back, falling over as she quickly began to exit the room.

"Toph, wait, I didn't – " Sokka began, standing and starting to follow her out of the room.

"Save it. I don't care what I look like. I know who I am."

It was only after she left that Sokka sat back down again and proceeded to bang his head onto the heavy wooden table.

"Hey, Sokka!" There was a cheerful soprano voice in the room suddenly and Sokka looked up from his head banging.

"Katara!" he yelled happily, shooting out of his chair to embrace his sister. "What are you doing here?!"

She grinned at him. "Toph invited us all here! Aang's putting Appa in the garden. Zuko said he'd be here tomorrow. Everyone else will get here within the week."

"Why?" he asked suspiciously, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Hey, Sokka!" It was Aang who entered the room next, grinning. He pointed at Sokka's forehead. "Why's your forehead all red? Is Chong here?"

"What?" The Water Tribe boy asked, rubbing his forehead briefly. "No. I was just being…"

"Sokka." Another voice finished his sentence for him, and he noted the word came out rather icily. He turned, looking at Toph. She looked calm and collected as she leaned against the doorframe. "Just being Sokka."

"Yeah. Umm… why did you ask everyone to come here?" Sokka asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Your birthday's next week… I thought, you know…" Toph trailed off quietly, shrugging. Suddenly her ears perked up and she straightened. "What's that, Mom? Okay! Hold on! I'll see you guys later." She turned and exited the room quickly.

Aang looked at the now empty doorframe for a second, picking up one of the fruits. He bit into it, making a face as he chewed on the peel. "Ew. Why'd she leave? I didn't hear anything…"

"Girls are just weird," Sokka decided, sitting back down into his chair. He picked up his half-peeled fruit, tossing it at the Avatar. "Peel first, see. Otherwise it's gross."

"Hey! Girls aren't weird! Excuse me if I like to take a bath every day!" Katara scowled at Sokka, sitting down in a chair between Sokka and Aang.

"I bathe regularly!" Sokka objected, frowning. "Usually."

"I can't believe you forgot your own birthday," Aang murmured, peeling the rest of the half-peeled fruit.

"Yeah. Well. I've just been having so much… fun… here at the Bei Fong estate…" Sokka said, his voice completely devoid of any enthusiasm. "So much."

Katara shrugged, bending some of the juice into her cup. "You should apologize to Toph."

"For what?!" Sokka yelled, turning to his sister with wide eyes. "You just got here! You don't know anything!"

"Stop yelling," Katara commanded, taking a sip of her juice. "Mmm. And I could tell just by the way that Toph was acting that you said something stupid."

"I was just being – " Sokka began to protest, but Katara cut him off.

"Sokka," she finished, shaking her head. "I know. But you said something stupid. What did you say?"

"I kind of called her… a man…" he trailed off, miserably sinking downward until his head was resting on the wooden table again.

Katara set her cup down onto the table with a bang, looking at her brother with wide eyes. "No! You called her a man and she got mad at you over that?! Wow, Sokka! You have been wronged! What kind of girl would get mad over a boy calling her a man?! That's a compliment if I've ever heard one!" she told him sarcastically.

Sokka rose from his seat again, his cheeks flushed as he grumbled under his breath. "Fine. I'll apologize to her." He left the room quickly without bothering to turn back and look at Katara and Aang. As he passed a servant in the hallway, he caught his arm. "Do you know where Toph is at?"

"I believe she's in the garden practicing her Earthbending."

"Thanks," Sokka said, trudging off in the direction of the big courtyard garden. Great. She was Earthbending. That must mean that she was angry with him… Great. This was going to be fun. Just what he needed before his birthday.

"You've made the stroke on this character too long… See how it ends the same length as the other one?"

It wasn't Toph that was speaking, it was one of her servants. They were both crouched in the dirt, the servant poking deeply into the earth with a stick.

"Yeah." Toph paused for a second. Sokka looked down, seeing that he was standing on wood. Whew. That was good. He didn't want Toph to know that he was there listening to her conversation. There was a rumble as Toph straightened, her hands punching the air as a huge stone tablet was erected in front of her. It stood upright, and he watched as a character formed on it.

Sokka. It said his name.

"Very good. It looks just like it should." The servant was smiling, he could see that even though he was yards away from where Toph and the servant were standing. "Try the rest of the characters."

"Okay," Toph made some motions with her hands, forming more characters.

It was a message that appeared slowly on the stone. He had some difficulty reading it from far away, though if he squinted he could make out the words. Sokka. Happy birthday. I've never met anyone like you before and I don't think I ever will again. Love, Toph.

There was a sigh as Toph shook her head and murmured something he couldn't hear to the servant. The servant paused, scratching into the dirt again. Toph paused again, feeling what he scratched into the dirt with her feet. "Okay. Thanks."

The servant left, crossing to go tend to some plants. Sokka watched as the words on the stone tablet changed. Sokka. Happy birthday. You've been a great friend to all of us. Love, Everyone.

As strange as it was, he felt sad as this message changed and shifted. He stepped off of the wooden porch of the Bei Fong house, walking towards Toph.

"Hey, Toph!" he called. Immediately the tablet crumbled away as Toph turned to face him.

"Hey."

"So… uh… what're you doing?"

"Earthbending."

"Earthbending what?" Did he have to pry it from her?

"Nothing important." He didn't miss the bitter edge to her words and he sighed. It was now clear to him that he was going to have to do this the hard way, since she wasn't budging in the direction he wanted her to.

"I liked the other one better." He said quietly, looking over to her. He watched her face change expressions slowly. At first it had been a blank slate, unreadable. But now he watched as her eyes slowly widened, a pink hue coming to her cheeks.

For the first time, Toph Bei Fong was speechless. She paused, licking her lips before she started to speak. "Wh-what?"

"I liked the first message better. The birthday one. The one that was just from you."

"Oh."

"I can't believe I finally did it," Sokka mused out loud, a grin on his face.

Toph looked confused, tilting her head up to him. "Did what?"

"Made you speechless. I thought I would never do it."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

She grinned suddenly, liking seeing this conversation as some kind of challenge instead of an awkward talk between the boy she liked and herself. "I bet you can't do it again."

"I don't know, Toph… I think I probably could do it." He teased.

"Nah, I don't think I can. You're over confident." Toph nodded, crossing her arms over her chest.

He shook his head, grinning. "No, I don't think so. I bet you… I bet you my weight in gold that I can make you speechless without even saying a word."

Toph rolled her eyes. "Right. I'll take that bet."

"Okay. Help me count down, would you? You know, three, two, one?" he asked her, a grin still on his face.

"Sure."

"Okay, start counting."

"Three."

Sokka stooped down lower to her, his hands resting on her slender shoulders.

She swallowed hard, faltering a little. "T-Two."

"One." They said the last number together, both of them whispering. Their lips brushed – hers painted and his plain.

Sokka swallowed, closing his eyes as he closed the gap between them. His hand moved from her shoulder to go into her silky hair, Toph's own hands unclenching from her side to wrap around his neck.

For the second time in her life, Toph Bei Fong was speechless.