IT'S THE QUENCHIEST!

 she  coughs  once  ｡  she’s  got  water  running  down  her  face  and  soaking  her  hair  and  weighing  her  clothes  down  ,  and  that’s  what  scares  her  ｡  she’s  not  afraid  of  water  ,  nor  of  waterbending  or  waterbenders  ｡  just  a  little  bit  of  water  is  perfectly  fine  ,  as  long  as  she  has  some  dirt  and  pure  ground  under  her  feet  to  let  her  sense  what’s  going  on  ｡  it’s  the  big  bodies  of  water  she’s  afraid  of  ｡  the  ones  where  there’s  no  land  to  either  side  of  her  ,  nothing  below  her  ,  and  nothing  to  keep  her  head  from  going  straight  under  the  water  ,  nothing  to  stop  her  from  breathing  in  what  she  shouldn’t  ｡  she  can’t  swim              doesn’t  want  to  learn  ,  doesn’t  want  to  be  out  here  ｡

 that’s  why  she  clings  to  bars  to  sokka  now  ｡  like  her  life  depends  on  it  ｡  it  does  ｡  but  that’s  not  the  only  reason  why  ,  though  she’ll  never  admit  it  !  she  also  holds  him  so  tightly  because  she  can  feel  the  erratic  thrum  of  his  heartbeat  where  she  clings  ｡  it’s  different  from  the  way  it  beats  when  he’s  using  energy  ｡  more  like  …  unrhythmic  ,  the  way  hers  is  beating  now  ｡  maybe  they’re  just  in  sync  ｡  he  can’t  really  …

 why  did  she  do  that  ?  why  did  she  say  that  ?      ❝  uh              you’re  welcome  ｡  ❞      it  hits  her  that  maybe  she  shouldn’t  have  tried  kissing  his  cheek  and  giving  everything  away  ｡  that’s  not  good  ｡  she  needs  to  counter  it  ｡      ❝  well  i  can’t  see  ,  snoozles  ,  so  let’s  get  back  to  land  !  ❞

                    ❛     right! LAND. good plan, toph.     ❜          his face heats up more &. MORE as he talks, which is embarrassing because everyone else can see it clear as day, but at least toph can’t, so he won’t have to deal with any taunts about it from her.   (   he forgets, of course, that toph can feel the erratic thrum of his heartbeat which is just as telltale as the blush, but she is, luckily, not mentioning that either.   )   better to start swimming before she DID, though. if she was already breaking out the     ‘   snoozles,   ‘     it was only a matter of time before the mockery started.

he pulls her back to the shoreline with slower but steady strokes, still worn out from the rush he’d made getting to toph in the first place as well as the added weight &. difficulty in using one of his arms to carry her. they speed up a bit when he looks back &. sees aang &. katara whirling around the serpent, eager to get out of the water &. away from that whole thing as quickly as possible, &. in just a few short minutes they’re back on LAND, as safe as they can be given the current circumstances.

                              he should probably let her go now.

me like two seconds later:

                    ❛     yeah…not to burst your bubble or anything, but that’s pretty much the DEFINITION of lonely.     ❜          if his decision to stay just a little bit longer wasn’t made already, it certainly was now.      ‘   i have me   ’      was pretty much the zuko equivalent of a cry for HELP.

                    ❛     you ALWAYS sound like you’re lying, toph.     ❜          sound, of course, being the operative word. every once in a while, there was a visual tell that cropped up if you knew what to look for. sokka liked to think he knew her well enough to spot that.

 so  maybe  it  was  her  mistake  to  actually  say  anything  about  it      ｡      but  it  had  been  in  the  heat  of  the  moment      ,      some  need  to  tell  him                          ooo      ,      i  know  something  you  don’t  know      ,      and  you’re  not  going  to  find  out  about  it      !      and  now  she’s  starting  to  realise  just  what  a  mistake  it  was  that  she’d  done  that      ｡      reckless  impulsiveness      ,      her  parents  would  call  it      ｡      she’d  just  call  it  getting  ahead  of  the  curve      ｡      except  now      ,      she’s  behind  the  curve  again      ,      suffering  from  a  sudden  inkling  of  regret  that  sokka’s  going  to  pester  her  until  she  either  tells  him  or  dies      ｡      probably  the  latter      ｡   

❛          you  don’t  have  to  know  what  it  is      ｡      i  told  you      ,      it’s  better  for  you  if  you  don’t  know  about  it      ｡          ❜                      yeah      ,      she  really  doesn’t  want  to  tell  him  now      ｡      and  her  nerves  still  aren’t  going  away      ｡      and  that  really  ticks  her  off      ｡                        ❛          i’m  gonna  leave  you  hanging      ｡          ❜

                    ❛     you keep saying that, but i’m not sure i actually believe you.     ❜          she’s brought out detective sokka, which means he absolutely isn’t going to let this go until he gets to the bottom of it. maybe she wouldn’t tell him TODAY, but one of these days he’d figure out whatever she was so desperate to keep from him. it probably wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it was, anyway. what could possibly be so bad that’d she’d put THIS much of a fuss about being honest with him?

unless it wasn’t bad at all, &. the only reason she wasn’t telling him was because she wanted to torture him with the not knowing.