Continuation of this story:
distanthorizons.proboards31.com/index.cgi?board=avrelations&action=display&thread=1190419728&page=75#1199619645distanthorizons.proboards31.com/index.cgi?board=avrelations&action=display&thread=1190419728&page=75#1199619762Written while suffering from flu and fever so it might seem a little…off.
Remember the theme to Forrest Gump? Imagine that for the second last section.
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Something wasn’t quite right.
No. Something definitely wasn’t all that proper.
But for the love of the Air Nomads, Aang couldn’t quite figure out just what about himself didn’t sit right.
Katara, in her ever motherly fashion, bless her soul, offered to do a quick healing sweep but only after fussing over him in her ever motherly fashion, bless her soul.
Sokka attempted to rationalize the young nomad’s discomfort using deductive reasoning and proper application of science.
Suki tried to keep Sokka from using any of his spur of the moment made inventions and techniques on the poor nomad.
Zuko voiced his suspicions that Sokka was crazy and all those blows to the head he’d received finally took their toll.
Toph just laughed at Aang, calling him names like Dainty Dandelion or Pansy-Boy for worrying about something that he wasn’t even sure of himself and ordering him to suck it up like a real man.
In other words, they helped jack squat.
“I dunno Sokka….it kinda feels…weird.”
“Weird huh? Define weird.”
Aang shrugged as Sokka tugged on that ridiculous fake beard of his, something from their adventuring days which Suki constantly wondered why he kept.
“Like its…its not right...somehow.”
“Hmmm…interesting. Tell me more. What are your feelings?”
The Avatar gave one of his best friends a quizzical look,
“Feelings? What do my feelings have to do with this?”
“Well is this one of your ‘OH MY GODS THE WORLD IS GOING TO END THIS SUMMER’ kind of feeling?”
“Nooo. That’s you, with gas, after you’ve had beans.” Aang chuckled recalling the recent incident.
“Yeah! Trust me! I thought I was going to die!”
What happened next could be summed in four simple steps:
1) Sokka would retaliate by throwing something at Zuko. In this case an ink brush
2) Zuko would take offense at such an act as besmirching his honor or the nearest equivalent. In this case the ink stains on his shirt.
3) Toph would add more coal to the fire in her usual snarky way.
4) Hey presto. Yet another all nighter for Katara to heal everyone’s wounds.
Katara grumbled as her supposed to be OLDER brother flinched and whined as she healed his bruises,
“Ow! Hey! Tender!”
“Oh shut it.” She scolded, slapping him on the shoulder making him yelp, “This can’t possibly be hurting you. Zuko took his healing without protest. Are you saying Scarface is more of a man than you are?”
The elder sibling opened his mouth to add voice to his thoughts. The younger decided to head him off at the pass,
“No. No. Better yet. Shut up. I’m not healing the lot of you again.”
“I’m not hurt.” Chimed the short earthbender. Katara wrinkled her noise,
“Yes. Well, your comments certainly didn’t help the matter either.”
“What? All I said was ‘Are you going to take that from a…what was it you always called them…a peasant?’ That’s all!”
“And it was fun.” Added Suki applying healing salve to a cut on Sokka’s chin.
“Fun?” The younger water sibling quirked a brow.
“Yeah. You know. Watching two hot guys scrap it out till they’re shirtless.”
Flushed from either embarrassment or disgust, anyone’s guess, Katara shuddered,
“Eeeew! One of those ‘hot guys’ is my brother!”
Suki shrugged, “Guess you can only appreciate half then.”
“Hey I’m blind! I can’t see anything! Wait…did Princess Iron Fan just refer to Cinderbutt as hot?”
Katara groaned at the inevitable fight, “Tooooph…”
“Hands off my woman Flame Brain!”
“What the?!”
“Woman?!” snarled Suki.
Toph threw in another nugget of coal, “Katara said he was hot too!”
“My woman and my baby sister?! I KILL YOU!”
“Woman?!”
“Baby sister?!”
“Umm…Avatar!”
The scuffle paused at Aang’s sudden outburst. Feeling awkward at the center of the spotlight the Avatar shuffled his feet,
“Well…I thought I’d just join in.”
Taking the opening, Toph added her two coppers worth, announcing with a grand flourish,
“World’s greatest earthbender!”
“See? Toph’s joining in too.”
The older teens took a moment to let the absurdity of it all sink in before moving off to do other things.
“I should get dinner going.”
“I’ll help you.”
“I’ve got socks to darn.”
“Please tell me you’ve washed them first.”
Leaving the younger pair standing freely,
“Hey!” yelled Toph, “It was just getting good! Don’t walk away from us!” She continued to grind her teeth until she felt Aang place a hand on her shoulder,
“You have to admit, Toph. It was kinda lame.”
“Speak for yourself Dandelion.”
“Dandelion? What happened to Twinkle Toes?”
Toph spun on her heel and strode out of the camp area, stopping briefly to pick up Momo and pet Appa,
“You gotta work your way back up to Twinkle Toes!” She shouted back.
“But what did I do?” Aang wondered scratching his bald plate.
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Dinner was as usual a quiet affair…actually…No. It wasn’t usual. It was down right odd for food NOT to be flying in someone’s face.
Maybe the gang had finally grown past childish bickering and insults.
Maybe they’d learn to accept each other as one big family.
Or maybe Katara just threatened them.
“Listen up. Let’s try something new and exciting today. Let’s try NOT to fight during meals times. How about that? Fun isn’t it? Every game has a penalty. This game’s penalty…well it’s a full moon tonight.”
“You wouldn’t.” Countered Zuko, “You swore you wouldn’t.”
“Try me. We will sit and enjoy a meal like a decent civilized folks. No insults.” The Waterbender glared at Toph,
“No food tossing.” She looked pointedly at Aang, “That includes making your food float for fun.”
“But it goes in my mouth in the end.” He mumbled.
“Why all the prissy hoo ha?” said Sokka trying to speak with his mouth full. Suki placed her hand under his jaw and shut it.
“Chew.” She ordered.
And he did.
“Swallow.”
He did that too.
“Talk.”
“Like I said, why all the prissy hoo ha? We’re just going to Omashu to visit that old crackpot Bumi. You know he isn’t a stickler for tradition.”
Zuko chuckled, picking up a strip of seal jerky with his chopsticks,
“And second prize of the Monkey-Dog show goes to Suki of Kyoshi Island and her trained Sokka.”
“Oi!”
Clearly Sokka was not amused.
“Yeah,” neither was Suki, “Why not first place?”
The future Fire Lord chewed on his jerky, “I’m not sure if he’s house broken.”
“Wow.” Breathed Toph, taking small bites of her rice, “We just went two whole minutes without insulting each other before that. New record.”
The mother hen of the group sagged her shoulders, “Can a person develop an ulcer in two minutes?”
Suki stopped Sokka’s hand before it went anywhere, “If you so much as think about putting that fugly beard on…”
“Fugly?”
“Yes. You know Ugly and F…”
“We have virgin ears present!”
“Oh please Sugar Queen. Twinkles and I know all about the Bee-Birds and Bird-Bees.”
“Yay! I’m Twinkles again!”
“Aang. Buddy. That’s not something you want to be proud of.”
Kataar’s mother mode was on full alert,
“Who gave you the talk!?” She screeched, “Did they tell it right? Are you two scarred?”
Aang shook his head but pointed to Zuko,
“No. But Zuko’s scarred.”
“Ha. Ha. How droll. Whoa…I sound like Mai.”
“Relax, Sweetness. Twinkles and I figured it out for ourselves. Together.”
You could hear the six carriages crash and pile up on the highway known as Katara’s Brain.
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Sitting by the fire, Aang poked Toph in the shoulder playfully, as they took turns playing an earth bound form of cat’s cradle with her meteorite fragment.
“Did you really have to say it like that?”
“No. But it was fun right? I swear I felt her heart stop.” Laughed the blind earthbender, “It was like Ba-bump ba-bump baaaaaaaa….ahahaha!”
Katara looked up from her sewing and snapped, “That’s not funny!”
Toph stuck out her tongue in sheer cheek, “Sure it was!”
The Fire Prince chuckled turning his attention from feeding Hawky strips of dried meat, “You have to admit. You did look really freaked out. I mean as freaked out faces go you took the….ooooh you’re giving me ‘The Look’. I’ll be quiet now.”
Katara shot the younger pair a nasty look, “You two stay in sight. No sneaking off.”
“Sheesh! I’ll tell you if I think I’m pregnant okay Sweetness?” Sniggered Toph, her feet sensing vibrations of embarrassment emanating from Aang.
“Toph!”
“Whaaaat?” She whined, “Can’t you take a joke? Like Twinkles here can handle me. He can’t handle regular girls.” Toph jerked her thumb at Aang currently plugging his ears,
“Lalalala I’m not listening to this lalalala”
“See? Totally not husband material.”
Suki got up from washing and packing away the bowls and utensils, taking steady strides towards them whilst drying her hands,
“I don’t know Toph. Plenty of girls on Kyoshi Island thought Aang was all that and more.”
“Pfff. Please.”
Sokka threw his lot in, “What did they call him again? I know it was something cutesy.”
“Aangy. They called him Aangy.”
“Right, right.” Sokka cleared his throat for a falsetto, “Oh Aangy.”
Toph snorted,
“Feh. No imagination. Not like me. My nick names have class.”
“You called me Princess Firedancer Who What Dances With Fire for a month. You called my masculinity into question.”
“You….were a special case.” Toph bent an accurate miniature replica of Wan Shi Tong’s library with the meteorite, “Top that Twinkles.”
“No fair. I never saw the outside of the library.”
“Too bad, so sad. Now bend.” She barked shoving the lump of space debris at him.
“You two are cute together though.”
Everyone save Aang, too busy thinking of something to beat Toph’s library, looked at Suki like she’d grown another head,
“What? I’m just saying what we’re all thinking. Right?”
Katara made a slashing motion across her neck, which Suki responded with a puzzled expression.
“I can see that Sweetness. I may be blind but in a way I do have eyes at the back of my head.”
“Aha! All FOUR Air Temples! They’re really tiny but all the details are there!” Aang held out his masterpiece with all the enthusiasm he had,
“Beat that….err…did I miss something?”
“Nothing Dandelion.” Toph stretched, yawned and walked away, “I’m bushed.”
“Why am I Dandelion again?”
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“One. Two. Three. Fourfivesixseveneightnine….”
A section of Toph’s rock tent crumbled back into the ground. The little earthbender immediately popped her head out,
“Shut up Twinkles! People are trying to sleep!”
“Sorry. I was just counting stars. Can’t sleep.” Aang had this nagging feeling all day; it went away from time to time, true but it always seemed to creep back eventually.
“Remember the last time you went without sleep?” Toph pointed out, “Want me to get the Quills again?” She mimed pricking him.
“Nononono.” Aang waved his hands frantically, “It’s nothing like that. I’m not stressed out or anything.”
“Then go to sleep.”
“Can’t.”
Toph rubbed her face, “This goes against all my better judgment…but…why can’t you sleep?”
“I dunno.” Aang shrugged, getting up and walking over to Appa’s massive snoring form.
“Is it Avatar stuff?” Toph asked, crawling out of her cozy rock tent. A still sleeping Momo cradled in her arms.
Aang shook his head, “No. I don’t think so. The nations are at peace, Ozai’s gone and Azula’s brain damaged from Katara’s blood bending. Besides, Roku or the others would have contacted me if it was important.” He rubbed his hands over Appa’s side, the bison grunted a little appreciating the attention.
By now, Toph had set Momo down, nestling the lemur in the thick fur of his much bigger buddy.
“Fuzzy.” She said before burying her face in it, “So warm.”
Appa snorted in his sleep. Momo rolled over pulling his wings over himself. Aang scurried up to Appa’s saddle and held his hand out,
“Come on.” He coaxed Toph, flexing his fingers. A gesture that was obviously lost on her. The intention was not though but she didn’t feel like leaving her comfy niche she’d made for herself.
“Don’t wanna.”
“Aww. I need someone to count stars with me.” He pouted.
“I can’t SEE them.”
“Uhh...you can help me keep track?”
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“With rock candy and fire flakes on top?”
Toph sighed and rolled over on her back, blowing her bangs out of her face,
“You’re not gonna give up are you?”
Aang grinned, “Nope. Stubborn as an earthbender, right?” He held out his hand again. Toph reached out for it blindly whilst pulling herself up. Aang moved his hand a little to grasp at her smaller seemingly delicate one.
Seemingly.
That’s a word to describe her, he thought. Toph was never what she seemed. At first glance, most people thought of her as small, delicate and fragile. It got worse once they realized she was blind too.
They’d pamper her. Fuss over her. Not that she minded it much; she liked being treated like a princess every now and then. But when push came to shove, Toph always shoved back the hardest.
Like now.
Just as his larger hand covered hers lightly to hold it.
Aang cried out, as softly as he could so as not to wake the others, when Toph swatted his hand away,
“The term is Steadfast not Stubborn and I can find my way up on my own thank you very much.” Grabbing the handholds of the saddle firmly, she hauled herself up and over the edge, landing lightly next to her best friend,
“And would you keep it down? You know how cranky Sugar Queen gets without her beauty sleep.” Toph cocked her head back towards the rest of the group. Sokka and Suki’s sleeping bags were pushed close together next to the dying embers of the camp fire. Zuko and Katara slept at opposite ends of it. The water bender had her water skin tucked close to her while Zuko slept with his swords under his pillow.
She straightened her clothes, patting them down, “So genius how’s a blind little girl like me going to help you count stars.”
“Keep track?”
Toph looked confused, touching a finger to her chin,
“Oh okay. Here let me find a brush and some paper to write with. Oh what do you know? We don’t have any. And would you believe it? I’m blind and I don’t know how to write. Whatever shall we do?”
“Okay, okay I get the picture.”
Toph sniggered, “I’m glad one of us does.” She waved her hand in front of her face in emphasis.
The duo sat in silence for a moment. Toph rubbed her arms, “Well this is fun and productive. Can I go back down to the nice warm ground now?”
She patted the saddle every once in a while to generate small vibration waves just to see if Aang hadn’t ditched her.
Not that she’d believe he ever would. Still it was her only way of ‘seeing’ in the saddle. And right now, Twinkles was rummaging through their luggage pile at the end of the saddle.
“What are you doing?”
Toph blinked as she felt a wave of warmth flow over her shoulders.
“Getting you a blanket.” Aang said cheerily, sitting back down beside her. Toph cleared her throat, “Right. Thanks.” She whispered, “What about you? Aren’t you cold?”
Aang raised his own body temperature as taught by Zuko, “Nah. I’m fine.” He snapped his fingers,
“I got it.” He whispered excitedly.
“What?”
“Why don’t I describe the stars to you?”
Toph gave a short laugh,
“Are you coming on to me Twinkles? That’s like the cheesiest method right next to the old ‘Yawning and placing your hand behind the girl’ trick. Besides, I don’t understand colors.”
Caught off guard and blushing slightly, the Avatar replied lamely, “Nooooo. I wasn’t. Honest.”
“What? I’m not good enough to be hit on?” She teased. Aang’s insides gurgled or something, he wasn’t quite sure.
“I didn’t say that.” He choked. Toph punched his shoulder, “Gods, you’re so easy to tease. Haven’t you learned anything from me?” She smiled cheekily.
And the feeling in the pit of his gut went away.
How curious.
Aang just sat there looking at her, just as she was expecting some kind of response from him.
“Hmmm. As lame as it is. Why don’t you go ahead and tell me what the stars look like?” She chimed, “I mean some guy’s gonna try it on me sooner or later. Gotta be prepared.” Toph stressed the words ‘Some’ and ‘Guy’.
Aang wasn’t sure he liked that idea.
“Your parents started picking out suitors for you already?”
Toph thought back to her parents, how they’d changed in their stance on her independence, her face flushing slightly remembering her mother’s teasing words about Aang.
“You could say that.” She sang in tune.
No, Aang didn’t like the idea one bit.
“Well I won’t do something so lame like star gazing.” He sniffed haughtily, back straight as a board.
“You suggested it in the first place.” She countered.
“Well…you’re right. It’s lame.” He finished.
“You’re dang right I’m right.” She grinned. Aang picking up on her cue as they finished the sentence together,
“Because I’m/You’re Toph Bei Fong, world’s greatest earthbender!”
A rather un-lady like snort rose from Katara’s direction. The duo hushed down, watching cautiously before relacing as Katara rolled over on her side, muttering something about freezing Zuko’s…privates…off.
“Did she…?” Aang turned to Toph, “Did she just say what I think she said?”
The blind earthbender held up her hands, trying not to dislodge the blanket over her shoulders,
“Hey the mind of a girl is a complicated one.”
“But you’re a girl too.”
“And I’m giving you the heads up right now.” She mock glared at him, grabbing him by the collar, “We are dangerous. We are definitely the deadlier of the species and we run the world.”
“I believe you. I believe you.”
“Good.” She sniffed, letting him go. Readjusting the warm comforter, Toph nestled against the side of the saddle. The leather cushioning not all that uncomfortable.
“This is better than some lame come on trick anyway.” She mumbled, smiling to herself. Aang looked back at her,
“What is?”
Toph let out a small yawn,
“This. Us. Just talking. Way better.”
Aang smiled warmly to himself, leaning against the saddle edge as well.
“I guess so.” He turned his head to just look at her. Much better.
“Is there something on my face?” She bluntly let out. Aang sputtered, snapping his eyes back towards the sky,
“No. No. Nothing.”
Toph chortled inwardly, she’d missed this, all this travelling, being with good friends and she never knew how much till Aang showed up on her doorstep with the Really Odd Couples in tow.
But mostly she missed Aang.
Not that she’d ever admit it though.
Not yet anyway.
“Still want me to describe the stars? Just for fun?”
Toph shook her head, “Nah.” She leaned against his side, resting her head on his shoulder, startling him,
“Huh?”
“You’re hot.” She breathed tiredly.
“Umm…thanks?” Aang blinked rapidly not truly believing what was happening.
“No. I mean you’re burning. Turn down the fireworks will you?”
“Oh. Sorry.” Relaxing and releasing his internal energies, the Avatar brought his body temperature back down.
“Say? Speaking of fireworks….”
“No and no. Aren’t you tired yet, Twinkles?” Toph grumbled, fidgeting against his shoulder trying to get her position just right.
“Sorry. Still wide awake.”
“Well, I can’t take any more lame come on’s from you.” She huffed, “I’m going to bed now and I will hurt you if you wake me up again.”
“I wasn’t coming on to you.” He argued.
“Hush!” She hissed. Aang zipped his lip, “Good. Now sleep. If you can’t do that then stay still like a good comforter and let me snuggle.”
A moment of silence passed.
“I did not just say that.”
“Now who’s coming on to whom?”
“Shut up.”
The savior of the world merely smiled and lay back, casting his eyes back to the starry sky and began his counting, quietly this time,
“One. Two…”
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“Rise and shine Stinky.”
Sokka groaned and rolled over,
“Five more minutes.”
Zuko rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, a small flame burning between his thumb and fore finger. Katara glared at him as if to say ‘NO’ in the worst manner possible.
Suki peered into Toph’s rock tent,
“Toph? Breakfast.” She turned back to the others, “Guys? Have you seen Toph?”
“Maybe she’s with Momo or Aang” Suggested Zuko waking Hawky up from her perch by whistling. Katara walked around the camp area, “Well they can’t have gotten far. They know better.”
“Yes ‘Mother’” Zuko droned holding out his arm for the Firehawk to land on. Before Katara could make good on her mumbled threat last night, Suki’s squeal prevented any damage to the royal bloodline.
“What? What happened?” gasped both benders as they ran to the Kyoshi Warrior. Suki covered her mouth with one hand while pointing with the other. Excitement barely being contained.
“That has got to be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” Suki pointed at the still dozing pair of Aang and Toph leaning against the side of the saddle.
Somehow during the night Toph’s blanket had unraveled now covering the both of them. Toph’s head was still nestled against Aang’s shoulder, her expression calm and mouth slightly open…was she drooling?
Aang had his neck resting on the saddle’s edge with his head facing the sky and he was clearly drooling.
The gathered trio hushed when Toph mumbled something and snuggled against Aang. Finally Katara moved towards them,
“I’m going to wake them up.”
Zuko’s hand on hers stopped her.
“Let them wake on their own.”
“But…”
The prince simply shook his head and tried to tug her back down.
“They’re so young.” Katara argued.
“They’re sixteen.”
“Exactly! Oh Yue, they didn’t…did they?” Katara gasped in scandalous shock.
Zuko rolled his eyes for the second time that morning, “Come on. Let them sleep it off. We can grill them with embarrassing and borderline lewd questions later.”
“Oh I’ve got a few.” Grinned Suki, she turned to Sokka’s still snoozing form, “And once Meat Head wakes up I’m sure he’ll have a ringer or two as well.”
Katara still wasn’t pacified but she relented on Suki’s account and that deep down she found the situation funny as well. But you can’t really kill a mother’s drive,
“Fine. But if they don’t get up in the next hour I’m going to wake them myself. Then I’m going to give Aang a talk on respecting a woman’s boundaries.”
“Oh please Katara, given how loud Toph is, we’d have heard any…’funny business’ last night.”
“You are not helping Suki.”
End.