AN: One shot. I'm not really good at these and I personally don't like them because when I read them I always want more than just ONE freakin chapter. I might do a spin off story of this. Let me know if you think it's a good idea.
Side note: I wrote this years ago, I'm now posting it and trying to get back into writing and finishing these fanfics I have laying around my documents folder.
8 YEARS AFTER THE WAR:
Toph woke up with a start.
Her ears perk at the sound of china hitting the ground and breaking upon impact.
"T.T.?"
Startled Toph got out of bed with a start. Feeling two figures wrestling downstairs sent Toph's heart rate into a spike. Something was wrong.
Slipping her nightdress hastily over her head, Toph quickly made her way out of her bedroom and down the steps as quietly as possible.
Toph's keen footsteps made contact with the first floor, and halted, immediately her heart stopped.
Toph moved quietly into the hall and heard the sound of another china dish being knocked about, she felt the vibrations of the two benders in the living area as she stood there with her back to them against the hallway wall. Toph's breath picked up and her heart started hammering...better yet, it started breaking. Toph gasped slightly to herself and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get the air into her lungs but it was impossible. All she could hear was...
Toph opened her eyes and looked blindly around. She suddenly became overwhelmed with the worst feeling in all her twenty years of life. Acting on impulse, Toph walked swiftly to the front door, not even attempting to be quiet. Once Toph yanked the front door open, listening to the pouring rain, she heard the call of her name from a surprised voice. With that last ounce of being leaving her, Toph stepped out in the downpour, not caring what she did from here on out.
Toph stalked away from the house in the rain, complete anguish running all through her body. Never had she felt like this. Not only was it anguish, it was anger, fear, despair, sadness and a million other negative emotions that she couldn't think of. All she knew was that she wanted to get as far from that house as she could.
Toph felt the nightdress she wore quickly begin to get soaked with water and cling to her like a second skin.
Toph could faintly hear her name being called out in the distance but she didn't stop for anything in this damn world, not even for him. Not this time. Not after...not after that.
Toph was so determined to get lost in this shower and never be seen again, to just run away and never have to feel how she felt now, but she knew she couldn't, but she would try.
"Toph, please!" She heard.
Toph kept going, her bangs stuck to her forehead, as her long hair clung to her back.
No sooner was Toph stalking away that she felt hands on her wrist, which she yanked away as if burnt.
Toph whipped around and had so much hatred in her eyes that it made the person in front of her take a small step back.
"Toph please...it's not what it seemed."
"Not what it seemed?" She said deathly quiet; she took a step forward as he held his ground. "Please tell me how one may misinterpret what I just witnessed?" The earth under their feet trembled.
He stayed silent.
"That's what I thought." She spat. She turned back around to resume her trek when—
"I love you, Toph."
"No, you do not." She sounded gutted, as she continued to walk away.
"Toph, please, you know I love yo––."
"Shut up!" Toph hollered as she spun back around. "Shut up, shut up, shut up! If this is love then I don't want it anymore!" She yelled. "I don't deserve this, I really don't! I did nothing but stand by you and be with you, and love you! I opened up to you and gave you my heart, which was the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life." Toph professed as tears began to form in her eyes. "I can't believe I ever thought you could love me back. Love me without having to love her too."
"But I do love you! I don't love her, Toph!"
"STOP LYING TO ME AANG!" She took a deep breath as tears began to slowly fall, mixing in with the rain. Toph knew his heart rate gave no indication that he was lying, but she could not help but hear lies when he spoke.
"I know what love is suppose to be, and this…this is not it." Her voiced strained as her face scrunched and she swallowed the large lump in her throat. Toph looked at Aang, she looked at him right where she knew his eyes would be. Toph was often told how beautiful his eyes were. In this moment she was thankful she could not see them, that she had never seen them. She could only imagine how much weaker they'd make her feel.
Toph felt the presence of another person that just appeared afar in the doorway of their home. Their now broken home.
"You can have her, Aang… I want nothing more to do with you. Ever again." She said finally.
"But I don't want her...I want you, Toph." He said as his voice shook.
"You can't have me anymore. You lost that right when you had her on the coffee table right there in our home!" As she said this Toph became extremely disgusted all over again. "I have nothing more to say to you."
Toph walked away but then turned around to face Aang. Toph yanked off her necklace, her betrothal necklace, and threw it at him before turning and walking away.
Aang picked up the necklace off the ground and looked at it in his palm. He then looked at Toph's retreating form, at the woman that he loved. That he would ever love.
AN: Please note this fic is supposed to have elements of confusion and mystery to it. I left if with loose ends just in case there was a prospect of a continuation. It was so short because I just wanted to document this moment and nothing else.
Also I was unaware as to how Air Nomads and people of the Earth Kingdom propose marriage. Sorry if you correlate betrothal necklaces with water tribe, I apologize, but it was the only known form of proposal I knew in the ATLA world.