Treat
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She raised an eyebrow at the enticing cup of coffee he presented and saw something in the smile he gave her. She felt the corners of her own lips quirk as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Consider this my treat," he said and Toph allowed a smile to break out. OR In which Toph is a stressed architecture student who gets a free cup of coffee from the handsome waiter after she helps his friend.
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It was on a late Wednesday afternoon that Toph decided to enter a small and nearly-invisible café about a block away from campus. It wasn't anything special, and she had passed by it numerous times before, but she pushed open the glass door with her arms full of engineering paper, her laptop bag and her T-square, ignoring the chime of a bell above her. She didn't know what made her go that particular café, really. All she knew is that she had a perspectives plate due the next day while she had only half of a philosophy paper ready for her class in two and a half hours.
Toph was stressed and when she was stressed, she was grumpy. And bratty. And generally someone you should avoid.
So when she found an empty table, she rushed to dump her belongings there and immediately began to work, not minding the waiter hovering near her. It wasn't until the guy coughed a total of five times that Toph gave him her attention. Her jade green gaze moved from the two-point perspective plate up to the handsome face of a guy whose smile was just a tad bit to bright and happy for the stressed architecture major.
"Sorry to disturb you, miss, but I kind of need to take your order," he said, and Toph watched his light gray eyes twinkle with amusement. She squashed the tingly feeling in her stomach as she looked back down on her work with a frown and simply muttered, "Black coffee. Or whatever is stronger than that."
She missed the way one of his eyebrows rose and how the corner of his lips quirked higher. She did, however, hear his reply about getting back to her in a moment but she wasn't too sure because she wasn't listening anymore. He came back with her order in a few minutes, placing it near her but not close enough to bother the girl. Toph was internally grateful that he didn't bother sticking around after that and just left her to her devices.
It was an hour later that she finally finished her project, writing her name in a corner box with a slightly shaky hand. Toph slapped her pen on the table and leaned back, taking pleasure at the sound of popping her joints. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and tried not to groan out loud at the thought of having to write about Karl Marx or whoever she was supposed to be writing about. She really didn't understand why she needed to take a Philosophy class when she was in Architecture. What, was she supposed to consider the theory of relativism when she designed a thirty-story building? Mentally cursing the idiot who thought architects needed to be philosophical, she moved to turn on her laptop and just make up random crap about some dead old geezer. She really didn't care anymore, since it was practically hopeless.
While she was waiting for the device to load, she moved to look at the people around her. It was nearing six already, and her class wasn't until seven thirty so Toph wasn't that worried about being late. Even if she was, Professor Iroh would've just let her slip in class.
There were two other customers in the cafe with her, some middle aged woman reading a book that looked a little too worn to have been a first-hand copy and a random highschooler with gigantic headphones that was probably blasting the latest Nirvana songs, if the boy's shirt had anything to say about it. Toph's eyes shifted to the counter, where there were two guys, both probably around her age, talking. One of them was the guy who served her coffee earlier, the one with a slightly neat haircut and clear gray eyes. In front of him was a taller guy with slightly darker skin and a 'man bun' that definitely did not look manly on him, and Toph had to stifle the urge to snicker. The taller guy seemed to be stressing about something, judging by the volume of his voice (despite him trying to whisper) while Toph's waiter guy seemed kind of tired and exasperated by the whole conversation.
A familiar tune signaled that her laptop was ready and Toph was about to turn back to it when her waiter guy made a gesture towards her. Almost reflexively, Toph frowned as the taller guy moved his gaze from his friend to her. Her frown deepened when he practically stomped all the way to her table, stopping in front of her. The guy had narrow blue eyes and for some reason, she found them familiar. Toph crossed her arms over her chest and hesitantly spoke, "What?"
The guy groaned and looked back at his friend, who made a 'go on' gesture, before turning back to her. Toph resisted the urge to roll her eyes and decided to listen when the guy started speaking. "Okay, look, I don't know you but I'm desperate so I was hoping you could help and - stop laughing Aang!" Toph's gaze flickered to the snickering friend behind the counter. The guy in front of her grumbled at him before continuing, bringing out a folded piece of paper, "Anyway, just, you're a girl so could you look this over for me? I'm not trying to hit on you or anything, it's just–"
"Stop rambling, you lily liver, just give me the stupid thing." Toph didn't know what possessed her to do it but she grabbed the note he was holding and unfolded it, revealing it to be a confession note.
Toph couldn't help the smirk on her face as soon as she read the first line. Dear Suki, it said, you are my brightest sunshine. You light up my days and your smile is the sweetest I ever seen. Your amazing and I really like you.. Go out with me?
Without another word, the raven haired girl reached for her pen and corrected some parts of the note, not realizing that she was grinning at the sweetness of the whole thing. When she finished, she handed the piece of paper back to the guy, whose eyes were shining with what she suspected to be grateful tears. He clasped her hand and thanked her profusely, blabbering on before Toph pulled her hand back and waved him off.
"Whatever. Just hurry up and go give that note already."
The guy nodded with vigor before running out the door. Toph heard the other waiter call, "Sokka!" before she turned back to her laptop. Now, what was she supposed to do again? Her eyes caught sight of a file entitled Philosophy Crap and she let out a groan of frustration. Stupid dude with a stupid love letter, stupid philosophy and stupid —
"Uh, excuse me."
Toph had had enough distractions and snapped her gaze toward the guy who served her coffee. He raised a hand in defense when he caught sight of the glare she was wearing.
"Woah, there, I'm sorry," he immediately blurted, causing Toph to snort. "What do you need now?" she asked the waiter, exasperated, "I'm not helping you get your friend back if that's what you're going to ask me."
A chuckle was his response and her eyes met his.
Toph watched as the guy - Aang, if she remembered correctly - placed a large cup of steaming hot coffee on her table. She raised an eyebrow at the enticing cup of coffee he presented and saw something in the smile he gave her.
"I didn't order another cup." She felt the corners of her own lips quirk as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and took note of his red ears.
"Consider this my treat," he said and Toph allowed a smile to break out. "Treat? For what?" she asked easily, leaning back on her chair. The guy shrugged, his gaze flickering around the café before meeting hers. "You helped out my friend, Sokka. I figured I could thank you on his behalf. Plus you saved me from having to listen to him redo it so many times." He cocked his head a bit and Toph could almost make out a tattoo on his collar bone. She lifted her eyes again to look at his gray ones as he spoke. "I'm Aang, by the way."
She smirked at him but nonetheless gave him a simple nod. "Toph. What's up?"
The question was more of a rhetorical one, and if she was being honest, it was her customary greeting for people. She thought he would simply nod and hopefully leave her alone because she still had a paper to finish. She wasn't expecting him to smirk back at her and answer, almost sarcastically, "Well, from what I can see, a half-written philosophy paper that'll get you a failing mark because Karl Marx definitely did not write the Critique of Pure Reason."
Toph frowned. Wait what? She looked down at her laptop which was displaying her apparently mistaken paper and thought about the time she had taken to write the few sentences on the document. She cursed herself, the paper and her philosophy teacher. As well as the idiot who declared that architects needed philosophy.
Aang laughed out loud as more unpleasant words spewed from her mouth, and she cast her glare on him. His smile showed that he was genuinely amused and she snapped, "Shut up, Twinkles. Architecture doesn't even need philosophy."
He raised an eyebrow at the nickname, wondering at how it came to be, before his smile turned to a smirk. Not even bothering to ask permission, he slid easily onto the seat across her. Toph felt a tingle in her stomach when he looked at her, his smirk still intact. "Well, I can raise a few arguments against that, Miss Architect, since I'm a philosophy major myself." His eyes flickered down to her laptop briefly before turning back to her. "But that aside, I think I can be of some assistance.."
Suddenly, his confident demeanor changed as he raised his hand to rub the back of his neck and Toph had to keep herself from laughing when she saw his ears turn pink. "I-I mean, if you want me to."
She regarded him again, her jade green eyes taking in his neatly cut hair and hidden tattoo. She thought of her Philosophy class that was in an hour, or maybe less, and the little confession note she helped with earlier. Then her gaze fell on the untouched cup of coffee that he gave; his treat. She made up her mind. When she looked back up into his pale gray eyes, she saw how they reflected her and the table as the warm light of the café hit them. Toph allowed herself a genuine smile, and she welcomed the tingly feeling in her stomach as Aang smiled his own bright smile.
"All right, Twinkles. You look like you've got the stuff. Do some magic with this paper and I'll take that coffee you made."
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I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its characters.
Happy Valentines! (Or Single Awareness Day, whichever you prefer)