The Perfect Companion
It all started one night when he couldn't sleep. The nightmares had been coming more frequently and more vividly then. He would dream of red streamers of blood flying across his vision as his people were mercilessly slaughtered. He would dream of skull-like helmets as the Fire Nation soldiers stormed the four temples and killed everyone within. He dreamed of hearing fading screams and shrieks on the winds. He would watch helplessly as Gyatso would battle so valiantly to deter the invaders without killing them only to fall to their flames and blades.
That night when he awoke from his dreams, he knew that Katara's sweet and comforting words would not do. They would not settle his tormented mind. The songs of her homeland would not lull him into a deep slumber as they usually did. He had needed something more visceral, more potent that night. So he had quietly slipped out of their bed and padded silently down the hall to another bedroom door.
He had pressed his ear to the wood and when he had heard no snoring, he knew she was awake. When he opened the door she had been sitting on the edge of her bed patiently waiting for his arrival, her dirty feet dangling over the side, not even reaching the floor.
She had asked him why he had come.
He had explained it to her.
She had teased him.
He had laughed.
They ended up talking all that night until the first rays of the sun broke the horizon, and he had found his mind to be clearer than it had been in months. She had not lulled him into sleep as he was used to, but she had somehow cleared away the fog that seemed to constantly plague him. She had not sought to soothe him with gentle words. She had openly mocked him and forced him to talk about it where Katara would have let him keep his silence if he had not wanted to discuss it. Toph never let him get away with anything when she felt it wasn't in his best interest. She never cut him any slack, and he was grateful for that.
Every night after that when his dreams had turned into dark and twisted things, he had sought her out instead of his wife, or when she was not present, he would sit up during the night writing her. She would always reply swiftly and bluntly, mincing no words. They had developed their own special way of writing. He would take a thin slate of limestone and earthbend the symbols into the surface of the tablet with the tip of his finger. She would then reply the same way.
That was how it had begun. It had been innocent enough in the beginning. Now, it was something completely different. It was something wilder and darker than anything he had ever known.
"We shouldn't be doing this," he whispered to her as he opened up a secret side door using earthbending.
"Oh shut up, Twinkle Toes," she said as she stood upon tiptoe to press her mouth to his.
"You know it's wrong," he said even as he returned her kiss with fervor.
"You always say that," she whispered back as her hands reached for the sash around his waist, and she pulled him down the stone corridor.
"And it's always true," he replied breathlessly, the wind being pushed from his lungs as his feet stumbled along behind the little earthbender.
"Then why do you keep doing this?" she asked teasingly, giving him an extra sharp tug and picking up their pace.
She was eager tonight. He was ashamed of his reaction, but he found his heart thundering inside his chest and the blood pounding through his veins. He tried to smother his physical responses but smiled at the thought. She already knew. It was impossible to keep anything from her.
"I'm not sure," he answered quietly, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her small waist. "Maybe so that I can do this." He lifted her feet off of the floor, and she squealed in alarm. He laughed at hearing such a feminine sound come from someone as tough as her. He was thankful that no one could hear them from in here due to the thick walls of rock.
"Put me down," she hissed. "I can't see! I can't see!"
"Really?" he said innocently as he carried her wiggling body in his arms. "Why don't you just open your eyes? Oh wait-"
"Haha, very funny," she drawled, elbowing him in the stomach.
He grunted and dropped her. He bent over at the waist from the force of her blow. She was tiny, but extremely strong. He had no doubt that in a physical fight she would give anyone a good run for their money, and Toph did love a good gamble.
"Don't ever do that again!" she said, pointing a finger in his face.
"Or what?" he challenged.
"Or I'll never do this again," she answered. She took his face in both her hands and pulled him down to her. She forced her lips against his and kissed him for everything she was worth. All of that pent up aggression that she kept caged up inside of her was unleashed in that one moment like a bomb going off. He staggered under the impact of it, and then out of instinct, wrapped his arms around her hips. Her arms moved from his face to around his neck, and she let out a hot breath against his cheek.
Now he knew why he kept coming back.
Their lips and mouths worked together, each vying for dominance over another. In the beginning, he had allowed her to lead and he would follow. Not anymore. She had awoken something inside of him that he hadn't known he had. She sparked some long dormant flame in him that the monks had taught him to suppress. These kinds of feelings of hunger and power were supposed to be bad, evil, but they didn't feel that way with her. They felt right and natural.
"Have I made myself clear?" she said in her haughtiest voice when they separated from each other. He loved it when she talked like that. It reminded him of a what a wonderful actress she was when she wanted to be.
"Yes, Lady Bei Fong, you have made yourself very clear," he sighed into her ear.
"Don't call me that. Don't ever call me that."
"Why not?" he questioned as they shuffled down the hall, still entwined and entangled in each other.
"Because that's who I am around my parents and their stupid friends. It's a mask. It's not me, and when I'm with you that's the only person I ever want to be, myself." Her voice was so fragile and almost frightened that he wasn't sure it was still her speaking.
He wrapped his arms tighter around her, crushing her to him. He buried his face in the fall of hair that had fallen loose from her bun. "That's all you ever have to be with me."
"C'mon, let's get going," she said with a predatory tone to her voice.
He muttered his agreement and led them down the hall into the special room that he had secretly constructed just for this purpose. It was buried deep beneath the first floor of the house that he shared with Katara. It had no windows or lights for neither he nor Toph needed them. There were only small shafts that let in cool, damp air from the underground lake that kept the room from getting stale. She could see with her earthbending, and he could firebend to provide himself with light. All of the furnishings in the room were made of stone that he had carved from the foundations of the room itself. The bed he had stacked with feather pillows and silk and velvet blankets. It wasn't quite as soft as what he was used to sleeping in, but nothing with Toph was ever soft.
He thought again briefly of Katara, wondering where she was at the moment. He was sure she hadn't come home yet. She had gone to visit her family in the Southern Water Tribe. Suki had just given birth, and his wife had gone to help.
A flush of shame rose to his cheeks at the thought of her.
Toph sensed his emotions and turned back to him.
"None of that now," she commanded as she let her hands rove over his chest where it was exposed through the opening of his robe before shoving him back onto the bed.
All thoughts of his wife dissipated as the young earthbender straddled his hips and began pulling at the various ties keeping her top secured.
His long fingers reached up to help her out of it. She was clumsy when it came to things like this. She always let her impatience get the better of her. He knew how to do this. He knew how to draw it out like one long musical note being held until it hummed in the air. She tried to bat his hands away, but he persisted and eventually she gave in to his attentions.
He sat up and stripped each layer of clothing away slowly, running his fingers along her spine. He blew a warm puff of air across her shoulders that made her rock against him. He placed a kiss on the junction of her neck and shoulder and made his way up to her pulse. His hands skillfully undid the last knot of her wrap top and it fell away from her.
She whimpered and made for the sash of his robe. It was the closest he knew she would ever come to begging for him. He sat up straighter and held his arms out to his sides as she slid it over his shoulders and off of him.
He lit a small flame in his hand. She jerked her face away from his to the source of the sudden sound and heat.
"Why did you do that?" she asked, startled by the abrupt light that she couldn't see.
He'd put her on edge with the action. It seemed that for all her bravado she was afraid of getting caught too, though it seemed nearly impossible here in their private fortress of stone.
"I just want to see you," he said, and it was the truth.
He moved his hand to get a better view of her face. Spirits, she was beautiful like that with her hair trailing down her back in a black tangle and her green eyes shining like jade in that porcelain doll face. He put a finger to her kiss swollen lips and laughed when she gently bit the tip. There was a faint pink tinge to her cheeks. He smoothed her hair from her forehead and placed a kiss on her brow, then her nose, then her lips.
"Done?" she asked, folding her arms over her bare chest. His eyes followed.
"Yes," he said distractedly, more reluctant now than ever to extinguish his only source of light.
"Good," she said wickedly, "then let's get back to where we left off."
"Of course," he murmured, letting the tongue of flame die and engulf them in pitch blackness again.
The Avatar stared up at the stone ceiling above his head as he lay tangled in the sweat soaked sheets with Toph breathing softly against him with her head against his chest. She mumbled something in her sleep.
"What?" he asked.
She didn't answer but snuggled deeper into the blankets surrounding them.
He tightened his grip around her tiny frame, reveling in the feel of her soft skin against the pads of his fingers. He let his hands wander down the expanse of her back, feeling the thin lines of scars that crisscrossed over her body. She had gotten many of them during the War when she had fearlessly taken on bender after bender. She had endured so much without a single hesitation.
He remembered the night she had joined them. She had been so young and so sheltered from the horrors of the fighting, but she had been so brave when she met them.
Bringing up old memories made him think of Katara. He pictured what it would be like if she found them.
Her face is tear streaked as she glares at him in disbelief. She does not believe he is capable of something like this, not her sweet, loyal Aang. She is so good to him and kind to him. She supports him and guides him. How could he and with Toph of all people? How could Toph do this to her? Toph is one her of oldest and dearest friends.
"Why?" she asks at last. "What did I do to deserve this?"
Of course, she would blame herself. She always does. She thinks it's something she did wrong when really he knows that there was nothing she could have done to prevent it.
He stands there hopelessly and opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out. What can he say when there is no good answer?
"I'm sorry, Katara," he answers pathetically, knowing that the words are meaningless before he even says them.
"Sorry?" she repeats. "I find you cheating on me and all you can say is you're sorry? After all, I've done for you! After all, we've been through all these years, and it all comes down to sorry?" She crosses her arms over chest and scoffs through her tears. Her shoulders shake a moment as she suppresses a sob. Then she looks at him through bright fierce eyes like she did the day she went with Zuko to go find her mother's murderer. He thinks that maybe that was the day it all started falling apart. That was the day he realized that the Katara he thought he loved wasn't the real Katara at all.
"I-I never meant to hurt you," he stutters, "I never meant to do this or for this to happen." He growls in frustration and his hands fly to his head, fingers digging into his scalp. "This is all wrong. I'm so stupid!"
"What does she have that I don't?" she asks bitterly, moving towards the doorway to leave.
He blinks slowly as he breaks free of the line of thought. What did Toph have that Katara didn't? What was she giving him that Katara couldn't?
He began to think and recall everyt interaction between him and the beautiful waterbender from the beginning of their relationship to the present. She was beautiful and kind and smart. She treated him so well. Too well he realized. She coddled him. She never pushed him when he was being stubborn. She never forced him too hard. She gave him his space whenever he wanted it, but he had learned that being the Avatar required that people push you harder than you wanted to be pushed. Toph did that. She was one of the very few people in the world who dared to stand up to him and tell him things that he didn't like to hear. She would get in his face about things when she thought he was being an ass. Katara never did that, would never do that. She was too afraid she would hurt him. She still thought of him as the scared and naïve little kid she'd found in the iceberg all those years ago.
She was still trying to be the sister/friend he had never had as a child. She was still trying to be his mother, and he was still letting her. It didn't matter between them that he was a grown man and a fully realized Avatar. It made no difference that he had saved the world from a century of war, one that he had caused, and defeated the Fire Lord. All of the years of friendship and marriage had not put a dent in the dynamics of their relationship.
But now there was Toph, and she saw him for what he was now. She knew that he was still scared sometimes of what he was and what he had to do, but she made him do it anyways. She would shove him when he needed it and was always a strong and steady rock for him to lean on when the world overwhelmed him. She was a snarky, sarcastic smartass who pulled no punches, and he loved that about her. She complemented his weaknesses. She filled in the missing gaps of his armor in ways Katara never had. She was his opposite and equal in every way.
He had thought of leaving his wife in several different ways but never followed through. Each one always seemed too painful or impersonal. Then there was the fact that Toph's life style did not fit into his own. She was content traveling the globe, teaching earthbending to different students, and then coming by to visit him for their trysts. His life consisted of going from nation to nation meeting with ambassadors and politicians. He was consumed by long hours of meetings and treaties and trade agreements. He was the bridge between the elements. It was his responsibility to maintain peace in the world, and it was a heavy one. Toph would never be able to live under that yoke of constant servitude. He could never see her being confined to social functions and kissing up to well wishers. She was too blunt and too free for him to make her endure that. And besides, he wasn't sure what kind of political repercussions leaving Katara would have. She was the daughter of the chief of the Southern Water Tribe and a close friend of the Northern Water Tribe. If they resented him for breaking it off with her, it could be devastating for any peace negotiations he had planned for the future.
He sighed. Then there was the issue of Toph's parents, and the fact that they already didn't like him for what had happened when Toph left them the first time years before because of him. They certainly wouldn't support a union between him and their only daughter. They were simply too powerful and rich for him to ignore the influence they wielded in the Earth Kingdom.
It was like when the spirits had crafted her, they had done it with him in mind. They had made him the perfect companion, but he could never be with her.
Author's note: So I'm not dead! Yay! I've seriously been wanting to write some Taang lately. I just got through with Zutara week on DA and noticed that it is typically depicted as an infidelity sort of situation. It seems from everything that I've read Taang usually results from Zutara happening. Aang only hooks up with Toph after Katara leaves him for Zuko. I thought why couldn't Aang cheat on Katara with Toph? Why couldn't he be the one who strayed from his vows? So there is my reasoning for this lol, XD. Anyways, let me know what you thought about it. I'm still relatively new to writing Taang and especially, Aang.