Maikka Week 2010

Match-Toph and Ty Lee

Neither Toph nor Ty Lee really knew what it was they were "looking" at, but they both came to the conclusion that they were "seeing" the same thing. That is, Ty Lee was actually seeing the amazing phenomenon with her eyes, whilst Toph was "seeing" (feeling, really) it with her feet.

"Is that…Mai and Sokka?" Ty Lee finally managed to whisper quite loudly to Toph.

"It's them, no doubt about it." Toph said, cupping her right ear. "I never forget a voice, and it's them. Actually having a conversation."

"About what? About what?" Ty Lee asked, ever the gossip hound.

Toph and Ty Lee were sitting at a table at the garden tea party for General Iroh's birthday. So far the event had gone off without a hitch, much to Fire Lord Zuko's relief. The young man had been somewhat of a nervous wreck over the whole thing, wanting absolutely everything to be perfect for when Iroh came from Ba Sing Se for his annual visit. The last week had been awful for the younger servants, as Zuko had been barking orders at them day and night over doing the whole thing the right way. Older servants humored the twenty-one year old Fire Lord by allowing him to actually take care of certain tasks on his own. However, the actual brewing of the tea had been left to specialists in the kitchen; Zuko never had quite gotten the hang of that.

It was a beautiful early summer evening on which the party had taken place. Stars sparkled in the sky, and small red lanterns glowed with small candles within them. The lanterns served as centerpieces and had also been hung in the various cherry trees of the garden courtyard. Traditional Fire Nations songs were being played by a band in one corner of the garden, and servants were walking about the tables, serving appetizers and various flavors of tea.

Thirty feet away from Ty Lee and Toph's table was another table, at which sat their respective friends, Mai and Sokka.

"I can't tell…" Toph said, answering Ty Lee's question. "There's too many other voices to make out what they're saying, but it's definitely them."

"They kind of look like they're on a date. Weird." Ty Lee said. "If anywhere's a good place to start looking for a new boyfriend, I would have to say that it's at a party. It's good to see that she's moved on from Zuko. But I never figured Mai would be the kind to go for a Water Tribe guy…"

"Honestly, what girl wouldn't go for a guy like Sokka?" Toph said honestly. Though she was still very much a tomboy, at age seventeen she was really staring to take an interest in boys. As long as they weren't idiots.

"I'm blind and even I know he's good lookin'." Toph continued "Heck, didn't you have the hots for him a while ago?"

"Well, I…" Ty Lee smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, he's good looking, but I…well my parents wouldn't have approved…and plus there were all these loose ends with this guy back here in the Fire Nation…and that was five years ago!"

Ty Lee had spent the first half of the party running away from her usual gaggle of horny guys. And, as usual, she had left them in a motionless pile in one corner of the garden to be cleaned up by the guards.

"Are you disappointed that they're dating?" Toph teased.

"What? No!" Ty Lee's voice had a hint of anger in it. "We don't even know if they're really dating!"

"So what's with the sudden rapid heartbeat? You know I can tell when people are lying, Happy."

Ty Lee took in a deep breath and let it out in a huff.

"Okay, maybe I'm a little jealous…that, and I wonder how Zuko's going to take it. Granted the break up was mutual, he's a jealous guy, too."

"Sparky'll be fine." Toph waved nonchalantly. "If you love something, you let it go. WAITER! MORE TEA!"

A nervous looking servant, just a couple years older than Toph, came over and quickly refilled the mugs that were sitting in front of the girls.

"Thank you." Ty Lee said with her pleasant smile. Toph merely waved him away, and he dashed away to serve another table.

Toph took a sip of her tea.

"Where was I? Oh, Zuko…he's Fire Lord now. If him and Mai got married, she'd be Fire Lady, and judging by what she's told me about her life, I think she's better off not being Fire Lady."

"Are you saying she'd make a terrible wife for Zuko? Or that she'd make a terrible Fire Lady?"

"That is not what I said!" Toph pointed in Ty Lee's face. "I said she's better off not being Fire Lady, in that it's good for her."

"Well, I guess when you put it that way…" Ty Lee drifted off on her own thoughts.

They were both silent for several moments, the rumblings, mutterings, and music of the party playing out around them. Ty Lee stared intently at the scene for the next development, but the conversation between the two warriors went on pleasantly.

"Still…" Toph began, deciding the break the silence between them. "Knives and Snoozles. Who would have thunk it? They're so…opposite of each other. Sokka always has a stupid grin on his face, while Mai never smiles!"

"She smiles! I've seen her!" Ty Lee jumped to Mai's defense. "She just doesn't like to smile in public…or it might be that her mom told her never to smile in public, I can't remember which. Anyway, when she and Azula and I were trying to capture Aang, and I saw her smile lots of times. Of course, it was mostly when she was polishing her knives and shuriken…"

"Hm. That sounds an awful lot like Sokka and his boomerang."

"Oh my Agni…Mai is smiling! In public!" Ty Lee gasped. "Sokka must have said something really funny to make her do that."

"Well, Snoozles does have his moments. I'd say for every ninety-nine bad jokes, he actually has a hilarious one. It's a good thing he's pretty. And it's good to know that Knives actually has a soul."

"Now she's laughing…" Ty Lee continued to describe the scene. "Okay, she just noticed some people looking at her from the table next to them…now she's just giggling. They're getting up! They're walking to the exit! They're…"

"You can stop now, Happy." Toph held up her hand in front of Ty Lee's face, distracting her from the odd sight of Mai and Sokka standing side by side. "I can feel them walking away."

Mai and Sokka reached the eastern exit of the garden courtyard, and disappeared around the corner.

Toph subtly slid her right foot in their direction.

"They're heading for the smaller garden, that one with the really good smelling flowers…" Toph said.

"The fire lilies!" Ty Lee exclaimed. "Oh, that's a really good make-out spot! I don't believe this! How could they be moving so fast! We should follow them!"

Ty Lee stood up in a rush, nearly knocking over her chair, but she caught it in time.

"Come on, Toph!"

"Okay." Toph said with a shrug of her shoulders. She wasn't quite sure what Ty Lee wanted to accomplish, but it beat sitting around at that boring party anyway.

A/N: Ugh, I caught such a nasty case of writer's block when I was trying to write this one out...and then the writer's block wouldn't let me move on to any of the other prompts until I finished this one. So I decided to keep this one short and sweet, and cut out a lot of other crazy ideas I had for it.

Anyway, I'm thinking I'm going to continue this, depending on the feedback I get. I know I probably won't work on it for a while though, 'cause I've got other projects on my to-do list. If you're interested in seeing this continued, leave a review or subscribe to this story! I already have an idea of what's going to happen in Part 2!