Fieldtrip: Chapter 1 – Leaving

While she threw her tiny ball against the door and back into her hand, she heard a few birds whistling. The sunshine came through the window, landing onto her back. The weather was nice, great even, yet she stayed there, on the floor. She didn't feel like going outside, let alone standing up. Today was her day to relax, but lately every day seemed to be relaxing day. Not that she cared.

She let out an annoyed sigh as she felt someone walking towards her, almost running. She was glad it wasn't Sugar Queen, though anyone who would disturb her now irritated her. She hoped he was going to call her for dinner, but the fact that he was a little heavier than normal, she guessed that wasn't the case. She threw her ball once again against the door and kept it in her hand after that, waiting impatiently for him. The faster he was in, the faster he was out. A few seconds after she'd stopped throwing, he knocked at her door, as expected.

"Come in." she said, letting notice how annoyed she was.

He swung the door open and threw a bag right in front of her, she recognized the bag. It was hers. Why did he have her bag with him, and why did he suddenly throw it towards her? With an uninterested expression on her face, she lifted an eyebrow.

"Get up," he said firmly, "We're leaving."

She snickered amusedly, what was he talking about? "We're leaving? We're leaving?"

"Yes."

She jumped onto her feet while she took her bag in her hand, throwing it over her shoulder. "Great! Where are we leaving to?" She was simply playing with him.

"Your parents."

The amused look on her face vanished immediately. She let her bag fall onto the ground before she sat down again, a frown forming on her face.

"No, thanks."

He walked towards her and took the bag in his own hand, holding it out in front of her. "That wasn't a suggestion."

Her frown deepened as she started to lose her kindness. He was getting closer to be punched by the second. "Why do you suddenly wanna go to my parents? You don't even know my problem with them."

"I talked to Katara." She shocked. "She told me everything."

"Someone's gonna get into trouble today." she mentioned through gritted teeth, her hands clinged together.

"You're gonna have to leave that for later, 'cause now you're going with me."

"Why would I say yes?" She bet he couldn't give any decent reason.

"Why wouldn't you? This is your chance on a life changing fieldtrip with me, plus, you can solve your problems with your parents."

Though the expression on her face didn't change, she grabbed her bag from his hand and threw it once again over her shoulder. "Fine."

She could feel his heartbeat increase from excitement, it seemed that he'd totally ignored her way of answering. She started walking towards the door, but he stopped her by turning her around. What was wrong with him?

"Uh, Zuko, I don't know if you know, but the door is that way." she said, pointing behind her.

"A fieldtrip wouldn't be a fieldtrip without adventure, right?" A confused look appeared on her face. "And besides, Katara would start asking questions if she saw us leaving."

"Wait, you mean she doesn't know we're going away?"

"If you want her to know..."

"No way!" she shouted happily. "Let's sneak away!"

"I'll lead the way." He passed her as he walked towards the window, turning to look at her when he stood with one foot onto the window sill. "You ready?"

A wide smile crawled onto her lips while she put her bag around her body, jumping onto the window sill as well. "I can't be more ready."

After he smiled contently at her, he jumped out of her room. While Toph did the same, she couldn't help but giggle. Even though her room was on ground level and jumping through the window wasn't really an adventure, she couldn't help but finding it exciting. She was sneaking away to have a fieldtrip with Zuko, they were going to her parents, true, but what mattered to her was that Zuko was with her. It was odd she thought that way, she didn't really know much about him, and neither did he about her. But there was something inside him that made her trust him, something so small that she seemed to be the only one who could sense it. Not that she minded that.

They were running towards the home of their transport, their temporary transport, like Zuko'd said. His servants had made the beast a kind of house for him to live in, and it was made out of wood. Every nice and pretty warm day he sat there, that being the only place it wasn't too hot for him. He had everything he needed there, food and water, and if he wanted to get out to 'go for a walk' or to fly for a while, he could do so. As they both arrived at the entrance, Toph decided to wait outside, wood was her enemy.

"You go get him, I'll wait here."

The Firelord nodded before opening the huge door a bit and going inside. A loud growl was heard and short after that, a loud shout too. She laughed when she heard the sound of a huge tongue licking something, or better, someone.

"I told you not to do that with me!"

Another soft laugh escaped her lips before everything went silent. Every few seconds some groaning was heard, it seemed that crawling onto Appa wasn't such an easy job. She couldn't blame him though, he wasn't used to flying yet. About ten minutes later, the doors swung open and soon after six giant legs were walking over the ground, sending strong vibrations to the blind girl's feet. She smiled widely as she went to stand next to the bison, her head lifted to where she thought Zuko was. He was probably steering Appa, and hopefully he knew what he was doing.

"Hey, Beast Boy," she yelled, each hand at one side of her mouth, "You sure you know how to handle Twinkle Toes' pet?"

"Just get on, Blind Bandit," he replied, "Or do you want me to go without you?"

"How do you know my fighting name??"

"Guess!"

"She's going to pay for that." she said loudly to herself before grabbing Appa's fur and climbing onto him.

"You do know that I'm gonna have to help you with that, right?" he asked while reaching with his hand for her.

She grinned as she took his hand, getting pulled into the saddle, which she grabbed immediately. "I order you to."

He grinned back at her before placing him onto Appa's head again, the reins in his hands and his face straight. A few seconds he stayed like that, not moving a muscle and saying nothing. Toph let out a sigh.

"You don't know how to fly with him, do you?"

After helping her onto Appa's head as well and getting used to the fact that she had to hold his arm because she was afraid, they'd finally got to the point to lift off. Those two words that she'd been hearing for way too long from the Avatar were shouted loudly, making Appa growl and fly. It'd shocked the firebender at first, though he didn't want to admit it. When they'd been flying for about fifteen minutes, they'd decided to get into the saddle, certain of the direction they were flying to.

"So what else did you find out about me?" Toph asked, her arms around one of the holes in the edge of the saddle.

He was sitting at the other side of the saddle, his back against the edge and his arms crossed. His legs were wide open, like every guy's legs.

"Nothing," he replied, shrugging, "I only know your parents kept you inside because you seemed too helpless to them, and becoming The Blind Bandit was your way to be free."

"What was your way to be free?"

He almost stopped breathing. "What?"

"I became The Blind Bandit, what did you do? What happened to you anyway?"

"It's a long story."

"I think I can manage to make some time for you."

"You're too kind."

"I know."

He suddenly noticed the wind blowing through her hair, letting her bangs fly away from their normal place, in front of her eyes. It was now that he saw her eyes decently, and he'd never seen more unique ones than hers. Her hair was beautiful too, and it looked so soft.

"Do you actually know where my parents live?" she asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"You told me it was that way."

It remained quiet on the saddle as Zuko was pointing to his right, unaware of how stupid he was being. Only when Toph let out a cough and waved in front of her eyes did he lower his hand.

"Right," he said awkwardly, looking at the middle of the saddle, "Well, when I pointed in front of me when we were sitting on the bison's head, you said I was right, so we're going that-"

"Appa."

"What?"

"It's not 'bison', it's Appa."

He blinked a few times at her in confusion before putting his hand in his neck. "Right. Uh, anyway, we're going that way I pointed to earlier."

Toph sighed as she put her hand on her forehead, the chance that they were flying the wrong way was pretty big, and she hadn't come with him to get lost. She tried to think of solutions to keep them from getting lost when an idea struck her. Her face lighted up in a glance.

"Do you know the Cave of Two Lovers?"

"Of course I do, I used to sing the song all the time."

He quickly knew his mistake right before she began giggling, her hand covering her mouth to suppress it.

"Ha, ha, very funny," he said, blushing, "Just get to the point please."

"Fine," She slowly stopped giggling. "My point is, Firelord Sing-A-Song," She had no idea she was making his face completely red. "That we should land there, I have some friends who can bring us closer to my home."

"Okay," Zuko replied doubtfully, "Good plan."

"You do know where the cave is, right?"

"Vaguely."

"Ough."

Toph let herself fall onto her back, only her hand holding the saddle now. She couldn't believe she'd agreed to go with him, they were going to fail finding her home, she was sure of it. All of the sudden Appa growled, and just when the firebender looked in front of him to see what was going on, he landed into the water. As Zuko's heartbeat increased a bit from the sudden movement and grabbed the saddle in his hands, Toph shouted loudly, a high tone escaping her lips. When she managed to put her arms through the hole of the edge of the saddle, Appa'd stopped moving. A frown came on her face at the realisation, she hated sitting in the saddle.

"You okay?" Zuko asked once they'd landed. "You sounded like you were going to die."

"I'm fine." she snarled, trying to prevent he'd ask her uncomfortable questions. "What happened?"

He looked over the saddle, seeing they were in the water. "I don't know. He just... stopped flying."

"Probably tired." She sighed as she moved her back against the edge of the saddle and crossed her arms. "Great."

"What?"

"We're stuck on the ocean."

To Be Continued