"I have an idea," Aang announced to his neighbor and long-time friend, Toph.
"Shit, I better duck for cover," Toph smirked, putting down her pencil and taking a swig from her water bottle since Aang was obviously not interested in doing homework.
Aang rolled his eyes. "Hardy har, very funny. I'm being serious though." He grabbed their math books and put them to the side, confirming Toph's suspicions that they were not getting homework done any time soon. "I'm well aware of your crush on Sokka-"
"Wait-"
"-as I'm sure you're aware of my crush on Katara," Aang continued while ignoring her protests. "Frankly, I'm tired of little hints and I'd like to take more drastic measures."
Toph was a little bugged that Aang would spring the news of his knowledge of her crush so suddenly, but she was also interested in whatever idea he might have. She sighed, "Go on."
"See, because we're younger, they don't really notice how much we mean to them. Something needs to happen where they realize their feelings for us."
"Aang, that implies they have feelings for us. Don't pretend that Sokka isn't one step away from asking Suki out or Katara is one note in class away from telling Zuko how she feels."
Aang and Toph had many similarities when it came to interests and humor, but there was one obvious difference that influenced the most of their arguments: Aang was an idealist and Toph was a realist. Well, Aang preferred to call himself an "optimist" and her a "pessimist." In theory, Aang's ideas sounded great, but in practice, they faltered early in the process.
She could already tell that whatever this plan was, it was going to be similar. Aang liked to pretend Zuko didn't exist when it came to Katara, even though everyone else could tell the two were dancing around the line of becoming the couple that was so in love, it made you sick. Toph knew her crush on Sokka was unrealistic at least. He was two years older than her and had been flirting with another Junior for the past couple of months. He saw Toph as a little sister.
Aang refused to understand her logic. And now, this pattern was continuing as Aang shook his head in disagreement with Toph. "Toph, you come up with roadblocks that aren't there. If they're not dating yet, they're not serious yet. And I'm betting it's because she also has feelings for me that she doesn't even realize are there… And, uh, the same goes for you and Sokka."
"Yeah, yeah. Say what you want, just get on with the plan." The freshman knew she had nothing else to lose.
Aang surprised her by grabbing her hand, looking into her eyes, and asking her, "Toph, would you go out with me?"
The girl immediately rejected him, probably in a grander response than she needed. Toph snatched her had back with such force that she pushed herself and her chair. She ended up toppling over and found herself on the floor. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Toph, we have to make them jealous," Aang explained, not moving to help his friend up from the ground. "Think about it. In all the books and movies, once their love interest starts becoming involved with someone else, they become jealous and realize their true feelings for them." It was as though the young boy had hearts in his eyes.
"Oh my god…" Toph rubbed her nose, trying to make sense of the gibberish her best friend seemed to be spitting out. "Aang, are you drunk because I'm seriously concerned. First, you accuse me of having a crush on Sokka-"
"I don't drink, Toph, and don't pull that with me." Aang rolled his eyes. "You'd have to be blind, or Sokka, to not see that you're head over heels for him."
"You make me sound like a girl…"
"So do you want to do it or not?"
Toph thought it over. "I'd have to date you?" She grabbed the beat up water bottle from the desk to take another sip.
"Not for real, but for show, yeah."
"How long are we talking?"
"Depends on how stubborn they are."
Toph weighed her options in her head. There weren't really many negatives other than the plan being a massive failure, but there wasn't as much embarrassment as admitting her feelings straight, which is the route she normally would have taken if she thought she had a chance. On the plus, her mother would stop accusing her of being gay even though she was only fifteen and without a boyfriend.
"Everyone already thinks we're dating anyway, so why not?" Toph shrugged, finally getting up from the ground.
Aang began to reach for their math books again, but stopped when he processed what she said. "Everyone thinks we're dating?"
"We spend every waking moment together, Aang. I'm pretty sure you know where the tampons are in my mom's bathroom and I think I can recite the rosary just from hearing you say it so much over the years."
The tips of Aang's ears reddened as he realized. "I guess all that time together would make some people think that, huh?"
"No, duh… Open to page 45, boyfriend."
So this is about how long every chapter is going to be, a little more than 800 words. There's about 17 chapters including the prologue and the epilogue. And it's about Toph and Aang fake-dating in an effort to capture the attention of Sokka and Katara respectively... and well, you know how those ideas always end up. Anyway, it gets a lot more dramatic than I thought it would.
Just be warned, I spit all of this out in a 1-2 week period with little editing or planning. It's probably going to be really bad. I hope to one day come back to it and rewrite it, but for once I have a finished multi-chapter story! I plan to update with a new chapter every two or three days (depending on if I remember or not).
I have a whole bunch of other Taang/Zutara story ideas in the works and hopefully I'll update my profile with them as soon as I post this. Please feel free to review and tell me your honest feelings on this story! I would love to know how I can improve since this is my writing in its almost rawest form. Thank you so much for reading!
