A/N: done for the 30 Days of Writing prompts and decided I should post it. Bit nervous, but that can't be helped. I wrote this at 2-3 AM last night (morning?), so excuse my overuse of dashes and almost under-use of contractions. I added some, but I could not get rid of my dashes.
Prompt: "thanks."
Pairing(s): none. hints of Taang, possibly.
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters nor Taking Back Sunday's lyrics of "Lonely, Lonely", which is where the title comes from.
All I own is the plot and order of words.
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just enough to fill the void
Now that she thinks about it, Toph sort of misses music nights. And the crew. Especially Uncle Iroh. Even her parents. (Oh spirits, her parents.) So she orders another firewhiskey – keeps the whole bottle – and waits for her head to start spinning. That's always a good sign. It might feel funny, but she always remembers the sensation fondly. But she's barely tipsy and very sleepy when she feels some warmth coming from her right. Another person has joined her. She briefly wonders what brought them there and then decides she doesn't care. It doesn't matter: it's not like she's in the mood to swap sob stories at the moment.
"Care to share that firewhiskey?" The person – male – next to her asks. Toph blinks a few times in astonishment. She's surprised that she recognizes the voice.
"Twinkle toes? I never would've thought you'd step foot near this place." She hears Aang's deep laugh bellow out like a roaring wind – has he already been drinking? It throws her off-balance, but being the best earthbender and only metalbender in the world, she stays on her seat.
"What gave you that idea?"
"I was under the impression that you're against alcohol. You being a monk and all." His chuckle is low – (when did it ever become that? His laughter was always high-pitched. But then again, she hasn't seen him in years) it tickles her ear.
"I'm not scared of alcohol." She feels him leaning on the counter now, his forehead close to the surface.
"I never said that."
"I'm not scared of anything," he whispers, and she questions where this conversation is leading to. 'Please not Katara,' Toph thinks, already annoyed with the idea.
"Sure you aren't," she says, and just for the hell of it, takes another swig of firewhiskey straight from the bottle. She can't deal with a drunk Aang sober.
"It's true. Nothing can scare me because I'm the Avatar! I'm not allowed to be scared of anything. 'Specially not a certain waterbender whom I will not name – KATARA," he blurts out. "Oops," he says blushing. Toph would roll her eyes at the moment, if she knew how. But she doesn't. She is blind, after all.
"Oh spirits, here it comes," she mutters, taking another drink. Aang pulls the firewhiskey bottle from her hands and pours them both a shot each. She downs hers immediately while Aang just holds onto his, holding it in front of his face. Why he would do that, Toph doesn't understand. (He stares into it hazily, wondering why this amber-coloured drink still reminds him of her blue eyes – maybe her coffee skin? He forgets and swallows it down anyway.)
"Now Water Tribe people are not particularly scary, but the women are, and if they don't get their way they-"
"No," Toph states slamming her hand down on the table. Aang halts in the beginning of his lecture and just stares at her. Toph feels his gaze – somehow – and snarls out a few choice words under her breath. "No, you are not going to talk to me about this. You are not going to talk to anyone about this. Stop moping and do what you need to do."
"I have been doing that– "
"Not your Avatar business. You need to do your friendship business. Mainly: talk it out with Sokka or Zuko, not get drunk and talk it out with your blind, girl friend. They've been nervous around you, waiting for you to pop, ever since you arrived with the news of your break up with Katara. You seemed pretty wound up about it. You still are."
He leans in close to her, a sly grin on his face – something she cannot see, but can hear in his voice. "So now you're my girlfriend?" He whispers to her, trying to sound husky and rogue, but instead it comes out sloppy and pathetically adorable. She tactfully resists the urge to laugh.
She punches him in the arm and straightens up. "You know what I meant. Do yourself a favor and go to Sokka and Zuko. They want to talk about it with you. I don't want to talk about it with you. I don't care."
Aang slinks down in his chair, either offended or saddened by her poor choice of wording. He cannot feel both. "But why? You're my best friend too."
Toph's drunken heart flips at his words, and she blames it on the vomit coming up her throat. She swallows and replies, "I am, but I'm not the friend to go to for this. I will always be here to listen, but not for this. I do not want to think or talk about other people's problems, no matter if they are strangers or best friends. I have my own sorrows to drown." (She never even got to say good-bye.) 'Here it comes,' Toph thinks miserably. She takes another shot and coughs a bit. She almost accidently inhaled the stuff instead of drinking it.
Aang nods, apologizing for his insensitivity. They drink in silence. Aang orders another bottle of firewhiskey.
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Toph wakes up by a gentle knock on her door. Or rather, by the light footsteps leaving her room and coming back an hour later. That almost confuses her, but she sits up and realizes she is tangled in furs, blankets, and handkerchiefs that are wet from what she assumes are tears and snot. Lovely. She gets out of bed to answer her door but trips over a couple bottles on the way. Those bottles had definitely not been there the night before. (Hangovers are a pain.) She stumbles – almost crawls – to the door and manages to open it. A familiar frame of a human stands in front of her, and by the beat of their heart, she can tell it's Aang. Guy has the heart beat of a butterfly – typical airbender. She stands there in silence, dreading for him to speak. His voice will clash violently with her headache.
"Toph… I wanted to say thank you, for what you said last night."
"What did I say last night."
"You don't remember?"
"It's fuzzy. Be specific. I remember saying many things to you last night, not all platonically."
"Oh, yes . . . we did. . . I . . . well, at the beginning you told me to go to Sokka and Zuko for my . . .troubles."
"Oh, right. Have you?"
"Not yet, but I plan to. For now, as a token of thanks, I brought you breakfast." Toph smiles as Aang enters and sets the tray of food onto a desk.
As he goes to leave, Toph stops him and places both of her hands on his shoulder. "Toph, what–"
She reaches up on her tip toes – damn, he's tall now – and kisses him on what she aims to be his cheeks. Too centered, and she kisses his nose instead. That'll do.
"Thank you for last night. I haven't had a drinking buddy since my time on Iroh's ship. It helped me, what with my parents-" she pauses, takes a sharp intake, and continues. "It's less lonely that way when you have a drinking buddy."
Aang must be blushing down to his shoulders, because they feel warmer. "You're welcome," he whispers. Something – probably Aang – is brushing her cheek softly, and she takes her hands off his shoulder. Aang breathes out gently and leaves quietly.
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A/N: that's not an awkward ending what are you talking about.
I have no idea what firewhiskey looks like, so I took the liberty of coming up with my own colors. (I tried looking it up, I did. But amber screamed at me, so I stuck with amber.) And the idea of Sokka and Zuko gossiping like schoolgirls and worrying like mothers gives me funny feelings.
Toph spent some time on Uncle Iroh's Fire Nation ship for a while after the war when he wanted to go to sea again.
Also: Toph's parents are dead - tragic accident, think what you want. It's been two, very long months for her.