Incidents in the Life of Toph
Litt
Dec 14, 06

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The eventful day ends and tension that had once been forgotten settles on the camp again. Though Appa accepts her apology, she does not know the color of the apple she gives him.

---

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Why are you staring at me?"

"How can you tell?"

"You--"

"—are pretty when you're angry."

"Stop staring."

---

There had been nothing she could do to stop it, so she tried everything.

---

She's still in a fighting stance, still waiting for another attack, even after she feels the crazy girl run for it. Someone's down, breathing shallowly, and she recognizes the feel of him. Sokka touches her shoulder, tells her it's over; far off, Katara's voice offers help, but Toph can tell her body is rebelling, leaning towards a hesitant Aang. Through her feet, she's realizing she'd been right. She is cold, even after Zuko flames them away.

---

"He said he didn't love me." Toph says in her softest voice, which isn't soft enough for a cemetery setting. She feels the young man stiffen beside her and resists the urge to lie. "He would never have said that of you."

---

"You weren't always the last, Aang," Toph feels him shrug and guesses he's closer to falling asleep than he had been when she'd showed up to relieve him. She nudges his shoulder. "Her name was Malu. They say she was beautiful."

"Toph, she's dead now." (They all are.)

She hears the struggle and ignores it, waits for him to sit up. "We're in her cave. She lived here for years—she talked with spirits; they say this place is haunted." Her whisper is that of a conspirator's and echoes even if she's leaning close enough to his ear to see it.

A shift; he's facing her now. "Why are you telling me this? Ghosts don't scare me." His attempt to lighten the mood fails and she feels him shift away from her. "I'm the last now, Toph. I'm… okay with that." His voice is higher and she knows he's just tried to smile through the lie.

"No one asked you to be." He doesn't ask what she means. "Sure you're the last of your people, but you're not alone."

A pause. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because," she answers bluntly, sitting next to him, "you need to stop taking it so impersonally; sometimes you need to remember to stay safe."

He sighs and she grabs his chin; he lets her.

"But you are the last, and if you do something stupid like that again I'll beat your sorry butt back to Omashu."

"I'll be dead by then, so—Ow! Seriously, Toph, don't do that--" (I might hurt you.)

"Don't joke. You're the last; you can't die on me."

"You're the only; neither can you."

---

"You look different in red."

"Yeah? Well, who's asking?"

"It's not a bad thing, Toph."

"It was Zuko's idea."

"Long live the King."

"That's Fire Lord, Snoozles."

"For once, just take a compliment."

"Give me one first."

---

The drums that marked the beginning and end of the Festival of Spring always kept Toph awake. From her room, when she was younger, she'd wonder what she was missing; from an alley, a few years later, she sees what is to be had and takes it.

---

"Why?"

The water is the only sound she hears for a while, and then, his voice, low and sad. "I can't lose anyone again."

Even though everything is distracting-- the water is too cool, seems to mock her, and he's holding her--she is determined to get through this. "Fair enough," she allows, not asking.

"Try again. Hey," he adds as his hands find her shoulders--promising, in a way as far away from their lake as possible, to support her--"relax."

Easy for you say, she thinks even as she allows her feet to leave the ground and, before she freaks out and chokes on a gulp of water, becomes completely blind.

---

It is only MoMo's trill that saves her.

She attacks without pause, without cursing, without mercy.

Aang groans and sets his glider down on the grass. "Dinner's ready."

---

She doesn't understand it really.

Once even the formal rites are done, the two continue to dance around the issue. Iroh, privy to many of her rants/insights, offers the obvious flaw: "You are mistaking love for something that arrives at its destination after a headlong journey."

Toph scoffs. "I am not. They're acting like they don't already know what's under their robes!"

His laugh is something of a gift, guttural and light, something he offers often, all the better to see him with. "Then go on and kiss the two of them for each other then,"

After a minute of hearing the two mumble excuses for bumping shoulders, she stands up, dusts off her tunic, and marches up to do just that.

---

How she'd managed to infuriate any earthly deity so much, she doesn't know, but she promises to stop cursing and...well, she promises to stop if only she doesn't have to be the taste tester. Ever again.

Even though the boys claim not to know what she's talking about, she forces to them to the ground. They confess, after much deliberating, to leaving because they thought the sight of Katara and Toph whispering by the fire meant girl time.

---

The boy is lying. All the hearts in the room are beating erratically enough to make her feel guilty.

---

If there was any extra sign or incentive she needed to prove that her parents didn't know her at all, it was the bounty hunters. The Master was good but still under the impression that he is better than she is, has been, always will be; he goes down because he is stubborn, unconvinced. The loud man is all action, all muscle, all greed; he goes down because he is stupid and believes he is strong. She's grown since they last met, but she beats them and she is just a little girl of twelve.

---

Among other things, her mother made her learn the useless music. When the old man finds out, he teaches her art.

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AN: Wrote these without prompts as well, just after I started the new trio collection. Toph rocks . There are too many things I didn't touch on.