Avatar: The Last Airbender belongs to Bryan, Mike, and Nickolodeon. Please don't sue.

Set between "Ember Island Players" and "Sozin's Comet." Rated "T" or PG-13 for mentions of making love, "closed door" romance with a twist of lime.

A Long Night

There were times when being a master earthbender sucked. Not often, but now was one of the rare exceptions Toph thought as another tremor rocked the ground beneath her for the umpteenth time. Anyone else wouldn't even notice it, but not her. She felt the vibrations. Every. Single. Time.

"Will you knock it off!" she yelled, but the thick walls of her earth tent muffled the sound and the shaking continued. Irritated, she lowered the walls of her tent. Certain she would get no sleep tonight; she wandered down in the direction of the beach. When she got there, she was surprised to find she wasn't the only one awake.

"Zuko?" she asked. The sand and the other person's not moving around much made things fuzzy, so she went by size of what she detected and sheer process of elimination.

"Toph!" The familiar voice of the prince confirmed her guess as he turned to face her, somewhat surprised he wasn't alone. "What are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same question, Firecracker. You're normally a morning person, not a night owlcelot."

"Couldn't sleep."

"Me either." Toph turned to face back up the hill and shouted. "Not with all the bonking* Snoozles and his Ladylove are doing back up there!"

"So they got to you too, huh?"

"Are you kidding? From the tent next door it felt like a minor earthquake!" Toph folded her arms across her chest and plopped down on the soft sand to sit cross-legged next to Zuko. "It must really be bad if they woke you up too."

"Tell me about it! It was no better on the other side of them. I sensed so much heat coming from somewhere nearby I thought we had intruders or the camp was on fire."

"Oh, someone's on fire all right." A dark expression came across Toph's face.

"The glow from their body heat is so strong you can practically see through their tent wall. It's disgusting!"

Toph was glad to be blind for once. She had no comment except, "Katara's really lucky to be a waterbender right now."

"Just was well. I know I'd be scarred for life if it were my sibling who was…I don't even want to go there." Zuko shook his head violently to get out any thoughts of Azula. It was too scary to contemplate. "I wonder why Aang hasn't noticed yet. I thought he was a light sleeper."

"Depends. Twinkletoes can sleep like a rock when he wants too."

The two of them exchanged a jealous look, though Toph couldn't see it. Toph yawned and sighed. "It's going to be a long night, isn't it?"

"The worst."

The sat there brooding for a while. Zuko took to skipping a few rocks across the ocean in frustration. Toph realized she was far enough away to no longer feel the annoying vibrations from above while on the sand. She'd wanted to practice her sandbending lately. She wondered if…

"It may not have to be. I want to try something. Stay where you are."

Toph experimented with the sand around them. Zuko saw it shift and rise until finally a small dwelling of sand sprang up around them.

"Wow! What's this?"

"Don't tell me royalty doesn't recognize a castle when they see it."

She felt Zuko crawl out the entrance and take a look outside, making a full circuit around the sandcastle. It wasn't a big castle, just the size of a tent for two to fit in, but she could tell he was pleased.

"You're amazing, Toph!" he said when he came back in.

"I know. Think of this as a temporary replacement until you get your own palace back."

"I already like this one better. This one comes with a little sister I actually like." Zuko gave Toph her own signature elbow to the ribs. Toph blushed. She couldn't help it.

"Goodnight, sweet prince," She said as the lay down to sleep side by side.

Of course, it still didn't stop Zuko from being in a platypus-bear of a mood with Aang at firebending practice the next morning, Toph noticed. Oh well, at least it had turned into a good night after all.

Notes: I'm not exactly sure where this one came from aside from reading too many Toko fics late at night. But I'm always interested in exploring how bending powers allow these characters to see the world in unique ways, both good and bad. This was going to be more humorous originally set after Southern Raiders, but I moved it to incorporate some more Toko bits and the ending became a lot sweeter than planned, which would have originally focused more on Zuko's bad mood and revenge the next morning. I made this a stand alone fic and not part of Crown Prince Chronicles for rating purposes. The germ of this fic also inspired another plot bunny, a K+ one the effects of which you will see soon in Crown Prince Chronicles.

* Bonking is a British work for "making love" or "having sex" for any of you confused Americans (or Canadians) out there like me, I know it might seem a little odd of a word to use but it seemed to be the right euphanism an earthbender would use to describe Sokka and Suki's late night activity. Sorry to my reviewers that my first definition of the word made things too vague. What Sokka and Suki are doing as opposed to what Toph and Zuko think they are doing is really up to the reader as to how far they want to take it though. So if you want to think its some hot and heavy all the way Sukka you can, and if you want to leave it as just kissing the living daylights out of each other, that works too.