Likely set a year or so after the end of Last Airbender. Not my first AtLA fic, but the first I've felt confident enough with to post. I hope you enjoy!

Probable Acts of Kindness

"You better not have brought me to the opera."

Toph scowled angrily, turning what she figured was a pretty convincing glare up toward Zuko as he calmly led her into the royal box in the Fire Nation capital's theatre. All she got in return, though, was, "It's not the opera."

He'd asked her earlier in the day to attend a function with him and she had readily agreed, dying to get off the grounds and do something (bashing some enemy skulls would be loads of fun) – only realizing something wasn't right with this bashing skulls plan when he casually mentioned that she would not be able to wear her regular bending clothes, could she please find something just a little nicer? A small boulder had been tossed at his head for that, and she'd only forgiven him when he rushed to tell her no one expected her to put on shoes. She had joined him anyway.

So now here she was, sitting next to the Fire Lord in this stupid little box and he wouldn't even tell her why. She shifted her bare foot on the smooth tiled floor. They were even alone; the guard that always accompanied him now was outside in the hall.

"Then what is it?" she asked again, the agitation in her voice quite clear.

Zuko just chuckled and sat in one of the two chairs nearest the railing, giving a perfect view of the stage below. "You'll find out."

Toph punched his shoulder, hard, as she passed him to find the empty chair on his left. Before sitting, she shuffled both feet across the floor, her toes spread wide, as she sent her senses out and down the wall, across the seats directly beneath, and then to the stage. There was nothing up there, not even any props that she could make out. Most of the seats were filled, though.

"What is this, Sparky?" She turned her face toward him, and she felt him meet her heated, though blank, gaze before she continued. "Did you bring me to some stupid play I can't even see? You could have brought your gloomy girlfriend for this komodorhino crap. Since she's not, you know, blind."

He was quiet for a long moment. Toph finally settled into her chair beside him and crossed her arms, feeling the shift in his emotions. She didn't understand what had caused the abrupt change in his mood – a little restless but still amused one second to completely unhappy and sad the next – so she decided to lay off and at least give him a chance to explain. For a minute, anyway. She was still scowling.

"The Fire Nation kumi-daiko group is performing tonight," he said a few seconds later, speaking softly. "I haven't seen them since…since before I was banished, but I used to come with my mother every season. I just thought – I dunno, I thought you'd like the drums more than Mai. Okay?"

This time, Toph didn't respond right away.

If she were honest with herself, she was really quite touched that Zuko had thought to bring her to this. Him even showing up to this performance at all was kind of a big deal now – they'd been stopped no less than thirty times just trying to get up to the box – and his people loved seeing him in public, especially with Mai now that their engagement had been announced. Having Toph on his arm, so to speak, instead of the future Fire Lady just because he thought this was something she'd enjoy (and now that she knew what it was at all, she was actually pretty excited, not that she'd tell him so) – that was huge. She came from a noble family, she got that part. People could see them just having fun together as some kind of political message or something.

She leaned back in her chair and propped her dusty feet up on the elegantly crafted metal railing for all to see, grinning smugly when she heard Zuko balk wordlessly at her behavior. Just because she was in the presence of the Fire Lord, in public, didn't mean she has to act like a lady. And he deserved this for trying to pull one over on her.

"I guess I like drums."

Which, she knew, Zuko understood as her way of saying, "Thanks-I-actually-love-drums". Because it was all he was going to get.