(A/N) Hey guys! This is my first ever Taang one shot so, I hope you'll like it.
Sweeter in the Inside
Aang couldn't remember the last time he cried. But he knew that each time he did when he was younger, his foster father was always ready with a glass of milk and Oreos to cheer him up.
When Aang was around four, his parents were killed in an accident. Gyatso took him in just as he promised he would if anything happened to the parents. And from that day, neither he nor Aang was ever lonely again. They lived their lives as simply as they could. The old man wasn't his real father, but he was the best father Aang could ask for. And Gyatso loved him even if the boy wasn't truly his.
He would sit beside his adopted son from where he was crying, and watch him cry for a moment before taking him in his arms. Little Aang used to sob uncontrollably; therefore, ending up with puffy eyes once he's through. The old man would hug him and tell him that everything will be okay as soothingly as he could; that there's always hope even if you think that there's none left. The little boy would continue to cry, soaking his foster father's shirt in the process. But Gyatso didn't mind, he just wanted Aang to know that he was there for him just like his father would've.
When the little boy finally manages to calm down, Gyatso would dry his tears for him and tell him once more that everything will be okay; that he wouldn't allow whatever happened to happen again. Aang would smile through his puffy eyes and the old man would do the same. Then he'd prepare him a plate of Oreos and a glass of warm milk for the boy to cheer him up.
He would eat with him and Aang would willingly share. The little boy would twist the cookie, give the cream inside a clean lick then dip the whole thing into the milk just like in the commercials. Gyatso would watch with an amused expression on his face. Then he'd take a cookie, separate the outer part from the inner cream and pile all the cream on top of the other. He would eat the outer parts of the Oreo first (but not without dipping them in the milk) then roll his pile of cream into a burrito.
Aang would watch with a curious look. He never saw that trick before. "Why did you do that?" he would ask.
Gyatso would smile at him. "It's much sweeter in the inside."
Then he'd give his Oreo cream burrito to the little boy who happily took it.
Gyatso would do this almost every time Aang would cry when he was a child. The boy couldn't help but smile at the memories. Even at thirteen, Oreos and milk never failed to cheer him up when he was down.
But since Aang was already a growing teenager, Gyatso eventually stopped his routine. It was a little hard for him to accept that his little boy is already grown up. But he knew that those days would come soon. So when he was a child, he treasured every single moment with him.
Toph couldn't remember the last time she cried, but she knew for certain that the tears didn't just cascade down her face like a waterfall did. And when she cried, she didn't run out of breath so easily nor did she wail like there's no tomorrow.
She was in the corner of her room; her knees were drawn to her chest, while her hands were covering her ears. She looked like a scared child. Her tears wouldn't stop flowing and her eyes stung from crying. Toph was in pain and she never thought that it could hurt so much. She was in her worst state.
She wasn't sad, she was pissed and beyond mad. Her parents never understood her. They recently just had yet another intense fight with her, and none of them would stop yelling at each other in the other room. Toph tried to mute the sounds by covering her ears but their shouts were way too loud to be blocked out.
"That disrespectful brat!" she heard her father shout.
"You're the one who started shouting at her!" her mother argued.
"She deliberately disobeyed my orders!"
"You were too harsh on her!"
"You gave her too much freedom!"
Toph felt like a burden to them. At least her mother was trying to defend her; her father on the other hand, didn't give her a second glance.
"Then what do you want me to do?" her mother demanded from the other side of the wall. "Lock her up in her room forever?"
Her eyes widened and she gasped at what her mother had suggested. Toph didn't want to know what her father's answer was. She couldn't take it anymore! She had to escape. Mustering all the strength she had left (she was weak from all the crying); she willed herself to stand up and ran to her secret room (in which no one in the household knew she had) where she opened a door that led to her escape. Toph ran down the narrow steps as quickly as she could until she reached the underground tunnel that led to her ticket outside.
It was dark in the cavern but she didn't have any trouble navigating. She used the route multiple times and memorized each and every turn.
When she finally saw the light from where the tunnel led, she wasted no time in running to the other side of her neighborhood. She desperately needed help and comfort and she knew immediately who could give her those.
Aang was busy playing with his dog Appa that afternoon when Gyatso told him he was going out. He said that he won't take too long. Aang nodded politely as the old man left the house.
Not long after Gyatso left, just when Aang was about to lounge on his couch with Appa, someone knocked heavily on his front door. With his cat Momo trailing behind him; he opened the door to greet the stranger.
Toph appeared in a disheveled mess in front of him with her eyes all red and puffy from crying. Her face was red and a single tear fell from her eye. She looked awful. Aang took one look at her and knew what happened almost immediately. His heart sank.
"Toph," he breathed.
Her mouth began to quiver again and tears threatened to fall as he let her in and guided her to the couch in the living room. She was panting slightly as she sobbed. Aang excused himself to get her a glass of water from the kitchen and when he came back with the glass in hand; her legs were drawn to her chest as she hugged her knees.
Toph coming to his home crying and looking for his comfort isn't so rare. She'd done it a few times before. And Aang always knew what to say and do every time she did. He wouldn't allow her to leave until he successfully brought her hopes up again, and Toph had never felt so grateful to have someone like Aang. He was her best friend and probably the only person in the world whom she knew could understand her.
Slowly, he took a seat beside her and cautiously placed a hand on her shoulder. The young girl stopped crying for a while and rested her head on her knees. She felt drained from her energy.
"You okay?" he asked her quietly as he handed her the glass of water.
He heard her sniff then shake her head. She took the glass weakly from him and slowly sipped the cool liquid. When she was through, Aang took the now empty glass from her and placed it on the table before them.
"You want to talk about it?"
Toph looked up and suddenly fell silent, as if recalling their whole argument earlier. Her eyes welled up with tears once more and she found herself crying again. Aang could do nothing but watch her cry for a moment.
It was never fun to watch someone cry, Aang knew what it was like. He sighed as he remembered what his father used to do when he cried. He wanted to do the same for Toph. She just seemed so helpless and so lost of hope. He never saw her cry so much.
It took a lot of courage to reach out to her and hold her close against him. At first he hesitated since there's a possibility that she might push him away for getting all 'mushy' on her, but to his surprise, she didn't. Toph allowed herself to rest her head on his chest. She soaked his shirt with tears, but Aang didn't mind. He just wanted her to feel and know that he's always there for her even if everyone else wasn't. After all, he was her best friend.
She continued to sob. Whatever happened between her and her parents seemed to be intense, but she didn't want to really talk about it right now. So he didn't pry. Instead, they just sat there in silence, with her muffled sobs being the only sounds there were.
It took around two minutes for her to calm down. When her tears finally stopped falling and her breathing was becoming quite even again, she released herself from him. Aang started to wipe at his shirt, but still had his other hand on her shoulder.
"Twinkletoes," she started and sniffed. "Sorry for barging in your house again with my problems." She eyed his tear stained shirt. "…And for ruining your shirt."
She didn't look at him, but Aang could see that her face was still red.
He allowed himself to smile a bit, "It's okay, Toph. If you need to talk about it, I'm here." He gestured to his shirt. "As for the shirt, it's fine. Besides, it's in for a wash anyway."
For the first time since Toph came in, he saw her smile.
He set his gaze on her once more and saw that her hair was a complete mess. It was tangled and was all over the place at the moment. As for her clothes, they were ruffled and quite dirty. She struggled to keep the snot on her nose from coming down, so Aang gave her his handkerchief. Then without hesitating, she blew her nose in a sloppy manner. The boy couldn't help but laugh a bit. She looked like a little kid with her knees still drawn to her chest.
Toph arched her eyebrow at him when he started to laugh. "What's so funny, Airhead?"
Aang was grinning at her. "I don't know," he confessed. "It's just that it's so rare to see you so…vulnerable. And when you're crying, you look so messy. Almost like a little kid. Plus, you just ran to my house looking for help; like I'm the best person to talk to when you have problems or something."
Her eyebrows furrowed as she pouted, "Well, I have to admit that this doesn't happen often." She rubbed her arm across her eyes and sniffed once more. "And besides, even if you don't know what to do when I'm all depressed, you're actually helping just by sitting there, Twinkletoes. It makes me feel better just by being with you." Her eyes gleamed, "You've got that, I don't know, sort of…thing that cheers me up."
His smile faltered a bit and Aang suddenly felt color rise to his cheeks. She never told him that before, he never really expected her to. But he actually felt good just by hearing what she said, even if it didn't really have that insane effect on him. For someone so feisty, Toph was actually pretty sensitive. He allowed himself a sly smile because this rarely happens.
He was curious despite completely understanding what she said. Still, he dared to ask, "What's that 'thing' I have that you mentioned?"
She merely shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. It's something. I'm not really sure what it is but it makes me feel better for some reason."
Aang smiled and nodded to himself. So he has this 'thing' that Toph likes about him and it made him feel special. He actually felt proud of himself.
"Don't flatter yourself too much," she said when she saw him smile smugly.
"I wasn't."
She rolled her eyes at him and he gave a small laugh as he nudged her playfully.
Since he sensed that maybe Toph was finally feeling a little better now (thanks to him), he stood up from where he sat and held out a hand for her to grasp.
Toph gave him a look, "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to give you the same treatment Gyatso does for me after I cry," he said simply as a smile tugged at his lips. "It always made me feel better and maybe it'll help you too."
She scoffed and smirked at him. "You still cry, Twinkletoes?"
"When I was younger, I always did," he admitted rather shyly. "But nowadays, I assure you on the rarest occasions."
She ignored the hand offered to her and stood up on her own. But Aang didn't look at all offended.
He led her to the kitchen and asked her to sit down on the counter. Toph was hesitant for a moment but sat down anyway. Aang searched the cupboards to find some snacks. He was lucky enough to find a pack of Oreos sitting around and unopened. Perfect.
With a big grin graced on his face, he snatched the box and placed it on the counter before his guest.
Toph raised an eye brow. "Um, Aang?"
"What?" His back was turned from her as he opened the fridge to take out a carton of milk.
"Oreos," she said in slight disbelief.
"Yeah, what about it," he asked as he poured some milk onto the two glasses.
Toph's eye brows furrowed as she stared at the box of Oreos sitting in front of her.
Aang placed the two glasses with the Oreos on the counter. He sat across from Toph and casually pushed one glass towards her. Then he tore open the box and gave her a cookie.
"So," Toph said as she took it. "This is how your old man cheered you up after you cry?"
Aang was in the middle of twisting his Oreo open and giving the inner cream a lick when he answered her. "Yeah."
"Does he still do this?"
"Not anymore," Aang dipped the cookie into his milk. "But when I was younger, he always does this. It never failed to cheer me up. I was hoping that maybe it'll do the same for you." He bit into it savoring the taste, "God, I miss this."
A smile tugged at her lips. She hadn't had an Oreos and milk snack for a while now. She couldn't help but remember sharing the snack with her mother when she was younger. She taught her a trick on how to eat it.
She frowned. Remembering her mom made her scowl slightly. But Aang was a little preoccupied with his Oreos to notice.
Pushing the bad vibes away, she forced herself to just let it go and enjoy this moment with Aang. So she opened the cookie he gave her and separated the outer from the inner cream and set aside the interior to be saved for later. She dipped the exterior in the milk to make it moist before eating it. The boy glanced at her suspiciously. She did the same for three Oreos in a row and piled the inner cream on top of the other.
Aang watched her eat for a moment and thought that her Oreo trick seemed quite familiar.
When Toph was finished eating the outside of the cookies, she started to roll the inner cream into a burrito before eating it. And when she was through, Aang realized that the Oreo trick she did really was familiar. In fact, he remembered that Gyatso used to do that all the time when he ate Oreos with him.
"Toph," he beamed. "That Oreo trick you did. Gyatso used to do that too."
She stared at him with a bored expression on her face. "Oh really? Cool."
"Did he teach you too?"
"Nope."
"Well then, where did you learn that?"
Toph hesitated for a moment before answering him. "My mother used to do this all the time," she said in a much softer voice.
Aang's smile faltered. "So are you going to talk to them about what happened?"
"…probably." She sighed.
He nodded understandingly. He could sense that she doesn't want to talk about that subject right now. So he switched topics.
"So…" he began a little awkwardly while examining an Oreo.
"So what?"
"Why do you eat it like that?"
"I like the inner cream," she said coolly. "So I save it for last. Besides, it's sweeter in the inside."
Aang stared at her. His eyebrows were lifted slightly.
She narrowed her eyes and Aang couldn't miss the fact that she was starting to get rather annoyed with him, "What now?"
"It's weird 'because that's what he used to say to."
"Who?"
"Gyatso," he chortled.
"Great," she rolled her eyes. "So I'm like your old man now."
Aang laughed. His laugh was quite contagious. So she started to laugh with him too. He was glad that his mission was a success: he made her laugh like he planned to and it was great to see that she's okay again.
He had to admit: Toph's pretty scary in the outside. But if you look deeper, Aang realized that she could be a little sensitive. I guess everyone had a soft side, he mused. He might want to use that against her someday. But he thought that maybe that wasn't the best idea.
He was glad that the Oreos were able to help her a bit.
Although, he should allow her to recover on her own.
Aang made it a point that if anyone came to him crying or feeling down, he'd feed them Oreos like his old man would.
'Cause it's much sweeter in the inside.
He took note of that.
Sooo what do you think? It was supposed to have fluff but anyways, I hope you guys liked it! :D It was so much fun (and hard) writing this and I was really surprised that it ended up being a bit longer so…yeah. :) THANKS FOR READING!