Aang loved the smell of coffee. It lingered in the air, filling his sense of smell and giving him a sense of comfort. He had been working at Gyatso's Coffee Beans since he was 16, and was extremely close to the elderly man who owned the business. They both shared in their love of coffee, made games out of who could create the best coffee or who could come up with the most recipes. He had become Aang's best friend, and when he passed away he left his beloved shop to the one person Gyatso knew he could fully entrust it to: Aang.
Now, at the age of 23, he was a successful coffee shop owner, doing what he loved. His employees loved his gentle touch when handling hard situations and enjoyed the easy-going atmosphere Aang always made sure was in place. He made sure to be nice to all the customers, even the cranky soccer moms who wanted their coffee with 20 different modifications. People came for coffee when they were stressed or tired or just wanting to have fun, so he made it his personal goal to make sure every customer possible got what they needed from them.
Even though Aang would never admit it, his favorite drink they served was their white hot chocolate. It wasn't anything special, just hot chocolate but made with white chocolate instead of cocoa, but the sweet taste always managed to remind him a little bit of his childhood high in the mountains at the monk's monastery before he had been taken away by social services.
Aang reached up to finger the prayer beads he kept around his neck. A reminder of the teachings he learned from his mentors, the constant press of comfort that their teachings of peace and self-reflection brought. A nervous habit of his.
"Kory look, it's that weird blind girl again. Think this time she'll actually order something? Probably not, considering she can't even see what's on the menu," Aang heard one of his employees remark to his co-worker at the cash register. He gave a small frown. It wasn't their place to judge anyone for anything. She was a customer, blind or not, and deserved to be treated as such. He walked over and put a hand on Leslie's shoulder, the one who had made the rude comment.
"I heard that, and I'm very disappointed in you Leslie. Just because she's blind doesn't mean she's incapable of ordering coffee. Please go to the back and wash the Frappe machines, I will take over the register." With an 'hmph' the young girl stomped off, swinging her long braided hair and marching to the back. Aang sighed and rubbed his hands together as he approached the register, looking around in an attempt to spot the woman his employee was discussing.
It took a few minutes, but eventually his eyes caught on a fairly short woman, black hair tied up in a large bun behind her head and held in place with a green headband. She was wearing a green tank top underneath an unbuttoned white and black plaid shirt with some black skinny jeans. She appeared to be wearing sneakers, but they looked kind of strange, almost like the soles of the shoes had been taken off. Weird. But who was he to judge anyways? He was bald with a giant arrow tattoo on his head from a ritual from his time with the monks, he had no room to judge. Her eyes were a dull blue, and it took him a second to realize that they weren't actually dull, just clouded over. Blind.
If the context of Leslie's comment was anything to go by, this woman came in often but never actually ordered. Maybe she felt awkward? Maybe she just couldn't ever decide what she wanted, who knows. But being the friendly guy he is, he decided to walk around the counter and make his way over to her. He stopped in front of her and took a second to take a good look at her. He had a way of being able to tell how people liked their coffee with just a few looks, a talent he was quite proud of.
He pegged her as a mocha kind of girl. Not a frappe, nothing fancy or frilly, just something that tasted really chocolatey.
"Hello miss, my name's Aang and I'm the manager here. Is there anything I can get you? We have a great selection of mocha coffees in all different varieties." He smiled, even though he knew she probably wouldn't be able to see it if the film over her eyes was anything to go by, but he smiled anyways. He always had a smile on his face, the only exception being when he was concentrating on a new coffee recipe or grooming his dogs Momo and Appa.
The woman's head turned in his direction as she tapped her foot against the floor. One. Two. Three. Three taps before she walked up to him and shrugged.
"What do you suggest, mister manager hot shot?" Aang was slightly taken aback. Her voice wasn't light and airy like a lot of girls, it was a bit rougher but still pleasing to the ears. But what really caught him off guard was the teasing tinge in her voice. There was a confidence there that he wasn't quite expecting, not from someone who stood at the back of the coffee shop without ever ordering. He liked that.
"Well, if you want more of a mocha flavor and less of a coffee flavor I suggest our double mocha cream cappuccino. It's loaded with chocolate. Or if you want more of a coffee flavor and a more subtle mocha experience, I can get you a two shot espresso with a few squirts of mocha. I'll even custom make a coffee to your liking!" He watched as the woman's eyebrows raised higher and higher behind her long bangs. When he finally finished she just gave a chuckle.
"Nah, think I'll pass on all that fancy stuff. Mocha coffee isn't my thing." Aang was confused. He was never wrong, he could always tell when someone was a chocolate lover or leaned more towards caramel. Sometimes he'd get the occasional cinnamon or raspberry tea, even peppermint and a lot more hazelnut than one might expect. But he had never been wrong. But one can't be right all the time, so he took it in stride and continued on.
"Well then, what is it that I can get you?" If he didn't know any better he'd say that she was looking at him skeptically, but that wasn't possible. Instead she just continued going tap, tap, tap with her foot.
"Your employees behind the counter are staring at us." Swiveling around to look he found that the girl was right, pretty much all of his employees had stopped in their tracks and were blatantly staring at the two. He didn't mind, he knew it was a rare sight to see him not behind the counter, but how did she know?
"I don't mean to be rude, but-"
"How do I know? Yeah yeah, you're not the first to have asked me that question." She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, still continuing with the tap, tap, tap. Aang sat and waited and watched, expecting an answer. He shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, wringing his hands in anticipation. She was… intimidating to say the least.
"So… How did you know?"
"Their feet were turned in a way that I could tell they were facing us, and their heartbeats were slightly raised." Ok. Did he have the right to judge now? No, no he didn't. But he was still very confused and very much out of his element. Out of habit, his hands once again reached up and started fiddling with his prayer beads.
The tapping finally stopped.
"Well, I think I've seen everything I need to. So you were asking me about my coffee order. Here's a deal for you then. You make me a hot chocolate, but when you call out my order you say it's some really cool coffee. I don't care what kind of coffee, just don't make it anything stupid like a frappuccino." Aang raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Ummm, are you... Embarrassed of ordering a hot chocolate?" With a scowl on her face and a punch to his arm, she walked over to one of the tables and sat down. "I'll be waiting for my order. Oh, and hold the whip cream. Extra cocoa. And my name's Toph."
Something about the way she kicked back in the chair and crossed her legs up on the table made him smile a little. She was fiddling with a little metal bracelet as she hummed a small tune to herself.
Turning on his heel he went back behind the counter, waving his hand to get everyone back to work and starting on his new customer's hot chocolate. No one could make a killer hot chocolate the way he could, after all. Three spoons of cocoa, warm whole milk, and a teaspoon of hazelnut cream to really bring out that chocolatey taste. The whole time he kept Toph in his peripheral vision, biting his lip in contemplation.
He couldn't deny that the woman was… out of the norm he was used to. But he didn't know her personally so he couldn't say whether or not she really was out of the norm. But if she kept coming around, maybe he would get to find out. Aang was always one who loved to get to know new people and learn from them, so maybe he had something he could learn from her.
Once the steamer went off for the hot chocolate he grabbed a cup and wrote her name on it, pouring in the steaming liquid and adding a little bit of nutmeg and cinnamon, just for a small little touch.
"Long macchiato, extra shot of espresso, hold the whip cream for Toph!"
Aang grinned as he watched the girl push against the table and stand up, pushing her way between people to get to the pick-up stand. She stood in front of him for a few moments, holding out her hand for the drink. He carefully handed it to her, not wanting to spill it, nervous under her sightless gaze. Something about her eyes…
"Nice touch with the extra shot of espresso. Anyways, thanks for the drink. See yah later, twinkletoes." Toph gave a few taps of her foot before making her way through the crowd again, not giving Aang a chance to respond. He stood there for a few minutes, staring after her. Twinkletoes? Where did that come from?
Without warning a familiar face blocked his line of sight, snapping him out of the thoughtless stupor he was in.
"Ok Aang, I haven't seen you so stupefied since the first time you saw that chick Katara. Take the rest of the day off and go talk to her," his friend Zuko insisted. Before he could refuse, Zuko was taking off his apron for him and grabbing the hand towel from off his shoulder.
"But Zuko, someone's got to watch-"
"No, Aang. I'm your assistant manager, I think I can handle this. It's time for you to go home anyways, you closed last night and opened this morning. Now for once in your life, go have some fun outside of this dump."
With a sigh Aang walked over to the time clock and punched himself out. "Fine, I'll go. But just so you know, Leslie is on dish duty for the rest of the night. I know that given the chance she'll try to convince you otherwise. Oh, and before she leaves, remind her the importance of accepting and being kind to everyone, even if they're not around to hear or see." Zuko rolled his eyes. Aang wasn't officially a monk anymore, but everyone knew that if he had to go back to a monastery he'd settle right back in, if his constant ramblings about inner peace and all that mumbo-jumbo was anything to go by
Without waiting for a response Aang ran out the door, praying that Toph hadn't gotten too far. The street was busy, cars honking and the sidewalks crowded. With so much traffic she couldn't have gone-
"Took you long enough. I thought you'd never come out of that stink hole." Whipping around he found Toph leaning against the wall right next to the coffee shop's door. She really hadn't gone far at all, apparently. The young man gave an 'hmph' and crossed his arms, walking over to stand next to her.
"It's not a stink hole, it's a coffee shop. A pretty good coffee shop, too. So how's the long macchiato?" Tapping her foot some more, the girl grinned at his joke. Aang noted that her grin wasn't really a kind lighthearted grin, but it also wasn't a sinister grin. More like she was a twelve year old about to tell a joke that she knew her parents wouldn't approve of.
"Not too bad. I've had better, definitely had worse. And what did you add to this thing anyways? Let me guess, love and a positive attitude?" She said the last part mockingly, batting her eyelashes and sticking out her hip. Aang simply rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips, mockingly batting his eyelashes back, forgetting that she wouldn't even be able to see him do so.
"Cinnamon and nutmeg, but I bet the extra love and positive attitude that I added didn't hurt it either," Aang retorted with a chuckle. Toph simply flicked the middle of his forehead and snorted.
"Well, next time try and hold back a little on the love and positive attitude. My mom has added enough happiness and love into her cooking to last me a lifetime." Both chuckled at her little joke before they both fell silent. After a few moments the air around them started to grow awkward, at least for Aang. Looking over at Toph as she loudly gulped down her hot chocolate, she looked as if a giant bear could pounce at her at any moment and she wouldn't even mind. However, the boy felt the need to say something, bring up some sort of conversation. In the end, maybe it wasn't that he was feeling awkward, and it was simply a matter of being anxious to know more about this woman.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Aang cleared his throat. "So, do you tap dance or something?"
Toph choked on the hot chocolate she was working on swallowing, coughing and pounding on her chest. Aang looked around in a panic before reaching out to pat her on the back, only for his hand to be swatted away.
"Hands off, twinkletoes." Toph coughed for a few more seconds before continuing. "And no, I don't do anything sissy like tap dance, ugh. I'd rather be caught dead. I tap because it's how I see. My eyes don't work worth crap, so I tap the ground and feel the vibrations of everything around me. That's how I see. So what's a good place to get some grub around here?"
Aang didn't even have a chance to look at her in amazement like he was tempted to because without any warning Toph's hand had wrapped itself around his wrist and he was being dragged through the crowd. Easily weaving his way through the crowd he followed the abrasive girl, noting how she didn't weave her way through people. No, instead she just pushed her way through. She parted the crowd, made her own path, without even trying.
"Umm, well I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask considering I'm a vegetarian. There's a pretty good noodle grill on 2654 South though, if you want to give that a try." Aang continued swerving and Toph continued stomping a path through the crowd, neither being even slightly phased by the shoulders that would occasionally bump into them.
"I don't know where 2654 South is, describe an obvious landmark around that area." Spotting an available sitting bench, he grabbed her arm and sat her down next to him.
"Let's take a second, I've been on my feet all day and they're starting to cramp."
"What a lily-liver. Fine, we'll sit, but you're going to be my foot rest."
Once they were situated she immediately yanked her arm away, going back to loudly sipping on her drink. She lifted her legs up so that they were draped across Aang's lap, her back leaning against the armrest on her side of the bench. The tattooed boy simply couldn't get over how little craps this woman had to give. Looking down at her feet he saw that he had been right earlier, the bottoms of her shoes were cut off.
"Anyways, why don't I just take us to the grill?"
"Because I have a feeling you couldn't make your way around a rose bush without a map." Aang blushed and scratched the back of his head, knowing that she wasn't exactly wrong. He was always too busy being lost in his own head to really pay attention to things like directions. One of Toph's legs dropped off his lap onto the ground, beginning its tapping.
"Well, there's a park right across the street from the shop. It's got a swing set, a giant slide, a few sets of monkey bars, and a rock climbing-"
"Found it."
The tapping stopped and Aang blinked at her as she casually sipped on her drink.
"Vibrations, twinkletoes. Parks aren't that hard to find if you know what kind of vibrations metal makes."
With that explanation, Aang leaned back and relaxed, taking a moment to sort out his thoughts. Aang may have spent most of his time at the coffee shop, but really he was quite adventurous. He had met all kinds of people, been all over the place and done so many different things that most people would run away from without a second thought. But this girl? She was already wearing him out. She seemed to move at her own pace, going fast then slow and then speeding ahead again. With all the people he's met, so far she was the most interesting, and he'd only known her for less than an hour.
"Why do you keep calling me twinkletoes? Do you even know my actual name?" She shrugged, tapped her foot one last time before swinging it back up onto his lap, and then threw her empty cup into the nearest trash can.
"Cause you're extremely light on your feet. I've come in a lot and you're usually there. Every single time, your footsteps are the faintest. Sometimes it's like you're not even there, almost like you're walking on air. So I've always just called you twinkletoes in my head. Is there a problem with that?" She brought her hand up and stuck her finger in her ear, digging around for god knows what.
Aang shrugged. When put like that, it was actually a pretty clever nickname. "No, not a problem. I mean I guess I'm light on my feet, I've spent my whole life practicing Ba Gua and a tad bit of Xingyiquan. Kinda gotta be light on your feet for that, I guess." Growing up as a Tibetan monk did have its perks, after all.
"Ba Gua? That spiny martial art? No wonder why you're always twirling around the coffee shop. I practice Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu. We'll have to spar sometime, see how fast I can kick your butt." Aang laughed when she punched him on the shoulder.
"I think I may be able to hold my own for longer than you think. But that's cool that you practice martial arts too. That kind of style of Kung Fu is pretty different from what I'm used to, it'd be interesting."
"Yeah, it would be."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, Aang comfortably watching the crowds pass by and Toph tap-tap-tapping on the ground and fiddling with her bracelet. The sun was shining bright, hurting the young boy's eyes slightly, but he didn't mind. For the first time in a long while, he didn't feel the constant need to run around and be going at 100 miles an hour. He felt perfectly fine just sitting down next to this weird stranger, enjoying the sights and smells and maybe even having a fun conversation.
He'd have to stay in touch with her.
Without warning a hand was clutching onto the collar of his shirt and he was being dragged onto his feet and through the crowd. Again.
"Enough chatting, time for food, lily-liver!"