A/N: Wargy Wargy Avatar Owner? Nah, it just doesn't quite fit. At first I figured this one would be the most commonly written by others and therefore the hardest to put a fresh spin upon, but nothing like nods to the fandom and Wilde to make the scene twice as long as expected.


2. In which Aang and Toph consider their priorities and giant statues.

"It looks awesome, doesn't it?" Of course it was awesome. She'd stomped around it, climbed up and down all over it, felt the smooth sun-warmed metal beneath her fingers, and had even been tempted to change the pose, just a little bit, but had refrained at least until Aang had gotten to see it for himself. There was just something about the majesty of the work that left it off-limits until all her students had gotten a chance to see.

"It's a statue, all right," Aang agreed, walking around the base and then summoning up enough wind to examine it from a higher angle. Normally it annoyed Toph when he flew out of her sensory range, but it was worth it if he properly appreciated the artwork. "And your students at the academy did this?" he asked as he landed.

"All with metal-bending." Toph crossed her arms and attempted to keep her grin smug instead of idiotically giddy. "There's stone beneath, but I called dibs on the first solid gold larger-than-life statue and I wanted to give them the chance to practice before my close-up."

"Well, they did a great job, considering that I haven't been able to stop by Republic City very often." Aang rubbed the top of his head, rasping uncomfortably at the stubble. "It really does look like me."

"You know that if I didn't have kids to teach, I'd be running all around the various nations with fewer diplomatic conferences and more camping in the dirt, so don't feel bad about not visiting more often." Toph punched him in the arm. Because he was the Avatar, she figured that meant he needed more people to poke at him - Mai, Suki, and the universe in general knocked enough sense into Zuko and Sokka on a regular basis, but Katara sheltered her husband like a mother polar bear-dog, the poor silly thing. "What you should feel bad about is if you've been slacking off in your training - I've got nine-year-old boys bending rings of iron in half without touching them, so if I find you need a seven-step song and dance number to lift a pebble, we're gonna start over from scratch," Toph threatened.

"I'm good," Aang insisted. Toph sent a cobblestone flying at shoulder-height, satisfied when a patch of the street between them erupted in a defensive shield.

She tapped the stone twice against the barrier before smoothing out the mess. "Two for flinching. Not too bad, though."

"Hey, Toph? Did you mean to pull from the statue just now?" Aang asked.

Toph's unseeing eyes narrowed. Why would she dismantle this statue of her first student, made by her protégés? "Of course not. And I can figure out where I'm taking my materials from."

"I swear it wasn't me," Aang protested. The blind woman just held up a hand.

"Can it, Twinkle-toes. Hold still and keep the wind down for me. Anybody walking suspiciously around here?" Most of the crowd gave the Avatar an awed berth, especially with the prickly Metal-bending master at his side. Toph cultivated a wide berth of her own, outside the school. But there was someone breathing guiltily, and it wasn't just Aang. She could faintly make out the echoes of a pounding heartbeat, the tremble of feet as someone huddled off balance due to extra weight…

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The voice rose in pitch and volume over the sound of clattering metal as Toph stepped towards the frightened sounds. She put her fists on her hips and stared above the culprit.

"Maybe we ought to talk about what's going on before we jump to any conclusions," Aang attempted to soothe the flustered captive. "She's younger than Bumi," Aang murmured. "My Bumi."

"So, kid, what are you doing with a hunk of gold from the Avatar statue?" Toph asked. Aang elbowed her, but Aang was always a big old softie.

"Well, while you were bending… I figured no one would miss it; it's just a little from the base and it's mostly rock, but it's enough for at least three meals if I take it easy…" The Avatar's robes rustled as he knelt before the thieving little kid. Aw, Aang wasn't going to fall for the same sort of sob story they'd pulled at that age, was he?

"What's your name, sweetie? Don't you have someone who can help take care of you?" Yes, he was. Toph groaned under her breath.

"M-m-my name is… Do I have to tell her my name?" the kid stuttered.

"Yeah, 'cause I'll be the one keeping you in protective custody until your parents show up." She could feel Aang's nudge of wind, an unspoken warning to dial it back, but screw that.

The girl's voice dropped even further. "That could be a while… they're - not around anymore."

"Perhaps I should take her with me," Aang suggested softly.

Toph snorted. "You and Katara take care of your own kids. I can handle one self-trained bender."

"Toph…" While Aang wasn't shy about using the old "hundred-and-thirty-six-year-old reincarnation of the world's spirit raised to the standards of an extinct culture and master of five different types of bending" line to dance to the beat of his own horn, he did try to be nice to everyone, and sometimes that meant subtly encouraging Toph to recognize her own faults and step back so that others could cover for them.

One of her main flaws was a deaf ear to subtlety. Another was pigheadedness. She looked upon these traits as something to be proud of. "Let me have a better look at you, kid." Toph stepped even with the voices and squatted next to Aang, finding the chunk of defaced masonry with one hand as she leaned in towards the girl.

She was a skinny little thing, curled into a shaking ball, but by the spirits, she underestimated herself even if she had no touch at haggling and that was "mostly rock" coming up to Toph's knee. "Do you really have to shout at people to see them?" the kid asked. Toph laughed hard enough that she probably could see the kid in the echoes, if she'd bothered to pay attention. "I know a couple colonist kids, and they told me stories about the Avatar and company," the girl explained sheepishly.

Her chin was turned slightly to Toph's right when she reached out to clasp the jaw line, towards Aang. "And you still took a bit off the statue right in front of the guy it's based on? I'm blind, but you have guts, kid."

"Toph, I appreciate that your students did a great job on the statue, a really great job, but there are other things that are more important right now," Aang said, as if she didn't already know. "Not to be ungrateful, but maybe the gold plating could be put to better use than making me look fancy."

Toph punched his arm, her hand still gently cupping the girl's face. "No point in putting it up where people will just try to chip it off the block, anyway."