A/N: How do I like…show up on Tumblr? Do I just say "Yo! What up?" and hope to attract people? I mean I know how to work Tumblr, but fandom blogs are different from random, personal, let's post pretty things! blogs. Know what I mean? How do I Tumblr? (/rant)


Exacerbation


For whatever reason, Toph had decided to leave Aang be for a couple of days after their rather introspective lunch date. Though, he supposed in keeping with the belief that it was possibly the most uncomfortable experience of Aang's life, he had stopped calling it a date and referred to it only as the lunch interrogation. Either way, the Avatar hadn't seen a trace of the elusive Earthbender anywhere in his walks through the city that he had taken to indulging in when his duties as the Earth King's temporary advisor were getting to be too much.

He didn't want to say that Toph was a distraction per se, but he definitely noticed the difference in his demeanor once the girl had decided to leave him with the thoughts and theories she had implanted into his brain for him to mull over and consider. Thinking on it now, perhaps this was the intention behind her absence because the last handful of hours were filled with meetings, contract drafting, consultations, and so so many arguments that made Aang feel older than he actually was. He caught himself multiple times with his shoulders slumping, his head pounding, and his exhaustion becoming an all encompassing feeling as opposed to a minor ailment that was the result of lack of sleep. Aang slept, ate, and took care of himself, but the mood never quit. He wondered why he had never noticed it before.

Even now, walking through a particularly crowded section of the Upper Ring with so many bustling civilians filled with so much energy and excitement—where did it come from, and why was it everywhere?—caused Aang's stomach to curl in on itself and induce the overwhelming desire to just run, lock himself up in his room, and never come out. He didn't understand why everyone's happiness made him feel like bolting. Maybe it was because they actually enjoyed the places they were going and the people they were with. Everything was new and nothing was repeated. Variety. Change. A challenge.

Aang rubbed a hand down his face. Dammit. What am I even saying?, he berated himself. When on Earth did he ever start thinking like this? It couldn't have been possible that he was only just now noticing these awful moods because Toph pointed them out. Was he really so oblivious to himself that he couldn't even realize when he had dug himself into a hole too deep for him to try and get out of?

You don't notice what's wrong with yourself and your life until you start comparing.

Aang shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed out, his breath coming out in a large puff of white that furled in front of him until it disappeared only three inches from his face. For some reason, the image intrigued him and he kept doing it—breathing in, breathing out, watching his breathe disappear, and repeating. It relaxed him and it helped him think clearly without letting his thoughts become depressing. The very idea of dwelling on how his life compared to others only made him feel worse about his thoughts and actions as of late, and if Aang was being perfectly honest with himself, he wanted to enjoy the ignorance just a little bit longer before Toph decided to intervene. Besides, it was scary to think that even these seemingly happy people that made Aang feel worse about himself were actually just the same as him. They were just leagues better at hiding it.

Sokka had noticed Aang was rather put out and not taking his job seriously for the past few days. The warrior didn't know about the verbal lashing he had received from an old friend, but it was obvious to the older man that when Aang was dipping his brush into his tea and not his inkpot, and misspelling words that he learned when he was probably ten, something was horribly wrong. Aang didn't want to talk about it—how could he, and where would he even start?—and Sokka wasn't very good at pulling confessions out of people. He said himself that he wasn't very good at sorting through emotional baggage and trying to salvage it—that was always his sister's department. Instead, the warrior told him to take a break for the morning and take a walk around the city. The fresh air would sober him up and do him good.

A grimace formed across Aang's face as he approached a public park already crawling with families and children taking walks and playing games. It was strange for so many people to be occupying the park when the weather wasn't exactly warm, but he supposed that the scenery was nice enough for others to take advantage of in some way. Besides, he rather liked the idea of surrounding himself with trees, bushes, and lawns of grass as opposed to the claustrophobic feel of rows and rows of buildings all around him.

Finding an empty stone bench right by a fountain that had been turned off for the winter, Aang plopped down on the seat and leaned his elbows on his knees. He let his head slump forward as he continued to watch all the people that passed by him in a blur of dark, earth colors that were so prevalent in the Earth Kingdom when it was this cold out. He almost wished it was Spring when the people were a little bit more eager to display some brighter colors in their wardrobe. Maybe it would have made him feel better.

He wasn't sure how long he was sitting down and staring into space before he heard a throaty laugh echo behind him. Aang's head turned to look over the back of the seat and was so tempted to grimace at the sight before him, get up, and run away.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is?" Aang couldn't forget that face anywhere. Granted, there was a distinct lack of makeup and lot less visible skin, but he was almost positive this was the girl he had found trouble with that night when Toph had valiantly rescued him by pure luck—or, given recent admissions, the result of "promising to keep an eye on him."

Her hair was loose and hanging down her back as opposed to piled up on the top of her head like it was that night. She was carrying a bag over her shoulders and looked like she had just come across the biggest opportunity for entertainment all day. She hugged her coat closer to herself and sent a sickeningly sweet smile over to the Avatar that made him want to shudder.

The girl sauntered over to Aang and jumped over the back of the bench. She placed her feet on the seat and sat down on the back of the bench so that she could look down at Aang. "Didn't think I'd run into you again, cutie. What a messed up coincidence."

Aang glared in her direction and kept his body rigid. "What in the hell do you think you're doing?"

She raised her eyebrows and jutted her head out towards the crowds of people in front of them. "Um, enjoying the pleasures of a very much public park? I can sit wherever I want, genius." The girl frowned and cradled her chin in her hands. "Shit, you make it sound like I'm some sort of criminal."

"You might as well be," Aang snarled, shifting in his seat away from the girl. "I have every right to have you arrested or something."

The girl placed a hand on her heart and pouted. "Oh, my aching heart. How ever will I go on?" She laughed that same throaty, sensual laugh and started turning a ring on her finger. "Can't you get over that already? It happened days ago."

"You could have killed me!" he practically shouted.

"Oh, please, you drama queen," the girl scoffed. "I think I knew what I was doing. Besides, I was only doing my job. I have a commission to keep up with. I wasn't about to get fired because you were acting like a virgin about the whole thing. And anyway, you're alive, aren't you?"

Aang scowled and was very tempted to just get up from his seat and walk away in order to salvage whatever peace he was supposed to be seeking when Sokka had all but kicked him out of the hotel and told him to sort himself out before he even thought about marching back. But the culmination of the events that made up this particularly peculiar trip made him downright defensive and desperate to explain himself in some degree, even if it was to this stranger.

He refused to look her way when he answered. "You're missing the point, and I wasn't acting like a virgin about anything! You attacked me."

She shook her head and looked up towards the sky as if she couldn't believe the words that were coming out his mouth. "Whatever you say, pretty boy. All I know is that you looked fucking terrified, like you'd never had a girl on top of you or something." She laughed at the memory and turned to start digging through her pockets while Aang seethed next to her.

"Don't assume you know anything," Aang muttered under his breathe, still not believing whom he was arguing with, and defending his very much apparent sex experience, for that matter. It didn't matter how long it had been. First Toph was criticizing him about his relationship, now this girl.

She looked almost shocked for a moment with the way her eyes suddenly widened, but then her face split into a grin and she started biting her lip in a futile attempt to stifle a raucous life. "Oh. I forgot who I'm talking to." The girl leered at Aang and put her face close to his. "Your little girlfriend not satisfied or something?"

Aang's temper was already spilling over—something that he had previously been proud to say had not happened in a very long time—and he decided to storm off and walk down the path and out of the park with as much dignity as he could manage. Forget getting fresh air anymore. He just wanted to finish his work, maybe crawl into bed for the day and sulk, and hope that Toph didn't choose today to lead him through what would probably be a grueling intervention. Running into this girl was just further complicating things and upturning his day far more than he wanted to admit.

Nothing had turned out well this entire visit, so he wasn't even going to bother being surprised or shocked when the girl jumped off the bench and followed him. "Are you seriously running away from me the minute I say something uncomfortable? God, no wonder you got cold feet that night. You are something else…"

Aang twisted around sharply, his eyes glaring fiercely. "Why are you following me? Why do you care about my business? I'm having a bad day, and you're making it worse."

He didn't get a response other than a delicately raised eyebrow. "Spirits. Bei Fong must seriously be giving you issues."

Aang caught himself about to yell at her again before he paused and stared strangely back. "Wait…Bei Fong? What are you talking about?"

She was digging through her pockets again and pulled out some black gloves to cover up her hands in the rather nippy weather that was completely unsuited for this conversation. "Bei Fong? You know, your girlfriend? Oh, and thank her by the way for the huge ass bump she left on the side of my fucking head. It still hurts, and I didn't even do anything wrong. She should be yelling at you."

Aang blinked. "…Toph Bei Fong? You know her?" How on Earth did this girl possibly know a noble like Toph Bei Fong?

She nodded and pushed Aang's shoulder back, nodding for him to keep walking as her eyes darted around to make sure that no one would hear their conversation. At least the girl had at least some propriety when it came to privacy.

"Yeah, I know her. Met her about a month ago" she sighed. She comes over a lot over some heat she has with one of our regulars at the hall I work at," she began to explain with a roll of her eyes that seemed filled with annoyance and contempt. "I'm the one he's seeing, so she comes and asks me about him. What he talked about, what he's doing, stuff like that."

As much as he did not like being seen with a trollop like this one, he couldn't help but be rather intrigued at the accidental slip of information that she had offered him. It probably didn't mean anything—Toph had been in the city for so long and she was certainly entitled to know others aside from him—but he couldn't help but wonder who this mysterious man was that Toph seemed to interested in tracking down for well over a month. His thoughts wandered back to the first moment he spotted her—in a dance hall and leaning against another man. He wondered briefly if this person she had been tracking a month ago was just another guy she had wrapped herself up with. For reasons he didn't care to elaborate on at the moment, the thought didn't sit well with him.

He chewed on his lip and asked, "How long was that going on?"

The girl turned to him quickly and stared at him up and down. "What're you asking me for? She's your squeeze, shouldn't you know about her ex's?"

"Look, she isn't my girlfriend!" Aang finally replied.

Eyes widened in response and the girl rested her hand under her chin. "Oh, seriously? Damn, my bad," she chuckled to herself, staring at Aang out of the corner of her eye. "Man, what the hell was she being all defensive over you for? You guys are friends or something?"

Aang shrugged his shoulders and scratched the back of his head. "I guess you could say that."

The girl laughed loudly and Aang had to control himself to keep from hitting her in the back of the head so that she could keep her voice down and avoid drawing attention. "You guess? You mean you don't know? Plus you seem awfully interested in this guy she was seeing."

"I was just worried about her, that's all," Aang defended himself, and decided not to elaborate any further on the fact.

He was already feeling extremely vulnerable however. In his anger and frustration, he only just realized how much information and material for speculation he had just given this girl, and he could already tell by the small smirk forming on the girl's face that she was already putting two and two together. He wasn't sure what she was figuring out and what she was assuming, but it just made him kick himself even more and wish that he had just ignored Sokka and stayed inside like he had originally planned.

Aang had long abandoned the idea of just walking away and leaving the girl to her own devices. For some reason, he was uncomfortable leaving her with her speculations and assumptions and didn't want her running off and thinking something outrageous. In all honesty, he shouldn't have cared. She didn't know who he was. However, his fears were confirmed when she suddenly pushed Aang behind a building—obscuring them from the view of the passerby on the street—and yanked off the cap on Aang's head.

He didn't have time to cover up his tattoo before she saw it and grinned triumphantly at the sight. "I knew it. I fucking knew it! No wonder you know Bei Fong so well. Spirits, you look so much like your pictures now! How did I not put this together sooner? Oh my…" She dissolved into hysterical laughter then. She didn't even have the strength to properly clutch the hat in her fingers when Aang reached forward and snatched it back with a flush all over his face. The girl was smarter than he gave her credit for. This wasn't good at all. Nobody knew much about Aang. But the Avatar's business was practically common knowledge across the world at this point.

In an attempt to get away and avoid any questioning—it was too late to stop her speculating now that she pretty much just confirmed all she needed to—Aang jogged out of the alley and began to make his way back the way he came to go back to his hotel.

The girl, however, was very persistent. "This is all starting to make sense, you know," she called behind him. "Fidelity issues must suck, huh?"

For the umpteenth time, Aang turned back to this girl that seemed to be far too intuitive for her own good. His anger began to slowly fizzle out at the sound of the word "fidelity." Suddenly, as if he was just drenched with ice water, dread began to creep up in his veins as he stared at the girl's knowing smile. "How…what do you even…?" He couldn't finish his sentence.

"I'm just assuming," the girl began, "because you're apparently very much committed to a famous Water Tribe war veteran. Water Bender, right?" She walked closer, like she was purposefully trying to pressure Aang. "Toph makes you act pretty nervous. Plus, you seemed pretty shaken up over the fact that she could hang out with any other guy that isn't you." She must have easily read Aang's confused expression, because she immediately smiled and said, "I work in a place littered with relationship drama. This isn't exactly hard to puzzle together."

Just the knowledge that someone else could possibly pick up on the obsession with Toph's business that even he couldn't quite place justification behind made his heart drop lower down into his stomach than it already had. All hatred and annoyance had evaporated and was instead replaced with a guilt and confusion that had riddled his head initially. He was just switching back and forth between the two extremes, and frankly he was sick of it.

It must have shown in his face, because the girl stopped her grinning and frowned at him much like she would a child sitting on the floor in a puddle of tears. "Aw come on, now! Don't cry about it. Look, I was just teasing you, okay? It's not—no! No, come on cut it out."

Aang rolled his eyes. "I'm not crying!" he snapped petulantly. "I'm just sick and tired of everyone pointing this out to me, and I don't even know you!"

The girl nodded with a tilt to her head, silently agreeing at the statement. "Alright, alright, I got you. People pointing out your mistakes. Not fun." She shrugged this away and smirked at him. "But hey. Shit tends to happen for a reason. Keeps things interesting, tests resilience, things like that."

Aang muttered, "I can do without the endurance tests, thank you very much."

"Not what I meant," the girl amended, slapping a hand on Aang's shoulder. "Nine times out of ten, when you're in the middle of a shit storm and suddenly life seems totally unfair and you wish that someone would just strike you down and end it all, it usually means you're about to come to an epiphany."

"What kind of epiphany?" Aang frowned with a raised brow.

"Oh you know," the girl waved casually. "A change of perspective. In your case, your love life is in need of some serious revamping. You're obviously missing something from home. That's why you came here, found a pretty old friend, and are questioning your impenetrable Avatar morals."

"You make it sound like I did on purpose!" he argued.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Whatever! Missing the goddamn point. Whether on purpose or by accident, there's some void in you. I don't know what the hell it is; I'm not your therapist. But whatever it is that you're missing, you need to get your fix. Otherwise you're going to turn into a ball of nerves and guilt that sits on park benches and yells at innocent bystanders."

Aang stared ahead pensively. Get his fix? Just like that? She made it sound so easy. Then again, it was easy for a girl like her to suggest that he should just throw caution to the wind and just chase after something appealing the minute he caught sight of it like he was some wild animal. That sounded like something a twelve-year-old Toph would tell him to do: screw the consequences, go after what you want, deal with the crashing and burning later. Somehow that seemed far too simplistic an answer, and he felt like Toph knew that now. Otherwise, he was sure she would have jumped to this conclusion right away. But something else was bothering him over everything else.

"Well, what am I missing?" he asked desperately, more to himself than to his unwanted companion.

The girl shook her head sadly. "Hell if I know. You're your own fucked up puzzle. You figure it out. Besides, it wasn't my intention to get all philosophical with a past client."

Aang blushed and couldn't help the raising of his voice. "I was never your client!"

The girl was picking through her bag and giving Aang only half of her attention. "Details, details. Look, it's been fun and all, but I seriously gotta go." She pulled out some expensive shoes that looked ten times nicer and more expensive than the street shoes she was wearing at the moment. "I've got a commission to keep up with. Heard the guy's rich, so I gotta get ready."

Aang winced, wishing that he didn't hear the nature of her prior obligations. "Yeah, okay…"

She looked up and saw Aang's embarrassment evident all over his face and couldn't help but chuckle to herself. "I'm still sticking to the whole virgin thing. You're too much." She slung the bag back over her shoulder and held the shoes with her index and middle fingers hooked inside. "Name's Miku, by the way. Just in case you ever want to pour your romanticized heart out again."

Something told Aang he should probably thank her for the—albeit very strange—advice, but he wasn't exactly sure what to do with the information she gave him. Plus, he was still trying to figure out how in the world he managed to even get himself into a mess like this.

Miku must have sensed his confusion because she didn't wait for a thank you or a farewell. She gave a mock salute with the hand holding her shoes and marched off down the street in the other direction, probably off to one of the large estates here in the Upper Ring where a client was eagerly waiting with a wad of cash up front and ready.

Aang scratched his head and turned in the other direction, deciding that he had gotten enough fresh air for the afternoon. Something about just going headlong into a situation as delicate as this one didn't seem right to him. But this girl knew hardly anything about him and came to almost the same conclusion as Toph—although with far different courses of action. He'd been denying himself something, and all he had to do was figure out what it was. Hopefully, Toph would help him with what very question in the most gentle and nonintrusive way as possible. But knowing the girl's track record, that was likely to be impossible. He could do all he could to hope, though.

However, during his long walk back to the hotel, something that Miku had offhandedly mentioned was beginning to bother him now that he was taking the time to think it through.

Who on Earth was that guy that Toph found was important enough to keep tabs on for over a month? Toph being in that bar was no coincidence that night. Chance wasn't that kind to Aang despite the fact that he was a pretty lucky guy. That meant that Toph had gone there on purpose. More specifically, she had gone to Miku's room on purpose and just happened to find Aang in a huge spot of trouble. What did Toph say she was doing? Trying to find a man that cheated on his wife there? Maybe it was the same man that Miku had been referring to.

But why was Toph still trying to track him down?

Aang wandered around for a little bit more before he ventured back into the hotel. He managed to stop by and get a bite to eat—not really caring that he could get food for free if he went to the hotel—and picked up some extra bottles of ink and scrolls of parchment, since he was almost positive that he was running out. He also wasn't too keen on the fact that the moment he came back to the room, it would just be more writing, more stressing, maybe some dinner, and then bed. Then he'd have the lovely pleasure of waking up to do it all over again.

"Well, today turned out to be positively lovely," Aang muttered to himself sarcastically. He halted his step for a moment, only just now listening to himself and frowned. Since when did he sound so negative and sarcastic? The dark humor and sarcasm was usually Zuko's department. His frown kept on his face as he thought through the events of the day as he waved a hello to the woman at the front desk and trudged to the staircase.

He made his way to the top floor and pulled out the key to his room. As he fiddled with the lock, he could have swore he heard Sokka's laugh echo through the wood of the door. He shrugged it off. Sokka had the tendency to get delirious when he was stressed. Maybe he was seeing giant mushrooms again or something, Aang thought with a smile.

As Aang shed his coat and hung it on a hook to the side, he looked into the living with a start and would have jumped back and screamed had he been twelve all over again.

Sitting at the small table covered in parchments, scrolls, brushes, and wells of ink were Toph and Sokka laughing over a private joke, sharing drinks and sampling some appetizers brought up from the kitchens downstairs. Aang shook his head and couldn't help the creases that were beginning to form on his forehead. Of all the things to walk into. Here he was trying to take a walk and clear his head, and not only does he get accosted during the entirety of the trip, but any damage he may have tried to undo just relapsed.

Sokka did a double take and his eyes finally met Aang's. He smiled at him and waved him over to the living room. "Well, well, well. He has returned. Cleared up your head yet, or are you still struggling with basic grammar?"

Toph didn't bother to turn her head, but laughed at the comment before she reached forward to grab some berries. "Eh, the poor guy's all messed up." Toph called over her shoulder. "I heard the Earth King's got you whipped like he's your boyfriend or something."

Normally, Aang would have scowled at that comment and promptly defended himself—let alone the fact that, if he was being severely honest with himself, it was half true—he was more confused about the fact that Toph was just calmly sitting in his hotel room, talking to Sokka like the two of them hadn't been separated and on different sides of the world for seven years. He definitely hadn't been expecting this.

"Wait…what on Earth are you doing here?" Aang asked incredulously.

Toph shrugged, trying her hardest to look affronted. "What, I can't come and visit my two best friends after seven years? Honestly…"

"And you just knew where we were?" Aang asked again.

She rolled her eyes in response and chuckled at his statement as if he had just said something incredibly ignorant and stupid. "You're not exactly a stranger. I went into the most expensive hotel in the Upper Ring, dropped my name, and asked what room you were staying in. Wasn't hard."

Aang winced. That couldn't possibly be good. If becoming a convincing look alike was all it took to come up to his hotel room, that was rather worrying. It was bad enough that he had to sort through piles and piles of fan mail all day. Plus, the idea of Toph being able to find him so effortlessly at all was still bothering him. He hadn't quite gotten used that yet.

"Don't listen to her," Sokka insisted. "She's just being bratty. We're not that easy to find."

Toph laughed. "Says you. I'm hardly the only one with resources. The most expensive hotel in Ba Sing Se? If you're trying to go for the whole incognito spiel, your subtlety needs work. You know what? Scratch that. You have no subtlety."

Sokka rolled his eyes. "That's rich coming from you."

She crossed her arms and snuggled further into the plush couch. "Everything about me screams rich," she smirked.

Aang chuckled at the double meaning and moved into the living room. Figuring that he should probably play up the whole I-haven't-seen-Toph-until-now act for fear of Sokka picking up on any betraying information—no matter how miniscule—Aang reached over the couch and pulled Toph in for a one-armed hug. She smiled and returned the gesture, and smacked him on the side of his neck when he placed a kiss on the top of her head. Sokka laughed and rolled his eyes at the friendly exchange.

Aang plucked a few pieces of paper from the tabletop and started to flip through them, quickly scanning the plans he and Sokka were trying to outline before he left earlier. "I guess we can take a break from all the building plans then."

Sokka frowned. "Why?"

The Airbender sighed and looked outside. "Well, didn't you say that someone was coming in to review reconstruction plans?" One of the plans the Earth King had been trying to get in order was to rebuild a large section of the Upper Ring that had been destroyed by a rebellion attack by Fire Nation rogues a couple of months ago. Zuko took care of all of the nasty work of apprehending the perpetrators and punishing them accordingly, but the fact of the matter remained that there was some major work to be done to get that section of the city up and running. Between the fund offered through donations and through Zuko himself, Aang was left with the job of finding a company who could reasonably rebuild around twenty houses and public buildings within the available budget.

The Earth King might have been a fool, but her certainly wasn't the idiot that many people thought he was. At the very least, the man was very good with handling and divvying money and knew that there was absolutely no need for emptying necessary funds for a company who considered themselves overqualified. The only problem was that most companies thought this about themselves and had been haggling prices with the Avatar for weeks. One of the reasons Aang returned to Ba Sing Se during this occasion was to finalize these plans and hopefully get them up and running.

"Yeah," Sokka agreed. "That's still a thing. Kuei's kind off ticked off that it's taking so long, so it would be nice if we could get that done soon. Like now."

Aang frowned and pushed the papers back onto the table as he sat down next to Sokka and across from Toph. "They're not here though. Aren't they late?"

Toph cleared her throat and reached towards the table, brushing her fingers over some pieces of parchment until they grabbed a thick and rather expensive looking piece. "Um, you're way behind on the uptake there, Twinkle Toes. The only one who came late was you."

"What are you talking about?" Aang asked.

Toph sighed, held up a hand to silence him, and got up from her seat. "Never mind. If you're here, we can start, I guess." She gestured to Sokka. "Can I just call down the hall for an employee? I need to send my scribe up."

Sokka stood. "I'll get him, don't worry. You fill Aang in on everything."

"Sure thing. Just make sure he's got everything before you drag him up here. He tends to get really nervous and forgets what he's doing," she grumbled under her breath. "Hurry up!"

"Yeah, yeah," Sokka assured as he exited the room, leaving Aang on the couch with a face twisted in complete bewilderment.

Aang eyed Toph warily and dropped his gaze to the parchment she was still holding. "Um…" he began.

Toph smiled wryly. "Yeah, sorry. I came after you freaked out and needed to clear your head. The point was to meet all at once, but since you're here…"

She dropped her smirk and immediately relaxed her shoulder and tipped her chin up the way that she did whenever she bribed people for ferry tickets or posed as a noble to get into a party and needed to make her name drop seem convincing. Although, he was sure that now it was less of a name drop and more of an assertion of very apparent influence. His eyes widened before his introduction, remembering that Toph had truthfully said that she had come to Ba Sing Se to handle legal—and apparently aesthetic—business.

She held out her hand. "Toph Bei Fong, owner and chief financial advisor of North Lotus Contracting. It's a pleasure to be doing business with you."

OOO

It took two and a half hours for Aang to finally finalize the opinion that he was prepared to make anyway the moment he reached out to shake his best friend's hand.

Toph was damn good at her job.

The moment her scribe came up—a clumsy but very determined young man that looked about Toph's age but reminded Aang of her over zealous servant—scrolls and scrolls of schedules, financial budgets, permits and contracts ready for signing, and even lists of offered materials—"Hey, you never know if the Earth King wants to get fancy," she laughed—were poured out on the table for the two men to gawk at. Apparently, Toph liked to pick up the slack in her own company by heading her own projects. According to her, it was partly because she was bored, and partly because she still held onto that somewhat cocky personality that insisted she was the only one who could really do things right. Since her head contractor was away for the next month on a family emergency and because this project was for the Earth King, Toph decided to head it herself. Luckily, Toph was very thorough.

She breathed out again and slammed the stone table with both of her hands. Immediately, yet another small-scale model of a possible Upper Ring villa that the Earth King wanted built in various damaged parts of the city appeared. Despite her inability to be able to do much with a brush and ink, her ability to Earthbend accurate dimensions and impeccable structural detail was short of Godly.

"Kept the aesthetics more or less the same, as per your request," Toph began to explain in earnest, "but I figured you'd want something a little more fireproof. All the walls are stone with metal foundation inside, makes the walls more sturdy and will be a lot more weather resistant. We noticed that a lot of the land in between the villas wasn't being used, so I figured going out rather than up would actually be nice for a change. They'll have more rooms and more window space to keep the villas cool during the summer months. For the rest of the land, we'll get landscapers to come in and work out specifics with the owners of the houses, but for now they'll just layout the bare minimum. We can go over that later."

Toph snapped behind her, and her scribe produced another scroll and handed it to Aang. "We outlined costs of materials and also the hourly wages for labor. I won't explain everything since it's all there , but I figured classy and cheap would please the stuffed shirts and keep things within a reasonable price range." The crossed her legs and leaned back against the couch. "Stop me if you have questions."

Sokka looked up from a scroll of land permits and raised a finger. "These permits…are they for…?"

"We can't expand the way I was saying without them," Toph shrugged. "Not necessary of course, but all those plots of land in between are untouched. Seems like a waste to me, and speaking from experience, nobles love showing off garden foliage. Makes them seem special. They'll love it. But, it's the Earth King's call," she ended, her foot nudging Aang's knee across from her.

Aang was biting his lip, looking over the prices that her scribe had outlined. He was more concerned about answering other questions. "I'm still trying to get over the fact that our little Toph is a ruthless business mogul."

The foot nudging turned into a sharp kick right into the middle of his kneecap that made Aang bite on his lip harder than necessary. "Shut up," she growled. "Plus, I'd hardly call it my own company. It was my idea and it's under my name, but Dad's backing it."

Aang looked up from his scroll at that piece of information. "Really?"

"Yup," Toph nodded. "North Lotus is a play on our surname and my first name. Bei Fong Exports is North Lotus's source of funding. All of our marble and precious stone exports go towards materials for our contracting projects, which is good because then we don't have to worry about other companies selling us crap materials. Plus, we kinda like to keep business within the family. Makes things less messy."

Sokka snorted and shook his head with a grin. "So you started a company because you were bored?"

The Earthbender smirked and shrugged. "Hey, I'm not a fan of listening to stuffed shirts run their mouths. How the two of you do it all day is beyond me. I don't have that kind of patience. I'd much rather sit behind my nice desk and run the big numbers."

Aang raised his brows at the scroll Toph's scribe had handed him. "Speaking of big numbers…"

Toph rolled her eyes and leaned forward so her elbows were resting on her knees. "Okay, big boy. Hit me," she said, waving towards herself. "Surely compromising is part of your illustrious resume."

The ease with which the three of them were able to slip into friendly banter was almost too fluid, and Aang had to wonder if Toph ever kept her worry over him in the back of her mind. Of course, Aang was more worried about the fact that Toph really didn't have to consciously do much to keep his eyes on her. All he could do was thank his excellent luck that Sokka was too busy decoding the complicated figures on the sheet in front of him and that Toph was blind, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to stare at her so freely.

He wasn't sure which Toph he liked better: the Toph that danced in dance halls with her hair down, or this Toph who looked so smart and confident lounging on the couch across from him.

As she was running through an alternate financial plan, Aang found that his eyes were straying so much that he couldn't even play it off if he tried. Her hair was pulled back completely. Even her bangs were swept back into an artful bun on the back of her head that left her face and neck exposed for him to draw his eyes to. Her dress reminded him of the light ensemble he had first seen her in, except this one was tighter at the waist and matched her sea foam green eyes better. Her legs were crossed at the knee and drew attention to how long and slender they were. Being dressed in those baggy travel pants she was so used to clearly hid some rather important information. Well, Aang thought it was important anyway.

Miku's suggestion to get his fix suddenly barreled into his thoughts so hard that he visibly blinked from the force of it. He nodded absently and accepted the terms they agreed to—whatever they were…he was sure Sokka had been keeping track of that—and licked his lips nervously. Gyatso had always told him that desires never died—they were only suppressed. No matter how bad thoughts and desires may have seemed to you now, you desperately vied for them at one point in time. Surely, such a fascination with this girl in front of him couldn't just be starting now. No matter how hard he fought and how many walls he threw up, things leaked through. Being the pacifist monk that he was, Aang understood the significance of stepping away from a futile fight.

Toph smiled dazzlingly as Aang leaned forward and signed the last of the permits and contracts that would finalize the deal. Her scribe began tying up all the scrolls and placing them back in the bag he was carrying as Toph nodded and began to stand to stretch her legs. "Well, that wasn't too painful. Pleasure doing business with you. I'm guessing we're going to be seeing a lot of each other soon, huh?" she winked.

Aang didn't know why—he was usually so good about these things—but he was pretty positive that the two of them interpreted the phrase "seeing a lot of each other" completely differently.

"Um, yeah," Aang smiled hesitantly, growing nervous from his betraying thoughts. "Definitely, I, uh…maybe I'll stop by sometimes to see how things are going."

"I'll hold you to that," Toph grinned. Toph turned around and placed a shoulder on her scribe's shoulder. "Everything all sorted out, then?"

"Yes, I have everything organized and ready to deliver to the necessary departments tomorrow morning," he answered back immediately.

"Wonderful. Make copies of everything and make sure that they're all on file for future reference. You can do that throughout the day tomorrow. Good work," she smirked at him and ruffled his neatly placed hair.

The boy sucked his teeth and ducked out of the way. "Ms. Bei Fong, cut it out!"

She made a face at him and shoved his shoulder gently. "Go on, get out of here! Take the rest of the day off. I'll be dealing with personal commitments for the rest of the day. But don't tell anyone, alright?"

The scribe widened his eyes for a moment, and then smiled brightly at the prospect of getting practically the entire afternoon off to do with what he wanted. "Oh my…th-thank you!" He bowed quickly and scampered out of the room, leaving the three old friends alone.

"Man, you sure made his day," Sokka commented with a smile.

Toph shrugged. "He deserved it. And anyway, like I said. I have personal things to catch up with now that all this gross professionalism is all over and done with."

"When you say 'personal things,' what exactly did you have in mind?" Sokka asked, his eyes lighting up at the prospect of having a night off after days of working endlessly.

"Well," Toph leered. "Certainly not the kind of fun I know you're thinking of. How about we stay away from the bars and dance halls and just hang out like a good set of friends, huh?"

"What, you can't appreciate bars and dance halls?" Sokka frowned comically. Aang shook his head. Sometimes, Sokka didn't even try to act like he had a girlfriend. In the back of his mind, he remembered that he still hadn't asked Sokka what happened to him the night that Aang slept over in Toph's suite. He knew he really didn't have the right to be judging Sokka for a wandering eye, but at least he was trying to be discreet about it. Aang did chuckle after he ran through Sokka's question a second time. He was pretty sure Toph knew how to appreciate dance halls and bars very well.

"We're in the middle of the work week. Unless you want to stroll into the Earth King's throne room with a hangover and slurring every fifth word, we're keeping it classy," she scolded.

Aang raised a brow. "How classy?"

Toph held her tongue in between her teeth as she reached up and pulled out the pin that was holding her hair up. Her bangs fell to the side of her face and half of her bun fell out so that her hair was at least partly loose. Toph's face visibly relaxed as she pocketed the pin. "Sorry. I had my secretary pull my hair back and I think my scalp was about to rip off."Aang's breath caught. Alright, maybe he really did prefer Toph with her hair hanging loose.

"Well, to avoid having to waste time and get changed into other clothes, let's just head down to the Middle Ring," Toph decided.

"That's it?" Aang asked.

Toph laughed at the incredulity in the Airbender's voice. "Have you seen the Middle Ring this morning?"

Aang looked to the side nervously and shook his head. He figured the Upper Ring would be a bit quieter in comparison to the other districts, so he dutifully avoided the Middle Ring since he was sure the multitude of shops and restaurants would attract a lot of people, something he was trying to avoid. Not that this necessarily worked out too well.

"Why, is there a new shop opening or something?" Sokka questioned.

Toph shook her head. "Remember when the Earth Kingdom used to have Fire Day Festivals for the Fire Nation citizens living away from the homeland?" Both men nodded.

"Well," the Earthbender continued, "Earth Kingdom citizens have taken to reclaiming that day and starting traveling Earth Day Festivals just for the heck of it. They stop by in Ba Sing Se once every season, and they just set up shop in the financial district."

Aang seemed extremely interested at the prospect of attending an Earth Kingdom festival after so many years. "Have you ever been?"

"Oh yeah," Toph assured her two friends. "Food, snacks, music, unofficial Earth Rumble tournaments…you know, I heard that there are some weird underground dance groups that mix Earth Bending and choreography or something. Earth Kingdom has the best dancers, so I wouldn't be surprised, but still. That should be pretty interesting. I saw them all setting up on my way here."

Sokka clapped his hands together and walked to one of the chairs set up on the side of the room where he haphazardly threw his coat. "You had me at food and snacks."

Toph rolled her eyes and walked to the front door to retrieve her own coat. "Glad to know your brain is still wired the same."

Aang couldn't help but agree. "He's still a little simple when it comes to food and women, unfortunately."

"Wouldn't have him any other way, I suppose," she sighed in mock disappointment. Her frown turned into a smirk as she elbowed Aang in between the ribs. "Though, I think this will be good for you. I think you need some wholesome fun for a change."

Aang almost didn't understand what she was getting at, but then he remembered that Toph had promised him she had some ideas on how to get him to snap out of his horrid mood brought about due to boredom and overall unhappiness with his romantic situation. Reevaluate, she had told him.

While Sokka was fixing up his appearance in the mirror, Aang dropped his voice and brought his lips near Toph's ear. "And you're sure this is going to help?"

The girl patted him gently on his back and whispered back to him. "You're problem is that you're focusing too much on what's gone wrong and not focusing enough on the magic you've got right in front of you. Try having some fun and enjoying yourself for a bit, will you? Then maybe you won't be so gloom and doom. We'll get into the sticky romance stuff later."

Aang nodded, trusting his friend enough that she knew what she was doing. He couldn't ignore that he was being given conflicting advice all over the place. He could throw caution to the wind and just go after what was catching his interest at the moment and finally find some satisfaction, or he could step back, realize that his attitude and general outlook were the problems, and understand that his disappointments weren't as all encompassing as he thought they were. There were merits to each course of action, but the question was which one would work the best.

Sokka finally buttoned his coat and pointed out the door. "Alright. Let's do this!"


A/N: Absences! I know I know I know, no excuses. I feel like "life" isn't a good enough answer, but that's all I've got to offer you. Good news is that my senior project is all wrapped up and done. I think I signed away half my soul trying to tie that one up.

Preview for next chapter:

There was no excuse this time that he could think of. This would totally shatter everything that he had been working to keep together for so many years and would cause a brand new strain of something to grow in it's place. And right now, it was growing faster and faster the more he stared.

Things are going to heat up very, very soon. This time, I won't keep you guys hanging for too long.