On with the show…

Erzi leaned on his cane, smirking at Aang's shocked expression. As he took a seat next to his father, Aang's face slowly turned back to normal.
"So if you're the prince, what were you doing in those clothes?" Erzi chuckled at this and helped himself to some chicken.
"Well, I like to relate to my subjects so I guess wearing their clothes applies as such."
"Also, you've got no fashion sense." The King intoned from next to Erzi. The prince glared his father, who simply burst out laughing at his son's expression, which immediately softened as he joined his father in laughter.
"You can't blame be for hating royal clothes. You designed them." He shot back, smirking. His father returned an equally amused look.
"What can I say? I am no artist."
Both father and son burst out laughing at this soon the others joined in.
"You will make a find King one day, Erzi." The King said, slapping his son on the back. Erzi smiled back at him.
"I'll have one heck of an act to follow."

For the next hour or so the royal family, which the gang gathered at this point was just Erzi and his father, and the 4 young warriors swapped stories of their exploits and the Thunder Kingdom. Sokka prided himself in telling the tale of how he single-handedly took down a Fire Nation war balloon, a story which everyone present had heard many times, and described his training with the legendary Pian Doa, while Aang humbly described his incredible feat of Energybending.
"We will have to give you lessons in Skybending, young Avatar." The King said thoughtfully after hearing this. Aang looked down at his food sheepishly.
"I…can't." He said, reluctantly. "It's just that…you see…we've just come out of a major war and…the people reallyneed me to keep the peace." The King smiled at his words.
"You are wise beyond your years, Aang." He said, rising. "However, I am sure that you are familiar with the phrase, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. But teach that man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime" are you not?"
Aang nodded as the King's words sank into him.
"If the people of the world expect you to help them at every turn, they will never learn to fight their own battles. You must give them time to learn or doom them forever."
Aang looked at the King, shocked, but found that there was nothing he could say in return. The King was right.
"He's got a point Aang." Katara chimed in. "Remember Haru and his father? If I hadn't convinced them to rebel against the guards, imagine what might have happened. The Fire Nation would have probably kept at arresting Earthbenders until none were left."
"I agree with Katara, Aang." Sokka said, his face serious. "I say you stay here and master Skybending. That way when you return, you'll have a new way to help people. And you'll probably be able to shoot THUNDER!" Sokka cried, doing a rather awful impersonation of an Airbender.
"We'll even let Toph stay with you, just in case you get lonely." Katara butted in, trying to halt her brother's antics. From his right, Toph slugged Aang softly in the arm.
"Don't worry, Twinkle Toes. I'll make sure you don't end up toasting yourself." She smiled. Aang looked at Sokka and Katara but their expressions told them all he needed to know.
"Alright." Aang said to the King, smiling. "I'll stay."

After the grand feast, the small party of Sokka, Katara, Aang and Toph excused themselves to bed. Aang quickly checked on Momo, who was comfortably settled in the royal stables. He also saw to it that Appa was well fed for his journey the next day.
"I'll see you soon, buddy." Aang said, slightly tearfully, to the sky bison he had known since before the dark times of the war. The faithful beast snored in return and Aang, contented with his lifelong companion's reply, left to bed.

At night the entire palace slept. No servants were afoot, and no sounds were made. There was not even a single creak in the majestic compound's foundation which made it seem like the entire city had gone to sleep. This was indeed the case, as by now every citizen, performer and soldier was asleep, setting a comfortable silence over the city of Lei jin shi.
Well, almost everyone was asleep.
A lone figure darted through the halls of the palace, limping slightly as it made its way up to the royal home's grand observatory. Taking the stairs two at a time, the figure threw open a set of double doors and stared dreamily into the night sky.
Erzi sighed softly as the light of the stars and the moon softly caressed his face. In the soft light, his every feature was given a steady blue glow, from his lithe but strong form, his sharp facial features and the blue arrows that adorned his forehead and arms. Slowly exhaling, Erzi moved into a fighting stance, his fists up, guarding his face and his knees bent, ready to move at a moment's notice.
Getting on one knee, Erzin reared his left fist back and slowly pushed his right outwards. Immediately, the soft hum of the thunder within him was heard throughout the silent room and the pale moonlight that surrounded Erzi steadily grew brighter. As the hum slowly faded, Erzin rose to his feet and bowed to an invisible master. As soon as his body came out of the bow, Erzin widened his stance and performed a series of kicks, each one becoming more complex than the last. As he traversed the sides of the room, streaks of light began to slice the air each time one of his kicks soared. And each time Erzi's legs would tear through the night air, a tremendous pressure would increase within him. Finally, as he completed a full circle of the room, Erzin sank on his knees. Gathering all the energy he had left, Erzin sprang to his feet and fired a massive bolt of light though the open roof of the observatory, which left a loud roar of thunder within its wake.
Panting, Erzi allowed himself to relax and slumped up against a nearby wall.
It's still not right. Erzi thought with a frustrated groan. In his mind, he began to list out all the little mistakes of his form and his stance, with every imperfection feeling like a punch to the gut. Sighing in defeat, he once again assumed his stance.

Toph, for the lack of a better word, was amazed. Although she could not physically see Erzi, he was making enough noise for her mind's eye to paint a very clear picture. She "saw" in detail the accuracy and power of his kicks as he traversed the room multiple times, repeating his drill despite the obvious hesitation whenever he kicked with his left leg. After what seemed like hours, Erzi finally allowed himself to rest; slumping up against the wall and slowly sliding down to the floor. Even as he sat there panting, he was making enough noise for Toph to still be able to see him. And even though she could not make out any details, Toph could still "see" his strong, lean body and could make out the way he was sat, with his left leg stretched outwards. Finally, as Erzi stood up and made his way back to the door leading downwards into the palace, Toph made her move.

"Nice." She said, sneaking up behind him.
Erzi yelped in surprise and leapt from his relaxed position, assuming his stance once again.
"Relax Stumpy." Toph chuckled, walking into the moonlight. "S'just me."
Erzi nodded and relaxed his stance, noting her presence.
Then he noticed what Toph had just called him.
"Excuse me, exactly what did you mean by "Stumpy"?" Toph chuckled at this and pointed in the general direction of his legs.
"One of your legs is broken isn't it? So I call you Stumpy, 'cause you've only got one leg!" Toph laughed.
The laughter was not shared.
Erzi rolled up the pants leg on his left leg and pointed at it.
"See? Not broken." He scowled.
"See what, Stumpy? I'm blind." Toph shot back expecting profuse apologies from Erzi. Instead, she gasped as he grabbed her hand and ran it along his entire leg, from thigh to calf.
"Feel that then? It's not broken." He said triumphantly, flexing his calf muscles. Toph shivered involuntarily as she felt the strong muscle shifting and sliding beneath his skin and she ran her hand along his leg again, firmer this time, as she felt the essence of thunder still humming softly within. Unconsciously, she ran her hand up his leg and onto his body, feeling the muscles of his abdomen tense up at her touch. Moving further upward, she reached his face, feeling his sharp features with both hands and running her hand along the slightly rough skin of the tattoo on his forehead.
Suddenly, she realized the position she was in and reared her hand back.
"Alright, alright! Jeez, you didn't have to hold my hand for that long!" Toph yelled, a blush forming on her pale cheeks.
"Uh, Toph?" Erzi grinned, catching her blush in the moonlight.
"I let go of you a long time ago."
Crap. Toph thought as she blushed even harder, sure that Erzi was seeing every detail.
"Yeah? Well, whatever. I'm going to bed!" She yelled storming off while Erzi simply leaned against the wall and grinned, looking back up at the moon. That was unexpected.
Crapcrapcrap!Toph's mind screamed as she made her way down the halls, putting as much distance between her and Erzi as possible. I am not crushing on the Thunder Prince, I am not crushing on the Thunder Prince, I am not crushing on the Thunder Prince!She repeated in her mind like a mantra. This was impossible! She was Toph, the Blind Bandit, and the Greatest Earthbender in the world and yet here she was, swooning over some rich prince who lived in the mountains.
"No!" She growled to herself, stomping down the halls, causing paintings and ornaments to plummet and crash upon the floor.
That's it. I'm telling him right to his stupid head to leave me alone. Right to his stupid, sharp, muscular, shaggy haired…"
Suddenly, she stopped walking and groaned in frustration as the realization hit her.
Oh Spirits, I'm totally crushing on him.

Screw it, I lied. I'm totally gonna pair Toph with Erzi!
Anyway, read and review this as usual and look forward to the next chapter. Ciao!
- Scratchy

[EDIT]
I replaced the chapters with more grammatically correct ones since my writing was HORRENDOUS according to my editor, Kevin.