Hi, I am going to try something different with the next two chapters, and I am not talking about writing an event twice from two different viewpoints. Though that is something different too.
I am going to ask you, readers to do something for me. Open another window, go to YouTube, and put in "you are by hope" by skillet. Click on the first video that comes up with the song, then read this chapter with the song in the background. I have tried to match the song to the chapter as best as I can, without making it a song fic.
Please it will make this chapter better, I hope so at least. also there is a link on my profile for a picture of Toph's wedding dress. it is under Toph's second wedding dress. i hope you like it, it is the one on the right
Aang's heart was racing faster than it had ever done before. He was a little worried it might just burst through his chest. Why was he so nervous, he had been married to Toph for a year already. He also knew this time for certain that he was in love with her, and she loved him too. That was why, he realised fully now that he had something important to lose, the most important thing, Toph. As-well as the future that they could have.
When she finally appeared his heart went from racing to skipping a beat. She couldn't be real, he had had that feeling about her before, but this was different. She wore a white empire line dress, the top was decorated with small beads. The rest of the dress was made of thin fabric that blew in the wind. Her hair was down, except for a small part that was pulled back, by the ornament Katara had given her. It like her dress blew in the wind, around her head, framing her face.
Once they got closer to where the men were standing , Katara unlinked her arm from Toph's and walked behind her. As she got closer Aang looked into her jade green eyes, for the briefest of moments her eyes meet his. His heart raced again. He noticed the corners of her lips curl into a small smile, lighting up Toph's face. She had picked up on, felt it as clearly as he did in the change in his heart beat, and knew she was the reason for it. She took great pleasure in that he knew.
He wanted to always see a smile on her face, and if he could be the reason for that smile, it would be all the more beautiful. It amazed him that he had never noticed how beautiful she was, she had changed a little from the time they first meet. Her hair was now normally worn down, letting people she her face. Even then though he had known she was always pretty, in her own way, but how could he have missed this. He honestly couldn't believe she was real and standing in-front of him.
Love is like bright light, it castes a bid shadow. She had told him that, in an attempt to help him not feel so bad about the way he had acted towards her when Appa was taken, lashing out. He had been blinded to her, her Beauty and just how amazing she really was, by the love he thought he felt for Katara. Now his eyes where open.
She had always been the one. He had been drawn to her for as long as he had known her. He hadn't planned on retuning when he did, but being that close to her in the desert, and not seeing her drew him to her, and back to his friends, his family. It was hearing the rumours, about what her father had planned for her, that brought him back to help her. She had always been in the back of his mind, when he was away from her. There was a lot that he didn't know but the one thing he knew, was that he and Toph where linked in some way, that he didn't fully understand. From the second he started to run after in in the swamp, in his vision, he had never stopped running to her.
They now faced each other. Aang glanced down, looking her over fully. He noticed that Toph was bare foot, he smirked a little. He could hear Zuko's voice, talking next to him, but he was only half listening. He was reminded of how Zuko had burned Toph's foot, when she had tried to help him. She had forgiven him almost as soon as it happened. She knew he was a good person.
She had done the same thing with Jet. Being biased was something she never did, she knew people to well to be able to be bias. She took people for who they were, not what they had done or may do. Just who they were as they stood in-front of her. This was one of the things he loved the most about her. Due to this, she never judged him, expected him to be anything other than who he was. With her he could just be who he was.
Thinking of her and Zuko and Jet as-well made him jealous, despite himself. Jet had been the first person to see her as the beautiful amazing person she was, he was also her first kiss. Deep down Aang would always be jealous of Jet, as he knew that if he had lived Toph would have stayed with him, and they would have fallen in love with each other. They were a lot alike.
He knew that she and Zuko, where only very close friends. They saw each other as family, brother and sister. That was the problem. Zuko was going to be watching to make sure he didn't hurt Toph again. Aang would rather die than do that . Toph and Zuko had a bound that he would never be a part of; they had been through a lot together.
"Balance is the most fragile and yet crucial thing in the world. That is why it makes them work so well together. They balance each other." Zuko finished speaking, he looked at Aang signalling for him to speak.
When he met his friend's eyes, all of the jealousy went away. It seemed so ridicules now.
Aang knew exactly what he wanted to say, he didn't have to think about it. The worlds just came to him. "Toph, you are my life, my past and my future. My hope for the future. A future that I want to share with you. I love you, I always have and I always will."
When Aang had thought of the future before, it had been in the simplest terms. A list of things he had to do as the avatar. Not anymore. Now he didn't have a clear idea what his future was going to be. That thought a few years ago would have worried him, but now he didn't care. As long as Toph was in his future, he would take the rest as it came. That was the one thing he was sure of, knew for sure, in that instant, that she was his future. That was enough for him.
"Aang, I never thought I would be able to say this, and mean it." He watched her take in a deep breath. "I love you. I spent my life building walls, so no one could get close to me. Then you came along, and pulled them down without even trying."
She hated speaking like that, she would have much rather just told him she loved him. Getting right to the point. He wouldn't have cared if that was all she said, but the fact that she made an effort for him was what made it all the more meaningful.
It wasn't till he looked back on everything they had been through together, that he realised how much he had relied on her. He needed her to push him to be better, because she knew he could do better, when no one else did. She was there, his rock. As everything was moving around them, and changing she stayed firm, enduring.
She had endured so much in her life, and she had come through it all, still the same strong passionate person she had always been. He knew she had felt like she had lost herself, after finding out about her birth mother, but had never lost her ideals, her spirit, that is what Aang loved the most about her.
He moved closer to her, resting his hands lightly on her waist, she rested hers just as lightly on his elbows. The kiss that followed was perfect, that was the only way to describe it, perfect.
Toph was not perfect, he knew that. She was far too stubborn, she could be moody, and sometimes to honest. She was by far the most reckless person he knew, which made him worry about her all the more. He was sure she was even more hot-headed than Zuko, her pride matched that of any man. No she wasn't perfect, but she was perfect for him.
Thank you for reading. I hope you have liked this chapter, and will like the next one.
