This morning, after watching the rerun of "The Tales of Ba Sing Se", I learned that the voice actor for Uncle Iroh, Mako Iwamatsu, passed away of esophageal cancer at age 72 a few months ago. I dedicate my work on this chapter to him.

Ch.3

Toph was heading back to the campsite to have a "talk" with Katara. When she got there, Katara was sitting on a tree stump.

"So you're finally awake!"

"Hmm? Oh, hi Toph. Yeah, I had a bit of a rough night…" Katara trailed off remembering the dream. She started wondering what was taking Aang so long.

"Is Aang still looking for fruit? I thought Sokka went to go find him" Katara said in a worried tone. Stop worrying so much, Katara! If Aang wanted to leave, he would have done it by now.

"Yeah, Sokka left to find him once he told me to head over here."

"Ohh, ok…" Katara trailed of again. Her mind was obviously somewhere else.

"Katara can I ask you something? Something personal?" Toph asked. This caught Katara's attention. Toph never asked about these kinds of things.

"Umm, sure Toph. What did you want to know?"

"What's your deal with Aang?" This caught Katara by surprise.

"Wha- What do you mean?" Katara asked in a nervous tone.

Toph sighed. "I may be blind, but that doesn't mean I'm brain dead. It's just… Why do you try to hide the way you feel? You obviously like him. A lot."

"I.. I've got no idea what you're talking about!" Katara stammered.

"Uhh-huh" Toph said, not believing Katara for a second.

"It's true!" Katara yelled.

"Ohh, yeah. I'm sure it is… So if you don't want him, can I take him?"

"WHAT?" Katara yelled, jumping off of the tree stump, anger seething in her voice, as she stared down the young earthbender. And after about a split second she realized oh, crap. I just basically told her that I like him.

Toph was suddenly struck by a fit of laughter. Once it subsided, she started talking again.

"Relax, relax! I just wanted to get you to admit it." She said, still laughing a little while wiping a tear of her cheek. "But seriously. You need to tell him."

"I .. I can't" She dropped her head

"Why not?"

"Because he's the avatar! He has a century-long war to end! He has to master all the elements within 6 months!" She yelled out. "He has more important things to do than be with me…" She whispered.

Toph pulled her friend into a hug. Katara was fighting back tears.

"What if…" Toph whispered to her friend in a soothing tone. "What if I told you he likes you back?"

Katara took a step backwards. "He… He does?" She said with a sniff. "Wait. How would you know?"

"Eh. I know things" Toph said with a smirk. "In fact, I'm kind of surprised that you haven't figured it out yet."

"Figured what out?"

"That you are in love." She said in an extremely serious tone. "You both are."

A blush crept up Katara's face. "I- I don't think that were in lo-."

"Katara! We're back!" It was Sokka, Aang was close behind him.

Katara quickly walked over to her tent, pretending to find something she needs for lunch.

Sokka walked towards Toph and stopped right next to her.

"Did you talk to her?" He asked, very quietly.

"Yeah. She likes him. A lot."

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Sokka, Aang, and Katara were sitting at the campsite, eating. Sokka looked over at Toph, who was waiting for his signal.

All of the sudden, Sokka said "I wish we had some meat…" (A/N what other signal would you expect from Sokka?)

Toph started to walk over to where the 3 were sitting.

"Can you think about anything else for 5-." THUD!

"Owww! My leg!" Toph pretended to trip over a root sticking out of the ground.

"Toph!" Aang and Katara cried out in unison as they ran over to help their friend up.

"Are you alright? You didn't break anything did you?" Aang asked.

"I- I don't know. It hurts a lot." She acted out, trying to buy some time for Sokka, who was applying the sedatives to Aang and Katara's fruit.

"Alright. Lemme take a look." Katara said, she being the healer and all.

"Okay, just don't touch- Owww!"

"Sorry. Nothing's broken and nothing's sprained. I don't know why it hurts so much…" By this time Sokka had finished applying the sedatives and was walking towards Toph with Katara's waterbending canteen thing (A/N seriously, what do you call that thing?) and a strip of fabric

"I thought that maybe you could freeze the water with your waterbending and tie it to her leg." Sokka said as he walked over.

"Wow, good idea. How did you think that up?" Aang said as he was still looking at Toph's leg.

"It was in some other fanfic… I- I mean it just came to me! Yeah, that's it…"

"Uhh, Ok." Aang and Katara looked at each other, Aang making a "he's crazy" face, and Katara started giggling. Then they made eye contact, looking into each others eyes for what seemed to be an eternity.

God those blue eyes are beautiful. Does she really feel the same way that I do?

Aang, is it true? Do you really like me? Do you really love me? Because I love you…

"Yeah, ummm, I hate to interrupt this moment, but I still kinda need my leg fixed!" Toph yelled.

Then the 2 snapped out of it and they both started blushing furiously.

"Sorry" they said in unison, both to Toph, and to each other.

"Yeah, well, it's ok. Just help me get the ice on my leg."

Once they were finished they helped Toph limp her way back to where they were eating. She passed Sokka and asked:

"How was that?"

"Pretty good. You'd make a great actor" Sokka replied with a smile.

Then they all sat back down and finished eating. Once they were done Katara started to pick up. Toph fake limped over to Sokka.

"They've got about ½ an hour until the sedatives kick in."

"Okay." Sokka walked back towards Aang and Katara.

"We've been here too long, we should pack up."

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As Aang and Katara were busy getting everything on Appa, Sokka was out around the trees setting up some smoke charges.

"Ok, about 5 minutes left." he estimated how long the fuse should be so that it goes off in about 3 minutes. He lit it and started back towards camp.

"Alright, that's it. Let's go." Aang told Katara.

Just as Sokka made it back to camp, he looked up.

"Guys, look! Smoke! It's the Fire Nation! Let's get out of here!" He said, sounding completely rehearsed, and started running towards his friends.

"Huh?" Aang looked up.

"Come on! Let's go!" Sokka grabbed Toph's arm and climbed up on Appa.

"Great, just what we need…" Katara said as she, too, climbed up on the flying bison.

Aang airbended himself up in Appa and with the familiar "yip-yip!" they were off.

"Alright, I think we're –yawn- safe…" Aang said, sounding drowsy.

"Hey, Aang, you okay?" Toph asked, sounding rehearsed, as so much else had been that day.

"Yeah, -yawn- I think I'm -eyes start to close-… not … ok… can't stay –yawn- awake… Katara…"

He looked over to Katara, who was already asleep.

"What's… happening…?" was the last thing he could say. Then, he passed out.

I wrote this chapter prior to my knowledge of Mako Iwamatsu's death. Had I known before, I might have had him involved in the chapter somehow. But quite honestly, I want to try and leave the fire nation out of this story. I will try and write a diffrent fanfic in honor of Mako and General Iroh once I finish this one.