Unexpected Occurrances Seven; End

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or it characters
I own only the plots/ideas/situations that I have placed them in


While Mai succeeded in dispersing the crowd, Azula focused her attention back on Toph who had started shivering violently.

"Ty Lee, go start the car, Mai go get our stuff we're leaving now." ordered Azula. While the two of them did as she instructed she leaned forward and whispered in Toph's ear, "Time for another piggyback ride whether you like it or not."

Katara, Sokka, Aang, Suki, Yue, and Zuko watched in disbelieving shock and awe as Toph allowed the firebender to lift her off the chair and position her onto her back. The violently shivering blind earthbender hadn't let out a single protest at the injustice.

Azula had reached the half way point to the car when Toph whispered into her ear, voice quiet, "You're probably the only person who I would ever let do this. Help me I mean."

Keeping her voice low, Azula said, "And your probably the only person who will be allowed to touch my scars. Which will somehow make me less ashamed of them. Make them less disgusting. Less painful to catch a fleeting glimpse of everyday in the mirror."

"S-scars?" stuttered Toph.

"Surely you could tell just from listening to my voice or reading my movements on certain days at school that I was nursing an injury that I had received from my father the night before. Particularly burns, those sons of bitches stung every time my clothes brushed against them, until I managed to bandage them up. But most days I didn't want to stick around the morning afterwards, so I had to suck it up and try to hold out until the day ended. Before I could finally take proper measures to help the burns heal without them scarring more then necessary."

Closing her eyes Toph inhaled deeply and exhaled,

"Those days were agony for me. I hated it when you came to school with a new one. On those days I really wanted to reach out and tell you that it was me who had been giving you valentines day gifts. But I had no way of knowing if you were a Dove Chaser and I was still trying to come to terms with that fact that I was a Dove Chaser myself. I'm sorry for not saying anything sooner, I just couldn't ever manage to spit the words out." the self hatred and guilt were crystal clear to Azula; Its my fault that you kept getting hurt by him.

"Don't ever be sorry, Toph. Your notes and music said everything to me that I ever needed to hear from you." Azula paused here so that she could be positive that her earthbender was listening,

"When my father would come for me and when he left, the only thing that kept me from running a knife across my throat was your music. Whenever his voice would whisper into my ear telling me I was weak or going soft I would drown it out by listening to your music as loud as I could. Your music was one of the few things in my life that didn't eventually cause me misery. It gave me the strength to keep fighting the losing battle that was my life." Azula's tone sounded incredibly vulnerable to Toph.

Instead of saying anything, Toph tightened her grip on the firebender just enough to let her know that Toph understood what telling her that had cost the other girl. For a split second after she had spoken, Azula panicked until she felt Toph's reassuring squeeze.

Moments later and Mai's black jeep came into view, surprisingly Mai had beat them to it and had already loaded their stuff into the back of it.

"Alright, Azula set Toph down and get in first. There's already a blanket in their for you two. Toph when she's ready for you, get in and sit on her lap."

Before Azula could set Toph down she jumped off of her and landed shakily on her feet, blushing she said, "W-what?"

"Your girlfriend's a walking space heater, she'll be able to warm you up faster if your sitting on her. Unless you'd rather freeze." said Mai as she watched Toph shiver.

A few minutes later and Toph had climbed into the vehicle, before she did as Mai had instructed, the blind girl hesitated. Sensing her hesitation Azula said, voice so low that only the blind girl heard,

"This isn't easy for me Toph, skin contact with other people will never be easy for me. When all it has ever resulted in, for me, is excruciating pain. But I learned six months ago that it can be the best damn thing in the world when it's the right person holding you." While Toph couldn't see it, Azula's face was flushing the lightest shade of pink as she finished her confession to Toph.

Once Azula had said that Toph slowly sat on her girlfriend's lap and as she settled, Azula snaked her arms around Toph's waist and pulled the girl firmly against her.

"Awe, don't they just look absolutely adorable together, Mai?" was Ty Lee's ever exuberant exclamation to her girlfriend from the driver's seat as she caught a brief glimpse of the two of them sitting together like they were.

Smirking slightly Mai said, "Most definitely Ty, say did you happen to bring your camera? This is a Polaroid moment if I ever did see one."

"Damn it all. I forgot it and left it at home." she said before dissolving into giggles.

Azula having been subjected to her friends' teasing natures for a while, didn't bat an eye at their comments, but she noticed that Toph's face had a dusting of light pink to it. Upon seeing that something urged Azula to positioned her mouth right next to the earthbender's left ear and say, washing the ear with a wave of warm breath, "Your really cute when your blushing." Azula felt Toph's body shudder at her words. What the hell am I doing?

As both Azula's warm breath and word's hit her, a different kind of warmth spread throughout the Blind Devil's body quickly putting a complete stop to her violent shivers. Once she could think coherently again Toph said, stuttering slightly, "I see that your m-methods of w-warming someone u-up are quite e-effective. A-are all f-firebenders l-like that?"

Although Toph couldn't see it Azula had a shy smile on her face, not knowing what had possessed her to do that. Before she knew what she was doing again, her left hand slowly started trailing its way up Toph's perfectly toned abdomen, her fingertips held an unnatural heat in them and made Toph experience an insanely pleasant tingling warm sensation spread throughout her entire body, as those fingers continued their upward journey.

The moment that her fingertips had grazed skintight fabric Azula's left hand returned to were it had been resting not fifteen seconds before. Giving Toph a second to untangle her thought's Azula did that same thing as before and sent a wave of warm breath over her ear before whispering, "Yeah, you could say that all firebenders' passions run deep."

This time as her body shuddered she had to clench her teeth together tightly to keep the moan rising in her throat from escaping. Having barely managed to suppress that one, she felt another threatening to escape as her mind registered that Azula's left had was drawing random abstract circle patterns across her toned abdomen. Once her hand had moved from one place to the next, the muscles that those fingertips danced across contracted and quivered rapidly, painfully demanding their immediate return.

Through clenched teeth Toph managed to speak, without letting a single moan escape, "A-Azula, I-I'm n-not…p-please s-stop. Azula."

Immediately following Toph's words Azula tore her hand away from Toph's body and clenched it into a fist that turned her knuckles white. Taking six or seven deep breaths Azula rewound the last four minutes in her head and once she had her eyes widened in some thing that was a mixture of shock and fear.

Let's see you weasel your way out of this and no I had nothing to do with what you just did.

Her breathing was shallow and her voice trembled as she spoke "I-I'm…I-I don't k-know w-what just…T-Toph I-I'm sorry."

Damn it Toph! You have to fix this now!

Breathing deeply Toph reached for Azula's left arm for she had heard Azula's knuckles cracking against the strain, once she had grazed it, Toph quick as a striking cobra grabbed it with her left hand. She then started to slowly convince Azula to relax her left hand by massaging it with her right. Once she felt Azula start to relax her hand, Toph whispered quietly, "Firefly, whatever it is that your thinking right now. Don't be. I'm not ready for this yet and it was just a surprise is all. I could never be angry with you. I understand that this was probably really difficult for you to even fathom doing. Let alone actually doing it. I'm grateful for the gesture it means the world to me that your willing to trust me like that and that you are not going to press this. It's why I love you so much, Firefly."

Azula's heart was beating painfully against her ribcage as she whispered back, voice steady, "I love you too, Toph."

With the whole Jeep Incident behind the two of them, it was moments later when the Jeep had turned onto the ridiculously long drive way that eventually led to the Obsidian family's mansion. Once the jeep had pulled up and they exited the car, Azula's mother invited everyone to stay the night and the most enthusiastic one to agree out of the three of them, was Toph.


Later that night…


"F-Firefly, can I ask you something?" was the timidly asked question from behind the firebender. Rolling over so that she was facing Toph, Azula said, "Ask away."

Come on Toph, just ask, she's not going to say no.

Inhaling and exhaling quickly Toph asked, in the softest and not to mention most timid voice that Azula had ever heard the earthbender use, "I want to see what you look like."

As if she was expecting it Toph continued in the same voice, before Azula could say anything, "Only in order to do that, your going to have to close your eyes and trust me."

"Alright, I trust you Toph." as she said that she closed her eyes but was still a little tinny tiny bit weary.

When Azula had said yes, Toph's heart had decided to take up residence in her mouth as she slowly sat up and turned so that she was sitting Indian style and was facing Azula.

Without the slightest bit of hesitation Toph had tentatively and slowly brought one of her hands to Azula's left cheekbone. She lightly but firmly followed it to Azula's nose. For the next ten minutes Toph lightly moved her hands across every last smooth inch of Azula's face, hoping to burn every last angle and curve of it into her memory.

For a few seconds after she had closed her eyes nothing happened and just as she was about to open her eyes. Azula felt one of Toph's fingertips grazed her left cheekbone. At first Toph's touch could barely be registered by her skin but as Toph continued to trace her face. Her touch became firmer but it was still feather light.

"A beautiful face for a beautiful voice." whispered Toph sounding way too close to Azula. Her eyes shot open when she felt Toph lay down next to her lying much closer then she had before. While Azula was on her left side, Toph was on her back, and Azula couldn't stop her right hand from reaching out to grasp Toph's left.

"You're the pretty one here. Not me."

"Nonsense, if I say your beautiful its truth." was Toph's immediate response.

"Firefly?"

Rolling her eyes Azula said, "Yes"

"I'm going to kiss you now. Be-" Toph's speech was abruptly cut off as two of the softest but firmest lips that Toph's fingers had glided across not to long ago were pressed to hers, seconds later Toph reciprocated. A full minute passed before Azula was forced to pull back a few inches and say breathlessly, "You don't ever have to ask to kiss me Toph. Not ever. But I appreciate the gesture and it means the world to me and that my Blind Devil is why I love you so much."

As a smile spread across the Blind Devil's face and as she felt Azula lay down next to her, resting her head on her shoulder, she said, to her Firefly, her face flushed "I love you too."


The End