Authors Note: Why haven't I updated, you ask? Writers block is an evil thing, my friends, and it was helped by none other than the cruel villians, School and Sports X3 I am so sorry for not posting an update though, and hope you like this chapter a lot more than I do. This is what writers block does to you, unfortunatly DX


*Aang POV*

Aang spent the next few days immersed in research concerning the illusive group that Katara had told him about, but that couldn't keep him from thinking about the most troubling thing that had occurred.

Toph was avoiding him, and he didn't know why.

It didn't matter what she was doing, as soon as he came anywhere close to her she was gone in the next moment. As much as he wanted to confront her about it, he couldn't find the chance to do so. When his mind wasn't completely occupied, all he could think about were reasons she could possibly mad at him. What had he said? What hadn't he said? Did he do something wrong?

As he was occupied with his thoughts, a knock came from the door to his study. "Hey, Zuko here!" came the voice on the other side, a grin evident in the man's tone.

Aang chuckled, "Come in!" he called in return, getting up from his seat to greet him.

Exchanging a quick brotherly hug, Zuko glanced over at the desk covered in an array of scrolls and documents. "Late night studying again, I see." He mused, raising an eyebrow. "You should probably be spending a little more time with Toph; she's seemed kind of down lately… And she's spent a lot of time chucking rocks at things, as of late." He added, mostly out of humor.

Aang blinked at his friend, could that be why he was being avoided? No, it couldn't be, why would she avoid him if she wanted to spend time with him? It wouldn't make much sense. "Well… She's kind of been avoiding me… I've tried talking to her, but she always disappears before I can catch up to her. Not to mention that chasing her down wouldn't help the situation much." He explained dejectedly, rubbing his left temple to ease the hint of a migraine he was getting.

This seemed to surprise the Fire Lord, "Really? I could try and talk to her, if you wanted." He offered, attempting to be relatively helpful to his friend.

Aang gave a simple shrug, figuring it wouldn't help anyways, "If you want, Toph can be pretty stubborn." He added with a slight chuckle that didn't seem to contain any humor.

Clapping his friend on the shoulder, Zuko gave Aang a brief smile before turning away; heading down the halls towards the throne room. That's where she usually hung out after all.

*Toph POV*

Toph gritted her teeth as she jammed another flower into the vase, wondering why she had agreed to help Katara and Suki with this mundane task. They were setting up the vases for Mai's funeral, and Toph was nearly beside herself in boredom. She didn't even like flowers, it's not like they really added anything to a room. Then again, she was blind, so what did she know?

Suki had glanced over at her, raising an eyebrow as her lips curved into a smile, "Careful there, wouldn't want to break the flowers." She warned with a laugh before giving her a quizzical look, "What has you all aggravated anyways?"

Toph froze, a flower poised in mid air as she had been about to place it in one of the vases. "Nothing. Nothing at all." She replied shortly, fuming beneath the surface. She liked Suki, don't get her wrong, but she wasn't going to say anything while Katara was sitting there all perfect-like.

Suki rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say, Toph. You and Aang are probably just in an argument or something, it happens to all of us." She said, and Toph couldn't help but glare daggers at her.

Katara had been sitting there quietly, but she spoke up as someone appeared in the room. "Look, its Zuko." She pointed out, smiling slightly at just the sight of him. Suki noticed, giving her an odd look, but Toph was still fuming silently at the accusation.

Zuko smiled as he approached them, hands clasped behind his back. "Hello ladies, I was wondering if I could steal Toph away for a moment?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow at the group.

Toph had no idea what he could possibly want with her, but she stood up anyways, shrugging. "Sure, where are we going?" she inquired, looking straight at him despite her blindness.

"I just need to speak with you on something, so it'll only be a moment." He told her instead, leading her away from the group before turning to look at her. "So…. What's going on between you and Aang?"

Toph blushed crimson as he spoke those words, feeling anger bubbling up inside of her. Why did everyone care anyways?! Why couldn't they just leave her alone? "Nothing." She spat at him, letting him know of her irritation with her tone.

Zuko rolled his eyes, glad she couldn't see him do so. He'd probably get flung across the room for it with her current mood. "You and I both know that's not true." He argued, "Aang has miserable ever since you started avoiding him, and I think he deserves to know why." He shot back, crossing his arms across his chest.

Gritting her teeth, Toph just stared at the ground, too angry to form words at the moment. "Well maybe he should go talk to Katara is he's so lonely, they seemed pretty cozy the other night." She growled, voicing the reason for the first time since it happened.

Zuko could only blink at this news, shocked at this new development. So that's why she had been avoiding Aang, which was a pretty legitimate reason. But why was he so upset then? Needing to know the other half of the story before making any form of answer, he decided to go speak with Aang again.

"I've got to speak with Aang now, see his side of this story. I'm sure nothing's going on." He spoke quickly, attempting to reassure her before he turned and headed down the hall towards where he had left Aang. Shaking his head with a sigh, he silently hoped Toph was wrong, for reasons he couldn't quite identify.

Toph stayed where she was, staring at the ground as a single tear rolled down her cheek, only to be quickly wiped away with her sleeve. This is why she didn't want to have feelings; they made her weak and helpless. Turning in the opposite direction of Zuko, Toph headed down a separate hall, nearly running in an attempt to get away.