Blood Benders

Chapter 10,

Twinkle Toes

Toph watched the avatar struggling to barely hold the boulder. When she'd signed on, she assumed the young boy had a smidge of talent. She'd been wrong. He couldn't even move dust. They'd been working for months. Months. And he was almost as awful as before.

"Drop that rock and we're going for three more hours." Toph yelled.

She saw Aang's face tighten. She was pushing him hard, harder than ever. He needed to realize that Earth and Air were opposites. It wasn't an easy thing to master. Earth was stubborn whereas air was flexible and constantly in motion. He hadn't grasped this concept yet.

Aang grunted and tossed the rock sideways. "I'm sick of doing this!"

"Too bad, twinkle-toes." Toph jumped down from the seat she'd made for herself. She landed loudly, the ground shattering around her feet. She could feel Aang look down for a moment.

"This is the same old stuff."

"Alright, you want something new?" She asked. Aang didn't answer her. She felt him shrug, "Okay. Then here we go."

Quicker than a blink, Toph slashed her feet. Her hands followed suit. Aang suddenly gasped, having realized his feet were trapped. She kept moving, lifting boulder after boulder and hurling it straight toward him. She felt him fight for his feet while fighting her. She could hear water whipping around.

"Twinkle-toes, are you using water?" Toph shouted. Her attack increased in number and in speed. The sound of water stopped. She saw the rocks on his feet move. He took a defensive earth bending stance- the very one he had been previously working on- and tried to take her on. He didn't get any of his own attacks out, but he did succeed in not being crushed.

Toph kept this up for a few more minutes before she changed tactics. She pulled Aang down into the ground, up to his chest, and wrapped his arms in rock. He fought for a few seconds before he realized, this wasn't something he was ready to fight yet. He sighed.

"Okay. Okay, I get it."

"Glad you finally understand Earth. At least a little. Tell me what you figured out." She said.

"Stubborn. Earth doesn't...move."

"Exactly. Now. Pick that rock back up. I'll be back in a few hours." She said. She walked away, watching him pick up the huge boulder. She could feel him grumbling to himself, but he didn't complain any more.

…

"How is he doing?" Sokka asked. He was leaning back against Appa, facing the small camp they'd pitched.

"Better than before. He gets how different the elements are now. He should start finally improving." She sat across from him.

"That's good. Toph, thanks for taking so much care of him."

"It's not a big deal." She shrugged, "What is all this for?"

"Not really sure, though we have our guesses. We think they're trying to end this undeclared war between the fire nation and everyone else. We work for an organization, they kind of saved us."

"And made you assassins?"

Sokka gave a single, short laugh, "I guess it would seem like that. We were little, and it's a little too late now. We didn't really notice what was... what we were doing."

"Does it bother your sister?"

"Yeah. Aang and I are more the muscle. We take out guards, witnesses. But...she always has to take out the big targets. She has to look them in the eye, deliver the message, and... well, it's always personal for her."

"Sad." Toph said. She started thinking about the date. How long had it been since she'd left home? Three months? Four?

"What is it?" Sokka asked. Her face must've given her away.

"Just thinking. What's today?"

"The ninth." Sokka answered.

"Hm. Four months, right?"

"Since you came? Yeah."

"Happy birthday, me." She said. She traced her index finger on the ground, pulling the bag of food near her. She ate out of it a little bit.

"Happy birthday. I'm sorry we don't have cake."

"That's okay. Twinkle-toes finally tried. Good enough for me."

"You're really hard on him sometimes. Is it too hard to say he did good?"

"If I said that, he'd stop trying."

"He's stronger than you give him credit for."

"And weaker than you want to believe." She retorted. Then she sighed, "Look, he's a good kid. He deserves a better fate. But he has to deal with this."

They nodded. There wasn't anything anyone could do about it. Toph was right. About everything. Aang, his life.

Suddenly, she snorted.

"What?"

"He's dancing."

They both shared a laugh.

"That's Aang."

"That's Twinkle-toes." Toph agreed.

A/N: Alright, I really don't know Toph's birthday. I asked the internet, and all I found was a bunch of links to FFN... weird, but I guess a lot of people have addressed her birthday. I suppose I could have read them, though I doubt they have the date. If you know it, will you message me? I'll fix it right up. ^_^