Chapter 10: Actions and Reactions
"So explain to me why we're doing this again," Zuko asked for the third time, and yet again Toph continued to ignore him. The young earthbender was feeding Appa, whispering directions in his ears that Zuko, more than confused, was unable to hear. The flying bison moaned happily; it seemed that he understood the earthbender's request.
"Come on Appa, lets go cause Sweetness a heart attack," Toph said, smiling.
"What?! Toph!" Zuko followed behind bison and bender, both ignoring him.
"Toph!" But she only smirked at Zuko's impatient and curiosity.
The three were headed towards the main room of the temple, and as Toph and Appa walked through the wide wall that would lean them there, Zuko saw a way to get the answers he wanted. He ran towards the left wall and sprang upwards, skimming the wall and when suddenly at its peak, pushed forward and did a flip in midair, landing right in front of Toph, who didn't seem the least surprised.
The young earthbender smiled, waiting for Zuko to speak first, although she expected the words he would use before they were spoken.
"Where are you going and how does this involve both Appa and Katara, Toph?" The kindness and teasing tone Zuko usually reserved for the earthbender was gone, but he still fought to remain calm.
Toph only cocked her head to the side, her dead eyes gazing into Zuko's. "You just kissed Sweetness, and the most response you got from her was a surprised, blank stare. You still don't believe me when I tell you she feels the same way you do, I can feel it in your vibrations. So I'm going to prove it to you."
And with that she shoved past Zuko and continued towards the main hall, expecting on his following her. Katara was in the main room, trying to finish off the preparations that she could before the gang left the temple to prepare for the arriving of the comet. They only had two weeks before that very date. Toph walked the length of the room, Appa stomping along side her, feeling her vibrations towards the abyss at the end of the temple. Zuko, now blushing as he felt Katara's eyes on his back, ran after the earthbender, still unaware of her plans. The water and firebender hadn't been able to stay in the same room longer for a few minutes since the night before; since they're unexpected kiss. Zuko tried to concentrate on remaining calm as he reached Toph.
"Alright Appa, you know what to do. Go play," she said, patting the sky bison on the head, as far as she could reach, and he flew off. Instead of headed upwards, into the bright sky, the bison flew into the dark abyss.
"Toph…" Zuko started, but her hand flew up and covered her friends' mouth. Her ears twitched as if she was trying to hear some thing, and then she moved her attention back towards Zuko.
"Shut it, Flame-e-Ore," she said, combining Aang's fire nation lingo with Zuko's symbolic dragon. "Sugar Queen is watching you as if her life depended on it. Knowing you, that isn't enough proof to say that she likes you, so I'm going to show you."
Toph started up her "innocent blind girl" routine, and grabbed her head, swaying side to side. Her knees began to buckle from under her, and before she could fall over the side of the abyss, Zuko caught her in his arms.
"What was that for!?" he whispered in her ears, cautious that Katara could hear them. He stole a glance at her, at soon as his eyes hit hers, the waterbender, turned her head, blushing that he had caught her watching.
"She's was watching you, wasn't she Sparky? And now she's embarrassed that you caught her. And I bet you anything that she's wishing that you were holding her this way, instead of it being me. Speaking of which, you can let go of me now," Toph said with a smile, and Zuko helped her stand upright. His vibrations told her that he was blushing and nervous; apparently he accepted everything Toph told him as truth.
"That could just be a coincidence, BadgerBit," Zuko replied. Even though he believed everything that Toph pointed out, he wanted more proof. He wanted to be sure that Katara felt the same way.
Toph snorted, knowing he was lying through his teeth. "Fine," she said, shaking her head and pulling off her headband as her hair fell in front of her eyes. "Move my hair out of my face."
"What?" Zuko asked, surprised. What kind of request was that?
"Just do it, Sparky, you'll see."
Zuko sighed, but did as she asked, pushing Toph's ravenette hair out of her face and pushing it behind her ear. Toph blushed from the contact, which caused Zuko to do the same. Zuko, without realizing he was doing so, left his right had resting on Toph's cheek, and he felt the heat on her face.
Toph's ears picked up the sound of a low growl, and she laughed at Katara's reaction to the benders' contact. Zuko was confused by Toph's smile, but turned to see the frown and cross-eyes on Katara's face, and immediately understood as he dropped his hold on Toph.
"Alright Toph, you've proved your point. Now what did you need Appa for?"
The earthbender only smiled, excited by her own plans. "This!" she yelled, pushing Zuko over the edge of the abyss.
"NO! ZUKO!" Katara screamed, running towards the edge where Toph stood, a wide smile lining her face. The waterbender grabbed Toph and starting shaking her.
"What did you do that for, Toph?! What has he ever done to you?!"
Toph peeled Katara's hands off of her, still smiling. "I was about to ask you the same question, Sweetness. You don't realize what you have to miss until its gone, do you?"
Katara only starred at the earthbender, confused by the girl's answer and her own response to Zuko's fall at the same time.
"Ugh!" she groaned in frustration as tears began to build up in her eyes, and she looked over the edge of the abyss, hoping to see Zuko there, holding on to a rock for his dear life. That wasn't what she saw at all.
Zuko stood, in one peace and his own surprised look on his face, on Appa's lap, who rose higher until he landed on the floor beside Toph. The earthbender pet the bison's side in thanks, then stepped back, waiting to see what would happen next.
Zuko jumped down from Appa, starring at Katara, who was perhaps in shock.
"But she…but you…and then…"
Zuko blinked, saying nothing in reply. Unexpectedly, Katara forced herself on the firebender, wrapping her arms around him as she kissed, and then Zuko, wide-eyed, leaned in and kissed her back.
Toph smirked, and walked away from the love scene.
"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction," she muttered, walking away with a smile on her face.
That Night
"You couldn't come up with any better ideas to prove it to me other than shoving me into an endless void?!"
"You couldn't just trust me and believe me when I told you that she had feelings for you?!" Toph countered.
Zuko groaned in defeat. He had gotten what he wanted, a response from Katara; the one he had hoped for and yet didn't expect.
Toph snickered, as if reading her friend's mind. "I didn't expect her to kiss you, though. You didn't have any trouble breathing through that, did you?" she half joked.
"Haha."
Zuko grabbed his pillow from the side of the room, throwing it against the wall of Toph's bedroom where they sat last night, talking. It seemed that history was ready to repeat itself. Another long night.
Toph pressed her back against half of the pillow, leaving the other half for Zuko, who sat beside her.
"I didn't expect her to kiss me either, BadgerBit. But maybe it would have been better if she hadn't. She won't look me in the eye now."
Toph snickered, obviously amused. "Sweetness is just embarrassed, she's usually not so straightforward. I bet you anything she's gonna want to have a chitchat about all this pretty soon though."
"What? Ughh…" Zuko groaned, then sat up, realizing something.
"You set me up."
"Hm?" Toph asked with a smile.
"You knew that if she took a step forward, she would want me to follow after her. You knew that she would put me on the spot and ask, and you knew that would be more than amusing on your half. Toph…"
"Alright, alright. No need to get worked up, Sparky. Save that for Sugar Queen," Toph mumbled the latter of her words, smiling. "So what if I planned it? You needed a push forward…literally!"
"Ugh…" Zuko decided not to argue with her; not only would she win, but she would bring up something even less comfortable. Time to turn the tables.
"So what happened with Aang out there? I haven't seen him all morning, actually."
"That's because you've been with me, and Twinkletoes is avoiding me."
"What, did you kiss him too?"
"Ha! I'm not so bold, Sparky. I just got Airhead's mind twirling, that's all."
"You must have set a tornado lose in that kid's head. What'd you do?"
"Just told him that he should consider the issue of 'us' and that he needed to let go of Sweetness. So yes, there probably is a tornado whirling around somewhere, whether in his head or Aang being the one that caused it." Toph smiled at her own joke; she would give Aang all the time he needed to let that tornado to die out.
"We really are making a mess out of this place, aren't we?"
"Yep. One natural disaster at a time."
A/N: Hehe. What did you think. I told you that part 2 would be different. Its going to start of with either something Taangy or Zutaraness, and then Toph and Zuko talk about it that night. So up next is Taang! I hope you guys are enjoying this!