Title: Dance Inside
Chapter Title: Believe
Word count: 816 Rating: PG Warnings: none
Notes: Well, I have a request thread on the DH (Distant Horizons) forum and one of the requests was to do a fairly long Taang drabble—so here it is. Not as fluffy as what was prompted, but close enough. I think it came out well anyway. You be the judge.
Update: 8/19/08: Recall that practically all of these drabbles in this set were written before season three or possibly even most/all of season two. That might the characters' emotions, thoughts, and words more believable.
Believe
He has known many people from all the nations. Known firebenders, earthbenders, waterbenders and fellow airbenders alike. And yet, she is different from every person he has ever met—any girl, for that matter. It's not her blindness, either. There's just something about her that sets her apart. Something that that makes him feel attracted to her, to make him have feelings for her.
The feelings part is what makes the whole thing complicated. She's his teacher, and he's her student. Of course, that never stopped him before from liking his other teacher. So that's not the problem either.
It's the fact that he can never express what he feels the right way. What he does usually goes unheard—or it backfires and is taken the wrong way. Maybe it's because he grew up with fellow male monks and hadn't seen a girl until Katara; maybe it's just because girls are just so hard to interpret and understand.
And though he really shouldn't believe in the fortuneteller nonsense, he can't but believe that she was speaking truly when she said that he had the power to reshape his own destiny. So when he gets up from his spot by the campfire, his decision is made.
He scans their campsite for her and finds her off to the side in the clearing, sitting down with her head tilted up toward the moon. He walks over to her and before he can say anything she speaks.
"I know what you're thinking. You think it's stupid to look up at the sky when I can't see anything."
He is startled, but sits and down and says softly, "No, I wasn't thinking that."
She lets out a strained sigh and continues. "It's just that I've always wanted to see the sky—to be able to see the colors of everything, to see what everyone else sees up there. Sometimes, if I try hard enough, I can almost picture something in the blackness." A soft laugh escapes her lips and she turns toward him.
"So what were you thinking, then, if you weren't thinking about how pathetic I am to be looking at the sky when there's nothing to see?" He had been looking up toward the moon, reveling in its beautiful light. Now he turned toward her, taking a deep breath and preparing for what he was about to say.
"Toph…I…see, I-" He stopped, waiting for her to cut him off, telling him to stop stuttering and spit out what he wanted to say already, but it never came. She sat there quietly, waiting for him to go—almost waiting in anticipation of what he was about to say, as if she knew what was coming. He took another deep breath and said softly "I was just thinking about you—how I like you…more than normal." His voice grew softer yet and she sat still to catch his words. "More than you would like a good friend."
He waited, waited for a change of an expression on her face—for her to say something, anything. But nothing came. It didn't work. He shouldn't have hoped for it to. He got up and started walking back toward the campsite muttering, "Never mind" to her.
Her words stopped him in his tracks, her voice floating in the air from where she still sat, gazing up toward the sky.
"I heard what you said—I just don't understand it. I mean, there are plenty of girls you could like who aren't trapped in this cage of darkness like I am. Why me?" She turned toward him, and her voice cracked with the last of her words. He turned, a questioning look on his face, forgetting that she could not see him. Did she really mean it the way he thought it sounded? He looked at her closely and saw a blush on her face. She did mean it that way.
At that moment he decided to just take a leap of faith and see what would happen. He walked back toward her and said,
"Maybe this will help you understand," before placing a small kiss on her lips. He broke away and looked at her. She had a shocked expression on his face and something else as well, almost like disappointment? His face fell. It didn't work—yet again. He walked quickly back to the campsite, and fell down into Appa's fur, faking sleep in case she came back. Maybe this would all just be a nightmare when he woke up.
So it was only natural that when she kissed him after their earthbending lesson the next day, he stood there for a moment in shock.
"I thought you didn't like me that way." He stated, still surprised at her actions.
"Maybe you think too hard, Twinkle Toes." She said back with a laugh, before leaning in to kiss him again.
The world soon faded into a blissful oblivion as he kissed her back, Sokka's shouts of, "I thought you liked Katara!" going unheard.