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Chapter 13

Training

Aang quickly made his way across the Hui-Ying Fai Institute to the gymnasium where his girlfriend's club was just getting started. He pushed open the heavy doors right as she was lining up the members for their instructions. Many of them greeted him politely, but there was some snickering among the hushed crowd. Not even noticing whatever joke he had apparently missed, Aang went straight up to Toph who turned before he had gotten anywhere near her.

"You gotta help me," he said.

"Good to see you too, Twinkle Toes," she replied.

"Azula's after me!" Aang exclaimed. "She's been trying to teach me Shaolin, and she's willing to kill me to do it!"

"Sure you're not just wussing out?" Toph asked, arms crossed and smirking.

"Positive! Every time I make a mistake she hurts me! If I stand wrong, she hurts me! If I move wrong, she hurts me! If I'm not aggressive enough, she hurts me!"

"Sounds like my kind of training," Toph grinned widely.

"No no no," Aang told her, shaking his head vigorously. "You just hit. She really really hurts me!"

"You know something, Twinkle Toes?" Toph asked. "This is the first time you've come to see me at my club in months, and you only came to hide. Do you know how I feel about that?"

Aang's face fell into a state between fear and guilt.

"How?" he barely managed to squeak out.

"Like this."

Toph gripped Aang's shoulders and turned him to face the stands he had passed on the way in. There, in the center of the front row looking squarely at him, was Azula with her legs crossed and a deadly smile on her face. She looked so menacing that Aang could already feel the bruises forming on his body where she was bound to punish him for trying to escape from her training session.

"You know, you are very predictable, Aang," Azula told him in her calm, cold voice. "When you're afraid, you go to the place you feel the most safe. The most protected. It was easy enough to determine that you would go to your girlfriend considering how much more of a man she is than you."

"Thank you," Toph smiled.

"You're welcome," Azula replied. "And thank you for your help."

"Not a problem," Toph nodded as she pushed Aang forward. "This'll be good for you, Twinkle Toes. You gotta toughen up a bit."

"She's not gonna toughen me up!" Aang protested. "She's gonna tenderize me!"

"Then stop acting like a coward and start acting like a fighter!" Azula ordered as she dragged him to the other side of the gym.

"Fighting isn't my thing," Aang tried to explain. "I don't like fighting. I like sparring. Sparring good. Fighting bad."

"It's not about fighting," Azula told him as she tossed him to the ground. "This is about you being a jellyfish."

"Last time I checked, I lived on land and had a spine," Aang joked.

"Not much of one," Azula frowned. "Get up."

Aang did as he was told. He also went directly into a wide horse stance before Azula could give him the order. Something that she had conditioned him into. One hour of getting kicked in the leg every time he stepped out of it kind of made him do it out of habit now.

Toph observed her boyfriend's lesson with an amused smile tugging at her lips. After having given her instructions to the club, she had decided she was going to see if she could pick anything up from Azula's style of teaching. It was not all that different from her own brand of training to be honest. Watching Aang get whacked every few minutes was pretty fun too.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times: more aggression when you strike!" Azula shouted as she knocked Aang's punch away with one leg and kicked him with the other. "Your attacks are nothing if you don't back them with conviction!"

"And if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, aggression and fighting aren't my things!" Aang shouted back from the ground. He pushed himself up onto his arms and continued. "I do just fine with Ba Gua. I'm also pretty good at Tai Chi and Hung Gar, so I don't really need Shaolin anyway."

"It's not about Shaolin, you fool," Azula said as she kicked one of Aang's arms out from underneath him. "It's about you knowing when enough is enough."

"I already told you that Kaze doesn't bother me."

"He bothers me," Azula glared. "And I am not going to put up with him every time I see you."

"Then handle him like you did last time."

"I'm not going to babysit you either."

"Then just drop it!" Aang protested. "I don't want to fight, you don't want to fight for me, so just let it go!"

"It's not about the fighting!" Azula growled in frustration. "You are so thick! How do you put up with him?"

"Same way you do," Toph answered. "Every time he bugs me I just hit him."

Azula crossed her arms and glared at Aang in mounting frustration. How was she going to get this little wimp to understand? There was no easy way to dumb down what she wanted to explain to him, and there was no way he was going to comprehend any explanation that passed her lips. He was so incredibly simple that it seemed like the only way he would get the point was if she beat it into him.

"I'll make you a deal," Azula said. "If you can defeat me in a match, I'll stop."

"Defeat you?" Aang repeated. "How am I going to defeat you with a style I don't know?"

"You don't have to use Shaolin," Azula sighed. "You just have to beat me."

Aang smiled. That he could do! If he was allowed to use his other martial arts, there was no chance for Azula! Was there?

Azula took Aang's smile as his acceptance of the arrangement and did not bother to wait for him to start. She charged in so quickly that Aang barely had any time to react. Long legs swept at his face and body along with nails as sharp as claws. As he spun and dodged around Azula's attacks, Aang heard the telltale sound of his shirt being ripped. How had she gotten such sharp nails? And what was going to happen to him if she managed to dig those claws into him? Aang did not want to think about it.

Azula took another grasping jab at Aang's side, only to be met with one of his hands. He pressed her arm downward at the wrist with one and used his other hand to lift under her arm. As she flipped over with her own momentum, she landed herself on her feet as gracefully as a cat. Without missing a step, she kicked backwards and landed the first blow of the match on Aang's stomach. He stumbled back, but quickly regained his composure with a Hung Gar stance.

It was not a perfect stance, Azula noted. Much better than the average practitioner, but still not perfect. If there were flaws, she knew that she could exploit them. Aang was not physically as strong as Toph, and therefore his form would be easier to break. She charged once again without any hesitation in her attack. As she expected, Aang held his stance and waited for her. He defended against her attacks well, but every other second he acted as though he wanted to take a step back. Just another thing Azula wanted to teach him.

"You can't beat me," she said. Her voice was not condescending, only speaking matter-of-fact. "You don't have the nerve that it takes to beat me. You don't have what it takes to take advantage of an opening. You only fight not to lose."

A few of Toph's club members had come to watch the match at this point. Toph would have yelled at them, but she could not blame them for being interested in watching two seasoned fighters going at it. Murmurs of confusion went back and forth between the spectators at Azula's statement. Toph was surprised that none of them had any idea what she was talking about.

"What does she mean, Toph?" Leila asked.

"It means he can't win," Toph told her bluntly.

"But he's fighting not to lose. Isn't that the same as fighting to win?"

"Not even close." Toph's attention never strayed from the match at hand. Azula was right of course. Aang would never take advantage of someone's weak points if he believed it would hurt them. Sparring was all he was willing to do because you just needed to score a point, not actually put someone down.

"What's the difference?" one of the other club members asked.

"Just shut up and learn," Toph ordered.

Azula made another quick flurry of attacks. As Aang dodged and blocked her strikes, Azula allowed a solitary moment of vulnerability by exposing her core. Just like she expected it caught Aang's attention. Also as she expected, he did not strike at her. Using the momentary distraction to her advantage, Azula kicked the back of Aang's left leg with her right and followed up with another kick aimed at his sternum before returning to her stance. Aang gasped for breath, but did not go down. He stood his ground and continued to defend against her assaults as best as he could.

"I'm getting tired of playing this game with you," Azula said. "You can't win like this. Every time you should step forward, you want to step back. Every time you see an opening, you ignore it. You can't dodge every unpleasant encounter, and you can't dodge me either."

Aang did his best to concentrate on defending himself. Azula was right, and he knew it. It was in his nature and his style not to attack but to defend. He had never believed that violence would lead to resolutions and he never would.

"You can't beat me either," he told Azula. "I can keep this up as long as you can."

"Maybe be you," Azula smiled wickedly. "But what if it weren't you I was aiming for?"

It all happened so fast. Aang did not remember even thinking anything. All he knew was that Azula turned her back on him to face the crowd that had gathered. Without anymore warning, she charged one of the club members as though she were going to attack them. Aang's body moved of its own accord. Just before Azula managed to reach the student, Aang danced around her bringing her to a halt. Without even thinking about it, Aang's spiraling motion flowed seamlessly into a double fisted blow right into Azula's chest and stomach. She was knocked back gasping and choking for air, but she did not fall.

Aang's face fell in horror and worry. He ran over to Azula filled with genuine concern. He could have hurt her. He could have done some real damage. She had to be okay.

"Azula, are you al--"

Before he could finish, Azula had grabbed his tall frame and flipped him onto his back. She stood with her foot on his chest and her fist clenched in front of his face.

"That's more like it," she smiled.

"Are you insane?" Aang yelled. "I could have hurt you!"

"And I could have hurt someone else," she told him. "That's what you don't get. You have a very naïve view of the world, Aang. People like Kaze won't give up on tormenting you. If they can't get to you through you, they'll go through someone else. That's how people like him work."

"And my anger is going to change that?" Aang asked skeptically.

"No, you fool," Azula answered, lifting her foot. "It's not about being angry. It's not even about hurting him. It's about knowing when to draw a line, and letting people like him know when they're about to cross it."

"She's right, Twinkle Toes," Toph said from the sidelines. "Kaze's already gone as far as breaking your leg, remember?"

"Not something you forget," Aang agreed. "But I don't see how stooping to his level helps me any."

"Like I just said," Azula groaned. "You don't have to. You just have to show him you're more dangerous than he thinks!"

"But I'm not dangerous!"

"You don't have to be," Toph told him. "Don't try to be aggressive or dangerous. You need to be more assertive. Don't just stand your ground by blocking him out or acting like he isn't worth the time. He'll just take that as an invitation to try something worse. Stand up and show him you aren't going to take his crap."

"Exactly," Azula agreed. "When someone pushes you, you just have to give them an idea what would happen if you pushed back."

"You mean threaten him?" Aang asked. He was not sure he could do something like that. Sure he had done it that one time with Qiang, but that was only in reaction to him trying to put his hands on Toph.

"Forget trying to explain it, Princess," Toph said. "It's something you either can or can't do. It goes against his nature."

"I suppose you're right," Azula agreed. She straightened her clothes and began walking towards the doors.

"Does this mean you're letting me off the hook?" Aang called after her.

"I don't think so, Twinkle Toes," Toph grinned. "I think this training is good for you. Besides, other than that last hit, she totally owned you."

* - * - * - * - *

"Do you really think I need to be more assertive?" Aang asked Toph as they walked Appa through the park..

"If you have to ask, that should be answer enough," Toph replied. "Where's Sugar Queen? She said she'd meet us here."

"She'll be here," Aang reassured her. "I'm just wondering what she wanted to talk to us about."

"Something to do with Christmas. I figured we were just gonna do another party at my place, but apparently she came up with some other idea."

"Did it sound fun?" Aang asked with hope in his voice.

"Whatever it was, she sure sounded excited about it."

Appa bounded through the snow that now covered the park. He plowed his way through snow drifts and dragged Aang along with him. It entertained Toph to no end, but she still wished that Sugar Queen would have picked somewhere like the Jasmine Dragon to talk about this. She could not stand the snow. For one it was too cold, and another it made vibrations difficult to pick up. Toph was barely able to keep track of Appa and Twinkle Toes was impossible thanks to the combination of the crunchy powder and his light steps.

"Toph! Aang!"

"Finally!" Toph smiled. "And you brought Hot Head."

"Hey, Zuko!" Aang called from a pile of snow. "Hey, Katara!"

"Nice snowman impression," Zuko smirked. "I heard my sister's been beating you up."

"Training actually," Aang corrected him as he brushed the snow off of his jacket.

"With her, I'm sure it's the same thing."

"Enough chitchat, I wanna hear about this idea of yours, Sugar Queen."

"Okay," Katara said before taking a deep breath and letting it out again. "You remember a while back when Zuko went away for a little while?"

"You mean when he ran away," Toph said with her usual bluntness.

"Yeah, that," Katara smiled. "He met some people. Some really good people."

"They helped me a lot," Zuko told them. "Helped me get my head on straight. They aren't exactly well off, but they do what they can for everyone in their neighborhood. They can't really afford Christmas, so Katara got the idea in her head that we could bring Christmas to them."

"How many people are we talkin' here?" Toph asked.

"Well," Katara hesitated. "A lot. Kids mostly. Please, Toph? I knew that if anyone could make this happen it was you. You and your dad anyway."

"What kind of place did you find, Zuko?" Aang smiled. "Sounds like a real charitable kind of place."

"Not exactly," Zuko tried to explain. "They're more of a . . . I don't know how to explain them. They call themselves a gang, but it's more like a family."

"A gang?" Toph asked. "What kinda gang takes kids?"

"The kind of gang that looks after those kids," Katara said. "A lot of the kids don't even have homes. Others have parents that work all day and no money to pay for sitters or services."

"No families?" Aang asked. He remembered his time at the orphanage. He remembered how incredibly lonely it got sometimes. Getting bounced around from facility to facility until Gyatso finally came and got him. He had gotten lucky. A lot of kids his age did not get adopted. Most of them ended up getting turned out of the system when they hit eighteen. "What do you think, Toph? It would be cool to be Santa Claus, don't you think?"

"I think it's a great idea," Toph smiled. "And if there's as many people as you say, it should be some party, right?"

"That's great, but what about your dad?" Zuko asked.

"Don't worry about the old man," Toph grinned. "I know how to handle him. Besides, I doubt he'd say no to something like this. If nothing else, things like this look good in the finance books."

A/N: Looks like lots of someones are going to be having a big Christmas this year! I'll be posting the next chapter as soon as I can, but I don't think I'll have it done in time for the holiday. So until then, Merry Christmas everybody! Much love to my wonderful readers!