A/N: I really owe you guys an apology. I mean, it's been over two months hasn't it? Sorry, but I had to sort out the complicated jumble of work that is my life. But, now that summer's here and school's over, I've got nothing to do. So, hopefully this won't take two months this time. But I'm getting a lot of reviews and alerts so I'm glad you all like it so far. I didn't expect this to be this popular. So thanks! By the way, if you see an gramatical errors, let me know so that I can fix them. Okay, public announcement over. On to the story!

Chapter 13

Toph rapped her knuckles against Aang's door.

"The door's open," Aang called from his room.

Toph pushed the door open and stepped inside. "Hey Twinkles? I was wondering if I could…" she trailed off as she got a good look at the room.

The floor in front of her was covered in dozens of different sized scrolls that were unrolled and thrown all over the place. Toph kicked one to the side as she pushed the door open and tried to walk inside the room without stepping on anything. She trudged her way through the door while Aang was thrown on top of one of the arms chairs in his room, a scroll in hand along with several of them around the chair he was sitting in. The table next to him had a few scrolls along with two or three on his bed. The floor underneath Toph crunched as she tried to walk through the room and stepping on scrolls every time she put her foot down. It was still morning and he was already up to something. She shouldn't ask. She should just walk away and not ask. She stopped in front of him and crossed her arms while he absorbed himself in the scroll he was reading.

"This is a stupid question, but what in the world are you doing?" Toph asked him.

Aang peeked from behind what he was reading and smiled. "Oh. Hey Toph."

Toph knocked the pile of scrolls sitting on the armchair next to him and plopped in the chair with her feet up. Aang was still reading. "Where'd you get all of this?"

"Bumi gave them to me this morning," Aang replied without looking up. "It's some really long drama that was written by an earth kingdom poet a few years ago."

Toph rolled her eyes. "You are not reading that junk are you?"

"Why not?" Aang asked. "It's not that bad."

"My mom used to be obsessed with all of those scrolls. I used to walk into her room and it would look just like this. Earth Kingdom dramas are not good for you."

Aang shrugged. "Bumi said it would distract me."

"From what?"

"From worrying about our problems. If you think about it, we're kind of stuck. Roku told us that we couldn't do anything and our only option is waiting for Avatar Kyoshi to make up her mind. So until then, Bumi said I should just calm myself down."

He's telling everyone that isn't he, Toph thought, remembering that Bumi said she should think about how she would die if it gave her peace of mind. Crazy old loon.

"So you're reading some sappy story to calm yourself down?" she asked.

"It's not sappy," Aang said peeking from behind the scroll again. "It's about a boy and a girl that fell in love, but the boy got into an earth bending accident and lost his memory. Now he doesn't remember the girl he fell in love with, so she has to try and make him fall in love with her all over again. It's tragic if you think about it. I used to read stuff like this back at the Southern Air Temple."

"Right, I forgot who I was talking to," Toph muttered, but Aang was too absorbed into his reading to pay attention to her.

"How long is this thing?" she asked him.

"It's seventy-four scrolls long."

Toph's eyes widened. "How many have you read?"

"I'm on number twenty-seven."

"If you've been reading it since this morning it must be a real hit. I should read it sometime," Toph said smiling, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

Aang rolled his eyes. "What did you come here for anyway?"

Toph shrugged. "I'm bored. Things have been getting pretty dull around here. I mean who knew that hiding out could be so uneventful. It's practically melting my brain."

"So you came to me because you were bored?" he asked.

"Believe me, you're the most interesting person in this whole palace right now," she told him.

Aang laughed. "Then I guess I should take that as a compliment."

"You should," Toph told him, crossing her legs underneath her. "Everyone's lost their minds. We're the only sane people left."

"What about Bumi?"

Toph gave him a strange look. "You're kidding right?"

"What?" Aang asked. "You've got admit, he says some pretty interesting things." He hadn't looked up from his story the entire time.

"Yeah, if you're a psychiatrist trying to 'help him,'" Toph said, air-quoting when appropriate.

Aang shook his head. "I think you're too hard on him. He is one of my best friends you know and despite what you might say he's really smart. Have you even had a real serious conversation with him?"

Yeah, one too many, she thought. She tried not to think about the talk she and Bumi had when he was escorting her through the palace while Aang was near her. She didn't want to give anything away. She couldn't shake the feeling that he was intentionally playing an annoying match maker the entire time. And when he wasn't doing that, he was saying something that sounded nothing short of what comes out of a psychopath's mouth. She wondered what his wife must have been like. It was actually hard to imagine any woman dealing with that all day long. It was a mystery what the man would say next. But she shouldn't judge. Maybe his wife liked the surprise his random comments gave her. Maybe he made her laugh. But Toph got slightly creeped out whenever he said anything. Best to stay away from people like that in her opinion. To each his own, I guess, she thought.

"Toph?"

"Huh?" she answered, snapping out of her thoughts.

"You were spacing out. You okay?"

"Fine," Toph said. "Let's just say that Bumi is out of the question for entertainment." She had her fill of his ludicrous rants for a while.

"Sokka?"

"He's raiding the kitchen with Momo."

"Suki?"

"She's trying to stop them."

"Katara?"

Toph rolled her eyes. "Flirting with Zuko of course. I'm telling you, the two have been inseparable ever since we got here. That's got me annoyed too."

Aang tensed. "You don't say," he said, his voice getting a little rigid. Toph had easily picked up on it. The thought of Zuko and Katara in love seemed to bother him. She shook her head. He was getting to be too predictable.

"I knew it," she told him.

"What?" he asked.

"You're jealous."

"I'm not jealous," he snapped as he set down the scroll he was reading and looked over at her.

Self denial, she thought.

"Don't you think that by now I've gotten over Katara already? I told you already that Katara and I broke up a long time ago and I'm okay with it. If she really likes Zuko, than I'm happy for her. I'm not going to hold a grudge against him and I'm not going to go chasing after something that was never mine in the first place. Besides, what good will it do? I'll just be fighting for a lost cause anyway."

Toph sighed. "That was a nice speech, but I never said you were jealous of Zuko," she told him.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, sounding confused.

Toph looked his way. "If you were jealous of Zuko, I don't think you'd be acting all cool around him like you are now. I didn't have to be around when this happened to know that you're the type of person who mopes around when things don't go your way. You make it obvious when you're upset and if you were directly jealous of Zuko, I would know about it. So it's obvious that's not the problem." Gosh, she was getting better at reading him every day.

"I meant that you're jealous of what they have. Not to rain on your parade or anything, but I'm almost positive that you've never been in a mutual relationship. At least not romantic anyway."

Aang scowled. But she continued on. He needed to hear it.

"You're desperate for something mutual. That's all I'm saying. And I can guess it's uncomfortable for you to see them together because they managed to gain something you've been working hard for a long time to get."

It was starting to scare Toph how much this conversation was applying to her as well, and she was pretty sure Aang knew that as well. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but it bothered her to no end that all of her friends seemed to have someone special to them. Even Bumi had someone he was proud to say he loved. She wondered what it would be like to have someone like you back. She was never the object of someone's desires. She wasn't Katara. She was the tomboyish, sarcastic, sidekick that everyone thought of as their little sister. She wasn't known for her looks, she was known for her fighting. She wasn't motherly, she was tough. People came to her for a good sparring match, not for comforting advice. And back at home, people came to her for her money, not because they were attracted to her in the slightest. She never let anyone know, but it hurt. What was wrong with her? It seemed like her personality prevented everybody around her from thinking of her as anything but a friend. But she wanted someone to show a slight interest in her as well. It was becoming harder and harder as time went on.

But, giving up was not what she was used to. It wasn't her style and she wasn't going to start changing that now. In fact, giving up on something like this should never be an option for anyone.

"We shouldn't stop trying though," she said a little quieter this time, including herself in the statement. "No one should ever stop trying."

"Who said I have?" Aang said.

Toph leaned forward against the arm of the chair. "Can I ask you something?" Aang asked her.

"Sure," she said.

"You know when you feel like you can't do something, and it's doomed to fail? But something always picks you up and tells you that you should try and not give up? That you shouldn't just sit down and do nothing."

Toph smiled. "Of course I do."

"What's that something that keeps you going?"

Toph thought for a moment. "Knowing the good that'll come after you succeed."

Aang leaned forward on the arm of his chair so that they were only about a foot away from each other. "That's funny."

"What's funny?"

"I always think the same thing," he said, smiling.

"You know why else I always talk to you?" she asked him.

"Why?"

"You always get me. Sometimes I think we're on the same wavelength of thought more often than not. Which is pretty crazy considering our arguments." They both laughed. "But I can't talk to anyone else anymore. It's like they're too absorbed into their own lives that we're slowly but surely breaking apart. Maybe the fact that we're both single is a good thing."

"But wouldn't it be nice to find someone to love you that gets you too?" he asked. They got a little closer.

"That'd be nice I guess," she answered.

"Then we're agreed. We'll keep looking no matter how lost the cause seems?" he asked.

Toph smiled. "You've got it, Twinkle Toes."

It wasn't clear what had happened next. Toph figured that they both let their walls crumble down and they just left their lonely hearts out in the open to be exposed. She didn't know what Aang was thinking, and to be honest she wasn't completely sure what she was thinking either. They were facing each other. They were so close that she could feel Aang's breath on her face. She had one of her feet dangling on the floor and she could tell his heart beat matched hers. It made her blush a little. If anything, it further proved the theory that perhaps they think and feel the same way all the time. They were total opposites. She never expected the two of them to be so close. During their first earthbending lesson, she swore to herself that they probably would never meet eye to eye on anything for a while. He was just too in touch with his airbending personality to admit that she was right, and vice versa. But now, they were this close. And they had a silent understanding that nothing was over for either of them. They didn't have to open their mouths. They were thinking the same thing.

Toph gasped when she felt Aang's fingers on her brow. He felt his fingers brush away a piece of her hair behind her ear. He kept his hand there at the side of her face. It felt nice having it there, so she didn't say anything when he didn't pull it away. They got closer, but only by an inch. Both of their hearts were racing, but neither of them paid any attention to it. There was nothing breaking their concentration on each other. Nothing…

"Hey Aang! Look what I found—"

Sokka barged in with an armload of food and saw them. He saw them three inches away from each other staring at each other. The two slowly turned their heads to the commotion. They quickly jumped up and stood a good three feet away from each other, blushing madly. Sokka snickered.

"My bad!" he said. "I didn't know I was interrupting anything. Do you guys need a minute?"

Toph stared angrily at Sokka. "Shut Up, Snoozles. Nothing is going on," she yelled at him.

"Yeah. That sure was nothing alright," he said smirking. He gave Aang a thumbs-up, holding all of his food in one arm. "Nice job, Aang. Who knew you had it in you?"

The heat in Aang's cheeks was starting to get unbearable. "Sokka, we weren't—"

"No need, my friend. Your face says it all," Sokka said laughing. "Hey Suki!"

Toph stepped forward. "Don't you dare," she said slowly.

Sokka ran out of the door, dropping all of his food to the floor. He ran outside to try and go find his girlfriend while Toph ran after him at full speed, trying desperately to tell him to keep quiet about the whole thing. Aang just stood in the middle of his very messy room too shocked for words.

...............................................................................

"Take it back!"

"Ah! Stop it Toph, you're breaking my arm!"

"Take. It. Back."

Toph had Sokka with his face in the wall and his arm bent painfully behind his back. She held down the side of his face as she tortured Sokka into not saying anything. Like hell she was going to have people know about something that didn't happen.

"Alright! Alright! I'll keep quiet! Now let me go."

Toph smirked and let Sokka drop to the floor, in pain of course.

"Geez," Sokka said stretching out his arm and getting up off of the floor. "Why are you so mad about this. So what? You guys kissed. It's not the end of the world."

"We never kissed, idiot," she yelled at him, getting even more upset. "Nothing happened, nothing was going to happen, and that's that. This is exactly why you're not going to tell people anything."

"Whatever," Sokka said putting his hands up in surrender. "I'm just asking why you don't want anyone to know."

Toph got into his face. "Because it's none of their business. It's none of your business either. Hasn't anyone ever told you to knock?!"

Sokka shrugged. "I'm sorry alright? I won't say anything and I'll keep you to sort out your weird relationship problems."

Toph gave him a hard punch in the arm. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Just get out of here," she yelled at him.

Sokka turned away muttering something about earthbenders being even worse than moody waterbenders. Toph rolled her eyes. He had no business barging in and he knew it. She'd have to keep a close eye on him. One of the many things Sokka wasn't good was being inconspicuous. He might give it all away just by a random look he'd give the two of them. Yeah, that would do alright. No one was going to know about an event that she herself didn't quite understand. They'll know when they had to know and that would be that.

Toph sighed. The water tribe idiot had led her to who-knows-where. She tried to see if she could find Aang again. It was faint and far away, but she could feel him dead ahead. Just some really long hallways to go. Then they could sort out this whole mess. It was so confusing. What had they just done? What were they going to do? Toph shook her head. Just stop thinking about it, she told herself. Somehow, half of her bun managed to get loose trying to chase Sokka. She started fiddling with her hair as she made her way back to Aang, not noticing that someone was watching her.

Toph felt a weird presence in front of her after she managed to fix her hair. She couldn't feel them through earthbending, but somehow she knew that someone was standing right in front of her. It wasn't charging at her, it didn't feel dangerous, and it wasn't whispering in a chilling voice, so she knew it couldn't have been Koh. She couldn't put her finger on it. Call it intuition, but a person was standing right in front of her.

She tried to just ignore the feeling as paranoia and kept walking, more curious to see what would happen if she walked past the presence than anything else. She happened to walk a few steps before she heard someone call back to her.

"Where on Earth do you think you're going?"

Toph froze and turned around with a really confused look on her face. She heard a voice right behind her. It sounded like a woman, but she wasn't sure. "Um, hello?"

"I realize that you can't see me but surely you're able to detect my presence."

Toph walked two steps forward toward the voice. It was definitely a woman speaking. She had a serious voice and she sounded older than Toph. Toph walked closer still and spoke up again. "Yeah, well I would gladly stop if I knew who I was talking to," she said.

"Very well then, Miss Bei Fong. My name is Avatar Kyoshi. I have come here to help you."

Toph widened her eyes. She thought she had heard wrong. Did Kyoshi really just show up after all of this time? She was ecstatic for a moment. She was finally going to get the help she needed. It was here standing in front of her totally willing. Then she remembered how long it had taken Kyoshi to decide whether or not she wanted to help save someone's life. Then Toph got a little angry.

"You're serious?" Toph asked incredulously.

"Yes. Now please listen for we have little time to—"

"Wait, hold on a second," Toph said. "Why did it take so long for you to come? We've all been waiting for days. I thought you liked to help people. Why all of the hesitation."

Kyoshi tightened her lips. "Don't assume that because I didn't automatically jump to help you means that I don't enjoy helping others. There were simply other matters that needed to be taken into account before I could help you. For starters, your safety. Besides, I don't have to be here."

It was a shame she couldn't pick up any vibrations from the past Avatar. She probably could've picked her out in a lie about how she really hated to help. But she would never know. "So what are you saying? Is your helping me really that dangerous?"

"Let's just say that teaching you how to control your powers is a very controversial task. If we were to look at this technically, I am breaking serious rules coming here to assist you."

Toph looked down to the floor. "Is that so?"

"But never mind that. We haven't the time for idle talk at the moment. We need to prepare you as quickly as possible. Do you know where the Avatar is? He should be present. I've been meaning to speak with him as well."

"He's just down the hall there, calm down," she told her. "I don't see why we have to be so urgent about it. I still don't' know what's going on let alone what you're even going to teach me. I don't know what anything you're here for involves. So start talking."

Kyoshi sighed. "I will gladly tell you everything you need to know once the Avatar is present. I haven't the time or the patience to deal with your constant questioning."

Toph narrowed her eyes. Suddenly she wasn't so eager for help from this woman. For a fellow earthbender she was pretty infuriating. "Well, why the rush? I mean you're acting as if this has to be done in record time. Don't we have time?"

Kyoshi's tone got a bit quieter. "In actuality, we don't. There's a reason why me must hurry and why every second counts. Your talking isn't helping the matter. I understand you're curious and probably very confused, but you're just going to have to contain that and listen to me. Once we have Avatar Aang present we can start planning out how I'm going to help you. The training you have to prepare for requires a lot of effort and diligence and we need as much time as possible from the little that we have."

"How much time are we talking about here?" Toph asked a little worried.

"Three days."

A/N 2: Can I ask you all for a huge favor? There's a poll on my profile. I'd really appreciate it maybe a few can stop by and vote quickly. People have been asking me to continue my one-shots and I need to pick which one. I probably won't write it right away, but I least I know what everyone wants. Thanks in advance.

Please review!