Because my little brother has made me super paranoid about getting arrested for plagiarism…I do NOT own Avatar or any of the characters. They all belong to Bryke, Nick, and whatever other geniuses brought these characters to life. Now enjoy the chapter :)

Chapter Twenty – Meltdown

"Hey, Katara."

Funny how two little words made the entire car lean in and listen.

Katara looked out of her eye at me from the passenger seat and said, "Yes, Aang?"

"Would you like to go out with me sometime this week?"

Sokka and Toph immediately started "Ooooooh"ing at me. Toph even went so far as to punch me in the arm.

"Was it necessary to ask this in the car?" Katara asked with an amused voice.

"I figured we should get the teasing out of the way now."

"Good point."

"Well, it's not going to be terribly romantic if the lady is the one who has to drive," Toph sneered.

Ouch. Good point.

"Don't worry, Aang," Katara said, bestowing one of her winning smiled on me. "I don't mind driving. What do you have in mind?"

"Lots of fun stuff."

"I will be calling every ten minutes to do hand checks!" Sokka snapped. "If I hear that anything…inappropriate is going on, I will personally castrate you with my lax stick!"

"Oh snap," Toph said.

"Don't worry, Sokka," I said. "I will treat your sister with nothing but respect. After all, I am an upright, law-abiding gentleman who would do nothing inappropriate, dangerous or fool-hardy."

We pulled up into our parking spot, where Suki was waiting with a smile. "Hey, Aang! Ready to engage in subversive, illegal warfare against an all-powerful dictatorship that compromises our finances, families and lives?"

There was a pause.

"What was that about being a 'law-abiding gentleman'?" Sokka said.

"Touché, Mr. Hatori. Touché."

Suki sat with us at lunch again, which always meant a lunchtime filled with inappropriateness and laughter. This was especially relevant that day since Toph had gone to work on convincing (read: beating up) the rest of the Earth District kids, and without her we would be facing forty-five minutes of Katara gossip. As we were swapping stories about different Fire District guys we'd beat up on throughout the year (my number was surprisingly high), a young girl came out to the lawn where we were eating lunch. She sat down on the grass and began to eat lunch all by herself, chewing her PB&J slowly.

Well, that didn't work for me.

"Hey!" I called to her. She snapped her head around and 'eep'ed when she saw us. "Do you wanna come sit with us?"

She blushed and after a second, stood up with her tray and came over to us. She had thick bangs and two chunks of hair hanging in front of her ears, the rest of it pulled up into a ponytail. She smiled at us with brown eyes and sat down shyly.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," I replied with a smile. "My name's Aang Nomad! These are my friends, Katara, her brother Sokka, and Suki."

"Hi," she said, "I'm Onjelina."

"Huh?" Suki said.

The girl gave a weary smile. "Like Angelina? My parents were ghetto. You can call me Onji if you want."

Then she looked at me, her eyebrows raised in shock. "You're Aang, who's running against Ozai."

"Yeah," I said. "Have you thought about who you're voting for for Prom King yet?"

"Uhh…" Onji took a big bite out of her sandwich, and after chewing said, "Yeah…I'm actually from the Fire District…"

"Oh," I said.

We all dropped into silence. Katara had her eyebrows raised, Sokka's mouth was slightly open, and Suki looked murderous.

"You don't have gold eyes," I said, not even really caring about propriety.

"Yeah, it's pretty rare, but some Fire kids don't have gold eyes. There's only one other person at school without them. I kinda got teased a lot when I was a kid."

She had such a young, pretty, kind face. I just couldn't associate her with the assholes I'd come to associate with her district.

"Well, just cause you're Fire District doesn't mean we can't be friends," I said. "We're good friends with Zuko Agni, and Mai and Ty Lee."

Katara, Sokka and Suki all nodded, as if suddenly remembering that we did, in fact, have Fire District friends.

"Oh, I love Ty Lee!" Onji said, finally breaking into a smile. "I'm on cheer with her. She's so nice. Is she voting for you?"

"Yeah, I think so. And, uh…" I took a deep breath. Nothing to lose, right? "I'd really appreciate it if you thought about voting for me. And maybe telling your friends too."

Onji looked scared, her big brown eyes fixed on my face. "Ozai…he kinda said he'd beat us up if we didn't…and my boyfriend…"

"Who you vote for isn't any of their business," I said firmly. "I'm trying to win without resorting to those methods. I want to win because people genuinely see that it would mean a lot to the school in really breaking the douchebaggery that Ozai has created, and we're trying to do it without violence."

"Except for Toph," Sokka muttered under his breath.

"I take no responsibility for how Toph convinces the Earth kids," I said quickly. "Toph is cray-cray. Anyway, Onji, I'm just asking you to think about it. I think that if I won it would really make an impact on the school, and I can't do it without the Fire District support."

Onji was slowly starting to smile. She took another bite out of her sandwich and did that girl-thing, where they look at you from under their eyelashes. I smiled back.

At that exact moment, I felt two red-hot laser beams pointing at the side of my head.

I took a peek over and saw Katara glaring murderously at me, her bottom lip curled up, blue eyes narrowed into slits.

What the - ?

Suddenly everything Katara had been saying, about how I'd hurt her by kissing Meng and Toph, made sense, and I felt a sense of empowerment that I'd never felt before. Katara was jealous! She didn't even want me smiling at this girl!

I was hot shit!

And then, because I'm an asshole, I entertained it for one moment and said,

"Onji, I really like your necklace."

"Oh, thanks! That's sweet of you."

I swear, an air raid siren went off, followed by footage of an atomic bomb explosion. I snuck another peek at Katara and found her sitting straight up, her expression contorted into an almost comedic look of rage.

But then she met my eyes and I suddenly understood that if I didn't stop, I was heading for an ass-kicking the likes of which would make Ozai quake. Homegirl was not messing around. Even Suki and Sokka looked terrified of her icy blue eyes.

"Uh…I mean…I just…" I stammered.

But that was when a large, muscular, golden-eyed boy who was most definitely from the Fire District came up and bellowed, "Onji, there you are! Why aren't you sitting with me?"

"Cause you were being mean," she said, not meeting his eyes. It was the toughest I'd heard her voice sound.

"Yeah, well, you're done." He grabbed her hand and hauled her to her feet, throwing her plate to the ground with a clatter.

"Dude, chill out, she was just sitting with us," I said.

"You're being unnecessary." Even Katara had a frown on her face.

Suddenly the boy looked me in the eye and leaned over. "You're Aang. The kid running against Ozai."

"Nice to meet you," I grinned.

"Well, my name's Hide, and I'm going to be taking over after Ozai and Zuko graduate."

"Congratulations, you have to wait two years for anyone to give a shit about you," Sokka said.

Hide curled his lip and said, "You losers want an ass-kicking?"

Without getting up or stopping her nail-filing, Suki said calmly, "No, but if you take another step towards Aang, I will be forced to strip you and rip out your pubes one by one."

Hide blinked and looked towards Suki, who gave him one small wink before continuing to file her nails. Apparently the thought of excruciating pubic torture was enough to scare him, so he just made two fingers from his eyes to mine and pulled Onji away, who gave a small wave as she was led away.

"Ugh, just when we meet one nice Fire District kid, we meet another asswipe," Suki said.

"I don't know, maybe Onji will vote for us," Sokka said.

Katara stuck her nose up. "She was just a freshman. We can find better."

I looked at her, and she refused to meet my eye. When the bell rang and we all picked up our trays, I hung back as Katara was dumping her food in the trash. I tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned around, rolling her eyes.

"What is it, Aang – "

I held her under the chin and gave her the deepest, most epic kiss I could muster.

When we pulled back, her eyes were still mad, but her reluctant blush told me all I needed to know.

"You're still my girl, hun," I said.

The end of the week came for Sokka just as it has since lacrosse season ended – he sprinted out of his sixth period Psych class and ran out to the car to wait for everyone else to get out of class so they could go home and play video games and forget about homework and college applications for a night. But it was always a subdued day, because Toph did her MMA tonight. She walked over, tapping her cane, and smiled at Sokka as she switched her school backpack for the gym bag that she brought. Then she clicked her tongue at him and sauntered off, her hips swinging. Sokka crossed his arms and decided it was time to finally get inside that stubborn head.

That night, as Aang was playing video games and Katara doing homework, nine o'clock came.

"Hey, guys," Sokka said, "I'm going to go pick Toph up from her match tonight."

"Oh," Katara said, looking up from her homework. "I guess there's no reason why not…I've always picked her up before though."

"It'll be fine, where do you usually go?"

"Right out front. I'd leave now, I'm petrified one of those guys is gonna kidnap her when she's on her way to the car."

"Kat, she's fine," Aang said, his eyes fixed on Mario Kart. "She's already proven she can kick all of their asses. I wouldn't go freaking out about her."

Katara sighed and rubbed her eyebrows. "Well, whatever."

"Alright, I'll be back soon." Sokka jumped up, grabbed his wallet and the Prius keys, and went out into the carport. The drive over to school was dark and silent. There was a big moon, which only made the attraction to Toph even weirder. But Yue would want him to be happy, right?

He left the car purring in front of the old abandoned gym, hoping Toph would hear the car and know it was him. After another ten minutes, the doors opened and people began streaming out, talking about the match. God, so much multicolored hair. Sokka locked the doors and tried not to make eye contact.

Eventually, Toph walked out. In the striking light from the parking lot lights, she looked really epic – her thick bangs obstructing her face, her nose ring glinting, all of her sweaty hair sticking to her neck. She had on her tank top and flip flops, a bag slung over her shoulder and her cane on her wrist. She was unwrapping the tape from her hands with an unaffected glance, walking forward without using her cane.

"Where you at, Sugar Queen?" she called out.

"Uh – here?"

She froze. "Sokka?"

"Yeah!"

He couldn't read her face. For a moment she looked incredibly happy, but then her eyebrows lowered. She walked over to the Prius and felt around until she reached the passenger side. The smell of sweat immediately filled the car, mixed with – was that Katara's perfume? Why was she wearing that?

"How'd it go?" he asked, beginning the drive.

"I won. Obvs."

"Congrats, homegirl."

"Thanks." She looked out the window, not making eye contact. Sokka loved the twist in her neck, the little wispy curls at the nape of her neck sticking to her pale skin. He had to know.

"So…how've things been going?"

"Uh…fine? I gotta somehow convince all the Earth kids to vote for Aang, but other than that, I'm truckin'."

"Oh, good. Cause you seem a little…distant lately."

"I haven't been distant. The four of us are fine."

"I mean…you've been distant with me."

Toph wrinkled her nose, but didn't deny it. Even though they were almost home already, Sokka turned and began driving through the neighborhood streets, desperate to keep her in the car.

"Toph, can we just – "

"Oh, fuck, you want to have 'the talk', don't you?"

"Uh, yeah, that'd be nice. Look, I know you're all sensitive about it being your first time, and I get that, but it was my first time too, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't treat it like it was the worst thing in the world to get screwed by me."

Toph's green-white eyes were staring straight ahead, her breath quickening.

"I mean, we haven't even told Aang and Katara, and we live with them. Katara's my sister."

"Oh, fuck no. Can you imagine how awkward that would be?"

"More awkward than Katara and Aang's clusterfuck? I don't think so. They'd probably be happy if we were in a relationship."

"We're not in a relationship! We had a one-night stand, that's it!"

"Well, do you want there to be a relationship? Cause for a while there I thought you did, but now I'm not sure!"

He took another left turn in the neighborhood, their headlights the only light in the darkness. Toph's breath was coming very quickly, and she kept blinking. What was up with her tonight?

"Sokka, I just…I appreciate this…chivalry, whatever, you've got going on, but you don't have to feel obligated just cause you popped my cherry. We're fine where we're at, okay? Let's just leave it there."

"We're not fine, we have to walk on eggshells around each other and you avoid me at every turn! I mean, was it that bad? Do you regret it that much?"

She weighed her words for a while, clutching to her knees.

"It wouldn't work, Sokka," she finally said, her words heavy. "It's not gonna work, whether we want to or not. We just can't – "

"You won't even give it a try! Come on, girl, it's not like you're so far down that you can't come back up! Just cause you've got some shit, some scars, doesn't mean you can't learn to love! You're not broken, just…bent, and if you give me a chance, I can – "

"I DON'T NEED SAVING!" She screamed, her voice breaking.

Her words had the force of a punch to the gut. Both of them sat, stunned into silence, before Toph said,

"Stop driving around and take me home."

He stared at her, at the tears sparkling on the bottom of her eyes, and drove around the corner to the house. When he pulled into the driveway, she immediately jumped out, grabbing all of her stuff, and headed into the house without her cane, bumping her shins on everything.

"Toph?" Katara said, looking up from the kitchen table. "Are you – "

Toph stormed past her, down the hall and into her room, where she slammed the door to their room and locked it. After a minute, as the whole house held their breath, they heard a muffled scream, like she'd stuffed a pillow to her face and then screamed. And then – a series of soft punches, coupled with strange gasping sobs.

"Is she…?" Aang said.

"I think she's punching the pillows," Katara said.

Both of them turned to Sokka.

"What happened?" Katara asked.

Sokka threw his head back and ground the heels of his hands into his eyes.

We just broke each other's hearts, he thought.

"Toph! Toph, sweetie, open up!"

Panicked, frantic breaths. Her chest heaving like an animal. Toph pressed her face even farther into the tear-soaked pillow and tried to stop her own breathing.

"Baby, you've got to open up. It's just me! Come on, I just want to make sure you're okay."

The fuck do you know, Katara? With the boys all after you. You've never sabotaged yourself, you've never felt killing yourself, what do you know?

"Toph, sweetie…I'm really worried about you."

That made a crack in Toph's stonecold heart. She cared about her? She was worried about her? Toph knew it was true, had heard Katara's worry when she came home from matches with bruises on her, when she wasn't getting enough food, when she got homesick and lonely. Would it be such a bad thing to let Katara in?

"Toph…? Honey…?"

It's her fucking brother! You just broke her brother's heart, because you are a HEARTLESS CUNT WHO DOESN'T DESERVE SUCH GOOD FRIENDS!

And suddenly it hit Toph, like lightning in her veins. Oh, God, she knew what she needed. Oh, God, now that the idea was in her head, she couldn't get it out. Oh, God, this was happening.

She leapt off the bed and started rummaging on Katara's dresser.

"Toph?" Now Katara's voice had an edge of panic. "Hun? What are you doing?"

Can't get ex, can't get weed, can't get acid, I'm not gonna smoke in Grandpa's house and Katara will never let me outside to do it…one thing left…come on, Tophie, you know what to do –

Fuck being blind! Her fingers frantically pushed aside various makeup and jewelry as she struggled to find the one thing she was looking for. Katara's voice was now calling through the house.

"Aang? Aang, come here – I need you to help me open this door – I don't know what Toph's doing, but it can't be good – "

Defiance welled up in her blood, and she only intensified her search. Oh, she'd show them. She'd show them how she felt. Then they'd have no choice but to kick her out. Better they realize what a shitshow she was now than later, after she'd become too attached.

Better to leave Sokka now, leave him heartbroken, before she fell even further in love with him.

Impossible, you stupid bitch. You love that boy.

She gave a strangled scream and started furiously moving things aside.

"Toph!" Katara cried. "Sweetie, what are you doing? Let us in!"

Yes! Finally! Toph triumphantly held up the pair of scissors, the blade gleaming in her mind's eye. She sat down on the bed and pulled off her pants.

No, wait, she and Katara shared the bed, couldn't do that. She plopped down on the cold tile floor. Much better. She opened the scissors and relished the sound of metal-on-metal.

"Toph?" It was Aang's voice. "Listen, we love you. We really do. Let us in."

Tears leaked out of her eyes.

She bared the scissors and sliced open the skin of her thigh, giving a strangled half-scream.

"TOPH!" Katara yelled. "Baby, what's wrong? What are you doing?"

"Do you think she's – "

"SOKKA! GET OVER HERE, WE HAVE TO OPEN THIS DOOR!"

She closed her eyes shut and did it again, skin on metal. A few tears leaked out now, her breath coming in sobs. She pressed her fingers down and felt her own hot blood.

"What, what's wrong?"

"Toph is – she's – I think – we need to open the door!"

Sokka started jiggling the handle. "Toph? Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't…you don't…you know what I mean. You don't. I didn't mean it, I'm sorry."

I probably need saving now, tough guy. But it's not your job to fix me.

She sliced herself again, but somehow managed to intersect one of the previous cuts in the process (the problems with being a blind cutter). This time she really couldn't stop the scream.

"Toph!" Katara really sounded like she was crying. "Stop it, sweetie, please!"

"Give me your credit card, or something," Sokka said. "Quick."

Toph switched to the other leg, her emotions slowly getting buried deep within her bones, as her friends frantically attempted to open the door.

"Not working…goddamn it…"

"Does Grandfather have a key?"

"I'll go ask him."

"We can't call the fire department, they'd get her parents involved – "

"I think we might have to, if she won't come out – "

It's what you deserve. This is all that you deserve. They're too good for you. Maybe now, they'll leave you.

"He has a key, he's looking for it."

"Oh, thank God."

"What was in there?"

"Scissors, that's all, I think."

"But still – "

"Toph? Sweetie?" Katara called. "We're still here, baby. We're not leaving you. Grandpa's getting a key. We're gonna get there, don't worry."

Why haven't they left? I don't get it. Why are they still here?

The pain finally became too intense even for her, and she had to stop. She laid her feverish body down on the cool tile and closed her eyes. The swirls on the backs of her eyelids were so comforting. She remembered seeing…but it was such a long time ago. She remembered green fields, and badgers in the backyard. She remembered Song's face when they jumped together. She remembered green, and brown, and cream, the color of milk and ice cream. She remembered her own green eyes, big and scared, looking at herself in the mirror that last time, knowing that it was all about to fade away.

Now all she saw was black. The color of death, and despair, and hopelessness.

"Here it is, it's one of these – "

"Oh, thank God – "

"Hold on, baby, we're coming."

They knew, but they couldn't know. So she pulled herself up and managed to gingerly walk to the dresser, wiping the bloody scissors on her shirt before leaving them on the dresser. Then she pulled her sweatpants on over the cuts, hissing when it stung, and collapsed onto her side of the bed and pulled the curtains up to her chin.

Finally the door opened, and she heard four sets of feet come barging in, only to stop.

"Toph?" Katara said.

She said nothing. Just made a strange moan/whimper.

Katara's maternal instincts went off like a bell. "You three, out."

"What – "

"NOW."

"Right, yes ma'am," Aang said quickly, as the three men quickly beatfeet out of the room. Toph heard the click of the lights turning off and some shifting as Katara changed clothes, her curiosity piquing.

Then Katara gently crawled into bed and got under the covers too. For a moment the two of them hung suspended, and Toph realized just how good it was to have another human being's warmth next to her.

It happened slowly, all at once. Katara moved closer and repositioned her arms. Toph slowly came out of her clenched ball and turned over to Katara's side. Both girls realized at once that the other was crying.

Finally, Katara enfolded Toph in her arms, where she breathed deeply and cried quietly and let the older girl stroke her back and rub circles in her tense shoulders. Katara pulled the elastic out of Toph's hair, causing only the smallest of snags, and then gently began pulling her fingers through the tangled mess. Toph closed her eyes on Katara's skin, relishing her sweet smell of poppies and clean sea breezes, and thought that maybe Katara did know. Maybe she did understand what this felt like.

They hadn't left. They'd stayed right there. How was that possible? They knew, and they didn't leave.

Suddenly, Toph didn't want to know why. She didn't want to analyze the situation to death, like she did for everything. All that mattered was that at this moment, she was in the arms of someone who loved her.

She let herself drift into a dreamless sleep.

Yay for chapters that should have turned out really sad but actually didn't! Pretty much the complete opposite of what usually happens in my stories…Anyway, hope you all enjoyed! Next chapter: I will FINALLY stop trolling and write the stupid Kataang date we've been waiting for for like five chapters. Also, Zuko/Azula/Mai/Ty Lee feels. YEEAAAHHHH BOOOIIIII.

Also, update: for some strange reason, even though there were a grand total of eight cuss words in the last chapter, which is far less than I say in a usual spoken sentence, I got a disproportionate amount of flames about the cussing in this story. And although this pains me (and trust me, it pains me – I am a drummer who has been using the word 'fuck' casually since I was eight), I have tried to tone down the cussing in this story and only use it appropriately. Uuugh. (Toph's still gonna cuss like a sailor - #i'mnotsorry) Last Prom King is attempting to go R instead of NC-17. That's how much I love you guys. Now please review. I'll be in my room crying and cussing since I can't do it here ;) - PVB