Just this once she wouldn't mock him for acting wimpy and collapsing to his knees in shock, because Toph herself had to fight back tears at the reunion (she'd deny this even if it killed her). Gyatso and Aang, a hundred long years of separation, sobbed and clung to each other like their whole worlds would end if they let go. Tears cascading down their cheeks hit the ground, telling of hardships and struggle.

"Who's that?" asked Sokka quietly, unsure of what to make of the scene playing out before him. "I've never seen him before."

"That's Monk Gyatso," Toph explained, listening to the strangled discussion going on between them and their robes as they inhaled each others' scents.

"The guy Aang said was like a father to him?" Toph nodded. "But I thought he was dead. We saw his … his body." Sokka's voice grew lower until it was barely a whisper.

"That wasn't his. It belonged to someone else. I don't know what his name was though." Turning away from the scene, she punched Sokka's arm. "Come on, give them a moment and help unload the stuff. I may vomit."

Rolling one of the bags off of Appa's saddle, the Water Tribesman reached for another. "But how is this guy still alive? I mean he sounded old when Aang told us about him, but he's old now."

"Where he and the others went into hiding, there was a spirit oasis. It sustained them, kept them from ageing … it's more complicated and I don't understand much about it, I just know that he drank the water." And that it's addictive.

"The others?" Sokka dropped down another bag. "You mean there're more?"

"Take Appa's saddle off and let him roam," Toph told him simply. "There are other Bison he'd like to meet, I'm sure."

Appa bellowed happily and didn't wait for Sokka to remove the saddle, he took off with the Water Tribesman still on his back. Thankfully there were no more bags attached to him so Toph Earthbent them closer to the Temple and approached the two monks. Their crying had slowed but their bruising grip hadn't loosened, so Toph donned her mantle and threaded her white tie through her belt and shook them both.

"Up you get, both of you," she ordered. "We need to start taking these supplies inside, and … I think you want to meet the others, Twinkletoes."

"Others?" Aang sniffed, wiped at his eye. "There are- there are others?"

"Yes. Others. And they're waiting for you in the main hall."

The two reluctantly let go of each other and began lifting things with their Airbending. Toph stuck to Earthbending and dragged them through the corridors. Thunderous applause erupted when Aang walked side-by-side with his fellow Airbending Master into the humble room and his watery eyes lit up with joy as they began to crowd around him and greet him like a friend who had been away for a very long time.

Toph hung back, aware of the change in atmosphere and the need for him to become reacquainted to his people, so she walked towards the corner of the room and smiled to Iroh, Jeong Jeong and Pakku as she fell back into their ranks. She brought the bags with her and piled them up against the wall, leaving Iroh and Pakku to begin opening and organising things into piles.

"I never thought I'd see something like this," confessed Jeong Jeong, looking around. Arya was bowing to Aang, greeting him, coaxing the rest of the younger kids and teenagers to say hello. Gyatso remained by his side vigilantly, his hand resting on the Avatar's shoulder. Malu, recovered from her birthing a few days prior, approached him with a dreamy expression on her face and leaned forward to introduce him to the twin girls, Avani and Akasa. Unlike Toph, who had panicked and nearly dropped one of them, Aang openly prodded at the children and laughed as they grabbed for his long fingers and gurgled.

"Makes you want to puke, huh, Pineapple?"

"A little bit." Jeong Jeong told her, but he was lying. Something was stirring within the Firebender, a feeling of longing. For so long he had been disappointed in the world, in the senseless fighting that had plagued it, but the overpowering sense of community had relit the candles of hope burning deep within him. Toph could feel the tension in his limbs melt away and she patted him on the shoulder.

"You know, I'd like to stay for the party, but I think I'm going to go outside and catch some sleep," she said. And that's just what she did. Slipping out of the hall with a hello-goodbye nod at Pakku and Iroh, she headed back out onto the courtyard and erected a tent beneath the moonlight, crawling into it and sealing one end off to outsiders so that the wind brushed against the bangs falling over her face, and fell into a blissful nothingness. Or at least that's what she'd hoped; next thing she knew she was lying on the ground with Kyoshi standing over her, crying for a reason that eluded her.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

"There aren't enough baby animals in this world for you to punch to regain your lost manliness."

"Onions, Bigfoot. Onions everywhere."

"If you're happy to stop watering the plants with your face, care to tell me what that was about? You're blind so you won't notice, but they're wilting out of the sorrow in your heart."

"I didn't think you cared."

"I don't," Kyoshi replied. "I just want to know what I'm meant to be laughing at you for."

"Keep telling yourself that." Toph sniffed and rolled onto her back, wiping at her eye, trying to get her turbulent emotions under control. She was ashamed to have cried in front of her mentor. Kyoshi was about as sensitive as a brick. In other words, she'd never let her live it down.

"I know what you're upset about." The Avatar spirit informed her. Toph made no motion to let her know she was paying attention, but she was. "Now that Aang has finally returned to the temple with his people, you are no longer free. You are bound to him and to your duty, and you're frightened of what he will think of you now that he knows what you are."

Toph winced. Bigfoot one, Blind Bandit zero. Kyoshi had laid her thoughts out in front of her when Toph herself had no idea what had been troubling her. Either that meant she was easy to read or Kyoshi was just extremely perceptive. Toph chose perceptive. It made her mentor sound even more badass than before and didn't imply that Toph was bad at something. "I'm not frightened of anything," she snorted.

Kyoshi's cold, calculating eyes latched onto her hungrily. "Thunderstorms, rejection-" she started listing. Toph slammed her fist onto the ground and sprayed mud at her mentor's mouth, her face twisted into a snarl. Kyoshi, either insanely stupid or brave (again, she chose brave, she wasn't being taught by a mindless nitwit) went on regardless; "your parents disowning you-"

"I'm not putting up with your shit, so shut your mouth before I slap it off your face."

"I'm not putting up with your shit either." Kyoshi's tone had adopted a hint of malice in it now. "Remember when you asked me that question and I gave you the talk, and then you woke up screaming? You Earthbent me into the ground and left. I got stuck there for hours."

Toph snorted as she pushed back bitter laughter. "You're an Avatar and an Earthbender."

"And I'm also a spirit. I can't Earthbend when you're conscious and out of your mind. I had to accept help from Kuruk."

"Hey, you wanted to kill him, I led him straight to you. I don't see the problem."

"That's because you're blind. Do you have any idea how irritating it was being stuck up to my neck in rock, and then having to be dug out by KURUK?"

"No. It's never happened to me. How would I know?" Toph squinted in thought. "Least he came looking for you. But if you can't Bend when I'm awake, how come I felt you and Yangchen fighting when I was helping Aang with Ozai?"

"We did fight," Kyoshi said. "I punched her."

Toph paused and sat up. "You punched up Yangchen?"

"Yes. She pissed me off. I don't regret it."

Laughter erupted from Toph so fiercely that it caused her eyes to water and her lungs began wailing at her in protest. Kyoshi sat stiffly beside her, glaring at her student for an eternity as she curled up into a ball clutching at her stomach. Her lips twitched mutinously and curled into a slight devious smirk.

"You know what? I'm proud of you, Sifu Bigfoot," Toph snickered. "Tell me, did you leave a mark?"

"Several," Kyoshi responded matter-of-factly.

"Did she hit you back?"

"She tried to stop me. She hit my armour and that probably hurt her more than it did me." Kyoshi tipped her head back and exposed her throat to the wind. "We only broke apart because the Avatar State was triggered. When it ended and I tried to find her, she'd gone. Trust an Airbender to run when the going gets tough."

Toph hummed and picked her nose. "That's what makes them different from us Earthbenders. I can't imagine being born an Air Nomad. It's just-" she broke off with a shudder and flicked the snot away. "Ugh."

"And yet you love Aang, who is an Air Nomad," Kyoshi observed.

Toph cursed her mentor, her lips thinning distastefully. 'Love' was a powerful with with even more disturbing connotations, which served to make her heartbeat increase. "I don't know if I do love him," she admitted, rolling over so that she lay beside Kyoshi on her stomach. "It could be a passing attraction, or it could be something serious. Either way I don't know if it should be called that." I don't know if I want to be trapped even more than I already am.

"Did he not tell you that he loved you once before?"

"He was half asleep," Toph countered impatiently. Back in Ba Sing Se when she'd left to journey before the sun rose, and she'd told him she had just been getting up to stretch, he had mumbled three words into the crook of his arm that Toph had felt conflicted about. For a while she had forgotten about it, but now it was like someone had moved a chair in a room she had memorised; it wouldn't leave her alone. She wanted to move it back to where she knew it had been. She wanted it taken back.

"I don't see how it matters." Kyoshi lay back and folded her arms underneath her head as a pillow, gazing up at the passing clouds. They were a paled grey, reflecting the blind Earthbender's slightly unnerved mood. "For him to have said it, even in that state, it had to have held some truth."

"Or he could have been thinking about someone else," she spat, signalling the end of their discussion.

Kyoshi ignored it. "Or you could be trying to ignore what you feel for him. To accept that you share something now will only tighten the chains binding you to the Airbenders." Toph nearly sat up and started swearing at the Avatar then, but her jaw clenched defiantly and refused to open. "You never wanted this, I know that, but fate has a way of not doing what you want it to. In other words, it likes to screw people over for the fun of it. It's the same for him, you know. Do you think he asked to become an Avatar?"

Toph registered her words and let out a long suffering sigh. "No."

"And yet he has the whole world on his shoulders. He might be having fun now with his friends but there are more people depending on him now and even more serious problems."

"Like Azula?" Toph inquired. The last time she'd encountered her, it had been at the Western Air Temple.

Kyoshi inclined her head. "Precisely. Once word gets out about the Airbenders, she's going to try and take everyone down again."

"You know a lot. What's she doing now? Where is she?"

"Where she is, I don't know. She keeps moving and I'm a spirit, not a god. As for what she's doing," Kyoshi frowned, "she's training the soldiers that left with her, trying to build up a fighting force. Forget the rebellions and uprisings going on in the Fire Nation, it's Azula that's the greater threat."

"Because she's like me, what does that mean?" she asked, closing her eyes, which were suddenly growing heavy. "Does it mean I have to be the one to take her down this time?"

"We have yet to ascertain whatever this destiny crap Roku's blabbering on about means."

"Sucks to be you."

"At least I'm dead."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"...who cares." Translation: no idea. Toph was tempted to say something but all she could manage was a yawn, and she was falling into an abyss where sleep tamed everything. She would sleep until late into the evening, and then wake to the sound of someone knocking on her stone tent and children laughing as they caused pebbles to scatter with their footsteps.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Aang had been up all night chatting to his people according to Arya, and he hadn't said as much as a 'hello' to Toph when he'd passed her in the corridor, heading towards the Airball court to play with the other kids. Wiping the sweat from her brow and leaving a smudge beneath her fringe and over her cheek as well, she continued her repair work, her body functioning automatically while her mind pranced about elsewhere.

"Blind Bandit, would you care to join us for dinner?" Arya suggested, gliding over to her. "You've been working hard, I'm sure you'd like a rest."

Toph straightened a leaning wall and took a breath. "I've got a lot to do. I'll have something to eat later."

Arya frowned slightly and followed her into one of the old storage rooms. Toph willed her to just turn around and head the other way, but the Air Nomad seemed determined about something. "Are you sure?" she pressed, "you look like you could use something to-"

"No means no." Toph narrowed her eyes at the Air Nomad. "What do you really want?"

Arya bowed her head slightly. After a slight hesitation she said, "we're concerned."

Toph bristled and scoffed at her. "What, you think the blind girl can't handle herself?" she sneered.

"No" -(there was a slight falter in her heartbeat. Arya was lying, or at least not totally convinced)- "but over the past few days you have been distant, and you have only ever woken to work and then eat and sometimes bathe."

Toph turned her back purposely against Arya and stomped her foot into the ground. "Well in case you haven't noticed I'm the only Earthbender around. Nobody else can-"

"The Avatar is also an Earthbender, is he not?" The soft voice of reason annoyed Toph even more. "The debris has been cleared away and most of the Temple has been renovated. You should rest. We will ask the Avatar to-"

"Aang. He has a name. Stop referring to him as Avatar, it's pissing me off."

"...We will ask Aang to take over for the while." Arya finished, reaching out to place a guiding hand on Toph's shoulder. She shrugged violently and brushed past her, her body rigid and tense.

"No," she said simply. End of discussion.

She had hoped that her blunt refusal would have been understood by the Air Nomad, but no, Airbenders had to be persistent. The subtle 'hints' they dropped and offers to kick back and relax that followed her at every turn made her think maybe they believed her to be stupid. She carried on and went to bed early without eating, pitching her stone tent again in the courtyard, but this time sealing it up tight. She had learned quickly that the nights outside the Temple could be cruel, especially since winter had begun.

Being unused to having an Earthbender around, they often saw her traits as odd or downright strange. For example, how she could sleep out in the freezing cold of the courtyard surrounded by nothing but whirlwind and rock shelters (stone tents), and how she could possibly find lying on solid ground comfortable when it was dirty and, well, hard. Then there was her temper, which had several times gotten the better of her and granted them the opportunity to watch her storm out of somewhere in rage, sometimes spitting and swearing and even flinging boulders at some of the monks who tried to calm her down. (Said monks quickly learned that trying to soothe her or quell her temper with reason was a really, really bad idea. Out of everyone who had tried, only Iroh had managed to snap her out of it successfully.)

And Toph soon learned why her emotions had been all over the place when she awoke half way into the night with her stomach cramping and skin fevered and a strange sensation somewhere she'd rather not have wanted it. Kyoshi's words about maturity had rung into mind and she'd been forced to go and search out one of the female Airbenders – and had run into the healer Urvi, who proceeded to try and explain what was going on.

"I know, I know!" Toph half-shrieked, covering her ears to protect herself from 'the talk'—again. She was still scarred from Kyoshi explaining it, damn it. "Just give me something to help take the edge off. I don't need the whole discussion again."

Unfortunately for the Airbenders there was no pain medication, so she snapped and lashed out at anyone who dared come within ten feet of her. A few hours after sunrise and nobody dared come near her; they turned and ran or scurried past with great urgency, but Toph was still bothered. Even the voices outside sent her into a near-murderous attitude as soon as she heard someone speak, and she was confused because she wanted to express her frustration by having a make-out session with Aang, who hadn't done that since before the journey, but she was convinced that if he came anywhere near her, it'd be guaranteed she'd attempt to rip his face off for breathing in her airspace.

Standing in one of the disused rooms after having a bath and scrubbing her skin thoroughly (which didn't matter since she rolled around in dirt straight after), she sat down on an old, creaking bed and sighed, her face hidden in her hands. Now she understood what Kuruk had meant he thought Kyoshi had been PMSing. And this is going to repeat itself every month or so for most of my life. Brilliant.

"Toph?"

That slightly hesitant voice, the innocence, aggravated her endlessly but she forced it back and turned her blind eyes toward the intruder. Restart Avatar Cycle in three … two …

Aang entered the room and gazed at her for a moment. Toph tapped her foot impatiently and summoned a rock from the floor, tossing and catching it in one hand. "Yes?"

"I came to find out how you're doing," he explained.

Toph snorted. "Because you've been doing a lot of that over the past few days," she sneered.

Aang flinched at the bitterness in her tone. Despite the fact she hadn't meant to say it with so much venomous sarcasm she didn't regret it or attempt to take it back. It surprised her that, with a jagged rock flying into the air every few seconds, he was brave enough to step deeper into the room and even take a seat by her side. He closed his hand around hers, stopping her from throwing the rock at his head – she'd nearly done it – and lowered it peacefully.

"I've been ignoring you," he murmured apologetically, "and I'm sorry. I got carried away."

"I noticed."

"I never thought I'd ever see them again, it's just been a bit too good to be true … I thought this was all a dream but it's not, and I don't have an excuse."

"No, you do, and it's not you I'm mad at. I hate being around so many … I … It's infuriating! Except Iroh, Jeong Jeong and Pakku, there's nobody else here who … earth, I don't even know." Everything was a jumbled mess, a very stupid jumbled mess that was addling her brain and making her act stupid as fuck. She wanted to fight but nobody even got close to her. She was aware it was her own fault and she'd been pushing everyone else away, but they made it so easy. In the fight or flight instinct, hers was to fight and theirs was to fly away as far as possible! How was she expected to deal with that?

"You don't feel you belong here," Aang surmised which pretty much summed it up. Why hadn't Toph been able to supply her own words for it? "It's only natural" -this led Toph down a different trail of thought and she briefly missed what followed- "since your element is opposite to ours."

"If you haven't forgotten, Twinkletoes, I'm an Airbender too."

"I stand corrected-"

"You're sitting down."

"I sit corrected. Your native element is opposite to mine."

Toph huffed and folded her arms over her chest, dressed in only her chest wraps and women's boxers. Her hips were beginning to broaden and her chest was developing slowly. Talking with Aang had settled her somewhat, but there were things she needed to ask. Things that she told herself she didn't care about, but her heart betrayed her and needed to know anyway.

"You are bound to him and to your duty, and you're frightened of what he will think of you now that he knows what you are."

Shuddering coldly, she grabbed her arms – a subconscious act of insecurity – and pulled herself as close as possible, her knees up against her chest and head low. The rock cluttered to the ground, snapping the Airbender out of whatever thoughts he had been having.

"Do you hate me?" she asked.

"What?"

"Do you hate me? You know, think I'm a freak or want me gone, or...?"

Aang's response was immediate and honest: "No!" he exclaimed, startled. "No way, there's no way I'd ever think you're a freak, Toph."

"But I can Airbend," she mumbled. "I'm a Dualbender."

"And I'm the godforsaken Avatar. What's your point?"

"Only the Avatar is meant to Bend more than one element! I'm not the Avatar and I can bend two."

"It doesn't matter. Not to me. If it does to someone else then I don't care and you shouldn't either." Aang assured her, but Toph still didn't believe him. "Look Toph, you're probably the bravest person I've ever met and you're smart enough to know when someone's lying. Tell me" -he pulled her hand and placed it over his heart- "am I lying?"

Toph registered the slightly elevated pulse, running with fear, for a few seconds before she pulled herself away from him and stood up, the towel dragging along the floor. He called out to her to stop; she numbly carried on. Her mind was at a standstill and all information seemed to have reached an impasse. She had almost reached the door when the Avatar grabbed her arm and threw her against the wall, pinning her there. Toph opened her mouth to demand he let go of her when a pair of warm lips crashed against her own. This kiss was different though; his tongue invaded her mouth and he seemed as surprised as she did at his actions, as if they hadn't entirely been his own. As if locked memories of his past lives were giving him suggestions, and she fought against him when she realised she wasn't putting up much of a challenge, trying to push his tongue out of her mouth and regain dominance. She shivered but not out of fear. It was out of shock. He didn't let her go for almost a minute.

"You want a reason why I don't care? Well there it is," he told her determinedly. "I care about you, Toph. A lot. It wouldn't matter to me if you could Firebend or Waterbend, or if you could do all four or none. It's you I want. Nothing else."

Toph's broken, pupil-less silvery-green eyes were wide and after a moment the impasse cleared. Finally she understood, and she flipped them around like she always did, pushing him back with bruising force, pinning one wrist next to his head and tipping her head to the side. "How terribly cliché of you," she teased, flicking his forehead with her finger. "You'll pay for throwing me against the wall, Twinkletoes. Nobody tries to best the Blind Bandit."

"Is this the part where you throw a rock at me?"

"Punishment comes later, Twinkletoes," Toph growled, lifting herself up to his height with a small stone step. "I believe we have some catching up to do."

Like every other time, they went no further than kisses and embracing. It was all so exhilarating, so new, they weren't sure what the other wanted them to do or what they felt comfortable with. Toph liked it when he bit hard into the flesh where her neck and shoulder met, and he had even dared to go a little lower to her collarbone, but no further. He always feared hurting her, biting too hard or moving too fast, even though he knew the actions tore from her throat the sweetest sounds that roused some carnal desire within him.

On the other hand, Toph wasn't afraid of going for what she wanted, and what she wanted was for Aang to stop moving so slowly and surprise her more often like he had just done. She wanted him to struggle against her, present more of a challenge, but being an Airbender he was prone to gentleness.

"You taste like earth," he drawled quietly. Arms folded loosely on her shoulders, hands pulled her closer and he began licking and nibbling at her pulse line as he knew she liked.

Toph panted slightly and dug her nails into the clothing on his back, her body acting of its own accord and arching into him. It would definitely bruise, but neither of them seemed to care much at that point. They were too focused on themselves and each other to notice. Somewhere along the lines they moved over to the old bed, the towel lying forgotten on the ground, lip-locked. Sighing happily, she slowed the kisses and pulled away, her broken, misty eyes admiring. "You know, with my robes being washed, if anyone comes in here they're going to get the wrong idea."

Aang buried his face into her hair (a gesture that could not be reciprocated) and, while she knew he didn't quite understand the meaning of her words (he was still blissfully innocent), he hummed and laced their hands. "I'll fetch you something to put on," he said, placing one more searing kiss on her lips, this time pressing into her. "I hope you don't mind it being Air Nomad robes. There isn't much else for you to wear."

"As long as they're male, I couldn't care less. Bring me stupid dressy female robes and those boulders I'm throwing at you later will be twice as large—at least."

Aang scowled, grinned, then laughed. "Okay. Stay in here, 'kay? I'll be back in a few minutes." Picking up the towel she had been using, he nearly draped it over her, but decided to throw it at her head.

Toph hissed playfully, pulled the towel off her face, twisted and whipped his rump with it as he left. She laughed as he yelped and danced out of the room, flying down the corridor, laughing. Had she been dressed she would have pursued him, but she wasn't so she covered herself with the towel and lay back on the bed. A few minutes later she was asleep, and when Aang returned with the robes folded under one arm, he smiled and sat on the edge of the bed, kissing her forehead and stroking her hair.

And as Toph stood up to leave, in Aang's sleep-drunk state, he mumbled three borderline incoherent words as he tumbled back into the realm of dreams. Those three words stopped her dead—she prayed she had imagined them—and she 'stared' at him without seeing as her brain crashed spectacularly and performed an emergency reboot.

"Love you, Badgermole."