A/N: This chapter contains some NSFW parts. I'm sure you saw that coming.


Chapter Twenty-Seven

Toph's very first awareness the following morning was that there was a bird twittering merrily outside of her window. That had become a usual occurrence lately and normally it annoyed her immensely, but this particular morning the warbling imbued her with surprisingly good cheer. Of course, that cheer also coincided nicely with her second and most pertinent awareness.

Aang was in her bed. To be more specific, he was spooned behind her and his erect penis was currently throbbing against her bare bottom. As an odd sense of surrealism washed over her, Toph felt her face suffused with hot color even as she was unable to fight back her contented grin. She was thoroughly grateful that Aang was still asleep. She didn't want him to have the satisfaction of knowing he'd made her blush and while he was still asleep no less. Toph, on the other hand, was wide awake and now that she was, her mind began to turn over the previous night's events that culminated in her and Aang spooning together in her bed.

She had to admit that waking in his arms felt good. It was a foreign feeling…but not at all unwelcome. He felt warm and solid against her. They fit each other surprisingly well. She liked the way his long legs tangled around hers and the drowsy way he buried his face in her hair. Toph also noted with some amusement that Aang liked to sleep impossibly close.

Before they had fallen into exhausted slumber together, he had hauled her into the crook of his body and flung his arm and leg over her, effectively anchoring her to the bed. It hadn't been an unexpected event for Toph since she had always suspected Aang probably had a propensity towards cuddling. Once he began to snore softly, she had carefully dislodged herself from beneath him, situated herself in her usual position, and then fell asleep as well.

Ironically, she awoke an hour later to find herself in a similar position. She was sprawled on her stomach, lying diagonal across the bed, while Aang was wrapped around her yet again, this time draped across her back. With a weary chuckle of disbelief, Toph extricated herself once more before falling asleep. But Aang was far from finished. When she awoke a third time, supine this time and nearly horizontal, Aang was cuddled next to her with his cheek pillowed against her bare breast.

Toph gave up at that point. For someone used to sleeping alone, Aang's constant proximity took some getting used to. Wherever she scooted in the bed, he was sure to follow. It was when he woke her up for a fourth and final time, drowsily nudging between her thighs with an unintelligible mumble of need, that Toph decided that she didn't mind his constant gravitation at all. She smiled thinking of it presently, snuggling deeper into the circle of his arms.

The pressure she caused against his pulsing arousal incited a lethargic grunt from Aang, coaxing him into wakefulness. He yawned and stretched and shook off the vestiges of slumber in measured intervals. While certain parts of him had come awake rather readily, the rest of him was a bit more sluggish. It took a few seconds for him to remember that he wasn't in his own bed. Just as he parted his sleepy eyes with that recollection, that first wave of tentative awkwardness settled over him. Aang stiffened a little as memories of him and Toph together assailed him in a vivid jumble.

While suspended in the heat of passion, he had merely followed the pure instinct to give and receive pleasure. Once Aang had gotten out of his own head, there had been no hesitation or fear or doubt. He knew what he wanted and who he wanted and he had wanted Toph in the most basic, fundamental sense. In the hours that followed after they had entered her bedroom, Aang had allowed that desire to guide him.

But now he was thinking with his brain again. And, as a result, he was forcibly reminded that this was his best friend lying naked in his arms. This was Toph…who had been over him, beneath him, and around him for most of the night. He'd had his mouth in places that he wouldn't have thought about touching six months ago and yet he still had no idea what they were to one another. They hadn't talked at all before, not about anything of significance anyway, and there were so many things between them that remained unsettled. That bothered Aang a lot.

Toph knew the instant Aang came fully awake, long before his arm tightened around her waist reflexively and he pressed against her with a drowsy mumble. She immediately sensed when his decelerated heartbeat suddenly quickened. His breathing became soft and serrated. Toph smiled and dropped a kiss to his forearm.

"I feel like you're trying to tell me something right now, Aang," she teased him gruffly. She wiggled suggestively against his aching arousal. "Now whatever could it be?"

"Oh, you're hilarious," he deadpanned, "Don't flatter yourself, Toph. That has nothing to do with you. For your information, it's an…uh…a typical, biological phenomenon that happens upon waking and nothing more."

"Really? Nothing to do with me, huh?" she challenged, shifting around in his arms so that they were lying face to face. "So you wouldn't be at all interested if I were to duck beneath the covers to…um…relieve your 'biological phenomenon'? Is that what you're saying?" Aang didn't give a direct answer to that but, he didn't need to…his resulting coughing fit was quite enough. Toph smirked. "Why do I get the distinct impression that you're doing that thing people do when they're embarrassed? What is that called again…? Blushing? Are you blushing right now, Twinkle Toes?"

Aang groaned and rolled his eyes. "First of all, don't call me Twinkle Toes when I'm naked. It's wrong on countless levels. Second of all, I am 33 years old, Toph. I do not blush." But he was blushing…and brilliantly too. What was worse, blind or not, Toph knew it.

Her smirk widened. "If you say so," she replied in sing-song tone. His disgruntled muttering was soothed when Toph reached down between them to stroke his erection. He moaned her name as she crested her hand up and down his length in a slow caress.

"Just so you know…" Toph whispered against his chest, "I'm not usually much for cuddling, but I'm willing to make the exception for you."

"Oh…is this cuddling…?" he asked a little breathlessly.

Toph darted the tip of her tongue against his skin. "Of a sort…"

Aang hid his grin in the tangled hair against her temple and simultaneously eased her back into the pillows so that he could pepper kisses down her throat. He feathered his lips across her delicate collarbone and skimmed his fingers down the flat slope of her belly, inching towards the dark triangle at the apex of her thighs. "I have a particular sort of cuddling in mind as well," he teased, his laughter becoming a surprised yelp as Toph deftly flipped their positions so that she was straddling him. He gave her thighs a playful squeeze. "I see we have the same idea."

She rolled her hips, sliding across his stiffened flesh. "Great minds and all that."

He grinned at her. "Be gentle with me."

"No promises." He gripped her hips, aiding her in her efforts to position herself over the tip of his erection.

He smoothed his hands up her midriff to cup her breasts, strumming his thumbs over the sensitized tips. He sat up to take one tightened bud into his mouth, delighting in Toph's sharp gasp when he began to suck. When the night had first begun between them, the pleasure he gained from touching Toph so intimately had also brought with it a confusing mix of emotions…elation, guilt, curiosity…an uncontainable excitement that he hadn't felt for years. Given the fact that he'd only had one other lover in his entire life, Aang's unconscious mind had invariably made comparisons between Toph and Katara.

Those comparisons were far from his thoughts now. Aang could only concentrate on how warm Toph felt and how sweet she tasted. But, at the start of the evening, when Toph had deliberately led him into her bedroom, Aang had been extremely cognizant of what he and Toph were about to do. His brain had gone into nervous overdrive soon after that. The first time they had made love it had been in a haze of lust. This time had been a great deal more deliberate. It was planned. Aang couldn't help but be a great deal more cerebral about this time than he had been about the last time. It was then that he became acutely conscious of the differences in his experience with Toph and what he had shared with Katara.

And it wasn't because he found Toph lacking in some way either. Quite the opposite…she pleased him tremendously. She seemed to know exactly where and how to touch him without him saying a single word. Aang, then, was driven by an intense need to please her just as thoroughly but, he was very uncertain about what Toph liked. He knew what Katara had liked but, he didn't imagine the same rules applied, not when Toph and Katara seemed so dissimilar. But Aang had no other point of reference. Comparison between them then seemed a given.

After all, Katara had been his first lover, his only lover. When he imagined pleasing a woman, it had always been her. There had been no uncertainty or intimidation because they were learning together. In many ways, it felt as if they were embarking on another adventure together. But his sexual relationship with Toph had not begun as some teenage journey of discovery. Furthermore, the intimacy between him and Toph had progressed much more rapidly than it had between him and Katara. His head was spinning a little. He couldn't help but feel nervous and inexperienced and tentative even as he wasn't sure that he should feel that way.

Between Katara and Toph, Toph was definitely the bolder of the two. She was decisive and forthright and definitely comfortable with sex and her sexuality. Katara, on the other hand, had been shy and somewhat tentative at times. That had suited Aang nicely because he had been the same way. But, despite their caution, they had always been willing to try new things. They had been motivated to do so by their love for one another. Katara had wanted to please Aang as much as he wanted to please her and they had eagerly learned from each other throughout the course of their entire relationship.

But that was the past and now he was looking forward to a completely different future. In many ways, being with Toph was uncharted territory for Aang. There was a strange novelty to the experience. He felt almost as if he was learning all over again, scared and nervous, but incredibly enthusiastic as well. And he was getting the hang of it. As Toph enveloped him in the moist center of her body again and again, Aang definitely knew he was getting the hang of it. He reversed their positions in one fluid move and lifted Toph's leg against his hip so that he could penetrate her body in quick, piercing strokes. Toph groaned her approval.

"I have to say, Aang…" she gasped, "…this might be the best…morning…ever…"

Aang froze mid-thrust with an incredulous frown, the incredible sensation created by her slick inner walls temporarily forgotten. "Wait, whuh…did you say morning?"

For the first time since waking, he became cognizant of the weak sunlight filtering in from beneath her heavy window coverings. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"

Without warning, Aang withdrew from Toph with a horrified yelp. His abrupt action incited an unsatisfied cry from her. "What are you doing?" she demanded incredulously.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled contritely as he scrambled from the bed. "I gotta go! I can't believe that it's morning already!" He dashed madly from one corner of her bedroom to the other, gathering up his scattered clothing. "I slept here the whole night!"

Disgruntled over having been so quickly forgotten especially when she had been poised right on the edge of orgasm, Toph rolled upright and blew the wild tendrils of hair that fell across her forehead away from her eyes. "Technically, you didn't sleep much at all, Aang. You were otherwise occupied. Remember?"

He directed her with a quelling glance over his shoulder as he continued to root through the piles of discarded garments on her floor. "Don't you get it? Bao is going to kill me! She's been with the kids all night! She's probably freaking out as we speak!" He growled in frustration, unable to find a vital piece of his wardrobe despite meticulous searching. "Monkey feathers, where are they?" He was contemplating the possibility of going without them when Toph whistled at him.

"Looking for these?"

Aang lurched around to find Toph perched on her knees in the very center of the bed, in all her beautifully pale and uncovered glory, a smug smile curving her beautiful mouth and his underwear dangling from her fingers. He blushed hotly and stumbled forward to snatch them from her outstretched hand. "Thanks," he mumbled as he hastily pulled them on.

"You're welcome." Toph fell back into the rumpled sheets and stacked her hands behind her head, listening with amusement as Aang scurried all over her room trying to collect his belongings. "Hey, Aang? Does this strike you as weird at all?" she posited thoughtfully.

He turned around in the center of her bedroom absently. "That I can't find my other shoe?"

"No," Toph sighed expansively, "I mean you. Me. This. Us. The whole 'waking up naked together' thing."

Aang paused a moment. "A little bit," he confessed in a timid tone, a little afraid to look at her, "Do you think it's weird?"

"Yeah…I do…a little," she admitted. "Part of me still thinks of you as just Aang, my friend and an all around pain in my butt, not to mention the fact that you're still Katara's husband," she added softly, "I haven't forgotten about that part. I know she's not here anymore but, it is a part of who you are. Right?"

"I guess…"

"But then there's also this other part of me that feels oddly possessive of you in spite of that…that feels like you're mine." She smiled in wonder. "And you are. You're my lover, Aang. It's strange to say but, it feels right…you know what I mean?"

He nodded slowly. "It feels right to me too." Still shirtless, Aang dropped his shoe and moved to join her on the bed. Because he knew he couldn't linger very long, Aang tried not to become too distracted by her nudity but, it was difficult. The pale swells and hollows of her body beckoned him, especially because she was lying there exposed, casual and reflective and without a hint of modesty. Aang groaned inwardly. "We're probably going to be navigating this weirdness for a while, Toph."

"Comes with the territory, I guess."

"But, Toph…just so you know…when we're together like this…I'm not thinking about Katara at all…or, at least, not in the way you think I am," he informed her quietly.

"I'm not saying that you were or you weren't thinking about her, Aang," she sighed, "You don't have to explain yourself to me. I only wanted to acknowledge that I was aware of it."

"Toph, I don't want—."

She sat up and quickly kissed him into silence. He wanted to protest but, when Toph slipped her tongue between his lips, Aang found himself momentarily distracted. When she pulled away, she whispered, "Let's not talk about Katara right now," she requested, "Agreed?"

Aang was reluctant to do that. It was the complete lack of communication between them that had led to the many misunderstandings between them in the first place. They needed to talk, if for no other reason than to clarify the Katara matter. Aang didn't particularly agree with the impression that Toph had, but he also recognized that this wasn't the most opportune time to argue with her…not when she was naked and he was half naked. Besides, he didn't necessarily want to talk about Katara either. That was still a touchy subject for them both. Besides that, Toph seemed unaffected and so Aang decided to leave it alone.

Finally, he nodded. "Okay. Agreed."

"Great." Toph smiled with both relief and gratitude. "I really had a good time with you last night, Aang."

"I had a good time too." He kissed her again, lingering against her mouth. "I wish I didn't have to go home."

"So, don't go home. Send Bao a note and tell her something came up with work. I'm sure she's already spoken to Sokka and Suki and she knows you're alright. Stay with me."

"That's very tempting," he whispered before moving away from her with a resigned sigh, "but I can't take advantage of Bao that way. She doesn't deserve it."

"You should stop being so good, Aang," Toph huffed in frustration.

He favored her with a crooked smile. "Maybe you should stop being so bad."

"Can't do that," she tossed back archly, "That would make you very sad."

He reacted to that with a laughing eye roll. "Whatever."

Toph shrugged in feigned indifference. "That's okay. Go home. I don't care. I wanted my bed back anyway." Her show of bravado was ruined when a mischievous smile began pulling at the corners of her mouth. With feline grace, she rose up onto her knees and crawled into his lap. He didn't bother to stop her either. Aang rather liked having her straddling him, even if it did delay his leaving. "Just so you know…" she informed him in a laughing drawl, "…I'm not going to miss having you here one bit. You sleep way too close and you're a bed hog."

She made that outlandish claim even while grinding against his arousal. Aang swallowed a gratified moan. "Yeah…I can tell you're ready for me to go." Biting back a smile, Toph reached a questing hand down between them but Aang caught her before she could slip her fingers into his pants. "Stop it. Don't start anything you can't finish," he warned her.

"Actually, I'm only trying to finish what we already started."

He pressed both her hands harmlessly at her sides. "I can't. I really do need to leave, Toph."

"Fine," she pouted, "Go on then and stop wasting my time."

Before she could roll away from him, Aang grabbed hold of her hips and held her fast. He leaned forward and kissed her until she was no longer pouting. When he lifted his mouth from hers some minutes later, he smoothed her hair back from her pretty face with a billowing sigh. "I'm not going to miss you either," he whispered softly in a way that made it clear he meant the exact opposite.

Toph leaned her forehead into his. "I could bundle Lin up and we could come home with you," she suggested, "In fact, we could skip work and spend the day together."

"I like that idea a lot except…how do we explain to the kids why you're sleeping in my room? That could get very awkward and it probably won't go over so well with Kya. You know she's still having some issues from seeing us kiss that night. I don't know if we should push it right now."

Toph expelled an unhappy grunt. "Right. I forgot about that. I'm not her favorite person right now. I'm sure if seeing us kiss put her in a tizzy, then me sleeping in your bed is probably going to make her head explode."

"That's a rather graphic mental picture, but also sadly accurate. Speaking of Kya…that actually brings me around to something you and I should probably talk about…"

"What's that?"

"Us," Aang clarified softly, "Specifically…what's happening between us right now, Toph? What are we?"

It was the conversation that she had been dreading all night. Aang wanted to discuss feelings now. That prospect might have been perfectly welcome if Toph wasn't already very well aware of what his feelings were…and would likely always be. "Aang loves Katara" had been written in the clouds eons ago. The fact was well established. There was no need to retread.

Besides, the outcome would be equally predictable. Toph knew that they would inevitably descend into gross dissections of their still new relationship and, eventually, she would be cogently reminded that she would never truly have what she wanted. She groaned and rolled from his lap. As she stood, she snatched up a loose sheet to wrap around her bare body.

"Really, Aang?" she demanded with some annoyance, "Do we really need to discuss that? I thought that it would be obvious after last night what's happening between us!"

"Yes, we have the physical side of our relationship very well covered," he acknowledged, "I'm not complaining about that. But there's more to this than just going to bed together…or, at least, there should be, shouldn't there? What about the emotional aspect…and…and commitment?" Toph groaned again, clearly filled with consternation at the question. Then again, they were discussing feelings and that subject had never filled Toph with much enthusiasm. Aang didn't let that deter him. "Don't you think we should talk about it?"

"Why? It's not that hard. You like me and I like you. We're good in bed together. Isn't that enough?"

He blinked at her incredulously. "No, it's not. You know there's more to it! I haven't even explained to you why I left you that first night. There are still a ton of issues between us that we need to sort out!"

"They can only be issues if you make them issues, Aang!"

He blinked at her incredulously. "That doesn't even make sense."

"It's makes perfect sense!" Toph insisted, "Besides, you did explain to me what happened that night. You told me that you panicked. I get it, Aang! I don't need a recap."

Somewhat confused by her growing agitation and obvious reluctance to talk, Aang pressed on somewhat tentatively, "But that…that was only part of it, Toph. There's so much more that you need to understand about what happened and what I was feeling. I want to explain to you."

"I already know," she uttered softly. "Don't you think I know? It was about Katara, wasn't it?"

He flinched at how subdued she sounded; especially because it was a stark contrast between how playful and seductive she had been a few minutes earlier. Aang supposed that was the reason she'd wanted to avoid the subject in the first place. Now the entire mood between them had changed.

"Yes, it was…," he confirmed softly, "…but it's not what you're imagining, Toph."

As soon as he confirmed what she had suspected all along, Toph knew that she couldn't hear anymore. She threw up her hand before he could say another word. "I don't want to talk about it, Aang," she burst out sharply, "Didn't we agree that we weren't going to discuss Katara? This is exactly why I didn't want to!"

"But you have the wrong impression! I can't let you go on thinking something that isn't true."

"What's not true?" she challenged, "Do you love her? Do you still wish that she was here? If that's so then I don't have the wrong impression at all. The only reason you're even here with me right now is because she's not!"

"Toph, it's so much more complicated than that."

"Then let me make it simple for you," she countered, "Katara is a part of you, Aang. I get that. I don't want to change that. I know you didn't fall out of love with her just because she died. I'm not asking you for anything more than what we have right now."

Aang should have been comforted by her reassurance, but strangely he was not. The problem wasn't that he couldn't give more or that he didn't want to, but rather whether Toph wanted to give more…have more with him. Aang had been frightened and uncertain about a great many things lately, but one thing he was completely sure about were his feelings for Toph. He wanted to be with her. He wanted a relationship with her. He wanted to explore the possibility of a future with her.

Regrettably, he didn't know if she wanted the same thing. She was practically unwilling to even discuss her feelings, let alone hear his. And, if he had to judge by her fidgety behavior that obvious unwillingness to talk, it certainly appeared as if she didn't want the same things he did. He might be ready for a commitment, but that was possibly the last thing Toph wanted. Rather than assume that, Aang decided to ask her outright.

"What about what you want, Toph?" he asked her quietly, "Tell me that. Where do you see this going?"

She went completely still. "What I want?"

"Yeah," he whispered, "I'm asking."

It was a simple question that did not have a simple answer. Toph wanted many things, but she didn't believe any of those things were remotely within her grasp. The situation with Aang was tenuous and complicated, not only because of Kya but also because Katara's spirit was an irrefutable force between them. Aang's feelings for Katara aside, Toph's own emotions where her late friend was concerned were also confusing and intense.

Toph already felt some measure of guilt for sleeping with Aang. To want something more with him…a relationship…a future…a family, seemed almost disrespectful to Katara's memory. But she did want those things. She wanted it all, but she didn't believe she could have it, not when Katara was still very much the sole owner of Aang's heart and probably always would be.

There was also the fact that Toph was well aware that Aang was caught up in the newness of their relationship. For him, sex equaled commitment. Toph suspected that he felt sleeping with her meant he had to commit to her. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel obligation. She didn't want him shoehorning himself into a situation that he clearly wasn't ready for and she wasn't willing to take advantage of him that way either. All of that combined left Toph at an impasse.

Of course, she found it virtually impossible to admit any of that so Toph decided to fall back on the tried and true: bravado. "You want to know what I want, Aang?" she asked him after a stretch of silence had ensued, "I want exactly what we had together ten minutes ago. I want to laugh and play around with you and have a good time. I don't want this heaviness between us. I don't want to define what we're doing or bog it down with a bunch of needless analyzing. Why can't we just relax and see where this goes?"

"So, what are you saying?" Aang queried with a deep frown, "You want us to keep sleeping together without any real commitment to each other?"

Toph shrugged. "Why not? It's working for us."

"But…but I've never done anything like that before!"

"There's a first time for everything."

"But don't you think we should have something more than that?"

"Something more like what?" Toph challenged, "Aang, I think commitment is the last thing either of us wants. It's too soon to be considering that. What's happening between us is very new and very delicate. We shouldn't jump into anything serious until we really figure out what we want."

That statement was all the confirmation that Aang needed that Toph didn't know what she wanted. He had no way of knowing that she was saying it because she thought he didn't know what he wanted. And, because he was unaware, Aang was distressed by the idea, even more so because he knew Toph expected to carry on their sexual relationship. For a moment, he wondered if that was all she was truly after. The thought made Aang feel a bit ill. He could see himself falling for Toph harder and harder while he ended up being nothing more than a passing dalliance for her! Aang's first instinct was to break things off with her then and there.

But then he stopped himself before he reacted out of emotion. Toph was his friend and she loved him. She would never do anything to deliberately hurt him and she definitely wouldn't use him for sex. Aang knew that. He also knew that she had never had a truly committed relationship in her entire life. The prospect was likely very daunting to her and especially so given the fact she'd be contemplating such a relationship with him…a widowed father of three. That would be an incredible task for any woman to take on, let alone a woman like Toph, who was so inclined towards her independence. It stood to reason that she might move at a slower pace to figure out what she wanted. The least he could do then was patiently afford her the time to do it.

"Okay," he said finally after thinking things over.

"Okay?" Toph jerked in surprise, unfairly disappointed and a little hurt that he had agreed to the terms even though she had been the one to suggest them.

She had been harboring the wild hope that he would refuse her because then it would mean that she was wrong about everything. But she wasn't wrong. His agreement was confirmation of what she already suspected…that he wasn't over Katara. But just because she had suspected it that didn't mean that Toph had wanted to be right.

"You're right," Aang told her, oblivious to the pain he was causing, "Jumping into this wouldn't be a good idea. We should take our time and just go with the flow."

"Great…great…" Toph enthused weakly as he rose to kiss her cheek before he moved to finish dressing, "…I'm glad to know we're on the same page about this."

But they weren't…not by a long shot.