A/N: I'm going to go ahead and post the remaining chapters. Let's just do this quick and rip it off like a band-aid.


Chapter Twenty-Eight

Toph slipped her arms around Aang's naked waist. "What are you doing?"

He angled a look over his shoulder at her in between stirring his bubbling pot on her pot bellied stove. He leaned into her slightly, enjoying the feel of her cool, silk robe against his bare back. "I'm making you breakfast," he replied, biting back a small grin she slipped a questing hand beyond the waist of his trousers. "What are you doing?"

She smiled into his warm skin. "I'm saying hello."

Aang chuckled, trying very hard to keep his concentration centered on the stove and not her nimble fingers. His rebellious body lengthened in her hand nonetheless. "Hello," he grunted.

"So…" she drawled as she placed open-mouthed kisses across his back, "…why are you making me breakfast? Did I really sleep that long?"

Although, he had some difficulty forming the words, especially when she quickened the sliding motions of her hand, Aang managed to answer. "Actually…you've only been asleep for…maybe half an hour…" he explained breathlessly, "…Lin woke up…gave her a snack…back to bed…" his words broke on a moan as he concluded, "…decided to make you a late dinner/early breakfast…since…I have to leave…first thing…"

"Your heart is beating so fast," she noted with blatant self-satisfaction.

In a feat of sheer willpower, Aang stilled her movements. "That might have something to do with the fact your hand is shoved down my pants."

"Oh? Is it?"

"If you want to eat, you'll stop being naughty," he chided her.

"But naughty is the only way I know how to be."

Aang started to roll his eyes at that when Toph abruptly withdrew her hand and then bent herself up onto a platform of earth directly behind him so that they were standing at the same height. He fixed her with a wary look. "What are you doing now?"

Toph produced a blindfold from her pocket and tied it around his eyes without explanation. "Just go with it."

Truthfully, that was what Aang had been doing for several weeks now…just going with it. Per Toph's request, he didn't push to define their relationship or press her about her feelings even though his grew deeper and more complicated as the days passed. The more he was with her, the more he fell. She was crazy and wild and impulsive. She spoke to the inherently childish side of him. He had fun with her. He laughed with her constantly. He found himself rushing with her to her house after work every evening just to spend a few hours alone with her. But it wasn't enough. Aang wanted more. The tricky part was making that clear to Toph. She tended to be very squirrely when it came to relationship discussion so he tried to tread lightly around the subject.

After retracting her pillar of earth back into the floor, Toph took hold of Aang's hand and began leading him over towards the wooden table situated in the very center of her kitchen. Aang hesitated suspiciously. "Toph, what are you doing?" he asked yet a third time.

"Will you trust me?" she laughed.

"Actually, no. Never. In fact, whenever you ask me to do that something bad happens."

He started to reach for the blindfold to remove it but, Toph slapped his hand. "Leave that alone! I'm not going to hurt you, Twinkle Toes."

"You'll forgive me if I find that promise very suspect."

Her answering laughter echoed in his ears. "Will you relax? This is only an exercise."

He scowled his bewilderment, his suspicion growing. "An exercise? What kind of exercise? I swear, Toph, if you earthspike me across the room, you'd better run."

"Hmm…I hadn't thought of that." He growled her name. "It's not that kind of exercise, Aang," she reassured him, rising up on her tiptoes to brush his mouth in a fleeting kiss, "This will be fun. I want you to know what it feels like to be me…when we're together."

"Oh." It took a few beats, but as Aang fully deciphered what she meant by "together," his cheeks filled with hot color. "Oh."

"Why do I feel like you're blushing again?" Toph teased him.

"Nope," he lied baldly, "Not at all."

She reached up to cup his cheeks. "I don't know…your face feels pretty warm."

Aang dipped his head to nuzzle her neck. He darted his tongue across her skin. "Hmm…you feel warm…"

"Oh yeah, you're definitely blushing," Toph determined with a throaty laugh.

"How do you know that?" he whispered in wonderment, "I mean…how do you perceive so many things when you can't physically see them?"

"You learn to rely on your other senses," she told him, "Everything becomes sharper and crisper and…I don't know…you pay attention to the details."

"And that's what this blindfold is for, right? You want me to pay attention to the details?"

Toph grinned and pulled him down for a kiss. "Now you're catching on."

"But what about my food?" he protested against her lips even as he pushed her robe from her shoulders.

She shrugged before shoving his pants down over his hips so that they pooled around his ankles. "Forget about it."

Without further protest, Aang lifted his hand to extinguish the fire on the stove and stumbled with her over to the table, never once breaking contact with her mouth. Twenty minutes later, he was driving into Toph one final time, jerking inside her uncontrollably and groaning her name as she contracted violently around him. He was abundantly grateful that Toph had given her servants the evening off. If she hadn't, their wild coupling on her kitchen table might have become incredibly awkward. He didn't think the "I was helping her with her armor" excuse would fly right then.

As it was, Aang was so lost in his cresting orgasm and savoring the rhythmic pulsing of her inner walls, that he mindlessly mumbled the words that had been harbored in the most secret part of his heart for months now. He wasn't even completely aware that he'd said them out loud, though he had definitely wanted to. Yet, when Toph didn't react with anything more than sagging in exhaustion against the table, Aang assumed that he'd managed to hold the declaration back after all.

He assumed wrong. What he mistook for exhaustion was actually shock. He had said the words aloud and Toph had heard him. She was intensely cognizant of exactly what he had gasped, even when garbled with an unintelligible moan. For an instant, she was filled with disbelief and joy over the possibility that he could feel that way about her, but just as quickly as the joy bloomed in her heart, it died. As wonderful as it would have been to let herself believe Aang had reserved that fervid declaration for her, Toph knew better. Furthermore, she was filled with the fear that the words might not have been intended for her at all.

Not yet sensing the tension creeping into Toph's body, Aang pulled out of her and slumped weakly against her back. "Wow…" he uttered breathlessly, "…that was really intense…"

"It was…" Toph agreed tentatively, still reeling from what he had said, how it had made her feel and all the confusing doubts it had stirred within her. She shifted away from him and straightened, giving Aang little choice but to straighten as well. "…I think I got a splinter in my hand."

Aang removed the blindfold and tossed it aside, grinning at her in quizzical disbelief. "I can't believe after what we just shared, the first thing you can think to say is, 'I think I got a splinter.'" He shook his head. "Sometimes, you really confuse me, Toph."

At that particular moment, Toph felt the exact same way about him. For weeks, Suki had been hounding her to make a "real commitment" to Aang. It didn't matter that Toph downplayed her feelings for him or even avoided talking about them altogether. Somehow, Suki sensed the truth without her saying a word. Still, Toph wouldn't acknowledge what she wanted, not to Suki and not to Aang either.

There were too many variables and none of them seemed to fall in her favor. Toph couldn't forget the hateful words Kya had spewed at her the night she and Aang kissed, words that seemed to gain veracity when she thought back to how she had found Aang in Zuko's study. She couldn't forget how quickly Aang was willing to run from her whenever his precious feelings for Katara were threatened. In addition to that, she was well aware of Aang's history with Katara. There was no denying that their bond had been and still was incredibly strong. It had even defied death.

Toph didn't know what to do. She supposed she could take a chance and lay all of her feelings bare to him, but then she ran the risk of him walking away from her entirely. She ran the risk of losing the good things that they did have…and she didn't want that. She didn't want to disrupt the delicate balance between them. Her heart was too fragile.

On occasion, there would be a tiny voice whispering positive things inside her head, full of optimism and hope and, sometimes, it would almost convince Toph that matters could go her way. But soon after that, she would remember all the events that had triggered her doubts in the first place and then she would be right back where she started. Tangled in the sticky web of uncertainty, Toph found that she could not move forward, but she also couldn't cut what bound her either. It was an agonizing place to be.

She wanted so much from Aang, but it was a constant fear with her that he didn't want the same things. And why would she expect him to want the same things? Katara had been his entire world. She'd had a front row seat to his debilitating grief after Katara died. Did she really think that a few months of laughter and energetic sex was going to change all of that? There was no comparison, right? Still, even while Toph reasoned all that out in her heart, she couldn't forget what Aang had just whispered. He had said the words, but did she dare believe that he had meant to say them, especially to her?

Lacking the courage to ask, Toph lifted her shoulders in a laconic shrug, hoping to mask the eroding ache in her heart behind sarcastic indifference. "What can I say? When you have an owie, you have an owie."

"I doubt it's that bad."

"It feels like there's a tree log in there!"

Aang snorted a short laugh. "Aren't you being a tad dramatic? Now who's being the big baby?"

Toph managed a weak laugh over his teasing, but her heart wasn't in it. Her mind was too preoccupied with those three, little words. She didn't want to dwell on them, but they were eating her brain. She wanted to ask him if he meant it or if it had only been an expression of passion, but she was deathly afraid of what he would tell her. She also wanted to ask him who he was thinking about when he said them, but Toph hesitated to ask that as well. There was little point. She only had to recall the bitter way Aang had wept the night of Iroh's funeral to know the answer to both questions.

Her secret fear from the beginning had always been that she was serving as a substitute for Katara. She ignored it. She avoided it. She tried to concentrate on what was between her and Aang alone, but it kept reasserting itself again and again and again. What if Aang was unintentionally using her to fill the void that Katara had left? Suddenly, the growing intimacy that had been developing between her and Aang since they started sleeping together seemed questionable to Toph. She began to second-guess his motives entirely. Non-definition between them was no longer good enough.

Unaware of Toph's troubled thoughts or how he had inadvertently contributed to them, Aang gave Toph a playful nudge and swept up her hand. "Okay, well get over here," he ordered with a laugh, "Let's see the damage." He tugged her closer with a mischievous grin. As he inspected her palm between sweet, nibbling kisses, Toph had to fight down the urge to push him away…not because she didn't want him close, but because she did. She had never imagined that anything in life could hurt that much. Aang, somewhat oblivious to her emotional crumbling, didn't detect her growing rigidity and continued in his tender ministrations.

Finally, he straightened, grinned and said, "I don't see anything. I think you're going to live."

"What a relief," she answered woodenly, ducking around him to retrieve her fallen robe and shrug into it.

Aang frowned, becoming instantly attuned to the sudden chill in her demeanor after she scooted away from him. He quickly readjusted his trousers and turned to face her. "Toph, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Belying that statement, she crossed her arms immediately after making it quite clear that she was saying one thing while meaning another. It was little wonder then that Aang insisted, despite her denial, that something was wrong. He pressed her about it, which only further irritated Toph's frayed nerves. "Do you really want to know?" she challenged.

"I just asked you, didn't I?"

"Well, I was just wondering, that's all…"

"Wondering what?"

"Wondering why we never do this at your house."

"Do what?"

She gestured wildly between them. "This, Aang! We always rush back here to my place after we leave the Council," Toph clarified, "But we never go back to your house. We barely spend any time there anymore. Is that because you can't bear the thought of screwing me in the sacred abode you shared with Katara?"

He gaped at her incredulously. "What? Where did that come from?"

"The kids are with Sokka and Suki for the night," she considered, suddenly irrationally angry with him, "There's no reason why we couldn't have gone to the island tonight."

"Except for the fact Lin is here and I wanted to spend some time with her, remember?" Aang pointed out softly, "Besides, we've been coming back to your place for weeks, Toph. I thought that was how you wanted it."

"Maybe that's how you want it," she mumbled in retort.

He scowled at her, growing increasingly aggravated with her sudden mood shift. "What are you saying right now?"

"Nothing," she muttered, "Nothing. It doesn't matter."

"Look, Toph…if you have a problem with me, I wish you would just spit it out," Aang bit out impatiently, "Don't drag Katara into this and use her memory to attack me! It's not fair!"

"Fine!" she snapped back, "Why does it feel like you're sneaking around with me? More importantly, why haven't you told Kya and Bumi that we're together?"

Once again, Aang was rendered dubious and near speechless. "What? What are you talking about?"

"I'm fairly sure that we're speaking the same language, Aang."

"That doesn't mean that you're making sense! You told me that you didn't want to define what we were!" he reminded her, "You wanted to 'relax' and 'see where this goes!' Does any of that ring a bell for you?"

"I said I didn't want to define it, not that I wanted to keep it secret! The fact that you haven't told your kids is a big deal to me! At first, I thought it might be about Kya because she's still so resistant to the idea, but now I'm not so sure! It feels like you're hiding what we are…like you're hiding me!"

Aang's anger and frustration billowed from his body in a jagged sigh. "That's not what I'm trying to do. I didn't say anything to Kya and Bumi because I didn't want you to feel pressured or like I was rushing you along. I was trying to do what you wanted. But, if you're ready to sit them down and explain what we are to each other, then I'm ready too. I've wanted to do that this whole time."

Toph jerked in surprise, her angry defenses dropped in an instant. "Really?"

Discerning that he had disarmed her, Aang snagged hold of the lapels of her robe and tugged her closer. "Yeah…really. I want us to do this for real, Toph," he told her between tender kisses, "Frankly, the sooner you start sleeping over, the better."

Suddenly, Toph felt ridiculous for getting so angry with him in the first place. "Do you seriously mean that?"

He kissed her again. "I seriously mean that. Is that what's been bothering you?"

She dipped her head, battling with the bitter flow of tears that lodged in her throat. "I just…I guess I don't know where I stand with you sometimes."

"Sometimes I don't know where I stand with you either," Aang whispered in confession, "But I want to make this work, Toph. I really do."

His sincerity was a difficult thing to resist, especially when he punctuated it with such sweet kisses, but as they stumbled back towards her bedroom to make love once more, Toph continued to be plagued with doubts. Later, as she lay in the loose circle of Aang's arms and listened to the deep, even cadence of his breathing as he slept, Toph couldn't keep those doubts from overwhelming her. She found herself obsessing about certain matters that she had stubbornly pushed to the back of her mind before, silly things that, all of a sudden, had paramount importance.

Sex with Aang was a surprise. It was nothing like what she had imagined it would be, not that she had imagined it very much before the last couple of years. She was surprised by how passionate and eager and demanding he was in bed. He wasn't shy about seeking pleasure or giving it either. He knew what he liked and, furthermore, he knew what she liked. It was a disconcerting discovery.

She didn't know why, but she had always imagined that Aang would be rather naïve and romantic when it came to sex. After all, he had only had one lover…before her anyway…in his entire life. And although he and Katara had been married for ten years and had produced three children together in that time, they always seemed to maintain a childish innocence about them in Toph's opinion.

Not that she imagined them having sex very often because that was weird and unpleasant, but when she considered it in cursory passing, Toph had always assumed their sexual relationship was standard…vanilla…boring… The idea of Aang and Katara being adventurous and passionate together was odd to her. They were sweet and charming in that sickeningly perfect way, so certainly nothing between them could ever be intense and stormy.

Toph was rethinking her earlier assumptions because there was no denying that Aang was intense and adventurous and stormy and he hadn't learned those things on his own. He had learned them from Katara…with Katara…and that realization suddenly made Toph feel incredibly insecure. She wondered if he sometimes thought about that during sex with her. His thoughtless avowal in the kitchen earlier made her wonder if he did…and that uncertainty hurt, more than she could have imagined it would.

The sex was only a symptom, Toph knew, but still she fixated on it. She had imagined that since she was the more experienced between the two of them, she was the one who would be teaching Aang something new. She had imagined when they began their intimate relationship that she would be introducing him to a different type of lovemaking altogether. But it seemed that there was nothing at all that he needed to learn. Toph nibbled her lip pensively, suspecting the reason why that knowledge made her feel so incredibly uneasy…possibly because it had been the one thing she'd believed she could give him that Katara hadn't. Now, even that was gone.

"What are you thinking about?"

Toph jumped in his arms, startled by the husky sound of his voice. She landed a kick to his shin with the heel of her foot. "I thought you were asleep."

"Sorry," Aang grunted good-naturedly, "I didn't know there was a rule against waking in your bed." He contorted his body in a languorous stretch. "Why are you still awake anyway? After all of our…erm…activity this evening, I thought you'd be exhausted."

Toph shrugged, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "I guess I just have more stamina than you."

He rumbled a laugh. "You wish!"

"Oh yeah?" she challenged, flipping him over and then moving to straddle him in one swift motion. His hands fell to her hips as she began rocking against his softened genitals. He gradually began to harden in response to the rolling thrusts of her body. "Think you can keep up with me?" she queried breathlessly.

Aang reached between them to position himself at her entrance and slid inside of her, penetrating deeply. "I think you should be asking if you can keep up with me," he teased her.

Silence descended between them as they gave themselves over to the sensations they created together. Aang palmed her breasts as they bounced together, the quiet of the room punctuated by their soft grunts of satisfaction. Toph focused intently on his response to her, acutely aware of his quickening pulse and shortened expulsions of breath. She knew he was cresting, poised at the precipice and for some inexplicable reason she felt the need stake her claim on him before she pushed him over. Suddenly, it became absolutely necessary for her to confirm that he belonged to her completely right then.

"Am I making you feel good?" she asked him.

His deep groan was answer enough, but Toph still savored his whispered, "You are."

"Do you like having sex with me, Aang?"

He smiled at her. "I think you know that I do."

"Am I what you want?"

"Yes…" he moaned.

She rode him harder, faster. "Am I all that you want, Aang…or do you sometimes wish that I was someone else?"

Toph had no idea where the question had come from or even why it had even entered her brain at all. But once the words had flown past her lips there was no yanking them back. She was mortified but, it was too late to do damage control. Aang's response was immediate. His haze of sexual bliss dissipated and his impending orgasm was forgotten as he abruptly fell still beneath her.

"Wh-What?" he stammered almost incredulously, "What kind of…" He scowled at her, thoroughly appalled. "What's wrong with you? Why would you ask me something like that, Toph?"

She knew that she could back-peddle and make excuses or even simply be honest with Aang and admit to him that she was feeling insecure and the many ways he'd inadvertently deepened that insecurity, but she did neither. Instead, she merely shrugged off his dubious reaction because, as tactless as the question had been, she wanted to know the answer. She needed the truth.

"It's a valid question," she said, "Tell me. Do you?"

"It is not a valid question," Aang retorted, shoving her off of him and rolling away, "Especially not when we're in the middle of doing what…well, we were just doing! Why would I be thinking about anyone besides you?"

"We both know that Katara is always in your thoughts, Aang," she said softly, "Don't deny it."

"Not right then she wasn't!"

"Come on. Be honest with me. You don't ever close your eyes and pretend that you're inside of her instead of me?"

"I don't know, Toph!" he retorted hotly, "Do you like to pretend that I'm someone else? What kind of question is that?"

"This isn't about me. It's about you. I want to know the truth, Aang," she brazened, trying not to flinch in reaction to his belligerence, "You don't have very much sexual experience. You've been to bed with only two women in your entire life. Me and Katara. It would be perfectly natural for you to think about what you had with her or…to compare us. You've practically admitted as much to me before."

"But I'm not comparing you now," he retorted fiercely, "You are! And, for the record, I have never pretended that I was with her while having sex with you! That would demean what I had with Katara and it would cheapen what we have together! I can't believe you would even accuse me of that!" He rolled from the bed then, scooped up his discarded trousers, and yanked them on.

His intention to leave stung. Toph masked her hurt behind a derisive smirk as she swung upright in bed. "Hmm…you sure are getting indignant for something that's supposedly untrue."

He snapped his robe down over his head. "Screw you, Toph!"

When he began stuffing his feet into his shoes, Toph started to panic a little. "Where are you going right now?"

"Home," he retorted tersely, "Kya, Bumi and Tenzin are probably driving Sokka and Suki crazy by now, so I'm going to pick the kids up early and give them a break!"

"But I thought you were going to let them stay over until tomorrow!"

"I changed my mind."

"Why?" Toph flared, "Because I asked you a question? Are you not man enough to answer it or something?"

He stopped short on his way out and glowered at her. "This has nothing to do with me being 'man enough!' This has to do with you being inappropriate and asking me a question that I find rather offensive! Frankly, I don't like what you're implying at all!"

"If it's not true, then why are you leaving?"

"Are you seriously asking me that?" he exploded, "You've been running hot and cold with me all night! I don't know what's going on in your head right now, but I'm not going to stick around and be your punching bag tonight!"

"Good! Run away, Aang! That's what you do best anyway!"

He whipped back to face her. "You are some piece of work!" he ground out, "You honestly have no idea how much you've crossed the line tonight. Maybe that should tell me something about you and how your mind works! It would explain what compelled you to ask that asinine question in the first place. So, who have you been pretending I am while we're in bed, Toph?"

"I don't pretend in bed with you, Aang! That's not what I meant," she mumbled.

"Then what do you mean?" he yelled.

"I asked a simple question! Maybe it's something you've thought about unconsciously. All I wanted you to do was to tell me the truth!"

"You want the truth?" he bit out fiercely, "Fine! I'll tell you the truth! No, I have absolutely never pretended that you were Katara when we were in bed together, not tonight and not ever before this either! When I am in bed with you, you are all I am thinking about and all I want! Why would you ever think otherwise?"

"Maybe because you take her wherever you go, Aang," Toph muttered.

"She was my wife, Toph. I have three children with her! Of course, she's with me!"

"Then you admit my point is a valid one."

Aang jerked to attention. "What are you really asking me here?" he wondered deliberately, "Are you curious about whether or not I enjoyed having sex with Katara? Yes, I enjoyed it, Toph! I loved being with her and it was like nothing I had ever experienced in my life. I never felt used with her or insecure or like she was comparing me to other people…not the way I'm feeling with you right now! And maybe that's how it has to be for you because you've never really viewed sexual intimacy as anything other than physical release. To you, it's about answering a biological urge and nothing else! But that's not the way it is for me, not with Katara and not with you either. Is that what you wanted to know? Are you satisfied now?"

She wanted nothing more than to burst into tears right then and never stop crying, but her pride wouldn't allow it. Instead, she lifted her chin to a haughty angle and said, "Yes. Now, I'm satisfied."

"Good," he clipped angrily, "I'm glad you have your answers. I'll see you around!"

He slammed out of her room then, leaving not only Toph's bed empty when he left but her heart as well.