A/N: Someone made a 4-page comic depicting part of the last scene in this chapter. After you read, totally check that out at the end!

What I Learned at SRU
Chapter 38 - Raindrop

- Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 -

Toph was startled by the jiggling in her pocket, causing her to slip up a chord and grind to a halt. She sighed, removing her hands from the practice room piano keys and pausing as the jiggling repeated – it was a phone call.

"Hey..."

["Toph?"] Damnit, it was Suki. What did she want?

"What is it?"

["It's Wednesday. I just...wanted to check to make sure you were coming to practice this time."]

"Yea, I'm coming. I can keep track of appointments, Suki."

["Toph, you didn't come last time..."]

"Well, I am coming this time."

["O-OK, then. You don't...-"]

"Don't what?"

["Nothing...It's nothing. We'll see you there, then. Seven o'clock."]

"Yep."

["OK. Well...bye, then."]

Toph hung up the phone and set it beside her hip in her seat, flexing her fingers. She reached her hands out and ran them across the pages before her, the music trickling through her fingertips from tiny bumps on the paper. After studying the sheet music's brail, she proceeded to replay the particular section she was focusing on. Uncounted minutes passed until she was playing it without fault. Satisfied, she moved onto the next portion.

This process continued for roughly another hour until she felt accomplished with her time spent and her stomach gurgled with discomfort – it was time for dinner. She trudged her way to the Avatar Campus Center, her arms weary as she pushed onward with her cane, occasionally being intercepted by snow if she veered off the path. It suddenly dawned on her just how exhausted she was and that she must be losing sleep with the inconsistent, busy schedule she was keeping. Without the daily rhythm she had grown used to Katara providing, she was slipping back into old habits from freshman year of overworking, undereating, and undersleeping.

Her phone began vibrating again and she lamented having not switched the damned thing off.

"What?" she spat out.

"H-hey, Taters..."

"Oh. Aang...What, uh...I mean, how're ya doin'?"

"Mm. I'm OK...We're...heading up for food. You want to come?"

Fateful timing. Toph figured she'd go along with it and see how things went.

"I guess..."

"All right. We're in the ACC."

"Yea. Um...-"

"What is it?"

"Could we maybe eat, like...just us?"

"Just you and me?"

"Yea..."

"Er...O-OK, yea. That's fine."

"'Kay."

Stuffing her phone back in her coat pocket, Toph took a deep breath, the air chilling her throat. She couldn't handle social contact right now. Not a group of people, anyway. They were mad at her, she was mad at them...It wouldn't lead to anything good. She was certain of that. As she approached the ACC, she could hear the crunching of footsteps in snow – a student no doubt steering clear of her path.

She finally found her way into the center, bustling with the normal activity at this time of day. She wandered into the thick of the rumblings of students. While there was plenty of breathing room, the sounds were more daunting than usual. Footsteps approached her directly, and she calmly extended her still-mittened hand to receive his. They muttered their greetings, and Aang helped her remove her winter clothes. He vanished for a moment to hang them up, leaving her to stand alone, overhearing Jane and Suki discussing details of the band's upcoming performance. Sokka would put in his two cents, and Katara would hum complacently inbetween comments.

"Hey, guys," Aang called out to them. "We're gonna go up alone."

"Oh, OK..."
"No problem."

"Yep."

"OK."

"I'll see you guys tomorrow?"

"Uh-huh!"
"You'll see me tonight."

"Mm."

"Yea!"

"All righty, let's go."

Aang took Toph's arm, and she followed his lead upstairs. She collected her own dinner, as did he, and they seated themselves at a small side table. The droning of the busy cafeteria floor irked her to no end, but she attempted to drown it out.

"So...How's things?" she asked, biting into a grilled cheese sandwich. She could hear him chewing and swallowing in a hurry to reply.

"Mmph. Fine. Busy."

"No kidding. Same here."

"Practice, practice, right?"

"Pretty much."

Another silent moment of eating passed.

"So..." Toph began. The following words rolled out effortlessly, catching her by surprise. "I split up from my family during break."

She could hear Aang eating whatever leafy thing he was eating this time and went on.

"I was tired of taking their shit. So...Now I need to spend my inheritance on my education. And whatever."

"Oh..."

"'Cuz they said that they would stop paying my way if I didn't listen to them."

"Hm."

"I'm done with them. So done."

"Ah."

"Yea. That's the story."

"OK."

"Well...Okay. So...?"

"So what?"

"You wanted me to tell you. So I did."

"Yea."

"So...We good now?"

A disgruntled sigh floated across the table and Toph's insides churned with uncertainty. What did she have to do next?

"Toph...It's not so simple."

"Then let's make it simple."

"You can't just makeit simple..."

"What do you want, then?"

"It's just...there's more going on than just you not telling me that."

"Like what?"

"Uh...Like, ya know...the whole 'you-being-a-jerk-to-everyone' thing..."

"That? I didn't start that. Everyone else decided to get on my back, because-"
"Like right now!"

Toph's lips hung open in surprise, and she listened.

"You keep trying to blame everyone else. Everyone was fine before..."

"Fine? How was everyone fine? I thought everyone's been all stressed out."

"Yes, but...I think a big part of it is how you've been acting."

"How I've been acting?" Toph retorted with an incredulous huff through her nose. "So fuckin' Jaybee's allowed to be a bitch, but I'm not?"

"She's been doing a lot better," Aang defended. "And...well, it's...-"

"What?"

"It's-...OK. Like, over break? Everyone seemed great."

"I thought everyone was being all whiny and shit."

"That was on the car ride up. But after that, everyone was good."

"So? That's what happens on break. You take a break. So you feel better."

"Yea, but...Even after we got back, things were fine. Until you started acting-"
"Whoa, whoa, wait."

Toph smacked her palm on the table and took a bite of her sandwich, quickly swallowing it.

"Are you tryin' to say that this is all my fault? That it, Twinkle-Toes?"

"N-no, I'm just saying that...-"

"Well?"

"-...that I know you had a bad Thanksgiving, and everything, but since you've gotten back, your mood has been-"
"So I'm not allowed to be in a bad mood after what happened?"

"I didn't say that. Of course you are. But you're taking it out on all of us. On me..."

Toph, still frowning, ate the last of her grilled cheese, an excuse to ponder his words. And here she was, acting like the defensive, PMS-stereotype she hated. The cracks were splitting open in her mind, she supposed.

"So it is all my fault, then."

"Wh...-"

"Yep."

"N-no, it's the most stressful part of the semester, and you're dealing with a lot."

"Christ. You accuse me of acting like a bitch, then you go making up excuses for me."

"Huh?"

"So fuckin' flip-floppy, Twinkles. Make up your damned mind."

Why couldn't he be more decisive? All he was doing was making her more confused. Was she supposed to try and clam up and pretend like nothing was wrong? Or was she supposed to just let everything out? Was everyone on edge because of her, or more because of school? What did everyone want, and why was no one talking with her about it?

"I don't-...I-I'm not sure what you're saying," Aang stumbled.

"Never mind," Toph sighed, grabbing her glass of white grape juice and chugging it down.

"I'm not, like...trying to blame you, or anything, I'm-"
"I said 'never mind.' As in, forget it."

"But...but I wanted to explain-"
"I don't care, Twinkle-Toes. I don't need to hear it right now. You're starting to act like Katara, trying to fucking fix every little thing. I'm having a bad week. All right? Whatever. My problem. If people don't like the way I'm acting they can piss off and leave me alone."

"Toph, your problem is my problem, too. I'm supposed to be here to help you."

"How many times do I gotta...-? I don't need your help. What I need is to practice my music, and apparently I need to practice some bullshit Christmas stuff I don't care about 'cuz Suki says so."

"OK, OK, I get it...Geez..."

"How about instead of worrying about all of this crap we just forget about it right now. How about that?"

"Sure..." He said it with uncharacteristically irate tone that was becoming unfortunately familiar to her lately.

"Listen, Twinkles. What do you have to do tonight?"

"I've got reading to do. Lots of it."

"How 'bout we go and do our own crap, cool off, and then meet up later tonight?"

"Don't you have practice with the girls?"

"After that."

"It's...gonna be kind of late, I dunno if-..."

"Come on. Don't you wanna...ya know...-?" Her leg bounced off its toes rapidly and with impatience.

"Y-yea...I do."

"I'm sure I can get Katara to go and do...something...so we can have the room to ourselves."

"OK..." Why was he still so hesitant about it? What was the problem? She'd wipe that problem right out of his voice later on.

"I'll give you a call as soon as we're done with practice."

"Yea. Sounds good..." Ah, there it was. Some relief in his voice. Maybe she could finally get through to him tonight.

"You're overdoing it, Toph," Suki pointed out. Toph could detect in her voice that she was attempting to be polite in her criticism but was in actuality quite irked. This was the third run that she'd cut off prematurely.

"What do you mean?" she groaned, confused.

"When we hit that part everything needs to quiet down."

"I am quieting down!"

"No, but...-" Katara interjected tiredly. "Hun, it's not enough. You're still too loud."

"Ugh." Like you know music or something.

"That's great that you're, like, improving and stuff," Suki added, clearly not as pleased with it as her words indicated, "but you're kind of taking over the song."

"It's fucking Jingle Bell Rock. I'm the rock. I'm sorry that we had to do the most cliché Christmas rock song ever." If you guys can't keep up, that's not my problem.

"Heh," Jane laughed. "Yea, we could do that one where Santa kills everyone, instead."

"What?" Katara squeaked.

"Ya know, the...the one...-? With, uh...-?"

"The Weird Al one," Toph grumbled, plucking an irritated chord and drowning the conversation.

Schraaannngg.

"Umm...I don't...think that'd be such a good choice," Katara sheepishly objected. It's called a joke, Sugar-Queen. Chill out.

"We already decided what song we're doing first," Suki matter-of-factly settled the matter.

"No, we didn't," objected Toph. "You did."

"I'm also the one who got us in."

"Toph, you got to pick the music last time, remember?" said Katara with a sigh.

"What ever happened to 'next time we play for us?'" Toph defended.

"This is for us," quipped Suki. "Everyone agreed that they were OK playing it – including you, in case you forgot – and we're doing this to get our faces out there a bit more. So it is for us."

Why the hell are you in charge? You just bang your fuckin' sticks around. I know music better than all three of you combined. It's the reason I'm here at this school.

"We can shove our faces around all ya want, but if we play shitty songs and sound like ass then it's not gonna get us anywhere..."

"Oh, and I suppose you know what songs we should be playing?"

"Uh, yea?"

"Right. Because you're a music major."

"Makes me a little more knowledgeable on the subject than any of you. Just a fact."

"So you obviously know what kinds of music people our age are listening to."

"Pff. Yea. Crap, and lots of it. Buncha pop stars spewin' out the same shit every day, and everyone's all obsessed with Lady Gaga, and-"
"Toph, you just told me a couple of weeks ago you like Lady Gaga," Katara intruded.

"She's got some good stuff, I admit it, but that doesn't make all of her millions of fans any less stupid. They like Katy Perry, too. That's unforgiveable."

"And I suppose you think everyone wants to hear 60's and 70's songs?" retorted Suki.

Toph turned her head in the direction of the voice and specifically frowned.

"Not my fault that there's so much trash on the radio these days..."

Durrrmmm.

This time it was Jane's bass cutting through the discussion.

"Seriously, guys? I didn't come here to have a fuckin' debate about what's on the radio. We're here to practice."

"Right," Katara rushed to agree. "Let's just...stop fighting and do what we came here to do."

"Fine by me."

"Whatever."

Why did I even accept to join this crap? I don't want to be a part of some cookie cutter girl band...I'm better than that. I could be working on my own stuff right now instead of this democratic bullshit.

- December, 2009 -

"Is that her?" Aang wondered quietly, fidgeting in his seat to try and get a look at the girl on stage in the strapless black dress.

"Yea, that's her," Katara confirmed in a whisper, checking the recital program as the girl bowed and was led to her seat at he grand piano by the assistant. Unlike the musicians before her, this girl had no sheet music. He wished he could see her face well, but it was useless – they were sitting took far away for him to make out the details, but the curved figure beneath the tight-fitting dress was pleasant enough, anyway.

"Oh, this that blind girl?" Sokka muttered, nudging Katara's left shoulder. She nodded, and Aang peered over from her right to look at the program, scanning for the right piece.

{7. Solo ––Prelude . . . . Op. 28 No. 15 Chopin}
{Toph Beifong}

The girl sat stiffly in her seat, like a statue, but her arms flowed across the ivories like water. Gentle notes trickled across the auditorium like raindrops.

"She's blind?" Aang mumbled to Katara.

"That's what I heard."

"Wow. That's...impressive."

"No kidding. She probably practices every day," Katara figured.

"I bet," Aang agreed.

"Sshh," Sokka snipped. "I'm trying to indulge myself in the arts, here."

"Shut up," Katara snickered, slapping him on the leg.

Aang noticed a couple of glowering expressions from people around them and was relieved when his friends quieted. This gave him a chance to truly soak in the music.

Then deja vu struck. Numerous times, Aang had been having a dream lately where a girl, dressed in black with black hair, would play piano. Where she played always seemed hazy, as was the song. He'd try to approach, and she'd stop playing and turn and laugh at him. He could never remember the details, just a pale face and a childish girl's giggling. Something about this girl, specifically, reminded him of this dream he'd kept having. Other women had played piano this same night, but only this specific girl had dredged up memories of this dream from his subconscious, a dream he'd kept forgetting whenever he woke up. He couldn't explain it, but there it was, and it nagged at him to meet this girl face-to-face when this concert was over.

- January, 2010 -

"Hee. See, Aang?" teased Katara, stirring her shake with her straw. "You're blushing."

"I am?" Aang slapped his palms against his cheeks and rubbed ferociously, as if this would somehow help.

"You like her..." Katara gave him a coy wink, sticking out her tongue at him.

"Is that...-? Is it bad? Is it obvious?"

"Ha. I knew it. You just owned up to it. Lucky for you, she's blind, so she can't see how red your face gets..."

"Come on, stop picking on me. Are you for real?"

"I do it out of love, Aang. You're like my kid brother. And yes, for real."

"Gee, thanks...I guess I'm lucky, 'cuz you don't treat your other brother near as nice, right?"

"Heh...You deserve to be treated nice, at least. But ya know what I think, though?"

"What?"

"I think that maybe this girl might like you back a bit."

"R-really?"

"Yea. Maybe..." Katara knew something. She was totally being a tease about it. Had Toph said something to her?

"Are you sure, Katara? I think she finds me weird. And, like...She's all...tough and stubborn. And I'm...not."

"Maybe that's the reason why: maybe you're different."

"Different? But...I don't wanna be just...different."

"Well..." Katara slurped the remainder of her holy cow milkshake and shrugged. "From what she's told me, it sounds like her last couple of boyfriends she never got real serious with. It was all physical and...that was it."

"Oh..."

"Maybe she thinks you're, like...-" She stared at him with narrowed eyes, contemplating the right words. That sneaky little smile of hers. "-...safe. Secure. Ya know?"

"Safe?"

"Secure."

"You think I'm like that?"

"You definitely are."

"Hm..."

"You wouldn't hurt her. Or just use her, or anything like that. You're too sweet for that, Aang."

"Heh...Uh...thanks?"

"Seriously. Don't lose that, Bud."

"I, uh...I won't."

"Good. And like I said...you're probably different than other guys she's known."

"And that's...something she wants? Someone safe and secure?"

"I think so, anyway."

Hm. Katara was a girl. She would probably know better than he would. Probably? Yea.

"Maybe...should I...-?"

"Ask her out?"

"Y-yea. Heh. That."

"Aang, Hun...The way you two are going, she's gonna beat you to the punch."

- October, 2010 -

["What we need is a few good taters."]

["What's...'taters,' Precious? What's 'taters,' eh?"]

["Poh-tay-toes? Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick in a stew..."]

"Bahaha! Bam. Insta-name." Sokka slapped his fist into his opposing palm.

"Say what?" Toph grumbled.

["Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish."]

"C'mon, Aang," Sokka went on, prodding his roommate. "Taters. Tay-terz. It's perfect."

"He's got a point, Toph."

"Ugh. You guys are lame. Tater-Face was already bad enough."

["Even you couldn't say no to that."]

"Like a promotion," Jane joked. "Dude. Dude. Can I be bumped up from Freckle-Face to Freckles, too?"

["Oh yes we could. Spoilin' nice fish..."]

"All in due time," said Sokka with a wink. "It must be earned, Padawan."

"The fuck is a...-?" Jane muttered, scratching her ear as Sokka went back to Toph.

["Give it to us raw and w-r-r-riggling; you keep nasty chips."]

"Taters isn't near as mean as Twinkle-Toes," Sokka defended. "You're brutal with that one."

"Psh! Not my fault if poor wittoh Aangy-Wangy can't take a mean nickname."

["You're hopeless..."]

Katara sighed and grabbed the remote, clicking the mute button.

"Chh," spat out Jane. "Wangy. Did you just say that? Hey...Hey, Katara..." She nudged her couch neighbor with a slow elbow. "Taha. Toph...Toph just said wangy."

"Umm...Heh." Katara shrugged sheepishly as Jane continued to shove her. A couple of wine-coolers and she was acting loopy. Katara had expected her to be a bit more hardened, given her reputation. Then again, she was still slowly whittling away at hers, while Jane had guzzled down two and a half in fifteen minutes. Katara patted her somewhat inebriated friend on the shoulder and eased her off. "You're missing the movie," she pointed out in a mumble as Toph and Sokka went at it.

"I can so take your relentless picking," Aang proclaimed, tickling Toph on the side of her ribcage. She grinned and crushed his hand in her armpit.

"I'm just saying we should up the ante here. Kinda one-sided."

"Oh, yea, Sokka?" grunted Toph, still wrestling with Aang's arm. "Hit me with whatcha got, Meathead. I can take it."

"Dead-Eyes."

"Ouch," Toph took offense in jest. "Politically incorrect much?"

"Wow, Sokka...That's...OK, then." Aang clearly wasn't sure what to do with this, but managed to salvage his hand.

"You said you can take it," smug Sokka taunted Toph.

"No, no, I said it. I'll live with it. Do your worst, Steak-For-Brains."

"Oh, sweet," Jane cried. "We get to make fun of you being blind now."

"Jaybee, I already do enough of that on my own," Toph chuckled, squeezing Aang's hand. "But yea. Feel free. Pff." She reach to her right, and Jane bent her head to let Toph ruffle her hand through the unkempt orange hair.

"Dead. Eyes. Damn." Jane rubbed sand from her eyes, tipping her bottle of green apple Smirnoff across Toph and Aang. "Sokka. You. Are. A fuckin' genius."

Sokka raised his brow at her, exchanged amused glances with Aang and Katara, and shook his head at her.

"Ginger, you've got the fighting part of being Irish down, but...you suck at the holding liquor part."

"'Ey, piss off. I'll kick your ass. I'm not drunk yet."

"Yea, see? Fighting equals...good. Got that one down."

The movie suddenly paused, causing the conversation to settle down. Katara was grasping the remote in her hand still.

"Are we watching the movie, or...-?" She stared at them with some irritation.

"Oh. Right." Sokka nodded. "Yea, Jane hasn't seen these yet."

Jane vigorously jabbed a finger at Toph's shoulder.

"Hey-hey-hey. Dead-Eyes hasn't seen them, either. Get it? 'Cuz...-" She gave pause, only to let a small, almost inaudible burp escape.

"Christ," Toph chuckled. "Look what you've created, Sokka."

"Eye for an eye," he countered.

Jane snickered, thumping her heel into the couch.

"Assholes," said Toph, crossing her arms but smirking.

"We do it out of love," Aang assured, kissing her on the head.

- Thursday, December 9th, 2010 -

Toph lay sprawled in her bed. She knew it was Thursday night. By now it was probably too late to go to the Jasmine Dragon, anyway. She'd wasted much of her evening away listening to her iPod and contemplating how the week had been going. The general consensus was: not so good.

She didn't have the energy to go out to the music building, so she'd made due practicing from her room. It being a Thursday night, Katara had gone off to the library to take care of some research. Toph hardly felt like getting out bed at this point, much less wandering through the cold to go play music at the coffee house. She knew that if she did, she'd probably embarrass herself – putting herself into those performances as she often did would at this point expose fears she wanted to remain hidden.

So she lay in her bed, spread on her back, her hand across her forehead. Her stomach had been quite a bother and she felt warm. It was likely she'd caught a fever, if she had to guess. Time passed and she drank music from a seemingly endless tap, her alcohol and addiction.

Eventually, the song hit that she knew would push her over the limit – the song that had been on her mind all day, ever since the night before. As it played, she forced herself to recall what has transpired the previous evening, replaying it in her mind.

["~I forgot to say out loud~"]

"I don't get what the problem is!" Toph growled, her cheeks pink. She complained to Aang from her bed, sitting on its edge. "I'm fucking throwing myself at you here, Twinkle-Toes!"

["~how beautiful you really are to me~"]

"I-I'm sorry!" Aang sputtered back, looking down at her as he put his shirt back on, his face even brighter.

["~I cannot be without~"]

"I just...-" Aang sighed, wiping his wet lips with his sleeve. "I don't get what you want from me, Toph. Lately, you've been acting all pushy, and...and grouchy. It's awkward."

["~You're my perfect little punching bag~"]

"Christ," Toph grumbled, huffing a gust of air that tossed her bangs around. "You're such a mamby-pamby, Twinkles. What's so awkward?"

["~And I need you~"]

She stood up, irate and trembling, while Aang explained sheepishly.

"You're rushing me, Toph! We've gone over this so many times...I need to take this slow."

["~I'm sorry~"]

"I'm getting sick of waiting on you!" Toph snapped. "And you keep treating me like I don't know what I'm doing!"

["~I always say how I don't need you~"]

Toph inched closer toward Aang as she continued her verbal assault while he leaned back nervously.

"It's like you don't think I know what's best for me! Like you know better. Just like my damned parents...Why do you think I left them in the first place?"

There was a moment of tense silence, their faces inches apart.

["~but it's always gonna come right back to this~"]

"Ya know what?" Aang snapped, his patience finally worn thin. "Fine, Toph. You obviously don't want me around tonight, so I'll leave you alone. I don't know what your problem is lately, but I can't take this right now..."

["~Please~"]

"Whatever," Toph grunted, folding her arms across her chest.

She flinched from the unexpected sound of her dorm room door being slammed shut. Had he really just...left? Wait...That wasn't right. Aang didn't just up and leave her like that. He always lingered and tried to make everything right...

Wow, he's never just left like that, she mused, standing alone in her room, her arms drooping to her sides, head bobbed. What the hell is my problem lately? Why do I keep treating him this way?

["~Please~"]

The frustrated sob that she'd been hiding from him choked out in this moment of solitude, and tears began forming in her eyes.

[~Don't leave me~]

"Toph?"

"Whuh?" Toph gasped, her left earphone having been pried off her head. She flinched, scrambled to sit upright, banging the back of her head against the wall behind her, causing the headphones to slide off onto her shoulders. "Agh, shit," she growled, clutching her skull as it throbbed.

"Whoa, hey." Katara's voiced cooed. It was soft, and gentle, the way it often was. In this moment, Toph acknowledged that while it did grate sometimes, she had grown to miss its absence. "Are you OK?"

"Mm." Toph hummed out with a disgruntled sigh. She sniffled, wiping the water from her face that had formed during her solitude in a sea of song.

"What happened?" Katara wondered. Rrrrkk. The bed groaned as Katara's weight pressed down on it.

"Gah," Toph puffed out, one hand staying attached to her face. The dizziness of sitting up so swiftly after laying down so long combined with the impact on her head wasn't doing her any favors. "What do you care?" she finally managed. "Thought you had schoolwork to take care of."

"Oh. Yea, that's where I've been, but...Hun, it's, like...midnight."

Sure enough, just as Toph had predicted days earlier, Katara had shed her snippy act and given in to that sappy caring side that never died.

"What's going on? Huh?" A sympathetic and fair question for Katara to ask, given the physical state of her roommate.

"Fever."

"Aw. I'm sorry." Cut the coddling, Sweetness.

Katara's slender hand rubbed Toph's neck, serving as a reminder of how sore it was.

"Aang told me what happened last night," Katara explained, bluntly pointing out the elephant in the room. "Sounds like things are only getting worse with you two..."

"Somethin' like that..." Toph took in a deep breath and sighed out the remainder of her sorrows. She pent up all this junk from Thanksgiving and now she had cried two days in a row. So much for superceding PMS stereotypes.

"Toph. I don't know all of what's going on, but...Hun. You need to figure this stuff out." No shit.

"Yea..."

"It's like you've gone back to who you were when we met you." Is that really such a bad thing?

"Well...I'm not sucking at music anymore, at least." Toph groped her mattress and retrieved her iPod, switching it off and stopped the faint trickles of sound from around her neck.

"Heh. That's good. I'm glad you've been productive." Like you really care about my music.

Katara's hand pushed back Toph's greasy, untamed hair over her back.

"Man, you need to shower," she picked. You my nanny now, too?

Toph resisted the urge to snap back, exhausted as she was. It wasn't worth it. She was too tired to have another argument right now.

"Anything I can do to help?" Leave me alone.

"No."

"OK. I'm probably gonna head to bed in a minute here." Good for you.

"Yep."

Katara patted her roommate on the shoulder with encouragement, observing the dull vacancy in those white eyes. She stood up from the bed and smiled sympathetically to herself as Toph wrapped up in the blanket, a cloth riddled with music notes. Her face looked like she'd been living out on the street all week, and Katara lamented her friend's stubborn attitude.

By the time Katara had gone through her evening routine of teeth-brushing and changing into pajamas, Toph was snoring, out like a light.

Katara was tempted to hop on her computer, but knew that doing so would cost her precious time to sleep, and instead opted to use her phone to send a quick message before bed.

[To: Aang]
[So I know things are rocky with you two lately...But we should still do something for Toph's birthday, don't you think?]
[Sent: 12:09am]

A/N: A very Toph-focused chapter to help carry things along.

www(dot)youtube(dot(com/watch?v=6gV9gUeFHIw

The Chopin piece Toph played in the flashback. "Raindrop."

Obviously, the film the group was watching was Lord of Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=eocCPDxKq1o

Last song was "Please Don't Leave Me" by P!nk.

And check out this AWESOME comic a Deviant user made depicting the last music video scene!

www(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Please-please-209536707