Catch Me if you Can

The following day dawned hot and humid and Toph took the time to stretch her unused muscles in the open air of their usual terrace. Katara was cooking, something heavy and warm that smelled suspiciously of Appa, but Toph chose to ignore it. Instead, she was focusing on stretching for what might be an actually challenging spar. She could, of course, beat Sokka with a few lazy flicks of her fingers. Aang went too easy on her, refusing to potentially hurt a friend. And her spars with Katara got too competitive too quickly, and usually ended with one of them screaming while the other stormed away. Between the two of them, Katara usually did the storming. While Toph trusted Zuko to not hurt her again, she also trusted him to not hold back.

Sleepy, lumbering footsteps and the smell of boy announced Sokka's arrival from his room. He stretched and yawned until his jaw popped, observing Toph in front of him. "And you're absolutely sure this is safe, Toph?" He asked tentatively. "Remember what the Jerkbender did to your feet last time."

Toph rolled her eyes at him. "For the twentieth time, I so sincerely appreciate your worrying, Sokka," she said in a way that hopefully conveyed the utmost insincerity, "But I can take care of myself. Even against an angry Jerkbender."

Sokka sat on the ground next to her, extending a foot to prod her toe with one of his own. "Are you sure, though? Just imagine if you come out of it looking like him!"

Toph hesitated in a lunge. "What do you mean?"

Katara let out a quite unladylike snort from her spot by the fire while Sokka's heartbeat stuttered. "La, damn it all," he muttered under his breath. "I keep forgetting you're blind."

"Wait, I'm blind? You don't say!"

"Wait, Toph's blind?" Came Aang's voice from behind them. He and Zuko padded into the room. Aang was wavering, clearly exhausted from his first day of real Firebender training. Zuko seemed steady, however. As if he'd spent the time sitting back and instructing. Aang did need a lot of it. "I had no idea! Is that why she keeps making jokes about it?"

"Oh!" Exclaimed Sokka. "Is that why your wrestling name had the word 'blind' in it?"

Toph grinned wickedly and fell down to the earth next to Sokka. "My biggest regret is that I won't be able to see Zuko's face when I kick his ass."

"You're not missing anything, Toph. Don't worry." Katara's snide voice caught Toph off guard as three heartbeats spiked quite uncomfortably in response. Toph narrowed in on Zuko's to find that he was trembling slightly, face trained towards the Waterbender.

Toph sat in silence as the tension in the air mounted, curious what would happen next, but Zuko didn't respond. Instead, he took three even, calming breaths and joined her and Sokka on their well-worn patch of ground. Toph reached out and wrapped her pinky finger around his. It would not do well for their spar, or probably anybody's mental health around here, if Zuko decided to waste his energy on Katara's monumental stubbornness. She smiled when he squeezed back, unhesitatingly.

The Western Air Temple, Aang explained to the group as they flew from the canyon on Appa, was a sacred spot reserved for Master Airbenders and trainees to learn the art and culture in

relative solitude. However, the rest of the Airbender colony lived only a short while away, detached while close enough to retreat if something went wrong. The colony included women in their birthing years, children born without the gift of bending, Air Nomads who simply decided they were not suited for temple life, and other ragtag members of whichever nation seeking out a freer and less materialistic existence. Appa set them down in one of these towns and Toph gratefully slid from his back to inspect it. There was an array of stone houses centered around a minute town square, and enough trees had been cleared away that Zuko wouldn't have to add burning down a forest to his already considerable list of things to feel guilty about.

Toph dug her toes into the soil underfoot, concentrating. The structures were made of predominately granite and wood, with metal roofing and large metal beams enforcing some of the larger houses. She grinned. Perfect.

She and Zuko took battle stances across the square from each other, while the rest of the group and Appa watched from a distance. "Scared, Toph?" He taunted lightly across the gap. Toph smirked in response.

Of course, he made the first move. Firebenders always did, Toph noted. An Earthbender could wait around all day for an opponent to strike, perfectly balanced on the edge of anticipation and action. Firebenders were too impatient for that. Zuko's first strike was a blast of prickling heat that Toph deflected easily with a wall of rock. She reached out, pulling his frontward foot into the stone, encouraging it into quicksand around him. But he jumped away lightly, too fast for such a simple trap.

Toph spun around, moving her makeshift shield with her as she traced Zuko's footsteps running through the square. A lunge from him translated into a blast of flames, and so on. Their moves were noncommittal and tentative; they were circling each other, learning each other in a way nights of talking certainly couldn't accomplish.

Zuko's next lunge brought a channel of flames crashing over her and Toph opened a wide rift in the earth to swallow her whole, moving through the dense material until she was underneath Zuko, feeling the fluttering of his pulse as he turned on the spot waiting for her to emerge.

She pushed upward through the shallow layer of rock between them and caught him with a blast of earth, noting how his shock turned into an acrobatic determination as he used the momentum to jump away from her. She ducked in time to feel the building behind her catch on fire from his rebuttal strike; the walls came down with a satisfying crumbling noise.

Toph shook the topmost layer of rock underneath Zuko with a minute flick of her fingers each time he was about to place a foot down. His bending seemed to come from a series of percussive stomping and breathing. All she needed to do was break the rhythm. With each tremble of the earth, Zuko was thrown even more off-balance. Finally, Toph felt his finger touch the ground as he steadied himself.

Right there. She ripped a large stone from underneath him, slamming it into his shoulder and flipping him onto his back as it rose into the air. Then, she allowed the chunks of stone to fall towards him, barreling towards the ground and his undefended form.

As she predicted, he sprang up and dodged neatly around the boulder. A snap of his fingers and intake of breath and the dry grasses around Toph's feet were on fire. There was a circle of heat growing tighter around her, closing her in. Toph's breath hitched as adrenaline surged through her; she knew the flames were there, and growing by the feel of the air and sweat beading her brow, but had no idea precisely how close they were.

"Toph!" Sokka screamed from their vantage point.

"She's okay Sokka, stop being such a drama queen!" Shouted back the wise, all-knowing Avatar beside him, gnawing on his nails.

Yes. She would be. Toph turned the rock beneath her into supple dirt and coated her body with it, rolling through the ring of flames to minimal pain. She formed a circular shield of rock around her as Zuko came barreling forward accompanied by a wall of heat, and shifted the ground underneath his light footfalls to offset his momentum again.

He was ready for her this time, though. An extremely quick learner, Toph thought, equal parts impressed and frustrated. His footfalls were so light, anticipating any wayward movement. Zuko maneuvered unpredictably, each step coming closer to her. He was looking to cut off the distance, Toph's primary advantage. He would be far more successful in close combat.

Toph felt rather than heard Zuko's breathing as he approached and with minimal strain she tore the ground upon which she was standing from the earth beneath it, using it to fling herself through the air and towards the village. She felt Zuko follow behind her, a frustrated twinge in his veins as she succeeded in putting distance between them again.

It became a game of dodging through roughly hewn houses, anticipating Zuko's next steps and remembering which houses had already caught on fire as she dove in and out of them. Toph managed to catch Zuko's foot in quicksand on her second attempt, spent too much time gloating, and nearly had an eyebrow singed off.

"What do you think you're playing at, Sparky?" Toph screamed at him as the fire tickled her face.

Zuko immediately hesitated. "Agni. Toph. I'm so sorry- I-"

She slipped through the window of the house, and with a quick downward motion of her wrist, it began to tumble down on him. "Gotcha."

Zuko roared and Toph felt the metal ceiling and rough stone walls fall backwards and away from him, propelled by a burst of protective fire. "I thought you would play fair!" he shouted as he followed Toph's path in quick pursuit.

"Really?" Toph screamed behind her. "What exactly have I done to encourage that line of thought? Tell me now so that I never make the same mistake again!"

A shout of laughter from Zuko alerted her to how close he was, and Toph immediately stopped, taking on a fighting stance. Stone molded itself around her form and Zuko barreled right into her, falling with a crunch. By the time he'd pulled himself up, Toph had run into the largest structure in the village.

She felt the space. It was a spacious, rounded communal house, most likely used for formal meetings- as formal as the Air Nation went, anyway- and group dinners. A metal and glass filigreed table, probably re-purposed from another nation, stood in the middle, and the usual heavy metal rafters were reinforced by thick wooden beams. Toph stepped onto the table, taking care to inhale and exhale as she felt for the earth beneath her.

With a rushing feeling, thousands of particles of dirt flew up into the air, hovering in each square inch of the air in the room. Toph had command of them all, could feel every change and rush of air pressure in the room. The technique was a new one she had been working on, for use against an Airbender or Firebender. Now was the chance to see if it worked.

Zuko burst through the door, breathing heavily, sending a blast of flames her way. Toph grinned; she felt the fire now, long ropes of the element catching in the hovering dirt and pushing towards

her. She finally understood the shape it took; amorphous yet structured, directable yet wild. For a moment, Toph's feeling of success was so great that she forgot the incoming threat.

And then instinctively, she ripped the metal from the glass table beneath her and willed it to encase her body. The filigree widened and solidified to become a fine, structured body suit. And as the flames hit her, Toph was greeted with a gentle warmth radiating through the material and the intoxicating idea that Zuko could send as many flames her way as he wanted; she'd never be hurt by them.

She was invincible.

"What the fuck?!" Zuko screamed from his spot at the doorway. He hurled flame after flame at her, and Toph ripped more metal from the rafters and channeled it towards him. Zuko roughly threw his body to the side to avoid the sharpened metal spikes piercing the air.

"You- you can-" he breathed.

"I told you Sparky," Toph laughed wildly. "Greatest. Earthbender. Of all time!"

The flames stopped. Zuko had stilled in front of her. And the wild beats of his heart contained something Toph couldn't identify, as she focused in on him once more. Fear, she decided. It must be fear. Toph grinned, and was about to say something else, when a horrible popping sounded behind her.

Toph couldn't bend or feel wood, but she could certainly identify the sound of centuries-old wooden pillars burning into nothingness. The centuries-old pillars that were also holding up the heavy ceiling. With a great crash, she felt them hit the ground beneath her, and a horrible groaning sensation was the only warning she received before the entire structure collapsed on top of them.

Toph coughed dust and ash from her lungs, and felt around. She was laying flat on her back. Hovering above her, having apparently leapt the length of the communal house, was Zuko. He was on his elbows and knees, body thrown over hers protectively.

And above him, of course, was the sheet of metal she had bent as protection from the collapsing stone and heavy rafters. Zuko groaned slightly. Toph felt his hot breath against her eyelashes.

"Are you okay?"

Toph wiggled her fingers and toes, assessing. "Not squished."

She felt his face stretch into a smile above her. "Not squished indeed."

Toph waved a hand and their protective shield fell away, bringing the heat of direct sunlight onto their bodies. Toph heard the screaming of their friends in the background, growing louder.

"Sparky, you can get off me now."

Zuko hesitated. Toph realized his face was still trained on hers and she angled hers towards him, curiously.

He raised a hand to her, and touched the brow he'd burnt through. Toph concentrated on the weirdly rapid thudding of his pulse. Tried to not notice hers matching the rhythm. He stayed quiet for another moment, seemingly thinking.

"Yep," Zuko breathed finally. "You're still an anomaly, Toph."

And then he was on his feet, pulling her up to hers as well, and they surveyed the chaos around them.

Zuko thought the Fire Nation warship made the canyon and temple look small in comparison, but he wouldn't trade its spot there for anything in the world. Not when it symbolized their successful escape from The Boiling Rock, and the newest members of their team.

They'd performed a thorough search of the vehicle- assisted by Toph's Metalbending, which Zuko was still wrapping his head around- and discovered a large stockpile of dry ingredients, a couple of fresh ones, and some bottles of amber liquid that caused Hakoda and Chit Sang's eyes to light in excitement.

It was a type of mead, Zuko assessed as he swirled the alcohol around a crudely cut stone cup. He'd certainly spent enough time around his uncle to know one drink from another. They had gathered around the fire and enjoyed a surprisingly good dinner together that evening, assisted by Suki's reasonable cooking skills and the stolen ship's food, and the fact that perhaps they were all too tipsy from Hakoda's insisted toasts to really be tasting much of anything, anyway.

Zuko's chest felt warm, and not just from the burning liquor that seemed to ignite a fire inside his belly and trickle to his extremities. While they ate, Hakoda had engaged Zuko in conversation on Fire Nation battle strategy, and thanked him sincerely for the rescue. Suki had sought him out as they cleaned, wondering if she might spar with him later; Kyoshi style, versus Zuko's dao swords. He was more than happy to comply. Chit Sang found him after that, squatting and clapping a heavy hand on Zuko's shoulder. "I know who you are," he said softly. "You're the prince of the Fire Nation." Zuko met the man's beady eyes steadily. Chit Sang had just grinned. "Way to stick it to the man. I want you to know that if you ever become Fire Lord, well, you'll have my full support." He'd stood with a popping of knees and wandered off to sit with Hakoda.

Conversation died down and, little by little, they trickled away from the fire. Sokka and Suki disappeared none too subtly into one of the rooms. Aang and Katara walked off to practice Waterbending at their usual spot in an interior fountain, emboldened by the waxing moon. The Duke, Haru, and Teo, thick as thieves, retreated to another part of the temple where they were apparently working on constructing a fort. Hakoda and Chit Sang were still engaged in deep conversation across the terrace. And it left Zuko alone to stare into the fire, struck by a sudden lonely pang that cut through his gut uncomfortably.

And then there was the familiar scent of fresh soil and Toph joined him by the flames, setting herself down roughly on the stone and clutching one of the cups she'd bent for the event, still half full of its golden liquid.

"Everyone gets distracted and of course nobody thinks to keep the food away from Momo," she explained softly. "He'd eat his weight in food, and yours and mine and your uncle's weight too, if he had the opportunity. Weird little thing."

"Hey, don't hate on the lemur. The same could be said for the rest of us." Zuko felt a grin slide over his face and he pulled the girl closer to him, until she was pressed into his side. He was surprised at first how easily physical intimacy had come between himself and the little Earthbender; he'd never experienced any sort of comfortable touching with anyone before, but with her it was natural.

Toph nuzzled into his side and sipped at the mead, pulling a face. "Yech. This is what they feed to

royalty in your country? The sweet wines of the Earth Kingdom are so much better."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "No. This swill is for the crew. I'm pretty sure Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee would have already consumed the good stuff on the way to the prison." His voice broke a little on Mai's name and he sipped at the cheap liquor again, hoping she didn't notice.

"Good," Toph said. "I was about to write off the Fire Nation entirely. It takes a certain type of psycho to go to war without good alcohol." She paused. "Unless invading the other nations was just their way of obtaining better alcohol, in which case I suddenly understand your country."

"I'll show you some of the better stuff, one day."

"Deal." Toph stood and tossed the cup into the flames. Zuko watched her face as the alcohol came in contact with the fire, eyed the resulting blast of light as it illuminated her petite features and blank eyes. When she returned to their spot, she lay on the ground and rested her head on his thigh. "Once we've won the war, I expect nothing less than the best the Fire Nation has to offer. Gods know we'll have earned it."

Zuko stilled. "You keep talking about what life will be like when we win," he began. The potent alcohol had loosened his tongue and he realized he suddenly wanted to voice the worry that nipped at his heels in the darkness, that prickled behind his eyes. "But what if we- don't? What if we lose?"

Toph moved a finger across the linen covering his knee. "You're an optimistic one."

"That's more my uncle's speed."

Toph snorted. "I'll believe that. But you know, Sparky, we may not have the numbers, but Twinkletoes is powerful. You and Katara, too. And Sokka's actually great at plans and stuff, as much as it literally pains me to admit it. And of course, I'm amazing." She sat up and turned towards Zuko, pressing a finger into his sternum. "I believe we're going to win because we're damn good. We're the world's best chance. We have to. And I think, because you joined us, we will. So don't you dare-" another jab in the chest from her finger, "-give up on this. We've got what it takes. Now we just have to give it our all."

Something akin to intoxicating relief swept through Zuko and he found himself wanting to pull the weird, powerful little Earthbender closer to him; a twitch he'd been experiencing since their spar the week prior. He supposed he was grateful for her; her friendship when he had nobody else, her blunt, honest, and unwavering belief in herself and in him. Zuko briefly wondered if this was what having a sister would feel like, then remembered he had a sister, and pushed the thought from his mind.

Toph settled herself back onto Zuko's thigh and after a few minutes, her breathing became deep and even.

The fire had burned down to its last embers when Katara and Aang emerged from where they'd been practicing, both soaking wet and looking content. Aang simply grinned at the two of them and made his way over to Appa with a wave, but to Zuko's surprise, Katara determinedly walked over to him.

Zuko watched as her eyes flitted over Toph's sleeping position on his thigh, as a corner of her mouth lifted in a sneer.

"So I guess everybody trusts you now, is that it?"

Zuko swallowed and watched the sleeping Earthbender with her, untangling the soft black hair

from his fingers where he'd been languidly rolling around a lock. "Toph's a bit of a special case with that, I think," he replied softly.

Katara knelt and Zuko swallowed at the ferocity in her eyes, the anger that surged just beneath the surface. "No, Zuko," she spat. "I mean everyone trusts you now. You've deceived Aang, Sokka, even my father into thinking that you're a good person, that you've changed," She leaned closer. "I want you to know that I'm still on to you, Zuko. You haven't fooled me with your act. I see you for who you really are."

Zuko felt a surge of anger rush through him; the fire beside them flared in warning, but he said nothing, didn't risk it with the comforting weight of the small sleeping Earthbender on his leg. Instead, he held Katara's aquamarine glare with one of his own for a beat longer before she stood and followed Aang to his spot by the bison.

He resumed playing with Toph's hair, more grateful than ever for her sleeping company.

There weren't many times that Toph cursed her acute Earthbending.

The first such occasion happened when she was younger, and had made her first desperate bid for freedom. She could feel the heavy guards set outside her door, how her parents paced beside them. One of them said something to the other that caused a spike in their heartbeat, and waves of jarring anger the likes of which Toph had never felt before then rippled through the floor, even when they'd retreated into their room at the far wing of the Beifong estate. And after that, every night, their fighting became worse, and sometimes physical, and Toph knew it was all about her because she may have been young but she certainly wasn't an idiot. When she was with her parents, they wouldn't match; hot heartbeats, cold facades. Toph had never before realized how much people relied on a semblance of calm and the assured privacy of a closed door to mask who they really were.

Then, it was the opposite, as Toph joined Team Avatar and they were very consistently targeted by people who wanted to kill them. A crazed demeanor masking a cold, ruthless, uncaring heartbeat. Toph realized how little her life meant to these assassins in the steady waves that came off of Combustion Man, in the calculated nothingness that was Azula. She learned that calm did not equate to the opposite of murderous, and although it was somewhat terrifying of a lesson, she learned to listen differently.

And then, they were sharing Zuko's family house in Ember Island, and the earth's vibrations were a stuttering, whiplash-inducing mess. The most prominent thing Toph would feel from the others was fear; fear in the way Aang couldn't keep down a large meal, and in Katara's bossy, loud footsteps, and in how Sokka and Suki almost never left one another's sides, even when they weren't alone together (And Toph very much tried to ignore what she felt when they were alone, she really did, because she quite liked Suki and had given up her crush on Sokka a while ago). The fear was then replaced with ripples of cold determination, waves of despair. And then when they were together, sometimes they were happy, and the relieved feeling to just be feeling normal again was stronger than usual as well.

Toph knew the others could sense the turbulence too; not quite as acutely as she could, but it was there. Sokka became desperate to find ways to distract the team in their downtime. Katara used some cooking books she'd found in the beach house kitchen to actually cook good smelling food to entice Aang into eating, in what Toph mused was a desperate attempt to coerce his nervesriddled stomach to accept and not reject sustenance. And Zuko asked for Team Avatar stories to fill the time between training, planning, and sleeping.

But in the night after the play, there seemed to be even more despair and unhappiness than normal, and Toph couldn't sleep. Nobody seemed to be able to that night. They were up pacing, worrying, sending jolts like lightning through the earth. Toph bit her bottom lip and placed a hand flat on the ground, searching for the only person who seemed to help in times like this.

Zuko was harder to find than normal, incrementally calmer than the rest that night, but Toph had grown accustomed to the steady beat by now. Still, she delighted in the surprised spike of his pace as she crashed through the ceiling of the beach house to find him sitting on the tiled rooftop.

He stood, walking over to her and surveying the gaping hole leading to the floor below. "You know, there are less destructive ways of getting up here."

Toph shrugged, feeling the tile underfoot and breathing in the salty air. "I can fix it."

He waved a hand dismissively. "Don't bother."

They walked to the end of the roof and sat together. Zuko leaned back and angled his head upward. Toph wrapped arms around her knees. "Rooftop brooding, Sparky? I'm honestly not surprised. You seem the type."

"I used to come up here when I wanted to get away from my family."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Zuko traced the tiled outline with a long finger. Toph's mind followed it subconsciously. "The last time we stayed in this house, Azula wasn't big enough to climb up. And my father didn't care."

"And your mother?"

Zuko's hand stilled for a moment. "She didn't want to make my father upset by looking for me. He said that boys needed time away; that too much family time would turn me soft."

"Little did he know," Toph joked. Zuko reached around and poked her arm softly. She punched him back. "When I wanted to get away from my family, I joined an illegal Earthbending ring and became their champion."

"Of course you did." Toph wondered if he was smiling.

"So what did you do up here, anyway?"

"I'd practice my Firebending. Or look up at the stars and try to remember the constellations I was taught in lessons. Or just make up my own, because that was easier."

"Oh." Toph stilled for a moment. "What do they look like, anyway?"

"The stars?" He sounded surprised. "I'm not sure I could tell you. I'm no good with words."

"Sparky, you could at least try! Show some sympathy for the little blind girl."

He laughed a shallow, huffing sound. "If there's one thing you don't need, Toph, it's sympathy."

Toph drew her knees closer, trying to ignore the disappointment. "Just- try? Please."

"Oh." If Zuko were surprised at the softness of her voice, he didn't show it. He cleared his throat. "They're like tiny pinpricks of warmth and energy in a vast expanse of nothingness. They're reassuring, I guess. You know that somewhere far away, because you can see the energy they

reassuring, I guess. You know that somewhere far away, because you can see the energy they emit, there is more out there than just this planet.

"But they're also really isolating, because even though there's more, it's so far away that you'll never be able to get there. But I guess it shows that energy manifests in more ways than it does here."

"Hmm," Toph sighed, trying desperately to understand what he meant. "You're right. You are bad with words, Sparky."

He chuckled roughly. "I was trying to emanate Uncle. Maybe you need poetry on it, or something."

Toph turned toward him, struck by a sudden determination. "Sit up."

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to touch your face, you dolt."

"What?" His heart fluttered.

Toph rolled her eyes. "Come on, Sparky! I'll never know what the stars look like but I can sure as hell figure out for myself what you look like. Unless you'd care to explain that one to me, too?"

To her surprise, he obeyed without further question, propping himself onto his knees and facing her. She extended a hand, and when she brushed the tip of his nose, his pulse jumped.

To his credit, Zuko sat in silence while Toph ghosted her fingers around his forehead, down his nose, and across his jawline. She felt the rough sandpaper stubble across his chin and how his nose was longer than Sokka's, thinner than Aang's. She felt a pang of sadness from a part of her she'd tried to lock away long ago, that she would never actually know what any of them looked like. Not how the rest of them would.

He jumped more than she was expecting when she placed one hand flat on either side of his face; one cupping the smooth cheekbone and thick brow of the right, the other touching the silken, distorted edges of the scar on the left.

"I heard you had a scar, Sparky."

"I forgot you didn't know." His voice shook a little as she probed the marred flesh into his hairline, over the warped cartilage of his ear.

"It would be impossible not to, after your outburst at the theater tonight." Toph traced his naked brow. "It feels cool. I like it."

"Really?"

"Sure," Toph shrugged, trying to ignore the electric-feeling pricks that traveled up her fingers each time her fingers made contact with him. She decided she liked how his cheeks heated under the compliment. "I've got a bunch, too. Apparently. I was told they make me look dangerous."

She felt him shift underneath her, and in the next moment, his arms wrapped around her back and he was pulling her into his chest, tight. She inhaled, filling her lungs with his familiar smell of tea leaves, shivering in the sudden warmth of his arms around her.

"Thanks," Toph heard Zuko murmur into the top of her head.

"No problem Sparky," she whispered back. "I am the authority on how cool things look, after all."

"No! No, I won't do it. I can't just go against my values and murder someone! I won't!"

Zuko didn't think he'd ever heard Aang so worked up before, although it was certainly happening more frequently since they'd moved into the beach house, and he'd begun to learn the signs. When Aang got angry, blowing wind was the first indicator. Perhaps an instinctive, visceral response; he'd learned air before he'd learned control of the particular element, rather than in conjunction. Although air spiraling out from the man in all directions was certainly preferable to the other elements in his repertoire, the sand blowing around them now was quite unwelcome as Aang whipped up severe gusts with each angry jerk of his body.

"Aang, we've looked at this from every possible angle!" Katara was yelling at him now. They had been taking turns arguing with the boy, hypothesizing, and brainstorming. Each lead they followed and idea they had, however, seemed to point to the same conclusion; Aang would have to kill Zuko's father to end the war. It was the only way.

"No, we haven't, Katara!" Aang's gray eyes were crazed, and he gripped his head as if wishing he had hair to pull from it as he paced the beach house courtyard. "We've done so little research- we could find the library again, talk to Wan Shi Tong-"

"We don't have time for that, Aang!" Sokka yelled from his spot next to Suki, where he'd been massaging her shoulders. "Even if we dug out the giant owl and he didn't try to kill us again-" Zuko made a mental note to ask Toph for this particular story later- "you heard Zuko! We can't afford to waste the time to get there and find the library again, much less return to the Fire Nation after!"

Aang rounded on Zuko then, who looked back up at him in a way that was hopefully defiant. Even in his time hunting Aang, the boy had never directed so much raw fury towards him.

"And you!" Aang demanded. "Why aren't you defending me? He's your father! Do you want him to die? Wouldn't you prefer that I did everything I could to find a peaceful resolution to this?"

The group sat, stunned. Zuko slowly stood from his stone step. He was distinctly aware that he was trembling. "Don't you dare say that to me, Aang," Zuko forced out through clenched teeth. "After everything he did to me? After this?" He gestured to his scar, the ugly mark that marred his face. "After everything he's done to the world? I would rather have him dead. He's a monster."

"See, Aang?" Sokka piped up again, unhelpful as always. "You've got permission now. So can you stop worrying and-"

Aang roared in frustration, turning from them and storming towards the house. "This is so messed up! None of you understand what this is for me, what it symbolized for my culture. And none of you even care!"

The door slammed behind him, and only when his footsteps retreated to the second floor did the rest of them dare speak.

Toph, who had been reclining on the step beside Zuko, dug a fist into an eye, rubbing vigorously. "At least the angry Avatar wind has died down."

Zuko smiled despite himself, leaning on an elbow and turning towards her. "Seems to be happening a lot these days, huh?"

Toph flicked a wrist dismissively. "Airbenders. Or at least that's what I'm assuming. This is still nothing compared to how he was when Appa was stolen from us."

"I've been meaning to ask for that story. And what was all that about a buried library, anyway?"

"Hey Zuko," called Sokka's voice from behind him. "Why do you always ask Toph to tell you Team Avatar stories? You ever heard of an unreliable narrator?"

Toph grinned over to where Sokka was sprawled over Suki, kneading a knot from her shoulder. "At least I don't make it sound like we're fighting twenty times the number of bad guys! My stories are just coated in a healthy level of sass, Snoozles. Not blatant fabrication."

"That was one time-"

"One time we were fighting hundreds of pirates and Fire Nation soldiers, Sokka?" Katara threw back to him. "There were like, seven of each!"

"Hey wait," Zuko cut in. "I was there for that! I was one of those soldiers. Who were you telling that story to?"

Sokka's face had turned red. Suki propped herself up on a slender elbow beneath him. "You mean to tell me that those stories were all lies?!" She gasped.

Sokka blanched. "Not all lies! Not at all! It certainly felt like there were hundreds of each- there were only three of us at the time! And Momo, but he didn't do much. And-"

"And you mean to say that you didn't singlehandedly battle an entire group of underground Earth Nation wrestlers?"

Toph perked up. "Present and accounted for."

"And you didn't defeat six surly but dangerous Fire Nation women running on less than an hour of sleep?" Suki scrambled to her knees next to him. "How could I ever forgive you, Sokka? How could I ever trust you again?"

Sokka's eyes were wide. "Okay, fine! Maybe I used a bit of creativity when I was telling those stories, but-"

He was broken off when she planted a wet kiss on his cheek. "I already knew. Don't worry. Gods, but you're easy to mess with!"

"Oh, you little-"

The rest of their conversation was lost as Suki jumped up and ran from the courtyard, shrieking in laughter, Sokka hot on her heels. Zuko just chuckled at their easy candor and turned back to Toph. "So, the library story? Or the Appa one?"

Toph grinned at him. "They're actually one in the same. I won't have to charge you double for my realistic account of events, this time."

Zuko felt a smile cross his lips easily and reached out, fingering the wide, rough hem of her pants. "I didn't realize I was accumulating a bill."

"I'll hold off sending debt collectors until we're out of this mess."

"Can't wait." He rolled his eyes. "Now tell me the damned story already."

"Right." Toph laid down on the step. "Once upon a time, Sokka got another horrible idea."

"You know, I've noticed a lot of your stories start off that way."

"Hush while I talk. We were taking mini vacations across the Earth Kingdom! Because that's what one decides when one has access to a flying bison, an outdated map, and a lot of free time when Aang is learning the elements, apparently. We visited this town, tiny and filled with seedy characters, whose only claim to fame was a block of ice in the center."

"Wait," Zuko said, remembering. "I've been there! That's where the smuggling event happened, the one I told you about."

Toph laughed. "We've already established your disturbing ability to stalk Aang quite literally across the globe, Sparky. Now if you'll stay quiet for a single second, I'll tell you the story.

"We met a nerdy academic type from Ba Sing Se, who told us about a giant library in the middle of the desert, belonging to the knowledge spirit Wan Shi Tong, a big owl from what they told me. Apparently the library was huge, and we were hungry for information on the Fire Nation, and is it really a day with Team Avatar if you're not risking your life? So we decided to look for the library with him. Well, the others looked. I just got a magnificent sunburn from Appa's saddle and entertained everyone with clever remarks."

Katara snorted from the other side of the courtyard where she was combing sand from her hair.

"So we find it, of course, because four of the five members have functioning eyeballs and Appa has that whole altitude advantage. It's almost entirely buried in sand, but there's still a window they climb through. Appa and I hang out in the desert together, because he can't fit and I couldn't give a single shit about books. He wants to snuggle, I don't, we sit in awkward silence."

"He wanted to snuggle?" Zuko asked, unable to keep silent any longer.

Toph held out her arms defiantly. "I've spent a lot of time around big furry animals, okay? I understand them! But then the library begins to sink because the heroic and capable trio pissed off Wan Shi Tong, and I had to bend it to keep it above the surface. And then who decides to show up but a gang of Sandbenders, who took advantage of the fact that I could barely feel the earth and was currently heroically saving the lives of my friends and they stole him, dragged him away and there was nothing I could do.

"So Aang, Katara, and Sokka come out of the library and we're stranded in the middle of the desert: one emotionally turbulent Avatar, one Waterbender without any water, one Water Tribe idiot, one lemur idiot, and an Earthbender who can't see in any sense of the word."

"How did you get out?"

"Well, Sokka got himself and Momo high. I entertained everyone with sass. And Katara used her gift of overly-emotional speeches about hope. And long story short, we were outta there."

Zuko sat for a minute, thinking. "You should write children's books, Toph."

She grinned appreciatively and moved closer to him, leaning her head against his outstretched forearm. "I'll definitely think about it."

"That's not all, though." Katara had walked up to them, speaking softly. "We found a group of Sandbenders again, who helped us find our way out of the desert. But when we first confronted them, Aang lost his mind. He was so filled with grief and rage that he went into the Avatar State, and attacked them." Her voice shook. "He destroyed some of their transportation, and some of the

Sandbenders were hit by the chunks of material. I don't think Aang noticed. He must not have." She sat on the step below them, whispering. "But Aang has definitely killed people before. We all have, I think."

"You have?" Zuko asked, shocked.

Toph sighed beside him. "Sparky, when we invaded the Earth King's palace in Ba Sing Se, I smashed Dai Li agents into the ceiling with pillars of stone and felt their bones crush." She shuddered. "We do what we can to survive here, and we've made a lot of enemies."

"When Aang saved the Northern Water Tribe, he drowned nearly all of the attacking soldiers in the city," Katara added.

Zuko remembered. The horrified, pleading face of Zhao was still fresh in his memory, submerging underneath the water. "Then why don't you tell him? If he already knows it's happened, if he's so worried about the integrity of his spirit or something-" Zuko began.

"That's not it," Katara breathed sadly. "I'm worried that if we tell him that now, he'll blame himself and fall apart. That's the last thing we need right now." She looked at Zuko hopelessly.

"Yeah, believe me, Sparky. Realizing that you've actually killed someone isn't the best for your mental health," Toph said beside him, the uncharacteristic softness of her voice emphasizing the statement. Zuko instinctively pulled her closer.

When Zuko looked back up at Katara, she was watching the two of them with an expression on her face he couldn't quite place. He swallowed, suddenly uncomfortable of how his cheeks heated under her scrutinizing gaze.

"I'm going to rest," she said finally. "The two of you should turn in soon, too." She touched a hand to Zuko's shoulder lightly and left the courtyard.

Toph scowled in her wake. "I perform better when I'm so tired I want to hit everything! Party pooper."

"Then how about one more for the road, Toph?" Zuko asked, knowing he would get no sleep anyway, desperate to stave off the feelings of impending doom and despair threatening to engulf him. "Tell me about the time you invaded the Earth King's palace in Ba Sing Se."

Toph's face lit up wonderfully beneath him. "Now that's a good one."