The party the Fire Nation was throwing for their new ruler wasn't half bad, even if some of the food should have had danger signs to warn off the unwary. Toph took another bite of her peppered roll and grinned as Sokka's breathing went all funny and he grabbed for a drink of water. You'd have thought Snoozles would have learned by now that she could handle spicier food than he could. "Nice peppery tang to it, isn't there?" she said.

Sokka made a strangled noise.

Katara sighed. "Toph, stop making fun of Sokka. Sokka, if you don't like it that spicy, why don't you eat something else?"

"It's not too spicy," Sokka protested. "It's just warm in here, that's all!"

"Lie," said Toph. "It's not THAT hot in here."

Sparky had asked her to keep an eye on the court members, and tell him if she spotted anything especially fishy. So far, the Fire Nation snobs didn't seem that different from the Earth Kingdom ones. A lot more wary of the GAang, and certainly more clued-in on current events and real life than the Ba Sing Se nobles... not that the latter was hard. The average beggar in her hometown knew more about the War than Kuei's finest. Long Feng had a lot to answer for.

As she wandered away from the GAang, nibbling on her peppered roll, a conversation between a large heavy man and a small woman with a cane caught her attention. "So Chan, what do you think of our new leader?" They were in a corner away from the crowd. Few people realized how good her hearing was, so they probably thought they were unheard.

"I'm not sure yet," said Chan. "He seems convinced he can make a peace stick, and he's determined to try. He's also a bit defensive of the Avatar."

"Interesting," said the old woman. "Hard to believe that little boy over there took down Firelord Ozai in single combat. My youngest grandchild looks more threatening!" Aang was doing that blasted marble trick of his again. Toph wondered if Aang knew how silly that trick made him look.

"Quite. But you must remember, Hina, that he is a Great Spirit born into human form. He's not really twelve..." A few meters away, Momo grabbed one of the marbles and got into a tug-o-war with Aang over it.

"Give it back!" cried Aang, turning the heads of everyone nearby. "Momo, stop that, you'll break it!"

"He's sure acting twelve right now," Hina said.

"No, don't eat it," said Aang, finally grabbing the lemur in a hug, and retrieving his marble. "Got you, ha. No more marbles for you. Bad lemur."

"Maybe the world spirit has a silly side?" Chan said weakly, shaking his head.

"Or he's only actually the world spirit in the Avatar State, and is just a ludicrously powerful child the rest of the time. Poor child, if so."

"Poor child nothing! He and the Ocean Spirit sank the entire Western Fleet, and he just defeated Fire Lord Ozai in single combat."

"He quarrels with his pet lemur and plays silly parlor tricks with marbles to show off. He's a child. He must have been under insane amounts of pressure since he came out of the iceberg and was told he had to 'Defeat the Fire Nation and Save the World'. I'd never have let anyone do that to my kids."

"I take your point. But that doesn't make him any less of a threat."

"True. But perhaps treating him as a child rather than a scary monster might get better results. If our new Fire Lord has befriended him, that could be very useful. Speaking of young people under a lot of pressure, do you think our new leader can handle the job? He's not even old enough for the army to put him on the front lines yet."

"By a couple of months, and he was in command of a naval operation for nearly three years, plus his... other activities. The Line of Sozin has always been formidable, and they tend to start that young."

Hina nodded. "So you believe it when he says that we're ending the war?" A hint of longing came into her voice, before being quickly masked. "There's talk that he's just playing for time."

"You've got a Civil Council meeting with him tomorrow. Why don't you wait and see what you think of him?"

Toph drifted off to find another conversation to eavesdrop on. So at least one of Zuko's Civil Council ministers wanted the war to end. She wondered if she should tell Twinkletoes that big bad Fire Nation admirals were terrified of him...

Zuko smiled at the official who'd just introduced himself and his daughter, said a couple of appropriate but slightly inane pleasantries, and realized he'd already forgotten the pair's name. And why did every other official, lord and lady seem to have a daughter or niece around his age that they wanted to introduce him to... oh. Eep.

About twenty feet behind the official, Toph gave him a vicious smirk, the little pest. Zuko couldn't respond vocally, but... beneath his long robes, Zuko gave the floor a quelling kick. Toph doubled over laughing. Zuko's face hurt as his smile started to feel fixed. Maybe he could go hide behind Mai if the daughters tried to corner him.