A/N: Still not quite as good in updating as I hoped I would be, but I guess it's better than before. Thank you guys for the reviews and for reading. I've got my results a few weeks ago and I graduate on Monday! So I'm both excited and nervous and thought to do some editing. I hope you enjoy.

Next Day...

Aang's POV:

Standing in front of Toph's door, I can't help but feel the sweat build up on the palms of my hands. 'This isn't going to be an easy day with Toph acting the way she is.' I go to knock on the door of her room, pausing I take a deep breath and knock. Silence. Frowning, I knock again, slightly louder than the first, but again end with the same result. I bite my lip and reach out to the doorknob, twisting it and pushing the door open. Taking a peak inside the room I find it empty. I push the door open completely to investigate and I'm puzzled to find Toph's bed already made. 'Where in the world is she?' I close the door behind me and make my way downstairs, 'Maybe she's already outside?' I venture quietly out of the house, not wanting to wake anyone up in the early hours of the morning. As soon as my foot meets the earth I sense Toph's presence a little way off from the house. Sighing internally, I make my way to her position and just as I come into hearing distance she turns to face me.

"Took you long enough. I was beginning to think you forgot how to see with your feet." I shake my head at the sarcastic comment.

"Definitely not. It has got me out of a pickle lots of times." The blind Earthbender remains silent for a moment and then swiftly changes the direction of the conversation.

"I've prepared a circuit course for you to complete." I blink at Toph's plain statement and turn to take in the unnatural rock formations and I groan at the reminder of Toph's previous teaching lessons. Sighing I go to the first activity as Toph takes a seat on the tree stump. The hours ticks by as I complete the circuit several times with little to no intervention from Toph. Upon completing it for the tenth time Toph calls out to me.

"We're done for today." I nod and wipe the sweat from my forehead.

"Will we do combat tomorrow?" I ask as I walk towards Toph who gets up from her seat and purses her lips.

"No." The short abrupt answer makes me blink in surprise.

"Why not? I've already done some with Katara." I question further but I watch as Toph's eyebrows twitch and then she starts to walk away from me towards the house.

"You're not ready." Toph's response makes me frowns and I can't help but feel frustrated at Toph's attitude, with my patience wearing thin I walk ahead of the blind Earthbender and stop in the middle of the narrow path, blocking her way. My Sifu furrows her eyebrows in annoyance.

"Get out of the way Aang." Toph says resolutely. I don't budge.

"Oh so it's 'Aang' now? Is Twinkletoes only reserved for times when you're in a good mood?" I retort at which Toph folds her arms across her chest.

"I'll call you what I like when I like. Now move before I hurt you." I listen to the threatening tone of my Sifu, but it no longer scares me like it used to, I've been through much more scarier things on my own.

"No. We need to talk." I say stubbornly. I watch as Toph stiffens at my words.

"We've already talked. Now move or you'll be in a world of hurt." Toph grits out between clenched teeth.

"No we haven't! And if that's how you're going to be then feel free to punch me." I argue and flinch slightly as I see Toph clenching her hands into fists, but moments pass with no further action. I stare deeply into Toph's pale green eyes that look so conflicted. "See? I know you would never hurt me, because I know what's going on in your mind. I just want you to talk to me."

"Put a sock into it Air Head! You don't know me anymore, you stopped knowing any of us since the day you left. We've changed whether you like it or not and the only reason I didn't follow up on my threat is because I don't want any grief from the others not because of anything else, got it?" The blind Earthbender states seriously. I bite my cheek, letting her hurtful implication roll off my shoulders.

"You're still mad at me about what happened in the Fire Nation right?" I question quietly, but Toph just shrugs.

"A taste of your own medicine. Hurts doesn't it?" I gulp at Toph's vindictive attitude and drop my head down.

"Sorry isn't going to change anything is it?" I whisper with my eyes still glued to my feet.

"No it isn't." The blind Earthbender's brisk tone makes me slump my shoulders and a moment later she brushes past me as I subconsciously find myself giving her room to pass. I slide down against the wall until I'm sitting on the ground with my knees huddled close to my chest. 'I'm so stupid. It seems like nothing is going the way I want it to. Just when I'm about to make amends, I do something even worse.' Hours tick by and both Sokka and Katara come out to check on me during that time but I just shoo them away, just wanting to be on my own. Night falls and I look up to see the stars littering the sky. I glance back at the house, but I don't feel ready to head back yet, so I get up and go back to that little field where I was Earthbending this morning. I take a deep breath and begin doing some Airbending manoeuvres, I find myself doing all the techniques that Gyatso taught me and closing my eyes I remember happier times: before I knew I was the Avatar, before the war, before the iceberg and before the assassination attempts. Just when I was Aang, when I had lots of friends and when I still had Gyatso, my people.

I twirl in circles, my feet moving faster and faster while my arms make circular motions. Eventually I begin slowing down, ending with a simple exercise. I open my eyes to unexpectedly see Toph standing a few paces away from me with a plate in her hands. I stiffen at the sight of her, our brash conversation still fresh in my mind before forcing myself to relax. The blind Earthbender seems a little hesitant but walks towards me soon enough. When she's in front of me she stops.

"Here." She pushes the plate into my hands. Looking down I see what I expect to be today's dinner.

"Thanks." I reply. I take a seat on the ground, cross my legs and let the plate rest on my lap. I fully expect Toph to leave after that, but I'm shocked when she drops to the ground beside me. I decide to remain quiet and give her time to organise her thoughts whilst I nibble slowly on a piece of bread.

"What were you thinking about while you were Airbending?" I blink at the unexpected question but I go to answer it anyway.

"I was thinking about life before it got so difficult, when I had no responsibilities and could just be Aang."

"Before you met us." The blind Earthbender adds and I open my mouth to argue but no words come out. I sigh tiredly.

"When I Airbend I feel at home, so naturally I think back to that time." I reply and my Sifu just nods in response. I finish half of the bread slice and a couple of spoonfuls of the rice before putting it on the ground, feeling full. Silence continues before I shift slightly to face Toph.

"Toph, why does my scar make you angry at me?" I outright ask and I hear a sharp intake of breath from her.

"I'm not angry at you...I'm just angry." The blind Earthbender says vaguely.

"But why are you angry?" I probe, knowing that there's more to her words.

"Oh I don't know, maybe I'm angry at those assassins for doing this to you or I'm angry at myself that I didn't do anything to prevent it from happening, maybe I'm angry about all the secrets and lying and...I'm angry that you keep hurting us and hiding things. That scar brought it all crashing down again. Not to mention you're just skin and bones, when I carried you that day you passed out in the woods it felt like you were going to disappear from my own eyes." Toph admits. I nod and resist the urge to joke about the eyes comment. I fiddle with my spoon for a few moments before signing very heavily.

"Toph..." I trail off, finding it hard to get the words out and not really wanting them to come out in the first place. I swallow and try again. "Toph, I can't eat." I finally say. The blind Earthbender's eyes widen and she turns to face me.

"What do you mean you can't eat? You've just eaten." I turn away from her, my eyes closed.

"Well I can eat, but only ridiculously small portions just to keep me going." I explain carefully. Toph doesn't respond for a few seconds and when she does it comes out as a whisper.

"Because of that scar?" I swallow thickly at the question.

"Yeah. I won't go into the details but most of my stomach is gone. Kyla managed to save some of it, but not enough to go back to normal. If I eat too much then I'll get really sick. Every couple of weeks I'd go and visit her and she'd make sure that there's no blockages or anything and try to heal the internal scaring bit by bit. It's quite painful but the more scaring that's healed, the more I'll be able to eat; nowhere near as much as I used to have but it will be better. I've had to wait for a year for the worst parts to heal. But it's getting there." I finish off, trying hard to stop my mind to delve into bad memories. I open my eyes and just gaze ahead, leaving what I said to Toph to sink in.

"Aang..." The blind Earthbender begins but trails off in a sigh. "Life sucks." She finally settles on. I can't help the half smile that works its way up onto my face at Toph's typical response.

"Yeah it does." I agree. "But we can always hope it will get better."

"Ever the optimist." Toph quickly retorts and I smile even further.

"Sorry."

"Don't. I never thought I'd say this but I'm glad you can still find times to be optimistic. I just wish I was there for you, I could've done something and prevented all of this, prevented you from getting hurt." I shake my head at Toph's wistful response.

"Saying I should've, could've or would've is pointless because it won't change anything except make us more depressed and increase the division between us. Just focus on the now and the future because that's the way you'll make everything better in time." I say, having thought about it long and hard for a while, yet never actually following through with it.

"Spirits Twinkletoes, don't you ever get tired of all this philosophical mumbo jumbo stuff?" Toph complains and I grin meekly.

"It's true though." I say quietly.

"But difficult." I nod in agreement with Toph's statement. "...thanks for sharing that with me. It doesn't make me feel any better, but it's good to know. Sorry for giving you such a hard time about it." The blind Earthbender mumbles out and I throw her a half smile with a shrug.

"I'm sorry about what I said at the Fire Nation, I didn't mean it at all." I state with sincere seriousness. Toph shifts slightly and sighs.

"Yeah, well it's kind of hard to believe that..." My heart drops slightly upon hearing that. "...but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." My Sifu ends with and I feel some weight being lifted off my shoulders. "Now come on. I need some sleep before we get up early tomorrow to train again." I nod and get to my feet with Toph quickly following suit.

"Toph..." I start but Toph lifts a hand up to stop me in my tracks.

"Yeah yeah I know. You don't want me to tell anyone anything. I remember." I blink in surprise at the blind Earthbender's accurate guess.

"Thanks..." I begin but Toph quickly interrupts for a second time.

"But I think you should tell them. It doesn't take a genius to work out how much this is tearing up everyone else, especially Katara and Sokka. I just don't get why you can tell me this but you can't tell them."

"Because they aren't as pushy as some people..." I joke but Toph just stares at me seriously and I let go of my shot at humour. "...because I don't think they'll be able to take it, especially Katara who runs very closely with her emotions. I don't want them to blame themselves and I don't want to be probed with tons of questions, unlike you they would want to know every detail and I can't give them that." I say softly. Toph gazes at me for a moment longer before nodding.

"You saying that I don't care as much as they do?" My Sifu tosses out casually and I find myself shaking my head vigorously side to side.

"No! I don't mean that at all. But...I believe you're emotionally stronger than them. I know it still hurts you but you can take it. I don't know about them..." I finish off and Toph seems to accept my answer as she starts to walk towards the house, my feet automatically follows.

"I'll keep my mouth shut, but I think you should give them more credit, they're much stronger than you think they are." My Sifu advises, but I remain silent as I maul over her words. 'Maybe...maybe she has a point.' I think as we reach the house and quickly part to our rooms.

A/N: Well that had quite a bit of angst, let me know if the emotions was conveyed strongly enough. Looking forward to hear from you guys. Until next time! Also, I wanted to re-ilerterate that I definitely intend to finish this story, I know it's taking much longer than it should and I'm sorry about that, but life is hectic and I'm forgetful. I'm not really sure how many chapters there will be either, I'm currently writing chapter 32 (as I always write my chapters well before I edit and upload) so who knows!

17/7/19