Story Title: "I just...I don't think I can do it."

Summary: Sozen's comet is arriving in a couple of weeks and Aang's beginning to get discouraged since he still hasn't found a firebending teacher...so discouraged, that he might just give up being the avatar all together. A TophxAang story.

Disclaimer: No, sadly I don't own A:TLA...but if I did...Toph would have been in the COTL with Aang! NOT KATARA. MWUAHHAHAHA. Um...yea, so I don't own it.

Notes: Thoughts are in italics. If it isn't too well written, forgive me since this is only my second story...and I haven't written in a really long time. Oh, and sorry if the story sorta leads from the real point. The thing is that this story was just going to be a complete Taang romance thing, but I wanted to have more plot to it and stuff, so I added the extra of Aang losing hope, and stuff. Also, my input will sometimes be marked by ex; (AN: Words & stuff here).


Chapter 1: Something Else

By: XT0PH

The night sky was brighter at this time than usual, though no one knew why, maybe it was the stars(AN: duh..lol) or the stillness of the night...but that wasn't the only thing on the airbender's mind. He glanced down from the sky to Sokka and Katara sleeping soundly in their tent, down to the fire burning in front of him.

He sat infront huddled up, staring at the flames dancing...mocking him, maybe, mocking his inability of firebending..maybe.

He closed his eyes, looking away, making a face as if he was being punched, hard in the stomache. Tons of thoughts flew through out his head.

'I have only a couple of weeks to master firebending and I haven't even found a teacher yet. How can I expect to master the four elements in a few weeks, when it took the other avatars years... All these people are counting on me, and what if I let them all down? What if Roku was wrong? What if I can't defeat fire lord Ozai? Ugh..I don't even want to think about that.'

-Meanwhile-

Toph sat up sharply from her sleep. Sweat was dripping down her forehead and she was breathing quite hard. She had that dream, again. Well, it wasn't even really a dream, it was more like a nightmare. The dream's sequence played over and over in her head...

'Everyone was sound asleep when suddenly Master Yu and Whats-his-face(AN:Um..I forgot that other bending dude's name oO) sneak out from behind some trees. As always, Toph never senses them coming in her dream. They sneak up to her earth tent, and in a matter of seconds, earthbend it back into the ground without even giving Toph a chance to scream. They scoop her up inside the bag and She begins to panic. She starts yelling and kicking but it doesn't do her any good. No one can hear her...They never do.'

She repetedly rubbed her temples, trying to shake away the images of the capture from her head.

As she layed one hand onto the ground, she sensed someone sitting infront of the fire. Right then she pretty much forgot all about her dream. The vibrations in earth told her it was a young male. Aang. She slowly earthbended the door of her tent back to the ground.

"Twinkletoes?" She blurted out in a confused voice. 'What was he doing up so late...'

Aang startled, turned around, "Huh? ...Um, Toph, what are you doing up?".

She snorted. 'He seems alittle uneasy..' Ignoring the question, she asked, "What's wrong? And don't try to hide it, I know something's up.''.

He sighed, his voice deepended as he got sadder. Too upset to lie to her, he asked her,''You can always see right through me, can't you?".

The young earthbender walked over to the spot where Aang was, and she slowly sat herself next to him.

''Of course.'' She said confidently. ''So, are you gonna tell me or what?''

He looked up from the ground, and thier eyes met. This made Toph feel alittle..awkward.

Nice...but awkward.

''I've been thinking...alot lately. About the end of summer...about my firebending...and...about...about...fire lord Ozai. Toph, you know that earthbending was really hard for me to get at first, and I still dont even have a firebending teacher, and who knows how long it'll take me to even master it!''

He began to babble on, and on...this really began to annoy her. So she lifted one finger and layed it on Aang's lips, to you know, shut him up. She smiled and said while chuckling alittle. ''Aang, are you crazy? You're the friggin' avatar! If anyone can do this, it's you! You guys..." She pointed to Sokka and Katara. ''...are alwaystalking all this crazy stuff about how you were the avatar in past lives and stuff, so doesn't that mean that you've done this before? You can do this, I know you can. Maybe you dont think so now, but watch tomorrow, I'll teach you some new earthbending moves so you can whoop the fire lord's butt!''. She had gotten alittle over enthusiastic, and she had one hand straight in the air, bawled in a fist, as if she was earthbending.

The airbender stared at what seemed like forever to Toph, when suddenly he smiled and said, "Thank you, Sifu Toph, you're ...you're something else.'' He leaned over and gently kissed her on the cheek. She began to blush, but she flipped her hair over to cover her face. Aang then,slowly laid his head on the ground, to get some rest. ''You're a real friend, Toph''. He said, right before he drifted off. The earthbender's smile slowly disintigrated into a frown, She sighed.

''Yea friends...just friends...'' She lay the head on the ground to rest.


There! Chapter numero uno is finished! Im proud of it : ...Oh and I plan to get the real Taang into the story pretty fast. Chapter two might take awhile, since Ive been busy lately...but I really wanted to get the first chapter out before school started. Mmkay, please review & Thx!