A/N: Double post because I fell asleep in the library yesterday and woke up this morning and forgot to post my story...and submit my homework. But enough about that.

OOO

Day 2: Fight

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Canon Universe

OOO

The bartender leaned towards Aang, wrinkling his brow worriedly. "…is she with you?"

Aang dropped his face into his hand. "Yeah. Unfortunately." Aang tapped the counter, and the bartender immediately filled his cup up to the brim with water.

"You're not gonna swoop in there and get her away from that guy?" the bartender asked.

Aang tipped his head back and took a drink of his water, trying not to fall into a drunken state that tended to start these kinds of messes. "I've learned it's better to just let her do her thing. Trust me."

The bartender didn't look convinced, but at that moment, Aang saw Toph plant her hands firmly into another guy's chest and shove him backwards into one of the tables in the pub. The man—probably only a little older than her—shouted in pain as the edge connected right into the lower part of his spine. Glasses were sent tumbling to the ground as he tried to steady himself on the table. Toph, in the meanwhile, was laughing boisterously.

"Aw," she mocked. "Did I push you too hard? I'm sorry, I guess little girls really don't know their strength."

The man glared. "You," he began, slurring over his words. "You've got some nerve trying to screw around with me."

"Well, I can say the same for you, jerk," Toph countered. "You can't seriously think that I'm not going to completely bury you under my foot for trying to feel me up in the middle of the damn bar."

"Oh please," the man shouted back, standing carefully to his feet. "I'm not listenin' to a crippled little brat mouth off to me about what I can and can't do. I wanna cop a feel, I can freakin' do it, alright?"

Oh shit, Aang bemoaned in his head. Those were two things that Toph didn't like to be called: crippled and bratty. And this person managed both in the same sentence. He was a goner. No use trying to interfere now. Aang knew what a tensed up and irritated Toph looked like, and he could practically see the veins in her hands and temples throbbing at the prospect of putting this guy down like an alley cat.

Aang knew he was the epitome of peace and nonviolence and was meant to be the keeper of order in the world, but there were a handful of things that Aang didn't like getting involved in. Toph and her bar fights were one of them. Especially when there was Earthbending involved, and judging by the fact that the guy was currently buried in a pile of rubble in the corner of the room, Aang figured he was right in his assessment.

"My place!" the bartender shouted in anger. "You all better be paying for those damages!"

Aang put a hand on the table and reassured the irate man. "Don't worry. I'll Earthbend everything back to the way it was and compensate you once they're done. It's best not to get in the middle of things."

The bartender was horrified. "Kid, she's trashing my place."

"Yeah, but when she's this angry and already Earthbending, you getting involved is just going to make her more upset. She can get kinda dangerous." Understatement of the century.

"She your girlfriend or something?"

Aang shook his head and actually laughed a little. "No. But that would be something, wouldn't it?"

The bartender's next statement was interrupted when the young man Toph was fighting with—oh hey, he can Earthbend too—decided to strike a blow into Toph's gut and send her reeling into the other wall across the bar, effectively causing double the damage as before. Toph quickly got up to her feet, brushing dust out of her hair and growling under her breath.

"Oh man…" Aang sighed. Now things were going to get bad.

It didn't seem like the panicked man behind the counter could take much of this fighting anymore. "Alright, that's it. I'm going in there!"

"I really wouldn't," Aang warned.

The young man came hurling over in the direction of the bar. Aang calmly switched to the next stool before the man came barreling straight into the wooden seats and slammed and back of his head against the bar with such force that Aang was pretty sure he felt it from where he was sitting. A couple of bottles of wine and liquor came tumbling down from the shelves whilst the bartender scrambled to catch as many of them as he could before they all fell to the ground.

"That's it you little runt!" the young man shouted.

"Try and hit me one more time and see what happens," Toph shouted back with a venomous snarl. "I'll freakin' knock you out so hard, your grandchildren are gonna feel it!"

As horrible as the situation was, Aang couldn't decide whether he was annoyed, embarrassed, or amused. Toph liked hanging out at pubs like this because they were cozy and had decent food. But sometimes, she ran into the wrong person, said the wrong thing, or in this case tended to overreact and cause property damage. The amount of times that Aang had to calm the girl down, pay off the owners of the bars they destroyed, and convince the irate girl to help him clean up the mess were getting hard to keep track off.

Plus she never let him get involved, either. Last time he suggested to calm the fight down for her and allow her to calmly leave, it turned into a whole shouting match with him and a fistfight with an Earthbending girl who was getting too catty. After trial and error, Aang learned to kick back and wait to see who lost and deal with the mess later.

Well. It wasn't too bad at least. Maybe when he was helping her get home and clean up her scratches, she'll finally let him take her to his home to play some Pai Sho. Now that he taught her how to play and how all the tiles felt, she was getting good. He wanted a rematch. Plus maybe they could finally break out that new ginseng tea they had bought yesterday.

Another crash sounded as the young man went barreling through a group of tables, ignoring the bartender whose attempts at stopping the brawl were futile. Aang turned behind the counter and waved over another worker.

"Another cup of water please?"