A/N: Crap, I forgot about this! Wow, I never finished these prompts...well time to fix that!
Sorry. I've been very unmotivated lately and was very close to quitting this website. But I was recently encouraged so I'm going to try and see all these stories through.

OOO

Day 12: Sleep

…

Canon Universe

OOO

Toph covered her face with both hands. "Twinkles, this is so freakin' stupid."

Aang tried to nod, but wound up yawning loudly and hitting his head on the wall behind him instead. "I'm actually inclined to agree with you."

"What I don't understand," Toph began irritably, rubbing her eyes, "is why we're the ones doing this. It's late!"

Aang shrugged. "Well, the Earth King won't trust anyone else. After that whole Dai Li debacle, I don't blame him."

"Yeah, but it's not our job to be his body guards at this hour just because he's failed to find replacements!" Toph practically shouted, causing Aang to cover her mouth with his hand for fear of waking the sleeping Earth King just outside the door they were camped out it front of.

Aang put a finger to his lips and frowned. "Quiet! We don't want to wake him up," Aang admonished. "Besides, he's just paranoid. One of the Dai Li in his team of personal bodyguards was shifty, so he goes and fires the whole team. He can't just be defenseless."

Toph rolled her eyes. "No, but he can certainly be a coward." Aang was too nice for his own good, and of course when Aang decided to be nice he thought it was a good idea to drag Toph along for the ride. Something about "softening her up" and getting her used to being "altruistic" or whatever. Though how sitting on a cold hard floor in front of the chambers of a spoiled, bratty Earth King who didn't need constant surveillance was considered a form of altruism was still a mystery to Toph.

All this did was make her more annoyed. And a tired, cranky, annoyed Toph was prone to being reckless. Reckless like barging into the Earth King's rooms just to screw with him and teach him that he needed to grow up and competently hire staff. To think that a couple of hours ago she was representing her father and actually helping Aang make some pretty sound political decisions. Now she was a freaking guard dog.

"Twinkles, this is embarrassing, and degrading. I'm going to bed," Toph complained. In the morning, she was going to make a point of pouring something disgusting into the Earth King's morning tea. That'll teach him.

"Toph, come on, we made a promise," Aang said with a conviction that would have sounded pretty persuasive had it not been interrupted by another yawn. "Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous, but—"

"Nothing after that 'but' could ever justify me staying here," Toph deadpanned. "I. Am going. To bed." And Toph stood up and brushed the dust from the floors off her dress. Honestly. She didn't really care about the dress itself, but her mother paid a fortune for it, which meant that it cost a fortune to clean. Toph really hated dishing out for stupidity. Freaking Earth King.

She was halfway down the hall before Aang called out after her, "I'll bet you ten gold pieces I can stay up longer than you can."

Toph paused and felt her gambling brain start to kick in.

"…you have ten gold pieces?" she tried.

She heard Aang laugh. "Ah, so you're interested?"

"Answer my question first, you insufferable monk," Toph glared.

Aang shrugged. "Doesn't matter where I got it. But I have it. And it's yours if you stay up longer than me."

That was a tempting prospect. Ten gold pieces would be just enough to pay off cleaning this dress and keep her mother from blowing a fit. Plus, bragging rights were always nice.

Still…

"You're lying," Toph decided. "There's no way a person like you, who doesn't accept rewards, has that much pocket money."

"Yeah, but monks don't lie," Aang replied lightly.

Toph frowned. That was so a lie. It made sense, but Aang was definitely making that up…

…then again, it was the principle of the thing. Aang was better because he knew she couldn't handle the challenge. And like hell she was letting him get away with that.

"Ugh, move over," Toph relented, patting Aang's arm and sitting down on the ground next to him. "Need to make sure you don't doze off accidently, and I can't do that sitting across from you."

"Sure," Aang smirked. "That's why."

"I'll smack you. And I have rings on. It'll hurt," Toph warned.

"Alright, alright," Aang laughed. "Pay attention. We're actually supposed to be guarding the Earth King, remember?"

Toph nodded. "I got it. Wait a minute," she remembered, "my reward for winning is the money. What's your reward?"

Aang shrugged. "I'll think of it. Don't worry."

Toph didn't bother to press further. "Whatever. You're losing anyway."

The two of them stayed sitting there for a few minutes, Toph banging a fist against her wrist to keep her awake and Aang constantly stretching out the kinks in his neck to keep him moving and to keep him from falling asleep. But Toph knew that Aang functioned very poorly with little sleep, and she could definitely feel him leaning into her more and more as the minutes wore on. She was definitely getting that money. That'll teach that monk to start making bets against her.

Toph was almost sure that Aang growing still was a sign that he had fallen asleep and was about to claim her victory when she felt Aang rustle around the inside of the jacket Zuko made him wear today and pulled out something long and thin. Toph grew confused before she heard a high, light melody gently float through the air. Toph's mouth fell open and immediately knew what the monk was up to.

"You cheater!" Toph announced. "No lullabies! Put that flute away."

The melody stopped for a moment in the middle of a note. "You actually didn't bother to mention any stipulations, sooo…not cheating."

"Yes cheating!"

"Nope."

"You're going to wake the Earth King!"

"Oh, now you care about waking him up? Besides, this isn't loud enough to wake him. Your yelling, however, is. Shush!"

Toph pouted and crossed her arms across her chest. The monk was getting better at loopholes. This definitely wasn't good for the future. "Fine. Keep playing your stupid song. I'll still win," she insisted.

But Toph knew the moment Aang started playing that this was a huge lie. He was playing an old Earth Kingdom lullaby that her nannies used to sing to her when she was little whenever she had nightmares. It was incredibly effective and always put her right to sleep. Toph didn't think she'd ever heard it on an instrument before, let alone on a flute. But…it fit somehow. Aang was pretty good on that thing, and he treated the melody wonderfully. It was…nice. Not that she'd ever admit that aloud to him, but it wasn't worth denying, at least to herself. She wondered if there was an underhanded, subtle way of getting him to play this again in the future. It sounded too nice to hear only once…

Toph's thoughts were slowly slipping away from her and her head eventually wound up on Aang's shoulder as soon as she felt her eyes growing heavy. Her last thought before she inevitably drifted to sleep was how completely planned out this whole challenge was, and how she probably should have known that Aang wasn't going to play fair where she was concerned.

Aang played through a few more verses of the lullaby until he heard Toph's breaths grow deeper and felt her totally slump against his side. Aang couldn't help but chuckle and smile at the sight of her looking so calm and peaceful while she slept. This was probably the only chance he would ever get to see Toph actually look placid. He pushed her hair out of her face and leaned his head on hers.

Yup. That was definitely a worth it.