OOO

Day 14: Childhood

…

Canon Universe—in fact you can consider all of these Canon Universe stories as being all vaguely connected :-)

OOO

"So? How did it go?"

Toph's withering stare and definitive slam of the door was the only answer that Aang needed.

He winced. "That bad?"

The Earthbender groaned and rubbed her hands down her face, throwing her bag and a couple of wooden boxes in the corner of the room and trudging over to where Aang was seated in an armchair, reading through some letters that he received this morning. Now that Toph seemed to have noticed or cared that this was the case, because Toph immediately climbed atop the chair, straddled Aang's lap, and laid her head on his shoulder with an annoyed huff.

Aang laughed and reached up to smooth back her hair. "I was reading something."

But Toph only did a strange, childish cross between a whine and a sob and looped her arms loosely around his neck, intent on not moving from her position. Oh well, Aang thought. He reached out to his left and placed all his paper's down and started rubbing circles on Toph's back.

Aang nudged her. "I never learned how to interpret whining, you know. What's the matter?"

Toph lifted a hand and tapped Aang's lips. "Pillows aren't supposed to talk."

"Yeah, but boyfriends are," Aang countered. "Plus you're in a very vulnerable position right now."

He felt Toph's frown against his neck. "What are you talking about?"

Aang grinned wickedly. "This." With no warning, Aang easily picked Toph up and placed her over his shoulder as he stood up and walked out of the den. He was gripping her thighs in place, being careful to make sure that she didn't accidentally knee him in the face like last time, but that didn't stop her from yelling and wriggling around. She hated when he did this.

"Dammit, I can't see you idiot, put me down!" Toph shouted amidst her struggles, pounding her fists on his back so that he would let up.

"Hush, you," he told her, and walked through the house and towards the living room. Ignoring the fists on his back that were getting more powerful and insistent, Aang effortlessly flung Toph from his shoulder and across the chaise against the wall. The Earthbender bounced unceremoniously as she made contact with the pillows and already had her mouth open ready to retort.

"You're so unbelievably—mmph!" Aang figured out early on that Toph often forgot about her insults when she was being thoroughly kissed, so he tended to take advantage of that little fact as often as he could. And not to toot his own horn, but Toph always had a pretty hard time pushing him away when that happened. Aang smiled into the kiss when he felt Toph's fingers lace together on the back of his neck and let his hands drift down to her lower back, glad to finally have her back home.

The two of them remained distracted for 20 more minutes before Aang broke the kiss and remembered what he had meant to ask Toph in the first place. "So what happened at your parents' house?"

Toph pouted. "Oh, come on! I haven't seen you in days," she grumbled, pushing her chest up against his, nearly distracting Aang from his task.

Aang kissed the tip of her nose. "I'll ravish you tonight, don't you worry," he whispered lowly in her ear. He kissed along her ear lobe and heard her sigh into the touch before he abruptly pulled away and moved back to the other end of the chaise, leaving a frustrating three foot distance between them. "But! Your trip. What happened?"

Toph scowled at the interruption, but relented and tucked her feet underneath her. "Well, mom was perfectly pleasant about the whole thing. She says hi by the way," Toph smirked knowingly. Aang smiled in response. Against all odds, Toph's mother was rather taken with Aang. They both shared a passion for Earth Kingdom plays and haiku poetry. The two of them could go on for hours.

"The minute I told her I was moving in with you, she couldn't decide between gushing and bursting into tears," Toph winced. "All the hugging, crying, congratulations, 'oh Spirits, my baby is growing up'…forget it."

Aang laughed, not doubting that all of that occurred, and in that order. "I know you say that she's gotten pretty overbearing every since you made up with her, but she's charming. I'm almost sorry I had to miss it."

Toph shrugged. "It's not like they haven't met you before. Besides, you and Zuko were buried in work, I wasn't going to make you suffer through my family."

"I wouldn't call if suffering."

"I would. Dad was seething the whole time I was there."

Aang adjusted his collar out of habit at the mention of Lao Bei Fong. If there was one man that was difficult to impress, it was him. Not that it was very surprising. Lao did think that he had kidnapped his daughter and carted her away to the corners of the world. But he had thought that mention of their war heroics and the fact that he was, you know, the Avatar—keeper of world peace and all that—would have evened out all the hostility. Apparently not. He'd have to remember to frequently write to his wife and ensure that everything was going fine back at their home.

He still loved the sound of that.

"So you got everything?" Aang asked, referring to the parcels that she had lugged in when she came through the door.

Toph leaned back on the chaise, her toes frequently brushing against his thighs. "Yup. Cleaned out my room, all my old documents, some old boxes, and whatever else my mom dug up."

"Anything interesting?"

He received a pillow to the face for the question. "Nothing you need to worry your bald little head about, Twinkles."

Aang threw the pillow back at her, but suddenly became very tempted to take a peek at what Toph brought home. After all, if there was nothing incriminating, there would be no reason for Toph to avoid answering his question, right?

He patted her ankles and got up from the chaise. "Hungry?"

Toph groaned and turned so that she was lying on her stomach. "Oh Spirits, yeesss!"

Aang looked back at her and poked her in the side. "Hey. You never sound that enthusiastic when you're with me."

Toph stuck her tongue out at him. "Do something worth being enthusiastic about and then we'll talk." Aang ruffled up her hair roughly so that it all fell in front of her face and dodged a foot that immediately shot out to kick him in the knee. Aang laughed and leaned down to place a kiss on her cheek while he went to the kitchen to look for something he could cook up for them…

…but then walked back around through the hallway in the back of the house until he looped around to the den. Toph was laying on the chaise, so she wouldn't be able to feel where in the house he was walking so long as he was being extremely quiet. He entered the den and saw the incriminating packages still flung in the corner where Toph left them only moments ago. The bag wasn't too large, and the box didn't look like it held much either. But there had to be something interesting in those boxes. Toph was secretive for very specific reasons: one of them being when she wanted to avoid being embarrassed.

Aang kneeled down and decided that opening the box would be more inconspicuous, since it would probably be easier to put everything back exactly as he found it. He fiddled with the box and found the metal latch that was easily popped open. He was about to crack open the box before he paused with his hand on the lid. He darted his eyes back to the den where he could just barely see Toph's feet dangling a few inches from the ground. He stared back at the box. It wasn't really nice to snoop, now that he thought about it.

Then again, Toph was always going through his drawers and making fun of the "dorky" Air Nomad relics he kept for formal affairs. And if she really wanted to keep all this hidden, she could have locked it up, or at least not left it out in the open. Besides, it probably wasn't that bad.

As quietly as he could, Aang lifted the lid of the box and reached out for what was lying just on top.

"Hahaha! Toph! You wore butterfly dresses when you were little?"

He immediately heard Toph shoot off of the chaise. "Aang, I swear on your ancestors, I'll freakin' kill you!"

This must have been what Toph's mother dug up and made her take home. Inside were all sorts of expensive dresses, skirts, accessories, and shoes made for a little girl. Aang was currently holding a teeny but elaborate ensemble made with bright green fabrics, flowers sewn into the sash, and dozens of brightly embroidered flowers and butterflies all along the dress. Aang couldn't help but smile at the sight of it. The thought of a child version of Toph wearing something so out of character for her filled Aang with a kind of glee he couldn't understand.

But Toph—maniac that she was—immediately jumped onto Aang's back and reached both arms past his head to reach for the dress. "Give it back, you lying, snooping, nosy little jerk!"

"But they're adorable Toph!" Aang laughed boisterously as he held the dress away from her reach. "They've got all these bows and flowers all over them. Gosh, you must have looked like the cutest thing."

"Aang!" Toph screamed out, sounding completely mortified. "Stop it! Give them back!"

"Why?" Aang argued back, trying to reach for the box again to see what else was inside. "There's nothing wrong with them, they're precious. Ow! Stop smacking me!"

Toph actually started trying to climb Aang's back until her knees rested on his shoulders. She bent over the top of his head and managed to snag the edge of the little dress. "Give it!"

"Stop it! You're going to tear it."

Aang moved back until the backs of his knees hit the armchair. He turned around and quickly bent over at the waist so that Toph came tumbling from her perch on his shoulders with a yelp and into the armchair, falling clumsily on her head with her feet in the air and the dress clutched tightly in her arms. Not waiting for her to recover, Aang quickly darted back to the box and stuck his hands inside to pull out the first thing he laid his hands on.

"Aw!" he cooed. "I think I just found the matching shoes!"

"Put them back!"

Aang placed the shoes in the palms of his hands. They were bright green and had golden roses stitched along the sides. They were small enough that he could close his hands around them. "You must have been three years old, look at how tiny your feet were."

Toph wasn't amused. "You insufferable Avatar, give me those shoes back or I will send you headfirst into the wall and leave you there!" She charged at him to try and snatch the offending clothing away, but Aang used some quick Airbending to jump over the top of her head and ran back into the living room.

"I want to look at them some more!" Aang yelled over his shoulder.

"Like hell you are!"

Aang was about to turn the corner and run through the kitchen when he suddenly felt his feet sink into the floor. He sunk so deep that his elbows wound up painfully hitting the floor, while he was desperately holding onto the shoes that Toph was so intent on taking away from him. Confused as to how he ended up in this situation, Aang looked down and found that he was waist deep in a small pocket of quicksand and was officially stuck.

Aang turned back to Toph who was calmly sauntering over to him. "Quicksand? Really? How did you even learn to do that? You never taught me that."

Toph bent down and snatched the shoes from him, cradling them in her arms along with the dress he was admiring. She pressed a palm to the ground and made the quicksand harden back into rock so that Aang was completely immobilized. "Well, I probably shouldn't. Times like these, I need to have some sort of one-up over you."

Of course, Aang thought petulantly. Maybe he needed to start coming up with some unorthodox Airbending moves to scare her next time. The quicksand was a good move. "Why are you so upset?" Aang asked, resting his chin in his hand and getting to the real problem. "I wasn't trying to make fun of you or anything." Aang had never really seen Toph this upset about something so miniscule. He certainly didn't mean anything by it.

Toph's face flamed up as she sat cross-legged in front of Aang and stubbornly hid her face with her bangs. She muttered something under her breath that Aang had to strain his ears to hear. "Wait, what?"

"It's embarrassing, okay!?" she said raising her voice. "I mean, geez. Leave it to mom to send me home with all this junk."

"It's not junk," Aang corrected firmly, defending the pieces of clothing that Toph was still holding. "They're memories. It's nice to look back on and remember good times. Be happy that you have them."

Toph's head lifted with widened eyes. She immediately reached out for his hand. "…I wasn't trying to…I mean…I didn't mean to bring up—"

Aang stopped her before she could stumble through an apology. "Hey, hey, it's okay. I wasn't trying to turn this into a pity party." Aang often didn't realize that some of the things he said—like having items from your past—alluded to the loss of his people and everything he knew and owned. Aang had made peace with it years ago, but sometimes Toph thought she was being insensitive whenever the topic was pushed forward. It was the only time Aang would ever see her stumble for a response.

"This isn't about me," Aang told her. "I just don't think that anything here is really all that embarrassing. It's sweet to see a part of you I've never seen before. You don't need to hide it." Aang paused and placed a hand on her knee. "And I'm sorry that I went snooping, I should have asked you first."

Toph frowned, but didn't push Aang's hand away. "You don't need to apologize. It's not like I don't go through your stuff too."

Aang reached up and gently tugged on one of Toph's bangs. She rolled her eyes, but lowered her head and offered her cheek so that Aang could place quick kisses on her cheek, the corner of her mouth, and finally her lips.

"Can I come out now?" Aang pouted.

Toph smirked. "I should leave you there. Teach you a lesson for old time's sake."

"Yeah, but then who's going to cook tonight?"

"I'm rich, remember? I'm pretty sure I can handle getting food for the evening."

"Yeah, you're only rich when it's convenient."

Toph stood up and walked back to the living room. "I'm leaving you there!"

"Toph!"