A/N: Double Update!

OOO

Day 17: Hurt

Canon Universe

Congratulations. You get to meet one of my headcanons.

OOO

Aang was unconscious for nearly four weeks—twenty five days, to be exact. Toph kept track with little notches she etched into the wooden frame of his bed. It was useless in the practical sense. It wasn't as if Katara's healing sessions—which occurred every third day, sometimes every fourth day—were going to change in nature with the added knowledge of how long Aang had been half dead thus far. But counting gave Toph something to do.

Sokka was commandeering the Fire Nation ship with the help of Hakoda, Bato, and the others. Katara prepared meals, kept the peace, and was helping with Aang's wounds. Toph proved useful whenever their ship was threatened by other naval patrols out at sea, but being on this ship mainly consisted of long stretches of boring days. Exploring the metal ship was fascinating for a total of two hours, and the melancholic tension on the ship didn't really leave a lot of room for joking and tomfoolery.

So, Toph counted the days and sat next to Aang's bed in case he woke up.

Toph was trying her hand at sculpting more complex, detailed shapes with her bracelet lately. She managed to perfect a ship, a train, and one of the summerhouses they stayed in at Ba Sing Se. Today—day eleven—she was trying her hand at animals. She was trying figure out how to render the paws on the badgermole she was working on while she unconsciously fell into a one-sided conversation.

"You know, you'd think after all the experience I've had with these guys, the feet would be easier to do," Toph muttered, flattening out the bottom of the legs and trying to start over. "The claws are the worst part. I thought starting off with this would be easier because their bodies are so uncomplicated, but I guess not."

Toph sighed roughly and leaned her elbows on the bed, right next to Aang's arms. "I can't bend on this ship, it's terrible. I mean, the ship's made of metal, duh. But there's only so much bending you can do to the ship before you 'ruin the structural integrity of the vessel' according to Snoozles. I get it, I do. But a metalbending girl's gotta do something to keep her busy, right? Little figurines are only entertaining up to a point. Don't you think?"

There was no response, but Toph wasn't expecting one obviously. She also wasn't the type to think that Aang could hear her or remember what was discussed. But there was something so wrong about leaving Aang alone in this dim, dank barrack all by himself, like he all of a sudden didn't matter because he was hurt. She didn't want to neglect Aang—sunny, happy, optimistic Aang—just because he wasn't showing signs of waking up.

Katara didn't seem to agree.

"You're down here all day Toph, you should get some fresh air," Katara admonished, hovering water above the grisly wound in the middle of Aang's back. After asking Katara out of boredom what she was doing during these healing sessions, Toph found out that they doubled as a way to try and close the wound and to keep Aang hydrated since there was no other way to feed him fluids.

"I am getting fresh air," Toph insisted, staring down at her bracelet. She had progressed to trying her hand at moose lions today. "I come up on deck to eat three times a day, I sit with Sokka while he's scouting the water, and I sit and talk with The Duke some days." Toph looked up and hopes she looked sufficiently annoyed. "I get out, thanks for asking."

"Yes, but you're still at his bedside for hours at a time, and everyone is a little…worried." Her hands fell and Toph could feel Katara staring at her. "Aang is just…" She inhaled and sighed out. "He's going to be okay. He's alive. He's only hurt, that's all."

Katara tended to make things less severe than they actually were in order to make herself feel better. But Toph never liked kidding herself or sugar coating anything. Aang wasn't dead, but he wasn't just hurt either. Hurt was staying in bed for the rest of day, drinking lots of fluids, and building up your strength until morning. Aang was a lot more than hurt.

She decided to keep all that unsaid and instead responded with a less melancholy truth. "I just don't like leaving him alone down here," she admitted, clutching her half completed figurine. "He's still part of the group even though he's like this. Nothing's changed."

Katara didn't respond to her. The waterbender was fiddling with her hands for a bit before she hesitantly placed a cold hand on Toph's shoulder and let her fingertips draw what were meant to be comforting circles against Toph's cloak. "Sweetheart. Listen, I know it's—"

Toph shrugged her hand off. "Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"That thing that you do when you think that someone's broken, or needs help, or is lost, or whatever." Toph punctuated her words with distinct annoyance. "I'm fine, alright? Not delusional. Not woebegone. Not depressed. I'm just freaking worried, ok?"

Katara seemed rather taken aback at the sudden explosion, and Toph felt her more sympathetic side flinch in the back of her mind for snapping at the girl when she was only trying to help everyone stay level headed—as she always did. But Toph already heard a similar speech from The Duke and from Sokka, albeit with different undertones. "You sure like that depressing bunker don't you?" "You're down there with Aang an awful lot. Everything alright with you?" "He's going to be fine. We check on him every few hours. You don't need to be practicing your bedside manner quite to aggressively."

Blah blah blah. Apparently she was obsessed.

But as she was resting her eyes with her head against Aang's pillow—day twenty-two—she couldn't help her heart from aching as she drummed her fingers against Aang's shoulder, hoping for a flinch of muscles or a groan in the middle of sleep. Not because she thought Aang was dead or dying or lost forever. As much as she teased him for being so wimpy and earnest, Aang was tough. He'd worked so hard to open his chakras and work on his Avatar state those last few weeks leading up to the Ba Sing Se siege. As his Sifu, there was a tone of pride that she felt for her student. She knew that despite his current state, he'd snap out of it. He had to.

What bothered Toph was the way Aang was tucked away in such a depressing room, covered in bandages, all alone, and away from the world that he navigated with such optimism. Truthfully, having Aang so quiet and still for so long really unsettled Toph and she hated every day that Aang wouldn't wake. It wasn't right. And it wasn't right that everyone just stuck him in this damn bunker and didn't stay with him.

It's like they were afraid to see him this way, as if the few periodic checks they made on him were painful and only done out of necessity. In her head, it still sounded terrible to think that they were treating checking on Aang's well being as a chore. It must have been difficult to see him in this way, and maybe it was a blessing that Toph couldn't really aesthetically appreciate the view.

But for some reason, Toph thought about herself: a sickly, frail little girl, born blind to the world, different from everyone else, and shut up in a palace where no one who cared would see her for days. Toph was tiny. Toph was helpless. Toph was fragile. Toph needed to be shut away so that nothing could hurt her every again. No one to talk to. No one to be friends with. No one to try and pick her up a little bit and make her feel like she was still important.

Toph didn't want to do that to Aang. He was still a part of the group, no matter how hurt he was. She didn't want to change her behavior around him or her desire to see him and talk to him just because he was unresponsive and injured. Honestly, it made her feel sick to leave him alone for too long. There was so much life sapped out of him after that fight. If she could come and talk to him for a few hours a day and bring just a little bit of life into this room, maybe it would do him some good.

"No one else is doing so hot either," Toph mumbled into her arms. "Morale is down. Things seem really hopeless. The Earth Kingdom is taken." She laughed bitterly. "The freaking Earth Kingdom. Holding strong for a hundred years and now it's just gone."

Toph gently blew at the bangs tickling her nose. "You're the only person that kept everything light and fun. Not having you up and about is…hard," Toph finished, feeling her throat close up a little. She swallowed and blinked rapidly. No. No crying. No one needed that. "I know it's going to be a lot to wake up to. But I believe in you, Twinkle Toes. I know this isn't you. You're going to wake up from this. We're going to stop this maniac." Her fingers stopped on his shoulder and Toph just let her hand rest there.

"You can do it Twinkles. We need you."

Everyone needed someone to believe in them. So Toph was going to try harder than everyone else to make sure that Aang felt that. After all, Aang believed in her when they first met. Surely, this was the best way for her to return the favor.

There was a lot to be said about hope. She didn't used to believe in it, because it seemed like her life was so devoid of it. But it seemed to work. Because when she was standing on deck, bitter with the mood on the ship, she finally felt the footsteps she'd been missing for weeks. She felt them running up the stairs, crashing through the door, and landing on the deck, his staff clutched in his hands and his cheek nuzzling Momo's fur. It was so iconic: a scene that Toph could have easily picked out from the past. Then everything brightened up in her chest, and her smile slammed back full force.

"Twinkle Toes! That's gotta be you!"