Essential Disclaimer Avatar isn't mine. Really. If it did, Season 3 would be showing in the Philippines right now.
Blind Trust
The Northern Water Tribe. Tall majestic spires erupting from the ground, elegantly sculpted frozen statues at every corner, long, winding canals of crystalline water. A land of snow and ice said to be even more impregnable than Ba Sing Se itself. And even one year after the end of the war, the city still proved impenetrable, bearing little scars from the war and many reasons to celebrate as noisily as they could. For one thing, the Avatar and his earthbending teacher were there on a week-long diplomatic visit.
Seven days of boring council meetings.
Two days in, and Chief Arnook already had to send soldiers out looking for the missing Avatar and his blind earthbending teacher.
But as a matter of fact, the noisy sound of celebrations had become distant echoes to the Avatar and his earthbending teacher, almost completely overwhelmed by the cavernous silence surrounding them. The slightest noise seemed to echo around them, and their hushed whispers seemed more like shouts and orders.
"Now turn left. No, your other left. No, wait, stop, Stop, STOP!"
Thud
"Ow."
"Now will you let me lead you?"
"...fine"
Aang looked down on the fallen girl with an overdramatic sigh.
Unable to see, Toph could only imagine the amused smile etched right in Aang's face, which was enough to annoy her. She tried to glare menacingly back at the source of the sigh, but failed when her stern gaze was redirected by a firm hand on her chin to where she was actually supposed to glare at. The hand traveled down her shoulder and took hold of her small, calloused hands, and pulled her up from the icy floor.
"Where are we going anyway Twinkletoes?" Toph asked, though it galled her to do so. Total blindness really wasn't something she was used to, and the city of ice and snow left nothing for her to bend in, nothing for her to actually see in.
"It's a surprise" Aang said, but Toph just rolled her eyes. "Come on, it's not that far away."
He tugged at Toph's hand, dragging her along through innumerable twists and turns, confusing Toph to no end. She could only follow breathlessly, her face still raw from the headlong collision with a solid wall of ice. Slowly, the distant echoes of celebration faded away into a total silence, punctuated only by the muffled footsteps of the pair. Perhaps even more slowly, their own footsteps were also replaced by the clamor of falling water.
"Hmm? Yeah, it's a waterfall." Aang replied when she asked. "Just a little farther."
The clamor of the waterfall grew louder and louder, reaching its peak, before fading back to silence for the last time. The frozen surroundings grew warmer and warmer with every echoing step they took, much to Toph's wonderment.
"You'll see." Aang chuckled in response.
And they left the frozen pathways benhind when they stepped on the old, wooden bridge. For a moment, she thought she could feel something, something she could see in, but then old bridge that creaked under their weight proved too shifty and unstable for her to catch any useful vibrations in.
"Careful now." He cautioned when she moved too fast. Aang led her slowly, gently across, holding both her hands securely to keep her from stumbling on the uneven bridge.
She gasped when she finally stepped on solid a earth, the first vibrations of her footfall traveling all across the tiny island and back in a blink of an eye, and she can see. See the island's form, the rocks, the bridges, all of it. And of course, more importantly, him.
"We've been in the city for days now." Aang explained sheepishly. "I thought you'd want some good old earth before you go totally crazy."
Toph cracked a smile. Not her usual haha smile when she'd just spiked Aang's tea with cactus juice, but the rare genuine smile that only comes around if you coax it out little by little. And feeling the need to do so, she reached over and awkwardly hugged him to show her appreciation. "Thanks Aang."
Aang smiled wider than ever, now that he knew Toph could see it, or at least feel it, and hugged her back in turn. They held that position for a long moment, before the gravity of Toph's words struck Aang.
"You called me Aang." He pointed out with a poke to her cheek.
She knocked him playfully on the head. "Only on special occasions Twinkletoes."
"So this is a special occasion?"
"...yeah. It sure is."
A/N: I've been out of touch with writing for a while, and I needed something to jumpstart my creative juices and return to my multichap (now an AU). The idea came when I was about to fall asleep about a week ago. I made a basic plot, lost it, and found it again a couple days ago, and did this right now. I'm sleepy, so I'll gloss over the errors tomorrow.
Edit: Yeah, I'm getting the hang of it. First swipe over Blind Trust, fixed stuff up, added a little backstory. I might do a final swipe tom (sleepy now), if I find something wrong with it. And anyone tell me please, what's wrong with it, and I'll gladly fix it.
It seems sequel-ish now to Aftermath, just in the North Pole. Really, the only clod of dirt there would be the Oasis, so naturally...eh.
Review!