Hello my lovely Taang lovers :) Guess who's back? ME! I'm sorry it's been a while... life happens. I've been writing and re-writing this chapter for a few weeks now so I hope it's okay... I really didn't like it at first, but I've made it work! This one's a litttle angsty and it might seem like I'm not being a loyal Taanger, BUT if you read carefully into the dialogue towards the end, hopefully you'll catch my drift and see where I'm going with this!

It's good to be back, and I really hope this chapter meets expectations! Also I would like to thank you all so, SO much for the wonderful reviews! They really are so heartwarming and amazing and rewarding to read, and, on that note, I would especially love to thank TeenTitansGO for the constructive criticism! I am trying to improve my story-telling skils and hopefully did a little bit of a better job with this chapter :) And to I-am-an-Oddity: patience :) I promise the story IS, in fact, rated M for a reason!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its characters or anything! I wish I did though, because I would have loved to match up Katara with Zuzu and, of course, Aang with Toph! Then everyone would be happy! ..Well, except for Mai... but, let's be honest, who really cares about her anyways! :)

Enjoy!

The Beach: Almost-Confessions

"WOOOOHOOOOO YEAAH!"

Aang's shout's of glee echoed throughout the tunnel and rang in Toph's ear as they cascaded down the slippery slide. She leaned back into him, digging her short fingernails into his knees and shut her unseeing eyes to keep out the damp wind and mist that whipped past her face. This had seemed like a great idea a few seconds ago, when Aang had been sitting so close to her before they had descended into the tunnel... his abs flexed against her bare back, his deceptively strong arms locked tight around her tiny waist, his breath hot and moist on her neck..

But despite his still very close (if not closer) proximity now, Toph just felt scared and stupid. She remembered her incident at the Serpent's pass and her stomach flipped nervously as her fear of drowning began to surface. What had she been thinking? This was a horrible idea-she was completely and totally blind in the element that she hated most of all... 'Stupid!' Toph mentally cursed herself for letting Aang's innocent sex appeal cloud her judgment, and shrieked as the watery chute took them through an unexpected hairpin turn.

"Haha hold on, Toph!"

She couldn't hold it in any longer- her eyes burned as her lower lids began to fill with tears of terror. How embarrassing. Just as they had started to cascade down her cheeks, she felt the bottom of the slide drop out from under her, and she was airborn for a split second-she could feel the warmth of the sunlight on her eyelids-and then, WHOOSH. Her nose and mouth filled with water as she and Aang were completely submerged. She felt him grasp her wrist firmly and yank her in the direction that she hoped was up (Toph was really in no position to distinguish which direction they were going at the moment). The unpleasant sensation of water in her nasal cavities clogged her head and she began to panic. Then, when she was sure that she was going to drown despite the airbender's firm grip on her, she broke through the surface, flailing and choking and sputtering, tears now openly cascading down her face. Aang hoisted her onto his back piggy-back style and began to swim for the shore.

"Wasn't that AMAZING, Toph?" Aang asked enthusiastically, not having yet realized the extent of the emotional distress his earthbending master was currently experiencing. '...Toph?"

"Y-yes" she croaked. Aang's face knotted up with concern-not exactly the enthusiastic response he was expecting. He thrust his palm behind him, and used waterbending to jet them to shore faster.

When his feet touched sand, he figured they were shallow enough and paused, expecting Toph to dismount, but she didn't catch the hint and instead clung to him with such raw force that Aang was starting to get lightheaded. "Toph, are you alright?" he asked seriously as he continued to trudge out of the water and onto the shore.

"Yes." The same timid response as before.

"We are completely out of the water now, it's okay to get down." Aang hinted kindly, letting go of her legs and reaching to his neck in an attempt to ease her grip. She understood this time, and he felt her wet body leave the back of his and heard the dull 'thud' of her small feet touching down on the sand behind him. Concerned, he immediately turned around and found her sitting cross-legged, head down, and wiping fiercely at her face and eyes. "Toph?" he said her name gently as he eased down in front of her. She kept her head down, averting her sightless eyes so that he would not see how bloodshot they most likely were. Her nose tweaked to the side a little as she sniffled, and her angular, jet-black bangs dripped water onto the sand in front of her.

Toph closed her eyes and felt his body heat shortly before Aang's fingers landed tenderly on her face. His touch was so gentle, it was heartbreaking-her nose and sinuses filled with the crying sensation again, and she held her breath to suppress more tears from surfacing. His pinkies slid under her jaw, lifting her face, moving it to his eye level. Her eyes remained directed downwards as he pushed her bangs out of the way and tucked them behind her ears.

As he did, sunlight swept over her paler-than-usual complexion, and Aang noticed that it was unusually pink and puffy above her delicate, doll-like cheekbones. He gasped slightly, about to say something.

But she suddenly reached up and pushed his hand away, less forcefully than she normally would, before springing to her feet and declaring bluntly, "I'm fine, Twinkles, don't worry."

And with that she turned and started to walk away from his still sitting form before shortly earthbending herself up and away to expedite the process. He sat and looked after her for a few minutes until she disappeared from sight. Being soaked himself, he shook out his newly-grown shock of dark hair and wiped the river water from his face, thinking about how Toph had been wiping more than that from hers.

Later that day...

"Hey, Toph!" said Katara brightly, glancing behind her briefly as the earthbender approached before going back to the large steaming pot in front of her.

"Hey, Sugarqueen." Katara grimaced at Toph's less-than-enthusiastic tone. She turned around and saw that the earthbender was sitting on a tree stump a few feet away, looking glum.

"What's with you? ...And why are you soaking wet? You hate water... every time we have to go into a river or anything else to clean you up, you fight me every step of the way," Katara chuckled, her cobalt eyes lighting up, "It's easier to get Sokka to eat vegetables than it is to give you a bath."

"It's nothing, Twinkletoes splashed me." she lied.

"Oh, okay."

Toph hadn't meant to sound to distant. She was just so confused... I mean, what was that? Down on the shore... him touching her face like that, tucking her bangs behind her ears... Just then she remembered the bangs thing and instinctively shook her head out, dislodging them from behind her ears so that they hung over her face like they usually did. She wasn't sure what had happened down on the shore, or what it meant, but she knew one thing, and that was that she and Aang had definitely had some kind of moment down there that hinted, "more than friends".

Maybe she was just being silly... she probably was just imagining things because she had been so scared and worked up. Yeah... 'I mean, there's no way that he could ever feel anything for me... I'm...well, me... and he likes stupid, floozy Sugarqueen.' she thought semi-dejectedly. Even if his heart had begun to speed up around her since their kiss, there was really no way that she could accurately read into it. He was, after all, a teenage boy, and his heart was most-likely bound to speed up around anything that had boobs. Just then, she heard the unmistakably-Aang "whoosh" of air and a pair of feather-light feet touch down a short distance from her.

"Hi, Katara." came his voice directed at the slender waterbender, who was now stirring some kind of soup around in the large pot in front of her with her bending.

"Hey, Aang, how was swimming? Did you practice your bending at all?"

"Yeah, a little.. and it was good." he paused, and Toph felt his gaze float to the side of her head. "Hey, Toph."

"Hey."

"Hellooooo, Team Avatar!" Sokka sang as he marched into their campsite clearing unexpectedly with firewood in hand. "Katara, can I dump some of this on your fire? That flame is starting to look prettttty weak."

Katara glared at him, "My flame is just fine, thank you, but if it would make you feel better, then sure." He did so, and then proceeded to pull his currently-down hair into his signature wolf tail. Just then, he sent a funny look in Toph's direction.

"Toph, why are you wet?"

"None of your business, Snoozles." she answered automatically, and frustration built up within her, "Why does everyone care, anyways? Who gives a flying flip if I'm wet?"

"Geez, calm down, it was just a curious question." he answered. Toph stood up from her stump.

"I'm going for a walk." she announced. She felt Aang jump to his feet and open his mouth to say something and consequently added, "Alone." He said nothing as she walked away.

"Um, are you sure, Toph? I just about have dinner ready.." Katara called after her. The earthbender didn't reply and continued to walk, imagining her three friends looking at each other behind her back as she did so.

...

Toph sat on the rock she had occupied earlier before her water slide adventure with Aang. Judging by the drop in temperature, the sun had set and it was now dark. She just wanted to be alone and wondered why she was so moody all of the sudden... She also felt mildly guilty about blowing up at Sokka, but took comfort in the fact that he was probably over it three seconds after she had said it. Just as her thoughts were starting to stray back to Aang and their kiss, like they usually did when she was alone for too long, she heard his featherlight feet land next to her rock.

"Hey, Toph."

"Hey, Twinkles"

"...Can I sit with you?"

Toph scooted over on her rock to make room for him and felt him land effortlessly next to her. His hand fell on top of hers, warm and pulsing. At first it surprised her, but she decided it was comforting and didn't say anything. They just sat there for minutes in the silence, listening to the breeze on the water. Aang especially liked how Toph's hair blew with it and allowed the moonlight to light up her porcelain features so that they glowed for only moments at a time.

"Will you stop?"

"...Huh-What?"

"Staring at me like that. I can feel it, you know."

Aang smiled to himself and looked back out to the water. She knew everything. It was always interesting being around Toph because there was never a dull moment, even as they sat there in the silence- he never was bored in the slightest. While Aang sat there contentedly, just happy to be next to Toph, her mind was racing, questioning.

'Why is he here? Why is his hand on top of mine? I'm fine with it... but what is it? What does this mean? What did what happened today mean? What did the kiss mean? ...Why am I asking all these stupid questions to myself?' Toph took a deep breath and sighed it out silently. She just needed to stop. All this thinking was making her dizzy.

"You okay?" Aang asked.

"I'm fine."

"Is it about why you were crying earlier?"

Drat-He'd noticed. "..No."

"What's bothering you?"

"Nothing."

He cracked a smile, "You're lying."

Toph turned to him, "Who are you to say that? I'm the only reliable human lie-detector in existence, thank you very much." She turned back to the water and he chucked. "What are you laughing at?"

"You." he smiled even wider. Aang couldn't resist, she had the most adorable, screwed up, narrow-eyed 'I'm-On-To-You' look he had ever seen.

"Actually, I do have a question..." she said.

"Shoot."

"Why are you here?" she turned her head in his direction again. He tilted his head to one side and contemplated her question for a few seconds.

"Because you're my friend and I wanted to see if you were okay." Aang knew that wasn't the answer she was looking for. He knew that she had been confused lately, probably almost as confused as he had been. He wasn't blind (pun intended) to the feelings that were building up inside him for Toph, and he knew he had been instigating things lately that had probably been driving her crazy, but he didn't really know what else to do... One thing he knew for sure was that it was definitely not something he wanted to confront right now, especially since he'd had his heart set on Katara for so long. But he also decided that he really liked the way he felt around Toph. With Katara, there was a certain degree of suffocation and predictability that came with the territory, but with Toph, there was definitely something different... something unexpected and free and surprising...in a good way.

"Oh." she answered, not as disappointed as he'd thought she would sound, "Well, if you're not going to answer that question honestly, then will you please promise to answer this next one truthfully?"

Aang mentally smacked himself. 'Duh...human-lie detector!' He sighed and decided to be honest, "I'm sorry, Toph, this is really just something I don't want to deal with right now."

"How convenient for you, Twinkletoes, avoiding things as usual." She jumped off the rock and turned her back to him.

"You're one to be talking! I know perfectly well that there's more than 'nothing' going on in your head," he shot back.

"Well, I'm not the one who has explaining to do!"

"Explaining?"

"Yes, explaining!"

"You want me to explain myself? About what?"

"You know what!"

They were face-to-face now, inches apart, chests heaving, glaring at each other. Suddenly Aang closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let his forehead fall to the earthbender's shoulder. "Toph, I can't do this..."

"You-"

"Toph, no. You don't understand." he backed away from her and glared again, fists clenched, "I'm in love with Katara, Toph!"

After a few seconds of shock and the feeling of her whole existence being ripped in half, she replied, "I know that. You think I don't know that?" she shouted hysterically, "I can feel your heartbeat go through the roof every single time she says your name! But that doesn't ex-"

"I don't feel anything for you, Toph." he interrupted, "You are my best friend, Sifu Toph, and the greatest earthbending master I could've ever asked for, but nothing more." He turned away, trying desperately to make sense of the words that seemed to spill out of his mouth on their own accord.

"Well, that's a relief," she lied with ease, despite the numb feeling that was currently spreading from her head to her toes, "because I don't feel like that for you either."

"Well...Good." he said, unsure of what had just happened.

"Good." she replied calmly and bluntly.

After a few minutes of silence, Aang cleared his throat. "You want to, uh.. go back to camp and get some dinner? You must be hungry."

"Yeah, let's," she answered quietly, "...right...hungry.."

The two walked back to camp together as if nothing had happened.

Thanks for reading! I'll try my best to get the next chapter up soon! :)