You know, this may have been the first story I posted under this name, but this wasn't the first account I had on this here site. No, way, way, back in the day I had a different name, and when my first story on that account reached its fifth chapter, it had the exact same number of reviews this one currently has.

Minus two.

Divided by ten.

…Which, as I post this chapter, would be twelve, if you were at all wondering. And that would be the reason I changed names. But I digress.

I am so unbelievably proud of how well this story has done, and I thank each and every one of you reviewers. You are truly awesome people. Power to you. I'd give each and every one of you suffocating hugs if I ever met you in person, but that would probably be slightly creepy.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

But yeah, now that I've mentioned that and established that I'm not dead, here's chapter five.

Disclaimer: Sorry, not feeling too creative right now, but just know that I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

A Matter of Trust

The silence was back, but Toph was too busy stewing in a combination of annoyance and embarrassment to notice. All right, she'd left herself wide open for that one, but the fact that she hadn't (metaphorically) seen it coming stung her pride a bit.

Zuko, being (as they had previously established) rather fond of brooding in his own right, seemed to more or less accept the silence, lost in his own thoughts.

…Not that Toph cared.

Of course she didn't.

The earthbender wrinkled her nose and berated herself for even considering it.

She shifted her weight, working out the kinks in her back that came inevitably from spending her time leaning against metal bars, and was struck (not for the first time, as she had been doing this every half hour or so) by how cold the room was. Ironic, really, considering it was a Fire Nation ship.

"Your hair!" Zuko blurted out suddenly, as though it were some sort of epiphany.

Toph started and slammed her head against the bars, biting back an exclamation of pain. "Ah wah? A little warning next time, please!" she shouted, wincing as she felt the lump forming where her head had struck. "Sheesh."

She took a moment to nurse her injury as the firebender pointedly avoided giving her an apology.

"What about my hair?" she asked finally, gently resting her head back against the bars; for all the good it did, as a bolt of agony tore through her skull regardless the moment the bruise (she hoped it was only a bruise) touched the metal.

Toph was either far stronger or her head far weaker than she gave herself credit for.

"Your…" Zuko paused, sounding uncertain. There was a pause as he seemed to sort out exactly what it was he wanted to say. "…Your bun…thing," he finished lamely.

Oh, so he was making fun of her hair, now, was he? Well, she'd show him—

"Isn't it held up with pins?"

Toph blinked in abject confusion as his question crash landed smack-dab in the middle of her train of thought. What did that have to do with anything?

…Oh. Right! Why hadn't she thought of that?

Two points to the Irate Wonder.

The blind girl dug her fingers into her hair, feeling around for the hairpins buried somewhere at the heart of her bun and wincing every time they came in contact with her new 'battle scar' instead. Slowly, carefully, she began removing them.

The process was not a pleasant one. Toph, for obvious reasons, wasn't one to normally bother going through great lengths with her looks, and the pins quickly became entangled with the countless snarls and knots she'd been too lazy to comb out the previous morning. The ordeal took several minutes to complete, and at the end of it the earthbender's scalp was quite sore. She flung the pins at Zuko unceremoniously, listening with satisfaction to the high-pitched peal of the dastardly objects hitting the floor and the teenager's frustrated curses.

"You could've just handed them to me," he snapped, irritability finding its way back into his tone at last as he presumably began gathering the pins up from their various landing points. She grinned.

"…Yeah…" she agreed. "I probably could've."

The words Zuko muttered under his breath following her comment did not sound particularly flattering.

Then again, his reaction only made her grin even wider. Served him right for…well, being right.

Most likely, her relief had something to do with her lightened mood as well. Toph's hair, she was certain, was a vicious sentient beast in it of itself, and anything able to tame that monster could surely stand up to the metal locks far better than the splinters had. It was only a matter of time before Zuko freed himself. And then…

Then…

Then what?

"Do we actually have a plan for when we get out of here?" she pointed out to her cellmate cautiously.

The quiet clicking paused as Zuko considered.

"Do we need one?" he asked finally.

Toph rolled her eyes. Men.

"Of course we need one!" she shouted. "I mean, we'll want to avoid the guards, and find the exit, and get out of here in one piece, won't we?"

"I know that," he shot back impatiently. "But I wasn't exactly conscious when they carried me in here, and I can't plan ahead for something I've never laid eyes on."

"There's got to be something we can do," Toph insisted.

"I've tried planning. Improvising seems to work better," he replied shortly. "Although, if you still think it's a necessity, feel free to plan one out while you wait. It could be a while."

She frowned deeply. "Why's that?"

There was a second pause. This one, it seemed, was going to last quite a bit longer than its predecessor.

The earthbender waited two minutes before cracking.

"Why's that?" she asked again sharply.

The teenager sighed. "I've…never actually done this before," he admitted reluctantly.

This time, it was Toph's temper that flared. "What? What do you mean you've never done this before? Couldn't you have mentioned that a little sooner? What'd you do to escape in the past then? We're trapped in here, aren't we! I want my pins back!"

"I'll figure it out!" he shouted, before calming down. "I've always had my broadswords to take care of this in the past…"

"And you're surprised they took them away from you?" she shot back, her hands curling into fists. Her mood had taken a quick dive with Zuko's confession. "You're a fugitive; I'm amazed they even let you wander around on the streets with them!"

Considering how quickly he rose to the challenge, it seemed the firebender wasn't much happier than she was. "Do you really think I kept them out in plain view?" he snapped. "I barely even showed them to my own uncle, let alone civilians."

Toph let out a huff of exasperation. "You and your stupid trust issues," she muttered, her ire nearly in full swing. She knew she was getting them off topic, but since it didn't look like Wonder Boy was springing them loose anyway, she didn't see why it mattered.

"Trust issues?" Zuko repeated incredulously. "My own people have me locked in a prison, my sister is coming to torture me personally, my father banished me—and I have trust issues? You have no idea what I've been through!"

"Yeah, well you have no idea what I've been through either!" the blind girl shouted, standing with clenched fists and a narrowed glare in the direction of Zuko's voice. "All my life I've been coddled and babied and I hate it! My family treated me like a porcelain doll, not a human being!"

"They treated you more like a human being than my family ever did," the firebender spat. "My father, my sister…they disregard me completely! I've worked hard to make it where I am, and just because they don't believe I have any talent--"

"Yeah, well, I do, and they disregard me anyway! It was never about my blindness, it was about keeping daddy's little girl under his thumb! If I could leave him again, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I deserve to become my own person, don't I? And they think I'm the blind one? Why can't they just see that! Why is it so hard for them to just understand me?"

Zuko laughed derisively, the sound cold and unnaturally hollow within the confines of their cells. "You've had it easy compared to me. You've had your friends at your side, the support of everyone you've come across, and the benefits of your title to help you out, whether you ran away from your responsibilities or not. Do you know what I've had to deal with? I have no allies, no friends; my own country won't support me and everyone else sees me as a threat! If it weren't for my uncle, I'd be completely alone. I have no way of winning! My father refuses to acknowledge me until I capture that wretched Avatar, but how does he expect me to do that when everyone in the world is against me? My honor, my throne, my family—I'm going against impossible odds not to lose everything to that heartless prodigy witch I call a sister and--"

Click.

Clang.

Zuko quieted. Toph blinked.

"Was that…?"

"…Yeah." The teenager sounded amazed.

"But how'd you…?"

"I don't remember. But it shouldn't be too difficult to figure it out now."

The silence stretched between the pair like a bottomless chasm.

Toph spoke cautiously. "About what you said…"

The firebender coughed. "Yeah. I said a lot of things I shouldn't have."

"Then you really are…?"

He didn't answer.

That, of course, was all the answer she really needed.

She felt the tension leave her, her knees slowly buckling beneath her as she leaned back against the bars and slumped back on the ground with a heavy sigh. "Were you really planning on taking me with you at all? Or were you just going to break free and lose the liability?"

Silence. Toph felt her heart drop in disappointment. For all his flaws, she thought she'd judged him better than that.

"I see," she said quietly.

"…Do you trust me?"

Toph started. "What?"

"Do you trust me?"

The blind girl opened her mouth in confusion, brow furrowed in thought. The question had caught her off guard.

Did she?

She had at the beginning of their ordeal; he was hot-tempered, strong-minded, quick to act, and unrightfully alienated by his family—all things she could readily relate to. Similarities, however, were one thing, and beliefs quite another.

He was Fire Nation. Fine. There was at least one case of a deserter from the firebenders' ranks, and they had thrown him into a cell with her.

He was the Fire Lord's son. Now, that was something completely different. The Fire Lord was a tyrant, and Zuko his heir. Despite all Zuko had seen and gone through, he still wanted to return to his father's side, and that was reason enough to be wary, without considering the matter of Aang. The Avatar had rescued her, and he and his friends had accepted her into their little group without thought. She really had grown fond of them, and anyone willing to put the airbender and his entourage in captivity was definitely not worth trusting.

Then again, above all things, the Fire Prince seemed a little…lost.

Toph blinked once, opened her mouth, closed it again, and gave it another minute of thought.

In the end, it all boiled down to one question.

"Do you trust me?" the earthbender replied pointedly.

Zuko didn't hesitate.

"Can I?" the firebender asked softly.

Toph's heart sank all the way into the metal floor. "Fine," she muttered. "I can take a hint."

The time after that was spent in silence, Zuko working busily on the remaining lock and Toph half-heartedly trying to form her own escape plan.

She didn't realize how much the conversations had done to keep her occupied until she realized she'd drifted off.

The blind girl awoke to the sounds of struggles and muffled cursing. It seemed the Fire Prince was making his grand exit. Her insides twisted again.

How was she going to get out of here?

The muted battle carried on for what seemed like hours, before a particularly painful-sounding thump sounded throughout the room, and one body fell to the ground. Toph sighed.

Like it mattered who won anymore.

Bah. She didn't care. Maybe the hot-head got what he deserved, and it was the guard who'd emerged victorious.

Footsteps headed purposely, stealthily, in the direction of the door, and Toph wondered who she was trying to fool.

He really was leaving her. Jerk.

She opened her mouth, adamant that she would have one last word to shout to the Irate Wonder's retreating back.

Oh, she was going to get him good, curse him for leaving her there, give him a passing wise-guy remark he'd never forget, a phrase that would have him feeling guilty years later for leaving her, something that would make him realize how much he was going to regret this—

"Good luck."

…Or that.

Where had that come from? Toph felt her face flush in embarrassment and buried her head in her arms.

Ugh, when had she become so soft? Even Aang and Katara weren't that bad. …Usually.

So caught up was she in her shame that she failed to keep track of the Fire Prince. Then again, perhaps he'd already made his way out of the fortress by now for all she knew. Why should she care?

The metallic screech of her opening cell door, nevertheless, did not fail to catch her attention. A calloused hand, larger than hers and unnaturally warm, slid into her own, and despite her blindness she couldn't help but look up.

No. Way.

"Well? Do you trust me?" he repeated again wryly.

Toph grinned at him, relief and excitement for their escape-to-be coursing through her veins and every nerve tingling in anticipation for battle.

"Let's do it!"

Biology is not a subject, it is a small, parasitic creature that latches on to the brains of eager students and sucks them dry. Anything sub-par about this chapter (i.e., the vaguely repetitive wangst-off) I blame not only on lack of new Avatar but on my biology, which slowly leeched me of all brainpower even as I struggled to finish this sucker. So, while I can no longer remember my own name, I can now tell you just what cholecystokinin is. Don't worry, spell check doesn't know either.

And I really am sorry it took so long, but I've had the bio-leech, and busy schedules, and writer's block, and of course the moment I got in the mood to finally write this chapter…I got sick. Hooray.

The review responses are also conspicuously absent, for I was told by several people that they weren't allowed…or something. Does anyone know if that's true? Until I know, I guess I'll message or email anyone who wants a response…yeah.

I am tired. And brain dead. And…bleh.

May this have been at least fractionally worth the wait anyway!

Yeah, it's bedtime for me.