A/N: Sorry this is late, everyone! Please forgive the wait and think more about the update.

This chapter is one of my favorites. I might do a Maiko after this, but I want everyone's opinion first. Should I do a Maiko? Any ideas?

And, as always, REMEMBER TO REVIEW!

Disclaimer: I don't own A:TLA.

Shallow

The last words Toph spit at me before we stopped talking to one another were as follows.

"Waterbending, huh? I'll say you're a waterbender! You're about as evil as they come, Katara, and twice as shallow, too!"

I had no idea what else to add. When she spun on her heels and left me standing there, I felt as though I should hold her back and really ask her what she meant. Shallow in what regards?

Of course, there was an argument before that. An argument that led to greater things.

It's been about three days now, and I'm constantly telling myself that she will eventually get over the argument. But she's avoided me completely, and sometimes I hear her muttering something under her breath when I pass by, or I feel the earth beneath my feet rumble angrily before settling again. Toph is dangerous when she is angry—just like I am, too—and I know that this has to go away before our bending gets the better of us and the elements start to fly.

"She called me bossy!" I told Aang after the first argument had blown over. "How in the world am I bossy? What did I ever do to her? Bossy, she says! Ha! If I'm bossy, that makes her a rude little brat, that's what! At least I can support that, huh, Aang? Bossy!"

Aang never really cared much for the friction between me and Toph. If he did, I am convinced that things would have come out differently. Most of the time, he just stared at us when we argued or fought or hissed insults back and forth.

"Am I right or what?" I pressed, stubbornly waiting for an answer.

"Hmm."

"What's that supposed to mean? Are you taking her side? Aang! Answer me! Look at me, Aang, right now. I have to settle this!"

"Would you calm down?" he inquired boldly after I had grabbed his face and forced his eyes to meet mine. "You're overreacting, Katara. This is all going to be over soon and you're going to regret being so nervously worked up about it."

"I am not worked up!" I defended, releasing my grip. "She called me bossy, Aang! How in the world am I supposed to live that down? And what did I say back, hmm? I just stood there like an idiot and let her leave! Bossy! Of all the insults in the universe!"

"She was just angry," he fused lazily.

There was a brief pause, in which I noticed that Aang had neither refuted nor supported Toph's theory of me being 'bossy,' as she put it. I eyed him up and down, and I saw that his eyes grew wide when he realized that I was thinking intensely on something involving him. He pulled at his collar.

"You're right," I said as calmly as I thought possible, sitting across the table from him. He gave me the most puzzled expression I had ever seen him wear. "I need to calm down, Aang. That's exactly what I need to do."

"Uh...right." He blinked. I could see his mind was working behind those calm gray eyes he always sported. "Glad you see it my way, Katara. There's nothing like taking it easy, you know?"

"Right, right. Of course, dearest, of course." I admit that I was perhaps-maybe-slightly being a bit flattering with him. But I can't be totally blamed for the ordeal—Aang just works that way, I suppose, and sometimes one has to know how to use others for their own advantage. So I scooted next to him, and smiled so sweetly that I could barely believe myself. "There's something else, though," I said softly.

"What's that?"

I forced myself to bite my lower lip, something I detested doing in the first place, and sighed desperately and loudly, one hand on my chest and the other on my forehead. "Oh, Aang!" I exclaimed, taking one of his hands in my own. He looked up at me. "It's so stressful to be confused! Sometimes I just don't know what to do anymore!"

He looked genuinely worried. "Well...what's confusing you?"

"Just about everything, I'm afraid. Nothing makes any sense anymore!" I pushed my head into the table and covered my eyes with my hands.

"Katara, I'm sure you're just over—"

"Oh, forget it, Aang. I wouldn't want to worry you."

"Don't say that," he ordered crossly. Don't feel bad for him, I warn you—Aang can't resist helplessness. And though—I'll admit it to you, but to no one else—I hate playing the damsel in distress, it seems to pay off every now and again. "Just tell me what's wrong, Katara. We can have a good laugh about it later, okay?"

"If you insist," I said quietly, lifting my head from it's burial. I played with my thumbs and hid my gaze from him, trying to act as defenseless as possible. "Aang," I began gently. "It's just that—well, I'm—I'm afraid what Toph said about me was true. What if I really am snobby and bossy and all those other curses she hissed at me before?" I sniffled audibly. It sounded fairly fake, I'll admit, but Aang seemed to buy it. "I think I've become a horrible person! How awful is that, Aang, when you realize you're a horrible person?"

"Oh, come on Katara, she didn't mean—"

"It's not about her meaning those insults," I whispered. "It's about her opinion, Aang! Oh, goodness, it matters to me...and there's no way of knowing if these things are true. Don't you see? I'll never know if she said those things out of her stubbornness or if she really meant them! What am I going to do, Aang?"

"I think maybe she just—"

"No one can help me!" I complained, wiping the corners of my dry eyes. And then I looked up fiercely, as if a brilliant idea had struck me. "But—you! You can help me, Aang. Can't you? Won't you?"

"I—I mean...of course, Katara. What do you—"

"Here," I interrupted. "I'll just ask your opinion of what she said. And then you can tell me if I really am a snobby, bossy evil person." I batted my eyelashes quite subtly. This was becoming almost too simple. There had to be a catch.

Just as I had predicted, my fun stopped short, because Aang started shaking his head and smiling as if he knew this was coming the whole time. "Would you please let me finish?" he asked matter-of-factly.

"Finish!" And then my cover erupted. He had found out and, in either case, I couldn't take much more of this flattery behavior. "Finish, go ahead!"

"You wanted my opinion from the beginning," he started, the smirk never leaving his face. "First you were angry and you were exploding all over the place, and then you saw it didn't work. You're clever, dearest," he mimicked, although I can't say that I wasn't surprised at how closely it resembled my own voice. And then, without warning or consent, Aang took my hands in his again. "You want to know if I think you're bossy," he concluded. "Because, if I tell you that you aren't, my opinion will rule over Toph's. Now, Katara, tell me if I'm right."

I grunted angrily and looked away.

"You and Toph are good friends," he reasoned. "What she means by 'snobby' is simply that you aren't always down to earth or attached, Katara. Remember when you promised her that you wouldn't eat all of the sugared dates Sokka bought her?"

"Yeah, yeah. So what?"

"Well, you ended up eating them anyway. Then you lied and blamed it on Momo, and then she could tell you were lying and accused you of being a thief. Just because you're older than her doesn't mean you have the advantage to break that promise. You see my point, don't you? Sometimes you make promises that you don't keep, and sometimes..." He trailed off after that, but he had caught my attention, so I tightened my grip on his fingers.

"Finish!" I demanded instantly. "And I sometimes what?"

Aang truly looked anxious. He made a face at the table and then looked at me. "I think, compared to Toph, you spend more time on...well, on yourself. You know, clothes and hair and...stuff that Toph doesn't really care much about. And then there's the fact that you're always worried about her getting germs all over the place. In a way...it's a little bit—I don't know—superficial, I guess."

My mouth fell open. "What?"

"It's not a bad thing!" he replied. Slowly, he breathed through his teeth and let go of my hands. "You wanted my opinion, and there it is, Katara. Raw, true opinion."

I expected him to leave the room we had been sitting in, but he didn't. Instead, he called to Toph, who stood at the doorway of the small complex and crossed her arms.

"What do you want?" she asked in the tone that I despised so well.

"Katara wants to talk to you," Aang answered, and then—and only then—did he leave.

"I never—I didn't say I wanted to—hey, Aang? Where are you..." But it was too late. Toph came and sat at the table with a smirk so wide it frightened me.

"Can't always have Twinkle Toes saving your butt, Princess," she said darkly, using a new nickname. "I said what I meant. You're bossy. And a total jerk. I'm not taking that back and I really mean it."

"You were listening?" If she wasn't blind, she would have seen that I was glaring, but I'm quite sure that it was obvious through my voice. "You little brat! Of all the rude, impossible things to do! You're an eavesdropper!"

"I can't help it if you flirt so loudly," she responded sarcastically. She batted her eyelashes and twirled a strand of hair in her fingers. "Oh, Aang," she imitated. "No one can help me! Oh dearest, wondrous, handsomest Aang—"

"Knock it off!"

She blew kisses to an imaginary crowd. "Lay one on me, Aangie-poo—"

"Agh!" I stood up. I think it happened absentmindedly, but in either case, it happened—out of the already humid summer air, I pulled a good amount of water and crashed the aqueous whip on Toph's face so furiously and so hard that I heard the impact—like ice crashing against stone.

There was a very deep, uncomfortable silence. Toph lifted her face and brushed the water from her mouth and nose, and then she blinked out the droplets from her useless eyes. I should have said something—really, I should have—but I can never think that quickly. Things seem to happen without my control over them. And Toph! She always makes me so angry that I have no idea what I'm doing.

"How's that for bossy?" I asked, and even in retrospect it sounds harsh and disgusting, as if I was spitting acid on her. "I'm not going to hold back on you just because you're my friend, Toph. Before I'm anyone's friend, I'm a waterbender. I'm not going to let you insult me anymore, do you hear me? Never again!" I should have apologized, and I think I was about to, when she stood up and beat the earth so hard that my chair went flying.

I was completely surprised. I had been waiting for her to strike me, to hit me as hard as she could with a slab of earth or metal. I had it coming—I'll admit that, but don't tell Toph—and somehow I had estimated that earthbending was how she was going to get back at me. But she didn't! She took her anger out on a piece of wood instead of the source. I think I gasped, waiting for her to strike me, but she never did.

"Waterbending, huh? I'll say you're a waterbender! You're about as evil as they come, Katara, and twice as shallow, too!"

So it's been three days, up until today, and I'm still deciding what I should say next. Because, shallow or not, I think I've realized that only the closest friends you have tell you how to fix your personality, and only your best friends try and joke around with you even when you're angry. Part of me, I think, believes that Toph is absolutely right. I can be a bossy, hotheaded waterbender with my nose in the air. But I really do wish she would see the other side, also. The side that secretly admires Toph for everything she does and is even a little-tiny-microscopic-bit envious of her, too.

I'm in the process of making a mental note: "Katara, take a deep breath and take it easy. You need to apologize to Toph for slapping her with water. You need to tell her you didn't mean any of it. You need to tell her that, before you are anything at all (waterbender, bossy, evil, or shallow) you are her friend, as she is yours."