..:: 3 Colors ::..

"Zuko, tell me: What is that picture about?" The blind Toph asked with a bored expression.

It was a simple yet pretty picture that hung in the middle of the market place on a wall. A lot of people stood the front of it to observe it, whispering each other about how pretty it was and so.

Aang, Katara and Sokka weren't exceptions while Iroh had gone into a tea shop. The banished prince Zuko stood a bit further away, leaning at one of the walls of some unnamed shop or building, watching his company.

The younger girl and earth bender Toph had never had the ability to see with her eyes but with her hearing and her feeling through earth. Still, that didn't help if it was a picture drawn on paper.

"Why are you so eager to know?" he replied with the same bored expression.

"There are too many people admiring it, it's getting on my nerves, so I want to know whether it's legitimate or not." she said and shrugged.

Zuko didn't look too thrilled. He wasn't too good at describing, especially to a blind girl. "I think a 'No, it isn't legitimate.' isn't enough, huh?"

"Hm..." Toph thought aloud, pretending to think deeply about that. "You know me far better than I thought..." She then growled annoyed. "Of course not, idiot!"

He sighed. "Well...it's okay, I guess...although...-"

"I asked for facts, not for you thoughts." she cut him off. "They can come after that."

Halfway annoyed he began again. "It's a sunset with dark contours of a couple holding hands and standing in the front of the setting red-yellow-orange sun standing in a meadow of flowers... sorta like that."

"Ah I see...more or less..." she commented with a halfhearted smirk. It wouldn't have had been bad seeing it with her own eyes. But she had never been able to and had never complained about that aloud. And she surely wouldn't begin with it now. Anyhow, it sounded romantic.

Toph was the greatest tomboy on earth, she was sure. But that didn't mean that there wasn't a part of 'girl' in her anymore. It was just that she didn't show it to anyone. Why should she?

"If it should have been romantic..." Zuko began to spoke his thoughts. Toph was bored, so she listened to him half-interested. "...there are too many shadows due to the setting sun. It casts very dark shadows. It doesn't fit. If there hadn't been standing these contours of this couple it would have been a dangerous atmosphere instead of romantic..."

Toph raised an eyebrow. "Do you intend on becoming an art critic? You have sounded like one."

"I did?"

"Yo."

The prince shrugged but wasn't sure if Toph could feel it. "The past years had made me like that. I'm thinking too much. Too much unnecessary things are in my head. And my mind dares to think about this stuff."

"What stuff? Give me an example." Toph said with a bit of curiosity in her voice. Her pale green eyes met his golden gaze even if she couldn't see.

"Nah. It's none of your business." He answered.

Toph made an annoyed face. No, pouting would fit better.

Zuko grinned. A pouting Toph looked just too cute...wait... look where his mind had wandered off again. He growled lightly. If he thought too much he would never be able to defeat his dearest sister Azula.

"What's wrong, Zuko?" Toph's sensitive ears had, of course, noticed his light growl of annoyance. "Is your mind already wandering off?"

She got him, but he wouldn't admit. Why should he admit, that the younger girl was smart? It was more fun to teaser her than letting her defeat him.

"Who knows?" He answered with a smirk. Toph could practically sense his smirk but pretended to not knowing it. Instead she turned towards the still large crowd around the picture.

"Hey, what hair color does Twinkle Toes has?" She suddenly asked after some time of listening to the crowds' conversations.

Surprised the young man with the scar told her: "You DO know that he has shaved his hair."

"I never had the confirmation because I was too lazy to ask. But I can feel that he has nothing on his head. With the fact that he's a monk I concluded that he's a bald head." Toph answered bored. "I change the question: What hair color would Twinkle Toe own?"

"I'm not sure." The prince answered while his eyes searched for the young Avatar. He thought for a while. AGAIN he thought! Ah well...better thinking too much than being completely dense. "Ah...judging by his eyebrows he would have had dark brown hair."

"Eyes?"

"Aang's?" Zuko asked although it was quite obvious, judging by Toph rolling her eyes. "Some sort of gray-hazel. His eyes look a bit like a clouded sky."

This information sunk into Toph. "Sugar Queen's hair and eyes? She has long hair, pulled back into a braid, you don't need to tell me the hair style. It's the color I can't see..." The last part was more a lightly frustrated mumbling.

"Her hair is brown. Her skin is lightly tanned and she has watery blue eyes." He answered, pretending not hearing her last statement.

"Like her looking?" Toph suddenly asked. She has noticed a slight change of his heartbeat.

"Hm?!" Heat rushed into his cheeks. He would never admit (somehow he had the feeling that he would never admit anything) that he thought Katara was kind of attractive. Damn Toph's skilled hearing! "Is something wrong with the fact to think that a girl's attractive?"

To distract her thoughts about that whole 'girls'-topic he added a bit too fierce: "I can say you that I think Ty Lee is attractive, Mai, yes Jin as well. My mother was a beauty! Heck, I think even Azula has some sort of beauty! I'm just a male human, you know?"

"...I see..." She said quietly. Zuko raised an eyebrow, like he had done so often in this conversation (or at least he thought he did it several times already). No snapping? No yelling? No counter attack? She was quiet, her bangs hiding her blind eyes.

Before he could ask or making his mind up to ask her, she said: "I guess that Sokka has the same hair and the same eye-color as his sister?"

"...guess so..."

"You can see him!"

"...right. I'm not sure about his eye color since I never paid attention to this fact but he has brown hair just like his beloved sister."

"What about Momo and Appa?"

Zuko thought a while. "I'm not sure... I think that lemur's eye color is green. His...fur is mostly white with black stripes..." He stared at the lemur's back, who was sitting on the shoulder of the young Avatar. His gaze turned towards the big bison, only to notice that Appa wasn't near them. "I don't have an idea about Appa, despite the fact that he has mainly white fur."

"So? ...your uncle...Iroh?" It wasn't too obvious but not a secret as well that the young female earth bender liked the former heir of the Fire Nation throne. Iroh, on the other side, liked her as much as he liked his nephew, maybe even a tiny bit more? "Wait...he has gray hair, I know. He's old." she added.

"Originally he had black hair, just like most of our family." Zuko explained with a gentle smile at the thought of his uncle. Aforesaid elder stood among the crowd, next to Sokka, to be exact. He liked music, he liked tea, so it was obvious that he liked art. "His eyes are light hazel with a tiny mix of golden."

Last was only one person she could ask about, Toph realized and turned her eyes from the crowd to settle them on the banished prince. The one who was constantly answering her questions since a while. "Tell me...how you look like." It was more a whisper than a question voiced aloud.

He looked at her, wondering if he really should describe himself, which would by the way be very negative to him. He shrugged. "Ugly."

"Huh?"

"I said I'm ugly."

She didn't laugh, she didn't comment, she didn't do anything than staring at him with her pale green, slightly glinting eyes. Hell, what was wrong with this girl? Girls always were a mystery and will always stay one. He felt like she saw right into and through him, although it couldn't be. This girl was blind, yet her gaze had such a feeling on him.

"I can feel rage, power, muscles. A tall man with short, messy hair who has a silent, easy to fuel fire within him." She told him, her gaze burning into his mind. "Skilled hands which can wield swords with ease and grace. Bitterness, pain and rage give you strength for your fire. Your uncle is the one calming this fire."

Zuko hadn't notice that his mouth has dropped open in awe. She knew already that much about him. Just by listening and feeling.

"I wanted to know the colors, Zuko, and I want to know about the scar."

His eyes hardened. His scar. The mark of his anger. The sign of his bitterness. He felt his heart ache whenever he thought about the moment the burning fist of his father ... no, of the Fire Lord had met his eye. He could still see with this eye, but it would be never as good as when it was before that moment.

Zuko let out a gasp of surprise and shock when he felt small, soft hands touching his cheek, his scar. Soft, but with a slight hint of roughness. Roughness because of many hours of training to perfect her skills of earth bending. It was the young Toph who stood on her tip toe to reach up that high. She was still small. Just 12 years old. But she had a temper worse than from an adult sometimes. Still she was young. And curious.

Her fingers trailed along the scar, brushing lightly against his eyelid and slid towards his ear. A small smile crept on her face. Her eyes were half closed, her head lifted. The skin of the scar was soft and more sensitive than normal skin.

"The others told me, that you have dark brown short messy hair and... golden eyes." She whispered. Her hand still stayed on his scar, caressing it lightly. "Golden eyes that have a fire in them burning strong and full of determination..."

"I...guess so..." He stuttered, not sure what to say else. He had never let anyone touch his scar, yet Toph did. But she didn't withdraw with disgust or any nasty comment about his scar. And he didn't feel nervous, despite the fact that Toph caressed his face with gentle touches.

The next move of the girl dumbfounded the prince greatly. She tugged him by his collar down so that he was halfway in a bending position. His face was now at eyelevel with her. Beautiful pale green eyes stared in his golden ones. She could hear his heart beating faster with every moment that passed between them. It warmed her own heart.

Oh yeah, this move that dumbfounded him followed right after she had gotten him into the right position. Soft lips pressed against the sensitive scarred left eyelid (of course he had closed his left eye automatically) as she placed a soft kiss on it. Her eyes were closed as she enjoyed every moment. She enjoyed his warmth, his body as she trailed with her hands down his muscular arms and his scent as she inhaled it.

Zuko had held his breath only to notice that he needed to breath, otherwise he wouldn't be able to do anything if he would die due to lack of oxygen. Slowly, so that he wouldn't destroy the moment, he exhaled and began to breathe properly. Inside he was smiling and at the same time wondering about the warm feeling that had spread from his heart through his whole body. He felt her warm breath on his face. Hesitantly he lifted his right arm to caress her head.

But before he could, she parted from him and released him from the actually uncomfortable posture he had been in for some...seconds? Minutes? Hours? He had lost every feeling for the time. His head told him it hadn't passed more than a minute while his heart told him that it was half of an eternity. Confusing, ne?

A smirk played on Toph's lips as she stepped away. "I don't know what's wrong with this scar." She announced her thoughts. If those thoughts were really everything what she was thinking about at the moment he couldn't tell. She turned around to leave. "I think it's pretty normal. Makes you more...manly and mature than other men."

I suppose it was a compliment. Zuko thought with a smirk and a light shade of rose blush on his cheeks. Strangely this young girl had such affections on him. But maybe it was because she was totally different from other girls. Because she was Toph Bei Fong.

"By the way..." She added with a slightly upset tone. "...you forgot to mention me, when you listed all those girl that you're thinking they're attractive."

So this was the reason that she looked that down all the time since they came up with that topic! Well, she was still a girl, right? He shook his head with an amused smirk. You're not attractive. You're unique in another way. Like looking is everything... He thought.

He did answering something totally different. Teasing Toph was really something he could get used to. "You're a child. Children aren't supposed to be attractive yet."

He got her. With a furious face she turned around and shouted with veins throbbing on her forehead. "IDIOT! I'LL SHOW YOU IN SOME YEARS! I SWEAR!!!!" She turned around to stomp away, little or middle large rocks pierced out from the actual flat ground with every stomp of the female earthbender.

Zuko smirked. He was looking forward to it.

Colors owari ()::..

Konnichi wa, minna-san!

How are you guys and gals? I'm pretty sorry for the long delay...

Eve: Lazy ass!

...because I had chemistry paper, Latin paper, Latin vocabulary test and I had to do an account ...or ...I think it's called report...yes, a report on my practical training in a book store.

Eve: Excuses!

Now I can play Sims 2 again! After a long time I can play again xD Of course I'll write on! But it'll take some time because I'll write history paper, maths paper and a paper about Shinto ;) Don't worry, I'll manage somehow, ne )

Eve: You're still a lazy ass!

Eve...growls I've a life to live besides this here! And you're just hanging around, YOU are lazy!

Eve: Let me go hunting! There are plenty Anime and Manga characters who deserves to be shot down...

-Eve and Celes begin to quarrel loudly–

Toph: Look, before this gets too long, like the last time (Celes: -coughs-), I'll talk the rest of this Author's Note. Like you can see, Celes is happy, means that there wasn't a manga character that had died (yet) of her favourites. She wants to thank everyone who has reviewed for the One-Shots. She hopes that you all are willing to read on the chapters she will write in the future. Thank you very much. –indicates a bow–

Zuko: Disclaimer: Neither Toph, nor I, Zuko, belong to Celes. None of the Avatar-staff. They're belonging to Nick and two men whose names I can't remember right now.

Celes wishes to own Toph and me but that would mean a lot of chaos... C ya next time! Reviews are loved (by Celes, of course...why would I love reviews...? –mutters- )