Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA. This is going to be my last chapter for a while!
Katara's eyes widened, looking at her friend.
"You're what?" she cried out, gripping Toph's thin shoulders. The young dropped her head in shame. Katara looked around the room wildly, as though the culprit of impregnating her friend would be hidden somewhere in the curtains or the closet.
"Katara, please don't tell anyone!" she begged. Katara nodded numbly. They remained sitting together for hours, not saying anything. Finally, Katara squeezed Toph's shoulder and left, leaving her friend alone. Toph sighed, falling back on her bed again, feeling her stomach begin to heave again.
"Toph? Are you there?" Toph recognized Zuko's voice.
"Go away, Sparky," she yelled.
"No, Toph, talk with me!" he called through the door.
"I said, leave me alone!" she shouted angrily, bending the stones outside in the courtyard. She heard a few screams and calmed down, letting the roiling ground calm back into its normal flat state. Zuko continued to pound on the door. Toph groaned angrily, leaping out the window into the courtyard. A few people shouted at her sudden appearance.
"Toph, come back here!" Zuko shouted through the window. She ignored him and continued running, using the earth beneath her bare feet to move faster, towards the volcano edges around the city. She stopped at the top of the volcano walls, tears pouring down her cheeks.
"Toph, are you okay?" She jumped slightly at Aang's just before he touched down beside her. She sighed, turning towards him.
"It's nothing, Twinkle toes."
"Toph, you're my friend. I can't bear to see you like this," he said earnestly. She sighed, placing hand on his shoulder, patting it.
"I'm fine, Twinkles." Aang shook his head, regarding his friend closely. Toph sat on the ground, swinging her feet over the edge of the city, breathing deeply. Aang sat next to her; not bothering to ask anything, knowing Toph was too stubborn to say anything after her mind was made up.
"How are things in Gaoling?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Fine. I'm getting married, did you know?" she said, almost happily. His eyes widened.
"Wow, congrats. I didn't think you would—"
"Ever settle down? Get married? Yeah I know, me neither," she chuckled dryly. "But I'm twenty years old and my parents are thinking of entrusting the family legacy to me and I need to settle down and start caring for my people."
"Who?"
"Captain Yuan. He's part of the Earth king's armies," she explained. He nodded, fingering his staff gingerly as Toph sat silently.
"So… do you like him?" Aang asked. She shrugged. Aang raised an eyebrow at her before posing the question again.
"He's a good guy, but I don't think I could like him the way Katara likes you," she replied. The Avatar nodded again and rose from his seat, opening his glider.
"Well, if you ever need to talk, you know where I am," he said finally and flew back to the Palace. Toph listened to the monk's airbending until she could not hear it any longer and dropped her head into her hands.
"Toph," she muttered angrily to herself. "You really have screwed this one."
"I think I have to agree with that!" a shrill voice said behind her. Toph leapt to her feet, launching a wave of rocks at the two people behind her. They dodged and she felt one of them charging towards her, shooting fire from her fists. Toph felt the heat coming closer and disappeared into the ground, moving underground until she was behind her attackers and came bursting from the ground, firing as much earth as she could.
"Get her Azula!" Toph's eyes widened, recognizing the ex-Fire Lord's voice. She ducked under another blast of flame when the air grew still and she heard crackling. Lighting. Toph swore angrily under her breath and brought up a shield as Azula unleashed her lightning in Toph's direction. The impact knocked the wall backwards, sending Toph reeling over the edge of the volcano walls and down towards the outskirts of the city. She screamed until she landed in a bush, scratched and annoyed. Azula and Ozai came sliding down behind her, cackling.
"Enough, little earthbender," Azula sneered, clamping irons on Toph's wrists before she could react. Toph grinned, feeling the earth within the metal and easily bended out of it, knocking Ozai to the ground and turning her entire focus on Azula.
"Look, Princess Crazy, I don't know what your problem is but I seriously think you need to get a life," she snarled, pelting the princess with attack after attack. Azula cried out, tripping over a tree root as one of Toph's boulders hit her in the chest. Toph tied their hands behind their backs, lifting both the princess and the ex-Fire Lord into the air with her bending before heading back towards the palace.
The guards at the door looked on in awe as Toph entered the palace with screaming Azula and subdued Ozai, both sending steaming glares to everyone who looked at them. She headed to the royal hall, bursting through the doors. Aang cried out in alarm and Zuko jumped from his seat, his mouth open as his father and sister were dropped on the ground before him.
"Toph, what the—how did you—?"
"They attacked me on the outskirts of the city and I was able to capture them," she announced. The Fire Sages fled the room, leaving Zuko, Toph, and the Avatar alone.
"Zuko?" Aang asked, looking up at the Fire Lord. Zuko sighed, parting the flames and descended from his seat, looking with contempt at his father and sibling.
"They escaped a few weeks ago and were searching for you," he said, answering Aang's unspoken question. Aang's expression was hurt and angry, glaring at the man next to him.
"You brought me here as bait?" he cried.
"No, I asked you to come to tell you about their escape. I never imagined they would follow you here," Zuko said. Aang's brow furrowed, staring at the ex Fire Lord.
"But you knew this could happen."
"Yes," Zuko said in defeat. "I had thought they might follow you here but I didn't think they were stupid enough to do it." Azula glared at her brother, blowing steam from her nose. Aang sighed, clasping his hands behind his back and looked at Toph for the first time since she'd entered, noting the scrapes and cuts all over her arms and face.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly.
"Peachy." He chuckled but his expression grew serious once more.
"Zuko, who could you let something like this happen?" he asked in disbelief. Zuko winced, hurt by Aang's tone of voice. It reminded him of his father as he failed his fire bending test in front of his grandfather and then again at the war meeting that caused his banishment.
"We all make mistakes, Aang," he said.
"Not this big!"
"Look!" Zuko roared. "They're back. We caught them. No harm was done!"
"No harm? Zuko more harm was done than you can possibly imagine! The people who was them will now think they are unsafe, that their Fire Lord and Avatar are failing at their jobs, that the war isn't over!" Aang shouted, air swirling violently throughout the room as the bald monk grew angry at his friend's incompetence. Zuko shouted angrily, flames escaping him his mouth. Aang took a few steps back, poising his hands to fight is necessary. They both stopped when they heard Ozai laughing.
"You two are pathetic," he snarled.
"Get him out of here!" Zuko ordered. Toph called for guards from the outside and the past Fire Lord and his daughter were taken to prison.
Note: please enjoy! I promise to update in August!