XII. Comeuppance
Toph was dreaming. Being blind she didn't really dream in images but in how images felt. She was in the middle of an Earth Rumble Six, she was still the Blind Bandit and the current Champion. She raised the belt over her head when she could feel little chubby earthbenders grappling her legs and skirts, they were trying to reach the belt. "No" she said "This is not a toy". Then the little chubby kids started flying all over the place and one of them grabbed the belt and started hitting her on the head with it. "Stop it right now, little airbenders from hell!!" she screamed in the dream. The pounding continued. She opened her eyes suddenly realizing someone was knocking at her door. She got up from bed, trying to remember the dream. She opened the door, scratching herself, with a yawn.
"Toph!" Katara said in her scolding tone. "Wake up. Everyone is waiting for you. Piandao has been ready with brushes and ink practically since dawn." Toph yawned again. She was still half asleep and went straight to her bed. As soon as her head hit the pillow again a surge of memories came back. Kuei, the trial, the Contest, Sparky, Twinkle Toes… by the Spirits …
TwinkleToes!!
Toph shot up in the bed.
"I don't know where he is, probably with the elders." Katara said. Had she just said his name aloud? Katara was looking for something. "I need to tell Gran-Gran to get you lamps in here. Come, let's go to the washroom, I need to brush your hair and you need to change clothes, these are all wrinkled. You must have been tossing and turning like a maniac last night, look at how rumpled these are" Katara hummed under her breath "By the Moon, Toph, you did chose your clothes by yourself. These pieces really don't match." Katara sighed, considering something. "OK, let's go to my room, I have stuff I can lend you."
Toph was too much on a daze to think.
"No water tribe colors." She said.
"It's OK" Katara said, "I have Earth Kingdom colors. Come on."
Katara led Toph by the hand while all the way the earthbender kept trying to piece together the memories from the night before. She really didn't know for sure when she had fallen asleep, but she did know that she had been making out with Twinkle Toes for quite a while. Making out and talking. He had said things that she wasn't sure she should know about, and that coming from a naturally curious person was saying a lot. Curious, but not gossipy. The upper hand was always in knowing and she just knew things about everybody. But this time it had to do with confidences and that was a complete different game. Information you found out because people were careless, was yours. Information freely given to you, always belonged to the owner. Those were the rules. Katara was still talking.
"We need to get this rolling before the initiation of the Contest is announced. Actually, Piandao and Sokka made the flyers to be posted all around the outer village anyway, and they are sending them to all ports in the vicinity. There is no drawing of your face but it mentions your fortune. Actually, it's probably best if you don't see those. You may flip" they got to Katara's room. Toph walked inside still scratching herself. "Stop scratching!" said her friend. Katara picked up stuff, grabbed her by the hand and started walking with her again. "And look at your hair, you probably have more tangles than a sailor's rope" somehow the analogy seemed fitting, but Toph couldn't figure out why "Honestly Toph, you could use some of your society lessons. I will have to fix you up like yesterday."
Toph shook her head.
"Not like yesterday." She said seriously. "Too many … problems yesterday" She made a quick calculation about the previous day. She had gone from sweet-sixteen-never-been-kissed to a smorgasbord of political upheaval, marriage proposals and Research. Lot's of research. They reached the bath house and Toph heard Katara bending water in the tub. All her movements were eager and purposeful.
"Are you angry?" Toph asked, not really wanting to know, but needing to know. Katara kept moving.
"Of course not. What makes you think so?"
"You seem full of … energy."
"This is me in the South Pole, pure energy." Toph scratched her head. The hag in the back, who had obviously come back, whispered in her ear. Ten months of pure energy? this is not the right time for confessions.
Katara mumbled something about a firebender, and went out to get someone. She came back some time later with Sparky.
"Hi, Champ." He said seeming happy to see her. "You slept until very late today." He bent over the water heating it. Katara was stomping her little feet, impatiently. Toph wanted to remind her that, after all, this was the Crown Fire Prince and Fire-Lord-to-be-in-less-than-a-year doing menial chores as a favor, so some modicum of respect was warranted, but Katara was really too jumpy to risk it. Sparky, on the other hand, seemed oblivious to that fact. Toph wondered how much meditation and firebending practice he had to go through to reach the inner calm he was displaying, knowing as she knew about his misconceptions about the night before. "I still have the chocolates you didn't finish last night." He said casually. "You want them?" Katara little feet stopped.
"What chocolates?" She asked.
"The ones that Toph was eating in my room." He seemed content with the water. "I think is hot enough for you, Champ." He said and she heard him shaking the water from his hand. He came over and kissed her forehead lightly. "See you in a little while. There are already some suitors lining up and we need to plan what to do with them." He turned and left without saying anything to Katara. Katara tried to feign indifference.
"What were you doing in his room last night?" She asked lightly while helping her out of her robes. Toph sank in the bathtub. Hot enough? he had no idea. She was alone, with no earth to bend, next to a ten-month-energy-filled waterbender and immersed in a tub full of water. Things could not get worse than this. Really.
"Talking." She said, succinctly. Katara started brushing her hair, with rapid movements.
"About what?"
"The Contest. OUCH!"
"What's his opinion?"
"That the current plan sucks and I'll be put to death by your lot. OUCH! Are you sure you want to do this right now? I only have one head!"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Because you are angry. OUCH! That's it, Unsweetness, LET ME GO!"
Katara stopped. She breathed deeply, and reassumed the brushing with calmer strokes.
"I'm not angry. I'm just tense."
"You don't say." Toph sank back in the water, understanding for the first time in her life Sparky's conflicting musings about atonement. When you feel like you have wronged someone, you also become willing to put up with all their … rubbish. It's called guilt said her first conscience, the nice one.
Silence followed. Katara's brushing became less emotional and more soothing.
"Aren't you going to ask me about the goods?" She asked suddenly. Toph thought that what she herself knew about the goods could fill a library, so it was better to shut up. She opted for her airbender tactics.
"Do you want to tell me about the goods?"
"Not really." Katara make a little sound, like biting her lips. "It was a disaster." She said suddenly. Toph thought about how to react. She decided to stay quiet. "A real disaster" Katara continued, while pouring creams or something in her hair. "I called him by the wrong name." Toph tried to act surprised.
"No! Really? Whose name?" Katara stopped and said, suspicion in her voice.
"Did you know about this?"
"How could I?" Toph asked, straight faced. Katara reassumed the brushing.
"I called him …" She stopped and then went forward, "by Zuko's nickname."
"Really? The same nickname you were calling him when you were all over him while drunk?" Katara gasped in horror.
"I called him by that name in front of everybody?"
"Relax. Only in front of Suki and me. You came to your senses, partially, with your brother and Twinkle Toes in the room."
"This is so embarrassing." Katara mumbled.
"The nickname is, I agree. A complete embarrassment." Toph paused for a moment. "What did you tell him after you called him by the wrong name?"
"I didn't say anything. I just told him I was really tired and needed to go to bed." Katara sighed. "Now I am terrified that he's going to ask me what that means. What am I going to tell him?"
"Tell him that it's a fruit." Toph said deadpan.
"You are joking."
"It sounds like a fruit. Tell him that it's from the tropics, and that you have been missing some fresh fruit over here. For ten moths to be precise."
"Are you serious? Is he going to believe such stupid excuse?"
"I am absolutely serious. TT's capability for self deception knows no boundaries. Like yours. Anyway, just follow my lead on this. A kuku is a fruit from warmer climates. Tasty, obviously" she added, maliciously. Katara was still considering the possibility. Toph decided that disaster may have been averted, rinsed her hair and stepped out of the bathtub. Katara helped her dry her hair and get dressed. The clothes were warm and comfortable. By now she didn't care if they were nice like the ones from the day before.
"Do I look like yesterday?" She asked. Katara circled her.
"You look good, but not like yesterday."
"Good. Nice clothes and looking too good obviously mean disaster. I don't know how you do it, being the coveted wench in the group. Now I know why Suki hides behind all that Kyoshi apparel. Self protection."
Katara was amused.
"Thinking about it, my hairdo did protected me." She mumbled to herself. "Probably too much."
They walked toward the main building. At least that's where Toph thought they were going, it was hard for her to figure out her way. They suddenly heard rushing of light feet and Toph's heart jumped. By now, even on bamboo, wood and ice, she could recognize those steps anywhere. Toph felt her cheeks burning, against her will.
"Katara! Toph!" Aang's happy voice reverberated in the corridor. "Look what I got?" He came over and put something in her hands and Katara's. She touched the dry, rough surface.
"What are these?" she asked afraid of the answer.
"Dried plums. Fruit. You said you missed fruit." She thought about killing him right there, but too late. The cat was officially out of the bag. "I tried to get the ones you said you liked a lot, but none of the merchants seem to have heard of it. So I got you the best next thing. Katara, look at this, dried mangoes. Your favorite. So now you don't have to keep thinking about fruit all the time, and eat some instead." He seemed so proud that it was heartbreaking. Katara played with the bag in her hand.
"Fruit." She said slowly. "By any chance, are those fruits that Toph likes so much called kukus?"
"And you too." He said surprised. "You like them too. You were talking about them last night."
She assented and grabbed Toph's arm.
"Aang, you're the best. Thank you." Katara said with her sweetest voice "Always thinking about others. I love fruit. I have been missing fresh fruit very badly for almost a year now, and these are perfect. Now, if you excuse us, Toph and I need to talk about girly stuff."
Toph could barely whisper, "Thank you TT", before Katara dragged her by the arm to the closest room with a door.
Toph heard her slam the door and cringed. Out of sheer self preservation she looked for a weapon, anything, and then she remembered her space bracelet. With a swift movement she removed it from her arm and held it in her hand at her back. For some inexplicable reason she remembered something that Captain Yin told her once while training "If you are going on the offensive, your best ally is always the element of surprise. You lose that, you lose the battle."
Toph stomped her feet.
"You're on your own woman! I'm through with helping you!"
"Helping me?" Katara was surprised.
"Yes, what do you think was all that about the fruit? Me, saving your neck!"
Katara obviously knew her too well because she did not fall for that one.
"Aha" she said "And why, when and where were you talking to Aang about fruit?"
Toph was silent for a moment.
"Last night." She answered, truthfully. Darn with the guilt, it was making her act weird.
"Was this before or after the chocolates?"
"After"
"And why does Aang come to talk to you about fruit?"
"Well, you know, we are friends. He confides in me."
"So you guys were talking about me last night?"
"Not all the time, no."
"What else did you talk about? This is very private, I cannot believe he told you about it!"
"You did too!"
"It's different! You're my friend! How am I supposed to know that my stuff is safe with you if you talk about things like that with him?"
"Are you nuts? Do you know how many petty, silly secrets I know about all of you? The luck of the blind, I get told everything and what I don't, I usually find out for myself in the worse way. And do you know what I do with the secrets? I KEEP THEM, shut tight, inside!"
"Well" she could hear Katara crossing her arms "I know you. Better than anyone does in the world, actually. You start screaming and attacking when something is bothering you. So, what's eating you up right now? Why didn't you tell me that you knew about last night when I brought it up?"
Toph considered her options. Knowing Aang, there was a possibility that he may actually end up confessing everything to Sugar Queen, if they ever managed to move forward in that sui generis relationship of them. And knowing both of them, they were actually capable of ignoring all the bells and whistles of alarm around them, all those voices coming down from the heavens screaming impending doom, and go ahead with their Commitment Ceremony. She did a quick calculation in her head. And decided right there that honesty was the only way she could, and would, deal with her friend. A friendship not capable of withstanding honesty was not worth it. And anyway, she may be dead in a week. That put things in perspective.
"I didn't tell you because…" she bit her lip. "Because I kissed Aang."
Katara was open mouthed.
"You kissed Aang?" she said.
"Yes. As research."
"You…. kissed Aang?" she repeated.
"As research!"
Katara sat down in some piece of furniture. The Water Tribes were not big on furniture, so Toph assumed this was probably a gift from some other nation. It seemed like an earth kingdom chair.
"What kind of research?" she asked finally, after what felt like an eternity. Toph understood that Katara was grappling with a wave of conflicting emotions.
"He wanted to know if he was the problem. I wanted to know if he was the problem too."
Katara was touching something with her fingers. The chair had arms. Weird. She had felt those chairs before. They were available in posh houses, like hers.
"And?" Katara asked. "What was the result of the research?"
"He's not the problem."
"Did you tell him that?" Katara asked, some level of panic in her voice.
"Of course not, what happens in the swamp stays in the South Pole." answered Toph with certainty.
Katara was silent for a moment.
"And how do you know he's not the problem? I don't recall you having good parameters of comparison yesterday morning." she asked with shrewdness. Toph made another calculation. In for a pound, in for a pound and a half. She slid closer to the door and assumed a defensive stance.
"When I went for chocolates, I kissed Sparky too."
"You kissed Zuko too?" Katara's voice was really, really surprised and one second away from turning into really, really angry.
"As research, I'm telling you!"
Katara went berserk.
"You kissed Zuko?? And you called me a hussy?"
"Uh, uh, awkward, meet pain" mumbled Toph.
Years of training with soldiers meant that Toph was always aware of her terrain and her odds of winning a battle. So she quickly bent her bracelet into an impromptu cuff and brought it down on her friend's wrist pinning her to the arm of the chair and … ran. Like hell. Like a blind earthbender on ice about to be followed by a very angry waterbender on ice. "Just as a reminder" she yelled over her shoulder before slamming the door "you should be angry at me for kissing Aang!!"
Toph ran, blindly, along the corridor.
"CLEAR THE AISLES!!" she screamed, making fast calculations of how long it would take Katara to snap out of the manacle with her ice. She could hear her in the back, faintly "Toph I swear when I am done you are going to welcome being married to Kuei!!"
She bumped head on with someone. Suki. Thank the Spirits!
"Toph, what's going o…?"
She grabbed her arms, frantically
"Katara knows I kissed Zuko! Ah, and yes, Aang! And she is a waterbender, ON ICE!!"
Suki sprung into action. She clasped Toph's wrist and started running with the girl, like their lives depended on it. Actually, their lives did depended on it so they ran very fast.
"Here!" Suki said, pushing her into a room and then opening a door and pushing her inside. Toph's face hit wood. She felt wood under her feet too, and extending her arms she found herself in a confined space, smelling like dead animals furs. An armoire. Thank the Gods. Well, she knew comeuppance was coming, it always comes at the end, she just didn't expect it so soon.
"Pst" she heard Suki, whispering from the corner of her mouth, her back against the armoire where Toph was hiding "she is going to kill you."
"I know" she was closer to panic now "Moon-doom is here."
"I don't know how to bring this up, but you are either fearless or suicidal. Kissing Aang and Zuko? When did that happen?"
"What do you expect?" she whimpered "I'm about to marry the Spirits know who! I wanted to, I don't know, experience life or something. I need to break rules, it's in my nature!! And anyway, what do you expect me to do with all this ice and no earthbending? I needed some entertainment!"
She heard Suki tapping her chin.
"You know, evolution says that people like you need to die" she paused and then added "ideally, before spawning."
"Bah," she dismissed it "look at the Water Tribes. By evolution standards, they all should be extinct."
"Uh, uh" Suki mumbled, "If I want to be a part of this team, I must start kissing other boys soon."
"Forget Aang and Zuko." Toph answered honestly "Those two are overused."
They remained there for some minutes.
'I don't hear anything." Said Suki. "You know what, you wait here. By all means don't move from here until I tell you that's safe to do so. Let me find Katara and talk to her first. I'll come to get you when the coast is clear."
"OK" mumbled Toph from deep within the closet. She curled up and tried not to go crazy from the wait. Before long, she heard voices coming into the room. A door slammed. She heard Katara's voice and she sounded furious. The other voice was unmistakably Sparky's. Toph's jaw dropped. It was official. Fate hated her. Somehow she had managed to offend the Goddess of Destiny and the deity was doing everything in her power to get even. It had to be, because how else would the Universe explain that from all the joints in this place, these two had to walk right into hers?
"So …" Katara was saying, and she could imagine her in his face. He was probably sweating. Katara always made him sweat. "Everyone is fair game now? You feed me all that garbage about your honor and you kissed Toph? I have no claim over you I know but, for the moon, behind Mai's back? WHERE WAS YOUR PRECIOUS HONOR WHEN YOU WERE FEELING UP MY INNOCENT 16 YEAR OLD FRIEND?" Innocent? Is that how she sees me? "What you did is probably illegal, somewhere!!"
"I DID NOTHING ILLEGAL!!" he yelled back "And I DID NOT feel Toph up! She is like my sister, for Agni's sake!"
"SO YOU GOT FRISKY WITH AZULA TOO? I knew royalty practiced weird customs, but this is beyond…" he must have done something dramatic, like grabbing her or something, because she suddenly went silent.
"Stop" he said and even though he was not yelling, the hardness of this voice felt like he was "Stop. Right Now. Don't make me regret you."
"Me? Regret me? Welcome to my world Zuko, it is full of the most heart crunching regret" her voice was pure venom, and Toph could not imagine what was he doing, but knowing Sparky's short fuse and merciless temper, he was probably shaking her or something. Well, maybe not that, but he was definitively grabbing her by the arms.
"I DID NOT do what you are implying. I would NEVER do that. Can't you see what's happening to me? You are marrying someone else, visiting him late in his rooms, and even then you keep me on a tight leash? I have the right to know if I can move on. So Agni help me, if I have to kiss every woman from here to the North Pole to move on, I will!"
Katara sobbed. Yep, that's Katara alright. True to her element every freaking time: let's open the waterworks!
"What about me?" she said "What do you think is happening to me? What do you think happens every time Aang kisses me? Don't you know that every time I try to move on? But I'm still stuck! Stuck on you!"
She heard Katara pounding weakly on his chest, probably with her fists. Silence followed that declaration. There was some noise, though, and Toph knew that by now he was probably kissing her very hard. And for the feeling of the conversation, she was probably kissing back as hard. By now, Toph was also getting used to the dynamics of the Kuku-Tara relationship: some screaming, some trip-back-down-memory-lane, some crying, some kissing and then back to square one, where he will be sputtering some honor nonsense and she will be getting more frustrated by the minute, declare herself physically incapable of hurting Aang, and then will go back to the idea of marrying the guy. Toph could picture these two in ten, maybe even twenty years from now doing exactly the same thing. An entire lifetime of adultery and regret, meeting in dark corners and having, probably, lip-biting, passionate foot massages. Good luck explaining why Aang's little airbenders can't fly!, she thought, Yep, right there with explaining why baby Gyatso just burned his crib.
By now, the next step in the routine was due. She counted. One, two, three, he should be stopping now and quoting his honor. True to form, she heard Zuko.
"Katara, what are we going to do? How I am going to restore my nation's honor if I can't keep my hands from you?"
"I don't know. I can't think. I can't. I have missed you so much. You understand me like no one does. You don't think I am this goody-goody person, you know how resentful, how implacable I can be, and you accept me as I am"
"I don't want you to change. Ever. I don't want you to stop being selfish or bossy or proud. I am so very bad at being good, that you being this closeted evil person makes all the sense in the world to me" his voice was breathy and kept making weird pauses, so Toph understood that he was probably kissing Katara while he was speaking. Kissing her the Spirits knew where, because the voice was coming from here, and there, and over there.
"You missed me?" he was asking. Her breath was ragged.
"Your voice, your hands, your skin."
"I don't care that you are not good" his voice was like everywhere. How on earth does he manage? "What am I saying? I don't want you to be good."
Toph kept expecting the kissing to end and the entire "I can't do this" thing to start again, but this time it was not stopping. Toph counted again. Nope, no stopping. And then, he said
"Come, let's remove the pain. No more lies, nothing like that between us."
"Nothing happened last night" she said, her voice no more than a whisper.
"Nothing?" his voice was muffled. She then laughed.
"You are going to burn my dress."
"If you really like it, then you better act fast, because I am not stopping."
Toph considered her options. One was certain death at Katara's hands. The other was certain death from embarrassment at listening to the reconciliation. And something told her (may be the experience derived from all those dim-witted romance scrolls) that this type of reconciliation would be time-consuming and privacy-oriented. Lots of time and lots of privacy, and her in the armoire was not in the ideal situation. But also by now Toph was getting really tired of hiding in the smelly armoire. What were Bumi's teachings again? Retreat, attack, stay neutral? There was a fourth one: flee. Like Right Now.
Toph opened the armoire and jumped outside. She heard gasps from both of them. She raised her hands in a placating gesture.
"I am blind." She reminded them. " I can't see what you two look like right now, nor do I care. I guess you forgave Sparky, so please send your evil alter ego back to the closet and forgive me. Just this time. He is telling the truth. He barely kissed me and then accused me of being his little sister. There is no moving from little-sisterhood-doom, so relax. Also, I didn't like it" that was a lie, but Katara did not know that. "And Sparky didn't either. You see, he is branded. By you. OK, that will be all. Continue with your, er, ceasefire. Bye!!" she did not wait for any response and fled. They were probably too aghast to say anything. "Ah Yin", she accepted nodding, while running toward freedom, "nothing like the element of surprise."
Something interesting is happening to me with this my first fanfiction: I have more story alerts than reviews. Is that a good thing? I do appreciate suggestions or critiques if someone has any :-)