A/N: First, I'd like to thank everybody who reviewed me. THANKS!!!! 3 This story is as much for me as for you. ^^ Enjoy! :]
Toph was bored. Aang wasn't back yet. It had been an hour!! What was taking so long? Spirits...she sighed. She took the space-rock bracelet off of her arm and started fidgeting with it. Squeeze, clump, squeeze, bracelet, squeeze, clump again, squeeze, bracelet again. She snapped it back on her arm. She paced. She hummed. She practiced her katas. She fixed the stone dresser that she'd taken rock from to cut her hair. She made the bed - sloppily - but it was a made bed nonetheless. She folded her clothes. She paced again. She played with her bracelet again. She tried practicing her katas again.
But she just wasn't focused enough. While going through the motions, she'd accidentally raised a pillar and nearly broke the bed. Ha, she thought to herself, wouldn't be the first time and it won't be the last. She sighed. There was nothing else for it. She had to find something to do. She was going to go wait for Aang.
She left the room with purpose - to find the room that Aang was in and wait for him outside. Her ulterior motive, of course, was to be invited in. It was about time she went back to the job she loved. She wondered briefly if she should ask for it back. What were Aang's plans after this? Surely he wasn't done helping the world fix itself, because he was in a meeting to discuss pirates. Would he leave again? If he was, there was no way she was staying here, husband or no husband. No. Way. She'd learned that lesson the hard way.
She wandered around the palace, the guards making way for her with short bows. She smiled. This was the life. She continued to try to feel where Aang was. This technique would prove useless if one were trying to find one specific person in a specific room - one may as well just barge in on one room after the other. Finding just one person - without any detail - in a huge palace was daunting; finding a war meeting full of people should not have been.
Oh, but it was. The first time she'd thought she'd had it - it was a fancy room, a single figure at the front as if giving a lecture, the rest seeming paying close attention. But when she opened the door a crack to take a listen, the voices were clearly female. She'd stuck around to make sure that this really wasn't it, but she felt none of the familiar heart patterns of the generals and governors she used to work so closely with. She sighed and shut the door.
She found that she identified people by the sound of their hearts, footsteps and most of all voices, like other people identified others by their faces. In the few meeting rooms she'd been to, none of the voices or heartbeats were familiar in the way she would have liked. She'd been around the majority of these people before, but really barely took notice of them. She noticed them the way people noticed their servants or maids; with a quick nod and maybe, over time, a gradual familiarity of their 'faces'. She'd 'seen' all these people before; trainee Dai Li agents, assistants to governors, maids, servants, general scribes-men, accountants to the king...basically everybody who she didn't particularly care about at the moment.
After the fifth room of nobodies, Toph was getting annoyed. Where the hell was Aang?! She grumbled inaudibly. Maybe if she could see this would be easier. Maybe there were little arrow-signs on the wall, pointing the seeing-folk in the direction of some sort of main-meeting hall. She'd already been to all of the major halls - and Aang and his stupid meeting were no where in sight. Urhg. She settled on going back to the room to wait.
She got to the room and tried to wait - but it was pure torture. She sat down for just twenty minutes before she was out trying to find him again, worried now. She searched the smaller rooms with less people that she had skipped over before, she searched the dining hall and the throne room and even the kitchens. She knew they weren't going to be in the kitchens, but when you're trying to find something, it's usually in the last place you would look - it had made sense at the time. She grew anxious. Where was he? Where?
After finishing the search of a bathroom - he might have had to pee - she officially gave up. But she was panicked. What if something happened to him?! Wouldn't they have to consult her?! She was going to be, well, a lot of things to Aang. She already was a lot of things to him. They should have come straight to her, she was as good as any relative - oh, no. What if they already had tried to come find her but she was wandering around looking for him?! What if he really was in trouble or something and she'd been wasting valuable time?! She had to get back to the room, now! They might come by later, looking again. They would have to! And she turned and ran full-tilt towards her room.
Once she got there, she paced frantically. She was ashamed to admit it, but she even let a few tears slide down her cheeks. Her throat felt like it was on fire. She couldn't sit still for worry; how long would it take them to get back to her room and tell her that something happened to Aang?
But maybe, a little voice said in the back of her head, she was just over-reacting. So what if she couldn't find the hall? They never said they were going to be in the palace - she had only assumed it was to the King's Chambers he was called; that was where all the major meetings were held. Maybe she was jumping to conclusions...?
But then where was Aang? He didn't have to be in the King's Chamber, but he would have been in another hall for the meeting, and she'd searched all of them. She let out a cry of exasperation. Where was Aang?!
She jumped up to leave again - somebody somewhere had to know something. She wretched the doors open and ran headlong into somebody she hadn't noticed was there. They both fell backward onto their backsides. Suddenly, Toph knew it was him.
"Aang!!" she yelled out, and jumped up quickly to swallow him in a hug.
"Hey, Toph...what's up?" he asked, voice a little shaky from surprise.
"I was just so worried! Where were you? I tried to find you but you weren't anywhere in the palace-and-you-might-have-been-hurt-and-I-just...oh I was worried" she said quickly, the words just spilling out of their own accord.
"We were out on the lawns. It's a beautiful day and General Howe suggested we take the meeting outdoors instead of staying in the stuffy meeting room..." he explained in an amused tone.
"What's funny?" Toph asked, slightly annoyed.
The lawns. The freaking lawns?! Really!? She'd been worried sick! And what's worse is now Aang knew how worried she had been. She stood up and didn't bother dusting herself off. She turned to storm into the room, embarrassed at having shown Aang just how much she was in love with him, how vulnerable she felt when he wasn't around. But a hand gripped her shoulder gently and spun her to face Aang again.
"Nothing's funny...I was just surprised that you were so worried about me"
"Well...I was. I hate it when I don't know where you are. It's clingy and stupid but...it reminds me of...well, when you weren't around"
Aang wrapped her in a hug; she loved how much taller he was than she, and how much broader.
"It's not stupid, and it's not clingy. You panicked when you thought I was in trouble. I can definitely understand that...when I went to the Fire Nation with Zuko and Katara, and you wanted to come with me...." he voice became hushed and pained, "I almost had a heart attack. If you were anywhere near trouble I would have never forgiven myself...even if you weren't there because of me, which you would have been. You could have been there for Zuko or Sokka or anybody else and I still would have tried to convince you to stay in the Earth Kingdom. Just the thought of you there at that time still gives me the shivers"
"I felt like I had a little heart attack every second you were gone, you know. I know in my letters I tried to sound confident and blase...but every time I thought of you in danger and started to hyperventilate...it was awhile before my Mother felt comfortable letting me go to Ba Sing Se with the confidence I wouldn't breathe myself to death" Toph laughed quietly, remembering the six, seven times a day where her mother and numerous servants would fan her and hand her water just because they thought she was breathing funny...and the eight or nine more times that she was.
Toph looked up, and felt that Aang was looking down at her; their noses touched. Silent communication passed between them, saying, 'I love you'. And then the kiss just happened. They backed up to the bed, the backs of Toph's legs hitting the soft mattress before Aang Air-Bended the door closed. It was many passion-filled but sweaty hours later that a knock resounded in the room.
"Toph Bei Fong?" an official-sounding voice nearly shouted. Toph, who had been laying down, using Aang's naked stomach as a pillow, started up and stared in the direction of the door - as if that would help. Aang sat up as well and took a handful of the blankets and covered Toph's body with it. She took up the initiative, having forgot she was naked as well, and wrapped it securely around herself. Aang leaned over and pressed his lips to her ear.
"Hide somewhere, the other room, under a bed, somewhere where they won't think to look"
She complied. She found another bedroom and hid behind a panel of curtains lining one wall. She laid down on the floor so her figure wouldn't jut out of the seemingly flat wall. Thoughts raced through her head as she felt Aang answer the door and just barely heard, "I think you've got the wrong house if you're looking for Mrs. Goda"
She tried to keep her breathing rate down to avoid being heard. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. Oro was sending people to look for her; she knew he would. He wouldn't just let her go, of course not. How could she think of actually sharing a room with the Avatar?! She was going to sully his good name! The Avatar, sleeping with a married woman. Of course she would never be respected again, either. She thought about the agent who had been sent; they would probably leave when Aang said she wasn't there. Worst comes to worst, they would do a preliminary sweep of the place. She was well-hidden on the floor, pressed against the wall. She would probably look like a rather large wrinkle as the curtain hit the floor.
Then her heart gave a start. Her backpack. Had Aang thought to hide it before he answered the door?! Why hadn't she? Why would she just leave it out in the open like that? How stupid of her! She wanted to hit herself upside the head. They might not get to reenact their plan! It would certainly be harder if they couldn't communicate. If she went back to Oro, he would never forgive her! The only natural light she would ever see again would be through a window! She felt her eyes start to brim, but she blinked rapidly to dispel the sensation. Tears wouldn't help her now.
She listened as the argument at the door became more and more heated, until finally the door swung open on squeaky hinges and slammed against the wall behind it. Clomping footsteps entered the house. She didn't recognize the intruder. But he did sound vaguely familiar...Aang protested, but it soon gave way to irritated mutterings. She both listened and felt as the agent came closer and closer to the room she hid in, until finally the door was opened, and two sets of footsteps entered the room. The first a very uneasy and nervous Twinkletoes, the other...the other a very irritated, angry sounding Dai Li agent.
A/N: Also, please COMMENT. I LOVE THEM.