Chapter Fourteen
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Be My Date
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The favor Aang requested was as follows:
Tokka's parents had sent their daughter an invitation to a party they were determined to throw in her honor since she had recently come of age, and they wanted every available male of notability and every person of notability with an available male friend or relative of notability in the Earth Kingdom to know their daughter was now a suitable age for marriage. The message refused Toph any "if's, and's or but's" about the matter, insisting that she attend under stiff penalty of entirely disowning her if she did not comply. Toph was more than willing not to comply and for them to follow through with their threat to disown her, but after much convincing from her friends that that is not what she wanted to do, she gave in under the condition that they all attend the party with her in order to keep her from having a complete meltdown in her parents' home and blasting the entire estate to the ground.
Aang relayed all of this information to Meng though in a more frantic and hysterical manner.
"So what's the favor?" Meng reminded him as he gasped for breath.
"We need dates. I need a date," he breathed. "Be my date?"
Meng had not expected this, and her heart leapt to hear his sweet—though less than eloquent—proposal.
"Really, Aang?" she asked, feeling that it must be too good to be true: that he come to see her, that he even show up on her balcony at night, that he ask her to go to a glamorous party with him—all of it!
"Yes, Meng, I really need your help. Katara will be going, too, and I need to show her that I've moved on."
So it was too good to be true.
"Oh," she mumbled, completely crestfallen. "So you want me to go out with you because of Katara and not because of me?"
Comprehension of the effect his preceding words and actions had on her struck Aang like a lightning bolt. "Meng, God, no, that's not…it came out wrong. I do want to go with you. Because of you."
She listened carefully, hoping he would go on and say something very romantic to her now.
"But also a little bit because of Katara. She wants to be friends now, and I need to show her that we really can be friends, and if I have a date to the party, then she'll know I've moved on," Aang explained, thinking it would help.
It didn't.
"It's still about her. And it will probably always be about her," she sniffed, tears rushing to her eyes.
"No, Meng, I—"
"Damn it, Aang, get off my balcony!" she cried and rushed back inside before he could see her cry.
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Meanwhile, another midnight encounter was about to take place.
Toph's eyes snapped open, and she jumped to her feet as a noise from outside entered through her bedroom window. She whipped back the covers and silently hurried to the backdoor, passing by Katara and Sokka's sleeping forms in the living room. Her feet did not feel vibrations of anyone moving around out there, but still she felt the presence of someone other than her friends nearby.
She quietly slid the backdoor open and edged out, limbs tensed and ready to act and react. Leaves rustled, but there was no wind.
"The tree," she thought and crept over to it.
Sure enough she heard a near inaudible intake of breath; and when she placed a hand on the tree, she very faintly felt the flutter of a heartbeat travel through the branches, limbs, and trunk into her fingertips.
"Sorry, Sir Shady Friend," she thought quietly to the tree with a gentle pat…
…which she followed with a kick so fierce as to rock the entire tree and shake the trespasser out of it…
…and fall directly on top of her, knocking her to the ground, the intruder atop her.
"So you found me," he said. "Good God, Sweetfeet, you are amazing."
Toph recognized the voice, but she was much too shocked to say anything.
"What was that sound? What's going on out here?" came Katara's voice. "Sokka, get a light."
"Already got one," Sokka said, rushing past her into the backyard where the light and his eyes fell upon the image of Toph pinned beneath Stonehenge.
"You!" Sokka hissed.
Stonehenge tore his admiring gaze from Toph and looked up at Sokka with a mocking grin. "Me," he confirmed.
Toph finally gathered her wits and prepared a kick very similar to the one before, though she planned to knock off something quite different this time…
…but she did not have a chance to execute it…
…because suddenly Sokka had tackled Stonehenge and pinned him to the ground.
"Sokka!" Katara cried as Toph lay stunned, feeling with her sprawled out form the actions taking place.
"You think flowers and a card give you the right to stalk her in the middle of the night, you sick freak!" Sokka shouted between an onslaught of punches, most of which, it infuriated him to see, Stonehenge capably blocked and deflected, though some, it viciously gratified him, snapped the guy's head back quite sharply.
"Wait, what?" Toph asked, standing to her feet. Sokka suspended his assault. "Pixieshit, you sent me the flowers?"
"If you got them, then you know I did," Stonehenge replied. He knocked Sokka's arms aside and flipped him over as he used Earthbending to bind his hands and feet to the ground, immobilizing him.
"I got the flowers," she said, then stonily, "What did you do with the card, Sokka?"
"I didn't do anything," he lied, seething with anger and wrenching against his bindings.
"Tell me the truth!" Toph shouted.
Sokka lowered his head and muttered, "I threw it away."
Angry pause.
"Why would you do that?"
"Because you hate this guy, and you were going to throw it out anyway," he shouted.
"But it was my decision to do that, not yours! I can handle myself, and I don't need you to step in and do it for me!" She turned on Stonehenge next. "And what the hell are you even doing here stalking me? If you've got a death wish, I suggest you start prayin'." She cracked her knuckles menacingly. "But maybe you'd better start prayin' anyway."
"Toph, is it really that weird to you that a guy wants to be near you?" Stonehenge asked gently.
"Don't listen to that crap!" Sokka cried. "Toph, he—"
"Don't speak to me!" she shouted without turning. Her back was to him, and he felt the rejection keenly.
"Stonehenge, my parents are throwing a ridiculously expensive and unnecessary party for me that is sure to bore everyone who goes to tears," she said. "You want to be near me so bad? Then be my date."
"Toph!" Sokka shouted, but she ignored him.
"I'd love to be your date," Stonehenge accepted.
"Great," she said flatly. "Now get the hell out of here."
Stonehenge nodded and departed.
"You, too," she said as she passed by Sokka on her way back to the house.
"What, leave? Toph, come on," Sokka started.
"I want you gone. Until you can learn to respect my privacy, we're not friends."
"Toph!"
"Get lost, Sokka," she said lifelessly.
"Kind of hard since I kind of can't move!" he bellowed, losing his temper again.
"Figure it out!" she bellowed back and slammed the door shut.
"What the hell is her problem?" Sokka shrieked. "What's she getting all upset over this for? He's a stalker! That's not the kind of guy she needs around! She should count herself as lucky to have me to protect her! How many other guys would take on an Earthbending prodigy?"
"You shouldn't have taken him on at all," Katara said.
"Whatever," he snapped. "Where's Aang? He'll be a friend and help get me out of this dirt trap."
Suddenly Katara realized the Airbender was not there, that she hadn't seen him since they all went to sleep in the living room.
"Where is Aang?" she asked worriedly.
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Meng awoke, and memories from the night before broke her heart all over again. She couldn't believe her supremely bad luck to have fallen twice for the same guy that ended up hurting her twice for the same girl. On the one hand, she knew it had happened, but on the other, it simply did not seem real.
"It is real, though," she continued to repeat to herself. "He doesn't want me, never has, never will, and it's time I just accept that because I can't change it."
Still, she had the urge to wallow in her grief, and she felt the balcony, aka The Site of Where It All Came Clear, the most perfectly miserable spot for the wallowing to take place.
She opened the glass door without pulling aside the blinds and stepped out into bright morning sun, feeling that it should have been a little less bright and a little more mournful, but she decided to do with it what she could and proceeded to heave a mighty sob.
Something stirred behind her, and she jumped with terror, whipping around to see what it was.
It was Aang, propped up against the sliding door, asleep.
Meng knelt beside him and shook his arm.
"What are you doing here so early?" she hissed, suddenly aware of all the groupies who could awake at any moment to find them there. She clapped a hand to Aang's mouth to stifle his loud yawn
"I'm not here early," Aang mumbled into her hand.
He pulled her hand away from his mouth. "I never left," he said.
Meng bit her lip, not daring to be hopeful again.
"I'm not trying to leave you, Meng. I want to get to know you better." He saw the doubt in her eyes. "Really, I do."
She remained dubious. "I don't want to play games, Aang," she stated.
"I'm not trying to play games with you," he said. "I know how much that hurts, and the last thing I want to do is hurt someone else the same way."
Meng nodded, not meeting his eyes.
"Meng…" She loved hearing her name on his lips. "I would love it if you'd go to the party with me."
She watched him smile at her, and she felt herself smile back. Then she closed her eyes, and even though she wasn't quite sure which of them moved first, she always wanted to remember that moment as the moment Avatar Aang forgot about everything else and just kissed her.
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To be continued…
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A/N:
Yay! I managed to finish this for today! I feel terribly icky right now, but the chapter is still up, so huzzah! I don't really have much to say right now except I hope you enjoy/ed the chapter. And, of course, please leave a review and let me know your thoughts and such!
Ugh, I feel icky. Heugh!
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P.S.
Not mine. Except Stonehenge. Oh, Stonehenge, you stalker, you. Guess Toph's into it, though...? o.O