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(Toph POV)
"Hey! Arianna!" Dinner was finished. Sokka and Arianna had talked for a while. I had just finished talking to Aang and I think Katara just left to talk to him now.
"Hey, Toph!" She waved as I pulled her through the winding hallways of the palace and out of the palace. We walked all the way to the South end of the Palace City.
"Where are we going?" She asked as we made it to our destination.
"We still have a lot of catching up to do," I explained, "So, I thought we could catch up over here." I smirked as I saw her take in all of her surroundings.
"How is it?" I'm pretty sure she loved it. It must be really pretty with eyes. Too bad I'll never find out.
"It's beautiful." She stared at the scene. From my vision, it was still a pretty sight. It was made after the War ended, in honor of all the four elements. There were small hills coming out of the volcanic rock of the dormant volcano underneath. A medium sized river creeped its way through those hills and fell with a loud crash underneath. There were little creeks all around the Garden that all joined together at the foot of the fall. I could feel the crisp grass underneath and the soft mud around the creeks. Flowers of all kinds scattered themselves throughout the area and swayed to the beat of the wind. Aang told me that most of them were fire lilies, the flower of the Fire Nation. He even found a few panda lilies on the edge of the Volcano above the hills.
"It's the Garden of the Nations." I explained, "It just might be one of the best things Sparky ever did."
I could hear her laughing as I lied on the ground and enjoyed the smell of mud.
"You have some awesome friends, Toph." She sighed, "You're lucky."
"Hey, you have some pretty awesome friends too!" I slapped her back, "You have me!" We both laughed so much.
"Just like the good, ol' times." I laughed.
"Yeah." She agreed, "How'd you become friends with the Avatar?"
I started laughing at the memories and told her the entire story.
"So, you guys basically had a food fight?" She laughed at the thought of a bunch of kids having a food fight in front of myparents. "Wait, what did your parents do?"
"What?"
"What did your parents do when you ran away?" She was careful not to bring up bad memories, but it still did.
"They sent some two idiotic men after me, but I still beat them up!" I boasted. Arianna just laughed and playfully slapped my arm.
"Now that's my Toph!" I could feel the sun's rays fading away and a sense of darkness come. After a few more moments of reminiscing in the memories, she finally asked the dreadedquestion.
"Toph," Her tone became more serious, "Did you ever see your parents after you ran away?"
"Well, I can't actually 'see'-," I played around when she interrupted me.
"Toph. Don't tell me that you never saw them again!"
"I didn't." I softly confessed, "I bet they don't even want to see me again." I defended.
"No," I could feel her hand on my shoulder, "They're your parents, no matter how controlling they are. Don't throw them away. You need them more than you know. Trust me, I would know." I could feel her tense up from the thought of her parents and I didn't know what to say.
"Just promise me that you'll meet them soon." She pleaded.
"Okay." I have to, at least, promise her that.
"Come on. We better go. It's getting pretty late." And she got up and put her hand to help me up too. I just nodded saying that I didn't need it and earthbended myself up.
It must have been a touching sight: two friends, walking with each other's hands on each other's shoulders with the moon behind them; just laughing and enjoying life. Good times…
Aang is rubbing off on me. Damn monk.
(Arianna's POV)
"Where were you guys?" Aang screamed as Toph and I walked into the palace from our "catching up with our childhood best friend" talk was over.
"Sheesh, what's up yourbutt?" I could see the Avatar blushing slightly at the comment and then turn his serious face back on.
"Seriously, Toph!"
"Ugh, we were just at the Garden, Twinkles, calm down." I laughed at how calm she could be. Looking at this from Aang's point of view, us leaving without telling anyone was pretty bad. Then again, he was kind of overreacting.
"Do all Avatars overreact this much?" I whispered questioningly into Toph's ear.
She raised her eyebrows, placed her hands on her hips and asked, "Do I look thatold?"
I just laughed at her humor and walked to the kitchen to get some "midnight" snacks, even though it's only been a few hours since dinner. I pulled at some weird looking meat and was about to take some when Sokka came and grabbed it from my grasp.
"Myseal jerky!" He looked all crazy with disheveled hair and comical eyes.
Katara came behind him with Zuko not far behind. She looked at my confused expression and Sokka holding the seal jerky like he was holding his baby.
"Sokka! Share some with Arianna! I'm so sorry, Arianna." She apologized for her brother, "He gets touchy about his meat."
"Oh!" I laughed, "That's okay."
"But, Katara!" He whined in a baby voice. She just pointed to me.
"Fine." And he reluctantly handed me some. I just took it and stuffed my mouth with it. He looked pretty impressed and shocked at the same time.
"Hey, girls can like meat too." I walked away knowing that he was still staring at me. Katara just smiled at my action; Zuko wasn't even paying attention; Aang and Toph were still at each other.
Yup…
Awesome friends indeed.
(Still Arianna's POV)
*next morning*
"Toph! Wake up!" I'm a firebender; I wake up pretty early. She's Toph; she wakes up pretty late.
I could hear her grunt some inappropriate things and fall back to sleep.
"Toph!" I tried again, "We're having a bending battle soon and if you don't come then you won't get to beat up Aang!"
She jumped up and screamed, "I'll be out in a sec!" Next thing I knew I was on the floor (stomach down) as the door behind me slammed closed.
"She just can't pass up an opportunity to beat up Aang, huh?" I whispered to myself, still on the floor.
"Nope, but that's Toph for you!" I saw some boots right in front of me and looked up.
"Sokka, it's not polite to leave a girl on the floor." I smirked as he brought his hand out and helped me up. It would have been fine if I didn't slip and fall. I was expecting hard floor but instead felt warm skin. I opened my eyes and saw Sokka right in front of me. He just stared into my eyes (I did the same) until we finally noticed what position we were in. He brought me up and started blushing.
"Sorry." He whispered as he looked at my feet.
"It's okay." I blushed as well and bit my lip. He looked up in that classic, stare-at-the-girl-from-toe-to-head move. I laughed the awkwardness of and grabbed his wrist and started pulling him to the kitchen.
"Where to?" He asked.
"I'm hungry." I complained and looked back at him smiling.
"Okay, how this is going to work is that we're going to have two separate groups. Girls: Toph, Katara, and me are in one team. Guys: Sokka, Aang, and Zuko are in the second team. The finalist from each team is going to go against the finalist from the other team. If you fall out of the arena, you're out."
"But Sokka can't bend!" Toph mentioned rather bluntly.
"I'm still as good!" He whined. Everyone started talking. I ended up blasting fire from my mouth into the sky. Everyone shut up after that.
"Now, that we've solved that problem, first up are the guys." All three of them walked into the arena and got into their own stances. I walked into the middle.
"Before we start, Aang, you can only use one kind of bending. You can choose which one." I made sure to announce that before we started. He nodded and I took it as if he already chose. I bet it's air.
"Let the fight begin!" I screamed and walked off the arena before I get burned.
Toph and Katara were cheering from the seats. I just shrugged and screamed, "Go Aang!" Sokka turned to me and gave me that pouty face. "You too, Sokka!" He smiled and turned back with his boomerang and sword. (He got a new one made after his space sword died during Sozin's Comet.)
Zuko was the first to act.
Not surprised. Firebenders are usually the first.
He sent two fire blasts at Aang and Sokka. Sokka, surprisingly, dodged it by flipping backwards.
Didn't know he could do that.
Aang dodged it and sent a series of boulders at Zuko.
Wait! Boulders? He picked earth!I glanced at Toph and I could see her cheering Aang on. Young love. Pretty entertaining.I smiled.
The first thing I saw was Sokka and Aang teaming up on Zuko. Pretty Funny.
Sokka was sending his sword in every open space in Zuko's stance while Aang was helping Sokka from the fire. Out of nowhere Aang sinks into the ground. Zuko didn't notice since now, he was too busy with Sokka. Finally Zuko got fed up of Sokka and sent a fire blast at him and turned to see Aang behind him. Sokka flew all the way out of the ring and onto the floor. All of us girls were staring at him to see if he would come up. In a second, he pounced back up and screamed, "I'm okay!" He had the biggest smile in the world for someone who lost. He ran over to the seats and sat beside me. I stared at him and saw a pretty big burn near his eye.
"Sokka! You got burned!" I ripped some of my skirt and poured some water from my bottle onto the piece of cloth. I started dabbing it near his eye. A blush crept on his cheek and that's when I noticed how close we were.
"Stop with the blushing, Sokka. I'm just helping you. I can stop if you want, but I doubt that you would want to end up like Zuko." His eyes grew big in the thought of him having a scar just like Zuko. I rolled my eyes. He just smiled and let me keep dabbing the dirt off his burn. I figured that after the dirt's out, Katara could heal the burn.
"You did good out there!" Trying to make small talk.
"But I lost." He whispered. He had those puppy dog eyes and I couldn't resist anymore. I kissed him on the cheek and whispered, "You still looked pretty hot." I could feel him shiver from my breath on his ear. I laughed and turned around to watch the battle.
"Were you joking?" He asked confused. Of course not, you idiot!
"What do youthink?" Let's make him suffer! Yeah! It's good being the girl.
He just seemed baffled and turned around to get Katara to heal his burns. I could feel him staring at me randomly, but, other than that, it wasn't awkward. It was pretty entertaining.
"Yeah! Go Aang! Give him the final blow!" Toph screamed as Aang sent an earth wave at Zuko making him fall all the way off the arena. I ran up to the arena and, being the host of this battle, took his hand, put it in the air and screamed, "The winner is Avatar Aang!" It was unnecessary, but it was still fun.
The girls were up next and let me tell you that it wasn't easy to knock Katara off the arena. She's an awesomebender, but being alone for years with nothing else to do but practice bending kind of makes me a better bender. Now, let's kill Toph.
She sent a few earth pillars at me while I dodged it by ducking and quickly kicked my feet and sent a disc of fire under her to trip her. Before the disc could reach her she bended herself up and now she was standing on top of her giant pillar with an elevation advantage. I bended two rockets behind me and flew up and landed on the pillar as well. She sent the pillar smashing down in hopes that the impact with the ground would send me flying. I jumped down with all of my agility and fell completely in stance. I made a giant circular fire around the arena. Sensing the increasing heat, she raised an earth wall and let it fall between us. It stopped the fire and she quickly sent a line of twisted columns at me. It punched me and I was sent flying all the way across the arena.
Agni, my head!
I walked up to Toph and punched her in the arm while my other hand was massaging my head. "You're good!"
"They don't call me the Master of Earthbending for no reason!" She boasted.
"Well, tomorrow, you and Aang have to face off." Poor Aang, he's dead."Let's go eat lunch!" Sokka seemed to pop out of nowhere and started running inside.
"That's some brother you got, Katara." She smiled and started talking about this one time when he drank some cactus juice and went crazy. I ended up laughing so hard at the picture. I can SO see Sokka doing that.
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(Sokka POV)
"You're really good at fire bending, Arianna." Aang complimented as he was stuffing himself with some salad. What kind of idiot eats salad?
"Thanks," She replied, "I better be since practicing fire bending is all I ever did when I was alone." The room became quiet as the topic of her parents was brought up.
"Spirits, guys! That was long ago! I've gotten over it." She laughed and eased the tension off. "So, Sokka…" My head popped up from my plate as I heard my name.
"Yeah?" I muffled through my meat-filled mouth. Everyone on the table laughed as I took a napkin and wiped my mouth. Katara stared at me in shock.
"What? I can use a napkin!" I whined to Katara. She smiled and went back to her plate.
"I heard about your cactus juice incident. You never told me you were into drinking!" She smirked. How'd she find out?
I mouthed, "Katara?" and she nodded. Damn. Now, Arianna thinks I drink! THANKS A LOT KATARA!
"I'm not! You should've seen the time when she STOLE FROM PIRATES!" I smirked. That memory wasn't my sister's favorite thing.
"They stole it from waterbenders!" She defended.
"That doesn't explain why you harassed Aang for being betterthan you!" I'm going to end up dead soon if I don't stop, but I need my fun too!
"I said sorry!" She cried, "And don't forget the time when you were stuck in a hole with a baby saber-tooth lion! You did some pretty stupid things, Sokka." I lay defeated.
"What about the time you had that stupid Wang Fire costume?" Aang butted in.
"And the time you thought Appa ate Momo!" Toph reminded.
"You thought Appa ate Momo?" Arianna asked while giggling.
"Hehe. Yeah…" I was blushing from embarrassment.
"And the time you got mad at Momo when he spilt all the water when I was giving it to you." Katara remembered.
"Oh yeah! He started screaming, 'MOMO NOOOO! YOU'VE KILLED US ALL!'," Toph screamed. Everyone started laughing.
"And the time you thought you were an earthbender!" Aang shared.
"And when you became a detective with that bubble pipe and that weird hat." Katara mentioned.
"Remember when I asked who Zuko was and Sokka said, 'Just some angry freak with a ponytail who's tracked us all around the world.'," Toph added.
"Should you really make fun of someone's ponytail, Mr. Ponytail?" Arianna laughed.
Before I could answer, Katara shouted, "That's exactly what I said!" The entire table started laughing so hard.
"Yay! Everyone's having fun while I'm not." I sulked.
"Hey! Without you, there wouldn't be any funny things to remember! Like when you were mad at that fortune teller! You were all like, 'That woman is crazy! My life will be calm, and happy, and joyful!' You kicked the rock and it ended up hitting you." Aang impersonated me and it was pretty good. Even Istarted laughing.
"Seems like you're the comedy-relief guy around here." Arianna told me after dinner finished.
"Yup," I boasted, "And the meat and sarcasm guy."
She smiled and went to her room.
Should you really hit on another girl after Suki?
Do NOT say her name again. And Arianna's different. I can tell.
It's too fast and you can't trust anyone now.
What do I do?
Just explain it to her. Don't be too harsh, though.
REVIEW PLEASE! This chapter was all Arianna and Sokka. I'm not a Zutara person, so don't expect a lot of that couple anytime soon. Taang WILL be there, though, so if you're a taang person, YOU JUST HIT JACKPOT! : )