EdwardTwilightObsession: Everybody's calling it Maang. Although when I looked that up it was Meng and Aang. Anyway it is odd because we know so little about her. The next chapter not this one will start the Kataang train back again.
Shinobi Bender: Thanks. This was Aang's view of both women which it was so hard to see them hurt each other they way they did. He'll be the bridge that brings them back together. I do love their relationship, you'd think I was a Maang.
Sironblood1: I promise last one. It wasn't total filler it gave some of the story. I was not too pleased but it moved the story the way I needed it to go.
doctor anthony: Thanks.
Ok, back on track. Enjoy.
P.S. I went to fix this chapter and accidentally deleted. Sorry. (Fixed to how it should have been. Thanks Shinobi for the swift kick in the pants. Will not happen again.)( Bows continously)
"Sokka, wake up."
She shoved him succeeding in having him crawl further away from her. "Sokka!" the boy snored away deaf to the girl's prodding and yanking. Frustrated Toph pushed her hair into some semblance of order to investigate.
Having sharpened senses had its drawbacks. Like getting a good night sleep. She could just whip up a earth tent and presto instant quiet but she did have a tiny bit of reluctance to breaking up the floor here.
So she slept on a pallet and suffered the consequences. In this case it came in handy, someone was in the outer outskirts near the fountain. The giant chambers magnified every sound and vibration and though Toph couldn't really tell who it was she did have an idea.
'Why can't I be wrong once in a while?'
She shuffled through the moonlit corridors until she could distinguish the slowly beating heart. She wasn't much for surprise attacks but she figuered this time it was the way to go. In an instant he went from asleep to hoisted up in the air.
She puched her hands into the wall and apologizing profusely to Aang, she curved two pieces to form one solid piece around his neck. "Zuko. Nice to see you. How you been?"
"Uhhh." he gasped.
"I'm sorry, you're gonna have to speak up. What brings you around?" she asked again.
Zuko clutched at the cuff of rock holding him up by the throat. His feet kicked uselessly. Toph had caught one hand and the other was pressed right at his face. "I…can't…bre…"
"Alright, I let go. I don't feel like dragging you around." Toph relaxed her hands and Zuko fell coughing, his throat burned from the pressure and it took him a few moments before he could reply to her questions.
"Nice to see you too, Toph. Is this how you greet everybody or am I just special?" he rasped.
"You're pretty special. Why you here and try not to lie to me. I can tell and I am kinda grouchy from lack of sleep. So choose your words carefully."
Zuko glared at her and settled against the wall, "I came to see Mai. I just wanted to talk to her and well my...I was told she was here."
"Wait a minute back up the train. Who told you she was here? Nobody knows that but those that live here and---" It dawned on Toph exactly why Zuko's heart rate had sky rocketed. "Did you have her followed?"
"Who told you that." He snapped his mouth shut.
"You just did," Toph crossed her arms. "Oh you are in so much trouble. Aang is gonna kill you."
Zuko stood his head bowed. He looked tortured but she wasn't going to be taken in by his little lost boy act. "Is it true? Are Aang and Mai, you know."
She debated what to tell him, after all it was up to Mai and Aang to divulge their relationship not hers.
"You tell me, didn't your people give you detailed reports? I'm surprised you didn't ask them or where you too afraid of the answer." she surmised shrewdly. "How long have you been sitting on that little gem?" she threw her head back and laughed.
"Well, are they?" He shouted a wild flame almost engulfing her.
"I thought you learned your lesson about burning me," she said slamming him against the rock. "Look, even if they are, what are you gonna do about it? Challenge him to a fight. I'll let you know something. Your little girlfriend tried to challenge Mai and got her butt handed to her. So if you want to try with Aang, hey who am I to stop you?"
She told him menacingly. "Even without using Avatar power, he'll beat you so bad you'll be crawling back to your palace."
Zuko's flames pushed her back and she landed gracefully on a pillar before encasing Zuko mid thigh in rock.
"I don't want to fight him. I don't know what I want, ok." Dragging his swords from behind him, he shoved them into loose stones bursting out of the rock while crossing them in front of him. "I want him to tell me to my face. I want to know if its been happening here or since he took her that's all." he said his swords clanging to the ground.
"You want him to afford you a courtesy you didn't give him?" Toph sunk her perch approaching the fallen boy. "Zuko, I'm pretty sure it happened here. After all she has been living here for more than a year. More than half of that time, her and Aang were alone. It was bound to happen."
"You of all people should understand that." Toph explained. "Even if its what you suspect you have no right to be angry." She could tell he was mulling over what she'd just told him.
"I didn't think it would happen to me. Mai has been there all my life just waiting for me. Things had always been that way, I didn't they had changed that much. That she had changed."
"Twinkletoes has had a really rough few days. Give him a break, he was sick and Katara came with him. Her and Mai got into a fight because Aang called for Mai. Then they got into a mean catfight which I'm sure you already know about. Mai ignored everybody leaving Aang stuck between her and Katara."
He stared dumbfounded as Toph regaled him with the happenings of the last few days. She took a quick breath, "then earlier Katara and Mai talked and it seems Katara was ready to move on but is needed to help with the temple clean up---"
Zuko interrupted her spiel. "So have they made up? Mai and Aang?"
She tilted her head in thought. "Last I heard Aang went looking for Mai. He went back to the room and then Mai joined him. Since then they pretty much have stayed in their room."
Toph was still her in her tale not catching Zuko's hissed, 'Their room?'
"So we have no idea what's happening between them. Why don't you wait until morning. I'll tell them you're here and you can do whatever it is your coming to do. Those that sound like a plan? Zuko? Zuko?"
Zuko had gone strangely quiet and Toph perked her ears to make sure he was still there.
"Zuko, where are you?" she felt around and hung her head. "Crap, I just told him that Aang is sleeping with his ex-girlfriend. Good one Toph, you need to keep your mouth shut." She fanned her hands flat on the ground attempting to pick up faint tremors that signaled his vibrations.
She got up and began searching frantically for the Firebender. He was moving at a much faster pace. 'Must be all that testosterone.' Toph slowed him down a few times by turning the twisting corridors into a maze. She would shut one exit but he would find another. She caught the sound of steel meeting stone and cringed at whatever he might be destroying.
Zuko's heartbeat seemed to be the only thing she could distinguish. He was really mad and all Toph could do was slow him down. She didn't dare to attempt lethal bending. Aang would freak if someone else died in this sacred place. Huffing she managed one last cascade of rock that kept him trapped. Determined to halt him she sunk into the floor and twisted it to the consistency of sand.
His cursing echoed around her and she smirked glad to have put a stop to his running. She didn't have long to congratulate herself because a fireball burst him out of the sand and down hall. He skidded but used his sword to push off the wall and continue running.
At this rate she wouldn't catch him at all. 'Instead of looking for Zuko, I should be warning Aang.'
She switched directions, her feet pounding on the floor hoping to beat Zuko. She had the advantage. She knew where the avatar's room was and he still had to double back and search every room. 'Or not.' She ducked as a door flew past her and hit the wall crumbling.
Katara and Sokka ran out of their prospective rooms.
"What's going on? Are we being attacked." Sokka had his sword in hand.
"Do you sleep with that thing?" Katara asked her brother incredulously.
"As a matter of fact, I do. You never know when something like this is gonna happen. Its always good to be prepared just in case we wake up like we did now."
"Who are you associating with that you worry about being attacked in your sleep. Have you been doing scams with Toph again. Honestly don't you guys understand how dangerous those can be. I mean really after everything that happened."
"Katara, Sokka, shut up. We have bigger problems than Sokka using his sword as a security blanket. I prefer that to the alternative. You know how many times I've woken up covered in drool because sleepy here had dragged me onto his pallet?"
"It was one time and I'm pretty sure you were snuggling into my arms. I don't recall a complaint about that." Sokka retorted his finger inches from Toph's nose.
"Guys! Focus. Zuko is busy attacking Aang and were bickering outside." Toph yelled pointing in the direction of the rapidly warming hallway.
"Zuko." Katara and Sokka stared at each other and then at the blind girl. "What in all that's sacred is Zuko doing at the temple in the middle of the night? Why is he attacking Aang?"
Toph moved her head back and forth before answering the sibling's questions. "He showed up a few hours ago and I found him. I might have kind of told him Mai and Aang slept together and he went off the deep end." Toph shrugged.
"You told him what! Are you out of your gourd? Do you want Aang roasted alive in his sleep? What would compel you to say something like that to the biggest hothead we know?" Sokka smacked his forehead and headed into the direction of the yelling.
"Katara, one other thing." Toph hesitated, "he had Mai followed so he already knew." She heard the angry, "how dare he." Then Katara's footsteps overtaking Sokka's.
Toph dejectedly followed them, "I really have to watch what I say."