Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. Derr.

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Aang's POV

It was 7:00 when we got back home. Riley had bought a new suit and so did Todd. I was going to use one of Skeeter's old suits; he said he had a lot of them. We were all set for the dance so we decided to drop by and check in on the girls.

Over all, I think today was a good day. I had learned a lot more about my new friends and I liked them more and more.

Suddenly I wasn't so happy anymore.

Yes, I had learned a lot. I learned that Skeeter wanted a girlfriend, Riley had some unmentioned problem, and Todd had problems with his mom. I had tried to fix the latter earlier this week. But as soon as Todd's mother came home on Tuesday she left that night saying she had a business meeting that would take three more days. So much for solving that problem. But I wouldn't give up.

I sighed. The more time I spent with these guys the more the thought of leaving seemed really sad. Did I not want to leave? I shook my head. No, I had to leave. This wasn't my world. I couldn't just take up residence for free, which I seemed to be doing. I'd have to repay these guys back somehow. But I couldn't have any regrets. If I did I wouldn't be myself.

A push on the shoulder jolted me back into reality. "Aang, what's up? You're totally spacing out," Skeeter told me.

I shook my head. "It's nothing. Just thinking about some things in the past. Wondering about my future."

"Let it go."

I gave him a confused look. "Let what go?"

"The past, man. The past is the past. Ain't nothing in this world you can do to change it. But you can change how you want it to turn out later on in life by living in the present. Without the present, you wouldn't have no future would you?"

Todd, Riley and I just stared at him.

"That," Riley stated, "was profound. If it wasn't spoken like you then I think it could have been a philosophical piece."

Skeeter smiled wide, his white teeth gleaming against his dark skin. "Why, I thank thee, peasant men!"

No matter how weird it was to hear that coming out of his mouth, I was glad that he said those words. I've been thinking too much about the past. These people weren't from my time. Though they resembled my friends...they weren't Katara, Sokka, Zuko, former Fire Lord Ozai, or anything like that. They were their own people. I knew that, but I still had a bit of a hard time believing it.

Especially when it came to Heidi and Riley. When I saw them together there was a nasty feeling creeping into my veins that I quickly dismissed upon remembering where I was. Those feelings were dangerous and if I wasn't careful they'd certainly come to bite me in the butt one day.

Looking at Skeeter, I realized something. Skeeter reminded me a bit of Sokka. To me, Sokka was a big brother and a good friend. I was starting to feel the same about Skeeter. And to top it off they were both paranoid.

A pale hand waved in front of my face.

"Earth to Twinkle Toes," Toph said loudly. For my ears only she whispered, "Are we going to go train anytime soon?"

Her breath tickled my ear. "Yeah," I whispered back. "We're going for a walk, okay guys?" I said out loud so as not to worry our hosts with our absence.

No one was listening as Ana and Heidi were laughing as Skeeter and Todd retold elements of our day, much to the annoyance of Riley. Silently Toph and I slipped out of the house and raced each other towards the canyon.

I was the first to reach the bottom but also the first to be launched in the air. That was our signal to commence fighting…and also the signal for Toph's annoyance at my win. When I landed lightly, Toph – now accustomed to my soft footsteps – hurled boulder after boulder at me. I created a triangle shaped structure; similar to the one I had witnessed Toph use against Xin Fu. When she was preparing for another attack, I tapped the wedges with my fingertips and hurled them back at her. She had grabbed one to throw into the second one, effectively breaking them and used her fist on the third one.

Her arms close to her body, she attached a suit of rock armor to herself. She slid across the floor of the canyon with ease. Punching the air, she was able to throw chunks of her armor at me. I dodged some of them and redirected the course of some other big ones but I missed one. It was a tiny rock, no bigger than the palm of my hand that had been in the shadows of one of the larger rocks and gave me no time to redirect it with only earthbending. It was that small mistake that sent me flying backwards towards the cold waterfall.

Because no matter how hot it was during the day, the water was always cold. It was something that I considered – for these past few days anyways – to be a curse and a blessing. A curse because it shocked my body as soon as I passed through it. And a blessing because it woke me up.

"Losing your touch, Avatar?" she taunted in my direction as I swam to the edge. "I thought I taught you to listen to the earth? I can't believe you didn't even see that?"

I pulled myself up to dry off, but Toph had plans of her own. As soon as I touched the earth, Toph encased my hands in hard rock. I was about to break out and retreat back into the water but I was pulled by the earthbending cuffs and dragged all over the floor.

Her laughter ringed in my ear. Oh, she was going to get it now. I dug my feet into the earth to speed down, I cried out as her cuffs were broken. Quickly, not wanting to give her the advantage, I stood up and took my horse stance. She was in her praying mantis style stance and was waiting for me to make a move.

"I went easy on you," I lied. I knew she could tell but I had to save some of my dignity.

She laughed at the blatant excuse. "Sure you did, and I'm a crappy earthbender."

"So you finally admit it?"

Her laughter cut short. I hit a nerve. I knew saying that would trigger a sort of response from her, I just didn't expect to by so terrified afterwards. Immediately I could feel the effects of the cold water against my skin. Shivering, but unwilling to let down my guard, I stood my ground – no matter how delicate it was right now.

"Excuse me," she spoke sardonically. "Who's the one who stalked me so that I could become his teacher? Can you answer that…Twinkle Toes?"

I paled but spoke strongly, "I was obviously high off cactus juice at the time. I didn't know what I was thinking. I mean, I was the one who knocked the blind bandit out of the ring…right, Tophy?"

She moved her leg towards me, distracted by my words and wanting to do another direct attack. I closed my hands and stopped her movements. Toph looked down, knowing she couldn't see but knowing no other way to make sense of the situation.

"You little…" she trailed off as she admired my handiwork personally. "You were distracting me weren't you?" To my surprise she laughed out loud, seemingly clear of worries. "When did you get so smart?" she asked.

I relaxed my stance. My breathing was hard, due to blood pumping in my system from the run here and then the fight. I had taken a big risk in trying to capture my former teacher by distracting her, because if I was unsuccessful she'd unleash earthbending at me demon style. Honestly, I didn't even think I could do it, but I tried. These matches between us were to improve our skills. To Toph, that meant developing new techniques, improving old ones, or refining her knowledge of old and new ones. She didn't think about me as she should have been.

To her, I should have been a new enemy with an unknown power. But we both knew each other well and there was probably nothing new to learn from these matches. So instead of refining skills, I focused on trying to find innovative ways to take her down.

"I admit," she said, "that was good." That smile on her face couldn't be anything good. It was predatory and I was her prey. "But…did you really think I'd fall for that?" Her uninjured arm tensed signaling that she was doing something with her hand that was supposedly sheathed in my trap.

I found my entire body surrounded by small sand particles that formed a coil around me. The coils of sand began spinning around me and before I could jump out they tightened around me and soon hardened into rock. When did she do that?

She cackled, just so she could rub it in my face, as she broke free of her trap. "It was a good idea to try and distract me, but you should have known that in battle – practice or otherwise – I don't lose focus…all the times."

I smiled. "You've been practicing with sand haven't you, over the years?"

She shrugged and released her hold on me, her victory secure. "I still feel fuzzy when I stand in sand. What I did was I hardened the sand, only slightly, so that even sandbenders wouldn't notice the difference so much and sharpened my vision." She scratched her chin. "What I did with you, before the battle even started, was break up clods of dirt and sand and just wrap them around your puny body. I won before we even started."

"Whoa," I exclaimed. "What do you mean by 'puny'?"

After wiping off the sweat on her brow she put her hands on her hips. "You heard me. I mean, look at this," she pulled back her short sleeve and flexed her bicep. "This is muscle right here buddy. Nothing but muscle." She lowered the sleeve.

Muscle? Please, I had muscle. And I made a point of showing it to her.

"Well, what about this? You can't tell me this isn't muscle." I flexed my arm.

She snorted. "Yeah, Twinkle Toes. I can actually tell you that that isn't muscle. For all I know it could be pudding." Toph waved a hand in front of her milky eyes. "I'm blind! Remember that? I have been for the past sixteen years. I swear with you all…" she trailed off, mumbling angrily to herself.

I let out a breath of embarrassment. "Sorry." I ran up to her and grabbed her hand. I put it on my flexed bicep so she could feel it instead of seeing it. "Feel it? This thing is all muscle." I moved her hand from that and put it on my chest. "This is all muscle. How am I puny? I'm the Avatar, saving the world constantly requires a lot physical excursion on my part." I stopped talking when I sensed the atmosphere change drastically around us.

Toph's hand on my chest felt like it was on fire. Heat crept up into my face and my mouth felt dry. My breath became faster and my heart seemed to beat more now that it did when we were fighting.

In the glow of the moon I could make out a small streak of red staining Toph's pearly cheeks.

Softly, I whispered, "Toph…."

Her hand shot back like she'd been burned. Maybe she was because I know I felt something similar to an explosion in my chest.

She turned away from me, her hair lightly brushing my face. "We should probably get back." I tried to hold back my disappointment. But what had I wanted to tell her? "It's been like an hour and we have school tomorrow."

Confusion twisted my features. "School? You do nothing in school." Why would she suddenly care about that?

"Well…maybe…whatever, let's just go." She yawned loudly, making me mimic her. Lightly she touched cast but quickly let her fingers drop. She must have overdone it.

I put my hands out in front of me and blasted a tough wind towards Toph. She lost her balance and fell flat on her face. When she pulled up to face me I had to slap my hand over my mouth quickly, less a laugh escape my trembling lips.

"What was that for!?" she screeched in annoyance.

Okay, I couldn't hold it in anymore. I let out belting laughter. Because I was distracted with my laughter and my eyes blinded by the tears that sprang up, I didn't notice that I had been sunk into a deep hole by one infuriated earthbender. She stomped her foot, all but my chin and above was visible, as she put me in a sort of coffin like structure that was so tight I could barely breath. And that, combined with laughter, was not a good thing.

"What did you do that for Aang?" She had stressed my name, signaling utter annoyance.

I struggled to find my breath, "I – I – I was drying – s" I regained a bit of my breath so I could answer her clearly – "drying you off," I finished.

She growled. Her hair was like a lion's mane around her small infuriated face and seemed to defy gravity. Its tips seemed to reach towards the moon and the light cast a weird shadow that emphasized her terrifying yet strikingly beautiful features.

"Would you stop laughing at me," she requested in a tone that said she was annoyed, but underlying a hidden meaning.

I stopped immediately, sensing danger. "I'm sorry. I had to dry you off and that seemed like the best way possible." The rock coffin around me went back into the ground.

"Fix it," she demanded with unnecessary force.

I put my hands above her head and blasted downwards. Her hair was back to its original silky texture, though slightly frizzy. I brought my fists together and dried myself. I brought my hands up to fix my own hair, hoping it wasn't anything as bad as what I had given Toph.

Toph's POV

For the entire walk home, I didn't say a word. Didn't want to say a word, nor had the voice to give one.

I was upset over what had just happened and I couldn't understand why. Why did I care what he thought of me all of a sudden? I've known this shrimp for years and never gave a hoot about his thoughts–well, only the serious ones. So why did I care about such a trivial thing like what my hair looked like? I couldn't even see it. The whole blindness thing sort of prevented that.

Maybe it had started with the whole muscle thing. I fought down the blush that threatened to show; I didn't want the airhead walking next to me to see it. Why had I provoked him? Why couldn't I just ever keep my mouth shut, if I had, then I wouldn't be so…frazzled.

That's right, Toph Bei Fong was frazzled.

When I had touched his arms I got a feel for the smooth muscle underneath and was about to admit that maybe, just maybe, he did have some muscle. But then he put my hand on his chest and I swear I stopped breathing. My mind didn't really process any other thought except for what I was feeling at that moment, which incidentally was his chest. It was strong, smooth, sculpted, yet still felt even. It also felt hot under my skin. And even through his t-shirt, I felt like I was touching his bare chest. And the musty smell he gave off from our earthbending practice wasn't helping to clear my mind. His heartbeat seemed to reverberate throughout my hand all the way to my toes. But all of that was nothing, compared to what went through me when he had said my name.

He called my name softly, gently, like it was delicate. Which, looking back on it now, would have been weird because my name sounded like 'tough'. But that's the way I heard him say it. And I liked it. Damn it all, I liked the way it had sounded coming from him. Right when I heard my name spill from his lips, I felt like something had reached inside me and tickled my soul. And let me just say: Toph does not do tickling.

I was immediately self-conscience about myself and that hasn't happened in four years. When he had blasted that wind towards me to dry me off from my sweat I was just going to joke about it. Then he laughed and something snapped. Deep inside something ugly and unmentionable bubbled up to the surface and took control over my body. He was laughing at me, and that would usually never bother me, but for some reason it did. I had asked myself, did I look weird? Is that why he's laughing at me?

It hurt. My mind had been transported back to the time when the snobby girls from the upper part of the Earth Kingdom had made fun of my make-up. One of them had mocked that I looked like her pet Poodle-monkey, realizing how it would hurt. But they didn't know I was blind, but that didn't mean I was going to let them get away with it.

I had caused a whole in the stone bridge we were standing on and dumped them into the river below with unadulterated glee. Even after Katara had washed them away I could still hear their snooty voices mocking me in my head. Instead of snooty voices, though, I was hearing laughter. Aang's laughter.

I should probably give him a little credit. He didn't know that it'd hurt me. Heck, I didn't know it was going to hurt me. But it did and I didn't like that. I had encased him in earth to toss him five hundred miles away so he could learn his lesson but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead I had just commanded him to fix it in the hardest voice I could muster and hope that he couldn't hear the pain. He had fixed it, the pressure of the air stung my sensitive ears but I didn't say anything about it, afraid that I couldn't keep the rough edge on my tone I wanted him to hear. If I had to say why I thought it hurt to hear him laughing at me…I honestly couldn't reach a logical answer.

All I knew was that I hurt to have him laugh at something I couldn't see.

Sure, in this world there were a lot of funny things that happened that I couldn't see, but that didn't really bother me. How could you miss or be bothered by what you never knew to begin with? You couldn't and I prided myself on that fact. Nothing in the world bothered me because it really shouldn't. I didn't even care if I couldn't see. I had extra senses to make up for that. But in this world with so much technology, I could feel that there were a lot of things that I was missing. Things that made Birdie and the Mexican laugh their heads off. Of course, they told me what certain signs or papers said and I would find some of the phrases funny, but that still didn't help much.

I wanted to know what it's like to laugh at somebody for what they look like a certain time of day. And I hated that Twinkle Toes could while I couldn't. But I'd have to get rid of those kinds of selfish thoughts. It's sort of impossible for a blind girl to have those thoughts. Of course, I'm sure there are blind people that live on nothing but those kinds of thoughts. Can you really call that living?

I call it stupid wishing. And I'm sure everyone knows that Toph Bei Fong will have none of that. At least not out loud.

A finger poked my shoulder and I found myself annoyed again. What was with all the touching? Could he not keep his hands to himself for once?!

"What?" I answered gruffly.

From each step he took, his heart would palpitate in an almost guilty manner.

"I…Are you angry at me?" he asked quietly.

I crossed my arms. "I don't know." And that was true. I didn't know. Yes, I had been angry but that feeling was then replaced with a thousand more and I just didn't know how to characterize the rest so I stuck with the one most familiar to me.

"Is it because I won the match yesterday?"

"I threw that match."

His voice shot up eight octaves, "Really?"

"No."

His voice was laced with confusion. "Oh." We were silent for a moment as he seemed to be trying to find a way to express his concern.

Honestly, I didn't want his concern but at the same time I felt that it was a nice gesture. I relaxed my tense muscles, knowing full well that my arm would be on fire tomorrow from all the stress I had put on it.

"Is it because I almost made you fall when I dried you?"

I didn't answer thinking it was best for him to guess it himself. Plus if I told him why I knew that my temper would get the better of me and I would say something I'd probably regret.

"Is it because I laughed at you?"

I sighed quietly, relieved that he guessed it but I didn't elaborate. My mind was exhausted and I could feel a headache coming on.

"I didn't mean to laugh at you. It's just that your hair seemed to be defying gravity and I…. I didn't think it would bother you," he explained.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, warning the headache not to rear its ugly head right now.

"It shouldn't have bothered me. I'm just tired," I threw out vaguely, as if that was the reason I was angry with him. I mean, I trusted him with my life, but there are some things that he just doesn't need to be bothered with.

"I'm still sorry. After all these years I should have known that having people laugh at your appearance would hurt."

My eyebrows knitted together. "We haven't seen each other in years, Aang. You're the Avatar who travels the world while I live in the Fire Nation. We're not just a hop, skip away from each other you know," a hint of bitterness colored my tone.

"That's no excuse," he argued. "I'm your friend and we should know stuff like this about each other. I guess I did know, but never really registered it to mind. Toph Bei Fong having feelings? Absurd." He laughed and I knew he was joking.

"I know, huh? I love surprising people with that kind of crap."

He laughed lightly along with me, but the solemn air returned not long afterwards.

"For ignorance," he said deeply, "I apologize."

I held up my hands as I stepped in front of him. "Whoa, boy. No formalities, please. It sickens me. We are friends but even I, the one who prides herself for seeing what's underneath, don't know every little pet peeve of yours. So don't go making this into a big problem, got it." I threw him a punch to the shoulder, not realizing how much force was behind it until I heard a loud smack.

"OW! Watch where you're swinging that thing!" he joked. "No wait," he backtracked, realizing what he said. "I didn't mean actually look, because you can't, but I didn't mean to be so insensitive! After what we were just talking about and I go do this–"

I interrupted, not really wanting to hear his ramblings. "Hey! Did you see me bothered by that? Because I wasn't. I understand that it's hard for people to remember I'm blind because I don't act like it. Do you see me with a stick? It's fine. What bothered me was how much a punch like that hurt a wimp like you."

We began walking again, our footsteps a lot lighter than what they once were.

"You threw that punch with underlying malice didn't you?" he speculated when I smiled innocently at him.

I avoided the question by giving him a compliment, "Well, I gotta hand it to you. You don't bleed easily like Toto."

"He told me he's an easy bleeder. Any small bump to any part of his body and it swells to the size of a tomato and if it's near his face he'll get a nosebleed."

So that explained why Toto was bleeding when I beat him up. He was just an easy bleeder.

"He's fun to beat up," I announced happily as if I had said I discovered a cure for blindness.

"Aww," he whined. "Are you replacing me?"

I laughed. "No way. No one can replace my Twinkle Toes."

He laughed lightly but didn't retaliate back like I was expecting. His heartbeat seemed to speed up; I noted this when his feet touched the ground for the briefest instance.

Slowly, he said, "So I'm your Twinkle Toes?"

When he had first said that, the phrase had gone over my head. And I was about to ask him what it meant when my eyes widened and I fought that blush with all I had.

I let out a sarcastic breath. "W-what? You idiot! I–I di–didn't mean it like–like that." Ugh, I couldn't believe I was stuttering, but that stupid question had caught me off guard.

"Sure you didn't Toph," he said in a happy manner as he walked ahead of my faltering footsteps.

"I didn't," I insisted.

He waved back. "Sure."

When I began running after him with the intent to shut him up he sped up, using his stupid Avatar speed. The whole way back to Ana's house had been spent with me adamantly shouting that I didn't mean it like that and him being completely neutral about the whole thing. We ran into Ana's house, disturbing a conversation of goodbyes going on in the hall.

"You little!" I shouted at Twinkle Toes. "I said I didn't mean it like that you idiot!" Before I could catch up to my prey, I was caught around the waist by Toto.

"Hey what's going on?" he asked in concern, his voice straining slightly as I struggled against him.

"Come here Twinkle Toes and face me like a man instead of cowering behind Ana and Heidi!"

Aang was laughing and that only served to infuriate me and embarrass me even more. I threw my full weight against Toto's arms and in the back of my head I felt an immense ego boost when I heard him ask Riley for help holding me back.

"I'd rather not be a man if I had to face you," Twinkle Toes yelled calmly in my direction. Another pair of arms wrapped tightly around my waist in an attempt .

I could hear sniggering as the girl's tried to keep in their laughter.

"Is Toph too much for you strong men?" Ana joked.

"Heck yeah I am!" I answered for them as I struggled harder, the urge to strangle Twinkle Toes rising. He better not tell them what I had said because it was just too embarrassing to listen to all over again in public.

"Toph's way more woman than anyone can handle. Honestly, you sure you weren't raised in the 'hood?" Heidi asked after praising me.

I stopped struggling and caught my breath. "What's a 'hood?"

"A tough neighborhood," Skeeter answered.

I snorted. "I was raised in the wimpiest neighborhood in the world." My world, at least.

Toto and Hothead let go of my waist, seeing that I wasn't going to struggle anymore, and shook out their muscles that were under the strain of my strength.

"Could've fooled me," they said at the same time.

Toto, Hothead, and Paranoid left, two of them complaining about how sore their muscles would be in the morning and the other laughing. Before Twinkle Toes left, he had leaned down to whisper in my ear in a voice so soft that it sent shivers down my spine that I tried to confine.

"I was kidding Toph. Your secret's safe with me."

I don't know what I was expecting him to say. Something…romantic maybe? But the more I thought about that the more I thought that air must have entered my brain. I don't do romantic…but then again, I'd never really had any reason to try something as silly as romance.

Sugar Queen had once gone off in a long sermon about how wonderful romance was when we were cleaning a wall that I dirtied up with mud when I trailed in after training in the rain, but to say the truth I had fallen asleep standing up halfway through it still soaking wet.

I snuggled into the covers of the guest room, Ana had gone up to her room a while ago and snores could be heard from downstairs so I figured she had fallen asleep while looking for the shoes she wanted to wear tomorrow. Heidi had fallen asleep on the couch. I would have picked her up and moved her somewhere more suitable but both my arms were protesting and rebelling against such unnecessary movement. I had taken a bath earlier, to try to appease my muscles with little success. Because Ana and Heidi were both asleep I had been left on my own to get dressed and that was a problem in of itself.

With a towel I had found in the bathroom, I wiped my feet so I wouldn't slip and tied it around my body tightly. I opened the door with a bit of difficulty finding the handle and walked out into the hallway. Giving up on the disastrous nonsense named panties, I found a shirt on the floor that smelled used, but I didn't care. Then I found some sort of garments that felt like it should have been put on my lower regions so I pulled them on and tied the string that dangled in a bow.

I collapsed onto the bed and simply untucked the covers from the side and rolled into them.

Just as I was drifting to sleep, my eyes half closed – they shot open.

What did Twinkle Toes mean by keeping my 'secret'?