Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. Derr.

(It's almost four o' clock and I have to get an early start on the day tomorrow. Yet, I couldn't stop myself from writing, so you better take smug satisfaction in the fact that I am sleep deprived because of you all. =D )

I wanted to show the comfortable relationship between the two of them and Toph's delimas. So, hope you guys enjoy.

Toph's POV

When I made it to the unofficial training grounds I was freezing. This was one of the rare occasions where I would have loved to have been born a blind firebender. However, the name gave away just how dangerous that would be. But what I wouldn't give for a fire to warm up the cold night. Then again, it probably didn't help that I was in a dress.

The bubbling waterfall sounded soft in my ears. For a moment, I considered wading in the water but quickly decided against the idea. Death by frostbite was too slow a way to cease living. There were much more effective methods out there, like decapitation.

I turned away from the waterfall and followed no particular trail. Instead of thinking, I felt. Night life wasn't as dormant as most people would like to think. Animals, plants, and various unknowns were always moving, thriving. Underneath the ground various insects burrowed intricate tunnels and chambers of dirt. If I concentrated hard enough I could almost feel their tiny legs creating a small amount of pressure under my feet as if I was stepping on them personally.

I had been concentrating too much on their lives under the surface that I hadn't noticed my surrounding changed. Everything grew fuzzy for a moment before I realized where I was. It was the only part of my sturdy element that had ever given me problems. Though I hadn't exactly mastered it, I had studied it enough to feel only a slight discomfort being on sand.

I dragged my feet a little ways before just giving up. With one foot I twisted around and fell straight on my back. Sand particles flew up around me before settling back down. Crickets chirped loudly and small animals scurried along the cliff side searching for food and safety.

Rock was stable. Sand was shifty. To be able to see in the sand I had to focus almost everything I had to be able to determine exactly where the strongest vibrations were. The stronger the vibrations were, the closer I was to determining the approximate location of my opponent. If I trained more often on sandy shores, it would probably become second nature to me. After all, I was the greatest earthbender in the world, not to mention the world's only metal bender. But I wasn't done yet.

There were still a lot of things I had to learn. One of them being sand bending. I was going to become the world's greatest earth element bender.

But there weren't a lot of places in the Fire Nation where I could practice. Well, not any close to the palace and soldier quarters. Keeping track of new Fire Nation soldiers took up most of my time and the only bending I had to use with them was earth and metal. And even those were on rare occasions. Sand wasn't my biggest priority.

I jumped high in the air when I heard my name being called.

"Toph!"

I landed on my back with a harder thud than when I had fallen on it willingly. Being caught up in my own thoughts was seriously going to be my downfall.

"What Twinkle Toes?" I asked with mild irritation as I rubbed my back.

"You weren't there when I came back and I couldn't feel you anywhere." Soft wind descended him down next to me.

"So you decided to come looking for me? Well, ya found me." I relaxed my body in the gritty sand.

I felt him lay next to me his arm radiating warmth. If I hadn't been irritated I would have probably enjoyed the heat a little.

"Why'd you leave?" he asked. "We didn't even get a chance at another dance."

I exhaled a breath through my nose. "I just wanted to chill out with my elements, Hairy."

He groaned. "You know, I think I'm just gonna shave it off. It's too distracting."

I reached up and put my hand on his head. My fingers smoothed out some knots as they entangled themselves in the soft tresses.

"You're right," I told him, still playing with his hair. "It is distracting."

He sighed. "I miss my bald head."

"Shave it off when we get back," I concluded, though I kind of wished he wouldn't. Twinkle Toes with hair or Twinkle Toes bald: both were equally nice to feel. But I'd milk Twinkle Toes with hair for a while.

We were silent then. I imagined him looking up at…something, while I looked up at nothing. It was nice. Instead of relying on sight I relied on feel. So I stretched my senses and focused on Twinkle Toes. His breath was soft and even. His heart beat steadily. Bu-boom, bu-boom. I would have fallen asleep to the peaceful tune but his voice ruined any thoughts I had of resting.

"Do you want to train?"

I shook my head. He was silent for a moment before speaking up.

"Want to go to the Spirit World?" he asked with a bit of hope lacing his voice.

I shook my head again. "Not really."

His mood deflated. "You don't want to see?" he asked, bewildered as to why I'd turn down the chance to reverse what I was born with even if it was temporary.

"Don't need to, Twinkle Toes. While, admittedly, it was a good, strange thing to be able to experience that which I've never experienced before, seeing with my eyes is just not for me." I heard the sand shift and from the pinprick on my neck I could tell he was facing me.

I recalled the various images I had seen in the Spirit World. It was sweet to be able to see but I still didn't understand it. My element was rock, and I wouldn't be the world's greatest earthbender had it not been for my blindness. It was hard to explain the curling feeling in my chest. Seeing with my eyes almost felt like I would be cheating on who I was. Also, I'd had identity problems my whole life (Blind Bandit, The Runaway, helpless blind girl) I really didn't need anymore.

Twinkle Toes accepted my statement with ease and I remembered one of the many reasons he was my friend. He could accept an explanation as vague as they come with pretty much no questions asked because he knew I wasn't that good with explaining myself. And the following conversation showed me just how much I was really grateful for that aspect of his character.

"So…can I ask you the question I was going to ask you at the dance?" he asked cautiously, treading thin ice.

"Sure."

He took a deep breath. "So how many people have you had crushes on?" His voice made me think of his twelve year old self trying to fulfill his curiosity.

I snorted loudly in the desert night and followed it up with a punch to his stomach. "You make me sound like a floozy," I said with only slight offense in my tone.

"Well, I mean, what else was I supposed to think. In the span of ten minutes you inform me about your crush on Sokka and Teo. It's only natural to think that you've had more crushes."

I rolled over on my side, my arm propping me up.

In a low, conspirator voice I answered. "Do you promise to never tell a soul what I am about to reveal to you? It's the mother of all secrets, Aang."

I heard his neck shake intensely. "Yeah, yeah. I promise!"

Gravely, I shook my head. "No, this has to be a super promise. It's my deepest," my voice grew lower, "darkest, most humiliating secret I have ever had."

Excitement was evident in his voice. "I give you an Avatar promise that I won't tell a soul about it. Now what is it!"

I held back a snort. An Avatar promise was more of a pinky promise that would be null and void if his hands were crossed behind him. Only in dire situations did it mean anything. In the company of friends it was a foreboding word.

I leaned in close, lowering my tone. An owl hooted in the background adding on to the weighty, anxious atmosphere.

"I did have another crush. This one was even bigger than the one I had on Sokka. I'm not completely over this one." I put my hands on my face. "Oh, this is so embarrassing. Forget I said anything."

He was actually jumping in place. "No, please! Tell me, tell me. You can't leave someone hanging like that! Tell me."

I uncovered my face slowly, putting my fingers tentatively on my chin. "Okay…. I had a crush…"

"Yeah," he said eagerly, trying to egg me on.

"On…"

"Yeah," he almost squealed.

I leaned in front of his face, so close I could feel his hot breath fan my face. It smelled like cookies.

My voice was completely serious when I finally revealed the answer.

"The Boulder."

His heart stopped beating for a second. There was a noise like a creaking door that sounded nearby. It took me a moment to figure out it was him making the sound from the back of his throat as he tried to say something. Just when I finally thought him to be braindead he came back livelier than ever.

"What?" he yelled in my face. "You can't have a crush on the boulder! He's like…he's…old. You're too young to think of him as anything other than a friend and he shouldn't be taking advantage of you. Oh, my Spirits…" he didn't bother to hide the disgust, "You guys didn't…do anything, right?"

My mouth was shut tight. Air wasn't escaping me and I felt the pressure in every square inch of my face. I had no idea what he interpreted the expression as but my best guess would be surrender to his question.

"Toph!" he cried, scandalized. No longer able to maintain his shock lying down, he stood up and vented through pacing rapidly. "You are too young to go around kissing people willy-nilly. It's just not right. You're only–why are you laughing?"

I couldn't hold it in anymore. Bubbles of laughter shot up through my mouth, actually hurting my throat. I laughed loud and proud. Then I was wheezing, unable to draw a breath into my body. One hand fanned my face while the other clutched my shaking midsection. Pain shot through my sides, and various unintelligible noises came out of my mouth as I tried to calm down.

He sat down with a resigned thud. "You were kidding," he deadpanned.

I pointed halfheartedly at him while sucking in a gasping laugh. "And you…" my voice was strained and hoarse, "you believed me!" I took several shallow breathes as I tried to finish a sentence. "What in the world…" chuckles over took me for a moment, "the world you think the Pebble and I would be doing?" Another round of gasping laughter tore his dejected air. The pain in my ribs was becoming unbearable but I couldn't stop laughing.

"You," he spat halfheartedly, "grow cynical with age, don't you?"

I was able to contain the laughter into smaller fits of giggles. But I managed to nod my assent.

"Cynical and a better prankster," I answered with a cheeky grin.

"I fear for your children."

"What are you going to do when we get back?" I asked Twinkle Toes.

After my joke (and a considerable amount of time spent calming down) we decided to simply lie down and look at the stars. Of course, Twinkle Toes looked at the stars while I had my eyes closed, listening to the sounds of hooting owls and scampering desert mammals.

We were lying down next to each other, but even then I was still cold. So-without his permission of course-I scooted closer and laid my head on his chest, wrapping an arm around him. When he asked me what I was doing I had shrugged and answered that I was cold. He let it go but his heart was racing as I had only known it too when Katara would give him a peck on the cheek as a greeting. I didn't know what it meant, but I was to comfortable to bring up Sweetness.

It reminded me very much of that day before we'd been swept away in the water. His heart had been racing then too, but I chalked it up to a fear of the swamp night. Now he feared the desert? What a wimpy Avatar the world got stuck with. But all that thinking about the swamp (even though I got a bit distracted when I remembered his muscles) got me thinking about the reason I had depressed myself with at the dance. Where was I going to go when we got back?

"First of all I have to take you home."

"Good luck with that," I said genuinely.

While dealing with new Fire Nation troops was something that I was good at, I didn't know if I could do it for the rest of my life. Though, the privileges I acquired with the title of Field Marshal in Command over the First and Second Division were pretty sweet. My position was actually above General, seeing as how I was in charge of all the new recruits, applications and their training. If necessary, I would also be sent out to fight rebels. But that only happened once and even then it was more of a skirmish.

"You don't want to go back to the Fire Nation? Do you want to visit your parents?"

I shook my head. My parents were definitely not an option for visiting anytime soon…or later. Back in the Fire Nation I had sent them letters written with the help of Lieutenant Jee, the man who had actually been part of Zuko's crew when he was banished and in search of my little monk friend. Lieutenant Jee knew how to keep a secret just as well as he wrote and sang sappy love songs. We were close, but the friends I had made in the army…well, if I had the choice between them and Whale Tail Island, I'd choose Whale Tail Island.

"What is home?"

Confusion laced his voice, "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. I mean, Zuko's home is the Fire Nation. The guy spent years trying to find you so he could go back for goodness sakes." I could feel a wrinkle on my brow. "It's not mine. What is home?"

"It's kind of hard to explain," he hedged.

"Don't feel bad," I assured him. "Even if you did explain it perfectly, I doubt I'd know what you're talking about. I've never felt like I ever had a real home-whatever that feels like."

He was silent for a while, possibly trying to think of how to explain it to me. When he answered, he sounded all wise and Avatar-like. "I think home is where you feel like you belong. Do you not feel like that with Zuko and Katara?"

I blew my bangs out of my face and felt him wince from the cold. "Well, I love 'em. But there are times when I feel like I belong and times when I don't. When we get back, can we visit a seedy Earth Kingdom tavern?"

"Why in the world would you go there?"

"I get free drinks if I flash my family's seal at this one place." Everyone, even the people outside of Ba Sing Se, knew of my family and I didn't waste my time in flaunting it. Free drinks meant more money in my bank.

"Cheapskate," he said lightly. "And you call yourself rich."

I smiled against his warm clothes. "I'm making my own salary Twinkle Toes. My parent's money is just that: their money."

"Doesn't some of it belong to you?"

"Technically, but I don't see it that way. If I earned the money by doing something of my own power, then yes, I'd consider it mine. Too bad I haven't. I could be happily retired by now."

Being Field Marshal wasn't filled with the lavish lifestyle of being a Bei Fong, but it definitely came with the money. Most of that I had in a bank. General Blowfish on top of being my second-in-command, had a knack for math. He helped me balance the thing on a daily basis, and I trusted him enough to let him handle the money. After all, everyone knew that if you rubbed me the wrong way, you grated the Fire Lord. Having an influential political leader on my side was awesome that way.

"You wouldn't be happy unless you were fighting or earthbending. In your case: both at the same time." I could hear his smile.

I faked a pout. "Not true." Then I told him the truth. "I'd be happy as a teacher."

"A teacher?" he echoed.

"Why not? If I'm good enough to teach the Avatar, I'm good enough to teach a couple of snot nosed punks." I poked him.

"I have a feeling you'll be a very strict teacher."

"As much as I have to be. Believe it or not, I have to earn respect."

"From who?" His hand took that moment to settle on my head.

I paused a moment before answering due to the distraction. "Everyone. Blindness is still seen as a handicap back in our world. Instead of blasting anyone who patronizes me because of it, I prove them wrong…and have them bow down and kiss my feet."

He sighed in exasperation at my statement but didn't comment on it.

"Well, if it's any consolation…I think that you'll make a great teacher. I mean, earth is my natural opposite and I learned it in less than five months."

"Don't go getting a big head." Using my hand as leverage, I pushed myself up to face the general direction of his face. His hand slipped from my hair towards the ground and I missed the warmth. I used my finger to poke him in the chest so he got the message. "You're not that good."

It wasn't a lie. His earthbending could use some work, but for the most part he was pretty good.

"I've been practicing," he exclaimed. Suddenly he shot up. My hand that had been wrapped around his middle slid to the sand. I frowned at him as he walked a little bit away from me. I was just getting comfortable. "Look!"

I felt a small pillar of earth jump out of the sand. The shifting and grating of sand bothered my ears but I shook it off when I felt something abnormal about this pillar. It was small, but when I stomped my foot to feel it…I could feel some intricately carved lines, indicating that he had just sandbended a sculpture.

"Who's that?" I asked.

The pillar had the outline of a human body, but the face on it was unfamiliar, seeing as how I couldn't see. That whole blind thing again.

"You," he was clearly happy with how it turned out and waited anxiously for my answer.

I cocked my head to the side after I was finished inspecting.

"Am I really that short?"

"Physically, yeah. But you have a big presence."

I knew that was true but the way he said it so lightly made it feel cheesy.

"Yeah, yeah. Save the compliments for later. Stand next to it." I stomped my foot again, focusing on the central vibrations. Then I simply stomped out of spite. "That's absolutely no fair! Why are you so tall?"

His tone was careful. "I…grew?"

"Why?" I demanded.

"People do that sometimes," he retorted sarcastically.

"Why didn't I?" I asked more to myself than him. But the Avatar was known to have many answers to many questions. Seeing as how I was his best friend, this just happened to be his area of expertise.

"Everyone's different Toph. Some people are small and some have big ears." When I answered that with a look that hopefully said "what in the world?" He revised. "Just look at it this way: when you kick butt you shatter egos so badly that they'll never be the same again because they got beat by a petite, young, blind earthbender. You have just thrown that person in a dark pit of despair that they will never escape."

I put a hand on my chest in a flourish. "Aww, that's sweet Twinkle Toes."

He chuckled. "Only the truth Sifu T. Hey," he suddenly said. "Weren't we going to train?"

A side of my mouth tilted down into a frown. "I'm not really feeling up to it. Want to just camp out here…like the old days?" I asked with a bit of hope lacing through my words. It'd be fun to just get back to the old days. Although, I'd prefer not getting shot at by someone like Combustion Man. That reminded me… I had to ask Sparky what Combustion Man's real name was. It had always been a mystery to us but we'd never had the chance to ask Sparky. Being the Fire Lord of a newly reformed nation made him a busy man.

But, in regards to my request, Twinkle Toes was more worried about other people rather than agree to indulge in leisure. "What about Todd and Ana?"

"They'll freak out," I stated. "But they'll chill once they figure out that we're together." I held my arms up. "For some reason they trust you to take care of me Twinkle Toes."

I heard him give a small snort of amusement at my comment. My butt hit the sand hard and stung, but I paid it no mind my uninjured hand patted the ground next to me. Aang laid his body down with a groan. After giving him some time to relax on the sand, I brought my head back down on his chest and wrapped my injured hand across his belly. We were in content silence, but I had the feeling that Aang was itching to bring something up. I could tell because he wouldn't stop fidgeting with his fingers.

Finally, he asked. "By the way, how'd you get down here? I assume you didn't earthbend."

"I took the stairs," I muttered. My eyelids were growing heavy so instead of trying to fight them, I let them shut.

"Hmm, " he hummed in surprise.

"What? Is it so strange for me to take the stairs? I was building up leg muscle so I don't end up puny like you." My injured hand lifted up with the intent to poke him but fell back down like lead.

"Well…it's just odd for you to not even attempt to earthbend down. Learned your lesson?" he asked playfully and with a bit of smug satisfaction.

"We are stuck in another world and the fact that I took a couple of stairs is odd to you?" I managed to get out before a large and loud yawn overtook me. With his heart as my lullaby, sleep was quick to take me, but not before I heard his soft words.

"To each his own."

A/N:

By the way, I went back and revised a couple of insignificant things. I reread it and noticed a couple of mistakes I had to fix.

Love: Lola of the Peaches

=]