The moon was shining in through the door that opened out onto the veranda, a cool breeze was also allowed to enter the room, along with the faint light of the moon.

Toph was sitting at the vanity, looking into the mirror, What to her was space, but if her jade eyes could see she would be looking at her refection. After a few seconds she started to pull at her hair. The large ornament that had kept most of her hair up, was thrown across the room, once it was free from her hair. It hit the wall and then dropped to the ground.

Aang heard the crash as the ornament hit the wall. When he reached the open door to her room, he stopped dead in his tracks. He had planed to go in but seeing her face looking back at him from the mirror froze him to the spot. He knew that she couldn't see him in the mirror, but he still felt like she was looking right at him.

"I thought you would have learned by now, that there is no way you can sneak up on me"

"Nice to see the real Toph is still in there somewhere"

"Yeah and she can still kick your sorry butt all the way to the fire nation capital and back again. So what do you what" she was surprised by how much she sounded like her self again despite how angry she was, it was still nice.

"I just wanted to see if you are ok" despite the way the night had gone he felt like a weight had been taken of his shoulders. Knowing that the girl he had come to care about was still there. Just buried a little more than normal. The tone of her voice was what annoyed him thou, he was beginning to get close to just giving up on trying to get her to open up about what was upsetting her.

"Well I'm fine. So you can go, you don't have to take care of me"

That was the last strew for him, he snapped, he moved into the room slowly approaching her "you still don't get it do you. we care about you and want to help you, because you are like family to us"

With that word she was on her feet and walking towards him. To him it looked like one quick movement. She had picked up on a few things from being around Aang, the way he had with her. That was why he wasn't going to let this go.

"Don't you dare say that word to me. family means nothing" there where tears building up in her eyes, as she almost spat the word family back at him.

"I am sorry for what your family have done to you. But don't take it out on us. Is that what has been making you so down over the last couple of days" he moved his hands up to her shoulders, regretting shaping at her.

She couldn't help but laugh, the same laugh he hand heard the first time he saw her "you think that is what I have been upset about" as she said this she moved her hands up to push his away, with more force than he had expected.

"Well I am not a mind reader like you, so why don't you tell me what is your problem"

With a sense of deje vu she shout back "what is your problem"

"right now, you"

She couldn't help herself, in one quick movement she raised right hand up to slap him across the face, before her hand made contact with the avatars face he had moved his left hand up and griped her wrist. He had expected her to then try and slap him with her left hand, and he would then block it with his right arm, he moved his left hand for this, but she didn't try and hit him again.

The next thing he knew she was on the floor, with a red mark on her face. She had hit the side of the bed on her way down to the floor, so it took her a bit longer to get up than it would normally have done.

"Get out"

"Toph. I'm so sorry" she was now kneeling in front of him.

"I said get out of here. now" her face looked up at him, her sightless eyes burned into his, they were all he could see.

He was stuck to the spot he couldn't move. It was as if he couldn't hear what she was saying all he heard was his own voice saying sorry over and over again.

"Fine if what to stay her so bad, then I'll go" as she spoke she was pulling herself to her feet. She should have been in shock, uneasy on her feet, but her anger was keeping her steady. Before he was able to react or say any more she had left through the door Aang had entered by. Leaving the Avatar alone as the cold wind swept into the room from the veranda door.

It took him a few move minutes to come back to himself. He had hit Toph. he remembered how much he had pushed her to say that Zuko had firebent at her, at the western air temple. She knew that is was an accident and didn't really blame him for it, but he had wanted so much to be able to blame him, to have a real reason for her as to why he didn't want him as his teacher. Now he saw how easy it was to lash out, he also remembered that he had done that to her before, and Katara too. The worst part was knowing that it was her pride that was hurt, not her feelings and that once she had cooled off she would forgive him, like she did with Zuko and him before.

Aang needed to see her, to let her know that he was sorry. She knew that already he knew, but he wouldn't be able to stop feeling so guilty about it until he said it to her face, and she excepted his apology.

He had a fairly good idea of where she would be. He walked over to the veranda door, and out into the garden that lay behind the palace. Once he was a few feet from the palace he turn back to face the large building. In one fast movement a stream of air wrapt its self around the last air bender, and carried him to the flat top of the palace roof.

She was sitting with one of her legs pulled into her chest, the other was dangling of the edge of the roof. He moved over to sit next to her.

A few nights ago Aang had taken a walk around the gardens, as he couldn't sleep. When he had been making his way back to the palace, he was sure he had seen someone sitting on the roof. All he was able to make out was what he thought was long hair being blown in the wind. He knew now, once Toph left that it had to have been her, that was why she had left instead of throwing him out, because she had somewhere else she could go.

Toph had chosen to sit facing the city of Ba Sing Sa. The city was lit with what looked like thousands of touches, giving the city a warm glow in this cool evening air. The sky was full of stars as there where few clouds that night. The earth king couldn't have picked a more beautiful night for the ball.

Aang noticed Toph shivering a little, he wanted to give her a blanket, or something to keep her warm, but he had nothing. He was about to speak when she broke the silence.

"Before you say anything. I know you are sorry, it was an instinct thing I get it"

"That doesn't mean it's ok. You're clearly upset and I go and lash out at you like that" as he spoke she turned to face him. Her hair was blown into her face and the moon gave little light, but he could still read her face. She was think about something else, she had put the whole thing behind her, like he knew she would and was going to move to something else that had been troubling her.

"Do you know why I cut in"

"I have no idea" he could read a heart rate very faintly if he really tried, but he didn't pick up on her heart sink a little now.

"Do you want to know. really want to know, because I don't think you will like it to much"

"I think I can take it" if he was being honest with himself he wasn't to sure he could take it. It was the way Toph had said it that made him worry. She had always been good at knowing when to push him forward and when to pull him back. So if she thought it might be hard for him to hear he was worried. She never sugar coated things so she was going to give it to him as it was.

"Ok. if your sure" there was a reluctant tone in her voice he had never heard before, like she didn't want to be the one to tell him this "I can read the changes in peoples hearts, and what they mean, to a degree" she paused. It seemed that she was trying to make this as easy as possible for him to hear "I can tell that there is something between Katara and Zuko. I am not saying that he is going to break up with Mai, or that she is never going to like you. I am just saying that they should have time to talk and think about it for themselves and you too. It makes it all less messy"

He felt like an idiot for not seeing it himself and for not seeing that Toph was trying to help him. In a way he had always known deep down about Katara and Zuko, but he had just pushed it down so he didn't have to deal with it. He reached over to Toph, not caring if she hit him, he warped his right arm around her shoulders pulling her closer to him.

"You where willing to let me get mad at you, to stop me getting hurt" with more speed than he expected Toph pulled out of his hold.

"No. I was being totally selfish. If you had told her how you felt now, then she wouldn't know what to say. Then things would have gotten all weird for everyone, and since these are the last few days before you all abandon me, I want them to be as uncompleted as possible. Once you leave you can get your heart broken into so many bits it will never be able to fit together again, for all I care" the tone of her voice was so flippant that he knew that she was just joking, she didn't mean what she said. She was pretending to be trying to keep up her hard outer shell, to make light of the situation, and stop him from worrying about her.

"So you weren't using me to get out of dancing with the duke" it she was ready to start joking then so was he.

Even thou it made no difference to her, Toph moved her head to face out towards the expansive city, instead of the avatar next to her "I don't know what you are talking about, have you hit that air head of yours" to make her point, and for fun she hit Aang on the head.

Aang took hold of her wrist, pulling it towards him. she moved slightly in his direction, he was now able to see her face "yes you do. He likes you, he thinks you pret…." moving the hand that Aang still held, Toph covered his mouth with it. Being unable to see, she ended up covering move of his cheek than his mouth, but he still stopped talking, to keep her happy.

"So. How are you" the sincerity in her voice seem odd, he had never heard her sound like that, yet it was welcoming.

Since Toph seemed to be in a good mood, and he didn't know how long that would last Aang was going to make that most of it "I could use a hug" his voice was dripping with sweetness. Toph was either going to laugh till she feel of the roof, or push him off it..

She did nether, instead she sled further along the roof, increasing the gap between them "come on Toph. You have given me hugs before"

"that was different, that a grou…"

"come on, please" he was now giving her his big watery eye look, knowing full well that it would have no affect on her.

"fine, but you have to answer my question honestly" the second she was done talking, his long arms were warped around her, all she could do was lift her hands up to rest on his shoulder.

"I'm fine, really" his voice right in her ear sent a small shiver down her spine.

He was telling the truth, he was ok. He had waited this long he could wait a little longer. The only thing that he was sure of was that he didn't want to mess it all up, so if Katara needed time then he would give her that. That didn't make it hurt any less however.

"Lets go" he was getting used to just saying things now. He pulled away from Toph so fast she almost lost her balance. He was now looking right into her eyes, to read her reaction.

"What! You really are an air head aren't you"

"Come on. we have nothing to stay here for, lets just get on Appa and go. We can go to the other air temples, I have always wanted to show them to someone who can fix them up" as he had been saying this he had got to his feet. He was waving his arms around as he spoke, so it took him by surprise when Toph took hold of it. Without a word she gently, yet firmly pulled him back down to sit next to her on the roof.

"We have jobs to do, you are the avatar and as of tomorrow I will be the earth kingdom ambassador. We need to do those jobs" her tone was gentle, but stern. She meant what she said.

"Yeah you're right" she now let his hand go, sure that he was going to stay put now.

"Of course I am. Come on twinkle toes I thought you would have learned that one by now"

"It's good to hear you call me that again"

"I notice your not saying it thou"

"Well Sokka is right, it's not manly" a big grin began to appear on his face, as he got what he thought was a good idea.

"You're not scared of flying any more are you"

"Not on Appa no. but that is not what you're talking about so forget it"

"Come on, it is the fastest way down"

She smiled, reluctantly took his hand that he was handing out to her, as he again got to his feet taking her with him this time. Placing one arm around her waist, he sent a stream of air around them, that cared them back down to the earth below.

This is the longest chapter I have written so far, and I am quit proud off it. I hope you like it to. I would still love to hear back, about what you thing, any comment or option is very welcome good or bad.

So here we go

One. The pairing are already worked out, and aren't going to change much from the original story. So do you think that this chapter was to much to soon, should I have waited till later to work this part of the story in.

Two. What do you think of the dialog between Toph and Aang did it seem real. Did they say or do anything that didn't seem right.