Iroh had always wanted to run his own tea shop. He had never really wanted to be fire lord, or to even be a great fire bender , he was just gifted. Now that the war was over, and he had been able to spend a few months in Ba Sing Se, to rest before returning to the fire nation. He was finally able to do it. He was now the proud owner of the jasmine dragon. He had only been running it for a short time, but he was going to miss it, but he would be able to come and check on it as often as he wanted. It was the only condition he had made when accepting the title of fire lord, that Zuko would be able to have the power to make decoctions in his absence, which he had planed to be a lot of the time. After all it was going to be good training for Zuko when he became fire lord officially, in two years time he would be doing it own his own.
The jasmine dragon tea shop had no customers, but was still full of people. It was a quiet afternoon the sun had started to set, but it was still warm, for a evening at the end of summer. It was the last day that the gang where going to be in Ba Sing Se all together. tomorrow they where all going to go their separate ways. Scattering west, north and south.
Sokka was sitting at a table with the veranda, and faint sun to his back. He was trying to paint a picture of the whole group, a way to remember this moment, this time and the feeling. Katara and Mai where sitting at a small table by one of the windows that looked out onto the street, they where chatting about everything and nothing. Mai had arrived the day after the coronation, once she had seen her family. There was a air of tension between Katara and Zuko once she arrived, Katara tried to make up for this by being overly nice to her. Toph was playing pai sho with Iroh, on the table in the middle of the shop. Zuko was passing round the last round of tea, And Aang was sitting on the floor in front of the pai sho table playing with Momo, who he had to stop from steeling the pai sho tiles. Suki walked up behind Sokka, looking over his shoulder.
"What is that"
"That is a giant boulder, see" he said pushing the picture into her face.
"I thought it was Appa" Suki squinted her eyes, trying to make better sense of the painting, that was now only a few inches from her face.
"It dose look like Appa to me" added Mai, who with Katara had come over to see what was going on. Sokka muttered a few things under his breath, about no one appreciating his talent.
"Let me see" Toph didn't get up from the table, but glanced in the direction she knew Sokka and the others where. She couldn't resist playing a trick on him. It was far to easy sometimes, just to easy.
He held it up for her to see,, with a regained look of pried on his face "it looks just like you all to me" with that she turned her head back to the pai sho board, and waited for it to dawn on him. She counted down in her head. The longest he had gone was 14 seconds, and his best was 7 seconds.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
"Why do you feel the need to keep doing that"
Once it had dawned on Sokka, everyone else was allowed to let out the laughter they had been trying to suppress, since Toph had spoken.
While this had been going on Aang had got up and was making his way to the back door to go out onto the veranda. He needed to get some air. Seeing all of his friends happy and laughing should have made him happy, he should be joining in to. He just couldn't, he couldn't get the fact that this was possibly the last time they where all going to be together like this, out of his head. When he saw them like this having fun, and acting their ages, it made him sad. He was sad that they had all had to grow up so fast, and deal with so much. Even with the war over their work was not done, and it never would be. As his friends, as his family he knew they would always be in his life. This was just going to get them caught up in more dangerous situations, he felt that it was his fault, all the pain they had gone through, and would have to suffer.
Toph had noticed him leave. She felt his heart sink, more clearly than she could feel the others speeding up as they laughed. He had told her that he was fine about how things were with Katara, and he had been telling the truth, but maybe that had changed. Toph was never the kind of person to be a shoulder to cry on, but she found herself getting to her feet to go after him, to leaned him her shoulder to cry on, if that was what he needed.
However someone else bet her to it, but for a very different reason. Once she knew what was going on a faint smile crossed her face, maybe sometimes good things do happen to good people. It dawned on her that she really was a very cynical person. The fact that she could read people, sometimes tell what they were planning on doing before they did it also unnerved her a little now.
Zuko noticed Toph get up to go, and he also say Katara get there first. He too knew what was going to happen. Like Toph he was happy, it was the simplest way to go, and the most amount of people would be happy. He loved Mai, and Katara loved Aang, they had never talked about it, but what that both knew they felt for each other, they didn't know if that was real, if it would last. This was the best way.
"So shorty, when are you going to come back to the fire nation capital. There is a lot of rebuilding to be done, and you where the one how did most of the damage"
Toph couldn't help but give a small smile, she was worried how Zuko was going to react, to the change in events, now she knew he was going to be ok "don't worry sparky I'll fix your little palace for you. After I have fixed the damage you did to Omashu"
"Ha ha she's got you there" Sokka couldn't help himself. He now appeared behind Zuko, and slapped him on the back. Zuko turned his head towards Sokka slowly, giving him a look that told him that he had done to far.
Over the next hour everyone slowly one by one started to leave. To pack and rest, ready to leave tomorrow. Until there was only two people left. Two figures left at the table they had been at for most of the day playing the tenth and final game of the day.
"Six to me four to you, I thought you where meant to be good at this game, and you lose to a kid a blind kid. I have to say I am disappointed"
"If I didn't know better I would say you have been cheating" he was smiling as he didn't really mean what he said. He got up to finish clearing the shop.
"I can tell your lying" Toph took another sip of her tea, she had been nursing it for the last hour.
"something tells me you don't what to leave, almost as much as I don't"
"I am just not tired" Iroh was almost as good at seeing through people as she was, so she had to turn her head towards the door.
"Zuko told me about what has happened with your parents. I am sorry" Iroh had taken his seat again.
"why dose everyone say they are sorry. When they haven't done anything wrong"
"I assume you are talking about the young avatar" Toph just nodded. "well maybe he feels sorry, because he was the one who got you involved in all of this"
"I made that choice on my own" Toph got up to leave.
Iroh watched he approach the door, he turned away from her as he spoke "I notice you aren't saying how you feel about it. I think you are trying to avoid talking about it" he didn't look at her, so she wouldn't feel as if he was trying to push her to talk.
"I don't have any idea what you are talking about"
Iroh went back to clearing. Toph felt a little guilty, Iroh was only trying to give her the chance to talk about how she felt. Maybe that was what she needed. All of her life she had been hiding her feeling, it was know she felt in control of her life, when it didn't seem like her life to live. So she just blurted out how she felt, a little.
"I am going to really miss you, and everyone else. I feel like I am being left behind. That I have just swapped one cage for anther. I hate it here" even now, she was till holding back. This was the best she could do right now.
"I will miss you too, and so it everyone else. You have the chance to make a difference in this new era of peace, focus on that, and no one can but you in a cage unless you let them"
As he had been talking he had made his way over to where Toph stood by the door.
"I forgot, you are good at giving advice" she said as she took a step forward and gave Iroh a hug. This was the first hug she had ever initiated on her own, and it still felt odd "you remind me of my grandfather" Toph never saw it, but a sad look crossed Iroh face as she said that.
"I am proud. You remind me of what I would have wanted me grandchildren to be like"
"that makes no sense at all"
Before he could ask her anymore question Toph left. A few streets down, Toph turned off the route she should be taking, to get back to the palace. The night was clear, the sky was full of stars, and a gentle breeze child the air. Despite the cold Toph kept walking. Her feet were carrying her, and she didn't know were to. The only thing that she knew, was that she didn't want to go back to the stuffy palace, not when there was all this air and space.
After a few minutes, a smile slowly started to creep across the new grand masters face. Not to fast at first she started to run, Still with no distinction. Using the earth at her feet to pick up her speed Toph moved through the city at a great speed, for someone running. Eventually she stopped, she was now five feet away from the large moat that surrounded that area of the palace.
Even when she had just been running, with not thought as to where she was going she had still ended up back here. She had to accept that there was no changing fate.
This is the second last chapter in this part of the story. I hope you have liked reading it, and if you have read it again as I have been rewriting it then I hope it was better than the first time I posted it.
Ok questions
One. I have stuck with what happened in the show, but dose that make the previous chapters seem out of place. Like the story was going to go one way, then I just changed and went a different way, and not in a good way.
Two. There is a little angst with Toph and Aang, did that work or did it just take away from the happy, close atmosphere wit the gang in the shop. I did this to link Toph and Aang a bit, so even thou it has gone back to kataang for a bit, you still know it is taang at heart.
Three. The characters out if character at all.