Title: Thank God I'm Pretty
Prompt: #073 Pessimisstic
Notes: Sort of based on the song 'Thank God I'm Pretty' by Emilie Autumn, as well as the movie Swan Princess. XD
Thank God I'm Pretty
Toph doesn't appear to care about beauty right up until she's crying quietly in the middle of a street because a couple of catty comments. Katara smiles, even though Toph can't see the smile. She spits out encouraging words, about being beautiful and about stupid teenagers. And Toph smiles, and she really is rather pretty in that moment. Then Toph is wearing her customary half scowl, half smirk and she doesn't look really pretty. Intimidating, sure, but she's far too tomboyish to be pretty.
Katara is almost envious.
Toph will never know what it's like to be the "pretty one". Toph will never be questioned, will never be given condescending looks. Toph will never wonder if the man who says he loves her is in love with her, or her face.
Katara voices this thought. Quietly, quietly, because she can't stop herself and because she thinks Toph needs to know that everything isn't about beauty. Toph shrugs, and dismisses until almost four months later. Then they are leaving the playhouse after that awful play, and Toph stops. Sokka and Suki, caught up in their flirtation, keep walking, but everyone else stops.
"The play got me thinking, and I was thinking, what is Katara's biggest trait? I mean, crybaby preacher sugar queen for sure…" Toph trails off invitingly. Katara turns bright red under her tan and almost hisses something at Toph before deciding better of it. Instead, she stalks off, turning the corner in the path and hiding behind some convenient boulders. Toph knows she's stayed, but the boys don't.
Aang's answer stings: "The most beautiful girl ever." He beams like this is the good answer, but it's not, because she's always been the pretty one, the beautiful one, the one who is better for nothing than her looks.
She blinks back the bitterness and turns her gaze to Zuko, and the look on his face puzzles her. He's looking at the moon, as if weighing the words. : "Katara…she's a lot of things, Toph. She's fierce, she's beautiful, she's a warrior, a healer. Pick one."
Toph laughs. "Well I already did. What about you?"
Zuko sighs, then says, so softly that Katara almost can't hear, "For me, she's redemption, salvation."