Crick Crick Crick

Sounds of mating crickets filled the air.

Ohohohohoooooh

Wind whispered through the temples, whooshing through hallways and around shrines.

Splash Splish Splash

Running water from the fountain added a feeling of zen to the courtyard.

The spiritual calm of this ancient sanctuary was lost on young Toph Beifong. She could not fathom the beauty of the heavens above, which shone with glimmering jewels and was guarded by the loving moon spirit, which the ancients had worshipped. She could not grasp the pull of celestial spirit, which called hundreds of nomads in the past to live simply and meditate.

To Toph, the entire ancient culture seemed like a bit like a joke.

Sounds like someone peeing, she thought to herself mischievously as she passed the tired fountain.

She was, however, grateful for the consideration of the old nomads for their use of sturdy building structures. She might not respect their pacifist ways, but at least they had not made their homes out of clouds or some other ridicules airbender nonsense. A blind earthbender could feel right at home in these caniverous structures. If only they did not have so many weird old spirit statues around. Their constant presence gave her the creeps, always there; watching her with eyes she couldn't see, judging her with old manners she couldn't understand. She might not know all the ins and outs of Aang's culture, but she knew enough to know it was weird.

Slipping her way along the hallway, she reached a corner and turned to the left. She found herself in a similar hallway, leading to more sleeping chambers. She quickly made her way down the path, with the sturdy confidence of a grounded earthbender.

When the gang had first arrived at the Western air temple, they had all spent the nights in the main courtyard, next to that ridiculously noisy fountain. It seemed more logical to stay together, where they could plan their future attacks up until the minute they crawled into their sleeping rolls, and begin planning again the moment they rolled out. It had felt just like old times, when they had camped together in the far reaches of the Earth Kingdom.

Their newest addition, however, did not add to the friendly feeling which made sleeping together in a group happily nostalgic. Rather then let him join them on the deck, they had promptly showed him to his separate room, and locked him away from their close community.

Toph was fine with him staying out of their business. He was here to train Twinkle Toes, and that was all. She didn't really see an issue, but ever since Aang had accepted Zuko as his teacher, Katara had been really ticked. She had moved her things into a separate bedroom on the opposite side of the main terrace, and had pretty much been giving the entire world the cold shoulder for the rest of the day.

After their main 'mom' figure had decided to move out, the rest of the kids had followed her example. The boys had found separate rooms to sleep in, and Appa and Mommo had settled in the hallway of the Forever Echo. Now, the terrace sat empty with only the never-ending fountain for company.

Katara's door was next to Sokka's, near the end of the hall. Sokka had noticed right away, like Toph, the tension that having Zuko around brought out in his sister. After her heated moving of items, he quickly selected the room beside hers so he could be sure his sister was safe.

Toph wondered how he planned to protect her from any incoming threat with the way he slept. Honestly, she could hear him snoring from out here in the hall!

Giving the grunting door a wide berth, Toph reached Katara's chamber, and knocked. No one answered, and the door was locked. It seemed as though Katara was asleep, but Toph knew better. She could see beyond the locked door, onto the rickety pallet bed of the ancient monks. There Katara lay, breathing much more rapidly then one that was awake. Silly girl, being quiet was not enough to fool Toph. Katara would need to learn how to be still and take deeper, more natural breaths if she wanted Toph to believe she was asleep.

"Open up Katara!" hissed Toph through the crack of the door. She wasn't too worried about waking anyone, as Twinkle Toes' room was on the other side of the hall, and everyone else was in the hallway where Zuko had set up shop. And of course, she figured it would take little less then an avalanche to awake the sleeping water tribe warrior behind the next door over.

Just as Toph was about to call again, she saw Katara start to rise from her bed. Pushing her bag aside in a frustrated manner, the waterbender made her way to the door, her footsteps getting more aggravated with each step. She ripped open the ancient door with far more force then necessary.

"What do you want, Toph?" snapped Katara in an angry voice. Toph didn't need her sensitive hearing to understand the frustration in Katara's words.

"I want to talk," said Toph simply, and even she was surprised to hear how quiet and serene her voice sounded. In the night hours she sounded—almost fragile. The night was always a hard time for Toph, with nothing to do but lay perfectly still and let her fears and worries which she usually pushed aside come washing over her.

Katara softened at the sight of her friend. Was Toph always so short? She seemed to build the young Beifong up more in her head. Toph made it easy to imagine her as someone much bigger.

"What about?"

"I want to talk about our newest addition to the team."

Katara froze for a moment. She tried to keep her features calm, even though she knew Toph couldn't see them. She somehow felt that if she let her true feelings show on her face, the blind girl would sense them. Toph had a way of feeling more then one would think.

"Here, come in Toph. We can talk."

Toph smiled at the water bender, but she hesitated. "Would you mind if we walked outside? I like the sounds of the night…"

Katara quickly agreed. "Of course, Toph."

Katara made the way out of her room, closing the door behind her. Toph felt her footsteps, and followed her through the hallways of the mysterious temple. They found their way to the edge of one of the patios, surrounded by the creepy statues of old judgmental air nomads.

Katara took a seat, and Toph sat beside her.

The two sat in silence for a moment. Well, for Katara, it was silence. For Toph, the night was alive with sounds so minuscule and unimportant that others would overlook them. For her, it was magical.

Finally, Toph instigated the conversation.

"I want you to tell me about him."

"About Zuko?"

"Of course, he's the newest one, isn't he?"

Katara leaned back on her hands. Toph could tell this was not a topic Katara was pleased to be discussing.

"Well, he's a self-absorbed jerk with anger management issues and a score to settle with his father."

"I know that," Toph rolled her eyes; a motion she had gathered from conversation was a gesture of exasperation.

"Well, what more is there to know then?"

"I want you to tell me what he looks like. Give me the highlights of his features so I can use them for mocking purposes."

Toph hoped her tone sounded lighthearted and joking. Honestly, she just wanted to know. She did not want to feel like others had secrets from her, or that everyone else was in on some information that she was not.

Katara took a small breath. It was a light sigh, but Toph could still hear it. Finally, she answered.

"Very well. Umm…he's tall, I suppose you can feel that though. Dark hair, it's long and kind of falls into his face."

"Eww. That sounds annoying."

Katara laughed.

"Trust me, it's not as weird now as it used to be. He used to have a ponytail."

"Really?" Toph was shocked. This was definite taunting material if she had ever heard it.

"Oh yes. It looked awful, really. Then he cut it off, I guess when he was on the run from Azula. Now it just kind of grows all over the place without function. It seems like he doesn't care about upkeep as much now."

"Maybe. Maybe he just doesn't need it to look a certain way now that he's not part of the Fire Nation Royal family anymore."

Katara considered a moment. "I never thought about it like that, you could be right."

"Tell me more," demanded Toph.

"Well, he has brown eyes, and a pointed face. That's about it."

"What? There has to be more."

"Well, he does have a scar."

Toph nodded. She had heard Zuko talking about the scar he had gotten from his father before.

"Is it really as bad as he makes it sound?"

"It is pretty bad," admitted Katara. "It goes all the way from his forehead down around his eye and splashes onto his cheek. It still looks angry red, after all this time. I would have hated to see it when it was fresh."

"That must have been a major hit to his prince-looks."

"Not really," said Katara quickly, as though she hadn't really thought about her answer. She fell silent again right away, but Toph was not ready to let this comment pass without a bit of good-natured mockery.

"What is it, Katara? Does the suspicious waterbender think the mysterious firebender is handsome after all?"

"I never said that!" exclaimed Katara, laughing. Toph picked up on the slightly nervous tone in her laugh. "I'm just saying, with that scar….if it was on anyone else, you would have assumed they got it defending their homes against the fire nation's brutal attacks. I guess I'm just saying it makes him look a little…brave, is all."

"Well, if his story is to be believed, he was defending his morals and beliefs from his ruthless father. I guess that was kind of a brave thing to do."

Katara nodded, then, realizing Toph couldn't see her, said, "Yeah, I guess so."

A few more seconds of nature's nighttime liveliness.

Then Toph continued her taunting line, refusing to let the matter drop without getting a straight answer.

"So…is he cute?"

"What? Who?"

"Zuko!"

"How should I know?"

"Because you have eyes, Katara! You have a better chance of picking out a hot firebender from a crowd then I do."

Katara pushed Toph's shoulder playfully. Toph felt the movement coming long before Katara's hand made contact, but she did not duck out of the way. She didn't mind Katara touching her; it was good to have someone close enough to her that they would.

"I guess, if he wasn't such a major jerk, you could say he was just a little cute."

"Wow, cute and brave-looking. Aang had better watch out, he's got competition."

"No! Not at all. You're forgetting the jerk factor."

Toph smiled. "I guess, but people can change, you know."

Katara shook her head. "No one can change that much. I know we need him to train Aang, but I still don't trust him."

Toph sighed and leaned back on the ground. Katara laid down besides her. Toph knew she was looking up at stars, even though Toph couldn't see them. Toph imagined thousands of pinpricks of light in the vast darkness of space. That was how they had been described to her once, and she was willing to accept this description. She honestly did not know why such tiny lights had such an impact on people, but she supposed that so many much be a beautiful sight. This was one thing she would never be able to debate with people on, however, because she would never be able to relate to them.

She could, however, relate to Katara's feeling of wariness and mistrust.

"I have trouble trusting people," she admitted suddenly. "I didn't have a lot of friend growing up, so it's always been hard to gauge people's loyalty. I can tell when someone's flat-out lying, but I cannot tell what kind of person they are going to be down the road."

"I can tell you Zuko's not going be a great person down the road."

"Maybe he will, and maybe he won't. If I can't tell, then you certainty can't."

Katara sighed. "I guess not."

"I suppose we'll have to just wait and see what kind of person he's going to be now."

"I suppose we will."

The two girls fell into silence, each lost in their thoughts. They were both wondering about the loyalties of the mysterious firebender who had shown up that morning. Away from them, down a few halls and past a few more statues Toph would have called strange, the young firebender in question lay awake, wondering the very same things.

A/N-Hey guys! I was thinking a bit over Spring Break about what to write, so I decided to make a second chapter for this story set after Zuko joins the team! Hope you all enjoyed it! Review if you did, and also if you didn't, and say what I could have done better! Hope everyone is having a great Easter Weekend!