This is an Avatar the Last Airbender FanFiction. Disclaimer: I do not own the characters but I use them because I enjoy it.

o-o-o

Meeting The Family

o-o-o

With all the time Aang was spending with her, he wondered whether it was time for her to meet his friends. After a week of getting down and begging her parents (literally) to take her out the finally gave in, only if there were guards with her. Although, Toph decided to lose the guards half-way through, she didn't need them watching over her. If anything were to happen Aang would be there and she had her phone on her.

She didn't want to say anything but she was horribly anxious. She didn't talk to many people when she was growing up and meeting Aang's friends made it somewhat worse. Having Aang around was a relief in itself. As long as he was around she would manage.

After 15 minutes of walking the two finally got to the house of Aang's first friends. He said that she would love them, but she doubted that adamantly, which led the two to their current predicament.

"Come on Toph! You're going to love them!"

"Nooooo! You know how I feel about people! I don't wanna!"

"It will be a valuable learning experience! You'll learn to love them like I have."

"No I won't! I'm fine with just one friend; I don't need a whole bunch!"

"A whole bunch will do wonders!"

"What possible 'wonders' could they do?"

"Make you see the good in people?"

"There is none!"

"What about me?"

"You…you're special, very special. So special it creeps me out sometimes."

"Um, thanks?"

"You're welcome, now let me go!"

"No!"

"Um, Aang, should I be worried about this?" A boy appeared, with a worried look on his face. He had milky-chocolate skin with his dark hair that was tied up into a ponytail flew slightly with the wind. He wore a simple black shirt, and blue demy-jeans which had a chain attached to the side.

"What do you mean?" Aang asked without turning to face him.

"Well, you've practically pinned the girl against the floor for one." Sokka was right. Aang was on top of her struggling to keep her down. "…is there something you want to tell me? About you holding girls down against their will."

"Not really, I- !"

Aang felt like time stopped. An extraordinary pain like no other greeted Aang. He felt so much pain in that moment he didn't know pain from feeling fine. He felt something die inside him. Toph launched her foot aimed straight for Aang's groin. Aang's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and his jaw dropped as he grabbed his crotch with his free hand, rolled over and groaned in pain.

While Aang temporarily immobilized on the floor she got up, dusted herself and went on her way.

"Sokka don't let her get away!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Hold up!" Sokka made his way to Toph, blocking her path but also making sure that he was a safe enough distance.

"What do you want?"

"I'm not too sure about that…but Aang went through a lot of trouble to get you here, so could you humor him?"

"No thanks." Toph walked passed Sokka.

"Toph please!" Aang squeaked.

"Ugh, fine! But," Toph walked up to Aang and grabbed him by the collar "If I feel like I wasted my time here, I'm disowning your ass."

"I promise, you'll love it."

"What's going on here?" A similar milky-chocolate skin girl came out from the house. "Uh, Aang what's going on?" The girl's clothing definitely caught Aang's attention; she wore a frilly blue blouse with a matching blue skirt.

"Oh hey Katara! This is Toph, the girl I've been telling you about." Toph noticed how Aang's eyes lit up when she appeared.

"I'm out of here." She released Aang and walked off.

"Toph wait!"

After an hour of convincing, they finally got her into the living room. Toph adjusted her glasses and scanned the room. It was a medium sized living room with a set of furniture, paints and of course the wide screen T.V. While Toph flipped through the channels, Aang, Sokka and Katara wondered what they should do. They wanted to meet the girl Aang literally wouldn't shut up about but they never expected her to be as she was.

Just then, the heard a light knock at the front door. The dark haired boy's skin was fair, except for the reddened area on the left side of his face with scintillating topaz eyes. He wore a white shirt over his long black vest covered his muscular torso, with sea blue jeans with a pair of white sneakers. A silver pendant hung around his neck which complimented the twin piercings on his left ear.

"Zuko?" Katara asked surprised by his appearance.

"Zuko? What are you doing here?" Sokka couldn't hide the annoyance in his voice.

"I came to return this." Zuko pulled out a book from his knapsack and handed it to Katara.

"Oh, my notebook! Thanks Zuko but didn't you need this for a little while longer?"

"No, I'm done copying all the notes. Thanks again."

Toph noticed the change in Aang's mood when Zuko showed up. Oh? Interesting. I'll use this for later.

"Well since I'm done here, I'll be leaving."

"Wait, why don't you come in and meet the girl Aang was talking about?"

"You mean that…Tammy girl?"

"The name's Toph, jabroney."

"And this must be Aang's little friend with the big mouth." Zuko inspected the girl. On first glance, she looked like a short nerd. But Zuko looked deeper into her eyes, and noticed a beauty that was held back by her tomboyish attire and glasses.

"Take a picture it will last longer."

"Interesting friend you've got there Aang."

"She is much nicer when you get to know her."

"He is sugarcoating it." Toph remarked. Now it was Toph's turn to inspect him. From the huge scar on his she could tell that he already had a few issues. She could tell that it would be a snap to piss him off. The angered gaze and aura he gave off told her all she needed to know.

"…what are you looking at?"

"Do you know who Tony Montana is?" Toph ignored his question and asked her own.

"Who the heck is that?"

"I'm pretty sure that's the star of the film 'Scarface'." Sokka answered for him.

"Are you making fun of my scar?" Oh, touched a nerve there.

"Not making fun, but admiring it. It shows character."

"...you're admiring my burn?"

"How'd you get it anyway?"

"My dad burned me."

"Oh…family, huh? Can't live with em, can't live without em I always say."

Zuko was taken aback. Well this is a first. Usually people would apologize and walk away. Not try to make a joke out of it.

"Don't worry," Toph placed her hand on his shoulder "If you're friends with happy idiots like them you're bound to follow. So drop the scowl."

"Hey! We are not idiots!" Sokka retorted.

"Yes you are." Katara remarked.

"Wait…oh my god." Toph gasped. I just comforted him…

"Twinkle Toes is beginning to rub off on me…" Toph rubbed her face. His brand of 'nice' was contagious.

"Twinkle toes?" Zuko asked.

"Oh, I'm talking about-" Aang rushed over and quickly blocked her mouth.

"Oh she isn't talking about anyone right, Toph?"

"Twinkle Toes let go of me!"

The other three only looked at him for a moment before they burst out in fits of laughter.

"Now that's the spirit, sourpuss." Toph couldn't help but smile and Aang noticed. He was getting to her. Slowly but surely Aang was going to show her the brighter side of the world. It would only be a matter of time until she smiled like that more often.

After a few hours of 'fun' the two teens left the house. Toph practically yanked Aang out of the building as she couldn't get herself to settle down in such a friendly atmosphere.

"That wasn't so bad now was it?" Aang smiled.

"Sokka was stupid at least 80% of the time, Katara tried to baby me 30 times and Zuko! Well, he just glanced over to me a couple times."

"Oh that's not bad. He was full blown angry at me the first time we met."

"Why? What did you do?"

"I asked about his scar all too energetically." Aang scratched the back of his head "I've got to stop doing that."

"What's your deal with him anyway?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well when he showed up you were less than happy to see him."

"Oh, you saw that huh?"

"Yep."

"I don't want to talk about it and besides" Aang's eyes searched up and down the street "The bus is here." Toph deliberated for a moment before she grabbed Aang's shirt and pulled him away from the bus onto the sidewalk.

"Toph?"

"We're walking home today."

"Are you mad woman?" Toph stretched her arms to him and punched him roughly in the arm"Walking would taking hours!"

"More time for us to talk then."

Aang's shoulders sagged in defeat. This girl was impossible.

"So what happened?"

"Well…it's like this. I did say that Katara and Sokka were my first friends, right? Well at first it was just me and Katara since Sokka was in Junior High and we were still in Middle school. We were so close, we did everything together. I mean Katara would smother me sometimes but it was fun. But then she left for Junior High and everything got messed up." For the first time since she had meet him, Aang dropped his smile.

"We started spending less and less time together since she always had to work hard to keep up her grades. It wasn't so bad, I got some one-on-one time with Sokka and his 'man-bonding' but it just wasn't the same. Even when I got to Junior High she still didn't have time for me. Between School work, her friends, her extra classes I see her roughly three times a week if I'm lucky."

"Tough break Twinkles," Toph patted his back roughly. "But what does Zuko have to do with this?"

"He has everything to do about it! Rather than hang out with me, when she wasn't studying she'd be out with him!"

"Calm down!" Toph smacked the back of his head.

"Ow! Alright, Alright."

"Wow, I've never seen you get so angry about…well, anything." There were three things Toph was sure about; Aang was insane, he was too happy and trusting and third he never got angry even when she hit him. He just broke the third.

Toph took a right down the street and Aang closely followed. She wasn't even sure Aang was paying attention to where they were headed.

"Katara must be really important to you if you're this angry about it." For some reason, Toph's gut was in a knot. Bad food? Aang walked ahead of her and slid down the slanted plain, it was then Toph's turn to follow.

"She is, but so are all of my friends like you." Toph lost her balance after hearing that causing her to slip and fall but Aang quickly grabbed her hand before she could. Toph didn't know whether to feel angry or happy about that. Wait why would I feel angry?

"Thanks…"

"No problem. It's like I've been relying on her for so long, now that's she's gone I just feel a bit lonely."

"Lonely? You've been spending most of your time with me how can you feel-" Toph connected a few dots in her head.

"Is that…why you've been hanging out with me?"

"Huh?"

"I knew it. You're no different from the others. You only wanted to hang out with me because I was a substitute for her."

"What are you talking about?"

"Leave me alone. Aang, just go away." Toph tried to walk away from him but he never let go of her hand.

"Toph what are you talking about? I'm not substituting you for anyone. You're my friend!"

"You're only my friend because you don't spend time with her so you come to me!" Toph broke from his grip and began to march away.

"Toph!"

"Leave me alone, Aang!" What's wrong with me? I knew I shouldn't have trusted him but why does it feel so bad? Why am I so damn angry? He is just another bastard. He may not be greedy but he is still cruel. I don't even know this place. If only I had stayed in my room that day none of this would even be happening!

Toph had been so lost in thought she hadn't noticed that she had wandered onto the street. The horning of the oncoming car that was heading for her, slipped in through one ear into the next. The next thing Toph knew was that she was lying on her back with green grass behind her and Aang on top of her.

"Aang get off-"

"What the hell are you doing, Toph!" Toph went rigid. She had never heard Aang speak so loudly.

"Do you even know what happened? You almost got hit by a car! A car, Toph! What was going through you head?" Aang exploded. He had never been so angry in his life. Not even when his Grandfather gave all his toys to charity. Toph was silent and she took the scolding not taking her eyes off Aang for one second.

"God! I can't believe you'd do something so stupid!" Once Aang was done, he's breathing became ragged and his arms ached. He rolled onto the grass next to Toph and laid there with her.

"Toph I don't know what's going through your head but you are probably wrong. Toph, I like you. You're my friend. You're as important to me as Katara and I want you to know that I care about you. The time I spend with you is of my own free will. I want to spend it with you because I have fun."

Aang didn't really expect a reply so he relaxed in the grass and looked up to the bright sunny sky.

"Aang?" Toph spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

"…it's alright."

And with that the conversation between the two died. It wasn't that much of a conversion as it was an apology. Aang sat up and watched the people in the park playing and chatting the rest of the day away. Their walk had taken an unexpected turn. Aang wouldn't know what to say to her anymore. He didn't think he had to. The message had been received since Toph sat up and they both watched the people. For now, they would just enjoy each other's company.

"Hey Aang?" Toph broke the silence.

"Yeah?"

"Is school fun?"

Aang knew that Toph had been homeschooled most of her life, but why would she be interested in school? Maybe it had something to do with the conversations they had in the house. Most of them were school related and he guess Toph felt left out.

"It's kind of annoying from time to time but with a bunch of friends to talk to you and to enjoy the good times with. Yeah it can be pretty fun."

"I see."

"Why?"

"No reason." Toph dreamily looked up to the sky. "Just wondering."

Irrationally in a girl is sure sign of something good. Can anyone guess what Toph is planning?