Lao Bei Fong sat at a table within the Fire Lords palace, beside him sat his associates, merchants of no small wealth, across their equals in the fire nation, and at the head the young Fire Lord Zuko sat and deliberated. His group had proposed an elimination of tariffs between their nations, which would allow his businesses to sweep in and subvert the local businesses, the Fire nation Merchants and ministers were up in arms, as they should. He truly never expected to get what he asked for; he merely planned to receive concessions which would allow him to edge in and gain a foothold; for now.

The talks lasted for three hours and by the end he had the edge he needed, a relief from the harshest taxes on foreigners, Lao had succeeded, now for the second part of his plans, his daughter had apparently barely spoken to the Lord so he needed an excuse to stay a little longer.

"Lord, if you wish, we could continue the talks after a few days rest, give us time to communicate with our government by hawk and give us all time to regroup and plan."

The Minister of Finance stood, obviously quite furious,

"You upstart! You think you can dictate schedule of meeting to our Fire Lord? Remember you place Lao. He is Lord and you gain audience at his leisure." The Man returned to a sitting position, Lao apparently had made no friends here; it meant he was doing a good job.

"Even if he wished to test himself with vipers such as you he has a vacation planned and no time for such a meeting."

A thought crossed his mind, 'even better' he turn to Zuko, half bowing and spoke

"May I have permission to make a small request?"

Zuko waved his hand for him to continue.

"My daughter is visiting as you likely know, and at home she is restless, and from your earlier friendship I wonder if you could prefer to have her join you?"

"You now suggest Our Lord to Baby-sit your unruly children?!? What next? Will you ask him to cook and serve dinner for you?" He was getting to hysterics.

"Of coarse I over stepped my boundary, please forget I had said anything."

Lao sipped from his tea to cover his smile; it didn't matter what he said against it, the thought was planted.

***

Zuko stood on the front steps of his palace, gazing out across the capital, his capital, and watched the sun start to disappear behind the lip of the crater the city was built inside. Across the grounds servants moved while nobles and leaders dispersed back to the city. Today was the first day of a short vacation, no more than deemed necessary. Toph walked towards him lifting her long skirt, to allow her to step up the steps to his palace. She turned to him;

"Evening, oh mighty Fire Lord." A teasing smile crossed her face.

"How are you Lady Toph." He decided not to take the bait in he joke.

"Oh bored, your city is quite nice but nothing of real interest." She stopped up to the step below him, she was standing tall and proper, Her hair pulled into an exquisite bun, her features had matured even since he say her last time, barely a year before. She wore a long and layered green dress, this time of a lighter more playful color, the trim was an almost silvery white, a delicate pattern in gold tread playing along the cuffs and edges. She had filled out more and he felt a little embarrassed by the thoughts that crossed his mind as he looked down at her.

"How is life back at home?" He asked moving the conversation along; she hadn't noticed the pause as he studied her.

"Dreadful, I know no one, so social events are strange, Boys always act strangely around me and my parents get so weird about everything. Is it always this awkward being sixteen?"

He chuckled and nodded hopping she could feel the motion,

"Definitely."

She turned to face the setting sun, basking in the warmth on her face.

"What were you doing when you were sixteen?"

He blushed at the silly question, she knew the answer.

"I was hunting the Avatar across the world; in fact you met me when I was sixteen."

She laugh and turned back to him grinning, "I had forgotten how old you are," she teased "so I guess your youth was a little atypical, to say the least."

"Definitely."

She continued "Well at least my father has yet to try to marry me away; I've seen it happen to other girls my age."

He had to agree; it did seem strange the they had not proposed some sort of union, completely out of character for the cutthroat Lao.

"Perhaps he merely realized how pointless it would be to try." Zuko jested but it was likely the truth.

"Definitely." She said in her best impression of him, it wasn't very good.

A thought crossed his mind, back at the verbal trade war he had sat in on.

"If it is so brutal at home, don't go back. I'm going on a short trip to one of the smaller western islands; you would be welcome to join me."

She looked skeptically at him.

"And what is there that is so interesting?"

"I have no idea, never been there before."

She smiled; "Sounds almost like an adventure, perhaps a life changing one?"

He laughed when she brought that up again, "Maybe if you're lucky someone will try to kill me again."

She joined him in a light laugh, "Maybe they should think twice, you will be with a world class earthbender."

He extended his arm to guide her into the palace towards the guest wing; laughing and joking the whole way.

***

The next day he set out, cross the straights of his nation on the Royal Yacht. Toph stood by his side, her face pale, obviously not yet used to other modes of travel other than walking. She wore pants again as she had when he had know her during his adventures. They chatted and sat together, finding her mannerisms low-key and pleasant, and on the third day they arrived at their destination, a small city nestled on the gentle beaches. The island was lush and bountiful, that much was obvious form the boat.

They arrived with little fanfare and Zuko was immediately greeted by many prominent citizens, which meant they knew he was coming. Zuko asked if everyone knew, and they informed them that they had only learned earlier that morning and word had not spread, and with a request for some quiet he offered a financial boon if they would keep his visit a secret, as he wished not to be bothered with official business. The men agreed, wished him well and left.

He and Toph passed through the city, her Earth Kingdom clothing setting her apart and drawing stares but no one questioned them.

"Where is your 'Villa'?" She asked, not turning her head.

Stopping himself from pointing he merely said,

"To the east along the beach, quite secluded and ideal I understand." She seemed satisfied with the answer as they entered a local shop and she pursued the wares, mostly simple things and trinkets, still she gave the illusion of interest.

They arrived later that afternoon, with an entourage of more than fifty servants, the minimum to keep up appearances. They sat for a late lunch together, discussing the surrounding, the room was large with one wall merely large sliding door, which when open, as they were now, allowed a soft sea breeze in and a pleasant view across the waves; in the distance a boat made its way across the water.

Toph spoke form across her plate of finely grilled fish.

"What are your plans for this evening?"

He looked up from his own half finished meal, "I was going to walk the surrounding area to get a feel for it." He paused "See what's out there."

Zuko noticed how she had changed over these years; she seemed more in control of herself more aware of how she appeared. It was a good change for her.

She smiled slyly, "I will join you then."

***

They passed along the beach as the sun crested over the islands large central volcano. Shadows played in long stretches across the sands, which was soft fine between his toes. Zuko wore a simple and loose shirt and pants, black but trimmed with a fine red, Toph had opted for a pair of deep red shorts and sleeveless shirt. In their hands they held their shoes. He studied the surrounding and hills that led towards the center of the landmass, and asked Toph;

"Do you notice anything strange?"

"Why should I? I am blind, you must recall."

"I don't think you're blind at all."

Toph cocky her head and allowed him to continue the thought.

"No, I mean I know you're not blind, you may not see the way I do, or most people, but you see in an entirely different perspective. A different spectrum of colors;" He picked up a small stone to illustrate his point. "Here I have a stone and by looking at it, I would say it's a light grey, and round." He handed the stone to Toph, "While when you look at it you don't see the color, the shade, or the luster, you see the mass and density, what the stone is made of."

She turned the rock over in her hand as he continued.

"You are the same way with people, you see to the middle of things, you don't care what someone is on the outside, if they dress in the finest clothes or rags, if they are handsome or ugly, you can see if they're handsome on the inside."

She gave an honest and thankful look to him. Then quickly went back to her teasing ways;

"On the topic of clothes, I can still smell, and are you saying that you're ugly? Because if you are I don't know if we can continue being friends."

She punched him in the shoulder. "Thanks."

They chatted more, and Toph revealed that the island was in a number of similar layers of hard stone sandwiching between them layers of softer dirt and sand, they surmised that the volcano hand cover the island more than once, even still it seemed to fascinate her. He paid attention and asked suitable questions to keep the conversation two way. She explained of the rock formations in the earth kingdom and how they we so different from here.

As time passed and darkness settled around them Zuko suggested they turn back, now a mile or so down the beach. Toph agreed, halfway back to the villa the last dying light of the sun disappeared and they began to navigate by moonlight. Zuko looked up at the heavens and gazed into the stars. Toph turned, and noted what he was doing.

"We can stop and rest if you like." Zuko shrugged and sat in the sand then laid back to get a better view of the undiluted sky. Toph lay down near him and he heard her shiver and then she scooted closer to him.

There they laid for a minute or two, on their backs with sand massed around them touching side to side, when Toph interrupted.

"Tell me what the stars look like. I've heard about them, but they seem to be completely out of my "spectrum"."

Zuko thought on how to describe something like a star to someone who had never seen light.

"Do you know how the earth seems to go on forever below us?"

Toph gave an affirmative mumble; she was gazing starlight up, as if she would be able to see them as he described them.

"Well The sky is the opposite, the Ying to earths Yang, while the Earth is a huge expanse of substance, the sky is a huge expanse of air. It seems to go on forever, and at the very edge of it, higher than any bird or airbender can fly lay the stars. They sit out there, just hanging in the sky, like the sun but much smaller."

The explanation became easier as he went farther into, the words rolling off his tongue;

"There are thousands of them, more than I would care to count, they make designs and tell stories, they said that the great mountain dragon forged them at the dawn of time by casting a portion of his fiery breath into a stone, then flew higher than any other creature where he hid them, so none other could get his greatest treasure.

"Still he placed them to give insight and wisdom to the world forever more. I've heard the Water tribes belive them to be tiny crystals of ice placed by the spirits that gather sunlight during the day and shine back in the night so mortals might be able to see during the night for this was before the moon had taken its spot in the sky."

She curled up to him and yawned,

"Are they beautiful?"

"yes, yes they are."

They laid for a bit longer but it seemed Toph was falling asleep, so Zuko stood and guided them back to the Villa, they arrived it was well past midnight and half a dozen servants were still awake, Zuko cursed for not telling them to go to bed, as he knew they would wait up to him as was their duty. He dismissed them and ensured that Toph got to bed before retiring to his bed, dozing into a light sleep.

***

Zuko awoke with a start, it was still dark, probably only a few hours had passed since his return and heard creeping in the hallway beyond his room. It was slow and deliberate footsteps, not the kind of walk a servant of the house would have. He rolled silently to his feet and grabbed the small knife he kept beside his bed. Creeping to his feet, using all his abilities of stealth he crept to the sliding door that separated him from the main hall and the sound of the creeping. The noise stopped and Zuko caught his breath in his throat.

***

Dun-dun-dun. Assassins are back? Trouble brewing? Some Toko love? I dunno maybe next time!!

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