Title: Radiator
Rating: K
Character/Pairing: Toph, Zuko
Summary: Zuko suddenly noticed that Toph was spending an inordinate amount of time with him.
A/N: Written for the alphabet challenge I did on my LJ, where I was given a prompt for every letter of the alphabet. My prompt for this drabble was "frozen."

frozen
-adjective
1. frigid; very cold

When they got well past the Earth Kingdom's borders, down by the Southern Air Temple that nobody really laid claim to anymore, Zuko suddenly noticed that Toph was spending an inordinate amount of time with him.

He noticed because she wouldn't shut up.

"And I gotta say, I really think you dropped the ball on that one. Well," Toph swiftly amended after a thought, "you could have made it worse by dumping tea all over him. Then you could have insulted both the king and your uncle. So, Princess," she patted Zuko on the shoulder with what was supposed to have been a comforting gesture, though he barely noticed with all the effort he was putting into clutching white-knuckled to the rails of the ship while gritting his teeth, "at least you didn't do that?"

"Thank Agni," Zuko finally muttered at her, still refusing to look at her. She'd been a thorn in his side going on a week now, for no reason comprehendible to him. She was probably bored. It wasn't the first time he'd been a target of Toph's when she'd had nothing better to do.

Toph smiled in satisfaction and took the tiniest step towards Zuko – as close as she could get to him without making bodily contact. He didn't notice anyway, as he was too busy staring into the ocean and seething.

She'd never been this far south before. It was freezing down here – she'd spent a day or two nursing her feet, debating whether or not she should borrow a pair of shoes, before she'd discovered that she had a very reliable source of heat right in front of her.

It was coming off of him in waves as Toph discussed some of his more embarrassing moments as Fire Lord. Contentedly, she tilted her head in his direction – even her nose was freezing – and decided that tomorrow she'd tease him about Mai.

Originally posted 05/28/09