Title: Curiosity
Rating: K
Character/Pairing: Toph-centric, Aang and Co.
Summary: It just doesn't appeal to her.
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 "hug." Set right after Bitter Work.
hug
-verb
1. to clasp tightly in the arms, esp. with affection; embrace.
At first, she wonders if it's her upbringing. Then, she wonders if it's their upbringing.
Either way, she doesn't get these three, and how easily they can throw their arms around one another. Toph's been pulled into a couple of these group hugs, but mostly she stands back and watches them carefully – it's not unusual for Aang's waterbending lessons to end with a hug, and Katara regularly embraces Sokka for the littlest things, like savaging some berries she's especially fond of.
It's not that she really minds. She just doesn't get it.
At the end of another grueling earthbending session, Aang looks downcast. To be fair, she can't see how he looks, exactly, but she can feel it coming off of him in waves: total disappointment, utter discouragement. He's still struggling with earthbending. As sure as she is that the problem is his as a student and not hers as a teacher, part of her wants to make him feel better. Part of her is wondering if she should just hug him, like she knows the Sugar Queen would do.
"Toph? Are you okay?" Aang voices the question weakly, breaking through her reverie. "You have a weird look on her face."
Instead of hugging him, she digs her heel into the dirt, tossing him off the rock he'd been perched on and into the air.
"Get some sleep!" she yells after him. "You'll need it for tomorrow!"
Maybe it's her upbringing. She's suspects it's not his.
Originally posted 06/04/09