Hey, thank you for the reading. It is so weird to be this close to ending the whole story for good again. There are still a few chapters to go with this one before I move onto the penultimate part.
A few days after everything had come to a head Toph and Aang left the fire nation. They acted like nothing had change, like none of what happened had really happened. Toph had been the one to start this act, and Aang went along with it. If this was how she was dealing with what had happened then he was going to respect that. That fact that she had let herself open up to him, stopped him from worrying to much about this. As it showed she was not completely shutting off all that had happened.
He had only once come close to questioning her on her state of mind, before they left the fire nation. They had been talking about where they were going to go to, and Toph had suggested that they go to the southern air temple. He knew that Toph had not found living there pleasant, when they lived there two years ago. She had disliked it so much that they only lived there for a season. So why did she want to go back there. The only answer that he could get from her on the subject was that, it meant a lot to him and she wanted him to be happy. As caring as Toph could be he knew that she would, never let herself be trapped somewhere for anyone. Not even him.
His concern was pushed away, as she seemed to be dealing with everything very well. Yes she was ignoring it, but she was acting like her old self again. Not just the Toph that he had married, but the Toph that he had first met her. He had thought that Toph was gone that, that part of her only been buried. He knew it was an act, and over exaggeration in part to make himself better. Let it didn't over worry him. He believed that if she wanted to, then she would talk to him.
That old Toph had kept her feeling hidden, never showing any emotion. Over the years she has learned to open up more. Now she was putting on a mask again. The last thing she wanted to do was make Aang and the other worry about her anymore. So she acted the way she knew they wanted her to act like. When she had first joined them, all those years ago, she had kept up the act of the blind bandit. That was the way they had first met her, the way they had asked her to join them. The way they needed her to be. The strong one.
There were times when she felt so disconnected from Aang, but at the same time so connected to the earth, the world. It was as if her form of sight had only let her see so far, now she was able to see further, deeper than before. It was scary, but a good scary. Like when she first leaned to earthbend, left to travel with Aang and the others and when she realised that she was in love with Aang. It made her feel stronger, more powerfully. Like she saw things, understood things that no one else did.
One night she lay sleeping in her bed, with Aang's arms wrapped around her waist pulling her close to him. He had long since realised that on the nights that she tossed and turned, that best thing to do was pull her close, so she wasn't able to move around as much and was forced to stay still and sleep. It was an action that had become a habit for him. She had only slept for an hour or so when she was woken by a voice. The words the voice said weren't clear, but she knew what they were telling her, what she had to do.
Toph herself had not been sure why she had been so insistent that they return to the southern air temple. Now it became clear in her head, it was the closest place they could go to, to the swamp.
Slowly as not to wake Aang she slipped from his arms and pulled herself out of bed. It was like her body was moving on its own accord and Toph was standing in the back watching herself move by feeling the movement on the stone floor. Not even her bare feet touching the clod stone floor brought her to her senses. She dressed as if she was preparing for battle. The brown boots were tucked into the brown trousers. A white wrap top was pulled on, then over that a black leather bodices with a hint of green to it. Her grandfather's gauntlets and her meteor bracelet finished the outfit.
She pulled the dagger she had stolen for a man that tried to use it on her out of the small draw by her bed side. Toph always kept this dagger close and took it with her, if she felt it was necessary. Rather than attaching it to her belt, she took hold of her hair in her left hand, as she cut it with the dagger in her right hand. Her hair had reached the middle of her back now it was an inch longer than her shoulder. Pulling the front strands of her hair back, she moved to leave the room.
Out of habit, her hand reached for the necklace around her neck. As her fingers touched the new part of the pendant, she became aware of herself again. Her resolve was still the same, but she couldn't let herself leave like this.
She sat at the Small desk Aang used by the door. She knew how to read, by picking up on the earth in the ink. Writing was more difficult, she only knew a few words. She bent the ink from its jar, and wrote one of those words on the paper.
Folding the paper she placed it, on the table next to Aang's side of the bed.
"I love you."
Her voice was so low, she almost didn't hear herself.
The paper was left for Aang to read when he woke up. She hoped he would know what it meant. She had just written understand.
I know boring and short, but I need a way to link the last chapter to the next one. The whole hair cutting thing, was a way to make her look like Ummi, as her hair would be longer by know, by cutting it, it would be the same length as Ummi's, and pulling it back was to be like Ta Min's style without the top knot. As they were the fated spirits before her, I thought I would be nice to have a like connection. The one world that she writes, is a call back to before they were married and Aang asked her to understand that he had to fight Zuko in a agni Kai. He wrote her a letter asking her to understand.