Hey guys, I know it's been a long time since I've updated; but I've just had a very busy year! I'm a junior in high school, and my teachers load me with homework, also I'm in dance team, and competition which I have that every day for three or four hours after school. Plus competitions last all day. Any ways, sorry for taking so long to update! Hope you under stand :) Also this story is credited to .com. I got this Idea from her. But I am changing it and adding my own plot so I won't be completely copying off of her! Any ways, to the story~

Toph sprang to her feet. "How long were you standing there!?" she demanded.

"Uhhhhh ..." Aang glanced between the two girls, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn't get him killed "I ... Uhhhhh."

"HOW LONG?"

Katara spoke up. "Toph it's okay," she said, placing a firm hand on her friend's shoulder, but not yet daring to get in the way. "Aang can keep a secret."

Aang nodded vigorously, an action that was lost on Toph but made him feel better none-the-less. "I swear," he declared, "on my arrow," he added, genuinely fearing for his physical well being.

Toph simply glared for several, long, tense moments. Then she pointed to the ground at her feet. "Here," she commanded.

Aang hesitated, unsure of exactly what was expected of him.

"NOW!"

Aang jumped and moved to the indicated location, just within arm's reach of Toph. The earth-bender reached out her arm, as if she wanted to shake hands. Aang shifted the armload of peaches to his left arm did likewise, clasping his hand to hers.

"Now, say it!"

Aang swallowed as he now realized what she wanted. He was telling the truth, but he was already so nervous that his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest and smack Toph in the face. "Uhhhhh ... I promise ... to keep this a secret."

"From?" Toph prompted.

"From everyone," he added.

Silence followed. Aang had to force his legs to keep from shaking while he waited for Toph's response. He did NOT want to be the one who pissed off this stout young woman in such a manner, especially when she already had a hold of him.

Finally, Toph, released his hand with a terse (almost disappointed), "Fine."

A wave of relief washed over Aang so intensely he almost collapsed there on the floor.

Katara sighed in relief as well and placed both hands on Toph's shoulders. "Alright then, Aang, you can go. Watch for Sokka and warn us when he comes home."

"Ummm ..." Aang held up a tentative finger, wanting to interject his own thoughts. "Actually ... I'd like to talk with her for a bit." He wasn't exactly sure if that would be okay, so decided to add in a, "If that's okay," to make it more of a request.

Toph scowled and turned her head away. 'Just what I need,'she thought, 'a tag team.'She wasn't particularly fond of the way things were going.

Katara tilted her head and her eyes narrowed curiously at her boyfriend. She mouthed the words 'Are you sure?' and Aang responded with a nod. Katara shrugged and sighed. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to have a guy's opinion on this."

Toph snorted at this, remembering their outing to watch the Ember Island Players. "Whatever," she said plopping back down on the bed, "but when he gets back you're done and this conversation will not start back up again. Clear?"

Katara quickly took the peaches from her boyfriend to put them in the kitchen where they belonged. Aang patted Katara on the shoulder and they exchanged a kiss on the cheek. "This shouldn't take long," he whispered.

Katara wanted to stay and hear what Aang had to say, quite frankly she didn't know what he knew that would help. But he thought he did that was enough for her, and someone needed to make sure Sokka didn't find out the same way Aang had.

Toph sat on the bed and crossed her legs, leaning back to put weight on her hands. Aang had a moment of realization that Toph had indeed grown into a woman. But pushed that thought aside and pulled up a chair, sitting in it backwards. He opened his mouth to talk, but then realized he didn't know how exactly to say what he wanted to say, "Uhhhhh."

"Uggghh," Toph flopped back onto the bed in frustration, flailing her arms at the ceiling, "just say what you want to say, so you can finally go away." She hadn't intended for that to rhyme but didn't draw attention to the fact that it did.

Aang shook his head a bit, slightly startled. The air-bender recomposed himself and coughed before making his statement. "You need to let go of your friendship with Sokka."

His statement sounded so ridiculous Toph almost thought it was a joke, and she was not amused by it. "What?"

"It's something the Guru told me when I was trying to master the avatar state," Aang explained.

Now Toph was thoroughly confused. "The Guru you met during the war told you I had to let go of my friendship with Sokka?"

Aang hit his forehead down on the chair back when he realized how what he said didn't make sense. "No, he didn't say that. " He looked back up to try again. "When I was with him he said I had to learn to let go of my connection with Katara to unlock the chakra that would allow me to access the pure cosmic energy of the Avatar State."

Toph paused for a bit as she tried to figure out what he meant …. It didn't click yet. "I don't follow."

This was turning out to be harder than he thought it would be. To be entirely honest he didn't understand exactly how it worked either. It just made sense to him. Now he wasn't sure how to make it make sense to Toph. "Okay," he glanced around the room, hoping that something there would give him an answer. Nothing did. "You care about Sokka, right?"

"Yeah."

"You love him?"

"Aang, I've been over this with your ice queen."

"Do you?"

Toph shot back up to a sitting position. "YES, I love him. MOVE on."

Aang held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay." He scratched his head, trying to think faster. "Uhhhhh."

"Aang, if you don't get to the point soon I'm going to throw you out the window. "

Aang glanced around but couldn't find a window in the room. This room was near the center of the house. "Umm Toph? There ar-"

She guessed at what he was about to say. "Then I'll throw you at the wall and MAKE a window."

"Look, I know you like him. I know it's hard, and I know that if you tell him you'll be putting yourself in a vulnerable position. I know what it's like to be in what seems like a one way relationship like the one you're in. You know how you feel, you know what you want, and he doesn't seem to be showing any sign of feeling the same way." Aang didn't quite know where all this was coming from, or quite where he was going with this little, unplanned speech, but he just kept talking. "It also plain to see you want to be closer to him, but the friendship you have isn't strong enough to get you as close as you want. You're not strong enough to do it by yourself. It's like you're standing on one side of a canyon and he's on the other. You can talk and joke and have a good time staying on your respective sides. You can be great friends, but you can't be together unless you jump across. You can't make the jump by yourself. He has to reach out and catch you." He paused for a bit so they could both digest what he'd just said. "You have to trust that he won't let you fall."

Toph was silent for some time longer, thinking about what the young monk had said. She tried to find a hole in his statements, trying to find something that he was missing, some facet he'd overlooked that would make his words wrong. "Why can't he jump?"

"He doesn't know you want him to."

She felt a little silly for asking that. "Well …" something else came to mind, "What if … What if he doesn't catch me?"

Aang couldn't help but wince at the thought of that. "Well," he said, not particularly liking the answer, "You'll fall. It'll hurt. Probably a lot."

Toph shifted uncomfortably at this.

"But you'll live," Aang said, trying to be encouraging, "And you can always climb back up when you're ready." He thought some more about analogies regarding love. "There will be other people along the canyon."

"I don't want some 'other person' I want to be with him."

"Well he'll still be there too," Aang reasoned, trying to make sure she stayed calm.
There was some more silence as Toph thought, while Aang watched her. "Why can't he just be on my side of the canyon?"

Aang had to stifle a chuckle at this. "It doesn't work like that, Toph." He thought about why that didn't work and found a better analogy. "Okay, it's more like that one valley full of pillars we saw in the Fire Nation. The one where Combustion Man first attacked us. Sokka's got one and you've got another, and everyone else has their own."

Toph sighed. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

Aang scooched the chair forward and placed a hand on Toph's shoulder. "Hey," he said, trying to comfort her, "nothing says you have to jump. Not today, not tomorrow, not even this week. The thing is, if you're ever going to want more from what you have with Sokka, you're going to need to jump to him. You're going to have to trust him."

Toph knew this was true. She wanted to trust him. She wanted to be with him. It was just …. She wanted to KNOW that he would accept her. She wanted to know that he would love her.

Aang could see that what he said had made sense. He wasn't sure how much it helped but it was all he had right now. "Well," he stated after a few more moments, "That was all I had to say."

Toph managed a smile and lifted her head towards the bald boy. "Thanks Aang."

"No problem," he said, standing and returning the wooden chair to its desk. Then a realization occurred to him. "Did you really need moon-peaches or was that just to get Sokka to go away."

Toph sighed and shook her head. "Your Polar Princess made that up to get rid of the Meat Monger," explained Toph, who also stood. "But to be honest fruit sounds like a good idea." She thought about that for a moment and decided to amend her statement. "Just not those cumquat thingies."

"Sea-prunes," he corrected, taking Toph by the arm.

"Whatever." And with that the two made their way to the kitchen where Katara was waiting.

Katara jumped up from her chair the moment she saw them. Her expression was grave. "Aang, a messenger hawk just came in. There's been a sighting of the Ozai Loyalists who have been raiding merchant ships."