The music grew fainter as they walked further away from the dance floor. They breathed in the sweet, fresh, crisp night air, a refreshing change from the hot, passionate atmosphere of the festival. The moon was barely a sliver of silver in the dark night sky, and a few stray clouds drifted over the stars. It wasn't the classic, cliché and romantic setting that most people fantasize about, but it was good enough for them. After all, neither of them really needed much light to see. One of them actually couldn't.

That said person tottered while she walked, swaying and miss-stepping, a strange thing for Toph Bei Fong to do. Her strong footfalls were gone, replaced by the tipsy steps of a carefree teenager, and her loud, brash voice was replaced by playful whispers and fluttering, girlish giggles. Her cheeks were flushed red and her eyes sparkled with mischief.

"You know, Twinkles," she slurred, stumbling and giggling, clinging onto his sleeve in a playful manner, "You should loosen up. Have some fun. Do that…the what ya' call it. Dance. You know…the one."

Aang rolled his eyes, catching his friends arm before she could face plant into the ground. "Someone had to make sure you get home. If you'd stayed there you would've started a bar fight."

"They deserved it," she said with some recovered dignity, dignity she quickly lost again. "They're all…stupid. And moronic. And….stupid."

"You already said that."

"Yeah…well, they're stupid…stupid-heads," she mumbled. She pulled away from him with a giggle. "You know, you should've gone onto the floor and did that thing you do…dance. That's the word. It was fun."

He chuckled. "I don't think that's the greatest idea."

Toph gave a drunken pout. "Still not sulking, are you?" She slurred. "You're such a sour-puss…"

The Avatar lifted his chin. "Am not," he said.

Toph rolled her sightless eyes. "Sure, sure…you're over her, right? 'Cuz Sparky won her, fair and square…"

"I'm not sour. I think it's great."

"Right…that's why you were all…pouty when Katara was dancing with him?"

"I was not pouty!"

"You were so! I saw you…." She squinted in his general direction. "Do you really still love her?"

Aang looked at her, stunned. Toph didn't usually approach the topic of Katara. She probably thought he would come to her if he needed her. This direct, no-nonsense question surprised him.

"Well, no. I'm happy for her. Are you still hung up on Sokka?" He teased.

Toph flushed an even deeper red, this blush caused by embarrassment rather then the effects of the many cups of fire whiskey she had just consumed.

"I don't like Sokka!" She yelped, jumping back.

The airbender laughed. "Sure. Of course you didn't have a crush on him."

She narrowed her eyes at the laughing monk, jabbing him in the chest. Her poke lacked it's usual force.

"Yeah, fine. I might've liked him a little bit. But I don't anymore."

Aang raised an eyebrow he knew she couldn't see, but didn't ask questions. Toph glared at him, a glare that lost effect through hazy, half-lidded eyes, before turning and continuing to walk.

"Anyway," she said, giggling, "the one I really love now is…" She giggled. "Zuko."

Aang gaped at her. She just giggled again.

"W-what!?"

Toph was openly laughing now. "Hehe…haha…You should've seen your face…I didn't, but your jaw probably hit the floor…"

He huffed but smirked anyway. Her tipsy, good mood was contagious.

"C'mon Sifu T. We gotta get home."

He knelt down in front of her and she clambered onto his shoulders. Being off the ground still terrified her, but she would trust Aang with her life. When his strong hands gripped her, she wasn't afraid of falling.

He kept walking for a while, while Toph rested her chin on his bald head. His feet crunched along the pebbled pathway, the one that led through a few fields until they got to the guest house where Toph was staying in the Fire Nation. A few crickets chirped now and then, but the night was silent.

"You know, Twinkles…" Toph whispered, her giggles gone now. All she had was the blunt honesty that alcohol always left. "You never danced…"

He sighed. "You said that, Toph." Her bare, dirty feet were leaving smudges on his clean light orange shirt, but he didn't mind.

"No…I mean, when we were in the Fire Nation, during the war…and you had that party for all those stuck-up Fire kids…."

"Huh?" He said. He hadn't thought about the time during the war for a long, long time. He was hit by a sudden nostalgia. Nostalgia for the time when his friends, his whole family, was always together, and no one had to stay or be left behind because of duty, because of social commitments…when they were never apart.

"You know…with the headband… and you asked Katara to dance…"

He remembered the heat of the moment, when it was him and Katara, the center of attention, two halves of one dance. Too bad that dance lost rhythm and, eventually, fell apart. She had a new dance partner now. Zuko.

"…You never asked me to dance.

He stopped in the middle of the pebble road, and opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. He hadn't? Why hadn't he? Because he was lost in the moment; he was lost in the hopes of what should have been, what could have been, if he was never Avatar, and if none of that had ever happened. He was lost in the dreams of a normal childhood, where no one was lost and everything was found. He forgot everything but what he saw in front of him—a beautiful girl, that always held him when he cried and protected him.

He didn't see the other beautiful girl in that cave—the one not nearly as graceful or as approachable, the one no one asked to dance. The one, even after that painfully obvious neglect, stuck with him when the first girl left. He'd never asked her to dance.

He was about to speak, to apologize, when he heard a small snore, followed by another, and then another. Her breathing had evened, and she was sleeping, exhausted after the nights' excitement. He smiled, and kept walking.

I'll tell you tomorrow.


I'm quite fond of this one.

Fa la la, procrastination~

Fa la la, inspiration~ -- http: // riakitsuneyoukai dot deviantart dot com / art / piggyback - 101133753

No spaces, real dots, yada yada. Stupid not linking crap.