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Chapter 5

Wants

Toph sat half asleep in the living room as she did every morning as she waited for Kuzon to pull the car around. She found herself thinking the usual thoughts about how school should not be allowed to force people out of bed so ridiculously early in the morning. If most people worked from nine to five, the why the heck were classes from eight to four? She yawned loudly as she observed her mother going back and forth over a series of fabrics lying on the floor.

"Whatcha workin' on?"

"I'm trying to decided which of these would be best suited for the new clothing line," her mother answered. "None of them really speak to me as the new look. It just doesn't feel right."

"Want my opinion?"

"No, thank you," her mother sighed lightly.

"I'm an unbiased, outside opinion though," Toph grinned.

"That is true," she chuckled in reply. "However, I think I'm just going to have to start from scratch."

As much as Toph wanted to pay attention to anything that would distract her at the moment, her thoughts began to wander back to the same thing that had been bothering her for the past few weeks: Aang. It was not bad enough that he managed to pop the question every day, but now that Zuko had asked her why she was not saying yes she was really starting to think about it. Why wasn't she saying yes?

"Mom, did you ever second guess yourself about being with dad?"

Even if her mother did not feel herself react, Toph could. It was probably because the question was out of the blue, but her mom actually tensed up for a second when she asked. To Toph's relief the tense reaction was gone faster than it arrived and her mother turned away from her work.

"By the time your father proposed to me, I was already sure that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him," she answered truthfully. "But I get the feeling that's not what you really want to ask me about, is it?"

"It is, but kinda not really," Toph half smiled. "If I tell you something you have to promise you won't tell dad."

"Just between us girls then," her mother agreed.

"Well," Toph stalled, "Aang sorta ask me to . . ." she trailed off in a mumbling voice.

"I'm sorry, Toph," her mother smiled wickedly. Even though Toph knew perfectly well her mother knew what she was trying to say, her mother pushed her by saying "I didn't catch that."

"Marry him!" she blurted out forcefully.

The living room door swung open and Kuzon popped his head in.

"The car is warmed up and ready, miss," he reported. "Shall we be going?"

"You go on ahead, Kuzon," Huiliang ordered. "I'll be taking care of Toph today."

"Yes, ma'am."

Toph now sat mortified on the couch as Kuzon left her alone with her mother. She felt like she was being circled by a shark that tasted blood in the water. This was so unbearably embarrassing that she wanted to run right through the door and leap onto the hood of the car while ordering Kuzon to step on it. Sadly, her mother was the only person she felt like she could go to about this.

"Let's go for a ride, shall we?"

Honestly, Toph was surprised her mother even had a current driver's license. She had never known her mother to driver herself anywhere before. It was a slightly horrifying experience. She drove considerably faster than Kuzon ever did. It was not until the car came to a complete stop and her mother pulled the key out of the ignition that Toph was able to peel her hands off of the door and the cup holder between the driver and passenger seats.

"I know I'm blind, but I'm pretty sure there were a few more red lights than you stopped for," she said as she climbed out of the speeding death trap that was her mother's car.

"I'll have you know that not one of them made it past yellow," her mother informed her.

"This isn't the school," Toph realized as they walked through a large set of double doors.

"School can wait," her mother told her. "There are things that need to be taken care of."

"What kinds of things?" Toph asked full of suspicion.

"Just have a seat, dear, and tell me what's on your mind," Mrs. Bei Fong ordered.

When Toph tried to speak she detected the approach of two women. They went straight to her mother who immediately began to give them instructions that Toph only half paid attention to. Whatever it was she was doing really had her excited though, so Toph did her best not to interrupt while she got lost back in her own head.

"Okay, sweetheart, I need you to stand right over here," her mother said as she pulled her out of her seat.

"Why?"

"Just hold still," she was told.

Then it dawned on her. Her mother was taking measurements. And if her mother was taking measurements, then Toph had a pretty good idea of where she had been taken.

"I said no."

"No what, dear?" her mother asked as she raised Toph's arms.

"To Aang, mom."

That got her mother's attention. Got her to stop with the measurements too.

"Ladies, will you please excuse us?" she asked the two people assisting her. After the two women left, Huiliang and Toph both sat down right there on the floor. "What's bothering you, Toph?"

"I don't know!" Toph admitted in annoyance. "At first I just wanted him to do it over, you know? I mean he was laying down getting ink dumped into his skin. Not exactly how I imagined myself getting engaged. And before you ask, I've never imagined myself getting engaged."

"You said 'at first', so what's changed since then?"

"Nothing!" Toph groaned. "Nothing has changed! We're still the same way we've always been, but I still won't say yes."

After a few moments of silence Huiliang placed her hand gently on Toph's back and began to caress it lovingly. She tenderly slid her arm around her daughter and pulled her in until they were leaning on each other.

"Toph, what do you want?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Think about everything you've ever wanted and tell me what it is that you've wanted the most since you were a little girl."

"To not be treated like I'm helpless because I'm blind," Toph said flatly. "To show people I can take care of myself."

"And do you think you've done that?"

"No," she replied. "A lot of people still think I'm just a spoiled little rich girl without a care in the world. I want to get out on my own and show them that I don't need someone to take care of me. I want to show them I'm just as independent as anyone else."

"I think that's what's in your way right there," Huiliang told her.

"If me and Aang got married, we'd be living together. I'd never get out on my own like I've always wanted."

"Do you want to marry Aang?"

"I'm pretty sure," she smirked.

"Then maybe you need to decide which of the two it is that you want more. I highly doubt Aang would mind if you decided to live on your own first."

"Probably not," Toph agreed. "But he's always the one making all the sacrifices. Is it fair for me to keep asking him to do stuff like that?"

"Every relationship works differently, dear," her mother answered. "Only you and Aang know whether or not that's asking too much. But I will give you this advice: just because you've wanted something for a long time, that doesn't mean you can't change your mind if you want to. You're a woman and you're entitled to doing that."

"Yeah yeah," Toph half smiled. "And I know I'm gonna regret asking this, but why am I getting measured? I thought you were making a new look for the new season."

"I can do that anytime," Mrs. Bei Fong answered. "I only get to design one wedding dress for my daughter."

* - * - * - * - *

"Thanks for coming with me to the job interview," Aang said.

"No prob," Toph replied. "Least I can do I guess since you've been spending all your extra time helping me with Anji. That girl would be fine if she didn't flinch every time she thought she was about to be hurt."

"Some people need help with that," Aang explained.

"I'd rather she try and wail on me with her cast than turn away from me."

"I would laugh so hard," Aang chuckled. "Here we are."

Toph knew that they were on the more lack luster side of town, but the small building she felt in front of them had to be a mistake. There was no way this was a day care. It was way too small and as far as she could tell had no place for the kids to play.

"Excuse me," Aang called as they walked through the door. "I'm here for the interview."

The number of kids was surprisingly large. There were toddlers grouped together on a colored carpet watching a puppet show on a television while some older kids played games in another corner. There were even some young preteens gathered together. All in all it did not seem like a daycare.

"Right over here please," a woman said. "Nice to see you again, Aang. And this is?"

"This is my girlfriend," Aang smiled. "Toph."

"Nice to meet you," the woman waved.

"Yeah sure," Toph replied half heartedly as she observed all of the non-activity.

"Just a few quick questions to see about your experience and we'll get you all settled in, Aang. Any previous work history with kids?"

"Not really, but I did grow up in a few different orphanages."

"That would be a 'no' then," the woman frowned slightly. "Still doable. Do you have any other jobs?"

"Nope."

"Open schedule, that's good."

"Actually it's not all that open," Aang explained. "I've got school."

"We can work around college classes as long as you provide us with your class schedule."

"Not college," Aang said. "High school."

"High school?" the woman repeated. "I'm sorry that's a problem. You see we don't have anything available except the after school programs for those kinds of hours and we're not hiring for that shift."

"But there are only two people here," Aang protested. "I thought you guys needed help."

"We do, just not now," the woman told him. "You see because of the tattoos we thought you were older than you are."

"Well that sucks," Aang sighed.

Before the woman could apologize a few of the younger children started making a fuss. Of course once a few of them started many of the others did until they were almost all shouting at each other. Once the toddlers got loud the preteens became annoyed and started shouting at them. The two women who were working began to try and calm things down, but they were clearly overwhelmed by the number of kids.

Toph was covering her ears due to the volume of the noise. Aang wanted to help, but he could not think of anything. Then it hit him. He put his fingers to his mouth and let out an ear piercing whistle. Most of the noise stopped as the majority of the kids turned to stare at him.

"Yo!" he smiled as he pulled off his cap. A lot of eyes lit up at the sight of his outlandish tattoo, but that was not the idea. Aang set his cap on a nearby table as he pulled his dog tags off his neck and removed one from its chain. "Who likes magic?"

Some of the younger children raised their hands and began to draw closer to Aang. He placed his dog tag in the palm of his hand and flipped it over twice, showing each side to the children. He then took placed the tag between his two index fingers a gave it a vigorous spin making it spiral with its pattern facing upwards. The trick was that he was no longer holding it. There it spun in mid air.

"Wow!" came the exclamations. A bunch of the kids began to move in to get a better look.

"Now be sure not to touch it or it'll stop," Aang told them.

"That's nothing but a cheap trick," one of the preteens in the back said.

"Trick yes, cheap no. Check it out!" Aang gave a pushing motion with his hand and the tag moved quickly towards the group in the back. It began to slow as it got nearer to them. "Go ahead. Move your hands around it, blow on it, whatever. Just remember not to touch it so it'll keep spinning."

A few of the preteens did as Aang instructed and sure enough the tag kept spinning and kept floating. One of them eventually reached out and flicked it with their finger, jostling it and causing the spinning to stop. To everyone's surprise the tag continued to float there.

"But I thought the trick would stop if it was touched!" one of the kids said.

"It did stop," Aang groaned. "It's cooler when it spins!"

Everyone's amazement increased when Aang made a quick pulling motion and the tag flew back to his hand. He then laced it back onto its chain and replaced it on his neck. Toph smiled and clapped for him even though she did not know exactly what he had done. She knew that whatever it was had ended though.

"Got anymore?" one of the children asked.

"Maybe," Aang answered. "But if you want to find out then you're all going to have to be good for these ladies, okay?"

Many small heads began to nod enthusiastically. The two women smiled gratefully as they herded the children back to their designated areas.

"Thank you," the first woman said. "As you've probably figured out, this isn't exactly a daycare center. We've got a lot of young children here and those older elementary school kids have nowhere to go while their parents are working. I suppose it's more like a child care center and youth activities center at the same time."

"Are you sure you don't need the extra help?" Toph asked. "Twinkle Toes here is really good with kids. And they always seem to like him."

"Probably cause we're right around the same maturity level," Aang grinned.

It took a lot of convincing, but between Aang and Toph they were finally able to persuade the ladies to give him a shot. Lucy, the woman who they had been speaking to, told him to come back at the beginning of next week and she would give him the after school activities schedule and give him a basic rundown of the way things worked.

"That was fun," Aang said. "I'm glad the kids liked the levitation trick so much. I think it's what got me the job."

"Definitely," Toph agreed. "How did you do that anyway?"

"My dear girl, a magician never reveals his secrets," Aang teased.

"Hey," Toph paused, pulling his sleeve to make him stop walking. "Ask me again."

"What?" Aang asked.

"Tell me what you want," Toph told him. "Tell me what you really want. No poetry, no fancy words, no jokes. Just tell me what you want and ask me again."

Aang thought about it for a minute. A minute that seemed to take forever. Toph could feel her heartbeat in her throat as every pounding pulse throbbed in her ears and brain. She felt hot and nervous like she never had before. She almost wanted to be sick when Aang took hold of her hand.

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you," he said honestly. "I want us to share dreams, ups, downs, everything with each other. I want to someday have a family with you. I want to be your husband. Will you let me be that? Will you marry me?"

Toph only smiled at first. She lowered her head and let out the breath she had been holding since she had asked him what he wanted.

"Sure," she answered. "Why not?"

And then she kissed him. She would like to think that back then she thought about all of the things that Aang had said he truly wanted during that kiss. That she pictured the future she wanted with him. The truth of the matter though was simply that she was happy. Happy that in all the world the one person that she would choose to spend the rest of her life with chose her as well.